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in the following description , a system for connecting a plurality of usb devices to a high - speed bus will be described . the system allows the total data transfer rate from the plurality of usb devices to exceed 12 mb / s . herein , numerous details 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 these specific details are not required in order to practice the present invention . as discussed here , a &# 34 ; computer system &# 34 ; is a product including circuitry capable of processing data . referring to fig1 computer system 100 includes a processor 105 coupled to a host bridge 115 by way of host bus 110 . processor 105 may be any type of processor such as a microcontroller , or a general purpose microprocessor . in alternative embodiments , the processor may be replaced by firmware implemented to perform as a state machine . in the embodiment shown , host bridge 115 is a peripheral component interconnect ( pci ) bridge , although other bridges may be used in lieu thereof . the host bridge 115 couples together system memory 120 ( e . g ., dynamic random access memory &# 34 ; dram &# 34 ;, static ram &# 34 ; sram &# 34 ;, etc . ), a high - speed interconnect bus ( e . g ., a pci bus ) 130 and a graphics interface 125 . in one embodiment , the high - speed interconnect bus is a multiplexed bus which carries both address information and data information . the host bridge 115 bridges processor transactions to either system memory 120 , pci bus 130 or graphics interface 125 . the host bridge 115 also transfers signals from graphics interface 125 or pci bus 130 to system memory 120 . in one embodiment , host bridge 115 includes a pci arbiter which arbitrates data flow from devices coupled to pci bus 130 . however , it is contemplated that another agent may contain the pci arbiter . pci bus 130 provides a communication path between the processor 105 or system memory 120 and one or more peripheral devices 135 1 to 135m , where &# 34 ; m &# 34 ; is a positive whole number . examples of a peripheral device include a network interface card , a scsi controller card , and the like . the pci bus 130 further provides a communication path between the processor 105 or system memory 120 and a dual universal serial bus ( usb ) host controller chip 139 which includes a bus interface unit ( biu ) 140 . in one embodiment , usb host controller chip 139 includes biu 140 , usb arbiter 145 , usb host controller 150 , 155 on a single chip of silicon . integrating all these devices on a single silicon chip minimizes costs . the biu 140 facilitates transfers of data between pci bus 130 and a usb host controller 150 via a usb arbiter 145 . the biu 140 requests access to pci bus 130 when usb arbiter 145 forwards a bus access request from a selected usb host controller 150 , 155 . an external arbiter , such as a pci arbiter in host bridge 115 , independently determines when biu 140 may access pci bus 130 and when other peripherals 135 1 to 135 m are granted access to pci bus 130 . in some embodiments , additional components and / or peripherals may be directly coupled to the biu 140 and a biu arbiter used to further control access to pci bus 130 . when an external arbiter such as the pci arbiter in host bridge 115 grants biu 140 access to pci bus 130 , usb arbiter 145 grant one access request from usb host controllers 150 , 155 to forward to pci bus 130 . in the illustrated embodiment , each usb host controller 150 , 155 has several usb ports 160 , 162 , 164 , 166 for coupling usb devices 170 , 172 , 174 , 176 to the controllers . examples of typical usb devices which may be connected to each usb port 160 , 162 , 164 , 166 include , but are not limited to , computer keyboards , scanners , joysticks , audio microphones , and imaging cameras . some of these devices , such as a keyboard and joystick are low - bandwidth devices . other devices , such as an imaging camera and scanner are high - bandwidth devices . a high - bandwidth device is defined as a device which requires over half of the 12 megabit per second bandwidth of the usb host controller to avoid degradation in performance . coupling two high - bandwidth devices to a single usb host controller 150 , 155 may result in poor performance because each usb host controller can only handle 12 megabits of data transfer per second . thus , in order to prevent overload of the usb host controller , typically a high - bandwidth device and a low - bandwidth device are coupled to each usb host controller . alternatively , two or more low - bandwidth devices may be coupled to each usb host controller . in the illustrated embodiment , usb host controllers 150 , 155 perform the initiator protocols necessary to access bus interface unit 140 and pci bus 130 . each usb host controller , such as host controllers 150 , 155 are commercially available and can be ordered as part no . 82371ab from intel corporation of santa clara , calif . usb host controllers are also described in universal serial bus system architecture , by don anderson of mindshare , inc . © 1997 , published by addison - wesley developers press with isbn no . d - 201 - 46137 - 4 . in one embodiment of the invention , usb arbiter 145 receives a target protocol along lines 180 , from bus interface unit 140 . usb arbiter 145 communicates the target protocols along lines 184 , 186 to the first and second usb host controllers 150 , 155 . the target protocols accesses register sets within usb host controllers 150 , 155 . examples of typical registers include a register that limits the time a host controller can spend on the bus as an initiator , control registers which direct the host controller to begin and halt processing instructions , and status registers which provide controller states . initiator lines 188 and 190 communicate information , such as addresses , data , control or any combination thereof to facilitate data transfer to usb host controller 150 , 155 . control information may include write data , handshake protocol and other information used to facilitate movement of data to and from the usb host controller . after configuration of the usb host controllers , bits in the usb host controller input / output space ( i / o space ) are set . the bits set in the usb host controller initiate execution of an instruction set allowing usb host controllers 150 , 155 to generate requests through an initiator mechanism . the usb arbiter 145 receives the request and selects an initiator protocol and target protocol from the protocols submitted by usb host controllers 150 , 155 . the arbiter 145 transmits the selected initiator and target protocols to the biu 140 along line 192 and line 180 . usb arbiter 145 grants a selected usb host controller 150 , 155 access to pci bus 130 . in one embodiment of the invention , a priority solver logic circuit determines which usb host controller had the least recent access to the bus when contention occurs . contention occurs when two or more usb host controllers request access to the bus within a specified time period such that when pci arbiter grants the usb arbiter 145 access to the bus 130 , at least two usb host controller request for bus access are pending . fig2 a illustrates an example of a priority solver state machine 200 . the output of the priority state machine of fig2 a is illustrated in fig2 b . in fig2 a priority solver state machine 200 determines whether usb arbiter 145 grants an access to first usb host controller 150 or second usb host controller 155 . in a first state 202 , the priority solver assigns a higher priority to first usb host controller 150 such that when a contention occurs , first usb host controller 150 will receive the grant . after first usb host controller 150 is granted access to the bus , state machine 200 transitions along transition path 204 to second state 208 . usb priority solver state machine 200 remains in second state 208 until usb arbiter 145 grants second usb host controller 155 access to pci bus 130 . after second usb host controller 155 receives access to pci bus 130 , priority solver state machine 200 transitions along transition path 210 to initial state 202 wherein the first usb host controller 150 again has priority . fig2 b illustrates how the usb arbiter which receives signals from the usb state machine of fig2 a prioritizes bus access requests . first column 216 indicates requests by first usb host controller 150 to access pci bus 130 . column 220 indicates requests from second usb host controller 155 to access pci bus 130 . column 224 indicates the output of priority solver state machine 200 of fig2 a . the state machine output determines which usb host controller has priority . column 228 indicates the usb host controller which is granted access to pci bus 130 . in row 230 and row 232 , when neither first usb host controller 150 nor second usb host controller 155 requests access to pci bus 130 , neither usb host controller is granted access in column 228 and the output of the priority solver state machine 200 given in column 224 is unimportant . in row 234 and row 236 , when only the second usb host controller requests access , the second usb host controller is granted access to pci bus 130 in column 228 . in row 238 and 240 , when only first usb host controller 150 requests access and second usb host controller 155 does not request access , the usb arbiter 145 grants access to the first usb host controller in column 228 . only when a contention occurs , when two or more usb host controllers both request access to pci bus 130 , does the priority solver 200 output determine which usb host controller is granted access . contention occurs in row 242 and row 244 . when contention occurs , the output of priority solver state machine 200 illustrated in column 224 determines which usb host controller is granted access in column 228 . the output of priority solver state machine 200 can be generated by implementing logic circuitry that is well - known in the art . fig3 illustrates one embodiment of implementing a usb arbiter 300 such as usb arbiter 145 of fig1 . usb arbiter 300 includes a priority solver logic circuit 304 which is coupled to the select input of two multiplexer - demultiplexer combinations 308 , 312 . a multiplexer - demultiplexer combination is defined as a device which can serve as a multiplexer in a first direction and a demultiplexer in a second direction . in the illustrated embodiment , first multiplexer - demultiplexer combination 308 transfers grant request signals while second multiplexer - demultiplexer combination 312 transfers initiator protocols . first multiplexer - demultiplexer combination 308 receives grant request signals ( a request signal requesting a grant ) from first usb host controller 150 of fig1 . ( the request signal of the first usb host controller corresponds to column 216 of fig2 b ). the second input line 315 receives request signals from the second usb host controller ( corresponding to column 220 of fig2 b ). the output line 314 of first multiplexer - demultiplexer combination 308 provides the grant signal from the arbiter 145 to the bus interface unit 140 of fig1 . in order for data transfer to occur , all arbiters must grant access including usb arbiter 300 , bus interface unit 140 and pci arbiter in host bridge 115 . second multiplexer - demultiplexer combination 312 in usb arbiter 300 selects the initiator protocol output to the bus interface unit . the first usb host controller 150 of fig1 outputs an initiator handshake signal to second multiplexer - demultiplexer combination 312 along input or initiator line 188 . second usb host controller 155 of fig1 transfers a second initiator signal to second multiplexer - demultiplexer combination 312 along second initiator lines 190 . the output of priority solver 304 is coupled to the select input of second multiplexer - demultiplexer combination 312 . the output of priority solver 304 determines the appropriate initiator protocol signal transmitted to biu 140 of fig1 . the preceding implementation of the invention has been described using a single arbiter 145 coupling two usb host controllers 150 , 155 to a high speed bus . however , it should be clear to one of ordinary skill in the art that an arbiter can be configured to control two or more usb host controllers . thus , a single arbiter 145 could handle three or more usb host controllers . in such embodiments , the two multiplexer - demultiplexer combinations 308 , 312 of fig3 would have additional inputs allowing a three to one or other multiplexer - demultiplexer combination . in one embodiment of the invention , the priority solver takes into account additional usb host controllers and determines which usb host controller had the least recent access . other arbitration schemes are also possible . for example , a rotating arbitration selects subsequent usb host controllers in a predetermined sequence . a fixed arbitration scheme maintains a hierarchy of usb host controllers and always grants priority to higher priority usb host controllers when a contention occurs . while certain exemplary embodiments have been described and shown in the accompanying drawings , it is to be understood that such embodiments are newly - illustrated and not restrictive on the broad invention and this invention not be limited to the specific constructions and arrangements shown and described , since other modifications may occur to those ordinarily skilled in the art . | 6 |
fig1 is an overview of the methodology utilized in the present invention ; fig2 shows a schematic diagram of the present invention ; fig3 a shows the emitter arm portion of the monitoring system ; fig3 b shows the detector arm portion of the monitoring system ; fig4 shows the operation of the monitoring system when a customer places an order ; fig5 shows the steady state calibration mode of the monitoring system ; fig6 shows a typical detector arm attached to a vending machine ; and fig7 shows light beam patterns for the emitters in the monitoring system . the present invention is a vending system that verifies that an actual delivery of an ordered product is made . if the actual delivery fails for a set number of delivery attempts , then the customer is offered one or more alternative choices , including without limitation , choosing an alternative product , or a refund . fig1 is an overview of the methodology utilized in the present invention . the monitoring system is in calibration mode in its normal steady state configuration mode as shown in step 100 . calibration mode is discussed in greater detail in fig5 below . the customer orders a product after placing money in the ordering system by depressing a keypad or similar device in step 102 . the vending machine &# 39 ; s ordering system sends a customer order event signal in step 103 to the monitoring system informing the sensing / monitoring system that an order event has occurred in step 102 . the monitoring system subsequently completes its last calibration cycle in step 104 and transitions from steady state calibration mode to the monitoring cycle in step 106 . upon transitioning , the monitoring system commences its sensing / monitoring cycle by monitoring the product delivery path and sends a ready signal to the product delivery system in step 110 . the monitoring cycle is described in more detail in fig4 , herein below . after receiving a ready signal from the monitoring system , the product delivery system attempts to deliver a product through the product delivery path in step 120 . if the monitoring system senses or detects the product passing through the delivery path in step 125 , it reports the delivery event to the ordering system in step 130 . upon receiving the report , the ordering system concludes the transaction with the customer and sends a completion signal to the monitoring system , which returns to steady state calibration mode in step 135 , whereupon the monitoring system enters into calibration mode in step 140 . if the monitoring system does not detect a product in the first delivery attempt in step 125 then it will not send a signal to the ordering system after the step 125 . the invention allows the delivery system to attempt delivery three times or a preset option . in step 150 , if the number of attempted delivery cycles is less than the preset option , then the ordering system thereupon attempts to deliver the product again in step 120 . if the attempted delivery cycles equal the preset option , then in step 155 the customer is granted alternatives to purchasing the first ordered product . step 155 allows the customer to either ask for a refund or make a selection of a second , different product for delivery and step 153 marks the first ordered product as empty . step 153 prevents future vend attempts for the first ordered product until the vending machine is visited by a service person . this helps to prevent cheating by a customer if the vending machine reverts to the home switch operation , and helps to prevent further tampering if tampering was the cause of the first vend failure . if the customer chooses a refund , then the present invention delivers a signal to make a refund , in step 160 , whereupon a signal is sent to the monitoring system that the order is complete in step 135 and to the monitoring system to enter into steady state calibration mode in step 140 . if the customer chooses a second , different product , then the present invention returns to 120 and the process proceeds as described above , until the operation is complete . fig2 shows a schematic diagram of the present invention installed in a vending machine 205 . in fig2 various products 210 are placed in the vending machine &# 39 ; s delivery system 215 . prior to a customer making a purchase , the monitoring system 217 is in calibration mode . when a customer makes an order through the order system 220 , the monitoring system completes the calibration mode and enters into its monitoring mode . thereupon , the ordering system allows for an attempted delivery of the ordered product 210 , typically through a helical delivery system 215 . when ordered , product 270 is delivered into delivery space 222 , falling through the delivery path 225 past monitoring system 217 . as it passes the monitoring system , the product momentarily breaks the continuity of the monitoring system &# 39 ; s monitoring devices . if the monitoring system utilizes an optical monitoring system , then as the product passes through the monitoring system &# 39 ; s light plane 234 , be it infrared or otherwise , it momentarily breaks the light continuity and prevents a portion of the light from reaching at least one detector on the opposite side of the monitoring path . the logic circuit on the detecting arm 235 will note the momentary blockage of light and report it as a delivery event . the monitoring system is comprised of an emitter arm 240 upon which are located a set number of one or more emitters 242 , and a detector arm 250 comprising of one or more detectors 252 and located directly across delivery path 225 from the emitter arm 240 . emitter signals , the total of which comprise light plane 234 , are sent from the emitters 242 to the detectors 252 across the delivery path 225 during both monitoring mode and calibration mode . the emitter arms and detector arms are described in more detail in fig3 a and 3b . fig3 a shows the emitter arm portion of the monitoring system . in fig3 a , emitting arm 310 a transverses along one side of the delivery path in the vending machine . emitters 315 a are attached to arm 310 a . the horizontal and vertical placement of emitters 315 a on arm 310 a is determined by the size of the smallest product that crosses the delivery path , and by the type and accuracy of the emitters utilized in the present invention . the emitters may comprise of an optical monitoring device . the spacing of optical emitters is determined by five factors : emitter size , optical diffusion , ambient light , product size and the reflected light . emitter size and optical diffusion are fixed at the time of construction ; however , ambient and reflective light may vary over the course of use of the emitter . infrared light may be used to help to reduce these effects . however , it is clearly understood and contemplated by the present invention that other types of light sources can be used , including various lasers or white light sources . the body 320 a of the arm 310 a is made of suitable material able to contain the electronic control components 325 a necessary to operate the emitter , including , a power source 330 a , and logic circuitry 335 a . additionally , holes 340 a are provided to securely fasten and adjust the positioning of the arm 310 a to the vending machine . fig3 b shows the detector arm portion of the monitoring system . the shape and construction of the detecting arm 350 b is related to the shape and construction of the emitting arm 310 a . the detecting arm 350 b is placed on the same plane , parallel to and across the delivery path from arm 310 a ( see fig2 for more details ). the detectors 355 b are arranged so that their vertical spacing and horizontal arrangement mirror the emitters &# 39 ; arrangement on arm 310 a . likewise , the body 360 b of 350 b is constructed of material suitable to contain detection and logic circuitry 365 b , attachment holes 370 b , and a power source 375 b . the choice of the type of detector is directly related to the type of emitter being utilized in the present invention . fig4 shows the operation of the monitoring system when a customer places an order . prior to placing an order , the monitoring system is in calibration mode in step 400 . upon placement of the order in step 405 , the monitoring system transitions from its steady state calibration mode 400 into its monitoring mode in step 407 . once in monitoring mode , the monitoring system begins cycling each emitter by pulsing the emitter individually in step 410 . the monitoring system uses a pulse strength determined from when the system was in the calibration mode . in step 410 an emitter pulses its signal to the corresponding detector across from the emitter , and the two detectors on either side of the detector . upon pulsing the light , the detector circuitry determines whether the detectors detected the light from the emitter in step 415 . ( if the emitter is either the first emitter or the last emitter on the emitter arm , then only the detector across from the emitter and the detector on the non - wall side of the detector is scanned .) if the detector directly across from the pulsing emitter or the side detectors detects the signal in 415 , then the emitter &# 39 ; s logic circuit sequences to the next emitter in line and sends a pulse from that emitter in step 420 . the emitter &# 39 ; s logic circuit continues until after it completes the pulsing of the last detector whereupon , the monitoring system repeats the process , begins again at the first emitter until the detector &# 39 ; s logic circuit receives a detect signal and the monitoring system receives a signal to cease monitoring . if at least one of the three detectors fails to detect a light beam from the emitter during the monitoring cycle , then the logic circuit reports a product delivery to the ordering system in step 425 . once a report of delivery is made to the ordering system , the ordering system returns a signal to the monitoring system to return to steady state calibration mode in step 430 . otherwise , the monitoring system continues to monitor until it receives a return to steady state calibration signal from the ordering system because of a refund , if appropriate . fig5 shows the steady state calibration mode of the monitoring system . during the steady state calibration mode , the monitoring system is constantly calibrating itself for optimum performance because temperature , humidity , dust , and alignment conditions fluctuate over the course of system usage . the calibration mode adjusts the light intensity from each emitter as necessary so that each set of three detectors serviced by that emitter receives only enough intensity , plus a small safety margin , to be active in the unblocked condition . this minimizes the adverse affects of reflected light from the emitters and allows for a wider detector aperture ( which makes system alignment easier ) and reduces the overall power requirements of the system . in step 505 , the logic circuit in the monitoring system determines whether an order has been placed . if an order has not been placed , then the monitoring system proceeds to send a series of pulses to the first of the one or more emitters in step 510 . upon sending a pulse , the monitoring system queries the emitter &# 39 ; s corresponding detector and each detector on either side of the corresponding detector to determine if those detectors detected the pulsed signal in step 515 . if a signal was detected in each of the three detectors then the monitoring circuitry sequences to the next emitter in step 520 . the emitters typically have adjustable signal power levels associated with the type of emitter used . the calibration mode will attempt to maintain the power level at the level needed to provide just enough signal , plus a safety margin , such that the corresponding detectors detect the signal . if any one of the three detectors does not detect the pulsed signal from the emitter , then in step 530 , the monitoring circuitry determines whether the emitter is operating at its maximum power intensity . if the emitter is not , then the emitter will step increase the signal power level in step 560 and re - send a pulsed signal to the detectors again in step 510 . if the power intensity for that emitter is at its maximum intensity , then the detector will send an error message to the monitoring system in step 540 . the monitoring system will then follow a precoded routine to shut down the entire vending operation , shut down the monitoring system or rely on prior art ordering systems ( the home switch method ) in step 550 . fig6 shows a typical detector arm attached to a vending machine . because of the reflective surfaces 610 in the vending machine , small apertures 620 are used to minimize the reflective light from adjacently reflective surfaces 610 . the apertures are narrowed holes located in front of the detectors , 625 , on the detector side of sensing system 630 . the holes inhibit unwanted reflections from adjacent surfaces by blocking much of the light beams that reflect back to the detector arm at wider angles than the apertures allow . apertures 620 keep the majority of the unwanted light from reaching the detection side of the monitoring system . in addition , the detectors 625 have a usable 60 degree horizontal / 30 degree vertical reception angle . light arriving at the detector at angles greater than these is rejected . additionally , infrared optical detectors contain optical frequency filters , which reject visible light frequencies , but pass the infrared frequencies of interest . modulation techniques , whereby the detector only responds to certain signal frequencies from the infrared emitters , may also be used to allow the detectors to distinguish between the ambient light and the desired point source light frequency from the emitter . as mentioned above , product detection may be accomplished by utilizing infrared emitter / detector pairs that can monitor and detect when a signal path is broken . in a typical vending machine &# 39 ; s delivery paths , a set of ten infrared emitter / detector pairs are used to cover the delivery path much like a light curtain . fig7 shows a representative example of a light curtain 730 that may be utilized in the present invention . typically , nine sets of emitters / detectors are used to cover the main delivery path , while the tenth set is used to cover a gum / mint area . the nine sets that cover the main delivery path implement a technique , which , other than for the first and last emitter , requires that a minimum of three detectors are active for each individual emitter monitor cycle . for those vending machines without a gum or mint section , the tenth emitter may be used for the main delivery area , provided that proper alignment of the ten sets is taken into consideration . this arrangement is illustrated in fig7 , which shows the light beams 710 of interest for each emitter 720 and detector 725 . the spacing of the emitter / detector sets are chosen to assure that the smallest size traditional product breaks the path of at least one beam when it crosses the light curtain during delivery . the technique of servicing three detectors for each emitter allows the monitor to read multiple light beams , which further reduces this spacing in the majority of the delivery area . a logic circuit determines whether a light beam has been broken . in the monitoring system , the infrared emitter / detector sets are controlled by a microcontroller located on the detector arm . during the monitoring mode , it is necessary to monitor each of the emitter / detector sets separately because of the potential for light bleed - over from adjacent emitters . the timing sequence for each set monitor cycle used during the monitoring mode must be fast enough to ensure that the smallest product will be detected by any one of the detectors when the product passes the monitor plane as it falls from the product storage area . the control software further provides the vending operator an option to revert to home switch operation or to place the vending machine out of service in the event the monitoring system is inoperative . this allows the operator to choose one of two options if the monitoring system is operative : 1 . to go out - of - service and thus assure that the customer is cheated since the monitoring system cannot determine proper delivery of a ordered product by home switch operation ; or 2 . to continue making selections available to the customer under the traditional home switch operation with the risks of non - proper delivery of product that operation implies . the monitoring system controller printed circuit board uses flash memory to store the firmware . this gives the option to perform firmware updates in the field . the vending system has several operating options . these may be viewed and programmed by pressing the product config service key on the keypad located on the inside of the vending machine and pressing the down arrow until the appropriate option is reached . the keypad has an associated display device , such as an led screen or such other typical devices that allow the operator to view the code and results stored within the system . by depressing the edit key , the vendor can choose between “ sure . v on ” or “ sure . v off ”. “ sure . v off ” is chosen by the operator only if the monitoring system is not installed or if the operator does not wish to use it at the present time . the remaining options for the product config mode are only visible if “ sure . v on ” is selected and the monitoring system is available . when “ sure . v on ” is selected , the operator may then choose between “ opt &# 39 ; n sure . v ” or “ must sure . v ”. if “ opt &# 39 ; n sure . v ” is selected , the vending machine operation reverts to home switch operation if the monitoring system is not operating normally because , for example , of an obstruction or loss of communication . if “ must sure . v ” is selected by the operator , the vending machine operates only if the monitoring system is available for use for the main delivery area . ( the gum and mint area does not affect operation of the main area , unless the programmer decides otherwise .) otherwise , the vending machine becomes temporarily out - of - service until the blockage or other error is corrected . when the operator uses the number keys to program “ anti . jp xx ”, the anti - jackpot protection option against unforeseeable cheating of the vending machine &# 39 ; s monitoring system is activated . “ xx ” represents the number of empty conditions that disables the entire delivery system for a time period as programmed and decided by the operator ( described below ). a empty condition occurs when product delivery is not detected and the customer &# 39 ; s money is restored or returned . an “ xx ” value of “ 00 ” disables this anti - jackpot feature . the assumption of this option is that very few system failures to the vending machine &# 39 ; s delivery system occurs . if a significant number of failures , represented by “ xx ”, do occur then it is assumed that it is because of tampering . upon reading “ xx ”, the delivery system is deactivated for a certain amount of time so that money can no longer be refunded because of a vend failure and to discourage a potential thief from attempting to steal either product or money . in this condition , the vending machine either reverts to home switch operation if “ opt &# 39 ; n sure . v ” is active , or the system deactivates and the vending machine goes out of service if “ must sure . v ” is active . if in “ must sure . v ”, once the programmed deactivation time has elapsed the system is re - enabled and the count towards “ xx ” is restarted . the total number of system empty selections , the number of anti - jackpot occurrences , and the date and time of the last occurrence are recorded as noted below . the operator programs the number of minutes that the vending system remains disabled because of an anti - jackpot occurrence by selecting the “ ajp . tmr xxm ” option where “ xx ” is the time in minutes . if “ 99 ” is programmed , then the system remains disabled until the main door closes at the end of the next service call . closing the main door also resets any anti - jackpot time remaining . certain system data can be reviewed in the product config mode : “ sv . empty xx ” returns the number of times that credit was restored or returned because the monitoring system failed to detect a product delivery . “* *. sv xxxx ” returns the total number of corrected vends , viewable by selection . these are the vends , which normally would not have delivered product if the present invention was not active . “ wo . sv xxxx ” returns the number of vends , viewable by selection , made while the monitoring system was disabled for some reason . the machine config list provides additional options related to the present invention . if the operator selects “ fail = cash ”, the customer &# 39 ; s money is automatically returned on any failed vend . if “ fail = crdt ” is selected , the credit is restored to the vending machine for another selection . the customer may press the coin return to retrieve his money . the test list provides the test screen for the system . if the operator keys in “ sv . tst xxx ” the following options are provided : “ sv . tst xx ” indicates a block in sensing zone 1 - 9 with 1 being closest to the glass . “ h ” indicates the gum & amp ; mint is blocked if it is configured . this number is displayed real - time and beeps as it changes . this may be used to test the product coverage of the monitoring system &# 39 ; s sensors , although the accuracy is somewhat less than in actual vend situations because of the data being presented . “ edit ” may be used to view the calibration values . a high calibration may be caused by dirt , misalignment of the system sensors , or a partial blockage of a sensor . a calibration value of “ 0 ” indicates a shorted detector . this normally requires a new detector assembly . a calibration value of “ 1 ” indicates that zone could not be calibrated . it indicates a blocked or damaged sensor . calibration values above “ a ” are abnormal and may require adjustment of the alignment or cleaning of the sensors . “ sv . tst comm ” indicates loss of communication with the monitoring system , and allows the operation to check the harness connections between the vending machine controller and the monitoring system &# 39 ; s controller . diagnostics related to the present invention : “ sv . empty nn ” shows that selection “ nn ” was marked as empty because product delivery was not detected . “ sv . tst xx ” automatically enters the system test screen as a diagnostic message if any blocked sensor , communication error , or calibration error is detected . “ ajp . tmr xx . xm ” is in the diagnostic list if the anti - jackpot timer is active . it shows the time remaining . “ ajp xxx mn / dy hr . mn ” is the total number of times the anti - jackpot feature occurred plus the date and time of the last occurrence . | 6 |
in the following description of the preferred embodiment , reference is made to the accompanying drawings which form a part hereof , and in which is shown by way of illustration a specific embodiment in which the invention may be practiced . it is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized and structural changes may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention . fig1 is a perspective view of the automated crawling system of the present invention . fig2 is a bottom view of the automated crawling system of the present invention . the present invention is an automated crawling system 10 including a platform 12 , such as a flat platform , a first leg assembly 14 , a second leg assembly 16 , a rail assembly 18 , and an onboard electronic computer controller 21 . the carrying area 19 can carry observation cameras , sensors and sensor manipulation devices , and data gathering equipment such as computer processors , and can transport hazardous materials , and can retrieve items and objects . the onboard computer controller 21 can control the movement of the robot with preprogrammed instructions or can accept remote commands . the rail assembly 18 comprises a first rail 20 , a second rail 22 , and rail supports 24 located at an end 26 , 28 of each rail 20 , 22 , respectively . the first and second rails 20 , 22 are attached or mounted to the platform 12 and extend along opposite longsides 30 , 32 of the platform 12 of the crawler 10 . the first leg assembly 14 comprises a mounting disc 34 , such as a circular flat disc , a first bracket 36 , and an intermittent coupling device 38 , such as a plurality of vacuum cups 40 . the intermittent coupling device 38 can comprise any mechanism suitable for intermittent coupling to a particular object ( described in detail in the operation section below ). for example , an intermittent coupling device with a vacuum cup arrangement 40 , as shown in fig1 is suitable for intermittent coupling to a surface of a particular object and will be described hereafter as a working example . however , for ferromagnetic objects or objects with ferromagnetic surfaces , a magnetic device having intermittent activated solenoids can be utilized as the intermittent coupling device . the mounting disc 34 is attached to the first bracket 36 . the first bracket 36 preferably has two strips 46 , 48 extending outwardly from the platform 12 . a plurality of sliders 50 are preferably attached to each outside portion of the strips 46 , 48 of the first bracket 36 . each slider 50 is also slidably coupled to one of the rails 20 , 22 of the rail assembly 18 . the sliders 50 provide the first bracket 36 with freedom of linear movement relative to the platform 12 . the second leg assembly 16 comprises a second bracket 52 and an intermittent coupling device 54 similar to the intermittent coupling device 38 of fig1 which is preferably a plurality of vacuum cups 76 ( similar to vacuum cups 40 of fig2 ). the second bracket 52 is preferably a &# 34 ; u &# 34 ; shaped bracket with a topside surface and opposite inside surfaces . the second bracket 52 has a plurality of sliders 56 ( similar to sliders 50 of fig2 ) preferably attached to each inside surface of the second bracket 52 . each slider 56 is also slidably coupled to one of the rails 20 , 22 of the rail assembly 18 . a first motor 58 , which can be a conventional electric motor , is rigidly attached to the platform 12 . the first motor 58 has a ball screw shaft 62 coupled to a first receiver 64 which can be attached to or integral with the first bracket 36 . also , the first motor 58 can have encoders ( not shown ) to determine the position of traversal of the first bracket 36 . since the first bracket 36 is slidably coupled to the platform 12 and the first receiver 64 is rigidly attached the first bracket 36 , the first motor 58 and the ball screw shaft 62 provide the first bracket 36 with linear motion , relative to the platform 12 , in either a forward or reverse direction ( described in detail in the operation section below ). similar to the first motor 58 configuration , a second motor 66 is rigidly attached to the platform 12 . the second motor 66 has a ball screw shaft 67 coupled to a second receiver 68 which can be attached to or integral with the second bracket 52 . also , the second motor 66 can have encoders ( not shown ) to determine the position of traversal of the second bracket 52 . since the second bracket 52 is slidably coupled to the platform 12 and the second receiver 68 is rigidly attached the second bracket 52 , the second motor 66 and the ball screw shaft 67 provide the second bracket 52 with linear motion , relative to the platform 12 , in either a forward or reverse direction ( described in detail in the operation section below ). fig3 is a cross sectional side view of the automated crawling system of the present invention of fig2 . a rotary motor 70 , which can be an ultrasonic motor , such as a low mass compact ultrasonic motor , or other type of rotary motor , is preferably attached to the first bracket 36 and is coupled to the mounting disc 34 via a shaft 71 . the rotary motor 70 provides the mounting disc 34 with rotary motion in either a clockwise or counter clockwise direction . referring to fig3 along with fig1 and 2 , the vacuum cups 40 of the first leg assembly 14 are preferably attached to the mounting disc 34 so that they protrude from the mounting disc 34 as shown in fig3 . each vacuum cup 40 has a separate vacuum pump 72 and a separate air cylinder 74 coupled to it and attached to the mounting disc 34 . each vacuum pump 72 provides such vacuum cup with a vacuum source independent of the other vacuum cups ; such as a venturi vacuum pump . the vacuum pumps 72 and the air cylinders 74 are also coupled to a standard air compressor ( not shown ) for providing each vacuum pump 72 and air cylinder 74 with air pressures preferably ranging from 70 - 120 psi . flexible tubing 75 , such as polyethylene tubing , pvc tubing , or the like , provides a means for transferring the air pressure from the air compressor to each vacuum pump 72 and each air cylinder 74 . the vacuum cups 76 of the second leg assembly 16 are preferably attached to the second bracket 52 so that they protrude from the topside surface of the second bracket 54 . similar to the vacuum cups 40 of the first leg assembly 14 , each vacuum cup 76 of the second leg assembly 16 has a separate vacuum pump 84 coupled to it and attached to the second bracket 52 . also , each vacuum cup 76 of the second leg assembly 16 has a separate air cylinder 86 coupled to it and mounted behind each vacuum cup 76 . in addition , similar to the vacuum pumps 72 of the first leg assembly 14 , each vacuum pump 84 of the second assembly 16 is preferably a venturi vacuum pump . moreover , the air cylinders 86 and the vacuum pumps 84 of the second assembly 16 are coupled to the same air compressor ( not shown ) as the vacuum pumps 52 and air cylinders 54 of the first leg assembly 14 . flexible tubing 88 similar to flexible tubing 75 is used with the second leg assembly 16 . as stated above , it should be noted that the intermittent coupling devices 38 , 54 can be any device suitable for coupling to an object is not limited to being a vacuum pump device . fig4 is a bottom view of the first leg assembly and the second leg assembly of the automated crawling system of the present invention at their front - most extreme positions , respectively . fig5 is a bottom view of the first leg assembly and the second leg assembly of the automated crawling system of the present invention at their rear - most extreme positions , respectively . in addition , the rotary motor 70 allows movement of the first leg assembly 14 rotationally along the shaft 71 , in the direction indicated by arrow 94 as shown in fig3 . a detailed description of the operation and the interaction of the components of the crawler 10 will be discussed in the operation section below . fig6 - 12 illustrate sequential movement of the automated crawling system from point a to point b to point c along x and y axes and around a z axis . the onboard computer controller 21 can control the movement of the robot with preprogrammed instructions or can accept remote commands . the crawler of the present invention effectuates movement with repetitive cyclic actions . fig6 - 9 illustrate one cycle of linear movement and fig1 - 12 illustrate rotational movement . for each cycle , first referring to fig6 the intermittent coupling device 54 of the second leg assembly 16 is initially coupled ( as indicated by shading of the intermittent coupling device 54 of fig6 ) to a particular object 100 . during this , the intermittent coupling device 38 of the first leg assembly 14 remains uncoupled ( as indicated by non - shading of the intermittent coupling device 38 of fig6 ) to the object 100 . next , as shown in fig7 the second leg assembly 16 is linearly traversed by the second motor 66 . linear movement of the platform 12 relative to the object 100 , as indicated by arrow 102 , is accomplished by operating the second motor 66 . as the second motor 66 operates , the ball screw shaft 67 traverses along the second receiver 68 . after traversal , the second leg assembly 16 is uncoupled from the object 100 . third , as shown in fig8 the intermittent coupling device 38 of the first leg assembly 14 is coupled ( as indicated by shading of the intermittent coupling device 38 of fig7 ) to the object 100 while the intermittent coupling device 54 of the second leg assembly 16 remains uncoupled ( as indicated by non - shading of the intermittent coupling device 54 of fig7 ) to the object 100 . it should be noted that while the previous step is being completed , the crawler 10 prepares a subsequent step for movement by operating the first motor 58 . one of the leg assemblies 14 or 16 , move relative to the object 100 . fourth , as shown in fig9 and similar to the movement of the second leg assembly 16 , linear movement of the platform 12 relative to the object 100 , as indicated by arrow 104 , is accomplished by operating the first motor 58 . as the first motor 58 operates , the ball screw shaft 62 traverses along the first receiver 64 . since the first receiver 64 is rigidly attached to the second bracket 52 , the first motor 58 is rigidly attached to the platform 12 , and the platform 12 is slidably attached to the second bracket 52 via the rails 20 , 22 , linear movement ( forward or reverse ) of the second bracket 52 along the rails 20 , 22 relative to the platform 12 is accomplished . further , as shown in fig1 , the crawler of the present invention can rotationally change direction of movement with a 360 degree range of motion . for example , first the intermittent coupling device 38 of the first leg assembly 14 is coupled ( indicated by shading of the intermittent coupling device 38 of fig1 ) to the object 100 . next , the intermittent coupling device 54 of the second leg assembly 16 is uncoupled ( indicated by non - shading of the intermittent coupling device 54 of fig7 ) to the object 100 . the rotary motor 70 is then operated for providing the mounting disc 34 with rotary motion in either a clockwise , as indicated by arrow 106 to reach point c , or counter clockwise direction . since the rotary motor 70 provides relative rotational motion between the mounting disc 34 and the first bracket 36 , and the first bracket 36 is attached to the platform 12 , the platform 12 rotates during operation of the rotary motor 70 , with a range of motion of 360 degrees . after the desired rotation of the crawler is achieved , the crawler can be linearly traversed by repeating cycles of movement as discussed above . as shown in fig1 , the intermittent coupling device 54 of the second leg assembly 16 is again coupled ( as indicated by shading of the intermittent coupling device 54 of fig1 ) to the object 100 . during this , the intermittent coupling device 38 of the first leg assembly 14 is uncoupled ( as indicated by non - shading of the intermittent coupling device 38 of fig1 ) to the object 100 . next , as shown in fig1 , the second leg assembly 16 is linearly traversed , as indicated by arrow 108 , by the second motor 66 in accordance with the above discussion . fig1 is an alternative embodiment of the present invention . alternatively , a more compact crawler is disclosed with a second leg assembly 110 having a compact bracket 112 slidably coupled to a platform 114 . the crawler also includes a motor 116 . the second leg assembly has a second ball screw 118 and a second receiver 120 operated by the motor 116 and physically located on one side of the platform 114 . the crawler further includes a first leg assembly 122 having a compact bracket 124 slidably coupled to the platform 114 and a first ball screw 126 and a first receiver 128 operated by the motor 116 and physically located opposite the second ball screw 118 . the first ball screw 126 of the first leg assembly 122 has an opposite pitch from the second ball screw 118 ( i . e ., right versus left hand threads ) and is attached to the second ball screw 118 so that the motor 116 drives both ball screws 118 , 126 . linear movement of the platform 114 of fig1 via the leg assemblies 110 , 124 is similar to the linear movement of the platform 12 of fig6 - 12 with the exception of using only one motor for linear motion . specifically , the one motor 116 turns both the first ball screw 126 and the second ball screw 118 . thus , the crawler is more compact and has fewer motors . for instance , as shown in fig1 , the first leg assembly 14 is coupled ( as indicated by shading of the first leg assembly 122 of fig1 ) to an object 130 while the second leg assembly 110 remains uncoupled ( as indicated by non - shading of the second leg assembly 110 of fig1 ) to the object 130 . next , as shown in fig1 , linear movement of the crawler as indicated by arrow 132 , is accomplished by operating the motor 116 . the foregoing description of the preferred embodiment of the invention has been presented for the purposes of illustration and description . it is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise form disclosed . many modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teaching . it is intended that the scope of the invention be limited not by this detailed description , but rather by the claims appended hereto . | 8 |
in accordance with the present invention , a topical steroid ointment formulation is provided which is in the form of a cosmetically elegant wax - gel type ointment , which contains the steroid tipredane as its active ingredient and has excellent physical and chemical stability . the ointmentformulation according to the present invention contains in addition to tipredane , an ointment base in the form of an emollient wax - gel , which is free of petrolatum and plastibase and contains one or more oil emollients , water as a solubilizer for salts ( such as sodium citrate and sodium metabisulfite ), propylene glycol as a preservative and a solubilizer for tipredane , a dispersing agent for propylene glycol which will inhibit coalescence of the propylene glycol , such as cetearyl alcohol and ceteareth - 20 ( preferably 3 : 1 ) which also may serve as a thickener , one or more thickeners , such as a non - acidic long chain fatty acid wax , one or more ph adjusters to impart a neutral or slightly alkaline apparent ph of 5 to 9 to the ointment , one or more antioxidants and optionally one or more lubricants . the tipredane steroid will be employed in the form of a micronized powder having an average particle size of less than about 75 microns and will be present in an amount within the range of from about 0 . 005 to about 0 . 5 % byweight and preferably from about 0 . 05 to about 0 . 3 % by weight based on the total weight of the tipredane ointment formulation . the ointment base is in the form of a wax - gel having emollient , occlusive and hydrophilic properties . the ointment base includes a dispersed hydrophilic phase which contains water and propylene glycol which act as asolubilizer for a portion of the tipredane as well as for ph buffer ( such as sodium citrate ) and antioxidant such as sodium metabisulfite . thus , thehydrophilic phase will contain propylene glycol in an amount within the range of from about 3 to about 25 % by weight and preferably from about 5 to about 20 % by weight of the tipredane ointment formulation . water , a solubilizer for salts , is present in an amount within the range of from about 0 . 1 to about 15 % and preferably from about 0 . 2 to about 10 % by weight of the tipredane ointment formulation . the emollients which are present in the ointment base to impart cosmetic elegance including a smooth and soothing feel thereto will be present in an amount within the range of from about 25 to about 85 % and preferably from about 35 to about 75 % by weight of the tipredane ointment formulation . examples of emollients suitable for use herein include but are not limited to mineral oil , preferably heavy mineral oil , polysynlane oil ( that is hydrogenated polyisobutene ), lanolin alcohol , a mixture of mineral oil and lanolin alcohol ( 9 : 1 ) as sold under the trademark amercholl - 101 ( amerchol corp ., a unit of cpc international ), cetyl alcohol , isopropyl isostearate , isopropyl myristate , isopropyl palmitate or octyl dodecyl stearate . preferred are heavy mineral oil , polysynlane oil and mixtures thereof ( 2 : 1 to 0 . 5 : 1 ). the dispersing agent for propylene glycol will be present in an amount within the range of from about 1 to about 15 % and preferably from about 2 to about 10 % by weight of the tipredane ointment formulation . the preferred dispersing agent for the propylene glycol will be a mixture of cetearyl alcohol and ceteareth - 20 in a ratio to each other of within the range of from about 5 : 1 to about 1 : 1 and preferably from about 4 : 1 to about 2 : 1 . a preferred such mixture is available under the name promulgen d ( a trademark of robinson - wagner ) which is a 75 %- 25 % mixture of cetearyl alcohol and ceteareth - 20 . cetearyl alcohol is defined as a mixture of fatty alcohols predominantly formed of cetyl and stearyl alcohols . ceteareth - 20 is the polyethylene glycol ether of cetearyl alcohol that conforms generally where r represents a blend of cetyl and stearyl radicals and n has an average value of 20 . other examples of propylene glycol dispersants suitable for use herein include , but are not limited to polysorbate 20 , polysorbate 60 , polysorbate 65 or polysorbate 80 ( polysorbate representingpolyoxyethylene sorbitan monostearate ). an important feature of the ointment formulation of the invention is its excellent chemical stability and physical stability . this is achieved in part by controlling the apparent ph of the ointment by including a buffer in an amount to impart a neutral or slightly alkaline apparent ph of 5 to 9 to the ointment . examples of buffers suitable for use herein include butare not limited to sodium citrate , potassium citrate , magnesium hydroxide , an alkali metal hydroxide such as sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide , or aluminum hydroxide . the ointment formulation of the invention will include one or more antioxidants such as sodium metabisulfite , butylated hydroxytoluene , butylated hydroxyanisole , propyl gallate or sodium ascorbate in an amount within the range of from about 0 . 01 to about 1 % and preferably from about 0 . 02 to about 0 . 5 % by weight of the tipredane ointment formulation . preferred are a combination of sodium metabisulfite and butylated hydroxy toluene ( 4 : 1 to 0 . 25 : 1 ). thickeners will be present in an amount within the range of from about 5 toabout 20 % and preferably from about 7 to about 17 % by weight of the tipredane ointment formulation . examples of thickeners suitable for use herein include but are not limited to non - acidic long chain fatty acid waxes , such as c 18 - c 36 acidtriglyceride ( available as syncrowax hglc , trademark of croda ), white wax , carnauba wax , paraffin wax or ceresin wax . the cetearyl alcohol - ceteareth 20 ( promulgen type d ) may also serve as a thickener . preferred is a mixture of the syncrowax hglc , and cetearyl alcohol and ceteareth 20 ( 3 : 1 to 0 . 3 : 1 ). in addition , the ointment formulation of the invention will include a lubricant or defoamer in an amount within the range of from about 0 . 5 to about 6 % and preferably from about 1 . 5 to about 5 % by weight of the tipredane ointment formulation . examples of lubricants or defoaming agentssuitable for use herein include but are not limited to silicones such as dimethicone ( silicone dc 200 fluid [ 350 cs ]), polyphenylmethylsiloxane or polydimethylsiloxane . the following represents preferred ointment formulations in accordance withthe present invention . ______________________________________ rangeingredient percent w / w______________________________________tipredane ( in form of micronized 0 . 05 to 0 . 3powder ) (& lt ; 75μ ) water 0 . 2 to 10propylene glycol 5 to 20sodium citrate 0 . 01 to 0 . 1magnesium hydroxide ( hydrate ) 0 . 1 to 1sodium metabisulfite 0 . 005 to 0 . 05butylated hydroxytoluene 0 . 02 to 0 . 5silicone dc 200 fluid 1 . 5 to 5polysynlane oil ( hydrogenated 20 to 40polyisobutene ) mineral oil 25 to 45cetearyl alcohol ( and ) 2 to 10ceteareth 20 ( 3 : 1 ) syncrowax hglc ( c . sub . 18 -- c . sub . 36 acid 7 to 17triglyceride ) ______________________________________ the tipredane ointment formulations of the invention may be prepared as described in the working examples and as outlined below . emollient such as polysynlane oil , and heavy mineral oil , antioxidant such as butylated hydroxytoluene and dispersing agent such as cetearyl alcohol ( and ) ceteareth 20 and syncrowax hglc and ph adjuster such as magnesium hydroxide are mixed using a suitable homogenizer . the batch is heated to 75 °- 80 ° c . and maintained at this temperature 30 minutes . the batch is then cooled to 70 °- 75 ° c . and silicone dc fluid ( 350 centistokes ) added . the batch ( r to as the main batch ) is cooled to 65 °- 70 ° c ., with continuous homogenization . to a separate suitable container , purified water usp , sodium citrate ( ph adjuster ) and antioxidant such as sodium metabisulfite are added while mixing after each addition . this aqueous solution is added to another vessel containing propylene glycol and the mix is mixed until uniform . after the main batch has attained 65 °- 70 ° c ., the aqueous propylene glycol solution is added . homogenization is maintained and the mix is cooled to 55 °- 57 ° c . and thereafter with continuous agitation is cooled to 46 °- 48 ° c . the tipredane is slurried in an emollient such as mineral oil heavy . the slurry is milled and the mill is rinsed with mineral oil heavy . the tipredane is added with mixing to the main batch which is at 46 °- 48 ° c . the batch is cooled to 40 ° to 45 ° c . when the ointment begins to congeal , the batch is allowed to stand for 15 - 20 minutes followed by 1 - 2 minute slow mixing periods until the batch reaches 38 °- 39 ° c . the batch is allowed to stand overnight without agitation but with continued cooling . the following example represents a preferred embodiment of the present invention otherwise indicated , all temperatures are expressed in degrees centigrade . a 0 . 1 % w / w tipredane wax - gel type ointment formulation having the followingcomposition was prepared as described below . ______________________________________ingredient mg / gram______________________________________tipredane , micronized ( less than 175 microns ) polysynlane oil ( emollient ) 300mineral oil , heavy 385 . 3 ( emollient ) q . s . cabutylated hydroxytoluene 0 . 5 ( antioxidant ) cetearyl alcohol ( and ) 50ceteareth 20 ( 3 : 1 ) ( dispersing 120agent and thickener ) syncrowax hglc ( thickener ) magnesium hydrate ( marinco h - 1211 ) 2 . 5 ( ph adjuster ) silicone dc # 200 fluid 30 ( 350 centistokes ) ( lubricantand defoamer ) water , purified usp ( solubilizer ) 5sodium citrate , powdered usp 0 . 5 ( ph adjuster ) sodium metabisulfite nf 0 . 2 ( antioxidant ) propylene glycol usp ( solubilizer , 105preservative ) total 1000______________________________________ to a clean , dry tared 340 qt . glen bowl , polysynlane oil , mineral oil heavy , butylated hydroxytoluene , cetearyl alcohol ( and ) ceteareth 20 and syncrowax hglc were added . to a separate suitable container , polysynlane oil and magnesium hydrate ( marinco h - 1211 ) were added and allowed to settle . using an arde barinco homogenizer , the mix was blended ( avoid air entrapment ) for 10 - 15 minutes . this mixture was transferred to the glen bowl . while mixing using a suitable homogenizer , the batch was heated to 75 °- 80 ° c . and maintained at this temperature for 30 minutes . the batch was cooled to 70 °- 75 ° c . and silicone dc # 200 fluid ( 350 centistokes ) added . the batch was cooled to 65 °- 70 ° c ., with continuous homogenization . to a separate suitable container , purified water usp , sodium citrate powdered usp and sodium metabisulfite nf were added with mixing after eachaddition with a stainless steel spatula until dissolved . this aqueous solution was added to another stainless steel vessel containing propylene glycol and the mix was mixed uniform and covered . after the main batch attained 65 °- 70 ° c ., the aqueous propylene glycol solution was added . homogenization was maintained and the batch was cooled to 55 °- 57 ° c . the homogenizer was replaced with a glen bowl mixer and with continuous agitation the batch was cooled to 46 °- 48 ° c . in a suitable stainless steel container , the tipredane was slurried in mineral oil heavy . the slurry was milled into another stainless steel container and the mill rinsed with mineral oil heavy , adding the rinse to the slurry . when the main batch was at 46 °- 48 ° c ., with continuous mixing , the tipredane slurry was added to the main batch . the bowl was scraped periodically to ensure homogeneous mixing . with continuous mixing , the batch was cooled to 43 ° c . when the ointmentbegan to congeal , the batch was allowed to stand for 15 - 20 minutes followedby 1 - 2 minute slow mixing periods until the batch reached 38 °- 39 ° c . the batch was covered and allowed to stand overnight without agitation but with continued cooling . the next day , the batch was mixed for 2 minutes and the batch temperature determined . if thebatch did not reached 23 °- 28 ° c ., intermittent standing and slow mixing were begun until room temperature was achieved . using a moyno ( or equivalent ) pump equipped with an in - line 50 or 60 mesh stainless steel or nylon screen , the batch was transferred to a clean , tared ointment can . the resulting tipredane ointment was found to have good chemical and physical stability even after prolonged storage at 5 ° c ., room temperature and 40 ° c . | 0 |
the invention basically involves an unusually advantageous method for employing magmatic or subterranean heat to effect the interaction of carbon and carbon oxides with water or other source of hydrogen supplied to a subterranean chamber , to form a hydrocarbon or hydrocarbons . referring to fig1 a carbon containing material is obtained or delivered from a source , as for example the limestone layer or bed 10 with or without other carbon containing materials . in general , the bed may consist of calcium and / or magnesium carbonate ; with , other usable carbon containing materials including lignite , oil shale , tar sand , gilsonite , and graphite or coal which may or may not lie in intimately bonded or in adherent combination with rock . the feed may typically be delivered as at 11 to a mill or crusher 12 producing a comminuted feed stream at 13 . water , metallic compounds , clay , and carbon may also be delivered to the mill at 14 , 15 and 15a whereby the feed stream 13 may consist of slurry of carbon containing material and clay and metallic compounds , these being in the correct proportion to act as a catalyst , as will be described . an injection well or down passage 16 is formed in the earth to communicate between the surface and a subterranean chamber 17 located in a hot formation 18 . the slurry is introduced into the upper head end of the well at 19 , and passes downwardly to chamber 17 . if necessary , the slurry may be pumped into the well head , as via pump 20 . the well may be cased and the well head may be enclosed , as shown , to contain pressure which can enhance the desired reactions and provide for additional forces to extend fracturing . slurry in chamber 17 is heated to elevated temperature , to undergo hydrocarbon forming reactions . subterranean heat is transferred to the chamber 17 typically as from a hot magma source 21 near which the chamber 17 may be formed . in this regard , the chamber 17 may comprise the lower end of the well 16 drilled into the earth into proximity to the hot magma . the latter may be either molten or solid , so long as the required heating of the slurry is realized . the produced co 2 reacts with carbon and h 2 o in the chamber typically to form hydrogen and ultimately hydrocarbons . the catalyst clay may , for example , be selected from the group consisting of montmorillonite , kaolinite and illite . the metallic compounds may be supplied by iron or other heavy metal oxides or combinations of same or other compounds having catalytic activity . by utilizing available heat and temperatures for a sufficient time , reactions may occur , and form polymers , hence liquid hydrocarbons . also it is possible in this way to form unsaturated hydrocarbons such as those containing ethylene , propylene and acetylene . carbon containing materials such as lignite , oil shale , tar sand , and gilsonite , may enhance production . it is desirable to fracture the formation 18 proximate the lower end of the injection well , i . e . at and near chamber 17 , so as to provide a large amount of surface and access through the cracks whereby slurry contacts the heat source . if it is not desired to utilize well 16 as a fracture well for this purpose , a fracture well 23 may be drilled downwardly near the injection well , and various fracturing techniques well known in petroleum production may be carried out . also , the chamber 17 may advantageously be located proximate an upwardly sloping subterranean stratified rock formation . as a result , the produced hydrocarbons will travel &# 34 ; up dip &# 34 ; or through fractures in the geologic structure of the region , as is clear from fig1 . flow arrows 24 indicate such migration or travel through strata , or spaces between them , for collection at a porous rock zone 25 spaced at some distance from the chamber 17 . as a result , time is available for the gases to polymerize or otherwise react . recovery of the hydrocarbon gases typically includes the step of providing an up - passage extending from the porous rock formation 25 to the earth &# 39 ; s surface , for passing the gases to the surface , typically a well 26 . the gas flowing upwardly in passage 26 is collected and passed through a dehydration and treating station 27 , and then fed to a pipeline 28 . heavier hydrocarbons may be withdrawn from the treating vessels 29 and 30 at 29a and 30a . liquid hydrocarbons in zone 25 may be upwardly removed as by pumping , if necessary . for this purpose , a pump is shown at 31 suspended by tubing 32 , to be lowered into well 26 . at the injection well 16 other components may be inserted , such as oxygen , nitrogen , ammonia , or other reactants which with the hydrocarbons will react to form compounds other than hydrocarbons , such as alcohols , ketones , esters , amines , etc . | 8 |
referring now to fig1 - 5 , the present invention features an absorbing filter pad device 100 , which can be used for a variety of purposes ( see summary above ) including but not limited to removing excess oil or fluid from foods . either side of the device 100 can be used . the absorbing filter pad device 100 of the present invention comprises a first outer layer 110 a ( e . g ., a top layer or top cover ), a second outer layer 110 b ( e . g ., a bottom layer or bottom cover ), a first middle layer 120 a , a second middle layer 120 b , and an absorbent gasket 130 . the absorbent gasket 130 is sandwiched between the first middle layer 120 a and second middle layer 120 b . the absorbent gasket 130 , the first middle layer 120 a , and the second middle layer 120 b are together sandwiched between the first outer layer 110 a and second outer layer 110 b . the absorbent gasket 130 provides enhanced absorbent capacity . placing the absorbent gasket 130 between the two middle layers 120 may increase the ability of the middle layers 130 to absorb more liquid ( e . g ., oil ) the absorbent gasket 130 may help to pull oil or other liquid from the middle layers 120 in the event that the middle layers 120 are full . the device 100 has a first side edge , a second side edge , a third side edge , and a fourth side edge . disposed on the first side edge is a first border 151 , disposed on the second side edge is a second border 152 , disposed on the third side edge is a third border 153 , and disposed on the fourth side edge is a fourth border 154 . the absorbing filter device 100 may be constructed in a variety of shapes and sizes . for example , in some embodiments , the absorbing filter device 100 is constructed in a square or rectangular shape . in some embodiments , the absorbing filter device 100 is constructed in a circular , oval shape , other geometric shape , or irregular shape . the present invention is not limited to the aforementioned shapes . as used herein , the term “ about ” refers to plus or minus 10 % of the referenced number . in some embodiments , the absorbing filter pad device 100 is between about 8 to 12 inches in length as measured from the first border 151 to the second border 152 . in some embodiments , the absorbing filter pad device 100 is between about 12 to 16 inches in length as measured from the first border 151 to the second border 152 . in some embodiments , the absorbing filter pad device 100 is between about 16 to 20 inches in length as measured from the first border 151 to the second border 152 . in some embodiments , the absorbing filter pad device 100 is between about 20 to 24 inches in length as measured from the first border 151 to the second border 152 . in some embodiments , the absorbing filter pad device 100 is more than about 24 inches in length . in some embodiments , the first outer layer 110 a is attached to the first middle layer 120 a via an attachment means ( e . g ., a glue , a stitching , the like ). in some embodiments , the second middle layer 120 b is attached to the second outer layer 110 b via an attachment means ( e . g ., a glue , a stitching , the like ). the first outer layer 110 a and the second outer layer 110 b are constructed to resemble a screen or sieve . in some embodiments , the first outer layer 110 a and the second outer layer 110 b are aluminum wire mesh screens . in some embodiments , the outer layers are constructed from materials including but not limited to metal , aluminum , brass , copper , numex , polymers , polyester fabric , polyester therephthalate ( pet ), film with holes or slits , polymer film with holes or slits . in some embodiments , the outer layers 110 are constructed from non - woven material in some embodiments , the outer layers 110 are constructed from a mesh - like material . in some embodiments , the outer layers 110 are constructed from a material comprising wood fiber and / or cellulose fiber . the outer layers 110 can be manipulated into screens or films with openings such as holes and slots and pores . for example , materials may be made into a screen and then fitted with sizable holes and / or slits ( e . g ., forming a wire mesh ). the present invention is not limited to the aforementioned materials for constructing the outer layers 110 . in some embodiments , the middle layers 120 ( e . g ., sponges ) are constructed from an absorbing material such as batting ( e . g ., fluff - batt , fluff material ). examples of batting include diaper innards and / or cloth . diaper materials are well known to one of ordinary skill in the art . in some embodiments , the middle layers 120 are constructed from a sponge - like material . in some embodiments , the middle layers 120 are constructed from non - woven material ( e . g ., loosely arranged fibers ). the device has a thickness to fulfill its designed function . the middle layer 130 may have a thickness of any size . in some embodiments , the borders 151 , 152 , 153 , 154 are constructed from the same material as the outer layers 110 ( e . g ., screens , film with openings , polymers , metal , and aluminum , non woven material , plastic , or wire mesh , etc .). in some embodiments the borders have the same thickness as the outer layers 110 . in some embodiments , a user can place the absorbing filter pad device 100 on a plate or on a countertop ( or in the holder system 500 ) and then place his / her food atop the top layer of the absorbing filter pad device 100 . the excess grease or liquid is drained from the food through the first outer layer 110 a ( e . g ., top layer , mesh ) into the first middle layer 120 a ( e . g ., batt material ). in some embodiments , grease or other liquid from the first middle layer 120 a ( acting like a sponge ) drains to the gasket 130 between the two middle layers 120 . in some embodiments , the device 100 is flipped over and food is placed atop the second outer layer 110 b ( with liquid or grease draining into the second middle layer 120 b and optionally the gasket 130 . in some embodiments , a user can throw away the device 100 after one or several uses . in some embodiments , the device 100 is reusable . in some embodiments , the device 100 is recyclable . the present invention also features a holder / base tray ( a holder system 500 ). as shown in fig1 - 4 , the holder system 500 comprises a base 510 , which resembles a cabinet or drawer chest . cabinets and drawer chests are well known to one of ordinary skill in the art . for example , the base 510 has an inner cavity adapted to store absorbing filter pad devices 100 ( used or unused ). in some embodiments , one or more drawers 520 are slidably disposed in the base 510 and can slide in and out of the inner cavity via a first side of the base 510 . the holder system 500 further comprises a serving tray 610 adapted to be placed on or attached to the top surface 515 of the base 510 . the serving tray 610 has a bottom surface 616 , sides , an inner cavity , and an open top . the sides create a basket - like effect for the food . the open top provides access to the inner cavity . in some embodiments , the serving tray 610 comprises a lid 630 removably attachable to the serving tray 610 over the open top . the lid 630 can move between at least an open position and a closed position respectively allowing and preventing access to the inner cavity of the serving tray 610 in some embodiments , a handle 635 is disposed on the lid 630 . in some embodiments , retractable legs 650 ( e . g ., a first retractable leg , a second retractable leg , and a third retractable leg ; or a first retractable leg , a second retractable leg , a third retractable leg , and a fourth retractable leg ) are disposed on the bottom surface 616 of the serving tray 610 . retractable legs are well known to one of ordinary skill in the art and are commonly found on folding tables , card tables , and the like . for example , the retractable legs 650 pivot via pivot points 660 . extending downwardly from the outer edges of the bottom surface 616 of the serving tray 610 ( or a portion of the outer edges of the bottom surface 616 ) is a bottom lip 640 . the bottom lip 640 engages ( e . g ., snaps onto ) the top surface 515 and / or sides ) of the base 510 . when the bottom lip 640 engages the base 510 , a gap exists between the top surface of the base 510 and the bottom surface of the serving tray 610 . the gap provides room for the retractable legs 650 ( e . g ., see fig4 ). disposed in the inner cavity of the serving tray 610 above the bottom surface 616 is a mesh layer 618 . the mesh layer 618 is generally parallel to the bottom surface 616 of the serving tray 610 . the mesh layer 618 creates a bottom space between the mesh layer 618 and the bottom surface 616 of the serving tray 610 . in some embodiments , the mesh layer 618 is removable . in some embodiments , the mesh layer 618 rests atop notches or lips disposed in the inner cavity of the serving tray 610 . the filter pad can be placed inside the serving tray as well as in the slot ( bottom space 690 ) to accommodate more liquid ( e . g ., grease ) simultaneously . disposed in a side of the serving tray 610 near the bottom surface 616 is a slot 680 . the slot 680 is positioned adjacent to the bottom space 690 and provides access to the bottom space 690 . the slot 680 allows an absorbing filter pad device 100 to be slid in and out of the bottom space 690 . fig4 shows an absorbing filter pad device 100 engaged in the bottom space 690 . as an example , a user may remove an absorbing filter pad device 100 from a drawer 520 in the base 510 and insert it into the slot 680 in the serving tray 610 . then , he / she may remove the serving tray 610 from the base 510 and set up the retractable legs 650 . next , the user may place food atop the mesh layer 618 , allowing grease or liquid to be absorbed into the absorbing filter pad device 100 . briefly , the absorbing filter pad device 100 comprises a first middle layer 120 a and a second middle layer 120 b ; an absorbent gasket 130 sandwiched between the first middle layer 120 a and the second middle layer 120 b ; a first outer layer 110 a and a second outer layer 110 b , the outer layers 110 sandwich the middle layers 120 and gasket 130 ; and a first border 151 disposed on a first side edge , a second border 152 disposed on a second side edge , a third border 153 disposed on a third side edge of , and a fourth border 154 disposed on a fourth side edge , wherein the outer layers are constructed to resemble a mesh or a screen , the middle layers 120 are constructed from a material comprising a batting material , and the gasket 130 is constructed from a material comprising a fusible non - woven interfacing , wherein the absorbing filter pad device 100 is adapted to slide in and out of the slot 680 in the serving tray 610 . batting material is well known to one of ordinary skill in the art ( e . g ., blend of cotton , polyester , and wool ). fusible non - woven interfacing is well known to one of ordinary skill in the art ( e . g ., see pellon ® brand ). example 1 describes the construction steps and supplies for creating the device 100 of the present invention . the present invention is not limited to these supplies and construction steps . 2 . place fiberglass insect screening on mat and measure 12 × 12 in . squares using the fabric ruler and cut accordingly with rotary blade 4 . place one 12 × 12 square of fiberglass screen material for bottom layer on the mat . then , center one 12 × 12 square of batting material on top . next , place pellon material atop the batting layer to serve as a gasket . next , another square of batting material , and on top of that another square of fiberglass screening . align all evenly . a . measure and cut a separate sheet of fiberglass screening into four 12 × 12 in . squares , now referred to as border strips . b . adhere double - sided tape lengthwise on half of each border strip . approximately 4 - 5 slices of double - sided tape intermittently lengthwise - making sure to place a slice near each end . 6 . place sheet square on top of border strip which has no tape adhered . note ! important to place square at edge of taped border to keep even . once aligned , fold taped border over top layer pressing hard to ensure adhesion . now , turn square sheet completely over and then repeat double sided tape placement to the other half of the border strip . fold over and press to adhere . repeat above steps until each border has been attached . 7 . now utilizing brother ( model ) sewing machine - set to low stitch pattern number 2 ( two ), 3 ( three ) or preferably 4 ( four ). complete stitching on all sides ( 4 ). best if sewn where taped border - ends seal around wave3 . make sure to overlap stitch pattern at each corner when sewing ; this action will complete seal of all fluids in the device , the recyclable all climate multi - functional pad / filter . note : two ( 2 ) absorbent ( middle ) layers with gasket were used since top and bottom layers are reusable the following disclosures of the following u . s . patents are incorporated in their entirety by reference herein : u . s . pat . application no . 2006 / 0288999 ; u . s . pat . no . 6 , 274 , 229 ; u . s . pat . no . 6 , 488 , 977 ; u . s . pat . no . 5 , 094 , 869 ; u . s . pat . no . 5 , 414 , 248 ; u . s . pat . application no . 2002 / 0185013 ; u . s . pat . no . 4 , 950 , 524 . various modifications of the invention , in addition to those described herein , will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the foregoing description . such modifications are also intended to fall within the scope of the appended claims . each reference cited in the present application is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety . although there has been shown and described the preferred embodiment of the present invention , it will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art that modifications may be made thereto which do not exceed the scope of the appended claims . therefore , the scope of the invention is only to be limited by the following claims . the reference numbers recited in the below claims are solely for ease of examination of this patent application , and are exemplary , and are not intended in any way to limit the scope of the claims to the particular features having the corresponding reference numbers in the drawings . | 8 |
the polycyclic colorants of the perinone series are , in chemical terms , products derived inter alia from naphthalene - 1 , 4 , 5 , 8 - tetracarboxylic acid as parent structure . commercial representatives of this class are on the market in different forms : as vat dyes for the dyeing of textiles , but also , owing to their physical properties , as pigments , although for the latter use they must be first specially prepared from the crude products of the condensation process by means of chemical and / or physical aftertreatment operations ( conditioning or finishing ). the perinone ring system is formed by reaction of naphthalene - 1 , 4 , 5 , 8 - tetracarboxylic acid or anhydride ( s ) with aromatic o - diamines to give bisimidazo compounds . these constitute a mixture of cis / trans isomers ( possibly in the form of mixed crystals ), which is separable in a more or less complicated manner into the particular components which have different spatial arrangements of atoms . the condensation of naphthalene - 1 , 4 , 5 , 8 - tetracarboxylic acid and / or naphthalene - 1 , 4 , 5 , 8 - tetracarboxylic 1 , 8 - monoanhydride and / or naphthalene - 1 , 4 , 5 , 8 - tetracarboxylic 1 , 8 , 4 , 5 - dianhydride with 1 , 2 - diaminobenzene and / or substituted 1 , 2 - diaminobenzenes , preferably in the presence of a solvent or diluent , at elevated temperature , has been known for a long time and has been repeatedly described : for instance , the reaction of naphthalene - 1 , 4 , 5 , 8 - tetracarboxylic acid or of an anhydride thereof with substituted or unsubstituted 1 , 2 - diaminobenzene is carried out for example according to de - c - 430 , 632 by melting the two starting materials together in the absence of diluents or by heating in a high - boiling solvent such as nitrobenzene ; according to fiat final report 1313 ii , 168 , in glacial acetic acid at 120 ° c . ; according to de - b - 1 , 569 , 736 in a low - boiling alcohol , in particular ethanol , in the presence of acetic acid at temperatures between 120 ° and 180 ° c . under superatmospheric pressure ; according to de - a - 3 , 235 , 572 at preferably 130 ° to 170 ° c . in phenol or , according to rusanov et al . in khim . geterotsikl . seodin . 1979 / 7 , 968 - 971 , at 160 ° to 200 ° c . in m - cresol as organic diluent , and according to de - a - 1 , 569 , 740 by boiling in dilute sulfuric acid or according to su - d - 182 , 823 at 120 ° to 150 ° c . in dilute sulfuric acid in the presence of a surface - active dispersant . according to de - c - 1 , 271 , 861 , finally , naphthalene - 1 , 4 , 5 , 8 - tetracarboxylic acid is condensed simultaneously with ( a mixture of ) 1 , 2 - diaminobenzene and 4 - ethoxy - 1 , 2 - diaminobenzene in an inert organic solvent such as pyridine or glacial acetic acid at the boil under atmospheric pressure or in an aqueous medium at 130 ° to 180 ° c . under superatmospheric pressure . however , none of these existing methods of synthesizing perinone dyes and pigments are satisfactory , since either they necessitate the use of non - aqueous solvents or , if water is used as the solvent , they must be carried out using significant excesses of aromatic diamines ( cf . de - c - 1 , 271 , 861 , example 3 ). in some instances also the obtainable yields are not up to the standard of economics required these days of such manufacturing techniques . for instance , the yield of 94 % of theory reported in operative example 1 of su - d - 182 , 823 as a result of reacting naphthalene - 1 , 4 , 5 , 8 - tetracarboxylic acid with 1 , 2 - diaminobenzene ( in dilute sulfuric acid ) is incorrect , since the numerically documented amount of vat dye obtained merely amounts , on recalculation , to a yield of 83 % of theory . moreover , the aforementioned processing techniques are partly ecologically unsafe , partly economically dubious : concern over waste disposal requires regeneration of the solvent after the condensation reaction , which also presents waste air problems ; similarly , the dilute sulfuric acid must be subsequently reprocessed for renewed use ; the condensation in glacial acetic acid as cosolvent leads in turn to an appreciable amount of naphthoylenebisbenzimidazole - peri - dicarboxylic anhydride ## str1 ## as by - product ; condensation in the presence of water as diluent , as described in de - c - 1 , 271 , 861 , has the disadvantage that excess aromatic diamines from the synthesis pollute the waste water . if naphthalene - 1 , 4 , 5 , 8 - tetracarboxylic acid , naphthalene - 1 , 4 , 5 , 8 - tetracarboxylic 1 , 8 - monoanhydride or naphthalene - 1 , 4 , 5 , 8 - tetracarboxylic 1 , 8 , 4 , 5 - dianhydride is condensed on its own or mixed with the others with 1 , 2 - diaminobenzene , the result is the dye c . i . vat red 14 ( iii ) of c . i . no . 71110 , which is an isomer mixture of the trans product c . i . vat orange 7 ( i ) of c . i . no . 71105 ( which also corresponds to c . i . pigment orange 43 ) and the cis product c . i . vat red 15 ( ii ) of c . i . no . 71100 ( which also corresponds to c . i . pigment red 194 ); ## str2 ## of these two isomeric compounds , the trans form ( i ) is the coloristically more desirable product on account of its interesting hue ( a pure , reddish orange ). yet there is no prior art where the preparation of the mixture iii is optimized in the direction of the more interesting isomer i . the invention to be explained hereinafter , which is concerned with the above field , thus has the following objects : 2 ) to develop economically more advantageous methods of preparation for the colorants in question here , 4 ) to select or vary the conditions of the process of preparation in such a way , in particular for the condensation of naphthalene - 1 , 4 , 5 , 8 - tetracarboxylic acid ( derivatives ) with unsubstituted 1 , 2 - diaminobenzene , that a maximum of the coloristically more useful trans isomer i is obtained these objects concerned with the production of vat dyes and pigments of the perinone series comprising mixtures of naphthoylenebisbenzimidazole isomers of the following molecular structures : ## str3 ## where r is hydrogen , c 1 - c 4 - alkyl , c 1 - c 4 - alkoxy , chlorine , bromine , cyano , carboxyl or trifluoromethyl and where in the case of polysubstituted products each r may be identical to or different from the other one , by condensation of naphthalene - 1 , 4 , 5 , 8 - tetracarboxylic acid and / or 1 , 8 - monoanhydride and / or 1 , 8 , 4 , 5 - dianhydride in the presence of a solvent or diluent at elevated temperature with 1 , 2 - diaminobenzene and / or a substituted 1 , 2 - diaminobenzene and / or salts of these aromatic diamines which in the salt - free state conform to the following formula : ## str4 ## where r is as defined above , are achieved according to the invention by initially precondensing the reactants under acid catalysis by heating in an aqueous medium under atmospheric or superatmospheric pressure within the temperature range from 60 ° to preferably at 80 ° c . to 100 ° c ., and then completing the reaction within the temperature range from 130 ° to 180 ° preferably at 150 ° c . to 170 ° c . advantageously , the precondensation according to the invention is carried out over 1 / 2 an hour to 4 hours and the reaction ( main condensation ) is then completed in the course of 2 to 6 hours . the acid catalysts used according to the invention are preferably biodegradable acids such as , for example , aliphatic carboxylic acids , especially acetic acid or even formic acid . the amount of acid to be used here can vary within a wide range , but should not be above 25 % ( based on the weight of the reaction medium ) and should preferably be below 12 %, in particular between 6 and 10 %. naphthalene - 1 , 4 , 5 , 8 - tetracarboxylic acid , 1 , 8 - monoanhydride and / or 1 , 8 , 4 , 5 - dianhydride are preferably reacted with the aromatic diamines of the defined formulae in a stoichiometric ratio of 1 : 2 to 1 : 2 . 04 . it has surprisingly been found in the practice of the claimed process that the yield of the condensation is virtually quantitative without an excess of the aromatic diamine having to be used . another unexpected finding in this context is that the reaction of naphthalene - 1 , 4 , 5 , 8 - tetracarboxylic acid ( derivatives ) with unsubstituted 1 , 2 - diaminobenzene gives isomer mixture iii according to the invention in the composition of 63 % of trans product ( i ), the more desirable product , and 37 % of cis product ( ii ). if the same reactants are made to react by prior art methods , it is found , by contrast , that an isomer ratio of 57 %: 43 % is obtained in glacial acetic acid and an isomer ratio of 59 %: 41 % is obtained in ethanol or nitrobenzene . the operation of the process in water , moreover , has further advantages : there are no waste air problems , organic solvents need not be regenerated afterwards , and spent dilute sulfuric acid need not be first purified and then concentrated before it can be reused . given these facts , the novel method for preparing compounds of the perinone series is not just ecologically but also economically the best method at present . in the examples which follow , parts and percentages are by weight . the level of isomers i and ii was determined photometrically . 144 . 5 parts of naphthalene - 1 , 4 , 5 , 8 - tetracarboxylic 1 , 8 - monoanhydride of 99 % purity ( purified by the method described in ep - b - 0 , l34 , 972 ), 112 parts of 1 , 2 - diaminobenzene and 140 parts of glacial acetic acid ( as acid catalyst ) are stirred in 1800 parts of water ( as solvent ) in an autoclave at room temperature for 1 hour , during which the air present in the treatment vessel is displaced by nitrogen . the contents are then heated to 60 ° c . and thereafter slowly over 4 hours at a uniform rate from 60 ° to 110 ° c . during the precondensation which occurs within this temperature range , intensive stirring of the highly viscous reaction mixture is continued . thereafter the treatment temperature is rapidly raised to 150 °- 160 ° c . and stirring is continued under such conditions for a further 6 hours during which the reaction mixture becomes liquid again and the reaction ends . thereafter the liquid autoclave contents are allowed to cool down , and the precipitated condensation product is filtered off with suction , washed with hot water and dried at 100 ° c . yield : 202 . 6 parts ( 98 % of theory ) of the dye c . i . vat red 14 of c . i . no . 71110 ( iii ). the product thus obtained is an isomer mixture ( iii ) an is composed of 63 % of the dye c . i . vat orange 7 of c . i . no . 71105 / trans isomer ( i ) and 37 % of the dye c . i . vat red 15 of c . i . no . 71100 / cis isomer ( ii ). if the reactants mentioned are condensed in non - aqueous , organic solvents , the isomer mixtures obtained have the following compositions : ______________________________________ structuresolvent i ii______________________________________glacial acetic acid 57 % 43 % ethanol 59 % 41 % nitrobenzene 59 % 41 % ______________________________________ if the reaction is carried out as described in example 1a , except that the precondensation at 60 °- 110 ° c ., which was carried out in example la , is dispensed with and instead the starting materials , after they have been mixed , are directly and rapidly heated to 160 ° c ., the result of the modified condensation conditions is that , although the dye c . i . vat red 14 ( c . i . no . 71110 ) is likewise obtained , it is obtained in a form which when pure comprises an isomer mixture of only 59 % of the dye c . i . vat orange 7 ( c . i . no . 71105 ) and 41 % of the dye c . i . red 15 ( c . i . no . 71100 ) and which is contaminated to a considerable extent with naphthoylenebenzimidazole - peri - dicarboxylic anhydride as by - product . 71 . 5 parts of naphthalene - 1 , 4 , 5 , 8 - tetracarboxylic 1 , 8 - monoanhydride , 76 parts of 4 - ethoxy - 1 , 2 - diaminobenzene and 70 parts of glacial acetic acid are stirred in 800 parts of water in an autoclave under nitrogen . the batch is then initially heated to from 90 °- 100 ° c . for 4 hours and then at 160 ° c . for 6 hours . after the condensation has ended , the reaction mixture is cooled down , and the precipitated reaction product is filtered off with suction , washed with hot water until neutral and dried . the yield obtained is 124 . 2 parts ( 99 % of theory ) of the dye c . i . vat brown 14 of c . i . no . 71120 ( as isomer mixture ). 87 . 6 parts of 4 - ethoxy - 1 , 2 - diaminobenzene , stabilized as sulfuric acid salt and in the moist state , containing 29 . 5 % of 4 - ethoxy - 1 , 2 - diaminobenzene as pure base , are introduced into 620 parts of water and brought to ph 6 . 8 by the addition of about 40 parts of 30 % strength sodium hydroxide solution . this batch is then admixed in succession with 180 parts of water and 35 . 7 parts of 1 , 2 - diaminobenzene and then brought to ph 4 . 2 by means of about 70 parts of glacial acetic acid . this mixture of two different diamines then has added to it 71 . 5 parts of naphthalene - 1 , 4 , 5 , 8 - tetracarboxylic 1 , 8 - monoanhydride while the mixture is vigorously stirred at room temperature , and afterwards it is initially heated to 90 °- 100 ° c . for 4 hours to initiate the condensation . the reaction is then completed by further heating at 160 ° c . for 6 hours under superatmospheric pressure . the contents are then cooled down , and the condensation product formed is filtered off , washed until neutral and dried . yield : 109 parts ( 98 % of theory ) of a reddish brown vat dye . 71 . 5 parts of naphthalene - 1 , 4 , 5 , 8 - tetracarboxylic 1 , 8 - monoanhydride , 61 . 6 parts of 4 - methyl - 1 , 2 - diaminobenzene and 70 parts of glacial acetic acid are stirred in 900 parts of water in an autoclave under nitrogen . the reactant mixture is then heated initially at 90 °- 100 ° c . for 4 hours and then at 160 ° c . for a further 6 hours . the batch is then cooled down , and the reaction product is filtered off with suction , washed with hot water until neutral and dried . 109 parts ( 99 % of theory ) of a red vat dye are obtained . | 2 |
in the following detailed description of embodiments of the invention , reference is made to the accompanying drawings in which like references indicate similar elements , and in which is shown by way of illustration specific embodiments in which the invention may be practiced . these embodiments 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 , mechanical , electrical , functional , and other changes may be made without departing from the 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 only by the appended claims . fig1 shows an overview of an exemplary system 100 in accordance with one embodiment . electronic service portal 101 is running on server 102 , which contains software instance 103 . portal 101 may be connected , typically , to internet 107 . also connected typically through the internet are vendors 105 a - n ( also known as service providers ) and customers 106 a - n . in some cases any or all of these connections may not be via the internet , but rather through some dedicated or alternative means of connection , many varieties of which are known in the art . these various additionally possible well - known systems and methods of connection are not a main part of the novel art of this invention and , for purposes of clarity and simplicity , are not shown here . fig2 shows the process flow 200 of an exemplary system , in accordance with one embodiment , for booking multi - part transactions . in process 201 a user logs in . he then books the first leg l 1 of a transaction in process 202 . in this example , the multi - part transaction may be for travel reservations , with multiple flights , hotel rooms , and rental cars . however , in other cases , the multi - part transactions may concern any of a great variety of services and products that are not necessarily limited to travel and transportation . in process 203 , the process branches , depending on whether the user wishes to book more legs of the transaction . if there are no more legs ( no ), the process moves to process 204 , where the transaction is finalized ( including payment terms , delivery if appropriate , corporate policy status and description , etc . ), and then to process 205 , where the process ends . if , however , the user wishes to book more legs of the transaction ( yes ), the process moves to process 206 , where x is set at 2 , so in process 207 the user may book leg lx , where x = 2 , of the transaction . the process then moves to process 208 , where it again branches , with the same alternatives are process 203 — that is , to finalize the transaction or to book more transaction legs . if the user again wishes to book more transactions ( yes ), the process moves to process 209 , where x increments to x + 1 , and loops back to process 207 , where the user again books leg lx . this process continues until , in process 208 , the user no longer wishes to book more legs of the transaction ( no ). the process then moves to process 204 and proceeds as described above . fig3 shows the process flow of a system 300 according to an exemplary embodiment , in which each user may have multiple profiles . in process 201 a user logs in . he then books the first leg l 1 of a transaction in process 302 and he also selects the preferred profile for this leg . in this example , again , the multi - part transaction may be for travel reservations , with multiple flights , hotel rooms , and rental cars . however , in other cases , the multi - part transactions may concern any of a great variety of services and products that are not necessarily limited to travel and transportation . in process 203 , the process branches , depending on whether the user wishes to book more legs of the transaction . if there are no more legs ( no ), the process moves to process 304 , where the transaction is finalized ( see below for a more detailed description of the processes of process 304 ), and then to process 205 , where the process ends . if , however , the user wishes to book more legs of the transaction ( yes ), the process moves to process 206 , where x is set at 2 , so in process 307 the user may book leg lx , where x = 2 , of the transaction . in process 307 , when the user selects the next leg lx of the transaction , he also selects the preferred profile for this leg . the process then moves to process 208 , where it again branches , with the same alternatives are process 203 — that is , to finalize the transaction or to book more transaction legs . if the user again wishes to book more transactions ( yes ), the process moves to process 209 , where x increments to x + 1 , and loops back to process 307 , where the user again books leg lx and selects the preferred profile . this process continues until , in process 208 , the user no longer wishes to book more legs of the transaction ( no ). the process then moves to process 304 . in process 304 , when the user finalizes the entire transaction , he then finalizes the details for each leg of the transaction by choosing a profile 1 - n to use for that part . each profile contains information about payment mechanism , corporate policy applicability and terms , service preferences such as preferred rental car type ( midsize , etc ), loyalty program information ( e . g . united frequent flyer program number ), type of fare to book ( first class , coach class unrestricted , etc ) and other information . however , the entire transaction is booked as a whole , thus accruing to the user the savings of one multi - leg flight , for example , and the convenience of one set of reservations . fig4 shows an overview of an exemplary embodiment of a system 400 for organizing user accounts . user account 401 may have multiple profiles , such as profile 1 402 , profile 2 403 , profile 3 404 , etc . each profile contains a set of profile - specific data such as , for example , profile data 402 a - n . typically , all profiles may pertain to the same person , in this example user john doe , but other profile details may differ , such as the organization , in this example xyz corp ., the address , the billing details , etc . for example , one profile may be the corporate account of the user ; another profile may be the personal american express account , while a third profile may his aaa account , and so on . it is clear that many modifications and variations of this invention may be made by one skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the novel art of this disclosure . for example , a user may wish to include in his profiles a credit card for his college - age child , in which case the person in the profile would be , for example , susan doe , while the credit card and address details would be the same . at least some embodiments , and the different structure and functional elements described herein , can be implemented using hardware , firmware , programs of instruction , or combinations of hardware , firmware , and programs of instructions . in general , routines executed to implement the embodiments can be implemented as part of an operating system or a specific application , component , program , object , module or sequence of instructions referred to as “ computer programs .” the computer programs typically comprise one or more instructions set at various times in various memory and storage devices in a computer , and that , when read and executed by one or more processors in a computer , cause the computer to perform operations to execute elements involving the various aspects . while some embodiments have been described in the context of fully functioning computers and computer systems , those skilled in the art will appreciate that various embodiments are capable of being distributed as a program product in a variety of forms and are capable of being applied regardless of the particular type of machine or computer - readable media used to actually effect the distribution . examples of computer - readable media include but are not limited to recordable and non - recordable type media such as volatile and non - volatile memory devices , read only memory ( rom ), random access memory ( ram ), flash memory devices , floppy and other removable disks , magnetic disk storage media , optical storage media ( e . g ., compact disk read - only memory ( cd roms ), digital versatile disks , ( dvds ), etc . ), among others . the instructions can be embodied in digital and analog communication links for electrical , optical , acoustical or other forms of propagated signals , such as carrier waves , infrared signals , digital signals , etc . a machine readable medium can be used to store software and data which when executed by a data processing system causes the system to perform various methods . the executable software and data can be stored in various places including for example rom , volatile ram , non - volatile memory and / or cache . portions of this software and / or data can be stored in , any one of these storage devices . in general , a machine readable medium includes any mechanism that provides ( i . e ., stores and / or transmits ) information in a form accessible by a machine ( e . g ., a computer , network device , personal digital assistant , manufacturing tool , any device with a set of one or more processors , etc .). some aspects can be embodied , at least in part , in software . that is , the techniques can be carried out in a computer system or other data processing system in response to its processor , such as a microprocessor , executing sequences of instructions contained in a memory , such as rom , volatile ram , non - volatile memory , cache , magnetic and optical disks , or a remote storage device . further , the instructions can be downloaded into a computing device over a data network in a form of compiled and linked version . alternatively , the logic to perform the processes as discussed above could be implemented in additional computer and / or machine readable media , such as discrete hardware components as large - scale integrated circuits ( lsi &# 39 ; s ), application - specific integrated circuits ( asic &# 39 ; s ), or firmware such as electrically erasable programmable read - only memory ( eeprom &# 39 ; s ). in various embodiments , hardwired circuitry can be used in combination with software instructions to implement the embodiments . thus , the techniques are not limited to any specific combination of hardware circuitry and software nor to any particular source for the instructions executed by the data processing system . in this description , various functions and operations are described as being performed by or caused by software code to simplify description . however , those skilled in the art will recognize what is meant by such expressions is that the functions result from execution of the code by a processor , such as a microprocessor . although some of the drawings illustrate a number of operations in a particular order , operations which are not order dependent can be reordered and other operations can be combined or broken out . while some reordering or other groupings are specifically mentioned , others will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art and so do not present an exhaustive list of alternatives . moreover , it should be recognized that the stages could be implemented in hardware , firmware , software or any combination thereof . in the foregoing specification , the disclosure has been described with reference to specific exemplary embodiments thereof . it will be evident that various modifications can be made thereto without departing from the broader spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the following claims . the specification and drawings are , accordingly , to be regarded in an illustrative sense rather than a restrictive sense . | 6 |
