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in the prior art construction of fig1 and the inventive construction of fig2 the cylindrical valve chamber 2 or 4 is in the form of a cylindrical circular bore of casing surface 6 , 8 of a rotary piston compressor and is directed parallel to the rotation axis thereof . a plurality of uniformly spaced , slot - like valve intakes 14 , 14 &# 39 ; in the form of an axially directed row pass into the valve chamber 2 or 4 , as indicated by broken lines 14 , 14 &# 39 ; in fig3 from the surface path 10 or 12 of the compressor and / or from its compression chamber . it is obvious that a single intake can replace said plurality of intakes . when the valve is closed each intake 14 , 14 &# 39 ; is covered by the circumferential region of a circular spring leaf 16 or 18 , which sealingly engages in the area of the inner wall of valve chamber 4 surrounding the openings . a comparison of fig1 and 2 shows that in the prior art construction , the spring leaf 16 engages with a relatively larger circumference of the chamber inner wall , this necessarily resulting from the use of a spring leaf 16 which is flat in the untensioned state and which only assumes a circular configuration through its mounting in the cylindrical valve chamber . the free oppositely directed ends 20 , 22 are supported on the cylindrical chamber inner wall or in the hook - shaped ends 24 , 26 of a ω - shaped lift guard 28 , so that they are directed at an angle to a tangent of the chamber inner wall . it has been found that through the engagement of said spring leaf 16 with a relatively large circumferential region of the chamber inner wall there is support on the latter under the restoring force of the spring leaf and as a result said leaf cannot deflect in an unhindered manner under the pressure of the inflowing medium , so that the deflection is limited to a relatively narrow circumferential region in the vicinity of an intake 14 , as indicated by broken line 30 in fig1 . line 30 shows the valve is in its maximum open position in which a further deflection of the spring leaf 16 is limited by the lift guard 28 . the inward deflection in a narrow circumferential region leading at this point to a concave shape of the spring leaf causes increased bending stress at points 32 , 34 where the spring leaf curvature passes from a convex into a concave shape , resulting in early fatigue failure in the case of prolonged alternating loading when used on a compressor . to make this clearer , the deflection in accordance with line 30 and the maximum open position of the valve have been shown in an exagerated form . however , said overstressing even occurs with deflections of fractions of a millimeter . after the spring leaf in the region of intake 14 has lifted from the chamber inner wall under the pressure of the compressed medium , the latter can flow radially into valve chamber 2 or 4 , whereby it is axially deflected so that it flows through the chamber to an outlet located at one end thereof and which can have the cross - sectional size of the valve chamber . the axial flow takes place in part in the gap between the chamber inner wall and the spring leaf , as well as radially past the laminations 16a to 16e or 18a to 18e of the spring leaf 16 or 18 to the central area of the valve chamber , before finally being axially led away to the outlet . the dividing up of the valve intake into a plurality of slot - like intakes 14 , 14 &# 39 ; arranged in rows and the gaps 36 between the individual laminations permit the flowing in of the medium to the central area of the valve chamber even when the valve has a relatively large axial extent . in the prior art construction of fig1 it is obvious that lateral slot - like openings 38 , 40 are provided in lift guard 28 through which extend in an arcuate manner the individual laminations of spring leaf 16 . the valve according to the invention of fig2 fundamentally operates in the same way as that of fig1 but it has a differently shaped and dimensioned spring leaf 18 , having a different deformation behaviour . even in the untensioned state , i . e . before incorporating into the cylindrical valve chamber 4 , the spring leaf 18 is shaped like a cylindrical sleeve with an axial slit bounded by the oppositely directed leaf ends 42 , 44 . however , when uncoiled flat the spring leaf 18 can have the same shape as the spring leaf 16 of the valve of fig1 as shown in fig3 . in the fitted state , the axial slit is expanded somewhat , so that the leaf ends 42 , 44 embrace under pretension a web - shaped projection 46 of a spacer 48 fixed to the inner wall of valve chamber 4 diametrically opposite to the row of openings 14 &# 39 ;. the outer circumferential surface of leaf ends 42 , 44 engage with limited pretension on the surfaces 50 , 52 of spacer 48 running on both sides to the web - like projection 46 and with this pretension the area of the spring leaf facing the axial slit sealingly engages on the rim 54 surrounding openings 14 &# 39 ; and therefore on the inner wall of the chamber . as soon as a pressure acts in intakes 14 which is greater than the pressure in the valve chamber 4 and the contact pressure of the spring leaf , the latter rises from rim 54 , so that it is only in contact with spacer 48 . it is not possible to prevent the deformation of the circular spring leaf due to engagement on the chamber inner wall , because the spring leaf diameter is smaller than the cylindrical valve chamber diameter . in fig2 the shape of the spring leaf 18 when the valve is open is indicated by a broken line . a lift stop is not necessary because in the case of too great a deformation of the spring leaf , the latter is supported on the chamber inner wall on two opposite sides and the arcuate spring leaf portion between the support points forms a high resistance to further deformations . it is obvious that in the untensioned state , the spring leaf can have different circular shapes and the valve chamber can also have different cross - sectional shapes , such as e . g . elliptical , oval , etc . it is important that the spring leaf only engages with the chamber inner wall along the opening rim 54 permitting an elastic deformation of the spring leaf which is not impeded by the chamber inner wall . this reliably obviates the disadvantages of a valve according to fig1 . although it is not necessary , a lift stop can also be used in the valve according to the invention . the spring leaf can be made from steel sheet material , whose thickness is such that over the intakes 14 &# 39 ; it does not deform in a non - circular shape . | 8 |
reference is now made to fig1 which is a simplified conceptual illustration of system for model - driven application development , constructed and operative in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention . in the system of fig1 , a model , generally designated 100 and bounded by dashed lines , is shown . model 100 is typically constructed using a model builder 102 employing any known modeling technology , such as the unified modeling language ( uml ), that supports classes , such as of an enterprise it infrastructure or other system , and associations between the classes . model 100 is configured to facilitate the automatic generation of one or more resources , such as by a resource generator 110 , for use by one or more computer - executable applications . such resources may be associated with what is referred to in modeling as the persistence layer , which includes schema elements including tables , columns , foreign keys , and indexes , or may be associated with the api , as is known in the art . model 100 is divided into a principal model 104 , a decoration model 106 , and a model map 108 that maps between principal model 104 and decoration model 106 . principal model 104 is configured to include anything that , when added to , deleted from , or modified within principal model 104 subsequent to automatically generating the resources , would again require the automatic generation of the resources in order to effect the change for use by an application . conversely , decoration model 106 is configured to include anything that , when added to , deleted from , or modified within decoration model 106 subsequent to automatically generating the resources , would not require the automatic generation of the resources in order to effect the change for use by an application . model 100 is preferably stored in a model storage 112 , which may be computer memory , magnetic storage , or any other suitable information storage medium . model 100 may be stored in storage 112 in any suitable format , such as in a relational database ( rdb ) or object - oriented database ( oodb ). any of the elements shown in fig1 are preferably executed by or otherwise accessible to a computer 114 . principal model 104 preferably includes elements for storing decoration model 106 , such as a via “ decorationmodel ” class representing a package of the items in decoration model 106 . there is preferably one model partition per package , and each decoration model is preferably serialized , such as an xml document . reference is now made to fig2 , which is a simplified illustration of an exemplary implementation of model 100 of fig1 , constructed and operative in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention . in fig2 , a principal model 200 is shown having various modeled items . a corresponding item is created in a decoration model 202 for one or more of the items in principal model 200 . one or more items may then be attached to any of the items in decoration model 202 , rather than in principal model 200 , where their addition to , modification in , and / or subsequent deletion from decoration model 202 will not require that resources that were previously automatically generated using principal model 200 be subsequently regenerated due to the addition , modification , and / or deletion . direct association links are preferably used for navigating from items in decoration model 202 to items in principal model 200 , whereas a model map 206 is preferably used for navigating in the opposite direction . reference is now made to fig3 , which is a simplified illustration of an exemplary implementation of decoration model 106 of fig1 , constructed and operative in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention . in fig3 a decoration model is shown for aspects of a gui interface in which classes and associations / attributes are decorated by detailed gui presentation definitions , such as where there is one per user role , application / service - level constraints , and analysis logic definitions . for the sake of clarity , dpackage and dpackageguidef are not shown . dclass and dstructuralfeature are shown having been generated for each corresponding eclass / estructuralfeature of a corresponding principal model . instantiation of various concepts may be optional in a given decoration model , such as where a dclass has no dclassguidef for a certain userrole and will therefore be invisible in the gui layer for a user with that role . items in the decoration model of fig3 may be created , edited and deleted without affecting a related principal model and without requiring regeneration of resources defined by the principal model . for example , a user may set a different display name for a class or attribute in the decoration model , although dclass and dstructuralfeature items in the decoration model that correspond to eclass / estructuralfeature items in the principal model ought not be deleted . the following guidelines may be employed when deciding what model items should be included in a principal model and what model items should be included in a decoration model . model items that generally have , and should have , impact on resources that are generated based on a model should be included in a principal model , whereas model items that generally do not , or should not , have impact on resources that are generated based on a model should be included in a decoration model . model builder 102 ( fig1 ) may be configured to recognize model items that do not impact generated resources and automatically place such items into a decoration model . these guidelines may be understood by way of example with regard to the persistence layer of an application environment in which database schema and an o / r mapping are generated using a model . in this example , model items that do not impact the generation of these resources include annotations that control display and business logic , and thus these items may be included within a decoration model . model items that do impact the generation of these resources include classes , references , attributes , and annotations that control aspects of the persistence layer , such as indexes . some model items may be included within a decoration model although they would otherwise impact resource generation , such as classes , references and attributes whose instances or values can be derived from other data . thus , for example , where the attribute person . fullname can be derived from person . firstname and person . lastname , the derived attribute may be included within a principal model , such as where the attribute values for person . fullname are meant to be stored in a database . the responsibility to insert and update the values for person . fullname would lie with the applications that populate person data . although including person . fullname in a principal model may be convenient for authors of reporting applications , doing so results in data redundancy , performance costs owing to insertion time and table size , as well as the need to regenerate the schema and upgrade instances when the name or type of person . fullname is changed . alternatively , by placing person . fullname in a decoration model , the responsibility for calculating the values for person . fullname lie with applications that retrieve person data . reference is now made to fig4 , which is a simplified flowchart of an exemplary method of using a decoration model in an application environment , operative in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention . in the method of fig4 , once model 100 of fig1 has been prepared , and its principal model used to generate resources as described hereinabove , the decoration model is read from where it is stored and is instantiated for use by one or more computer - executable applications , such as may be hosted by computer 114 . when an application wishes to access an instance “ eobject ” of an item of the principal model , if the item has a corresponding item in the decoration model , the application accesses the corresponding instance “ dobject ” of the decoration model instead . calls to methods that are defined in eobject are passed through to eobject , while calls to methods that are defined in dobject are handled by dobject . for example , getrepresentation ( ): string will return a representation based on which attribute is defined as “ representation attribute ” of the corresponding dobject &# 39 ; s class in the decoration model . reference is now made to fig5 , which is a simplified flowchart of an exemplary method of hot - deploying decoration model changes , operative in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention . in the method of fig5 , once model 100 of fig1 has been prepared , and its principal model has been used to generate resources as described hereinabove , the decoration model is read from where it is stored and is instantiated for use by one or more computer - executable applications , such as may be hosted by computer 114 . the instantiated decoration model is preferably made globally accessible . for each request by an application to access an object associated with either the principal model or the decoration model , a new thread is preferably created to handle the request . the decoration model is preferably assigned to a thread - local variable in the new thread , and all thread - internal code function calls to access the decoration model do so via the thread - local variable of its thread . changes may be made to the decoration model while applications that use the model are executed . the decoration model changes may be committed without impacting currently - running applications , since the previously - instantiated decoration model was globally accessible and was reused by all request threads prior to the changes being made . the changed decoration model may be made available to new threads by starting a new thread that reads the changed decoration model , instantiates the changed decoration model , and deserializes it into its own thread - local variable . this may be done without affecting other currently - running threads . the globally accessible decoration model may then be replaced by the changed model . this is preferably done using synchronization and isolation techniques , where new incoming requests are forced to wait until the globally accessible decoration model is replaced . thereafter , all new requests will have the new decoration model assigned to their thread - local variable . older requests that are still running using the old decoration model need not be disrupted , and may return and present results according to the older decoration model in their thread - local variable . users may be warned when a model change occurs by checking for pointer equality between a thread - local variable and the globally accessible decoration model during the post - processing of a request . if the pointers are not the same , a warning may be displayed recommending that the user resubmit the request . if the server hosting the applications is restarted at any point after the decoration model is changed , the changed decoration model will preferably be in effect for all new and restarted applications . any of the elements and steps described hereinabove are preferably executed by or otherwise accessible to computer 114 ( fig1 ) having been configured for such purpose . it is appreciated that one or more of the steps of any of the methods described herein may be omitted or carried out in a different order than that shown , without departing from the true spirit and scope of the invention . while the methods and apparatus disclosed herein may or may not have been described with reference to specific computer hardware or software , it is appreciated that the methods and apparatus described herein may be readily implemented in computer hardware or software using conventional techniques . while the present invention has been described with reference to one or more specific embodiments , the description is intended to be illustrative of the invention as a whole and is not to be construed as limiting the invention to the embodiments shown . it is appreciated that various modifications may occur to those skilled in the art that , while not specifically shown herein , are nevertheless within the true spirit and scope of the invention . | 6 |
referring now to the drawings , fig3 a - 3e show , in cross section view , some structures which may be heated during ion implantation according to the method of this invention . fig3 a shows ion implant 370 being applied to partially completed fet 380 in bulk semiconductor 390 , where partially completed fet 380 comprises conductive gate 400 on gate dielectric 410 over channel region 420 separating s / d regions 430 . fig3 b shows ion implant 370 being applied to partially completed fet 450 in semiconductor - on - insulator layer 460 on box layer 470 on base substrate 480 , where partially completed fet 450 comprises conductive gate 490 on gate dielectric 500 over channel region 510 separating s / d regions 520 . the conditions of ion implant 370 would typically be selected so that at least some of s / d regions 430 and 520 would be implanted while gates 400 and 490 would protect channel regions 420 and 510 from being implanted . fig3 c shows ion implant 550 being applied to semiconductor - on - insulator substrate 560 comprising semiconductor - on - insulator layer 570 on box layer 580 on base substrate 590 . in this case , the conditions of ion implant 550 might be selected to provide a peak concentration of implanted species in base substrate 590 under box layer 580 rather than in semiconductor - on - insulator layer 570 on top of box layer 580 . such implant conditions may be useful for fabricating certain back - gated devices in which the semiconductor directly under the box functions as a back gate . fig3 c thus provides an example of how heated implants in the range from 70 ° c . to 900 ° c . may be used in fabricating fet devices in a bulk semiconductor or semiconductor - on - insulator layer so that at least some features in addition to the fet &# 39 ; s source / drain regions are implanted , since with heated implants it becomes possible to implant a high concentration of dopants into base substrate 590 without running the risk of amorphizing semiconductor - on - insulator 570 . fig3 d shows ion implant 600 being applied to partially completed fet 610 in bulk semiconductor 620 , where partially completed fet 610 comprises conductive gate 630 on gate dielectric 640 over channel region 650 separating semiconductor s / d regions 660 . semiconductor s / d regions 660 are strained and formed from a different material than channel region 650 . the conditions of ion implant 600 might be selected to provide a light doping of s / d regions 660 , but no amorphization . for example , channel region 650 might comprise si and s / d regions 660 might comprise strained sige . the force of s / d regions 660 on channel region 650 is indicated by arrows 670 . fig3 e shows the semiconductor - on - insulator analog of fig3 d . ion implant 600 is now being applied to partially completed fet 700 in semiconductor - on - insulator layer 710 on box layer 720 on base substrate 730 , where partially completed fet 700 comprises conductive gate 740 on gate dielectric 750 over semiconductor - on - insulator channel region 760 separating strained semiconductor s / d regions 770 , where arrows 780 indicate the stress exerted on channel region 760 by s / d regions 770 . patterned masking layers may be used in these hot implant processes . ideally , patterned masking layers not remaining in the final device ( i . e ., disposable masking layers ) would be formed prior to the hot implantation step and removed after the hot implantation step . these patterned masking layers would typically define first source / drain ( or other ) regions that would be subjected to the hot implantation and second source / drain ( or other ) regions that would be protected from the hot implantation . these disposable masking layers are preferably easily patterned , thermally stable , and easy to remove without damaging the underlying substrate . an example of a mask material meeting these requirements is amorphous carbon with a hydrogen content less than about 15 atomic %. this material is thermally stable and may be patterned ( as well as removed ) by oxygen - based plasma etching without damage to underlying oxide , nitride , and / or silicon substrate layers . while oxide and nitride layers are also thermally stable and perhaps more easily patterned than amorphous carbon , such materials are harder to remove selectively with respect to the substrate . multilayer masks comprising one or more upper oxide and / or nitride layers on a base layer of amorphous carbon may provide the optimum compromise between ease of patterning and selective removal . in a second embodiment of the invention , ion implantation is combined with ex situ heat treatments in a “ divided - dose - anneal - in - between ” ( ddab ) scheme . in this embodiment , the desired total dose is divided into smaller sub - doses , each of which is below the threshold for amorphizing the entire thickness of the s / d regions ( for the case of utsoi ) or generating significant strain relief ( for the case of strained s / d regions ). annealing performed after each implant restores the s / d regions to their pre - implant levels of crystallinity and / or strain before the accumulated damage reaches a level that is irreversible . depending on the implantation conditions ( species , energy , dose , ion angle of incidence , substrate temperature , etc . ), some to none of the thickness of the implanted s / d regions may be amorphized . for high - dose implants producing an amorphous layer , the between - implant anneals restore the initial crystallinity by solid phase epitaxy ; for low - dose , non - amorphizing implants , the between - implant anneals remove the incipient nucleation sites for strain - relieving dislocations before they fully develop . selecting a substrate including a semiconductor layer ; defining first semiconductor layer regions that will be subjected to at least two subsequent ion implantation steps and second semiconductor layer regions that will be protected from said at least two subsequent ion implantation steps ; subjecting the first semiconductor layer regions ( but not the second semiconductor layer regions ) to a first ion implantation ; subjecting the substrate to a first anneal ; subjecting the first semiconductor layer regions ( but not the second semiconductor layer regions ) to a final ion implantation ; and subjecting the substrate to a final anneal ; wherein residual damage left in the first semiconductor layer regions ( as measured by strain loss and / or defect density ) after the final anneal is less than the residual damage that would be left in the first semiconductor layer regions if the above process steps were performed without the first anneal . applying a masking layer defining the first and second semiconductor layer regions in the substrate before each implant step and removing the masking layer from the substrate before each annealing step ; or applying a masking layer defining the first and second semiconductor layer regions in the substrate before the first implant step and not removing the masking layer from the substrate until after the final implant step . the ddab method may contain any number of implant and anneal steps to achieve the desired dopant dose and profile with sufficiently low damage to the semiconductor layer regions being implanted . for more than two implant steps , the basic ddab method above would further include one or more cycles of supplemental implant and annealing steps comprising subjecting the first semiconductor layer regions ( but not the second semiconductor layer regions ) to a supplemental ion implantation ; and subjecting the substrate to a supplemental anneal ; the cycles performed after the first anneal and before the final implant , wherein residual damage left in the first semiconductor layer regions ( as measured by strain loss and / or defect density ) after the final anneal is less than the residual damage that would be left in the first semiconductor layer regions if the above process steps were performed without the first and the supplemental annealing steps . the ddab method of ion implantation may also be implemented without regard to the final levels of semiconductor layer damage , in accord with the previously described steps of selecting a substrate including a semiconductor layer ; defining first semiconductor layer regions that will be subjected to at least two subsequent ion implantation steps and second semiconductor layer regions that will be protected from said at least two subsequent ion implantation steps ; subjecting the first semiconductor layer regions ( but not the second semiconductor layer regions ) to a first ion implantation ; subjecting the substrate to a first anneal ; subjecting the first semiconductor layer regions ( but not the second semiconductor layer regions ) to a final ion implantation ; and subjecting the substrate to a final anneal ; in combination with the step of applying a masking layer defining the first and second semiconductor layer regions in the substrate before the first implant step , the masking layer remaining in place until after the final implant step . this version of the ddab method may also include one or more cycles of supplemental implant and annealing steps comprising subjecting the first semiconductor layer regions ( but not the second semiconductor layer regions ) to a supplemental ion implantation ; and subjecting the substrate to a supplemental anneal ; suitable materials for masks used with ddab are similar to those described above for hot implants . in addition , between - implant anneal temperatures of 230 ° c . and below are expected to be compatible with many patterned photoresist layers . if higher temperatures are needed ( as expected ), one may strip the resist before each annealing step and reapply it before each implant step . fig4 shows the steps of a ddab method applied to the fabrication of a utsoi fet in a cmos circuit . fig4 a shows partially completed fets 800 and 810 in utsoi layer 820 disposed on box layer 830 disposed on base substrate 840 . one of partially completed fets 800 and 810 might be an n - channel fet ( nfet ) and the other of fets 800 and 810 might be a p - channel fet ( pfet ). fets 800 and 810 comprise gates 850 and 852 and gate dielectrics 860 and 862 disposed on channel regions 880 and 882 separating s / d regions 870 and 872 . fets 800 and 810 are separated by shallow trench isolation regions 890 . fig4 b shows the structure of fig4 a after application of patterned masking layer 900 to protect fet 810 from one or more subsequent ion implants . fig4 c shows the structure of fig4 b being subjected to a first ion implant 910 which amorphizes an upper portion of s / d regions 870 of fet 800 to form amorphized s / d regions 920 which do not extend all the way down to box layer 830 . the structure of fig4 c is then annealed , allowing amorphized s / d regions 920 to recrystallize by solid phase epitaxy to form recrystallized s / d regions 930 , as shown in fig4 d . patterned masking layer 900 may remain in place during the anneal , or be removed before the anneal and replaced after the anneal . fig4 e shows the structure of fig4 d being subjected to a final ion implant 940 which may be the same as or different from first ion implant 910 . typically ion implant 940 would be the same as or very similar to ion implant 910 , with the sum of the doses of implants 910 and 940 equal to the total desired implant dose . ion implant 940 again amorphizes an upper portion of s / d regions 870 of fet 800 to form amorphized s / d regions 920 ′ which do not extend all the way down to box layer 830 . the structure of fig4 e is then annealed , allowing amorphized s / d regions 920 ′ to recrystallize by solid phase epitaxy to form recrystallized s / d regions 930 ′. activation annealing may be included in the recrystallization anneal , or performed separately . patterned masking layer 900 is removed before or after these last annealing steps to produce the structure of fig4 g . fig5 shows the steps of a ddab method applied to the fabrication of a strain - engineered fet in a cmos circuit , where the strain - engineered fet has channel strain induced by embedded s / d regions . fig5 a shows partially completed fets 1000 and 1010 in semiconductor layer 1020 disposed on box layer 1030 disposed on base substrate 1040 . one of partially completed fets 1000 and 1010 might be an nfet and the other of fets 1000 and 1010 might be a pfet . fets 1000 and 1010 comprise gates 1050 and 1052 and gate dielectrics 1060 and 1062 disposed on channel regions 1080 and 1082 separating s / d regions 1070 and 1072 . fets 1000 and 1010 are separated by shallow trench isolation regions 1090 . fig5 b shows the structure of fig5 a after s / d regions 1020 of fet 1000 have been replaced by embedded s / d regions 1100 , according to prior art methods illustrated in fig2 a - 2c . embedded s / d regions 1100 are strained and exert a stress on channel region 1080 . fig5 c shows the structure of fig5 b after application of patterned masking layer 1110 to protect fet 1010 from one or more subsequent ion implants . fig5 d shows the structure of fig5 c being subjected to a non - amorphizing first ion implant 1120 to produce lightly damaged s / d regions 1130 including many small defects indicated by circles 1140 . it is believed that defects 1140 represent damage regions that are too small or otherwise insufficient to nucleate stacking faults or other strain - relieving dislocations . the structure of fig5 d is then annealed to produce repaired s / d regions 1150 , as shown in fig5 e . patterned masking layer 1110 may remain in place during the anneal , or be removed before the anneal and replaced after the anneal . fig5 f shows the structure of fig5 e being subjected to a non - amorphizing final ion implant 1160 which may be the same as or different from first ion implant 1120 . typically ion implant 1160 would be the same as or very similar to ion implant 1120 , with the sum of the doses of implants 1120 and 1160 equal to the total desired implant dose . ion implant 1160 again produces lightly damaged s / d regions 1130 ′ including many small defects indicated by circles 1140 ′. the structure of fig5 f is then annealed to produce repaired s / d regions 1150 which still has all or most of their initial strain , as shown in fig5 g . activation annealing may be included in the recrystallization anneal , or performed separately . patterned masking layer 1110 is removed before or after these last annealing steps to produce the structure of fig5 h . another aspect of the invention provides at least one fet device in a semiconductor layer , the fet device comprising source / drain regions subjected to ion implantation while the semiconductor - on - insulator is held at an elevated temperature in the range from 70 ° c . to 900 ° c . while the temperature is held at an elevated temperature the temperature takes into account the temperature rise of the semiconductor - on - insulator due to self heating during ion implantation , which typically is in the range from 0 ° c . to 50 ° c . typically , temperature increases encountered without deliberate wafer cooling are less than 25 ° c ., but may be as high as 50 ° c . for high does , high current implants . this invention also provides an fet device in a semiconductor layer , the fet device comprising source / drain regions is subjected to a divided - dose - anneal - in - between ( ddab ) method of ion implantation comprising the steps of selecting a substrate including a semiconductor layer ; defining first semiconductor layer regions that will be subjected to at least two subsequent ion implantation steps and second semiconductor layer regions that will be protected from said at least two subsequent ion implantation steps ; protecting the second semiconductor layer regions from exposure to ion implantation ; subjecting the first semiconductor layer regions ( but not the second semiconductor layer regions ) to a first ion implantation ; subjecting the substrate to a first anneal ; subjecting the first semiconductor layer regions ( but not the second semiconductor layer regions ) to a final ion implantation ; and subjecting the substrate to a final anneal ; wherein residual damage left in the first semiconductor layer regions ( as measured by strain loss and / or defect density ) after the final anneal is less than the residual damage that would be left in the first semiconductor layer regions if the above process steps were performed without the first anneal . this invention also provides fet devices subjected to ddab methods of ion implantation with multiple implant and annealing cycles , such as , for example , multiple implant and annealing cycles comprising the above first and final implants and anneals plus one or more cycles of supplemental implant and annealing steps comprising subjecting the first semiconductor layer regions ( but not the second semiconductor layer regions ) to a supplemental ion implantation ; and subjecting the substrate to a supplemental anneal ; the cycles performed after the first anneal and before the final implant , wherein residual damage left in the first semiconductor layer regions ( as measured by strain loss and / or defect density ) after the final anneal is less than the residual damage that would be left in the first semiconductor layer regions if the above process steps were performed without the first and the supplemental annealing steps . the fets of this invention may be combined with other fets to form complementary metal - oxide - semiconductor ( cmos ) or other circuits . the semiconductor layers described in this invention may comprise bulk semiconductors ; semiconductor - on - insulator layers ; or a combination of bulk and semiconductor - on - insulator layers such that at least part of the semiconductor layer is bulk and at least part of the semiconductor layer is disposed on an insulator ; the semiconductor layers comprising one or more of si , sic , ge , gec , sige and sigec ; these materials in layered combinations ; these materials strained , partially strained ( or partially relaxed ) and / or unstrained ( or fully relaxed ). the semiconductor layer may comprise , for example , a silicon - on - insulator layer with a thickness less than 30 nm and / or fets comprising semiconductor s / d regions separated by a semiconducting channel region , wherein said s / d regions and said channel regions comprise different semiconductor materials , and wherein said s / d regions are strained , partially strained , or unstrained . particularly favored examples of the fets to which the hot implant and ddab methods of this invention may be applied include ( i ) fets comprising a semiconducting channel region of si and s / d regions of a strained sige alloy having a ge content equal to or greater than 25 atomic percent , and ( ii ) fets comprising a semiconducting channel region of si and s / d regions of a strained sic alloy having a c content greater than 0 . 5 atomic percent . the semiconductor layers may comprise of a single crystal orientation such as ( 100 ) or two or more single crystal orientations ( as typified by hybrid orientation substrate technology ) such as regions of ( 100 ) and ( 110 ). the elevated temperatures for the heated implants of this invention would typically be in the range from 70 to 900 ° c ., preferably be in the range from 150 to 550 ° c ., and most preferably be in the range from 200 - 350 ° c . annealing for the ddab method would typically include any annealing process known to the art , including furnace annealing , rapid thermal annealing , and laser annealing , for time and temperature ranges known to the art , e . g ., temperatures in the range from 150 to 1350 ° c . and times in the range from 24 hours to sub - milliseconds . gas ambients may be selected from those known to the art , typically n 2 or ar with or without additional additives selected from the group nh 3 , h 2 o , h 2 , o 2 , no , n 2 o , etc . the ion implantation of this invention may be performed with any ion known to the art , including atomic ions , molecular ions , singly - charged ions , and multiply - charged ions . particularly favored ions include the ions of as , b , b 1 , bf 2 , ge , p and sb . the conditions for the individual implants comprising the ddab method may be the same or different in one or more particulars ( for example , first and final implants might utilize the same species and energy but be different in angle of incidence ). three examples of the invention will now be described . in the first , it is shown that in situ heating during ion implantation can prevent the amorphization of soi layers that would occur if the same implants were performed at room temperature such as in the range from 20 ° c . to 25 ° c . in the second example , we show how the dependence of amorphization depth on as implant dose may be used to calculate an optimum implementation of the ddab technique in a semiconductor - on - insulator layer . in the third example , we show how the hot implant and ddab techniques may be used to preserve the strain in pseudomorphic sige layers grown on si . the example shows that in situ heating during ion implantation can prevent the amorphization of soi layers that would occur if the same implants were performed at room temperature . soi layers 28 nm in thickness were implanted at 26 , 150 , or 300 ° c . with 3 × 10 15 / cm 2 50 kev as + , an implant that has an average projected range ( rp ) of about 340 å and would ordinarily completely amorphize the soi layer . the reflectance vs . wavelength data of fig6 indicates that the soi layer has indeed been amorphized in the 26 and 150 ° c . samples ( curves b and c , respectively ), but remains crystalline ( with a reflectance curve nearly identical to curve a of the unimplanted control sample ) for the 300 ° c . implant ( curve d ). the sheet resistance ( rs ) measurements of table i corroborate these results : after annealing in n 2 at 900 ° c . for 1 min , the 26 and 150 ° c . samples have rs in the range of 8 - 11 kohm / square , consistent with a recrystallization of the amorphous soi layer to polycrystalline si ; in contrast , the 300 ° c . sample has a rs of 790 ohm / sq , consistent with doped single - crystal si . in addition , the implanted as + is quite substantially activated even as - implanted ( rs ˜ 15 . 5 kohm / sq ) and is more activated ( with an rs of 4 . 4 kohm / sq ) after very mild annealing ( 500 ° c ./ 1 min ) than the 26 and 150 ° c . samples are after 900 ° c ./ min . table i shows rs measurements ( ohm / sq ) of samples implanted with 3 × 10 15 / cm 2 50 kev as + . table i anneal / implant temperature 26 ° c . 150 ° c . 300 ° c . as - implanted & gt ; 1000 k & gt ; 1000 k 15 . 5 k 500 ° c ./ 1 min & gt ; 1000 k & gt ; 1000 k 4 . 4 k 900 ° c ./ 1 min 10 . 7 k 8 . 2 k 790 in the second example ; we show how one may use the dependence of amorphization depth on implant dose to calculate an optimum implementation of the ddab technique in a semiconductor - on - insulator layer disposed on a buried oxide ( box ). soi layers 160 nm in thickness were implanted at room temperature with 100 kev as + ( rp about 71 nm ) at doses of 1 . 25 , 2 . 5 , and 5 . 0 × 10 15 / cm 2 to produce surface amorphous layers having thicknesses of 91 , 111 , and 117 nm respectively . none of these doses were sufficient to amorphize the entire 160 nm thickness of the soi layer . however , soi layers thinner than about 110 nm in thickness would be expected to totally amorphize at doses higher than 2 . 5 × 10 15 / cm 2 , form polycrystalline si upon activation annealing . dividing the 2 . 5 × 10 15 / cm 2 dose into two doses of 1 . 25 × 10 15 / cm 2 would leave a residual crystalline layer between the 91 nm amorphization depth and the top of the box after each implant . annealing between the implants allows the crystallinity of the sample to be restored ( by spe templating from the residual crystalline layer ) before the next implant and results in a crystalline material after a final activation anneal . in the third example , we show how the hot implant and ddab techniques may be used to preserve the strain in pseudomorphic sige layers grown on si . fig7 - 9 show high resolution x - ray diffraction ( hrxr - d ) ( 004 ) rocking curves ( rcs ) of a structure comprised by 40 - nm - thick si 0 . 70 ge 03 . 0 layers epitaxially grown on ( 100 ) si substrate , taken before and after implantation with as + to a dose below the amorphization threshold dose . in fig7 - 9 , the ordinate represents the intensity of diffracted x - ray in counts / second and the abscissa represents delta rocking angle omega in unity of seconds of degree , having the scale origin set at the si substrate diffraction peak . the sige peak ( at negative angles in fig7 - 9 ) typically comprises a main peak bordered by weaker satellite peaks ( thickness fringes or pendellosung oscillations ) whose spacing allows a precise estimate of the sige thickness . the intensities of the main peak and the satellite peaks are highest when the sige is perfectly ordered and defect - free , and decrease with increasing film disorder . the angular separation of the sige diffraction peak from that of si substrate correlates with the magnitude of the compressive strain in the epi - layer . fig7 demonstrates the utility of hot implants by comparing the rcs of an as - grown sample ( curve a ) to samples implanted with 2 × 10 13 / cm 2 , 50 kev as + at 0 ° tilt at 300 ° c . ( curve b ) or room temperature ( curve c ). the as - grown sample has a strain of 1 . 17 % and very distinct thickness fringes ; the hot implanted sample has nearly identical thickness fringes ( indicating negligible implant damage ) and very slightly increased strain ( 1 . 20 %). in contrast , the sample implanted at room temperature shows no main peak and thickness fringes in the noise , a clear indication of severe damage . fig8 shows the rcs of samples of fig7 after an anneal at 1080 ° c . for 1 s ( using a 5150 ° c ./ s heating ramp rate ). rc ( curve a ) for the unimplanted sample shows a strain of 1 . 14 %, indicating that the initial strain is not significantly decreased by annealing alone . rc ( curve b ) for the hot implanted sample shows a strain of 1 . 09 %, again very close to the pre - implant , pre - anneal value . rc ( curve c ) for the sample implanted at room temperature shows a restoration of the sige peak ( indicative of substantial damage repair ), but much reduced strain 110 ( 0 . 65 %). fig7 and 8 thus demonstrate that implant temperature is the key factor in determining whether a given implant energy / dose and subsequent activation anneal will preserve the initial strain or very substantially reduce it . fig9 illustrates the strain - preserving features of the ddab technique . rc ( curve a ) shows the as - grown sample of fig7 a , which had an initial strain of 1 . 17 %. rc ( curve b ) shows a sample subjected to a single - step - implant / anneal sequence comprising a room temperature implant of 2 × 10 13 / cm 2 , 50 kev as + followed by an anneal at 650 ° c . for 110 min , resulting in a final strain of 0 . 88 % ( a significant loss ). rc ( curve c ) shows the contrasting results of the ddab technique using a double - step - implant / anneal sequence in which the 2 × 10 13 / cm 2 as + dose is evenly divided into two doses of 1 × 10 13 / cm 2 , with each implant followed by an anneal at 650 ° c . for 110 min . the strain in this case is 1 . 12 %, very close to the original value of 1 . 17 %, very clearly indicating the benefits of the ddab technique . it should be noted that the ddab technique of course involves a tradeoff between the process time for the additional implant and annealing steps and the benefits of further subdivision in implant dose ( as measured by a decrease in strain loss ). in many cases , the double - step - implant / anneal sequence may be selected optimal . however , the optimal number of subdivisions is likely to be higher for the case of sige with a high ge content and / or materials requiring high implant doses . while several embodiments of the invention , together with modifications thereof , have been described in detail herein and illustrated in the accompanying drawings , it will be evident that various further modifications are possible without departing from the scope of the invention . for example , ( i ) multiple hot implants differing in dose , species , and / or energy might be performed with the same masking layer , and / or ( ii ) the individual implants comprising the ddab method might include some in situ heating during implantation . nothing in the above specification is intended to limit the invention more narrowly than the appended claims . the examples given are intended only to be illustrative rather than exclusive . | 7 |
the schemes shown below schematically depict a method whereby the pyridine monocarboxylate compounds of this invention may be prepared from compounds which are known in the art . starting with a pyridinedicarboxylate compound such as those described in european patent publication no . 133 , 612 , the dicarboxylic acid chloride is prepared by treating with a chlorinating agent such as pcl 5 or socl 2 . the or 5 - amino - monocarboxylate is then prepared from the 3 - or 5 - chlorocarbonyl compound by treatment with nan 3 followed by a curtis rearrangement . the 3 - or 5 - amino compound so produced is then transformed into a 3 - or 5 - halogen substituted pyridinemonocarboxylate or a compound in which the atom linked to the pyridine ring at the 3 - or 5 - position is a nitrogen atom as shown in schemes 2 , 3 and 4 . reference to the examples will provide greater detail about the steps shown in schemes 1 - 4 . ## str11 ## preparation of further compounds of this invention will become clear by reference to the scheme in conjunction with the following examples . as used throughout the specification , including the examples , the following abbreviations have the following meanings : as used in the following examples , the terms &# 34 ; workup as usual &# 34 ;, or &# 34 ; normal workup &# 34 ;, or equivalent language refer to the process of washing the organic extract with brine , drying by pouring through a cone of anhydrous sodium sulfate , and concentrating in vacuo . 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 5 - amino - 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 - isobutyl - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . six grams ( 15 . 1 mmol ) of product of example 32 of european patent application no . 133 , 612 published feb . 27 , 1985 , was added to 0 . 95 g of 89 % potassium hydroxide ( 15 . 1 mmol ) and 35 ml of ethanol and was stirred at room temperature for 1 day . the reaction mixture was poured into 135 ml of water , washed with ether ( 2 × 20 ml ) and acidified with concentrated hydrochloric acid . the product was extracted into ether ( 2 × 50 ml ), which was worked up as usual to afford 4 . 91 g ( 88 %) of the desired mono - acid as an off - white solid suitable for further transformation . this was refluxed overnight with thionyl chloride ( 25 ml ). the excess thionyl chloride was removed in vacuo and the resulting acid chloride was added dropwise to a rapidly - stirred slurry of 1 . 8 g of sodium azide in 15 ml of 4 : 1 acetone : water . this was stirred at room temperature for the weekend , then diluted with 75 ml of water and extracted with ether 3 × 20 ml . workup as usual afforded 4 . 66 g ( 91 % overall yield ) of product as a tan solid . recrystallization from cyclohexane gave analytically pure material , mp 68 °- 70 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis c h n______________________________________calculated 49 . 41 5 . 04 8 . 23found 49 . 23 4 . 97 8 . 26______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 5 - amino - 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 - ethyl - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . a mixture of 35 . 0 g ( 0 . 103 mol ) of product of example 55 of european patent application no . 133 , 612 published feb . 27 , 1985 , and 60 ml of thionyl chloride was refluxed overnight . the excess thionyl chloride was removed in vacuo , and the acid chloride was diluted with 10 ml of acetone and added to a slurry of 14 . 3g of nan 3 25 ml of h 2 o and 90 ml of acetone . an exothermic reaction occurred with vigorous gas evolution . after the reaction mixture cooled to room temperature , 300 ml of water was added and the product was extracted into chloroform . normal workup gave 30 . 9 g ( 96 %) of product as a tan solid . recrystallization from ethyl acetate / cyclohexane afforded analytically pure material , mp 92 °- 94 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis c h n______________________________________calculated 46 . 16 4 . 20 8 . 97found 46 . 08 4 . 23 8 . 94______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 5 -( methoxycarbonyl ) amino ]- 4 -( 2 - methylpropyl )- 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . a mixture of 13 . 7g ( 0 . 037 mol ) of ethyl 6 -( difluoromethyl )- 5 -( chlorocarbonyl ) - 4 -( 2 - methylpropyl )- 2 -( trifluoromethyl ) - 3 - pyridinecarboxylate prepared by methods shown in european patent application no . 133 , 612 published feb . 27 , 1985 , and 40 ml of thionyl chloride was stirred at reflux for 7 hours , then was concentrated in vacuo . the residue was kugelrohr distilled ( 130 ° c . at 1 torr ) to give 13 . 4g ( 93 %) of the corresponding acid chloride as a yellow oil . to a 0 ° c . solution of 5 . 0 g ( 0 . 013 mol ) of this acid chloride in 50 ml of chloroform was added dropwise a solution of 1 . 03 g ( 0 . 013 mol ) of pyridine and 14 . 5 ml 0 . 0149 mol ) of 1 . 025 m hydrazoic acid in chloroform . after the addition was complete , the reaction mixture was stirred 30 min at room temperature , diluted with 20 ml of methanol and heated on a hot plate until gas evolution ceased . this was then poured into 100 ml of water and extracted with chloroform ( 3 × 40 ml ). normal workup afforded 5 . 03 g ( 97 %) of product as a tan solid . recrystallization from ethyl acetate / cyclohexane afforded analytically pure material , mp 109 °- 110 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 48 . 25 4 . 81 7 . 03found 48 . 03 4 . 76 7 . 21______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 5 -([ bis ( 1 - methylethyl ) amino ] carbonylamino )- 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 -( 2 - methylpropyl )- 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . a mixture of 13 . 7g ( 0 . 037 mol ) of ethyl 6 -( difluoromethyl )- 5 -( chlorocarbonyl )- 4 -( 2 - methylpropyl ) - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )- 3 - pyridinecarboxylate prepared by methods shown in european patent application no . 133 , 612 published feb . 27 , 1985 , and 40 ml of thionyl chloride was stirred at reflux for 7 hours , then was concentrated in vacuo . the residue was kugelrohr distilled ( 130 ° c . at 1 torr ) to give 13 . 4g ( 93 %) of the corresponding acid chloride as a yellow oil . a 0 ° c . solution of 5 . 0 g ( 0 . 013 mmol ) of this acid chloride in 50 ml of chloroform was added dropwise to a solution of 1 . 03 g ( 0 . 013 mol ) of pyridine and 14 . 5 ml ( 0 . 015 mol ) of 1 . 025 m hydrazoic acid in chloroform . after the addition was complete , it was stirred at room temperature for 30 min . then 20 ml of diisopropylamine was added causing an exothermic reaction to occur . the reaction was allowed to cool to room temperature and diluted with 100 ml of water . the product was extracted into chloroform ( 3 × 40 ml ). normal workup afforded 5 . 54 g 91 ) of product as a tan solid . recrystallization from ethyl acetate / cyclohexane afforded analytically pure material , mp 137 °- 139 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 53 . 96 6 . 47 8 . 99found 53 . 91 6 . 46 8 . 95______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 5 - amino - 6 -( difluromethyl ) - 4 - ethyl - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, methyl ester . a mixture of 45 . 0g ( 0 . 132 mol ) of methyl 5 - carboxy - 6 -( difluoromethyl )- 4 - ethyl - 2 -( trifluoromethyl ) - 3 - pyridinecarboxylate prepared by methods shown in european patent application no . 133 , 612 published feb . 27 , 1985 , 8 . 91g ( 0 . 135 mol ) of 85 % potassium hydroxide , 125 ml of methanol and 15 ml of water was stirred at room temperature for 24 hours . the reaction mixture was poured into water ( 500 ml ), washed with chloroform ( 2 × 200 ml ), and then was acidified with concentrated hydrochloric acid . extraction with ethyl acetate ( 3 × 150 ml ) followed by workup as usual afforded 38 . 2g ( 88 %) of the corresponding carboxylic acid as a white solid . a solution of 38 . 2g ( 0 . 117 mol ) of this acid and 50 ml of thionyl chloride was refluxed for 3 h . the excess thionyl chloride was removed in vacuo and the remaining acid chloride was dissolved in acetone ( 15 ml ). this was added to a rapidly stirred slurry of 17 . 8 g ( 0 . 27 mol ) of sodium azide , 30 ml of water and 100 ml of acetone , resulting in an exothermic reaction with vigorous gas evolution . after 2 h , the reaction mixture was diluted with 200 ml of water and extracted with chloroform ( 3 × 70 ml ). normal workup afforded 33 . 0 g ( 86 %) of product as a tan solid . recrystallization from ethyl acetate / cyclohexane afforded analytically pure material , mp 92 °- 93 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 44 . 30 3 . 72 9 . 39found 44 . 59 3 . 83 9 . 16______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 - ethyl - 5 -[( methoxycarbonyl ] amino ]- 2 -( trifluoromethyl ) -, ethyl ester . a solution of 5 . 0 g ( 0 . 015 mol ) of product of example 28 of european patent application no . 133 , 612 published feb . 27 , 1985 , and 15 ml of thionyl chloride was refluxed overnight . the excess thionyl chloride was then removed in vacuo and the resulting acid chloride was diluted with 25 ml of methylene chloride and cooled to 0 ° c . to this stirred solution was added dropwise a mixture of 1 . 16 g of pyridine and 16 ml of 1 . 0 m hydrazoic acid in chloroform . after the addition was complete , the reaction mixture was warmed to room temperature for 10 min . then , 35 ml of methanol was added and the reaction mixture was warmed on a hot plate until gas evolution ceased . this was then diluted with 100 ml of water and extracted with chloroform ( 3 × 40 ml ). normal workup afforded 5 . 6 g ( quantitative ) of product as an off - white solid . recrystallization from ethyl acetate / cyclohexane afforded analytically pure material , mp 84 °- 86 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 45 . 41 4 . 08 7 . 51found 45 . 17 4 . 08 8 . 14______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 -( 2 - methylpropyl ]- 5 - l ( trifluoroaoetyl ) amino ]- 2 - itrifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . to a slurry of 1 . 08 g ( 0 . 027 mol ) of 60 % sodium hydride and 10 ml of anhydrous tetrahydrofuran was added a solution of 8 . 0 g ( 0 . 023 mol ) of product of example 1 in 10 ml of tetrahydrofuran . this was refluxed for 2 h , then stirred overnight at room temperature . to this was added 5 . 5 g ( 0 . 026 mol ) of trifluoroacetic anhydride dropwise . this was stirred for 1 h then poured into 100 ml of 5 % hydrochloric acid and extracted with chloroform ( 3 × 50 ml ). normal workup afforded 11 . 0 g of brown solid . recrystallization from ethyl acetate / cyclohexane afforded 9 . 53 g ( 90 %) of product as a white solid , mp 102 °- 104 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 44 . 05 3 . 70 6 . 42found 44 . 45 3 . 76 6 . 44______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 5 - chloro - 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 - isobutyl - 6 - itrifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . to a mixture of 2 . 96 g ( 0 . 022 mol ) of cupric chloride , 2 . 26 g ( 0 . 018 mol ) of t - butyl nitrite and 40 ml of acetonitrile is added dropwise to a solution of 5 . 0 g ( 0 . 015 mol ) of product of example 1 in 10 ml of acetonitrile . this was stirred overnight at room temperature , then poured into 100 ml of 2 . 5 m hydrochloric acid . the product was extracted into 3 × 50 ml of ether . workup as usual afforded 5 . 26 g of dark brown oil . this was chromatographed on the prep - 500 using 2 % ethyl acetate / cyclohexane as elution solvent . fraction 1 afforded 2 . 14 g ( 41 %) of product as a colorless oil material ; n d 25 1 . 456 ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n cl______________________________________calculated 46 . 75 4 . 20 3 . 89 9 . 86found 46 . 82 4 . 24 3 . 86 9 . 90______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 5 - iodo - 4 - isobutyl - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . to a 0 ° c . solution of 4 . 0 g ( 0 . 012mol ) of product of example 1 , 2 . 16 g ( 0 . 012 mol ) of 48 % fluoroboric acid and 30 ml of acetonitrile was added 1 . 34 g ( 0 . 013 mol ) of t - butyl nitrite . this was allowed to stir at 0 ° c . for 30 min , then it was added to a solution of 30 g potassium iodide in 150 ml of water . after stirring for 30 min , the reaction mixture was extracted with chloroform ( 4 × 40 ml ). the chloroform extract was washed with 10 % sodium thiosulfate ( 2 × 50 ml ), brine ( 50 ml ) and dried through a cone of sodium sulfate . concentration in vacuo afforded 4 . 82 g of orange oil which was chromatographed on silica gel using 2 % ethyl acetate / cyclohexane . the first fraction contained 1 . 98 g ( 37 %) of product as a colorless oil ; n d 25 1 . 493 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 37 . 27 3 . 35 3 . 10found 37 . 55 3 . 42 3 . 13______________________________________ the second fraction contained 1 . 65 g ( 31 %) of product as a light yellow oil ; n d 25 1 . 488 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 37 . 27 3 . 35 3 . 10found 37 . 57 3 . 40 3 . 09______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 5 - chloro - 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 - ethyl - 6 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . to a slurry of 2 . 55 g ( 0 . 019 mol ) of cupric chloride , 2 . 48 g ( 0 . 024 mol ) of t - butyl nitrite and 70 ml of anhydrous acetonitrile was added a solution of 5 . 0 g ( 0 . 016 mol ) of product of example 2 in 5 ml acetonitrile . this was stirred at room temperature for 2 h , diluted with 200 ml of 10 % hydrochloric acid and extracted into chloroform ( 3 × 40 ml ). normal workup afforded an orange oil which was kugelrohr distilled ( 120 ° c . @ 1 . 0 torr ) to give 4 . 57 g ( 86 %) of product as a colorless liquid . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n cl______________________________________calculated 43 . 46 3 . 34 4 . 22 10 . 69found 43 . 44 3 . 41 4 . 30 10 . 81______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 5 - chloro - 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 - ethyl - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, methyl ester . to a solution of 3 . 23 g ( 0 . 024 mol ) of cupric chloride , 3 . 09 g ( 0 . 030 mol ) of t - butyl nitrite and 65 ml of acetonitrile was added to a solution of 6 . 0 g of product of example 5 in 10 ml of acetonitrile . after stirring at room temperature for 3 h , the reaction mixture was poured into 200 ml of 10 % hydrochloric acid and extracted with chloroform ( 3 × 70 ml ). normal workup afforded 6 . 32 g of an orange oil which was chromatographed on the prep - 500 using 2 % ethyl acetate / cyclohexane . workup of the first fraction afforded 4 . 12 g 66 %) of product as a white solid . recrystallization from cyclohexane afforded analytically pure material , mp 62 °- 62 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 41 . 59 2 . 86 4 . 41 11 . 16found 41 . 57 2 . 79 4 . 34 11 . 18______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 5 - bromo - 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 - ethyl - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . to a solution of 5 . 09 g ( 0 . 023 mol ) of cupric bromide , 2 . 94 g ( 0 . 029 mol ) of t - butyl nitrite and 70 ml of anhydrous acetonitrile was added a solution of 6 . 0 g ( 0 . 019 mol ) of product of example 2 in 5 ml acetonitrile . this was stirred at room temperature for 2 h , then poured into 10 % hydrochloric acid ( 200 ml ) and extracted with chloroform ( 3 × 40 ml ). normal workup afforded 6 . 95 g of a light yellow oil . kugelrohr distillation ( 125 ° c . @ 1 . 0 torr ) gave 6 . 35 g ( 89 %) of product as a white solid . recrystallization from cyclohexane gave analytically pure material , mp 39 °- 41 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n br______________________________________calculated 38 . 32 2 . 95 3 . 72 21 . 25found 38 . 47 2 . 99 3 . 77 21 . 40______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 5 - bromo - 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 - ethyl - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, methyl ester . to a solution of 5 . 36 g ( 0 . 024 mol ) of cupric bromide , 3 . 09 g ( 0 . 030 mol ) of t - butyl nitrite and 6 . 5 ml of acetonitrile was added a solution of 6 . 0 g ( 0 . 020 mol ) of product of example 5 in 10 ml of acetonitrile . after stirring for 3 h at room temperature , the reaction mixture was added to 200 ml of 10 % hydrochloric acid and extracted with chloroform . normal workup afforded 7 . 05 g of brown oil which was chromatographed on silica gel using 2 % ethyl acetate / cyclohexane . workup of the first fraction afforded 4 . 83 g ( 68 %) of product as a white solid . recrystallization from cyclohexane afforded analytically pure material , mp 61 °- 62 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n br______________________________________calculated 36 . 49 2 . 51 3 . 87 22 . 07found 36 . 56 2 . 55 3 . 86 22 . 16______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 - ethyl - 5 - iodo - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . to a 0 ° c . solution of 2 . 0 g ( 6 . 40 mmol ) of product of example 2 , 1 . 18 g ( 6 . 40 mmol ) of 48 % fluoroboric acid and 10 ml of acetonitrile was added to 0 . 72 g of t - butyl nitrite . this solution was stirred at 0 ° c . for 15 min then was added to a rapidly stirred solution of 12 g of potassium iodide in 100 ml of water . this was stirred for 30 min , then was extracted with chloroform ( 3 × 40 ml ). the combined chloroform extract was washed with 10 % sodium thiosulfate ( 2 × 100 ml ), brine ( 50 ml ), and dried through a cone of sodium sulfate . concentration in vacuo afforded an orange oil which was filtered through a short plug of silica gel ( 5 % ethyl acetate / cyclohexane as eluant ) to afford 2 . 10 g ( 78 %) of product as a white solid . recrystallization from cyclohexane afforded analytically pure material , mp 63 °- 65 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 34 . 06 2 . 62 3 . 31found 34 . 32 2 . 68 3 . 30______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 - ethyl - 5 - iodo - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, methyl ester . to a 0 ° c . solution of 6 . 25 g ( 0 . 021 mol ) of product of example 5 , 3 . 84 g ( 0 . 021 mol ) of 48 % fluoroboric acid and 55 ml of acetonitrile was slowly added 2 . 38 g 0 . 023 mol ) of t - butyl nitrite . this was stirred at 0 ° c . for 30 min , then added to a rapidly stirred solution of 55 g of potassium iodide in 200 ml of water . after 20 min , this was diluted with water 20 ( 200 ml ) and extracted with chloroform ( 3 × 50 ml ). this was washed with 10 % sodium thiosulfate ( 2 × 50 ml ), brine ( 100 ml ) and dried through sodium sulfate . concentration in vacuo afforded 7 . 80 g of brown oil , which was chromatographed on silica gel using 2 % ethyl acetate / cyclohexane . workup of the first fraction afforded 4 . 58 g ( 56 %) of product as a white solid . recrystallization from cyclohexane afforded analytically pure material , mp 62 °- 63 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 32 . 30 2 . 22 3 . 42found 32 . 37 2 . 26 3 . 38______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 5 - amino - 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 - propyl - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . to a stirred slurry of 41 . 3 g of sodium azide , 75 ml of water and 260 ml of acetone was slowly added a solution of 109 g ( 0 . 292 mol ) of product of example 47 of european patent application no . 133 , 612 published feb . 27 , 1985 , in 30 ml of acetone . an exothermic reaction took place with vigorous gas evolution . after the reaction mixture cooled to room temperature , it was diluted with water ( 500 ml ) and extracted into chcl 3 ( 3 × 150ml ). normal workup afforded 94 . 8g ( quantitative ) of product as an offwhite solid . recrystallization from ethyl acetate / cyclohexane gave analytically pure material , mp 73 °- 75 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 47 . 86 4 . 63 8 . 59found 47 . 79 4 . 66 8 . 59______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 5 -( ethoxymethylene ) amino ]- 4 - propyl - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . a solution of 20 . 0 g ( 0 . 061 mol ) of product of example 16 , 22 . 7 g ( 0 . 153 mol ) of triethyl orthoformate and 300 mg of p - toluenesulfonic acid was heated at 110 ° c . with removal of ethanol by distillation . after 4 h , the excess orthoformate was removed in vacuo and the residue was kugelrohr distilled ( 140 ° c . @ 1 torr ) to afford 23 . 3 g ( quantitative ) of product as a colorless liquid ; n d 25 1 . 462 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 50 . 26 5 . 01 7 . 33found 50 . 18 5 . 01 7 . 29______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , s - amino - 4 - ethyl - 6 - methyl - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . a solution of 19 . 2 g ( 0 . 054 mol ) of 3 - t - butyl 5 - ethyl 4 - ethyl - 2 - methyl - 6 -( trifluoromethyl )- 3 , 5 - pyridinedicarboxylate prepared by methods shown in european patent application no . 133 , 612 , and 40 ml of 97 % formic acid was stirred overnight at 85 ° c . the reaction mixture was then concentrated in vacuo to give an orange oil which was diluted with 50 ml of thionyl chloride and refluxed for 3 h . the excess thionyl chloride was removed in vacuo and the residue was kugelrohr distilled to give 13 . 4 g ( 78 %) of the acid chloride . this was taken up in 5 ml of acetone and added to a stirred slurry of 7 . 5 g of sodium azide , 13 ml of water and 50 ml of acetone . an exothermic reaction occurred with vigouous gas evolution . after the reaction mixture cooled to room temperature , it was diluted with 200 ml of water and extracted with chloroform ( 3 × 75 ml ). normal workup afforded an oily solid which was chromatographed on silica gel using 20 % ethyl acetate / cyclohexane to give 6 . 35 ( 55 %) of product as a white solid . recrystallization from ethyl acetate / cyclohexane gave analytically pure material , mp 107 °- 109 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 52 . 17 5 . 47 10 . 14found 52 . 26 5 . 54 10 . 11______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 4 - ethyl - 6 - methyl - 5 - nitro - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . to a 55 ° c . slurry of 7 . 82 g of sodium perborate ( 0 . 051 mol ) and 40 ml of glacial acetic acid was added a solution of 3 . 5 g ( 0 . 013 mol ) of product of example 18 in 15 ml of glacial acetic acid . the reaction mixture was maintained at 55 ° c . for 2 h , then was poured into 150 ml of water and extracted with chloroform ( 3 × 40 ml ). workup as usual afforded a dark oil which was kugelrohr distilled ( 130 ° c . @ 1 torr ) to give 1 . 57 g of product as a light yellow oil . the residue which did not distill was chromatographed on silica gel ( 1 % etoac / cyclohexane ) to afford an additional 1 . 00 g of product to give a total of 2 . 57 % ( 66 %); n d 25 1 .% 65 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 47 . 07 4 . 28 9 . 15found 47 . 01 4 . 29 9 . 23______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 - ethyl - 5 - nitro - 2 -( trifluoromethyl ), ethyl ester . to a solution of 4 . 0 g ( 0 . 013 mol ) of product of example 2 in 100 ml of concentrated sulfuric acid at 0 ° c . was carefully added 10 ml of 90 % hydrogen peroxide . this was slowly warmed to room temperature over a 3 - hour period and then stirred there overnight . the reaction mixture was diluted with ice ( 300 g ) and extracted with chloroform . normal workup gave a white solid which was chromatographed on silica gel using 1 % ethyl acetate / cyclohexane . workup of the first fraction gave 2 . 02 g ( 46 %) of product as a white solid , mp 44 °- 46 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 42 . 12 3 . 24 8 . 19found 42 . 28 3 . 25 8 . 15______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 5 - nitro - 4 - propyl - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester to a 0 ° c . solution of 15 . 0 g ( 0 . 046 mol ) of product of example 16 and 360 ml of concentrated sulfuric acid was carefully added 36 ml of 90 % hydrogen peroxide . this was slowly warmed to room temperature over a 3 - hour period and stirred there overnight . the reaction mixture was quenched with ice ( 300 g ) and extracted into chloroform ( 3 × 100 ml ). workup as usual gave a white solid which was chromatographed on silica gel using 1 % ethyl acetate / cyclohexane . workup of the first fraction gave 9 . 35 g ( 57 %) of product as a white solid , mp 63 °- 65 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 43 . 83 3 . 68 7 . 86found 43 . 83 3 . 69 7 . 86______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 2 -( trifluoromethyl ) - 4 -( 2 - methylpropyl ]- 5 - nitro - 6 -( difluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . to a 0 ° c . solution 6 . 0 g ( 0 . 018 mol ) of product of example 1 and 135 ml of concentrated sulfuric acid was carefully added 13 . 5 ml of 90 % hydrogen peroxide , dropwise . this was slowly warmed to room temperature over a period of 3 h , then was stirred overnight . to this was added 200 g of ice chips and the resulting aqueous solution was extracted with chloroform ( 3 × 75 ml ). workup as usual gave a brown oil which was chromatographed on silica gel ( 1 % ethyl acetate / cyclohexane ). workup gave 3 . 53 g ( 54 %) of product as a white solid , mp 44 °- 46 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 45 . 41 4 . 08 7 . 57found 45 . 47 4 . 03 7 . 75______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 - methyl - 5 - nitro - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . to a 0 ° c . solution of 15 . 0 g ( 0 . 050 mol ) of product of example 71 and 360 ml of concentrated sulfuric acid was carefully added 36 ml of 90 % hydrogen peroxide dropwise . this was slowly warmed to room temperature over a 3 - hour period and allowed to stir there overnight . then , 300 g of ice chips were added and the product was extracted into chloroform ( 3 × 75 ml ). workup as usual afforded an off - white solid which was kugelrohr distilled ( 140 ° c . @ 1 torr ) to give 11 . 8 g ( 72 %) of product as a white solid , mp 93 °- 95 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 40 . 26 2 . 76 8 . 54found 40 . 43 2 . 75 8 . 33______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 - ethyl - 5 - nitro - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, methyl ester . to a 0 ° c . solution of 5 . 0 g ( 0 . 017 mol ) of product of example 5 and 120 ml of concentrated sulfuric acid was carefully added 12 ml of 90 % hydrogen peroxide dropwise . this was stirred at 0 ° c . for 3 h , then slowly warmed to room temperature and stirred overnight . the reaction mixture was then diluted with 200 g of ice and extracted with chloroform . workup as usual gave a white solid which was chromatographed on silica gel ( 1 % ethyl acetate / cyclohexane ). workup of the first fraction afforded 2 . 73 g ( 50 %) of product as a white solid , mp 65 °- 67 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 40 . 26 2 . 76 8 . 54found 40 . 30 2 . 76 8 . 54______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 - ethyl - 5 -[( trifluoroacetyl ) amino - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . a solution a 4 . 0 g ( 0 . 16 mol ) of product of example 2 , 35 ml of trifluoroacetic anhydride and 20 ml of methylene chloride was stirred at room temperature for 3 h . the reaction mixture was then concentrated in vacuo ( 50 ° c . @ 20 torr ) affording 6 . 19 g ( 95 %) of product as a white solid . recrystallization from ethyl acetate / cyclohexane gave analytically pure material , mp 98 °- 100 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 41 . 19 2 . 96 6 . 86found 41 . 49 3 . 09 6 . 95______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 - methyl - 5 -( trifluoroacetyl ) amino ]- 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . a solution of 7 . 44 g ( 0 . 025 mol ) of product of example 71 , 20 g of trifluoroacetic anhydride and 20 ml of chloroform was stirred at room temperature for 2 h . the reaction mixture was concentrated in vacuo to afford a white solid which was recrystallized from ethyl acetate / cyclohexane to give 8 . 5 g ( 90 %) of product , mp 112 °- 114 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 39 . 61 2 . 56 7 . 14found 39 . 55 2 . 58 7 . 11______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 - ethyl - 5 -[( pentafluoropropionyl ) amino ]- 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . a solution of 4 . 0 g 0 . 0128 mol ) of product of example 71 , 15 ml of dichloromethane and 5 . 0 g ( 0 . 16 mol ) of pentafluoropropionic anhydride was stirred at room temperature for 1 day . the reaction mixture was then concentrated in vacuo and kugelrohr distilled ( 150 ° c . @ 5 torr ) to give 4 . 8 g ( 82 %) of product as a white solid , mp 113 °- 115 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 39 . 32 2 . 64 6 . 11found 39 . 72 2 . 68 6 . 17______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 - ethyl - 5 -[( pentafluoropropionyl ) amino ]- 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . a solution of 3 . 0 g ( 0 . 010 mol ) of product of example 5 , 9 ml of pentafluoropropionic anhydride and 14 ml of chloroform was stirred at room temperature for 3 h . the reaction mixture was concentrated in vacuo affording a white solid . recrystallization from ethyl acetate / cyclohexane gave 4 . 07 g ( 92 %) of product as a white solid , mp 96 °- 98 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 37 . 85 2 . 27 6 . 31found 38 . 10 2 . 41 6 . 50______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 5 -( formylamino )- 4 - methyl - 2 - itrifluoromethyl ) -, ethyl ester . to 43 . 2 g ( 0 . 42 mol ) of acetic anhydride at 0 ° c . was added 24 . 4 g ( 0 . 53 mol ) of formic acid . this was warmed to room temperature , then heated at 50 ° c . for 15 min . this was then immediately cooled to 0 ° c . and 4 . 68 g 0 . 016 mol ) of product of example 71 was added . after stirring at room temperature for 40 min , the reaction mixture was concentrated in vacuo and the resulting solid was recrystallized from ethyl acetate to give 3 . 51 g ( 67 %) of product as a white solid , mp 151 °- 152 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 44 . 18 3 . 40 8 . 59found 44 . 11 3 . 43 8 . 57______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 5 -[( α - chloroacetyl ) amino - 6 -( difluoromethyl ]- 4 - ethyl - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . a solution of 4 . 0 g ( 0 . 0128 mol ) of product of example 2 , 1 . 50 g ( 0 . 013 mol ) of chloroacetyl chloride and 10 ml of acetonitrile was stirred overnight at room temperature . a small amount of starting material remained , as determined by gas chromatography , so another 75 mg of chloroacetyl chloride was added and the reaction was stirred another 4 h . concentration of the reaction mixture in vacuo gave 5 . 10 g ( quantitative ) of product as a white solid . recrystallization from ethyl acetate / cyclohexane gave analytically pure material , mp 104 °- 106 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n cl______________________________________calculated 43 . 26 3 . 63 7 . 21 9 . 12found 43 . 40 3 . 67 7 . 26 9 . 10______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 5 -[( α , α - dichloropropionyl ) amino ]- 6 -( difluoromethyl )- 4 - ethyl - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . a solution of 4 . 0 g ( 0 . 0128 mol ) of product of example 2 , 2 . 42 g ( 0 . 015 mol ) of 2 , 2 - dichloropropionyl chloride , 1 . 18 g ( 0 . 015 mol ) of pyridine and 10 ml of acetonitrile was refluxed for 24 h . the reaction mixture was then poured into 50 ml of 1m hydrochloric acid and extracted with chloroform . normal workup afforded a dark solid which was kugelrohr distilled ( 160 ° c . @ 1 torr ) to give 4 . 52 g ( 81 %) of product as an off - white solid . recrystallization from ethyl acetate / cyclohexane gave analytically pure material , mp 145 °- 146 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n cl______________________________________calculated 41 . 21 3 . 46 6 . 41 16 . 22found 41 . 26 3 . 46 6 . 37 16 . 15______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 5 -[( ethoxymethylene ) amino ]- 4 - methyl - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . a solution of 5 . 0 g ( 0 . 0168 mol ) of product of example 71 , 7 . 0 g of triethyl orthoformate and 100 mg of p - toluenesulfonic acid was heated at 110 ° c . with removal of ethanol by distillation . after 3 h , the reaction mixture was concentrated in vacuo and the residue was kugelrohr distilled ( 140 ° c . @ 1 torr ) to afford 5 . 10 g ( 86 %) of product as a colorless liquid ; n d 25 1 . 46s . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 47 . 46 4 . 27 7 . 91found 47 . 47 4 . 29 7 . 89______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 5 -[( ethoxymethylene ) amino ]- 4 - ethyl - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . a solution of 4 . 0 g ( 0 . 013 mol ) of product of example 2 , 5 . 7 g ( 0 . 038 mol ) of triethyl orthoformate and 70 mg of p - toluenesulfonic acid was stirred at 100 ° c . for 2 h with removal of the ethanol formed by distillation . the reaction mixture was concentrated in vacuo and the residue was kugelrohr distilled ( 150 ° c . @ 1 torr ) to give 3 . 86 g ( 82 %) of product as a colorless oil ; n d 25 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 48 . 92 4 . 65 7 . 61found 48 . 78 4 . 62 7 . 51______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 - ethyl - 5 -[( methoxymethylene ) amino ]- 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . a solution of 4 . 0 g ( 0 . 013 mol ) of product of example 2 , 4 . 0 g ( 0 . 038 mol ) of trimethyl orthoformate and 70 mg of p - toluenesulfonic acid was heated at 100 ° c . for 2 h , removing the methanol formed by distillation . the reaction mixture was concentrated in vacuo and the residue was kugelrohr distilled ( 150 ° c . @ 1 torr ) to afford 3 . 90 g ( 86 %) of product a colorless oil ; n d 25 1 . 463 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 47 . 46 4 . 27 7 . 91found 47 . 67 4 . 36 7 . 86______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl )- 5 -[( ethoxymethylene ) amino ]- 4 -( 2 - methylpropyl ) - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . a solution of 3 . 75 g ( 0 . 011 mol ) of product of example 1 , 4 . 90 ( 0 . 033 mol ) of triethyl orthoformate and 70 mg of p - toluenesulfonic acid was heated at 100 ° c . for 2 h , removing the ethanol which formed by distillation . the reaction mixture was concentrated in vacuo and the residue was kugelrohr distilled ( 150 ° c . @ 1 torr ) to give 3 . 83 g ( 88 %) of product as a colorless liquid ; n d 25 1 . 464 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 51 . 52 5 . 34 7 . 07found 51 . 80 5 . 48 7 . 03______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 5 -[( methoxymethylene ) amino ]- 4 - methyl - 2 -{ trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . a solution of 4 . 0 g ( 0 . 013 mol ) of product of example 71 , 4 . 2 g ( 0 . 040 mol ) of trimethyl orthoformate and 70 mg of p - toluenesulfonic acid was heated at 100 ° c . for 2 h , removing the methanol which formed by distillation . the reaction mixture was concentrated in vacuo and the residue was kugelrohr distilled ( 150 ° c . @ 1 torr ) to give 4 . 01 g ( 88 %) of product as a light yellow oil ; n d 25 1 . 463 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 45 . 89 3 . 85 8 . 23found 45 . 89 3 . 94 8 . 03______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 - ethyl - 5 -( methoxymethylene ) amino ]- 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, methyl ester . a solution of 3 . 50 g ( 0 . 012 mol ) of product of example 5 , 3 . 82 g ( 0 . 036 mol ) of trimethyl orthoformate and 30 mg of p - toluenesulfonic acid was stirred at reflux for 2 h , then concentrated in vacuo . the residue was kugelrohr distilled ( 145 ° c . @ 1 torr ) to give 3 . 47 g ( 84 %) of product as a colorless oil which slowly solidified , mp 29 °- 30 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 45 . 89 3 . 85 8 . 23found 46 . 04 3 . 82 8 . 11______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 5 -[( methoxymethylene ) amino ]- 4 - propyl - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . a solution of 3 . 0 g ( 0 . 0092 mol ) of product of example 16 , 10 ml of trimethyl orthoformate and 70 mg of p - toluenesulfonic acid was stirred at 100 ° c . for 2 h . the reaction mixture was concentrated in vacuo and the residue was kugelrohr distilled ( 135 ° c . ° c . @ 1 torr to give 3 . 13 g ( 92 %) of product as a colorless oil ; n d 25 1 . 465 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 48 . 92 4 . 65 7 . 61found 48 . 66 4 . 57 7 . 33______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 5 -[( methoxymethylene ) amino - 4 -( 2 - methylpropyl )- 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . a solution of 4 . 10g ( 0 . 012 mol ) of product of example 1 , 7 ml of trimethyl orthoformate and 70 mg of p - toluenesulfonic acid was stirred overnight at 100 ° c . the reaction mixture was concentrated in vacuo and the residue was kugelrohr distilled ( 150 ° c . @ 1 torr to give 4 . 07 g ( 89 %) of product as a colorless oil ; n d 25 1 . 457 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 50 . 26 5 . 01 7 . 33found 50 . 16 5 . 19 7 . 01______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 - ethyl - 5 -[( methoxymethylene ) amino ]- 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, methyl ester . a solution of 4 . 0 g ( 0 . 013 mol ) of product of example 1 , 10 ml of triethyl orthoformate and 70 mg of p - toluenesulfonic acid was heated at 100 ° c . for 3 h . the reaction mixture was concentrated in vacuo and the residue was kugelrohr distilled ( 150 ° c . ° c . @ 1 torr ) to give 4 . 18 g ( 88 %) of product as a colorless oil ; n d 25 1 . 463 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 47 . 46 4 . 27 7 . 91found 47 . 41 4 . 29 7 . 80______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 5 -{[( 2 - methylpropoxy ] methylene ] amino }- 4 - propyl - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . a solution of 4 . 0 g (. 012 mol ) of product of example 16 , 10 ml of tri - i - butyl orthoformate and 70 mg of p - toluenesulfonic acid was heated at 110 ° c . for 16 h . the reaction mixture was concentrated in vacuo and the residue was kugelrohr distilled ( 150 ° c . ° c . @ 1 torr ) to afford 4 . 6 % ( 81 %) of product as a colorless oil ; n d 25 1 . 503 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 52 . 68 5 . 65 6 . 83found 52 . 65 5 . 69 6 . 82______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 5 -[( n - butoxymethylene ) amino ]- 6 -( difluoromethyl )- 4 - ethyl - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . a solution of 8 . 7 g of tri - n - butyl orthoformate , 4 . 0 g ( 0 . 013 mol ) of product of example 2 and 70 mg of p - toluenesulfonic acid was heated at 110 ° c . for 18 h . the reaction was concentrated in vacuo and the residue was kugelrohr distilled ( 150 ° c . ° c . 1 torr ) to give a yellow oil . chromatography on silica gel ( 2 % ethyl acetate / cyclohexane ) afforded 1 . 98 g ( 39 %) of product as a colorless oil ; n d 25 1 . 500 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 51 . 52 5 . 34 7 . 07found 51 . 76 5 . 42 7 . 00______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 - ethyl - 5 -[[ n - propoxymethylene ) amino ]- 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . a solution of 5 . 0 g ( 0 . 016 mol ) of product of example 2 , 10 ml of tri - n - propyl orthoformate and 70 mg of p - toluenesulfonic acid was heated at 110 ° c . for 1 h . the reaction mixture was concentrated in vacuo and the residue was kugelrohr distilled ( 140 ° c . ° c . @ 1 torr ) to give 4 . 25 g ( 69 %) of product as a light yellow oil ; n d 25 1 461 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 50 . 26 5 . 01 7 . 33found 50 . 24 5 . 02 7 . 30______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 - ethyl - 5 -{[( 2 - methylpropoxy ) methylene ] amino }- 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . a solution of 4 . 0 g ( 0 . 013 mol ) of product of example 2 , 10 ml of triisobutyl orthoformate and 70 mg of p - toluenesulfonic acid was heated to 110 ° c . for 18 h . the reaction mixture was concentrated in vacuo and the residue was kugelrohr distilled ( 140 ° c . ° c . @ 1 torr ) to afford 3 . 8 g ( 75 %) of product as a light yellow oil , which slowly crystallized , mp 34 °- 34 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 51 . 51 5 . 34 7 . 07found 51 . 37 5 . 35 7 . 01______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 5 -{[( n , n - dimethylamino ) methylene ] amino }- 4 - methyl - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . a slurry of 5 . 0 g ( 0 . 168 mol ) of product of example 71 , 4 . 0 g ( 0 . 34 mol ) of dimethylformamide dimethylacetal and 100 mg of p - toluenesulfonic acid was heated at reflux for 1 h . the reaction mixture was concentrated in vacuo and kugelrohr distilled ( 150 ° c . ° c . @ 1 torr ) to give 5 . 20 g ( 88 %) of product as a white solid , mp 70 °- 71 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 47 . 50 4 . 57 11 . 89found 47 . 61 4 . 43 11 . 64______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 5 -[( 1 - chloro - 2 , 2 , 2 - trifluoroethylidene ) amino ]- 6 -( difluoromethyl )- 4 - methyl - 2 - itrifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . a mixture of 4 . 0 g ( 0 . 010 mol ) of product of example 26 and 2 . 11 g ( 0 . 010 mol ) of phosphorous pentachloride was heated to 140 ° c . and stirred there for 16 h . the reaction mixture was concentrated in vacuo and the residue was kugelrohr distilled ( 130 ° c .° c . @ 1 torr ) to give 3 . 24 g of product as a colorless oil ; n d 25 1 . 435 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n cl______________________________________calculated 37 . 84 2 . 20 6 . 79 8 . 59found 38 . 15 2 . 26 6 . 82 8 . 63______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 5 -( 1 - chloro - 2 , 2 , 2 - trifluoroethylidene ) amino - 6 -( difluoromethyl )- 4 - ethyl - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . a mixture of 33 . 5 g ( 0 . 082 mol ) of product of example 25 and 17 . 08 g ( 0 . 082 mol ) of phosphorous pentachloride was heated at 140 ° c . for 18 h . the reaction mixture was concentrated in vacuo and the residue was kugelrohr distilled ( 150 ° c . @ 1 torr ) to give 31 . 7 g ( 91 %) of product as a colorless oil ; n d 25 1 . 436 ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n cl______________________________________calculated 39 . 41 2 . 60 6 . 57 8 . 31found 39 . 81 2 . 65 6 . 59 8 . 35______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 5 -[( 1 - ethoxy - 2 , 2 , 2 - trifluoroethylidene ) amino ]- 4 - ethyl - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . to an ethanolic sodium ethoxide solution , prepared from 0 . 25 g ( 0 . 011 mol ) of sodium metal and 5 ml of absolute ethanol , was added a solution of 4 . 0 g ( 0 . 0094 mol ) of product of example 47 in 5 ml of ethanol . a white precipitate formed immediately . after stirring for 15 min the reaction mixture was poured into water and extracted with chloroform . workup gave a light yellow oil which was kugelrohr distilled ( 130 ° c . ° c . @ 1 torr ) to give 3 . 67 ( 89 %) of product as a colorless oil ; n d 25 1 . 440 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 44 . 05 3 . 70 6 . 42found 44 . 46 3 . 76 6 . 48______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 - ethyl - 5 -[( 1 - methoxy - 2 , 2 ,- 2 - trifluoroethylidine ) amino ]- 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . to a methanolic sodium methoxide solution , prepared from 0 . 23 g ( 0 . 010 mol ) of sodium metal and 4 ml of methanol was added a solution of 4 . 0 g ( 0 . 0094 mol ) of product of example 47 in 5 ml of methanol . a white precipitate formed immediately . after 15 min , the reaction mixture was poured into water and extracted with chloroform . workup as usual gave a yellow oil which was kugelrohr distilled ( 130 ° c . @ 1 torr ) to give 3 . 63 g ( 91 %) of product as a colorless oil which slowly solidified , mp 49 °- 51 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 42 . 67 3 . 34 6 . 63found 43 . 03 3 . 39 6 . 65______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 - ethyl - 5 -{[ 1 -( ethylthio )- 2 , 2 , 2 - trifluoroethylidine ] amino }- 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . to a slurry of 0 . 38 g ( 0 . 0094 mol ) of 60 % sodium hydride in 10 ml of anhydrous tetrahydrofuran under a nitrogen atmosphere was added 0 . 59 g ( 0 . 0094 mol ) of ethanethiol . after gas evolution ceased , a solution of 4 . 0 g ( 0 . 0094 mol ) of product of example 47 , 5 ml of tetrahydrofuran was added dropwise . after 15 min , the reaction mixture was poured into water and extracted with chloroform . workup as usual gave a yellow oil which was kugelrohr distilled ( 135 ° c . @ 1 torr ) to give 3 . 87 g ( 91 %) of product as a colorless liquid ; n d 25 1 . 464 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n s______________________________________calculated 42 . 48 3 . 57 6 . 19 7 . 09found 42 . 86 3 . 64 6 . 24 7 . 24______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 5 -{[ 1 -( diethoxyphosphinyl )- 2 , 2 , 2 - trifluoroethylidene ] amino }- 6 -( difluoromethyl )- 4 - ethyl - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . a mixture of 2 . 5 g ( 0 . 0059 mol ) of product of example 47 and 0 . 98 g of triethylphosphite was heated at 160 ° c . for 30 min . the reaction mixture was then cooled to room temperature where solidification occurred . trituration of this solid with cyclohexane gave 3 . 03 g ( quantitative ) of product as a light yellow solid , mp 73 °- 75 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 40 . 92 4 . 01 5 . 30found 40 . 72 4 . 00 5 . 19______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 - ethyl - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )- 5 -[ 5 -( trifluoromethyl ) - 1h - tetrazol - 1 - yl ]-, ethyl ester . to a solution of 4 . 0 g ( 0 . 0094 mol ) of product of example 47 and 0 ml of tetrahydrofuran was added 0 65 g ( 0 . 01 mol ) of sodium azide . this was stirred at room temperature and 4 ml of water was added . the reaction mixture became warm immediately . after 5 min , the reaction mixture was diluted with water ( 25 ml ) and extracted with chloroform ( 3 × 20 ml ). workup as usual afforded a thick oil which was kugelrohr distilled ( 150 ° c . ° c . @ torr ) to give 3 . 83 g ( 94 %) of product as a light yellow oil ; n d 25 1 . 444 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 38 . 81 2 . 56 16 . 16found 39 . 12 2 . 68 15 . 92______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 - ethyl - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )- 5 -{[ 1 -( trifluoromethyl ) ethylidene ] amino }-, ethyl ester . to a solution of 2 . 3 g ( 0 . 0054 mol ) of product of example 47 in 5 ml of anhydrous tetrahydrofuran at 0 ° c . under a dry nitrogen atmosphere was added dropwise 1 . 7 ml ( 0 . 0054 mol ) of 3 . 2 m methyl magnesium bromide in ether . this was stirred at 0 ° c . for 30 min , then was poured into 10 ml of saturated ammonium chloride . the reaction mixture was suction filtered and the filtrate was extracted with ether ( 3 × 25 ml ). workup as usual gave an oil which was chromatographed on silica gel using 5 % ethyl acetate / cyclohexane . workup of the first fraction afforded 1 . 0 g ( 46 %) of product as a colorless oil ; n d 25 1 . 500 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 44 . 35 3 . 47 6 . 89found 43 . 35 3 . 40 6 . 70______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 - ethyl - 5 - isocyanato - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . the product of example 46 ( 50 . 4g , 0 . 14 mol ) of european patent application no . 133 , 612 published feb . 27 , 1985 , was added to 17 . 3 g of azidotrimethyl silane ( 0 . 15 mol ) and 100 ml of carbon tetrachloride and heated at reflux until gas evolution ceased (˜ 4 h ). the reaction mixture was concentrated in vacuo and the residue was kugelrohr distilled ( 140 ° c . @ 1 torr ) to give 35 . 2 g ( 74 %) of product as a light yellow oil ; n d 25 1 . 457 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 46 . 16 3 . 28 8 . 28found 45 . 88 3 . 40 8 . 03______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 - ethyl - 5 - isocyanato - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, methyl ester . methyl 5 - chlorocarbonyl - 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 - ethyl - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )- 3 - pyridinecarboxylate ( 84 . 1 g , 0 . 243 mol ) was added to 150 ml of carbon tetrachloride and 30 g ( 0 . 26 mol ) of azidotrimethyl silane and stirred overnight at 55 ° c . the reaction mixture was concentrated in vacuo and the residue was kugelrohr distilled to give 57 . 3 g ( 72 %) of product as a white solid , mp 55 °- 57 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 44 . 46 2 . 80 8 . 64found 44 . 32 2 . 94 8 . 77______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 5 - isocyanato - 4 -( 2 - methylpropyl )- 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . ethyl 5 - chlorocarbonyl - 4 -( 2 - methylpropyl ) - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )- 3 - pyridinecarboxylate ( 64 . 1 g , 0 . 165 mol ) was added to 21 . 06 ( 0 . 182 mol ) of azidotrimethyl silane and 120 ml of carbon tetrachloride and heated at reflux for 4h , at which time , gas evolution ceased . the reaction mixture was concentrated in vacuo and the residue was kugelrohr distilled ( 100 ° c . @ 1 torr to give 29 . 4 g ( 65 %) of product as a light yellow oil ; n d 25 1 . 455 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 49 . 19 4 . 13 7 . 65found 48 . 95 4 . 02 7 . 77______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 - ethyl - 5 -{[( ethylthio ] carbonyl ] amino }- 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . to a solution of 4 . 5 g ( 0 . 013 mol ) of product of example 54 and 20 ml of methylene chloride was added 15 ml of ethanethiol . to this was added 30 mg of potassium t - butoxide causing an exotherm . the reaction mixture was allowed to stir overnight then was concentrated in vacuo affording a light yellow solid . recrystallization from ethyl acetate / cyclohexane gave 4 . 63 g ( 90 %) of product as a white solid , mp 124 °- 126 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n s______________________________________calculated 45 . 00 4 . 28 7 . 00 8 . 01found 44 . 73 4 . 14 6 . 80 7 . 83______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 - ethyl - 5 -{[( ethylthio ) carbonyl ] amino }- 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, methyl ester . to a slurry of 0 . 49 g ( 0 . 012 mol ) of 60 % sodium hydride in 10 ml of anhydrous tetrahydrofuran was added a solution of 4 . 0 g ( 0 . 012 mol ) of product of example 55 in 25 ml of anhydrous tetrahydrofuran . this was stirred at room temperature for 1 h then 50 ml of water was added and the product was extracted into ethyl acetate ( 3 × 25 ml ). workup as usual gave 3 . 95 g ( 83 %) of product as a white solid , mp 143 °- 145 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n s______________________________________calculated 43 . 52 3 . 91 7 . 25 8 . 30found 43 . 42 3 . 97 7 . 21 8 . 38______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 - ethyl - 5 -{[( methylthio ) carbonyl ] amino }- 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, methyl ester . a solution of 15 . 0 g ( 0 . 046 mol ) of product of example 55 and 50 ml of tetrahydrofuran was cooled to 0 ° c . and 10 g of methanethiol was added . to this mixture was added 100 mg of potassium t - butoxide . the reaction mixture was slowly warmed to room temperature and stirred overnight . the reaction mixture was concentrated in vacuo and the residue taken up in chloroform ( 100 ml ). workup as usual afforded 15 . 21 % ( 89 %) of product as a white solid . recrystallization from ethyl acetate / cyclohexane afforded analytically pure material , mp 134 °- 135 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n s______________________________________calculated 41 . 94 3 . 52 7 . 52 8 . 61found 42 . 01 3 . 53 7 . 57 8 . 57______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 5 -{[( ethylthio ) carbonyl ] amino }- 4 -( 2 - methylpropyl ) - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . to a solution of 3 . 50 g ( 0 . 0095 mol ) of product of example 56 , 0 . 93 g ( 0 . 015 mol ) of ethanethiol and 20 ml of tetrahydrofuran was added 15 mg of potassium t - butoxide . this was stirred for 2 h at room temperature , then was concentrated in vacuo . this solid was dissolved in 75 ml of chloroform and worked up as usual to give 3 . 54 g ( 86 %) of product as a white solid . recrystallization from ethyl acetate / cyclohexane afforded analytically pure material , mp 113 °- 114 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n s______________________________________calculated 47 . 66 4 . 94 6 . 54 7 . 48found 47 . 65 4 . 96 6 . 52 7 . 56______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 5 -[( ethoxycarbonyl ) amino ]- 4 - ethyl - 2 -( trifluoro - methyl )-, methyl ester . a solution of 4 . 1 g ( 0 . 013 mol ) of product of example 55 , 25 ml of chloroform and 25 ml of ethanol was stirred at reflux for 15 min . the reaction mixture was concentrated in vacuo to give 4 . 53 g ( 97 %) of product as a white solid . recrystallization from ethyl acetate / cyclohexane afforded analytically pure material , mp 100 °- 101 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 45 . 41 4 . 08 7 . 75found 45 . 31 4 . 11 7 . 63______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 - ethyl - 5 -{[( 1 - methylethoxy ) carbonyl ] amino }- 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, methyl ester . a solution of 4 . 0 g (. 012 mol ) of product of example 55 , 25 ml of chloroform and 25 ml of 2 - propanol was refluxed for 15 min . the reaction mixture was concentrated in vacuo to give 4 . 63 g ( 85 %) of product as a white solid . recrystallization from ethyl acetate / cyclohexane afforded analytically pure material , mp 130 °- 132 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 46 . 88 4 . 46 7 . 29found 46 . 67 4 . 47 7 . 37______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 - ethyl - 5 -{[( 1 - methylethylthio ) carbonyl ] amino }- 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, methyl ester . to a solution of 4 . 0 g ( 0 . 012 mol ) of product of example 55 , 5 . 0 g ( 0 . 066 mol ) of 2 - propanethiol and 20 ml of tetrahydrofuran was added 20 mg of potassium t - butoxide . the reaction mixture was stirred at room temperature for 2 hours then concentrated in vacuo to give a white solid . recrystallization from ethyl acetate / cyclohexane afforded 4 . 37 ( 89 %) of product as a white solid , mp 139 °- 140 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n s______________________________________calculated 45 . 00 4 . 28 7 . 00 8 . 01found 45 . 04 4 . 30 7 . 00 8 . 06______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 5 -({[( 1 , 1 - dimethylethyl ) thio ] carbonylamino )- 4 - ethyl - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, methyl ester . a solution of 3 . 60 g ( 0 . 011 mol ) of product of example 55 , 20 ml of chloroform and 20 ml of t - butanol was stirred at reflux for 15 min . the reaction mixture was concentrated in vacuo and the resulting solid was recrystallized from ethyl acetate / cyclohexane to give 4 . 01 g ( 91 %) of product as a white solid , mp 99 °- 100 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 48 . 25 4 . 81 7 . 03found 48 . 31 4 . 93 7 . 00______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 - ethyl - 5 -[( methoxycarbonyl ) amino ]- 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, methyl ester . a solution of 3 . 0 g ( 0 . 0093 mol ) of product of example 55 , 20 ml of chloroform and 20 ml of methanol was stirred at reflux for 15 min , then concentrated in vacuo . the resulting solid was recrystallized from ethyl acetate / cyclohexane to give 3 . 08 g ( 93 %) of product as a white solid , mp 111 °- 113 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 43 . 83 3 . 68 7 . 86found 44 . 21 3 . 75 8 . 12______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 5 -{[( dimethylamino ) carbonyl ] amino }- 4 - ethyl - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, methyl ester . to a solution of 3 . 0 g ( 0 . 0093 mol ) of product of example 55 , 20 ml of dioxane was added 10 ml of 26 % aqueous dimethylamine . this was stirred at 60 ° c . for 10 min , then was poured into 100 ml of water and extracted with chloroform ( 3 × 40 ml . workup as usual afforded 3 . 06 g ( 89 %) of product as a white solid . recrystallization from ethyl acetate / cyclohexane gave analytically pure material , mp 177 °- 178 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 45 . 53 4 . 37 11 . 38found 45 . 64 4 . 41 11 . 29______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 - ethyl - 5 -{[( n - methylamino ) carbonyl ] amino }- 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, methyl ester . to a solution of 3 . 57 g ( 0 . 011 mol ) of product of example 55 and 20 ml of dioxane was added 7 ml of 40 % aqueous methylamine . a white preciptiate formed immediately . this was stirred at 50 ° c . for 10 min , cooled to room temperature , and suction filtered . air drying afforded 3 . 56 g ( 91 %) of product as a white solid , mp 202 °- 203 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 43 . 95 3 . 97 11 . 83found 43 . 82 4 . 02 11 . 78______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 - ethyl - 5 -( 4 , 5 - dihydro - 5 - oxo - 1h - tetrazol - 1 - yl )- 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . a solution of 4 . 0 g ( 0 . 012 mol ) of product of example 54 and 2 . 72 g 0 . 024 mol ) of azidotrimethyl silane was refluxed for 1 . 5 days then was concentrated in vacuo . the reaction mixture slowly solidified over a period of 3 days . trituration with ethyl acetate / cyclohexane gave 2 . 20 g ( 49 %) of product as a white solid , mp 139 °- 141 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 40 . 95 3 . 17 18 . 37found 40 . 88 3 . 21 18 . 33______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 5 -{[( 2 - chloroethoxy ) carbonyl ] amino ]- 6 -( difluoromethyl )- 4 - ethyl - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . a solution of 4 . 0 g ( 0 . 12 mol ) of product of example 54 , 9 ml of chloroform and 9 ml of 2 - chloroethanol was heated at reflux for 1 . 5 days . the reaction mixture was concentrated in vacuo and the residue slowly solidified over 3 days . trituration with ethyl acetate / cyclohexane gave 3 . 27 g ( 66 %) of product as a white solid , mp 102 °- 103 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n cl______________________________________calculated 43 . 02 3 . 85 6 . 69 8 . 47found 43 . 21 3 . 87 6 . 68 8 . 50______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 5 -{[( diethoxyphosphinyl ) carbonyl ] amino }- 6 -( difluoromethyl )- 4 - ethyl - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, methyl ester . to a solution of 4 . 0 g ( 0 . 012 mol ) of product of example 55 and 3 drops of triethylamine in 20 ml of toluene was added 1 . 70 g of diethyl phosphite . this was heated at 80 ° c . for 1 . 5 day , then was concentrated in vacuo . the residue was dissolved in chloroform , washed with water 20 ml , 1 m hydrochloric acid ( 20 ml ) and brine ( 20 ml ). workup as usual afforded 5 . 1 g ( 90 %) of product as a white solid , mp 91 °- 94 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 41 . 57 4 . 36 6 . 06found 41 . 24 4 . 28 6 . 29______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 5 - amino - 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 - methyl - 2 - itrifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . to a slurry of 50 g of sodium azide , 90 ml of water and 315 ml of acetone was added 0 . 474 mol of ethyl 5 - chlorocarbonyl - 6 -( difluoromethyl )- 4 - methyl - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )- 3 - pyridinecarboxylate in 35 ml of acetone with rapid stirring . an exothermic reaction resulted with vigorous gas evolution . after the reaction mixture cooled to room temperature , it was diluted with 200 ml of water and extracted with chloroform . normal workup afforded 86 . 3 g ( 82 %) of product as a white solid . recrystallization from ethyl acetate / cyclohexane afforded analytically pure material , mp 71 °- 72 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 44 . 30 3 . 72 9 . 39found 44 . 30 3 . 73 9 . 40______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 5 - amino - 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 -( 1 - methylethyl )- 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . to a rapidly - stirred solution of 21 g of sodium azide , 35 ml of water and 140 ml of acetone was added a solution of 0 . 096 mol of product of example 44 of european patent application no . 133 , 612 published feb . 27 , 1985 , in 20 ml of acetone . an exothermic reaction followed with gas evolution . after the reaction mixture cooled to room temperature , it was diluted with water ( 300 ml ) and extracted with chloroform ( 3 × 100 ml ). normal workup afforded 28 . 4 g ( 91 %) of product as a tan solid . recrystallization from ethyl acetate / cyclohexane gave analytically pure material , mp 56 °- 58 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 47 . 86 4 . 63 8 . 59found 47 . 92 4 . 68 8 . 58______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 5 - chloro - 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 - methyl - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . to a solution of 3 . 76 g ( 0 . 028 mol ) of cupric chloride , 3 . 61 g ( 0 . 035 mol ) of t - butyl nitrite and 80 ml of acetonitrile was added a solution of 7 . 0g ( 0 . 023 mol ) of product of example 71 in 7 ml of acetonitrile . this was stirred at room temperature for 90 min , then poured into 200 ml of 1 m hydrochloric acid and extracted with chloroform . normal workup afforded an orange oil which was filtered through a short silica gel column with 2 % ethyl acetate / cyclohexane . concentration in vacuo afforded 5 . 92 g ( 81 %) of product as a colorless liquid ; n d 25 1 . 452 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n cl______________________________________calculated 41 . 59 2 . 86 4 . 41 11 . 16found 41 . 60 2 . 87 4 . 39 11 . 15______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 5 - bromo - 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 - methyl - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . to a solution of 6 . 25 g ( 0 . 028 mol ) of cupric bromide , 3 . 61 g ( 0 . 035 mol ) of t - butyl nitrite and 80 ml of acetonitrile was added a solution of 7 . 0 g ( 0 . 023 mol ) of product of example 71 in 7 ml of acetonitrile . this was stirred at room temperature for 1 . 5 h , then poured into 200 ml of 10 % hydrochloric acid and extracted with chloroform ( 3 × 50 ml ). normal workup gave a yellow oil which was filtered through a short silica gel column ( 2 % ethyl acetate / cyclohexane ) to give 7 . 54 g ( 91 %) of product as a colorless liquid ; n d 25 1 470 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n br______________________________________calculated 36 . 49 2 . 51 3 . 87 22 . 07found 36 . 47 2 . 53 3 . 86 21 . 99______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 5 - iodo - 4 - methyl - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . to a 0 ° c . solution of 7 . 0 g ( 0 . 023 mol ) of product of example 71 , 4 . 21 g 0 . 023 mol ) of 48 % fluoroboric acid and 60 ml of acetonitrile was added 2 . 61 g of t - butyl nitrite dropwise . this was stirred at 0 ° c . for 1 h , then added to a rapidly stirred solution of 60 g of potassium iodide in 200 ml of water . after 15 min , the reaction mixture was diluted with 200 ml of water and extracted with chloroform ( 3 × 100 ml ). the chloroform extract was washed with 10 % sodium thiosulfate ( 2 × 50 ml , brine ( 50 ml ) and dried through sodium sulfate . concentration in vacuo afforded an orange oil which was filtered through a short plug of silica gel . the resulting oil was kugelrohr distilled ( 150 ° c . @ 1 torr ) to afford 1 . 73 g ( 18 %) of product as a white solid , mp 41 °- 43 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 32 . 30 2 . 22 3 . 42found 32 . 51 2 . 12 3 . 60______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 5 - chloro - 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 -( 1 - methylethyl )- 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . to a mixture of 2 . 69 g ( 0 . 02 mol ) of cupric chloride , 2 . 58 g ( 0 . 025 mol ) of t - butyl nitrite and 40 ml of acetonitrile was added a solution of 5 . 44 g ( 0 . 017 mol ) of product of example 72 in 7 ml of acetonitrile . this was stirred at room temperature for 1 . 5 h , poured into 150 ml of 1 m hydrochloric acid and extracted into chloroform ( 3 × 50 ml ). normal workup gave 5 . 73 g of a brown oil which was passed through a short silica gel column with 2 % ethyl acetate / cyclohexane . kugelrohr distillation ( 140 ° c . @ 2 torr ) of the resulting oil afforded 4 . 32 g ( 75 %) of product as a colorless liquid ; n d 25 1 . 457 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n cl______________________________________calculated 45 . 17 3 . 79 4 . 05 10 . 26found 45 . 31 3 . 81 4 . 06 10 . 28______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 5 - bromo - 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 -( 1 - methylethyl )- 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . to a solution of 4 . 47 g ( 0 . 020 mol ) of cupric bromide , 2 . 58 g ( 0 . 025 mol ) of t - butyl nitrite and 40 ml of acetonitrile was added a solution of 5 . 49 g ( 0 . 17 mol ) of product of example 72 in 7 ml of acetonitrile . this was stirred at room temperature for 1 . 5 h , poured into 150 ml of 1 m hydrochloric acid and extracted with chloroform ( 3 × 75 ml ). normal workup afforded a brown oil which was filtered through a short silica gel column with 2 % ethyl acetate / cyclohexane . kugelrohr distillation ( 140 ° c . @ 2 torr ) of the resulting oil afforded 5 . 13 g ( 78 %) of product as a colorless liquid ; n d 25 1 . 473 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n br______________________________________calculated 40 . 02 3 . 36 3 . 59 20 . 48found 40 . 05 3 . 38 3 . 57 20 . 40______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 5 - iodo - 4 -( 1 - methylethyl )- 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . to a solution of 6 . 0 q 0 . 018 mol ) of product of example 72 , 3 . 29 g 0 . 018 mol ) of 48 % fluoroboric acid and 45 ml of acetonitrile was added 2 . 04 g ( 0 . 02 mol ) of t - butyl nitrite dropwise . this was stirred at 0 ° c . for 15 min , then was added to a rapidly stirred solution of 60 g of potassium iodide in 150 ml of water . the reaction mixture was stirred for 30 min , then was diluted with water ( 200 ml ) and extracted with chloroform ( 3 × 50 ml ). the chloroform extract was washed with 100 ml of 10 % sodium thiosulfate , 100 ml of brine , and dried though sodium sulfate . concentration in vacuo afforded a red - orange oil that was filtered through a short silica gel column with 2 % ethyl acetate / cyclohexane . kugelrohr distillation ( 160 ° c . @ 2 torr ) of the resulting oil afforded 4 . 3 g ( 55 %) of product as a light yellow oil ; n d 25 1 . 498 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n i______________________________________calculated 35 . 72 3 . 00 3 . 20 29 . 03found 35 . 83 3 . 00 3 . 15 28 . 94______________________________________ 3 ™ pyridinecarboxylic acid , 5 - chloro - 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 - propyl - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . to a slurry of 4 . 97 g ( 0 . 037 mol ) of cupric chloride , 4 . 84 g ( 0 . 047 mol ) of t - butyl nitrite and 80 ml of acetonitrile was added a solution of 10 . 0 g ( 0 . 031 mol ) of product of example 16 in 10 ml of acetonitrile . gas evolution occurred immediately . after the reaction was stirred at room temperature for 90 min , it was poured into 250 ml of 1 m hydrocholoric acid and extracted with chloroform . normal workup afforded 10 . 45 g of a brown oil which was filtered through a short silica gel column ( 2 % ethyl acetate / cyclohexane ) and kugelrohr distilled 130 ° c . @ 2 torr ) to afford 7 . 33 g ( 68 %) of product as a colorless liquid ; n d 25 1 . 454 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n cl______________________________________calculated 45 . 17 3 . 79 4 . 05 10 . 26found 45 . 19 3 . 81 4 . 02 10 . 34______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 5 - bromo - 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 - propyl - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . to a solution of 8 . 26 g ( 0 . 037 mol ) of cupric bromide , 4 . 84 g ( 0 . 047 mol ) of t - butyl nitrite and 80 ml of acetonitrile was added 10 . 0 g ( 0 . 031 mol ) of product of example 16 in 10 ml of acetonitrile , resulting in immediate gas evolution . after 90 min the reaction mixture was poured into 250 ml of 1m hydrochloric acid . extraction with chloroform ( 3 × 75 ml ) and workup as usual afforded 11 . 81 g of a brown oil . this material was filtered through a short silica gel column ( 2 % ethyl acetate / cyclohexane ), then kugelrohr distilled ( 135 ° c . @ 1 . 5 torr ) to afford 8 . 7 g ( 72 %) of product as a colorless oil ; n d 25 1 . 467 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n br______________________________________calculated 40 . 02 3 . 36 3 . 59 20 . 48found 40 . 14 3 . 38 3 . 58 20 . 58______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 5 - iodo - 4 - propyl - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . to a 0 ° c . solution of 10 . 0 g 0 . 031 mol ) of product of example 16 , 5 . 67 g of 48 % fluoroboric acid 0 . 031 mol ) and 55 ml of acetonitrile was added 3 . 50 g ( 0 . 034 mol ) of t - butyl nitrite dropwise . after 20 min at 0 ° c ., the reaction mixture was added to a rapidly - stirred solution of 80 g of potassium iodide in 175 ml of water . this was stirred for 45 min , diluted with 200 ml of water and extracted with chloroform ( 3 × 75 ml ). the chloroform extract was washed with 10 % sodium thiosulfate ( 2 × 50 ml ), brine ( 100 ml ) and dried through sodium sulfate . normal workup afforded 12 . 8 g of an oily brown solid which was filtered through a short silica gel column with 2 % ethyl acetate / cyclohexane . kugelrohr distillation ( 140 ° c . at 1 . 5 torr ) afforded 9 . 32g ( 69 %) of product as a white solid , mp 45 °- 48 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n i______________________________________calculated 35 . 72 3 . 00 3 . 20 29 . 03found 35 . 77 3 . 00 3 . 17 28 . 96______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 5 - chloro - 4 - ethyl - 6 - methyl - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . to a stirred slurry of 2 . 92 g ( 0 . 022 mol ) of cupric chloride , 2 . 80 g ( 0 . 027 mol ) of t - butyl nitrite and 50 ml of acetonitrile was added a solution of 5 . 0 g ( 0 . 018 mol ) of product of example 18 in 10 ml of acetonitrile . this was stirred at room temperature for 2 h , then was poured into 150 ml of 1 m hydrochloric acid and extracted with chloroform ( 3 × 75 ml ). workup as usual afforded a brown oil that was kugelrohr distilled ( 120 ° c . @ 1 torr to give 4 . 73 g ( 88 %) of product as a yellow liquid ; n d 25 1 .% 70 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n cl______________________________________calculated 48 . 74 4 . 43 4 . 74 11 . 99found 48 . 83 4 . 20 5 . 11 12 . 26______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarobxylic acid , 5 - bromo - 4 - ethyl - 6 - methyl - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . to a stirred solution of 4 . 85 g ( 0 . 022 mol ) of cupric bromide , 2 . 80 g ( 0 . 027 mol ) of t - butyl nitrite and 50 ml of acetonitrile was added a solution of 5 . 0 g ( 0 . 018 mol ) of product of example 18 in 10 ml of acetonitrile . this was stirred at room temperature for 2 h , then was diluted with 200 ml of 1m hydrochloric acid and extracted with chloroform ( 3 × 75 ml ). normal workup afforded an orange oil that was kugelrohr distilled ( 120 ° c . @ 1 torr ) to give 5 . 21 g ( 84 %) of product as a light yellow oil ; n d 25 1 . 484 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n br______________________________________calculated 42 . 37 3 . 85 4 . 12 23 . 49found 42 . 43 3 . 88 4 . 11 23 . 41______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 4 - ethyl - 5 - iodo - 6 - methyl - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . to a 0 ° c . solution of 4 . 66 g ( 0 . 017 mol ) of product of example 18 , 3 . 08 g of 48 % fluoroboric acid and 35 ml of acetonitrile was added 1 . 91 g ( 0 . 019 mol ) of t - butyl nitrite dropwise . this was stirred at 0 ° c . for 25 min , then was added to a rapidly stirred solution of 40 g of potassium iodide in 120 ml of water . after 30 min , 120 ml of water was added and the reaction mixture was extracted with chloroform ( 3 × 70 ml ). the chloroform extracts were washed with 10 % sodium thiosulfate ( 2 × 50 ml , brine ( 50 ml and dried through sodium sulfate . workup as usual afforded an orange oil that was kugelrohr distilled ( 120 ° c . @ 1 torr ) to give 4 . 88 ( 75 %) of product as a light yellow oil ; n d 25 1 . 504 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n i______________________________________calculated 37 . 23 3 . 38 3 . 62 32 . 78found 37 . 35 3 . 42 3 . 55 32 . 50______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 5 - azido - 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 - ethyl - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . to a 0 ° c . solution of 4 . 0 g ( 0 . 013 mol ) of product of example 2 , 2 . 34 g ( 0 . 013 mol ) of 48 % fluoroboric acid and 30 ml of acetonitrile was added 1 . 46 g ( 0 . 014 mol ) of t - butyl nitrite dropwise . after 30 min , a solution of 1 . 7 g ( 0 . 026 mol ) of sodium azide in 9 ml of water was added dropwise , resulting in vigorous gas evolution . this was stirred at room temperature for 30 min , diluted with water ( 50 ml ) and extracted with chloroform ( 3 × 25 ml ). workup as usual afforded a yellow oil . chromatography on silica gel ( 2 % ethyl acetate / cyclohexane ) afforded 2 . 44 g ( 55 %) of product as a light yellow oil ; n d 25 1 . 476 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 42 . 61 3 . 28 16 . 56found 42 . 76 3 . 33 16 . 49______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 - ethyl - 5 -{[( 1 - methylethoxy ) methylene ] amino }- 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . a solution of 4 . 0 g ( 0 . 013 mol ) of product of example 2 , 10 ml of triisopropyl orthoformate and 70 mg of p - toluenesulfonic acid was heated to 100 ° c . and stirred for 4 h . the temperature was then raised to 130 ° c . and stirring was continued for another 18 hours . the reaction mixture was then concentrated in vacuo and the residue was kugelrohr distilled ( 150 ° c . @ 1 torr ) to give 1 . 58 g ( 32 %) of product as a colorless oil ; n d 25 1 . 502 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 50 . 26 5 . 01 7 . 33found 49 . 97 4 . 95 7 . 67______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 5 -{[( 2 - methylpropoxy ) methylene ] amino - 4 -( 2 - methylpropyl )- 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . a solution of 4 . 0 g ( 0 . 012 mol ) of product of example 1 , 10 ml of triisobutyl orthoformate and 70 mg of p - toluenesulfonic acid was stirred at 100 ° c . for 18 h , then at 120 ° c . for another 18 h . the reaction mixture was concentrated in vacuo . the residue was chromatographed on silica gel using 2 % ethyl acetate / cyclohexane . workup of the correct fraction gave 1 . 93 g ( 39 %) of product as a light yellow oil ; n d 25 1 . 500 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 53 . 77 5 . 94 6 . 60found 54 . 30 6 . 00 6 . 34______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 -( 2 - methylpropyl )- 5 -( propoxymethylene ) amino ]- 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . a solution of 4 . 0 g ( 0 . 012 mol ) of product of example 1 , 10 ml of tripropyl orthoformate and 70 mg of p - toluenesulfonic acid was stirred at 100 ° c . for 18 h . the reaction mixture was concentrated in vacuo and the residue was chromatographed on silica gel using 2 % ethyl acetate / cyclohexane . workup of the correct fraction gave 2 . 71 g ( 56 %) of product as a colorless oil ; n d 25 1 . 458 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 52 . 68 5 . 65 6 . 83found 52 . 85 5 . 76 6 . 43______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 - ethyl - 5 -{[ 2 , 2 , 2 - trifluoro - 1 -( dimethylamino ) ethylidene ] amino }- 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . to a rapidly stirred solution of 4 . 3 g ( 0 . 010 mol ) of product of example 47 in 5 ml of dioxane was added 4 . 5 ml ( 0 . 025 mol ) of 26 % aqueous dimethylamine . an exothermic reaction occurred . when the reaction cooled to room temperature , 50 ml of water was added and the product was extracted into methylene chloride ( 3 × 25 ml ). workup as usual afforded a dark oil that was kugelrohr distilled ( 130 ° c . @ 1 torr ) to give 2 . 35 g 54 %) of product as a yellow oil ; n d 25 1 . 466 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 44 . 15 3 . 94 9 . 65found 44 . 17 3 . 77 9 . 37______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 - ethyl - 5 -{[ 2 , 2 , 2 - trifluoro - 1 -( methylamino ) ethylidene ] amino }- 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . to a stirred solution of 4 . 0 g ( 0 . 0094 mol ) of product of example 47 and 5 ml of dioxane was added 2 ml of 40 % aqueous methylamine . after 30 min , 50 ml of water was added and the product was extracted with methylene chloride . workup as usual , followed by kugelrohr distillation ( 170 ° c . @ 1 torr ) gave 3 . 07 g ( 78 %) of product as a white solid , mp 95 °- 97 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 42 . 77 3 . 59 9 . 97found 42 . 59 3 . 63 9 . 98______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 5 -[( ethoxymethylene ) amino ]- 4 - ethyl - 6 - methyl - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . a solution of 3 . 5 g 0 . 013 mol ) of product of example 18 , 10 ml of triethyl orthoformate and 70 mg of p - toluenesulfonic acid was stirred at 100 ° c . for the weekend . the reaction mixture was then concentrated in vacuo and the residue was kugelrohr distilled ( 150 ° c . @ 1 torr ) to give 3 . 73 g ( 88 %) of product as a colorless oil ; n d 25 1 . 477 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 54 . 21 5 . 76 8 . 43found 54 . 16 5 . 80 8 . 23______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 5 -{[( dimethylamino ) methylene ] amino }- 4 - ethyl - 6 - methyl - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . a solution of 3 . 70 g ( 0 . 013 mol ) of product of example 18 , 10 ml of dimethylformamide dimethyl acetal , and 70 mg of p - toluenesulfonic acid was stirred at 100 ° c . overnight . the reaction mixture was concentrated in vacuo and the residue was kugelrohr distilled ( 150 ° c . @ 1 torr ) to give 3 . 55 g ( 80 %) of product as a yellow solid . recrystallization from ethyl acetate / cyclohexane gave analytically pure material as a white solid , mp 71 °- 73 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 54 . 37 6 . 08 12 . 68found 54 . 38 6 . 13 12 . 62______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 5 - azido - 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 -( 2 - methylpropyl )- 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . to a 0 ° c . solution of 4 . 0 g ( 0 . 012 mol ) of product of example 1 , 2 . 16 g 0 . 012 mol ) of ( 48 %) fluoroboric acid and 40 ml of acetonitrile was added 1 . 34 g of t - butyl nitrite dropwise . this was stirred at 0 ° c . for - 20 min then a solution of 2 . 1 g of sodium azide in 11 ml of water was added slowly , causing immediate gas evolution . after 10 min , 50 ml of water was added and the product was extracted into chloroform . workup as usual afforded a yellow oil which was chromatographed on silica gel using 2 % ethyl acetate / cyclohexane . workup of the first fraction gave 2 . 85 g ( 66 %) of product as a light yellow oil ; n d 25 1 . 470 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 45 . 91 4 . 13 15 . 30found 45 . 71 4 . 21 15 . 37______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 - ethyl - 5 -({ 1 -[( 1 - methylethyl ) thio ]- 2 , 2 , 2 - trifluoroethylidene } amino )- 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . to a slurry of 0 . 40g ( 0 . 010 mol ) of 60 % sodium hydride in 7 ml of anhydrous tetrahydrofuran under a nitrogen atmosphere was added 0 . 74 g ( 0 . 0097 mol ) of 2 - propanethiol . this was stirred at room temperature for 30 min , then a solution of 4 . 0 g ( 0 . 0094 mol ) of product of example 47 in 5 ml of tetrahydrofuran was added dropwise . this was stirred for 30 min , diluted with 25 ml of water and extracted with ether ( 3 × 15 ml ). workup as usual , followed by kugelrohr distillation ( 150 ° c . @ 1 torr ) afforded 2 . 92 g ( 67 %) of product as a yellow liquid ; n d 25 1 . 466 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n s______________________________________calculated 43 . 78 3 . 89 6 . 01 6 . 87found 44 . 09 3 . 90 5 . 90 6 . 89______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 - ethyl - 5 -( methylamino )- 2 -( trifluoromethyl ) ethyl ester . to 40 ml of acetic anhydride at 0 ° c . was added 20 ml of formic acid . this was warmed to room temperature , then was heated to 50 ° c . for 15 min . the flask was immediately re - cooled to 0 ° c . and 5 . 0g ( 0 . 016 mol ) of product of example 2 was added . this was stirred at room temperature for 18 hours , then was concentrated in vacuo to afford a yellow oil . this was dissolved in 15 ml of anhydrous tetrahydrofuran , and stirred at 0 ° c . under a dry nitrogen atmosphere . to this , 20 ml ( 0 . 04 mol ) of 2 . 0 m borane - dimethyl sulfide complex in tetrahydrofuran was added dropwise . after the addition was complete , the reaction mixture was stirred at 70 ° c . for 3 . 5 hours . the reaction mixture was then cooled to 0 ° c . and 10 ml of methanol was added slowly . after frothing ceased , the mixture was warmed to room temperature and stirred for 1 hour . the 7 ml of concentrated hydrochloric acid was added and the mixture was refluxed for 1 hour . the reaction mixture was concentrated in vacuo to afford a yellow solid , which was slurried with ethyl acetate and stirred with 25 ml of 10 % sodium hydroxide solution . the organic layer was separated and workup as usual gave a yellow oil . chromatography on silica gel using 5 % ethyl acetate / cyclohexane gave 2 . 77g of product as a yellow oil which slowly solidified , mp 38 °- 40 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysi : c h n______________________________________calculated 47 . 86 4 . 63 8 . 59found 47 . 88 4 . 63 8 . 56______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 - ethyl - 5 -[( 2 , 2 , 2 - trifluoroethyl ) amino ]- 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . to a solution of 5 . 16g ( 0 . 0128 mol ) of product of example 25 in 12 ml of anhydrous tetrahydrofuran at 0 ° c . under a nitrogen atmosphere , was added 16 ml of 2 . om borane - dimethyl sulfide complex in tetrahydrofuran dropwise . the reaction mixture was heated at 70 ° c . for 3 hours . then the mixture was cooled to 0 ° c . and 10 ml of methanol was added carefully . after frothing ceased 10 ml of concentrated hydrochloric acid was added and the mixture was refluxed for 1 hour . the reaction mixture was concentrated in vacuo and the residue was slurried with 50 ml of ethyl acetate and stirred with 25 ml of 10 % sodium hydroxide . workup of the ethyl acetate solution afforded a yellow oil that was chromatographed on silica gel with 5 % ethyl acetate / cyclohexane . workup of the correct fraction gave 2 . 15g ( 43 %) of product as a colorless oil ; n d 25 1 . 439 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 42 . 65 3 . 58 7 . 11found 42 . 93 3 . 58 7 . 13______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 5 - azido - 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 - methyl - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . a solution of 4 . 0g 0 . 0134 mol ) of product of example 71 , 2 . 45g 0 . 0134 mol ) of 48 % fluoroboric acid and 45 ml of acetonitrile was stirred at 0 ° c . and 1 . 44g 0 . 014 mol ) of t - butyl nitrite was added dropwise . this was allowed to stir at 0 ° c . for 20 minutes , then a solution of 2 . 1 g of sodium azide in 11 ml of water was added dropwise , resulting in immediate gas evolution . after stirring for an additional 10 minutes the reaction mixture was diluted with water and extracted with chloroform . workup as usual gave a yellow oil which was chromatographed on silica gel using 2 % ethyl acetate / cyclohexane . workup of the correct fraction gave 2 . 27g ( 52 %) of product as a yellow oil ; n d 25 1 . 474 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 40 . 75 2 . 80 17 . 28found 40 . 96 2 . 71 17 . 03______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 5 -[( methoxymethylene ) amino ]- 4 -( 1 - methylethyl )- 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . a solution of 5 . 0g ( 0 . 015 mol ) of product of example 72 , 10 ml of trimethyl orthoformate and 70 mg of p - toluenesulfonic acid was heated to 100 ° c . and stirred for 2 hours . the reaction mixture was concentrated in vacuo and the residue was kugelrohr distilled ( 140 ° c . at 1 torr ) to afford 5 . 05g ( 90 %) of product as a colorless oil which slowly crystallized , mp 57 °- 59 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 48 . 92 4 . 65 7 . 61found 48 . 91 4 . 66 7 . 59______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 5 -[( ethoxymethylene ) amino ] 4 -( 1 - methylethyl )- 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . a solution of 5 . 0g ( 0 . 015 mol ) of product of example 72 , 10 ml of triethyl orthoformate and 70 mg of p - toluenesulfonic acid was heated at 100 ° c . overnight . the reaction mixture was concentrated in vacuo and the residue was kugelrohr distilled ( 145 ° c . 1 torr ) to give 5 . 07 g 8 %) of product as a colorless oil ; n d 25 1 . 464 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 50 . 26 5 . 01 7 . 33found 50 . 26 5 . 05 7 . 30______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) 4 - ethyl - 5 -{[( dimethylamino ) methylene ] amino ]- 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . a solution of 4 . 0 g ( 0 . 0128 mol ) of product of example 2 , 10 ml of dimethylformamide dimethyl acetal and 70 mg of p - toluenesulfonic acid was refluxed overnight . the reaction mixture was concentrated in vacuo and the residue was kugelrohr distilled ( 145 ° c . at 1 torr ) to afford 3 . 90 g ( 83 %) of product as a yellow solid , mp 50 °- 52 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 49 . 05 4 . 94 11 . 44found 49 . 02 4 . 93 11 . 33______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl - 5 -{[( dimethylamino ) methylene ] amino }- 4 -( 1 - methylethyl ) - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . a solution of 4 . 25 g ( 0 . 013 mol ) of product of example 72 , 10 ml of dimethylformamide dimethyl acetal and 70 mg of p - toluenesulfonic acid was heated overnight at 100 ° c . the reaction mixture was concentrated in vacuo and the residue was chromatographed on silica gel using 5 % ethyl acetate / cyclohexane . workup of the correct fraction afforded 4 . 17 g ( 84 %) of product as a yellow oil ; n d 25 1 . 487 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 50 . 39 5 . 29 11 . 02found 50 . 33 5 . 22 11 . 28______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 5 - azido - 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 -( 1 - methylethyl )- 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . to a 0 ° c . solution of 4 . 0 g ( 0 . 012 mol ) of product of example 72 , 2 . 25 g ( 0 . 012 mol ) of 48 % fluoroboric acid and 40 ml of acetonitrile was added 1 . 40 g ( 0 . 013 mol ) of t - butyl nitrite dropwise . this was stirred at 0 ° c . for 20 minutes , then a solution of 2 . 1 g of sodium azide in 11 ml of water was added slowly , resulting in vigorous gas evolution . after stirring for 10 minutes , 100 ml of water was added and the product was extracted into chloroform ( 3 × 50 ml ). workup as usual afforded an orange oil which was chromatrographed on silica gel using 2 % ethyl acetate / cyclohexane . workup of the correct fraction gave 2 . 41g ( 56 %) of product as a slightly yellow oil ; n d 25 1 . 472 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 44 . 33 3 . 72 15 . 91found 44 . 11 3 . 72 15 . 91______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 - ethyl - 5 -( sulfinylamino )- 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . a solution of 4 . 0 g of product of example 2 and 15 ml of thionyl chloride was stirred at reflux overnight . the excess thionyl chloride was removed in vacuo and the residue was kugelrohr distilled ( 145 ° c . at 1 torr ) to give 4 . 21 g ( 92 %) of product as a bright yellow oil ; n d 25 1 . 477 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n s______________________________________calculated 40 . 23 3 . 09 7 . 82 8 . 95found 40 . 30 3 . 11 7 . 80 8 . 87______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 5 - isocyanato - 4 - propyl - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . the product of example 47 ( 5 . 0 g , 0 . 0134 mol ) of european patent application no . 133 , 612 published feb . 27 , 1985 , was added to 1 . 66 g ( 0 . 0144 mol ) of azidotrimethyl silane and 10 ml of carbon tetrachloride and stirred at reflux until gas evolution ceased (˜ 45 minutes ). the reaction mixture was concentrated in vacuo and the residue was kugelrohr distilled ( 130 ° c . at 1 torr ) to give 2 . 65 g ( 50 %) of product as a light yellow oil ; n d 25 1 . 459 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 47 . 74 3 . 72 7 . 95found 47 . 74 3 . 89 7 . 80______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 - propyl - 5 -[( 2 , 2 , 2 - trifluoro - 1 - methoxyethylidene ) amino ]- 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . to a solution of 2 . 16 g ( 0 . 01 mol ) of 25 % methanolic sodium methoxide in 5 ml of methanol was added a solution of 4 . 0 g ( 0 . 0091 mol ) of product of example 108 in 5 ml of methanol , resulting in the immediate formation of a white precipitate . the reaction mixture was stirred for 1 hour , then was poured into water ( 50 ml ) and extracted with ether ( 3 × 15 ml ). workup as usual afforded a colorless oil which was kugelrohr distilled ( 130 ° at 1 . 5 torr ) to give 3 . 27 g ( 82 %) of product as a colorless oil ; n d 25 1 . 438 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 44 . 05 3 . 70 6 . 42found 44 . 13 3 . 69 6 . 44______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 5 -{[( dimethylamino ) methylene ] amino }- 4 - propyl - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . a solution of 4 . 0 g ( 0 . 012 mol ) of product of example 16 , 10 ml of dimethylformamide dimethyl acetal and 70 mg of p - toluenesulfonic acid was stirred at reflux overnight . the reaction mixture was then concentrated in vacuo and the residue was kugelrohr distilled ( 165 ° c . at 1 . 5 torr to give 4 . 10 g ( 87 %) of product as a yellow oil ; n d 25 1 . 486 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 50 . 39 5 . 29 11 . 02found 50 . 50 5 . 29 10 . 99______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 5 -[( trifluoroacetyl ) amino ]- 4 - propyl ™ 2 ™( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . a solution of 35 . 0 g ( 0 . 107 mol ) of product of example 16 , 100 ml of methylene chloride and 30 g ( 0 . 14 mol ) of trifluoroacetic anhydride was stirred at room temperature overnight . concentration in vacuo afforded 45 . 7 g 100 %) of product as a white solid . recrystallization from ethyl acetate / cyclohexane gave analytically pure material , mp 95 °- 97 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 42 . 67 3 . 34 6 . 63found 42 . 80 3 . 20 6 . 74______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 5 -[( 1 - chloro - 2 , 2 , 2 - trifluoroethylidene ) amino ]- 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 - propyl - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . a mixture of 39 . 58 g ( 0 . 0937 mol ) of product of example 107 and 19 . 51 g ( 0 . 0937 mol ) of phosphorous pentachloride was heated at 135 ° c . for 3 hours . the reaction mixture was concentrated in vacuo and the residue was kugelrohr distilled ( 130 ° c . at 1 torr ) to give 40 . 07 g ( 97 %) of product as a colorless oil ; n d 25 1 . 434 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n cl______________________________________calculated 40 . 88 2 . 97 6 . 36 8 . 04found 40 . 53 2 . 73 6 . 26 8 . 08______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic aoid , 5 -[[ 1 -( diethoxyphosphinyl ) - 2 , 2 , 2 - trifluoroethylidene ] amino ]- 6 -( difluoromethyl )- 4 - propyl - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . a solution of 6 . 0 g ( 0 . 0136 mol ) of product of example 108 and 2 . 26 g ( 0 . 0136 mol ) of triethyl phosphine was stirred at 160 ° c . for 30 min . the reaction mixture was then cooled to room temperature affording 7 . 35 g (˜ quant .) of product as a yellow oil ; n d 25 1 . 437 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 42 . 08 4 . 27 5 . 17found 41 . 68 4 . 29 5 . 14______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 - propyl - 5 -[( 2 , 2 , 2 - trifluoro - 1 - ethoxyethylidene ) amino ]- 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . to a solution of 3 . 24 g ( 0 . 010 mol ) of 21 % ethanolic sodium ethoxide and 5 ml of ethanol was added a solution of 4 . 0 g ( 0 . 0091 mol ) of product of example 108 in 5 ml of ethanol . this was stirred at room temperature for 15 minutes during which time a white precipitate formed . the reaction mixture was poured into water ( 50 ml ) and extracted with ether . workup as usual gave a yellow oil which was kugelrohr distilled ( 150 ° at 1 . 5 torr to give 3 . 87 g ( 84 %) of product as a colorless oil ; n d 25 1 . 438 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 45 . 34 4 . 03 6 . 22found 45 . 44 4 . 00 6 . 26______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 - propyl - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )- 5 -[ 5 -( trifluoromethyl ) - 1h - tetrazol - 1 - yl ]-, ethyl ester . to a solution of 4 . 0 g ( 0 . 0091 mol ) of product of example 108 in 20 ml of tetrahydrofuran was added 0 . 65 g ( 0 . 01 mol ) of sodium azide followed by the addition of 4 ml of water . the reaction mixture was stirred at room temperature for 30 minutes , then was diluted with water 50 ml ) and extracted with chloroform ( 3 × 25 ml ). normal workup gave 3 . 87 g ( 86 %) of product as a white solid . recrystallization from ethyl acetate / cyclohexane gave analytically pure material , mp 66 °- 68 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 40 . 28 2 . 93 15 . 66found 40 . 07 2 . 87 15 . 77______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 5 -{[ 1 -( dimethylamino )- 2 , 2 , 2 - trifluoroethylidene ] amino }- 4 - propyl - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . to a solution of 4 . 0 g ( 0 . 0091 mol ) of product of example 108 and 10 ml of dioxane was added 4 . 5 ml of 26 % aq . dimethylamine . the solution became warm immediately . this was allowed to stir for 30 minutes , then was diluted with water ( 50 ml ) and extracted with chloroform ( 3 × 25 ml ). normal workup gave an orange oil which was kugelrohr distilled ( 165 ° c . at 1 torr ) to give 3 . 77 g ( 84 %) of product as a colorless 1 . 464 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 45 . 44 4 . 26 9 . 35found 45 . 42 4 . 18 9 . 19______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 5 -{[ 2 , 2 , 2 - trifluoro - 1 ( methylamino ) ethylidene ] amino }- 4 - propyl - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . to a stirred solution of 4 . 0 g ( 0 . 0091 mol ) of product of example 108 and 10 ml of dioxane was added 2 ml of 40 % aq . methylamine . the reaction mixture became warm . this was allowed to stir for 30 minutes , then was diluted with water ( 50 ml ) and extracted with chloroform ( 3 × 25 ml ). normal workup gave a yellow oil which was kugelrohr distilled ( 165 ° c . at 1 torr ) to give 3 . 53 g ( 89 %) of product as a thick colorless oil ; n d 25 1 . 461 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 44 . 15 3 . 94 9 . 65found 44 . 25 3 . 77 9 . 38______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 2 -( difluoromethyl ) - 5 -[( ethoxymethylene ) amino ]- 4 -( 2 - methylpropyl )- 6 -( trifluoromethyl )-, methyl ester . a solution of 4 . 0 g ( 0 . 013 mol ) of product of example 209 , 7 . 8 ml of triethyl orthoformate and 78 mg of p - toluenesulfonic acid was heated to 100 ° c . and stirred for 6 hours . the reaction mixture was concentrated in vacuo to give 5 . 39 g ( 100 %) of product as a colorless oil . chromatography on silica gel ( 1 % ethyl acetate / cyclohexane ) ave analytically pure material ; n d 25 1 . 462 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 50 . 26 5 . 01 7 . 33found 50 . 50 5 . 09 7 . 30______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 5 - amino - 2 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 - ethyl - 6 -( trifluoromethyl )-, methyl ester . to a stirred slurry of 14 . 3 g of sodium azide , 25 ml of water and 75 ml of acetone was slowly added a solution of 35 . 77 g ( 0 . 103 mol ) of methyl 5 - chlorocarbonyl - 2 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 - ethyl - 6 -( trifluoromethyl )- 3 - pyridinecarboxylic in 20 ml of acetone . an exothermic reaction followed with vigorous gas evolution . the reaction mixture was allowed to cool to room temperature and diluted with water ( 300 ml ) and extracted into chloroform ( 3 × 100 ml ). normal workup afforded 26 . 61 g ( 82 %) of product as a light yellow solid . trituration with cyclohexane gave analytically pure material , mp 54 °- 56 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 44 . 30 3 . 72 9 . 39found 44 . 37 3 . 72 9 . 37______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 2 -{ difluoromethyl ) - 4 - ethyl - 5 -[( methoxymethylene ) amino ]- 6 -( trifluoromethyl )-, methyl ester . a solution of 4 . 0 g ( 0 . 013 mol ) of product of example 115 , 7 . 4 ml of trimethyl orthoformate and 74 mg of p - toluenesulfonic acid was refluxed overnight . the reaction mixture was then concentrated in vacuo and the residue kugelrohr distilled ( 150 °- 165 ° c . at 1 torr ) to give 4 . 24 g ( 98 %) of product as white solid , mp 67 °- 69 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 45 . 89 3 . 85 8 . 23found 45 . 92 3 . 85 8 . 21______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 2 -( difluoromethyl ) - 5 -[( ethoxymethylene ) amino ]- 4 - ethyl - 6 -( trifluoromethyl )-, methyl ester . a solution of 4 . 0 g ( 0 . 013 mol ) of product of example 115 , 7 . 8 ml of triethyl orthoformate and 78 mg of p - toluenesulfonic acid was refluxed overnight . the reaction mixture was concentrated in vacuo and the residue was kugelrohr distilled ( 150 °- 165 ° c . at 1 torr ) to give 4 . 3 g ( 0 . 012 mol ) of product as a white solid . trituration with cyclohexane gave analytically pure material , mp 68 °- 69 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 47 . 46 4 . 27 7 . 91found 47 . 37 4 . 30 7 . 90______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 2 -( difluoromethyl ) - 5 -[( methoxymethylene ) amino ]- 4 -( 2 - methylpropyl )- 6 -( trifluoromethyl )-, methyl ester . a solution of 3 . 5 g ( 0 . 011 mol ) of product of example 209 , 6 . 7 ml of trimethyl orthoformate , and 67 mg of p - toluenesulfonic acid was refluxed for 2 hours . reaction mixture was then concentrated in vacuo and the residue kugelrohr distilled ( 150 °- 160 ° c . at 1 torr ) to give 3 . 67 g ( 93 %) of product as a colorless oil ; n d 25 1 466 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 48 . 92 4 . 65 7 . 61found 48 . 98 4 . 66 7 . 61______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 5 - bromo - 2 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 - ethyl - 6 -( trifluoromethyl )-, methyl ester . to a stirred solution of 3 . 41 g ( 0 . 015 mol ) of copper ( ii ) bromide and 1 . 96 g ( 0 . 019 mol ) of t - butyl nitrite in 36 ml of acetonitrile was added a solution of 4 . 0 g ( 0 . 013 mol ) of product of example 115 in 7 ml of acetonitrile . the reaction was stirred at room temperature for 1 hour , then was poured into 180 ml of 20 % aqueous hydrochloric acid and extracted with ether ( 3 × 50 ml ). normal workup followed by kugelrohr distillation ( 130 °- 145 ° c . at 1 torr ) gave 3 . 63 g ( 79 %) of product as a colorless oil . chromatography of a small amount of product on silica gel ( 2 % ethyl acetate / cyclohexane ) gave an analytically pure white solid , mp 25 49 °- 51 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n br______________________________________calculated 36 . 49 2 . 51 3 . 87 22 . 07found 37 . 14 2 . 59 3 . 92 22 . 39______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 5 - chloro - 2 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 - ethyl - 6 -( trifluoromethyl )-, methyl ester . to a stirred solution of 2 . 05 g ( 0 . 015 mol ) of copper ( ii ) chloride and 1 . 96 g (. 019 mol ) of t - butyl nitrite in 36 ml of acetonitrile was added a solution of 4 . 0 g ( 0 . 013 mol ) of product of example 115 in 7 ml of acetonitrile . the reaction was stirred at room temperature for 1 hour . the reaction mixture was poured into 180 ml of 20 % aqueous hydrochloric acid and extracted with ether ( 3 × 50 ml ). workup as usual followed by kugelrohr distillation ( 130 °- 145 ° c .) gave 3 . 28 g ( 81 %) of product as a colorless oil . chromatography of a small amount of product on silica gel ( 2 % ethyl acetate / cyclohexane ) gave analytically pure material ; n d 25 1 . 454 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n cl______________________________________calculated 41 . 59 2 . 86 4 . 41 11 . 16found 41 . 72 2 . 88 4 . 47 11 . 20______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 2 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 - ethyl - 5 - iodo - 6 -( trifluoromethyl )-, methyl ester . to a stirred solution of 3 . 98 g ( 0 . 013 mol ) of product of example 115 , 2 . 32 g ( 0 . 013 mol ) of 48 % fluoroboric acid and 33 ml of acetonitrile in an ice bath was slowly added 1 . 44 g 0 . 014 mol ) of t - butyl nitrite . the solution was stirred at 0 ° c . for 30 minutes and then added to a rapidly stirred solution of 33 . 17 g ( 0 . 20 mol ) of potassium iodide in 120 ml water . after 30 minutes , the reaction mixture was diluted with 120 ml of water and extracted with chloroform ( 3 × 75 ml ). the chloroform solution was washed with 10 % sodium thiosulfate solution ( 2 × 75 ml ). workup as usual followed by kugelrohr distillation ( 140 °- 165 ° c . at 1 torr ) gave 3 . 75 g ( 72 %) of product as an off - white solid , mp 63 °- 65 ° c . chromatography of a small amount of product on silica gel ( 2 % ethyl acetate / cyclohexane gave an analytically pure white solid , mp 72 °- 73 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n i______________________________________calculated 32 . 30 2 . 22 3 . 42 31 . 02found 32 . 12 2 . 23 3 . 37 30 . 98______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 5 - bromo - 2 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 -( 2 - methylpropyl )- 6 -( trifluoromethyl ) -, methyl ester . to a stirred solution of 16 . 22 g ( 0 . 072 mol ) of copper ( ii ) bromide and 9 . 32 g ( 0 . 091 mol ) of t - butyl nitrite in 170 ml of acetonitrile was added a solution of 19 . 71 g ( 0 . 060 mol ) of product of example 209 in 34 ml of acetonitrile . the reaction was stirred at room temperature for 1 hour . the reaction mixture was poured into 856 ml of 20 % hydrochloric acid and then extracted with ether . normal workup yielded 20 . 22 g ( 86 %) of product as a bright yellow oil . chromatography on silica gel ( 1 % ethyl acetate / cyclohexane ) yielded 12 . 24 g ( 52 %) of product as a colorless oil ; n d 25 1 . 472 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n br______________________________________calculated 40 . 02 3 . 36 3 . 59 20 . 48found 40 . 15 3 . 37 3 . 58 20 . 42______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 5 - amino - 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 -( 2 - methylpropyl )- 2 -( trifluoromethyl ) -, methyl ester . to a stirred slurry of 26 . 9 g ( 0 . 414 mol ) of sodium azide , 47 ml of water and 158 ml acetone was slowly added a solution of 62 . 53 g ( 0 . 168 mol ) of methyl 5 - chlorocarbonyl - 6 -( difluoromethyl )- 4 -( 2 - methylpropyl ) - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )- 3 - pyridinecarboxylate in 21 ml of acetone . an exothermic reaction followed with vigorous gas evolution . the reaction was allowed to cool to room temperature and diluted with 565 ml water and extracted with chloroform ( 3 × 100 ml ). workup as usual gave 52 . 9 g ( 97 %) of product as a light yellow solid . chromatography on silica gel ( 20 % ethyl acetate / cyclohexane to elute product ) gave 37 . 25 g ( 68 %) of analytically pure material , mp 104 °- 106 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 47 . 86 4 . 63 8 . 59found 47 . 78 4 . 68 8 . 56______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 5 -[( methoxymethylene ) amino ]- 4 -( 2 - methylpropyl ) - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, methyl ester . a solution of 3 . 25 g ( 0 . 01 mol ) of product of example 123 , 6 . 0 ml of trimethyl orthoformate , and 60 mg of p - toluenesulfonic acid was stirred for 28 hours at 100 ° c . the reaction mixture was concentrated in vacuo and kugelrohr distilled ( 145 °- 155 ° c . at 1 torr ) to yield 3 . 39 g ( 92 %) of product as a colorless oil . chromatography of product on silica gel ( 2 % ethyl acetate / cyclohexane ) gave analytically pure material ; n d 25 1 . 466 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 48 . 92 4 . 65 7 . 61found 48 . 84 4 . 69 7 . 61______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 5 -[( ethoxymethylene ) amino ]- 4 -( 2 - methylpropyl )- 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, methyl ester . a solution of 3 . 25 g ( 0 . 010 mol ) of product of example 123 , 6 . 2 ml of triethyl orthoformate and 62 mg of p - toluenesulfonic acid was stirred at 100 ° c . for 8 hours . an additional 62 mg of p - toluenesulfonic acid was added and the reaction was complete 20 hours later . the reaction mixture was concentrated in vacuo and kugelrohr distilled ( 135 °- 145 ° c . at 1 torr ) to give 3 . 8 g ( 99 %) of product as a colorless oil ; n d 25 1 . 4655 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 50 . 26 5 . 01 7 . 33found 50 . 32 5 . 02 7 . 23______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 2 -( difluoromethyl ) - 5 -[[( dimethylamino ) methylene ] amino ]- 4 - ethyl - 6 -( trifluoromethyl )-, methyl ester . a stirred solution of 4 . 0 g ( 0 . 013 mol ) of product of example 115 , 10 ml of dimethylformamide dimethyl acetal , and 70 mg of p - toluenesulfonic acid was refluxed overnight . the reaction mixture was concentrated in vacuo and kugelrohr distilled ( 170 °- 185 ° c . at 1 torr ) to give 3 . 98 g of product as a yellow solid , mp 89 °- 91 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 47 . 60 4 . 56 11 . 89found 47 . 63 4 . 59 11 . 88______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 5 -{[( dimethylamino ) methylene ] amino ]- 4 -( 2 - methylpropyl ) - 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, methyl ester . a stirred solution of 4 . 0 g ( 0 . 012 mol ) of product of example 123 , 10 ml of dimethylformamide dimethyl acetal , and 70 mg p - toluenesulfonic acid was refluxed overnight . the reaction mixture was concentrated in vacuo and the residue kugelrohr distilled ( 170 °- 185 ° c . at 1 torr ) to give 4 . 11 g ( 88 %) of product as yellow liquid that slowly solidified , mp 59 °- 60 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 50 . 39 5 . 29 11 . 02found 50 . 41 5 . 28 10 . 98______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 5 -{[( dimethylamino ) methylene ] amino }- 4 -( 2 - methylpropyl )- 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . a solution of 4 . 0 g of product of example 1 , 9 ml of dimethylformamide dimethyl acetal , and 91 mg of p - toluenesulfonic acid was stirred at reflux for 3 hours . the reaction mixture was concentrated in vacuo and the residue kugelrohr distilled ( 185 °- 200 ° c . at 1 torr ) to yield a brown oil . chromatography on silica gel ( 7 % ethyl acetate / cyclohexane ) gave 3 . 29 g ( 71 %) of product as a colorless oil ; n d 25 1 . 486 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 51 . 64 5 . 61 10 . 63found 51 . 73 5 . 62 10 . 61______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 5 - azido - 2 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 - ethyl - 6 -( trifluoromethyl )-, methyl ester . to a 0 ° c . solution of 5 . 0 g ( 0 . 016 mol ) of product of example 115 , 2 . 9 g ( 0 . 016 mol ) of 48 % fluoroboric acid , and 52 ml of acetonitrile was added 1 . 75 g ( 0 . 017 mol ) of t - butyl nitrite dropwise . the reaction mixture was stirred at 0 ° c . for 20 minutes , then a solution of 2 . 72 g 0 . 042 mol ) of sodium azide in 14 ml of water was added . vigorous gas evolution followed . the reaction was stirred for 10 minutes at room temperature , then diluted with 100 ml of water and extracted with chloroform ( 3 × 25 ml ). normal workup afforded 5 . 07 g ( 98 %) of product as an orange oil . chromatography on silica gel ( 2 % ethyl acetate / cyclohexane ) gave 2 . 61 g ( 50 %) of product as a colorless oil ; n d 25 1 . 570 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 40 . 75 2 . 80 17 . 28found 40 . 82 2 . 77 17 . 10______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 5 -( 1 - chloro - 2 , 2 , 2 - trifluoroethylidene ) amino ]- 6 -( difluoromethyl )- 4 -( 2 - methylpropyl )- 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . a mixture of 37 . 65 g ( 0 . 086 mol ) of product of example 7 and 17 . 97 g ( 1 equivalent ) of pcls was stirred overnight at 130 ° c . in a flask fitted with a reflux condenser and a drying tube . the reaction mixture was concentrated in vacuo , then kugelrohr distilled at 90 ° c . to remove low - boiling impurities and finally at 130 ° c . to afford 35 . 78 g ( 0 . 078 mol ) of product as a yellow oil which gradually solidified . yield was 91 %. mp 33 . 0 °- 34 . 0 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n cl______________________________________calculated 42 . 26 3 . 32 6 . 16 7 . 80found 42 . 69 3 . 39 6 . 22 7 . 86______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 -( 2 - methylpropyl )- 5 - ( 2 , 2 , 2 - trifluoro - 1 - methoxyethylidene ) amino ]- 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . to a room temperature solution of 2 . 09 g ( 0 . 010 mol ) of 25 % sodium methoxide / methanol and 5 ml of methanol was added a solution of 4 . 0 g 0 . 009 mol ) of product of example 130 in 4 . 7 ml methanol . a yellow precipitate formed immediately and the reaction mixture was stirred at room temperature for 1 hour , then diluted with 25 ml of water and extracted with ether ( 3 × 20 ml . workup as usual followed by kugelrohr distillation ( 135 ° c . at 1 torr ) gave 2 . 57 g ( 65 %) of product as a colorless oil . chromatography on silica gel ( 0 . 5 % ethyl acetate / cyclohexane ) gave 1 . 89 g ( 48 %) of pure product as a colorless oil ; n d 25 1 . 438 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 45 . 34 4 . 03 6 . 22found 45 . 32 3 . 91 6 . 25______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 -( 2 - methylpropyl )- 2 -( trifluoromethyl )- 5 -[( 2 , 2 , 2 - trifluoro - 1 - ethoxyethylidine ) amino ]-, ethyl ester . to a solution of 3 . 24 g ( 0 . 010 mol ) of 21 % sodium ethoxide / ethanol and 5 ml of ethanol was added a solution of 4 . 0 g ( 0 . 009 mol ) of product of example 130 in 5 ml ethanol . the reaction was stirred at room temperature for 15 minutes . the reaction mixture was diluted with 100 ml water and extracted with ether ( 3 × 25 ml ) which was worked up as usual . kugelrohr distillation ( 135 °- 145 ° c . at 1 torr ) gave 2 . 87 g ( 70 %) of product as a colorless oil . chromatography on silica gel ( 1 % ethyl acetate / cyclohexane ) gave 1 . 89 g ( 46 %) of product as a colorless oil ; n d 25 1 . 439 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 46 . 56 4 . 34 6 . 03found 46 . 64 4 . 34 6 . 14______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 5 -{[ 1 -( dimethylamino ) - 2 , 2 , 2 - trifluoroethylidene ] amino - 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 -( 2 - methylpropyl )- 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . to a room temperature solution of 4 . 0 g ( 0 . 009 mol ) of product of example 130 and 10 ml of dioxane was added 4 . 5 ml ( 0 . 026 mol ) of 26 % aqueous solution of dimethylamine . the solution became warm and was stirred for 30 minutes . the reaction mixture was diluted with 250 ml of water and extracted with chloroform ( 3 × 30 ml ). workup as usual gave a brown oil which was kugelrohr distilled ( 165 ° c . at 1 torr ) to give 2 . 06 g ( 50 %) of product as a yellow oil ; n d 25 1 . 467 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 46 . 66 4 . 57 9 . 07found 46 . 44 4 . 56 9 . 01______________________________________ 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 6 -( difluoromethyl ) - 5 -{[ 1 -( methylamino )- 2 , 2 , 2 - trifluoroethylidene ] amino }- 4 -( 2 - methylpropyl )- 2 -( trifluoromethyl )-, ethyl ester . to a room temperature solution of 4 . 0 g ( 0 . 009 mol ) of product of example 130 in 10 ml dioxane was added 2 ml ( 0 . 026 mol ) of 40 % aqueous methylamine . the reaction became warm and was stirred for 30 minutes . the reaction mixture was diluted with 250 ml of water and extracted with chloroform ( 3 × 30 ml ). normal workup gave a yellow oil which was kugelrohr distilled ( 175 ° c . at 1 torr ) to yield product as a thick yellow oil ; n d 25 1 . 454 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 45 . 44 4 . 26 9 . 35found 45 . 54 4 . 27 9 . 18______________________________________ ethyl 2 , 6 - bis - trifluoromethyl )- 5 - bromo - 4 - hydroxy - 3 - pyridinecarboxylate . the precursor ethyl 2 , 6 - bis ( trifluoromethyl )- 4 - hydroxy - 3 - pyridinecarboxylate was prepared as follows : to a flame dried 3 - liter , four - necked flask equipped with nitrogen inlet , low temperature thermometer , 500 ml addition funnel and mechanical stirrer was charged 91 . 0 g ( 126 ml , 0 . 899 mol ) of diisopropylamine and 500 ml of dry tetrahydrofuran . the resulting solution was cooled to - 78 ° c . using an acetone - dry ice bath . to this was slowly added 383 ml ( 0 . 880 mol ) of 2 . 3m n - buli in hexane at such a rate that the reaction temperature was kept below - 60 ° c . after stirring at - 78 ° c . for 1 hour , a solution of 90 . 0 g ( 0 . 400 mol ) of ethyl 2 - acetyl - 3 - amino - 4 , 4 , 4 - trifluoro 2 - butenoate in 150 ml of dry tetrahydrofuran was added in such a rate that the reaction temperature was kept below - 60 ° c . the reaction mixture turned yellow and a solid suspension formed . after 1 hour of stirring at - 78 ° c ., the reaction mixture was treated with 184 . 7 g ( 155 ml , 1 . 300 mol ) of ethyl trifluoroacetate in such rate that the reaction temperature was kept below - 60 ° c . this reaction mixture was left at - 78 ° c . for 1 hour , then warmed to room temperature ( the yellow suspension disappeared and a brown solution was formed ) and stirred for 18 hours . the resulting solution was poured into 1 . 5 l of 10 % hcl ( aqueous ) and extracted 3 times with methylene chloride . the combined methylene chloride layers were dried ( mgso 4 ) and reduced in vacuo affording a thick brown oil . the residue was kugelrohr distilled at 47 pa . the earlier fraction ( pot temperature 50 ° c .) was discarded . the later fraction ( pot temperature 80 ° c .) afforded 80 . 0 g ( 66 %) of the pyridine intermediate ; mp 70 °- 77 ° c . to a solution of 5 . 0 g ( 0 . 165 mol ) of the compound prepared above in 50 ml of 10 % naoh was added 5 ml of bromine . an exothermic reaction occurred instantly . the reaction mixture was stirred for 5 minutes and poured into a mixture of 20 ml of concentrated hcl and 50 ml of water . to the above mixture was added sodium sulfite until all red bromine color disappeared . the white oil precipitate was extracted into ether . the ether solution was dried and concentrated . the residue was kugelrohr distilled at 0 . 8 mm ( pot temperature 95 ° c .) to give 5 . 7 g of an oil which was crystallized from petroleum ether at low temperature to give 3 . 5 g ( 55 . 9 %) of product , mp 30 °- 32 ° c ., which turned into a liquid upon standing , n d 25 1 . 4646 . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n br______________________________________calculated 31 . 44 1 . 58 3 . 67 20 . 92found 31 . 30 1 . 59 3 . 64 20 . 86______________________________________ using preparative techniques similar to those set out in detail above in examples 1 through 136 , additional compounds were prepared . these additional compounds are shown in the following table 1 , along with a physical property for each where available . table 1__________________________________________________________________________ ## str12 ## example r . sub . 1 r . sub . 2 r ra x mp (° c .) n . sub . d . sup . 25__________________________________________________________________________136 cf . sub . 3 cf . sub . 2 h och . sub . 3 nchsch . sub . 3 cyclobutyl 59 . 8 - 64 . 8137 cf . sub . 3 cf . sub . 2 h och . sub . 2 ch . sub . 3 br isobutyl 1 . 473138 cf . sub . 3 cf . sub . 2 h och . sub . 3 nchsch . sub . 2 ch . sub . 3 cyclobutyl139 cf . sub . 3 cf . sub . 3 och . sub . 2 ch . sub . 3 nh . sub . 2 methoxy 70 . 0 - 71 . 0140 cf . sub . 3 cf . sub . 3 och . sub . 2 ch . sub . 3 br methoxy 1 . 449141 cf . sub . 3 cf . sub . 3 och . sub . 2 ch . sub . 3 i methoxy 39 . 0 - 40 . 0142 cf . sub . 3 cf . sub . 2 h sch . sub . 3 ## str13 ## isobutyl 1 . 518143 cf . sub . 3 cf . sub . 2 h sch . sub . 3 nchoch . sub . 2 ch . sub . 3 cyclopropylmethyl 1 . 480144 cf . sub . 3 cf . sub . 2 h sch . sub . 3 ## str14 ## isobutyl 96 . 0 - 97 . 0145 cf . sub . 3 cf . sub . 2 h och . sub . 3 br cyclobutyl 50 . 0 - 54 . 0146 cf . sub . 3 cf . sub . 2 h och . sub . 3 ## str15 ## cyclobutyl 83 . 0 - 83 . 7147 cf . sub . 3 cf . sub . 2 h och . sub . 3 br isobutyl 1 . 471148 cf . sub . 3 ch . sub . 3 och . sub . 2 ch . sub . 3 nh . sub . 2 isobutyl 94 . 0 - 96 . 0149 cf . sub . 3 ch . sub . 3 och . sub . 2 ch . sub . 3 nchoch . sub . 3 isobutyl 1 . 477150 cf . sub . 3 ch . sub . 3 och . sub . 2 ch . sub . 3 br isobutyl 1 . 483151 cf . sub . 3 cf . sub . 2 h och . sub . 2 ch . sub . 3 ## str16 ## propyl 82 . 0 - 84 . 0152 cf . sub . 3 cf . sub . 2 h och . sub . 3 ## str17 ## cyclobutyl153 cf . sub . 3 cf . sub . 2 h och . sub . 2 ch . sub . 3 nso propyl 1 . 476154 cf . sub . 3 cf . sub . 2 h sch . sub . 3 ## str18 ## isobutyl 1 . 493155 cf . sub . 3 cf . sub . 2 h och . sub . 2 ch . sub . 3 ## str19 ## isobutyl 1 . 442156 cf . sub . 2 h cf . sub . 3 och . sub . 3 nchn ( ch . sub . 3 ). sub . 2 isobutyl 54 . 0 - 57 . 0157 cf . sub . 3 ch . sub . 3 och . sub . 2 ch . sub . 3 nchn ( ch . sub . 3 ). sub . 2 isobutyl 1 . 497158 cf . sub . 3 cf . sub . 2 h och . sub . 2 ch . sub . 3 nhch . sub . 3 isobutyl 1 . 473159 cf . sub . 3 ch . sub . 3 och . sub . 2 ch . sub . 3 no . sub . 2 isobutyl 1 . 465160 cf . sub . 2 h cf . sub . 3 och . sub . 3 no . sub . 2 ethyl 1 . 451161 cf . sub . 3 cf . sub . 2 h sch . sub . 3 ## str20 ## isobutyl 1 . 502162 cf . sub . 3 cf . sub . 2 h och . sub . 3 nco isobutyl 1 . 466163 cf . sub . 3 cf . sub . 2 h och . sub . 3 nso isobutyl 1 . 479164 cf . sub . 3 cf . sub . 2 h och . sub . 2 ch . sub . 3 ## str21 ## propyl 64 . 0 - 66 . 0165 cf . sub . 2 h cf . sub . 3 och . sub . 3 nso isobutyl 1 . 482166 cf . sub . 3 cf . sub . 2 h och . sub . 3 ## str22 ## isobutyl 168 . 0 - 171 . 0167 cf . sub . 3 cf . sub . 2 h och . sub . 2 ch . sub . 3 ## str23 ## isobutyl 1 . 418168 cf . sub . 3 cf . sub . 2 h sch . sub . 3 nh . sub . 2 isobutyl 108 . 0 - 110 . 0169 cf . sub . 3 cf . sub . 2 h och . sub . 2 ch . sub . 3 ## str24 ## isobutyl 90 . 0 - 92 . 0170 cf . sub . 3 cf . sub . 2 h sch . sub . 3 nchn ( ch . sub . 3 ). sub . 2 isobutyl 70 . 0 - 71 . 0171 cf . sub . 3 cf . sub . 2 h sch . sub . 3 nchoch . sub . 3 isobutyl 1 . 494172 cf . sub . 3 cf . sub . 2 h sch . sub . 3 nchoch . sub . 2 ch . sub . 3 isobutyl 1 . 492173 cf . sub . 3 cf . sub . 2 h och . sub . 2 ch . sub . 3 nchsch . sub . 3 isobutyl 1 . 4925174 cf . sub . 3 cf . sub . 2 h och . sub . 3 ## str25 ## isobutyl 118 . 0 - 120 . 0175 cf . sub . 3 cf . sub . 2 h och . sub . 2 ch . sub . 3 nso isobutyl 1 . 477176 cf . sub . 3 cf . sub . 2 h sch . sub . 3 br isobutyl 37 . 0 - 38 . 0177 ## str26 ## 177 ( cont .) cf . sub . 3 cf . sub . 2 h och . sub . 2 ch . sub . 3 ## str27 ## isobutyl178 cf . sub . 3 cf . sub . 2 h och . sub . 3 nchsch . sub . 3 isobutyl 1 . 493179 cf . sub . 3 cf . sub . 2 h och . sub . 3 n ( cho ). sub . 2 isobutyl 1 . 457180 cf . sub . 3 cf . sub . 2 h och . sub . 3 nchsch . sub . 2 ch . sub . 3 isobutyl 1 . 493181 cf . sub . 2 h cf . sub . 3 och . sub . 3 ## str28 ## isobutyl 182 . 0 - 184 . 0182 cf . sub . 3 cf . sub . 2 h och . sub . 3 ## str29 ## isobutyl 1 . 488183 cf . sub . 2 h cf . sub . 3 och . sub . 3 ## str30 ## isobutyl 1 . 494184 cf . sub . 3 cf . sub . 2 h och . sub . 3 ## str31 ## isobutyl 112 . 0 - 114 . 0185 cf . sub . 3 cf . sub . 2 h och . sub . 3 ## str32 ## isobutyl 1 . 483186 cf . sub . 2 h cf . sub . 3 och . sub . 3 ## str33 ## isobutyl 160 . 0 - 161 . 0187 cf . sub . 2 h cf . sub . 3 sch . sub . 3 br isobutyl 1 . 507188 cf . sub . 3 cf . sub . 2 h sch . sub . 2 ch . sub . 3 nchn ( ch . sub . 3 ). sub . 2 isobutyl 1 . 511189 cf . sub . 3 cf . sub . 2 h och . sub . 3 ## str34 ## isobutyl 1 . 470190 cf . sub . 3 cf . sub . 2 h och . sub . 3 ## str35 ## isobutyl 1 . 4845191 cf . sub . 3 cf . sub . 2 h och . sub . 3 ## str36 ## isobutyl 1 . 462192 cf . sub . 3 cf . sub . 2 h och . sub . 3 ## str37 ## isobutyl 1 . 477193 cf . sub . 3 cf . sub . 2 h och . sub . 3 ncfch . sub . 3 isobutyl 158 . 0 - 160 . 0194 cf . sub . 3 cf . sub . 2 h och . sub . 3 ## str38 ## isobutyl 1 . 492195 cf . sub . 3 cf . sub . 2 h och . sub . 3 ## str39 ## isobutyl 118 . 0 - 119 . 0196 cf . sub . 3 cf . sub . 2 h sch . sub . 3 nchsch . sub . 3 isobutyl 1 . 523197 cf . sub . 3 cf . sub . 2 h sch . sub . 3 nhcoch . sub . 3 isobutyl 140 . 0 - 142 . 0198 cf . sub . 3 cf . sub . 2 h sch . sub . 3 nh . sub . 2 cyclopropylmethyl 90 . 0 - 92 . 0199 cf . sub . 3 cf . sub . 2 h sch . sub . 3 nchn ( ch . sub . 3 ). sub . 2 cyclopropylmethyl 109 . 0 - 112 . 0200 cf . sub . 3 cf . sub . 2 h och . sub . 3 nchoch . sub . 3 cyclobutyl 64 . 0 - 66 . 0201 cf . sub . 3 cf . sub . 2 h och . sub . 3 nchoch . sub . 2 ch . sub . 3 cyclobutyl 48 . 0 - 52 . 0202 cf . sub . 3 cf . sub . 2 h och . sub . 3 nchn ( ch . sub . 3 ). sub . 2 cyclobutyl 86 . 6 - 88 . 4203 cf . sub . 3 cf . sub . 2 h och . sub . 3 nh . sub . 2 cyclobutyl 88 . 8 - 90 . 5204 cf . sub . 2 h cf . sub . 3 och . sub . 3 nh . sub . 2 cyclobutyl 89 . 0 - 92 . 8205 cf . sub . 2 h cf . sub . 3 och . sub . 3 nchoch . sub . 3 cyclobutyl206 cf . sub . 2 h cf . sub . 3 och . sub . 3 nchoch . sub . 2 ch . sub . 3 cyclobutyl207 cf . sub . 2 h cf . sub . 3 och . sub . 3 nchn ( ch . sub . 3 ). sub . 2 cyclobutyl 69 . 0 - 74 . 0208 cf . sub . 2 h cf . sub . 3 och . sub . 3 br cyclobutyl__________________________________________________________________________ pg , 85 3 - pyridinecarboxylic acid , 5 - amino - 2 -( difluoromethyl ) - 4 -( 2 - methylpropyl )- 6 -( trifluoromethyl )-, methyl ester . to a stirred slurry of 27 . 8 g of sodium azide , 50 ml of water and 164 ml of acetone was slowly added a solution of 65 . 2 g ( 0 . 183 mol ) of methyl 5 - chlorocarbonyl - 6 -( difluoromethyl )- 4 -( 2 - methylpropyl )- 2 -( trifluoromethyl )- 3 - pyridinecarboxylate in 16 ml of acetone . an exothermic reaction followed with vigorous gas evolution . the reaction mixture was allowed to cool to room temperature and diluted with water ( 500 ml ) and extracted into chloroform ( 3 × 100 ml ). normal workup afforded 51 . 93 g ( 94 %) of product as green solid . chromatography on silica gel ( 10 % ethyl acetate / cyclohexane ) gave analytically pure material , mp 48 °- 50 ° c . ______________________________________elemental analysis : c h n______________________________________calculated 47 . 86 4 . 63 8 . 59found 47 . 81 4 . 63 8 . 58______________________________________ as noted above , many of the compounds of this invention have been found to be effective as pre - emergent and post - emergent herbicides . table 2 summarizes results of tests conducted to determine the pre - emergent herbicidal activity of the compounds of this invention on common weeds . top soil is placed in aluminum pans and compacted to a depth of 0 . 95 to 1 . 27 cm . from the top of the pan . on the top of the soil is placed a predetermined number of seeds or vegetative propagules of various plant species . the soil required to level fill the pans after seeding or adding vegetative propagules is weighed into a pan . a known amount of the active ingredient applied in acetone as a solvent is thoroughly mixed with the soil , and the herbicide / soil mixture is used as a cover layer for prepared pans . in table 3 below the amount of active ingredient is equal to the rate of 11 . 2 kg / ha . after treatment , the pans are moved to a greenhouse bench where they are watered from below as needed to give adequate moisture for germination and growth . approximately 10 - 14 days ( usually 11 days ) after seeding and treating , the pans are observed and the results recorded . in some instances , a second observation is made approximately 24 - 28 days after seeding and treating , and these observations are indicated in the following tables by an asterisk (*) immediately following the example number . table 2 below summarizes the results of the pre - emergent herbicidal activity tests of compounds of this invention in weeds . the herbicidal rating is obtained by means of a fixed scale based on the percent inhibition of each plant species . the symbols in the table are defined as follows : ______________________________________ % inhibition rating______________________________________ 0 - 24 025 - 49 150 - 74 2 75 - 100 3not planted -- species planted , nno data______________________________________ the plant species usually regarded as weeds which are utilized in one set of tests , the data for which are shown in table 3 , are identified by letter headings above the columns in accordance with the following legend : ______________________________________ a - canada thistle * b - cocklebur c - velvetleaf d - morningglory e - common lambsquarters f - pennsylvania smartweed g - yellow nutsedge * h - quackgrass * i - jonhsongrass * j - downy brome k - barnyardgrass______________________________________ * grown from vegetative propagules table 2______________________________________pre - emergent activity for weedsexample no . kg / ha a b c d e f g h i j k______________________________________ 1 11 . 2 0 0 1 2 3 3 0 3 0 3 3 2 11 . 2 0 0 3 3 3 3 0 2 -- 3 3 3 11 . 2 0 0 1 2 3 2 0 3 3 1 3 4 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 1 3 0 0 3 0 1 5 11 . 2 3 2 3 3 3 3 2 2 3 3 3 6 11 . 2 0 0 3 1 3 3 0 0 3 3 3 7 11 . 2 3 0 2 3 3 2 0 0 3 2 2 8 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 3 3 3 3 9 11 . 2 3 0 2 3 3 3 0 1 n 3 3 10 11 . 2 3 n 2 3 3 2 1 3 3 3 3 11 11 . 2 0 1 1 3 2 2 0 3 3 3 3 12 11 . 2 3 1 1 3 3 3 0 3 -- 3 3 13 11 . 2 3 1 2 3 3 3 0 3 3 3 3 14 11 . 2 3 0 2 3 3 3 3 3 -- 3 3 15 11 . 2 1 1 3 3 3 3 2 3 3 3 3 16 11 . 2 3 0 3 3 3 3 0 2 0 2 3 17 11 . 2 -- 1 3 3 3 3 0 3 2 3 3 18 11 . 2 -- n 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 1 19 11 . 2 -- 0 1 2 3 3 0 3 3 3 3 20 11 . 2 -- 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 21 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 22 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 2 2 23 11 . 2 -- 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 24 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 25 11 . 2 1 n 1 0 3 1 0 0 0 0 2 26 11 . 2 -- 0 2 0 3 2 0 0 0 1 2 26 * 11 . 2 -- 0 2 0 3 1 0 0 0 1 2 27 11 . 2 -- 0 3 3 n 3 0 0 0 0 0 28 11 . 2 -- 2 3 3 3 3 0 1 1 1 1 29 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 2 2 0 0 0 3 3 30 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 31 11 . 2 -- 2 2 0 0 3 0 0 0 1 3 32 11 . 2 -- 3 3 3 3 3 0 3 3 3 3 33 11 . 2 -- 1 3 3 3 3 0 3 3 3 3 34 11 . 2 -- 0 3 3 3 3 0 3 3 3 3 35 11 . 2 -- 2 3 3 3 3 2 3 3 3 3 36 11 . 2 -- 0 3 3 3 3 0 3 0 3 3 37 11 . 2 -- 0 3 3 3 2 0 3 0 3 3 38 11 . 2 -- 1 3 3 3 3 1 3 3 3 3 39 11 . 2 -- 2 3 3 3 3 2 3 3 3 3 40 11 . 2 -- 0 3 3 3 3 0 3 3 3 3 41 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 3 3 0 0 n 0 3 42 11 . 2 -- 0 2 0 2 3 0 0 n 1 3 43 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 3 3 0 0 0 3 3 44 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 3 3 0 0 0 0 3 45 11 . 2 -- 0 1 0 3 3 0 0 0 3 3 46 11 . 2 -- 1 0 0 3 3 1 0 0 1 0 47 11 . 2 -- 0 0 2 1 3 0 1 0 3 3 49 11 . 2 -- 1 1 1 3 3 0 3 3 3 3 50 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 1 2 0 1 2 3 3 51 11 . 2 -- 0 1 0 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 52 11 . 2 -- 0 1 1 3 3 0 2 0 3 3 53 11 . 2 -- 0 2 3 3 3 0 3 1 3 3 54 11 . 2 -- 3 3 3 3 3 1 3 1 3 3 55 11 . 2 -- 0 2 2 1 2 0 3 0 3 3 56 11 . 2 -- 0 1 3 3 3 0 2 0 3 3 57 11 . 2 -- 1 3 3 3 3 0 3 1 3 3 58 11 . 2 -- 0 2 1 3 2 0 3 0 3 3 59 11 . 2 -- 1 2 1 2 2 0 0 0 1 3 60 11 . 2 -- 0 2 1 3 3 0 0 0 3 3 61 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 3 62 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 63 11 . 2 -- 0 1 0 3 2 0 2 0 2 3 64 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 0 1 0 3 1 0 3 65 11 . 2 -- 0 3 0 1 1 0 2 0 0 3 66 11 . 2 -- 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 67 11 . 2 -- 0 2 0 0 0 0 1 n 0 0 68 11 . 2 -- 3 3 3 3 3 0 0 0 3 3 69 11 . 2 -- 3 0 3 3 2 0 0 0 1 3 70 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 71 11 . 2 0 1 3 3 3 3 0 1 1 2 3 72 11 . 2 1 0 3 3 3 3 0 3 0 3 3 73 11 . 2 0 3 0 3 1 1 0 3 3 3 3 74 11 . 2 0 3 0 3 3 3 0 3 0 3 3 75 11 . 2 0 3 1 3 3 3 0 1 0 3 3 76 11 . 2 -- 0 2 3 3 3 0 3 3 3 3 77 11 . 2 -- 0 2 3 3 3 0 3 0 3 3 78 11 . 2 -- 1 2 3 3 3 0 3 0 3 3 79 11 . 2 -- 0 1 3 3 3 0 3 1 3 3 80 11 . 2 -- 0 1 3 3 3 0 3 0 3 3 81 11 . 2 -- 0 3 3 3 3 1 3 0 3 3 82 11 . 2 -- 1 0 3 2 1 0 3 3 3 3 83 11 . 2 -- 0 1 3 3 3 0 3 0 3 3 84 11 . 2 -- 1 2 3 3 3 0 3 1 3 3 85 11 . 2 -- 1 3 3 3 3 2 3 3 3 3 86 11 . 2 -- 0 3 3 3 3 0 3 2 3 3 87 11 . 2 -- 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 n 1 3 88 11 . 2 -- 0 2 2 3 3 0 2 n 3 3 89 11 . 2 -- 0 3 3 3 3 0 2 2 3 3 90 11 . 2 -- 0 3 3 3 3 0 0 0 2 3 91 11 . 2 -- 0 2 3 3 1 0 0 n 2 3 92 11 . 2 -- 0 2 3 3 2 0 1 0 2 3 93 11 . 2 -- 0 0 1 3 3 0 0 0 3 3 94 11 . 2 -- 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 3 3 95 11 . 2 -- 1 2 3 3 3 0 3 2 3 3 96 11 . 2 -- 0 3 3 3 3 0 3 0 3 3 97 11 . 2 -- 0 2 3 3 3 0 3 3 3 3 98 11 . 2 3 1 3 3 3 3 1 3 2 3 3 99 11 . 2 -- 1 3 3 3 3 0 3 0 3 3 100 11 . 2 -- 2 3 3 3 3 2 3 3 3 3 101 11 . 2 3 0 3 3 3 3 0 3 0 3 3 102 11 . 2 0 1 3 3 3 3 1 3 0 3 3 103 11 . 2 1 1 3 2 3 3 0 1 0 3 3 104 11 . 2 0 0 1 2 3 3 0 0 0 1 3 105 11 . 2 0 1 2 3 3 3 0 3 3 3 3 106 11 . 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 0 3 0 3 3 107 11 . 2 2 0 1 1 3 1 0 0 0 0 1 108 11 . 2 1 1 0 2 3 2 0 0 0 0 0 109 11 . 2 0 1 0 3 3 3 1 0 0 0 3 110 11 . 2 1 0 1 1 2 1 0 0 0 3 3 111 11 . 2 1 0 0 0 2 1 0 0 2 1 3 112 11 . 2 3 0 3 3 3 3 0 0 0 3 3 113 11 . 2 0 0 3 3 3 3 0 0 3 3 3 114 11 . 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 115 11 . 2 0 1 3 3 3 3 0 0 3 3 3 116 11 . 2 1 3 3 3 3 3 1 3 1 3 3 117 11 . 2 3 1 3 3 3 3 1 3 3 3 3 118 11 . 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 119 11 . 2 0 0 2 3 3 3 3 3 0 3 3 120 11 . 2 0 0 1 2 2 3 0 3 0 3 3 121 11 . 2 3 0 3 3 3 3 1 3 3 3 3 122 11 . 2 1 0 3 3 3 3 2 3 0 3 3 123 11 . 2 1 1 3 2 3 3 0 0 0 3 3 124 11 . 2 3 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 125 11 . 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 126 11 . 2 1 1 3 3 3 3 0 3 2 3 3 127 11 . 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 128 11 . 2 3 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 129 11 . 2 3 1 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 130 11 . 2 2 1 3 3 3 3 0 3 0 2 3 131 11 . 2 0 1 3 3 3 3 0 3 3 3 3 132 11 . 2 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 2 1 3 3 133 11 . 2 0 0 3 3 3 3 0 2 0 3 3 134 11 . 2 0 0 3 3 3 3 0 2 0 3 3 135 11 . 2 0 1 2 2 3 3 0 n 0 0 0 135 * 11 . 2 0 0 1 2 3 2 0 n 0 0 0 136 11 . 2 3 2 3 3 3 3 1 3 3 -- 3 137 11 . 2 3 1 0 1 2 2 0 3 -- 3 3 138 11 . 2 0 0 1 2 3 3 0 2 3 -- 3 139 11 . 2 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 140 11 . 2 3 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 n 0 0 141 11 . 2 0 0 0 2 3 3 0 0 n 3 3 142 11 . 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 3 3 -- 3 143 11 . 2 3 2 3 3 3 3 2 3 3 -- 3 144 11 . 2 3 0 3 3 3 3 1 3 3 -- 3 145 11 . 2 1 0 2 2 3 3 1 3 0 -- 3 146 11 . 2 3 1 3 3 3 3 2 3 3 -- 3 147 11 . 2 1 0 1 3 3 3 0 3 1 3 3 148 11 . 2 0 0 2 0 3 2 1 0 0 1 3 149 11 . 2 3 1 3 3 3 3 0 3 3 3 3 150 11 . 2 3 0 0 2 3 0 0 3 3 1 3 151 11 . 2 3 0 3 3 3 3 1 0 0 2 3 152 11 . 2 3 0 3 3 3 3 0 3 0 -- 3 153 11 . 2 2 0 3 3 3 3 0 0 0 2 3 154 11 . 2 3 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 155 11 . 2 3 0 1 3 3 2 0 0 0 0 3 156 11 . 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 3 3 3 3 157 11 . 2 3 0 3 3 3 3 1 3 1 3 3 158 11 . 2 0 0 3 3 3 3 0 3 0 3 3 159 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 3 1 0 3 1 3 3 160 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 3 161 11 . 2 3 0 3 3 3 3 0 0 0 -- 3 162 11 . 2 0 0 1 2 3 3 0 0 0 3 3 163 11 . 2 1 0 1 1 3 3 0 0 0 3 3 164 11 . 2 3 0 3 3 3 3 0 3 0 3 3 165 11 . 2 1 0 3 3 3 3 1 3 0 3 3 166 11 . 2 3 0 1 1 3 3 0 3 0 3 3 167 11 . 2 3 0 2 3 3 3 1 3 0 1 3 168 11 . 2 3 1 3 3 3 3 2 3 1 3 3 169 11 . 2 1 0 3 3 3 3 0 0 0 1 3 170 11 . 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 171 11 . 2 3 2 3 3 3 3 2 3 3 3 3 172 11 . 2 3 2 3 3 3 3 1 3 1 3 3 173 11 . 2 3 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 3 3 174 11 . 2 0 0 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 3 175 11 . 2 1 0 3 3 3 3 0 1 0 3 3 176 11 . 2 0 0 3 3 3 3 0 3 0 3 3 177 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 3 1 0 2 0 0 3 178 11 . 2 3 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 179 11 . 2 1 0 0 0 3 1 0 0 0 0 3 180 11 . 2 3 1 3 3 3 3 0 3 3 3 3 181 11 . 2 0 0 0 2 2 1 0 1 3 0 3 182 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 3 3 0 0 0 1 3 183 11 . 2 1 0 3 3 3 3 0 3 0 3 3 184 11 . 2 0 0 2 1 3 3 0 1 0 3 3 185 11 . 2 0 0 2 1 3 3 0 0 0 3 3 186 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 187 11 . 2 1 0 2 3 3 3 0 3 0 3 3 188 11 . 2 2 1 3 3 3 3 1 3 0 3 3 189 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 190 11 . 2 3 1 3 3 3 3 1 3 3 3 3 191 11 . 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 n 3 192 11 . 2 0 0 2 3 3 1 0 1 0 n 3 193 11 . 2 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 n 3 194 11 . 2 3 1 3 3 3 3 2 3 3 3 3 195 11 . 2 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 3 1 3 196 11 . 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 197 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 n 0 3 198 11 . 2 1 1 2 3 3 3 0 0 0 3 3 199 11 . 2 3 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 3 3 200 11 . 2 3 0 3 3 3 3 2 3 3 3 3 201 11 . 2 0 0 3 3 3 3 1 3 3 3 3 202 11 . 2 3 0 3 3 3 3 1 3 3 3 3 203 11 . 2 0 0 3 3 3 3 0 0 3 1 3 204 11 . 2 3 0 3 3 3 3 1 3 3 3 3 205 11 . 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 1 3 3 3 3 206 11 . 2 3 2 3 3 3 3 1 3 3 3 3 207 11 . 2 3 0 3 3 3 3 0 3 3 3 3 208 11 . 2 3 0 3 3 3 3 1 3 3 3 3______________________________________ the compounds were further tested by utilizing the above procedure on the following plant species , i . e ., on weeds in the presence of crop plants . ______________________________________l - soybean r - hemp sesbaniam - sugarbeet e - common lambsquartersn - wheat f - pennsylvania smartweedo - rice c - velvetleafp - grain sorghum j - downy bromeb - cocklebur s - panicum spp . q - wild buckwheat k - barnyardgrassd - morningglory t - large crabgrass______________________________________ table 3__________________________________________________________________________pre - emergent activity for weeds in crop plantsexample no . kg / ha l m n o p b q d r e f c j s k t__________________________________________________________________________ 1 5 . 6 0 3 0 0 2 0 0 1 1 3 3 1 1 2 3 3 1 . 12 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 . 28 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 5 . 6 0 3 2 2 3 0 3 3 2 3 3 2 3 3 3 3 1 . 12 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 2 0 . 28 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 . 056 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 5 . 6 2 3 0 3 3 0 3 3 3 3 2 3 3 3 3 3 1 . 12 0 2 0 0 2 0 2 0 0 1 1 1 1 3 3 3 0 . 28 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 4 5 . 6 0 1 0 0 2 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 2 2 2 2 1 . 12 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 5 . 6 1 3 1 3 3 0 2 2 2 3 2 2 3 3 3 3 1 . 12 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 2 1 1 1 2 3 3 0 . 28 0 0 0 0 0 n 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 . 056 0 0 0 0 0 n 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 5 . 6 0 3 1 1 3 n 3 3 3 3 3 2 3 3 3 3 1 . 12 0 0 0 0 0 n 0 0 0 2 1 1 1 0 0 3 0 . 28 0 0 0 0 0 n 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 . 056 0 0 0 0 0 n 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 7 5 . 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 . 12 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 . 28 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 8 5 . 6 0 0 1 1 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 3 3 3 1 . 12 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 . 28 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 . 056 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 9 5 . 6 1 3 3 2 3 0 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 1 . 12 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 3 3 0 . 28 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 . 056 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 010 5 . 6 1 3 3 3 3 0 2 1 2 3 1 1 3 3 3 3 1 . 12 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 2 0 . 28 0 0 0 0 0 n 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 . 056 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 011 5 . 6 0 2 1 3 3 0 0 2 1 1 1 1 1 3 3 3 1 . 12 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 . 28 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 . 056 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 012 5 . 6 1 3 2 3 3 0 3 3 2 3 3 1 3 3 3 3 1 . 12 0 2 1 0 3 0 2 2 1 2 2 1 3 3 2 3 0 . 28 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 . 056 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 013 5 . 6 0 1 3 3 3 1 3 3 3 3 3 2 3 3 3 3 1 . 12 0 1 0 1 2 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 2 1 3 0 . 28 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 . 056 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 . 0112 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 014 5 . 6 2 3 3 3 3 0 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 1 . 12 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 2 2 0 0 3 3 3 0 . 28 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 . 056 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 015 5 . 6 3 3 2 3 3 0 3 3 3 3 3 2 3 3 3 3 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1 0 0 3 2 1 0 1 3 3171 5 . 6 3 3 3 3 3 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 1 . 12 3 3 3 3 3 1 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 0 . 28 0 2 3 3 3 0 2 2 2 3 3 2 3 3 3 3 0 . 056 0 0 1 1 3 0 0 0 0 2 2 0 2 3 3 3 0 . 0112 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 2 3172 5 . 6 3 3 3 3 3 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 1 . 12 3 3 3 3 3 0 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 0 . 28 0 2 2 2 3 0 2 0 1 3 3 1 3 3 3 3 0 . 056 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 2 3 0 . 0112 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0173 5 . 6 3 3 3 3 3 1 3 3 3 3 3 2 3 3 3 3 1 . 12 0 3 1 1 3 0 3 3 3 3 3 1 3 3 3 3 0 . 28 0 2 0 0 3 0 0 1 2 2 3 0 3 3 3 3 0 . 056 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 2 3 2 0 . 0112 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 n 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0174 5 . 6 0 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 3 1 0 3 0 0 2 1 . 12 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 2 0 0 1175 5 . 6 0 3 1 1 3 0 0 1 1 2 3 1 3 3 3 3 1 . 12 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 2 1 3 3 0 . 28 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0176 5 . 6 1 3 3 3 3 0 3 2 3 3 3 2 3 3 3 3 1 . 12 0 3 2 1 3 0 2 0 1 3 2 0 3 3 3 3 0 . 28 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 2 2 0 . 056 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0177 5 . 6 2 3 1 1 0 0 2 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0 0 0 3 2 0 . 056 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1184 5 . 6 1 0 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 2 3 3 3 1 . 12 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 . 28 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1185 5 . 6 0 1 0 1 3 0 1 1 1 0 2 0 3 3 3 3 1 . 12 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 . 28 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1186 5 . 6 0 3 0 1 0 1 0 2 2 2 2 1 1 0 1 3 1 . 12 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 2 1 0 0 0 1188 5 . 6 3 3 3 3 3 0 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 1 . 12 0 3 2 2 2 0 2 2 3 2 3 3 2 3 3 3 0 . 56 0 3 1 1 2 0 2 2 2 2 3 2 2 3 3 3 0 . 28 0 2 0 1 1 0 1 1 2 1 3 0 1 3 3 3 0 . 14 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 2 3 3 0 . 07 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 2190 5 . 6 1 3 1 2 2 1 3 2 2 3 3 2 3 3 3 3 1 . 12 1 3 1 1 1 1 2 1 0 3 2 1 3 2 3 3 0 . 56 0 0 1 0 1 0 2 0 0 1 1 0 2 1 1 2 0 . 28 0 1 1 1 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 . 14 0 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 . 07 0 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 1 0 0 2 0 0 1 0 . 035 0 1 2 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0191 5 . 6 3 3 3 3 3 1 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 1 . 12 1 3 3 3 3 0 3 2 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 0 . 56 0 3 3 3 3 0 2 1 2 3 3 2 3 3 3 3 0 . 28 0 1 2 2 3 0 1 0 1 2 2 0 3 3 3 3 0 . 14 0 1 1 1 3 0 1 0 0 0 2 0 2 2 3 2 0 . 07 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 3 3 3 1 0 . 035 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 . 0182 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 . 009 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 n 0 0 0 0192 5 . 6 0 2 1 0 3 0 2 2 1 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 1 . 12 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 3 1 0 0 1 3 3 0 . 56 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 1 1 0 0 1 0 . 28 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 . 14 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 2 0 0 1 0 0 0193 5 . 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 . 12 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 . 56 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 . 28 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0__________________________________________________________________________ the post - emergence herbioidal activity of some of the various compounds of this invention was demonstrated by greenhouse testing in the following manner . top soil is placed in aluminum pans having holes in the bottom and compacted to a depth of 0 . 95 to 1 . 27 cm . from the top of the pan . a predetermined number of seeds of each of several dicotyledonous and monocotyledonous annual plant species and / or vegetative propagules for the perennial plant species were placed on the soil and pressed into the soil surface . the seeds and / or vegetative propagules are covered with soil and leveled . the pans are then placed on a bench in the greenhouse and watered from below as needed . after the plants reach the desired age ( two to three weeks ), each pan , is removed individually to a spraying chamber and sprayed by means of an atomizer , operating at a spray pressure of 170 . 3 kpa ( 10 psig ) at the application rates noted . in the spray solution is an amount of an emulsifying agent mixture to give a spray solution or suspension which contains about 0 . 4 % by volume of the emulsifier . the spray solution or suspension contains a sufficient amount of the candidate chemical in order to give application rates of the active ingredient corresponding to those shown in the tables while applying a total amount of solution or suspension equivalent to 1870 l / ha ( 200 gallons / acre ). the pans were returned to the greenhouse and watered as before and the injury to the plants as compared to the control is observed at approximately 10 - 14 days ( usually 11 days ) and in some instances observed again at 24 - 28 days ( usually 25 days ) after spraying . these latter observations are designated by an asterisk (*) following the column of example numbers in the table . the post - emergent herbicidal activity index used in table 4 is as follows : ______________________________________plant response index______________________________________0 - 24 % inhibition 025 - 49 % inhibition 150 - 74 % inhibition 275 - 99 % inhibition 3100 % inhibition 4species not planted -- species planted , no data n______________________________________ table 4______________________________________post - emergent activity for weedsexample no . kg / ha a b c d e f g h i j k______________________________________ 1 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -- 0 0 4 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 -- 0 1 5 11 . 2 0 n 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -- 0 0 7 11 . 2 n 3 1 3 4 1 0 0 0 0 2 7 * 11 . 2 n 4 1 3 4 1 0 0 0 0 1 7 * 11 . 2 n 3 1 3 3 0 0 0 0 0 1 8 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 9 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 10 11 . 2 n 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 11 11 . 2 0 n 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 12 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -- 0 0 13 11 . 2 0 n 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 14 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 n 0 0 15 11 . 2 0 n 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 16 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 n 0 0 17 11 . 2 -- 0 1 1 n 0 0 0 0 0 1 18 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 19 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 20 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 21 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 22 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 23 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 24 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 25 11 . 2 n 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 26 11 . 2 -- 0 1 3 3 0 1 0 0 0 1 26 * 11 . 2 -- 1 0 3 3 0 0 0 0 0 1 27 11 . 2 -- 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 28 11 . 2 -- 1 0 1 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 29 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 30 11 . 2 -- 0 0 1 n 0 0 0 0 0 0 31 11 . 2 -- 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 32 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 1 33 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 34 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 35 11 . 2 -- 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 36 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 37 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 38 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 39 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 40 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 n 0 0 41 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 42 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 43 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 n 0 0 44 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 n 0 0 45 11 . 2 -- 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 46 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 47 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 48 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 49 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 50 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 51 11 . 2 -- 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 52 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 53 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 n 0 0 54 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 55 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 56 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 57 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 58 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 59 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 60 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 61 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 62 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 63 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 64 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 65 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 66 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 n 0 0 67 11 . 2 -- 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 68 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 69 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 70 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 71 11 . 2 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 72 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 n 0 0 73 11 . 2 n 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 74 11 . 2 n 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 75 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 76 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 77 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 78 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 79 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 80 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 81 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 82 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 83 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 84 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 85 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 86 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 87 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 88 11 . 2 -- 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 n 0 0 89 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 n 0 0 90 11 . 2 -- 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 n 0 0 91 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 n 0 0 92 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 n 0 0 93 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 94 11 . 2 -- 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 n 0 0 95 11 . 2 -- 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 96 11 . 2 -- 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 97 11 . 2 -- 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 98 11 . 2 -- 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 99 11 . 2 -- 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 100 11 . 2 -- 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 101 11 . 2 -- 0 0 n 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 102 11 . 2 -- 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 103 11 . 2 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 104 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 105 11 . 2 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 106 11 . 2 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 107 11 . 2 1 1 0 1 4 0 1 0 0 0 1 107 * 11 . 2 2 1 1 2 4 0 1 0 0 0 1 108 11 . 2 0 1 1 1 3 0 0 0 0 0 1 109 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 110 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 111 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 112 11 . 2 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 113 11 . 2 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 114 11 . 2 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 115 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 116 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 117 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 118 11 . 2 0 n 1 2 1 1 1 0 0 0 2 119 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 120 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 121 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 122 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 123 11 . 2 0 0 0 n 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 124 11 . 2 0 0 2 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 125 11 . 2 0 0 1 n 1 0 0 0 1 0 2 126 11 . 2 0 1 0 n 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 127 11 . 2 n 2 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 2 128 11 . 2 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 129 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 130 11 . 2 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 131 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 132 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 133 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 134 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 135 11 . 2 n 3 2 3 3 1 1 3 1 0 2 135 * 11 . 2 n 3 2 3 3 2 0 3 1 0 1 136 11 . 2 4 0 0 2 3 0 0 0 0 -- 0 137 11 . 2 n 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 138 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 0 -- 0 139 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 140 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 n 0 0 141 11 . 2 n 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 n 0 0 142 11 . 2 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 143 11 . 2 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 n 0 0 144 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 145 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 146 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 n 0 1 147 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 148 11 . 2 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 149 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 150 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 151 11 . 2 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 152 11 . 2 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 n 0 0 153 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 154 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 n 0 0 0 155 11 . 2 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 155 11 . 2 n 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 157 11 . 2 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 158 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 159 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 160 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 161 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 n 0 0 162 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 163 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 164 11 . 2 n 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 165 11 . 2 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 166 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 167 11 . 2 1 1 1 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 168 11 . 2 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 169 11 . 2 n 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 170 11 . 2 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 171 11 . 2 n 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 172 11 . 2 n 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 173 11 . 2 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 174 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 175 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 176 11 . 2 0 0 1 0 n 0 0 0 0 0 0 177 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 178 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 179 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 180 11 . 2 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 181 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 182 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 n 0 0 0 0 0 0 183 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 184 11 . 2 0 0 1 0 n 0 0 0 0 0 0 185 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 n 0 0 0 0 0 0 186 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 187 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 188 11 . 2 1 2 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 189 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 190 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 191 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 192 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 193 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 194 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 n 0 1 195 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 n 0 0 196 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 n 0 0 197 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 198 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 199 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 200 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 201 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 202 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 203 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 204 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 205 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 206 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 207 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 208 11 . 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 n 0 0______________________________________ as can be seen from the data above , some of the compounds appear to be quite safe on certain crops and can thus be used for selective control of weeds in these crops . the herbicidal compositions of this invention , including concentrates which require dilution prior to application , may contain at least one active ingredient and an adjuvant in liquid or solid form . the compositions are prepared by admixing the active ingredient with an adjuvant including diluents , extenders , carriers , and conditioning agents to provide compositions in the form of finely - divided particulate solids , granules , pellets , solutions , dispersions or emulsions . thus , it is believed that the active ingredient could be used with an adjuvant such as a finely - divided solid , a liquid of organic origin , water , a wetting agent , a dispersing agent , an emulsifying agent or any suitable combination of these . suitable wetting agents are believed to include alkyl benzene and alkyl naphthalene sulfonates , sulfated fatty alcohols , amines or acid amides , long chain acid esters of sodium isothionate , esters of sodium sulfosuccinate , sulfated or sulfonated fatty acid esters , petroleum sulfonates , sulfonated vegetable oils , ditertiary acetylenic glycols , polyoxyethylene derivatives of alkylphenols ( particularly isooctylphenol and nonylphenol ) and polyoxyethylene derivatives of the mono - higher fatty acid esters of hexitol anhydrides ( e . g ., sorbitan ). preferred dispersants are methyl , cellulose , polyvinyl alcohol , sodium lignin sulfonates , polymeric alkyl naphthalene sulfonates , sodium naphthalene sulfonate , and polymethylene bisnaphthalene sulfonate . wettable powders are water - dispersible compositions containing one or more active ingredients , an inert solid extender and one or more wetting and dispersing agents . the inert solid extenders are usually of mineral origin such as the natural clays , diatomaceous earth and synthetic minerals derived from silica and the like . examples of such extenders include kaolinites , attapulgite clay and synthetic magnesium silicate . the wettable powders compositions of this invention usually contain from above 0 . 5 to 60 parts ( preferably from 5 - 20 parts ) of active ingredient , from about 0 . 25 to 25 parts ( preferably 1 - 15 parts ) of wetting agent , from about 0 . 25 to 25 parts ( preferably 1 . 0 - 15 parts of dispersant and from 5 to about 95 parts ( preferably 5 - 50 parts ) of inert solid extender , all parts being by weight of the total composition . where required , from about 0 . 1 to 2 . 0 parts of the solid inert extender can be replaced by a corrosion inhibitor or anti - foaming agent or both . other formulations include dust concentrates comprising from 0 . 1 to 60 % by weight of the active ingredient on a suitable extender ; these dusts may be diluted for application at concentrations within the range of from about 0 . 1 - 10 % by weight . aqueous suspensions or emulsions may be prepared by stirring a nonaqueous solution of a water - insoluble active ingredient and an emulsification agent with water until uniform and then homogenizing to give stable emulsion of very finely - divided particles . the resulting concentrated aqueous suspension is characterized by its extremely small particle size , so that when diluted and sprayed , coverage is very uniform . suitable concentrations of these formulations contain from about 0 . 1 - 60 % preferably 5 - 50 % by weight of active ingredient , the upper limit being determined by the solubility limit of active ingredient in the solvent . concentrates are usually solutions of active ingredient in water - immiscible or partially waterimmiscible solvents together with a surface active agent . suitable solvents for the active ingredient of this invention include dimethylformamide , dimethylsulfoxide , n - methyl - pyrrolidone , hydrocarbons , and water - immiscible ethers , esters , or ketones . however , other high strength liquid concentrates may be formulated by dissolving the active ingredient in a solvent then diluting , e . g ., with kerosene , to spray concentration . the concentrate compositions herein generally contain from about 0 . 1 to 95 parts ( preferably 5 - 60 parts ) active ingredient , about 0 . 25 to 50 parts ( preferably 1 - 25 parts ) surface active agent and where required about 4 to 94 parts solvent , all parts being by weight based on the total weight of emulsifiable oil . granules are physically stable particulate compositions comprising active ingredient adhering to or distributed through a basic matrix of an inert , finely - divided particulate extender . in order to aid leaching of the active ingredient from the particulate , a surface active agent such as those listed hereinbefore can be present in the composition . natural clays , pyrophyllites , illite , and vermiculite are examples of operable classes of particulate mineral extenders . the preferred extenders are the porous , absorptive , preformed particules such as preformed and screened particulate attapulgite or heat expanded , particulate vermiculite and the finely - divided clays such as kaolin clays , hydrated attapulgite or bentonitic clays . these extenders are sprayed or blended with the active ingredient to form the herbicidal granules . the granular compositions of this invention may contain from about 0 . 1 to about 30 parts by weight of active ingredient per 100 parts by weight of clay and 0 to about 5 parts by weight of surface active agent per 100 parts by weight of particulate clay . the compositions of this invention can also contain other additaments , for example , fertilizers , other herbicides , other pesticides , safeners and the like used as adjuvants or in combination with any of the above - described adjuvants . chemicals useful in combination with the active ingredients of this invention included , for example , triazines , ureas , carbamates , acetamides , acetanilides , uracils , acetic acid or phenol derivatives , thiolcarbamates , triazoles , benzoic acids , nitriles , biphenyl ethers and the like such as : fertilizer useful in combination with the active ingredients include , for example ammonium nitrate , urea , potash and superphosphate . other useful additaments include materials in which plant organisms take root and grow such as compost , manure , humus , sand and the like . herbicidal formulations of the types described above are exemplified in several illustrative embodiments below . ______________________________________ weight percent______________________________________i . emulsifiable concentratesa . compound of example no . 3 11 . 0free acid of complex organic 5 . 59phosphate or aromatic oraliphatic hydrophobe base ( e . g ., gafac re - 610 , registeredtrademark of gaf corp .) polyoxyethylene / polyoxypropylene 1 . 11block copolymer with butanol ( e . g ., tergitol xh , registeredtrademark of union carbide corp .) pheno1 5 . 34monochlorobenzene 76 . 96 100 . 00b . compound of example no . 14 25 . 00free acid of complex organic 5 . 00phosphate of aromatic oraliphatic hydrophobe base ( e . g ., gafac re - 610 ) polyoxyethylene / polyoxypropylene 1 . 60block copolymer with butanol ( e . g ., tergitol xh ) phenol 4 . 75monochlorobenzene 63 . 65 100 . 00ii . flowablesa . compound of example no . 24 25 . 00methyl cellulose 0 . 3silica aerogel 1 . 5sodium lignosulfonate 3 . 5sodium n - methyl - n - oleyl taurate 2 . 0water 67 . 7 100 . 00b . compound of example no . 18 45 . 0methyl cellulose . 3silica aerogel 1 . 5sodium lignosulfonate 3 . 5sodium n - methyl - n - oleyl taurate 2 . 0water 47 . 7 100 . 00iii . wettable powdersa . compound of example no . 5 25 . 0sodium lignosulfonate 3 . 0sodium n - methyl - n - oleyl - taurate 1 . 0amorphous silica ( synthetic ) 71 . 0 100 . 00b . compound of example 21 80 . 00sodium dioctyl sulfosuccinate 1 . 25calcium lignosulfonate 2 . 75amorphous silica ( synthetic ) 16 . 00 100 . 00c . compound of example no . 6 10 . 0sodium lignosulfonate 3 . 0sodium n - methyl - n - oleyl - taurate 1 . 0kaolinite clay 86 . 0 100 . 00iv . dustsa . compound of example no . 13 2 . 0attapulgite 98 . 0 100 . 00b . compound of example no . 10 60 . 0montmorillonite 40 . 0 100 . 00c . compound of example no . 54 30 . 0ethylene glycol 1 . 0bentonite 69 . 0 100 . 00d . compound of example no . 62 1 . 0diatomaceous earth 99 . 0 100 . 00v . granulesa . compound of example no . 52 15 . 0granular attapulgite ( 20 / 40 mesh ) 85 . 0 100 . 00b . compound of example no . 70 30 . 0diatomaceous earth ( 20 / 40 ) 70 . 0 100 . 00c . compound of example no . 58 1 . 0ethylene glyco1 5 . 0methylene blue 0 . 1pyrophyllite 93 . 9 100 . 00d . compound of example no . 46 5 . 0pyrophyllite ( 20 / 40 ) 95 . 0 100 . 00______________________________________ when operating in accordance with the present invention , effective amounts of the compounds of this invention are applied to the soil containing the seeds , or vegetative propagules or may be incorporated into the soil media in any convenient fashion . the application of liquid and particulate solid compositions to the soil can be carried out by conventional methods , e . g ., power dusters , boom and hand sprayers and spray dusters . the compositions can also be applied from airplanes as a dust or a spray because of their effectiveness at low dosages . the exact amount of active ingredient to be employed is dependent upon various factors , including the plant species and stage of development thereof , the type and condition of soil , the amount of rainfall and the specific compounds employed . in selective preemergence application or to the soil , a dosage of from about 0 . 02 to about 11 . 2 kg / ha , preferably from about 0 . 1 to about 5 . 60 kg / ha , is usually employed . lower or higher rates may be required in some instances . one skilled in the art can readily determine from this specification , including the above examples , the optimum rate to be applied in any particular case . the term &# 34 ; soil &# 34 ; is employed in its broadest sense to be inclusive of all conventional &# 34 ; soils &# 34 ; as defined in webster &# 39 ; s new international dictionary , second edition , unabridged ( 1961 ). thus , the term refers to any substance or media in which vegetation may take root and grow , and includes not only earth but also compost , manure , muck , humus , sand , and the like , adapted to support plant growth . although the invention is described with respect to specific modifications , the details thereof are not to be construed as limitations . | 0 |
fig1 illustrates a digital video recorder (“ dvr ”) set - top box 100 having input video feeds 102 a - 102 c and tuners 104 . the tuners 104 are connected through digital transport multiplexers 106 to a cpu 108 , a main memory 110 , and a disk 112 . the digital transport multiplexers are further connected to audio / video decoders 114 , which in turn are connected to television monitors 116 . the tuners 104 are operable to select a video feed from a cable feed 102 a , a satellite feed 102 b , or a terrestrial feed 102 c . one of sufficient skill in the relevant arts will recognize that the feeds 102 a - 102 c could be any other medium of video transmission . the tuners 104 provide the selected video to digital transport multiplexers 106 . the digital transport multiplexers 106 are then operable to transmit the selected video feed to audio / video decoders 114 for display on one or more television monitors 116 . the digital transport multiplexers 106 can alternatively transmit the selected video feed to a cpu 108 and a main memory 110 for storage in a disk 112 . furthermore , the cpu 108 can transmit a video feed stored on disk 112 through the main memory 110 to the digital transport multiplexers 106 . the digital transport multiplexers 106 can be instructed to forward the video feed stored on disk 112 to the audio / video decoders 114 rather than the selected video feed coming from tuners 104 . in this scenario , the audio / video decoders 114 will decode and transmit the video feed stored on disk 112 to the television monitors 116 for display . one skilled in the relevant arts will appreciate that a number of different memory devices may be used instead of disk 112 , including but not limited to such memory devices not typically used in dvr applications where the disclosed invention may nevertheless be employed . a typical organizational structure for storing data in a disk such as disk 112 is shown in fig2 . a disk 202 can be divided into one or more partitions 204 . each partition has partition contents 206 which include inodes 208 and data blocks 210 . an individual inode 212 comprises meta data 214 , direct block pointers 216 , indirect block pointers 218 , doubly indirect block pointers 220 , and triply indirect block pointers 222 . one of sufficient skill in the relevant arts will appreciate that the quantity and availability of each kind of n - way indirect block pointers may vary based on the system , and may include greater or fewer levels of indirect block access . an inode 212 comprises meta data 214 , used for storing information about a file , and a series of block pointers . each of the block pointers in the inode 212 contain a pointer to a block location within the data blocks 210 . the direct block pointers 216 each contain a pointer to a block location comprising a block of data 224 within data blocks 210 . indirect block pointers 218 contain a pointer to a block location comprising a direct block list 226 . the direct block list 226 comprises pointers to block locations , each comprising a block of data 224 . similarly , the doubly - indirect block pointers 220 contain a pointer to a block location comprising an indirect block list 228 , which in turn comprises pointers to block locations comprising direct block lists 226 . the direct block lists 226 comprise pointers to block locations , each comprising a block of data 224 . triply - indirect block pointers 222 contain a pointer to a block location comprising a doubly - indirect block list 230 . the doubly - indirect block list 230 comprises pointers to block locations comprising indirect block lists 228 , which in turn operate as detailed above . in a typical storage system , a single file stored on a disk 202 is associated with a particular inode 212 . if the file size is less than the size of a single block , then a single direct block pointer 216 will be used to point to the single block 224 where the data is placed . if the file is larger , then indirect block pointers are used in order to reference a direct block list 226 containing pointers to multiple data blocks 224 . assuming a block size of 4 kb and a block list size of 1024 entries , a direct block list 226 contains pointers for 4 mb worth of data blocks 224 . accordingly , an indirect block list 228 with 1024 entries contains pointers for 1024 direct block lists 226 , each comprising pointers for 4 mb worth of data blocks 224 . therefore , indirect block lists 228 in a typical system comprises pointers for 4 gb worth of data blocks 224 . in a similar manner , doubly indirect block list 230 comprises 4 tb worth of data blocks 224 . as a consequence , the singly indirect pointer within the inode may point to up to 4 mb of data , the doubly indirect pointer 4 gb of data , and the triply indirect pointer 4 tb of data . each block pointer may reference any particular 4 kb block on the disk 202 without limitation . accordingly , it is possible for a first data block 224 referenced within a direct block list 226 to be located at a drastically different location on disk 202 than a second data block 224 referenced within the direct block list 226 , with both blocks being part of a common file . because an inode traditionally represents an entire single file , blocks located in drastically different locations on disk will cause slowdowns when attempting to access the file . therefore , it is desirable to have all of the blocks that form a file to be allocated contiguously . turning now to fig3 , a block bitmap 300 is also present in a typical filesystem alongside the inode tree structure . the block bitmap 300 contains an entry for each block in the entire filesystem , each entry indicating whether the block is free 302 or used 304 . a block is marked as used 304 whenever a direct pointer within an inode as depicted in fig2 points to the block . as one of sufficient skill in the relevant arts will acknowledge , multiple pointers can reference the same block . accordingly , the block bitmap 300 is sometimes marked with a count of how many direct pointers point to the block . when the last direct pointer within an inode is zeroed or pointed to a different block , the relevant block is marked as free 302 and may be allocated to a new file . fig4 is a flowchart 400 illustrating the steps by which a garbage collection inode (“ gci ”) may be employed in order to facilitate the deletion of a file , in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention . at step 402 , an instruction to delete a particular file is received . the instruction contains a unique identifier for the file , such as a file name , in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention . using the unique identifier , the file &# 39 ; s associated inode can be determined at step 404 . the inode &# 39 ; s data block pointers are copied in step 406 to a gci , and the pointers are zeroed and the entire inode freed in step 408 . with the data block pointers now located in the gci , it is possible to iterate through all of the data block pointers in the gci and mark the data blocks pointed to by each of the data block pointers as freed in step 410 . in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention , data block pointers from multiple inodes may be copied , as in step 406 , to the gci before previous data block pointers have been completely deleted . the operation by which the copying step 406 is performed takes significantly less time than a deletion operation , in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention . accordingly , several files and their associated inodes may be marked for deletion through this process by copying the data block pointers as in step 406 to the gci in less time than it would take to delete each file using the methods in the prior art . fig5 compares the operation of a gci 508 to an inode 502 in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention . the gci 508 is a specially - designated inode with the same structure as a regular inode 502 . however , the gci 508 will have its block pointers initially zeroed 510 , such that the gci 508 does not represent any area of memory . fig5 illustrates , on the left column of the dashed lines 514 , the state of an inode 502 to be deleted , and the state of the gci 508 on the right column of the dashed lines 514 . both the inode 502 and the gci 508 are shown prior to deletion 500 along the dashed lines 516 , and after deletion 512 below the dashed lines 516 . with continued reference to fig4 , if a user wishes to delete a recording represented by inode 502 , an instruction is provided as in step 402 indicating the recording or file to be deleted . as in step 404 , the inode 502 associated with the file is determined . this inode 502 contains a pointer to a location a 0 where , for example , a doubly indirect block list 506 is found . the doubly indirect block list 506 contains indirect pointers to other lists , and traversing these lists eventually leads to the specific data blocks that comprise the recording represented by the inode 502 . traditionally , the filesystem would have to traverse through each block list to reach each data block , free the pointer referring to the data block , and furthermore mark the pointed to block as free in the block bitmap 300 ( fig3 ). considering a situation prior to deletion 500 of the recording represented by the inode 502 , it is possible to realize a more efficient deletion operation through the use of the gci 508 . this is accomplished by transferring the address of a block list pointer 504 from the inode representing the recording to be deleted to the appropriate pointer in the gci 508 as in step 406 . as indicated in fig5 after deletion 512 , the gci 508 would subsequently contain pointers to the data blocks that form the to - be - deleted recording . as in step 408 , the original inode 502 has its pointer to the data blocks that form the to - be - deleted recording zeroed 510 . the inode 502 is now empty . by performing this transfer on a pointer to a list of lists of data blocks , the entire recording to be deleted can be easily transferred to the gci 508 in only two operations . the data remains on the disk until the block bitmap 300 ( fig3 ) has been updated such that the data blocks which compose the to - be - deleted recording are set to a free state 302 . this is accomplished as in step 410 by iterating through the pointers contained by the gci 508 and marking the data blocks pointed to by the pointers as free . with the blocks to be freed pointed to by the gci 508 , a separate process is operable to parse through the gci 508 to free each of the relevant blocks as in step 410 ( fig4 ), in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention . the separate process may be a low priority process in order to free the blocks in the background without interrupting the operation of the dvr 100 ( fig1 ). in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention , the separate process frees the data blocks pointed to by the gci 508 by traversing the gci 508 , zeroing the data block pointers , and marking the relevant block location in the block bitmap 300 as freed , as in step 410 ( fig4 ). one skilled in the relevant arts will appreciate that any method which can be used to delete an inode may similarly be applied to deletion of the recording pointed to by the gci 508 . by deferring the lengthy process of iterating through the data block pointers in the gci 508 and freeing the blocks to a separate , low priority process , filesystem functionality is not monopolized by the deletion requests , which otherwise block access to the disk resources until completed . accordingly , a dvr 100 implementing this method to delete a recording from a disk 112 will allow a user to perform further operations immediately after requesting the deletion of a recording , rather than having to wait for the deletion to actually complete . various aspects of the present invention can be implemented by software , firmware , hardware , or a combination thereof . fig6 illustrates an example computer system 600 in which the present invention , or portions thereof , can be implemented as computer - readable code . for example , the method illustrated by flowchart 400 of fig4 can be implemented in system 600 . various embodiments of the invention are described in terms of this example computer system 600 . after reading this description , it will become apparent to a person skilled in the relevant art how to implement the invention using other computer systems and / or computer architectures . computer system 600 includes one or more processors , such as processor 604 . processor 604 can be a special purpose or a general purpose processor . processor 604 is connected to a communication infrastructure 606 ( for example , a bus or network ). computer system 600 also includes a main memory 608 , preferably random access memory ( ram ), and may also include a secondary memory 610 . secondary memory 610 may include , for example , a hard disk drive 612 and / or a removable storage drive 614 . removable storage drive 614 may comprise a floppy disk drive , a magnetic tape drive , an optical disk drive , a flash memory , or the like . the removable storage drive 614 reads from and / or writes to a removable storage unit 618 in a well known manner . removable storage unit 618 may comprise a floppy disk , magnetic tape , optical disk , etc . which is read by and written to by removable storage drive 614 . as will be appreciated by persons skilled in the relevant art ( s ), removable storage unit 618 includes a computer usable storage medium having stored therein computer software and / or data . in alternative implementations , secondary memory 610 may include other similar means for allowing computer programs or other instructions to be loaded into computer system 600 . such means may include , for example , a removable storage unit 622 and an interface 620 . examples of such means may include a program cartridge and cartridge interface ( such as that found in video game devices ), a removable memory chip ( such as an eprom , or prom ) and associated socket , and other removable storage units 622 and interfaces 620 which allow software and data to be transferred from the removable storage unit 622 to computer system 600 . computer system 600 may also include a communications interface 624 . communications interface 624 allows software and data to be transferred between computer system 600 and external devices . communications interface 624 may include a modem , a network interface ( such as an ethernet card ), a communications port , a pcmcia slot and card , or the like . software and data transferred via communications interface 624 are in the form of signals which may be electronic , electromagnetic , optical , or other signals capable of being received by communications interface 624 . these signals are provided to communications interface 624 via a communications path 626 . communications path 626 carries signals and may be implemented using wire or cable , fiber optics , a phone line , a cellular phone link , an rf link or other communications channels . in this document , the terms “ computer program medium ” and “ computer usable medium ” are used to generally refer to media such as removable storage unit 618 , removable storage unit 622 , a hard disk installed in hard disk drive 612 , and signals carried over communications path 626 . computer program medium and computer usable medium can also refer to memories , such as main memory 608 and secondary memory 610 , which can be memory semiconductors ( e . g . drams , etc .). these computer program products are means for providing software to computer system 600 . computer programs ( also called computer control logic ) are stored in main memory 608 and / or secondary memory 610 . computer programs may also be received via communications interface 624 . such computer programs , when executed , enable computer system 600 to implement the present invention as discussed herein . in particular , the computer programs , when executed , enable processor 604 to implement the processes of the present invention , such as the steps in the method illustrated by flowchart 400 of fig4 discussed above . accordingly , such computer programs represent controllers of the computer system 600 . where the invention is implemented using software , the software may be stored in a computer program product and loaded into computer system 600 using removable storage drive 614 , interface 620 , hard drive 612 or communications interface 624 . the invention is also directed to computer products comprising software stored on any computer useable medium . such software , when executed in one or more data processing device , causes a data processing device ( s ) to operate as described herein . embodiments of the invention employ any computer useable or readable medium , known now or in the future . examples of computer useable mediums include , but are not limited to , primary storage devices ( e . g ., any type of random access memory ), secondary storage devices ( e . g ., hard drives , floppy disks , cd roms , zip disks , tapes , magnetic storage devices , optical storage devices , mems , nanotechnological storage device , etc . ), and communication mediums ( e . g ., wired and wireless communications networks , local area networks , wide area networks , intranets , etc .). example embodiments of the methods , systems , and components of the present invention have been described herein . as noted elsewhere , these example embodiments have been described for illustrative purposes only , and are not limiting . other embodiments are possible and are covered by the invention . such other embodiments will be apparent to persons skilled in the relevant art ( s ) based on the teachings contained herein . 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 . furthermore , the disclosed data storage techniques are not limited to any particular memory device or those commonly used in dvr applications . | 6 |