referring to fig1 and 2 , the battery with traveling disk &# 39 ; s function 20 according to the invention aims to be selectively connected to a portable electrical apparatus 10 ( a handset is shown in the drawings ) or an electrical apparatus ( such as a personal computer and notebook computer , not shown in the drawings ). the invention includes a first connector 21 , a controller 22 , a memory 23 , a transmission interface 24 , a second connector 25 , a battery module 26 and a voltage regulator 27 . the techniques for data transmission between the battery with traveling disk &# 39 ; s function 20 , the portable electrical apparatus 10 and an electrical apparatus are first discussed as follows . the first connector 21 may be selectively and electrically connected to the portable electrical apparatus 10 . the controller 22 is connected to the first connector 21 to transmit data . the memory 23 is connected to the controller 22 to store data . the transmission interface 24 is a universal serial bus ( usb ) connecting to the controller 22 to transmit data . the second connector 25 is connected to the transmission interface 24 to , selectively and electrically , connect to an electrical apparatus . hence the battery with traveling disk &# 39 ; s function 20 can be connected electrically to the portable electrical apparatus 10 . for data transmission , the first connector 21 is connected electrically to the portable electrical apparatus 10 , meanwhile , the portable electrical apparatus 10 can retrieve data stored in the memory 23 through the controller 22 . on the other hand , the battery with traveling disk &# 39 ; s function 20 according to the invention may be connected electrically to an electrical apparatus . for data transmission , the second connector 25 is connected electrically to the electrical apparatus , meanwhile , the electrical apparatus can retrieve data stored in the memory 23 through the transmission interface 24 and the controller 22 . when the battery with traveling disk &# 39 ; s function 20 delivers electric power , the battery module 26 is connected to the first connector 21 to provide electric power for the portable electrical apparatus 10 . the voltage regulator 27 is connected to the battery module 26 , first connector 21 , controller 22 and memory 23 to obtain electric power and regulate the voltage , and delivers electric power to the first connector 21 , controller 22 and memory 23 . the battery module 26 is connected to the transmission interface 24 so that when the second connector 25 is electrically connected to the electrical apparatus , electric power is delivered , through the transmission interface 24 , to the battery module 26 for storing electric power . thus when the battery with traveling disk &# 39 ; s function 20 is electrically connected to the portable electrical apparatus 10 and delivers electric power , the first connector 21 may be electrically connected to the portable electrical apparatus 10 . meanwhile , the battery module 26 may deliver electric power to the voltage regulator 27 , which regulates the voltage and delivers electric power to the first connector 21 , controller 22 and memory 23 to provide the electric power required . of course , because the first connector 21 is electrically connected to the portable electrical apparatus 10 , the portable electrical apparatus 10 has electric power needed during operation . on the other hand , the battery with traveling disk &# 39 ; s function 20 is electrically connected to the electrical apparatus . for transmitting electric power , the second connector 25 is electrically connected to the electrical apparatus . meanwhile , the electrical apparatus delivers electric power to the battery module 26 through the transmission interface 24 for storing electric power . 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 |
a copolymer ( a ) according to the present invention has , on a side chain , a group represented by chemical formula ( 1 ) and having , on terminal , at least one of a group represented by chemical formula ( 2 ) and a group represented by chemical formula ( 3 ). the copolymer ( a ) preferably has , on terminal , both of the group represented by chemical formula ( 2 ) and the group represented by chemical formula ( 3 ), but may have , on terminal , either one of them . ( wherein r 1 , r 2 , and r 3 are the same or different from each other and each represents a c 3 - 6 alkyl group branched at an α - position or a phenyl group ). examples of the c 3 - 6 alkyl group branched at the α - position include an isopropyl group , s - butyl group , t - butyl group , 1 - ethylpropyl group , 1 - methylbutyl group , 1 - methylpentyl group , 1 , 1 - dimethylpropyl group , 1 , 1 - dimethylbutyl group , and thexyl group . in particular , the invention enables formation of an antifouling coating film which is unlikely to cause coating film defects and is excellent in water resistance by selecting specific groups for r 1 , r 2 , and r 3 . from such a viewpoint , r 1 , r 2 , and r 3 are the same or different from each other , and are each preferably an isopropyl group , s - butyl group , t - butyl group , or phenyl group and more preferably an isopropyl group . the copolymer ( a ), for example , can be produced by polymerizing a mixture of the below - described monomer ( a ) and monomer ( b ) using a polymerization initiator 1 , 1 , 3 , 3 - tetramethyl butylperoxy - 2 - ethyl hexanoate or 1 , 1 , 3 , 3 - tetramethyl butylperoxy neodecanoate . the molecular weight of the copolymer a can be adjusted by suitably selecting the amount of the polymerization initiator used . if necessary , a chain transfer agent , etc ., can be used . the monomer ( a ) is an ethylenically unsaturated monomer ( a ) having a group represented by the above chemical formula ( 1 ). examples of the monomer ( a ) include triisopropylsilyl ( meth ) acrylate , tri - s - butylsilyl ( meth ) acrylate , triphenylsilyl ( meth ) acrylate , diisopropyl s - butylsilyl ( meth ) acrylate , diisopropyl t - butylsilyl ( meth ) acrylate , diisopropyl thexylsilyl ( meth ) acrylate , diisopropyl phenylsilyl ( meth ) acrylate , isopropyl di - s - butylsilyl ( meth ) acrylate , isopropyl diphenylsilyl ( meth ) acrylate , diphenyl thexylsilyl ( meth ) acrylate , t - butyldiphenylsilyl ( meth ) acrylate , bis ( triisopropylsilyl ) maleate , methyl triisopropylsilyl maleate , ethyl triisopropylsilyl maleate , n - butyl triisopropylsilyl maleate , isobutyl triisopropylsilyl maleate , t - butyl triisopropylsilyl maleate , n - pentyl triisopropylsilyl maleate , isopentyl triisopropylsilyl maleate , 2 - ethylhexyl triisopropylsilyl maleate , cyclohexyl triisopropylsilyl maleate , bis ( triisopropylsilyl ) fumarate , methyl triisopropylsilyl fumarate , ethyl triisopropylsilyl fumarate , n - butyl triisopropylsilyl fumarate , isobutyl triisopropylsilyl fumarate , n - pentyl triisopropylsilyl fumarate , isopentyl triisopropylsilyl fumarate , 2 - ethylhexyl triisopropylsilyl fumarate , and cyclohexyl triisopropylsilyl fumarate . from the viewpoint that , in particular , coating film defects are unlikely to occur and an antifouling coating film having excellent water resistance can be produced , preferred are triisopropylsilyl ( meth ) acrylate , tri - s - butylsilyl ( meth ) acrylate , t - butyldiphenylsilyl ( meth ) acrylate , and isopentyl triisopropylsilyl maleate . more preferred are triisopropylsilyl ( meth ) acrylate and isopentyl triisopropylsilyl maleate . these ethylenically unsaturated monomers ( a ) are used singly or in combination . the monomer ( b ) is an ethylenically unsaturated monomer copolymerizable with the monomer ( a ). examples of the monomer ( b ) include : ( meth ) acrylic esters such as methyl ( meth ) acrylate , ethyl ( meth ) acrylate , n - butyl ( meth ) acrylate , i - butyl ( meth ) acrylate , t - butyl ( meth ) acrylate , 2 - ethylhexyl ( meth ) acrylate , lauryl ( meth ) acrylate , 2 - methoxyethyl acrylate , 2 - methoxypropyl acrylate , 4 - methoxybutyl acrylate , 2 - ethoxyethyl ( meth ) acrylate , ethylene glycol monomethyl ( meth ) acrylate , propylene glycol monomethyl ( meth ) acrylate , 2 - hydroxyethyl ( meth ) acrylate , 2 - hydroxypropyl ( meth ) acrylate , dimethylaminoethyl ( meth ) acrylate , diethylaminoethyl ( meth ) acrylate , benzyl ( meth ) acrylate , phenyl ( meth ) acrylate and the like ; vinyl compounds such as vinyl chloride , vinylidene chloride , ( meth ) acrylonitrile , vinyl acetate , butyl vinyl ether , lauryl vinyl ether , n - vinyl pyrrolidone and the like ; aromatic compounds such as styrene , vinyl toluene , α - methyl styrene and the like ; and maleic compounds such as dimethyl maleate , diethyl maleate and the like . among them , in particular , ( meth ) acrylic esters are preferred , and methyl ( meth ) acrylate , ethyl ( meth ) acrylate , n - butyl ( meth ) acrylate , i - butyl ( meth ) acrylate , 2 - ethylhexyl ( meth ) acrylate , and 2 - methoxyethyl acrylate are more preferred . examples of the monomer ( b ) may be used singly or in combination as a monomer component of the copolymer ( a ). the content of the monomer ( a ) in the mixture is preferably from about 20 to 70 % by mass , and more preferably from about 20 to 60 % by weight . when the content of the monomer ( a ) is from about 20 to 70 % by weight , the coating film formed using the resultant antifouling coating composition can exhibit stable dissolution property , and can maintain an antifouling effect for a long period of time . usually , the copolymer produced using another polymerization initiator has an weight - average molecular weight ( mw ) of preferably from 10 , 000 to 100 , 000 . the copolymer ( a ) produced using 1 , 1 , 3 , 3 - tetramethyl butylperoxy - 2 - ethyl hexanoate or 1 , 1 , 3 , 3 - tetramethyl butylperoxy neodecanoate as a polymerization initiator has an weight - average molecular weight ( mw ) can be lower , preferably from 3 , 000 to 100 , 000 and more preferably from 3 , 000 to 70 , 000 . when the mw is from 3 , 000 to 100 , 000 , the coating films are not brittle and have a suitable dissolving rate , so that a desired antifouling effect can be effectively exerted . when the copolymer has an weight - average molecular weight ( mw ) of from 3 , 000 to 12 , 000 , the viscosity of the antifouling coating composition can be suitably decreased such that the amount of a solvent used can be effectively reduced at the time of using the composition as a coating material . one example of the method for measuring the mw is gel permeation chromatography ( gpc ). the copolymer a may be any one of a random copolymer , alternate copolymer , periodical copolymer , and block copolymer between the monomer ( a ) and the monomer ( b ). the copolymer a , for example , can be produced by polymerizing the monomer ( a ) and the monomer ( b ) under the presence of a polymerization initiator 1 , 1 , 3 , 3 - tetramethyl butylperoxy - 2 - ethyl hexanoate or 1 , 1 , 3 , 3 - tetramethyl butylperoxy neodecanoate . when such a polymerization initiator is used , terminal of a polymer chain generated has a group represented by chemical formula ( 2 ) and / or chemical formula ( 3 ). examples of polymerization methods include solution polymerization , bulk polymerization , emulsion polymerization , and suspension polymerization . among them , the solution polymerization is preferable because it allows the copolymer a to be prepared easily and accurately . in the polymerization reaction , an organic solvent may be added , if necessary . examples of the organic solvent include : aromatic hydrocarbon - based solvents ( e . g ., xylene , toluene ); aliphatic hydrocarbon - based solvents ( e . g ., hexane , heptane ); ester - based solvents ( e . g ., ethyl acetate , butyl acetate , isobutyl acetate , methoxypropyl acetate ); alcohol - based solvents ( e . g ., isopropyl alcohol , butyl alcohol ); ether - based solvents ( e . g ., dioxane , diethyl ether , dibutyl ether ); and ketone - based solvents ( e . g ., methyl ethyl ketone , methyl isobutyl ketone ). among these , aromatic hydrocarbon - based solvents are preferable , and xylene is particularly preferable . these solvents may be used singly or in combination . the reaction temperature in the polymerization reaction is usually from 70 to 140 ° c . and preferably from 80 to 120 ° c . the reaction time necessary for the polymerization reaction may be suitably selected depending on the reaction temperature , etc ., and is usually from about 4 to 8 hours . the polymerization reaction is preferably conducted under an inert gas ( e . g . nitrogen gas , argon gas ) atmosphere . the amount of the copolymer ( a ) in the composition of the present invention is not particularly limited , and is usually from 2 to 50 % by mass and preferably from 4 to 25 % by mass with respect to the solid content of the composition of the present invention . when the amount of the copolymer ( a ) is from 4 to 25 % by mass , the suitable dissolving rate and properties of the coating film in seawater can be achieved . in addition , the long - term stable surface renewal can remain constant and a desired antifouling effect can be effectively exerted . also , the coating film can exert excellent recoating performance . the antifouling coating composition of the present invention may further contain , as necessary , an antifoulant , a release modifier , a plasticizer , and / or another resin , etc ., in addition to the copolymer ( a ). the addition can improve the antifouling effect . there is no limitation to the antifoulants as long as they have a killing or repelling effect against aquatic fouling organisms . examples can include inorganic and organic antifoulants . examples of the inorganic antifoulants include cuprous oxide , copper thiocyanate ( general name : copper rhodanide ), cupronickel , and copper powder . among them , cuprous oxide and copper rhodanide are particularly preferred . examples of the organic antifoulants include : organic copper compounds such as 2 - mercaptopyridine - n - oxide copper ( general name : copper pyrithione ) and the like ; organic zinc compounds such as 2 - mercaptopyridine - n - oxide zinc ( general name : zinc pyrithione ), zinc ethylene bis ( dithio carbamate ) ( general name : zineb ), zinc bis ( dimethyldithiocarbamate )( general name : ziram ), dizinc bis ( dimethyldithiocarbamate ) ethylenebis ( dithiocarbamate ) ( general name : polycarbamate ) and the like ; organic boron compounds such as pyridine - triphenylborane , 4 - isopropyl pyridyl - diphenylmethyl borane , 4 - phenyl pyridiyl - diphenyl borane , triphenylboron - n - octadecyl amine , triphenyl [ 3 -( 2 - ethylhexyloxy ) propyl amine ] boron and the like ; maleimide compounds such as 2 , 4 , 6 - trichloromaleimide , n -( 2 , 6 - diethylphenyl )- 2 , 3 - dichloromaleimide and the like ; and 4 , 5 - dichloro - 2 - n - octyl - 3 - isothiazolone ( general name : sea - nine 211 ), 3 , 4 - dichlorophenyl - n - n - dimethylurea ( general name : diuron ), 2 - methylthio - 4 - t - butylamino - 6 - cyclopropylamino - s - triazine ( general name : irgarol 1051 ), 2 , 4 , 5 , 6 - tetrachloroisophthalonitrile ( general name : chlorothalonil ), n - dichlorofluoromethylthio - n ′, n ′- dimethyl - n - p - tolylsulfamide ( general name : tolylfluanid ), n - dichloromethylthio - n ′, n ′- dimethyl - n - phenylsulfamide ( general name : dichlofluanid ), 2 -( 4 - thiazolyl ) benzimidazole ( general name : thiabendazole ), 3 -( benzo [ b ] thien - 2 - yl )- 5 , 6 - dihydro - 1 , 4 , 2 - oxathiazine - 4 - oxide ( general name : bethoxazine ), 2 -( p - chlorophenyl )- 3 - cyano - 4 - bromo - 5 - trifluoromethyl pyrrole ( general name : econea 028 ), etc . among them , particularly preferred are zinc pyrithione , copper pyrithione , pyridine - triphenylborane , 4 - isopropyl pyridyl - diphenylmethyl borane , bethoxazine , zineb , sea - nine 211 , and irgarol 1051 . more preferred are copper pyrithione , zinc pyrithione , pyridine - triphenylborane , and bethoxazine . as the antifoulant , preferred are cuprous oxide , copper rhodanide , zinc pyrithione , copper pyrithione , pyridine - triphenylborane , 4 - isopropyl pyridyl - diphenylmethyl borane , bethoxazine , zineb , sea - nine 211 , irgarol 1051 , tolylfluanid , and dichlofluanid . more preferred are cuprous oxide , copper pyrithione , zinc pyrithione , pyridine - triphenylborane , and sea - nine 211 . the amount of the antifoulant in the composition of the present invention is not particularly limited , and is usually from 0 . 1 to 75 % by mass , and preferably from 1 to 60 % by mass with respect to the solid content of the composition of the present invention . when the amount of the antifoulant is less than 0 . 1 % by mass , a sufficient antifouling effect might not be obtained . when the amount of the antifoulant is over 75 % by mass , the obtained coating film is fragile , and adherence of the coating film to the coated object is weak , and thus the coating film does not sufficiently exhibit the function as an antifouling coating film . examples of the release modifier include rosin , a rosin derivative and a metal salt thereof , monocarboxylic acid and a salt thereof , and an alicyclic hydrocarbon resin . examples of the rosin includes tall oil rosin , gum rosin , and wood rosin . examples of the rosin derivative include hydrogenated rosin , disproportionated rosin , maleinized rosin , formylated rosin , and polymerized rosin . a reaction product of a metal compound with rosin can be used as a metal salt of the rosin or a metal salt of the rosin derivative . examples of the metal salt of rosin include a zinc ( or copper ) salt of gum rosin , a zinc ( or copper ) salt of wood rosin , and a zinc ( or copper ) salt of tall oil rosin . examples of the metal salt of the rosin derivative include a zinc ( or copper ) salt of hydrogenated rosin , a zinc ( or copper ) salt of disproportionated rosin , a zinc ( or copper ) salt of maleinized rosin , a zinc ( or copper ) salt of formylated rosin , and a zinc ( or copper ) salt of polymerized rosin . examples of the monocarboxylic acid include c 5 - 30 fatty acid , synthetic fatty acid , and naphthenic acid . examples of a salt of the monocarboxylic acid include copper salts , zinc salts , magnesium salts , and calcium salts . examples of the commercially available alicyclic hydrocarbon resin include quintone 1500 , 1525l , and 1700 ( product name ; manufactured by zeon corporation ). in view of giving the composition of the present invention a suitably facilitated elution property , the composition preferably contains at least one member selected from the group consisting of rosin , a rosin derivative , and a metal salt thereof as the release modifier . in view of improving crack resistance and water resistance , the composition more preferably contains a copper or zinc salt of rosin or a copper or zinc salt of a rosin derivative . the amount of the release modifier in the composition of the present invention is usually from 1 to 400 parts by mass and preferably from 5 to 350 parts by mass with respect to 100 parts by mass of the copolymer ( a ). when the release modifier is less than 1 part by mass , the effect of preventing attachment of aquatic fouling organisms , in particular , during rigging cannot be expected . by adding the plasticizer to the antifouling coating composition of the present invention , it is possible to improve the plasticity of the composition , and as a result it is possible to suitably form a strong coating film . examples of the plasticizer include : phosphate esters such as tricresyl phosphate , trioctylphosphate , triphenyl phosphate and the like ; phthalate esters such as dibutyl phthalate , dioctyl phthalate and the like ; adipate esters such as dibutyl adipate , dioctyl adipate and the like ; sebacate esters such as dibutyl sebacate , dioctyl sebacate and the like ; epoxidized oils and fats such as epoxidized soybean oil , epoxidized linseed oil and the like ; alkyl vinyl ether polymers such as a methyl vinyl ether polymer , an ethyl vinyl ether polymer and the like ; polyalkylene glycols such as polyethylene glycol , polypropylene glycol and the like ; and t - nonylpentasulfide , vaseline , polybutene , tris ( 2 - ethyl hexyl ) trimellitate , silicone oil , liquid paraffin , and chlorinated paraffin . these plasticizers may be used singly or in combination . the amount of the plasticizer in the composition of the present invention is usually from 0 . 1 to 100 parts by mass and preferably from 0 . 5 to 90 parts by mass with respect to 100 parts by mass of the copolymer ( a ). another resin is added to the antifouling coating composition of the present invention . this makes it possible to reduce cost without impairing the effects of the present invention . also , a synergistic effect with the resin properties can be obtained . examples of another resin include a ( meth ) acrylic resin , an alkyd resin , a polyester resin , a chlorinated rubber resin , and a vinyl resin . another resin can be added to the composition of the present invention to such a degree that the suitable dissolving rate and properties of the coating film in seawater are not impaired . its amount is from 1 to 300 parts by mass and preferably from 10 to 250 parts by mass with respect to 100 parts by mass of the copolymer ( a ). furthermore , the antifouling coating composition of the present invention , if necessary , may include a pigment , a dye , an antifoaming agent , an anti - sagging agent , a dispersant , an antisettling agent , a dehydrating agent , and / or an organic solvent to such a degree that the suitable dissolving rate and properties of the coating film in seawater are not impaired . example of the pigment include zinc oxide , red iron oxide , talc , titanium oxide , silica , calcium carbonate , barium sulfate , calcium oxide , and magnesium oxide . they can be used singly or in combination . examples of the dye include various kinds of organic dyes soluble in an organic solvent . examples of the antifoaming agent include a silicone resin - based antifoaming agent and an acryl resin - based antifoaming agent . examples of the anti - sagging agent , the dispersant or the antisettling agent include fatty acid amide wax and oxidized polyethylene . examples of the dehydrating agent include a synthetic zeolite - based adsorbent , orthoesters , silicates such as tetraethoxysilane , and isocyanates . they can be used singly or in combination . examples of the organic solvent include solvents such as an aliphatic solvent , an aromatic solvent , a ketone - based solvent , an ester - based solvent , and an ether - based solvent which are usually used in the antifouling coating material . they can be used singly or in combination . the antifouling coating composition of the invention can be manufactured , for example , by mixing and dispersing a mixed solution containing the copolymer ( a ) and , for example , an antifoulant , a release modifier , a plasticizer and / or another resin by use of a disperser . the mixed solution is preferably obtained by dissolving or dispersing various materials ( e . g ., the copolymer ( a ) and an antifoulant , a release modifier , a plasticizer and / or another resin ) in a solvent . as the solvent , those identical or similar to the above organic solvent may be used . as the disperser , for example , the one which can be used as a micro - pulverizer can be suitably used . for example , a commercially available homo mixer , sand mill , bead mill , or the like can be used . furthermore , the mixed solution may be mixed and dispersed by use of a stirrer - equipped container containing glass beads for mixing and dispersing . the antifouling treatment of the invention is characterized in that an antifouling coating film is formed using the above - explained antifouling coating composition on the surface of an object that is subjected to coating . the antifouling treatment of the present invention can prevent adhesion of aquatic fouling organisms by the gradual dissolution of the surface of the antifouling coating film such that the surface of the coating film is continually renewed . after the dissolution of the coating film , the antifouling effect can be continuously exhibited by recoating the composition . examples of objects on which a coating film can be formed include ships ( in particular , ship bottoms ), fishing tools , and structures submerged in seawater . examples of the fishing tools include fishing nets for use in aquaculture or in fixed netting , and fishing net accessories such as ropes and floats attached to fishing nets . examples of the structures submerged in seawater include power plant aqueducts , bridges , and port facilities . the antifouling coating film can be formed by applying the antifouling coating composition onto the surface ( entirely or partially ) of an object on which the coating film is to be formed . examples of the coating method include brush coating , spray coating , dipping , flow coating , and spin coating . these coating methods may be employed singly or in combination . the coating composition is dried after the application . the drying temperature may be room temperature . the drying time may be suitably selected depending on the thickness of the coating film , etc . the antifouling coating film produced using the above antifouling coating composition according to an embodiment of the present invention can exhibit the suitable dissolving rate and properties of the coating film in seawater . in addition , the long - term stable surface renewal can remain constant and a desired antifouling effect can be effectively exerted . also , the coating film can advantageously exert excellent recoating performance . the thickness of the antifouling coating film may be suitably selected depending on types of an object on which the coating film is to be formed , the navigation speed of a ship , the seawater temperature , etc . for example , when the object on which a coating film is formed is a ship bottom , the thickness of the antifouling coating film is usually from 50 to 500 μm , and preferably from 100 to 400 μm . the antifouling coating film of the present invention has a suitable hardness . specifically , the antifouling coating film of the present invention has a hardness enough to cause no coating film defects such as cold flow . the coated object of the present invention has the antifouling coating film on its surface . the coated object of the present invention may have the antifouling coating film on the entire surface thereof or on the partial surface thereof . the coated object of the present invention is provided with a coating film having long - term stable surface renewal and excellent recoating performance because the suitable dissolving rate and properties of the coating film in seawater are improved . accordingly , the coated object can be preferably applied for the above ships ( in particular , ship bottoms ), fishing tools , structures submerged in seawater , etc . for example , when the antifouling coating film is formed on the surface of a ship bottom , the antifouling coating film gradually dissolves from the surface , so that the coating film surface is always renewed . this prevents the adhesion of aquatic fouling organisms . furthermore , the hydrolysis rate of the antifouling coating film is desirably controlled . hence , ships benefit from the antifouling effect for a long period of time . additionally , even when the ships are not moving , for example , during anchorage , rigging , etc ., the adhesion and accumulation of aquatic fouling organisms are barely observed and the antifouling effect is exhibited for a long time . in addition , the surface of the antifouling coating film is basically free from cracking or peeling even after a long period of time . accordingly , it is unnecessary to completely remove the existing coating film before re - forming a new coating film . thus , by directly recoating the antifouling coating film composition , the antifouling coating film can be effectively formed . this makes it possible to continuously maintain the antifouling effect in a simple and inexpensive manner . the following illustrates examples , etc ., and further clarifies characteristics of the present invention . the present invention , however , is not limited to these examples . in each of production examples , comparative production examples , examples , and comparative examples , “%” denotes “% by mass ”. the viscosity was determined at 25 ° c . using a brookfield viscometer . the weight - average molecular weight ( mw ) was determined by gel permeation chromatography ( gpc ) ( using a polystyrene standard ). gpc was performed under the following conditions . guard column : tsk guard column super hz - l ( manufactured by tosoh corporation ) column : tsk - gel super hzm - m 4 . 6 mm i . d . 15 cm ( manufactured by tosoh corporation ); two serially connected columns developing solvent : thf ( a special grade chemical ; manufactured by wako pure chemical industries , ltd .) the viscosity was determined with a brookfield rotary viscometer at 25 ° c . in accordance with jis7117 - 1 . the non - volatile content was determined by heating for 1 hour at 125 ° c . the amounts of each component shown in tables are represented in grams . first , 170 g of xylene was charged to a stainless - steel reaction tank equipped with a thermometer , a cooler , a stirrer , and a dropping funnel . next , a mixture of 270 g of triisopropylsilyl methacrylate , 50 g of methyl methacrylate , 130 g of 2 - methoxyethyl methacrylate , 30 g of 2 - methoxyethyl acrylate , 20 g of n - butyl acrylate , and 2 g of 1 , 1 , 3 , 3 - tetramethyl butylperoxy - 2 - ethyl hexanoate ( initially added ) was added dropwise into the reaction tank over a period of 2 hour , while nitrogen gas was injected and the mixture was stirred at 85 ± 5 ° c . then , after the resulting reaction solution was stirred at the above temperature for 1 hour , 1 g of 1 , 1 , 3 , 3 - tetramethyl butylperoxy - 2 - ethyl hexanoate ( subsequently added ) was added three times with 1 - hour intervals to complete the polymerization reaction . after that , 330 g of xylene was added and dissolved to produce the copolymer solution a - 1 . table 1 shows the viscosity , non - volatile content , mw , and glass - transition temperature of a - 1 . polymerization reactions were performed in accordance with the same procedure as in production example 1 , using the monomers , polymerization initiators , and solvents shown in tables 1 to 3 . the copolymer solutions a - 2 to a - 22 and b - 1 to b - 11 were thus obtained . tables 1 to 3 show the viscosity , non - volatile content , mw , and glass - transition temperature of each of these copolymer solutions . when 1 , 1 , 3 , 3 - tetramethyl butylperoxy - 2 - ethyl hexanoate or 1 , 1 , 3 , 3 - tetramethyl butylperoxy neodecanoate among the polymerization initiators shown in tables 1 to 3 was used , terminal of the polymer chain has a group represented by chemical formula ( 2 ) and / or a group represented by chemical formula ( 3 ). however , when a polymerization initiator other than the above is used , terminal of the polymer chain has a group having another structure . this difference in terminal structure seems to cause a difference in the evaluation results regarding test examples 2 to 4 . terminal of each of the copolymers obtained in production examples 1 to 22 was determined by measuring a spectrum with respect to the 13 c - single pulse with 1 h decoupling and a 13 c - dept135 spectrum . device : ecx400 ; jeol resonance inc . probe : royal probe flip angle : 30 degrees pulse waiting time : 20 sec the number of integrations : 10000 times fig1 ( a ) and ( b ) each show an nmr spectrum obtained with regard to the copolymer of production example 1 . fig1 ( a ) shows a spectrum with respect to the “ 13 c - dept135 ”. fig1 ( b ) shows a spectrum with respect to the “ 13 c - single pulse with 1 h decoupling ”. comparison between fig1 ( a ) and 1 ( b ) revealed that a group of signals between 44 ppm and 49 ppm was attributed to a quaternary carbon . in addition , the obtained spectrum was analyzed using the “ prediction ” function of acd software ( i . e ., nmr analysis software marketed by fujitsu inc .). as shown in fig2 , the peaks at or near 47 ppm and the peaks at or near 45 ppm each included a plurality of peaks . the peak at 47 . 07 ppm was found to be attributed to chemical formula ( 2 ). the peak at 44 . 97 ppm was found to be attributed to chemical formula ( 3 ). note that it is postulated that the peaks attributed to neither chemical formula ( 2 ) nor ( 3 ) are attributed to a quaternary carbon present in the main chain of the copolymer . the nmr spectrum of each of the copolymers of production examples 2 to 22 was analyzed under the same conditions . the analysis likewise demonstrated the peaks attributed to chemical formulae ( 2 ) and ( 3 ). note that the stabilizers shown in table 4 were added to various monomers shown in tables 1 to 3 and the resulting mixtures were used . batch production of each of the copolymer solutions a - 1 to a - 22 as obtained in production examples 1 to 22 was repeated 300 times . gel materials were visually unrecognizable on the inner wall of the reaction tank , etc . production of each of the copolymer solutions b - 1 to b - 11 as obtained in comparative production examples 1 to 11 was repeated . gel materials were observed on the inner wall of the reaction tank , etc . tables 1 to 3 show the number of batches in which gel materials were observed . this demonstrates that the production according to the method of the present invention does not result in generation of gel materials even if the production is repeated . each of the copolymers ( a - 1 to a - 22 and b - 1 to b - 11 ) as obtained in production examples 1 to 22 and comparative production examples 1 to 11 was applied onto a surface of a obscure glass ( 100 × 200 × 2 mm ) to form a dry film with a thickness of about 100 μm . the applied coating was dried for 3 days at 50 ° c ., such that a test piece having the dry film with a thickness of about 100 μm was prepared . the test piece was immersed in natural seawater at 35 ° c . for 6 months . then , the condition of the coating film was visually inspected . a : the coating film undergoes no change . b : the coating film becomes cloudy . c : the coating film becomes white . d : the coating film is swelled . it can be seen from tables 1 to 3 that the dry films formed using the copolymers ( a - 1 to a - 22 ) as obtained in production examples 1 to 22 of the invention have excellent resistance to water . components listed in tables 5 to 7 were blended in the proportions (% by mass ) shown in tables 5 to 7 , and were mixed and dispersed together with glass beads with a diameter of 1 . 5 to 2 . 5 mm to produce coating compositions . solution containing a zinc salt of gum rosin : one prepared in production example 23 was used . solution containing a zinc salt of hydrogenated rosin : one prepared in production example 24 was used . solution containing gum rosin : a xylene solution containing , as a solid content , about 60 % of gum rosin ( ww ) made in china . solution containing hydrogenated rosin : a xylene solution containing , as a solids content , about 60 % of “ highpale ch ”( product name ). epoxidized soybean oil : product name “ sansocizer e - 2000h ”( manufactured by new japan chemical co ., ltd .). acrylic polymer : product name “ up - 1000 ”( with a viscosity : 1 , 000 mpa · s , mw : 3 , 000 , tg : − 77 ° c ., and solid content : ≧ 98 %) ( manufactured by toagosei co ., ltd .). styrene - acrylic polymer : product name “ uf - 5022 ”( flakes ; with a mw : 14 , 000 , tg : 75 ° c ., and solid content : ≧ 96 %) ( manufactured by toagosei co ., ltd .). cuprous oxide : product name “ nc - 301 ”, with an average particle size of 3 μm ( manufactured by nissin chemco , ltd .) 4 , 5 - dichloro - 2 - n - octyl - 4 - isothiazoline - 3 - one : product name “ sea - nine 211 ”( rohm & amp ; haas , inc .) with a solid content of 30 % by weight . red iron oxide : product name “ toda color ep - 13d ”( manufactured by toda pigment corp .). talc : product name “ crown talc 3s ”( manufactured by matsumura industries co ., ltd .). zinc oxide : product name “ zinc oxide type ii ”( manufactured by seido chemical industry co ., ltd .). tetraethoxysilane : a special grade chemical , manufactured by kishida chemical co ., ltd . fatty acid amide - based thixotropic agent : product name “ dispalon a603 - 20x ”( manufactured by kusumoto chemicals , ltd .). first , 240 g of gum rosin ( ww ) made in china and 240 g of xylene were added to a 1 - l flask equipped with a thermometer , a reflux condenser , and a stirrer , and 120 g of zinc oxide was further added thereto such that all of the resin acids in the gum rosin formed zinc salts . then , the mixture was dehydrated under reflux at 70 to 80 ° c . for 3 hours . after that , the mixture was cooled and filtered to obtain the xylene solution containing a zinc salt of gum rosin ( a transparent dark brown solution ; the solid content : about 60 %). the resulting xylene solution had a non - volatile content of 60 . 5 %. first , 240 g of highpale ch ( hydrogenated rosin ) and 240 g of xylene were added to a 1 - l flask equipped with a thermometer , a reflux condenser , and a stirrer , and 120 g of zinc oxide was further added thereto such that all of the resin acids in the hydrogenated rosin formed zinc salts . then , the mixture was dehydrated under reflux at 70 to 80 ° c . for 3 hours . after that , the mixture was cooled and filtered to obtain the xylene solution containing a zinc salt of hydrogenated rosin ( a transparent dark brown solution ; the solid content : about 60 %). the resulting xylene solution had a non - volatile content of 60 . 6 %. a tank was provided , in the center thereof , with a rotating drum having a diameter of 515 mm and a height of 440 mm to allow the rotation of the drum by means of a motor . the tank was also provided with a cooling apparatus for keeping the temperature of seawater constant , and an automatic ph controller for keeping the ph of the seawater constant . two test plates were prepared for each coating composition in accordance with the following method . first , an anti - corrosive coating film was formed by applying an anti - corrosive coating material ( an epoxy vinyl - based a / c ) onto a titanium plate ( 71 × 100 × 0 . 5 mm ) such that the thickness after drying would be about 100 μm , followed by drying . each of the antifouling coating compositions obtained in examples 1 to 22 and comparative examples 1 to 11 was applied onto the anti - corrosive coating film so that the thickness after drying would be about 300 μm . the applied coating was dried for 3 days at 40 ° c ., such that the test plate having the dry coating film with a thickness of about 300 μm was prepared . one of the thus - prepared test plates was secured to the rotating drum of the rotary apparatus of the above - mentioned equipment and was made to contact the seawater , and the rotating drum was rotated at a speed of 20 knots . during the test , the seawater temperature was maintained at 25 ° c . and the ph at 8 . 0 to 8 . 2 ; the seawater was replaced once every week . the initial thickness of the coating film and the remaining thickness of the coating film as measured every 3 months from the beginning of the test were determined using a laser focus displacement meter for each test plate , and the thickness of the dissolved coating film was calculated from the difference therebetween to give the dissolving amount of the coating film per month ( μm / month ). the measurement was conducted for 24 months , and the dissolving amount of the coating film was calculated every 12 months . after the rotary test was completed ( after 24 months ), the test plate was dried , and the surface of each coating film was visually inspected to evaluate the state of the coating film . c : hairline cracks are observed on the entire surface of the coating film . d : coating film defects such as large cracks , blisters or peel - offs are observed . the results are shown in tables 5 to 7 . it can be seen from tables 5 to 7 that the coating films formed using the coating compositions of the invention ( examples 1 to 22 ) are dissolved in seawater in an amount of about 2 to 5 μm per month ( annual average ). furthermore , the coating films formed using the coating compositions of the invention are excellent in water resistance , and do not develop cracks or hairline cracks . in this way , the antifouling effect can be maintained for a long time . the coating films formed using the coating compositions of examples 4 to 5 , 9 to 11 , 15 to 16 and 20 to 22 develop neither cracks nor hairline cracks although the low - molecular - weight copolymers are used . in contrast , the coating films formed using the coating compositions of comparative examples 1 to 11 develop coating film defects such as cracks or peel - offs after a long period has passed because the low - molecular - weight copolymers are used . that is , the above coating films cannot exhibit the antifouling effect for a long period . each of the coating compositions obtained in examples 1 to 22 and comparative examples 1 to 11 was applied onto both surfaces of a hard vinyl chloride plate ( 100 × 200 × 2 mm ) such that the thickness of a dry coating film would be about 200 μm . the applied coating was dried for 3 days at room temperature ( 25 ° c . ), such that the test plate having the dry coating film with a thickness of about 200 μm was prepared . this test plate was immersed at 1 . 5 m below sea level in owase city , mie prefecture , japan , and the test plate fouling due to attached objects was examined for 12 months . the state of the surface of the coating film was visually evaluated in accordance with criteria shown below . a : fouling organisms such as shellfish or algae do not attach , and slime hardly attaches . b : fouling organisms such as shellfish or algae do not attach , and slime thinly attaches ( to the extent that the coating film surface is observable ) and the slime can be removed when wiped softly with a brush . c : fouling organisms such as shellfish or algae do not attached , but slime thickly attaches ( to the extent that the coating film surface is not observable ) and the slime cannot be removed even when wiped strongly with a brush . the results are shown in tables 5 to 7 . it can be seen from tables 5 to 7 that fouling organisms such as shellfish or algae do not attach and slime hardly attaches to the coating films formed using the coating compositions of the invention ( examples 1 to 22 ). in contrast , fouling organisms such as shellfish , algae , and / or slime do attach , after 12 - month immersion , to the coating films formed using the coating compositions of comparative examples 1 to 11 . | 2 |
in the following description of example embodiments of the present invention , the same or similar indexes are used for the same or similar elements shown in the various figures , so that there is no need for detailed repetitive descriptions of the elements . fig1 shows a function sequence of a process for releasing a stuck vehicle according to an example embodiment that relates to a differential lock of the vehicle . the figure shows a coordinate system with an abscissa 1 and an ordinate 2 perpendicular thereto , with the abscissa and the ordinate intersecting at an origin 3 . the abscissa is a time axis representing an increase of time in the positive direction . the origin 3 is a starting time - point at which a consideration of the function sequence begins , i . e . a zero - time point . in the coordinate system defined by the abscissa 1 and the ordinate 2 , a limit value 4 extends as a straight line , represented by a broken line parallel to and a distance away from the abscissa 1 . the limit value represents an open condition of the differential lock of the vehicle to be released . in addition , in the coordinate system defined by the abscissa 1 and the ordinate 2 , a time interval start value 5 extends as a straight line , indicated as a dotted line , parallel to and a distance away from the ordinate 2 . a time interval end value 6 , indicated as a dotted line , also extends in the coordinate system defined by the abscissa 1 and the ordinate 2 parallel to and a distance away from the ordinate 2 , the time interval end value 6 also being a distance away from the time interval start value 5 , with the latter closer to the ordinate 2 than is the time interval end value 6 . an area between the time interval start 5 and end 6 values is a time zone that represents a predetermined time interval . in the coordinate system defined by the abscissa 1 and the ordinate 2 , a function 11 extends as a step function very largely parallel to and a distance away from the abscissa 1 . the function 11 is divided into two sections 8 , 9 , which merge one into the other forming a rising step . a first function section 8 is a straight section extending in the coordinate system defined by the abscissa 1 and the ordinate 2 , a distance away from the abscissa 1 and from the limit value 4 , its distance from the abscissa 1 being larger than from the limit value 4 , and represents a closed condition of the differential lock of the vehicle to be released . at a point of intersection 7 the first function section 8 intersects the ordinate 2 . the intersection point 7 represents the starting time - point of this consideration . in the coordinate system defined by the abscissa 1 and the ordinate 2 , a second function section 9 is a straight section extending a distance away from the abscissa 1 and coincident with the limit value 4 . this second function section 9 , as also the limit value 4 , represent the open condition of the differential lock . thus , the function 11 pictures the condition of the differential lock . the step - shaped transition between the first and second function sections 8 , 9 marks the time interval start value 5 . the release of the vehicle by means of a rocking - free process begins at the starting time - point , which is characterized by the origin 3 . at that time - point the differential lock of the vehicle is closed , as shown by the intersection point 7 and the first function section 8 . the rocking - free process continues until the differential lock is opened , i . e . until the first function section 8 changes to the second function section 9 . at that transition the time interval start value 5 is set and the predetermined time interval runs until the time interval end value 6 . if the differential lock remains open during that predetermined interval , then the rocking - free process is suppressed from the time interval end value 6 onward . fig2 shows a function sequence of a method for releasing a stuck vehicle according to an example embodiment relating to a clutch of the vehicle . as in fig1 a coordinate system is shown , with an abscissa 1 and an ordinate 2 which intersect at the origin 3 . as in fig1 the coordinate system is shown with the abscissa 1 and the ordinate 2 intersecting at the origin 3 . as in fig1 the abscissa 1 represents the time axis , picturing a positively increasing passage of time . the ordinate 2 represents a load of the clutch , which increases the farther a point is from the origin 3 on the ordinate 2 in a positive direction . the origin 3 is both the starting point , as in fig1 , and also represents the absence of any clutch load , i . e . a zero - point of the ordinate 2 . in the coordinate system defined by the abscissa 1 and the origin 2 , a limit value 4 extends as a straight line , shown as a broken line , parallel to and a distance away from the abscissa 1 . the limit value 4 represents a clutch load limit of the vehicle to be released . in addition , in the coordinate system defined by the abscissa 1 and the origin 2 , a time interval start value 5 extends as a straight line , shown as a dotted line , parallel to and a distance away from the ordinate 2 . in the coordinate system defined by the abscissa 1 and the origin 2 , a time interval end value 6 , again shown as a dotted line , also extends parallel to and a distance from the ordinate 2 , with the time interval end value 6 a distance away from the time interval start value 5 and the latter closer to the ordinate 2 than is the time interval end value 6 . an area between the time interval start 5 and end 6 values is a time zone representing a predetermined time interval . in the coordinate system defined by the abscissa 1 and the origin 2 , a function 11 extends in the form of a step function . the function 11 is divided into five sections 8 , 9 , 10 , 16 , 17 , which merge one into another in the form of rising steps . a first function section 8 extends in the form of a straight section along the abscissa 1 . a second function section 9 follows on from the first function section 8 and extends as a straight section parallel to and a distance from the abscissa 1 . a third function section 10 also extends as a straight section parallel to and a distance from the abscissa 1 , the third function section 10 being farther away from the abscissa 1 than is the second function section 9 . the third function section 10 is connected to the second function section 9 by a step . a fourth function section 16 again extends as a straight section parallel to the abscissa 1 , this fourth function section 16 being farther away from the abscissa than is the third function section 10 , and being connected to the third function section 10 by a step . in addition a fifth function section 17 extends as a straight section parallel to the abscissa 1 , the fifth function section being farther away from the abscissa 1 than are the fourth function section 16 and the limit value 4 . the fourth function section 16 is connected by a step to the fifth function section 17 . this transition marks the time interval start value 5 . each of the five function sections 8 , 9 , 10 , 16 , 17 represents a load situation of the clutch at a particular time , from no load in the first function section 8 , through a low load in the second function section 9 , up to a high load in the fifth function section 17 . thus , the function 11 pictures the clutch load variation with time . the release of the vehicle by means of a rocking - free process begins at the starting point , characterized by the origin 3 . at that point in time the clutch is not loaded , as shown by the first function section 8 . during the rocking - free process the clutch load represented by the function 11 increases with increasing time in steps , as shown by the five function sections 8 , 9 , 10 , 16 , 17 . by virtue of the transition between the fourth function section 16 and the fifth function section 17 the clutch load exceeds the limit value 4 . at that transition point the time interval start value 5 is set and the predetermined time interval runs until the time interval end value 6 . if the clutch load maintains a value during the predetermined time interval which is above the limit value 4 , then from the time interval end value 6 onward the rocking - free process is suppressed . fig3 shows a function sequence of a method according to the invention for releasing a stuck vehicle , according to an example embodiment relating to a transmission of the vehicle . as in fig1 a coordinate system is shown , with an abscissa 1 and an ordinate 2 which intersect at the origin 3 . as in fig1 the abscissa 1 represents the time axis , picturing a positively increasing passage of time . the ordinate 2 represents the gears that can be engaged in a transmission of the vehicle , which are higher the farther a point in a positive direction on the ordinate is from the origin 3 . the origin 3 is both the starting time - point as in fig1 , and also the lowest gear that can be engaged , i . e . the maximum possible transmission ratio . in the coordinate system defined by the abscissa 1 and the origin 2 , a limit value 4 extends as a straight line , shown as a broken line , parallel to and a distance away from the abscissa 1 . the limit value 4 represents a maximum engageable gear of the transmission of the vehicle to be released . in addition , in the coordinate system defined by the abscissa 1 and the origin 2 , a time interval start value 5 extends as a straight line , shown as a dotted line , parallel to and a distance away from the ordinate 2 . in the coordinate system defined by the abscissa 1 and the origin 2 , a time interval end value 6 , again shown as a dotted line , also extends parallel to and a distance from the ordinate 2 , with the time interval end value 6 a distance away from the time interval start value 5 and the latter closer to the ordinate 2 than is the time interval end value 6 . an area between the time interval start 5 and end 6 values is a time zone representing a predetermined time interval . in the coordinate system defined by the abscissa 1 and the origin 2 , a function 11 extends in the form of a step function . the function 11 is divided into six sections 8 , 9 , 10 , 16 , 17 , 18 , which follow on into another in the form of rising steps . a first function section 8 extends in the form of a straight section along the abscissa 1 . a second function section 9 follows on from the first function section 8 up a step and extends as a straight section parallel to and a distance from the abscissa 1 . a third function section 10 also extends as a straight section parallel to and a distance from the abscissa 1 , the third function section 10 being farther away from the abscissa 1 than is the second function section 9 . the third function section 10 is connected to the second function section 9 by a step . a fourth function section 16 again extends as a straight section parallel to the abscissa 1 , this fourth section 16 being farther away from the abscissa than is the third function section 10 , and being connected to the third function section 10 by a step . in addition a fifth function section 17 extends as a straight section parallel to the abscissa 1 , the fifth function section being farther away from the abscissa 1 than is the fourth function section 16 . the fourth function section 16 is connected by a step to the fifth function section 17 . a sixth function section 18 again extends as a straight section parallel to the abscissa 1 , the sixth function section 18 being farther away from the abscissa 1 than is the fifth function section 17 and coinciding with the limit value 4 . the fifth function section 17 is connected to the sixth function section 18 by a step , this transition marking the time interval start value 5 . in this case each of these six function sections 8 , 9 , 10 , 16 , 17 , 18 represents a gear engaged in the transmission of the vehicle to be released at a particular point in time , from a lowest possible gear in the first function section 8 , through a low gear in the second function section 9 , up to a maximum possible gear in the sixth function section 18 . thus , the function 11 pictures the shifting of the gears in the transmission over time . the release of the vehicle by means of a rocking - free process begins at the starting point , which is characterized by the origin 3 . at that point in time the lowest , i . e . the minimum possible gear is engaged , as shown by the first function section 8 . during the rocking - free process taking place , with increasing time the gears are engaged one after the other , as shown by the six function sections 8 , 9 , 10 , 16 , 17 , 18 that follow one another in steps . by shifting into the highest possible gear of the transmission , represented by the sixth function section 18 of the function 11 , the limit value 4 is reached . at the transition between the fifth function section 17 and the sixth function section 18 , i . e . when the shift to the highest possible gear takes place , the time interval start value 5 is set and the predetermined time interval runs until the time interval end value 6 . if the maximum possible gear , i . e . the limit value 4 is maintained during the predetermined time interval , the rocking - free process is suppressed from the time interval end value 6 onward . fig4 shows a function sequence of a method for releasing a stuck vehicle according to an example embodiment relating to a transmission and to the wheels of the vehicle . as in fig1 a coordinate system is shown , with an abscissa 1 and an ordinate 2 which intersect at the origin 3 . as in fig1 the abscissa 1 represents the time axis , picturing a positively increasing passage of time , and as in fig1 the origin 3 is the starting time . in the coordinate system defined by the abscissa 1 and the ordinate 2 , a limit value 4 extends as a straight line , shown as a broken line , parallel to and a distance away from the abscissa 1 . the limit value 4 represents a transmission condition of the vehicle to be released , in which a reverse gear is engaged . in the coordinate system defined by the abscissa 1 and the ordinate 2 a further limit value 14 , shown as a broken line , also extends as a straight line parallel to and a distance from the abscissa 1 , this being farther away from the abscissa 1 than is the limit value 4 . the limit value 14 represents a transmission condition of the vehicle to be released in which a forward gear is engaged . in other words the limit value 4 and the limit value 14 each represent a condition of the transmission . in the coordinate system defined by the abscissa 1 and the ordinate 2 another limit value , shown as a dot - dash line , extends as a line parallel to and a distance away from the abscissa 1 , this being farther away from the abscissa than is the further limit value 14 . the other limit value 15 represents a backward - directed rotational direction of the wheels of the vehicle to be released . in addition , in the coordinate system defined by the abscissa 1 and the ordinate 2 another further limit value 19 , shown as a dot - dash line , extends parallel to and a distance away from the abscissa 1 , this limit value being farther away from the abscissa 1 than is the other limit value 15 . the other further limit value 19 represents a forward - directed rotational direction of the wheels of the vehicle to be released . in other words , the other limit value 15 and the other further limit value 19 each represent a travel direction of the vehicle to be released . furthermore , in the coordinate system defined by the abscissa 1 and the ordinate 2 a time interval start value 5 extends as a line , shown as a dotted line , parallel to and a distance away from the ordinate 2 . a time interval end value 6 , again shown as a dotted line , also extends parallel to and a distance away from the ordinate 2 , the time interval end value 6 being a distance away from the time interval start value 5 with the latter closer to the ordinate 2 than is the time interval end value 6 . an area between the time interval start 5 and end 6 values is a time zone that represents a predetermined time interval . in the coordinate system defined by the abscissa 1 and the ordinate 2 a function 11 extends as a step function . the function 11 is divided into two sections 8 , 9 which are connected to one another by a rising step . a first function section 8 of the function 11 extends in the form of a straight line section parallel to the abscissa 1 half - way between the limit value 4 and the further limit value 14 , and represents a neutral transmission position of the vehicle to be released . a second function section 9 of the function 11 also extends in the form of a straight section parallel to the abscissa 1 , but coincident with the further limit value 14 . thus , the function 11 represents a transmission position . the step between the first function section 8 and the second function section 9 of the function 11 marks the time interval start value 5 . in addition , in the coordinate system defined by the abscissa 1 and the ordinate 2 a further function 12 extends in the form of a step function . this further function 12 is also divided into two section 8 , 9 connected to one another by a rising step . a first function section 8 of the further function 12 extends as a straight section parallel to the abscissa 1 and half - way between the other limit value 15 and the further other limit value 19 , and represents the absence of any rotational direction of the wheels of the vehicle to be released . in other words , the vehicle is at rest . a second function section 9 of the further function 12 also extends in the form of a straight section parallel to the abscissa 1 , but coincident with the other further limit value 19 . thus , the further function 12 represents a rotational direction of the wheels of the vehicle to be released . the step between the first function section 8 and the second function section 9 of the function 12 marks the time interval start value 5 . this , the step in the function 11 coincides with the step in the further function 12 . the release of the vehicle by a rocking - free process begins at the starting time characterized by the origin 3 . at that starting time the transmission is in neutral as shown by the first function section 8 of the function 11 , and the vehicle to be released is at rest , i . e . the wheels of the vehicle to be released have no rotational direction , as shown by the first function section 8 of the further function 12 . during the rocking - free process the transmission setting is changed in such manner that a forward gear is engaged , as indicated by the second function section 9 of the further function 12 . the further limit value 14 and the other further limit value 19 are reached . owing to the change from the first function section 8 , both of the function 11 and of the further function 12 , to the second function section 9 in each case , the time interval start value 5 is set . the predetermined time interval then runs until the time interval end value 6 . if during the predetermined time interval the engaged forward gear is maintained and the wheels move only forward , then the rocking - free process is suppressed from the time interval end value 6 onward . fig5 shows a function sequence of a method for releasing a stuck vehicle , according to an example embodiment relating to a transmission , a clutch and the wheels of the vehicle . as in fig1 a coordinate system is shown , with an abscissa 1 and an ordinate 2 which intersect at the origin 3 . as in fig1 the abscissa 1 represents the time axis , picturing a positively increasing passage of time , and as in fig1 the origin 3 is the starting time . in the coordinate system defined by the abscissa 1 and the ordinate 2 , a limit value 4 extends as a straight line , shown as a broken line , parallel to and a distance away from the abscissa 1 . the limit value 4 represents a transmission condition of the vehicle to be released , in which a gear is engaged . in the coordinate system defined by the abscissa 1 and the ordinate 2 a further limit value 14 , represented as a dot - dash line , is also in the form of a straight line parallel to and a distance away from the abscissa 1 , this being farther away from the abscissa 1 than is the limit value 4 . the limit value 14 represents a closed clutch condition of the vehicle to be released . another limit value 15 , shown as a line of dots and longer dashes , extends in the coordinate system defined by the abscissa 1 and the ordinate 2 as a line parallel to and a distance away from the abscissa 1 , this being farther away from the abscissa 1 than is the further limit value 14 . the other limit value 15 represents a small speed difference of the wheels of the vehicle , i . e . a small degree of wheel - slip . in addition , in the coordinate system defined by the abscissa 1 and the ordinate 2 a time interval start value 5 extends as a straight line , shown as a dotted line , parallel to and a distance away from the ordinate 2 . in the coordinate system defined by the abscissa 1 and the ordinate 2 , a time interval end value 6 shown as a dotted line also extends parallel to and a distance away from the ordinate 2 , the time interval end 6 is also a distance away from the time interval start value 5 , with the latter closer to the ordinate 2 than is the time interval end value 6 . as area between the time interval start 5 and end 6 values is a time zone representing a predetermined time interval . in the coordinate system defined by the abscissa 1 and the ordinate 2 , a function 11 extends as a step function . the function 11 is divided into two sections 8 , 9 which are connected to one another by a rising step . a first function section 8 of the function 11 extends in the form of a straight line section parallel to the abscissa 1 and represents a neutral transmission position of the vehicle to be released . a second function section 9 of the function 11 also extends in the form of a straight section parallel to and a distance away from the abscissa 1 , this being farther away from the abscissa 1 than is the first function section 8 of the function 11 . the second function section 9 of the function 11 coincides with the limit value 4 . thus , the function 11 represents the transmission condition of the vehicle to be released . furthermore , in the coordinate system defined by the abscissa 1 and the ordinate 2 , a further function 12 extends in the form of a step function . the further function 12 is divided into two function sections 8 , 9 connected to one another by a rising step . a first function section 8 of the further function 12 extends in the form of a straight section parallel to and a distance from the abscissa 1 , being farther away from the abscissa 1 than is the limit value 4 . thus , the first function section 8 of the function 12 represents an open condition of the clutch of the vehicle to be released . a second function section 9 of the further function 11 also extends in the form of a straight section parallel to and a distance from the abscissa 1 , this second section 9 being farther away from the abscissa 1 than is the first function section 8 of the further function 12 . the second function section 9 of the further function 12 is connected to the first function section 8 of the further function 12 , the step between them occurring at a later time - point than the change between the two function sections 8 . 9 of the function 11 . thus , the second function section 9 of the further function 12 coincides with the further limit value 14 . the further function 12 represents the clutch condition of the vehicle to be released . in addition , in the coordinate system defined by the abscissa 1 and the ordinate 2 , another function 13 extends in the form of a step function . the other function 13 is divided into two function sections 8 , 9 connected to one another by a rising step . a first function section 8 of the other function 13 extends in the form of a straight section parallel to and a distance from the abscissa 1 , being farther away from the abscissa 1 than is the further limit value 14 . in this case the first function section 8 of the other function 13 indicates a large speed difference of the wheels of the vehicle to be released , i . e . a large degree of wheel - slip . a second function section 9 of the other function 13 also extends in the form of a straight section parallel to and a distance from the abscissa 1 , being farther away from the abscissa 1 than is the first function section 8 of the other function 13 . this second function section 9 of the other function 13 is connected to the first function section 8 thereof , the step between them occurring at a later time than the change between the first and second function sections 8 , 9 of the function 11 and than the change between the first and second function sections 8 , 9 of the further function 12 . in this case the second function section 9 of the other function 13 coincides with the other limit value 15 . thus , the other function 13 represents the speed difference situation of the wheels of the vehicle to be released . the change from the first function section 8 of the other function 13 to the second function section 9 thereof marks the time interval start value 5 . thus , the time interval end value 6 is set only after both the function 11 and the further function 12 and also the other function 13 have changed from their respective first function sections to their second function sections 9 , i . e . they have reached their associated limit values 4 , 14 , 15 . the release of the vehicle by a rocking - free process begins at the starting time , which is characterized by the origin 3 . at that starting time the transmission of the vehicle to be released is in neutral , its clutch is open and the speed difference of the wheels of the vehicle to be released is large , as shown respectively by the first function section 8 of the function 11 , the further function 12 and the other function 13 . during the rocking - free process the transmission setting is changed in such manner that a gear is engaged . the limit value 4 is reached , as shown by the second function section 9 of the function 11 . then the clutch condition is changed , i . e . the clutch is closed . thereby , the further limit value 14 is reached , as shown by the second function section 9 of the further function 12 . after that a small difference in the speed of the wheels occurs . the other limit value 15 is reached , as shown by the second function section 9 of the other function 13 . when two of the three limit values 4 , 14 , 15 have been reached the time interval start value 5 is set by the change of one of the functions 11 , 12 , 13 to the corresponding last , not yet reached limit value . the predetermined time interval runs until the time interval end value 6 . if during the predetermined time interval the engaged gear , the open clutch condition and the small wheel speed difference all persist , the rocking - free process is suppressed . the example embodiments described and illustrated in the figures have only been chosen as examples . for instance , the time interval start value can be the same as the time interval end value so that the predetermined time interval lasts zero seconds . for example the clutch of a vehicle to be released can have more than the loading steps shown in fig2 . it is also possible for the variation of the clutch load to differ from that shown in fig2 , being for example a linear , quadratic , cubic , hyperbolic , or any other function . furthermore , for example already when the limit value is reached the rocking - free process can be suppressed . for instance , the transmission of the vehicle to be released can have more gears than those represented in fig3 . furthermore the limit value , associated with the highest engageable gear in fig3 , can also be set lower , for example one or two gear steps below the highest engageable gear . furthermore the simultaneous occurrence , shown in fig4 , of the exclusive forward movement of the wheels of the vehicle to be released and the engagement of a forward gear can for example take place a certain time apart . in that case the time interval start value is not set until both criteria exist together . in other words , when a forward gear has already been engaged the time interval start value is set when an exclusively forward movement is detected , or when an exclusively forward movement has been detected the time interval start value is set when a forward gear is engaged . at the beginning of the rocking - free process in fig4 , the vehicle to be released can for example already have a transmission position with a gear engaged . this and the criteria described in connection with fig4 can also be used for an exclusively reverse movement and a reverse gear . moreover , the three criteria described in fig5 , namely the transmission condition , the clutch condition and the speed difference condition of the wheels of the vehicle to be released , can follow one another in a sequence other than that shown . for example , first a small speed difference of the wheels of the vehicle to be released can be detected , and then a gear is engaged and the clutch is closed . in each case the time interval start value is only set when the last of the three criteria reaches the corresponding limit value . likewise , in fig5 at the beginning of the rocking - free process the vehicle can be at rest , i . e . the speed difference of the wheels of the vehicle to be released is almost non - existent since the wheels are not moving . different example embodiments can be combined with one another as regards individual features . moreover , one example embodiment can be supplemented by one or more features of another example embodiment . | 1 |
reference will now be made in detail to the embodiments of the present invention , examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings . while the invention will be described in conjunction with the embodiments , it will be understood that they are not intended to limit the invention to these embodiments . on the contrary , the invention is intended to cover alternatives , modifications and equivalents , which may be included within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims . furthermore , in the following detailed description of embodiments of the present invention , numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention . however , it will be recognized by one of ordinary skill in the art that the present invention may be practiced without these specific details . in other instances , well - known methods , procedures , components , and circuits have not been described in detail as not to unnecessarily obscure aspects of the embodiments of the present invention . embodiments described herein may be discussed in the general context of computer - executable instructions residing on some form of computer - usable medium , such as program modules , executed by one or more computers or other devices . generally , program modules include routines , programs , objects , components , data structures , etc ., that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types . the functionality of the program modules may be combined or distributed as desired in various embodiments . by way of example , and not limitation , computer - usable media may comprise computer storage media and communication media . computer storage media includes volatile and nonvolatile , removable and non - removable media implemented in any method or technology for storage of information such as computer - readable instructions , data structures , program modules or other data . computer storage media includes , but is not limited to , random access memory ( ram ), read only memory ( rom ), electrically erasable programmable rom ( eeprom ), flash memory or other memory technology , compact disk rom ( cd - rom ), digital versatile disks ( dvds ) or other optical storage , magnetic cassettes , magnetic tape , magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices , or any other medium that can be used to store the desired information . a multi - channel analog to digital converter ( adc ) can convert multiple analog signals from multiple input channels to multiple digital output signals , e . g ., multiple analog voltages to multiple digital output voltages , in an interleaved mode . the multi - channel adc can be used in various data processing applications , such as video systems , audio systems , signal sensors , etc ., which may require analog to digital conversions . fig1 illustrates a block diagram of an adc , e . g ., a multi - channel adc 100 , in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention . the multi - channel adc 100 can be a first - order delta - sigma adc , in one embodiment . the multi - channel adc 100 can have multiple input channels , e . g ., four input channels including channel 1 , channel 2 , channel 3 , and channel 4 for converting analog signals , e . g ., analog voltage signals v 1 , v 2 , v 3 and v 4 respectively to digital signals in an interleaved mode , in one embodiment . each input channel is coupled to an associated switch , e . g ., s 1a associated with channel 1 , s 2a associated with channel 2 , s 3a associated with channel 3 , and s 4a associated with channel 4 . the switches s 1a , s 2a , s 3a , and s 4a can be controlled by a system clock signal s clk , in one embodiment . in one embodiment , one input channel is selected during a clock cycle according to the system clock signal s clk . the switch associated with the selected input channel is turned on and other switches are turned off in one clock cycle , in one embodiment . the multi - channel adc 100 includes a modulator 110 for converting analog signals ( e . g ., the analog voltage signals v 1 , v 2 , v 3 or v 4 ) to digital signals . the modulator 110 can be a first - order delta - sigma modulator , or a second - order modulator , etc ., according to different application requirements . the modulator 110 can receive an analog signal from a selected input channel and provide a corresponding digital signal to a filter ( e . g ., a digital filter f 1 , f 2 , f 3 , or f 4 ) associated with the input channel . the analog signal can be various types of signals , e . g ., current or voltage signals . the modulator 110 can sample the received analog signal at a predetermined sampling frequency , e . g ., a frequency equal to fs * osr , where fs is a nyquist frequency and osr is an over sampling ratio to the nyquist frequency . for example , the sampling frequency is 65536 hz when fs is 16 hz and osr is 4096 . the analog signal can be translated to a digital signal at the sampling frequency by the modulator 110 . in one embodiment , the digital signal can be a continuous 1 - bit data stream including logic 1 and logic 0 at a rate determined by the sampling frequency ( e . g ., fs * osr ). in one embodiment , the modulator 110 includes a sampling circuit 130 for sampling the analog signal . the sampling circuit 130 can include an energy storage unit ( e . g ., sampling capacitor ) 120 coupled to the selected input channel for storing charges from the selected input channel , and can include a switch array including switches 122 , 124 , 126 , and 128 for controlling the energy storage unit 120 . switches 122 and 124 are controlled by a signal ph 2 , and switches 126 and 128 are controlled by a signal ph 1 . the signals ph 1 and ph 2 are non - overlapping clock signals , in one embodiment . for example , when the signal ph 2 is at a high level and the signal ph 1 is at a low level , switches 122 and 124 can be turned on and switches 126 and 128 can be turned off . when the signal ph 1 is at a high level and the signal ph 2 is at a low level , switches 122 and 124 can be turned off and switches 126 and 128 can be turned on . the modulator 110 can further include an integrator 150 coupled to the sampling circuit 130 for receiving the sampled analog signal and a feedback signal 111 and for integrating a superposition of the sampled analog signal and the feedback signal 111 and generating an output . in the example of fig1 , the integrator 150 includes a group of integrating capacitors ( e . g ., integrating capacitors c i1 , c i2 , c i3 , and c i4 ) and an error amplifier 102 . the integrating capacitors c i1 , c i2 , c i3 , and c i4 are coupled in parallel . the integrating capacitors c i1 , c i2 , c i3 , and c i4 can accumulate charges from channel 1 , channel 2 , channel 3 , and channel 4 respectively . each integrating capacitor c i1 , c i2 , c i3 , or c i4 can be coupled to a switch in series , e . g ., the integrating capacitor c i1 is coupled to a switch s ib , the integrating capacitor c i2 is coupled to a switch s 2b , the integrating capacitor c i3 is coupled to a switch s 3b , and the integrating capacitor c i4 is coupled to a switch s 4b . in one embodiment , the modulator 110 can complete an analog to digital conversion for each input channel sequentially during a conversion cycle . in one embodiment , the integrating capacitors can be randomly allocated to the input channels at the beginning of a conversion cycle . for example , the integrating capacitor c i1 can store charges from channel 2 , the integrating capacitor c i2 can store charges from channel 3 , the integrating capacitor c i3 can store charges from channel 4 , and the integrating capacitor c 41 can store charges from channel 1 , etc . the flexible configuration of the input channels and the integrating capacitors can reduce mismatch between different channels caused by mismatch of the integrating capacitors . in one embodiment , the output of the integrator 150 can include the previous charges stored in a corresponding integrating capacitor during a previous conversion cycle and an integration result of the superposition of the sampled analog signal and the feedback signal 111 . in one embodiment , the error amplifier 102 has two input terminals ( e . g ., an inverting input terminal and a non - inverting input terminal ) and an output terminal . the error amplifier 102 can receive an input signal through the inverting input terminal and a first reference signal through the non - inverting input terminal . in one embodiment , the input signal can be a superposition of the sampled analog signal of an input channel and the feedback signal 111 . in one embodiment , the non - inverting input terminal is connected to ground such that a voltage level of the first reference signal is substantially equal to zero . the error amplifier 102 can generate an error signal according to a difference between the input signal ( e . g ., the superposition of the sampled analog signal and the feedback signal 111 ) and the first reference signal . in one embodiment , the error signal is a voltage signal . the modulator 110 further includes a feedback circuit for generating a digital signal according to an output of the integrator 150 and for sending the feedback signal 111 indicative of the digital signal to the integrator 150 . in the example of fig1 , the feedback circuit can include a comparator 104 , a multiplexer 108 , and a digital to analog converter ( dac ) 106 . in other words , the integrator 150 , the comparator 104 , the multiplexer 108 , and the dac 106 together form a feedback loop . the feedback loop includes a feed forward path including the integrator 150 , the comparator 104 and the multiplexer 108 , and a feed backward path including the dac 106 . the comparator 104 coupled to the integrator 150 can compare the output of the integrator 150 with a second reference signal and for generating a comparator output signal according to the comparison result . in one embodiment , the output of the integrator 150 can include the previous charges stored in a corresponding integrating capacitor during a previous conversion cycle and an integration result of the superposition of the sampled analog signal and the feedback signal 111 . the comparator 104 can be controlled by the signal ph 2 and can operate when the signal ph 2 is at a high level . in one embodiment , a non - inverting terminal of the comparator 104 is connected to ground . thus , a voltage level of the second reference signal is substantially zero . the comparator 104 can generate a 1 - bit digital signal ( e . g ., logic 1 or logic 0 ) according to the comparison result . the comparator output signal , e . g ., a 1 - bit digital signal , is further sent to the multiplexer 108 . in one embodiment , the multiplexer 108 can be a barrel shift register controlled by a system clock signal s clk . the multiplexer 108 can pass the digital signal from the comparator 104 , e . g ., a 1 - bit digital signal , to an output channel , e . g ., a digital filter associated with the selected input channel according to the system clock signal s clk . the output channels can include digital filters f 1 , f 2 , f 3 , and f 4 , such as decimation filters to decimate the digital signals ( e . g ., the 1 - bit digital signals from the comparator 104 ) to multi - bit digital output signals . therefore , multiple digital output signals associated with the multiple input channels can be obtained from the digital filters ( e . g ., f 1 , f 2 , f 3 , and f 4 ), respectively . additionally , the multiplexer 108 can latch the 1 - bit digital signal from the comparator 104 associated with each input channel . consequently , during a current conversion cycle , the 1 - bit digital signal of each input channel generated in a previous conversion cycle is latched in the multiplexer 108 until a new 1 - bit digital signal is generated . when one input channel is selected according to the system clock signal s clk in the current conversion cycle , the multiplexer 108 can transfer the 1 - bit digital signal of the selected input channel which is generated in a previous conversion cycle to the dac 106 . during the first conversion cycle , the multiplexer 108 can transfer a 1 - bit digital , e . g ., logic 0 to the dac 106 , in one embodiment . the dac 106 can be a 1 - bit digital to analog converter , in one embodiment . the dac 106 can receive the 1 - bit digital signal from the multiplexer 108 and convert the 1 - bit digital signal to an analog signal ( e . g ., a voltage signal ) according to a reference voltage v ref . the analog signal generated by the dac 106 can be used as the feedback signal 111 sent to the integrator 150 . the dac 106 can set the feedback signal 111 equal to − v ref when the 1 - bit digital signal is logic 1 and equal to v ref when the 1 - bit digital signal is logic 0 , in one embodiment . the dac 106 can be controlled by signals ph 1 and ph 2 . thus , the value of the feedback signal 111 can be set according to the 1 - bit digital signal from the multiplexer 108 . more specifically , when channel 1 is selected according to the system clock signal s clk in a clock cycle during a current conversion cycle , the modulator 110 can receive the analog signal from channel 1 ( e . g ., the analog voltage signal v 1 ) and a feedback signal 111 from the dac 106 , and generate a 1 - bit digital signal . in one embodiment , the feedback signal 111 from the dac 106 is generated according to a 1 - bit digital signal of channel 1 generated in a previous conversion cycle and according to a reference voltage v ref . the comparator 104 can generate a 1 - bit digital signal to the multiplexer 108 . as such , the previous 1 - bit digital signal in the multiplexer 108 associated with channel 1 can be replaced by the new 1 - bit digital signal generated in the current conversion cycle . the multiplexer 108 can output the 1 - bit digital signal generated in the current conversion cycle to the corresponding digital filter f 1 . a next input channel , e . g ., channel 2 , can be selected during a next clock cycle of the system clock signal s clk and a corresponding 1 - bit digital signal can be received by an associated filter . for example , channel 1 , channel 2 , channel 3 , and channel 4 are selected sequentially and 1 - bit digital signals corresponding to channel 1 , channel 2 , channel 3 , and channel 4 can be received by the digital filter f 1 , the digital filter f 2 , the digital filter f 3 , and the digital filter f 4 sequentially . the digital filters ( e . g ., f 1 , f 2 , f 3 , and f 4 ) can accumulate the 1 - bit digital signals for several conversion cycles for corresponding input channels and then can generate multi - bit digital output signals . although fig1 shows a multi - channel analog to digital converter 100 , the invention is not so limited . for example , the modulator 110 can also be used in a single channel analog to digital converter . operations of the multi - channel adc 100 will be described herein with reference to a timing diagram in fig2 as an example . fig2 illustrates waveforms of the system clock signal s clk , states of the switches s 1a , s 2a , s 3a , s 4a , s 1b , s 2b , s 3b , and s 4b , and the signal ph 2 and the signal ph 1 during operations of the multi - channel adc 100 , in one embodiment . fig2 is only for illustrative purposes , and the present invention is not limited to the operation shown in fig2 . in the example of fig2 , a switch is turned on when a corresponding state waveform is at a high level and the switch is turned off when the corresponding state waveform is at a low level . in the example of fig2 , a clock cycle of the system clock signal s clk is divided into two phases including phase s 1 when the system clock signal s clk is at a low level and phase s 2 when the system clock signal s clk is at a high level . for instance , each clock cycle , e . g ., t 1 , t 2 , t 3 , t 4 , t 5 , etc ., includes phase s 1 and phase s 2 . the signal ph 1 is set to a high level and the signal ph 2 is set to a low level during phase s 1 of each clock cycle . similarly , the signal ph 1 is set to a low level and the signal ph 2 is set to a high level during phase s 2 of each clock cycle . because the signal ph 1 and the signal ph 2 are non - overlapping clock signals , widths of pulses of the signal ph 1 and the signal ph 2 can be smaller than the widths of the pulses of the system clock signal s lck to avoid overlapping , in one embodiment . in one embodiment , channel 1 is first selected after the multi - channel adc 100 is powered on during the clock cycle t 1 . the switches s 1a and s 1b associated with channel 1 are turned on and switches associated with other input channels ( e . g ., channel 2 , channel 3 , and channel 4 ) are turned off . in one embodiment , the switch s 1b is turned on after a delay of half of a clock cycle , e . g ., the switch s 1a is turned on during the clock cycle t 1 and the switch s 1b is turned on during phase s 2 of the clock cycle t 1 and phase s 1 of the clock cycle t 2 . the switches 122 and 124 are turned on during phase s 2 of the clock cycle t 1 according to a high level of the signal ph 2 . simultaneously , the switches 126 and 128 are turned off according to a low level of the signal ph 1 during phase s 2 of the clock cycle t 1 . therefore , the analog signal from channel 1 ( e . g ., the analog voltage signal v 1 ) can be transferred to the sampling capacitor 120 via the closed switches s 1a , 124 and 122 , and can be sampled . charges from channel 1 corresponding to the analog voltage signal v 1 can be stored in the sampling capacitor 120 . during phase s 1 of the clock cycle t 2 , the switches 122 and 124 are turned off according to a low level of the signal ph 2 , and the switches 126 and 128 are turned on according to a high level of the signal ph 1 . consequently , the charges stored in the sampling capacitor 120 can be transferred to the integrating capacitor c i1 via the closed switches 126 , 128 and s 1b . additionally , the dac 106 generates a feedback signal 111 to the integrator 150 according to a 1 - bit digital signal of channel 1 in a previous conversion cycle . the output of the integrator 150 can be compared with the second reference signal by the comparator 104 when the signal ph 2 is at a high level during phase s 2 of the clock cycle t 2 . a 1 - bit digital signal of channel 1 can be generated by the comparator 104 and be latched in the multiplexer 108 . the digital filter f 1 can receive the 1 - bit digital signal . channel 2 is selected during the clock cycle t 2 . the operating sequence associated with channel 2 is similar to the operating sequence associated with channel 1 . switches s 2a , 122 , and 124 are turned on and the switches 126 and 128 are turned off according to a high level of the signal ph 2 during phase s 2 of the clock cycle t 2 . an analog signal of channel 2 ( e . g ., an analog voltage signal v 2 ) can be transferred to the sampling capacitor 120 and be sampled . during phase s 1 of the clock cycle t 3 , the switches 122 and 124 are turned off and the switches 126 and 128 are turned on according to a high level of the signal ph 1 . because the switch s 1b is turned off after phase s 1 of the clock cycle t 2 and the switch s 2b is turned on during phase s 2 of the clock cycle t 2 and phase s 1 of the clock cycle t 3 , charges stored in the sampling capacitor 120 can be transferred to the integrating capacitor c i2 during phase s 1 of the clock cycle t 3 . then , the comparator 104 can operate during phase s 2 of the clock cycle t 3 and generate a 1 - bit digital signal of channel 2 to the multiplexer 108 . the digital filter f 2 can receive the 1 - bit digital signal . similarly , channel 3 can be selected during the clock cycle t 3 and can generate a 1 - bit digital signal during phase s 2 of the clock cycle t 4 . channel 4 can be selected during the clock cycle t 4 and can generate a 1 - bit digital signal during phase s 2 of the clock cycle t 5 . if more input channels are available , the input channels can be selected sequentially during sequential clock cycles . thus , the analog signals from the input channels can be converted to digital signals sequentially and circularly . for example , if four input channels exist , at least four clock cycles ( e . g ., t 1 , t 2 , t 3 , and t 4 ) can be used to accomplish one conversion cycle for all the input channels . the digital filters ( e . g ., f 1 , f 2 , f 3 , or f 4 ) can receive the 1 - bit digital signals for the associated input channels ( e . g ., channel 1 , channel 2 , channel 3 , or channel 4 ) during each conversion cycle . then a next conversion cycle starts from the clock cycle t 5 . similarly , each input channel is selected sequentially and each analog signal is sampled sequentially . consequently , each digital filter can accumulate the 1 - bit digital signals of the associated input channel during multiple conversion cycles and decimate the 1 - bit digital signals to generate a multi - bit digital output signal at a predetermined rate , e . g ., fs . assume that the over sampling ratio is osr , then the time required for a conversion cycle is n * osr clocks , where n represents the total number of channels , in one embodiment . advantageously , in one conversion cycle , the analog signals from the input channels can be sampled and converted to 1 - bit digital signals respectively and sequentially , in one embodiment . thus , multi - bit digital output signals of the multiple input channels can be obtained during multiple conversion cycles in a synchronized way . as a result , the multi - channel adc 100 has an improved efficiency and reduced power consumption , in one embodiment . additionally , in order to speed up the conversions , double sampling technique can be used by adding another switch array ( e . g ., similar to the switches 122 , 124 , 126 and 128 ) and a sampling capacitor ( e . g ., similar to the sampling capacitor 120 ) with complementary control clock signals ( e . g ., ph 1 and ph 2 ). in this topology , the speed of the adc conversion can be doubled without increasing static power consumption . other sampling techniques , e . g ., triple sampling technique can also be used to further speed up the conversions of the adc 100 . fig3 illustrates a flowchart 300 of operations performed by an adc , e . g ., the multi - channel adc , in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention . descriptions of fig3 will be made in combination with fig1 . one input channel ( e . g ., channel 1 , channel 2 , channel 3 , or channel 4 ) is selected to receive an analog signal by the multi - channel adc 100 during a clock cycle of the system clock signal s clk . in block 310 , the analog signal from the selected input channel is sampled by a sampling circuit 130 during the same clock cycle under the control of a switch array . in block 320 , charges from the sampling capacitor 120 can be transferred to one of the integrating capacitors ( e . g ., c i1 , c i2 , c i3 or c i4 ) under the control of an associate switch ( e . g ., s 1b , s 2b , s 3b , or s 4b ). the integrator 150 can integrate a superposition of the sampled analog signal and a feedback signal . the integrating capacitors can be randomly allocated to the input channels at the beginning of a conversion cycle . advantageously , the flexible configuration of the input channels and the integrating capacitors can reduce mismatch among different channels caused by mismatch of the integrating capacitors . in block 330 , a comparator ( e . g ., the comparator 104 ) can generate a 1 - bit digital signal according to an integration result of the superposition . more specifically , the comparator 104 can compare an integrator output with a reference signal ( e . g ., the voltage level zero ) to generate the 1 - bit digital signal , and can send the 1 - bit digital signal to the multiplexer 108 . the integrator output is generated according to previous charges stored in the corresponding integrating capacitor and according to an integration result of the sampled analog signal and the feedback signal . in block 340 , the multiplexer 108 can output the 1 - bit digital signal to the dac 106 and a corresponding digital filter ( e . g ., f 1 , f 2 , f 3 , or f 4 ). hence , the feedback signal 111 can be provided to indicate the 1 - bit digital signal . in block 350 , the corresponding digital filter can generate a multi - bit digital output signal according to the 1 - bit digital signal . more specifically , the corresponding digital filter can accumulate the 1 - bit digital signals for several conversion cycles for a corresponding input channel and then can generate the multi - bit digital output signal . advantageously , multiple input channels can be selected sequentially and corresponding analog signals thereof can be sampled in block 310 . similarly , the analog signals from other input channels can be converted to digital output signals sequentially via block 310 to block 340 . advantageously , the traditional sample / hold blocks in the multiple input channels due to synchronization sampling can be avoided such that the whole cost of the circuitry can be reduced . fig4 illustrates a block diagram of an electronic system 400 , in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention . the electronic system 400 employs the multi - channel adc 100 disclosed hereinabove , in one embodiment . the multi - channel adc 100 has multiple input channels ( e . g ., channel 1 , channel 2 , channel 3 , . . . , channel n ) for receiving analog signals from multiple devices ( e . g ., devices 402 , 404 , 406 , . . . , 408 ), and for converting the analog signals to digital output signals ( e . g ., output 1 , output 2 , output 3 , . . . , output n ) respectively . the digital output signals can be received by various receivers ( e . g ., receivers 422 , 424 , 426 , . . . , 428 ). the multi - channel adc 100 includes a modulator , e . g ., the modulator 110 , for converting the analog signals to 1 - bit digital signals , and multiple digital filters , e . g ., f 1 , f 2 , f 3 , and f 4 , for generating multi - bit digital output signals according to the 1 - bit digital signals . the multiple devices ( e . g ., the devices 402 , 404 , 406 , . . . , 408 ) can be various types of devices , e . g ., audio systems , video systems , etc ., which can generate analog signals . the receivers ( e . g ., the receivers 422 , 424 , 426 , . . . , 428 ) can be various types of devices which can receive digital signals . for example , the multi - channel adc 100 can be used for converting analog voltage monitoring signals indicating battery / cell voltages to digital signals . a battery management system can receive the digital signals and control the battery . accordingly , an adc ( e . g ., the multi - channel adc ) 100 for converting an analog signal to a digital signal can include multiple input channels ( e . g ., channel 1 , channel 2 , channel 3 , channel 4 , etc . ), a sampling circuit 130 coupled to the multiple input channels , an integrator 150 coupled to the sampling circuit 130 , and a feedback circuit coupled to the integrator 150 , in one embodiment . the multiple input channels can receive an analog signal when the associated switch is turned on . the sampling circuit 130 includes an energy storage unit 120 for sampling the analog signal from the selected input channel and includes a switch array for controlling the energy storage unit 120 . the integrator 150 can include multiple capacitors ( e . g ., integrating capacitors ) coupled in parallel and an error amplifier 102 coupled to the sampling circuit 130 . the integrating capacitors are coupled to multiple switches respectively . one of the integrating capacitors can store charges from the sampling capacitor 120 when the associate switch is turned on . the feedback circuit can include a comparator 104 coupled to the integrator 150 , a multiplexer 108 coupled to the comparator 104 , and a dac 106 coupled to the sampling circuit 130 . the comparator 104 can compare an output of the integrator 150 with a reference signal ( e . g ., zero volts ) and generate a comparator output signal according to the comparison result . the multiplexer 108 can provide the digital signal according to the comparator output signal . the dac 106 can generate a feedback signal 111 according to the digital signal . the multi - channel adc 110 can further include output channels to provide multi - bit digital output signals . advantageously , the multi - channel adc 100 can perform analog to digital conversions for the multiple input channels in a synchronized and interleaved mode . multiple sample / hold blocks or multiple adcs are not required for converting analog signals from multiple input channels , in one embodiment . hence , the cost of the circuitry can be reduced and the efficiency of the circuitry can be improved . additionally , the mismatch between multiple adcs can be reduced / avoided . the aforementioned embodiments can also be used in a single channel adc , when one integrating capacitor and an associated switch coupled in series are included in the integrator 150 and one input channel and one digital filter are included in fig1 . the embodiments that have been described herein , however , are some of the several that utilize this invention and are set forth here by way of illustration but not of limitation . it is obvious that many other embodiments , which will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art , may be made without departing materially from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims . furthermore , although elements of the invention may be described or claimed in the singular , the plural is contemplated unless limitation to the singular is explicitly stated . | 7 |