referring to fig1 and 2 , there is shown one illustrative embodiment of a mounting rail for mounting camper shells to beds of vehicles . the mounting rail is comprised of a base element 10 which is formed with an elongate strip 12 and a upwardly extending lip 14 . the base element 10 is formed of a material of sufficient strength to accomplish the structural requirements herein described . the base element 10 is formed of extruded aluminum or similar material . the elongate strip 12 of the base element 10 is fashioned to fit on the top of a truck bed sidewall 20 . the elongate strip 12 can be fastened to the top of a truck bed sidewall 20 in any way presently known or to be discovered . the upwardly extending lip 14 of the base element 10 rises in a substantially perpendicular direction from one side of the elongate strip 12 . the upwardly extending lip 14 is adjacent and lateral from the downwardly projecting lower rim 24 of a camper shell and is fashioned so as to retain the downwardly projecting lower rim 24 of a camper shell from movement due to outward lateral forces . the mounting rail for mounting camper shells to beds of vehicles is further comprised of a clamp 30 . the clamp 30 is placed on the base element 10 inward and adjacent to the lower rim 24 of a camper shell . the clamp 30 is fastened to the base element 10 in a position adjacent and inward from the lower rim 24 of a camper shell by means of a rivet 32 or other fastening means . the clamp 30 supports the lower rim 24 of a camper shell against movement due to inward lateral forces . space between the upwardly extending lip 14 and the outer side of the lower rim 24 of a camper shell , and also space between the clamp 30 and inner side of the lower rim 24 of a camper shell , is filled and bound with an adhesive 36 . when the rivet 32 or other fastening means is fastened to the clamp 30 , and the base element 10 , the upper head of the rivet 32 is hidden from view by the structure of the clamp 30 . referring to fig3 a , 3b , and 3c , there are shown other illustrative embodiments of the clamp 30 of fig1 and 2 . in fig3 a the clamp 30 is a parallelogram ( exaggerated ) in shape so that when the rivet 32 of fig1 and 2 fastens the clamp 30 to the base element 10 , edge 38 of clamp 30 is forced snugly against the inner edge of the lower rim 24 of a camper shell , tightly securing the lower rim 24 of a camper shell between the clamp 30 and the upwardly extending lip 14 of the base element 10 . in fig3 b the clamp 30 is roughly rectangular or square in shape and has a foot 40 extending downward from the inward lower corner . the foot 40 of the clamp 30 deflects the pressures created in fastening the clamp 30 to the base element 10 so that edge 42 of clamp 30 is forced snugly against the inner edge of the lower rim 24 of a camper shell , tightly securing the lower rim 24 between the clamp 30 and the upwardly extending lip 14 . in fig3 c the clamp 30 is roughly rectangular or square in shape . pressures , in this embodiment , are created between edge 44 of the clamp 30 , the lower rim 24 of a camper shell , and the upwardly extending lip 14 of the base element 10 , by ether matching right angles meeting against an adhesive 36 placed between the clamp 30 and the lower rim 24 of a camper shell ; or by forming the base element 10 with an acute angle between the upwardly extending lip 14 and the remainder of the base element 10 , and the lower rim 24 of a camper shell with a complementary acute angle of the upwardly extending lip 14 , thereby creating pressures due to the difference in the angles . referring to fig4 there is shown another illustrative embodiment of a mounting rail for mounting camper shells to beds of vehicles . in this embodiment a recess 50 is formed in the underside of the base element 52 . the recess 50 receives in it the head 54 of a fastener 56 , thereby maintaining a flush lower surface on the base element 52 for mounting on a pickup bed . referring to fig5 there is shown yet another illustrative embodiment of a mounting rail for mounting camper shells to beds of vehicles . in this embodiment a mounting rail is formed from an elongate holder 60 and a bracket 62 . the elongate holder 60 and the bracket 62 are formed of the same materials as the mounting rail described hereinabove . the elongate holder 60 has a rectangular lip 64 formed on its outboard edge , and a well 66 formed in an area below the rectangular lip 64 . the bracket 62 is formed with a horizontal strip 68 and a vertical strip 70 . the inboard edge 76 of the horizontal strip 68 is received into the well 66 of the elongate holder 60 to secure the two pieces together against vertical pressures . the bracket 62 is further secured to the elongate holder 60 with a rivet 72 or other fastener as herein above described . the rivet 72 or other fastener extends from a point below the bracket 62 , through the elongate holder 60 , and terminates inside the rectangular lip 64 of the elongate holder 60 . the downwardly projecting lower rim 74 of a camper shell is received between the vertical strip 70 of the bracket 60 , and the outboard edge of the rectangular lip 64 . the lower rim 24 of a camper shell is retained between the vertical strip 70 of the bracket 62 , and the outboard edge of the rectangular lip 64 of the elongate holder 60 by means of adhesive 78 therebetween . it is to be understood that the above - described arrangements are only illustrative of an application of the present invention . numerous modifications and alternative arrangements may be devised by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention and the appended claims are intended to cover such modifications and arrangements . | 1 |
turning now to the figures and particularly fig1 through 4 , the present invention comprises broadly a temporary connector means here shown as a resilient ring 20 of foam rubber or the like carrying a pressure - sensitive adhesive layer 22 on its lower surface which in turn is protected by a removable film 24 . the opposite or upper surface of the ring 20 is permanently attached by any suitable means such as adhesive 26 to a support member 28 . the support member 28 can take various forms but one of the simplest is that of a convex sheet of resilient metal or spring plate of substantially the same size and shape as the included area of the resilient ring 20 so that in the device shown , the circular resilient ring 20 is attached to the circular support member 28 . centrally located with respect to the ring 20 and spaced radially inwardly therefrom is a resilient pad 30 that is secured by the adhesive 26 to the same surface of the support member 28 as the resilient ring 20 . for convenience , this surface and direction will hereinafter be referred to as the lower surface or downward direction as indicated in fig4 . however , it is to be clearly understood that this direction is solely for convenience and it is the position of the various elements relative to each other that is important , rather than whether the surfaces and forces are upward or downward . the lower surface of the central pad 30 is coated with a temporary pressure - sensitive adhesive 32 to which is adhered an attachment or patch 34 that is to be bonded to a supporting substrate 36 . assuming that the patch 34 is to be applied to the supporting substrate 36 , the method of using the device just disclosed is illustrated in fig5 through 8 . after appropriately cleaning the upper surface of the supporting substrate 36 and the lower or free surface of the patch 34 , a permanent setting or curable adhesive 40 is applied to the lower surface of the patch 34 as indicated in fig5 . the protective film 24 is removed from the adhesive layer 22 on the lower surface of the resilient ring 20 to uncover the pressure - sensitive adhesive layer 22 . the patch 34 is then properly located over the appropriate section of the supporting substrate 36 and pressure is then applied to the peripheral edges of the support member 28 as indicated in fig6 . this compresses the resilient ring 20 and causes the pressure - sensitive adhesive layer 22 to hold the resilient ring 20 temporarily to the supporting substrate 36 . at this time there is preferrably no or little contact between the patch 34 or the adhesive 40 thereon with the adjacent supporting substrate 36 . to adhere the patch 34 to the supporting substrate 36 , the center portion of the support member 28 is then pressed downwardly toward the supporting substrate 36 as indicated in fig7 . as previously mentioned , the support member 28 is formed of a resilient or springable material that has been warped to have a generally convex shape presented away from the supporting substrate 36 . when sufficient pressure is applied centrally to the upper surface of the support member 28 , as indicated in fig7 the support member 28 snaps over center from a convex to a concave shape . consequently , the upper surface of the resilient central pad 30 is moved toward the supporting substrate 36 and as a result , the pad 30 is compressed to force the patch 34 against the supporting substrate 36 . excess adhesive 40 is forced outwardly into an annular space between the pad 30 and the resilient ring 20 to form a ring 42 around the patch 34 . this flow of adhesive 40 can continue during setting of the adhesive whereby the force applied to the patch 34 tends to urge the patch continuously toward the supporting substrate 36 . at this point the pressure - sensitive adhesive layer 22 holds the resilient ring 20 to the supporting substrate 36 and the adhesive 26 holds the resilient ring 20 under tension to the support member 28 . the pressure - sensitive adhesive layer 22 applied to the lower surface of the resilient ring 20 must have sufficient strength to hold the resilient ring 20 firmly to the supporting substrate 36 while the adhesive 40 is curing . thus , the resilient ring 20 under tension applies a force to the support member 28 to urge the support member toward the supporting substrate , and thereby also apply a similarly directed force to the patch 34 . a study of the forces involved shows that the total force tending to separate the resilient ring 20 and the adhesive layer 22 from the supporting substrate 36 equals the total force pressing the patch 34 against the substrate . after the adhesive 40 has sufficiently cured , additional force is applied to lift the resilient ring 20 from the supporting substrate 36 , the pressure - sensitive adhesive layer 22 having less adhesive power than the curable adhesive 40 . the pressure - sensitve adhesive 32 releases the patch 34 from the resilient central pad 30 , as indicated in fig8 leaving the patch 34 in place as shown in fig3 . it will be recognized that the pressure - sensitive adhesive 32 connecting the patch 34 to the resilient central pad 30 need only have enough holding power to hold the patch 34 and the pad 30 together so that the two are conveniently united . on the other hand , the pressure - sensitive adhesive layer 22 that holds the resilient ring 20 to the supporting surface 36 must have greater holding power since , as indicated in fig7 the pressure applied to the ring 20 by the springable support member 28 places the ring 20 in tension , tending to pull the ring 20 from the supporting substrate 36 . it will also be recognized that it is important that the pressure - sensitive adhesive 32 that holds the patch 34 to the resilient central pad 30 must have less holding power than the curable adhesive 40 holding the patch 34 to the supporting substrate 36 . were this not so , when the resilient ring 20 and springable support member 28 are removed from the supporting substrate 36 , the bond between the central pad 30 and the batch 34 would be greater than the bond between the patch 34 and the supporting substrate 36 , and consequently the patch would be removed without having performed its intended function . in fig9 through 12 , there is illustrated another form of the attachment assembly in which the unit or attachment to be applied is what might be termed a hat - shaped attachment rather than the flat patch 34 shown in fig1 - 8 . the hat - shaped attachment finds a variety of uses as for example where a protuberance such as a nut is located on a flat substrate and a threaded rod extends through that flat substrate and into the nut . if a seal is to be provided over the nut and the threaded rod , the hat - shaped attachment 134 , best seen in fig1 , is useful . in this form of device the basic construction is similar to that previously described , with a resilient drag 120 having a pressure - sensitive adhesive layer 122 on its lower surface protected by a protective film 124 . the opposite surface of the resilient ring 120 is held by an adhesive layer 126 to a springable support member 128 of the type disclosed in fig1 - 8 . in the center of the support member 128 is a generally dome - shaped section 150 that extends through the support member and is held thereto by any suitable means . this construction is best seen in fig1 . centrally located with respect to the resilient ring 120 is a compressible or resilient central annular pad 130 that is held to the support member 128 by the suitable adhesive layer 126 . a layer of pressure - sensitive adhesive 132 on the opposite side of the pad 130 holds the hat - shaped attachment 134 with respect to the support member 128 . as with the previously described flat patch 34 , the surface of the hat - shaped attachment 134 that is be to bonded to a supporting substrate 136 is coated with an adhesive such as the curable or settable adhesive 40 previously described . the hat - shaped attachment 134 is installed by properly positioning the assembly and then pressing downwardly on the periphery of the support member 128 to attach the resilient ring 120 to the substrate 136 temporarily by means of the pressure - sensitive adhesive layer 122 . the dome - shaped section 150 is then pressed downwardly so that the support member 128 is forced over center in the same manner that the support member 28 is forced over center as illustrated in fig7 . after the adhesive 40 is properly cured and bonded , the support member 128 and the ring 120 and pad 130 are removed in the manner previously described , leaving the hat - shaped attachment 134 on the supporting substrate 136 as illustrated in fig1 . in fig1 and 14 , an attachment 234 and supporting substrate 236 are shown , comparable to the hat - shaped attachment 134 and the supporting substrate 136 of fig9 - 12 , the attachment 234 having a screw 252 projecting upwardly from the supporting substrate 236 as best seen in fig1 . the construction of this assembly is quite similar to that shown in fig1 with a springable over center type support member 228 carrying a resilient ring 220 cemented to the support member 228 by an adhesive layer 226 , with the resilient ring 220 having a pressure - sensitive adhesive layer 222 protected by a removable film 224 . a dome - shaped section 250 in the central portion of the support member 228 carries a compressible central annular pad 230 having a pressure - sensitive adhesive 232 that carries the attachment 234 having the upwardly projecting screw 252 . the construction is indicated in cross - section in fig1 , and the method of application is similar to that of the hat - shaped attachment 134 previously described . in fig1 and 16 there is shown another attachment generally similar to those previously described but carrying a threaded nut 356 . as illustrated in these figures , a deformable and springable over center type support member 328 , similar to the support members 128 and 228 , carries a dome - shaped center section 350 and an annular resilient ring 320 attached by means of an adhesive layer 326 . a layer of pressure - sensitive adhesive 322 on the ring 320 carries a protective film 324 all as previously described . a compressible central annular pad 330 centered with respect to the resilient ring 320 carries an attachment 334 held to the compressible pad 330 by a pressure - sensitive adhesive layer 332 . centrally located with respect to the attachment 334 is the nut 356 that may be held to the attachment member by any suitable means . the method and means for attachment to a supporting substrate 336 is comparable to that previously described with respect to the foregoing embodiments . it is to be understood , of course , that the attachment need not take the particular forms herein shown . thus , if a rectangular patch were to be applied to a supporting substrate , this can very conveniently be done . likewise , it is not important that the supporting substrate be planar since it frequently happens that a patch must be applied to a curved surface which may be curved in one or two meridians . the resilient ring 30 and the central pad 30 apply sufficient positive pressure to the patch 34 to cause the patch to conform to the surface configuration of the supporting substrate 36 . additionally , the nature of the adhesive materials is not restricted . the adhesive 40 , for example , may be one that gains its strength by evaporation of a solvent ; one that gains its strength by chemical reaction , as is the case in some of the epoxy adhesives ; or an adhesive that gains its strength and produces a bond by melting as some glue - like materials or even solder . in each case , it is important that the bond formed between the patch 34 and the supporting substrate 36 be the strongest of the various bonds to be established . the temporary bond formed between the resilient ring 20 and the supporting substrate 36 will be the next strongest bond since in pressing the patch 34 against the supporting substrate 36 , the support member 28 is moved to place the resilient ring 20 in tension , tending to pull it away from the supporting substrate . it is important that the resilient ring 20 not be pulled away from the supporting substrate 36 by the action of the springable support member 28 , but it is also important that it be possible to remove the resilient ring 20 without a great deal of difficulty after the bond between the patch 34 and supporting substrate has been completed . the bond created by the pressure - sensitive adhesive 32 holding the patch 34 to the compressible central pad 30 should be a relatively weak bond since it is important that the pad 30 be removed from the patch 34 without any undue strain tending to remove the patch from the supporting substrate 36 . it is also to be understood that it is not essential that the springable support member 28 take the form of a convex disk that can be pressed by the thumb to assume an over center concave shape . depending upon the size of the patch and its nature , it may be necessary to strike the support member , as with a hammer , to move it over center to the concave shape . while other forms for the support member may be used , the over center disc - shaped metal spring embodiment illustrated is one of the simplest forms available . a further embodiment of the invention is illustrated in fig1 - 19 and comprises an adhesive assembly with an attachment 50 similar to the attachment 234 of fig1 , wherein the attachment 50 supports an outwardly projecting threaded stud 51 . the attachment 50 is movably supported upon a support member 52 for securing the attachment 50 to a supporting surface or substrate 53 . more specifically , the support member includes a central hollow cylinder 54 with a radially inwardly projecting lip 55 at one end for threaded engagement with the stud 51 . a pair of vertically spaced annular grooves 56 and 57 are formed about the external diameter of the cylinder 54 , and these grooves 56 and 57 are positioned for selective reception of locking tabs 58 on a support member housing 59 . the support member housing 59 is also generally cylindrical in shape , and thus includes a central bore 60 for relatively free sliding reception of the cylinder 54 . the housing 59 has a plurality of the locking tabs 58 projecting radially inwardly from its upper end as viewed in fig1 and 19 , and these tabs 58 are sized for snap - fit reception either into either the lower groove 56 or the upper groove 57 . thus , the cylinder 54 carrying the attachment 50 is movable between a pair of positions and is lockable in the related position by means of the tabs 58 within one of the grooves 56 and 57 . importantly , the housing 59 is formed from a suitable metal or plastic material to accommodate the required movement of the tabs 58 between the grooves . the support member housing 59 also includes at its opposite or lower end , as viewed in fig1 - 19 , a radially outwardly projecting flange 61 to which is secured an annular , resilient ring 62 . this resilient ring 62 is conveniently secured to the flange 61 as by a layer 63 of suitable adhesive , and is formed from a compliant material such as a resilient foam or the like generally identical with the resilient ring 20 described above with respect to fig1 . this resilient ring 62 further includes on its face opposite the flange 61 a layer 64 of a temporary adhesive material such as a pressure - sensitive adhesive of the type referred to in fig1 as the adhesive layer 22 . in use , the adhesive assembly is temporarily secured to the supporting surface or substrate 53 by pressing upon the flange 61 of the support member housing 59 to secure the pressure - sensitive adhesive layer 64 to the substrate . at this point , the central cylinder 54 of the support member 52 is positioned within the housing 59 with the housing tabs 58 secured within the lower cylinder groove 56 . this retains the attachment 50 with its free or downwardly presented face 65 presented toward but spaced from the substrate 53 . as in the previous embodiments , a settable or curable permanent bond adhesive 66 has been applied to this face 65 of the attachment . when a satisfactory temporary bond is achieved between the resilient ring 62 and the substrate 53 by virtue of the layer 64 of pressure - sensitive adhesive , the central cylinder 54 of the support member 52 is pushed within the housing 59 toward the substrate 53 . as illustrated in fig1 , this translates the cylinder 54 within the housing 59 to lockingly reposition the locking tabs 58 within the upper groove 57 in the cylinder . conveniently , both the cylinder 54 and the housing 59 include at their upper ends , as viewed in fig1 - 19 , radially outwardly projecting flanges 67 and 68 , respectively , to facilitate manual grapsing of the cylinder 54 for movement thereof toward the substrate without disturbing the temporary bond between the resilient ring 62 and the substrate 53 . when the tabs 58 are locked within the upper groove 57 in the cylinder 54 , the attachment 50 is positioned with its free bonding face 65 in pressure - engagement with the substrate 53 . this forces the permanent adhesive 66 into intimate pressure - contact with the substrate 53 to fill microscopically sized pores and the like in both the attachment 50 and the substrate 53 to yield a rigid bond therebetween upon curing or setting . importantly , the position of the upper cylinder groove 57 is chosen so that the resilient ring 62 is placed in tension without releasing its temporary attachment to the substrate 53 whereby the ring 62 functions to urge the entire support member 52 towards the substrate . this correspondingly applies a positive force to the attachment 50 at all times to urge the attachment towards the substrate . to the extent that the permanent adhesive is capable of or desirous of flowing during setting or curing , this positive force applied to the attachment 50 accommodates such flowing by urging the attachment 50 to move closer to the substrate and thereby maximizes the adhesive bond between the attachment and the substrate . as soon as the permanent adhesive 66 has cured , the temporary bond between the resilient ring 62 and the substrate 53 can be broken as described in the previous embodiments ; then , the entire support member 52 can be removed from the stud 51 and the attachment 50 by rotating the support member to release the lip 55 of the cylinder 54 from threaded engagement with the stud 51 . this leaves the attachment 50 and the stud 51 secured firmly by the cured adhesive 66 to the substrate 53 , generally as shown in the previous embodiment in fig1 . still another embodiment of the invention is illustrated in fig2 - 22 , wherein an adhesive attachment assembly is shown including an attachment 71 carrying a threaded stud 72 generally identical to the attachment 50 and stud 51 of fig1 - 21 . this attachment 71 is secured temporarily by an adhesive layer 70 to a relatively small annular resilient ring 73 , which in turn is secured by another adhesive layer 74 to one end of a hollow , externally threaded carrier cylinder 75 . the stud 72 is received into the hollow interior of the cylinder 75 , and the opposite end of the cylinder 75 is closed by an enlarged cap 76 for easy manual grasping thereof , as will be described . the carrier cylinder 75 is threadably received within a threaded bore 77 of a generally cylindrical support member housing 78 , and thus is axially translatable within the housing 78 upon rotation of the cylinder 75 therein . as shown , this housing 78 includes , at its end opposite the cap 76 on the cylinder 75 , a radially outwardly projecting flange 79 to which is secured a relatively large annular resilient ring 80 by an adhesive layer 81 . this ring 80 generally corresponds with the resilient ring 20 shown and described with respect to fig1 and includes on its face opposite the flange 78 a layer 82 of a temporary adhesive such as a pressure - sensitive adhesive . in use , a permanent curable adhesive 86 such as an epoxy resin is applied to the free or bonding face 83 of the attachment 71 , with the cylinder 75 threadably positioned within the housing 78 to retract the attachment 71 from a substrate 84 ; then , the relatively large resilient ring 80 is secured temporarily to the substrate 84 by pressing the housing flange 79 toward the substrate , as illustrated by the arrows 85 in fig2 . once a satisfactory temporary bond is achieved between the resilient ring 80 and the substrate 84 , the threaded cylinder 75 is rotated to translate the attachment 71 into intimate engagement with the substrate 84 . importantly , the cylinder 75 is moved to a position to place the relatively large resilient ring 80 in tension and the smaller resilient ring 73 in compression , whereby the two rings 80 and 73 together react with the support member housing 78 and the cylinder 75 to apply a positive force to the attachment 71 for urging the attachment toward the substrate at all times . as described with respect to previous embodiments , this application of the positive force to the attachment assures maximum bonding strength between the attachment and the substrate . upon curing of the permanent adhesive 86 , the temporary bond between the larger resilient ring 80 and the substrate 84 is readily broken , whereupon the support member housing 78 , the resilient ring 80 , and the cylinder 75 are quickly and easily removed from the attachment 71 by breaking the relatively weak adhesive bond between the smaller resilient ring 73 and the attachment . this leaves the attachment 71 and the stud 72 securely bonded to the substrate 84 with an appearance generally corresponding to that shown in fig1 with respect to a previous embodiment . a further embodiment of the invention is illustrated in fig2 - 25 and comprises an attachment assembly including an attachment 91 carrying a threaded stud 92 . in this embodiment , the attachment 91 and the stud 92 are supported by a support member 93 including a central cylinder 94 having a radially inwardly projecting lip 95 at its lower end for threaded reception over the stud 92 . from the lip 95 , the cylinder 94 extends axially and concentrically about the stud 92 and has an annular ridge 96 projecting outwardly therefrom and positioned generally intermediate its length . the central cylinder 94 is received within a generally cylindrical support member housing 97 . this housing 97 includes , at its end opposite the attachment 91 , a radially inwardly projecting rim 98 in generally opposed relation with a corresponding radially outwardly projecting rim 99 at the opposite end of the central cylinder 94 . a compression spring 100 is positioned within the housing 97 and about the cylinder 94 to react between these two rims 98 and 99 and thereby function to apply an axial force to the cylinder 94 and the attachment 91 . the support member housing 97 also includes a radially outwardly projecting flange 101 at its end opposite the rim 98 , and this flange is secured by an adhesive layer 102 to an annular resilient ring 103 generally corresponding with the ring 20 of fig1 . this ring 103 in turn carries a layer 104 of a pressure - sensitive adhesive for temporary bonding to a substrate 106 , as described above with respect to the previous embodiments . in use , the central cylinder 94 is positioned as illustrated in fig2 with the annular ridge 96 in abutting engagement with the rim 98 on the support member housing 97 . the ridge 96 engages the rim 98 on its side opposite the attachment 91 to retain the spring 100 in a compact , compressed condition . in this position , a layer of permanent adhesive 107 is applied to the free or bonding face 108 of the attachment , and the resilient ring 103 is temporarily secured by the pressure - sensitive adhesive to the substrate 106 by pressing the housing flange 101 toward the substrate as shown by arrows 109 in fig2 . upon achieving a satisfactory bond between the resilient ring 103 and the substrate 106 , the central cylinder 94 is pushed toward the substrate 106 as shown by arrows 110 in fig2 . this snaps the ridge 96 on the cylinder 94 past the housing rim 98 to allow the compression spring 100 to thrust the attachment 91 into intimate contact with the substrate 106 . the spring 100 maintains a positive force upon the attachment to urge the attachment toward the substrate at all times . as described above with respect to previous embodiments , this application of positive force assures maximum bonding strength between the attachment and the substrate . importantly , the temporary bond between the resilient ring 103 and the housing flange 101 is sufficient to withstand the force applied to the attachment by the spring 100 . when the permanent adhesive 107 is cured , the temporary bond between the resilient ring 103 and the support member housing 97 is readily broken . this allows the entire support member 93 to be rotatably unthreaded from the stud 92 leaving the attachment 91 and the stud securely bonded to the substrate with an appearance generally corresponding to that shown in fig1 with regard to a previous embodiment of the invention . the adhesive attachment of this invention thus provides a movable support member carrying an attachment and adapted for temporary bonding to a substrate . the support member is movable to position the attachment in intimate contact with the substrate after temporary bonding of the support member to the substrate . appropriate apparatus is included for application of a positive force to the attachment to maintain the attachment firmly seated against the substrate throughout the curing time for a permanent adhesive , and to urge the attachment for further movement toward the substrate . in this manner , the attachment assembly accommodates any flowing of the permanent adhesive to result in maximum bonding strength between the attachment and the substrate . a variety of further modifications and improvements to the adhesive attachments described herein are believed to be apparent to one skilled in the art . for example , it should be understood that various studs , nuts , and the like can be utilized with each one of the embodiments shown and described . accordingly , no limitations upon the scope of the invention are intended , except as set forth in the appended claims . | 1 |
fig1 shows an embodiment of the invention applied to a scenario where a telephone conference is invoked and controlled via a web terminal device pc ( cc ), such as a personal computer connected to the internet ipnet . the controlling of the phone conference includes the steps of preparing and initiating a conference , adding a conferee to an already established conference , and closing the conference by on - hook . in this context the term “ conferee ” relates to all users who participate in the telephone conference except for the conference controller cc . in addition to the telephone conference a synchronised web surfing session may be provided for those conferees who have access to the internet ipnet . to initiate the telephone conference the conference controller cc sets up an http connection to the conference server ctc via the internet ipnet . authentication information such as details of the initiator , i . e . the conference controller cc , and the conferees tln1 , tln2 and tln3 as well as an access pin ( personal identification number ) may be provided . optionally , the controller cc may specify the use of a voip ( voice over ip ) connection mediated through the h . 323 or the sip ( session initiation protocol ) protocol in place of a pstn connection . for retrieval and storage of authentication information and authorisation information a ldap server ldap is placed in the vicinity of the web conference server ctc . the web conference server ctc is linked to an open service platform osp by means of corba ( common object request broker architecture ), which provides an environment for distributed applications on top of the tcp / ip ( transmission control protocol over internet protocol ) protocol stack . apis ( application programming interfaces ) of the open service platform osp allow for the provision of additional services and the implementation of additional service features . in addition , the open service platform ops receives signalling messages for call control of the telephone conference from a telephone switch ts , which are relayed to the web conference server ctc . messages between the open service platform osp and the telephone switch ts are exchanged via the protocols inap ( intelligent network user part ) and tcap ( transaction capability application part ). these two protocols are commonly used for communication between an ssp ( service switching point ) and an scp ( service control point ) in an in ( intelligent network ) network architecture with ss7 ( signalling system 7 ) signalling . the telephone switch ts , e . g . an isdn switch , assumes switching functions for the pstn connections of the telephone conference . possibly , a pstn connection is relayed to a media gateway mgw to allow for participation of conferees or the conference controller cc via voip ( voice over ip ). conferees may have internet access in addition to access to the pstn network . fig1 shows a conferee tln1 who disposes of a personal computer pc with internet access as well as a pstn telephone tel . the other conferees tln2 and tln3 are only connected to a pstn network pstnnet and participate through pstn connections . the conference controller cc may connect to the switching system or telephone switch ts , either by means of a pstn call ( telephone tel ( cc )) or through a voip call ( personal computer pc ( cc )). in the latter case a media gateway mgw is necessary to account for the change of bearer ( ip network with h . 323 versus pstn network with ss7 ). call - related signalling messages from the telephone switch ts , such as no - answer , could - not - be - reached , connected , release etc . are displayed in real time on the conference controller &# 39 ; s personal computer pc ( cc ) and optionally to conferees tln1 with internet access . the real - time notification of the conference controller cc and possibly of conferees tln1 with internet access is realised by means of a combination of server - side java servlets and dynamic http . the deployment of java applets has the advantage that a cc - side proxy ( interface ) can be serialised , i . e . admitted as parameter information to be exchanged between client , i . e . in this embodiment the conference controller &# 39 ; s personal computer pc ( cc ), and server ctc in the process of binding . thus , the cc - side proxy and other proxies involved in the application can be passed on to other clients . for example , an information handle including the cc - proxy can be put at the disposal of conferees tln1 with internet access so that new conferee - side proxies need not be generated . in the preferred embodiment the notification mechanism is based on server - side java servlets in combination with dynamic html . to start the notification mechanism a server - side servlet is invoked through an html request by the client pc ( cc ). by invoking the java servlet the client pc ( cc ) subscribes to receive notification messages transmitted from the telephone switch ts . an http connection is set up for streaming in messages from the server ctc to the client pc ( cc ). in contrast to the original client - server communication , where the http connection is closed after fetching an http page , the connection remains open while fresh notification messages are pushed to the client pc ( cc ). through the subscription by the client a format is specified for notification messages to be sent by the server ctc to the client pc ( cc ). this format is chosen to be a computer code that can be executed by the client &# 39 ; s browser , such as javascript , xml , html or java - serialised objects . the latter format can be used for browsers that make use of client - side java classes . via the subscription request by the client the transmission protocol for the streaming is specified , too . preferably , this protocol is chosen to be http , but other choices such as tcp ( transmission control protocol ), udp ( user datagram protocol ), rmi ( remote message invocation ) etc . are possible , too . the notification messages from the telephone switch ts that are received by the server ctc are formatted or adjusted for transmission to the client pc ( cc ). these messages are dispatched by means of a java servlet , which is sometimes called pushlet , that pushes or sends the notification messages to the client &# 39 ; s browser . the pushing or sending of computer code that is executed by the client &# 39 ; s browser is a mechanism originally applied in the framework of dynamic html ( dhtml ). traditionally , a page could be altered only by reloading a new page from the server . dhtml allows full control of an html document within a browser after the page has been loaded . from a programmer &# 39 ; s point of view the entire document in the web browser — frames , images , paragraphs , tables etc .— is represented as a hierarchical object model , the dom ( document object model ). through javascript or any other computer code executable by the browser one can dynamically manipulate the elements of the dom and thereby change the content or appearance of the document . the official standards body for dhtml - related specifications is the world wide web consortium ( w3c ). the client &# 39 ; s gui ( graphical user interface ) is dynamically updated with new notification messages streamed in from the server . fig2 shows a diagram with a sequence of exchanged messages for adding conferee tln2 to the telephone conference . the sequence of exchanged messages is : regc1 : a request regc1 to call conferee tln2 is transmitted from the client pc ( cc ) to the conference server ctc . mc1 : a message mc1 referring to the request to call conferee tln2 is transmitted from the server ctc to the telephone switch ts . c1 : upon reception of message mc1 a pstn call of conferee tln2 is issued by the telephone switch ts . rg : the pstn call is acknowledged from the telephone of conferee tln2 by generating a signal for the calling terminal device ( ringing ). mgrg : the acknowledgement by the telephone of conferee tln2 is signalled by the telephone switch ts to the server ctc via the notification message mgrg . resrg : the notification message mgrg is adapted and transmitted as a dhttp response resrg from the server ctc to the client pc ( cc ). reska : after every time period t an http response is sent from the server ctc to the client pc ( cc ) to inform the client that the http connection should be kept open ( ka : keep alive ). effectively , streaming is a call back by the server to the client during a client - server connection . ct : the connection between the telephone switch ts and the conferee &# 39 ; s telephone is established . mgct : the set - up of the connection between the telephone switch ts and conferee tln2 is signalled by the telephone switch ts to the server ctc via the notification message mgct . resct : the notification message mgct is adapted and transmitted as a dhttp response resct from the server ctc to the client pc ( cc ). although the above preferred embodiment describes a scenario where notification messages are transmitted from an isdn switch - to an internet terminal device pc ( cc ) via the internet , the present method could also be used in a constellation where notification messages are transmitted from a pbx ( private branch exchange ) via a private ip network ( intranet ). | 7 |
as illustrated by fig1 to 9 of the drawings , the mechanism is identical to that described in our aforesaid patent application and its mode of operation is the same . however , for the sake of complete disclosure the detailed description of the mechanism is repeated herein . the mechanism is indicated generally as 11 and is designed for installation in a door frame 12 to cooperate with a conventional dead - lock 13 fitted to a door 14 mounted within the frame . more particularly , mechanism 11 includes a catch member 16 which can cooperate with the spring loaded bolt 17 of the lock 13 to provide a locking function . however , this catch member 16 can be pivoted to an inoperative position so as to release bolt 17 and permit the door to open . the condition of catch member 16 is controlled by an electric solenoid included in the mechanism . mechanism 11 has a body 15 comprised of a hollow casing 18 and a front plate 22 . casing 18 includes a removable side plate 19 held in position by screws 23 and it is fastened to front plate 22 by means of screws 21 . body 15 has a lower relatively deep slot 25 to register with the bolt 17 of lock 13 and door 14 swings to its closed position and an upper relatively short slot 26 to register with the dead lock actuator bar 27 of the lock 13 as will be more fully explained below . catch member 16 is mounted across slot 25 . more particularly , it is pivotally mounted on a pivot pin 28 which traverses slot 25 and extends into holes in casing wall portions 30 , 35 which define upper and lower walls of the slot . it is shaped generally as a long bar of l - shaped transverse cross - section , one limb 31 of which is mounted on the pivot pin 28 and the other limb 32 of which serves as the catch for lock bolt 17 . limb 31 has a bore 33 extending through it to receive pivot pin 28 and is counter - bored at each end to provide end recesses 34 to house a pair of torsion springs 36 disposed about pin 28 . springs 36 have short end arms 37 which project into slots 38 formed in the walls of recesses 34 of catch member 16 and rather longer arms 38 which react against the side wall 40 of casing 18 . they bias catch member 16 toward the position shown in fig1 and 4 in which position the flat end surface 45 of its limb 31 abuts the casing side wall 40 to limit pivoting movement and its limb 32 is generally parallel with wall 40 and can serve as a catch for the spring loaded lock bolt 17 . this is most clearly illustrated in fig4 in which the phantom lines indicate the position of the door and the lock bolt as the door approaches the fully closed position and the full lines show the position of these components when the door is fully closed . the outer end of limb 32 of the catch member is chamfered to provide a sloping striker face 41 which is struck by the lock bolt as the door is closed to force the lock bolt back against its spring loading . as the door reaches its fully closed position the lock bolt is forced outwardly by its spring loading to locate behind the side face 42 of catch limb 32 . at the same time the dead lock actuator bar 27 of the lock enters slot 26 and strikes a ramp surface 55 formed in front plate 22 at the end of the slot so as to be actuated to move the dead lock pin within the lock in the usual manner . as will be described below catch member 16 can be locked in position so that face 42 of its limb 32 acts as a locking face to prevent opening of the door . however , catch member can be released so that it can be pivoted about pivot pin 28 to allow release of the door in the manner shown in fig5 . the locking and release of catch member 16 is achieved through a detent mechanism comprised of a lever 43 and a keeper member 44 which is controlled by means of a solenoid 46 . lever 43 is in the form of a long bar provided at one end with a bore 48 to receive a pivot pin 47 by which it is pivotally mounted on casing 18 . it is disposed within casing 18 immediately behind catch member 16 and it extends longitudinally of the catch member . more specifically , it is arranged to engage the outer corner part 49 of the catch member at the junction between the two limbs 31 , 32 . this outer corner part of the catch member serves as a cam to engage lever 43 and pivot it about its pivot pin 47 when catch member 16 is pivoted between its operative and inoperative positions . it has a cam surface 51 which is cylindrically curved about the pivot axis of catch member 16 and a leading cam edge 52 which subtends an angle of rather more than 90 ° to surface 51 . lever 43 is biased into firm engagement with catch member 16 by two helical compression springs 53 acting directly between the lever and a rear wall portion 54 of casing 18 . it is formed from rectangular bar stock so as to have flat front and side faces 56 , 57 but one corner edge 58 is relieved by a saw - tooth notch 59 to form a flat triangular cam face 61 which engages the leading cam edge 52 of catch member 16 when the catch member is in its operative position . this condition of the catch member 16 and lever 43 is illustrated by fig2 and 4 . it will be seen that lever 43 , although extending generally longitudinally of catch member 16 , subtends a slight acute angle to it and its triangular cam face 61 lies flat against an end part of cam edge 52 . keeper member 44 acts to enable lever 43 to be locked in this condition or released according to the supply of electrical signals to solenoid 46 . keeper member 44 is shaped generally as a bell crank . it has two mutually perpendicular arms 62 , 63 and is pivotally mounted on body 18 by a pivot pin 64 . its arm 62 is transverse to lever 43 and has a notch 66 to engage the outer end of the lever so as to provide a detent action holding the lever in the position shown in fig2 . notch 66 is generally of saw - tooth shape to define a sloping catch face 67 and the outer end of lever 43 is notched at 68 so as to be shaped as a tooth having a tooth face 69 to engage the catch face 67 of the keeper arm . keeper member 44 may be held in its keeping position shown in fig2 by the action of solenoid 46 . this solenoid has a coil 71 wound on a body 72 about a central core 73 . it is mounted in casing 18 so that when energized its magnetized core will attract the outer end of actuator arm 63 of keeper member 44 to hold the keeper member in its keeping position . its core is connected to a mild steel backing plate 50 which extends close to the outer end of arm 63 so as to direct magnetic flux through the keeper member and thus increase the attractive force of the solenoid . as shown in fig2 a slight clearance is maintained between the solenoid core and arm 63 to prevent sticking when the solenoid is de - energized . keeper member 44 is biased away from its keeping position by a biasing spring 74 . this spring has a coiled portion 76 looped around the keeper member pivot pin 64 and two end arms 77 , 78 which are engaged respectively with the casing 18 and a hole in keeper arm 62 . when solenoid 46 is energized it holds the keeper member in its keeping position against the action of biasing spring 74 . however , when solenoid 46 is de - energized spring 74 acts to pivot keeper member 44 to the position shown in fig3 in which its actuator arm 63 is held against an adjustable stop screw 74 and its keeper arm 62 is drawn away from keeping engagement with the outer end of lever 43 . the only action then holding catch member 16 in its catch position is that provided by springs 53 acting on lever 43 . however , because of the cam action between lever 43 and cam portion 49 of the catch member only a light force is needed on catch member 16 to pivot it away from its operative position to force lever 43 back against its biasing springs to the inoperative position shown in fig3 and 5 . at the start of such movement of the catch member its cam edge 52 acts on the triangular cam face 61 of lever 43 to force the lever backwardly against its biasing springs until the cylindrical curved cam surface 51 can engage the flat front face 56 of the lever as shown in fig5 . the rear part of casing 18 has a compartment 81 which houses a micro - switch 82 the actuator 83 of which is engaged by a bracket 84 on lever 43 when the lever is moved consequent to pivoting of catch member 16 to its inoperative position . electrical leads from solenoid 46 and micro - switch 82 are connected within casing 18 to a terminal block 86 which is located partly within compartment 82 but extends rearwardly through an opening in the back wall 87 of the casing and is fitted outside the casing with a series of terminals 88 for connection to external wiring . the catch mechanism illustrated in fig1 to 8 will operate to hold the door locked for so long as solenoid 46 is energized . by de - energizing the solenoid , catch member 16 is freed and the door can be opened . the mechanism has a wide range of applications . for example it may be used in a fire door installation in order to maintain a fire door in a normally locked condition but to release the door in response to a signal created by a smoke or heat detector acting through any suitable relay to interrupt the supply of power to solenoid 46 . in other applications the supply of power to solenoid 46 may be interrupted by operation of a push button located inside a building or by a signal derived from a reader device in response to a magnetically coded key or card . micro - switch 82 may be used to derive a warning or alarm signal each time that the door is opened . fig9 illustrates a modification by which the mechanism is adapted to keep a door locked when the solenoid is de - energized and releases the door when the solenoid receives an electrical signal . the components of the mechanism are not altered but the setting of spring 74 is altered to bias keeper member 44 toward its keeping position and solenoid 46 is displaced through 90 ° from its previous position so as to act directly on keeper arm 62 rather than on arm 63 of the keeper member . the re - setting of biasing spring 74 involves insertion of its arm 77 in a hole drilled in arm 63 instead of in the hole in arm 62 and the other spring arm 78 acts against a different part of casing 18 . in this case keeper arm 62 is normally held by spring 76 in keeping engagement with the upper end of lever 43 by the action of spring 74 but is lifted to free the lever when solenoid 46 is energized . stop screw 79 is set to engage arm 63 of keeper member 44 before arm 62 can engage the solenoid core so that even when the solenoid is energized there will be a slight clearance between its core and arm 62 . mechanism 11 is set into a recess 91 in door frame 12 and may be held in position by conventional wood screws passed through counter - sunk holes 92 in front plate 22 . a groove 93 may be formed in the door frame to receive the projecting part of terminal block 86 and the external wiring . as shown in fig4 and 5 side plate 19 of casing 18 has an inturned lip 96 which abuts cam surface 51 of catch member 16 and as the catch member pivots the cylindrical surface 51 simply slides on lip 96 . thus , contact is maintained between catch member 16 and lip 96 at all times to seal off the interior of the casing and prevent tampering by insertion of an instrument between the catch member and the casing . fig1 and 11 show the heat responsive locking means which is incorporated in the mechanism in accordance with the present invention . this locking means comprises a stainless steel pin or plunger 101 which is located within a cavity 102 in catch member 16 and is biased by a helical compression spring 103 located within the cavity . cavity 102 is in the form of a deep cylindrical hole drilled in the outer corner part 49 of catch member 16 to extend parallel with the pivot axis of the catch member . it has an enlarged mouth 104 at one end of the catch member and this mouth is closed by a plug 105 of white metal which will melt at a selected temperature . the enlarged mouth of the cavity may be internally screw threaded and the plug may be in the form of a white metal grub screw with a driving slot 110 to screw into the threaded mouth . in normal service of the mechanism plug 105 retains plunger 101 within cavity 102 with biasing spring 103 held in a compressed condition . the casing wall portion 35 of the body 15 is provided with a recess 106 at such a location that it registers with the plugged cavity 102 of the catch member when the catch member is in the operative position shown in fig1 and 4 . recess 106 may be formed by drilling a hole through casing wall portion 35 and then plugging the outer end of this hole with a plug 107 held in place by a transverse pin 108 . during normal service of the mechanism the locking means illustrated in fig1 and 11 is inoperative . however , plug 105 has a much lower fusing temperature than the other parts of the mechanism such as the body 15 , catch member 16 and plunger 101 which may all be made of high melting temperature steels . thus , if a fire should occur and cause heating of the mechanism , plug 105 will melt at such a stage that plunger 101 will be extended under the influence of biasing spring 103 to enter recess 106 in casing wall portion 35 and so provide locking interengagement between catch member 16 and the body of the mechanism . the catch member will then be locked in the operative or locking position regardless of the electrical or physical condition of the other components of the mechanism . the composition of white metal plug 105 is chosen to have a fusing temperature appropriate to the particular application . this temperature will generally be in the range of 300 °- 900 ° f . so that when the plug melts there would normally be no survivors within the space closed by the fire door . thus , the design will be such that the mechanism can be released electrically to open the door during conditions when people may have to escape through the door but the catch member subsequently becomes permanently locked in position even should the electrical components be burned out and the lever and keeper mechanism be damaged . the dead lock 13 can , of course , always be operated manually to provide for emergency exit . since the mechanism is designed to be used with fire doors , casing 18 and front plate 22 are both constructed of stainless steel . catch member 15 is an investment casting of non - magnetic stainless steel . lever 43 is also made of non - magnetic stainless steel and keeper member 44 is made of a magnetic steel . the illustrated mechanism has been advanced by way of example only and it could be modified considerably . for example , although the illustrated arrangement of a lever and keeper arm is preferred in order to allow a very compact and robust mechanism other actuator means are possible . australian patent specification no . 426 , 474 describes one alternative in which a lever which normally holds the catch member in its operative position is acted on directly by an electromagnet . it is to be understood that the heat responsive locking means of the present invention may be fitted to such mechanisms and accordingly that many variations will fall within the scope of the appended claims . | 8 |
in accordance with the present invention , a pharmaceutical composition is provided which includes a medicament which may degrade in a low ph environment but which is prevented from doing so by the addition of a buffering agent . accordingly , the pharmaceutical composition of the invention includes drugs which are chemically unstable in an acidic environment , such as pravastatin sodium . the invention provides immediate release pravastatin formulations which provide alternatives to the prior art formulations which require the presence of a basifying agent which have a ph of at least 9 . unlike the prior art basifying agent requirement , the invention favorably influences stability by the addition of a buffer which can be an alkaline reacting organic compound , a hydroxide of an alkali metal , an alkaline salt of phosphoric acid , carbonic acid or silicic acid or an alkaline ammonium salt representative examples of these buffers are described in u . s . pat . no . 6 , 013 , 281 which is incorporated herein by reference . basifying agent , as the term is used herein , refers to compounds capable of raising the ph to above 7 . they are added to formulations of pravastatin to improve chemical and physical stability . according to previous pravastatin formulations containing basifying agents , tablets should retain 80 - 90 % of active ingredient at the end of one year in the presence of stabilizers . the stability of these formulations without a basifying agent was tested in accordance with and exceeding current pharmaceutical industry standards for storage ( i . e ., 4 to 12 weeks at about 40 ° c . and about 75 % relative humidity ). formulations of the present invention stored under these conditions retain at least 90 % of the pravastatin in the composition at the time of storage . standard procedures such as hplc or uv spectroscopic methods may be used to determine the amount of active ingredient remaining after storage . the final dosage form most preferably retains assay limits of 90 to 110 percent of the original assay value when stored under controlled room temperature conditions . the design of the stability studies was in compliance with the general requirements suggested by the fda stability guidelines . the total amount of inactive ingredients in the formulations is preferably 30 % or more of the weight of the pravastatin . the tablets are prepared by the direct compression method . the invention is particularly adaptable to pharmaceutical compositions containing pravastatin . pharmaceutical compositions of the present invention generally contain 10 - 40 mg or an amount with the range of about 2 to about 50 % of pravastatin by weight , and preferably from about 4 to about 25 % by weight of the composition . more preferred compositions of the invention contain 40 mg of active ingredient and may be in the form of tablets , caplets or capsules . the pharmaceutical formulations of the present invention provide a stable environment for drugs which require an alkaline environment by utilizing a buffer . the formulations contain a buffering agent present in an amount within the range of about 3 to about 10 % by weight of the composition . examples of other suitable buffering agents include sodium acetate , sodium citrate , sodium tartrate , sodium fumerate , sodium maleate , sodium succinate , combinations of sodium or potassium hydroxide with sodium or potassium acid phosphate . the preferred buffering agent is tromethamine , a weak base amino - alcohol , also known as 2 - amino - 2 hydroxymethyl - 1 , 3 - propanediol , ( tris ( hydroxymethyl ) aminomethane ) or tris . tromethamine has a greater buffering capacity than bicarbonate ; pka 7 . 82 versus 6 . 1 , respectively . tromethamine has been found to have excellent stabilizing effects on solid dosage forms containing drugs with limited water solubility which need to be solubilized in buffer to avoid otherwise solubilizing the drug in large quantities of granulating media . tromethamine has been discovered to be most advantageous when a therapeutically - effective buffer - soluble drug has a solubility at 25 ° c . of less than 1 mg of drug per ml of water at ph 7 . 0 or lower . an advantage of tromethamine lies in its water solubility and , accordingly , it blends well with an excipient like lactose . tromethamine as used herein is preferably present in the range of about 1 to 10 %, more preferably , 2 to about 6 % of the pravastatin sodium drug granulation , and most preferably , 4 % by weight of the composition . another preferred buffering agent is dibasic sodium phosphate ( na 2 hpo 4 ), which is very soluble in water and widely used as a buffering agent for pharmaceuticals . pharmaceutical compositions of the present invention as in example 1 below , may contain one or more fillers in a range from about 30 to about 95 % by weight and preferably from about 60 to about 80 % by weight . anhydrous lactose which is considered an inert pharmaceutical excipient is added as a directly compressible tableting excipient . anhydrous lactose is also used as a diluent to achieve content uniformity of the finely divided active ingredients . the release rate of anhydrous lactose increases as the particle size of the sugar decreases . in the preferred embodiment , the optimal amount of lactose is found to be 73 weight % of the granules and 73 % of the total tablet weight . examples of other suitable excipients known to those skilled in the art which may be used include , sucrose , dextrose , lactose , cellulose derivatives such as microcrystalline cellulose , calcium carbonate , calcium sulfate , magnesium carbonate , corn starch , modified corn starch , mannitol , xylitol , fructose , sorbitol , and mixtures thereof . the optimal concentration of the fillers for pravastatin granules was determined to be a mixture of 1 : 6 . 5 ( wt ./ wt .). the optimal concentration of the fillers for the pravastatin sodium tablets was determined to be a mixture of 1 : 3 . an effective amount of any generally accepted pharmaceutical tableting lubricant , may be added to compress the tablets . if a lubricant is added it should be present in an amount within the range from about 0 . 05 to about 6 %, preferably 0 . 5 to about 2 % by weight may be added . tablet lubricants present are preferably from the group consisting of glyceryl monostearates , magnesium stearate , palmitic acid , talc , carnauba wax , calcium stearate , sodium or magnesium lauryl sulfate , calcium soaps , zinc stearate , polyoxyethylene monostearates , calcium silicate , silicon dioxide , hydrogenated vegetable oils and fats , or stearic acid . most preferably , magnesium stearate is present as a lubricant to prevent the powder from agglomerating during processing on a high speed rotary press . magnesium stearate is added to the granulation to assist compression . a preferred lubricant is magnesium stearate . in the preferred embodiment shown in example 1 , magnesium stearate is used in an amount of less than 2 % of the tablet . one or more binders may be present in a range of about 0 - 20 %, preferably 5 to about 15 %, and most preferably about 10 %. examples of suitable binders may include , but are not limited to cellulose compounds , ( such as microcrystalline cellulose , methyl cellulose , hydroxymethyl cellulose , hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose ), acrylates , methacrylates , polyvinylpyrrolidone , and other materials known to have cohesive and desirable binding properties which are known to one of ordinary skill in the art . in the preferred embodiment , microcrystalline cellulose is used . a tablet disintegrant is added to the direct compression process for its wicking ( i . e ., the ability of particles to draw water into the porous network of a tablet ) and swelling ability . some of these disintegrants also serve as excellent binders and are able to substantially improve the mechanical strength of the formulation . suitable disintegrants are carboxymethyl cellulose sodium , carboxymethyl cellulose calcium , crospovidone , sodium starch glycolate , corn starch , insoluble cationic - exchange resins such as polyacrylin , microcrystalline cellulose , croscarmellose . disintegrants are added at concentrations ranging from 0 . 5 - 10 %. croscarmellose sodium ( cross - linked carboxymethyl cellulose ) preferably at a concentration of 2 - 6 %, and most preferably at a concentration of 5 % is preferred . croscarmellose is not compatible with hygroscopic excipients and soluble salts of metals . a colorant may be added to the lactose forming the pravastatin sodium granules and the directly compressed powders . alternatively , colorant may be added to the tableting process . the colorant may include various soluble synthetic dyes and insoluble pigments such as fd & amp ; c colors including aluminum lakes . in the preferred embodiment , lake blend purple is utilized . the tablets of the invention may also include a film or sugar coating layer . the film or sugar coating influences the tablet moisture , surface roughness , and coating efficacy and uniformity . the film or sugar coating formulation which may be 1 - 6 % of the total formulation . in a preferred embodiment the pravastatin is granulated with the filler , the binding agent and the buffer solution . the pravastatin granules preferably comprise 50 - 90 % of the total tablet weight , more preferably 60 - 80 %, and most preferably 70 - 75 %. the preferred pravastatin granule composition of the invention is given below : the ph there granules should be less than 9 , preferably less than 8 . 5 and most preferably less than 8 . the manufacture of tablets of the present invention involves dissolving tromethamine in water and using the solution to granulate a mixture of anhydrous lactose , microcrystalline cellulose , and pravastatin . filler ( preferably anhydrous lactose ) and binder ( preferably microcrystalline cellulose ) are separately screened or milled to break up agglomerates . the screened materials and drug ( pravastatin ) are then granulated in the following order : fraction of the filler ( less than 50 %), drug , binder , remaining filler ( less than 40 %). a buffer in solution is added and mixed . granulation cycle is initiated until the desired consistency of granulation is achieved . the granules are then passed through a 25 mesh screen , dried by conventional methods and passed through a fitzmill . the drug granulation is then blended with sufficient quantity of filler to bulk up for tablet compression . the filler is screened through a 25 mesh screen . the drug granules are placed into a blender with screened filler . the lubricant is then screened and added to the blender followed by the coloring agent which is screened and added to the blender . the powders are then compressed into tablets using appropriate conventional tools such as a suitable tableting press to form the tablet of the invention . each tablet in the above procedure preferably contains a therapeutically effective amount of pravastatin sodium and the following excipients : alternatively , the tablets may also be formulated by a wet granulation technique where a mixture of the medicament , buffer , filler , and binder is granulated using an aqueous binder solution such as polyvinyl pyrrolidone . the following examples are illustrative of the present invention , and the examples should not be considered as limiting the scope of this invention in any way , as these examples and other equivalents thereof win become apparent to those versed in the art in the light of the present disclosure , and the accompanying claims . tablet formulations containing 40 mg of pravastatin sodium are made with the following ingredients in the following amounts : two seperate portions of anhydrous lactose , along with microcrystalline cellulose are individually sifted through a 25 mesh screen . the sifted ingredients are then placed in a granulator in the following order : 1 . the larger portion of anhydrous lactose 2 . pravastatin sodium 3 . microcrystaline cellulose 4 . the smaller portion of anhydrous lactose after each addition , the granulator is started and allowed to mix the dry materials . after , the addition of the final portion of anhydrous lactose , the material is granulated with tromethamine solution , using conventional means . the granulate is dryed in any acceptable manner for pharmaceutical processing . drying continues until the moisture content is below about 2 %. most preferably , the granules are dryed until the moisture content is below about 1 . 8 %. the dried granules are passed through a screen of 25 mesh approximate size . the screening of the granules may be through any desired machine or mechanism as is commonly known in the art . a pharmaceutical formulation is then prepared as follows using the pravastatin granules comprising approximately , by weight : after screening the anhydrous lactose , it is charged together with the pravastatin granules into a suitable blender . after sifting through a 25 mesh screen , the resultant granulation is then lubricated . in the following order , croscarmellose sodium , magnesium stearate , and lake blend purple are added to the blender . the blend was compressed into tablets using any conventional manner . in the same manner as described in example 1 , a tablet containing 20 mg of pravastatin sodium is made with the ingredients and amounts indicated below : ingredient mg / tablet pravastatin sodium 22 anhydrous lactose , nf 75 anhydrous lactose , nf 70 tris ( tromethamine ), usp 8 microcrystalline cellulose , nf 20 in the same manner as described in example 1 , a tablet containing 10 mg of pravastatin sodium is made with the ingredients and amounts indicated below : 2 . combining the screened lactose with the pravastatin sodium granules into a suitable blender . 3 . allowing the blender to combine the granules with lactose until a uniform blend is achieved . 4 . pass the crosscarmellose sodium , magnesium stearate , and lake blend purple through a 25 mesh screen . 5 . add the crosscarmellose sodium , magnesium stearate , and lake blend purple to the blender containing the granules with lactose . the ph of this tablet is approximately 8 . 35 and was determined by dissolving 1 tablet in 900 ml of deionized water . the ph of this tablet is approximately 8 . 00 and was determined by dissolving 1 tablet in 900 ml of deionized water . ingredient mg / tablet pravastatin sodium granules 100 anhydrous lactose 18 croscarmellose sodium , nf 5 magnesium stearate 1 lake blend purple 1 pravastatin sodium tablets with tromethamine were subjected to an accelerated stability test the tablets were exposed to 40 ° c . ( 75 % relative humidity ) for 3 months time . at the end of 3 months time , the amount of pravastatin sodium that had degraded to lactones were determined by hplc analysis . the stability tests indicate that replacing the basifying agent magnesium oxide with the buffer tromethamine increases the stability of pravastatin sodium tablets . while certain preferred and alternative embodiments of the invention have been set forth for purposes of disclosing the invention , modifications to the disclosed embodiments may occur to those who are skilled in the art . accordingly , the appended claims are intended to cover all embodiments of the invention and modifications and variations may be made herein , in accordance with the inventive principles disclosed , without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention . | 0 |
fig1 shows a dishwasher 10 having a cabinet 12 and an openable door 14 . a wash chamber 16 of the cabinet 12 houses dish supporting racks 18 and a rotating spray arm 20 . a control panel 22 is provided with a plurality of controls 24 for pre - selecting the desired cycle of operation for the dishwasher . since the dishwasher 10 embodying the principles of the present invention may be a countertop style dishwasher , a water inlet hose 26 is shown as being connected to a kitchen faucet 28 and a drain hose 30 is shown as being directed toward a kitchen sink drain 32 . of course , the dishwasher 10 could be a built - in unit , in which case the water inlet line 26 and the drain line 30 would be permanently connected to the house plumbing . as seen in fig1 there is a dish rack 18 provided in the dishwasher . the rack may be provided with rollers 33 ( fig5 and 6 ) for easy movement of the racks . preferably , the rack is formed of welded wire with a plastic coating . the wire form of the dish rack is designed so as to minimize interference of the rack with spray from the spray arm 20 . fig2 shows a schematic illustration of the fluid flow patterns within the dishwasher 10 . in the schematic illustration the water inlet line 26 is shown at the far right , where it is seen that water first passes through a fill valve 34 which is operated by the dishwasher control 24 . the inlet water then passes through a vacuum break 36 and into a settling chamber / drain sump 38 . from the settling chamber / drain sump 38 , water flows through an opening 40 in a separating wall 41 into a spray sump 42 . from the spray sump 42 water is drawn by a spray pump 43 driven by a motor 44 ( fig4 ) and directed to the spray arm 20 within the wash chamber 16 through a connecting conduit 45 . water from the wash chamber 16 partially flows to a first trough 46 through an opening 74 and into the settling chamber / drain sump 38 and partially to a second trough 48 through an opening 81 back to the spray sump 42 . at various times during the wash cycle , when it is desired that the wash liquid be removed from the dishwasher , a drain pump 50 driven by a motor 51 ( fig4 ) draws wash liquid from the settling chamber / drain sump 38 and directs it to the drain line 30 . during a drying portion of the wash cycle , room air is drawn in by a blower or fan 52 operated by the spray pump motor 44 . the air is directed in through the second trough 48 to flow through the wash chamber 16 to be vented through an opening 54 preferably located near the front top portion of the dishwasher cabinet 12 . as best seen in fig3 and 5 , wash liquid drains from the wash cavity 16 by means of a depressed area or sump 62 which preferably is molded into a bottom wall 63 of the wash chamber . the depressed area 62 is divided into the two troughs 46 , 48 by a dividing wall 68 which extends along most but not the entire length of the depressed area 62 . there is a communicating opening 70 through the wall 68 between the two troughs 46 , 48 which assists in the draining of the dishwasher . the two trough are of unequal size , and the larger trough 48 leads to the spray sump 42 , and is covered with a filter screen 72 which permits passage of liquid , but which inhibits passage of food particles . the screen 72 is sloped downwardly toward the smaller trough 46 , and thereby assists in the movement of soil particles toward the first trough . also , the spray arm 20 has at least one downwardly directed nozzle opening 73 which directs a spray of wash liquid against the screen 72 ( fig6 ) to assist in the cleaning of the screen and directing food particles to the first trough 46 . spray arm rotation is set so that the cleaning spray can sweep soil directly off of the filter screen 72 and into the first trough 46 leading to the settling chamber / drain sump 38 . the first trough 46 leads to an opening 74 communicating with the settling chamber / drain sump 38 which is located at the lowest elevation of the dishwasher cabinet . the settling chamber / drain sump 38 is crucial to the operation of the dishwasher , in that it enables the dishwasher to achieve an acceptable level of wash results with just four fills and one detergent addition . the settling chamber / drain sump 38 removes both lighter - than - water and heavier - than - water soils from the recirculating wash liquid . these soils are trapped in the settling chamber / drain sump 38 , in which the drain pump 50 is located , so that they are disposed of quickly during the pump - out process . the settling chamber / drain sump 38 includes an isolated chamber 39 to which soil - laden water is directed from the trough 46 in the dishwasher base unit . the entry opening 74 to the settling chamber / drain sump 38 has its top 74a above the operating wash liquid level . this allows floating soil to enter the chamber and prevents it from being trapped in the main washing compartment 16 . the flow through the settling chamber / drain sump 38 is carefully controlled to reduce turbulence and allow soils to settle ( or float ) out of the wash / rinse fluid . within the settling chamber / drain sump 38 there is a baffle wall 75 which prevents turbid fluid from the wash chamber 16 from flowing directly into the isolated chamber 39 . during the wash cycle as fluid flows through the trough 46 into the settling chamber / drain sump 38 , it is permitted to flow then into the spray sump 42 through the opening 76 , which is in the form of a v - shaped notch ( fig3 and 8 ) formed in the wall 41 that isolates the settling chamber / drain sump from the spray sump . the v - notch 76 is sized so that a flow rate of approximately one half gallon per minute is maintained through the v - notch when the spray pump 43 is operating . the flow of wash liquid from the settling chamber / drain sump 38 to the spray sump 42 is directed through an opening 77 ( fig7 ) under an appropriately spaced wall 78 so that floating soil is trapped in the settling chamber / spray sump before it gets to the v - notch 40 . a bottom 80 of the v - notch 40 is high enough to trap heavy soil that has settled to the bottom of the isolated chamber 39 . the flow velocity through the settling chamber / drain sump 38 is normally relatively slow , thus allowing heavier - than - water soils to settle , and lighter - than - water soils to rise . the screen 72 provides a small impedance of the flow of wash liquid from the wash cavity sump 62 , through an opening 81 communicating with the spray sump 42 . this impedance produces a wash liquid level that is higher in the settling chamber / drain sump 38 than the level in the spray sump 42 , and provides the driving force that gives the above - mentioned one half gallon per minute separator flow . the system described is self - regulating . in the exemplary embodiment , the settling chamber / drain sump 38 is designed for a one half gallon per minute flow of relatively clean wash liquid . when heavy soils are encountered , the protecting filter screen 72 may become partially blocked . this increases the flow impedance to the spray pump 43 and creates a greater fluid level difference between the spray sump 42 and the isolated chamber 39 of the settling chamber / drain sump 38 . as the fluid level in the spray sump 42 drops , the effective fluid passage area through the v - notch 40 increases . the result is that the fluid flow rate through the v - notch 40 increases until the heavy soil is pulled from the surface of the screen 72 and into the settling chamber / drain sump . as a result , the filter screen blockage has been eliminated , flow impedance is returned to normal , and then flow through the settling chamber / drain sump returns to the one - half gallon per minute rate . the result is very rapid removal of large soil particles from the wash water followed by removal of the fine soil particles . the slow relatively turbulence - free flow through the settling chamber / drain sump 38 also minimizes the suspension and homogenizing action that occur between detergent and soil in a highly agitated system . the result is that little detergent is used by the soil trapped in the settling chamber / drain sump 38 . this means that more detergent remains available in the water for cleaning of the dishes , or , alternatively , less detergent addition is needed to perform the cleaning function . at appropriate times during the wash cycle the wash liquid within the dishwasher is pumped by drain pump 50 through the drain line 30 to remove wash liquid and collected soil particles from the dishwasher . a soil chopper 82 ( fig4 ), including a single wire pressed at a right angle through an extension 84 of the pump impeller , is located just below an impeller opening 86 of the drain pump 50 . the proximity of the chopper 82 to the impeller opening 86 is chosen such that the chopper 82 chops all soil to a size that can pass through both the pump 50 and the drain hose 30 of the system . a pump capacity of approximately one gallon per minute has been determined to be sufficiently large to provide the necessary pump out operation . a separate drain line 90 ( fig4 ) is provided between the spray conduit 45 and the drain pump 50 to permit a pump out of all wash liquid within the system . the drain line 90 includes a check valve 92 which is closed when the spray pump 43 is in operation , but which moves to an open position , allowing draining to the settling chamber / drain sump 38 , when the spray pump 43 is not in operation . both the spray pump 43 and drain pump 50 of the power system are designed to operate without pump seals . this is facilitated by the fact that both of the motors are well above the operating wash liquid level . to facilitate the no - seal design , impellers 94 , 96 of the pumps 50 , 43 have pumping elements or impeller blades 98 , 100 on both sides . the pumping element 100 on the motor side of the impeller counteracts the pressure developed by the main impeller pumping element 98 . this prevents pressurized water from escaping through a clearance space 102 between a motor shaft 104 and the pump body 106 . this design eliminates both manufacturing and service costs associated with pump seals . it also allows the pumps to be run &# 34 ; dry &# 34 ; with no chance for seal damage . since running dry is possible , the spray pump motor 44 is fitted with the fan 52 that serves both to cool the motor and to provide forced air for drying within the dishwasher . a cover 108 is provided which surrounds the motors 44 , 51 and fan 52 , and which is secured to a subassembly base 110 carrying the motors 44 , 51 by an appropriate fastener arrangement such as a tab in groove connection 112 at one end 114 and a wire rod clip 116 secured between the cover 108 and the dishwasher base 118 at an opposite end 120 . the subassembly base 110 has a passage 122 molded therein which permits air from outside the cover 108 to be drawn into an area 124 enclosed by the cover 108 . more particularly , the air is drawn through the passage 122 into openings 126 which are within a separate cover 128 enclosing the motor 44 . the air is then drawn through an opening 130 in the motor cover 128 into the fan 52 which then pressurizes the area 124 within the cover 108 . two air outlets are provided for the pressurized air . a first outlet 132 is one or more small vent openings in the cover 108 leading back into the area enclosed by the dishwasher cabinet 12 . a second outlet 134 ( fig9 ) leads to the washing chamber 16 ; however , this outlet is designed so that no air can flow through the washing compartment 16 when the machine is operating in a wash or rinse mode . this is accomplished by providing an air duct 136 having an inlet opening 137 open to the interior of the cover 108 and an outlet opening 138 open to the spray sump 42 . the outlet opening 138 to the spray sump 42 is covered by wash ( or rinse ) liquid at level l2 or higher when the machine is in the wash ( or rinse ) mode of operation . when the liquid is pumped out of the sumps 38 , 42 , the liquid level therein drops below the outlet opening 138 , thus permitting air from the interior of the housing 108 to flow through the air duct 136 . since the outlet opening 138 provides a larger cross - sectional area for air flow than the first cutlet 132 , most of the air flow generated by the fan 52 passes through the air duct 136 and into the spray sump 42 . from the spray sump 42 , the air flows directly into the washing chamber 16 through the channel 48 and through the screen 72 , thus drying the screen . further , since the motor 44 that runs the fan 52 also runs the pump 43 , air will be pumped through the spray arm 20 and will therefore dry out the interior of the spray arm . air control through the wash chamber 16 is needed since it is undesirable to have air flowing through the dishwasher during washing and rinsing . excessive moisture and heat losses would occur should pressurized air be introduced into the wash cavity during the wash or rinse mode . when the machine is washing or rinsing , the spray pump fan 52 still provides cooling air for the pump motor 44 . the air path through the wash chamber ( drying air ) presents significantly lower resistance to airflow than the vent openings in the cover 108 ; hence the air path through the wash chamber is the principal path used when the machine contains no wash liquid . in order to reduce manufacturing costs , the dishwasher may be constructed in a modular fashion with many of the structural components molded as a unit . for example , the washing compartment may be molded as a single unit . also a molded base unit 139 may be provided which contains both the settling chamber / drain sump 38 and the spray sump 42 as well as the above described walls 75 , 41 . a power module 140 ( carried on the subassembly base 110 ) may be provided which carries the drain pump 50 and its motor 51 , the spray pump 43 , its motor 44 , and the fan 52 , as well as other components such as an overfill protect float 142 ( fig3 and 9 ) and fill valve 34 and vacuum break 36 ( fig4 ). the power module 140 can be assembled onto the base unit 139 by a minimum of fasteners , such as a clip 144 and the connecting rod 116 with a seal 146 being provided between the two units . a seal member 147 is also provided where an outlet 148 of the spray pump 43 joins the connecting conduit 45 leading to the spray arm 20 . the spray pump 43 , located at the front of the power module 140 , is centered in the spray sump 42 molded in the base unit 139 . the pump 43 is surrounded by a tubular electrical heating element 150 . the heating element 150 is formed in a simple geometric shape to heat fluid throughout the sump 42 , and is carefully located so that it is spaced away from direct contact with any of the molded plastic parts of the system . in the exemplary embodiment , heating element power is 1200 watts and provides a temperature rise of about 3 ° fahrenheit per minute . the spray pump flow rate is approximately eight gallons per minute . the control system may either be electronic or electromechanical . in the illustrated embodiment , the control is designed for a timed - fill with a float switch overfill protection . the control is designed to be a complete subassembly located at the dishwasher front to the right of the washing compartment 16 . the control provides a temperature hold on selected parts of the cycle . a 140 ° fahrenheit temperature hold thermostat 152 is installed in the machine power module along with a second safety thermostat 154 that shuts off the water heater element 150 in the event of an over - temperature condition . the safety thermostat 154 operates independently of the control module . as is apparent from the foregoing specification , the invention is susceptible of being embodied with various alterations and modifications which may differ particularly from those that have been described in the preceding specification and description . it should be understood that we wish to embody within the scope of the patent warranted hereon all such modifications as reasonably and properly come within the scope of our contribution to the art . | 0 |
fig1 illustrates one preferred embodiment of an internal pedicle insulator apparatus 10 . the internal pedicle insulator apparatus 10 comprises an inner insertion rod 12 , an outer insertion rod 14 , and an internal pedicle insulator implant 16 . the inner insertion rod 12 has a bottom end 18 and an opposing top end 20 . it is preferable that the inner insertion rod 12 has a substantially round cross - section . however , it should be noted that the inner insertion rod 12 can comprise any suitable configuration . the inner insertion rod 12 can comprise any suitable material , such as titanium , as merely one example . the outer insertion rod 14 has a lower end 11 and an opposing upper end 13 . an opening 15 is disposed at the lower end 11 . an optional handle 17 can be disposed toward the upper end 13 of the outer insertion rod 14 to facilitate use of the internal pedicle insulator apparatus 10 . an opening at the upper end 13 of the outer insertion rod 14 through which the inner insertion rod 12 can pass can also be included ( not shown ). it is preferable that the outer insertion rod 14 has a substantially round cross - section . it should be noted , however , that the outer insertion rod 14 can comprise any suitable cross - section . the outer insertion rod 14 can comprise titanium , however , it should be understood that the outer insertion rod 14 can comprise any suitable material . the outer insertion rod 14 is arranged and configured to receive the inner insertion rod 12 through the opening 15 disposed at the lower end 11 of the outer insertion rod 14 . the inner insertion rod 12 is preferably slidably inserted into the outer insertion rod 14 such that the upper end 13 of the outer insertion rod 12 substantially corresponds to the top end 20 of the inner insertion rod 12 . similarly , the lower end 11 of the outer insertion rod 14 substantially corresponds with the bottom end 18 of the inner insertion rod 12 . the inner insertion rod 12 is laterally slidable within the outer insertion rod 14 . referring next to fig1 a , in one embodiment it is preferable that the outer insertion rod 14 is defined by a diameter d o . the inner insertion rod 12 is defined by a diameter d i . it is preferable that d o is greater than d i to facilitate the inner insertion rod 12 being slidably disposed within the outer insertion rod 14 . it is further preferable that d o is less than d i such as to leave a space 22 having a thickness t s when the inner insertion rod 16 is disposed within the outer insertion rod 14 . as shown in fig1 b , in one embodiment the internal pedicle insulator implant 16 is substantially rectangular in shape and curved . it should be understood , however , that the internal pedicle insulator implant 16 can comprise any suitable shape and configuration . in this embodiment it is preferable that the internal pedicle insulator implant 16 is curved as defined by a radius r i . it is preferable that the radius r i of the internal pedicle insulator implant 16 substantially corresponds to a pedicle screw 104 with which the internal pedicle insulator implant 16 is to be used . the internal pedicle insulator implant 16 is also defined by a thickness t i . it is preferable that the thickness t is greater than the thickness t s of space 22 . the internal pedicle insulator implant 16 preferably comprises poly ether ether - ketone , but can comprise any suitable material . fig2 and 2 a illustrate another embodiment of an internal pedicle insulator implant 30 . the internal pedicle insulator implant 30 is substantially tubular in shape and comprises a wall 34 . the internal pedicle insulator implant 30 has a substantially circular cross - section , defined by a diameter d i . the diameter d i is preferably arranged and configured to substantially correspond to a pedicle screw 104 with which the internal pedicle insulator implant 30 is to be used . although a substantially circular cross - section is illustrated , it should be understood that the internal pedicle insulator can have any desired cross - sectional shape . the internal pedicle insulator 30 optionally comprises at least one anti - rotation fin 32 extending outward from the wall 34 . the anti - rotation fins 32 can extend the length of the wall 34 of internal pedicle insulator 30 or only a portion of the length . the anti - rotation fins 32 can comprise any configuration that discourage rotation of the internal pedicle insulator 30 when disposed in a desired position . in one embodiment , a thickness t w of the wall 34 of the internal pedicle insulator implant 30 in addition to a height t h of an anti - rotation fin 32 extending from the wall 34 is greater than thickness t s of the space 22 between the inner insertion rod 12 and the outer rotation rod 14 when the inner insertion rod 12 is disposed within the outer rotation rod 14 . in another embodiment the internal pedicle insulator implant 30 includes no anti - rotation fin 32 ( not shown ). in this embodiment , it is preferable that a thickness t w of a wall of the internal pedicle insulator implant 30 is greater than the thickness t s of the space 22 formed by the inner insertion rod 12 and the outer insertion rod 14 when the inner insertion rod 12 is disposed inside the outer insertion rod 14 . fig3 illustrates the internal pedicle insulator apparatus 10 in use . a pedicle screw with which the internal pedicle insulator implant 16 is to be used is first removed from its position within the vertebral body . the inner insertion rod 12 is positioned as desired in the vertebral body 100 , such as in a channel created by the pedicle screw 104 . the internal pedicle insulator implant 16 is positioned adjacent the inner insertion rod 12 . the outer insertion rod 14 is positioned around the inner insertion rod 12 via the opening 15 disposed at the lower end 11 of the outer insertion rod 14 . the outer insertion rod 14 is moved in direction c toward the bottom end 18 of the inner insertion rod 12 . as the outer insertion rod 14 is moved in direction c , the outer insertion rod 14 is moved toward the internal pedicle insulator implant 16 until the outer insertion rod 14 engages the internal pedicle insulator 16 . pressure is applied to the outer insertion rod 14 in direction c to slide the internal pedicle insulator 16 along the inner insertion rod 12 toward the vertebral body 100 until the internal pedicle insulator 16 is appropriately positioned within the vertebral body 100 . the internal pedicle insulator implant 16 is held in position by friction applied to its curved configuration when properly inserted into position . after the internal pedicle insulator implant 16 is disposed in a desired position , the pedicle screw 104 is returned to its position within the vertebral body . fig4 illustrates one embodiment of an internal pedicle insulator implant 16 in a desired position . as shown , the internal pedicle insulator implant 16 is positioned between an affected nerve root 102 and a jagged hole 106 in the vertebral body 100 resulting from a compromised pedicle screw 104 . fig5 illustrates another embodiment of an internal pedicle insulator implant 16 . in this example , however , the implant is located to prevent cement , e . g ., pmma , from contacting the nerve root 102 . notably , the cement 110 is provided to anchor the pedicle screw 104 . in other embodiments , various other types of materials can be prevented from contacting a nerve by using an implant . such a material can be an injectable biological substance , for example . although cement can be provided externally with respect to the screw , the embodiment of fig5 involves a screw that incorporates holes or fenestrations e . g ., fenestration 112 . as such , the cement can be injected into the screw and then a portion of that cement can be pass through the fenestrations and into the surrounding tissue . thus , the implant 16 serves as a physical barrier to prevent the cement from impinging upon the nerve root . it should be emphasized that the above - described embodiments of the present invention , particularly , a “ preferred ” embodiment , are merely possible examples of implementations , merely set forth for a clear understanding of the principles of the invention . many variations and modifications may be made to the above - described embodiment ( s ) of the invention without departing substantially from the spirit and principles of the invention . all such modifications and variations are intended to be included herein with the scope of this disclosure and the present invention and protected by the following claims . | 0 |
various embodiments according to the present invention will now be described in more detail , by way of example only , with reference to the accompanying drawings , in which briefly described : fig1 a and 1b illustrate a composite coupling for joining cylindrical substrates that differ in diameter ; fig2 illustrates another form of composite coupling for joining cylindrical substrate ; fig4 illustrates yet another composite device for coupling cylindrical substrates ; fig1 a and 1b illustrate the use of a composite device according to the present invention for joining tubular substrate . as shown in fig1 a , tapered insert 1 to heat recoverable driver 2 has a constant outside diameter but is tapered internally from a maximum internal diameter at its ends to a minimum internal diameter near its center . as a result of this internal taper , each end of insert 1 is capable of receiving tubular substrates 3 and 4 which may be of the same or different diameter . also by reason of its taper , insert 2 is capable of accommodating a wider range of substrate diameters than would an insert of constant internal diameter . as shown in fig1 b , insert member 1 may be provided with serrations or teeth to enable it to better grip the substrate when recovery has occured . insert member 2 may also be made of a gall - prone metal relative to the substrate . for optimal attainment of the advantage conferred by the use of gall - prone inserts , the surface roughness of the insert is desirably made like that of one or more of the surfaces it adjoins in the particular application . for example , for the hydraulic conduitry for which the composite couplings are preferably employed , the generally uniform surface of the insert preferably exhibits profilometer roughness not greater than about 125 micro - inches , most preferably not greater than about 63 micro - inches . another device according to the present invention after its recovery is shown in fig2 in which the insert comprises two members 5 and 6 . the outer member 5 is tapered internally from a maximum internal diameter at one end to a minimum internal diameter at the other . as shown , member 5 is provided with longitudinal slots 7 at the end of maximum internal diameter to facilitate its deformation upon recovery . inner member 6 is provided with an outer taper complementary to that of member 5 in that it tapers from a maximum outside diameter at one end to a minimum at the other . member 6 is provided with terminal longitudinal slots 8 at either end to facilitate its deformation . as shown in fig2 inner member 6 is provided with teeth to inhibit the withdrawal of tubular members 9 and 10 after recovery by forming circumferential dents 11 and 12 . prior to recovery of driver 13 , members 5 and 6 are wedged closely together , member 5 acting upon member 6 to compensate for variations in the substrate &# 39 ; s outside diameter or substrate ovalness . another device according to the present invention that will accommodate cylindrical substrates having a large variation in outside diameter is shown in fig3 . as shown , the insert is comprised of three tapered parts , 14 , 15 and 16 . outer member 14 is provided with threaded end portions 17 and 18 and tapers internally between the threaded portions to a minimum inside diameter at its center . as shown , member 14 is provided with longitudinal slots between its threaded sections to facilitate is deformation by the driver upon its recovery . inner members 15 and 16 are tapered on their outside from a maximum outside diameter at one end to a minimum at the other and preferably are provided with terminal longitudinal slots as shown . as shown in fig3 the inner members can be provided with teeth to engage the substrate , tubular sections 19 and 20 . prior to recovery , the tubular substrates , which can have the same or different outside diameter are introduced into the aperture formed by members 15 and 16 . tightening nuts 21 and 22 provide means by which members 15 and 16 can be advanced into member 14 to initially engage substrate sections . it will be apparent that the furthest advance of members 15 and 16 is dictated by the diameter of the substrate sections . if the substrate is to carry fluid , o - ring type gaskets 23 and 24 can be provided for sealing purposes . to protect member 14 from a corrosive fluid , a toothed ring 25 can be inserted between members 15 and 16 to make the joint fluid tight . of course ring 25 must be of a material resistant to the fluid . between the tightening nuts and members 15 and 16 can be disposed washers 26 and 27 . when ring 25 is employed , gaskets 23 and 24 may be omitted . in fig4 there is shown a variant of the device of fig3 . as shown in fig4 the insert again comprises 3 parts . however , the inner member 28 of the insert has threaded ends 29 and 30 to receive tightening nuts 31 and 32 which are employed to advance tapered outer members 33 and 34 . by their advancement , insert members 33 and 33a force member 28 into close contact with substrate sections 34 and 35 prior to recovery of driver member 36 . preferably , the insert members are slotted to facilitate deformation . in the devices of both fig3 and 4 , the provision for oppositely tapered members provide means by which the inner member can be deformed prior to recovery of the driver to conform to the substrate . thus when recovery is caused to occur , a larger portion of the recovery force can be asserted to further engage the insert and substrate rather than being partially dissipated by having to first deform the insert . another device according to the present invention is depicted in fig5 . in that device , the inner member 37 of the insert is tapered from a maximum outer diameter at its ends to a minimum diameter at its center . as shown , it is provided with teeth and has longitudinal slots . outer members 38 and 39 are internally tapered to cooperate with member 37 . outer members 38 and 39 are threaded at their ends to receive tightening nuts 40 and 41 . the action of these nuts is to withdraw elements 38 and 39 which has the effect of deforming inner member 37 to cause it to engage substrates 42 and 43 . when this has been accomplished , recoverable driver 44 is warmed above its transition temperature to provide the final pressure required by the coupling . fig6 illustrates another variant of the present invention in which the insert comprises a single member 43 , preferably slotted , which is generally cylindrical and externally tapered from a minimum outside diameter at its ends to a maximum at its center . the insert is threaded from its ends to receive nuts 46 , and 47 which also functions as heat recoverable drivers , i . e . they are capable of recovering to a smaller dimension . center section 48 of insert 46 is provided with lugs to allow it to be held without rotation when the nuts are installed . preferably insert 46 is provided with internal teeth as shown . the nuts are rendered heat recoverable by mandrel expansion while the nut is at a temperature at which it exists in the martensitic state . the threads can be protected during expansion by providing the nut with a threaded liner of the same alloy that can be screwed into and out of the nut . the nut is preferably preconditioned after expansion to elevate the temperature at which it reverts to martensitic to insure that the transition does not prematurely occur during the installation of the coupling . once the substrates 49 and 50 have been inserted in the aperture defined by insert 45 , the nuts are tightened to initially deform the insert and adapt its conformation to the irregularities of the substrates . the nuts are then heated to occassion their recovery and thereby tightly engage the insert and substrates . the couplings previously described are but illustrative of the many forms the present invention may take . it will be apparent that the composite couplings of this invention are suited to many applications where the joining of cylindrical substrates is desired . for example , they might be employed to join solid or tubular structural members or cable . however , it is presently felt that the preferred application for these couplings is in the union of hollow member adapted to convey fluids , for example fluids in hydraulic systems or pipelines . | 5 |
referring to fig2 , this shows a battery cover fixing mechanism for use in an electronic device like a mobile phone ( not shown ), in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention . the battery cover fixing mechanism is shown and detailed as follows for the purposes of providing a simple description of the preferred embodiment of the present invention , and the present invention and embodiments thereof are not to be construed as being limited to the following description . the battery cover fixing mechanism is for fixing a cover 1 onto a housing 2 , and includes a latching mechanism ( not labeled ), a blocking mechanism ( not labeled ), an opening 16 , a slot 20 and a cutout 24 . the latching mechanism includes a block 30 , two springs 32 , a sliding frame 34 forming at least two engagement means thereon for the latching mechanism , and a holder 36 . the cover 1 can be a single piece of shaped sheet material . the cover 1 has an inside surface 100 . the cover 1 also has a rearward section 102 , a central section 104 , and a front section 106 . the blocking mechanism includes a pair of rearward claws 10 , a pair of central claws 12 , and a pair of front claws 14 having a different forming orientation from the central claws 12 . the rearward claws 10 are symmetrically formed on the inside surface 100 of the cover 1 at the rearward section 102 . the central claws 12 symmetrically extend from two opposite edges of the inside surface 100 of the cover 1 at the central section 104 . the front claws 14 symmetrically extend from the inside surface 100 of the cover 1 at the front section 106 . the opening 16 is defined in the cover 1 between the front claws 14 . an end of each central claw 12 and each front claw 14 is chamfered , in order to facilitate installation of the cover 1 . the housing 2 typically contains electric elements such as printed circuit boards ( pcbs ), and can for example be a part of a cellphone body . a receptacle 21 formed by an opening and inner space of the housing is defined in the housing 2 to receive a component of the mobile phone like a battery ( not shown ). the cover 1 covers the receptacle 21 . two slots 20 are symmetrically defined in the housing 2 at one end thereof . the rearward claws 10 of the cover 1 engage in the slots 20 . the housing 2 has three sidewalls 22 around the receptacle 21 . said cutout 24 is defined in the housing 2 , and faces the slots 20 . referring also to fig3 , the block 30 is generally cuboidal . a pair of posts 300 extends from one main surface of the block 30 . a projection 302 extends from an opposite main surface of the block 30 . the projection 302 is slightly smaller than the opening 16 , while the block 30 is larger than the opening 16 . the springs 32 are helical and compressible . each spring 32 has a hook 320 at each of opposite ends thereof . the sliding frame 34 has a generally inverted ‘ u ’ shape , and is elastic . the sliding frame 34 comprises two opposite side portions 3402 , and a transverse portion 3400 perpendicularly interconnecting top ends of the side portions 3402 . the sliding frame 34 also comprises a blocking part ( not labeled ) as the at least two engagement means , which includes two first clasps 342 as a first engagement means and two second clasps 345 as a second engagement means . the second clasps 345 extend from the side portions 3402 respectively . an l - shaped catch piece 340 is formed on the middle of the transverse portion 3400 , corresponding to the cutout 24 . two holes 341 are defined in a vertical portion of the catch piece 340 . the posts 300 of the block 30 are inserted into the holes 341 . the first clasps 342 are symmetrically formed on the transverse portion 3400 , and a pair of grooves 343 is symmetrically defined in the transverse portion 3400 . each groove 343 is located between the catch piece 340 and a corresponding first clasp 342 . a first track 344 and a second track 347 are defined in each side portion 3402 . the first track 344 is adjacent the top end of the side portion 3402 near the transverse portion 3400 . the second track 347 is adjacent a bottom end of the transverse portion 3400 . a first catch 346 is formed on each side portion 3402 adjoining the second track 347 . the holder 36 includes a generally rectangular plate 3600 . two sidepieces 3602 are perpendicularly bent from two opposite long sides of the plate 3600 . a top piece 3604 is perpendicularly bent from a top side of the plate 3600 . a pair of inserting pieces 360 is vertically formed on the top piece 3604 . an aperture 361 is defined in the plate 3600 for receiving a sim ( subscriber identity module ) card . a first tab 363 is formed on an upper portion of each sidepiece 3602 . a second tab 365 is formed on each sidepiece 3602 below the first tab 363 . an l - shaped second catch 364 is formed on each sidepiece 3602 below the second tab 365 . a gap 366 is defined in each sidepiece 3602 immediately below where the second catch 364 adjoins the sidepiece 3602 . a vertical portion of the second catch 364 is located opposite an upper portion of the gap 366 . a process of assembling the latching mechanism on the housing 2 is as follows . firstly , the holder 36 is fixed to the housing 2 by conventional methods such as adhering or welding . for example , the sidepieces 3602 and a bottom side of the top piece 3604 of the holder 36 are adhered with the sidewalls 22 of the housing 2 . next , the sliding frame 34 is assembled on the holder 36 . the transverse portion 3400 and the side portions 3402 of the sliding frame 34 respectively abut the top piece 3604 and the sidepieces 3602 of the holder 36 . the inserting pieces 360 of the holder 36 are received in the grooves 343 of the sliding frame 34 . the first tracks 344 and the second tracks 347 are respectively longer than the first tabs 363 and the second tabs 365 . the first tabs 363 and the second tabs 365 of the holder 36 are slidably received in the first tracks 344 and the second tracks 347 of the sliding frame 34 , respectively . thus , the sliding frame 34 is slidable relative to the holder 36 . then the springs 32 are installed on the sliding frame 34 and the holder 36 . the springs 32 are first stretched , and then the hooks 320 of each spring 32 are respectively engaged on one first catch 346 of the sliding frame 34 and one second catch 364 of the holder 36 . finally , the posts 300 of the block 30 are inserted into the holes 341 of the sliding frame 34 , to thereby fix the block 30 in place . when assembling the cover 1 and the housing 2 together , the rearward claws 10 of the cover 1 are engaged in the slots 20 of the housing 2 firstly . then the cover 1 is pushed toward the housing 2 . the front claws 14 and the central claws 12 of the cover 1 are respectively engaged with the first clasps 342 and the second clasps 345 of the sliding frame 34 , and the projection 302 of the block 30 extends through the opening 16 of the cover 1 and protrudes out from a front of the cover 1 . the cover 1 is thereby assembled onto the housing 2 by the latching mechanism . when the cover 1 needs to be opened , the block 30 is pushed upward by a user . the block 30 forces the sliding frame 34 to slide relative to the holder 36 and the cover 1 . the springs 32 are further stretched , and the first clasps 342 and the second clasps 345 of the sliding frame 34 respectively disengage from the front claws 14 and the central claws 12 of the cover 1 . thereby , the cover 1 can be readily released from the housing 2 . finally , the cover 1 is taken away from the housing 2 by a user . thereupon , the springs 32 rebound , and the sliding frame 34 returns to its original position relative to the holder 36 under the elastic force of the springs 32 . in other exemplary embodiments , the springs 32 can be replaced by other elastic members such as rubber bars . the sliding frame 34 is not limited to having an inverted ‘ u ’ shape . for example , the sliding frame 34 can instead by a rectangular plate with suitable holes , slots and hooks . the block 30 and the sliding frame 34 can be a unitary component . that is , a protuberance such as a block can be integrally formed on the sliding frame 34 . the holder 36 and the housing 2 can be manufactured as a unitary whole , or manufactured separately . it is believed that the present embodiments and their advantages will be understood from the foregoing description , and it will be apparent that various changes may be made thereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention or sacrificing all of its material advantages , the examples hereinbefore described merely being preferred or exemplary embodiments of the invention . | 7 |
referring to fig1 , a video controller 10 includes a video codec 8 , a display controller 18 , and a memory device 22 . the video codec 8 includes a video decoder 12 and a video encoder 14 . the video controller 10 receives an input encoded video 26 and generates an output encoded video 30 . the videos 26 and 30 can be sent as , for example , serial bit streams . the input and output encoded videos 26 and 30 may have frames that are encoded differently , such as according to different compression algorithms having different compression ratios or different resolutions . the display controller 18 generates a video signal 27 for a display 28 . each of the videos 26 and 30 includes a sequence of frames . during decoding , encoding , and displaying of the frames , certain frames are temporarily stored in the memory device 22 . the video decoder 12 , video encoder 14 , and the display controller 18 share the memory device 22 so that the number of frames that need to be simultaneously stored in the memory device 22 is fewer than for other systems . thus , a smaller memory device 22 suffices . the video decoder 12 , video encoder 14 , and display controller 18 process the frames in a particular sequence such that the frames do not need to be duplicated or moved from one memory location to another during decoding , encoding , and displaying , thereby reducing the number of frames that need to be simultaneously stored in the memory . the particular processing sequence takes into account the format of the input encoded video 26 ( e . g ., whether the frames in the video 26 are in a display order or an encode order ), the dependencies among the frames ( e . g ., b and p frames may depend on previous p and i frames ), whether the frames are displayed at the same time that the frames are being encoded , and the type of frames to be displayed ( e . g ., decompressed or reconstructed frames ). the video controller 10 also includes an audio encoder / decoder 16 that decodes and encodes audio signals , a memory controller 20 to control access to the memory device 22 , and a system controller 24 that coordinates operations of the video decoder 12 , video encoder 14 , audio encoder / decoder 16 , display controller 18 , and the memory controller 20 . the video controller 10 can be fabricated on a single integrated circuit or may include several integrated circuits and discrete components . the following describes six examples of using the video controller 10 to transcode ( or encode ) and display videos . referring to fig2 a , in example 1 , the input encoded video 26 is a higher bit - rate compressed video , and the output encoded video 30 is a lower bit - rate compressed video . the encoded videos 26 and 30 have the same resolution . both videos 26 and 30 have frames that are arranged in an encode order . the display controller 18 sends higher bit - rate decompressed frames arranged in the display order to the display 28 . the video controller 10 outputs a lower bit - rate compressed video 30 ( e . g ., for storage ) at the same time that the display 28 shows a higher bit - rate decompressed video . the frames of the videos 26 and 30 can be encoded , for example , according to an mpeg standard . in this description , a “ higher bit - rate compressed video ” has a higher bit rate relative to a “ lower bit - rate compressed video ,” and a “ higher bit - rate decompressed video ” has a higher bit rate relative to a “ lower bit - rate decompressed video .” the “ higher bit - rate compressed video ,” due to compression , can have a bit rate that is lower than the “ lower bit - rate decompressed video .” the resolution of a compressed video refers to the resolution of the decompressed frames . a “ higher resolution compressed video ” can be decompressed to generate decompressed frames that have a higher resolution relative to decompressed frames derived from a “ lower resolution compressed video .” fig2 b shows memory buffers that are allocated in the memory device 22 for storing frames that are generated during the decoding , encoding , and displaying processes . the memory device 22 includes an input buffer 100 , a reconstructed encode reference 1 buffer 102 , a reconstructed encode reference 2 buffer 104 , an encode stage 1 buffer 106 , an encode stage 2 buffer 108 , an encode stage 3 buffer 110 , an encode stage 4 buffer 112 , an encode stage 5 buffer 114 , and an output buffer 116 . the input buffer 100 stores a higher bit - rate compressed frame , and the output buffer 116 stores a lower bit - rate compressed frame ( e . g ., for delivery to a storage device ). the encode stage 1 buffer 106 , encode stage 2 buffer 108 , encode stage 3 buffer 110 , encode stage 4 buffer 112 , and encode stage 5 buffer 114 store higher bit - rate decompressed frames that are output from the video decoder 12 . the reconstructed encode reference 1 buffer 102 and the reconstructed encode reference 2 buffer 104 store lower bit - rate reconstructed frames that are generated by the video encoder 14 , and are used by the video encoder 14 during encoding of other frames . the video encoder may generate the lower bit rate decompressed frames by , for example , increasing a quantization level ( truncating more bits ) during encoding of the frames . the lower bit - rate reconstructed frames in buffers 102 , 104 are decompressed frames . in this example , the reconstructed frames have the same resolution as the higher bit - rate decompressed frames . fig2 c shows a time chart 140 indicating timing sequences in which the frames are stored in the buffers of the memory device 22 and shown on the display 28 . the frames are displayed in the order : i 0 , b 1 , b 2 , p 3 , b 4 , b 5 , p 6 , b 7 , b 8 , p 9 , b 10 , b 11 , p 12 , and so forth . rows 120 , 122 , 124 , 126 , 128 , 130 , to 132 indicate the contents of the buffers 102 , 104 , 106 , 108 , 110 , 112 , and 114 , respectively . row 134 indicates the time intervals at which the frames are encoded . row 136 indicates the time intervals at which the frames are fetched by the display controller 18 and shown on the display 28 . in this example , the encode stage 5 buffer 114 is not used . the memory device 22 has a large enough capacity to accommodate the encode stage 5 buffer 114 for use in other examples ( e . g ., examples 5 and 6 described below ). each column ( e . g ., 138 ) in the time chart 140 indicates the contents of the buffers , the frame that is encoded by the video encoder 14 , and the frame that is shown on the display 28 during a particular time interval t . as can be seen from the time chart 140 , each frame is accessed by only one of the video decoder 12 , the video encoder 14 , and the display controller 18 at any given time interval , so the video decoder 12 , the video encoder 14 , and the display controller 18 can share the frames stored in the memory buffers without conflict . each frame in the memory device 22 is stored once without duplication . the following describes the processes performed by the video decoder 12 , the video encoder 14 , and the display controller 18 at various time intervals . each time interval , such as t 0 , t 1 , t 2 , . . . , represents a frame period , which can be about 33 . 3 ms when the video is configured to have 30 frames per second . before time interval to ( not shown in fig2 c ), a higher bit - rate compressed i 0 frame is written to the input buffer 100 . similarly , during time intervals t 0 , t 1 , t 2 , t 3 , t 4 , t 5 , t 6 , t 7 , t 8 , t 9 , t 10 , t 11 , t 12 , . . . , higher bit - rate compressed frames p 3 , b 1 , b 2 , p 6 , b 4 , b 5 , p 9 , b 7 , b 8 , p 12 , b 10 , b 11 , . . . , respectively , are written to the input buffer 100 . during time interval t 0 , the video decoder 12 retrieves the compressed i 0 frame from the input buffer 100 , decodes the compressed i 0 frame to generate a higher bit - rate decompressed frame i 0 , and writes the decompressed i 0 frame to the encode stage 1 buffer 106 . during time interval t 1 , the video decoder 12 retrieves the compressed p 3 frame from the input buffer 100 , decodes the compressed p 3 frame and generates a decompressed p 3 frame , and writes the decompressed p 3 frame to the encode stage 2 buffer 108 . the video encoder 14 retrieves the higher bit - rate decompressed i 0 frame from the buffer 106 , encodes the i 0 frame to generate a lower bit - rate reconstructed i 0 ′ frame and a lower bit - rate compressed i 0 ′ frame , writes the reconstructed i 0 ′ frame to the reconstructed reference 1 buffer 102 , and writes the compressed i 0 ′ frame to the output buffer 116 . during time interval t 2 , the video decoder 12 decodes the higher bit - rate compressed b 1 frame to generate a higher bit - rate decompressed b 1 frame , and writes the decompressed b 1 frame to the encode stage 3 buffer 110 . the video encoder 14 retrieves the decompressed p 3 frame from the buffer 108 , encodes the decompressed p 3 frame to generate a lower bit - rate reconstructed p 3 ′ frame and a lower resolution compressed p 3 ′ frame , writes the reconstructed p 3 ′ frame to the reconstructed reference 2 buffer 104 , and writes the compressed p 3 ′ frame to the output buffer 116 . the display controller 18 retrieves the higher bit - rate decompressed i 0 frame from the buffer 106 and causes the i 0 frame to be shown on the display 28 . during time interval t 3 , the video decoder 12 decodes the higher bit - rate compressed b 2 frame to generate a higher bit - rate decompressed b 2 frame , and writes the decompressed b 2 frame to the encode stage 4 buffer 112 . the video encoder 14 retrieves the decompressed b 1 frame from the buffer 110 , encodes the decompressed b 1 frame to generate a lower bit - rate compressed b 1 ′ frame , and writes the compressed b 1 ′ frame to the output buffer 116 . the display controller 18 retrieves the higher bit - rate decompressed b 1 frame from the buffer 110 and causes the bi frame to be shown on the display 28 . during time interval t 4 , the video decoder 12 decodes the higher bit - rate compressed p 6 frame to generate a higher bit - rate decompressed p 6 frame , and writes the decompressed p 6 frame to the encode stage 1 buffer 106 . the video encoder 14 retrieves the decompressed b 2 frame from the buffer 112 , encodes the decompressed b 2 frame to generate a lower bit - rate compressed b 2 ′ frame , and writes the compressed b 2 ′ frame to the output buffer 116 . the display controller 18 retrieves the higher bit - rate decompressed b 2 frame from the buffer 112 and causes the b 2 frame to be shown on the display 28 . during time interval t 5 , the video decoder 12 decodes a higher bit - rate compressed b 4 frame to generate a higher bit - rate decompressed b 4 frame , and writes the decompressed b 4 frame to the encode stage 3 buffer 110 . the video encoder 14 retrieves the decompressed p 6 frame from the buffer 106 , encodes the decompressed p 6 frame to generate a lower bit - rate reconstructed p 6 ′ frame and a lower bit - rate compressed p 6 ′ frame , writes the reconstructed p 6 ′ frame to the buffer 102 , and writes compressed p 6 ′ frame to the output buffer 116 . the display controller 18 retrieves the higher bit - rate decompressed p 3 frame from the buffer 108 and causes the p 3 frame to be shown on the display 28 . during time interval t 6 , the video decoder 12 decodes the higher bit - rate compressed b 5 frame to generate a higher bit - rate decompressed b 5 frame , and writes the decompressed b 5 frame to the encode stage 4 buffer 112 . the video encoder 14 retrieves the decompressed b 4 frame from the buffer 110 , encodes the decompressed b 4 frame to generate a lower bit - rate compressed b 4 ′ frame , and writes the compressed b 4 ′ frame to the output buffer 116 . the display controller 18 retrieves the higher bit - rate decompressed b 4 frame from the buffer 110 and causes the b 4 frame to be shown on the display 28 . during time interval t 7 , the video decoder 12 decodes the higher bit - rate compressed p 9 frame to generate a higher bit - rate decompressed p 9 frame , and writes the decompressed p 9 frame to the encode stage 2 buffer 108 . the video encoder 14 retrieves the decompressed b 5 frame from the buffer 112 , encodes the decompressed b 5 frame to generate a lower bit - rate compressed b 5 ′ frame , and writes the compressed b 5 ′ frame to the output buffer 116 . the display controller 18 retrieves the higher bit - rate decompressed b 5 frame from the buffer 112 and causes the b 5 frame to be shown on the display 28 . during time intervals t 8 , t 9 , t 10 , and so forth , the video controller 10 operates in a manner similar to those described above . the operation of the video decoder 12 , the video encoder 14 , and the display controller 18 is designed such that a first frame is overwritten by a second frame only after the first frame will no longer be used by the video decoder 12 , the video encoder 14 , or the display controller 18 . for example , during and after the time interval t 4 , the i 0 frame is not used by the video decoder 12 , the video encoder 14 , or the display controller 18 , so the i 0 frame in the encode stage 1 buffer 106 can be overwritten by the p 6 frame during t 4 . similarly , during and after the time interval t 7 , the p 3 frame in the encode stage 2 buffer 108 is not used by the video decoder 12 , the video encoder 14 , or the display controller 18 , so the p 3 frame can be overwritten by the p 9 frame during t 7 . because the b - frames are not referenced by any other frame , it is not necessary to store lower bit - rate reconstructed b ′- frames in the memory device 22 . in example 1 , the video decoder 12 , the video encoder 14 , and the display controller 18 share the memory 22 such that the memory 22 at any given time stores no more than four decompressed frames ( in buffers 106 , 108 , 110 , and 112 ) written by the video decoder 12 and two reconstructed frames ( in buffers 102 and 104 ) written by the video encoder 14 . because the reconstructed frames are decompressed frames , the memory 22 at any given time stores no more than six decompressed frames . the operations of the video decoder 12 , the video encoder 14 , and the display controller 18 are coordinated by the system controller 24 . for example , the system controller 24 may adjust pointers used by the video decoder 12 , the video encoder 14 , and the display controller 18 to control which memory buffer is accessed by the video decoder 12 , the video encoder 14 , and the display controller 18 . in example 2 , the lower bit - rate compressed video 30 has a lower resolution as compared to the higher bit - rate compressed video 26 . the compressed videos 26 and 30 may have the same or different compression ratios ( e . g ., quantization levels ). for example , the input encoded video 26 can have 1920 × 1080 resolution , and the output encoded video 30 can have 1366 × 768 resolution . both the encoded videos 26 and 30 have frames that are arranged in an encode order . the display controller 18 sends higher resolution frames arranged in the display order to the display 28 . thus , the video controller 10 outputs a lower bit - rate compressed video 30 having a lower resolution at the same time that the display 28 shows the video in a higher resolution . the allocation of memory buffers in the memory device 22 for example 2 is similar to that of example 1 , as shown in fig2 b . the input buffer 100 stores a higher resolution compressed frame , and the output buffer 116 stores a lower resolution compressed frame generated by the video encoder 14 . the encode stage 1 buffer 106 , encode stage 2 buffer 108 , encode stage 3 buffer 110 , encode stage 4 buffer 112 , and encode stage 5 buffer 114 store higher resolution decompressed frames that are output from the video decoder 12 . the reconstructed encode reference 1 buffer 102 and the reconstructed encode reference 2 buffer 104 store lower resolution reconstructed frames that are used by the video encoder 14 during the encoding process to generate the lower resolution compressed frames . a descaler can generate the lower resolution reconstructed frames by using a descaling process . the descaler can be part of the video decoder 12 or the video encoder 14 . the descaler can also be a component independent of the video decoder 12 and the video encoder 14 . the encoding and the descaling of the frames can be performed at the same time . timing sequences for example 2 is similar to that of example 1 , as shown in fig2 c . the processes performed by the video decoder 12 , the video encoder 14 , and the display controller 18 are similar to those described in example 1 , except that the frames i 0 ′, b 1 ′, b 2 ′, p 3 ′, b 4 ′, b 5 ′, p 6 ′, b 7 ′, b 8 ′, p 9 ′, b 10 ′, b 11 ′, and p 12 ′ are lower resolution reconstructed frames , and i 0 , b 1 , b 2 , p 3 , b 4 , b 5 , p 6 , b 7 , b 8 , p 9 , b 10 , b 11 , and p 12 are higher resolution decompressed frames . similar to example 1 , in example 2 , the video decoder 12 , the video encoder 14 , and the display controller share the memory 22 such that the memory 22 at any given time stores no more than six decompressed frames , including four decompressed frames written by the video decoder 12 and two reconstructed frames written by the video encoder 14 . referring to fig3 a , in example 3 , similar to example 1 , the input encoded video 26 is a higher bit - rate compressed video , and the output encoded video 30 is a lower bit - rate compressed video . the encoded videos 26 and 30 have the same resolution but different bit rates . both the encoded videos 26 and 30 have frames that are arranged in an encode order . the frames of the videos 26 and 30 can be encoded , for example , according to an mpeg standard . in example 3 , the display controller 18 sends lower bit - rate frames arranged in the display order to the display 28 . the video controller 10 outputs a lower bit - rate compressed video 30 at the same time that the display 28 shows a lower bit - rate decompressed video . fig3 b shows a time chart 150 indicating timing sequences in which the frames are stored in the buffers of the memory device 22 and shown on the display 28 . in this example , the encode stage 5 buffer 114 is not used . as can be seen from the time chart 150 , each frame is accessed by only one of the video decoder 12 , the video encoder 14 , and the display controller 18 at any given time interval , so that the video decoder 12 , the video encoder 14 , and the display controller 18 can share the frames stored in the memory buffers without conflict . each frame in the memory device 22 is stored once without duplication . the following describes the processes performed by the video decoder 12 , the video encoder 14 , and the display controller 18 at various time intervals . before time interval t 0 ( not shown in fig3 b ), a higher bit - rate compressed i 0 frame is written to the input buffer 100 . similarly , during time intervals t 0 , t 1 , t 2 , t 3 , t 4 , t 5 , t 6 , t 7 , t 8 , t 9 , t 10 , t 11 , t 12 , . . . , higher bit - rate compressed frames p 3 , b 1 , b 2 , p 6 , b 4 , b 5 , p 9 , b 7 , b 8 , p 12 , b 10 , b 11 , . . . , respectively , are written to the input buffer 100 . during time intervals t 0 and t 1 , the video decoder 12 and the video encoder 14 operate in a manner similar to those in example 1 , as shown in fig2 c . during time interval t 2 , the video decoder 12 and the video encoder 14 operate in a manner similar to those in example 1 , as shown in fig2 c . however , the display controller 18 does not cause any frame to be shown on the display 28 during t 2 . during time interval t 3 , the video decoder 12 decodes the higher bit - rate compressed b 2 frame to generate a higher bit - rate decompressed b 2 frame , and writes the decompressed b 2 frame to the encode stage 4 buffer 112 . the video encoder 14 retrieves the decompressed b 1 frame from the buffer 110 , encodes the decompressed b 1 frame to generate a lower bit - rate reconstructed b 1 ′ frame and a lower bit - rate compressed b 1 ′ frame , writes the reconstructed b 1 ′ frame to the buffer 110 , and writes the compressed b 1 ′ frame to the output buffer 116 . the display controller 18 retrieves the lower bit - rate reconstructed i 0 ′ frame from the buffer 102 and causes the i 0 ′ frame to be shown on the display 28 . the higher bit - rate decompressed frame b 1 and the lower bit - rate reconstructed frame b 1 ′ have the same resolution ( i . e ., the same number of columns and rows ), so the decompressed frame b 1 and the reconstructed frame b 1 ′ have the same size ( i . e ., have the same number of bits ). the decompressed frame b 1 and the reconstructed frame b 1 ′ may have different image qualities . for example , the reconstructed b 1 ′ frame may not be as sharp as the decompressed b 1 frame , and block artifacts in the reconstructed b 1 ′ frame may be more visible than in the decompressed b 1 frame . during time interval t 4 , the video decoder 12 decodes the higher bit - rate compressed p 6 frame to generate a higher bit - rate decompressed p 6 frame , and writes the decompressed p 6 frame to the buffer 106 . the video encoder 14 retrieves the decompressed b 2 frame from the buffer 112 , encodes the decompressed b 2 frame to generate a lower bit - rate reconstructed b 2 ′ frame and a lower bit - rate compressed b 2 ′ frame , writes the reconstructed b 2 ′ frame to the buffer 112 , and writes the compressed b 2 ′ frame to the output buffer 116 . the display controller 18 retrieves the lower bit - rate reconstructed b 1 ′ frame from the buffer 110 and causes the b 1 ′ frame to be shown on the display 28 . during time interval t 5 , the video decoder 12 decodes a higher bit - rate compressed b 4 frame to generate a higher bit - rate decompressed b 4 frame , and writes the decompressed b 4 frame to the encode stage 3 buffer 110 . the video encoder 14 retrieves the decompressed p 6 frame from the buffer 106 , encodes the decompressed p 6 frame to generate a lower bit - rate reconstructed p 6 ′ frame and a lower bit - rate compressed p 6 ′ frame , writes the reconstructed p 6 ′ frame to the buffer 102 , and writes compressed p 6 ′ frame to the output buffer 116 . the display controller 18 retrieves the lower bit - rate reconstructed b 2 ′ frame from the buffer 112 and causes the b 2 ′ frame to be shown on the display 28 . during time interval t 6 , the video decoder 12 decodes the higher bit - rate compressed b 5 frame to generate a higher bit - rate decompressed b 5 frame , and writes the decompressed b 5 frame to the encode stage 4 buffer 112 . the video encoder 14 retrieves the decompressed b 4 frame from the buffer 110 , encodes the decompressed b 4 frame to generate a lower bit - rate reconstructed b 4 ′ frame and a lower bit - rate compressed b 4 ′ frame , writes the reconstructed b 4 ′ frame to the buffer 110 , and writes the compressed b 4 ′ frame to the output buffer 116 . the display controller 18 retrieves the lower bit - rate reconstructed b 3 ′ frame from the buffer 110 and causes the b 3 ′ frame to be shown on the display 28 . during time interval t 7 , the video decoder 12 decodes the higher bit - rate compressed p 9 frame to generate a higher bit - rate decompressed p 9 frame , and writes the decompressed p 9 frame to the buffer 108 . the video encoder 14 retrieves the decompressed b 5 frame from the buffer 112 , encodes the decompressed b 5 frame to generate a lower bit - rate reconstructed b 5 ′ frame and a lower bit - rate compressed b 5 ′ frame , writes the reconstructed b 5 ′ frame to the buffer 112 , and writes the compressed b 5 ′ frame to the output buffer 116 . the display controller 18 retrieves the lower bit - rate reconstructed b 4 ′ frame from the buffer 110 and causes the b 4 ′ frame to be shown on the display 28 . during time intervals t 8 , t 9 , t 10 , and so forth , the video controller 10 operates in a manner similar to those described above . in example 3 , similar to example 1 , the operations of the video decoder 12 , video encoder 14 , and display controller 18 are designed such that a first frame is overwritten by a second frame only after the first frame will not be used by the video decoder 12 , the video encoder 14 , or the display controller 18 . the video decoder 12 , the video encoder 14 , and the display controller 18 share the memory 22 such that the memory 22 at any given time stores no more than six decompressed frames in buffers 102 , 104 , 106 , 108 , 110 , and 112 . in example 4 , the lower bit - rate compressed video 30 has a lower resolution as compared to the higher bit - rate compressed video 26 . the compressed videos 26 and 30 may have the same or different compression ratios ( e . g ., quantization levels ). for example , the input encoded video 26 can have 1920 × 1080 resolution , and the output encoded video 30 can have 1366 × 768 resolution . both the encoded videos 26 and 30 have frames that are arranged in an encode order . the display controller 18 sends lower resolution frames arranged in the display order to the display 28 . thus , the video controller 10 outputs a lower bit - rate compressed video 30 having a lower resolution at the same time that the display 28 shows the video in a lower resolution . the allocation of memory buffers in the memory device 22 for example 4 is similar to that of example 2 , as shown in fig3 b . the input buffer 100 stores a higher resolution compressed frame , and the output buffer 116 stores a lower resolution compressed frame generated by the video encoder 14 . a descaler may generate the lower resolution decompressed frames by using a de - scaling process . the encoding and the de - scaling of the frames may be performed at the same time . timing sequences for example 4 is similar to those of example 3 , as shown in fig3 b . the processes performed by the video decoder 12 , the video encoder 14 , and the display controller 18 are similar to those described in example 3 , except that the frames i 0 ′, b 1 ′, b 2 ′, p 3 ′, b 4 ′, b 5 ′, p 6 ′, b 7 ′, b 8 ′, p 9 ′, b 10 ′, b 11 ′, and p 12 ′ are lower resolution reconstructed frames , and i 0 , b 1 , b 2 , p 3 , b 4 , b 5 , p 6 , b 7 , b 8 , p 9 , b 10 , b 11 , and p 12 are higher resolution decompressed frames . similar to example 3 , in example 4 , the video decoder 12 , the video encoder 14 , and the display controller 18 share the memory 22 such that the memory 22 at any given time stores no more than six decompressed frames in buffers 102 , 104 , 106 , 108 , 110 , and 112 . referring to fig4 a , in example 5 , the input encoded video 26 is a compressed higher bit - rate video from a video source , such as a high definition video camcorder . the frames in the input video 26 are arranged in the display order and are compressed according to , e . g ., digital video ( dv ) or jpeg format , which specifies that the compressed frames are all intra frames . the output encoded video 30 is a compressed lower bit - rate video in which the frames are arranged in the encode order . the frames of the output video 30 are encoded according to , e . g ., an mpeg standard . the input video 26 includes i frames arranged in the display order , and the output video 30 includes i , b , and p frames arranged in the encode order . the videos 26 and 30 have the same resolution but different bit rates . the display controller 18 sends higher bit - rate frames to the display 28 in the display order . fig4 b shows a time chart 160 indicating timing sequences in which the frames are stored in the buffers of the memory device 22 and shown on the display 28 . in this example , the encode stage 5 buffer 114 is used ( as compared to examples 1 - 4 in which the buffer 114 is not used ). as can be seen from the time chart 160 , each frame is accessed by only one of the video decoder 12 , the video encoder 14 , and the display controller 18 at any given time interval , so that the video decoder 12 , the video encoder 14 , and the display controller 18 can share the frames stored in the memory buffers without conflict . each frame that is stored in the memory device 22 is stored once without duplication . the following describes the processes performed by the video decoder 12 , the video encoder 14 , and display controller 18 at various time intervals . before time interval t 0 ( not shown in fig4 b ), a higher bit - rate encoded i 0 frame is written to the input buffer 100 . similarly , during time intervals t 0 , t 1 , t 2 , t 3 , t 4 , t 5 , t 6 , t 7 , t 8 , t 9 , t 10 , t 11 , t 12 , . . . , higher bit - rate encoded frames i 1 , i 2 , i 3 , i 4 , i 5 , i 6 , i 7 , i 8 , i 9 , i 10 , i 11 , . . . , respectively , are written to the input buffer 100 . during time interval t 0 , the video decoder 12 decodes the encoded i 0 frame to generate a higher bit - rate decompressed i 0 frame , and writes the decompressed i 0 frame to the encode stage 1 buffer 106 . during time interval t 1 , the video decoder 12 decodes the encoded i 1 frame and generates a higher bit - rate decompressed i 1 frame , and writes the decompressed i 1 frame to the encode stage 3 buffer 110 . during time interval t 2 , the video decoder 12 decodes the encoded i 2 frame to generate a higher bit - rate decompressed i 2 frame , and writes the decompressed i 2 frame to the encode stage 4 buffer 112 . the video encoder 14 encodes the higher bit - rate decompressed i 0 frame to generate a lower bit - rate reconstructed i 0 ′ frame and a lower bit - rate compressed i 0 ′ frame , writes the reconstructed i 0 ′ frame to the reconstructed reference 1 buffer 102 , and writes the compressed i 0 ′ frame to the output buffer 116 . during time interval t 3 , the video decoder 12 decodes the encoded i 3 frame to generate a higher bit - rate decompressed i 3 frame , and writes the decompressed i 3 frame to the encode stage 2 buffer 108 . the video encoder 14 encodes the higher bit - rate decompressed i 3 frame to generate a lower bit - rate reconstructed p 3 ′ frame and a lower bit - rate compressed p 3 ′ frame , writes the reconstructed p 3 ′ frame to the buffer 104 , and writes the compressed p 3 ′ frame to the output buffer 116 . the display controller 18 retrieves the higher bit - rate decompressed i 0 frame from the buffer 106 and causes the i 0 frame to be shown on the display 28 . during time interval t 4 , the video decoder 12 decodes the encoded i 4 frame to generate a higher bit - rate decompressed i 4 frame , and writes the decompressed i 4 frame to the encode stage 5 buffer 114 . the video encoder 14 encodes the higher bit - rate decompressed i 1 frame to generate a lower bit - rate compressed b 1 ′ frame , and writes the compressed b 1 ′ frame to the output buffer 116 . the display controller 18 retrieves the higher bit - rate decompressed i 1 frame from the buffer 110 and causes the i 1 frame to be shown on the display 28 . during time interval t 5 , the video decoder 12 decodes the encoded i 5 frame to generate a higher bit - rate decompressed i 5 frame , and writes the decompressed i 5 frame to the encode stage 3 buffer 110 . the video encoder 14 encodes the decompressed i 2 frame to generate a lower bit - rate compressed b 2 ′ frame , and writes the compressed b 2 ′ frame to the output buffer 116 . the display controller 18 retrieves the higher bit - rate decompressed i 2 frame from the buffer 112 and causes the i 2 frame to be shown on the display 28 . during time interval t 6 , the video decoder 12 decodes the encoded i 6 frame to generate a higher bit - rate decompressed i 6 frame , and writes the decompressed i 6 frame to the encode stage 1 buffer 106 . the video encoder 14 encodes the decompressed 16 frame to generate a lower bit - rate reconstructed p 6 ′ frame and a lower bit - rate compressed p 6 ′ frame , writes the reconstructed p 6 ′ frame to the buffer 102 , and writes the compressed p 6 ′ frame to the output buffer 116 . the display controller 18 retrieves the higher bit - rate decompressed i 3 frame from the buffer 108 and causes the i 3 frame to be shown on the display 28 . during time interval t 7 , the video decoder 12 decodes the encoded i 7 frame to generate a higher bit - rate decompressed i 7 frame , and writes the decompressed i 7 frame to the encode stage 4 buffer 112 . the video encoder 14 encodes the decompressed i 4 frame to generate a lower bit - rate compressed b 4 ′ frame , and writes the compressed b 4 ′ frame to the output buffer 116 . the display controller 18 retrieves the higher bit - rate decompressed i 4 frame from the buffer 114 and causes the i 4 frame to be shown on the display 28 . during time intervals t 8 , t 9 , t 10 , and so forth , the video controller 10 operates in a manner similar to those described above . in example 5 , the operations of the video decoder 12 , the video encoder 14 , and the display controller 18 are designed such that a first frame is overwritten by a second frame only after the first frame will not be used by the video decoder 12 , the video encoder 14 , or the display controller 18 . the video decoder 12 , the video encoder 14 , and the display controller 18 share the memory 22 such that the memory 22 at any given time stores no more than seven decompressed frames , including five decompressed frames ( in buffers 106 , 108 , 110 , 112 , and 114 ) written by the video decoder 12 and two reconstructed frames ( in buffers 102 and 104 ) written by the video encoder 14 . in example 6 , the lower bit - rate compressed video 30 has a lower resolution as compared to the higher bit - rate compressed video 26 . for example , the input encoded video 26 can have 1920 × 1080 resolution , and the output encoded video 30 can have 1366 × 768 resolution . the encoded video 26 has frames that are arranged in a display order , whereas the encoded video 26 has frames that are arranged in an encode order . the display controller 18 sends higher resolution frames arranged in the display order to the display 28 . thus , the video controller 10 outputs a lower bit - rate compressed video 30 having lower resolution at the same time that the display 28 shows the video in higher resolution . the allocation of memory buffers in the memory device 22 for example 6 is similar to that of example 5 , as shown in fig4 b . the input buffer 100 stores a higher resolution compressed frame , and the output buffer 116 stores a lower resolution compressed frame generated by the video encoder 14 . the encode stage 1 buffer 106 , encode stage 2 buffer 108 , encode stage 3 buffer 110 , encode stage 4 buffer 112 , and encode stage 5 buffer 114 store higher resolution decompressed frames that are output from the video decoder 12 . the reconstructed encode reference 1 buffer 102 and the reconstructed encode reference 2 buffer 104 store lower resolution reconstructed frames that are generated by the video encoder 14 , and used by the video encoder 14 during encoding of other frames . a descaler may generate the lower resolution reconstructed frames by using a descaling process . the encoding and the descaling of the frames may be performed at the same time . timing sequences for example 6 is similar to that of example 5 , as shown in fig4 b . the processes performed by the video decoder 12 , the video encoder 14 , and the display controller 18 are similar to those described in example 5 , except that the frames i 0 ′, b 1 ′, b 2 ′, p 3 ′, b 4 ′, b 5 ′, p 6 ′, b 7 ′, b 8 ′, p 9 ′, b 10 ′, b 11 ′, and p 12 ′ are lower resolution reconstructed frames , and i 0 , b 1 , b 2 , p 3 , b 4 , b 5 , p 6 , b 7 , b 8 , p 9 , b 10 , b 11 , and p 12 are higher resolution decompressed frames . similar to example 5 , in example 6 , the video decoder 12 , the video encoder 14 , and the display controller 18 share the memory 22 such that the memory 22 at any given time stores no more than seven decompressed frames , including five decompressed frames ( in buffers 106 , 108 , 110 , 112 , and 114 ) written by the video decoder 12 and two reconstructed frames ( in buffers 102 and 104 ) written by the video encoder 14 . referring to fig5 a , in example 7 , similar to example 5 , the input encoded video 26 is a compressed higher bit - rate video from a video source in which the frames are all intra frames and arranged in the display order . the output encoded video 30 is a compressed lower bit - rate video in which the frames are arranged in the encode order . the frames of the output video 30 may be encoded according to , e . g ., an mpeg standard . the videos 26 and 30 have the same resolution . the difference between examples 5 and 7 is that , in example 7 , the display controller 18 sends a lower bit - rate decompressed video 27 to the display 28 in the display order . fig5 b shows a time chart 170 indicating timing sequences in which the frames are stored in the buffers of the memory device 22 and shown on the display 28 . in example 7 , the reconstructed reference 1 buffer and 102 and the reconstructed reference 2 buffer 104 are not used ( as compared to examples 1 - 6 in which the buffers 102 and 104 were not used ). this is because the input video are all intra frames , so when encoding a frame i 0 , a reconstructed frame i 0 ′ can overwrite the frame i 0 because i 0 is not used in the decoding of subsequent frames . thus , the encode stage 1 buffer 106 can be used to store the decoded frame i 0 and the reconstructed frame i 0 ′. each frame that is stored in the memory device 22 is stored once without duplication . the following describes the processes performed by the video decoder 12 , video encoder 14 , and the display controller 18 at various time intervals . before time interval t 0 ( not shown in fig5 b ), a higher bit - rate encoded i 0 frame is written to the input buffer 100 . similarly , during time intervals t 0 , t 1 , t 2 , t 3 , t 4 , t 5 , t 6 , t 7 , t 8 , t 9 , t 10 , t 11 , t 12 , . . . , higher bit - rate encoded frames i 1 , i 2 , i 3 , i 4 , i 5 , i 6 , i 7 , i 8 , i 9 , i 10 , i 11 , . . . , respectively , are written to the input buffer 100 . during time interval t 0 , the video decoder 12 decodes the encoded i 0 frame to generate a higher bit - rate decompressed i 0 frame , and writes the decompressed i 0 frame to the encode stage 1 buffer 106 . during time interval t 1 , the video decoder 12 decodes the encoded i 1 frame and generates a higher bit - rate decompressed i 1 frame , and writes the decompressed i 1 frame to the encode stage 3 buffer 110 . during time interval t 2 , the video decoder 12 decodes the encoded i 2 frame to generate a higher bit - rate decompressed i 2 frame , and writes the decompressed i 2 frame to the encode stage 4 buffer 112 . the video encoder 14 encodes the higher bit - rate decompressed i 0 frame to generate a lower bit - rate reconstructed i 0 ′ frame and a lower bit - rate compressed i 0 ′ frame , writes the reconstructed i 0 ′ frame to the encode stage 1 buffer 106 ( thereby overwriting the decompressed i 0 frame ), and writes the compressed i 0 ′ frame to the output buffer 116 . during time interval t 3 , the video decoder 12 decodes the encoded i 3 frame to generate a higher bit - rate decompressed i 3 frame , and writes the decompressed i 3 frame to the encode stage 2 buffer 108 . in some examples , the video encoder 14 starts to encode the data in the buffer 108 after the video decoder 12 decodes a certain amount of data , so that during period t 3 , the buffer 108 is accessed by both the video decoder 12 and the video encoder 14 . the video encoder 14 encodes the higher bit - rate decompressed 13 frame to generate a lower bit - rate reconstructed p 3 ′ frame and a lower bit - rate compressed p 3 ′ frame , writes the reconstructed p 3 ′ frame to the buffer 108 ( thereby overwriting the decompressed i 3 frame ), and writes the compressed p 3 ′ frame to the output buffer 116 . the display controller 18 retrieves the lower bit - rate reconstructed i 0 ′ frame from the buffer 106 and causes the i 0 ′ frame to be shown on the display 28 . during time interval t 4 , the video decoder 12 decodes the encoded i 4 frame to generate a higher bit - rate decompressed i 4 frame , and writes the decompressed i 4 frame to the encode stage 5 buffer 114 . the video encoder 14 encodes the higher bit - rate decompressed b 1 frame to generate a lower bit - rate reconstructed b 1 ′ frame and a lower bit - rate compressed b 1 ′ frame , writes the reconstructed b 1 ′ frame to the buffer 110 , and writes the compressed b 1 ′ frame to the output buffer 116 . the display controller 18 retrieves the lower bit - rate reconstructed b 1 ′ frame from the buffer 110 and causes the b 1 ′ frame to be shown on the display 28 . during time interval t 5 , the video decoder 12 decodes the encoded i 5 frame to generate a higher bit - rate decompressed i 5 frame , and writes the decompressed i 5 frame to the encode stage 3 buffer 110 . the reconstructed b 1 ′ frame can be overwritten because it has already been displayed during t 4 , and will not be used in the future . the video encoder 14 encodes the decompressed b 2 frame to generate a lower bit - rate reconstructed b 2 ′ frame and a lower bit - rate compressed b 2 ′ frame , writes the reconstructed b 2 ′ frame to the buffer 112 , and writes the compressed b 2 ′ frame to the output buffer 116 . the display controller 18 retrieves the lower bit - rate reconstructed b 2 ′ frame from the buffer 112 and causes the b 2 ′ frame to be shown on the display 28 . during time interval t 6 , the video decoder 12 decodes the encoded i 6 frame to generate a higher bit - rate decompressed i 6 frame , and writes the decompressed i 6 frame to the encode stage 1 buffer 106 . the video encoder 14 encodes the decompressed i 6 frame to generate a lower bit - rate reconstructed p 6 ′ frame and a lower bit - rate compressed p 6 ′ frame , writes the reconstructed p 6 ′ frame to the buffer 106 ( overwriting the decompressed i 6 frame ), and writes the compressed p 6 ′ frame to the output buffer 116 . the display controller 18 retrieves the lower bit - rate decompressed p 3 ′ frame from the buffer 108 and causes the p 3 ′ frame to be shown on the display 28 . during time interval t 7 , the video decoder 12 decodes the encoded i 7 frame to generate a higher bit - rate decompressed i 7 frame , and writes the decompressed i 7 frame to the encode stage 4 buffer 112 . the video encoder 14 encodes the decompressed i 4 frame to generate a lower bit - rate reconstructed b 4 ′ frame and a lower bit - rate compressed b 4 ′ frame , writes the reconstructed b 4 ′ frame to the buffer 114 , and writes the compressed b 4 ′ frame to the output buffer 116 . the display controller 18 retrieves the lower bit - rate decompressed b 4 ′ frame from the buffer 114 and causes the b 4 ′ frame to be shown on the display 28 . during time intervals t 8 , t 9 , t 10 , and so forth , the video controller 10 operates in a manner similar to those described above . in example 7 , the operations of the video decoder 12 , video encoder 14 , and display controller 18 are designed such that a first frame is overwritten by a second frame only after the first frame will not be used by the video decoder 12 , the video encoder 14 , or the display controller 18 . the video decoder 12 , the video encoder 14 , and the display controller 18 share the memory 22 such that the memory 22 at any given time stores no more than five decompressed frames in buffers 106 , 108 , 110 , 112 , and 114 . in example 8 , the lower bit - rate compressed video 30 has a lower resolution as compared to the higher bit - rate compressed video 26 . for example , the input encoded video 26 can have 1920 × 1080 resolution , and the output encoded video 30 can have 1366 × 768 resolution . the encoded video 26 has frames that are arranged in a display order , whereas the encoded video 26 has frames that are arranged in an encode order . the display controller 18 sends lower resolution frames arranged in the display order to the display 28 . thus , the video controller 10 outputs a lower bit - rate compressed video 30 having lower resolution at the same time that the display 28 shows the video in a lower resolution . the allocation of memory buffers in the memory device 22 for example 8 is similar to that of example 7 , as shown in fig5 b . the input buffer 100 stores a higher resolution compressed frame , and the output buffer 116 stores a lower resolution compressed frame generated by the video encoder 14 . the encode stage 1 buffer 106 , encode stage 2 buffer 108 , encode stage 3 buffer 110 , encode stage 4 buffer 112 , and encode stage 5 buffer 114 may store higher resolution decompressed frames and lower resolution reconstructed frames . a descaler may generate the lower resolution reconstructed frames by using a descaling process . the encoding and the descaling of the frames may be performed at the same time . timing sequences for example 8 is similar to that of example 7 , as shown in fig5 b . the processes performed by the video decoder 12 , the video encoder 14 , and the display controller 18 are similar to those described in example 7 , except that the frames i 0 ′, b 1 ′, b 2 ′, p 3 ′, b 4 ′, b 5 ′, p 6 ′, b 7 ′, b 8 ′, p 9 ′, b 10 ′, b 11 ′, and p 12 ′ are lower resolution reconstructed frames , and i 0 , i 1 , i 2 , i 3 , i 4 , i 5 , i 6 , i 7 , i 8 , i 9 , i 10 , i 11 , and i 12 are higher resolution decompressed frames . similar to example 7 , in example 8 , the video decoder 12 , the video encoder 14 , and the display controller 18 share the memory 22 such that the memory 22 at any given time stores no more than five decompressed frames in buffers 106 , 108 , 110 , 112 , and 114 . in examples 1 - 8 described above , the system controller 24 coordinates the operations of the video decoder 12 , the video encoder 14 , and the display controller 8 according to the formats of the input and output signals . the video controller 10 may include firmware that includes code for controlling the operations of various components . the firmware may include code to cause the display 28 to show menu options to allow a user to specify , for example , the input and output formats , whether to display higher or lower resolution video , and the resolution and the bit rate of the output encoded video 30 . in the description above , the videos are encoded / decoded according to a jpeg , dv , or mpeg standard . the videos can also be encoded / decoded using other standards , such as international telecommunications union ( itu ) h . 261 , h . 263 , or h . 264 standard . the video controller 10 can be used to transcode a lower bit - rate video to a higher bit - rate video . the video controller 10 can be used to transcode a lower resolution video to a higher resolution video . if the video is not shown on a display , each of the time intervals t 0 , t 1 , t 2 , . . . , does not necessarily have to be equal to a frame period . the duration of the time intervals depend on the speed on decoding and encoding . the video controller 10 can be incorporated in , for example , a video recorder ( which can store video programs to tapes , optical media , hard drives , or other non - volatile storage ), a television or set - top box having a built - in mass storage , a portable video player / recorder , and a cell phone capable of playing / recording video . in examples 1 - 4 , the memory device 22 can be made smaller by omitting the buffer 114 , which is not used . in examples 7 and 8 , the memory device 22 can be made smaller by omitting the buffers 102 and 104 , which are not used . the display controller 18 may be omitted from the video controller 10 if the video is not shown on a display . | 7 |
with reference to the attached drawing a fuel gas , typically a gaseous hydrocarbon such as methane , ethane , propane and the like , and a source of oxygen , typically air and stream are combined in a reducing gas generator 10 where there is formed a reducing gas stream containing as hydrogen equivalents , hydrogen and carbon monoxide . the water present in the feed serves to reduce the formation of soot . it is also available to generate hydrogen by reaction with carbon monoxide in a subsequent catalysis zone and to suppress the formation of cos and cs 2 . the reducing gas generator 10 operates at an elevated temperature yielding by partial oxidation an effluent gas stream typically ranging in temperature from about 1400 to about 1600 ° f or more . liquid fuels such as kerosine , diesel fuel or other fuel oils may be used with burners designed to suppress the formation of soot . solid fuel such as coal or coke may alternatively be used as the source of hydrogen and carbon monoxide . the gas stream enters sulfur vaporizer 12 containing a pool of molten sulfur 14 supplied by molten sulfur reservoir tank 16 . the gas stream in passing through the molten sulfur vaporizes the sulfur and passes it to a catalytic reactor 18 where hydrogen and sulfur react to form hydrogen sulfide and carbon monoxide and water react to yield additional hydrogen for reaction with sulfur to yield hydrogen sulfide . the amount of sulfur vaporized , calculated as s 1 independent of its dimeric or polymeric forms , should be equal to or less than the amount of hydrogen equivalents present in the gas stream exiting the gas generator . preferably , the net gas should contain hydrogen equivalents in the form of hydrogen and carbon monoxide in an amount sufficient to provide excess hydrogen equivalents in an amount of from about 1 . 5 to about 3 mole per cent to insure complete conversion of the vaporized sulfur to hydrogen sulfide and to eliminate any sulfur dioxide which may tend to form . the control of sulfur vaporization can be accomplished in several ways . one is by injecting stream or water into the vapor space of vessel 12 , thereby cooling the vapor and condensing excess sulfur vapor . the same result may be accomplished by cooling the sulfur pool 14 by an external coolant ( not shown ) to again limit the temperature of the gas above the pool of molten sulfur . another means as shown in the drawing is to cool the gas stream above the pool of molten sulfur by the introduction of an external coolant through a coil or tube to limit gas temperature and thereby the partial pressure of sulfur in gas which is in thermal equilibrium with the molten sulfur head . whichever expedient is employed the net gas stream containing the reducing agents , water to suppress the thermal formation of cos and cs 2 and vaporized sulfur are passed to catalytic convertor 18 . as shown , converter 18 contains two catalytic beds 20 and 22 with cooling between the beds . the catalysts employed in the beds are those containing the metals of group va , via , viii and the rare earth series of the periodic table as defined by mendeleef and published as the &# 34 ; periodic chart of the atoms &# 34 ; by w . n . welch manufacturing company as published in business week , apr . 10 , 1965 edition , on page 56 incorporated therein by reference . the metals are preferably supported on conventional supports such as silica , alumina , alumina - silica and the zeolites . alumina is the preferred support . the preferred catalysts are those containing one or more the metals cobalt , molybdenum , iron , chromium , vanadium , thoria , nickel , tungsten ( w ) and uranium ( u ). a cobalt - molybdate catalyst where support is alumina is particularly preferred . catalytic zone 18 is maintained at a temperature from about 500 ° to about 800 ° f . as shown in the drawing bed 20 principally serves for the hydrogenation of sulfur although some hydrolysis of any cos and cs 2 introduced will also occur . to remove the exothermic heat of reaction a coolant can be circulated between beds 20 and 22 . preferably , in addition to or as an alternative to the circulation of an external coolant , water is injected into the gas stream in line 24 . water serves to quench the reaction by removing heat and to promote hydrolysis of cos and cs 2 in bed 22 which also serves to convert any residual sulfur to hydrogen sulfide . to minimize the carbon - sulfur compounds , it is preferred that the gas stream entering catalysis zone 18 have an effective water vapor content of about twenty - five mole percent or more , if the end use of the h 2 s containing product gas permits a larger content of cos and cs 2 , then a lesser content of water vapor is permissible . the lower limit is about ten mole percent . reaction occurs in catalytic zone 18 at a pressure ranging from about 1 to about 10 atmospheres or more . the gas stream exiting reactor 18 is passed through sulfur cooler 24 which is made available for start - up and upset conditions to remove any excess sulfur which may be present in the gas stream . again , because of low operating temperatures , ordinary material of construction can be used since corrosion ceases to be a problem . the gas stream still above the dew point of water is then passed to heat exchanger 26 where the gas stream is cooled to a temperature below the dew point of water at operating pressures . water is collected in knock - out pot 28 and removed from the system . with reference to the drawing there is fed to the reducing gas generator 10 gas streams indentified as 1 , 2 and 3 in table i below which show operating pressures and temperatures at the several points in the process , as calculated by conventional methods . in reducing gas generator 10 , methane and oxygen react to provide hydrogen and the oxides of carbon with attendant production of water . the gas leaving the reactor at point 4 is of the composition shown in table i and at a temperature of 1507 ° f . molten sulfur at a temperature of 280 ° f is fed from reservoir 16 to vaporizer 12 at the rate of 6208 pounds per hour , which is equal to the rate of sulfur vaporization . the feed to reactor 18 , containing cobalt and molydenum on alumina as the catalyst , is of the composition shown as item 5 in table i and at a temperature of 665 ° f . to remove the heat of reaction and promote hydrolysis of cos and cs 2 there is introduced water in line 24 at a temperature of 100 ° f . and at a rate of 200 pound moles per hour . a portion of the introduced water and water present at the reaction feed are consumed in a production of additional hydrogen by reaction with carbon monoxide to yield hydrogen and to hydrolyze cos and cs 2 . the effluent from the reactor is at a temperature of 750 ° f . and is of the composition in point 6 . the composition of product gas after removal of water is shown at point 7 . the gas stream leaving reactor 18 is free of sulfur dioxide . the concentration of cos is 1210 ppm and the concentration of cs 2 is 0 . 2 ppm . table i__________________________________________________________________________stream no . 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 fuel air red &# 39 ; g reactor reacted productname gas ( dry ) steam gas feed mix gas__________________________________________________________________________pound molech . sub . 4 76 . 4 0 . 09 0 . 09 0 . 02 0 . 02h . sub . 2 140 . 3 140 . 3 7 . 02 7 . 02co 60 . 7 60 . 7 0 . 26 0 . 26co . sub . 2 15 . 5 15 . 5 75 . 43 75 . 42h . sub . 2 o 25 . 6 37 . 6 37 . 6 177 . 60 32 . 60o . sub . 2 51 . 9 0 . 00 0 . 00 0 . 00 0 . 00n . sub . 2 197 . 5 197 . 5 197 . 5 197 . 50 197 . 50h . sub . 2 s 193 . 42 193 . 41cos 0 . 58 0 . 58cs . sub . 2 0 . 00 0 . 00so . sub . 2 0 . 00 0 . 00s . sub . vapor . sup . 1 97 . 0 0 . 00 0 . 00total 76 . 4 249 . 4 25 . 6 451 . 69 548 . 69 651 . 83 506 . 81total . sup . 2 474 . 23 474 . 21temp . ° f 300 300 300 1507 665 750 100press . ata 1 1 1 1 1 1 1parts permillion ( dry basis ) cos 1210cs . sub . 2 0 . 2so . sub . 2 0 . 0__________________________________________________________________________ . sup . 1 as equivalent s . sub . 2 . sup . 2 dry basis | 2 |
to facilitate an understanding of the preferred embodiment , the general architecture and operation of a conventional taut wire intrusion detection system will initially be described with reference to fig1 . the specific architecture and operation of the supporting post arrangement of a preferred embodiment will then be described with reference to the general architecture and operation of a taut wire intrusion detection system . referring now to fig1 which illustrates one section of a prior art taut wire intrusion detection system , two anchor posts 101 a and 101 b are mounted at opposite ends of the section . multiple taut wires 104 , which may be in the form of barbed wires , are attached to and held under tension by the anchor posts 101 . a sensor post 103 is mounted at the center of the section between the two anchor posts 101 . the sensor post contains tension sensors ( not shown ) that are used to monitor the tensions of the taut wires 104 . such sensor posts and anchor posts are available from safeguards technology of hackensack , n . j . the taut wires 104 are connected to tension sensors in the sensor post 103 . slider posts 102 , positioned between an anchor post 101 and the sensor post 103 , are placed adjacent to the taut wires 104 to provide additional vertical support as to prevent a bowing of the taut wires 104 . the slider posts 102 also serve as a mechanism to convert vertical and horizontal force exerted on the taut wires into longitudinal movement . the taut wires 104 are secured to the anchor post 101 by link rods 106 . the displacement requirement of a sector in the prior art taut wire systems is not uniform over the distance from one anchor post to the other . rather , the displacement requirement of a prior art taut wire system such as that of fig1 is location dependent , as can be appreciated from fig2 a - 2f . fig2 a is a simplified diagram of a taut wire system including a pair of anchor posts 101 a , 101 b , a sensor post 103 , and four taut wire segments 208 , 210 , 212 , 214 . the taut wire segments are monitored by sensors ( not shown ) on the sensor post 103 . fig2 b illustrates the displacement requirement of taut wire segment 208 over the distance between a first anchor post 101 a and a second anchor post 101 b . as may be appreciated , the displacement requirement of the taut wire segment is at a maximum ( resulting in minimum sensitivity ) near the first anchor post 101 a . the displacement requirement of the taut wire segment 208 decreases as the contact point approaches the sensor post 103 . the displacement requirement is at a minimum ( resulting in maximum sensitivity ) near the sensor post 103 . the displacement requirement of the taut wire segment 208 increases as the contact point moves toward the second anchor post 101 b . the displacement requirement is again at a maximum near the second anchor post 101 b . the variance in displacement requirement is mainly due to the elasticity of the wound steel strand or barbed wire making up the taut wire . as the point of contact moves away from the sensor , more taut wire is available between the contact point and the sensor . the increase in taut wire length results in a greater proportion of the taut wire displacement resulting in an elongation of the taut wire as opposed to a displacement of the sensor taut wire connector element . fig2 c - 2e represent the similar displacement requirement exhibited by the other taut wire segments 210 , 212 , 214 , along the distance from the first anchor post 101 a to the second anchor post 101 b . fig2 f is an illustration of the average displacement requirement of the taut wire sector , which is calculated by combining the displacement requirements of the taut wire segments and dividing by the number of taut wire segments . the force requirement of a sector in a typical taut wire system likewise is not uniform along the distance from one anchor post to another . rather , the threshold force , which must be applied to the taut wires in a sector of a typical taut wire system , increases as the contact point moves towards the anchor posts , as can be appreciated from fig3 a - 3f . fig3 a is a simplified diagram of a taut wire system as was illustrated in fig2 a . fig3 b illustrates the force requirement of one of the taut wire segments 208 along the distance between a first anchor post 101 a and a second anchor post 101 b . as may be appreciated , the force requirement of the taut wire segment is at a maximum ( resulting in minimum sensitivity ) near the first anchor post 101 a , demonstrated by the higher level of force that must be applied to the taut wire at the location . the force requirement of the taut wire segment 208 decreases as the contact point approached the sensor post 103 , demonstrated by the lower level of force that must be applied to the taut wire near the sensor post . the force requirement is at a minimum ( resulting in maximum sensitivity ) near the sensor post 103 . the force requirement of the taut wire segment 208 then increases as the contact point moves toward the second anchor post 101 b . the variance in force requirement is the result of the increase in displacement distance required and the decrease in distance from the fixed anchor connection . since the displacement requirement of the taut wire increases as the contact point approaches the anchor posts , the force required also increases since the taut wire acts as a spring such that the force exerted by the taut wire increases as the wire is stretched . also , in order to move the sensor taut wire attachment the taut wire portion on the anchor side of the contact point must also move . since the anchor side of the contact point is fixed in position , the only movement that is possible is the stretching of the taut wire as opposed to a displacement of the anchor element . as the contact point nears the anchor element , less taut wire is available on the anchor side of the contact point . the force required to stretch a segment of taut wire increases as the length of the segment decreases . therefore , as the contact point moves closer to the anchor post , the force requirement increases . as the point of contact moves away from the anchor post , more taut wire is available between the contact point and the anchor post to provide a longer segment of taut wire to stretch , timely reducing the force requirement . additionally , some increase in force results from the increase in friction between the taut wire and the slider posts between the contact point and the sensor post . as the contact point moves away from the sensor post , more slider posts are between the contact point and the sensor , where the taut wire is displaced . therefore , a greater area of the taut wire is in contact with slider posts and a greater friction force is applied to the taut wire when the contact point moves away from the sensor post . fig3 c - 3e represent the similar force requirement exhibited by the other taut wire segments 210 , 212 , 214 , over the distance between the first anchor post 101 a and the second anchor post 101 b . fig3 f is an illustration of the force requirement of the taut wire sector , which is calculated by combining the displacement requirement of the taut wire segments and dividing by the number of taut wire segments . because the force requirement increases as the contact point moves toward the anchor posts , greater force can be applied to the taut wires near the anchor posts without producing an alarm condition . as a result , with a very long sector , the force requirement may be high enough so as to support the weight of an intruder , allowing intruders to use the taut wires to step over the fence near the anchor posts . therefore , the length of the taut wire sectors is limited by the level of increase in force requirement near the anchor posts . additionally , for a given combination of sensors , taut wire material , and taut wire tension , there will always be a sector length for which the average displacement requirement of taut wires is too great for a reasonably secure system . at this distance , the taut wires near the anchor posts can be displaced far enough as to allow an intruder to pass through the fence . some attempts to address these weakness have included using anchoring elements that break when vertical force above a certain threshold is applied , or using vertical force sensors as the anchor elements . these attempted solutions increase the cost of a system and require additional maintenance because more components that require service are introduced to the system . even with these attempted solutions , sectors of the more effective taut wire intrusion detection systems , such as the system of fig1 which employs breaking anchor elements , can generally only extend up to approximately 200 feet in length . beyond the approximate maximum length , the increase in force requirement and increase in displacement requirement are too great for a reliable system . increasing the overall sensitivity of the sensor posts of the system does not solve the problem as the rate of false alarms increases because the taut wire is very sensitive near the sensor posts . fig4 a - 4b is an illustration of four sections taut wire system constructed in accordance with the present invention . the term section is used herein to refer to a portion of the taut wire system that includes a variable number of supporting posts and a pair of anchor posts . anchor posts ( represented by the character a ) are provided at the ends of each section so as to provide a termination function for the supporting posts adjacent to the anchor post because some of the elements on the supporting posts are sensors . the anchor posts 401 , 408 , are preferably positioned outside the secured area , as shown , such that the sensitivity of the taut wire segments extending to the anchor posts does not affect the performance of the system . the supporting posts 402 , 404 , 406 , 407 , are provided between the anchor posts 401 , 408 , along intervals generally occupied in prior systems by both anchor and sensor posts . in another embodiment , the supporting posts are provided outside the secured area , before the anchor post . fig5 is an illustration of a portion of the system of fig4 that includes four supporting posts 402 , 404 , 406 , 407 . the supporting posts 402 , 404 , 406 , 407 , preferably contain , in an alternating arrangement , sensors and anchor elements . taut wire segments terminate at the anchor elements on every other supporting post as can be seen from a first taut wire segment 410 of the system . the taut wire segment 410 is anchored by a first anchor element 412 on a first supporting post 402 and a second anchor element 414 on a third supporting post 406 . the taut wire segment 410 is monitored by a sensor 416 on a second supporting post 404 . each sensor of the illustrated embodiment monitors a single taut wire although sensors that monitor more than one taut wire can be used . as a second example , a second taut wire segment 418 is anchored by a first anchor element 420 on the second supporting post 404 and a second anchor element 422 on a fourth supporting post 407 . the taut wire segment 418 is monitored by a sensor 424 on the third supporting post 406 . other taut wire segments are either monitored by sensors on adjacent supporting posts or kept in tension by anchor elements on adjacent supporting posts . conventional anchor elements , posts , and sensors can be used to provide the configuration illustrated by fig5 . for example , the breakable anchor elements used to prevent intruders from climbing the fence by using the anchor elements on the anchor posts of a typical taut wire system can be used as the anchor elements in the section illustrated in fig5 . alternatively , the anchor elements may be extruded cylinders whereby the taut wire is wrapped around the inner cylindrical portion of the anchor elements and is locked in place by a cover that is attached to the base of the cylinder . by using cylindrical anchoring elements a single segment of taut wire can extend between several anchor elements . the sensors of fig5 may be electromechanical taut wire sensors such as those available from safeguards technology , of hackensack n . j . the sensors may also be sensors that employ fiber optics or piezo - electric detection elements . sectors of typical taut wire intrusion systems , such as that of fig1 can extend as much as 200 feet in length between a first anchor post and a second anchor post . when an alarm condition is communicated from a sensor to a control center , the entire sector , from the first anchor post to the second anchor post , must be manually inspected to isolate the cause of the alarm . therefore , the scope of detection in such prior systems is the distance between three posts of the system , two anchor posts and one sensor post . in the system illustrated in fig3 the scope of detection is likely to be two posts of the system , or about one half the distance for the reasons set forth below . when an intruder attempts to bypass the taut wire system either by climbing over the fence or cutting through the fence , at least two taut wire segments will likely be engaged . the system of fig3 is assumed to be implemented as a one wire per sensor system although the discussion below is equally applicable to multiple wire per sensor configurations . first , when an intruder climbs over the fence , it is highly likely that the intruder exerts force on at least two taut wires segments since the fence cannot generally be scaled in a single step . second , when an intruder cuts through the fence , the intruder is likely to cut at least two adjacent taut wire segments because the distance between adjacent taut wire segments is generally too small for an intruder to fit through twice that distance . when supporting posts are provided , in a configuration such as that of fig4 there is a high likelihood that the two taut wire segments engaged by the intruder are not both anchored or monitored at the same post , because the intruder may not be aware of the location of sensors and anchor elements on the supporting post . the intruder may not be able to distinguish between the sensors and anchor elements since both can be made to have the same appearance . further , the sensors and anchor elements can be hidden from an intruder by using a cover on the supporting posts . when an intruder cuts taut wires , the likelihood that two different sensors are monitoring the two wires is high , especially when using an alternating arrangement such as that of fig4 . when two taut wire segments , monitored by sensors on different supporting posts , are engaged , two sensor posts will communicate an alarm condition instead of the single sensor post of a typical systems . the intrusion location can then be precisely identified as the area between the two supporting posts . narrowing down the possible zone of intrusion may reduce the response time taken in isolating the cause of an alarm , thereby providing a higher level of performance . the cost of the system need not be increased significantly , if at all , despite the increase in accuracy of detection . the arrangement of the sensors and anchor elements within the supporting posts of the system of fig5 may be modified to prevent an intruder from scaling the fence by stepping over every other taut wire segment such that only the segments anchored at the supporting post are engaged . an alternating arrangements of groups of two sensors and two anchor elements can prevent the scaling of the fence by stepping on only the anchored taut wire segments . other arrangements providing similar advantages can be used such as providing a non - uniform distribution of sensors and anchor elements such that a large group of sensors or a large group of anchor elements are provided at various locations on the supporting post . fig6 a - 6f illustrate the displacement requirement of taut wire segments of the system constructed in accordance with the present invention that is illustrated in fig5 . fig6 a is a simplified illustration of the system of fig4 which includes three supporting posts 402 , 404 , 406 . taut wire segments 508 , 510 , 512 , 514 are provided between the supporting posts as described with reference to fig4 . fig5 b illustrates the displacement requirement of a taut wire segment 514 over the distance between a first supporting post 402 and a third supporting post 406 . taut wire segment 514 is anchored at the first supporting post 402 , connected to a sensor on the second supporting post 404 , and anchored at the third supporting post 406 . the displacement requirement of the taut wire segment 514 decreases as the contact point approaches the second supporting post 404 where it is monitored by a sensor . the displacement requirement of the taut wire segment 514 increases as the contact point moves away from the second supporting post 404 toward the first and third supporting posts 402 , 406 . fig6 c illustrates the displacement requirement of a second taut wire segment 512 over the distance between the first supporting post 402 and the second supporting post 406 . the taut wire segment 512 is connected to a sensor on the first supporting post 402 , anchored at the second supporting post 404 , and connected to a sensor on the third supporting post 406 . the displacement requirement of the taut wire segment 512 increases as the contact point approaches the second supporting post 404 where it is anchored . the displacement requirement of the taut wire segment 512 decreases as the contact point moves away from the second supporting post 404 toward the first and third supporting posts 402 , 406 where it is connected to sensors . the two other taut wire segments 508 , 510 will behave similarly as is illustrated by fig6 d and 6e . fig6 f illustrates the displacement requirement of the section over the distance between the first supporting post 402 and the third supporting post 406 . as can be appreciated , the average displacement requirement at contact points along the section is substantially uniform . this uniformity of displacement requirement provides a taut wire intrusion detection system that can be adjusted without creating weak areas or high false alarm rates . fig7 a - 7f illustrate the force requirement of the taut wire segments of the system illustrated in fig5 . fig7 a is the same illustration as that of fig6 a . fig7 b illustrates the force requirement of a taut wire segment 514 along the distance between a first supporting post 402 and a third supporting post 406 . the taut wire segment 514 is anchored at the first supporting post 402 , connected to a sensor on the second supporting post 404 , and anchored at the third supporting post 406 . the force requirement of the taut wire segment 514 decreases as the contact point approaches the second supporting post 404 where it is monitored by a sensor . the force requirement of the taut wire segment 514 increases as the contact point moves away from the second supporting post 404 toward the first and third supporting posts 402 , 406 . fig7 c illustrates the force requirement of a second taut wire segment 512 along the distance between the first supporting post 402 and the third supporting post 406 . the taut wire segment 512 is connected to a sensor on the first supporting post 402 , anchored at the second supporting post 404 , and connected to a sensor on the third supporting post 406 . taut wire segment 512 is anchored by anchor elements on supporting posts adjacent to the first and third supporting posts 402 , 406 . the force requirement of the taut wire segment 512 increases as the contact point approaches the second supporting post 404 where it is anchored . the force requirement of the taut wire segment 512 decreases as the contact point moves away from the second supporting post 404 toward the first and third supporting posts 402 , 406 where it is connected to sensors . the two other taut wire segments 508 , 510 will display a similar behavior as is illustrated by fig7 d and 7e . fig7 f illustrates the force requirement of the section along the distance between the first supporting post 402 and the second supporting post 406 . as can be appreciated , the force requirement at contact points along the portion that is illustrated is substantially uniform . this uniformity of force requirement provides a taut wire intrusion detection system that can be adjusted without creating loopholes in the system or increasing the rate of false alarms . the present invention can be used to increase the distance between supporting posts of a taut wire system since no areas of the system are overly susceptible to intrusion . one factor substantially limiting the length of sectors in prior systems is the sensitivity variance of the system as discussed above . since the present invention can be used to provide a more uniform sensitivity , sectors of the system can employ supporting posts that are further apart than sensor posts and anchor posts of prior systems . the use of longer sections would decrease the required number of supporting posts in the system . therefore , the use of the method of the present invention can lead to a significant reduction in the cost of taut wire intrusion detection systems . the present invention is also applicable to systems that employ no anchor elements . since sensors are generally more sensitive when only one sensor monitors a taut wire segment at a time , systems that employ more than one sensor to monitor a single taut wire as to avoid the sensitivity variance will benefit from the method of the present invention . the sensors can be used while only one sensor monitors a taut wire segment to provide better detection capabilities while eliminating the sensitivity variance problem . although the invention has been described in terms of certain preferred embodiments , other embodiments that are apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art , including embodiments which do not provide all of the features and advantages set forth herein , are also within the scope of this invention . accordingly , the scope of the invention is intended to be defined by the claims that follow . | 6 |
with reference now to the figures , fig1 depicts a pictorial representation of a network of data processing systems in which the present invention may be implemented . network data processing system 100 is a network of computers in which the present invention may be implemented . network 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 network data processing system 100 . network 102 may include connections , such as wire , wireless communication links , or fiber optic cables . in the depicted example , server 104 is connected to network 102 along with storage unit 106 . in addition , clients 108 , 110 , and 112 are connected to network 102 . these clients 108 , 110 , and 112 may be , for example , personal computers or network computers . in the depicted example , server 104 provides data , such as boot files , operating system images , and applications to clients 108 , 110 and 112 . clients 108 , 110 and 112 are clients to server 104 . network data processing system 100 may include additional servers , clients , and other devices not shown . in the depicted example , network data processing system 100 is the internet with network 102 representing a worldwide collection of networks and gateways that use the tcp / ip suite of protocols to communicate with one another . at the heart of the internet is a backbone of high - speed data communication lines between major nodes or host computers , consisting of thousands of commercial , government , educational and other computer systems that route data and messages . of course , network data processing system 100 also may be implemented as a number of different types of networks , such as for example , an intranet , a local area network ( lan ), or a wide area network ( wan ). fig1 is intended as an example , and not as an architectural limitation for the present invention . referring to fig2 a block diagram of a data processing system that may be implemented as a server , such as server 104 in fig1 is depicted in accordance with a preferred embodiment of 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 controller / cache 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 controller / cache 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 may be connected to pci local bus 216 . typical pci bus implementations will support four pci expansion slots or add - in connectors . communications links to network computers 108 , 110 and 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 local buses 226 and 228 , from which additional modems or network adapters may be supported . in this manner , data processing system 200 allows connections to multiple network computers . a memory - mapped graphics adapter 230 and hard disk 232 may also be connected to i / o 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 drives and the like , also may be used in addition to 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 e - server pseries system , a product of international business machines corporation in armonk , n . y ., running the advanced interactive executive ( aix ) operating system or linux operating system . with reference now to fig3 a block diagram illustrating a data processing system is depicted in which the present invention may be implemented . 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 accelerated graphics port ( agp ) and industry standard architecture ( 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 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 . small computer system interface ( scsi ) host bus adapter 312 provides a connection for hard disk drive 326 , tape drive 328 , and cd - rom drive 330 . 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 fig3 . the operating system may be a commercially available operating system , such as windows 2000 , which is available from microsoft corporation . an object oriented programming system such as java may run in conjunction with the operating system and provide calls to the operating system from java programs or applications executing on data processing system 300 . “ java ” is a trademark of sun microsystems , inc . 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 . other internal hardware or peripheral devices , such as flash rom ( or equivalent nonvolatile memory ) or optical disk drives and the like , may be used in addition to or in place of the hardware depicted in fig3 . also , the processes of the present invention may be applied to a multiprocessor data processing system . as another example , data processing system 300 may be a stand - alone system configured to be bootable without relying on some type of network communication interface , whether or not data processing system 300 comprises some type of network communication interface . as a further example , data processing system 300 may be a personal digital assistant ( pda ) device , which is configured with rom and / or flash rom in order to provide non - volatile memory for storing operating system files and / or user - generated data . the depicted example in fig3 and above - described examples are not meant to imply architectural limitations . for example , data processing system 300 may also be a notebook computer or hand held computer in addition to taking the form of a pda . data processing system 300 also may be a kiosk or a web appliance . the present invention provides an apparatus and method that allow one bookmark to replace another . the invention may be local to client systems 108 , 110 and 112 of fig1 or to the server 104 or to both the server 104 and clients 108 , 110 and 112 . consequently , the present invention may reside on any data storage medium ( i . e ., floppy disk , compact disk , hard disk , rom , ram , etc .) used by a computer system . to better understand the invention , an example will be provided . suppose a user accesses an instruction or tutorial manual over the internet and bookmarks its url . in addition , suppose the tutorial is organized by topics having each its own url . suppose further that after reading a few topics , the user decides to resume the reading of the tutorial at a later time . the user may then want to bookmark the topic where reading is to resume . if not , when the user is ready to resume reading , the user may have to access the tutorial at the location previously bookmarked ( in this example , it would be at the beginning of the tutorial ). web browsers have a feature that indicates to users previously visited urls . ordinarily , the previously visited urls are of a different color than the ones that have not previously been visited . consequently , the table of contents listing the different topics may be used to access the next topic to be read ( the list of topics , in this case , is usually a list of links ). therefore , accessing the tutorial from the beginning may not be too burdensome . however , if a user accidentally went to a previously unread topic and upon realizing the mistake went to the intended topic , the topic accidentally accessed will be marked as read . furthermore , the feature that indicates previously visited topics is time - definite . thus , if the user takes too long to re - access the tutorial for the continued reading , the feature may have timed out and all topics may be shown as unread . moreover , it is quite common for several related web pages to have the same or very confusing bookmark titles , albeit pointing to different urls . for all the above reasons , the user may have to access a few already read topics before finding the last topic read . consequently , a user may each time choose to bookmark the location where reading is to resume . but , if the user does not delete previous related bookmarks and if the user accesses and bookmarks related web pages frequently , the bookmark folder may quickly become very unmanageable . the present invention provides a tool to quickly and effortlessly manage the bookmark folder . note that the method of bookmarking a web page will not be herein explained since it is well known in the field . the invention will be disclosed in conjunction with fig4 and 5 . [ 0034 ] fig4 is a flow diagram illustrating a process used by the invention . when a user accesses a web page through a bookmarked url , the process of the invention starts ( step 400 ). a test is continuously being made as to whether the user accesses a link from the displayed web page ( step 405 ). note that , the test may be continually being made as the user jumps from one web page to another , so long as the presently displayed web page emanated from a succession of links from a previously displayed bookmarked web page . if the user decides to bookmark the link ( step 410 ), the user will be prompted as to whether the previously bookmarked url is to be replaced by the url of the link ( steps 415 and 420 ). if so , the url of the link will be bookmarked and the previously bookmarked url deleted ( step 430 ). if not , the url of the link will be bookmarked without deleting the previously bookmarked url ( step 425 ). [ 0036 ] fig5 illustrates another embodiment of the invention . in fig5 the process will start as soon as the web browser is accessed ( step 500 ). a check is then continuously made as to whether the user wants to bookmark a web page ( step 505 ). if so , the invention compares all urls of presently bookmarked pages for similarities with the url of the new web page to be bookmarked ( step 510 ). in this case , a bookmarked url is similar to a url to be bookmarked , if they differ by one branch . for example , if a bookmarked url is : www . gtk . org / tutorial / ch - introduction . html and the url to be bookmarked is : www . gtk / tutorial / ch - gettingstarted . html , they differ by one branch . note that the invention may be designed to regard urls of two web pages as similar if they differ by n branches , where n is an integer . alternatively , the invention may be designed to compare root urls or root plus n branched urls for similarity , again n is an integer . in this example , www . gtk . org is a root url . furthermore , the invention may be designed to use only top level bookmarks ( i . e ., no subfolder bookmarks ) or bookmarks all the way down to the nth level for the comparison , here too , n is an integer . in any case , if the url of the web page to be bookmarked is not similar to an existing url of a bookmarked page , the url of the web page will be bookmarked ( steps 515 and 520 ). if there is a similarity with an existing bookmarked url , the user is prompted as to whether the new url is to replace the bookmarked url . if so , the url is bookmarked and the existing bookmarked url is deleted ( steps 525 , 530 and 535 ). if the user chooses not to replace the existing bookmarked url by the new url , the new url is simply bookmarked without deleting the previously bookmarked url ( steps 525 , 530 and 520 ). in the case where a root url is compared with the url of the web page to be bookmarked , before actually bookmarking the new url , a check may also be done to determine whether the title of the new web page is identical to the title of an already bookmarked web page . if so , the new url may possibly replace the url of the already bookmarked page . the description of the present invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and description , and is not intended 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 . for example , more than one background search may be performed with the invention . 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 |
as will become apparent from the following disclosure , a pipette tip , including a diaphragm , in combination with a novel piston linear actuation mechanism , may be configured as pan of a high - resolution pipette assembly , that can dispense volumes of fluid as small as one nanoliter . the components function via a volume deamplification concept in which a pipette piston displaces a volumetric amount of a working fluid on one side of the diaphragm placed in the tip and in which the diaphragm displaces a smaller volumetric amount of fluid at an opposite side of the diaphragm via direct contact with the fluid . this displacement reduction from one side of the diaphragm to the other may be characterized by a deamplification ratio that can span multiple orders of magnitude . one or more portions of a fluid chamber that encloses the working fluid may undergo elastic deformation to facilitate the deamplification . additionally or alternatively , the working fluid may be compressible to contribute to the deamplification . the deamplification ratio and resolution may also be adjustable . referring to fig1 , a schematic cross - sectional view of the nanoliter pipette is shown . the pipette assembly 10 consists of a tip 12 , a housing , 14 , a piston and accompanying mechanism 16 , and a diaphragm 18 constrained in the tip . the piston and diaphragm define an adjustable fluid chamber , 20 . the working fluid 22 is in contact with the piston 16 and the chamber side 24 of the diaphragm . the piston 16 is movable and displaces the working fluid 22 within the chamber 20 . the illustrated embodiment is not to scale . the tip 12 consists of several separate pieces that are used to form a fluid tight seal with the diaphragm 18 and the housing 14 , using sealing methods known to those skilled in the art . in operation , still referring to fig1 , the piston 16 moves to displace a volumetric amount of working fluid 22 within the fluid chamber 20 . the volume displaced , v p , by the piston 16 is equal to the product of the surface area of surface 26 and the distance 28 the piston has moved . the piston 16 is shown in this displaced position after being moved from its initial position shown in dashed lines . the volume displacement , v p , causes a corresponding volume displacement , v d , by the diaphragm 18 . due to the small volumes the tip 12 will be handling , a novel piston and accompanying mechanism 16 has been designed . details of how the piston and piston mechanism 16 deflect the diaphragm 18 to aspirate and dispense fluid can be seen in fig2 a - 2 d , cross - sectional schematics of the pipette tip . in step 1 in fig2 a , 30 , the operator sets the stop to determine volume to dispense , v d . in step 2 in fig2 b , 32 , the operator depresses the piston 16 to the bottom of its stroke , deflecting the diaphragm 18 to its maximum position . at this point , a three dimensional feature 34 contacts the fluid . because the pipette is dispensing fluids as small as 1 nl , evaporation becomes a concern . if proper design considerations are not made , a large percentage of aspirated fluid can evaporate in the time it takes to aspirate the fluid and dispense it in the appropriate container . an orifice 36 on the pipette tip 12 was designed to be extremely small , limiting evaporation . however , as this orifice 36 becomes smaller and smaller , the more difficult it becomes to aspirate and dispense fluid accurately due to an increase in capillary pressure . therefore , the fluid facing surface of the diaphragm 18 is designed with a three dimensional feature 34 . during step 2 ( fig2 b ), 32 of the pipetting process , this feature comes in contact with the working fluid . the diaphragm 18 , the three dimensional feature 34 and the interior cavity of the tip 12 are configured to be wetting such that retraction of the diaphragm to a controlled position allows fluid to fill the cavity defined by the deflection of the diaphragm 18 and the retraction of the piston mechanism 16 . this is the motivation behind the design of the piston mechanism 16 . the diaphragm 18 must be deflected to its maximum position 32 first in order to come in contact with the fluid . then in step 3 , fig2 c , 38 , the piston 16 is retracted to the position shown in order to aspirate fluid volume , v d . in step 4 , fig2 d , 40 , the diaphragm 18 is once again deflected to its maximum position to dispense all the fluid . the working fluid 20 may be a compressible fluid such as air or some other gas . the compressible working fluid 22 compresses when the piston 16 moves against the working fluid 22 to displace it , resulting in an increased fluid chamber pressure . here , the working fluid acts to temporarily store a portion of the work energy transferred thereto by the piston . in one embodiment , the diaphragm 18 undergoes elastic deformation and the working fluid is compressed when the piston 16 moves against the working fluid 22 to displace it . thus , diaphragm elasticity and working fluid compressibility may be used in various combinations to arrive at the desired deamplification ratio . a set of three nanoliter pipette tips 12 has been designed to exhibit the configuration stated above . each tip 12 possesses different dimensions and initial conditions . fig3 illustrates which dimensions can be varied . the diaphragm radius , 42 , the diaphragm thickness , 44 , the diaphragm shear modulus . 46 , the diaphragm pre - stretch , 48 , and the size of the fluid chamber 20 . changing the dimensions allows the pipette assembly 10 to behave differently based on which tip 12 is selected by the operator . different tips can cause the pipette 10 to have different volume ranges and resolutions . fig4 - 7 illustrate our initial embodiment of the nanoliter pipette tip 12 . this tip can dispense volumes ranging from 1 - 10 nl . fig4 is a front view of the tip 12 . the tip 12 will screw onto the housing 14 and form a fluid tight seal . fig5 is a cross section of the 10 nl tip 12 . the tip 12 is composed of several key components , all critical to the assembly and functionality of the tip . the tip 12 is composed of two main pieces , tip bottom 50 and tip top 52 . an exploded view of tip bottom 50 and its mating components can be seen in fig6 . the diaphragm 18 is secured to the membrane clamp 54 via adhesive 56 . the adhesive makes assembly easier and holds the diaphragm pre - stretch 48 . a detailed view of tip bottom 50 , membrane clamp 54 , the diaphragm 18 , the adhesive 56 , and the three dimensional diaphragm feature 34 can be seen in fig7 . in one embodiment , the raised feature 34 on the diaphragm is a glass microsphere that will be secured to the diaphragm via an adhesive , or can be formed as a monolithic feature of the diaphragm such as by a molding technique . fig5 also features many other components in an example embodiment . a machined nut 58 secures the assembly and provides pre - load by compressing a spring 60 . the preload allows for fine tuning of the compressive forces on the membrane 18 . a pet washer 62 acts as a thrust bearing to prevent any torsional stress from getting to the membrane 18 via the nut 58 . a gasket 64 acts to seal tip top 52 and tip bottom 50 . fig1 delineates the specifics of the piston cam mechanism 92 - 98 and the chamber 78 , which corresponds with the housing 14 in fig1 . the chamber 78 holds a sealed working volume , v o , that comes in direct contact with the diaphragm 18 in the tip 12 . v o can be adjusted to the correct volume via a side screw 76 . the side screw 76 is preloaded via the side spring 74 to ensure that the screw does not move during operation . additionally , a side o - ring 66 provides a fluid seal to ensure that there is no leakage in the system . the chamber 78 is connected to the tip 12 and the exterior body 86 via threads , m6 and ⅞ ″- 14 respectively . similarly to the side screw 76 , the tip 12 is sealed via a gasket 64 and the exterior body is sealed via the top o - ring 80 . above the chamber is the dynamic portion of the mechanism as parts 82 , 84 , 88 , 90 , 92 , 94 and 104 are all in motion , both vertical and rotational . the piston 82 fits into the chamber 78 and when its motion is directly coupled to that of v p . it is also press fit into the interior cap 88 . around the piston 82 , is the piston spring 84 . the piston spring 84 , compresses during operation and provides an upward bias to the cams , 92 & amp ; 94 , via the interior cap 88 and lead screw 104 . the lead screw 104 is fitted into the top of interior cap 88 and is mated with the threaded bushing 90 . the threaded bushing 90 is press fit into the variable cam 92 . the motion and dynamics of four cams mechanisms , 92 - 98 are described below . the exterior cams 96 & amp ; 98 are held in place via a shoulder in the exterior body 86 and a top spacer 100 . the top spacer is bolted into the exterior body 86 via four 4 - 40 screws of length 0 . 3125 ″ 102 . the thumb push 110 is coupled to the thumb connector 106 via a bearing 108 that is press fit onto both pieces . in the exterior body 86 rests the cam mechanisms 92 - 98 , which along with the actual piston 82 correspond to 16 in fig1 . these series of cams provide the repeatability and adjustability required to handle the small volumes of fluid . the cam mechanisms are made up of the exterior cam top 98 , exterior cam bottom 96 , interior cam 94 and the variable cam 92 . the exterior cams 96 , 98 fit together with mirrored offsets and rest on a shoulder in the exterior body 86 . these two cams do not move during the pipetting process . during operation the interior cam 94 and variable cam 92 move up and down and rotate about the vertical axis . before operation , the two cams can move independent of each other through the use of the lead screw 104 and the threaded bushing 90 . rotation of the lead screw , which is done manually by turning the thumb connector 106 , moves the variable cam 92 up and down relative to the interior cam 94 . fig1 a - 13 - h show an 8 - step breakdown of the cam mechanism in operation . the interior and variable cams 92 , 94 start in position i ) continue as follows : 1 ) the thumb push 110 is depressed causing the interior and variable cams 92 , 94 to move down until the top face of the exterior cam 96 comes in to contact with the face of the interior cam 94 2 ) the interior and variable cams 92 , 94 continue to move down and rotate 22 . 5 degrees due to the angular face mate to arrive at position c , 3 ) the thumb push 110 is released and the bottom face of the exterior cam 96 comes in to contact with the face of the variable cam 92 , 4 ) the interior and variable cams 92 , 94 continue to move up and rotate another 22 . 5 degrees to arrive at position e , 5 ) the thumb push 110 is again depressed and the interior and variable cams 92 , 94 move down until the top face of the exterior cam 96 comes in to contact with the face of the interior cam 94 , 6 ) the interior and variable cams 92 , 94 continue to move down and rotate 22 . 5 degrees due to the angular face mate to arrive at position g , 7 ) the thumb push 110 is released and the bottom face of the exterior cam 96 comes in to contact with the face of the interior cam 92 , 8 ) the interior and variable cams 92 , 94 continue to move up and rotate another 22 . 5 degrees to arrive back at position i ). note : all rotation is counterclockwise . fig1 shows the pressure relief system that is used to calibrate the pipette before every use or adjustment . it is necessary for the pipette to have this capability so that the desired deamplification ratio can be achieved . the relief slider 68 can be easily pulled down to expose a relief cavity that connects directly to the inside of the sealed working fluid 20 in the chamber 78 . this relief cavity is sealed by an o - ring that is not pictured in the figures . the relief slider 68 is held in place by a thin shim 70 that is mounted to the chamber 78 via two 4 - 40 screws with a length of 0 . 25 ″ 72 . the volume deamplification principles described above and the design of a pipette tip 12 and piston mechanism 16 in accordance with the present teachings is guided by a mathematical model detailed in our earlier patent application us20130283884 a1 . using this model , pipette tip values can be selected to achieve desired pipetting performance . three different pipette tips have been designed and manufactured . all three tips are compatible with the same chamber 78 and piston / cam mechanism 82 , 92 - 98 . the first tip has the ability to dispense fluids in the range of 1 - 10 nl . a graph of the calculated relationship v d vs v p can be seen in fig8 . it has a volume deamplification ratio v d / v p === 49600 . the second tip was designed to dispense volumes within the range of 10 - 100 nl . its graph can be seen in fig9 . it has a volume deamplification ratio v d / v p = 4960 . finally . fig1 presents the final pipette tip which can dispense volumes of 100 - 1000 nl . it possesses a volume deamplification ratio of v d / v p = 496 . as can be seen in the fig8 - 10 , the function v d ( v p ) is most accurately modeled as a third order polynomial , but with careful selection of pipette tip parameters , the diaphragm radius 42 , the diaphragm thickness 44 , the diaphragm shear modulus 46 , the diaphragm pre - stretch 48 , and the initial volume of the fluid chamber 20 , v d ( v p ) acts approximately linear over the entire stroke of the pipette . linearity of this function is crucial to making the pipette intuitive to use , simplifying mechanical design , and thus lower costs . it can be appreciated that , based on the principles above and using suitable fabrication methods known to those skilled in the art , the design may be scaled to manipulate volumes smaller or larger than ˜ 1 - 1000 nl . the pipette device could also be used to manipulate materials other than liquids , or liquids containing soft solids , for example biological cells . other considerations may include electrical contact to the diaphragm and / or tip , such that electrical signals can be applied when the tip is in contact with solids and / or liquids . the design may also be employed in other configurations , such that multiple tips are arrayed in close proximity , driven by one or more piston mechanisms , which may be manual or motorized . in one example , an array of diaphragms , each within its own tip , is in contact with a single piston via a common volume of working fluid . the characteristics of the diaphragms within the array may be chosen to be the same , or to vary in a prescribed manner . additional information about the present invention may be found in “ universal handheld micropipette ” review of scientific instruments 87 , 115112 ( 2016 ) and in united states published patent application us2013 / 0283884 . the contents of both of these references are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety . it is recognized that modifications and variations of the present invention will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art and it is intended that all such modifications and variations be included within the scope of the appended claims . | 1 |
the present application provides a component extraction module for removing a component from a mixed flow of gas or liquid ( e . g ., water from an ethanol / water mixture ). each module comprises a plurality of elements or vessels each having outer jackets connected together in series , parallel , or any combination thereof and supported by a frame . of course , more or fewer “ vessels ” may comprise the “ module ,” depending on the dimensions , flow rates , incoming fluid composition and output required , among other things . fig1 is a perspective view of an exemplary component extraction module 20 of the present application having six elongated tubular vessels 22 connected in series and supported by an external frame 24 . fig1 a illustrates a single tubular vessel 22 having inlet and outlet flanges 30 a , 30 b oriented 180 ° from each other . as will be seen below , the relative orientation inlet and outlet flanges 30 varies depending on the position of the tubular vessel 22 within the overall module 20 . as will be explained in greater detail below , each tubular vessel 22 houses a plurality of rigid flow tubes that extend longitudinally therewithin . each of the inner flow tubes , in turn , receives a tubular membrane formed of the material that can separate water from a liquid or gas mixture to obtain a high - concentration organic solvent . the tubular membranes extend substantially the entire length of the vessels and are sealed at end caps so as to create a negative pressure gradient across the membranes and pull water inward . the tubular vessels 22 are arranged in parallel adjacent to one another and supported by the frame 24 so as to form a more compact module 20 . the vessels 22 are connected in series so that the liquor or gas mixture passes through the connected inner flow tubes and the water can gradually be removed from the liquid or gas mixture . fig2 a is a schematic end view of the component extraction module 20 of fig1 showing the general direction of flow through the six vessels 22 connected in series , while fig2 b is a schematic perspective view of the module showing the overall direction of flow through the six vessels connected in series . in the exemplary embodiment , the six vessels 22 are arranged in a 2 × 3 combination , with three of the vessels supported on an upper level 32 and three of the vessels supported on a lower level 34 . the module 20 has a single inlet port 36 at one end of one of the vessels 22 on the upper level 32 , and a single outlet port 38 at the same end of one of the vessels 22 on the lower level 34 . as indicated by the flow arrows in fig2 a and 2b , the aqueous liquid or gas mixture enters the inlet port 36 and passes along each one of the six vessels 22 in sequence before exiting the outlet port 38 . two side flanges 30 are provided on each one of the vessels 22 to provide flow connections between the vessels . four of the tubular vessels 22 have side flanges 30 that are oriented 180 ° from each other , as seen in fig1 a , while the other two have side flanges 30 that are oriented 90 ° sign from each other . these latter two vessels 22 enable flow between the upper level 32 and the lower level 34 . it should be clear that the flange connections between sequential vessels 22 are at opposite ends , with the flow continuing through the module in a serpentine fashion . details of the vessel construction as well as the placement and assembly of the membranes therein are shown in the attached figures . as will be appreciated by those of skill in the art , the number and arrangement of the tubular vessels 22 within the module 20 may vary , such as providing all six of the tubular vessels on one level , or reversing the flow to go from the lower level 34 to the upper level 32 . likewise , the capacity of the system can be increased by increasing the number or size of vessels 22 , such as by providing a 3 × 3 or 4 × 4 array . indeed , any conceivable array configuration is possible . an alternative component extraction module 20 ′ is shown in fig2 c and 2d like parts will be given like numbers . instead of six vessels 22 in series , as above , the module 20 ′ has vessels 22 connected both in series and in parallel . an inlet 36 is provided at one end of an outside vessel 22 on both the upper level 32 and the lower level 34 . flow passes in series through first and second groups of three vessels 22 on each level , and exits through respective outlets 38 . although not shown , a y - connector or other such piping to join the two inlets 36 as well as the two outlets 38 can be provided to simplify the plumbing . this configuration illustrates just one alternative , and the present application encompasses a plurality of separate vessels each having component extraction membranes therein connected in series , in parallel , or a combination of the two . fig3 a and 3b are two different perspective views of one end of the component extraction module 20 of fig1 . fig4 a is an enlarged perspective view of the ends of two of the tubular vessels 22 , and fig4 b has an outer jacket 40 removed from one of the vessels to show a membrane housing 42 and four inner component extraction membranes 44 extending therefrom to an end cap 46 . as will be explained in greater detail below , there are preferably four flow tubes provided within each membrane housing 42 , which may comprise a tube ( of stainless steel or other suitable material ) having an od of 4 ″ or greater . there may be between 1 - 50 of the flow tubes within each membrane housing 42 , and they may be made of a variety of rigid materials ( e . g ., stainless steel , non - corrosive metal alloys , plastic , etc .). a tubular component extraction membrane 44 extends through each of the flow tubes such that four membranes extend to the end cap 46 . the terminal ends of each of the component extraction membranes 44 are each sealed from the larger space within the vessel jacket 40 . each membrane housing 42 includes a radial plate 48 on each end to which the inner flow tubes attach . the inner diameter of each of the flow tubes is larger than the outer diameter of the component extraction membranes 44 to create an annular space therebetween . the aqueous liquid or gas can thus flow longitudinally through these four annular spaces during which time a negative pressure gradient pulls water into the central lumen of the component extraction membranes 44 . a vacuum hose 50 connected to each end cap 46 maintains the negative pressure gradient and removes the separated water , collecting the aggregate in a common discharge pipe 51 ( fig3 a ). the vacuum hoses 50 comprise flow connectors that enable communication of a source of vacuum to the interior lumens of the extraction membranes 44 . desirably the hoses 50 merge into one , though other arrangements are possible . the aqueous liquid or gas thus flows into one of the side flanges 30 of each vessel 22 , coming into contact with the four exposed sections of the component extraction membranes 44 . subsequently , because of a positive flow pressure , the liquid or gas passes axially through the four annular spaces around the component extraction membranes 44 and within the flow tubes of the membrane housing 42 . the liquid or gas , now somewhat dehydrated , then exits through the other flange 30 of the first vessel 22 and into the second vessel , and continues in this manner through all of the vessels . fig5 - 9 illustrates in greater detail components of the exemplary tubular vessel 22 of fig1 a . fig5 a and 5b illustrate the outer jacket 40 having the two flanges 30 a , 30 b extending from the sides in opposite directions , and the end caps 46 secured thereto with flanges and bolts . longitudinal section b - b from fig5 a as seen in fig6 illustrates the membrane housing 42 within the outer jacket 40 and two of the four flow tubes 52 therein . radial section a - a from fig5 b as seen in fig7 again shows the four flow tubes 52 with component extraction membranes 44 positioned therein , and fig7 a is an enlargement that shows the annular space 54 therebetween . the aqueous liquid or gas flows through the annular space 54 and a vacuum created within the lumen 56 of the membrane 44 pulls water through the membrane . with reference to fig1 - 11 , the overall length l of each tubular outer jacket 40 is desirably greater than 2 × the length of each membrane 44 , since the membranes are loaded from each end . in the exemplary embodiment , the length is about 2 . 2 m ( i . e ., greater than 2 × the 1 m length of the membranes 44 ). the system is applicable to any membrane length . the length l of the membrane housing 42 is somewhat shorter to expose the opposite ends of the membranes 44 , and in an exemplary embodiment is about 1 . 8 m . the outer jacket 40 is desirably tubular for the sake of economy , although other cross - sectional shapes may be used . likewise , the inner membrane housing 42 is also desirably tubular with the radial plates 48 on each end being circular . the four flow tubes 52 are distributed evenly around the membrane housing 42 square pattern , such as seen in fig1 b . in the embodiment shown , the radial plate is a solid , thick , 4 ″ diameter stainless steel plate machined with 4 threaded holes , though it can be any diameter , with any number of holes , threaded or not threaded . no dividers are required because each group of 4 flow tubes is in a separate vessel . it is much cheaper to replicate the 4 - hole plate than it is to create a larger plate for a larger vessel holding more tubes . it is more reliable and more serviceable too , because one flaw in the big plate ( or any of its attached tubes ) renders the entire vessel unusable , whereas a flaw in one of the small vessels only affects that vessel . the preferred module has six 4 ″ od stainless steel tubular membrane housings 42 connected in sequence within the larger jackets 40 . each 4 ″ tubular membrane housing 42 features four 1 ″ od stainless steel flow tubes 52 . each individual membrane 44 is a hollow ceramic ( e . g ., zeolite ) tube formed of two separate membranes of 1 m in length having ends that are in contact with each other so as to form a single tubular length of membrane 2 m long and loaded into a 1 ″ flow tube from each end of the membrane housing 42 to form a single membrane unit therein . the ethanol / water vapor ( at about 90 % ethanol , 10 % water ), at some positive pressure , enters the first membrane housing and travels through the annular spaces between the inner walls of the 1 ″ flow tubes and the outer walls of the membranes therein . a vacuum is applied to the inner core of the membrane to create a negative inward pressure gradient , and water vapor selectively permeates the membrane . the water vapor ( with approximately 4 % ethanol ) is called permeate and can be recycled in the plant . the ethanol / water vapor passes through the six vessels 22 , steadily losing water through the membranes 44 . the exhaust vapor out of the 6th vessel 22 is anhydrous grade fuel ethanol ( 99 . 2 %). fig8 is a vertical sectional view taken through two of four inner separation membranes 44 in one of the tubular vessels 22 taken along line c - c of fig7 . as mentioned previously , the component extraction membranes 44 extend axially beyond the membrane housing 42 to an end cap 46 . the lumen 56 of each of the membranes 44 is open to a hemispherical chamber 58 within the end cap 46 , and as mentioned a vacuum is pulled through a hose attached to a nipple 60 . the ends of each of the membranes 44 are sealed from a volume 62 within the outer jacket 40 and adjacent a side flange 30 . specifics of the seal are shown exploded in fig9 , with the end cap 46 separated from the outer jacket 40 . each membrane 44 passes through one of four holes in a generally circular and axially thick end plate 70 . as seen in cross - section in fig8 , the four holes each receive a number of washers and seals ( shown exploded in fig9 ) that prevent ingress of fluid from within the inner volume 62 of the jacket to the hemispherical chamber 58 . in preferred embodiments there is a relatively thin rigid ( e . g ., stainless steel ) washer 72 , an o - ring 74 of a suitable elastomer such as epdm rubber , a second washer 76 of a polymer such as ptfe , and a relatively thick rigid ( e . g ., stainless steel ) washer 78 , all secured within the holes of the end plate 70 with a threaded sealing cap 80 . a larger o - ring 82 extends around the outer edge of the end plate 70 and is sealed between two flanges of the jacket 40 and end 46 by a plurality of clamp assemblies 84 . the particular membrane material depends on the separation process . in general , the membrane would be selectively permeable for at least one component of a liquid or gas stream . ceramics are often used to separate water from hydrous organics solvents , and some permit gasses such as co 2 to pass through . for separation of water from hydrous ethanol , the membrane is desirably a porous tube of zeolite containing an alumina as a main component and an attachment member disposed in a connection position of the porous tube , wherein the porous tube and the attachment member are bonded by a ceramic oxide - based bonding agent containing 17 to 48 wt % of sio 2 , 2 to 8 wt % of al 2 o 3 , 24 to 60 wt % of bao , and 0 . 5 to 5 wt % of zno as essential components and containing at least one of la 2 o 3 , cao , and sro , and a zeolite layer is formed on a surface of the porous tube . for example , the separation membranes used in the hds ® ( hitz dehydration system ) from hitachi zosen may be suitable , as are those described in u . s . patent publication no . 2011 / 0174722 to yano , et al ., the disclosure of which is expressly incorporated by reference herein . the membrane material is hydrophilic and thus facilitates the removal of water from the vapor stream . the coating on the surface of the membrane facing the vapor stream is highly sensitive to scratching and has a significant impact on the efficacy of the membrane and its usage . it should be noted that though the preferred membrane is hydrophilic and pulls water out of liquid , an alternative hydrophobic membrane may be used with a reverse function . that is , a membrane that prevents water passage but permits solvent passage could be used in the system with the solvent being collected in the membrane lumens . one of the advantages of the present system is that smaller membrane “ elements ” ( or vessels 22 ), can be mixed and matched to provide any number of membrane tubes and passes to create the same capacity as in the hitz dehydration system , which utilizes one larger vessel . for example , one system operates at a vapor supply pressure of approximately 1 psig , with a vacuum of 29 ″ hg on the membrane &# 39 ; s inner cores . the modular design includes six passes through each of 4 membrane tubes ( actually 8 membranes because two are always placed end - to - end ) per pass . the six elements connected together in series provided exactly the same flow path as in a large module design such as the hitz dehydration system , which places 24 tubes inside one outer vessel . throughout this description , the embodiments and examples shown should be considered as exemplars , rather than limitations on the apparatus and procedures disclosed or claimed . although many of the examples presented herein involve specific combinations of method acts or system elements , it should be understood that those acts and those elements may be combined in other ways to accomplish the same objectives . with regard to flowcharts , additional and fewer steps may be taken , and the steps as shown may be combined or further refined to achieve the methods described herein . acts , elements and features discussed only in connection with one embodiment are not intended to be excluded from a similar role in other embodiments . | 2 |
referring now to the figures of the drawings in detail and first , particularly , to fig1 thereof , there is seen a diagrammatic illustration of a first exemplary embodiment of a device 1 according to the invention for providing a reducing - agent - containing gas flow . the device 1 includes a duct or channel 2 which is formed in a jacket 3 . the jacket 3 surrounds a rod - shaped heating element 4 . the rod - shaped heating element 4 has at least one first heat conductor 5 and one second heat conductor 6 . a first zone 7 can be heated through the use of the first heat conductor 5 , and a second zone 8 can be heated through the use of the second heat conductor 6 . the heat conductors 5 , 6 are preferably self - regulating heat conductors , such as for example ptc conductors . a sleeve 9 , which is also provided , is pushed over the device in the direction of an arrow 10 . the sleeve 9 has a constriction 11 which , in the assembled device 1 , lies at a boundary between the first zone 7 and the second zone 8 . the constriction 11 reduces the exchange of heat between the two zones 7 , 8 through the sleeve 9 . further measures for reducing or preventing such exchange of heat may be provided . during operation , a reducing agent precursor 12 , preferably urea , is added in particular in the form of an aqueous urea solution , into the duct 2 and is preferably completely evaporated there in the first zone 7 . a gas flow , which is then formed and which includes at least one reducing agent precursor , then flows onward through the duct 2 and is heated . in particular , the heating especially takes place at least partially in the region of the second zone 8 . the gas flow 13 then leaves the duct 2 . depending on the construction of the device 1 and on the implementation of the method , the gas flow 13 includes a reducing agent precursor and / or a reducing agent , which is generated in particular in the region of the second zone 8 through the use of thermolysis . the duct 2 may , at least in partial regions of the first zone 7 and the second zone 8 , have a hydrolysis catalyst coating , that is to say a coating which catalyzes the hydrolysis of the reducing agent precursor to form reducing agent . fig2 shows a device 1 according to the invention as a part of a device for the selective catalytic reduction of nitrogen oxides in the exhaust gas of an internal combustion engine . the device 1 has a first zone 7 and a second zone 8 in this case too . the zones 7 , 8 are heated by the heating devices 5 , 6 ( not shown in fig2 ) which are controlled by a control device 14 that can be connected by first lines 15 to the corresponding first heat conductor 5 of the first zone 7 and by second lines 16 to the second heat conductor 6 of the second zone 8 . the heating power both in the first zone 7 as well as in the second zone 8 can thus be regulated and controlled independently of one another . the control device 14 may at the same time include a voltage or current supply . if self - regulating first and second heat conductors 5 , 6 are used , it is possible to dispense with the control device 14 . instead , it is possible for merely a current or voltage supply to be provided for each of the heat conductors 5 , 6 . a device 17 for delivering a solution of at least one reducing agent precursor is also provided . in this exemplary embodiment , the device 17 includes a pump 19 in addition to a reservoir 18 for a solution of a reducing agent precursor . the pump 19 may for example be a dosing pump , through which in each case defined quantities of the solution are introduced into the first zone . it is also possible for the pump 19 to be constructed as a conventional pump , for example as a diaphragm pump , with a valve 20 then advantageously being provided . the supply of the solution of the reducing agent precursor to the first zone 7 is regulated through the use of the valve 20 . the valve 20 may advantageously be connected through third lines 21 to the control device 14 . a hydrolysis catalytic converter 22 is provided downstream of the second zone 8 . during operation , an at least partial hydrolysis of the reducing agent precursor to form the reducing agent takes place in the hydrolysis catalytic converter 22 . in this way , the reducing agent is generated outside an exhaust line 23 . a reducing - agent - containing gas flow 24 generated in the device 1 is introduced into the exhaust line 23 , where the gas flow 24 is mixed with an exhaust - gas flow 25 of an internal combustion engine . the mixture of the two gas flows then flows through an scr catalytic converter 26 , in which nitrogen oxides contained in the exhaust - gas flow 25 are converted with the reducing agent . a gas flow having an no x content which has been reduced then leaves the scr catalytic converter 26 . fig3 diagrammatically shows a further exemplary embodiment of the device 1 according to the invention . in this case , a reducing agent precursor solution is not evaporated . instead , a device 27 for the quasi - continuous transportation of at least one reducing agent precursor as solid matter 28 is provided . in this case , a type of strand of the reducing agent precursor 28 or of a solid matter 28 including a reducing agent precursor is pressed into a first zone 7 . this takes place , for example , through the use of a hydraulic cylinder 29 which can be controlled correspondingly . the reducing agent precursor 28 is melted , with simultaneous or subsequent evaporation , in the first zone 7 having the first heating element 5 . the vapor which is generated in this way is heated further in the second zone 8 , which is heated by the second heating element 6 . heating to an even higher temperature takes place in a third zone 31 which includes a third heat conductor 30 . the gas mixture which is generated then flows through the hydrolysis catalytic converter 22 . depending on the make up of the solid matter 28 which includes the reducing agent precursor , it may be necessary for water to also be provided in the hydrolysis catalytic converter 22 . this may take place , for example , by introducing a certain amount of exhaust - gas flow upstream of the hydrolysis catalytic converter or else through the use of the simultaneous evaporation of water , for example of condensation water . the hydrolysis catalytic converter 22 is optional , in particular if the temperatures of the first zone 7 , second zone 8 and third zone 31 are selected in such a way that a substantially complete thermolysis of the reducing agent precursor to form ammonia takes place . in the present embodiment , the hydrolysis catalytic converter 22 is flange - mounted directly onto the exhaust line 23 at right angles . after infiltrating into the exhaust line 23 , the exhaust - gas flow 25 , which is then enriched with reducing agent , then flows through the scr catalytic converter 26 . an exhaust - gas flow having a nitrogen oxide content which has been reduced in relation to the exhaust - gas flow upstream of the scr catalytic converter 26 , then leaves the scr catalytic converter 26 . fig4 diagrammatically shows a further embodiment of a device 1 according to the invention as a part of a device for the selective catalytic reduction of nitrogen oxides in the exhaust gas of an internal combustion engine . in contrast to the embodiments discussed above , this exemplary embodiment has a device 32 for the discontinuous transportation of a solid matter which includes a reducing agent precursor . the device 32 includes a reservoir 33 which stores solid matter particles 34 that include at least one reducing agent precursor , such as for example urea pellets . a separating device 35 is provided between the reservoir 33 and the first zone 7 . it can be ensured through the use of the separating device 35 that during operation only one solid matter particle 34 passes into the first zone 7 . in this embodiment , the device 1 optionally also has a further supply line 36 , through which a water - containing gas can be supplied . the water - containing gas may be used to promote the hydrolysis in the hydrolysis catalytic converter 22 . fig5 diagrammatically shows a portion of a duct 2 . the duct 2 has a first zone 7 with a first cross section and a second zone 8 with a second cross section . the cross section of the second zone 8 is larger than the cross section of the first zone 7 . furthermore , the duct 2 includes fittings 37 which act as a type of impact plate and which ensure that no droplets , resulting from an incomplete evaporation in the first zone , pass through the second zone 8 , but that such droplets instead impact against the fittings 37 . it is generally advantageous to provide at least one change in direction of the gas flow in the second zone 8 , for example through the use of deflections , duct radius constrictions , fittings or the like . the method according to the invention and the device 1 according to the invention advantageously permit the provision of a reducing - agent - containing gas flow 13 , the quantity of which can be controlled in a simple manner and can be adapted to dynamic changes in situation as often occur in particular in the exhaust - gas system of mobile applications , such as for example in automobiles . it has been proven to be advantageous in particular for the method to be implemented in such a way that the temperature of the first zone 7 is held at approximately 150 ° c . or slightly lower , while the temperature of the second zone 8 is held at over 300 ° c . as a result of the supply of the reducing agent precursor in the form of vapor to the hydrolysis catalytic converter 22 , the hydrolysis catalytic converter 22 experiences virtually no cooling , such that the implementation of the method is positively influenced in this case as well . | 8 |
the present invention will now be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings . the present invention has been made according to the result of the analysis of reasons by which a thin film capacitor has decrease in capacitance and degradation in bdv characteristics . that is , during simultaneous heat treatment of a metal foil and a dielectric layer , the metal foil is recrystallized . this causes defects in the interface between the metal foil and the dielectric layer , thereby deteriorating bdv characteristics . furthermore , the oxidation of the metal foil results in the decrease of capacitance . to overcome such problems associated with the recrystallization of the metal foil , a dielectric material having a low crystallization temperature may be used or a metal having a high recrystallization temperature may be used for a metal electrode . however , the former has a problem in that there are no dielectric materials known to crystallize at a temperature lower than the recrystallization temperature of metal . for the latter , some metals such as pt and pd are adoptable , but they are expensive . accordingly , the present invention has adopted recrystallization heat treatment of the metal foil . while several problems resulting from the oxidation of the metal foil have been reported up to the present , there are no reports about the heat treatment of the metal foil in terms of recrystallization . us patent application publication no . 2002 / 0195612 discloses pre - heating or pre - annealing of a cu foil prior to the formation of a dielectric layer . however , the pre - heating is not performed in terms of recrystallization . rather , the pre - heating is performed merely in terms of preventing cu atoms from diffusing into the dielectric layer , at a high or low temperature . in case of the low temperature , heat treatment is carried out for a long time period . in this technology , it is presumed that a thin oxide layer restrains cu ions from diffusion . through experiments , the inventors have found that heat treatment when performed for a long time period inevitably results in capacitance decrease even though performed at a low temperature in an anaerobic atmosphere . furthermore , while the ni layer as a barrier has a thickness on the order of 0 . 1 μm to 2 . 0 μm according to this technology , experiments of the inventors have observed that the nickel layer thickness is reduced owing to volatilization during the heat treatment . accordingly , the inventors have adopted recrystallization heat treatment capable of preventing the oxidation of a metal foil to overcome decrease in capacitance and deterioration in bdv characteristics . such features will be described in detail step - by - step . according to the present invention , first , a metal foil is recrystallized via heat treated for or recrystallization heat treated . the metal foil is a substrate supporting a capacitor , acting as a lower electrode . the metal foil is preferably made of cu or cu alloy which is cheap and easily handled . a barrier layer may be additionally formed on the metal foil . such a barrier layer may be formed on one side surface or both side surfaces of the metal foil . the barrier layer functions to prevent oxidation , and adopts any types of metals which can perform such a function . examples of the adoptable metal include ni , in which 3 % to 15 % of p may be contained . the barrier layer may be formed for example via plating or deposition . for the plating , any of electrolytic plating and electroless plating can be adopted . in a case where ni is adopted for the barrier layer , it may volatilize in the heat treatment . the ni barrier layer may be provided preferably at a thickness of 0 . 8 μm or more , and more preferably , at a thickness ranging from 0 . 8 μm to 4 μm . after the formation of the barrier layer , the recrystallization heat treatment is performed . since the recrystallization heat treatment of the metal foil with or without the barrier layer is supposed to recrystallize the metal foil , this process can be performed for a short time period at a relatively lower temperature . accordingly , even if the recrystallization heat treatment is performed in an ambient atmosphere , there is no worry about the oxidation of the metal foil . the recrystallization heat treatment is performed preferably at a temperature ranging from 100 ° c . to 450 ° c . more preferably , the recrystallization heat treatment may be performed for a short time period at a relatively higher temperature for example in the range from 400 ° c . to 450 ° c . performing this process for a long time period may deteriorate dielectric characteristics of capacitance owing to oxidation . treatment time is not limited in a temperature range from 100 ° c . to 400 ° c ., but set preferably in the range from 5 mins to 30 mins in a higher temperature range from 400 ° c . to 450 ° c . since oxidation may take place in this range . recrystallization does not take place when the recrystallization heat treatment is performed at a too low temperature or for a too short time period . if the recrystallization heat treatment temperature is too high or the recrystallization heat treatment time exceeds 30 mins at a higher temperature range from 400 ° c . to 450 ° c ., oxidation may take place . at a low temperature range under 400 ° c ., oxidation would rarely take place even if the treatment time is prolonged more or less . when the recrystallization heat treatment of the invention is performed , its atmosphere is not specifically controlled . for example , the recrystallization heat treatment may be performed in an ambient atmosphere . this is because that there is no worry about oxidation since the recrystallization heat treatment is performed at a low temperature or for a short time period at a temperature range from 400 ° c . to 450 ° c . the ambient atmosphere is easier in terms of process management than anaerobic atmosphere . after the recrystallization heat treatment , a dielectric layer is formed on the metal foil with or without the barrier layer formed thereon . the dielectric layer may be formed via sol - gel method , spin coating or deposition . examples of the deposition include physical vapor deposition ( pvd ), atomic layer deposition ( ald ) and chemical vapor deposition cvd . the dielectric layer is formed preferably at a thickness in the range from 10 nm to 1 , 000 nm . the dielectric layer may be made of any typical dielectric material used for thin film capacitors , and preferably , of a ferroelectric material . examples of the ferroelectric material include pzt ( pb ( zr , ti ) o 3 ) or plzt (( pb , la ) ( zr , ti ) o 3 ), bto ( batio 3 ) and the like . after the dielectric layer is formed , heat treatment is performed . the heat treatment is performed at a temperature necessary for the recrystallization of the dielectric layer . then , an upper electrode is formed on the top surface of the crystallized dielectric thin film . the upper electrode may be made of any metal which is adoptable to thin film capacitors . examples of the adoptable metal may include pt , au , ag , cu , ni , pd and the like . the upper electrode may be formed via deposition and plating alone or in combination . examples of the deposition may include pvd , cvd and the like , and examples of the plating may include electroless plating , electrolytic plating and the like . the thickness of the upper electrode is preferably in the range from 0 . 1 μm to 100 μm . the thin film capacitor manufactured according to this invention is suitable to be embedded in a pcb . the thin film capacitor of the invention may be stacked on at least one laminated layer . for example , a pcb may be fabricated by layering a polymer substrate on a copper clad laminate ( ccl ), stacking a thin film capacitor of the invention on the polymer substrate , and compressing the thin film capacitor against the polymer substrate . accordingly , the thin film capacitor manufactured according to the invention can be embedded in the pcb according to a typical fabrication process of the pcb . hereinafter the invention will be described in more detail with reference examples . a ni layer ( containing 8 % to 12 % of p ) was formed to a thickness of 4 μm on a cu foil via electroless plating . the ni - plated cu foil was recrystallized via heat treatment ( or recrystallization heat treated ) at 300 ° c . for 10 mins in an ambient atmosphere . then , ferroelectric sol of pzt was spin - coated at 3000 rpm for 20 secs on the top of the ni layer to form a dielectric layer . crystallization was performed via heat treatment at 450 ° c . for 10 mins and then at 550 ° c . for 30 mins in a nitrogen atmosphere . during the heat treatment in the nitrogen atmosphere , temperature was raised at a rate of 2 ° c . per min , and nitrogen gas was introduced at a rate of 5 liter per min . au was deposited on the top of the heat - treated dielectric layer by using a dc sputterer . by using the au deposition as an upper electrode , electric properties were measured . the electric properties measured are reported in fig1 . as shown in fig1 ( a ), a conventional example without a recrystallized metal layer showed low leakage current characteristics but the leakage current increased with the voltage rising . dielectric breakdown was observed in the range from 6v to 8v . such dielectric breakdown indicates that a dielectric material loses its dielectric properties . on the contrary , when the recrystallization heat treatment was performed according to the invention , bdv characteristics were maintained up to 10v . fig1 ( b ) shows capacitance density characteristics according to frequencies . it can be observed that capacitance characteristics were improved in example 1 where the recrystallization heat treatment was performed according to the invention than the conventional example without the recrystallization heat treatment . a ni layer ( containing 8 % to 12 % of p ) was formed to a thickness of 4 μm on a cu foil via electroless plating . the ni - plated cu foil was recrystallized via heat treatment ( or recrystallization heat treated ) in an ambient atmosphere according to conditions reported in fig2 . after the recrystallization heat treatment , a ferroelectric sol of pzt was spin - coated on the ni layer at 3000 rpm for 20 secs to form a dielectric layer . crystallization was performed via heat treatment at 450 ° c . for 10 mins and then at 550 ° c . for 30 mins in a nitrogen atmosphere . during the heat treatment in the nitrogen atmosphere , temperature was raised at a rate of 2 ° c . per min , and nitrogen gas was introduced at a rate of 5 liter per min . au was deposited on the top of the heat - treated dielectric layer by using a dc sputterer . by using the au deposition as an upper electrode , electric properties were measured . the electric properties measured are reported in fig2 . as shown in fig2 , capacitance characteristics were most excellent when heat treated at 300 ° c . for 10 mins . when heat treated at 400 ° c . for 60 mins , leakage current characteristics were good but capacitance characteristics were not so good . while the present invention has been described with reference to the particular illustrative embodiments and the accompanying drawings , it is not to be limited thereto but will be defined by the appended claims . it is to be appreciated that those skilled in the art can substitute , change or modify the embodiments into various forms without departing from the scope and spirit of the present invention . for example , while examples of the invention use pzt as a dielectric material , a ferroelectric material used for an embedded capacitor can be used either . as set forth above , the present invention performs recrystallization heat treatment in such a manner of preventing the oxidation of a metal foil , by which a dielectric layer can be heat treated at a high temperature , thereby improving electric properties of a thin film capacitor and the reliability of a product . | 7 |
in the following detailed description , only certain exemplary embodiments of the present invention are shown and described , by way of illustration . as those skilled in the art would recognize , the invention may be embodies in many different forms and should not be construed as being limited to the embodiments set forth herein . also , in the context of the present application , when a first element is described as being “ coupled to ” a second element , the first element may be directly coupled to the second element or may also be indirectly coupled to the second element with one or more intervening elements interposed there between . further , some of the elements that are not essential to the complete understanding of the invention are omitted for clarity . also , like reference numerals refer to like elements throughout the specification . while the present invention has been described in connection with certain exemplary embodiments , it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments , but , on the contrary , is intended to cover various modifications and equivalent arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the appended claims , and equivalents thereof . hereinafter , embodiments of the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to fig1 to 8 so that those skilled in the art can easily implement the present invention . fig1 is a diagram showing one frame period according to an embodiment of the present invention . referring to fig1 , one frame 1 f according to the embodiment of the present invention includes a reset period rp , a compensation period cp , and an emission period ep . during the reset period rp , an initial voltage is supplied to an anode electrode of an organic light emitting diode ( oled ) included in each of the plurality of pixels . during the reset period , each of the plurality of pixels is set to a non - emission state . a threshold voltage of a driving transistor is compensated for in each of the plurality of pixels during the compensation period cp . that is , during the compensation period cp , each of the pixels is charged with a voltage corresponding to the threshold voltage of the driving transistor . during the compensation period cp , each of the pixels is set to the non - emission state . during the emission period ep , each of the pixels emits light having a luminance determined by the current flowing through the organic light emitting diode of each pixel . since the threshold voltage of the driving transistor is compensated for during the compensation period cp , the current flowing through the organic light emitting diode is independent of the threshold voltage of the driving transistor . thus , an image having a uniform luminance is displayed during the emission period ep regardless of any variability in threshold voltage among the driving transistors included in each of the pixels that make up the organic light emitting display device . in the above - mentioned embodiment of the present invention , a period of the compensation period cp is set to sufficiently compensate for the threshold voltage of the driving transistor . that is , in an embodiment of the present invention , the compensation period cp can be set to sufficiently compensate for the threshold voltage of the driving transistor , even when the driving transistor is driven by a frequency of 120 hz or more . thus , an image having a uniform luminance may be displayed . further , in an embodiment of the present invention , since each of the pixels is switched into an emission or non - emission state at the same time , a first control line and a second control line that control emission or non - emission may be connected to each of the pixels , thereby simplifying both structure and driving . in an embodiment of the present invention , a frame period may include only a compensation period cp and an emission period ep to correspond to a structure of a pixel . a detailed description thereof will be described below with reference to the structure of the pixel . fig2 is a diagram showing an organic light emitting display device according to an embodiment of the present invention . referring to fig2 , the organic light emitting display device according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a plurality of pixels 140 positioned to access a plurality of scan lines s 1 to sn and data lines d 1 to dm ; a scan driver 110 for driving the scan lines s 1 to sn ; a data driver 120 for driving the data lines d 1 to dm ; a first power supply 160 for generating a first power elvdd ; a control line driver 170 for driving a first control line cl 1 and a second control line cl 2 ; and a timing controller 150 for controlling the scan driver 110 , the data driver 120 , the first power supply 160 , and the control line driver 170 . the scan driver 110 supplies a scan signal to the scan lines s 1 to sn during a second period of the reset period rp . further , the scan driver 110 sequentially supplies the scan signal to the scan lines s 1 to sn during the compensation period cp . the data driver 120 supplies a reset voltage to the data lines d 1 to dm during the reset period rp . further , the data driver 120 supplies a data signal to the data lines d 1 to dm . the data signal is synchronized with the scan signal during the compensation period cp . the first power supply 160 supplies a first low power ( or a first power at a low level ) elvdd_l , also called an initial voltage , having a low level during the reset period rp and supplies a first high power ( or a first power at a high level ) elvdd_h having a high level during the compensation period cp and the emission period ep . herein , the first low power elvdd_l is set to a voltage lower than the voltage of the data signal . in addition , the first high power elvdd_h is set to a voltage higher than both the data signal voltage vdata and the reference voltage vref . the control line driver 170 supplies a second control signal to the second control line cl 2 during the compensation period cp and the second period of the reset period rp . in addition , the control line driver 170 supplies a first control signal to the first control line cl 1 during the emission period ep and a first period of the reset period rp . herein , supplying the first control signal and the second control signal refers to supplying voltages at sufficient levels to transistors to switch on the transistors that are coupled to the first control line cl 1 and the second control line cl 2 . the timing controller 150 controls the scan driver 110 , the data driver 120 , the first power supply 160 , and the control line driver 170 to correspond to synchronization signals supplied from an outside source . a pixel unit 130 receives the first power elvdd , a second power elvss and the reference voltage vref from an outside source and supplies each to each of the plurality of pixels 140 . each of the plurality of pixels 140 sets the voltage of the anode electrode of the organic light emitting diode oled to the first low power elvdd_l during the reset period rp . in addition , each of the pixels 140 is charged with a voltage corresponding to a threshold voltage of a driving transistor during the compensation period cp and emits light corresponding to the data signal during the emission period ep . meanwhile , the first high power elvdd_h , the first low power elvdd_l , the data signal voltage vdata , and the reference voltage vref are set as shown in equation 1 . referring to equation 1 , the first low power elvdd_l is set to a voltage lower than the data signal voltage vdata . actually , the first low power elvdd_l is set to a voltage lower than a voltage resulting from subtracting the threshold voltage of the driving transistor from the data signal voltage vdata . in addition , the reference voltage vref is set to a voltage equal to or higher than the data signal voltage vdata . the first high power elvdd_h is set to a voltage higher than the reference voltage vref . fig3 is a diagram showing a pixel 140 according to a first embodiment of the present invention . in fig3 , the pixel 140 connected to the n - th scan line sn and the m - th data line dm is shown for convenience of description . referring to fig3 , the pixel 140 according to the first embodiment of the present invention includes the organic light emitting diode oled and a pixel circuit 142 that is connected to the data line dm , the scan line sn , the first control line cl 1 , and the second control line cl 2 . each of the data line dm , the scan line sn , the first control line c 11 , and the second control line cl 2 contribute to the control of the organic light emitting diode oled . an anode electrode of the organic light emitting diode oled is connected to the pixel circuit 142 , and a cathode electrode of the organic light emitting diode oled is connected to the second elvss . the organic light emitting diode oled emits light having a luminance that is determined by a current supplied from the pixel circuit 142 . the pixel circuit 142 initializes the anode electrode of the organic light emitting diode oled to the first low power elvdd_l during the reset period rp and charges voltage corresponding to the data signal and the threshold voltage of the driving transistor during the compensation period cp . in addition , the current corresponding to the voltage charged during the emission period ep is supplied to the organic light emitting diode oled . for this , the pixel circuit 142 includes first to fourth transistors m 1 , m 2 , m 3 and m 4 , a first capacitor c 1 , and a second capacitor c 2 . a gate electrode of the first transistor m 1 , also called a driving transistor , is connected to a first node n 1 , and a first electrode of the first transistor m 1 is connected to the first power elvdd . in addition , a second electrode of the first transistor m 1 is connected to the anode electrode of the organic light emitting diode oled . that is , the second electrode of the first transistor m 1 is connected to the organic light emitting diode oled at a third node n 3 . the voltage at the first node n 1 controls the first transistor m 1 , which in turn controls the amount of current supplied to the organic light emitting diode oled . the amount of current supplied to the organic light emitting diode oled corresponds with the voltage of the first power elvdd and the voltage at the first node n 1 . a gate electrode of the second transistor m 2 is connected to the scan line sn and a first electrode of the second transistor m 2 is connected to the data line dm . in addition , a second electrode of the second transistor m 2 is connected to the first node n 1 . the second transistor m 2 is switched on when the scan signal is supplied to the scan line sn . when the second transistor m 2 is switched on , the first node n 1 is electrically connected to the data line dm . a gate electrode of the third transistor m 3 is connected to the first control line cl 1 , and a second electrode of the third transistor m 3 is connected to the first node n 1 . because the first node n 1 is connected to the gate electrode of the first transistor m 1 , the second electrode of the third transistor m 3 is connected to the gate electrode of the first transistor m 1 . in addition , a first electrode of the third transistor m 3 is connected to the second node n 2 . the third transistor m 3 is switched on when the first control signal is supplied to the first control line cl 1 . when no first control signal is supplied to the first control line cl 1 , the third transistor m 3 is switched off . a gate electrode of the fourth transistor m 4 is connected to the second control line cl 2 , and a first electrode of the fourth transistor m 4 is connected to the reference voltage vref . in addition , a second electrode of the fourth transistor m 4 is connected to the second node n 2 . the fourth transistor m 4 is switched on when the second control signal is supplied to the second control line cl 2 . when no second control signal is supplied to the second control line cl 2 , the fourth transistor m 4 is switched off . a first capacitor c 1 and a second capacitor c 2 are connected in series between a first node n 1 and a third node n 3 . the second node n 2 , located between the first capacitor c 1 and the second capacitor c 2 is also connected to the first electrode of the third transistor m 3 and the second electrode of the fourth transistor m 4 . herein , the second capacitor c 2 and the third transistor m 3 are connected between the first node n 1 and the second node n 2 in parallel . fig4 a to 4d are waveform diagrams showing an embodiment of a driving method of a pixel 140 shown in fig3 with pixel circuit 142 . herein , an operation process is described in more detail . first , the first control signal cl 1 is supplied during a first period t 1 of the reset period rp as shown in fig4 a . when the first control signal cl 1 is supplied , the third transistor m 3 is switched on , such that the first node n 1 and the second node n 2 are electrically connected to each other . the initial voltage vint , also called the first power elvdd_l , is supplied during the reset period rp . thereafter , as shown in fig4 b , the scan signal is simultaneously supplied to each of the plurality of scan lines s 1 to sn during a second period t 2 of the reset period rp . further , a reset voltage vr is supplied to each of the plurality of data lines d 1 to dm during the second period of the reset period rp . herein , the reset voltage vr is set to a voltage at which the first transistor m 1 included in the pixel 140 can be switched on . in addition , the second control signal is supplied to the second control line cl 2 during the second period t 2 of the reset period rp . when the scan signal is supplied to the scan lines s 1 to sn , the second transistor m 2 is switched on . when the second transistor m 2 is switched on , the reset voltage vr from the data line dm is supplied to the first node n 1 . at this time , the first transistor m 1 is switched on , such that the first low power elvdd_l is supplied to the third node n 3 . the first low power elvdd_l is set to a voltage at which the organic light emitting diode oled can be turned off , such that unnecessary light is not emitted from the organic light emitting diode oled . when the second control signal is supplied to the second control line cl 2 , the fourth transistor m 4 is switched on . when the fourth transistor m 4 is switched on , the voltage of the reference voltage vref is supplied to the second node n 2 . during the compensation period , as shown in fig4 c , the scan signal is supplied to the scan lines s 1 to sn in sequence , and the second control signal is supplied to the second control line cl 2 . in addition , the data signal is supplied to the data lines d 1 to dm . the data signal is synchronized with the scan signal . further , the first power supply 160 supplies the first high power elvdd_h . when the second control signal is supplied to the second control line cl 2 , the fourth transistor m 4 is switched on . in this case , the second node n 2 maintains the voltage of the reference voltage vref . when the scan signal is supplied to the scan line sn , the second transistor m 2 is switched on . when the second transistor m 2 is switched on , the data signal is supplied from the data line to the first node n 1 . at this time , the data signal voltage vdata is applied to the first node n 1 . when the data signal voltage vdata is applied to the first node n 1 , the voltage of the third node n 3 gradually increases up to a voltage resulting from subtracting the threshold voltage vth of the first transistor m 1 from the data signal voltage vdata . more specifically , the first low power elvdd_l applied during the reset period rp is set to a voltage lower than the voltage resulting from subtracting the threshold voltage vth of the first transistor m 1 from the data signal voltage vdata . accordingly , when the data signal voltage vdata is applied to the first node n 1 , the voltage at the third node n 3 gradually increases up to the voltage resulting from subtracting the threshold voltage vth of the first transistor m 1 from the data signal voltage vdata . actually , even after the scan signal to the scan line sn is no longer supplied , thereby switching off the second transistor m 2 , the first node n 1 is maintained at the data signal voltage vdata due to the second capacitor c 2 . this results in the voltage at the third node n 3 increasing up to the voltage resulting from subtracting the threshold voltage vth of the first transistor m 1 from the data signal voltage vdata . in an embodiment of the present invention , for stable driving , a sufficient time is allocated to the compensation period cp so that the voltage at the third node n 3 included in each of the plurality of the pixels 140 increases up to the voltage resulting from subtracting the threshold voltage of the first transistor m 1 , vth ( m 1 ), from the data signal voltage vdata . meanwhile , during the compensation period cp , a voltage vref − vdata is charged in both ends of the second capacitor c 2 , and a voltage vref − vdata + vth ( m 1 ) is charged in both ends of the first capacitor c 1 . during the emission period ep , as shown in fig4 d , the first control signal cl 1 is supplied . when the first control signal cl 1 is supplied , the third transistor m 3 is switched on . when the third transistor m 3 is switched on , the first node n 1 and the second node n 2 are electrically connected to each other . in this case , a difference in voltage of both terminals of the second capacitor c 2 is set to 0 . a voltage vgs ( m 1 ), which corresponds to the voltage between the gate electrode and the source electrode , also called the second electrode , of the first transistor m 1 , is set to the voltage charged in the first capacitor c 1 . that is , the voltage between the gate electrode and the second electrode of the first transistor m 1 vgs ( m 1 ) is set as shown in equation 2 . the amount of current flowing to the organic light emitting diode oled , i oled , is set as shown in equation 3 by the voltage vgs of the first transistor m 1 , where β is a constant . ioled = β ( vgs ( m 1 )− vth ( m 1 )) 2 = β {( vref − v data + vth ( m 1 ))− vth ( m 1 )} 2 = β ( vref − v data ) 2 equation 3 referring to equation 3 , the current flowing to the organic light emitting diode oled is determined by difference in voltage between the reference voltage vref and the data signal voltage vdata . since the reference voltage vref is a fixed voltage , any change in the current flowing to the organic light emitting diode oled , i oled , is determined by a change in the data signal voltage vdata . in addition , in an embodiment of the present invention , as shown in equation 3 , an image having uniform luminance can be displayed regardless of any variability among the threshold voltages of the first transistors m 1 , vth ( m 1 ), included in each of the plurality of pixels that make up the organic light emitting display device . fig5 is a diagram showing a pixel according to a second embodiment of the present invention . when fig5 is described , the same reference numerals refer to the same components as those of fig3 and a detailed description thereof will be omitted . referring to fig5 , a pixel 140 according to the second embodiment of the present invention includes a pixel circuit 142 ′ and an organic light emitting diode oled . herein , a first electrode of a fourth transistor m 4 included in the pixel circuit 142 ′ is connected to a first power elvdd and the rest of the components are established similarly as the pixel shown in fig3 . when the first electrode of the fourth transistor m 4 is connected to the first power elvdd , voltage levels of a first high power elvdd_h , a first low power elvdd_l , and a data signal voltage vdata are set as shown in equation 4 . referring to equation 4 , the data signal voltage vdata is set to a voltage equal to or lower than the first high power elvdd_h . that is , the pixel 140 according to a second embodiment of the present invention implements a gray level by a difference in voltage between the first high power elvdd_h and the data signal voltage vdata . the other detailed operation process is the same as that of the pixel 140 of fig3 and will thus not be provided again . fig6 is a diagram showing a pixel according to a third embodiment of the present invention . when fig6 is described , the same reference numerals refer to the same components as those of fig3 and a detailed description thereof will not be provided again . in addition , a pixel 140 connected to an n - th scan line sn and an m - th data line dm is shown for convenience of description . referring to fig6 , the pixel 140 according to the third embodiment of the present invention includes an organic light emitting diode oled and a pixel circuit 142 ″. the pixel circuit 142 ″ is connected between a third node n 3 and an initial voltage vint and includes a fifth transistor m 5 that is switched on when a scan signal is supplied to an n − 1 scan line sn − 1 . when the fifth transistor m 5 is switched on , initial voltage vint is supplied to the third node n 3 . in this case , the voltage of the first power elvdd maintains the voltage of the high level during a frame period . the voltage level including the initial voltage vint is set as shown in equation 5 . referring to equation 5 , the initial voltage vint is set to a voltage lower than the data signal voltage vdata . actually , the initial voltage vint is set to the voltage resulting from subtracting the threshold voltage of the first transistor m 1 , vth ( m 1 ), from the data signal voltage vdata . fig7 is a waveform diagram showing an embodiment of a driving method of a pixel shown in fig6 . referring to fig7 , during a compensation period cp , the scan signal is supplied to the scan lines s 1 to sn in sequence and a second control signal is supplied to a second control line cl 2 . in addition , the data signal is supplied to the data lines d 1 to dm . the data signal is synchronized with the scan signal . when the second control signal is supplied to the second control line cl 2 , a fourth transistor m 4 is switched on . when the fourth transistor m 4 is switched on , the reference voltage vref is supplied to the second node n 2 . in addition , when the scan signal is supplied to the n − 1 - th scan line sn − 1 , the fifth transistor m 5 is switched on . when the fifth transistor m 5 is switched on , the voltage at the third node n 3 is set to the initial voltage vint . thereafter , when the scan signal is supplied to the n - th scan line sn , the second transistor m 2 is switched on . when the second transistor m 2 is switched on , the data signal is supplied from the data line to the first node n 1 . at this time , the data signal voltage vdata is applied to the first node n 1 . when the data signal voltage vdata is applied to the first node n 1 , the voltage at the third node n 3 gradually increases up to a voltage resulting from subtracting the threshold voltage of the first transistor m 1 , vth ( m 1 ), from the data signal voltage vdata . herein , the compensation period cp is set to a sufficient time so that the voltage at the third node n 3 included in each of the pixels 140 increases up to the voltage resulting from subtracting the threshold voltage of the first transistor m 1 , vth ( m 1 ), from the data signal voltage vdata . meanwhile , during the compensation period cp , a voltage vref − vdata is charged in both ends of the second capacitor c 2 , and a voltage vref − vdata + vth ( m 1 ) is charged in both ends of the first capacitor c 1 . during the emission period ep , a first control signal cl 1 is supplied . when the first control signal cl 1 is supplied , the third transistor m 3 is switched on . when the third transistor m 3 is switched on , the first node n 1 and the second node n 2 are electrically connected to each other . in this case , the difference in voltage of both terminals of the first capacitor c 1 is set to 0 , and a voltage vgs ( m 1 ) between the gate electrode and the source electrode of the first transistor m 1 , also called the second electrode of the first transistor m 1 , is set to the voltage charged in the first capacitor c 1 . that is , the voltage between the gate electrode and the second electrode of the first transistor m 1 , vgs ( m 1 ), is set as shown in equation 2 . accordingly , the current flowing to the organic light emitting diode oled is determined by the difference in voltage between the reference voltage vref and the data signal voltage vdata as shown in equation 3 . fig8 is a diagram showing a pixel according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention . when fig8 is described , the same reference numerals refer to the same components as those of fig6 and a detailed description thereof will not be provided again . referring to fig8 , a pixel 140 according to the fourth embodiment of the present invention includes a pixel circuit 142 ′″ and an organic light emitting diode oled . a second electrode of a fifth transistor m 5 included in the pixel circuit 142 ′″ is connected to a first control line cl 1 . in this case , the fifth transistor m 5 is switched on when a scan signal is supplied to an n − 1 - th scan line sn − 1 to supply a voltage from the first control line cl 1 to a third node n 3 . when the first control signal is not supplied , the first control line cl 1 is set to a voltage that is lower than a voltage resulting from subtracting a threshold voltage of the first transistor m 1 , vth ( m 1 ) from a data signal voltage vdata . the other operation processes are the same as the fig6 and a detailed description will not be provided again . while the present invention has been described in connection with certain exemplary embodiments , it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments , but , on the contrary , is intended to cover various modifications and equivalent arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the appended claims , and equivalents thereof . | 6 |
referring to fig1 , a heat exchanger 10 in accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure is illustrated . the heat exchanger in this example includes manifolds 12 and 14 that are arranged on opposite sides of a heat exchanger core 16 . in this example the manifolds 12 and 14 are identical in construction , but they need not be . it will be appreciated also that the dimensions and construction of the heat exchanger core 16 will dictate , at least in part , the outer dimensions of the manifolds 12 and 14 , as well as their dimensions . in fig1 manifold 12 has an inlet 18 and an outlet 20 . manifold 14 similarly has an inlet 22 and an outlet 23 . in this example the inlets and outlets have different diameters , but they could just as readily have the same diameter . in general operation , a fluid 19 may enter the inlet 18 of manifold 12 and circulate through the heat exchanger core 16 , where a major portion of heat transfer occurs to a cooling medium 21 , before the fluid exits outlet 23 . the cooling medium 21 may flow from inlet 22 to outlet 20 , and counter and parallel to the fluid 19 . the cooling medium 21 may be comprised of a liquid , a gas or any other fluid cooling medium that is flowable and capable of assisting in absorbing heat from the fluid entering inlet 18 . similarly , fluid 19 may be comprised of a liquid , a gas or any other flowable medium that requires cooling . referring to fig2 and 4 , a portion of the interior construction of the manifold 12 can be seen from a view looking straight into the inlet port 18 and outlet port 20 . since manifolds 12 and 14 are identical in construction , only the construction of manifold 12 will be described in detail . manifold 12 includes a plurality of vanes 24 that are arranged generally parallel to one another and spaced apart from one another . each of the vanes 24 forms two adjacent flow channels , first flow channel 26 a and second flow channel 26 b . each vane 24 further has a first end 24 a and a second end 24 b . first flow channel 26 a enables fluid 19 to flow therethrough , while the adjacent second flow channel 26 b enables the cooling medium 21 to flow therethrough counter to , but generally parallel to , the fluid 19 . each of channels 26 a has an input end 26 a 1 and an output end 26 a 2 , and each of channels 26 b has an input end 26 b 1 and an output end 26 b 2 . fig3 further schematically illustrates the counter flowing paths that the fluid 19 and the cooling medium 21 may take within the heat exchanger core 16 . it can also be seen from fig2 and 3 that the flow paths for the fluid 19 and the cooling medium 21 are arranged in alternating fashion to maximize heat transfer from the fluid 19 to the cooling medium 21 . opposing surface portions 30 a and 30 b ( fig2 and 5 ) of each vane 24 help to define the flow channels 26 a and 26 b . it is a benefit that the sum of cross sectional areas of all of the channels 26 a and 26 b defined by the vanes 24 approximately equals the cross sectional area of the inlet 18 . this is advantageous for maintaining a constant pressure in each manifold 12 and 14 , and avoiding a pressure drop across the heat exchanger 10 . however , it will be appreciated that if the needs of a particular application should dictate , that this ratio could be varied so that a greater or lesser cross sectional flow path area is provided for by the vanes 24 . additionally , the first and second fluids 19 and 21 could be flowed in the same direction if desired . referring to fig4 , when the fluid 19 enters the inlet 18 and begins to flow into the first flow channel 26 a , a ramp portion 28 of each vane 24 deflects the fluid vertically and also turns the fluid 19 about a twisting or spiral path as the fluid 19 begins to flow into the first flow channel 26 a . conversely , cooling fluid 21 returning to manifold 12 from the other manifold 14 will be deflected downwardly by each vane 24 as it enters the adjacent , second flow channel 26 b , and will flow along the second flow channel 26 b in a twisting or spiral path , but in the opposite sense as the fluid 19 flowing through the first flow channel 26 a . from fig5 - 13 , the cross - sectional shape and orientation of the two adjacent flow channels ( i . e ., paths ) 26 a and 26 b formed by each vane 24 can be seen to change along the length of the vane . in fig6 - 12 , the wall portion bridging vane 24 and wall portion 32 of the manifold 12 has been removed to reveal the interior area that forms the first flow channel 26 a . in particular , it will be noted that the aspect ratios ( i . e ., ratio of height - to - width ) of the two adjacent flow channels 26 a and 26 b defined by the vane 24 both change over the length of the vane in a similar but opposite ( i . e ., mirror image ) sense . this enables a counter - parallel - flow path configuration to be created . the adjacent flow channels 26 a and 26 b formed by each vane 24 also help to direct a greater portion of each the fluids 19 and 21 into contact with opposing wall surfaces of the vane 24 as each fluid flows through its respective flow channel 26 a or 26 b within the manifold 12 , thus ensuring more efficient cooling of the fluid 19 . the manifolds 12 and 14 , and particularly the vanes 24 , may be made from any suitable materials that enable excellent thermal conduction between the fluid 19 and the cooling medium 21 . suitable materials are aluminum , titanium , steel , etc ., but it will be appreciated that any suitable having reasonably good thermal conductivity may potentially be employed . the specific materials employed for the manifolds 12 and 14 may also depend in part on the specific types fluid that the manifolds will be used with . it will also be appreciated that the precise cross sectional shape and twisting orientation of the vanes 24 may be modified to suit the needs of a particular application . also , the total cross sectional area of the vanes 24 relative to the flow paths 26 may be varied to be suit the needs of a particular application . while various embodiments have been described , those skilled in the art will recognize modifications or variations which might be made without departing from the present disclosure . the examples illustrate the various embodiments and are not intended to limit the present disclosure . therefore , the description and claims should be interpreted liberally with only such limitation as is necessary in view of the pertinent prior art . | 1 |
the inventive method is preferably used to treat oil contaminated catalyst granulates , for example catalyst particles having an average diameter of about 5 mm . spent catalyst is contaminated with oil , hydrocarbons and other substances which are often pyrophoric . further , several toxic products are stuck to the surface of the catalyst which require a proper handling . the catalyst granulate is filled into a metal basket which is then enveloped by a plastic foil . since the catalyst material is contaminated with oil and other highly inflammable substances that filling process includes a certain risk of ignition . however , the loading of the catalyst granulate into the metal baskets is carried out at the refinery or petrochemical plant which is equipped with appropriate fire extinguishing means . then the enveloped catalyst granulate is transferred to a carbon dioxide cleaning installation . during the transport the plastic foil excludes any air from the inflammable catalyst material and thus there is no risk of ignition , fire or explosion . at the cleaning installation the plastic foil is removed from the metal basket . for safety reasons that removal is preferably carried out under inert gas atmosphere . the metal baskets filled with contaminated material are placed into the cleaning reactor of the carbon dioxide cleaning installation . again for safety reasons , the cleaning reactor is initially filled with gaseous carbon dioxide . thereby it is assured that the contaminated catalysts are handled in inert atmosphere all the time . then the cleaning reactor is closed and filled with liquid carbon dioxide . during filling surplus gaseous carbon dioxide is ventilated off the cleaning reactor . the liquid carbon dioxide is pressurized to 60 bar at a temperature of 15 ° c . and the cleaning operation in carbon dioxide is carried out for 75 minutes . the figure shows the result of a cleaning operation which has been repeated four times at the same conditions , that is at a pressure of 60 bar and a temperature of 15 ° c . after the first cleaning batch a weight reduction of about 8 % has been obtained . the reduction in weight of the metal basket filled with the initially contaminated catalyst is equivalent to the weight of oil removed from the catalyst . as shown in the figure , the weight reduction after four batches is already 16 %. between two cleaning batches , and / or alternatively continuously during the cleaning process , the dense phase carbon dioxide loaded with contaminants is withdrawn form the cleaning reactor and passed to a distillation vessel where the contaminants are separated from the carbon dioxide by distillation . the carbon dioxide is preferably filtered to collect insoluble small particles such as made of graphite , coke or ceramics . the carbon dioxide is condensed and passed to a storage tank for later use . the recovered oil contaminants are useful as refinery feedstock . after the cleaning step has been finished the metal basket is taken out of the cleaning reactor , and the cleaned catalyst material is unloaded from the metal basket and transferred to a metal recovery unit for further processing . it shall be pointed out that the speed and efficiency of cleaning can be further increased when one or more of the following measures are carried out : use of surfactants and additives , variations in pressure and / or temperature in order to force liquid and gas in and out of pores of the catalyst , enforced agitation of the dense phase gas by jet streams , propellers or by pumping dense phase gas through the cleaning reactor , mechanical agitation of the solids , for example by rotating the metal basket within the cleaning reactor . according to another embodiment of the present invention the oil contaminated catalyst granulate is loaded into bins or containers which are preferably inerted . at the cleaning installation the contaminated material is either transfilled into metal baskets or cassettes which comprises metal nets or other perforated material which allows gas and liquid to pass into the interior of the cassettes . the cleaning operation is then carried out as described above . if the cleaning reactor is provided with a rotating basket it is also possible to directly fill the contaminated granulate into that rotating basket . | 8 |
the present invention is carried out , for example , in such a manner that the herbicidal benzoylpyrazole compound is formulated by using various additives , and the formulation is diluted with e . g . water together with the activity - improving component and applied to undesired plants or to a place where they grow . further , the present invention is carried out in such a manner that the herbicidal benzoylpyrazole compound and the activity - improving component are formulated together by using various additives , and the formulation diluted with e . g . water or without being diluted is applied to undesired plants or to a place where they grow . in the above formula ( i ), the alkyl or the alkyl moiety has from about 1 to about 6 carbon atoms , may be either linear or branched , and may , for example , be specifically methyl , ethyl , propyl , butyl , tert - butyl , pentyl or hexyl . as the herbicidal benzoylpyrazole compound , for example , compounds as shown in table 1 may be mentioned . in table 1 , no . represents the compound number , me a methyl group , et an ethyl group and bu ( t ) a tertiary butyl group . these compounds are known compound disclosed in wo2007 / 069771 , wo2008 / 065907 , wo2008 / 078811 or wo2009 / 142318 . the salt contained in the herbicidal benzoylpyrazole compound may be any salt so long as it is agriculturally acceptable , and it may , for example , be specifically an alkali metal salt such as a sodium salt or a potassium salt ; an alkaline earth metal salt such as a magnesium salt or a calcium salt ; an amine salt such as a dimethylamine salt or a triethylamine salt ; an inorganic acid salt such as a hydrochloride , a perchlorate , a sulfate or a nitrate ; or an organic acid salt such as an acetate or a methanesulfonate . in a case where the herbicidal benzoylpyrazole compound has various structural isomers such as optical isomers or keto - enol tautomers , such isomers are , of course , included in the present invention . as at least one compound selected from the group consisting of a polyoxyalkylene sorbitan fatty acid ester , a polyoxyalkylene fatty acid ester , a polyoxyalkylene styryl aryl ether , a polyoxyalkylene styryl aryl ether condensate and a polyoxyalkylene alkyl ether sulfate , which is the activity - improving component , a commercially available surfactant containing the above compound may be used . in the above respective compounds as the activity - improving component , the number of addition of the oxyalkylene moiety is preferably from about 1 to about 100 , more preferably from about 1 to about 50 , further preferably from about 1 to about 30 , further preferably from about 4 to about 30 . further , the oxyalkylene moiety may be either linear or branched , and it preferably has , for example , from about 2 to about 3 carbon atoms . specific examples thereof include ethylene oxide , propylene oxide and — ch ( ch 3 ) ch 2 o —. hereinafter the polyoxyalkylene moiety may sometimes be referred to as poa and the polyoxyethylene moiety as poe . in the respective compounds as the activity - improving component , the oxyalkylene moiety may be a copolymer or a block copolymer , and the position of substitution of the oxyalkylene moiety is not particularly limited . now , the poa sorbitan fatty acid ester will be described below . the poa sorbitan fatty acid ester may be any of a mono - fatty acid ester , a di - fatty acid ester and a tri - fatty acid ester . the fatty acid moiety of the poa sorbitan fatty acid ester may be either a saturated fatty acid or an unsaturated fatty acid . the fatty acid moiety has preferably from about 4 to about 24 , more preferably from about 8 to about 20 carbon atoms . the fatty acid moiety may be linear , branched or cyclic , and may have a substituent . the number of the unsaturated bond ( s ) in the unsaturated fatty acid may be one or more , and the position is also optional . specific examples of the fatty acid moiety include butyric acid , valeric acid , caproic acid , enanthic acid , caprylic acid , pelargonic acid , capric acid , lauric acid , myristic acid , pentadecylic acid , palmitic acid , palmitoleic acid , margaric acid , stearic acid , oleic acid , vaccenic acid , linoleic acid , ( 9 , 12 , 15 )- linolenic acid , tuberculostearic acid , arachidic acid , arachidonic acid , behenic acid , erucic acid , lignoceric acid and nervonic acid . specific examples of the poa sorbitan fatty acid ester include the following compounds . further , tradenames for commercially available surfactants containing the compounds are exemplified . however , the activity - improving component of the present invention is not limited thereto . rheodol tw - l120 , tw - l106 , tw - p120 , tw - s120v , tw - s106v , tw - s320v , tw - o120v , tw - o106v and tw - o320v ( each manufactured by kao corporation ) sorbon t - 20 , t - 40 , t - 60 , t - 80 and t - 85 ( each manufactured by toho chemical industry co ., ltd .) agnique sml - 20 , sms - 20 , sts - 16 , sts - 20 , smo - 5 , smo - 20 , smo - 30 , sto - 20 , sto - 2095 and sto - 2299 ( each manufactured by basf ) nonion lt - 221 , lt - 20 , pt - 221 , ot - 206 , ot - 221 , ot - 80 , st - 206 , st - 221 , st - 60 , lt - 210 and ist - 221 ( each manufactured by nof corporation ) nikkol tl - 10 , tp - 10ex , ts - 10v , ts - 106v , ts - 30v , ti - 10 , to - 10 , to - 106v and to - 30v ( each manufactured by nikko chemicals co ., ltd .) the poa fatty acid ester may be either a mono - fatty acid ester or a di - fatty acid ester . the fatty acid moiety of the poa fatty acid ester is the same as that of the above - described poa sorbitan fatty acid ester . specific examples of the poa fatty acid ester include the following compounds . further , tradenames for commercially available surfactants containing the compounds are exemplified . however , the activity - improving component of the present invention is not limited thereto . pegnol 24 - o , 14 - o and eds ( s ) ( each manufactured by toho chemical industry co ., ltd .) agnique peg 200ml , 600ml , 200mo , 260mo , 300mo , 400mo , 600mo , 400ms , 660ms , 300do , 400do , 600do and 200dl ( each manufactured by basf ) cithrol 4ms , 10ms , 4ml , 6ml , 2do , 2de , 4dl and 4ds ( each manufactured by croda ) nikkol myl - 10 , mys - 10 , mys - 45 and myo - 10 ( each manufactured by nikko chemicals co ., ltd .) nonion l - 2 , l - 4 , o - 2 , o - 4 , o - 6 , s - 1 , s - 2 , s - 4 , s - 6 , s - 10 , s - 15 , mm - 4 , mm - 9 , is - 2 , is - 4 , is - 6 , dl - 4hn , dp - 1 . 5hn , do - 4hn , ds - 4hn , dis - 400 and dis - 600 ( each manufactured by nof corporation ) lionon mo - 60 , dt - 600m , dt - 600s and dbh - 40 ( each manufactured by lion corporation ) the poa styryl aryl ether may be any of a poa monostyryl aryl ether , a poa distyryl aryl ether and a poa tristyryl aryl ether . the aryl moiety of the poa styryl aryl ether may , for example , be phenyl . specific examples of the poa styryl aryl ether include the following compounds . further , tradenames for commercially available surfactants containing the compounds are exemplified . however , the activity - improving component of the present invention is not limited thereto . sorpol t - 10 , t - 15 , t - 20 , t - 26 , t - 30 , t - 32 and t - 18d ( each manufactured by toho chemical industry co ., ltd .) agnique tsp - 14 , tsp - 15 , tsp - 16 , tsp - 17 and tsp - 34 ( each manufactured by basf ) soprophor bsu , ts / 10 , ts / 16 , ts / 29 , ts / 54 , cy / 8 and s / 40 ( each manufactured by rhodia ) emulsogen ts100 , ts160 , ts200 , ts290 , ts400 , ts540 and ts600 ( each manufactured by clariant ) the poa styryl aryl ether condensate will be described below . the poa styryl aryl ether condensate is a condensate of a poa styryl aryl ether with formaldehyde . the poa styryl aryl ether condensate may be any of a poa monostyryl aryl ether condensate , a poa distyryl aryl ether condensate and a poa tristyryl aryl ether condensate , and optional ones among the poa monostyryl aryl ether , the poa distyryl aryl ether and the poa tristyryl aryl ether may be condensed . the aryl moiety of the poa styryl aryl ether may , for example , be phenyl . specific examples of the poa styryl aryl ether condensate include the following compounds . further , tradenames for commercially available surfactants containing the compounds are exemplified . however , the activity - improving component of the present invention is not limited thereto . sorpol f - 15 , f - 19 , f - 24 and f - 27 ( each manufactured by toho chemical industry co ., ltd .) the alkyl moiety of the poa alkyl ether sulfate preferably has from about 12 to about 14 carbon atoms . the alkyl moiety may be linear , branched or cyclic , and may have a substituent . specific examples of the alkyl moiety include dodecyl , tridecyl and tetradecyl . as the salt of the poa alkyl ether sulfate , various salts may be mentioned , such as a sodium salt , a potassium salt , a calcium salt , an ammonium salt and a triethanolamine salt . specific examples of the poa alkyl ether sulfate include the following compounds . further , tradenames for commercially available surfactants containing the compounds are exemplified . however , the activity - improving component of the present invention is not limited thereto . hitenol lal2 and la14 ( each manufactured by dai - ichi kogyo seiyaku co ., ltd .) nikkol nes - 203 - 27 , nes - 303 - 36 , sbl - 2a - 27 , sbl - 2n - 27 , sbl - 2t - 36 and sbl - 3n - 27 ( each manufactured by nikko chemicals co ., ltd .) emal 20c , e - 27c , 270j , 20cm , d - 3 - d , d - 4 - d , 20t , 125hp , 170j and 327 ( each manufactured by kao corporation ) persoft el , ek , ef , efk and ef - t ( each manufactured by nof corporation ) alscoap th - 330 , th - 330k , ns - 230 , th - 370n , da - 330s , n - 355t and a - 225b ( each manufactured by toho chemical industry co ., ltd .) in the present invention , the mixing ratio of the herbicidal benzoylpyrazole compound to the activity - improving component cannot generally be defined , as it varies depending upon various conditions such as the types of the herbicidal benzoylpyrazole compound and the activity - improving component , the type of the formulation , the weather conditions , and the type and the growth stage of plants to be controlled , and is preferably from 1 : 0 . 015 to 1 : 600 , more preferably from 1 : 0 . 03 to 1 : 600 , further preferably from 1 : 0 . 75 to 1 : 150 , particularly preferably from 1 : 0 . 75 to 1 : 100 by the weight ratio . the herbicidal composition of the present invention are capable of controlling a wide range of undesired weeds , such as gramineae such as barnyardgrass ( echinochloa crus - galli l ., echinochloa oryzicola vasing . ), crabgrass ( digitaria sanguinalis l ., digitaria ischaemum muhl ., digitaria adscendens henr ., digitaria microbachne henr ., digitaria horizontalis willd . ), green foxtail ( setaria viridis l . ), giant foxtail ( setaria faberi herrm . ), yellow foxtail ( setaria lutescens hubb . ), goosegrass ( eleusine indica l . ), wild oat ( avena fatua l . ), johnsongrass ( sorghum halepense l . ), quackgrass ( agropyron repens l . ), alexandergrass ( brachiaria plantaginea ), guineagrass ( panicum maximum jacq . ), paragrass ( panicum purpurascens ), sprangletop ( leptochloa chinensis ), red sprangletop ( leptochloa panicea ), annual bluegrass ( poa annua l . ), black grass ( alopecurus myosuroides huds . ), cholorado bluestem ( agropyron tsukushiense ( honda ) ohwi ), broadleaf signalgrass ( brachiaria platyphylla nash ), southern sandbur ( cenchrus echinatus l . ), italian ryegrass ( lolium multiflorum lam . ), and bermudagrass ( cynodon dactylon pers . ); cyperaceae such as rice flatsedge ( cyperus iria l . ), purple nutsedge ( cyperus rotundus l . ), yellow nutsedge ( cyperus esculentus l . ), japanese bulrush ( scirpus juncoides ), flatsedge ( cyperus serotinus ), small - flower umbrellaplant ( cyperus difformis ), slender spikerush ( eleocharis acicularis ), and water chestnut ( eleocharis kuroquwai ); alismataceae such as japanese ribbon waparo ( saqittaria pyqmaea ), arrow - head ( sagittaria trifolia ), and narrowleaf waterplantain ( alisma canaliculatum ); pontederiaceae such as monochoria ( monochoria vaginalis ), and monochoria species ( monochoria korsakowii ); scrophulariaceae such as false pimpernel ( lindernia pyxidaria ), and abunome ( dopatrium junceum ); lythraceae such as toothcup ( rotala india ), and red stem ( ammannia multiflora ); elatinaceae such as long stem waterwort ( elatine triandra schk . ); malvaceae such as velvetleaf ( abutilon theophrasti medic . ), and prickly sida ( sida spinosa l . ); compositae such as common cocklebur ( xanthium strumarium l . ), common ragweed ( ambrosia elatior l . ), thistle ( breea setosa ( bieb .) kitam . ), hairy galinsoga ( galinsoga ciliata blake ), wild chamomile ( matricaria chamomilla l . ); solanaceae such as black nightshade ( solanum nigrum l . ), and jimsonweed ( datura stramonium ); amaranthaceae such as slender amaranth ( amaranthus viridis l . ), and redroot pigweed ( amaranthus retroflexus l . ); polygonaceeae such as pale smartweed ( polygonum lapathifolium l . ), ladysthumb ( polygonum persicaria l . ), wild buckwheat ( polygonum convolvulus l . ), and knotweed ( polygonum aviculare l . ); cruciferae such as flexuous bittercress ( cardamine flexuosa with . ), shepherd &# 39 ; s - purse ( capsella bursa - pastoris medik . ), and indian mustard ( brassica juncea czern . ); convolvulaceae such as tall morningglory ( ipomoea purpurea l . ), field bindweed ( convolvulus arvensis l . ), and ivyleaf morningglory ( ipomoea hederacea jacq . ); chenopodiaceae such as common lambsquarters ( chenopodium album l . ), and mexican burningbush ( kochia scoparia schrad . ); portulacaceae such as common purslane ( portulaca oleracea l . ); leguminosae such as sicklepod ( cassia obtusifolia l . ); caryophyllaceae such as common chickweed ( stellaria media l . ); labiatae such as henbit ( lamium amplexicaule l . ); rubiaceae such as catchweed ( galium spurium l . ); euphorbiaceae such as threeseeded copperleaf ( acalypha australis l . ); and commelinaceae such as common dayflower ( commelina communis l .). therefore , they can be effectively used for selectively controlling noxious weeds in cultivation of useful crops such as corn ( zea mays l . ), soybean ( glycine max merr . ), cotton ( gossypium spp . ), wheat ( triticum spp . ), rice ( oryza sativa l . ), barley ( hordeum vulgare l . ), rye ( secale cereale l . ), oat ( avena sativa l . ), sorgo ( sorghum bicolor moench ), rape ( brassica napus l . ), sunflower ( helianthus annuus l . ), sugar beet ( beta vulgaris l . ), sugar cane ( saccharum officinarum l . ), japanese lawnqrass ( zoysia japonica stend ), peanut ( arachis hypogaea l . ), flax ( linum usitatissimum l . ), tobacco ( nicotiana tabacum l . ), and coffee ( coffea spp .). particularly , the herbicidal composition of the present invention is effectively used for selectively controlling noxious weeds in cultivation of corn , wheat , sugar cane , and the like . its application range extends to crop plant fields , orchards and plantations . and the herbicidal composition of the present invention can be effectively used for nonselectively controlling noxious weeds . the herbicidal composition of the present invention can effectively be used to selectively control noxious weeds in cultivation of various transgenic plants . examples of the transgenic plants include insect resistant transgenic plants , plant disease - resistant transgenic plants , transgenic plants regarding the plant constituents , and herbicide - resistant transgenic plants . the herbicidal benzoylpyrazole compound may be applied in an amount of preferably from 5 to 1 , 000 g / ha , more preferably from 10 to 100 g / ha . it is particularly very useful as a herbicidal composition for corn fields , since it can control noxious weeds or inhibit their growth without impairing corn . in the present invention , a herbicidal compound other than the herbicidal benzoylpyrazole compound may be mixed if desired , whereby more excellent effects or activity may be exhibited in some cases . for example , it may sometimes be possible to improve e . g . the range of the weeds to be controlled , the timing for the application of the herbicide or the herbicidal activities . the herbicidal benzoylpyrazole compound and another herbicidal compound may be individually prepared and mixed at the time of application , or they may be formulated together and applied . such another herbicidal compound may suitably be selected from the following compound groups ( 1 ) to ( 11 ) ( common names or test codes ). even when not specifically mentioned here , in a case where such compounds have salts , alkyl esters , structural isomers such as optical isomers etc ., they are , of course , all included . ( 1 ) those which are believed to exhibit herbicidal effects by disturbing hormone activities of plants , such as a phenoxy type such as 2 , 4 - d , 2 , 4 - d - butotyl , 2 , 4 - d - butyl , 2 , 4 - d - dimethylammonium , 2 , 4 - d - diolamine , 2 , 4 - d - ethyl , 2 , 4 - d - 2 - ethylhexyl , 2 , 4 - d - isobutyl , 2 , 4 - d - isoctyl , 2 , 4 - d - isopropyl , 2 , 4 - d - isopropylammonium , 2 , 4 - d - sodium , 2 , 4 - d - isopropanolammonium , 2 , 4 - d - trolamine , 2 , 4 - db , 2 , 4 - db - butyl , 2 , 4 - db - dimethylammonium , 2 , 4 - db - isoctyl , 2 , 4 - db - potassium , 2 , 4 - db - sodium , dichlorprop , dichlorprop - butotyl , dichlorprop - dimethylammonium , dichlorprop - isoctyl , dichlorprop - potassium , dichlorprop - p , dichlorprop - p - dimethylammonium , dichlorprop - p - potassium , dichlorprop - p - sodium , mcpa , mcpa - butotyl , mcpa - dimethylammonium , mcpa - 2 - ethylhexyl , mcpa - potassium , mcpa - sodium , mcpa - thioethyl , mcpb , mcpb - ethyl , mcpb - sodium , mecoprop , mecoprop - butotyl , mecoprop - sodium , mecoprop - p , mecoprop - p - butotyl , mecoprop - p - dimethylammonium , mecoprop - p - 2 - ethylhexyl , mecoprop - p - potassium , naproanilide or clomeprop ; an aromatic carboxylic acid type such as 2 , 3 , 6 - tba , dicamba , dicamba - butotyl , dicamba - diglycolamine , dicamba - dimethylammonium , dicamba - diolamine , dicamba - isopropylammonium , dicamba - potassium , dicamba - sodium , dichlobenil , picloram , picloram - dimethylammonium , picloram - isoctyl , picloram - potassium , picloram - triisopropanolammonium , picloram - triisopropylammonium , picloram - trolamine , triclopyr , triclopyr - butotyl , triclopyr - triethylammonium , clopyralid , clopyralid - olamine , clopyralid - potassium , clopyralid - triisopropanolammonium or aminopyralid ; and others such as naptalam , naptalam - sodium , benazolin , benazolin - ethyl , quinclorac , quinmerac , diflufenzopyr , diflufenzopyr - sodium , fluroxypyr , fluroxypyr - 2 - butoxy - 1 - methylethyl , fluroxypyr - meptyl , chlorflurenol , chlorflurenol - methyl , aminocyclopyrachlor , aminocyclopyrachlor - methyl or aminocyclopyrachlor - potassium . ( 2 ) those which are believed to exhibit herbicidal effects by inhibiting photosynthesis of plants , such as a urea type such as chlorotoluron , diuron , fluometuron , linuron , isoproturon , metobenzuron , tebuthiuron , dimefuron , isouron , karbutilate , methabenzthiazuron , metoxuron , monolinuron , neburon , siduron , terbumeton , trietazine or metobromuron ; a triazine type such as simazine , atrazine , atratone , simetryn , prometryn , dimethametryn , hexazinone , metribuzin , terbuthylazine , cyanazine , ametryn , cybutryne , triaziflam , indaziflam , terbutryn , propazine , metamitron or prometon ; a uracil type such as bromacil , bromacyl - lithium , lenacil or terbacil ; an anilide type such as propanil or cypromid ; a carbamate type such as swep , desmedipham or phenmedipham ; a hydroxybenzonitrile type such as bromoxynil , bromoxynil - octanoate , bromoxynil - heptanoate , ioxynil , ioxynil - octanoate , ioxynil - potassium or ioxynil - sodium ; and others such as pyridate , bentazone , bentazone - sodium , amicarbazone , methazole or pentanochlor . ( 3 ) quaternary ammonium salt type such as paraquat or diquat , which is believed to be converted to free radicals by itself to form active oxygen in the plant body and shows rapid herbicidal efficacy . ( 4 ) those which are believed to exhibit herbicidal effects by inhibiting chlorophyll biosynthesis of plants and abnormally accumulating a photosensitizing peroxide substance in the plant body , such as a diphenylether type such as nitrofen , chiomethoxyfen , bifenox , acifluorfen , acifluorfen - sodium , fomesafen , fomesafen - sodium , oxyfluorfen , lactofen , aclonifen , ethoxyfen - ethyl , fluoroglycofen - ethyl or fluoroglycofen ; a cyclic imide type such as chlorphthalim , flumioxazin , flumiclorac , flumiclorac - pentyl , cinidon - ethyl , fluthiacet or fluthiacet - methyl ; and others such as oxadiargyl , oxadiazon , sulfentrazone , carfentrazone - ethyl , thidiazimin , pentoxazone , azafenidin , isopropazole , pyraflufen - ethyl , benzfendizone , butafenacil , saflufenacil , flupoxam , fluazolate , profluazol , pyraclonil , flufenpyr - ethyl , bencarbazone , halauxifen , tiafenacil or ethyl [ 3 -( 2 - chloro - 4 - fluoro - 5 -( 3 - methyl - 2 , 6 - dioxo - 4 - trifluoromethyl - 3 , 6 - dihydro - 2h - pyrimidin - 1 - yl ) phenoxy ) pyridin - 2 - yloxy ] acetate . ( 5 ) those which are believed to exhibit herbicidal effects characterized by bleaching activities by inhibiting chromogenesis of plants such as carotenoids , such as a pyridazinone type such as norflurazon , chloridazon or metflurazon ; a pyrazole type such as pyrazolynate , pyrazoxyfen , benzofenap , topramezone or pyrasulfotole ; and others such as amitrole , fluridone , flurtamone , diflufenican , methoxyphenone , clomazone , sulcotrione , mesotrione , tembotrione , tefuryltrione , bicyclopyrone , isoxaflutole , difenzoquat , difenzoquat - metilsulfate , isoxachlortole , benzobicyclon , picolinafen , beflubutamid , cyclopyrimorate , kuh - 110 or a compound disclosed in the claim of wo2005118530 . ( 6 ) those which exhibit strong herbicidal effects specifically to gramineous plants , such as an aryloxyphenoxypropionic acid type such as diclofop - methyl , diclofop , pyriphenop - sodium , fluazifop - butyl , fluazifop , fluazifop - p , fluazifop - p - butyl , haloxyfop - methyl , haloxyfop , haloxyfop - etotyl , haloxyfop - p , haloxyfop - p - methyl , quizalofop - ethyl , quizalofop - p , quizalofop - p - ethyl , quizalofop - p - tefuryl , cyhalofop - butyl , fenoxaprop - ethyl , fenoxaprop - p , fenoxaprop - p - ethyl , metamifop - propyl , metamifop , clodinafop - propargyl , clodinafop or propaquizafop ; a cyclohexanedione type such as alloxydim - sodium , alloxydim , clethodim , sethoxydim , tralkoxydim , butroxydim , tepraloxydim , profoxydim or cycloxydim ; and others such as flamprop - m - methyl , flamprop - m or flamprop - m - isopropyl . ( 7 ) those which are believed to exhibit herbicidal effects by inhibiting an amino acid biosynthesis of plants , such as a sulfonylurea type such as chlorimuron - ethyl , chlorimuron , sulfometuron - methyl , sulfometuron , primisulfuron - methyl , primisulfuron , bensulfuron - methyl , bensulfuron , chlorsulfuron , metsulfuron - methyl , metsulfuron , cinosulfuron , pyrazosulfuron - ethyl , pyrazosulfuron , azimsulfuron , rimsulfuron , nicosulfuron , flazasulfuron , imazosulfuron , cyclosulfamuron , prosulfuron , flupyrsulfuron - methyl - sodium , flupyrsulfuron , triflusulfuron - methyl , triflusulfuron , halosulfuron - methyl , halosulfuron , thifensulfuron - methyl , thifensulfuron , ethoxysulfuron , oxasulfuron , ethametsulfuron , ethametsulfuron - methyl , iodosulfuron , iodosulfuron - methyl - sodium , sulfosulfuron , triasulfuron , tribenuron - methyl , tribenuron , tritosulfuron , foramsulfuron , trifloxysulfuron , trifloxysulfuron - sodium , mesosulfuron - methyl , mesosulfuron , orthosulfamuron , flucetosulfuron , amidosulfuron , propyrisulfuron , metazosulfuron , iofensulfuron or a compound disclosed in the claim of ep0645386 ; a triazolopyrimidinesulfonamide type such as flumetsulam , metosulam , diclosulam , cloransulam - methyl , florasulam , penoxsulam or pyroxsulam ; an imidazolinone type such as imazapyr , imazapyr - isopropylammonium , imazethapyr , imazethapyr - ammonium , imazaquin , imazaquin - ammonium , imazamox , imazamox - ammonium , imazamethabenz , imazamethabenz - methyl or imazapic ; a pyrimidinylsalicylic acid type such as pyrithiobac - sodium , bispyribac - sodium , pyriminobac - methyl , pyribenzoxim , pyriftalid or pyrimisulfan ; a sulfonylaminocarbonyltriazolinone type such as flucarbazone , flucarbazone - sodium , propoxycarbazone - sodium , propoxycarbazone or thiencarbazone ; and others such as glyphosate , glyphosate - sodium , glyphosate - potassium , glyphosate - ammonium , glyphosate - diammonium , glyphosate - isopropylammonium , glyphosate - trimesium , glyphosate - sesquisodium , glufosinate , glufosinate - ammonium , glufosinate - p , glufosinate - p - ammonium , glufosinate - p - sodium , bilanafos , bilanafos - sodium , cinmethylin or triafamone . ( 8 ) those which are believed to exhibit herbicidal effects by inhibiting cell mitoses of plants , such as a dinitroaniline type such as trifluralin , oryzalin , nitralin , pendimethalin , ethalfluralin , benfluralin , prodiamine , butralin or dinitramine ; an amide type such as bensulide , napropamide , propyzamide or pronamide ; an organic phosphorus type such as amiprofos - methyl , butamifos , anilofos or piperophos ; a phenyl carbamate type such as propham , chlorpropham , barban or carbetamide ; a cumylamine type such as daimuron , cumyluron , bromobutide or methyldymron ; and others such as asulam , asulam - sodium , dithiopyr , thiazopyr , chlorthal - dimethyl , chlorthal or diphenamid . ( 9 ) those which are believed to exhibit herbicidal effects by inhibiting protein biosynthesis or lipid biosynthesis of plants , such as a chloroacetamide type such as alachlor , metazachlor , butachlor , pretilachlor , metolachlor , s - metolachlor , thenylchlor , pethoxamid , acetochlor , propachlor , dimethenamid , dimethenamid - p , propisochlor or dimethachlor ; a thiocarbamate type such as molinate , dimepiperate , pyributicarb , eptc , butylate , vernolate , pebulate , cycloate , prosulfocarb , esprocarb , thiobencarb , diallate , tri - allate or orbencarb ; and others such as etobenzanid , mefenacet , flufenacet , tridiphane , cafenstrole , fentrazamide , oxaziclomefone , indanofan , benfuresate , pyroxasulfone , fenoxasulfone , dalapon , dalapon - sodium , tca - sodium or trichloroacetic acid . ( 10 ) msma , dsma , cma , endothall , endothall - dipotassium , endothall - sodium , endothall - mono ( n , n - dimethylalkylammonium ), ethofumesate , sodium chlorate , pelargonic acid , nonanoic acid , fosamine , fosamine - ammonium , pinoxaden , ipfencarbazone , aclolein , ammonium sulfamate , borax , chloroacetic acid , sodium chloroacete , cyanamide , methylarsonic acid , dimethylarsinic acid , sodium dimethylarsinate , dinoterb , dinoterb - ammonium , dinoterb - diolamine , dinoterb - acetate , dnoc , ferrous sulfate , flupropanate , flupropanate - sodium , isoxaben , mefluidide , mefluidide - diolamine , metam , metam - ammonium , metam - potassium , metam - sodium , methyl isothiocyanate , pentachlorophenol , sodium pentachlorophenoxide , pentachlorophenol laurate , quinoclamine , sulfuric acid , urea sulfate , methiozolin , etc . ( 11 ) those which are believed to exhibit herbicidal effects by being parasitic on plants , such as xanthomonas campestris , epicoccosirus nematosorus , epicoccosirus nematosperus , exserohilurn monoseras or drechsrela monoceras . in the present invention , in a case where the herbicidal benzoylpyrazole compound is formulated with various additives , or in a case where the herbicidal benzoylpyrazole compound and the activity - improving component are formulated together with various additives , it may be formulated into various formulations such as wettable powders , water dispersible granules , water - based suspensions , oil - based suspensions , gel formulation , emulsifiable concentrates , soluble concentrates , liquid formulation , emulsions , microemulsions , suspoemulsions and composite emulsions . the additives which can be used may be any additives so long as they are used in this technical field , and they may , for example , be a surfactant , a carrier , a solvent , a vegetable oil , a mineral oil , an anti - settling agent , a thickener , an anti - foaming agent , an anti - freezing agent , an antioxidant agent , an oil absorb agent , a gelling agent , a filler , a dispersion stabilizer , a safener , an anti - mold agent , a binder , a stabilizer , a disintegrator , a preservative agent and an inorganic ammonium salt . specific examples of the additives include the following compounds . the herbicidal benzolypyrazole compound can be formulated in accordance with a conventional method in this technical field . the surfactant may , for example , be an anionic surfactant such as a salt of fatty acid , a benzoate , an alkylsulfosuccinate , a dialkylsulfosuccinate , a polycarboxylate , a salt of alkyl sulfuric acid ester , an alkyl sulfate , an alkyl aryl sulfate , an alkyl diglycol ether sulfate , a salt of alcohol sulfuric acid ester , an alkyl sulfonate , an alkyl aryl sulfonate , an aryl sulfonate , a lignin sulfonate , an alkyl diphenyl ether disulfonate , a polystyrene sulfonate , a salt of alkyl phosphoric acid ester , an alkyl aryl phosphate , a styryl aryl phosphate , a salt of poe alkyl ether sulfuric acid ester , a poe alkyl aryl ether sulfate , a poe styryl aryl ether sulfate , a poe styryl aryl ether sulfonate , an ammonium salt of poe styryl aryl ether sulfate , a salt of poe alkyl aryl ether sulfuric acid ester , a poe alkyl ether phosphate , a salt of poe alkyl aryl phosphoric acid ester , a poe styryl aryl ether phosphoric acid ester or its salt , a salt of naphthalene suifonic acid condensed with formaldehyde , or a salt of alkylnaphthalene sulfonic acid condensed with formaldehyde ; a nonionic surfactant such as a sorbitan fatty acid ester , a glycerin fatty acid ester , a fatty acid polyglyceride , a fatty acid alcohol polyglycol ether , acetylene glycol , acetylene alcohol , an oxyalkylene block polymer , a poe alkyl ether , a poe aryl ether , a poe alkyl aryl ether , a poe styryl aryl ether , a poe glycol alkyl ether , a poe alkyl ester , a poe sorbitan alkyl ester , a poe sorbitol alkyl ester , a poe fatty acid ester , a poe sorbitan fatty acid ester , a poe sorbitol fatty acid ester , a poe glycerin fatty acid ester , poe hydrogenated castor oil , poe castor oil or a polyoxypropylene fatty acid ester ; or a cationic surfactant such as an alkoxylated fatty amine , and they may be used as a mixture of two or more if desired . the carrier or the filler may , for example , be diatomaceous earth , slaked lime , calcium carbonate , talc , white carbon , kaolin , bentonite , a mixture of kaolinite and sericite , clay , sodium carbonate , sodium bicarbonate , mirabilite , zeolite , starch , sodium chloride , ammonium phosphate , ammonium sulfate , ammonium chloride , sugar , urea , lactose or glucose , and they may be used as a mixture of two or more if desired . the solvent may , for example , be water , solvent naphtha , paraffin , dioxane , acetone , isophorone , methyl isobutyl ketone , cyclohexane , dimethyl sulfoxide , dimethyl formamide , n - methyl - 2 - pyrolidone , an alcohol , acetic acid , butyric acid , isopropyl acetate , butyl acetate , alkylbenzene , alkylnaphthalene or a glycol . they may be used as a mixture of two or more if desired . the vegetable oil may , for example , be olive oil , kapok oil , castor oil , papaya oil , camelia oil , coconut oil , sesame oil , corn oil , rice bran oil , peanut oil , cottonseed oil , soybean oil , rapeseed oil , linseed oil , tung oil , sunflower oil , safflower oil , a fatty acid derived from the above - described respective oils , or an alkyl ester of the fatty acid , and the mineral oil may , for example , be an aliphatic hydrocarbon such as liquid paraffin or paraffin petroleum , or an aromatic hydrocarbon such as an alkylbenzene or an alkylnaphthalene , and they may be used as a mixture of two or more if desired . the above - described fatty acid may , for example , be a c 12 - 22 saturated or unsaturated fatty acid such as lauric acid , palmitic acid , stearic acid , oleic acid , linoleic acid , linolenic acid , erucic acid or brassidic acid , and the alkyl ester thereof may be a c 1 - 18 linear or branched alkyl ester such as a methyl ester , a butyl ester , an isobutyl ester or an oleyl ester . the anti - settling agent may , for example , be silica , organic bentonite ( bentonite - alkylamino complex ), bentonite , white carbon or aluminum magnesium silicate , and they may be used as a mixture of two or more if desired . the thickener may , for example , be a heteropolysaccharide such as xanthan gum or guar gum , a water - soluble polymer such as polyvinyl alcohol , carboxymethylcellulose sodium salt or sodium alginate , or bentonite or white carbon , and they may be used as a mixture of two or more if desired . the anti - foaming agent may , for example , be polydimethylsiloxane or acetylene alcohol , and they may be used as a mixture of two or more if desired . the anti - freezing agent may , for example , be ethylene glycol , propylene glycol , glycerin or urea , and they may be used as a mixture of two or more if desired . the oil absorb agent may , for example , be silicon dioxide , starch hydrolysate , kaolin , clay , talc , diatomaceous earth , artificial diatomaceous earth / lime , asbestos , a mixture of kaolinite and sericite , calcium silicate , precipitated calcium carbonate light , silicificated precipitated calcium carbonate light , acid clay , carbon black , natural earthy graphite , pearlite product , ultrafine aluminum oxide anhydrous particles , ultrafine titanium oxide particles , basic magnesium carbonate , magnesium aluminosilicate , a silica / alumina synthetic filler or magnesium silicate hydrate , and they may be used as a mixture of two or more if desired . the gelling agent may , for example , be silica , organic attapulgite , clay , hydrogenated castor oil , a higher fatty acid ester , a higher alcohol , a salt of dialkylsulfosuccinic acid ester , a salt of benzoic acid , an alkyl sulfate , a mixture of a polyacrylic polymer or a polyacrylic copolymer and water , or 12 - hydroxystearic acid , and they may be used as a mixture of two or more if desired . the binder may , for example , be lignin sulfonate , xanthan gum , carboxymethylcellulose or starch , and they may be used as a mixture of two or more if desired . the disintegrator may , for example , be an inorganic salt such as carboxymethyl cellulose calcium salt , ammonium sulfate , potassium chloride or magnesium chloride , or one having disintegrating effect among the above - mentioned surfactants , such as sodium lauryl sulfate , sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate or ammonium polyacrylate , and they may be used as a mixture of two or more if desired . the preservative agent may , for example , be formaldehyde , parachlorometaxylenol or 1 , 2 - benzoisothiazolin - 3 - one , and they may be used as a mixture of two or more if desired . in the above various formulations , the blend ratio of the respective components cannot be generally be defined , as it varies depending upon various conditions such as the type of the components , the type of the formulation , and the application site . for example , the herbicidal benzoylpyrazole compound is blended in a ratio of preferably from 0 . 1 to 95 parts by weight , more preferably from 2 to 85 parts by weight , and as the rest , the additives are blended in a ratio of preferably from 5 to 99 . 9 parts by weight , more preferably from 15 to 98 parts by weight . further , in a case where the activity - improving component is blended in a ratio of preferably from 0 . 1 to 94 . 9 parts by weight , more preferably from 5 to 60 parts by weight if desired , and another herbicidal compound is blended in a ratio of preferably from 0 . 1 to 94 . 9 parts by weight , more preferably from 0 . 5 to 75 parts by weight if desired , the additives are blended as the rest , so that the total amount is 100 parts by weight . the blend ratios of the respective components in several formulations are mentioned below , however , the present invention is not limited to such specific formulations . in the case of a water - based suspension , the herbicidal benzoylpyrazole compound is blended in a ratio of preferably from 0 . 1 to 60 parts by weight , more preferably from 2 to 50 parts by weight , the surfactant is blended in a ratio of preferably from 0 . 5 to 20 parts by weight , more preferably from 1 to 15 parts by weight , and as the rest , water is blended in a ratio of preferably from 25 to 99 . 4 parts by weight , more preferably from 30 to 97 parts by weight to prepare a water - based suspension . further , in a case where the activity - improving component is blended in a ratio of preferably from 0 . 1 to 60 parts by weight , more preferably from 5 to 40 parts by weight if desired , another herbicidal compound is blended in a ratio of preferably from 0 . 1 to 60 parts by weight , more preferably from 0 . 5 to 30 parts by weight if desired , an anti - foaming agent is blended in a ratio of preferably from 0 . 05 to 3 parts by weight , more preferably from 0 . 1 to 1 part by weight if desired , an anti - freezing agent is blended in a ratio of preferably from 0 . 5 to 10 parts by weight , more preferably from 2 to 10 parts by weight if desired , an anti - settling agent is blended in a ratio of preferably from 0 . 1 to 5 parts by weight , more preferably from 0 . 5 to 3 parts by weight if desired , a thickener is blended in a ratio of preferably from 0 . 1 to 5 parts by weight , more preferably from 0 . 1 to 2 parts by weight if desired , and a preservative agent is blended in a ratio of preferably from 0 . 01 to 1 part by weight , more preferably from 0 . 05 to 0 . 2 part by weight if desired , water is blended as the rest so that the total amount is 100 parts by weight to prepare a water - based suspension . in the case of an oil - based suspension , the herbicidal benzoylpyrazole compound is blended in a ratio of preferably from 0 . 1 to 40 parts by weight , more preferably from 2 to 35 parts by weight , the surfactant is blended in a ratio of preferably from 1 to 30 parts by weight , more preferably from 1 to 25 parts by weight , and as the rest , an oil , preferably a vegetable oil or a mineral oil is blended in a ratio of preferably from 10 to 98 . 9 parts by weight , more preferably from 20 to 97 parts by weight to prepare an oil - based suspension . further , in a case where the activity - improving component is blended in a ratio of preferably from 0 . 1 to 80 parts by weight , more preferably from 5 to 60 parts by weight if desired , another herbicidal compound is blended in a ratio of preferably from 0 . 1 to 40 parts by weight , more preferably from 0 . 5 to 30 parts by weight if desired , and an anti - settling agent is blended in a ratio of preferably from 0 . 1 to 5 parts by weight , more preferably from 0 . 5 to 3 parts by weight if desired , a vegetable oil or a mineral oil is blended as the rest so that the total amount is 100 parts by weight to prepare an oil - based suspension . in the case of a wettable powder , the herbicidal benzoylpyrazole compound is blended in a ratio of preferably from 0 . 1 to 95 parts by weight , more preferably from 5 to 85 parts by weight , the surfactant is blended in a ratio of preferably from 0 . 5 to 40 parts by weight , more preferably from 5 to 30 parts by weight , and as the rest , a carrier or a filler is blended in a ratio of preferably from 4 . 5 to 99 . 4 parts by weight , more preferably from 10 to 90 parts by weight to prepare a wettable powder . further , in a case where the activity - improving component is blended in a ratio of preferably from 0 . 1 to 94 . 9 parts by weight , more preferably from 10 to 60 parts by weight if desired , another herbicidal compound is blended in a ratio of preferably from 0 . 1 to 94 . 9 parts by weight , more preferably from 0 . 5 to 75 parts by weight if desired , and an oil absorb agent is blended in a ratio of preferably from 1 to 90 parts by weight , more preferably from 1 to 50 parts by weight if desired , a carrier or a filler is blended as the rest so that the total amount is 100 parts by weight to prepare a wettable powder . preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below , but the present invention is by no means restricted thereto . 1 . a herbicidal composition comprising ( 1 ) 1 -( 1 - ethyl - 4 -( 3 -( 2 - methoxyethoxy )- 2 - methyl - 4 -( methylsulfonyl ) benzoyl )- 1h - pyrazol - 5 - yloxy ) ethyl methyl carbonate ( the above compound no . 6 ) or its salt and ( 2 ) at least one compound selected from the group consisting of a poa sorbitan fatty acid ester , a poa fatty acid ester , a poa styryl aryl ether , a poa styryl aryl ether condensate and a poa alkyl ether sulfate ( hereinafter referred to as an activity - improving component ). 2 . the herbicidal composition according to the above 1 , wherein the activity - improving component is at least one compound selected from the group consisting of a poa sorbitan fatty acid ester and a poa fatty acid ester . 3 . the herbicidal composition according to the above 1 , wherein the activity - improving component is a poa sorbitan fatty acid ester . 4 . the herbicidal composition according to the above 1 , wherein the activity - improving component is a poa fatty acid ester . 5 . a method for controlling undesired plants , which comprises applying ( 1 ) the above compound no . 6 or its salt and ( 2 ) the activity - improving component to the undesired plants or to a place where they grow . 6 . the method according to the above 5 , wherein the activity - improving component is at least one compound selected from the group consisting of a poa sorbitan fatty acid ester and a poa fatty acid ester . 7 . the method according to the above 5 , wherein the activity - improving component is a poa sorbitan fatty acid ester . 8 . the method according to the above 5 , wherein the activity - improving component is a poa fatty acid ester . 9 . a method for improving the herbicidal activity of the compound no . 6 or its salt by using the activity - improving component . 10 . the method according to the above 9 , wherein the activity - improving component is at least one compound selected from the group consisting of a poa sorbitan fatty acid ester and a poa fatty acid ester . 11 . the method according to the above 9 , wherein the activity - improving component is a poa sorbitan fatty acid ester . 12 . the method according to the above 9 , wherein the activity - improving component is a poa fatty acid ester . 13 . the herbicidal composition according to the above 3 , the method according to the above 7 , or the method according to the above 11 , wherein the poa sorbitan fatty acid ester is at least one compound selected from the group consisting of poe sorbitan monolaurate , poe sorbitan dilaurate , poe sorbitan trilaurate , poe sorbitan monopalmitate , poe sorbitan dipalmitate , poe sorbitan tripalmitate , poe sorbitan monomyristate , poe sorbitan dimyristate , poe sorbitan trimyristate , poe sorbitan monostearate , poe sorbitan distearate , poe sorbitan tristearate , poe sorbitan monoisostearate , poe sorbitan diisostearate , poe sorbitan triisostearate , poe sorbitan monooleate , poe sorbitan dioleate and poe sorbitan trioleate . 14 . the herbicidal composition according to the above 4 , the method according to the above 8 or the method according to the above 12 , wherein the poa fatty acid ester is at least one compound selected from the group consisting of poe monolaurate , poe dilaurate , poe monooleate , poe dioleate , poe monostearate , poe distearate , poe monoisostearate , poe diisostearate , poe monopalmitate , poe dipalmitate , poe monomyristate , poe dimyristate , poe di - 2 - ethylhexoate and poe dierucate . 15 . the herbicidal composition according to the above 4 , the method according to the above 8 or the method according to the above 12 , wherein the poa fatty acid ester is poa di - fatty acid ester . 16 . an oil - based suspension comprising ( 1 ) the above compound no . 6 or its salt , ( 2 ) the activity - improving component , ( 3 ) a surfactant and ( 4 ) a vegetable oil or a mineral oil . 17 . the oil - based suspension according to the above 16 , wherein the activity - improving component is at least one compound selected from the group consisting of a poa sorbitan fatty acid ester and a poa fatty acid ester . 18 . the oil - based suspension according to the above 16 , wherein the activity - improving component is a poa sorbitan fatty acid ester . 19 . the oil - based suspension according to the above 16 , wherein the activity - improving component is a poa fatty acid ester . 20 . the oil - based suspension according to any one of the above 16 to 19 , wherein ( 3 ) the surfactant is at least one surfactant selected from the group consisting of poe hydrogenated castor oil , poe styryl phenyl ether , a poe sorbitol fatty acid ester and a sorbitan fatty acid ester . 21 . the oil - based suspension according to any one of the above 16 to 20 , wherein ( 4 ) the vegetable oil or the mineral oil is a vegetable oil , a fatty acid derived from the vegetable oil or an alkyl ester of the fatty acid . 22 . the oil - based suspension according to any one of the above 16 to 21 , which contains ( 1 ) from 0 . 1 to 40 parts by weight of the above compound no . 6 or its salt , ( 2 ) from 0 . 1 to 80 parts by weight of the activity - improving component , ( 3 ) from 1 to 30 parts by weight of the surfactant , and ( 4 ) from 10 to 98 . 8 parts by weight of the vegetable oil or the mineral oil . 23 . an oil - based suspension , which contains ( 1 ) from 0 . 1 to 40 parts by weight of the above compound no . 6 or its salt , ( 2 ) from 0 . 1 to 80 parts by weight of the activity - improving component , ( 3 ) from 1 to 30 parts by weight of a surfactant , ( 4 ) from 0 . 1 to 5 parts by weight of an anti - settling agent and ( 5 ) from 10 to 98 . 7 parts by weight of a vegetable oil or a mineral oil . now , the present invention will be described in further detail with reference to examples . however , the present invention is by no means restricted to such specific examples . compound nos . in examples are compound nos . in the above table 1 . ( 1 ) compound no . 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 or 9 ( purity 99 . 6 %): 36 . 26 parts by weight ( 2 ) alkylnaphthalene sulfonate condensed with formaldehyde ( tradename : morwet d425 manufactured by akzonobel ): 2 . 21 parts by weight ( 3 ) poe styryl phenyl ether phosphate potassium salt ( tradename : soprophor flk / 70 manufactured by rhodia ): 2 . 21 parts by weight ( 4 ) aluminum magnesium silicate ( tradename : veegum r manufactured by sanyo chemical industries , ltd . ): 0 . 88 part by weight ( 6 ) dimethylpolysiloxane ( tradename : silcolapse 432 manufactured by bluestar silicones ): 0 . 35 part by weight ( 7 ) xanthan gum ( tradename : rhodopol 23 manufactured by rhodia ): 0 . 09 part by weight ( 8 ) 1 , 2 - benzisothiazolin - 3 - one ( tradename : proxel gxl manufactured by arch chemicals , inc . ): 0 . 04 part by weight the above components are mixed and pulverized by a wet pulverizer for 5 minutes to prepare a water - based suspension . this is diluted with water together with the activity - improving component and applied . ( 1 ) compound no . 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 or 9 ( purity : 99 . 6 %): 36 . 26 parts by weight ( 2 ) morwet d425 ( tradename ): 2 . 65 parts by weight ( 3 ) ammonium poe styryl phenyl ether sulfonate ( tradename : soprophor 4d384 manufactured by rhodia ): 2 . 21 parts by weight the above components are mixed and pulverized by a wet pulverizer for 5 minutes to prepare a water - based suspension . this is diluted with water together with the activity - improving component and applied . ( 1 ) compound no . 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 or 9 ( purity : 99 . 6 %): 36 . 26 parts by weight ( 3 ) poe / polyoxypropylene block copolymer ( tradename : pluronic pe10300 manufactured by basf ): 2 . 21 parts by weight the above components are mixed and pulverized by a wet pulverizer for 5 minutes to prepare a water - based suspension . this is diluted with water together with the activity - improving component and applied . ( 1 ) compound no . 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 or 9 ( purity : 99 . 6 %): 10 . 67 parts by weight ( 2 ) mixture containing poe hydrogenated castor oil ( tradename : sorpol 3815a manufactured by toho chemical industry co ., ltd . ): 10 . 42 parts by weight ( 3 ) organic bentonite ( bentonite - alkylamino complex ) ( tradename : new d orben manufactured by shiraishi kogyo kaisha , ltd . ): 1 . 04 parts by weight ( 4 ) poe sorbitan fatty acid ester ( tradename : sorbon t - 85 manufactured by toho chemical industry co ., ltd . ): 20 . 83 parts by weight ( 5 ) methylated seed oil ( tradename : agnique me 18rd - f manufactured by basf ): 57 . 04 parts by weight the above components are mixed and pulverized by a wet pulverizer for 5 minutes to prepare an oil - based suspension . this is diluted with water and applied . ( 1 ) compound no . 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 or 9 ( purity : 99 . 6 %): 10 . 67 parts by weight ( 4 ) isoparaffin ( tradename : ip solvent 1016 manufactured by idemitsu kosan co ., ltd . ): 57 . 04 parts by weight the above components are mixed and pulverized by a wet pulverizer for 5 minutes to prepare an oil - based suspension . this is diluted with water and applied . ( 1 ) compound no . 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 or 9 ( purity : 99 . 6 %): 31 . 25 parts by weight ( 3 ) silica ( tradename : aerosil r972 manufactured by nippon aerosil co ., ltd . ): 0 . 63 part by weight ( 4 ) poe styryl phenyl ether ( tradename : sorpol - 19 manufactured by toho chemical industry co ., ltd . ): 10 . 42 parts by weight the above components are mixed and pulverized by a wet pulverizer for 5 minutes to prepare an oil - based suspension . this is diluted with water and applied . ( 1 ) compound no . 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 or 9 ( purity : 99 . 6 %): 10 . 67 parts by weight ( 2 ) mixture containing poe sorbitol fatty acid ester ( tradename : sorpol 4300 manufactured by toho chemical industry co ., ltd . ): 10 . 42 parts by weight ( 4 ) poe fatty acid ester ( tradename : pegnol 24 - 0 manufactured by toho chemical industry co ., ltd . ): 52 . 08 parts by weight ( 5 ) methylated seed oil ( tradename : agnique me 18rd - f manufactured by basf ): 25 . 79 parts by weight the above components are mixed and pulverized by a wet pulverizer for 5 minutes to prepare an oil - based suspension . this is diluted with water and applied . ( 1 ) compound no . 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 or 9 ( purity : 99 . 6 %): 10 . 67 parts by weight the above components are mixed and pulverized by a wet pulverizer for 5 minutes to prepare an oil - based suspension . this is diluted with water and applied . ( 1 ) compound no . 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 or 9 ( purity : 99 . 6 %): 10 . 67 parts by weight ( 2 ) polycarboxylate ( tradename : geropon t / 36 manufactured by rhodia ): 3 parts by weight ( 3 ) alkylnaphthalene sulfonate ( tradename : supragil wp manufactured by rhodia ): 2 parts by weight ( 4 ) alkyl naphthalene sulfonate condensed with formaldehyde ( tradename : supragil mns / 90 manufactured by rhodia ): 5 parts by weight ( 5 ) poe alkyl ether sulfate ( tradename : hitenol lal2 manufactured by dai - ichi kogyo seiyaku co ., ltd . ): 40 parts by weight ( 6 ) white carbon ( tradename : carplex # 80 manufactured by evonik degussa japan co ., ltd . ): 39 . 33 parts by weight hitenol lal2 is adsorbed on carplex # 80 , and mixed with the other components to prepare a wettable powder . this is diluted with water and applied . the above components are mixed and pulverized by a wet pulverizer for 5 minutes to prepare an oil - based suspension . this is diluted with water and applied . ( 3 ) poe sorbitan fatty acid ester ( tradename : sorbon t - 60 manufactured by ( 4 ) sorbitan fatty acid ester ( tradename : sorbon s - 80 manufactured by toho chemical industry co ., ltd . ): 10 . 0 parts by weight the above components are mixed and pulverized by a wet pulverizer for 5 minutes to prepare an oil - based suspension . this is diluted with water and applied . ( 3 ) poe fatty acid ester ( tradename : cithrol 4ml manufactured by croda ): 30 . 0 parts by weight the above components are mixed and pulverized by a wet pulverizer for 5 minutes to prepare an oil - based suspension . this is diluted with water and applied . now , test examples will be described . the activity - improving components used in test examples are as follows . upland field soil was put into a 1 / 1 , 000 , 000 ha pot , and seeds of barnyardgrass ( echinochloa crus - galli l .) and seeds of velvetleaf ( abutilon theophrasti l .) were respectively sown and grown in a greenhouse . when the barnyardgrass reached 4 . 0 to 4 . 7 - leaf stage and the velvetleaf reached 3 . 0 to 4 . 0 - leaf stage , a prescribed amount ( 15 g a . i ./ ha ) of a composition comprising compound no . 6 as an active ingredient prepared in accordance with example 1 was diluted with water ( containing 0 . 05 vol % of the activity - improving component ) in an amount corresponding to 300 l / ha , and applied for foliar treatment . for comparison , a behenic acid monoethanolamide surfactant ( tradename : incromide manufactured by croda ) was used at a concentration of 0 . 05 vol % instead of the activity - improving component of the present invention , and the composition was applied for foliar treatment similarly . on the 25th day after treatment , the state of growth of the plants was visually observed to determine the growth inhibition rate (%)= 0 ( equivalent to the non - treated area ) to 100 ( complete kill ), and the results as shown in table 2 were obtained . in accordance with the above test example 1 , the effect on velvetleaf ( abutilon theophrasti l .) at 2 . 0 to 3 . 0 - leaf stage was confirmed . for comparison , a methylated seed oil activity - strengthening agent ( tradename : destiny ho manufactured by agriliance ) was used at a concentration of 0 . 5 vol %. on the 21st day after treatment , the growth inhibition rate (%) was determined in the same manner as in test example 1 and the results are shown in table 3 . in accordance with the above test example 1 , the effect on velvetleaf ( abutilon theophrasti l .) at 3 . 3 to 3 . 8 - leaf stage was confirmed . for comparison , methyl oleate ( a mixture of methyl oleate : commercially available emulsifying agent = 88 : 12 ) was used at a concentration of 0 . 05 vol %. the commercially available emulsifying agent used was a mixture of poe alkyl aryl ether , poe hydrogenated castor oil ether , a fatty acid derivative and sodium dialkylsulfosuccinate ( tradename : sorpol 3815k , manufactured by toho chemical industry co ., ltd .). on the 21st day after treatment , the growth inhibition rate was determined in the same manner as in test example 1 and the results are shown in table 4 . in accordance with the above test example 1 , the effect on barnyardgrass ( echinochloa crus - galli l .) at 3 . 5 to 4 . 3 - leaf stage was confirmed . for comparison , methyl oleate ( the same as in test example 3 ) was used at a concentration of 0 . 05 vol %. on the 23rd day after treatment , the growth inhibition rate was determined in the same manner as in test example 1 and the results are shown in table 5 . here , when no activity - improving component was added , the growth inhibition rate of barnyardgrass was 0 %. upland field soil was put into a 1 / 1 , 000 , 000 ha pot , and seeds of crabgrass ( digitaria ciliaris ( retz .) koel .) were sown and grown in a greenhouse . when the crabgrass reached 3 . 6 to 4 . 2 - leaf stage , a prescribed amount ( 30 g a . i ./ ha ) of a composition comprising compound no . 6 as an active ingredient prepared in accordance with example 1 was diluted with water ( containing 0 . 05 vol % of the activity - improving component ) in an amount corresponding to 300 l / ha , and applied for foliar treatment . for comparison , a polyoxyethylene octyl phenyl ether surfactant ( tradename : kusarino manufactured by nihon noyaku co ., ltd .) or methyl oleate ( the same as in test example 3 ) were used at a concentration of 0 . 05 vol % instead of the activity - improving component of the present invention , and each composition was applied similarly . on the 25th day after treatment , the growth inhibition rate was determined in the same manner as in test example 1 and the results are shown in table 6 . upland field soil was put into a 1 / 1 , 000 , 000 ha pot , and seeds of barnyardgrass ( echinochloa crus - galli l .) were sown and grown in a greenhouse . when the barnyardgrass reached 4 . 0 to 5 . 0 - leaf stage , a prescribed amount ( 100 g a . i ./ ha ) of a composition comprising compound no . 6 as an active ingredient prepared in accordance with example 1 was diluted with water ( containing 0 . 025 vol % of the activity - improving component ) in an amount corresponding to 300 l / ha , and applied for foliar treatment . for comparison , kusarino ( the same as in test example 5 ) was used at a concentration of 0 . 025 vol % instead of the activity - improving component of the present invention , and the composition was applied similarly . on the 21st day after treatment , the growth inhibition rate was determined in the same manner as in test example 1 and the results are shown in table 7 . upland field soil was put into a 1 / 1 , 000 , 000 ha pot , and seeds of velvetleaf ( abutilon theophrasti l .) were sown and grown in a greenhouse . when the velvetleaf reached 4 . 4 to 5 . 4 - leaf stage , a prescribed amount ( 10 g a . i ./ ha ) of a composition comprising compound no . 6 as an active ingredient prepared in accordance with example 1 was diluted with water ( containing 0 . 5 vol % of the activity - improving component ) in an amount corresponding to 300 l / ha , and applied for foliar treatment . for comparison , kusarino ( the same as in test example 5 ) was used at a concentration of 0 . 5 vol % instead of the activity - improving component of the present invention , and the composition was applied similarly . on the 22nd day after treatment , the growth inhibition rate was determined in the same manner as in test example 1 and the results are shown in table 8 . upland field soil was put into a 1 / 1 , 000 , 000 ha pot , and seeds of barnyardgrass ( echinochloa crus - galli l .) and velvetleaf ( abutilon theophrasti l .) were sown and grown in a greenhouse . when the barnyardgrass reached 4 . 0 to 4 . 5 - leaf stage and the velvetleaf reached 2 . 7 to 3 . 5 - leaf stage , a prescribed amount ( 30 g a . i ./ ha ) of an oil - based suspension comprising compound no . 6 as an active ingredient prepared in accordance with example 10 was diluted with water in an amount corresponding to 300 l / ha , and applied for foliar treatment . on the 26th day after treatment , the state of growth of the barnyardgrass was visually observed , and on the 24th day after treatment , the state of growth of the velvetleaf was visually observed , to determine the growth inhibition rates in the same manner as in test example 1 and the results are shown in table 9 . upland field soil was put into a 1 / 1 , 000 , 000 ha pot , and seeds of corn ( zea mays l .) were sown and grown in a greenhouse . when the corn reached 3 . 8 to 4 . 5 - leaf stage , a prescribed amount ( 30 , 60 or 90 g a . i ./ ha ) of an oil - based suspension comprising compound no . 6 as an active ingredient prepared in accordance with example 10 was diluted with water in an amount corresponding to 300 l / ha , and applied for foliar treatment . on the 6th day after treatment , the growth inhibition rate was determined in the same manner as in test example 1 and the results are shown in table 10 . upland field soil was put into a 1 / 1 , 000 , 000 ha pot , and seeds of crabgrass { p47051 02264045 . 000 } ( digitaria ciliaris ( retz .) koel .) and barnyardgrass ( echinochloa crus - galli l .) were sown and grown in a greenhouse . when the crabgrass reached 4 . 4 to 5 . 4 - leaf stage and the barnyardgrass reached 4 . 0 to 5 . 1 - leaf stage , prescribed amounts ( 30 + 30 g a . i ./ ha ) of oil - based suspensions each comprising compound no . 6 and nicosulfuron as active ingredients , prepared in accordance with examples 11 and 12 , were diluted with water in an amount corresponding to 300 l / ha and applied for foliar treatment . on the 21st day after treatment , the growth inhibition rate was determined in the same manner as in test example 1 and the results are shown in table 11 . | 0 |
the system of the present invention is based on the proposal for the system b access control system the practical implementation for which is described on page 435 etc . of ebu document spb 284 , on page 206 etc . of ebu document spb 352 and page 221 etc . of ebu doc . jiwp 10 - 11 / 3 - 1 mentioned above . a detailed description to system b is not given herein and the reader is directed to the above mentioned documents for an understanding of system b . in the following description the references used in relation to packets and blocks of data and their format are assumed to be as disclosed in the above documents and detailed explanations will only be entered into where these differ from the disclosures . with the system b proposal the shared customer address ( sca ) provides either the subscriber validation or authorisation in the subscription mode or loads tokens into the subscriber &# 39 ; s controlled access sub - system in the pay - per - view mode . for a given programme it is not possible for different subscribers to gain entitlement to receive that programme in an intelligible manner by the two different modes nor for a subscriber not pre - authorised to receive that programme to gain access to it via the pay - per - view mode . with the present system both possibilities exist . fig1 shows the shared - key over - air addressing system for system b which is based on fig3 of the mentioned parts of the above documents . the figure is divided into three portions where reference 1 denotes the parts contained on the transmission side , reference 2 a transmission path and 3 the parts contained on the receiver side which includes the controlled access sub - system . on the transmission side control words cw ( which includes the control words cw1 and cw2 ) are applied via a connection 4 to a scrambling sequence generator ( not shown ) to control the scrambling of programme material , both sound and vision . the control word cw is also applied to a first encrypter 5 together with any programme data p and which is encrypted using a supplementary key s to produce at the output of encrypter 5 the cryptogram s ( p , cw ). the supplementary key s together with customer messages m are applied to a second encrypter 6 and which are encrypted using a shared distribution key d to produce at the output of encrypter 6 the cryptogram d ( m , s ). in the transmission path 2 the cryptogram s ( p , cw ) is conveyed in an entitlement checking message ( ecm ) whilst the cryptogram d ( m , s ) is conveyed in an entitlement management message ( emm ). at the receiver side 3 a first decrypter 7 present in a security device 8 ( receives the cryptogram d ( m , s ) from the emm together with the shared distribution key d , the decrypter 7 producing the supplementary key s and any customer messages m at separate outputs . a second decrypter 9 receives the cryptogram s ( p , cw ) from the ecm together with the supplementary key s from decrypter 7 to produce at separate outputs the control word cw and any programme data p . the control word cw ( which again includes the control words cw1 and cw2 ) is applied via a connection 10 to a descrambling sequence generator ( not shown ) to control the descrambling of the programme material . the customer message m and the programme data p from the respective outputs of decrypters 7 and 9 are applied to a store 11 for example , for charging purposes . with the present system two overall encryption channels can be defined , these being a primary encryption channel and a subscription encryption channel . the primary encryption channel is the data path used by the controlled access sub - system to obtain programmes in the pay - per - view mode and it can also be used during switch - on to gain quick access to a service and hence quickly receive a programme in an intelligible manner . this channel in operation is similar to that of system b in the pay - per - view mode except that in the present system token updates are sent using the unique customer packets . the primary encryption channel consists of a number of components in packet form . in the following description of various packets each packet contains a packet header ( ph ) block of 23 bits and a packet type ( pt ) block of 8 bits which have been omitted from the descriptions although shown in the corresponding figures . in these figures the plain text messages are assembled least significant bit first , encrypted , and then transmitted least significant bit first . where a number is shown in brackets this indicates the number of bits used for each function , before encryption and error protection ( which is not shown ). the primary encryption channel comprises a primary emm and primary ecm &# 39 ; s ( one for each separately scrambled service ). the primary emm comprises unique customer and shared customer packets . the unique customer packet is shown in fig2 and comprises : ______________________________________uca unique customer address as system b - ( 36 ) bits . ucbmd mode as system b - ( 4 ) bits . u unique key as system b - ( 64 ) bits . sdkup shared distribution key update as system b - ( 64 ) bits . saup shared address update as system b - ( 48 ) bits . cpup customer word position update . the function definition remains the same as system b . the available customer bits have been reallocated to indicate one of 276 customers - ( 10 ) bits . ctup customer token update . the definition is identical to that given in system b under shared customer packet data format - ( 12 ) bits . unused - ( 118 ) bits . unallocated - ( 4 ) bits . ______________________________________ the blocks ucbmd upto and including the unused block of ( 118 ) bits are encrypted with the unique key u . the shared customer packet is shown in fig3 and comprises : ______________________________________sca shared customer address - ( 24 ) bits . valmd mode . if all bits are set to zero the operation is as described in this proposal . other combinations are reserved for future use - ( 4 ) bits . spn next pay - per - view view supplementary key . its use and operation are identical to that in system b except it is only employed with the primary pay - per - view emc - ( 56 ) bits . unallocated - ( 276 ) bits . ______________________________________ the blocks valmd and spn together with the unallocated block of ( 276 ) bits are encrypted with the shared distributed key d . the construction of each primary ecm is shown in fig4 and comprises : ______________________________________ci command identifier as system b - ( 8 ) bits . li length indicator as system b - ( 8 ) bits . pi parameter identifier whose function is the same as for system b - ( 8 ) bits . code 00 signifies ` pay - per - view ` plain text message . li length indicator as system b - ( 8 ) bits . skl supplementary key link as system b - ( 12 ) bits . pasemm packet address for the subscription shared customer emm . this is sent in plain text and allows the controlled access sub - system to gain access to the subscription emm packets . the two most significant bits are set to zero . if the packet address given is all zeroes the programme being transmitted is solely pay - per - view and no subscription emm packets are being trans - mitted - ( 12 ) bits . pasecm packet address for the subscription ecm . this again is sent in plain text and allows the controlled access sub - system to gain access to the subscription ecm packets . the two most significant bits are set to zero . if the packet address given is all zeros the programme being transmitted is solely pay - per - view and no subscription ecm packets are being trans - mitted - ( 12 ) bits . spn ( spc ) current pay - per - view supplementary key encrypted by the next pay - per - view supplementary key and has an identical function to sn ( sc ) in system b - ( 64 ) bits . pi parameter identifier whose function is the same as that in system b - ( 8 ) bits . code 02 signifies pay - per - view per unit time as system b whilst code 03 sig - nifies pay - per - view per programme as system b . li length indicator as system b - ( 8 ) bits . spc current primary supplementary key which has an identical function to sc in system b - ( 56 ) bits . cw control word ( 64 ) bits . this function transports even and odd controls words which can have suffixes from 0 to 7 . the even / odd identification signifies the parity of the conditional access frame count thus linking a control word with an ` odd ` or ` even ` 256 t . v . frame period . fig5 shows the format of the cw commmand with the least significant bit first . in the enlarged section of the first four bits of byte 1 b0 , b1 and b2 are the cw identifier whilst b3 is the least significant bit of the controlled access frame count to which the control word corresponds . pcat programme category as system b - ( 8 ) bits . chid channel identification as system b - ( 169 ) bits . pnum programme number as system b - ( 24 ) bits . pi parameter identifier - ( 8 ) bits . the block replicates that following spn ( spc ). ppvpr pay - per - view price - ( 24 ) bits . as system b except pi = 02 , 03 , respectively for the two modes of pay - per - view . that is per unit time or per programme . 5 bytes unallocated - 40 bits . ______________________________________ the blocks spc up to and including ppvpr are encrypted with spc . as far as subscriber authorisation is concerned a ` central computer ` at the transmission end will have continous record of the entitlements of each viewer with respect to the programmes he is allowed to watch . this should be the only place where that data is stored and only that data which tells the receiver that it is ( or is not ) entitled to receive a particular programme in an intelligible manner should be transmitted over - air . this means that the entitlement authorisations have to be sent out with each programme and that the subscription supplementary key will only have a current value ( ssc ) changing with every programme . to transport the subscription entitlements and the current subscription supplementary key ( ssc ) a shared customer emm employing 276 by 1 bit authorisations is used . this emm can enable ( or disable ) 20 million or more viewers in less than 3 minutes using an effective data capacity of one nicam parity mono sound channel whereas with the system b proposal it would take about 30 minutes to authorise the same number of viewers . the subscription encryption channel contains a shared customer emm and the subscription ecm . the subscription shared customer emm is shown in fig6 and contains ______________________________________sca shared customer address - ( 24 ) bits . common to 276 subscribers . valmd mode - ( 4 ) bits . all bits set to zero represents the operation as described in this proposal . other values are reserved for future use . ssc current subscription supplementary key - ( 56 ) bits . definition is similar to that in system b except it is employed in conjunction with the subscription ecm ( see below ), and is changed at the start of each pro - gramme . ca customer authorisations . 276 × 1 bit customer authorisations used to enable a customer and allow the contrblled access sub - system to gain access to the subscription ecm and hence the control words . a binary ` 1 ` corresponds to being enabled . ______________________________________ the blocks valmd , ssc and ca are encrypted with the shared distribution key d . this method of customer authorisation is dealt with in greater detail in published european patent application no . 0 132 007 a1 . as proposed here it allows 20 × 10 6 or more viewers to be authorised in less than 3 minutes . the current subscription supplementary key ssc is changed at the end of each programme to avoid piracy as it could be envisaged that a subscriber could take out a minimum subscription and be validated quite legally and still get access to the ssc if this were long term . the subscriber could then instruct his receiver to ignore all further subscription shared customer emm &# 39 ; s and although his location ( authorisation ) bit may be switched to disable the receiver will continue to receive valid programmes until the ssc is changed . thus , if for a sequence of programmes a new ssc is required for each programme and re - validation required for each programme . ______________________________________ci command identifier as system b - ( 8 ) bits . li length indicator as system b - ( 8 ) bits . pi parameter identifier whose function is the same as for system b - ( 8 ) bits . code 01 signifies ` subscription ` plain text message . li length indicator as system b - ( 8 ) bits . pl programme link - ( 16 ) bits . this give advanced indication of a change in ssc , i . e . at the end of programme . the 16 bits correspond to the 16 least significant bits of the controlled access frame count . pi parameter identifier whose function is the same as for system b - ( 8 ) bits . code 04 ` subscription ` cipher text message . li length indicator as system b - ( 8 ) bits . ssc current subscription supplementary key - ( 56 ) bits . definition is similar to that in system b and is used here as a security check . cw , pcat , chid , pnum , pias defined in the primary ecm ( fig4 ). 30 bytes unallocated - 240 bits . ______________________________________ the blocks ssc up to and including pi are encrypted with ssc . whilst by using a system of packets as described above to achieve the ability of receiving a programme either in the subscription or pay - per - view modes , it also offers a high degree of security . the security aspects are based on the following : i . the security of the system is based on the unique address , the unique key and if these are tied to a specific brand and serial number of receiver the security is further enhanced . ii . cloning of the system must be one approach of a pirate to avoid payments . however , if the checks set out in ( i ) above are strictly applied then programme purchase would have to be by a single person and the unit a major item . cloning is only of advantage in the subscription mode , it does not give free pay - per - view . further the system allows for a unique address to be disabled from the system by giving a new shared address to the other 275 valid occupants of that address . the old shared address is no longer transmitted and up - dated with the new keys . no legally purchased systems are disabled . iii . another level of attack has to be at the shared address packet and its contents . in particular the next supplementary key spn . if in some way access could be achieved to this key then it could be envisaged that the pay - per - view mechanism could be by - passed . to reduce the risk of this occurring important keys such as spn which have to be stored in the control access unit for significant periods could be stored encrypted with the unit &# 39 ; s unique key . in this way the plain text version of these keys only exist transiently in the control access sub - system central processor unit . considerable care should be given to the security of the unique address key . iv . in the subscription mode the keys are of short duration . however , a possible method of attack is to arrange that all the customer bits are set to enable . it seems extremely unlikely that this could be done on the received signal and would have to be tackled within the controlled access sub - system software . v . a controlled access sub - system designed to by - pass the above with a unique address and key from a legitimately purchased unit could be envisaged . such an item would be more difficult to detect since it would only be necessary to apply for a shared address once . however , if the legitimate industry does not provide an interface for such a unit then the pirate is still faced with the marketing problems identified under ( ii ) above . a receiver using the present system is shown in fig8 for receiving signals from a c - mac transmission and where the reference indicates a dish aerial suitable for receiving satellite television signals in the 12 ghz band , the aerial having a down converter 13 attached to it which frequency converts the incoming television signal to a frequency within the 1 to 2 ghz band depending of course on the frequency of the incoming signal . the down converted signal is applied over a co - axial cable 14 to a terminal 15 forming the input for the television receiver , this terminal 15 being connected to an r . f . amplifier and frequency changer stage 16 which amplifies and transforms the incoming signal to a suitable i . f . frequency of about 480 mhz which is further amplified by an i . f . amplifier 17 . the output of the amplifier 17 is applied to a frequency demodulator 18 as the vision components of the broadcast satellite television signal are frequency modulated , the demodulated output of the demodulator 18 being applied to an input of a mac signal analogue processor unit 19 which separates the analogue vision components from the mac signal . the output of the i . f . amplifier 17 is also applied to a digital demodulator stage 20 where the incoming digital signals which are 2 - 4 psk modulated are converted to normal binary form and from which synchronising information and various clock frequencies are derived together with the sound / data and control signals and applied to the analogue processor unit 19 . the vision components from the analogue processor unit 19 are applied to an analog to digital converter 21 for conversion to digital form and thence applied to a vision decoder 22 where the luminance and chrominance vision components , subjected to line cut rotation scrambling at the transmission source , are descrambled and re - assembled for application to a digital to analog converter 23 to produce simultaneous analogue y , u and v components for application to a matrix ( not shown ) prior to being prepared for display . the data and clock signals from the digital portion of the mac signal are applied from the analogue processor unit 19 over a connection 24 to a sync . control unit 25 where various data and synchronising information are processed under the control of a microprocessor 26 . such data are contained in certain areas of the multiplex such as the service information ( si ) packets and data in line 625 and are applied to the microprocessor 26 over a connection 27 . control data for the sync . control unit 25 is applied from the microprocessor 26 over a connection 28 . the sync . control unit 25 applies control data over a connection 29 to the analogue processor unit 19 to control the timing of the digital data to unit 25 and the analogue signals to converter 21 whilst a connection 30 applies control data to the vision decoder 22 to control the descrambling and assembly of the y , u and v components of the vision signal . the latter control data will include the control word cw2 for application to a descrambling sequence generator controlling the descrambling of the vision components . data and control signals , including the control word cw1 for application to a descrambling of the sound / data components , are applied over a connection 31 to a sound decoder 32 where the appropriate sound / data services are selected and descrambled , the sound / data signals having been subjected to scrambling at the transmission source by the addition of a pseudo random sequence using an exclusive or - gate . the appropriate descrambled sound / data services are applied from the sound decoder 32 to a second digital to analog converter 33 to produce ( say ) two such services s1 , s2 for reproduction . the microprocessor 26 is additionally connected over a two way connection 34 to an interface 35 conveying the data needed for communication with a controlled access sub - system 36 which is connected by input ( 37 ) and output ( 38 ) connections . the components of the sub - system 36 may be contained within the receiver or may be present on a smartcard or other such similar device as already proposed and connected to the receiver as required . the sub - system 36 contains an interface 39 between the input and output connections 37 , 38 and a bus 40 . the bus 40 interconnects a central processor unit 41 with a read only - memory ( rom ) 42 which provides the program for running the sub - system , a random access memory ( ram ) 43 which stores data , and a non - volatile memory ( nvm ) 44 which provides long time storage for long term keys such as the unique key and the supplementary keys . it is the controlled access sub - system 36 in combination with the other parts of the receiver which controls which services may be received in an intelligible manner and the control software of the sub - system 36 is organised to that end . the flow chart of fig9 a , 9b and 9c provides an illustration of such control software . in the flow chart of fig9 a , 9b and 9c the various boxes and the legends contained therein specify the control software steps as follows : at this point the user selects the channel he wishes to receive . this is an instruction to determine whether a next pay - per - view supplementary key ( spn ) value is present in the non - volatile memory 44 . at this point the user selects the service in the channel he wishes to receive . the access related message ( accm ) in packet ` 0 ` supplies the decoder with the appropriate ecm packet address . this is an instruction to wait for the primary ecm packet . this is an instruction to attempt to decrypt the primary ecm assuming that the stored spn equals the actual spn by first deciphering spn ( spc ). this is an instruction to determine whether spc from spn ( spc ) equals spc from the ciphertext block . this step is entered into when step f3 does not find an spn value in non - volatile memory 44 and is an instruction to wait for a primary emm having a packet address given by list x in packet ` 0 `, with either a unique customer address ( uca ) or shared customer address ( sca ) ( if known ). this step is also entered into on two other conditions ( below ). this is an instruction to determine whether an uca or an sca is present . this is an instruction , if an uca is present at step f9 to update the sca and the shared distribution key ( sd ) ( and tokens ). once this instruction is completed the program reverts to step f8 . this step is entered into if an sca is present at step f9 and is an instruction to decipher the emm to get the next pay - per - view supplementary key ( spn ) and to store it in the nvm 44 . this step is entered into if spc from spn ( spc ) does not equal spc from ciphertext block at step f7 and is an instruction to attempt to decrypt assuming that the stored spn is equal to the actual spc . this is an instruction to determine whether the stored spn ( used for decrypting ) equals spc from the ciphertext block . if these are not equal the program reverts to step f8 . this is an instruction to determine whether the programme category ( pcat ) permits access to this service . this is an instruction to display an explanatory message if pcat at step f14 does not permit access . this is an instruction to determine whether the user is entitled to free instant access to the service ( user may have done this within the last ( say ) 15 minutes ). this is an instruction to the decoder to be supplied with control words cw . this step is entered into if at step f16 the user is not entitled to free instant access and is an instruction to commence charging at the normal pay - per - view rate . this is an instruction to determine whether the subscription emm and ecm addresses in the primary ecm packet are both zero . this step is entered into if step f19 determines that the subscription emm and ecm addresses in the primary ecm packet are both zero and is an instruction to wait for the primary ecm packet . the status quo has now been achieved with user charged as pay - per - view . this is an instruction to monitor the primary ecm &# 39 ; s for a change in programme number ( pnum ) and on a change of pnum to go to step f14 . this step is entered into if step f19 determines that the subscription emm and ecm addreses in the primary ecm packet are not both zero and is an instruction for the decoder to search for subscription emm packets with addresses from primary emm packets . this is an instruction to the decoder to decipher the subscription emm to determine whether the user is authorised . this step is entered into if step f24 determines the user is not authorised and is an instruction to the decoder to search for primary emm packets again instead of subscription emm packets . when found goes to step f20 . this step is entered into if step f24 determines that the user is authorised and is an instruction to obtain the current subscription supplementary key ssc . this is an instruction for the decoder to search for primary emm packets again instead of subscription emm packets . this is an instruction for the decoder to search for subscription ecm packets rather than primary ecm packets . this is an instruction to the decoder to decipher the subscription ecm packet to determine whether the programme link ( pl ) in subscription ecm packets indicates an imminient change of ssc . if no such change is indicated the program cycles through steps f29 and f30 . the status quo has been achieved with the user receiving a service to which he has subscribed , but pl continued to be monitored to anticipate a change of ssc and hence the end of the programme . this step is entered into if step f30 determines that pl does indicate an imminent change of ssc meaning that the end of the programme is imminient and is an instruction to the decoder to search for primary ecm packets again rather than subscription ecm packets . this is an instruction to decrypt the primary ecm by first using the stored spn to obtain spc from spn ( spc ) and then return to step f14 . the strategy of the above software is to always engage the primary mode ( pay - per - view ) before establishing the subscription mode . this ensures that normal viewing will always be obtained with mininal delay , due to the longer term pay - per - view supplementary key ( spc ). the cover - time of this key may be 2 - 3 weeks which means that the controlled access sub - system will usually have the key stored in its memory from a previous viewing session either in its ` next ` or ` current ` form . in this way ` free viewing ` can be given during a switch on phase whilst the controlled access sub - system searches for the subscription authorisation . this free viewing period works in the following way . although other methods could be used , it is believed that the one described is adequate to deter most forms of piracy . each programme has a unique identification given to it by the channel identification ( chid ) and programme number ( pnum ) sent in the ecm data streams . thus every programme that has been accessed by the controlled access sub - system can be recorded in its memory ( this information could also be used for market research , etc .) to prevent a viewer from obtaining successive free viewing periods , by either turning his ` set ` on and off , or changing channel and returning , the controlled access sub - system compares the current identification with those stored over say the last 15 minutes and if any match the controlled access sub - system starts to charge at the pay - per - view rate . if after the search for subscription authorisation the controlled access sub - system has been enabled by the subscription shared customer emm , the sub - system then operates in subscription mode mode monitoring the subscription ecms for changes in programme using the programme link ( pl ). however , if authorisation is not received the user is offered the possibility of staying in pay - per - view mode charged either on a programme or unit time basis . the switching from one encryption channel to another is achieved by commands send by the controlled access sub - system to the decoder hardware by means of the conditional access interface . the relevant packet addresses are obtained from the si ( though the above ebu documents do not , at present , allow the signalling of emm channels linked to a particular service ), or internally derived from the primary ecm packets . in the flow chart the programme category ( pcat ) is used as a ` parental key ` further restricting programme access on a local basis , e . g . to prevent young children from watching ` adult material `. unless authorisation is denied , the access process is totally transparent to the user ; only in the pay - per - view mode is the user involved in making a decision . | 7 |
during a teeth - whitening treatment in a dental office , a whitening gel is applied to the teeth and a protective barrier is placed on the gums , the mucosa and lips to prevent burning of the tissues by the high concentration of hydrogen peroxide in the whitening gel . a leading edge of the whitening gel is placed on a tooth surface . an led - based white light is placed a few inches from a tooth surface to help activate free radical oxygen , most of which becomes lost into the air . in this invention , the mouthpiece seals or encloses a photosensitive agent , such as carbamide or hydrogen peroxide gel , to prevent the loss of the active electrons of the photosensitive agent ( carbamide or hydrogen peroxide ) into the air . the mouthpiece holds led - based white light sources and alternating heat resistors . a power source , which may be remote from the mouthpiece , is in electrical connection with the led - based white light sources and heat resistors via a wire . the power source energizes the led - based white light sources and heat resistors which generate light rays and a warming heat . the light rays strike the tooth surface on the front and the edge and the back of the edge , i . e ., in all directions , while the mouthpiece is in its intended position relative to the tooth surface . further , a “ closed system ” created by the mouthpiece or guard that seals or encloses ( against exposure to the atmosphere ) is efficient for keeping the active free radical oxygen in close proximity to the teeth to enable their movement onto the tooth surface to breakdown the color pigments inside the tooth . a much lower concentration of the carbamide or hydrogen peroxide gel may be used in comparison to what would be needed to achieve like results in an “ open system ” that did not seal or enclose the photosensitive agent ( carbamide or hydrogen peroxide ) from exposure to atmosphere . indeed , the whitening device ( mouthpiece ) of the present invention may be used for seven to ten consecutive days with little to no sensitivity to the teeth and gums . this seven to ten consecutive day use constitutes a higher frequency of use than is available in conventional professional whitening techniques and helps avoid a regression phenomenon that has been observed in the professional whitening technique . the mouthpiece 10 adjusts to a broad range of user dental arch sizes ( curvature attributed to lower or upper sets of teeth ). it also distributes light and heat in a controlled and focused fashion and provides a means of sealing an area being treated from exposure to oxygen . the heat generated from the alternating heat resistors molds the thermoplastic material of the mouthpiece , i . e ., tpr rubber or medical grade silicone , to the user &# 39 ; s anatomy and creates the closed system around the formulations , preventing oxygen escape , and thus lower wear time , and thus lower sensitivity for the user . referring to fig1 and 2 , the mouthpiece 10 includes upper and lower edges 11 , 13 ( fig2 ) and a bite surface 12 formed of segments . the bite surface 12 is perpendicular to the main body 14 . the bite surface is also central with respect to the main body 14 , with substantially equal portions of the main body 14 above and below the bite surface 12 as seen in fig2 and 4 . referring to fig2 , the mouthpiece 10 is formed of a clear , elastomeric , molded outer shape 14 that encases a flexible circuit board 22 , light emitting diodes 24 and heat generating resistors 26 . there is a deformable frame 28 that holds the circuit board 22 during fabrication and may be bent by the user to adjust the orientation of the mouthpiece 10 to set the arch for comfort in the user &# 39 ; s mouth . the bite surface 12 is preferably segmented as shown in fig1 to help facilitate the adjustability of the mouthpiece 10 to mouths of differing dimensions . additionally , adjustability of the mouthpiece 10 to the shape of the arch of the user is facilitated when the heat generating resistors 26 are activated . this is because the heat so generated softens the mouthpiece 10 and increases its malleability , thereby allowing it to be bent and flexed to conform to the particular configuration of the user &# 39 ; s arch . a series of super bright light emitting diodes ( leds ) 24 and heat generating resistors 26 are arrayed on an inner , lingual side of the flexible circuit board 22 . the power cord 20 is centrally attached to the outer surface . looking at fig2 , there are 3 rows of elements , with the top and bottom rows preferably entirely including heat generating resistors 26 and with the middle row preferably entirely consisting of leds 24 . as shown in fig4 and 5 , the leds 24 are preferably coplanar with the bite surface 12 . a parallel series of textured bands 16 , whose surface texture resembles elongated convex surfaces configured to channel led light , are formed on the lingual side of the outer shape 14 for the purposes of led light diffusion over the surface of the tooth being treated . referring to fig3 a , areas between the segmented bite surfaces 12 allow the device to open as in fig3 b or close as in fig3 c . referring to fig4 , an inner surface 30 of the mouthpiece 10 tilts inward at an angle of 5 to 15 degrees as noted by b to seal the seal bead 18 and borders the edge of the mouthpiece 10 . referring to fig5 , the inward tilt of the inner surface 30 allows the seal bead 18 to contact the gum above the tooth . this contact provides a barrier seal to both retain the whitening gel and to prevent oxygen from entering the treatment area of the tooth ( that is to be treated with the whitening gel ). the light 32 emitted by the leds 24 is guided and directed to more evenly illuminate the surface of the teeth 34 by the textured bands 16 . the texture of the textured bands 16 provides surfaces that are closer to perpendicular to the light path and less reflective than the generally polished surface of the mouthpiece . the light 32 emitted by the leds 24 is directed through the clear material of the main body 14 into both the spaces above and below the bite surface 12 as shown in fig5 . while the foregoing description and drawings represent the preferred embodiments of the present invention , it will be understood that various changes and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention . | 0 |
in attaining the objects , features and advantages of this invention , it has now been found , that difficult to deliver drugs can be delivered according to the mode and the manner of the invention . the method of the invention uses an osmotic device for delivering the drug . the osmotic device comprises a wall that surrounds and defines a compartment . the compartment houses a drug , a basic compound having a carbon dioxide generating moiety , and optionally other ingredients . there is a passageway through the wall for dispensing the drug , the compound and the other ingredients from the device . the wall of the osmotic system is formed of a material that does not adversely affect the drug , the compound , a host , or the environment of use . the wall is formed of a polymeric material that is permeable to the passage of an exterior fluid , such as water and biological fluids , and it is essentially impermeable to the passage of drugs , solutes and the like . the selectively permeable polymers useful for manufacturing the devices are represented by a member selected from the group consisting of cellulose acylate , cellulose diacylate , cellulose triacylate , cellulose acetate , cellulose diacetate , cellulose triacetate , polyamides , polyurethanes , and the like . suitable semipermeable polymers for manufacturing osmotic devices are disclosed in u . s . pat . nos . 3 , 845 , 770 ; 3 , 916 , 899 ; 4 , 008 , 719 ; 4 , 036 , 228 ; and 4 , 111 , 210 . these patents are assigned to the alza corporation of palo alto , calif ., the assignee of this patent application . in an embodiment , the wall can be a laminate comprising a semipermeable lamina in laminar arrangement with a microporous lamina . the semipermeable lamina is formed of the above described polymers . the microporous lamina has a plurality of micropores and interconnected micropaths for admitting fluid into the device . the microporous lamina can comprise the above polymers housing a pore former that is dissolved , or leached from the lamina , when the device is in operation in the environment of use . the pore formers are non - toxic and they do not react with the materials forming the wall . on their removal from the lamina , the paths formed therein fill with fluid , and these paths become a means for fluid to enter the device . typical pore formers are represented by sodium chloride , potassium chloride , sorbitol , mannitol , polyethylene glycol , hydroxypropyl methylcellulose , hydroxypropyl butylcellulose , and the like . osmotic devices having a laminated wall comprising a semipermeable lamina and a microporous lamina are disclosed in u . s . pat . no . 4 , 160 , 452 , assigned to the alza corporation . the expression passageway as used herein , includes an aperture , orifice , bore , hole and the like through the wall . the expression also includes an erodible element in the wall , such as a gelatin plug that erodes and forms a passageway in the environment of use . a detailed description of osmotic passageways , and the maximum and minimum dimensions for passageways are disclosed in u . s . pat . nos . 3 , 845 , 770 and 3 , 916 , 899 . these patents are assigned to the alza corporation . the expression drug as used herein broadly includes any compound , composition of matter , or mixture thereof , that can be delivered from the device to produce a beneficial and useful result . the term drug more specifically includes any substance that produces a local or a systemic effect in animals , avians , pisces , and reptiles . the term animals includes primates , humans , household , sport and farm animals , such as goats , cattle , horses , dogs , cats , and the like . the term animal also includes laboratory animals such as mice , rats , and guinea pigs . the drugs that can be delivered by the method of the invention include inorgainic and organic drugs , such as central nervous system acting drugs , hypnotics , sedative , psychic energizers , tranquilizers , antidepressants , anticonvulsants , muscle relaxants , antiparkinson , anesthetics , antiinflammatory , local anesthetics , antimalarials , hormones , sympathomimetics , diuretics , antiparasitics , neoplastics , hypoglycemics , ophthalmics , cardiacs , nutritionals , and the like . the term , in a more preferred embodiment , embraces drugs that are practically insoluble , or have a limited solubility in neutral and acidic environments . that is , these drugs precipitable in such environments . the expression neutral includes water and like biological environments , and the expression acid includes the stomach and the hydrochloric acid produced therein , the vagina and the lactic acid produced therein , and the like . the phrase acidic body fluid as used herein denotes gastric fluid , vaginal fluid and like acid environments in an animal body . a specific groups of drugs suitable for delivery to the above environments by the method of the invention are the acidic antiinflammatory drugs . the antiinflammatory drugs are represented by arylcarboxylic acid drugs , and enolic acid drugs . examples of arylcarboxylic acid drugs include alclofenac or 4 - allyloxy - 3 - chloro - phenylacetic acid ; aspirin or acetylsalicyclic acid ; fenoprofen or dl - 2 -( 3 - phenoxyphenyl ) propionic acid ; flufenamic acid or 2 -( 3 - trifluoromethylanilino ) benzoic acid ; ibuprofen or 2 ( 4 - isobutylphenyl ) propionic acid ; indomethacin or 5 - methoxy - 2 - methyl - 1 -( 4 &# 39 ;- chlorobenzoyl )- 3 - indole - acetic acid ; ketoprofen or 2 -( 3 - benzoylphenyl ) propionic acid ; metiazinic acid or 10 - methyl - 2 - phenothiazinylacetic acid ; naproxen or d - 2 -( 6 &# 39 ;- methoxy - 2 &# 39 ;- naphthyl ) propionic acid ; niflumic acid or 3 - trifluoromethyl - 2 - phenyl - aminonicotinic acid ; tolmetin or 1 - methyl - 5 - p - toluoylpyrrole - 2 - acetic acid ; and sulindac or cis - 5 - fluoro - 2 - methyl - 1 -[ p -( methylsulfinyl )- benzylidene ] indene - 3 - acetic acid . examples of enolic acid drugs include azapropazone or 3 - dimethylamino - 7 - methyl - 1 , 2 -( n - propylmalonyl )- 1 - 2 , dihydro - 1 , 2 , 4 - benzotriazone ; phenylbutazone or 3 , 5 - dioxo - 4 - n - butyl - 1 , 2 - diphenylpyrazolidine ; prenazone or 4 - prenyl - 1 , 2 - diphenyl - 3 , 5 - pyrazolidinedione ; sudoxicam or 4 - hydroxy - 2 - methyl - n -( 2 - thiazolyl )- 2h - 1 , 2 - benzothiazine - 3 - carboxamide - 1 , 1 - dioxide ; and the like . other antiinflammatory drugs include diclofenac or 2 -[ 2 , 6 - dichlorophenyl ) amino ] benzeneacetic acid ; and peroxicam or 2h - 1 , 2 - benzothiazine - 3 - carboxamide . examples of other drugs that are practically insoluble or very slightly soluble in water that can be delivered by the method of the invention include diphenidol , meclizine hydrochloride , prochlorperazine maleate , anisindone , diphenadione , erythrityl tetranitrate , dizoxin , resperpine , acetazolamide , methazolamide , bendroflumethiazide , chloropropamide , tolazamide , allopurinol , aluminum aspirin , salicylic acid , sodium salicylate , salicylamide , acetaminophen , acetophenetidin , colchicine , mefenamic acid , oxphenbutazone , zomepirac , methotrexate , acetyl sulfisoxazole , hydrocortisone , desoxycorticosterone acetate , cortisone acetate , triaminolone , 17 - estradiol , 17 - hydroxyprogesterone , 19 - norprogesterone , prednisolone , progesterone , norethindrone acetate , norethynodrel , and the like . the amount of drug present in a device will vary depending on the activity and the amount of drug to be administered to the host . generally , the device will house from 0 . 5 mg to 3 g or more , with individual devices containing for example 25 mg , 50 , 125 mg , 250 mg , 1 . 5 g and the like . the drug can be in the device in various forms such as dispersion , granule , powder , pressed mass , film , and the like . also , the drug can be mixed with a binder , diluent , dispersant , stabilizer , dye and the like . the beneficial drugs , their solubilities , their present doses are known to the art in pharaceutical sciences , by remington , 15th ed ., 1975 , published by the mack publishing co ., easton , pa . ; the drug , the nurse , the patient , including current drug handbook , 1974 - 1976 , by falconer , et al , published by saunder company , philadelphia , pa . ; in physician desk reference , 33rd ed ., 1979 , published by medical economics co ., oradell , n . j . ; in ann . of allergy , vol . 41 , pages 75 to 77 , 1979 ; in arzenim . forsch ., vol . 25 , pages 1629 to 1635 , 1975 ; and in j . inter . med . res ., vol . 7 , page 335 to 338 , 1979 . the gas generating compound suitable for the purpose of the invention is preferably a solid , basic compound that is pharmaceutically acceptable , and ( a ) exhibits a concentration gradient across the semipermeable wall and imbibes fluid into the device , ( b ) acts as a buffer and dissolves in fluid that enters the device forming a solution containing drug , ( c ) raises outside of the device , the ph of the immediate surrounding area of the passageway high enough to lessen the rate of precipitation of the drug , and ( d ) reacts , outside the device at the passageway environment interface , with the acid of the environment to produce carbon dioxide effervescence that directs drug away from the device in a finely , dispersed form . the basic compounds include non - toxic metal carbonate and bicarbonate salts , such as alkali metal carbonates and bicarbonates , the alkaline earth carbonates and bicarbonates , and mixtures thereof . the preferred compounds are those soluble in water and produce rapid effervescence on contact with the acid of the environment . a mixture of compounds with different degrees of solubility in water can be use with at least one compound being very soluble in water . exemplary compounds include lithium carbonate , sodium carbonate , potassium carbonate , lithium bicarbonate , sodium bicarbonate , potassium bicarbonate , magnesium carbonate , calcium carbonate , magnesium bicarbonate and the like . also useful gas generating compounds are ammonium carbonate , ammonium bicarbonate , ammonium sesquecarbonate , sodium sesquecarbonate and the like . these compounds , when dissolved in water , show a ph greater than 7 , usually between 8 and 12 . optionally , it is often desirable to select the drug and the compound free of a common ion effect , so their respective solubilities in a fluid that enters the device are at their maximum . the amount of basic compound , or mixture thereof housed in the compartment generally is about 0 . 5 mg to 3 g , or more , and more preferrably 25 mg to 750 mg . the compounds and their solubilities in water are disclosed in the handbook of chemistry and physics , 48th ed ., 1968 , published by the chemical rubber co ., cleveland , ohio . the drug and the basic compound also can be used mixed with a binder and a lubricant . the drug and the compound are mixed in a water soluble binder , or in a water insoluble binder that releases the drug and compound on contact with water . typical water soluble binders include poly ( ethylene glycol ), gelatin , agar , carboxycellulose , ethylmethyl - cellulose , poly ( vinyl alcohol ), poly ( vinylpyrrolidone ), water soluble starch derivatives , and the like . typical lubricants include stearic acid , magnesium stearate , zinc stearate and the like . the amount of binder or lubricant used generally is about 0 . 1 mg to 150 mg , or more . the osmotic devices of the invention are manufactured by standard techniques . for example , in one embodiment , the drug is mixed with the basic compound and other ingredients by ballmilling , calendering , stirring and pressing into a preselected shape . the material forming the wall of the device can be applied by dipping , molding or spraying the pressed mixture . one procedure for applying the wall is the air suspension technique . the air suspension technique can be used for manufacturing a wall formed of a single layer , or formed of a multiplicity of layers . the air suspension procedure is described in u . s . pat . no . 2 , 799 , 241 ; in j . am . pharm . assoc ., vol . 48 , pages 451 to 459 , 1959 ; and in ibid , vol . 49 , pages 82 to 84 , 1960 . an osmotic passageway or aperture through the wall is made by mechanical drilling , laser drilling , punching or cutting with die . a procedure for forming the passageway using a laser is described in u . s . pat . nos . 3 , 916 , 899 and 4 , 088 , 864 , both assigned to the alza corporation . other standard manufacturing procedures are described in modern plastic encyclopedia , vol . 46 , pages 62 to 70 , 1969 ; in remington &# 39 ; s pharmaceutical sciences , 14th ed ., pages 1649 to 1698 , 1970 , published by mack publishing co ., easton , pa ., and in the therapy and practice of industrial pharmacy , by lachman , et al , pages 197 to 225 , 1970 , published by lea & amp ; febiger co ., philadelphia , pa . the following examples are merely illustrative of the present invention and they should not be considered a limiting the scope of the invention in any way , as these examples and other equivalents thereof will become more apparent to those versed in the art in the light of the present disclosure , and the accompanying claims . an oral osmotic device for the delivery of a nonsteroid antiinflammatory drug sodium indomethacin was manufactured as follows : a drug composition was prepared for housing in the compartment of the device by thoroughly blending 105 . 2 mg of sodium indomethacin trihydrate , 142 mg of potassium bicarbonate , 5 . 0 mg of polyvinyl pyrrolidone , and 7 . 1 mg of stearic acid , and then compressing the homogenous blend into a pre - compartment forming drug formulation . next , the compressed drug formulation was placed in an air suspension machine and coated with a microporous lamina forming composition . the microporous lamina composition comprised 45 % by weight of cellulose acetate having an acetyl content of 39 . 8 %, 27 . 5 % by weight of hydroxypropyl methylcellulose , and 27 . 5 % by weight of polyethylene glycol 4000 . the lamina was formed from a methylene chloride -- 95 % ethanol solvent ( 80 : 20 wt : wt ). the microporous lamina was 5 mil thick . next , an exterior semipermeable lamina was laminated onto the microporous lamina , in the air suspension machine . the semipermeable lamina forming composition comprised 50 % by weight of cellulose acetate having an acetyl content of 39 . 8 % and 50 % by weight of cellulose acetate having an acetyl content of 32 %. the semipermeable lamina was applied from a solvent mixture comprising methylene chloride and 95 % ethanol , 80 : 20 wt : wt . the systems were dried , and a 10 mil passageway was laser drilled through the laminated wall . the system releases indomethacin at the rate of 8 mg per hour . the device in operation , releases a solution that effervesces on contact with the acidic gastric fluid at the exit end of the passageway , producing carbon dioxide bubbles that disperse the drug in a fluffy state due to the entrapped gas bubbles . an oral osmotic device for the controlled and continuous delivery of indomethacin was made by following the general procedure described above . in the present device , the compartment housed a drug formulation comprising 56 . 4 % potassium carbonate , 37 . 6 % sodium indomethacin trihydrate , 3 % providone ® and 3 % stearic acid . the formulation after compressing had a diameter of 7 . 93 mm , an area of 1 . 6 cm 2 and a density of 1 . 65 g / ml . the device had a laminated wall comprising an interior microporus lamina consisting essentially of 45 % by weight of cellulose acetate having an acetyl content of 39 . 8 %, 45 % by weight of sorbitol , and 10 % by weight of polyethylene glycol 400 . the lamina was applied from a solvent comprising methylene chloride - methanol - water , 62 : 35 : 3 by wt . a semipermeable lamina was laminated onto the microporous lamina , which semipermeable lamina consists of 50 % by weight of cellulose acetate having an acetyl content of 39 . 8 %, and 50 % by weight of cellulose acetate having an acetyl content of 32 %. the lamina was applied from a solvent consisting of methylene chloride and methanol , 80 : 20 by wt . the microporous forming lamina was 5 ml thick , and the semipermeable lamina 2 . 4 mil thick . the device had a 9 mil passageway and delivered indomethacin at the rate of 8 mg / hr . the device delivers the drug substantially free of rapid precipitation at the passageway environment interface , and on the wall of the device in the vicinity of the passageway . the procedure of example 2 was repeated with the conditions as described except that the microporous forming lamina was 1 mil thick , the semipermeable lamina 2 . 7 mil thick , and the rate of release was 8 mg / hr . the osmotic device of examples 1 and 2 was manufactured in this example , wherein , ( a ) the microporous lamina was 5 mil thick , the semipermeable lamina was 3 . 4 mil thick , and the device had a release rate of 6 mg / hr , and ( b ) a device wherein the microporous lamina was 5 mil thick , the semipermeable lamina was 1 . 7 mil thick , and the system had a release rate of 12 mg / hr . a series of oral osmotic devices for releasing an arylcarboxylic acid antiinflammatory drug in the gastrointestional tract are prepared according to the invention , wherein the device houses from 40 to 250 mg of sodium indomethacin and more preferably from 85 to 125 mg of sodium indomethacin trihydrate the equivalent of 70 to 100 mg of indomethacin , from 50 to 300 mg of potassium bicarbonate and more preferably from 130 to 190 mg of potassium bicarbonate , 2 to 20 mg of binder , and more preferably 5 to 10 mg of binder , and 2 to 20 mg of lubricant , and more preferably 5 to 10 mgs . the device has an inner microporous forming lamina weighing 18 to 25 mg with a thickness of 0 . 10 to 0 . 16 mm , and an exterior semipermeable lamina weighing 6 to 20 mg with a thickness of 0 . 035 to 0 . 100 mm . the device has a passageway of 0 . 18 mm to 0 . 38 mm , and releases drug at the rate of 5 to 15 mg / hr . the unexpected benefits produced by the invention are seen in fig1 and fig2 . fig1 shows the release of indomethacin from an osmotic device manufactured without a basic gas generating compound . the device releases the drug in the presence of an artifical gastric fluid containing hydrochloric acid , however , the drug precipitates onto the wall of the device and the exit port of the passageway , and it is therefore not observed in the fluid of the environment , which is analyzed on an hourly basis , as displayed in fig1 . fig2 shows the release of indomethacin from an osmotic device manufactured with a basic gas generating compound . this device in operation releases drug in both an artificial intestional fluid according to the spirit of the invention . the method of this invention provides an unique means for delivering numerous drugs that evidence properties that do not easily lend themselves to delivery in an environment having a ph of neutral or lower . while there has been described and pointed out novel features for delivering hard to deliver drugs at controlled and continuous rates , it is to be understood , those versed in the art will appreciate that various modifications , changes and omissions in the method can be made without departing from the spirit of the invention . | 0 |
fig1 shows a starter device that is identified by the reference symbol 100 . the starter device 100 comprises a handle 2 that enables the user to introduce a pulling force into a starter pulling means 3 . the starter pulling means 3 are realized in the form of a rope and wound up on a pulling means spool 4 in the form of a rope spool . if the user pulls on the starter pulling means 3 , the pulling means spool 4 is set in rotation due to the unwinding of the starter pulling means 3 from the pulling means spool 4 such that a starter torque is introduced . the rotation of the pulling means spool 4 is transmitted to a coupling member 15 , wherein the transmission is realized by means of a double crank mechanism 5 . the double crank mechanism 5 comprises a coupling rod 6 that is arranged between a hinge pin 7 situated on the plane side of the pulling means spool 4 and a lever arm 9 . the rotational movement of the pulling means spool 4 causes the hinge pin 7 to rotate about a spool axis 8 , wherein the lever arm 9 is supported such that it is rotatable about an output axis 11 that is offset relative to the spool axis 8 . the rotational movement of the pulling means spool 4 is transmitted into the lever arm 9 by means of the coupling rod 6 such that the lever arm carries out a non - uniform movement relative to the rotational movement of the pulling means spool 4 . if the pulling means spool 4 carries out a uniform rotational movement , the lever arm 9 rotates slowly over one segment of a circle and rapidly over another segment of a circle during one full revolution of the pulling means spool 4 . this makes it possible to realize a conversion of the torque that is adapted to the torque demand for starting the internal combustion engine . the pulling means spool 4 is rotatably supported on a receptacle plate 12 while the lever arm 9 comprises a bearing section 14 that extends through a receptacle bridge 10 in order to be supported . the receptacle bridge 10 is mounted on the receptacle plate 12 by means of spacer elements 13 , wherein the receptacle bridge 10 extends similar to a beam and features a screw connection with one respective spacer element 13 on its ends . a coupling member 15 is arranged on the end of the lever arm 9 that extends through the receptacle bridge 10 such that the rotational movement of the lever arm 9 about the output axis 11 is transmitted into the coupling member 15 . all in all , the starter device 100 thusly makes it possible to generate a periodically changing rotational movement in the coupling member 15 when the starter pulling means 3 are subjected to a uniform pulling motion . fig2 shows another embodiment of the inventive double crank mechanism 5 in the starter device 100 . an end of the coupling member 15 is moulded onto a disk element 16 , wherein the disk element 16 is rotatably accommodated on a bearing journal 17 and the bearing journal 17 is arranged in the receptacle plate 12 . a pulling means spool section 19 , on which the pulling means spool 4 is rotatably supported , extends between the bearing journal 17 and the receptacle plate 12 . the bearing journal 17 extends along a coupling member axis 18 that is offset relative to the spool axis 8 . consequently , the bearing journal 17 is arranged eccentrically on the pulling means spool section 19 in order to realize the offset of the crank elements required for the double crank mechanism 5 . the first crank element of the double crank mechanism 5 is formed by the pulling means spool 4 with a hinge pin 7 arranged on its plane side and rotates about the spool axis 8 , wherein the second crank element is formed by the disk element 16 and the coupling rod 6 extends between the hinge pin 7 and another hinge pin 20 arranged on the disk element 16 . this simplifies the arrangement because the lever arm 9 ( see fig1 ) and the coupling member 15 are realized in the form of a one - piece disk element 16 . fig3 shows an advantageous additional development of the double crank mechanism 5 of the starter device 100 . this double crank mechanism comprises a coupling rod 6 that is realized in the form of an elastically bendable coupling element 21 . the elastically bendable coupling element 21 is rotatably inserted between the hinge pin 7 and the lever arm 9 and able to change its effective length due to the bending elasticity . if a torque is applied to the double crank mechanism 5 by means of the pulling means spool 4 and the hinge pin 7 , the elastically bendable coupling element 21 bends such that its defective length is shortened and the torque transmitted to the lever arm 9 increases . if the load on the elastically bendable coupling element 21 is alleviated , its effective length once again increases such that the rotational speed of the lever arm 9 increases once again as the torque decreases . fig4 shows a perspective representation of the elastically bendable coupling element 21 that takes over the function of the coupling rod 6 . the elastically bendable coupling element 21 has a horseshoe - shaped structure and comprises two hinge pin bores 23 , through which the hinge pins ( hinge pins 7 , 20 ; see fig2 ) extend and respectively form a sliding bearing . the elastically bendable region 22 is realized between the ends of the horseshoe - shaped coupling element 21 such that the distance between the hinge pin bores 23 can be increased and decreased . a limit stop geometry 24 is provided for limiting the bending within the elastically bendable region 22 . if the bending load becomes excessively high , the surfaces of the limit stop geometries 24 respectively contact one another such that the additional bending of the elastically bendable region 22 is limited . fig5 shows a perspective representation of the crankshaft flange 25 . this flange features a plane side 27 that forms the side that points away from the internal combustion engine and toward the starter device 100 . blade elements are integrally moulded onto the circumference of the crankshaft flange 25 in order to ventilate the complete system consisting of the internal combustion engine and the starter device 100 . ratchet elements 26 with a different height referred to the plane side 27 are arranged on the plane side 27 of the crankshaft flange 25 . the ratchet elements 26 are rotatably supported on cylinder members 38 , wherein the cylinder members respectively have a different length . the cylinder members 38 are arranged on the plane side opposite of one another referred to the rotational axis of the crankshaft flange 25 , wherein the first cylinder member 38 is shorter than the second cylinder member 38 . the coupling member 15 features engagement windows 28 , into which the ratchet elements 26 can engage . in order to assign one respective ratchet element 26 to a defined engagement window 28 , the engagement windows 28 also have a different axial position in the direction of the rotational axis of the crankshaft flange 25 . this ensures that the starter device 100 with the assigned torque characteristic corresponds to the correct compression or expansion phase of the internal combustion engine . fig6 and 7 show another embodiment of the starter device 100 . a centrifugal clutch with a centrifugal element 29 is arranged between the pulling means spool 4 and the crankshaft flange 25 in such a way that the centrifugal element 29 acts as a coupling rod 6 and forms a double crank mechanism 5 together with the crankshaft flange 25 and the pulling means spool 4 . one can ascertain that a joint socket geometry 31 is integrally moulded onto the pulling means spool 4 such that the centrifugal element 29 is driven by the joint socket geometry 31 . if the crankshaft flange 25 rotates faster than the starter device 100 when the internal combustion engine starts , the centrifugal element 29 separates from the joint socket geometry 31 and turns radially outward due to the centrifugal force . the internal combustion engine or the crankshaft flange 25 therefore can rotate freely without the starter device 100 participating in this rotational movement . therefore , the function of the double crank mechanism 5 is combined with the function of an overrunning clutch . a crankshaft 1 that is illustrated centrally in the crankshaft flange 25 points in the direction of the ( not - shown ) internal combustion engine in the form of a shaft end . fig8 shows another perspective representation of the starter device 100 that extends between the receptacle plate 12 and the crankshaft flange 25 . a friction ring 33 and a roll element 34 arranged between the engaging element 30 and the crankshaft flange 25 cooperate in such a way that a torque transmission takes place when the starter device 100 is actuated and this torque transmission is not interrupted until the internal combustion starts . the engaging element 30 comprises roll tracks 35 that are realized in the direction of the crankshaft flange 25 , wherein 3 roll tracks are arranged on the circumference in a star - shaped configuration and angularly spaced apart by 120 °. the roll tracks 35 serve for the rolling motion of a roll element 34 , with the roll tracks 35 extending with a radial curvature . the engaging element 30 and the pulling means spool 4 furthermore comprise a quick - acting screw thread 32 that connects both components such that they can be screwed relative to one another . the axial position of the engaging element 30 relative to the pulling means spool 4 is related to a defined rotatory position due to the quick - acting screw thread 32 such that the roll element 34 rolls on the roll track 35 in dependence on the rotatory position of the engaging element 30 . this results in a different torque characteristic between the pulling means spool 4 and the crankshaft flange 25 in order to create a functional connection according to the present invention , in which the crankshaft torque introduced into the crankshaft 1 is variable in dependence on the rotational angle of the crankshaft at a constant torque in the pulling means spool 4 . the design of the invention is not limited to the above - described embodiments . on the contrary , it would be conceivable to realize a multitude of variations that also utilize the described solution in fundamentally different types of designs . fig9 to 22 show another embodiment of the starter device 100 . a centrifugal clutch with a centrifugal element 39 is arranged between the pulling means spool 4 and the crankshaft flange 25 in such a way that the centrifugal element 39 acts as a roll track and forms a cam roller gear together with the crankshaft flange 24 and the pulling means spool 4 . in this case , the roll track lever 39 is supported on the hinge pin 7 in a rotatable and pivoted fashion and held in the idle position shown in one of fig1 ( top view ) and 12 ( perspective representation ), in which the first contact section 41 of the roll track lever 39 is still supported on the limit stop 42 of the coupling flange 25 , by means of the pull - back spring 40 . after the internal combustion engine starts , the disengaging weight 43 of the roll track lever 39 displaces the roll track lever 39 into the operating position “ engine running ” shown in fig1 ( top view ) and 14 ( perspective representation ) and the second contact section 44 of the roll track lever 39 contacts the limit stop bolt 45 on the crankshaft flange 25 . during the starting process , the roll track section 44 of the roll track lever 39 contacts one of the two stopping bolts 47 arranged on the pulling means spool 4 such that the roll 48 arranged on each stopping bolt 47 rolls on the roll track section 44 and thusly transmits the starter torque . the roll track lever 39 has a contour referred to the roll track section 46 that corresponds to the optimal change in the transmission ratio of the double crank mechanism 5 in dependence on the rotational angle of the crankshaft . the roll track lever 39 also has a width that corresponds to the respective moments and forces to be transmitted . the contour of the roll track lever 39 preferably is continuously tapered referred to its width from the hinge pin 7 up to the second contact section 44 . in order to ensure an early engagement or an early contact between the stopping bolt 47 and the roll track lever 39 with respect to the rope path , two stopping bolts 47 are provided , wherein the limit stop bolt 45 respectively makes contact in the roll track section 46 of the roll track lever 39 and the other stopping bolt 47 pivots the roll track lever 39 inward once again when the engine is running and the crankshaft flange 25 “ passes ” the pulling means spool 4 . fig1 and 12 show the operating situation in the “ idle position ,” and fig1 and 14 show the operating situation “ engine running .” during the course of one respective revolution of the pulling means spool 4 on one hand and the crankshaft flange 25 on the other hand , the coupling gear 5 causes a relative movement that results in different distances a between the contact point b of the limit stop bolt 45 on the roll track section 46 of the roll track lever 39 and the spool axis 8 such that a transmission ratio is achieved that varies over 360 ° with respect to the torque to be transmitted and the resulting speed . the individual prominent operating points during one revolution are illustrated in fig1 to 22 , fig1 indicates in an exemplary fashion that the transmission ratio i results from the ratio between i output and i input and according to the formula fig2 and 24 show another embodiment of the starter device 100 that largely corresponds to the embodiment shown in fig6 and 7 . identical components are also identified by the same reference symbols . the difference between these embodiments can be seen in that the joint socket is not moulded onto the pulling means spool 4 , but rather onto the centrifugal element ( coupling rod ) 6 . consequently , the joint ball and the joint socket are merely interchanged . this provides the option of using one ( or more ) bolt ( s ) inserted into the pulling means spool as the joint ball . fig2 shows a diagram with the transmission ratios u and the torque demand in dependence on the crankshaft angle k . the round drawings of the gear illustrated in this figure do not correspond to the drawings according to fig9 - 22 , but merely serve as schematic representations . in this case , a step - down transmission ratio ( il ) is illustrated above the line l ( torque equal to zero ) and a step - up transmission ratio ( is ) is illustrated below said line . the torque demand characteristic ( dbv ) was qualitatively calculated from the gas forces . although several embodiments have been described in detail for purposes of illustration , various modifications may be made to each without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention . accordingly , the invention is not to be limited , except as by the appended claims . | 8 |
it has been reported that profound adaptive responses involving alterations in metabolic properties occur in the skeletal muscles of horses undergoing various forms of physical training . dramatic increases in the concentration of mitochondria and concomitant increases in the concentration of oxidative enzymes involved in atp production have been frequently documented . in contrast , the anaerobic potential of equine skeletal muscle is intrinsically high and is not greatly influenced by altered patterns of physical activity or nutrition . accordingly , horses already involved in training programs , provide a particularly appropriate model for evaluating a composition designed to increase intracellular synthesis of atp . to establish the efficacy of the present invention , seven standard - bred horses already involved in training programs were selected . each of the horses had hematological and blood chemistry studies performed prior to or at the outset of atp baseline determinations . blood samples were collected from each subject two to three times a week for a period of twenty - five days while the horses continued to receive their normal training ration of feed . blood samples were drawn into acd blood tubes ( 8 . 5 ml blood , 1 . 5 ml anti - coagulent ); samples were held on ice until refrigerated at 4 ° c . whole blood was analyzed for levels of atp within twenty - four hours after bleeding using the sigma test kit procedure , sigma diagnostics , p . o . box 14508 , st . louis , mo . 63178 . in plasma , atp is present in trace amounts at best . for this reason , atp assay procedures require that blood cells be ruptured . hence , the atp level found in such an assay is directly related to the intracellular level of atp . the procedure for atp determination is based on the action of the enzyme phosphoglycerate phosphatase to form 1 , 3 diphosphoglycerate from atp and 3 - phosphoglycerate . the enzyme glyceraldehyde phosphate dehydrogenase catalyzes the reation to form glyceraldehyde - 3 - p and nad + p , thus causing a reduction in the absorbance at 340 nm wavelength . the reaction , then , is limited by the amount of atp present , and the reduction in absorbance is proportional to the atp present . after the initial twenty - five day period , four of the subjects received eight ounces daily ( 4 oz . in a . m . feed , 4 oz . in p . m . feed ) of a mixture containing the composition of the present invention and a group of nutritional elements . the remaining three subjects received four ounces daily ( 2 oz . in a . m . feed ,- 2 oz . in p . m . feed ) of the same mixture . the nutritional elements were combined with the present invention primarily to make it more palatable to the horses and to provide additional vitamins and minerals . the most preferred composition of the present invention is set out in table i along with the acceptable weight ranges of the individual components . table ii sets out the nutritional elements combined with the present invention in their preferred weight ratios . table i______________________________________component preferred acceptable______________________________________l - glycine 0 . 6 kg 0 . 5 kg - 0 . 7 kgl - arginine 2 . 4 kg 2 . 2 kg - 2 . 6 kgd / l methionine 12 . 0 kg 10 . 8 kg - 13 . 2 kgcholine chloride 10 . 1 kg 9 . 1 kg - 11 . 1 kginositol 8 . 9 kg 8 . 0 kg - 9 . 8 kgl - aspartic acid 8 . 9 kg 8 . 0 kg - 9 . 8 kgl - tryptophan 2 . 6 kg 2 . 3 kg - 2 . 9 kgl - phenylalanine 2 . 1 kg 1 . 9 kg - 2 . 3 kgl - histidine 2 . 0 kg 1 . 8 kg - 2 . 2 kgl - proline 1 . 5 kg 1 . 4 kg - 1 . 7 kgd - ribose 8 . 9 kg 8 . 0 kg - 9 . 8 kgmagnesium phosphate 7 . 7 kg 6 . 9 kg - 8 . 5 kgtotal 67 . 7 kg 60 . 9 kg - 74 . 6 kg______________________________________ table ii______________________________________component______________________________________lactalbumin 300 . 00 kgyeast culture ( saccharomyces cerevisiae ) 340 . 90 kgdried beet molasses 181 . 80 kgdicalcium phosphate 90 . 90 kgsodium bicarbonate 22 . 70 kgmulti - vitamin mixture ( vitamin a , vitamin d3 , 45 . 45 kgvitamin e , vitamin b12 , riboflavin , niacin , pantothenic acid , menadione , folic acid , thiamine , pyridoxine , ascorbic acid and biotin ) lignan sulphate 13 . 07 kgflavoring agents 1 . 36 kgtotal 996 . 18 kg______________________________________ background information for each horse was collected regarding training performance , stamina , race times and results , and general history . a daily journal was maintained by the trainer for each horse during the study period . dietary supplementation with the present invention had a marked effect on the level of atp in the subjects &# 39 ; blood . as noted above , the blood level of atp is directly related to the level of atp inside the cell . fig1 illustrates atp blood levels for all seven subjects before and after dietary supplementation . as a group , after supplementation , subjects had a mean increase ( percentage increase ) of atp blood levels of 23 . 54 %. fig2 - 8 illustrate that each individual subject showed marked increase in atp blood levels ranging from a high of 38 . 4 % ( fig2 ) to a low of 11 . 8 % ( fig8 ). fig9 - 12 illustrate the correlation between increased blood levels of atp and improved performance levels for four of the seven subjects . fig9 - 12 correspond to subjects 1 , 3 , 4 and 7 respectively . since these four subjects continue to race competitively and train accordingly , they generated sufficient data to form the basis for an atp blood level / performance level correlation . the solid line on each of the figures illustrates , in alternate form , the data expressed in the bar graphs of fig1 ∝ 8 . that is , dietary supplementation with the present invention produces a marked increase in atp blood levels over the levels found in the period immediately preceding the start of supplementation . the broken line on each of fig9 - 12 illustrates the mean atp blood level for the period immediately preceding supplementation and the period of supplementation . the solid double line in each of the fig9 - 12 illustrates the correlation between increased blood levels of atp and increased performance levels . as noted above , background information for each subject was collected regarding training performance , stamina , race times and results , and general history . the background information was compiled over a period of approximately one year , the period coinciding with the racing season completed prior to the initiation of dietary supplementation with the present invention . the background information consists of quantitative data such as race times , split times and race results . in addition , the background information includes subjective evaluations of the horses by their trainers . the background information collected on each subject was used to establish an average expected behavior or zero rating for each horse . the zero rating was established by evaluating each subject on the basis of four criteria : speed , stamina , aggressiveness and vitality . each subject was given a rating for each of the four criteria based on a scale of - 5 to + 5 . once the zero rating for each subject was established , the horses were again evaluated according to the four criteria during the twenty - five day period preceding dietary supplementation and for the period of dietary supplementation . the second and third sets of evaluations resulted in a performance rating relative to the previously determined zero rating for each of the periods just mentioned . as fig9 - 12 clearly illustrate , each of the subjects had a performance level very near to or below their zero rating for the twenty - five day period preceding the initiation of supplementation . however , fig9 - 12 also clearly indicate that as atp blood levels increased during the period of dietary supplementation , performance levels increased to the point where , by the end of the supplementation period , each of the subjects had a performance rating well above the subject &# 39 ; s zero rating . in fact , two of the subjects , number 4 , a four - year - old , and number 7 , a seven - year - old , established new life - time race marks . it is important to note that at no time during the study were trainers informed of any blood test results . to demonstrate that the composition of the present invention increases the rate of wound repair , another series of experiments were conducted wherein the composition was applied to excised wounds on the dorsum of laboratory rats . this was performed as follows : male sprague - dawley rats ( 250 - 300 g , charles river breeding laboratories , willmington , me .) were anesthetized with an intraperitoneal injection of ketamine / rompun ( 90 mg / ketamine and 10 mg / rompun ). each rat was given a single full - thickness excized wound 2 . 5 cm in diameter over the dorsal midline . while the rats were anesthetized , photographs were taken to represent zero time ( initial size [ area ]) compared to a second photograph taken ten days later . for forty - eight hours post - surgery , all animals were maintained on analgesic levels of acepromazine ( 0 . 015 %) in their water supply , which eliminated signs of discomfort from the wounds . after the experimental period , the rat were euthanized and skin sections prepared for sub - stage illumination and photographic measurement of final wound area . at this time , the wounded areas were dissected free from surrounding tissue , weighed and frozen in dry ice / acetone for future atp determination . the process required 45 seconds from the removal of the skin section to freezing in a weighing boat for atp analysis . the procedures used for atp determination were the same as those outlined above using the sigma diagnostic test kit . the experimental design consisted of eight ( 8 ) groups containing six ( 6 ) rats each with treatment summarized as follows : group 1 -- composition of the present invention ( 1 % composition in sterile isotonic saline ). the most preferred composition is set out in table iii along with the acceptable weight ranges of the individual components . group 2 -- atp solution ( 33 mg per ml in sterile isotonic saline ). group 3 -- a solution containing both the composition and atp combined to give the same concentrations above . group 4 -- the composition in a gel ( 10 % avalon gel containing 1 % of the compostion ). group 5 -- atp in a gel ( 10 % avalon gel containing 33 mg per ml added in sterile saline ). group 6 -- the composition and atp combined in 10 % avalon gel to provide the same concentrations as above . table iii______________________________________composition of atp - e preferred acceptablecomponent grams grams______________________________________l - glycine 8 . 9 8 . 0 - 9 . 8l - arginine 35 . 4 31 . 9 - 38 . 9d / l methionine 177 . 2 159 . 5 - 194 . 9choline chloride 149 . 2 134 . 3 - 164 . 1inositol 131 . 5 118 . 3 - 144 . 7l - aspartic acid 131 . 5 118 . 3 - 144 . 7l - tryptophan 38 . 4 34 . 6 - 42 . 2l - phenylalanine 31 . 0 27 . 9 - 34 . 1l - histidine 29 . 5 26 . 5 - 32 . 4l - proline 22 . 2 20 . 0 - 24 . 4d - ribose 131 . 5 118 . 4 - 144 . 7magnesium phosphate 113 . 7 102 . 3 - 125 . 1 1000 . 0 900 . 0 - 1100 . 0______________________________________ treatments with the above solutions and gels were administered once daily in the first trial reported here . in the second trial , solutions and gels were applied three times daily for the first three days , then once daily for seven days . each application consisted of either 0 . 5 ml of solution or 0 . 5 g of gel . at the end of the ten day period in both trials , the rats were euthanized and wound tissues taken for study . the procedure for wound size measurements was as follows : wound size measurements were made from standardized photographs , and area was determined with a planimeter . the sections were photgraphed with standardized magnification , and planimetric measurement was made of the wound outline . a metric scale in the plane of the wound assured reproducable determinations . wound weights were determined by making an excision of the entire wound down to the panus . fig1 shows the correlation between wound area surface and wound weight , thus providing a basis for determinations on either weight or area . after each wound was removed it was immediately frozen at - 80 ° c . for wound weight and atp determinations . the concentration of atp was determined in wound tissue by mincing the entire section containing granulation tissue . the atp levels were expressed as atp milligram / 10 g of tissue . the data set out in table iv below demonstrates that a single daily application of the composition as a solution produced a rate of closure which was 17 . 8 % faster than wounds treated with sterile isotonic saline ( control ). when the composition was applied as a gel , the rate was 1 . 2 % faster . the composition applied three times a day as a solution produced a marked improvement over treatments applied once each day . the data shown in table v demonstrates these improvements , wherein composition treated wounds had a mean reduction of 37 . 1 %, atp 31 . 2 % and the mixture composition / atp 37 . 3 %. the values for percent reduction are based on a decrease in wound weight compared to the mean wound weight of 1 . 153 for the isotonic saline treated control wounds . table iv______________________________________percent increase in contraction rate overcontrol when applied once each day for 10 days % increase differ - overgroup initial final ence control * ______________________________________i composition soln . 59 . 3 (+ 12 . 3 ) 77 . 3 17 . 8 136 . 6 (+ 7 . 30 ) ii atp soln . 61 . 1 (+ 94 ) 69 . 4 5 . 8 130 . 5 (+ 12 . 8 ) iii composition gel 61 . 5 (+ 13 . 2 ) 66 . 4 1 . 2 127 . 9 (+ 6 . 7 ) iv atp gel 71 . 9 (+ 7 . 4 ) 61 . 6 ( 6 ) 133 . 5 (+ 5 . 8 ) v saline gel control 64 . 3 (+ 11 . 5 ) 71 . 3 -- 135 . 6 (+ 5 . 5 ) vi isotonic saline conrol 72 . 3 (+ 14 . 4 ) 65 . 6 -- ______________________________________ * value for difference ( initial minus final ) for treated minus that difference for control divided by control times 100 equals percent increase in contraction rate .? table v______________________________________percent reduction in wound weightwound weight percent reduction * ______________________________________group i composition1 -- -- 2 0 . 832 27 . 93 -- -- 37 . 1 ± 7 . 34 0 . 627 45 . 65 0 . 706 38 . 76 0 . 736 36 . 2group ii atp1 0 . 765 33 . 72 0 . 855 25 . 93 1 . 053 8 . 7 31 . 2 ± 13 . 94 0 . 614 46 . 85 0 . 838 27 . 46 0 . 642 44 . 4group iii mixture composition / atp1 0 . 887 23 . 12 0 . 708 38 . 63 0 . 700 39 . 3 37 . 3 ± 8 . 24 0 . 734 36 . 45 0 . 589 48 . 96 0 . 721 37 . 5group viii isosaline control , valued used for above calculationscalculations was 1 . 153 ± 0 . 1311 1 . 2702 1 . 1313 0 . 9764 1 . 2345 1 . 0266 1 . 284______________________________________ * the control value minus treated value and that difference divided by the control times 100 yields percent reduction . fig1 shows the relationship between wound surface area and wound weight . the linear relationship between weight and area suggests that weight measurements may be a useful means for determining wound contraction . the bar graph shown in fig . 14 depicts the increased rate of contraction for composition / atp mixture gels compared to control gels . although the gel treated wounds contracted faster than controls , they did not contract as fast as the solution treated wounds . however , in each group wounds treated with the composition or the composition / atp mixture had greater rates of contraction than their counterparts . both solution and gel treatments , in addition to producing a marked reduction in wound weight , also reduced the amount of atp found in the wound . this is evident in tables vi and vii and in fig1 and 16 . while it is apparent both in gel and solution treated wounds that atp levels are reduced by the composition , the reduced level of atp at the wound site is not unexpected , since protein metabolism for wound repair and the wound contraction produced by the myofibroblasts both require significant amounts of energy in the form of atp . that is , additional intracellular atp synthesized by the cells in response to the present invention is quickly utilized for contraction , glueoneogenisis and protein synthesis . table vi______________________________________solutions applied to excised woundswound initial finalwt . od od atp atp / g mean______________________________________group1 0 -- -- -- -- 2 0 . 832 0 . 645 0 . 616 7 . 4 8 . 89 atp3 1 . 668 0 . 654 0 . 638 6 . 2 3 . 72 8 . 78 ± 2 . 574 0 . 627 0 . 654 0 . 631 8 . 0 12 . 8 tissue wt . 5 0 . 706 0 . 671 0 . 638 12 . 9 18 . 3 0 . 725 ± . 086 0 . 736 0 . 639 0 . 615 9 . 4 12 . 8groupii1 0 . 765 0 . 454 0 . 420 13 . 3 17 . 42 0 . 855 0 . 454 0 . 451 1 . 2 1 . 40 atp3 1 . 053 0 . 454 0 . 468 -- 8 . 9 ± 5 . 374 0 . 614 0 . 418 0 . 427 -- tissue wt . 5 0 . 838 0 . 418 0 . 450 11 . 7 14 . 0 0 . 794 ± . 1606 0 . 642 0 . 469 0 . 450 7 . 4 14 . 6groupiii1 0 . 887 0 . 631 0 . 591 15 . 6 17 . 62 0 . 708 0 . 445 0 . 485 -- atp3 0 . 700 0 . 423 0 . 436 -- 6 . 9 ± 6 . 184 0 . 734 0 . 423 0 . 417 2 . 3 3 . 1 tissue wt . 5 0 . 589 0 . 423 0 . 405 7 . 0 11 . 9 0 . 723 ± . 0956 0 . 721 0 . 609 0 . 602 2 . 7 3 . 7groupviii1 1 . 270 0 . 515 0 . 500 5 . 9 4 . 72 1 . 131 0 . 474 0 . 468 2 . 3 2 . 0 atp3 0 . 976 0 . 495 0 . 478 6 . 6 6 . 8 7 . 64 ± 4 . 754 1 . 234 0 . 477 0 . 478 -- tissue wt . 5 1 . 026 0 . 477 0 . 456 8 . 2 8 . 0 1 . 153 ± 0 . 1316 1 . 284 0 . 670 0 . 631 15 . 2 11 . 8______________________________________ table vii______________________________________gels applied to excised rat wounds ( three applications per day ) wound initial finalwt . od od atp atp / g mean______________________________________groupiv composition gel1 1 . 218 0 . 553 0 . 549 1 . 6 1 . 32 0 . 805 0 . 579 0 . 565 5 . 5 6 . 8 atp3 0 . 882 0 . 565 0 . 548 6 . 6 7 . 5 5 . 2 ± 2 . 54 1 . 139 0 . 565 0 . 548 6 . 6 5 . 8 tissue wt . 5 1 . 376 0 . 580 0 . 570 3 . 9 2 . 8 1 . 082 ± 0 . 2126 1 . 076 0 . 956 0 . 938 7 . 2 6 . 7group1 1 . 100 0 . 774 0 . 717 22 . 2 20 . 22 . 954 0 . 815 0 . 777 14 . 8 15 . 5 atp3 1 . 236 0 . 906 0 . 588 124 . 0 100 . 3 17 . 7 ± 3 . 04 1 . 158 0 . 749 0 . 704 17 . 6 15 . 2 tissue wt . 5 1 . 157 0 . 929 0 . 881 18 . 7 16 . 2 1 . 196 ± 0 . 2076 1 . 574 0 . 608 0 . 569 15 . 2 9 . 7group mixture composition / atp gelvi1 1 . 336 0 . 580 0 . 458 47 . 6 35 . 62 1 . 111 0 . 598 0 . 498 39 . 0 35 . 1 atp3 1 . 480 0 . 592 0 . 479 44 . 1 29 . 8 32 . 6 ± 5 . 74 1 . 338 0 . 678 0 . 568 42 . 9 32 . 1 tissue wt . 5 1 . 390 0 . 595 0 . 453 55 . 4 39 . 9 1 . 425 ± 0 . 2606 1 . 896 0 . 595 0 . 482 44 . 1 23 . 3group isosaline gelvii control1 1 . 073 0 . 635 0 . 520 44 . 9 41 . 82 1 . 540 0 . 628 0 . 520 42 . 1 27 . 3 atp3 1 . 219 0 . 604 0 . 476 49 . 9 40 . 9 36 . 9 ± 6 . 54 1 . 127 0 . 604 0 . 476 49 . 9 44 . 3 tissue wt . 5 1 . 256 0 . 577 0 . 465 43 . 7 34 . 8 1 . 285 ± 0 . 1926 1 . 496 0 . 617 0 . 494 48 . 0 32 . 1______________________________________ in summary , solutions and gels containing the composition of the present invention caused an improvement in wound closure rate over that of controls consisting of sterile isotonic saline . the wound repair rate appeared dose dependent in reference to the number of applications made ; that is , one application daily produced a 17 . 8 % faster rate of wound closure and three applications per day produced a 37 . 2 % faster rate . as in any other bioassay , dose related responses are significant from the standpoint of data validity . composition containing solutions and gels caused an improved wound closure rate over that of controls by increasing the available components for gluconeogenesis and protein synthesis . in addition , increased intracellular atp synthesized by the cells in response to the present invention was quickly utilized as an energy source for these processes and for the wound contraction mechanism . finally , the stoichiometry of wound weight to wound size was consistent as was the inverse relationship between wound weight and atp levels . | 0 |
fig1 illustrates a diagram outlining an example of the operation ( s ) of a communication system 1 used in the reporting of an emergency incident . in one embodiment of the invention , an audio ( or text ) message 1911 reporting selected details of the emergency ( i . e ., “ accident yyy at location xxx has already been reported ”) is broadcast to cellular telephones , “ blackberries ”® or other telecommunication devices 100 in the geographic area of the incident . devices which are to receive this notification can be determined by the tracking capabilities of local transmission facilit ( ies ) 10 ( indicating which device telephone number ( s ) are sending / receiving signals to / from that transmitter ) or by use of satellite navigation ( gps ) systems accessible by the devices , etc . however , broadcasting this information to all communicating phones / devices within the area requires all users to be targeted instead of only those reporting an emergency , and it requires a user to read ( or listen to ) the message for it to be effective . thus in another ( more preferred ) embodiment of the invention , only “ 911 ” calls received from locations close to the ( already - reported ) emergency yyy are directed to an audio message 1911 providing these details . in that case , the relevant incident information is provided to a caller 100 by the emergency communication system 1 when a “ 911 ” call is placed from within the surrounding area near the incident . the extent of the incident surrounding area can be algorithmically determined or initially configured for the emergency system or determined by manual entry ( per incident report ). as an example , the incident surrounding area may be set to one ( 1 ) mile in an urban area , whereas it may be set to five ( 5 ) miles in a rural or highway area to allow for more rapid transit of vehicles . this feature avoids the need to broadcast the message to all individuals moving past the emergency scene ( which can potentially disrupt driver concentration ) and it does not preclude receiving other calls from the same geographic area that might pertain to a different problem . note that it is desirable to allow emergency “ 911 ” calls to be connected in all cases ( since a subsequent call to an emergency system may contain new or additional information ). upon delivering the message 1911 to a subsequent caller 100 , the system 1 can allow the caller to make the determination as to whether to proceed with the call ( with knowledge that the incident has already been reported ). the “ 911 ” operator receiving the initial report ( s ) can determine whether an emergency is “ private ” or “ public ”. “ public ” incidents are defined as those which are likely to be reported by multiple individuals ( and are visible from public locations ). examples include car accidents , fires , and the like . incidents that are not “ public ” are classified as “ private ”. the system 1 determines the location of the emergency , which may be obtained from a user device 100 equipped with a gps system or by identifying the radio / cellular telecommunications site 10 involved ( or by analyzing signal strength from multiple locations , etc .). if the call is from a fixed ( landline ) telephone site 10 such as a public switched telephone network ( pstn ) line or a cable - connected voice over internet protocol ( voip ) line , then the system 1 may receive the location from the telecommunications carrier through calling line identification or media access control ( mac ) address identification . the location may also be identified through verbal or manual reporting of a street address from which the call is made and the system may itself identify the caller location ( or may receive such information from the user device or from the communications carrier as described above ). all of this information can be recorded automatically or through manual entry ( such as by pinpointing the accident site on a map or using a computer “ pull down ” menu to select from a list of locations and / or emergency types ). for example , the emergency operator can “ click on ” a computerized map ( e . g ., showing “ the intersection of route 9a and pleasantville road ” as the accident site ) and / or choose an accident description ( i . e ., “ jack knifed — tractor trailer ”) from a “ pull down ” menu . the emergency response system 1 can include a reporting call “ threshold ” ( to provide empirical proof of a bonafide “ public emergency ”) before triggering automatic notification of other potential callers ( since notification of an already - reported duplicate call can be potentially confusing to callers ). for example , if the notification threshold is set at “ 3 ” then three independent reports of the same emergency are required to allow verification of authenticity ( and the collection of incident details ) before automatic notification to callers in the geographic location of the emergency will take place ( using the methods described herein ). such a threshold may be automatically ( i . e ., algorithmically ) or manually set to any numerical value ( including one or zero ) to account for any type of disaster . when another caller reports the same emergency , details of the emergency will continue to be recorded until the threshold has been exceeded ( whereupon new callers will receive an automated message indicating the reported problems in the area as described above ). for example , a person calling from a location close to “ the intersection of route 9a and pleasantville road ” will read or hear an automated message ( such as “ the jackknifed tractor trailer near route 9a and pleasantville road has already been reported . unless you have additional information about that accident or are calling about another problem you may hang up . to speak to a “ 911 ” operator press # 1 ”). audio or text messages may be generated automatically by the emergency reporting system 1 using excerpts of synthetic or recorded speech to form the message ( in order to minimize the impact on “ 911 ” operators and on reporting callers ) if the incident type and location is known . a preferred embodiment of the invention can use tracking of uniquely identified callers ( such as through identification of individual calling telephone numbers ) for determining if the automatic emergency notification threshold has been exceeded , since counting only the number of reporting callers from the same geographic area may prevent a caller from completing an incident report if a connection is lost and then reestablished . for example , if a caller dials “ 911 ” and ( in mid - report ) loses the telephone connection ( through user error or loss of a cellular signal , etc .) then the feature requiring identification of unique callers will assure that such partial attempts do not trigger the informational 1911 message . while certain preferred features of the invention have been shown by way of illustration , many modifications and changes can be made that fall within the true spirit of the invention as embodied in the following claims , which are to be interpreted as broadly as the law permits to cover the full scope of the invention , including all equivalents thereto . | 7 |
fig2 illustrates one implementation of an on - chip capacitor 200 . on - chip capacitor 200 includes two layers 201 , 203 of conducting strips formed upon a substrate 202 . substrate 202 can be a p - type substrate or an n - type substrate . a first layer 201 is formed by two sets of conducting strips 204 a and 204 b . conducting strips 204 a and 204 b are arranged alternately and substantially in parallel to each other ( i . e ., a conducting strip 204 a is next to a conducting strip 204 b , which , in turn , is located next to a second conducting strip 204 a , and so on ). a second layer 203 is formed by two sets of conducting strips 206 a and 206 b . second layer 203 can be separated from first layer 201 by an insulating layer ( not shown ). the insulating layer can be a silicon dioxide layer . second layer 203 at least partially overlies first layer 201 — e . g ., at least one conducting strip of the second layer overlies at least a portion of a conducting strip in the first layer . conducting strips 206 a and 206 b are also arranged alternately and substantially in parallel to each other . in one implementation , conducting strips 206 a and 206 b overlie and are substantially perpendicular to conducting strips 204 a and 204 b . conducting strips 204 a of first layer 201 and conducting strips 206 a of second layer 203 are connected to form a first common node . in one implementation , conducting strips 204 a and conducting strips 206 a are connected by vertical vias . likewise , conducting strips 204 b of first layer 201 and conducting strips 206 b of second layer 203 are connected to form a second common node . the first common node and the second common node form opposing nodes of on - chip capacitor 200 . each conducting strip 204 a connected to the first common node has one or more overlying conducting strips 206 b and one or more overlying conducting strips 206 a . likewise , each conducting strip 204 b connected to the second common node has one or more overlying conducting strips 206 a and one or more overlying conducting strips 206 a . in one implementation , the number of “ a ” and “ b ” conducting strips are equal within each layer . fig3 . shows a cross - section of on - chip capacitor 200 ( fig2 ). a parallel plate capacitance ( cpp ) is present between each conducting strip 204 b and conducting strip 206 a . furthermore , a sidewall capacitance ( csw ) is present between each adjacent pair of conducting strips ( e . g ., conducting strips 204 a and 204 b ) within each layer . in addition , a substrate capacitance ( cb ) is formed between conducting strips in first layer 201 ( e . g ., conducting strips 204 a and 204 b ) and substrate 202 . as shown in fig3 , substrate 202 can be at ground ( or a low voltage potential ). fig4 illustrates a top view of how conducting strips 204 a and 204 b of first ( lower ) layer 201 and conducting strips 206 a and 206 b of second ( upper ) layer 203 are laid out in one implementation . conducting strips 204 a and 204 b of the lower layer are shown in solid lines . in one implementation , conducting strips 204 a are connected by a base strip 208 a and conducting strips 204 b are connected by a base strip 208 b . alternatively , each of conducting strips 204 a and conducting strips 204 b can be respectively connected by vertical vias ( not shown ). base strips 208 a and 208 b are located at opposing ends of conducting strips 204 a and 204 b so that conducting strips 204 a and 204 b are interdigitated . in one implementation , base strips 208 a and 208 b are sized to be narrow — e . g ., as wide as conducting strips 204 a and 204 b — to minimize space occupied by on - chip capacitor 200 . conducting strips 206 a and 206 b of the upper layer are shown by dotted lines and are displaced to distinguish the upper layer conducting strips 206 a and 206 b from the lower layer conducting strips 204 a and 204 b . in general , conducting strips 206 a and 206 b substantially lie perpendicularly directly over conducting strips 204 a and 2043 . in one implementation , conducting strips 206 a are connected by a base strip 210 a and conducting strips 206 b are connected by a base strip 210 b . alternatively , each of conducting strips 206 a and conducting strips 2063 can be respectively connected by vertical vias ( not shown ). as shown in fig4 , base strips 210 a and 210 b are at opposing ends of conducting strips 206 a and 206 b . in one implementation , the second layer pattern of interdigitated conducting strips 206 a and 206 b is substantially perpendicular to the first layer pattern . the interconnections between the “ a ” conducting strips — i . e ., conducting strips 204 a and 206 a , and the “ b ” conducting strips — i . e ., conducting strips 204 b and 206 b , are not shown . in one implementation , the interconnections are made by vertical vias ( not shown ) through the insulating layer between first layer 201 and second layer 203 of on - chip capacitor 200 . fig5 . shows a cross - section of one implementation of on - chip capacitor 200 ( fig2 ). as shown in fig5 , on - chip capacitor 200 includes a guardband 500 for attenuating coupling between on - chip capacitor 200 and external electromagnetic fields . guardband 500 can be formed from a conductive material , for example , polysilicon , aluminum , and copper . in one implementation , guardband 500 is provided on each of first layer 201 and second layer 203 and substantially encircles the first and second common nodes of on - chip capacitor 200 . guardband 500 can encircle less than all of first layer 201 and second layer 203 . guardband 500 can only run along one side of on - chip capacitor 200 . in addition , guardband 500 can be included on other layers either above or below first layer 201 and second layer 203 of on - chip capacitor 200 . in one implementation , guardband 500 is spaced from the conducting strips a distance ( dg ) that is approximately twice the distance ( dh ) between adjacent conducting strips . distance ( dg ) can be selected to minimize the parasitic fringing capacitance that is formed between guardband 500 and an adjacent conducting strip or base strip , while at the same time maintaining a volumetrically efficient on - chip capacitor 200 . in one implementation , to maintain a predetermined ratio between the capacitance of on - chip capacitor 200 and the parasitic capacitance formed from guardband 500 , distance ( dg ) is increased when there are fewer conducting layers or conducting strips , and distance ( dg ) is decreased when there are more conducting layers or conducting strips . in one implementation , a line width of guardband 500 is selected to be the same as a line width of a conducting strip — e . g ., conducting strip 206 a or 206 b . however , other line widths can be selected . in one implementation , guardband 500 is coupled through a low impedance ( not shown ) to a voltage potential such as ground . in one implementation , guardband 500 floats with respect to system voltage potentials . fig6 illustrates a top view of one implementation of a path configuration for an on - chip capacitor 600 . on - chip capacitor 600 contains conducting strips that are laid out a path configuration that is substantially spiral . in particular , on - chip capacitor 600 includes lower layer conducting strips 602 a and 602 b and upper layer conducting strips 604 a and 604 b . conducting strips 602 a and 602 b of the lower layer are shown in solid lines and conducting strips 604 a and 604 b of the upper layer are shown in dotted lines . conducting strips 604 a and 604 b of the upper layer are displaced to distinguish the upper layer conducting strips 604 a and 604 b from the lower layer conducting strips 602 a and 602 b . in one implementation , conducting strips 604 a and 604 b respectively lie substantially directly over conducting strips 602 b and 602 a . other path configurations can be implemented , e . g ., l - shaped paths and s - shaped paths . fig7 a . shows a cross - section b - b ( fig7 b ) of an on - chip capacitor 700 . on - chip capacitor 700 includes two layers 701 , 703 of conducting strips formed upon a substrate 702 . a first layer 701 is formed by two sets of conducting strips 704 a and 704 b . conducting strips 704 a and 704 b are arranged alternately and substantially in parallel to each other so that a conducting strip 704 a is located next to a conducting strip 704 b , as shown in fig7 b . referring to fig7 a and 7b , a second layer 703 is formed by two sets of conducting strips 706 a and 706 b . conducting strips 706 a and 706 b are also arranged alternately and substantially in parallel to each other so that a conducting strip 706 a is located next to a conducting strip 706 b . conducting strips 706 a and 706 b respectively overlie and are substantially parallel to conducting strips 704 a and 704 b , such that conducting strips of a same polarity overlie one another . for example , conducting strip 706 a — shown as having a “+” polarity — substantially overlies conducting strip 704 a — also shown as having a “+” polarity . on - chip capacitor 700 further includes vertical vias 708 a that interconnect conducting strips 706 a and 704 a , and vertical vias 708 b that interconnect conducting strips 706 b and 704 b . a parallel plate capacitance ( cpp ) is present between each adjacent pair of conducting strips ( e . g ., conducting strips 706 a and 706 b ) within each layer . furthermore , a via capacitance ( cv ) is present between each adjacent pair of vertical vias ( e . g ., vertical vias 708 a and 708 b ). fig7 c shows a top view of on - chip capacitor 700 . in one implementation , conducting strips 706 a are connected by a base strip 710 a and conducting strips 706 b are connected by a base strip 710 b . base strips 710 a and 710 b are located at opposing ends of conducting strips 706 a and 706 b so that conducting strips 706 a and 7063 are interdigitated . in one implementation , base strips 710 a and 710 b are sized as wide as conducting strips 706 a and 706 b . in one implementation , base strips 710 a and 710 b include vertical vias 712 a and 712 b , respectively . vertical vias 712 a and 712 b interconnect with corresponding base strips ( not shown ) underlying base strips 710 a and 710 b . vertical vias 712 a can be placed along base strip 710 a at locations substantially adjacent to one or more vertical vias 708 b that are located on conducting strips 706 b . likewise , vertical vias 712 b can be placed along base strip 710 b at locations substantially adjacent to one or more vertical vias 708 a that are located on conducting strips 706 a . in addition to the parallel plate capacitance ( cpp ) ( fig7 a ), and the via capacitance ( cv ) ( fig7 a ), a base strip via capacitance ( cvb ) is present between each adjacent pair of base strip vertical via and conducting strip vertical via ( e . g ., vertical vias 712 a and 708 b ). fig8 . shows a cross - section of one implementation of on - chip capacitor 700 ( fig7 a ). as shown in fig8 , on - chip capacitor 700 includes a guardband 800 for attenuating coupling between on - chip capacitor 700 and external electromagnetic fields . in one implementation , guardband 800 is provided on each of first layer 701 and second layer 703 and substantially encircles the first and second common nodes of on - chip capacitor 700 . guardband 700 can encircle less than all of first layer 701 and second layer 703 . guardband 800 can only run along one side of on - chip capacitor 700 . in addition , guardband 800 can be included on other layers either above or below first layer 701 and second layer 703 of on - chip capacitor 700 . a number of implementations have been described . nevertheless , various modifications to the implementations may be made . for example , an on - chip capacitor can be formed in a split - capacitor configuration 900 as shown in fig9 . split - capacitor configuration 900 includes a first on - chip capacitor 902 and a second on - chip capacitor 904 formed upon a substrate 906 . each of first on - chip capacitor 902 and second on - chip capacitor 904 can have any one of the capacitor structures described in the implementations above . in addition , each of the capacitor structures described above can have any number of conducting layers , e . g . more than two layers . accordingly , other implementations are within the scope of the following claims . | 7 |