referring now to the drawings , one embodiment of the invention is there shown generally at numeral 10 in fig1 to 6 . this embodiment 10 includes a housing 12 having a molded plastic housing front half 18 and a mating molded plastic rear housing half 28 . the two housing halves 18 and 28 define a support base 14 at the bottom portion thereof supportable on a flat surface by bottom surface 14 a in fig3 . the outer obverse forwardly facing surface of the front half 18 as seen in fig1 includes a plurality of viewable indicia 26 , each of which depicts a different object such as a flute , a harp , a piano , a tuba , etc . which produces or is capable of producing a recognizable sound , in this case , musical sounds or notes . immediately adjacent to each of the viewable object indicia 26 are written or printed words describing the corresponding viewable indicia . also radially outwardly positioned immediately thereto is a sound emitting area 20 formed of spaced slots adjacent each of the viewable indicia 26 . a rotatable selector 24 is also provided which is rotatable about a shaft 34 which defines central transverse axis of the housing 12 back and forth in the direction of arrow a . the child using the device or someone attendant thereto , would initially manually position the pointer 24 to be aimed at one of the selectable viewable indicia 26 for training or entertainment purposes . thereafter , the central area 24 a is depressed to energize or activate the device 10 into operation . referring particularly to fig3 , when the pointer 24 is rotated , arm assembly 30 which is also pivotally attached on shaft 34 to the pointer 24 , is also similarly rotated in the direction of arrow a in sequence therewith . arm assembly 30 includes a sound producing device 36 connected at the distal end of arm member 32 which will emit synthesized sounds representative of each of the selected , viewable indicia 26 displayed on the front housing 12 . thus , when a selection is made by the manual rotation of the pointer 24 back and forth in the direction of arrow a , the sound emitting device 36 is positioned in alignment with and in close proximity to the inner surface of the corresponding sound emitting area 20 . a series of evenly spaced detents 44 act in alignment with a small protrusion ( not shown ) on the reverse surface of arm 32 to properly align the sound emitting device 36 to be in alignment with the corresponding sound emitting area 20 selected by pointer 24 . an electronic controller 52 of conventional design is preprogrammed to produce electronic signals which , when received by the sound emitting device 36 , will produce separate synthesized sounds simulating each of the sounds normally associated with the object displayed in the viewable indicia 26 on the front surface of the front housing 18 . powered by a storage battery 54 , the electronic controller 52 sends and receives signals by a wiring harness shown to and from a printed circuit board 50 . as best seen in fig6 , this circuit board 50 includes a plurality of electrical contact surface pairs 56 / 58 and two spaced apart circle and ring - shaped contact pairs 60 and 62 centrally positioned on the circuit board 50 . contact pads 56 and 58 are in operable engagement with contacts 40 and 42 on the opposing surface of arm 32 as best seen in fig4 while the circular and annular shaped contact 60 and 62 of circuit board 50 are in electrical contact against contacts 36 and 38 of the central portion of arm 32 . by this arrangement , the electronic controller 52 receives positional information with respect to pointer 24 and , when energized by manual depression of the central button 24 a , produces a signal which causes the sound emitting device 36 to emit a synthesized sound which is characteristic of the selected object depicted in one of the viewable indicia selected by pointer 24 . this synthesized sound is emitted from the sound emitting device 36 in alignment with the corresponding sound emitting area 20 so that the child is directed to look at the particular sound emitting area 20 corresponding to the viewable indicia 26 which was preselected by the positioning of the pointer 24 . the learning function is thus enhanced by the child &# 39 ; s focus of attention being drawn simultaneously to a graphic display of an object , the word description thereof , and the characteristic sound produced thereby . by the use of this embodiment 10 of the device , when activated by depression of the central portion 24 a after the pointer 24 has been positioned to aim at the desired object depicted in one of the viewable indicia 26 , a corresponding sound will emanate from area 20 immediately adjacent thereto . when the child &# 39 ; s gaze is focused on that portion of the front surface of housing half 18 , the educational connection will be made between the particular sound which emanates from the sound emitting area 20 , the graphic depiction of the selected object such as a piano , and the word “ piano ” immediately adjacent thereto . the attention drawn to these three representations of an object , the viewable indicia , including the printed description , the word describing the object , and the distinctive sound which the object emits provides a powerful educational tool for more rapidly establishing the connection association between the three symbols of the object itself . referring now to fig7 to 10 , another embodiment of the invention is there shown generally at numeral 70 in the form of an educational cube . the housing 72 is formed of plastic material having softer exterior surfaces to reduce impact upon both exterior objects and the battery - powered electronic controller ( not shown ) contained therein which functions as previously described . this embodiment 70 includes depressible central areas 78 , 80 , 82 , 84 and 86 , one on each of the generally flat surfaces of the cube - shaped housing 72 . each of the central areas 78 , 80 , 82 , 84 and 86 include viewable indicia of a particular musical instrument , namely a french horn , a harp , a piano , etc . in addition , the viewable indicia includes the printed word ( s ) describing the object . formed into each of the central areas are arrays of apertures shown typically at 90 in fig9 which define a sound emitting area . as also seen in fig9 , positioned behind each of these central areas ( typically 84 ) is a sound producing device 88 which will produce the corresponding synthesized sound of the object depicted on the central depressible area 84 associated with , or characteristic of , the viewable indicia depicted thereon . by this arrangement , the child using this educational device 70 simply depresses one of the central portions 78 , 80 , 82 , 84 and 86 to activate the electronic controller ( not shown ) within the cube - shaped housing 72 which then produces a signal delivered to the particular sound emitting device 88 positioned behind the viewable indicia displayed on the depressed central portion . the sound emitted from the corresponding sound emitting area 90 will cause the child &# 39 ; s attention to be directed to and focused there so that all of the indicia representative of the object , i . e . the pictorial depiction , the word description , and the characteristic sound emitted from the object are all in focus at one time for the child &# 39 ; s associative educational growth . referring now to fig1 , a third embodiment of the invention is there shown generally at numeral 100 . this embodiment 100 includes a housing 102 which supportively holds a series of side - by - side depressible keys 106 each of which includes a viewable indicia depicting an object shown typically at 108 , the word describing the object at 110 , and a sound emitting area 112 behind which is a sound emitting device ( not shown ). when a particular key 106 is manually depressed , it activates the electronic controller ( not shown ) within the housing 102 to produce an electronic signal which will be delivered to the sound emitting device ( not shown ) behind the corresponding sound emitting area 112 . again , the sound which is emitted from the particular sound emitting area 112 corresponds to the characteristic sound typically produced by the object depicted in the viewable indicia 108 and the word portion thereof at 110 . while the instant invention has been shown and described herein in what are conceived to be the most practical and preferred embodiments , it is recognized that departures may be made therefrom within the scope of the invention , which is therefore not to be limited to the details disclosed herein , but is to be afforded the full scope of the claims so as to embrace any and all equivalent apparatus and articles . | 6 |
referring more particularly to the drawing by characters of reference , fig1 - 5 disclose an improved self - inking hand stamp device 10 comprising a main body frame 11 of generally inverted u - shaped structure having respective coextensive spaced leg vertical side bars 12 connected at the top by a horizontal head bar 13 and having their lower ends fixedly secured to a base plate 14 having therethrough a central clearance opening 15 between the legs , and carrying elastomeric cushioning pads 16 on its lower face . as shown in fig2 and 4 , the thickness of pads 16 on one side of base plate 14 are of greater thickness than the thickness of the pad on the other side to cause the imprinting of device 10 to occur at an acute angle to the longitudinal axis of the device . mounted on and vertically reciprocable relative to the body frame is a printing unit actuating frame 22 of inverted u - shaped having opposite coextensive arms 23 which are spaced apart slightly greater than the frame bars 12 so as to be freely reciprocably movable vertically therealong and are desirably of the same width , being connected integrally by a head bar or web 24 . means for normally biasing the frame 22 upwardly relative to the frame 11 comprise a coiled compression spring 25 thrusting at its lower end against an upwardly projecting stem 27 centrally fixed on the head bar 13 and projecting into a tubular spring housing 28 fixed centrally on and opening downwardly from the head bar 24 . the housing 28 is provided at its upper end with a blind end shoulder against which the upper end of the spring 25 thrusts . in addition , the tubular housing 28 may serve as a handle for manipulating the hand stamp and be equipped for this purpose with a suitable head knob 29 . if preferred , of course , the frame 22 may be employed as a handle with digital pressure applied to the head bar 24 in depressing the printing frame against bias of the spring 25 . means are provided for guiding the arms 23 along the bars 12 and for supporting a printing unit 30 to be actuated reciprocably with the printing frame 22 . for this purpose , a drive bar 31 extends through arcuate substantially vertical guide slots 32 in the side bars 12 , horizontal guide slots 33 in bars 12 , and clearance holes near the lower end of two guide tracks 34 attached to printing unit 30 . the &# 34 ; elongated slots &# 34 ; and &# 34 ; cam slots &# 34 ; of the claims correspond to &# 34 ; horizontal guide slots &# 34 ; and &# 34 ; vertical guide slots 32 ,&# 34 ; respectively . bar 31 is connected against displacement by means of washers 35 and cotter pins 36 . the printing unit 30 is similar to customary units of this type and is substantially identical to the printing unit described for the prior art in the aforementioned u . s . pat . no . 3 , 783 , 786 including rubber character carrying bands 39 , in this instance five , mounted on and about a horizontal bar 37 at the lower end of the unit and about respective adjustment wheels 40 at the opposite end of the unit each provided with a knurled edge digitally engageable adjustment flange of a diameter to project sufficiently beyond printing characters 41 . printing characters 41 may be numbers , punctuation marks or letters in series on the outer faces of the bands to enable convenient belt adjusting rotation of the wheels without contacting the characters by the manipulating fingers . coaxial individually rotatable mounting of the wheels 40 is effected on a shaft 42 secured fixedly to and between the upper end portions of the guide tracks 34 . means are provided for not only efficient positive adjustment driving of the belts or bands 39 by the wheels 40 , but also effective indexing and retention of the bands in adjusted positions thereof . to this end , the endless bands 39 are desirably molded from an elastomer such as neoprene of 40 - 45 durometer and mounted on the printing unit under slight tension . elasticity of the respective bands is improved by providing fairly deep transverse grooves between the relatively stiffer areas of the bands providing the characters 41 which have flat face planes . the character areas are thus separated by relatively flexible elastic integral webs which are preferably molded longitudinally in a slight inside concave outside convex form . between the webs , the back faces of the respective bands are provided with traction means desirably comprising transverse serration like resilient rib teeth which are dimensioned to mesh with and are complementary to similar transverse rigid rib teeth on the drum perimeters of the wheels 40 . this effects a fairly positive drive relationship between the wheels and bands and eliminates any need for backing on the bands , enabling a smoother , freer , easier adjustment manipulation of the bands through the wheels 41 . for indexing , a cooperative relationship is provided between the printing unit frame bar 37 and the bands 39 . as is customary , the bar 37 provides a rigid thrust backing for the character areas of the bands to enable applying printing impressions of the printing characters 41 aligned on the bar onto objects against which impressed by thrusting the printing end of the printing unit through the clearance opening 15 in the base 14 . the guide tracks 34 are integral with the bar 37 in a u - shaped unit , the tracks 34 forming the vertical sides and the bar 37 forming the horizontal base . the edges of the tracks 34 are bent outward at right angles to form channels running lengthwise of the tracks 34 . self - inking means are provided automatically operative to apply ink to the printing characters aligned along the bar 37 . according to the present invention , such means comprise an inking device 43 constructed and arranged to move automatically into inking position when the printing unit 30 is in retracted position within the body frame 11 and to move automatically into clearance relationship to the printing unit when the printing unit is actuated into printing position by depressing the printing frame 22 relative to the body frame 11 . further , the inking device 43 is constructed and arranged for greatly facilitating supplying it with ink . to this end , the inking device 43 comprises a pair of body side plates 44 of identical , coextensive construction in spaced parallel relation , desirably of generally triangular outline and rigidly connected together along their lower aligned edges by a pair of spaced parallel coextensive rods 45 and 46 , one of which is fixedly secured adjacent one corner area and the other to the other corner area adjacent such edge of the plates 44 . in addition to serving as frame connectors for the side plates , the rods 45 and 46 provide means for supporting an ink pad 47 . such pad comprises a suitable panel of ink - carrying and applying material . commonly an absorbent felt pad has been used for this purpose , but significantly improved results are obtained by means of a pad of suitable thickness of interconnected cellular resilient foam material such as foam latex , polyvinylchloride foam , or the like , having minutely dimensioned porosity so as to be possessed of large ink capacity but strong and fairly uniform and adequately dense but porous applicator surface . it has been found that such material provides a continuously uniform application of ink to the printing characters as long as there is any ink on and in the pad . for supporting the ink pad 47 operatively , an ink pad tray 48 is provided , the tray carrying two wrap - around hinged flanges 49 at opposite ends of its inboard edge and two snap - latch flanges 51 at opposite ends of its outboard edge , the hinge flanges 49 capturing rotatably but non - removably the rod 46 and the snap - latch flanges 51 gripping the rod 45 . the flange 51 may be disengaged from the rod 45 and the tray 48 tilted downward as shown by the ghost image 48 &# 39 ; of the tray 48 in fig5 the downward position facilitating the inking or changing of the pad 47 . the mounting of the inking device 43 and of the printing unit 30 is such as to cause the printing unit 30 to be rotated counterclockwise to a substantially vertical position and to be moved downwardly for the printing operation and subsequently to rise and tilt clockwise toward the inking device 43 for the inking operation . the downward movement and counterclockwise rotation is effected by hand pressure forcing the frame 22 downward while the upward movement and clockwise rotation is effected by the return of the frame 22 upwardly as accomplished by the spring 25 when hand pressure applied to frame 22 is released . the vertical and tiled positions of the inking unit 30 are shown by the ghost images in fig2 and by the cross - sectional views of fig3 and 4 with fig3 showing the inking position and fig4 showing the printing position . as the printing unit 30 begins to move away from the inking device 43 toward the vertical printing position , the inking device 43 simultaneously rotates in a clockwise direction while moving to the left and away from the printing unit 30 . these cooperative actions of the printing unit 30 and the inking device 43 effect separation in a manner which prevents brushing , rubbing or sliding friction between the pad 47 and the characters 41 , thereby preventing excess collection of ink by the characters 41 during separation . the novel means by which the movements of the printing unit 30 and of the inking device 43 are effected include two rocker arms 52 , the aforementioned guide slots 32 and 33 , the drive bar 31 , the guide tracks 34 , and two guide pins 53 . the rocker arms 52 are pivotally attached at their upper ends by means of pivot pins 54 to the inside of vertical side bars 12 , one arm 52 being attached to each of the two bars 12 . the lower end of each of the arms 52 is pivotally attached to the outside of one of the side plates 44 by means of a pivot pin 55 , the pin 55 located just above the rod 45 . the drive bar 31 passes rotatably through holes in the upper ends of plates 44 and also as stated earlier through guide slots 32 and 33 . the guide pins 53 are fixedly attached , one to each of the vertical side bars 12 , each extending perpendicularly inwardly from a central point on the side bar 12 into the channel of the guide track 34 . it will now be recognized that the inclination of the guide tracks 34 and hence the inclination of the printing unit 30 is determined by the inclination of a line drawn through the drive pin 31 and the guide pin 53 . further , while the guide pins 53 are stationary , the drive pin 31 is free to move horizontally within the slot 33 , and its horizontal position is determined and controlled by the curvature of the slots 32 in bars 12 . thus , as frame 22 is forced downward taking with it drive pin 31 , pin 31 is moved toward the right by slot 32 until it is vertically aligned with pins 53 at the fully downward or printing position . as frame 22 is released and moves upward , pin 31 moves upward and leftward along slot 32 causing unit 30 to tilt clockwise toward inking device 43 . it will also be recognized that as pin 31 moves upward carrying with it unit 30 , the guide tracks 34 are guided in their upward and rotational movement by guide pins 53 , the tracks 34 sliding over the pins 53 which are captured within the channelled outer surfaces of the tracks . by virtue of the pivotal attachment of side plates 44 of inking device 43 to drive pin 31 , the inking device 43 is rotated counterclockwise as pin 31 moves upward . the upward movement of pin 31 and hence that of frame 22 is limited by a horizontal shoulder 56 cut into the right hand edge of each of the slots 32 , the pin 31 moving against shoulder 56 as shown in fig2 just as the lower end of the printing unit 30 and the selected characters 41 come into contact and parallel alignment with the pad 47 . at this time , the guide pins 53 , the drive pin 31 and the pivot pins 55 are in approximately linear alignment along a line perpendicular to pad 47 . the rocker arms 52 permit the required freedom of movement for the inking device as it is moved laterally and rotationally by drive pin 31 . while in the prior art , it was necessary for the printing unit to rise a sufficient distance to permit the inking device to move underneath it for the inking operation , the arrangement of fig1 - 5 accomplishes the inking operation in the lateral position through the tilting action . by virtue of this mode of operation , the desired shorter operating stroke is achieved in accordance with a major object of the invention . while the hand stamp device 10 of fig1 - 5 is shown and described in utilization with a conventional ink pad tray 48 which is similar or the same as that described in the prior art , fig6 and 7 illustrate a hand stamp device 60 having the same general printing and inking arrangement but adapted to employ an inking roller 57 . the roller 57 of device 60 is mounted by means of its axle 58 which passes through holes in the two side plates 44 , corresponding to plates 44 of device 10 , the holes being located in a position lying midway between the positions occupied by rods 45 and 46 of device 10 . in the arrangement of fig6 and 7 , the roller 57 replaces the tray 48 , the pad 47 and the rollers 45 and 46 but in all other respects , the hand stamp device of fig6 and 7 is the same as the device illustrated in fig1 - 5 . thus in operation , the printing unit 62 rises from the vertical printing position and tilts clockwise toward the roller 57 for the inking operation as shown in fig7 . simultaneously , the roller 57 moves leftward for printing and toward the right for inking . as successive printing and inking operations occur , the roller 57 tends to rotate so that the total surface of the roller 57 is utilized for the application of ink to the printing characters . in another variation of the invention , the novel inking pad assembly 65 is disclosed in fig8 and 9 , and in fig1 and 11 , it is shown incorporated in the device 10 of fig1 - 5 in place of the pad 47 and the tray 48 . the generally wedge shaped pad 66 is of the same material as pad 47 , but because of its greater volume it holds a larger quantity of ink and thus requires less frequent loading . pad 66 is held by a molded plastic tray which is rectangular but with an inclined bottom panel 68 . positioned at opposite ends of the rear edge are two hinge flanges 69 opening downward which are contoured to snap over rod 46 , as shown in fig1 and 11 . at the front edge of tray 67 a centered rectangular projection 71 extends perpendicularly from the top edge while two wedge shaped projections 72 located at opposite ends of the front edge have their upper surfaces also extending perpendicularly from the front wall 73 . the vertical separation between the lower surface of projection 71 and the upper surfaces of projections 72 is such as to accommodate snugly therebetween the diameter of rod 45 . a rectangular corrugated area 74 is provided just below projection 71 for gripping during installation of assembly 65 in the device 10 of fig1 - 5 . extending inwardly from the top edges of end walls 75 are rectangular projections 76 which serve to hold the pad 66 in place . in fig1 , the assembly 65 is shown being installed in the device 10 . the solid line representation of assembly 65 is shown with hinge flanges 69 installed over roller 46 . from this position , assembly 65 is pivoted clockwise about roller 46 until projection 71 comes into contact with roller 45 at which time perpendicular pressure is applied to the area 74 to force projection 71 rearward until it clears rod 45 . pressure is then released and rod 45 is captured between projection 71 and projections 72 . the assembly 65 is now in position in device 10 to function in place of pad 47 and tray 48 of fig1 - 5 . in contrast to the non - removable character of tray 48 , however , the assembly 65 may readily be removed for storage or replacement in accordance with the slated objects of the invention . the wedge shaped cross - section of the tray 67 permits it to be employed in the prior art hand stamp of u . s . pat . no . 3 , 783 , 786 as well as in the device 10 herein disclosed , the shallow rear portion being capable of clearance below the printing unit while the deeper front portion provides volume for ink capacity . tray 67 is inexpensively molded in one piece from a flexible plastic material and is thus very inexpensive so that a number of tray and pad assemblies 65 may be economically provided for use with a single device 10 . each may be loaded with different ink colors or different ink formulations for use in stamping various surfaces . during periods of disuse , the assemblies 65 may be stored in an air - tight container to prevent the ink from drying . the installation of the selected assembly may then be accomplished quickly and easily prior to the next use . although but a few embodiments of the present invention have been illustrated and described , it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made therein without departing from the spirit of the invention or from the scope of the appended claims . | 1 |
in one embodiment , as shown in fig1 , a directory assistance system 2 is shown . fig1 shows an exemplary directory assistance handling center of the system 2 . however , it is understood that many similar call centers may be geographically remote , but connected to one another forming system 2 . for the purposes of illustration , all request handlings are shown with respect to one handling center of system 2 , but it is understood that any action described herein may be made at any request handling center within system 2 . system 2 , has a request handling module 10 configured to receive incoming requests to directory assistance system 2 . in one typical arrangement , request handling module 10 is configured to be a typical telephone call handling equipment for handling incoming requests from requesters 4 initiated by telephone . additionally , it is contemplated that request handling module 10 may be configured to handle any form of incoming communication including , but not limited to html , sms , chat ( im ) format , wap , voip communications , etc . . . as shown in fig1 , system 2 includes an agent platform 12 which is either one of a live agent arrangement , an automated platform or a combination of the two . agent platform 12 is configured to receive incoming requests , generated by requesters 4 , from request handling module 10 . a typical directory assistance request may be for a specific contact information such as the telephone number for xyz restaurant , or it may be for a category type search , such as for “ a hardware store .” agent platform 12 reviews the request and attempts to serve the request by searching in listing database 14 . as shown , listing database 14 is shown as a single database within system 2 . however , it is understood that database 14 may be a combination of connected databases , being both proprietary or third party supported , which may be located within system 2 itself or remotely . listing database 14 is configured to contain sufficient contact information allowing requester 4 to connect to the desired listing , including , but not limited to , telephone numbers , addresses , e - mail information , web addresses , etc . . . after agent application reviews the request , one or more contact information ( s ) are provided to requester 4 in response as discussed in more detail below . in one arrangement , as shown in fig1 , agent platform 12 is coupled to a second record database 16 which is used to track the history of requester 4 requests and the associated contact information provided . for example , fig2 shows an exemplary request record 30 associated with a particular requester 4 . it is contemplated that when requester 4 contacts system 2 via request handling module 10 , an requester identifier 32 is associated with the request . identifier 32 is typically associated with a device of the requester such as the ani ( automatic number identification ), min ( mobile identification number ), did ( direct inward dialing ), ip ( internet protocol ) address , etc . . . record 30 , stored in record database 16 also includes a time entry 34 associated with the time the request was handled ( either start or completion time or both ), as well as a listing provided entry 36 . listing provided entry 36 relates to the listing information that was provided to requester 4 in response to their query . typically , each of the listings in listing database 14 , in addition to the contact information , have some basic database record identifier associated therewith . it is contemplated that listing provided entry 36 in record 30 may store the contact information itself , the basic database record for that listing information or some combination of the two . as shown in fig1 , system 2 further maintains incoming request tracking module 20 which is coupled to both request handling module 10 as well as to record database 16 . request tracking module is configured to review requester identifiers 32 from new requests entering system 2 from requesters 4 and to check to see if there are corresponding records 30 in record database 16 with the same request identifiers 32 from stored prior requests . if a record 30 is found with the same request identifier 32 as a new incoming request , tracking module may pull the record and offer reconnection to the listing in listing entry 36 of record 30 prior to the request being forwarded to agent platform 12 as described below . turning to the operational flow of system 2 , fig3 , shows the request flow for a typical request sent to system 2 . at step 100 , a requester 4 generates a request and delivers it to request handling module 10 of system 2 . for the purposes of illustrating the salient features , this request is described in the form of a telephone call . however , as noted above , the request may be in one of many different . electronic formats . at step 102 , agent platform 12 receives the request and searches for a desired listing or listing ( s ) in listing database 14 . once a listing is retrieved it is delivered to requester back via request handling module 10 . during and / or after this process , at step 104 , agent platform 12 generates record 30 of the request , as described above , and stores it in record database 16 for a predetermined amount of time . next , it is assumed that the same requester 4 is contacting system 2 to make a subsequent request . at step 200 , requester 4 contacts request handling module 10 of system 2 . at step 202 , prior to the request being forwarded to agent platform 12 , incoming request tracking module 20 reviews the request , and particularly the identifier 32 associated with the request and compares it against records 30 stored in record database 16 . if there is no matching record , the request proceeds to agent platform 12 and is handled as per steps 102 and 104 described above . however , if a matching record is found , then at step 204 , the requester 4 is immediately offered in , an automated manner , the ability to re - connect to the stored listing in listing entry 36 of record 30 . if the user accepts then at step 206 , request handling module 10 can either re - send the listing to requester 4 or re - connect them ( call completion ). it is contemplated that the manner for call handling may be set by stored requester preferences that are stored within system 2 . if the user does not choose to re - connect to listing 36 in record 30 , then again , the request is handled as per steps 102 and 104 above . it has been found that on many occasions , requesters 4 that re - contact system 2 within a short period of time typically request the same listing as before . the above described arrangement , provides an automated system to immediately handle such reconnections without requester 4 even needing to indicate such a desire and likewise without in any way time burdening agent platform 12 . in one arrangement , records 30 in record database 16 are stored for 30 minutes ( based on time entry 34 in record 30 ). this amount of time correlates to a typical amount of time requesters 4 , that re - connect to system 2 , desire to re - connect to the same listing 36 . in another arrangement , records 30 may be stored for different periods . in one example , records 30 may be stored for lesser time ( eg . 15 minutes ) or greater time ( 45 minutes ) if it is found to produce more desirable results in the form of time saving on the agent platform 12 end versus the processing time for incoming request tracking module 20 to sift through records 30 in record database 16 . in another arrangement , records 30 may be stored for differing amounts of time , on an identifier - by - identifier basis . for example , system 2 may store records 30 for 45 minutes for requests that originated from mobile devices ( as determined by device identifier 32 ), whereas calls from landline devices ( as determined by device identifier 32 ) are only stored for 30 minutes . also , if it is found that a particular requester 4 is requesting the same listing on a subsequent call / request about 1 hour after an initial request , records for that particular identifier 32 ( associated with the particular requester 4 ) may be stored in record database 16 for an hour or an hour and fifteen minutes . in another arrangement , in the case where requests from requester 4 are electronic , such as by sms , and where system 2 switch time is less of a factor , it is possible that multiple records 30 within the predetermined time frame may be stored in record database 16 . when sms requester 4 re - connects to request handling module 10 , incoming request tracking module 20 may push an sms to requester 4 with two recent listings from record 30 prior to forwarding any requests onto agent platform 12 . based on the above arrangement , directory assistance system 2 is able to reduce the number of incidences of requests being handled by the agent platform 12 . at the same time , this arrangement also benefits requester 4 by pushing a listing to them immediately upon re - connection in instances where it is likely that they are desiring the same listing as before , obviating the need to even begin making an actual query . while only certain features of the invention have been illustrated and described herein , many modifications , substitutions , changes or equivalents will now occur to those skilled in the art . it is therefore , to be understood that this application is intended to cover all such modifications and changes that fall within the true spirit of the invention . | 7 |
for the synthesis of the protected dpd molecules , the method involves ( a ) reacting gluconic acid γ - lactone with dimethoxycyclohexanone for a time and under conditions to produce 5 , 6 - o - cyclohexylideneglucono - 1 , 4 - lactone ; ( b ) subjecting the lactone to oxidative cleavage to produce 2 , 3 - o - cyclohexylideneglyceraldehyde ; ( c ) halogenating the glyceraldehyde molecule under conditions to produce 1 , 1 - dihalo - 3 , 4 - cyclohexylidenedioxybut - 1 - ene (“ dihaloalkene ”); ( d ) purifying the dihaloalkene before reacting converting its alkene moiety to an alkyne anion ; ( e ) quenching the anion by one of two routes , by reacting the alkyne anion with i ) a methylating agent to produce 1 , 1 - dihalo - 3 , 4 - cyclohexylidenedioxypent - 3 - yne , or ii ) with water to produce 1 , 1 - dibromrn - 3 , 4 - cyclohexylidenedioxybut - 3 - yne and subsequently methylating that compound to produce 1 , 1 - dibromo - 3 , 4 - cyclohexylidenedioxypent - 3 - yne , and recovering that alkyne ; ( f ) oxidizing that alkyne in non - aqueous solution under conditions to thereby produce 4 , 5 - cyclohexylidenedioxy - 2 , 3 - pentadione , which is the protected dpd molecule ; and ( g ) recovering protected dpd . when the gluconic acid γ - lactone starting material is a racemic mixture of the l - and d - stereoisomers of gluconic acid γ - lactone , then the protected dpd is a racemic mixture of ( s )- 4 , 5 - cyclohexylidenedioxy - 2 , 3 - pentadione and ( r )- 4 , 5 - cyclohexylidenedioxy - 2 , 3 - pentadione ( racemic dpd ). the present method also allows stereospecific synthesis of dpd and ent - dpd . when the gluconic acid γ - lactone starting material is l - gluconic acid γ - lactone , the protected dpd is ( s )- 4 , 5 - cyclohexylidenedioxy - 2 , 3 - pentadione ( dpd , 1 ). when the gluconic acid γ - lactone starting material is d - gluconic acid γ - lactone , the protected dpd is ( r )- 4 , 5 - cyclohexylidenedioxy - 2 , 3 - pentadione ( ent - dpd , 14 ). for step ( a ), the reaction of gluconic acid γ - lactone with dimethoxycyclohexanone to produce 5 , 6 - o - cyclohexylideneglucono - 1 , 4 - lactone is preferably done according to the method of vekemans et al . 1985 . other methods known to those of skill in the art can be used and those giving a high yield of the lactone are preferred . the lactone can be used directly without further purification in step ( b ) or can be purified before being subjected to oxidative cleavage to produce 2 , 3 - o - cyclohexylideneglyceraldehyde . the oxidative cleavage preferably uses kio 4 as described in example 3 . these conditions can be varied as known by those of skill in the art . moreover , other oxidation methods that lead to the glyceraldehyde can be used . for step ( c ), the glyceraldehyde is halogenated to produce 1 , 1 - dihalo - 3 , 4 - cyclohexylidenedioxybut - 1 - ene . halogenation can be accomplished using fluorine , chlorine , bromine or iodine and halogenation methods are well known in the art . the preferred halogenation method is bromination according to the method of yoshida et al . 1992 ), see example 4 , or other variation of the corey - fuchs protocol . if necessary , the dihaloalkene is purified before further use , and this is preferable for the dibromoalkene . in step ( d ), the alkene moiety of the dihaloalkene is converted to an alkyne anion with concomitant loss of the halogens . the alkyne anion can be quenched in step ( e ) to produce the alkyne by either of two routes and it is this point in the synthesis that allows introduction of carbon isotopes 13 c or 14 c . by one route , the alkyne anion is methylated to produce 1 , 1 - dihalo - 3 , 4 - cyclohexylidenedioxypent - 3 - yne . methylation reagents and conditions are well known and isotopically substituted methylation agents , such as 13 ch 3 i and 14 ch 3 i are readily obtainable . the alkyne should be purified before further use in the synthesis , but this may be optional under some conditions . by the other route , the anion is quenched with water to produce 1 , 1 - dibromo - 3 , 4 - cyclohexylidenedioxybut - 3 - yne and that molecule is subsequently methylated to produce 1 , 1 - dibromo - 3 , 4 - cyclohexylidenedioxypent - 3 - yne . the methylation step of this route can be done as described in the paragraph above , see also , e . g ., example 5 . quenching with water before methylation appears to improve the yield of the alkyne . this route is also useful for isotopically labeling the compounds , see , e . g ., example 7 . the alkyne should be purified before further use in the overall synthesis , but this may be optional under some conditions . the next step , ( f ), involves oxidizing the alkyne in non - aqueous solution to produces 4 , 5 - cyclohexylidenedioxy - 2 , 3 - pentadione ( i . e ., the protected dpd molecule ). the preferred oxidation protocol uses ruo 21 naio 4 and produces the protected dpd is high yield that can be readily purified . this method is that of seebach ( zibuch et al . 1988 ) but other oxidation methods are suitable . the method of seebach provides excellent yields . the examples provide details of these syntheses steps and those of skill in the art know how to vary solvents , temperature and reactions conditions to achieve these synthetic steps . methods of purifying the various intermediates and compounds described herein are also well known to those of skill in the art . the examples illustrate , but should not be considered limiting to , a variety of purification schemes . in a variation on the above method , the synthesis can begin by preparing an 5 , 6 - o - alkylidene - protected gluconic acid γ - lactone having a protecting group represented by the formula wherein r is independently alkyl having from 1 to 8 carbon atoms , aryl , or when taken together , form a cycloalkyl ring having from 3 to 8 carbon atoms . the remainder of the overall synthesis then proceeds as described in accordance with the invention . as used herein , “ alkyl ” means both branched - and straight - chain , saturated aliphatic hydrocarbon groups having 1 to 8 carbon atoms . alkyl groups include , but are not limited to , for example , methyl , ethyl , propyl , isopropyl , butyl , isobutyl , and the like . the cycloalkyl ring has from 3 to 8 carbon atoms , and include cyclobutyl , cyclopentyl , cyclohexyl and the like . as used herein , “ aryl ” includes “ aryl ” and “ substituted aryl .” thus “ aryl ” of this invention means any stable 6 - to 14 - membered monocyclic , bicyclic or tricyclic ring , containing at least one aromatic carbon ring , for example , phenyl , naphthyl , indanyl , tetrahydronaphthyl ( tetralinyl ) and the like . the presence of substitution on the aryl group is optional , but when present , the substituents can be halo , alkyl , alkoxy , hydroxyl , amino , cyano , nitro , trifluoromethyl , acylamino or carbamoyl , provided that such substituents do not interfere with the synthesis , e . g ., by necessitating use of conditions that are not compatible with a step in the synthesis . as used herein , “ stable compound ” or “ stable structure ” means a compound that is sufficiently robust to survive isolation to a useful degree of purity from a reaction mixture . as those of skill in the art appreciate , the actual chemical stability of each compound will , however , vary depending on the particular substituents and their positions relative to one another . methods to measure chemical stability are known to those of skill in the art . another aspect of the invention provides a method of converting protected dpd to dpd and is applicable for use with any protected dpd molecule , i . e ., whether it is a protected dpd made according to the above synthetic pathway or a different pathway and whether it has a different protecting group ( including but not limited to alkylidene protection groups described herein or other 1 , 2 - diol protecting groups ). to remove the protecting group , an amount of protected dpd in an aqueous solution under acidic conditions is allowed to hydrolyze . hydrolysis goes to near completion under these conditions (& gt ; 95 % to & gt ; 99 % complete depending on the duration , temperature and ph . hydrolysis of at least about 95 % or more is considered near completion . the hydrolysis thus produces a stable solution of dpd under the appropriate acidic conditions . the protected dpd can be suspended in an aqueous solution having an acidic ph to allow the reaction to proceed or the protected dpd can be suspended in an aqueous solution which is subsequently acidified to the desired ph . the ph for hydrolysis is preferably less than about 3 , preferably from about 0 . 5 to 2 . 0 and more preferably from about 1 . 3 to about 1 . 5 . as with the synthetic pathway , the protected dpd can be a racemic mixture or a stereoisomer , i . e ., ( s )- 4 , 5 - cyclohexylidenedioxy - 2 , 3 - pentadione or ( r )- 4 , 5 - cyclohexylidenedioxy - 2 , 3 - pentadione ( to yield dpd or ent - dpd , respectively ). after sufficient hydrolysis has occurred , the method further comprises adjusting the ph to about neutral ph or a desired ph range , typically from about ph 7 to about ph 8 . 5 , using a buffering agent suitable for storing dpd or for evaluating the bioactivity of dpd . preferred ph ranges for evaluating bioactivity are from about ph 7 to about ph 7 . 5 . for storage , the final ph is any value suitable for storing dpd . stable dpd solutions can be obtained at acidic ph for dpd concentrations that range up to at least 100 mm and possibly higher , depending on the temperature of the solution . a preferred dpd concentration is 30 mm . the synthesis strategy outlined in fig2 constitutes an improvement of that recently reported by meijler et al . ( 2004 ) for many reasons . the present invention employs different tactics that significantly improve the synthetic efficiency and make dpd readily available in multigram quantities . the previous synthesis of dpd made use of a labile methyl orthoester as a protecting group , which could be removed in dilute aqueous solution to produce dpd in situ for biological evaluation . the delicacy of that protecting group required that it be introduced at a late stage as a replacement for the acetonide group . however , this protection strategy led to complications with the oxidation to form the α - diketone ( analog of 11 ; 10 % yield ). in addition , the acetonide series involves two intermediates of inconveniently high volatility . with access to dpd prepared enzymatically ( schauder et al . 2001 ), the present invention establishes that dpd is stable at ph 1 . 5 - 2 in dilute aqueous solution for extended periods ( no significant decrease in bioactivity after 16 h at 20 ° c . for concentrations of dpd at least of 30 mm and up to 100 mm ). while enantio - pure glyceraldehyde equivalents provide a convenient conceptual starting point for the synthesis of dpd and other small molecules , the handling of these molecules can be difficult . isopropylidene glyceraldehyde can be generated as either enantiomer in a few steps , but it is quite volatile and dimerizes readily ( grauert et al . 1985 ). these drawbacks have led to the development of other protecting groups for glyceraldehyde . for a general discussion , see : schmid et al . 1992 ; for discussion and elaborate solutions , see : michel et al . 2003 and aube et al . 1992 . the cyclohexylidene group ( fig2 a ) offers lower volatility and efficient isolation , and can be removed rapidly at ph 1 . 3 - 1 . 5 and 20 ° c . importantly , the cyclohexanone byproduct from deprotection does not inhibit cell growth at concentrations under 1 m . the monocyclohexylidene derivative ( 7 ) of l - gulonic acid γ - lactone was prepared in 75 % yield as a white solid ( vekemans et al . 1985 ). oxidative cleavage with kio 4 led to aldehyde 8 ( 76 %). following a literature procedure ( yoshida et al . 1992 ), the corey - fuchs protocol gave rise to the dibromoalkene 9 , which was purified ( 67 % yield ) prior to treatment with nbuli ; the intermediate alkyne anion was quenched with methyl iodide to give alkyne 10 in 64 % yield after careful chromatography . alternative quenching with water gave the alkyne 12 ( 79 %); then methylation proceeded in 98 % yield to 10 . the critical oxidation process followed the protocol of seebach ( zibuck et al . 1988 ) with ruo 2 / naio 4 and produced the α - diketone 11 in 70 % yield as a bright yellow crystalline solid . the yield is ca 20 % overall from gulonic acid γ - lactone via 12 . compound ii showed a strong tendency to hydrate at the c - 3 carbonyl group to give 13 ( fig1 b ), which complicates the characterization . when 11 is placed in h 2 o or d 2 o at ph 1 . 5 and 20 ° c . at concentrations up to 30 mm , deprotection was & gt ; 95 % complete after 2 . 0 h with no detectable byproducts ( 1 h nmr ). after adjusting the buffer ( 0 . 5 m potassium phosphate , ph 7 . 3 ), synthetic dpd was observed to be equal in activity to enzymatically prepared dpd at equal concentration in the v . harveyi bioassay . using this route , ent - dpd ( 14 ) and dpd labeled with 13 c at c - 1 ( 15 ) were synthesized . ent - dpd ( 14 ) had only 1 % of the activity of dpd ( 1 ) in the v . harveyi bioassay . synthetically - produced dpd was stable under acidic conditions ; a 30 mm sample of the molecule was monitored for decomposition via 1 h nmr for 5 h at 20 ° c . and ph 1 . 5 . under these conditions , no decomposition products were observed . a further examination of a 100 mm sample stored at 20 ° c . and ph 1 . 3 for 16 h showed no loss in activity as monitored by the v . harveyi bioassay . the purity of the synthetic dpd was further established by reaction with o - phenylenediamine to produce ( s )- 1 -( 3 - methylquioxalin - 2 - yl )- ethane - 1 , 2 - diol in & gt ; 98 % purity . hydration of the carbonyl group at c - 3 of the cyclic form ( 2 ) of dpd is important for borate binding in the v . harveyi signal , 6 . initially , it was not known whether hydration and subsequent borate addition were intrinsically favorable or required the presence of the protein receptor . for example , pei and coworkers proposed that the c - 3 carbonyl of dpd ( enzymatically prepared ) was hydrated in aqueous media ( zhu et al . 2003 ). we showed that laurencione ( fig1 b ), which is 4 - deoxy - dpd , hydrates spontaneously and associates strongly with borate in aqueous media at ph 7 . 8 ( semmelhack et al . 2004 ). it forms complexes with both 1 : 1 and 2 : 1 laurencione : borate stoichiometry . for synthetic dpd , the appearance of five 13 c nmr signals in the spectrum at ph 1 . 5 ( 30 mm dpd , aq ) in the region from 90 - 110 ppm assigned to the hemiacetal and hydrated carbons strongly suggests that the majority of dpd , both open and closed isomers , is hydrated at c3 . it is less stable at ph & gt ; 8 unless bound to borate . unlike laurencione , which is lacking the c - 4 hydromyl group and therefore in the hydrated form contains only one site for borate complexation , hydrated dpd ( 4 ) has two sites for borate complexation . since both 2 , 3 - and 3 , 4 - dpd borates are possible for each of the two anomers , a complex mixture of borate species is expected . borate binding was followed with 13 c - labeled dpd , 15 , by both 11 b and 13 c nmr spectroscopy . as shown in fig5 a , in h 2 o ( 5 % d 2 o ) and in the absence of borate , 15 mm 15 produces three main peaks from the incorporated label , assigned to the hydrated open form 16 ( δ 24 . 9 ppm ), and the two hydrated cyclic forms , 17 / 18 ( δ 19 . 9 or 20 . 4 ppm ). as borate is added , the complexity of the 13 c nmr spectrum increases , consistent with the hypothesis that a number of 1 : 1 and 2 : 1 dpd : borate complexes are present in solution ; with 15 mm 15 and 45 mm b ( oh ) 3 ( fig5 b ) the signals for 16 - 18 are gone , confirming a high affinity of these isomers for boron . when the solution is saturated with boric acid (˜ 0 . 9 m ) and the concentration of 15 is kept at 15 mm , the 13 c nmr spectrum is dominated by a peak at δ 22 . 3 ppm to which we assign the 2 : 1 borate complex , 19 ( fig5 c ). although 19 appears crowded and possesses two negatively charged groups , precedence for this structural type exists in work showing that small polyhydroxylated molecules can complex multiple tetrahedral phenyboranate ions in close proximity ( lorand et al . 1959 ). when the identical titration is followed by 11 b nmr , no signal was observed initially with 15 mm 1 and no b ( oh ) 3 ( fig5 d ), but as the b ( oh ) 3 concentration was increased to 40 mm while holding the concentration of 1 constant ( fig5 e ), new peaks appeared : two broad peaks at δ 4 . 7 and 5 . 8 ppm and a family of peaks at δ 8 - 11 ppm ( excess borate at δ 18 . 3 ppm not shown ). the peak at δ 5 . 8 ppm is assigned to the natural product , 6 ( and its anomer ), based on analogy with 6 bound to the v . harveyi receptor luxp ( 6 . 1 ppm ) ( chen et al . 2002 ), 6 released from the luxp receptor ( δ 5 . 8 ppm ) ( miller et al . 2004 ), 6 ( δ 5 . 8 ppm ) observed when 17 is released into borate from its receptor , lsrb , from s . typhimurium ( miller et al . 2004 ), and the 1 : 1 borate complex of laurencione ( δ 5 . 9 ppm ) ( semmelhack et al . 2004 ). the peak at δ4 . 7 ppm is at a position typical of 1 : 1 sugar : borate complexes ( van duin et al . 1985 ) and is tentatively assigned to the 3 , 4 - borate complex , 21 . the family of peaks from δ 8 - 11 ppm , have positions consistent with a mixture of 2 : 1 dpd : borate complexes ( e . g , 20 ) with borate bound at either the 2 , 3 or 3 , 4 position ( semmelhack et al . 2004 ). as the concentration of borate is increased to saturation while keeping the concentration of 1 constant at 15 mm , the intensity of the peaks from δ 8 - 11 ppm decreases while the peaks at δ 4 . 7 and 5 . 8 ppm increase and become almost equal in intensity ( fig5 f ). these data are consistent with the conversion of 2 : 1 dpd : borate complexes to 1 : 1 dpd : borate complexes ( e . g ., 6 ), followed by further conversion to 1 : 2 dpd : borate complex 19 as the borate concentration is increased . the inherently large number of borated dpd species formed coupled with the difficulties associated with accurately measuring the equilibrium constant for sugar borate binding ( springsteen et al . 2002 ) has not allowed quantitation of the equilibrium constant for the association of dpd with borate . to explore the binding of dpd with borate under conditions that more closely resemble those in the natural habitat of v . harveyi and to correlate this study with previous work using dpd prod - uced in vivo and released from the v . harveyi receptor protein , luxp , the 11 b nmr spectrum of a 100 μm dpd solution in 400 μm b ( oh ) 3 ( dickson et al . 1990 ) at ph 7 . 5 was recorded . under these conditions , one peak at δ 5 . 8 ppm corresponding to 1 : 1 dpd : borate complexes with borate bound at the 2 , 3 - positions ( 6 and its anomer ), was observed significantly above noise level . based on the ratio of integrals for the b ( oh ) 3 peak and the dpd : borate peak , the concentration of dpd : borate complex was calculated to be ca 10 μm . consistent with ca 10 % dpd bound at this dilution . we were unable to observe conclusively the presence of complexes with a 2 : 1 dpd : borate stoichiometry due to sensitivity limitations of the 11 b nmr experiment , although a peak with a s / n of 2 was recorded at δ 9 . 8 ppm . yet another aspect of the invention provides compounds useful as intermediates in the synthesis of dpd , new borate isomers as well as the isotopically labeled dpd compounds ( including the isomeric forms of the isotopically - labeled dpd ). these compounds are those shown as compounds 10 , 11 , 12 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 and 21 in fig1 b and 2a . where possible , the invention includes the pharmaceutically - acceptable salts of these compounds . as used herein , “ pharmaceutically acceptable salts ” refer to derivatives of the disclosed compounds that are modified by making acid or base salts . examples include , but are not limited to , mineral or organic acid salts of basic residues such as amines ; alkali or organic salts of acidic residues and the like . pharmaceutically acceptable salts include , but are not limited to , hydrohalides , sulfates , methosulfates , methanesulfates , toluenesulfonates , nitrates , phosphates , maleates , acetates , lactates and the like . pharmaceutically - acceptable salts of the compounds of the invention can be prepared by reacting the free acid or base forms of these compounds with a stoichiometric or greater amount of the appropriate base or acid in water or in an organic solvent , or in a mixture of the two ; generally , nonaqueous media like ether , ethyl acetate , ethanol , isopropanol , or acetonitrile are preferred . the salts of the invention can also be prepared by ion exchange , for example . lists of suitable salts are found in remington &# 39 ; s pharmaceutical sciences , 17th ed ., mack publishing company , easton , pa ., 1985 , p . 1418 , the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety . it will be appreciated by tho se skilled in the art that various omissions , additions and modifications may be made t & lt ;) the invention described above without departing from the scope of the invention , and all such modifications and changes are intended to fall within the scope of the invention , as defined by the appended claims . all references , patents , patent applications or other documents cited are herein incorporated by reference in their entirety . a . general . unless otherwise rioted , all reactions were performed under an inert atmosphere with dry reagents , solvents , and flame dried glassware . reagents were purchased from acros , aldrich , or fluka and used without further purification . with the exception of ch 3 i , which was distilled before use . silica flash chromatography was performed using silica gel 60 , 230 × 540 mesh ( sorbent technologies ). analytical thin layer chromatography was performed using silica g tlc plate , w / uv254 , 200 μm ( sorbent teclhnologies ). the 1 h nmr spectra were recorded using a varian mercury ( 300 mhz ), varian unity ( 400 mhz ), or varian unity / inova ( 500 mhz ) spectrometer , and 13 c nmr spectra were recorded using a varian unity / inova ( 125 . 7 mhz ) spectrometer . chemical shifts for 1 h and 13 c nmr spectraare reported in parts per million ( ppm ) on the δ scale from an internal standard , except for 13 c nmr recorded in d 2 o which were referenced to an external standard . the 11 b nmr spectra were collected at 20 ° c . using a varian unity / inova spectrometer at 160 . 5 mhz equipped with a 5 - rnm tunable x / 1 h probe ( nalorac ), and were referenced indirectly to bf 3 . et 2 o . a collection of 3072 scans was averaged for each 11 b spectrum with a 0 . 25 - s recycle time using an approximately 30 ° flip - angle pulse . specific rotations were measured on a perkinelmer model 341 polarimeter using an average of 20 readings for each measurement . high resolution mass spectra were recorded using a kratos ms 50 rfa . in the reactions below that indicate preparation of both the l - and d - forms of the compounds , stereoselective synthesis is obtained using the appropriate enantiomer as the starting material or using the stereospecific reaction product from the previous step in the synthesis pathway . for example , in example 2 , starting with l - gulonic acid - γ - lactone yields the final product in its l - form and starting with d - gulonic acid - γ - lactone yields the final product in its d - form . b . nomenclature . as shown in fig1 a , dpd spontaneously cyclizes to form two epimeric furanoses , ( 2s , 4s )- and ( 2r , 4s )- 2 , 4 - dihydroxy - 2 - methyldihydrofuran - 3 - one ( s - and r - dhmf , respectively ; also 2 and 3 , respectively ). hydration of s - and r - dhmf gives rise to ( 2s , 4s )- and ( 2r , 4s )- 2 - methyl - 2 , 3 , 3 , 4 - tetrahydroxytetrahydrofuran ( s - and r - thmf , respectively ; also 4 and 5 , respectively ). the iupac carbohydrate nomenclature for the structures in fig1 a is as follows : dpd , 1 , l - glycero - 1 - dehydro - penta - 2 , 3 - diulose ; s - dhmf , 2 , α - l - glycero - 1 - dehydro - penta - 2 , 3 - diulo - 2 , 5 - furanose ; s - thmf , 4 , α - l - glycero - 1 - dehydro - 3 - hydro - penta - 2 , 3 - diulo - 2 , 5 - furanose ; s - thmf - borate , 6 , α - l - glycero - 1 - dehydro - 3 - hydro - penta - 2 , 3 - diulo - 2 , 5 - furanosyl - 2 , 3 - cyclic borate ; r - dhmf , 3 , β - l - glycero - 1 - dehydro - penta - 2 , 3 - diulo - 2 , 5 - furanose ; and r - thmf , 5 , β - l - glycero - 1 - dehydro - 3 - hydro - penta - 2 , 3 - diulo - 2 , 5 - furanose . to a slurry of gulonic acid - γ - lactone ( 20 . 02 g , 112 . 4 mmol ) and p - toluene sulfonic acid monohydrate ( 203 mg , 1 . 1 mmol ) in dmf ( 100 ml ) was added 1 , 1 - dimethoxy cyclohexanone ( 28 . 1 g , 29 . 6 ml , 194 . 9 mmol ) in one portion . the resulting mixture was stirred until the reaction was homogeneous ( 36 - 48 h ). et 3 n ( 0 . 8 ml ) was added and stirring was continued for 1 h . the reaction was then concentrated at 60 ° c . in vacuo ( 0 . 5 mmhg ). addition of phme ( 250 ml ) to the warn suspension followed by cooling at − 20 ° c . for 24 h yielded the product as a white precipitate . the precipitate was collected via filtration , washed with phme , and dried in vacuo ( 0 . 5 mmhg ) for 24 h at room temperature to give 7 ( 21 . 65 g , 75 % yield ). the resulting material contained 5 % starting material and ˜ 1 % solvent amd was used in subsequent reactions without further purification . 1 h nmr ( 300 mhz , dmso - d ): δ 5 . 59 ( d , j = 7 . 5 hz , 1h ), 5 . 46 ( d , j = 4 . 2 hz , 1h ), 4 . 42 ( dd , j = 4 . 6 , 7 . 5 hz 1h ), 4 . 22 ( m , 3h ), 4 . 13 ( m , 1h ), 3 . 76 ( m , 1h ), 1 . 54 ( m , 8h ), 1 . 35 ( m , 2h ). [ vekerans et al . 1985 .] to a slurry of kio 4 ( 10 . 093 g , 43 . 90 mmol ) and khco 3 ( 9 . 053 g , 90 . 50 mmol ) in h 2 o ( 28 ml ) was added 7 ( 5 . 050 g , 19 . 60 mmol ). ch 2 cl 2 , ( 50 ml ) was added , and the resulting two - phase mixture was stirred vigorously for 18 h in air . at this time , the mixture was diluted with ch 2 cl 2 ( 50 ml ), and aqueous nacl (− 0 . 8 g / ml h 2 o ) was added . stirring was continued until the aqueous layer gelled . the reaction was filtered , and the residue was washed with ch 2 cl 2 ( 2 × 50 ml ). the eluant was collected and washed with h 2 o ( 50 ml ). the aqueous fractions were combined and extracted with ch 2 cl 2 ( 2 × 25 ml ). the combined organic fractions were dried with mgso 4 and concentrated in vacuo giving 8 ( 2 . 525 g ) in 76 % yield and & gt ; 95 % purity . the aldehyde was used without further purification . due to abx second order effects , the coupling constants are only reported as 1d approximations . 1 h nmr ( 300 mhz , cdcl 3 ): δ 9 . 73 ( d , j = 1 . 9 hz , 1h ), 4 . 39 ( ddd , j = 1 . 9 , 4 . 7 , 7 . 3 hz , 1h ), 4 . 18 ( dd , j = 7 . 3 , 8 . 8 hz , 1h ), 4 . 10 ( dd , j = 4 . 7 , 8 . 8 hz , 1h ), 1 . 65 ( m , 8h ), 1 . 44 ( m , 2h ). [ previously characterized by grauert et al . 1985 .] triphenyl phosphine ( 9 . 181 g , 35 . 00 mmol ) was dissolved in ch 2 cl 2 ( 85 ml ) and cooled to 0 ° c . to the cooled solution was added cbr 4 ( 5 . 851 g , 17 . 60 mmol ) all at once , and the mixture was stirred for 1 h . at this time a solution of 8 ( 2 . 525 g , 14 . 90 mmol ) in 20 ml ch 2 cl 2 was added in one portion , and the mixture was stirred for 1 h . the solution was concentrated in vacuo , and the residual solid was purified via column chromatography ( sio 2 eluted with 1 : 9 etoac : hexanes ) to give 9 ( 3 . 268 g , 67 % yield ). r f = 0 . 83 ( 1 : 1 , etoac : hexanes ). 1 h nmr ( 300 mhz , cdcl 3 ): δ 6 . 54 ( d , j = 7 . 7 hz , 1h ), 4 . 74 ( ddd , j = 6 . 3 , 6 . 5 , 7 . 7 hz , 1h ), 4 . 19 ( dd , j = 6 . 3 , 8 . 4 hz , 1h ), 3 . 69 ( dd , j = 6 . 5 , 8 . 4 hz , 1h ), 1 . 63 ( m , 8h ), 1 . 42 ( m , 2h ). [ previously characterized by yoshida et al . 1992 .] dibromoalkene , 9 ( 1 . 019 gm 3 . 10 mmol ) was dissolved in thf ( 20 ml ) and subsequently cooled to − 78 ° c . to this solution was added a solution of nbuli ( 2 . 5 m in hexanes , 3 . 0 ml , 7 . 5 mmol ) over 15 min via an addition funnel . the reaction was allowed to proceed at − 78 ° c . for an additional 30 min . at this time , the solution was warmed to 23 ° c . and stirred for 1 h . then , ch 3 i ( 580 μl , 1 . 32 g , 9 . 30 mmol ) was added , and stirring was continued for 3 h . the mixture was cooled to 0 ° c ., quenched with h 2 o ( 100 μl ), dried with mgso 4 , filtered , and concentrated in vacuo . purification via chromatography ( sio 2 eluted with 0 . 5 : 9 . 5 et 2 o : hexanes ) gave 10 ( 358 mg ) in 64 % yield . r f = 0 . 64 ( 0 . 5 : 9 . 5 , et 2 o : hexanes ). ir ( nacl ) ν max ( cm − 1 ): 2936 ( s , c — h ), 2862 ( s , c — h ), 2242 ( w , c ≡ c ), 1163 ( m , c — o ), 1105 ( s , c — o ). 10 [ α ] d 20 − 39 . 2 ° ( c 0 . 767 , chcl 3 ). 1 h nmr ( 500 mhz , cdcl 3 ): δ 4 . 67 ( ddd , j = 7 . 0 , 6 . 1 , 2 . 1 hz , 1h ), 4 . 10 ( dd , j = 7 . 9 , 6 . 1 hz , 1h ), 3 . 81 ( dd , j = 7 . 0 , 7 . 9 , 1h ), 1 . 84 ( d , j = 2 . 1 hz , 3h ), 1 . 77 ( m , 2h ), 1 . 61 ( m , 6h ), 1 . 39 ( m , 2h ). 13 c nmr ( 125 . 7 mhz , cdcl 3 ): δ 110 . 7 , 82 . 5 , 76 . 5 , 69 . 9 , 65 . 7 , 36 . 0 , 35 . 6 , 25 . 2 , 24 . 1 , 25 . 2 , 24 . 1 , 24 . 0 , 3 . 7 . hrms ( m / z ): m + calcd . for c 11 h 16 o 2 , 180 . 115 ; found , 179 . 635 . the same procedure produced ent - 10 : [ α ] d 20 + 39 . 4 ° ( c 0 . 796 , chcl 3 ). vinyldibromide , 9 ( 1 . 209 g , 3 . 70 mmol ) was dissolved in thf ( 20 ml ) and subsequently cooled to − 78 ° c . to this solution was added a solution of nbuli ( 2 . 5 ml in hexanes , 3 . 6 ml , 9 . 0 mmol ) over 15 min via an addition funnel . the reaction was allowed to proceed at − 78 ° c . for 30 min . at this time , the solution was warmed to 23 ° c . and stirred for 1 h . the mixture was then cooled to 0 ° c ., quenched with h 2 o ( 100 μl ), dried with mgso 4 , filtered , and concentrated in vacuo . purification via chromatography ( sio 2 eluted with 0 . 5 : 9 . 5 et 2 o : hexanes ) gave 12 ( 485 mg , 79 % yield ). r f = 0 . 65 ( 0 . 5 : 9 . 5 , et 2 o : hexanes ). 1 h nmr ( 500 mhz , cdcl 3 ): δ 4 . 71 ( ddd , j = 6 . 5 , 6 . 3 , 2 . 0 hz , 1h ), 4 . 17 ( dd , j = 8 . 0 , 6 . 5 hz , 1h ), 3 . 95 ( dd , j = 8 . 0 , 6 . 3 hz , 1h ), 2 . 49 ( d , j = 2 . 0 hz , 1h ), 1 . 76 ( m , 2h ), 1 . 63 ( m , 6h ), 1 . 42 ( m , 2h ). [ previously characterized by yoshida et al . 1992 .] to a solution of 12 ( 175 mg , 1 . 10 mmol ) in thf ( 1 . 6 ml ) at − 78 ° c . was added a solution of nbuli ( 2 . 5 m in hexane , 550 μl , 1 . 40 mmol ) in one portion , and the mixture was allowed to stir for 30 min . at this time , 13 ch 3 i ( 308 mg , 135 μl , 2 . 20 mmol ) was added , and the mixture was allowed to warm to 23 ° c . and be stirred for 4 h . the reaction was then cooled to 0 ° c . and quenched with h 2 o ( 20 μl ). drying with mgso 4 , followed by concentration in vacuo , and filtration through silica using 1 : 2 et 2 o : hexanes as the eluant afforded pure 10 -( 13 c 5 ) ( 186 mg ) in 98 % yield . 1 h nmr ( 500 mhz , cdcl 3 ): δ 4 . 67 ( ddd , j = 7 . 0 , 6 . 1 , 2 . 1 hz , 1h ), 4 . 10 ( dd , j = 7 . 9 , 6 . 1 hz , 1h ), 3 . 81 ( dd , j = 7 . 0 , 7 . 9 , 1h ), 1 . 84 ( dd , j = 131 . 5 , 2 . 1 hz , 3h ), 1 . 77 ( m , 2h ), 1 . 61 ( m , 6h ), 1 . 39 ( m , 2h ). 13 c nmr ( 125 . 7 mhz , cdcl 3 ): δ 110 . 7 , 82 . 5 ( d , 1 j ( c1 )( c2 )= 67 . 8 hz ), 76 . 5 ( d , 2 j ( c1 )( c3 ) = 11 . 2 hz ), 69 . 9 , 65 . 7 , 36 . 0 , 35 . 6 , 25 . 2 , 24 . 1 , 25 . 2 , 24 . 1 , 24 . 0 , 3 . 7 . to a solution of 10 ( 330 mg , 1 . 8 mmol ) in ccl 4 ( 4 ml ) and mecn ( 4 ml ) was added naio 4 ( 867 mg , 4 . 1 mmol ) in h 2 o ( 6 ml ). the mixture was vigorously stirred , and ruo 2 . h 2 o ( 6 . 0 mg , 4 . 5 × 10 − 2 mmol ) was added . the mixture was vigorously stirred for 15 min in air . at this time , it was filtered through silica using ch 2 cl 2 as the eluant . the eluant was dried with mgso 4 and concentrated in vacuo to give a bright yellow oil . purification via flash chromatography using sio 2 eluted with 1 : 9 etoac : hexanes afforded pure 11 ( 271 mg ) in 70 % yield with varying amounts of c3 hydration , i . e . 13 (˜ 10 - 30 %). ir ( nacl ) ν max ( mixture of 11 and 13 ) ( cm − 1 ): 3447 ( w , br , oh ), 2937 ( s , ch ), 2863 ( m , ch ), 1794 ( w , c ═ o , hydrated diketone ), 1733 ( s , c ═ o , diketone ), 1714 ( s , c ═ o , diketone ), 1162 ( m , c — o ), 1145 ( m , c — o ), 1093 ( s , c — o ). azeotropic drying of the oil with chcl 3 produced a yellow solid that contained & gt ; 95 % 11b . r f = 0 . 1 - 0 . 3 ( 1 : 9 etoac : hexanes ). [ α ] d 20 - 11 . 8 ° ( c 0 . 900 , chcl 3 ). hrms ( m / z ): m + calcd . for c 11 h 16 o 4 , 212 . 105 ; found , 212 . 645 . in cdcl 3 , 11 was characterized with & lt ; 5 % 13 . 1 h nmr ( 500 mhz , cdcl 3 ) ( 11 ): δ 5 . 14 ( dd , j = 5 . 2 , 7 . 9 hz , 1h ), 4 . 35 ( dd , j = 7 . 9 , 8 . 9 hz , 1h ), 4 . 00 ( dd , j = 5 . 2 , 8 . 9 hz , 1h ), 2 . 40 ( s , 3h ), 1 . 64 ( m , 8h ), 1 . 42 ( m , 2h ). 13 c nmr ( 125 . 7 mhz , cdcl 3 ) ( 11 ): δ 198 . 2 , 194 . 9 , 111 . 9 , 76 . 5 , 65 . 5 , 35 . 4 , 34 . 7 , 25 . 0 , 24 . 5 , 23 . 82 , 23 . 77 . in aqueous ( d 2 o ) solution , 13 formed in & gt ; 95 %, as evidenced by the presence of a new peak at δ 95 . 7 ppm in the 13 c nmr spectrum , and the presence of only one peak in the carbonyl region ( δ 210 . 2 ppm ). further evidence for the position of hydration is provided as part of the analytical data for 11 / 13 -( 13 c 1 ). 1 h nmr ( 500 mhz , d 2 o , 13 ): δ 4 . 43 ( dd , j = 5 . 3 , 7 . 2 hz , 1h ), 4 . 14 ( dd , j = 7 . 2 , 9 . 0 hz , 1h ), 4 . 05 ( dd , j = 5 . 3 , 9 . 0 hz , 1h ), 2 . 36 ( s , 3h ), 1 . 67 - 1 . 30 ( m , 10h ). 13 c nmr ( 125 . 7 mhz , d 2 o , 13 ): δ 210 . 2 , 112 . 1 , 95 . 7 , 77 . 1 , 63 . 8 , 34 . 9 , 33 . 2 , 25 . 1 ( splitting due to d exchange was noted ), 24 . 5 , 23 . 6 , 23 . 3 . due to the long exposure to d 2 o necessary to obtain the 13 c nmr spectrum , partial deprotection of the molecule occurred . the weak additional peaks in the 13 c nmr spectrum ( below ) of 13 in d 2 o at δ 42 . 0 and 27 . 0 ppm are due to small amounts of cyclohexanone . if 11 is dissolved in d 2 o and then extracted into cdcl 3 , & gt ; 95 % 13 could be initially characterized in organic solvent as evidenced by 1 h nmr . however , 13 converts to 11 with a t 1 / 2 of 13 h at 20 ° c . 1 h nmr ( 500 mhz , cdcl 3 , 13 ): δ 4 . 26 ( dd , j = 5 . 5 , 6 . 7 hz , 1h ), 4 . 129 ( d , j = 5 . 5 hz , 1h ), 4 . 127 ( d , j = 6 . 7 hz , 1h ), 2 . 42 ( s , 3h ), 1 . 71 - 1 . 56 ( m , 8h ), 1 . 41 ( m , 2h ). 13 c nmr ( 125 . 7 mhz , cdcl 3 , 13 ): ( reporting only peaks corresponding to 13 ): δ 206 . 3 , 111 . 2 , 94 . 6 , 76 . 6 , 64 . 6 , 35 . 8 , 25 . 0 , 24 . 5 , 24 . 1 , 23 . 9 , 23 . 7 . due to the length of observation necessary to fully develop the 13 c spectrum of 13 , considerable dehydration was observed along with deprotection . therefore , the 13 c nmr spectrum in cdcl 3 of 13 ( below ) also contains peaks attributed to 11 and cyclohexanone . ent - 11 [ α ] d 20 + 11 . 5 ° ( c 0 . 733 , chcl 3 ). protected dpd , 11 , 13 c labeled at the c1 position ( 42 mg , 44 % yield ) was obtained from 10 -( 13 c 1 ) ( 81 mg , 0 . 4 mmol ) using the procedure for 11 . 1 h nmr ( 500 mhz , cdcl 3 ): δ 5 . 14 ( dd , j = 5 . 2 , 7 . 9 hz , 1h ), 4 . 35 ( dd , j = 7 . 9 , 8 . 9 hz , 1h ), 4 . 00 ( dd , j = 5 . 2 , 8 . 9 hz , 1h ), 2 . 40 ( d , j = 129 . 4 hz , 3h ), 1 . 64 ( m , 8h ), 1 . 42 ( m , 2h ). 13 c nmr ( 125 . 7 mhz , cdcl 3 ): δ 198 . 2 ( d , 1 j ( c1 )( c2 ) = 42 . 6 hz ), 194 . 9 ( d , 2 j ( c1 )( c3 ) = 12 . 4 ), 111 . 9 , 76 . 5 , 65 . 5 , 35 . 4 , 34 . 7 , 25 . 0 , 24 . 5 , 23 . 82 , 23 . 77 . 1 h nmr ( 500 mhz , d 2 o ): δ 4 . 43 ( dd , j = 5 . 3 , 7 . 2 hz , 1h ), 4 . 14 ( dd , j = 7 . 2 , 9 . 0 hz , 1h ), 4 . 05 ( dd , j = 5 . 3 , 9 . 0 hz , 1h ), 2 . 36 ( d , j = 128 . 4 hz , 3h ), 1 . 67 - 1 . 30 ( m , 10h ). 13 c nmr ( 125 . 7 mhz , 0 . 5 : 9 . 5 d 2 o : h 2 o ): δ 210 . 2 ( d , 1 j ( c1 )( c2 ) = 41 . 2 ), 112 . 1 , 95 . 7 ( d , 2 j ( c1 )( c3 ) = 11 . 4 ), 77 . 1 , 63 . 8 , 34 . 9 , 33 . 2 , 25 . 1 , 24 . 5 , 23 . 6 , 23 . 3 . the position of hydration in the molecule in aqueous media was confirmed by 13 c nmr analysis . the peak at δ 95 . 7 ppm in the 13 c nmr spectrum for 11b -( 13 c 1 ) in 5 % d 2 o in h 2 o displayed two bond c — c coupling ( 11 . 4 hz ) with the 13 c label at c1 . the chemical shift is also in the range noted for hydrated carbonyl groups . taken together , these data are consistent with hydration at c3 . two new peaks at δ 24 . 6 and 22 . 3 ppm were also observed in the 13 c spectrum of 11 -( 13 c 1 ) in 5 % d 2 o ( spectrometer lock signal ) in h 2 o , but not in the 13 c spectrum of 11 in d 2 o . these peaks are assigned to the methyl carbon for small amounts of unhydrated and c2 hydrated material that are only detectable with 13 c incorporation . the two new peaks also show splitting due to d exchange if the 13 c spectrum is recorded in 100 % d 2 o . to a suspension of 11 ( 14 mg , 6 . 6 mmol ) in d 2 o ( 3 . 2 ml ) was added conc . h 2 so 4 ( 4 μl , ca ph 2 ). the reaction was allowed to continue for 2 . 5 h and was monitored by 1 h nmr . deprotection was determined to be ˜ 90 % complete after 1 . 5 h and greater than ˜ 97 % complete after 2 . 5 h . at this time , excess nahco 3 and excess b ( oh ) 3 were added to generate a solution of excess borate at ph 7 . 8 . this solution was active in the v . harveyi autoinducer - bioassay without further purification . before addition of nahco 3 and b ( oh ) 3 , a 1 ml aliquot of the material showed an 1 h nmr spectrum consistent with previously reported data . 1 h nmr ( 500 mhz , d 2 o , pd = 2 . 0 ): δ 4 . 36 ( dd , j = 5 . 6 , 7 . 0 hz , 1h ), 4 . 17 ( m , 2h ), 4 . 03 ( dd , j = 3 . 2 , 5 . 9 hz , 1h ), 3 . 96 ( dd , j = 3 . 8 , 7 . 3 hz , 1h ), 3 . 80 ( m , 2h ), 3 — 63 ( dd , j = 7 . 3 , 12 . 0 hz , 1h ), 3 . 56 ( dd , j = 5 . 6 , 9 . 4 hz , 1h ) [ the previously reported peak at 2 . 35 ( s , 3h ) corresponding to the methyl protons of the ring open isomer was obscured by cyclohexanone . ], 1 . 42 ( s , 3h ), 1 . 40 ( s , 3h ). [ previously partially characterized by meijler et al . 2004 .] to a suspension of 11 ( 9 . 6 mg , 30 mmol ) in d 2 o ) ( 1 . 5 ml ) was added conc . d 2 so 4 ( 1 . 5 μl , final pd1 . 5 ). the reaction was allowed to continue for 5 h and was monitored by 1 h nmr . a 1 h - 1 h dqcosy spectrum was recorded at the 5 - h time point to help establish the identity of each 1 h signal . these data are consistent with previous assignments ( janda et al . ______ ). 1 h nmr ( 500 mhz , d 2 o , pd = 1 . 5 , 5 h ): δ 4 . 36 ( dd , j = 5 . 6 , 7 . 0 hz , 1h ), 4 . 17 ( m , 2h ), 4 . 03 ( dd , j = 3 . 2 , 5 . 9 hz , 1h ), 3 . 96 ( dd , j = 3 . 8 , 7 . 3 hz , 1h ), 3 . 80 ( m , 2h ), 3 . 63 ( dd , j = 7 . 3 , 12 . 0 hz , 1h ), 3 . 56 ( dd , j = 5 . 6 , 9 . 4 hz , 1h ), previously reported peak at 2 . 35 ( s , 3h ) corresponding to the methyl protons of the ring open isomer obscured by cyclohexanone , 1 . 42 ( s , 3h ), 1 . 40 ( s , 3h ). the extra signals in the region form 1 . 35 - 1 . 45 ppm and 3 . 4 - 4 . 6 ppm are most likely due to a small amount of 1 that is not hydrated at c3 . this hypothesis is supported by the complete disappearance of these peaks upon addition of 1 , 2 - phenylenediamine ( see example 13 ) to a suspension of 11 ( 4 . 5 mg , 30 mmol ) in h 2 o ( 0 . 665 ml ) and d 2 o ( 0 . 035 ml ) was added conc . d 2 so 4 ( 1 . 5 ml , final pd 1 . 5 ). the reaction was allowed to continue for 2 . 5 h . at this time the 13 c nmr spectrum was recorded . 13 c nmr ( 125 . 7 mhz , 95 : 5 h 2 o : d 2 o , ph 1 . 5 ): ring open isomer ( c2 carbonyl not observed ): δ 24 . 9 , 61 . 8 , 74 . 3 , 97 . 2 ; cyclic isomers : δ 19 . 9 , 20 . 4 , 69 . 4 , 71 . 3 , 73 . 8 , 74 . 6 , 99 . 4 , 99 . 7 , 103 . 9 , 104 . 7 . note , peaks at δ 24 . 6 , 27 . 3 , 41 . 9 , 221 . 2 correspond to cyclohexanone . the appearance of 4 13 c nmr signals that can be attributed to the ring closed isomers in the region from 90 - 110 ppm ( consistent with signals from hemiacetal and hydrated carbons ) strongly suggest that the majority of dpd is hydrated at c3 under the above experimental conditions . to a suspension of 11 ( 9 . 6 mg , 30 mmol ) in d 2 o ( 1 . 5 ml ) was added conc . d 2 so 4 ( 1 . 5 μl , final pd1 . 5 ), and the reaction was allowed to continue for 5 h . at this time , 400 μl of the solution containing 11 was mixed with 100 μl of a solution of 1 , 2 - phenylenediamine dihydrochloride ( 17 . 9 mg , 200 mm ) in d 2 o ( 0 . 5 ml ). the resulting solution , containing 24 mm dpd and 40 mm phenylenediamine , was allowed to stand at room temperature for 40 min . the conversion of dpd to ( s )- 1 -( 3 - methylquinoxalin - 2 - yl )- ethane - 1 , 2 - diol was judged to be & gt ; 97 % via 1 h nmr . of interest is the absence of 1 h nmr signals in the region from 3 . 4 - 4 . 6 ppm that could be attributed to dpd or a large amount of by - product . 1 h nmr ( 500 mhz , d 2 o , pd 1 . 5 , 5 h ): δ 8 . 31 ( m , 1h ), 8 . 14 ( m , 1h ), 5 . 42 ( dd , j = 4 . 6 , 6 . 4 hz , 1h ), 4 . 05 ( dd , j = 4 . 6 , 12 . 0 hz , 1h ), 4 . 00 ( dd , j = 6 . 4 , 12 . 0 hz , 1h ), 3 . 02 , ( s 3h ). production of ( s or r )- 4 , 5 - dihydroxy - 2 , 3 - pentadione , 1 , suitable for storage and biological evaluation to a suspension of 11 ( 10 mm ) in h 2 o ( 5 ml ) was added conc . h 2 so 4 ( 5 μl ). the reaction was allowed to continue for 2 h . at this time , the mixture was diluted with 1 m potassium phosphate buffer ( 5 ml ) to adjust the ph to 7 . 3 , yielding 5 mm dpd , 1 , in 0 . 5 m potassium phosphate buffer . this material could be used without further purification in the v . harveyi bioassay , and displayed an activity equal to that of enzymatically prepared dpd ( see next example ). v . harveyi strain mm32 ( luxn − luxs − ) was grown overnight and subsequently diluted 5 . 000 - fold in ab growth medium . this bioassay was performed as developed by the method of schauder et . al . ( 2001 ). to 90 μl of diluted cells , 10 μl of various compounds were added , and the resulting cultures were further incubated in a 96 - well microtiter dish at 30 ° c . for approximately 6 h . the concentration of crude dpd was calculated by measuring the amount of homocysteine released in an ellman &# 39 ; s test . light emission was measured using a wallac model 1450 microbeta plus scintillation counter . a . comparative bioactivity of enzymatically - produced dpd , synthetic dpd and synthetic ent - dpd . each of these three compounds and a blank were assessed in the above bioassay at equal concentrations . the bio assays were conducted with a dilution of 0 . 53 mm enzymatically - produced dpd , a dilution of 5 . 0 mm synthetic dpd or a dilution of 5 . 0 mm ent - dpd . the results are shown in fig3 . b . effects of low ph on enzmmatically - produced dpd bioactivity . enzymatically produced dpd ( 0 . 53 mm stock concentration ) was mixed with sulfuric or hydrochloric acid at a ratio of 1 μl h 2 so 4 or 5 μl hcl to 250 μl dpd , resulting in solutions with a ph of 1 . 5 ( with h 2 so 4 ) or 2 ( with hcl ). at times indicated , 1 m tris ph 8 . 5 was added to restore the ph to neutral and bioactivity was determined . fig4 a shows the results after exposure to hcl treatment . similar results were obtained after exposure to h 2 so 4 ( not shown ). treatment of enzymatically - produced dpd with acid for up to 16 h did not affect the autoinducer activity . c . effects of low ph on synthetic dpd bioactivity . synthetically - produced dpd ( 100 mm stock concentration ) was mixed with h 2 so 4 at a ratio of 1 μl h 2 so 4 to 250 μl dpd , resulting in solutions with a ph of 1 . 3 . after 16 h , 1 m tris ph 8 . 5 was added at a ratio of 5 μl buffer to 20 ul dpd solution to restore the ph to 7 . 5 . this bioassay carried out as before shows that after treatment of synthetic dpd at a concentration of 100 mm and ph 1 . 3 for up to 16 h did not change the auto inducer activity ( fig4 b ). 13 c nmr dpd - borate binding study using dpd -( 13 c 1 ), 15 to a suspension of 11 -( 13 c 1 ) ( 5 . 2 mg , 0 . 025 mmol ) in 0 . 5 : 9 . 5 d 2 o : h 2 o ( 1 . 64 ml ) was added conc . h 2 so 4 ( 2 μl ). the reaction was allowed to continue for 2 . 0 h , and the 13 c nmr shifts for the methyl groups of the equilibrium mixture were recorded . excess nahco 3 and b ( oh ) 3 ( 4 . 6 mg , 0 . 074 mmol ) were added to generate a sat . nahco 3 and 45 mm b ( oh ) 3 solution ( ph 7 . 8 ), and the 13 c nmr spectrum of the resulting mixture was recorded . excess b ( oh ) 3 was added to the mixture to generate a sat . b ( oh ) 3 solution , and the sample was further analyzed via 13 c nmr spectroscopy . the results are sho - wn in fig5 a - c and discussed in the detailed description of the invention . to a suspension of 11 ( 8 . 1 mg , 0 . 038 mmol ) in 0 . 5 : 9 . 5 d 2 o : h 2 o ( 1 . 53 ml ) was added conc . h 2 so 4 ( 2 μl ). the deprotection was allowed to continue for 2 h . at this time , excess nahco 3 was added to generate a sat . nahco 3 solution ( ph 7 . 8 ). the material was divided into aliquots , and 100 mm b ( oh ) 3 in sat nahco 3 ( aq ) and sat nahco 3 ( aq ) were added in various proportions to generate 15 mm dpd in 5 mm , 15 mm , and 40 mm b ( oh ) 3 solutions with final volumes of 0 . 5 ml . these solutions were studied by 11 b nmr . excess b ( oh ) 3 was added to the 45 mm b ( oh ) 3 sample to generate a saturated b ( oh ) 3 solution , and this sample was subjected to further 11 b nmr analysis . the results are shown in fig5 d - f and discussed in the detailed description of the invention . to explore further the ability of dpd to complex borate at more physiologically relevant concentrations , a mixture of 10 μl of 40 mm b ( oh ) 3 , 101 l of 10 mm dpd , 100 μl of 1 m potassium phosphate buffer ( ph 7 ), 200 μl of sat . nahco 3 and 680 μl of d 2 o was produced to generate a 100 μm dpd solution in 400 μm b ( oh ) 3 , at ph 7 . 5 . this solution was then analyzed by 11 b nmr to determine binding , as discussed in the detailed description of the invention . cornell , k . a . et al . ( 1998 ). biochim . biophys . acta 1396 , 8 - 14 . dickson , a . g . ( 1990 ) deep - sea research 37 , 755 - 766 . duerre , j . a . et al ., ( 1971 ) fed . proc . 30 , 1067 . federle , m . j . et al . ( 2001 ) j . clin . invest . 112 , 1291 - 1299 . lorand , j . p . et al . ( 1959 ) j . org . chem . 24 , 769 - 774 . meijler , m . m . et al . ( 2004 ) angew . clem . int . ed . engl . 43 , 2106 - 2108 . miller , s . t . et al . ( 2004 ) mol . cell . 15 , 677 - 687 . semmelhack , m . f . et al . ( 2004 ) org . lett . 6 , 2635 - 2637 . surette , m . g . et al . ( 1999 ) proc . natl . acad . sci . usa 96 , 1639 - 1644 . van duin , m . et al . ( 1985 ) tetrahedron lett . 41 , 3411 - 3412 . vekemans et al . ( 1985 ) recl . trav . chim . pays - bas . 104 , 266 - 272 . xavier , k . b . et al . ( 2003 ) curr . opin . nicrobiol . 6 , 191 - 197 . yoshida , j . et al . ( 1992 ) j . chem . soc . perkin 1 , 343 - 350 . zibuck , r . et al . ( 1988 helv . chim . acta 71 , 237 - 240 . zhu , j . g . et al . ( 2003 ) j . am . chem . soc . 125 , 13379 - 13381 . | 2 |