fig1 shows an application in which the system of the present invention may be used to great advantage . for example , the integrated arrangement may be comprised of conveyors 11 for delivering signatures from a press to a plurality of signature stackers 12 for stacking the incoming signatures into signature bundles 13 which may be of the compensated or uncompensated type . each stacker 12 transfers a completed bundle to an outfeed conveyor 14 for delivery to a tying station 15 . each tied bundle is transferred from the tying station to a conveyor 16 for delivering each completed bundle to an overhead loader 17 which will be more fully described hereinbelow . each of the overhead loaders is controlled by a computer to precisely drop a completed bundle into the desired tray assembly 20 as it passes beneath the proper overhead loader . the loader conveyor may be used to bypass the overhead load and deliver a bundle to a bypass conveyor as an alternative delivery path to a truck , loading dock or other location . each of the tray assemblies 20 is pivotally linked to the adjacent upstream and downstream tray assembly to provide a closed loop product conveyor arrangement wherein each tray assembly serves as a &# 34 ; link &# 34 ; within an elongated , closed loop conveyor &# 34 ; chain &# 34 ; which is continuously recirculated about the loop by linear electric motors arranged at spaced intervals about the loop with the path of the loop being defined by a closed loop track 40 which is arranged to traverse a particular region and to substantially accommodate the contours and configuration of the region . for example , in the network 10 shown in fig1 the application provided therein is deliver predetermined bundles to a predetermined delivery truck 50 under control of a computer system . in order to provide a gravity feed arrangement , the track is provided with an inclined portion 40a to lift the trays and hence the bundles carried thereby to an elevation sufficient to feed a bundle to the desired truck by means of gravity . by computer control , a pneumatic ejector tilts the proper tray assembly , such as , for example , the tray assembly 20 &# 39 ; causing the bundle 13b to be dispensed from tray assembly 20 &# 39 ; and fall downwardly by gravity along an outfeed chute 60 and thereafter along an outfeed conveyor 62 for delivery directly to the desired truck 50 positioned at the loading dock in alignment with the outfeed conveyor 62 . as will be more fully described , a pair of straightening cams are utilized to return the tilt tray to the upright position preparatory to being returned to the bundle receiving portion of the conveyor &# 34 ; chain &# 34 ; whereby the tray may be loaded with a bundle from any of the overhead loaders , all under control of the computer system for controlling the loading and unloading operations . fig2 a - 2d show a typical tilt tray assembly 20 and the manner in which it is guided by the guide track 40 . as shown best in fig2 b and 2c , the guide track is comprised of track portions 41 and 42 which are joined to suitable supporting elements ( not shown for purposes of simplicity ) so that the flanges 41a , 42a cooperate to provide a guide for the vertical roller 27 of the tilt tray assembly which cooperates with the guide flanges 41a and 42a to limit the lateral movement of the tray assembly as it moves along the track . upper and lower portions 41b , 41c and 42b , 42c of track portions 41 and 42 form guides for the horizontal rollers of the tilt tray assembly to limit movement of the tilt tray assembly in a direction transverse to the horizontal . as can be appreciated from fig1 the track may be comprised of a plurality of straight portions , curved portions , inclined and downwardly sloping portions of both the straight and curved type , the design of the tilt tray assemblies enabling the conveyor to navigate around horizontal curves as small as six ( 6 ) feet in radius , vertical curves as small as ten ( 10 ) feet in radius , and inclination angles of up to 30 °. the track sections are preferably formed of a suitable metallic material to provide a rugged and highly serviceable track . each tilt tray assembly 20 is comprised of a one - piece frame 21 shown in detail in fig3 a - 3d and comprised of a base portion 21c provided with forward and rearward uprights 21b , 21a having openings whose centerlines are horizontally aligned for supporting a shaft 22 for swingably mounting the tilt tray 23 . tilt tray 23 is comprised of a substantially flat base portion 23a having integral forward and rearward sides 23b , 23c which form an angle slightly greater than 90 ° with base portion 23a . left and right - hand sides 23d , 23e form an angle of just slightly less than 180 ° with base portion 23a . forward and rearward sides 23b , 23c serve to retain a bundle therebetween to a much greater degree than sides 23d and 23e which are designed to facilitate the dispensing of a bundle when the tilt tray is tilted from the upright position shown in fig2 b to the tilted position shown in fig2 c , to facilitate the delivery of a bundle at an outfeed chute location 60 , shown for example , in fig1 . the forward end of frame 21 extends forwardly beyond upright 21b and is provided with a threaded opening 21d for receiving a ball and socket assembly comprised of threaded member 24 having a circular &# 34 ; socket &# 34 ; portion 24a for rotatably supporting the ball member 24b having an opening 24c adapted to receive a pin provided at the rearward end of the tilt tray assembly positioned immediately in front of tilt tray assembly 20 shown , for example , in fig2 a . this pin is shown , for example , as pin p arranged within the vertically aligned opening 21e provided in the portion of frame 21 extending rearwardly of rear upright 21a ( see fig2 b ). the central portion of opening 21e in the frame is enlarged as shown at 21f to receive the ball and socket assembly of the tilt tray assembly 20 shown in fig2 a , for example . the rearward end of frame 21 is further provided with horizontally aligned threaded openings 21g , 21h which receive and threadedly engage the threaded portions of a pair of axle pins 24 , 24 which serve to rotatably mount the wheels 25 , 25 which rotate about the wheel bearings 25a , 25a . the bottom surface 21i of frame 21 is provided with a cold rolled steel plate 26a and an aluminum plate 26b respectively laminated to the bottom surface thereof and cooperating with the linear motor ( to be more fully described ) to set up the proper eddy current paths for propelling the tilt tray assembly . as was mentioned hereinabove , vertical pin p , in addition to extending through the hollow opening 24c in ball member 24 , further rollingly supports vertical wheel 27 having bearings 27a for rotation about the pin p . the tilt assembly ta is comprised of a threaded locking pin 28 threadedly engaging tapped opening 21j in frame 21 . a tip frame 29 shown in fig4 a , 4b and 4c is a substantially rectangular - shaped frame having openings 29a , 29b for receiving and being swingably mounted upon shaft 22 which is rigidly secured to uprights 21b , 21a by fasteners f , f . tip frame 29 is provided with tapped openings 29c for threadedly receiving suitable fasteners to secure tray 23 thereto . frame 29 has a pair of projections 29d , 29e which extend rearwardly and are positioned on opposite sides of the frame upright 21a . a latch block 30 forming part of the tilt assembly and shown in detail in fig5 a and 5b is comprised of latch block lower and upper halves 30a , 30b secured to one another by means of fasteners f1 extending through openings 30b - 1 in upper block 30b and threadedly engaging one of the tapped openings 30a - 1 in lower block portion 30a . the blocks are machined or otherwise formed with semi - circular portions so that when they are joined together in the manner shown , for example , in fig2 a and 5a , they define openings o1 and o2 . opening o1 is coincident with the openings 29d - 1 , 29e - 1 in rearward projections 29d and 29e of tip frame 29 . the central axes of these openings serve as a pivot axis for the latch block 30 and latch plate 32 . larger opening o2 is substantially aligned with the elongated openings 29d - 2 , 29e - 2 provided in rearward projections 29d and 29e of tip frame 29 . elongated shaft 31 extends through openings o2 , 29d - 2 and 29e - 2 as shown best , for example , in fig2 a - 2e . cam follower rollers 31a , 31b are rotatably mounted at the opposite ends of shaft 31 . the intermediate portion of shaft 31 extends through opening o2 and is tightly clamped between the latch block halves 30a and 30b . resilient o - rings 31c prevent metal - to - metal contact between shaft 31 and the interior surfaces of the elongated openings 29d - 2 and 29e - 2 . a latch plate 32 having a substantially semi - circular - shaped slot 32a for embracing locking pin 28 , is provided with a pair of tapped openings 32b , 32c for threadedly engaging fasteners f2 for securing latch plate 32 to the lower half 30a of latch block 30 . a shaft 34 extends through opening o1 in latch block 30 and openings 29d - 1 and 29e - 1 in tip frame 29 . the latch block halves are clamped together to rigidly secure the latch block to shaft 34 which is free to rotate within the openings 29d - 1 , 29e - 1 by suitable bearings 34a , 34b . at least one torsion spring 35 is wrapped about shaft 34 near roller 31b . if desired , a second torsion spring may be provided adjacent the roller 31a . the spring is preferably wrapped about two ( 2 ) to four ( 4 ) turns about shaft 34 . one end of torsion spring 35 rests against the lower rear edge of tray 23 and the other end rests against an adjacent portion of shaft 31 , the torsion spring normally urging the tilt assembly in the counterclockwise direction about shaft 34 relative to fig2 a so as to normally urge and position latch plate 32 against the rearward surface of upright 21c in the manner shown in fig2 a in order to embrace locking pin 28 . the torsion spring 35 also further serves to normally orient the tip frame and tray in the upright position , especially when two such springs are provided . when one of the rollers , such as for example , the right - hand cam follower roller 31a is urged upwardly from the position shown in fig2 b toward the position shown in fig2 c by an opening cam surface c shown in dotted fashion in fig2 c , the initial upward movement of the cam follower roller 31a causes latch block 32 to rotate clockwise ( relative to fig2 a ) about pivot pin 34 , moving latch plate 32 away from latch pin 28 . as soon as the latch plate cup 32a clears latch pin 28 , the tip frame and tray are free to tilt about mounting shaft 30 , moving the tip frame 29 , tilting assembly 27 and tray 23 counterclockwise about shaft 30 ( relative to fig2 b ) to move the tip frame and tray from the position shown in fig2 b to the position shown in fig2 c . the angle of the tilt tray shown in fig2 c is sufficient to cause a bundle riding therein , such as a signature bundle , to be dispensed therefrom . the angle of the tray , together with the rapid movement of the tip frame and tray from the position shown in fig2 b to the position shown in fig2 c , cooperate to drop the signature bundle carried thereon to an outfeed chute , such as , for example , any of the chutes 60 shown in fig1 . as an alternative arrangement , there may be a reversal of parts whereby latch plate 32 may be provided with a pin , and upright frame 21a may be provided with an opening for receiving the pin , said reversal of parts providing substantially the same operation as the arrangement shown , for example , in fig2 a . as will be described more fully hereinbelow , a pair of restoring or straightening cams , arranged on opposite sides of the centerline of movement of the tilt tray assemblies engageable by the cam follower rollers 31a , 31b , cause the tilt tray to be moved to and retained in the upright position . the use of a pair of restoring cams , in addition to restoring the tilt tray to its upright position , prevents overshooting of the tilt tray from the tilted position to a position beyond the upright position . upon return to the upright position , the latch plate cup 32a moves into alignment with latch pin 28 causing the cup to embrace the latch pin under the force of torsion spring 35 and causing the latch plate to be urged against the rear surface of upright 21a to return the tipping assembly to the latched position . the tray assembly will remain in the upright position indefinitely and until tipped therefrom by a tipping cam . as shown in fig2 a , a linear electric motor having a length and width which is substantially equal to the length and width of the bottom surface of frame 21 , is secured to the guide track frame , in the region between flanges 41f and 42f as shown best in fig2 b and is spaced a very small distance away from the bottom surface of the laminated plates arranged upon the bottom surface of frame 21 . the linear electric motor , which may be of the single - sided type produced by northern magnetics , inc . of van nuys , ca , is preferably a three - phase linear motor spaced from the bottom surface of plate 27 to provide an air gap of the order of 0 . 09 inches . the three phase linear motor sets up electromagnetic fields which create eddy currents in the laminated plates secured to the bottom of frame 21 developing a thrust which causes the tray assembly to move in the forward direction as shown by arrow a in fig2 a . the thrust of the motor is sufficient to propel the tray assemblies by providing lims at regularly spaced intervals about the closed loop path . for example , employing the lims of the type described hereinabove , a plurality of such lims spaced at distances of the order of fifty foot intervals have been found to be more than adequate to provide the desired operating speed , which in one preferred embodiment is of the order of 3 . 7 miles per hour having the capability of delivering a 175 bundles per minute at the aforementioned operating speed . the actual spacing , however , is a function of the inclines , curves and other path shapes as well as the bundle weight and may vary dependent upon these factors . the linear motor is further provided with blower means b for maintaining the linear motor at a desired operating temperature , as is conventional . the tray assemblies are conveyed about the closed loop track without any direct mechanical connection whatsoever between the drive motors ( lims ) and the tray assemblies . fig9 shows a simplified view of the manner in which the operating speed is controlled , as will be more fully described . the fig7 a - 7c show the tip cam assembly referred to hereinabove , for tilting the tiltable tray assembly . the tip cam assembly 70 is comprised of an l bracket 71 for mounting the tip cam assembly to one of the guide tracks and , as shown in fig7 c , specifically guide track 41 . fasteners f3 secure the vertical arm of bracket 71 to one vertical side 41d of track 41 while the horizontal arm of l bracket 71 is secured to the horizontal surface 41b of track member 41 by fasteners f4 . the tip cam assembly is further comprised of a ramp member 72 secured to the horizontal arm or bracket 71 by fasteners f5 and having an inclined cam surface 72c . the pivot ramp is further provided with a pair of bifurcated arms 72a , 72b each provided with an opening for receiving a mounting pin 73a extending through an opening in elongated tip cam 73 whose opening is provided in a downwardly depending forward portion 73b . tip cam 73 is coupled to a pair of links 74 , 74 by means of pin 75 . the opposite ends of the links 74 , 74 are coupled to pin 76 which extends through a pair of slider yokes 77 , 77 . a pair of slider blocks 78 , 78 are slidably arranged within the elongated slots 77a , 77a of the associated slider yokes 77 , 77 . the tip cylinder 79 is secured to a mounting block 80 by means of pin 81 which is coupled to the clevis 79a provided at the right - hand end of cylinder 79 . mounting block 80 is secured to the horizontal portion of mounting bracket 71 by fasteners f7 . the cylinder piston 79b extends outwardly from the cylinder and to the left and is provided with a mounting eyelet 79c having an opening for receiving pin 76 . cylinder 79 is a pneumatic cylinder provided with control ports 79d , 79e . assuming the tip cam assembly to be in the off condition with tip cam 73 in the solid line position , and assuming that the next tilt tray assembly is to be tilted , pneumatic pressure is applied to port 79e driving piston 79b to the left . this movement is imparted to the links 74 , 74 which lift tip cam 73 from the solid line position to the phantom line position 73 &# 39 ;. phantom circles 31a , 31a &# 39 ;, 31a &# 34 ; show the progress of the tip cam follower roller 31a . the ramp surface 72c provided along ramp member 72 assures gradual movement of a roller onto the cam surface of the tip cam in the event that there is any misalignment of the cam follower rollers to prevent the cam follower rollers and hence the tip cam assembly from experiencing any sudden jolt or impact as a cam follower roller moves , approaches and engages the tip cam assembly . the tip cam assembly may be rapidly reset by applying pneumatic pressure to port 79d to thereby abruptly move the tip cam from the phantom line position 73 &# 39 ; to the solid line position 73 in order to prevent the tilting of a tilt tray assembly which is not intended to be unloaded at the output chute location . tip cam assemblies of the type shown as assembly 70 in fig7 a - 7c are provided at a location slightly upstream relative to each output chute 60 in order to selectively tilt the desired tilt tray assembly . it should be noted that each tilt tray assembly is capable of being tilted either in the clockwise direction or in the counterclockwise direction ( relative to fig7 c , for example ) and further that the output chutes may be placed on either side of the closed loop track enabling unloading of a signature bundle to an outfeed location on either side of the closed loop track . thus , by placing a tip cam assembly on the opposite side of the track assembly , i . e . by mounting a tip cam assembly to the track portion 42 shown in fig7 c , the tilt tray may be tilted in the clockwise direction relative to fig7 c , the side upon which the dispensing of bundles is to take place being dependent only upon the needs of the user . fig8 a - 8c show the tray straightener cam assemblies 90 , 90 , there being a tray straightener cam assembly mounted to each track half 41 , 42 as shown in fig8 c . since the tray straightener cam assemblies are substantially identical and are actually symmetrical to one another , these assemblies have been identified by like numerals . each assembly is comprised of an l - shaped mounting bracket 91 whose vertical arm is secured to an associated one of the track portions by fasteners f1 while the horizontal arm is coupled to one of the track sections by fasteners f2 . a straightener cam 92 is provided with a ramp portion 92a which slopes upwardly in the direction of movement of the tip cam follower roller 31a and , after reaching a peak at 92b , has a downward sloping portion 92c . a cam mount 93 cooperates with cam 92 for positioning a slidable cam 94 . cam mount 93 has a tapered portion 93a which can be seen to be coplanar with an upper portion of the sloping portion 92a of cam 92 . at a peak 93b which is in alignment with the peak 92b of cam 92 , cam mount 93 has a downwardly sloping portion 93c which is coplanar with the downwardly sloping portion 92c of cam 92 . adjustable cam member 94 is provided with a pair of elongated slots 94a , 94b through which the fasteners f2 and f3 extend , fasteners f2 and f3 being threaded at their free ends to threadedly engage tapped apertures 92d , 92e in cam member 92 . adjustable cam 94 has an upwardly sloping surface portion 94c and a downwardly sloping portion 94d , these portions being substantially coplanar with the upwardly sloping portions 92a , 93a , and the downwardly sloping portions 92c , 93c . adjustable cam 94 is slidable either downwardly and to the left or upwardly and to the right to extend the upward sloping portion in order to adjust the tray straightener assemblies to compensate for any deviations from the normal spacings between the cam follower rollers and the cam straightener assemblies . noting fig8 c , a pair of cam straightener assemblies are provided for cooperation with each cam follower roller 31a , 31b regardless of the direction in which the tray is tilted for the reason that the provision of two cam straighteners each cooperating with the associated cam follower rollers prevents the tilting assembly from overshooting the desired upright position , regardless of the direction in which the tray has been tilted . the tray straightener cam assemblies are mounted just downstream from each output chute in order to straighten each tilt tray assembly as it passes the tray straightener cam assembly . as was mentioned hereinabove , the linear motors are controlled to accurately regulate the speed of the tilt tray assemblies in order to accurately dispense bundles from each of the outlet chute locations , as well as being capable of operating the loader which loads bundles onto the tilt tray assemblies , the operation of the loaders also being dependent upon accurate control of the speed of the tilt tray assemblies . the manner in which the desired control is obtained is by way of a feedback arrangement shown in fig9 comprised of a controller 100 for controlling the current to each of the lims . a speed setting input 100a receives the desired speed . for example , a touch screen may be employed for inputting the desired speed and for displaying the desired speed which has been inputted . controller 100 is coupled to encoder 104 which provides a feedback signal of the conveyor speed which is continuously compared against the set speed for regulating the amplitude of the three - phase current applied to each of the linear motors 102 . encoder 104 is comprised of an encoder assembly shown best in fig9 a - 9f and includes a substantially u - shaped encoder support 106 coupled to the downwardly depending flange portions of the track sections 42 and 41 shown best in fig9 b . a pair of plates 108 , 110 are secured together in spaced parallel fashion by means of spacers 109 arranged between the plates and set within shallow circular recesses provided in the plates as shown in the vicinity of the uppermost spacer 109 &# 39 ; shown in fig9 a . the spacers are secured to plates 108 and 110 by fasteners f1 . three tires 111 , which are substantially identical to one another , are mounted to rotate upon shafts 112 journaled within bearings arranged within the plates 108 and 110 . each tire 111 has an integral gear member 111a while the uppermost tires 111 &# 39 ; are further provided with left - hand integral gear members 111b . an encoder 113 is fixedly secured to left - hand plate 108 by fasteners f2 . encoder 113 is provided with a similar gear or sprocket 113a extending to the right of the encoder housing . the shaft upon which the sprocket is mounted extends through a clearance opening 108a provided in plate 108 . encoder 113 is designed to provide an electrical signal representative of the rotational speed developed by the encoder shaft 113b which is coupled to the right - hand gears 111a by means of a common timing belt 114 shown in dotted fashion . the tire assemblies 111 &# 39 ; also have their left - hand gears coupled in common by a single timing belt 115 . three shafts 116a , 116b , 116c shown in dotted fashion in fig9 a and shown in solid line fashion in fig9 b through 9e , extend through cooperating openings , such as , for example , the openings 108b , 110b provided in plates 108 and 110 . clamp collars 117 orient plates 108 and 110 relative to the shafts 116a , 116c , each clamp collar further including a threaded fastener 117a as shown in fig9 b for rigidly securing each clamp collar to its associated shaft and for further clamping plates 108 and 110 between each associated pair of clamp collars . each of the shafts 116a - 116c have their left and right - hand ends extending through elongated slots 106a , 106b provided in the vertical sides of support 106 . clamp collars 117 &# 39 ; fixedly secure the shafts against movement in the direction of their longitudinal axis while at the same time permitting each of the shafts to move vertically up or down within the elongated slots . note , for example , slot 106b shown in fig9 e . a plurality of mounting pin assemblies 18 are secured to the right - hand vertical side of support 106 and each of said assemblies , at their free ends support the upper end 119a of a helical spring 119 whose lower end 119b embraces an associated one of said shafts 116a - 116c . a plurality of somewhat similar pin assemblies 120 are fixedly secured to the left - hand vertical side of support 106 and , in a similar fashion , each supports the upper end 121a of a helical spring 121 whose lower end 121b is wrapped about the left - hand end of an associated one of the shafts 116a - 116c . each of the shafts is preferably provided with an annular groove for receiving and retaining the lower ends 119b , 121b of the helical springs 119 , 121 respectively . the resiliently mounted tire assembly is adjusted so that the surfaces of the tires 111 and 111 &# 39 ; engage the bottom surfaces of the tilt tray assemblies as they pass over the sensor assembly 104 with the resiliency of the springs being adjusted so that the wheels are urged against the bottom surfaces of the frames with a force of the order two ( 2 ) to four ( 4 ) pounds . the spring supporting pins 118 and 120 are mounted within elongated slots in the vertical sidewalls of support 106 , such as , for example , elongated slot 106c provided in the right - hand vertical side of the support 106 and are adjustable to adjust the spring force . fig9 f shows the manner of operation of the encoder assembly . as was mentioned hereinabove , all three tires are tied together with at least one timing belt and in operation , the tires 111 and 111 &# 39 ; are positioned in such a manner that two of the three tires are always in rolling engagement with one of the tilt tray assemblies . the tires are further always maintained in rotation since even a tire moving into the gap g between adjacent tilt tray assemblies 20 will not be free wheeling due to the fact that it is rotated by the timing belt of the remaining two tires which make rolling engagement with the passing tilt tray assemblies 20 . thus , the encoder assembly provides an accurate indication of the operating speed enabling the controller to dynamically adjust for any changes in operating speed by altering the driving signal applied to the linear motors 102 . all of the linear motors are coupled in electrical parallel and the nature of the system is such that even the failure of one or two of the linear motors will not require shutdown of the system . fig1 a - 10f show the top loader 17 employed for purposes of loading bundles into the desired tilt tray assembly . each such top loader is comprised of four support frames 125 , each provided with a mounting plate 126 for securement to a support surface . the vertical support members 125 are secured at their top ends to form a substantially rectangular frame by means of cross pieces 127 , 128 , 129 and 130 forming a substantially rectangular - shaped frame , each of the cross pieces being of a substantially rectangular - shaped cross - section . additional cross pieces 131 and 132 are respectively secured to cross pieces 128 and 130 and are arranged in spaced parallel fashion to cross pieces 127 and 129 , respectively . a support plate 133 secured to cross pieces 129 and 132 by fasteners f1 supports a pair of bearing assemblies 134 , 134 whose lower ends are fastened by suitable fastening means to support plate 133 . the bearing assemblies 134 , 134 rotatably support a jack shaft 140 which is free - wheelingly rotatable within the bearing assembly and has a first end thereof secured to a timing belt pulley 135 which is driven by a timing belt 136 entrained about a timing belt pulley 137 mounted to the output shaft of a servo - motor 138 which is mounted upon a support bracket 139 which in turn forms an integral part of the support plate 133 . a timing belt pulley 141 is mounted to the opposite end of jack shaft 140 . an elongated timing belt 142 is entrained about timing belt pulley 141 and a driven timing belt pulley 143 rotatable about shaft 144 mounted upon support bracket assemblies 145 , 145 , each having a resilient member 145a , 145a for providing proper tension for timing belt 142 . the tensioning assemblies are each provided with threaded fasteners 145b , 145b which extend through and threadedly engage tapped openings in support shaft 144 which is thereby fixedly secured against rotation , timing belt pulley 143 being provided with suitable bearing means for free - wheelingly mounting the timing belt pulley upon shaft 144 . servo - motor 138 ultimately drives timing belt pulley 142 in a reciprocating fashion for unloading bundles from the top loader conveyor ( to be more fully described ) and for rapidly resetting the pusher member . the pusher assembly is comprised of a pair of elongated cylindrical rods 146 , 146 which are fixedly secured to cross pieces 131 , 132 as shown best in fig1 c . a mounting plate 147 is provided with guides 148 arranged along opposite sides of the mounting plate and provided with free - wheeling rollers 148a which rollingly move along the rods 146 , 146 to guide the movement of the mounting plate . a pair of vertical mounting brackets 149 , 149 are secured to support plate 147 and in turn have pusher plate 150 secured thereto . the vertical mounting brackets 149 have an l - shaped cross - section and are provided with a tapered portion 149a as shown best in fig9 a to enhance the inherent supporting strength of vertical brackets 149 . mounting plate 147 further includes a timing belt clamping member 151 secured to mounting plate 147 by fasteners f2 . the bottom surface of clamping member 151 is provided with a gear - like configuration conforming to the toothed configuration of the timing belt 142 and is adapted to interfit with the timing belt so to provide excellent clamping and securement therebetween . thus , movement of the lower run 142a of timing belt 142 is directly imparted to the pusher 150 through mounting plate 147 and vertical mounting brackets 149 . fig1 a and 10c show the position of the pusher preparatory to pushing a bundle from the conveyor assembly ( to be more fully described ). servo - motor 138 is rotated to move the lower run 142a of the timing belt in the direction shown by arrow a causing pusher 150 to move in the same direction . the pusher is moved through a distance sufficient to move a bundle to the position to be dispensed off the belt conveyor assembly ( to be more fully described ) and thereafter to rapidly return to the start position in readiness for dispensing the next bundle . the conveyor assembly 151 is comprised of a closed loop conveyor belt 152 entrained about a drive roller 153 and driven roller 156 mounted between a pair of support plates 154 . a plurality of spaced parallel rollers 155 are free - wheelingly mounted between the plates 154 , 154 in the space between rollers 153 and 156 and serve to rollingly support the conveyor belt 152 in the space between the drive roller 153 and the driven roller 156 . motor means 158 moves the drive roller 153 and hence the conveyor belt at the proper linear speed . tension adjusting assemblies 157 , 157 are arranged on the left and right - hand support plates 154 , 154 for adjusting the spacing between driven roller 156 and drive roller 153 to thereby adjust the tension of the conveyor belt 152 . the conveyor belt is preferably formed of a suitable low friction material or may be formed of a suitable fabric , for example , which is coated with a material to provide an extremely low friction outer surface to provide a low coefficient of sliding friction . bundles are introduced onto the conveyor which moves in the direction shown by arrow b in fig1 c at a speed commensurate with the mating delivery conveyor . a gate assembly is positioned to the downstream side of the pusher 150 and is comprised of a reciprocating gate 160 shown in fig1 a through 10c and shown in greater detail in fig1 d and 10e . gate 160 is slidably mounted between a pair of upper and lower tracks 161 , 162 . the tracks are secured to a gate mounting plate 163 by means of supports 164 arranged at both the upper and lower ends . a cylinder 165 is secured to mounting bracket 163 by supports 166 . the cylinder 167 is provided with ports 167a , 167b . conduits 167c , 167d are coupled to suitable pneumatic sources for applying pneumatic pressure to the cylinder whose piston 167 extends outwardly from cylinder 165 and is provided with a clevis 168 at its free end for receiving a fastener f3 for coupling the piston rod 167 to gate 160 which is provided with a mounting member 169 having a tapped opening for receiving fastener f3 and having a tapped opening for receiving a fastener f4 for securing mounting block 169 to gate 160 . the head of fastener f4 is flush with the lower surface of gate 160 as shown in fig1 d . the gate 160 is provided with a plurality of fasteners f5 which are threadedly secured to gate 160 and extend in opposite directions therefrom so as to be slidably engaged with the sidewalls of the guide tracks . noting , for example , fig1 d , gate 160 is provided with elongated strips 160a , 160b secured to gate 160 by fasteners f5 , said strips slidably engaging the sidewalls of the tracks , the heads of fasteners f5 being flush with the surfaces of the strips so as to provide a low friction surface for engaging the sidewalls of the track . a bundle is delivered from a mating conveyor positioned adjacent to the driven conveyor roller 156 ( see fig1 c ) and moves on to the conveyor which is operated so that its upper run moves in the direction shown by arrow b at a speed which may be the same speed as the mating conveyor if the mating conveyor is powered . however , any conveyor speed commensurate with the delivery rate of bundles may be employed . a motion sensor 178 ( see fig1 a ) senses the motion of gate 160 due to a bundle moving against the gate , whereupon the controller operates servo - motor 138 to move pusher plate 150 toward the right in a direction shown by arrow b in fig1 a to push a bundle off of the belt conveyor when the appropriate tiltable tray assembly is positioned beneath the conveyor assembly 151 . gate 160 limits the travel of a bundle on conveyor belt 152 and also aligns the bundle with the path of movement of the tray assemblies beneath the conveyor . pusher 150 sweeps the bundle on the conveyor belt 152 off of the right - hand end of the conveyor ( relative to fig1 a and 10c ) so as to fall upon the tiltable tray assembly moving beneath the top loader assembly . although the bundle being delivered is moved off of the conveyor 151 at a rather rapid rate , a portion of the bundle overhanging the right - hand end of the conveyor assembly 151 undergoes a tipping action wherein the right - hand end of the bundle is lowered relative to the left - hand end which is still supported by the conveyor belt . thus , when a bundle is totally clear of the conveyor belt , it will be tilted as it experiences free fall in dropping into the desired tilt tray assembly . thus , in order to correct for this , and thereby be assured that each bundle is oriented horizontally as it experiences free fall in dropping into the appropriate tilt tray assembly , the conveyor belt assembly is tilted so that its right - hand end 151a is higher than its left - hand end 151b ( note fig1 a ). similarly , the guide rods 146 , 146 and hence pusher plate 150 are tilted relative to the vertical so that its lower end 150a extends further to the right than its upper end 150b ( relative to fig1 a ) in order to provide a uniform pushing force against the left - hand end of the bundle engaged by pusher plate 150 . the tilt angle and path of movement of pusher plate 150 and the tilt angle of the conveyor are preferably equal . sensors 177a and 177b serve to positively identify the location of the gate piston rod 167 for assuring the proper positioning thereof and further for assuring the proper control . as was mentioned hereinabove , the pusher 150 is moved in such a manner that its full stroke occurs within a period of 0 . 7 seconds . fig1 g shows a plot of pusher plate velocity versus distance . the velocity increases from zero until it reaches a maximum at approximate the midpoint of a full stroke at which time the velocity decreases until it reaches the end point of a full stroke . the actual shape of the velocity / time curve is not critical so long as proper stroke interval is maintained and the bundle is properly dispensed . sensors 179 , 180 and 181 serve for sensing the extreme left - hand position , the home position and the forward stroke position respectively of the pusher plate . the sensors cooperate with a rod 147a extending from mounting plate 147 to provide a signal for identifying the position of the pusher plate 150 . the gate 160 may be retracted to enable a bundle or bundles to be delivered to a bypass conveyor 16a aligned with the conveyor 151 and adjacent the conveyor roller 153 ( see fig1 ) for delivery to a truck or any other outfeed location . for example , if all of the bundles from each stacker are the same and can be delivered to any trucks , there is no need to deliver bundles using the closed loop conveyor . thus , the gate 160 may be retracted and bundles delivered to a bypass conveyor to the loading dock , for example . a latitude of modification , change and substitution is intended in the foregoing disclosure , and in some instances , some features of the invention will be employed without a corresponding use of other features . accordingly , it is appropriate that the appended claims be construed broadly and in a manner consistent with the spirit and scope of the invention herein described . | 1 |
a schematic representation of the handheld electronic cryoprobe 10 is shown in fig1 . cryoprobe 10 is used in conjunction with a disposable application or probe tip 12 . probe tip 12 can be of varying sizes , shapes and lengths , and has a biocompatible treatment surface in thermal contact with the distal end 17 of heat pipe 16 . a handle 14 is provided to facilitate use of probe 10 by the physician . in general , cryoprobe 10 is reusable , since tip 12 is the only component which is disposable . in general , probe 10 may include a number of different handle and tip configurations to tailor the probe to a particular surgical procedure and / or the preference of a particular physician . for this reason , tip 12 and handle 14 are shown in schematic form . the disposable probe tip 12 can contain thermoelectric and / or heat pipe materials , and is used as a trim cooler / heater to give fine temperature or control during the surgical procedure . a sterile sleeve ( not shown ) can be attached in the configuration so that it will slide over the heat pipe extension when installed . a quick snap - on connection ( not shown ) automatically makes power and thermocouple leads . heat pipe extensions can also be quick - connected to the main power thermoelectrics in the handle ( not shown ), and contain power and thermocouple extension wiring for controlling the tip 12 . the proximal end 19 of heat pipe 16 is attached to peltier effect thermoelectric cooling modules 18 . proximal cooling modules 18 draw heat from tip 12 and rejects it into a heat exchanger system depicted at 20 . a liquid coolant such as tap or chilled water may be circulated through appropriate tubing 22 , 23 to transfer heat from cryoprobe 10 to the remote heat exchanger 20 which in turn rejects the heat into the environment . tubing 22 , 23 may be made , for instance , of any well known plastic material , and may be insulated . alternatively , to get the heat from the thermoelectrics in handle 14 to the remote heat exchanger 20 , it is possible to use a circulating liquid system where supply and return liquid channels and wiring are contained within one tube ( not shown ). this tube will have a closed cell insulation extruded over the channels , with an outer protective sheath , such as silicone . heat pipe 16 is of a typical heat pipe construction known in the industry , as described above , having a closed thin wall tube with its inner wall covered with a capillary wick composed of several layers of fine material such as mesh screen , sintered metal wool , or powdered metal . preferably , heat pipe 16 and thermoelectric modules 18 are vacuum insulated . heat pipe 16 is evacuated and a volatile fluid , such as ammonia , is metered into the tube to a proper vapor pressure . cryogenic heat pipe 16 has a condenser end 19 and an evaporator end 17 . the condenser end 19 is cooled , and the gas condenses . the condensed liquid is absorbed by the wick and flows via capillary action to the evaporator end 17 . as heat is applied to the evaporator end 17 , some of the liquid evaporates to a gaseous state . high efficiency is achieved through the phase change of the liquid to its gaseous state . this gas travels at near sonic speeds through the hollow center to the cooled condenser end 19 where it gives up its heat . the gas recondenses and starts the cycle again through the wick . thus , the heat pipe is a closed cycle refrigerator which has no moving mechanical parts , and is powered externally by the thermoelectric materials . thermoelectric cooling modules 18 are essentially a multi - stage thermoelectric heat pump assembly containing numerous cascaded n - type semiconductors and p - type semiconductors well known in the art . electrons in the n - type semiconductors and holes in the p - type semiconductors move heat from the cool body to a heat sink where the heat is removed . a control unit 24 is provided to manage the power requirements of the system . control unit 24 supplies power through a connection 26 to control the circulation of coolant in heat exchanger 20 . control unit 24 also provides electrical power to the proximal thermoelectric modules 18 through a connection 28 . control unit 24 may be programmed to cycle the power to the thermoelectric modules 18 . connection 26 and connection 28 can be any connection commonly used in the industry . in general , the amount of d . c . voltage supplied to thermoelectric modules 18 controls the heat transfer rate of the module because heat moves through the n and p - doped semiconductor relative to the current flow , which in turn varies with voltage application . in operation , feedback sensors may be located at the tissue treatment site to provide temperature information to control unit 24 which is used to cycle power to the thermoelectric modules 18 . in the fig1 embodiment , temperature feedback is provided from the treatment site by a remote sensor 13 which is integrated into disposable treatment tip 12 . in general , one sensor 13 is sufficient on tip 12 , although more may be utilized . remote hypodermic thermocouple probes located in the tissue being frozen may also be used to provide the temperature feedback information . as shown in fig1 temperature data from the treatment site is supplied to the control module 24 through a connection 15 . connection 15 can be any connection commonly used in the industry . with respect to the fig1 embodiment , the temperature cycling of the tissue is accomplished by power regulation of proximal cooler 18 , and is mediated by heat pipe 16 and the passive treatment tip 12 . it should also be understood that a thermoelectric device itself can be operated as a temperature sensor . in embodiments where a distal peltier effect thermoelectric tip cooler module 30 , 30a is located proximate the treatment site , the thermoelectric tip module 30 , 30a can be operated to provide temperature feedback information by their respective current flows , since current flow in thermoelectric materials is directly related to their temperature . this configuration is shown in the embodiment depicted in fig2 and fig3 . fig2 a sets forth a cross - section view of thermoelectric tip cooler module 30 . tip module 30 is made of p and n semiconductor couples 50 positioned between voids 56 which are filled with a thermally conductive material , such as thermally conductive epoxy . insulating ceramic 60 , such as aluminum oxide , sandwiches the p and n couples 50 and the voids 56 filled with conductive material . with respect to the fig2 or fig3 embodiment , the battery of proximal thermoelectric modules 18 provides powerful cooling , reducing the temperature of the treatment site to that needed for the surgical procedure . at this point , a distal or thermoelectric tip cooler 30 , 30a , powered by control unit 24 , may selectively cool or heat the treatment site to provoke a designed or specified freeze / thaw cycle , thus promoting damage to the tissue by controlling the rate of water / ice or ice / water phase change . the distal or tip thermoelectric 30 , 30a , which can work as a cooler or heater by switching the voltage polarity from the dc power supply , serves to fine tune the temperature at the treatment site into a very accurate range , or a designed freeze / thaw cycle . in addition , distal or thermoelectric tip 30 , 30a is utilized to control the freeze / thaw rate . the apparatus shown in fig3 includes a bifurcated thermoelectric tip module 30a having two concentric zones . each zone is separately operated so it can be heated or cooled . when bifurcated thermoelectric module 30a has both zones in a cooling mode , an ice ball 36 will form , as shown in fig5 . each of the zones may be operated separately so that the co - central zone 31 may be operated as a heater while the adjacent annulus 32 may be operated as a cooler , or vice versa , to freeze or thaw the tissue within ice bolus 36 . in fig2 and fig3 proximal cascade thermoelectric module 18 is coupled to the treatment site through a heat pipe which connects to disposable thermoelectric tip module 30 , 30a at the distal end 17 of heat pipe 16 . feedback information in fig2 and fig3 is supplied to control unit 24 by connection 15 , as discussed above . the preferred treatment modality using the fig1 or 2 apparatus is depicted in fig4 a . the preferred treatment modality using the fig3 apparatus is depicted in fig5 . the preferred treatment modality using a heat pipe tip with a resistance heater is shown in fig5 a . the temperature - time history diagrams of fig6 a and 7 are applicable to , and may be generated by any of the above treatment modalities . fig4 illustrates the existing procedure where a treatment probe tip 12 is in contact with tissue 34 surface at a treatment site . compressed cryogen gas is sprayed on the inside of hollow probe tip 12 . as probe tip 12 is placed in contact with the tissue 34 surface , the expanding cryogen gas cools probe tip 12 to the desired operating temperature , such that an ice ball 36 is formed at and below the surface of tissue 34 . ideally , probe tip 12 is positioned so that the ice ball or bolus 36 which forms includes or encompasses the target , abnormal tissue or lesion 38 and a small amount of normal tissue 34 . after the cryoprobe 10 is removed , ice ball 36 begins to quickly thaw from the inside to the exterior . fig4 a illustrates heat pipe 16 with tip 12 in contact with the tissue 34 surface . as electricity is supplied to the proximal cooler 18 , heat pipe 16 is lowered to operating temperatures of about - 70 ° c . tip 12 on heat pipe 16 is positioned on the surface of tissue 34 . as the tissue temperature decreases , ice ball or bolus 36 forms , so as to surround and encompass the target , abnormal tissue 38 and a small amount of normal tissue 34 . after heat pipe 16 power is reduced , ice ball 36 begins to slowly thaw from the interior to the exterior . probe 10 is operated to selectively thaw that portion of ice bolus 36 which is adjacent probe tip 12 . selective thawing of bolus 36 is achieved by reduction of cooling power supplied to probe 10 . the power level supplied to probe 10 can be varied to prevent ice bolus 36 from completely thawing . temperature feedback can be used to control the delivery of power to the probe 10 to provide the alternating freeze and thaw cycles , or the power level can be preprogrammed to follow a preset power delivery protocol . fig5 illustrates an ice ball 36 formed when the bifurcated thermoelectric tip cooler module 30a shown in fig3 has both zones in the cooling mode . after the initial ice ball or bolus 36 is formed , the co - central zone 31 can be switched to a heating mode while keeping the adjacent annulus zone 32 in a cooling mode . by this technique , the target abnormal tissue or lesion 38 can be brought to a metabolizing temperature while the outer wall of bolus 36 remains substantially frozen . target tissue 38 , as it is warmed , comprises water and water metabolizing stored nutrients . ice in ice ball 36 is approximately four times as heat conductive as the liquid water in tissue 38 . thus , the outer cooled zone 37 surrounding target tissue 38 maintains the nutrient blocking ice shield . alternatively , as shown in fig5 a , a heat pipe 16 tip 12 can include a thin film heater 35 ( made from an etched - foil resistive element laminated between layers of insulating film of the tip 12 such as thermofoil ™ manufactured by minco products , inc .). thin film heater 35 performs the same function as inner thermoelectric zone 31 shown in fig5 . heat pipe conduction 39 performs the same function as outer thermoelectric zone 32 in fig5 . thus , thin film heater 35 can be used in a heating mode while heat pipe conduction 39 remains in a cooling mode so that target , abnormal tissue 38 can be brought to a metabolizing temperature , while the outer wall of bolus 36 remains substantially frozen , insulating the surrounding tissue from nutrient supply . the apparatus of the present invention may also be used to provoke multiple freeze - thaw phase changes in the treated tissue which are generated by selectively regulating the voltage delivered to the thermoelectric cooling modules . such regulation can be accomplished by selectively increasing and decreasing the voltage delivered to the thermoelectric cooling modules 30 , 30a to cool the treated tissue , followed by reversing the polarity of the voltage delivered to the thermoelectric cooling modules 30 , 30a to warm the treated tissue . it should be further understood that the freeze - thaw phase changes can be generated by regulating the voltage delivered to either one or both of the thermoelectric cooling modules 18 , 30 , 30a . in addition , the precise regulation of the phase changes may be accomplished through the use of a control and temperature sensor feedback system , where an embedded hypodermic thermocouple transmits temperature information to a microprocessor which monitors the rate of temperature change relative to time , thus detecting the phase change . the microprocessor then applies power to the thermoelectric modules so as to extend the phase change time , thereby causing maximum ice crystal growth . this type of control is known commonly in industrial process control as pid ( proportional , integral , derivative ) control . finally , when both thermoelectric modules 30 / 30a and proximal thermoelectric cooling modules 18 are utilized , freeze - thaw cycling may be accomplished by holding the thermoelectric cooling modules 30 / 30a at a constant , near - freezing temperature , while regulating the voltage delivered to the proximal cooling module 18 . multiple controlled ramp rates may be replaced in the above manner thus insuring complete tissue destruction in a single treatment . the time / temperature histories more fully describe this operation . in fig6 the temperature profile 40 shows the temperature history of the surface being contacted by a liquid cryogen while profile 42 shows the temperature profile a short distance inside the tissue treatment site . at point a in profile 42 , the tissue is at ambient temperature . the direct application of a liquid cryogen or hollow closed end tube being cooled by direct spray of a cryogen produces a steep drop in temperature in the tissue until it is removed as indicated at low point b . the tissue undergoes a natural thaw returning the temperature to ambient at point d . the inflection of the temperature time history at c , reflects the relatively rapid phase change from the solid to liquid phase . some ice crystal elongation does develop during the thaw , normally not enough to assure effectiveness , for this reason normal procedures call for a second application after the thaw when treating cancer lesions . additionally the freeze rate is so rapid that no phase change inflection can be detected during the temperature drop , thereby resulting in less damaging , very small ice crystals . these procedures depend on ice crystal growth solely during thaw to produce damage . in contrast to the direct application of liquid cryogens , fig6 a shows the time vs . temperature histories of the thermoelectrically powered probe . the temperature profile 40 shows the temperature history of the probe tip while 42 once again shows that temperature a short distance inside the tissue treatment site . at point a in profile 42 , the tissue is at ambient temperature . the application of power to the thermoelectric modules 18 results in cooling the tissue below the freezing point , to a low temperature designated as b , in fig6 . the temperature drop is created by multi - stage thermoelectrics in the handle of the probe 10 , and heat is extracted from the condenser end of the heat pipe . the evaporator end of heat pipe 16 is placed against target tissue 38 where it removes body heat at a rate shown by profile 42 . at this point , the electrical power to the thermoelectric modules 18 is turned off or reduced , and tissue 38 undergoes a warming cycle , returning the temperature of the tissue to ambient at d . in general , this temperature vs . time history emulates the application of a prior art liquid refrigerant directly on the tissue as shown in fig6 . however , in contrast to the prior art , the rate at which the tissue is frozen is a feedback controlled function with an extended phase change induced during the freeze portion of the cycle . in a similar fashion the b to d transition can be controlled as well , and the phase change time during the thaw cycle can be extended . control over the solid to liquid phase transition can be used to maximize the amount of tissue damage resulting from the ice crystal growth and elongation invoked by the controlled slow thaw cycle . direct application of the thermoelectric modules can achieve temperatures in the range of - 25 ° c . however , the addition of heat pipe 16 improves the ability of the surgeon to manipulate the cryoprobe device 10 and allows the use of the larger thermoelectric modules needed for the colder temperatures and proper depth of freeze . in addition , use of the heat pipe 16 provides a means to reach into cavities . heat pipe 16 can also be made flexible by using many thin walled microbore tubes in its construction to provide the gas and liquid transport areas of the pipe between the condenser and evaporator tip . fig7 is a graphical illustration of the preferred multiple freeze - thaw phase changes that occur in treated tissue over time as a result of cycled application of cryogenic temperatures when a thermoelectric application tip 30 is added to the electronic cryoprobe 10 of the present invention . in operation , the initial temperature of the tissue at a is at or above room temperature . the multistage thermoelectric module 18 , attached to the heat pipe 16 condenser end , drops the temperature initially to a less cold level b . thermoelectric tip 30 , or 30a added to the cold end of heat pipe 16 is applied to the site being treated , and heat is extracted or added as required to accomplish the tissue freeze / thaw procedure , shown at b , c , d , e , f , g , h and i in fig7 . very accurate and quick temperature changes can be pre - programmed using an embedded microprocessor to accomplish a positive procedure . with the coldest temperatures being generated at tip 30 or 30a , probe 10 may be inserted into more restricted and deeper cavities without the chance of damaging normal wall tissue . as can be appreciated , use of cryoprobe 10 using a bifurcated thermoelectric tip cooler module 30a creates an ice shield which prevents the flow of nutrients resulting from the thaw of tissue 38 , thereby ensuring cell starvation . a hand - held cryoprobe 10 eliminates the need for compressed gases , while giving the physician positive control . in addition , because solid state electronics lends itself to miniaturization , cryosurgical devices will have many uses , including possible use with endoscopes . while the invention has been described in detail with particular reference to the drawings and illustrative embodiment , it should be understood that modifications will be effected within the spirit and scope of the invention . | 0 |
in fig1 a device to be controlled which , for purposes of this description will be considered to be a camera 10 is positioned by an actuator 14 , in the form of a voice coil having an stator 16 and a movable armature 18 , which operates to position camera 10 through a mechanical connection shown as dashed line 20 . a position controller , 22 , which may be a computer , is shown having a first output on a line 24 which feeds the input of an amplifier 26 . amplifier 26 provides an output current , i coarse , at two output terminals 30 and 32 which are connected to a wire 34 wrapped a number of times , n , around the armature of the voice coil 14 . amplifier 26 preferably has an associated low pass filter , 35 , which filters out the noise , and the output current , i coarse , acting through n turns , causes the armature 18 to exert a force f , on camera 10 through the mechanical connection 20 . a position feedback shown by box 40 returns a signal via line 42 to controller 22 so that the motion caused by force , f , controls the camera 10 to the desired position . a sensor shown by box 46 , which may be an accelerometer , produces a signal on a line 48 to controller 22 informing the computer of the vibration which the camera 10 may be experiencing . since the vibration effect is at least an order of magnitude smaller than the position effect , if the two signals were added directly , the noise in the position signal would be of the same magnitude as the vibration signal and would tend to mask it out . to avoid this , controller 22 produces an antivibration signal on an output line 50 which generally will be smaller in magnitude than the position signal on line 24 . the signal on line 50 is presented to an amplifier 52 which produces an output current , i fine , at output terminals 54 and 56 connected to a wire 58 which is wrapped a number of times , n , around the armature of the voice coil 14 . in the normal situation , the output of amplifier 52 is of the same general order of magnitude as the output of amplifier 26 and accordingly , the number of turns , n , is made to be much larger than the number of turns , n . in some cases , amplifier 52 may have a very small output compared to the output of amplifier 26 in which case , the number of turns , n , need not be so very much larger than n . the important feature is that the force produced by the antivibration signal be proportionately smaller than the force produced by the position control signal . this would normally be at least one order of magnitude . this is most easily accomplished by adjusting the number of turns n , to the number of turns n . amplifier 52 may have an associated low pass filter , 59 , therein to filter out any noise but the magnitude of this noise is so small that filter 59 is probably not necessary . the output current i fine adds a small force to the positioning force f which operates to null the vibration . where b is a constant of magnitude which depends on the size and geometry of the magnetics in voice coil actuator , 14 . it is seen that by using a single actuator with two coils activating the armature , one coil having many turns and exerting a large influence on the movement of the armature and the other coil having few turns and exerting a proportionately smaller influence on the movement of the armature , a single actuator may be used . the position being controlled by the larger armature movement and any vibration which may exist being cancelled by the smaller movement . it is also seen that the noise in the larger signal can be filtered out without affecting the smaller signal for the vibration . if desired , a third correction could be added in cases where a third and yet smaller variable is desired to be added to the force f . in this event , as seen in fig3 a third output , 65 , from controller 22 would feed a third amplifier , 67 , to produce a third , and yet smaller , current into a third winding , 70 , around armature 18 to produce a third factor into the force f of considerably less effect than the position signal and the antivibration signal . when the third output is small enough to be swamped by the noise in the second signal , then the second output would be separately filtered , as shown , and the third output independently connected to the coil 70 , as shown , to provide protection in the same manner as the first and second outputs avoid the second output from being swamped by the first output . it is therefore seen that i have provided a novel actuator requiring only one movable force exerting device and which produces an output force of magnitude dependent upon the main force plus additional smaller forces that might be desirable to use without allowing the noise which may exist in the larger force to mask the effect of the smaller forces . many changes will occur to those having skill in the art . for example , while a camera - positioning device has been used in the description of the preferred embodiment , there are many other devices such as telescopes , mirrors , antennas etc ., which can use the present invention , and while a voice coil type actuator has been used in the description of the preferred embodiment , there are many other actuators such as piezoelectric , electrostatic , motors , etc ., which can use the present invention . i therefore do not wish to be limited to the structures and methods described in presenting the preferred embodiment but rather intend to rely on the claims to define the scope of the invention . | 7 |
fig4 illustrates the structure of the pulse shrinking delay element of this invention and its signal flow diagram . the present pulse shrinking delay element 5 consists of 3 not gates as shown in fig4 ( a ), wherein all of the not gates are identical except the inhomogeneous second not gate 52 with different dimension or driving capability . the applied input pulse t ina will be shrunk by a designated width and propagates to the output terminal to form output pulse t outa after a specified delay time , the shrinking or expanding capability depend on the dimension ratio between the adjacent elements instead of the adjustment of an external bias voltage . for convenience we are intended to derive only the first order approximate formulas for the pulse shrinking mechanism by assuming all inputs to the not ( rates are of stepwise pulses . as shown in fig4 ( b ), when the pulse goes from the first homogeneous not gate 51 to the second inhomogeneous not gate 52 , the falling time and rising time are : t phl1 = 2 c 2 v tn k n1 ( v dd - v tn ) 2 + c 2 k n1 ( v dd - v tn ) ln [ 1 . 5 v dd - 2 v tn 0 . 5 v dd ] ( 1 ) t plh1 = - 2 c 2 v tp k p1 ( v dd + v tp ) 2 + c 2 k p1 ( v dd + v tp ) ln [ 1 . 5 v dd + 2 v tp 0 . 5 v dd ] ( 2 ) respectively , where k n1 and k p1 are the transconductance parameters of n - type and p - type transistors in the first not gate 51 , and c 2 is the equivalent input capacitance of the second not gate 52 . assuming − v tp = v tn , the difference in pulse width of an input pulse propagated from the first homogeneous not gate 51 to the second inhomogeneous not gate 52 can be calculated as t plh1 − t phl1 : δ w 1 = c 2 ( 1 k p1 - 1 k n1 ) [ 2 v tn ( v dd - v tn ) 2 + 1 ( v dd - v tn ) ln { 1 . 5 v dd - 2 v tn 0 . 5 v dd } ] ( 3 ) similarly , the pulse shrinking time for the input pulse propagating from the second inhomogeneous not gate 52 to the third homogeneous not gate 53 can be calculated as t phl2 − t plh2 : δ w 2 = - c 2 ( 1 k p2 - 1 k n2 ) [ 2 v tn ( v dd - v tn ) 2 + 1 ( v dd - v tn ) ln ( 1 . 5 v dd - 2 v tn 0 . 5 v dd ) ] ( 4 ) where c 3 = c 1 . the total pulse shrinking time before and after passing through the present element is : δ w = δ w 1 + δ w 2 = ∂ i [ c 2 ( 1 k p1 - 1 k n1 ) - c 1 ( 1 k p2 - 1 k n2 ) ] ( 5 ) where c 1 , k p1 , k n1 are the equivalent input capacitance and transconductance parameters of those two identical not gates 51 and 53 , c 2 , k p2 , k n2 are those of the interpolated inhomogeneous not gate 52 ; and ∂ i = 2 v tn ( v dd - v tn ) 2 + 1 v dd - v tn ln ( 1 . 5 v dd - 2 v tn 0 . 5 v dd ) is a constant factor which is more or less layout independent . thus , by varying the dimension ratio of the not gates , the pulse shrinking capability of the present element can be easily controlled . for example , in the case that transistors in these three not gates are made of the same length ( l ), while the width ( w ) of the transistors in the second inhomogeneous not gate 52 is β - times of that in the rest two homogeneous not gates , then k n2 = β × k n1 , k p2 = β × k p1 , c 2 = β × c 1 × c 3 , and formula ( 5 ) may be further simplified as : δ w = ( β - 1 β ) c 1 ( 1 k p1 - 1 k n1 ) ∂ i ( 6 ) if β = 1 , it means all those three not gates are identical , in which case δw = 0 , and input pulse will be neither shrunk nor enpanded , if β ≠ 1 , the shrinking or expanding of the input pulse depends on the value of β . for example , let the size of p - type and n - type transistors in the first not gate 51 and the third not gate 53 be 3 μm / 1 μm and 1 m / 1 μm respectively , the simulation result for different β value is shown in fig5 the result obtained is well conformed with formula ( 6 ). for more accurate analysis , some other factors must be taken into consideration , such as the rising and falling edge of the input pulse actually having an of exponential - decay rather than being stepwise ; the impedance reflection effect in serial stages ; and the dependence of the threshold voltage v t on the device geometry , etc . fig6 is an embodiment of a cyclic delay line of this invention , wherein an inhomogeneous not gate 52 with different dimension or driving capability is inserted into the cyclic delay line 2 c constructed by homogeneous not gates in series . the delay line 2 c is used to shrink the input pulse t in to a desired extent and delay it by a designated time period to form the output pulse t out . the output pulse t out is cycled back to the input of the delay line 2 c via the coupling circuit , and the shrinking or expending capability of this construction can be controlled by proper arrangement of the dimension ratio between the inhomogeneous not gate 52 and its adjacent gates . it is expectable to improve the abovesaid delay line 2 b in a prior cyclic tdc to obtain easier design and control of pulse shrinking and to waive the need of external bias voltage adjustment by virtue of this invention . fig7 indicates an extended application of the cyclic delay line in fig6 . though the number of inhomogeneous gates in the delay line is increased to two , the input pulse still undergoes different rising and falling times at the interface boundaries around the inhomogeneous gates . the pulse shrinking mechanism still works , and the number of the inhomogeneous gates in the delay line can be varied favorably on demand . a cyclic cmos tdc shown in fig8 is derived directly from the structure shown in fig7 wherein a coupling control circuit 6 consists of two nand grates 61 and 62 ; the output pulse t out is coupled back to the input end of the delay line by gate 61 for pulse shrinking in the next cycle ; and the other nand gate 62 provides a reset terminal for resetting the delay line 2 d . to simplify the tdc circuit , those coupling nand gates 61 and 62 not only can form the coupling circuit 6 but also serve as inhomogeneous elements in delay line 2 d , similar to elements 52 and 54 in fig7 counter 4 is used to count the circulation times of pulse t in in the cyclic delay line 2 d to indicate the measurement output of the time - to - digital conversion . the cyclic delay line 2 d comprises 2 k ( even number ) homogeneous not gates as well as two inhomogeneous nand gates 61 and 62 to shrink the input pulse t in by a specific amount from cycle to cycle until it vanishes . fig9 indicates the measured reverse output waveform of the cyclic cmos tdc based on this invention for a narrow t in which is gradually shrunk to final disappearance in in compliance with our inference . if t cyclic represents the cycle period for the input pulse to circulate the delay line 2 d once , then the largest width of input pulse t in must be equal to or less than t cyclic , otherwise , the whole delay line 2 d will be entrapped into a failure state v 0 = v 1 = . . . = out = low . in other words . t cyclic is the maximum measurement range of the cyclic cmos tdc based on this invention . when a wider tdc measurement range is desired , the delay line 2 d should be lengthened . besides , the initial calibration of the cyclic cmos tdc of this invention is just the same as that of the prior cyclic cmos tdc suppose n is the count obtained from a reference pulse t ref by the present tdc , and n ′ is that from 2t ref ( by dividing the frequency of t ref by 2 ), the effective resolution ca and measurement offset t offset of the present tdc will be : α = t ref n ′ - n ( 7 ) t offset = n ′ - 2 n n ′ - n t ref ( 8 ) the measurement width of an input pulse t in with a measured count is is : t in = n + n ′ - 2 n n ′ - n t ref ( 9 ) fig1 indicates the enlarged micro - photograph of the realized cyclic cmos tdc ic shown in fig8 based on this invention , which is fabricated by the 0 . 35μ spdm process , and wherein the aspect ratios of adopted transistors are 12 μm / 1 μm for p - mos and 8 μml / 1 μm for n - mos respectively in those two nand gates of the control circuit 6 ; the delay line 2 k comprises 86 homogeneous not gates with aspect ratios 6 μm / 1 μm for p - mos and 2m / 1 μm for n - mos respectively ; and a 10 - bit ripple counter 4 is included to form a total chip area of 350 μm × 90 μm ( i / o pads excluded ), far smaller than any prior cmos tdc . moreover , the idle current of the tdc ic is mere 0 . 3 μa under 3 . 3 v power supply . and an average conduction current is no more than 370 μa under measurement rate 100 k / sec and output code 200 ( the ratio of operation time over idle time is 3 . 8 μs / 6 . 2 μs ). fig1 depicts the single - shot measurement results along with the theoretical prediction line of a cyclic cmos tdc based on this invention . to explore the effective resolution of the new cyclic tdc , a series of input pulses with different width were sent to this tdc for coding . the same input pulses were also measured by a standford research system sr620 universal counter and a tektronix tds680b real - time digital oscilloscope for reference . though , no calibration is done during the whole measurement process , the experimental data agrees with the linear prediction very well . the effective lsb width is calculated by eq . ( 9 ) to be 68 picoseconds , very close to the simulated value and far below the record 286 picoseconds — the lowest of the prior cmos tdcs . fig1 shows the error between the single - shot measurements and the theoretical calculation . all the single - shot errors are around ½ lsb width ( 34 ps ). in reality , the tdc with cyclic delay line structure possesses perfect linearity it is reasonable to postulate that most of the errors , corresponding to such deep sub - nanosecond resolution , may be induced by the jitter effect of the pulse generator and the inherent measurement error of the universal counter . the dead time of single - shot measurements is at most a few microseconds , depending on the width of the measured pulse . a measurement rate of 100 khz at least is promised for the present tdc . fig1 shows the supply voltage sensitivity of the present cyclic cmos tdc . to verify the supply voltage dependence of the new tdc , another series of experiments were conducted for supply voltages ranging from 1 . 5 v to 4 . 5 v ( the maximum supply voltage for 0 . 35 μm spdm chips ) with 0 . 1 v increment . for each supply voltage , two different single - shot pulses were coded by the tdc and the effective resolution was estimated as the ratio of the pulse width difference over the output code difference . the present tdc can sustain fine resolution around 65 ˜ 69 picoseconds for a wide supply voltage range of 2 . 5 v to 4 . 5 v , therefore , it is quite insensitive to supply voltage variation . the only feature seriously affected by the supply voltage variation is the measurement range . if necessary , a built - in multiplexer may be used to alter the effective delay line length to accommodate the measurement range variation . fig1 shows the temperature sensitivity of the present cyclic cmos tdc . another series of temperature dependence experiments were conducted similarly . the effective resolution was calibrated for every other 10 ° c . the present tdc retains resolution of around 65 ˜ 72 picoseconds for − 20 ° c . to 40 ° c . ambient temperature range . it is rather temperature insensitive . fig1 illutrates the resolution distribution of the realized ics of the present cyclic cmos tdc . to test the robustness of the fabricated tdc , the effective resolution of the other five available chips , numbered from 2 to 6 . are measured to investigate the influence of the process variation . the effective resolutions reveal a satisfactory range of 46 ˜ 72 picoseconds . function assessments of the representative tdcs are listed in fig1 for reference . in comparison with prior cmos delay elements , the advantages of the cmos pulse shrinking delay element with deep subnanosecond resolution of this invention can be summarized as : 1 . converting the pulse shrinking delay element of the linear time - to - digital converter from analog type into digital type elements the problems in bias voltage adjustment , continuous calibration , and trial - and - error design process . 2 . the shrinking or expanding capability of the cyclic cmos tdc based on this invention is controlled by the dimension ratio between the inhomogeneous gate and its adjacent elements . no dll is needed for continuous calibration , and the circuit can be greatly simplified to reduce chip size , power consumption , and to improve the resolution and accuracy . 3 . the delay element of the invention is insensitive to supply voltage and ambient temperature variations . based on the above description , although at least one preferred embodiment has been elucidated with reference to relating drawings annexed , it is apparent that numerous variations or modifications may be made without departing from the true spirit and scope thereof , as set forth in the following claims . k . m { umlaut over ( aa )} ttä , j . kostamovaara . m . koskinen , and r . myllylä , “ time - to - digital converter for fast , accurate laser range finding ,” in proc . spie industrial inspection , september 1988 . vol . 1010 , pp . 60 - 67 . a . rothermal hid f . dell &# 39 ; ova “ analog phase measuring circuit or digital cmos ic &# 39 ; s ,” ieee jssc , vol . 28 no . 7 , pp . 853 - 856 , july 1993 . rapeli et al . “ method and circuitry for demdulation of angle modulated signals by measuring cycle time ,” u . s . pat . no . 5 , 270 , 666 , december 1993 . elvi räisänen - ruotsalainen , etc . “ a low - power cmos time - to - digital converter ,” ieee jssc , vol . 30 no . 9 , pp . 984 - 990 , september 1995 . timo e . rahkonen , etc . “ the use of stabilized cmos delay lines for the digitization of short time intervals ,” ieee jssc . vol . 28 . no . 8 , pp . 887 - 894 , august 1993 . poki chen , shen - iuan liu and jingshown wu , “ a low power high accuracy cmos time - to - digital coniverter ,” iscas &# 39 ; 97 , vol . 1 , pp . 281 - 284 , june 1997 . kalisz r . szplet , j . pasirbinski , and a . poniecki . “ field - programmable - gate - array - based time - to - digital converter with 200 - ps resolution ,” ieee trans . im , vol . 46 , pp . 51 - 55 . february 1997 . t . a . demiassa , and z . ciccone , “ digital integrated circuits ,” john wiley & amp ; sons , inc ., 1996 . | 7 |
now referring to the drawings , preferred embodiments of the invention are described below . fig1 is a block diagram showing an electric configuration of a facsimile apparatus 1 in one embodiment of the invention . in the facsimile apparatus 1 of the embodiment , the conventional telephone answering connection mode is eliminated so that reception modes comprise a manual reception mode , a telephone / facsimile select mode , and a facsimile reception mode . the facsimile apparatus 1 comprises a main control unit 2 which is responsible for control of the entire apparatus , a reading unit 3 , a recording unit 4 , an operation panel 5 , a ram ( random access memory ) 6 , a timer 7 , and a modem 8 are connected to the main control unit 2 . the reading unit 3 may be , for example , a ccd ( charge coupled device ) sensor , and reads the document to be transmitted . the recording unit 4 , containing a thermal head , for example , reproduces the received data as an image output on recording paper not shown herein . the operation panel 5 includes plural keys for inputting various instructions such as input of the destination telephone number and command of the facsimile apparatus . the ram 6 stores various conditions / parameters of the automatic answering telephone function provided along with telephone set 31 shown in detail in fig2 . the timer 7 detects the actual condition of the automatic answering telephone function , the activation period during action of this function , and other parameters . as described below , filters f1 , f2 , f3 built in the modem 8 permits detection of , the frequency fp of the beep sound p sent out from a transmitter 37 of the answering function of the telephone set 31 . a transmission amplifier 9 and a reception amplifier 10 are connected to a connection jack 23 connected to public telephone network circuits through a transformer 14 and a circuit changeover switch 15 . the transmission amplifier 9 , reception amplifier 10 and transformer 14 are connected through switches 11 , 12 , 13 . the switches 11 , 12 , 13 are switches for changing over the signal sent out from the telephone set 31 connected through the connection jack 20 to be entered into the main control unit 2 , and they execute the actions individually as described later . the circuit changeover switch 15 is a switch for closing the direct - current circuit between the public telephone circuits and the modem 8 for transmitting and receiving the facsimile or the external telephone set 31 . resistance r1 and capacitor c1 only permit transmission of the alternating - current component of the signal on the public telephone circuits in the open state of the switch 15 to the transformer 14 , and further transmitting to the modem 8 . the switch 11 connects the public telephone circuits and modem 8 , when the direct - current circuit is closed , through the transformer 14 . the switch 12 prevents undesired noise signal produced from the telephone set 31 from being transmitted to the modem 8 during service of the telephone set 31 connected to the connection jack 20 . the switch 13 connects public telephone circuits and modem 8 , or to connect the telephone set 31 and modem 8 , when the direct - current circuit is open . between the switch 11 and switch 13 , resistance r2 and capacitor c2 determine the connection impedance to the public telephone circuits in the open state of the switch 15 and to adjust the level and frequency characteristic of the signal sent from the resistance r1 or capacitor c1 provided in the switch 15 . therefore , the switches 11 to 13 are connected as shown in table 1 below . table 1______________________________________ switch switch switchstate 11 12 13 connection state______________________________________waiting c b c connection of public telephone circuit and modem 8 in dc circuit open statecommunicating b c c connection of public telephone circuit and modem 8 in dc circuit closed statedetection c b b connection ofregistration telephone set 31 and modem 8______________________________________ a hook detector 16 detects the state of the hook switch of the telephone set 31 , and delivers the detection signal to the main control unit 2 . a dummy ringer generator 17 generates a dummy ringer voltage corresponding to the ringer voltage entered from the public telephone circuits . the hook detector 16 and dummy ringer generator 17 are connected to the connection jack 20 to which the telephone set 31 is connected through a switch 18 . the switch 18 connects the telephone set 31 to the hook detector 16 or dummy ringer generator 17 . the switch 18 and connection jack 20 are connected through a switch 19 . the switch 19 connects the telephone set 31 via the connection jack 20 to the public telephone circuit or to the facsimile apparatus 1 . a polarity inversion detector 21 monitors the direction of the current flowing in the public telephone circuits to detect the polarity inversion of the direction of flow of the current when outgoing or when incoming as well as the state of the hook switch of the telephone set 31 . between the polarity inversion detector 21 and connection jack 23 , there is an arrester 24 for protecting the facsimile apparatus 1 by absorbing voltage surges or the like that may be generated on the public telephone circuits . the incoming detector 22 detects whether a call is incoming or not by responding to the call signal from the caller ( exchange ). fig2 is a block diagram showing an electric configuration of the telephone set 31 connected to the facsimile apparatus 1 . the telephone set 31 possesses the so - called automatic answering telephone function , and is furnished with a telephone unit 32 and a control circuit 33 . the telephone unit 32 comprises , among others , a dialer for converting the telephone number entered by the user into pulse signals or tone signals and sending them out to the public telephone circuits , and transmission and reception amplifiers of voice signals . a handset 34 for communicating is also connected to the telephone unit 32 . the control circuit 33 is a circuit for controlling the automatic telephone answering function a voice message store unit 35 , a voice store unit 36 , and a transmitter 37 . the voice message store unit 35 is for example , a ram . a stored voice message states , for example , &# 34 ; i &# 39 ; m away from home now . leave your message after the beep sound .&# 34 ; the voice store unit 36 is for example , a magnetic recording and reproducing apparatus , where the received caller &# 39 ; s message is recorded and reproduced . the transmitter 37 sends out a beep sound p to begin storing a received voice message in voice store unit 36 after the voice message announcement is over . the telephone unit 32 and control circuit 33 are connected to a connection jack 39 through a network control circuit 38 . the network control circuit 38 control operation of the handset 34 through the telephone unit 32 or execution of the automatic telephone answering function . the connection jack 39 is connected to the connection jack 20 of the facsimile apparatus 1 . fig3 is a flow chart schematically showing the detection and registration action of parameters of the automatic telephone answering function of the telephone set 31 . at step a1 , an answering record mode of the telephone set 31 is set by the user . by this setting , as the action parameter , the number n of received ring signals until the voice message is sent out , the send - out period t1 of voice message , and recording time t3 of addresser &# 39 ; s message are determined . at step a2 , a register mode of the facsimile apparatus 1 is specified from the operation panel 5 of the facsimile apparatus 1 . when the register mode is specified , the main control unit 2 connects the terminal 19a and terminal 19c of the switch 19 , and terminal 19d and terminal 19f , respectively . at step a3 , the telephone set 31 is called . calling of the telephone set 31 is executed by applying a dummy ringer voltage generated in the dummy ringer generator 17 to the telephone set 31 . when this voltage is applied , the terminal 18a and terminal 18c of the switch 18 are connected , but while voltage is not applied , the terminal 18a and terminal 18b are connected , and the state of the hook switch of the telephone set 31 is monitored by the hook detector 16 . calling of the telephone set 31 is executed by a present number n of rings . this number is counted by a counter in the main control unit 2 . at step a4 , it is judged if the telephone set 31 has responded to the call or not . this judgement is executed by detecting the on state of the hook switch of the telephone set s1 by the hook detector 16 . when incoming , the operation advances to step a5 , otherwise returning to step a3 . at step a5 , detection and registration of action parameters of the automatic answering telephone function of the telephone set 31 are executed . this action is executed in the conditions of ( a ) the number n of rings up to send - out of the voice message , ( b ) send - out period t1 corresponding to voice message , and ( c ) frequency fp and send - out period t2 of beep sound p . these detection data are stored in the ram 6 . when the detection and registration action is over , advancing to step a6 , the end of registration is displayed . as for condition ( a ), on the basis of the detection signal from the hook detector 16 at step a4 , the main control unit 2 stores the number n of rings until the detection signal is received , in the ram 6 . conditions ( b ) and ( c ) are executed as follows . as for ( b ), the timer 7 is started by the timing of receiving the detection signal from the hook detector 16 , and the send - out period t1 of the voice message is measured . at the same time , ( c ) the frequency fp and send - out period t2 of the beep sound p are detected . the frequency fp is detected by the modem 8 , and a facsimile modem for g3 is , for example , executed by using a built - in programmable filter f . the band width fs of the filter f is set as ( fpmax - fpmin )/ x = fs , supposing the range of the detection frequency fp within fpmin ≦ fp ≦ fpmax . herein , fpmin expresses the minimum value of detection frequency , and fpmax is the maximum value of detection frequency . meanwhile , x denotes the number of divisions of the frequency band divided for the purpose of detection . besides , supposing the number y of filters f detected simultaneously by the modem 8 , the division number x is expressed as x = a · y - b . here , y is defined as y & gt ; b . therefore , by repeating the detection action a times , detection of beep sound p in one unit of band width fs of filter f is executed . for example , provided fpmax = 2100 hz , fpmin = 900 hz , x = 6 , y = 3 , the band width fs of filter f is fs = 200 hz (=( 2100 - 900 )/ 6 ), so that a = 2 . therefore , by executing the detection action twice , detection of frequency fp can be executed in one unit of 200 hz in a range of 2100 hz to 900 hz . as shown in fig4 by the first detection action , bands f1 , f3 , f5 are set in filters f1 , f2 , f3 of the modem 8 , and by the second detection action , bands f2 , f4 , f6 are set in the filters f1 , f2 , f3 of the modem 8 , respectively . the first and detection actions are divided into the bands f1 , f3 , f5 , and the bands f2 , f4 , f6 , which is intended to prevent simultaneous detection by two filters if there is the frequency fp to be detected in the boundary of the filter detection bands . moreover , by varying the division number x , the range of band width fs of the filter f can be changed . on the other hand , the send - out period t2 is measured by starting the timer 7 after the send - out period of the response message . fig5 is a flow chart showing the detection and registration action in detail . at step b1 , the register mode of the facsimile apparatus 1 is set from the operation panel 5 of the facsimile apparatus 1 . in succession , at step b2 , the number of repetitions a = 2 of the detection action is set . at step b3 , a dummy ringer voltage generated in the dummy ringer generator 17 is entered in the telephone set 31 . at step b4 , it is judged by the main control unit 2 if the telephone set 31 has responded to the voltage or not depending on presence or absence of the detection signal from the hook detector 16 . if incoming , the operation advances to step b5 , otherwise skipping to step b21 . at step b5 , the hook switch is turned on , and the automatic answering telephone function of the telephone set 31 is actuated , and the send - out period t1 of the voice message is measured by the timer 7 . at step b6 , 1 is subtracted from the count a by the main control unit 2 , and it is judged if the number of repetitions a is 0 or not . if 0 , the operation advances to step b7 , and if 1 , to step b14 . at step b7 , the bands f1 , f3 , f5 are set in the filters f1 , f2 , f3 incorporated in the modem 8 , thereby advancing to step b8 . at step b14 , the bands f2 , f4 , f6 are set in the filters f1 , f2 , f3 , thereby advancing to step b8 . at step b8 , it is judged if the filter f1 is turned on or not . it is turned on when the frequency band fi set in the filter f1 coincides with the frequency fp of the beep sound f , and turned off if not coinciding . the operation advances to step b9 when the filter f1 is not on , and to step b15 if on . at step b9 , the same judgement as in step b8 is executed on the filter f2 . the operation advances to step b10 when the filter f2 is not on , and to step b15 when on . at step b10 , the same judgement as in steps b8 , b9 is executed on the filter f3 . the operation advances to step b11 when the filter f3 is not on , and to step b15 when on . at step b11 , it is judged if the detection signal from the hook detector 16 is turned off or not . the operation advances to step b12 if off , and returns to step b8 otherwise . at step b12 , it is judged if the detection action is over to turn on the end flag . the operation advances to step b23 if on , and to step b13 if not on . at step b13 , it is judged if the number of repetitions a is 0 or not . the operation advances to step b22 if 0 , and returns to step b3 if 1 . at step b15 , as any one of the filters f1 , f2 , f3 of the modem 8 is turned on , the send - out period t2 of beep sound p is measured by the timer 7 . at step b16 , it is checked if the &# 34 ; on &# 34 ; filter fi of the modem 8 has been turned off or not . herein , the subscript i is from 1 to 3 . if turned off , the operation advances to step b17 , and if not off , returning to step b16 , the judgement is continuously repeated . at step b17 , the predetermined recording period t3 of the caller &# 39 ; s message is measured by the timer 7 . at step b18 , it is judged if there is any voice signal in the recording period t3 . if voice signal is not produced , the operation advances to step b19 , and if voice signal is produced , it goes to step b11 . at step b19 , it is judged if the predetermined recording period t3 is terminated or not . this judgement is conducted whether the hook switch is turned off or not . if terminated , advancing to step b20 , and the operation returns to step b18 if not terminated . at step b20 , the end flag is set and turned on , thereby moving to step b11 . at step b21 , as the detection signal from the hook detector 16 at step b4 continues to be in off state , it is judged if the preset number n of calls is finished or not . the operation advances to step b22 if finished , and returns to step b3 if not finished . at step b22 , the display telling it is impossible to register , and it is over . at step b23 , the voice message send - out period t1 , beep sound p send - out period t2 , caller &# 39 ; s message recording time t3 , and band f1 of &# 34 ; on &# 34 ; filter fi which have been recorded in a series of actions are recorded in the ram 6 . at step b24 , the display showing the end of registration is shown . fig6 is a timing chart showing the detection and registration action . calling is made by the dummy ringer voltage generated in the dummy ringer generator 17 . at this time , the terminal 19a and terminal 19c , and terminal 19d and terminal 19f of the switch 19 are connected respectively . the switch 18 intermittently connects the terminal 18a and terminal 18c in order to send out the ringer voltage . the dummy ringer voltage is applied to send out , for example as shown in fig6 ( 2 ), a ringing signal of 16 hz for 1 second , and send out the same ringing signal again 2 seconds later . this ringing signal is sent on preset number of times n . when called n times , the voice announcement message is sent out for period t1 from the telephone answering unit . at this time , the hook detector 16 produces a detection signal at a high level , and the terminal 13a and terminal 13b of the switch 13 are connected , and the signal from the telephone set 31 is fed into the reception amplifier 10 . when the voice announcement message is completed , the beep sound p is produced for period t2 , and then the caller &# 39 ; s incoming message is recorded for period t3 . after recording for period t3 , the terminal 19a and terminal 19b , and terminal 19d and terminal 19e of the switch 19 are connected respectively , and the hook detector 16 produces a detection signal of low level , and further the terminal 13a and terminal 13c of the switch 13 are connected . thus , during the period of detection and registration action , the terminal 11a of the switch 11 is connected with the terminal 11c , whereas the terminal 15a of the switch 15 is not connected to the terminal 15b . fig7 is a flow chart showing the operation of the facsimile apparatus 1 . the reception mode of the facsimile apparatus 1 is set in one of the three modes mentioned above . at step c1 , it is judged if the registration mode is set in the facsimile apparatus 1 or not , and the operation advances to step c2 if registered , and is over if not . at step c2 , it is judged if the telephone set 31 is called or not . the operation advances to step c3 if called , and returns to step c2 if not . at step c3 , the number m of rings is counted by a counter in the main control unit 2 . at step c4 , it is judged if the telephone set 31 has responded to the call , and the operation advances to step c5 if responding , and returns to step c2 if not . at step c5 , band fi is set in filter f1 of the modem 8 . at step c6 , the voice message send - out period t4 is measured by the timer 7 . at step c7 , it is judged if the filter f1 is on or not , and the operation advances to step c8 if on , and to step c17 if not on . at step c8 , simultaneously when the filter f1 is turned on , the send - out period t5 of beep sound p is measured by the timer 7 . at step c9 , it is judged if the period t4 satisfies the registered condition of t1min ≦ t4 ≦ t1max , where t1min is the value of t1 provided with a minus allowance and t1max is the value of t1 provided with a plus allowance . when this condition is satisfied , the operation advances to step c10 , and when not satisfied , the action is terminated . at step c10 , it is judged if the period t5 satisfies the registered condition of t2min ≦ t5 ≦ t2max , where t2min is the value of t2 provided with a minus allowance and t2max is the value of t2 provided with a plus allowance . when this condition is satisfied , the operation advances to step c11 , and when not satisfied , the action is terminated . at step c11 , it is judged if the number m of rings is within the registered number n , and if the judgement is affirmative , the operation advances to step c12 , and if negative , the action is terminated . at step c12 , the detection of the answering mode is displayed in the display unit not shown herein . at step c13 , the recording time t6 of the caller &# 39 ; s message is measured by the timer 7 . at step c14 , it is judged if there is voice signal in period t6 , and the operation skips to step c18 if absent , and goes to step c15 if present . at step c15 , it is judged if a cng signal sent out from the caller has been detected or not . if cng is not detected , the operation advances to step c16 , and if cng is detected , changeover to facsimile reception is executed . at step c16 , it is judged if the specified time , that is , the predetermined time for judging the voice signal or cng signal , is over or not , and the action is terminated if over , and returns to step c14 if not over . at step c17 , as the filter f1 is not on , it is judged if the predetermined specified time is over or not . the action is terminated if over , and returns to step c7 if not over . at step c18 , as there is no voice signal at step c14 , it is judged if the measured recording period t6 is over the preset recording period t3 or not . the connection is changed over to the facsimile reception if exceeding the period t3 , and the operation returns to step c14 if not . fig8 is a timing chart during operation of the facsimile apparatus 1 . during operation of the facsimile apparatus 1 , the terminal 19a and terminal 19d of the switch 19 are connected to the terminal 19b and terminal 19e , respectively , and the terminal 18a of the switch 18 is connected to the terminal 18b . the detection signal from the hook detector 16 is low level . the terminal 13a of the switch 13 is connected to the terminal 13c , and the terminal 11a of the switch 11 is connected to the terminal 11c . the terminal 15a of the network changeover switch 15 is not connected to the terminal 15b . when calling is executed , the incoming detector 22 is turned on . when the telephone set 31 responds to the call , the polarity inversion detector 21 is turned on , and the voice message is sent out for the period t4 , and the beep sound p is sent out for the period t5 . after the beep sound p , the caller &# 39 ; s message is recorded for the period t6 , and then the terminal 11a of the switch 11 is connected to the terminal 11b , and the terminal 15a of the network changeover switch 15 is connected to the terminal 15b , thereby changing over to the facsimile reception . afterwards , a ced signal and dis ( nsf , csi ) signal are sent out . thus , according to the embodiment , when the operator sets the automatic answering telephone set in the answering record mode , he is liberated from the trouble of also setting the facsimile to the answering telephone connection mode . moreover , the problem of unexpected change to the facsimile apparatus during telephone service is solved . if the manual reception mode is set at the facsimile , after the automatic answering telephone function is actuated to record the caller &# 39 ; s voice message , the no - signal detection function preset in the facsimile apparatus 1 changes the connection of the public telephone network to the facsimile so as to be ready for facsimile reception . hence , it is not necessary to change over the mode setting , and the controllability and convenience are enhanced . the invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit or essential characteristics thereof . the present embodiments are therefore to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive , the scope of the invention being indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description and all changes which come within the meaning and the range of equivalency of the claims are therefore intended to be embraced therein . | 7 |
fig1 shows an axial piston machine 1 with an electrically actuatable control valve 2 according to the present invention . the invention includes a control valve , which is shown as rotary disk valve 3 , which can be actuated by a stepper motor 4 . the diagonal position of the swash plate 5 can be adjusted by a plurality of positioning pistons 6 which is located on both sides of a pivoting axis of the swash plate 5 . the rotary disk valve 3 contains a rotatable control shaft 7 and a rotatable sleeve 8 which surrounds the control shaft 7 on the outside periphery thereof . on the control shaft 7 there is a groove 9 which can be pressurized with a supply pressure supplied by an auxiliary pump 32 , through a ring - shaped groove 10 located on the sleeve 8 and a supply pressure line 11 . a groove 12 , which is axially offset from the groove 9 , is connected to the housing of the axial piston machine 1 by a ring - shaped groove 13 located on the sleeve 8 and a line 14 . there are two additional ring - shaped grooves 15 , 16 on the sleeve 8 . the grooves 15 and 16 can be connected to the grooves 9 , 12 which are located on the control shaft 7 , and each of which can be connected to the positioning pistons 6 by lines 17 and 18 , respectively . in the illustrated embodiment , the output shaft 19 of the stepper motor 4 is non - rotationally connected to the control shaft 7 of the rotary disk valve 3 . located on the swash plate 5 is a component 20 which is non - rotationally connected to the sleeve 8 . the rotary disk valve 3 and the stepper motor 4 are located on the housing of the axial piston machine 1 . in the embodiment illustrated in fig1 the rotary disk valve 3 is oriented so that the longitudinal axis 21 of the stepper motor 4 and of the rotary disk valve 3 runs perpendicular to an axis of rotation 22 of the axial piston machine 1 and is aligned with the pivoting axis of the swash plate 5 . in this embodiment , the angle of rotation set by the stepper motor 4 on the rotary disk valves corresponds to the pivoting angle of the swash plate 5 with reference to its pivoting axis . the embodiment of the invention illustrated in fig2 consists of an arrangement in which the longitudinal axis 21 of the stepper motor and of the rotary disk valve is parallel to the axis of rotation 22 of the axial piston machine 1 . for purposes of simplification in the following description , the components illustrated in fig2 are identified by the same reference numbers as the identical components in fig1 . fastened to the swash plate 5 is a transmission component 23 which is connected to the sleeve 8 of the rotary disk valve 3 . as shown in fig3 the transmission component 23 includes a spherical - shaped end in the vicinity of the rotary disk valve 3 and is connected to the sleeve 8 of the rotary disk valve 3 by a groove - shaped recess 24 . in this embodiment , there is also a translation ratio in the range of 1 : 2 between the diagonal position of the swash plate 5 and the angle of rotation of the rotary disk valve 3 . therefore , as a function of the transmission ratio , an angle of rotation of 40 ° of the rotary disk valve 3 corresponds to a displacement of the swash plate 5 by 20 °. fig4 illustrates one possible circuit diagram of the control valve . the control shaft 7 of the rotary disk valve 3 has two grooves 9 a , 9 b which are offset from one another by 180 ° and which are pressurized with a supply pressure generated by the auxiliary pump 32 through the line 11 . offset by 90 ° from the grooves 9 a and 9 b , there are an additional two grooves 12 a , 12 b , which are connected by the line 14 with a tank 33 or with the housing of the axial piston machine 1 . the sleeve 8 of the rotary disk valve 3 has two grooves 15 a , 15 b and two grooves 16 a , 16 b which are offset from one another by 180 °, and which are connected by lines 17 and 18 with the positioning pistons 6 a , 6 b which are located on either side of the pivoting axis of the swash plate 5 . to adjust the position of the swash plate 5 , an electrical input signal is formed by counting pulses . the input signal is converted in the stepper motor 4 to an angle of rotation of the output shaft 19 and of the control shaft 7 of the rotary disk valve 3 which is non - rotationally connected to the output shaft 19 . the angle of rotation of the control shaft 7 corresponds to the number of counting pulses . if the control shaft 7 is moved in the clockwise direction as shown in fig4 for example , control pressure flows from the auxiliary pump 32 through the line 11 and the grooves 9 a and 9 b into the groves 15 a and 15 b and thus via the line 17 into the piston chamber of the positioning piston 6 b . simultaneously , a connection is created between the positioning piston 6 a and a tank 33 via the line 18 , the grooves 16 a and 16 b , the grooves 12 a and 12 b and the line 14 . the swash plate 5 thereby pivots in the direction 34 . as a result of the mechanical coupling of the sleeve 8 of the rotary disk valve 3 and the swash plate 5 , by the components 20 and 23 illustrated in fig1 and fig2 respectively , the sleeve 8 is simultaneously rotated as a function of the position of the swash plate 5 , and when it has reached the desired position of the swash plate 5 , closes the control edges on the rotary disk valve 3 . the stepper motor output shaft 19 may be effectively connected to a device 30 , shown schematically in fig1 which places the output shaft in a neutral position . this guarantees that the stepper motor output shaft 19 and the corresponding component of the rotary disk valve 3 are pulled back into the neutral position , e . g ., in the event of a power failure , and then the swash plate 5 will pivot into the neutral position . furthermore , the stepper motor output shaft may be connected to a device 40 , shown schematically in fig1 which monitors the angle of rotation and / or the neutral position of the output shaft . it is thereby possible to monitor the angle of rotation and / or the neutral position of the output shaft 19 , if the stepper motor 4 does not convert electrical counting pulses into a rotational movement of the rotary disk valve 3 . it is thereby possible to correct the neutral position in safety routines . it is anticipated that the control shaft 7 , which is connected to the output shaft 19 could alternatively be connected to device 30 and / or device 40 . while the invention is described in detail herein , it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that various modifications and alternatives to the arrangements can be developed in light of the overall teachings of the disclosure . accordingly , the particular arrangements are illustrative only and are not limiting as to the scope of the invention which is to be given the full breadth of the appended claims and any and all equivalents thereof . | 5 |
fig1 schematically shows device 10 which includes inlet line 12 drawing the fuel into fuel pump 14 and the line 16 to the entrance of treating assembly 18 . the treated fuel exits through line 20 and flows into carburetor 22 . fig3 is a cross - sectional view of treating device 18 and along with fig2 and 4 - 5 , show the details thereof . the upstream end of device 18 includes an inlet chamber 24 closed off by a distributor plate 26 . as shown in fig2 - 3 , distributor plate 26 includes a series of coarcuate holes 28 and a central hole 30 . plate 26 may be made of any suitable material such as metal . a first set of magnets 32 is provided downstream from distributor plate 26 and spaced therefrom by screen or filter material 34 which is compressed between magnets 32 and plate 26 and thereby in contact therewith . as shown in fig3 an annular space 36 is between the outer periphery of magnets 32 and the inner surface of casing 38 . additionally , magnets 32 are ring magnets with an axial passage 40 in line with central opening 30 of distributor plate 26 . a second set of magnets 42 is provided spaced from first set of magnets 32 again with screen material 44 therebetween and in contact with both sets of magnets . similarly , a third set of magnets 46 is provided downstream from magnets 42 and spaced therefrom by screening 48 which is in contact with both sets of magnets 42 and 46 . finally , additional screen material 50 is provided downstream from the various sets of spaced magnets at the end of the magnetic chamber formed in casing 38 . screen material 50 is preferably in the form of a thick bundle of screen having undulations of cutouts 52 to permit the screen material 50 to be pressed against magnet assembly 46 and thus also permitting compression of screen material 50 . after assembly of the distributor plate and the various sets of magnets and screen material in casing 38 , a sleeve 54 is inserted downstream therefrom in electrode chamber 56 to retain the various components in a relatively stable axial position in the magnetic treating chamber without separate mounting means . the provision of the screen material which presses against the various magnet assemblies permits the magnet assemblies to be relatively tightly held in axial position while still spaced from each other . the fuel entering inlet chamber 24 flows through distributor plate 26 and more particularly through its openings 28 , 30 so that some fuel flows in the annular space 36 and the remaining fuel flows through the aligned axial openings 40 before exiting into electrode chamber 56 . while thus flowing , the fuel is subjected to the magnetic force applied to the individual magnets . after being so subjected to the magnetic flux , the fuel is subjected to an electrical force applied by , for example , a pair of spark plugs 58 . the fuel then discharges through outlet 60 connected to line 20 ( fig1 ). fuel treating device 18 may take various forms and be of various sizes in accordance with the desired end results . for example , casing 38 may have a 3 inch inside diameter . the ring magnets may have , for example , an outside diameter of about 23 / 4 inches . where used for automobiles , the length of casing 38 may be , for example , 6 inches or 9 inches and may be 12 inches for diesel trucks . where a 6 inch length is used for automobiles , the fuel may be pumped therein at a rate of 5 gallons per hour . the sets of magnets may include 3 sets as illustrated with 4 magnets in each set ( for unleaded gas ) or only 2 sets of magnets with 6 individual magnets in each set ( for leaded gas ). the magnets in all embodiments are arranged with a polarity of one magnet opposed to its adjacent magnet as illustrated . where a 9 inch length is used then , for example , 9 gallons per hour would be fed and the magnet assemblies could include 3 sets of magnets with each set having 6 magnets or 3 sets of magnets with the first and third sets having 6 individual magnets and the central set having 4 magnets . where only 2 sets of magnets are used , such as for leaded gas , each set has 9 magnets . for diesel fuel with casing 38 being 12 inches long , 26 gallons per hour fuel would be fed and the magnet assembly could include 3 sets of magnets with each set having 8 magnets or 3 sets of magnets with 8 magnets in each end set and 6 magnets in the central set or 2 sets of magnets with 12 magnets in each set . advantageously , each magnet is mounted on a hollow sleeve 41 so that its aligned central openings form the axial passageway 40 . the clearance between the outer periphery of the magnets and the inner surface of casing 38 would be , for example , 1 / 4 inch so that the annular space 36 would be half of that clearance or 1 / 8 inch . insert or retainer 54 is advantageously made of a suitable material such as pvc and is 2 inches in length . it is to be understood that the various dimensions and materials previously referred to are merely exemplary and are given so that one may practice the invention . | 7 |
fig1 schematically depicts a sending unit 12 and a receiving unit 13 . in a method according to the present invention , sending unit 12 sends radio signals to receiving unit 13 . sending unit 12 can , however , also receive data from receiving unit 13 , and receiving unit 13 can correspondingly send data to sending unit 12 . arrow 14 schematically depicts this bidirectional data exchange between receiving unit 13 and sending unit 12 . receiving unit 13 can , however , also receive data from other devices , as arrow 15 depicts . receiving unit 13 can furthermore also send data to other devices , as arrow 16 depicts . data transmission between receiving unit 13 and the other devices can occur in cable - based fashion and / or by way of a radio transmission . another device can be , for example , a memory device that counts and / or stores the radio signals of sending unit 12 . fig2 schematically depicts an execution diagram of a method for controlling an apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention . the method begins , for example , at step 1 , in which receiving unit 13 waits for radio transmission of a signal from sending unit 12 . in step 2 , receiving unit 13 receives a first signal portion , the first signal portion being transmitted in a first time interval . transmission of the first signal portion in the first time interval is represented by step 3 . in the first time interval , for example , radio signals are transmitted as a first signal portion ; the radio signals can be processed or not processed by receiving unit 13 . in embodiments of the present invention , processing of the radio signals occurs in such a way that the number of radio signals that , for example , exceed a threshold value or exhibit a specific carrier frequency as a carrier id is counted . counting of these radio signals takes place in step 4 . the number of radio signals counted in the first time interval is stored as , for example , value n . in embodiments , receiving unit 13 waits until the end of the first time interval for the transmission of further radio signals , as depicted by step 5 . in embodiments , the second time interval begins with step 6 . in embodiments , in step 7 , radio signals are received in the second time interval . in embodiments of the present invention , these radio signals are counted if they exhibit the same carrier frequency , or exceed the same threshold value , as the radio signals in the first time interval . the number of radio signals counted is stored as , for example , value m . in embodiments , in step 8 , all the radio signals received by the end of the second time interval are correspondingly counted or not . in embodiments , after the second time interval , values n and m are compared . at point 9 , for example , the number of radio signals counted in the first and in the second time interval is the same . in embodiments , this is then followed by step 10 in which , for example , various operating modes of the apparatus are started . in embodiments of the present invention , different operating modes of the apparatus are selectable in step 10 as a function of values n , m . if n and m denote , for example , three counted radio signals , then , for example , a measurement of a tire pressure of a vehicle is performed . in embodiments , if the number of radio signals counted in the first and in the second time interval is not the same , as depicted by point 11 , no change occurs in the operating mode of the apparatus . receiving unit 13 instead waits , for example , once again for the radio transmission of sending unit 12 , as in step 1 . in embodiments , there are as many different variations of values n , m as there are operating modes of the apparatus . for three operating modes of the apparatus , for example , three different numbers of radio signals can be stored as values n , m . as a result of the uncomplicated method , the apparatus according to the present invention can have an economical sending unit 12 and an economical receiving unit 13 . in embodiments , the energy consumption of the receiving unit 13 and sending unit 12 that are used is very low , so that the apparatus can be operated using a battery for power supply or energy delivery purposes . in embodiments , because a change in the operating mode of the apparatus occurs only when a predefined number of counted radio signals is present in the first time interval and in the second time interval , the apparatus changes over into a different operating mode only in the context of a double query performed in such a fashion . in embodiments , the apparatus embodiment becomes more reliable as a result , since the probability of a changeover into an erroneous operating mode as a result of an erroneous signal transmission between sending unit 12 and receiving unit 13 is reduced . in embodiments , energy is saved at the same time as a result , since , for example , other components of the apparatus are not started in error if the apparatus is changed over into an erroneous operating mode . such components can be , for example , microcontrollers . | 1 |
referring to the drawings , particularly fig1 and 2 , the letter a indicates generally one embodiment of the optical pyrometer and sight tube assembly of this invention . numeral 10 refers to the optical pyrometer unit , and a tubular member extending from the pyrometer unit defines a coupler neck 11 . the flanged end of coupler neck 11 is connected to one of the flanged ends of the valve 12 . a sight glass ( pressure seal ) 13 is sandwiched between the flanged ends of the coupler neck 11 and valve 12 . the pyrometer unit 10 and sight glass 13 can be isolated from the environment of the turbine inlet section 19a by closing valve 12 . valve 12 can be operated manually or automatically , by electrical or pneumatic control systems . suitable valves for this purpose are those in which there is a clear line of sight through the valve bore when the valve is in open position . examples of such valves are gate valves , ball valves , and plug valves . the sight tube assembly is made up basically of the sight tube 15 and a tubular member which defines a nozzle 14 . the front end of the nozzle 14 , which is flanged , fastens to the flanged end of valve 12 , which is opposite from coupler neck 11 . the opposite end of the nozzle 14 ( not flanged ) is fastened to the turbine casing 16 . the sight tube 15 fits inside the nozzle 14 , and the flange on the front end of this tube is clamped between the flanged ends of the nozzle and valve . the outside diameter of the sight tube 15 is slightly smaller than the inside diameter of the nozzle 14 , such that an annular space 17 is defined between the sight tube 15 and nozzle 14 , as best shown in fig4 . the lower end of sight tube 15 extends through a hot gas duct member 18 and prevents excessive leakage of compressor discharge air into the turbine inlet section 19a . as best shown in fig2 it is preferred that the lower end of the sight tube be flush with the inside surface 18a of the duct member 18 . beyond the surface 18a is the turbine inlet section 19a , where the gas temperatures are extreme . in the practice of this invention , the reason for not allowing the sight tube 15 to extend into the hot gas duct is to lessen the chance that thermal degradation will cause the end of the tube to fragment and break off . the sight tube 15 also has several small openings , indicated by numeral 20 , which are located near the flanged end of the tube . the compressor discharge section of the turbine compressor 21 is an area that lies between casing 16 and the hot gas duct 18 ( or ducts ), as indicated generally by the numeral 21a . within the turbine section 19 there are several rows of stationary guide vanes , as indicated by numeral 22 , and several rows of rotating turbine blades , indicated by numeral 23 . as best shown in fig1 each row of turbine blades is mounted on a rotor shaft 24 , and each row of the stationary guide vanes 22 is mounted within the turbine section , such that a row of guide vanes 22 is positioned before each row of the turbine blades 23 . the invention can be illustrated by describing a typical operation in which the pyrometer unit continuously monitors the temperature of the first row of the rotating turbine blades 23 , and utilizes this data to automatically control the firing temperature of the turbine . there are several commercially available optical pyrometer systems that may be used in the practice of this invention . one of these systems , known as a two - color pyrometer , is preferred as the primary temperature monitoring system in this invention . the detector of this unit responds to two wavelength bands of radiation , in which the temperature data is calculated as a ratio product of the two wavelengths . a particular advantage of this unit is its ability to compensate for changes in emissivity from the rotating blades . another advantage is that the unit can compensate for variations in the transmission of the radiation through the sight glass , which can be caused by films or other materials that might obscure the view through the glass . since the detector has a slow speed of response , a profile of individual blade temperatures cannot be obtained , but it does have the capability of reading out average temperature values . other conventional optical pyrometer systems utilize a single band wavelength to detect radiation . a particular advantage of some of these systems is that the detector has a high speed of response to the radiation . this enables the pyrometer unit to &# 34 ; read &# 34 ; individual blade temperatures and thus find the hottest blades in the turbine section . one of the drawbacks of this unit is the emissivity variable , which is an integral part of the detector function . this variable makes the unit less reliable over a long period of time for obtaining average blade temperature readings . to provide for the temperature monitoring operation , the optical pyrometer unit 10 and the sight tube assembly are installed , as previously described , in a position such as that shown in fig1 and 2 . when the installation is complete , the turbine is started and valve 12 is moved to its open position . the pyrometer unit 10 is then adjusted to give a direct and clear view of a selected target spot on the first row of the rotating turbine blades 23 . in fig3 a typical target spot is indicated schematically by a small &# 34 ; s &# 34 ; that appears on one of the turbine blades that is passing through the field of view . as illustrated in the drawings , the line of sight , indicated by numeral 26 , follows a direct path from the pyrometer unit 10 , through valve 12 , sight tube 15 , and passes through the opening between two of the stationary guide vanes 22 in the first row of the vanes . as mentioned earlier , the first row of the stationary guide vanes 22 is positioned ahead of the first row of turbine blades 23 . it is the actual positioning of the sight tube 15 in the turbine engine that enables the pyrometer unit 10 to view the rotating turbine blades 23 along a direct line of sight . this capability of the optical pyrometer 10 to view the turbine blades 23 along the direct line of sight , which does not pass through any component of the turbine section , as illustrated herein , is believed to be a unique improvement over any known technique for measuring turbine blade temperatures by optical pyrometry . as explained earlier , the function of the optical pyrometer unit 10 is to continuously monitor and sense the temperature of the turbine blades 23 . the temperature data is transmitted to an electronic control circuit ( not shown ), which controls various turbine operating conditions , such as inlet gas temperature , outlet gas temperature , fuel input , and the like . this enables the control circuit to automatically regulate the fuel supply to the turbine , and thus maintain the firing temperature at a desired level . during operation of the turbine , water vapor inside the turbine structure can move upwardly through the sight tube 15 and valve 12 and condense on the inside of the sight glass 13 . the resulting condensate film on the sight glass usually obscures the line of sight sufficiently to produce incorrect temperature readings . this problem is solved by purging the sight tube 15 with pressurized air from the compressor discharge section 21a . for example , air in the compressor discharge section 21a is at about 150 psi , which is about 5 psi higher than the inlet pressure of the gas in the turbine inlet section 19a . this pressure differential allows the air in the compressor discharge section 21a to flow back through the annular space 17 between nozzle 14 and sight tube 15 . the air in space 17 passes through the openings 20 , and flows through the sight tube 15 to the turbine section . as the air moves through the sight tube 15 , it carries any water vapor with it . the sight glass 13 has the function of a viewing window for the pyrometer unit 10 . since the sight glass 13 is a solid piece of material with no openings therein , it functions as the critical pressure seal between the turbine and the pyrometer unit 10 when valve 12 is in the open position . in the preferred embodiment of this invention , as described and illustrated herein , valve 12 provides a means for isolating the sight glass 13 and pyrometer unit 10 from the turbine engine environment . as pointed out earlier , this is an important feature of this invention , because it makes it possible to remove and replace the pyrometer unit 10 or the sight glass 13 , or to service the instrument while the turbine is running . the scope of this invention also includes a second embodiment in which the isolation valve 12 is omitted from the structure illustrated herein . in this embodiment the coupler neck 11 of the pyrometer unit 10 connects directly to the flanged ends of the nozzle 14 and sight tube 15 , with the sight glass 13 being positioned between the flanged ends of the coupler neck and the sight tube . as described earlier , it is the actual positioning of the sight tube in the turbine engine that enables the pyrometer unit to view the rotating turbine blades along a direct line of sight . the practice of this invention also includes being able to install the sight tube in a position that will allow the pyrometer unit , or another sensing instrument , to view other components internal to the engine , such as the stationary guide vanes , the hot gas duct , the combustors , or other parts . for example , as shown in fig3 the sight tube 15 provides a direct pathway that permits the pyrometer 10 to view both the rotating turbine blades and at least part of adjaent guide vanes 22 that are located in the first row of the stationary guide vanes . for the sake of simplicity , the present invention has been illustrated in the drawings as a gas turbine utilizing a single hot gas conduit . the invention is applicable to gas turbines that include a plurality of hot gas conduits , as indicated by the description herein . in fact , the invention was first utilized in a multiple - conduit turbine . the number of hot gas conduits is a matter of gas turbine design , and bears no relationship to the subject matter of the present invention . | 6 |
the illustrative embodiments provide a method , a data processing system , and a computer program product ( embodied in a computer - readable storage device ) for automatically generating new testcases from existing testcases based on noun - verb pairings . in the following detailed description of exemplary embodiments of the invention , specific exemplary embodiments in which the invention may be practiced are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the invention , and it is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized and that logical , architectural , programmatic , mechanical , electrical and other changes may be made without departing from the spirit or scope of the present invention . the following detailed description is , therefore , not to be taken in a limiting sense , and the scope of the present invention is defined by the appended claims and equivalents thereof . it is understood that the use of specific component , device and / or parameter names are for example only and not meant to imply any limitations on the invention . the invention may thus be implemented with different nomenclature / terminology utilized to describe the components / devices / parameters herein , without limitation . each term utilized herein is to be given its broadest interpretation given the context in which that term is utilized . as may be utilized herein , the term ‘ coupled ’ encompasses a direct electrical connection between components or devices and an indirect electrical connection between components or devices achieved using one or more intervening components or devices . as used herein , the terms ‘ data ’ and ‘ evidence ’ are interchangeable . as may be used herein , the terms ‘ testcase ’, ‘ test code ’, and ‘ test automation code ’ are interchangeable . traditionally , testers have spent considerable time creating test automation code ( i . e ., testcases ) to test software . graphical user interface ( gui ) testing is one example in which a great deal of time has been spent creating and maintaining testcases , often requiring very specialized expertise . automation recorders are one approach that has been used to reduce the time spent creating testcases for guis . unfortunately , automation recorders typically produce code that requires renewed attention with each new feature or slight alteration to a gui . according to the present disclosure , new testcases may be created by extending already existing test automation code . in various embodiments , new testcases are generated using logic from existing testcases that is modified based on new specifications for new features that require testing . the disclosed techniques generate new testcases by extending test automation code coverage with reduced or no additional manual effort . according to one aspect of the present disclosure , machine learning is employed to facilitate the automatic generation of new testcases . in various embodiments , specifications for an existing product and testcases used to test features of the existing product are loaded into an automated testcase generation system that executes a machine learning application . in one or more embodiments , the testcase system is configured to extract noun - verb pairings from specifications of an existing product using standard natural language processing ( nlp ) techniques . existing testcases are then matched with respective noun - verb pairings ( during a training process ) by a machine learning application to produce a classification model ( classifier ). when a new feature is added to a product , specifications for the new feature are provided as input to the classifier , and the classifier is configured to create a new testcase by adapting one or more existing testcases ( associated with the existing product specifications ) with similar features . the approach generally reduces the overall manual effort required to extend testcase coverage or repair testcases whose features have changed . conventionally , the watson system has explored large amounts of structured and unstructured data to find candidate answers for a question ( or a problem ). according to various embodiments of the present disclosure , a watson system may be modified to receive input other than questions . for example , in one or more embodiments , a watson system is modified to receive original product specifications and related original testcases . upon receipt of the original product specifications and the related original testcases , the modified watson system is configured to match noun - verb pairings in the original product specifications with the related original testcases . a classifier of the modified watson system is then trained on the matched noun - verb pairings and related original testcases . when one or more new product specifications are received by the modified watson system , noun - verb pairings in the new product specifications are matched with similar noun - verb pairings in the original product specifications . the modified watson system then generates new testcases from the original testcases that are associated with the similar noun - verb pairings ( e . g ., by substituting nouns and verbs from noun - verb pairings in the new product specifications for nouns and verbs associated with appropriate ones of the original testcases and / or by combing multiple ones of the original testcases to generate new testcases ). while the various techniques are described herein as being implemented in a modified watson system , it is contemplated that the disclosed techniques may be implemented in any cognitive nlp system . as noted above , a data processing system configured to build new testcases loads specifications ( and related testcases ) associated with a product and creates noun - verb pairings for the specifications . the creation of noun - verb pairings typically involves parsing natural language of the information and pairing ‘ nouns ’ ( e . g ., ‘ radio button ’, ‘ dialog box ’, or ‘ alert message ’) with associated ‘ verbs ’ ( e . g ., ‘ click on ’, ‘ drag ’, or ‘ delete ’) in a conventional manner . in various embodiments , the information is representative of its purpose , i . e ., the information encompasses the breadth , if not the specific detail , of the kinds of automation tasks for which test automation code is to be generated . for example , if the software is configured to generate test automation code for clicking ( verb ) on buttons ( noun ), then examples of buttons and clicking should usually exist within the load specifications in some form . it should be noted , however , the nouns and verbs do not necessarily have to be already associated in the specifications and do not necessarily have to be exact matches ( e . g ., nouns and verbs may correspond to synonyms and / or nouns and verbs may be singular or plural ). according to the present disclosure , subsequent to product specification generation , machine learning models are trained to generalize the knowledge stored within the product specifications . in a typical implementation , the software is fed a ‘ ground truth ’ ( i . e ., a set of pairings between specification functionality and automation test code that validates the functionality ). in at least one embodiment , the ‘ ground truth ’ is manually maintained training data for the machine learning application . the ‘ ground truth ’ includes a mapping between automation test code and noun - verb pairings included in product specifications and can be extracted from known valid testing repositories , e . g ., git ™ version control system or rational team concert ™ ( rtc ) work items and associated change sets . the data processing system then runs standard machine learning classification algorithms to train models that use the features extracted from the specification to select the most relevant test automation code ( modeled as a dependent variable using any of a plurality of machine learning mechanisms , e . g ., bayesian classification ) when presented with noun - verb pairings from a new specification . as described above , noun - verb pairings are used in combination with existing testcases to produce new testcases . using conventional natural language processing ( nlp ) techniques , loaded specifications are disassembled into component nouns and verbs that are used to locate potential matches . a solution is selected , based on the models generated , to serve as a template for final test automation code . using the nouns and verbs isolated by the nlp analysis , a ‘ template ’ code ( i . e ., an existing testcase that has similar functionality to the desired functionality ) is adjusted to fit the new specifications . as one example , assume a ‘ search feature ’ in a product is being tested , a testcase for a simple search is already coded for an original product specification , and a new feature for ‘ categorized search ’ is being added that allows a user to select a search target from a drop - down list of available categories ( e . g ., ‘ blogs ’, ‘ activities ’, ‘ mail ’, etc .) to constrain a search . further , assume a repository of test automation code and specifications from various past projects are available that include tests of various features across various kinds of software ( including different kinds of ‘ search features ’, as well as other features that use drop - downs , select links , verify pages , etc .). according to an embodiment of the present disclosure , the information is loaded into the system with the repository of test automation code and the specifications being stored in an internal representation of noun - verb pairings ( e . g ., ‘ click on ’, ‘ search button ’, and ‘ select text from drop down ’ and ‘ select text from combo box ’). implementing standard nlp techniques , similar terms , such as ‘ select ’ & amp ; ‘ pick ’ and ‘ drop down ’ & amp ; ‘ combo box ’ may be associated while distinguishing ‘ selecting text from drop down ’ and ‘ clicking ’ on a link . a training set of samples of the test automation code with the associated specifications may then be created . for example , assume a project in the repository has a feature that uses a drop - down menu to select filters for spreadsheet - style data and another project that allows a user to ‘ search ’ a document for string - matches . these features also have automation test code and specifications that can be mapped . in this case , a training set is built by pairing the specification for the filter selection feature with the test automation code for the filter selection feature . following training of the model on the training set , a new specification that includes a new feature for a current project is loaded into the system . the new specification is then searched and analyzed and new test automation code is generated by modifying old test automation code that has similar nouns and verbs ( in its associated specification ) to include the new nouns and verbs that define a new project . by reviewing the existing test automation code base , the system may ascertain how to ‘ search ’ ( a verb ) and ‘ select ’ ( a verb ) from a ‘ drop - down list ’ ( a noun ). in general , modern automation tools facilitate querying applications under test and dynamically performing an action . in various embodiments , test automation code that performs an action is matched with language used to describe the action . for example , in the case of a drop down list , the verb ‘ select ’ and which element to select is translated into test automation code such that an automation tool may dynamically search for the element and select the element . in this case , when a new specification that involves ‘ selecting ’ from a ‘ drop - down list ’ to ‘ search ’, existing test automation code that is already associated with known nouns and verbs is used to create new test automation code that tests a new feature in the new specification . according to various aspects of the present disclosure , techniques for performing high performance computing ( hpc ) or network computing ( using one or more nodes ) is described herein that advantageously automatically generates new testcases from existing testcases based on noun - verb pairings . as used herein , a ‘ node ’ may include one or more symmetric multiprocessors ( smps ). with reference to fig1 , an example topology for a relevant portion of an exemplary hpc cluster ( supercomputer ) 100 includes a number of nodes ( n 1 - n 18 ) that are connected in , for example , a three - dimensional ( 3d ) torus topology . while eighteen nodes are illustrated in fig1 , it should be appreciated that more or less than eighteen nodes may be present in an hpc cluster configured according to the present disclosure . with reference to fig2 , each of the nodes n 1 - n 18 of fig1 may include a processor system , such as data processing system 200 . as is illustrated , data processing system 200 includes one or more chip - level multiprocessors ( cmps ) 202 ( only one of which is illustrated in fig2 ), each of which includes multiple ( e . g ., eight ) processors 204 . processors 204 may , for example , operate in a simultaneous multithreading ( smt ) mode or a single thread ( st ) mode . when processors 204 operate in the smt mode , processors 204 may employ multiple separate instruction fetch address registers to store program counters for multiple threads . in at least one embodiment , processors 204 each include a first level ( l1 ) cache ( not separately shown in fig2 ) that is coupled to a shared second level ( l2 ) cache 206 , which is in turn coupled to a shared third level ( l3 ) cache 214 . the l1 , l2 , and l3 caches may be combined instruction and data caches or correspond to separate instruction and data caches . in the illustrated embodiment , l2 cache 206 is further coupled to a fabric controller 208 that is coupled to a main memory controller ( e . g ., included in a northbridge ) 210 , which supports a main memory subsystem 212 that , in various embodiments , includes an application appropriate amount of volatile and non - volatile memory . in alternative embodiments , fabric controller 208 may be omitted and , in this case , l2 cache 206 may be directly connected to main memory controller 210 . fabric controller 208 , when implemented , facilitates communication between different cmps and between processors 204 and memory subsystem 212 and , in this manner , functions as an interface . as is further shown in fig2 , main memory controller 210 is also coupled to an i / o channel controller ( e . g ., included in a southbridge ) 216 , which is coupled to a host channel adapter ( hca )/ switch block 218 . hca / switch block 218 includes an hca and one or more switches that may be utilized to couple cmp 202 to cmps in other nodes ( e . g ., i / o subsystem nodes and processor nodes ) of hpc cluster 100 . fig3 illustrates relevant components of an automated testcase generation system pipeline 300 for an exemplary automated testcase generation system . as is illustrated in fig3 , a new product specification ( nps ) analysis block 302 of pipeline 300 receives input ( e . g ., in the form of new product specifications ) and generates an output representing its analysis of the input . it should be appreciated that original product specifications and testcases are required to have been previously loaded and acted upon by the system , as discussed above . a candidate generation block 304 of pipeline 300 receives the output from nps analysis block 302 at an input and generates candidate testcases . the candidate testcases are provided to an input of a testcase scoring block 306 , which is configured to initiate a supporting evidence search ( by supporting evidence search block 308 ) in order to score the various generated testcases . the results of the testcase scoring are provided to a final testcase block 310 , which is configured to provide a final testcase based on the scoring of the candidate testcases . it should be appreciated that blocks 302 - 310 may be implemented in program code executing on one or more processor cores or may be directly implemented in dedicated hardware ( logic ). fig4 illustrates relevant components of exemplary automated testcase generation system pipeline 300 in additional detail . as is illustrated , nps analysis block 402 receives an nps . an output of block 402 is provided to an nps decomposition block 404 , which further analyzes the nps to create one or more noun - verb pairings . block 404 provides inputs to multiple hypothesis generation blocks 406 , which perform parallel hypothesis generation . hypothesis generation blocks 406 each perform a primary search , collect reference data from different structured and unstructured sources , and generate candidate testcases . for example , data generated by hypothesis ‘ i ’ may be referenced as ‘ d_i ’, and data generated by hypothesis ‘ j ’ may be referenced as ‘ d_j ’. the data ‘ d_i ’ and ‘ d_j ’ may be the same data , completely different data , or may include overlapping data . as one example , an automated testcase generation system may be configured , according to the present disclosure , to : receive an nps ; create ‘ n ’ hypotheses ( 1 . . . n ) to locate candidate testcases ( e . g ., n = 10 ) in the existing testcases ; and load information for each hypothesis ‘ i ’ on which to operate into a shared cache . for example , assuming a shared cache across all hypotheses , 1 / nth of the shared cache may be loaded with data for each hypothesis to operate on . the automated testcase generation system may be further configured to execute the ‘ n ’ hypotheses to return ‘ m ’ candidate testcases ( in this case , each hypothesis generates one or more candidate testcases ). for example , the notation ‘ ans_i ’ may be employed to denote a set of candidate testcases generated by hypothesis ‘ i ’. in various embodiments , hypothesis and evidence scoring for each hypothesis is initiated in hypothesis and evidence scoring blocks 408 . that is , the automated testcases system is further configured to score all the candidate testcases using hypothesis and evidence scoring techniques ( e . g ., providing ‘ m ’ scores for ‘ m ’ candidate testcases ). in synthesis block 410 the qa system evaluates the candidate testcases with the highest scores and determines which hypotheses generated the highest scores . following block 410 , the automated testcase generation system initiates final confidence merging and ranking in block 412 . finally , in block 414 , the automated testcase generation system provides a testcase ( and may provide a confidence score ) for the new feature in the new specification . assuming , for example , the candidate testcases ‘ j ’, ‘ k ’, and ‘ l ’ have the highest scores , a determination may then be made as to which of the hypotheses generated the best candidate testcases . as one example , assume that hypotheses ‘ c ’ and ‘ d ’ generated the best candidate testcases ‘ j ’, ‘ k ’, and ‘ l ’. the automated testcase generation system may then upload additional data required by hypotheses ‘ c ’ and ‘ d ’ into the cache and unload data used by other hypotheses from the cache . according to the present disclosure , the priority of what data is uploaded is relative to candidate testcase scores ( as such , hypotheses producing lower scores have less associated data in cache ). when a new specification is received , the above - described process is repeated . if the hypotheses ‘ c ’ and ‘ d ’ again produce best candidate testcases , the automated testcase generation system loads more data that is relevant to the hypotheses ‘ c ’ and ‘ d ’ into the cache and unloads other data . if , on the other hand , hypotheses ‘ h ’ and ‘ g ’ produce the best candidate testcases , the automated testcase generation system may load more data relevant to the hypotheses ‘ h ’ and ‘ g ’ into the cache and unload other data . it should be appreciated that , at this point , hypotheses ‘ c ’ and ‘ d ’ probably still have more data in the cache than other hypotheses , as more relevant data was previously loaded into the cache for the hypotheses ‘ c ’ and ‘ d ’. according to the present disclosure , the overall process repeats in the above - described manner by basically maintaining data in the cache that evidence scoring indicates is most useful . the disclosed process may be unique to an automated testcase generation system when a cache controller is coupled directly to an evidence scoring mechanism of the automated testcase generation system . with reference to fig5 a process 500 for associating noun - verb pairings with related testcases , according to aspects of the present disclosure , is illustrated . process 500 may be implemented , for example , through the execution of one or more program modules ( that are , for example , configured to function as a testcase training engine ) by one or more processors 204 of data processing system 200 . process 500 is initiated in block 502 and then proceeds to block 504 , which illustrates a data processing system 200 receiving as inputs one or more existing product specifications and one or more existing testcases that test features defined in the product specifications . next , in block 506 , data processing system 200 performs noun - verb parings for nouns and verbs located in the existing product specifications . next , in block 508 , data processing system 200 matches the noun - verb pairings with related ones of the testcases . then , control transfers from block 508 to block 510 , where data processing system 200 trains or continues to train a machine learning application classifier based on the matched noun - verb pairings and related testcases . next , in decision block 512 , data processing system 200 determines whether training is complete . if an additional noun - verb pairing and related testcase are located ( e . g ., within a predetermined time period ), training is not complete and control transfers from block 512 to block 510 . if an additional noun - verb pairing and related testcase are not located ( e . g ., within the predetermined time period ), control transfers from block 512 to block 514 , where process 500 terminates until additional existing product specifications and related existing testcases are received for classifier training . with reference to fig6 a process 600 for generating new testcases for new features specified in a new product specification , according to aspects of the present disclosure , is illustrated . process 600 may be implemented , for example , through the execution of one or more program modules ( that are , for example , configured to function as a testcase generation engine ) by one or more processors 204 of data processing system 200 . process 600 begins at block 602 and then proceeds to block 604 , which depicts a data processing system 200 receiving as input one or more new product specifications for an existing product whose original product specifications and original testcases have already been loaded into and processed by data processing system 200 . next , in block 606 , data processing system 200 performs noun - verb parings for nouns and verbs located in the new product specifications then , control transfers from block 606 to block 608 , where data processing system 200 attempts to located similar noun - verb pairings in the existing product specifications . next , in decision block 610 , data processing system 200 determines whether similar noun - verb pairings were located in the existing product specifications . if similar noun - verb pairings are not located in the existing product specifications , control transfers from block 610 to block 612 , where an inability to generate a new testcase is reported to a user of data processing system 200 . from block 612 control transfers to block 616 where process 600 terminates . if similar noun - verb pairings are located in the existing product specifications in block 610 , control transfers from block 610 to block 614 . in block 614 , data processing system 200 generates one or more new testcases from the existing testcases that are associated with the similar noun - verb pairings . from block 614 control transfers to block 616 where process 600 terminates . accordingly , techniques have been disclosed herein that advantageously facilitate generating new testcases while generally reducing the manual effort required to produce new testcases . the present invention may be a system , a method , and / or a computer program product . the computer program product may include a computer readable storage medium ( or media ) having computer readable program instructions thereon for causing a processor to carry out aspects of the present invention . the computer readable storage medium can be a tangible device that can retain and store instructions for use by an instruction execution device . the computer readable storage medium may be , for example , but is not limited to , an electronic storage device , a magnetic storage device , an optical storage device , an electromagnetic storage device , a semiconductor storage device , or any suitable combination of the foregoing . a non - exhaustive list of more specific examples of the computer readable storage medium includes the following : a portable computer diskette , a hard disk , a random access memory ( ram ), a read - only memory ( rom ), an erasable programmable read - only memory ( eprom or flash memory ), a static random access memory ( sram ), a portable compact disc read - only memory ( cd - rom ), a digital versatile disk ( dvd ), a memory stick , a floppy disk , a mechanically encoded device such as punch - cards or raised structures in a groove having instructions recorded thereon , and any suitable combination of the foregoing . a computer readable storage medium , as used herein , is not to be construed as being transitory signals per se , such as radio waves or other freely propagating electromagnetic waves , electromagnetic waves propagating through a waveguide or other transmission media ( e . g ., light pulses passing through a fiber - optic cable ), or electrical signals transmitted through a wire . computer readable program instructions described herein can be downloaded to respective computing / processing devices from a computer readable storage medium or to an external computer or external storage device via a network , for example , the internet , a local area network , a wide area network and / or a wireless network . the network may comprise copper transmission cables , optical transmission fibers , wireless transmission , routers , firewalls , switches , gateway computers and / or edge servers . a network adapter card or network interface in each computing / processing device receives computer readable program instructions from the network and forwards the computer readable program instructions for storage in a computer readable storage medium within the respective computing / processing device . computer readable program instructions for carrying out operations of the present invention may be assembler instructions , instruction - set - architecture ( isa ) instructions , machine instructions , machine dependent instructions , microcode , firmware instructions , state - setting data , or either source code or object code written in any combination of one or more programming languages , including an object oriented programming language such as smalltalk , c ++ or the like , and conventional procedural programming languages , such as the “ c ” programming language or similar programming languages . the computer readable program instructions may execute entirely on the user &# 39 ; s computer , partly on the user &# 39 ; s computer , as a stand - alone software package , partly on the user &# 39 ; s computer and partly on a remote computer or entirely on the remote computer or server . in the latter scenario , the remote computer may be connected to the user &# 39 ; s computer through any type of network , including a local area network ( lan ) or a wide area network ( wan ), or the connection may be made to an external computer ( for example , through the internet using an internet service provider ). in some embodiments , electronic circuitry including , for example , programmable logic circuitry , field - programmable gate arrays ( fpga ), or programmable logic arrays ( pla ) may execute the computer readable program instructions by utilizing state information of the computer readable program instructions to personalize the electronic circuitry , in order to perform aspects of the present invention . aspects of the present invention are described herein with reference to flowchart illustrations and / or block diagrams of methods , apparatus ( systems ), and computer program products according to embodiments of the invention . it will be understood that each block of the flowchart illustrations and / or block diagrams , and combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustrations and / or block diagrams , can be implemented by computer readable program instructions . these computer readable program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer , special purpose computer , or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine , such that the instructions , which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus , create means for implementing the functions / acts specified in the flowchart and / or block diagram block or blocks . these computer readable program instructions may also be stored in a computer readable storage medium that can direct a computer , a programmable data processing apparatus , and / or other devices to function in a particular manner , such that the computer readable storage medium having instructions stored therein comprises an article of manufacture including instructions which implement aspects of the function / act specified in the flowchart and / or block diagram block or blocks . the computer readable program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer , other programmable data processing apparatus , or other device to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer , other programmable apparatus or other device to produce a computer implemented process , such that the instructions which execute on the computer , other programmable apparatus , or other device implement the functions / acts specified in the flowchart and / or block diagram block or blocks . the flowchart and block diagrams in the figures illustrate the architecture , functionality , and operation of possible implementations of systems , methods , and computer program products according to various embodiments of the present invention . in this regard , each block in the flowchart or block diagrams may represent a module , segment , or portion of instructions , which comprises one or more executable instructions for implementing the specified logical function ( s ). in some alternative implementations , the functions noted in the block may occur out of the order noted in the figures . for example , two blocks shown in succession may , in fact , be executed substantially concurrently , or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverse order , depending upon the functionality involved . it will also be noted that each block of the block diagrams and / or flowchart illustration , and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and / or flowchart illustration , can be implemented by special purpose hardware - based systems that perform the specified functions or acts or carry out combinations of special purpose hardware and computer instructions . while the invention has been described with reference to exemplary 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 system , device or component thereof 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 embodiments disclosed for carrying out this invention , but that the invention will include all embodiments falling within the scope of the appended claims . moreover , the use of the terms first , second , etc . do not denote any order or importance , but rather the terms first , second , etc . are used to distinguish one element from another . 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 , integers , steps , operations , elements , and / or components , but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features , integers , steps , operations , elements , components , and / or groups thereof . the corresponding structures , materials , acts , and equivalents of all means or step plus function elements in the claims below , if any , are intended to include any structure , material , or act for performing the function in combination with other claimed elements as specifically claimed . the description of the present invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and description , but is not intended 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 without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention . the embodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the invention and 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 |
the following examples 1 through 21 , describing preparation of certain presently preferred compounds according to the invention , are for illustrative purposes only and are not to be construed as limiting the invention . unless otherwise indicated , all reactions were carried out at room temperature ( 20 ° c . ), without added heat . unless otherwise indicated , all thin layer chromatographic ( tlc ) procedures employed to check the progress of reactions involved the use of a pre - coated silica - gel plate and a mixture of acetone and chloroform ( 1 : 1 by volume ) as a developing solvent . a solution of mitomycin a ( 100 mg or 0 . 286 mmole ) in 4 ml of allyl alcohol was stirred at room temperature and under nitrogen for 45 minutes with 500 mg of a 1 . 6 % solution of potassium hydroxide ( koh ) in allyl alcohol . the reaction mixture was decomposed with excess dry ice while immersing the flask into a water bath at room temperature . it was then isolated on a silica gel plate using ether , which elutes the allyl alcohol to the top of the plate ( the plate was developed several times ), followed by chcl 3 - acetone 1 : 1 which elutes the product . this procedure gives 45 mg ( 42 %) of the title compound , having a melting point of 106 °- 111 ° c . ( decomposition ) and providing the following analysis : nmr ( cdcl 3 , ts ) ` δ ` values in ppm . disappearance of a singlet at 4 . 02 due to the 6 - methoxy group in mitomycin a and the appearance of new signals at 4 . 4 - 4 . 85 ( m , 4 ), 5 . 15 - 5 . 3 ( dd , 1 ), 5 . 3 - 5 . 5 ( dd , 1 ) and 5 . 8 - 6 . 2 ( m , 1 ). a solution of mitomycin a ( 100 mg or 0 . 286 mmole ) in 4 ml of propargyl alcohol was stirred at room temperature and under nitrogen for 45 minutes with 500 mg of a 1 . 6 % solution of koh in propargyl alcohol . the reaction mixture was decomposed with excess dry ice while immersing the flask into a water bath at room temperature . it was then isolated on a silica gel plate using ether , which elutes the propargyl alcohol to the top of the plate ( the plate was developed several times ), followed by chcl 3 - acetone 1 : 1 which elutes the product . this procedure gives 33 mg ( 31 %) of the title compound , having a melting point of 77 °- 80 ° c . ( decomposition ) and providing the following analysis : nmr ( cdcl 3 , ts ) ` δ ` values in ppm . disappearance of a singlet at 4 . 02 ( due to the 6 - methoxy group in mitomycin a ) and the appearance of a group of peaks at 4 . 5 - 4 . 9 ( m , 4 ) and a singlet at 2 . 5 . a solution of mitomycin a ( 64 mg ) in 4 ml of cyclobutane methanol was stirred at room temperature and under nitrogen for 45 minutes with 500 mg of a 1 . 6 % solution of koh in cyclobutane methanol . the reaction mixture was decomposed with excess dry ice while immersing the flask into a water bath at room temperature . it was then isolated on a silica gel plate using ether , which elutes the cyclobutane methanol to the top of the plate ( the plate was developed several times ). this procedure gives 21 . 5 mg ( 29 %) of the title compound , having a melting point of 83 °- 88 ° c . ( decomposition ) and providing the following analysis : nmr ( cdcl 3 , ts ) ` δ ` values in ppm . disappearance of the singlet at 4 . 02 and the appearance of new bands at 3 . 9 - 4 . 4 ( m , 3 ) and 1 . 65 - 2 . 10 ( s , 7 ). a solution of mitomycin a ( 100 mg or 0 . 286 mmole ) in 4 ml of diethylene glycol monoethyl ether was stirred at room temperature and under nitrogen for 45 minutes with 480 mg of a 1 . 6 % solution of koh in diethylene glycol monoethyl ether . the reaction mixture was decomposed with excess dry ice while immersing the flask into a water bath at room temperature . it was then isolated on a silica gel column using chcl 3 - meoh 9 : 1 as solvent . final purification was achieved by preparative thin layer chromatography on silica gel with a mixture of chcl 3 - meoh 9 : 1 . this procedure resulted in 80 mg ( 62 %) of the title compound , having a melting point of 140 °- 143 ° c . ( decomposition ) and providing the following analysis : nmr ( cdcl 3 , ts ) ` δ ` values in ppm . disappearance of a sharp singlet at 4 . 02 and the appearance of peaks at 4 . 15 ( m , 2 ), 3 . 45 - 3 . 9 ( m , 11 ) and 1 - 1 . 6 ( t , 3 ). a solution of mitomycin a ( 100 mg or 0 . 286 mmole ) in 4 ml of tetrahydrofurfuryl alcohol was stirred at room temperature and under nitrogen for 45 minutes with 480 mg of a 1 . 6 % solution of koh in tetrahydrofurfuryl alcohol . the reaction mixture was decomposed with excess dry ice while immersing the flask into a water bath at room temperature . the product was chromatographed on a silica gel column using chcl 3 - meoh 9 . 5 : 0 . 5 as solvent . further purification of the product was done by preparative thin layer chromatography ( silica gel , chcl 3 - meoh 9 . 5 : 0 . 5 ). this procedure resulted in 72 mg ( 60 %) of the desired product having a melting point of 128 °- 133 ° c . ( decomposition ) and providing the following analysis : nmr ( cdcl 3 , ts ) ` δ ` values in ppm . disappearance of a singlet at 4 . 02 ppm and the appearance of new peaks at 4 . 2 - 4 . 35 ( d , 2 ), 4 . 00 - 4 . 2 ( m , 1 ), 3 . 7 - 3 . 9 ( t , 2 ), 1 . 75 - 2 . 00 ppm ( s , 7 ). a solution of mitomycin a ( 100 mg or 0 . 286 mmole ) in 4 ml of 2 , 2 - dimethyl - 1 , 3 - dioxolane was stirred at room temperature and under nitrogen for 45 minutes with 480 mg of a 1 . 6 % solution of koh in 2 , 2 - dimethyl - 1 , 3 - dioxolane . the reaction mixture was decomposed with excess dry ice while immersing the flask into a water bath at room temperature . the product was first isolated on a silica gel column , then on a silica gel plate using chcl 3 - acetone 7 : 3 as solvent system in both isolations . thus , 38 mg ( 30 %) of the desired product was produced , having a melting point of 136 °- 138 ° c . ( decomposition ) and providing the following analysis : nmr ( cdcl 3 , ts ) ` δ ` values in ppm . disappearance of a singlet at 4 . 02 and the appearance of new peaks at 1 . 5 ( s , 6 ), 3 . 9 - 4 . 25 ( m , 3 ), and 4 . 25 - 4 . 6 ( m , 3 ). a solution of mitomycin a ( 100 mg or 0 . 286 mmole ) in 4 ml of tetrahydropyran - 2 - methanol was stirred at room temperature and under nitrogen for 45 minutes with 240 mg of a 1 . 6 % solution of koh in tetrahydropyran - 2 - methanol . the reaction mixture was decomposed with excess dry ice while immersing the flask into a water bath at room temperature . the reaction mixture was chromatographed on a silica gel column using chcl 3 and then chcl 3 - meoh 9 . 5 : 0 . 5 . the product was further purified by preparative thin layer chromatography ( silica gel , chcl 3 - meoh 9 . 5 : 0 . 5 ). thus , there was obtained 57 mg ( 46 %) of the desired product having a melting point of 135 °- 138 ° c . ( decomposition ) and providing the following analysis : nmr ( cdcl 3 , ts ) ` δ ` values in ppm . disappearance of a singlet at 4 . 02 and the appearance of new groups of peaks at 1 . 3 - 1 . 6 ( s , 6 ), 3 . 35 - 3 . 75 ( m , 4 ), and 3 . 9 - 4 . 3 ( m , 4 ). a solution of mitomycin a ( 100 mg or 0 . 286 mmole ) in 4 ml of glycidol was stirred at room temperature and under nitrogen for 45 minutes with 500 mg of a 1 . 6 % solution of koh in glycidol . the reaction mixture was decomposed with excess dry ice while immersing the flask into a water bath at room temperature . the crude reaction product was chromatographed on a silica gel column using first chcl 3 - meoh 9 . 5 : 0 . 5 , which elutes glycidol and pink by - products , and then chcl 3 - meoh 9 : 1 , which elutes the product . the product was further purified by preparative thin layer chromatography on silica gel with a mixture of chcl 3 and methanol 9 : 1 as the solvent . thus , there was obtained 71 mg ( 33 %) of the desired product , which gave indefinite decomposition on heating and provided the following compound analysis : nmr ( cdcl 3 , ts ) ` δ ` values in ppm . disappearance of a sharp singlet at 4 . 02 and increase in the proton intensity of the group of peaks between 3 . 5 - 4 . 5 by 5 . a solution of mitomycin a ( 100 mg or 0 . 286 mmole ) in 4 ml of 2 - hydroxyethyldisulphide was stirred at room temperature and under nitrogen for 45 minutes with 240 mg of a 1 . 6 % solution of koh in 2 - hydroxyethyldisulphide . the reaction mixture was decomposed with excess dry ice while immersing the flask into a water bath at room temperature . the reaction mixture was chromatographed on a silica gel column using chcl 3 - acetone 1 : 1 and the chcl 3 - meoh 9 : 1 as solvent systems . the product was further purified by preparative thin layer chromatography on silica gel using chcl 3 - acetone 3 : 7 . thus , there was obtained 23 mg ( 44 %) of the desired product , having a melting point of 87 °- 95 ° c . ( decomposition ) and providing the following analysis : nmr ( cdcl 3 , ts ) ` δ ` values in ppm . the disappearance of a singlet at 4 . 02 and the appearance of strong absorption at 4 . 3 - 4 . 8 ( m , 4 ), 4 . 3 - 4 ( m , 3 ), and 2 . 5 -( m , 6 ). a solution of mitomycin a ( 200 mg ) in 10 ml of ethylene glycol was stirred at room temperature and under nitrogen for 45 minutes with 480 mg of a 1 . 6 % solution of koh in ethylene glycol . the reaction mixture was decomposed with excess dry ice while immersing the flask into a water bath at room temperature . the reaction mixture was chromatographed on a column packed with neutral alumina using chcl 3 - meoh 8 : 2 as the solvent . this process separates the reaction products which are pink in color from ethylene glycol . the product from the pink fraction was rechromatographed on a silica gel plate with acetone to give two major bands . the product obtained from the second band was rechromatographed on a silica gel plate with a mixture of chloroform and methanol 9 : 1 to give the desired product . this procedure gave 64 mg ( 29 %) of the desired product , having a melting point of 72 °- 74 ° c . ( decomposition ) and providing the following analysis : nmr ( cdcl 3 , ts ) ` δ ` values in ppm . the disappearance of a sharp singlet at 4 . 02 and the appearance of a band at 3 . 9 - 4 . 5 ( m , 5 ). a solution of mitomycin a ( 100 mg or 0 . 286 mmole ) in 4 ml of 3 - hydroxy tetrahydrofuran was stirred at room temperature and under nitrogen for 45 minutes with 500 mg of a 1 . 6 % solution of koh in 3 - hydroxy tetrahydrofuran . the reaction mixture was decomposed with excess dry ice while immersing the flask into a water bath at room temperature . the product was isolated twice on silica gel plates . in the first isolation , the solvent was ether , which elutes 3 - hydroxy tetrahydrofuran while the pink product stayed on the base line . in the second isolation a mixture of chloroform and methanol 9 : 1 was used as solvent . this procedure resulted in 36 mg ( 31 %) of the desired product , having a melting point of 68 °- 75 ° c . ( decomposition ) and providing the following analysis : nmr ( cdcl 3 , ts ) ` δ ` values in ppm . the disappearance of a sharp singlet at 4 . 02 and the appearance of new peaks at 2 . 00 - 2 . 20 ( m , 2 ), 3 . 7 - 4 . 00 ( m , 4 ), and 5 . 4 - 5 . 6 ( m , 1 ). a solution of mitomycin a ( 100 mg or 0 . 286 mmole ) in 4 ml of propane - 1 , 3 - diol was stirred at room temperature and under nitrogen for 45 minutes with 300 mg of a 1 . 6 % solution of koh in propane - 1 , 3 - diol . the reaction mixture was decomposed with excess dry ice while immersing the flask into a water bath at room temperature . the product was isolated on a silica gel column using 1 % methanol in ether , which elutes propane - 1 , 3 - diol , followed by a mixture of chloroform and methanol 6 : 4 , which elutes the product , as the solvent systems . the product was then isolated twice on silica gel plates . in the first isolation , the solvent was 1 % methanol in ether , which elutes any contaminants of propane - 1 , 3 - diol while the product stayed on the base line . in the second isolation a mixture of chloroform and methanol 9 : 1 was used as the solvent . this procedure gives 26 mg ( 23 %) of the desired compound , having a melting point of 80 °- 100 ° c . ( decomposition ) and providing the following analysis : nmr ( cdcl 3 , ts ) ` δ ` values in ppm . the disappearance of a singlet at 4 . 02 and the appearance of new peaks at 2 . 0 - 2 . 2 ( m , 2 ), 3 . 7 - 3 . 9 ( t , 2 ), and 4 . 25 - 4 . 45 ( t , 2 ). a solution of mitomycin a ( 79 mg ) in 4 ml of 2 - hydroxyethyl ether was stirred at room temperature and under nitrogen for 45 minutes with 560 mg of a 1 . 6 % solution of koh in 2 - hydroxyethyl ether . the reaction mixture was decomposed with excess dry ice while immersing the flask into a water bath at room temperature . the reaction mixture was chromatographed on a silica gel column using 10 % acetone in ether , which elutes 2 - hydroxyethyl ether , and then a mixture of chloroform and methanol 6 : 4 , which elutes the pink product , as solvent systems . the isolated product was chromatographed on a silica gel plate using 10 % acetone in ether to remove any 2 - hydroxyethyl ether from the product which stays on the base line . final purification of the product was made by preparative thin layer chromatography on a silica gel plate with a mixture of chloroform and methanol 9 : 1 . this procedure gives 45 mg ( 47 %) of the desired product , having a melting point of 125 °- 128 ° c . ( decomposition ) and providing the following analysis : nmr ( cdcl 3 , ts ) ` δ ` values in ppm . the disappearance of a sharp singlet at 4 . 02 and the appearance of new peaks at 3 . 4 - 3 . 85 ( m , 9 ) and 4 . 4 - 4 . 7 ( m , 4 ). a solution of mitomycin a ( 200 mg ) in 4 ml of n , n - dimethyl ethanolamine was stirred at room temperature and under nitrogen for 45 minutes with 480 mg of a 1 . 6 % solution of koh in n , n - dimethyl ethanolamine . the reaction mixture was decomposed with excess dry ice while immersing the flask into a water bath at room temperature . the crude reaction mixture was evaporated under reduced pressure . the residue was triturated with ether and the resulting solid was filtered off . this procedure produced 167 mg ( 71 %) of crude product , which was crystallized from ether or ether - acetone ( least amount of acetone ) to give reddish brown crystals , having a melting point of 140 °- 143 ° c . ( decomposition ) and providing the following analysis : nmr ( cdcl 3 , ts ) ` δ ` values in ppm . the disappearance of a singlet at 4 . 02 and the appearance of new peaks at 2 . 25 ( s , 6 ), 2 . 55 - 2 . 65 ( t , 2 ), and 4 . 33 - 4 . 45 ( t , 2 ). 3 -( 2 , 2 - dimethoxy ) ethyl - 1 - phenyltriazine was prepared as follows . a cold solution of 7 . 5 g of benzenediazonium hexafluorophosphate in 100 ml of n , n - dimethylformamide as added at 0 ° c . to a solution of 3 . 25 g of aminoacetaldehyde dimethylacetal in 100 ml of n , n - dimethylformamide containing excess potassium carbonate . after 2 hours the mixture was poured into ice water and extracted with hexane . this extract was dried and concentrated under reduced pressure to give 3 . 0 g of the desired product as a red oil . a solution of 3 g of 2 , 2 - dimethoxyethylphenyltriazine in 75 ml of dry methylene chloride was added to a solution of 7 - hydroxy mitosane ( obtained from the hydrolysis of 0 . 3 g of mitomycin c ) in 75 ml of dry methylene chloride . the reaction mixture was stirred at room temperature under nitrogen for 48 hours . the solvent was then evaporated and the residue was purified by preparative thin layer chromatography on silica gel with a mixture of chloroform and methanol 9 : 1 . this procedure gave 136 mg ( 36 % based on mitomycin c ) of the desired compound , having a melting point of 68 °- 75 ° c . ( decomposition ) and providing the following analysis : nmr ( cdcl 3 , ts ) ` δ ` values in ppm . the disappearance of the peak at 4 . 02 and the appearance of new peaks at 3 . 4 ( s , 6 ), 4 . 25 - 4 . 3 ( d , 2 ) and 4 . 4 - 4 . 9 ( m , 5 ). 3 - furfuryl - 1 - phenyltriazine was prepared as follows . a cold solution of 10 g of benzenediazonium hexafluorophosphate in 25 ml of n , n - dimethylformamide was added in portions at 0 ° c . to a mixture of 3 . 88 g of furfurylamine in 25 ml of n , n - dimethylformamide containing excess potassium carbonate . after 2 hours the mixture was poured into ice water . the resulting precipitate was collected and crystallized from hexane to give 1 g of the desired product as yellow needles . a solution of 0 . 7 g of 3 - furfuryl - 1 - phenyltriazine in 15 ml of dry methylene chloride was added to a solution of 7 - hydroxy mitosane ( obtained from the hydrolysis of 0 . 5 g of mitomycin c ) in 15 ml of dry methylene chloride . the reaction mixture was stirred at room temperature under nitrogen for 72 hours . the solvent was then evaporated and the residue was purified by preparative thin layer chromatography on silica gel with a mixture of chloroform and methanol 9 : 1 . the material obtained from purification on silica gel was further purified on a precoated neutral alumina plate using a mixture of chloroform and acetone as solvent . this procedure gave 16 mg ( 4 . 3 %) of the desired compound , having a melting point of 110 °- 117 ° c . ( decomposition ) and showing the following analysis : nmr ( cdcl 3 , ts ) ` δ ` values in ppm . the disappearance of the peak at 4 . 02 and the appearance of new peaks at 5 . 45 ( s , 2 ), 6 . 5 ( s , 2 ) and 7 . 4 - 7 . 55 ( d , 1 ). a solution of mitomycin a ( 100 mg ) in 4 ml of 2 -( 2 - methoxyethoxy ) ethanol was stirred at room temperature and under nitrogen for 45 minutes with 240 mg of a 1 . 6 % solution of koh in 2 -( 2 - methoxyethoxy ) ethanol . the reaction mixture was decomposed with excess dry ice while immersing the flask into a water bath at room temperature . it was then isolated on a silica gel plate using ether , which elutes the allyl alcohol to the top of the plate ( the plate was developed several times ), followed by chloroform - methanol 9 : 1 which elutes the product . this procedure gives 72 mg ( 58 %) of the desired compound , having a melting point of 102 °- 104 ° c . and providing the following analysis : nmr ( cdcl 3 , ts ) ` δ ` values in ppm . the disappearance of a singlet at 4 . 02 and the appearance of new bands at 3 . 4 ( s , 3 ), 3 . 5 - 3 . 85 ( m , 8 ), and 4 . 35 - 4 . 55 ( t , 2 ). a solution of mitomycin a ( 100 mg ) in 4 ml of 3 - chloropropanol was stirred at room temperature and under nitrogen for 45 minutes with 240 mg of a 1 . 6 % solution of koh in 3 - chloropropanol . the reaction mixture was decomposed with excess dry ice while immersing the flask into a water bath at room temperature . it was then isolated on a silica gel plate using ether , which elutes the allyl alcohol to the top of the plate ( the plate was developed several times ), followed by a mixture of chloroform - methanol 9 : 1 which elutes the product . this procedure gives 75 mg ( 64 %) of the desired product , having a melting point of 142 °- 145 ° c . ( decomposition ) and providing the following analysis : nmr ( cdcl 3 , ts ) ` δ ` values in ppm . the disappearance of a singlet at 4 . 02 and the appearance of new peaks at 2 . 15 - 2 . 25 ( t , 2 ), 3 . 4 - 3 . 8 ( m , 4 ) and 4 . 35 - 4 . 5 ( t , 2 ). 3 -( 2 - cyanoethyl )- 1 - phenyltriazine was prepared as follows . a solution of 3 . 2 g of 3 - aminopropionitrile fumarate in methanol was treated with 1 . 35 g of sodium methoxide . the mixture was filtered and the filtrate was concentrated under reduced pressure . the residue was dissolved in 15 ml of n , n - dimethylformamide , treated with excess potassium carbonate , cooled to 0 ° c ., and treated with a solution of 6 . 25 g of benzenediazonium hexafluorophosphate in 50 ml of n , n - dimethylformamide . after one hour the mixture was poured into ice water and extracted with hexane and ether . the combined extracts were dried and concentrated to an oily residue , which gave 1 . 2 g of the desired product as yellow needles after crystallization from 500 ml of hexane . a solution of 3 -( 2 - cyanoethyl )- 1 - phenyltriazine in 15 ml of dry methylene chloride was added to a solution of 7 - hydroxy mitosane ( obtained from the hydrolysis of 0 . 1 g of mitomycin c ) in 15 ml of dry methylene chloride . the reaction mixture was stirred at room temperature under nitrogen for 96 hours . the solvent was then evaporated and the residue was purified by preparative thin layer chromatography on silica gel with a mixture of chloroform and methanol 9 : 1 . this procedure gave 21 mg ( 18 %) of the desired compound , having a melting point of 76 °- 79 ° c . ( decomposition ) and showing the following analysis : nmr ( cdcl 3 , ts ) ` δ ` values in ppm . the disappearance of the peak at 4 . 02 and the appearance of new peaks at 2 . 65 - 2 . 80 ( t , 2 ) and 4 . 37 - 4 . 5 ( t , 2 ). a solution of mitomycin a ( 100 mg ) and 240 mg of 1 . 6 % koh in excess 2 , 2 &# 39 ;- thiodiethanol was stirred at room temperature under nitrogen for 45 minutes . the reaction mixture was decomposed with dry ice while immersing the flask into a water bath at room temperature . the product was then isolated by chromatography on a silica gel column with elution first by ether containing 6 . 3 % of methanol and then by ether containing 20 % methanol . purification by chromatography on a silica gel plate with chcl 3 -- meoh 9 : 1 gave the title product as a pink solid , which provided the following analysis : disappearance of the singlet at 4 . 02 and the appearance of new bands at 4 . 4 - 4 . 55 ( t , 2 ), 3 . 7 - 3 . 85 ( t , 2 ) and 2 . 65 - 3 . 0 ( t , 4 ). 3 -( 2 , 3 - dihydroxypropyl )- 1 - phenyltriazine was prepared as follows . a cold solution of 10 g of benzenediazonium hexafluorophosphate in 50 ml of n , n - dimethylformamide was added in portions to a solution of 3 . 6 g of 3 - amino - 1 , 2 - propanediol in 75 ml of n , n - dimethylformamide at 0 ° c . after 3 hours the mixture was poured onto ice water and extracted with ether . this extract was dried and concentrated and the residue was treated with boiling hexane . the insoluble viscous oil was crystallized from chloroform . this procedure gave 1 . 0 g of the desired triazine as a yellow solid with a melting point of 97 °- 98 ° c . a solution of 7 - hydroxymitosane ( obtained from the hydrolysis of 0 . 2 g of mitomycin c ) in the minimum volume of methylene chloride was treated with a solution of 0 . 3 g of 3 -( 2 , 3 - dihydroxypropyl )- 1 - phenyltriazine in 200 ml of ether . after 40 hours the insoluble product was collected by filtration , washed with ether , and air dried . this procedure gave 24 mg of the desired compound , which showed the following analysis : nmr ( cdcl 3 , ts ) ` δ ` values in ppm . disappearance of the peak at 4 . 02 and the appearance of new peaks at 3 . 3 - 3 . 5 ( m , 5 ) and 4 - 4 . 5 ( m , 2 ). with specific reference to the compounds comprehended by formula iv , the above examples illustrate the following structural variations . 1 . compounds wherein z is a mono - or di - hydroxy lower alkoxy radical represented by examples 10 , 12 and 21 . 2 . compounds wherein z is a hydroxy lower alkylthio lower alkoxy radical represented by example 20 . 3 . compounds wherein z is a halo lower alkoxy radical represented by example 18 . 4 . compounds wherein z is a cyano lower alkoxy radical represented by example 19 . 5 . compounds wherein z is a dilower alkoxy lower alkoxy radical represented by example 15 . 6 . compounds wherein z is a lower alkylamino lower alkoxy radical represented by example 14 . 7 . compounds wherein z is a hydroxy or lower alkoxy substituted lower alkoxy lower alkoxy radical represented by examples 4 , 13 and 17 . 8 . compounds wherein z is a cyclo lower alkyl substituted lower alkoxy radical represented by example 3 . 9 . compounds wherein z is a lower alkenyloxy radical represented by example 1 . 10 . compounds wherein z is a lower alkynyloxy radical represented by example 2 . 11 . compounds wherein z is a tetrahydro furanyloxy radical or lower alkyl substituted derivative thereof represented by examples 5 and 11 . 12 . compounds wherein z is a lower alkyl substituted oxiranyloxy radical represented by example 8 . 13 . compounds wherein z is a lower alkyl substituted dioxolanyloxy radical represented by example 6 . 14 . compounds wherein z is a lower alkyl substituted pyranyloxy radical represented by example 7 . 15 . compounds wherein z is a lower alkyl substituted furfuryloxy radical represented by example 16 . 16 . compounds wherein z is a hydroxy lower alkyl dithio lower alkoxy radical represented by example 9 . while none of the foregoing examples are illustrative of compounds wherein y is other than hydrogen , compounds wherein y is lower alkyl are nonetheless within the comprehension of the invention , reference being made to analogously substituted compounds of my aforesaid u . s . pat . nos . 4 , 268 , 676 and 4 , 460 , 599 and co - pending patent applications ser . nos . 264 , 187 and 464 , 612 . compounds according to the present invention are believed to possess anti - bacterial activity against gram - positive and gram - negative microorganisms in a manner similar to that observed for the naturally occurring mitomycins and are thus potentially useful as therapeutic agents in treating bacterial infections in humans and animals . usefulness of compounds of formula iv in the antineoplastic therapeutic methods of the invention is demonstrated by the results of in vivo screening procedures wherein the compounds are administered in varying dosage amounts to mice in which a p388 leukemic condition is induced . the procedures were carried out according to &# 34 ; lymphocytic leukemia p388 - protocol 1 . 200 &# 34 ;, published in cancer chemotherapy reports , part 3 , vol . 3 , no . 2 , page 9 ( september , 1972 ). briefly put , the screening procedures involved administration of the test compound to cdf 1 female mice previously infected with 10 6 ascites cells implanted intraperitoneally . test compounds were administered on the first day of testing only , and the animals were monitored for vitality , inter alia , over a 35 - day period . results of screening of compounds of examples 1 through 21 are set forth in table i below . data given includes optimal dose (&# 34 ; o . d .&# 34 ;), i . e ., that dosage in mg / kg of body weight of the animal at which the maximum therapeutic effects are consistently observed . also included is the maximum survival time (&# 34 ; mst &# 34 ;) expressed as the mst of the test animals compared to the mst of controls × 100 (&# 34 ;% t / c &# 34 ;). within the context of the in vivo p388 procedure noted above , a % t / c value of 125 or greater indicates significant anti - neoplastic therapeutic activity . the lowest dose in mg / kg of body weight at which the 125 % t / c value is obtained is known as the minimum effective dose (&# 34 ; med &# 34 ;). these doses also are listed in table i . it is worthy of note that the exceptionally high mst values obtained in the p388 screenings reported in table i are also indicative of the absence of substantial toxicity of the compounds at the dosages indicated . table i______________________________________example optimal dose mstno . mg / kg as % t / c med______________________________________1 1 . 6 156 0 . 12 0 . 8 150 & lt ; 0 . 053 1 . 6 144 0 . 44 1 . 6 167 & lt ; 0 . 015 0 . 8 239 & lt ; 0 . 056 0 . 8 178 & lt ; 0 . 057 0 . 8 161 0 . 18 1 . 6 129 1 . 69 1 . 6 259 & lt ; 0 . 02510 0 . 8 300 & lt ; 0 . 012511 3 . 2 178 & lt ; 0 . 0512 1 . 6 175 0 . 0513 0 . 4 210 0 . 114 3 . 2 281 & lt ; 0 . 02515 1 . 6 200 & lt ; 0 . 116 3 . 2 150 0 . 217 0 . 4 200 0 . 0518 1 . 6 269 & lt ; 0 . 02519 6 . 4 139 6 . 420 3 . 2 240 & lt ; 0 . 121 12 . 8 225 0 . 2______________________________________ clearly among the most preferred compounds employed as antineoplastic agents according to the invention are those exhibiting more than twice the relative life - extending capacity generally characterized as evidencing significant therapeutic potential , i . e ., those having an mst % t / c value greater than 2 × 125 . the class of such compounds is seen to include the compounds of examples 9 , 10 , 14 and 18 . as may be noted from table i , initial single dosages of as little as 0 . 4 mg / kg showed substantial long term antineoplastic activity . accordingly , the methods of the invention may involve therapeutic administration of unit dosages of as little as 0 . 001 mg or as much as 5 mg , preferably from 0 . 004 mg to 10 mg , of the compounds as the active ingredient in a suitable pharmaceutical preparation . such preparations may be administered in a daily regimen calling for from 0 . 1 mg to 100 mg per kg ., preferably from about 0 . 2 to about 51 . 2 mg per kg , of the body weight of the animal suffering from neoplastic disease . it is preferred that the compounds be administered parenterally . pharmaceutical compositions suitable for use in practice of methods of the invention may comprise simple water solutions of one or more of the compounds of formula iv , but may also include well known pharmaceutically acceptable diluents , adjuvants and / or carriers such as saline suitable for medicinal use . further aspects and advantages of the present invention are expected to occur to those skilled in the art upon consideration of the foregoing description and consequently only such limitations as appear in the appended claims should be placed thereon . | 2 |
those of ordinary skill in the art will realize that the following description of the present invention is illustrative only and not in any way limiting . other embodiments of the invention will readily suggest themselves to such skilled persons having the benefit of this disclosure . network devices , such as lan switches , may be configured and managed using either out - of - band or in - band techniques . out - of - band configuration and management are typically performed by connecting to the console port on the network device and using the management console locally from a terminal or remotely through a modem . alternatively , network devices may be configured and managed “ in - band ,” either by connecting via telnet to the network device and using a management console , or by communicating with the network device &# 39 ; s in - band management interface using the industry standard simple network management protocol (“ snmp ”). this can be accomplished by using an snmp - compatible network management application and the network device &# 39 ; s management interface base (“ mib ”) files . normally , however , in order to perform in - band administrative tasks of a network device , such as configuration and management , the network device must first be assigned an ip address . additionally , in order to use in - band configuration and management capabilities , the snmp management platform of the network device must be configured to understand and be able to access the objects contained in the network device &# 39 ; s mib . embodiments of the present invention use a subset of the transmission control protocol / internet protocol (“ tcp / ip ”) suite as the underlying mechanism to transport the snmp configuration and management data . without limitation , the protocols implemented in embodiments of the present invention include the internet protocol (“ ip ”), the internet control message protocol . (“ icmp ”), the user datagram protocol (“ udp ”), the trivial file transfer protocol (“ tftp ”), the bootstrap protocol (“ bootp ”), the address resolution protocol (“ arp ”), and the reverse address resolution protocol (“ rarp ”). the management information base (“ mib ”) variables of network devices according to embodiments of the present invention are accessible through snmp . snmp is an application - layer protocol designed to facilitate the exchange of management information between network devices . snmp is used to monitor ip gateways and their networks , and defines a set of variables that the gateway must keep and specifies that all operations on the gateway are a side effect of fetching or storing to data variables . snmp consists of three parts : a structure of management information (“ smi ”), a management information base (“ mib ”) and the protocol itself . the smi and mib define and store the set of managed entities , while snmp itself conveys information to and from the smi and the mib . instead of defining a large set of commands , snmp places all operations in a get - request , get - next - request , and set - request format . for example , an snmp manager can get a value from an snmp agent or store a value into that snmp agent . the snmp manager can be part of a network management system (“ nms ”), and the snmp agent can reside on a networking device such as a lan switch . the switch mib files may be compiled with network management software , which then permits the snmp agent to respond to mib - related queries being sent by the nms . an example of an nms is the ciscoworks ™ network management software , available from cisco systems , inc . of san jose , calif . ciscoworks ™ uses the switch mib variables to set device variables and to poll devices on the network for specific information . among other tasks , the ciscoworks ™ software permits the results of a poll to be displayed as a graph and analyzed in order to troubleshoot internetworking problems , increase network performance , verify the configuration of devices , and monitor traffic loads . other products known to those of ordinary skill in the art , available from several other vendors , provide similar functionality . referring now to fig6 , an exemplary snmp network 84 is shown . the snmp agent 86 in network device 88 gathers data from the mib 90 , also in network device 88 . the mib 90 is the repository for information about device parameters and network data . the snmp agent 86 can send traps , or notification of certain events , to the snmp manager 92 , which is part of the network management software (“ nms ”) 94 running on the management console 96 . the snmp manager 92 uses information in the mib 90 to perform the operations described in table 1 . embodiments of the present invention support the following configuration and management interfaces : html ( web - based ) interfaces , snmp , and a proprietary internet operating system (“ ios ”) command line interpreter (“ cli ”). each of these management interfaces can be used to monitor and configure a lan switch or a group of switches , known as a cluster . the cluster management tools are web - based , and may be accessed via an ordinary browser , such as netscape navigator ™ or microsoft internet explorer ™. embedded html - based management tools display images of switches and graphical user interfaces . when lan switches are grouped into clusters , one switch is called the commander switch , and the other switches are called member switches . referring now to fig7 , an exemplary switch cluster 98 is shown which includes a commander switch 100 and one or more member switches 102 - a - 102 - n . management station 104 is connected to the commander switch 100 , which redirects configuration requests to the member switches 102 - a - 102 - n . according to the present invention , a single ip address for the entire cluster 98 is assigned to the commander switch 100 , which distributes configuration information to the other switches in the cluster . in one embodiment , a cluster with up to 15 member switches may be configured and managed via the ip address of the commander switch 100 . the member switches 102 - a - 102 - n in the cluster do not need individual ip addresses , and may be managed through the ip address of the commander switch . however , if so desired ( e . g ., if ip addresses are available ), any of member switches 102 - a - 102 - n may be assigned its own ip address as well . in such a case , a member switch may be configured and managed either through the ip address of the commander switch or through its own ip address . according to embodiments of the present invention , the web - based management features are based on an embedded html web site within the flash memory of each network device in the cluster . web - based management uses the hypertext transfer protocol (“ http ”), an in - band form of communication , which means that the web - based management features of the network device are accessed through one of the ethernet ports that are also used to receive and transmit normal data in each network device . http is an application - level protocol for distributed , collaborative , hypermedia information systems . http allows an open - ended set of methods that indicate the purpose of a request . it builds on the discipline of reference provided by the uniform resource identifier (“ uri ”), as a location (“ url ”) or name (“ urn ”), for indicating the resource to which a method is to be applied . messages are passed in a format similar to that used by internet mail as defined by the multipurpose internet mail extensions (“ mime ”). according to aspects of the present invention , a cluster is a group of connected network devices such as lan switches that are managed as a single entity . the switches can be in the same location , or they can be distributed across a network . according to one embodiment of the present invention , all communication with cluster switches is through a single ip address assigned to the commander switch . clusters may be configured in a variety of topologies . as an example , fig8 illustrates a switch cluster 106 configured in a “ star ,” or “ radial stack ,” topology . in this configuration , each of the eight member switches 102 - a - 102 - h in cluster 106 is directly connected to one of the ports 108 a - 108 - h of commander switch 100 . a second example of a cluster configuration , known as a “ daisy chain ” configuration , is shown in fig9 . in cluster 110 , only member switch 102 - a is directly connected to the commander switch 100 . member switches 102 - b - 102 - g are each connected to an “ upstream ” switch ( one that is fewer “ hops ” away from commander switch 100 ) and to a “ downstream ” switch ( one that is more “ hops ” away from commander switch 100 ). finally , the last switch in the chain ( member switch 102 - h ) is only connected to its upstream “ neighbor ” 102 - g . as a third example , fig1 illustrates a “ hybrid ” cluster configuration with one commander switch 100 and seven member switches 102 - a - 102 - g . in cluster 112 , member switches 102 - a and 102 - e are in a star configuration with respect to commander switch 100 . member switch 102 - b is in a daisy chain configuration with respect to member switch 102 - a , while member switches 102 - c and 102 - d are in a star configuration with respect to member switch 102 - b . finally , member switches 102 - f and 102 - g are in a star configuration with respect to member switch 102 - e . thus , hybrid cluster 112 as shown in fig1 consists of a combination of star and daisy chain configurations . it is to be understood that many more cluster configurations are possible , and that the above examples are not in any way limiting . the commander switch is the single point of access used to configure and monitor all the switches in a cluster . according to one embodiment of the present invention , member switches are managed through a commander switch . the commander switch is used to manage the cluster , and is managed directly by the network management station . member switches operate under the control of the commander . while it is a part of a cluster , a member switch is not managed directly , unless it has been assigned its own ip address , as mentioned earlier . rather , requests intended for a member switch are first sent to the commander , then forwarded to the appropriate member switch in the cluster . when switches are first installed , they are cabled together according to the network configuration desired for a particular application , and an ip address is assigned to the commander switch . in addition , the commander switch must be enabled as the commander switch of the cluster . once the commander switch has been enabled , it can use information known about the network topology to identify other network devices in the network that may be added to the cluster . according to one embodiment of the present invention , the commander switch uses the cisco ™ discovery protocol (“ cdp ”) to automatically identify candidate network devices . however , other similar products known to those of ordinary skill in the art are available from other vendors to accomplish the same task . alternatively , discovery of candidate network devices may be performed manually by inspecting the network topology and the network devices attached to the network . cdp is a media - independent device discovery protocol which can be used by a network administrator to view information about other network devices directly attached to a particular network device . in addition , network management applications can retrieve the device type and snmp - agent address of neighboring network devices . this enables applications to send snmp queries to neighboring devices . cdp thus allows network management applications to discover devices that are neighbors of already known devices , such as neighbors running lower - layer , transparent protocols . it is to be understood that the present invention is not limited to devices that are compatible with cdp . cdp runs on all media that support the subnetwork access protocol (“ snap ”), including lan and frame relay . cdp runs over the data link layer only . each network device sends periodic messages to a multicast address and listens to the periodic messages sent by others in order to learn about neighboring devices and determine when their interfaces to the media go up or down . each device also advertises at least one address at which it can receive snmp messages . the advertisements contain holdtime information , which indicates the period of time a receiving device should hold cdp information from a neighbor before discarding it . with cdp , network management applications can learn the device type and the snmp agent address of neighboring devices . this process enables applications to send snmp queries to neighboring devices . once a switch cluster is formed , any of the switches in the cluster may be accessed by entering the ip address of the commander switch into a web browser . the single password that is entered to log in to the commander switch also grants access to all the member switches in the cluster . the method of creating a cluster of ethernet switches depends on each particular network configuration . if the switches are arranged in a star topology , as in fig8 , with the commander switch at the center , all of the member switches may be added to the cluster at once . on the other hand , if the switches are connected in a daisy - chain topology , as in fig9 , the candidate switch that is connected to the commander switch is added first , and then each subsequent switch in the chain is added as it is discovered by cdp . if switches are daisy - chained off a star topology , as in the exemplary hybrid configuration shown in fig1 , all the switches that are directly connected to the commander switch may be added first , and then the daisy - chained switches may be added one at a time . in embodiments of the present invention , there can be a maximum of sixteen switches in a cluster : fifteen member switches and one commander switch . if passwords are defined for the candidate member switches , the network administrator must know them all before they can be added to the cluster . in addition , a candidate switch according to embodiments of the present invention must not already be a member switch or a commander switch of another active cluster . if the commander switch of a cluster fails , member switches continue forwarding but cannot be managed through the commander switch . member switches retain the ability to be managed through normal standalone means , such as the console - port cli , and they can be managed through snmp , html , and telnet after they have been assigned an ip address . recovery from a failed command switch can be accomplished by replacing the failed unit with a cluster member or another switch . to have a cluster member ready to replace the commander switch , the network administrator must assign an ip address to another cluster member , and know the command - switch enable password for that switch . according to embodiments of the present invention , when a cluster is formed , the commander switch automatically changes three parameters on all the member switches in the cluster : the ios host name , the enable password , and the snmp community string . if a switch has not been assigned an ios host name , the commander switch appends a number to the name of the commander switch and assigns it sequentially to the member switches . for example , a commander switch named eng - cluster could name a cluster member switch eng - cluster - 5 . if an ios host name has already been assigned to a switch , the switch retains its ios host name . once a cluster has been created , network management software such as the cluster manager ™ program , available from the assignee of the present invention , may be used to monitor and configure the switches in the cluster . fig1 shows a switch cluster with one commander switch 100 and four member switches 102 - a - 102 - d as it is displayed on a sample cluster manager ™ page . one advantage of the present invention is that a network administrator need set only one ip address , one password , and one system snmp configuration in order to manage an entire cluster of switches . a cluster can be formed from switches located in several different buildings on a campus , and may be linked by fiber optic , fast ethernet , or gigabit ethernet connections . clusters may be managed from a management station through ascii terminal consoles , telnet sessions , snmp management stations and web consoles . all configuration and management requests are first directed to the cluster commander . any required authentication is done by the commander . if necessary , the commander acts as a redirector and forwards requests to the appropriate member switch and forwards the reply to the management station . according to embodiments of the present invention , a member switch can be in only one cluster at a time and can have only one commander . there is no restriction on the types of connections between a commander switch and member switches . in one embodiment of the present invention , a cluster can be formed for a fully interconnected group of cdp neighbors . a network device can join a cluster when the network device is a cdp neighbor of the cluster . without limitation , switches in a cluster may be interconnected using 10 mbps ethernet , 100 mbps fast ethernet , or 1000 mbps gigabit ethernet . the primary external configuration and management interface to the cluster is a tcp / ip connection to the commander switch . http , snmp , and telnet protocols run on top of the ip stack in the operating system . alternatively , the cluster may also be managed via the console port of the commander . thus , as shown in fig7 , a web browser on the management station 104 communicates with the switch cluster 98 by establishing an http connection to the commander switch 100 . special cli commands help present output from the commander switch 100 to the browser in a format that is easily processed on the browser . communication between the commander switch 100 and member switches 102 - a - 102 - n is accomplished by the commander switch 100 translating the desired actions into commands the member switches 102 - a - 102 - n would be able to interpret if they were acting as stand - alone switches , i . e ., if they were not part of a cluster . the commander switch 100 manages snmp communication for all switches in the cluster 98 . the commander switch 100 forwards the set and get requests from snmpn applications to member switches 102 - a - 102 - n , and it forwards traps and other responses from the member switches 102 - a - 102 - n back to the management station 104 . in one embodiment of the present invention , read - write and read - only community strings are set up for an entire cluster . community strings provide authentication in the exchange of snmp messages . the commander switch appends numbers to the community strings of member switches so that these modified community strings can provide authentication for the member switches . when a new switch is added to the cluster , a community string is created for it from the community string for the cluster . only the first read - only and read - write community strings are propagated to the cluster . configuration and management data packets are sent between the commander 100 and member switches 102 - a - 102 - n via the network connection . the commander 100 identifies each member switch 102 - a - 102 - n by the mac address of the port on the member switch that is connected to the commander 100 . fig1 illustrates in block diagram form how a packet intended for a member switch is processed by the commander . a command from the management station 104 is received by the ethernet module 122 of the commander switch 100 . the command is processed at the ip layer 124 , udp or tcp layer 126 , and management application layer 128 of the commander switch 100 . the management application layer 128 determines that the command is intended for member switch 102 , and performs redirection by translating the port number in the received command to the appropriate port for member switch 102 . the redirected command flows down through the udp or tcp layer 126 , the ip layer 124 , and the ethernet layer 122 of the commander switch 100 , and is passed on via ethernet to the member switch 102 . in embodiments of the present invention , internet protocol (“ ip ”) is the transport mechanism used to communicate between the commander switch and member switches in a cluster . to distinguish between normal ip packets and the cluster management ip packets , a special snap header is used for the cluster management ip packets . in one embodiment of the present invention , private ip addresses (“ 10 . x . y . z ”) are used for intra - cluster communication . each cluster member , including the commander , is assigned a private ip address , known as the cluster ip address , or cluster management protocol (“ cmp ”) address . these private ip addresses are maintained internally by the commander . as described below , when a member switch is added to a cluster , the commander generates a unique cluster ip address and assigns it to the member switch . the commander &# 39 ; s cluster ip address is also passed to the member switch . these cluster ip addresses are dynamically assigned . when the commander finds a conflict with one of the assigned cluster ip addresses ( such as when some other ip station , not part of the cluster , is using the same ip address as one of the cluster ip addresses ), then the commander resolves the conflict by selecting another cluster ip address and assigning it to the corresponding member switch . in one embodiment of the present invention , both the commander switch and the member switches use cmp addresses to send and receive management data within the cluster . a cmp address is a private ip address in “ 10 . x . y . z ” format , where x , y , and z , are integers between 0 and 255 . the commander switch automatically generates a cmp address and assigns it to the member switch when the switch first joins the cluster . since cmp addresses are automatically generated , there can be conflicts between the ip address used by a cluster network device and the ip address of a network device outside the cluster . for example , some other ip station can be using the same address as an automatically assigned cmp address . thus , both the commander switch and the member switches constantly check for conflicts , and in case of a conflict a new cmp address is generated . the commander switch assigns the cmp address to the member switch using the cmp / rarp protocol . cmp / rarp is a variation of the normal rarp ( reverse arp ) protocol . as described below , cmp / rarp uses a different snap encapsulation , and it has provisions to carry variable list of cluster parameters as type length value (“ tlv ”) fields . fig1 is a block diagram illustrating the cmp / rarp packet format according to aspects of the present invention . as shown in fig1 , a cmp / rarp packet 1300 comprises an ethernet header 1310 , an llc / snap header 1320 , and a rarp portion 1330 . as known to those skilled in the art , ethernet header 1310 comprises a 6 - byte destination mac address 1340 , a 6 - byte source mac address 1345 , and a 2 - byte length field 1350 . llc / snap header 1320 comprises a 3 - byte header field 1355 ( set to equal 0xaa - aa - 03 in one embodiment ), a 3 - byte oui field 1360 ( set to equal 0x00 - 00 - 0c in one embodiment ), and a 2 - byte cmp / rarp identifier field 1365 ( set to equal 0x0114 in one embodiment ). rarp portion 1330 of the cmp / rarp packet 1300 comprises a 28 - byte rarp packet 1370 , described below , and a variable length cmp / rarp extension field 1375 . as shown in fig1 , cmp / rarp packets 1300 use a separate snap encapsulation 1320 to distinguish them from normal rarp packets . also , it should be noted that at the end of the cmp / rarp packet , there is a variable length extension field 1375 to pass cluster parameters according to aspects of the present invention . fig1 is a block diagram illustrating a cluster add message format according to aspects of the present invention . as shown in fig1 , a cluster add message 1400 is one specific example of a type of cluster message that may be transmitted in the rarp portion 1330 of the cmp / rarp packet 1300 shown in fig1 . referring back to fig1 , cluster add message 1400 comprises a 28 - byte cmp / rarp part 1370 and a variable length cluster - parameter extension part 1375 . cmp / rarp part 1370 is used for assigning a cmp address to a cluster member switch , while the cluster parameter extension part 1375 is used to transmit cluster parameters to a member switch . cluster add message 1400 is sent to a member switch when the member switch first joins a cluster . fig1 a is a block diagram illustrating the format of the cmp / rarp portion 1370 of a cluster add message 1400 according to aspects of the present invention . as shown in fig1 , the cmp / rarp portion 1370 has the same format as a regular rarp packet , and comprises a 2 - byte hardware type field 1510 ( set to equal 0x0001 , i . e ., “ ethernet type ,” in one embodiment ), a 2 - byte protocol field 1515 ( set to equal 0x0800 , i . e ., “ ip type ,” in one embodiment ), a 1 - byte hardware length field 1520 ( set to equal “ 6 ,” i . e ., “ ethernet type ,” in one embodiment ), a 1 - byte protocol length field 1525 ( set to equal “ 4 ,” i . e ., “ ip type ,” in one embodiment ), a 2 - byte opcode field 1530 ( set to equal 0x04 , i . e ., “ rarp reply ,” in one embodiment ), a 6 - byte source hardware address field 1535 ( which equals the mac address of the cluster commander switch ), a 4 - byte source protocol address field 1540 ( which equals the cmp address of the commander switch ), a 6 - byte target hardware address field 1545 ( which equals the mac address of the member switch ), and a 4 - byte target protocol address field 1550 ( which equals the cmp address of the member switch ). fig1 b is a block diagram illustrating the format of the cluster parameter extension portion 1375 - of a cluster add message 1400 according to aspects of the present invention . the cluster parameter extension portion 1375 of a cluster add message 1400 is used to set cluster parameters on a member switch . as shown in fig1 , cluster parameter extension portion 1375 comprises a fixed length portion 1552 and a variable length portion 1554 . the fixed length portion 1552 comprises a 2 - byte cluster member number field 1555 , a 2 - byte password length field 1560 , a 4 - byte command switch management ip address field 1565 , and a 4 - byte total parameter length field 1570 . the variable length portion 1554 comprises a variable length password string field 1575 for authentication , and a variable length list of cluster parameter type value fields (“ tlvs ”) 1580 . each cluster parameter tlv 1580 further comprises a 1 - byte cluster parameter type field 1582 , a 1 - byte cluster parameter length field 1582 , and a variable length ( up to 255 - bytes ) cluster parameter value field 1586 . fig1 is a block diagram illustrating the format of an address conflict detection message 1600 according to aspects of the present invention . this message format is used when a member switch detects a conflict with one of the cmp addresses ( either its own address or the commander switch &# 39 ; s address ). as shown in fig1 , address conflict resolution message 1600 comprises a 2 - byte hardware type field 1610 ( set to equal 0x0001 , i . e ., “ ethernet type ,” in one embodiment ), a 2 - byte protocol field 1620 ( set to equal 0x0800 , i . e ., “ ip type ,” in one embodiment ), a 1 - byte hardware length field 1630 ( set to equal “ 6 ,” i . e ., “ ethernet type ,” in one embodiment ), a 1 - byte protocol length field 1640 ( set to equal “ 4 ,” i . e ., “ ip type ,” in one embodiment ), a 2 - byte opcode field 1650 ( set to equal 0x03 , i . e ., “ rarp request ,” in one embodiment ), a 6 - byte source hardware address field 1660 ( which equals the mac address of the cluster commander switch ), a 4 - byte source protocol address field 1670 ( which equals 255 . 255 . 255 . 255 if the member switch found a conflict with its own cmp address ), a 6 - byte target hardware address field 1680 ( which equals the mac address of the member switch ), and a 4 - byte target protocol address field 1690 ( which equals 255 . 255 . 255 . 255 if the member switch found a conflict with the cmp address of the commander switch ). fig1 is a flow chart illustrating an automatic ip address generation algorithm according to one embodiment of the present invention . when a member switch first joins a cluster , the commander switch generates a cmp address for the member switch by adding last three bytes of the member switch &# 39 ; s mac address to the number “ 10 . 0 . 0 . 0 .” thus , as shown in fig1 , at step 1700 the commander switch reads the mac address of a member switch from an ethernet frame received from the member switch . next , at step 1710 , the commander switch adds the last three bytes of the member switch &# 39 ; s mac address to the number “ 10 . 0 . 0 . 0 .” then , at step 1720 , the commander switch assigns the resulting number to be the cmp ip address of the member switch . for example , if the mac address of the member switch is “ 00 - e0 - 1e - 01 - 02 - 03 ,” then the generated cmp address will be “ 10 . 01 . 02 . 03 .” at step 1730 , the commander switch communicates its own cmp address to the member switch . finally , at step 1740 , once a member switch has been assigned a cmp address , the commander switch and the member switch use cmp addresses to communicate with each other . however , as discussed above , since cmp addresses are dynamically and automatically generated , they are subject to conflicts . to avoid potential conflicts and to correct any conflicts promptly if they occur , once part of a cluster , both the commander switch and member switches constantly monitor for address conflicts . this is done by monitoring all input ip packets destined to each switch and checking whether the source ip address of the input packet matches any of the cmp addresses . if there is a match , then a conflict is declared . if the conflict is found on a member switch , the member switch informs the command switch about the conflict using the cmp / rarp protocol . the conflict is reported by setting the protocol address field to all ‘ 1s ’ ( i . e ., “ 255 . 255 . 255 . 255 ”). the conflict could be either with a member switch &# 39 ; s cmp address or with the commander switch &# 39 ; s cmp address . if the conflict is with the commander switch &# 39 ; s cmp address , the target protocol address field of the cmp / rarp packet is set to “ 255 . 255 . 255 . 255 .” similarly if the conflict is with the member switch &# 39 ; s cmp address , the source protocol address field of the cmp / rarp packet is set to “ 255 . 255 . 255 . 255 .” fig1 is a flow chart illustrating an automatic ip address conflict correction algorithm according to one embodiment of the present invention . in this embodiment , after detecting the conflict , the commander switch generates a new cmp address according to the algorithm shown in fig1 . first , at step 1800 , three counters are initialized to zero , each representing the number of address correction attempts for the second byte , third byte , and fourth byte of the ip address , respectively . next , at step 1805 , the value of the second byte counter is compared to the highest possible value ( 255 ). if the value is less than 255 , then at step 1810 , the second byte of the ip address is incremented by one , “ modulo 256 ,” such that the number wraps back to zero if the present number is 255 and the second byte counter is less than 255 . at step 1820 , a new cmp address corresponding to the result is assigned to the switch that caused the conflict . at step 1830 , if a conflict is still detected , the algorithm loops back to step 1805 . otherwise , the algorithm terminates at step 1899 . if at step 1805 the value of the second byte counter is determined to be greater than or equal to 255 , then at step 1840 , the third byte counter is compared to the highest possible value ( 255 ). if the value is less than 255 , then at step 1850 , the third byte of the ip address is incremented by one , “ modulo 256 ,” such that the number wraps back to zero if the present number is 255 and the third byte counter is less than 255 . at step 1860 , a new cmp address corresponding to the result is assigned to the switch that caused the conflict . at step 1870 , if a conflict is still detected , the algorithm loops back to step 1840 . otherwise , the algorithm terminates at step 1899 . if at step 1840 the value of the third byte counter is determined to be greater than or equal to 255 , then at step 1880 , the fourth byte counter is compared to the highest possible value ( 255 ). if the value is less than 255 , then at step 1885 , the third byte of the ip address is incremented by one , “ modulo 256 ,” such that the number wraps back to zero if the present number is 255 and the fourth byte counter is less than 255 . at step 1890 , a new cmp address corresponding to the result is assigned to the switch that caused the conflict . at step 1895 , if a conflict is still detected , the algorithm loops back to step 1880 . otherwise , the algorithm terminates at step 1899 . if at step 1880 , the value of the fourth byte counter is determined to be greater than or equal to 255 and there is still a conflict , then the algorithm proceeds to step 1900 , where an error condition is declared , meaning that the conflict could not be resolved . however , the probability of such an error condition occurring is extremely low , as discussed below . in the embodiment described above and illustrated in fig1 , a total of ( 256 * 3 ), i . e ., 768 , different ip address combinations are attempted , including the originally - assigned ip address that caused the conflict . thus , for example , if the original generated cmp address is “ 10 . x . y . z ,” then the next cmp addresses attempted are “ 10 . x + 1 . y . z ,” “ 10 . x + 2 . y . z ,” . . . , “ 10 . (( x + 255 ) mod256 ). y . z ,” “ 10 . x . y + 1 . z ,” “ 10 . x . y + 2 . z ,” . . . , “ 10 . x . (( y + 255 ) mod256 ). z ,” “ 10 . x . y . z + 1 ,” “ 10 . x . y . z + 2 ,” . . . , “ 10x . y . (( z + 255 ) mod256 ).” this method has proven to be satisfactory in field tests . however , those skilled in the art will realize that many other methods for attempting new ip address combinations may be implemented , depending on the requirements of each particular application . for example , a method in which ( 256 ^ 3 ), i . e ., 16 , 777 , 216 , different ip addresses are attempted may be implemented by “ nesting ” the incrementing loops of each byte of the ip address . in other words , this can be implemented by first incrementing the second byte of the ip address up to 256 different times , then incrementing the third byte by one and then incrementing the second byte of the ip address up to 256 different times again . this part of the method alone will result in ( 256 ^ 2 ), i . e ., 65 , 536 , attempts . if a conflict is still detected , then the fourth byte may be incremented by one , whereupon the process of incrementing the second byte , then the third byte , may be repeated , thus resulting in a total of ( 256 ^ 3 ), i . e ., 16 , 777 , 216 , different ip address combinations . other address correction methods may be employed by those skilled in the art within the spirit of the present invention . after generating the new cmp address , the commander switch uses the cmp / rarp protocol to assign the new address to the switch whose cmp address caused a conflict . while embodiments and applications of this invention have been shown and described , it would be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of this disclosure that many more modifications than mentioned above are possible without departing from the inventive concepts herein . the invention , therefore , is not to be restricted except in the spirit of the appended claims . | 7 |
in the embodiments below , the invention can apply to a network that includes an office terminal and multiple terminals connecting to the office terminal . hardware that applies in the related art can also be disposed at the office terminal and the multiple terminals to carry out this network if appropriate . for example , the applied network can be a passive optical network ( pon ), so there can be an optical line terminal ( olt ) at the office terminal and an optical network unit ( onu ) at each terminal . the optical network unit and the optical line terminal can separately have their own central processing unit ( cpu ) to control an operation of the media access control ( mac ) logic circuit . among them , every mac logic circuit can be included in one single integrated circuit ( ic ), such as the mpc860tzp50 interface , the rs232 interface and the 10baset interface from motorola . besides , the optical network unit and the optical line terminal also can include a network processor chip such as the ixp1200 from intel , the mxt - 4000 series and the mxt - 5000 series from maker ( conexant ), the prism from sitera and the np3400 from mmc to perform the ethernet network &# 39 ; s packaging process . here , the network processor chip also can include a mac chip such as an application specific integrated circuit ( asic ) or a field programmable gate array ( fpga ) to provide the access to the network . also , these optical network units and the optical line terminal can further include a memory ( ex . read - only memory , rom ) or a random - access memory ( ram ) or can use an optical transponder to perform two way transmissions by an optical fiber . although the network mentioned in this specification can use any kind of optical transponders , one of methods can include using a transponder that is capable of using in an integrated circuit and transmitting and receiving with 1 . 3 μm wave meter and 1 . 55 μm wave meter respectively ( ex . a planar light wave circuit ( plc )), and using a forward feedback circuit ( ex . a rom ) to work not instantaneously with a bursting first bit to work under a transmission speed of 1 . 25 gbps . however , the hardware used in the optical network unit or the optical line terminal is not the key component of the invention , which means the invention can use any known hardware adapted to the invention . the processes mentioned below are generally performed by the above mac chip , including the access to the network . it also can be performed by software which is executed and loaded by a cpu . the cpu is separated from but coupled to the mac chip of the network . in order to accomplish a network transmission bandwidth allocation method of the invention , there are three bandwidth allocation methods provided respectively for adjusting the transmitting sequence based on the amount of uploading data , predicting the bandwidth allocation ratio based on the extent of network loading and allocating the transmitting bandwidth for conforming to the fairness of bandwidth allocation . in an embodiment , the allocation for the network transmitting bandwidth is improved by the estimate of the predicting bandwidth . here , the predicting bandwidth can be estimated by the following formula . in this formula , r j is the estimated requested bandwidth of the terminal , q j is the data amount waiting for transmission in the terminal , e j is the data amount expected to reach the terminal in a holding time , l is the extent of network loading in this transmitting cycle and w ( l ) is the weight value changed with the extent of the network loading . thus , according to the formula ( 6 ), the allocation ratio of the predicting bandwidth will be adjusted based on the extent of the network loading . j is the number of service terminals requesting bandwidth as well as the number of the terminal of request bandwidth . therefore , in a network , the office terminal can base on the estimated requested bandwidth to estimate the requested bandwidth of the terminal one by one by the formula ( 6 ) and further determine the amount of data ( i . e . transmitting bandwidth ) can be upload for uploading messages sent by the corresponding terminal . please refer to fig4 . in a transmitting cycle , first receive the transmittable bandwidth and the predicting bandwidth of the terminal ( step 110 ); then adjust the predicting bandwidth based on a weight value ( step 120 ); next estimate the terminal &# 39 ; s requested bandwidth by the formula ( 6 ) and add the transmittable bandwidth to the modified predicting bandwidth to obtain the final requested bandwidth ( step 130 ). here , in order to prevent wasting the bandwidth , which is contributed by the prediction error in predicting the bandwidth e j , a larger weight value w ( l ) can be introduced when the loading of the network is low ; on the other hand , a smaller weight value w ( l ) can be introduced when the loading of the network is heavy . that is , the weight value w ( l ) decreases with the increase of the extent of network loading l . the relationship between w ( l ) and l are shown in fig5 , 6 and 7 . as a result , the bandwidth will not be wasted when the network loading is heavy , and the transmission delay can be shortened when the network loading is low by the prediction of the bandwidth . next , the predicting bandwidth can be a transmitting bandwidth in the last transmitting cycle for every terminal , which is the data uploading amount in the last transmitting cycle . in other words , the weight value in step 120 can be obtained by calculating the loading extent of the network ( step 140 ) first and then by using the loading of extent as a basis ( step 150 ). this weight value can be obtained before step 110 or until before step 120 , as shown in fig8 a and 8b . practically , the above steps can be continuously repeated to estimate the requested bandwidth for terminals to which uploading messages are delivered , as shown in fig9 a . or , receive the transmittable bandwidth and the predicting bandwidth for terminals to which uploading messages are delivered first , then followed by continuously repeating steps 120 to 130 to estimate the requested bandwidth for terminals to which uploading messages are delivered , as shown in fig9 b . please refer to fig1 . obtain the requested bandwidths of at least one terminal to which uploading messages are delivered ( step 210 ), then calculate the transmitting bandwidth allocated to the terminals requesting bandwidth based on the obtained requested bandwidth . here , the transmitting bandwidth is the data amount allowable for the corresponding terminal uploading through the network . every terminal has its useable bandwidth range , and the useable bandwidth range is between an assured bandwidth and a maximum bandwidth . after obtaining the requested bandwidth , the initial bandwidth allocation will first proceed . this cycle &# 39 ; s usable bandwidth will be allocated to every terminal based on the requested bandwidth and the assured bandwidth of each terminal , which means allocating every terminal &# 39 ; s transmitting bandwidth one by one ( step 220 ). compare every terminal &# 39 ; s requested bandwidth and assured bandwidth ( step 221 ). the comparison result is the basis for distributing a transmitting bandwidth that conforms either to the requested bandwidth or to the assured bandwidth to the corresponding terminal . if the requested bandwidth is smaller or equal to the assured bandwidth , the transmitting bandwidth allocated to this terminal will be the requested bandwidth for this terminal ( step 223 ). if the requested terminal is larger than the assured bandwidth , the transmitting bandwidth allocated to this terminal will be the assured bandwidth for this terminal ( step 225 ), as shown in fig1 . also , the above steps ( the step 221 and the step 223 or the step 221 and the step 225 ) can be repeated to accomplish the initial allocation of the transmitting bandwidth for every terminal to which uploading messages are delivered . when the requested bandwidth is larger than the assured bandwidth , an additional excess bandwidth will be allocated to this terminal in addition to the transmitting bandwidth that conforms to the assured bandwidth . thus , after the initial bandwidth allocation ( i . e . step 220 ), whether there is an unsatisfied requested bandwidth or not will be confirmed one by one ( step 230 ). when there is an unsatisfied requested bandwidth , the remaining bandwidth will be further allocated to the terminal with the unsatisfied bandwidth , meaning an excess bandwidth will be further allocated to every terminal with unsatisfied requested bandwidth to obtain the reallocated transmitting bandwidth of every terminal ( step 240 ), as shown in fig1 . in other words , step 230 is to compare the allocated transmitting bandwidth and the requested bandwidth , where if the requested bandwidth is larger than the allocated transmitting bandwidth , an unsatisfied requested bandwidth exists . the remaining bandwidth is the result by the usable bandwidth of the cycle subtracting the allocated transmitting bandwidth ( i . e . the remaining bandwidth amount ) after the initial bandwidth allocation . that is , distribute the usable bandwidth of this cycle to every terminal based on the assured bandwidth and the requested bandwidth by the following formula first . formula ( 7 ) is the basic method of allocating the transmitting bandwidth , where r j is the requested bandwidth , b_min j is the assured bandwidth , b_excess j is the excess bandwidth obtained by the reallocation of the remaining bandwidth , and b_grant j is the bandwidth actually allocated to the terminal ( i . e . the transmitting bandwidth ). in the formula ( 7 ), if the requested bandwidth r j is smaller or equal to the assured bandwidth b_min j , this terminal will get the bandwidth it requests ( i . e . the requested bandwidth r j ); otherwise this terminal will get the assured bandwidth b_min j plus the excess bandwidth b_excess j . compared to the related art , regarding to the calculation of the excess bandwidth , one of the invention &# 39 ; s embodiment is to calculate the excess bandwidth based on the maximum bandwidth and the bandwidth compensation value of the terminal with unsatisfied requested bandwidth . therefore in step 240 , the calculation of the excess bandwidth will be based on the usable bandwidth of the network in this cycle and the allocated transmitting bandwidth ( step 241 ). then calculate every terminal &# 39 ; s allocatable extra bandwidth one by one based on the remaining bandwidth , the maximum bandwidth and the bandwidth compensation value of every terminal ( with unsatisfied requested bandwidth ) ( step 243 ). finally , further distribute the excess bandwidth one by one based on the extra bandwidth and the unsatisfied bandwidth of every terminal for adjusting the transmitting bandwidth of terminals with unsatisfied requested bandwidth ( step 245 ), as shown in fig1 a . the number for the excess bandwidth allocation in the detailed description is only one . however practically , according to the invention , whether there is an unsatisfied requested bandwidth or not will be confirmed after the allocation ( step 246 ). if there is an unsatisfied requested bandwidth , it will perform the excess bandwidth allocation once more by executing the above steps ( i . e . the step 241 , the step 243 and the step 245 ) as shown in fig1 b . besides , in order to prevent the number of the excess bandwidth reallocation from being to many , the number of allocation will be accumulated after every time of excess bandwidth allocation ( step 247 ). while whether there is any unsatisfied requested bandwidth or not is confirmed , whether the number of the reallocation reaches a predetermined value or not will also be confirmed ( step 249 ). if there exists an unsatisfied requested bandwidth and the number of the reallocation doesn &# 39 ; t reach a predetermined value , step 241 , step 243 and step 245 will then proceed to perform the excess bandwidth allocation once more , as shown in fig1 c . generally , the allocation method for the excess bandwidth is represented by the following formulas . here , formula ( 8 ) is for calculating the remaining bandwidth , where b_min j is the transmitting bandwidth allocated to the terminal ( i . e . the assured bandwidth ), b_total is the usable bandwidth of the network in the nth transmitting cycle ( n is a positive ), b_left is the remaining usable bandwidth in this network at present ( i . e . the remaining bandwidth after the initial allocation of the usable bandwidth of the network in this transmitting cycle ). according to this formula ( 8 ), the remaining bandwidth is the result of the usable bandwidth of the network subtracting the sum of the transmitting bandwidth allocated to every terminal . formula ( 9 ) is for calculating the extra bandwidth , where b_max k is the maximum bandwidth transmittable by the terminal , b_add k is the sum of the overspent bandwidth of the terminal cumulated until this transmitting cycle ( i . e . the bandwidth compensation value of the terminal ), b_extra k is the extra bandwidth presently allocatable to the terminal , and k is a class of terminals with unsatisfied requested bandwidth ( i . e . when the requested bandwidth r j is larger than the assured bandwidth b_min j ), where k ={ r j & gt ; b_min j }. according to the formula ( 9 ), obtain a ratio of remaining bandwidth allocatable to each terminal by the maximum bandwidth b_max k and the bandwidth compensation value b_add k of every terminal first , then base on the ratio and the remaining bandwidth b_left n to calculate the extra bandwidth b_extra k allocatable to the terminal . the remaining bandwidth here is obtained by the formula ( 8 ). k and k are both positives . formula ( 10 ) is for allocating the excess bandwidth , where r_left j is the remaining requested bandwidth by the requested bandwidth r j subtracting the allocated transmitting bandwidth ( i . e . the assured bandwidth b_min j ), which is r_left j = r j − b_min j . according to the formula ( 10 ), if the remaining requested bandwidth r_left j is smaller or equal to the extra bandwidth b_extra j obtained from the formula ( 9 ), an excess bandwidth b_excess j corresponding to the remaining requested bandwidth r_left j will be further allocated ; otherwise an excess bandwidth b_excess j corresponding to the extra bandwidth b_extra j will be further allocated . here , every terminal &# 39 ; s maximum bandwidth b_max j and assured bandwidth b_min j can be determined by the costumer contract . in step 245 calculate the remaining requested bandwidth based on the requested bandwidth and the allocated transmitting bandwidth first ( step 2451 ), then followed compare the remaining requested bandwidth and the extra bandwidth ( step 2453 ). if the remaining requested bandwidth is smaller or equal to the extra bandwidth , an excess bandwidth corresponding to the remaining requested bandwidth will be further allocated to this terminal ( step 2455 ); otherwise an excess bandwidth corresponding to the extra bandwidth will be further allocated to this terminal ( step 2457 ) as shown in fig1 . also , by repeatedly performing the above steps ( i . e . steps 2451 , 2453 and 2455 or 2457 ), the excess bandwidths will be reallocated to all terminals with unsatisfied bandwidth one by one again . after adjusting the transmitting bandwidth of the terminal with unsatisfied requested bandwidth , every terminal &# 39 ; s bandwidth compensation value can be further adjusted based on the maximum bandwidth and the transmitting bandwidth , as shown in fig1 . step 250 includes updating the bandwidth compensation value according to the overspent extent of the allocated transmitting bandwidth , which means the excess bandwidth will be added to the bandwidth compensation value and the bandwidth which should give but without giving will be subtracted from the bandwidth compensation value in the next transmitting cycle . please refer to fig1 . in step 250 , compare every terminal &# 39 ; s last transmitting bandwidth and the maximum bandwidth ( step 251 ). when the transmitting bandwidth is larger than the maximum bandwidth , the excess portion , which is the excess bandwidth obtained from the transmitting bandwidth subtracting the maximum bandwidth , will be added to the bandwidth compensation value ( step 253 ) to update the bandwidth compensation value ( step 257 ). on the other hand , if the requested bandwidth is smaller than the maximum bandwidth ( i . e . the allocated transmitting bandwidth is smaller than the maximum bandwidth ), the allocatable bandwidth ( i . e . the un - used bandwidth obtained from the maximum bandwidth subtracting the transmitting bandwidth ) or the allocated remaining requested bandwidth ( i . e . the un - used bandwidth obtained from the requested bandwidth subtracting the transmitting bandwidth ) will be subtracted from the bandwidth compensation value ( step 255 ) to update the bandwidth compensation value ( step 257 ). similarly , every terminal &# 39 ; s bandwidth compensation value can be updated one by one by repeatedly performing the above steps ( i . e . steps 251 , 253 and 257 , or 253 and 257 ). in order to prevent transmission delay from jiggering over , a maximum transmission bandwidth limitation will be previously set up , which means every terminal has one maximum transmission bandwidth limitation in one transmitting cycle . therefore , before or after the initial bandwidth allocation ( i . e . step 220 ), every terminal &# 39 ; s requested bandwidth can be previously adjusted based on the maximum transmission bandwidth limitation for the terminal ( step 260 ), as shown in fig1 a and 15b . please refer to fig1 a and 16b . the adjusting method in step 260 is to compare every terminal &# 39 ; s maximum transmission bandwidth limitation and requested bandwidth one by one ( step 261 ), and use the maximum transmission bandwidth limitation to replace the requested bandwidth being used in the following procedures when the requested bandwidth is larger than the maximum transmission bandwidth limitation ( step 263 ). otherwise , the original requested bandwidth will be sustained ( i . e . doesn &# 39 ; t use the maximum transmission bandwidth limitation to replace the requested bandwidth ) ( step 265 ). they are represented in the following formulas . in the formula ( 11 ), r ′ j is the modified requested bandwidth , r j is the original requested bandwidth , and b_bound j is the maximum transmission bandwidth limitation of the terminal . here , the maximum transmission bandwidth limitation can be a bandwidth between the maximum bandwidth and the twice the maximum bandwidth . according to the description above , in the transmitting bandwidth allocation method according to the invention , when a terminal requesting a bandwidth smaller or equal to the assured bandwidth , the bandwidth requested will be given . however if the bandwidth requested is larger than the assured bandwidth , the remaining bandwidth of the network will be first calculated after all the terminals have their assured bandwidth ( or requested bandwidth ), which will be further allocated based on a ratio of a value obtained from the maximum bandwidth of the terminal which has not finished the allocation subtracting the overspent bandwidth ( i . e . bandwidth compensation value ). in other words , the larger the maximum bandwidth the terminal has , the more bandwidth the terminal can get . the more overspent extent the terminal has , the less bandwidth the terminal can get . because the maximum bandwidth is mostly set up based on the costumer contract , this method can accomplish the purpose of determining the remaining bandwidth allocation based on how important the client is and the excess use extent of the bandwidth so that the usable bandwidth of the network can be more fairly to be allocated to every terminal . due to the set up of the maximum transmitting bandwidth limitation , the overspent bandwidth ( i . e . bandwidth compensation value ) will be limited in the maximum bandwidth . therefore when the maximum bandwidth minus the cumulated overspent bandwidth ( i . e . the bandwidth compensation value ) is zero , this terminal will not be able to be included in the allocation of the remaining bandwidth so that a costumer &# 39 ; s usable transmitting bandwidth can be effectively restricted , improved the fairness of the bandwidth allocation . next , focus on using the uploading order to improve the network transmitting bandwidth allocation , which adjusts the transmitting sequence mainly based on the data uploading amount of the terminal . this transmitting sequence is an order that the office terminal depends on to determine which uploading requested terminal to upload the data . here , every terminal will deliver an uploading message to inform the office terminal before uploading the data to the office terminal through the network , where this uploading message includes a requested bandwidth to inform the office terminal the amount of the prepared uploading data . please refer to fig1 . the office terminal will then obtain the requested bandwidths of all the terminals to which uploading messages are delivered ( step 310 ). next , arrange the uploading order of the terminals to which uploading messages are delivered to get a transmitting sequence ( step 320 ). sequentially adjust the uploading order for every terminal in the transmitting sequence based on the size of the requested bandwidth ( step 330 ), where the office terminal can then determine which terminal to upload data one by one . the adjusting method in step 330 is to compare the requested bandwidths of the two terminals abutting each other in uploading order ( step 331 ). if the requested bandwidth of a terminal with a lower uploading order is smaller than that of a terminal with a higher uploading order , the uploading orders of these two terminals will exchange ( step 333 ). otherwise the original uploading sequence will maintain the same ( step 335 ) to get the modified transmitting sequence as shown in fig1 a . the above steps will repeat until all the terminals &# 39 ; uploading orders are adjusted . for example , an embodiment is shown in fig1 b . presume that there are j pieces of terminals to which uploading messages are delivered ( i . e . the last uploading order is j ). when comparing the requested bandwidths of a terminal with n − 2 uploading order and a terminal with the n − 1 uploading order ( step 431 ) ( where n ≦ j ), and the requested bandwidth of the terminal with n − 1 uploading order is smaller than that of the terminal with the n − 2 uploading order , these two terminal &# 39 ; s uploading order will switch ( step 333 ). the uploading order of the terminal with the n − 2 uploading order will change to the n − 1 uploading order and the uploading order of the terminal with the n − 1 uploading order will change to the n − 2 uploading order . on the other hand , if the requested bandwidth of the terminal with n − 1 uploading order is not smaller than that of the terminal with the n − 2 uploading order , these two terminal &# 39 ; s uploading order will not switch ( step 335 ). next , when the order has been switched , make sure whether the n + 1 uploading order is the last uploading order or not ( i . e . make sure whether n + 1 equals to j or not ) ( step 437 ). if the n + 1 uploading order is not the last uploading order ( i . e . n + 1 ≠ j ), continue to compare the requested bandwidth of a terminal with n uploading order and a terminal with the n + 1 uploading order ( step 441 ); otherwise ( i . e . n + 1 = j ), don &# 39 ; t continue . if there is no switch between two orders , make sure whether the n uploading order is the last uploading order or not ( i . e . make sure whether n equals to j or not ) ( step 439 ). if the n uploading order is not the last uploading order ( i . e . n ≠ j ), continuously compare the requested bandwidth of a terminal with n − 1 uploading order and a terminal with the n uploading order ( step 443 ); otherwise ( i . e . n = j ), don &# 39 ; t continue . the step of confirming whether the n + 1 uploading order is the last uploading order or not also ( i . e . confirm whether n + 1 equals j or not ) can be performed after step 333 or step 335 ( step 437 ). if the n + 1 uploading order is not the last uploading order ( i . e . n + 1 ≠ j ), continue to compare the requested bandwidth of a terminal with n uploading order and a terminal with the n + 1 uploading order ( step 439 ); otherwise ( i . e . n + 1 = j ), don &# 39 ; t continue , as shown in fig1 c . only one modification of the transmitting sequence is described . however , according to the embodiment of the invention , the step 330 can be repeatedly performed to make every terminal &# 39 ; s uploading order changed and become a better sequence by the proposed uploading data amount . however , in order to prevent the uploading order of each terminal from changing too much , a predetermined value can be set up previously . also , after a modified transmitting order is received ( i . e . step 330 ), make sure whether the modified transmitting order and the original transmitting order are the same or not ( step 350 ). if they are not the same , cumulate the number of changing ( step 360 ), and confirm whether the cumulated number of changing reach the predetermined value or not ( step 370 ). if the cumulated number of changing does not reach the predetermined value , go back to the step 330 to adjust the transmitting sequence based on the requested bandwidth again . on the other hand , if the cumulated number of changing does reach the predetermined value , stop adjusting the transmitting sequence . the office terminal will then use the last adjusted transmitting sequence to determine which terminal should upload data , as shown in fig1 . in summary , compared to the related art , the invention provides a method for allocating bandwidth of a network which is capable of adjusting the transmitting sequence based on the uploading data amount of the terminal . the invention further provides a method for allocating bandwidth of a network which is capable of adjusting the predicting bandwidth allocation ratio based on the loading extent of the network for effectively reducing the average transmission delay . according to the invention , the bandwidth efficiency , the fairness of the bandwidth allocation and the jittering of transmission delay can be improved . the embodiments mentioned in this specification can be arbitrarily combined or used alone when applied in a network to improve the efficiency of data uploading . while the preferred embodiments of the invention have been set forth for the purpose of disclosure , modifications of the disclosed embodiments of the invention as well as other embodiments thereof may occur to those skilled in the art . accordingly , the appended claims are intended to cover all embodiments , which do not depart from the spirit and scope of the invention . | 7 |
in the following detailed description , only the preferred embodiment of the invention has been shown and described , simply by way of illustration of the best mode contemplated by the inventor ( s ) of carrying out the invention . as will be realized , the invention is capable of modification in various obvious respects , all without departing from the invention . accordingly , the drawings and description are to be regarded as illustrative in nature , and not restrictive . fig3 shows a block diagram of a blind rate detector of an asynchronous mobile communication system according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention . as shown , the blind rate detector comprises : an add - compare - select ( acs ) unit 100 ; a trace - back unit 200 ; a crc checker 300 ; a symbol error rate ( ser ) calculator 400 ; and a controller 500 . the acs unit 100 calculates a branch metric value from the variable data stream transmitted from the transmitter , performs an acs process on the calculated branch metric value and a path metric value , and outputs metric data . the metric data include a maximum path metric value a max , a minimum path metric value a min , and a path metric value a 0 in the 0 state . the trace - back unit 200 uses the data output from the acs unit 100 to trace them back to a predetermined length , and outputs data . the crc checker 300 performs a crc check on the data output from the trace - back unit 200 , and outputs checking results . the ser calculator 400 calculates the ser of the data output from the trace - back unit 200 , and outputs results . the controller 500 controls the acs unit 100 , the trace - back unit 200 , the crc checker 300 , and the ser calculator 400 to determine the blind rate of the variable data transmitted from the transmitter . referring to fig4 , a blind rate detection method of an asynchronous mobile communication system according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention will now be described in detail . first , the controller 500 resets various parameters needed for detecting the blind rate in step s 201 . here , the parameters include : a last bit &# 39 ; s possible position n end ; a minimum value s min of path selection values ; and a last detection position n detected — end . the last bit &# 39 ; s possible position n end and the last detection position n detected — end are reset to be 1 , and the minimum value s min of the path selection values is reset to be a path selection threshold value th path - selection that is previously set as a predetermined value . next , the acs unit 100 performs viterbi decoding by control of the controller 500 so that an accurate trellis path may be terminated in the 0 state at the last bit &# 39 ; s possible position n end in step s 203 . in this step , the acs unit 100 calculates branch metric values of the input data , and performs add , compare , and select operations ( i . e ., acs ) on the calculated metric value to generate a maximum path metric value a max , a minimum path metric value a min at the last bit &# 39 ; s possible position n end , and a path metric value a 0 in the 0 state . next , the controller 500 uses the parameters generated by the acs unit 100 , that is , the maximum path metric value a max , the minimum path metric value a min at the last bit &# 39 ; s possible position n end , and the path metric value a 0 in the 0 state , to find a path selection value s ( n end ) at the last bit &# 39 ; s possible position n end by equation 2 in step s 205 . by finding the path selection value s ( n end ) at the last bit &# 39 ; s possible position n end by equation 2 and not by a conventional logarithmic function , the hardware is implemented using adders and inverters , thereby reducing hardware complexity . next , in order to remove the generation of a detection error , the controller 500 determines whether the path selection value s ( n end ) at the last bit &# 39 ; s possible position n end is equal to or less than the path selection threshold value th path - selection in step s 207 . that is , according to the path selection threshold value th path - selection , it is determined whether the trellis path connected to the 0 state is to be traced back to the last bit &# 39 ; s possible position n end . if the path selection value s ( n end ) fails to satisfy equation 2 , that is , when the path selection value s ( n end ) is greater than the path selection threshold value th path - selection the controller 500 determines whether the last bit &# 39 ; s possible position n end is a maximum value in step s 223 , and when the last bit &# 39 ; s possible position n end is not the maximum value , the controller 500 increases the last bit &# 39 ; s possible position n end by 1 in step s 225 , and repeats the steps s 203 , s 205 , s 207 , and s 223 so that the last bit &# 39 ; s possible position n end may be the maximum value . accordingly , when the last bit &# 39 ; s possible position n end is the maximum value , the controller 500 outputs the maximum value to the last detection position n detected — end in step s 227 , and terminates the blind rate detection process . in this instance , in the step s 225 , the last bit &# 39 ; s possible position n end is increased by 1 , but the technical scope of the present invention is not restricted to this , and by setting gaps of the last bit &# 39 ; s possible position its increase ranges may be varied . when the path selection value s ( n end ) satisfies equation 2 in the step s 207 , that is , when the path selection value s ( n end ) is less than or equal to the path selection threshold value th path - selection , the controller 500 controls the trace - back unit 200 so that the path may be traced back from the last bit &# 39 ; s possible position n end , in order to restore frame data in step s 209 . next , the controller 500 controls the crc checker 300 to calculate the crc parity from the data restored by the trace - back unit 200 in step s 211 , and performs a crc check in step s 213 . if a crc error occurs in the crc check step s 213 , the controller 500 executes the step s 223 , and if no crc error occurs , the controller 500 controls the ser calculator 400 to calculate the ser of the restored data in step s 215 . after this , the controller 500 determines whether the ser calculated in step s 215 is less than or equal to the ser &# 39 ; s threshold value th ser in step s 217 , and if the ser is greater than the ser &# 39 ; s threshold value th ser , that is , when the radio channel environment is very bad and is not reliable , the controller 500 executes the step s 223 . however , if the ser is less than or equal to the ser &# 39 ; s threshold value th ser , that is , when the radio channel environment is good and reliable , the controller 500 determines in step s 219 whether the path selection value s ( n end ) at the last bit &# 39 ; s possible position n end is less than the minimum value s min of the path selection values reset in the reset step s 201 . in this instance , when the path selection value s ( n end ) is equal to or greater than the minimum value s min , of the path selection values , the controller 500 executes the step s 119 , and if the path selection value s ( n end ) is less than the minimum value s min of the path selection values , the controller stores the path selection value s ( n end ) of the last bit &# 39 ; s possible position n end as the minimum value s min of the path selection values , stores the last bit &# 39 ; s possible position n end as the last detection position n detected — end in step s 221 , and executes the step s 223 . since the hardware for finding the path selection value s ( n end ) at the last bit &# 39 ; s possible position n end can be implemented by use of adders and inverters according to the present invention , its complexity is greatly reduced . further , by performing a crc check and then comparing sers , the present invention differently processes the case when the radio channel environment is bad and unreliable and the other case when the radio channel environment is good and reliable , thereby greatly increasing reliability . while this invention has been described in connection with what is presently considered to be the most practical and preferred embodiment , it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments , but , on the contrary , is intended to cover various modifications and equivalent arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the appended claims . | 7 |
the polyamine according to the invention is distinguished by a molecular weight mn of 500 - 6 , 000 and a basic amine content of 0 . 3 - 4 mmol of nh 2 / g . their consistency can be varied within a wide range . while the polyamines according to the invention containing ether groups have a viscosity of 50 , 000 - 10 6 mpa . s , the polyamines containing isocyanurate groups are high - melting compounds having a melting point & gt ; 150 ° c . according to the polyamine of formula ( i ), when 2 ≦ n ≦ 6 , the group r 1 is an n - valent organic radical . a suitable example is the organic radical formed by removing n hydroxy groups from a polyhydroxy compound which optionally contains ether oxygen atoms . suitable polyhydroxy compounds include ethylene glycol , glycerol , hexanediol , di - and triethylene glycol , neopentylglycol , trimethylolpropane , octadecanediol , pentaerythritol , sorbitol , mannitol , maltitol and glycosides . the reaction between the nco prepolymer or diisocyanate and the schiff base depends on the state of aggregation of the diisocyanate or nco prepolymer used . the reaction can be carried out without solvent or in aprotic solvents at temperatures of from 20 ° to 80 ° c . in the case of low - viscosity nco prepolymers , solvent can be omitted ; in the case highly viscous and solid nco prepolymers , however , solvent must be used . possible solvents are , in principle , all those which contain no functional groups which react with nco groups . solvents which have proven particularly suitable ketones , such as acetone , methyl ethyl ketone , and aromatic hydrocarbons , such as toluene . the isocyanate prepolymers ( ia ; iia ) used for the process of the invention are prepared according to methods known per se by reaction of polyhydroxy compounds with diisocyanates or by trimerization of diisocyanates . the isocyanate prepolymers ( ia , iia ) employed for the process according to the invention can be prepared by conventional methods which are known per se . more specifically they can be prepared by reaction of polyhydroxy compounds with diisocyanates or by trimerization of diisocyanates . suitable polyhydroxy compounds are polyols having a molecular weight of 60 - 600 , such as , for example , ethylene glycol , hexanediol , di - and triethylene glycol , neopentylglycol , trimethylolpropane , octadecanediol and c 36 - diol . polyether - polyols having a molecular weight mn of 200 - 5 , 000 and 2 - 5 , preferably 2 - 3 hydroxyl groups are preferably suitable . the polyethers containing hydroxyl groups which are possible according to the invention are those of the type which are known per se and are prepared by conventional methods . for example , suitable polyethers may be prepared by polymerization of epoxides , such as ethylene oxide , propylene oxide , tetrahydrofuran or styrene oxide , with themselves , for example in the presence of lewis acids such as , for example , bf 3 , or by addition of these epoxides , if appropriate as a mixture or in succession , onto initiator components containing reactive hydrogen atoms , such as water , alcohols and amines . polybutadienes containing oh groups furthermore are employed for the isocyanate prepolymers . suitable starting components for the preparation of the isocyanate prepolymers ( ia ) required for the process according to the invention are ( cyclo ) aliphatic , araliphatic and aromatic diisocyanates , such as are described , for example , by w . siefken in justus leibigs annalen der chemie , 562 , pages 75 - 136 . suitable examples include hexamethylene 1 , 6 - diisocyanate , 2 - methylpentamethylene diisocyanate , dodecane 1 , 12 - diisocyanate , isophorone diisocyanate , tetramethylxylene diisocyanate , tolylene 2 , 4 - and 2 , 6 - diisocyanate and diphenylmethane 2 , 4 &# 39 ;- and / or 4 , 4 &# 39 ;- diisocyanate . the isocyanate prepolymers ( ia ) are prepared by conventional means in a manner such that 2 nco equivalents of the diisocyanate per 1 oh equivalent of the polyol are reacted with one another in a known manner . the isocyanate prepolymers thus prepared still contain about 2 - 8 % wt of free diisocyanate , depending on the molecular weight . in some cases , it has proved to be expedient to employ isocyanate prepolymers having a monomer content of & lt ; 0 . 5 % wt for the process according to the invention . such low - monomer isocyanate prepolymers are prepared in a manner such that a diisocyanate is reacted in a large excess with the polyol in a 1st stage , and in a 2nd stage , the unreacted diisocyanate is separated off from the reaction product by thin film distillation . the isocyanate prepolymers thus prepared contain & lt ; 0 . 5 % wt of diisocyanate , regardless of their molecular weight . the isocyanate prepolymers iia employed for the process according to the invention are prepared by conventional means in a known manner by trimerization of the diisocyanates already mentioned for the preparation of the isocyanate prepolymers ia , as described , for example , in de - c 26 44 684 and de - c 29 16 201 . the following schiff base is employed as a reaction component for the isocyanate prepolymers ( ia , iia ) in the process according to the invention : ## str11 ## the preparation of the schiff base can be carried out either in solution or without solvent . when the reaction is carried out in solution , toluene or xylene is preferred as ( inert ) solvent . the azomethine formation can be accelerated by addition of 0 . 01 - 0 . 1 % by weight of acid such as h 3 po 4 . this is advantageous when sluggishly reacting components are used , as is the case with sterically hindered amines and ketones . ipaa and toluene are mixed at room temperature and admixed with an equimolar amount of the carbonyl compound . the concentration of toluene is from about 50 to 80 % by weight . the solution is then slowly heated to reflux and heated further with a water separator attached until the calculated amount of h 2 o has been distilled off . the toluene is then distilled off in vacuo . the concentration of the schiff base so prepared is ≧ 99 % (% by area in the gas chromatogram ). in general , this purity is sufficient for further reaction of the schiff base with nco prepolymers to form poly - schiff bases . in the preparation without solvent , equimolar amounts of ipaa and the carbonyl component are mixed at room temperature and slowly heated to reflux and heated further until the calculated amount of h 2 o has been distilled off . it has proven advantageous to add the carbonyl component in an excess of from 10 to 30 wt . %. after the distillative separation of the water of reaction and the excess carbonyl component , vacuum is applied for a short time . the product of the process , thus prepared , according to the invention , has a purity of ≧ 99 % and generally needs no further purification . as the carbonyl component , in principle , all aldehydes and ketones are suitable for blocking the nh 2 function , provided that the carbonyl compound is capable of forming an azomethine group with the primary amine . blocking agents which have proved to be particularly suitable are for example , from the aldehydes : acetaldehyde propionaldehyde , n - butyraldehyde and i - butyraldehyde , and from the ketones : methyl ethyl ketone , methyl n - propyl ketone , diethyl ketone , methyl isobutyl ketone and diisobutyl ketone . when the reaction of the isocyanate prepolymers ( ia , iia ) with the schiff base ( i ) has been carried out , the reaction mixture of the 1st stage is now hydrolyzed in a 2nd process step : ## str12 ## the carbonyl compounds are split off in a manner such that the blocked polyamine , if appropriate in the presence of 0 . 1 - 0 . 5 % of emulsifiers , is heated with excess h 2 o ( 2 - 3 times the molar amount of the blocked polyamine ) while stirring intensively , h 2 o , the carbonyl compound liberated and , if appropriate , the solvent being distilled off simultaneously under atmospheric pressure . after removing the last residues of h 2 o , the polyamine is further heated in vacuo at 100 °- 140 ° c . for about 2 - 4 hours . the polyamines thus prepared no longer contain azomethine groups ; rather exclusively primary nh2 groups are present . the h 2 o content is 0 . 1 - 0 . 6 % wt . the present invention furthermore relates to a method of curing epoxy resins using the compounds according to the invention . suitable epoxy resins are in principle all those which contain ≧ 2 epoxide groups per molecule ; the epoxy resins based on bisphenol a and f have proved to be particularly suitable . since the polyamines according to the invention are highly viscous or solid substances , they are as a rule employed in solvent - containing form . suitable solvents are , for example benzyl alcohol , nonylphenol , toluene , xylene and n - methylpyrrolidone . the polyamines according to the invention can be reacted with the epoxy resin either by themselves or in combination with a diamine or primary monoamine , if appropriate in the presence of known catalysts , such as 2 , 4 , 6 - trisdimethylaminomethylphenol , salicylic acid or dimethylbenzylamine . by suitable choice of the combination of components : polyamine , diamine and monoamine , coatings having good mechanical properties and of any desired flexibility can be produced at room temperature ( with a constant ep resin ). suitable diamines which can be employed with the polyamines according to the invention are , for example , the following : ethylenediamine , 1 , 2 -( 1 , 3 )- diaminopropane , 1 , 3 -( 1 , 4 )- diaminobutane , 3 -( isopropylamino ) propylamine , 1 - cyclohexylamino - 3 - aminopropane , 1 , 4 - diaminocyclohexane , 1 , 3 - diaminocyclohexane , isophoronediamine , 2 - methylpentamethylenediamine , 2 , 2 , 4 ( 2 , 4 , 4 )- trimethylhexamethylenediamine , hexamethylenediamine , n - aminoethylpiperazine and m - xylylenediamine . suitable monoamines which can be employed with the polyamines according to the invention and if appropriate with the diamines mentioned for preparation of the coatings according to the invention are : decylamine , dodecylamine , tridecylamine , butoxyproplyamine , hexyloxypropylamine , 3 -( 2 - ethylhexyloxy ) propylamine , lauryloxypropylamine and diethylaminopropylamine . having generally described this invention , a further understanding can be obtained by reference to certain specific examples which are provided herein for purposes of illustration only and are not intended to be limiting unless otherwise specified . a mixture of 342 parts by weight of 3 - aminomethyl - 3 , 5 , 5 - trimethylcyclohexanol and 260 parts by weight of methyl isobutyl ketone is boiled under reflux , using a water separator , until 36 parts by weight of water have been separated off . the excess mibk is then distilled off under reduced pressure . as a rule , further purification can be omitted . the oh number of the reaction product is 221 mg of koh / g . 254 parts by weight of schiff base a and 560 parts by weight of an nco prepolymer which has been prepared by known processes from 444 parts by weight of ipdi and 650 parts by weight of a polytetrahydrofurandiol with an average molecular weight of 650 are heated together at 50 ° c . until no further nco can be detected ( about 20 hours ). 2 , 000 parts by weight of h 2 o are added to this poly - schiff base and the mixture is heated at the boiling point , while stirring vigorously , the h 2 o being distilled off continuously under atmospheric pressure . when the reaction under atmospheric pressure has ended , the mixture is further heated at 100 ° c . under 0 . 1 torr for about another 4 hours in order to bring the reaction to completion . the reaction product thus obtained contains exclusively primary amino groups . the azomethine group can no longer be detected by nmr measurement . the basis amine content is 1 . 3 mmol / g ; the viscosity at 25 ° c . is 1 . 2 × 10 6 mpa . s . the h 2 o content is 0 . 3 % wt . 254 parts by weight of schiff base a and 737 parts by weight of an nco prepolymer which has been prepared by known processes from 444 parts by weight of ipdi and 1 , 000 parts by weight of a polytetrahydrofurandiol with an average molecular weight of 1 , 000 are reacted analogously to example b1 and the product is then hydrolyzed with 2 , 500 parts by weight of h 2 o under the reaction conditions described in example b1 . the reaction product has a content of basic amine of 1 . 05 mmol of nh 2 / g and a viscosity of 10 6 mpa . s ( at 25 ° c .). the h 2 o content is 0 . 5 % wt . 254 parts by weight of schiff base a and 1 , 313 parts by weight of an isocyanate prepolymer which has been prepared by known processes from 444 parts by weight of ipdi and 2 , 000 parts by weight of a bifunctional polypropylene glycol with an average molecular weight mn of 2 , 000 are reacted analogously to example b1 and the product is then hydrolyzed with 3 , 000 parts by weight of h 2 o under the reaction conditions described in example b1 . the reaction product has a content of basic amine of 0 . 6 mmol of nh 2 / g and a viscosity of 1 . 6 × 10 5 mpa . s ( at 25 ° c .). the h 2 o content is 0 . 4 % wt . 244 parts by weight of trimeric ipdi containing 17 . 2 % of nco ( vestanat t 1890 , commercial product from huls ag ) are dissolved in 300 parts by weight of acetone and reacted with 254 parts by weight of schiff base a analogously to example b1 , and the product is then hydrolyzed with 1 , 500 parts by weight of h 2 o under the reaction conditions described in example b1 . the reaction product has a content of basis amine of 1 . 4 mmol of nh 2 / g and a melting range of 180 °- 190 ° c . ; the h 2 o content is 0 . 2 % wt . __________________________________________________________________________c . ii curing of epikote ® 828 with the hardeners according to theinvention ( epoxy : nh = 1 : 1 ); 7 days , room temperature din 53 515 din 53 504 tear tensile tear propagationhardener comp . strength tensile strength elongation resistanceparts by weight nmm . sup . 2 elongation % nmm . sup . 2 at break % nmm . sup . 2 shore d__________________________________________________________________________hardener 1 hardener 280 20 19 . 4 ± 0 . 8 118 . 7 ± 17 . 7 19 . 4 ± 0 . 8 118 . 9 ± 17 . 3 50 . 4 ± 3 . 9 6050 50 15 . 7 ± 0 . 7 174 . 7 ± 11 . 3 15 . 7 ± 0 . 7 174 . 7 ± 11 . 3 53 . 7 ± 2 . 5 5525 75 11 . 6 ± 0 . 4 276 . 8 ± 8 . 9 11 . 6 ± 0 . 4 276 . 8 ± 8 . 9 33 . 0 ± 1 . 9 3920 80 10 . 1 ± 0 . 2 277 . 4 ± 6 . 2 10 . 1 ± 0 . 2 277 . 5 ± 6 . 1 36 . 0 ± 1 . 2 37hardener 3 hardener 4 shore a100 -- 25 . 7 ± 0 . 9 15 . 6 ± 1 . 4 21 . 8 ± 0 . 3 38 ± 2 . 5 73 . 7 ± 9 . 2 -- 7075 25 17 . 5 ± 0 . 9 113 . 3 ± 9 . 2 17 . 5 ± 0 . 9 113 . 3 ± 9 . 2 50 . 2 ± 1 . 8 -- 6350 50 14 . 6 ± 1 . 1 212 . 1 ± 1 . 1 14 . 6 ± 1 . 1 212 . 1 ± 12 . 5 45 . 8 ± 3 . 9 -- 4525 75 14 . 6 ± 1 . 1 327 . 5 ± 12 . 5 9 . 3 ± 0 . 5 327 . 5 ± 12 . 5 30 . 7 ± 1 . 8 85 35 -- 100 1 . 0 ± 0 185 . 9 ± 7 . 8 1 . 0 ± 0 186 . 3 ± 7 . 6 16 . 2 ± 2 . 8 61 -- __________________________________________________________________________ obviously , numerous 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 otherwise than as specifically described herein . | 2 |
the invention summarized above and defined by the enumerated claims may be better understood by referring to the following description , which should be read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which like reference symbols are used for like parts . this description of an embodiment , set out below to enable one to build and use an implementation of the invention , is not intended to limit the enumerated claims , but to serve as a particular example thereof . those skilled in the art should appreciate that they may readily use the conception and specific embodiments disclosed as a basis for modifying or designing other methods and systems for carrying out the same purposes of the present invention . those skilled in the art should also realize that such equivalent assemblies do not depart from the spirit and scope of the invention in its broadest form . fig1 is a right - side perspective view of a typical prior art miter saw design that shows a circular saw blade 10 affixed to a rotating motor shaft at 13 . this assembly is mounted to an arm 15 that is pivotably attached to a stationary table 18 at a single pivot point 20 . pivot point 20 becomes the origin of the xyz axes where the cutting surface is defined by the x - z plane . the cutting path , indicated generally at 22 , is described by an arc of radius r , which is the fixed distance between the pivot point 20 and the motor shaft 13 in the y - z plane . the depth and width of cut is defined by a chord of the saw blade as it passes into a slot on the stationary table 18 and the distance from the motor shaft 13 to the surface of the table 18 . fig2 is a right - side perspective view of a typical prior art sliding miter saw design that shows the circular saw blade 10 affixed to rotating motor shaft 13 . this assembly is mounted to an arm 15 that is pivotably mounted to the front part of the sliding rail assembly 25 at a single pivot point 20 . rail assembly 25 is constrained along the z - axis by a stationary bearing assembly 28 . the lateral movement of rail assembly 25 produces an action that causes the pivot point 20 to move along the cutting plane for a distance l . this increases the width of cut by enabling the cutting path 22 with radius r to traverse across the work surface . fig3 shows a right - side perspective of one example of an improved miter saw that employs a “ floating pivot ” as contemplated by the present invention . the saw , indicated generally as 30 , comprises blade 33 affixed to motor shaft 35 to form a blade and motor assembly 37 , which is affixed to a rigid arm 40 . the rigid arm 40 is movably attached to a stationary bracket 43 on the back of stationary table 46 . referring to fig4 , arm 40 is attached to post 43 by a pivot assembly 51 comprising two bearing surfaces 53 , 54 . such bearing surfaces 53 , 54 may be rolling bearings or other suitable bearings . in a preferred embodiment , the pivot assembly 51 further comprises a fixed track 58 , such that bearings 53 , 54 are constrained in the fixed track 58 in the post 43 . such track 58 is sized and configured to enable the bearings 53 , 54 to move within the track 58 , causing the pivot point of arm 40 to shift . as shown in fig4 , the bearing surfaces 53 , 54 may comprise toothed gears or pinions and the track 58 may also include a toothed rack that enables the toothed gears or pinions to engage therein . for purposes of illustration , the drawings show the use of straight cut pinions and a linear gear for the pivot track . typically , the gear in the track 58 will only be included on one side of the track 58 . one skilled in the relevant art can readily determine whether the gear should be on the top or bottom side of the track 58 . in some embodiments , such gear may be on the top side for one portion of the track 58 and on the bottom side for another portion of the track 58 . as the blade and motor assembly 37 moves down towards a work surface , the bearings 53 , 54 and track 58 in pivot assembly 51 cause the effective ( or floating ) pivot 60 to move in an eccentric arc . this in turn produces a cutting path 63 with radius r that is not semicircular . instead , the cutting path 63 follows an eccentric path in the y - z plane that results in an increased width of cut at the work surface . the disclosed embodiment shows the pivot assembly comprising a pair of toothed gears and a toothed rack . in an alternate embodiment , the floating pivot can be achieved by a cam assembly , by a pulley system , or by a gear assembly . other methods of achieving such floating pivot will become apparent to those skilled in the art by following the teaching of the present invention . in some embodiments , the track 58 will be contained in the post 43 and the bearings 53 , 54 will be contained in the arm 40 . in other embodiments , the track 58 will be contained in the arm 40 and the bearings 53 , 54 will be contained in the post 43 . in operation a user operates the improved miter saw 30 in a normal manner by placing the material to be cut on the stationary saw table 46 and moving the blade assembly 37 and arm 40 down toward the material using a typical handle assembly ( not shown ). as the user applies downward pressure on the blade assembly 37 , the pivot assembly 51 described by bearings 53 , 54 and fixed track 58 enables the blade 33 to move along the cutting arc 63 without deviation . the user is able to make a wider cut because the blade 33 moves parallel to the surface of table 46 as the cutting path 63 changes from an eccentric curve to a straight path along the z - axis . in an alternate embodiment , a biasing mechanism , such as a spring assembly , can be incorporated into the pivot assembly 51 to enable the cutting arm 40 to return to the upright position easily and safely . the invention has been described with references to a preferred embodiment . while specific values , relationships , materials and steps have been set forth for purposes of describing concepts of the invention , 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 basic concepts and operating principles of the invention as broadly described . it should be recognized that , in the light of the above teachings , those skilled in the art could modify those specifics without departing from the invention taught herein . having now fully set forth the preferred embodiments and certain modifications of the concept underlying the present invention , various other embodiments as well as certain variations and modifications of the embodiments herein shown and described will obviously occur to those skilled in the art upon becoming familiar with said underlying concept . it is intended to include all such modifications , alternatives and other embodiments insofar as they come within the scope of the appended claims or equivalents thereof . it should be understood , therefore , that the invention might be practiced otherwise than as specifically set forth herein . consequently , the present embodiments are to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive . | 8 |
in accordance with the present invention a disinfectant concentrate consists essentially of : 1 . from about 99 to 99 . 9 percent by weight of inert ingredients , such as , water , emollients , surface active agents ( surfactants ) hydrotropes and the like , and 2 . from about 0 . 1 to 1 percent by weight of active ingredient , based on the total weight of the composition . preferably , the concentrate consists essentially of from about 99 . 5 to 99 . 9 percent by weight of inert ingredients and from about 0 . 1 to 0 . 5 percent of active ingredient . the active ingredient contemplated for use herein consists essentially of a mixture of : b . a mixture of n - alkylated benzyl alkyl ammonium halides or n - alkylated benzyl alkyl ammonium halides or n - alkyl benzalkonium halides . the chelating agent deployed herein is , preferably , either ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid or the alkali metal salts thereof such as disodium ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid . other useful compounds include the sugar acids or alkali metal salts thereof , such as , gluconic acid , lactic acid , citric acid , sodium or potassium gluconate , lactate , citrate and the like . as noted , though , either ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid or the disodium salt thereof is the preferred chelating agent . the n - alkyl benzalkonium halides contemplated for use herein correspond to the general formula : ## spc1 ## wherein r is hydrogen or lower alkyl having from 1 to 2 carbon atoms , r 1 is lower alkyl having from about 1 to 4 carbon atoms , r 2 and r 3 are each , individually , lower alkyl having from 1 to 2 carbon atoms , preferably , 1 carbon atom , r 4 is n - alkyl having from 8 to 18 carbon atoms or mixtures thereof , an x is halogen . preferably , in the practice of the present invention r is hydrogen or lower alkyl having up to two carbon atoms , r 1 is alkyl having from 1 to 2 carbons , r 2 and r 3 are , each , alkyl having one carbon atom , r 4 is n - alkyl having from about 10 to 18 carbon atoms and mixtures thereof , and x is chlorine . as is known to those skilled in the art , these compounds , which are quaternary ammonium halides , are generally prepared by the reaction of an alkyl halide with a tertiary amine , e . g . a benzyldialkylamine or a ethylbenzyldialkylamine . the tertiary amino compounds are , generally , prepared by the reaction of either ethylbenzyl chloride or benzylchloride with ammonia to form a secondary benzylamine or ethylbenzylamine . this secondary amine is then reacted with an alkyl chloride , e . g . methylchloride , to form the tertiary amine , and as contemplated herein , either dimethylbenzylamine or dimethylethylbenzylamine . all these reactions are on a molar basis . in preparing the present benzalkonium compounds , the starting material is usually an n , n - dialkybenzylamine which is a commercially available product . the preferred compounds , the quaternary ammonium chlorides are also , usually , commercially available products . it has been found in the practice of the present invention that a mixture of three particular quaternary ammonium chlorides is extremely efficacious . the first two such compounds can be designated as : ## spc2 ## wherein r is hydrogen and r 5 is n - alkyl having from 12 to 18 carbon atoms and mixtures thereof . these compounds are prepared by the above defined procedure , using a commercially available mixture of n - alkyl chlorides , having a distribution of c 12 -- 0 to 10 percent ; c 13 -- 0 to 10 percent ; c 14 -- 0 to 90 percent ; c 15 -- 0 to 90 percent ; c 16 -- 0 to 50 percent ; c 17 -- 0 to 10 percent ; c 18 -- 0 to 10 percent , which are reacted with dialkylbenzylamine . the resulting quaternary compounds are commercially available compounds , and are sold under varying tradenames . it is apparent that each one of the compounds , is in and of itself a mixture of quaternary ammonium chlorides , due to the distribution of n - alkyl groups in the alkyl chloride used to prepare it . within the broad classification , two preferred products are found . the first preferred compound is prepared from an alkyl chloride having the following weight distribution : c 12 about 5 percent ; c 14 about 60 percent ; c 16 about 30 percent ; and c 18 about 5 percent ; the second preferred compound has an n - alkyl weight distribution of c 12 about 50 percent ; c 14 about 30 percent ; c 16 about 15 percent ; and c 18 about 5 percent . the third quaternary ammonium chloride used in the present composition corresponds to the formula : ## spc3 ## wherein r 6 is n - alkyl having from about 12 to 14 carbon atoms and mixtures thereof . as above , these compounds are prepared by reacting the dialkylethylbenzylamine with a molar quantity of n - alkyl chloride , wherein the alkyl portion thereof comprises a mixture of n - alkyl groups having a general weight distribution of c 12 -- 0 to 90 percent ; c 13 -- 0 to 50 percent ; c 14 -- 0 to 50 percent ; and , preferably , having weight distribution of c 12 -- 65 to 75 percent , and c 14 -- 25 to 35 percent . also , as above , this benzalkonium chloride is a commercially available product . in formulating the present active ingredient a weight ratio of quaternary ammonium chlorides of about 2 : 1 : 2 is employed . the active ingredient contains from about 50 to 75 percent , by weight , of the mixture of quaternary ammonium chlorides and from about 25 to 50 percent by weight of chelating agent . preferably , the active ingredient contains from about 50 to 60 percent by weight of the mixture of quaternary ammonium chlorides and from about 40 to 50 percent by weight of chelating agent . in preparing the disinfectant concentrate , as noted , above , the active ingredient is mixed , under ambient conditions , with the inert ingredients such as surfactants , emollients , corrosion inhibitors and the like . the useful surfactants can be either nonionic , cationic , anionic , amphoteric , as well as mixtures thereof . preferred surfactants are the amphoteric and anionic surfactants as well as mixtures thereof . suitable amphoteric surfactants are those which co - act as emulsifiers , such as , the alkylated amino propionic acid derivatives , such as , the neutralized alkali metal salts thereof . exemplifying such compounds are the sodium salt of n - coco - b - amino propionate , n - lauryl -, n - myristyl - and the like , as well as the dialkali metal salts of the alkylated amino propionic acid derivates , such as , disodium - n - tallow - b - amino dipropionate . useful anionic surfactants are those which , also , function as corrosion inhibitors . suitable anionic surfactants are the alkanolamines , such as , ethanolamine , diethanolamine , triethanolamine and the like . the surfactants are generally deployed in a respective weight ratio of amphoteric to anionic surfactant of from about 50 : 1 to 100 : 1 , with the total surfactant concentration in the concentrate or composition ranging from about 4 to 6 percent by weight , based on the total weight of the composition . an emollient , such as , glycerine is , also , preferably , included within the final concentrate to prevent skin irritation to the user . the emollient is normally deployed in an amount ranging from about 3 to 5 percent based on the total weight of the composition . to prepare a use solution from the above - defined composition , the concentrate is mixed with water , under ambient conditions , to a minimum dilution of concentrate of at least 100 ppm of concentrate per one million parts of use solution . generally , the concentrate will be present in the use solution in an amount ranging from about 100 to 2000 ppm thereof , and preferably 250 to 1500 ppm of concentrate per one million parts of use solution . the present use solution has been found to be effective in killing off both gram - negative and gram - positive bacterium and fungi such as , pseudomonas aeruginosa , trichophyton interdigitale strain 640 , staphylococcus aureus , salmonella choleraesius , escherichia coli and other similar microbial contaminants . thus , the present use solutions are effective disinfectants in hospitals , clinics , nursing homes , for cleaning dietary utensils , in industrial food processing plants and institutions , as an algae growth in swimming pools , as a surgical scrub and skin cleanser , and the like . for a more complete understanding of the present invention reference is made to the following examples which are to be construed as exemplifying rather than limitative of the present invention . in the examples all parts are by weight absent indication to the contrary . into a suitable vessel equipped with stirring means was added the following : ingredient amount , pbw______________________________________quaternary ammonium chloride a . sup . ( 1 ) 0 . 050quaternary ammonium chloride b . sup . ( 2 ) 0 . 025quaternary ammonium chloride c . sup . ( 3 ) 0 . 050chelating agent . sup . ( 4 ) 0 . 090 0 . 215______________________________________ these ingredients were then mixed to form a homogeneous mixture of active ingredients . this active ingredient was then blended with the following inert ingredients . ______________________________________ingredient amount , pbw______________________________________amphoteric surfactant . sup . ( 5 ) 4 . 780glycerine , as an emollient 4 . 070anionic surfactant . sup . ( 6 ) 0 . 148chelating agent . sup . ( 7 ) 0 . 108water 90 . 779 99 . 785______________________________________ the resulting product was a disinfecting composition in accordance with the present invention . 1 . an n - alkyl ( c 12 5 %, c 14 60 %, c 16 30 %, c 18 5 %) dimethyl benzyl ammonium chloride ; 2 . an n - alkyl ( c 12 50 %, c 14 30 %, c 16 17 %, c 18 3 %) dimethyl benzyl ammonium chloride ; 3 . an n - alkyl ( c 12 68 %, c 14 32 %) dimethyl ethylbenzyl ammonium chloride ; the product of example i was mixed with water containing 500 parts per million aoac synthetic hard water to prepare a use solution thereof . the use solution , which contained 200 ppm of the mixture of alkylated benzalkonium chlorides , was then tested for effectiveness against staphylococcus aureus atcc no . 6538 . the test method employed was a modification of the official methods of analysis of the aoac , eleventh edition , chapter 4 , paragraphs 4 . 023 - 4 . 032 , using platings of 10 . sup . - 3 , 10 . sup . - 4 and 10 . sup . - 5 dilution of the culture and a five - minute exposure period . in addition to the product of example i , similar tests were conducted using a sample of the product of example i which was approximately one year old , and a sample which was heated to about 90 ° f . after five minutes each sample demonstrated greater than 99 . 999 percent kill off of the inoculum , thus , evidencing the efficacy of the instant product . | 0 |
hereinafter , the best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described more fully below with reference to attached drawings : referring to fig1 a , 1 b , fig2 and fig3 a , 3 b simultaneously , the socket stand for extension wires for use in outdoor garden and lawn comprises a main body 1 of the socket stand , a shaped pull lever 2 , a conical sustainer 3 , a photo emission equipment 4 , a light focusing plate 5 , an insulated transparent cover 6 , a main switch 7 for power supply , and a shielding cover 8 for individual socket . the main body 1 further includes a front case 11 and a rear case 12 combined together . semi - circular recessed slots 113 , 124 having screw threads on their inner surfaces are formed at the respective bottoms of both the front and the rear cases 11 and 12 . two grooves 112 and 113 are formed along respective bonding side edges of the front and the rear cases 11 , 12 for two sliding portions 21 a and 21 b at both lower ends of the shaped pull lever 2 to slide along . an opening 122 is provided on the surface of the rear case 12 for engaging several stoppers 51 protruded out of the circumference of the light focusing plate 5 with corresponding engaging holes 1221 disposed around the edge of the opening 122 such that the light focusing plate 5 is able to stride thereover and fixed to the rear case 12 . the main switch 7 is mounted over another opening 111 formed on the surface of the front case and protected by an insulated transparent cover 6 so as to ensure water tightness and reliable electrical insulation . the socket 9 is also protected by a shielding cover 8 so that the socket 9 can be shielded at the time it is not in use thereby it is protected from possible injury to a third person or infringement of foreign substances . the photo emission equipment 4 , which including a photo emission element 41 and a photo sensor 42 , is located at the back of the surface where the main switch 7 and the sockets 9 are disposed such that it is accommodated in the main body 1 . when the photo emission equipment 4 is located in a dark place so that the senser 41 can not detect light , the photo emission element 42 which belongs to a high intensity led functions to emit light for illuminating the surrounding . as the front and the rear cases 11 and 12 are combined together , two sliding portions 21 a and 21 b at both lower ends of the shaped pull lever 2 are able to slide along two grooves 112 and 113 formed at the two sides of the main body 1 . when the two cases 11 and 12 are fitted each other , the photo emission element 42 aligns with the light focusing plate 5 mounted on the rear case 12 thereby the brightness of light is intensified . the light focusing plate 5 is made water tight and the sensor 41 exposedly mounted on a circular hole 121 formed on the rear case 2 . there are two semi - circular recessed slots 113 and 114 having screw threads on their inner surfaces formed at the respective bottoms of the two cases 1 and 12 joining into a resultant threaded hole for screw combining with an upper threaded portion 32 of the conical sustainer 3 so that the socket stand is able to stand on the ground of lawn or garden by insertion of the conical sustainer 3 thereinto . meanwhile , a warning mark 31 is provided at a proper height on the conical sustainer 3 to warn the user in the case the conical sustainer 3 is inserted too much into the ground so as to prevent water infringement to the socket stand . as a result , danger of short circuit is eliminated . fig4 a and 4b are embodiment of the removable socket stand according to the present invention . as shown in fig4 the main body 1 can be made fixedly standing on muddy ground 10 or on lawn with the conical sustainer 3 inserted thereinto such that the main body 1 is isolated from the puddles on the ground and the user &# 39 ; s security is assured . in the evening , the surrounding is illuminated by the photo emission element 42 , and moreover , brightness is further intensified by the light focusing function of the light focusing plate 5 so as to help the night work . when it is intended to pull out the main body 1 from the ground 10 , the user may draw it up by grasping the shaped pull lever 2 without directly touching the main body 1 to prevent possible danger . from the above description , it is understood that with the function of a plurality of attached elements , the shaped pull lever , the conical sustainer , the insulated transparent cover on the main switch , the shielding cover for individual socket , the removable socket stand for extension wires of the present invention can successfully protect the user &# 39 ; s security from an electric hazard . in addition , the photo emission equipment together with the light focusing plate is able to help performing night work securely and efficiently . other embodiments of the present invention will become obvious to those skilled in the art in light of above disclosure . it is of course also understood that the scope of the present invention is not to be limited by the foregoing description , but only by the following claims . | 7 |
the embodiments discussed herein are merely illustrative of specific manners in which to make and use this invention and are not to be interpreted as limiting in scope . while the invention has been described with a certain degree of particularity , it is to be noted that many modifications may be made in the construction and the arrangement of its components without departing from the scope of the invention . it is understood that the invention is not limited to the embodiments set forth herein for purposes of exemplification . the description of the invention is intended to be read in connection with the accompanying drawings , which are to be considered part of the entire written description of this invention . in the description , relative terms such as “ front ,” “ rear ,” “ lower ,” “ upper ,” “ horizontal ,” “ vertical ,” “ above ,” “ below ,” “ up ,” “ down ,” “ top ” and “ bottom ” as well as derivatives thereof ( e . g ., “ horizontally ,” “ downwardly ,” “ upwardly ” etc .) should be construed to refer to the orientation as then described or as shown in the drawings under discussion . these relative terms are for convenience of description and do not require that the machine be constructed or the method to be operated in a particular orientation . terms , such as “ connected ,” “ connecting ,” “ attached ,” “ attaching ,” “ join ” and “ joining ” are used interchangeably and refer to one structure or surface being secured to another structure or surface or integrally fabricated in one piece . referring to the figures of the drawings , wherein like numerals of reference designate like elements throughout the several views , and initially to fig1 depicting a sectional view of a downhole filtration tool 10 and downhole equipment used to raise production fluids to the surface . a subterranean well 12 includes a casing 14 which extends from the surface downhole . the casing 14 includes perforations 16 that allow production fluids to pass through the casing 14 . an electrical submersible pump 18 is lowered into the well 12 beneath the level of fluid . the pump 18 is suspended from a string 20 which may be composed of a series of tubes or tubing suspended from the surface , such as from a rig or derrick ( not shown ). the pump 18 includes a motor ( not shown ) that is sealed from the fluids . the motor is powered by electrical energy supplied by an energy source at the surface , such as a generator ( not shown ). the pump 18 is connected to the downhole filtration tool 10 by way of a seating nipple 22 and / or a tubing sub 24 . the pump 18 , the motor , the seating nipple 22 , the tubing sub 24 and other downhole equipment each has an external diameter less than an interior diameter of the casing 14 . downhole fluid enters the filtration tool 10 and is forced by the motor upward through an axial flow passage 26 of the downhole filtration tool 10 to the pump 18 , which draws the fluid through the string 20 to the surface where it is collected in a tank ( not shown ) or otherwise delivered by a pipeline or other known means . fig2 through 10 illustrate the downhole filtration tool 10 having a first end terminating in an upper end fitting 28 , which connects with an intake end of the pump 18 or may be connected to other downhole equipment , such as the tubing sub 24 . as illustrated , the end fitting 28 has a reduced diameter neck 30 with internal threads 32 that are connected to a first terminating end of a mandrel 34 with external threads 36 . a sealing element 38 may be supported within a circular seal groove 40 of the neck 30 , which establish sealing engagement with an external cylindrical sealing surface 42 of the end fitting 28 and an internal cylindrical sealing surface 44 on a first terminating end of a vortex flow disrupter section 46 of the downhole filtration tool 10 . the end fitting 28 is also provided with circular sealing elements or seal assemblies 48 located intermediate of an external , circular stop shoulder 50 of the end fitting 28 and the flow disrupter section 46 . the seal assemblies 48 may be carried within a circular seal groove 52 . the sealing element 38 and / or the sealing assemblies 48 can be constructed from elastomer and polymer materials capable of accomplishing effective sealing at normal to high operating temperatures and at all pressure ranges . the end fitting 28 also includes an internally threaded section 54 that receives an externally threaded section 56 of the tubing sub 24 and other downhole equipment . additionally , the end fitting 28 may include a threadlock channel 58 having internal threads 60 . the downhole filtration tool 10 has a second end terminating in a lower end fitting 62 , which connects with the motor or other downhole equipment . the lower end fitting 62 has a first terminating end with a reduced diameter neck 64 having external threads 68 that are connected to the motor or other downhole equipment . the lower end fitting 62 also includes a second terminating end with a reduced diameter neck 70 having internal threads 72 that are connected to a second terminating end of the mandrel 34 with external threads 74 . similarly to the upper end fitting 28 , the lower end fitting 62 may include a sealing element 76 supported within a circular seal groove 78 of the neck 70 , which establish sealing engagement with an external cylindrical sealing surface 80 of the end fitting 62 and an internal cylindrical sealing surface 82 on a second terminating end of the vortex flow disrupter section 46 of the downhole filtration tool 10 . the end fitting 62 is also provided with circular sealing elements or seal assemblies 84 located intermediate of an external , circular stop shoulder 86 of the end fitting 62 and the flow disrupter section 46 . the seal assemblies 84 may be carried within a circular seal groove 66 . the sealing element 76 and / or the sealing assemblies 84 can be constructed from elastomer and polymer materials capable of accomplishing effective sealing at normal to high operating temperatures and at all pressure ranges . additionally , the end fitting 62 may include a threadlock channel 88 having internal threads 90 . the mandrel 34 is connected intermediate of and juxtaposed between the upper end fitting 28 and the lower end fitting 62 . an interior chamber 98 within the mandrel 34 is axially aligned along the flow passage 26 through the downhole filtration tool 10 . in addition , a central bore 97 in the upper end fitting 28 and a central bore 99 in the lower end fitting 62 have opposing generally planar axial or open ends that are axially aligned and coaxially spaced along the flow passage 26 . the mandrel 34 includes the first terminating end with external threads 36 and the second terminating end with external threads 74 . in addition , the first terminating end and / or the second terminating end of the mandrel 34 include a mandrel threadlock 92 and 94 , which is axially aligned with the threadlock channel 58 in the upper end fitting 28 and the threadlock channel 88 in the lower end fitting 62 , respectively . the mandrel 34 includes a plurality of diametrical perforations 96 along its length to permit fluids to pass from the well 12 into the interior chamber 98 within the mandrel 34 . the perforations 96 may be round as illustrated or may be slotted or a combination of holes and slots that are punched or drilled through the mandrel 34 . the mandrel 34 may be fabricated from investment cast precipitation - hardening corrosion - resistant steel , such carbon steel accompanied with steel upper and lower end fittings 28 and 62 . a removable filter element 100 concentrically surrounds the mandrel 34 . a separating annulus 102 is formed between the filter element 100 and the mandrel 34 , and the upper end fitting 28 and the lower end fitting 62 close a first terminating end and a second terminating end of the annulus 102 . the filter element 100 includes a plurality of angularly biased passages 104 extending upwardly at an angle 106 of approximately 10 degrees and approximately tangentially 108 in relation to the annulus 102 . if the filter element 100 becomes clogged or damaged , the filter element 100 may be removed and replaced as necessary . in addition , the filter element 100 may be constructed as single standalone elements or as stackable elements . a first end and a second end of the filter element 100 each respectively terminate with the vortex flow disrupter section 46 . the flow disrupter section 46 is constructed of a rigid resin that forms a terminal end collar . the inner periphery of the disrupter section 46 may include an annular shoulder 118 that contacts the neck 30 of the end fitting 28 . the filter element 100 is an open weave fiberglass filter constructed to withstand very high or low ph environments as well as elevated temperatures and high pressure differentials . the filter element is constructed of a polymeric composite that is reinforced by a continuous fiber such as glass , carbon , or aramid , for example , having a porosity of between about 33 % to about 43 % per linear foot . the individual fibers are typically layered parallel to each other , and wound layer upon layer . however , each individual layer is wound at an angle of about 45 degrees to provide additional strength and stiffness to the composite material in high temperature and pressure downhole conditions . the polymeric composite may be polyurethane , a phenolic , an epoxy resin , such as a low viscosity , liquid epoxy resin manufactured from bisphenol a or f and epichlorohydrin ( e . g ., epon ™ resin 862 , momentive specialty chemicals , inc .) or a blended epoxy resin . prepreg strands and rovings ( e . g ., advantax ®, owens corning composite materials , llc ; 346 type 30 ® roving , owens corning composite materials , llc ) can also be used to form a matrix or the fibers can be wet wound . a post cure process may be performed to achieve greater strength of the material , and heat can be added during the curing process to provide the appropriate reaction energy to drive the cross - linking of the matrix to completion . the composite may also be exposed to ultraviolet light or a high - intensity electron beam to provide the reaction energy to cure the polymeric composite . the foregoing materials are merely examples that may be utilized in constructing the downhole filtration tool 10 and other materials may be employed to suit the particular usage of the downhole filtration tool 10 . referring now to fig1 through 13 illustrating an embodiment of the downhole filtration tool 10 having an additional tight meshed screen or other filter media 110 positioned within the separating annulus 102 . the screen 110 may be constructed from stainless steel , a meta - aramid fiber ( e . g ., nomex ®, du pont ) or a meta - aramid fiber blended with a para - aramid , antistatic or other synthetic fibers . the screen 110 may be supported by a mesh standoff 112 along the perforations 96 of the mandrel 34 . in addition , the terminating ends of the screen 110 may include a double fold 114 . terminating ends of the screen 110 and the mesh standoff 112 may be respectively secured to the mandrel 34 above the uppermost and below the lowermost perforations 96 by a suitable easily removable tape , band , strap or the like 116 . as illustrated , the filter element 100 , the screen 110 and the mesh standoff 112 concentrically surround the mandrel 34 . during operation , fluid from the well 12 will sequentially flow through the perforations 16 in the casing 14 , through the filter element 100 , through the screen 110 , if present , and / or the mesh standoff 112 , through the perforations 96 in the mandrel 36 , through the interior chamber 98 of the mandrel 36 and through the upper end fitting 28 to an intake nut ( not shown ) and the pump 18 . the casing perforations 16 will filter out larger solids and the filter element 100 will filter out smaller sand and other solid particles . the screen 110 and the standoff 112 , if present , prevent loss of filter media through the perforations ( 16 ). whereas , the embodiments have been described in relation to the drawings , it should be understood that other and further modifications , apart from those shown or suggested herein , may be made within the scope of this invention . | 4 |
referring to the drawing and to fig1 in particular , shown therein and generally designated by the reference character 10 is an automotive hoist constructed in accordance with the invention . the automotive hoist 10 is of the two - post type , that is , it includes identical pistons 12 and 14 that are telescopically arranged with respect to identical cylinders 16 and 18 . the cylinders 16 and 18 are positioned below the surface of the ground . although , not shown , it will be understood that an appropriate system is provided for causing the telescoping of the pistons 12 and 14 within the cylinders 16 and 18 . at the upper end of the pistons 12 and 14 is a superstructure that is generally designated by the reference character 20 . the superstructure 20 is provided to engage the underside of the automotive vehicle to be lifted by the hoist 10 . mounted on the hoist 10 , and externally of the piston 12 and cylinder 16 , is a rack gear 22 . the rack gear 22 is arranged to move with the piston 12 and extends through a housing 24 , which is mounted on the cylinder 16 . the housing 24 contains a pinion gear ( not shown ) that is in mesh with the rack gear 22 . similarly , a rack gear 26 is mounted externally of the piston 14 in the cylinder 18 . the rack gear 26 is mounted for movement with the piston 14 and extends through a safety latch assembly 27 . the latch assembly 27 includes a housing 28 that is mounted on the cylinder 18 . the housing 28 has a pinion gear 30 therein that is in mesh with the rack gear 26 . the pinion gear 30 in the housing 28 and the pinion gear in the housing 24 are mounted on a shaft 32 that extends therebetween . the mounting of the two pinion gears on the shaft 30 , in mesh with the rack gears 22 and 26 , assures that the pistons 12 and 14 move in concert . the foregoing description makes reference to the two - post hoist 10 as shown in fig1 . however , it should be understood that the safety latch apparatus constructed in accordance with the invention herein can be utilized in conjunction with a single - post hoist as well as with the two - post hoist 10 illustrated . fig2 and 4 show , in more detail , the structure of the safety latch assembly 27 . in addition to the housing 28 , the pinion gear 30 and the shaft 32 , the latch assembly 27 also includes a slip clutch mechanism 34 that is located on one end of the shaft 32 . in order to make the slip clutch 34 operate properly , the end of the shaft has been formed into a square as is shown more clearly in fig3 . friction discs 36 and 38 are provided with square holes to fit the end of the shaft 32 so that the discs rotate therewith . located between the friction discs 36 and 38 is a latch operating member 40 that is provided with a circular hole 42 ( see fig3 ) which is sized to receive the rectangular end of the shaft and to rotate thereon . since the latch operating member 40 has the circular hole 42 , it is not connected to the shaft 32 except frictionally through the friction discs 36 and 38 . referring again to fig2 it can be seen that a compression spring 44 encircles the shaft 32 . the spring 44 has one end disposed in engagement with the friction disc 38 and the opposite end disposed in engagement with a washer 46 that is held in place on the shaft 32 by a threaded nut 48 . the end of the shaft 32 is provided with threads 50 to permit the adjustment of the nut 48 inwardly and outwardly to vary the force exerted by the spring 44 on the friction disc 38 . the spring 44 thus provides the force to cause the latch operating member 40 to be moved by the friction discs 36 and 38 . referring to fig3 it can be seen that a stop pin 52 is located in the housing 28 in a position to engage the latch operating member 40 . the engagement of the pin 52 in the latch operating member 40 limits the rotational movement of the latch operating member 40 in one direction . since the clip clutch 34 is provided , the pinion 30 can continue to rotate even though the latch operating member 40 is held from rotating by the stop pin 52 . in fig3 it can also be seen that the lower end of the latch operating member 40 is pivotally connected with an elongated connecting member 54 . the connecting member 54 extends from the latch operating member 40 to a generally u - shaped latch dog 56 that is pivotally supported in the housing 28 by a pivot pin 58 . the pivot pin 58 is disposed on the side of the rack gear 26 opposite to the teeth thereon so that the latch dog 56 is &# 34 ; overcenter &# 34 ; with respect to the rack gear 26 . the connecting member 54 extends through an opening in a bracket 60 that is mounted on the latch dog 56 . the connecting member 54 is slidable with relation to the bracket 60 , but is prevented from being moved outwardly therethrough by an enlargement 62 formed on the free end of the connecting member 54 . a compression spring 64 encircles the connecting member 54 and is disposed between a shoulder on the connecting member 54 and the bracket 60 to resiliently bias the latch dog 56 relatively toward the rack gear 26 . in operation of the lift 10 , a car or other vehicle ( not shown ) would be placed on or over the superstructure 20 . the hoist power system ( not shown ) is activated to provide fluid to the hoist raising the pistons 12 and 14 relative to the cylinders 16 and 18 and , thus , lifting the vehicle . the safety latch assembly 27 is engaged with the rack 26 by positioning the latch operating member 40 in the position shown in fig3 and 5 . with the operating member 40 in the position illustrated , the connecting member 54 extends through the bracket 60 on the latch dog 56 so that the compression spring 64 thereon biases the latch dog 56 into engagement with the rack gear 26 . in this position , the tooth on the latch dog is in engagement with one of the teeth in the rack gear 26 . as the rack gear 26 moves upwardly with the piston 14 , the latch dog 56 is biased relatively away from the rack gear 26 due to the angle of the teeth thereon . stated in another way , the rack gear 26 &# 34 ; ratchets &# 34 ; upwardly . such ratcheting action is possible due to the location of the pivot pin 58 on the latch dog 56 . in other words , clockwise rotation of the latch dog 56 tends to move the latch dog 56 relatively away from the rack gear 26 , but the latch dog 56 engages each tooth of the rack gear 26 placing the safety latch assembly 27 in position to function in the event of a failure of the power system in all positions of the hoist 10 . it will be seen that any attempt of the rack gear 26 to move downwardly causes the latch dog 56 to rotate in a counterclockwise direction about the pivot pin 58 which tends to bring the latch dog 56 into tighter engagement with the rack gear 26 thus locking the rack gear 26 and preventing downward movement of the piston 14 . as shown in fig6 the downward movement of the rack gear 26 relative to the cylinder 18 and the safety latch assembly 27 , rotates the spur gear 30 , which forms part of the safety latch assembly 27 , in a clockwise direction and through the slip clutch 34 rotates the latch operating member 40 in a direction to pull the latch dog 56 out of engagement with the rack gear 26 . however , it will be noted that considerable distance or &# 34 ; lost motion &# 34 ; is provided between the latch dog 56 and the abutment 62 on the latch connecting member 54 . thus , the &# 34 ; lost motion &# 34 ; permits the latch operating member 40 to rotate slightly in a clockwise direction as shown in fig6 without disengaging the latch dog 56 from the rack gear 26 . the length of the lost motion has been designed so that the self - energizing forces between the latch dog 56 and the rack gear 26 occur prior to the engagement of the enlargement 62 on the latch connecting member 54 with the latch dog 56 . accordingly , the latch assembly 27 is constantly engaged with the rack gear 26 and in a position to prevent downward movement of the rack gear 26 in the event of a power failure . in fig7 the latch operating member 40 has been moved in a clockwise direction until the enlarged portion 62 on the latch connecting member 54 engages the latch dog 56 . when this occurs , the latch dog 56 is manually moved out of engagement with the rack gear 26 so that the piston 14 can be lowered relative to the cylinder 18 . stated another way , manual disengagement of the latch dog 56 from the rack gear 26 permits the superstructure 20 and the vehicle mounted thereon to be lowered . it should be pointed out that because of the self - energizing characteristic of the latch dog 56 and the rack gear 26 upon downward movement of the rack gear 26 , it may be necessary to move the rack gear 26 slightly upwardly to relieve the load on the latch dog 56 before the latch operating member 40 can be moved to the position illustrated in fig7 . as mentioned earlier , the shaft 32 connects the spur gear 30 in the safety latch assembly 27 with a similar spur gear located in the housing 24 which is mounted on the cylinder 16 . since the gears are mounted on a common shaft , both the pinion 12 and the piston 14 will be lowered or raised simultaneously , thus assuring that the superstructure 20 remains level to prevent dropping the vehicle located thereon . from the foregoing , it will be apparent that a hoist having an improved safety latch apparatus constructed in accordance with the invention will operate at any elevated stage of the hoist and that such operation is fully automatic not necessitating the manual actuation by the hoist operator after the initial engagement of the safety latch mechanism . the improved safety latch apparatus is relatively simple and requires little or no maintenance during its operating life . it will also be apparent from the foregoing that the embodiment of safety latch apparatus described in detail hereinbefore is presented by way of example only and that many changes and modifications can be made thereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention . | 1 |
the high - temperature lubricant composition according to the invention surprisingly exhibits excellent lubricating and separation properties as a lubricant which can be universally employed in relation to a very wide range of qualities of steel in hot shaping , in particular in rolling processes for the production of seamless pipes . the lubricant according to the invention is stable at high temperatures , provides constant rolled products when dealing with the most widely varying qualities of steel and with changing wall thicknesses , and , in spite of the high carbon or graphite content , does not lead to cementation phenomena to a relatively high degree , which damage the rolled material . the high - temperature lubricant according to the invention has the substantial advantage over previously known lubricants for the hot shaping of metals that only a single lubricant composition needs to be used in a rolling mill for the most widely varying qualities of steel . by virtue thereof , upon a change in the kind of steel in the working process , long interruptions in production , an increased amount of working expenditure for changing the lubricant and storing different lubricants are avoided . furthermore , by virtue of the fact that the lubricant according to the present invention can be universally employed , there is no need for separate apparatuses for producing , storing and applying further lubricants to be provided in a rolling mill . that means that a considerable cost saving can be achieved . the graphite with its excellent lubricating properties is contained in the high - temperature lubricant according to the invention , in relation to the solids content , in an amount of 40 to 90 % by weight . with an amount of less than 40 % by weight graphite , the lubricating properties of the high - temperature lubricant according to the invention are inadequate , the drive forces for the outside tools are increased and the material which is to be shaped ‘ flows ’ too little . with an amount of more than 90 % by weight graphite it is not possible to guarantee an adequate separation effect between the rolled material and the mandrel bar . in particular high - grade steels have a tendency to adhere to the tools . in a preferred embodiment of the present invention the high - temperature lubricant contains 50 to 80 % by weight graphite with respect to the solids content . in a further preferred embodiment of the invention the graphite used in the high - temperature lubricant is crystalline or macrocrystalline graphite , preferably crystalline or macrocrystalline natural graphite . the use of amorphous graphite has proven to be inappropriate as the lubricating properties of the high - temperature lubricant become worse when using amorphous graphite and that has a directly detrimental effect on the service life of the tool . the use of spheroidal graphite has been found to be completely unsuitable . in a further preferred embodiment of the high - temperature lubricant according to the invention the graphite has a purity & gt ; 90 %, preferably & gt ; 95 %, with respect to the carbon content of the graphite . the use of graphite with a purity of less than 90 % has proven to be inappropriate as the attendant substances and impurities promote the formation of cementation effects with a simultaneous reduction in the lubricating action by virtue of the lower graphite content in the composition . a crystalline natural graphite which is suitable in accordance with the invention usually has a purity of about 96 %. in a further embodiment of the high - temperature lubricant according to the invention the graphite has a mean particle size ( d50 ) of 5 to 40 μm , preferably 10 to 25 μm . the use of graphite with a mean particle size of less than 5 μm is unsuitable as there is no longer sufficient flake structure and that results in a lesser lubricating effect . the use of graphite with a mean particle size of more than 40 μm is unsuitable as that entails flake sizes with which disadvantages occur in handling , by virtue of a severe tendency to sedimentation . natural graphite of the aforementioned state of purity contains further constituents as impurities or admixed substances such as inter alia silicon in the form of silicon carbide ( sic ) or silicon oxide ( sio 2 ). as silicon carbide and silicon oxide have a strongly abrasive action , an excessively high silicon content in the graphite used in accordance with the invention leads to an undesirably high level of abrasion of the tool and / or the workpiece . in a further preferred embodiment of the high - temperature lubricant according to the invention therefore the graphite used contains silicon as an impurity or admixture in an amount of not more than 2 . 0 % by weight , preferably not more than 1 . 5 % by weight , particularly preferably not more than 0 . 2 % by weight . the high - temperature lubricant according to the invention contains organic blowing agent in an amount of 2 to 50 % by weight . the organic blowing agent is selected from nitrogen compounds in accordance with the above - specified definition . in a preferred embodiment of the invention the organic blowing agent contains more than 70 % by weight , preferably more than 80 % by weight , particularly preferably more than 90 % by weight , melamine isocyanurate . in a quite particularly preferred feature the organic blowing agent consists of 100 % by weight melamine isocyanurate . the organic blowing agent used in the high - temperature lubricant according to the invention liberates gas at elevated temperatures , preferably temperatures & gt ; 350 ° c ., and thus forms a gas cushion between the tool and the workpiece during shaping of the workpiece at the usual shaping temperatures . gas formation is effected either by decomposition of the organic blowing agent , by sublimation or both . an amount of less than 2 % by weight of organic blowing agent leads to inadequate gas formation or gas liberation so that an adequate gas cushion cannot be formed between the tool and the workpiece . an amount of more than 50 % of organic blowing agent is unfavourable as that can involve an uncontrolledly high level of gas formation and consequential disturbance in the rolling process by gas expansion . melamine isocyanurate is quite particularly suitable for that purpose . in a preferred embodiment of the present invention the high - temperature lubricant contains organic blowing agent in an amount of 3 to 10 % by weight , preferably 4 to 6 % by weight . an amount of about 5 % by weight organic blowing agent has proven to be particularly suitable . the high - temperature lubricant according to the invention further contains a sheet silicate or a mixture of sheet silicates as an inorganic separation agent in an amount of 5 to 50 % by weight . a proportion of the inorganic separation agent in an amount of less than 5 % by weight is inappropriate as an adequate separation effect is not achieved . an amount of more than 50 % by weight of inorganic separation agent leads to a reduced lubricating action . in a particularly preferred embodiment of the present invention the high - temperature lubricant contains inorganic separation agent in an amount of 10 to 40 % by weight , preferably 15 to 30 % by weight . in a further preferred embodiment of the high - temperature lubricant according to the invention the inorganic separation agent is selected from kaolinite , antigorite , hydrohalloysite , serpentine , greenalite , pyrophyllite , talc , margarite , vermiculite , sudoite and chlorite . particularly preferred are kaolinite and antigorite alone or as a mixture . in a further particularly preferred embodiment of the high - temperature lubricant according to the invention the inorganic separation agent is selected from the group of alkali - free aqueous sheet silicates with a double - single sheet such as for example kaolinite , antigorite and halloysite . the clay mineral kaolinite , an aluminium hydrosilicate of the general formula al 2 [ si 2 o 5 ( oh ) 4 ] is quite particularly preferred among the sheet silicates . kaolin is obtained either by elutriation of the argillaceous rock kaolin or synthetically from polysilicic acid and aluminium hydroxide . as kaolins predominantly consist of the mineral kaolinite ( about 88 %) kaolin can also be used in place of pure kaolinite in specific implementations of the present invention . the advantage of using the argillaceous rock kaolin is the lower costs for the raw material in comparison with the use of pure or for example synthetically produced kaolinite . in accordance with the invention therefore kaolin is preferably used . in comparison however the higher purity of the mineral kaolinite or the highest possible purity of the synthetically produced kaolinite can also be desired for the purposes of more exact reproducibility of products of uniform quality . in a further preferred embodiment of the high - temperature lubricant according to the invention the inorganic separation agent has a mean particle size ( d50 ) of 0 . 5 to 15 μm , preferably 1 to 10 μm , particularly preferably 1 to 7 μm . smaller particle sizes than 0 . 5 μm suffer from the disadvantage that agglomerate formation of the raw material takes place and that cannot be homogenised sufficiently well in the powder mixture . particle sizes of more than 15 μm suffer from the disadvantage that as a result the separation action of the separation agent is partially superposed by an abrasion effect , which has a detrimental action , and in addition it is not possible to produce a homogeneous mixture when greatly different particles sizes are involved . in a particularly preferred embodiment of the present invention the high - temperature lubricant contains 1 to 20 % by weight organic adhesive which is selected from alkylene homopolymers and copolymers . the adhesive can be suspended in water and forms on the substrate ( tool and / or workpiece ) a film which contributes to the other constituents of the composition of the lubricant being held . an amount of less than 1 % by weight of the organic adhesive is inadequate as that means that the layer thicknesses of the lubricant used are reduced to an inadequate value . an amount of more than 20 % of organic adhesive suffers from the disadvantage that the lubricating action is reduced as a result of the missing graphite proportion and the tool service lives are accordingly reduced . in a preferred embodiment of the invention the high - temperature lubricant contains the organic adhesive in an amount of 2 to 10 % by weight , preferably 2 to 5 % by weight . in a further preferred embodiment of the high - temperature lubricant according to the invention the organic adhesive is selected from homo - and copolymers of arylalkenes , α , β - unsaturated acids and esters , β , γ - unsaturated acids and esters , alkenes , vinyl esters , vinyl alcohols , unsaturated dibasic acids and esters , alkyl esters and acyclic acids and esters . quite particularly preferably the organic adhesive is selected from polyethylene , polymethyl methacrylate , polystyrene , polybutadiene , polyvinyl acetate , polyvinyl proprionate , copolymer of methyl methacrylate and styrene , copolymer of methylene methacrylate and alphamethyl styrene , polydiallyl phthalate , polypropylene , copolymer of styrene and butadiene , polymethyl methacrylate , copolymer of vinyl acetate and dibutyl maleinate , copolymer of vinyl acetate and ethylene and polyisobutylene . in a further particularly preferred embodiment of the present invention the high - temperature lubricant further contains 2 to 15 % by weight inorganic or organic stabiliser , the stabiliser being selected from polysaccharides , alkyl celluloses , hydroxycelluloses and clay minerals . the high - temperature lubricant according to the invention in use is frequently or usually employed in the form of a suspension or dispersion in a liquid , preferably in water . the inorganic stabiliser increases the viscosity in that suspension or dispersion and thus serves as a thickening agent and prevents or reduces sedimentation and thus separation of the other constituents of the high - temperature lubricant . an amount of less than 2 % by weight of the stabiliser is undesirable as then the increase in viscosity is not sufficient to adequately prevent sedimentation of the constituents of the high - temperature lubricant and to ensure homogeneity of the lubricant . an amount of not more than 15 % by weight of the stabiliser leads to an increase in the viscosity of the suspension or dispersion so that it can only be poorly applied to the tool by a spray process . furthermore an excessively high viscosity can adversely affect the formation of a sufficiently cohesive and uniformly thick film of lubricant . in a preferred embodiment of the invention the high - temperature lubricant contains the stabiliser in an amount of 3 to 10 % by weight , preferably 4 to 6 % by weight . particularly preferably the stabiliser is an inorganic material which is selected from clay minerals on a silicate basis or mixtures thereof , preferably from bentonites and organically modified bentonites . quite particularly preferably the stabiliser is selected from clay minerals from the class of smectites , preferably the class of montmorrionites . smectites substantially comprise sheet silicates and by virtue of the structure involved are distinguished by a high cation exchange capability and a high degree of swellability in water . in the class of smectites , montmorrionites are particularly preferably used , which have a swelling capacity ( 1 g of montmorrionite in distilled water ) of 3 to 50 . by virtue of the above - mentioned cation exchange capability the smectites or montmorrionites can be ‘ modified ’ with inorganic or organic cations . the clay minerals advantageously used in the high - temperature lubricant according to the invention are distinguished by excellent binding properties and also enjoy the advantage that , in contrast to organic stabilisers , they are not subject to pyrolysis . furthermore the use of the specified clay minerals leads to a surprisingly fast drying time for the film of lubricant on the workpiece and / or the tool within a few seconds . the use of those stabilisers makes it possible with the lubricant according to the invention to produce a uniform and dry lubricant film on the tool and / or the workpiece within a very short time , even before the tool and the workpiece are brought into contact . desirably , as a commercial product , the high - temperature lubricant according to the invention is prepared in the form of a dry solid material in powder form . it can also be used directly as such a solid material , but it is advantageous for it to be employed in the situation of use in the form of a suspension or dispersion in a liquid , preferably water , with a solids content of 5 to 50 % by weight , preferably 15 to 40 % by weight , particularly preferably 25 to 30 % by weight . in that way the high - temperature lubricant can be uniformly sprayed on to the tool and / or the workpiece . by virtue of the elevated temperature of the tool and / or the workpiece the liquid evaporates and leaves behind a uniform firm coating of the lubricant . it will be appreciated that the high - temperature lubricant according to the invention can also be marketed in the form of such a suspension or dispersion . in a further preferred embodiment of the present invention the solid constituents of the high - temperature lubricant are of a mean particle size & lt ; 200 μm , preferably & lt ; 150 μm , particularly preferably 100 & lt ; mm . if the solid constituents of the high - temperature lubricant are of a greater mean particle size , that suffers from the disadvantage of increased tendency to sedimentation in a suspended form of application . further advantages , features and embodiments of the present invention are described with reference to the examples hereinafter . four different lubricant recipes were tested in longitudinal rolling processes . the recipes were each used in the form of 30 % aqueous suspensions . all percentages by weight relate in each case to the solids content . in the longitudinal rolling processes , pipes with thin walls ( wall gauge = 4 . 1 mm ) were produced at mandrel bar temperatures of 80 - 100 ° c . about 90 g of lubricant suspension per m 2 was applied . the flow time of the suspensions in accordance with en - iso 2431 ( 6 mm ) was about 50 sec . the rolling batches included in each case about 50 to 2000 pipes . the materials used were a carbon steel of the quality p110 and an alloyed steel of the quality p91 . the recipes , produced by mixing of the constituents , of the dry lubricants in powder form and the rolling results are set forth in table 1 hereinafter . as thin wall gauges , by virtue of the greater degree of stretching , require better lubrication than thick wall gauges , the results of the lubricating action can also be transferred on to the thick wall range . in a seamless pipe production line in which , after piercing of the preliminary material on a skew rolling mill , elongation of the hollow blocks produced in that way is effected by means of continuously operating , respectively separately driven roll stands on a freely movable tool ( mandrel bar ), the mandrel bar was coated at a temperature of about 110 to 130 ° c . by means of an airless spray installation ( 4 × 0 . 7 / 0 . 9 mm nozzles / 40 - 80 bars ) prior to the operation of elongating the hollow blocks , with the lubricant suspension produced in accordance with recipe 1 from example 1 . the material used was ferritic steel with 9 and 13 % cr respectively and the hollow blocks weighed from 250 to 270 kg and were from 6 to 8 m in length . the shaping temperature was 1150 to 1200 ° c . the wall gauges of the finished pipes were 2 . 7 to 7 . 3 mm , predominantly however 4 . 1 mm , and the outside diameter of the finished pipes was 152 mm at a maximum . seamless pipes of carbon steel were produced on the same production line as in example 2 , while retaining the set installation rolling adjustments . coating of the mandrel bars was effected with the lubricant of recipe 1 from example 1 and in the manner described in example 2 . the material was steel of the quality p110 and p91 respectively and the hollow blocks weighed from 250 to 300 kg and were from 6 . 5 to 8 m in length . the shaping temperature was 1250 to 1280 ° c . the wall gauges of the seamless pipes produced were in the range of 2 . 7 to 4 . 1 mm and the finished pipes were of an outside diameter of 152 mm maximum . | 2 |
embodiments consistent with the present invention are more specifically set forth in the following description with reference to the appended figures . wherever possible , the same reference numbers will be used throughout the drawings to refer to the same or like parts . fig1 shows an exemplary configuration 100 including a data distribution device having a plurality power supplies consistent with an embodiment of the invention . configuration 100 may include a data distribution device 105 , an independent power supply 115 , a remote data distribution device 110 , one or more network devices 125 - 1 - 125 - n , and one or more externally powered network devices 120 - 1 - 120 - n . data distribution device 105 may exchange data with remote data distribution device 110 over a connection through a wall plate 114 . wall plate 114 may be physically attached to wall 112 , and may typically be in local proximity to data distribution device 105 and remote proximity power from independent power supply 115 . additionally , operational power for the data distribution device 105 may be provided by remote data distribution device 110 over the same connection used for data through wall plate 114 . alternately , data distribution device 105 may select power over a dedicated power line connected to independent power supply 115 . data distribution device may make this selection using an internal switch , the details of which are presented below . data distribution device 105 may also exchange data with one or more externally powered network devices 120 - 1 - 120 - n and with one or more network device 125 - 1 - 125 - n . typically , data distribution device 105 may not provide power to externally powered network devices 120 - 1 - 120 - n . data may be exchanged may with other devices and / or networks through remote data distribution device 110 , or may be exchanged with other devices directly connected to data distribution device 105 . additionally , data distribution device 105 may provide power to one or more network device 125 - 1 - 125 - n over the same connection used to exchange data . this power originates from the power source data distribution device 105 has selected . moreover , data distribution device 105 may sense the amount of power required by one or more network devices 125 - 1 - 125 - n , and provide power accordingly . data distribution device 105 may be any type of network device for distributing data using any physical networking standards and data communication protocols , including , for example , ethernet and tcp / ip . data distribution device 105 may be a switch , a hub , a router , a patch panel , or any other type of network device known by one of ordinary skill in the art . data distribution device 105 may exchange data with remote data distribution device 110 , externally powered network devices 120 - 1 - 120 - n , and / or network devices 125 - 1 - 125 - n using any known physical networking standards and data communication protocols , including , for example , ethernet and / or tcp / ip . data distribution device 105 may exchange data utilizing standard ethernet cables and connectors , such as , for example , cat5 / 5e , and / or cat6 cabling , in conjunction with , for example , standard rj - 45 connectors . data distribution device may operate at 10 / 100 / 1000 mbit / sec data rates for data exchange , and thus , for example , may serve as a so called gigabit switch . data distribution device may select from one of a plurality of power supplies to supply its own internal power , and / or to supply power to one or more network devices 125 - 1 - 125 - n . this switching may be performed using relays , transistors , or any other known switching devices . details of one hardware switching approach are presented below in the description of fig3 . for sake of clarity , only two sources of power are illustrated in fig1 . as shown , data distribution device 105 may select power from independent power supply 115 or from remote data distribution device 110 . this selection may be based upon pre - defined logic rules within data distribution device 105 , and can be based upon the source of incoming power and / or the maximum available power from each power source . for example , if only one source of power is present , then data distribution device 105 will utilize that source for internal power . if both remote data distribution device 110 and independent power supply 115 are supplying power , logic within data distribution device may switch to using power from independent power supply 115 to reduce the power draw from remote data distribution device 110 , as it may be powering other devices over other power over ethernet ( poe ) network connections ( not shown ). additionally , data distribution device 105 may provide the appropriate feed - back to remote data distribution device 110 as to how much power it needs to allocate and / or offer to data distribution device 105 . this may be done , for example , using known ieee 802 . 3af techniques by having data distribution device 105 present the appropriate resistive signature to remote data distribution device 110 based upon which power supply was selected . this signature may be in accordance with signatures associated with any class prescribed by 802 . 3af , including class 0 , 1 , 2 , and / or 3 power signatures . data distribution device 105 may obtain power from remote data distribution device 110 operating in any configuration , including midspan and endspan configurations , associated with poe under ieee 802 . 3af . using the selected power supply , data distribution device 105 can subsequently provide power for network devices 125 - 1 - 125 - n , if present . independent power supply 115 may supply power to data distribution device 105 using either standard or customized cabling and connectors . remote data distribution device 110 may supply power using the same physical medium used to exchange data . power may be delivered over the physical data connection media using any technique known to one of ordinary skill in the art . such techniques include , for example , techniques and configurations which comply with the ieee 802 . 3af power over ethernet ( poe ) standards , or any other power over data line techniques know in the art . data distribution device 105 may in turn provide power to network devices 125 - 1 - 125 - n over the same physical media used to exchange data , and may use ieee 802 . 3af poe standards , or any other power over data line techniques know in the art . in accordance with the 802 . 3af standard , data distribution device 105 may first sense how much power network devices 125 - 1 - 1225 - n require for proper operation , and allocate and / or offer power in accordance with the sensed requirements . techniques used to sense the power requirements are known and may be defined according to ieee 802 . 3af standards , and may include class 0 , 1 , 2 , and / or 3 power signatures . moreover , data distribution device may provide a different power signature to remote distribution device 110 than it receives from one or more network devices 125 - 1 - 125 - n . furthermore , the power signature which may be provided by the data distribution device to the remote data distribution device 110 may not depend upon the value or presence of any other power signature request received by the data distribution device 105 from one or more network devices 125 - 1 - 125 - n . remote data distribution device 110 may be any type of network device for distribution data ( e . g ., a switch , a hub , a router , and / or a patch panel , etc .) using any known physical networking standards and data communication protocols , including , for example , ethernet and / or tcp / ip typically , remote data distribution device may be housed in a dedicated enclosure ( such as , for example , a “ closet ”), and be used for a high speed communications ( such as , for example , gigabit ethernet ), to serve as an interchange between upstream data communications with other networks and / or network devices ( such as , for example , other local area networks , wide area networks , and / or the internet , possibly through other external switches , routers , firewalls , patch panels , and / or hubs , etc ., which are not shown in fig1 ), and downstream data communication with plurality of downstream network devices ( e . g ., externally powered network devices 120 - 1 - 120 - n and / or network devices 125 - 1 - 125 - n ) through data distribution device 105 . remote data distribution device 110 may have one or more dedicated power sources ( not shown ). remote data distribution device 110 may have a main power source , such as a standard power source driven by ac wall power , or other standard power supplies known in the art . remote data distribution device 110 may also include one or more backup power sources for redundancy or emergency purposes , such as for example , an uninterruptible power supply , which may include generator and / or battery backup , and / or any other type of backup known to those skilled in the art . remote data distribution device 110 may interface with other devices to deliver power utilizing the same physical connection media for which data is exchanged . typically , the physical connection media may be standard ethernet cables and connectors ( such as , for example , cat5 , cat5e , and / or cat6 cabling , using , for example , standard rj - 45 connectors ). power may be delivered over the physical connection media using any technique known to one of ordinary skill in the art . such techniques include , for example , techniques and configurations which comply with the ieee 802 . 3af power over ethernet ( poe ) standards , which include sensing the power requirements of any downstream device requiring power ( for example , data distribution device 105 ) and allocating and / or offering power in accordance with the sensed requirements . such requirements may be defined according to ieee 802 . 3af standards , and may include class 0 , 1 , 2 , and / or 3 power signatures . independent power supply 115 may be any type of power supply known in the art , and can include , for example , ac / dc power converters ( such as , for example , so called “ wall warts ”), dc / dc power converters , switching power supplies , battery power supplies , and / or capacitive power supplies , etc .). while only one independent power supply is shown , one of ordinary skill in the art would appreciate that various embodiments of the invention could include more than one independent power supply . independent power supply 115 may interface with data distribution device 105 using any method known in the art , including standard and / or custom power cables and connectors . network devices 125 - 1 - 125 - n may be any type of networkable device known in the art , using any known physical networking standards and data communication protocols , including , for example , ethernet and tcp / ip . network devices 125 - 1 - 125 - n may exchange data using 10 / 100 / 1000 mbit / sec rates using known cabling and connectors ( such as , for example , cat5 , cat5e , and / or cat6 cabling , using , for example , standard rj - 45 connectors ), and may receive operational power supplied by data distribution device 105 using the same cabling and connectors which are used for data exchange . power may be supplied using any known methods , included ieee 802 . 3af poe . network devices 125 - 1 - 125 - n may include voice over internet protocol ( voip ) telephones , video cameras , still cameras , wireless access points , and / or remote telemetry data collection devices . externally powered network devices 120 - 1 - 120 - n may be any type of networkable device known in the art , using any known physical networking standards and data communication protocols , including , for example , ethernet and tcp / ip . network devices 125 - 1 - 125 - n may exchange data using 10 / 100 / 1000 mbit / sec rates using known cabling and connectors ( such as , for example , cat5 , cat5e , and / or cat6 cabling , using , for example , standard rj - 45 connectors ). externally powered network devices 120 - 1 - 120 - n may not receive power directly from data distribution device 105 , but will have power supplied to them through an external power supply which is not associated with data distribution device 105 . externally powered network devices 125 - 1 - 125 - n may include personal computers , workstations , and / or laptops , routers , switches and / or hubs . fig2 a depicts a gigabit ethernet switch having selectable power supplies for use with voip telephones in a configuration 200 a having an independent power supply . this configuration includes a closet gigabit switch 210 , a gigabit switch 205 , an independent power supply 115 , a personal computer 220 , and a voip telephone 215 . all of the data communications within this embodiment may utilize ethernet and tcp / ip communication protocols . in configuration 200 a , gigabit switch 205 exchanges data over an ethernet connection , through wall plate 114 , with closet gigabit switch 210 . wall plate 114 may be mounted wall 112 which may be proximately located to gigabit switch 205 , and distally located to closet gigabit switch 210 . closet gigabit switch 210 can serve a number of other connected devices throughout a network with data and power using ieee 802 . 3af poe ( not shown ). gigabit switch 205 may further exchange data with personal computer 220 , and with voip telephone 215 . in one embodiment , gigabit switch 205 may exchange data with personal computer 220 and closet gigabit switch 210 at higher data rates , such as , for example , 1000 mbps . data exchanged between gigabit switch 205 and voip telephone 215 may occur at lower rates , such as , for example , 10 / 100 mbps . because the independent power supply 115 is present in this configuration , gigabit switch 205 may sense power present at independent power supply 115 and select power from this source for use as operational power , and may not select poe power from closet gigabit switch 210 . additionally , gigabit switch 205 may initially determine how much power voip telephone 215 requires using standard 802 . 3af sensing techniques , and subsequently supply power to voip telephone 215 using standard 802 . 3af poe . fig2 b depicts another configuration 200 b of gigabit switch 205 which does not have an independent power supply connected thereto . here , gigabit switch 205 would not sense power coming from the independent power supply , and would then select power from closet gigabit switch 210 . upon initialization , closet gigabit switch can determine how much operation power gigabit switch 210 requires utilizing 802 . 3af techniques , and allocate and supply the appropriate power amount over the same physical connection used for exchanging data . as described above , gigabit switch 205 can in - turn provide power to voip telephone 215 using 802 . 3af , poe as described above , however , in configuration 200 b , the power would be sourced from closet gigabit switch 210 . as described above gigabit switch 205 may initially determine how much power voip telephone 215 requires using standard 802 . 3af sensing techniques , and subsequently supply the requested power thereto . the operation of gigabit switch 205 with respect data communication would be the same as described above for configuration 200 a shown in fig2 a . one of ordinary skill in the art would appreciated that configuration 200 b may also include the case where independent power supply 115 is present , but for whatever reason ( s ), is not providing power to gigabit switch 205 . in this case , power from closet gigabit switch 210 may serve as backup power for the independent power supply . one practical advantage of configurations 200 a and 200 b is that they can permit high speed network communications with pc 220 , while permitting the user to maintain the use of existing voip telephones which may have an internal switches operating at lower bit rates . this permits high speed communications for pc 220 through a relatively inexpensive upgrade by adding gigabit switch 205 , while preserving the investment in the existing , slower speed voip telephone 215 . in other words , this allows the user to upgrade pc 220 , while avoiding having to upgrade to a relatively more expensive voip telephone having a high speed internal switch . a practical advantage of gigabit switch 205 having the capability of selecting different power supplies is that it affords greater operational reliability to voip telephone 215 . for example , independent power supply 115 may be utilized if closet gigabit switch 210 does not offer poe , or in the event its poe capabilities are overburdened by other connected devices . also , independent power supply may be provided as a battery backup by the user in the event close gigabit switch 210 has a failure and cannot supply poe . fig3 shows a further detail of gigabit switch 205 consistent with an embodiment of the invention . gigabit switch 205 may exchange data through uplink port 320 , unpowered port 310 , and powered port 315 . these ports may be any type of data port known in the art , and can include , for example , rj - 45 connectors . data exchanged through uplink port 320 may originate from closet gigabit switch 210 and may operate at lower and higher data rates , such as , for example , 10 / 100 / 1000 mbps . one of ordinary skill in the art would appreciate that closet gigabit switch 210 may be any type of data distribution device . once presented at uplink port 320 , data from closet switch 210 may pass through poe controller 360 and then through an impedance matching circuit 335 , and then onto data distributor module 305 . data exchanged through unpowered port 310 may originate from personal computer 220 which may also operate at lower and higher data rates , such as , for example , 10 / 100 / 1000 mbps . one of ordinary skill in the art would appreciate that personal computer 220 may be any type of network based device . once presented at uplink port 310 , data from personal computer 220 may then pass through an impedance matching circuit 325 prior to being exchanged with data distributor module 305 . data exchanged through powered port 315 may originate from voip telephone 215 which may operate at lower data rates , such as for example , 10 / 100 mbps . one of ordinary skill in the art would appreciate that voip telephone may also be any type of networked device . once presented at powered port 315 , data from voip telephone 215 may pass through an impedance matching circuit 330 and then onto data distributor module 305 . data distributor module 305 may serve as an ethernet switch which directs packets based upon their , mac addresses and various routing tables and / or rules . additionally , data distributor module 305 may also implement the features of a so called multi - layer switch , and provide routing based on vlans and the ip addresses themselves . a process controller 340 may provide one or more control signals to data distributor module for purposes configuration and operating parameters , either at initialization time or during the course of normal operation of the system . data distributor module 305 may take the form of an integrated circuit and be any type of data distributor module known in the art , including multi - port gigabit ethernet switch controllers . process controller 340 may also receive signals from power detectors 350 and 355 which may indicate a source of power , and based upon these signals , process controller may select a power source through switch 380 . power detectors may be either voltage or current detectors , and may be of any appropriate type known to one of ordinary skill in the art . over uplink port 320 , power may be received using ieee 802 . 3af poe standards , which can be supplied by closet gigabit switch 210 . if power is present at this port , power detector 350 , which may connected to outputs coming from poe controller 360 , will sense the power signal from uplink port 320 , and send a signal notifying process controller 340 that the closet gigabit switch 210 is providing a power signal . similarly , power detector 355 may sense a power signal provided by independent power supply 115 , which may be fed power through standard a / c wall socket over plug and connector 390 . power sensor 355 will then send a signal to process controller 340 that independent power supply 115 is providing a power signal which may be used for operational power . as discussed above , independent power supply could be any known power source , and additional independent power supplies may be utilized , along with additional power sensors , to accommodate additional power supply sources . process controller 340 may then exercise various logic to determine which power supply to select . such logic may be in the form of a program stored in on - board memory ( not shown ) within the process controller . process controller and memory may be of any type known to one of ordinary skill in the art , and include . one form of logic which may be used could be to have process controller 340 use either poe power from uplink port 320 , or power from independent power supply 115 , if only one of which is present . if both are sources are present , process controller 340 may select power from independent power supply 115 in order to minimize any aggregate poe power draw closet gigabit switch 210 may experience . details of the logic which may be used in this embodiment are further presented below in the description of fig4 . one of ordinary skill in the art would appreciate that other logic schemes may be used in accordance with the invention . once process controller 340 determines which power supply to select , the selection may occur by process controller 340 sending a command signal to switch 380 . switch 380 may be a relay , one or more transistors , or any other type of switch which may be controlled by an electronic signal . if process controller 340 selects independent power supply 115 , it may open switch 380 so that current flows through a diode assembly 385 to a power sourcing equipment ( pse ) controller and power controller 370 , hereinafter referred to as pcpc 370 . if process controller 340 selects poe power over uplink port 320 , process controller 340 may close switch 380 , and current from uplink port 320 will flow through diode assembly 385 into pcpc 370 . note that the voltage of independent power supply 115 may be chosen so , that if the independent power supply 115 is present and providing power , the appropriate diodes are back - biased , allowing current to flow from uplink port 320 into pcpc 370 , and blocking current from independent power supply 115 . process controller 340 may provide a signal to poe controller 360 in order to provide feedback to closet gigabit switch 210 regarding how much power to allocate and supply to gigabit switch 205 . poe controller 360 may set up a signature resistance in accordance with ieee 802 . 3af , to signal a class 0 , 1 , 2 , and / or 3 power signatures . the signature resistance may be sensed by closet gigabit switch 210 during initialization so the appropriate amount of power is provided to gigabit switch 205 . moreover , close gigabit switch 210 may provide power in any configuration permitted under 802 . 3af , including , but not limited to endspan and / or midspan configurations . poe controller 360 may take the form of an integrated circuit , or any other form known to one of ordinary skill in the art . the poe controller may signal the process controller various conditions , which may include normal status , overload , instability of voltage source , voltage sag and others . additionally , the process controller may calculate the total power needed by switch 205 and provide that information to the poe controller 360 so that the poe controller 360 may report that information back to the closet switch in accordance with ieee 802 . 3af or any other appropriate standards . process controller 340 may also provide control signals to pcpc 370 which may include instructions for providing the appropriate amount of power to voip telephone 215 . initially , pcpc 370 may first sense the power voip telephone 215 is requesting by measuring the signature resistance presented at powered port 315 by voip telephone 215 . this may be done in accordance with poe standard 802 . 3af . once the power signature is requested , which may be class 0 , 1 , 2 , or 3 , process controller 340 may instruct the power controller in pcpc 370 to provide powered port 315 with the appropriate amount of power for use by voip telephone 215 . this power may be provided over powered port 315 using poe . the pse controller may collect requested powering information from the device ( 215 ) connected to powered port 315 and report that information to process controller 340 for various purposes , including to report back to the closet switch 210 via poe controller 360 for power of switch 205 . in addition to receiving power from either uplink port 320 via closet gigabit switch 210 or independent power supply 115 , pcpc 370 may also receive initialization power from optional energy store 375 . optional energy store 375 provides initialization power to gigabit switch 250 for a short period of time so that it may perform the power supply selection . because only a small amount of power needs to be provided for a short period of time ( for example , on the order of milliseconds ), optional energy source does not have to supply a large amount of energy , and can take the form of a battery , a capacitor , or any other appropriate storage device known in the art . fig4 depicts logic flow 400 consistent with an embodiment of the invention . this diagram shows an exemplary sequence gigabit switch 205 may execute in order to select a power supply . this logic sequence may assume that an administrator &# 39 ; s overall power management strategy for a network is to minimize the power draw from closet gigabit switch 210 , and have independent power supply 115 selected whenever its power signal is detected , so other devices connected to closet gigabit switch 210 may benefit from sourcing power utilizing poe . one of ordinary skill in the art would appreciate other logic sequences may be performed to accomplish other power management strategies . one of ordinary skill in the art would also appreciate that , since a power supply has yet to be selected , the logic 400 would be accomplished by the components in gigabit switch 205 using power supplied by optional energy store 375 . initially , process controller 340 may scan each power detector 350 and 355 for an active power signal ( s 410 ). process controller 340 may then make the determination if power is present on power detector 355 , which monitors power signals coming from independent power supply 115 ( s 415 ). if power is present on power detector 355 , process controller 340 may source power from independent power supply 115 ( s 420 ). this can be accomplished by having process controller 340 send a signal to switching circuit 380 to open and prevent current from flowing from uplink port 320 . process controller 340 may then send another signal to poe controller 360 , which can set a signature resistance on uplink port 320 ( in accordance with ieee 802 . 3af standards ) for signaling closet gigabit switch 210 that gigabit switch 205 does not require any power over the data line through uplink port 320 ( s 425 ). alternatively , if in step s 415 , power detector 350 signals process controller 340 that power is present on uplink port 320 , process controller 340 may send a signal to poe controller 360 to configure the signature resistance across uplink port 320 , so that it will signal closet gigabit switch 210 to allocate and offer power to gigabit switch 205 ( s 430 ). the amount of power offered may depend on the value of the signature resistance value presented by poe controller 360 ( which may be based upon ieee 802 . 3af standards ). process controller 340 may then source power from the closet gigabit switch 210 over uplink port 320 ( s 435 ). this may occur by having process controller 340 signal switching circuit 380 to close , thus allowing current to flow though diode arrangement 385 . independent power supply 115 may be configured so that the two diodes in series with its current supply will be back - biased when power is being supplied through uplink port 320 , thus providing a way to economically and effectively block the power being supplied by independent power supply 115 . although detailed embodiments and implementations of the present invention have been described above , it should be apparent that various modifications are possible without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention . | 7 |
although the present invention is described below by way of various embodiments that include specific structures and methods , embodiments that include alternative structures and methods may be employed without departing from the principles of the invention described herein . in general , embodiments described below feature a network - based application that collects remote network connection performance data and modifies a priority list of network connection points based on the collected data . a preferred embodiment of the present invention features a network - based application for monitoring quality of remote network connections . before describing embodiments of the present invention in detail , it may be helpful to discuss some of the concepts on which the present invention is based . a component of one embodiment of the present invention is a computer server . servers are computer programs that provide some service to other programs , called clients . a client 505 and server 510 of fig5 communicate by means of message passing often over a network 500 , and use some protocol , ( i . e ., a set of formal rules describing how to transmit data ), to encode the client &# 39 ; s requests and / or responses and the server &# 39 ; s responses and / or requests . the server may run continually waiting for client &# 39 ; s requests and / or responses to arrive or some higher level continually running server that controls a number of specific servers may invoke it . client - server communication is analogous to a customer ( client ) sending an order ( request ) on an order form to a supplier ( server ) dispatching the goods and an invoice ( response ). the order form and invoice are part of the protocol used to communicate in this case . another component of one embodiment the present invention is an internet service provider ( isp ). an isp is a service that provides access to the internet . for a monthly fee , a service provider gives a customer a software package , username , password and internet access phone number . equipped with a modem ( e . g ., a dial - up , dsl , isdn or wireless ), a customer can then log onto the internet and browse the world wide web ( www ) and usenet , send and receive e - mail , and access a particular network . in addition to serving individuals , isps also serve large companies , providing a direct connection from the company &# 39 ; s networks to the internet . isps themselves are connected to one another through network access points ( naps ). nap is a public network exchange facility where isps can connect with one another in peering arrangements . the naps are a key component of the internet backbone because the connections within them determine how traffic is routed . they are also the points of most internet congestion . an exemplary diagram of customer to isp relation is shown in fig6 . isps generally provide a plurality of point of presence gateways ( pop ) in order for a customer to gain an internet access by making a local call . a pop ( point - of - presence ) is an access point to the internet that is associated with a phone number . a connection established via such a pop causes a unique ip address to be assigned to a machine that accesses the internet utilizing the established connection . the number of pops that an isp has and the number of subscribers are usually used as a measure of its size or growth rate . yet another component one embodiment of the present invention is a servlet . servlets are java applications , which run on a web server or application server and provide server - side processing , typically to access a database . it is a java - based alternative to common gateway interface ( cgi ) scripts , interface programs , usually written in c or perl , which enables an internet server to run external programs to perform a specific function . the most important difference between servlets and cgi scripts is that a java servlet is persistent . this means that once it is started , it stays in memory and can fulfill multiple requests . in contrast , a cgi script disappears once it has fulfilled a request . with these concepts in mind , an embodiment of a system architecture of the present invention can be explored . a remote network connection can be established from a client machine 101 of fig1 that runs a dialer 102 to establish a network connection via a pop 103 and network 104 and to collect network connection performance data . the dialer 102 includes ( 1 ) a service quality management ( sqm ) agent 90 for collecting network connection performance data and for maintaining files storing the collected information , ( 2 ) phonebook 92 , which includes a copy of a pop priority list 112 that may be stored at a server machine 105 and ( 3 ) a graphical user interface 94 that allows a user to identify his / her current location and select an access point in order for the dialer 102 to apply local dialing rules , enter user name and password , and connect to the internet and corporate virtual private network ( vpn ). in one embodiment of the present invention the server machine 105 includes a web server 118 and a database server 119 . the web server 118 includes such components of the present invention as load servlet 107 and report servlet 108 database applications . the database server 119 includes an sqm process application 120 consisting of a main sqm thread 109 , process thread 110 and purge thread 111 . these components are responsible for storing and normalizing data for service quality analysis . it will be appreciated that these components may run on a single server . in an embodiment of the present invention , database tables for storing collected and analyzed data , ( e . g ., raw_sqm table 115 , sqm table 114 , pop priority list 112 ) are also stored at the server machine 105 . however , it will be appreciated that databases may be stored at other machines and database data may be uploaded to the server machine 105 when necessary . with these concepts in mind , an exemplary embodiment of the present invention can be further explored . in one embodiment of the present invention a user invokes a dialer 102 at the client machine 101 of fig2 . the dialer 102 attempts to establish a connection with one of the pops in a priority order established in the pop priority list 203 . for example , if pop 1 is not available then the dialer 102 selects the next pop ( pop 2 ) from the list and attempts to establish a network connection with pop 2 and so on . the next embodiment of the present invention is described with the reference to a simplified flow diagram shown in fig3 a and 3b . at operation 302 , the sqm agent 90 collects network connection performance data of a number of pops with which the dialer 102 attempts to establish a connection and stores the data in the files on the client machine 101 . in an embodiment of the present invention , the network connection performance data includes a number of parameters related to a user , software and hardware configurations of a client machine 101 , a user location , a network access location ( e . g ., a location dialed by modem ), the timing of various operations in a connection process , pop related information , client and server ip addresses , baud rates , and error codes reflecting connection errors . an exemplary listing of parameters that may be collected as part of the network connection performance data is provided below in table 1 : the error codes returned to the user upon a connection attempt may broadly be divided into three categories namely ( 1 ) successful dial in connection , ( 2 ) user errors and ( 3 ) network problems . the user errors typically occur due to a user name and password problems , missing or disconnected modems , incorrect dialing codes , or incorrect or hand - edited phone numbers . examples of the user errors include : 1 . access denied due to invalid user name or password ; 2 . the user cancelled operation ; 3 . device / configurations error ( e . g ., port not ready , port already opened , modem not connected , no dial tone detected ); and 4 . person answered instead of modem ( e . g ., incorrect phone number dialed ). 1 . line busy ; 2 . no answer ; 3 . ppp time out ; 4 . connection dropped ; 5 . remote access server not responding ; and 6 . port disconnected by remote computer . when a successful network connection with one of the pops is established , the sqm agent 90 transmits the collected data to the server machine 105 . in one embodiment of the present invention , the dialer 102 selects one of the available servers for data transmission based on a data load , thus performing a load balancing function . in one embodiment of the present invention , the sqm agent 90 collects network connection performance data relating to every pop via which it tries to establish a network connection . upon establishment of a successful network connection with one of the pops , the sqm agent 90 composites a message comprising network connection performance data along with software and hardware configuration data and the pop identification numbers to which the network connection performance data relates and transmits the message to the server 105 . the web server 118 , upon receiving the collected data at the server machine 105 , at operation 304 invokes the load servlet 107 that stores received data in the raw sqm table 116 . after the network connection performance data is successfully stored in the raw sqm table , at operation 307 the load servlet 107 sends a message to the dialer 102 at the client machine 101 with the code number symbolizing successful storage of data on the server machine 105 . at operation 308 , the dialer 102 deletes data in the files stored at the client machine 101 upon receiving the message with the code number . at operation 309 , the database server 119 invokes the sqm process application 120 , which invokes the main sqm thread 109 . the main sqm thread 109 searches raw sqm table 116 for records , which have not been processed , and at operation 310 appoints the process thread 110 to normalize the data from the raw sqm table . in one embodiment of the present invention the process thread 110 , at operation 311 , performs data normalization by parsing the data and adding a customer identification number and pop identification number to the data . the process thread 110 then stores normalized data in the sqm table 114 at operation 312 . if the data has errors or customer identification number cannot be identified , the data is stored in an sqm exception table 113 at operation 313 . at operation 311 , the process thread may further optionally aggregate and process the normalized data , so as to facilitate convenient analysis thereof . for example , totals may be generated for particular types of errors for each of multiple pops , averages may be generated for performance measures ( e . g ., baud rate ), and access times may be calculated . further , totals and averages may also be calculated based on other criteria , such as time , date and geographical criteria . the data in the sqm exception table 113 is reviewed manually and re - processed or discarded . the process thread 110 marks the normalized records in the raw sqm table 116 . the purge thread 111 runs periodically and searches the raw sqm table 116 for the marked records and deletes them at operation 314 . at operation 315 the data stored in the sqm table 114 , reflecting pop performance information collected by multiple clients , is ready for human access . in one embodiment a data summarization process is performed on the data in the sqm table 114 to support data analysis and reporting . multiple tables that contain summarized data are generated as a result of the summarization process that may run on a separate server . the variety of queries and reports can be generated at this point . in one embodiment of the present invention , the types of the reports that are available are : list of single pops by phone number with the performance information , list of pop groups with the performance information on a group of pops , end user assistance report including a variety of data on the user , e . g . quantity of dial - ins a day , number of password problems , etc ., customer service level agreement ( sla ) performance information by month . it will be appreciated that these reports may be generated manually by human operators and automatically by components running on the server machine 105 . at operation 316 a team of experts monitors the collected network performance data and analyzes it periodically . the team &# 39 ; s purpose is to identify the network connection problems experienced by the user and proactively respond before the remote network connection service is noticeably affected . any suspected problems may be tested using a dialer application . a group of phone numbers , representing pops with problematic performance , may be loaded into the dialer application for test purposes and the dialer application may dial each one in order to check pops performance . based on the test results and on the collected network performance data any pops that are not performing to the quality standards may be moved to the end of the pop priority list 112 . the pop priority list 112 may be sorted by using a number of different criteria such as quality rating , speed , price , provider , etc . these sorting criteria may be applied at an individual city level as well as on the entire phonebook level . in one embodiment manually selected sort order within a city may also be applied . the above process facilitates the identification of the best performing pops for any given area and the assignment to such best performing pops of a high priority number . at the same time , low performing pops may be identified , and assigned a lower priority number . in an embodiment of the present invention if the quality of service of a pop is so poor that it is not worth maintaining in the pop priority list 112 , the expert team deletes the pop from the list temporarily until the pop &# 39 ; s performance is improved . it will be appreciated that the analysis and pop priority list 112 can be updated automatically without human help by developing an application that updates the pop priority list 112 based on an advanced - specified criteria . for example , the criteria may be an acceptable average number of failed attempts to establish a network connection a day , or an acceptable number of interrupted network connection sessions , etc . at operation 317 the phonebook 92 on the client machine 101 is automatically updated after the user establishes a successful internet connection . the updating of the phonebook 92 may be performed by modifying an existing phonebook 92 stored on the client machine 101 , or may be performed by uploading a complete and new phonebook 92 , as generated on the server machine 105 , to the client machine 101 . for example , upon the generation of a complete and new phonebook 92 , the new phonebook 92 may be “ pushed out ” from the server machine 105 to multiple client machines 101 . in one embodiment of the present invention , the user may choose not to receive an automatic update of the phonebook 92 . in this embodiment the user may access a web site maintained at the server machine 105 where a copy of the latest phonebook may be viewed and downloaded . an exemplary data flow diagram of the above - described process is illustrated in fig4 . it will be appreciated that the operations 315 – 317 may be automated , with certain criteria extracted from the collected connection performance data being used automatically to prioritize pops . such criteria may include any of the information items identified above , and the automated process may be customizable so as to allow certain criteria to be user - selected to be prominent in the prioritization of pops . the prioritization of pops may be even performed according to any number of well - known ranking or prioritization algorithms . it will be appreciated that the above described database applications do not need to run on the server machine 105 . the above - described process may run on the client machine 101 with an automatic pops performance analysis . moreover , the above described databases and tables do not need to be stored at the server machine 105 . they may be stored at other machines that are accessible by the server machine 105 and uploaded to the server machine 105 when necessary . in the foregoing specification the present invention has been described with reference to specific exemplary embodiments thereof . it will , however , be evident that various modifications and changes may be made to the specific exemplary embodiments without departing from the broader spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims . accordingly , the specification and drawings are to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense . | 7 |
fig1 shows a side view of an embodiment of the subject invention being used to clean an exposed heat exchanging coil 62 in an air conditioning unit 22 . as shown in fig1 , the embodiment comprises a low - pressure cleaning system 20 . low - pressure cleaning system 20 comprises a pressure source 24 , such as a centrifugal fan , for creating the movement of air . pressure source 24 is coupled to an air admitting end 28 of a discharge tube 26 . discharge tube has a flexible portion 30 and has a discharge orifice 32 . in this embodiment , discharge tube 26 has a flexible portion 30 . further , a handle 35 is attached to discharge tube 26 to aid in the operation of low - pressure cleaning system 20 . although handle 35 and flexible portion 30 are not required , they do allow the discharge tube 26 to be aimed in different directions . in this embodiment , discharge tube 26 and discharge orifice 32 have approximately the same diameter of at least approximately two and three - eighths inches ( 2⅜ ″). however , the diameter of the discharge tube can be adjusted to any diameter to adjust the volume and velocity of the discharge air flow , as needed . ideally , the diameter of the discharge tube and / or discharge orifice will be between one inch and two - and - a - half inches ( 1 – 2½ ″) in size . it will also be appreciated by one skilled in the art that the capacity of the pressure source can be adjusted to adjust the volume and velocity of the discharge air flow . moreover , it will be appreciated by one skilled in the art that the low - pressure cleaning system is not limited to air conditioning units but , rather , can be utilized to clean anything with a heat exchanging coil that allows air to pass through it . during operation , pressure source 24 causes air to travel through discharge tube 26 so that a discharge air flow 36 emits from discharge orifice 32 at a low pressure . “ low pressure ” comprises a pressure of less than about 50 psi . while the low - pressure cleaning system emits an air stream at a low pressure , the total energy of the air velocity and volume is sufficient to dislodge dirt and debris from the heat exchanging coil . thus , the low - pressure cleaning system will emit air at not only a low pressure but also a high velocity and a high volume . while the velocity and volume can be any level sufficient to dislodge dirt and debris from the heat exchanging coil , it is recommended that the velocity be greater than about 180 mph and the volume be greater than about 440 cfm . for example , low - pressure cleaning system 20 of fig1 could comprise a gas - powered leaf blower of a type known in the art . such as a gas powered leaf blower produces a pressure of less than 5 psi while moving about 640 cfm of air at a velocity of approximately 210 mph . discharge air flow 36 will enter air conditioning unit 22 at a sufficient pressure , velocity and volume to dislodge dirt and debris from the heat exchanging coil 62 . fig1 shows the dirt and debris being blown out of the top of the air conditioning unit through the exhaust fan of the unit with exiting air 38 . the low pressure of discharge air flow 36 reduces the possibility of damaging the heat exchanging coil . further , the large diameter of discharge orifice 32 provides a larger area of discharge air flow 36 and makes cleaning the heat exchanging coil faster . flexible portion 30 of discharge tube 26 and handle 34 allows the operator to direct the air flow 36 in different directions . fig2 shows a side cross - sectional view of the discharge tube of another embodiment of the low - pressure cleaning system . as shown in fig2 , low - pressure cleaning system 20 further comprises an injector 40 that can inject a cleaning fluid into discharge air flow 36 to improve or alter the cleaning characteristics of the air . for example , a small amount of water or a water / detergent mixture can be provided as a mist 48 ( or a low volume stream ) to improve cleaning of some surfaces and to help remove oily residue in some cases . as shown in fig2 , the cleaning fluid is induced through injector 40 located inside and attached to discharge tube 26 . injector 40 has a spray nozzle 46 connected to one end of a hose 44 that connects the spray nozzle to a valve 42 . valve 42 can be connected to a reservoir that contains the cleaning fluid . in operation , the operator of this embodiment of the low - pressure cleaning system can open valve 42 and cause the cleaning fluid to be fed through hose 44 and into and out of spray nozzle 46 so that mist 48 of the cleaning solution can be injected into the discharge air flow 36 . other nozzles can be placed in the discharge tube or can engage the discharge tube so that not only cleaning agents can be injected into the discharge air flow , but also so that other useful substances , such as rinsing agents , fogging agents , and dry powders can be injected into the discharge air flow . a variety of attachments can be attached to discharge orifice 32 to improve / modify operation of low - pressure cleaning system 20 . for example , as shown in fig3 , an attachment 50 , having a horizontal opening 52 and an open end 54 that fits over discharge orifice 32 , can be attached to the discharge orifice to focus and direct discharge air flow 36 horizontally relative to the axis of the discharge tube . alternatively , as shown in fig4 , an attachment 58 , having a vertical opening 56 and an open end 54 that fits over discharge orifice 32 , can be attached to the discharge orifice to focus and direct discharge air flow 36 vertically relative to the axis of the discharge tube . other attachments may engage discharge orifice 32 to aid in directing the discharge air at variable angles from the horizontal axis of the discharge tube or to improve the cleaning of the heat exchanging coil . for example , an attachment that causes the air to exit discharge tube 26 at a forty - five degree angle or a ninety degree angle relative to the axis of the discharge tube can be used to fit into tight spaces in order to effectively clean all of the heat exchanging coil . moreover , an attachment with an opening and a brush around the opening may be engaged with the discharge orifice to help remove surface residue . while fig3 and 4 show attachments 50 and 58 being used with discharge tube 26 without injector 40 , such attachments can be used with a discharge tube that has injector 40 attached thereto . furthermore , any fan or blower capable of producing low pressure at a high volume and a high velocity can be used as a pressure source . alternatively , an air compressor of a type known in the art that produces high velocity compressed air can be used along with a pressure - reducing attachment so that the air emanating from the discharge tube is of the desired pressure . while the subject invention has been described in considerable detail with references to particular embodiments thereof , such is offered by way of non - limiting examples of the invention as many other versions are possible . it is anticipated that a variety of other modifications and changes will be apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art and that such modifications and changes are intended to be encompassed within the spirit and scope of the pending claims . | 5 |
with reference to fig1 an example planter or seeding machine 101 , shown containing the seed delivery system of the present invention . planter 10 includes a tool bar 12 as part of a planter frame 14 . mounted to the tool bar are multiple planting row units 16 . row units 16 are typically identical for agree planter but there may be differences . a row unit 16 is shown in greater detail in fig2 . the row unit 16 is provided with a central frame member 20 having a pair of upwardly extending arms 21 ( fig4 ) at the forward end thereof . the arms 21 connect to a parallelogram linkage 22 for mounting the row unit 16 to the tool bar 12 for up and down relative movement between the unit 16 and toolbar 12 in a known manner . seed is stored in seed hopper 24 and provided to a seed meter 26 . seed meter 26 is of the type that uses a vacuum disk as are well known to meter the seed . other types of meters can be used as well . from the seed meter 26 the seed is carried by a delivery system 28 into a planting furrow , or trench , formed in the soil by furrow openers 30 . gauge wheels 32 control the depth of the furrow . closing wheels 34 close the furrow over the seed . the gauge wheels 32 are mounted to the frame member 20 by arms 36 . the toolbar and row unit are designed to be moved over the ground in a forward working direction identified by the arrow 38 . the row unit 16 further includes a chemical hopper 40 , a row cleaner attachment 42 and a down force generator 44 . the row unit 16 is shown as an example of the environment in which the delivery system of the present invention is used . the present invention can be used in any of a variety of planting machine tapes such as but not limited to , row crop planters , grain drills , air seeders , etc . with reference to fig3 , the seed delivery system 28 is shown in greater detail . delivery system 28 includes a housing 48 positioned adjacent the seed disk 50 of the seed meter . the seed disk 50 is a generally flat disk with a plurality of apertures 52 adjacent the periphery of the disk . seeds 56 are collected on the apertures from a seed pool and adhere to the disk by air pressure differential on the opposite sides of the disk 50 in a known manner . the disk may have a flat surface at the apertures 52 or have seed cells surrounding the apertures 52 . the disk rotates clockwise as viewed in fig3 as shown by the arrow 54 . at the top of fig3 , seeds 56 are shown adhered to the disk . the seed delivery system housing 48 has spaced apart front and rear walls 49 and 51 and a side wall 53 therebetween . an upper opening 58 in the housing side wall 53 admits the seed from the metering disk 50 into the housing . a pair of pulleys 60 , 62 are mounted inside the housing 48 . the pulleys support a belt 64 for rotation within the housing . one of the pulleys is a drive pulley while the other is an idler pulley . the belt has a base member 66 to engage the pulleys and elongated bristles 70 extending therefrom . the bristles are joined to the base member at proximal , or radially inner , ends of the bristles . distal , or radially outer , ends 74 of the bristles touch , or are close to touching , the inner surface 76 of the housing side wall 53 . a lower housing opening 78 is formed in the side wall 53 and is positioned as close to the bottom 80 of the seed trench as possible . as shown , the lower opening 78 is near or below the soil surface 82 adjacent the trench . the housing side wall forms an exit ramp 84 at the lower opening 78 . returning attention to the upper portion of fig3 , a loading wheel 86 is provided adjacent the upper opening 58 . the loading wheel is positioned on the opposite side of the seeds 56 from the brush 64 such that the path of the seeds on the disk brings the seeds into a nip 88 formed between the loading wheel and the distal ends 74 of the bristles 70 . at the location of the nip 88 , the air pressure differential across the seed disk 50 is terminated , freeing the seed from the apertures 52 in the disk . the bottom surface of the loading wheel , facing the seed disk 50 , has recesses 90 formed therein . the recesses 90 receive seed agitators 92 projecting from the seed disk 50 . the moving agitators , by engagement with the recesses in the loading wheel , drive the loading wheel in a clockwise rotation . in operation , the belt 64 is rotated in a counterclockwise direction . as the belt curves around the pulleys , the bristles will naturally open , that is , separate from one another as the distal ends of the bristles travel a larger circumferential distance around the pulleys than the inner ends of the bristle at the belt base member . this produces two beneficial effects as described below . the seeds are transferred from the seed meter to the delivery system as the seeds are brought by the disk into the nip 88 . there the seeds are pinched off the seed disk between the loading wheel and the bristles 70 to remove the seed from the seed disk and seed meter . the seeds are captured or entrapped in the bristles by insertion of the seed into the bristles in a radial direction , that is from the ends of the bristles in a direction parallel to the bristle length . this occurs just as the belt path around the pulley 60 ends , when the bristle ends are closing back together upon themselves , allowing the bristles to close upon , and capture the seeds therein . as the belt continues to move , the bristles more or convey the seeds downward to the housing lower opening . the side wall 53 of the housing cooperates with the bristles 76 to hold the seed in the brush bristles as the seed is moved to the lower opening . the lower opening 78 and the ramp 84 are positioned along the curved belt path around the pulley 62 . the bristle distal ends thus cause the linear speed of the seeds to accelerate relative to the speed of the belt base member 66 and the housing as shown by the two arrows 94 and 96 . the seeds are then propelled by the bristles over the ramp 84 and discharged through the lower opening 78 into the seed trench . the angle of the ramp 84 can be selected to produce the desired relationship between the seed vertical and horizontal speeds at discharge . the forward travel direction of the row unit is to the left in fig3 as shown by the arrow 38 . at the discharge , the horizontal speed of the seed relative to the ground is minimized to reduce roll of the seed in the trench . the belt shown in fig3 has relatively long bristles . as a result of the long bristles and the seed loading point being at the end of the curved path of the brush around the pulley 60 results in the seeds being loaded into the belt while the bristles have slowed down in speed . the bristle speed at loading is thus slower than the bristle speed at the discharge opening as the belt travels around the pulley 62 . this allows in the seed to be loaded into the belt at a relatively lower speed while the seed is discharged at the lower end at a desired higher speed . as described above , it is preferred that the horizontal velocity of the seed at the discharge be equal to the forward travel speed of the planter but in the rearward direction such that the horizontal velocity of the seed relative to the ground is close to or equal to zero . the long bristles can be used to increase the speed of the seed as it travels around the pulley . however , a short bristle brush can be used as well . with a short bristle brush , there will be little acceleration in the speed of the seed as the seed travels around the pulleys . the belt will have to be driven at a speed to produce the desired horizontal velocity of the seed at the discharge . even with a short bristle brush , the seed is still accelerated in the horizontal direction . as the belt travels around the pulley , the direction of travel of the seed changes from the predominantly vertical direction , when the seed is moved downward from the seed meter , to a predominantly horizontal direction at the discharge . this produces an acceleration of the seed velocity in the horizontal direction . with the delivery system 28 , the seed is captured by the delivery system to remove the seed from the seed meter . the seed is then moved by the delivery system to the seed discharge point where the seed is accelerated in a rearward horizontal direction relative to the housing . from the seed meter to the discharge , the seed travel is controlled by the delivery system , thus maintaining the seed spacing relative to one another . in the embodiment shown in fig3 , the seed disk and the front and rear was 49 , 51 of the housing 48 lie in planes that are generally parallel one another . as shown , the plane of the delivery system is generally parallel to the direction of travel of the row unit . other relationships between the seed meter and delivery system are shown and described below . as shown in fig3 , the side wall 53 is divided by the upper and lower openings 58 , 78 into two segments , 53 a and 53 b . segment 53 a is between the upper and lower openings in the direction of belt travel while the segment 53 b is between the lower and upper openings in the direction of belt travel . it is the gaps in the side wall 53 that form the upper and lower openings . it should be understood , however , that the delivery system will function without the segment 53 b of the side wall . it is only the segment 53 a that functions together with the belt bristles to deliver the seed from the meter to the seed trench . thus , the term “ upper opening ” shall be construed to mean a open area before the side wall segment 53 a in the direction of belt travel and the term “ lower opening ” shall mean an open area after the side wall segment 53 a in the direction of belt travel . with reference to fig4 - 7 , the delivery system 28 is shown in combination with the seed meter and row unit structure in an alternative arrangement of the seed meter and delivery system 28 . the seed meter 200 is shown mounted to the row unit with the seed disk 202 in a vertical orientation but at an angle to the forward travel direction shown by the arrow 38 . fig4 shows of the seed meter orientation in the row unit without the delivery system 28 . the seed meter includes a housing having two halves 204 and 206 releasable joined together in a known manner . the seed meter is driven through a transmission 208 coupled to a drive cable , not shown . in fig5 only the seed disk 202 of the meter is shown with the seed delivery system 28 . as previously mentioned , the seed disk 202 is in a vertical orientation but it does not lie in a plane parallel to the forward direction 38 . instead , the meter is oriented such that the disk is at a 60 ° angle relative to the forward direction when viewed from above . the seed of delivery system 28 is generally identical to that shown in fig3 and is driven by a motor 65 . the delivery system , including of the brush belt 64 , is generally vertical and aligned with the fore and aft direction of the planter such that the angle between the brush and the seed disk is approximately 60 °. the angle between the delivery system and a seed disk produces a partial “ cross feed ” of the seed into the brush . that is , the seed is fed into the brush at an angle to the lengthwise direction of the bristles . this is in contrast to fig3 where the seed enters the brush in a direction substantially parallel to the lengthwise direction of the brush bristles . if the brush and seed disk were oriented at 90 ° to one another , a total cross feed would be produced with seed entering the brush perpendicular to the bristles . the seed disk 202 is shown enlarged in fig7 and 8 . the disk 202 has opposite sides , a vacuum side 216 and seed side 218 . the seed side 218 has a surface 219 near the periphery that defines a reference plane . the reference plane will be used to describe the features of the disk near the disk periphery . an outer peripheral lip 220 is recessed from the reference plane . the peripheral lip 220 creates a radially outward edge face 222 . a circumferential row of spaced apart apertures 224 is arranged around a circular path radially inward of the edge face 222 . each aperture extends through the disk between the vacuum side 216 and the seed side 218 . radially inward of each aperture 224 , there is a radially elongated recess 226 . the recess 226 is recessed axially into the disk from the reference plane . in operation , the disk rotates in a counterclockwise direction as indicated by the arrow 228 . during rotation , the recesses 226 agitate the seed in the seed pool . surrounding each aperture 224 is a tapered recess , or shallow seed cell , 232 that extends axially into the disk from the reference plane . seed cell 232 begins at a leading edge 234 in the direction of rotation of the disk and is progressively deeper into the seed side 218 to a trailing edge formed by an axially projecting wail 236 . the tapered recess or seed cell 232 reduces the vacuum needed to pick - up and retain seed in the apertures 2 , 4 . the seed cell also enables the seed to sit lower relative to the seed side 218 of the disk , allowing the seed to be retained while the seed singulator removes doubles or multiples of seed from the apertures 224 . in addition , the recess well 236 agitates seed in the seed pool , further aiding in seed pick - up . the wall 236 extends lengthwise in a predominately radial direction as shown by the dashed line 238 . the walls 236 , while predominately radial , are inclined to the radial direction such that the inner end of the wall 236 is leading the outer end of the well in the direction of rotation . immediately following each well 236 , as the disk rotates , is a projection , or upstanding peg 240 extending axially from the disk seed side . the pegs engage seed in the seed pool for agitation to aide in seed pick - up . the pegs 240 are located slightly radially inward of the circular path of apertures 224 to avoid interference with the seed singulator . with reference to fig8 , the disk 20 e is shown in operation and in position relative to the belt 64 in the delivery system 28 . as seeds 244 are carried by the disk 202 into the bristles of the brush 64 , the wall 236 and the pegs 240 act to push the seed 244 into the bristles of the brush 64 and assist in keeping the seed from being knocked of the disk upon the seed &# 39 ; s initial contact with the brush bristles . once the seed is inserted into the brush bristles , the vacuum from the opposite side of the disk is cut - off , allowing the brush to sweep the seed off the disk in a predominately radial direction relative to the disk . an insert 246 overlies the lip 220 at the point of seed release to hold the seed in the brush bristles in the transition between the disk and the side wall 53 ( fig3 ) of the delivery system housing . the disk 202 is inclined to the length of the brush bristles at approximately a 60 degree angle . this produces the partial cross - feed of the seed into the brush bristles . fig9 shows the brush belt seed delivery system 28 in combination with a vacuum belt metering system having a metering belt 302 . the vacuum belt meter is fully described in co - pending u . s . patent application ser . no . 12 / 363 , 968 , filed feb . 2 , 2009 , now u . s . pat . no . 7 , 918 , 168 and incorporated herein by reference . the belt 302 picks - up seed at a pick - up region 304 at a lower , front location of the belts path and transports it to the delivery system at a release region 306 at an upper , rear location of the belt &# 39 ; s path . in this arrangement of the belt meter and the brush delivery system , the delivery system is again partially cross fed with seeds from the meter . another arrangement of the delivery system together with a vacuum meter belt is shown in fig1 . the delivery system 28 is in - line with the belt meter 124 . this allows the distal ends of the brush bristles to sweep over the surface of the metering belt 126 to capture the seed therefrom . the meter belt 126 is wrapped around pulleys 128 . the metering belt 124 is similar and functions as the belt 302 mentioned above . the delivery system of the present invention can also be used with seed meters other than air pressure differential meters . for example , with reference to fig1 , a finger pick - up meter 130 is shown , such as that described in u . s . pat . no . 3 , 552 , 601 and incorporated herein by reference . seed is ejected from the meter through an opening 132 . the delivery system 134 has a brush belt 136 wrapped about pulleys 138 and 140 . as shown , the belt pulley 138 shares a common drive shaft with finger pick - up meter 130 . a hub transmission such as a spherical continuously variable transmission or a three speed hub can be used to drive the belt 135 at a different speed from the meter 130 . the delivery system housing includes a side wail 142 . a ramp 146 is formed at the lower end of the wall 142 adjacent the lower opening 148 . at the upper end of the delivery system , the upper opening is formed in the housing rear wall adjacent the opening 132 through which seeds are ejected from the seed meter . the seeds are inserted laterally into the brush bristles in a complete cross - feed . as in the other embodiments , the seed is captured in the brush bristles , moved downward to the lower opening , accelerated rearward and discharged through the lower opening 148 . the endless member of the delivery system has been described as being a brush belt with bristles , in a broad sense , the bristles form an outer periphery of contiguous disjoint surfaces that engage and grip the seed . while brush bristles are the preferred embodiment , and may be natural or synthetic , other material types can be used to grip the seed such as a foam pad , expanded foam pad , mesh pad or fiber pad . having described the preferred embodiment , it will become apparent that various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the accompanying claims . | 0 |
examples of an implementation of the present invention will now be described with reference to the drawings fig1 - 5 . in the figures , reference 10 generally refers to the screw lead of the system according to the present invention . the lead 10 comprises a lead body 12 which structure is in itself known , usually a polyurethane sheath to reduce friction when the catheter is inserted into a guide catheter , and to provide better sensitivity and better transmission of torque torsion . the diameter of the sheath of the lead body 12 is chosen to be thin enough to be compatible with the sub - selection catheters of veins of the coronary network , typically less than or equal to 5 french ( 1 . 65 mm ). the lead 10 is terminated at its distal end by a helical anchoring screw 14 made of a conductive material , connected through a metal tip 16 to an inner conductor 18 such as a spiral conductor providing electrical continuity between the anchoring screw 14 that is an electrode for collection and stimulation and a generator located at the proximal end ( not shown ) of the lead 10 . it should be understood that lead body 12 made of a polyurethane sheath provides rigidity in torsion to transmit torque from the proximal end to the distal end and to rotate the screw 14 to make it penetrate into the heart tissue . the conductive material of the screw is advantageously a niti alloy ( nitinol ), which has a capacity to transmit a sufficient torque for the intended application . the main advantage of this material is its extreme fatigue endurance . the disadvantage of nitinol is its relative high electrical resistance , but this drawback may be compensated by a bi - material structure comprising a silver core ( for electrical conductivity ) wrapped or coated by nitinol ( for properties of resistance to mechanical stress ) such that the less mechanically tough material ( silver ) is encapsulated in a sheath of nitinol . for bipolar stimulation , the lead is also provided with a ring electrode 20 connected to the generator by a separate conductor ( not shown ) in a manner well known to persons of ordinary shell in the art . the anchoring screw 14 is advantageously carried out with a distal portion 22 formed of non - touching turns over a length of about 1 . 5 to 2 mm . the distal portion 22 is connected to the lead body 12 via a mechanical transition portion 24 having flexibility in flexion , for example , a part formed by adjacent turns in the absence of stress of the screw . the purpose of this transition portion 24 is to introduce between the screw 14 itself ( the part that will penetrate into the tissues ) and the lead body 12 an elastic function to limit the mechanical action of the distal part of the lead 10 on the cardiac tissues and / or the veins . advantageously , this elastic feature ( i ) does not alter the torque transmission between the lead body 12 and the screw 14 under the two aspects of efficacy and safety ( coring effect ); ( ii ) does not alter the transmission of the electrical pulse , and ( iii ) is extremely resistant to flexion / compression events . on the other hand , the screw 14 is advantageously insulated over its length , for example , by a coating of parylene , except on the last millimeter of the distal part , which is the only electrically active part of the screw 14 . this structure reduces the stimulation surface and thereby reduces the risk of phrenic nerve stimulation . this electrically active part will also be buried deep into the wall of the epicardium , thereby concentrating the electric flow to the target tissue and stimulate a deep and more physiological zone . a long screw ( in the order of 10 - 15 mm ) penetrates deeply into the ventricular wall and performs a localized endocardial stimulation ensuring during stimulation a faster wave of depolarization from the endocardium to the epicardium . to avoid the risk of coring , the internal lumen of the flexible portion of the screw 14 is equipped with a silicone cartridge ( possibly filled with a steroid ) to maximize the effect of abutment to the transmission of torque . in the illustrated drawings , the screw 14 is an active screw playing ( at least at its distal end ) the role of a stimulation electrode . alternatively , the screw 14 is an electrically passive screw used for anchoring the lead 10 against the wall of the epicardium . the lead 10 may be provided at its end with a distal electrode in the shape of a ring electrode , a second electrode , or other suitable configurations . for the implantation of the lead 10 in the chosen stimulation site , in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention , a guide catheter 26 with a double curvature is used . with reference to fig2 , the guide catheter 26 is illustrated with the lead 10 inserted inside . the distal portion 28 of the guide catheter 26 is open at its end , so as to bring out the distal end of the lead 10 and its anchoring screws 14 by relative axial movement of the lead body 12 inside the guide catheter 26 . in addition , a stylet 30 is inserted inside an inner lumen 32 of the lead 10 so as to stiffen it and straighten the natural curvature of the catheter 26 by more or less axially sliding the stylet 30 within the lead 10 . as indicated above , the catheter 26 has at its distal end 28 a double curvature , each curvature being inscribed in a separate area 38 and 40 . the curved surface 38 is an orientation curvature that follows the natural curvature of the coronary veins during the progression of the catheter 26 into the coronary sinus , while the curved surface 40 is a curve for supporting the orientation of the distal portion of the lead 10 once the site of stimulation is reached . more specifically , this supporting curvature 40 has the effect of directing the axis of the anchoring screw 14 not in line with the target vein 34 , but instead , as shown in fig3 ( after removal of the catheter 26 ), to the wall facing the epicardium 36 of the target vein . according to this method , the anchoring of the screw 14 and the subsequent screwing of the screw 14 along a direction d makes an angle a with the axial general direction of the lead 10 , roughly corresponding to the direction of progression of target vein 34 . the implantation procedure of the screw 14 at the selected site will now be described . this procedure is described in its most complete aspect , but it should be understood by persons of ordinary skill in the art that certain steps or the use of certain elements may be omitted , adapted , or modified without deviating from the scope of the present invention . according to one embodiment , a technique called otw ( over - the - wire ) is used . otw involves introducing into the coronary sinus and then in the coronary network a very thin guide wire provided at its distal end with a flexible termination that is not traumatic . previously , the practitioner arranges a main catheter to reach the outlet of the coronary sinus , insert the guide wire into the catheter , and pushed into the coronary venous system . the practitioner inserts the guide catheter 26 according to the invention . the guide catheter 26 may be used as a sub - selection catheter to choose , under fluoroscopy , the path of the venous network that will allow reaching the target vein corresponding to the chosen stimulation site . the self - orientation of the catheter 26 during this phase of positioning results from the principle of least energy , especially during the “ left turn ” in the area of intersection of the great cardiac vein and a lateral vein . the self - orientation of the orientation curve locally generates enough torque to force the orientation of the support curvature in the desired position . the predominance of the torque effect of the orientation curvature relatively to the support curvature is related to the fact that , in terms of dimensions : the radius of curvature of orientation is greater than the support radius curvature , and the length of the orientation curvature is greater than the support curvature length . the distance between the area generating the drive torque ( orientation curvature ) and the area to be controlled ( support curvature ) is thus extremely limited ( a few millimeters ). it should be noted that the present invention requires a single catheter to determine the relative positions of the two curvatures . thus , as stated above , the lead solution of the present invention is not operator - dependent : the practitioner just pushes catheter into the target vein for the catheter 26 to self - orient in the desired position after a few beats , frees both hands for the screwing operation , while ensuring a secure and accurate positioning of the screw 14 and holding it in this position during the screwing phase that follows . according to one embodiment , a hollow dilator catheter is used in the sub - region to establish a gradual transition between the guide wire and the tip of the sub - catheter , particularly to prevent the catheter tip , while sliding on the guide wire , from crashing against the wall of the vein , for example , where a curvature is met at a blocking point in the course of traversing the tortuous vein . this dilator catheter is advantageously preformed in its distal part to facilitate cannulation of the lateral veins . this option allows to compensate the self - positioning of the sub - catheter into the left atrium as it moves into the large vein ( because of the principle of least energy , but implemented in the great cardiac vein ). this behavior of the dilator catheter enables placement of a left atrial lead even in the proximal part of the great cardiac vein . once the desired stimulation site is reached , the practitioner slides the lead 10 inside the catheter 26 until the distal end of the lead 10 and its anchoring screws 14 emerge from the corresponding end of the catheter 26 ( configuration illustrated in fig2 ). because of the double curvature described above , the distal end of catheter 26 , the distal orifice of the catheter 26 is directed toward the epicardium 36 making an angle a compared to the general direction of the target vein . the catheter 26 is introduced into the lead 10 until it emerges from the catheter housing and its anchoring screw 14 comes in contact with the epicardium . an initial mapping is conducted to electrically test the contact point ( s ) and validate the chosen stimulation site . if the position is not satisfactory , the practitioner moves the catheter along the vein and test a new site until a suitable location is found . the final anchoring is obtained by imparting an axial rotation to the lead body in the case of a fixed screw lead . for a pin - driven lead , the axial rotation is imparted to the connector plug , where at the proximal side the connection plug is secured to a conductor extending axially within the lead body . the surgeon holds in one hand the proximal end of the lead body and turns a pin at the proximal end with the other hand , directly or through the intermediary of a tool . the pin is secured to an axial conductor extending within the lead body , and this conductor is free in rotation and is connected at its distal end to the connector plug deployment mechanism of the screw . another possibility is to introduce a specific screwing stylet into the lumen 32 of the lead body , especially in case when the sheath does not have a sufficient torsional rigidity to drive the screw directly from the proximal end . in an alternative embodiment , a retractable screw is used instead of a fixed screw . in this case , the rotation first deploys the screw out of its slot and subsequently penetrates the screw into the wall of the epicardium . after the screw 14 is anchored into the wall of epicardium , the catheter 26 is removed . the removal of the catheter 26 is performed according to a standard procedure of cutting through a slitter tool , as described , for example in , ep 2039390 a1 and its us counterpart u . s . published application 2009 / 0071012 ( sorin crm s . a . s . formerly known as ela medical ). the final and definitive installed configuration is illustrated in fig3 . advantages of using the present invention include the following improvements over the prior known coronary venous leads : the quality of the fixation for anchoring screws ; the stability of the electrical contact with the tissue regardless of the size of the vein ; the ability to map large portions of the vein before the final fixation ; the possibility to expand the exploitable part of the vein , particularly towards the proximal part of the venous system , known to be the least exposed to the risk of phrenic nerve stimulation , but having with traditional leads , the disadvantage of a lower stability due to a larger diameter ; the concentration of the electrical stimulation in a deep region of the epicardium , decreasing the risk of phrenic nerve stimulation ; the improved extraction capacity , by a simple unscrewing of the distal end ; the mechanical simplicity of the system , a low manufacturing cost and a high reliability . one skilled in the art will appreciate that the present invention can be practiced by other than the embodiments disclosed herein , which are provided for purposes of illustration and not of limitation . | 0 |
it has been observed generally that the presence of oxygen in hot water in contact with reactor containment elements results in higher stress corrosion rates of these elements as compared to hot water in which little or no oxygen is present . it has been further observed that stress corrosion cracking of the containment for high - temperature , high - pressure water such as is used for nuclear reactors is subject to change in rate depending on whether the electrochemical potential of the exposed stainless steel of such containment is above or below a critical potential range of values of - 230 to - 300 mv based on the standard hydrogen electrode ( she ). stress corrosion cracking proceeds at a more accelerated rate in systems in which the electrochemical potential is above the critical range of values and at a substantially lower rate in systems in which the electrochemical potential is below the critical range of values . water containing oxygen tends to result in potentials above the critical range while water in which little or no oxygen is present tend to have potentials below the critical range . one way in which corrosion potentials of stainless steels in contact with reactor water containing oxygen can be reduced below the critical range is by injection of hydrogen into the water generally in amounts that stoichiometrically exceed the amount of oxygen in the water . this tends to lower the concentration of dissolved oxygen in the water and also the corrosion potential of the metal . this injection of hydrogen into the high - temperature , high - pressure water in reactor containments has been effective in reducing stress corrosion . it has been found , however , that varying amounts of hydrogen have been required for different reactors in order to reliably and efficiently achieve the desired low potentials . what i have proposed in combination with hydrogen injection is the modification of the internal surfaces of the stainless steel containment system in boiling water reactors , in order to improve the catalytic activity of the surface toward the hydrogen - water redox couple and thereby the reliability and efficiency of achieving corrosion potentials below the critical value . as noted above , the injection of hydrogen into the high - temperature , high - pressure water has been effective in reducing the stress corrosion cracking of the containment for such high - temperature , high - pressure water . however , it was my belief that the increase in the catalytic activity at the surface of the containment exposed to the hydrogen - containing water would improve the effectiveness of the so - called &# 34 ; hydrogen water chemistry &# 34 ;. there is thus a distinction between conventional &# 34 ; hydrogen water chemistry &# 34 ; which has been recognized in the past and the catalyzed &# 34 ; hydrogen chemistry &# 34 ; which i have proposed . by conventional &# 34 ; hydrogen water chemistry &# 34 ; is meant that there is a different chemistry in water which contains hydrogen usually to the extent of 150 parts / billion or more than there is when the hydrogen is at lower values . for this conventional hydrogen water chemistry to be effective the hydrogen must always be present in stoichiometric excess of the oxygen present and in such case there is a reduction or suppression of stress corrosion cracking as a result of the presence of the dissolved hydrogen . however , it was my belief that this stress corrosion cracking could be reduced to an even greater extent by increasing the catalytic activity at the metal surface in contact with the high - temperature , high - pressure water . in particular , i have found that the deposition of a small amount of a catalytically active material such as at least one metal of the platinum group of metals on the surface exposed to bulk high - temperature , high - pressure water is effective in the presence of less than a stoichiometric amount of hydrogen in reducing the corrosion potential or electrochemical potential at the surface and thereby in reducing the stress corrosion cracking which emanates from the surface . i refer to this as catalyzed hydrogen water chemistry . thus , although i have found that the conventional injection of higher concentrations of hydrogen into the high - temperature , high - pressure water can be effective in reducing the stress corrosion cracking , i have found that the effectiveness of the hydrogen in this role is limited by the irreversibility of the hydrogen - water redox couple on oxidized stainless steel surfaces . what i have proposed and what i have demonstrated experimentally through catalyzed hydrogen water chemistry is that the improvements in the reversibility of the hydrogen - water redox couple on oxidized stainless steel surfaces can be achieved by reducing the concentration of injected hydrogen and increasing the catalytic activity at the surface , thus facilitating the achievement of a desired lower corrosion potential , even with presence of higher residual oxygen concentrations than can be tolerated in the absence of the catalyst . further , i have found , through catalyzed hydrogen water chemistry , that this lower potential can be achieved with lower concentrations of hydrogen than have been needed and have been used in the prior art hydrogen water chemistry without the catalyst . thus , i have recognized that the low corrosion potentials which are the objectives of the conventional hydrogen water chemistry efforts to reduce stress corrosion cracking can be achieved more reliably and in the presence of relatively high residual oxygen concentrations by increasing the catalytic activity at the metal surface coupled with the presence of lower concentrations of hydrogen in the water . i have discovered that it is possible to achieve the lower corrosion potentials more efficiently and with less hydrogen than in the absence of the catalyst . i have proposed to improve the catalytic activity at metal surfaces by circulating a very dilute solution of a soluble salt of a metal of the platinum group of metals within the reactor vessel and piping prior to initiation of the operation of the reactor . in this way , a finely divided deposit of the platinum metal will form on the surfaces through a displacement reaction of the stainless steel components , or with the aid of an appropriate electroless reducing agent . alternatively , replacement parts may be coated with a catalytic deposit prior to installation in a reactor ; e . g . nozzles and recirculation piping . some of the beneficial effects of catalyzed hydrogen water chemistry will be made evident through the practice of the following examples : two coupons of 316 stainless steel were prepared for testing . both coupons were 2 &# 34 ; long , 3 / 8 &# 34 ; wide , and 1 / 8 &# 34 ; thick . the surfaces of the coupons were cleaned by grit blasting with fine alumina powder and were then etched for one minute in 1 : 1 hcl immediately prior to a plating operation . the plating operation employed was designed to deposit palladium by electroless plating processing onto the grit blasted coupons . the electroless plating process employed was a commercial procedure of the callery chemical company , of callery , pa ., and known as &# 34 ; first choice &# 34 ; electroless palladium p - 83 . one of the two coupon samples was premounted in a conax fitting while the other coupon was free . the electroless plating treatment was concurrent for both coupons and both were plated concurrently in the same bath . on the basis of weight change of the free sample of 4 . 9 milligrams , a film thickness of 0 . 4 μm was estimated for the unmounted sample . this thickness of deposit was assumed to be the same for both samples . the thickness falls within the range anticipated for the electroless palladium plating process . however , to determine more precisely the thickness of the palladium coating on the coupon sample , tests were made to determine thickness employing a seiko x - ray thickness gauge which was available for this purpose . a thickness of 0 . 79 μm ( micrometer ) was determined . the sample on the conax fitting was immediately transferred to a test loop which had been set up for a series of water chemistry studies . this loop was a closed loop provided with a pump to circulate water through an autoclave where the water was maintained at high - temperature , high - pressure and passed over the test specimens . the conax mounted coupon was placed in the autoclave along with a second identical but palladium - free sample which had been used in earlier tests , and a platinized platinum electrode . the system was brought to a temperature between 280 ° and 285 ° c . and water containing 150 ppb ( parts per billion ) of dissolved hydrogen was circulated to flow over the specimen coupons at a flow rate of 200 milliliters per minute . following a day &# 39 ; s operation in this fashion , oxygen gas was also introduced into the feed water and the level of the oxygen gas was increased incrementally over a period of days . electrical measurements using a zirconia reference electrode as described in l . w . niedrach and n . h . stoddard , corrosion , vol . 41 , no . 1 ( 1985 ) page 45 , were made and data was plotted on a graph as depicted in fig1 . fig1 is a graph in which the electrical potential is plotted against the concentration of oxygen in the test water in parts per billion of oxygen . the potentials of the two specimens and the platinum electrode , converted to the she ( standard hydrogen electrode ) scale , are shown as points 1 - 5 on the three separate plots representing the three different specimens on fig1 . as indicated by the legend , the open circles correspond to the electrical potential of the stainless steel sample with no palladium ; the filled circles to the platinum reference electrode ; and the open triangles to the stainless samples coated with palladium . following point 5 , problems were encountered with the test system thus necessitating a shut - down for about a month . the system was then restarted and operated under simulated normal water chemistry conditions . these normal water chemistry conditions correspond to 200 - 300 parts / billion of dissolved oxygen with no added hydrogen . the system was operated with the normal water chemistry conditions as indicated for two days before reintroducing 150 ppb dissolved hydrogen into the feed water . the data points for the system before the introduction of the hydrogen are points 6 of fig1 for the three specimens . the oxygen level was then reduced step - wise over a period of several days to zero ppb . the step - wise reduction of oxygen is represented by the points 7 - 13 of fig1 for the three specimens . one intermediate step was taken back to normal water chemistry during this period and the data points for this step are points 9 for each of the three specimens . while still retaining the 150 ppb dissolved hydrogen , the dissolved oxygen level was then again increased to 256 ppb and the data for these changes are data points 14 - 16 of the figure for each of the three specimens . after these changes , the system was again returned to normal water conditions for a period of 8 days to determine whether the normal water conditions would have a deleterious effect on the palladium treated sample . at this point , conditions were returned again to hydrogen water chemistry , i . e ., to hydrogen in the water at 150 ppb and the oxygen at 325 ppb . under these conditions , the electrical potential of the palladium - treated coupon essentially followed that of the platinum electrode as the potential moved to a low value represented by the triangular point 18 for the palladium treated coupon on fig1 while the untreated stainless steel coupon ( open circle point 18 ) did not register a low potential . accordingly , from the results obtained from these tests , it became evident to me that the palladium - treated sample reached low potentials under the catalyzed hydrogen water chemistry conditions and had electrical potential essentially equivalent to the potential of the platinum electrode . both were below the range of critical potential of - 230 mv to - 300 mv for the prevention of stress corrosion cracking . during this same period , the palladium - free sample polarized to much more positive potentials even at low levels of oxygen in the presence of hydrogen . the magnitude of this polarization was greater when an operating point was approached from normal water chemistry conditions than when lower oxygen levels were prevalent in the presence of hydrogen . the data obtained from this example and plotted in fig1 clearly demonstrate the effectiveness of the palladium treatment . the palladium treatment is deemed to be representative of treatment with any of the platinum family metals . further , from the data obtained from this test , i have judged that even deposited thicknesses smaller than the 0 . 79 μm ( 7900 angstroms ) should be effective in protecting the stainless steel containment exposed to high - temperature high - pressure water from the influences which increase the level of stress corrosion cracking . i estimate that as little as 50 angstroms of a platinum metal should be effective in significantly reducing stress corrosion cracking when used in combination with injected hydrogen in stoichiometric excess of the dissolved oxygen concentration . in all of the testing of which i am aware of the stainless steel containment for high - temperature high - pressure water , there has never been a response in terms of the factors which reduce stress corrosion cracking equivalent to the response exhibited in the performance of this example . as can be seen from the example , the electrical potential of the palladium - coated sample tracks the electrical potential of the platinized - platinum electrode even with more than 300 parts / billion dissolved oxygen in the feed water . it will be noted that 300 parts / billion of oxygen is equivalent to 38 parts / billion of hydrogen and therefore the hydrogen is still in stoichiometric excess . in fig2 the effect of palladium treatment is illustrated in a different fashion . the tests carried out which resulted in these data involved increasing the amounts of hydrogen which were added to water containing a fixed amount of oxygen rather than the reverse as was the practice in example 1 . in contrast to the unpalladinized sample , in which case only small transitions of potential occur , with palladium on the surface a large shift from the higher potential range to a low potential range occurs abruptly at about 24 ppb hydrogen . the concentration of hydrogen that is stoichiometrically equivalent to 300 ppb oxygen for the formation of water is 37 . 5 ppb or 1 . 56 times the measured amount . since the recombination reaction is believed to occur only on the metal surface , the lower observed value for hydrogen is deemed to reflect the fact that the diffusion coefficient of hydrogen in water is considerably higher than that of oxygen . as a result , the hydrogen and oxygen in this example arrive at the electrode surface in stoichiometric ratios for the formation of water even though the ratio of hydrogen to oxygen in the bulk water is substoichiometric . it is likely that the sharp change in potential of the catalyzed surface does indeed correspond to the point where the flux of the hydrogen and the oxygen to the electrode surface are in stoichiometric balance . from these data , we then see that with the catalyzed surface the potential can be reduced to the desired level with far less hydrogen than is required in the absence of the catalyst . it should be beneficial with regard to the control of nitrogen shine in the turbine building since there is considerable evidence that low hydrogen levels in the water result in less production of volatile nitrogen species . two additional sets of data analogous to those of fig1 and 2 are shown in fig3 and 4 . these were obtained after a total of 13 months of operation of sample 316ss - cont - pd and indicate that the behavior produced by the palladization is retained for extended periods . further , only marginal losses of palladium seem to have occurred as evidenced by the final column of thickness gauge data in table i . table i__________________________________________________________________________palladium thickness measurements ( micrometers ) initial after 7 months after 6sample side values of operation additional months__________________________________________________________________________316ss - 47 - 3 1 0 . 00 ± 0 . 05 * 0 . 00 ± 0 . 05 * -- 2 0 . 00 ± 0 . 05 0 . 00 ± 0 . 05 -- 316ss - cont - pd 1 ( 0 . 78 ± 0 . 03 )+ 0 . 86 ± 0 . 04 0 . 79 ± 0 . 03 * 2 ( 0 . 79 ± 0 . 01 ) 0 . 84 ± 0 . 04 0 . 80 ± 0 . 03__________________________________________________________________________ * one standard deviation + the initial thickness measurement was obtained indirectly from a duplicate of 316sscont - pd treated in parallel a number of constant extension rate ( cert ) tests were performed in a separate system using an instron model 1131 test machine and a small autoclave with an external silver / silver chloride reference electrode as previously described in the literature : p . l . andresen , &# 34 ; environment - sensitive fracture : evaluation and comparison of test methods &# 34 ;, astm stp 821 , s . w . dean et al . eds ., am . soc . for testing materials , philadelphia ( 1984 ) page 271 . in order to perform the cert testing , cylindrical tensile specimens 0 . 2 &# 34 ; gauge diameter × 1 &# 34 ; length were machined from welded aisi 304 stainless steel 102 millimeter diameter schedule 80 ( heat no . 04836 ). these pipe samples were from a group previously used in extensive work reported in the literature by andreson . see in this regard p . l . andresen , in epri report np - 2424 - ld ( june 1982 ) page 3 -- 3 . the well - sensitized specimens were further heat treated at 500 ° c . for 24 hours in an argon atmosphere . sensitization was confirmed by an oxylic acid etch test . immediately prior to use -- either directly in a cert or for pre - palladinization -- the samples were polished with wet 600 grit paper . palladinization was performed as described in example 1 , but with variations in the plating , time , and temperature . during the tests , the water was equilibrated with a mixture of nitrogen , hydrogen , and / or oxygen . a sulfuric acid concentration of 0 . 3 × 10 - 6 molar was maintained by injection of a more concentrated solution into the main stream at a constant rate . this supply of sulfuric acid established a conductility of approximately 0 . 3 microsiemen / centimeter in the feed water to the autoclave . the potential of the insulated sample and of the autoclave were monitored against the reference electrode throughout the tests . before the strain was applied to the test specimens , the specimens were exposed to normal water conditions at an oxygen level of 100 or 200 ppb for about 24 hours and then to the test conditions . the test conditions provided for the same level of oxygen in the water with hydrogen also in the water . the strain rate used in all of the testing was 1 × 10 - 6 / s . after the specimens broke under tension , the fracture surface and adjacent surfaces were examined with the scanning electron microscope . results of these tests are summarized in table ii . although aisi 304 ss samples were employed for the certs , their potentials were in accord with those of the aisi 316 flag - type samples used for the electrochemical measurements under similar water chemistry conditions . the relation to the critical potential for protection from scc is shown more clearly in fig5 . here , it is to be noted that the potential of the aisi 316 ss autoclave remained above the critical potential in all cases because it was not palladinized . in all of the certs , the oxygen concentration in the water was maintained at a much higher level than is usually considered acceptable under bwr operating conditions employing hwc . it is also to be noted that the first two tests , which included the unpalladinized control , were performed at high hydrogen to oxygen ratios . for the remainder , the molar ratio of hydrogen to oxygen at the sample surface was held close to the stoichiometric value ( 2 : 1 ) for the formation of water based upon a ratio of 1 . 83 for the diffusion coefficients of hydrogen and oxygen . when the molar ratio at the sample surface was & gt ; 2 . 0 the potential of the palladinized samples was well below the critical value even with only a 0 . 03 micrometer thick palladium coating . with a ratio of & lt ; 2 . 0 the potential of the sample with a 0 . 77 micrometer thick coating was above the critical value . inspection of the fractured specimens with a scanning electron microscope revealed that only the unpalladinized control and the palladinized sample from test 4 , which was performed with the substoichiometric ratio of hydrogen to oxygen , showed extensive intergranular stress corrosion cracking . a number of intergranular cracks were also evident on the free surface near the break in both cases . in all other tests ductile fracture occurred accompanied by some transgranular cracking on the fracture and free surfaces , as has been extensively observed in other tests at low potentials . it is , therefore , clear that the palladium coatings were successful in facilitating the achievement of corrosion potentials lower than those of the control specimens and , indeed , below the critical value for the prevention of scc even with relatively high oxygen concentrations and low hydrogen concentrations in the water . further , this behavior was achieved and sustained with a palladium coating as thin as 0 . 03 micrometer . in agreement with the potentials , the control sample and the palladinized sample deliberately held at a high potential ( with an h 2 : o 2 ratio at the sample surface of & lt ; 2 ) manifested intergranular stress corrosion cracking while the remainder of the palladinized samples did not . this clearly demonstrates that the combination of the palladium coating coupled with the presence of the injected hydrogen is responsible for the improved behavior . table ii__________________________________________________________________________results of constant extension rate testst = 287 ° c . 0 . 3 × 10 . sup .- 6 m h . sub . 2 so . sub . 4conductivity : 0 . 3 microsiemen / cmstrain rate : 1 × 10 . sup .- 6 / sec . molar ratio of h . sub . 2 : o . sub . 2 potential vs . she time to max strain tocert pd thick . ppb ppb in water at surface sample autocl . failure stress failure igscno . ( μm ) h . sub . 2 o . sub . 2 ( calc . *) ( calc .#) ( mv ) ( mv ) ( hrs ) ( ksi ) (%) (%) __________________________________________________________________________1 0 ( control ) 161 95 27 . 1 49 . 6 - 102 ± 12 31 ± 11 70 59 25 262 0 . 77 161 104 24 . 8 45 . 3 - 535 ± 45 - 110 ± 20 124 67 45 03 0 . 77 16 196 1 . 3 2 . 4 - 515 ± 25 - 100 ± 30 125 69 45 04 0 . 77 9 196 . 7 1 . 3 50 ± 30 - 102 ± 32 76 59 27 335 0 . 07 19 251 1 . 2 2 . 2 - 490 ± 30 - 150 ± 20 118 68 42 06 0 . 03 20 263 1 . 2 2 . 2 - 400 ± 30 - 110 ± 10 126 70 45 0__________________________________________________________________________ * molar ratio in water = 16 × ppb h . sub . 2 / ppb # molar ratio at surface = 1 . 83 × molar ratio in water ; where 1 . 83 is the ratio of the diffusion coefficients for h . sub . 2 and o . sub . 2 in water derived from : p . t . h . m . verhallen et al ., chem . eng . science , vol . 171 ( 1989 ) page 323 the results obtained and listed in the above examples clearly establish the value of the combination of hydrogen injection and a platinum metal in facilitating the establishment of low potentials for extended periods of time . | 6 |
the following detailed description illustrates the invention and a variety of embodiments by way of example and is not limited to the particular limitations presented herein as principles of the invention . this description is directed to enable one skilled in the art to make and use the invention by describing embodiments , adaptations , variations and alternatives of the invention . any potential variations of the limitations herein described are within the scope of the invention . in general terms , the instant invention is directed to a gauze pad holder , useful in holding a gauze pad , which is intended to be pressed or bitten in a post - surgical precise location inside the mouth , just after a surgical dental procedure has been performed . thus , a section of the holder has been intended to be used intraoral and for instance , after tooth extraction . the instant invention comprises different embodiments able to adapt to the particular intraoral postsurgical location due to the curvature of the oral cavity and different elements may be included to further secure said gauze pad firmly in a particular mouth area after a surgical procedure . the first embodiment of the invention 10 is illustrated in fig1 and 2 . a second embodiment of the invention 25 is illustrated in fig3 and 4 . embodiments 10 and 25 are very similar , as explained below and are intended to be used in any tooth extraction process , but are particularly more convenient to be used after molar and premolar extractions at the intraoral cavity . fig1 illustrates a perspective view of embodiment 10 while fig2 illustrates a frontal view of said embodiment 10 . it comprises a handle 11 , which is illustrated having a preferably flat , oval shape with a concave center surrounded by round edges ; although it may have any other suitable shape . extending from handle 11 , there is connecting unit 12 , which has an elongated body 14 , having a preferably cylindrical shape . it has a first end 15 , wherein it is connected to handle 11 and a second end 16 , wherein it is connected to a first c - shaped holding unit 17 , which since it is connected at such end 16 is thus aligned or substantially aligned to handle 11 . embodiment 10 also comprises a flat supporting section 18 , which is connected to and extending outwardly from the right side near said second end 16 of the connecting unit 12 . flat supporting section 18 preferably has a rectangular or near rectangular shape having the back right corner 19 preferably round and a thin width without having any sharp edges . it also comprises a front right corner 20 wherein a second c - shaped holding unit 21 is connected . said second holding unit 21 is located in a parallel position to the first c - shaped holding unit 17 . in this manner , first c - shaped holding unit 17 and second c - shaped holding unit 21 creates cavity 22 , wherein a set of gauze pad 23 may be securely held , as illustrated in fig8 . said first and second c - shaped holding units 17 and 21 are preferably identical in shape and size and their bodies are preferably cylindrical having its ends 23 pointing to near the interior of cavity 22 , as illustrated in fig2 . a second embodiment 25 according to the invention is illustrated in fig3 and 4 . fig3 illustrates a perspective view while fig4 illustrates a frontal view of embodiment 25 . the difference between embodiment 10 and embodiment 25 is that embodiment 25 comprises a series of multiple sharp pointed projections 26 , coming from the top and bottom internal surface of each of the first and second holding units 17 and 21 , respectively , to the interior of said c - shaped structures simulating teeth ; thus providing or creating cavity 27 as a toothed cavity . projections 26 provides an additional support to a gauze pad 24 , since such projections 26 impale the fibers of the gauze pad 24 , providing an extra secure holding to said gauze pad 24 . the instant invention also comprises embodiments 30 and 45 , which are illustrated diagrammatically in a perspective view in fig5 and 6 . embodiment 30 , illustrated in fig5 comprises handle section 31 preferably having a flat , oval shape with a concave center surrounded by round edges even though it may have any other suitable shape . extending from handle 31 , there is connecting unit 32 , which has an elongated body 33 , having a preferably cylindrical shape . it has a first end 34 , wherein it is connected to handle 31 and a second end 35 having a flat round shape comprising a lower surface 36 and an upper surface 37 . on said lower surface 36 is connected a c - shaped holding unit 38 , which , since it is connected at such lower surface 36 of second end 35 , being thus aligned or substantially aligned to handle 31 . main body of the c - shaped structure 38 is preferably cylindrical and has its ends 39 pointing inwardly to the interior space 40 of said c - shaped holding unit 38 as illustrated in fig5 . said internal space 40 is suitable to hold and firmly secure a set of gauze pad 24 as illustrated in fig9 . on the other hand , the instant invention also comprises embodiment 45 which is illustrated in fig6 as a perspective view . it is similar to embodiment 30 however it comprises a series of multiple sharp pointed projections 46 , coming from the top and bottom internal surface of the interior of said c - shaped holding unit 38 which simulate teeth ; thus providing or creating cavity 47 as a toothed cavity . as previously indicated for embodiment 25 , projections 46 as in the case of projections 26 provides an additional support to a gauze pad 24 , since such projections 46 impale the fibers of the gauze pad 24 , providing an extra secure holding to said gauze pad 24 , as illustrated in fig9 . the herein disclosed embodiments may be made of any suitable strong material , such as plastic , foam , or noncorrosive metal , preferably plastic via suitable known in the art molding techniques . even more preferably such embodiments may be made of plastic or noncorrosive metal . it is contemplated that the embodiments may have different sizes since the holder may be used in patients of different ages . it is contemplated that the herein disclosed holder may be for disposable use or alternatively , it may be for non - disposable use after being properly disinfected or sterilized . it is also contemplated that the embodiments within the scope of the instant invention may be sold in enclosed , sanitary and hygienic kits or packages . said kits may comprise multiple individually wrapped gauze pads that have been already and properly disinfected and sanitized by known methods in the art and each pad being already assembled to the disclosed holder as illustrated in fig8 and 9 in order to avoid potential health risks caused by microorganism such as germs and / or bacteria . similarly , said kits may comprise individually wrapped gauze pad holders without the gauze pad 24 . in operational terms , gauze pad 24 is properly folded and assembled to the holder and after the surgical procedure has been performed , it is introduced and placed over the surgical area inside the patient &# 39 ; s mouth using the handle section of the holder , thus avoiding introducing the fingers inside the oral cavity of the patient . fig1 and 11 illustrated the accommodation of the holder and gauze pad 24 in the patient &# 39 ; s mouth 50 . fig1 , illustrates the embodiment type 10 and 25 after an extraction or surgical procedure has been done in a molar tooth site . alternatively , fig1 shows the use of embodiment types 30 and 45 after a surgical procedure or extraction has been performed in a premolar tooth site . as indicated previously , each type of embodiment is ergonomically designed according to the anatomy of the oral cavity and the surroundings of the given surgical site . after the pad is accommodated on the pertinent surgical area , and the patient presses the gauze pad by closing the jaws as illustrated in fig1 , using embodiment 10 as an example , said pad should be maintained in the surgical area for about 30 minutes to maintain a dry field and allow the blood clot to form . while the patient is using the herein described holder , the patient may secure said holder at any given time if necessary by holding the handle section , thus the patient may even talk carefully without the gauze pad being displaced from its holder . if necessary , the gauze pad 24 may be substituted by a new one by just repeating the described process . although the invention has been described and illustrated in detail , it is to be clearly understood that such description is for purposes of illustration and example and it is not intended to be taken by way of limitation . for instance , some sections of the gauze holder such as the elongated body , the handle and the holding unit may have alternatives shapes and / or configurations and still be within the spirit of the invention . therefore , it is recognized that multiple variations exist , including both narrowing and broadening variations of the appended claims . | 0 |