a first object of the present invention are compounds of formula ( i ): — or 5 wherein r 5 is selected from h ; c 1 - c 4 alkyl , trifluoromethanesulfonyl , benzyl , ( trifluoromethyl ) benzyl , ( halo ) benzyl , ( trifluoromethyl ) benzoyl , n - benzylcarbamoyl , cyclohexyloxyacetoyl substituted with at least one c 1 - c 3 alkyl group , ( c 1 - c 3 alkoxy ) methyl , c 1 - c 3 alkanoyl and ch 2 ch 2 nhr 6 , wherein — nhr 7 wherein r 7 is selected from h , tert - butoxycarbonyl , c 1 - c 3 alkanoyl , ( 4 - trifluoromethyl ) benzoyl , n - phenylaminoacarbonyl , ch 2 r 8 , wherein r 8 is selected from phenyl , benzo [ d ][ 1 , 3 ] dioxole , pyridin - 3 - yl , ( pyrrolidin - 1 - yl ) methyl , — ch 2 nhr 9 wherein r 9 is selected from h , c 1 - c 3 alkyl and cycloalkyl ; r 10 is selected from h , c 1 - c 3 alkyl and cyclohexyl , optionally substituted with at least one c 1 - c 3 alkyl group ; — oh ; — conh 2 ; cn ; - tetrazol - 5 - yl , 1 -( c 1 - c 3 alkyl ) tetrazol - 5 - yl , 2 -( c 1 - c 3 alkyl ) tetrazol - 5 - yl , 5 -( c 1 - c 3 alkyl ) 1 , 2 , 4 triazol - 3 - yl , 5 -( c 1 - c 3 alkyl ) 1 , 2 , 4 - oxadiazol - 3yl , 5 -( c 1 - c 3 alkyl ) 1 , 3 , 4 - oxadiazol - 2 - yl ; r 4 is selected from h ; ch 3 ; halogen ; dimethylamino ; pyridin - 4yl ; phenyl ; 2 - or 4 -( halo ) phenyl ; 2 - or 4 -( trifluoromethyl ) phenyl ; 2 - and / or 4 - halobenzyloxy . according to a preferred embodiment of the invention , in said compounds of formula i , r 5 may be selected from h , c 1 - c 4 alkyl , trifluoromethanesulfonyl , benzyl , ( trifluoromethyl ) benzyl , ( chloro ) benzyl , ( trifluoromethyl ) benzoyl , n - benzylcarbamoyl , cyclohexyloxyacetoyl substituted with at least one c 1 - c 3 alkyl group , ( methoxy ) methyl , propanoyl and ch 2 ch 2 nhr 6 wherein r 6 is as above . particularly preferred among these compounds are compounds wherein r 5 is selected from h , methyl , isobutyl , trifluoromethanesulfonyl , benzyl , 4 -( trifluoromethyl ) benzyl , ( chloro ) benzyl , 4 -( trifluoromethyl ) benzoyl , n - benzylcarbamoyl , 2 - isopropyl - 5 - methylcyclohexyloxyacetoyl , ( methoxy ) methyl , propanoyl and ch 2 ch 2 nhr 6 wherein r 6 is as above . according to a further preferred embodiment of the invention , also in combination with any of the preceding embodiment , in said compounds of formula i r 7 may be selected from h , tert - butoxycarbonyl , acetyl , 4 -( trifluoromethyl ) benzoyl , n - phenylaminoacarbonyl , ch 2 r 8 , wherein r 8 is selected from phenyl , benzo [ d ][ 1 , 3 ] dioxole , pyridin - 3 - yl , ( pyrrolidin - 1 - yl ) methyl , — ch 2 nhr 9 wherein r 9 is selected from h , c 1 - c 3 alkyl and cyclopentyl . according to a further preferred embodiment of the invention , also in combination with any one of the preceding embodiments , in said compounds of formula i r 10 may be selected from h , c 1 - c 3 alkyl and 2 - isopropyl - 5 - cyclohexyl . according to a further preferred embodiment of the invention , also in combination with any one of the preceding embodiments , in said compounds of formula i r 4 may be selected from h , ch 3 , f , cl , dimethylamino , preferably in position para , pyridin - 4yl , phenyl , 2 - f - penyl , 2 - trifluoromethylphenyl and 2 - or 4 - halobenzyloxy , wherein said halo is preferably f or cl . according to a further preferred embodiment of the invention , in said compounds of formula i — or 5 wherein r 5 is selected from h , c 1 - c 4 alkyl , trifluoromethanesulfonyl , benzyl , ( trifluoromethyl ) benzyl , ( chloro ) benzyl , ( trifluoromethyl ) benzoyl , n - benzylcarbamoyl , cyclohexyloxyacetoyl substituted with at least one c 1 - c 3 alkyl group , ( methoxy ) methyl , propanoyl and — ch 2 ch 2 nhr 6 , wherein — nhr 7 wherein r 7 is selected from h , tert - butoxycarbonyl , acetyl , ( 4 - trifluoromethyl ) benzoyl , n - phenylaminocarbonyl , ch 2 r 8 , wherein r 8 is selected from phenyl , benzo [ d ][ 1 , 3 ] dioxole , pyridin - 3 - yl , ( pyrrolidin - 1 - yl ) methyl , — ch 2 nhr 9 wherein r 9 is selected from h , c 1 - c 3 alkyl and cyclopentyl r 10 is selected from h , c 1 - c 3 alkyl and 2 - isopropyl - 5 - methylcyclohexyloxycarbonyl , — oh ; — conh 2 ; cn ; tetrazol - 5 - yl or 1 -( c 1 - c 3 alkyl ) tetrazol - 5 - yl ; 2 -( c 1 - c 3 alkyl ) tetrazol - 5 - yl ; 5 -( c 1 - c 3 alkyl ) 1 , 2 , 4 triazol - 3 - yl ;- 5 -( c 1 - c 3 alkyl ) 1 , 2 , 4 - oxadiazol - 3yl ; - 5 -( c 1 - c 3 alkyl ) 1 , 3 , 4 - oxadiazol - 2 - yl ; r 4 is selected from h , f , cl , dimethylamino , preferably in position para , pyridin - 4yl , phenyl , 2 - f - penyl , 2 - trifluoromethylphenyl , 2 - and / or 4 - f - benzyloxy . particularly preferred compounds of the invention are compounds of formula i wherein r 1 is selected from : — or 5 , wherein r 5 is selected from h , benzyl , ( chloro ) benzyl , ( trifluoromethyl ) benzoyl , ch 2 — ch 2 nh 2 ; and — nhch 2 ch 2 r 9 wherein r 9 is selected from h and c 1 - c 3 alkyl . particularly preferred among the compounds of the invention are also compounds of formula i wherein r 2 is selected from coor 10 wherein r 10 is selected from h , c 1 - c 3 alkyl . particularly preferred among the compounds of the invention are also compounds of formula i wherein r 3 is h . particularly preferred among the above compounds are those compounds of formula i wherein : or 5 , wherein r 5 is selected from h , benzyl , ( chloro ) benzyl , ( trifluoromethyl ) benzoyl ; and ch 2 — ch 2 nh 2 ; and nhch 2 ch 2 r 9 wherein r 9 is selected from c 1 - c 3 alkyl and h ; r 2 is coor 10 wherein r 10 is selected from h , c 1 - c 3 alkyl according to a preferred embodiment of the invention , also in combination with any preceding embodiment , when x is s , in the above compounds of formula i when r 1 is oh and r 2 is cooh , r 4 is different from cl in meta position on the aromatic ring . according to another preferred embodiment of the invention , also in combination with any preceding embodiment , when r 1 is oh and r 2 is cooh or cooet , r 3 and r 4 are not h at the same time . according to a further preferred embodiment of the invention , also in combination with any preceding embodiments , in said compounds of formula i when r 3 is f , r 3 is in position ortho of the aromatic ring and r 4 is f in position para of the aromatic ring , and when r 3 is h , r 4 is in position para or meta on the aromatic ring . according to a further preferred embodiment of the invention , the compounds of formula i are selected from : 2 -( 4 - chlorophenyl )- 4 - hydroxy - 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylic acid ( compound n . 1 ) 4 - hydroxy - 2 -( 4 - methylphenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylic acid ( compound n . 2 ) 2 -( 3 - fluorophenyl )- 4 - hydroxy - 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylic acid ( compound n . 3 ) 2 -( 4 - fluorophenyl )- 4 - hydroxy - 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylic acid ( compound n . 4 ) methyl 4 - hydroxy - 2 - phenyl - 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 5 ) methyl 2 -( 2 , 4 - difluorophenyl )- 4 - hydroxy - 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 6 ) ethyl 4 - hydroxy - 2 - phenyl - 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 7 ) ethyl 2 -( 4 - chlorophenyl )- 4 - hydroxy - 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 8 ) ethyl 4 - hydroxy - 2 -( 4 - methylphenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 9 ) ethyl 2 -( 3 - fluorophenyl )- 4 - hydroxy - 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 10 ) ethyl 2 -( 4 - fluorophenyl )- 4 - hydroxy - 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 11 ) ethyl 4 - hydroxy - 2 -( pyridin - 4 - yl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 12 ) ethyl 2 -[ 4 -( dimethylamino ) phenyl ]- 4 - hydroxy - 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 13 ) ethyl 2 -( 3 - chlorophenyl )- 4 - hydroxy - 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 14 ) ethyl 4 - hydroxy - 2 -[ 2 ′-( trifluoromethyl ) biphenyl - 3 - yl ]- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 15 ) ethyl 2 -( 2 ′- fluorobiphenyl - 3 - yl )- 4 - hydroxy - 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 16 ) ethyl 4 - hydroxy - 2 -[ 2 ′-( trifluoromethyl ) biphenyl - 4 - yl ]- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 17 ) ethyl 2 -( 2 ′- fluorobiphenyl - 4 - yl )- 4 - hydroxy - 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 18 ) ethyl 2 -{ 4 -[( 2 - fluorobenzyl ) oxy ] phenyl }- 4 - hydroxy - 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 19 ) ethyl 2 -{ 4 -[( 4 - fluorobenzyl ) oxy ] phenyl }- 4 - hydroxy - 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 20 ) ethyl 2 -( 4 - fluorophenyl )- 4 -{[( trifluoromethyl ) sulfonyl ] oxy }- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 21 ) ethyl 4 - methoxy - 2 -( 4 - methylphenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 22 ) ethyl 2 -( 4 - methylphenyl )- 4 -( 2 - methylpropoxy )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 23 ) ethyl 4 -( benzyloxy )- 2 - phenyl - 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 24 ) ethyl 4 -[( 3 - chlorobenzyl ) oxy ]- 2 -( 4 - chlorophenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 25 ) ethyl 4 -[( 3 - chlorobenzyl ) oxy ]- 2 -( 3 - fluorophenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 26 ) ethyl 4 -[( 4 - chlorobenzyl ) oxy ]- 2 - phenyl - 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 27 ) ethyl 4 -[( 4 - chlorobenzyl ) oxy ]- 2 -( 3 - chlorophenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 28 ) ethyl 4 -[( 4 - chlorobenzyl ) oxy ]- 2 -( 4 - methylphenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 29 ) ethyl 4 -[( 4 - chlorobenzyl ) oxy ]- 2 -( 3 - fluorophenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 30 ) ethyl 4 -[( 2 - chlorobenzyl ) oxy ]- 2 - phenyl - 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 31 ) ethyl 4 -[( 2 - chlorobenzyl ) oxy ]- 2 -( 4 - fluorophenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 32 ) ethyl 4 -[( 2 - chlorobenzyl ) oxy ]- 2 -( 4 - chlorophenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 33 ) ethyl 4 -[( 2 - chlorobenzyl ) oxy ]- 2 -( 3 - chlorophenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 34 ) ethyl 4 -[( 2 - chlorobenzyl ) oxy ]- 2 -( 4 - methylphenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 35 ) ethyl 2 - phenyl - 4 -{[ 4 -( trifluoromethyl ) benzoyl ] oxy }- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 36 ) ethyl 2 -( 3 - fluorophenyl )- 4 -{[ 4 -( trifluoromethyl ) benzoyl ] oxy }- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 37 ) ethyl 2 -( 4 - methylphenyl )- 4 -{[ 4 -( trifluoromethyl ) benzoyl ] oxy }- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 38 ) ethyl4 -( 2 -(( 1r , 2s , 5r )- 2 - isopropyl - 5 - methylcyclohexyloxy ) acetoyloxy )- 2 -( 4 - methylphenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 39 ) ethyl 4 -[( benzylcarbamoyl ) oxy ]- 2 -( 4 - chlorophenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 40 ) ethyl 4 -( 2 - aminoethoxy )- 2 -( 4 - chlorophenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 41 ) ethyl 2 -( 4 - chlorophenyl )- 4 -{ 2 -[( furan - 2 - ylmethyl ) amino ] ethoxy }- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 42 ) 4 -[( 4 - chlorobenzyl ) oxy ]- 2 -( 4 - methylphenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylic acid ( compound n . 43 ) 4 -[( 4 - chlorobenzyl ) oxy ]- 2 - phenyl - 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylic acid ( compound n . 44 ) 4 -[( 4 - chlorobenzyl ) oxy ]- 2 -( 4 - chlorophenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylic acid ( compound n . 45 ) 4 -[( 4 - chlorobenzyl ) oxy ]- 2 -( 3 - chlorophenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylic acid ( compound n . 46 ) 4 -( benzyloxy )- 2 - phenyl - 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylic acid ( compound n . 47 ) 4 -[( 3 - chlorobenzyl ) oxy ]- 2 -( 3 - fluorophenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylic acid ( compound n . 48 ) 4 -[( 2 - chlorobenzyl ) oxy ]- 2 - phenyl - 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylic acid ( compound n . 49 ) 4 -[( 2 - chlorobenzyl ) oxy ]- 2 -( 4 - fluorophenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylic acid ( compound n . 50 ) 4 -[( 2 - chlorobenzyl ) oxy ]- 2 -( 4 - chlorophenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylic acid ( compound n . 51 ) 4 -[( 2 - chlorobenzyl ) oxy ]- 2 -( 3 - chlorophenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylic acid ( compound n . 52 ) 4 -[( 2 - chlorobenzyl ) oxy ]- 2 -( 4 - methylphenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylic acid ( compound n . 53 ) 4 -[( 2 - chlorobenzyl ) oxy ]- 2 -( 3 - fluorophenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylic acid ( compound n . 54 ) 2 - phenyl - 4 -{[ 4 -( trifluoromethyl ) benzyl ] oxy }- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylic acid ( compound n . 55 ) 2 -( 3 - fluorophenyl )- 4 -{[ 4 -( trifluoromethyl ) benzyl ] oxy }- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylic acid ( compound n . 56 ) 2 - phenyl - 4 -{[ 4 -( trifluoromethyl ) benzoyl ] oxy }- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylic acid ( compound n . 57 ) 2 -( 3 - fluorophenyl )- 4 -{[ 4 -( trifluoromethyl ) benzoyl ] oxy }- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylic acid ( compound n . 58 ) 2 -( 4 - methylphenyl )- 4 -{[ 4 -( trifluoromethyl ) benzoyl ] oxy }- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylic acid ( compound n . 59 ) 4 - methoxy - 2 -( 4 - methylphenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylic acid ( compound n . 60 ) 2 -( 4 - methylphenyl )- 4 -( 2 - methylpropoxy )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylic acid ( compound n . 61 ) ethyl 4 -[( tert - butoxycarbonyl ) amino ]- 2 -( 4 - fluorophenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 62 ) ethyl 4 - amino - 2 -( 4 - fluorophenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate hydrochloride ( compound n . 63 ) ethyl 4 -( acetylamino )- 2 -( 4 - methylphenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 64 ) ethyl 2 -( 4 - methylphenyl )- 4 -{[ 4 -( trifluoromethyl ) benzoyl ] amino }- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 65 ) ethyl 2 -( 4 - methylphenyl )- 4 -[( phenylcarbamoyl ) amino ]- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 66 ) ethyl 4 -[( 2 - aminoethyl ) amino ]- 2 -( 4 - methylphenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 67 ) ethyl 2 -( 4 - chlorophenyl )- 4 -{[ 2 -( methylamino ) ethyl ] amino }- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 68 ) ethyl 2 -( 4 - chlorophenyl )- 4 -{[ 2 -( propylamino ) ethyl ] amino }- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 69 ) ethyl 4 -[( 2 - aminoethyl ) amino ]- 2 -( 4 - chlorophenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 70 ) ethyl 4 -{[ 2 -( methylamino ) ethyl ] amino }- 2 -( 4 - methylphenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 71 ) ethyl 4 -[( 2 - aminoethyl ) amino ]- 2 -[ 2 ′-( trifluoromethyl ) biphenyl - 4 - yl ]- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 72 ) ethyl 4 -[( 2 - aminoethyl ) amino ]- 2 -[ 2 ′-( trifluoromethyl ) biphenyl - 3 - yl ]- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 73 ) ethyl 2 -( 4 - chlorophenyl )- 4 -{[ 2 -( cyclopentylamino ) ethyl ] amino }- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 74 ) ethyl 2 - phenyl - 4 -{[ 2 -( pyrrolidin - 1 - yl ) ethyl ] amino }- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 75 ) ethyl 4 -( benzylamino )- 2 -( 3 - fluorophenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 76 ) ethyl 4 -[( 1 , 3 - benzodioxol - 5 - ylmethyl ) amino ]- 2 -( 3 - fluorophenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 77 ) ethyl 2 -( 3 - fluorophenyl )- 4 -[( pyridin - 3 - ylmethyl ) amino ]- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 78 ) 4 -[( 2 - aminoethyl ) amino ]- 2 -( 4 - methylphenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylic acid ( compound n . 79 ) 4 -{[ 2 -( methylamino ) ethyl ] amino }- 2 -( 4 - methylphenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylic acid ( compound n . 80 ) 4 -[( 2 - aminoethyl ) amino ]- 2 -( 3 - fluorophenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylic acid ( compound n . 81 ) sodium 4 -[( 3 - chlorobenzyl ) oxy ]- 2 -( 3 - fluorophenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 82 ) sodium 4 -[( 4 - chlorobenzyl ) oxy ]- 2 -( 4 - methylphenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 83 ) sodium 4 -( 4 - chlorobenzyloxy )- 2 -( 4 - chlorophenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 84 ) sodium 4 -( 2 - chlorobenzyloxy )- 2 -( 4 - chlorophenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 85 ) sodium 4 -( 2 - chlorobenzyloxy )- 2 -( 4 - methylphenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 86 ) sodium 4 -( 2 - chlorobenzyloxy )- 2 -( 3 - fluorophenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 87 ) sodium 4 -( 4 - chlorobenzyloxy )- 2 -( 3 - fluorophenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 88 ) ( 1r , 2s , 5r )- 2 - isopropyl - 5 - methylcyclohexyl - 4 -( benzyloxy )- 2 -( 4 - methylphenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 89 ) ( 1r , 2s , 5r )- 2 - isopropyl - 5 - methylcyclohexyl - 4 - hydroxy - 2 -( 4 - methylphenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 90 ) ethyl 2 -( 4 - chlorophenyl )- 4 -( methoxymethoxy )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 91 ) 2 -( 4 - chlorophenyl )- 4 -( methoxymethoxy )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylic acid ( compound n . 92 ) 2 -( 4 - chlorophenyl )- 4 -( methoxymethoxy )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxamide ( compound n . 93 ) 2 -( 4 - chlorophenyl )- 4 -( methoxymethoxy )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carbonitrile ( compound n . 94 ) 2 -( 4 - chlorophenyl )- 5 -( 1h - tetrazol - 5 - yl )- 1 , 3 - thiazol - 4 - ol ( compound n . 95 ) 2 -( 4 - chlorophenyl )- 5 -( 1 - methyl - 1h - tetrazol - 5 - yl )- 1 , 3 - thiazol - 4 - ol ( compound n . 96 ) 2 -( 3 - fluorophenyl )- 5 -( 1 - methyl - 1h - tetrazol - 5 - yl )- 1 , 3 - thiazol - 4 - ol ( compound n . 97 ) 2 -( 4 - chlorophenyl )- 5 -( 5 - methyl - 4h - 1 , 2 , 4 - triazol - 3 - yl )- 1 , 3 - thiazol - 4 - ol ( compound n . 98 ) 2 -( 3 - fluorophenyl )- 5 -( 5 - methyl - 4h - 1 , 2 , 4 - triazol - 3 - yl )- 1 , 3 - thiazol - 4 - ol ( compound n . 99 ) 2 -( 4 - chlorophenyl )- 5 -( 5 - methyl - 1 , 2 , 4 - oxadiazol - 3 - yl )- 1 , 3 - thiazol - 4 - ol ( compound n . 100 ) 2 -( 3 - fluorophenyl )- 5 -( 5 - methyl - 1 , 2 , 4 - oxadiazol - 3 - yl )- 1 , 3 - thiazol - 4 - ol ( compound n . 101 ) 3 -{ 4 -[( 4 - chlorobenzyl ) oxy ]- 2 -( 3 - fluorophenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazol - 5 - yl }- 5 - methyl - 1 , 2 , 4 - oxadiazole ( compound n . 102 ) 2 -( 4 - chlorophenyl )- 5 -( 5 - methyl - 1 , 3 , 4 - oxadiazol - 2 - yl )- 1 , 3 - thiazol - 4 - ol ( compound n . 103 ) 2 -( 3 - fluorophenyl )- 5 -( 5 - methyl - 1 , 3 , 4 - oxadiazol - 2 - yl )- 1 , 3 - thiazol - 4 - ol ( compound n . 104 ) ethyl 4 - hydroxy - 2 - phenyl - 1 , 3 - oxazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 105 ) ethyl 2 -( 3 - fluorophenyl )- 4 - hydroxy - 1 , 3 - oxazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 106 ) ethyl 4 - hydroxy - 2 -( 4 - methylphenyl )- 1 , 3 - oxazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 107 ) ethyl 4 -[( 4 - chlorobenzyl ) oxy ]- 2 - phenyl - 1 , 3 - oxazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 108 ) ethyl 4 -[( 4 - chlorobenzyl ) oxy ]- 2 -( 3 - fluorophenyl )- 1 , 3 - oxazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 109 ) ethyl 4 -[( 4 - chlorobenzyl ) oxy ]- 2 -( 4 - methylphenyl )- 1 , 3 - oxazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 110 ) ethyl 2 - phenyl - 4 -{[ 4 -( trifluoromethyl ) benzoyl ] oxy }- 1 , 3 - oxazole - 5 - carboxylate ( compound n . 111 ) 4 -[( 4 - chlorobenzyl ) oxy ]- 2 - phenyl - 1 , 3 - oxazole - 5 - carboxylic acid ( compound n . 112 ) 4 -[( 4 - chlorobenzyl ) oxy ]- 2 -( 3 - fluorophenyl )- 1 , 3 - oxazole - 5 - carboxylic acid ( compound n . 113 ) 4 -[( 4 - chlorobenzyl ) oxy ]- 2 -( 4 - methylphenyl )- 1 , 3 - oxazole - 5 - carboxylic acid ( compound n . 114 ) 2 -( 3 - fluorophenyl )- 5 -( 5 - methyl - 1 , 2 , 4 - oxadiazol - 3 - yl )- 1 , 3 - oxazol - 4 - ol ( compound n . 115 ) 3 -{ 4 -[( 4 - chlorobenzyl ) oxy ]- 2 -( 3 - fluorophenyl )- 1 , 3 - oxazol - 5 - yl }- 5 - methyl - 1 , 2 , 4 - oxadiazole ( compound n . 116 ) ethyl 2 -( 3 - fluorophenyl )- 5 - hydroxy - 1 , 3 - thiazole - 4 - carboxylate ( compound n . 117 ). 2 -( 3 - fluorophenyl )- 5 -( 2 - ethyl - 2h - tetrazol - 5 - yl )- 1 , 3 - thiazol - 4 - ol ( compound n . 118 ) as it will be described in details in example 119 , the present inventors have found that the above compounds 1 - 118 are potent antagonists of trpm8 . in details , all of the above compounds have been tested in a high - throughput screening ( hts ) cellular - based assay for the human trpm8 and have shown an antagonist activity with a ic 50 below 30 μm . compounds 10 , 45 and 118 have also been tested in a calcium influx assay , which has confirmed the antagonist activity of the tested compounds . thus , a second object of the present invention are the above compounds of formula ( i ) for use as antagonists of trpm8 , preferably of human trpm8 . in order to obtain confirmation of the data obtained in vitro compounds 10 , 45 and 118 have also been tested in two in vivo models . in details , as will be described in example 120 and 121 compounds 10 and 45 have been tested in an isovolumetric bladder model , an animal model for the evaluation of drugs active on pain induced by contractions of bladder , and compounds 10 , 45 and 118 in a chronic constriction injury of sciatic nerve ( cci ), an animal model of neuropathic pain . in the first model , the compounds showed significant efficacy in inhibiting rhythmic bladder contractions and micturition frequency . moreover , both the compounds did not change amplitude of micturition ( am ) when compared to basal values , suggesting that they are selective for the afferent arm of micturition reflex with no effect on the efferent pathway . in the second model , the tested compounds showed a significant antiallodynic activity both in mechanical and cold allodynia . as will be demonstrated in example 122 , the compounds of the invention show a high selectivity for trpm8 and are thus devoid of side effects due to interference with other ion channels and gpcrs . in fact , both 10 , 45 and 118 have been demonstrated to be selective in a wide range of ion channel and gpcrs . furthermore , as shown in example 123 the compounds of the invention have an optimal pharmacokinetic profile . thus , the compounds of the invention are particularly suitable to be used in therapy . accordingly , a third object of the present invention are the above compounds for use as medicaments . a fourth object of the present invention are the above compounds for use in the prevention , reduction of the risk of , amelioration and / or treatment of a disease associated with activity of trpm8 . according to the present invention , by “ disease that is associated with activity of trpm8 ” it is preferably meant a disease selected from pain , itch , irritable bowel diseases , cold induced and / or exhacerbated respiratory disorders , ischaemia , neurodegeneration , stroke , urological disorders , and psychiatric disorders . preferably , said pain is selected from chronic pain , cancer pain , neuropathic pain , which is meant to include cold allodynia and diabetic neuropathy , postoperative pain , osteoarthritic pain , rheumatoid arthritic pain , neuralgia , neuropathies , fibromyalgia , algesia , nerve injury , migraine , headaches . preferably , said cold - induced and / or exhacerbated respiratory disorder is selected from cold - induced and / or exhacerbated pulmonary hypertension , copd and asthma . preferably , said urological disorders are selected from painful bladder syndrome , interstitial cystitis , detrusor overactivity ( also known as overactive bladder ), urinary incontinence , neurogenic detrusor overactivity ( also known as detrusor hyperflexia ), idiopathic detrusor overactivity ( also known as detrusor instability ), benign prostatic hyperplasia , lower urinary tract disorders and lower urinary tract symptoms . a fifth object of the present invention are pharmaceutical compositions comprising the at least one of the above said compounds of formula i in combination with pharmaceutically acceptable excipients and / or diluents . according to a prefereed embodiments said pharmaceutical composition is for the prevention , reduction of the risk of , amelioration and / or treatment of a disease associated with activity of trpm8 . according to an embodiment , said pharmaceutical composition contains at least one of the above compounds of formula i as the sole active principle ( s ). according to an alternative embodiment , said pharmaceutical composition contains at least one of the above compounds of formula i in association with at least one other active principle . according to a preferred embodiment of the invention , also in combination with the preceding embodiments , the pharmaceutical compositions may be for intravescical , intravenous , topical or oral administration . the compounds of the invention of formula ( i ) are conveniently formulated in pharmaceutical compositions using conventional techniques and excipients such as those described in “ remington &# 39 ; s pharmaceutical sciences handbook ” mack publishing , new york , 18th ed ., 1990 . a sixth object of the present invention is a therapeutic method for the prevention , reduction of the risk of , amelioration and / or treatment of said diseases associated with activity of trpm8 comprising the administration of the above compound of formula i in a subject in need thereof . the compounds of the invention can be administered as the sole active principles or in combination with other therapeutically active compounds . the administration of the compounds of the invention can be effected by intravesical instillation , by intravenous injection , as a bolus , in dermatological preparations ( creams , lotions , sprays and ointments ), by inhalation as well as orally in the form of capsules , tablets , syrup , controlled - release formulations and the like . the average daily dose depends on several factors such as the severity of the disease , the condition , age , sex and weight of the patient . the dose will vary generally from 1 to 1500 mg of compounds of formula ( i ) per day optionally divided in multiple administrations . the present invention shall be illustrated by means of the following examples which are not construed to be viewed as limiting the scope of the invention . the compounds listed in table iv have been synthetised following the procedures described in the following examples . all reagents were purchased from sigma - aldrich , fluorochem and alfa aesar and used without further purification . nuclear magnetic resonance ( nmr ) spectra were recorded in the indicated solvent with tetramethylsilane ( tms ) as internal standard on a bruker avance3 400 mhz instrument . chemical shifts are reported in parts per million ( ppm ) relative to the internal standard . abbreviations are used as follows : s = singlet , d = doublet , t = triplet , q = quartet , m = multiplet , dd = doublets of doublet , br = broad . coupling constants ( j values ) are given in hertz ( hz ). analytical hplc - ms spectra were recorded on a thermo finnigan surveyor coupled with a thermo finnigan lcq deca xp - plus apparatus and equipped with a c18 ( 10 μm , 4 . 6 mm × 150 mm ) phenomenex gemini reverse phase column . the eluent mixture consisted of 10 mm ( ph 4 . 2 ) ammonium formate / formic acid buffer and acetonitrile used according the gradient from 90 : 10 to 10 : 90 at a flow rate of 0 . 200 ml / min . all ms experiments were performed using electrospray ionization ( esi ) in positive ion mode . all reactions were monitored by thin layer chromatography ( tlc ) carried out on grace resolv davisil silica gel plates 250 μm thick , 60 f254 , visualized by using uv ( 254 nm ) or stains such as kmno 4 , p - anisaldehyde , and ceric ammonium molybdate ( cam ). chromatographic purifications were carried out on silica gel columns with grace resolv davisil silica 60 . all organic solutions were dried over anhydrous na 2 so 4 or mgso 4 and concentrated on a rotary evaporator . all compounds used for biological assays are at least of 98 % purity based on hplc analytical results monitored with 220 and 254 nm wavelengths , unless otherwise noted . ethyl - 2 -( 4 - chlorophenyl )- 4 - hydroxy - 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate 8 ( 0 . 5 g , 1 . 8 mmol ) ( prepared according the general procedure b , see below ) was dissolved in dioxane ( 3 ml ) and aqueous hydrochloric acid ( 37 %) ( 0 . 3 ml ) was added . the mixture was irradiated by microwave ( 250 w , 150 ° c .) for 10 min , whereupon the solvent was removed under vacuum . the crude product was purified by hplc to yield the acid ( 0 . 34 g , 74 %) as a white solid . 1 h - nmr ( cd 3 od ) δ ( ppm ): 8 . 01 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 6 ), 7 . 50 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 6 ). following the procedure a and starting from ethyl 4 - hydroxy - 2 -( 4 - methylphenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate 9 ( 0 . 25 g , 0 . 94 mmol ) ( prepared according the general procedure b , see below ), compound 2 was obtained as a white solid following hplc purification ( 154 mg , 70 %). 1 h - nmr ( acetone - d 6 ) δ ( ppm ): 7 . 94 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 0 ), 7 . 33 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 0 ), 2 . 42 ( s , 3h ). following the general procedure a and starting from ethyl 2 -( 3 - fluorophenyl )- 4 - hydroxy - 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate 10 ( 0 . 2 g , 0 . 738 mmol ) ( prepared according the general procedure b , see below ), compound 3 was obtained as a white solid following hplc purification ( 120 mg , 68 %). 1 h - nmr ( cd 3 od ) δ ( ppm ): 13 . 29 ( br s , 1h ), 7 . 82 - 7 . 78 ( m , 1h ), 7 . 69 - 7 . 64 ( m , 1h ), 7 . 71 - 7 . 46 ( m , 2h ). following the general procedure a and starting from ethyl 2 -( 4 - fluorophenyl )- 4 - hydroxy - 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate 11 ( 123 mg , 0 . 46 mmol ) ( prepared according the general procedure b , see below ), compound 4 was obtained as yellow solid following hplc purification ( 78 mg , 71 %). 1 h - nmr ( dmso - d 6 ) δ ( ppm ): 7 . 93 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 2 ), 7 . 59 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 1 ), 2 . 62 ( s , 3h ). benzenecarbothioamide ( 0 . 29 g , 2 . 09 mmol ) and dimethyl 2 - chloromalonate ( 447 μl , 3 . 5 mmol ) were dissolved in dioxane ( 50 ml ). the mixture was heated to 80 ° c . and stirred overnight , whereupon the solvent was removed under vacuum . 5 was obtained as a yellow solid after purification of the crude product by trituration in acetonitrile ( 345 mg , 70 %). 1 h - nmr ( dmso - d 6 ) δ ( ppm ): 12 . 3 ( br s , 1h ), 7 . 95 - 7 . 92 ( m , 2h ), 7 . 55 - 7 . 53 ( m , 3h ), 3 . 75 ( s , 3h ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 236 . 53 ( m + 1 ). following the general procedure b and starting from commercially available 2 , 4 - difluorobenzenecarbothioamide ( 80 mg , 0 . 46 mmol ) and dimethyl 2 - chloromalonate ( 0 . 75 ml , 5 . 86 mmol ), 6 was obtained as a pale yellow solid after purification of the crude product by trituration in acetonitrile ( 85 mg , 68 %). 1 h - nmr ( cdcl 3 , tms ) δ ( ppm ): 8 . 41 - 8 . 34 ( m , 1h ), 7 . 05 - 6 . 93 ( m , 2h ), 3 . 94 ( s , 3h ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 272 . 69 ( m + 1 ). following the general procedure b and starting from commercially available benzenecarbothioamide ( 0 . 2 g , 1 . 45 mmol ) and diethyl chloropropanedioate ( 0 . 3 ml , 1 . 82 mmol ), 7 was obtained as a yellow solid after purification of the crude product by trituration in acetonitrile ( 253 mg , 70 %). 1 h - nmr ( dmso - d 6 ) δ ( ppm ): 12 . 3 ( br s , 1h ), 7 . 95 - 7 . 92 ( m , 2h ), 7 . 55 - 7 . 53 ( m , 3h ), 4 . 43 ( q , 2h , j = 7 . 03 ), 1 . 42 ( t , 3h , j = 7 . 03 ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 250 . 53 ( m + 1 ); 222 . 42 ( m − 28 ). following the general procedure b and starting from commercially available 4 - chlorobenzenecarbothioamide ( 2 . 04 g , 11 . 93 mmol ) and the corresponding amount of diethyl chloropropanedioate , 8 was obtained as a yellow solid ( 2 . 42 g , 71 %) by trituration in acetonitrile . 1 h - nmr ( cdcl 3 , tms ) δ ( ppm ) 9 . 96 ( br s , 1h ), 7 . 94 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 6 ), 7 . 45 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 6 ), 4 . 43 ( q , 2h , j = 7 . 0 ), 1 . 42 ( t , 3h , j = 7 . 0 ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 298 . 36 ( m − 28 + 41 ), 285 . 42 ( m + 1 ), 257 . 64 ( m − 28 ). following the general procedure b and starting from commercially available 4 - methylbenzenecarbothioamide ( 123 mg , 0 . 81 mmol ) and the corresponding amount of diethyl chloropropanedioate , 9 was obtained as a yellow solid after purification of the crude product by trituration in acetonitrile ( 146 mg , 68 %). 1 h - nmr ( cdcl 3 , tms ) δ ( ppm ): 9 . 94 ( brs , 1h ), 7 . 88 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 1 ), 7 . 26 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 1 ), 4 . 62 ( q , 2h , j = 7 . 0 ), 2 . 41 ( s , 3h ), 1 . 39 ( t , 3h , j = 7 . 0 ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 264 . 30 ( m + 1 ). following the general procedure b and starting from commercially available 3 - fluorobenzenecarbothioamide ( 223 mg , 1 . 44 mmol ) and the corresponding amount of diethyl chloropropanedioate , 10 was obtained as a white solid after purification of the crude product by trituration in acetonitrile ( 250 mg , 65 %). 1 h - nmr ( cdcl 3 , tms ) δ ( ppm ): 9 . 93 ( br s ), 7 . 76 - 7 . 69 ( m , 2h ), 7 . 46 - 7 . 39 ( m , 1h ), 7 . 22 - 7 . 17 ( m , 1h ), 4 . 40 ( q , 2h , j = 7 . 5 ), 1 . 40 ( t , 3h , j = 7 . 5 ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 240 . 13 ( m − 27 ), 282 . 66 ( m − 27 + 41 ). following the general procedure b and starting from commercially available 4 - fluorobenzenecarbothioamide ( 243 mg , 1 . 57 mmol ) and the corresponding amount of diethyl chloropropanedioate , 11 was obtained as a white solid after purification of the crude product by trituration in acetonitrile ( 280 mg , 67 %). 1 h - nmr ( cdcl 3 , tms ) δ ( ppm ): 9 . 94 ( s , 1h ), 8 . 01 - 7 . 96 ( m , 2h ), 7 . 17 - 7 . 12 ( m , 2h ), 4 . 39 ( q , 2h , j = 7 . 0 ), 1 . 40 ( t , 3h , j = 7 . 0 ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 240 . 23 ( m − 27 ). following the general procedure b and starting from commercially available pyridine - 4 - carbothioamide ( 217 mg , 1 . 57 mmol ) and the corresponding amount of diethyl chloropropanedioate , 12 was obtained as a yellow solid after purification of the crude product by trituration in acetonitrile ( 275 mg , 70 %). 1 h - nmr ( meod - d 4 ) δ ( ppm ): 9 . 91 ( br s , 1h ), 8 . 70 ( d , 2h , j = 5 . 9 ), 7 . 81 ( d , 2h , j = 5 . 9 ), 4 . 36 ( q , 2h , j = 7 . 0 ), 1 . 35 ( t , 3h , j = 7 . 0 ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 251 . 81 ( m + 1 ). following the general procedure b and starting from commercially available 4 -( dimethylamino ) benzenecarbothioamide ( 88 mg , 0 . 48 mmol ) and the corresponding amount of diethyl chloropropanedioate , 13 was obtained as a white solid after purification of the crude product by trituration in acetonitrile ( 117 mg , 82 %). 1 h - nmr ( dmso - d 6 ) δ ( ppm ): 11 . 82 ( br s , 1h ), 7 . 76 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 6 ), 6 . 77 ( d , 2h , j = 9 . 2 ), 4 . 28 ( q , 2h , j = 7 . 03 ), 3 . 02 ( s , 6h ), 1 . 26 ( t , 3h , j = 7 . 03 ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 293 . 88 ( m + 1 ); 265 . 83 ( m − 28 ); 306 . 83 ( m − 28 + 41 ). following the general procedure b and starting from commercially available 3 - chlorobenzenecarbothioamide ( 1 . 47 g , 8 . 54 mmol ) and the corresponding amount of diethyl chloropropanedioate , 14 was obtained as a white solid after purification of the crude product by trituration in acetonitrile ( 1 . 7 g , 71 %). 1 h - nmr ( cdcl 3 , tms ) δ ( ppm ): 9 . 98 ( br s , 1h ), 8 . 01 ( s , 1h ), 7 . 87 ( d , 1h , j = 7 . 57 ), 7 . 49 - 7 . 33 ( m , 2h ), 4 . 43 ( q , 2h , j = 7 . 03 ), 1 . 42 ( t , 3h , j = 7 . 03 ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 297 . 79 ( m − 28 + 41 ); 284 . 81 ( m + 1 ); 256 . 76 ( m − 28 ). 3 - bromobenzenecarbothioamide ( 1 . 00 g , 4 . 62 mmol ) and diethyl chloropropanedioate ( 1 . 0 ml , 6 . 0 mmol ) were dissolved in dioxane ( 35 ml ). the mixture was heated at 80 ° c . and stirred overnight , whereupon the solvent was removed under vacuum . ethyl 2 -( 3 - bromophenyl )- 4 - hydroxy - 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate was obtained as a yellow solid ( 1 . 09 g , 72 %) by trituration in acetonitrile . an oven - dried schlenk tube equipped with a magnetic stir bar was charged with 1 . 5 ml of an aqueous solution of k 2 co 3 ( 2m , 3 . 0 mmol ), tetrakis ( triphenylphosphine ) palladium ( 0 ) ( 140 mg , 0 . 121 mmol ) and toluene ( 3 ml ). the tube was capped with a rubber septum and immersed in an oil bath at 80 ° c . for 30 min . ethyl 2 -( 3 ′- bromophenyl )- 4 - hydroxy - 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( 188 mg , 0 . 575 mmol ) and 2 - trifluoromethyl - phenylboronic acid ( 218 mg , 1 . 15 mmol ) were then added , and the reaction mixture stirred at 80 ° c . upon complete consumption of the starting material ( 12 h ), as judged by thin - layer chromatography analysis , the reaction mixture was filtered on a celite pad . the filtrate was diluted with ethyl acetate , and extracted with water . the organic layers were further washed with brine and dried over sodium sulfate . the product was isolated by column chromatography ( hexanes / etoac ) as a yellow solid ( 56 mg , 25 %). 1 h - nmr ( dmso - d 6 ) δ ( ppm ): 10 . 82 ( brs , 1h ), 7 . 96 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 11 ), 7 . 86 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 57 ), 7 . 78 - 7 . 73 ( m , 1h ), 7 . 67 - 7 . 62 ( m , 1h ), 7 . 47 - 7 . 41 ( m , 2h ), 4 . 16 ( q , 2h , j = 7 . 03 ), 1 . 24 ( t , 3h , j = 7 . 03 ). the compound was prepared according to the experimental procedure described for compound 15 and starting from ethyl 2 -( 3 ′- bromophenyl )- 4 - hydroxy - 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( 0 . 14 g , 0 . 43 mmol ) and 2 fluorophenylboronic acid ( 0 . 12 g , 0 . 86 mmol ). compound 16 was obtained as a yellow oil after hplc purification ( 106 mg , 72 %). 1 h - nmr ( cdcl 3 , tms ) δ ( ppm ): 10 . 98 ( brs , 1h ), 8 . 00 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 58 ), 7 . 71 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 58 ), 7 . 57 - 7 . 47 ( m , 2h ), 7 . 39 - 7 . 35 ( m , 1h ), 7 . 28 - 7 . 17 ( m , 1h ), 4 . 41 ( q , 2h , j = 6 . 49 ), 1 . 41 ( t , 3h , j = 6 . 49 ). the compound was prepared according to the experimental procedure described for compound 15 and starting from ethyl 2 -( 4 - bromophenyl )- 4 - hydroxy - 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( 0 . 12 g , 0 . 36 mmol ) and 2 - trifluoromethylphenylboronic acid ( 136 mg , 0 . 72 mmol ). compound 17 was obtained as a yellow solid after purification of the crude product by trituration with acetonitrile ( 106 mg , 75 %). 1 h - nmr ( dmso - d 6 ) δ ( ppm ): 10 . 23 ( br s , 1h ), 7 . 96 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 11 ), 7 . 86 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 57 ), 7 . 78 - 7 . 73 ( m , 1h ), 7 . 67 - 7 . 62 ( m , 1h ), 7 . 47 - 7 . 41 ( m , 2h ), 4 . 16 ( q , 2h , j = 7 . 03 ), 1 . 24 ( t , 3h , j = 7 . 03 ). the compound was prepared according to the experimental procedure described for compound 15 and starting from ethyl 2 -( 4 - bromophenyl )- 4 - hydroxy - 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( 0 . 12 mg , 0 . 36 mmol ) and 2 - fluorophenylboronic acid ( 0 . 1 mg , 0 . 72 mmol ). compound 18 was obtained as a white solid after purification of the crude product by trituration with acetonitrile ( 105 mg , 85 %). 1 h - nmr ( dmso - d 6 ) δ ( ppm ): 12 . 27 ( br s , 1h ), 8 . 06 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 57 ), 7 . 74 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 57 ), 7 . 66 - 7 . 60 ( m , 1h ), 7 . 52 - 7 . 46 ( m , 1h ), 7 . 40 - 7 . 33 ( m , 2h ), 4 . 25 ( q , 2h , j = 7 . 03 ), 1 . 28 ( t , 3h , j = 7 . 03 ). following the general procedure b and starting from 4 -( 2 ′- fluorobenzyloxy ) phenyl )- benzenecarbothioamide ( 0 . 4 g , 1 . 53 mmol ) and diethyl chloropropanedioate ( 0 . 45 g , 2 . 29 mmol ), compound 19 was obtained as a white solid after purification of the crude product by trituration in acetonitrile ( 446 mg , 78 %). 1 h - nmr ( dmso - d 6 ) δ ( ppm ): 12 . 10 ( br s , 1h ), 7 . 94 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 70 ), 7 . 63 - 7 . 55 ( m , 1h ), 7 . 51 - 7 . 43 ( m , 1h ), 7 . 33 - 7 . 15 ( m , 4h ), 5 . 26 ( s , 2h ), 4 . 24 ( q , 2h , j = 7 . 05 ), 1 . 29 ( t , 3h , j = 7 . 05 ). following the general procedure b and starting from 4 -( 4 ′- fluorobenzyloxy ) phenyl )- benzenecarbothioamide ( 0 . 31 g , 1 . 19 mmol ) and diethyl chloropropanedioate ( 0 . 35 g , 1 . 78 mmol ), compound 20 was obtained as a white solid after purification of the crude product by trituration in acetonitrile ( 359 mg , 81 %). 1 h - nmr ( dmso - d 6 ) δ ( ppm ): 12 . 06 ( br s , 1h ), 7 . 90 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 65 ), 7 . 55 - 7 . 49 ( m , 2h ), 7 . 27 - 7 . 20 ( m , 2h ), 7 . 14 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 65 ), 5 . 18 ( s , 2h ), 4 . 22 ( q , 2h , j = 7 . 03 ), 1 . 25 ( t , 3h , j = 7 . 03 ). to a solution of ethyl 2 -( 4 - fluorophenyl )- 4 - hydroxy - 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate 11 ( 2 . 3 g , 8 . 6 mmol ) in dry ch 2 cl 2 ( 50 ml ), et 3 n ( 1 . 4 ml , 10 . 1 mmol ) was added and the mixture was stirred for 40 min at room temperature . the reaction mixture was then cooled to − 10 ° c . and trifluomethanesulfonic anhydride ( 1 . 7 ml , 10 . 1 mmol ) was added dropwise , keeping the temperature under − 5 ° c . the reaction mixture was stirred for 12 h at room temperature . upon complete consumption of starting compound , the mixture was washed with a satured solution of nh 4 cl ( 80 ml ). the aqueous layer was then extracted with ethyl acetate ( 2 × 50 ml ). the organic layers further washed with brine and dried over dry na 2 so 4 . compound 21 was isolated by chromatography ( hexane / etoac ) as pale yellow solid ( 3 . 0 g , 87 %). 1 h - nmr ( cdcl 3 , tms ) δ ( ppm ): 7 . 97 - 7 . 92 ( m , 2h ), 7 . 21 - 7 . 15 ( m , 2h ), 4 . 43 ( q , 2h , j = 7 . 0 ), 1 . 41 ( t , 3h , j = 7 . 0 ). ethyl 4 - hydroxy - 2 -( 4 - methylphenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate 9 , ( 0 . 1 g , 0 . 379 mmol ) was dissolved in dmf ( 4 ml ). k 2 co 3 ( 0 . 11 g , 0 . 802 mmol ) was added and the mixture heated to 60 ° c . while stirring . after 15 min . iodomethane ( 59 μl , 0 . 95 mmol ) was added and the mixture was stirred overnight at the same temperature . after cooling at room temperature , ethyl acetate ( 15 ml ) was added and the mixture washed with water ( 2 × 15 ml ). the organic phase was dried over dry na 2 so 4 and evaporated to dryness . the crude product was purified by hplc to yield compound 22 as a white solid ( 0 . 080 g , 76 %). 1 h - nmr ( acetone - d 6 ) δ ( ppm ): 7 . 90 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 6 ), 7 . 35 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 6 ), 4 . 30 - 4 . 19 ( m , 2h ), 3 . 89 ( s , 3h ), 2 . 40 ( s , 3h ), 1 . 36 - 1 . 24 ( m , 3h ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 278 . 55 ( m + 1 ). compound 23 was prepared according to the experimental procedure described for 22 and starting from ethyl 4 - hydroxy - 2 -( 4 - methylphenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate 9 ( 85 mg , 0 . 32 mmol ) and 1 - iodo - 2 - methylpropane ( 147 mg , 0 . 80 mmol ). compound 23 was obtained as a white solid after hplc purification ( 89 mg , 87 %). 1 h - nmr ( cdcl 3 , tms ) δ ( ppm ): 7 . 87 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 1 ), 7 . 29 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 1 ), 4 . 35 ( m , 4h ), 2 . 42 ( s , 3h ), 2 . 20 ( m , 1h ), 1 . 80 ( d , 6h , j = 6 . 5 ), 1 . 38 ( t , 3h , j = 7 . 0 ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 320 . 96 ( m + 1 ), 264 . 79 ( m − 57 ), 236 . 77 ( m − 57 - 28 ). ethyl 4 - hydroxy - 2 - phenyl - 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate 7 , ( 0 . 2 g , 0 . 80 mmol ) was dissolved in dmf ( 2 ml ). k 2 co 3 ( 0 . 22 g , 1 . 604 mmol ) was added and the mixture was heated at 60 ° c . while stirring . after 15 min 1 -( bromomethyl ) benzene ( 164 mg , 0 . 96 mmol ) was added and the mixture was stirred overnight at the same temperature . after cooling to room temperature , ethyl acetate ( 10 ml ) was added and the mixture washed with water ( 2 × 15 ml ). the organic phase was dried over dry na 2 so 4 and evaporated to dryness . the crude product was purified by hplc to yield compound 24 as a white solid ( 241 mg , 89 %). 1 h - nmr ( cdcl 3 , tms ) δ ( ppm ): 8 . 0 - 7 . 9 ( m , 4h ), 7 . 87 ( d , 1h , j = 7 . 0 ), 7 . 48 - 7 . 28 ( m , 5h ), 5 . 37 ( s , 2h ), 4 . 37 ( q , 2h , j = 7 . 0 ), 1 . 42 ( t , 3h , j = 7 . 0 ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 340 . 19 ( m + 1 ). the title compound was prepared according to the general procedure c . starting from ethyl 2 -( 4 - chlorophenyl )- 4 - hydroxy - 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate 8 ( 111 mg , 0 . 39 mmol ) and 1 -( bromomethyl )- 3 - chlorobenzene ( 96 mg , 0 . 47 mmol ). compound 25 was obtained as pale yellow solid after hplc purification ( 138 mg , 87 %). 1 h - nmr ( cdcl 3 , tms ) δ ( ppm ): 7 . 79 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 1 ), 7 . 71 ( d , 1h , j = 7 . 0 ), 7 . 42 - 7 . 27 ( m , 5h ), 5 . 73 ( s , 2h ), 4 . 29 ( q , 2h ), 1 . 38 ( t , 3h ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 409 . 03 ( m + 1 ). the title compound was prepared according to the general procedure c and starting from ethyl 2 -( 3 - fluorophenyl )- 4 - hydroxy - 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate 10 ( 0 . 1 g , 0 . 37 mmol ) and 1 -( bromomethyl )- 3 - chlorobenzene ( 91 mg , 0 . 44 mmol ). compound 26 was obtained as white solid after hplc purification ( 113 mg , 78 %). 1 h - nmr ( cdcl 3 , tms ) δ ( ppm ): 7 . 97 ( m , 1h ), 7 . 84 - 7 . 71 ( m , 3h ), 7 . 58 - 7 . 27 ( m , 4h ), 5 . 69 ( s , 2h ), 4 . 38 ( q , 2h ), 1 . 41 ( t , 3h ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 392 . 71 ( m + 1 ). following the general procedure c and starting from ethyl 4 - hydroxy - 2 - phenyl - 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate 7 , ( 58 mg , 0 . 23 mmol ), 1 - chloro - 4 -( chloromethyl ) benzene ( 92 . 6 mg , 0 . 57 mmol ), compound 27 was obtained as a white solid after hplc purification ( 75 mg , 86 %). 1 h - nmr ( cdcl 3 , tms ) δ ( ppm ): 7 . 94 - 7 . 92 ( m , 2h ), 7 . 50 - 7 . 45 ( m , 5h ), 7 . 35 - 7 . 33 ( m , 2h ), 5 . 60 ( s , 2h ), 4 . 33 ( q , 2h , j = 7 . 0 ), 1 . 36 ( t , 2h , j = 7 . 0 ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 374 . 89 ( m + 1 ). following the general procedure c and starting from ethyl 2 -( 3 - chlorophenyl )- 4 - hydroxy - 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate 14 ( 0 . 3 g , 1 . 06 mmol ) and 1 - chloro - 4 -( chloromethyl ) benzene ( 426 . 7 mg , 2 . 65 mmol ), compound 28 was obtained as white solid after hplc purification of the crude product ( 302 mg , 70 %). 1 h - nmr ( cdcl 3 , tms ) δ ( ppm ): 7 . 96 ( s , 1h ), 7 . 79 ( d , 1h , j = 7 . 5 ), 7 . 51 - 7 . 36 ( m , 6h ), 5 . 62 ( s , 2h ), 4 . 35 ( q , 2h , j = 5 . 6 ), 1 . 39 ( t , 3h , j = 5 . 6 ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 409 . 03 ( m + 1 ). following the general procedure c and starting from ethyl 4 - hydroxy - 2 -( 4 - methylphenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate 9 , ( 0 . 1 g , 0 . 401 mmol ) and 1 - chloro - 4 -( chloromethyl ) benzene ( 0 . 161 g , 1 . 00 mmol ), compound 29 was isolated as a white solid ( 0 . 112 g , 72 %). 1 h - nmr ( cdc 3 , tms ) δ ( ppm ): 7 . 85 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 1 ), 7 . 51 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 6 ), 7 . 36 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 1 ), 7 . 27 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 6 ), 5 . 62 ( s , 2h ), 4 . 35 ( q , 2h , j = 7 . 03 ), 2 . 42 ( s , 3h ), 1 . 38 ( t , 3h , j = 7 . 03 ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 389 . 02 ( m + 1 ). the title compound was prepared according to the general procedure c and starting from ethyl 2 -( 3 - fluorophenyl )- 4 - hydroxy - 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate 10 ( 0 . 105 g , 0 . 39 mmol ) and 1 -( bromomethyl )- 4 - chlorobenzene ( 96 mg , 0 . 47 mmol . compound 30 was obtained as yellow solid after hplc purification ( 119 mg , 78 %). 1 h - nmr ( cdcl 3 , tms ) δ ( ppm ): 7 . 89 ( s , 1h ), 7 . 78 ( d , 1h , j = 7 . 8 ), 7 . 62 - 7 . 59 ( m , 3h ), 7 . 55 - 7 . 41 ( m , 3h ), 5 . 62 ( s , 2h ), 4 . 35 ( q , 2h , j = 5 . 6 ), 1 . 39 ( t , 3h , j = 5 . 6 ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 392 . 6 ( m + 1 ). following the general procedure c and starting from ethyl 2 - phenyl - 4 - hydroxy - 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate 7 , ( 0 . 12 g , 0 . 48 mmol ) and 1 - chloro - 2 -( chloromethyl ) benzene ( 0 . 2 g , 1 . 2 mmol ), compound 31 was obtained as white solid after hplc purification of the crude product ( 117 mg , 65 %). 1 h - nmr ( cdcl 3 , tms ) δ ( ppm ): 8 . 0 - 7 . 9 ( m , 3h ), 7 . 87 ( d , 1h , j = 7 . 0 ), 7 . 48 - 7 . 28 ( m , 5h ), 5 . 77 ( s , 2h ), 4 . 37 ( q , 2h , j = 7 . 0 ), 1 . 42 ( t , 3h , j = 7 . 0 ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 374 . 99 ( m + 1 ). following the general procedure c and starting from ethyl 2 -( 4 - fluorophenyl )- 4 - hydroxy - 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate 11 , ( 0 . 27 g , 1 . 01 mmol ) and 1 - chloro - 2 -( chloromethyl ) benzene ( 0 . 41 g , 2 . 52 mmol ), compound 32 was obtained as white solid after hplc purification of the crude product ( 261 mg , 66 %). 1 h - nmr ( cdcl 3 , tms ) δ ( ppm ): 7 . 99 - 7 . 95 ( m , 2h ), 7 . 78 ( d , 1h , j = 7 . 5 ), 7 . 41 ( d , 1h , j = 9 . 0 ), 7 . 35 - 7 . 25 ( m , 2h ), 7 . 20 - 7 . 12 ( m , 2h ), 5 . 74 ( s , 2h ), 4 . 37 ( q , 2h , j = 7 . 3 ), 1 . 42 ( t , 3h , j = 7 . 0 ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 392 . 97 ( m + 1 ). following the general procedure c and starting from ethyl 2 -( 4 - chlorophenyl )- 4 - hydroxy - 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate 8 ( 37 mg , 0 . 13 mmol ) and 1 - chloro - 2 -( chloromethyl ) benzene ( 52 mg , 0 . 32 mmol ), compound 33 was obtained as a white solid after hplc purification ( 40 mg , 75 %). 1 h - nmr ( cdc3 , tms ) δ ( ppm ): 7 . 91 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 6 ), 7 . 76 ( d , 1h , j = 7 . 0 ), 7 . 46 - 7 . 29 ( m , 5h ), 5 . 75 ( s , 2h ), 4 . 37 ( q , 2h , j = 5 . 6 ), 1 . 40 ( t , 3h , j = 5 . 6 ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 409 . 03 ( m + 1 ). following the general procedure c and starting from ethyl 2 -( 3 - chlorophenyl )- 4 - hydroxy - 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate 14 , ( 0 . 18 g , 0 . 63 mmol ) and 1 - chloro - 2 -( chloromethyl ) benzene ( 254 mg , 1 . 57 mmol ), compound 34 was obtained as white solid after hplc purification of the crude product ( 167 mg , 65 %). 1 h - nmr ( cdcl 3 , tms ) δ ( ppm ): 7 . 99 ( s , 1h ), 7 . 85 - 7 . 76 ( m , 2h ), 7 . 48 - 7 . 28 ( m , 5h ), 5 . 76 ( s , 2h ), 4 . 38 ( q , 2h , j = 5 . 6 ), 1 . 41 ( t , 3h , j = 5 . 6 ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 409 . 31 ( m + 1 ). following the general procedure c and starting from ethyl 2 - p - tolyl - 4 - hydroxy - 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate 9 , ( 0 . 18 g , 0 . 68 mmol ) and 1 - chloro - 2 -( chloromethyl ) benzene ( 273 mg , 1 . 69 mmol ), compound 35 was obtained as white solid after hplc purification of the crude product ( 181 mg , 74 %). 1 h - nmr ( cdcl 3 , tms ) δ ( ppm ): 7 . 87 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 6 ), 7 . 78 ( d , 1h , j = 7 . 0 ), 7 . 45 - 7 . 32 ( m , 5h ), 5 . 75 ( s , 2h ), 4 . 37 ( q , 2h , j = 7 . 3 ), 2 . 42 ( s , 3h ), 1 . 42 ( t , 3h , j = 7 . 0 ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 389 . 00 ( m + h ). ethyl 4 - hydroxy - 2 - phenyl - 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate 7 ( 0 . 1 g , 0 . 401 mmol ) and pyridine ( 0 . 036 ml , 0 . 48 mmol ) were dissolved in ch 2 cl 2 ( 5 ml ). 4 -( trifluoromethyl ) benzoyl chloride ( 0 . 154 g , 0 . 802 mmol ) was slowly added , and the mixture was stirred overnight at room temperature . after solvent removal under reduced pressure , the crude product was purified by hplc yielding the title compound as a white solid ( 0 . 126 g , 74 %). 1 h - nmr ( cdcl 3 , tms ) δ ( ppm ): 8 . 37 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 1 ), 7 . 99 - 7 . 96 ( m , 2h ), 7 . 81 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 1 ), 7 . 52 - 7 . 45 ( m , 3h ), 4 . 26 ( q , 2h , j = 7 . 6 ), 1 . 21 ( t , 3h , j = 7 . 6 ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 422 . 99 ( m + 1 ). the title compound was prepared according to the procedure described for compound 36 and starting from ethyl 2 -( 3 - fluorophenyl )- 4 - hydroxy - 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate 10 ( 83 mg , 0 . 31 mmol ). compound 37 was obtained as yellow solid after hplc purification ( 110 mg , 81 %). 1 h - nmr ( cdcl 3 , tms ) δ ( ppm ): 7 . 96 - 7 . 79 ( m , 2h ), 7 . 51 - 7 . 36 ( m , 6h ), 4 . 35 ( q , 2h , j = 6 . 8 ), 1 . 39 ( t , 3h , j = 6 . 6 ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 440 . 33 ( m + 1 ). the title compound was prepared according to the procedure described for compound 36 and staring from ethyl 4 - hydroxy - 2 -( 4 - methylphenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate 9 ( 72 mg , 0 . 27 mmol ). compound 38 was obtained as red solid after hplc purification ( 99 mg , 83 %). 1 h - nmr ( cdcl 3 , tms ) δ ( ppm ): 7 . 83 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 1 ), 7 . 50 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 1 ), 7 . 36 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 1 ), 7 . 30 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 6 ), 4 . 31 ( q , 2h , j = 7 . 03 ), 2 . 39 ( s , 3h ), 1 . 38 ( t , 3h , j = 7 . 03 ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 436 . 4 ( m + 1 ). following the procedure adopted for the preparation of compound 36 and starting from ethyl 4 - hydroxy - 2 - p - tolyl - 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate 9 ( 0 . 15 g , 0 . 57 mmol ) and 2 -(( 1r , 2s , 5r )- 2 - isopropyl - 5 - methylcyclohexyloxy ) acetyl chloride ( 265 mg , 1 . 14 mmol ), compound 39 was obtained as white solid after purification by hplc of the crude product ( 196 mg , 75 %). 1 h - nmr ( cdcl 3 , tms ) δ ( ppm ): 7 . 85 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 1 ), 7 . 27 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 0 ), 4 . 53 ( s , 2h ), 4 . 35 ( q , 2h , j = 7 . 0 ), 3 . 38 ( m , 1h ), 2 . 43 ( s , 3h ), 2 . 20 - 1 . 97 ( m , 1h ), 1 . 90 - 1 . 81 ( m , 2h ), 1 . 75 ( m , 3h ), 1 . 67 - 1 . 57 ( m , 2h ), 1 . 43 ( m , 1h ) 1 . 40 ( m , 3h ), 1 . 38 ( t , 3h , j = 7 . 0 ), 1 . 09 - 1 . 07 ( m , 6h ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 461 . 28 ( m + 1 ), 433 . 22 ( m − 28 ), 264 . 79 ( m − 196 ). 1 -( isocyanatomethyl ) benzene ( 28 . 7 mg , 0 . 21 mmol ) was added to a solution of ethyl 2 -( 4 - chlorophenyl )- 4 - hydroxy - 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate 8 ( 50 mg , 0 . 18 mmol ) in toluene . the resulting mixture was stirred at 80 ° c . for 12 h and then concentrated under reduced pressure . the crude was triturated in ethyl acetate to give compound 40 as white solid ( 57 mg , 65 %). 1 h - nmr ( cdcl 3 , tms ) δ ( ppm ): 8 . 00 - 7 . 90 ( m , 2h ), 7 . 54 - 7 . 30 ( m , 6h ), 5 . 65 ( br s , 1h ), 4 . 53 ( m , 2h ), 4 . 36 ( m , 2h ), 1 . 38 ( t , 3h , j = 7 . 03 hz ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 418 . 09 ( m + 1 ), 325 . 91 ( m − 92 ); 284 . 75 ( m − 134 ). following the procedure adopted for the preparation of compound 36 and starting from ethyl 2 -( 4 - chlorophenyl )- 4 - hydroxy - 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate 8 , ( 0 . 2 g , 0 . 704 mmol ) and 2 - bromoethanamine ( 218 mg , 1 . 76 mmol ), compound 41 was obtained as a brownish solid ( 178 mg , 77 %). 1 h - nmr ( meod - d 4 ) δ ( ppm ): 7 . 98 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 1 hz ), 7 . 54 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 1 hz ), 4 . 82 ( m , 2h ), 4 . 38 ( q , 2h , j = 7 . 0 hz ), 3 . 48 ( m , 2h ), 1 . 38 ( t , 3h , j = 7 . 0 hz ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 327 . 90 ( m + 1 ), 368 . 96 ( m + 41 ), 297 . 78 ( m − 43 ); 284 . 77 ( m − 44 ); 256 . 73 ( m − 44 - 27 ). ethyl 4 -( 2 - aminoethoxy )- 2 -( 4 - chlorophenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate 41 ( 0 . 15 g , 0 . 46 mmol ) and furan - 2 - carbaldehyde ( 48 mg , 0 . 51 mmol ) were mixed in dry meoh ( 15 ml ) at room temperature under nitrogen atmosphere . the mixture was stirred at room temperature for 1 h , until the aldimine formation was completed ( determined by analytic hplc ). the aldimine solution in meoh was carefully treated with solid nabh 4 ( 0 . 6 g , 16 mmol ). the reaction mixture was stirred for further 2 h and quenched with a saturated aqueous solution of nh 4 cl . the ph of the aqueous layer was adjusted to 7 with saturated aqueous nahco 3 . the reaction mixture was then diluted with ethyl acetate ( 20 ml ) and extracted with diethyl ether . the organic extracts were washed with saturated aqueous nacl and dried ( mgso 4 ). the solvent was evaporated to give compound 42 as a white solid ( 175 mg , 98 %). 1 h - nmr ( cdcl 3 , tms ) δ ( ppm ): 7 . 84 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 6 ), 7 . 39 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 6 ), 7 . 35 ( s , 1h ), 6 . 29 - 6 . 31 ( m , 1h ), 6 . 21 - 6 . 22 ( m , 1h ), 4 . 66 ( t , 2h , j = 5 . 4 ), 4 . 31 ( q , 2h , j = 7 . 0 ), 3 . 89 ( s , 2h ), 3 . 07 ( t , 2h , j = 5 . 4 ), 1 . 34 ( t , 3h , j = 7 . 0 ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 407 . 96 ( m + 1 ). ethyl 4 -[( 4 - chlorobenzyl ) oxy ]- 2 -( 4 - methylphenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate 29 ( 0 . 50 g , 1 . 3 mmol ) was dissolved in dioxane ( 3 ml ) and 1m naoh ( 1 . 3 ml , 1 . 0 eq .) was added . the mixture was stirred at room temperature overnight . upon complete consumption of starting material , as judged by thin - layer chromatography analysis , h 2 o ( 5 ml ) was added to the reaction mixture . after extraction by ch 2 cl 2 ( 3 × 5 ml ), the aqueous phase was acidified with diluted hcl to ph 3 - 4 , and extracted with etoac ( 3 × 5 ml ). the organic layers were further washed with brine and dried over dry na 2 so 4 . the solvent was removed under vacuum to yield the acid 43 ( 0 . 43 g , 92 %) as a white solid . 1 h - nmr ( cd 3 od ) δ ( ppm ): 7 . 87 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 0 ), 7 . 55 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 6 ), 7 . 38 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 0 ), 7 . 32 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 6 ), 5 . 61 ( s , 2h ), 2 . 42 ( s , 3h ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 360 . 90 ( m + 1 ). following the general procedure d and starting from ethyl 4 -( 4 - chlorobenzyloxy )- 2 - phenyl - 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate 27 ( 0 . 15 g , 0 . 40 mmol ), compound 44 was obtained as a white solid ( 135 mg , 98 %). 1 h - nmr ( dmso - d 6 ) δ ( ppm ): 12 . 95 ( br s , 1h ), 8 . 00 - 7 . 98 ( m , 2h ), 7 . 57 - 7 . 53 ( m , 5h ), 7 . 49 - 7 . 46 ( m , 2h ), 5 . 59 ( s , 2h ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 346 . 59 ( m + 1 ), 302 . 66 ( m − 44 ). following the general procedure d and starting from ethyl 4 -( 4 - chlorobenzyloxy )- 2 -( 4 - chlorophenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( 0 . 11 g , 0 . 27 mmol ), compound 45 was obtained as a white solid ( 99 mg , 96 %). 1 h - nmr ( dmso - d 6 ) δ ( ppm ): 13 . 02 ( br s , 1h ), 8 . 06 - 8 . 00 ( m , 2h ), 7 . 67 - 7 . 47 ( m , 6h ), 5 . 60 ( s , 2h ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : absent . following the general procedure d and starting from ethyl 4 -( 4 - chlorobenzyloxy )- 2 -( 3 - chlorophenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate 28 ( 0 . 1 g , 0 . 24 mmol ), compound 46 was obtained as a white solid ( 87 mg , 94 %). 1 h - nmr ( dmso - d 6 ) δ ( ppm ): 13 . 04 ( br s , 1h ), 8 . 03 ( s , 1h ), 7 . 95 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 57 ), 7 . 66 - 7 . 54 ( m , 3h ), 7 . 47 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 57 ), 5 . 60 ( s , 2h ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : absent . following the procedure d and starting from ethyl 4 -( benzyloxy )- 2 - phenyl - 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate 24 ( 0 . 15 g , 048 mmol ), compound 47 was obtained as a white solid ( 134 mg , 90 %). 1 h - nmr ( cdcl 3 , tms ) δ ( ppm ): 7 . 99 - 7 - 94 ( m , 3h ), 7 . 55 - 7 . 37 ( m , 6h ), 6 . 96 ( brs , 1h ), 5 . 65 ( s , 2h ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 312 . 86 ( m + 1 ). the title compound was prepared according to the general procedure d and starting from ethyl 4 -[( 3 - chlorobenzyl ) oxy ]- 2 -( 3 - fluorophenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate 26 ( 58 mg , 0 . 14 mmol ). compound 48 was obtained as a whitish solid ( 46 mg , 91 %). 1 h - nmr ( dmso - d 6 ) δ ( ppm ): 13 . 12 ( br s , 1h ), 8 . 02 ( s , 1h ), 7 . 96 - 7 . 93 ( m , 1h ), 7 . 68 - 7 . 49 ( m , 4h ), 7 . 41 - 7 . 38 ( m , 2h ), 5 . 66 ( s , 2h ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 364 . 7 ( m + 1 ). following the general procedure d and starting from ethyl 4 -( 2 - chlorobenzyloxy )- 2 - phenyl - 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate 31 ( 90 mg , 0 . 24 mmol ), compound 49 was obtained as a white solid ( 81 mg , 98 %). 1 h - nmr ( dmso - d 6 ) δ ( ppm ): 12 . 97 ( br s , 1h ), 8 . 00 - 7 . 97 ( m , 2h ), 7 . 70 - 7 . 68 ( m , 1h ), 7 . 57 - 7 . 51 ( m , 4h ), 7 . 41 - 7 . 38 ( m , 2h ), 5 . 67 ( s , 2h ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 346 . 6 ( m + 1 ), 263 . 5 ( m − 125 + 1 + 41 ), 222 . 5 ( m − 125 + 1 ). following the general procedure d and starting from ethyl 4 -( 2 - chlorobenzyloxy )- 2 -( 4 - fluorophenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate 32 ( 0 . 11 g , 0 . 28 mmol ), compound 50 was obtained as a white solid ( 97 mg , 95 %). 1 h - nmr ( dmso - d 6 ) δ ( ppm ): 12 . 97 ( brs , 1h ), 8 . 07 - 8 . 02 ( m , 2h ), 7 . 70 - 7 . 67 ( m , 1h ), 7 . 54 - 7 . 51 ( m , 1h ), 7 . 41 - 7 . 36 ( m , 4h ), 5 . 66 ( s , 2h ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : absent . following the general procedure d and starting from ethyl 4 -( 2 - chlorobenzyloxy )- 2 -( 4 - chlorophenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate 33 ( 50 mg , 0 . 12 mmol ), compound 51 was obtained as a yellow solid ( 43 mg , 92 %). 1 h - nmr ( dmso - d 6 ) δ ( ppm ): 13 . 00 ( br s , 1h ), 8 . 01 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 1 ), 7 . 74 - 7 . 66 ( m , 1h ), 7 . 62 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 1 ), 7 . 54 - 7 . 51 ( m , 1h ), 7 . 41 - 7 . 39 ( m , 2h ), 5 . 66 ( s , 2h ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : absent . following the general procedure d and starting from ethyl 4 -( 2 - chlorobenzyloxy )- 2 -( 3 - chlorophenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate 34 ( 105 mg , 0 . 26 mmol ), compound 52 was obtained as a white solid ( 96 mg , 98 %). 1 h - nmr ( dmso - d 6 ) δ ( ppm ): 13 . 02 ( br s , 1h ), 8 . 02 ( s , 1h ), 7 . 96 - 7 . 93 ( m , 1h ), 7 . 70 - 7 . 50 ( m , 4h ), 7 . 42 - 7 . 39 ( m , 2h ), 5 . 67 ( s , 2h ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : absent . following the general procedure d and starting from ethyl 4 -( 2 - chlorobenzyloxy )- 2 -( 4 - methylphenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate 35 ( 80 mg , 0 . 21 mmol ), compound 53 was obtained as a white solid ( 72 mg , 97 %). 1 h - nmr ( dmso - d 6 ) δ ( ppm ): 12 . 92 ( br s , 1h ), 7 . 90 - 7 . 87 ( m , 2h ), 7 . 72 - 7 . 68 ( m , 1h ), 7 . 55 - 7 . 51 ( m , 1h ), 7 . 43 - 7 . 34 ( m , 4h ), 5 . 67 ( s , 2h ), 2 . 38 ( s , 3h ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 360 . 73 ( m + 1 ). following the general procedure d and starting from ethyl 4 -[( 2 - chlorobenzyl ) oxy ]- 2 -( 3 - fluorophenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( 89 mg , 0 . 22 mmol ), compound 54 was obtained as a white solid ( 76 mg , 92 %). 1 h - nmr ( dmso - d 6 ) δ ( ppm ): 12 . 11 ( br s , 1h ), 8 . 10 ( m , 2h ), 7 . 96 - 7 . 93 ( m , 2h ), 7 . 70 - 7 . 50 ( m , 3h ), 7 . 42 - 7 . 39 ( m , 1h ), 5 . 59 ( s , 2h ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 364 . 7 ( m + 1 ). following the general procedure d and starting from ethyl 2 - phenyl - 4 -{[ 4 -( trifluoromethyl ) benzyl ] oxy }- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( 91 mg , 0 . 22 mmol ), compound 55 was obtained as brown solid ( 77 mg , 93 %). 1 h - nmr ( dmso - d 6 ) δ ( ppm ): 12 . 93 ( br s , 1h ), 8 . 05 - 7 . 96 ( m , 2h ), 7 . 57 - 7 . 53 ( m , 5h ), 7 . 49 - 7 . 46 ( m , 2h ), 5 . 59 ( s , 2h ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 380 . 49 ( m + 1 ). following the general procedure d and starting from ethyl 2 -( 3 - fluorophenyl )- 4 -{[ 4 -( trifluoromethyl ) benzyl ] oxy }- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( 101 mg , 0 . 23 mmol ), compound 56 was obtained as pale yellow solid ( 82 mg , 90 %). 1 h - nmr ( dmso - d 6 ) δ ( ppm ): 12 . 83 ( br s , 1h ), 8 . 05 - 7 . 96 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 0 ), 7 . 76 ( m , 1h ), 7 . 57 - 7 . 53 ( m , 3h ), 7 . 49 - 7 . 46 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 1 ), 5 . 59 ( s , 2h ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 398 . 4 ( m + 1 ). following the general procedure described for compound 36 and starting from 4 - hydroxy - 2 - phenyl - 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylic acid ( 89 mg , 0 . 40 mmol ) and 4 -( trifluoromethyl ) benzoyl chloride ( 158 mg , 0 . 76 mmol ), compound 57 was obtained as a white solid after hplc purification ( 124 mg , 79 %). 1 h - nmr ( cdcl 3 , tms ) δ ( ppm ): 8 . 36 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 1 ), 7 . 99 - 7 . 96 ( m , 2h ), 7 . 81 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 1 ), 7 . 52 - 7 . 45 ( m , 3h ), ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 394 . 11 ( m + 1 ). following the procedure described for compound 57 and starting from 2 -( 3 - fluorophenyl )- 4 - hydroxy - 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylic acid 3 ( 91 mg , 0 . 38 mmol ), compound 58 was obtained as yellow solid after hplc purification ( 136 mg , 87 %). 1 h - nmr ( cdcl 3 , tms ) δ ( ppm ): 8 . 29 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 1 ), 7 . 91 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 1 ), 7 . 88 - 7 . 96 ( m , 3h ), 7 . 52 - 7 . 45 ( m , 1h ), ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 412 . 3 ( m + 1 ). following the general procedure described for compound 57 and starting from ethyl 4 - hydroxy - 2 -( 4 - methylphenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate 2 ( 0 . 1 g , 0 . 42 mmol ) and 4 -( trifluoromethyl ) benzoyl chloride ( 158 mg , 0 . 76 mmol ), compound 59 was obtained as white solid after purification by hplc of the crude product ( 110 mg , 71 %). 1 h - nmr ( cdcl 3 , tms ) δ ( ppm ): 8 . 28 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 6 ), 8 . 03 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 1 ), 7 . 80 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 1 ), 7 . 34 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 6 ), 2 . 47 ( s , 3h ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : absent . following the general procedure d and starting from ethyl 4 - methoxy - 2 -( 4 - methylphenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate 22 ( 47 mg , 0 . 17 mmol ), compound 60 was obtained as a white solid ( 40 mg , 94 %). 1 h - nmr ( dmso - d 6 ): 6 ( ppm ): 12 . 81 ( br s , 1h ), 7 . 88 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 8 ), 7 . 35 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 8 ), 4 . 11 ( s , 3h ), 2 . 38 ( s , 3h ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 250 . 71 ( m + 1 ), 291 . 84 ( m + 41 ), 232 . 76 ( m − 18 ). following the general procedure d and starting from ethyl 2 -( 4 - methylphenyl )- 4 -( 2 - methylpropoxy )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate 23 ( 0 . 85 g , 2 . 67 mmol ), compound 61 was obtained as a white solid ( 731 mg , 94 %). 1 h - nmr ( cdcl 3 , tms ) δ ( ppm ): 7 . 86 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 6 ), 7 . 28 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 6 ), 4 . 46 ( d , 2h , j = 6 . 5 ), 2 . 43 ( s , 3h ), 2 . 15 - 2 . 30 ( m , 1h ), 1 . 09 ( d , 6h , j = 6 . 5 ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 292 . 86 ( m + 1 ), 277 . 83 ( m − 15 ), 236 . 76 ( m − 56 ). pd 2 ( dba ) 3 ( 15 mg , 0 . 015 mmol ) and xantphos ( 27 mg , 0 . 046 mmol ) were dissolved in dry thf ( 6 ml ) under n2 atmosphere . the mixture was stirred at room temperature for 20 min . 0 . 100 g ( 0 . 240 mmol ) of ethyl 2 -( 4 - fluorophenyl )- 4 -{[( trifluoromethyl ) sulfonyl ] oxy }- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate 21 ( 0 . 2 g , 0 . 5 mmol ) was then added , and after 5 minutes , tert - butyl carbamate ( 70 . 4 mg , 0 . 6 mmol ) was added . the mixture was irradiated by microwave ( 250 w , 135 ° c .) for 1 h , whereupon the mixture was filtered on a celite pad and the solvent was removed under vacuum . the crude product was purified by flash column chromatography ( eluent hexane / ethyl acetate mixture of increasing polarity ) to yield the compound 62 as a yellow solid ( 157 mg , 86 %). 1 h - nmr ( cdcl 3 , tms ) δ ( ppm ): 9 . 26 ( br s , 1h ), 8 . 06 - 8 . 01 ( m , 2h ), 7 . 16 - 7 . 10 ( m , 2h ), 4 . 36 ( q , 2h , j = 7 . 0 ), 1 . 56 ( s , 9h ), 1 . 39 ( t , 3h , j = 7 . 0 ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 311 ( m − 55 ). ethyl 4 -[( tert - butoxycarbonyl ) amino ]- 2 -( 4 - fluorophenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate 62 ( 157 mg , 0 . 43 mmol ) was dissolved in a solution of 1 . 25 m hcl in ch 3 oh and stirred for 1 h at room temperature . the solvent was removed under vacuum and the compound 63 was obtained as an orange solid ( 121 mg , 93 %). 1 h - nmr ( dmso - d 6 ): δ 8 . 01 - 7 . 96 ( m , 2h ), 7 . 39 - 7 . 33 ( m , 2h ), 7 . 08 ( br s , 2h ), 4 . 27 ( q , 2h , j = 7 . 0 hz ), 1 . 27 ( t , 3h , j = 7 . 0 hz ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 267 . 82 ( m + 1 ), 308 . 91 ( m + 41 ). following the general procedure e and starting from ethyl 2 -( 4 - methylphenyl )- 4 -{[( trifluoromethyl ) sulfonyl ] oxy }- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( 0 . 1 g , 0 . 25 mmol ) and acetamide ( 18 mg , 0 . 30 mmol ), compound 64 was obtained as white solid after purification by hplc of the crude product ( 56 mg , 73 %). 1 h - nmr ( cdcl 3 , tms ) δ ( ppm ): 7 . 86 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 1 ), 7 . 28 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 1 ), 4 . 39 ( q , 2h , j = 7 . 0 ), 2 . 55 ( br s , 3h ), 2 . 43 ( s , 3h ), 1 . 40 ( t , 3h , j = 7 . 0 ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 305 . 4 ( m + 1 ), 263 . 8 ( m − 42 ). following the procedure described for compound 36 and starting from ethyl 4 - amino - 2 -( 4 - methylphenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( 0 . 1 g , 0 . 38 mmol ) and 4 -( trifluoromethyl ) benzoyl chloride ( 158 mg , 0 . 76 mmol ), compound 65 was obtained as white solid after hplc purification of the crude product ( 117 mg , 71 %). 1 h - nmr ( cdcl 3 , tms ) δ ( ppm ): 11 . 03 ( br s , 1h ), 8 . 19 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 11 hz ), 8 . 03 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 11 hz ), 7 . 84 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 11 hz ), 7 . 28 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 11 hz ), 4 . 39 ( q , 1h , j = 7 . 03 hz ), 2 . 44 ( s , 3h ), 1 . 40 ( t , 3h , j = 7 . 03 hz ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 435 . 10 ( m + 1 ). following the procedure described for compound 40 and starting from ethyl 4 - amino - 2 -( 4 - methylphenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( 1 . 23 g , 4 . 68 mmol ) and phenylisocyanate ( 557 mg , 4 . 68 mmol ), compound 66 was obtained as a white solid ( 1 . 63 g , 88 %). 1 h - nmr ( cdcl 3 , tms ) δ ( ppm ): 10 . 97 ( br s , 1h ), 9 . 11 ( br s , 1h ), 7 . 86 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 1 ), 7 . 63 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 1 ), 7 . 41 - 7 . 34 ( m , 4h ), 7 . 13 ( t , 1h , j = 7 . 0 ), 4 . 41 ( q , 2h , j = 7 . 0 ), 2 . 47 ( s , 3h ), 1 . 42 ( t , 3h , j = 7 . 0 ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 382 . 44 ( m + 1 ). following the general procedure e and starting from ethyl 2 -( 4 - methylphenyl )- 4 -{[( trifluoromethyl ) sulfonyl ] oxy }- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( 150 mg , 0 . 38 mmol ) and ethane - 1 , 2 - diamine ( 27 . 4 mg , 0 . 45 mmol ), compound 67 was obtained as pale yellow solid after purification by flash column cromatography ( eluent hexane / ethyl acetate mixture of increasing polarity ) of the crude product ( 84 . 7 mg , 73 %). 1 h - nmr ( cdcl 3 , tms ) δ ( ppm ): 7 . 83 - 7 . 78 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 1 ), 7 . 25 - 7 . 19 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 1 ), 4 . 25 ( q , 2h , j = 7 . 0 ), 3 . 70 ( t , 2h , j = 5 . 9 ), 2 . 39 ( s , 3h ), 1 . 90 ( brs , 2h ), 1 . 38 ( t , 3h , j = 7 . 0 ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z := 306 . 2 ( m + 1 ). following the general procedure e and starting from ethyl 2 -( 4 - chlorophenyl )- 4 -{[( trifluoromethyl ) sulfonyl ] oxy }- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( 0 . 1 g , 0 . 240 mmol ) and n - methylethane - 1 , 2 - diamine , compound 68 was obtained as a yellow powder ( 60 mg , 74 %). 1 h - nmr ( cdcl 3 , tms ) δ ( ppm ): 7 . 90 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 6 ), 7 . 41 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 6 ), 4 . 30 ( q , 2h , j = 7 . 3 ), 3 . 84 ( q , 2h , j = 5 . 9 ), 2 . 99 ( t , 2h , j = 2 . 9 ), 2 . 57 ( s , 3h ), 1 . 36 ( t , 3h , j = 7 . 0 ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 381 . 96 ( m + 41 ), 340 . 92 ( m + 1 ), 309 . 81 ( m − 30 ), 294 . 73 ( m − 45 ). following the general procedure e and starting from ethyl 2 -( 4 - chlorobenzen )- 4 -{[( trifluoromethyl ) sulfonyl ] oxy }- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate , ( 0 . 12 g , 0 . 29 mmol ) and n - ethylethane - 1 , 2 - diamine ( 25 . 4 mg , 0 . 35 mmol ), compound 69 was obtained as pale yellow solid after purification by flash column cromatography ( eluent hexane / ethyl acetate mixture of increasing polarity ) of the crude product ( 75 mg , 70 %). 1 h - nmr ( cdcl 3 , tms ) δ ( ppm ): 7 . 90 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 6 ), 7 . 41 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 6 ), 5 . 08 ( brs , 1h ), 4 . 30 ( q , 2h , j = 7 . 0 ), 3 . 93 ( q , 2h , j = 5 . 9 ), 3 . 02 ( t , 2h , j = 5 . 9 ), 2 . 89 ( t , 2h , j = 7 . 3 ), 1 . 78 - 1 . 66 ( m , 2h ), 1 . 34 ( t , 3h , j = 7 . 0 ), 0 . 96 ( t , 3h , j = 7 . 0 ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 368 . 95 ( m + 1 ). the title compound was prepared according to the general procedure e and starting from ethyl 2 -( 4 - chlorophenyl )- 4 -{[( trifluoromethyl ) sulfonyl ] oxy }- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( 220 mg , 0 . 53 mmol ). compound 70 was obtained as a pale yellow oil after hplc purification ( 124 mg , 72 %). ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 326 . 78 ( m + 1 ). the title compound was prepared according to the general procedure e and starting from ethyl 2 -( 4 - methylphenyl )- 4 -{[( trifluoromethyl ) sulfonyl ] oxy }- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( 203 mg , 0 . 51 mmol ). compound 71 was obtained as whitish solid after hplc purification in 81 % yield ( 132 mg ). ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 320 . 55 ( m + 1 ). the title compound was prepared according to the general procedure e and starting from ethyl 2 -[ 2 ′-( trifluoromethyl ) biphenyl - 4 - yl ]- 4 -{[( trifluoromethyl ) sulfonyl ] oxy }- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( 188 mg , 0 . 35 mmol ). compound 72 was obtained as a white solid after hplc purification in 61 % yield ( 95 mg ). ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 436 . 41 ( m + 1 ). the title compound was prepared according to the general procedure e and starting from ethyl 2 -[ 2 ′-( trifluoromethyl ) biphenyl - 3 - yl ]- 4 -{[( trifluoromethyl ) sulfonyl ] oxy }- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( 156 mg , 0 . 29 mmol ). compound 73 was obtained as dark yellow oil after hplc purification ( 72 mg , 56 %). ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 436 . 37 ( m + 1 ). following the general procedure described for compound 42 and starting from ethyl 4 -( 2 - aminoethylamino )- 2 -( 4 - chlorophenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( 0 . 5 g , 1 . 53 mmol ) and cyclopentanecarbaldehyde ( 166 mg , 1 . 69 mmol ), compound 74 was obtained as a yellow oil ( 447 mg , 74 %). 1 h - nmr ( cdcl 3 , tms ) δ ( ppm ): 7 . 91 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 12 ), 7 . 42 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 12 ), 6 . 99 ( br s , 1h ), 4 . 31 ( q , 2h , j = 7 . 03 ), 3 . 84 - 3 . 79 ( m , 2h ), 3 . 25 - 3 . 17 ( m , 2h ), 3 . 01 - 2 . 97 ( m , 2h ), 2 . 70 ( br s , 1h ), 1 . 93 - 1 . 86 ( m , 2h ), 1 . 76 - 1 . 66 ( m , 2h ), 1 . 61 - 1 . 31 ( m , 2h ), 1 . 37 ( t , 3h , j = 7 . 03 ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z 394 . 95 ( m + 1 ). following the general procedure e and starting from 5 -( ethoxycarbonyl )- 2 - phenylthiazol - 4 - yl trifluoromethanesulfonate ( 145 mg , 0 . 38 mmol ) and 2 -( pyrrolidin - 1 - yl ) ethanamine ( 51 . 4 mg , 0 . 45 mmol ), compound 75 was obtained as a yellow solid after purification by flash column cromatography ( eluent hexane / ethyl acetate mixture of increasing polarity ) of the crude product ( 83 mg , 63 %). 1 h - nmr ( cdcl 3 , tms ) δ ( ppm ): 7 . 72 - 7 . 64 ( m , 2h ), 7 . 45 - 7 . 38 ( m , 1h ), 7 . 20 - 7 . 13 ( m , 1h ), 6 . 98 ( br s , 1h ), 4 . 31 ( q , 2h , j = 7 . 03 ), 3 . 97 - 3 . 90 ( m , 2h ), 3 . 16 - 3 . 12 ( m , 2h ), 3 . 12 - 3 . 01 ( m , 4h ), 2 . 05 - 1 . 96 ( m , 4h ), 1 . 35 ( t , 3h , j = 7 . 03 ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 346 . 41 ( m + 1 ). following the general procedure e and starting from 5 -( ethoxycarbonyl )- 2 -( 3 - fluorophenyl ) thiazol - 4 - yl trifluoromethanesulfonate ( 0 . 15 g , 0 . 33 mmol ) and phenylmethanamine ( 43 mg , 0 . 40 mmol ), compound 76 was obtained as a yellow solid after purification by flash column cromatography ( eluent hexane / ethyl acetate mixture of increasing polarity ) of the crude product ( 96 mg , 76 %). 1 h - nmr ( cdc 3 , tms ) δ ( ppm ): 7 . 74 - 7 . 64 ( m , 2h ), 7 . 43 - 7 . 25 ( m , 6h ), 7 . 19 - 7 . 12 ( m , 1h ), 4 . 86 ( s , 2h ), 4 . 29 ( q , 2h , j = 7 . 03 ), 1 . 34 ( t , 3h , j = 7 . 03 ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 357 . 41 ( m + 1 ). following the general procedure e and starting from 5 -( ethoxycarbonyl )- 2 -( 3 - fluorophenyl ) thiazol - 4 - yl trifluoromethanesulfonate ( 0 . 15 g , 0 . 33 mmol ) and ( benzo [ d ][ 1 , 3 ] dioxol - 5 - yl ) methanamine ( 60 mg , 0 . 40 mmol ), compound 77 was obtained as a yellow solid after purification by flash column cromatography ( eluent hexane / ethyl acetate mixture of increasing polarity ) of the crude product ( 82 mg , 62 %). 1 h - nmr ( cdcl 3 , tms ) δ ( ppm ): 7 . 75 - 7 . 70 ( m , 2h ), 7 . 46 - 7 . 39 ( m , 1h ), 7 . 21 - 7 . 11 ( m , 2h ), 6 . 91 - 6 . 78 ( m , 2h ), 5 . 96 ( s , 2h ), 4 . 77 ( s , 2h ), 4 . 31 ( q , 2h , j = 7 . 03 ), 1 . 46 ( s , 1h ), 1 . 38 ( t , 3h , j = 7 . 03 ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 401 . 61 ( m + 1 ). following the general procedure e and starting from 5 -( ethoxycarbonyl )- 2 -( 3 - fluorophenyl ) thiazol - 4 - yl trifluoromethanesulfonate ( 0 . 15 g , 0 . 33 mmol ) and ( pyridin - 3 - yl ) methanamine ( 43 mg , 0 . 40 mmol ), compound 78 was obtained as a yellow solid after purification by flash column cromatography ( eluent hexane / ethyl acetate mixture of increasing polarity ) of the crude product ( 81 mg , 69 %). 1 h - nmr ( cdcl 3 , tms ) δ ( ppm ): 8 . 67 ( s , 1h ), 8 . 52 ( s , 1h ), 7 . 74 - 7 . 65 ( m , 2h ), 7 . 48 - 7 . 36 ( m , 1h ), 7 . 32 - 7 . 12 ( m , 4h ), 4 . 85 ( s , 2h ), 4 . 30 ( q , 2h , j = 7 . 03 ), 1 . 36 ( t , 3h , j = 7 . 03 ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 358 . 53 ( m + 1 ). the title compound was prepared following the general procedure d and starting from ethyl 4 -[( 2 - aminoethyl ) amino ]- 2 -( 4 - methylphenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate 67 ( 93 mg , 0 . 30 mmol ). compound 79 was obtained as a white solid ( 68 mg , 81 %). 1 h - nmr ( cdc 3 , tms ) δ ( ppm ): 7 . 83 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 1 ), 7 . 22 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 1 ), 3 . 20 ( t , 2h , j = 6 . 9 ), 2 . 80 ( t , 2h , j = 6 . 9 ), 2 . 39 ( s , 3h ). ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 277 . 8 ( m + 1 ). following the general procedure d and starting from ethyl 4 -{[ 2 -( methylamino ) ethyl ] amino }- 2 -( 4 - methylphenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate 71 ( 89 mg , 0 . 27 mmol ), compound 80 was obtained as white solid ( 74 mg , 91 %). ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 292 . 8 ( m + 1 ). following the general procedure d and starting from ethyl 4 -[( 2 - aminoethyl ) amino ]- 2 -( 3 - fluorophenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( 100 mg , 0 . 32 mmol ), compound 81 was obtained as white solid ( 80 mg , 88 %). ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 282 . 4 ( m + 1 ). 1 eq of naoh was added to a 30 mm solution of 5 -[( 3 - chlorobenzyl ) oxy ]- 2 -( 3 - fluorophenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 4 - carboxylic acid 48 and the mixture stirred for 30 min at room temperature . after evaporation under reduced pressure the compound 82 was isolated in form of sodium salt ( 19 mg , 95 %). 1 h - nmr ( dmso - d 6 ) δ ( ppm ): 7 . 89 - 7 . 82 ( m , 2h ), 7 . 70 - 7 . 61 ( m , 2h ), 7 . 57 - 7 . 53 ( m , 4h ), 7 . 42 ( m , 2h ), 5 . 42 ( s , 2h ). following the procedure f and starting from 4 -[( 4 - chlorobenzyl ) oxy ]- 2 -( 4 - methylphenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylic acid 43 , compound 83 was obtained as a white solid ( 54 mg , 95 %). 1 h - nmr ( cd 3 od ) δ ( ppm ): 7 . 83 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 0 ), 7 . 52 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 6 ), 7 . 41 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 0 ), 7 . 33 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 6 ), 5 . 59 ( s , 2h ), 2 . 31 ( s , 3h ). following the general procedure f and starting from 4 -( 4 - chlorobenzyloxy )- 2 -( 4 - chlorophenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylic acid 45 ( 0 . 2 g , 0 . 526 mmol ), compound 84 was obtained as a yellow solid ( 212 mg , 95 %). 1 h - nmr ( dmso - d 6 ) δ ( ppm ): 7 . 89 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 65 ), 7 . 57 - 7 . 53 ( m , 4h ), 7 . 42 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 65 ), 5 . 47 ( s , 2h ). following the general procedure f and starting from 4 -( 2 - chlorobenzyloxy )- 2 -( 4 - chlorophenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylic acid 51 ( 0 . 16 g , 0 . 421 mmol ), compound 85 was obtained as a yellow solid ( 170 mg , 96 %). 1 h - nmr ( dmso - d 6 ) δ ( ppm ): 7 . 89 - 7 . 78 ( m , 3h , j = 8 . 65 ), 7 . 61 ( d , 2h ), 7 . 47 - 7 . 43 ( m , 1h ), 7 . 42 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 65 ), 5 . 47 ( s , 2h ). following the general procedure f and starting from 4 -( 2 - chlorobenzyloxy )- 2 -( 4 - methylphenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylic acid 53 ( 0 . 4 g , 1 . 11 mmol ), compound 86 was obtained as a white solid ( 421 mg , 89 %). 1 h - nmr ( dmso - d 6 ) δ ( ppm ): 7 . 85 - 7 . 82 ( m , 1h ), 7 . 74 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 11 ), 7 . 49 - 7 . 46 ( m , 1h ), 7 . 37 - 7 . 33 ( m , 2h ), 7 . 28 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 11 ), 5 . 55 ( s , 2h ), 2 . 34 ( s , 3h ). following the general procedure f and starting from ethyl 4 -( 2 - chlorobenzyloxy )- 2 -( 3 - fluorophenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate 54 ( 70 mg , 0 . 179 mmol ), compound 87 was obtained as a white solid ( 69 mg , 92 %). 1 h - nmr ( dmso - d 6 ) δ ( ppm ): 7 . 80 - 7 . 67 ( m , 3h ), 7 . 58 - 7 . 47 ( m , 2h ), 7 . 41 - 7 . 30 ( m , 3h ), 5 . 59 ( s , 2h ). following the general procedure f and starting from ethyl 4 -( 4 - chlorobenzyloxy )- 2 -( 3 - fluorophenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate ( 0 . 1 g , 0 . 255 mmol ), compound 88 was obtained as a yellow solid ( 100 mg , 98 %). 1 h - nmr ( dmso - d 6 ) δ ( ppm ): 7 . 69 - 7 . 40 ( m , 7h ), 7 . 31 - 7 . 24 ( m , 1h ), 5 . 44 ( s , 2h ). following the general procedure described for compound 36 and starting from ( 1r , 2s , 5r )- 2 - isopropyl - 5 - methylcyclohexanol ( 91 mg , 0 . 58 mmol ) and 4 -( benzyloxy )- 2 -( 4 - methylphenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carbonyl chloride ( 0 . 1 g , 0 . 29 mmol ) ( obtained by treatment of the corresponding acid with socl 2 , 3 . 0 eq ., in toluene ), compound 89 was obtained as transparent oil after purification by hplc ( 116 mg , 87 %). 1 h - nmr ( acetone - d 6 ) δ ( ppm ): 7 . 94 - 7 . 91 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 8 ), 7 . 61 - 7 . 58 ( m , 2h ), 7 . 44 - 7 . 31 ( m , 5h ), 5 . 69 - 5 . 58 ( s , 2h ), 4 . 84 ( dt , 1h , j 1 = 10 . 8 , j 2 = 4 . 3 ), 2 . 41 ( s , 3h ), 2 . 11 - 1 . 99 ( m , 2h ), 1 . 77 - 1 . 69 ( m , 2h ), 1 . 56 - 1 . 47 ( m , 2h ), 1 . 31 - 1 . 27 ( m , 1h ), 1 . 17 - 1 . 07 ( m , 1h ), 0 . 95 - 0 . 89 ( m , 7h ), 0 . 80 ( d , 3h , j = 7 . 0 ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 465 . 34 ( m + 1 ). a solution of ( 1r , 2s , 5r )- 2 - isopropyl - 5 - methylcyclohexyl 4 -( benzyloxy )- 2 -( 4 - methylphenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate 89 ( 0 . 1 g , 0 . 21 mmol ) in dry thf was hydrogenated at atmospheric pressure in the presence of pd / c for 1 h . the mixture was then filtered through celite and the filtrate concentrated under reduced pressure to give compound 90 as transparent oil ( 75 mg , 95 %). 1 h - nmr ( cdcl 3 , tms ) δ ( ppm ): 10 . 02 ( bs , 1h ), 7 . 90 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 1 ), 7 . 34 - 7 . 26 ( m , 2h ), 5 . 02 - 4 . 87 ( m , 1h ), 2 . 42 ( s , 3h ), 1 . 95 - 1 . 87 ( m , 2h ), 1 . 78 - 1 . 69 ( m , 2h ), 1 . 65 - 1 . 44 ( m , 2h ), 1 . 31 - 1 . 28 ( m , 1h ), 1 . 22 - 1 . 09 ( m , 1h ), 0 . 97 - 0 . 82 ( m , 10h ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 375 . 09 ( m + 1 ); 236 . 76 ( m − 136 ). following the general procedure c and starting from ethyl 4 - hydroxy - 2 -( 4 - chlorophenyl )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate 8 ( 0 . 1 g , 0 . 35 mmol ), and chloro ( methoxy ) methane ( 56 mg , 0 . 70 mmol ), compound 91 was obtained as a white solid ( 110 mg , 96 %). 1 h - nmr ( cdcl 3 , tms ) δ ( ppm ): 7 . 94 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 6 ), 7 . 45 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 6 ), 5 . 67 ( s , 2h ), 4 . 43 ( q , 2h , j = 7 . 0 ), 3 . 6 ( s , 3h ), 1 . 42 ( t , 3h , j = 7 . 0 ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 328 . 85 ( m + 1 ), 256 . 67 ( m − 72 ), 297 . 74 ( m − 72 + 41 ). following the general procedure d starting from ethyl 2 -( 4 - chlorophenyl )- 4 -( methoxymethoxy )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate 91 ( 0 . 1 g , 0 . 3 mmol ), compound 92 was obtained as a white solid ( 86 mg , 95 %). 1 h - nmr ( cdcl 3 , tms ) δ ( ppm ): 7 . 92 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 6 ), 7 . 43 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 6 ), 5 . 42 ( s , 2h ), 3 . 71 ( s , 3h ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 299 . 74 ( m + 1 ). 2 -( 4 - chlorophenyl )- 4 -( methoxymethoxy )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylic acid 92 ( 80 mg , 0 . 28 mmol ) was dissolved in dry ch 2 cl 2 ( 10 ml ) at 0 ° c ., under n2 atmosphere , 1 , 1 ′- carbonyldiimidazole ( 0 . 41 mmol , 68 mg ) was added at the same temperature . the mixture was warmed to room temperature and stirred for 40 min . gaseous nh 3 was bubbled into the mixture and the course of the reaction was monitored by lc - ms analysis . at the end of the reaction the mixture was concentrated under reducer pressure and the crude product triturated with acetone . the resulting precipitate was collected by filtration , washed with diethyl ether and purified by flash column chromatography ( eluent : dichloromethane / methanol mixture of increasing polarity ). compound 93 was obtained as white solid ( 77 mg , 78 %). 1 h - nmr ( cdcl 3 , tms ) δ ( ppm ): 7 . 86 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 1 ), 7 . 41 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 6 ), 6 . 98 ( br s , 1h ), 5 . 85 ( br s , 1h ), 5 . 70 ( s , 2h ), 3 . 59 ( s , 3h ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : ( esi +)= 300 ( m + 1 ), 282 ( m − 18 ), 252 ( m − 48 ). a 250 ml three - necked round bottom flask was equipped with a thermometer , flame dried , and charged with n2 and a solution 2 -( 4 - chlorophenyl )- 4 -( methoxymethoxy )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxamide 93 ( 450 mg , 1 . 5 mmol ) in dry ch 2 cl 2 ( 8 ml ). to this solution dmso ( 284 μl , 4 . 0 mmol ) was added and the resulting pale yellow solution cooled to − 78 ° c . a solution of ( cocl ) 2 ( 270 μl , 3 . 2 mmol ) in dry ch 2 cl 2 ( 2 ml ) was then added dropwise . after 15 min . stirring at − 78 ° c ., et 3 n ( 892 μl , 6 . 4 mmol ) was added dropwise to the mixture . the following additiona of dmso ( 284 μl , 4 . 0 mmol ), ( cocl ) 2 ( 270 μl , 3 . 2 mmol ) and et 3 n ( 500 μl , 3 . 5 mmol ) at intervals of 1 h were necessary in order to complete the starting material consumption . the reaction was quenched by addition of water ( 20 ml ), warming of the mixture to room temperature , and extraction of the aqueous layer with ethyl acetate ( 3 × 10 ml ). the combined organic phases were washed with brine ( 30 ml ), dried over dry na 2 so 4 and concentrated in vacuo . purification by silica gel column chromatography ( hexane / acetate 9 / 1 to 1 / 1 ) gave 94 as a pale yellow solid ( 270 mg , 74 %). 1 h - nmr ( cdc 3 , tms ) δ ( ppm ): 7 . 86 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 6 ), 7 . 45 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 6 ), 5 . 59 ( s , 2h ), 3 . 58 ( s , 3h ). 2 -( 4 - chlorophenyl )- 4 -( methoxymethoxy )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carbonitrile 94 ( 55 mg , 0 . 14 mmol ), sodium azide ( 10 mg , 0 . 16 mmol ), zinc chloride ( 19 mg , 0 . 14 mmol ), and 8 ml of water were mixed in a 25 ml round - bottomed flask . the reaction mixture was vigorously stirred at 100 ° c . for 72 h . after consumption of the starting material , 6 n hcl ( 100 μl ) and ethyl acetate ( 7 ml ) were added , and stirring was continued until no solid was present and the aqueous layer reached ph 1 . additional ethyl acetate was added ; the organic layer was separated and the aqueous one extracted again with ethyl acetate ( 2 × 10 ml ). the combined organic layers were dried over dry na 2 so 4 and concentrated in vacuo . compound 95 was obtained as pale yellow solid ( 28 mg , 75 %) after preparative hplc purification . 1 h - nmr ( dmso - d 6 ) δ ( ppm ): 16 . 2 ( br s , 1h ), 13 . 0 ( br s , 1h ), 7 . 99 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 6 ), 7 . 62 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 6 ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 278 . 8 ( m + 1 ), 231 . 8 ( m + 41 ), 235 . 6 ( m − 28 ). a 25 ml three - necked round bottom flask was equipped with a thermometer , flame dried , and charged with n2 and a solution of 2 -( 4 - chlorophenyl )- 5 -( 1h - tetrazol - 5 - yl ) thiazol - 4 - ol 95 ( 40 mg , 0 . 14 mmol ) in thf ( 10 ml ). to this solution pyridine ( 12 μl , 0 . 14 mmol ) were added by syringe . the resulting mixture was cooled to 0 ° c . and stirred for 30 min . methyl iodide ( 34 μl , 0 . 17 mmol ) was added dropwise by a syringe , while keeping the temperature below 5 ° c . after the addition , the ice bath was removed , and the solution stirred at room temperature until all starting material was consumed . the reaction mixture was diluted with ethyl acetate ( 15 ml ) and the reaction was cautiously quenched with hcl 0 . 5 n ( 10 ml ) at 0 ° c . the solution was allowed to warm to room temperature , the organic layer separated and the aqueous one extracted again with ethyl acetate ( 2 × 10 ml ). the combined organic layers were dried over dry mg 2 so 4 and concentrated in vacuo . the resulting yellow solid was purified by preparative hplc to afford the compound 96 as pale yellow solid ( 27 mg , 65 %). 1 h - nmr ( dmso - d 6 ) δ ( ppm ): 11 . 98 ( br s , 1h ), 7 . 99 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 6 ), 7 . 62 ( d , 2h , j = 8 . 6 ), 3 . 91 ( s , 3h ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 294 . 75 ( m + 1 ). following the procedure described for compound 96 and starting from 2 -( 3 - fluorophenyl )- 5 -( 1h - tetrazol - 5 - yl )- 1 , 3 - thiazol - 4 - ol , the compound 97 was isolated as dark - yellow oil ( 73 mg , 47 %). 1 h - nmr ( dmso - d 6 ) δ ( ppm ): 11 . 79 ( br s , 1h ), 7 . 73 - 7 . 68 ( m , 2h ), 7 . 46 - 7 . 39 ( m , 1h ), 3 . 82 ( s , 3h ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 278 . 18 ( m + 1 ). to a solution of 2 -( 4 - chlorophenyl )- 4 -( methoxymethoxy )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carbonitrile 94 ( 0 . 25 g , 0 . 890 mmol ) in dry toluene ( 10 ml ), a solution of et 3 al ( 122 μl , 0 . 89 mmol ) in dry toluene was added dropwise and the resulting mixture stirred for 20 min at room temperature . acetohydrazide ( 0 . 165 g , 2 . 22 mmol ) was added and the mixture heated at 90 ° c . for 6 h until the starting materials had been completely consumed ( as checked by tlc and lc - ms analysis ). the mixture was diluted with toluene ( 10 ml ) and transferred to a separatory funnel ; the organic layer was washed with water , dried over na 2 so 4 , filtered , and concentrated in vacuo to afford a brown oil which was used in the next step without further purification . the oil was dissolved in toluene ( 10 ml ), added to a microwave vial and irradiated by mw at 170 ° c . for 20 min . after consumption of the starting material , 2 ml of 6 n hcl were added and vigorous stirring continued for 1 h . the organic layer was isolated and the aqueous layer extracted with ethyl acetate ( 2 × 10 ml ). the combined organic layers were evaporated and the crude product was purified by flash chromatography on silica gel ( petroleum ether / ethyl acetate 90 : 10 to 70 : 30 ) to afford 98 as transparent oil ( 125 mg , 48 %). 1 h - nmr ( dmso - d 6 ) δ ( ppm ): 12 . 11 ( br s , 1h ), 12 . 98 ( br s , 1h ), 7 . 99 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 6 ), 7 . 62 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 6 ), 2 . 25 ( s , 3h ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 293 . 74 ( m + 1 ). following the procedure described for compound 98 and starting from 2 -( 3 - fluorophenyl )- 4 -( methoxymethoxy )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carbonitrile , the compound 99 was isolated following flash chromatography on silica gel ( ch 2 cl 2 / ch 3 oh 90 : 10 ) as slightly red oil ( 97 mg , 31 %). 1 h - nmr ( dmso - d 6 ) δ ( ppm ): 11 . 93 ( br s , 1h ), 12 . 80 ( br s , 1h ), 7 . 76 - 7 . 69 ( m , 2h ), 7 . 46 - 7 . 39 ( m , 1h ), 7 . 22 - 7 . 17 ( m , 1h ), 2 . 21 ( s , 3h ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 277 . 27 ( m + 1 ). a microwave vial was charged with 2 -( 4 - chlorophenyl )- 4 -( methoxymethoxy )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carbonitrile 94 ( 250 mg , 0 . 89 mmol ), acetic acid ( 5 ml ), hydroxylamine ( 117 mg , 3 . 56 mmol ) and 2 , 2 - dimethyl - 1 , 3 - dioxane - 4 , 6 - dione ( meldrum &# 39 ; s acid ) ( 131 mg , 0 . 91 mmol ). the mixture was irradiated by mw for 10 min at 130 ° c ., then quenched with 10 ml of water and the precipitate was filtered and dried under vacuum at 50 ° c . the solid obtained was dissolved in a mixture of hcl 6n ( 5 ml ) and ethyl acetate ( 10 ml ) and stirred for 1 h . the two phases were separated into a separatory funnel ; the organic layer was washed with water , dried over na 2 so 4 , filtered , and concentrated in vacuo to afford compound 100 as a dark yellow solid ( 107 mg , 41 %). 1 h - nmr ( dmso - d 6 ) δ ( ppm ): 11 . 98 ( br s , 1h ), 7 . 89 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 5 ), 7 . 51 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 6 ), 2 . 55 ( s , 3h ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 294 . 50 ( m + 1 ), 316 . 7 ( m + na ). following the experimental procedure described for compound 100 and starting from 2 -( 3 - fluorophenyl )- 4 -( methoxymethoxy )- 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carbonitrile compound 101 was isolated as white solid ( 177 mg , 52 %). 1 h - nmr ( dmso - d 6 ) δ ( ppm ): 11 . 81 ( br s , 1h ), 7 . 76 - 7 . 69 ( m , 3h ), 7 . 22 - 7 . 17 ( m , 1h ), 2 . 33 ( s , 3h ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 278 . 27 ( m + 1 ). the title compound was prepared according to the general procedure c and starting from 2 -( 3 - fluorophenyl )- 5 -( 5 - methyl - 1 , 2 , 4 - oxadiazol - 3 - yl )- 1 , 3 - thiazol - 4 - ol 101 ( 221 mg , 0 . 8 mmol ) and 1 - chloro - 4 -( chloromethyl ) benzene ( 0 . 16 g , 1 . 00 mmol ). compound 102 was obtained as dark red oil ( 234 mg , 73 %). 1 h - nmr ( dmso - d 6 ) δ ( ppm ): 7 . 83 - 7 - 79 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 6 ), 7 . 76 - 7 . 69 ( m , 2h ), 7 . 63 - 7 . 59 ( m , 1h ), 7 . 51 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 4 ), 7 . 22 - 7 . 17 ( m , 1h ), 5 . 23 ( s , 2h ), 2 . 33 ( s , 3h ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 402 . 8 ( m + 1 ). to a cooled solution ( 0 ° c .) of 2 -( 4 - chlorophenyl )- 4 - hydroxy - 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylic acid 1 ( 0 . 43 g , 1 . 68 mmol ) in ch 2 cl 2 ( 15 ml ), 1 , 1 - carbonyldiimidazole ( cdi , 275 mg , 1 . 70 mmol ) was added . after stirring 1 h at 0 ° c ., acetohydrazide ( 124 mg , 1 . 68 mmol ) and diazobicyclo -[ 5 . 4 . 0 ] undec - 7 - ene ( dbu , 260 μl , 1 . 68 mmol ) were added , and the mixture was allowed stirring at room temperature for 4 h . glacial acoh ( 200 μl , 3 . 5 mmol ) was added and the reaction mixture diluted with ch 2 cl 2 ( 10 ml ). the organic layer washed with saturated nh 4 cl ( 2 × 10 ml ) and water ( 2 × 10 ml ), dried over na 2 so 4 , filtered and concentrated under reduced pressure to give a crude residue that , after purification by flash chromatography ( ch 2 cl 2 / ch 3 oh 95 : 5 ) afforded n ′- acetyl - 2 -( 4 - chlorophenyl )- 4 - hydroxy - 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carbohydrazide as pale yellow oil . the compound was dissolved in polyphosphoric acid ( 5 ml ) in a microwave vial and irradiated by mw for 40 min at 150 ° c . the solution was added to an ice / water mixture and the precipitate filtered and washed with water . the solid precipitated was dried under vacuum at 50 ° c . to afford compound 103 as a whitish solid ( 182 mg , 37 %). 1 h - nmr ( dmso - d 6 ) δ ( ppm ): 11 . 89 ( br s , 1h ), 7 . 89 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 6 ), 7 . 51 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 4 ), 2 . 65 ( s , 3h ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 294 . 50 ( m + 1 ), 316 . 7 ( m + na ). the title compound was prepared according to the experimental procedure described for compound 103 and starting from 2 -( 3 - fluorophenyl )- 4 - hydroxy - 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylic acid 3 . compound 104 was isolated as a yellow oil ( 109 mg , 59 %). 1 h - nmr ( dmso - d 6 ) δ ( ppm ): 11 . 79 ( br s , 1h ), 7 . 63 - 7 . 79 ( m , 3h ), 7 . 11 - 7 . 18 ( m , 1h ), 2 . 61 ( s , 3h ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 278 . 27 ( m + 1 ). an oven - dried microwave vial was evacuated , backfilled with argon and finally charged with benzamide ( 0 . 3 g , 2 . 48 mmol ), diethyl bromopropanedioate ( 1 . 27 μl , 7 . 44 mmol ) and dry dmso ( 3 ml ). the reaction vial was sealed and placed in the microwave reactor and irradiated for 2 h at 250 ° c . until the complete consumption of the starting materials ( as checked by tlc and gc analysis ). the crude was diluted with ethyl acetate ( 20 ml ) and washed with water ( 3 × 10 ml ). the combined organic layers were dried over na 2 so 4 , filtered and the solvent was removed under reduced pressure . the residue was purified by flash chromatography on silica gel ( ch 2 cl 2 / ch 3 oh 95 : 5 ) to afford the compound 105 as colourless oil ( 83 %). 1 h - nmr ( dmso - d 6 ) δ ( ppm ): 12 . 3 ( br s , 1h ), 7 . 95 - 7 . 92 ( m , 2h ), 7 . 55 - 7 . 53 ( m , 3h ), 4 . 43 ( q , 2h , j = 7 . 03 ), 1 . 42 ( t , 3h , j = 7 . 03 ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 234 . 33 ( m + 1 ). the title compound was prepared according to the experimental procedure described for compound 105 and starting from 3 - fluorobenzamide . compound 106 was isolated as a yellow oil ( 99 mg , 59 %). 1 h - nmr ( cdcl 3 , tms ) δ ( ppm ): 11 . 98 ( br s , 1h ), 8 . 01 ( s , 1h ), 7 . 77 ( d , 1h , j = 7 . 57 ), 7 . 49 - 7 . 30 ( m , 2h ), 4 . 40 ( q , 2h , j = 7 . 03 ), 1 . 52 ( t , 3h , j = 7 . 03 ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 252 . 18 ( m + 1 ). the title compound was prepared according to the experimental procedure described for compound 105 and starting from p - tolylbenzamide . compound 107 was isolated as a whitish oil ( 39 mg , 79 %). 1 h - nmr ( cdcl 3 , tms ) δ ( ppm ): 11 . 94 ( br s , 1h ), 7 . 88 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 6 ), 7 . 26 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 6 ), 4 . 62 ( q , 2h , j = 7 . 0 ), 2 . 41 ( s , 3h ), 1 . 39 ( t , 3h , j = 7 . 0 ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 248 . 25 . following the general procedure c and starting from ethyl 4 - hydroxy - 2 - phenyl - 1 , 3 - oxazole - 5 - carboxylate 105 ( 055 g , 2 . 67 mmol ) and 1 - chloro - 4 -( chloromethyl ) benzene ( 1 . 074 g , 6 . 67 mmol ), compound 108 was obtained as a white solid ( 0 . 8 g , 81 %). 1 h - nmr ( cdcl 3 , tms ) δ ( ppm ): 7 . 83 - 7 . 48 ( m , 5h ), 7 . 35 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 5 ), 7 . 27 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 6 ), 5 . 31 ( s , 2h ), 4 . 35 ( q , 2h , j = 7 . 03 ), 1 . 38 ( t , 3h , j = 7 . 03 ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 358 . 80 ( m + 1 ), 380 . 77 ( m + na ). following the general procedure c and starting from ethyl 2 -( 3 - fluorophenyl )- 4 - hydroxy - 1 , 3 - oxazole - 5 - carboxylate 106 ( 110 mg , 0 . 43 mmol ), compound 109 was obtained as a white powder ( 114 mg , 71 %). 1 h - nmr ( cdcl 3 , tms ) δ ( ppm ): 7 . 85 - 7 . 51 ( m , 3h ), 7 . 47 ( m , 1h ), 7 . 36 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 6 ), 7 . 26 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 6 ), 5 . 53 ( s , 2h ), 4 . 33 ( q , 2h , j = 7 . 03 ), 1 . 38 ( t , 3h , j = 7 . 03 ); ms ( es + ) m / z : 376 . 66 ( m + 1 ). following the general procedure c and starting from ethyl 4 - hydroxy - 2 -( 4 - methylphenyl )- 1 , 3 - oxazole - 5 - carboxylate 107 ( 98 mg , 0 . 39 mmol ) compound 110 was obtained as a white powder ( 114 mg , 79 %). 1 h - nmr ( cdcl 3 , tms ) δ ( ppm ): 7 . 82 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 6 ), 7 . 49 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 6 ), 7 . 23 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 6 ), 7 . 19 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 6 ), 5 . 32 ( s , 2h ), 4 . 30 ( q , 2h , j = 7 . 03 ), 2 . 39 ( s , 3h ), 1 . 28 ( t , 3h , j = 7 . 03 ); ms ( es + ) m / z : 372 . 72 ( m + 1 ). following the procedure described for compound 36 and starting from ethyl 4 - hydroxy - 2 - phenyl - 1 , 3 - oxazole - 5 - carboxylate 105 ( 67 mg , 0 . 28 mmol ) compound 111 was obtained as colorless oil ( 77 mg , 67 %). 1 h - nmr ( cdcl 3 , tms ) δ ( ppm ): 7 . 73 - 7 . 51 ( m , 5h ), 7 . 47 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 5 ), 7 . 35 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 6 ), 4 . 37 ( q , 2h , j = 7 . 13 ), 1 . 48 ( t , 3h , j = 7 . 11 ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 406 . 28 ( m + 1 ). the title compound was prepared according to the general procedure d and starting from ethyl 4 -[( 4 - chlorobenzyl ) oxy ]- 2 - phenyl - 1 , 3 - oxazole - 5 - carboxylate 108 ( 123 mg , 0 . 34 mmol ). compound 112 was obtained as slightly dark oil ( 99 mg , 88 %). 1 h - nmr ( dmso - d 6 ) δ ( ppm ): 12 . 12 ( br s , 1h ), 7 . 71 - 7 . 49 ( m , 5h ), 7 . 41 ( d , 2h , j = 8 ), 7 . 34 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 6 ), 5 . 61 ( s , 2h ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 330 . 68 ( m + 1 ). the title compound was prepared according to the general procedure d and starting from ethyl 4 -[( 4 - chlorobenzyl ) oxy ]- 2 -( 3 - fluorophenyl )- 1 , 3 - oxazole - 5 - carboxylate 109 ( 88 mg , 0 . 23 mmol ). compound 113 was obtained as white solid ( 70 mg , 86 %). 1 h - nmr ( dmso - d 6 ) δ ( ppm ): 11 . 91 ( br s , 1h ), 7 . 81 - 7 . 50 ( m , 3h ), 7 . 45 ( m , 1h ), 7 . 31 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 6 ), 7 . 26 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 6 ), 5 . 63 ( s , 2h ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 348 . 62 ( m + 1 ). the title compound was prepared according to the general procedure d and starting from ethyl 4 -[( 4 - chlorobenzyl ) oxy ]- 2 -( 4 - methylphenyl )- 1 , 3 - oxazole - 5 - carboxylate 110 ( 0 . 12 g , 0 . 32 mmol ). compound 114 was obtained as whitish solid ( 98 mg , 89 %). 1 h - nmr ( cd 3 od ) δ ( ppm ): 7 . 89 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 6 ), 7 . 53 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 6 ), 7 . 41 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 5 ), 7 . 33 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 6 ), 5 . 43 ( s , 2h ), 2 . 39 ( s , 3h ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 344 . 66 ( m + 1 ). the title compound was prepared according to the experimental procedure described for compound 100 and starting from 2 -( 3 - fluorophenyl )- 4 - hydroxy - 1 , 3 - oxazole - 5 - carbonitrile ( 76 mg , 0 . 25 mmol ). compound 115 was obtained as pale yellow oil ( 54 mg , 79 %). 1 h - nmr ( dmso - d 6 ) δ ( ppm ): 12 . 1 ( br s , 1h ), 7 . 83 - 7 . 74 ( m , 3h ), 7 . 11 - 7 . 18 ( m , 1h ), 2 . 51 ( s , 3h ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 262 . 21 ( m + 1 ). the title compound was prepared according to the experimental procedure b and starting from 2 -( 3 - fluorophenyl )- 5 -( 5 - methyl - 1 , 2 , 4 - oxadiazol - 3 - yl )- 1 , 3 - oxazol - 4 - ol 115 ( 98 mg , 0 . 37 mmol ). compound 116 was obtained as yellow oil ( 88 mg , 61 %). 1 h - nmr ( cdcl 3 , tms ) δ ( ppm ): 7 . 77 ( m , 1h ), 7 . 61 ( m , 1h ), 7 . 60 - 7 . 55 ( m , 3h ), 7 . 50 ( m , 1h ), 7 . 35 - 7 . 29 ( m , 2h ), 5 . 40 ( s , 2h ), 2 . 45 ( s , 3h ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z 386 . 78 ( m + 1 ). triethylamine ( 3 . 4 ml , 24 mmol ) and 4 - methylbenzoyl chloride ( 1 . 59 ml , 12 . 0 mmol ) were added to a solution of diethyl 2 - aminomalonate hydrochloride ( 2 . 28 g , 10 . 8 mmol in ch 2 cl 2 ( 40 ml ) and the resulting mixture was stirred overnight at room temperature . the mixture was washed with aqueous nahco 3 ( 20 ml ), 1m hcl ( 20 ml ), and water ( 20 ml ); the organic layer was dried over anhydrous na 2 so 4 , filtered , and the solvent was evaporated under vacuum to yield the intermediate diethyl [( 4 - methylbenzoyl ) amino ] propanedioate as a yellow solid ( 96 %). diethyl [( 4 - methylbenzoyl ) amino ] propanedioate ( 3 . 08 g , 10 . 5 mmol ) was dissolved in thf ( 50 ml ). lawesson reagent ( 3 . 0 g , 7 . 4 mmol ) was added and the mixture stirred overnight at room temperature . after solvent removal under reduced pressure , the crude product was purified by flash column chromatography ( eluent : hexane / ethyl acetate mixture of increasing polarity ) to give the intermediate diethyl {[( 4 - methylphenyl ) carbonothioyl ] amino } propanedioate ( 85 %). diethyl {[( 4 - methylphenyl ) carbonothioyl ] amino } propanedioate ( 2 . 47 g , 8 . 00 mmol ) was dissolved in dioxane ( 35 ml ) and phosphoryl chloride ( 0 . 5 ml , 5 mmol ) was added . the mixture was irradiated by microwave ( 250 w , 100 ° c .) for 15 min , whereupon the solvent was removed under vacuum . the compound 117 was obtained by trituration with acetonitrile ( 1 . 67 g , 84 %). 1 h - nmr ( cdcl 3 , tms ) δ ( ppm ): 9 . 93 ( br s , 1h ), 7 . 81 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 3 ), 7 . 21 ( d , 2h , j = 7 . 3 ), 4 . 58 ( q , 2h , j = 7 . 0 ), 2 . 37 ( s , 3h ), 1 . 39 ( t , 3h , j = 7 . 0 ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 264 . 30 ( m + 1 ). commercial 3 - fluorobenzenecarbothioamide ( 395 mg , 2 . 55 mmol ) and diethyl bromopropanedioate ( 435 μl , 2 . 55 mmol ) were dissolved in ethanol ( 8 ml ) in a microwave vial . the mixture was irradiated at 100 ° c . for 30 min . the solvent was removed under reduce pressure ethyl 2 -( 3 - fluorophenyl )- 4 - hydroxy - 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylate was obtained as a yellow solid after trituration in acetonitrile ( 476 mg , 70 %). 1 h - nmr ( cdc 3 ) 6 ( ppm ): 9 . 93 ( br s ), 7 . 76 - 7 . 69 ( m , 2h ), 7 . 46 - 7 . 39 ( m , 1h ), 7 . 22 - 7 . 17 ( m , 1h ), 4 . 40 ( q , 2h , j = 7 . 5 ), 1 . 40 ( t , 3h , j = 7 . 5 ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 268 ( m + 1 ). the intermediate 1 ( 476 mg , 1 . 78 mmol ) was dissolved in dioxane ( 5 ml ) and 2 ml of aqueous hydrochloric acid ( 37 %) were added . the mixture was heated at 80 ° c . for 16 h . after solvent removal under vacuum and the crude product was purified by hplc to yield 2 -( 3 - fluorophenyl )- 4 - hydroxy - 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxylic acid as a white solid ( 0 . 315 g , 74 %). 1 h - nmr ( dmso - d 6 ) δ ( ppm ): 12 . 2 ( br s , 1h ), 7 . 82 - 7 . 78 ( m , 1h ), 7 . 75 - 7 . 71 ( m , 1h ), 7 . 71 - 7 . 58 ( m , 1h ), 7 . 45 - 7 . 39 ( m , 1h ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 238 ( m − 1 ). the intermediate 2 ( 130 mg , 0 . 54 mmol ) was dissolved in dry ch 2 cl 2 ( 10 ml ) and 1 , 1 ′- carbonyldiimidazole ( 135 mg , 0 . 81 mmol ) was added at 0 ° c . the mixture was stireed at room temperature and stirred for 30 min . gaseous nh 3 was bubbled into the mixture and the course of the reaction was monitored by lc - ms analysis . at the end of the reaction the mixture was concentrated under reducer pressure and the crude product triturated with acetone . the resulting solid was purified by flash column chromatography ( ch 2 cl 2 / meoh 95 : 5 as eluent ). 2 -( 3 - fluorophenyl )- 4 - hydroxy - 1 , 3 - thiazole - 5 - carboxamide was obtained as white solid ( 101 mg , 78 %). 1 h - nmr ( dmso - d 6 ) δ ( ppm ): 12 . 25 ( br s , 1h ), 9 . 15 ( br s , 2h ), 7 . 80 - 7 . 78 ( m , 1h ), 7 . 73 - 7 . 70 ( m , 1h ), 7 . 69 - 7 . 60 ( m , 1h ), 7 . 45 - 7 . 41 ( m , 1h ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 239 ( m + 1 ). a 50 ml one - necked round bottom flask was charged with a solution of the intermediate 3 ( 101 mg , 0 . 42 mmol ) in dry ch 2 cl 2 ( 8 ml ) and trichloroacetyl chloride ( 94 μl , 0 . 84 mmol ) was added . after stirring 1 h at room temperature the reaction was quenched by water addition ( 8 ml ) and extracted with ch 2 ci 2 ( 3 × 10 ml ). the collected organic phases were washed with brine ( 10 ml ), dried over dry na 2 so 4 and concentrated in vacuo . purification by silica gel chromatography ( hexane / ethyl acetate 90 : 10 as eluent ) gave intermediate 4 as a pale yellow solid ( 60 mg , 65 %). 1 h - nmr ( cdcl 3 , tms ) δ ( ppm ): 1h - nmr ( cdcl 3 ) δ ( ppm ): 10 . 05 ( br s ), 7 . 74 - 7 . 64 ( m , 2h ), 7 . 42 - 7 . 36 ( m , 1h ), 7 . 20 - 7 . 16 ( m , 1h ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 221 ( m + 1 ). a microwave vial was charged with intermediate 4 ( 60 mg , 0 . 27 mmol ) and 2 ml of a solution of n - methylpyrrolidone / acoh 5 : 2 v / v . then a 5 . 2 m solution of sodium azide ( 130 μl , 0 . 68 mmol ) was added and the resulting mixture irradiated at 220 ° c . for 5 minutes . the reaction was quenched with 10 ml of water and extracted with ethyl acetate . the organic layer was separated and the aqueous one extracted again twice with ethyl acetate . the combined organic layers were dried over dry na 2 so 4 and concentrated in vacuo . 2 -( 3 - fluorophenyl )- 5 -( 1h - tetrazol - 5 - yl )- 1 , 3 - thiazol - 4 - ol was obtained as white solid ( 61 mg , 86 %) after preparative hplc purification . 1 h - nmr ( dmso - d 6 ) δ ( ppm ): 13 . 30 ( br s , 1h ), 12 . 10 ( br s , 1h ), 7 . 84 - 7 . 80 ( m , 1h ), 7 . 76 - 7 . 72 ( m , 1h ), 7 . 66 - 7 . 58 ( m , 1h ), 7 . 45 - 7 . 36 ( m , 1h ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 264 ( m + 1 ). a 25 ml one - necked round bottom flask was charged with intermediate 5 ( 150 mg , 0 . 57 mmol ) dissolved in 10 ml of acetonitrile . triethylamine ( 79 μl , 0 . 56 mmol ) and ethyl iodide ( 91 μl , 1 . 14 mmol ) were added to the solution and the mixture was allowed to stir at room temperature overnight . the acetonitrile was evaporated and the crude diluted with water and washed with ethyl acetate ( 2 × 15 ml ). the combined organic layers were dried over dry mg 2 so 4 and concentrated in vacuo . the two resulting n - ethyl regioisomers were separated by preparative hplc . compound 1 was obtained as pale yellow solid ( 66 mg , 40 %). 1 h - nmr ( dmso - d 6 ) δ ( ppm ): 12 . 00 ( br s , 1h ), 7 . 84 - 7 . 78 ( m , 1h ), 7 . 76 - 7 . 72 ( m , 1h ), 7 . 66 - 7 . 58 ( m , 1h ), 7 . 45 - 7 . 36 ( m , 1h ), 4 . 75 ( q , 2h , j = 7 . 5 ), 1 . 50 ( t , 3h , j = 7 . 5 ); ms ( es 1 + ) m / z : 292 ( m + 1 ). a . cloning , sequencing , transfection and selection of positive clones expressing human trpm8 a functional cell - based assay for the identification of trpm8 receptor antagonists , optimised to allow high throughput screening at flipr tetra , was developed in hek293 cells by stable pure clone selection and functional characterization with a fluorescent calcium sensitive dye . trpm8 was cloned into the multiple clonig site of pcdna3 mammalian expression vector ; the obtained construct pcdna3 / htrpm8 was fully sequence verified and used for the transfection of hek293 cell line . hek293 cells stably transfected with trpm8 gene were maintained in minimum essential medium . the cells were transfected with the pcdna3 / htrpm8 vector by electroporation and then selected with medium containing 0 . 8 mg / ml g418 for 10 - 15 days . the following commercial compounds were used as trpm8 channel reference compound to test hek293 / htrpm8 cell line for both agonist and antagonist activity : the functional clones were selected at flipr 384 on the basis of 1 mm menthol response . two best responder clones were selected , diluted at a cell density of 1 cell / well and analysed at flipr 384 with 1 mm menthol . the trpm8 receptor was analysed for the response to reference agonist , menthol , using a calcium - dependent fluorescence signal . patch clamp recordings were also obtained in voltage - clamp configuration on hek / trpm8 clones in order to verify the receptor pharmacology and to determine the agonist dose - response curve and ec 50 value . hek293 cells were maintained at room temperature on an fire - polished borosilicate glass pipettes having 1 . 