other than where otherwise indicated or understood , all numbers expressing quantities of ingredients or reaction conditions used herein are to be understood as modified in all instances by the term “ about ”. in addition , it is understood that the term “ metals ” also includes metalloids . in formula ( ii ), when r 1 is methyl or ethyl , and in formula ( v ), m is preferably 1 . 5 to 3 , more preferably 2 to 3 . the styryleneoxy groups may be unsubstituted , or may contain substituents on the phenyl group , such as one or more c 1 - c 6 - alkyl groups , c 1 - c 6 - alkoxy groups , and / or other groups that will not interfere with electrolysis . the compounds of formula ( ii ), in which r 1 is methyl or ethyl , i . e ., sulfonate - or sulfate - capped , alkoxylated trimethylol - ethane or - propane compounds , are preferred compounds of the invention . such compounds , in which ao is eo or po , are preferred , and those in which ao is eo are more preferred . most preferred are the propane derivatives of formula ( ii ), in which r 1 is ethyl . electrolyte solutions containing , and methods of reducing misting in electrolyte solutions by adding , either alone or in a mixture with one or more compounds of formula ( i ), one or more compounds of formula ( ix ), in which r 3 is represented by formula ( xi ), r 5 is preferably c 3 - c 6 alkyl , and z is preferably 2 to 3 , more preferably 3 , as well as those in which the r 3 group is represented by formula ( x ), where r 3 is hexyl , octyl , an octyl / decyl mixture , or decyl , and where the r 4 group is represented by formula ( xii ), are preferred . the above alkoxylated compounds may be readily produced by alkoxylating the corresponding alcohols and / or amines by methods well known to those skilled in the art , e . g ., by reacting the alcohols and / or amines with the desired quantities of alkylene oxides . the compounds in formula ( ix ), in which the r 3 group is represented by formula ( x ), where r 3 is decyl , and where the r 4 group is represented by formula ( xii ), may be readily produced by reacting a n , n - dimethyl tertiary amine with either 1 , 3 - propanesultone or with sodium chloroacetate , according to standard techniques described in the literature . the anti - misting agents — the novel compounds and / or the compounds not previously known to be useful as anti - misting agents — according to this invention are useful in reducing or minimizing the misting problems that may be present in electrowinning compositions , electroplating compositions , and / or electroforming compositions and / or in procedures that utilize aqueous electrolyte solutions of metals ions or aqueous electrolyte dispersions of metals in metallic form , as well as with waste solutions containing dissolved metals . in all cases , it being understood that the metals / metalloids may be present in ionic form and / or in elementary form . and in the electrolysis of metals from aqueous electrolyte solutions containing the metal ( s ) to be captured , the utility of the compounds according to the present invention is not dependent on the particular metal ( s ) present in the electrolyte solutions . the anti - misting agents of the present invention are effective in quantities as low as a few parts per million , based on the electrolyte composition , e . g ., from 2 - to - 100 ppm , preferably from 2 - to - 30 ppm , and most preferably from 5 - to - 25 ppm . in an electrowinning application , they may be added to the aqueous strip solution used in the stripping stage following the solvent extraction stage , or to the metal - pregnant aqueous solution that results from the stripping of the organic phase in the stripping stage , or , preferably , to the metal - containing electrolyte / strip aqueous phase in the electrowinning tankhouse . there are a number of electroplating methods for which the demisting agents of the invention may be used . materials , such as strip steel , may be plated in plating tanks where coils of steel are unrolled in a continuous basis , fed through a series of preparation steps , and then into the plating tank . wire that is uncoiled from the spools or reels on which it was wound , may be passed through various processing steps and then plated , with metals , such as copper , copper alloys , zinc , iron , iron alloys , nickel , nickel alloys , gold , or silver , as individual strands . stampings , moldings , and castings are typically mounted onto specially - designed plating racks for electroplating . small parts , e . g ., dipping baskets and plating barrels made of inert plastic materials , may be electroplated using bulk plating methods . where parts are large and only smaller areas of the parts are to be plated , brush plating is used , i . e ., using plating tools which are shaped anode materials covered with an absorbent material saturated with the plating solution . insoluble anodes are used exclusively in the plating baths of the present invention . chromium plating solutions utilize lead - tin , lead - antimony , or just lead anodes ; gold and other precious metal plating processes use stainless steel anodes , keeping inventory costs down . however , the use of insoluble anodes may , unfortunately , also result in side effects . in alkaline cyanide solutions , the generation and buildup of carbonates is accelerated as a result of the use of insoluble anodes , along with a significant reduction in alkalinity . in acidic solutions , the ph decreases , requiring frequent adjustments . in sulfamate nickel plating solutions , insoluble anodes , and even slightly passive soluble anodes , partially oxidize the sulfamate ion to form sulfur - bearing compounds which change the character and performance of the deposit . ( see kirk - othmer , supra ). the synthesis of the sulfoalkyl derivatives of the compound of formula i ( i . e ., those in which b =( ch 2 ) q so 3 y ) may typically be accomplished as a two - step reaction that may be performed in the same reaction vessel . the first step of the reaction involves the addition of sodium metal to the alkoxylated polyol ( i . e ., one of the compounds from formula ( ii )-( vi )) to form the corresponding terminal sodium alkoxide . the second step of the reaction is the addition of 1 , 3 - propane sultone to the sodium alkoxide formed in the first step . toluene ( or other inert organic solvent ) is used as the solvent throughout the process . the sulfonate - capped derivatives of the compounds of formula ( i ) in which b = ch 2 chohch 2 so 3 y ( 2 - hydroxypropanesulfonate ) may also typically be accomplished as a two - step reaction ( known as a williamson synthesis ) that may be performed in the same reaction vessel , preferably in an inert organic solvent , such as toluene . the first step of the reaction involves the addition of sodium metal to the alkoxylated polyol ( i . e ., one of the compounds from formula ( ii )-( vi )), as above , in order to form the corresponding terminal sodium alkoxide . the second step of the reaction is the addition of 3 - chloro - 2 - hydroxy - 1 - propanesulfonic acid sodium salt to the sodium alkoxide formed in the first step , and the product is recovered by addition of water to the organic phase after cooling . the aqueous phase is then isolated . the production of the sulfate - capped derivatives of the compounds of formula ( i ), in which b = so 3 y , may be accomplished by starting with the same ethoxylated polyols ( i . e ., one of the compounds from formula ( ii )-( vi )) described above and converting their terminal hydroxyl groups to sulfates by reactions known in the art . alternatively , the terminal hydroxyl may be capped by reacting them with allyl chloride , and then adding sulfuric acid across the double bond to give a slightly different type of sulfate cap . the alkoxylated compounds of formula ( i ) above , may be readily prepared by alkoxylating the corresponding alcohols and / or amines by methods well known to those skilled in the art , e . g ., by reacting the alcohols and / or amines with the desired quantities of alkylene oxides . such syntheses are illustrated and / or exemplified in synthetic detergents , a . s . davidsohn and b . milwidsky , seventh edition , longmanscientific and technical , 1987 , pp . 178 - 191 , and kirk - othmer , encyclopedia of chemical technology , 3rd edition , volume 9 , john wiley and sons , new york , 1980 , p . 437 , among other places . the compounds of formula ( ix ) are classified as betaines . the compounds , in which the r 3 group is represented by formula ( xi ) and the r 4 group is represented by formula ( xiii ), are called sulfobetaines betaines . such compounds , where z = 3 , are called 3 -[( 3 - alkylamino - propyl )- n , n - dimethylammonio ]- propane sulfonates or 2 - hydroxy - 3 -[ 3 - alkylamino - propyl )- n , n - dimethylammonio ]- propane sulfonates ( if the r 5 group is c 1 , then replace “ alkyl ” with “ methyl ”; if the r 5 group is c 2 , then replace “ alkyl ” with “ ethyl ”; if the r 5 group is c 3 , then replace “ alkyl ” with “ propyl ”, and so on ) the first step in the synthesis in both cases is the reaction of 3 -( dimethylamino ) propyl amine with an ester under standard transamidification conditions to generate the corresponding amide . in the second step , the resulting amide is reacted with either the 1 , 3 - propane sultone or 2 - hydroxy - 3 - chloropropanesulfonic acid under conditions known in the art . the compounds of formula ( ix ), in which the r 3 group is represented by formula ( x ) and the r 4 group is represented by formula ( xiii ), are classified as alkyl n , n - dimethylsulfonates . the synthesis of the compounds is accomplished by the reaction of 1 , 3 - propane sultone or 2 - hydroxy - 3 - chloropropanesulfonic acid with a n - alkyl - n , n - dimethyl amine in anhydrous acetone using , conditions known in the art . these compounds of formula ( ix ), in which the r 3 group is represented by formula ( x ) and the r 4 group is represented by formula ( xii ), are classified as alkyl n , n - dimethylglycines . the synthesis of the compounds is accomplished by the reaction of sodium chloroacetate with a n - alkyl - n , n - dimethyl amine in water . after the reaction is complete , there is no need to further purify of the product . the invention is further illustrated , but not limited , by the following examples , the compounds for which were prepared by first reacting ethylene oxide with triethanolamine , then reacting the resulting product with 1 , 2 - propylene oxide . to a 5000 ml round bottom flask equipped with a dean - stark trap / condenser / drying tube , a mechanical stirrer , and a pressure - equalizing funnel , was added 199 . 5 g ( 0 . 45 mol ) trimethylolpropane that has reacted with seven moles of ethylene oxide and 2 . 75 - 3 l of toluene . the solution was refluxed for four hours to remove any water ( azeotrope using the dean - stark trap ). the dean - stark trap was then removed , and the condenser was replaced with a dry condenser . the temperature of the reaction flask was kept at just the refluxing temperature of toluene ( overheating causes the solution to darken considerably ). to the reaction flask was then added 31 . 05 g ( 1 . 35 mol , 1 mol equivalents to the hydroxyl groups of the trimethylolpropane containing seven ethyleneoxy groups ) of sodium metal , washed with hexane prior to use , over a one hour period . addition of the sodium metal resulted in a substantial increase in temperature . the solution was then stirred for four additional hours . while there was some sodium still in the reaction vessel , it was completely consumed in the next phase of the reaction . 1 , 3 - propane sultone ( 165 . 0 g , 1 . 35 mol ) was transferred to the addition funnel along with 400 ml of toluene . the addition of the 1 , 3 - propane sultone was performed over a 20 - 30 minute period . addition of the 1 , 3 - propane sultone was carefully monitored because of the extreme temperature increase at the beginning of the addition , and the formation of an intractable solid at the end of the addition . the solution was stirred as the 1 , 3 - propane sultone was added , and continued to be stirred until the formation of the solid product caused the mechanical stirrer to stop , then the toluene was decanted off while still hot . to remove the solid , the contents of the flask had to be dried using a vacuum pump and the solid broken apart with a steel rod . the solid was collected , crushed , and washed with hot toluene . the crushed solid was dried using a vacuum of 500 millitorr , and was pulverized using a mortar and pestle . the yields from three runs of this preparation were 95 . 45 %, 91 . 37 %, and 97 . 8 % respectively ( this preparation is typical for formula i compounds ). the following is a typical reaction for the synthesis of the alkyl n , n - dimethylglycines . to a 500 ml flask 3 necked flask equipped with a condenser , a mechanical stirrer , and the other opening sealed with a teflon stopper was added 92 . 70 g n - decyl - n , n - dimethyl amine ( 0 . 50 mol ) and 58 . 25 g sodium choloroacetate ( 0 . 50 mol ) dissolved in 151 . 0 g of water . the solution was heated to 90 ° c . using a silicon oil bath . the temperature was kept constant throughout the reaction using a temperature probe connected to the hotplate . the stirring rate was kept at 250 rpm throughout the reaction . after three hours a sample was taken and potentiometrically titrated with 0 . 1 m naoh using standard techniques . since there was no free amine present (& lt ; 1 %) the reaction was terminated . the yield from the reaction was quantitative . ( this preparation is typical for alkyl n , n - dimethylglycines .) in order to demonstrate the anti - misting characteristics of these products , two compounds of the invention : the tri - sodium sulfopropyl ether of trimethylolpropane containing seven ethyleneoxy groups ( compound a ) and the tri - sodium sulfopropyl ether of triethanolamine containing six polyoxypropylene groups and eleven polyoxyethylene groups ( compound b ) were tested against five hundred ml samples of copper electrolyte solution ( 50 g / l cu + 2 , 0 . 2 g / l co + 2 , 1 . 5 g / l fe + 3 , 170 g / l sulfuric acid ) in a jacketed beaker controlled at 45 ° c ., with mist being generated by passing air through a fine frit ( 4 - 8 micron ) scintered glass bubbler in the copper electrolyte . the mist was sampled by suctioning air through a sampling tube 1 . 5 inches above the liquid level , the tube being connected to a water trap . at timed intervals , the water from the trap was titrated with sodium hydroxide to a bromphenol blue endpoint to determine the amount of acid contained therein , the results in the table being calculated in millimoles of sulfuric acid captured per hour . the results of the anti - misting tests are shown in table 1 : three anti - misting agents according to the invention ( compound a [ from example 2 , where m is ˜ 3 ], the sodium sulfopropyl ether of monoethanolamine containing six propylene oxide groups and eleven ethylene oxide groups , where m is ˜ 3 [ compound c ] and monoethanolamine containing six propylene oxide groups and eleven ethylene oxide groups reacted with only two moles of propane sultone for each mole of the monoethanolamine , where m is ˜ 2 [ compound d ]) and monoethanolamine contacted with six moles of propylene oxide and eleven moles of ethylene oxide ( compound 1 , the preferred embodiment from u . s . pat . no . 6 , 843 , 479 ), and a blank run with no anti - misting agents , were tested in an electrowinning apparatus with guar added as a smoothing agent . the basis for all three new molecules is either compound 1 or trimethylolpropane containing seven ethyleneoxy groups . the three anti - misting agents according to the invention tested were : the results demonstrated that compound a provided a clean , even plate . the plate of compound b was almost as good quality as that of compound a . however , the plate of compound c showed that it had a slight tendency to form nodules . earlier testing demonstrated that the plate for compound 1 contained substantial nodule growth which not only results in a poor plate quality for copper recovery , but also can produce hazardous electrical conditions in the cell . for each 16 - hour run , 35 l of electrolyte was prepared with concentrations of 38 g / l cu , 2 g / l fe 3 + , 0 . 1 g / l co , 0 . 01 g / l cl , and 175 μl h 2 so 4 . this was accomplished by dissolving appropriate levels of cuso 4 , fe 2 ( so 4 ) 3 , coso 4 , nacl , and h 2 so 4 in deionized water . each solution was then split into two 5 - gal buckets to feed the electrowinning for two days at eight hours each day . an electrowinning cell , housing one cathode and two anodes , was made from pvc plastic and fitted with a water jacket in order that the cell could be maintained at a given temperature . the cathodes were cut from stainless steel with a surface plating area of about 3 in × 3 in ( 0 . 0625 ft 2 counting both sides ) and a thickness of slightly less than one - sixteenth inch ; the anodes were lead plates and slightly smaller in width and height than the cathode . the electrolyte in the cell , while running , measured 11 cm deep × 8 cm wide × 12 . 5 cm long , for a volume of 1 . 1 l , and it was pumped into and out of the cell at a rate of 28 ml / min , in order to achieve a 3 g / l drop in cu concentration across the cell . the current density used in the experiments was 30 a / ft 2 ( within the typical tankhouse current densities of between 12 and 38 a / ft 2 ), and based on the surface area of the cathode , the current needed to flow to the cell was calculated to be 3 . 75 a . at the beginning of each test , 0 . 07 g ( 4 ppm ) of galactasol ® 40h 4 cd guar gum derivative and 0 . 175 g ( 10 ppm ) of the potential demisting agent for that run were added , while stirring with an impeller , to one of the two buckets containing the electrolyte . the jacket for the electrowinning cell was filled with deionized water and hooked up to a recirculating water bath in order to maintain the electrolyte in the cell at 45 ° c . the inlet tube for the cell was run through a peristaltic pump set to 28 ml / min and placed into the bucket containing the spiked electrolyte , which had been warmed up on a hot plate to ˜ 45 ° c ., with the exit tube being placed in a clean , empty 5 - gal bucket . the 1200 ml of warm electrolyte was added to the cell to fill it to the appropriate level ( in order that the submerged area of the cathode was 0 . 0625 ft ). the anode and cathode were hooked up to a constant current power supply , and the pump was turned on . once the lines were full and the electrolyte was flowing through the cell , the power supply was turned on and set to 3 . 75 a continuous current . this arrangement was run for eight hours before turning off the power supply , the water bath supplying the jacket , and the peristaltic pump , and the wire to the cathode from the power supply was unhooked in order to prevent current backflow . after allowing the cathode to sit in the bath overnight , the cathode was dried , weighed , and photographs were taken of it . the above procedure was repeated the following day with the second batch of tests solutions . again , after allowing the cathode to sit in the bath overnight , the cathode was dried , weighed , and photographs were taken of it . the electrowinning tests for compound a and compound d ( compound c was not checked ) were repeated in a 40 - hour run in order to ensure no obvious negative characteristics of the copper deposit . each 40 - hour run required 70 l of electrolyte , split into five 14 - l batches , each batch receiving 0 . 056 g ( 4 ppm ) of the guar polymer and 0 . 14 g ( 10 ppm ) of the demisting agent being evaluated . these runs confirmed that compound a produces high quality plates and compound d tends to produce plates having a limited number of small nodules . the extraction circuit kinetics tests were run using the cognis standard quality control test method in order to determine whether the tested anti - misting agents were too soluble in the organic phase or have an adverse effect on phase separation in the extraction stripping phase . a 4 - l batch of 10 v / v % lix ® 984n mixed ketoxime / aldoxime extraction reagents was made up in conoco ® 170exempt aliphatic diluent . one - liter of cognis qc electrolyte ( i . e . solution contains 35 ± 0 . 7 g / l cu ( as the sulfate ) and 160 ± 2 g / l h 2 so 4 ) batches ( six in total ) were spiked to levels of 20 and 50 ppm ( three with 20 ; three with 50 ), respectively , with each of compounds a , c and d ( from example 3 ). one liter of qc electrolyte , without any demisting agent , was run through the qc test as a control batch . a 400 - ml sample of the uk 984n reagent solution was contacted with 400 ml of one of the electrolyte solutions for 3 minutes by shaking vigorously in a 1 - l separatory funnel . the solutions were allowed to separate , a sample of the equilibrated organic ( e . o .) was taken , and 350 ml of the organic was placed in a 1 - l baffled beaker . an impeller was lowered into the organic solution in order that the top of the polypropylene hub of the impeller was at the surface level of the organic . the impeller was started up at 1750 rpm and 350 ml of a control feed ( 6 . 0 g / l cu , 3 . 0 g / l fe + 3 , ph = 2 . 0 ) was added over five seconds . a sample of the emulsion was taken at 30 seconds to obtain a sample of the organic ( e30 ). the mixing continued for 300 seconds total at which time the mixer was stopped . the time required for a complete separation of the phases was then determined ( phase break time ). a sample of the organic after 300 seconds of mixing ( e300 ) was then taken . the organic and aqueous phases were transferred to a 1 - l separatory funnel and allowed to separate again . a 325 - ml sample of that organic was placed in a 1 - l baffled beaker and a clean impeller was placed at the same level as the extraction test . the impeller was started up at 1750 rpm and 325 ml of the same qc electrolyte as the first contact was added over 5 seconds . a sample of the emulsion was taken at 30 seconds to obtain a sample of the organic ( s30 ). the mixing continued for 300 seconds total , at which time the mixer was stopped , and the phase break time was then determined . a sample of the organic phase was then taken ( s300 ), with the results for the seven kinetics tests shown in table 1 . the above extraction circuit kinetics data demonstrates that compound a and compound c do not have any substantial impact on the solvent extraction performance . however , compound d does appear to have a small negative impact on phase separation . surface tensions were measured on qc electrolyte with compounds a , c and d , fc1100 , and mistop at levels of 5 , 10 , 20 , and 40 ppm . the results are shown in table 3 . based on the above surface tension comparisons , compounds a , b , and c are equally effective in lowering the surface tension of the electrolyte as the commercially - accepted fc1100 . surface tension measurement of qc electrolyte containing various concentrations of anti - misting agents were performed as the reduction in surface tension is a good indicator of mist suppression behavior . these measurements were carried out utilizing a fisher surface tensiomat 21 in manual mode utilizing the du nouy methodology ( standard method ). results for the most preferred compounds of the invention may be found in table 1 ; compound e ( n - decyl - n , n - dimethylglycine ), compound f ( n - octyl - n , n - dimethylglycine ), compound g ( n - dodecyl - n , n - dimethylglycine ). fc - 1100 , from 3m , is the commercially accepted anti - misting agent . in order to measure acid mist suppression of anti - misting agents of formula ( in these compounds were added to an operating electrowinning cell . the electrolytic cell was made of 3 / 16 ″ thick lexan plastic and measured 3 . 5 ″ in width , 8 . 5 ″ in length , and 6 . 5 ″ in depth . an overflow weir was placed near the exit side of the cell and measures five inches in height . an entrance baffle , also 5 ″ in length , was placed near the electrolyte entrance . along the top of the cell , nine square - cut grooves were cut to allow the anode and cathode busbars to sit on cell . centered 0 . 5 ″ beneath the 4 1h groove cut , a 5 / 16 ″ hole was bored out to serve as a sample port . two 0 . 5 ″ holes were bored in the opposite ends of the cell to serve as feed entrance and exits . the entrance hole was bored at 4 . 25 ″ from the bottom of the cell , and the exit hole was bored at 2 . 5 ″ above the bottom of the cell . teflon - taped fittings were screwed into the ends to provide for tubing attachments . anodes and cathodes were cut in order to fit the electrowinning cell . lead anodes were cut from 1 / 16 ″ thick lead sheet and measure 3 ″× 5 . 25 ″. the anodes were attached to a copper busbar with two small threaded screws and 12 gauge copper wire was run between the two anodes in series . the last anode was connected with 12 gauge copper wire to the positive terminal of the dc power supply . cathodes were made from 1116 ″ thick stainless steel 316 ( ss316 ), and had the same dimensions as the anodes . similarly to the anode , the cathode was attached to a copper busbar with a threaded screw with 12 gauge copper wire connections between cathodes . the busbar was connected to the negative terminal on the dc power supply . the collection of acid mist was accomplished by drawing the mist through a reservoir of water in an erlenmeyer flask at a constant flow rate ( 1800 ml / min through a 1 / 16 ″ inlet nozzle ). after a timed interval , the water from the reservoir was titrated with a standardized sodium hydroxide solution to a phenolphthalein endpoint . the amount of sodium hydroxide used in the titration was then used to determine the relative amount of acid mist . copper electrolyte was prepared in 40 l batches and included : 35 g / l cu , 2 g / l fe 3 + , and 1780 g / l h 2 so 4 . this was done by dissolving appropriate levels of cuso 4 , fe 2 ( so 4 ) 3 , and h 2 so 4 in deionized water . analysis of the solution was performed prior to running by aas . approximately 15 ppm of galactasol ® 40h 4 cd guar solution was added to the electrolyte for cathode smoothing purposes . an anti - misting agent was then added at the appropriate concentration , and the entire solution was thoroughly mixed prior to introduction into the ew cell . the electrolyte was introduced into the electrolytic cell at a flow rate of 30 ml / min via a peristaltic pump . the electrolyte reservoir was placed in a re - circulating water bath in order to control the temperature to between 40 ° c . and 42 ° c . a stir bar was placed in the electrolytic cell to ensure proper mixing . once the electrolyte had reached 40 ° c ., the dc power was turned on and voltage and amperage adjusted to give 4 . 10 a at 5 . 0 to 5 . 2 v . this should provide a current density of 300 a / m 2 , in a single - cathode arrangement . the electrolytic reaction was allowed to proceed for three hours . after three hours , the sample probe and tubing were rinsed with a few aliquots of di water into the water trap to qualitatively transfer any residual acid on the interior surfaces of the probe and tubing . a few drops of phenolphthalein were added to the water in the erlenmeyer flask . the acid mist / water sample was then titrated with standardized 0 . 1 m naoh . the endpoint of the titration is indicated by a change in color of the solution from clear to pink . the amount of naoh is proportional to the acid mist generated and the results of the analysis are shown in table 2 for the most preferred betaines ( compounds e , f , and g ). mist values for the 40 and 50 ppm concentrations of compound g in table 2 were very low due to foaming on the surface of the electrowinning solution . at no other time was any foaming noticed for the other compounds in the electrowinning trials at concentrations up to 100 ppm . effect of anti - misting agent on extraction circuit kinetics of compounds of formula ( ix ) extraction circuit kinetics were obtained using a two extraction / one strip stage ( 2e / 1s ) circuit in order to determine whether the anti - misting agents had a negative effect on the organic phase or the phase separation times . the counter - current 2e / 1s system was comprised of lexan mix boxes ( 180 ml capacity ), each containing an impeller mixer which agitates the solution in the mix - box portion of the stage . the residence time of the cell was 180 seconds . the impellers were run at 1750 rpm and the continuity of the system was kept organic continuous . initial levels of pregnant leach solution ( pls ), strip electrolyte ( se ), and loaded organic ( lo ) were added to the appropriate mix boxes . an initial equilibrium was established with the organic by pre - contacting fresh organic reagent with strip electrolyte prior to addition into the circuit . pls was fed into the system at a rate of 15 ml / min . organic ( either 10 % v / v or 30 % v / v lix ® 984n in shellsol d70 ) was pumped from an overflow surge tank into the circuit at a rate of 30 ml / min . strip electrolyte was also pumped in at a rate of 30 ml / min . all circuit stages were kept at ambient temperature with the exception of the strip stage . the strip stage was heated to between 40 ° and 42 ° c . the circuit was run for a minimum of 24 hours of operation . synthetic electrolyte (˜ 35 g / l cu , 2 g / l fe 3 + , 180 g / l h 2 so 4 , 15 ppm guar ) was pre - dosed with a specific concentration of mist suppressant . as this solution was run through the circuit , samples were taken to determine if there were any issues with kinetics or circuit metallurgy . overall organic entrainment and phase - break times were determined for the two lix ® 984n concentrations ( 10 % and 30 %). samples were taken after approximately 24 hours of total circuit run time and analyzed for metal concentrations in the various circuit operations ( strip , e1 , e2 , raffinate streams ). the results of the analysis may be found in table 3 . the only negative impact on solvent extraction by the most preferred anti - misting agents ( compounds e , f , and g ) occurred when using compound g . at low concentration ( 10 ppm ), compound g was noted to cause a stable emulsion layer to form in the strip stage . this emulsion layer did not break and was stable for well over 24 hours , filling the settler box nearly to its full depth . no emulsion layers were noted with compounds e or f at any dosage concentration . entrainments for compounds e or f were in the 100 - 300 ppm range , which is consistent with industrial levels . all other results in table 3 are consistent with normal operating values . copper was plated for 8 - 22 hours using the same conditions as described in example 1 in order to inspect the quality of the copper deposited . the quality of the cathode was determined by a visual inspection using microscopy at low power ( approximately 125 × magnifications ). the cathode produced using compounds e , f , g and fc - 1100 was of high quality and had essentially smooth plates with little to no nodulation . | 2 |
in one aspect of the invention , a client using a computer connected to a high bandwidth network at a remote location generates a multimedia request to the claimed multimedia distribution system . upon authentication of the client ( the “ customer ”) by the automated session manager , an automated financial transaction is commenced based upon the price for the multimedia file , set by the administrator ( the “ seller ”) of the claimed multimedia distribution system . upon successful completion of the transaction process , the automated session manager generates a web page that contains the multimedia file requested by the customer . the multimedia file includes an embedded system that authenticates the customers licensing prior to opening the multimedia stream port . upon authentication by the embedded system , the multimedia stream port is opened creating a virtual circuit to connect to the remote customer &# 39 ; s computer to the claimed cross platform multimedia system over the high bandwidth network . at the completion of the licensed multimedia session , the session manager then closes the stream port to terminate the connection to the customer over the high bandwidth network . in another aspect of the invention , the administrator of the claimed cross platform multimedia distribution system manages the operation and functionality of the cross platform multimedia system . the administrator may insert , edit and or / delete multimedia files from the data storage system . upon insertion , a multimedia files is instantaneously available to all customers accessing the cross platform multimedia server over a high bandwidth network through the automated processes of the session manager . the administrator also controls customer access to multimedia files and may edit , disable or delete individual customers from the claimed cross platform multimedia system . in another aspect of the invention , the super administrator of the claimed cross platform multimedia system controls all operation and automated functionality of the invention . the super administrator &# 39 ; s commands are prioritized by the automated session manager and supersede commands entered by the administrator . the super administrator controls administrator access to the management of the claimed cross platform multimedia system and may disable access or delete administrators . [ 0017 ] fig1 illustrates a presently preferred architecture for implementing the cross platform multimedia system over a high bandwidth network . the web server is made of modular units called server elements , which are comprised of the web server hardware , web server operating system , claimed cross platform multimedia system and a data storage system . each of the web server elements , excluding the claimed cross platform multimedia system , can be fabricated using off - the - shelf computer components and software . [ 0018 ] fig2 illustrates the three components within the claimed cross platform multimedia distribution system ( the “ sub - elements ”), which are comprised of a consumer interface , administrator interface and a super administrator interface . [ 0019 ] fig3 illustrates the basic flow of a request from a customer to the claimed cross platform multimedia distribution system . the consumer interface fig1 through fig1 depicts a block diagram illustrating how the consumer interface is interleaved in accordance with the invention . the session manager automatically performs primary authentication of the customer to customize the consumer interface based on customer preference and / or administrator predetermined settings . during the authentication process , the session manager accesses the data storage system ( the “ database ”) for information about the customer &# 39 ; s multimedia preferences , multimedia files that meet the customer &# 39 ; s preferences and administrator predetermined settings . a webpage is dynamically generated containing the preferred multimedia and displayed over the high bandwidth network on the customers remote terminal . the automated session manager performs this task for every customer that accesses the multimedia distribution system , providing customer specific multimedia presentation for each individual customer . once authenticated , a customer may create and / or edit personal account information , payment preferences and multimedia preferences . these actions insert and edit the customer information stored in the database . the customer may also perform a multimedia content search to locate specific types of multimedia files . this action queries the database for multimedia matching the search parameters and dynamically generates a webpage containing the said multimedia . the webpage is then displayed over the high bandwidth network on the customer &# 39 ; s remote terminal . the customer may also view specific information about the multimedia . this action produces an additional database query that returns specific information about the multimedia , dynamically generating a webpage for display over the high bandwidth network on the customer &# 39 ; s remote terminal . the customer may then commence a financial transaction to rent or purchase a specific multimedia file . this action queries database for the customer &# 39 ; s payment information and the price set by the administrator for the multimedia file . the automated session manager submits this information over a secure network connection to the credit card clearing house for automated authorization . once the transaction has been authorized by the credit card clearing house , information about the transaction is stored in the database . the automated session manager then verifies the multimedia license and then generates a webpage that either contains an embedded media player and multimedia file or a notification that the license has expired . the webpage is then displayed over the high bandwidth network on the customer &# 39 ; s remote terminal . if the customers license is authenticated the automated session manager opens a stream port , creating a virtual circuit and displaying the multimedia within the embedded media player . at the completion of the licensed multimedia session , the automated session manager then closes the stream port to terminate the virtual circuit to the customer over the high bandwidth network . the entire interface is presented and displayed on the remote customer terminal using an internet browser . the presentation is manipulated by the customer using a mouse or other pointing device to access hyperlinks within the presentation . the customer moves the pointing device over and selects hyperlinks . each hyperlink connects the customer to additional embodiments of the claimed multimedia distribution system . upon customer selection of multimedia licensing , the customer must authorize the commencement of a financial transaction using a keyboard or other device to enter text . once the financial transaction is authorized and the delivery of the multimedia is authenticated , an additional hyperlink in automatically invoked by the automated session manager that contains an embedded media player , a stream port is opened and multimedia is streamed to the remote customer &# 39 ; s terminal over the high bandwidth network . the administrator interface fig1 through fig9 depicts a block diagram illustrating how the administrator interface is interleaved in accordance with the invention . the session manager authenticates the administrator to authorize access to the administrator interface ( the “ management console ”). during authentication , the session manager accesses the database for information about the administrator and the permission level . on authentication , a webpage is dynamically generated containing hyperlinks to various management tasks and displayed over a secure network connection on the administrators remote or local terminal . once authenticated , the administrator may select from specific categories . the administrator may access information about the multimedia files stored within the claimed cross platform multimedia distribution system . this action queries the database and dynamically generates a webpage that contains general information about the multimedia files entered into the claimed cross platform multimedia distribution system and displays the webpage on an internet browser over the secure network connection . the administrator may then perform various tasks including adding , editing and deleting multimedia files stored within the claimed multimedia distribution system . each request invokes an individual hyperlink that performs a specific task utilizing the database to return information for viewing , add information or delete information . the administrator may access information about the users ( the “ customers ”) stored within the claimed cross platform multimedia distribution system . this action queries the database and dynamically generates a webpage that contains general information about the customers using the claimed cross platform multimedia distribution system and displays the webpage on an internet browser over the secure network connection . the administrator may then perform various tasks including viewing , editing and deleting customer files stored within the claimed multimedia distribution system . each request invokes an individual hyperlink that performs a specific task utilizing the database to return information for viewing , editing , disabling , reactivating or deleting customers . the administrator may access information about the sales transactions stored within the claimed cross platform multimedia distribution system . this action queries the database and dynamically generates a webpage that contains general information about multimedia sales transactions using the claimed cross platform multimedia distribution system . the data is formatted and displayed on a webpage using an interned browser over the secure network connection . the administrator may then edit or delete the transaction information , invoking an individual hyperlink that performs a specific automated task to allow customers to obtain additional access to expired multimedia files ( renewing the license ) or deleting failed transactions . the entire interface is presented and displayed on the administrator &# 39 ; s terminal using an internet browser . the presentation is manipulated by the administrator using a mouse or other pointing device to access hyperlinks within the presentation . the administrator moves the pointing device over and selects hyperlinks . each hyperlink connects the administrator to additional embodiments of the claimed multimedia distribution system . a secure network connection is not a required embodiment of the claimed multimedia distribution system but is essential to safeguard sensitive information when the administrator accesses the claimed multimedia distribution system from a remote location . a high speed network connection to the management console is not a required embodiment of the claimed multimedia distribution system but is essential if multimedia files are being added from a remote location . the super administrator also has default permission to access the administrator interface . the super administrator interface fig1 through fig3 depicts a block diagram illustrating how the super administrator interface is interleaved in accordance with the invention . the session manager authenticates the super administrator to authorize access to the super administrator interface ( the “ management console ”). during authentication , the session manager accesses the database for information about the super administrator and the permission level . on authentication , a webpage is dynamically generated containing hyperlinks to various management tasks and displayed over a secure network connection on the super administrators remote or local terminal . the super administrator may perform various tasks including disabling access to the claimed multimedia distribution system for both the administrator and customers by invoking a hyperlink to commence the automated process . the super administrator may also view various general sales reports and perform automated administrator billing . the entire interface is presented and displayed on the super administrator &# 39 ; s terminal using an internet browser . the presentation is manipulated by the super administrator using a mouse or other pointing device to access hyperlinks within the presentation . the super administrator moves the pointing device over and selects hyperlinks . each hyperlink connects the super administrator to additional embodiments of the claimed multimedia distribution system . | 7 |
as required , one or more detailed embodiments of the present invention are disclosed herein ; however , it is to be understood that the disclosed embodiments are merely exemplary of the principles of the invention , which may be embodied in various forms . therefore , specific structural and functional details disclosed herein are not to be interpreted as limiting , but merely as a basis for the claims and as a representative basis for teaching one skilled in the art to variously employ the present invention in virtually any appropriately detailed structure . referring now to fig1 - 3 , wherein like reference numerals designate identical or corresponding parts through the several views , an embodiment of the present invention is displayed therein . fig1 depicts a first embodiment of the invention comprising a measuring cup 10 having a wall 12 shaped as a pyramid section ( four wall segments sloping at similar angles from a larger rectangular end toward a smaller rectangular end , as shown in fig1 ) and having interior and exterior surfaces . the cup 10 further comprises a substantially planar bottom 14 on its closed end . opposite the bottom 14 , and defining the open end of the measuring cup 10 , is the rim 16 which , in this embodiment , forms the shape of a rectangle . the rim 16 shown in fig1 is comprised of two longer segments and two shorter segments . the rim 16 further comprises a transfer edge 18 along one of its longer segments . opposite the transfer edge 18 and fixed to the exterior surface of the wall 12 is a grip 20 . the embodiment of fig1 is a preferred embodiment of a dry measuring cup 10 having a generous transfer edge 18 in addition to shorter rim 16 segments which help facilitate dumping the solids out of the measuring cup 10 after measurement has been achieved . in operation , the preparer grasps the grip 20 , lifts the grip 20 such that the transfer edge 18 is deelevated to a level adjacent a substantially flat surface — often a cutting board — where the solids sit . with the transfer edge 18 substantially flush against the flat surface , a knife or similar utensil ( or even the hand ) may be used to push the solids from the flat surface , across the transfer edge 18 , and into the measuring cup 10 . also , the angle between the wall 12 and the bottom 14 of the embodiment of fig1 may be manipulated to increase the range of angles the cup 10 may be held at relative to the flat surface during transfer of materials . the greater the angle between the bottom 14 and the wall 12 , up to 180 degrees , generally the greater the range of motion enjoyed by the measuring cup 10 relative to the flat surface . lowering the grip 20 relative to the flat surface during use encourages solids which are being pushed into the measuring cup 10 to move further into the cup 10 and away from the transfer edge 18 , which makes room for more solids along the transfer edge 18 . similarly , elevating the grip 20 will urge the solids back toward the transfer edge 18 and perhaps even across it onto the flat surface . the wall 12 may also be comprised of an angled receiving surface ( not shown ) associated with the transfer edge 18 to further facilitate transfer of dry materials across the transfer edge 18 when scooping or pushing dry materials into the cup 10 . further , the grip 20 of fig1 is on the wall 12 segment opposite the transfer edge 18 , which allows a preparer to be in an optimal position to apply pressure on the transfer edge 18 to maintain its substantially flush position against the flat surface during transfer of the solids into the cup 10 . also , once the solids have been transferred into the cup 10 , and measurement has occurred , for example using known methods and volumetric indicia , the grip 20 of the embodiment of fig1 also allows the preparer , by for example rotating the wrist , to elevate a short segment of the rim 16 relative to the opposing short segment , thus urging the solids to dump over the lower short segment and out of the cup 10 . to further facilitate dumping the solids from the cup 10 , a preparer may use fingers or utensils to urge the solids over the short segment of the rim 16 . of course , the solids may also be dumped from the cup 10 over any of the other rim 16 segments as desired . another embodiment of the present invention comprises the embodiment of fig1 without the grip 20 attached to its wall 12 segment . such an embodiment would more easily allow the cup 10 to be stacked with additional cups 10 , which may provide for easier storage . preparers may grasp the cup 10 of such an embodiment at any number of surfaces during use , including by squeezing the exterior surfaces of opposing wall 12 segments . the cup 10 may be comprised of any number of solid materials such as glass , plastic , or metals . the embodiment of fig1 is comprised of copper or copper alloy , metals with antimicrobial properties which are desirable for use in the food - related embodiment of fig1 . further , the cup &# 39 ; s 10 grip 20 may take any of a number of shapes without departing from the spirit of the invention , such as a substantially planar flange or roughly that of a horseshoe as depicted in fig1 - 3 . fig2 depicts another embodiment of the invention which provides for dual use of the measuring cup 10 with wet and dry materials . it comprises a wall 12 with exterior and interior surfaces and having planar and rounded segments , a bottom 14 , a rim 16 having a straight transfer edge 18 associated with the planar wall 12 segment and a rounded segment associated with the rounded wall 12 segment , and a grip 20 fixed to the exterior surface of the rounded wall 12 segment between the planar wall 12 segment and the opposing “ apex ” of the rounded wall 12 segment . the embodiment of fig2 broadens the utility of existing measuring cups by allowing for use with wet and dry materials . the preferred embodiment is comprised of glass or other known transparent material allowing for comparison of volume indicia on the cup 10 with the “ level ” or top surface presented by the cup &# 39 ; s 10 contents . this embodiment &# 39 ; s straight transfer edge 18 is shown associated with a planar segment of the wall 12 . by laying the cup 10 on its side and placing the transfer edge 18 adjacent to a flat surface such as a cutting board , the preparer may scoop or push dry materials across the transfer edge 18 and into the cup 10 . once an appropriate amount of dry materials is placed in the cup 10 , the preparer may either compare the level or height of the materials against volumetric indicia located on the cup 10 along its wall 12 , or against the rim 16 of the cup 10 as in traditional dry material measurement . if the former is chosen , these indicia may be in addition to any wet markings and may optionally be located along the height of the wall 12 by taking into account density variations common among dry materials ( due to “ settling ” or simply to the size and shape of the constituent pieces of dry material which may result in pockets of unoccupied space between them sometimes referred to as “ packing efficiency ”) without departing from the spirit of the invention . likewise , if the latter is chosen , the overall volume of the cup may be similarly adjusted to compensate for density variations common among dry materials . the embodiment of fig2 also comprises a rim 16 with a rounded segment associated with the rounded segment of the wall 12 . in other embodiments ( not shown ), the rounded segment of the rim 16 may further comprise a spout located opposite the transfer edge 18 which helps facilitate pouring of wet materials from the cup 10 . the location of the spout need not be opposite the transfer edge 18 , it may be located elsewhere along the rounded segment of the rim 16 without departing from the spirit of the invention . in operation with wet materials , the cup 10 is filled with said materials to a desired level or height , whether that level is judged by comparison with volumetric indicia appearing on the wall 12 of the cup 10 or its rim 16 . if the indicia appear on the wall 12 , they may be located along the wall 12 according to an assumption of consistent density of wet materials . said indicia may be in addition to other , dry material indicia which may also appear on the cup 10 of an embodiment of the invention . once measurement has been achieved , the wet materials may be poured from the cup 10 over its rim 16 , and preferably across a spout ( not shown ). fig3 shows another embodiment of the embodiment of fig2 which further comprises a lid 22 for substantial sealing against the cup 10 . this embodiment increases utility of the cup 10 by enhancing its ability to further serve as a container for material storage . the lid 22 may be comprised of glass , plastic , or other materials suitable for use in such applications . it may be fixed to the cup 10 by a hinge , flexible flange , or similar structure which allows the lid 22 to be applied and removed from the cup &# 39 ; s 10 rim 16 while remaining attached to the cup 10 . alternatively , the lid 22 may attach via friction fit or may otherwise be removable from the cup 10 without permanent or semi - permanent affixation thereto . it may also contact interior or exterior surfaces of the wall 12 , the rim 16 , or portions thereof , in sealing thereagainst . these and other uses of , and modifications to , the present invention will be apparent to those of skill in the art upon reading this disclosure . having now described the features , discoveries and principles of the invention , the manner in which the invention is constructed and used , the characteristics of the construction , and advantageous , new and useful results obtained ; the new and useful structures , devices , elements , arrangements , parts and combinations , are set forth in the appended claims . it is also to be understood that the following claims are intended to cover all of the generic and specific features of the invention herein described , and all statements of the scope of the invention which , as a matter of language , might be said to fall there between . | 6 |
a fuel processor system contains a first reactor that produces a first hydrogen - rich gas stream . the first hydrogen - rich gas stream contains varying amounts of carbon monoxide , depending on the conditions of reaction and the fuel used in the first reactor . an adsorption apparatus downstream from the first reactor comprises a vessel housing an adsorbent or combination of adsorbents adapted to adsorb carbon monoxide and any other impurities in the hydrogen - rich gas stream such as carbon dioxide , nitrogen , and water . the adsorbent apparatus purifies the first stream to produce a near - pure hydrogen stream with less carbon monoxide . the system further comprises a methanation reactor downstream from the adsorbent apparatus . the downstream adsorbent apparatus and methanation reactor act together to reduce the carbon monoxide concentration of the hydrogen - containing gas stream produced by the first reactor to a level acceptable for use as anode fuel for a pem fuel cell . in one embodiment of the invention , the system further comprises a water gas shift reactor situated between the first reactor and the adsorbent apparatus . conventional pressure swing adsorption ( psa ) systems are very large and consist of a minimum of two separate adsorption vessels requiring numerous valves and manifolds . in a two - vessel system , one vessel would be in the adsorption mode and the second vessel would be in various stages of depressurization or blowdown , purge , and pressurization . many commercial hydrogen psa cycles use four beds , with one bed in the production stage at any given time , and the other three beds in various stages of equalization , blowdown , purge , and pressurization . see , for example u . s . pat . no . 3 , 453 , 418 issued to wagner ; and u . s . pat . no . 3 , 564 , 816 issued to batta , each of the disclosures of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety . also , some commercial hydrogen psa cycles use twelve beds , with four beds in the production stage at any given time , and the other eight beds in various stages of equalization , blowdown , purge , and pressurization . see for example u . s . pat . no . 3 , 846 , 849 issued to fuderer et al ., the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety . these psa cycle stages are described in detail below . it is well known that psa systems with more than two vessels exhibit higher hydrogen recoveries and reduced power consumption by incorporating pressure equalization steps . these multiple , staged fixed bed psa systems , however , contain complex valve arrangements and are non - continuous due to the cycling of these valves . in a preferred embodiment , the adsorbent apparatus is a pressure swing adsorber , described further below . the pressure swing adsorber comprises multiple fixed beds containing adsorbent and valves that direct the flow of gas through the adsorbent beds in accordance with a pressure swing adsorption cycle . said cycle will include psa steps as described below . preferably , the valves are two rotary valves to enable the most compact apparatus . a preferred pressure swing adsorber is described in applications ser . no . 09 / 780 , 079 , published on aug . 15 , 2002 , as u . s . application ser . no . 2002 / 011 , 503 and u . s . ser . no . 09 / 780 , 184 , published on aug . 15 , 2002 , as u . s . application ser . no . 2002 / 110 , 504 , the disclosures of which are useful as background and are incorporated by reference . alternatively , rotating adsorber vessels allow for continuous production in a relatively small system with minimum valving . rotating pressure swing adsorption systems are described by petit et al in u . s . pat . no . 5 , 441 , 559 ; and by keefer et al . in pct publication no . wo 99 / 28013 , each of the disclosures of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety . rotation of the vessel allows the adsorbent mixture to cycle between various regions for adsorption , depressurization , purge , and pressurization ( as described below ) with cycle times much smaller than those of conventional psa systems . the cycle in which the adsorber is used will now be described . during the adsorption step , a stream containing carbon monoxide , such as the reformate effluent from a water gas shift reactor , is fed over the adsorbent ( s ) at the higher feed pressure . carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide adsorb on the adsorbent , and the product gas contains nearly pure hydrogen . the remainder of the adsorber product is primarily nitrogen . the adsorber product gas will contain a reduced level of carbon monoxide , for example below 400 ppm and preferably less than about 100 ppm . the production step is stopped before carbon monoxide breaks through the outlet of the adsorber vessel . at the end of the production step , the adsorbent is nearly saturated with the adsorbed gases and the vessel is at elevated pressure with hydrogen , carbon monoxide , carbon dioxide , water , and nitrogen . the adsorber vessel is depressurized from the feed pressure to the purge pressure by exhausting the gas in the direction counter - current to the adsorption direction . during depressurization , the outlet of the adsorber vessel is sealed . alternatively , the vessel can be depressurized co - currently , and the vessel inlet is sealed . the depressurization exhaust gas contains hydrogen , carbon monoxide , carbon dioxide , water , and nitrogen . the exhaust will exit the adsorber vessel at atmospheric pressure and can be sent to the combustor or recycled into another part of the adsorber or the fuel processor system . the adsorber vessel is purged with the expanded exhaust from the pem fuel cell stack , low pressure superheated steam , or other suitable purge gas ( such as a fraction of the co - free reformate ). the purge stream flows at ambient pressure in the direction counter - current to the adsorption direction . the adsorber may also be purged by pulling a vacuum from the direction counter - current to the adsorption direction using a vacuum pump . the exhausted purge gas will contain most of the adsorbed carbon monoxide and other adsorbed gases . the purge step is terminated when essentially all of the carbon monoxide and other adsorbed gases have been desorbed from the adsorbent ( s ). the adsorber vessel is pressurized back up to the adsorption pressure in the same direction as the adsorption step using , for example , a cooled hydrogen - rich product from a water gas shift reactor . during pressurization , the outlet of the vessel is sealed . alternatively , the vessel may be pressurized using a fraction of the hydrogen - rich product from the adsorber in a direction counter - current to the production direction , and the vessel inlet is sealed . after pressurization , the adsorber returns to the adsorption step and the cycle continues indefinitely . equalization stages , which are well known to those skilled in the art of psa systems , may be added to the adsorption cycle to enhance hydrogen recovery and reduce the compressor power consumption . for example , one vessel or section of the rotating vessel that has just completed the adsorption step may be equalized , or connected via the outlets of both sections , with another section that has just completed the purge step . during this equalization , the pressure in the first section is reduced and the pressure in the second section is increased accordingly . also , the hydrogen remaining in the first section of the vessel at the end of adsorption is partially recovered in the second section , which has completed the purge step . the adsorbent apparatus contains an adsorbent adapted to adsorb carbon monoxide , carbon dioxide and any other impurities in the hydrogen - rich gas stream such as nitrogen and water . suitable adsorbers include , without limitation , 5a zeolite , 13x zeolite , and lix zeolite . these adsorbents selectively adsorb carbon dioxide over carbon monoxide ; in use they will tend to adsorb carbon dioxide in the feed gas before adsorbing carbon monoxide . other suitable adsorbents adsorb carbon monoxide preferentially , but can also adsorb carbon dioxide . non - limiting examples include oxides or salts of copper impregnated or exchanged on activated carbon , alumina and zeolites ; oxides or salts of silver impregnated or exchanged on activated carbon , alumina , and zeolite ; and oxides or salts of tin impregnated or exchanged on activated carbon , alumina , or zeolite . mixtures of adsorbents may be used as well . in other preferred embodiments , the fuel processor system further comprises a heat exchanger disposed between the adsorbent apparatus and the methanation reactor . the heat exchanger raises the temperature of the second hydrogen - rich stream before it enters into the methanation reactor . in some embodiments , the system further comprises a recuperator disposed in such a way that the output stream of the adsorbent apparatus is heated in the recuperator by the output stream of the methanator before being input into the methanation reactor . the methanation reactor contains a catalyst that catalyzes co methanation and also typically co 2 methanation . in co methanation , carbon monoxide and hydrogen react to form methane and water , while in co 2 methanation , co 2 and hydrogen react to form methane and water . it can be seen that hydrogen loss in the methanation reaction is related to the amount of carbon monoxide being removed , but there is also the possibility of losing hydrogen through methanating co 2 . three hydrogen molecules are required to convert carbon monoxide to methane and four hydrogen molecules for carbon dioxide . to minimize hydrogen loss from reaction with carbon dioxide , it is preferred to use an adsorbent apparatus , preferably a pressure swing adsorber to remove carbon dioxide upstream . further , because hydrogen is consumed in the reaction , it is preferred to use the methanation reactor in systems of the invention in situations where the input stream has a relatively low concentration of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide . the adsorbent apparatus , preferably a pressure swing adsorber , may be sized optimally for the tradeoffs between acceptable low level of carbon monoxide for input into the methanation reactor ( hydrogen consumption ), size of the adsorption apparatus and methanation reactor , and cost . conventional methanation catalysts may be used . some suitable catalysts are described for example in the “ methanation ” chapter of the wiley - interscience encyclopedia of catalysis , the disclosure of which is useful as background and is hereby incorporated by reference . among suitable catalysts are fischer - tropsch catalysts containing cobalt or iron . other examples include precipitated catalysts and nickel catalysts such as raney nickel . other potential catalysts , including , without limitation rh , ru , pt , or alloy catalysts , co , mo , or other promoted catalysts , on various supports including , but not limited to al 2 o 3 , sio 2 , ceo 2 , and tio 2 have been reported in the literature . the catalyst is often coated on a monolithic type substrate , for example but not limited to cordierite or metallic monoliths or foams . a typical operating temperature range for such catalysts is 190 - 450 ° c . catalysts having a wide range of properties and activities may be selected according to particular requirements . in some embodiments , the catalyst may be chosen to optimize activity at low operating temperature , to minimize reactor size , and / or to reduce costs . the stage where hydrogen is first extracted from the hydrogen - carbon fuel is referred to as reforming . subsequent conditioning of the hydrogen - rich stream for use in a fuel cell is referred to as co clean - up . because air and water are readily accessible materials for practical applications , extraction of hydrogen from hydrocarbons may be achieved by reacting the hydrocarbon fuel with oxygen or water with suitable catalysts . in a partial oxidation reaction , hydrocarbon is reacted with oxygen to form hydrogen and carbon monoxide as major components . the reaction is exothermic , releasing energy as it proceeds . steam reforming , on the other hand is an endothermic reaction , absorbing energy as it proceeds . in steam reforming , hydrocarbon is reacted with water to form hydrogen , carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide . although the exothermic and endothermic reactions may be carried out in separate stages , it is possible to combine the reactions in a single catalytic process called autothermal reforming ( atr ). in a preferred embodiment , the first reactor of the fuel processor system is an atr reactor . in this embodiment , the first reactor is known as an autothermal reformer . the thermodynamics of the partial oxidation and steam reforming reactions are such that at high temperatures where efficiency is highest ( i . e ., producing minimum ch 4 ), a relatively greater amount of carbon monoxide is produced . optionally , the system of the invention includes one or more water gas shift reactors , preferably placed downstream of the first reactor and upstream of the adsorbent apparatus . the partial oxidation , steam reforming , or autothermal reforming reaction carried out in the first reactor produces a first hydrogen stream containing some level of carbon monoxide , depending on the equilibrium conditions . the carbon monoxide in this stream can react with water according to the water gas shift reaction , co + h 2 o ←→ co 2 + h 2 , therefore reducing the amount of co fed to the adsorbent apparatus . the water can be present from the prior reactor or added just upstream of the wgs reactor ( s ). the extent of the reaction , and the relative removal of co , is limited by the thermodynamic equilibrium , which is determined by the temperature of the wgs reaction . co is preferably converted to co 2 at low temperature . at the elevated temperatures of the autothermal reactor , the yield of hydrogen is limited by the equilibrium . the wgs reactor is either a high temperature wgs reactor ( 320 ° c .- 500 ° c . ), a medium temperature wgs reactor ( 250 ° c .- 400 ° c . ), or a low temperature wgs reactor ( 150 ° c .- 250 ° c .). alternately , the reactor can include a combination of high , medium and low temperature wgs reactors that employ a technique for cooling the reformate gas as it flows between the different temperature reaction zones . generally , the temperature of the wgs reactor decreases with the direction of the reformate gas flow . according to the invention , it is possible to employ a single high temperature wgs reactor or a single medium temperature wgs reactor . these types of reactors are generally smaller than a low temperature wgs reactor or a system with one or more wgs reactors , even though the high temperature wgs reactor does not reduce the co to very low levels because of equilibrium constraints . this is possible because of the ability of the psa device to handle relatively high co levels that cannot be tolerated by conventional systems that use prox reactors to convert co to co 2 . conventional catalysts , such as fe 3 o 4 / cr 2 o 3 for high temperature shifts or cuo / zno / al 2 o 3 for low temperature shifts , may be used , as well as any other known wgs catalyst . in a potential embodiment , the water gas shift catalyst is one described in chintawar , et al ., u . s . pat . no . 6 , 524 , 550 , the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference . the catalyst is based on a platinum group metal selected from the group consisting but not limited to , platinum , palladium , iridium , osmium , rhodium , and mixtures thereof and mixtures of various promoters . the platinum group metal may be supported on an oxide of titanium , zirconium , or cerium . the catalyst can be coated on a monolith substrate . the wgs reactor generates a hydrogen - rich stream that is primarily hydrogen , nitrogen , carbon monoxide , carbon dioxide and water . the reformate gas will typically include about 0 . 3 - 3 mole percent co depending on the exit temperature of the wgs reactor , the space velocity of the reformate gas in wgs reactor , the steam to carbon ratio , and the catalyst used . the adsorbent apparatus preferably operates on a principle of pressure swing adsorption . as noted above , the adsorbent apparatus may be sized to produce an output stream ( referred to as a “ second hydrogen - rich stream ”) with a co level suitable for clean up in the downstream components of the system . in some embodiments , that level is less than 400 ppm carbon monoxide . the level of carbon monoxide will be determined by the trade off between the size of adsorbent apparatus , the size of the downstream methanation system , the system efficiency and cost from the adsorbent apparatus , the second hydrogen - rich stream enters the methanation reactor , wherein the co concentration is reduced to a level below that which would poison the catalyst in a fuel cell stack . in a preferred embodiment , the fuel system of the invention further comprises a fuel cell stack disposed in such a way as to receive the output of the methanation reaction as an input fuel . preferably the input fuel to the fuel stack contains carbon monoxide at a level of 5 ppm or less ; more preferably the concentration of co is 1 ppm or less . referring to fig1 , hydrocarbon fuel , for example gasoline , methanol , ethanol , mixtures of gasoline and alcohol , natural gas , methane , or propane and the like , is fed into a first reactor 22 through a stream 9 . the stream 9 enters an inlet 10 of the reactor 22 , where as shown it is warmed to the desired temperature by heat exchange from a compressed air stream 5 and steam stream 6 that flow through a heat exchanger 30 to warm up . the stream 11 passes through a reaction chamber 20 — which may be an autothermal reactor — to produce an output stream 21 that next flows through a heat exchanger 30 to produce a first hydrogen - rich stream 31 . as shown , the first hydrogen - rich stream 31 is combined with a stream of water 33 by water injector 35 to produce an input stream 37 into an optional series of water gas shift reactors 52 . as shown , the stream 37 first enters a first water gas shift reactor 40 to produce an output stream 41 . the reaction chamber 20 contains a steam - reforming and / or partial oxidation catalyst suitable for the specific fuel used . the temperature of the first reactor 22 depends on the nature of the fuel and the relative compositions of fuel , air and water . typically the temperature of reaction is between about 300 ° c . and about 1200 ° c . in the first reactor 22 , the fuel is converted to a first hydrogen - rich stream 31 by partial oxidation , stream reforming , or autothermal reforming . in general , the water gas shift reactors may be a high temperature water gas shift reactor ( 320 ° c .- 500 ° c . ), a medium temperature reactor ( 250 - 400 ° c . ), or a low temperature reactor ( 150 ° c .- 250 ° c .). alternatively , as shown in fig1 , the water gas shift reactor may consist of a series of reactors . as shown , the second water gas shift reactor 60 operates at a lower temperature than the first water gas shift reactor 40 to promote co conversion . to cool the output stream 41 of the first gas shift reactor 40 , advantage is taken of the cooling capacity of stream 72 derived from vaporizer 70 and vaporizer 120 . the steam stream 72 is fed to the heat exchanger 50 to lower the temperature of the stream 51 for input into the second gas shift reactor 60 . the output stream 61 is preferably fed into a vaporizer where water input stream 75 provides cooling . water vapor stream 71 from the vaporizer provides cooling to the water gas shift reactor as discussed above . the output stream 73 of the vaporizer is fed into a condenser 80 , where excess water can be condensed before input to the adsorbent apparatus . as shown , the condenser 80 is cooled with air at input stream 82 and output stream 83 . water may be removed at stream 84 . the output stream 81 of the condenser , containing a level of carbon monoxide it is desired to reduce , is passed through an optional heater 90 to prepare an input stream 91 of an adsorbent apparatus 100 . the adsorbent apparatus produces a stream 105 containing primarily hydrogen , but also some nitrogen , and low levels of carbon monoxide . the stream 105 may be fed to a fuel stack if the co level is low enough . although the output stream 105 of the adsorbent apparatus 100 contains some carbon monoxide , the majority of the carbon monoxide and all of the carbon dioxide of the second hydrogen - rich stream 61 exits the adsorbent apparatus in the stream 101 that is fed to a combustor 110 . the output of the combustor forms an output stream 111 that is fed into a vaporizer . as shown , the hot stream 111 from the combustor 110 passes through the vaporizer and exits as an exhaust stream 121 . at the same time , heat from the stream 111 is used to vaporize an input water stream 123 . that heat is reused in the system as shown to provide a heat exchange stream 125 , which is combined with water vapor stream 71 , and further heated by heat exchangers 50 and 30 to the desired inlet temperature of reactor 22 . fig2 shows an embodiment of the invention wherein a methanation reactor 145 — shown as encompassing an upstream heat exchanger 130 and a downstream heat exchanger 150 in addition to the methanation reaction chamber 140 containing the methanation catalyst — is placed downstream of the adsorbent apparatus shown in fig1 . the second hydrogen - containing gas stream 105 that is output of the adsorbent apparatus of fig1 is fed into a heat exchanger 130 for the methanator reactor 145 . conveniently , the exhaust stream 121 containing waste heat may also feed into the heat exchanger 130 . the output stream 131 of the heat exchanger is fed into the methanation reaction chamber 140 . the output stream 141 of the methanation reaction chamber 140 , preferably containing carbon monoxide at levels below 5 ppm and more preferably below 1 ppm , is next passed through a second methanator heat exchanger 150 in order to reduce the temperature of the third hydrogen - containing stream 151 to a temperature suitable for use as an anode fuel of a fuel cell . such a temperature may be about 80 ° c ., whereas the methanation may be efficiently carried out at about 300 ° c . while the methanation reactor typically operates at about 300 ° c ., the typical temperature of the output stream 105 of the adsorbent apparatus is about 65 ° c . as shown in fig2 , the adsorbent apparatus output stream can be preheated in heat exchanger 130 by the combustor exhaust stream 121 to 300 ° c . before entering the methanation reaction chamber 140 . the methanation product stream 141 can be cooled by air stream 83 from the condenser 80 to a desirable fuel cell stack inlet temperature , e . g . about 80 ° c . the cooled methanation product stream 151 can either be fed directly to a fuel cell engine ( not shown ) or stored for future delivery to a fuel cell engine . if there is enough heat released from the methanation reaction , for example , in the case of a relatively high co concentration in the input stream 105 , a simpler heat exchanging scheme can be utilized , as shown in fig3 . fig3 shows an alternative embodiment of the invention , where the stream 105 is fed into a recuperator 160 . the output stream 162 of the recuperator is then fed into a methanation reactor 170 . the output of the methanation reactor 171 then flows through the recuperator 160 , which serves as a heat exchanger to bring the temperature of the output stream 161 to a suitable temperature for use in the hydrogen fuel cell . the methanation product stream 161 can either be fed directly to a fuel cell engine ( not shown ) or stored for future delivery to a fuel cell engine . because systems of the invention contain a methanation reaction downstream of the adsorbent apparatus , it has been found that the adsorbent apparatus can be made smaller , while the system still achieves the same low level of carbon monoxide in the third gas stream . with the system shown in fig2 , carbon monoxide levels below 5 ppm may be readily achieved . system modeling may be performed on the system shown in fig1 and fig2 to integrate mass and heat , and to quantify the size reduction of the adsorbent apparatus that comes as a consequence of incorporating the methanation reactor and the associated heat exchanger . in the fig1 simulation ( not including a methanator ), the psa outlet stream is 95 % hydrogen , 5 % nitrogen , and 5 ppm co . in the fig2 simulation ( with a methanator ), the psa outlet stream is 95 % hydrogen , 5 % nitrogen , and 400 ppm co . results of the modeling are shown in table 1 . in the embodiment modeled , a volume savings of 42 . 3 % is achieved , with a penalty of a loss of only 0 . 1 % in fuel processor efficiency . here efficiency is given as the low heating value of hydrogen divided by the low heating value of fuel , times 100 . the very small loss in efficiency is due in part to the consumption of a small amount of hydrogen by the methanator as it removes the final traces of co from the stream and there is no carbon dioxide in the input stream of methanation reactor . by placing the methanator downstream of the adsorbent apparatus , overall efficiency can be maintained while still allowing for an overall downsizing of the adsorbent apparatus , reaction chambers , and heat exchangers . as shown in table 1 , integrating the methanation reactor with the adsorbent apparatus ( shown as a pressure swing adsorber or psa in the table ) can achieve a 42 % savings in total volume of the psa + auxiliary equipment . the fuel processor efficiency penalty ( a reduction by 0 . 1 ) is small due to the low inlet carbon monoxide concentration and the absence of carbon dioxide in the input stream to the methanation reactor . the carbon monoxide concentration in the input stream of methanation reactor was 400 ppm in the table . the system may be optimized to determine a desirable inlet carbon monoxide concentration to the methanation reactor . in general , a higher inlet co concentration to the methanation reactor would result in a smaller psa , but a higher fuel processor efficiency penalty would result due to the higher consumption of hydrogen during co methanation . however , where the co concentration is higher , a simpler recuperating heat exchange scheme as shown in fig3 may be used . on the other hand , where the inlet co concentration to the methanation reactor is lower , there is a smaller fuel processor efficiency penalty , but a larger psa would be required and a more complicated heat exchanging scheme would be required as shown in fig2 . another trade - off in determining the optimal psa size is the desired h 2 concentration in the methanator product stream fed to the fuel cell system . as the psa is made smaller , the content of other impurities in the second hydrogen - rich gas stream , such as nitrogen , will increase . said nitrogen content will not be reduced in the methanation reactor , and thus would be passed through to the fuel cell or storage vessel . | 2 |
a system of coupled masses that can be driven at varying frequencies is provided . the masses may be coupled to a motor and have an axis of rotation such that some frequencies produce vibration while others produce a reduced vibration amplitude and still others may produce no vibration at all . in one embodiment , two coupled masses may be provided with one configured to be driven at various frequencies . the other mass may be passively attached or otherwise movably attached so that , in some embodiments , it may displace from a rest position due to centrifugal force as the first mass spins and a centripetal force ( such as exerted by the first weight ) may hold the second weight in the curved rotational path about the axis of rotation . in one embodiment , the first weight is driven on an axis that does not go through the center of the mass for the coupled masses , thus generating vibration when driven at low frequencies or any frequency . in another embodiment , the first weight may be driven on an axis near or through the center of the mass . hence , at low rotational speed , the weight produces little or no vibration . the second weight may be displaced , thereby shifting the center of mass from being at or near the center of the axis of rotation to generate vibration . in some embodiments , the shifting of the second weight is caused by centrifugal force . for example , the second weight may be located at or near an axis of rotation and is pulled away from the center as the weights spin . in other embodiments , the shifting of the second mass may be prompted by other forces . for example , a magnetic force may push or pull the second mass to a displaced position . additionally , a restorative force may return the second weight to its original or resting position . this force may be provided by a spring , by the second weight itself or by a magnet . the shifting of the center of mass of the coupled weights allows selective harmonic response of the vibration system to user input , alerts and so forth . that is , the weights may be configured to alter the center of mass at select frequencies to obtain a desired result . for example , the weights may reconfigure at a select frequency or over a range of frequencies that may alter an effect of the spinning weights . for example , the reconfigured weights may correspond to a high amplitude vibration output . turning to the drawings and referring to fig1 , an isometric view of an example mobile electronic device 100 is illustrated . the mobile electronic device 100 may include one or more haptic devices that may serve as alerts to a user and / or function to alter angular momentum of the device to help reduce damage or likelihood of damage to the device 100 ( or select components of the device 100 ) upon impact from a free - fall . it should be appreciated that the mobile electronic device 100 may take any suitable form , including but not limited to a digital music player ( e . g ., mp3 player ), a digital camera , a smart phone ( e . g ., iphone ® by apple , inc . ), a laptop computer , or tablet computer . the mobile electronic device 100 may include a display screen 102 , an enclosure 104 , and an input member 106 . generally , the display screen 102 provides a visual output for the mobile computing device 100 and may take the form of a liquid crystal display screen , plasma screen , organic light emitting diode display , and so on . additionally , in some embodiments the display screen 102 may provide both input and an output functionality . for example , the display screen 102 may include a capacitive input sensor so to receive input form a user upon the user touching the display screen with his or her finger . the enclosure 104 defines a structure that may at least partially enclose the various components of the mobile computing device 100 . the input member 106 permits a user to provide input to the mobile computing device 100 . the input member 106 may include one or more buttons , switches , or the like that may be pressed , flipped , or otherwise activated in order to provide an input to the mobile computing device 106 . for example , the input member 106 may be a button to alter the volume , return to a home screen , or the like . additionally , the input member 106 may be any suitable size or shape , and may be located in any area of the mobile computing device 100 . furthermore , the input member 106 may be combined with the display screen 102 as a capacitive touch screen . fig2 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the mobile computing device 100 illustrating select electrical components . the mobile computing device 100 may include a processor 110 , sensors 112 , memory 114 , and a network / communication system interface 116 . the mobile computing device 100 may also include a controller 118 , a motor 120 and weights 122 . the controller 118 may be coupled to the processor 110 and configured to operate the motor 120 . the motor 120 may drive the weights 122 in order to generate a vibration alert , tactile feedback to a user , and / or to alter the angular momentum of the device 100 in the event of a free - fall . as such , the mobile device 100 may be configured to operate the motor 120 to provide an appropriate response to user input ( e . g ., via the sensors ), to incoming data ( e . g ., an incoming text , call , email , and so forth via the network communication system interface 112 ), to a free - fall event ( e . g ., as sensed by one or more of an accelerometer , gyroscope , and so forth ), or other events . the configuration of the device 100 may be performed at least in part by programming the device upon manufacture . additionally , certain configurations may be performed by an end user . for example , and end user may be able to selectively configure alerts indicated by operation of the motor 120 . it should be appreciated that the device 100 may include more or fewer components and fig2 is intended to be exemplary only . fig3 a illustrates an example of the weights 122 . the weights may 122 take the form of a coupled mass . specifically , the weights 122 may include two or more distinct weight members that are coupled together or placed together so as to form a mass having a center of mass . as illustrated , for example , the weights 122 may include a first weight 130 and a second weight 132 . the first weight 130 may generally be larger than the second weight 132 and may have more mass than the second weight . additionally , the first weight 130 may house the second weight 132 . that is , the second weight 132 may be located within the first weight 130 . in fig3 a , for example , the second mass 132 may reside within a slot 134 of the first mass 130 . it should be appreciated that the weights 122 may be coupled together in a variety of different manners to achieve the desired purposes . that is , the second weight 132 and the first weight 130 may be coupled together in any suitable manner that allows for one or both of the weights to displace from a rest position relative to the other weight to change a center of mass for the weights 122 . the second weight 132 may be secured within the slot 134 of the first weight 130 in any suitable manner . for example , the second weight 132 may be coupled at its base within the slot 134 to allow displacement of the second weight through deflection or displacement of the second weight . in other embodiments , the slot 134 may be provided with retaining features ( not shown ) such as one or more tabs located about the edge of the slot and extending into the slot , to prevent the second weight from exiting the slot . in still other embodiments , the second weight may be formed from the first weight by removing material of the first weight to form the slot 134 and leaving the second weight in some embodiments , the first and second weights 130 , 132 may be made of the same material . for example , in some embodiments , tungsten may be used for each weight . further , one or more of the weights may be magnetic . in other embodiments , the first and second weights 130 , 132 may be made from different materials . for example , the first weight 130 may be made from tungsten and the second weight 132 may be made from a magnetic material . generally , the materials selected for use as the weights 122 will be dense materials so that they have a high weight to volume ratio . this allows for smaller sized weights while still providing a desired output vibration or effect upon angular momentum . additionally , the weights 122 may take any suitable shape . as shown , the first and second weights 130 , 132 are cylinders . however , other shapes may be implemented . moreover , the first weight 130 and the second weight may take different shapes . a geometric center 136 of an end of the first weight 130 is illustrated at the intersection of the dashed cross - hairs . additionally , a center of mass 137 is shown as being slightly offset to the left of the geometric center 136 . due to the slot in the first weight 130 and the positioning of the second weight 132 , the geometric center may not correspond with a center of mass of the weights 122 . in some embodiments , the geometric center 136 may correspond to an axis of rotation . in other embodiments , the axis of rotation may correspond to a center of combined mass of the weights 122 . further , in some embodiments , one or more of the center of mass , axis of rotation , and geometric center may coincide . fig3 b - 3f illustrate several different alternative example embodiments of coupled weights . in each , first and second weights may displace relative to each other as the weights are spun . in each of fig3 b - c , an axis of rotation is perpendicular to the drawing ( e . g ., extends out from the sheet ), whereas in fig3 d the axis of rotation is shown as being parallel to the drawing ( e . g ., runs left to right ). in fig3 b , second weight 200 is external to the first weight 202 . a geometric center 204 of the first weight 202 is shown as well as a center of mass 206 for the coupled weights . as the weights spin , the second weight 200 separates from the first weight 202 as shown by the arrows . in fig3 c , the second weight 210 may be located within the first weight 212 while at rest and may exit or separate from the first weight when spun . in this embodiment , the center of mass and axis of rotation may each be near the geometric center 214 of the first weight 212 . in fig3 d , the second weight 220 may be disposed within a slot 228 of the first weight 222 but may displace towards a geometric center 224 of the first weight 222 when the weights are spun . in this example , the axis of rotation may be at or near a center of the second weight when at rest . in some embodiments , the second weight &# 39 ; s position may be actively controlled using magnets , for example . in fig3 e , the second weight 230 may again be external to the first weight 232 and axis of rotation 238 may pass through one or both of the weights . as the weights are spun , the second weight 230 may displace along a surface of the first weight 230 to change the center of mass relative to the axis of rotation 238 . in still other embodiments , the first weight 242 may take an annular shape into which the second weight 240 is disposed , as shown in fig3 f . fig4 illustrates the weights 122 with the first weight 130 attached to a shaft 138 . in particular , the shaft 138 may be coupled the geographic center of the first weight 130 . the shaft 138 may also be coupled to the motor 120 and the motor may drive the shaft so that rotates about its longitudinal axis . as mentioned previously , the second weight 132 may be passively coupled to the first weight so that it may move relative to the first weight . in some embodiments , the second weight 132 is at rest at or near an inner position within the slot 134 . that is , a center of the second weight 132 may rest at or near the geometric center of the first weight . as shown in fig5 , as the shaft 138 and the first weight 130 rotate , centrifugal force may push the second weight 132 to an outer position within the slot 134 . the displacement of the second weight 132 causes a shift in the center of the mass of the coupled weights . as such , the center of mass is moved further away from the axis of rotation , thereby providing an output with an increased amplitude . specifically , as the center of mass shifts due to the shifting of the second weight away from the axis of rotation , the angular velocity of the second weight and therefore the angular momentum of the second weight increases to increase the amplitude of vibration . the increased amplitude may better alert and obtain the attention of the user . additionally , in embodiments , where the weights are utilized to alter the angular momentum of the falling device , the altered center of mass and increased amplitude output may help to better alter the angular momentum . fig6 illustrates an embodiment that includes a spring 150 located within the slot 134 to hold the second weight 132 in the resting position . in particular , the spring 150 may be attached within the slot at or near an outer wall 152 of the slot . although a single spring 150 is illustrated , multiple springs may be utilized some embodiments . additionally , it should be appreciated that in other embodiments one or more springs may be located within the slot 134 at or near the inner wall in addition to or instead of the spring 150 . generally , the springs may be configured to hold the second weight 132 in place until the centrifugal force exceeds , and thereby overcomes , the restraining force of the spring and the second weight is displaced . more particularly , the spring 150 may be configured to exert a force on the second weight hold it in its resting position until the centrifugal force exceeds the restoring force of the spring and the second weight displaces . it should be appreciated that as the spring is compressed , the force required to compress the spring increases , as such , the second weight may displace over a range of frequencies until the spring reaches a maximum compressed state that may correspond to a rotational frequency that produces a desired vibration . for example , the spring may be configured to hold the second weight in its rest position until a frequency is reached at which the weights 122 produce the desired vibrational amplitude in the device 100 . fig7 is a cross - sectional view taken along line vii - vii in fig3 showing another embodiment . in particular , in fig7 , the second weight 132 ′ is shown as a deflecting beam . the second weight 132 ′ may be attached at its base 160 to an interior surface 162 of the slot 134 of the first weight 130 . the second weight may be hinged , or otherwise movably attached the interior surface 162 . for example , a spring hinge may be implemented to provide a restoring force . in some embodiments , ball and socket joint may movably attach the first and second weights . alternatively , the second weight may be slideably attached to the interior surface 162 . in other embodiments , the second weight may be formed from the same block of material as the first weight . for example , the second weight may be formed as material is removed from the first weight to create the slot 134 . in embodiments where the first and second weights 130 ′, 132 ′ are made of the same material , this may be a more efficient way to manufacture the weights 122 . however , where the first and second weights are made of different materials , the second weight is attached within the slot 134 . as the weights are spun by the motor 120 , the second weight 132 ′ deflects within the slot 134 to move from its resting position to the outer position . therefore , the slot 134 may be tapered in some embodiments and still accommodate displacement of the second weight . in other embodiments , the slot may have squared edges rather than tapered edges . as with the previous embodiment , the second weight 132 ′ may displace when the centrifugal force exceeds a restoring force that may correlates to a frequency that generates a desired result . in some embodiments , the second weight 132 ′ may act as a spring as it deflects and , as such , may be configured to deflect after a certain frequency of rotation is reached which generates centrifugal force that overcomes the force of the second weight 132 ′. referring to fig8 , another embodiment is illustrated in which magnetic force is used to hold the second weight 132 in place or displace it . in fig8 , for example , the first weight 130 ″ may include a magnet 170 having north and south poles . the second weight 132 ″ may include a magnet 172 as well having north and south poles , but with the poles oriented oppositely from that of the magnet 170 of the first weight . as such , the south pole of magnet 170 may be oriented toward the north pole 172 so that the second weight is held in a resting position . again , as the weights 122 spin centrifugal force will pull the second weight to a displaced position . however , the centrifugal force generally must exceed the magnetic force holding the second weight in the rest position before the second weight will move . the magnets 170 , 172 may be embedded in the first and second weights 130 ″, 132 ″ or may be adhered or otherwise attached to a surface of the respective weights . several alternative embodiments may be implemented as well . for example , in one embodiment , one or both of the first and second weights 130 ″, 132 ″ may be magnets . alternatively , one of the weights may be a magnet and the other a magnetic material . in yet another embodiment , one or more weights may be an electromagnet that may be selectively magnetized to hold the second weight in a desired position . the controller may be used in some embodiments to control the magnetism of the weights . in some embodiments , the poles of the electromagnet may be reversed to repel the second weight to a displaced position . additionally , the first weight may include magnets near the displaced position of the second weight to either hold or repel the second weight . further , in some embodiments , the motor 120 may be used to provide the magnetism for the weights 122 . fig8 b illustrates the motor 120 generating magnetic flux lines which may influence the positioning of the second weight 132 ′″ located within the first weight 130 ′″. magnetic flux lines 189 are illustrated to show how a magnetic field from operation of the motor 120 may reach the first and second weights . further , a magnetic member 190 may be provided within the first member and which may be influenced by the magnetic field of the motor to either displace or hold the second weight 132 ′″ in a desired location . the weight spins in synchronization with the motor , and the motor &# 39 ; s magnetic coils are driven in a pattern similar to a sinusoid . therefore in the weight &# 39 ; s rotating reference frame , the magnetic field from the motor is always in approximately the same direction , assuming the weight is attached directly without a gearbox . when the motor is off or driven at low power , the movable weight 132 will not shift , while the magnetic field will shift the weight when the motor is driven at a higher power . fig9 illustrates yet another alternative embodiment in which detents are used to hold the second weight in a desired position . in particular , the slot 134 may include one or more detents 182 that correspond to apertures 180 in the second weight 132 ′″. in one embodiment , a detent may help secure the second weight in a rest position . in another embodiment , a detent may help secure the second weight in a displaced position . the detents may be made of any suitable material and in one embodiment may be made of the same material as one of the first or second weights . additionally , the detents may take any suitable shape , such as triangular , square and so forth . the use of a detent in the resting position helps to hold the second weight in the rest position when the weights are spun at a relatively low frequency and up until some threshold frequency is reached . upon reaching the threshold frequency , centrifugal force may displace the second weight . similarly , the detent in the displaced position may be used to hold the second weight in the displaced position at lower frequencies . in particular , the motor may initially operate at a high frequency to displace the second weight , the motor may then reduce its frequency and the second weight may maintain its displaced position . this may be useful to help conserve power , as the motor may operate at lower speeds and still achieve a high amplitude output due to the displaced second weight . a spring or other device ( not shown ) may provide a restorative force to help return the second weight to its resting position once the motor stops . the foregoing describes some example embodiments of coupled masses used to generate vibration and / or alter angular momentum of a falling device . although the foregoing discussion has presented specific embodiments , persons skilled in the art will recognize that changes may be made in form and detail without departing from the spirit and scope of the embodiments . additionally , one or more of the embodiments may be combined together to achieve a desired performance . for example , a spring maybe implemented with an embodiment utilizing magnets to help hold and return the second weight to a resting position . accordingly , the specific embodiments described herein should be understood as examples and not limiting the scope thereof . | 7 |
a cell culture assembly 10 according to the invention is shown in fig1 and 7 . the assembly includes a base 12 and a cell culture insert 14 , as best shown in fig2 . a cover 16 fits over the base and insert . the parts of the assembly are preferably thermoformed or molded from a transparent , plastic material such as polystyrene or petg . this allows all portions of the assembly to be easily viewed , even when the cover is employed . the base 12 of the assembly is most clearly shown in fig2 and 4 . the base includes two pairs of opposing , generally parallel side walls 18 , a bottom wall 20 , and a peripheral flange 24 including a horizontal portion 24a and a downwardly extending portion 24b in opposing relation to the side walls 18 . the side walls 18 define a substantially rectangular opening at the top end of the base . in the preferred embodiment of the invention , the side walls are equal in length , and accordingly define a substantially square opening . the side walls adjoin each other at rounded corners . the dimensions of the bottom wall 20 are slightly smaller than those of the top opening as the side walls 18 taper inwardly from top to bottom . the bottom and side walls define a well which is capable of retaining a liquid or solid medium . each side wall includes a protrusion 26 in the form of a rounded column extending within the well . the protrusions are located substantially at the midpoint of each side wall . each protrusion is accordingly positioned in opposing relation to the protrusion extending from the opposing side wall . a step including a horizontal surface 28 and a vertical surface 30 is formed at the top of each protrusion 26 . the vertical surface 30 extends substantially parallel to the side wall from which the protrusion extends . each protrusion 26 includes a rounded inner surface extending between the bottom wall 20 and the top of the base . the outer surface of each protrusion forms a corresponding rounded , elongate depression within the outer surface of each side wall . the depressions 32 and flange 24 facilitate handling of the base 12 . a plurality of discrete , frustoconical projections 34 extend upwardly from the bottom wall 20 of the base . the projections are all substantially the same height , and are substantially shorter than the height of the side walls 18 . the configurations and locations of the projections may be varied if desired . it is important that the projections allow a liquid introduced into the well to spread over the entire bottom surface of the well . in other words , the projections should not be connected in such a manner that they would prevent liquid from passing into any otherwise open space at the bottom of the well . the cell culture insert 14 includes a body 36 having two pairs of opposing side walls 38 . a permeable membrane 40 is secured to the bottom end of the body . the membrane may be made from any material suitable for growing or maintaining the particular cells or tissues deposited thereon . a variety of membranes are commercially available , some of which are more suitable for certain procedures than for others . u . s . pat . no . 5 , 366 , 893 , the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference , discloses several membrane materials . polycarbonate micropore filters , for example , have been used for cell cultures including endothelial cells . the side walls of the cell culture insert , being substantially equal in length , define substantially rectangular openings at the top and bottom ends thereof . the membrane 40 is accordingly substantially rectangular . a substantially annular rim 42 extends outwardly from the top end of the body 36 . the diameter of the rim is slightly less than the distance between the opposing vertical surfaces 30 of each pair of opposing protrusions 26 . the rim accordingly rests upon the horizontal surfaces 28 of the respective steps when the insert is mounted to the base . the edge of the rim adjoins the vertical surfaces 30 of each step . the insert is accordingly maintained in place by the steps , with the membrane 40 positioned slightly above the upper surfaces of the projections 34 . while the insert could be supported by legs engaging the bottom wall of the well , as disclosed in u . s . pat . no . 5 , 366 , 823 , the use of a rim extending from the insert body is preferred . the thickness of the rim is approximately the same as the height of the vertical surface 30 of each step . the top surface of the rim is accordingly substantially coplanar with the top surface of the base . a pair of notches 44 extend through the side walls and rim of the insert at diagonally opposing corner portions of the side walls . each notch includes a bottom wall and a pair of opposing side walls , all extending below the rim . the size of the insert is selected in accordance with the particular test or other procedure to be conducted . in a preferred embodiment according to the invention , the maximum diameter of the insert 14 is about one hundred fifty millimeters . the height is about twenty - four millimeters . by providing a diameter at least three times the height of the insert , a relatively shallow pan is provided , which facilitates certain test procedures . the cover 16 is designed to fit over the base and insert . referring to fig2 and 6 , the cover includes a top wall 46 and a downwardly extending flange 48 . as shown in fig6 a peripheral ridge 50 is formed in the top wall 46 . the ridge extends above the plane of the center portion of the top wall . each corner portion of the top wall includes a generally triangular depression 52 having an arcuate inner edge 52a . these depressions assist to hold the insert in place during shipment to assure integrity of the insert . two pairs of opposing protrusions 54 , each having arcuate inner edges , extend above the plane of the top wall . each protrusion 54 is located mid - way between each corner portion of the cover 16 . four small circular depressions 56 are formed at the respective corners of the cover , just outside the ridge 50 . when the cover 16 is mounted to the base 12 , the small , circular depressions 56 rest upon the horizontal portion 24a of the peripheral flange 24 of the base . this arrangement facilitates removal of the cover which , in the absence of such depressions , would be more likely to stick to the base . the opposing pairs of protrusions 54 of the cover are positioned directly over the column - like protrusions 26 of the base . the triangular depressions 52 extend into the well such that the arcuate inner edges thereof adjoin the outer edge of the rim 42 of the cell culture insert 14 . the cover accordingly prevents lateral or vertical displacement of the insert 14 with respect to the base . the ridge and depressions also make the covered assembly relatively easy to handle . the flange 48 of the cover extends over the downwardly extending portion 24b of the flange 24 of the base 12 . each flange 48 , 24 includes a small , outwardly extending lip designated by numerals 48a and 24c , respectively . the lips 48a , 24c are separated by a small space when the cover is applied , as shown in fig3 . in use , the well defined by the base 12 may be partially filled with a selected medium . this may be accomplished with the insert in place through the generally triangular openings defined between the rim 42 and the corner portions of the base . tissues or cells may be deposited on the top side of the membrane . the insert 14 may be rotated into a position where the side walls of the insert are parallel to the side walls of the base . the notches 44 facilitate manipulation of the insert within the well . while shown as a single well assembly 10 , the principles of the invention can be applied to a multi - well assembly . by providing wells having non - circular top openings including one or more corner portions , a relatively large opening or openings can be provided between a base and the outer edges of a cell culture insert . square well openings provide an efficient design for both single and multi - well applications . although illustrative embodiments of the present invention have been described 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 other changes and modifications may be effected therein by one skilled in the art without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention . | 1 |
referring more specifically to the pomological details of this new and distinct variety of grapevine , the following has been observed under the ecological conditions prevailing at a vineyard which is located near the southeast corner of woollemes and wallace avenues in delano , calif . with due regard for cultural practices . all major color code designations have been enumerated by reference to the dictionary of color by maerz and paul , second edition , published in 1950 . common color names are also employed occasionally . form : upright , dense and tender ; the subject variety was bilateral cordon trained and spur pruned . productivity : variable , productive to very productive . the subject variety produces approximately 26 to 30 clusters per vine . it has been further determined that nearly all buds are fruitful , therefore the subject variety has a potential for producing a large crop . as a general matter only one cluster per shoot was produced . occasionally two clusters per shoot were observed , however , the second cluster was always smaller in overall size . trunk diameter .-- variable , approximately 7 to 9 . 2 cm . ; average trunk diameter is approximately 8 . 2 cm . at the point of cordon branching . the bilateral cordon training and spur pruning of the subject variety produced vines having approximately 14 to 18 arms per vine and one spur per arm . diameter .-- medium ; the cane diameter is variable , approximately 9 . 1 to 13 . 2 mm ., the average cane diameter is approximately 10 . 7 mm . internode length .-- approximately 11 to 15 cm . ; average length is approximately 12 . 9 cm . tendril length .-- variable , medium to long ; approximately 7 . 6 cm . through 13 . 9 cm . ; average length is approximately 10 . 7 cm . date of bloom .-- generally -- medium to late as compared with the other varieties . the date of bloom in 1987 was observed on may 9 and 10 . the date of bloom is approximately two or three days after the emperor variety of grapevine which has a date of bloom which is considered medium to late . on may 9 , 1987 approximately 80 % of the clusters were in full bloom while 10 % were in a pre - bloom stage and the remaining 10 % were at a berry - set stage . the stamens were erect and displayed good amounts of viable pollen . the date of bloom of may 9 or 10 may be approximately seven to ten days early inasmuch as 1987 was considered an early year . lobes .-- numbers -- variable , generally five - lobed leaves were found although occasionally a three - lobed leaf would be discovered . petiolar sinus -- shape .-- the petiolar sinus has a characteristically wide v or u - shape . maturity when described : ripe for commercial harvesting and shipment ; the ripening date of the subject variety is affected by the climatic conditions in the san joaquin valley of central california . the 1987 growing season was considered an early season , and therefore the instant variety of grapevine was mature for harvesting and shipment before sept . 1 , 1987 . however , the anticipated ripening date during an average season is estimated to be approximately september 10 through 17 . the ripening date is medium to late as compared with other varieties . generally .-- the cluster of the subject variety is hereinafter described as it would be observed in its natural state , and further as it would be observed after treating it with normal cultural practices which include girdling , tipping , and applying predetermined amounts of gibberellic acid . size .-- generally -- large ; natural cluster weight -- approximately 1060 grams to 1935 grams , with an average cluster weight of approximately 1431 . 2 grams . treated cluster weight -- approximately 628 to 1518 grams , with an average treated cluster weight of approximately 1991 grams . natural cluster length .-- approximately 33 to 44 . 5 cm . ; average length of a natural cluster is approximately 38 . 9 cm . as part of the various cultural manipulations performed by the inventor , the clusters are tipped and thinned . therefore , the length of a treated cluster has been altered . cluster form .-- broad and tapering . medium and well filled but not compact . this parameter does not appear to be affected by cultural ; practices . peduncle -- length .-- long , approximately 5 . 6 cm . to 11 . 5 cm . ; average length -- approximately 8 . 04 cm . the peduncle length is not affected by the cultural practices set forth above . peduncle -- thickness .-- medium to thick ; approximately 4 . 3 to 7 . 0 mm . in natural vines ; average thickness approximately 5 . 4 mm . the peduncle thickness is affected by the cultural practices ; peduncle thickness -- treated vines -- approximately 3 . 4 to 7 . 6 mm . ; average peduncle thickness for a treated vine is approximately 6 . 0 mm . pedicle -- diameter .-- slender , approximately 1 . 3 mm . the pedicle length , and diameter , set forth above were not noticeably affected by the cultural practices which included girdling and the application of predetermined amounts of gibberellic acid . uniformity .-- variable on clusters procured from natural vines , however , increased uniformity is apparent on clusters gathered from treated vines . berry color .-- red , ( 56 - l - 7 ) [ pg . 135 ]; the color of the berries is somewhat variable ranging from 56 - l - 5 to 56 - l - 8 , most of the berries , however , display the red color which is most closely similar to ( 56 - l - 7 ). juice production .-- average to juicy . the juice of the subject variety is clear and sweet . seeds : the tudor premium red variety of grapevine is substantially seedless , that is , natural vines produce berries which have one or two seed traces . the seed traces which are found in these berries , are not otherwise noteworthy , inasmuch as they are soft . they are however visually detectable . it has been determined that seed traces were substantially undetectable in the berries which are produced from vines which were treated with the standard cultural practices which include girdling and the application of predetermined amounts of gibberellic acid . use : dessert and fresh market for both local and long distance markets . although the new variety of grapevine possesses the described characteristics as a result of the growing conditions prevailing in delano , calif ., it is to be understood that variations of the usual magnitude and characteristics incident to growing conditions , fertilization , pruning and pest control are to be expected . | 0 |
the following description is merely exemplary in nature and is in no way intended to limit the disclosure , its application , or uses . for purposes of clarity , the same reference numbers will be used in the drawings to identify similar elements . as used herein , the phrase at least one of a , b , and c should be construed to mean a logical ( a or b or c ), using a non - exclusive logical or . it should be understood that steps within a method may be executed in different order without altering the principles of the present disclosure . as used herein , the term module refers to an application specific integrated circuit ( asic ), an electronic circuit , a processor ( shared , dedicated , or group ) and memory that execute one or more software or firmware programs , a combinational logic circuit , and / or other suitable components that provide the described functionality . in an internal combustion engine , fuel and spark are relatively fast actuators . the term fast is used in contrast to air flow ( which may be measured as air per cylinder ), which changes slowly as the throttle valve opens or closes . removing fuel from one or more cylinders ( deactivating the cylinders ) and decreasing ( retarding ) the spark advance can both be used to achieve fast changes in brake torque . when controlling an internal combustion engine , a rapid transition to minimum torque may be requested . the minimum torque the engine can produce with all cylinders on is limited by the minimum amount of air flow needed to maintain adequate combustion in all cylinders . to reduce the torque of the engine even further , cylinders are deactivated . a minimum torque request may be made when the vehicle is decelerating , such as when the driver has removed their foot from the accelerator pedal . minimum torque may be especially helpful for engine braking when traveling on downgrades . a smooth transition to minimum engine off torque can also be used when shutting down the engine , such as in a hybrid application . for example , in a hybrid application , the engine may be powered down when the vehicle comes to a stop . rapid torque reductions may also be used to prevent engine flare when the clutch pedal of a manual transmission is depressed . cylinders can be individually turned off for a step - wise reduction in torque . however , abrupt changes in torque may be transmitted through the frame and perceived as a noise , vibration , or harshness issue . to create a smooth torque ramp , cylinder deactivation can be combined with changes in spark advance to produce a smooth torque reduction without points of discontinuity . in order to achieve this smooth response , spark advance is closely synchronized with cylinder deactivation . instead of experiencing an abrupt torque reduction when a cylinder is deactivated , the ignition system can advance the spark at the same time that the cylinder is deactivated . the increased spark advance offsets the torque reduction from the cylinder deactivation . the spark advance can then be ramped to a lower value . at this time , the next cylinder can be turned off , with another corresponding increase in spark advance . this can be repeated for each cylinder , with the spark advance smoothing the transitions when cylinders are deactivated . a similar scheme can be used for smoothing increasing torque as cylinders are reactivated . for example , this may be used when the internal combustion engine in a hybrid application is restarted or when a driver once again depresses the accelerator pedal on a downgrade . an example of a strategy where spark advance offsets large decreases in torque from cylinder deactivation is shown in fig1 . fig1 also depicts the difference between when a cylinder is commanded to be deactivated and when the cylinder actually is deactivated . because of the close coupling between cylinder deactivation and spark advance , fig1 shows how spark advance is affected by the delay in actual cylinder deactivation . in addition to the coordination between spark advance and cylinder deactivation for torque control , coordination is also useful for torque estimation . torque estimation is used to control engine parameters , and may be used by a hybrid controller to determine current or future torque requested from an electric motor . if the torque estimation function receives notice of a cylinder being deactivated without receiving notice of the corresponding increase in spark advance , torque estimation may erroneously estimate a negative spike in torque . therefore , when control is able to provide cylinder deactivation information at the same time as the corresponding spark advance , torque estimation may be able to incorporate the combined effects of both changes . fig2 shows an exemplary cylinder firing diagram for a v8 engine , which illustrates why there may be a delay between a cylinder deactivation command and actual cylinder deactivation . fig3 depicts an engine system where fuel control is coordinated with spark control . fig4 depicts exemplary components of an engine control module of the engine system . fig5 depicts in greater detail certain components that are used to coordinate fueling and spark advance for the exemplary engine system . fig6 depicts exemplary control steps used in determining and applying coordinated fueling and spark advance parameters . referring now to fig1 , a graphical depiction of a decreasing torque request , cylinder deactivation , and spark advance for an exemplary 4 - cylinder engine is presented . the torque request begins at a minimum air torque , which is − 10 nm in this example . the minimum air torque represents the torque produced when all cylinders are fueled and the minimum amount of air for proper combustion is provided to the cylinders . the torque ramp then decreases until the minimum engine off torque is reached , which is − 30 nm in this example . at the minimum engine off torque , no fuel is provided to the cylinders and therefore no torque is being generated . negative torque is created by friction in the engine , and may also be created by pumping losses resulting from the pistons drawing in , compressing , and expelling air . also indicated are the approximate average torques of the engine with 3 , 2 , and 1 cylinders activated , which are − 15 nm , − 20 nm and − 25 nm , respectively . at time t 1 , the number of cylinders is instructed to reduce from four to three . after a delay 10 , the number of cylinders actually activated decreases from four to three . at time t 2 , the number of cylinders instructed to be activated is decreased from three to two . after a delay 20 , the actual number of cylinders activated decreases from three to two . as seen in fig1 , delays , such as delay 10 and delay 20 , are not necessarily equal . this will be explained below with respect to fig2 . fig1 also shows an uncoordinated spark advance , where the spark advance is set based upon the instructed number of activated cylinders . therefore , at time t 1 , the uncoordinated spark advance increases to offset the decrease in torque caused by the cylinder reduction . however , because the cylinder was not actually deactivated until after the delay 10 , the increase in the uncoordinated spark advance would cause a spike in engine torque . the spark advance then ramps to a minimum level , where the next cylinder can be deactivated . the minimum level may represent the lowest spark advance that will still result in stable combustion . a coordinated spark advance is shown , which increases spark advance at times when the number of cylinders being fueled actually decreases . a graph of torque estimation ( not shown ) based on coordinated spark and fuel control will be fairly smooth . this is because torque estimation receives the decreased number of cylinders as spark control provides torque estimation with the newly updated spark advance . by contrast , a graph of torque estimation ( also not shown ) corresponding to the uncoordinated spark advance would have downward torque spikes as each cylinder was deactivated . referring now to fig2 , a graphical depiction of cylinder event timing in an exemplary v8 engine is presented . at the top of fig2 is a square wave indicating teeth on a crankshaft wheel . the x axis represents crankshaft angle , and is shown between 0 and 720 degrees because cylinders fire every two crankshaft revolutions . the 8 cylinders are labeled with letters , from a to h . there are two gaps shown in the crankshaft teeth , one at top dead center ( tdc ) of cylinder d , and one at tdc of cylinder h . these gaps may be used for synchronizing the crankshaft signal . the time when the piston is at its topmost position , which is the point at which the air / fuel mixture is most compressed , is referred to as tdc . a portion of the crankshaft period on the right of fig2 is repeated on the left of fig2 . this explains why tdc of cylinder h appears at both the left and the right . ignition timing control may occur at a defined time for each cylinder . for example only , these events may be defined at 72 ° or 73 . 50 ° before tdc of each cylinder . timelines of the four strokes ( intake , compression , power and exhaust ) are shown for each cylinder . the cylinders are arranged in firing order from top to bottom , a to h . the physical cylinder number is indicated at the left of each timeline . the end of the intake stroke for a cylinder may be defined as the time when the corresponding intake valve closes . the fuel boundary represents the last time at which fuel released from the fuel injectors will make it into the combustion chamber in that intake stroke . normally , this will be slightly before the end of the intake stroke . for applications where fuel is injected directly into the combustion chamber , the fuel boundary may be at or after the end of the intake stroke . after the fuel boundary , the fuel injector corresponding to the cylinder can begin spraying fuel for the next intake stroke . the fuel injector may spray fuel during the exhaust stroke so that a fuel - air mixture will be ready when the intake valve opens . fuel may be sprayed earlier , such as in the compression or power strokes , to allow for more mixing of air and fuel and / or to allow for more time in which to inject a greater amount of fuel . because of the long period during which fuel may be sprayed , deactivating fuel to a cylinder may be done at the fuel boundaries . therefore , when a request to deactivate cylinder 1 is received , the fuel injector for cylinder 1 is not deactivated until the next fuel boundary is reached . if the request is received slightly after a fuel boundary , nearly two crankshaft revolutions will occur before the fuel boundary is again reached . even after the fuel injector is disabled following the fuel boundary , the combustion chamber will already contain the previously sprayed fuel . the compression , power , and exhaust strokes therefore operate with the fuel that was previously injected . when the next intake stroke is reached , there is little or no fuel , as the fuel injector has been disabled for the last four strokes . at this point , the combustion chamber contains only air . the compression stroke then compresses the air in the cylinder , and during the power stroke , no fuel - air mixture is present to ignite . this is the time at which the reduced torque from deactivating the cylinder is actually realized . as seen in the example timing diagram of fig2 , cylinder 8 fires before cylinder 1 would have fired , while cylinder 2 fires after cylinder 1 would have fired . the spark can be advanced starting with either the firing of cylinder 8 or the firing of cylinder 2 . in four - cylinder applications , there may not be enough time to advance the spark for the cylinder firing before cylinder 1 . in such cases , the spark will be advanced for the cylinder firing after cylinder 1 . the spark advance can then be gradually reduced by following the torque command through the use of a torque model until the next cylinder is deactivated . the variable delay in fig1 can now be understood . if a cylinder deactivation request is received immediately after the fuel boundary for that cylinder , two crankshaft revolutions will pass before the fuel injector for that cylinder can be disabled . in the next two crankshaft revolutions , the fuel previously sprayed is combusted and exhausted . the following intake and compression strokes operate on air that does not have injected fuel . at the power stroke , one crankshaft revolution after the intake stroke , there is no air / fuel mixture to ignite , and the average torque of the engine is therefore reduced . on the other hand , if a cylinder deactivation request is received immediately before a fuel boundary , when the fuel boundary is reached , the fuel injector for that cylinder will be disabled . then , after two crankshaft revolutions , the intake stroke draws in air , and after one more crankshaft revolution , the air mixture is not ignited . therefore , the variable delay shown in fig1 may vary between three and five crankshaft revolutions . referring now to fig3 , a functional block diagram of an exemplary engine system 100 is presented . the engine system 100 includes an engine 102 that combusts an air / fuel mixture to produce drive torque for a vehicle based on a driver input module 104 . air is drawn into an intake manifold 110 through a throttle valve 112 . an engine control module ( ecm ) 114 commands a throttle actuator module 116 to regulate opening of the throttle valve 112 to control the amount of air drawn into the intake manifold 110 . air from the intake manifold 110 is drawn into cylinders of the engine 102 . while the engine 102 may include multiple cylinders , for illustration purposes , a single representative cylinder 118 is shown . for example only , the engine 102 may include 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 8 , 10 , and / or 12 cylinders . the ecm 114 may instruct a cylinder actuator module 120 to selectively deactivate some of the cylinders to improve fuel economy . air from the intake manifold 110 is drawn into the cylinder 118 through an intake valve 122 . the ecm 114 controls the amount of fuel injected by a fuel injection system 124 to achieve a desired air / fuel ratio . the fuel injection system 124 may inject fuel into the intake manifold 110 at a central location or may inject fuel into the intake manifold 110 at multiple locations , such as near the intake valve of each of the cylinders . alternatively , the fuel injection system 124 may inject fuel directly into the cylinders . the cylinder actuator module 120 may control to which cylinders the fuel injection system 124 injects fuel . the injected fuel mixes with the air and creates the air / fuel mixture in the cylinder 118 . a piston ( not shown ) within the cylinder 118 compresses the air / fuel mixture . based upon a signal from the ecm 114 , a spark actuator module 126 energizes a spark plug 128 in the cylinder 118 , which ignites the air / fuel mixture . the timing of the spark may be specified relative to tdc . the combustion of the air / fuel mixture drives the piston down , thereby driving a rotating crankshaft ( not shown ). the piston then begins moving up again and expels the byproducts of combustion through an exhaust valve 130 . the byproducts of combustion are exhausted from the vehicle via an exhaust system 134 . the intake valve 122 may be controlled by an intake camshaft 140 , while the exhaust valve 130 may be controlled by an exhaust camshaft 142 . in various implementations , multiple intake camshafts may control multiple intake valves per cylinder and / or may control the intake valves of multiple banks of cylinders . similarly , multiple exhaust camshafts may control multiple exhaust valves per cylinder and / or may control exhaust valves for multiple banks of cylinders . the cylinder actuator module 120 may deactivate cylinders by halting provision of fuel and spark and / or disabling their exhaust and / or intake valves . the time at which the intake valve 122 is opened may be varied with respect to piston tdc by an intake cam phaser 148 . the time at which the exhaust valve 130 is opened may be varied with respect to piston tdc by an exhaust cam phaser 150 . a phaser actuator module 158 controls the intake cam phaser 148 and the exhaust cam phaser 150 based on signals from the ecm 114 . the engine system 100 may include a boost device that provides pressurized air to the intake manifold 110 . for example , fig1 depicts a turbocharger 160 . the turbocharger 160 is powered by exhaust gases flowing through the exhaust system 134 , and provides a compressed air charge to the intake manifold 110 . the turbocharger 160 may compress air before the air reaches the intake manifold 110 . a wastegate 164 may allow exhaust gas to bypass the turbocharger 160 , thereby reducing the turbocharger &# 39 ; s output ( or boost ). the ecm 114 controls the turbocharger 160 via a boost actuator module 162 . the boost actuator module 162 may modulate the boost of the turbocharger 160 by controlling the position of the wastegate 164 . an intercooler ( not shown ) may dissipate some of the compressed air charge &# 39 ; s heat , which is generated by air being compressed and may by the air &# 39 ; s proximity to the exhaust system 134 . alternate engine systems may include a supercharger that provides compressed air to the intake manifold 110 and is driven by the crankshaft . the engine system 100 may include an exhaust gas recirculation ( egr ) valve 170 , which selectively redirects exhaust gas back to the intake manifold 110 . in various implementations , the egr valve 170 may be located after the turbocharger 160 . the engine system 100 may measure the speed of the crankshaft in revolutions per minute ( rpm ) using an rpm sensor 180 . the temperature of the engine coolant may be measured using an engine coolant temperature ( ect ) sensor 182 . the ect sensor 182 may be located within the engine 102 or at other locations where the coolant is circulated , such as a radiator ( not shown ). the pressure within the intake manifold 110 may be measured using a manifold absolute pressure ( map ) sensor 184 . in various implementations , engine vacuum , which is the difference between ambient air pressure and the pressure within the intake manifold 110 , may be measured . the mass of air flowing into the intake manifold 110 may be measured using a mass air flow ( maf ) sensor 186 . in various implementations , the maf sensor 186 may be located in a housing with the throttle valve 112 . the throttle actuator module 116 may monitor the position of the throttle valve 112 using one or more throttle position sensors ( tps ) 190 . the ambient temperature of air being drawn into the engine system 100 may be measured using an intake air temperature ( iat ) sensor 192 . the ecm 114 may use signals from the sensors to make control decisions for the engine system 100 . the ecm 114 may communicate with a transmission control module 194 to coordinate shifting gears in a transmission ( not shown ). for example , the ecm 114 may reduce torque during a gear shift . the ecm 114 may communicate with a hybrid control module 196 to coordinate operation of the engine 102 and an electric motor 198 . the electric motor 198 may also function as a generator , and may be used to produce electrical energy for use by vehicle electrical systems and / or for storage in a battery . in various implementations , the ecm 114 , the transmission control module 194 , and the hybrid control module 196 may be integrated into one or more modules . to abstractly refer to the various control mechanisms of the engine 102 , each system that varies an engine parameter may be referred to as an actuator . for example , the throttle actuator module 116 can change the blade position , and therefore the opening area , of the throttle valve 112 . the throttle actuator module 116 can therefore be referred to as an actuator , and the throttle opening area can be referred to as an actuator position or actuator value . similarly , the spark actuator module 126 can be referred to as an actuator , while the corresponding actuator position may be the amount of spark advance . other actuators may include the boost actuator module 162 , the egr valve 170 , the phaser actuator module 158 , the fuel injection system 124 , and the cylinder actuator module 120 . the term actuator position with respect to these actuators may correspond to boost pressure , egr valve opening , intake and exhaust cam phaser angles , air / fuel ratio , and number of cylinders activated , respectively . referring now to fig4 , a functional block diagram of an exemplary engine control system is presented . an engine control module ( ecm ) 300 includes an axle torque arbitration module 304 . the axle torque arbitration module 304 arbitrates between driver inputs from the driver input module 104 and other axle torque requests . for example , driver inputs may include accelerator pedal position . other axle torque requests may include a torque reduction requested during wheel slip by a traction control system and torque requests to control speed from a cruise control system . torque requests may include target torque values as well as ramp requests , such as a request to ramp torque down to the minimum engine off torque or ramp torque up from the minimum engine off torque . axle torque requests may also include requests from an adaptive cruise control module , which may vary a torque request to maintain a predetermined following distance . axle torque requests may also include torque increases due to negative wheel slip , such as where a tire of the vehicle slips with respect to the road surface when the torque produced by the engine is negative . axle torque requests may also include brake torque management requests and torque requests intended to prevent vehicle over - speed conditions . brake torque management requests may reduce engine torque to ensure that engine torque does not exceed the ability of the brakes to hold the vehicle when the vehicle is stopped . axle torque requests may also be made by body stability control systems . axle torque requests may further include engine cutoff requests , such as may be generated when a critical fault is detected . the axle torque arbitration module 304 outputs a predicted torque and an immediate torque . the predicted torque is the amount of torque that will be required in the future to meet the driver &# 39 ; s torque request and / or speed requests . the immediate torque is the amount of currently required to meet temporary torque requests , such as torque reductions when shifting gears or when traction control senses wheel slippage . the immediate torque may be achieved by engine actuators that respond quickly , while slower engine actuators may be targeted to achieve the predicted torque . for example , a spark actuator may be able to quickly change spark advance , while cam phaser or throttle actuators may be slower to respond because of air transport delays in the intake manifold . the axle torque arbitration module 304 outputs the predicted torque and the immediate torque to a propulsion torque arbitration module 308 . in various implementations , the axle torque arbitration module 304 may output the predicted torque and immediate torque to a hybrid optimization module 312 . the hybrid optimization module 312 determines how much torque should be produced by the engine and how much torque should be produced by the electric motor 198 . the hybrid optimization module 312 then outputs modified predicted and immediate torque values to the propulsion torque arbitration module 308 . in various implementations , the hybrid optimization module 312 may be implemented in the hybrid control module 196 of fig1 . the predicted and immediate torques received by the propulsion torque arbitration module 308 are converted from the axle torque domain ( at the wheels ) into the propulsion torque domain ( at the crankshaft ). this conversion may occur before , after , or in place of the hybrid optimization module 312 . the propulsion torque arbitration module 308 arbitrates between the converted predicted and immediate torque and other propulsion torque requests . propulsion torque requests may include torque reductions for engine over - speed protection , torque increases for stall prevention , and torque reductions requested by the transmission control module 194 to accommodate gear shifts . propulsion torque requests may also include torque requests from a speed control module , which may control engine speed during idle and coastdown , such as when the driver removes their foot from the accelerator pedal . propulsion torque requests may also include a clutch fuel cutoff , which may reduce engine torque when the driver depresses the clutch pedal in a manual transmission vehicle . various torque reserves may also be provided to the propulsion torque arbitration module 306 to allow for fast realization of those torque values should they be needed . for example , a reserve may be applied to allow for air conditioning compressor turn - on and / or for power steering pump torque demands . a catalyst light - off or cold start emissions process may directly vary spark advance for an engine . a corresponding propulsion torque request may be made to balance out the change in spark advance . in addition , the air - fuel ratio of the engine and / or the mass air flow of the engine may be varied , such as by diagnostic intrusive equivalence ratio testing and / or new engine purging . corresponding propulsion torque requests may be made to offset these changes . propulsion torque requests may also include a shutoff request , which may be initiated by detection of a critical fault . for example , critical faults may include vehicle theft detection , stuck starter motor detection , electronic throttle control problems , and unexpected torque increases . in various implementations , various requests , such as shutoff requests , may not be arbitrated . for example only , shutoff requests may always win arbitration or may override arbitration altogether . the propulsion torque arbitration module 306 may still receive these requests so that , for example , appropriate data can be fed back to other torque requesters . for example , all other torque requestors may be informed that they have lost arbitration . an actuation mode module 314 receives the predicted torque and the immediate torque from the propulsion torque arbitration module 306 . based upon a mode setting , the actuation mode module 314 determines how the predicted and immediate torques will be achieved . for example , changing the throttle valve 112 allows for a wide range of torque control . however , opening and closing the throttle valve 112 is relatively slow . disabling cylinders provides for a wide range of torque control , but may produce drivability and emissions concerns . changing spark advance is relatively fast , but does not provide much range of control . in addition , the amount of control possible with spark ( spark capacity ) changes as the amount of air entering the cylinder 118 changes . according to the present disclosure , the throttle valve 112 may be closed just enough so that the desired immediate torque can be achieved by retarding the spark as far as possible . this provides for rapid resumption of the previous torque , as the spark can be quickly returned to its calibrated timing . in this way , the use of relatively slowly - responding throttle valve corrections is minimized by using the quickly - responding spark retard as much as possible . the approach the actuation mode module 314 takes in meeting the immediate torque request is determined by a mode setting . the mode setting provided to the actuation mode module 314 may include an indication of modes including an inactive mode , a pleasible mode , a maximum range mode , and an auto actuation mode . in the inactive mode , the actuation mode module 314 may ignore the immediate torque request . for example , the actuation mode module 314 may output the predicted torque to a predicted torque control module 316 . the predicted torque control module 316 converts the predicted torque to desired actuator positions for slow actuators . for example , the predicted torque control module 316 may control desired manifold absolute pressure ( map ), desired throttle area , and / or desired air per cylinder ( apc ). an immediate torque control module 320 determines desired actuator positions for fast actuators , such as desired spark advance . the actuation mode module 314 may instruct the immediate torque control module 320 to set the spark advance to a calibrated value , which achieves the maximum possible torque for a given airflow . in the inactive mode , the immediate torque request does not therefore reduce the amount of torque produced or cause the spark advance to deviate from calibrated values . in the pleasible mode , the actuation mode module 314 may attempt to achieve the immediate torque request using only spark retard . this may mean that if the desired torque reduction is greater than the spark reserve capacity ( amount of torque reduction achievable by spark retard ), the torque reduction will not be achieved . the actuation mode module 314 may therefore output the predicted torque to the predicted torque control module 316 for conversion to a desired throttle area . the actuation mode module 314 may output the immediate torque request to the immediate torque control module 320 , which will retard the spark as much as possible to attempt to achieve the immediate torque . in the maximum range mode , the actuation mode module 314 may instruct the cylinder actuator module 120 to turn off one or more cylinders to achieve the immediate torque request . the actuation mode module 314 may use spark retard for the remainder of the torque reduction by outputting the immediate torque request to the immediate torque control module 320 . if there is not enough spark reserve capacity , the actuation mode module 314 may reduce the predicted torque request going to the predicted torque control module 316 . in the auto actuation mode , the actuation mode module 314 may decrease the predicted torque request output to the predicted torque control module 316 . the predicted torque may be reduced only so far as is necessary to allow the immediate torque control module 320 to achieve the immediate torque request using spark retard . the immediate torque control module 320 receives an estimated torque from a torque estimation module 324 and sets spark advance using the spark actuator module 126 to achieve the desired immediate torque . the estimated torque may represent the amount of torque that could immediately be produced by setting the spark advance to a calibrated value . when the spark advance is set to the calibrated value , the resulting torque ( maintaining the current apc ) may be as close to mean best torque ( mbt ) as possible . mbt refers to the maximum torque that is generated for a given apc as spark advance is increased while using high - octane fuel . the spark advance at which this maximum torque occurs may be referred to as mbt spark . the torque at the calibrated value may be less than the torque at mbt spark because of , for example , fuel quality and environmental factors . the immediate torque control module 320 can demand a smaller spark advance than the calibrated spark advance in order to reduce the estimated torque of the engine to the immediate torque request . the immediate torque control module 320 may also decrease the number of cylinders activated via the cylinder actuation module 120 . the cylinder actuator module 120 then reports the actual number of activated cylinders to the immediate torque control module 320 and the torque estimation module 324 . when the number of activated cylinders changes , the cylinder actuator module 120 may report this change to the immediate torque control module 320 before reporting the change to the torque estimation module 324 . in this way , the torque estimation module 324 receives the changed number of cylinders at the same time as the updated spark advance from the immediate torque control module 320 . the torque estimation module may estimate an actual torque that is currently being generated at the current apc and the current spark advance . the predicted torque control module 316 receives the estimated torque and may also receive a measured mass air flow ( maf ) signal and an engine speed signal , referred to as a revolutions per minute ( rpm ) signal . the predicted torque control module 316 may generate a desired manifold absolute pressure ( map ) signal , which is output to a boost scheduling module 328 . the boost scheduling module 328 uses the desired map signal to control the boost actuator module 162 . the boost actuator module 162 then controls a turbocharger or a supercharger . the predicted torque control module 316 may generate a desired area signal , which is output to the throttle actuator module 116 . the throttle actuator module 116 then regulates the throttle valve 112 to produce the desired throttle area . the predicted torque control module 316 may use the estimated torque and / or the maf signal in order to perform closed loop control , such as closed loop control of the desired area signal . the predicted torque control module 316 may also generate a desired air per cylinder ( apc ) signal , which is output to a phaser scheduling module 332 . based on the desired apc signal and the rpm signal , the phaser scheduling module 332 commands the intake and / or exhaust cam phasers 148 and 150 to calibrated values using the phaser actuator module 158 . the torque estimation module 324 may use current intake and exhaust cam phaser angles along with the maf signal to determine the estimated torque . the current intake and exhaust cam phaser angles may be measured values . further discussion of torque estimation can be found in commonly assigned u . s . pat . no . 6 , 704 , 638 entitled “ torque estimator for engine rpm and torque control ,” the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety . referring now to fig5 , a functional block diagram of selected elements of the exemplary engine control system of fig4 is presented . a torque ramp module 402 provides a ramping axle torque request to the axle torque arbitration module 304 of the ecm 300 . the torque ramp module 402 may request an increasing or decreasing torque ramp from the axle torque arbitration module 304 . for example only , this torque ramp may be in response to the driver removing their foot from the accelerator pedal or a hybrid engine controller instructing the engine to shut down , for example . the immediate torque control module 320 receives an immediate torque request via the hybrid optimization module 312 , propulsion torque arbitration module 308 , and the actuation mode module 314 . the immediate torque request may include the torque ramp from the axle torque arbitration module 304 . the immediate torque control module 320 produces a desired spark advance for the spark actuator module 126 based on the number of cylinders that are activated . the immediate torque control module 320 also outputs the desired number of activated cylinders to the cylinder actuator module 120 . the cylinder actuator module 120 includes a fueling control module 410 , a firing sequence dectection module 412 , and a cylinder power determination module 414 . the fueling control module 410 instructs the fuel injection system 124 as to which cylinders should receive fuel . the firing sequence detection module 412 determines which of the four strokes each cylinder is currently performing , which may be determined from a number of degrees of rotation of the crankshaft of the engine . the firing sequence detection module 412 may receive a signal for each degree of rotation of the crankshaft or after every predetermined number of degrees of the crankshaft . the firing sequence detection module 412 may also receive signals indicating the angular position of the crankshaft after a larger number of degrees of rotation . for example only , the firing sequence detection module 412 may receive a signal at each cylinder firing event . for example only , in a v8 , cylinder firing events may occur every 90 degrees of crankshaft rotation . the firing sequence detection module 412 outputs cylinder event information to the fueling control module 410 and to the cylinder power determination module 414 . when the fueling control module 410 receives a decreased desired number of cylinders from the immediate torque control module 320 , the fueling control module 410 waits for the next fuel boundary . the fueling control module 410 may deactivate a predetermined cylinder , or may deactivate the cylinder whose fuel boundary next occurs . once the fuel boundary occurs , the fueling control module 410 instructs the fuel injection system 124 to stop providing fuel to that cylinder . the fueling control module 410 informs the cylinder power determination module 414 when each cylinder is deactivated . the fueling control module 410 may wait until the next intake cycle of the recently deactivated cylinder before indicating to the cylinder power determination module 414 that fueling of the cylinder has been stopped . the cylinder power determination module 414 outputs the number of activated cylinders to the immediate torque control module 320 . the cylinder power determination module 414 may wait to output the reduced number of activated cylinders until it is time to determine a new spark advance . this new spark advance is generated to offset the reduction in torque realized at the time the now - deactivated cylinder fails to fire . for example , the new spark advance may be used for the cylinder that fires before or the cylinder that fires after the now - deactivated cylinder . the cylinder power determination module 414 may send the reduced number of activated cylinders to the torque estimation module 324 after or when the new spark advance is generated . in this way , the torque estimation module 324 receives the reduced number of activated cylinders along with the corresponding increased spark advance . this may prevent the torque estimation module 324 from estimating a torque glitch , where an abrupt drop in torque caused by the cylinder deactivation is then offset by an increased spark advance . the estimated torque may be provided to the immediate torque control module 320 and to other modules , such as the hybrid optimization module 312 shown in fig4 . referring now to fig6 , a flowchart depicts exemplary steps performed by the elements shown in fig5 to coordinate cylinder deactivation and spark advance . when a decreasing torque ramp to engine off minimum torque is requested by the torque ramp module 402 and received by the immediate torque control module 320 , control begins in step 502 . in step 502 , control initializes a variable numcylinders to the total number of cylinders in the engine . control continues in step 504 , where numcylinders is reported to spark control ( the immediate torque control module 320 ) and torque estimation ( the torque estimation module 324 ). control continues in step 506 , where control determines whether numcylinders is equal to zero . if so , all cylinders are off and control ends ; otherwise , control continues in step 507 . in step 507 , control ramps the spark advance to a minimum value . for example only , the minimum value may be the minimum spark advance available where stable combustion is maintained . in step 508 , control instructs cylinder x to be deactivated . cylinder x , which is the next cylinder to be deactivated , may be chosen so that cylinders with adjacent firing times are not deactivated consecutively . for example , in the v8 timing diagram of fig2 , cylinders 3 or 4 may be deactivated after cylinder 1 . deactivating cylinder 2 after cylinder 1 may result in added vibration , as six cylinders will fire followed by a gap where two cylinders do not fire . control continues in step 510 , where control waits until the fuel boundary of cylinder x is reached . as described in fig2 , this may require up to two crankshaft revolutions . control continues in step 512 , where fuel is disabled for cylinder x . control continues in step 514 , where control waits for two crankshaft revolutions . at this point , cylinder x has finished an intake stroke where no fuel was sprayed . control then continues in step 516 , where numcylinders is decremented . control then continues in step 518 , where numcylinders is reported to spark control . control continues in step 520 , where spark control advances the spark for a cylinder that fires adjacently to when cylinder x would have fired if it contained an air - fuel mixture . this adjacent cylinder may be the cylinder that would fire immediately before cylinder x or the cylinder that would fire immediately after cylinder x . the spark will remain advanced for future cylinder firing , although the spark advance will decrease to continue the decrease in torque ramp . the spark advance of step 520 may be an abrupt , discontinuous jump , while the spark advance otherwise follows a continuous downward contour that follows the downward ramp of the torque request . control continues in step 522 , where numcylinders is reported to torque estimation . torque estimation will now have received the advance spark timing , which combined with the reduced numcylinders , will allow the torque estimation to accurately estimate engine torque . control then returns to step 506 . when only a single cylinder change in deactivation is requested , steps 508 to 522 may be performed , without placing them in a loop that deactivates all cylinders . the steps of fig6 can be easily adapted to achieve an increasing torque ramp . in such a case , the spark advance would be reduced as a cylinder is activated . in various implementations , such as a port fuel injection engine , an array of boolean flags may be defined , one for each cylinder . the flag corresponding to a cylinder is updated at the end of the cylinder &# 39 ; s intake stroke . the flag is set to true if the cylinder had been fueled during its last intake stroke . the array can be summed to determine the number of cylinders that were fueled during their last intake stroke . this count may be placed into a circular buffer , which is updated and read on a cylinder synchronous basis . the circular buffer introduces a delay , which may be measured in terms of cylinder events , from the end of the intake stroke until the time at which a spark change would be necessary to account for that cylinder &# 39 ; s fueling change . in various implementations , the delay may be from the intake stroke until an event that is used to schedule spark . the delay may be reduced to account for time used in switching domains from cylinder synchronous to time - based , which is the domain in which the torque control operates , and back to cylinder synchronous , which is the domain in which spark control operates . the delayed cylinder count is referred to as the powered count . this is the count that can be used in the cylinder fraction term for spark control . to coordinate this cylinder fraction term with torque estimation , the cylinder fraction term may be saved from its time domain calculation into another variable at the time when the cylinder synchronous spark scheduling event occurs . this ensures that the time domain determination is able to be used by the time domain spark torque controller and then be consumed by the spark advance controller . those skilled in the art can now appreciate from the foregoing description that the broad teachings of the disclosure can be implemented in a variety of forms . therefore , while this disclosure includes particular examples , the true scope of the disclosure should not be so limited since other modifications will become apparent to the skilled practitioner upon a study of the drawings , the specification , and the following claims . | 5 |
illustrated in fig3 is a switching device adapted to perform link management burst control in accordance with the preferred embodiment . in the preferred embodiment , the switching device is a bridge 300 although the invention is equally applicable to routers and multilayer switches adapted to provide forwarding and routing operations at layers 2 and 3 of the open systems interconnection ( osi ) reference model . the switch 300 in the preferred embodiment includes a plurality of layer 2 interfaces represented by mac entities 302 , a mac relay entity 306 , and higher layer entities 308 . each of the mac entities 302 includes a frame receiver 310 and frame transmitter 312 operably coupled to a local area network ( lan ) 304 a - 304 b via an external port 300 a - 300 b , respectively . the mac entity 302 handles all media access method dependent functions ( mac protocol and procedures ) in accordance with the rstp standard including the inspection of all frames received on the attached lan and transmission of frames received from the mac relay entity 306 and higher layer entities 308 . the mac relay entity 306 interconnects the plurality of ports 304 a - 304 b and handles the media access method independent functions of relaying frames between bridge ports including filtering frames and source learning . the mac relay entity 306 includes a filtering database 314 and a plurality of port state information ( psi ) tables 316 . the filtering database 314 retains filtering information including known forwarding address and applicable ports 304 a - 304 b to which received frames may be forwarded . the psi table 316 associated with a port includes a record of the learning and forwarding states of the port , i . e ., whether the port is currently in the disabled , blocking , listening , learning , forwarding state . in the preferred embodiment , the psi table 316 also maintains a record of burst control information ( bci ) 318 including “ burstavoidancecontrol ” and “ burstavoid ” parameters described in more detail below . the higher layer entities 308 include logical link control ( llc ) entities 320 and a bridge protocol entity 322 . the llc entities 320 encompasses both the link layer capabilities — which include demultiplexing , for example — provided by llc as specified in international organization for standards ( iso )/ international electrotechnical commission ( iec ) 8802 - 2 as well as the type interpretation of the length / type field specified in ieee std 802 . 3 . the bridge protocol entity 322 maintains a plurality of rstp state machines including a port information state machine ( pism ) adapted to execute the burst avoidance protocol , and maintains rstp protocol parameters and configuration timers . the pism is defined in the rstp standard and for replying to configuration bpdus and responding to transmit topology change notification ( tcn ) bpdus . in the preferred embodiment , the enhanced pism includes a burst control state machine ( bcsm ) 324 that modifies the timing of topology changes notifications bpdus to prevent potentially injurous bpdu traffic bursts . in the preferred embodiment , the bcsm 324 is an improvement upon the pism set forth in the rstp standard hereby incorporated herein by reference . in particular , the bcsm 324 causes the switching device 300 to test for various conditions upon receipt of a tcn bpdu at a designated port and , if those conditions are met , the device 300 induces a delay in the transmission of configuration bpdus from the same designated port . the induced delay , referred to as a burstavoiddelay , prevents the particular switching device from transmitting a configuration bpdu identifying its own superior priority vector from the switching device before a configuration bpdu is received from the root bridge or an alternate port . in this manner , the switching device suppresses the transmission of one or more bpdus identifying itself as the root before the identity of the true root bridge is advertised by the root bridge or the alternate port . depending on the topology of the network and the mac addresses of the bridges in the network , the preferred embodiment may significantly reduce the number of bpdus transmitted and therefore potentially reduce the time required to determine the proper spanning tree topology . each of the bridge ports of switching module 300 is adapted to invoke the burst avoidance process in response to the receipt of a bpdu under the proper conditions . in the preferred embodiment , the burst avoidance process may be invoked by a port upon receipt of a bpdu if : ( a ) the receiving port is a root port in the forwarding state that is transitioning to the designated role as part of a topology change , and ( b ) the port has received current ( not aged out ) information from the designated bridge , i . e , infois has the “ received ” value . however , the burst avoidance process may not be invoked while any port of a bridge is attempting to propagate a topology change notification through the network , i . e ., the tcprop should not be set , and may not be invoked if the port from which the bpdu is received is attempting to become a designated bridge , i . e ., the proposal flag of the received bpdu should not be set . under the preceding conditions , the switch 300 of the preferred embodiment is adapted to delay the time to transmit a bpdu in the direction of the link failure by suppressing the time at which the newinfo is set . that is , the newinfo , which is a boolean variable used to signal when a bpdu with changed topology information is to be transmitted , is not set true in accordance with the psim of the prior art . instead , the switch 300 sets the newinfo to true after a period of time not to exceed a burstavoiddelay , the burstavoiddelay not to exceed the hello time . assuming the hello time is set to a default value of two seconds , the bc switch 300 may delay the transmission of the bpdu by as much as two seconds . in some embodiments , the bust control processing of the preferred embodiment is implemented as an improvement to the port information state machine ( pism ) illustrated in fig4 , particularly the functionality associated with update state 402 as well as the conditions associated with the transition from the current state 404 to the update state 402 . the improved pism is referred to herein as the burst control state machine ( bcsm ) 500 , which is illustrated in fig5 . the bcsm 500 in the preferred embodiment includes two update states for state variables associated with the transmission of bpdus from the bc switch 300 , namely an the update state 402 consistent with the rstp standard as well as an update_burst_avoidance state 502 . the update_burst_avoidance state 502 and the update state 402 represent alternative states , i . e ., only one of the two being implemented at any given time . which of the two states being implemented is dictated a burstavoid parameter whose value is determined as a function of the burst control conditions discussed above . the bcsm 500 in the preferred embodiment further includes the following : disabled state 506 , aged state 508 , superior_designated state 510 , repeated_designated state 512 , interior_designated state 514 , not_designated state 516 , other state 518 , current state 520 , and receive state 522 . the states 506 , 508 , 510 , 512 , 514 , 516 , 518 , 520 , 522 are defined in the rstp standard and are well understood by those skilled in the art . the update state 402 illustrated in fig6 employed in the present invention ( see fig5 ) is substantially the same as the update state of the prior art pism ( see fig4 ). in particular , the bcsm 500 in the update state 402 is adapted to define or redefine the following system parameters set forth in the rstp standard : proposing = proposed = false ; agreed = agreed & amp ;& amp ; betterorsameinfo ( ) where betterorsameinfo ( ) is true or false depending on the value of the function argument , the infois value , and whether the mpv is better or the same as the ppv ; synced = synced & amp ;& amp ; agreed ; portpriority = designatedpriority ; porttimes = designatedtimes ; updtinfo = false ; infois = mine ; and newinfo = true , each of these system parameters and functions being defined in the rstp standard . in contrast to the prior art , the bcsm 500 is adapted to transition from the current state 520 to the update state 402 if the selected & amp ;& amp ; uptdinfo & amp ;& amp ; ! burstavoid evaluate to true . while the selected & amp ;& amp ; uptdinfo are defined in the prior art , burstavoid is a new parameter introduced to regulate which of the two update states is to be executed . in the preferred embodiment , burstavoid is false unless the burst control conditions discussed below are satisfied , that is : if ( burstavoidancecontrol ) { if ( infois == received ) { if ( selectedrole == designated ) { if (( role == root ) & amp ;& amp ; ( state == forwarding )) { if ( proposing == false ) { if ( tcprop == false ) { burstavoid = true ; }}}}}} where burstavoidancecontrol is a user - defined parameter set equal to true to configure burst control in the preferred embodiment , or set equal to false if burst control is to be disabled . the default value of the burstavoidancecontrol is true in the preferred embodiment , and the default value of burstavoidancecontrol is false signifying that the instant protocol has not been activated by default . in the alternative to the prior art update state 402 , the preferred embodiment is enabled to invoke the update_burst_avoidance state 502 if selected & amp ;& amp ; uptdinfo & amp ;& amp ; burstavoid evaluate to true . as illustrated in fig7 , the update_burst_avoidance state 502 is adapted to define or redefine the following system parameters set forth in the rstp standard : proposing = proposed = false ; agreed = agreed & amp ;& amp ; betterorsameinfo ( ) where betterorsameinfo ( ) is true or false depending on the value of the function argument , the infois value , and whether the mpv is better or the same as the ppv ; synced = synced & amp ;& amp ; agreed ; portpriority = designatedpriority ; porttimes = designatedtimes ; updtinfo = false ; and infois = mine . in contrast to the update state 402 of the prior art , the bcsm 500 does not set newinfo = true , thereby preventing the bcsm 500 from immediately transmitting a bpdu in the direction of the link failure . as a consequence , any bpdu transmitted from the associated port is delay a maximum of two seconds in accordance with the hello time . as one skilled in the art will appreciate , burstavoid is a port parameter , defined with respect to each switch port , authorizing the burst avoidance protocol to be activated on the associated port . the burstavoid parameter may be initially set to false in the disabled state 506 of the bcsm 500 which is otherwise identical to the port information state machine illustrated in fig4 . the value of burstavoid may be set to true , if applicable , in a function referred to herein as burstavoidfunc ( ) invoked in the receive state 802 of port role selection state machine set forth in the rstp standard . as illustrated in port role selection state machine 800 of fig8 , the burstavoidfunc ( ) is perferably executed concurrently with the clearreselecttree ( ), the updtrolestree ( ), and the setselectedtree ( ) functions . the burstavoid parameter may be set back to false , if applicable , in a function referred to herein as clearburstavoidfunc ( ) upon conclusion of the receive state 802 . as stated above , the burstavoidfunc ( ) procedure is performed on the port that receives the incoming bpdu if the received bpdu does not contain tc flag set or a proposal flag set , while the clearburstavoidfunc ( ) procedure clears all burstavoid parameters on each of the plurality of ports of the bc switch 300 . as the burst avoidance protocol of the preferred embodiment is activated , the fact that the newinfo parameter is not set immediately means that the bpdu is delayed utmost of two seconds in accordance with the hello timer . the fact that proposing is not set on the port that has received the bpdu also means that the protocol applies only if there is no alternate port on that bridge . an alternate port , which is becoming root port , triggers reroot , meaning that any recent root port must become discarding and needs to send a proposal immediately to become designated forwarding again . also if tcprop is set on the port that receives the bpdu , tc bpdus should be sent from the port and the burst avoidance protocol not activated . in the preferred embodiment , a two seconds delay is not induced in the complete spanning tree computation . the actual delay , referred to as the burstavoiddelay , is preferably the delay associated with the elapse time necessary for the tc bpdu to propagate to the alternate bridge 111 and for the alternate bridge to send a bpdu back to the bridge that initially detected the failure and believed itself to be the new root bridge . one skilled in the art will appreciate that the bcsm 500 of the preferred embodiment is backward compatible , i . e ., the burst avoidance protocol applies on an rstp port even if that rstp port is facing an conventional spanning tree protocol ( stp ) port . illustrated in fig9 is an rstp message exchange between the bc bridges of a data communications network . for convenience , the rstp message exchange represented corresponds to a data communications network 100 having the ring topology illustrated in fig1 , where each of the bridges 100 - 120 is a burst control switch adapted to execute the burst avoidance protocol of the preferred embodiment . as with the previous example described above , failure of any of the communications links with the root bridge 101 breaks an active transmission path in the spanning tree . if and when the communications link 130 a fails — indicated by the dashed line 902 — bc bridge 120 losses its root bridge and initiates a topology change to re - establish a spanning tree within the bc bridges 100 - 120 . the bc bridge 120 immediately sends a bpdu 904 declaring that it is the new root bridge from port 120 a . upon receipt of the bpdu 904 , bc bridge 119 compares 905 the mpv with its own ppv and determines that it has a better priority vector than bc bridge 120 . port 119 b of bc bridge 119 immediately transitions from a “ root forwarding ” to a “ designated forwarding ” port . although bc bridge 119 proceeds to transmit a bpdu 906 declaring that bridge 119 is the new root bridge from port 119 a , the bridge 119 refrains from transmitting a bpdu from port 119 a if the burst control conditions discussed above apply . that is , port 119 a withholds transmission of bpdu 206 sent in the prior art ( see fig2 ) assuming that : ( a ) port 119 a was a root port in the forwarding state prior to the failure of communications link 130 a , ( b ) port 119 a would transition to the designated role after the spanning tree topology converges , ( c ) the forwarding information at port 119 b has not aged out , i . e ., infois is equal to “ received ,” ( d ) the tcprop flag of the received bpdu had not been set , ( e ) the proposal flag of the received bpdu had not been set , and ( f ) the user had enabled the burst avoidance protocol by setting burstavoidancecontrol equal to true . while scenario described immediately above gives rise to a temporary situation in which there are two “ designated forwarding ” ports face - to - face — namely port 120 a of bc bridge 120 and port 119 b of bc bridge 6 — one skilled in the art will appreciate that there is no detrimental impact on forwarding operations since those two ports were already in the forwarding state before . upon receipt of the bpdu 906 , bc bridge 118 compares 907 the received mpv with its own ppv , determines that it has a better priority vector than bc bridge 119 , transitions from a “ root forwarding ” port to a “ designated forwarding ” port , transmit a bpdu 908 declaring that bridge 118 is the new root bridge , and withholds transmitting a bpdu to bc bridge 119 advertising that it is the new root bridge . similar , each of the bc bridges 117 - 112 conducts the priority vector comparison 907 , 909 , 911 , 913 , 915 , 917 upon receipt of the a bpdu on the interface in the direction of the link failure 902 , determines that it has a superior priority vector , and forwards a bpdu advertising it is the new root bridge . the sequence of bpdus transmitted away from the link failure continues until a bpdu 913 from bc bridge 112 is received by the alternate port 111 b of bc bridge 111 . upon recognition 919 of its superior priority vector , port 111 b of bc bridge 111 attempts transition to a designated role and forwarding state , i . e ., a “ designated forwarding ” port . as such , bc bridge 111 transmits a “ proposal ” bpdu 910 to bc bridge 112 . port 112 a of bc bridge 112 — which is currently a “ designated forwarding ” port — immediately assumes a root role and forwarding state , i . e ., a “ root forwarding ” port . in accordance with rstp standard , bc bridge 112 sends a “ proposal ” bpdu 912 to bc bridge 113 , and each of the successive bc bridges 113 - 120 forwards a “ proposal ” bpdu 916 , 918 , 920 , 924 , 926 until the “ proposal ” bpdu is received by the last bc bridge 120 . the receiving port of each of the bc bridges 113 - 120 from a “ designated forwarding ” port to a “ root forwarding .” one skilled in the art will appreciate that bc bridges 112 - 120 generally respond to the “ proposal ” bpdus with “ agreement ” bpdus ( not shown ) in accordance with the rstp standard . the spanning tree has converged upon receipt of the “ proposal ” bpdu 926 at bc bridge 120 and transmission of the associated “ agreement ” bpdu from bc bridge 120 . as one skilled in the art will appreciate , the final spanning tree topology is reached without the excessive number of bpdus exchanged in the exemplary situation illustrated in fig2 . for example , the number of bpdus transmitted to port 120 b of bc bridge 120 is one , in contrast to the eleven bpdus transmitted to port 120 b of the prior art bridge 120 discussed in reference to fig2 above . in addition to the reduced bandwidth requirements , the preferred embodiment of the present invention also significantly reduces the chance of any bridge reaching the burst limiter , i . e ., txholdcount , thereby reducing the delay necessary for the spanning tree to converge in a single failure scenario like that discussed above . although the description above contains many specifications , these should not be construed as limiting the scope of the invention but as merely providing illustrations of some of the presently preferred embodiments of this invention . therefore , the invention has been disclosed by way of example and not limitation , and reference should be made to the following claims to determine the scope of the present invention . | 7 |
it will be appreciated that the following description is intended to refer to specific embodiments of the invention selected for illustration in the drawings and is not intended to define or limit the invention , other than in the appended claims . this invention improves the optical performance of the components of the state of the art by improving the readability of the coloration changes . this invention in its most general sense pertains to an optical security component , the high index layer of which is first coated by a low optical index layer and then by a colored contrast layer . the colored layer has the unexpected effect of significantly increasing the coloration differences upon changes in orientation . according to one aspect , the contrast layer has transparent zones and colored zones . certain of the zones preferably have a recognizable form . the forms can be alphanumeric characters , microlettering , geometric figures , drawings , photographs or the like . the colored layer is preferably obtained with black pigments . according to one aspect , the component has a diffusion layer between the stamped surface and the viewing surface . the purpose of the layer is to limit specular reflection . according to another aspect , the component has the form of a thread of a width comprised between about 1 . 2 and about 4 millimeters . turning to the drawings , fig1 represents a view along a sectional plane . the component is formed by a polyester film coated with a layer of stamping varnish ( 3 ) embossed by stamping in a known manner for the creation of holograms or diffraction structures intended for the authentication of documents . the stamped surface is coated by vacuum depositing a layer of a transparent dielectric material ( 4 ) with a high optical index , e . g ., zinc sulfide ( zns ) or the like , then by application of a low optical index layer ( close to the index of the stamping varnish ). the component then comprises a colored layer ( 2 ) arranged behind the low index layer . this layer is a varnish layer comprising black pigments . the assembly prepared in this manner is then coated with an adhesive film ( 7 ) deposited , e . g ., by coating , complexing , laminating or the like . the component produced in this manner can then be affixed to a document or product to be protected , e . g ., by gluing or the like . it can also be sealed between an object or a document and a sealing film protecting the object or the document , and enabling detection of any attempt to remove this film . fig2 shows a variant of implementation for the creation of a hot marking film or a transfer film . the stamping varnish ( 3 ) is layered on a detachment layer ( 10 ), which is itself supported by a transparent film ( 11 ), e . g ., a polyester film . the contrast layer is positioned behind the low optical index layer . in one particular application of the invention , the optical component is created in the form of a thread with a thickness of at least about 5 mm . such a component is intended for the creation of security documents having opposing surface intended for a stamping ensuring identification of a document formed from the paper . the component according to the invention is placed between the two surfaces of the paper as a security characteristic . it is positioned at least partially between the surfaces of the paper . the visible parts comprise between about 10 and about 50 % of the surface of the optical component . the visible parts form a motif , a design or repetitive signs . fig3 and 4 represent two other variants of implementation comprising an intermediary layer respectively continuous ( 6 ) or discontinuous ( 6 bis ), positioned on the adhesive layer ( 7 ). layer ( 6 , 6 bis ) is formed in a first example in a metallic layer the presence of which can be monitored by machine , implemented notably for a fiduciary application . layer ( 6 , 6 bis ) is formed in a second example by a reflecting layer which , when the component is inserted in a thin ( noncontinuous opaque ) medium , considerably reduces the visibility of the component when viewing the back of the component by reflecting the light in a diffuse manner rather than absorbing it . this is the case , e . g ., of the thread in a banknote which must be as non - perceptible as possible when observing the verso of the note ( the optical component being active in the recto view ) ( principal application : fiduciary ). layer ( 6 , 6 bis ) is formed in a third example by a partially metallized layer in a manner to add a complementary security . this partial metallization , optionally designed with reference to the stamping of the opaque layer or with the motif of the optical component , of significant characters such as alphanumeric characters , microlettering , a logo , geometric figures or any other design or photo ( principal application : identity or protection of trademarks ). the security of this particular optical component is based on the observation at zero order of the grating . generally speaking , at zero order “ direct reflection ” a grating acts like a mirror . however , the particular grating used in this invention acts at zero order like a subtractive filter due to the alternation of the different indices . in contrast , when a metallic layer ( 6 , 6 bis ) is added behind the low index transparent layer ( 5 ), the effect of the subtractive filter disappears and the mirror effect is restored . this characteristic makes it very easy to design motifs on a uniform grating surface by combining the localized stamping of the contrast layer ( 2 ) on the areas where the optical effect must be visible and the visible metallization ( 6 , 6 bis ) in the unstamped zones of the layer ( 5 ). this layer ( 6 , 6 bis ) is formed in a fourth example by a layer reacting to the laser in manner to allow individual personalization of the optical component . it is again possible for this layer to be a metallic layer . in this specific case it is preferred to add a layer of pigment which will be stripped off during the personalization or to tint the adhesive layer . this layer is especially advantageous in applications related to identity . this layer ( 6 , 6 bis ) is formed in a fifth example by a colored layer ( of a color different from the contrast layer ). this color visible through the stamped pattern of the contrast layer can have one of the following characteristics : thermochrome color , transparent in the visible light spectrum but which can be made visible in uv light , or a luminescent layer . a similar effect can be obtained by incorporating this tint in the adhesive layer . the invention can be implemented under three different types of products : thread , track or patch . thus , it can be used to make the following secure : a banknote ( fiduciary domain ) in which the security is intrinsic to the paper , an identity document ( passport , identity card ) in which the security is brought to the document , a product ( protection of trademarks ) in which the security is brought either to the product itself or to the packaging . this improvement can be applied to transfer films ( hot or cold ) as well as to labeling films or threads . | 6 |
to understand the variation solutions of the present invention , a clear awareness of the present state of the art of in - line skates would seem to be worthwhile . significant to that perception would be the part of the skate ( left or right ) that is provided to control speed , be able to stop and the method of initiating that desired procedure . accordingly , fig1 a is an illustration of typical in - line skates comprised of boot 2 , wheel frame 4 , wheels 3 and rubber heel braking pad 1 ( illustrated on the right boot ). in fig1 b an individual 5 is shown in a typical awkward braking position . the reason it is so awkward and unnatural ( as well ) to do is that , as you are accelerating forward , one has to extend their right leg ( as illustrated ), raising their boot toe and lean backward as you are going forward , trying to put pressure on the heel brake , which effort ( depending on your speed ) is fundamentally ineffectual . by comparison in skiing ( and similarly in ice skating ) as shown in fig1 c , as you are accelerating forward and want to slow down and stop , you assume a more natural athletic stance by leaning forward and sideward 6 , pressure edging your skis 7 ( or ice skates ) and effectively slowing down or safely coming to an abrupt stop . obviously , any method of slowing down and stopping , whether on skis , ice skates or on in - line skates depends upon friction . the rubber heel brake pad and contorted position that are required for control when using in - line skates , simply does not does not achieve that result . that fact is obvious , considering the serious injuries that all too commonly occur . trying for a number of years to think of a better way to achieve that friction control function in a relatively simplistic way , the idea finally materialized . the inventive solution was to have a skate wheel that would have the means to rotate both vertically and at an inclination around a rigid , fixed axle . in doing so , the wheel would be able to make interactive contact with the inside surface of the skate frame &# 39 ; s wheel - well . with that basic concept in mind and many different attempts at a solution , a preliminary cross section detail ( drawn to a graphic scale 17 in inches ) was completed as shown in fig2 a , illustrating the fundamental concepts of the invention . as conceived , in order for the wheel 10 to revolve around the axle 13 at an inclination you would need concave space 12 at both center sides of the wheel 10 for axle clearance to do so . however , in providing those required depressions 12 and still have the required width for intended hub axle 13 bearings , it was reasoned that the wheel 10 would need to be in a parabolic shape to have that necessary center wheel hub 13 width . further , you would need a dynamic type of hub bearing 15 that would allow both vertical and inclined rotation around the stationary axle . the elementary hub solution was a solid stainless steel ball 15 welded to a standard ¼ ″ o . d . axle 13 and for the steel ball to be enclosed in a stainless steel outer casing 16 that would be an integral part of the wheel 10 . as to the friction surface interaction between the inclined wheel 10 and the inside of the frame &# 39 ; s 8 wheel - well 9 to achieve the desired edging effect , you would need a friction band 11 a on each side of the tire 10 and friction strips 11 b within the wheel - well 9 . it was also recognized that when the wheel 10 was in an inclined edging mode , you would need some means in addition to centrifugal force to return the wheel back into a vertical coasting position . to do so , it was reasoned that some type of self - aligning springs 14 , at each end of the axle 13 , would result in equal and opposite tension and compression forces effectively resolving that self - aligning function . fig2 b is a perspective view of a parabolic wheel 10 displaying friction band 11 a , concave depression 12 , stainless steel ball hub bearing 15 and axle 13 welded to the hub bearing 15 . fig3 a is a composite illustration of an individual on in - line skates 19 a in a coal ( vertical wheel rotation ) position and a reduced cross section view of fig2 a , depicting wheel 10 in a comparable vertical , coasting position . all the other identifiable component parts as shown in the reduced cross section view , remain the same as presented and described in the preceding full size cross section view of fig2 b . fig3 a - 2 ), depicts the angle of wheel 10 in an inclined striding and editing position , making friction contact at 11 c . in that inclined edging friction control ™ contact position at 11 c , the self - aligning springs 14 are in an equal and opposite compression 14 a and tension 14 b state , which ( as soon as the edging control force is released ), will resultantly return to a state of equilibrium , wherein the wheel is back into a vertical , coasting position . fig4 a is a perspective view of a plain spherical bearing 20 . fig4 b is a perspective view illustrating the dynamic functionality of a spherical bearing &# 39 ; s 20 a interrelated parts : the outer ring 20 b ; the bore 20 c ; and , the inner ring 20 d . fig4 c is an exampled illustration ( just one of many types of applications ) of an industrially used “ rod end ” spherical bearing 20 e . fig5 a is a perspective view of a state of the art in - line skate wheel 21 , having a uniformly flat service ( both sides ) with a standard , single element , fixed , rigid plastic hub 22 , integrally cast with the wheel 21 . fig5 b is a perspective view of a parabolic in - line slate wheel 10 in accordance with the invention , having a friction contact band surface 11 a , centered concave depression 12 ( symmetrically on both sides ), and a spherical bearing 2 - element dynamic hub 20 a . fig6 a is a perspective exampled view of the roller ball bearing . fig6 b is a perspective exampled view of a constant force ( open coil ) self - aligning spring 24 with a needle roller axle bearing 25 a on the wheel axle 13 in accordance with the invention . fig6 c is a perspective exampled view of a needle roller bearing 25 . fig7 a is the first resolved cross section view in accordance with the invention ( drawn to a graphic scale 17 in inches ) of a wheel frame 8 , wheel - well 9 with friction strips 11 b and parabolic shaped wheel 10 ( in a vertical coasting position ) with friction bands 11 a . as shown , the wheel hub is a dynamic 2 - element spherical bearing 20 a of a stock size , such that its bore will accommodate two standard state of the art ⅞ ″ o . d . roller ball axle bearings 23 a . the width of the spherical bearing wheel hub 20 a is significantly less than the overall center axle width of the wheel 10 . the resulting concave depression frames 28 provide retention for the constant force , open coil self - aligning springs 24 ( which have needle roller axle bearing 25 a cores ) and dust covers 30 . indicated as well is the axle sleeve spacer 27 as required to accommodate varying core diameters of the different assembled parts to the standard ¼ ″ o . d . axle 13 a . fig7 b is the same cross section view of fig7 a , except that the parabolic wheel 10 is in the inclined edging friction control ™ position 11 c . as shown , the only purpose for the dynamic 2 - element spherical bearing hub 20 a is to allow wheel 10 to rotate at an inclination . wheel rotation is provided solely by the roller ball axle bearings 23 a . also , when the wheel 10 is at an inclination , the compression in the self - aligning springs 14 a are equal and opposite to each other on each side of the axle 13 a , as it is in tension 14 b , forcing the rotating wheel ( in conjunction with centrifugal force ) back into the vertical position when edging force is released . fig8 a is the second resolved cross section view in accordance with the invention ( drawn to graphic scale 17 in inches ) of wheel frame 8 and wheel 10 ( in a vertical coasting position ), using a smaller stock sized dynamic 2 - element spherical bearing hub 20 a , having a smaller size that will accommodate atypically smaller stock size ¾ ″ o . d . roller ball axle bearings 23 b . all other component parts displayed , remain the same kind , use and size as shown in fig7 a . fig8 b is the same cross section view of fig8 a , except that parabolic wheel 10 is in the inclined edging friction control ™ position 11 c and the opposite reacting self - aligning springs 24 in compression 14 a and tension 14 b , are set to return wheel 10 to the vertical coasting position as soon as edging force is released . fig9 a is the third resolved cross section view in accordance with the invention ( drawn to a graphic scale 17 in inches ) of wheel frame 8 and wheel 10 ( in a vertical coasting position ), using the next smaller stock sized 2 - element spherical bearing wheel hub 20 a , having a smaller bore size that will accommodate e . g . stock sized novel use { fraction ( 7 / 16 )}″- ½ o . d . needle roller axle bearings 25 b . all other component parts remain the same in kind , use and size as shown in fig7 a and 8a . fig9 b is the same cross section view of fig9 a , except that parabolic wheel 10 is in the inclined edging friction control ™ position 11 c and the opposite reacting self - aligning springs 24 in compression 14 a and tension 14 b , are set to return wheel 10 to the vertical coasting position as soon as edging force is released . fig1 a dual appearing perspective view in accordance with the invention , depicting both a constant force , accordion pleated sheet alloy self - aligning spring / dust cover 26 a or the similarly appearing accordion pleated reinforce rubberized self - aligning spring / dust cover 26 b . as indicated , at the core of the accordion pleated self - aligning spring is a needle roller axle bearing 25 a . fig1 b is a partial cross section view specifically of the accordion pleated sheet alloy self - aligning spring / dust cover 26 a and related partial section views of : wheel frame concave frame and retainer 28 a for spring / dust cover 26 a ; needle roller axle for 26 a ; spherical bearing hub 20 a ; needle roller bearings 25 b ; axle sleeve spacer 27 and , axle screw and axle 13 a . fig1 c is the same cross section view as fig1 b , except that the self - aligning spring indicated is the accordion pleated reinforced composition type spring 26 b . fig1 a is the fourth resolved cross section view in accordance with the invention ( drawn to a graphic scale 17 in inches ) of wheel frame 8 , wheel - well 9 and wheel 10 ( in a vertical coasting position ), using the same smaller stock sized 2 - element spherical bearing wheel hub 20 a and and having the same size needle roller axle bearings 25 b as used and shown in fig9 . the prime difference of the cross section view of fig1 a as compared to fig9 a is that , self - aligning spring 26 a / b is a dual purpose accordion pleated spring / dust cover , as compared to to the open coil spring and separate entity dust cover of fig9 a . as such , concave frame 28 a and wheel 10 are marginally different in form than those similar components as shown in fig9 a . fig1 b is the same cross section view of fig1 a , except that wheel 10 is in the inclined edging friction control ™ position 11 c and the opposite reacting self - aligning springs 26 a / b in compression 14 a and tension 14 b , are set to return wheel 10 to the vertical coasting position as soon as edging force is released . fig1 a is a longitudinal section view of fig1 a in accordance with the invention ( drawn to a graphic scale 17 in inches ) wherein all the identified components are identical to those identified in 11 a and wherein the wheel 10 is displayed in the vertical coasting position . fig1 b is a plan cross section view of fig1 a in accordance with the invention ( drawn to a graphic scale 17 in inches ), wherein all the identified components are identical to those in fig1 a and 12a . fig1 a is a composite view , illustrating the typical in - line skate , state of the art wheel assembly component parts . the state of the art wheel frame and boot , previously indicated in fig1 a ( with particular emphasis to the boot and heel pad brake ) is not indicated , since it is not relevant to this wheel assembly illustration . the parts indicated and identified are : the standard ¼ ″ o . d . axle 13 ; axle screw 13 b ; roller ball bearing 23 a ( each symmetrical side of the single element , fixed , rigid hub 22 ); industry standard , reducing sleeve spacer 29 ( to accommodate different i . d . parts to the standard ¼ ″ o , d . axle ); and , standard in - line skate wheel 3 ( wherein the sides of wheel 3 are in one plane and the integral , single element , rigid hub 22 is flush with the flat sides of the finished wheel 3 . fig1 b is a composite illustration of reduced cross section view fig1 b of the interactive wheel to frame &# 39 ; s wheel - well variation solution ( all parts previously described in full size fig1 b with wheel 10 in the edging friction control ™ position 11 c ). adjacent is a clarifying perspective view of the same wheel assembly component axle parts indicated in the cross section . the wheel axle parts are arranged below fig1 a on the same sheet for ease of comparison to the state of the art . the parts illustrated are primarily on one symmetrical side of the dynamic 2 - element spherical bearing hub 20 a . for simplicity of illustration , the bore 20 c ( of the inner ring ) or hub of the spherical bearing is neither in a vertical nor an inclined angular position , but rather in an assembly , pictorial position . in sequence , the wheel assembly parts are : needle roller axle hub bearing 25 b ( to the left of the symmetrical hub ); dynamic spherical bearing hub 20 a ; needle roller axle hub bearing 25 b ; needle roller axle bearing 25 a for core 20 c of accordion pleated self - aligning spring 26 a / b ; and , wheel axle 13 . fig1 a is a cross section view of a novel dual purpose spherical bearing 32 used for the hub of in - line skates ( drawn to a graphic scale 17 in inches ) in accordance with the invention . instead of having external , separate entity self - aligning springs e . g . 26 a / b the spring 36 or 36 a would be an internal part of the spherical bearing 32 . enclosed within an evenly split circular channel shaped void 33 , one half within the inner concave surface of the outer ring 33 a and one half within the convex surface of the inner ring 33 b of the spherical bearing 32 , would be a self - lubricated compression spring e . g . 36 or 36 a . when the spherical bearing rings 32 a and b are in a vertically aligned position ( as are the split circular channel shapes ), the enclosed compression spring 36 / 36 a would be in a designed minimal dynamic force state 34 . fig1 b is the same cross section view of fig1 a , except that the outer ring 32 a is in an inclined angular position and the split circular channels become misaligned . at maximum inclination , the compression spring 36 or 36 a is also in a maximum dynamic force state . as a result , when the skate wheel 31 rotates , the compression spring 36 or 36 a of the dual purpose spherical bearing hub is in a constant state of equal and opposite , compressive self - aligning forces . fig1 d is a perspective view of a self - lubricated accordion pleated sheet alloy or urethane compression spring 36 in a minimal dynamic force state 34 . fig1 e is a perspective view of a self - lubricated wire coil compression spring 36 a in a minimal dynamic force state 34 . fig1 a is the fifth resolved cross section view in accordance with the invention ( drawn to graphic scale in inches ) of a wheel frame 8 , wheel - well 9 and wheel 10 ( in a vertical coasting position ), using the same smaller stock sized 2 - element spherical bearing wheel hub 20 a and the same size needle roller axle bearings 25 b , as used in fig9 a and fig1 a . the prime difference of this cross section view fig1 a as compared to fig9 a and 11a is that : instead of having separate entity , external self - aligning springs 14 or 26 a / b , a dual purpose spherical bearing hub is used 32 with an integral self - aligning , self - lubricated spring 36 or 36 a ; and , an accordion pleated dust cover with a self - lubricated collar 30 . fig1 b is the sane cross section view of fig1 a , except that wheel 10 is in the inclined edging friction control ™ position 11 c and the equal and opposite reacting self - aligning compression spring 34 a is set ( in that maximum compressive state ) to return wheel 10 to the vertical position as soon as edging force is released . fig1 a is the sixth resolved cross section view ( drawn to a graphic scale 17 in inches ) in accordance with the invention as an alternate variation solution , wherein the edging friction control ™ contact locations 11 c are entirely self - contained within the wheel assembly components . as such , the wheel frame 38 , not being relevant to this variation solution ( other than supporting the wheel assembly components ), is indicated by broken lines . this alternate variation solution uses the same dual purpose , spherical bearing hub 32 and needle roller axle bearings 25 b as shown in fig1 a . in this variation solution , the standard ¼ ″ o . d . axle is modified 40 by being fine threaded ( e . g . ¼ - 28 ) on the surface 40 a from each end of the axle to the outside faces of the hub axle bearings 25 b . inside fine threads ( e . g . 8 - 32 ) 40 c are set into each end of axle 40 to receive cap screws 40 b . a solid disk ( e . g . ⅛ ″ w .×{ fraction ( 27 / 32 )}″ o . d .) 41 with a center core that is fine threaded ( e . g . ¼ - 28 ) is screwed onto the axle 40 against washer spacer 39 , which is against hub axle bearing 25 b . on the other side of disk 41 , is a locknut spacer ( e . g . ¼ - 28threaded fineal nut ) that is screwed onto axle 40 against the solid disk 41 , locking it in place . on the other side of the fineal locknut is wheel frame 38 . the assembly at that symmetrical end side is completed by the installation of axle cap screw 40 b . disk 41 has a friction surface material 41 a ( e . g . ⅛ ″ wide ×{ fraction ( 2 / 32 )}″ thick ) bonded and keyed into the perimeter of the disk ( now named , “ friction disk ”) 41 a . wheel 31 has a concave frame 28 b with a continuous indentation for a bonded friction band , surface material 43 ( e . g . ⅛ ″ wide ×{ fraction ( 2 / 32 )}″ thick ). when the wheel 31 is in a vertical coasting position , the diameter of the friction disk 41 is such that there is designed clearance between the friction disk &# 39 ; s perimeter surface and the concave frame &# 39 ; s 28 b indented friction surface 43 . fig1 b is the same cross section view of fig1 a , except that wheel 31 is in the inclined edging friction control ™ position 11 c at two simultaneously responsive locations : one friction contact 11 c is at the top of the friction disk &# 39 ; s perimeter 41 and the wheel frame &# 39 ; s indented friction band 43 on one side and simultaneously at the bottom of the friction disk &# 39 ; s perimeter and the wheel frame &# 39 ; s indented friction band 43 on the opposite friction contact side 11 c . in that inclined edging friction control ™ position , the integral self - aligning spring 34 a of dual purpose spherical bearing hub 32 are in an equal and opposite maximum compressive strength state and set to return wheel 31 to the vertical coasting position as soon as the edging force is released . all the remaining interrelated component parts are identical to those that have been identified and functionally described in fig1 a . fig1 a is a duplication of a composite perspective view , illustrating the typical in - line skate , state of the art wheel assembly component parts to clarify the distinct differences of the self - contained wheel assembly , alternate variation solution in accordance with the invention as compared to the state of the art . the duplicated parts displayed are : the standard ¼ ″ o . d . axle 13 ; axle screw 13 b ; roller axle bearing 23 a ( each symmetrical side of the single element , fixed , rigid hub 22 ); industry standard , reducing sleeve spacer 29 ( to accommodate different i . d . parts to the standard ¼ ″ o . d . axle ); and , standard in - line skate wheel 3 , wherein the sides of wheel 3 are in one plane and the integral , single element , rigid hub 22 is flush with the flat sides of the finished wheel . fig1 is a perspective view of the component parts of the self - contained wheel assembly , alternate variation solution , in accordance with the invention and as shown in cross section views 16 a and b . the indicated and identified components are : modified standard ¼ ″ o . d . axle 40 ; modified thread size , standard axle cap screw b ; locknut 42 ; fixed friction disk 41 ; washer spacer 39 ; needle roller axle bearing 25 b ; indentation for continuous friction band 43 in concave frame 28 b of wheel 31 ; novel dual purpose , dynamic 2 - element spherical bearing wheel hub ; broken line indication of conforming but non - functioning in - line skate frame ; and , graphic scale 17 in inches . fig1 a is the seventh resolved cross section view ( drawn to a graphic scale 17 in inches ) in accordance with the invention as an alternate variation solution , wherein two progressive alternate solutions are combined : the interactive wheel to frame &# 39 ; s wheel - well alternate solution as illustrated in fig1 a and b ; and , self - contained wheel assembly alternate solution as illustrated in fig1 a and b . these conjoined solutions would consist of : wheel frame 8 and wheel - well 9 with friction strips 11 b ; wheel 10 ( in a vertical coasting position ), having friction bands 11 a on its sides ; an indentation in concave frame 23 b for continuous friction band surface 43 ; and , including the complete self - contained wheel assembly components in accordance with the invention and as indicated and described in perspective view fig1 ( wherein the 2 - element dual purpose spherical bearing hub 32 is used ). fig1 b is the same cross section view of fig1 a , except that wheel 10 is in an inclined edging friction control ™ position , which in this conjoined variation solution of fig1 achieves the edging friction control ™ 11 c contact locations : one between the wheel &# 39 ; s 31 b friction band 11 a and the wheel well &# 39 ; s 9 friction strip 11 b ; and , two between the friction disk &# 39 ; s 41 perimeter friction surface 41 a and the indented friction band surface 43 in concave frame 28 b ( at the top of the disk &# 39 ; s perimeter 41 a on one side and the bottom of the disk &# 39 ; s perimeter 41 a on the opposite side ). fig1 a is the eighth resolved cross section view ( drawn to a graphic scale 17 in inches ) in accordance with the invention with wheel 10 in a vertical coasting position . as a culminating alternate variation this solution is based upon the combined resolution as detailed in fig1 a and b . this resulting final combination was achieved by resurrecting the previously ignored external self - aligning springs 26 a and 26 b . adding those external springs in conjunction with the integral self - aligning spring of the dual purpose spherical bearing hub 32 , creates an all encompassing solution that has three edging friction control ™ contact locations 11 c ( as in fig1 a and b ); plus the combined enhanced force of two distinct self - aligning spring functional locations . the combined self - aligning springs not only maximize the force to initiate edging friction control ™ but equally maximizes the rapid responsiveness in returning wheel 10 back to the vertical coasting position . other than the incremental additional inside face to face width at the axle location of frame 8 ( allowing for the external springs ), this cross section fig1 a has the same conjoined components as indicated and identified in fig1 a with the additional exception of fineal nut 42 . that locknut is replaced by an inside threaded alloy sleeve 39 a ( e . g . ¼ - 28 ) that matches the surface threads 40 a on the ¼ ″ o . d . axle 40 . the smooth outside surface sleeve serves a dual purpose . it provides the required minimal friction surface for the needle roller axle bearing core of the self - aligning spring 26 a / b ( which bearing has required axle play on each side ). in addition , when the sleeve is screwed tight against friction disk 41 to lock it in place , sleeve 39 a serves the same purpose as fineal nut 42 as shown in fig1 a . fig1 b is the same cross section view of fig1 a , except that wheel 10 is in an inclined edging friction control ™ position providing three simultaneous contact locations 11 c as indicated 11 c at each friction disk &# 39 ; s perimeter 41 a ( top and bottom of friction disk 41 on each side of the axle assembly ) and between the friction band surface 11 a on wheel 10 and the friction strip surface 11 b on the inside face of wheel - well 9 . fig2 a is a side elevation view ( drawn to a graphic scale 51 in feet ) of a downhill in - line ski 44 having a plurality of wheel assembly devices 47 in accordance with the invention . also indicated for illustration purposes is ski boot 45 with release binding 46 . fig2 b is a side elevation view ( drawn to a graphic scale 51 in feet ) of a downhill in - line skateboard 48 having a plurality of wheel assembly devices 47 in accordance with the invention . fig2 c is a side elevation view ( drawn to a graphic scale 51 in feet ) of an in - line skateboard having a plurality of wheel assembly devices 47 in accordance with the invention . fig2 d is a cross section view of fig2 b ( drawn to a graphic scale 51 in feet ). fig2 e is a cross section view of fig2 a ( drawn to a graphic scale 51 in feet ). fig2 f is a cross section view of fig2 c ( drawn to a graphic scale 51 in feet ). fig2 g is a representative cross section view of fig2 a , 20 b and 20 c displaying the typical parts that comprise one of the alternate variation solutions of wheel assembly 47 in accordance with the invention . while the invention and its alternate variation solutions has been particularly shown and described with reference to preferred embodiments thereof , it will be understood by those in the art that the foregoing and other changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention . for example , the wheels described herein are not limited for use with in - line skates , in - line skateboards , downhill in - line skis , and downhill in - line skateboards , but may be used whenever both vertical and inclined rotation is required around an axle . | 0 |
such sequestrant agents present in the gastrointestinal tract are mainly understood as deriving from diet , such as , for example , fibres like bran , or coffee , or from pharmaceutical products used for other therapies employed at the same time , such as antacids . the thus - prepared formulations of thyroid hormones for oral use include both solid forms , namely capsules , and liquid forms , such as solutions to be administered in drops or in disposable containers . the characteristics and advantages of this invention are explained in detail in the following description . the following examples are provided to aid disclosure , and do not limit this invention . soft gelatine capsule with a shell and fill , or inner phase , containing 100 μg levothyroxine t4 have been prepared as follows : 27 . 6 kg of anhydrous glycerine are added to 45 . 6 kg of purified water in a 150 litre turbo emulsifier ( olsa - italia ). the mixture is well shaken and taken to a temperature of 70 ° c . 46 . 8 kg gelatine is then added and the mixture continually shaken for a further 15 - 60 minutes . the mass is then de - aerated by applying a progressive vacuum until reaching a value ranging between + 0 . 8 and − 0 . 9 bars . b ) preparation of the fill ( for 100 mcg dose with 50 mg fill ) the levothyroxine is dissolved in 2 . 5 kg of 85 % glycerine , mixing with a mechanical stomacher until fully dissolved . separately , in a 25 litre turbo emulsifier ( olsa italia ), 2 . 48 kg of water and 1 . 0 kg of 85 % glycerine are suctioned . this mix is heated to 65 ° c .± 5 °. having reached the temperature , 3 . 5 kg of hydrolysed gelatine and 0 . 5 kg of gelatine 80 bloom are suctioned , mixed and de - aerated until a clear product is obtained with no agglomerates . at this point , the product , which has been kept at the temperature of 65 ° c .± 5 °, is cooled to 45 ° c .± 3 ° c . once this temperature has been reached , the solution containing the levothyroxine is added , mixing for at least 30 minutes . during this phase , both the vacuum and cooling are kept active , in order to take the product to the temperature of 38 ° c .± 2 °. the product obtained is discharged into a thermostat container and kept at 38 ° c .± 2 °. soft gelatine capsules were prepared with a 10 oval format and in accordance with the method known as the ‘ rotary die process ’. preparation of a glycerol - ethanol solution of sodium levothyroxine ( t4 ) with the addition of gelatine . 90 % of the ethanol ( 5 . 49 litres ) are poured into a 10 - litre steel container equipped with blade stomacher and lid . whilst being shaken , the t4 is added . shake slowly , keeping a flow of nitrogen until fully dissolved . the glycerol and hydrolysed gelatine , together with the ethanol solution containing the t4 , are poured into a 25 - litre turbo emulsifier ( olsa - italia ). wash the 10 - litre container with the remaining ethanol ( 0 . 61 litres ) and pour into the 25 - litre turbo emulsifier . continue to shake reasonably gently for 15 minutes in nitrogen atmosphere , and protected from the light . preparation of a glycerol - ethanol solution of sodium levothyroxine ( t4 ) with the addition of starch hydrolysates the final formula is obtained as described for example 2 , using the starch hydrolysate in lieu of the gelatine . experimental study on the sequestrant effect of fibres ; dissolution test with the aim of testing the effect of the formulae prepared in accordance with the previous examples , a dissolution test was carried out with increasing quantities of microcrystalline cellulose fibre ( 1 and 2 % p / v ). the test is based on the fact that an increasing concentration of cellulose in the system involves a proportional decrease of the t4 in the solution after filtration . the effect is entirely inhibited by the addition of a surfactant like sodium dodecyl sulphate sds 0 . 2 %. we can therefore conclude that the missing t4 is sequestered by the cellulose . the dissolution test for the solid oral forms is used as a quality test that shows the dissolution of the oral form and the quantitative liberation of the active ingredient available for the pharmacokinetics ( dissolution test euph 6 . 0 ( 2 . 9 . 3 ) and usp 30 ( 711 ). in the case of solid oral t4 tablets , the existing dissolution methods ( usp 30 - levothyroxine sodium tablets ) set out , as per protocol , the use of hydrochloric acid 0 . 01 n as a dissolution buffer in the presence of sds . given , however , the effect inhibiting sequester by the surfactant , as discussed above , the method must be altered , eliminating the sds from the buffer . the following equipment is used for the test : the figures of the attached drawings compare the dissolution curves with the percentage quantity of t4 passed in the solution on the y - axis , and the time ( t , minutes ) on the x - axis , as follows : fig1 compares the two dissolution curves of a famous t4 tablet available on the market ( eutirox ®), respectively without and with cellulose 2 %. the curves are obtained with the usp method modified without the addition of sds . fig2 compares the three dissolution curves of a t4 formula according to example 1 of this invention , respectively without and with cellulose , in one case 1 % and in the second case 2 %. in fig1 , the sequestrant effect of the cellulose with regards to t4 is clearly visible , with a dissolution profile lowered by approximately 10 up to 20 % as compared with the dissolution profile without cellulose . in fig2 , the graph shows that in the presence of 1 or 2 % microcrystalline cellulose , the t4 dissolution profile does not vary significantly as compared with the absence of fibre , as the curves can be almost superimposed . as such , it is clear how the invention allows for the attainment of the aim discussed initially . | 0 |
a gate valve , generally shown as 10 in fig1 includes a housing 11 made up of opposed housing halves 23 and 24 . the housing halves have opposed interior flanges 27 and 28 which are spaced from one another by spacer strips 31 . this defines a central gap through which the plate gate 13 can move up or down to either open or restrict the passageway through the gate valve . the opposed housing halves 23 and 24 are secured together by a plurality of nut and bolt arrangements , generally shown as 21 . a sealing sleeve , generally shown as 40 , is associated with each housing half 23 and 24 . these sealing sleeves include a sealing end portion 42 , an intermediate section 46 which is the section which will accommodate compressive movement of the sleeve when the plate gate 13 is moved between the sealing sleeves , and an anchoring flange 48 . the anchoring flange 48 not only anchors the sleeve , but forms a gasket for sealing with pipe flanges when the outer circular flanges 25 and 26 are brought into engagement with opposed pipe flanges . a flanged anchoring end is shown , but other anchoring ends can be used , depending upon the structure of the gate valve . the structure of the particular sealing sleeve is shown in fig2 . the upper portion of fig2 shows a cutaway of the sealing member and the lower portion shows the entire sealing member . it can be appreciated that when the gate 13 is in a cleared position , sealing ends 42 of opposed sealing sleeves 40 abut and form a seal therebetween . as the gate 13 is moved between the sealing sleeves , each sealing sleeve undergoes a compressive distortion movement to accommodate the thickness of the gate 13 . to accommodate the compressive distortion movement required of the sealing sleeve 40 , the intermediate section has been provided with a spring collar 50 . fig3 shows the sealing sleeve with the gate 13 fully withdrawn , with fig4 illustrating the movement of the sealing sleeve with the gate partially closed . in the embodiment shown in fig2 two metal members 52 and 54 are provided in back - to - back relationship and have a corrugated center portion defined by aligned ` v ` shaped portions 55 . each of these ` v ` shaped portions produce a spring type bias during compression of the intermediate section and cause an inward buckling of the intermediate section such that the intermediate section distorts radially inwardly , as shown in fig4 . this radial inward distortion is preferable , as it will be opposed by the pressure of the fluid within the seal which , again , will create a strong bias trying to return the seal to its original position . to further ensure the inward buckling of the intermediate section , a stiff backing member 56 can be provided to avoid outward buckling of the intermediate section . the use of this backing member may be required in larger sleeves . the backing member 56 is received within the walls of the sleeve and a small space is provided to allow movement of the intermediate section and the end seal without compressive forces being applied axially to the backing member 56 . the backing member also serves to stiffen the sleeve to avoid inward collapse of the sleeve during movement of the gate . it can be seen with this arrangement that the compressible spring collar 50 opposes axial compression or distortion of the sealing sleeve 40 and provides a strong bias urging the sealing sleeve to return to its original condition . it can also be seen that the spring collar 50 is positioned between the anchoring flange 48 and the sealing end 42 to direct the compressive force towards the portion of the sealing end 42 effecting a seal either with the gate or a like sealing end of an opposed sealing sleeve . the seal end also includes a force distributing plate 57 such that end 59 of spring collar 50 does not cut through the sealing end 42 . this force distributing plate 57 can be made integral with end 59 if desired . a similar force distributing arrangement can be provided adjacent the anchoring end , if required . the spring collar 50 is easily inserted within the sealing sleeve due to the end seal 42 including a flange 43 defining a closed pocket 47 between the intermediate section 46 and the flange 43 into which one end of the backing member 56 and the spring collars 52 and 54 are inserted and maintained . the other end of the backing member and the spring collars are appropriately anchored adjacent the anchoring flange 48 . thus , these members can be inserted into the resilient body of the sealing sleeve 40 . as can be appreciated from the above , the inward buckling of the intermediate section , which is predetermined by the shape and relationship with the spring collar 50 , advantageously uses the fluid pressure between the sealing sleeve to oppose this inward buckling and create a further force encouraging an effective seal with either the gate valve or with an opposed sealing end of a further sleeve . this fluid pressure creating a bias in combination with the mechanical bias created by the spring collar makes the response of the sealing sleeve positive and does not rely on the inherent resiliency of the rubber type sealing material of conventional sealing sleeves . as the pressure of the fluid increases , a larger sealing force is created . the backing member , generally shown in fig2 will preferably be of a ring configuration to provide the backing to the spring collar 52 and 54 . one type of spring collar is shown in fig5 through 8 . in this case , the spring collars are preferably made in a flat configuration and have ` v ` shaped portions 55 which can be deformed into the flat material in a conventional manner . the ` v ` shaped portions include gaps 62 to allow the flat members shown in fig5 to be deformed into the generally circular - like configuration of fig8 and also accommodate any inward buckling of the intermediate section during movement of the gate 13 and allow the sections to function generally independently of the adjacent ` v ` shaped portions . preferably , the spring collar will then be secured in some suitable manner for insertion within the sealing sleeve . although the spring collar is preferably made of a metal material , it could also be made of a plastic material and possibly could be of an extruded plastic material which is subsequently cut or punched to produce the gap 62 . it can also be appreciated that the spring collar could be injected moulded . gaps 62 are preferably retained to allow the individual segments of the spring collar to act independently and accommodate gate movement . the spring collar could also be formed in axial strips which collectively form a collar type member . these axial strips could collectively form a ring or merely be spaced in a ring pattern . each strip would create its own bias and respond to movement of the gate in the same manner . it is believed that the combination of a resilient rubber - like material for the end seal and for the body portion of the intermediate section and for the anchoring and in combination with a spring collar , shaped to produce a particular deformation and preferably a radially inward buckling of the intermediate section , produces an effective system which can be manufactured at costs very similar to conventional sleeves while providing more positive sealing and more ability to satisfy the widely varying operating conditions of a gate valve . the combination of the created mechanical force and the resilient material of the sleeve simplifies the selection of the resilient material and allows more exotic , highly temperature resistant and / or chemical resistant materials to be used , as the other desired properties are provided by the spring bias . for example , the intermediate can have only a thin section of resilient material effectively covering the spring collar , with the spring collar urging the seal to the less stressed state during withdrawal of a gate . this thin wall also accommodates inward buckling of the intermediate section . although various preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described herein in detail , it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art , that variations may be made thereto without departing from the spirit of the invention or the scope of the appended claims . | 5 |
the conventional practice of compression of plaque by expansion pressure during balloon angioplasty , i . e ., by applying a high pressure expansion force equally in all directions radially from the inside to a heterogeneous , roughly circumferential plaque - structure , can produce unpredictable and inconsistent results . in typical treatment of atherosclerotic plaques , the angioplasty balloon is inflated with 4 to 8 atmospheres of pressure , and pressures up to 22 atmospheres may be required in some cases . such high pressures can cause injury to the intima and media in the artery at the treatment location . arterial wall injury is one of the major stimulants to intimal hyperplasia , smooth muscle cell replication and intravascular scarring causing occlusion . plaque is heterogeneous in nature composed of varying masses of soft and hard materials , calcium and highly variable topography , and can give way along paths of least resistance . therefore , when standard balloon angioplasty is performed , some of the plaque inevitably fractures . the extent and severity of the fracture , the angiographic result and the morphology of the artery surface that result will vary significantly from one patient to the next . this leads to many cases in which stents are required to be implanted , which prolongs the surgical procedure , and increases medical risk and costs . moreover , the clinical evidence indicates substantial disadvantages with using stents , including body rejection of a large mass of foreign material , and the emplacement of extensive surface area of a stent that may become sites for re - accumulation of plaque and re - stenosis . there is some evidence that stents may stimulate biological reaction that limits the long - term patency of the procedure . stent also cause problems with kinking of the artery in areas where the artery is significantly flexed , such as at the knee joint . stents may also fracture and break due to material stress . in the present invention , the plaque is treated by a perforation and serration procedure that forms lines or patterns of microperforations which act as serrations for forming cleavage lines or planes in the plaque . the serrations will result in more predictable and more uniform expansion characteristics in the plaque during a subsequent balloon angioplasty , thereby helping to make the balloon angioplasty a more consistent and predictable process . it is expected that plaque prepared by the perforation and serration procedure can be dilated with a much lower pressure during angioplasty , i . e ., less than 4 atmospheres , and as low as 2 atmospheres or less . the ability to perform angioplasty at lower pressures will create less plaque dissection and less arterial injury . less arterial injury may lead to better rates of acute success because there is less dissection , and may also lead to better long - term results since there is less injury to the intima and media in the artery at the treatment location . the forming of serrations in the plaque through microperforation is deemed to provide a line along which expansion energy may be released . the microperforations are formed in a pre - angioplasty procedure of inserting a carrier carrying an array of small , sharp spikes which are pressed under a slight expansion force to pierce partway into the plaque and without causing injury to the arterial walls . since plaque usually fractures longitudinally during standard balloon angioplasty , the spikes are preferably arranged in a mostly longitudinal pattern . other variations include configurations with a diagonal or zig - zag pattern consistent with the expected ways that plaque commonly fractures . the height of the spikes is designed to pierce the plaque surface to create serrations for expansion lines , but not deep enough to cut though the plaque thickness . materials research on crack propagation can be applied to select the optimal configurations for spike patterning to obtain the best characteristics in plaque compression . artery vessels are comprised of organized lamellar structure with repeating structural and functional units of elastin , collagen and smooth muscle cells . the lamellar structure is prone to split and create a cleavage between adjacent elastic lamellae . basically , in angioplasty the expansion is partly due to the arterial stretching . in addition the plaque material has low ductility and fracture stresses can propagate non - uniform cracks in the brittle material . in the pre - angioplasty preparation of the plaque material , the microperforations act as nucleation sites for void formation . in the subsequent application of balloon angioplasty , stress energy for compressing the plaque is released along the serration created by the series of pinpoint voids formed in the plaque to control crack propagation . if balloon angioplasty is applied without the plaque serration step , the amount of stress energy applied can be very high prior to initiation of crack formation , and once the crack begins the energy can quickly propagate along brittle crack areas , leading to unpredictable plaque ripping , tearing , or dissecting . the pre - angioplasty preparation of the plaque with microperforations avoids high stress concentration at an initial point of fracture , and assists stress release along the series of voids designed to guide the fissure event and provide more predictable cleavage lines in the plaque . the perforation and serration procedure will promote more uniform compression of the plaque under expansion pressure during angioplasty . the portion of the plaque that does not compress will expand better and will be less likely to break or fracture . forming serrations in the surface of the plaque is expected to provide better and more uniform compression under low pressures in angioplasty and will produce better plaque compression characteristics than the standard approach of applying high expansion pressures against the full length , width , and thickness of the plaque . this is expected to result in compressing the plaque with fewer tendencies for dissection , allowing the plaque to open along more natural lines , and therefore expanding the lumen larger and without causing arterial injury . the perforation and serration procedure is expected to provide significant advantages as compared to prior proposals for cutting or scoring the plaque with blades or sharp edges . some prior proposals have called for performing balloon angioplasty with longitudinal cutting blades affixed to the sides of the angioplasty balloon . however , when the balloon is expanded , the cutting blades are forced into the walls of the artery . moreover , at the typical high pressures for balloon angioplasty , the cutting blades may be forced into the arterial walls at high pressure , because all the force of the balloon is concentrated on the projecting cutting blades . because the cutting action of the blade is performed at the same time as the expansion of the artery with balloon angioplasty , there is no a prior preparation of the plaque before balloon angioplasty and there is a risk that the artery itself may be cut and forced open and will expand as it is forced . the artery may thus be injured in a traumatic manner and at high pressures . cutting blades or edges also have relatively long linear lengths that will cut across non - uniform plaque material , producing uneven cuts . even smaller cutting blades will encounter at times areas of dense calcification among softer masses that could be fractured by the linear cutting blades or edges . in contrast , microperforations form tiny holes at specific prick points across the plaque mass and taken together as a line or pattern of perforations result in more reliable serrations . other prior proposals have suggested scoring the plaque with a metal wire or tabs arranged around an angioplasty balloon in a spiral or double spiral manner . the outer wire or tabs may be forced into the wall of the artery when the balloon is expanded during angioplasty at high pressure . the orientation of the wire on the outside of the angioplasty balloon focuses the expanding balloon pressure on the wire . therefore the pressure exerted by the wire against the wall of the artery far exceeds the pressure in the balloon generating a very high localized pressure at the working tip of the wire . the wire or tabs may cut deeply into the wall and may cause increased injury beyond that caused by the high pressure alone . in addition , because the wire is wrapped around the balloon in a spiral manner , the distance between the wire windings around the outside of the balloon will change at different balloon diameters . this causes some axial displacement of the wires so that it may actually undermine artery plaque by causing it to “ dig up ” the plaque . this may even create dissection planes that are more circumferentially oriented ( as opposed to longitudinal ) and may be more likely to function as flow limiting dissections . in contrast , the perforation and serration procedure can be performed at low balloon or other expansion pressures . the microperforations are formed by small sharp spikes which can pierce into the plaque without digging it up . forming tiny prick points with the small spikes will leave most of the surface of the plaque intact , will not injure the arterial wall , and will leave most of the plaque structure intact for more predictable and better compression characteristics . the serrations allow the plaque to be compressed at lower pressures during the following angioplasty . the plaque is also less likely to form dissections , both because it can be treated at lower pressures , and because the plaque has expansion lines serrated in it that allow it to expand in a more orderly manner . because the perforation and serration procedure forms small prick points in the plaque , it may also afford a very effective means of distributing anti - plaque medication into the plaque from a drug - eluting balloon during angioplasty or from a drug - eluting stent after angioplasty . the microperforations may serve to retain more medication within the plaque mass , acting as a portal to the inner structure of the plaque for the medication to work . in the pre - angioplasty procedure , the spikes may also be used as a carrier for drug delivery by - coating the spikes themselves with drugs . the perforation and serration procedure is thus designed as a minimally invasive approach for creating predictable cleavage planes in atherosclerotic plaque in preparation for balloon angioplasty . the cleavage planes are enabled by the serrations formed by numerous small perforations into the plaque in a predetermined pattern on the plaque surface . by creating a preformed expansion line or line of cleavage prior to angioplasty , the artery is prepared so that it will respond to balloon dilatation in a more predictable manner with less likelihood of dissection or elevated surface flaps . the need for stent placement to smooth the artery surface and retain plaque dissections or flaps can thus be significantly decreased . a suitable device for performing the perforation and serration procedure may be designed in a number of ways , as described below for the following preferred embodiments which are illustrative of the principles of the present invention . three different methods for spike deployment , through mechanical , balloon , and balloon - assist deployment , are described with respect to certain preferred delivery designs . the locations , length , and configuration of the spikes may be designed for varying types of lesions and arterial sites being treated . for example , heavily calcified lesions may require that the spikes be more closely spaced and penetrate a little deeper into the plaque . some device designs may only be partially covered with spikes so that the hardest part of the plaque is left alone and serrations are created along a softer portion of the plaque surface . lesions that are more longitudinally oriented may require spike placements that are farther apart and arranged in a gradual twirling configuration . fig1 shows a schematic illustration of the invention method for perforation and serration treatment of plaque 10 at a site in an artery 11 with a delivery device 12 for serration and dilatation of the plaque . the lumen l is the flow opening in the artery that has been occluded by plaque 10 . the device 12 has one or more arrays 12 a , 12 b , and 12 c of small , sharp spikes carried on carrier strips of surfaces which are seated on the outer surface of an expansion balloon 14 or other expansion device . the spikes are mounted on the carrier strips at spaced intervals and extend typically a distance 0 . 05 mm to 1 . 0 mm beyond the carrier surface for piercing into the plaque and forming microperforations across the surface of the plaque . the delivery device 12 may be carried in a catheter and positioned at the plaque site by insertion into the artery through a surgical incision ( not shown ) and manipulated into position by a wire 13 to the location of the plaque . the spikes and expansion balloon are initially in a deflated or collapsed state to allow threading of the device 12 through the artery . when the delivery device is in position , and a catheter shield ( if used ) is retracted , the expansion balloon is inflated through an inlet tube 13 at low gas or fluid pressures to gently push the spike arrays against the plaque 10 . gas or fluid pressures in the range of 1 to 4 atm may be used for the pre - angioplasty procedure . the spikes create series of microperforations which act as serrations along the horizontal length of the plaque . the serrations allow cleavage lines or planes to be formed in the plaque at these locations under compression forces during a following angioplasty procedure . as the spikes are pressed into the plaque , the plaque is also compressed gently for a given measure of dilatation . when the serration has been performed , the balloon is deflated by suction of fluid or gas out through the tube , such that the delivery device 12 can resume its collapsed state so that it can be withdrawn from the artery . a standard angioplasty balloon may thereafter be used to compress the plaque against the artery walls to open the lumen . the compression of the plaque during angioplasty can take place evenly and with minimal dissection or cracking along the cleavage lines formed by the microperforations . due to the pre - angioplasty preparation of the plaque , the balloon angioplasty can be performed at low pressures of less than 4 atmospheres , and as low as 2 atmospheres of pressure or less . if the pre - angioplasty procedure has compressed the plaque sufficiently , it may not be necessary to follow it with a standard angioplasty . fig1 a illustrates a preferred embodiment of the delivery device in which the spikes are formed like polymer gum drops 15 on a narrow ribbon 16 . the polymer is heated and fed in liquid form to an ejector that ejects a drop in position on the ribbon . the drop rapidly cools as it is ejected , and forms an inverted cone shape that comes to a hard sharp point by tapering off the fluid from the ejector . the potential shape of the spike can include other types of pointed shapes , such as a long , pyramidal shape , a tri angle shape , an arrow shape ( longer and sharp in one axis and narrow and dull in the perpendicular axis ), a gum drop shape , a narrow rectangle shape , a pin shape , a needle shape , and others . other materials could be used to form the spike , including a pliable metal , such as nitinol , or carbon nanotubes . after hardening and processing of the polymer , the narrow strip 16 is annealed to the surface of an expansion balloon or other mechanically expansive carrier . the strips may also be interwoven into a mesh ( polymer , metallic , or fabric ). the strips or mesh are arranged in a pattern that envelopes the surface of the expansion balloon or other mechanically expansive structure . fig1 b shows attachment of the strips 16 ( end view ) along the longitudinal length of a balloon 17 at a number ( 8 ) of circumferential positions . the balloon may be folded at folds 18 to bring the sharp points 15 on four adjacent strips to nest with those of the other strip , and then the two lobes of the balloon are folded over again to bring the sharp points of the other four adjacent strips into nested configuration . fig1 c illustrates the resulting , compact folded balloon in which all the sharp points are folded within to avoid engaging the plaque material when the device is being moved into position . fig2 a illustrates another preferred embodiment in which the spike is in the shape of a sharp pin 21 that has a lower end bonded to a mesh 22 that is annealed to the surface of the expansion balloon . the lower end of the pin 21 is held by the polymer mesh so that the spike stands erect 011 the surface of the balloon when the balloon is inflated . the pin 21 may be constructed of polymer , metal composite , silicon or carbon composite or carbon nanotubes ( single or multi wall ). fig2 b illustrates how the pin 21 is folded by pressing it into the mesh 22 . in fig2 c , the mesh 22 is shown annealed to the outer surface of the expansion balloon 23 . in fig2 d , the pin 21 is laid down laterally and perpendicularly to the axis of the balloon - center line for placement , so that the pin is folded into the mesh and under a flap of the balloon . the entire mesh in the depressed mode is nearly swallowed up by the balloon material . with the pin laid down flat within the mesh , the balloon is protected from puncture of the balloon surface . the flap on the balloon unfolds during balloon expansion , and the meshes are unfolded so that the pins are quickly popped out straight and erect . fig2 e shows the pins 21 deployed and standing erect on the expansion balloon 23 after the catheter shield 24 is withdrawn and the balloon is inflated . the pins are exposed and stand erect on the mesh sheets 22 that are mounted on the balloon surface . the pins stick out peripherally and can pierce into the plaque as the balloon is further inflated . fig2 f shows a detail of the base of the pin 21 entwined in the mesh weaving to center the lower end of the pin on the mesh 22 and hold the pin erect when the mesh is unfolded and the balloon is expanded . in fig3 , arrays of pins 21 are shown folded within accordion - like flaps of a pre - angioplasty expansion balloon 23 of the device which are folded in alignment with a longitudinal axis lg of the balloon . in this design , half the flaps and pins are folded toward one end of the balloon , and the other half are folded toward the other end of the balloon . when the balloon is expanded , the mesh strips will reorient with respect to the surface of the balloon and face outward toward the plaque on the artery walls . the flaps of balloon material between parallel rows of spikes can be made extra flexible and pliable and may be formed as a folding crease . when gas or fluid pressure is injected in the balloon , the flaps are the first areas to pop out and help to point the spikes outwardly toward the plaque . fig4 a and 4b illustrate another embodiment of the delivery device in which an expansion balloon is not used but rather the spikes 41 are deployed from and retracted back into a mechanical carrier 40 . the carrier has a plurality of tunnels 42 a in its interior each of which holds a spike in a ready position within and has a spike exit hole 42 b with its axis oriented radially to the outer surface of the carrier . when the carrier 40 is in position at a plaque site , the spikes are mechanically or hydraulically actuated , such as by a gas or fluid pressure force indicated by arrows 43 , to travel through the tunnels and project radially from the spike exit holes 42 b . the spikes have sharp points at their tips for creating microperforations in the plaque , but are flexible in their shafts so that they can be deployed from a laying down position and turned to a 90 degree standing up position . in that position , the spikes are pointed toward the wall of the artery and the plaque . as an alternative for mechanical actuation , the spikes may be actuated by respective levers which are pulled or pushed by a cable . other types of mechanisms similarly may be used for mechanically deploying the spikes from the carrier . fig5 a - 5d illustrate other embodiments of the delivery device for pre - angioplasty serration and dilatation . in the embodiment shown in fig5 a , rows of spikes 51 are bonded to a ribbon , rod , tri angle or other shaped carrier 50 . an outer balloon 52 is divided into quadrants and shaped with cutout areas that conform to spaces in between the spikes . the balloon 52 is inflatable in quadrants circumferentially around the carrier 50 . as one quadrant of the balloon 52 is inflated , the spikes on the opposing side of the carrier 50 are pressed into the plaque on the artery wall . the balloon 52 on the side of the one quadrant is deflated , then the next quadrant is inflated to press the spikes on another opposing side into a next section of the plaque . this is repeated for the other quadrants as needed until the spikes on all sides have been pricked into the circumference of the plaque surface . in fig5 b , another embodiment of the delivery device has rows or ribbons of spikes 53 bonded to an internal carrier balloon 54 sleeved inside of a tube 55 which has spike holes 55 a aligned with the positions of the spikes spacing found on the internal carrier balloon 54 . an outer balloon 56 is shaped with cutout areas that conform to the spaces between the spike holes . the outer balloon is able to be filled in quadrants circumferentially around the carrier device . as one quadrant expands , the tube is pressed on its opposing side against the plaque . the internal carrier balloon 54 is inflated and the spikes are pressed out of the holes and pierce into the plaque on the side in contact with the plaque . this is repeated for the remaining quadrants until the spikes have been pricked into the circumference of the plaque surface . in the above - described embodiments , the multi - lobed segments of the expanding balloon stabilize and support the spikes as they enter the plaque to cause perforation . the spikes may be constructed of any suitable material , such as polymer , pliable metal , or carbon nanotubes , and may have one of many possible shapes , including a pin shape , a needle shape , a long , pyramidal shape , a triangle shape , an arrow shape , a gum drop shape , a narrow rectangle shape , and others . the balloon , as it is expanded , is also used to compress the plaque to a certain degree and dilate the lumen of the artery . the balloon may be manufactured to be inflated with c02 or with liquid . fig5 c shows another embodiment where rows of spikes 57 are bonded to or etched out of a ribbon , rod , triangle or other shaped carrier 58 . an outer balloon 59 is multi - lobed capable of being inflated in sections and conforming to spaces in between the spikes . fig5 d shows a further embodiment in which the spikes 57 are seated on an inner balloon in a delivery catheter 58 . the catheter walls have holes 58 a located to allow the spikes to poke through when the inner balloon is inflated . on the outside of the catheter in this embodiment is multi - lobed external balloon 59 which is inflatable in sections . as one section is inflated , the catheter wall on the opposite side is pushed against the plaque on the arterial wall , and when the inner balloon is inflated , the spikes 57 are pressed out to pierce into the plaque mass . this procedure is repeated in sections circumferentially around the catheter until all areas of the plaque have been pierced by the spikes . fig6 a - 6c show another embodiment for the delivery device in which the spikes ( welded , bonded , or shaped out - of - plane ) are married at joints on the circumference of an accordion - like structure provide for a mechanical expansion engagement with the plaque . in the pre - loaded delivery position shown in fig6 a , the accordion - like structure 60 is stretched longitudinally over the surface of the delivery catheter 61 , and the spikes 62 lay flat against the catheter sheath . this position of the spike structure is used when the catheter is inserted and withdrawn . once the spike structure is in position at the plaque site , the accordion - like structure 60 has its opposite ends moved together , such that the spikes 62 are pressed out radially to pierce the plaque , as shown in fig6 b . the compression of the accordion - like structure 60 may be actuated by mechanical pulley , polymer fiber or wire attached at points a disposed symmetrically around the circumference of the catheter . the wires are pulled uniformly at one end of the accordion - like structure to compress lattice segments of the structure and decrease the distance between the spike connector joints , thereby forcing the spikes outwardly toward the lumen wall . in fig6 c , the accordion - like structure is shown laid out in plan view and elevation view , and pre - loaded in end view . fig7 a - 7c show three variations for mounting a spike on a carrier . in fig7 a , the spike 70 ( pyramid point ) is mounted on a button 71 having lower shanks 71 a for seating on a carrier . in fig7 b , the spike 72 ( pin ) is mounted on a button 73 having button holes 73 a for attachment by fasteners to the carrier . in fig7 c , the spikes 74 ( sharp tips ) are mounted on a button 75 having holes 75 a for fastening to the carrier . the buttons may be entwined within a fabric , woven pattern or bag structure using the button holes or mounting shanks on the buttons . these spike - mounting buttons may be used with any of the above - described embodiments for the delivery device . fig8 shows an embodiment in which the spikes are carried on a stretchable mesh structure 80 surrounding an expansion balloon which is inflated to stretch the mesh outwardly on all sides and push the spikes into the surrounding plaque mass . the spikes may be interwoven into the mesh structure . when the balloon is deflated , the mesh snaps back with the collapsed surface of the expansion balloon . in all the embodiments described above , the spikes may be made from metal , polymer , silicon or carbon composite ( with or without an inert coating ), a super - elastic material , or carbon nanotubes . the spikes may have a preferred height ( from base to tip ) of 0 . 05 mm to 1 . 0 mm . the spike tip may be needle - like with a needle head for mounting . as an alternative , the tip can be shaped with a thin tubular cross - section ( as in a needle for transporting fluid through it ), or a groove of slot having one dimension that is much larger than the other where the larger dimension of the groove is less than 2 mm and the smaller dimension is much less than the first , and a point where the overall head radius is small less than 0 . 4 mm ( as in a pin head ), or a collection of very small points where the overall head radius is less than 0 . 05 mm ( as in carbon nanotubes ). it may instead be formed by carbon nanotubes presenting a collection of very small points to form a sharp tip . the spikes may also be coated with , or provide transport for , plaque - inhibiting medication for deposition into the plaque site . in the preferred embodiments described above , the spikes may be mounted on the surface of a balloon , or on a catheter , or may be mounted on a mechanically actuated surface . the spikes may have various shapes , may be made from a variety of materials , may be deployed in different ways , and may be attached to the delivery device using different methods . the spikes are arrayed in any desired pattern to create a cut - along - the - dotted - line serration in the plaque mass so that it can become a cleavage plane or expansion plane during dilatation by balloon angioplasty . the configuration of the spikes may be oriented in different manners depending upon the arterial disease and the plaque formation requiring treatment . the spikes may also have through - holes or inner channels for eluting medication through the spike to the surface of the plaque . fig9 a - 9e illustrate various patterns for arrangement of the spikes on the delivery device , i . e ., circumferential , partial circumferential , patch , spiral / diagonal , and longitudinal . the configurations are designed for different functional purposes in managing atherosclerotic plaque or in ease of manufacture or ease of use . plaque with certain characteristics , such as very heavy calcification , may be treated with spikes that are configured in more of a circumferential or diagonal pattern , crossing the line of blood flow , since this morphology of plaque tends to form clusters or mounds of calcium . the spikes that may not be able to perforate this type of plaque or portions of this type of plaque very readily , but may be able to cut around the areas of worse disease and permit the inner circumference of the whole artery to expand . the spikes are arranged generally longitudinally , consistent with the fracture characteristics of plaque in most situations and with most plaque morphologies , and may be configured in a straight line . the straight , longitudinal lines of spikes may be very short , consisting of five spikes or less and may be quite long , consisting of 100 spikes or more . the longitudinal lines of spikes may be very dose together , with as many as 20 lines distributed on the circumference of the artery luminal surface , or there may be as few as a single line of barbs or spikes . the lines of spikes may also be in a slight diagonal or in a zig - zag fashion . the configuration of the barbs or spikes is determined in accordance with the best expected mechanism for post - angioplasty plaque dissection . they are designed to create cleavage planes or expansion lines suitable for the expected composition of the plaque and the pressures expected to be exerted upon it . the orientation and depth of desired cleavage planes may vary significantly with the parameters for balloon angioplasty . the spikes may also be constructed so that they may provide delivery of medications . a cooperative structure such as a double - walled balloon for pressure infusion of a small amount of medication agent into the plaque wall or other functionality may also be included . fig1 a - 10c show another embodiment for the spike carrier of the delivery device . in fig1 a , the spikes are carried on ribbon strips of a slitted metal sheet which has opposite ends that are joined by either welding into a tube or the strips are cut out of a tube leaving one end intact . the spikes may have various profiles , such as where the length of the spike base or head is equal to the width of the ribbon strip , or the spike base length is a fraction of the ribbon width and is centered at the middle of the ribbon strip , or where the spike base is a fraction of the ribbon width and positioned at varying locations across the ribbon width or may have multiple spikes at any given ribbon section of width . fig1 b is an elevation view of the sheet . fig1 c shows the sheet after heat treatment to provide a shape memory in which the ribbons are spring - biased radially outward toward the arterial wall for generating perforations in the plaque . the shape memory may be used alone for mechanical engagement of the spikes , or may be combined with an expansion balloon to allow greater control of forces to be applied . fig1 a - 11c show a variation of the above - described embodiment in which the ribbons of the carrier sheet contain a series of holes . the holes serve as points for attachment of strings , cables , or wire elements , configured in such a way , that when pulled can provide additional “ support and force outward against the lumen wall . fig1 b is an elevation view of the sheet . fig1 c shows the sheet after heat treatment to provide a shape memory for spring - biasing the ribbons radially outward . the shape memory may be combined with an expansion balloon to allow greater control of forces to be applied . fig1 a - 12c show another variation of the above - described embodiment in which both longitudinal ends of the tube are kept intact , leaving only the middle region with slitted ribbons . one end contains a series of holes which serve as points for attachment of strings or wire elements that when pulled can provide additional support and force outward against the lumen wall . fig1 b is an elevation view of the sheet . fig1 c shows the sheet after heat treatment to provide a shape memory for spring - biasing the middle section of ribbons radially outward . a general procedure for the pre - angioplasty perforation and serration of a plaque site will now be described . a delivery catheter is constructed for the purpose of plaque perforation in an endovascular environment . a guidewire is threaded along an artery from a percutaneous access site or a surgical incision to a lesion intended for treatment . a catheter is passed over the guidewire with an end of its sheath maintained gas - tight and fluid - tight for operational control externally by an operator . once the catheter is in position at the lesion site , a spike delivery device is advanced down the hollow , tubular shaft of the sheath over the guidewire . the delivery device for the typical perforation - serration catheter is intended to be as large as 8 fr and more likely 5 fr or less in diameter . the guidewire lumen may be 0 . 014 inches or up to 0 . 035 inches in diameter . the length of the delivery catheter may be as short as 40 cm but more likely 75 to 80 cm for a short length and 120 to 135 cm for a long length . the catheter has another tubular channel for inflating or actuating the expansion balloon or apparatus on the delivery end of the catheter . when the expansion balloon , mechanical expansion apparatus or other apparatus is actuated , the spikes on the delivery device are pressed toward the plaque . the spikes are driven into the plaque and create multiple perforations forming intended serrations in the surface of the plaque in a proscribed pattern . the expansion balloon or apparatus is somewhat compliant and may be inflated further to compress the plaque and enlarge further . when the desired perforation of the plaque has been achieved , the expansion balloon or apparatus is de - actuated , disengaging the spikes from the plaque , and once collapsed is withdrawn through the catheter sheath . after the preparation procedure for the plaque , the plaque can be compressed and the artery lumen safely and accurately dilated and stretched during standard balloon angioplasty to its intended diameter without creating numerous and substantial dissections and elevated flaps . the perforation and serration enable the plaque to be dilated more evenly and smoothly and avoid forming random cracks that may lead to dissection , arterial injury , and residual stenosis . the plaque , after it has been pre - treated with perforation and serration , may also be dilated with lower pressure ( usually 2 atmospheres or less ) than that which is used in standard balloon angioplasty . the lower intra - balloon pressure causes less injury to the artery wall . this “ low pressure ” or “ minimal injury ” angioplasty is less likely to cause the biological reaction that often follows balloon angioplasty with neointimal hyperplasia or smooth muscle cell replication . in addition , the plaque is likely to expand with less fracturing or dissection during balloon angioplasty . this decreases the need for stent placement to be used to treat dissection or residual stenosis after balloon angioplasty . if extensive dissections and non - smooth luminal wall surfaces require a stent to be placed , the improved dilatation of the lumen obtained with pre - angioplasty perforation and serration would allow a stent to be more fully opened . in cases where one or more local sites of post - angioplasty dissections or flaps present themselves , a thin , ring - shaped tack device may be placed at only the location of each specific problem site , so that the amount of foreign material emplaced as a retaining structure for plaque in the blood vessel can be minimized and exert only low lateral pressures against the post - angioplasty surface . a novel method and device for applying a ring - shaped tack device as a retaining structure for plaque in the blood vessel is described in u . s . patent application ser . no . 11 / 955 , 331 , filed dec . 12 , 2007 , entitled “ device for tacking plaque to blood vessel wall ”, which is incorporated by reference herein . the described procedure for perforation and serration of the plaque performed with a given amount of arterial dilatation may be sufficient to obtain compression of the plaque sufficiently that no balloon angioplasty or stent emplacement is required . only one or a few of the ring - shaped tacks may be needed to secure the compressed plaque to the artery wall , thereby obtaining the desired medical treatment with minimal forces being applied to the arterial walls and with a minimum of foreign material emplaced in the body . the present invention is therefore deemed to include the alternative of combining the perforation and serration procedure with the procedure for applying localized tacks at specific locations for plaque retention . it is to be understood that many modifications and variations may be devised given the above described principles of the invention . it is intended that all such modifications and variations be considered as within the spirit and scope of this invention , as defined in the following claims . | 0 |
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 . 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 . 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 lease 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 .” fig1 is a front plan view of a device 10 for independently tensioning lines in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention , while fig2 is a front plan view of an interior of the device 10 of fig1 , and fig3 is a side plan view of rotatable components of the device 10 of fig2 . as collectively shown therein , the device 10 includes a base 12 and a cover 14 , mounted within which are a drive assembly 20 , one or more spool assemblies 30 , 50 , a ratcheting assembly including a pawl 40 , 60 for each respective spool assembly 30 , 50 , and a release assembly including release member 72 , 82 for each respective spool assembly 30 , 50 . each of these components of the device 10 is described in detail hereinbelow . the drive assembly 20 includes a dial 22 , a drive gear 24 and a pinion 26 mounted on a pivot arm 28 . the dial 22 includes a drive shaft 23 extending therefrom , and the dial 22 and drive shaft 23 are rotatable about a drive axis . the outer surface of the dial 22 may include indentations 21 or other features to make it possible for a user to grasp and turn it easily . the drive gear 24 is fixed on the drive shaft 23 for rotation with the drive shaft 23 about the drive axis . a proximal end of the pivot arm 28 is rotatably mounted on the drive shaft 23 , while the pinion 26 is mounted on the distal end of the pivot arm 28 and is rotatable relative to the pivot arm 28 about a pinion axis . the teeth of the pinion 26 are arranged for a purpose made apparent hereinbelow . the end of the drive shaft 23 is preferably bifurcated and provided with a wedge - shaped retention flange 25 , wherein the wedge - shaped retention flange 25 may be forced into a corresponding opening in the pivot arm 28 , thereby deflecting the two bifurcated portions of the shaft 23 inward , toward each other , thus permitting the wedge - shaped retention flange 25 to pass there through . once the flange 25 has passed completely through the opening , the two bifurcated portions of the shaft 23 are biased outward again , thereby retaining the pivot arm 28 on the drive shaft 23 . similarly , the cover 14 and the base 12 , which collectively form a housing and are described in further detail below , include coaxial openings through which the end of the drive shaft 23 extends . furthermore , because the dial 22 is located generally exterior to the cover 14 , when the wedge - shaped retention flange 25 is forced through the openings in the cover 14 and the base 12 , and is retained to the base 12 by the snap - fit connection of the retention flange 25 to the flanged opening of the base 12 , the base 12 and cover 14 are securely coupled together and preferably retain all of the components therein without aid of additional fasteners , such as screws . indeed , due to this design , the device 10 may be constructed without use of any metallic fasteners , and the device 10 may be constructed solely from injection molded components . such a construction is particularly beneficial when the device 10 is utilized , for example , with ballistic vests or other body armor , where the use of a screw poses an unnecessary risk to a wearer . each spool assembly 30 , 50 includes a spindle ( not shown ) upon which a respective spool 32 , 52 , gear 34 , 54 and ratchet wheel 36 , 56 are all fixed . two or more of the spindle , spool 32 , 52 , gear 34 , 54 and ratchet wheel 36 , 56 of a respective spool assembly may be integrally formed , or all of the components may comprise separate pieces that are connected together . in any event , a respective spool assembly 30 , 50 includes a spindle , spool 32 , 52 , gear 34 , 54 and ratchet wheel 36 , 56 that all rotate together about a respective spindle axis , with each spool 32 , 52 arranged between a respective gear 34 , 54 and ratchet wheel 36 , 56 . furthermore , each gear 34 , 54 includes a plurality of gear teeth adapted to couple with the teeth of the pinion 26 when the pinion 26 is positioned next to the gear 34 , 54 . the teeth of each ratchet wheel 36 , 56 are arranged to be engaged by a respective pawl 40 , 60 , as will be more fully described hereinbelow . each spool 32 , 52 further includes a pair of openings 42 to permit a cable to be routed there through and for winding on the spool 32 , 52 during rotation of the spool in a particular direction , as more fully described hereinbelow . fig4 is a front plan view of the interior of the device 10 of fig1 , shown with most of the rotatable components removed therefrom . with particular reference to fig2 and 4 , the pawls 40 , 60 are shown arranged in , and optionally contiguous to , the base 12 . as will be appreciated , the pawls 40 , 60 furthermore extend upwardly ( are raised ) from the base for selective engagement by the release members 72 , 82 and for engagement with the ratchet wheels 36 , 56 . each pawl 40 , 60 further comprises a gooseneck structure extending from a central region of the base 12 and curving around so as to be adapted to engage the teeth of a respective ratchet wheel 36 , 56 . when so engaged , each pawl 40 , 60 prevents its respective ratchet wheel 36 , 56 from rotating in a particular rotational direction , while permitting rotation in the opposite rotational direction , due to the engagement between the pawl 40 , 60 with the ratchet teeth . with reference now to fig1 , 2 and 4 , a release member 72 , 82 is shown for each spool assembly 30 , 50 . each release member 72 , 82 comprises a horseshoe - shaped ( or “ u ” shaped ) member that is slidably contained between the base 12 and the cover 14 . the release members 72 , 82 are preferably operable independently of each other . the movement of each the release members 72 , 82 may be best understood as shown in fig2 or fig4 . in each case , a first release member 72 is configured in its retracted position , wherein no contact is made between the open ends of the release member 72 and the adjacent pawl 40 , while a second release member 82 is configured in its depressed position , wherein one of the open ends of the release member 82 has been placed in contact with its adjacent pawl 60 , thereby displacing the gooseneck assembly of the pawl 60 from its normal position in engagement with ratchet teeth . as best seen in fig4 , this has the effect of displacing the second pawl 60 from its position against one of the teeth of the ratchet wheel 56 , while the first pawl 40 remains in its previous state ( i . e ., in contact with one of the teeth of the ratchet wheel 36 ). as will be apparent , when a pawl 40 , 60 remains in contact with one of the teeth of its respective ratchet wheel 36 , 56 , the ratchet wheel 36 , 56 is thereby prevented from rotating in a particular rotational direction , while if a pawl 40 , 60 is displaced from its position against one of the teeth of the ratchet wheel 36 , 56 by the corresponding release member 72 , 82 , then the ratchet wheel 36 , 56 is allowed to rotate by the pawl 40 , 60 freely in either rotational direction . fig5 and 6 are front plan views of the device 10 of fig1 that serve to illustrate the movement of the respective release members 72 , 82 relative to the rest of the device 10 , and in particular , relative to the cover 14 . as shown , and with reference also to fig1 , each release member 72 , 82 includes an elastic component in the form of a pair of spring arms 74 that extend therefrom and are arranged to receive and engage the rounded end surface of the cover 14 . in normal operation , the spring arms 74 tend to bias the respective release members 72 , 82 out of the housing of the device 10 and away from the ends of the cover 14 , thereby keeping ( with reference to fig2 and 4 ) the open ends of the release members 72 , 82 from engaging the respective pawls 40 , 60 . however , if it is desired to release one or both pawls 40 , 60 from the ratchet wheels 36 , 56 , then pressure sufficient to overcome the biasing strength of the spring arms 74 may be applied , thereby causing the selected release member ( s ) 72 , 82 to move toward the cover 14 until the spring arms 72 are pressed into the inner curve of the horseshoe - shape of the release member . by this stage , the open end of the selected release member ( s ) 72 , 82 preferably have engaged a respective pawl 40 , 60 , and the pawl 40 , 60 has been forced out of engagement with the teeth of a respective ratchet wheel 36 , 56 , thereby providing for ( i . e ., permitting by a pawl ) the free rotation of the respective spool assembly 30 , 50 of the ratchet wheel 36 , 56 . this effect may be seen by comparing and aligning the relative positions of the components in fig4 with those in fig5 , as each shows the second release member 82 in its depressed position and the resulting disengagement of the second pawl 60 from the ratchet wheel 56 . on the other hand , fig6 illustrates an opposite situation , wherein the first release member 72 is in its depressed position , resulting in the disengagement of the first pawl 40 from the first ratchet wheel 36 . notably , although not specifically illustrated herein , it also will be apparent that both release members 72 , 82 may be depressed simultaneously , as described previously , thereby releasing both ratchet wheels 36 , 56 simultaneously . referring generally to fig1 and 2 , the base 12 may be seen to include appropriate mounting features to receive the various other components of the device 10 . such mounting features may include contours shaped to receive and retain the components of the device 10 when the cover 14 is securely coupled to the base 12 and retained thereto by the snap - on attachment of the retention flange 25 to the base 12 . these features will generally be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art from the disclosure herein , and are likely to include features for coupling to the cover 14 , for receiving the ratchet wheels 36 , 56 in snug fit , for receiving the drive shaft 23 and pivot arm 28 , and the like . as illustrated , the base 12 may also include features for receiving , guiding and routing lines or cables from the spools 32 , 52 to the lateral edges of the device 10 . these features may take the form of conduits , passageways , cable guides , openings , tube - like structures , and the like , and may be formed in the body of the base 12 or separately attached thereto . the purpose and use of these features will become evident hereinbelow . likewise , referring generally to fig1 , the cover 14 may be seen or understood to include its own appropriate mounting features to receive the various other components of the device 10 . these features will generally be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art , but are likely to include corresponding features for coupling to the base 12 , for receiving the gears 34 , 54 , for receiving the pinion 26 and the pivot arm 28 , and the like . in order to operate the device 10 , a separate line or cable capable of experiencing tension ( not shown ), which once routed may or may not be in the form of a continuous loop , is first routed through each spool assembly 30 , 50 and through the guide features in the base 12 as well as any other components as appropriate . once the cables are installed , each cable may be tightened ( placed in greater tension ) by turning the dial 22 in one direction or the other . more specifically , turning the dial 22 in one rotational direction causes a first cable ( i . e ., the one routed through the first spool assembly 30 ) to be tightened , while turning the dial in the opposite rotational direction causes a second cable ( i . e ., the one routed through the second spool assembly 50 ) to be tightened . this is accomplished as follows . with reference to fig7 a , 7 b , 8 a , 8 b , 9 a and 9 b , which are all front and side plan views of the pivot arm 28 together with the various gears 24 , 26 , 34 , 54 , all shown in isolation from the rest of the components of the device 10 . beginning with fig7 a and 7b , the various components are shown in a neutral state , wherein the pinion 26 is not meshed or engaged with either of the gears 34 , 54 of the respective spool assemblies 30 , 50 . in this intermediate position , rotation would not be applied to either of the gears 34 , 54 by the pinion 26 during rotation of the dial 22 , drive shaft 23 , and drive gear 24 . indeed , rotation of the dial 22 , drive shaft 23 , and drive gear 24 results in pivoting of the pivot arm 28 upon which the pinion is 26 is carried , and does not result in rotation of the pinion 26 itself about the pinion axis . as will be appreciated , this is a temporary , transient position only , as rotation of the dial 22 in one rotational direction or the other causes the drive shaft 23 to rotate and in turn tends to cause the pivot arm 28 to rotate and carries the pinion 26 along with it . when the pinion 26 reaches one or the other of the gears 34 , 54 , further rotation of the pivot arm 28 is thereby prevented . at this point , continued rotation of the dial 22 causes the drive gear 24 , which is constantly engaged with the pinion 26 , to rotate relative to the pinion axis . the pinion 26 then tends to settle into meshed relationship with the first gear 34 , thereby causing rotation , in turn , of the gear 34 . this relationship is illustrated in fig8 a and 8b . conversely , if the dial 22 is rotated in the opposite rotational direction , the drive shaft 23 is caused to correspondingly rotate , in turn tending to cause the pivot arm 28 to rotate and carry the pinion 26 along with it . when the pinion 26 reaches the opposite gear 54 , further rotation of the pivot arm 28 is again prevented . at this point , continued rotation of the dial 22 causes the drive gear 24 , which is meshed with the pinion 26 , to rotate relative to the pinion axis . the pinion 26 then tends to settle into meshed relationship with the gear 54 , thereby causing the gear 54 itself to rotate . this relationship is illustrated in fig9 a and 9b . fig1 - 14 are plan views of elements of a device 110 for independently tensioning lines in accordance with a second embodiment of the present invention . the device 110 shares substantial similarity in design and characteristics of operation with regard to those of device 10 . with regard to this second embodiment , fig1 is a front plan view of a device 110 for independently tensioning lines in accordance with a second embodiment of the present invention , while fig1 is a front plan view of the rear half of the device 110 of fig1 , and fig1 is a rear plan view of the front half of the device 110 of fig1 . as collectively shown therein , the device 110 includes a rear housing 112 and a front housing 114 , mounted within which are a drive assembly 120 , spool assemblies 30 , 50 , a ratcheting assembly including pawls , and a release assembly 90 . each of these elements is described in detail hereinbelow . the drive assembly 120 includes a dial 122 , a drive gear 124 and a pinion 126 . the dial 122 includes a drive shaft ( not shown ) extending therefrom , and the dial 122 and drive shaft are rotatable about a drive axis . the outer surface of the dial 122 may include indentations or other features 121 to make it possible for a user to grasp and turn it easily . as in the first device 10 , the drive gear 124 is fixed on the drive shaft for rotation with the drive shaft about the drive axis . on the other hand , the pinion 126 , which is carried on a pivot arm in the device 10 , is rotatable around a spindle that is allowed to move along curved slots in the top and bottom casings 114 , 112 in the device 110 . the teeth of the pinion 126 are arranged for a purpose made apparent hereinbelow . similar to the first device 110 , each spool assembly 130 , 150 preferably includes a spindle ( not shown ) upon which a respective spool ( not shown ) and a respective gear 135 , 155 are all fixed . the relationship of the spindle , spools , and gears 135 , 155 is all generally similar in arrangement and function to that of the spindle , spool 32 , 52 , gears 34 , 54 and ratchet wheel 36 , 56 of the first device 10 , except that in device 110 , the gears 135 , 155 serve the function of gears 34 , 54 and ratchet wheels 36 , 56 . in this respect , each spool assembly 130 , 150 , is rotatable about a respective spindle axis , with each spool arranged concentric with its respective gear 135 , 155 . each gear 135 , 155 includes a plurality of gear teeth adapted to couple with the teeth of the pinion 126 when the pinion 126 is positioned next to a gear 135 , 155 . the teeth of each gear 135 , 155 also are arranged to be engaged by a respective pawl 141 , 161 . each spool further includes a pair of openings ( not shown ), similar to the openings 42 of the first device 10 , to permit a cable to be routed there through and then wound on the spool . referring generally to fig1 , the ratcheting assembly 85 includes a pawl 141 , 161 for each spool assembly 130 , 150 . each pawl 141 , 161 comprises a lever - like structure extending from a respective rotating cylindrical base 143 , 163 and having a curved tip at the distal end thereof so as to be adapted to engage the teeth of a respective gear 135 , 155 . when so engaged , each pawl 141 , 161 inhibits rotation of a gear 135 , 155 in a respective first rotational direction . still referring generally to fig1 , the release assembly 90 includes a dual function release lever 92 having a tab or pad 93 , 94 at each end thereof . the release lever 92 , when selectively depressed , in turn selectively depresses one or both of the pawls thereby freeing , in turn , one or both of the gears 135 , 155 for rotation uninhibited by a respective pawl . the pinion 126 is illustrated in a neutral position in fig1 , wherein it is disengaged from both of the gears 135 , 155 . the pinion 126 is illustrated in a first engaged position with one of the gears 135 , 155 in fig1 , and the pinion 126 is illustrated in a second engaged position with the other gear in fig1 . the pinion 126 is moved into and between these positions by rotation of the drive assembly . while having some differences in design from that of device 10 , the device 110 operates to draw lines into the housing and release lines for withdrawal from the housing in similar manner to device 10 . in this regard , operation of the device 110 is illustrated in fig1 - 19 and is exemplary of the operation of many different devices in accordance with embodiments of the invention . based on the foregoing description , 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 |
a novel amusement device or puzzle constructed in accordance with this invention is generally designated by the reference numeral 10 , and is depicted as wood head of a golf club , such as a driver or a fairway wood . however , though the amusement device or puzzle 10 is preferably a golf head in external appearance and configuration , other configurations are contemplated , such as the fishing lure and heart - shaped configurations mentioned earlier herein . the amusement device 10 is defined by a plurality of plates including a top plate 11 , a bottom or base plate 12 , a first upstanding end plate or toe plate 13 spaced from a second upstanding end plate or heel plate 14 and a plurality of intermediate plates 15 through 18 ( fig1 ). an uppermost one of the intermediate plates 15 carries in spaced generally parallel depending relationship thereto a front plate or face plate 20 ( fig8 and 12 ) and a rear plate 21 . the intermediate plates 16 through 18 have circular right - cylindrical bores or apertures 26 , 27 and 28 , respectively ( fig4 , 8 and 12 ) which collectively define a generally cylindrical &# 34 ; secret &# 34 ; compartment or chambers in which is housed one or more articles a , which in the present embodiment of the amusement device 10 is a golf ball a . preferably , the plates 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 16 , 17 and 18 are each formed from a single piece of wood or each is formed from a plurality of pieces of similar wood laminated together , and in either case the plates 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 16 , 17 and 18 are carved or machined to the appropriate golf head contour or configuration . the plate 15 is also a single piece of wood or a plurality of pieces of wood laminated together , and glued or bonded thereto are the rear plate 21 and the front plate 20 ( fig8 ). however , the front plate 20 is preferably formed from lighter and darker wood to provide the appearance of a typical golf club &# 34 ; face ,&# 34 ; and in this regard two vertical wall portions 22 , 23 of the face plate 20 are formed from very light wood and sandwiched therebetween is another vertical wall portion 24 formed of a very dark or reddish appearing wood , such as mahogany . by including a plurality of vertically spaced horizontally disposed grooves 25 in the wall portions 22 through 24 , the face plate or front plate of the amusement device 10 takes on the appearance of the typical &# 34 ; face &# 34 ; of a golf driver or fairway wood head . however , while in the preferred embodiment of the amusement device 10 , the various components thus far described and others to be described hereafter are preferably constructed from wood to lend an authentic appearance to the amusement device 10 , these components can be constructed from polymeric or copolymeric synthetic plastic material appropriately injection molded or from compression molded materials , such as admixtures of shells and adhesives which are conventionally utilized to manufacture life - like mock wood statutes . irrespective of the particular materials or methods of manufacture , the top plate 11 includes an upper contoured surface 30 , a lower flat surface 31 and a generally truncated upwardly converging frusto - conical neck 32 terminating in a flat annular surface or face 33 . a cylindrical bore 34 passes completely through the neck 32 and is in alignment with an upwardly opening blind bore 35 ( fig4 and 6 ) of the second end plate or heel plate 14 when the top plate 11 is in the position illustrated in fig1 and 4 of the drawings . however , the top plate 11 can be pivoted from the position shown in fig1 and 4 to the position thereof shown in fig6 and 10 , and when thus positioned , the bores 34 , 35 are not in alignment . means generally designated by the reference numeral 40 are provided for pivoting the top plate 11 relative to the remaining plates . the pivotally mounting means 40 includes a pivot pin or stem 41 and a cylindrical bore or opening 42 in the heel plate 14 opening through an upper relatively flat surface 43 thereof ( see fig4 and 11 ). the pivot pin or stem 41 includes a reduced medial portion 44 merging with an enlarged cylindrical head 45 having an annular abutment ledge or shoulder 46 ( fig4 and 11 ) which functions in a manner and for a purpose to be described hereinafter . a hosel portion or element 50 forms a frusto - conical continuation of the neck 32 of the top plate 11 but is a separate element formed of wood and has - wound thereupon thread t to provide the hosel portion with the appearance of an authentic golf club hosel . the hosel portion 50 includes a planar circular end 51 and a flat surface 52 ( fig4 ) through which opens a blind bore 53 into which is inserted and cemented a pin 54 . the pin 54 cooperates with the blind bore 35 of the heel plate 14 to define means for preventing the top plate 11 from pivoting about the axis of the stem 41 relative to the remaining plates when the pin 54 is seated in the blind bore 35 . however , when the hosel portion 50 is pulled upwardly and removed , as shown in fig9 the end of the pin 54 is retracted from the blind bore 35 of the heel plate 14 and the top plate 11 can be pivoted to the position shown in fig9 to expose the uppermost intermediate plate 15 and the end plate or toe plate 13 , particularly flat coplanar respective surfaces 57 , 58 thereof . the surfaces 57 , 58 are in intimate contacting relationship with the surface 31 of the top plate 11 when the top plate 11 is in the &# 34 ; locked &# 34 ; position of fig1 and 2 which virtually precludes an observer from noticing any significant differences in appearance or line of demarcation between the top plate 11 and the end plates 13 , 14 to thereby preclude rapid solving of the &# 34 ; puzzle &# 34 ; associated with disassembling the amusement device 10 and locating the article a within the secret compartment s . means 60 ( fig3 and 9 through 12 ) define dovetail connecting means between the first end plate or toe plate 13 and each of the intermediate plates 15 through 18 . the means 60 effects selective coupling and uncoupling of the toe plate 13 relative to the intermediate plates 15 through 18 simply through an upward or downward sliding motion relative therebetween ,, as is best illustrated in fig1 and indicated by the double headed arrows ( unnumbered ) associated with the toe plate 13 . the dovetail connecting or coupling means 60 is preferably defined by a dovetail slot 61 ( fig1 ) running the full length of the toe plate 13 between the surface 58 and a lowermost flat surface 62 ( fig4 ). each of the intermediate plates 15 through 18 is provided with a corresponding dovetail innerlocking portion or tongue designated by the reference numerals 63 through 66 , respectively . also , the intermediate plates 15 through 18 include a set of aligned dovetail slots 73 through 76 , respectively ( fig3 and 12 ) which correspond in shape and configuration to a dovetail portion or tongue 77 of the heel plate 14 . thus , the dovetail tongues 63 through 66 and 77 intimately engage with and slide relative to the dovetail slots 61 and 73 through 76 , respectively , to effectively selectively couple and uncouple the toe plate 13 relative to the intermediate plates 15 through 18 , as is best illustrated in the comparative illustrations of fig9 and 10 of the drawings . the purpose of removing the toe plate 13 is to facilitate the total removal of the top plate 11 , as shown in fig1 . in order to accomplish the latter , the intermediate plate 17 must be shifted from a locked position ( fig4 ) to an unlocked position ( fig6 ) and the structure for accomplishing the latter is best illustrated in fig4 through 7 of the drawings . the intermediate plate 17 includes a reduced flat projecting portion 80 ( fig5 and 7 ) which is received in a chamber 81 of the heel plate 14 which is of a generally polygonal configuration ( fig5 ) and opens to the left , as viewed in fig5 . the chamber 81 is closed at its top by a wall 82 and its bottom by a wall 83 ( fig4 ). a slot 84 formed in the projecting portion 80 opens to the right , as viewed in fig4 and 7 , and is of a width slightly greater than that of the diameter of the head 45 of the pivot stem 41 carried by the top plate 11 . when the intermediate plate 17 is in its locked position with the projecting portion 80 thereof seated fully within the chamber 81 , a lower abutment surface or undersurface 89 ( fig4 ) of the projecting portion 80 overlies the abutment ledge 46 of the head 45 ( fig5 ) and prevents any upward force applied to the top plate 11 from moving the latter in an upward direction . however , if the intermediate plate 17 is shifted to the left , as indicated in fig6 and 7 , the undersurface 89 of the intermediate plate 17 no longer overlies the head 45 ( fig7 ) of the stem 41 and the top plate 11 can be lifted vertically upwardly in the manner illustrated in fig1 to disassemble the top plate 11 which permits the subsequent removal of the uppermost intermediate plate 15 and the plates 20 , 21 carry thereby , as will be apparent more fully hereinafter . however , without removing the top plate 11 , the uppermost intermediate plate 15 cannot be removed because no matter in which position the top plate 11 is rotated , a portion of the top plate 11 will always overlie the uppermost intermediate plate 15 , as is clearly illustrated in fig6 and 10 of the drawings . the intermediate plates 16 , 18 each have projecting portions 86 , 88 , respectively , identical in size and configuration to the projecting portion 80 . furthermore , each of the projecting portions 86 , 88 includes relatively large circular slot means or aperture means ( unnumbered ) which will allow the head 45 to at all times pass therethrough freely without interference . therefore , the abutment ledge 46 of the head 45 and the lower abutment surface 89 of the projecting portion 80 of the intermediate plate 17 constitute the means for selectively holding these plates assembled when interlocked , as shown in fig5 and for effecting separation thereof when released in the manner illustrated in fig7 . preferably the intermediate plates 16 and 18 are held immobilized after the toe plate 13 has been removed . this is accomplished by simply bonding / gluing the lowermost intermediate plate 18 to the base plate 12 . in order to immobilize the intermediate plate 16 after the removal of the toe plate 13 , a downwardly projecting pin or stem 90 ( fig1 ) of the uppermost intermediate plate 15 is received in a bore 91 ( fig1 ) of the intermediate plate 16 . as can be best visualized with respect to fig1 and 12 , once the pin 90 is in the bore 91 ( fig1 ) and the components are in the position shown in fig1 , a leftward pull on any of the dovetail portions 65 through 66 will result only in the leftward movement of the intermediate plate 17 because the lowermost intermediate plate 18 is adhesively secured to the base plate 12 , and the intermediate plates 15 , 16 are interlocked together by the pin or stem 90 and the bore 91 and the stem 41 in the circular bore ( unnumbered ) of the projecting portion 86 of the intermediate plates 16 . however , once the intermediate plate 17 is shifted to the left ( fig6 ) to create : the unlocking heretofore described relative to fig7 the top plate 11 can be removed followed by an upward lifting of the uppermost plate 15 , as shown in fig7 which carries therewith the face plate 20 and the rear plate 21 to expose the secret compartment s and the article / golf ball a therein . at this point ( fig1 ) the golf ball a can be removed from the secret compartment s and , if desired , the intermediate plates 16 , 17 can be removed , as also might be the heel plate 14 . at this point the amusement device 10 is in eight separate pieces , namely , ( 1 ) the base plate 15 and the lowermost intermediate plate 18 bonded thereto , ( 2 ) the heel plate 14 , ( 3 ) the intermediate plate 17 , ( 4 ) the intermediate plate 16 , ( 5 ) the intermediate plate 15 carrying the plates 21 , 21 , ( 6 ) the toe plate 13 , ( 7 ) the top plate 11 and ( 8 ) the hosel portion 50 . in order to reassemble the eight components , the heel plate 14 is slipped upon the base plate 15 with the projecting portion 81 of the lowermost intermediate plate 18 being received in the chamber 81 , after which the projecting portions 80 , 86 of the intermediate plates 17 , 16 , respectively , are inserted into the chamber 81 . the golf ball a is inserted in the chamber s , and the plate 15 is descended from the position shown in fig1 to the position shown in fig1 . the dovetail portion 65 of the intermediate plate 17 is pulled slightly to the , left , as shown in fig6 and 11 , and the stem 41 is inserted into the bore 42 of the end plate 14 until the components reach the position shown in fig6 after which the intermediate plate 17 is shifted to the right ( fig4 ) blocking the head 45 of the stem 41 beneath the projecting portion 80 of the intermediate plate 17 . the toe plate 13 is then slid downwardly from the position shown in fig1 to that shown in fig9 after which the top plate 11 is pivoted to its closed position ( fig1 through 3 ) and locked therein by positioning the hosel portion 30 with its stem 54 in the blind bore 35 to prevent rotation of the top plate 11 . although a preferred embodiment of the invention has been specifically illustrated and described herein , it is to be understood that minor variations may be made in the apparatus without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention , as defined the appended claims . | 0 |
referring now to the accompanying diagrams , a description will be given of the preferred embodiments of the present invention . fig1 illustrates an arrangement of a preferred embodiment of the present invention . in this drawing , reference numeral 150 denotes a wire supplying bobbin ; 151 , a brake pulley ; 152a , 152b , and 152c denote pulleys ; 153 denotes a rotary encoder secured to the pulley 152a ; and 154 , a known numerical controller . fig2 is a block diagram of a controller 160 which comprises an input gate 161 , a counter 162 , a register 163 , a comparator 164 , and a control circuit 165 . the input gate 161 receives as its input an output from the rotary encoder 153 . the counter 162 counts the number of pulse trains sent from the rotary encoder 153 via the input gate 161 . the register 163 temporarily stores the counted result of the counter 162 . the comparator 164 makes a comparison between the counted result of the counter 162 and a set value . here , by the set value is meant a value corresponding to the length of a wire electrode 103 fed ( i . e ., the amount of feed ) from the feeding start and until the tip of the wire electrode 103 reaches an optimum position for the jetting of the working fluid . the comparator 164 delivers the result to the numerical controller 154 . the control circuit 165 sends a gate signal to the input gate 161 to open the gate . in addition , at the same time as the feeding of the wire electrode 103 is commenced , the control circuit 165 sends a reset signal to the counter 162 to set an initial state , and sends a latch signal to the register 163 to temporarily store the data . a description will be given hereinunder of the operation of supplying the wire electrode by the wire electrode supplying apparatus having the above - described configuration . at the start of the operation of inserting the wire electrode 103 , the numerical controller 154 sends a signal at a voltage v 1 to a feed motor 133 . the voltage v 1 is used to run the feed motor 133 so that the speed of feeding the wire electrode 103 becomes high , e . g ., 50 mm / sec . concurrently , the control circuit 165 issues a signal to the counter 162 to initialize it . the tip of the wire electrode 103 advanced downward through guide pipes 140 , 141 , passes through guide dies 108 , is introduced into an upper wire guide 106 , and reaches a first speed - changing point . since a short period of time is required for changing the rotational speed of the feed motor 133 to change the speed of feeding the wire electrode 103 , the first speed - changing point is set at a position above a dies guide 107 , located at a tip of the upper wire guide 106 , by a length of the wire electrode 103 fed during this period for changing the rotational speed . the arrival of the tip of the wire electrode 103 at the first speed - changing point is detected when the counter 162 of the controller 160 sends a signal representing its counted result to the numerical controller 154 , which in turn determines that the counted result coincides with a predetermined value n . at the first speed - changing point , the numerical controller 154 starts supplying a voltage v 2 , so that the rotational speed of the feed motor 133 is changed to one corresponding to the low speed of feeding the wire electrode 103 , e . g ., 5 mm / sec . accordingly , the tip of the wire electrode 103 passes through the dies guide 107 with the feeding speed set at low speed , and then reaches a second speed - change point . the second speed - changing point is set below the dies guide 107 by a distance which allows the controller 160 to effect a determination on the basis of its minimum resolution , or by a distance incorporating slight leeway . at the second speed - changing point , the numerical controller 154 sends the voltage v 1 , so that the rotational speed of the feed motor 133 is changed to high speed . after passing through the dies guide 107 , the tip of the wire electrode 103 passes a jet nozzle 110 . concurrently , the counter 162 is counting the number of pulse trains sent from the rotary encoder 153 in correspondence with the feeding of the wire electrode 103 . the arrival of the tip of the wire electrode 103 in the vicinity of an exit of the jet nozzle 110 is determined on the basis of the set value n stored in the counter 162 . that is , if the counted result of the counter 102 coincides with the set value n , which corresponds to a predetermined length of the wire electrode 103 fed from the feeding start and until the tip reaches the vicinity of the exit of the jet nozzle 110 , a signal representing the arrival is issued to the numerical controller 154 which makes the determination . subsequently , in response to this signal the numerical controller 154 sends a signal to an unillustrated working fluid supplying unit , instructing the supplying unit to start supplying a jet of working fluid . the working fluid then flows into a support member 105 via the working fluid introducing passage 113 , and the jet nozzle 110 receives the hydraulic pressure on its flange surface and is thereby pressed down . as a result , a sufficient gap is created between the opening of the jet nozzle 110 and the upper wire guide 106 , and the working fluid is jetted through the opening of the jet nozzle 110 so that it will advance straightforward to a far distance without being scattered . hence , the wire electrode 103 is conveyed to a wire electrode receiving - side wire guide section 120 while being constrained by the jet of working fluid . at the time of the spouting of the jet , it is most preferable for the tip of the wire electrode 103 to be located in the range between the lower end surface of the jet nozzle 110 and the vicinity of the lower end surface of a working fluid injection nozzle 112 with the jet nozzle 110 set at its lowermost limit . when the tip of the wire electrode 103 reaches a third speed - changing pint set above a lower wire guide 122 , the feeding speed is set to low speed , and when it reaches a fourth speed - changing point set below the lower wire guide 122 , the feeding speed is changed to high speed . the operation of these speed changes is similar to the operation for the first and second speed - changing points described above . since there is a slight time lag after the numerical controller 154 sends a signal to the working fluid supplying unit and until the working fluid is actually jetted , the set value of the aforementioned counter 162 is corrected by a value corresponding to the length of the wire electrode 103 fed during this time lag . it should be noted that although in the above - described arrangement the pulley 152a serves as the member which undergoes displacement in correspondence with the feeding of the wire electrode 103 , the displaying member may be either one of the other pulleys 152 , 152c , or any one of the brake pulley 151 , a pinch roller 134 , a capstan roller 132 , the feed motor 133 , and the wire supplying bobbin 150 , and by securing an encoder ( corresponding to the rotary encoder 153 in fig1 ) to any one of these members , it is possible to attain an object similar to that of the arrangement shown in fig1 . fig3 illustrates an arrangement of another embodiment in which a wire electrode 203 is fed by means of a pair of endless belts . a wire feed motor 233 is secured to a drive pulley 270 . guide pulleys 271a , 271b , 271c and tension pulleys 272a , 272b are mounted on a mounting plate 230 and apply appropriate tension to a pair of belts 274a , 274b via compression springs 273a , 273b . the compression springs 273a , 273b are mounted on the mounting plate 230 using spring accommodating blocks 275a , 275b disposed on the mounting plate 230 . in other words , the compression springs 273a , 273b are accommodated in holes provided in the spring accommodating blocks 275a , 275b . the wire electrode 203 is clamped by the belts 274a , 274b , and is fed as the belts 274a , 274b are rotated by the rotation of the feed motor 233 . an encoder 253 is connected to the feed motor 233 . as a member which undergoes displacement in correspondence with the feeding of the wire electrode 203 , it is possible to select any one of the drive pulley 270 , guide pulleys 271a , 271b , 271c , and tension pulleys 272a , 272b . in this case , the encoder 253 is secured to the selected member . although in the above - described embodiment the encoder serves as the means for detecting displacement , a resolver or the like may be used . an arrangement of an embodiment in which a detecting means using the encoder is illustrated in fig4 . in this embodiment , a pair of belts 380a , 380b , guide pulleys 381a , 381b , 381c , 381d , and tension pulleys 382a , 382b are mounted on a mounting plate 330 . the tension pulleys 382a , 382b are mounted on the mounting plate 330 via compression springs 383a , 383b accommodated in spring accommodating blocks 386a , 386c mounted on the mounting plate 330 . the belts 380a , 380b are adapted to rotate as a wire electrode 303 is fed . the belt 380a is coated with white paint 384 at equal intervals . a reflection type photosensor 385 is disposed in proximity to the belt 380a . accordingly , as the wire electrode 303 is fed , when the white paint 384 on the belt 380a passes by the vicinity of the reflection type photosensor 385 , a pulse signal is delivered from the reflection type photosensor 385 . as this pulse signal is counted by the controller , it is possible to detect the length of the wire electrode 303 fed . instead of using the white paint 384 and the reflection type photosensor 385 , it is possible to adopt a combination of a metal plate and a magnetic sensor , a combination of an optical sensor and small holes formed in the belt at equal intervals , or another similar combination . alternatively , a revolution sensor may be attached to either one of the pulleys 381a , 381b , or 381c , 381d between which the belt 380a or 380b is trained . although in the foregoing embodiments the speed of feeding the wire electrode is changed over in two stages , i . e ., between high speed and low speed , the speed change may be effected in a greater number of stages , depending on the relative weight of load acting on the wire electrode with respect to the direction of its feed . for instance , with reference to fig1 in a section between the cutting position of the wire electrode 103 and the first feed speed - changing point , pressing forces applied by the pinch roller 134 and the capstan roller 132 are merely transmitted to the wire electrode 103 . however , when the tip of the wire electrode 103 is located downwardly of the second feed speed - changing point , a hydraulic shearing force of the jet is applied to the tip , so that the wire electrode 103 is pulled downward . as a result , when the tip of the wire electrode 103 passes the lower wire guide 122 , the load applied to the wire electrode 103 entailed in its passage is alleviated as compared with the time when the tip passes through the upper wire guide 106 . accordingly , in the section between the cutting position of the wire electrode 103 and the first feed speed - changing point , the speed of feeding the wire electrode 103 may be set to a low speed , e . g ., 5 mm / sec ., while in the section between the third speed - changing point to the fourth speed - changing point , the feeding speed may be set to an intermediate speed , e . g ., 20 mm / sec . in effecting wire electric discharge machining , it is a general practice to change the distance between the upper and lower wire guides depending on the thickness of the workpiece and jigs . that is , in an ordinary wire electric discharge machine , the position of one of the two wire guides is changeable . in the embodiment shown in fig1 the mounting plate 130 is secured to an unillustrated movable shaft which is vertically slidable and can be secured an an arbitrary position . accordingly , since the distance between the second speed - changing point and the third speed - changing point can be changed from time to time , the distances from the cutting position of the wire electrode 103 to the third speed - changing point and to the fourth speed - changing point can also be changed . to cope with these changes , the distance between the upper and lower wire guides 106 and 122 is input in advance to the numerical controller 154 via a keyboard , an nc program or the like , and set values of the counter 162 are changed on the basis of the input values . at this time , the distance l 1 from the cutting position of the wire electrode 103 to the upper wire guide 106 is a value peculiar to the apparatus and is fixed , while the distance l 2 from the upper wire guide 106 to the lower wire guide 122 is a variable value corresponding to the aforementioned input value . if it is assumed that the third and fourth speed - changing points are set upwardly and downwardly of the lower wire guide 122 by a fixed distance , e . g ., l 3 , respectively , and that the length of the wire electrode 103 to be fed per unit pulse signal sent from the encoder 153 is d , a set value for determining the arrival at the third speed - changing point can be calculated as n 1 = l 1 + l 2 - l 3 , and a setting for determining the arrival at the fourth speed - changing point as n 4 = l 1 + l 2 + l 3 . in addition , a linear scale may be provided on the aforementioned movable shaft , and l 2 may be determined by reading a coordinate output signal from the linear scale . furthermore , if the movable shaft can be driven by a motor , l 2 may be similarly calculated on the basis of a signal from a revolution sensor , such as an encoder , attached to the motor . as described above , in accordance with the present invention , at the time when the wire electrode is fed , the speed of feeding the wire electrode is lowered immediately before the tip of the wire electrode is passed through at least either one of the feeding - side wire guide and the receiving - side wire guide , and the feeding speed is increased immediately after passage of tip of the wire electrode therethrough . accordingly , the duration of feeding the wire electrode can be reduced , thereby making it possible to supply the wire electrode efficiently . in addition , in accordance with the present invention , the arrangement is such that when the tip of the wire electrode fed has reached a predetermined position after passing through a tip of the jet nozzle , the working fluid is jetted to convey the wire electrode , and the wire electrode is thereby conveyed while being constrained and is introduced into the receiving - side wire guide section . hence , the operation of supplying the wire electrode can be carried out positively , and highly reliable operation can be effected . | 1 |
referring more specifically to fig1 - 5 , the invention is there exemplified in an illustrative valve - in - head , reciprocating internal combustion engine 10 which may have one or more cylinders and , in this case , four in line , with associated pistons 13 . the engine 10 is capable of using a variety of hydrocarbon fuels . in this instance , it is powered by regular unleaded gasoline and operated through a conventional carburetor and ignition system . a novel low profile cylinder head 11 containing ca driven valve and combustion chamber means is superimposed upon conventional cylinder block 12 of the engine . each cylinder 14 has a cooperating increment 15 of the cylinder head 11 associated with it . for purposes of simplifying the description , reference will be made to that portion of the cylinder head associated with the foremost cylinder 14 , it being understood that the remaining head increments associated with the other cylinders will be substantially identical with the increment 15 . the latter comprises a well 16 through which camshaft 18 extends longitudinally of the cylinder head , being journaled in bearings 19 , 20 recessed in the front and rear walls of the well ( fig1 - 3 ). the camshaft 18 includes a pair of cams 21 , 22 which respectively operate a pair of valve trains 24 , 25 of identical construction . the rearmost valve train 24 operates intake valve 26 , while the foremost valve train 25 operates exhaust valve 28 ( fig2 ). in accordance with the present invention , each head increment 15 has a &# 34 ; thin &# 34 ; combustion chamber 29 which in the present instance extends perpendicular to the bottom face of the cylinder head 11 and also perpendicular to the axis of the crankshaft . its width is equal to or slightly less than the diameter of the cylinder 14 and its thickness may fall within the range of 10 - 15 % of the cylinder diameter . in one exemplary engine embodying the invention , the thickness of the combustion chamber may be on the order of 3 / 8 of an inch . a sparkplug 23 is situated at the top center or apex of the combustion chamber ( fig3 ). two header tubes 30 , 31 , one defining intake port 32 and the other exhaust port 33 , are mounted side by side in the wall 43 of the combustion chamber farthest from the camshaft . these header tubes have suitable watertight seals 30a , 31a at each end to preclude leakage of fluid coolant from the surrounding coolant jacket 35 and are retained in place by means of a manifold mounting plate ( not shown ). intake valve 26 and exhaust valve 28 of unique configuration are mounted on the opposite wall 43a of the combustion chamber in axial alignment with the intake and exhaust ports , respectively . the intake and exhaust valves 26 , 28 are of the poppet type and may be identical in construction . they differ materially from conventional poppet valves , however . each valve has a head 27 with a flattened oval contour on its outer face and a generally flat contour on its under face . it has a frustoconical sealing surface 36 located adjacent the peripheral edge on its outer face ( relative to the valve stem ) rather than on its opposite face as in a conventional internal combustion engine valve . the stem 34 of the valve includes a short neck 37 of double concave or spool shaped cross section adjacent the valve head , and a longer hollow tubular portion 40 of annular cross section adjoining the double concave neck portion 37 . two oil sealing rings 38 are situated on the valve stem 34 adjacent the spool shaped neck to preclude leakage of oil into the combustion chamber or leakage of gases out of the combustion chamber ( fig2 , 5 ). the annular portion 39 of the stem is perforated throughout a substantial part of its length and its intermediate tubular portion 40 is of slightly reduced outer diameter , all to facilitate abundant lubricating oil flow and cooling . pressurized oil is supplied to the valve by inlet port 53 in the valve guide sleeve . referring more specifically to fig2 and 3 , it will be noted that each poppet valve 26 , 28 is slidably mounted in a respective valve guide sleeve 41 , 42 for reciprocating travel transversely of the combustion chamber . each guide sleeve has a respective shoulder 44 , 45 and pressure seal 47 at its end adjoining the combustion chamber 29 , and a respective retainer nut 46 , 48 at its opposite end . as shown in fig2 the intake valve 26 is in closed position with its frustoconical sealing surface 36 pressed against the frustoconical intake port 32 of the intake header tube . the double concave neck 37 of intake valve 26 is thus positioned across the combustion chamber . the exhaust valve 28 is disposed with its head still in the combustion chamber , its neck 37 withdrawn into the valve guide sleeve 42 , but still in a full open position relative to the exhaust header tube 31 ( fig2 ). both valves 26 , 28 are opened by cams 21 , 22 on camshaft 18 journaled in the cylinder head and acting on a valve follower cage 49 against the pressure of the valve spring 50 . the follower cage is connected at its forward end to the end of the tubular portion 39 of the valve stem by means of a vertical pin 51 and a hexagonal shoe 52 . at its rearward end , the follower cage 49 has a hardened steel wear plate 54 , engageable by the cam , and a rearwardly extending dowel engaging tube 55 . the latter slidably engages a fixed dowel pin 56 secured in the valve spring retainer collar 58 fixed to the cylinder head 11 . optimum axial alignment of all reciprocating parts is thus maintained a each end of the valve train . it will be apparent from the foregoing that each valve is positively opened in properly timed relation by means of its associated cam . upon rotation of its cam 21 , 22 out of contact with the wear plate 54 , the valve will be permitted to close under the pressure of the valve spring 50 . each valve stem on the outside and inside surface , and each cam , cam follower cage , dowel tube and dowel pin is flooded with lubricating oil from a pressurized oil circulating system . referring further to fig4 it will be noted that upon the compression and power strokes of the piston both valves will be closed . during compression and upon ignition by the sparkplug 23 of the explosive charge in the combustion chamber 29 , each valve neck 37 will serve as a center of swirl . three paths of swirl will thus occur , one between each valve neck and the adjacent outer peripheral wall of the combustion chamber , and the third extending downwardly between the two valve necks . these respective swirls , plus the residual micro - turbulence from the compression &# 34 ; squish &# 34 ; action , will blend into complex a pattern of extremely high vorticity , and this will result in improved fuel - air mixing , improved combustion process , and greatly reduced emissions of co , hydrocarbons , and oxides of nitrogen . referring next to fig6 and 7 , there is shown a novel valve 60 of the poppet type which may be used in an internal combustion engine as an intake or an exhaust valve . the valve 60 comprises a hollow unitary stem 61 of generally cylindrical cross section with a stepped axial bore 62 running the full length of the stem . the stem 61 is mounted for reciprocation in bore 64 of annular valve guide sleeve 65 . the guide sleeve 65 is rigidly mounted in a relatively thick partition wall 66 formed in the cylinder head and has its left end face flush with the right hand wall 68 of the combustion chamber 69 ( as viewed in fig7 ). adjacent its left hand end , the valve stem 61 has a locating bore 70 slightly in excess of 1 / 2 inch in diameter and beyond the bore a threaded section 71 somewhat smaller in diameter ( fig6 a ). the bore 70 and threaded section 71 receive valve head retainer bolt 72 which centers the valve face 74 and secures it to the forward end of the valve stem 61 . the valve head 74 carries a small positioning pin 75 which fits into a corresponding pin bore 76 in the front face of the valve stem . this precludes any rotation of the valve head once the retainer bolt is tightened . the valve head 74 has a frustoconical sealing surface 77 on its periphery which sealingly engages the frustoconical sealing surface 32 or 33 of the opposed port , intake or exhaust , with which it coacts . externally , the valve stem 61 is formed with an integral pin carrier 78 of hexagonal shape situated at its right hand end as shown in fig6 and 7 . the pin carrier has a pair of diametrically opposed holes 79 extending vertically through its upper and lower faces for engagement by the connecting pin 51 of valve follower cage 63 . these latter two members and the valve train drives are substantially identical with those of the embodiment disclosed in fig1 - 5 above . to the left of the pin carrier 78 , the valve stem has a land section 80 with a diameter which slidably fits the bore 64 of the valve guide sleeve . to the left of the land section 80 is a recessed section 81 of slightly smaller diameter to facilitate the distribution of pressurized lubricating oil from the inlet port 82 . both the land section 80 and the recessed section 81 are formed with longitudinal , circumferentially spaced grooves 83 , which extend along both sections 80 , 81 . the land section 80 also includes longitudinal , circumferentially spaced grooves 84 which do not extend beyond the section 80 . all of these grooves provide augmented surface area to facilitate dissipation of heat from the valve . to the left of the recessed section 80 is another land 85 with a diameter which slidably fits the bore of the valve guide sleeve . this land includes a pair of shallow grooves which in this instance are approximately 0 . 0485 - 0 . 0495 inches in width , and approximately 0 . 1036 - 0 . 0990 inches in depth . these grooves accommodate a pair of oil sealing rings , 86 , 88 to preclude leakage of oil into the combustion chamber or escape of gases from the chamber . the foremost portion of the valve stem 61 between the valve head 74 and the land 85 is a neck 89 of double concave cross section ( fig6 a ). the neck 89 extends across the combustion chamber 69 when the valve 60 is closed and thereby augments the swirl pattern , fuel - air mixing , and combustion , greatly reducing emissions . turning now to fig8 - 14 , another novel valve 90 of the poppet type is there shown . this valve , like the others described earlier herein , may be used as an intake or an exhaust valve . the valve 90 has a hollow unitary stem 91 of generally cylindrical cross section with a stepped axial bore 92 extending from its rearward face to a point a short distance back from the shoulder 94 and hub 95 on which the valve head 96 is seated . the hub 95 has a small radially extending locating pin 98 and a threaded extension 99 of slightly smaller diameter . the valve head 96 has a bore 101 adapted to fit closely on the hub 95 and also includes a radial slot 102 which registers with the locating pin 98 . the valve head is precisely positioned axially against the shoulder 94 and centered radially upon the hub 95 . it is secured in that condition by means of nut 104 and lock washer 105 . the exterior of the valve stem 91 , starting to the rear of the valve head 96 , has a sealing ring 106 designed to prevent leakage of lubricating oil into the combustion chamber 108 or leakage of gases out of the combustion chamber . further toward the rear , the valve stem is formed with a peripheral recess 109 of double concave cross section and which relates to operation of the lubricating system . at the extreme rear , the valve stem includes an integral hexagonal portion 110 for engagement with a wrench when attaching or detaching the valve head 96 . the interior of the valve stem 91 , starting at the rear , includes a plain cylindrical bore 92 and a threaded bore 112 extending forwardly from the bore 92 . the bores 92 , 112 are adapted to receive a mating extension of a generally t - shaped pin carrier and valve adjuster 114 . the adjuster 114 is used to adjust the valve stem 91 and valve head 96 axially for proper engagement with the frustoconical sealing surfaces 115 of the valve head and 116 of the aligned header tube 118 . the adjuster 114 is also used to connect the valve stem 91 to the associated cam driven valve follower cage 119 by means of pin 120 . the valve 90 , including the valve stem 91 , is adapted for reciprocation in bore 121 of annular valve guide sleeve 122 . the valve guide sleeve has a generally cylindrical body with an enlarged shoulder portion 124 at one end . the guide sleeve 122 is rigidly mounted in an appropriate recess in partition wall 125 of the cylinder head with its enlarged shoulder portion flush with the right hand wall 126 of the combustion chamber 108 ( as viewed in fig9 ). pressurized lubricating oil is supplied to the valve guide sleeve 122 via a supply line 128 from a pump ( not shown ) on the engine . the supply line 128 connects directly with an internal line 129 in the valve sleeve which lubricates the valve stem 91 . in order to avoid build - up of an excessive amount of oil between the valve guide sleeve bore 121 and the valve stem 91 with possible leakage into the combustion chamber , the valve sleeve bore 121 is provided with three individual drain lines 130 , 131 , and 132 distributed over a 50 degree arc in the lower sector of the valve sleeve ( fig1 ). in combination with such arrangement , the medial portion of the valve stem 91 is formed with a necked down portion 109 of double concave cross section . referring to the three sequential views in fig1 , 12 and 13 , as the valve stem 91 reciprocates , it captures a substantial increment of oil in the necked down portion 109 and &# 34 ; pumps &# 34 ; it into the three drain lines 130 , 131 , and 132 in the lower segment of the guide sleeve this action enhances the circulation of lubricating oil around the valve stem and oil between the valve stem and the bore of the valve sleeve . installation or removal of any of the valves 26 , 28 , 60 or 90 may be accomplished quickly and easily without removing the cylinder head from the engine block . in the case of the valves 26 and 28 , removal may be effected by draining the cooling fluid from the coolant jacket of the cylinder head ; removing the connecting pins 51 from the valve follower cages 49 and right hand end of each valve ; removing the header tubes 30 and 31 ; and sliding the valves 26 , 28 out of their valve guide sleeves and through the header tube apertures ( fig2 ). installation of the valves 26 , 28 , or new valves , may be accomplished by reversal of the foregoing procedure . installation or removal of the valves 60 may be accomplished in a manner similar to the foregoing except that the valve guide sleeves 65 must be pushed to the left ; the header tubes 67 removed ; and the valves 60 and their guide sleeves 65 are slid out through the header tube apertures . installation of the valves 60 may be effected by reversal of the foregoing steps . installation or removal of the valves 90 may be done in a manner similar to the procedure for the valves 26 , 28 . in this instance , after the connecting pin 120 is removed from the cam follower cage and the pin carrier and valve adjusters 114 are unscrewed from their respective valve stems the removal procedure is similar to that for the valves 26 , 28 . installation of the valves 90 is accomplished by reversal of the foregoing steps . in a situation where the cylinder head is removed from the engine block and placed on a workbench , a different installation or removal procedure may be followed for the valves 60 and 90 which have detachable heads . in both of these cases , the camshaft is removed along with the valve follower cages 63 , 100 ; the valve heads 74 and 96 are unbolted from their respective valve stems ; and the valve stems are slid to the right and withdrawn from their valve guide sleeves . installation may be accomplished by reversal of this procedure . | 5 |
the various features and methods of the invention will now be described in the context of a recommendation service , including two specific implementations thereof , that is used to recommend book titles , music titles , video titles , and other types of items to individual users of the amazon . com web site . as will be recognized to those skilled in the art , the disclosed methods can also be used to recommend other types of items , including non - physical items . by way of example and not limitation , the disclosed methods can also be used to recommend authors , artists , categories or groups of titles , web sites , chat groups , movies , television shows , downloadable content , restaurants , and other users . throughout the description , reference will be made to various implementation - specific details of the recommendation service , the amazon . com web site , and other recommendation services of the web site . these details are provided in order to fully illustrate preferred embodiments of the invention , and not to limit the scope of the invention . the scope of the invention is set forth in the appended claims . the amazon . com web site includes functionality for allowing users to search , browse , and make purchases from an online catalog of several million book titles , music titles , video titles , and other types of items . using a shopping cart feature of the site , users can add and remove items to / from a personal shopping cart which is persistent over multiple sessions . ( as used herein , a “ shopping cart ” is a data structure and associated code which keeps track of items that have been selected by a user for possible purchase .) for example , a user can modify the contents of the shopping cart over a period of time , such as one week , and then proceed to a check out area of the site to purchase the shopping cart contents . the user can also create multiple shopping carts within a single account . for example , a user can set up separate shopping carts for work and home , or can set up separate shopping carts for each member of the user &# 39 ; s family . a preferred shopping cart scheme for allowing users to set up and use multiple shopping carts is disclosed in u . s . application ser . no . 09 / 104 , 942 , filed jun . 25 , 1998 , titled method and system for electronic commerce using multiple roles , the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference . the site also implements a variety of different recommendation services for recommending book titles , music titles , and / or video titles to users . one such service , known as bookmatcher ™, allows users to interactively rate individual books on a scale of 1 - 5 to create personal item ratings profiles , and applies collaborative filtering techniques to these profiles to generate personal recommendations . the bookmatcher service is described in detail in u . s . application ser . no . 09 / 040 , 171 filed mar . 17 , 1998 , the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference . the site may also include associated services that allow users to rate other types of items , such as cds and videos . as described below , the ratings data collected by the bookmatcher service and similar services is optionally incorporated into the recommendation processes of the present invention . another type of service is a recommendation service which operates in accordance with the invention . the service (“ recommendation service ”) is preferably used to recommend book titles , music titles and / or videos titles to users , but could also be used in the context of the same web site to recommend other types of items , including authors , artists , and groups or categories of titles . briefly , given a unary listing of items that are “ known ” to be of interest to a user ( e . g ., a list of items purchased , rated , and / or viewed by the user ), the recommendation service generates a list of additional items (“ recommendations ”) that are predicted to be of interest to the user . ( as used herein , the term “ interest ” refers generally to a user &# 39 ; s liking of or affinity for an item ; the term “ known ” is used to distinguish items for which the user has implicitly or explicitly indicated some level of interest from items predicted by the recommendation service to be of interest .) the recommendations are generated using a table which maps items to lists of “ similar ” items (“ similar items lists ”), without the need for users to rate any items ( although ratings data may optionally be used ). for example , if there are three items that are known to be of interest to a particular user ( such as three items the user recently purchased ), the service may retrieve the similar items lists for these three items from the table , and appropriately combine these lists ( as described below ) to generate the recommendations . in accordance with one aspect of the invention , the mappings of items to similar items (“ item - to - item mappings ”) are generated periodically , such as once per week , from data which reflects the collective interests of the community of users . more specifically , the item - to - item mappings are generated by an off - line process which identifies correlations between known interests of users in particular items . for example , in the embodiment described in detail below , the mappings are generating by analyzing user purchase histories to identify correlations between purchases of particular items ( e . g ., items a and b are similar because a relatively large portion of the users that purchased item a also bought item b ). the item - to - item mappings could also reflect other types of similarities , including content - based similarities extracted by analyzing item descriptions or content . an important aspect of the recommendation service is that the relatively computation - intensive task of correlating item interests is performed off - line , and the results of this task ( item - to - item mappings ) are stored in a mapping structure for subsequent look - up . this enables the personal recommendations to be generated rapidly and efficiently ( such as in real - time in response to a request by the user ), without sacrificing breadth of analysis . in accordance with another aspect of the invention , the similar items lists read from the table are appropriately weighted ( prior to being combined ) based on indicia of the user &# 39 ; s affinity for or current interest in the corresponding items of known interest . for example , in one embodiment described below , if the item of known interest was previously rated by the user ( such as through use of the bookmatcher service ), the rating is used to weight the corresponding similar items list . similarly , the similar items list for a book that was purchased in the last week may be weighted more heavily than the similar items list for a book that was purchased four months ago . another feature of the invention involves using the current and / or recent contents of the user &# 39 ; s shopping cart as inputs to the recommendation service . for example , if the user currently has three items in his or her shopping cart , these three items can be treated as the items of known interest for purposes of generating recommendations , in which case the recommendations may be generated and displayed automatically when the user views the shopping cart contents . if the user has multiple shopping carts , the recommendations are preferably generated based on the contents of the shopping cart implicitly or explicitly designated by the user , such as the shopping cart currently being viewed . this method of generating recommendations can also be used within other types of recommendation systems , including content - based systems and systems that do not use item - to - item mappings . using the current and / or recent shopping cart contents as inputs tends to produce recommendations that are highly correlated to the current short - term interests of the user — even if these short term interests are not reflected by the user &# 39 ; s purchase history . for example , if the user is currently searching for a father &# 39 ; s day gift and has selected several books for prospective purchase , this method will have a tendency to identify other books that are well suited for the gift recipient . another feature of the invention involves generating recommendations that are specific to a particular shopping cart . this allows a user who has created multiple shopping carts to conveniently obtain recommendations that are specific to the role or purpose to the particular cart . for example , a user who has created a personal shopping cart for buying books for her children can designate this shopping cart to obtain recommendations of children &# 39 ; s books . in one embodiment of this feature , the recommendations are generated based solely upon the current contents of the shopping cart selected for display . in another embodiment , the user may designate one or more shopping carts to be used to generate the recommendations , and the service then uses the items that were purchased from these shopping carts as the items of known interest . as will be recognized by those skilled in the art , the above - described techniques for using shopping cart contents to generate recommendations can also be incorporated into other types of recommendation systems , including pure content - based systems . fig1 illustrates the basic components of the amazon . com web site 30 , including the components used to implement the recommendation service . the arrows in fig1 show the general flow of information that is used by the recommendation service . as illustrated by fig1 , the web site 30 includes a web server application 32 (“ web server ”) which processes http ( hypertext transfer protocol ) requests received over the internet from user computers 34 . the web server 34 accesses a database 36 of html ( hypertext markup language ) content which includes product information pages and other browsable information about the various products of the catalog . the “ items ” that are the subject of the recommendation service are the titles ( regardless of media format such as hardcover or paperback ) that are represented within this database 36 . the web site 30 also includes a “ user profiles ” database 38 which stores account - specific information about users of the site . because a group of individuals can share an account , a given “ user ” from the perspective of the web site may include multiple actual users . as illustrated by fig1 , the data stored for each user may include one or more of the following types of information ( among other things ) that can be used to generate recommendations in accordance with the invention : ( a ) the user &# 39 ; s purchase history , including dates of purchase , ( b ) the user &# 39 ; s item ratings profile ( if any ), ( c ) the current contents of the user &# 39 ; s personal shopping cart ( s ), and ( d ) a listing of items that were recently ( e . g ., within the last six months ) removed from the shopping cart ( s ) without being purchased (“ recent shopping cart contents ”). if a given user has multiple shopping carts , the purchase history for that user may include information about the particular shopping cart used to make each purchase ; preserving such information allows the recommendation service to be configured to generate recommendations that are specific to a particular shopping cart . as depicted by fig1 , the web server 32 communicates with various external components 40 of the site . these external components 40 include , for example , a search engine and associated database ( not shown ) for enabling users to interactively search the catalog for particular items . also included within the external components 40 are various order processing modules ( not shown ) for accepting and processing orders , and for updating the purchase histories of the users . the external components 40 also include a shopping cart process ( not shown ) which adds and removes items from the users &# 39 ; personal shopping carts based on the actions of the respective users . ( the term “ process ” is used herein to refer generally to one or more code modules that are executed by a computer system to perform a particular task or set of related tasks .) in one embodiment , the shopping cart process periodically “ prunes ” the personal shopping cart listings of items that are deemed to be dormant , such as items that have not been purchased or viewed by the particular user for a predetermined period of time ( e . g . two weeks ). the shopping cart process also preferably generates and maintains the user - specific listings of recent shopping cart contents . the external components 40 also include recommendation service components 44 that are used to implement the site &# 39 ; s various recommendation services . recommendations generated by the recommendation services are returned to the web server 32 , which incorporates the recommendations into personalized web pages transmitted to users . the recommendation service components 44 include a bookmatcher application 50 which implements the above - described bookmatcher service . users of the bookmatcher service are provided the opportunity to rate individual book titles from a list of popular titles . the book titles are rated according to the following scale : users can also rate book titles during ordinary browsing of the site . as depicted in fig1 , the bookmatcher application 50 records the ratings within the user &# 39 ; s items rating profile . for example , if a user of the bookmatcher service gives the book into thin air a score of “ 5 ,” the bookmatcher application 50 would record the item ( by isbn or other identifier ) and the score within the user &# 39 ; s item ratings profile . the bookmatcher application 50 uses the users &# 39 ; item ratings profiles to generate personal recommendations , which can be requested by the user by selecting an appropriate hyperlink . as described in detail below , the item ratings profiles are also used by an “ instant recommendations ” implementation of the recommendation service . the recommendation services components 44 also include a recommendation process 52 , a similar items table 60 , and an off - line table generation process 66 , which collectively implement the recommendation service . as depicted by the arrows in fig1 , the recommendation process 52 generates personal recommendations based on information stored within the similar items table 60 , and based on the items that are known to be of interest (“ items of known interest ”) to the particular user . in the embodiments described in detail below , the items of known interest are identified based on information stored in the user &# 39 ; s profile , such as by selecting all items purchased by the user or all items in the user &# 39 ; s shopping cart . in other embodiments of the invention , other types of methods or sources of information could be used to identify the items of known interest . for example , in a service used to recommend web sites , the items ( web sites ) known to be of interest to a user could be identified by parsing a web server access log and / or by extracting urls from the “ favorite places ” list of the user &# 39 ; s web browser . in a service used to recommend restaurants , the items ( restaurants ) of known interest could be identified by parsing the user &# 39 ; s credit card records to identify restaurants that were visited more than once . the various processes 50 , 52 , 66 of the recommendation services may run , for example , on one or more unix or nt based workstations or physical servers ( not shown ) of the web site 30 . the similar items table 60 is preferably stored as a b - tree data structure to permit efficient look - up , and may be replicated across multiple machines ( together with the associated code of the recommendation process 52 ) to accommodate heavy loads . the general form and content of the similar items table 60 will now be described with reference to fig1 . as this table can take on many alternative forms , the details of the table are intended to illustrate , and not limit , the scope of the invention . as indicated above , the similar items table 60 maps items to lists of similar items based at least upon the collective interests of the community of users . the similar items table 60 is preferably generated periodically ( e . g ., once per week ) by the off - line table generation process 66 . the table generation process 66 generates the table 60 from data that reflects the collective interests of the community of users . in the embodiment described in detail herein , the similar items table is generated exclusively from the purchase histories of the community of users ( as depicted in fig1 ). in other embodiments , the table 60 may additionally or alternatively be generated from other indicia of user - item interests , including indicia based on users viewing activities , shopping cart activities , and item rating profiles . for example , the table 60 could be built exclusively from the present and / or recent shopping cart contents of users . the similar items table 60 could also reflect non - collaborative type item similarities , including content - based similarities derived by comparing item contents or descriptions . each entry in the similar items table 60 is preferably in the form of a mapping of a popular item 62 to a corresponding list 64 of similar items (“ similar items lists ”). as used herein , a “ popular ” item is an item which satisfies some pre - specified popularity criteria . for example , in the embodiment described herein , an item is treated as popular of it has been purchased by more than 30 customers during the life of the web site . using this criteria produces a set of popular items ( and thus a recommendation service ) which grows over time . the similar items list 64 for a given popular item 62 may include other popular items . in other embodiments involving sales of products , the table 60 may include entries for most or all of the products of the online merchant , rather than just the popular items . in the embodiment described herein , several different types of items ( books , cds , videos , etc .) are reflected within the same table 60 , although separate tables could alternatively be generated for each type of item . each similar items list 64 consists of the n ( e . g ., 20 ) items which , based on correlations between purchases of items , are deemed to be the most closely related to the respective popular item 62 . each item in the similar items list 64 is stored together with a commonality index (“ ci ”) value which indicates the relatedness of that item to the popular item 62 , based on sales of the respective items . a relatively high commonality index for a pair of items item a and item b indicates that a relatively large percentage of users who bought item a also bought item b ( and vice versa ). a relatively low commonality index for item a and item b indicates that a relatively small percentage of the users who bought item a also bought item b ( and vice versa ). as described below , the similar items lists are generated , for each popular item , by selecting the n other items that have the highest commonality index values . using this method , item a may be included in item b &# 39 ; s similar items list even though item b in not present in item a &# 39 ; s similar items list . in the embodiment depicted by fig1 , the items are represented within the similar items table 60 using product ids , such as isbns or other identifiers . alternatively , the items could be represented within the table by title id , where each title id corresponds to a given “ work ” regardless of its media format . in either case , different items which correspond to the same work , such as the hardcover and paperback versions of a given book or the vcr cassette and dvd versions of a given video , are preferably treated as a unit for purposes of generating recommendations . although the recommendable items in the described system are in the form of book titles , music titles and videos titles , it will be appreciated that the underlying methods and data structures can be used to recommend a wide range of other types of items . for example , in the system depicted by fig1 , the recommendation service could also be used to recommend authors , artists , and categorizations or groups of works . the general sequence of steps that are performed by the recommendation process 52 to generate a set of personal recommendations will now be described with reference to fig2 . this process , and the more specific implementations of the process depicted by fig5 and 7 ( described below ), are intended to illustrate , and not limit , the scope of the invention . the fig2 process is preferably invoked in real - time in response to an online action of the user . for example , in an instant recommendations implementation ( fig5 and 6 ) of the service , the recommendations are generated and displayed in real - time ( based on the user &# 39 ; s purchase history and / or item ratings profile ) in response to selection by the user of a corresponding hyperlink , such as a hyperlink which reads “ instant book recommendations ” or “ instant music recommendations .” in a shopping cart based implementation ( fig7 ), the recommendations are generated ( based on the user &# 39 ; s current and / or recent shopping cart contents ) in real - time when the user initiates a display of a shopping cart , and are displayed on the same web page as the shopping cart contents . the instant recommendations and shopping cart based embodiments are described separately below under corresponding headings . any of a variety of other methods can be used to initiate the recommendations generation process and to display the recommendations to the user . for example , the recommendations can automatically be generated periodically and sent to the user by e - mail , in which case the e - mail listing may contain hyperlinks to the product information pages of the recommended items . further , the personal recommendations could be generated in advance of any request or action by the user , and cached by the web site 30 until requested . as illustrated by fig2 , the first step ( step 80 ) of the recommendations - generation process involves identifying a set of items that are of known interest to the user . the “ knowledge ” of the user &# 39 ; s interest can be based on explicit indications of interest ( e . g ., the user rated the item highly ) or implicit indications of interest ( e . g ., the user added the item to a shopping cart ). items that are not “ popular items ” within the similar items table 60 can optionally be ignored during this step . in the embodiment depicted in fig1 , the items of known interest are selected from one or more of the following groups : ( a ) items in the user &# 39 ; s purchase history ( optionally limited to those items purchased from a particular shopping cart ); ( b ) items in the user &# 39 ; s shopping cart ( or a particular shopping cart designated by the user ), ( c ) items rated by the user ( optionally with a score that exceeds a certain threshold , such as two ), and ( d ) items in the “ recent shopping cart contents ” list associated with a given user or shopping cart . in other embodiments , the items of known interest may additionally or alternatively be selected based on the viewing activities of the user . for example , the recommendations process 52 could select items that were viewed by the user for an extended period of time and / or viewed more than once . further , the user could be prompted to select items of interest from a list of popular items . for each item of known interest , the service retrieves the corresponding similar items list 64 from the similar items table 60 ( step 82 ), if such a list exists . if no entries exist in the table 60 for any of the items of known interest , the process 52 may be terminated ; alternatively , the process could attempt to identify additional items of interest , such as by accessing other sources of interest information . in step 84 , the similar items lists 64 are optionally weighted based on information about the user &# 39 ; s affinity for the corresponding items of known interest . for example , a similar items list 64 may be weighted heavily if the user gave the corresponding popular item a rating of “ 5 ” on a scale or 1 - 5 , or if the user purchased multiple copies of the item . weighting a similar items list 64 heavily has the effect of increasing the likelihood that the items in that list we be included in the recommendations that are ultimately presented to the user . in one implementation described below , the user is presumed to have a greater affinity for recently purchased items over earlier purchased items . the similar items lists 64 are preferably weighted by multiplying the commonality index values of the list by a weighting value . the commonality index values as weighted by any applicable weighting value are referred to herein as “ scores .” in other embodiments , the recommendations may be generated without weighting the similar items lists 64 . if multiple similar items lists 64 are retrieved in step 82 , the lists are appropriately combined ( step 86 ), such as by merging the lists while summing the scores of like items . the resulting list is then sorted ( step 88 ) in order of highest - to - lowest score . in step 90 , the sorted list is filtered to remove unwanted items . the items removed during the filtering process may include , for example , items that have already been purchased or rated by the user , and items that fall outside any product group ( such as music or books ), product category ( such as non - fiction ), or content rating ( such as pg or adult ) designated by the user . the filtering step could alternatively be performed at a different stage of the process , such as during the retrieval of the similar items lists from the table 60 . the result of step 90 is a list (“ recommendations list ”) of other items to be recommended to the user . in step 92 , one or more additional items are optionally added to the recommendations list . in one embodiment , the items added in step 92 are selected from the set of items ( if any ) in the user &# 39 ; s “ recent shopping cart contents ” list . as an important benefit of this step , the recommendations include one or more items that the user previously considered purchasing but did not purchase . the items added in step 92 may additionally or alternatively be selected using another recommendations method , such as a content - based method . finally , in step 94 , a list of the top m ( e . g ., 15 ) items of the recommendations list are returned to the web server 32 ( fig1 ). the web server incorporates this list into one or more web pages that are returned to the user , with each recommended item being presented as a hypertextual link to the item &# 39 ; s product information page . the recommendations may alternatively be conveyed to the user by email , facsimile , or other transmission method . further , the recommendations could be presented as advertisements for the recommended items . iv . generation of similar items table ( fig3 and 4 ) the table - generation process 66 is preferably executed periodically ( e . g ., once a week ) to generate a similar items table 60 that reflects the most recent purchase history data . the recommendation process 52 uses the most recently generated version of the table 60 to generate recommendations . fig3 illustrates the sequence of steps that are performed by the table generation process 66 to build the similar items table 60 . the general form of temporary data structures that are generated during the process are shown at the right of the drawing . as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art , any of a variety of alternative methods could be used to generate the table 60 . as depicted by fig3 , the process initially retrieves the purchase histories for all customers ( step 100 ). each purchase history is in the general form of the user id of a customer together with a list of the product ids ( isbns , etc .) of the items ( books , cds , videos , etc .) purchased by that customer . in embodiments which support multiple shopping carts within a given account , each shopping cart could be treated as a separate customer for purposes of generating the table . for example , if a given user ( or group of users that share an account ) purchased items from two different shopping carts within the same account , these purchases could be treated as the purchases of separate users . the product ids may be converted to title ids during this process , or when the table 60 is later used to generate recommendations , so that different versions of an item ( e . g ., hardcover and paperback ) are represented as a single item . this may be accomplished , for example , by using a separate database which maps product ids to title ids . to generate a similar items table that strongly reflects the current tastes of the community , the purchase histories retrieved in step 100 can be limited to a specific time period , such as the last six months . in steps 102 and 104 , the process generates two temporary tables 102 a and 104 a . the first table 102 a maps individual customers to the items they purchased . the second table 104 a maps items to the customers that purchased such items . to avoid the effects of “ ballot stuffing ,” multiple copies of the same item purchased by a single customer are represented with a single table entry . for example , even if a single customer purchased 4000 copies of one book , the customer will be treated as having purchased only a single copy . in addition , items that were sold to an insignificant number ( e . g ., & lt ; 15 ) of customers are preferably omitted or deleted from the tables 102 a , 104 b . in step 106 , the process identifies the items that constitute “ popular ” items . this may be accomplished , for example , by selecting from the item - to - customers table 104 a those items that were purchased by more than a threshold number ( e . g ., 30 ) of customers . in the context of the amazon . com web site , to resulting set of popular items may contain hundreds of thousands or millions of items . in step 108 , the process counts , for each ( popular_item , other_item ) pair , the number of customers that are in common . a pseudocode sequence for performing this step is listed in table 1 . the result of step 108 is a table that indicates , for each ( popular_item , other_item ) pair , the number of customers the two have in common . for example , in the hypothetical table 108 a of fig3 , popular_a and item_b have seventy customers in common , indicating that seventy customers bought both items . in step 110 , the process generates the commonality indexes for each ( popular_item , other_item ) pair in the table 108 a . as indicated above , the commonality index ( ci ) values are measures of the similarity between two items , with larger ci values indicating greater degrees of similarity . the commonality indexes are preferably generated such that , for a given popular_item , the respective commonality indexes of the corresponding other_items take into consideration both ( a ) the number of customers that are common to both items , and ( b ) the total number of customers of the other_item . a preferred method for generating the commonality index values is set forth in the equation below , in which n a represents the number of customers of item_a , n b represents the number of customers of item_b , and n common represents the number of customers of item_a and item_b . ci ( item_a , item_b ) = n common n a × n b fig4 illustrates this method in example form . in the fig4 example , item_p ( a popular item ) has two “ other items ,” item_x and item_y . item_p has been purchased by 300 customers , item_x by 300 customers , and item_y by 30 , 000 customers . in addition , item_p and item_x have 20 customers in common , and item_p and item_y have 25 customers in common . applying the equation above to the values shown in fig4 produces the following results : thus , even though items p and y have more customers in common than items p and x , items p and x are treated as being more similar than items p and y . this result desirably reflects the fact that the percentage of item_x customers that bought item_p ( 6 . 7 %) is much greater than the percentage of item_y customers that bought item_p ( 0 . 08 %). because this equation is symmetrical ( i . e ., ci ( item_a , item_b )= ci ( item_b , item_a )), it is not necessary to separately calculate the ci value for every location in the table 108 a . in other embodiments , an asymmetrical method may be used to generate the ci values . for example , the ci value for a ( popular_item , other_item ) pair could be generated as ( customers of popular_item and other_item )/( customers of other_item ). following step 110 of fig3 , each popular item has a respective “ other items ” list which includes all of the other_items from the table 108 a and their associated ci values . in step 112 , each other_items list is sorted from highest - to - lowest commonality index . using the fig4 values as an example , item_x would be positioned closer to the top of the item_b &# 39 ; s list than item_y , since 0 . 014907 & gt ; 0 . 001643 . in step 114 , the sorted other_items lists are filtered by deleting all list entries that have fewer than 3 customers in common . for example , in the other_items list for popular_a in table 108 a , item_a would be deleted since popular_a and item_a have only two customers in common . deleting such entries tends to reduce statistically poor correlations between item sales . in step 116 , the sorted other_items lists are truncated to length n to generate the similar items lists , and the similar items lists are stored in a b - tree table structure for efficient look - up as indicated above , any of a variety of other methods for evaluating similarities between items could be incorporated into the table generation process 66 . for example , the table generation process could compare item contents and / or use previously - assigned product categorizations as additional indicators of item similarities . an important benefit of the fig3 method , however , is that the items need not contain any content that is amenable to feature extraction techniques , and need not be pre - assigned to any categories . for example , the method can be used to generate a similar items table given nothing more than the product ids of a set of products and user purchase histories with respect to these products . another important benefit of the recommendation service is that the bulk of the processing ( the generation of the similar items table 60 ) is performed by an off - line process . once this table has been generated , personalized recommendations can be generated rapidly and efficiently , without sacrificing breadth of analysis . a specific implementation of the recommendation service , referred to herein as the instant recommendations service , will now be described with reference to fig5 and 6 . as indicated above , the instant recommendations service is invoked by the user by selecting a corresponding hyperlink from a web page . for example , the user may select an “ instant book recommendations ” or similar hyperlink to obtain a listing of recommended book titles , or may select a “ instant music recommendations ” or “ instant video recommendations ” hyperlink to obtain a listing of recommended music or video titles . as described below , the user can also request that the recommendations be limited to a particular item category , such as “ non - fiction ,” “ jazz ” or “ comedies .” the instant recommendations service generates the recommendations based exclusively on the purchase history and any item ratings profile of the particular user . the service becomes available to the user ( i . e ., the appropriate hyperlink is presented to the user ) once the user has purchased and / or rated a threshold number ( e . g . three ) of popular items within the corresponding product group . if the user has established multiple shopping carts , the user may also be presented the option of designating a particular shopping cart to be used in generating the recommendations . fig5 illustrates the sequence of steps that are performed by the instant recommendations service to generate personal recommendations . steps 180 - 194 in fig5 correspond , respectively , to steps 80 - 94 in fig2 . in step 180 , the process 52 identifies all popular items that have been purchased by the user ( from a particular shopping cart , if designated ) or rated by the user , within the last six months . in step 182 , the process retrieves the similar items lists 64 for these popular items from the similar items table 60 . in step 184 , the process 52 weights each similar items list based on the duration since the associated popular item was purchased by the user ( with recently - purchased items weighted more heavily ), or if the popular item was not purchased , the rating given to the popular item by the user . the formula used to generate the weight values to apply to each similar items list is listed in c in table 2 . in this formula , “ is_purchased ” is a boolean variable which indicates whether the popular item was purchased , “ rating ” is the rating value ( 1 - 5 ), if any , assigned to the popular item by the user , “ order_date ” is the date / time ( measured in seconds since 1970 ) the popular item was purchased , “ now ” is the current date / time ( measured in seconds since 1970 ), and “ 6 months ” is six months in seconds . in line 1 of the formula , if the popular item was purchased , the value “ 5 ” ( the maximum possible rating value ) is selected ; otherwise , the user &# 39 ; s rating of the item is selected . the selected value ( which may range from 1 - 5 ) is then multiplied by 2 , and 5 is subtracted from the result . the value calculated in line 1 thus ranges from a minimum of − 3 ( if the item was rated a “ 1 ”) to a maximum of 5 ( if the item was purchased or was rated a “ 5 ”). the value calculated in line 1 is multiplied by the value calculated in lines 2 and 3 , which can range from a minimum of 1 ( if the item was either not purchased or was purchased at least six months ago ) to a maximum of 2 ( if order_date = now ). thus , the weight can range from a minimum of − 6 to a maximum of 10 . weights of zero and below indicate that the user rated the item a “ 2 ” or below . weights higher than 5 indicate that the user actually purchased the item ( although a weight of 5 or less is possible even if the item was purchased ), with higher values indicating more recent purchases . the similar items lists 64 are weighted in step 184 by multiplying the ci values of the list by the corresponding weight value . for example , if the weight value for a given popular item is ten , and the similar items list 64 for the popular item is the numerical values in the weighted similar items lists are referred to as “ scores .” in step 186 , the weighted similar items lists are merged ( if multiple lists exist ) to form a single list . during this step , the scores of like items are summed . for example , if a given other_item appears in three different similar items lists 64 , the three scores ( including any negative scores ) are summed to produce a composite score . in step 188 , the resulting list is sorted from highest - to - lowest score . the effect of the sorting operation is to place the most relevant items at the top of the list . in step 190 , the list is filtered by deleting any items that ( 1 ) have already been purchased or rated by the user , ( 2 ) have a negative score , or ( 3 ) do not fall within the designated product group ( e . g ., books ) or category ( e . g ., “ science fiction ,” or “ jazz ”). in step 192 one or more items are optionally selected from the recent shopping cart contents list ( if such a list exists ) for the user , excluding items that have been rated by the user or which fall outside the designated product group or category . the selected items , if any , are inserted at randomly - selected locations within the top m ( e . g ., 15 ) positions in the recommendations list . finally , in step 194 , the top m items from the recommendations list are returned to the web server 32 , which incorporates these recommendations into one or more web pages . the general form of such a web page is shown in fig6 , which lists five recommended items . from this page , the user can select a link associated with one of the recommended items to view the product information page for that item . in addition , the user can select a “ more recommendations ” button 200 to view additional items from the list of m items . further , the user can select a “ refine your recommendations ” link to rate or indicate ownership of the recommended items . indicating ownership of an item causes the item to be added to the user &# 39 ; s purchase history listing . the user can also select a specific category such as “ non - fiction ” or “ romance ” from a drop - down menu 202 to request category - specific recommendations . designating a specific category causes items in all other categories to be filtered out in step 190 ( fig5 ). another specific implementation of the recommendation service , referred to herein as shopping cart recommendations , will now be described with reference to fig7 . the shopping cart recommendations service is preferably invoked automatically when the user displays the contents of a shopping cart that contains more than a threshold number ( e . g ., 1 ) of popular items . the service generates the recommendations based exclusively on the current contents of the shopping cart . as a result , the recommendations tend to be highly correlated to the user &# 39 ; s current shopping interests . in other implementations , the recommendations may also be based on other items that are deemed to be of current interest to the user , such as items in the recent shopping cart contents of the user and / or items recently viewed by the user . further , other indications of the user &# 39 ; s current shopping interests could be incorporated into the process . for example , any search terms typed into the site &# 39 ; s search engine during the user &# 39 ; s browsing session could be captured and used to perform content - based filtering of the recommended items list . fig7 illustrates the sequence of steps that are performed by the shopping cart recommendations service to generate a set of shopping - cart - based recommendations . in step 282 , the similar items list for each popular item in the shopping cart is retrieved from the similar items table 60 . the similar items list for one or more additional items that are deemed to be of current interest could also be retrieved during this step , such as the list for an item recently deleted from the shopping cart or recently viewed for an extended period of time . in step 286 , these similar items lists are merged while summing the commonality index ( ci ) values of like items . in step 288 , the resulting list is sorted from highest - to - lowest score . in step 290 , the list is filtered to remove any items that exist in the shopping cart or have been purchased or rated by the user . finally , in step 294 , the top m ( e . g ., 5 ) items of the list are returned as recommendations . the recommendations are preferably presented to the user on the same web page ( not shown ) as the shopping cart contents . if the user has defined multiple shopping carts , the recommendations generated by the fig7 process may be based solely on the contents of the shopping cart currently selected for display . as described above , this allows the user to obtain recommendations that correspond to the role or purpose of a particular shopping cart ( e . g ., work versus home ). the various uses of shopping cart contents to generate recommendations as described above can be applied to other types of recommendation systems , including content - based systems . for example , the current and / or past contents of a shopping cart can be used to generate recommendations in a system in which mappings of items to lists of similar items are generated from a computer - based comparison of item contents . methods for performing content - based similarity analyses of items are well known in the art , and are therefore not described herein . although this invention has been described in terms of certain preferred embodiments , other embodiments that are apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art are also within the scope of this invention . for example , although the embodiments described herein employ item lists , other programming methods for keeping track of and combining sets of similar items can be used . accordingly , the scope of the present invention is intended to be defined only by reference to the appended claims . in the claims which follow , reference characters used to denote process steps are provided for convenience of description only , and not to imply a particular order for performing the steps . | 6 |
an extended keyboard modified from the keyboard in fig1 a is illustrated in fig2 a . a voltage line , vcc , which is connected to a voltage source , is incorporated to form a new row . a ground line , vss , which is connected to ground , is incorporated to form a new column . therefore , eight input keys are added to the keyboard , a1 to a4 and b1 to b4 . or , in other words , the new keyboard has eight keys more than the original keyboard shown in fig1 a . fig3 shows a first embodiment of a keyboard scanning circuit for operating with the extended keyboard shown in fig2 a according to the present invention . the scanning circuit includes a scanning circuit 1 for scanning the status of the keys on the keyboard , memory devices 2 coupled to the scanning circuit 1 for storing the status of the keys , and two extended line detectors 3 and 4 connected to the memory devices 2 for detecting the extended keys ( b1 - b4 ) on the voltage line ( vcc ) or the extended keys ( a1 - a4 ) on the ground line ( vss ). the circuit is controlled by control clocks s1 , s2 , s3 and s4 as shown in fig4 which are generated by a clock generator ( not shown ). the scanning circuit 1 mainly consists of a flip - flop 11 , a plurality of pmos transistors 12 and 13 , a plurality of nmos transistors 14 and 15 , a plurality of resistors 16 and 17 , and three logic gates 18 , 19 , and 111 as shown in fig3 . the flip - flop 11 has two inputs connected to clocks s1 and s3 respectively , and two outputs k1 and k2 . four pmos transistors 12 , each serially coupled with a resistor 16 , are respectively coupled between the row ports r1 to r4 and the voltage source vcc , with their gate electrodes connected to k1 . four pmos transistors 13 are respectively coupled between four row ports r1 to r4 and the voltage source vcc directly , with their gate electrodes connected to k2 . and gate 18 has four inputs connected to four row ports r1 to r4 respectively , with its output connected to one of the input of nand gate 111 . in a similar way , with some differences , four nmos transistors 14 are respectively coupled between four column ports c1 to c4 and the ground vss directly , with their gate electrodes connected to k2 . four nmos transistors 15 , each serially coupled with a resistor 17 , are respectively coupled between the column ports c1 to c4 and the ground vss , with their gate electrodes connected to k1 . nor gate 19 has four inputs connected to the column ports respectively , with its output connected to one of the inputs of nand gate 111 . the memory devices 2 comprises a plurality of latches , which are well known by those skilled in the art . latches 20a to 20d are respectively connected to the row ports r1 to r4 and driven by clock s2 , with their inverted output being connected to the row lines qr1 to qr4 which indicate the row in which a key is pressed . latches 30a to 30d are respectively connected to the column ports c1 to c4 and driven by clock s4 , with their non - inverted outputs being connected to the column lines qc1 to qc4 which indicate the column in which a key is pressed . latch 10 is used to detect whether there is any key pressed down . the output of the nand gate 111 is connected to the latch 10 . the clock input of the latch 10 is connected to k2 . if any key has been pressed in a scanning sequence , the output of the nand gate 111 will go high , and it is stored in latch 10 . the non - inverted output of the latch 10 is connected to akd ( any key down ). extended line detectors 3 and 4 are both nor gates . the inputs of the nor gate 3 are connected to the outputs of latches 20a to 20d . the output of the nor gate 3 is connected to qr5 . therefore , if no high level occurs on qr1 to qr4 , the output of the nor gate 3 , i . e . qr5 , will go high . the inputs of the nor gate 4 are connected to the outputs of latches 30a to 30d . the output of the nor gate 4 is connected to qc5 . therefore , if no high level occurs on qc1 to qc4 , the output of the nor gate 4 , i . e . qc5 , will go high . at the beginning of a scan , clock s1 is at a high level and clock s3 is at a low level , so that k1 is low and k2 is high . pmos transistors 12 and nmos transistor 14 are on . pmos transistors 13 and nmos transistors 15 are off . row ports r1 to r4 are set to high level with high impedance , and column ports c1 to c4 are set to low level with low impedance . if any key is pressed down , one of the row ports r1 to r4 will go to a low level , unless the key is in the vcc row of fig2 a . when clock s2 is at a high level , the status of the row ports is stored into latches 20a to 20d . the particular row which goes low corresponds to the row in which the key is pressed , and the corresponding output , i . e . one of qr1 to qr4 , will become high . if the key in the vcc row is pressed , then qr1 to qr4 all stay low and qr5 goes to a high level . when clock s3 is at a high level and clock s1 is at a low level , k1 will be high and k2 is low . then pmos transistors 12 and nmos transistor 14 are off , and pmos transistors 13 and nmos transistors 15 are on . row ports r1 to r4 are set to high level with low impedance , and column ports c1 to c4 are set to low level with high impedance . if the key is still pressed down , one of the column ports c1 to c4 will go to a high level , unless the key is in the vss column . when clock s4 is at a high level , the status of the row ports is stored into latches 30a to 30d . the particular column which goes high corresponds to the column in which the key is pressed , and the corresponding output , i . e . one of qc1 to qc4 , will become high . if the key in the vss column is pressed , then qc1 to qc4 all stay low and qc5 goes to a high level . as shown in fig4 clocks s1 to s4 will repeatedly cause the circuit to scan the keyboard . if a key is pressed for a period of time , the state of the row and column ports will decode the position of the key on row lines qr1 to qr5 and column lines qc1 to qc5 , where qr5 represents the keys on the vcc line , and qc5 represents the keys on the vss line . the row lines and column line corresponding to the pressed key will become high level , others will remain low level . akd ( any key down ) line will become high if any key is pressed . it should be noted that logic gates 18 , 19 and 111 , and latch 10 can be omitted when akd is not needed . it should also be noted that the scanning circuit 1 can be easily be modified to use nmos transistors on row ports and pmos transistors on column ports , by exchanging the pmos transistors 12 and 13 with nmos transistors 14 and 15 , and exchanging k1 and k2 at the same time . a second embodiment of the present invention is shown in fig5 . the circuit of the second embodiment is the same as that of the first embodiment , except that the row ports and column ports are exchanged . the second embodiment is used to incorporate with another extended keyboard shown in fig2 b . the extended keyboard shown in fig2 b is different from that shown in fig2 a only in that the voltage line vcc and ground line vss are exchanged . the circuit is controlled by control clocks s1 , s2 , s3 and s4 as shown in fig6 which are same as the clocks shown in fig4 . the function of the circuit should now be readily apparent to those skilled in the art since it is so similar to that of the first embodiment . while the invention has been described by way of an example and in terms of several preferred embodiments , it is to be understood that the invention need not be limited to the disclosed embodiment . on the contrary , it is intended to cover various modifications and similar arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the appended claims , the scope of which should be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similar structures . | 7 |
the illustration in the drawing is schematically . in different drawings , similar or identical elements are provided with the same reference signs . in the following an authentication method 100 based on a zero knowledge proof of knowledge protocol according to an exemplary embodiment will be described in more detail with reference to the flow chart of fig1 . in a first step 101 a manufacturer defines a primary base point g of a mathematical group g , e . g . on an elliptic curve . in a next step 102 a private key x is chosen for every security token a having a serial number id . afterwards a public key y is calculated 103 according g ′= g id and y = g ′ x , wherein g ′ represents a secondary base point which is unique for every security token , since id is unique for every security token . then the serial number id , the public key y and a certificate for y is stored on the security token 104 . the certificate may be issued for example by the security token &# 39 ; s manufacturer or any other trusted third party in the authentication system . for authentication the security token a sends its serial number id , its public key y and the certificate to a reader b 105 . the reader b verifies the certificate 106 and in case of a valid certificate b computes g ′= g id 107 as the base point for the following protocol . in case the certificate is not valid the authentication method aborts 113 . furthermore , a chooses a number r , computes g ′ r and sends the results to the reader b 108 . after receiving the result of g ′ r b randomly chooses a challenge c and sends the challenge c to the security token a 109 . then a computes wherein n is the order of the mathematical group g , and sends resp to b 110 . in a next step b verifies the response resp by checking whether g ′ resp equals g ′ r · y c 111 . in case the verification is positive the security token a is authentic 112 . in case the verification is not positive the security token a is not authentic 113 . an algorithm according to an exemplary embodiment may be used in every system where a serial number infrastructure exists and a strong cryptographic proof of authenticity is needed . assuming a token reader system where every security token is equipped with a unique 8 byte serial number an actual implementation may have the following steps : a manufacturer of the security tokens defines a cryptographic system based on elliptic curves , i . e . the manufacturer publishes the parameters of an elliptic curve , a base point g and its public key for certificate verification . to have a reasonable level of security parameters of 160 bits may be chosen . elliptic curve cryptography using 160 bits are typically considered to be even good enough for qualified digital signatures . thus , it may be possible to choose even shorter values than 160 bits , since the security level may not need to be so high . in both , security token and readers , an algorithm to perform point multiplication on elliptic curves may be implemented . for every security token the manufacturer may generate a unique identification ( uid ), a secret key y , may compute or generate a public key y = g uid * x and may issue a certificate for y , i . e . the manufacturer signs y with his own private key . assuming 8 bytes for the uid and a very high security level of 160 bits , the secret key may have 96 bits and the corresponding key may have 160 bits . whenever an entity wants to proof for the originality of the security token , the entity performs the protocol described with reference to the flow chart shown in fig1 . if the security token passes the test , it is original , if it fails then it is not . the protocol is correct since an attacker who can properly reply to every challenge c “ knows ” the private exponent . fig2 schematically illustrates a security token . such a security token may be a smart card or a usb security token . in particular , fig2 shows a schematically usb security token 200 . the usb security token 200 comprises an interface portion 201 adapted to be plugged to a usb port of a reading device and a body 202 building a housing for integrated circuits being part of the security token 200 . in particular , a memory 203 is schematically depicted in fig2 in which a private key , a base point for an authentication algorithm , a public key , a certificate for the public key , a serial number uid , and further data may be stored . finally , it should be noted that the above - mentioned embodiments illustrate rather then limit the invention , and that those skilled in the art will be capable of designing many alternative embodiments without departing from the scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims . in the claims , any reference signs placed in parentheses shall not be construed as limiting the claims . the word “ comprising ” and “ comprises ”, and the like , does not exclude the presence of elements or steps other than those listed in any claim or the specification as a whole . the singular reference of an element does not exclude the plural reference of such elements and vice - versa . in a device claim enumerating several means , several of these means may be embodied by one and the same item of software or hardware . the mere fact that certain measures are recited in mutually different dependent claims does not indicate that a combination of these measures cannot be used to advantage . | 7 |
preferred embodiments of the invention are able to decode a received dv audio stream based on analysis of a single dif block rather than on an entire audio frame as per the prior art solutions . for ∀ m , nεn , or in other words , for any m , n is a natural number , and n =└ n / m ┘* m + n % m ( 7 ) the constants c 1 and c 2 can be excluded from equations ( 1 )-( 6 ) without any loss of generality . the equations may therefore be re - written as follows , although the byte positions and sync block number are now offset . { t 1 = [ ⌊ n / 3 ⌋ + 2 * ( n % 3 ) ] % t ( ch1 ) ( 8 ) t 2 = [ ⌊ n / 3 ⌋ + 2 * ( n % 3 ) ] % t + t ( ch2 ) ( 9 ) s 1 = 3 * ( n % 3 ) + ⌊ ( n % k 1 ) / k 2 ⌋ ( 10 ) ( byte 1 ) ( 11 ) b 1 = b * ( n % k 1 ) ( byte 2 ) ( 12 ) b 1 ′ = 1 + b * ( n % k 1 ) ( byte 3 for 4 - ch ( 13 ) the various constants which were included in equations ( 1 ) to ( 6 ) can be excluded at this stage as they are invariant within a particular format of dv data ( e . g ., 2 - channel 525 / 60 ). the sync block number and byte positions are effectively offset to absorb c 1 and c 2 . as all data bytes belonging to the same audio sample are distributed consecutively within the same dif block , ( from equations ( 11 )-( 13 )), once the first byte in a sample is located , the other bytes may be easily located . the following derivation is for channel one and the first data byte only . the other bytes may be found as described from this information . n % k 1 = k 2 x 2 + c ( cεz and 0 ≦ c & lt ; k 2 ) ( 15 ) from equations ( 14 )-( 16 ) and equation ( 10 ), it can be seen that : ⌊ n / 3 ⌋ = ⌊ ( k 1 x 1 ) / 3 ⌋ + ⌊ ( k 2 x 2 ) / 3 ⌋ + ⌊ c / 3 ⌋ t 1 = [ ⌊ n / 3 ⌋ + 2 * ( n % 3 ) ⌋ % t ⇒ ⌊ n / 3 ⌋ = m * t + t 1 - 2 * ( n % 3 ) equation ( 14 ) } ⇒ ⌊ c / 3 ⌋ = m * t + t 1 - 2 * ( c % 3 ) = m * t + t 1 - 2 * ( s 1 / 3 ) , where m ′ = m - ⌊ ( k 1 x 1 ) / 3 ⌋ / t - ⌊ ( k 2 x 2 ) / 3 ⌋ / t . ( 22 ) in order to evaluate m , the constraints of the various parameters may be used as follows : - ( t - 1 ) ≤ m ′ t ≤ ( t + 3 ) ⇒ m ′ ∈ { 0 , 1 } m ′ * t + t 1 - 2 * ⌊ s 1 / 3 ⌋ = ⌊ c / 3 ⌋ ⇒ 0 ≤ m ′ * t + t 1 - 2 * ⌊ s 1 / 3 ⌋ & lt ; t } ⇒ { if ( t 1 - 2 * ⌊ s 1 / 3 ⌋ ) & lt ; 0 , m ′ = 1 else if ( t 1 - 2 * ⌊ s 1 / 3 ⌋ ≥ 0 , m ′ = 0 ) ( 23 ) equations ( 16 )-( 18 ), ( 22 ) and ( 23 ) can then be used to define the reverse mapping , f 1 as : n = f - 1 ( t 1 , s 1 b 1 ) = k 1 x 1 + k 2 x 2 + c = k 1 ( b 1 / b ) + k z ( s 1 % 3 ) + ( m ′ * t + t 1 - 2 * ⌊ s 1 / 3 ⌋ ) * 3 + ⌊ s 1 / 3 ⌋ where { if ( t 1 = 2 * ⌊ s 1 / 3 ⌋ ) & lt ; 0 , m ′ = 1 else if ( t 1 - 2 * ⌊ s 1 / 3 ⌋ ) ≥ 0 , m ′ = 0 ( 24 ) [ 0074 ] fig5 illustrates the 525 / 60 system . it is apparent that suitable changes may be made in order to adapt the process for other previously mentioned systems such as 625 / 50 . 1 . the explicit de - shuffling expression is determined from the shuffling equations . this process to find f 1 from f has already been described , and is performed off - line , i . e ., it is not necessary to perform the operation in real - time as it may be performed in advance of receipt of the dv data stream . 2 one dif block at a time is read from the external data stream . the indices of the dv data ( t 1 , s 1 , b 1 ) are used as the input arguments to the f 1 process . this allows the position n of the appropriate byte in the pcm data to be determined . the same value n is then also used for the subsequent ( b - 1 ) byte ( s ). 3 . if the system is operating 2 - channel mode , then pcm [ n ]= dv ( t 1 , s 1 , b 1 ) ⊕ dv ( t 1 , s 1 , b 1 + 1 ). if the system is not operating in 2 - channel mode , then pcm [ n ]= dv ( t 1 , s 1 , b 1 ) ⊕ dv ( t 1 , s 1 , b 1 + 1 ) ⊕ dv ( t 1 , s 1 , b 1 + 2 ). 4 . steps 2 and 3 above are repeated until all the dif blocks in the received dv audio frame are de - shuffled . 5 . post process the de - shuffled data , if necessary , and output as a pcm frame . a preferred method of performing the de - shuffling operation is to use a suitably programmed dsp ( digital signal processor ). a single dif block may be fetched from an external memory to an internal memory of the dsp . the dif block includes system specific information from which the constants k 1 , k 2 , t and b may be determined . these constants are used in the subsequent processing . for the first dif block of a new frame , the sync block number si , track number t 1 , and the dif block counter are reset to zero . whenever a new dif block is received , s 1 is incremented by 1 , and is reset to zero every nine dif blocks . then t 1 is incremented by 1 every nine dif blocks . each received dif block includes 72 data bytes which correspond to 72 / b samples . the shuffling equations reveal that individual data bytes belonging to the same data sample are distributed consecutively in the same dif block . making use of this fact , equation 24 is applied to only the first byte of each sample . this first byte , together with the b - 1 bytes which follow it are used to determine the pcm sample with index n calculated by the de - shuffling equations . the pointer to the dif block data is then incremented by b so that it points to the first byte of the next sample . when all the dif blocks in a dv frame have been processed as described , the desired number of samples which have been stored in the pcm buffer are written to the external memory , as shown in fig6 . in contrast to prior art decoding systems , therefore , embodiments of the present invention do not require an entire dv audio frame to be received before the decoding process can begin . also , them is no need to prepare and store a large look up table , saving the overhead of providing relatively large amounts of memory . many embodiments of the invention , using the explicit reverse mapping relationships described previously , are able to directly compile pcm data from incoming dv audio data , requiring only a single dif block at any one time . the indices t 1 , s 1 , b 1 are all that is required to determine the position of the data in the original pcm frame . the following table shows the reduction in memory which can be achieved through use of embodiments of the invention with different video standards . conventional embodiments of the memory method ( entire dv invention ( dif reduction system frame basis ) block basis ) factor ntsc 10 * 9 dif blocks = 1 dif block = 90 10 * 9 * 80 bytes = 80 bytes 7200 bytes pal 12 * 9 dif blocks = 1 dif block = 108 12 * 9 * 80 bytes = 80 bytes 8640 bytes the following table illustrates the reduction in different processing operations which can be achieved through use of embodiments of the invention . conventional embodiments of the method ( entire dv invention ( dif operation frame basis ) block basis ) reduction factor modular 3 / sample 1 / sample 67 % operation division 3 / sample 2 / sample 33 % it can be see that embodiments of the invention are able to provide decoding of dv audio data using significantly less physical memory , and requiring significantly fewer processing operations to achieve the same resultant data as can be achieved by prior art solutions . all of the above u . s . patents , u . s . patent application publications , u . s . patent applications , foreign patents , foreign patent applications and non - patent publications referred to in this specification and / or listed in the application data sheetare incorporated herein by reference , in their entirety . in the light of the foregoing description , it will be clear to the skilled person that various modifications may be made within the scope of the invention . the present invention includes any novel feature or combination of features disclosed herein either explicitly or any generalization thereof irrespective of whether or not it relates to the claimed invention or mitigates any or all of the problems addressed . | 6 |
the priority control valve herein is adapted to be used as in the hydraulic system of a fork lift truck or like mobile equipment in which the priority circuit is the power steering circuit and the auxiliary circuit includes the lift , tilt , etc . cylinders , said priority control valve being operative to satisfy the flow demands of the power steering circuit with the balance of the pump output being diverted to the auxiliary circuit . priority control valve for use with a variable displacement pump and with a four - way closed center steering control valve defining a variable area meter - in orifice the priority control valve 1 shown in fig1 and 1a comprises a housing 2 having priority circuit supply and return ports 3 and 4 which in the power steering circuit of a fork lift truck or the like are connected to the respective inlet and return ports of a four - way closed center steering control valve 5 having a variable area meter - in orifice for controlling the direction and speed of operation of the steering cylinder 6 . the housing 2 also has an auxiliary circuit supply port 7 which is adapted to be connected to supply fluid under pressure to the auxiliary circuit 8 which by way of example may be an integrated pressure compensated load sensing system as disclosed in the co - pending application of john c . paul , ser . no . 394 , 560 , filed sept . 6 , 1973 , now u . s . pat . no . 3 , 866 , 419 , dated feb . 18 , 1975 . fluid under pressure is conducted to the priority and auxiliary circuits through an inlet port 9 which is adapted to be connected to a variable displacement pump 10 such as disclosed in said u . s . pat . no . 3 , 866 , 419 and in malott , u . s . pat . no . 3 , 726 , 093 . said auxiliary circuit 8 is herein shown as comprising a directional control valve 8 &# 39 ; having a three way spool for controlling a lift cylinder 8 &# 34 ; and a four way spool for controlling a mast tilt cylinder 8 &# 39 ;&# 34 ;. as disclosed in said u . s . pat . no . 3 , 866 , 419 the directional control valve 8 &# 39 ; has a low signal port lo - s which is connected as shown to the low signal line lo - s of the pump 10 controller , and which is downstream of variable area orifices 62 &# 39 ; and 83 &# 39 ; ( corresponding to the orifices 62 and 83 in fig3 and 4 of said u . s . pat . no . 3 , 866 , 419 ) defined by actuation of the spools of valve 8 &# 39 ;, there being check valves 60 &# 39 ; and 82 &# 39 ; ( see check valves 60 and 82 in fig3 , and 7 of u . s . pat . no . 3 , 866 , 419 ) similar to check valve 17 ( fig1 a ) downstream of the respective variable area orifices 62 &# 39 ; and 83 &# 39 ;. the lift spool circuit is shown in position to lift the piston in cylinder 8 &# 34 ;. the orifice 83 &# 39 ; also corresponds to the orifice in the steering control valve 5 . also , as disclosed in said u . s . pat . no . 3 , 866 , 419 , the lift and tilt spools will have pressure compensating spools associated therewith to maintain selected speeds of actuation of the respective lift and tilt cylinders 8 &# 34 ; and 8 &# 34 ;&# 39 ; irrespective of variation of cylinder loads . the housing 2 has a bore 11 which is intersected axially therealong by a passage 12 which communicates by way of conduit 13 and passage 14 with the downstream side of a variable area meter - in orifice defined by operation of the closed center power steering control valve 5 ( also see malott u . s . pat . no . 3 , 726 , 093 and u . s . pat . no . 3 , 866 , 449 for examples of closed center variable area meter - in valves ), by a priority circuit supply passage 3 which also is the hi - s high signal passage which senses the fluid pressure upstream of the aforesaid variable area meter - in orifice of the power steering control valve 5 , by a pressure inlet passage 9 for connection with the variable displacement pump 10 , by an auxiliary circuit 8 supply passage 7 , and by a passage 15 which is not used in the fig1 embodiment but is used in the fig2 embodiment . if it be desired to provide a maximum pressure limit in the priority circuit , the housing 2 may be bored as shown in fig1 to receive a relief valve 16 which relieves excess pressure from the passage 12 to the return passage 4 . as shown in fig1 a , the lo - s signal passages 14 and 12 are communicated with the controller for the variable displacement pump 10 through a check valve 17 . by reference to said u . s . pat . no . 3 , 866 , 419 it can be seen that the check value 17 functions in the manner of the check valves employed in the auxiliary directional control valve 8 &# 39 ; and in connection with the directional control valve assembly of u . s . pat . no . 3 , 866 , 419 whereby in the present case when the steering control valve 5 is operated by itself , the lo - s signal pressure is conducted to the pump controller to upstroke the pump to maintain a predetermined flow to the priority circuit according to the size of the variable area meter - in orifice of the power steering control valve 5 . reciprocable in the bore 11 is a flow divider and priority control spool 18 which is actuated by the spring 19 and which at its opposite ends is exposed to lo - s pressure in the passage 12 and to hi - s pressure which reaches the chamber 15 through the spool orifice 20 . the priority spool 18 has an intermediate land 21 provided with metering notches which pinch down the flow from the inlet passage 9 to the auxiliary supply passage 7 so that the demand set by the meter - in orifice of the power steering control valve 5 is satisfied and , when the flow demand , and hence the hi - s to lo - s pressure drop across said meter - in orifice , is satisfied , the priority spool 18 moves against the spring 19 to pinch down the flow to the priority circuit and to increase the flow from the inlet passage 9 to the auxiliary supply passage 7 . by way of illustrative example , the pump controller may be operative to maintain a pressure drop of 75 psi whereas the priority spool is operative at a lower pressure drop , for example , from 25 to 50 psi . thus , when the power steering control valve 5 is the only valve which is actuated , the variable displacement pump 10 will be upstroked until the pressure drop between hi - s and lo - s via the check valve 17 is 75 psi , but , because the priority spool is set at a lower pressure drop the flow to the priority circuit is restricted by the metering land 21 to create a pressure drop in addition to the desired pressure drop across the meter - in orifice . when the directional control valve 8 in the auxiliary circuit 8 is actuated to operating position to control cylinder 8 &# 34 ; ( or cylinder 8 &# 34 ;&# 39 ;) or both of them at the same time that the power steering control valve 5 is in operating position , the auxiliary circuit 8 can receive fluid only in excess of that demanded by the priority circuit . the fig2 priority control valve for use with a variable displacement pump and with a four - way closed center power steering control valve having a variable area meter - out orifice the priority control valve 1 &# 39 ; shown in fig2 uses basically the same housing 2 as fig1 having a bore 11 intersected by an lo - s signal passage 12 , a priority circuit supply passage 3 , an inlet passage 9 from the variable displacement pump 10 , an auxiliary circuit supply passage 7 , and a hi - s signal passage 15 . in this case , because the priority circuit supply passage is connected to a closed center power steering control valve 25 having a variable area meter - out orifice , the lo - s signal passage 12 is communicated with tank pressure via an orifice 26 in a plug 27 installed in the housing 2 in place of the relief valve 16 in fig1 . thus , the chamber 12 senses pressure downstream of the variable area meter - out orifice of the power steering control valve 25 . the housing 2 of fig2 has a port 28 which is connected to the power steering control valve 25 to sense pressure upstream of the variable area meter - out orifice of valve 25 whereby the pressure sensed in the chamber 15 is the pressure upstream of the meter - out orifice . reciprocable in the bore 11 is the priority spool 29 which is actuated by the spring 30 and which has its opposite ends exposed to hi - s and lo - s pressure in chambers 15 and 12 which are the pressures respectively upstream and downstream of the variable area meter - out orifice in the power steering control valve 25 . the priority spool 29 is in this case of solid construction and the metering land 31 with the metering notches enables pinching down of the flow either to the priority circuit or to the auxiliary circuit thus to assure satisfaction of the flow demand set by the priority circuit control valve 25 with the excess being available for use in the auxiliary circuit 8 . in this case , the steering circuit hi - s controls the variable displacement pump 10 when no other functions are actuated . when other functions of any pressure level above say 100 to 200 psi are actuated , they control the variable displacement pump 10 , locking out the steering hi - s signal at the ball check 32 between the passage 15 and the auxiliary supply passage 7 but the priority spool 29 yet directs the priority flow to the steering circuit until it is satisfied and , of course , the balance is available to the other functions . as evident , the check valve 32 permits flow of the hi - s signal from the steering circuit into the hi - s circuit of the pump auxiliary controller ( see , u . s . pat . no . 3 , 866 , 419 , for example ) when no other functions are actuated . the fig3 and 3a priority control valve for use with four - way open center power steering control valve the priority control valve 1 &# 34 ; of fig3 and 3a employs a housing 2 basically of the same construction as that of fig1 and 2 and if it is desired to limit the priority circuit pressure , a relief valve 16 may be installed as in fig1 between the lo - s passage 12 and the return passage 4 . in this example , the priority circuit supply passage 3 is connected to an open center power steering control valve 40 and the priority flow is of fixed value as determined by a fixed orifice 41 in the spring 42 actuated priority spool 43 in bore 11 . the lower end of the priority spool in chamber 15 is exposed to hi - s pressure upstream of the fixed orifice 41 and the downstream pressure in passage 3 to which the upper end of the priority spool 43 is exposed in chamber 12 through the orifice 45 is the lo - s pressure signal to pump 10 . referring to fig3 a , the lo - s pressure in passage 3 is conducted to the pump controller by way of the passage 49 , the check valve 46 , and the conduit 44 . if the pressure drop across the fixed orifice 41 increases above the predetermined value , flow to the priority circuit is pinched down at the openings 47 in the spool land 48 with excess flow being available in the auxiliary circuit 8 from passage 3 . when the pressure drop across the fixed orifice 41 is less than the predetermined amount , the priority spool 41 is urged downwardly whereby the flow to the auxiliary circuit 8 is pinched down by the metering notches in said land 48 until the priority circuit is supplied with predetermined flow as determined by the fixed orifice 41 and the pressure drop thereacross . when the fig3 priority control valve 1 &# 34 ; is used with the inlet port 9 connected to a fixed displacement pump ( not shown ) the passage 49 and check valve 46 are not required . | 5 |
the various objectives assigned to the subject of the invention are a result of the deficiencies displayed by the devices for dispensing shaped objects singly , described in the prior art . the deficiencies ascertained in the prior art devices for dispensing shaped objects singly constitute , by their juxtaposition , a problem that simultaneously relates to : the lack of organisation in the travel of the objects to be dispensed , their orientation , the means for picking them out from a standby region , the absence of treatment of gaseous pollutants ; all these deficiencies being able to cause irreversible chemical and mechanical damage to the shaped objects to be dispensed singly . according to the invention , the device for dispensing shaped objects singly is very different from the prior art due to the fact that its new architecture provides it with the means for solving the problem raised by the deficiencies noticed in the prior art dispensing devices . the device according to the invention for dispensing shaped objects singly is made up of two coaxial parts , a female part and a male part . the female part of the device according to the invention constitutes , in the sequence of travel of the shaped objects to be dispensed , the face for entry into the device of a stream of objects to change from a disordered into an ordered state . this female part is formed by an external cylindrical casing that is open at both ends , equipped on its external face with a ring connected to said casing and forming a stop when this female part of the dispensing device is mounted on the opening of a tubular casing of a bulk packaging container for shaped objects to be dispensed , and provided with a cap for receiving the dispensed shaped object on its exit or downstream face . inside this external cylindrical casing there is another casing , coaxial with the first , which is closed at its upstream end and open at its downstream end . this coaxial internal casing is a casing which is generated by geometric revolution and is of the cylindrical , cylindrical / truncated cone shaped , cylindrical / conical , truncated cone shaped , conical or parabolic type . the upstream part of this coaxial internal casing can be the region where the section of said casing is reduced , and in this case it can be of a truncated cone shaped , conical , hemispherical or parabolic type . the section of this internal coaxial casing , which can change in its geometry , is such that the free annular space created between the coaxial external casing and internal casing allows travel organised by gravity for moving the shaped objects from the region they where are packaged in bulk to the region they are dispensed singly , this organised travel passing through stages for collecting the bulk shaped objects and selectively orienting these objects . to arrange the collection and selective orientation of the shaped objects to be dispensed by gravity , the free space created between coaxial external casing and internal casing achieves a minimum thickness at its part furthest downstream but slightly greater than the smallest dimension of the object to be dispensed , forcing said object to place itself in a position of selective orientation to enable it to continue on its subsequent travel from upstream to downstream . inside the female part and connecting the coaxial external casing and internal casing a first plane has been developed , close to the upstream end of said female part and perpendicular to the axis of the casings . this first plane is shaped as a circular sector , of which the angle α at the top has a value in degrees which is a resultant of the diameter of the shaped objects to be dispensed and the diameter of the female part . this first plane , by virtue of its circular sector shape , creates a means for controlling the rate of flow and orientation of the stream of shaped objects to be dispensed and adheres to the free space for orientation and organised movement between the two coaxial casings into which said stream of shaped objects is directed and channelled . a second plane , perpendicular to the axis of the coaxial casings and connecting them to each other , is situated inside the female part and placed between the first plane and the downstream end of said female part . this second plane is also shaped as a circular sector , having an angle β at the top of which the value in degrees is a resultant of the values of the diameters of the shaped objects to be dispensed and the female part . this second circular sector of angle β occupies a position opposite the first circular sector of angle α . this second plane is equipped at its periphery and close to the external casing with at least one opening , of which the section is dimensioned to allow the passage downstream singly of the shaped objects which are oriented in the space for orientation and organised movement : this section of the at least one opening is greater than the smallest section of the objects but such that two shaped objects to be dispensed cannot pass through together and preferably very slightly greater than the smallest section of the shaped objects to be dispensed . if the second plane has two openings at the periphery and close to the external casing , these two openings are mutually spaced by an angle γ delimited by its two sides passing through the centre of symmetry of each of these openings : the angle γ may vary between a value of approximately 0 ° when the two openings are juxtaposed up to 180 degrees when the two openings are diametrically opposed , this range of variation being the same regardless of the direction of rotation of the male part in the female part . once the two planes in the shape of a circular sector , spaced from each other along the axis of the female part , have their vertex angles α and β opposite each other , there is a constant relationship between these two angles so that the total of angles α + β is at most 360 ° c . the combination of these two offset planes , each shaped as an opposing circular sector and connected to the coaxial external casing and internal casing , creates organised travel for the selective orientation of the objects according to their smallest dimension and their path towards the at least one opening in the second plane . inside the female part , and between the second plane and the downstream end of said female part , there is at least one chute mounted on the at least one opening in the second plane and downstream of said plane , this at least one chute fulfilling the function of packaging in a queue the singly stacked shaped objects originating from the free space for orientation and organised movement . this at least one chute , which is open at each of its ends , is delimited at its periphery by the coaxial external and internal casings and by two planar lateral walls connecting said coaxial casings and extending as far as the downstream end of said female part , these two walls being able to be parallel or concurrent with each other from upstream to downstream of the at least one chute . substantially the same as the section of the at least one opening present in the second plane , so that said section is invariable along the whole length of the at least one chute and very slightly greater than the smallest section of the shaped objects to be dispensed , this smallest section being the one used for the orientation and organised movement of the shaped objects to be dispensed , during their travel in the dispensing device according to the invention . or else different along the whole length of the at least one chute , said section decreasing , in particular homothetically , from upstream to downstream of the at least one chute , and becoming , at the downstream exit , a section that is very slightly greater than the smallest section of the shaped objects to be dispensed . inside the at least one chute , the shaped objects to be dispensed singly are stacked there according to their smallest section to be released singly when the device is used , at the downstream end of the at least one chute . the opposing planar lateral walls , as well as the walls formed by the coaxial internal casing may be restricted in their downstream length in the direction of travel of the shaped objects to be dispensed . the male part of the device according to the invention constitutes , in the sequence of travel of the shaped objects to be dispensed , the face for single discharge , or downstream face , of the device , for objects of which the stream has changed from a disordered to an ordered state . this male part according to the invention is formed by a base platform in the shape of a circular disk acting as a stop for the external main cylindrical casing of the female part when the two parts that constitute the device according to the invention are assembled . said platform is provided with an opening dimensioned for the passage of a shaped object released singly through the at least one chute when said opening is made congruent by rotation with the open downstream end of the at least one chute . this male part according to the invention is also formed by a casing coaxial with the base platform to which it is connected , which casing is closed at it upstream end and open at its downstream end and has substantially the geometry of the internal casing of the female part of the device in which it inserts itself coaxially to enable the male part to rotate relative to the female part . this casing that is coaxial with the platform is a casing having a geometry generated by revolution that is cylindrical , cylindrical / conical , truncated cone shaped , conical or parabolic , the upstream part of this casing being the one with a section that may be reduced . this male part according to the invention comprises a guide means connected to the base platform and mounted vertically on said platform . the free end of the guide means is inserted into the opening shaped as an arc of a circle in the first plane of the female part and its purpose is : to facilitate the rotation of the male part when it is in place in the female part . to restrict the angle of rotation in both directions by means of a stop at each end of the opening shaped as the arc of a circle in the first plane of the female part , so that the opening in the platform is congruent with the downstream end of the at least one chute . with regard to the part that emerges from the opening that is shaped as an arc of a circle in the first plane of the female part , to agitate the shaped objects packaged in bulk and to facilitate their orientation and movement in the upstream inlet part of the device according to the invention . the guide means , connected to the base platform of the male part , is provided with a crown segment which moves between the two planes of the female part of the device when the male part is driven by a rotating movement . this crown segment may be bevelled at each of its ends , and this assists the local agitation of the shaped objects to be dispensed , and selects one of the objects that it guides towards the upstream opening in the at least one chute depending on the direction of rotation of the male part . when said male part is caused to rotate in either direction and comes to the end of its travel , the crown segment blocks , at least partially and in one direction of rotation of the male part , the inlet orifice of the at least one chute . consequently , when the user turns the male part in one direction and when said male part reaches the end of its travel , the crown segment blocks , at least partially , the inlet orifice of the at least one chute and when the user turns the male part in the opposite direction , and when said male part reaches the end of its travel , the crown segment opens the inlet orifice of the at least one chute . if the device has two chutes the crown segment , mounted on the guide means which moves freely during rotation of the male part between the two planes of the female part , blocks the upstream opening in the chutes , at least partially and alternately at the end of its travel . finally , the male part according to the invention comprises a guide means for the objects to be dispensed singly , this guide means being connected to the external wall of the casing coaxial with the platform , in the axis of the dimensioned orifice of the platform to grip and eject a single object that originates from the at least one chute , depending on the direction of rotation used for the male part . said guide means may have a semi - polygonal , semicircular or semi - elliptical cross section . according to the invention , the restricted range of the angle of rotation of the male part , from one end stop to the other end stop , is between a value of approximately 0 degrees and 180 degrees , i . e . this angle has the value substantially of the angle γ . the device for dispensing shaped objects singly according to the invention is generally connected at the top to a packaging container for said objects stored in bulk which feeds the device for dispensing objects to be dispensed and , at the bottom , to a cap for receiving the singly dispensed shaped object . the invention also relates to a closed unit for packaging and dispensing shaped objects singly which comprises a container formed by a casing that is open at one if its ends for packaging the bulk objects to be dispensed , the device for dispensing the objects to be dispensed singly being mounted by its female part on the opening in the tubular casing , and a cap mounted on the male part of the device , said cap being able to rotate the moving male part of said device partially in either direction and to cause the picking out of shaped objects to be dispensed from the casing then the dispensing thereof singly by the device and finally receipt of the dispensed shaped object in the cap . however , the shaped objects to be dispensed singly using the device according to the invention may be sensitive to gaseous pollutants present in the ambient air within their packaging container . these above - mentioned gaseous pollutants which may be present in the ambient atmosphere of the packaging containers for the shaped objects could be , for example , water vapour , oxygen ( o 2 ), ammonia ( nh 3 ), alcohol , aldehydes , ketones , sulphur dioxide ( so 2 ), hydrogen sulphide ( h 2 s ), thiols , alkenes including in particular ethylene , acetylene hydrocarbons , carbon dioxide ( co 2 ), carbon monoxide ( co ), nitrogen dioxide ( no 2 ), alkanes including in particular methane ( ch 4 ), halogens including in particular fluorine , bacteria suspended in the ambient air and others . for this reason the closed unit for packaging and dispensing said objects singly may include treatment means containing one or more agents for treating gaseous pollutants to allow the rapid purification of the ambient gaseous atmosphere by removing said gaseous pollutants , in particular water vapour that is particularly harmful to the sensitive objects packaged in said casing . to achieve this , appropriate recesses , situated in the tubular casing of the packaging container for the bulk objects to be dispensed and / or in the cap for receiving the singly dispensed shaped objects , may be made in the closed packaging and dispensing unit , in order to receive one or more agents for treating gaseous pollutants and to allow the removal thereof by rapid treatment of the ambient gaseous atmosphere . the specific position of these recesses is decisive for increasing the kinetics of elimination of gaseous pollutants , more particularly water vapour . in the particular case of treating the water vapour present , so that the closed unit for packaging and dispensing shaped objects singly according to the invention has effective drying properties , the choice of drying agent is crucial . according to the invention , the drying agent used in the closed unit for packaging and dispensing shaped objects singly is chosen from the group that consists of silica gels , molecular sieves and clays . these closed drying units have internal drying means which may be present in the form of a covering , an insert or a part of the dispensing device , formed by a drying thermoplastic polymer composition . these drying agents are placed inside the containers on the internal surface of their bottom and / or on the internal surface of their lateral wall or else in a specific recess situated at the bottom of the containers and / or on the internal surface of the cap , if they are in a powdery form or else in the form of compacted pellets . all these drying agents are put in separately or simultaneously to increase the efficacy of their drying action through a mass effect . when treating gaseous pollutants other than water vapour , so that the closed unit for packaging and dispensing shaped objects singly according to the invention is also very effective with regard to said pollutants , known treatment agents that are appropriate for treating all pollutants are used in said unit : either mixed with the drying agent , or separately from the drying agent by creating open compartments in the appropriate recess , dividing said recess into sectors , enabling a plurality of treatment agents or mixtures of treatment agents that are compatible with each other to be received , or else in the form of compacted pellets prepared from the treatment mixture . the dispensing device and the closed unit for packaging and dispensing shaped objects singly may be formed by plastics processing procedures using materials which are thermoplastic polymers and / or copolymers such as , for example , polyethylenes ( pe ), polypropylenes ( pp ), ethylene / propylene copolymers and mixtures thereof , polyamides ( pa ), polystyrenes ( ps ), acrylonitrile - butadiene - styrene copolymers ( abs ), styrene acrylonitrile copolymers ( san ), polyvinylchorides ( pvc ), polycarbonates ( pc ), polymethyl methacrylate ( pmma ), polyethyleneterephthalates ( pet ) used individually or mixed , depending on their compatibility . at least one natural or synthetic thermoplastic elastomer may be associated with these polymers and / or copolymers to make the device and depending on the desired mechanical characteristics . the elastomer ( s ) used should preferably be chosen from the group consisting of elastomers of the natural rubber type or synthetic rubber type , in particular olefin - based rubbers , such as , for example , isobutylene / isoprene polymers , ethylene - vinyl acetate ( eva ), ethylene - propylene ( epr ), ethylene - propylene - diene ( epdm ), ethylene - acrylic esters ( ema - eea ), fluoropolymers , diene rubbers , such as , for example , polybutadienes , butadiene - styrene copolymers ( sbr ), rubbers based on condensation products such as , for example , thermoplastic polyester and polyurethane rubbers , silicones , styrene rubbers , styrene - butadiene - styrene ( sbs ) and styrene - isoprene - styrene ( sis ) and others . according to the invention , the device for dispensing shaped objects singly , the tubular casing of the bulk packaging container and the cap for receiving the shaped object dispensed singly by the dispensing device may be produced from polymer materials with the same composition or from polymer materials with different compositions . more generally , all the sides of the device for dispensing shaped objects singly according to the invention depend on the dimensions of the shaped objects to be dispensed . a better understanding of the invention will be achieved by using the numbered description of the figures set out below , these figures simply being used to illustrate but not limit a device according to the invention . fig1 is a perspective view of the female part of the device for dispensing shaped objects singly according to the invention , with a view of the upstream face or inlet face for the bulk objects , the longitudinal axis of which is almost vertical . fig2 is also a perspective view of the female part of the device for dispensing shaped objects singly according to the invention , when said female part has a single opening and a single chute in its second plane , with a view of the inlet face for the bulk objects , said fig2 showing angles α and β . fig3 is a perspective view of the female part of the device for dispensing shaped objects singly according to the invention , when said female part is provided with a single chute , with a view of the downstream face or the exit face for the objects . fig4 is a perspective view of the device for dispensing singly according to the invention , when said female part is provided with a single chute , after assembly of the female and male parts , with a view of the inlet face for the bulk shaped objects . fig5 is also a perspective view of the female part of the device for dispensing shaped objects singly according to the invention , when said female part is provided with two openings and two chutes in its second plane , with a view of the inlet face for the bulk objects , of which the longitudinal axis is almost horizontal . fig6 is a cut - away perspective view of the female part of the device for dispensing shaped objects singly according to the invention , when said female part is provided with two chutes , with a view of the downstream face or the exit face for the objects which have been oriented and placed in an organised queue . fig7 is a perspective view of the female part of the device for dispensing shaped objects singly according to the invention , when said female part is provided with two chutes , with a view of the downstream face or the exit face for the objects which have been oriented and placed in the two chutes . fig8 is a perspective view of the male part of the device for dispensing shaped objects singly according to the invention , showing the means for guidance in rotation of the male part . fig9 is a perspective view of the male part of the device according to the invention , showing the guide means for the objects to be dispensed singly . fig1 is a perspective view of the device for dispensing singly according to the invention , after assembly of the female and male parts , with a view of the inlet face for the bulk shaped objects . fig1 is a perspective view of the device for dispensing singly according to the invention , after assembly of the female and male parts , with a view of exit face for discharging shaped objects singly . fig1 is a section along the longitudinal axis of the closed unit for packaging and dispensing shaped objects singly including , in sequence , a tubular casing for bulk packaging of said objects , the device for dispensing said objects and the cap mounted on the male part of the dispensing device . according to fig1 to 12 , the device for dispensing shaped objects singly comprises a female part ( 1 ) and a male part ( 2 ). the female part ( 1 ) comprises in the sequence of travel of the objects to be dispensed singly from the region where they are packaged in bulk : an external cylindrical casing ( 5 ), open at its upstream end ( 6 ) and downstream end ( 7 ). an internal casing ( 8 ) in the form of a cylinder / truncated cone coaxial with the closed external cylindrical casing ( 5 ) at its upstream end ( 9 ) and open at its downstream end ( 10 ). the free space ( 11 ) created between the external casing ( 5 ) and internal casing ( 8 ), mutually spaced by a distance at least equal to the smallest dimension of the object to be dispensed , provides a space for orienting the bulk shaped objects and for the organised movement of the oriented shaped objects from upstream to downstream . a first plane ( 12 ), which is close to the upstream end ( 6 ), connects the external casing ( 5 ) and internal casing ( 8 ), is placed perpendicularly to the common axis , has the shape of a circular sector of angle α of , for example , 120 degrees , and is provided with an opening in the shape of an arc of a circle ( 13 ), leaving the free space ( 11 ) clear from upstream to downstream . a second plane ( 14 ), which is placed between the first plane ( 12 ) and the downstream end ( 7 ), and also connects the external ( 5 ) and internal ( 8 ) coaxial casings perpendicularly to the axis , in the shape of a circular sector of angle β of , for example , 220 degrees , this second plane being provided with : either a single opening ( 15 ), dimensioned for the passage of single shaped objects present in the free orientation and movement space ( 11 ) singly from upstream to downstream , according to fig2 to 4 . or two openings ( 15 ) and ( 16 ), dimensioned for the passage of shaped objects present in the free orientation and movement space ( 11 ) singly from upstream to downstream , according to fig5 to 7 . between the second plane ( 14 ) and the downstream end ( 7 ): according to fig2 to 4 , a single chute ( 17 ) mounted on a single opening ( 15 ) in the second plane ( 14 ), to allow storage in a queue of the objects to be dispensed that originate from the free space ( 11 ), this chute being delimited by the coaxial casings ( 5 ) and ( 8 ) and by two lateral walls ( 19 , 21 ); according to fig5 to 7 , two chutes ( 17 ) and ( 18 ) mounted on the openings ( 15 ) and ( 16 ) in the second plane ( 14 ), to allow storage in a queue of the objects to be dispensed that originate from the free space ( 11 ), these two chutes being delimited by the coaxial casings ( 5 ) and ( 8 ) and by two lateral walls ( 19 , 21 ) and ( 20 , 22 ) of each of the two chutes . fig6 , showing a device comprising two chutes according to the invention , shows the planar lateral walls ( 19 ) and ( 20 ) that are furthest apart and belong to the two chutes ( 17 ) and ( 18 ), whilst the lateral walls ( 21 ) and ( 22 ) that are the closest to each other and belong to the chutes ( 17 ) and ( 18 ) are not visible in said fig6 due to it being a broken away perspective view , but are visible in fig7 . according to fig8 and 9 , the rotatable male part ( 2 ) of the dispensing device according to the invention is just as suitable if it has a single chute as it is if it has two chutes . this male part constitutes the downstream exit part for the singly dispensed shaped objects and comprises : a base platform ( 23 ) in the shape of a circular disc , the periphery ( 24 ) of which is grooved , forming a stop for the external cylindrical casing ( 5 ), this platform being provided with an opening ( 25 ) dimensioned for the passage of an object delivered by the at least one chute ( 17 ) and / or ( 18 ) when said opening ( 25 ) is made congruent with either of the downstream exits of said at least one chute by rotation of the female part ( 2 ) in either direction . a casing ( 26 ) which is coaxial with the platform ( 23 ) to which it is connected , is cylindrical / truncated cone - shaped ( 26 - 27 ), is closed at its upstream end ( 28 ) and , when the male part ( 2 ) is mated with the female part , is inserted in the internal cylindrical / truncated cone - shaped casing ( 8 ) of the female part ( 1 ). this coaxial casing ( 26 ) constitutes the downstream part of one of the walls of the at least one chute ( 17 ) and / or ( 18 ). a means for guidance in rotation ( 29 ) of the male part ( 2 ) mounted perpendicularly on the platform ( 23 ), the extreme part ( 30 ) of said guide means ( 29 ) being inserted when the female ( 1 ) and male ( 2 ) parts are fitted in the opening shaped as an arc of a circle ( 13 ), the ends of which constitute end of travel stops for the male part rotating in either direction . the extreme part ( 30 ) of the means for guidance in rotation ( 29 ) which emerges from the opening in the shape of an arc of a circle ( 13 ) constitutes a “ stud ” that is able to agitate the shaped objects , packaged in bulk in the front region of the dispensing device . according to fig2 to 4 , i . e . for a device with a single chute ( 17 ): a crown segment ( 31 ), mounted on the guide means ( 29 ), which moves freely between the two planes ( 12 ) and ( 14 ) of the female part when the male part ( 2 ) rotates and which blocks , at least partially and at the end of its travel , the upstream opening in the chute ( 17 ), in the appropriate rotational direction of the male part . according to fig5 to 7 , i . e . for a device with two chutes ( 17 ) and ( 18 ): a crown segment ( 31 ), mounted on the guide means ( 29 ) which moves freely between the two planes ( 12 ) and ( 14 ) of the female part when the male part ( 2 ) rotates and which blocks the upstream openings of the chutes ( 17 ) and ( 18 ), at least partially and alternately , at the end of its travel . this crown segment ( 31 ) may be bevelled ( 32 ) at each of its ends ( 32 ), and this allows the bulk shaped objects to be agitated and guided singly towards the at least one chute ( 17 ) or ( 18 ) in which said objects are stacked in a queue . according to fig5 to 7 , i . e . for a device with two chutes ( 17 ) and ( 18 ): a guide means ( 33 ) for the object to be dispensed placed in the axis of the opening ( 25 ) of the platform ( 23 ) which is able to release a shaped object , by providing the exit opening of the chute ( 17 ) whilst the exit of the other chute ( 18 ) is closed by the internal face of the base platform ( 23 ) and which , by reversing the direction of rotation , releases a shaped object through the exit opening of the chute ( 18 ), whilst the exit of the chute ( 17 ) is in turn closed by the internal surface of the base platform ( 23 ). according to fig2 to 4 , i . e . for a device with a single chute ( 17 ): the same guide means ( 33 ) for the object to be dispensed placed in the axis of the opening ( 25 ) of the platform ( 23 ) which is able to release a shaped object , by providing the exit opening of the chute ( 17 ) and making it congruent with the opening ( 25 ) of the platform ( 23 ) and which , by reversing the direction of rotation , closes the exit opening of the chute ( 17 ). therefore , with every restricted rotation of the moving male part ( 2 ), a shaped object is dispensed by either of the chutes ( 17 ) and / or ( 18 ). according to fig1 , which shows an axial section of the device for dispensing shaped objects singly with two chutes , said device is mounted on a container ( 35 ) and a cap ( 36 ), which constitutes a closed packaging unit , optionally for the treatment and dispensing singly of shaped objects to be dispensed , this unit comprising in the container ( 35 ) an internal recess means ( 37 ) for receiving the appropriate treatment agents in the form of a powdery mixture . finally , the mode of operation of the device for dispensing shaped objects singly according to the invention can be seen in fig1 to 12 . the shaped objects to be dispensed singly that are packaged in bulk in the container ( 35 ) are guided into the external casing ( 5 ) of the female part ( 1 ) and oriented by the cylindrical / truncated cone - shaped casing ( 8 ) in the free space ( 11 ), defined by these two coaxial casings , according to their position ( 38 ). placed between the two planes ( 12 ) and ( 14 ) in the shape of circular sectors with opposing angles α and β , the crown segment ( 31 ) with bevelled ends ( 32 ), rotated in either direction by the male part ( 2 ), agitates the bulk shaped objects and guides them singly towards the chutes ( 17 ) and ( 18 ) in which said objects ( 39 ) and ( 40 ) are stacked in a queue . once the guide means ( 33 ) for the object to be dispensed placed in the axis of the opening ( 25 ) of the platform ( 23 ) is congruent with the exit opening of the chute ( 17 ), a shaped object is released once the exit of the other chute ( 18 ) is closed by the internal surface of the base platform ( 23 ). by reversing the direction of rotation , a shaped object is released through the exit opening of the chute ( 18 ), whilst the exit of the chute ( 17 ) is closed by the internal surface of the base platform ( 23 ). | 1 |
in fig1 , a telephone system is shown that employs an ain 100 . the ain 100 is a telecommunications switching network that utilizes the well - known ss 7 protocol to connect switching centers and other telecommunications resources to provide call routing and various other services . essentially , the ain 100 is a collection of telecommunications components and interconnections that support the generation of ain messages known as triggers and enable the components to respond to generated triggers by generating responsive messages or by executing an associated instruction . a conventional voice line telephone 102 is connected to the ain 100 through a telephone line 120 . telephone line 120 leads to a central office 104 that maintains a switch known as an ssp 106 . the ssp 106 may have a plurality of subscriber lines connected to it , such as the telephone line 120 establishing wireline telephone service . likewise , a voice line telephone or other voice line capable device such as a computer 118 may be linked to another central office 108 and ssp 110 through a telephone line 128 . the ain can have an indefinite number of ssps 106 , 110 . the ssps 106 , 110 communicate with each other over an ss 7 protocol data communication link 122 which may be established through an stp , such as but not necessarily stp 112 , that routes the data packets between the two ssps 106 , 110 . ain messages may be passed between ssps 106 , 110 through the communication link 122 , and these messages may include data such as the calling party &# 39 ; s telephone number or other identifier . voice connections between ssps 106 , 110 are established through a voice trunk 130 which carries the voice communication that occurs between the two end devices 102 , 118 . a data communication link 124 is used to connect an ssp 110 to an stp 112 . the stp 112 selects an appropriate scp 114 to route the message from the ssp 110 , such as in relation to the calling party &# 39 ; s identifier . messages are delivered from the stp 112 to an appropriate scp 114 through a data communication link 126 . the scp 114 then responds to the message from the ssp 110 with a responsive message . the responsive message travels back to the stp 112 and then back to the ssp 110 . much of the intelligence of the ain 100 used to switch calls and provide other telecommunications services resides in the scp 114 . as is known to those skilled in the art , scps 114 were initially integrated into the ain 100 to handle message translations and billing transactions for the implementation of 800 - number services . an 800 number subscriber has at least one telephone number that can be called by a telephone user . because there is no physical central office or geographic area that corresponds to the 800 - area code , it is more economical to provide a few central locations at which a lookup of the directory number for an 800 call can be made . scps 114 may have associated databases for directory numbers corresponding to functional 800 numbers . scps 114 also may have databases that contain additional data for enhanced telecommunications services such as caller id . for example , the cnam database 116 contains the name corresponding to the telephone number of a calling party . this name can be provided to a called party from the cnam database 116 when ringing the called party &# 39 ; s telephone device 118 . additionally , scps may be used to track the services to be provided to a particular subscriber line , such as whether or not a particular subscriber line has caller id service . in summary , the ain 100 is a complex , high - speed , high call volume , packet - switched messaging system that provides a great deal of versatility in the handling of telephone calls . the ssp 106 , 110 can generate a message to the scp 114 in response to the notification of an incoming call , or call trigger , and then wait for a response from the scp 114 before proceeding with call processing . more detailed information regarding the ain 100 can be found in u . s . pat . no . 5 , 430 , 719 , which is commonly assigned to bellsouth intellectual property management corporation and is incorporated herein by reference . in the example of fig1 , a user of the telephone 102 can ring another telephone or equivalent device 118 by dialing a directory number associated with the telephone 118 . a voice link can be created between the calling telephone 102 and the called telephone 118 , if the called telephone 118 answers in response to the ring . in addition to creating the voice link between the calling telephone 102 and called telephone 118 , the additional services such as caller id may be provided , as may be embodiments of location id service discussed herein . fig2 shows a first portion of an exemplary operational flow employed by the ain 100 to provide the location id service . as shown in fig2 - 4 , the location id service may be employed by the ain 100 in conjunction with conventional caller id service and / or call privacy service , but one skilled in the art will recognize that location id service may also be employed alone . the operational flow of this example begins by the calling device 102 placing a call over the telephone system at call operation 202 . the originating ssp 106 detects that the calling device 102 is placing a call to the called device 118 by dialing the telephone number of the called device 118 , with the dialed number becoming a call trigger . at transfer operation 204 , the originating ssp 106 communicates with the called party &# 39 ; s ssp 110 by transmitting the call trigger to signal that a call to the called party device 118 has been placed . during the communication between the originating ssp 106 and the called party ssp 110 , the originating ssp 106 forwards the calling party &# 39 ; s telephone number . the ssp 106 may also forward a privacy indicator to the ssp 110 if a privacy indicator is appropriate . at query operation 206 , the ssp 106 detects whether a privacy indicator is appropriate such as by referring to local service tables , or by querying an appropriate scp with knowledge of the calling party &# 39 ; s services . a privacy indicator is appropriate where the calling party has subscribed or otherwise initiated privacy service to block distribution of caller id and location id data . calling parties may subscribe to a continually functioning privacy service or may initiate privacy service on a call - by - call basis using a star code , where an asterisk and specific numbers are dialed prior to dialing the number of the called party . fig5 shows an example of a service table 500 residing at the originating ssp 106 or at the scp 114 associated with the calling party and containing an indication 506 of privacy service in relation to the telephone number 502 for subscribers . at query operation 206 the telephone number 502 of the calling party is referenced to determine if the calling party has privacy service . if query operation 206 detects that a privacy indicator is present , then at call operation 208 the ssp 110 rings the called device 118 to allow the call to be answered . however , no caller id or location id data is transferred to the called device 118 when ringing the called device 118 . if at query operation 206 the ssp 110 detects that a privacy indicator is not present , then operational flow transitions to query operation 210 . at query operation 210 , ssp 110 and / or an scp associated with the called party , which may or may not be scp 114 , detects whether the called party has subscribed to location id service by referring to its local service tables . with reference to fig5 , the telephone number 502 of the called party may be referenced against the id services information 504 of a service table 500 for the called party &# 39 ; s ssp 110 or scp associated with the called party to determine whether the called party subscribes to location id service . if at query operation 210 the ssp 110 finds that the called party has not subscribed to location id service , then operational flow transitions to query operation 212 . at query operation 212 , the ssp 110 detects whether the called party has caller id service . the called party &# 39 ; s telephone number 502 is referenced against the id services information 504 within the service table 500 of fig5 maintained by the called party &# 39 ; s ssp 110 or the scp associated with the called party . if the called party does not have caller id service , then ssp 110 rings the called device 118 at call operation 208 , but no caller id or location id data is delivered to the called device 118 . if query operation 212 detects that the called party has subscribed to caller id service , then operational flow transitions to message operation 214 of fig3 . at message operation 214 , the ssp 110 generates a query for the caller id data of the calling party and sends the query message to the stp 112 . the query contains the calling party &# 39 ; s telephone number or other identifier that has been received from the originating ssp 106 . at transfer operation 216 , the stp 112 forwards the query to the appropriate scp 114 that has access to a database containing the caller id data for the calling party , such as cnam database 116 . at look - up operation 218 , the scp 114 references the calling party &# 39 ; s number in the data table of database 116 to find the proper caller id data . fig6 shows an example of a data table 600 of database 116 , which contains the caller id data 604 such as the name that is associated with the telephone number 602 of the calling party . once the caller id data has been obtained , the scp 114 sends the caller id data back to the stp 112 at send operation 220 . the stp 112 then provides the caller id data to the ssp 110 at send operation 222 . after receiving the caller id data from the stp 112 , the ssp 110 delivers the caller id data to the called device 118 when ringing the called device 118 at call operation 224 . the called device 118 displays the caller id information so that the called party can see who is calling prior to answering the call . if at query operation 210 the ssp 110 finds that the called party has subscribed to location id service , then operational flow transitions to message operation 226 of fig4 . at message operation 226 , the ssp 110 generates a query for the location id data for the calling party and sends it to the stp 112 . the query contains the calling party &# 39 ; s telephone number or other identifier that has been received from the originating ssp 106 . at transfer operation 228 , the stp 112 forwards the query to the appropriate scp 114 that has access to a database containing the location id data for the calling party , such as cnam database 116 that has been adapted to contain location id data in addition to caller id data . at look - up operation 230 , the scp 114 references the calling party &# 39 ; s number in the data table of database 116 to find the proper caller id data . the data table 600 of fig6 contains the location id data 606 such as the 9 - digit zip code , latitude and longitude coordinates , or street address data that is associated with the telephone number 602 of the calling party . once the location id data has been obtained , the scp 114 sends the location id data back to the stp 112 at send operation 232 . the stp 112 then provides the location id data to the ssp 110 at send operation 234 . after receiving the location id data from the stp 112 , the ssp 110 delivers the location id data to the called device 118 when ringing the called device 118 at call operation 236 . the called device 118 displays the location id information so that the called party can see where a party is calling from prior to answering the call . the called party may be employing a standard caller id device to display the location id information . in that case , 9 - digit zip code location id data or planar coordinate data may be delivered to the called party for display within the limited character spaces available as if it were caller id data . however , the called party may employ a more sophisticated display device , such as a computer terminal that is capable of displaying many more characters than the standard caller id display device . in that case , the full street address may be delivered to the calling party . furthermore , the called party &# 39 ; s computer terminal may employ geographic informational system ( gis ) software or an equivalent to provide more detail about the location of the calling party . for example , the gis software may operate upon the location information that is received through the location id service to map the location of the calling party . telephone ordering / delivery services , such as food delivery , can thereby determine the proper route to deliver the ordered goods without receiving verbal instruction from the caller . likewise , emergency services other than 911 , such as poison control centers , can dispatch assistance to the location of the calling party without verbal instruction from the caller . to facilitate data transmission of the location information beyond the called party &# 39 ; s computer terminal , such as to gis software that is externally provided , the location data in the cnam database may be encoded in various formats . one example of encoding would be binary coded decimal ( bcd ), where each decimal number of the 9 - digit zip code or planar coordinate is represented by a nibble ( 4 bits ). other encoding schemes are also applicable . although the present invention has been described in connection with various exemplary embodiments , those of ordinary skill in the art will understand that many modifications can be made thereto within the scope of the claims that follow . accordingly , it is not intended that the scope of the invention in any way be limited by the above description , but instead be determined entirely by reference to the claims that follow . | 7 |
fig1 is a schematic representation of the computer network associated with a preferred embodiment of the method and system of the present invention . specifically , each individual user associated with a company has access to the internet 110 . via the internet 110 , companies can access a web server 130 hosting the web site of the method and system of the present invention . however , as shown in fig1 , to protect the web server 130 from unauthorized access , the server 130 is preferably secured behind a firewall 121 . associated with the web server 130 is an integral database 150 , which is the storage location for all data about users and companies of the system , along with all pertinent data and information associated with the services 220 , analysis , and exchange process . the specific architecture and design of this database is not essential to the method and system of the present invention provided that the database can meet the storage and retrieval requirements set forth herein . various commercial software packages and / or programming techniques could be used by those skilled in the art to develop this database without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention . lastly , with respect to the schematic representation of fig1 , one or more servers 140 160 165 may provide direct access to the web server 130 and associated integral database 150 . the most widely used portion of the internet is the world wide web (“ www ”) which provides for navigation through the selection of , or “ clicking ” of , hypertext images and text . such hypertext images and text are an important feature of standard hypertext markup language ( html ), the programming language that forms the backbone of the www . to carry out execution of the routines and subroutines of the preferred system as described herein , it is understood that standard hypertext markup language ( html ) and associated programming languages and techniques would be used . with benefit of the following description , such programming is readily accomplished by one of ordinary skill in the art . fig1 illustrates a system 100 that optimizes business operations for services 220 from distinct companies when analyzed together . examples of service types include transportation and storage . this invention has two parts . the first is to identify the opportunities to optimize operations 140 across company boundaries via analysis on multi - company aggregated data . the second is an exchange system 130 to manage the inter - company exchange of said services . prior to viewing the various components and features of the preferred method and system as implemented through an internet web site , the operation of the method and system is best explained by an example : abc company is a waste hauler who picks - up waste from several customers and dumps the waste into one or more landfills . each of these customers has a service 220 that defines the specific needs for a waste hauler to perform the waste removal . users in abc company prepares its list of customer services in electronic form and uploads or enters them in manually 610 620 and for viewing through the internet web site 130 implementing the method and system of the present invention . specifically , services 220 are stored in an integral database 150 resident on the internet - accessible web server 130 . through the internet web site 130 , participating waste haulers can view each and every detail of their services 220 , including locations , baseline costs , types of material , pick - up schedule , etc . moreover , participating waste haulers can quickly and easily filter and / or sort service 220 information , viewing only services meeting certain criteria , such as area , location , mileage , and / or equipment . through such filtering and sorting techniques , each waste hauler can identify which services 220 it would like routed , and which services it would like to be considered for optimization / outsourcing with / to other waste haulers . after making such determinations , rather than preparing a complete manually written outsource package , each waste hauler can receive automatically generated optimized routes 225 500 and cost saving outsource opportunities 300 from the system , via a communication device such as the web site 130 interface or asynchronous message 165 . if two companies wish to participate in the exchange , each company can execute and monitor the agreement 223 through the web site 130 . as abc company continues to gain new business or loose business the system will continually and automatically search for new opportunities to optimize 630 640 . furthermore , with respect to current business , abc company can compare proposed routes 225 with existing routes . agreements 223 persist until they are automatically terminated when their effective dates expire . through the same web site interface 130 , both companies can terminate specific agreements 223 or have agreements terminate automatically by new outsourced agreements . in this regard , depending on company preferences , the method and system of the present invention conducts the automated selection process though a “ most efficient ” algorithm 640 or in a quasi - reverse auction format . specifically , a company wishing to receive new outsource business may choose to lower their profit goals to view information associated with more opportunities 222 to widen their availability via the web site 130 to create a “ fishing ” process . in any event , most companies have a variety of selection criteria and preferences with respect to increasing the scope of opportunities , and , as such , lower overhead does not guarantee a more efficient company to gain specific business . an explanation of the various components and features of the preferred method and system as implemented through an internet web site , the operation of the method and system is explained here : the exchange system 130 is software that will allow companies to manage 610 620 their service 220 data by transmitting to the communications device via the internet 190 191 192 110 and exchange services with other companies . this can be done either by a human user 180 through a user interface or by via a company &# 39 ; s system 170 through an api 160 . the system will allow companies to manage their data by : loading in existing service data 620 or creating new ones 610 edit services or delete them 620 cleanse data 610 620 to correct elements such as but not limited to addresses & amp ; geographic positions . normalize their data 610 620 into a format that is standard across all participating companies the system has an optimization analysis server 140 that will use criteria to identify what services have the potential to be exchanged . a list of matching 630 services called candidates 221 will be created from this criterion . the criteria for which services can be analyzed consists of but is not limited to : schedule ( one - time or reoccurring ) capabilities of equipment needed to perform the service the physical requirements of the service ( location to be performed , dimensions , weight ) material or product attributes a service has a single location where the service 220 has significance . a service may have an optional disposition 224 , which is where the service 220 may start or end but is not important to the service itself . an example for a waste collection operation , which has a service 220 . that has an end disposition 224 associated where the primary location is where the waste needs to be picked - up but the disposition 224 is of little consequence as it can go to any landfill . another example is of a fuel distribution operation where a service 220 has a start disposition 224 associated and the primary location is where the fuel needs to be delivered but the start disposition is of little consequence as it can come from any fuel depot . an example of a service 220 that has no disposition 224 is a snow plowing service where the primary location is where the truck needs to plow but there is no start or end location . a second analysis 640 will determine if there is a benefit for a service 220 ( or subsets of services ) to be performed by another company . the benefit analysis 640 will use a number of tools and criteria that are dependent on the service 220 type . the benefit analysis 640 will use the optimization server 140 , which in turn uses pluggable software 141 and 142 that are algorithms and processes specific to a particular service type . for transportation type services a company &# 39 ; s services transportation costs will be calculated with a routing algorithm that will combine candidate 221 service locations from other companies with their own . the analysis will also consider disposition 224 scenarios to find the best distribution network for further optimization . the criteria for analysis consists of but is not limited to : the system will then 150 the lowered cost services as opportunities 222 300 400 to be subsequently used by the system &# 39 ; s exchange system 130 . the system will also save 150 proposed routes 225 500 that were used as part of the analysis to determine best cost and operational efficiency gains . the system will also transmit the results to the appropriate company 650 660 . the system will restrict access to data so that each company will only see their own information . the system will leverage the optimization analysis 640 to automatically identify opportunities where services could be exchanged between companies . these are transmitted 650 660 165 as opportunities 222 to the receiving company with only the absolute necessary information provided to accept the exchange . the system will allow both parties to accept 670 an opportunity 222 to exchange a service 220 through an agreement 223 . agreements 223 will have details that define their financial details , duration , and other contractual aspects of the deal . the system will persist 150 and maintain 670 opportunities 222 and agreements 223 to perform historical analysis on business performance , performance against peers , system performance , and other metrics . the system has a communication server 165 that can be used to send asynchronous messages consisting of but not limited to email , sms , and publish and subscribe technologies . | 7 |