5 - 2 . 5 mω resistance were used to record currents following drug application . menthol application induced a dose - dependent inward current in a selected hek / htrpm8 clone ( calculated ec 50 value = 58 μm ). no menthol - induced currents were recorded in not transfected hek293 cells . in order to determine the capsazepine antagonist activity on menthol agonist response and to verify the antagonist response stability throughout different days of experiments , the selected clone of trpm8 was analysed after 24 h at flipr 384 in presence of variable concentrations of antagonist ( from 100 nm to 316 μm ). the selected clone showed very good stability and reproducibility of the antagonist activity ( calculated ic 50 value = 20 μm ). 1 — pharmacology : agonist ec 50 and antagonist ic 50 determination over different experiments ; hek293 cells stably transfected with trpm8 gene were maintained in minimum essential medium . the trpm8 cell line was analysed for the response to a library of compounds using a ca 2 + mobilization - dependent fluorescence signal in 384 wells microtiter plate format . the analysis was performed using the flipr tetra ( mdc ) with the iccd camera . 1 . assay plate , containing cells loaded with dye and prepared as follows : cells were seeded at 15000 c / well in poly - d - lysine coated 384 wells microtiter plates in complete medium ( 25 μl / well ). 24 h after seeding , the cell plates were washed with tyrode assay buffer by the microplate washer and 10 μl of tyrode assay buffer was left in each well . cells were then loaded with 10 μl / well of the fluo - 4 nw dye solution by cybi ®- well pipettor . each bottle of fluo4 - nw dye ( molecular probes cat . # f36206 , component a ) was re - suspended in 8 ml of tyrode assay buffer and supplemented with 100 μl of water - soluble probenecid ( molecularprobes cat .# f36206 , component b ). dye loaded cell plates were incubated for 1 h at room temperature . 2 . compound dilution plate ( fig1 ), containing diluted test compounds , formulated as follows : column 2 : wells alternating max signal control in first injection ( maximum response : cooling agent 10 at ec 100 , 100 μm ) and min signal control in first injection ( assay buffer plus 0 . 5 % dmso final ); columns 3 - 22 : wells containing assay buffer plus 0 . 5 % dmso final . to these wells the compounds to be tested were added at 3 × concentration . column 23 : alternating wells of max signal control in second injection ( assay buffer ) and min signal control in second injection ( antagonist capsazepine ic 100 , 50 μm ) in assay buffer plus 0 . 5 % dmso final ; column 24 : wells containing capsazepine ( antagonist ) at 8 concentrations in duplicate at final concentrations of 50 μm , 25 μm , 6 . 25 μm , 3 . 15 μm , 1 . 56 μm , 780 nm , 309 nm in assay buffer plus 0 . 5 % dmso final . 3 . activator plate ( fig2 ), containing agonist cooling agent 10 at ec80 , formulated as follows : column 1 : cooling agent 10 ( agonist ) at 8 concentrations dose response in duplicate at final concentrations of 100 μm , 31 . 6 μm , 10 μm , 3 . 16 μm , 1 μm , 316 nm , 100 nm , 31 . 6 nm in assay buffer ; columns 2 - 24 : cooling agent 10 ( agonist ) at ecso ( 3 fold concentrated , 20 μm final ) in assay buffer . the test was carried out according to a procedure comprising the following steps : 1 . the samples contained in the wells of the compound plate were added to the corresponding wells of the assay plate by the flipr tetra , thus resulting in the addition in columns 3 - 22 of the test compounds at 3 × concentration to the cells of the assay plates . no mixing was performed in the assay wells and the signal of the emitted fluorescence was recorded for 300 seconds . 2 . the samples contained in the wells of the activator plate were added to the corresponding wells of the assay plate by the flipr tetra , thus resulting in the addition in columns 3 - 22 of the assay plate of the agonist compound in addition to the test compounds . the signal of the emitted fluorescence was recorded for 180 seconds . columns 1 , 2 , 23 and 24 were used as control . in particular : the “ max signal control in first injection ” indicates the cooling agent 10 agonist response at ec 100 , “ max signal control in the second injection ” indicates the agonist at ec 80 ( 10 μm ) in presence of pre - injected assay buffer , the “ min signal control in first injection ” corresponds to assay buffer injection and “ min signal control in the second injection ” indicates the agonist at ec 80 ( 20 μm ) in presence of pre - injected reference antagonist capazepine at ic 100 ( 50 μm ). fig3 respresents a typical kinetic response graph obtained with all the compounds of table iv . during the target activation ( ta ) phase , the injection of the reference agonist at ec 80 gave an increase of fluorescent signal in max signal control wells in which the assay buffer in ca was preinjected , while the response was completely inhibited in min signal control wells due to the preinjection of the reference inhibitor capsazepine . the goal of the assay was to find antagonists of trpm8 activity ; to this aim the change of fluorescent signal during ta phase was measured . several parameters were computed and analyzed ( z ′ factor , interplate variability , intraplate variability , day to day variability , antagonist dose response and ic 50 determination , agonist dose response and ec 50 determination ). as for the antagonist dose response and ic 50 determination , capsazepine ( reference antagonist ) was included as control and the ic 50 values of all the assayed compounds were calculated . compounds 1 - 118 were tested and all showed an ic 50 value & lt ; 30 μm ; in particular , compounds n . 1 , 2 , 5 , 8 , 9 , 27 , 36 , 41 , 43 , 67 , 68 , 70 , 83 , 84 were charaterized by an ic 50 value & lt ; 10 μm ; compounds n . 10 and 45 showed an ic 50 value = 1 μm and 0 . 0002 μm , respectively . the ability of compounds n . 10 and 45 to act as trpm8 antagonists was also evaluated with a calcium influx assay . the effects of 7 concentrations ( 0 . 00001 , 0 . 0001 , 0 . 001 , 0 . 01 , 0 . 1 , 1 , and 10 μm ) of compounds 10 , 45 and 118 were evaluated on trpm8 using the following experimental procedure . channels were activated with menthol , as the positive control agonist , and the ability of test compound to inhibit this signal was examined and compared to the positive control antagonist , 2 - apb ( inserire dettagli composto ). the signal elicited in the presence of the positive control agonist ( 10 μm menthol ) was set to 100 % and the signal in the presence of the positive control antagonist ( 200 μm 2 - apb ) was set to 0 . the pic 50 values of the compound 10 45 and 118 were 9 . 7 , 6 and 7 . 7 respectively . values were considered significant if the test compound mean was three or more standard deviations away from the positive control agonist mean . female rats were anesthetized with urethane . ureters were ligated and sectioned . a catheter was inserted through the urinary meatus into the bladder before urethral ligature . the bladder was filled first 3 times every 5 min with 100 μl of a solution of solutol / nmp ( 2 : 1 w / w ) containing 0 . 1 mg of compounds n . 10 or 45 or with 100 μl of vehicle , then with 100 μl of saline every 5 min until the occurrence of rhythmic bladder contraction ( rbc ). a maximal volume of 3 ml was infused . the intravesical pressure was followed during 1 h30 after rbc appearance . for each group , threshold volume ( tv ), micturition frequency ( mf ) and amplitude of micturition ( am ) were measured during the whole period . in the group treated with compound 10 the threshold volume ( tv ) was significantly increased compared to the group treated with the solvent reaching 1 . 5 ml of volume whereas , in the vehicle group , rbc occurred in all rats with a mean volume of 0 . 7 ± 0 . 09 ml . compound 10 did not change am . no effect on the total mf ( measured during 90 min ) was observed . both the molecules showed significant efficacy in the isovolumetric model in inhibiting rhythmic bladder contractions and micturition frequency . in particular , the systemic treatment with compound 10 ( 10 mg / kg i . v .) significantly reduced micturition frequency ( mf ) of about 36 % in the first 30 min of the experiment . on the other hand , when administered by intravesical route at 2 . 3 mg / rat , compound 10 completely abolished the continuous rbc induced by the filling of the bladder with saline . in addition , compound 10 ( 2 . 3 mg / rat ) and compound 45 ( 0 . 3 mg / rat ) significantly increased the threshold volume ( equivalent to the bladder capacity ), reaching a higher volume of 1 . 5 - 3 . 0 ml if compared to that of 0 . 7 ± 0 . 9 ml of the vehicle group . both the compounds did not change amplitude of micturition ( am ) when compared to basal values , suggesting that they are selective for the afferent arm of micturition reflex with no effect on the efferent pathway . male sprague - dawley rats were used . under pentobarbital anesthesia , the sciatic nerve was exposed at mid - thigh level ( bennett g j et alpain . 33 : 87 - 107 , 1988 ). four ligatures were loosely tied around the sciatic nerve of the left hind limb to induce enhancement of pain caused by nerve injury . mechanical allodynia was evaluated by using a set of 8 manual von frey monofilaments ( 0 . 4 , 0 . 6 , 1 , 2 , 4 , 6 , 8 and 15 g ) 18 days after surgery and basal response was recorded . on day 19 body weight was recorded and compounds 10 and 45 were administered by i . v . route at the dose of 10 mg / kg . 60 , 120 and 180 min post dose , mechanical allodynia was tested by evaluation of the paw withdrawl threshold ( pwt ) and % maximum possible effect ( mpe ) was calculated according to the following formula : the mechanical allodynia was tested 1 day before treatment and at 2 hours post - dosing . one - way anova followed by dunnett &# 39 ; s test was applied for comparison between vehicle control and test compound treated groups . * p & lt ; 0 . 05 is considered significant . compounds 10 and 45 showed a significant anti - allodynic activity at 2 hours post - dosing in cci rats ( see fig4 ). male wistar rats ( 220 - 250 g , harlan italy ) were used ( n = 60 ). animals were housed in a room with controlled temperature ( 22 ± 1 ° c . ), humidity ( 60 ± 10 %) and light ( 12 h per day ) for at least a week before being used . rats were randomly divided into sham , control and treatment groups ; ten animals per group were used . all animal experiments were complied with the italian ( d . l . no . 116 of jan . 27 , 1992 ) and associated guidelines in the european communities council ( directive of nov . 24 , 1986 , 86 / 609 / ecc ). compound 118 ( 10 mg / kg ; 5 mg / ml ; 0 . 5 ml / iv / rat ) was dissolved in 10 % solutol - hs15 and n - methylpyrrolidone ( nmp ) ( solutol : nmp 2 : 1 w / v ) and 90 % phosphate buffered saline ( pbs ) 1 ×, and was administered at day 3 rd , 7 th and 14 th following sciatic nerve ligation . antiallodynic effects were assessed at 1 and 3 h post dose . control animals received vehicle alone ( 0 . 5 ml / iv / rat ; 10 % solutol - nmp and 90 % pbs ). neuropathic pain behavior was induced by ligation of the sciatic nerve according to the method described by bennett and xie [ bennett g . j . and xie y . k . a peripheral mononeuropathy in rat that produces disorders of pain sensation like those seen in man , pain , ( 1988 ) 33 : 87 - 107 ]. briefly , rats were anaesthetized ( 100 mg / kg ketamine and 10 mg / kg xylazine i . p .) and the left sciatic nerve was exposed at the level of the thigh by blunt dissection through the biceps femoris . proximal to the sciatic &# 39 ; s trifurcation , about 12 mm of nerve was freed of adhering tissue and four ligatures were loosely tied around it with about 1 mm spacing so that the epineural circulation was preserved . the length of nerve thus affected was 6 - 8 mm long . the animals were allowed to recover and used the day after the surgery . sham animals represent rats operated but not ligated . to assess for changes in sensation or in the development of mechanical allodynia , sensitivity to tactile stimulation was measured using the dynamic plantar aesthesiometer ( dpa , ugo basile , italy ). ligated animals were placed in a chamber with a mesh metal floor covered by a plastic dome that enabled the animal to walk freely , but not to jump . the mechanical stimulus was then delivered in the mid - plantar skin of the hind paw . the cut - off was fixed at 50 g , while the increasing force rate ( ramp duration ) was settled at 20 sec . the dpa automatically records the force at which the foot was withdrawn and the withdrawal latency . each paw was tested twice per session . this test did not require any special pre - training , just an acclimation period to the environment and testing procedure . testing was performed on both the ispsilateral ( ligated ) and contralateral ( unligated ) paw before ligation ( day 0 ) and then on 3 rd , 7 th and 14 th days after ligation . cold sensitivity was measured as the number of foot withdrawal responses after application of acetone to the dorsal surface of the paw . a drop of acetone ( 15 - 20 ° c .) was applied to the dorsal surface of the ligated paw with a syringe connected to a thin polyethylene tube while the rats were standing on a metal mesh . a brisk foot withdrawal response , after the spread of acetone over the dorsal surface of the paw , was considered as a sign of cold allodynia . basal response was measured on the days before treatment ( 2 nd , 6 th and 13 th ). data represents mean ± sem of 3 measurements performed at an interval of approximately 5 min . all data was presented as the mean ± sem . analysis of data was conducted using graphpad prism 4 . 01 . statistical analysis was performed by two - way anova followed by bonferroni &# 39 ; s test for multiple comparisons , as appropriate . statistical significance was set at p & lt ; 0 . 05 . intravenous administration of compound 118 ( 10 mg / kg ) on day 7 after nerve - induced injury significantly attenuated cold and mechanical allodynia at 1 hour post - dose . the results obtained reflected , as expected , a higher activity of compound 1 to cold stimulus compared to mechanical stimulus ( 39 % of inhibition and 26 % of inhibition , respectively ). on day 14 after surgery , the inhibitory activity of compound 118 was still statistically significant at 1 h post - dose on cold stimulus ( 52 % of inhibition ), even if no inhibition on mechanical stimulus could be observed ; on the contrary , the reference compound maintained a statistically significant inhibitory effect both on cold and mechanical allodynia ( 51 % and 26 % respectively at 1 h after administration ). the objective of this study was to evaluate the in vitro effects of compounds 10 and 45 on cloned human gpcrs ( g - protein coupled receptors ) expressed in hek293 or cho cells using radioligand binding assays ( compound concentration = 10 μm ). for each assay a concentration - response curve of the appropriate reference compound was performed in each experiment . the sample radioactivity content was measured after the addition of the scintillation cocktail microscint 20 ( perkinelmer ), by a microplate scintillation beta - counter topcount nxt ( perkinelmer ). the atomic disintegrations per minutes evaluated with the beta counter were about 15 times higher than those found using the gamma counter . data are expressed as percentage of control binding value (% b ) and test compound inhibition was considered significant when % b was & lt ; 75 % at 10 μm . as it is possible to note from tab i , both compounds show no binding versus a wide range of selected gpcrs ( including muscarinic m3 , cb2 , bk1 , alpha e beta adrenergic ) that are well know to be involved in the pain control . these data support that the observed in vivo efficacy of compounds 10 , 45 and 118 and in general of all the compounds of the invention is strongly dependent on the trpm8 blockage . in order to address more specifically the potential selectivity issues , a counterassay was carried out for 10 , 45 and 118 against trpv1 and trpv4 ion channels , both involved in the nociception ( jhaveri m d , et al 2005 . eur . j . neurosci . 22 ( 2 ): 361 - 70 , brierley s m et al , 2008 , gastroenterology . 2008 june ; 134 ( 7 ): 2059 - 69 . ). the ability of each test compound to act as an antagonist of trpv1 was evaluated with a calcium influx assay . the signal elicited in the presence of the positive control agonist ( 0 . 1 μm capsaicin ) was set to 100 % and the signal in the presence of the antagonist ( 5 μm ruthenium red ) was set to 0 . the normalized % inhibition of the test articles is shown in table below . values were considered significant if the test article mean was three or more standard deviations away from the positive control agonist mean . in parallel , the ability of each test compound to act as an antagonist of trpv4 was evaluated with a calcium influx assay . the signal elicited in the presence of the positive control agonist ( 10 μm gsk1016790a ) was set to 100 % and the signal in the presence of the antagonist ( 5 μm ruthenium red ) was set to 0 . the normalized % inhibition of the test articles is shown in table below . values were considered significant if the test compound mean was three or more standard deviations away from the positive control agonist mean ( i . e ., greater than 31 . 70 % inhibition for plate 1 and 24 . 60 % inhibition for plate 2 ). the data strongly highlight the great selectivity of molecules 10 , 45 and 118 towards both trpv1 and trpv4 , thus confirming their selective mechanism of action . the pharmacokinetic profiles of compounds 10 and 45 were evaluated . the result are summarised in table iii : all three molecules show no effect towards any human cytochrome isoform at the maximal concentration of 10 μm thus excluding potential drug drug interaction . in addition , no effect was observed towards herg channel thus excluding potential cardiotoxic effect during the clinical development . the low logd values of compounds 10 and 118 make them particularly suitable when ip , iv and i ves applications are required , especially in the treatment of urological disorders . at the same time , the relatively high plasma half - life ( 4 h ) and the high oral bioavailability ( f = 60 %) could makes it the ideal candidate for the treatment of chronic diseases , like inflammatory and neuropathic pain . | 2 |
the designers of jpda intended that most debugger developers , e . g . those developers who design debug tools , to use jdi . according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention , jdi is adopted as the interface for the improved icat probe . by modifying the currently - available icat to use jpda , users of the new icat have access to the new features immediately and in future icat releases . for clarity and distinction , the existing debugger tool will be referred to as “ icat ”, and the present invention will be referred to as “ icat2 ”. according to the preferred embodiment , the existing icat probe design as disclosed in u . s . pat . no . 5 , 901 , 315 , to edwards , et al ., is used as a starting point , with modifications as disclosed herein in order to migrate the existing icat to support jpda . an advantage to this approach included using existing icat capability for instantiating multiple debuggers on multiple platforms . however , it is possible to realize the net design disclosed herein in conjunction with the design disclosed in the edwards patent as an entirely new program or tool . method names and interfaces used herein are consistent with sun microsystems &# 39 ; jdpa api version 1 . 0 , which is well known in the art and for which documentation is freely available . sun microsystems provides a full reference set for jdpa from their web site or for purchase in print form . specifically , the “ java [™] platform debugger architecture java [™] virtual machine debug interface reference ” is hereby incorporated by reference to this disclosure . as will be described in more detail below , one or more of the processes that comprise the “ debugger ” of the present invention may be carried out on a computer , or on one or more computers connected via a computer network . referring to fig1 , a computer for use in realizing the present invention is shown . the software development workstation computer 150 has a processor 151 , an operating system 152 , an operating system debug application programming interface (“ api ”) ( 153 ) and a java virtual machine ( jvm ) interpreter ( 16 ). the jvm has an associated java debug api ( 154 ) to enable an application program designer to debug java code . thus , for example , the computer ( 150 ) used in the present invention is any personal computer or workstation platform , such as an intel [™]-, powerpc [™]- or risc [™]- based computer , and that includes an operating system such as ibm [™] os / 2 [™], microsoft windows [™] &# 39 ; 95 / 98 / 2000 / nt , unix , or ibm aix [™]. such a representative computer runs an intel pentium [™] processor , os / 2 warp version 3 operating system , the dosdebug system api and jvm version 1 . 3 or greater . also shown in fig1 is a high - level block diagram of the main components of the debugger of the present invention , described in more detail in the following paragraphs . [ 0048 ] fig1 discloses the relationship ( 10 ) of the various components of icat2 when it is used to debug an application with the debugger running in the same computer platform as the application . a users graphical user interface ( 11 ) is provided to allow the user to view status , data , and to input commands to load processes , set breakpoints , etc . an engine ( 12 ) is used to communicated to a daemon dll ( 14 ), preferably by a well - known protocol such as tcp / ip messages ( 13 ). the daemon dll ( 14 ) in turn communicates to the java virtual machine ( 16 ) which is running the icat2 probe ( 41 ). again , communications to the jvm ( 16 ) is preferably tcp / ip messages ( 15 ). finally , the icat2 probe ( 41 ) communicates to a separate instantiation of the jvm ( 16 ) running the target application ( 17 ). in this example , both the target application ( 17 ) and the icat2 debugger ( 10 ) are running on the same computer platform , so the communications between the various components of the system are usually internal to the computer itself turning to fig2 the icat2 user interface is run on a local computer , or “ host system ”, ( 20 ), while the target application ( 17 ) is run by the jvm ( 16 ) on a remote “ target system ” ( 21 ). this is a common arrangement found during java software development , where a number of potential target systems may be available over a computer network for a designer to use for debugging an application . the user then establishes communications with the target system using the user &# 39 ; s own workstation as a host system . the choice of tcp / ip for communications within the single - system arrangement lends itself to dividing the components of the system between a host system ( 20 ) and a target system ( 21 ). in this case , the tcp / ip communications ( 13 ) between the engine ( 12 ) running on the host system ( 20 ) to the daemon ( 14 ) running on the target system ( 21 ) is carried preferably over a computer network such as a local area network (“ lan ”) or even the internet . first , the icat2 probe must establish a connection to the jvm . with the sun . tools . debug api , this was a relatively straightforward process , as shown in fig3 . a remote debugger (“ rd ”) object ( 31 ) was instantiated ( 32 ) by the probe ( 18 ). the parameters to the rd constructor included the name of the application to be debugged ( and any parameters to be passed to the application ) and a pointer to the probe , which told rd that the probe would provide the required event handlers ( breakpointevent , exceptionevent , etc .) ( 34 ). turning to fig4 the process of connecting to the jvm is a bit more complicated with jpda , but jpda supports multiple types of connectors , which facilitate attaching and listening , in addition to launching . icat2 supports launching applications through jdpa &# 39 ; s launchingconnector ( lc ) ( 44 ), as shown in fig4 . jpda provides a bootstrap object ( 42 ) that allows access to the jdi interfaces . the bootstrap object ( 42 ) is used to obtain the virtualmachinemanager ( 43 ). the virtualmachinemanager ( 43 ) provides a list of connectors of various types . the present invention , icat2 , iterates through the list of connectors , and searches for “ com . sunjdi . commandlinelaunch ”, which is stored away as a connector object . in the older icat with the sun . tools . debug api , the launching process was accomplished when rd was instantiated . however , according to the present invention icat2 with jpda ( 40 ), the application is launched when the probe function “ launch_then_attach ” ( 46 ) is called . there is a set of arguments associated with each connector . the “ main ” argument is set to the name of the application , and the “ suspend ” argument is set to true . then , icat2 invokes the launch method on the “ lc ” object . the parameters given to the method are connector arguments . the launch method returns a virtualmachine ( vm ) object ( 45 ) to the probe ( 41 ). the vm object ( 45 ) is similar to the rd object in the sun . tools . debug api . the vm object ( 45 ) mirrors the state of the jvm and provides the objects and methods needed for controlling the application under debug , as did the previous rd object . next , the probe obtains the eventrequestmanager (“ erm ”) from the vm object ( 45 ), as shown in fig1 . the event handling code in the icat2 probe ( 41 ) makes extensive use of the erm ( 80 ). first , an exception request ( 140 ) is created to tell the jvm to suspend the application in response to any exception that occurs . this is the default . in icat2 , the user can later select whether to catch or ignore specific exceptions that occur within “ try ” blocks . next , the modified icat2 creates a request ( 141 ) to be notified each time a class is loaded . in jpda , notifications of class loads are called classprepareevents . icat2 also request to be informed of thread death events . for each of the request objects created above , icat2 must indicate that it requires the jvm to suspend the application at the time an event occurs . this is done by calling the setsuspendpolicy method on each object and passing the parameter suspend_all . this indicates that all jvm threads are to be suspended when an event occurs . finally , the request objects are enabled by invoking the “ enable ” method . the icat2 probe then enters a loop in which events are received , shown in fig6 and described in more detail later . these events are processed until the class prepare event is received for the application that was launched . at this point , the icat2 probe ( 41 ) reads in a list of the currently loaded classes ( also called “ modules ”). then , a thread is spawned which enters an event retrieval loop that runs continuously as long as the probe is active . this completes the processing for the launch_then_attach function . the icat2 probe relies heavily on the facilities for obtaining information about the “ call stack ”. this is handled by the icat2 probe similarly to the icat probe process . with each api , the thread object is used to obtain the data . in the sun . tools . debug api this object is the remotethread ( rt ), in jpda it is threadreference ( tr ). the jvm notifies the debugger of asynchronous occurrences by using events . the probe must provide event handlers for certain events , even if it chooses not to take any action . this is true for both the sun . tools . debug api and jpda . as shown in fig5 with the sun . tools . debug api , in icat the only events reported were the ones for which event handlers were provided . to generate other events , the probe had to provide code to check constantly , or “ poll ”, for new modules and threads . the icat probe then sent , for example , a “ module loaded ” event to icat . with jpda , there are more event handlers that must be provided by the icat2 probe , as disclosed in fig6 . also , a debugger designer can optionally request to be notified of a number of additional events ( for example , see “ launching the application ” above ). the vm object ( 45 ) has an eventqueue ( 46 ) which must be polled ( 60 ) to see these requested events , which are objects themselves . in the icat2 probe ( 41 ), events ( 600 ) are taken off the event queue ( 69 ) and checked to determine the event type . a call is then made to the proper event handler ( 61 through 67 ) for each event . the processing for an event is notably different between the two apis , sun . tools . debug and jpda . with the sun . tools . debug api , the exception handlers were called with an rt object provided . the information about the event was obtained from the rt . however , with jpda , the information is obtained from the event object . further , jpda adds several new event handlers . the icat2 probe provides a function for each of these , although many of these functions may be empty . the stepevent is new with jpda . with the sun . tools . debug api , the completion of a step or a breakpoint hit was considered a “ breakpointevent ”. the probe code had to sort out the situation and determine what had happened . however with jpda , there are separate handlers for stepevent and breakpointevent , and therefore separate event handlers ( 61 and 62 ) are provided by the icat2 probe ( 41 ). with jpda , the jvm generates an event whenever a class is loaded . this is called a classprepareevent . this new jpda capability is a major improvement over the sun . tools . debug api , through which it was necessary to poll the jvm periodically for a list of loaded classes to determine if any new classes had been loaded . thus , a classprepare event handler ( 63 ) is provided in the icat2 probe ( 41 ). jpda provides other new events that are not used in the preferred embodiment , including : vm start event , field watch event , vm interrupted event , method entry event and method exit event . the icat2 probe ( 41 ), however , provides a handler for each of these events , though the handler doesn &# 39 ; t necessarily act on the events . exception event handling is similar between jpda and the sun . tools . debug api . as mentioned before , the information about the exception comes to the probe in an exceptionevent object using jpda , rather than from the rt object in under the sun . tools . debug api . an exception event handler ( 64 ) is provided in the icat2 probe ( 41 ) to handle receipt of an exceptionevent . thread death events must be handled with the sun . tools . debug api but are optional with jpda . the sun . tools . debug api has a quit event which is analogous to the vm death event with jpda . the architecture of icat2 requires notification of thread death events , so the icat2 probe ( 41 ) requests these events from the vm object ( 45 ). a vm death event handler ( 65 ) is provided in the icat2 probe ( 41 ) to handle receipt of an vmdeathevent . further , thread start event and thread death event handlers ( 66 and 67 ) are provided in the icat2 probe ( 41 ). issuing a step in the sun . tools . debug api was fairly straightforward , as shown in fig7 . the thread object ( 70 ) had a “ step ” member function ( 71 ). the parameter to this function was a boolean which indicated whether the step was to be a line step or an instruction step . with jpda , the icat2 probe ( 41 ) first obtains the erm ( 80 ) from the vm object ( 45 ), as shown in fig8 . from the erm ( 80 ) a list of any outstanding step requests is obtained for the thread of interest . icat2 may delete any outstanding requests found . the erm ( 80 ) has a method called “ createsteprequest ” ( 81 ). the parameters to this method indicate the type of step desired . the first parameter is the tr of the thread to be stepped , and the second is the size of the step . there are two sizes , “ min ” ( minimum — which is generally an instruction step ), and “ line ”. the third parameter is depth , which may have the values “ into ”, “ over ” and “ out ”. a count filter is added ( 83 ) to the request ( 82 ) next . the count filter is preferably set to 1 , which gives the icat2 probe ( 41 ) a single notification when the step is completed . finally , the request is enabled ( 84 ) and the jvm is resumed . for icat2 &# 39 ; s memory usage window , few changes from icat were required . the information about free memory and total memory was available to icat from the rd with the sun . tools . debug api , which is now available to icat2 from an object called “ runtime ” with jpda . as such , icat2 obtains memory usage information from the jdpa runtime object . jpda allows icat2 to obtain the name of any thread , whereas the sun . tools . debug api rd did not support this . the tr object has a method that returns the name , which is employed by icat2 to obtain the name of any thread . icat2 allows the user to choose whether or not to have the debugger report exceptions that occur within “ try ” blocks . when an exception occurs outside a “ try ” block , execution always stops and the exception is reported to the user . with the sun . tools . debug api , catching or ignoring exceptions in icat was a relatively simple process . the remoteclass ( rc ) object had both an “ ignoreexceptions ” and a “ catchexceptions ” method . in order to obtain an exception object , the “ findclass ” method on rd was called . this loaded the class if it is not already loaded . the exception filtering process for icat2 with jdpa is more complicated than with sun . tools . debug . if the exception class of interest is not loaded , it must be loaded according to a process described below . if a request object for the exception already exists , icat2 disables and deletes it so that a new one can be created . when icat2 calls “ createexceptionrequest ”, one of the parameters to the method is a boolean which indicates whether caught exceptions ( exceptions within a “ try ” block ) are to be reported or ignored . the newly created “ exceptionrequest ” object is enabled after setting the suspend policy . there are several circumstances in which a debugger such as icat or icat2 must force the loading of a class . icat provided a function with which the user could request the forced loading of a class . as shown in fig1 , this was relatively uncomplicated with the sun . tools . debug api since the “ findclass ” method ( 92 ) automatically loads a class if it is not already loaded . however , class loading is a multi - step process with jpda , as shown in fig1 . icat2 first must obtain a reference to java . lang . classloader ( 120 ). icat2 then has to obtain a reference to the method “ getsystemclassloader ” ( 121 ), which is then invoked . in order to do so , icat2 must have a reference to an application thread . unfortunately , this does not work for any thread other than the main thread , so a reference to the main thread ( 122 ) is obtained by the icat2 probe . since the main application thread can terminate before the application terminates , it is possible that the user will see a situation in which it is impossible to force the loading of a class . jpda has the ability to obtain the status of any application thread , such as “ running ”, “ sleeping ”, “ waiting ”, “ not started ”, etc . the tr object has a member function called “ status ” which returns this information when invoked by the icat2 probe . the move to jpda allows icat2 to provide a console window , as shown in fig1 . this permits users to see output printed by the application , and to send data to the application . in order to allow writing data to the application , the icat2 probe ( 41 ) first obtains the “ process ” object ( 130 ) from the vm object ( 45 ). the “ outputstream ” ( 131 ) is obtained from the “ process ” object ( 130 ). the outputstream is used to instantiate a “ bufferedwriter ” ( 133 ). the “ write ” method ( 136 ) on the “ bufferedwriter ” object ( 133 ) is called in order to write data to the application from the console message window . for obtaining data that is printed by the application and presenting it on the console message window , a “ bufferedreader ” object ( 134 ) is created in a manner similar to that used to create a bufferedwriter , including obtaining the process object ( 130 ) from the vm object ( 45 ), obtaining the inputstream object ( 132 ) from the process object ( 130 ), instantiating a bufferedreader object ( 134 ), and using the “ read ” method ( 135 ) to retrieve data from the application . turning to fig9 the process employed by the icat probe ( 18 ) with the sun . tools . debug api to set a breakpoint is fairly simple , which involved calling the findclassmethod ( 92 ) of the rd ( 31 ) and the “ setbreakpointline ” method ( 91 ) on the class where the breakpoint was to be placed . the line number provided was the source line . there was no provision for setting breakpoints at an arbitrary bytecode address . the icat2 probe ( 41 ) with jpda first obtains a list of the loaded classes ( 102 ), as shown in fig1 . if the class where the breakpoint is to be placed is not loaded , the setting of the breakpoint is deferred by adding it to deferred breakpoint table ( 101 ) to be installed later . if the class is loaded , the line number information is obtained from the class object ( 103 ). then the breakpoint request ( 106 ) is instantiated ( 107 ) by the erm ( 80 ), its suspend policy is set ( 108 ), and the request is enabled ( 109 ). clearing a breakpoint was similarly straight forward with the sun . tools . debug api for icat . the method that was used was “ clearbreakpointline ”. for icat2 with jdpa , a list of the active breakpointrequests must first be obtained . if icat2 finds one that matches the user &# 39 ; s requested breakpoint deletion , that breakpointrequest object is deleted using a jdpa api command . in order to halt the application , icat2 obtains a list of the current application threads by calling the vm &# 39 ; s “ allthreads ” method . icat2 then iterates through this list and invokes the jdpa api “ suspend ” method on each thread that is not already suspended . when icat2 obtains the list of threads from the vm object ( 45 ), it checks to make sure that the thread group is the main group , which is the group of application threads . any threads that are in the main group are added to the list that is returned . the “ resume ” command to the probe is a request to restart execution of the application . resuming is one area that may be simpler with jpda than with the sun . tools . debug api . icat invoked one of three methods through the sun . tools . debug api : the “ run ” or “ cont ” method on the rd object , or the “ resume ” method on any particular remotethread object . icat2 using the jpda api reviews the current list of step requests and deletes any that are currently active . then , icat2 invokes the “ resume ” method on the jvm object . during migration from icat with sun . tools . debug to icat2 with jpda , a new feature was brought to icat2 : the ability to exclude classes when stepping . this allows users to prevent icat2 from stopping in certain classes when stepping . it is possible to exclude entire sets of classes by use of an asterisk . for example , to exclude all classes beginning with “ abc . def ”, the user sets the environment variable cat_class_exclude = abc . def .*. this would exclude abc . def ghi , abc . def . jkl , etc . the icat2 probe excludes classes by invoking the “ addclassexclusionfilter ” method on the step request object . for expression evaluation , no major changes were needed to the probe to migrate from the sun . tools . debug api to jpda . a line - by - line replacement of rd objects and methods with vm objects and methods is sufficient . however , the icat2 user is now able to modify java variables . the “ expressionevaluator ” and “ expressionservices ” constructors are initialized with a vm object in place of an rd object . the vm contains methods ( classesbyname and allclasses ) for returning referencetype objects in the debuggee . the referencetype object contains the necessary methods for accessing information about the class under test such as class methods , fields , types , values , static , final , etc . jpda provides “ setvalue ” and “ mirrorof ” utilities . setvalue performs modification of static and instance fields , strings , array elements , and booleans . mirrorof returns an access reference to the type being modified . a new method , update_value , was added to the probe which utilizes both of these utilities to change dynamically and return new field values to the user during a debug session . although icat provided string evaluation , icat2 with jpda includes a stringreference interface , which extends objectreference . this means that icat2 can treat the string as a class , and therefore provide the user with much more information pertaining to the string . the rmtstringvalue class was subsequently eliminated , with the new string evaluation code included in rmtobjectvalue class . | 6 |
referring to fig1 a time - space - time digital switching network along with the corresponding common control is shown . telephone subscribers , such as subscribers 1 and 2 , are shown connected to analog line unit 13 . analog line unit 13 is connected to both copies of the analog control unit 14 and 14 &# 39 ;. originating time switches 20 and 20 &# 39 ; are connected to a duplex pair of space switch units 30 and 30 &# 39 ; which are in turn connected to a duplex pair of terminating time switches 21 and 21 &# 39 ;. terminating time switches 21 and 21 &# 39 ; are connected to analog control units 14 and 14 &# 39 ; via digital pad devices and ultimately to the telephone subscribers 1 and 2 via analog line circuit 13 . digital control units 15 , 15 &# 39 ; and 16 , 16 &# 39 ; connect the digital spans to the switching network . digital span equipment may be implemented using a model 9004 t1 digital span , manufactured by gte lenkurt , inc . similarly , analog trunk unit 18 connects trunk circuits to the digital switching network via analog control units 17 and 17 &# 39 ;. a peripheral processor cpu 70 controls the digital switching network and digital and analog control units . analog line unit 13 and a duplex pair of analog control units 14 and 14 &# 39 ; interface to telephone subscribers directly . a duplicate pair of digital control units 15 , 15 &# 39 ; and 16 , 16 &# 39 ; control the incoming pcm data from the digital spans . similarly , the analog trunk unit 18 and a duplex pair of analog control units 17 and 17 &# 39 ; interface to trunk circuits . the analog and digital control units are each duplicated for reliability purposes . the network of fig1 also includes a remote data link controller ( rdlc ) 100 which provides formatting and control of data transmitted and received between the peripheral processors of two or more networks . the rdlc can provide up to 16 , 64 kilobits per second data links arranged for full duplex operation and is configured so that it can provide one full duplex data link for each of the 16 t1 spans . rdlc 100 can operate together with one or two digital control unit ( dcus ), with each dcu being capable of providing up to eight t1 carrier facilities . rdlc 100 includes a duplicated data link processor and control 80 and 80 &# 39 ; and a duplicated peripheral processor i / o buffer 60 and 60 &# 39 ;. each rdlc message consists of eight , 8 - bit bytes of data for a total of 64 bits . the peripheral processor i / o buffer provides four transmit message buffers and four receive message buffers for each of the 16 possible data links . normally , peripheral processor software writes a message into a transmit message buffer of peripheral processor i / o buffer 60 and 60 &# 39 ; associated with a data link and then issues a transmit command to data link processor and control 80 and 80 &# 39 ;. the data link processor and control 80 and 80 &# 39 ; responds by taking the message out of the transmit message buffer and reformatting the data , so that it can be transmitted over a t1 carrier . then data link processor and control 80 and 80 &# 39 ; transmits the message to the distant end of the data link through the appropriate dcu and digital span . when a message is received , the data link processor and control 80 and 80 &# 39 ; reformats the received data and places the message into an appropriate receive message buffer in the peripheral i / o buffer 60 and 60 &# 39 ; respectively . data link processor and control 80 and 80 &# 39 ; then causes an interrupt , alerting peripheral processor 70 and 70 &# 39 ; to the fact that a message has been received . the rdlc will queue up to three received messages . it should be noted that under normal operating conditions , the rdlc operates in a duplex configuration , that is , each rdlc copy matches all outgoing signals performed in the dcus . in order to synchronize the two rdlc copies , it is necessary to ensure that both of their peripheral processors 70 and 70 &# 39 ; are performing the same function at the same time . each peripheral processor includes an intel 8085a or 8085a - 2 8 - bit parallel central processing unit ( cpu ). intel is a registered trademark of the intel corporation . in order to synchronize the two intel 8085a processors , it is necessary that their respective internal clocks are synchronized to one another . the mcs - 86 user &# 39 ; s manual , copyright 1978 by the intel corporation , is hereby incorporated by reference . referring to fig2 the intel 8085a cpus and associated synchronizing circuitry comprising copy 0 and copy 1 of the rdlc is shown . cpus 21 and 21 &# 39 ; each include two inputs x1 and x2 which are connected to a clock source and which serve to drive the internal clock generator of the 8085a processor . the input frequency is divided by two on the integrated circuit package to give the processor its internal operating frequency . each cpu 21 and 21 &# 39 ; also includes a trap input . the trap input is a non - maskable restart interrupt . it is unaffected by any mask or interrupt enable and has the highest priority of any interrupt . the central processing units 21 and 21 &# 39 ; each produce an output signal , referred to as an address latch enable ( ale ). the ale signal occurs during the first clock state of a machine cycle ( see fig3 ) and enables the address to be latched into an on - chip latch for peripheral devices . the falling edge of the ale signal guarantees set - up and hold times for the address information . in addition , the falling edge of the ale signal is used to strobe the status information . the ale signal is not three - stated . the status information of the 8085a comprises three outputs s0 , s1 and io / m . the s0 and s1 output signals are not shown in fig2 . these status outputs become valid at the beginning of a machine cycle and remain stable throughout the cycle . the falling edge of the ale signal is used to latch the status of these three signals . the values of the states of these three signals are indicated by the following table : table______________________________________io /-- m s1 s0 explanation______________________________________0 0 1 memory write0 1 0 memory read1 0 1 i / o write1 1 0 i / o read0 1 1 opcode fetch1 1 1 interrupt acknowledge______________________________________ as can be seen from the above table for an i / o write or read , the io / m is a logic 1 . a system clock ( not shown ) generates three clock signals for use by the cpus 21 and 21 &# 39 ; and the synchronizing circuitry . first , the system clock generates a 6 mhz signal ( a range of 1 mhz to 10 mhz may be employed ) on the 6 mclk lead . second , the clock generates a 12 mhz signal ( a range of 10 mhz to 20 mhz may be employed corresponding to the 1 mhz to 10 mhz range of the 6 mclk lead ) on the 12 mclk lead . lastly , the clock generates a pulse once every six milliseconds ( a range of 1 hz to 1 k hz may be used ) on the 6 msclk lead . the 6 mclk lead connects the system clock to nand gates 4 and 4 &# 39 ;. the other input to nand gate 4 is connected to the q output of flip - flop 23 via the - frz lead . similarly , the other input of nand gate 4 &# 39 ; is connected to the q output of flip - flop 23 &# 39 ; via a corresponding - frz lead . the output of nand gates 4 and 4 &# 39 ; are connected respectively to the d - inputs of flip - flops 11 and 11 &# 39 ;. the clock is connected to the clk - input of flip - flops 11 and 11 &# 39 ; via the 12 mclk lead . the q outputs of flip - flops 11 and 11 &# 39 ; are connected to the x1 and x2 inputs of cpus 21 and 21 &# 39 ; respectively . this connection to the x1 and x2 leads of the cpu is in a push - pull configuration . the ale output of cpus 21 and 21 &# 39 ; is respectively connected to the clock inputs of flip - flops 23 and 23 &# 39 ; via the corresponding ale lead . similarly , the status lead io / m of each cpu 21 and 21 &# 39 ; is connected respectively to the j - input of flip - flops 23 and 23 &# 39 ;. flip - flops 23 and 23 &# 39 ; are j - k flip - flops and flip - flops 11 and 11 &# 39 ; are d - type flip - flops of the 7400 logic family such as those manufactured by the texas instruments corporation . every six milliseconds a signal is produced by the clock of the 6msclk lead and transmitted to cpus 21 and 21 &# 39 ; via the trap inputs . as a result , a trap is generated by each cpu . this trap forces an internal branch to location 24 hexadecimal which contains an i / o instruction . as a result of the execution of this i / o instruction , status lead io / m is at logic 1 . flip - flops 23 nd 23 &# 39 ; will latch the iom lead value on the next falling edge of the ale signal . as a result , the - frz lead will go active to logic 0 ( see fig3 ). if one of the cpus is operating faster than the other ( i . e . not in synchronization ), the - frz lead at logic 0 will inhibit the operation of its corresponding nand gate 4 or 4 &# 39 ;. thereby , flip - flop 11 or 11 &# 39 ; will be prevented from transmitting one clock pulse to the x1 and x2 leads of the cpu which is operating faster than the other cpu . that is , if the two rdlc microprocessor copies were operating out of synchronization , one will skip a clock pulse and the other will not . as a result of this clock pulse deletion , the internal clocks of cpus 21 and 21 &# 39 ; will be placed in synchronization . referring to fig3 the timing of the 8085a or 8085a - 2 microprocessor cpu is shown . the clk signal is the internal clock of the 8085a microprocessor . m1 , m2 and m3 are three machine states which depict an instruction fetch , a memory read and an i / o write cycle respectively . ale is the address latch enable signal which occurs during the first clock state of each machine cycle . the read control signal rd indicates whether a memory or i / o device is to be read and that the data bus is available for data transfer . the write control signal wr indicates that the contents of the data bus is ready to be written into the selected memory or i / o location . the io / m status signal indicates that an i / o read or write is occurring and is used to perform the synchronization of the cpus as indicated above . the - frz lead is shown making its transition from logic 1 to logic 0 in response to the io / m signal being logic 1 and a falling edge of the ale signal . machine cycle m1 consists of four states , t1 through t4 , since it is an opcode fetch . machine cycles m2 and m3 each contain three states , t1 through t3 , since they respectively constitute a memory read and an i / o write operation . although the preferred embodiment of the invention has been illustrated , and that form described in detail , it will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications may be made therein without departing from the spirit of the invention or from the scope of the appended claims . | 7 |
while the methods of the present invention can be usefully applied to recondition glass release coatings employed for molding a wide variety of moldable glass compositions , they are of particular advantage for the refreshment of coatings used for the forming of high - melting (“ hard ”) alkali aluminosilicate glasses . thus the present methods effectively remove the out diffused alkali ( e . g ., sodium ), alkali earth and silicon from ti — al — n - based release coatings that are the major cause of glass sticking in the forming of such glasses . in accordance with the present disclosure ti — al — n - based coatings are restored to their nearly original compositions , greatly extending coating service life and thus reducing the need for coating replacement . previous treatments for the dissolution of glassy residues accumulated on mold and mold - release - coated surfaces have not proven successful for reconditioning ti — al — n release coatings having surfaces accumulated with the combination of alkali , silicon and oxygen introduced in the course of molding alkali aluminosilicate glasses . in some cases such treatments were ineffective to reduce the concentrations of glass components to usefully low levels , while in other cases the treatments were damaging to the underlying metal mold materials . selected embodiments of the present invention are particularly well adapted for the restoration of glass - forming tooling comprising a metal mold base supporting a high temperature release coating composed at least predominantly of titanium - aluminum nitride ( i . e ., consisting of greater than 80 atomic percent total of titanium , aluminum and nitrogen ), wherein the release coating comprises a glass - adhering surface oxidation layer comprising mainly oxygen , aluminum , silicon and alkali metal and other alkali earth elements . in particular embodiments , the methods of the present invention are used to restore release coatings on tooling wherein the molds comprise a metal mold base fabricated of nickel - based metal alloys . specific embodiments of such molds include nickel - chromium - iron - based metal alloys such as the inconel ™ alloys . many of those alloys consist principally ( at least 80 % total by weight ) of nickel , chromium and iron with minor additions of such other constituents as mo , nb , co , mn , cu , and the like , a particular embodiment of such a metal mold base being one fabricated of inconel ™ 718 alloy . the specific combination of coating constituents present in ti — al — n release coatings to be treated in accordance with the present disclosure may vary widely , a number of such formulations having been employed in the prior art for improving the glass release characteristics of metal glass - forming molds . coatings composed of titanium aluminum nitride alone or alloyed with minor proportions of constituents selected from the group consisting of si , nb , y , and zr have been shown to be effective to minimize interfacial reactions between metal glass - forming molds and molten glasses during high temperature forming processes , and can be successfully treated . particular examples of such release coatings that provide good oxidation resistance together with good anti - sticking properties include coatings consisting essentially of an alloy selected from the group consisting of tialn , tialsin , tialnbn , tialsinbn , tialzrn , tialyn and mixtures thereof . the mode of coating degradation accompanying the use of such release coatings to form molded alkali aluminosilicate glass articles is presently understood to be as follows . at high forming temperature , tialn coating top formed a self - limiting layer of oxide compose of al2o3 on the top with tio2 underneath it . during thermal forming with high alkali glass , glass components such as na , si , ca , mg , etc . diffuse into coating top oxide , especially si and na . that have significant accumulation into coating oxide , leading to the formation of sodium enriched alumina silicate that has relatively lower liquidus phase . that becomes increasingly “ sticky ” with respect to the molten aluminosilicate glass being formed . a release - coated metal glass - forming mold of the kind treated in accordance with embodiments of the present invention is illustrated in fig1 of the drawings . fig1 comprises an electron photomicrograph of a cross - section of a metal glass - forming mold 10 consisting of an inconel ™ 718 nickel alloy mold base 12 provided with a ti — al — n release coating 14 of approximately 1 . 7 μm thickness on the mold surface . the coated mold shown in fig1 is a mold that has been subjected to 200 thermal glass - forming cycles in the course of molding glass articles from an alkali aluminosilicate glass . as a consequence of this use , release coating 14 has developed a surface oxidation layer 14 a of approximately 0 . 159 μm thickness on the surface of release coating 14 , that layer exhibiting significant adherence to molten alkali aluminosilicate glasses . among the aluminosilicate glasses that can cause the kinds of coating degradation shown in fig1 are ion - exchange - strengthenable , high - alkali aluminosilicate glasses , including for example sodium aluminosilicate glasses comprising at least 10 % by weight of sodium . particularly useful embodiments of the methods of the present invention are those treatments that can effectively recondition degraded titanium - aluminum mold coatings employed for the molding of such glasses . surface oxidation , surface nitrogen depletion , and alkali and silicon builds up on the surface of a ti — al — n - based mold coating can become significant after a relatively small number of molding cycles in cases where the glass being molded is a hard alkali aluminosilicate glass containing a substantial concentration of sodium . fig2 - 5 of the drawings comprise graphs reflecting surface concentration profiles for selected chemical species present at shallow coating depths proximate to the exposed ( oxidized ) surface of a ti — al — n - based glass release coating before and after 60 molding cycles in contact with such a glass . the species tracked in fig2 - 5 , respectively , are oxygen , silicon , sodium and nitrogen . the relative concentrations of each of these species is reflected by curves plotting the relative intensities of the signals as a function of coating depth . the intensities are reported in counts per second as generated by standard sims ( secondary ion mass spectrometry ) analyses . referring in more detail to fig2 - 5 , the set of sims curves presented in each of the figures for each of the analyzed species includes a curve 20 reflecting species concentrations prior to exposure of the coating to molten glass , a curve 22 reflecting concentration in the surface - oxidized coating following exposure to 60 glass molding cycles , and curves 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 and 5 reflecting , respectively , the species concentrations following treatment of the surface - oxidized coating by one of 5 different treatment methods . those methods , with numbers corresponding to the drawing curves , are as follows : method 1 : exposure to a koh based detergent ( ph 13 ) in an ultrasonic bath at 60 ° c . for 15 minutes ; method 2 : soaking in 120 ° c . 45 % koh for 15 min , and then room temperature 5 % hc1 for 40 minutes ; method 3 : soaking in a mixture of 10 ml hcl , 150 ml h 3 po 4 and 10 ml hf at 70 ° c . for 15 minutes ; method 4 : soaking in a mixture of 10 ml hcl , 10 ml hf and 180 ml di water at room temperature for 30 minutes ; and method 5 dry etching in ch 2 f 2 for 15 minutes . it is apparent from a comparison of oxygen concentration curves 20 and 22 in fig2 of the drawings that significant oxygen diffusion into the release coating surface occurs within even a relatively short 60 - cycle exposure to the molten glass . this oxygen enrichment is accompanied by a depletion of nitrogen from a surface region of the coating as evidenced by a comparison of curves 20 and 22 in fig5 of the drawings . the nitrogen depletion occurring over this limited molding interval already extends to a coating depth of approximately 40 nm . fig3 and 4 of the drawings reflect the extent of silicon and alkali migration into the oxidized ti — al — n - based coating . curve 22 in fig4 indicates a sodium concentration in the cycled coating that is approximately two orders of magnitude higher within a coating depth of 70 nm than is seen in the as - applied coating of curve 20 , that sodium being largely concentrated in the oxidized layer indicated in fig2 . a similar increase in silicon concentration in the oxidized coating surface is indicated by curves 20 and 22 in fig3 of the drawings . the curves 1 - 5 included in each of fig2 - 5 of the drawings are indicative of the effectiveness of the corresponding treating methods listed above that were aimed at the reconditioning of nitrogen - depleted ti — al — n - based release coatings contaminated with oxygen , silicon and alkali to the levels indicated by curves 22 in those figures . the use of koh detergent solutions as employed in the practice of methods 1 and 2 above are least effective for the removal of the oxidized / contaminated surface layers from such coatings , while the use of a dry ch 2 f 2 etchant as prescribed by method 5 results in non - uniform oxidation layer removal . the edge portions of a contaminated mold coating can be effectively reconditioned by dry etching in accordance with method 5 , whereas no visible reduction in surface oxidation is observed over centrally - located regions of the same coating . method 4 is relatively ineffective for reducing surface oxygen levels and reversing surface nitrogen depletion . in contrast , method 3 involving the use of an acid solution comprising both fluoride and phosphate ions produces a reconditioned coating surface most closely approximating an as - applied release coating in terms of oxygen , silicon and alkali levels , while at the same time effectively addressing nitrogen depletion in the reconditioned coating surface . particular embodiments of the disclosed methods involving treatment of surface - oxidized release coating surfaces with acid solutions comprising a combination of h 3 po 4 , hcl and hf have been found to be unexpectedly effective in both removing surface contamination and restoring the glass - release properties of ti — al — n - based release coatings such as herein described . release coatings treated with acidic solutions comprising these three acids are clearly distinguishable from both newly - deposited titanium - aluminum - nitride - based release coatings and exhausted ( surface - oxidized ) coatings exhibiting high surface concentrations of alkali , silicon and oxygen contaminants . thus reconditioned coatings provided in accordance with these embodiments comprise detectable subsurface concentrations of diffused alkali metal , silicon , and oxygen that are not present in freshly applied nitride release coatings , although the coatings nevertheless exhibit excellent glass release characteristics notwithstanding the presence of these concentrations . at the same time , and unlike exhausted or surface - oxidized nitride release coatings such as characterized by curves 22 in fig1 - 5 of the drawings , reconditioned release coatings provided in accordance with the above - disclosed embodiments are substantially free of surface and subsurface nitrogen depletion as shown by curve 3 in fig5 of the drawings . for purposes of the present description a reconditioned nitride release coating is substantially free of nitrogen depletion if , as typified by curve 3 in fig5 , sims analysis of the coating evidences no systematic difference in nitrogen concentration as between the coating surface and coating subsurface regions within 200 nm of that surface , within the measurement accuracy of the analysis . a further advantage of acidic reconditioning solutions comprising a combination of fluoride and phosphate ions , in further combination with optional chloride ions , is a reduced tendency to attack metal mold base materials . minimizing mold base material loss is important in order to avoid changes in mold shape during reconditioning . significant material loss can result in mold configuration changes that are not acceptable where shape precision in a molded glass product is required . fig6 of the drawings compares chloride - fluoride - phosphate reconditioning solutions with both koh detergent solutions and acidic hcl and hcl — hf etching solutions in terms of the damage to an inconel ™ 718 metal alloy mold base material inflicted by dissolution in these solutions . fluoride - chloride - phosphate solutions were found to be markedly superior to the other candidate reconditioning solutions for avoiding mold base material loss during release coating reconditioning . for some applications it is important to maximize the rate of material removal from surface - oxidized nitride glass release coatings , not only to minimize mold base material loss but also to reduce processing costs . table 1 below compares the efficiencies of various acidic fluoride - chloride - phosphate treating solutions for removing surface oxide material from oxidized nitride release coatings . the comparison is terms of the step height between treated and untreated sections of the coatings exposed to the solutions . analyses of data such as reported in table 1 above indicate that phosphate ion concentration , and to a lesser extent fluoride ion concentration , are important variables affecting the rate of surface removal from alkali - and silicon - containing oxidized release coating surfaces . based on such analyses , reconditioning methods employing treating solutions consisting essentially of h 3 po 4 , hf , hcl and water at concentrations of about 2 - 15 m h 3 po 4 , 0 . 5 - 5 m hf , and 0 . 2 - 0 . 8 m hcl offer particular advantages where rapid reconditioning is required . exposure to such solutions at treatment temperature in the range of about 50 - 100 ° c ., or in some embodiments 70 - 80 ° c ., can be particularly effective . while the invention has been described above with reference to particular embodiments of methods , coatings and molding methods provided in accordance therewith , it will be recognized that such embodiments have been presented for purposes of illustration only , and that various modifications of those and other embodiments may be adopted with advantage for the practice of the invention within the scope of the appended claims . | 2 |
this description is made for the purpose of illustrating the general principles of the invention and should not be taken in a limiting sense . the scope of the invention is best determined by reference to the appended claims . fig1 is a block diagram of a user equipment ( ue ) 100 according to an embodiment of the invention , wherein the ue 100 can be applied in a millimeter wave network based on the ieee 802 . 11ad and / or ieee 802 . 11aj specification . the ue 100 may be a mobile communications device , such as a cellular phone , a smart phone modem processor , a data card , a laptop stick , a mobile hotspot , an usb modem , a tablet , or others . the ue 100 comprises a processing unit 110 , a transmitter 120 , a receiver 130 and a memory device 140 , and an antenna module comprising at least one antenna . the processing unit 110 may be a general - purpose processor , or a micro - control unit ( mcu ), or others , to execute the program codes stored in the memory device 140 . the transmitter 120 and the receiver 130 are connected with the antenna module to transmit / receive the wireless signals via the antenna . in some embodiments , the transmitter 120 and the receiver 130 may connect with or include a rf module ( not present ) to receive rf signals via the antenna and process the received rf signals to convert the received rf signals to baseband signals . the memory device 140 may be a volatile memory , e . g . a random access memory ( ram ), or a non - volatile memory , e . g . a flash memory , read - only memory ( rom ), or hard disk , or any combination thereof . note that , in some embodiments of the invention , the user equipment 100 may further be extended to comprise more than one antenna and / or more than one radio module , and the invention should not be limited to what is shown in fig1 . fig2 is a block diagram of a transmitter 120 according to an embodiment of the invention . in fig2 , the transmitter 120 comprises a preamble generator 121 , header generator 122 , payload generator 123 . the preamble generator 121 is configured to generate a preamble s 1 , wherein the preamble s 1 is the same as a control physical layer ( cphy ) preamble . in an embodiment , the preamble can follow the ieee 802 . 11ad standard . the preamble s 1 comprises a short training field ( stf ) and a channel estimation field ( cef ). the short training field ( stf ) comprises 48 repetitions of the sequence gb 128 ( n ) of length 128 , a sequence - gb 128 ( n ) and a sequence - ga 128 ( n ). the sequences gb 128 ( n ) and ga 128 ( n ) are golay sequences defined in the wigig specification and ieee 802 . 11ad standard . the channel estimation field ( cef ) comprises two sequences gu 512 ( n ), gv 512 ( n ) of length 512 and a sequence gv 128 ( n ) of length 128 . the sequences gu 512 ( n ), gv 512 ( n ) and gv 128 ( n ) are also defined in the wigig specification and ieee 802 . 11ad standard . note that since the stf in the data phy adopts different golay sequences , control phy ( cphy ) and data phy ( dphy ) can be detected according to the stf . the header generator 122 comprises a scrambler 211 , a low density parity check ( ldpc ) encoder 212 , a dbpsk modulator 213 , and a spreader 214 . the header generator 122 is configured to generate a modified header s 2 , wherein the modified header s 2 comprises a mode indicator for indicating a plurality of modulation coding scheme ( mcs ) modes . the modified header s 2 is scrambled by the scrambler 211 . the modified header s 2 is encoded by the ldpc encoder 212 . the modified header s 2 is modulated by the dbpsk modulator 213 . the modified header s 2 is spread with sequence ga 32 ( n ) by the spreader 214 . because the header generator 122 is similar to the cphy header generator , the modified header is transmitted the same way as the cphy header . however , the modified header s 2 re - defines the reserved bits of the cphy header ( presented mcs mode field of the tables 2 - 3 ). therefore , the mcs modes in the modified header s 2 are defined by setting the reserved bits of a cphy header . in the general cphy header , two reserved bits are defined according to the ieee 802 . 11ad standard and they are only set to 0 in the cphy header . table 2 is a schematic diagram of the modified header s 2 according to an embodiment . as shown in the table 2 , if the reserved bits are set to 0 , it indicates an original cphy mode ( such as cphy in table 1 ). if the reserved bits are set to 1 , the payload is modulated according to a first mcs mode . if the reserved bits are set to 2 , the payload is modulated according to a second mcs mode , and if the reserved bits are set to 3 , the payload is modulated according to a third mcs mode . table 3 is a schematic diagram of the modified header s 2 according to another embodiment . in the table 3 . if the reserved bits are set to 0 , it indicates an original cphy mode ( such as cphy in table 1 ). if the reserved bits are set to 1 , the payload is modulated according to a first mcs mode . if the reserved bits have been set to 2 , the payload is modulated according to a second mcs mode , and if the reserved bits have been set to 3 , the reserved bits are reserved . the mcs modes , such as the first mcs mode , the second mcs mode and the third mcs mode , are selected from table 4 . for example , the first mcs mode may be r1 , the second mcs mode may be r3 , and the third mcs mode may be r5 . note the mcs modes in table 2 are only taken as examples , and it is to be understood that the invention is not limited thereto . those who are skilled in this technology can still use other parameters for different situations . the payload generator 123 comprises a scrambler 215 , and an encoder 216 . the payload generator 123 is configured to scramble , modulate and encode the transmission data for generating a payload s 3 by the scrambler 215 and the encoder 216 according to one of the mcs modes defined in the modified header s 2 . the preamble s 1 , the modified header s 2 and the payload s 3 are combined to generate a packet or a frame . fig3 is a schematic diagram of the packet according to an embodiment of the invention . in the fig3 , the packet comprises the preamble s 1 , the modified header s 2 and the payload s 3 . fig4 is a block diagram of a receiver 130 according to an embodiment of the invention . in the fig3 the receiver 130 comprises a preamble processor 131 and a header processor 132 , a dphy decoder 133 , and an enhanced - cphy decoder 134 . the preamble processor 131 is configured to determine the type of a received packet , such as cphy , dphy . as the above describes , because the stf in the dphy adopts a different golay sequence from the cphy , the preamble processor 131 can determine the dphy and cphy according to the stf . if the received packet is dphy , the received packet is transmitted to the dphy decoder 133 and decoded by the dphy decoder 133 . if the received packet is cphy , the received packet is transmitted to the header processor 132 . the preamble processor 131 also provides estimated timing information , frequency offset , and channel information to the dphy decoder 133 or header processor 132 . the header processor 132 is configured to determine an mcs mode of the received packet , wherein the mcs mode is defined by setting the reserved bits of a cphy header . then , the enhanced - cphy decoder 134 may decode the received packet according to the mcs mode of the received packet . the enhanced - cphy decoder 134 is indicated for distinguishing from a general cphy decoder . in an embodiment , the receiver 130 further comprises a general cphy decoder . the general cphy decoder may be combined with the enhanced - cphy decoder 134 or an independent device connected with the header processor 132 . if the header processor 132 determines that an mcs mode ( reserved bits ) of the received packet is 0 , the header processor 132 may transmit the received data to a general cphy decoder . otherwise ( mcs mode is 1 , 2 or 3 ), the header processor 132 may transmit the received data to the enhanced - cphy decoder 134 . in an embodiment ( such as table 2 ), if the header processor 132 determines that the reserved bits have been set to 0 , the enhanced - cphy decoder 134 demodulates the received packet by an original cphy mode . if the header processor 132 determines that the reserved bits have been set to 1 , the enhanced - cphy decoder 134 demodulates the received packet according to a first mcs mode . if the header processor 132 determines that the reserved bits have been set to 2 , the enhanced - cphy decoder 134 demodulates the payload according to a second mcs mode . if the header processor 132 determines that the reserved bits have been set to 3 , the enhanced - cphy decoder 134 demodulates the received packet according to a third mcs mode . in another embodiment ( such as table 3 ), if the header processor 132 determines that the reserved bits have been set to 0 , the enhanced - cphy decoder 134 demodulates the received packet an original cphy mode . if the header processor 132 determines that the reserved bits have been set to 1 , the enhanced - cphy decoder 134 demodulates the received packet according to a first mcs mode . if the header processor 132 determines that the reserved bits have been set to 2 , the enhanced - cphy decoder 134 demodulates the payload according to a second mcs mode , wherein in this embodiment , if the reserved bits have been set to 3 , it means that the reserved bits are reserved . in an embodiment , if the header processor 132 determines that the reserved bits have been set to 0 , the received packet may be demodulated by a general cphy decoder . otherwise ( reserved bits have been set to 1 , 2 or 3 ), the received packet may be demodulated by the enhanced - cphy decoder 134 . fig5 is a flow chart illustrating the method of data communications for a transmitter in a millimeter wave network according to an embodiment of the invention . firstly , in step s 510 , a cphy preamble is generated . in an embodiment , the cphy preamble can be an ieee 802 . 11ad preamble . then , in the step s 520 , a header is generated , wherein the header comprises a mode indicator . in the step s 530 , a payload is modulated and encoded according to the mode indicator . in the step s 540 , a packet is generated according to the control physical layer cphy preamble , the header and the payload . in the step s 550 , the packet is transmitted by the transmitter . fig6 is a flow chart illustrating the method of data communications for a receiver in a millimeter wave network according to an embodiment of the invention . firstly , in step s 610 , a received packet is received by the receiver . then in the step s 620 , the type of the received packet is determined . if the type of the received packet is dphy , the step s 630 is executed . in the step s 630 , the received packet is demodulated and decoded by the dphy mode . if the type of the received packet is dphy , the step s 640 is executed . in the step s 640 , the mcs mode of the received packet is determined . in the step s 650 , the received packet is demodulated and decoded according to the mcs mode of the received packet . in the methods of the embodiments , coverage problems of a mobile device equipped with a small size array are eliminated . when the mobile device is equipped with a small size array , it can transmit data by modifying the general cphy header rather than by the dphy . in addition , in the receiver , different decoding schemes may be processed according to the type of the receive packet and the mcs mode of the received packet . the steps of the method described in connection with the aspects disclosed herein may be embodied directly in hardware , in a software module executed by a processor , or in a combination of the two . a software module ( e . g ., including executable instructions and related data ) and other data may reside in a data memory such as ram memory , flash memory , rom memory , eprom memory , eeprom memory , registers , a hard disk , a removable disk , a cd - rom , or any other form of computer - readable storage medium known in the art . a sample storage medium may be coupled to a machine such as , for example , a computer / processor ( which may be referred to herein , for convenience , as a “ processor ”) such that the processor can read information ( e . g ., code ) from and write information to the storage medium . a sample storage medium may be integral to the processor . the processor and the storage medium may reside in an asic . the asic may reside in user equipment . alternatively , the processor and the storage medium may reside as discrete components in user equipment . moreover , in some aspects any suitable computer - program product may comprise a computer - readable medium comprising codes relating to one or more of the aspects of the disclosure . in some aspects a computer program product may comprise packaging materials . the above paragraphs describe many aspects . obviously , the teaching of the invention can be accomplished by many methods , and any specific configurations or functions in the disclosed embodiments only present a representative condition . those who are skilled in this technology can understand that all of the disclosed aspects in the invention can be applied independently or be incorporated . while the invention has been described by way of example and in terms of preferred embodiment , it is to be understood that the invention is not limited thereto . those who are skilled in this technology can still make various alterations and modifications without departing from the scope and spirit of this invention . therefore , the scope of the present invention shall be defined and protected by the following claims and their equivalents . | 7 |
an error detecting circuit for a sequence of mblc - codes line code signals containing a one - bit specific code , which is a complementary to the code of the immediately preceding bit , at every m bits is described below . fig1 illustrates a first preferred embodiment of the present invention , providing an error detecting circuit for 8blc - coded ( m = 8 ) input signals . in the figure , al through fl represent the lines connecting the various blocks and the corresponding signals appearing thereon . 8blc - coded input signals al supplied to an input terminal l have , as shown in fig2 one - bit specific bits c1 , c2 , c3 , . . . for every eight data bits ( represented by numberals 1 to 8 in the figure ). the codes of each specific bit is the complementary codes to the immediately preceding bit . a timing circuit 9 generates a timing clock signal ck from the input signal al . a code converting circuit 10 , having a one - bit delay circuit 10a , an exclusive or ( ex - or ) gate 11 , and the serial / parallel converting circuit 12 cooperate to convert the specific bits c1 , c2 , . . . of the input signals al into the same codes . the ex - or gate 11 simultaneously receives , every eight - bit interval , the specific bits c1 , c2 , . . . and their complementary codes ( numeral 8 ). the output signal cl of gate 11 is always &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; in the specific bits as long as no errors occur in the specific bits and in their immediately preceding bits . alternate bits of output signals cl are separated and directed to two output channels by means of a serial / parallel converting circuit ( an s / p circuit ) 12 which output one signal d7 and another output el . the dl signal is delayed by a four - bit delay circuit 13 and , both the delayed signal and the el signal are supplied to an and gate 14 . the rate of each of the output signals of the s / p circuit 12 is reduced by 178 in consequence of the separating process applied to signal cl . as noted above , the delay circuit 13 applies a four bit delay to the signal dl . as a result , the &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; codes of both signals dl and el are synchronized to occur simultaneously as they enter and gate 14 . if there is no code error in the input signals , the and gate 14 will output the signals fl , in which &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; codes will be generated at eight - bit intervals . but if there is any error in the specified bits c1 , c2 , . . . of the input signals , the output cl of the ex - or gate 11 will turn from &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; to &# 34 ; 0 &# 34 ;, and the output fl of the and gate 14 will have a &# 34 ; 0 &# 34 ;, instead of a &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ;, at eight - bit intervals . an error detecting circuit 15 counts the number of times the &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ;&# 39 ; s in the output fl have been replaced with &# 34 ; 0 &# 34 ;&# 39 ; s within a prescribed period of time , and generates an error detection output signal if the count is relatively great . in fig7 error detecting circuit 15 comprises a detector 150 for detecting , from the signal fl , the appearance of &# 34 ; 0 &# 34 ; codes which reflects code errors of &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; codes generated at 8 bit intervals , an error counter 155 for counting the code errors and generating the number of errors , and circuits 151 , 152 , 153 , 154 for establishing synchronization with the &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; codes in the signal fl . a clock ck is divided by two in a flip - flop 151 and then provided to the clock control circuit 152 which inhibits the divided clocks in response to inhibit pulses from the controller circuit 154 . the counter 153 is a divided - by - nine counter which controls a detection timing of the detector 150 . the detector 150 produces error pulses upon receipt of &# 34 ; 0 &# 34 ; codes . the controller 154 generates inhibit pulse responsive to error pulses . once synchronization is established , the detector circuit 150 outputs error pulses in the specific bits of the input signal sequence , only when errors occur in the specific bits . with this embodiment , there will be no difference in the output of the and gate 14 whether the specific bits c1 , c2 , c3 , . . . in the input signals are erroneous consecutively or at every other bit . however , since the ratio of code errors on a transmission path is 10 - 3 through 10 - 6 , and the intervals of erroneous code occurence are relatively long , there will be no deterioration in the accuracy of error detection . a more important aspect of this embodiment is that the rate of signals processed by the detecting circuit 15 is 1 / 2 of that of the input signals al . the higher the signal rate of the input signals , the more difficult it is to realize a detecting circuit therefor , so that the reduced signal rate is beneficial economically as well as for the realization of the detecting circuit 15 . although the s / p converter disclosed above converts a bit stream to two bit streams , division into a larger number of bit streams is possible . the number p of bit streams or channels can be determined such that &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; codes are alternately distributed and &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; codes periodically ( at eight - bit intervals ) emerge in each channels . mathematically speaking with respect to mblc coded signal , such channel numbers p are permitted which allow the product of ( m + l ) and p to equals the least common multiple of ( m + l ) and p . stated another way , the product of ( m + l ) and p must equal that number which is an integer multiple of both ( m + l ) and p and , moreover , the smallest such number . since m = 8 in fig1 the channel number p can be 4 , 5 or 7 besides 2 . referring now to fig3 a second preferred embodiment of the present invention includes a combination of another s / p circuit 16 , a delay circuit 17 and an and gate 18 , all of which follow the and gate 14 of the code error detecting circuit of fig1 . an error detecting circuit 19 has a signal processing rate 1 / 2 that of the error detecting circuit 15 , and is connected to and gate 18 . the s / p circuit realizes serial / parallel conversion in the same manner as circuit 12 except that its signal processing rate is 1 / 2 that of circuit 12 . the delay circuit 17 delays by four bits the signals whose rate is 1 / 2 of that of signals entered into the delay circuit 13 . the detecting circuit 19 , which detects errors in the specific bits at a processing speed equal to 1 / 4 of that of the input signals al , can be composed of slower circuit elements than those present in detecting circuit 15 . the count of errors will be the same whether the specific signals c1 , c2 , . . . of the input signals al are erroneous four consecutive times or only once in four consecutive times , but there will hardly be a deterioration in the accuracy of error detection because , as stated above , the usual ratio of code errors is low . if a combination of an s / p circuit , a delay circuit and an and gate is connected in tandem in n stages , the signal processing rate of the error detecting circuit will be reduced to 1 / 2 n , so that the error detecting rate will be further slowed down . fig4 illustrates a third preferred embodiment of the present invention for loblc - coded input signals . the error detecting circuit has a circuit 31 for dividing input signals a3 , shown in fig5 among four channels , one bit per channel , to reduce the signal rate to 1 / 4 . a code converting circuit 32 converts the specific bits c1 , c2 , . . . among the output signals of the channels into &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; codes . delay circuits 33 , 34 and 35 are provided for timing the periodic &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; codes such that they are distributed among the signals of the different channels and so that they may appear in the same time slots . there are further provided an and gate 36 and an error detecting circuit 37 for counting the number of errors in the periodic &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; codes out of the output of the and gate 36 during a prescribed length of time . the code converting circuit 32 which is connected to the output side of the s / p circuit 31 , has the advantage that the code converting circuit 32 can be composed of slower circuit elements . the rates of output signals b3 , c3 , d3 and e3 of the s / p circuit 31 are reduced to 1 / 4 by the serial / parallel conversion of the input signals a3 . the signals b3 and c3 are outputted to an ex - or 32b , the signals c3 and d3 to an ex - or 32c , signals d3 and e3 to an ex - or 32d , and signals b3 and signal f3 , resulting from one - bit delaying of signal e3 by a delay circuit 32a , to an ex - or 32e . each ex - or is simultaneously fed with the specific bits c1 , c2 , . . . and the bits ( numeral 10 ) immediately preceding them with the result that outputs g3 , h3 , i3 and j3 become signal sequences in which a &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; code occurs at 10 - bit intervals . the outputs h3 , i3 and j3 are delayed by the delay circuits 33 , 34 and 35 by three , six and eight bits , respectively , and as a result the &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; codes , which occur at 10 - bit intervals , are fed to the and gate 35 simultaneously . therefore , if there is an error in any one of consecutive four of the specific bits c1 , c2 , . . . of the input signals a3 , the output of one of the ex - ors 32b to 32e will become &# 34 ; 0 &# 34 ;, and the &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; code outputted from the and gate 36 at 10 - bit intervals will turn &# 34 ; 0 &# 34 ;. the error detecting circuit 37 , which detects any error in the specific bits according to an output k3 of the and gate 36 , can be composed of slower circuit elements because the signal rate of the output k3 is 1 / 4 that of the input signals a3 . next there is described an error detecting circuit for detecting errors in specific bits in a signal sequence into which a specific bit consisting of the same one - bit code is inserted for every m bits . in fig6 a circuit for a fourth embodiment of the invention is the same as the code error detecting circuit of fig1 except that the code converting circuit is omitted . the description of a circuit operation is skipped for simplicity since its operation is quite similar to that of fig4 . when the specific bit is &# 34 ; 0 &# 34 ;, an ex - or gate is used instead of the and gate 14 . in this case , if any error occurs in the specific bits the code of the periodic &# 34 ; 0 &# 34 ; bits of the ex - or gate &# 39 ; s output will turn &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; to enable detection of the error . as described above the present invention makes it possible to reduce the signal rate for detection of code errors in specific bits according to the number of output channels of the s / p circuit , so that a relatively compact and low cost code error detecting circuit can be provided . although the embodiments of fig1 and 3 employ an mblc code wherein the error code is the complement of the immediately proceeding bit , the complementary code may be set by reference to a specified bit position other than the immediately proceeding bit . when the penultimate bit of m bits is used to for generating the complementary code , the one - bit delay circuit 10a may simply be replaced by a two - bit delay circuit which delays two bits and no other modification is needed . | 7 |
fig1 shows a detector assembly 10 mounted on the lower end of an adjustable pole 12 . as shown in fig1 the detector assembly 10 is generally c - shaped as it faces downwardly to permit it to be held against the surface of a length of insulated pipe for detecting moisture beneath the insulation . if the detector assembly were designed for use with a single diameter of pipe , it could be made arcuate to fit more closely to the contour of the pipe . however , by making the detector assembly with a generally c - shaped contour , it can be held in a fixed and stable position against the underside of a length of pipe and can be used with pipes of varying diameters . fig2 shows the detector assembly 10 being held against the underside of a length of insulated pipe , the pipe being shown at 14 covered by insulation 16 and an outer jacket 18 . still referring to fig1 thermal neutron detectors which may be helium 3 detector tubes are shown generally at 20 , and the center of the detector assembly which is the source location is shown at 22 . a high voltage power supply and amplifier circuit is shown at 24 , and a swivel connection by which the lower end of the tube 12 is connected to a top plate 26 of the detector assembly is shown generally at 28 . the foregoing components of the moisture detector of the present invention are all carried on the end of the pole 12 so an operator can hold the detector assembly 10 against an insulated pipe or other object as shown in fig2 . fig1 also shows the other components of the moisture detector which are separate from the detector assembly and may be carried in a shoulder bag 30 by an operator . such other components include a start / enter flex cable 32 , a start / enter switch assembly 34 mounted near the upper end of the pole 12 , a readout assembly cable 36 , and a readout assembly 38 . reference is now made to fig6 which illustrates the components which comprise the c - shaped detector assembly 10 . the active components are a pair of detector tubes 20 which comprise tube shields 40 and he 3 detector tubes 42 positioned inside the shields . as shown in the lower left - hand portion of fig6 the right - hand ends of the tube shields 40 are received in openings in an end block 44 , and the left - hand ends of the tube shields 40 are received in openings in an end plate 46 , so that the two detector tubes 20 are arranged in parallel relation . a block plate 50 is mounted on the outside of the end plate 46 at the opposite end of the end block 44 . the top plate 26 extends longitudinally and has its right - hand end connected to an upper edge of the end block 44 and its left - hand end connected along the upper edge of the block plate 50 . the detector box assembly 24 is mounted on top of top plate 26 at the left - hand end thereof . the swivel connection 28 between the pole 12 and the detector assembly 10 is mounted to the top of the top plate 26 . other types of structure may be used to construct the detector assembly 10 , but in the preferred embodiment there are two detector tubes 20 mounted in parallel relation , the power supply and amplifier circuit 24 are mounted on the detector assembly , a swivel connection 28 is provided between the detector assembly 10 and the lower end of a pole 12 , and the underside of the detector assembly ( the bottom as viewed in fig6 ) is generally c - shaped , especially if the detector is intended to measure moisture in insulated pipe . fig6 shows that the profile of the end plate 46 , the end block 44 , and the block plate 50 , are all generally c - shaped . fig2 shows the manner in which those three components all rest on a length of insulated pipe , and the detector tubes 20 are located relative to those components so that the tubes 20 are positioned closely adjacent the outer jacket 18 of the pipe . reference is now made to fig3 - 5 to describe the swivel connection 28 . as previously described , the swivel connection 28 serves to connect the lower end of the pole 12 with the detector assembly 10 by attachment to the top plate 26 of the detector assembly . the swivel or pivot assembly allows the detector assembly 10 to rotate about two perpendicular axes relative to the pole 12 . such rotation is preferably limited to 180 degrees about each of the axes to prevent damage to the attached cable . the pivot also allows the user to vary the friction of movement about each axis . in describing the pivot assembly , the terms &# 34 ; horizontal &# 34 ; and &# 34 ; vertical &# 34 ; will be used with reference to the top view of fig4 and the side elevation of fig5 . a yoke assembly 60 is mounted as an extension at the lower end of pole 12 . movement about the vertical axis is accomplished by moving the yoke assembly 60 which will turn a pivot 62 about its vertical axis . as shown in fig3 - 5 , the yoke has two flat arms 64 and 66 which closely straddle flat sides 68 and 70 of the pivot 62 so the yoke and pivot will move conjointly about the vertical axis of pivot 62 . the pivot 62 travels inside a pivot cover 72 . when the pivot is assembled and attached to the top plate 26 of the detector assembly 10 , the pivot 62 rests on a delrin disk 74 which is positioned on the top plate 26 . above the lip of the pivot 62 , a delrin washer 76 is positioned , and thus the disk 74 and washer 76 act as wear surfaces as the pivot 62 is rotated about a vertical axis . set screws 80 can be adjusted to vary the pressure on the washer 76 which in turn varies the friction against movement of pivot 62 about its vertical axis . a slot 82 which extends 180 degrees circumferentially around the lower end of pivot 62 will , when assembled , cooperate with a roll pin 84 which is fixed in a hole in the side of the pivot cover 72 so as to limit rotation of the pivot 62 about its vertical axis to 180 degrees . movement of the handle about a horizontal axis is accomplished by moving the yoke assembly 60 to turn an axle 86 which is held in the yoke by four screws 88 so the yoke and axle rotate conjointly about the axis of the axle . the axle 86 is positioned inside a nylon sleeve 90 which is positioned in a horizontal hole 92 formed in pivot 62 . thus , the nylon sleeve 90 acts as a wear surface for the axle 86 . a vertical slot 96 is cut down into the upper end of pivot 62 so the pivot is split above the hole 92 . a set screw 98 is threaded into a horizontal hole 100 in the side of the pivot 62 , so by adjustment of set screw 98 , an operator can adjust the friction by clamping the pivot 62 against the nylon sleeve 90 and axle 86 . the pivot cover 72 is held down by three screws 101 which thread down into the detector base 26 . the configuration of the detector assembly 10 comprising the generally c - shaped portion which fits against an object to be tested in an important feature . many testers present a flat surface , whereas the detector assembly of the present invention will fit in a stable manner about a pipe or other curved surface as shown in fig2 . also , the pole 12 is preferably extendable so the operator can adjust the length and thereby permit the operator to keep a maximum distance from the source , which is an added safety feature . the components of the detector assembly 10 are preferably made of metal , e . g ., aluminum . also , the fact that the detector head can pivot about two perpendicular axes relative to the pole facilitates use of the detector in various applications . reference is now made to fig7 and 8 which show an alternative embodiment of the detector assembly shown in fig6 . fig7 shows a detector assembly 100 . the assembly 100 includes a pair of thermal neutron detectors 102 which in the embodiment being described may comprise he 3 detector tubes positioned inside tubular shields 106 . a housing 108 includes a pair of housing end portions 110 and 112 connected by a pair of longitudinal side frame portions 114 and 116 to create a rigid housing assembly . in addition , bottom wall plates 118 , 120 and 122 extend between the end portions 110 and 112 and form a completely enclosed bottom wall beneath the detectors 102 . each of the detectors 102 is held in position in parallel relation to one another by dips 124 mounted from bottom wall portions of the housing . fig7 further shows a charge preamplifier 130 and a high voltage power supply 132 which mount inside the housing 108 . a neutron source is shown at 134 . fig8 shows a cover 140 having a top wall 142 and opposed inclined wall portions 144 and 146 . the cover 140 is mounted by screws or other suitable fastening means to the top of the detector assembly 100 of fig7 . a round opening 150 is provided in the cover to accommodate swivel mechanism 152 which connects the lower end of a pole 160 to the detector assembly 100 to permit rotation of the detector assembly about two perpendicular axes relative to the pole as previously described . the detector assembly 100 functions in essentially the same manner as the detector assembly shown in fig6 and it is generally c - shaped at its lower or outer end for the reasons previously described . however , the housing shown in fig7 and 8 is enclosed both on the top and the bottom as contrasted with the housing of fig6 . in operation , where the application is the moisture testing of insulated pipe , pipe configurations vary greatly , and differences in insulation types , inner and outer diameters , and the effect of the contents , are all factors affecting the measurement . as a result , absolute moisture measurements are difficult to establish , considering the number of variables . a relative measurement may be more appropriate . a reference count taken on a pipe in a suspected dry location , or several different locations , can establish a baseline for the pipe configuration under test . typically , the highest levels of moisture in wet insulation are at the lowest point , the bottom side of a horizontal pipe , which means that the top side may be preferable for establishing a baseline . an operator may take test readings at the bottom of a pipe at 1 to 4 second counts every 12 to 18 inches . the counts will fluctuate since radioactive decay is a random event . suspect areas will have higher counts than other areas . taking a longer test will help better define the suspect areas . longer tests also mean increased precision , since the detector can accumulate more data . all of the tests are normalized , measuring for a 1 second period and then averaging over the period of the test time and then displaying the results as counts per minute . the device can allow user selectable test times of from 1 second to over 900 seconds . however , the results will be normalized to counts per minute . the selected test time will normally be a compromise between precision and speed . typically , the 1 second or 4 second test time will be adequate for most circumstances . the device has two basic modes of operation . first is the standard data collection mode where a reading is taken for the selected test time ( from 1 to 960 seconds ) and displayed on the readout device . at this point , the operator will be able to see the final value in counts per minute and then store that data point if he wishes to do so . the second mode of operation is to allow the user to take continuous &# 34 ; quick test &# 34 ; modes , whereby the unit will take continuous 1 second test samples and compare that value with a calibration value . the automatic computation will allow the device to signal to the user that the data was less than or more than a predetermined threshold . this will allow the user to detect moisture at a much faster ( albeit at a less precise ) rate . as previously noted , an important application for the moisture detector of the present invention is for use as a screening device as in the case of testing insulated pipe for moisture . such device allows an operator to quickly locate areas where high moisture is present . once such areas are located , more thorough corrosion inspection techniques which have a lower rate of test may be used to check potential problem areas . the detector of the present invention will permit a single operator to test several hundred feet of pipe per hour . the following test rates can be achieved : ______________________________________reading time test rate______________________________________960 seconds reading 1 . 25 ft / hr * 16 seconds reading 200 ft / hr * 4 seconds reading 600 ft / hr * 1 second reading 1200 ft / hr *&# 34 ; quick test &# 34 ; reading 2700 ft / hr ** ______________________________________ * includes 2 seconds between readings ** in &# 34 ; quick test &# 34 ; the readings are continuous with less than 1 second between readings . it will be understood that the cable connecting the detector assembly 10 in fig1 , and 6 or 100 in fig7 to the readout shown at 38 in fig1 may be replaced by other known electrical connections which can transmit data from the detector to the readout . thus , the invention is not limited to the use of cable for such purpose . | 6 |
while the present improvement in a surface control well safety valve will be shown , for purposes of illustration only , as incorporated in a flapper - type well safety valve installed in a mandrel and responsive to annulus pressure , it will be understood that the present invention may be used in other types of well safety valves and in other types of installations . referring now to the drawings , and particularly to fig2 a , 2b and 2c , one type of subsurface safety valve is shown utilizing the present invention generally indicated by the reference numeral 10 . the apparatus 10 generally includes a body 12 adapted to be positioned in a well conduit such as an oil and / or gas well tubing to permit production therethrough under normal operating conditions but in which the valve 10 may be closed in response to an increase in fluid control pressure from the well surface . the safety valve 12 generally includes an annular valve seat 14 therein ( fig2 c ) and a flapper 16 connected to the body 12 by a pivot pin 18 . thus when the flapper 16 is in the upper position seated on the valve seat 14 , the safety valve 10 is closed blocking flow upwardly therethrough . a sliding tube or tubular member generally indicated by the reference numeral 20 is telescopically movable in the body 12 and through the valve seat 14 . when the member 20 is moved to a downward position , the member 20 pushes the flapper 16 away from the valve seat 14 . the valve is held in the open position so long as the sliding tube 20 is in the downward position . when the sliding tube 20 is moved upwardly , the flapper 16 is allowed to move upwardly closing the valve by the action of a spring 22 and also by the action of fluid flow moving upwardly through the bore 13 of the body 12 . various forces may be provided to act on the sliding tubular member 20 to control its movement so that under normal operating conditions the sliding member 20 will be in the downward position holding the flapper 16 away of and off of the valve seat 14 and the valve 10 will be open . when abnormal conditions occur , the sliding tube 20 will be moved upwardly allowing the flapper 16 to close shutting off flow through the well conduit . thus , a chamber 24 may be provided between the member 20 and the body 12 and a piston 26 is secured to or is part of the member 20 in the chamber 24 . the chamber 24 below the piston 26 may be pressurized to a desired pressure through a dill valve 27 . thus , pressure in the pressurized chamber 24 acts against the bottom of the piston 26 in a direction to move the sliding tube 20 upwardly to allow the flapper 16 to close and seat on the seat 14 . in addition , this closing force may be assisted by providing a spring 28 in the chamber 24 which acts between a shoulder 30 on the body 12 and on the bottom of the piston 26 . the safety valve 10 is controlled by the application or removal of fluid pressure through ports 34 into a chamber 32 against the top of the piston 26 acting in opposition to the force of the pressure in chamber 24 in the spring 28 . thus , if fluid pressure applied through the ports 34 is of sufficient magnitude , the piston 26 and thus the member 20 will be moved downwardly forcing the flapper 16 off of the seat 14 and into full open position . if the pressure applied through ports 34 to the chamber 32 above the piston 26 is reduced sufficiently relatively to the forces on the piston 26 caused by the pressurized chamber 24 and the spring 28 , the piston 26 will move upwardly carrying the member 20 upwardly beyond the seat 14 allowing the flapper 16 to swing and close on the seat 14 . the pressurized charge in the chamber 24 and the force of the spring 28 may be selected and set so that the safety valve 10 will open and close as desired . the safety valve 10 includes an upper seal 36 and a lower seal 38 about the exterior of the body 12 for sealing in the well conduit and receiving the control fluid pressure therebetween such as shown in fig1 . as seen in fig1 the safety valve 10 of the present invention may be used in a mandrel 40 positioned in a well conduit or well tubing 42 in a well casing 44 . in this installation , the fluid control pressure in the annulus 46 between the exterior of the well tubing 42 and the interior of the casing 44 may flow into the sidepocket 48 of the mandrel 40 and be applied to the safety valve 10 of the present invention between the upper and lower seals 36 and 38 . the safety valve 10 is retrievably positioned in the main bore 50 of the mandrel 40 by retractible dogs 52 of a conventional well lock 54 . the above structure and operation is generally described in u . s . pat . no . 3 , 782 , 461 . the improved safety valve 10 of the present invention operates as previously described in its normal mode of opening and closing , but also allows the valve 10 to close when the fluid control pressure or force exceeds a predetermined value . this feature of closing on abnormally high control pressures is particularly advantageous in the installation shown in fig1 in which the annulus 46 from the well surface serves as the conductor for the control fluid in communication with the ports 34 . for example , a tubing leak through the tubing 42 into the annular space 46 can exert an abnormally high fluid control pressure to the ports 34 holding the valve 10 in an open position . this is particularly true if there is liquid in the annulus 46 providing a high hydrostatic head and high pressure gas leaks into the annular space 46 and exerts its pressure on top of a heavy liquid column . in such an event , the safety valve would be held in the open position and is likely to fail to timely respond to a closing signal from the well surface . the present safety valve 10 allows the safety valve 10 to operate in its normal mode , but causes the valve 10 to close when the fluid control pressure or force reaches a predetermined high or low value . referring now to fig2 c and 3 , the sliding tubular member 20 includes a first upper section 60 and a second lower 62 telescoping section . the first section 60 and the second section 62 are normally connected together with a releasable locking means generally indicated by the reference numeral 64 so that in normal operation the sliding tube 20 acts as a unitary tubular member . when the valve 10 is normally fully opened , as best seen in fig2 c , the bottom of the lower tubular section 62 contacts and stops against a stop shoulder 66 of a movable sleeve 68 . the sleeve 68 is yieldably urged upwardly by a spring 70 with a preset load of a predetermined magnitude . when the fluid control force or pressure in excess of the normal operating pressure and above a predetermined value acts against the piston 26 through the ports 34 to move the member 20 downwardly the preset load in the spring 70 will be overcome and allow further downward movement of the tubular member 20 . when excess fluid control pressure is exerted on the safety valve 10 , the releasable locking means 64 between the tubing section 60 and the tubing section 62 will release . that is , a ball sleeve 72 will contact a releasing shoulder 74 on the body 12 allowing the upper section 60 and the lower section 62 to move downwardly and the locking balls 76 to move down and out from under the ball sleeve 74 . when this occurs , the balls 76 move out and disengage the locking groove 78 in the upper tubular section 60 . and at this time the lower tubular section 62 is disengaged from the upper tubular section 60 and means for moving the lower tubular section 62 , such as a spring 80 , will move the lower tubular section 62 upwardly allowing the flapper valve 16 to swing closed and shut off the safety valve 10 . thus , as shown in fig3 the safety valve 10 illustrated in fig2 a , 2b and 2c is automatically closed upon the occurrence of a fluid control pressure that exceeds a predetermined value . the releasable locking means 64 is also resettable to reconnect the upper tubular sections 60 and lower tubular sections 62 to the position shown in fig2 c . this is done by bleeding down the fluid control pressure , such as the annulus 46 in fig1 and in so doing the upper tubular sections 60 will move upwardly by the action of the pressure in chamber 24 and the spring 28 until the locking groove 78 is reengaged by the locking balls 76 . the safety valve 10 will then operate in its normal mode , but will close again on the occurrence of an abnormally high control fluid pressure . referring now to fig4 another embodiment of the present invention is shown wherein like parts to those of fig3 are shown with identical numbers with the addition of the suffix &# 34 ; a &# 34 ;. the remainder of the safety valve 10a of fig4 is identical to those shown in fig2 b and 2c . in the embodiment of fig4 the releasable locking means between the first upper tubular section 60a and the second lower tubular section 62a is one or more shear pins 82 . in normal operation of the safety valve 10a , the lower end of the lower section 62a rests against a fixed stop shoulder 66a . however , upon the occurrence of a fluid control force or pressure applied to the safety valve 10a in excess of a predetermined value , the tubular member 20a will be actuated downwardly against the stop 66a shearing the pins 82 after which the spring 80a will move the lower tubular member 62a upwardly allowing the flapper valve 60a to close and shut off flow through the safety valve 10a . high closing pressure would be set by the selection of a size , number and material for the shear pins 82 . the embodiment of fig4 requires that the valve 10a be retrieved after being actuated on the occurrence of an undesirably high fluid control pressure as the releasable locking means 82 is not resettable . the present invention , therefore , is well adapted to carry out the objects and attain the ends and advantages mentioned as well as others inherent therein . while presently preferred embodiments of the invention have been given for the purpose of disclosure , numerous changes in the details of construction and arrangement of parts may be provided , without departing from the spirit of the invention and the scope of the appended claims . | 4 |
referring to fig1 - 3 , an occupant support such as a hospital bed 20 extends longitudinally from a head end h to a foot end f and laterally from a right side r ( seen in the plane of fig1 ) to a left side l . the bed includes a frame 22 , a mattress 24 supported on the frame , and an intermediate layer 26 in the form of a microclimate control topper 30 resting on the mattress . the topper is referred to as an intermediate layer 26 because of its position between frame 22 and occupant 32 . the microclimate control topper 30 has a vapor permeable top or occupant side 36 , whose longitudinal and lateral dimensions are d 1 , d 2 , a bottom side 38 , and an air permeable spacer 40 between the sides . the occupant and bottom sides 36 , 38 define a fluid flowpath 42 extending longitudinally substantially the length l of the topper . the topper has an inlet 46 and an outlet 48 . a blower , not shown , propels a stream of air 50 through the flowpath . in operation , the occupant &# 39 ; s perspiration , after having transitioned to the gaseous phase , passes through the vapor permeable occupant side 36 and enters the air stream 50 . the air stream carries the moisture away through outlet 48 . in the embodiment of fig1 - 3 topper sides 36 , 38 of the topper or intermediate layer define the flowpath from inlet 46 to outlet 48 . in another embodiment described below , the intermediate layer only partly defines the flowpath . the occupant support also includes a moisture management cover or wicking layer 52 , atop the intermediate layer . at least part of the wicking layer is made of a material exhibiting a high in - plane moisture transport rate , referred to herein as a wick rate . examples of materials having high wick rates include polypropylene , meryl skinlife ®, sorbtek ™, and poro - tex expanded ptfe ( eptfe ). the wicking layer of fig1 - 3 is in the form of a substantially flat sheet having longitudinal and lateral dimensions d 3 , d 4 approximately equal to the longitudinal and lateral dimensions d 1 , d 2 respectively of occupant side 36 of the topper . although the wicking layer can be a stand - alone moisture management cover , the illustrated wicking layer is attached to the intermediate layer , i . e . to topper 30 , by a zipper 58 , a strip of velcro ® or other connection that allows the wicking layer to be separated or removed from the topper without causing damage to or destruction of the wicking layer , the topper or the connection therebetween . the illustrated wicking layer comprises a first region 62 having a first moisture wick rate w 1 and a second region 64 having a second moisture wick rate w 2 that exceeds the first moisture wick rate . in one embodiment the longitudinal borders of region 64 are laterally extending border 91 located approximately at the occupant &# 39 ; s scapula and border 92 located at about mid - thigh . in another embodiment the borders are border 93 at about midway along the occupant &# 39 ; s back and 94 at about the occupant &# 39 ; s buttocks . first region 62 is a perimetrical region that laterally and longitudinally bounds second region 64 . the second region extends laterally beyond the approximate outline 66 of a supine occupant of the bed . the high wick rate of second region 64 spatially distributes the occupant &# 39 ; s perspiration more readily than would be the case if the wick rate were lower . in particular the high wick rate of region 64 spreads the perspiration beyond the outline 66 of the occupant . more moisture is therefore exposed to air stream 50 resulting in better use of the moisture removal capacity of the topper and an attendant increase in moisture removal from the occupant &# 39 ; s skin . nevertheless , it is also contemplated that a high wick rate that does not extend laterally beyond the occupant could be beneficial . the wicking layer illustrated in fig1 - 3 is in the form of a flat sheet whose dimensions d 3 , d 4 are only slightly larger than topper dimensions d 1 , d 2 so that zipper 58 will not interfere with occupant comfort . the sheet could be made larger so that a considerably larger portion of it drapes over the edge of the topper , or smaller so that it does not completely cover occupant side 36 of the topper . moreover , forms other than flat are not precluded . for example fig4 shows the wicking layer in the form of a fitted sheet having elastic corners 70 and / or an elastic edge 72 so that the wicking layer fits snugly on topper 30 . wick rate w 2 may be spatially nonuniform , i . e . the wick rate need not be constant in any given direction . in addition the wick rate , even if constant in any given direction , need not be the same in one given direction as in another given direction . for example it is envisioned that wick rate w 2 could have a value w 2 long in the longitudinal direction and a different , higher value w 2 lat in the lateral direction , with at least w 2 lat being greater than first wick rate w 1 . because most occupants are taller than they are wide , the higher wick rate in the lateral direction can quickly transport moisture beyond the left and right edges 74 , 76 of the occupant outline 66 where that moisture will be exposed to the drying effects of ambient air in addition to being acted on by the internal air stream 50 . the higher lateral wicking rate is therefore believed to be more efficacious than a higher longitudinal wicking rate . in fig1 - 4 second region 64 is rectangular which , as used herein , includes the special case of a square , and the wicking layer is removably attached to the intermediate layer ( topper 30 ). fig6 a shows a nonrectangular second region 64 , specifically a substantially circular region . the illustrated nonrectangular region could also be shaped and dimensioned so that distance d from the edge of occupant outline 66 to the edge of second region 64 were approximately constant , or varied depending on typical perspiration rates at different portions of the occupant &# 39 ; s body . fig5 - 8 show alternative architectures . in fig5 a - 5b the alternative architecture is one in which wicking layer 52 is nonremovably attached to the topper , for example by a stitched seam 80 . in such an arrangement at least the stitching would be destroyed or damaged by the act of separating the wicking layer from the topper . in fig6 a - 6b the alternative architecture is one in which the wicking layer 52 comprises higher and lower wick rate materials 84 , 86 bonded to intermediate layer 30 by a vapor permeable adhesive 88 . alternatively the bond could be effected by spot bonding with a non - vapor permeable adhesive . higher wick rate region 64 corresponds to the higher wick rate material 84 ; lower wick rate region 62 corresponds to the lower wick rate material 86 . in fig7 a - 7b , the alternative architecture is one in which wicking layer 52 is a vapor permeable higher wick rate coating 100 and a vapor permeable lower wick rate coating 102 applied to the topper . higher wick rate region 64 corresponds to the higher wick rate coating 100 ; lower wick rate region 62 corresponds to the lower wick rate coating 102 . in fig8 a - 8b the alternative architecture is one in which wicking layer 52 comprises higher and lower wick rate overlays 106 , 108 integrated into the topper . higher wick rate region 64 corresponds to the higher wick rate overlay 106 ; lower wick rate region 62 corresponds to the lower wick rate overlay 108 . in the variants of fig6 - 8 , the lower wick rate material 86 ( fig6 ), lower wick rate coating 102 ( fig7 ) and lower wick rate overlay 108 ( fig8 ) could be dispensed with , in which case the portion of occupant side 36 of topper 30 outboard of region 64 could serve as the low wick rate region having a wick rate w 1 . fig9 shows an embodiment in which an air mattress 120 comprising multiple bladders 122 plays the role of intermediate layer 26 . collectively , the bladders define a mattress occupant side 136 and a bottom side 138 . air discharge apertures 126 penetrate through the occupant side of the mattress . a blower , not shown , supplies pressurized air to inflate the bladders . the moisture management cover or wicking layer 52 rests atop the air mattress . in this embodiment , intermediate layer 26 , as represented by air mattress 120 , only partly defines fluid flowpath 42 for airstream 50 , and is analogous to the bottom side 38 of the topper in the embodiments of fig1 - 3 . the wicking layer itself cooperates with the occupant side of the mattress to define flowpath 42 and is therefore analogous to the occupant side 36 of the topper in the embodiments of fig1 - 3 . collectively , apertures 126 serve as an inlet analogous to inlet 26 of fig1 - 3 . air discharges from the flowpath at the edges of the wicking layer . in operation the high wick rate wicking layer causes moisture to spread out over a relatively large area so that it can be more readily carried away by airstream 50 . if the wicking layer is connected to the intermediate layer by an airtight seam , other avenues for air discharge can be provided . fig1 - 11 shows the wicking layer or moisture management cover 52 in isolation , i . e . without the contextual framework of a hospital bed . the cover is nevertheless capable of being placed atop a companion article such as air mattress 120 of fig9 or mattress 24 augmented by mcc topper 30 of fig1 - 3 . the moisture management cover has discrete higher and lower wick rate regions 64 , 62 with wick rates of w 2 and w 1 respectively where w 2 is greater than w 1 ( fig1 ). the moisture management cover can take the form of , for example , a flat sheet ( as depicted in fig1 ) or a fitted sheet ( as depicted in fig1 ). the illustrated cover of fig1 includes an attachment element or elements , such as zipper 58 so that the moisture management cover can be removably joined to the occupant support article by way of a cooperating attachment element on the occupant support article . alternatively the moisture management cover could be nonremovably secured to the occupant support article by , for example , continuous or spot stitching . in yet another alternative the cover is devoid of a closure element and is merely placed atop the occupant support article without being secured thereto . as already described previously the high and low wick rate regions of fig1 - 11 can be bonded onto a substrate , can be a coating applied to a substrate or can be integral with the cover . the wick rate can be spatially nonuniform . although the embodiments disclosed herein have a first region with a lower wick rate and a second region with a higher wick rate , more than two regions each having individual , customized wick rates can be used . the terms “ wicking ” and its variants , as used herein to describe the moisture management cover , are intended to convey the notion of moisture transport in the plane of the cover and are not to be interpreted as limited to any particular physical mechanism of moisture transport . although this disclosure refers to specific embodiments , it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and detail may be made without departing from the subject matter set forth in the accompanying claims . | 0 |
in referring to the various figures of the drawing hereinbelow , like reference numerals will be used to refer to identical parts of the apparatus . referring initially to fig1 of the drawing , an optical communications system which is referred to generally by the reference numeral 10 is shown in which an optical transducer 12 according to the present invention is employed . the optical transducer 12 is completely optical in nature and employs no electrical connections or signals therein . the system 10 operates on the principle of producing an output optical signal whose amplitude is proportional to the input information variation with an optical fiber cable being utilized to convey the output optical power variation from the transducer 12 to a suitable destination . a light source 14 emits a steady state beam of light which is coupled into an optical fiber 16 . the optical fiber 16 is carried in an optical fiber cable 18 to the transducer 12 where it serves as an input optical fiber . the light source may be located at any desired distance from the transducer 12 . similarly , an output optical fiber 20 passes from the transducer 12 through the optical fiber cable 18 to a photodetector 22 which also may be disposed at any desired distance from the transducer . the output of the photodetector is amplified by an amplifier 24 and passed to an output terminal 26 to which any suitable piece of equipment may be connected to utilize the information emplaced on the optical signal by the transducer 12 . a power supply 28 supplies electrical power to the light source 14 , the photodetector 22 and the amplifier 24 , and may be portable . the light source 14 may operate in either the visible or infrared portions of the electromagnetic spectrum . the light source 14 supplies steady state optical power which is coupled into the input optical fiber 16 . the steady state optical power may be provided in any convenient form ; however , two forms are presently preferred . firstly , a constant intensity output may be supplied from the light source 14 . secondly , the light source 14 in supplying steady state optical power may supply a train of constant amplitude pulses at a sufficiently high repetition rate . in the latter case , amplitude modulation of the pulse train produces pulse amplitude modulation which is suitable for use directly by some audio systems . the light source 14 may be of any convenient and desirable form ; however , the presently preferred device for performing this function is a light emitting diode . such components are readily available , consume a minimum of power , may be easily adapted for use in optical fiber systems , and may be operated continuously or may be pulsed . the embodiment of the invention shown in fig1 utilizes a photodetector 22 for transforming the information carried on the optical signal being conveyed in the optical fiber 20 into electrical energy which may be utilized for the desired purpose with standard equipment . however , it is also included within the purview of the invention that if and when devices become available which are suitable for directly utilizing amplitude modulated optical signals for performing the desired functions , that a photodetector unit such as shown in fig1 will not be necessary within the apparatus of the invention . for example , many passive and active optical components are now producible in integrated optical form so that the signal from the optical fiber 20 may be directly introducible into further optical signal processing apparatus . when a photodetector 22 is incorporated into the apparatus , the presently preferred form consists of a photodiode which for economic reasons is preferably of the non - avalanche type . a typical photodiode which is suitable for use in this application is model sgd - 040a silicon photodiode produced by eg & amp ; g , inc ., bedford , mass . the photodiode converts the incident optical power into an electrical signal containing the information derived from the optical signal which may then be amplified by the detector amplifier 24 . the detector amplifier provides sufficient gain so that its output may be utilized in whatever succeeding apparatus is connected to the output terminal 26 . turning now to fig2 through 7 , there are shown specific embodiments of optical transducers according to the present invention which can be incorporated into the system shown in fig1 . fig2 is an optical transducer identified generally by the reference numeral 12 in which one of a pair of associated optical fibers 16 an 20 is fixed while the other is movable in response to an external acoustic or mechanical stimulus . in this particular embodiment , the output end of the input optical fiber 16 is fixed to a support 34 which may be , for example , a portion of a transducer housing in which the various components are enclosed and protected . the output optical fiber 20 has its input end 32 normally aligned essentially parallel to the output end of the input optical fiber 16 and in opposition thereto . the optical fiber ends 30 and 32 are preferably quite close to each other so that good coupling efficiency therebetween may be attained . in this manner , a predetermined portion of the optical power emitted by the input optical fiber 16 may be coupled into the output optical fiber 20 . a means 36 is affixed to the input end 32 of the output optical fiber 20 and serves to receive information from an external acoustic or mechanical source in the environment in which the transducer 12 is located . in response to the information received from the source , the means 36 moves the input end 32 of the output optical fiber 20 relative to the output end 30 of the input optical fiber 16 so that the coupling efficiency between the two optical fibers is varied in direct response to the information received from the source . therefore , the amount of optical energy coupled into the output optical fiber 20 varies as a direct function of the position of the input end 32 relative to the output end 30 . in this manner , an amplitude modulated output optical signal is carried by the output optical fiber 20 through the optical fiber cable 18 to the apparatus which is to utilize the optical signal . the means 36 for receiving information from the source varies depending upon the type of information to be received from that source . a simple push - button may be utilized if the device 12 is to operate as a simple switch or a direct physical connection could be made to a movable member such as a door . in this case , mere displacement of the input end 32 so that the coupling efficiency is reduced to zero is necessary . however , if the transducer 12 is to receive energy which is oscillatory , such as acoustic or vibrational energy , the means 36 is usually attached to a member which is capable of sensing the acoustic or vibrational energy directly . a typical example of such an energy sensing member , which may be employed in that instance where the transducer is to serve as a microphone , is a diaphragm . in the succeeding descriptions relative to fig3 through 7 , the devices described will each include a diaphragm as an information receiving member ; however , it should be understood that such an information receiving member is merely exemplary and all other such members are also included within the purview of the invention as described . referring now specifically to fig3 there is shown an optical transducer 50 having an input optical fiber 52 and an output optical fiber 54 which pass through an optical fiber cable 56 . similarly to the input optical fiber 16 in fig2 the input optical fiber 52 in this embodiment has its output end 58 fixed to a transducer housing support 60 whereas the input end 62 of the output optical fiber 54 is affixed by means of a tying member 64 to an energy receiving diaphragm 66 . the respective ends of the optical fibers are aligned relative to each other as fibers 16 and 20 of fig2 . the diaphragm 66 is also supported at its periphery by the transducer housing 60 . the oscillatory , movement of the diaphragm 66 in response to the impingement of acoustic energy thereon , is shown by the dotted lines on either side of the solid line which is the normal position of the diaphragm 66 . when in that normal position , a predetermined portion of the optical power carried by the input optical fiber 52 is transferred to the output optical fiber 54 . preferably , the portion of the energy which is coupled into the output optical fiber 54 when the diaphragm 66 is in its normal position is approximately one - half . therefore , as the diaphragm oscillates in response to the impingement of the acoustic energy , the coupling coefficient is able to both increase and decrease from the predetermined portion . the displacement of the output optical fiber 54 relative to the input optical fiber 52 may then be determined by whether the coupling coefficient exceeds or is less than that in the normal position . in the embodiment of the invention shown in fig4 the output end 86 of an input optical fiber 82 and the input end 88 of an output optical fiber 84 are fixed within a transducer support housing 90 . the ends 86 and 88 are juxtaposed in a manner similar to fig2 and 3 and form a narrow gap 96 therebetween . a diaphragm 92 is also supported by and within the transducer housing 90 and has a depending member 94 attached thereto which extends , in the normal position of the diaphragm 92 , at least partially into the gap 96 . in this manner , a predetermined portion of the optical power emitted from the output end 86 is interrupted prior to impingement on the input end 88 . therefore , when the diaphragm 92 flexes in response to the receipt of acoustic energy , the member 94 reciprocates within the gap 96 at the frequency and amplitude of the diaphragm . as the depending member 94 reciprocates , it blocks the optical power emitted from the input optical fiber 82 to a greater or lesser extent depending upon the position of the member 94 within the gap 96 . therefore , the member 94 serves to modulate the intensity of the optical power received by the output optical fiber 84 and carried by it to the output optical cable 98 . the member 94 may be a birefringent wedge , an opaque member , or the like so long as it is capable of interrupting and intensity modulating the optical power emitted from the input optical fiber 82 before being received at the input end 88 of the output optical fiber 84 . referring now to fig5 there is shown another embodiment of the present invention which is designated generally by the reference numeral 100 . in this embodiment , both an input optical fiber 102 and an output optical fiber 104 which are carried to the transducer 100 by an optical fiber cable 106 are supported and fixed within a transducer housing 108 . the output end 110 of the input optical fiber 102 and the input end 112 of the output optical fiber 104 are pointed at a spot 114 on and near the center of a diaphragm 116 . the bottom surface of the diaphragm 116 on which the spot 114 is located is reflective so that , in its normal position , a predetermined portion of the optical power emitted from the output end 110 is received by the input end 112 . as the diaphragm oscillates in response to received acoustic energy , as shown by the dotted lines , the position of the spot 114 varies thereby defocussing the system and causing a time varying alteration in the optical coupling coefficient between the input optical fiber 102 and the output optical fiber 104 thereby providing an intensity modulated output signal in the output optical fiber 104 . in the embodiment of the invention shown in fig6 of the drawing , an optical transducer designated generally by the reference numeral 120 is shown in which an input optical fiber 122 and an output optical fiber 124 are joined at their proximal ends to form a continuous optical fiber passing into and out of an optical fiber cable 126 . the continuous optical fiber is positioned across a pair of fixed and spaced supports 128 and 130 . the supports 128 and 130 are contained within a transducer housing 132 . a diaphragm 134 is also supported within the transducer housing 132 and is attached to a depending member 136 whose distal end 138 bears against the optical fiber at a point centrally disposed between the supports 128 and 130 and in opposition thereto . in this manner , the optical fiber is bent by a force applied by the end 138 such that the radius of curvature of the bend is a function of the position of the diaphragm 134 . it is known in the art that bending of an optical fiber causes light propagating through the optical fiber to be radiated from the vicinity of the bend causing a decrease in the transmission of the optical power therethrough . therefore , by application of a varying degree of bending in response to the impingement of energy on a diaphragm 134 , the optical power contained within the output optical fiber 124 is intensity modulated . although an opposed support system is shown and utilized in the embodiment of fig6 it is included within the purview of the invention that any such means of stressing an optical fiber in order to affect the transmission characteristics thereof is included therewithin . referring finally to fig7 an embodiment of the present invention designated generally by the reference numeral 140 is shown in which an input optical fiber 142 and an output optical fiber 144 which are carried by an optical fiber cable 146 are aligned generally parallel to each other . the output end 148 of the input optical fiber 142 and the input end 150 of the output optical fiber 144 are essentially coplanar and are fixed within the transducer housing 152 . this embodiment further includes a porro prism pivoted at its apex 156 about a line parallel to the plane of the ends 148 and 150 and midway between the optical fibers . the input optical power from the optical fiber 142 enters the porro prism through its transmitting face 162 and is reflected by total internal reflection at the face 158 to the opposing face 160 . at the face 160 , the light is again reflected by total internal reflection back through the transmitting face 162 to the output optical fiber 144 . once again , in the normal position for the apparatus , only a predetermined portion of the optical power emitted from the input optical fiber 142 is coupled into the output optical fiber 144 . a diaphragm 164 which is also mounted within the transducer housing 152 has a depending member 166 attached near the center thereof . the member 166 is also attached to the porro prism at a distance from the apex 156 . therefore , upon impingement of acoustic energy against the diaphragm 164 , the diaphragm oscillates and the porro prism rocks about its pivot point at the apex 156 causing a variation in the optical power reflected by the faces 158 and 160 into the output optical fiber 144 . in this manner , intensity modulation of the optical power carried by the output optical fiber 144 is achieved . while there have been shown and described what are considered to be preferred embodiments of the present invention , it will be obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art that various changes and modifications may be made therein without departing from the spirit of the invention as defined in the appended claims . | 6 |
in fig1 , illustrations of the splittable needle according to the invention are shown . the needle consists of two parts , i . e . a first shaft element 110 and a second shaft element 120 . the second shaft element is partly enclosed by the first shaft element . at the proximal end of the splittable needle , gripping portions are provided . a first holder part 112 is attached to the first shaft element 110 , whereas a second holder part 122 is attached to the second shaft portion 120 . by way of pulling the gripped holder parts away from each other , the shaft elements may be easily separated from each other . a reliable connection between the first and second shaft elements is realized by an overlap of the end portions 114 of the first shaft element 110 over the end portions 124 of the second shaft element 120 . additionally , inward - projections 116 are provided between each of the first end sections 114 and a middle section 118 of the first shaft element . furthermore , the second shaft element 120 includes bulks or projections 126 between the two end sections 124 and a middle section 128 , in order to make it robust and to provide stabilization so that the two shaft elements cannot rotate with respect to each other . furthermore , due to the construction of the invention , the two shaft elements 110 , 120 can be torn apart or can slide with respect to each other in the longitudinal direction . this enables that the needle can be split in two , the needle parts can be partially shifted with respect to each other to create an opening to the side or the two separate shaft elements can be reassembled if necessary . the holder parts 112 , 122 of the needle may contain additional functionalities apart from the functionality to be able to easily separate the two parts of the splittable needle . as can be seen in fig2 , the distal tip portion of the two shaft elements 110 , 120 as well as a probe body 210 are slanted to form a needle tip capable of being easily introduced into tissue . in the probe body 210 , a first optical fiber 220 is located adjacent to the distal end of the slanted front surface of the probe body , and a second optical fiber 220 is located at the proximal end of the slanted surface of the probe body . therefore , the two fibers may be arranged as far as possible away from each other on the slanted surface . one fiber may deliver light to the distal end of the probe body while the other fiber may collect the scattered light and may guide this light towards a detector in a console for spectroscopy . it is noted , that the optical fibers 220 may be directly embedded in the probe body 210 or placed in channels formed in the probe body , at the above described positions . alternatively each of the optical fibers 220 may be located within a duct 235 which is formed between an outward projection 126 of the second shaft element 120 and an outer surface of the probe body 210 , instead of within the probe body . it is noted that additional fibers or other functionality like ablation or suction may be easily integrated within the duct 235 . furthermore , the duct 235 may be utilized to extract a fluid , cells or tissue or to inject substances like pharmaceuticals . in fig3 , an exemplary illustration of the splittable needle is shown , with the second shaft element 120 slide ably pulled back relative to the first shaft element 110 , so that a portion of the side surface of the probe body 210 inside the splittable needle is exposed to the tissue surrounding the needle . this allows side way inspection of the tissue . this is of particular interest when tissue is sensitive to bleedings , for instance in the lung . in this case voids in front of the needle can easily fill up with blood making optical inspection of the tissue influenced by this bleeding . when looking to the side this effect is less apparent because the tissue is usually pressed firmly to the side of the needle avoiding voids filled with blood . in fig4 , both shaft elements 110 , 120 of the splittable needle are pulled back so that openings of channels 230 in the circumferential surface of the probe body 210 are exposed . such channels 230 with openings in the circumferential surface of the probe body 210 may be used for anchoring wires 240 . an end of a wire 240 may be moved out of such an opening to form a fixation means for fixation of the probe body 210 within a tissue . fig5 illustrates a tip portion of a splittable needle with fixation wires 240 protruding out of the probe body 210 . each fixation wire consists of a curved metal part that when moved with respect to the probe body will extrude to the side of the probe body away from the optical fiber ends . due to the curvature of the metal part the wire will curl into the tissue giving rise to a firm fixation of the probe . it is noted that the fixation wires may also be in the shape of a corkscrew . in this case the fixation wire is turned such that the corkscrew part screws inside the tissue again providing a firm fixation . in fig6 , a system according to the invention is shown including a splittable needle 100 and a device for tissue inspection 300 . within the two shaft elements 110 , 120 , an optical probe 200 is located , wherein the probe body 210 may be elastical or flexible . at the proximal end of a probe body 210 , a connector 250 is provided for a connection of especially the ends of the optical fibers provided within the probe body . additionally , for example at a side of the connector 250 , an actuation element 242 may be arranged for an actuation , i . e . a shifting of the fixation wire within the probe body in a longitudinal direction , so that the distal end of the fixation wire may protrude out of the distal end of the probe body , as shown in fig5 . the optical probe 200 is connected to a tissue inspection device 300 by way of a connector 250 at the probe body 210 which is connected with a connector 310 at an end of an optical cable 320 leading to a console 330 including a light source and a light detector . the light source of the console 330 enables light to be provided via one of the fibers to the distal end of the optical probe 200 . the light scattered by tissue is collected by the other fiber and is guided towards the light detector . the data are processed using a dedicated algorithm . for instance light is coupled out of the distal tip through at least one fiber , which serves as a source , and the wavelength is swept from e . g . 500 - 1600 nm . the corresponding wavelength - dependent reflection is measured by at least one other fiber , which is spatially separated from the source at e . g . 1 - 2 mm . the amount of reflected light measured at the “ detection ” fiber , is determined by the absorption and scattering properties of the probed structure ( e . g . tissue ). upon spatial and temporal ( wavelength - dependent ) multiplexing , reflections can be measured at multiple sites of the electrode tip . although diffuse reflectance spectroscopy is described above to extract tissue properties also other optical methods can be envisioned like fluorescence spectroscopy measurement , diffuse optical tomography by employing a plurality of optical fibers , differential path length spectroscopy , or raman spectroscopy . fig7 is a flow chart , showing the steps of a method of the use of the splittable needle together with an optical probe according to the invention . it will be understood , that the steps described with respect to the method are major steps , wherein these major steps might be differentiated or divided into several sub - steps . furthermore , there might be also sub - steps between these major steps . therefore , a sub - step is only mentioned , if that step is important for the understanding of the principles of the method according to the invention . in step s 1 , the splittable needle with the optical probe inside is introduced percutaneously through the tissue to a desired position within the tissue . in step s 2 , the signal from the optical probe is used to confirm that the probe tip is inside tumor tissue , for example . in step s 3 , at least one fixation wire is employed to firmly fixate the probe tip in the tissue . in step s 4 , the splittable needle is retraced back out of the tissue . in step s 5 , the splittable needle is split in two shaft elements and is removed , wherein the probe remains in the body . in step s 6 , the probe is used to measure the tissue properties over time when administering for example chemotherapy . in step s 7 , when the treatment shows a positive response , the optical probe is removed by first retracing the fixation wires and then the optical probe itself . in the following , an algorithm is described by means of which optical tissue properties such as the scattering coefficient and absorption coefficient of different tissue chromophores : e . g . hemoglobin , oxygenated haemoglobin , water , fat , etc . may be derived . these properties may be different for healthy tissue compared to diseased tissue such as tumor tissue and can be used to discriminate healthy from diseased tissue . this can be useful for positioning the optical insert at the correct location . for instance correct placement of the optical insert tip in the tumor for tumor response measurement on chemotherapy . another application may be when tissue is treated by for instance ablation . in this case the progress of the tissue ablation can be followed by the optical probe . in more detail the algorithm can be described as follows . the spectral fitting will be performed by making use of the analytically derived formula for reflectance spectroscopy ( see ref [ t . farrell et al . ‘ a diffusion theory model of spatially resolved steady - state diffuse reflectance for non - invasive determination of tissue optical properties in vivo ’, med . phys . 19 ( 1992 ), page 879 - 888 ]). a detailed description of the algorithm can be found in the paper by r . nachabe , et al ., “ estimation of lipid and water concentrations in scattering media with diffuse optical spectroscopy from 900 to 1600 nm ” in journal of biomedical optics volume 15 ( 3 ), 2010 , page 037015 that we include by reference . this reflectance distribution r is given by in this formula the three macroscopic parameters describing the probability of interaction with tissue are : the absorption coefficient μ a and the scattering coefficient μ s both in cm − 1 as well as by g which is the mean cosine of the scattering angle . furthermore , we have the total reduced attenuation coefficient μ t ′ that gives the total chance for interaction with tissue the albedo a ′ is the probability of scattering relative to the total probability of interaction a point source at a depth z 0 = 1 / μ t ′ and no boundary mismatch hence z b = 2 /( 3μ t ′) are assumed . furthermore , it is assumed that the scattering coefficient can be written as the main absorbing constituents in normal tissue dominating the absorption in the visible and near - infrared range are blood ( i . e . hemoglobin ), water and fat . in fig8 , the absorption coefficient of these chromophores as a function of the wavelength is presented . note that blood dominates the absorption in the visible range , while water and fat dominate in the near infrared range . the total absorption coefficient is a linear combination of the absorption coefficients of for instance blood , water and fat ( hence for each component the value of that shown in fig8 multiply by its volume fraction ). by fitting the above formula while using the power law for scattering we can determine the volume fractions of the blood , water and fat as well as the scattering coefficient . with this method we can now translate the measured spectra in physiological parameters that can be used to discriminate different tissues . another way to discriminate differences in spectra is by making use of multivariate statistical analysis methods such as principal component analysis which render classification of differences in spectra and thus allows discrimination between tissues . while the invention has been illustrated and described in detail in the drawings and foregoing description , such illustration and description are to be considered illustrative or exemplary and not restrictive . the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments . other variations to the disclosed embodiments can be understood and effected by those skilled in the art in practicing the claimed invention , from a study of the drawings , the disclosure , and the appended claims . in the claims , the word “ comprising ” does not exclude other elements or steps , and the indefinite article “ a ” or “ an ” does not exclude a plurality . any reference signs in the claims should not be construed as limiting the scope . | 0 |
a substantial part of various embodiments is a move away from seeing noise as purely a fault parameter . noise is used instead , within the framework of various embodiments , as a source of information to be used . the method for monitoring the noise of a sensor output signal is characterized in accordance with various embodiments in that the influence of spectral components of the sensor noise signal is determined and compared with set values . this analysis is preferably carried out on the basis of the standard deviation of the arithmetic mean . an embodiment is characterized in that an output signal of a sensor is sampled , grouped together into a given number of sample values and a first form of averaging is carried out , and in that the results of this first averaging undergo a second form of averaging , taking one or more adjacent or preceding and / or subsequent values into account . a device in accordance with various embodiments provides means of implementing a method , whereby a sampler is connected to a signal output of a sensor , the sampler is connected to a first buffer memory for the storage of sample values in the sequence in which they arrive , and the buffer memory is connected to an arithmetic element for determining a first average , whereby the arithmetic element can be adjusted with regard to the number of sample values , and whereby a second memory is connected to an output of the arithmetic element for storage of results in the sequence in which they arrive , and the second memory is connected to a second arithmetic element , so that a second form of averaging can be carried out taking one or more adjacent or preceding and / or subsequent values into account , whereby the second arithmetic element is connected to an output on a data rom and comparison means for transmitting a resulting value and / or a comparing result evaluation . a particularly advantageous use of a method according to various embodiments is based on the realization that a noisy sensor signal is not only caused by the quality of the sensor . a signal - quality similar to the noise can , for example , be caused by the normal driving dynamics of a motor vehicle , or by a specific roughness of the given road surface , or again by certain abnormal driving situations . the given effects can be distinguished in the frequency range , such that the effect of normal driving dynamics and of normal sensor functioning on a noise signal can be blocked out , through the form and mode of adjustment of signal analysis in accordance with various embodiments , in favor of the analysis of abnormal effects . in this way , in connection with the method in accordance with various embodiments , by adaptation to the very substantial motor vehicle sector , conclusions can be drawn , on a given road surface , from a sensor signal . in known techniques , abs sensor output signals , for example , undergo more expensive secondary analysis in order to determine a given friction value . by contrast , the method according to various embodiments offers an economical , fast and reliable method of determining a rough estimate of friction between vehicle tires and road surface , and a corresponding device . this representation of an application of a method according to various embodiments and a device developed accordingly does not represent a limitation on its use and / or adaptability . rather , this application serves as an exemplary representation of a form of implementation of various embodiments , in terms of a detailed description of qualities and advantages , together with adaptation parameters . various embodiments offers an arithmetic technique for fast and efficient calculation of sensor noise and analysis by using the convolutional method . in a vehicle , noise monitoring can be applied inter alia to the measured values , from analog sensor output signals , of a yaw rate ω z , a longitudinal acceleration a x , a transverse acceleration a y , individual wheel speeds v 1 , v 2 , v 3 , v 4 or further driving dynamics sensors d i of the relevant vehicle with road contact that is as direct as possible . the process concerned is fundamentally the same for all these signals , occurring as follows : analog input magnitudes of a measured value are converted into series of discrete measuring points s ( i ) at sampling time - points i along the time axis , by sampling at fixed temporal intervals t a or at a sampling frequency f a . such a series of discrete measuring points or sample values s ( i ) is then divided up into analysis sections of a given number n w of sample values , and an average value is determined , whereby this analysis section is consequently the same as a window with a set width n w , in m stages of the window width n w for example . in other words , an analysis - section , of a temporal width that can be discretely set , is first created in the form of a sliding window in which all values are added and then divided by the given number of added values , to find the arithmetic mean or empirical average value . the average value over n time - intervals at time k is given by : s _ n ( k ) = 1 n ∑ i = k · n - 1 k s ( i ) n = the number of values s ( i ) per window or window - size k = 0 , 1 , 2 , etc ., the running index over a total number of temporally discrete measuring points s ( k ) of the sampled analog sensor signals , which are divided up into a given number of sampled measured values . the quadratic mean , or standard , deviation , otherwise known as the root mean square ( rms ), over n time intervals at time k is then given by : a convolution over a set of different granularities m ={ m 0 , m 1 , m 2 , . . . } for a window width n w is given by : s n w conv ( k ) = f ( n w , m , s ) where f is a function that calculates and links the different rms ŝ n ( k ) within the signals s ( k − n w + 1 ) and s ( k ). the contributing frequencies can be selected through the choice of n w and of the given granularities m . in the present case , in accordance with fig1 , a linear addition is chosen with the equation : other forms of averaging , weighting or selective emphasis of certain frequencies not presented further below are also possible . within the above formulae , a window width or size n w specifies a focus on a given contribution of a certain frequency f b , to be analyzed , to an end result . there is a limit to a lowest frequency f b affecting analysis and / or calculation by its period t b in accordance with the nyquist - shannon sampling theorem . the lowest frequency is calculated as being : this is the minimum frequency that can be set by means of a window of width n w by means of discrete measuring points s ( i ) of the analog input signal . this also shows the relationship whereby the analysis frequency f b also increases with increasing granularity m , that is , with increasing fragmentation of the window of width n w . an analog signal can thereby be analyzed within the framework of the method described above , by selectively processing temporally discrete signals for the contribution of certain analyzed frequencies to significant departures from normal values for example towards the given analyzed frequencies . in place of the formula proposed above a light and comparatively more effective , recursive formula , for the arithmetic mean , that is programmed on a microcontroller , is used below : η _ w ( k ) = η _ w ( k - 1 ) + 1 n w ζ ( k ) , with the window - size n w and the parameter η as one of the measured and sampled signal values s ( i ), i = 1 , 2 , . . . n . n is the total number of the measured values available . in accordance with this formula a window is slid over a sequence of sampling values such that , in each stage , a first value drops out of the window and a new , final value is taken up . an analogous procedure also lends itself to determining the rms standard deviation . fig1 shows an exemplary embodiment concerning a number n w of 20 values , of the sampling sequence s ( k ), obtained from an analog sensor output signal at a time interval t a = 4 ms . these values are now stored in a corresponding device 1 in a memory 2 and processed by an arithmetic element , such that , dependent on granularity m applied each time on the same data series of n w = 20 , the following results are determined for n = 5 , in the course of concluding linear averaging . in the above results , the contributions of the following five frequencies are selected and taken into account : exemplary embodiments of the method described above are now described for a vehicle , with the aid of the figures in the drawing : monitoring of sensor noise can be realized by means of the above calculation of sensor - noise , and can be used for the general function monitoring of a sensor . the results are made more plausible by introducing two limits in the form of threshold values and this increase in plausibility itself contains general function monitoring of the sensor itself . fig2 shows an exemplary block diagram of a concrete application of this method , illustrating a monitoring algorithm of a sensor - noise signal d 1 , taking a given , current vehicle speed into account . any sensor output signal that reflects road - contact that is as direct as is possible can be used here . according to the method and / or device 1 described with reference to the drawings in fig1 , the sensor - noise signal is examined in accordance with the sampling . different frequency ranges are to be distinguished in the applied sensor - noise signal ; normal vehicle dynamics affect a range between 0 and 5 hz . the aim of the method described below is to eliminate these frequencies through a suitable choice of window size n w and granularity m . an increase in sensor noise beyond a given limiting value for product noise can , for example , be caused by ageing of the sensor element or through external interference such as electromagnetic interference ( emc ). however , mechanical shock impulses or signal breaks also lead to such an increase , or to a reduction of this type . alarm 1 provides information relating to sensor quality through general threshold - value comparison . alarm 2 on the other hand , offers additional information relating to different driving or road conditions , whereby the focus is on the parameter ω z . for an analysis of contributions going beyond normal driving dynamics , the frequencies concerned lie in a frequency range beginning at approximately 5 hz . an appropriate choice of an adjusted size n w of the sliding window and a level of convolution m can be set consonant with the sampling rate . abnormal sensor noise can be recognized by a comparison of the given convolution value with a result obtained with the set frequency for a normal , flat road surface . as has been mentioned above , the quality of sensor noise can also be caused by specific road - surface conditions . test measurements show a connection between the threshold values for sensor noise and varying road conditions . these further contain different values of friction between tires and the road surface . fig3 , like fig2 , is a block diagram showing analysis , by grading sensor - noise limit and / or threshold values , of friction , and use of different output values of differing indicative value . fig4 shows a basic comparison , of wheel friction and sensor - noise threshold - values , forming the basis of the example of implementation of fig3 . this relationship between friction and the sensor - noise threshold value and analysis of it in accordance with the method described above are only one example of practical application in respect of the field of automotive engineering . with the above evaluation according to fig3 , a frequency - selective decision is finally made , by means of comparisons of threshold values , as to in which interval a calculated sensor - noise value lies . with this , the decision for low , average or high friction can be made and transmitted to a motor management and / or driver assistance system . the form of implementation in fig3 therefore also lends itself to the possibility of estimating friction between tires and road surface , using the algorithm , insofar as the tire - pressure does not diverge greatly from the required value . exact calculation of friction in terms of sliding friction is , by comparison , very expensive . it is , for example , based on complex modeling of tire behavior and highly exacting numerical methods . a combination of the above - mentioned methods can give a sure estimate of wheel friction . the convolutional method provides a rapid rough grading of friction . as a result , start or input parameters can be set for calculation on the basis of more expensive designs . | 6 |
an exemplary embodiment of a bicycle fork crown according to the principles of the present invention is illustrated in fig1 through 4 and identified by reference numeral 10 . as best shown in fig1 , fork crown 10 includes a setting boss 12 and a connector holder 14 . the connector holder 14 has an inlet 18 , best shown in fig4 , for receiving an electrical cable 16 a and an outlet 20 , best shown in fig1 . the inlet 18 of the connector holder 14 is preferably dimensioned to securely receive electrical cables . as best shown in fig1 and 4 , in one embodiment of the invention , an electrical connector 22 is used to electrically connect cable 16 a with another cable 16 b . the electrical connector 22 preferably has a first end 24 attachable to the outlet 20 of the connector holder 14 and a second end 26 dimensioned to receive electrical cable 16 b . connector 22 provides an electrical connection for cable 16 a and 16 b . in the embodiment depicted in fig2 and 4 , cable 16 a is connected to a motor and transmits code to and from the motor . the invention , however , is not limited to cables that are connected to a particular motor or other electromechanical device . rather , the invention can be utilized in any application wherein electrical cables are used . as best shown in fig1 through 3 , cable 16 b is electrically connected to cables 16 c and 16 d via a connector cable terminal 28 . cable terminal 28 has various electrical ports 30 , dimensioned to receive the electrical cables 16 b , 16 c and 16 d . in the embodiment shown in fig1 through 3 , the cable terminal 28 has three ports 30 dimensioned to receive the three cables 16 b , 16 c , and 16 d . in other embodiments of the invention , the connector cable terminal can have any number of ports , as needed to accommodate the number of electrical cables that are required to be electrically connected . the setting boss 12 is dimensioned to receive the connector cable terminal 28 thereon in a preferred embodiment of the invention , the setting boss 12 protrudes from the surface 32 of the fork crown and is integrally attached to the surface 32 . in the embodiment shown in fig1 through 3 , the setting boss is shown as having a circular cross - section corresponding to a bore 34 in the connector cable terminal 28 . the connector cable terminal 28 is preferably mounted on the setting boss 12 and secured thereto by a fastening device 36 . in a preferred embodiment of the invention , the setting boss is internally threaded to correspond to the external threads on a fastening device 36 . the connector cable terminal 28 is fastened to the setting boss 12 by engaging the threads of the fastening device 36 with the internal threads of the setting boss 12 . as shown in fig1 , in a preferred embodiment of the invention , the fastening device 36 is a setting screw . the connector cable terminal 28 and the centering boss 12 are shown in fig1 through 3 as having a circular cross - section . however , the invention is not limited as such and in various embodiments of the invention , the centering boss 12 and the connector cable terminal 28 can have any desired shape . fig5 though 8 illustrate an alternative embodiment of the present invention wherein a fork crown cover 100 is placed over the bicycle fork crown 10 , and the setting boss 112 and connector holder 114 are attached to the fork crown cover 100 , rather than the fork crown 10 . the structure and electrical connections of the setting boss 112 and the connector holder 114 are substantially similar to those described in the embodiment of fig1 through 4 . specifically , the connector holder 114 has an inlet 118 for receiving an electrical cable 116 a and an outlet 120 . the inlet 118 of the connector holder 114 is preferably dimensioned to securely receive electrical cables . an electrical connector 122 is used to electrically connect cable 116 a with another cable 116 b . the electrical connector 122 preferably has a first end 124 attachable to the outlet 120 of the connector holder 114 and a second end 126 dimensioned to receive electrical cable 116 b . connector 122 provides an electrical connection for cable 116 a and 116 b . as best shown in fig5 and 7 , cable 116 b is electrically connected to cables 116 c and 116 d via a connector cable terminal 128 . cable terminal 128 has various electrical ports 130 dimensioned to receive the electrical cables 116 b , 116 c , and 116 d . in the embodiments shown in fig5 through 7 , the cable terminal 128 has three ports 130 dimensioned to receive the three cables 116 b , 116 c , and 116 d . in other embodiments of the invention , the connector cable terminal 128 can have any number of ports , as needed to receive and connect electrical cables . as best shown in fig5 and 7 , the setting boss 112 is dimensioned to receive the connector cable terminal 128 thereon . in a preferred embodiment of the invention , the setting boss 112 protrudes from the surface 132 of the fork crown cover 100 and is integrally attached to the surface 132 . in the embodiment shown in fig5 through 7 , the setting boss 112 is shown as having a circular cross - section corresponding to a bore 134 in the connector cable terminal 128 . the connector cable terminal 128 is preferably mounted on the setting boss 112 and secured thereto by a fastening device 136 . in a preferred embodiment of the present invention , the setting boss 112 is internally threaded to correspond to the external threads on the fastening device 136 . the connector cable terminal 128 is preferably fastened to the setting boss 112 by engaging the threads of the fastening device 136 with the internal threads of the setting boss 112 . in another embodiment of the invention , as shown in fig9 , the fork crown cover 100 has a channel 138 defined therein for accessing the pre - load adjuster ( not shown ). by accessing the pre - load adjuster , the suspension system can be altered to account for the rider &# 39 ; s weight . for example , for a light - weight rider , the spring of the suspension system can be adjusted for less pre - load . for a heavy - weight rider the spring of the suspension system can be adjusted to provide more pre - load . the channel 138 in the fork crown cover 100 allows easy access to the rider or dealer to adjust the pre - load of the spring . to prevent dirt , fluids and other elements from damaging the pre - load adjustment mechanism , a cap 140 is provided to cover the access channel 138 when the pre - load adjustment mechanism is being used . the cap 140 is preferably dimensioned to cover the access to channel 138 and preferably includes a notch 142 therein to facilitate the removal of the cap 140 from the crown cover 100 when access to the channel 138 is desired . in another embodiment of the present invention , as shown in fig1 and 11 , the fork crown cover 100 includes a fork crown lower cover 102 and a fork crown upper cover 104 . the upper cover 104 preferably includes the setting boss 112 and connector holder 114 . in an alternative embodiment , the crown cover 100 can include only the upper cover 104 , leaving the fork crown 10 exposed to the environment from below . by providing a lower cover 102 , in addition to the upper cover 104 , the fork crown 10 is better protected from rain , dust , dirt and other elements that could cause damage to the fork crown 10 or the suspension system generally . the lower cover 102 can be fastened to the fork crown 10 or to the upper crown 104 by any known fastening means . in a preferred embodiment of the invention , as shown in fig1 , the lower cover 102 is fastened to the fork crown 10 using setting screws 106 . other known fastening devices can be used in place of setting screws 106 . in another preferred embodiment of the invention , as shown in fig1 and 14 , upper cover 104 includes a setting aperture 108 and the lower cover includes a flexible setting post 110 dimensioned to engage with the setting aperture 108 . the flexible setting post preferably has a latch portion 111 that protrudes into the setting aperture 108 when the setting post 110 is engaged with the setting aperture 108 . the latch portion 111 securely fastens the upper cover 104 to the lower cover 102 when the post 110 is engaged with the aperture 108 . in another preferred embodiment of the invention , as shown in fig1 and 16 , a cover 150 made of a soft material is used to cover the fork crown 10 , generally , and the connector holder 14 , specifically . the cover 150 is preferably made of an electrically insulative material and more preferably is made of rubber . some of the benefits of the rubber cover 150 are that it is flexible , allowing for easy fitting over the fork crown , and inexpensive . additionally , if using a rubber cover 150 , the electrical connections can be bare code with rough connection . by having bare code with rough connection , the need for an electrical connector 22 and a connector cable terminal 28 is eliminated , as shown in fig1 , further reducing the assembly cost of the electrical connections . | 1 |
referring to fig1 warp threads 1 , which are moved by heddles 2 and extend towards the fabric beat - up edge , form an open shed at the location of the front part of each insertion member or shuttle 3 . between every two successive shuttles there is a change of shed . the individual sheds move in undulated manner in the direction indicated by the arrow a ; the shuttles 3 move together with the sheds in the same direction and each of them inserts a filling thread 5 during its advance . for the sake of convenience in an understanding of the drawing , the warp threads 1 have been shown less close together than is actually the case . the fabric itself is designated by 6 . the forward movement of the shuttle 3 is effected by the laminas 4 acting as filling - thread beat - up members , extending between the warp threads and being pressed from below against the rear oblique edge of the shuttles 3 ( as seen in the direction of movement ) and thereby move the latter in the direction indicated by the arrow a . at the same time the corresponding filling thread 5 is beaten up against the beat - up edge of the fabric by the lamina 4 which is nearest to the top at the time . the guiding of the shuttles 3 in each web is effected by the warp threads 1 . in accordance with fig2 the laminas 4 are developed as single - arm levers and are pivotally supported on a common shaft 7 . the shaft 7 which forms the pivot axis of the laminas 4 extends in the filling direction over the entire width of the loom . the free end of the laminas 4 engages between the warp threads 1 and serves to drive the shuttles and for the beating up of the filling . at a distance of about one - third of the length of the laminas 4 from their pivot axis , the upper and lower edges of the laminas are developed as contact parts 16 , 16 &# 39 ; against each of which contact parts a separate flexible coupling body 10 and 10 &# 39 ; respectively rests . the coupling bodies 10 , 10 &# 39 ; which extend over the entire width of the undulating - shed loom are guided in corresponding recesses on the one end of the double - armed levers 11 and 11 &# 39 ; respectively serving as drive means for the laminas 4 . the levers 11 , 11 &# 39 ; which are arranged close together over the width of the loom are each pivotally supported around a separate shaft 12 and 12 &# 39 ; respectively , arranged parallel to the shaft 7 , and each of them is coupled in force locked manner at its other end with separate eccentric drive member 13 and 13 &# 39 ; respectively . the eccentric drive members can be formed , for instance , by a screw shaft means or , as indicated in the figure , by eccentric disks arranged alongside of each other on a common drive shaft 14 . the axis of the shaft 12 which forms the pivot axis of the levers 11 lies in the extension of the straight line defined by the axis of the shaft 7 and the contact surface between contact part 16 and coupling body 10 in the central swing position of the laminas 4 . the same applies with respect to the position of the axis of the shaft 12 &# 39 ; with respect to the axis of the shaft 7 and the contact surface between contact part 16 &# 39 ; and coupling body 10 &# 39 ;. by this mutual position of the said parts , the result is obtained that there are practically no relative movements between the coupling bodies and the contact part of the corresponding laminas . the laminas 4 and the parts driving them are mounted on a support plate 15 connected with the machine frame and are covered by a cover plate 31 . referring to fig3 which is a view seen in the direction of the arrow b in fig2 the left - hand side of the figure being a view with the cover plate 31 removed ( fig2 ) and the right - hand side of the figure being a section along the line c -- c of fig2 the width of the levers 11 , 11 &# 39 ; at the end thereof acting on the coupling body 10 , 10 &# 39 ; is a multiple of the thickness of one lamina 4 . the ratio of the width of the levers 11 , 11 &# 39 ; to the thickness of the laminas 4 is equal to about 10 : 1 to 20 : 1 . in actual practice a lever width of about 7 mm . has been found particularly favorable ; the thickness of the laminas 4 is about 0 . 4 mm . the width of the levers 11 , 11 &# 39 ; decreases in two steps to about one - third of the original width from the end thereof acting on the coupling bodies 10 , 10 &# 39 ; to the end thereof resting against the eccentric disks 13 , 13 &# 39 ;. the width of each eccentric disk 13 , 13 &# 39 ; and of the end of the levers 11 , 11 &# 39 ; resting against same is thus in each case about 2 . 5 mm . compared with the known screw shaft in which laminas of a thickness of 0 . 4 mm . are also used , the contact surface between eccentric disk and lever to which the forces occurring upon the beating up of the thread are imparted , is about six times greater ; accordingly , the wear of the eccentric disks is reduced as compared with the wear of the screw shaft . in fig2 and 3 for the sake of clarity the levers 11 , 11 &# 39 ;, the coupling bodies 10 , 10 &# 39 ;, and the laminas 4 are in each case shown in their central position of swing ; one lamina in the position of swing for the beating up of the filling thread and one lamina in the position of swing at greatest distance from the fabric beating - up edge are shown in dot - dash line in fig2 . fig4 shows in a basic sketch how the coupling bodies 10 , 10 &# 39 ; when the system is in operation transmit the movement of the levers 11 , 11 &# 39 ; to the laminas 4 . the view shown in the figure corresponds approximately to the view from the tip of the laminas 4 looking at the levers 11 , 11 &# 39 ;. in accordance with fig4 the ends of the levers 11 , 11 &# 39 ; acting on the coupling bodies 10 , 10 &# 39 ; each forms a step shaped curve . the coupling bodies 10 , 10 &# 39 ; adjust themselves to the corresponding step shaped curve and thereby form a continuous undulation so that the laminas 4 borne by the coupling bodies also form a continuous undulation . in the sections of this undulation extending parallel to the direction of the filling thread and in particular in the thread beating - up position of the laminas 4 , the coupling bodies 10 , 10 &# 39 ; rest snugly against the levers 11 , 11 &# 39 ; whereby a straight beating - up edge is made possible . since on the other hand the channel enclosed by the two coupling bodies 10 , 10 &# 39 ; must always be the same width due to the constant distance between the contact surfaces 16 , 16 &# 39 ; ( fig2 ) of the laminas 4 and since on the other hand the effective thickness d &# 39 ; of the coupling bodies 10 , 10 &# 39 ; is greater in regions in which the undulation does not extend parallel to the direction of the filling thread than their actual thickness d , the eccentric disks 13 , 13 &# 39 ; must be so shaped that they compensate for these differences in the effective thickness of the coupling bodies 10 , 10 &# 39 ;. the coupling bodies 10 , 10 &# 39 ; which consist of an adequately flexible and sufficiently hard material , for instance of rubber or plastic , and have a rectangular cross - section as shown in the drawing need not consist of a single material over their entire cross - section . they can for example consist also of a core and of a jacketing surrounding it , in which case the core may be made of polyvinyl chloride ( pvc ) or of stranded wire and the jacketing of a suitable rubber material or of plastic . the coupling bodies 10 , 10 &# 39 ; may also have a laminate structure and consist of a plurality of layers or possibly different materials arranged parallel to each other in the longitudinal direction of the coupling bodies . material , shape , and construction of the coupling bodies 10 , 10 &# 39 ; must be such as to assure the best possible force - lock coupling between the levers 11 , 11 &# 39 ; and the laminas 4 and as to produce for the movement of the laminas 4 the shape of undulation shown in fig1 as accurately as possible and in a manner which is reproducible the greatest possible number of times . the construction of a complete drive system will now be described with reference to fig2 and 3 : the laminas 4 and the parts driving them are mounted on the support plate 15 . this support plate is provided with first guide elements 26 for guiding the laminas 4 and with second guide elements 19 for guiding the levers 11 , 11 &# 39 ;, the first guide element 26 being arranged between every two adjacent laminas 4 and a second guide element 19 being arranged between every two adjacent pairs of levers 11 , 11 &# 39 ;. the first guide elements 26 are formed by flat thin parts of sheet metal or plastic arranged parallel to each other which space the laminas 4 the desired distance apart and furthermore protect them against lateral bending . by means of rods 17 which pass transversely through the first guide elements 26 and by means of spacer elements ( not shown ) arranged between adjacent first guide elements 26 as well as by threads provided at the ends of rod 17 , the first guide elements 26 are connected together to form a firm package . the first guide elements 26 each has a three t - shaped recesses 28 as well as a finger - shaped extension . in the cross - bars of the recesses 28 rails 27 having threaded bore holes are supported . by means of screws 29 screwed through the base plate 15 and into the rails 17 the package formed by the first guide elements 26 is screwed firmly to the base plate 15 and to the cover plate 31 . in the finger - shaped extension of the first guide elements 26 there is arranged a bore hole in which the shaft 7 forming the pivot axis of the laminas 4 is supported . the second guide elements 19 are formed by flat thin parts of sheet metal or plastic arranged parallel to each other which hold the pairs of levers 11 , 11 &# 39 ; apart with the desired spacing . by rods 20 extended transversely through the second guide elements 19 and by spacer elements ( not shown ) arranged between adjacent second guide elements 19 as well as by threads provided on the ends of the rods 20 , the second guide elements 19 are also connected together to form a rigid package . this package is connected with the support plate 15 , with the cover plate 31 , and with a rear wall 21 fastened via screws 32 to the support plate 15 by means of screw fastenings 22 , 23 , and 24 in the same manner as the screw fastenings 27 , 28 , and 29 of the first guide elements 26 . the second guide elements 19 are provided on the side thereof facing the shed with a recess which forms the counterpiece to the finger - shaped extension of the first guide elements 26 . furthermore , in each of the second guide elements 19 there are bore holes for the supporting of the shafts 12 , 12 &# 39 ; and 14 , the supporting of the shaft 14 being effected by bearing rings 33 . the eccentric disks 13 , 13 &# 39 ; are connected to the shaft 14 by keys . fig5 shows a view , seen in the direction of the arrow b of fig2 of one of the side ends of a drive arrangement in accordance with the invention . the second side end ( not shown ) is a mirror image of that shown in the figure . in accordance with fig5 each of the two coupling bodies 10 , 10 &# 39 ; is developed as an endless belt and each of them is conducted over a pair of pulleys or rollers 30 , 30 &# 39 ;. the pulleys or rollers 30 , 30 &# 39 ; are rotatably supported on both sides of the drive system on bearing arms ( not shown ) which are rigidly connected with the support plate 15 . the development of the coupling bodies as an endless belt has proven advantageous since the propagation of the wave formed by the laminas takes place always only in one direction , as a result of which the coupling bodies 10 , 10 &# 39 ; also have a tendency to move in this direction . the additional wear of the coupling bodies resulting therefrom in the event of a rigid mounting of the coupling bodies is avoided by the development described . of course , the coupling bodies 10 , 10 &# 39 ; can also be developed as a normal elongated belt and be mounted firmly and indisplaceably in the system . in this case , however , the aforementioned additional wear would have to be tolerated . as can be noted further from fig5 a bearing pedestal 32 is arranged on the base plate 15 at both side ends for the supporting of the drive shaft 14 . at its end 34 which extends freely out of one of the bearing pedestals 32 the drive shaft 14 is coupled with a drive , not shown . the bearing pedestals 32 need not be necessarily provided ; the supporting of the drive shaft 14 in the second guide elements 19 may also be sufficient . in accordance with fig6 the laminas 4 can also be developed as double - armed levers . the two lever arms are designated 8 and 9 . in this embodiment only one coupling body 10 is used which is connected with the associated cam disks 13 by means of swing levers 11 . by means not shown in the drawing , for instance suitable springs , swing levers 11 and associated eccentric disks 13 are kept in force - locked contact with each other . the lever 11 is developed as bell crank lever swingably supported on the shaft 12 . the coupling body 10 has , as shown in the drawing , a u - shaped cross - section and is supported with its outer surface rotatable about its longitudinal axis in a recess at the one end of the bell crank lever 11 . the laminas 4 are held by the inner part of the coupling body 10 . for the assembling of the laminas 4 and the parts driving them , what was stated in fig2 to 5 applies with slight modifications also to this embodiment and the embodiment shown in fig7 . since these modifications are within the comprehension of the man skilled in the art , they are not described in detail here . in accordance with fig7 the flexible coupling body 10 has a rectangular cross - section and is fitted on its narrow sides in recesses on one end of the swivel lever 11 and on one end of the laminas 4 . the drive unit of the laminas 4 -- shaft 14 with eccentric disks 13 and shaft 12 with swing lever 11 -- is arranged in an oil bath surrounded by a liquid - tight container 35 in order to reduce frictional forces between eccentric disks and bell crank lever . it will be appreciated that various changes and modifications may be made within the skill of the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention illustrated , described , and claimed herein . | 3 |
in fig1 the reference numeral 10 generally designates a throttle body formed therein with a suction conduit 11 in which a throttle valve 13 is rotatably mounted . the throttle body 10 shown in fig1 is used with a fuel injection apparatus . a portion of the suction conduit 11 upstream of the throttle valve 13 is maintained in communication with a portion of the suction conduit 11 downstream of the throttle valve 13 by an adjusting air passage 14 having an adjusting screw 15 mounted midway thereof . the adjusting air passage 14 and the adjusting screw 15 are for adjusting and setting the quantity of air handled by the throttle valve 13 and an idling control apparatus 16 in their initial conditions . more specifically , the adjusting air passage 14 and the adjusting screw 15 have the function of supplying , to an internal combustion engine to which the throttle body 10 is fitted , air in a quantity which is consistent with the performance of the particular engine . the idling control apparatus 16 is constructed as follows . the reference numeral 17 designates a passage for air for idle running of the engine which communicates a portion of the suction conduit 11 upstream of the throttle valve 13 with a portion of the suction conduit 11 downstream of the throttle valve 13 . the passage for air for idle running of the engine 17 which is formed in the throttle body 10 has walls serving as a guide 18 cylindrical in form and having a needle valve 19 slidably mounted therein . a collar 20 performing the functions of lubrication and airtight sealing is mounted between the needle valve 19 and guide 18 . fitted to a portion of the passage for air for idle running of the engine 17 which is positioned against the forward end of the needle valve 19 is a metering jet 21 cooperating with the needle valve 19 for metering air . it is to be understood that the needle valve 19 as a whole is not required to be exposed in the passage for air for idle running of the engine 17 , and that what is essential is that at least the forward end of the needle valve 19 and the metering jet 21 are positioned in the passage for air for idle running of the engine 17 . meanwhile a compression spring 22 is mounted between the lower end of the needle valve 19 and a plug 23 fitted in a gap at the lower end of the guide 18 and urges the needle valve 19 by its biasing force to move in a direction in which the forward end of the needle valve 19 closes the metering jet 21 . the guide 18 is formed on one side thereof with a vertical slit 24 of a predetermined length through which extends a pin 25 secured to the needle valve 19 . thus movement of the pin 25 in the slit 24 results in the needle valve 19 also moving in sliding movement in the guide 18 . a bimetal housing 26 secured to the throttle body 10 as the bolts , not shown , is formed at its central portion with a rotary shaft bearing portion 27 for rotatably supporting a bimetal shaft 28 having secured to one end thereof a cam lever 29 and to the other end thereof the end of an innermost convolution of a spiral bimetal member 30 . the cam lever 29 is maintained in contact with the pin 25 , so that rotation of the cam lever 29 causes the pin 25 to move in the slit 24 . secured to the end of an outermost convolution of the spiral bimetal member 30 is a pin 31 secured to a bimetal cover 32 . the bimetal cover 32 is secured to the bimetal housing 26 as by bolts , not shown . the pin 31 is secured to the bimetal cover 32 but may be secured to the bimetal housing 26 . mounted in the bimetal cover 32 is a heat generating resistor 33 for heating the bimetal member 30 which is a nichrome wire as shown but may be instead a ceramic resistor generally referred to as a ptc heater which has a positive temperature coefficient . the operation of the idling control apparatus 16 of the construction described hereinabove will now be described . in idle running of the engine , the throttle valve 13 is either fully closed or slightly open . when the engine is cold , the bimetal member 30 is in a contracted state and its displacement is transmitted through the bimetal shaft 28 , cam lever 29 and pin 25 to the needle valve 19 . thus when the engine is cold , the needle valve 19 is open in a manner to give a maximum open area to the metering jet 21 . as a result , a larger quantity of air is supplied to the engine when the engine is cold than when the engine is warm , thereby enabling stable rotation of the engine to be obtained . if the quantity of air supplied to the engine is small when the latter is cold , it would be impossible for the engine to develop power high enough to overcome friction of the engine and other factors interferring with rotation of the engine and stable rotation of the engine would not be obtainable . as the engine is warmed up gradually , the friction of the engine and other factors will be removed and the quantity of air that suits the engine in a cold state will become too large for the warmed - up engine , with the result that the number of revolutions of the engine rises and tends to exceed the number of revolutions for idling . when this is the case , one has only to reduce the quantity of air supplied to the engine in accordance with a rise in the temperature of the engine . in the idling control apparatus shown in fig1 a current is passed to the heat generating resistor 33 upon starting of the engine to heat the bimetal member 30 and reduce the quantity of air . heating of the bimetal member 30 by the heat generating resistor 33 causes a displacement of the bimetal member 30 to take place in such a manner that the number of convolutions of the spiral bimetal member 30 is increased . since the end of the outermost convolution of the spiral bimetal member 30 is secured to the bimetal cover 32 by the pin 31 , the displacement of the bimetal member 30 is transmitted to the bimetal shaft 28 to cause the latter to rotate . this causes the cam lever 29 secured to the bimetal shaft 28 to rotate , so that rotation of the bimetal shaft 28 moves the pin 25 in the slit 24 and the needle valve 19 secured to the pin 25 also moves against the biasing force of the compression spring 22 to reduce the area of opening of the metering jet 21 . thus the quantity of air supplied to the engine is reduced . further heating of the bimetal member 30 produces further movement of the needle valve 19 until finally the forward end of the needle valve is brought into contact with the metering jet 21 , thereby minimizing the quantity of air flowing through the passage for air for idle running of the engine 17 . when this state is reached , engine warmup has finished and the engine is rotating at a predetermined number of revolutions . the idling control apparatus constructed and operating as described hereinabove offers the following advantages . first , the arrangement that the end of the outermost convolution of the bimetal member 30 is secured to the bimetal cover 32 and the end of the innermost convolution of the bimetal member 30 is secured to the bimetal shaft rotatably journalled by the bearing section makes it possible to minimize vibration of the bimetal member 30 , thereby preventing the valve element mounted in the passage for air for idle running of the engine 17 from flapping . a resilient member such as a spiral bimetal member tends to vibrate at its free end when subjected to vibration . in the present invention , the end of the outermost convolution of the bimetal member in the form of a spiral is fixed in place and the shaft 28 secured to the end of the innermost convolution thereof is journalled by the bearing section , so that the bimetal member 30 hardly vibrates even if vibration of the engine is transmitted thereto . in idling control apparatus of the prior art using a bimetal member , the end of the outermost convolution of the bimetal member in the form of a spiral is free . as a result , the free end of the bimetal member vibrates when vibration of the engine is transmitted to the bimetal member . vibration of the free end of the bimetal member is transmitted to the valve element mounted in the passage for air for idle running of the engine and causes flapping of the valve element to occur . secondly , the valve element mounted in the passage for air for idle running of the engine 17 is a needle valve . this specific form of the valve element minimizes flapping thereof due to pulsation of the sucked air . more specifically , since the metering jet 21 and the forward end of the needle valve 19 are positioned relatively to be concentric with each other , substantially uniform pressure would be applied to the vicinity of the forward end portion of the needle valve when pulsation of the sucked air occurred . in idling control apparatus of the prior art , a butterfly valve is supported eccentrically or in a position displaced from the center of the surface of the valve . in this type of valve , when pulsation of the sucked air occurred , a greater force would be exerted on a portion of the surface of a larger area than on a portion of the area of a smaller area , thereby causing flapping of the butterfly valve to occur . as described hereinabove , the idling control apparatus shown in fig1 offers the advantages that vibration of the bimetal member and the valve element due to vibration of the engine and pulsation of the sucked air can be inhibited , thereby allowing a reduction in variation in the quantity of air flowing through the passage for air for idle running of the engine to be obtained . another embodiment of the present invention providing a further improvement in an idling control apparatus is shown in fig2 wherein parts similar to those shown in fig1 are designated by like reference characters . the embodiment shown in fig2 is intended to provide means to absorb excess displacements of the bimetal member to thereby provide protection of the bimetal member . in fig2 the needle valve 19 is composed of two portions or a main body 19a having the pin 25 secured thereto and a valve portion 19b cooperating with the metering jet 21 for metering air . a compression spring 34 is mounted between the valve portion 19b and the main body 19a to normally keep the valve portion 19b spaced apart from the main body 19a a predetermined distance . when the valve portion 19b is brought into contact with the metering jet 21 after warmup of the engine is finished , the bimetal member 30 may be further heated and its further displacement may take place . when this is the case , excess displacement is transmitted to the main body 19a through the bimetal shaft 28 , cam lever 29 and pin 25 . however , since the valve portion 19b is already in contact with the metering jet 21 the main body 19a merely moves toward the valve portion 19b by compressing the spring 34 . thus excess displacement of the bimetal member 25 is absorbed by the compression spring 34 , thereby making it possible to avoid application of excess stress to the bimetal member 30 . from the foregoing description , it will be appreciated that in the idling control apparatus using a bimetal member according to the present invention , the end of an outermost convolution of the bimetal member in the form of a spiral is a fixed end and the end of an innermost convolution thereof is a movable end , and a bimetal shaft secured to the end of the innermost convolution is journalled by a bearing means . by this feature , vibration of the bimetal member due to vibration of the engine can be minimized . a reduction in vibration of the bimetal member is conducive to a reduction in variations in the quantity of air flowing through the passage for air for idle running of the engine , thereby enabling stable idling of the engine to be obtained . | 8 |