in the following description , for purposes of explanation and not limitation , specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention . however , it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced in other embodiments that depart from these specific details . in other instances , detailed descriptions of well - known methods and devices are omitted so as to not obscure the description of the present invention with unnecessary detail . fig1 is a block diagram of a hearing aid 10 with which with the present invention may be practiced . hearing aid 10 includes a microphone 12 for reception of ambient sound . the signal from microphone 12 is amplified by amplifier 14 , which drives a miniature loudspeaker , or receiver , 16 . the output signal of amplifier 14 is applied to adaptive feedback canceller 18 , the output of which is fed back to amplifier 14 . the decorrelation processing of the present invention is performed as follows ( illustrated in fig2 ): 1 . if dir is “ down ”, increment d by r . if dir is “ up ”, decrement d by r . 2 . if d & gt ; r · t · sr , set d = r · t · sr and set dir =“ up ”. 3 . if d & lt ; 0 , set d = 0 and set dir =“ down ”. 4 . set d i = integer part of d and d f = fractional part of d . 5 . separate x ( n ) into low - and high - frequency bands , x l ( n ) and x h ( n ). 6 . set y ( n )= x l ( n )+ x h ( n − d i )+ d f ·[ x h ( n − d i − 1 )− x h ( n − d i )]. r = frequency shifting ratio ( typical value 0 . 003 , or 0 . 3 %) t = time interval for switching direction , in seconds ( typical value 0 . 5 ) sr = sampling rate d = current delay , in samples dir = current frequency shifting direction (“ up ” or “ down ”) x ( n )= input signal , sample n y ( n )= output signal , sample n there are several benefits to the decorrelation method . first , the use of a much smaller frequency shifting ratio in comparison to the teachings of joson et al . reduces the first two artifacts described above . the pitch change associated with a 0 . 3 % frequency shift is 1 / 20 of a musical half - step , which is undetectable even for musical input signals . likewise , acoustic mixing of processed and unprocessed signals that differ in frequency by 0 . 3 % does not produce an “ out of tune ” percept . this small frequency difference does produce amplitude modulation (“ beating ”), but most input signals contain natural amplitude modulation that will mask this artifact . an important indirect benefit of the small frequency shifting ratio is that it makes it feasible to alternate between upward and downward frequency shifting , rather than shifting in one direction only . alternating direction creates the percept of alternating pitches . for larger frequency shifting ratios , the result would sound something like a european police siren , which would be highly objectionable . by contrast , alternating pitches that differ only by 1 / 10 of a musical half - step ( i . e ., ± 1 / 20 ) is a subtle effect which is masked by the natural frequency modulation present in most input signals . the benefit of alternating the direction of frequency shifting is that shifting can be accomplished without use of the “ sampling method ”. shifting frequencies downward requires temporal stretching of the input , while shifting upward requires temporal compression . if shifting is only performed in one direction , segmentation of the input signal is required . for example , for a constant downward shift without segmentation , the output delay relative to the input would constantly increase over time , eventually overflowing the memory buffer . segmentation is required to allow the output to periodically “ catch up ” and to reset the buffer . the opposite problem occurs for a constant upward shift : the input falls behind the output until the memory buffer underflows , at which point segmentation is required . as discussed above , segmentation creates discontinuities at segment boundaries , with consequent artifacts . in the present invention , alternating shift direction allows the input / output delay to alternate between gradually increasing and decreasing . there is no need for segmentation , and thus no artifacts associated with segment boundaries . another benefit of the present invention results from replacing the complex interpolator with a simple two - point linear interpolator . interpolators designed for sampling rate conversion typically require several multiplies and moderate amounts of memory . by contrast , a two - point linear interpolator requires only a single multiply and two words of memory . ( additional memory is required to accommodate the input / output delay , but this is required regardless of the choice of interpolation technique .) this type of interpolator is known to generate artifacts due to the time - varying degree of high - frequency attenuation as the interpolator progresses between adjacent buffer samples . however , the attenuation of these artifacts by the lowpass characteristic of typical hearing aid receivers renders the artifacts largely inaudible , and thus a two - point linear interpolator is feasible for hearing aid applications . the resulting decrease in computational and memory requirements is an important benefit , given the power , size , and real - time constraints of hearing aids . a final benefit of the present invention results from limiting the action of the frequency shifter to the high - frequency portion of the signal . as discussed above , frequency shifting introduces a time - varying itd , which creates the illusion of moving sound sources because itd is a perceptual cue for lateral position of sound . however , the impact of itd on perceived lateral position is strongest for low - frequency inputs and minimal for high - frequency inputs . thus , the illusion of motion can be largely eliminated by dividing the input signal into low - and high - frequency bands , applying frequency shifting to the high band only , and then adding the bands back together . a reasonable cutoff frequency between the two bands is approximately 1 khz . a variety of filtering methods may be used to accomplish the separation of the bands . one effective method is to create a lowpass / highpass pair of power complementary filters by taking the sum and difference of two allpass filters . it will be recognized that the above - described invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit or essential characteristics of the disclosure . thus , it is understood that the invention is not to be limited by the foregoing illustrative details , but rather is to be defined by the appended claims . | 7 |
the present invention will be explained in detail by referring to the accompanying drawings . referring to fig1 and 2 , a device for sampling blood and measuring erythrocyte sedimentation rate in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention comprises a tube 1 with one end closed . the tube 1 comprises a blood sampling portion 2 at the open end of the tube 1 and an erythrocyte sedimentation rate measuring portion 3 extending from the blood sampling portion 2 . the measuring portion 3 has the same diameter over the entire length , and the blood sampling portion 2 has a greater diameter than that of the measuring portion 3 . a partition member 10 is located within the tube 1 . the tube 1 is evacuated in the production step of the device , and the open end of the tube 1 is stoppered with a stoppering means 4 to keep the inside of the tube 1 a vacuum state . the partition member 10 may have any shape such as plate , pipe or rod . however , a partition member 10 in the form of a plate is preferred , because it produces a loop - like flow of blood in the mixing operation as described below . hereinafter a plate - shaped partition member 10 is more fully explained . the partition member 10 preferably has such a length that the top end of the partition member 10 is positioned above the surface of the blood contained in the tube 1 when the tube 1 is stood vertically with the measuring portion 3 on the lower side and there is provided a space 5 between the tope end of the partition member 10 and the stoppering means 4 . the partition member 10 may have such a width that the member 10 can be readily inserted into the measuring portion 3 of the tube 1 . however , a partition member 10 having a much smaller width tends to be attached as a whole to the inner wall of the tube 1 , so that the member 10 cannot perform its function . from this standpoint , it is preferable that the width of the partition member be substantially equal to or slightly smaller than the inner diameter of the measuring portion 3 of the tube 1 . the thickness of the partition member 10 is preferably not less than 0 . 2 mm , more preferably from 0 . 5 to 1 mm . any material can be used for the partition member 10 , unless it destroys blood cells . however , a transparent or translucent material is preferable , because the measurement is easy . examples of the material include glass and plastics such as rigid vinyl chloride resin , polypropylene , polystyrene , polyamide , polycarbonate , polymethyl methacrylate and styreneacrylonitrile copolymer . the tube 1 is made of a transparent or translucent material to make it easy to observe erythrocyte sedimentation rate . examples of the material include glass and plastics such as polypropylene , acryl resins , polystyrene , butadiene - styrene copolymer ( commercially available under the name &# 34 ; asaflex &# 34 ; made by ashai chemical industry co ., ltd . and &# 34 ; k - resin &# 34 ; made by phillips chemical company ) and styrene - acrylonitrile copolymer . the inner diameter of the measuring portion 3 preferably ranges from 3 to 6 mm . a measuring portion 3 having an inner diameter of more than 6 mm requires a large amount of blood . a measuring portion 3 having an inner diameter of less than 3 mm makes the mixing of blood difficult . it is preferable that the inner diameter of the blood sampling portion 2 is from 8 to 14 mm , the length of the tube 1 is from 220 to 250 mm , and the volume of blood to be measured is from 1 to 7 ml . it is preferable that there is provided a space 5 &# 39 ; between the lower end of the partition member 10 and the bottom of the tube 1 , which readily produces a loop - like flow of blood in the longitudinal direction of the tube 1 . this will be explained in detail below . the effect of the partition member 10 is shown in test example 1 . ten devices as shown in fig1 and 2 in accordance with the present invention were provided . the particulars thereof are as follows : into the tube 1 of each device was introduced 2 . 5 ml of blood . then the tube 1 was turned upside down . a time required for the air trapped at the one end of the tube 1 to be moved to the other end of the tube 1 was measured . for comparison , using ten devices wherein no partition member was located in the tube 1 , the same procedures as above were repeated . table 1______________________________________ mixing timesample presence of absence ofno . partition member partition member______________________________________1 3 &# 34 ; 5 &# 39 ; 32 &# 34 ; 2 3 &# 34 ; 5 &# 39 ; 06 &# 34 ; 3 2 &# 34 ; 4 &# 39 ; 58 &# 34 ; 4 3 &# 34 ; 5 &# 39 ; 45 &# 34 ; 5 3 &# 34 ; 6 &# 39 ; 12 &# 34 ; 6 2 &# 34 ; 5 &# 39 ; 14 &# 34 ; 7 2 &# 34 ; 4 &# 39 ; 20 &# 34 ; 8 3 &# 34 ; 4 &# 39 ; 37 &# 34 ; 9 3 &# 34 ; 6 &# 39 ; 08 &# 34 ; 10 3 &# 34 ; 5 &# 39 ; 13 &# 34 ; average 3 &# 34 ; 5 &# 39 ; 20 &# 34 ; value______________________________________ the results of table 1 reveal that the use of the partition member exhibits unexpected effect on the speed of mixing of blood . a test for comparing the device of the present invention with a conventional tube for measuring erythrocyte sedimentation rate was conducted in test example 2 . there were prepared ten devices in accordance with the present invention ( the same as those in test example 1 ) and ten westergren tubes each having an inner diameter of 2 . 55 mm and a length of 300 mm . ten blood samples were placed into the tubes and the erythrocyte sedimentation rate thereof were measured . the results are shown in table 2 . table 2______________________________________ erythrocyte sedimentation distanceblood for an hour ( mm ) sample no . the invention westergren tube______________________________________1 5 42 5 53 38 404 67 645 6 66 13 127 91 888 4 59 3 210 25 27______________________________________ as is clear from table 2 , with respect to the same blood sample , the measurement obtained using the device of the present invention is substantially the same as that obtained using the westergren tube . those results reveal that the partition member exerts no adverse effect on the measurement of erythrocyte sedimentation rate . the partition member 10 used in the present invention will be explained in more detail . it is preferable that both side ends of the partition member 10 located in the tube 1 come in close contact with the inner wall of the tube 1 . when both side ends of the partition member 10 come in close contact with the inner wall of the tube 1 , a loop - like flow of blood in the longitudinal direction of the tube 1 is produced as shown in fig3 . the numeral 6 indicates an air bubble . however , when both side ends of the partition member 10 do not come in close contact with the inner wall of the tube 1 , the blood leaks from the one side of the partition member 10 to the other side of the partition member 10 through a clearance between the side end of the partition member 10 and the inner wall of the tube as shown in fig4 which hinders the formation of the above - mentioned loop - like flow of blood in the longitudinal direction , so that the mixing speed is reduced . from this standpoint , it is preferable that the width of the partition member 10 is closer to the inner diameter of the tube 1 , so long as the partition member 1 is easily inserted into the tube 1 . usually a difference between the inner diameter of the tube 1 and the width of the partition member 10 is selected from 0 to 0 . 5 mm . fig5 is a plan view showing another embodiment of the partition member 10 in accordance with the present invention . this partition member 10 has a cut portion 11 at the lower end thereof . a sectional area 7 of blood flow at the lower end of the tube 1 during the mixing operation is enlarged by providing the cut portion 11 as shown in fig6 whereby the flow rate of the blood at that portion is reduced , which results in the prevention of air bubble from being broken into minute air bubbles during the mixing operation . minute air bubbles tend to remain on the blood surface in the measurement , because they hardly disappear , which causes an error in measurement . however , this defect is overcome by providing the cut portion 11 . further , by providing the cut portion 11 , the blood or trapped air starts to move immediately after the tube 1 is turned upside down , which results in incresed mixing speed , though the mechanism thereof is not clear . it is preferable that a total sectional area including the cut portion 11 between the lower end of the partition member 10 and the inner wall of the lower end of the tube 1 , which area is indicated by the numeral 7 in fig6 is about 1 / 2 as large as or slightly more than the cross - sectional area of the measuring portion 3 of the tube 1 to exhibit sufficiently the above - mentioned functions . fig7 is a plan view showing still another embodiment of the partition member 10 in accordance with the present invention . this partition member 10 has a neck portion 12 at the upper part thereof in addition to the cut portion 11 . the neck portion 12 is provided so that the blood surface is positioned at the neck portion 12 . the functions of the neck portion 12 are as follows : ( 1 ) in the case of a partition member 10 having no neck portion , a gap between a meniscus level of the blood on the one side of the partition member 10 and a meniscus level of the blood on the other side of the partition member 10 tends to be produced . however , both meniscuses are of the same level by providing the neck portion 12 , which ensures an exact measurememt . ( 2 ) when the tube 1 containing a partition member 10 with no neck portion , which is in the inverted position , is turned to the normal position , the blood on the one side of the partition member 10 tends to flow into the other side of the partition member 10 together with air bubbles due to an inertial force . in that case , the air bubbles are divided into minute air bubbles . however , in the case of using the partition member 10 having a neck portion 12 , there is produced a blood flow which acts to cancel the flow of blood into the other side of the partition member 10 due to the presence of cut portions 13 , 14 on both sides of the neck portion 12 , thereby preventing the air bubbles from being divided into minute air bubbles . thus an exact measurement is ensured . usually the width of the neck portion 12 is from 1 / 4 to 1 / 6 the width of the partition member 10 . the neck portion 12 may be provided such that the cut portion 13 and the cut portion 14 are symmetric with respect to the bisector 15 of the partition member 10 in the longitudinal direction , as shown in fig7 . however , as shown in fig8 the neck portion 12 is preferably provided such that the center 16 of the upper end of the neck portion 12 is on the bisector 15 and the center 17 of the lower end of the neck portion 12 is offset rom the bisector 15 , whereby the neck portion 12 is inclined against the bisector 15 . in that case , the flow rates of the bloods which flow through the cut portion 13 and the cut portion 14 on both sides of the inclined neck portion 12 are different from each other , which causes a disorder of blood flow and reduces the rate of main loop - like blood flow . thus the above - mentioned flowing of air bubbles into the other side of the partition member 10 is more effectively prevented . an angle between the neck portion 12 and the bisector 15 is preferably from 1 ° to 6 °. the neck portion 12 is preferably formed such that a portion 18 which has the same width as that of the major portion of the partition member 10 remains at the upper end portion thereof . the wide end portion 18 functions as follows : after the mixing operation is completed , some quantity of blood is trapped under the rubber plug 4 and the blood hardly drops due to the surface tension thereof . if the blood is left as it is , there is a danger that the blood drops down gradually along the inner wall of the tube 1 , which causes an error in measurement . in contrast thereto , if the wide end portion 18 is positioned beneath the under surface of the rubber plug 4 , the blood trapped under the rubber plug 4 drops in a short time along the wide end portion 18 . however , the entire upper end portion of the partition member 10 may be narrowed to form a narrow end portion 19 , as shown in fig9 . various partition members were produced and the effects thereof were confirmed as shown in test example 3 . each partition member 10 was made of a rigid polyvinyl chloride . the entire length was 214 mm and the thickness was 0 . 5 mm . the other particulars are shown in table 3 . five species were used with respect to each partition member 10 . the mixing speed was measured in the same manner as in test example 1 . this was evaluated in terms of the time required for the blood to start to move after the tube 1 was turned upside down . it was determined whether or not minute air bubbles were formed during the mixing operation it was determined whether air bubbles on the one side of the partition member 10 flowed into the other side of the partition member 10 . it was determined whether the blood was trapped under the rubber plug 4 . table 3__________________________________________________________________________ a b c d e f g__________________________________________________________________________shape fig2 fig2 fig5 fig7 fig7 fig9 fig8 width of partition 3 . 00 4 . 06 4 . 06 4 . 06 4 . 06 4 . 06 4 . 06member ( mm ) cut portion 11 -- -- 3 × 3 3 × 3 3 × 3 3 × 3 3 × 3 ( mm × mm ) neck portion 12length ( mm ) -- -- -- 10 17 -- 17width ( mm ) -- -- -- 1 1 -- 1inclination angle α ( degree ) -- -- -- 0 0 -- 3narrow end portion 19length ( mm ) -- -- -- -- -- 26 -- width ( mm ) -- -- -- -- -- 1 -- inclination angle α ( degree ) -- -- -- -- -- 0 -- __________________________________________________________________________ table 4______________________________________ sample partition member no . a b c d e f g______________________________________mixing speed 1 6 3 3 3 3 3 3 ( sec ) 2 4 4 3 2 3 3 2 3 7 3 4 4 3 2 3 4 5 5 2 2 3 3 3 5 2 4 3 2 3 2 3start of 1 x δ ○ δ ○ ○ ○ movement 2 δ x ○ ○ δ ○ ○ of blood 3 x δ δ δ ○ ○ ○ 4 δ x ○ ○ ○ δ ○ 5 ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ δformation of 1 x x x ○ ○ ○ ○ minute air 2 x x x ○ δ ○ ○ bubbles 3 x x ○ δ ○ δ ○ 4 x x δ δ δ ○ ○ 5 x x δ ○ ○ δ ○ shape of 1 x x x ○ ○ ○ ○ meniscus 2 x x x ○ ○ ○ ○ 3 x x x ○ ○ ○ ○ 4 x x x ○ ○ ○ ○ 5 x x x ○ ○ ○ ○ turning of 1 x x x x ○ x ○ air bubble 2 x x x ○ x x ○ 3 x x x x x ○ ○ 4 x x x x x ○ ○ 5 x x x ○ ○ x ○ trapping 1 ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ x ○ blood 2 ○ ○ ○ ○ δ x ○ 3 ○ ○ ○ δ ○ x ○ 4 ○ ○ ○ ○ δ x ○ 5 ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ x ○ total δ δ δ ○ ○ δ ⊚ evaluation______________________________________ as is clear from the results of table 4 , the partition member 10 shown in fig8 which has a width approximately equal to the inner diameter of the measuring portion 3 and has a cut portion 11 at the lower end thereof and an inclined neck portion 12 at the upper end thereof reveals excellent results in all test items . it is to be understood that the present invention is not limited to the above examples , and various changes and modifications may be made in the invention without departing from the spirit and scope thereof . in addition to the elements used in the examples , other elements can be used in the examples as set forth in the specification to obtain substantially the same results . | 8 |
the cyclic amidines of formula a that comprise this invention are synthesized via several distinct chemical syntheses which are described in detail in the examples set forth below . in general , each synthetic route consists of several sequential chemical operations which are outlined in schemes 1 - 8 and which can be generalized as described below : introduction of the α - cyanomethyl group onto a β - tetralone nucleus . concomitant reductive amination / cyclization to produce amidine intermediates . acylation of cyclic amidine intermediates to afford compounds of formula a in which y = carbonyl ( c ═ o ). reduction of the amide to generate the cyclic amidines of formula a in which y = methylene (— ch 2 —). it is generally preferred that the respective product of each process step be separated from other components of the reaction mixture and subjected to purification before its use as a starting material in a subsequent step . separation techniques typically include evaporation , extraction , precipitation and filtration . purification techniques typically include column chromatography ( still , w . c . et . al ., j . org . chem . 1978 , 43 , 2921 ), thin - layer chromatography , crystallization and distillation . the structures of the final products , intermediates and starting materials are confirmed by spectroscopic , spectrometric and analytical methods including nuclear magnetic resonance ( nmr ), mass spectrometry ( ms ) and liquid chromatography ( hplc ). in the descriptions for the preparation of compounds of this invention , ethyl ether , tetrahydrofuran and dioxane are common examples of an ethereal solvent ; benzene , toluene , hexanes and cyclohexane are typical hydrocarbon solvents and dichloromethane and dichloroethane are representative halohydrocarbon solvents . in those cases wherein the product is isolated as the acid addition salt , the free base is obtained by techniques known to those skilled in the art . specifically , an appropriately substituted β - tetralone ( i ) is reacted with a secondary amine such as pyrrolidine in an inert halohydrocarbon solvent such as , for example , dichloromethane or a hydrocarbon solvent such as benzene for example , under dean - stark conditions ( removal of water ) or in an ethereal solvent such as tetrahydrofuran or an alcohol solvent such as methanol , at a temperature ranging from ambient temperature to reflux , to afford enamine ( ii ). cyanomethylation of enamine ( ii ) is accomplished by reaction with an α - haloacetonitrile , such as bromoacetonitrile , in an inert solvent such as acetonitrile , at a temperature ranging from ambient temperature to reflux , to afford the iminium salt ( iii ). the iminium salt is hydrolyzed by treatment with an aqueous acid solution , such as hydrochloric or acetic acid , which may contain an organic solvent such as an alcohol or dioxane to facilitate dissolution and reaction , to afford the α - cyanomethyl - β - tetralone ( iv ). reductive amination and concomitant cyclization of tetralone ( iv ) is accomplished by reaction with a reducing agent such as , for example , sodium cyanoborohydride , and an ammonium equivalent such as , for example , ammonium acetate , in an alcohol solvent such as methanol or in a halohydrocarbon solvent such as dichloromethane , at a temperature ranging from ambient temperature to reflux . an organic acid , such as acetic acid for example , may be added to facilitate this transformation ; cyclization under these reaction conditions typically affords the cis - amidine ( v ) as the major product . amidine ( v ) may be converted to its acid addition salt upon treatment with organic acids such as trifluoroacetic acid , or via treatment with inorganic acids such as hydrochloric acid , to afford the corresponding amidine salt ( vi ) ( scheme 1 ). hx in scheme 1 represents the hydrochloride salt . the amidine products described above (( v ) and ( vi )) are acylated via suitable amidation methods ( see gross and meienhofer , eds ., “ the peptides ”, vols . 1 - 3 , academic press , new york , n . y ., 1979 - 1981 ). a carboxylic acid is converted to an activated ester via peptide coupling methods known to those skilled in the art , and the product of this reaction is subsequently reacted with amidine ( v ) or ( vi ) to afford the corresponding amide product . for example , trans - 4 -( benzenesulfonamido ) methylcyclohexane carboxylic acid is reacted with hbtu ( 2 -( 1h - benzotriazole - 1 - yl )- 1 , 1 , 3 , 3 - tetramethyluronium hexafluorophosphate and amidine ( vi ) in the presence of a base such as diisopropylethylamine , in an inert solvent such as n , n - dimethylformamide , at a temperature from ambient temperature to reflux , to afford sulfonamides ( vii ) of formula a in which y = carbonyl and z =( aryl ) sulfonamido ( scheme 2 ). reaction of amidine ( vi ) or ( v ) with alkyl - or heteroaryl - sulfonyl halides , under similar conditions , affords sulfonamides ( viii ) of formula a . during these transformations , minor amounts of regiomers ( ix ) and ( x ) are formed respectively ; compounds of this type are considered to be part of this invention as well . alternatively , a sulfonamido - carboxylic acid is first treated with an amine base , such as triethylamine , in an inert hydrocarbon , ethereal or halohydrocarbon solvent , such as dichloroethane , and subsequently reacted with isobutyl chloroformate at a temperature from about − 20 ° c . to 80 ° c . this resulting mixture is then reacted with amidine ( v ), in a suitable inert solvent such dichloromethane at a temperature from about − 20 ° c . to reflux , to afford the sulfonamides ( vii ) and ( viii ) of formula a respectively , in which y = carbonyl and z =( aryl ) sulfonamido or sulfonamido . the amidino sulfonamides of formula a in which y = methylene are prepared via reduction of amidino amides ( vii ) and ( viii ) by reaction with a suitable reducing agent such as borane - tetrahydrofuran complex or lithium aluminum hydride in an inert hydrocarbon solvent such as toluene or ethereal solvent such as tetrahydrofuran , at a temperature from ambient temperature to reflux . the crude product is treated with an aqueous acid solution such as hydrochloric acid ( 3m - 6m ) in order to cleave any boron complexes ; neutralization affords sulfonamides ( xi ) and ( xii ) as corresponding free bases . preferably , these materials are isolated as an acid addition salts upon treatment with a suitable organic acid such as trifluoroacetic acid or inorganic acid such as hydrochloric acid ( scheme 3 ). reduction of the regiomeric amides ( ix ) and ( x ) by the methods described above in scheme 3 , affords amines ( xiii ) and ( xiv ) ( scheme 4 ). compounds of formula a in which z = 2 , 3 - dihydro - 2 - oxo - 1h - benzimidazol - 1 - yl and l =( n - methylene ) piperidin - 4 - yl are prepared from amidines ( v ) or ( vi ) and [ 4 -( 2 - keto - 1 - benzimidazolinyl ) piperidin - 1 - yl ] acetic acid . for example , 4 -( 2 - keto - 1 - benzimidazolinyl ) piperidine is reacted with a bromoacetic acid ester , such as ethyl bromoacetate , in the presence of an amine base , such as diisopropylethylamine , in an inert solvent such as acetonitrile , at a temperature ranging from ambient temperature to reflux , to afford ethyl [ 4 -( 2 - keto - 1 - benzimidazolinyl ) piperidin - 1 - yl ] acetate . this ester is subjected to hydrolysis under basic conditions , for example , by treatment with sodium hydroxide in an alcoholic solution such as aqueous methanol , to yield , upon acidification with an inorganic or organic acid such as hydrochloric or acetic acid for example , [ 4 -( 2 - keto - 1 - benzimidazolinyl ) piperidin - 1 - yl ] acetic acid . this carboxylic acid is reacted directly with amidine ( v ) or ( vi ), in the presence of an amine base , under peptide coupling conditions described above , to afford amidino benzimidazolinones ( xv ) of formula a in which y = carbonyl and l =( n - methylene ) piperidin - 4 - yl ( scheme 5 ). compounds ( xvi ) of formula a in which y = methylene and l =( n - methylene ) piperidin - 4 - yl and z = 2 , 3 - dihydro - 2 - oxo - 1h - benzimidazol - 1 - yl are prepared by reduction of amides ( xv ) with a reducing agent such as borane - tetrahydrofuran complex or lithium aluminum hydride as described above ( scheme 6 ). compounds of formula a in which y = carbonyl , l =( n - methylene ) piperazin - 4 - yl and z = phenyl are prepared by reacting a phenylpiperazine with a haloacetic acid ester , such as , for example , ethyl bromoacetate , in the presence of an amine base , such as diisopropylethylamine , in an inert solvent such as acetonitrile , at a temperature ranging from ambient temperature to reflux , to afford ethyl ( 4 - arylpiperazin - 1 - yl ) acetate . this ester is subjected to hydrolysis under basic conditions , for example , by treatment with sodium hydroxide in an aqueous methanol , to yield , upon acidification with an inorganic or organic acid such as hydrochloric or acetic acid for example , ( 4 - arylpiperazin - 1 - yl ) acetic acid . this carboxylic acid is reacted directly with amidine ( v ) or ( vi ) in the presence of a base , such as triethylamine for example , under peptide coupling conditions described above , to afford arylpiperidines ( xvii ) of formula a in which y = carbonyl , l =( n - methylene ) piperazin - 4 - yl and z = aryl or substituted aryl ( scheme 7 ). compounds ( xviii ) of formula a in which y = methylene , l =( n - methylene ) piperazin - 4 - yl and z = aryl are prepared by reduction of amides ( xvii ) with a reducing agent such as borane - tetrahydrofuran complex or lithium aluminum hydride ( scheme 8 ). replacement of ( 4 - arylpiperazin - 1 - yl ) acetic acid with a ( 4 - arylpiperidin - 1 - yl ) acetic acid in schemes 7 and 8 affords compounds of formula a in which l =( n - methylene ) piperidin - 4 - yl and z = aryl . compounds of formula a in which y = carbonyl , l =( n - methylene ) piperidin - 4 , 4 - diyl and z = 1 - aryl - 2 , 3 - dihydro - 4 - oxo - imidazol - 5 , 5 - diyl are prepared by reacting 1 - aryl - 1 , 3 , 8 - triazaspiro -[ 4 , 5 ] decan - 4 - one with a haloacetic acid ester , such as ethyl bromoacetate , in the presence of an amine base , such as diisopropylethylamine , in an inert solvent such as acetonitrile , at a temperature from ambient temperature to reflux , to afford ethyl ( 1 - aryl - 1 , 3 , 8 - triazaspiro -[ 4 , 5 ] decan - 4 - one - 8 - yl ) acetate . this ester is subjected to hydrolysis under basic conditions , for example , by treatment with sodium hydroxide in an alcoholic solution such as aqueous methanol , to yield upon acidification with an inorganic or organic acid such as hydrochloric or acetic acid for example , ( 1 - aryl - 1 , 3 , 8 - triazaspiro -[ 4 , 5 ] decan - 4 - one - 8 - yl ) acetic acid . this carboxylic acid is reacted directly with amidine ( v ) or ( v ), in the presence of a base such as triethylamine for example , under peptide coupling conditions described above , to afford amides ( xix ) of formula a in which y = carbonyl , l =( n - methylene ) piperidin - 4 , 4 - diyl and z = 1 - aryl - 2 , 3 - dihydro - 4 - oxo - imidazol - 5 , 5 - diyl ( scheme 9 ). other compounds of this invention having the formula a can be prepared using the methods described herein ; modifications of the experimental protocols described above are known or obvious or within the ability of those skilled in the art . for example , a variety of β - tetralones are known or readily prepared by reaction of phenylacetic acids with ethylene gas in the presence of a lewis acid ( for example , stjernlof , p . et . al . j . med . chem . 1995 , 38 , 2202 ). compounds in which the r 1 group ( s ) is varied are obtained using this chemistry ; in some cases , protecting group manipulations are used and these are obvious or known to those skilled in the art . examples include masking an amine group as a carbamate , amide or phthalamide , and masking an hydroxyl group as an ether or ester . other r 1 substituents are available through ( other ) functional group manipulations such as , for example , reduction of a nitro group to an amine or dehydration of an amide to a nitrile . compounds in which the l group is varied , are derived from amino - carboxylic acids or piperazines or piperidines ; hundreds of such compounds are commercially available and many more are known . compounds of formula a where z = sulfonamido or ( aryl ) sulfonamido , in which either the r 3 or the r 4 group is varied , are accessible by sulfonylation ; there are hundreds of sulfonyl halides or sulfonic acids that are commercially available and more that are known . compounds of formula a where z = sulfonamido or ( aryl ) sulfonamido , in which the r 3 substituent is heteroaryl can be prepared by substituting a pyridinyl , thienyl or furyl sulfonylchloride for a benzenesulfonamide as described in scheme 2 . n - alkylimidazolylsulfonyl chlorides can be used to prepare sulfonamides of formula a in which the r 3 substituent is imidazolyl . similarly , alkylsulfonyl and cycloalkylsulfonyl halides , alone or in the presence of an activating agent such as a lewis acid , can be used to prepare sulfonamides of formula a in which the r 3 substituent is alkyl or cycloalkyl respectively . compounds of formula a with l groups other than methylene are prepared by substituting bromoacetic acid esters with other ω - bromo acid esters in schemes 5 , 7 and 9 . there are hundreds of ω - bromo acids and esters that are either commercially available or known . compounds of formula a in which the l group is alkylene are derived from arylalkylenecarboxylic acids ; many compounds of this structural type are either commercially available or known . similarly , arylalkenylene -, arylalkynylene - and arylcycloalkylene - carboxylic acids are known or available and can be used to make compounds of formula a in which l is alkenylene , alkynylene or cycloalkylene respectively . compounds in which b 2 is other than hydrogen are made starting from an appropriate α - methylated - β - tetralone and carrying out the chemistry described in scheme 1 and subsequent schemes and examples . compounds in which r 2 is other than hydrogen are made by reaction of a cyclic amidine with an alkylation agent such as methyl iodide . the following examples describe the invention in greater detail and are intended to illustrate the invention , but not to limit it . all compounds were identified by a variety of methods including nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy , mass spectrometry and in some cases , infrared spectroscopy and elemental analysis . nuclear magnetic resonance ( 300 mhz nmr ) data are reported in parts per million downfield from tetramethylsilane . mass spectra data are reported in mass / charge ( m / z ) units . unless otherwise noted , the materials used in the examples were obtained from readily available commercial sources or synthesized by standard methods known to those skilled in the art . a solution of 6 - methoxy - 3 , 4 - dihydro - 1h - naphthalen - 2 - one ( 1 ) ( 5 . 64 g , 32 mmol ) in methanol ( 60 ml ) was treated with pyrrolidine ( 3 . 5 ml , 41 . 6 mmol ) and the resultant mixture was stirred at ambient temperature for 1 . 5 h . the product precipitated from solution within minutes of the addition of pyrrolidine . the resultant suspension was cooled in an ice bath and the enamine product ( 2 ) was collected by filtration as a white solid ( 5 . 6 g , 76 %). nmr ( cdcl 3 ): δ 1 . 86 - 1 . 94 ( m , 4 h ), 2 . 46 ( t , 2h ), 2 . 80 ( t , 2 h ), 3 . 19 - 3 . 25 ( m , 4 h ), 3 . 77 ( s , 3 h ), 5 . 10 ( s , 1 h ), 6 . 59 - 6 . 65 ( m , 2 h ) and 6 . 78 d , 1 h ). a solution of 1 -( 3 , 4 - dihydro - 6 - methoxynaphthalen - 2 - yl )- pyrrolidine ( 2 ) ( 5 . 6 g , 24 . 4 mmol ) in acetonitrile ( 60 ml ) was treated with bromoacetonitrile ( 2 . 21 ml , 31 . 7 mmol ). the resultant solution was stirred at ambient temperature for 1 h . the pyrrolidinium salt ( 3 ), was collected by filtration and washed with diethyl ether , to give the pyrrolidinium bromide as a hygroscopic colorless solid which was used directly in the subsequent reaction . ms 269 ( m + ). a solution of 1 -[ 1 -( cyanomethyl )- 3 , 4 - dihydro - 6 - methoxy - 2 ( 1h )- naphthalenylidene )] pyrrolidinium bromide ( 3 ) ( 24 . 4 mmol ) and acetic acid ( 5 ml ) in dichloromethane / methanol / water ( 60 ml / 100 ml / 50 ml ) was stirred at ambient temperature for 18 h . an organic layer was separated and the aqueous layer was extracted with dichloromethane ( 100 ml ). the combined organics were washed with water , then washed with a saturated solution of aqueous sodium bicarbonate , and dried over magnesium sulfate . the solvent was evaporated in vacuo to give the α - cyano - β - tetralone product ( 4 ) as a brown oil ( 3 . 3 g , 63 %, 2 steps ). ir ( neat ): 1715 , 1722 , 2251 cm − 1 ; nmr ( cdcl 3 ): δ 2 . 47 - 2 . 58 ( m , 1 h ), 2 . 67 - 2 . 80 ( m , 1 h ), 2 . 88 - 3 . 13 ( m , 4 h ), 3 . 77 ( t , 1 h ), 3 . 77 ( s , 3 h ), 6 . 81 - 6 . 90 ( m , 2 h ), 7 . 19 ( d , 1 h ). a solution of ( 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 - tetrahydro - 6 - methoxy - 2 - oxo - naphthalen - 1 - yl )- acetonitrile ( 4 ) ( 3 . 5 g , 16 . 2 mmol ) and ammonium acetate ( 18 . 8 g , 0 . 24 mol ) in methanol ( 50 ml ) was stirred at ambient temperature for 15 min . sodium cyanoborohydride ( 5 . 11 g , 0 . 081 mol ) was added and the resultant solution was heated at reflux for 1 h . the solvent was evaporated in vacuo , and the residue was treated with a solution of sodium hydroxide ( 12 g , 0 . 3 mol ) in water ( 100 ml ) at 0 ° c . a pale gray solid precipitated out of solution and was collected by filtration , washed with water and triturated in diethyl ether to give the crude cyclic amidine ( 5 ) ( 3 . 5 g , 100 %). this material ( 3 . 0 g , 13 . 8 mmol ) was dissolved in tetrahydrofuran / methanol (˜ 9 : 1 , 75 ml ) and treated with 1 m hydrochloric acid in diethyl ether ( 40 ml ) at 0 ° c . to induce precipitation . the resultant precipitate was collected by filtration and washed with diethyl ether to give 3a , 4 , 5 , 9b - tetrahydro - 7 - methoxy - 1h - benzo [ e ] indol - 2 - yl )- amine hydrochloride ( 6 ) ( 1 . 57 g , 45 %) as an off white solid . ir ( kbr ): 1611 , 1681 , 1703 , 2832 , 3106 cm − 1 ; nmr ( dmso - d 6 ): δ 1 . 79 - 1 . 91 ( m , 2 h ), 2 . 60 - 2 . 74 ( m , 3 h ), 3 . 33 - 3 . 46 ( m , 1 h ), 3 . 63 - 3 . 73 ( m , 1 h ), 3 . 71 ( s , 3 h ), 6 . 80 ( d , 1 h ), 6 . 71 ( d of d , 1 h ), 7 . 17 ( d , 1 h ), 9 . 08 ( br s , 1 h ), 9 . 34 ( br s , 1 h ) and 10 . 06 ( br s , 1 h ); ms 217 ( m + h ) + . ( fig1 ). a solution of trans - 4 -( benzenesulfonamido ) methylcyclohexane carboxylic acid ( 1 . 16 g , 4 . 15 mmol ), o - benzotriazol - 1 - yl - n , n , n ′, n ′- tetramethyluronium hexafluorophosphate ( 1 . 58 g , 4 . 15 mmol ) and n , n - diisopropylethylamine ( 2 . 41 ml , 13 . 8 mmol ) in n , n - dimethylformamide ( 15 ml ) was stirred at ambient temperature for 15 min . after this time , 3a , 4 , 5 , 9b - tetrahydro - 7 - methoxy - 1h - benzo [ e ] indol - 2 - yl )- amine hydrochloride ( 6 ) ( 1 . 0 g , 3 . 96 mmol ) was added , and the resultant solution was heated to 45 ° c . for 1 . 5 h . the solution was then poured into ice water and the product which precipitated was collected by filtration , washed with water and air dried . this solid was triturated in diethyl ether to give trans - 4 -[[( phenylsulfonyl ) amino ] methyl ]- n -( cis - 3a , 4 , 5 , 9b - tetrahydro - 7 - methoxy - 1h - benz [ e ] indol - 2 - yl ) cyclohexanecarboxamide ( 7 ) as a colorless solid ( 1 . 87 g , 95 %). nmr ( dmso - d 6 ): δ 0 . 69 - 0 . 89 ( m , 2 h ), 1 . 10 - 1 . 34 ( m , 3 h ), 1 . 63 - 1 . 88 ( m , 5 h ), 2 . 10 - 2 . 27 ( m , 1 h ), 3 . 24 - 3 . 50 ( m , 3 h ), 3 . 70 ( s , 3 h ), 4 . 04 - 4 . 13 ( m , 1 h ), 6 . 63 ( d , 1 h ), 6 . 74 ( d of d , 1 h ), 7 . 05 ( d , 1 h ), 7 . 54 - 7 . 67 ( m , 4 h ) and 7 . 74 - 7 . 83 ( m , 2 h ); ms 496 ( m + h ) + . ( fig2 ). trans - 4 -[[[( phenylsulfonyl ) amino ] methyl ]- n -( cis - 3a , 4 , 5 , 9b - tetrahydro - 7 - methoxy - 1h - benz [ e ] indol - 2 - yl ] cyclohexanecarboxamide ( 7 ) ( 1 . 6 g , 3 . 22 mmol ) was added in portions , with stirring , to a solution of lithium aluminum hydride ( 16 . 1 mmol ) in tetrahydrofuran ( 36 ml ) at ambient temperature . the resultant solution was heated at reflux for 45 min . the solution was then cooled on an ice bath , and then a solution of water ( 0 . 65 ml ) in tetrahydrofuran ( 5 ml ) was carefully added , followed by the addition of ten percent aqueous sodium hydroxide ( 0 . 65 ml ) and water ( 2 . 1 ml ). the resultant suspension , which formed , was stirred at ambient temperature for 30 min and then dried over sodium sulfate . the insoluble inorganic material was removed by filtration , and washed generously with tetrahydrofuran . the solvent was evaporated in vacuo , the residue was dissolved in a minimum amount of isopropanol and this solution was treated with a concentrated solution of hydrogen chloride in isopropanol . the solvents were evaporated in vacuo to give crude give n -[[ trans - 4 -[[( cis - 3a , 4 , 5 , 9b - tetrahydro - 7 - methoxy - 1h - benz [ e ] indol - 2 - yl ) amino ] methyl ] cyclohexyl ] methyl ] benzenesulfonamide hydrochloride salt as a pale pink solid ( 1 . 38 g ; estimated purity ˜ 75 % by hplc ). a 300 mg . portion of this material was purified by preparative hplc on a c18 reverse phase column ( 4 cm by 45 cm ), eluted with a gradient of water / acetonitrile / trifluoroacetic acid from 90 / 10 / 0 . 1 to 10 / 90 / 0 . 1 ( v / v ) ( flow rate of 40 ml per minute ) over 50 minutes . the product obtained was converted to the hydrochloride salt with ethanolic hydrogen chloride to give pure give n -[[ trans - 4 -[[( cis - 3a , 4 , 5 , 9b - tetrahydro - 7 - methoxy - 1h - benz [ e ] indol - 2 - yl ) amino ] methyl ] cyclohexyl ] methyl ] benzenesulfonamide hydrochloride ( 8 ) as a colorless solid ( 0 . 15 g ). nmr ( dmso - d 6 ): δ 0 . 70 - 0 . 94 ( m , 4 h ), 1 . 20 - 1 . 50 ( m , 2 h ), 1 . 62 - 1 . 77 ( m , 4 h ), 1 . 80 - 1 . 94 ( m , 2 h ), 2 . 55 - 2 . 73 ( m , 5 h ), 3 . 03 - 3 . 16 ( m , 2 h ), 3 . 31 - 3 . 46 ( m , 1 h ), 3 . 63 - 3 . 73 ( m , 1 h ), 3 . 71 ( s , 3 h ), 4 . 24 - 4 . 32 ( m , 1 h ), 6 . 70 ( d , 1 h ), 6 . 79 ( d of d , 1 h ), 7 . 14 ( d , 1 h ), 7 . 55 - 7 . 67 ( m , 4 h ), 7 . 74 - 7 . 82 ( m , 2 h ), 9 . 66 ( br t , 1 h ) and 10 . 09 ( br s , 1 h ); ms 482 ( m + h ) + . ( fig2 ). a suspension of trans - 4 -[[( phenylsulfonyl ) amino ] methyl ]- n -( cis - 3a , 4 , 5 , 9b - tetrahydro - 7 - methoxy - 1h - benz [ e ] indol - 2 - yl ) cyclohexanecarboxamide ( 7 ) ( 0 . 200 g , 0 . 403 mmol ) in dichloromethane ( 2 ml ) was added dropwise with stirring , to a solution of boron tribromide ( 1 . 6 mmol ) in dichloromethane ( 12 ml ) at 0 ° c . the resultant suspension was stirred at 0 ° c . for 30 min . methanol (˜ 1 ml ) was added at which point the mixture became a clear yellow solution . the solution was stirred for 30 min at 0 ° c . the solvents were evaporated in vacuo , and the residue was purified by preparative hplc on c 18 reverse phase column , using water / acetonitrile / trifluoroacetic acid ( 50 : 50 : 0 . 1 ) as the eluent . the product obtained was dissolved in a minimum amount of methanol and converted to the hydrochloride salt by treatment with ethanolic hydrogen chloride . the solvents were evaporated in vacuo and the residue was triturated with diethyl ether to give trans - 4 -[[( phenylsulfonyl ) amino ] methyl ]- n -( cis - 3a , 4 , 5 , 9b - tetrahydro - 7 - hydroxy - 1h - benz [ e ] indol - 2 - yl ) cyclohexanecarboxamide ( 9 ) as a beige solid ( 0 . 093 g , 45 %). nmr ( dmso - d 6 ): δ 0 . 77 - 0 . 95 ( m , 2 h ), 1 . 20 - 1 . 37 ( m , 3 h ), 1 . 64 - 1 . 80 ( m , 2 h ), 1 . 83 - 1 . 98 ( m , 3 h ), 2 . 43 - 2 . 64 ( m , 5 h ), 2 . 91 ( d of d , 1 h ), 3 . 48 - 3 . 74 ( m , 4 h ), 4 . 37 - 4 . 47 ( m , 1 h ), 6 . 54 ( d , 1 h ), 6 . 65 ( d of d , 1 h ), 7 . 03 ( d , 1 h ), 7 . 53 - 7 . 83 ( m , 6 h ), 9 . 37 ( br s , 1 h ), 11 . 56 ( br s , 1 h ), 13 . 22 ( br s , 1 h ); ms 482 ( m + h ) + ( fig3 ). a solution of boron tribromide ( 3 . 4 mmol ) in dichloromethane ( 3 . 4 ml ) was added to a solution of n -[[ trans - 4 -[[( cis - 3a , 4 , 5 , 9b - tetrahydro - 7 - methoxy - 1h - benz [ e ] indol - 2 - yl ) amino ] methyl ] cyclohexyl ] methyl ] benzenesulfonamide hydrochloride ( 8 ) ( 0 . 37 g , 0 . 714 mmol ) and triethylamine ( 0 . 235 ml , 1 . 69 mmol ) in dichloromethane ( 20 ml ) at 0 ° c . the resultant mixture was stirred at 0 ° c . for 1 h , and stirring was continued at room temperature for an additional 1 h . the mixture was cooled on an ice bath and methanol was added . after stirring for several minutes , the solvents were evaporated in vacuo . the residue was purified by preparative hplc on a c18 reverse phase column , eluted with waterlacetonitrile / trifluoroacetic acid (˜ 50 : 50 : 0 . 1 ). the product was dissolved in a minimum amount of methanol and converted to the hydrochloride salt with ethanolic hydrogen chloride . the solvents were evaporated in vacuo to give n -[[ trans - 4 -[[( cis - 3a , 4 , 5 , 9b - tetrahydro - 7 - hydroxy - 1h - benz [ e ] indol - 2 - yl ) amino ] methyl ] cyclohexyl ] methyl ] benzenesulfonamide hydrochloride as a colorless solid ( 0 . 15 g , 42 %). nmr ( dmso - d 6 ): δ 0 . 67 - 0 . 98 ( m , 4 h ), 1 . 21 - 1 . 50 ( m , 2 h ), 1 . 58 - 1 . 97 ( m , 6 h ), 2 . 50 - 2 . 75 ( m , 5 h ), 3 . 03 - 3 . 23 ( m , 2 h ), 3 . 31 - 3 . 46 ( m , 1 h ), 3 . 55 - 3 . 67 ( m , 1 h ), 4 . 17 - 4 . 33 ( m , 1 h ), 6 . 53 ( s , 1 h ), 6 . 64 ( d , 1 h ), 6 . 99 ( d , 1 h ), 7 . 52 - 7 . 83 ( m , 6 h ), 9 . 34 ( br s , 1 h ), 9 . 76 ( br s , 1 h ) and 10 . 24 ( br s , 1 h ); ms 468 ( m + h ) + ( fig4 ). a solution of 4 -( 2 - keto - 1 - benzimidazolinyl ) piperidine ( 10 . 0 g , 46 mmol ), ethyl bromoacetate ( 5 . 1 ml , 46 mmol ) and n , n - diisopropylethylamine ( 8 . 8 ml , 50 . 6 mmol ) in acetonitrile ( 200 ml ) was heated at reflux for 1 hour . the solvent was evaporated in vacuo , and the residue was suspended in water (˜ 200 ml ). the suspension was made basic with the addition of a saturated aqueous solution of sodium bicarbonate . the resultant solid was collected by filtration , washed with water and dried in vacuo to give the ethyl ( 4 -( 2 - keto - 1 - benzimidazolinyl ) piperidin - 1 - yl ) acetate as a colorless solid ( 13 . 2 g , 94 %). ms m / z 304 ( mh +); nmr ( cdcl 3 ): δ 1 . 32 ( t , 3 h ), 1 . 84 ( br d , 2 h ), 2 . 40 - 2 . 66 ( m , 4 h ), 3 . 13 ( br d , 2 h ), 3 . 31 ( s , 2 h ), 4 . 23 ( q , 2 h ), 4 . 45 - 4 . 49 ( m , 1 h ), 6 . 99 - 7 . 10 ( m , 2 h ), 7 . 12 - 7 . 19 ( m , 1 h ), 7 . 27 - 7 . 34 ( m , 1 h ) and 10 . 54 ( brs , 1 h ). a solution of ethyl ( 4 -( 2 - keto - 1 - benzimidazolinyl ) piperidin - 1 - yl ) acetate ( 13 . 0 g , 42 . 8 mmol ) in methanol ( 150 ml ) was treated with an aqueous solution of sodium hydroxide ( 3 n , 30 ml , 90 mmol ) and heated at reflux for 2 hours . the solution was cooled to room temperature and neutralized with the addition of concentrated hydrochloric acid ( 12 n , 7 . 5 ml ). the solvent was evaporated in vacuo , and the resultant amorphous solid was dried in vacuo with heating (˜ 50 ° c .) overnight to give ( 4 -( 2 - keto - 1 - benzimidazolinyl ) piperidin - 1 - yl ) acetic acid ( 17 . 2 g ) which was used in the subsequent step without purification . ms m / z 304 ( mh +); nmr ( dmso - d 6 ): δ 1 . 74 ( br d , 2 h ), 2 . 53 - 2 . 67 ( m , 2 h ), 2 . 74 - 2 . 86 ( m , 2 h ), 3 . 33 ( s , 2 h ), 4 . 29 - 4 . 42 ( m , 1 h ), 6 . 97 - 7 . 05 ( m , 3 h ) and 7 . 38 - 7 . 43 ( m , 1 h ). a mixture of ( 4 -( 2 - keto - 1 - benzimidazolinyl ) piperidin - 1 - yl ) acetic acid ( 2 . 34 g , ˜ 5 . 83 mmol ), 2 -( 1h - benzotriazole - 1 - yl )- 1 , 1 , 3 , 3 - tetramethyuronium hexafluorophosphate ( 1 . 87 g , 4 . 93 mmol ) and n , n - diisopropylethylamine ( 3 . 1 ml , 17 . 9 mmol ) in n , n - dimethylformamide ( 15 ml ) was stirred at 45 ° c . for 10 min . after this time , 3a , 4 , 5 , 9b - tetrahydro - 1h - benzo [ e ] indol - 2 - yl ) amine ( 1 . 0 g , 4 . 49 mmol ) was added to the mixture , and the resultant solution was stirred at room temperature for an additional two hours . a white precipitate was collected by filtration and washed with water . the product was purified by flash chromatography on silica gel using 5 to 10 % methanol in dichloromethane as the eluent . the product was triturated with diethyl ether and dried in vacuo to give 2 -[[ 4 -( 2 , 3 - dihydro - 2 - oxo - 1h - benzimidazol - 1 - yl1 - piperidinyl ] acetyl ]- 3a , 4 , 5 , 9b - tetrahydro - 1h - benzo [ e ] indol - 2 - yl )- amine ( 11 ) as a colorless solid , ( 0 . 23 g , 9 %). an additional 0 . 6 g of product was recovered from the mother liquor as well as several impure fractions of the chromatography . ms m / z 444 ( mh +); nmr ( cdcl 3 ): δ 1 . 78 ˜ 2 . 10 ( m , 4 h ), 2 . 34 - 2 . 83 ( m , 6 h ), 3 . 00 - 3 . 17 ( m , 3 h ), 3 . 20 ( s , 2 h ), 3 . 56 - 3 . 78 ( m , 2 h ), 4 . 27 - 4 . 45 ( m , 2 h ) and 7 . 00 - 7 . 23 ( m , 8 h ), ( fig5 ). 2 -[[ 4 -( 2 , 3 - dihydro - 2 - oxo - 1h - benzimidazol - 1 - yl )- 1 - piperidinyl ] acetyl ]- 3a , 4 , 5 , 9b - tetrahydro - 7 - methoxy - 1h - benzo [ e ] indol - 2 - yl )- amine ( 0 . 500 g , 1 . 13 mmol ) was carefully added in portions , with stirring , to a solution of lithium aluminum hydride ( 4 . 0 mmol ) in tetrahydrofuran ( 20 ml ). considerable foaming occurred with each addition . the resultant mixture was heated at reflux for 1 . 5 hours . the resultant solution was cooled on an ice bath , and a solution of water ( 0 . 16 ml ) in tetrahydrofuran ( 5 ml ) was carefully added , with stirring , to the solution . with care , 15 % aqueous sodium hydroxide ( 0 . 16 ml ) was added followed by the addition of another aliquot of water ( 0 . 5 ml ). the inorganic salts were removed by filtration and washed successively with tetrahydrofuran and dichloromethane . the organic solutions were combined , and the solvents were evaporated in vacuo . the residue was purified by preparative hplc on a c18 reverse phase column eluted with a gradient of acetonitrile / water / trifluoroacetic acid from 10 / 90 / 0 . 1 ( v / v ) to 90 / 10 / 0 . 1 to give 2 -[[ 4 -( 2 , 3 - dihydro - 2 - oxo - 1h - benzimidazol - 1 - yl )- 1 - piperidinyl ] acetyl ]- 3a , 4 , 5 , 9b - tetrahydro - 7 - methoxy - 1h - benzo [ e ] indol - 2 - yl )- amine ( 12 ) as a trifluoroacetic acid salt , ( 0 . 166 g , 29 %). ms m / z 430 ( mh +); nmr ( dmso - d 6 ): δ 1 . 86 - 2 . 03 ( m , 4 h ), 2 . 58 - 2 . 83 ( m , 4 h ), 3 . 15 - 3 . 87 ( m , 11 h ), 4 . 33 - 4 . 45 ( m , 1 h ), 4 . 47 - 4 . 60 ( m , 1 h ), 6 . 94 - 7 . 04 ( m , 3 h ), 7 . 11 - 7 . 38 ( m , 5 h ), 10 . 03 ( br s , 1 h ), 10 . 41 ( br s , 1 h ) and 10 . 98 ( br s , 1 h ). ( fig6 ). the following compounds of this invention were prepared from appropriately substituted β - tetralones as the starting material using the experimental protocols described above . the compounds described in this invention were evaluated for binding to the human neuropeptide y5 receptor . the human npy5 receptor cdna ( genbank accession number u66275 ) was inserted into the vector pclneo ( invitrogen ) and transfected into human embryonic kidney cells ( hek - 293 ) via calcium phosphate method ( cullen 1987 ). stably transfected cells were selected with g - 418 ( 600 μg / ml ). stably transfected cells served as the source for the membranes for the npy5 receptor binding assay . npy5 - transfected hek293 cells were grown to confluence in 150 cm 2 culture dishes . cells were washed once with phosphate - buffered saline ( gibco cat # 14040 - 133 ). cells were then incubated in phosphate - buffered saline without calcium and without magnesium , supplemented with 2 mm edta . cells were incubated for 10 minutes at room temperature and the cells were collected by repetitive pipeting . cells were formed into pellets and then frozen at − 80 ° c . until needed . frozen pellets were homogenized with a polytron at full speed for 12 seconds in a homogenization buffer ( 20 mm tris hcl , 5 mm edta , ph 7 . 4 ). homogenates were centrifuged for 5 minutes at 4 ° c . at 200 g . supernatants were transferred to corex tubes and centrifuged for 25 minutes at 28 , 000 g . pellets were re - suspended in binding ( 20 mm hepes , 10 mm nacl , 0 . 22 mm kh 2 po 4 , 1 . 3 mm cacl 2 , 0 . 8 mm mgso 4 , ph 7 . 4 ). membranes were kept on ice until use . a competition binding assay , known to those skilled in the art , was used in which compounds of formula a compete with 125 i - pyy for binding to cell membranes . in simple terms , the less 125 i - pyy bound to the membranes implies that a compound is a good inhibitor ( competitor ). bound 125 i - pyy is determined by centrifugation of membranes , aspirating supernatant , washing away residual 125 i - pyy and subsequently counting the bound sample in a gcounter . compounds to be tested were prepared as 10 × stocks in binding buffer and added first to assay tubes ( ria vials , sarstedt ). twenty ( 20 ) μl of each 10 × compound stock is pipeted into vials and 80 μl of 125 i - pyy ( nen catalog number nex240 ), which has been diluted to a concentration of 200 pm in 0 . 25 % bsa in binding buffer , is added to the compound tubes ( final concentration of 125 i - pyy is 80 pm ). to each tube is added 100 μl of membranes and the mixture is agitated by pipeting 2 times . samples are incubated for 1 hr at room temperature . aluminum cast plates ( sarstedt ) containing the vials are then centrifuged 10 minutes at 3200 rpm in a sorvall rt6000 . supernatant is then aspirated . to each vial 400 μl pbs is added and this is then aspirated again . vials are then put in carrier polypropylene 12 × 75 tube and counted in gamma counter ( packard ). non - specific binding is determined in the presence of 300 nm npy . percent inhibition of 125 i - pyy binding is calculated by subtracting non - specific binding from the test samples ( compound ( i )), taking these counts and dividing by total binding , and multiplying by 100 . inhibitory concentration values ( ic 50 ) of compounds that show appreciable inhibition of 125 i - pyy binding are calculated by obtaining percent inhibition of 125 i - pyy binding values at different concentrations of the test compound , and using a graphing program such as graphpad prism ( san diego , calif .) to calculate the concentration of test compound that inhibits fifty - percent of 125 i - pyy binding ( table 4 ). binding affinities of compounds of formula a for the human npy y5 receptor ( expressed as % inhibition of 125 i - pyy binding ) male long - evans rats ( 180 - 200 grams ) are housed individually and are maintained on once - a - day feeding schedule ( i . e ., 10 a . m . until 4 p . m .) for five days following quarantine to allow the animals to acclimate to feeding on powdered chow (# 5002 pmi certified rodent meal ) during the allotted time . the chow is made available in a open jar , anchored in the cage by a wire , with a metal follower covering the food to minimize spillage . water is available ad - libitum . animals are fasted for 18 hours prior to testing . at the end of the fasting period , animal are administered either compounds of the invention or vehicle . vehicle and test compounds are administered either orally ( 5 ml / kg ) 60 minutes prior to the experiment , or 30 minutes prior when given subcutaneously ( 1 ml / kg ) or intraperitoneally ( 1 ml / kg ). compounds of the invention are administered orally as a suspension in aqueous 0 . 5 % methylcellulose - 0 . 4 % tween 80 , or intraperitoneally as a solution or suspension in peg 200 ; compound concentrations typically range from 1 mg / kg to 100 mg / kg , preferably from 10 - 30 mg / kg . food intake is measured at 2 , 4 , and 6 hours after administration by weighing the special jar containing the food before the experiment and at the specified times . upon completion of the experiment , all animals are given a one - week washout period before retesting . percent reduction of food consumption is calculated subtracting the grams of food consumed by the treated group from the grams of food consumed by the control group divided by the grams of food consumed by the control group , multiplied by 100 . a negative value indicates a reduction in food consumption and a positive value indicates an increase in food consumption . % change = treatment - vehicle vehicle × 100 | 2 |
referring now to the figures of the drawings in detail and first , particularly , to fig1 thereof , there is seen a case 1 for a portable digital media player , such as an apple ipod . the case 1 has a front panel 2 defining a front surface in which a window 3 for a display screen and a window 4 for a click wheel of the portable digital media player are formed as cutouts . a rear panel 8 of the case , which is illustrated in fig6 , defines a rear surface that accommodates a winder 9 which will be explained in more detail below . the case may be formed of rigid plastic , a rigid or flexible clear panel may be placed in the window 3 , but the window 4 normally remains an open cutout . fig2 shows an upper panel 5 of the case 1 defining an upper surface having an opening 13 for a headphone port and a slot 14 for a hold switch , of the ipod . the upper panel 5 also has a finger grip 6 for removing the panel 5 . fig3 shows the bottom of the case 1 defining a bottom surface having a cover 15 with a live hinge for covering an opening 29 above a dock connector port of the ipod . it is understood , however , that other openings , covers and / or windows may be formed in the case to accommodate components of any generation ipod or other digital media player . it may be seen from the left and right sides of the case which define side surfaces and are respectively illustrated in fig4 and 5 , as well as from fig2 and 3 described above , that both the front panel 2 and the rear panel 8 wrap around to the sides and the bottom and are joined at a parting line 7 . the parting line 7 divides the case into two half shells formed of the front panel 2 and the rear panel 8 . the winder 9 , which is shown in fig5 and 6 in a closed storage position , is shown in fig7 and 9 in an open position . the winder 9 has a finger grip 10 which facilitates sliding the winder from the closed to the open position . the winder 9 has two legs 11 , 12 with respective forked prongs 13 , 14 . the legs 11 , 12 slide in respective channels 15 , 16 in the rear panel 8 to open and close the winder 9 toward the right side of the case while the prongs grip surfaces in the channels . it is , however , understood that the winder could also open towards the left side or towards any surface not having openings to accommodate components of the digital media player . it is also understood that only one leg and only one channel or more than two legs and more than two channels could be provided . the rear panel 8 also has a recess 17 formed therein which is contiguous with the channels 15 , 16 . the recess 17 receives a handle 18 of the winder 9 . the handle 18 has an outer surface 19 which is contoured to match a given shape of the rear panel 8 , so that when the winder is retracted in the closed storage position , the outer surface 19 of the handle 18 is flush with the rear panel 8 , as is seen in fig5 and 6 . fig1 discloses that earbud headphones 20 have a plug 21 to be inserted in the opening 13 and a cord 23 to be wrapped around the winder 9 when in the open position . earbuds 22 on the cord 23 are held in place by inserting the cord 23 into one or two slots 24 formed in the winder 9 . as is seen in fig1 , a belt clip 36 is conventionally removably mounted on the rear panel 8 between the legs 11 , 12 of the winder 9 . the belt clip 36 has an outer arm 37 and an inner arm 38 pivoted about a pin 39 having a non - illustrated spring for biasing the arms together to grip a belt . a mounting 40 is disposed in the rear panel 8 for attachment of the belt clip 36 , as is seen in fig9 . the clip and mounting are manufactured by krusell under the designation multidapt ®. fig1 is an exploded view of the case 1 illustrating how the two panels 2 , 8 come together at the parting line 7 with prongs 25 , 26 disposed alongside the panel 5 as seen in fig3 . it may also be seen that the legs 11 , 12 of the winder 9 slide into and out of the channels 15 , 16 along a line 30 and that the upper panel 5 slides along grooves 31 , 32 in the panels 8 , 2 along a line 33 for insertion of the portable digital media player . fig1 shows an l - shaped stand 41 having a short leg 42 and a long leg 43 . a recess 44 has a shape matching that of the stand 41 so that the stand 41 can be pushed and snapped into the recess 44 for storage or hinged at the top into the position shown for allowing the case to stand at a slight incline , but substantially upright , on a flat surface . a bevel 45 allows the user of the case to lift the stand 41 out of the recess 44 with a finger . the invention provides a rigid case for preventing shocks from reaching the digital media player . the case can be easily snapped together at the parting line . the winder 9 may receive the cord 23 in an open position or be stored in a closed position when not in use , so that it is unobtrusive and virtually disappears into the case . | 0 |
some aspects of the invention will now be described based on the embodiments , which do not intend to limit the scope of the present invention , but exemplify the invention . all of the features and the combinations thereof described in the embodiment are not necessarily essential to the invention . reviewing the conventional step of dehydrating and transparently vitrifying as described above , the following result is obtained . that is , when the distribution of transmission losses of the optical fiber base material with a high transmission loss is examined longitudinally , the transmission loss is higher at a starter in the upper portion than in the lower portion of the optical fiber base material as shown in fig1 . in fact , the base material is transparently vitrified from the lower portion to the upper portion . crystallized by heating , fused silica composing the furnace tube becomes porous , and then , heavy metal impurities contained in the fused silica is discharged into the furnace tube . alternatively , heavy metals heated at a high temperature is discharged from the refractory lining into the atmosphere in the furnace tube , dispersed along the grain boundary of the crystallized quartz , and discharged into the furnace tube . in any case , these heavy metals are taken into the optical fiber base material , which causes a high transmission loss . the fused silica is progressively crystallized in the step of transparently vitrifying at a high temperature . in addition , the heavy metals are much faster dispersed under a high temperature . in any case , the step of transparently vitrifying where the temperature of the furnace tube becomes high has a greater risk of discharging the heavy metals into the furnace tube . in the step of transparently vitrifying , the porous base material suspended from above is usually moved downwardly . in other words , firstly , the lower portion of the porous base material is transparently vitrified , next , the upper portion is transparently vitrified . meanwhile , since the ambient gas is supplied from the lower portion of the furnace tube and flows upwardly , the heavy metals discharged from the heating region at a high temperature basically exists only in the upper portion of the furnace tube . accordingly , the upper the level of the portion of the porous base material is , the longer a time period over which the porous base material is exposed to the atmosphere containing the heavy metals without being transparently vitrified . this theory is consistent with the result of the distribution of transmission losses as shown in fig1 . in addition to the above consideration , the following invention is achieved as a result of further consideration . that is , in the step of transparently vitrifying , the porous base material is conventionally moved downwardly , however , the moving direction is inversed , namely , the porous base material is moved upwardly . therefore , since the base material which passed through the heating region has been transparently vitrified , the base material is not contaminated even if it is exposed to the atmosphere containing heavy metals . meanwhile , a porous portion which has not been transparently vitrified is disposed lower than the heating region , and there is a flow of clean gas from bottom toward top . therefore , the heavy metals discharged from the heating region do not flow downwardly , so that the porous base material is not contaminated . in addition , when the step of dehydrating is performed by moving the porous base material downwardly and the step of transparently vitrifying is performed by moving the porous base material upwardly , the lower portion of the base material is dehydrated before being transparently vitrified . meanwhile , the upper portion of the base material is transparently vitrified before being dehydrated . in this case , a time period until the base material is transparently vitrified after the step of dehydrating is different between the upper portion and the lower portion of the base material . since the porous base material contains chlorine after the step of dehydrating and remains partially the high temperature , the base material is continuously treated with chlorine while it is porous . consequently , the treating time with chlorine is different between the upper portion and the lower portion of the base material . moreover , the treating with chlorine causes not only the base material to be dehydrated but also geo 2 forming the core to be volatilized . therefore , not only the residue of moisture is different but also a refractive index distribution is different between the upward direction and the downward direction . consequently , it is preferable that the step of dehydrating is performed in the same direction as the step of transparently vitrifying . the present invention is achieved base on the above described finding . the feature of the present invention includes dehydrating a base material which is suspended in a furnace tube by passing the base material through a heating region as moving the base material upwardly ; and transparently vitrifying the base material by moving downwardly the base material to a starting position of transparently vitrifying while the temperature is maintained and passing the base material through the heating region as moving the base material upwardly again . at this time , it is preferable that the gas is supplied from the lower portion of the furnace tube and the moving direction of the porous base material is the same as the direction in which the gas flows in the furnace tube in both the step of dehydrating under the atmosphere containing chlorine at 900 to 1200 degrees celsius and the step of transparently vitrifying under the atmosphere containing inert gas at 1300 to 1600 degrees celsius . a porous base material is transparently vitrified using an electric furnace with a quartz furnace tube . the porous base material is configured to move downwardly in the furnace tube while it is shut out the air . the porous base material progressively passes through a region heated at a high temperature with a heater which is provided on a part of the furnace tube , so that the porous base material is dehydrated and transparently vitrified . in addition , a first port for introducing ambient gas is provided on the lower portion of the furnace tube . the top of the furnace tube can be covered with a lid , and a shaft to which the porous base material is attached can go up and down through the lid . the lid has a second port for exhausting the gas in the furnace tube . the porous base material which is formed by depositing glass particles by vad is suspended in the above described electric furnace . then , the porous base material is dehydrated at 1100 degrees celsius as being moved upwardly under the atmosphere containing chlorine of 10 % and helium of 90 %. next , after the porous base material moves downwardly to a starting position of transparently vitrifying once while the temperature is maintained , the porous base material is transparently vitrified at 1500 degrees celsius as being moved upwardly again under the atmosphere containing he of 100 % as shown in fig2 a , 2 b and 2 c in the order named . therefore , a core member for an optical fiber is formed . the obtained core member has the ratio of the core diameter to the cladding diameter being 0 . 20 . since this is not sufficient for a single - mode optical fiber , a cladding is added to the core member by ovpo ( outside vapor phase oxidation ) in order to form a complete glass base material for an optical fiber . when the cladding is added to the core member by ovpo , it is necessary to draw the core member once , and the core member is drawn by oxyhydrogen flame with a glass lathe . next , the porous base material which is obtained by depositing glass particles by ovpo is dehydrated and transparently vitrified under the atmosphere containing helium and chlorine . when the glass base material for an optical fiber manufactured as described above is drawn , an optical fiber having a good loss characteristic can be obtained . specifically , the transmission loss for the full length 1310 nm of the glass base material is stabilized around 0 . 32 db / km . when one hundred glass base materials are manufactured as well , a variation in the loss characteristic is significantly small as shown in fig3 . a porous base material manufactured by the same process as embodiment 1 is inserted into the furnace from above . the porous base material progressively dehydrated from the bottom end thereof as being fallen down at an appropriate speed . after the dehydration is completed , the base material is pulled up to the upper portion of the furnace once . then , the base material is transparently vitrified progressively from the bottom end thereof as being fallen down at an appropriate speed again as shown in fig4 a , 4 b and 4 c in the order named . therefore , a core member for an optical fiber is formed . further , a cladding is added to the core member by ovpo , and then , the core member with the cladding is dehydrated and transparently vitrified , so that a glass base material for an optical fiber can be obtained . the glass base material manufactured as described above is drawn , and then , the loss characteristic of the obtained optical fiber is examined . as a result , the transmission loss for the length of 1310 nm is varied between 0 . 32 db / km and 0 . 34 db / km . among one hundred optical fibers manufactured as well , one or more exhibits a high transmission loss such as 0 . 36 db / km as shown in fig3 . viewed in the longitudinal direction , many glass base materials show that the transmission loss is higher in the upper portion than in the lower portion as shown in fig1 . the porous base material manufactured by the same process as comparative example 1 is used . in a step of dehydrating , the base material is dehydrated as moving downwardly in the same manner as comparative example 1 . next , in a step of transparently vitrifying , the temperature rises to transparently vitrify the base material while the base material is held in the lower portion of the furnace tube . after the temperature is sufficiently increased , the base material is transparently vitrified as being moved upwardly , so that a core member for an optical fiber is formed . further , a cladding is added to the core member by ovpo , and then , the core member is dehydrated and transparently vitrified to obtain a glass base material for an optical fiber . an optical fiber obtained by drawing the glass base material shows that the refractive index of the core is higher than usual in the upper portion of the base material as shown in fig5 . in addition , the base material is not sufficiently dehydrated and has a higher loss for the length of 1383 nm due to hydroxy group in the upper portion as shown in fig6 . the above - described embodiments do not limit the invention . the above - described embodiments are only illustrative , and includes a configuration substantially the same as the technical concept recited in the claims of the invention . any configuration that has the same effects or advantages is intended to be included in the technical concept of the present invention . the method of manufacturing the present invention provides an optical fiber having an excellent transmission characteristic . | 2 |
hereafter , it explains the embodiments of this invention with reference to the drawings . hereafter , it explains embodiment 1 of executing this invention by using fig1 to fig7 . in this embodiment , the width of the trench put from the display side to the diffusion board is the same as the width of a black matrix or example of assumption as the angle of trench achieving the total reflection of the incident light from inside of the diffusion board to the oblique side of the trench is the same . in the embodiment all , the point part of the trench may not be a pointed one , and may have a width , and worn roundness . moreover , the trench of the embodiments is an isosceles triangle whose center line is perpendicular to the display , passing the center of the black matrix between pixels ; however , the requirement need not be strictly met . fig1 is an outline chart where the part of the display of the image of the autostereoscopic display in the embodiment 1 is shown . the above mentioned image display part is an installation of diffusion board 102 between lens sheet 101 and display 106 in fig1 . display 106 is the one that two or more pixels such as pixel 107 a , 107 b , and 107 c are spread . pixel 107 a consists of red subpixel 104 ra , green subpixel 104 ga , blue subpixel 104 ba , and black matrix 105 which is the non - display part between each subpixel . diffusion board 102 has trench 103 put from a side of display 106 having the same width as the width of black matrix 105 at the position of each black matrix 105 between pixels on the display , and the trench angle of each trench 103 is a total reflection angle for an incident light from the inside of the diffusion board of each pixel to the oblique side of trench 103 . fig2 is a plan view where it explains the pixel on the display and the arrangement of a black matrix used by the embodiments of the invention . each three primary color display part ( subpixel ) r , g , and b queue up at equal intervals , and black matrix 105 , which is non - display part , exists between each . length of the short side of each three primary color display part r , g , and b is assumed to be p 1 , and length of the long side is assumed to be p 2 . the width of black matrix 105 in the direction of the short vicinity of each three primary color display part r , g , and b is assumed to be d 1 , and the width of black matrix 105 in the direction of the vicinity of length is assumed to be d 2 . in the each embodiment , it is assumed p 1 = 35 . 5 μm , p = 143 μm , d 1 = 28 μm , and d 2 = 47 . 5 μm . fig1 is a cross section in one point dot - dashed curve x - x ′ shown in fig2 . fig3 is an outline chart where it explains the ray which passes in the diffusion board in the embodiments . though ray 501 , 502 diffuses in direction 503 of diffusion in diffusion board 102 , the direction of the ray treated in this text is assumed to be a direction of each ray 501 , 502 which passes in the medium without diffusive . in a general diffusion board such as the becoming frosted glass , the direction of each ray 501 , 502 is strong direction of strength of light , and it assumes that it uses such a diffusion board most in the embodiments . it explains the shape of trench 103 in this embodiment in detail by using fig1 , fig4 , and fig5 . fig4 is an outline chart where it explains the angle and the length used by the embodiment . in fig4 , ray 308 emitted with the angle θ from display 106 can be reflected to the oblique side of trench 103 which has angle φ , height h , and d in width . ray 308 has a reflection angle θi as same as an incident angle θi . moreover , the thickness of diffusion board 102 is assumed to be h = 100 μm , and the refractive index is assumed to be n = 1 . 7 in the example of each embodiment . when the ray starts going out from the object with the refractive index n into the air , the incident angle θi that provides the total reflection of the ray in the boundary of the object and air should be a critical angle θ m or more given by next formula ( 1 ). it becomes θ m ≈ 36 . 03 ° in the embodiments . fig5 is an outline chart where it explains the viewing angle on the display used by the embodiments . when the display viewing angle on display 106 to observer 1501 is θdp , ray 401 from display 106 is emitted by angle θo or more to display 106 in this figure . θo is given by next formula ( 2 ). in the embodiments , it becomes θo = 20 ° assuming display viewing angle θdp = 140 °. in fig1 , if trench 103 is put in diffusion board 102 with the angle φ that provides the total reflection of ray 108 emitted with angle θo from display 106 , the total reflection of all of incident lights from display 106 to trench 103 can occur . such angle φ should fit next formula ( 3 ). moreover , height h of trench 103 with this angle φ is given by next formula ( 4 ). it is φ & gt ; 32 . 06 °, and when assuming φ = 32 . 1 ° for instance , it becomes h = 48 . 66 μm in this embodiment because of d = d1 = 28 μm . fig6 is an outline chart where the part of the display of the image of the autostereoscopic display seen from the side of red display part 104 ra in this embodiment is shown , and the cross section in one point dot - dashed curve y - y ′ shown in fig2 . angle φ ′ of trench 703 for the total reflection of all of incident lights to the oblique side of trench 703 only has to fit “ φ ′& gt ; 32 . 06 °” in fig6 as the embodiment using trench 103 . because the above mentioned formula are similar , when assuming d ′ ( width of the trench 703 )= d 2 = 47 . 5 μm , and φ ′= 32 . 1 °, it becomes h ′ ( height of the trench 703 )= 82 . 55 μm . fig7 is a simplified drawing where the configuration of the trench of the diffusion board in this embodiment is shown . due to the total reflection of the light incident from each pixel to the oblique side of the trench , the mixture of the color of the pixel is reduced and the image quality of the reproduction stereoscopic image can be improved . hereafter , it explains the modified embodiment of the embodiment 1 by using fig8 to fig1 . in fig8 , the height of the trench is enlarged , and the modified embodiment 1 of increasing the incident light to the oblique side of the trench is shown . this modified embodiment is an example of explaining the effect when height h of the trench is predetermined . though only the example of the cross - sectional view along point dot - dashed line x - x ′ shown in fig2 is shown according to this modified embodiment , cross - sectional view along point dot - dashed line y - y ′ shown in fig2 as shown in fig6 is clear . fig8 is a simplified drawing where the part of the display of the image of the autostereoscopic display when the width of the trench of the diffusion board is equal to the width of a black matrix is shown in this modified embodiment 1 . it is assumed that the trench has height h = 80 μm , and width d = d 1 = 28 μm here . when h and d are given , the angle φ of the trench is given by next formula ( 5 ). it becomes angle φ = 19 . 85 ° of trench 903 in fig8 . at this time , ray 908 emitted from display 106 at angle θo = 20 ° does not only have the reflection at the oblique side of trench 903 but also the refraction penetration . moreover , angle θ 1 that ray 909 from display 106 has the total reflection at the oblique side of trench 903 should fit next formula ( 6 ). as a result , θ 1 & gt ; 26 . 11 ° can be filled , and all incident ray to the oblique side of trench 903 can be reflected . fig9 is an outline chaff of the modified embodiment 2 of the width of the trench of the diffusion board showing the part of the display of the image of the autostereoscopic display when it is smaller than the width of a black matrix . it is assumed that the trench has height h = 80 μm and width d = 18 μm & lt ; d 1 here . in fig9 , angle θ 1 that provides the total reflection of ray 1009 from display 106 at the oblique side of trench 1003 should fit θ 1 & gt ; 29 . 61 ° because it becomes angle φ = 12 . 84 ° of trench 1003 . in this modified embodiment , the mixture of the color of the pixel is reduced by enlarging the height of the trench , and increasing an incident ray to the oblique side of the trench , and the image quality of the reproduction stereoscopic image can be improved . moreover , because the effect of the improvement is achieved even if the width of the trench is reduced more than the width of a black matrix , accuracy , by which the trench is put , need not be strict . it explains the modified embodiment 3 by using fig1 . this modified embodiment enlarges the height of the trench as modified embodiment 1 , and increases an incident ray to the oblique side of the trench . the embodiment provides the angle of the trench and an incident ray to have a total reflection angle from the inside of the diffusion board to the oblique side of the trench . this modified embodiment is an example of explaining the effect when height h of the trench and the angle φ of the trench are predetermined . fig1 is an outline chart where the part of the display of the image of the autostereoscopic display in this modified embodiment is shown . trench 1103 a has height h = 80 μm , angle φ = 32 . 1 °, and the total reflection of all incident rays from display 106 through the diffusion board 102 to the slope of the trench 1103 a occurs . here , when h and φ are given , width d of the trench is given by next formula ( 7 ). it becomes width d = 46 . 03 μm & gt ; d 1 of trench 1103 a in fig1 . at this time , because a part of red subpixel 104 rb and blue subpixel 104 ba overlaps with trench 1103 a , incident ray 1109 comes out of red subpixel 104 rb , and incident ray 1107 comes out from blue subpixel 104 ba through the inside of trench 1103 a to the oblique side of trench 1103 a . they have an incident reflection and refractive penetration to the oblique side of trench 1103 b adjacent thereto . in this modified embodiment , by making the height of the trench enlarged , and an incident ray to the oblique side of the trench increased , the angle of the trench providing full reflection of all incident light can be achieved . the mixture of the color of the pixel is reduced , and the image quality of the reproduction stereoscopic image can be improved . moreover , because the effect of the improvement is achieved even if the width of the trench is enlarged more than the width of a black matrix , accuracy of the trench needs not be strict . it explains the modified embodiment 4 by using fig1 . in the modified embodiment , the height of the trench is enlarged and an incident ray is increased to the oblique side of the trench as the modified embodiment 1 . additionally , not only does total reflection occur , but also the angle of the trench and an incident ray from the inside of the diffusion board to the oblique side of the trench are provided . also , an incident ray from a part of the display through the trench to an oblique side of the trench may have a refraction penetration and an adjacent trench having an angle can provide a total reflection of the incident ray at the oblique side of the adjacent trench . fig1 is an outline chart where the part of the display of the image of the autostereoscopic display in this modified embodiment 4 is shown . trench 1203 a can have h = 80 μm in height . ray 1209 comes from red subpixel 104 rb at angle θo can be partially reflected to display 106 . a part of ray 1209 having the refraction penetration in the oblique side of trench 1203 a can have a total reflection at the oblique side of trench 1203 b next to trench 1203 a . the angle φ of the trench should fit next formula ( 8 ). it is φ & gt ; 34 . 37 °, and when assuming φ = 34 . 38 ° for instance , it becomes d = 49 . 5 μm & gt ; d 1 from formula ( 8 ) in this modified embodiment . in this modified embodiment , the height of the trench is enlarged and an incident ray is increased to the oblique side of the trench . in addition , a light comes from the part of the display in the trench and is an incident ray reaching the oblique side of the trench from the inside of the diffusion board . the incident ray can have a total reflection including the part of the ray which has the refraction penetration ( because it goes out of the part of the display in the trench and strength of the light is weak , the ray , which reflects in the oblique side of the trench , is disregarded ). the mixture of the color of the pixel is reduced , and the image quality of the reproduction stereoscopic image can be improved . hereafter , it explains the embodiment 2 of the invention by using fig1 . this embodiment is an example of forming to the trench the shading layer where light is absorbed . fig1 is an outline chart where the part of the display of the image of the autostereoscopic display in this embodiment is shown . fig1 ( a ) is an example of filling shading layer 1308 a to trench 1303 a of the same type as the modified embodiment 3 of the embodiment . moreover , fig1 ( b ) is an example of forming shading layer 1308 b thinly to the inner wall of trench 1303 b of the same type as the modified embodiment 3 . moreover , fig1 ( c ) is an example of thinly forming shading layer 1308 c under the inner wall of trench 1303 c of the same type as the modified embodiment 3 . ray 1302 c emitted from blue subpixel 104 b in trench 1303 c is absorbed by shading film 1308 c , and ray 1301 c emitted from red subpixel 104 r in trench 1303 c has the refraction penetration . moreover in fig1 ( d ), the width of trench 1303 d is smaller than the width of black matrix 105 , and example of filling shading layer 1308 d to trench 1303 d whose shape is a rectangle is provided , when the shading layer is formed . thus , when the reflection layer is formed , the shape of the trench can be freely decided . the shading layer is formed to the trench , the mixture of the color of the pixel is reduced , and the image quality of the reproduction stereoscopic image can be improved in this execution example above . hereafter , it explains the embodiment 3 of the invention by using fig1 . this embodiment is an example of forming the reflection layer where light is reflected to the trench . fig1 is a simplified drawing where the part of the display of the image of the autostereoscopic display in this embodiment is shown . fig1 ( a ) is an example of filling reflection layer 1409 a to trench 1403 a of the same type as the modified embodiment 3 above described . moreover , fig1 ( b ) shows that reflection layer 1409 b is thinly formed to the inner wall of trench 1403 b of the same type as modified embodiment 3 . it is an example of thinly forming shading layer 1408 b . in addition , an incident ray from inside of diffusion board 102 reflects to the oblique side of trench 1403 b , and the ray in trench 1403 b is absorbed . moreover , fig1 ( c ) is an example of thinly forming reflection layer 1409 c under the inner wall of trench 1403 c of the same type as modified embodiment 3 , and forming shading layer 1408 c thinly . in addition , ray 1402 c emitted from blue display part 104 b in trench 1403 c is absorbed by shading film 1408 c , and ray 1401 c emitted from red display part 104 r in trench 1403 c has the refraction penetration . moreover , fig1 ( d ) is an example that the width of the trench 1403 d is smaller than the width of black matrix 105 . also , fig1 ( d ) is an example of filling reflection layer 1308 d to trench 1403 d whose shape is a rectangle . thus , when the reflection layer is formed , the shape of the trench can be freely decided . the reflection layer is formed to the trench , the mixture of the color of the pixel is reduced , and the image quality of the reproduction stereoscopic image can be improved in this embodiment . in setting up the diffusion board which puts the trench along the black matrix between pixels between the display and the lens sheet according to the embodiments , a black matrix and the color separation can be desirably achieved . the blot of the color of the reproduction stereoscopic image by the color of the pixel which is mutually adjacent mixing can be improved . according to this invention above , the phenomenon that a black matrix and the color separation stand out with the lens is not caused because the pixel is separated mutually though three primary colors of each pixel are diffused , moreover , the reproduction stereoscopic image does not cause the phenomenon in which blotting by the mixture of the color of the pixel , and be able to display a & lt ; high - resolution & gt ; stereoscopic image . | 6 |
the following description is made for the purpose of illustrating the general principles of one or more embodiments and is not meant to limit the inventive concepts claimed herein . further , particular features described herein can be used in combination with other described features in each of the various possible combinations and permutations . unless otherwise specifically defined herein , all terms are to be given their broadest possible interpretation including meanings implied from the specification as well as meanings understood by those skilled in the art and / or as defined in dictionaries , treatises , etc . fig1 illustrates a front perspective view of an example embodiment of a dishwashing apparatus 10 . the apparatus 10 comprises a housing 11 with an interior cavity 15 for maintaining at least one dish rack 20 , and a dishwasher door 5 pivotally coupled to the housing 11 . for example , the apparatus 10 may include a first dish rack 30 and a second dish rack 40 , wherein the second dish rack 40 is positioned above , and substantially horizontal to , the first dish rack 30 . each dish rack 20 has a rack layout that may be manually adjusted to receive and maintain objects of various shapes and sizes , such as plates , cups , bowls , pots , pans , etc . the apparatus 10 further comprises at least one utensil rack 90 shaped to receive and maintain smaller sized objects , such as cutlery , flatware and other utensils . the utensil rack 90 is positioned above , and substantially horizontal to , the second dish rack 40 . when the door 5 is open , each rack 20 , 90 is horizontally slidable into and out of the interior cavity 15 . for example , as shown in fig1 , the racks 20 and 90 are slid out of the interior cavity 15 , permitting easy access to the racks 20 and 90 for loading objects onto , or unloading objects from , the racks 20 and 90 . the racks 20 and 90 may be slid into the interior cavity 15 after a user has completed loading objects onto , or unloading objects from , the racks 20 and 90 . if the objects loaded onto the racks 20 and 90 are unwashed , a wash cycle for washing the objects may be initiated when the user closes the door 5 . fig2 and 4 - 6 illustrate different top perspective views of an example embodiment of a utensil rack configuration 150 for the utensil rack 90 . fig3 illustrates a top view of the example embodiment of the utensil rack configuration 150 . when configured in accordance with the utensil rack configuration 150 , the utensil rack 90 includes a rack frame 91 ( fig4 ) with multiple sides . the rack frame 91 includes a first pair of opposing sides 91 a and 91 b ( fig6 ), and a second pair of opposing sides 91 c and 91 d ( fig6 ), wherein each side 91 a , 91 b is substantially perpendicular to the sides 91 c and 91 d . the side 91 a and the side 91 b represent the front side and the rear side of the rack frame 91 , respectively . the rack frame 91 further includes a support member 91 k ( fig6 ). in one example embodiment , the support member 91 k may be substantially perpendicular to the sides 91 a and 91 b . the support member 91 k may include one or more sets of recessing pins 240 ( fig6 ). each set of recessing pins 240 may comprise at least two recessing pins . a set of recessing pins 240 may be located along a lengthwise edge of the support member 91 k . for example , in one embodiment , the support member 91 k includes two sets of recessing pins 240 — a first set of recessing pins 240 ( pin set 1 ) located lengthwise along a first lengthwise edge of the support member 91 k , and a second set of recessing pins 240 ( pin set 2 ) located lengthwise along an opposite lengthwise edge of the support member 91 k . the second set of recessing pins 240 may be parallel to the first set of recessing pins 240 . each set of recessing pins 240 is shaped to receive cutlery , flatware or other utensils . in another embodiment , the support member 91 k includes only one set of recessing pins 240 located lengthwise along a center of the support member 91 k . in yet another embodiment , the recessing pins 240 may be slightly offset such that objects loaded onto the utensil rack 90 may be staggered . the utensil rack 90 further includes a handle bar 93 ( fig6 ) coupled to the side 91 a of the rack frame 91 . when the door 5 is open , a user may utilize the handle bar 93 to horizontally slide the utensil rack 90 into , or out of , the interior cavity 15 . the utensil rack 90 further comprises one or more removable trays for maintaining objects . as shown in fig2 , in the example rack configuration 150 , the utensil rack 90 includes a first removable tray 160 and a second removable tray 170 . in fig4 , the first tray 160 is shown removed from the rack frame 91 . in fig5 , the second tray 170 is shown removed from the rack frame 91 . in fig6 , both the first tray 160 and the second tray 170 are removed from the rack frame 91 . a bottom portion of each tray 160 , 170 may include wires , holes , staggered hexagons or other structural configurations that allow water to pass through during a wash cycle . in one embodiment , a member 91 e ( fig6 ) of the rack frame 91 extending between the sides 91 a and 91 b , and substantially parallel to the sides 91 c and 91 d , partitions the first tray 160 from the second tray 170 . other configurations of the member 91 e may be used to accommodate different shapes or sizes of the first tray 160 and the second tray 170 . in another embodiment , a member 91 e is not needed ( e . g ., the first tray 160 and the second tray 170 fit to the remaining sides of the utensil rack 90 , or using each other as support / boundary ). in one embodiment , the first tray 160 may be larger than the second tray 170 , such that the first tray 160 can accommodate placement of more objects than the second tray 170 . in fig4 , the first tray 160 is shown removed from the rack frame 91 . the first tray 160 includes a removable tray frame 161 ( fig4 ) for maintaining objects loaded / placed onto the first tray 160 . the tray frame 161 may include openings shaped to receive recessing pins 240 of the support member 91 k . in one example embodiment , the tray frame 161 includes a first opening 163 ( opening 1 ) and a second opening 163 ( opening 2 ) that are spaced apart . when the tray frame 161 is inserted into the rack frame 91 , the first and the second openings 163 are shaped to receive the first and second sets of recessing pins 240 , respectively . in one embodiment , the sets of recessing pins 240 may serve as dividers that partition the first tray 160 into multiple sections . for example , the first and second sets of recessing pins 240 partition the tray frame 161 into multiple rack columns 162 , such as a first rack column 162 ( rack column 1 ), a second rack column 162 ( rack column 2 ) and a third rack column 162 ( rack column 3 ). each rack column 162 accommodates placement of objects . the second tray 170 includes a removable tray frame 171 for maintaining objects loaded / placed onto the second tray 170 . the second tray 170 may further include at least one movable / adjuster divider 175 ( fig5 ) for partitioning the second tray 170 into multiple rack rows 172 . each rack row 172 may accommodate placement of objects . in one embodiment , the second tray 170 includes a first movable divider 175 ( movable divider 1 ) and a second movable divider 175 ( movable divider 2 ). the dividers 175 partition the second tray 170 into multiple rack rows 172 , such as a first rack row 172 ( rack row 1 ), a second rack row 172 ( rack row 2 ) and a third rack row 172 ( rack row 3 ). each divider 175 may be slidably coupled to a guide track 176 ( fig5 ) along a portion of the removable tray frame 171 . each divider 175 may be manually slidable back and forth in a direction 177 ( fig2 ) along the guide track 176 to adjust a layout configuration of the second tray 170 . for example , if the second tray 170 is positioned horizontally , the dividers 175 are movable along the guide track 176 in a horizontal direction to adjust the sizes of the rack rows 172 to accommodate contents of various shapes and sizes . the size of the first rack row 172 may be minimized by sliding the first movable divider 175 to one end aaa ( fig2 ) of the guide track 176 . the size of the third rack row 172 may be minimized by sliding the second movable divider 175 to an opposing end bbb ( fig2 ) of the guide track 176 . minimizing the size of both the first and third rack rows 172 maximizes the size of the second rack row 172 . each divider 175 may comprise a set of recessing pins 240 shaped for receiving cutlery , flatware or other utensils . the utensil rack 90 further includes a detergent dispenser 350 with an interior cavity 360 ( fig3 ) for maintaining detergent . in one embodiment , the detergent dispenser 350 is integrated with the rack frame 91 . the detergent dispenser 350 further includes a set of openings 370 ( fig3 ) for dispensing detergent loaded into the detergent dispenser 350 . the apparatus 10 further includes an actuator unit configured to actuate the openings 370 to dispense the detergent during a wash cycle ( e . g ., the actuator unit may send a current to cause the openings 370 to open during a wash cycle ). the actuator unit may be activated by water spray pressure during a wash cycle . in one embodiment , the actuator unit may be an electromechanical or electromagnetic solenoid . in another embodiment , the actuator unit may be a bi - metallic strip , a switch , a spring or a magnet activated by water spray pressure during a wash cycle . the actuator unit may be integrated into the detergent dispenser 350 , or may be disposed within proximity of the detergent dispenser 350 . fig7 illustrates a top perspective view of another example embodiment of a utensil rack configuration 200 . when configured in accordance with the utensil rack configuration 200 , the utensil rack 90 includes a rack frame 95 with multiple sides . the rack frame 95 includes a first pair of opposing sides 95 a and 95 b , and a second pair of opposing sides 95 c and 95 d , wherein each side 95 a , 95 b is substantially perpendicular to the sides 95 c and 95 d . the side 95 a and the side 95 b represent the front side and the rear side of the rack frame 95 , respectively . the utensil rack 90 further includes a handle bar 96 coupled to the side 95 a of the rack frame 95 . when the door 5 is open , a user may utilize the handle bar 96 to horizontally slide the utensil rack 90 into , or out of , the interior cavity 15 . the utensil rack 90 further comprises one or more trays for maintaining objects . unlike the example utensil rack configuration 150 in fig2 - 6 , the trays in the example rack configuration 200 are non - removable . as shown in fig7 , the utensil rack 90 includes a first tray 230 and a second tray 220 . a side 95 e of the rack frame 91 extending between the sides 95 a and 95 b , and substantially parallel to the sides 95 c and 95 d , partitions the first tray 230 from the second tray 220 . the first tray 230 includes a bottom surface 231 for maintaining objects loaded / placed onto the first tray 230 . the first tray 230 may further include one or more sets of recessing pins 240 fixedly coupled to the bottom surface 231 of the first tray 230 . each set of recessing pins 240 may comprise at least two recessing pins . a set of recessing pins 240 may be located lengthwise along the first tray 230 . for example , in one embodiment , the first tray 230 includes two sets of recessing pins 240 — a first set of recessing pins 240 ( pin set 1 ) located lengthwise along the first tray 230 , and a second set of recessing pins 240 ( pin set 2 ) located lengthwise along the first tray 230 , wherein the second set of recessing pins 240 may be parallel to the first set of recessing pins 240 . in another embodiment , the first tray 230 includes only one set of recessing pins 240 located lengthwise along the first tray 230 . in yet another embodiment , the recessing pins 240 may be slightly offset such that objects loaded onto the first tray 230 may be staggered . in one embodiment , the sets of recessing pins 240 may serve as dividers that partition the first tray 230 into multiple sections . for example , the first and second sets of recessing pins 240 partition the first tray 230 into multiple rack columns 232 , such as a first rack column 232 ( rack column 1 ), a second rack column 232 ( rack column 2 ) and a third rack column 232 ( rack column 3 ). each rack column 232 accommodates placement of objects . each set of recessing pins 240 is shaped to receive cutlery , flatware or other utensils . the second tray 220 includes a bottom surface 221 for maintaining objects loaded / placed onto the second tray 220 . the second tray 220 further includes at least one movable / slidable divider 175 for partitioning the second tray 220 into multiple rack rows 222 . each rack row 222 accommodates placement of objects . in one embodiment , the second tray 220 includes a first movable divider 175 ( movable divider 1 ) and a second movable divider 175 ( movable divider 2 ). the dividers 175 partition the second tray 220 into multiple rack rows 222 , such as a first rack row 222 ( rack row 1 ), a second rack row 222 ( rack row 2 ) and a third rack row 222 ( rack row 3 ). each divider 175 is slidably coupled to a guide track 226 along a portion of the side 95 c of the rack frame 95 . each divider 175 is manually slidable back and forth along the guide track 226 to adjust a layout configuration of the second tray 220 . for example , the dividers 175 are movable along the guide track 226 to adjust the sizes of the rack rows 222 to accommodate placement of objects of different shapes and sizes . each divider 175 may comprise a set of recessing pins 240 shaped for receiving cutlery , flatware or other utensils . the utensil rack 90 further includes a detergent dispenser 300 with one or more interior compartments 320 ( fig9 ) for maintaining detergent . the detergent dispenser 300 includes a sliding door 310 that is manually slidable back and forth along a direction 360 between a closed position a as shown in fig7 , and an open position b as shown in fig9 . in one embodiment , the detergent dispenser 300 is integrated with the rack frame 95 . the detergent dispenser 300 further includes a set of openings 370 ( fig3 ) for dispensing detergent loaded into the detergent dispenser 300 . the apparatus 10 further includes an actuator unit configured to actuate the openings 370 to dispense the detergent during a wash cycle ( e . g ., the actuator unit may send a current to cause the openings 370 to open during a wash cycle ). in one embodiment , the actuator unit may be an electromechanical or electromagnetic solenoid . in another embodiment , the actuator unit may be a bi - metallic strip , a switch , a spring or a magnet activated by water spray pressure during a wash cycle . the actuator unit may be integrated into the detergent dispenser 300 , or may be disposed within proximity of the detergent dispenser 300 . fig8 illustrates a front perspective view of an example embodiment of a utensil rack configuration 400 . when configured in accordance with utensil rack configuration 400 , the utensil rack 90 includes a rack frame 97 with multiple sides . the rack frame 97 includes a first pair of opposing sides 97 a and 97 b , and a second pair of opposing sides 97 c and 97 d , wherein each side 97 a , 97 b is substantially perpendicular to the sides 97 c and 97 d . the side 97 a and the side 97 b represent the front side and the rear side of the rack frame 97 , respectively . the utensil rack 90 further includes a handle bar ( coupled to the side 97 a of the rack frame 97 . when the door 5 is open , a user may utilize the handle bar 98 to horizontally slide the utensil rack 90 into , or out of , the interior cavity 15 . the utensil rack 90 further comprises one or more trays for maintaining objects . unlike the example utensil rack configuration 150 in fig2 - 6 , the trays in the example rack configuration 400 are non - removable . in the example rack configuration 400 shown in fig8 , the utensil rack 90 includes a first tray 430 and a second tray 420 . in one embodiment , a member 97 e of the rack frame 97 extending between the sides 97 a and 97 b , and substantially parallel to the sides 97 c and 97 d , partitions the first tray 430 from the second tray 420 . other configurations of the member 97 e may be used to accommodate different shapes or sizes of the first tray 430 and the second tray 420 . in another embodiment , a member 97 e is not needed ( e . g ., the first tray 430 and the second tray 420 fit to the remaining sides of the utensil rack 90 , or using each other as support / boundary ). the first tray 430 further includes a support member 97 k . in one example embodiment , the support member 97 k may be substantially perpendicular to the sides 97 a and 97 b . the support member 97 k may include one or more sets of recessing pins 240 . each set of recessing pins 240 may comprise at least two recessing pins . a set of recessing pins 240 may be located lengthwise along the support member 97 k . for example , in one embodiment , the support member 97 k includes two sets of recessing pins 240 — a first set of recessing pins 240 ( pin set 1 ) located lengthwise along the support member 91 k , and a second set of recessing pins 240 ( pin set 2 ) located lengthwise along the support member 91 k . the second set of recessing pins 240 may be parallel to the first set of recessing pins 240 . each set of recessing pins 240 is shaped to receive cutlery , flatware or other utensils . in another embodiment , the support member 97 k includes only one set of recessing pins 240 located lengthwise along a center of the support member 97 k . in yet another embodiment , the recessing pins 240 may be slightly offset such that objects loaded onto the utensil rack 90 may be staggered . in one embodiment , the sets of recessing pins 240 may serve as dividers that partition the first tray 430 into multiple sections . for example , the first and second sets of recessing pins 240 partition the first tray 430 into multiple rack columns 432 , such as a first rack column 432 ( rack column 1 ), a second rack column 432 ( rack column 2 ) and a third rack column 432 ( rack column 3 ). each rack column 432 accommodates placement of objects . a layout configuration of the first tray 430 is adjustable . specifically , the first rack column 432 has a corresponding first adjustable segment 436 . the third rack column 432 has a corresponding second adjustable segment 436 . in one embodiment , one end of the first adjustable segment 436 is pivotally coupled to a first slide adjuster 440 ( fig9 ) via one or more swing hinges 470 and a first rotatable member 471 . the first slide adjuster 440 is slidably coupled to a guide track 445 ( fig9 ) disposed along a portion of the side 97 d . an opposing end of the first adjustable segment 436 is coupled to the support member 97 k via one or more hinges 480 . manually sliding the first slide adjuster 440 back and forth in a direction 455 along the guide track 445 rotates the first adjustable segment 436 along a direction 465 ( fig1 ) between different positions . in one embodiment , the first adjustable segment 436 may be positioned anywhere along the direction 465 between a raised tilt position ss ( fig1 ) through a lowered tilt position uu ( fig1 ). for example , the first adjustable segment 436 may be lowered , from the raised tilt position ss , or raised , from the lowered tilt position uu , to a substantially horizontal position tt ( fig1 ). one end of the second adjustable segment 436 is pivotally coupled to a second slide adjuster 440 via one or more swing hinges 470 and a second rotatable member 471 . the second slide adjuster 440 is slidably coupled to a guide track 445 disposed along a portion of the side 97 e . an opposing end of the second adjustable segment 436 is coupled to the support member 97 k via one or more hinges 480 . manually sliding the second slide adjuster 440 back and forth in a direction 456 along the guide track 445 rotates the second adjustable segment 436 along a direction 460 ( fig1 ) between different positions . in one embodiment , the second adjustable segment 436 may be positioned anywhere along the direction 460 between a raised tilt position s ( fig1 ) through a lowered tilt position u ( fig1 ). for example , the first adjustable segment 436 may be lowered from the raised tilt position s , or raised from the lowered tilt position u , to a substantially horizontal position t ( fig1 ). in other embodiments , other mechanisms may also be used to raise / lower the adjustable segments 436 , such as mielie &# 39 ; s mechanism , hooks , etc . the first adjustable segment 436 and the second adjustable segment 436 may be individually rotated to adjust a depth of the first and third rack columns 432 , respectively , to accommodate objects of various shapes and sizes . the second tray 420 includes a bottom surface 421 for maintaining objects loaded / placed onto the second tray 420 . the second tray 420 further includes at least one movable divider 175 for partitioning the second tray 420 into multiple rack rows 422 . each rack row 422 accommodates placement of objects . in one embodiment , the second tray 420 includes a first movable divider 175 ( movable divider 1 ) and a second movable divider 175 ( movable divider 2 ). the dividers 175 partition the second tray 420 into multiple rack rows 422 , such as a first rack row 422 ( rack row 1 ), a second rack row 422 ( rack row 2 ) and a third rack row 422 ( rack row 3 ). each divider 175 is slidably coupled to a guide track 476 ( fig9 ) disposed along a portion of the side 97 c . each divider 175 may be manually slidable back and forth in a direction 477 along the guide track 476 to adjust a layout configuration of the second tray 420 . for example , if the second tray 420 is positioned horizontally , the dividers 175 are movable along the guide track 476 in a horizontal direction to adjust the sizes of the rack rows 422 to accommodate placement of objects of different shapes and sizes . the size of the first rack row 422 may be minimized by sliding the first movable divider 175 to one end aa ( fig9 ) of the guide track 476 . the size of the third rack row 422 may be minimized by sliding the second movable divider 175 to an opposing end bb ( fig9 ) of the guide track 476 . minimizing the size of both the first and third rack rows 422 maximizes the size of the second rack row 422 . each divider 175 may comprise a set of recessing pins 240 shaped for receiving cutlery , flatware or other utensils . the utensil rack 90 further includes a detergent dispenser 300 with one or more interior compartments 320 for maintaining detergent . in one embodiment , the detergent dispenser 300 is integrated with the rack frame 97 . fig9 illustrates a top view of the example rack configuration 400 for the utensil rack 90 , wherein the adjustable segments 436 are raised , in accordance with an embodiment of the invention . the first adjustable segment 436 may be raised to the raised tilt position ss to minimize the depth of the first rack column 432 , thereby allowing more room to load large and / or tall objects ( e . g ., long - stemmed wine glasses or tall glasses ) onto the second dish rack 40 . similarly , the second adjustable segment 436 may be raised to the raised tilt position s to minimize the depth of the third rack column 432 , thereby allowing more room to load large and / or tall objects ( e . g ., long - stemmed wine glasses or tall glasses ) onto the second dish rack 40 . in one embodiment , manually sliding the first slide adjuster 440 to a first position xx along the guide track 445 raises the first adjustable segment 436 to the raised tilt position ss , manually sliding the first slide adjuster 440 to a second position yy along the guide track 445 lowers the first adjustable segment 436 to the substantially horizontal position tt , and manually sliding the first slide adjuster 440 to a third position zz along the guide track 445 lowers the first adjustable segment 436 to the lowered tilt position uu . in one embodiment , manually sliding the second slide adjuster 440 to a first position x along the guide track 445 raises the second adjustable segment 436 to the raised tilt position s , manually sliding the second slide adjuster 440 to a second position y along the guide track 445 lowers the second adjustable segment 436 to the substantially horizontal position t , and manually sliding the second slide adjuster 440 to a third position z along the guide track 445 lowers the second adjustable segment 436 to the lowered tilt position u . the first adjustable segment 436 may be lowered to the substantially horizontal position tt to increase the depth of the first rack column 432 , thereby allowing more room to load objects onto the first rack column 432 . similarly , the second adjustable segment 436 may be lowered to the substantially horizontal position t to increase the depth of the third rack column 432 , thereby allowing more room to load objects onto the third rack column 432 . the first adjustable segment 436 may be further lowered to the substantially horizontal position uu to maximize the depth of the first rack column 432 and maximize the amount of room available for loading objects onto the first rack column 432 . similarly , the second adjustable segment 436 may be further lowered to the substantially horizontal position u to maximize the depth of the third rack column 432 and maximize the amount of room available for loading objects onto the third rack column 432 . fig1 illustrates example rotation ranges for the adjustable segments 436 , in accordance with an embodiment of the invention . the first adjustable segment 436 may be positioned anywhere along the direction 465 between the raised tilt position ss through a lowered tilt position uu . for example , the first adjustable segment 436 may be raised to the raised tilt position ss , wherein one end of the first adjustable segment 436 lies flush against an end 91 fa of an underside 91 g of the side 97 b . from the raised tilt position ss , the first adjustable segment 436 may be lowered along a rotation angle l1 to the substantially horizontal position tt . from the raised tilt position ss , the first adjustable segment 436 may also be lowered along a rotation angle l2 to the lowered tilt position uu , wherein the rotation angle l2 is larger than the rotation angle l1 . the second adjustable segment 436 may be positioned anywhere along the direction 460 between the raised tilt position s through a lowered tilt position u . for example , the second adjustable segment 436 may be raised to the raised tilt position s , wherein one end of the second adjustable segment 436 lies flush against an end 91 fb of an underside of the side 97 b . from the raised tilt position s , the second adjustable segment 436 may be lowered along a rotation angle m1 to the substantially horizontal position t . from the raised tilt position s , the second adjustable segment 436 may also be lowered along a rotation angle m2 to the lowered tilt position u , wherein the rotation angle m2 is larger than the rotation angle m1 . though the one or more embodiments have been described with reference to certain versions thereof ; however , other versions are possible . therefore , the spirit and scope of the appended claims should not be limited to the description of the preferred versions contained herein . | 0 |
referring now to the drawings in detail , fig1 is a flow chart of the inventive method . block 1 indicates the use of an inhaler 12 whose mouthpiece 14 has been adapted for the purpose of measuring flow through inhaler 12 ( shown in fig2 ). the mouthpiece 14 is used to interface the aerosol drug delivery device to the oral or nasal cavity during a dosing event . a canister 10 containing an aerosol formulation including a contrasting agent such as gadolinium , or other substance suitable for purpose , producing a plume through mouthpiece 14 would be the preferred method of administration . however , alternative methods , suitable for purpose may be used . block 2 of fig1 is the application of magnetic imaging to the patient . this application is simultaneous with the application in block 1 . the patient is placed within the bore of a large circular magnet . an antenna is positioned within the bore of the magnet and is used to create an oscillating radio - frequency field that selectively excites hydrogen atoms in the patients head to detect images of the oropharynx and trachea relative to the lips of the patient . the oscillations are measured throughout a three - dimensional area such that when the intensities are displayed as a function of position , the result is an image very similar to the actual anatomic features in that area . block 3 indicates the preferred mr image acquisition . images may be acquired using time and weighting sequences that allow acquisition of images at least 50 to 1200 milliseconds apart , but preferably an image is taken every 100 milliseconds . the method should also acquire midsagittal images in a three - dimensional area to observe changes in the configuration of the nasopharynx , oropharynx , larynx , and hypopharynx over time . at the onset of the study , axial “ scout ” images should be taken through the upper airway to document normal variants of airway anatomy as well as to detect any abnormalities . dynamic images should be taken of the mid - sagittal area in resting and then with the use of the inhaler 8 . block 4 of fig1 represents the synchronization of the actuation of inhaler 8 and subsequent plume development with mr image acquisition . mr images of a three - dimensional area are synchronized with the production and flow of labeled aerosol ( e . g ., using gadolinium ) from inhaler 8 in real - time . dynamic imaging with the use of inhaler 8 is repeated to determine variations in the use of inhaler 8 between different test subjects . dynamic imaging operation would be performed using inhalers with different attributes ( e . g ., pressure drop , mouthpiece shape , etc .) to determine their effectiveness as a delivery mechanism as will be discussed . block 5 is accomplished simultaneously with the mr image acquisition of block 3 and the inhaler use of block 4 , wherein block 5 measures the flow rate during inhalation . flow rate is determined through the use of an inhaler 8 as shown in fig2 . the patient would depress canister 10 in the inhaler 12 while inhaling through mouthpiece 14 . when the patient inhales through inhaler 8 provided that there is at least some minimal restriction , the pressure at mouthpiece 14 will be lower than the pressure surrounding the inhaler 8 . in this case , inhaler 8 is acting as a venturi producing a differential pressure which can be converted by equation to determine flow rate . when monitoring the pressure changes in adapted mouthpiece 14 , dual lumen tubing 18 is routed from the device 8 to outside the mri chamber to an electronic differential pressure transducer 20 . single lumen tubing may also be used provided the pressures are equal between the mri chamber and the location of pressure transducer 20 . one bore at end 19 of tubing 18 connects to pressure port 22 and another bore at end 19 of tubing 18 is open to atmosphere . both bores at the other end 24 of tubing 18 are connected to pressure transducer 20 . the pressure measurement range of pressure transducer 20 is matched to the maximum pressure drop in mouthpiece 14 based on maximum flow through inhaler 8 and known resistances in mouthpiece 14 . pressure transducer 20 is interfaced to a personal computer 26 . personal computer 26 acquires the pressure signal via tubing 18 and pressure transducer 20 and an analog to digital convertor . personal computer 26 then with the appropriate algorithm converts the pressure data to flow data . calculations of flow rate are contemporaneous with acquisition of the mr image sets . this integration is effected using an appropriate electronic trigger from the mr equipment to the personal computer 26 . similar devices that are suitable for this purpose may be used for determining the flow rate during inhalation and drug administration . block 6 is a review of the images taken , to determine different tissue types . since different types of tissues have different proton densities , different tissue types have different image intensities based on their physical and chemical properties and therefore appear as distinct structures in the mr image . block 7 is a review of the images taken specifically the intensity of proton oscillations . the intensity of proton oscillations at a given point in the patient &# 39 ; s body is proportional to the proton density at that point so that geometric alignment , spatial configuration , volumetric descriptors could be applied to the tissues and organs in the orpharynx ; therefore , an assessment of the impact of geometric and spatial orientation of the orpharynx or trachea can be determined during inhalation through an aerosol drug delivery system . block 8 couples the findings of blocks 3 , 4 , and 5 to provide a capture of the real - time mobility of oropharyngeal and laryngeal structures during inhalation through an aerosol drug delivery system . block 9 indicates a capability to label different inhaled material with some type of contrast to evaluate the distribution of the inhaled material as it should be visible as a plume being inhaled or a coating on the mucosa . this would be best obtained with images in a three - dimensional area from the nasopharynx to trachea , or potentially even lower if possible . block 10 indicates that with the capability of real - time mr imaging during the use of inhaler 8 of fig2 differences in the inhalation techniques can be determined between genders , age groups , and healthy volunteers versus patients . block 11 of fig1 indicates that after a review of the imaging , the amount of aerosol drug eliminated during delivery can be determined . block 12 indicates that after a review of the imaging , the amount of aerosol drug administered to specific areas in the lung can be determined . block 13 is the creation of a database of flow rates during the acquisition of various mr images with amounts of aerosol drugs in the images indicated . the database is created by integrating the mri computer with personal computer 26 of fig2 . the database will also indicate this information for various device attributes along with different types of medicine being dispensed . for example , for a particular dispenser and mouthpiece combination , x percent of the medicine being dispensed is delivered to targeted locations in the lungs . this provides an objective standard that can be referred to when designing the delivery device for a particular medicine . in addition , dose requirements can be determined and repeatability achieved . block 14 is the final stage where the information from capturing the real - time mobility of oropharyngeal and laryngeal structures during inhalation through an aerosol drug delivery system , the state of aerosol drug delivered , and the database which is obtained from the practice of this method can yield the criteria that can be used to design more efficient aerosol drug delivery to optimize the amount of the particular medicine to be delivered to the specific targets in the lung . this criteria can also be used to develop an aerosol administration procedure that is insensitive to gag and cough reflexes of the body so that aerosolized medicament exiting an aerosol generator effectively escapes filtration and swallowing mechanisms of the oropharynx . fig3 - 26 are dynamic images taken of a single patient . note that while two - dimensional images are shown , as will be readily apparent to the skilled artisan , the information regarding these images can be manipulated or otherwise used to create 3 - d images providing volume and other viewing perspectives . in general , these images depict the capture of changes in size and shape of the upper airway during the use of an inhaler over the course of inspiration , breathhold , and expiration . as indicated in fig1 the collection and analysis of this information from a representative sampling of patients will be useful in establishing a database . fig3 - 8 which depict the shape of the upper airway during inspiration , it can be seen that the tongue t creates a blockage or occlusion near the roof of the mouth and in the larynx . fig9 - 17 which depict the shape of the upper airway during a breathhold , it can be seen that the tongue t creates a complete blockage near the back of the roof of the mouth . fig1 - 23 which depict the shape of the upper airway during a slow expiration , it can be seen that tongue t no longer blocks the roof of the mouth or the larynx . fig2 - 26 which depict the shape of the upper airway at the end of expiration , it can be seen that the tongue creates a noticeable blockage near the roof of the mouth or larynx . in addition , it is envisioned that coupled with the foregoing method and information obtained thereby , is the use of existing nuclear medicine methodologies for tracing the medicine being dispensed as it passes through one &# 39 ; s air ways and is deposited at various sites along the administration route . accordingly , included in the dispensed material would be a trace element ( e . g ., gadolinium , technetium ) the presence of which can be monitored in the body through the use of appropriate imaging tools . after collecting the mri and flow data pertaining to the inhalation and administration of the dispensed material containing the trace element , the patient would then be imaged using an appropriate nuclear medicine tool ( e . g ., gamma camera ). information pertaining to the locations where the material is deposited and to the relative amounts of this material in each location would be generated . such information , when combined with the dynamic mr image and inhalation flow data , will enhance the understanding of the effectiveness of a particular aerosol delivery system in administering medicine to targeted pulmonary sites as well as the dose size necessary for effective treatment , among other things . thus by the present invention its objects and advantages are realized and although preferred embodiments have been disclosed and described in detail herein , its scope should not be limited thereby , rather its scope should be determined by that of the appended claims . | 8 |
with reference to fig2 a preferred embodiment of sram control circuit with a power saving function in accordance with the present invention is shown , wherein , same as in the prior art , all control signals are active low , i . e ., enabled at low level and disabled at high level . as shown in fig2 a read operation is performed when the chip select signal ˜ cs and the output enable signal ˜ oe are active ( logic 0 ), and a write operation is performed when the chip select signal ˜ cs and the write enable signal ˜ we are active ( logic 0 ). as shown in fig2 the inventive sram control circuit with a power saving function includes an address decoder 10 , an address register 20 , an address comparator 22 , a memory unit 14 , a buffer 18 and a mask logic 24 . the address decoder 10 reads the address on address lines and decodes the address to output an address signal to select a specific memory area in the memory unit 14 . the address register 20 stores the current address and outputs a previous address , wherein the previous address is the address for accessing the memory unit 14 at the latest time . the address comparator 22 inputs the current address and the previous address and compares the two . when the current address is the same as the previous address , it indicates that data in the same address is accessed at successive time and an address comparison signal representing same address ( signal ˜ cmp with low level ) is outputted . otherwise , an address comparison signal representing different address ( signal ˜ cmp with high level ) is outputted . the mask logic 24 is constituted by a nor gate 241 and an or gate 242 . the nor gate 241 receives the address comparison signal ˜ cmp and the output enable signal ˜ oe to perform a nor operation and outputs the result of the nor operation to the or gate 242 . the or gate 242 performs an or operation on the result of the nor operation and the chip select signal ˜ cs to produce an internal chip select signal ˜ cs ′. the internal chip select signal ˜ cs ′ enables the memory unit 14 , so as to read data from or write data to the selected memory area . when the internal chip select signal ˜ cs ′ and the output enable signal ˜ oe are active , a read operation is applied to the memory unit 14 , so that data stored in the specific memory area is buffered by the buffer 18 and outputted to an external circuit . when the internal chip select signal ˜ cs ′ and the write enable signal ˜ we are active , a write operation is applied to the memory unit 14 , so that data in the buffer 18 inputted by the external circuit is written into the specific memory area . with the mask logic 24 , when the current memory address to be read and the previous memory address are the same , the address comparison signal ˜ cmp is at a low level ( logic 0 ), and the output enable signal ˜ oe is also active ( logic 0 ). thus , the nor gate 241 outputs a high level ( logic 1 ). therefore , the chip select signal ˜ cs and the internal chip select signal ˜ cs ′, generated by the or gate 242 processing the output of the nor gate 241 , change from active to inactive ( logic 1 ). that is , the mask logic 24 masks the chip select signal ˜ cs , so as not to enable the memory unit 14 . since the current memory address to be read and the previous memory address are the same , the buffer 18 is still stored with data at previous memory access . therefore , data in the buffer 18 can be directly output as data to be currently read . on the other hand , when a write operation is performed or when the current memory address to be read and the previous memory address are different , the mask logic 24 does not mask the chip select signal ˜ cs , and thus the data read / write process is the same as in the prior art . in view of the foregoing , it is known that , by comparing the current address with the previous address , the invention masks the chip select signal ˜ cs when memory address currently to be read is the same as the previous memory address , so as not to enable the memory unit and to read required data directly from the buffer . as compared with the prior memory control circuit , power consumption is reduced because the operation of reading data from the buffer consumes power much lower than from the memory unit . although the present invention has been explained in relation to its preferred embodiment , it is to be understood that many other possible modifications and variations can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as hereinafter claimed . | 6 |
now referring to the drawings wherein like numerals refer to like matter throughout , and more specifically referring to fig1 there is shown a system of the present invention generally designated 100 , including a rack 102 for retaining industrial pcs . an industrial pc 104 is shown having been removed from a slot 105 in rack 102 . pc 104 has a front end 106 and a rear end 107 . pc 104 preferably is a general purpose pc having a cpu 111 and a plurality of expansion cards 113 disposed therein and coupled to the cpu 111 via an internal buss 115 . front end 106 has a handle 108 thereon . also shown in fig1 is keying plate 110 and a quick connecting blind mating connector 112 . keying plate 110 will mate with latching plate 114 when pc 104 is placed within slot 105 . now referring to fig2 there is shown an exploded view of the keying plate and locking plate portion of the system of fig1 . there is shown keying plate 110 , which is coupled to the pc 104 ( fig1 ) and locking plate 114 , which is coupled to the rack 102 ( fig1 ). disposed on keying plate 110 are keying slots 210 , 212 , 214 , and 216 . slots 210 , 212 , and 216 are shown having keying inserts 211 disposed therein . these keying inserts 211 may be any type of device which occupies space in and prevents reception of a keying pin into the slots 210 , 212 , 214 , and 216 . in a preferred embodiment , the keying insert 211 may have a protuberance , raised region 213 or a pin disposed thereon . preferably when the slot is unoccupied by a keying insert , it is capable of receiving a locking pin therein . also shown in fig2 is a locking plate 114 containing locking slots 230 , 232 , 234 , and 236 . locking slots 230 , 232 , and 236 are shown as unoccupied ; i . e ., not having a locking pin insert disposed therein . locking slot 234 is shown as occupied with a locking pin insert . preferably both keying inserts and locking pin inserts are removable slide or snap inserts ; however , any means of coupling these inserts to the plates is intended to be covered within the scope of the claims . in operation , keying plate 110 and locking plate 114 are shown in fig2 to be uniquely configured so as to permit mating . unoccupied slot 214 permits reception of the locking pin disposed in slot 234 . likewise , the fact that slots 230 , 232 , and 236 are unoccupied permits reception of the keying pins on the keying inserts disposed in slots 210 , 212 and 216 , respectively . for example , if locking plate 114 were configured for another pc , it might have an additional locking pin in slot 232 . if this were the case , the keying insert in slot 212 would prohibit the reception of the locking pin in slot 232 , and thereby prohibit the mating of keying plate 110 with the locking plate 114 . the number , shape orientation , and placement of slots in the locking and key plates may differ from the 4 slots shown . in a preferred embodiment , a repair technician may employ a master - keyed pc , which would be accepted into any slot , irrespective of the particular locking plate associated with that slot . this master - keyed pc may be as simple as a pc with all slots 210 , 212 , 214 , and 216 being unoccupied . it is contemplated that numerous alternate approaches could be used , all of which are intended to be included within the scope of the claims . for example , any variation of blind matable connectors could be used which have the ability to identify a pc and a slot and to permit rejection of the pc if it were not the proper pc for the slot . preferably , the plates 110 and 114 are mounted and configured so that a failure to mate will result in an inability to connect any blind - matable electrical connectors on the pc and in the slot . one method of controlling the mating of electrical blind - mating connectors is to have the slots be sufficiently long so that the difference in permissible travel of the pc within the slot is significantly longer when the ids match and insertion is permitted . throughout this description , reference is made to an industrial pc because it is believed that the beneficial aspects of the present invention would be most readily apparent when used in connection with industrial pcs . however , it should be understood that the present invention is not intended to be limited to industrial pcs , and should be hereby construed to include other non - industrial pcs . throughout this description , the term “ industrial pc ” is used to represent a general purpose pc of the type which is capable of being stored in racks of multiple rows of pcs where each row has multiple pcs , and where the pcs are coupled to wiring associated with the rack and other equipment by at least one connector at the rear end of the pc . this definition of industrial pcs is not intended to include laptop pcs which have connectors on the rear end of the laptop for coupling with a docking station or a port replicator . consequently , the term “ industrial pc ” will specifically exclude any computer which has along its top side a hinged display screen hinged along the rear end of the pc . it is thought that the method and apparatus of the present invention will be understood from the foregoing description and that it will be apparent that various changes may be made in the form , construct steps , and arrangement of the parts and steps thereof , without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention or sacrificing all of their material advantages . the form herein described is merely a preferred exemplary embodiment thereof . | 7 |
the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to a few embodiments thereof as illustrated in the accompanying drawings . in the following description , numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention . it will be apparent , however , to one skilled in the art , that the present invention may be practiced without some or all of these specific details . in other instances , well known process steps and / or structures have not been described in detail in order to not unnecessarily obscure the present invention . various embodiments are described herein below , including methods and techniques . it should be kept in mind that the invention might also cover articles of manufacture that includes a computer readable medium on which computer - readable instructions for carrying out embodiments of the inventive technique are stored . the computer readable medium may include , for example , semiconductor , magnetic , opto - magnetic , optical , or other forms of computer readable medium for storing computer readable code . further , the invention may also cover apparatuses for practicing embodiments of the invention . such apparatus may include circuits , dedicated and / or programmable , to carry out tasks pertaining to embodiments of the invention . examples of such apparatus include a general - purpose computer and / or a dedicated computing , device when appropriately programmed and may include a combination of a computer / computing device and dedicated / programmable circuits adapted for the various tasks pertaining to embodiments of the invention . in accordance with embodiments of the invention , there are provided methods and arrangements for controlling the electron loss to the upper electrode such that the plasma density can be increased without the need to unduly increase the power to the plasma . by increasing the plasma density without a concomitant increase to the rf power requirement , the target layer can be etched at a higher rate without unduly degrading the photo resist selectivity . in an embodiment , the upper electrode is configured such that the upper electrode is negatively biased , thereby allowing electrons present in the plasma chamber to be repelled from the upper electrode and trapped within the plasma volume for a longer period of time as the negatively charged electrons are trapped for a longer period of time , the plasma density is increased . generally speaking , during plasma processing the bombardment mechanism causes electrons to be emitted from the substrate . as discussed earlier , electron loss to the upper electrode limits the increase in plasma density since the electron loss creates saturation point effect which limits the plasma density increase irrespective of the rf power provided to the plasma . by driving the upper electrode more negatively , the electrons are thus repelled from the upper electrode instead of being , quickly lost to the upper electrode , resulting in a greater number of electrons in the plasma , thereby increasing the plasma density . the higher plasma density then can more effectively etch the target layer to achieve the desired high etch rate . since it is unnecessary to increase the rf power to achieve the high level of plasma density , photo resist selectivity is not adversely affected to the same degree as might have been in the prior art . the above summary relates to only one of the many embodiments of the invention disclosed herein and is not intended to limit the scope of the invention , which is set forth in the claims herein . these and other features of the present invention will be described in more detail below in the detailed description of the invention and in conjunction with the following figures . fig3 shows , in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention , a simplified diagram of an implementation wherein a mirroring circuit is employed to detect an rf signal from the lower electrode and to provide the upper electrode with a transformed rf signal that is in - phase with the rf signal of lower electrode during plasma processing . as the term is employed herein , in - phase denotes the implementation wherein the phase difference between the rf signal to the lower electrode and the rf signal to the upper electrode is within about 1 %. in the implementation of fig3 , lower electrode 304 is provided with multiple rf frequencies signal 302 such as 2 megahertz , 27 megahertz , and 60 megahertz . in an embodiment , the rf signal from lower electrode 304 may be detected by probe 306 , wherein probe 306 is a phase and amplitude detector designed to pick up low frequency rf signal , i . e ., frequencies less than 10 megahertz . in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention , the signal from the probe 306 is directed . to a control circuit 308 . the control circuit 308 is provided with the capability for phase and amplitude adjustment allowing for the modification of the phase . and / or amplitude of the rf signal depending on whether the rf signal is to be in - phase or out - of - phase with the rf signal from the lower electrode 304 . the control signal coming out of control circuit 308 is directed to an rf signal generator 310 for generating an rf signal . thereafter , the rf signal generated by rf generator is optionally amplified ( via amplifier 320 ) to the desired phase or amplitude . in the context of the embodiment of the present invention , the amplitudes of the rf signals from the upper and lower electrodes are considered to be the same when the values of the amplitudes are within about 1 % of each other . in the implementation of fig3 , the amplified rf signal from the amplifier 320 is directed to the upper electrode 312 . consequently , the rf signal being directed to the upper electrode is in - phase with the rf signal being supplied to the lower electrode in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention . the features and advantages of having the rf signal directed to the upper electrode running in - phase with the rf signal from lower electrode in - phase can be better understood through fig4 a and 4 b . fig4 a shows an example plot of an rf signal from the lower electrode , in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention . fig4 b shows an example plot of an rf signal directed to the upper electrode running in phase with the rf signal from the lower electrode of fig4 a , in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention / as mentioned previously , in - phase denotes the implementation wherein the phase difference between the rf signal to the lower electrode 304 and the rf signal to the upper electrode 312 is within about 1 %. at the minimal points during the negative cycles of the implementation of fig4 a and 4 b , the rf signal 410 of the lower electrode and the rf signal 450 of the upper electrode are at the most negative voltage values with respect to the plasma . referring back to fig3 when both rf signals are in - phase and at their minimal , as shown in fig4 a and 4 b , during plasma processing in the plasma chamber 314 , the upper electrode 312 and lower electrode 304 are at their most negative values . the positive charged argon particles ( not shown ) in the plasma chamber 314 will accelerate and bombard the upper electrode 312 and the substrate 316 , which is disposed above the lower electrode 304 , to generate primary electrons which are low energy electrons and secondary embedded electrons which are high energy electrons . since both the substrate 316 , disposed atop the lower electrode 304 , and the upper electrode 312 , during this negative cycle of rf signals , are at their most negative values , the maximum potential between the upper electrode 312 and lower electrode 304 with the plasma creates the highest electron trapping . the electrons that come off of the upper electrode 312 or the substrate 316 tend to be trapped between the negatively biased upper electrode 312 and the negatively biased substrate 316 , which is disposed above the lower electrode 304 . since the electrons are negatively charged , the electrons might repel in between the two negatively charged upper electrode 312 and lower electrode 304 . instead of being immediately lost to upper electrode 312 ( as may be the case if upper electrode 312 is grounded , for example ) the negatively biased upper electrode 312 may repel the negatively charged electrons , thereby causing the electrons to be trapped in between upper electrode 312 and lower electrode 304 for a longer period of time . it is believed that eventually , through the mechanism of random collision , the negatively charged electrons are eventually lost to rf ground 318 . the longer residence time of the negatively charged electrons within plasma chamber 314 contributes to a higher plasma density without requiring a corresponding increase in the amount of rf power supplied to plasma processing chamber 300 . note that the mechanism to increase the plasma density of fig3 does not require the increase in the rf power supplied to the rf signals . consequently , the photo resist selectivity is not negatively impacted to the same degree that might have been impacted had the higher plasma density been achieved by increasing the rf power level . at the maxima points during the positive cycles of the implementation of fig4 a and 4 b , the rf signal 420 of the lower electrode and the rf signal 460 of the upper electrode are at the highest positive voltage values with respect to the plasma . in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention , secondary electrons are not being emitted during this time because the potential between the upper electrode 312 and the lower electrode 304 with respect to the plasma is low . further , during the positive cycle , the plasma potential in the plasma volume is substantially higher than the potential of the peripheral ground plate . it is believed that secondary electrons ejected from these peripheral ground plates ( e . g ., ground plates 318 and 322 ) are also trapped in the plasma volume between the ground plates , resulting also in a longer residence time and a higher plasma density . over the entire cycle ( both negative and positive ), the average plasma density is thus increased . in an embodiment , the phase difference between the rf signal from the lower electrode and the rf signal from the upper electrode can be used as a knob to control the uniformity of etching , i . e ., better photo resist selectivity to the underlying layer being etched . in the implementation of fig3 , an arrangement where the phase of the rf signal directed to the upper electrode 112 can be adjusted to the phase of the rf signal of the lower electrode 304 during part of the cycle where the rf signals are at their most negative values . for example , it is known that lower energy electrons and higher energy electrons impact the etch process in different ways . since a high density of higher energy electrons is believed to be beneficial for photo resist selectivity , it is desirable in many cases to negatively bias upper electrode 312 to cause more of the higher energy electrons to be trapped . it has been observed that unexpected beneficial etching uniformity may be achieved by adjusting the phase difference between the rf signal directed to the upper electrode 312 and the rf signal from the lower electrode 304 during the negative cycle . in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention , the phase shifting is found to be beneficial to etching uniformity for phase difference of less than about 10 %. as can be appreciated from the foregoing , embodiments of the invention achieve a higher level of plasma density to improve etching through the target layer in the capacitively - coupled plasma processing chamber without unduly damaging the photo resist during etching . by providing a mechanism for increasing the plasma density without requiring a concomitant increase in the rf power level of the rf signals provided to the plasma processing chamber , plasma density is increased while pr photo resist is maintained the same or is minimally impacted . furthermore , the uniformity of etching is further enhanced through the control of the phase difference between the rf signal directed to the upper electrode and the rf signal to the lower electrode . in an embodiment , the phase of the upper electrode rf signal may he adjusted to either lag or lead the phase of the lower electrode rf signal . when the upper electrode rf signal is out of phase with the lower electrode rf signal , it is observed that photoresist selectivity is reduced . for certain applications such as photoresist ( pr ) or polymer strip , controlling the relative phases between the upper electrode rf signal and lower electrode rf signal may improve the desired result of removing more pr or polymer . alternatively or additionally , the amplitude of the upper electrode rf signal may be adjusted to either exceed or to be lower than the amplitude of the lower electrode rf signal . when the amplitude of the upper electrode rf signal is not equal to the amplitude of the lower electrode rf signal ( defined herein as being different by more than 5 %), it is observed that photoresist selectivity is reduced as in the case with the phase difference , for certain applications such as photoresist ( pr ) or polymer strip , controlling the relative amplitudes between the upper electrode rf signal and lower electrode rf signal may improve the desired result of removing more pr or polymer . while this invention has been described in terms of several preferred embodiments , there are alterations , permutations , and equivalents , which fall within the scope of this invention . also , the title , summary , and abstract are provided herein for convenience and should not be used to construe the scope of the claims herein . it should . also he noted that there are many alternative ways of implementing the methods and apparatuses of the present invention . although various examples are provided herein , it is intended that these examples be illustrative and not limiting with respect to the invention . it is therefore intended that the following appended claims be interpreted as including all such alterations , permutations , and equivalents as fall within the true spirit and scope of the present invention . | 7 |
despite the efforts of processor design houses to build correct designs , bugs do escape the verification process . in this section , reported escaped errors of a number of commercial processors are examined . these bugs are classified and it is shown that a fairly large fraction of them is related to the control portion of the design . processor &# 39 ; s control logic : these bugs are the result of incorrect decisions made at the occurrence of important execution events , and of interactions between simultaneous events . an example of this type of escape may be found in the opteron processor , where a reverse rep movs instruction may cause the following instruction to be skipped . functional units : these are design errors in units which can cause the production of an incorrect result . this category includes bugs in such components as branch predictors and translation lookaside buffers ( tlbs ). an example of this type of bug is the pentium fdiv bug , where a lookup table used to implement a divider srt ( sweeney , robertson and tocher ) algorithm contained incorrect entries . memory system control : these are bugs in the implementation of the on - chip memory system , including caches , memory interface , etc . an example of this type of bug is an error in the pentium iii processor , where certain interactions of instruction fetch unit and data cache unit could hang the system . microcode : these are ( software ) bugs in the implementation of the microcode for a particular instruction . an example may be found in the 386 processor , where microcode incorrectly checked the minimum size of the tss ( task state segment ), which must be 103 bytes , but , due to a flaw , segments of 101 and 102 bytes were also incorrectly allowed . electrical faults : these are design errors occurring when certain logic paths do not meet timing under exceptional conditions . consequently , if a processor runs well below its specified maximum frequency , these faults will often not occur . an example is the load register signed byte ( ldrsb ) instruction of the strongarm sa - 1100 which does not meet timing when reading from the pre - fetch buffer . as the above analysis demonstrates , control logic escapes dominate the errata reports for these processors . the high frequency of such escapes can be explained by the complexity of the control logic blocks that handle interactions between multiple instructions and the inability of formal techniques to handle complex interactions between multiple logic blocks in a design . correctness of the datapath , on the other hand , can frequently be proven formally . in certain techniques discussed herein , this capability is used to prove a datapath &# 39 ; s correctness when no control logic interactions are present in the system . functional correctness may be an attribute of hardware designs . unfortunately , due to extremely complex architectures , widespread components , such as microprocessors , are often released with latent bugs . the inability of modern verification tools to handle the fast growth of design complexity may exacerbate the problem even further . here , embodiments of a hardware patching mechanism , some times referred to as field - repairable logic ( frl ), is described . it may be designed for in - the - field correction of errors in microprocessor systems , for example , but not exclusively , errors in the design &# 39 ; s control logic and errors due to the interaction between multiple instructions in execution at the same time . certain embodiments introduce an additional component in the processor &# 39 ; s hardware , a state matcher , that may be programmed to identify erroneous configurations using signals in the control state of the processor . once a flawed configuration is “ matched ”, the processor may switch , for example , into a degraded or trusted mode , a mode of operation , in some embodiments , which excludes most features of the system , is simple enough to be formally verified , yet still capable to execute the full instruction - set architecture ( isa ), possibly at a reduced performance level . once the program segment triggering the design flaw has been executed while in degraded mode , the processor may be switched back to the mode of execution in which it was operating before the configuration was “ matched ”, or to another mode of execution . in other embodiments the state matcher may be programmed to encode processor configurations which have not been verified during the design of the system , and are thus considered “ untrusted ,” that is , potentially exposing a design flaw . a variant of this embodiment would match “ trusted ” instead of “ untrusted ” configurations , that is , only those configurations that have been indeed verified at design time . it is also possible to have embodiments where two state matchers are present together . for example , one may be used to flag untrusted configurations and the second to overrule the first once additional system configurations are verified after the processor is released to the customer . state matchers may also be designed as hardware logic circuits that “ match ” certain processor configurations and are developed during the design phase of the processor and become part of the final design . other possible embodiments include those where a recovery controller is triggered directly by a signal controlled directly by a user of the processor , or by an operating system or by firmware routines and no state matchers are used . obviously , it is possible to use several of the structures above and other embodiments in a network or hierarchical connection within the same design , particularly when this may be needed to address extremely complex systems with large physical layouts . other configurations are also possible . as explained below , a range of approaches to selecting signals comprising the processor &# 39 ; s control state and evaluating their effectiveness in representing a variety of design errors are analyzed . a metric ( average specificity per signal ), that encodes the bug detection capability and amount of control state carried by a particular signal set of the processor is also introduced . frl may support the detection and correction of multiple design errors with a performance impact of less than 5 % if , for example , the incidence of flawed configurations is below 1 % of dynamic instructions . in addition , the area impact may be less than 2 % for the two microprocessor designs discussed herein and may be much lower than 1 % in other embodiments . in some embodiments , a reliable , low - cost and expressive control logic patching mechanism for microprocessor pipelines is provided . these embodiments may enable the correction of a wide range of control logic - related design bugs in parts deployed in the field after manufacturing . in this framework , when an escaped bug is found in the field , a support team investigates it and generates a pattern describing the control state of the processor which causes the bug to manifest itself . the pattern is then sent to end customers as a patch and is loaded into an on - die state matcher at startup . the matcher may monitor the state of the processor and compare it to the patterns encoded or stored in the matcher itself to identify when the pipeline has entered a state associated with a bug or a precursor to a bug . once the matcher has determined that the processor is ( or about to be ) in a flawed control state , the processor &# 39 ; s pipeline may be , for example , flushed and forced into a trusted mode of operation for the execution of the next instruction . as mentioned above , the matcher may also monitor the state of the processor and compare it to its internal patterns to identify when the pipeline has entered a state that has not been verified at design time ( before processor release ). that is , the patterns may be indicative of verified states of the processor . if the matcher finds the processor to be in a verified state , the processor &# 39 ; s pipeline is unaffected . if , however , the matcher finds the processor to be in a non - verified state ( it does not find a match ), the processor &# 39 ; s pipeline may be flushed and forced into , for example , the trusted mode of operation . other configurations of the matcher are also possible , including those that match the complement of the sets of configurations discussed previously ( patterns indicative of non - verified states of the processor , for instance ). in certain embodiments of the degraded or trusted mode of operation , the processor starts execution from the first un - committed instruction and allows only one operation to traverse the pipeline at a time . therefore , much of the control logic that handles interactions between operations can be turned off , which in turn enables a complete ( or more extensive ) formal verification of the trusted mode at design time . in other words , it is possible to guarantee that instructions running in this mode complete properly , and thus ensure forward progress , even in the presence of design errors , by forcing the pipeline to run in the trusted mode . after the error is bypassed while operating in the trusted mode , the processor may return to , for example , a high - performance mode of operation or the previous mode of operation until the matcher detects another processor state indicating a bug , a precursor of a bug , a verified and / or a non - verified state . an additional hardware block , a recovery controller , may be included in certain embodiments to control the mode of operation of the system . in certain embodiments , the recovery controller receives an output signal from the state matcher indicating when a match has been detected between the processor state and a bug pattern . the output of the recovery controller may be connected to the signal that controls the flushing of the pipeline and to the fetch unit of the processor . most modern processors already include logic to flush a pipeline to manage events such as external interrupts and branch mispredictions . the recovery controller may connect also to this signal to trigger a pipeline squashing when the system must be switched to degraded mode . the recovery controller may also connect to the fetch unit of the processor in certain embodiments where the trusted mode requires regulating the arrival of instructions in the pipeline . in these embodiments , one of the recovery controller &# 39 ; s outputs connects to the fetch unit and may disable or enable the fetching of instructions . for example , it may allow only one instruction to enter the processor pipeline at any given clock cycle , or may only allow one instruction in flight at any given time by enabling the fetch unit only when the previous instruction is committed . for cases where the number of patterns of design errors exceeds the capacity of a particular stored - pattern matcher architecture , a pattern compression algorithm , which compacts the encoded state patterns while minimizing the number of false - positives introduced by the compression process , may be used . as such , errors and combinations of errors relating to particular instructions or combinations of instructions , or that are not associated with any specific instruction ( for instance a non - maskable interrupt ), may be addressed . certain embodiments of field - repairable logic may be designed to handle flaws in processor control circuitry for components already deployed in the field . when an escaped error is detected by an end customer , a report containing the error description , such as the sequence of executed operations and the values in the status registers , may be sent to a design house . engineers on the product support team may investigate the issue , identify the root cause of the error and which products are affected by it , and decide on a mechanism , such as frl , to correct the bug . by knowing the cause of the bug and which signals are monitored by the matcher in the defective processors , the engineers can create patterns that describe the flawed control state configuration . the patterns may then be compressed by the algorithm presented below , and sent to the customers as a patch . the patches in the end system may be loaded into the state matcher at startup . every time the patched error is encountered at runtime , a recovery via degraded mode , detailed below , is initiated , effectively fixing the bug . other embodiments are also possible whereby the patterns are encoded and integrated in the processor at design time . in this latter scenario , the patterns could encode the configurations verified ( or not verified ) at design time . the pattern to address a design error may be created from the state transition graph ( stg ) of a device . the correct stg may consist of all the legal states of operation , where each state is a specific configuration of internal signals , that are , for example , crucial to the proper operation of the device . in addition , these states are connected by all the legal transitions between them . within this framework an error may occur because of an additional erroneous transition from a legal state to an illegal state that should not be part of the stg , or when an invalid transition connects two legal states , or by the lack of a transition that should exist between states . hardware support which uses patterns to detect both the illegal states and the legal states which are sources of illegal transitions may be added . a pattern may be a bit - vector representing the configuration of the internal signals that is associated with erroneous behavior of the processor . note that in this framework a single bug can be mapped to multiple patterns , if it is triggered , for example , by multiple illegal states . to cope with this issue , a pattern compression algorithm , discussed below , may be used . in certain scenarios , after receiving a bug report , a product support team would analyze the issue , try to reproduce the error and understand what caused it . tools capable of reducing the length of a simulation trace may be helpful for this analysis , since they can significantly simplify the debugging effort and process . moreover , some of these tools are capable of investigating alternative scenarios that reach the same bug , thus strengthening the bug characterization . this allows the support team to pinpoint multiple processor control states associated with the bug and identify how these states map to the critical signals that the system will be designed to monitor at runtime . afterwards , the configurations of the control signals may be compactly encoded and issued as a patch to the end customer . the process may be repeated when new bugs or new scenarios exposing known bugs are discovered . these patterns may be used in many ways to initiate a system &# 39 ; s recovery when they are encountered at runtime . in some embodiments , for example , they may be stored in a state matcher using dynamic storage elements ; in others , they may be encoded in the circuit logic implemented or they may used by a firmware or software routine to determine directly when to initiate recovery . as mentioned above , design errors ( or verified states ) and patterns describing them may be defined through configurations of control signals of the processor and transitions between these configurations . at run - time these signals may be continuously observed by a state matcher and compared to preloaded patterns describing bugs , pre - cursors to bugs , etc . all of the design &# 39 ; s control signals could be used for this purpose . complexity and stringent timing constraints of modern chips , however , may prevent such extensive monitoring , allowing only for a small portion of the actual control state to be routed to the matcher . below , techniques to select state bits among the large control state of a processor are presented . in certain embodiments , the state matcher may be thought of as a fully - associative cache with the width of the tag being equal to the width of the control state vector . the tag in this case is a pattern describing an erroneous configuration or a pattern describing a verified or non - verified configuration . thus , if such a tag exists in the cache , then a hit occurs and a potential bug is recognized . in certain embodiments , the matcher may be structured to allow the use of “ don &# 39 ; t care ” bits in the patterns to be matched . the don &# 39 ; t care bits help to make a compact representation of multiple individual configurations of the critical control state that differ in just a few bits . using these embodiments of the state matcher , designers issuing a patch can specify a bug pattern ( verified pattern ) through a vector of 0 &# 39 ; s , 1 &# 39 ; s and don &# 39 ; t care bits ( x ): 0 &# 39 ; s and 1 &# 39 ; s represent the fixed value bits , while x &# 39 ; s can match any value in the corresponding control signal . referring now to fig1 , an embodiment of a computer 10 encompasses several logic circuits , including a microprocessor 12 , a state matcher 14 and a recovery controller 16 . the microprocessor 12 includes one or more pipelines as 18 . as known to those of ordinary skill , the pipeline 18 includes several stages , e . g ., an instruction fetch stage 20 , a decode stage 22 , an execute stage 24 and a memory access stage 26 . the stages 20 - 26 are separated by respective pipeline latches 30 , 32 , 34 , 36 . the latches 30 - 36 each assume the values output by the preceding pipeline stage after each count of the program counter 38 . in other embodiments , however , the logic circuit 12 may have any suitable configuration . the state matcher 14 may be electrically connected with some of the latches 30 - 36 and other processor storage elements . as discussed below , the state matcher 14 detects signal values associated with some of the latches 30 - 36 and other processor storage elements . these signal values form a state vector indicative of the control state of the microprocessor 12 . referring now to fig2 , in certain embodiments , the state matcher 14 includes several matcher entries 40 n ( 40 a , 40 b , 40 c , 40 d ). in the embodiment of fig2 , the state matcher 14 includes four ( 4 ) matcher entries 40 n . in other embodiments , however , any suitable number of matcher entries 40 n may be used . each of the matcher entries 40 n of fig2 includes a set of logic gates 42 configured to compare a state vector 44 with fixed bits 46 and wildcard bits 48 stored in storage cells 50 . in the embodiment of fig2 , the logic gates 42 include a set of xnor gates 52 in series with a set of or gates 54 . the output of the or gates 54 is fed into a bit - wise and gate 56 . the respective bit - wise and gates 56 of each of the matcher entries 40 n is fed into an or gate 58 to detect if any of the entries is matched to the processor control state . the output of the or gate 58 is fed into an and gate 60 to allow bypassing of the state matcher 14 from a processor status register 62 . the processor status register 62 outputs a control signal that controls whether the output of the matcher entries 40 n is expressed by the matcher 14 . other embodiments of the state matcher 14 may have a different structure , possibly encoding the patterns in a hardware logic circuit having the match signal of fig2 as output and the control signals as inputs . another example structure could simply read the match signal from a status register bit deferring the task of asserting and de - asserting this signal to a firmware or software - level application . a single patch may consist of multiple bug patterns since a single bug may be associated with several patterns , as was mentioned above , or the design may contain multiple unrelated bugs . with reference to the embodiment of fig2 , to handle such situations , the matcher 14 includes multiple independent entries 40 n . on startup , each of the matcher &# 39 ; s entries 40 n is loaded with an individual pattern containing fixed bits and don &# 39 ; t cares . at run - time , the matcher 14 simultaneously compares the actual control bit values to all of the valid entries and asserts a signal if at least one entry matches the control state subject to the control signal output by the processor status register 62 . the number of entries 40 n in the matcher 14 may be set at design time . a larger matcher 14 may be loaded with more patterns ; it , however , may also occupy a larger area on the die and may have longer propagation delay . a smaller matcher 14 , on the other hand , may not be able to load all of the patterns and compression may be needed . certain embodiments of the algorithm compress a number k of patterns into a state matcher with r - entries , where k & gt ; r . this process , however , often over - approximates the bug pattern and introduces false positives , i . e . error - free configurations that will be misclassified as buggy , and incur some performance impact . nevertheless , this compression may be necessary to fit the patching patterns into an available matcher of smaller size . note that the compression process will not generate false negatives , that is , it will not re - classify buggy patterns or portions of buggy patterns as non - buggy . to map k patterns into an r - entry matcher , the algorithm may first build a proximity graph . the graph is a clique with k vertices , one for each of the k patterns , and weighted edges connecting the vertices . edges have weights associated with them ; the weight of each edge may be computed using a variant of the hamming distance metric between the adjacent vertices . for example , a distance metric may be used whereby patterns are compared bit - wise : each 0 - 1 pair contributes , for example , 1 to the weight , each 1 - x or 0 - x pair contributes 0 . 5 to the weight , and each identical pair ( 0 - 0 and 1 - 1 ) contributes 0 to the weight . as an example , consider the two patterns 101xx1 and 1001x1 illustrated in fig3 a . the two leftmost and two rightmost bits of the patterns are identical , thus they contribute 0 to the weight . bits 3 of the patterns , on the other hand , form a 0 - 1 pair , contributing 1 to the weight , while bits 4 form a x - 1 pair , making the total weight on the edge between these patterns 1 . 5 . the reasoning behind this weighing structure is fairly straightforward : if the two patterns connected by an edge were to be compressed into one , every discording pair ( 0 - 1 , x - 0 , and x - 1 ) would have to be replaced with an x , basically creating the minimum common pattern that contains both of the initial ones . matching pairs , however , would retain the values they had in the original patterns . for example , for the two patterns 101xx1 and 1001x1 mentioned above , the common pattern is 101xx1 , since there are two discording pairs in the third and fourth bit positions . with this algorithm , each 0 - 1 pair contributes the same degree of approximation in the resulting entry generated . however , pairs such as 1 - x or 0 - x , will only have an approximating impact on one of the patterns ( the one with the 0 or 1 ), leaving the other unaffected , hence the corresponding weight is halved . an exception to the above metric may be a case where one pattern is a subset of another pattern . this is possible because patterns are allowed to have don &# 39 ; t care bits that essentially represent both 0 and 1 values . in this framework , the distance between such proximity graph vertices is set to − 1 , guaranteeing that these vertices will be chosen for compression , and the more specific pattern be eliminated from the graph . once the proximity graph is built , the two patterns connected by the minimum - weight edge may be merged together . if r ≦ k , the compression is completed , otherwise the graph is updated using the compressed pattern just generated , instead of the two original ones , and the process is repeated until a number of patterns that fits in the matcher is left . an example compression is illustrated in fig3 a through 3c . here , it is assumed that the goal is to compress four patterns into only two patterns . after the proximity graph is initially built and edges are labeled as illustrated in fig3 a , the algorithm selects the edge with the smallest distance ( d = 1 . 5 ) and merges patterns 101xx1 and 1001x1 connected by it as illustrated in fig3 b . as discussed above , the resulting pattern is 10xxx1 . when the graph is updated after the first step , it has three vertices and is still too large for the matcher . note , however , that the pattern that was added ( 10xxx1 ), completely overlaps pattern 100001 , thus the edge between them is labeled with weight − 1 . when the algorithm searches for the edge with the smallest weight for the second step , this edge is selected and vertex 100001 is eliminated as illustrated in fig3 c . compression then terminates , since the resulting set of patterns can fit into a two - entry matcher similar to the one illustrated in fig2 . 1 patterncompress ( input target_size ){ 2 for each ( pattern i ) 3 for each ( pattern j != i ) { 4 if ( contains ( i , j )) weight ( i , j )= − 1 5 else weight ( i , j ) = compute_distance ( i , j ) 6 } 7 while ( num_patterns & gt ; target_size ) { 8 ( i , j ) = edge_with_minimum_weight 9 pattern i = merge ( pattern i , pattern j ) 10 delete pattern j 11 update_graph_weights 12 num_patterns -- 13 }} lines 2 to 6 generate the initial proximity graph by computing the weights of all the edges either by detecting that vertex i contains vertex j ( contains function ) or computing the distance using the algorithm described above ( compute_distance function ). lines 8 to 11 select the pair to merge , remove one pattern from the set and update the graph . the procedure is repeated until the desired number of patterns is reached . function merge in line 9 , generates a pattern that is the minimum over - approximation of the two input patterns . the function first must check for containment , in which case it returns the former one . if there is no containment between the two patterns , their approximation is computed by substituting each non - matching bit pair with a don &# 39 ; t care bit ( x ). it is worth noting that the performance of the algorithm described may be optimized in several ways , for instance by eliminating all edges with d =− 1 in the graph at once . as was mentioned before , the compression algorithm generates a set of patterns that may over - approximate the number of erroneous configurations . the resulting pattern will still be capable of detecting all the erroneous configurations . it , however , may also flag additional known - correct configurations that have been included through the compression ( false positives ). the impact on the overall system will not be one of correctness , but one of performance , particularly if the occurrence of the additional configurations is frequent during a typical execution . the amount of approximation in the matcher &# 39 ; s detection ability is measured by its specificity . the specificity is the probability that a state matcher will not flag a correct control state configuration as erroneous . specificity may also be thought of as 1 − false_positive_rate . hence , when there is no approximation , the matcher has an ideal specificity of 1 ; increasing over - approximation produces decreasing specificity values . by virtue of the design and the pattern compression algorithm , the system may not produce a false negative . that is , it may never fail to identify any of the bug states observable through the selected control signals . referring again to fig1 , at this point , the set of patterns generated and compressed may be issued to the end customers as a patch . this may be similar to current microcode patching flow , where a patch for the processor 12 is included into bios ( basic input - output system ) updates . updates may be distributed by operating system or hardware vendors and may be saved in non - volatile memory on the motherboard . at startup , when bios firmware executes , the patches may be loaded into the processor 12 by a special loader . frl may use a similar mechanism . frl patches may be approximately the same size as a microcode update (˜ 2 kb or less ). after the patch is loaded at startup into the matcher 14 , the processor 12 may start running . while none of the configurations recorded in the matcher 12 is detected , activity proceeds normally ( this mode of operation may be referred to as high - performance ). when a buggy state ( or potentially buggy state ) is detected , the pipeline 18 is flushed and the processor 12 is switched to a reliable mode of execution . fig4 a through 4d illustrate an example execution flow when a bug pattern is matched in the frl - equipped processor 112 . ( numbered elements that differ by 100 relative to the number elements of fig1 have similar , although not necessarily identical , descriptions to the numbered elements of fig1 .) in this example , a simple in - order single - issue pipeline 118 is considered . it is further assumed that the interaction between a particular pair of instructions inst 2 and inst 3 triggers a control bug which has been detected and encoded in a pattern already uploaded in the matcher 114 . when the pattern is detected by the matcher 114 ( fig4 a ), the pipeline is flushed ( fig4 b ), and the processor 112 is switched to the degraded / trusted mode . this mode is formally verified at design time ; hence , it may be relied upon to correctly complete the next instruction ( fig4 c ). finally , the high - performance mode of operation , or the mode in use before the buggy configuration was detected , is restored ( fig4 d ). note that it may be sufficient to complete only one instruction before re - engaging normal operation since , in the event that the pipeline 118 steps again into an error state , it will once again enter the degraded mode to complete the following instruction . on the other hand , a designer may choose to run in trusted or degraded mode for several instructions to guarantee bypassing the bug entirely in a single recovery . certain techniques described herein do not introduce new flaws into the processor 112 , since the patches only specify when a processor 112 switches to trusted mode . in the worst case , the processor 112 runs in trusted mode all the time , with notable performance impact , but providing correct functionality . referring now to fig5 , the use of field - repairable logic is shown through an example within the context of a multi - stage pipeline 218 . ( numbered elements that differ by 200 relative to the numbered elements of fig1 and 2 have similar , although not necessarily identical , descriptions to the numbered elements of fig1 and 2 .) in this example , the processor 212 has a flow that does not always enforce a necessary stall between two successive memory accesses . a stall is required for this example design , since all memory operations are performed in two cycles : during the first cycle , the address is placed on the bus and the data from or to memory follows during the second cycle . if a memory operation is followed by a non - memory instruction , they are allowed to proceed back to back , since the second operation does not require memory access while advancing through the memory ( mem ) stage 226 of the pipeline 218 . in this example , the program that is being run contains a store and a load back to back , which triggers a bug . the matching logic 214 in this embodiment contains four entries 244 a , 244 b , 244 c , 244 d that describe all possible combinations of having two memory instructions in the instruction decode ( id ) stage 222 and execute ( ex ) stage 224 of the pipeline 218 . for instance , given the assumed encoding of the instruction set architecture ( isa ) for this example processor , the first entry 244 a matches valid instructions in the id and ex stages 222 , 224 of the pipeline , which are both memory reads . the second entry 244 b matches a store in ex 224 followed by a load in id 222 , which corresponds to the situation triggered during the program execution in the example . the other two entries describe a load followed by a store and two stores back to back . when the situation shown in the example arise , the matcher detects a match with the second entry 244 b , the pipeline 218 is flushed , then the recovery controller 216 starts execution at the instruction preceding the store , that is , the first uncommitted instruction . note that in this case the bug is fully and precisely described by the four patterns loaded in the matcher 214 , thus no false - positive matches are produced . moreover , any attempt to compress this set of patterns using the techniques described herein will introduce false - positives , as can be noted by observing the patterns illustrated in fig5 . as mentioned above , verification of complex hardware components , such as microprocessors , relies today on a variety of formal and simulation - based methods . the deployment of frl technology in a processor design may require the addition of two steps to the mainstream design flow . the first step may require a formal verification of the trusted or degraded mode of operation of the processor ( the mode used by frl to recover from patched design errors .) one embodiment of the trusted mode is set up so that only one instruction is in execution at any point in time in the processor . in this embodiment of the trusted mode instructions do not interact , hence verification is greatly simplified . for the most part this verification effort is reduced to the verification of individual functional blocks , which are , already today , heavily addressed by formal verification techniques . other embodiments are also possible where the trusted or degraded mode includes a large subset of system components , and possibly allows multiple instructions to be executed concurrently . a requirement of the trusted or degraded mode of operation may be that its execution is fully verified completely , so that at runtime correct forward progress is guaranteed while in this mode . the system - level verification of the entire processor may still be performed using , for example , a mix of random simulation and formal property verification . the second additional task during the system design may include the selection of the signals that should become part of the control state . these signals are then routed to a state matcher , such as the state matcher 14 illustrated in fig2 . the number of entries in the matcher may be subject to a tradeoff between total design area and overall performance of the deployed component , since a smaller matcher may require compression and reduce the processor &# 39 ; s performance because of increased false positives . in addressing the formal verification of the trusted mode of operation , a series of optimizations made available by its specific setup may be exploited . in certain embodiments , most of the complex functionality of the processor is disabled in the trusted mode and only one instruction is allowed in the pipeline at any time , greatly reducing the fraction of the design involved in each individual property proof . to this end , it is important to note that it may not be necessary to create a new , simplified version of the design . instead , all of the simplifications could be achieved either as a direct consequence of the nature of the input stream ( only one instruction is in flight at any one time ) or by simply disabling the advanced features through a few configuration bits . for example , modules such as branch predictors and speculative execution units can be turned off through dedicated control bits used in many designs to enable and disable features . on the other hand , control logic responsible for data forwarding , pipeline flushing and out - of - order execution may be abstracted away by the formal tools , if the system is constrained so that only one instruction appears in the pipeline at a time , which makes these blocks irrelevant . these two simplifications may make the trusted / degraded mode of operation simple enough for traditional formal verification tools to handle . in experiments described herein , magellan from synopsys was used to verify testbed processor designs . magellan is a hybrid verification tool that employs several techniques , including formal and directed - random simulation . since in the testbed designs , the trusted mode forces instructions to be executed independently , magellan may be used to verify the functionality of each instruction in the isa , one at a time . for each instruction , assertions in the verilog hardware design language were written to specify the expected result . constraint blocks fixed the instruction &# 39 ; s opcode and function field , while immediate fields and register identifiers were symbolically generated by magellan to allow for verification of all possible combinations of these values . deploying certain embodiments of field - repairable logic may include determining which control state signals are to be monitored by a matcher . on one hand , it may be ideal to monitor all the sequential elements of a design ; given the amount of control state in complex designs , however , such an approach may be either infeasible or extremely costly . as such , the set of control signals may be just a handful , selected among any internal net of the design ; although this limitation could potentially be the source of false positives at runtime . other embodiments may monitor many signals in a distributed fashion through several state matchers , which may be connected together . an example of the impact of a poor signal selection is discussed below , where a bug , r31 - forward ( used in the experimental evaluation discussed herein ), describes an incorrect implementation of data forwarding through register 31 . in the alpha isa , register 31 has a fixed value 0 , and hence cannot be a reference register for data forwarding . if the control signal set does not include the register fields of the various instructions in execution , it is impossible to repair this bug without triggering all those configurations which require any type of forwarding , causing an extremely high rate of false positives . at least two possible solutions to address this problem are envisioned . the first and simplest is to monitor the destination register indices of the instructions at the ex / mem and mem / wb stage boundaries by including them in the control signal set . the downside of this solution is that the control signal pool would grow and possibly impact the processor &# 39 ; s performance . for the in - order experimental testbed described herein , this would be a 30 % increase in the signals monitored . an alternative solution entails including a comparator asserting its output when data forwarding on register 31 is detected and including this output signal to the critical set . the additional overhead in this case would be less than the previous alternative . both approaches would eliminate the false positives for the r31 - forward bug and hence improve the processor &# 39 ; s performance . therefore , a designer using certain frl approaches should keep in mind possible corner cases such as these and design and select his control signal pool for a broad range of bugs . a possible approach for this task consists of analyzing previous designs &# 39 ; escaped bugs to determine which signals are most influential . since the control signal selection is of importance for certain implementations of frl , a software tool to support a designer in this task has been developed . the tool considers the register - transfer level ( rtl ) description of the design and it narrows the candidate pool for the desired control set . it does so by first automatically excluding poor candidates such as wide buses , and then ranking the remaining candidates in decreasing relevance . the rank is computed based on the width of the cone of logic that a signal drives and the number of sub - modules that they feed into . for example , for the following rtl block module example ( a , b , c ) input [ 64 : 0 ] a ; input b ; output c ; assign c = ! b & amp ; ( a == 64 ′ h0 ); endmodule the control state selection tool may mark signal a as data , and signals b and c as control . however , b will have a higher control signal ranking , since it drives more signals than c . when comparing a manually selected control signal set with the output of the automatic signal selector tool , an 80 % overlap was observed . it should be noted that the manual selection was performed by a designer who had full knowledge of the micro - architecture , while the automatic selection tool was only analyzing the rtl design . below , an experiment comparing the performance , in terms of specificity ( precision of the bug detection mechanism ), of a range of variants of manual and automatic selection is presented . in particular , the average specificity per signal , or the measure of how much each signal is contributing to the precision of the matcher is observed . solutions with higher average specificity per signal provide higher specificity , which translates into higher performance , and require less area , for fewer signals need to be routed to the matcher . in some systems , execution performance may be more critical than its correctness . for example , in some real - time systems , it is important to guarantee task completion at a predictable time in order to meet scheduling deadlines . in streaming video applications , the correctness of the color of a particular pixel may also be less crucial than the jitter of the stream . in these situations , field - repairable logic approaches that trade off performance for correctness may be undesirable . for these scenarios , an extra bit , such as the bit exerted by the processor status register 62 illustrated in fig1 , may be used to enable / disable the matcher . in some embodiments , the matcher - enable bit , however , should only be modifiable in the highest privileged mode of the processor operation , to ensure that user code cannot exploit design errors for malicious reasons . in this section two prototype systems with field repairable logic support are detailed . using simulation - based analysis , the error detection accuracy of frl for a number of design error scenarios and varied state matcher storage sizes are examined . different criteria for selecting the control state , including an automatic selection heuristic outlined above , are also examined . in addition , the area costs of adding this support to simple microprocessors is examined . finally , the performance impact of degraded mode execution is analyzed , to determine the extent of error recovery that can be tolerated before overall program performance is impacted . to gauge the benefits and costs of the field - repairable logic , this support was added to two prototype processors . although experimental in nature , these processors have been already deployed and verified in several research projects . while these prototype processors do not have the complexity of a commercial offering , they are non - trivial robust designs that can provide a realistic basis to evaluate the field - repairable logic solution . for the experiments , two variants of the state matcher , with four and eight entries , were implemented and integrated into the two baseline processor designs . the first design is a 5 - stage in - order pipeline implementing a subset of alpha isa with 64 - bit address / data word and 32 - bit instructions . the pipeline had forwarding from mem and wb stages to alu and resolves branches in ex - stage . the pipeline utilizes a simple global branch predictor and 256 - byte direct mapped instruction and data caches . for this design , 26 control bits were hand picked , which govern operation of different logic blocks of the pipeline ( datapath , forwarding , stalling , etc . ), to be monitored by the matcher . these signals were selected through a two - step process : documented bugs were studied and then control signals were selected that are good indicators of those bugs . this analysis relies on the assumption that future escaped bugs are correlated to past escapes . in addition , in making the selection , signals were chosen which encoded critical control situations in compact ways : for instance the indices of source and destination registers of each instruction ( which require several bits each ) were not monitored , but instead occurrence of each data forwarding ( only a handful of bits ) was tracked . to limit the monitoring overhead , the instruction opcode bits that are marched down each pipeline stage were not monitored . as detailed in table i below , the majority of the control signals were drawn from the id and ex stages of the pipeline , where the bulk of computation occurs . for example , in id stage some of the output bits of the decoder were selected , which represent in compact form what type of operation must be executed , and in ex stage the alu control signals were selected . although this potentially limited the capability to recognize a buggy state before the instruction is decoded in id stage , it allowed for the reduction of the number of bits monitored . note also that , while the original design was not modified in any way , it could be possible to enhance the specificity of the error detection by adding minimal additional logic . examples are the solution to the r31 - forward bug described above , and also the inclusion of additional pipeline latches to propagate more complete information on the instruction being executed through the pipeline , with the result that it would become possible to capture more precisely the specifics of an instruction leading to a bug . the second processor is a much larger out - of - order 2 - way super - scalar pipeline , implementing the same isa . the core uses tomasulo &# 39 ; s algorithm with register renaming to re - order instruction execution . the design has four reservation stations for each of the functional units and a 32 - entry re - order buffer ( rob ) to hold speculative results . the flushing of the core on a branch mispredict is performed when the branch reaches the head of the rob . the memory operations are also performed when a memory instruction reaches the head of the rob , with a store operation requiring two cycles . the re - order buffer can retire two instructions at a time , unless one is a memory operation or a mispredicted branch . the design also includes 256 - byte direct mapped instruction and data caches and a global branch predictor . the signals hand selected for the control pool include signals from the retirement logic in the rob as well as control signals from the reservation stations and the renaming logic as reported in table ii . similarly to the in - order design , no opcodes and instruction addresses were monitored , to minimize the number of observed signals . the embodiment of the state matcher developed for this design was capable of correctly matching scenarios involving branch misprediction , memory operations , as well as corner cases of operation of the rob and reservation stations , for example , when they were full and the front - end needed to be stalled . again , a larger set of signals could be used to gather more detailed information about the state of the machine , however , for this design , the benefit would consist of a shorter recovery time by recognizing problems earlier on . on the other hand , the ability to identify erroneous configurations precisely would not improve significantly , since errors can still be detected when instructions reach the head of the rob . the processor prototypes were specified in synthesizable verilog , and then synthesized for minimum delay using synopsys design compiler . this produces a structural verilog specification of the processor implemented with artisan standard logic cells in a tsmc 0 . 18 um fabrication technology . for performance analysis , a set of 28 microbenchmark programs was run , designed to fully exercise the processor while providing small code footprints . these programs included branching logic and memory interface tests , recursive computation , sorting , and mathematical programs , including integer matrix multiplication and emulation of the floating point computation . in addition , both of the designs were simulated for 100 , 000 cycles with an interactive stimulus generator stresstest to verify correctness of operation as well as provide a more diverse stream of instruction combinations . to evaluate the performance of the field - repairable logic solution , the designs were equipped with an embodiment of the state matcher as discussed herein , a variety of bugs were inserted into the designs , the appropriate patches were downloaded to the matcher , and then their overall performance was examined . for each bug or set of bugs , a variant of the design that included them was created . in crafting the bugs , the bugs reported in errata documents were emulated . all levels of the design hierarchy were targeted . usually , high - level bugs were the result of bad interactions between multiple instructions in flight at the same time . for example , opa - forward - wb breaks forwarding from wb stage on one operand , and 2 - branch - ops prevents two consecutive branching operations from being processed properly under rare circumstances . medium - level bugs introduced incorrect handling of instruction computations , such as store - mem - op , which causes store operations to fail . low - level bugs were highly - specific scenarios in which an instruction would fail . for example , r31 - forward is a bug causing forwarding on register 31 to be performed incorrectly . finally , the multi - bugs are combined bugs , where the state matcher is required to recognize larger collections of bug configurations . for instance , multi - all is a design variant including all bugs that we introduced . a summary of the bugs introduced in both of the designs is given in the table iii . it can be noted that even for these simple designs , some of the bugs require a very unique combination of events to occur in order to become visible . table iii bugs introduced in in - order and out - of - order pipelines . bug description in - order pipeline 2 - mem - ops two consecutive memory operations fail opa - forward - wb incorrect forwarding from wb stage on operand a opa - forward - conf incorrect hazard resolution on operand a 2 - branch - ops two consecutive taken branches fail store - mem - op store followed by another memory operation fails load - branch a conditional branch depending on a preceding load fails mult - branch a branch following a multiply instruction fails mult - depend multiply followed by a dependent instruction fails r31 - forward forwarding on register 31 is done incorrectly multi - 1 2 - mem - ops + opa - forward - wb + opa - forward - conf + 2 - branch - ops multi - 2 store - mem - op + load - branch + mult - branch multi - 3 mult - depend + r31 - forward multi - 4 2 - branch - ops + mult - branch + load - branch out - of - order pipeline rob - full - store store operation fails when rob is full rob - full - mem any memory operation fails when rob is full double - retire double - issue and double - retirement in the same cycle fails double - retire - retirement of two instructions fails if two non - branch full instructions are added to full rob at the same time double - mispred rob incorrectly flushes the pipeline if two branches are mispredicted at the same time rs - flush reservation stations do not get flushed on a branch mispredict if rs_full signal is asserted load - data loaded data is not forwarded to dependent instructions in the reservation stations multi - all all out - of - order bugs combined the control state matcher has the task of identifying when the processor has entered a buggy control state , at which point the processor is switched into a degraded mode that offers reliable execution . in this section the specificity of the state matcher is studied . that is , its accuracy in entering the degraded mode only when an erroneous configuration is observed . fig6 and 7 graph the specificity of the state matcher for bugs in the in - order and out - of - order processor designs . recall that the specificity of a bug is the fraction of recoveries that are due to an actual bug . thus , if the specificity is 1 , the state matcher only recovers the machine when the bug is encountered . on the other hand , a matcher with low specificity would be overconservative and enter the degraded mode more often than necessary . for instance , a specificity of 0 . 40 indicates that an actual bug was corrected only during 40 % of the transitions to degraded mode , while the other 60 % were unnecessary . in order to gather a sense of the correlation between specificity and matcher size , results considering a 4 - entry , 8 - entry and a infinite - entry matcher are plotted and discussed below . it can be noted that for both processors , many of the bugs can be detected and recovered with a specificity of 1 . 0 , even when using the smallest matcher , thus no spurious recoveries were initiated . some combinations of multiple bugs ( e . g ., multi - 1 and multi - 2 ) had low specificities , but when the matcher size was increased , the specificity reached again 1 . 0 . for these combinations of bugs , a four entry matcher was too small to accurately describe the state space associated with the bugs , but the larger matcher overcame this problem . finally , for a few of the bugs , e . g ., multi - depend in fig6 and load - data in fig7 , even an infinite - size state matcher could not reach the perfect specificity . for these particular bugs , the lack of specificity was not the result of pressure on the matcher , but rather insufficient access to critical control information , as was described above . thus , these experiments had to initiate recovery whenever there was a potential error , leading to the lower specificities . to evaluate the impact of various critical control signal selection policies and compare them to the automatic approach described above , a range of frl implementations were developed over the in - order pipeline using different sets of control signals . the results of this analysis are illustrated in fig8 . in the first configuration developed , single - instr , the control consists exclusively of the 32 - bit instruction being fetched . the second solution , called double - instr monitors the instructions in the fetch and decode stages ( 64 instruction bits and 2 valid bits ). the third configuration ( auto - select ) includes all of the signals selected automatically by the heuristic algorithm discussed above for a total of 52 bits . for this set up , the automatic selection algorithm was configured to return all rtl signals with non - zero control rank and width less than 16 bits . the manual - select implementation corresponds exactly to the one from the experiment , including all the signals of table i , thus its matcher performance is the same as in the experiments above . the final configuration , manual - select w / id is a manual - select , but it includes 10 extra signals to monitor the destination registers in stages mem and wb . matcher sizes for all of the variants contained a sufficient number of entries to accommodate even the largest patches , so pattern compression was never required . for each design variant , individual patches were developed for the first 9 bugs listed in table iii ( all but the multi - bugs ). for each bug and each design variant , the average specificity per signal was measured , that is , specificity divided the number of signals in the critical control pool . this measure gives an intuition on how to select the approach with the best performance / area tradeoff . as illustrated in fig8 , the manual - select variant produces the best results for most bugs . the manual - select / w id solution has better specificity than manual - select , but at a higher price . its main advantage is the good result over r31 - forward , which is made possible by its tracking destination register indices . note also that the automatic selection algorithm performs quite well , especially taking into account that this approach does not require any engineering effort . implementing a field - repairable logic solution may require the addition of control matcher logic , that is , the matcher itself and the recovery controller , which may cause an area overhead for the final design . table iv tabulates the area overheads of a range of frl implementations , including matcher size of 4 and 8 entries built over both the in - order and out - of - order designs and considering 256 b and 64 kb instruction and data caches . as shown in the table , the overhead of frcl is uniformly low . even the larger state matcher , deployed in a processor with a small pipeline and caches ( in - order - 256 b ), results in an overhead of only about 2 %. designs with larger caches and more complex pipelines have even lower overhead . given the simplicity of the baseline designs discussed herein , it is expected that the overhead for commercial - grade designs would be even lower . table iv also presents the propagation delays through the matcher block . note that all solutions have propagation delays that are well below the system &# 39 ; s clock frequency , hence they do not impact the overall system &# 39 ; s performance when no bug is detected . note that the matcher for the out - of - order processor performs faster because it monitors fewer control signals . it should also pointed out that , in some embodiments , matching is performed in parallel with normal pipeline operation , and given the observed propagation delays through the matcher , they do not affect the overall design frequency . table iv area overheads and propagation delays for a range of frl implementations on the in - order and out - of - order pipeline when synthesized on 180 nm technology . critical control state matcher area (% design area ) in - order out - of - order 256 b 64 kb 256 b 64 kb 4 entry matcher 1 . 10 % 0 . 01 % 0 . 34 % 0 . 01 % 8 entry matcher 2 . 20 % 0 . 02 % 0 . 68 % 0 . 02 % propagation delay of the matcher ( ns ) in - order out - of - order ( clk = 11 . 5 ns ) ( clk = 6 . 5 ns ) 4 entry matcher 1 . 18 ns 1 . 17 ns 8 entry matcher 1 . 43 ns 1 . 21 ns during recovery , the processor is switched into trusted mode to execute the next instruction , and then returned to normal operation or to the mode of operation that was in use before the recovery was initiated . in certain embodiments of the trusted mode , only one instruction is permitted to enter the pipeline , thus instruction - level parallelism may be lost and program performance may suffer accordingly . other embodiments may also affect overall system performance . fig9 graphs the performance of the in - order and out - of - order processors as a function of increasing recovery frequency . as shown in the graph , for performance impact to be contained under 5 %, the rate of recovery should not exceed 6 per 1000 cycles for the in - order pipeline and 1 per 1000 cycles for the out - of - order pipeline . for a more stringent margin of 2 % impact , recovery rates should not exceed 2 / 1000 and 4 / 1000 for the in - order and the out - of - order processors , respectively . note that the in - order pipeline suffers more heavily from the frequency of the recovery , as it can be easily derived from its higher sensitivity to instruction latencies . finally , fig1 and 11 show the cpi ( clock cycles per instruction ) of the frl - equipped in - order and out - of - order pipelines . the cpi has been normalized to the average cpi achieved when no patch was uploaded on the matcher ( hence degraded mode was never triggered ). by comparison with fig6 , it can be noted that low specificity often results in increased cpi . however , the worst case scenario ( 4 entry matcher and multi - 1 bug ) occurs because of an insufficiently sized matcher and not because of the control selection . while embodiments of the invention have been illustrated and described , it is not intended that these embodiments illustrate and describe all possible forms of the invention . rather , the words used in the specification are words of description rather than limitation , and it is understood that various changes may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention . | 6 |
the embodiments of the present invention are described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings , which form a part hereof , and which show , by way of illustration , specific exemplary embodiments by which the invention may be practiced . this invention may , however , be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein . rather , the disclosed embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete , and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art throughout the specification and claims , the following terms take the meanings explicitly associated herein , unless the context clearly dictates otherwise . the phrase “ in one embodiment ” as used herein does not necessarily refer to the same embodiment , though it may . furthermore , the phrase “ in another embodiment ” as used herein does not necessarily refer to a different embodiment , although it may . thus , as described below , various embodiments of the invention may be readily combined , without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention . thus , as described below , various embodiments of the invention may be readily combined , without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention . as used herein , the term “ or ” is an inclusive “ or ” operator , and is equivalent to the term “ and / or ,” unless the context clearly dictates otherwise . the term “ based on ” is not exclusive and allows for being based on additional factors not described , unless the context clearly dictates otherwise . in addition , throughout the specification , the meaning of “ a ,” “ an ,” and “ the ” include plural references . the meaning of “ in ” includes “ in ” and “ on .” in one embodiment of the present invention , a method of selecting the - ye samples from the images that were used as + ve samples for other object classifiers is shown . the number of samples selected from each object may be automatically determined according to the percentage of false positives . fig1 illustrates a flowchart depicting steps of a method for object classification within an object recognition system in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention . exemplary step 110 collects positive ( p ) samples of images of the given current object under training ( o ) by downloading them from open imaging sources on the web such as , for example , the stanford imagenet image library , flickr , any image database , or results of image searches on the internet via a search engine , such as , for example google , bing or any other sources . exemplary step 120 describes a process to select negative samples ( g ) for negative training of object 0 which takes the said p positive images of o , the current recognition engine e with its existing set of priori - trained objects in the current version of the object recognition engine , and generates a set of g negative samples for object o to use for negative training 120 . in exemplary step 120 p positive images and said g negative images for the new object o are input into a standard process of local feature extraction extracting typical computer vision features such as color histogram , edge histograms , etc . the feature vectors may be used for training according to a standard classifier training algorithm such as support vector machine , or viola jones , etc . to produce a model file 130 . said model file may be added to the object recognition engine , and the engine is therefore now able to detect objects o 140 . a random test set of t test images containing the new object 0 are then passed as inputs to the updated object recognition engine e for detection to measure its recognition perfomance using precision and recall measurements ( as defined in the computer vision literature using the true positive , false positive , true negative and false negative counts ) 150 . the measured precision and recall on the t images is compared against the required threshold values passed as inputs 170 . in the preferred embodiment , said required threshold values can be in the range 70 - 99 % precision and 70 - 99 % recall . if said measured precision and recall don &# 39 ; t meet the threshold requirements , we repeat the entire process starting with collecting an additional set of positive sample images 110 . fig2 depicts an object ontology and inter - object correlation graph that may be used in negative training methods . several academic object ontology , also commonly referred to as taxonomy , are available . for efficiency and run time optimization purposes , a narrow taxonomy is used to optimize the look up and correlation calculations . an exemplary subset of object ontology is shown 200 . the root of this subtree is the exemplary category man - made - objects 205 . such category can be further subdivided into out - doors man - made objects 210 , and in - doors man - made objects 215 . within the out - doors category 210 , there may be further sub - categories for example , transportation objects 220 , city related objects 223 , and rural objects 225 . transportation 220 may be further divided into marine transportation objects 230 , and vehicles 235 . marine transportation objects 230 may be further divided into the final actual object names in this category such as but not limited to sailboats 240 , kayaks 245 , and ferries 247 . vehicle category 235 may also be further divided into 4 - wheel 250 and 2 - wheel 260 . the 2 - wheel vehicles category 260 may be further divided into all the actual objects in that category such as scooters 265 , and mountain bikes 2 ? 0 and similar 2 - wheel objects that are of interest to include in the recognition engine . it will be understood that objects such as indoors 215 , and rural 225 that have a dangling connections 219 and 229 , are there to indicate that they may be further expanded to their subcategories and eventually the final list of objects , as described above in connection with transportation 220 . it is also understood that a new object 0 that gets added to the engine is insetted in this object ontology at its appropriate level in the hierarchy as a sibling of similar type objects . for example a new touring bicycle would be added as a sibling to mountain bike with 2 - wheel vehicle 260 as its parent category . fig3 depicts an embodiment of a method algorithm for negative training for object o 300 . the input is the p positive images for object o collected from the web for positive training , t set of test images for object o , the existing object recognition engine e with its a - priori trained n classifiers which doesn &# 39 ; t include object o 310 . p images may be processed for object detection on the current set of n classifiers in the object recognition engine e_i , which does not include o , by iterating on all classifiers e_i for all i 320 . the entire set of p images is processed against classifier e_i and match computations are reported 330 , this count is recorded as the false positive count for this classifier fpcount_i 340 . care is taken in this step to make sure that such matches are indeed false positive matches , in other words , said image didn &# 39 ; t have both objects simultaneously . the false positive percentage is computed as a percentage of fpcount_i to the total set p as fpp_i 350 . this process is iterated for all n classifiers , and hence the array fpp_i has all the false positive percentages for all classifiers and said array is sorted in descending order 360 . logically this implies that the first element in this array is the classifier that caused the highest percentage of false positives , therefore the example illustrated earlier for training of mountain bikes , if classifier for scooter is the one generating a 65 % false positive rate , that means of the set p images of mountain bikes , 65 % of those p images were misconstrued as scooters . therefore the method will proportionately select a large quantity of images of scooters to use in the negative training of mountain bikes to ensure the engine learns that scooters are not mountain bikes , and similarly , mountain bikes are used in the negative re - training of scooters . in a non - limiting example , object o is a mountain bike , thus it &# 39 ; s important that when the p mountain bikes images are collected 110 , they are processed against all the existing objects in the recognition engine ( for example , car , jet - plane , flower , scooter ) to ensure those p images don &# 39 ; t have these objects . therefore any matches reported by the engine are surely all false - positives , i . e ., the mountain bike is misconstrued as a scooter , or a car . the sorted array is divided into 4 quadrants 370 . where the top quadrant is the most offending objects that cause highest false positive , second quadrant is the second most offending , etc . the lowest quadrant may optionally be ignored completely because it contains the least offending , and hence including them in the negative training is a lower priority and depends on the count threshold constraint . fig4 . depicts a continuation flowchart of the negative training process , 400 , where the number of classifiers in each quadrant is counted and recorded in a new array of counts classifiercount - per - quadrant [ i ] 410 . quadrant - count [ j ] is computed as an allocation of total number of negative samples to allocate to the respective quadrant 420 . this computation in the preferred embodiment is a function of the number of classifiers in the quadrant and their ratio to the total number of classifiers , and also the range of percentages in the quadrant . for example if the top offending quadrant has a high false positive of 85 % and the lowest in the quadrant is 70 %, then this set of classifiers is problematic and causes extreme mismatches in the engine . say also the number of classifiers in this set was 7 different classifiers out of 500 classifiers in the engine . then one can allocate a very high number of negative samples to this quadrant and the respective classifiers in this group , because a small concentration of highly offending ( i . e ., high false - positive rate ) generate classifiers . subsequently , the samplecountperclassifier the number of negative samples is computed to allocate to each classifier in each quadrant j by dividing quadrant - count [ j ] by classifiercountperquadrant [ j ] 430 . a running count is initialized 440 . for each quadrant j of the 4 quadrant , 440 , and each classifier c in the j quadrant 450 are looped , and a number of positive samples equal to samplecountperclassifier is selected and copied from the classifier c &# 39 ; s positive training samples as negative samples for the classifier under training 0 . in a non - limiting preferred embodiment , four quadrants are selected , i . e ., dividing the false positive rate ranges into four batches , however many other variants are possible , and in fact some offer desired flexibility and tine grain control . for example , the rate ranges can be divided up into 8 batches hence the ranges are as follows 0 - 12 . 5 %, 12 . 5 %- 25 %, 25 %- 37 . 5 % up to the last batch at the range 87 . 5 %- 10 %. similarly if one divides up the ranges into i 0 batches , then it &# 39 ; s every 10 % i . e ., 0 - 10 %, 10 %- 20 % up to 90 %- 100 %, and so on . the finer granularity of the rate range , as for example the 10 - batch scheme , allows one for example to completely ignore the batch at the lowest range , because a false positive rate between 0 - 10 % is very low , and isn &# 39 ; t considered of any material impact . a number of different variants of fig4 are also possible in which intelligent pruning is performed in order to optimize the number of classifier from which to select samples for the negative training as described below . these embodiments are exemplar and other variations are contemplated within the scope of the present embodiments . in this embodiment , the lowest quadrant , i . e ., the one with classifiers having false positive rates in the range 0 - 25 % is dropped in the negative sample selection . in case of batches with 10 % ranges , then classifiers in the false positive range 0 - 10 % are dropped . in this embodiment , in the object ontology network each object classifier &# 39 ; s false positive rates is noted on it . the ontology tree is traversed using standard tree traversal methods , and the classifier with the lowest false positive rate in each subtree in the hierarchy is pruned , i . e ., dropped and not used for negative sample selection process . according to certain additional aspects , embodiments of the invention relate to a system and method for structuring an object recognition engine that can implement the object recognition techniques described above . these embodiments include a method for efficiently implementing a computer vision object recognition engine that is capable of recognizing very large number of objects across large number of domains with very different visual characteristics such that the response time is constant and independent of the number of object detectors in the engine . fig5 is a block diagram illustrating an example system including an object recognition engine 050 that is structured according to embodiments of the invention . as shown , engine 050 is structured to include domain - specific sub - engines 054 , 056 and 058 . in this illustrative example , sub - engine 054 performs scene recognition , sub - engine 056 performs fashion recognition and sub - engine 058 performs product recognition . in embodiments , each domain - specific sub - engine is trained and implemented separately and each domain - specific sub - engine is unaware of the other sub - engines . moreover , each domain - specific sub - engine can be shut - down , restarted , or changed independently of the other domain - specific sub - engines without impacting them . fig6 is a block diagram illustrating an example system that can implement an object recognition engine 050 such as that shown in fig5 . as shown , the central intelligence 602 of the overall engine is comprised of a master centralized node which is responsible for communicating the input image 040 to all the sub - engines 054 , 056 , 058 and aggregating the resulting tags 043 back to the user . as further shown in fig6 , each sub - engine 054 , 056 , etc . is implemented by a respective independent computer cluster 055 , 057 , etc . in one preferred embodiment , engines 054 , 056 , etc . are comprised of domain - specific neural networks that are run concurrently on the independent compute clusters 055 , 057 , etc . each neural network is assigned one domain of object detectors that have shared visual characteristics or are typically correlated to one another , for example fashion objects , or home decor objects , or scenery objects , etc . each neural network is capable of running all of its underlying object detectors concurrently or it can run a subset of those object detectors based on a specified input parameter . the overall engine 050 &# 39 ; s response time is equal to the response time of the slowest domain - specific neural network 054 , 056 , etc . in other embodiments , the domain - specific engines 054 , 056 , 058 , etc . are not implemented using neural - networks but are implemented using different classification algorithms such as those described above . these algorithms can include support vector machines , boosting , haar , decision trees , etc fig7 is a block diagram illustrating another example system including an object recognition engine 750 that is structured according to additional embodiments of the invention . as shown in fig7 , in these embodiments , the domain - specific sub - engines 754 , 756 , 758 are aware of each other and that they are being run in parallel on the same image 740 and are allowed to communicate their results amongst each other via communication hub 700 to resolve conflicts . for example , engine 750 can use object - correlation intelligence to ensure final results are coherent before communicating the final result tags 743 back to the master engine and the end user . as shown in fig7 , and similar to fig5 , each sub - engine 754 , 756 , 758 is run on a respective independent computer cluster 753 , 755 , 757 . in this embodiment , central intelligence 602 can further include the functionality of communication hub 750 . in these and other embodiments the communications hub uses an object taxonomy to resolve conflicting object tags that have a very low co - occurrence likelihood ( such as high - rise - building and cruise - ship , etc ). furthermore , the communications hub 750 can resolve conflicting objects tags using a variety of different mechanisms including , but not limited to : a ) using the individual object detectors confidence scores to eliminate the lower confidence classifier . b ) using the over sub - engines quality score to eliminate the result of a sub - engine , for example food recognition engine , that generally makes more errors compared to a sub - engine that &# 39 ; s generally more accurate , for example scenes or products sub - engines furthermore , the communications hub 750 can resolve conflicts by partitioning the input image into patches , using fixed partitioning ( for example 8 patches of 8 × 8 pixels ) or variable partitioning using standard sliding window schemes in the computer vision literature , and then ordering the conflicting sub - engines to re - run object recognition on the image &# 39 ; s underlying patches in order to isolate the specific image patch where the conflicting tags occur , and determine which tag to eliminate based on the score on that specific patch although a specific embodiments of the present invention have been described , it will be understood by those of skill in the art they are not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed and obviously many modifications and variations are possible in view of the above teachings , including equivalents . accordingly , it is to be understood that the invention is not to be limited by the specific illustrated embodiments , but only by the scope of the appended claims . | 6 |
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