disclosures relating to the preparation of carbonized and active carbon yarns and fabrics and the utilization thereof in protective clothing of various types to serve as protection against various hazards may be found in u . s . pat . no . 3 , 235 , 323 to peters ; u . s . pat . no . 3 , 256 , 206 to doying ; u . s . pat . no . 3 , 556 , 712 to dickson et al . ; u . s . pat . no . 3 , 639 , 140 to miyamichi ; u . s . pat . no . 3 , 744 , 534 to henry et al . ; u . s . pat . no . 3 , 769 , 144 to economy et al . ; u . s . pat . no . 3 , 850 , 785 to mcquade et al ; and others . the above list is intended to be representative and should not be taken as a complete list of patents relating to carbon fabrics or processes by which they may be produced . in addition to carbon cloth , powders , particles , granules , spheres , extruded pellets , and fibers can all be enhanced in accordance with the present treatment . further , the activated carbon can originate from sources including , but not limited to , coconut shells , coal , wood , rayon , peat , polyacrylonitrile , phenol formaldehyde resin , and cross - linked polystyrene resin . the treatment comprises impregnating or coating the activated carbon with fluorocarbon compounds that effectively modify the surface energy of the carbon material . suitable fluorocarbons include those that dry to form a water - and oil - repellent film at temperatures below about 300 ° c . and , more preferably , at temperatures below about 200 ° c . the fluorocarbon compounds are preferably copolymer resins containing a monomer with a c 4 to c 24 perfluoro - alkyl radical and a non - fluorinated monomer . examples include copolymers containing perfluorinated c 8 acrylate monomer and alkyl acrylates , and polyurethanes containing c 8 perfluoroalkyl radicals . the fluorocarbon compounds can be applied to the activated carbon as an emulsion or solution by spraying , immersion , or fluidized bed application , each of which is followed by a drying step . the fluorocarbon compounds are present at add - on weights of 5 % or less and , more preferably , 3 % or less , where percentages are based on the weight of the activated carbon . even at add - on levels of as low as 0 . 1 % of the weight of the activated carbon , the fluorocarbon treatment has been found effective . preferably , the add - on weights are in the range between 0 . 1 % and 5 % of the weight of the activated carbon and , more preferably , in the range between 0 . 1 % and 3 %. a cross - linking agent , such as a polyisocyanate cross - linking agent , can be incorporated into the mixture to improve the durability thereof . in one preferred embodiment , the treatment process is conducted in several steps . first , activated carbon is impregnated with a solvent such as water , acetone , or alcohol , so that solvent molecules occupy the internal pores responsible for gas adsorption . next , a solution or emulsion containing the fluorocarbon compound ( s ) is brought into contact with the activated carbon by immersion , spraying , or fluidized bed application . the fluorocarbon molecules cling to the surface of the activated carbon , since solvent molecules are blocking the internal pores . finally , the treated carbon is dried at elevated temperatures to evaporate the solvent from the internal pores of the carbon . typically , temperatures of about 100 ° c . to about 400 ° c . are suitable for this purpose , although temperatures of about 100 ° c . to about 200 ° c . are sufficient when water is used as the solvent . because the fluorocarbon treatment application is limited to the surface of the activated carbon , the adsorption properties of the activated carbon are not adversely affected . rather , the internal pores of the activated carbon remain available for adsorption of undesirable components and the repellent finish on the surface of the carbon helps to preserve its adsorption ability . the activated carbon , treated according to this process , has good durability , whether washed using home or industrial procedures . even more importantly , the treatment prevents the adverse effects with respect to the durability or level of effectiveness of the activated carbon often seen with exposure of the activated carbon to laundry detergents and additives . product olc ™, coconut - based activated carbon granules , sold by calgon carbon corporation of pittsburgh , pa ., and having particle sizes of 20 to 50 us mesh , were used in this example . the carbon granules were dipped into an emulsion containing 4 grams of a non - ptfe fluorocarbon compound sold by clariant corporation of charlotte , n . c ., under the tradename nuva ® cpa , version 5523 , and 96 grams of water . ( the resulting emulsion contained about 0 . 5 % by weight of fluorocarbon compound .) nuva ® cpa fluorocarbon emulsion is believed to be an acrylic copolymer containing a monomer with a perfluorinated alkyl chain . fine white foam was observed when the activated carbon granules were immersed into the emulsion , indicating the emulsion was displacing gas from the internal pore structure of the activated carbon . the mixture was poured through a filtration funnel , with some vacuum suction being applied through an aspirator pump . the carbon granules were collected on filter paper . the treated carbon granules were dried in a lab oven at about 150 ° c . for 30 minutes . the fluorocarbon add - on level on the carbon granules was calculated to be about 1 . 21 % by weight of the granules . a comparison of untreated and treated carbon granules was conducted . the untreated granules were easily wet with water and some gas was observed as water displaced the gas in the internal pores of the granules . the treated granules , however , could not be wet with water or by an artificial sweat solution , and no gas evacuation was observed , indicating that the water had not penetrated and rendered ineffective much of the internal pore structure that characterizes the carbon granules . an activated carbon cloth made from phenol formaldehyde resin fiber and sold by american kynol of pleasantville , n . y ., under the tradename acc - 5092 - 25 was used in this example . the carbon in the cloth had a surface area of about 2300 m 2 / g , as measured using the brunauer - emmett - teller ( bet ) model of physical adsorption , where nitrogen is the adsorptive . a piece of the carbon cloth was immersed in water . the carbon cloth was then removed from the water and immediately immersed in a fluorocarbon mixture . the fluorocarbon mixture contained 4 grams of nuva ® cpa , version 5523 , a non - ptfe fluorocarbon , and 96 grams of water . no foaming was observed . the carbon cloth was squeezed between nip rolls at a pressure of about 20 p . s . i . to remove excess solution . the treated cloth was then dried in a lab oven at 150 ° c . for 30 minutes . the fluorocarbon add - on level on the carbon cloth was about 3 . 8 % of the weight of the fabric . the treated carbon cloth exhibited good water - repellent properties , as evidenced by a test in which water droplets that were applied to the surface of the treated carbon cloth rolled off without wetting the cloth . a granular activated carbon , having particle sizes of 20 to 50 us mesh and sold by japan enviro chemical , ltd . under the tradename “ wh2c20 ,” was used in this example . the activated carbon granules were made from coconut shells . activated carbon granules were immersed in water and then removed from the water by filtration . the carbon granules were then immediately immersed in a fluorocarbon mixture . the fluorocarbon mixture contained 4 grams of nuva ® cpa , version 5523 , a non - ptfe fluorocarbon , and 96 grams of water . the fluorocarbon add - on level on the carbon granules was about 0 . 5 % of the weight of the granules . no foaming was observed , when the carbon granules were immersed in the fluorocarbon mixture . after being immersed in the fluorocarbon solution , the carbon granules were filtered to remove excess solution . the treated granules were then dried in a lab oven at 150 ° c . for 30 minutes . the water repellency of the treated granules was compared with that of the untreated granules by wetting the granules . the untreated granules readily absorbed the water as it was applied . in contrast , water pooled around the treated granules , until the water depth was such that the treated granules floated on the surface of the water . to evaluate the gas adsorptive properties of the products of examples 1 , 2 , and 3 , the following test was devised . 0 . 100 grams of treated granules from example 1 were placed in a first 250 - milliliter glass jar fitted with a gas - tight top with rubber septum . 0 . 08 grams of treated fabric from example 2 were placed in a second 250 - milliliter glass jar fitted with a gas - tight top with rubber septum . 0 . 100 grams of treated granules from example 3 were placed in a third 250 - milliliter glass jar fitted with a gas - tight top with rubber septum . at the bottom of each of the three jars were two layers of paper towel that were completely saturated with an artificial sweat solution . the treated carbon was placed directly on the paper towels . the artificial sweat solution contained 0 . 8 % sodium chloride , 0 . 1 % magnesium sulfate , 0 . 1 % lactic acid , 0 . 05 % potassium sulfite , 0 . 05 % urea , 0 . 015 % glucose , 0 . 01 % sodium sulfate , 0 . 004 % butyric acid , 0 . 004 % calcium chloride , and 98 . 867 % water . 3 microliters of toluene was injected into each sealed jar , whereupon the toluene quickly evaporated into the gas phase . approximately 10 minutes after the toluene was injected into each jar , a 1 - milliliter sample of gas was taken from each jar . the gas samples were injected into a perkin elmer gas chromatograph ( gc ) to measure the toluene concentration in the closed atmosphere of each jar . the peak height of each toluene signal in the gc measurement is representative of the toluene concentration in the jar . lower peak heights indicate lower amounts of toluene in the environment and higher levels of adsorbence by the activated carbon samples . using the same amounts of activated carbon that were untreated , the process was repeated . these are shown as the “ control ” values in the table below . the values shown are in arbitrary units . the data shows that the fluorocarbon treatment , as described herein , improves the adsorbency of the activated carbon where the adsorbent is artificial sweat . further , it shows that the treatment is effective on both granules and fabric . activated carbon cloth made from phenol formaldehyde resin is particularly well suited for use in a composite structure to create biological and chemical protective suits . to evaluate the present treatment in connection with this anticipated use , the following trial was conducted . the carbon cloth of example 2 was used in this trial , both as an untreated cloth and as treated according to the process described in example 2 . the treated and untreated cloths were each laminated between a tricot knit fabric having a weight of 2 . 3 oz / yd 2 and a needle - punched nonwoven fabric having a weight of 1 . 2 oz / yd 2 , using about 20 g / yd 2 of dot - printed copolyamide adhesive pre - applied to the two fabrics . each layered structure ( knit fabric with pre - printed adhesive , treated or untreated carbon cloth , nonwoven fabric with pre - printed adhesive ) was fed through a belt laminator at 140 ° c . for about 30 seconds . the resulting composites were then subjected to evaluation . it was observed that the fluorocarbon treatment on the activated carbon cloth had no adverse effect on the ability to form a composite structure ( that is , the bonding between the carbon cloth and the adhesive layers was not compromised ). additionally , since only the core of the composite was treated to be hydrophobic , the outer fabric layers of the composite remained relatively hydrophilic . the dual nature of the composite structure is believed to provide comfort to users thereof , by allowing good air permeability and moisture wicking . the gas adsorptive properties of the two composites ( containing treated and untreated carbon cloths ) were tested according to the following procedure . the gas adsorption test was used to measure the adsorbent properties of the composite . 1 . a one - inch square of the composite was enclosed in a 22 - milliliter glass vial with a rubber septum stopper . 2 . 60 microliters of a blend of a 1 : 1 : 3 : 3 ratio of carbon tetrachloride , dimethyl sulfide , methyl salicylate , and dimethyl methyl phosphonate were injected into the vial . 3 . the vial was placed in an oven at 50 ° c . for one hour . 4 . the vial was removed from the oven and allowed to cool to room temperature . 5 . a solid phase microextraction ( spme ) fiber was then inserted into the vial to sample the gas vapor . 6 . an agilent 6890 gas chromatograph ( gc ) with a 5973 mass selective detector was used to measure the relative concentration of each of the four compounds in the vial &# 39 ; s headspace . the peak area of each component &# 39 ; s gas chromatograph signal was representative of the relative concentration of each component . this test was performed before the composite samples were washed and again after each of the composites had been washed 6 times in an industrial laundry machine ( with drying after each wash ). the washing and drying was performed in accordance with the following test procedure . the textile composite was washed in a 35 - pound milnor front - load washing machine , with a total load of 30 pounds of textile , using type 2 laundry detergent nsn 7930 - 00 - 252 - 6797 available from cosco company of brooklyn , n . y . after each wash , the textile composite was dried in a 50 - pound gas dryer for 30 minutes at a “ low delicates ” setting ( about 120 ° f . ), followed by a 5 - minute cool - down period . the drying step ( 30 - minute cycle , 5 - minute cool - down ) was repeated after the sixth drying cycle to ensure that the composite was completely dry . returning again to the gas adsorption test procedure , the results are shown in the table below , where the values represent the peak area on the gas chromatograph , as measured in arbitrary units . lower peak heights indicate lower amounts of the chemical compound in the environment and higher levels of adsorbence by the activated carbon samples . as can be seen from the test data , the adsorptive capacity of the activated carbon is significantly decreased in the untreated sample , that is , without the presence of a fluorocarbon treatment . this is particularly evident after laundering . for each compound , the treated activated carbon showed better adsorption after laundering than it did initially . accordingly , this test indicates that , when an adsorbent composite as described herein is treated with a fluorocarbon as described herein , laundering actually improves the adsorption effective of the activated carbon . the opposite trend is observed with the untreated carbon samples . | 8 |
( 1 ) fig1 a and 1b illustrate a trifold side - seamed plastic produce bag 10 providing the desired features that may be constructed from the following components . a front wall 15 is provided . the front wall 15 has a top edge 20 , a bottom edge 25 , a first side edge 30 , a second side edge 35 and a first predetermined height 40 . a back wall 45 is provided . the back wall 45 has an upper edge 50 , a lower edge 55 , a first side edge 60 , a second side edge 65 and a second predetermined height 70 greater than the first predetermined height 40 . the front wall 15 and the back wall 45 are formed from a single piece of plastic film 75 such that the bottom edge 25 of the front wall 15 is joined seamlessly with the lower edge 55 of the back wall 45 . the first side edge 30 of the front wall 15 is attached to the first side edge 60 of the back wall 45 at a first side seam 80 . the second side edge 35 of the front wall 15 is attached to the second side edge 65 of the back wall 45 at a second side seam 85 . a perforation 90 is provided . the perforation 95 is spaced from the second side seam 85 and extends from the upper edge 50 of the back wall 45 to the lower edge 55 of the back wall 45 . the perforation 90 joins the bag 10 to a subsequent bag 10 a . first 17 and second 19 fold lines are provided . the first 17 and second 19 fold lines are parallel to the upper 50 and lower 55 edges and spaced from the upper 50 and lower 55 edges , respectively , by approximately one third of the second predetermined height 70 . as illustrated in fig1 a , when separated from the subsequent bag 10 a , the bag 10 will have a back wall 45 of greater height than the front wall 15 , thereby providing a means for locating an opening 100 of the bag 10 . ( 2 ) a method of making trifold side - seamed plastic produce bags 10 , as illustrated in fig2 and 3 , comprises the steps of : extruding a continuous tube 105 of thermoplastic film 75 and flattening the tube 105 . the tube 105 has an upper surface 110 , a lower surface 115 , first 120 and second 125 side edges . slitting the upper surface 110 to remove a strip of plastic material 130 to form a cut 135 . the cut 135 has a first side 140 and a second side 145 . the first 140 and second 145 sides are parallel to the first 120 and second 125 side edges of the tube 105 . removing the strip 130 . forming a perforation 90 perpendicular to the first 120 and second 125 side edges across an entire width 150 of the tube 105 . sealing the tube 105 at a first side seam 80 . the first side seam 80 is spaced from and parallel to the perforation 90 . sealing the tube 105 at a second side seam 85 . the second side seam 85 is spaced from and parallel to the first side seam 80 . cutting the lower surface 115 at a point 155 below and between the first 140 and second 145 sides of the slit 135 in the upper surface 110 to form two facing bag streams 160 , 165 , each of said bag streams 160 , 165 having a first predetermined width 21 . folding each of the bag streams 160 , 165 to approximately one third of the first predetermined width 21 . ( 3 ) in a variant of the method of making trifold side - seamed plastic produce bags 10 , as illustrated in fig4 , the method includes the further step of corona treating 170 at least one of the upper surface 110 and the lower 115 surface of the flattened tube 105 prior to slitting the upper surface 110 to remove the strip of plastic material 130 . ( 4 ) in a further variant of the method , also illustrated in fig3 , the method includes the further step of printing advertising or informational material 175 on at least one of the corona treated 170 surfaces 110 , 115 of the flattened tube 105 . ( 5 ) in still a further variant of the method , as illustrated in fig2 and 4 , the method includes the further step of rolling each of the bag streams 160 , 165 to form a bag roll 180 . ( 6 ) in yet a further variant of the method , as illustrated in fig5 , the method includes the further step of rolling each of the bag streams 160 , 165 about a cylindrical core 185 to form a bag roll 190 . ( 7 ) in another variant of the method , as illustrated in fig6 , each of the bag streams 160 , 165 is folded in a z - fold configuration 23 . ( 8 ) in still another variant of the method , as illustrated in fig7 , each of the bag streams is folded in a c - fold configuration 27 . ( 9 ) in another variant of the method of making trifold side - seamed plastic produce bags 10 , as illustrated in fig8 and 9 , the method includes the steps of : extruding a continuous tube 105 of plastic film 75 and flattening the tube 105 . the tube 105 has an upper surface 110 , a lower surface 115 , first 120 and second 125 side edges . winding the flattened tube 105 onto a core 195 . moving the core 195 to a cutting machine 200 . the cutting machine 200 includes a slitter 205 . feeding the tube 105 from the core 195 into the cutting machine 200 . slitting the upper surface 110 to remove a strip of plastic material 130 and form a cut 135 . the cut 135 has a first side 140 and a second side 145 . the first 140 and second 145 sides are parallel to the first 120 and second 125 side edges of the tube 105 . removing the strip 130 . forming a perforation 90 perpendicular to the first 120 and second 125 side edges across an entire width 150 of the tube 105 . sealing the tube 105 at a first side seam 80 . the first side seam 80 is spaced from and parallel to the perforation 90 . sealing the tube 105 at a second side seam 85 . the second side seam 85 is spaced from and parallel to the first side seam 80 . cutting the lower surface 115 at a point 155 below and between the first 140 and second 145 sides of the cut 135 in the upper surface 110 to form two facing bag streams 160 , 165 , each of said bag streams 160 , 165 having a first predetermined width 21 . folding each of the bag streams 160 , 165 to approximately one third of the first predetermined width 21 . ( 10 ) in a further variant of the method of making trifold side - seamed plastic produce bags 10 , also illustrated in fig7 , the method includes the further step of corona treating 170 at least one of the upper surface 110 and the lower surface 115 of the flattened tube 105 prior to slitting the upper surface 110 to remove the strip of plastic material 130 . ( 11 ) in still a further variant of the method , as illustrated in fig3 , the method includes the further step of printing advertising or informational material 175 on at least one of the corona treated 170 surfaces 110 , 115 of the flattened tube 105 . ( 12 ) in still a further variant of the method , as illustrated in fig4 , the method includes the further step of rolling each of the bag streams 160 , 165 to form a bag roll 180 . ( 13 ) in yet a further variant of the method , as illustrated in fig5 , the method includes the further step of rolling each of the bag streams 160 , 165 about a cylindrical core 185 to form a bag roll 190 . ( 14 ) in another variant of the method , as illustrated in fig6 , each of the bag streams 160 , 165 is folded in a z - fold configuration 23 . ( 15 ) in still another variant of the method , as illustrated in fig7 , each of the bag streams is folded in a c - fold configuration 27 . ( 16 ) in yet another variant of the method of making trifold side - seamed plastic produce bags 10 , as illustrated in fig1 and 11 , the method includes the steps of : extruding a continuous tube 105 of plastic film 75 and flattening the tube 105 . the tube 105 has an upper surface 110 , a lower surface 115 , first 120 and second 125 side edges . corona treating 170 at least one of the upper surface 110 and the lower surface 115 of the flattened tube 105 . slitting the upper surface 110 to remove a strip of plastic material 130 to form a cut 135 . the cut 135 has a first side 140 and a second side 145 . the first 140 and second 145 sides are parallel to the first 120 and second 125 side edges of the tube 105 . removing the strip 130 . printing either advertising or informational material 175 on at least one of the corona treated 170 surfaces 110 , 115 of the flattened tube 105 . forming a perforation 90 perpendicular to the first 120 and second 125 side edges across an entire width 150 of the tube 105 . sealing the tube 105 at a first side seam 80 spaced from and parallel to the perforation 90 . sealing the tube 105 at a second side seam 85 . the second side seam 85 is spaced from and parallel to the first side seam 80 . cutting the lower surface 115 at a point 155 below and between the first 140 and second 145 sides of the cut 135 in the upper surface 110 to form two facing bag streams 160 , 165 , each of said bag streams 160 , 165 having a first predetermined width 21 . folding each of the bag streams 160 , 165 to approximately one third of the first predetermined width 21 , as illustrated in fig2 . ( 17 ) in still a further variant of the method , as illustrated in fig4 , the method includes the further step of rolling each of the bag streams 160 , 165 to form a bag roll 180 . ( 18 ) in yet a further variant of the method , as illustrated in fig5 , the method includes the further step of rolling each of the bag streams 160 , 165 about a cylindrical core 185 to form a bag roll 190 . ( 19 ) in another variant of the method , as illustrated in fig6 , each of the bag streams 160 , 165 is folded in a z - fold configuration 23 . ( 20 ) in still another variant of the method , as illustrated in fig7 , each of the bag streams is folded in a c - fold configuration 27 . ( 21 ) in still another variant of the method of making trifold side - seamed plastic produce bags 10 , as illustrated in fig1 and 13 , the method includes the steps of : extruding a continuous tube 105 of plastic film 75 and flattening the tube 105 . the tube 105 has an upper surface 110 , a lower surface 115 , first 120 and second 125 side edges . corona treating 170 at least one of the upper surface 110 and the lower surface 115 of the flattened tube 105 . printing either advertising or informational material 175 on at least one of the corona treated 170 surfaces 110 , 115 of the flattened tube 105 . slitting the upper surface 110 to remove a strip of plastic material 130 to form a cut 135 . the cut 135 has a first side 140 and a second side 145 . the first 140 and second 145 sides are parallel to the first 120 and second 125 side edges of the tube 105 . removing the strip 130 . forming a perforation 90 perpendicular to the first 120 and second 125 side edges across an entire width 150 of the tube 105 . sealing the tube 105 at a first side seam 80 spaced from and parallel to the perforation 90 . sealing the tube 105 at a second side seam 85 . the second side seam 85 is spaced from and parallel to the first side seam 80 . winding the tube 105 onto a core 185 for later cutting of the lower surface 115 at a point 155 below and between the first 140 and second 145 sides of the cut 135 in the upper surface 110 to form two facing bag streams 160 , 165 , each of said bag streams 160 , 165 having a first predetermined width 21 . folding each of the bag streams 160 , 165 to approximately one third of the first predetermined width 21 . ( 22 ) in a further variant of the method , as illustrated in fig4 , the method includes the further step of rolling each of the bag streams 160 , 165 to form a bag roll 180 . ( 23 ) in still a further variant of the method , as illustrated in fig5 , the method includes the further step of rolling each of the bag streams 160 , 165 about a cylindrical core 185 to form a bag roll 190 . ( 24 ) in another variant of the method , as illustrated in fig6 , each of the bag streams 160 , 165 is folded in a z - fold configuration 23 . ( 25 ) in still another variant of the method , as illustrated in fig7 , each of the bag streams is folded in a c - fold configuration 27 . ( 26 ) as illustrated in fig1 , an apparatus 400 for making tri - fold side - seamed plastic produce bags 10 includes the following components . a supply of thermoplastic resin 405 is provided . an extruder 410 is provided . the extruder 410 is capable of extruding a continuous tube 105 of thermoplastic film 75 . a tubing flattener 415 is provided . the flattener 415 is capable of flattening the tube 105 . the tube 105 has an upper surface 110 , a lower surface 115 , first 120 and second 125 side edges . a cutting machine 200 is provided . the cutting machine 200 , as illustrated in fig2 and 14 , is capable of slitting the upper surface 110 to remove a strip of plastic material 130 to form a cut 135 . the cut 135 has a first side 140 and a second side 145 . the first 140 and second 145 sides are parallel to the first 120 and second 125 side edges of the tube 105 . a perforator 420 is provided . the perforator 420 is capable of forming a perforation 90 perpendicular to the first 120 and second 125 side edges across an entire width 150 of the tube 105 . a sealer 425 is provided . the sealer 425 is capable of sealing the tube 105 at a first side seam 80 spaced from and parallel to the perforation 90 and at a second side seam 85 spaced from and parallel to the first side seam 80 . a slitter 430 is provided . the is slitter 430 is capable of cutting the lower surface 115 at a point 155 below and between the first 140 and second 145 sides of the cut 135 in the upper surface 110 to form two facing bag streams 160 , 165 . each of the bag streams 160 , 165 has a first predetermined width 21 . a folder 435 , as illustrated in fig2 and 16 , is provided . the folder 435 is capable of folding each of the bag streams 160 , 165 to approximately one third of the first predetermined width 21 . ( 27 ) in another variant of the apparatus 400 , as illustrated in fig3 , a corona treater 440 is provided . the corona treater 440 is capable of corona treating at least one of the upper 110 and lower 115 surface of the tube 105 prior to folding . ( 28 ) in still another variant , a printer 445 is provided . the printer 445 is capable of printing advertising or informational material 175 on at least one of the corona treated surfaces 110 , 115 of the flattened tube 105 . ( 29 ) in yet another variant , as illustrated in fig2 and 4 , a bag rolling device 450 is provided . the bag rolling device 450 is capable of rolling each of the bag streams 160 , 165 to form a bag roll 180 . ( 30 ) in a further variant , as illustrated in fig5 , a supply of cores 185 is provided . each of the bag streams 160 , 165 is wound around one of the cores 185 to form the bag rolls 190 . ( 31 ) in still a further variant , the folder 435 is capable of folding each of the bag streams 160 , 165 in a z - fold configuration 23 , as illustrated in fig6 . ( 32 ) in yet a further variant , the folder 435 is capable of folding each of the bag streams 160 , 165 in a c - fold configuration 27 , as illustrated in fig7 . ( 1 ) fig1 , 17a and 17b illustrate a trifold side - seamed plastic produce bag 10 providing the desired features that may be constructed from the following components . a front wall 15 is provided . the front wall 15 has a top edge 20 , a bottom edge 25 , a first side edge 30 , a second side edge 35 and a first predetermined height 40 . a back wall 45 is provided . the back wall 45 has an upper edge 50 , a lower edge 55 , a first side edge 60 , a second side edge 65 and said first predetermined height 40 . the front wall 15 and the back wall 45 are formed from a single piece of plastic film 75 such that the bottom edge 25 of the front wall 15 is joined seamlessly with the lower edge 55 of the back wall 45 . the first side edge 30 of the front wall 15 is attached to the first side edge 60 of the back wall 45 at a first side seam 80 . the second side edge 35 of the front wall 15 is attached to the second side edge 65 of the back wall 45 at a second side seam 85 . a perforation 90 is provided . the perforation 90 is spaced from the second side seam 85 and extends from the upper edge 50 of the back wall 45 to the lower edge 55 of the back wall 45 . the perforation 90 joins the bag 10 to a subsequent bag 10 a . first 17 and second 19 fold lines are provided . the first 17 and second 19 fold lines are parallel to the upper 50 and lower 55 edges and spaced from the upper 50 and lower 55 edges , respectively , by approximately one third of the first predetermined height 40 . as illustrated in fig1 a , when separated from the subsequent bag 10 a , the bag 10 will have a front wall 15 and a back wall 45 of substantially identical height . ( 2 ) a method of making trifold side - seamed plastic produce bags 10 , as illustrated in fig1 and 19 comprises the steps of : extruding a continuous tube 105 of thermoplastic film 75 and flattening the tube 105 . the tube 105 has an upper surface 110 , a lower surface 115 , first 120 and second 125 side edges . forming a perforation 90 perpendicular to the first 120 and second 125 side edges across an entire width 150 of the tube 105 . sealing the tube 105 at a first side seam 80 . the first side seam 80 is spaced from and parallel to the perforation 90 . sealing the tube 105 at a second side seam 85 . the second side seam 85 is spaced from and parallel to the first side seam 80 . cutting the upper surface 110 and the lower surface 115 to form two facing bag streams 160 , 165 , each of said bag streams 160 , 165 having a first predetermined width 21 . folding each of the bag streams 160 , 165 to approximately one third of the first predetermined width 21 . ( 3 ) in a variant of the method of making trifold side - seamed plastic produce bags 10 , as illustrated in fig1 , the method includes the further step of corona treating 170 at least one of the upper surface 110 and the lower 115 surface of the flattened tube 105 . ( 4 ) in a further variant of the method , also illustrated in fig1 , the method includes the further step of printing advertising or informational material 175 on at least one of the corona treated 170 surfaces 110 , 115 of the flattened tube 105 . ( 5 ) in still a further variant of the method , as illustrated in fig1 and 20 , the method includes the further step of rolling each of the bag streams 160 , 165 to form a bag roll 180 . ( 6 ) in yet a further variant of the method , as illustrated in fig2 , the method includes the further step of rolling each of the bag streams 160 , 165 about a cylindrical core 185 to form a bag roll 190 . ( 7 ) in another variant of the method , as illustrated in fig2 , each of the bag streams 160 , 165 is folded in a z - fold configuration 23 . ( 8 ) in still another variant of the method , as illustrated in fig2 , each of the bag streams is folded in a c - fold configuration 27 . ( 9 ) in yet another variant of the method of making trifold side - seamed plastic produce bags 10 , as illustrated in fig2 and 25 , the method includes the steps of : extruding a continuous tube 105 of plastic film 75 and flattening the tube 105 . the tube 105 has an upper surface 110 , a lower surface 115 , first 120 and second 125 side edges . corona treating 170 at least one of the upper surface 110 and the lower surface 115 of the flattened tube 105 . printing either advertising or informational material 175 on at least one of the corona treated 170 surfaces 110 , 115 of the flattened tube 105 . forming a perforation 90 perpendicular to the first 120 and second 125 side edges across an entire width 150 of the tube 105 . sealing the tube 105 at a first side seam 80 spaced from and parallel to the perforation 90 . sealing the tube 105 at a second side seam 85 . the second side seam 85 is spaced from and parallel to the first side seam 80 . winding the tube 105 onto a core 185 for later cutting of the upper surface 110 and the lower surface 115 to form two facing bag streams 160 , 165 , each of said bag streams 160 , 165 having a first predetermined width 21 . folding each of the bag streams 160 , 165 to approximately one third of the first predetermined width 21 , as illustrated in fig1 . ( 10 ) in still a further variant of the method , as illustrated in fig2 , the method includes the further step of rolling each of the bag streams 160 , 165 to form a bag roll 180 . ( 11 ) in yet a further variant of the method , as illustrated in fig2 , the method includes the further step of rolling each of the bag streams 160 , 165 about a cylindrical core 185 to form a bag roll 190 . ( 12 ) in another variant of the method , as illustrated in fig2 , each of the bag streams 160 , 165 is folded in a z - fold configuration 23 . ( 13 ) in still another variant of the method , as illustrated in fig2 , each of the bag streams is folded in a c - fold configuration 27 . ( 14 ) as illustrated in fig1 , an apparatus 400 for making tri - fold side - seamed plastic produce bags 10 includes the following components . a supply of thermoplastic resin 405 is provided . an extruder 410 is provided . the extruder 410 is capable of extruding a continuous tube 105 of thermoplastic film 75 . a tubing flattener 415 is provided . the flattener 415 is capable of flattening the tube 105 . the tube 105 has an upper surface 110 , a lower surface 115 , first 120 and second 125 side edges . a perforator 420 is provided . the perforator 420 is capable of forming a perforation 90 perpendicular to the first 120 and second 125 side edges across an entire width 150 of the tube 105 . a sealer 425 is provided . the sealer 425 is capable of sealing the tube 105 at a first side seam 80 spaced from and parallel to the perforation 90 and at a second side seam 85 spaced from and parallel to the first side seam 80 . a slitter 430 is provided . the is slitter 430 is capable of cutting the upper surface 110 and the lower surface 115 to form two facing bag streams 160 , 165 . each of the bag streams 160 , 165 has a first predetermined width 21 . a folder 435 , as illustrated in fig1 , 26 and 27 , is provided . the folder 435 is capable of folding each of the bag streams 160 , 165 to approximately one third of the first predetermined width 21 . ( 15 ) in another variant of the apparatus 400 , as illustrated in fig1 , a corona treater 440 is provided . the corona treater 440 is capable of corona treating at least one of the upper 110 and lower 115 surface of the tube 105 prior to folding . ( 16 ) in still another variant , a printer 445 is provided . the printer 445 is capable of printing advertising or informational material 175 on at least one of the corona treated surfaces 110 , 115 of the flattened tube 105 . ( 17 ) in yet another variant , as illustrated in fig1 and 20 , a bag rolling device 450 is provided . the bag rolling device 450 is capable of rolling each of the bag streams 160 , 165 to form a bag roll 180 . ( 18 ) in a further variant , as illustrated in fig2 , a supply of cores 185 is provided . each of the bag streams 160 , 165 is wound around one of the cores 185 to form the bag rolls 190 . ( 19 ) in still a further variant , the folder 435 is capable of folding each of the bag streams 160 , 165 in a z - fold configuration 23 , as illustrated in fig2 . ( 20 ) in yet a further variant , the folder 435 is capable of folding each of the bag streams 160 , 165 in a c - fold configuration 27 , as illustrated in fig2 . the tri - fold side seamed produce bag 10 and methods and apparatus for making same have been described with reference to particular embodiments . other modifications and enhancements can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the claims that follow . | 1 |
fig1 shows one embodiment 10 of a diagram of a permeation cell with crds apparatus . the operation of fig1 is explained in more detail in the above - identified provisional application in that drying agent 11 ( in this example high purity gas n 2 or any other carrier gas ) along with dryer 12 serves to dry the system . water ( or another substance such as oxygen or carbon dioxide , or other vapors ) may be passed to the wet side of film 18 or a volume of moisture may be contained on the wet side of the chamber in chamber 13 - 2 . this can be accomplished , for example , by using a wet sponge . dry air ( or other transport mechanism ) passes through chamber 13 - 1 and then the vapor or other analyte that permeates through film 18 from wet side 13 - 2 to dry side 13 - 1 is passed into crds 14 and the amount of vapor is measured . flow meters 15 , 16 and 17 keep track of the respective vapor flows . as discussed , the advantages of using the crds for wvtr measurement resides in the very long interaction path lengths through the water vapor volume which enhance sensitivity compared to non - dispersive spectroscopy techniques such as fourier transform infrared spectroscopy . compared to a system which measures light intensity , the crds measures decay time with a very long interaction optical path . fig2 a shows another embodiment 20 of the concepts discussed herein . in this embodiment , the light wavelength is tuned to match the water vapor absorption ( around 1392 . 5 nm ). light within the chamber forms an optical cavity by use of high reflective minors 27 and 27 ′ in the well - known manner . the system uses fast electronics to measure the decay time within optical cavity 23 as the light leaving the chamber impacts upon detector 26 . this then allows for the calculation of the water contents in ppb v using the set of equations presented in table 1 . fig2 b shows a representative decay curve that may be obtained from the system of fig2 a . note that in some situations , as discussed above , different analyst ( vapors ) may be present and the laser ( or other collimated energy source ) can be frequency tuned to resonate with a selected analyte . this tuning can be changed from time to time ( even during the measurement of a given sample ) to allow the system to provide measurements for different vapors , if desired . the vapor to be measured is input to the chamber via inlet 24 and removed via outlet 25 . light source 21 is a laser light tuned to the desired frequency . a portion ( in the example , 99 %) of the light is sent to test chamber 23 , while a portion is sent to reference cell 28 for detection by detector 29 . accurate wavelength control is preferred to ensure that the wavelength of the light source matches the specific water absorption band for a resonant condition . therefore , the emission wavelength of the light source needs to be measured constantly . for instance , changes in temperature of the laser diode that is used as light source , can shift the emission wavelength ( by modifying the effective index of refraction of the laser structure ) of the laser , detuning it from the resonant condition . one way to ensure constant operation at the resonant wavelength is to add a reference cell ( containing water ) with detector 29 as presented in fig2 a . if the wavelength coming from the laser source matches the resonant absorption of the water contained in the reference cell , no light or very little light will reach the detector , and resonant operation will be ensured . fig3 shows the effects of both pressure and flow rate on crds measurement readings when used to measure the water vapor transmission rate ( wvtr ) through a plastic barrier film with a wvtr of 10 − 3 g /( m 2 - day ). water vapor transmission is usually reported in g /( m 2 - day ) and the crds reports the permeation in terms of parts per billion per volume ( ppb v ). two approaches can be followed to convert ppb v to g /( m 2 - day ). the first approach is a mathematical description that relates ppb v and g /( m 2 - day ). the second approach relies on measuring a group of samples with known permeation rates in g /( m 2 - day ) and building a calibration curve using the readings from the crds unit . fig4 shows the development of a calibration curve using the crds readings from samples with known permeation . note that in order to build the calibration curve , a given pressure and flow rate must be chosen . the “ flow ” detection configuration develops around the best operation conditions in terms of pressure , temperature and flow rate so as to ensure the highest accuracy and lowest detection limit . fig5 , along with fig6 shows one embodiment 50 of a schematic diagram of an accumulation system , together with graph 500 , in accordance with the concepts of the invention . the accumulation system and method shown and described with respect to fig5 is preferably used for permeation rates from 1 × 10 − 6 g /( m 2 - day ) and lower . in the accumulation method , the water permeation of a plastic film is determined by measuring the accumulated water vapor transmission per unit of time ( accumulated ) instead of instantaneous measurements of the water content in a flow of carrier gas as in the flow method . in operation , at time t & lt ; t 0 , the system works as in the flow method with valves 101 , 102 and 104 open and valves 103 and 105 closed . this step is used to prepare the crds for measurements by mainly flowing high purity gas ( he or n 2 , for example ) into the system . this gas should not contain water ( or any other gas ) that has an absorption band overlapping water vapor ( or other gas ) being monitored . this is controlled by process 601 of method 60 ( fig6 ). method 60 can be achieved using code - controlled applications running one or more processors , such as on processor 530 , fig5 or can be actuated manually . input gas flows through value 101 into permeation cell 51 and out through valve 102 to form an accumulation volume 52 which is essentially the piping of system 50 . where the volume fills with a gas , the excess will escape via valve 104 after passing through crds 53 . in the embodiment shown , the accumulation volume is understood to be the entire circulation volume contained within the system between valve 101 and valve 104 , including the crds , the permeation cell and optional pump 54 . this allows for monitoring the initial value before the accumulation process begins . process 602 ( fig6 ) determines when t & lt ; 0 ends and when t = 0 process 603 begins . this would typically be based upon evaluation of the crds reading during the continuous flow method and the value is below or close to the lower detection limit of the crds the accumulation phase will begin . at t = 0 , input valve 101 and output valve 104 are closed and feedback valve 105 is opened . this step prevents new gas from entering or accumulated gas from leaving the now closed loop . moisture will accumulate in this closed loop as it permeates through sample film 520 in permeation cell 51 . between t = t 0 and t = t 1 , under control of processes 604 , water vapor is permeating form the we side through film 520 and is accumulating around the dry side of permeation cell 51 . however , it is important that the water vapor diffuses towards the crds detector , this can be accomplished by simple diffusion from the permeation cell having high water vapor content to the crds detector where the initial water vapor content is lower or by the help of option pump 54 , that can help to reach a steady state content of water vapor in volume 52 faster . processes 604 continues until process 605 determines when time t = t 1 . this decision would typically be based upon a predetermined fixed time for accumulation ( t 1 − t 0 ) or may be determined based upon the crds reading a desired value at t 1 . at time t = t 1 , valve 103 opens and valves 102 and 105 close . now , as controlled by process 606 , no more moisture will accumulate since permeation cell 51 is now isolated from accumulation volume 52 . while the total accumulation volume is reduced a small amount , due to the isolation of cell 51 , the effect is not considered significant to the measurement . preferably , this excluded volume is kept to a minimum or accounted for by calibration curves from known samples . during the accumulation period beginning at time t = t 1 , the moisture in the accumulation volume and within the cavity of the crds will begin to equilibrate , resulting in a steady reading of moisture content . the time to reach equilibration will depend upon the volume and length of the accumulation volume , the gas diffusivity , and moisture adsorptivity of the accumulation volume wall materials . the time may be reduced by the use of option pump 54 . processes 606 and 607 determine when time t = t 2 . this is typically based upon numerical evidence indicating that the crds reading of moisture content has reached a steady value , such as the reading changing less than 1 % over a 10 - minute period . in one embodiment , t 2 is at least 1 hour . once the reading is steady , the water vapor transmission rate ( wvtr ) can be computed under control of process 608 . theoretically , wvtr is equal to the product of the moisture content measured at time t 2 ( x h2o ) and the accumulation volume ( v ) divided by the product of the test film area ( a ) and the time of accumulation ( t 1 − t 0 ). this can be represented mathematically as in the following equation : for example , if the measurement was conducted with the continuous flow method at pressure of 10 psi , 10 sccm and temperature of 300k with a test film having a wvtr value of 1 × 10 − 6 g / m 2 / day using a film area of 50 cm 2 , the test would result in a crds reading of only 0 . 3 ppb v ( or 3 × 10 − 7 g / m 3 ) which is below the detection limit of the instrument . however , using the method ( process 60 ) described above with an accumulation volume v = 40 ml and an accumulation time ( t 1 − t 0 )= 2 hours , the resulting crds reading would be 10 ppb v ( or 1 × 10 − 5 g / m 3 ) which is easily measured . other accumulation volumes or times are possible depending upon the range of the wvtr to be measured . note that the actual wvtr may vary slightly from the theoretical value if the walls of the accumulation volume have significant moisture adsorptivity . to help reduce the water adsorbed by the tubing walls of the accumulation volume , ptfe coatings or other highly hydrophobic materials can be used to coat the tubing walls . in such cases , the method can be calibrated by measuring films with known values of wvtr and developing a calibration curve . when time t = t 2 , measurements are completed and valves 101 , 102 and 104 are opened and valve 103 is closed effectively returning the system to the continuous flow measurement condition . gas flow to the wet side is not required during the accumulation measurement . the purpose of the gas flow to the wet side is to balance the pressure above and below the film during the continuous flow measurement and presumably , the pressures have already balanced above and below the test film during the continuous flow process ( at time t 1 & lt ; t 0 ). the gas flow to the wet side may continue or it may shut off at time t 0 . either way does not affect the accumulation measurement so long as the pressure remains balance . note that the above - described accumulation method can reduce the testing time of films by screening samples , for example , by measuring the slope ( 502 , fig5 ) of permeation curve 500 , before steady state ( t = t 2 ) has been reached . this then can be used to infer permeation properties of the films . continuing in fig6 , processes 609 through 613 illustrate one embodiment of using a crds to pass / fail a particular film under test after the permeated gas has had time to accumulate . note that once the vapor has accumulated , any system can be used to measure the permeability of the film to the applied substance . in this embodiment , process 60 uses a crds technique to measurement moisture content as described above . process 609 determines if the wvtr is greater than a specification required for a particular application ( spec 1 ). if it is , then the film has failed the test . however , if the wvtr is not greater than the specification then process 610 determines that the film has passed . in a pass / no - pass system , the testing is finished . optionally , even if the film fails for one purpose it might be acceptable for another purpose . in this regard , process 611 determines if the wvtr is above a second specification ( spec 2 ) required for other applications . if so , the film is discarded by process 613 . if not , process 612 allows the film to be used for other purposes . multi - levels can be used to “ grade ” the film . in some embodiments , the light wavelength can be tuned to match one of the water vapor ( or other measured gas ) absorption bands ( for instance 1392 . 5 nm ). light within the chamber forms an optical cavity by use of high reflective minors 27 and 27 ′ in the well - known manner . the system uses fast electronics to measure the decay time within the optical cavity as the light leaving the chamber impacts upon a detector . this then allows for the calculation of the water content in ppb v using the set of equations presented in table 1 . note that in some situations , different gas vapors may be measured for permeability through a substance and when this is done the laser ( or other collimated energy source ) can be frequency tuned to resonate with the selected vapor . this tuning can be changed from time to time ( even during the measurement of a given sample ) to allow the system to provide measurements for different vapors , if desired . for water vapor , tuning could be , for example , 1392 . 5 nm , 2900 nm , 1950 nm , and 1450 nm , other analyte vapors could be , for example , co 2 and o 2 . for co 2 , the tuning could be 4 . 3 um , 2 . 7 um , 2 um , 1 . 6 um , 1 . 4 um . for o 2 , the tuning could be 0 . 7596 um , 1 . 58 um , 1 . 27 um , 1 . 06 um , 0 . 69 um , 0 . 63 um . the carrier gas can be selected from the list of nitrogen , helium , argon , neon , xenon , krypton or air . although the present invention and its advantages have been described in detail , it should be understood that various changes , substitutions and alterations can be made herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims . moreover , the scope of the present application is not intended to be limited to the particular embodiments of the process , machine , manufacture , composition of matter , means , methods and steps described in the specification . as one of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate from the disclosure of the present invention , processes , machines , manufacture , compositions of matter , means , methods , or steps , presently existing or later to be developed that perform substantially the same function or achieve substantially the same result as the corresponding embodiments described herein may be utilized according to the present invention . accordingly , the appended claims are intended to include within their scope such processes , machines , manufacture , compositions of matter , means , methods , or steps . | 6 |
fig1 and 2 show a piezoelectric device 30 according to the first embodiment of the disclosure . fig1 is an exploded , perspective , schematic view of the device 30 . fig2 ( a ) is a schematic sectional diagram taken on a line a - a of the piezoelectric device of fig1 as assembled , and fig2 ( b ) is an enlarged sectional diagram of a portion surrounded by a dash - dotted circular line of fig2 ( a ). in these drawings , the piezoelectric device 30 exemplifies a piezoelectric resonator and includes a piezoelectric element 20 and a substrate 32 that is bonded to this piezoelectric element 20 . in the present embodiment , the substrate 32 is composed of a lid substrate 40 and a base substrate 50 interposing the piezoelectric element 20 therebetween . the piezoelectric element 20 includes exciting electrodes 42 , 43 and drawing electrodes 46 , 47 on the surface of a piezoelectric body 41 . the piezoelectric body 41 is made of quartz crystal , for example . other than quartz crystal , piezoelectric materials such as lithium tantalite may be used . in this embodiment , the piezoelectric body 41 is so - called at cut , in that a quartz crystal wafer is cut in predetermined directions . also , the piezoelectric body 41 is equipped with a vibrating section 22 in the center , a frame 24 surrounding this vibrating section 22 , and supports 26 , 27 connecting the vibrating section 22 with the frame 24 . the vibrating section 22 in the center is a vibrating area having a thickness corresponding to an oscillation frequency . in this embodiment , the vibrating section 22 is made by being cut into rectangles by chemical etching or blasting using a resist pattern that is formed by photolithography , and is further made to be thinner than the frame 24 . consequently , as shown in fig2 , when the vibrating section 22 is disposed between the lid substrate 40 and the base substrate 50 , a sealed inner space s 1 is created around the vibrating section 22 . then , the exciting electrodes 42 , 43 of opposite polarities are provided on upper and lower planes that are main planes of this thin area , by sputtering chromium ( cr ), nickel ( ni ), or titanium ( ti ) on the base ( underlying layer ) and gold ( au ) or silver ( ag ) on the front surface ( surface layer section ). as a result , an electric field is efficiently generated between the exciting electrode on the upper plane and the exciting electrode on the lower plane , and the vibrating section 22 performs thickness slide oscillation . the frame 24 is formed surrounding the vibrating section 22 . the principal plane of the frame 24 is interposed between the lid substrate 40 and the base substrate 50 , and this interposed region becomes a region for securing the piezoelectric element 20 . in this embodiment , the outer dimension of the frame 24 is substantially equal to the outer dimensions of the lid substrate 40 and the base substrate 50 . also , the frame 24 is made thicker than the vibration section 22 , and , as shown in fig1 , castellations 24 a , 24 b , 24 c , 24 d are provided by cutting near the corners of the frame 24 into four quarters of a circle in plan view . these castellations 24 a , 24 b , 24 c , 24 d become a guide for cutting out the piezoelectric element 20 from a wafer and conductive paths for electrically coupling the exciting electrodes 42 , 43 with mounting terminal portions 44 , 45 disposed on the bottom surface . in other words , on the entire periphery of the upper and lower planes , that is the principal planes , of the frame 24 , the drawing electrodes 46 , 47 that are electrically coupled to the exciting electrodes 42 , 43 while drawing the electrodes outside are provided . these drawing electrodes 46 , 47 are composed of the same layer structure and material as are the exciting electrodes 42 , 43 and made by sputtering , e . g ., chromium ( cr ), nickel ( ni ), or titanium ( ti ) on the base and gold ( au ) or silver ( ag ) on the front surface . then , the drawing electrode 46 on the upper plane is drawn via the castellations 24 a , 24 b on the front and right sides of fig1 and via castellations 50 a , 50 b of the base substrate 50 on the front and right sides of fig1 and is coupled to the mounting terminal portion 45 . also , the drawing electrode 47 on the lower plane is drawn via a castellation 50 d provided on the base substrate 50 on the left side of fig1 and via a castellation ( not shown ) on the rare side of fig1 and is coupled to the mounting terminal portion 44 . then , the vibrating section 22 in the center is connected to the frame 24 surrounding this vibrating section 22 with the supports 26 , 27 . the supports 26 , 27 support the vibrating section 22 by suspending the same and act as the paths for electrically coupling the exciting electrodes 42 , 43 to the drawing electrodes 46 , 47 . specifically , only two supports 26 , 27 are provided at about the center of the opposing side surfaces of the vibrating section 22 . thus , a space between the vibrating section 22 and the frame 24 , where the supports 26 , 27 are not provided , becomes a through hole 28 . provided on the upper surface of one support 26 , out of the plurality of supports 26 , 27 , is a connecting electrode 48 connecting the exciting electrode 42 of the vibrating section 22 with the drawing electrode 46 of the frame 24 . provided also on the other , lower surface of the support 27 , as shown in fig2 , is a connecting electrode 49 connecting the exciting electrode 43 of the vibrating section 22 with the drawing electrode 47 of the frame 24 . the connecting electrodes 48 and 49 are arranged so as not to come in contact with each other . these connecting electrodes 48 , 49 are composed of the same layer structure and material as are the exciting electrodes 42 , 43 and the drawing electrodes 46 , 47 , except a portion ( portion where an underlying layer 48 a is exposed ) of a surface layer section 48 b which will be described later . these connecting electrodes 48 , 49 will be described in detail hereafter . further , the supports 26 , 27 are formed in a manner that they become gradually thinner from the frame 24 toward the vibrating section 22 . thus , the connecting electrode 48 is sloped downward from the drawing electrode 46 to the exciting electrode 42 . that is , the connecting electrode 48 has a sloped plane that is high at a side adjacent the frame 24 and low at a side adjacent the vibrating section 22 . the substrate 32 is a member to be bonded and fixed to the piezoelectric element 20 so as to seal the vibrating area . in the embodiment , the substrate 32 is bonded to the piezoelectric element 20 by thermo - compression with the frame interposed therebetween and includes the lid substrate 40 and the base substrate 50 . specifically , the substrate 32 is formed using an insulating material . in the embodiment , a member such as quartz crystal or glass having substantially the same thermal expansion coefficient as that of the piezoelectric element 20 is selected in order to avoid cracks that may be made by a stress generated when heating the piezoelectric element 20 interposed between the lid substrate 40 and the base substrate 50 . the lid substrate 40 has substantially the same outer dimension as that of the piezoelectric element 20 and is formed in a rectangle shape . the entire circumferential edge of a lower plane of the lid substrate 40 is coated with a bonding metal film 52 through sputtering , e . g ., chromium ( cr ) and gold ( au ). as shown in fig2 ( a ), a metallic brazing material 54 such as gold / tin is applied between the bonding metal film 52 and the drawing electrode 46 on the surface of the frame 24 , thereby bonding the lid substrate 40 to the frame 24 . the base substrate 50 , also , has substantially the same outer dimension as that of the piezoelectric element 20 and is formed in a rectangle shape . further , as shown in fig1 , the base material 50 includes the mounting terminal portions 44 , 45 on the lower plane thereof and the castellations 50 a , 50 b , 50 d that become the conductive paths for electrically coupling these mounting terminal portions 44 , 45 to the drawing electrodes 46 , 47 . then , the entire circumferential edge of the base substrate 50 is bonded to the frame 24 of the piezoelectric element 20 . an upper plane of the base substrate 50 is coated with a bonding metal film 56 through sputtering , e . g ., chromium ( cr ) and gold ( au ). as shown in fig2 ( a ), a metallic brazing material 58 such as gold / tin is applied between the bonding metal film 56 and the drawing electrode 47 on a lower plane of the frame 24 , thereby bonding the base substrate 50 to the frame 24 . the connecting electrodes 48 , 49 that connect the exciting electrodes 42 , 43 with the drawing electrodes 46 , 47 have the following characteristics . note that , because the connecting electrodes 48 and 49 have substantially the same structure , except that they are facing different directions , only the connecting electrode 48 will be described below . referring to fig2 ( b ), the connecting electrode 48 includes the underlying layer 48 a provided on the surface of the piezoelectric body 41 and the surface layer section 48 b provided on the surface of this underlying layer 48 a . the surface layer section 48 b is a member that enables good conduction between the exciting electrodes 42 , 43 and the drawing electrodes 46 , 47 and is formed by sputtering , e . g ., gold ( au ) or silver ( ag ). the underlying layer 48 a is a member that bonds the surface layer section 48 b having good conductivity with the supports 26 , 27 of the piezoelectric body 41 made of quartz crystal . the underlying layer 48 a in the embodiment is formed using the metallic brazing material 54 and a metallic material of adverse wettability through sputtering , e . g ., chromium ( cr ), nickel ( ni ), or titanium ( ti ). in other words , in the embodiment , the connecting electrode 48 is composed of the same layer structure and material as are the drawing electrode 46 and the exciting electrode 42 . then , a part of the surface layer section 48 b is removed so as to separate the exciting electrode 42 from the drawing electrode 46 . in the embodiment , the surface layer section 48 b in the middle of the connecting electrode 48 is removed so as to divide the surface layer section 48 b . as a result , the metallic material of adverse wettability of the underlying layer 48 a is exposed , separating the exciting electrode 42 from the drawing electrode 46 . more specifically , with reference to fig1 , the underlying layer 48 a takes the whole width of the connecting electrode 48 and is exposed to the inner space s 1 . referring to fig2 ( b ), a recess 57 is provided , and the inner bottom of the recess 57 is a portion 48 - 1 of this exposed metallic material of adverse wettability . accordingly , even if the metallic brazing material 54 flows toward the exciting electrode 42 , the metallic brazing material 54 is accumulated inside this recess 57 , thereby effectively preventing the metallic brazing material 54 from flowing to the exciting electrode 42 . then , as described above , the exposed portion 48 - 1 of the underlying layer 48 a is exposed to the inner space 51 while taking the whole width of the connecting electrode 48 , and , thus , the exposed portion 48 - 1 is in such a situation that the surface layer section 48 b enabling good conduction is removed . thus , there is a possibility that the conductivity between the exciting electrode 42 and the drawing electrode 46 deteriorates . therefore , with the understanding that the conductivity improves if the sectional area increases , the underlying layer 48 a of the embodiment is made to have a thickness h 1 larger than the thickness of at least the surface layer section 48 b so as to secure conductivity between the drawing electrode 46 and the exciting electrode 42 . the thickness h 1 can be determined depending on the kind of member composing the underlying layer 48 a . the first embodiment of the disclosure has the structure as described above , in which the underlying layer 48 a of the connecting electrode 48 is composed of the metallic brazing material 54 and the metallic material of adverse wettability , and in which the metallic material of adverse wettability is exposed while separating the exciting electrode 42 from the drawing electrode 46 . therefore , when bonding the drawing electrode 46 to the substrate 32 , the heated and melted metallic brazing material 54 stops spreading because of its adverse wettability at the position of the exposed underlying layer 48 a even if the material 54 runs to the connecting electrode 48 . accordingly , it is possible to effectively prevent the metallic brazing material 54 from running along the connecting electrode 48 to flow toward the exciting electrode 42 . also , in the embodiment , because the drawing electrode 46 and the exciting electrode 42 are composed of the same layer structure and material as is the connecting electrode 48 as described above , the drawing electrode 42 , the exciting electrode 46 , and the connecting electrode 48 can be formed simultaneously . therefore , it is relatively easy to expose the underlying layer 48 a and to respond to the downsized piezoelectric device 30 . in other words , even though the structure of the embodiment is employed so that the outflow of the metallic brazing material 54 is prevented , it is still possible to provide the downsized piezoelectric device 30 . moreover , because the surface layer section 48 b is split at the exposed portion of the underlying layer 48 a , it is possible to prevent the so - called solder eating , in which the surface layer section 48 b is absorbed in the metallic brazing material 54 , at the exposed portion of the underlying layer 48 a . as a result , it is possible to provide the piezoelectric device with which the spread of the brazing material or the solder eating caused by the brazing material is prevented and with which excellent vibration characteristics are obtained . fig3 is a diagram explaining the characteristic features of a piezoelectric device 60 according to the second embodiment of the disclosure and shows an enlarged section of a portion corresponding to the enlarged sectional portion shown in fig2 ( b ). in this drawing , the elements with identical reference numbers have the same structures as those used in fig1 and 2 . thus , the explanations thereof will not be repeated , and differences will mainly be explained . the differences between this piezoelectric device 60 and the piezoelectric device 30 of the first embodiment are the structures of the underlying layers of the connecting electrodes 48 , 49 ( see fig2 ). since the connecting electrodes 48 , 49 have substantially the same structure , only the connecting electrode 48 will be explained below . with reference to fig3 , the underlying layer 48 a of the connecting electrode 48 is composed of three layers 60 a , 60 b , 60 c . similar to the first embodiment , an uppermost layer 60 c is made by disposing the metallic brazing material 54 and the metallic material of adverse wettability ( e . g ., chromium , nickel , or titanium ), with one portion 48 - 1 thereof exposed to the inner space s 1 . a mid layer 60 b of the three layers is made by disposing a metal that is a member that bonds strongly with the uppermost layer 60 c and has an electric resistance value lower than that of the uppermost layer 60 c made of the metallic material of adverse wettability . specifically , the mid layer 60 b is made of gold ( au ) or silver ( ag ). a lowermost layer 60 a is made from a member that bonds the mid layer 60 b to the piezoelectric body 41 , such as chromium ( cr ), nickel ( ni ), or titanium ( ti ). note that , with the piezoelectric device 60 of the second embodiment , also , the drawing electrode 46 and the exciting electrode 42 ( see fig2 ) have the three - layer structure made from the same members as does the connecting electrode 48 . further , the disclosure is not limited to the above - mentioned structure . for example , the underlying layer 48 a of the connecting electrode 48 may be composed of four or more layers . however , it is preferable that the underlying layer 48 a of the connecting electrode 48 be composed of the three layers 60 a , 60 b , 60 c as in the second embodiment , from a viewpoint that the thickness dimension of the entire the piezoelectric device 60 should be downsized . the second embodiment is composed as described above and , accordingly , has the same operational effect as that of the first embodiment . also , the underlying layer 48 a is composed of the three layers 60 a , 60 b , 60 c , and the mid layer 60 b is made by disposing the metal having an electric resistance value lower than that of the uppermost layer 60 c made of the metallic material of adverse wettability . therefore , even if one portion of the connecting electrode 48 lacks the surface layer section 48 b that enables conductivity , it is possible to establish good conductance between the drawing electrode 46 and the exciting electrode 42 because of the portion of the mid layer 60 b made of the metal with low electric resistance . as a result , it is possible to obtain the piezoelectric device 60 having excellent vibration characteristics . fig4 is a diagram explaining the characteristic features of a piezoelectric device 70 according to the third embodiment of the disclosure and shows an enlarged sectional diagram of a portion corresponding to the enlarged sectional portion shown in fig2 ( b ). in this drawing , the elements with identical reference numbers have the same structures as those used in fig1 and 2 , and the explanations thereof will not be repeated . the differences between this piezoelectric device 70 and the piezoelectric device 30 of the first embodiment are the structures of the connecting electrodes 48 , 49 ( see fig2 ). since the connecting electrodes 48 , 49 have substantially the same structure , only the connecting electrode 48 will be explained . in this embodiment , the surface layer section 48 b and the underlying layer 48 a of the connecting electrode 48 are removed ( split in this embodiment ) at the same position , separating the exciting electrode 42 from the drawing electrode 46 ( see fig2 ). also , a metal film 48 c is formed in this split section 76 . this metal film 48 c is made of the metallic brazing material 54 and the metallic material of adverse wettability , such as chromium ( cr ), nickel ( ni ), or titanium ( ti ), through sputtering . the metal film 48 c is coated not only on the split section 76 but also on the surface layer section 48 b adjacent to the split section 76 . in the third embodiment , also , the heated and melted metallic brazing material 54 stops spreading at the position of the metal film 48 c due to its adverse wettability . accordingly , it is possible to effectively prevent the metallic brazing material 54 from flowing toward the exciting electrode 42 . moreover , because the surface layer section 48 b is split while separating the exciting electrode 42 from the drawing electrode 46 as shown in fig2 , it is possible to prevent the so - called solder eating in which the surface layer section 48 b is absorbed in the metallic brazing material 54 at the portion of the surface layer film 48 c . as a result , it is possible to provide the piezoelectric device with which the spread of the brazing material or the solder eating caused by the brazing material is prevented , and with which excellent vibration characteristics are obtained . fig5 is an exploded , perspective , schematic view of the piezoelectric element 20 used in a piezoelectric device 80 according to the fourth embodiment of the disclosure . in this drawing , the elements with identical reference numbers have the same structures as those used in fig1 and 2 . thus , the explanations thereof will not be repeated , and differences will mainly be explained . the differences between this piezoelectric device 80 and the piezoelectric device 30 of the first embodiment are the structures of the connecting electrodes 48 , 49 and the exciting electrode 42 , 43 . since the connecting electrodes 48 , 49 have substantially the same structure , and the exciting electrodes 42 , 43 have substantially the same structure , only the connecting electrode 48 and the exciting electrode 42 will be explained below . with the piezoelectric device 80 of this embodiment , a portion exposing the underlying layer is not the portion of the connecting electrode 48 but a portion of the exciting electrode 42 . specifically , a surface layer section , made of gold ( au ) or silver ( ag ), of the exciting electrode 42 adjacent to the connecting electrode 48 is removed , separating the drawing electrode 46 from the exciting electrode 42 and thereby exposing chromium ( cr ), nickel ( ni ), or titanium ( ti ) that is the underlying layer 42 a . in the fourth embodiment , also , the heated and melted metallic brazing material 54 stops spreading at the position of the metal film 48 c due to its adverse wettability . accordingly , it is possible to effectively prevent the metallic brazing material 54 from flowing toward the exciting electrode 42 . moreover , because the portion of the surface layer section of the exciting electrode 42 is removed while separating the drawing electrode 46 from the exciting electrode 42 , it is possible to prevent the so - called solder eating in which the surface layer section is absorbed in the metallic brazing material at the exposed portion of the underlying layer 42 a . as a result , it is possible to provide the piezoelectric device with which the spread of the brazing material or the solder eating caused by the brazing material is prevented , and with which excellent vibration characteristics are obtained . the disclosure is not limited to the above - described embodiments . any structure of any of the embodiments may suitably be omitted , combined with other structures of other embodiments , or combined with structures not shown in the drawings . for example , a plurality of exposed portions of the underlying layer may be provided at a plurality of places , or may be provided at both the portion of the connecting electrode and the portion of the exciting electrode . moreover , another embodiment is possible within the scope of the disclosure , in that the surface layer section of the drawing electrode and the surface layer section of the exciting electrode are not completely divided , as described in the following . fig6 shows schematic plan diagrams of modified examples of the piezoelectric element 20 used in the piezoelectric device of the disclosure . as shown in fig6 ( a ) that is one of the modified examples , only a portion of the surface layer section of the connecting electrode 48 may be removed in a width direction , exposing the portion of the underlying layer 48 a in the width direction . also , as shown in fig6 ( b ) that is another one of the modified examples , the surface layer section and the underlying layer of the connecting electrode 48 may be removed in the width direction at the same one portion . the removed portion may include the metallic brazing material and the metal film 48 c of adverse wettability . further , as shown in fig6 ( c ) that is yet another one of the modified examples , a portion of the surface layer section of the exciting electrode 42 may be removed so that the drawing electrode 46 and the exciting electrode 42 are electrically connected at the surface layer section on the periphery of the exposed underlying layer 42 a . | 7 |
while the present invention will be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings , in which a preferred embodiment of the present invention is shown , it is to be understood at the outset of the description which follows that persons of skill in the appropriate arts may modify the invention here described while still achieving the favorable results of the invention . accordingly , the description which follows is to be understood as being a broad , teaching disclosure directed to persons of skill in the appropriate arts , and not as limiting upon the present invention . referring now more particularly to the drawings , fig1 illustrates an exemplary blade rack housing 102 . while the view is simplified and certain elements to be described herein are not visible in fig1 , the rack housing 102 includes a plurality of chassis 104 , 106 , 108 , and 110 . within the chassis , multiple blades , e . g ., blades 112 , 114 , and 116 , can be mounted . for example , in fig1 , blade 112 is illustrated as being mounted in chassis 106 ; blade 114 is shown as being mounted in chassis 108 , and blade 116 is shown being mounted in chassis 110 . a power supply 118 is shown being mounted in chassis 104 . although not shown , typically a management module is also included in the rack housing 102 and , in a known manner , manages the operations performed by the blade system . fig2 is a block diagram that illustrates the allocation of power in a 1 + 1redundant system as used in the present invention . the values given in fig2 for the maximum power of each blade and the nominal capacity of the power supplies is given for the purpose of example only and it is understood that the present invention is not limited to the values illustrated in fig2 . referring to fig2 , a simplified example of a rack 200 containing blades 202 - 216 is shown . power supplies 218 and 220 provide power to the blades in rack 200 on a shared - allocation basis . in the example of fig2 , blades 202 and 204 each are allocated 300 watts of power ( maximum ); blade 206 is allocated 290 watts of power ( maximum ); blade 208 is allocated 310 watts of power ( maximum ); and blades 210 - 216 are each allocated 250watts of power ( maximum ). the maximum values are calculated based on the various options that may be installed on each blade . at any given time any of the blades may be drawing the maximum values ; however , it is understood that there will also be times when they are drawing less power . in the example of fig2 , if all of the blades are subscribed simultaneously , 2200 watts of power would have to be allocated to run the blades at maximum power . this is 200 watts above the nominal power of either of the power supplies 218 or 220 individually , which means that the system is running in an oversubscription mode where additional power is being provided by the excess capacity of the redundant power supplies . in accordance with the present invention , a maximum power reduction ( mpr ) attribute for each blade is identified and is utilized by the management module of the system to manage the amount of throttling performed when a throttle condition exists . as noted above , in the example of fig2 the blade system is oversubscribed by 200 watts . in other words , if one of the power supplies 218 or 220 were to fail , the overall power being drawn by the blades in the aggregate would have to be reduced by 200 watts to enable the power supply to continue powering the blade system . as noted above , a method in the prior art for quickly reducing the power would be to completely shut down a sufficient number of blades to reduce the power requirement of the remaining functioning supply . in the example of fig2 , since each of the blades has a maximum power draw that exceeds the 200 watt oversubscription value , in the prior art systems , any one of the blades would be shut down and the remaining blades could be powered by the functioning power supply . this is problematic , however , in that the entire functionality of one of the blades is lost . the present invention allows one or more of the blades to be throttled back by an amount that does not exceed the “ maximum power reduction ” value . this is a value that has been determined in advance at which a particular blade can continue to function and perform its primary duties while drawing a reduced amount of power . fig3 illustrates the chassis illustrated in fig2 , but with the mpr values for each blade included . the chassis of fig3 includes power supplies 318 and 320 . as can be seen , the mpr value for blades 302 and 304 is 100 watts for each blade ; the mpr value for blade 306 is 50 watts ; the mpr value for blade 308 is 150 watts ; and the mpr values for blades 310 - 316 is 0 watts . in other words , blades 302 and 304 can reduce their power by 100 watts each and still continue to perform their functions ; blade 306 can reduce its power draw by 50 watts and still continue to perform its functions ; and blade 308 can reduce its power draw by 150 watts and still continue to perform its functions . blades 310 - 316 cannot have their power reduced below their maximum value , this indicates that they are incapable of throttling or are performing important functions or are fully loaded , i . e ., they cannot reduce their power . the mpr attributes can be provided in the vpd of each blade . this value can be static ( set in manufacturing ) or dynamically calculated by the blade based on installed blade options . for dynamic calculation , tables and algorithms for this calculation are self - contained within the blade . the blades can dynamically calculate their maximum power requirement by detecting the installed blade options , determining the options &# 39 ; power requirements from the table stored on the blade , and summing all the individual power requirements , thereby arriving at the total power requirement for the blade . fig4 is a flowchart illustrating steps performed in accordance with the present invention . referring to fig4 , at step 402 the maximum power ( p max ) value for each blade in the chassis is obtained . as noted above , this information can be obtained from the vpd of the blade or could be dynamically calculated by the blade based on the installed blade options . at step 404 , the total maximum power for all blades in the chassis is calculated by totaling up the maximum power value of the individual blades . in the example of fig3 , the total maximum power value for all blades in the chassis is 2200 watts . at step 406 , the mpr for each blade in the chassis is identified . again , this can be obtained from the vpd of the blade or dynamically calculated by the blade based on installed blade options . at step 408 , the total mpr value for all blades in the chassis is calculated . this is simply an addition step wherein all mpr &# 39 ; s for all blades in the chassis are added . in the example of fig3 , the total mpr value for the blades in chassis 300 is 400 watts . at step 410 , the non - redundant power available ( nrpa ) value is identified . this is essentially the value of , in the example of fig3 , one of the power supplies , i . e ., it is the value of power available if redundancy is lost . at step 412 , the amount of oversubscription is calculated . this is determined by subtracting the nrpa value from the total p max value for the blades in the chassis . in the example of fig3 , this calculation is 2200 watts − 2000 watts = 200 watts . at step 414 , the throttling power reduction ( tpr ) value for each blade is calculated . one example of how to perform the calculation is to divide the mpr value of a blade by the total mpr ( tmpr ) value for all blades , and then multiply that result by the amount of oversubscription . thus , for example , for blade 302 , the tpr value is : 100 watts ( the mpr value of blade 302 )÷ 400 watts ( the tmpr value for all blades )= 0 . 25 watts , multiplied by 200 watts ( the amount of oversubscription ). the tpr value for blade 302 is thus 50 watts . the same calculation holds true for blade 304 , since the values of blade 304 are identical to the values of blade 302 . alternative calculations exist and could be customer selectable . for example , the throttle for blades could be calculated by subtracting the average non - redundant power available per blade ( 250 w in fig3 ) from the pmax ( assuming that this value is not greater than the blade mpr ). for blade 306 , the calculation is 50 watts ÷ 400 watts = 0 . 125 watts , multiplied by 200 = 25 watts . for blade 308 , the calculation is 150 watts ÷ 400 watts = 0 . 375 watts × 200 = 75 watts . the tpr value for blades 310 - 316 is 0 watts . at step 420 , the blade system is monitored for the occurrence of a throttle condition , that is , for example , a problem in power supply 320 that causes it to shut down . upon this occurrence being sensed at step 420 , the process proceeds to step 422 , and the blades are throttled using the tpr values for each . the throttle level of each blade must minimally meet the tpr . this brings the total power draw of the blades down to the nominal value of the remaining power supply so that the system does not shut down altogether . if , at step 420 , a throttle condition has not been sensed , the process proceeds back to step 418 where monitoring takes place to sense throttle conditions . once throttling levels have been determined , a “ performance percentage ” can be derived , which is a numeric indication of the percentage of performance at which a particular blade is operating , after throttling . this can easily be done by configuring the blades with the appropriate algorithms and tables to calculate the performance percentage based upon the throttle amount needed to meet the tpr value . this will give an overall indication of the throttled performance as compared to the performance without throttling . this information can also be communicated to the management module so that the information will be available to a system user . based on these performance numbers a system user may take appropriate action to insure that application ( s ) are performing at the required level . there is a need to insure that when in oversubscription , the blades are quickly throttled independent of the chassis management entity ( management module of mm ). this can be accomplished by the mm pre - setting the tpr values in each blade . the blades then detect the loss of redundant power and automatically throttle to meet the preset tpr value . once redundant power is returned , a blade remains in the throttled condition until the chassis management entity issues a command for it to unthrottle . this ensures that viability of the power system has been validated by the chassis management entity prior to the unthrottling of the throttled blades . alternatively , for systems where the blades are not capable of detecting the loss of redundant power , the chassis management module may be used to trigger the blades to throttle . however , when this is done it is prudent to insure that a loss of the chassis management module will not cause a power failure when there is a loss of redundant power . to protect the power domain during periods of loss of the power monitoring management system itself ( e . g ., if the management module ceases operation ), the blades can be configured to dynamically monitor for the loss of the management entity function , and in such a case , automatically throttle to meet the pre - set tpr values until such time as the management module can be brought back into operation . one configuration to enable this function would be to provide a “ watchdog timer ” between the management module and the blades . the timer will monitor communications between the management module and the blades , and if there has been no communication from the management module for a predetermined period of time , it can be presumed that the management module is experiencing difficulty and the blades can automatically then be put into a throttling mode . the management module could be configured to send the command out at a frequency such that , without a failure , the timer would be reset multiple times within a timer window . a dummy command could be sent if a normal command was not ready to be sent within the given time period . thus , a loss of a single command ( or response ) would not be sufficient for triggering the timer . once the loss is detected , the action for power reduction ( e . g ., throttling ) is initiated , just as in the case of a loss of redundant power . the notification of the power reduction would be continued and forwarded when the management module is again functional . further , while the management module is in the non - operational state , the blades can be configured to perform a periodic test to determine if the management entity has returned to operation . exit from the throttled state and reinitiation of the watchdog timer can be accomplished by configuring the management module to issue an explicit command to each blade to “ unthrottle ”. the present invention can also be implemented using hardware throttling techniques . for example , some intel devices utilize a “ forcepr #” pin , and driving this pin can throttle the processors when a power loss is detected which necessitates prompt throttling . the early power off warning ( epow ) from the system power supplies can be used to determine that the amount of available power is decreasing , and the warning can drive the forcepr # pin ( or similar pin on a non - intel processor ) and thereby trigger the throttling of each processor by the tpr value . the system can be configured to issue a high priority interrupt to the bmc when the epow event occurs . this allows the forcepr # action to be asserted quickly , within the short window provided by epow . although the descriptions herein refer to the use of the present invention with blade computers ( server blades , desktop blades , etc . ), the present invention as claimed is not so limited . the present invention may be used with other components , including “ blade - like ” devices that are not generally considered servers in the it sense , drop - insert routing of telecom circuits , voice processing blades , blades that packetize voice from telecom circuits to a packet network , as well as switch modules , integrated switches and the like . the above - described steps can be implemented using standard well - known programming techniques . the novelty of the above - described embodiment lies not in the specific programming techniques but in the use of the steps described to achieve the described results . software programming code which embodies the present invention is typically stored in permanent storage of some type , such as permanent storage on a disk drive located in a rack housing . in a client / server environment , such software programming code may be stored with storage associated with a server . the software programming code may be embodied on any of a variety of known media for use with a data processing system , such as a diskette , or hard drive , or cd - rom . the code may be distributed on such media , or may be distributed to users from the memory or storage of one computer system over a network of some type to other computer systems for use by users of such other systems . the techniques and methods for embodying software program code on physical media and / or distributing software code via networks are well known and will not be further discussed herein . it will be understood that each element of the illustrations , and combinations of elements in the illustrations , can be implemented by general and / or special purpose hardware - based systems that perform the specified functions or steps , or by combinations of general and / or special - purpose hardware and computer instructions . these program instructions may be provided to a processor to produce a machine , such that the instructions that execute on the processor create means for implementing the functions specified in the illustrations . the computer program instructions may be executed by a processor to cause a series of operational steps to be performed by the processor to produce a computer - implemented process such that the instructions that execute on the processor provide steps for implementing the functions specified in the illustrations . accordingly , this disclosure supports combinations of means for performing the specified functions , combinations of steps for performing the specified functions , and program instruction means for performing the specified functions . although the present invention has been described with respect to a specific preferred embodiment thereof , various changes and modifications may be suggested to one skilled in the art and it is intended that the present invention encompass such changes and modifications as fall within the scope of the appended claims . | 6 |
the invention is directed to mimo transmission with rank adaptation in the 60 ghz wireless radio link , which can leverage both high rank mimo spatial multiplexing gain and rank − 1 beamforming advantage to dramatically increase system throughput . the invention is based on geometrical approach , entailing a system architecture ( see fig1 ) with antenna grouping and rank adaptation capability for 60 ghz transmission . specifically , the transmit and receive ( tx - rx ) antenna arrays , w 1 . . . w 2 , u 1 . . . u 2 , linked by directional beams are grouped into a number ( m ) of subarrays with a predetermined subarray separation . the minimum number of transmission tx and receiver rx subarrays determines the highest rank that the mimo channel can support . each subarray consists of a traditional half - wavelength spaced d linear array . this architecture potentially releases the rank deficient 60 ghz los channel to a less correlated channel and provides high rank mimo transmission and rank adaptation capability . for the 60 ghz system with the proposed invention , after a random drop of geometrical settings 201 , the invention applies enhanced blind beamforming 202 based on stochastic gradient algorithm ( sga ) for the inner - subarray antennas , which does not require channel state information ( csi ) at the transmitter or receiver . then , the composite ( m - by - m ) mimo channel , as a joint effect of tx - rx beamforming and the channel impulse response , can be estimated to capture the equivalent channel characteristic 203 . finally , mimo transmission with rank adaptation is performed by adaptively selecting the better scheme out of the high - rank spatial multiplexing and the rank − 1 beamforming . referring again to fig1 , both the transmitter and receiver antenna array are grouped into m subarrays . each subarray consists of a linear array of elements with half - wavelength separation . for simplicity , we assume m = 2 in the architecture but the proposed approach can be readily extended to any number of m subarrays , with any number of element in each subarray . for the proposed inventive system with delay - and - sum ( das ) beamforming , the optimal transmit inter - subarray spacing s t and receive antenna spacing s r achieving a capacity - maximizing rank − 2 mimo transmission is given by where d is distance between transmitter and receiver , λ is the carrier wavelength , p is non - negative integer number , and n t is the number of transmit antennas . based on the above optimal geometrical criteria for high rank los creation in the system with antenna grouping , a subarray separation of 5 ˜ 10 cm is the practical setting that could achieve optimal high rank mimo transmission . this provides a guideline for practical antenna array design to reserve the high rank mimo transmission capability . within each subarray , beamforming is used to improve link signal - to - noise - plus - interference - ratio ( sinr ) and geometrical misplacement robustness . among the subarrays , the high rank mimo link can be formed based on the optimal geometrical criteria and los channel characteristic . the process to implement the mimo transmission with rank adaptation in practical 60 ghz system , in accordance with the invention , is diagramed in fig2 . for any given random drop 201 of a practical system , we have a layout realization in terms of tx - rx horizontal distance ( d ), relative vertical shift and relative angular rotation . this could be in the stage of initial system setup or power - on . the inventive approach is to find out the optimal transmission mode ( rank − 1 beamforming and high rank spatial multiplexing ) giving higher system throughput without any knowledge of the actual geometrical placement . first , there is applied an enhanced sga based blind beamforming 202 to find out the optimal transmit and receive beamformers for each subarray pair . by designing the perturbation vectors in an efficient way , the blind beamforming performance is improved in the sense that it works with randomly initialized beamformers and achieves the close - to - optimal performance within a few number iterations . the inventive approach estimates the composite channel gain to perform rank adaptation 203 . the composite channel , as a joint effect of tx - rx beamforming and the channel impulse response , is a mimo channel with a much smaller dimension ( 2 × 2 for rank 2 transmission ). instead of estimating the original n t × n r channel coefficients , an m × m composite channel is estimated with much reduced complexity and higher accuracy due to the improved signal - to - noise - ratio contributed by the beamforming . then , capacity evaluation 204 as well as rank adaptation 205 - 207 based on the composite channel is performed . with the composite channel gain { tilde over ( h )} obtained at the receiver , the transmission scheme can be adaptively chosen from either the high rank spatial multiplexing or the rank − 1 beamforming whichever gives higher system throughput . the capacity for the high rank spatial multiplexing and rank1 beamforming is respectively given by and c rank1 = log 2 ( 1 + p | ũ { tilde over ( h )}{ tilde over ( w )}′| 2 )), where p is the total transmit power . the optimal transmission scheme is then given by c opt = max ( c rankm , c rank1 ). a regular data transmission stage 208 is then followed with the selected transmission mode . for high rank transmission , the conventional mimo transmission and detection with rank - m can be used . for rank − 1 beamforming , a quantized feedback of the transmit beamforming vector can be sent to the transmitter . analysis and results confirm that at some locations and transmit power settings , rank 1 beamforming offers higher throughput , while at other locations and transmit power settings , higher rank spatial multiplexing gives higher throughput . the mimo transmission with rank adaptation allows the 60 ghz system to reap the throughput gain from spatial multiplexing and beamforming at any physical placement . finally , if there is any change in existing geometrical setting or there is observable human / obstacle blockage , 209 , 210 , the whole procedure shall be repeated to re - determine the beamforming weights and the optimal transmission mode . we propose a procedure called periodic link adaptation to deal with the potential geometrical change and / or human blockage effect . specifically , the receiver periodically detects the geometrical change or blockage effect based on the received signal strength . if the signal strength drops over 20 db for continuous 4 ˜ 5 frames , the transmission adaptation procedure shall be reset and restarted until a new transmission scheme is determined , as shown in fig1 . referring now to the flow diagram of fig3 , there is shown an enhanced stochastic gradient algorithm based blind beamforming , in accordance with the invention . after initialization of random unitary vectors as current beam formers 301 , enhanced perturbation vectors are generated 302 then a total n iteration is run . the iteration run generates new beamformers based on perturbation vectors and the current beamformer 303 , then the received power for all combination of tx / rx beamformers is determined 304 , and the optimal transmit and receive beamformers are found and the current beamformer is updated 305 . lastly , the optimal transmit beamformer index is a feedback to the transmitter side ( see fig1 ). as can be seen , from heretofore , the invention applies an enhanced adaptive transmit and receive beamforming based on stochastic gradient algorithm ( sga ) for the sub - arrays , which does not require the channel state information of the sub - arrays . for any given selected pair of tx - rx subarrays , the transmit and receive beamformer can be independently determined by a certain criteria such as maximizing the received snr or signal power . for practical implementations , a low rate feedback channel is needed to inform the transmitter the selected transmit beamformer . at the final iteration , the optimal beamformers are obtained and shall be applied in the corresponding subarrays . the present enhanced sga based blind beamforming is an efficient way to generate the perturbation vectors set , with which the sga blind beamforming can approach the optimal beamformers with a very few number of iterations for any random initialization start . it is anticipated , however , that departures may be made therefrom and that obvious modifications will be implemented by those skilled in the art . it will be appreciated that those skilled in the art will be able to devise numerous arrangements and variations , which although not explicitly shown or described herein , embody the principles of the invention and are within their spirit and scope . | 7 |
reference will now be made in detail to embodiments of the claimed subject matter for managing applications to avoid low and / or compromised bandwidth in a cloud data center , examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings . while the claimed subject matter will be described in conjunction with the disclosed embodiments , it will be understood that they are not intended to be limit to these embodiments . on the contrary , the claimed subject matter is intended to cover alternatives , modifications and equivalents , which may be included within the spirit and scope as defined by the appended claims . furthermore , in the following detailed descriptions of embodiments of the claimed subject matter , numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the claimed subject matter . however , it will be recognized by one of ordinary skill in the art that the claimed subject matter may be practiced without these specific details . in other instances , well known methods , procedures , components , and circuits have not been described in detail as not to unnecessarily obscure aspects of the claimed subject matter . some portions of the detailed descriptions which follow are presented in terms of procedures , steps , logic blocks , processing , and other symbolic representations of operations on data bits that can be performed on computer memory . these descriptions and representations are the means used by those skilled in the data processing arts to most effectively convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art . a procedure , computer generated step , logic block , process , etc ., is here , and generally , conceived to be a self - consistent sequence of steps or instructions leading to a desired result . the steps are those requiring physical manipulations of physical quantities . usually , though not necessarily , these quantities take the form of electrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored , transferred , combined , compared , and otherwise manipulated in a computer system . it has proven convenient at times , principally for reasons of common usage , to refer to these signals as bits , values , elements , symbols , characters , terms , numbers , or the like . it should be borne in mind , however , that all of these and similar terms are to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and are merely convenient labels applied to these quantities . unless specifically stated otherwise as apparent from the following discussions , it is appreciated that throughout the present claimed subject matter , discussions utilizing terms such as “ storing ,” “ creating ,” “ protecting ,” “ receiving ,” “ encrypting ,” “ decrypting ,” “ destroying ,” or the like , refer to the action and processes of a computer system or integrated circuit , or similar electronic computing device , including an embedded system , that manipulates and transforms data represented as physical ( electronic ) quantities within the computer system &# 39 ; s registers and memories into other data similarly represented as physical quantities within the computer system memories or registers or other such information storage , transmission or display devices . fig1 is an illustration of an exemplary remote computing model 100 , in accordance with various embodiments of the present invention . as presented in fig1 , remote computing model 100 may include a server 101 communicatively coupled to a client device 103 via the internet 199 . according to various embodiments , the server 101 may comprise a computing system with graphics processing capabilities . the server 101 may , for example , comprise any computing system with a discrete graphics processing unit . the server 101 may comprise a physical computing device , such as a personal computer , a server blade , or data center . according to alternate embodiments , the server 101 may comprise one or more instantiated virtual servers . the server 101 may , in some implementations , be configured to comprise multiple logical partitions corresponding to the virtual servers , and which one or more software applications ( e . g ., games ) or other display content ( streaming videos ) may be hosted on and streamed and / or executed from . users may receive processed data ( e . g ., rendered video frames ) from the server 101 in a client device 103 by initiating a remote computing session to the remote server 101 through a network connection ( e . g ., through the internet 199 ). according to further embodiments , the remote computing session may be established by creating one or more temporary channels between the client device 103 and server 101 through one or more network sockets 105 . the client device 103 may comprise a variety of consumer and personal electronic devices . examples of the client device 103 include , but are not limited to : personal desktop or laptop computers , mobile cellular handsets ( e . g ., smartphones ), tablet computer devices , set top boxes , video game console devices , or any other device capable of displaying pre - rendered graphical content and receiving user input . the client device 103 may belong to a local area network ( lan ), and connected to one or more gateways of the internet 199 through a routing device and / or modem . according to some embodiments , the client device 103 may include , and / or be communicatively coupled with a display device , such as a screen or communicatively coupled monitor . user input may be submitted to the client device 103 — in response to displayed graphical content for example — and forwarded on to the server 101 . the user input may be submitted through a user input device , which may be implemented as , for example , a mouse , a keyboard , a stylus , controller , remote control , touch screen , etc , and communicatively coupled to the client device 103 . the graphical content generated in the server 101 and received in the client device 103 may comprise , in some embodiments , one or more series of images that are processed and rendered in one or more graphics processing units ( gpus ) comprised in the server 101 . once rendered , the images or frames may be compressed into an encoded video , buffered , and then streamed as a plurality of data packets to a client device 103 . the encoded data is received in the client device 103 , decoded ( decompressed ), and displayed to the user ( e . g ., in a display device ). in some instances however , the client device 103 may not be able to decode and / or display the graphical content from the server as quickly as the content is produced . inefficiencies in the network connection coupling the client device 103 and server 101 , or inefficacy of decoders in the client device 103 may contribute to this problem , resulting in excessive buffering of received rendered content , or a substantial number of rendered graphical content that may be delayed “ in flight ,” that is , during transmission . under these circumstances , graphical content rendered in response to user input may be produced and transmitted with little to no delay , but may nonetheless be stuck in a buffer , input queue or delayed during transmission . by the time the rendered content is decoded and displayed to the user , significant time ( seen as lag to the user ) may have elapsed since the user input was received . according to an aspect of the present invention , for each rendered and compressed frame received by the client device 103 , a reply token ( via tcp / ip protocol for example ) is sent back to the server that acknowledges the successful receipt of the unit of graphical content . according to one embodiment , the token may be sent to the server 101 through a different network socket than a network socket through which user input is transmitted to the server 101 . according to various embodiments , the receipt of the token in the server 101 may be continuously monitored and rendered and compressed frames are sent from the server 101 continuously for so long as a corresponding token from the client device 103 is received in the server for each transmitted frame . in still further embodiments , rendering , compression , and transmission of frames may continue until the number of un - received tokens exceeds a pre - determined threshold . once the ( configurable ) threshold is exceeded , rendering is paused until one or more previously un - received tokens are received , at which point rendering , compression , and transmission may continue incrementally to correspond with the further receipt of tokens . by temporarily pausing the production and transmission of rendered graphical content to correspond to the reception of acknowledgement tokens in the server , the production of graphical content in the server is throttled , thereby avoiding excessive latency ( lag ) attributable to a surplus of produced content . as presented in fig2 , a system upon which embodiments of the present invention may be implemented includes a general purpose computing system environment , such as computing system 200 . in an embodiment , a server , such as the server 101 described above with respect to fig1 may be implemented as computing system 200 . in alternate embodiments , a client device , such as client device 103 likewise described above with respect to fig1 may be implemented instead of , or in addition to the server as computing system 200 . in its most basic configuration , computing system 200 typically includes at least one processing unit 201 and memory , and an address / data bus 209 ( or other interface ) for communicating information . depending on the exact configuration and type of computing system environment , memory may be volatile ( such as ram 202 ), non - volatile ( such as rom 203 , flash memory , etc .) or some combination of the two . computer system 200 may also comprise an optional graphics subsystem ( such as a graphical processing unit or gpu ) 205 for rendering graphical content — e . g ., as a sequence of frames . server 101 may include such a graphics subsystem 205 , while in some instances , client device 103 may not . according to some embodiments , the rendered graphical content may be displayed to the computer user , e . g ., by displaying information on an optional display device 210 , connected to the computer system 200 by a video cable 211 . according to embodiments of the present claimed invention , the display device may be physically mounted on the computing system 200 and coupled to the graphics subsystem 205 . alternatively , the graphics subsystem 205 may be coupled to the display device 210 through a video cable 211 , or indirectly via wireless means . computing system 200 implemented as a server may process and render graphical images in graphics subsystem 205 according to programmed instructions stored in memory ( 202 , 203 ) and processed in processing unit 201 . the graphical output produced by the server may be received in a client device implemented as a second computer system 200 , decoded in the processing unit 201 of the second computer system 200 and displayed to the user in the display device 210 . additionally , computing system 200 may also have additional features / functionality . for example , computing system 200 may also include additional storage ( removable and / or non - removable ) including , but not limited to , magnetic or optical disks or tape . such additional storage is illustrated in fig2 by data storage device 207 . computer storage media includes volatile and nonvolatile , removable and non - removable media implemented in any method or technology for storage of information such as computer readable instructions , data structures , program modules or other data . ram 202 , rom 203 , and data storage device 207 are all examples of computer storage media . computer system 200 also comprises an optional alphanumeric input device 206 , an optional cursor control or directing device 207 , and one or more signal communication interfaces ( input / output devices , e . g ., a network interface card ) 209 . optional alphanumeric input device 206 can communicate information and command selections to central processor 201 . optional cursor control or directing device 207 is coupled to bus 209 for communicating user input information and command selections to central processor 201 . signal communication interface ( input / output device ) 209 , also coupled to bus 209 , can be a serial port . communication interface 209 may also include wireless communication mechanisms . using communication interface 209 , computer system 200 can be communicatively coupled to other computer systems over a communication network such as , for example , the internet or an intranet ( e . g ., a local area network ), or can receive data ( e . g ., a digital television signal ). fig3 is an illustration of a flowchart 300 of a computer implemented process for dynamically limiting lag between a client and a server during remote computing , in accordance with an embodiment . specifically , the method describes the steps performed to dynamically manage the production rate of graphical images to prevent saturating an input queue of the client device , or to mitigate poor network conditions . steps 301 - 311 describe the steps comprising the process depicted in the flowchart 300 of fig3 . in one embodiment , the flowchart 300 is performed by a server ( e . g ., server 101 ) remotely located from a local client device ( e . g ., client device 103 ). at step 301 , data input is read by a processor in a server . the data input may comprise user control input submitted via a remote client device , such as user input responsive to a graphical image . according to some embodiments , the data input may be transmitted via a network connection communicatively coupling the server with a client device through a first network socket . in still further embodiments , the input is received as a stream of data packets , or “ bitstream ,” and is temporarily stored at the server in a network input queue . in an embodiment , a first processing thread or loop ( e . g ., an input acquisition thread ) executing in the server reads the data from the network input queue and simulates the input in the data packet in the local operating system executing on the server . this thread or loop may be performed iteratively in order of reception , for each packet in the input buffer . at step 303 , graphical content ( e . g ., a frame , or sequence of frames ) is rendered in response to the simulated input in step 301 . the graphical content may be rendered in a graphical processing unit of the server , for example . according to some embodiments , not all simulated input requires newly rendered graphical content . according to such implementations , step 303 may include , or be preceded by , a determination whether a change in the last rendered image is necessary , and graphical content may be generated accordingly . once rendered , the sequence of frames is encoded into a video file of a compressed format at step 305 , and streamed as stream of compressed video packets to the client device over the network connection at step 307 . in an embodiment , encoding ( step 305 ) and streaming ( step 307 ) of the graphical content may be performed in a second processing thread or loop ( e . g ., an encoding thread ) executing in the server . this thread , like the first processing thread , may also be performed iteratively , in the order of production from the graphical processing unit , for each rendered frame . according to various embodiments , the compressed format may be consistent with any media ( music , video ) compression standard . at step 309 , a communication channel ( e . g ., a network socket ) between the client device and server is monitored for the receipt of a communication from the client device that acknowledges the successful receipt and display in the client device for each rendered video packet generated in the server . according to further embodiments , the communication channel may comprise a second network socket that is different from the communication channel supplying the data input in step 301 . acknowledgement from the client device may consist of an acknowledgement token , in some embodiments . the server continues to render and transmit graphical content by repeating steps 301 - 309 as long as tokens continue to be received from the user , and graphical content is required ( e . g ., either through user control input , or according to the media content being rendered ). if , however , a token is not received by the server responsive to the production and transmission of rendered output , the server may further track the number of contiguous “ missing ” or un - received tokens . when the number of contiguous un - received tokens exceeds a threshold value , the first processing thread ( and by extension the second processing thread ) is paused ( at step 311 ) until at least one previously un - received token is received . once a previously un - received token is received , reading of the data input and production of graphical content may proceed incrementally , for each token that is subsequently received . that is , each received token from a previously rendered and transmitted frame will cause the reading ( in step 301 ), rendering ( in step 303 ), encoding ( in step 305 ) and transmission ( step 307 ) of one additional data packet and / or unit of content . according to some embodiments , one or both of monitoring the network socket for received tokens and management of the first and second processing threads may be performed by a third processing thread or loop ( e . g ., a frame lag control thread ) executing in the server . in still further embodiments , the third processing thread assists in the management of the first and second processing threads with an array of events . the array of events may be implemented as , for example , a ring buffer of m numbered elements that loops back to the beginning after each completed traversal . each element of the array may consist of an operating system event , the value of which may be set to either one of two states — either signaled or unsignaled . in an embodiment , the operating system events interact with the operating system executing on the server . these interactions may include , for example , a signal event that sets the flag for a processing thread which allows the thread to proceed , and an unsignaled event ( or , specifically , a wait for event ) that will pause a processing thread until the thread is signaled . events in the array are acquired ( e . g ., referenced ) by the server in sequence . when an element in the array buffer is acquired by the server , the server may allow a processing thread to proceed ( if the corresponding event is signaled , for example ), or , alternately , to be paused or blocked ( if the corresponding event is unsignaled ), and prevented from completing . according to an embodiment , the value of the elements in the array of events are either signaled or unsignaled , and may include a handle ( e . g ., a 32 bit value ) that maps to a resource ( data structure ) in the operating system . by setting the values of the array elements , the third processing thread is able to continue , or pause , the output of the first processing thread dynamically , in response to determined adverse conditions ( e . g ., poor network and / or client performance ). for example , the third processing thread may pause the first processing thread by passing the handle of an element in the array to the operating system to signal the event as unsignaled , when a token from the client device has not been received in response to the transmission of a rendered frame . when the server iterates through the array of events and reaches the element , the server will reference the value of the element and pause ( or block ) the first processing thread from further performance since the event is unsignaled , and progress through the next events in the array iteratively . the first processing thread is thereafter paused until a subsequent signaled event is referenced by the server . in still further embodiments , when the array of events is initialized in the server , a number of events may be pre - set as being signaled . this pre - set number of events may correspond to the threshold , that is , the number of un - received tokens from transmitted processed output that may be sent before further processing is paused . for example , if the threshold is set to three , the first three elements in the array of events will be set to signaled , and the server will iteratively perform the data acquisition , rendering , encoding , and transmission , of at least the next three items in the network input queue . according to an embodiment , receipt of a token in response to the transmitted output will cause the third processing thread to set the next value in the array of events to be signaled . if the reception of the tokens corresponds to the transmission of the rendered output , the first and second processing threads are allowed to continue iteratively through their respective queues and / or instruction stacks . if , however the number of frames of rendered output is transmitted without receiving a responsive token from the client device , the third processing thread may set a value in the array to be unsignaled , causing the first and second processing threads to be paused when the array is iterated through by the server and the unsignaled element is referenced . fig4 is an illustration of an exemplary array of events 400 , in accordance with various embodiments of the present invention . the array of events 400 may be implemented in a server , and managed by a frame lag control thread executing in the server to start , or pause , one or more other processing threads ( e . g ., input acquisition thread , encoding thread ) executing in the server . as presented in fig4 , the array of events 400 comprises an array of elements that correspond to operating systems events ( e . g ., with a handle corresponding to an event ) and a value that indicates the state of the event , either signaled or unsignaled . according to an aspect of the instant invention , the server may reference the elements in the array of events 400 iteratively . as presented in fig4 , for example , the server may start at an address of the array ( e . g ., at the address corresponding to the current address pointer of the server “ i ”), and each time an event is performed by the operating system , the address of the pointer is incremented . as depicted , the server may be initialized to begin at the first address ( e . g ., i = 0 ) of the created array . according to some embodiments , in order to manage the input acquisition thread , the frame lag control thread sets the values of the array of events 400 — as described above with respect to fig3 . according to still further embodiments , an configurable number ( n ) of elements in the array 400 may be pre - initialized to comprise signaled events , with additional elements being pre - set to comprise signaled events , pending the receipt of acknowledgment tokens from the client device responsive to transmitted output . under such implementations , the frame lag control thread may iterate asynchronously from the processing of the server through the array . for example , the frame lag control thread will iteratively set the values of the element in the array at the address corresponding to the current address pointer + n . as depicted in array 400 , n is set to 3 , and the current address pointer of the frame lag control thread “ j ” is initialized at a value of 3 addresses above the current address pointer of the server . each time a frame or unit of rendered output is transmitted , the pointer of the frame lag control thread is incremented . if a token is received for the transmitted frame , the element at the address in the array corresponding to the pointer of the frame lag control is set to signaled . alternatively , if a token is not received in response to the transmitted frame , the element is set to unsignaled ( or wait for ) and the pointer is again incremented . by pre - setting the events as signaled and iteratively traversing the array 400 at a constant , asynchronous position from the server &# 39 ; s execution , the third processing thread is able to maintain a small buffer of produced output that can withstand fluctuations in network or client conditions without unnecessarily pausing production or otherwise negatively impacting the production and transmission of rendered output . when conditions worsen , or last for a significant amount of time however , processing of additional output may be halted until conditions are stabilized , and will proceed according to the capabilities of the network and / or client . fig5 is an illustration of a flowchart 500 of a computer implemented process for displaying graphical output in a client device , in accordance with an embodiment . specifically , the method describes the steps performed in a client device ( e . g ., client device 103 described above ) to display images rendered in a remote processing device , such as server 101 described above with respect to fig1 . steps 501 - 511 describe the steps comprising the process depicted in the flowchart 500 of fig5 . in one embodiment , the flowchart 500 is performed in a client device with physically incorporated display screens and ( wireless ) networking capability , which may include ( but are not limited to ): mobile smartphones , laptop or tablet computers , personal digital assistants , handheld video game consoles . in still further embodiments , the flowchart 500 is performed in a client device with a communicatively coupled display device . under these embodiments , the client device may include ( but are not limited to ): personal computers , set top boxes , media players , and video game consoles , with communicatively coupled monitors , televisions , projection screens , or other devices capable of displaying graphical output . at step 501 , a network stream of compressed video data packets is received in a client device . the compressed video data packets may comprise a plurality of encoded data packets , and may be received in a data buffer in the client device ( e . g ., a network socket buffer ). according to one embodiment , the data packets may be encoded using a video compression standard , such as h . 264 . the compressed video data packets may further be rendered and transmitted to the client device in response to a user input submitted by a user of the client device . at step 503 , the encoded video data packets is subsequently decoded , by a processor in the client device for example , and converted into data points which are then plotted in a color space at step 505 . the color space may comprise an absolute color space such as an rgb color space . alternatively , the color space may comprise a chrominance / luminance color space such as a yuv color space . a bitmap is then generated from the plotted data points at step 507 , and finally displayed in the display device at step 509 . once the received data is decoded and displayed , an acknowledgement token is delivered through a network connection to the producer ( e . g ., the server ) of the compressed video data packets at 509 . according to an embodiment , the process 500 may be repeated for each received video packet , and may be performed as quickly as the client device is capable of . production at the server may be paused , temporarily , when too many video packets have been sent to the client device before any corresponding acknowledgement tokens have been returned , as described herein . by implementing these production throttling measures , over - saturation of data buffer is avoided , and the effects of network inefficiencies is mitigated to reduce the amount of latency experienced by a user of the client device . as described herein , embodiments of the claimed subject matter have been provided which avoid circumstances that can lead to lag in remote processing systems by monitoring and managing production rates of rendered frames using an array of signaled events . the claimed embodiments not only reduce , if not eliminate entirely lag due to less capable client hardware devices , but are still able to support high production rates for high performing client devices and / or network conditions without comprising the rate of production . although the subject matter has been described in language specific to structural features and / or methodological acts , it is to be understood that the subject matter defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above . rather , the specific features and acts described above are disclosed as example forms of implementing the claims . | 7 |
referring now to the figures of the drawings in detail and first , particularly , to fig1 thereof , there is seen a data processing circuit according to the invention , which has a cpu 101 as an operating module and a plurality of data memories . in detail , these data memories are a rom 102 , an eeprom 103 , a flash memory 104 , and a ram 105 . the data memories 102 , 103 , 104 , 105 and the cpu 101 are connected to one another through a data bus 106 . an encoding module 107 which is provided in the cpu 101 encodes or decodes data traffic between the cpu 101 and the data memories 102 , 103 , 104 and 105 . it may be mentioned in this case once again that such a device is referred to below as an “ encoding module ”, although it is expressly not limited to a device which only executes encoding . in accordance with the basic concept of the invention , this designation also covers a device which executes both encoding and decoding or only one of these two operations . the encoding or decoding can be performed in this case by a suitable delay , by interchanging individual bit lines of the data bus , or by altering the significance of individual data bits . it is also possible to execute software encoding . furthermore , the data processing circuit according to the invention has a multiplexer 108 , which is connected to the flash memory 104 through a data line 109 . the multiplexer 108 is connected through a data line 110 to a timer 111 which can be fed a random number by a random number generator 113 through a data line 112 . the multiplexer 108 also has a control line 114 through which it is connected to the rom 102 . finally , provision is also made for a reset line 115 to the multiplexer 108 , through which the multiplexer 108 can be reset to an initial state in the event of a reset of the data processing circuit . an output of the multiplexer 108 is connected through a control line 116 to the encoding module 107 , so that the encoding module 107 is supplied with a new key in response to an output signal of the multiplexer 108 . according to the invention , it is also provided that the encoding method used in the encoding module 107 is switched over in the encoding module 107 in response to an output signal of the multiplexer 108 over the control line 116 . during operation , the electronic data processing circuit according to the invention behaves as follows : when the program is started ( reset ), a start key is set in the multiplexer in response to a signal on the reset line 115 . thereupon , the data traffic between the data bus 106 and the cpu 101 is encoded or decoded in the encoding module 107 . a corresponding operation is executed in accordance with the data flow direction upon each passage of data through the encoding module 107 and with each execution of a command “ clr c ”, the rom 102 transmits a control pulse to the multiplexer 108 over the control line 114 . thereupon , the multiplexer 108 retrieves one of three keys key 3 , key 2 , key 1 from the flash memory 104 over the data line 109 , and transmits it to the encoding module 107 . thereafter , either the key used in the encoding module 107 is exchanged or , depending on the significance of the signal present on the control line 116 , there is a changeover from an encoding method used in the encoding module 107 . if a specific operating time of the data processing circuit is exceeded without the multiplexer 108 being activated by the rom 102 , the timer 111 moves into action . the actuation of the timer 111 transmits a random number from the random number generator 113 to the multiplexer 108 over the data line 110 . the multiplexer 108 then transmits the random number to the encoding module 107 . the data in the data memories 102 , 103 , 104 and 105 are stored in an encoded manner . consequently , the data on the data bus 106 are transported in an encoded manner to the cpu 101 , where they are decoded again by the encoding module 107 . it is only thereafter that the data are ready decoded for processing in the cpu . fig2 shows a variant of the data processing circuit of fig1 which likewise has a cpu 101 as an operating module as well as a plurality of data memories . in detail , these data memories are a rom 102 , an eeprom 103 , a flash memory 104 and a ram 105 . the data memories 102 , 103 , 104 , 105 and the cpu 101 are connected to one another through a data bus 106 . an encoding module 107 which is provided in the cpu 101 encodes or decodes data traffic between the cpu 101 and the data memories 102 , 103 , 104 and 105 . in contrast with the embodiment of fig1 the data processing circuit in fig2 has no multiplexer for supplying the encoding module 107 with a new key . instead , the data processing circuit of fig2 is connected through a control line 122 to a conversion module 120 , which is in turn connected to an address bus 121 of the cpu 101 . leading to the conversion module 120 is a further control line 123 through the use of which a specific conversion can be selected from a selection of different conversions from “ address ” to “ key ”, that are stored in the conversion module 120 . a key is thereby derived from an address present in the cpu 101 by the conversion module 120 . during operation , the electronic data processing circuit of fig2 behaves essentially like that in fig1 . when the program is started ( reset ), a start key is set in the encoding module 107 in response to a signal on the control line 123 . thereafter , each instance of data traffic between the data bus 106 and the cpu 101 is encoded or decoded in the encoding module 107 . a corresponding operation is executed in accordance with the data flow direction upon each passage of data through the encoding module 107 . with each activation of the control line 123 , the conversion module 120 derives a key from an address present in the cpu 101 on the basis of a new conversion . the data in the data memories 102 , 103 , 104 and 105 are always stored in an encoded manner . consequently , the data on the data bus 106 are transported in an encoded manner to the cpu 101 , where they are decoded again by the encoding module 107 . it is only thereafter that the data are ready decoded for processing in the cpu . the data processing circuit according to the invention which is shown in fig3 has a cpu 1 as an operating module and a plurality of data memories . in detail , these data memories are a rom 2 , an eeprom 3 , a flash memory 4 and a ram 5 . the data memories 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 and the cpu 1 are connected to one another through a data bus ( which is not shown in this view ). instead of the data bus , the cpu 1 exchanges data with the data memories 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 through individual data lines 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 and 15 which are provided in this embodiment . a latch buffer 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 is furthermore disposed between the cpu 1 and each of the rom 2 , the eeprom 3 , the flash 4 and the ram 5 , respectively . encoding modules 20 , 21 , 22 and 35 , which encode or decode the data traffic on the data lines assigned to them , are provided in the region between the rom 2 and the latch 16 , in the region between the latch 17 and the cpu 1 , in the region between the latches 18 , 19 and the cpu 1 as well as in the cpu 1 itself . it may be mentioned in this case once again that the devices of this type are referred to below as “ encoding modules ”, although they are expressly not limited to devices which only execute encoding . in accordance with the basic concept of the invention , this designation also covers devices which execute both encoding and decoding or only one of these two operations . the encoding or decoding can be performed in this case by a suitable delay , by interchanging individual bit lines of the data lines , or by altering the significance of individual data bits . it is also possible to execute software encoding . the encoding modules 20 , 21 , 22 and 35 are constructed in such a way that the data traffic on the data lines assigned to them is respectively encoded or decoded only partially . a complete encoding or decoding results only upon cooperation of a respective one of the encoding modules 20 , 21 , 22 with the encoding module 35 . furthermore , the data processing circuit according to the invention has a multiplexer 23 , which is connected to the flash memory 4 through a data line 24 . the multiplexer 23 is connected through a data line 25 to a timer 26 , which can be fed a random number by a random number generator 28 over a data line 27 . the multiplexer 23 also has a control line 29 , through which it is connected to the rom 2 . an output of the multiplexer 23 is connected through control lines 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 to the encoding modules 20 , 21 , 22 , 35 . the encoding modules 20 , 21 , 22 , 35 are supplied with a new key in response to an output signal of the multiplexer 23 . during operation , the electronic data processing circuit according to the invention behaves as follows : with each execution of a command “ clr c ”, the rom 2 transmits a control pulse to the multiplexer 23 over the control line 29 . thereupon , the multiplexer 23 retrieves one of three keys key 3 , key 2 , key 1 from the flash memory 4 over the data line 24 , and transmits it to the encoding modules 20 , 21 , 22 and 35 . if a predetermined operating time of the data processing circuit is exceeded without the multiplexer 23 being activated by the rom 2 , the timer 26 moves into action . the actuation of the timer 26 transmits a random number from the random number generator 28 to the multiplexer 23 over the data line 25 . the multiplexer 23 then transmits the random number to the encoding modules 20 , 21 , 22 , 35 . the data in the rom 2 are stored in an encoded manner , and they are only partially decoded by the encoding device 20 during readout in the latch 16 . consequently , the data from the rom 2 are transported on a data line 8 while still partially encoded as far as the cpu 1 , where they are completely decoded by the encoding module 35 . it is only thereafter that the data are ready decoded for processing in the cpu 1 . the data which are provided in an encoded manner in the eeprom 3 are transmitted encoded over a data line 9 to the latch 17 , and relayed from there to the encoding module 21 , where they are partially decoded . from there , the still partially encoded data pass through a data line 11 to the cpu 1 , where they are completely decoded by the encoding module 35 and are thereafter available for processing . data for the flash memory 4 and for the ram 5 are initially respectively encoded partially by the encoding module 35 and the encoding module 22 , before they are stored completely encoded in the flash memory 4 or in the ram 5 . for this purpose , the data which are partially encoded in the encoding module 35 of the cpu 1 are transmitted over the data line 11 to the encoding module 22 , where they are completely encoded before they are handed over through respective data lines 13 and 14 to the latches 18 , 19 respectively assigned to the flash memory 4 and the ram 5 . the encoded data pass from the latches 18 , 19 to the respective flash memory 4 or ram 5 over data lines 12 , 15 . when the data are read out of the flash memory 4 and of the ram 5 , they are initially respectively decoded partially by the encoding module 22 and by the encoding module 35 before they are available for processing completely decoded in the cpu 1 . | 6 |
with general reference to the figures and with special reference now to fig1 b , in accordance with an exemplary embodiment , a cryptographic processing unit ( i . e ., crypto unit ) 20 is shared between two or more processor cores 22 a , 22 b , . . . 22 n . notably , more than two processor cores may share the crypto unit 20 . the crypto unit 20 is separated physically into two cryptographic engines dedicated to respective main tasks of cryptographic functionality : a cipher engine 26 for ciphering / deciphering and a hash engine 28 for secure hashing . with reference to fig2 , in accordance with an exemplary embodiment , the crypto unit 20 may be shared between the processor cores 22 a , 22 b ( while fig2 explicitly depicts two processor cores , there may be more than two processor cores , as mentioned above and illustrated in fig1 b ). cipher engine 26 and hash engine 28 may be assigned independently from each other to any of the processor cores . it should be noted that there are no cases where one processor core would require both cryptographic engines concurrently . in addition to the shared cryptographic engines 26 , 28 , there is a dedicated set of input / output buffers 24 a , 24 b available in the crypto unit for each processor core 22 a , 22 b . in an exemplary implementation , these buffers each may be of size 32 × 8 bytes . multiplexers 25 a , 25 b from the input buffers and multiplexers 27 a , 27 b from to the output buffers are gated based on the actual assignment of the cryptographic engines 26 and 28 to the processor cores . thus , the cipher engine 26 and the hash engine 28 may be controlled such that both cryptographic engines may be operated independently from and ( if required ) concurrently with each other . during execution of a cryptographic operation , a respective processor core 22 a , 22 b may be sending source data to its associated , hard - wire connected input buffer 24 a , 24 b and alternately may be retrieving target data from its associated , hard - wire connected output buffer 24 a , 24 b . when the respective processor core 22 a , 22 b is ready to execute a cryptographic instruction , it may send a command to the crypto unit 20 , which may identify the type of cryptographic operation and indicate which of the two cryptographic engines 26 , 28 is needed for this operation . then , the respective processor core 22 a , 22 b may send the source data associated with the cryptographic operation to the respective input buffer 24 a , 24 b . depending on the operation type , one of the cryptographic engines 26 , 28 may be assigned to the respective processor core 22 a , 22 b ( assuming that it is not already assigned to the alternate processor core ); may fetch the source data from the respective input buffer 24 a , 24 b ; may perform the specified cryptographic operation on this data ; and may send the target data to the respective output buffer 24 a , 24 b , where it can be made available for retrieval by the respective processor core 22 a , 22 b . the respective processor core 22 a , 22 b may be servicing alternately either the respective input buffer or the respective output buffer and thus may keep the assigned cryptographic engine 26 , 28 continuously running throughout the cryptographic instruction . when there is no more source data available for the current instruction , the respective processor core 22 a , 22 b may send an indication to the crypto unit 20 after the last unit of source data has been transferred to the respective input buffer . at this point in time , the assigned cryptographic engine 26 , 28 may continue to process source data from the respective input buffer until the respective input buffer is empty , may send the target data to the respective output buffer , and then may be released immediately from the respective processor core 22 a , 22 b . subsequently , the newly - released cryptographic engine 26 , 28 now may be available for assignment to another cryptographic operation on any of the processor cores . when the respective input buffer has been completely filled and the respective output buffer is completely empty , the respective processor core may be merely in the process of waiting for a cryptographic engine 26 , 28 to complete the current unit of operation . this wait condition may occur frequently , since complex cryptographic processing to be performed inside the cryptographic engines generally consumes more time than the buffer handling process of the respective processor core . when a cryptographic instruction on a respective processor core 22 a , 22 b requires a certain cryptographic engine 26 , 28 to be assigned , and the cryptographic engine necessary to process the instruction is already processing data for the respective processor core or is currently assigned to another processor core , the respective processor core may fill up the respective input buffer and then wait , with the respective input buffer full and the respective output buffer empty , for the required cryptographic engine to become available . it makes no difference for the respective processor core whether it waits while the required cryptographic engine is processing data for the respective processor core itself , or whether it waits while the cryptographic engine is still assigned to another processor core . the respective processor core merely waits for target data to become available in the respective output buffer and for empty space to become available in the respective input buffer . hence , due to this control , the sharing of the crypto unit 20 is transparent to the processor cores from a functional perspective . the interrupt handling and interrupt latency in accordance with an exemplary embodiment now will be described in more detail . a respective processor core 22 a , 22 b may be susceptible to asynchronous interrupts each time an instruction has been completed . before starting execution of the next instruction , the respective processor core 22 a , 22 b determines whether any asynchronous event is pending that requires service . when two processor cores 22 a and 22 b begin executing a cryptographic instruction at the same point in time and both require the same shared cryptographic engine 26 , 28 , then one of the processor cores should wait until the other one has completed its cryptographic operation and has released the required cryptographic engine . in this scenario , the processor core that waits for the necessary cryptographic engine may encounter an increase of interrupt latency by up to a factor of two . to mitigate such interrupt latency , an indicator latch 29 a , 29 b , 30 a , 30 b may be provided and may be connected via a respective readline 37 to a respective processor core 22 a , 22 b , allowing the respective processor core waiting for data in the respective output buffer to determine whether the crytographic engine required for its current operation is actually occupied by another processor core . when a respective processor core has filled the respective input buffer with source data and is waiting for target data in the respective output buffer , it may periodically test for pending interrupt conditions . when it finds an interrupt pending and there is still no target data available in the respective output buffer , the respective processor core then may interrogate the indicator latch and may determine whether the required cryptographic engine is currently working for another processor core . in such case , the processor core that is waiting for data may decide not to continue waiting for the busy engine , but rather may nullify the current instruction ( which is possible since nothing has been stored yet and no architecture state has been changed yet by this instruction ) and may service the pending interrupt instead . after servicing the interrupt , the cryptographic instruction may be executed again with a new chance to obtain the required cryptographic engine . next , a functional reset in accordance with an exemplary embodiment will be described in more detail . a functional reset of a cryptographic engine 26 , 28 as implemented in an exemplary embodiment may include all logic except error reporting latches . as shown in fig2 , multiplexers 31 a , 31 b for functional reset may be gated such that this condition is always obtained from the processor core to which a shared cryptographic engine actually has been assigned . a respective processor core 22 a , 22 b may issue a functional reset at the beginning of a new cryptographic operation before sending data to the respective input buffer 24 a , 24 b in order to drive the cryptographic engine into a clean reset state . in addition , a functional reset issued from a processor core may be required when a complex cryptographic operation consists of multiple basic operations , each of which requiring reset of the cryptographic engine before being engaged . when a cryptographic engine 26 , 28 is assigned to a processor core 22 a , 22 b , the cryptographic engine may generate a functional reset by itself , since it is transparent to the respective processor core at what point in time the assignment actually happens , and any processor core 22 a , 22 b , . . . 22 n therefore does not know when to issue the functional reset . next , error reporting and recovery / retry will be described in accordance with an exemplary embodiment . whenever a cryptographic engine 26 , 28 detects an error condition , the respective error reporting latch may be activated , and the summary error signal to the respective processor core 22 a , 22 b to which the cryptographic engine is currently assigned also may become active . consequently , the and - gates 33 a , 33 b , 34 a , 34 b may be activated to indicate an error to the respective processor core . the respective processor core 22 a , 22 b that receives the error condition may proceed through recovery / retry , which involves sending a recovery / retry signal to the crypto unit 20 . the recovery / retry signal may be gated to the currently - assigned cryptographic engine 26 , 28 ( which should be the cryptographic engine that previously had reported the error condition ) and may cause all logic , including error reporting latches , to be reset . the assignment of a cryptographic engine should not be changed during the timeframe after an error is detected inside a cryptographic engine and before the appropriate error indication is sent to the respective processor core and the recovery / retry signal in turn is sent by the respective processor core back to the cryptographic engine . window conditions exist when occurrence of an error or of recovery / reset falls within the transition of assignment from one processor core 22 a , 22 b to another processor core , or when an error is detected by a cryptographic engine 26 , 28 while it is unassigned or in power save mode . these window conditions all may be treated robustly , causing a second recovery / retry on the same processor core or possibly also on the alternate processor core . when one of the processor cores 22 a , 22 b is in a non - recoverable error state , other processor cores should stay operational , and the usability of a shared cryptographic engine 26 , 28 by the other processor cores should not be affected . since a defective processor core may behave unpredictably , and , for instance , may occupy a shared cryptographic engine indefinitely or drive it into “ non - recoverable error state ”, the shared cryptographic engine should no longer stay responsive to the signals from the defective processor core , and any potential assignment of the shared cryptographic engine to the defective processor core should be prevented . such operation and the associated status are denoted as “ fencing ” or “ fenced state ” respectively . the shared cryptographic engine 26 , 28 according to an exemplary embodiment may determine that one of the processor cores 22 a , 22 b is in a “ non - recoverable error state ” by monitoring timeout conditions or the number of recovery / retry operations within a given time interval . if a predefined threshold is exceeded , the shared cryptographic engine may enter “ fenced state ” with respect to the defective processor core , in which case all signals received from the defective processor core are gated off and assignment of the shared cryptographic engine to the defective processor core is released or prevented unconditionally . next , a processor &# 39 ; s millicode flow in accordance with an exemplary embodiment will be described in more detail with additional reference to fig3 . this is essentially the same control scheme used for all processors participating in the sharing of the two cryptographic engines 26 and 28 of the crypto unit 20 . at the beginning of a new cryptographic operation involving a respective processor core 22 a , 22 b sharing the crypto unit 20 , the respective processor core &# 39 ; s millicode routine for the cryptographic operation may assume the control in step 305 . in steps 310 and 315 , the millicode may test whether a valid function code has been selected , whether the selected function code is implemented in the respective processor core , whether the specified operand addresses are accessible , and whether the operand length is a multiple of the basic unit of operation . the basic unit of operation , the block size , differs for various cryptographic standards ; for example , the block size is 8 bytes for des , 16 bytes for aes , 64 bytes for sha - 1 and sha - 256 , and 128 bytes for sha - 512 . if all such testing is successful , the cryptographic engine ( cipher engine 26 or hash engine 28 ) required by the respective processor core 22 a , 22 b may be started in step 320 . then , in step 325 the required cryptographic engine may wait for data to be written into the respective input buffer 24 a , 24 b by the respective processor core . if there is source operand data to be processed , millicode may determine the state of the respective input buffer and the respective output buffer . in particular , millicode may determine the number of empty slots in the respective input buffer in step 330 . then , in steps 335 and 340 , if there are empty slots available in the respective input buffer , the respective input buffer may be filled with source operand data units from main storage up to the number of empty slots . subsequently , in step 345 the millicode may determine the number of target data units ready in the respective output buffer . then , in steps 350 and 355 , if there are target data units available in the respective output buffer , these data units may be stored to main memory by the millicode . subsequently , unless there is an interrupt pending , which is tested in step 360 , the millicode may branch back to the availability test of source operand data in step 325 . as long as no interrupts are pending , the millicode may remain in the process loop comprising steps 325 through 360 until all source operand data has been processed . once all source operand data has been processed , the millicode then may test in step 365 whether recovery / retry has occurred during the entire crytographic operation . if recovery / retry has not occurred , in step 370 the millicode may complete the operation successfully and may indicate completion status in condition code and operand registers . if recovery / retry has occurred , then the operation also may be completed , but no successful completion status is indicated . the software layer above may then reissue the appropriate cryptographic instruction , and the control flow may be exited . with reference back to step 360 , if there is an interrupt pending , the millicode may exit the main processing loop , as indicated by arrow 375 , and may test in step 380 whether the target data has already been generated by the cryptographic operation . if target data has already been generated ( see “ yes ” branch 385 ), then the implemented millicode may immediately complete the operation , may indicate successful ending status with “ partial completion ”, and may exit the control flow . this indicates to respective control software provided by an exemplary embodiment that only a part of the required data has been processed and that the instruction should be issued again . however , software may get a chance to respond to the pending interrupt first . conversely , if an interrupt is pending and no target data has been generated so far ( see “ no ” branch 390 ), then in step 395 it is determined whether the required cryptographic engine 26 , 28 is currently busy for another processor core . if the required cryptographic engine is currently busy for another processor core , the millicode may allow the software to honor the interrupt and may complete the operation without indicating a successful completion status , since the millicode has to wait for the required cryptographic engine to become available in any event . next , and with reference to fig4 , the operation flow in both of the shared cryptographic engines 26 and 28 in accordance with an exemplary embodiment will be described in more detail . when no work is to be done currently by one of the cryptographic engines 26 , 28 , it may stay in an idle loop 405 and may test periodically for pending requests from one of the processor cores 22 a , 22 b and for potential internal errors ( steps 410 and 415 ). when one of the cryptographic engines is signalled a request from a respective processor core while it is in the idle loop , the cryptographic engine may be assigned to the respective processor core ( step 420 ) and then may perform an initial reset ( step 425 ). subsequently , the cryptographic engine 26 , 28 may process data for the respective processor core 22 a , 22 b ( step 430 ) and periodically may test for the occurrence of an error ( step 435 ). if no error occurs , the cryptographic engine may stay in this processing loop until all data associated with this operation has been processed . once all data associated with this operation has been processed , the cryptographic engine then may exit the processing loop ( step 440 ). upon exiting the processing loop , the cryptographic engine again may test for pending error conditions ( step 445 ), may release the cryptographic engine ( step 455 ), and finally may enter the idle loop by performing a feedback to the idle loop 405 ( path 460 ). according to an exemplary embodiment , error conditions may be detected by a cryptographic engine 26 , 28 at different states of operation , and upon detection of such error conditions appropriate actions may be taken . if an error is detected in step 435 while a cryptographic engine 26 , 28 is processing data , then the error may be reported to the respective processor core 22 a , 22 b for which it is currently working ( see step 470 ). the respective processor core may perform recovery / retry procedures in a step 475 together with the cryptographic engine , and the error may be removed , leaving the cryptographic engine in a clean reset state . the respective processor core then may release the cryptographic engine ( see step 455 ), which then may enter the idle loop in the feedback control ( see path 460 ). with reference to step 415 within idle loop 405 , an error also may be detected while a cryptographic engine 26 , 28 is still in the idle state and currently not assigned to any processor core 22 a , 22 b . no recovery / retry may be performed at this point in time , and the cryptographic engine may enter an error loop 485 in step 480 in order to wait until one of the processor cores issues a request . when a cryptographic engine 26 , 28 is in the error state at the point in time when it gets assigned to a respective processor core 22 a , 22 b , then the cryptographic engine should not begin processing any data but immediately may report the pending error condition to the respective processor core ( see step 470 ), which then may go through recovery in step 475 and may release the cryptographic engine in step 455 . subsequently , the crytographic engine may return to the idle state by performing a feedback to the idle loop 405 ( see path 460 ). when an error is detected immediately after an exit from the processing loop ( step 445 ), the cryptographic engine 26 , 28 may not take “ yes ” branch 495 through error reporting and recovery / retry but rather may go directly into the error loop ( see “ yes ” branch 490 ). however , for the respective processor core 22 a , 22 b , this looks like a regular completion , and the operation may be completed successfully by the millicode . an individual skilled in the art will appreciate that there exists a timeframe wherein a control path of the “ yes ” branch 495 and step 470 on one hand and the control path of steps 440 and 445 and “ yes ” branch 490 on the other hand cannot be clearly separated . specifically , an error may be detected while the cryptographic engine 26 , 28 is in the process of being released from a processor core 22 a , 22 b , since in such case all data has been processed . in such case , this error may still be reported to the processor core as would be done along “ yes ” branch 495 , but when the processor then goes through recovery / retry 475 , the cryptographic engine has already entered the error loop along “ yes ” branch 490 , causing the error to persist . in such special case , clearing the error in the cryptographic engine may occur only with the next request of one of the processor cores , which again may cause a recovery / retry 470 along “ yes ” branch 496 . this special situation requiring two recovery / retry operations for clearing an error in one of the cryptographic engines is depicted in fig4 as a transition along path 497 . the various embodiments described herein may assume the form of an entirely hardware embodiment , an entirely software embodiment , or an embodiment containing both hardware and software elements . an exemplary embodiment may be implemented in software , which may include but is not limited to firmware , resident software , microcode , etc . furthermore , the various embodiments may assume the form of a computer program product accessible from a computer - usable or computer - readable medium providing program code for use by or in connection with a computer or any instruction execution system . for the purposes of this description , a computer - usable or computer - readable medium may be any apparatus that can contain , store , communicate , propagate , or transport the program for use by or in connection with the instruction execution system , apparatus , or device . the medium may be an electronic , magnetic , optical , electromagnetic , infrared , or semiconductor system ( or apparatus or device ) or a propagation medium . examples of a computer - readable medium include a semiconductor or solid state memory , magnetic tape , a removable computer diskette , a random access memory ( ram ), a read - only memory ( rom ), a rigid magnetic disk , and an optical disk . current examples of optical disks include compact disc — read only memory ( cd - rom ), compact disc — read / write ( cd - r / w ), and dvd . a data processing system suitable for storing and / or executing program code may include at least one processor coupled directly or indirectly to memory elements through a system bus . the memory elements may include local memory employed during actual execution of the program code , bulk storage , and cache memories which provide temporary storage of at least some program code in order to reduce the number of times code should be retrieved from bulk storage during execution . input / output ( i / o ) devices ( including but not limited to keyboards , displays , pointing devices , etc .) may be coupled to the system either directly or through intervening i / o controllers . network adapters may also be coupled to the system to enable the data processing system to become coupled to other data processing systems , remote printers , and / or storage devices through intervening private or public networks . modems , cable modems , and ethernet cards are just a few of the currently available types of network adapters . the circuit as described above is part of the design for an integrated circuit chip . the chip design may be created in a graphical computer programming language and may be stored in a computer storage medium ( such as a disk , tape , physical hard drive , or virtual hard drive such as in a storage access network ). if the designer does not fabricate chips or the photolithographic masks used to fabricate chips , the designer may transmit the resulting design by physical means ( e . g ., by providing a copy of the storage medium storing the design ) or electronically ( e . g ., through the internet ) to such entities , directly or indirectly . the stored design then may be converted into the appropriate format ( e . g ., gdsii ) for the fabrication of photolithographic masks , which typically include multiple copies of the chip design in question that are to be formed on a wafer . the photolithographic masks may be utilized to define areas of the wafer ( and / or the layers thereon ) to be etched or otherwise processed . | 6 |
the following description is presented to enable any person skilled in the art to make and use the invention , and is provided in the context of a particular application and its requirements . various modifications to the disclosed embodiments will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art , and the general principles defined herein may be applied to other embodiments and applications without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention ( e . g ., general passive optical network ( pon ) architectures ). thus , the present invention is not intended to be limited to the embodiments shown , but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and features disclosed herein . the data structures and procedures described in this detailed description are typically stored on a computer readable storage medium , which may be any device or medium that can store code and / or data for use by a computer system . this includes , but is not limited to , application specific integrated circuits ( asics ), field - programmable gate arrays ( fpgas ), semiconductor memories , magnetic and optical storage devices such as disk drives , magnetic tape , cds ( compact discs ), and dvds ( digital versatile discs or digital video discs ). fig1 illustrates a passive optical network , wherein a central office and a number of subscribers are coupled together through optical fibers and a passive optical splitter ( prior art ). as shown in fig1 , a number of subscribers are coupled to a central office 101 through optical fibers and a passive optical splitter 102 . passive optical splitter 102 can be placed in the vicinity of end - user locations , so that the initial fiber deployment cost is minimized . central office 101 can be coupled to an external network 103 , such as a metropolitan area network operated by an internet service provider ( isp ). note that although fig1 illustrates a tree topology , a pon can also be based on other topologies , such as a ring or a bus . fig2 illustrates an epon in normal operation mode ( prior art ). to allow onus to join an epon at arbitrary times , an epon typically has two modes of operation : a normal operation mode and a discovery ( initialization ) mode . normal operation mode accommodates regular upstream data transmissions , where an olt assigns transmission opportunities to all initialized onus . as shown in fig2 , in the downstream direction , olt 201 broadcasts downstream data to onu 1 ( 211 ), onu 2 ( 212 ), and onu 3 ( 213 ). while all onus may receive the same copy of downstream data , each onu selectively forwards only the data destined to itself to its corresponding users , which are user 1 ( 221 ), user 2 ( 222 ), and user 3 ( 223 ), respectively . in the upstream direction , olt 201 first schedules and assigns transmission timeslots to each onu according to the onu &# 39 ; s service - level agreement . when not in its transmission timeslot , an onu typically buffers the data received from its user . when its scheduled transmission timeslot arrives , an onu transmits the buffered user data within the assigned transmission window . since every onu takes turns in transmitting upstream data according to the olt &# 39 ; s scheduling , the upstream link &# 39 ; s capacity can be efficiently utilized . however , for the scheduling to work properly , the olt needs to discover and initialize a newly joined onu . during discovery , the olt may collect information critical to transmission scheduling , such as the onu &# 39 ; s round - trip time ( rtt ), its media access control ( mac ) address , its service - level agreement , etc . ( note that in some cases service - level agreement may already be known to the olt .) it is of critical importance that an onu uses substantially the same clock frequency for upstream transmission as the clock frequency used by the olt , so that an upstream transmission window can properly accommodate a data burst . fig3 a illustrates an onu generating a loop - back clock frequency based on an olt &# 39 ; s downstream clock frequency ( prior art ). as is shown in fig3 a , according to the ieee 802 . 3ah standards , an onu 304 can derive its transmission clock frequency , f , based on a loop - back clock frequency f used by an olt 302 for downstream transmission . the loop - back clock is typically generated by a phase - locking loop ( pll ), which is designed to reduce jitter and track the frequency of the imperfect recovered clock from the receiver . the loop - back clock frequency f ′, however , is still subject to jitter and drifting introduced by the derivation circuit . such jitter and drifting may impair of the quality of upstream transmission . in particular , excessive frequency jitter or drifting can cause errors in upstream transmission . as is shown in fig3 a , when an upstream burst 312 is transmitted with a slower clock frequency , the time required to finish the transmission may be greater than the duration of the allocated transmission window . consequently , the tail of burst 312 may overlap with a subsequent burst 314 , causing transmission error for both bursts . hence , it is necessary to ensure that a transmitted burst remains within the allocated transmission window . to prevent the aforementioned problem , one embodiment of the present invention uses a separately generated clock frequency at each onu . this clock frequency may be generated , for example , with a local oscillator and ideally is substantially the same as the clock frequency used by the olt . a local oscillator is preferred due to its lower jitter output . reduced jitter decreases the bit error rate and improves the quality of the upstream transmission . fig3 b illustrates two onus equipped with locally generated clock frequencies in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention . as is shown in fig3 b , an olt 322 transmits downstream data to onus 324 and 326 with a clock frequency f . onu 324 transmits its upstream data at its own clock frequency f ′. similarly , onu 326 transmits upstream data at clock frequency f ″. ideally , both f ′ and f ″ are substantially the same as f . it is difficult , however , to ensure that both f ′ and f ″ are exactly the same as f . to mitigate the effect of excessive frequency drift , one embodiment of the present invention allows modification of the number of bits included in a burst , so that the transmitted burst remains within the allocated transmission window . fig4 illustrates the process of inserting an idle character into or removing an idle character from an inter - packet gap ( ipg ) within a data burst transmitted from an onu in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention . as is shown in fig4 , a burst to be transmitted from an onu typically comprises a lock - in period 402 ( which is used by the olt to perform bit - level synchronization with the received data burst ), a number of datagrams or packets ( such as datagrams 404 and 408 ), and inter - packet gaps ( ipg ) ( such as ipg 406 ). note that each datagram may include a preamble . in one embodiment of the present invention , when the onu &# 39 ; s local clock slows down to the point that the total time required to transmit the burst is greater than a preferred value by , for example , one idle character , the onu may remove one idle character from an ipg . in this way , the onu can ensure that the actual transmission time of the burst remains substantially accurate with regard to the allocated transmission window . similarly , when the onu &# 39 ; s local clock speeds up to the point that the total time required to transmit the burst is less than a preferred value by , for example , one idle character , the onu may insert one additional idle character into an ipg . note that the onu can calculate the preferred value of the transmission time based on the clock frequency used by the olt for downstream transmission . another approach to compensate for the clock - frequency drift at an onu is to compare the local clock frequency with that of the olt and to request a transmission window accordingly to compensate for the frequency discrepancy . for example , if an onu &# 39 ; s local clock happens to have slowed down , and the onu has n bits of data burst to transmit , the onu may request a transmission window of if bits ( n ′& gt ; n ) based on the olt &# 39 ; s clock frequency . consequently ; the onu can successfully transmit the n - bit burst within the allocated window , even with a slower clock . the foregoing descriptions of embodiments of the present invention have been presented for purposes of illustration and description only . they are not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the present invention to the forms disclosed . accordingly , many modifications and variations will be apparent to practitioners skilled in the art . additionally , the above disclosure is not intended to limit the present invention . the scope of the present invention is defined by the appended claims . | 7 |
in the field of audiology , it can be desirable to demonstrate the communication difficulties that accompany hearing loss , as well as the improvements provided by prosthetic devices , mainly hearing aids and cochlear implants . such demonstrations can be used ( 1 ) to train audiologists and educators of the deaf ; ( 2 ) to educate people who work in high - noise settings , and the public generally , about the need for hearing protection and careful use of audio devices ; ( 3 ) to help explain to family members of hearing - impaired and deaf persons the communication obstacles they face ; and ( 4 ) to demonstrate options for prospective hearing - aid users . referring to fig1 , in one embodiment , a hearing loss and prosthesis simulation system 10 includes a head - worn device 12 with binaural microphones 14 a , 14 b mounted on the outside of muffs that have respective earphones 16 a , 16 b . microphones 14 a , 14 b receive ambient signals and provide them to a signal processing unit 18 . unit 18 processes signals based on selected characteristics , and provides processed signals 26 , 28 to earphones 16 b , 16 a , respectively , and thus to the wearer of device 12 . the signal processing is mainly performed with a programmable digital signal processor ( dsp ). signal processing unit 18 has controls that allow the listener to select from among a set of simulation options and to adjust the volume of a prosthesis . the simulation options include characteristics of the hearing loss and tinnitus for the two ears and of the prostheses at the two ears . the system includes an interface 30 to a personal computer 20 for specifying hearing loss and prosthesis characteristics . unit 18 can be provided in a separate housing and connected to device 12 through one or more cables , or the functionality of unit 18 can be formed within a housing of device 12 . a user interface for an audiologist can have controls and features that can be used to specify hearing loss and characteristics of the prosthesis . in the embodiment illustrated in fig1 , the head - worn device 12 can be made from a modified hearing - protective headset . headsets that have microphones that receive signals , process them , and provide them to a wearer are generally known for workers in loud environments when it is desirable , for example , to block the sound of machinery but allow people to hear speech ( referred to as “ hear - through ” devices ). there are many possible variants in these components , including other types of muffs , insert or behind - the - ear devices , or more than one set of microphones on each side . referring to fig2 , a functional block diagram of a signal processing unit 50 for achieving the simulation is shown for one channel of the system . a sound - field signal p f 52 is picked up by a microphone 56 and is processed according to prosthesis 58 and hearing - loss simulation 60 . the simulation output 62 is then delivered to an earphone 64 , producing audible sound p s 66 . ideally , the muff or other protective device would block all sound , so the only sounds reaching the wearer &# 39 ; s ear would be processed signals p s 66 . in actual devices , however , some ambient sound typically gets through to the listener . this direct acoustic transmission to the listener &# 39 ; s ear , denoted by the transmission path d 54 in fig2 , produces a direct component p d 70 that is added ( represented by summer 68 ) to the earphone - delivered processed signals ps 66 to result in the total sound pressure in the ear canal p ec 72 . this addition of the direct - path sound disrupts the ability to control the sound at the listener &# 39 ; s ear . in this embodiment , the interference from the direct - path signal is reduced and ideally minimized to enable the simulator to control most of the sound delivered to the listener &# 39 ; s ear . this reduction is achieved with a combination of attenuation from the headset device , additive masking noise , and automatic gain control ( agc ). while all three approaches are used here , a system could use different combinations of strategies . to achieve frequency - specificity in both hearing - loss simulations and prosthesis simulations , the signal is processed in multiple frequency bands . the frequency bands may be , for example , the third - octave bands that are standard in audio analysis systems . the expanded portion of fig2 enclosed by dashed lines shows the signal processing performed in one frequency band of the hearing loss simulator . a bandpass filter 74 , an agc 80 , and an amplifier 84 are connected via interconnents 76 , 78 and 82 , in each band , as selected by the bandpass filter 74 , the agc 80 adjusts the gain of the amplifier 84 to produce an amplified output signal 86 . additive noise n 90 is introduced by the simulator via summer 88 to partially mask the direct - path signal 70 . processing in different frequency bands has the same form , but there can be different parameters for the agc and additive noise depending on the frequency . the resulting signals from all of the frequency bands 94 , 98 are summed together by summer 96 and output 100 to a d / a converter . the circuitry of fig2 is shown in more detail in fig3 . as shown here , each binaural microphone 14 a , 14 b ( fig1 ) has two microphones , shown here as front microphone 100 and rear microphone 102 . these microphones provide signals to respective preamplifiers 104 , 106 and then to analog - to - digital converters ( adc ) 108 , 110 to digitize the signals from the microphones . one of the microphones can have an auxiliary input 112 that is provided directly to adc 108 or combined in a summer 114 with the amplified and received signal from front microphone 100 . such an auxiliary input is generally known already in the prior art in the field of hearing aids to allow sound to be provided directly to the device ( e . g ., for providing music ). the digital signals are processed and summed in a directional processing block 116 . in a manner that is already known , block 116 can use additive , subtractive , and delaying techniques to provide directionality . this feature is also generally known for use with hearing aids . a directional output signal 120 from block 116 is filtered into multiple bands with bandpass filters 124 . the next steps would be performed for each of the separate bands , only one of which is shown . in prosthesis processing block 128 , the signals can be processed in different ways to simulate different types of prosthesis . to simulate a hearing aid , the signals can be amplified , either linearly or with controlled gain depending on the level of the sound ( referred to as “ compression ”). processing for a cochlear implant is different . in this case , as is generally known , the envelope is removed from the signal to retain variations in the intensity of the sound , while removing changes in pitch . the prosthesis - processed signals are provided to hearing loss simulation circuitry 130 . the signals are provided to an agc unit 132 that controls the gain of an amplifier 134 . additive noise 136 , represented as n sim , n is provided to a summer 138 and added to the amplified signal to at least partially mask the direct path signal ( shown as d in fig2 ). the resulting signals from all of the frequency bands are summed together and converted to an analog signal by a digital - to - analog converter ( dac ) 140 . the resulting analog signal is provided to an output amplifier 142 and a receiver 144 to produce the signal in the ear canal . fig4 is a graph that illustrates how the agc and additive noise level are used . fig4 illustrates the input / output characteristics of the main sound pressure components in one frequency band in the listener &# 39 ; s ear canal . the direct path signal p d is shown as line 150 , the agc output signal as line 152 , and the simulator noise n as 154 . the decibel scales are referenced to normal absolute threshold . the direct - path component line 150 , in this example , is assumed to be attenuated 40 db ( the x - intercept is at 40 db ) relative to the response with the ear open ( i . e ., when no hearing protector is used ). the processing in each band and the addition of the masking noise are designed to shift an absolute threshold for ambient sound by a desired amount while also masking the direct component . the threshold shift is accomplished by causing agc output line 154 to emerge above noise level n at a threshold shift which , in this example , is 70 db . agc output line 154 and the noise level n are chosen to intersect a few decibels above the point where the direct - path and processed components intersect . when the input signal level is at or below the shifted input threshold ( 70 db in this example ), the direct component is masked by noise level n . as the input level increases and exceeds the shifted threshold , both the processed and direct components rise above the noise - masked threshold . however , because the processed component is larger than the direct component shown as line 150 , the processed component dominates the total ear - canal sound pressure in that frequency band . n this embodiment , the agc output characteristic has two straight - line segments caused by the gain set by the agc , although the output could have more segments . the recruiting part of the processed curve ( the part below a knee point 160 ) has variable gain such that the function rises from an output level of n ( or from 0 db if n is below 0 db ) to full recruitment ( i . e ., the knee point ) over a recruitment range of approximately 20 db . the second line segment of the agc characteristic ( the part above the knee point 160 ) extends from the knee point upwards with a fixed gain . the gain of the first segment is greater than the gain of the second segment , and the slope of the second segment is , in this embodiment , equal to one . as a result , the additive noise causes the wearer to have substantially no perception of the received signal below a first threshold input level , as is typical for one with conductive or sensorineural hearing loss . as the input level rises above a threshold ( e . g ., 70 db ), there is a rapid increase in the agc output characteristic , which simulates the loudness recruitment that accompanies sensorineural hearing loss . above a next threshold ( e . g ., 90 db ), the slope of the agc characteristic goes to 1 , reflecting the fact that loudness has fully recruited . the time - varying gain in the band is generated from the equations for the line describing the processed components as a function of the input - level estimate . the input level estimate is obtained , for example , from a time - average of the square of the bandpass - filtered microphone signal . in one embodiment , an exponential average of input level is made with a time constant of , for example , 14 msec . fig5 and 6 show exemplary screen shots for a user interface . fig5 shows user inputs for specifying hearing loss and tinnitus for a simulation , while fig6 shows user inputs for specifying a prosthesis , in this case a linear hearing aid . as shown in fig5 , the audiologist user has a wide range of controls , including setting the bone - conduction and air - conduction thresholds for each ear , and providing characteristics for tinnitus . the audiologist user can also specify types of prostheses , such as linear hearing aid as shown , and also compression hearing aids and cochlear implants . using a software interface at a personal computer , the operator can create a set of hearing specifications and a set of prosthesis specifications for simulation . these specifications are then downloaded to the signal processor , possibly by way of a remote control device . the operator would then give the simulator headset to the user to wear , along with instructions for use . different combinations of hearing and prosthesis specifications can then be selected from the set of available specifications . this selection can be done by the wearer or by the clinician . the wearer experiences the threshold shifts accompanying hearing loss , and processing by the prosthesis , while being exposed to sounds in the environment . referring to fig7 , a number of settings can be established and provided to a remote control . the operator can set up to ten hearing profiles ( h 1 - h 10 ) and up to ten prosthesis profiles ( p 1 - p 10 ). in view of the wide variety of embodiments to which the principles of the present invention can be applied , it should be understood that the illustrated embodiments are exemplary only , and should not be taken as limiting the scope of the present invention . various elements of the embodiments can be implemented in software , circuitry , other computer hardware or firmware , and any desired combinations . it will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that methods involved in the system for immersive simulation of hearing loss and auditory prostheses may be embodied in a computer program product that includes a computer usable medium . for example , such a computer usable medium can include a readable memory device , such as a hard drive device , a cd - rom , a dvd - rom , or a computer diskette , having computer readable program code segments stored thereon . the computer readable medium can also include a communications or transmission medium , such as a bus or a communications link , either optical , wired , or wireless , having program code segments carried thereon as digital or analog data signals . other aspects , modifications , and embodiments are within the scope of the following claims . for example , while the processing is preferably performed with a programmed dsp , any suitable circuitry or special or general purpose computing device , or combination of the foregoing , could be used . | 7 |
referring now to fig1 a memory system 10 adapted to store samples of a received radio frequency signal and retransmit such radio frequency signal from such samples is shown , to include a receiving antenna 12 , the output of which is fed to a radio frequency amplifier 14 having a predetermined bandwidth of several gigahertz , here , for example 4 to 8 ghz . the output of radio frequency amplifier 14 is fed to a bank 16 of input band pass filters , here fifteen band pass filters 22a - 22o , such band pass filters being tuned to contiguous portions of the predetermined , 4 to 8 ghz , band of frequency in a manner to be described in detail in connection with fig2 . the amplifier 14 is also fed directly to a sampler 18 and to a sampler 20 through a 90 degree phase shifter 26 , here a quadrature hybrid , as shown . also fed to the pair of samplers 18 , 20 is a series of sampling pulses produced by a pulse generator 24 and an oscillator 22 . in particular , oscillator 22 is of any conventional design , and produces a sinusoidal signal , here having a frequency of 500 mhz . this signal is used to periodically trigger pulse generator 24 here a snap , or step recovery diode , to produce a train of sampling pulses for the pair of sampling means 18 , 20 here such sampling pulses being produced at a rate of 0 . 5 ghz . here the width of each one of the sampling pulses is less than the duration of one cycle of the highest frequency of the radio frequency signal to be passed by amplifier 14 , here 8 ghz , so that the time duration of each sampling pulse is here less than 125 picoseconds . the sampling pulses fed to sampler 18 , 20 enable such samplers 18 , 20 to simultaneously sample two different portions of the received signal , each portion being simultaneously sampled in each one of the quadrature signals . thus if the received radio frequency signal fed to sampler 18 is here represented by : ( where f r is the frequency of the received signal ; here 8 ghz ≧ f r ≧ 4 ghz ) the signal fed to sampler 20 may be represented as : further , in the frequency domain , the signals fed to samplers 18 , 20 may be represented as : the sampling pulses may be represented as : ## equ1 ## where such sampling pulses are here assumed to be pulses having a pulse repetition frequency , f o , here 0 . 5 ghz . further , in the frequency domain such sampling pulses may be represented as : ## equ2 ## the outputs of samplers 18 , 20 may , in the frequency domain , be represented as : ## equ3 ## respectively . such signals are fed to analog to digital ( a / d ) converters 28 , 30 , respectively as shown . the digital signals produced by a / d converters 28 , 30 ( represented by equations ( 7 ) and ( 8 ), respectively ) are fed to a pair of digital memories 32 , 34 . in response to a write enable signal , w , on line r / w , produced by a conventional controller 36 , and in response to the sampling pulses fed to such memories 32 , 34 from pulse generator 24 , the digital samples are sequentially stored in the memories 32 , 34 , respectively . in response to a read enable signal , r , on the r / w line produced by controller 36 , during recall , the digital samples stored in the memories 32 , 34 are sequentially read from the memories 32 , 34 in the same order as they were stored and at the 500 mhz rate in response to sampling pulses produced by the 500 mhz sampling pulses produced by pulse generator 24 . the digital samples sequentially read from the memories 32 , 34 here pass through a pair of digital to analog ( d / a ) converters 38 , 40 , respectively , as shown . it follows then that the signals produced by the d / a converters 38 , 40 are signals equivalent to the sampled signals produced by samplers 18 , 20 except that the memories 32 , 34 provide zero order hold circuits which effectively filter frequency components greater than f o / 2 , here 250 mhz , represented by equations ( 7 ) and ( 8 ), respectively . it follows then from ( 7 ) and ( 8 ) that the dominant frequency component of the signals produced by d / a converters 38 , 40 will be at a frequency ( f r - n x f o ) where n x is an integer and ( f o + f r )/ f o ≧ n x ≧( f r - f o )/ f o . therefore the signals produced by d / a converters 38 , 40 may be represented as : alternatively , the frequency components of the signals produced by d / a converters 38 , 40 may be represented , in the frequency domain , as : the signals produced at the outputs of d / a converters 38 , 40 are fed to a second pair of samplers 42 , 44 , respectively , as shown . the sampling pulses produced by pulse generator 24 are fed to samplers 42 , 44 , as shown . it follows that the frequency components signals produced at the outputs of samplers 42 , 44 may be represented as : ## equ4 ## respectively . it also follows that the signals produced at the outputs of samplers 42 , 44 may be , in the time domain , represented as : ## equ5 ## respectively . the signals produced at the outputs of samplers 42 , 44 are fed to a summing network 48 , the signals produced by sampler 44 first being fed to a 90 ° phase shifter 46 , as shown . it follows then , from equations ( 15 ) and ( 16 ) that the output of summing network 48 is a composite signal made up of a plurality of radio frequency signal components which may be represented as : ## equ6 ## the plurality of radio frequency signal components being separated in frequency from each other an amount of predetermined relationship to the selected sampling rate ; here such components being separated one from another by the sampling frequency of the sampling pulses produced by pulse generator 24 , here f o = 500 mhz . it is also noted that one of the radio frequency signal components of the composite signal has the frequency of the received radio frequency signal ; the one of the radio frequency signals represented in equation ( 17 ) when nf o = n x f o . the composite signal produced at the output of summing network 48 is fed to a bank of output filters 50 , here a bank of filter output band pass filters 52a - 52o having overlapping pass band frequencies over the predetermined bandwidth here 4 to 8 ghz , as shown in fig3 . band pass filters 52a - 52o each have a bandwidth equal to the frequency separation of the frequency components of the composite signal so that only one of such components can pass through any one of the filters 52a - 52o here 500 mhz . the center frequencies of such filters 52a - 52o are here 4 . 25 ghz ; 4 . 5 ghz ; 4 . 75 ghz , . . . 7 . 75 ghz , respectively , as indicated in fig3 . the outputs of output filters 52a - 52o are fed to a switch 54 , as shown in fig1 . switch 54 is here any conventional radio frequency switch adapted to couple the output of one of the band pass filters 52a - 52o to a radio frequency amplifier , here a travelling wave tube ( twt ) 56 selectively in response to a logical control signal on lines 58 &# 39 ; a - 58 &# 39 ; o . the generation of the logical control signal will be described hereinafter . suffice it to say here , however , such switch 54 , in response to such logical control signals , couples the one of the output filters 52a - 52o having in the middle portion of its pass band the frequency of the received signal and thereby couples the one of the plurality of each frequency signal produced at the output of summing network 48 through such selected one of the output filters to twt 56 . the other ones of the plurality of produced radio frequency signals are rejected by the operation of the switch 54 and hence are not coupled to the twt 56 . the one of the produced radio frequency signals having the frequency of the received signal is amplified by the twt 56 and retransmitted via transmitting antenna 60 . in operation , and considered as an example a received signal having a frequency f r = 4 . 8 ghz , from the discussion above such signal may be represented as : the frequency components of the signals produced by sampler 18 may from eq ( 7 ) be represented , in the frequency domain , as : ## equ7 ## and the frequency components of the signals produced at the output of sampler 20 may from eq ( 8 ) be represented as : ## equ8 ## the sampled signals pass through a / d converters 28 , 30 and are stored in memories 32 , 34 here at a rate of 0 . 5 ghz as described above . during recall the samplers read from the memories 32 , 34 , are converted to analog signals by d / a converters 38 , 40 . the dominant frequency components of the analog signals may , from equations ( 10 ) and ( 12 ) be represented as : the analog signals are fed to the second pair of samplers 42 , 44 to produce a plurality of signals having frequency components which may be represented from eqs ( 11 ) and ( 12 ) as : ## equ9 ## respectively . the signal produced at the output of sampler 42 and phase shifter 96 are added together in summing network 48 to produce a composite signal which , from eq ( 17 ), may be represented as : ## equ10 ## from eq ( 25 ) if follows that the composite signal has the following frequency components : 0 . 2 ghz ; 0 . 7 ghz ; . . . 3 . 8 ghz , 4 . 3 ghz , 4 . 8 ghz , 5 . 3 ghz , 7 . 8 ghz , . . . it is further observed that the frequency components are separated one from another by an amount having a predetermined relationship to the known sampling rate ; here such components being separated one from another by the 0 . 5 ghz sampling rate . for reasons discussed above , the details of which will become apparent hereinafter , the logical control signals fed to switch 54 via lines 58 &# 39 ; a - 58 &# 39 ; o selectively couple the one of the output band pass filters , here filter 52c , having a bandwidth from 4 . 5 ghz to 5 . 0 ghz as shown in fig3 to twt 56 . it follows then that only one of the plurality of radio frequency signals of the composite signal produced by summing network 48 passes to twt 56 , such passed signal having the same frequency of the received signal ; here a frequency of 4 . 8 ghz . referring again to fig1 as described above a portion of the received radio frequency signal is fed to a bank of filters 16 , here made up of fifteen band pass filters 22a - 22o tuned to contiguous portions of the 4 ghz to 8 ghz bandwidths as shown in fig2 . each one of the band pass filters 22b - 22n has a pass band of 250 mhz ; the center frequencies of filters 22b to 22n here being 4 . 5 to 7 . 5 ghz , respectively , as shown in fig2 . filters 22a and 22o here have a band pass of 375 . 0 mhz ; the center frequency of band pass filter 22a being 4 . 1875 ghz and the center frequency of band pass filter 22o here being 7 . 8125 ghz . as shown in fig1 the outputs of band pass filters 22a to 22o are fed to corresponding ones of a plurality of detectors 62a to 62o , respectively , as shown . the outputs of detectors 62a to 62o are fed to corresponding ones of a plurality of comparators 66a to 66o , respectively as shown and a corresponding plurality of diodes 64a to 64o , as shown . the outputs of diodes 64a to 64o are coupled together and through a resistor 70 to a summing amplifier 72 as shown . also fed to the amplifier 72 is a bias voltage v b , here providing a voltage equal to the voltage drop produced across a forward biased one of the diodes 64a to 65o , for reasons to become apparent . in operation , if the received radio frequency signal passes through one of the band pass filters 22a to 22o , say for example filter 22a , a relatively large detected voltage is produced at the input of diode 64a to forward bias such diode ; the remaining diodes 64b to 64o being fed will relatively low voltages remaining back biased . the detected voltage at the input to diode 64a is coupled to amplifier 72 . the level of such detected voltage is however reduced by the voltage drop produced across diode 64a . the original detected voltage level is however restored by the v b bias voltage also fed to amplifier 72 so that the voltage produced at the output of amplifier 72 on line 74 has the same level as the detected voltage fed to the input of diode 64a . each one of the comparators 66a to 66o here produce a logical 1 signal when the levels of the signals fed to it are equal and produce a logical 0 signal when the levels of the signals fed to it from the one of the detectors 62a to 62o coupled to it is less than the level of the signal fed to it by line 74 . hence , in the example where filter 72a passes the received signal , comparator 66a produces a logical 1 signal and comparators 66b to 66o produce logical 0 signals . it follows then , in the general case , that the logical signals produced by comparators 66a to 66o provide an indication of the one of the filters 22a - 22o passing the received radio frequency signal . it is also noted that if the receiving signal has a frequency which passes through a pair of filters having adjacent pass bands logical 1 signals will be produced by a pair of the comparators 64a to 66o . decoder 80 is provided to resolve the ambiguity ; here such decoder 80 is designed to indicate that the received signal has in effect , passed through the one of the pair of filters 22a to 22o having the lowest pass band . in particular , decoder 80 includes , here , fifteen output lines 58a to 58o and produces the following logical signals in response to the following logical signals produced by comparators 66a to 66o : table i__________________________________________________________________________comparator line66a 66b 66c 66d -- 66m 66n 66o 58a 58b 58c -- 58m 58n 58o__________________________________________________________________________1 0 0 0 -- 0 0 0 1 0 0 -- 0 0 01 1 0 0 -- 0 0 0 1 0 0 -- 0 0 00 1 0 0 -- 0 0 0 0 1 0 -- 0 0 00 1 1 0 -- 0 0 0 0 1 0 -- 0 0 00 0 1 0 -- 0 0 0 0 0 1 -- 0 0 00 0 1 1 -- 0 0 0 0 0 1 -- 0 0 0 &# 39 ; &# 39 ; &# 39 ; &# 39 ; -- &# 39 ; &# 39 ; &# 39 ; &# 39 ; &# 39 ; &# 39 ; -- &# 39 ; &# 39 ; &# 39 ;&# 39 ; &# 39 ; &# 39 ; &# 39 ; -- &# 39 ; &# 39 ; &# 39 ; &# 39 ; &# 39 ; &# 39 ; -- &# 39 ; &# 39 ; &# 39 ; 0 0 0 0 -- 1 0 0 0 0 0 -- 1 0 00 0 0 0 -- 1 1 0 0 0 0 -- 1 0 00 0 0 0 -- 0 1 0 0 0 0 -- 0 1 00 0 0 0 -- 0 1 1 0 0 0 -- 0 1 00 0 0 0 -- 0 0 1 0 0 0 -- 0 0 1__________________________________________________________________________ in this way , only one of the lines 58a - 58m may be logical 1 in response to a received signal having a frequency within the 4 to 8 ghz band . the logical signals produced on lines 58a to 58o are fed to a memory 82 and are stored therein when the digital samples of the beat frequency signals passing through low pass filters 28 , 30 are stored in memories 32 , 34 in response to a write ( w ) signal on line r / w . during recall , i . e . when a read signal ( r ) is produced on line r / w , the stored logical signals stored in the memory 82 are read therefrom and produced on lines 58 &# 39 ; a to 58 &# 39 ; o , such signals being produced during the period of time the stored samples stored in memories 32 , 34 are read therefrom . lines 58 &# 39 ; a to 58 &# 39 ; o contain the same logical signals produced on lines 58a to 58o , respectively , and hence the signals produced on lines 58 &# 39 ; a to 58 &# 39 ; o are in accordance with signals on lines 58a to 58o , respectively as presented in the table i referred to above . switch 54 responds to the logical signals in accordance with table ii , below , to couple one of the output band pass filters 52a to 52o to the twt 56 : table ii______________________________________line58 &# 39 ; a 58 &# 39 ; b -- 58 &# 39 ; m 58 &# 39 ; n filter coupled to twt 56______________________________________1 0 -- 0 0 52a0 1 -- 0 0 52b &# 39 ; &# 39 ; -- &# 39 ; &# 39 ; &# 39 ;&# 39 ; &# 39 ; -- &# 39 ; &# 39 ; &# 39 ; 0 0 -- 1 0 52n0 0 -- 0 1 52o______________________________________ in operation , and referring also to fig2 and 3 and considering also the example above where the received signal has a frequency equal to 4 . 8 ghz , it is noted that such signal will pass through input filter 22c . as a result of the received signal passing through input filter 22c a logical 1 signal is produced by comparator 66c and logical 0 signals will be produced by comparators 66a to 66b and 66d to 66c . as a result of these logical signals a logical 1 signal is produced on lines 58c and logical 0 signals are produced on lines 58a , 58b and 58d to 58c , as indicated in table i . during recall , while the composite signal produced by summing network 48 has a plurality of radio frequency signal components here , from eq ( 25 ), frequency components including frequencies of : 3 . 8 ghz ; 4 . 3 ghz ; 4 . 8 ghz ; 5 . 3 ghz ; 7 . 8 ghz as described above , the logical 1 signal produced on line 58 &# 39 ; c and the logical 0 signals on lines 58 &# 39 ; a , 58 &# 39 ; b and 58 &# 39 ; d to 58 &# 39 ; o cause filter 52c to become coupled to twt 56 as described in accordance with table ii ( filters 52a , 52b and 52c to 52o being electrically decoupled from twt 56 in response to such logical signals ). it follows then that , referring to fig3 the one of the plurality of produced radio frequency signal components of the composite signal having the frequency of 4 . 8 ghz is passed to the twt 56 for retransmission ; all other ones of the produced radio frequency signal components of the composite signal being electrically decoupled from twt 56 . it is noted that the arrangement of the pass bands of input filters 22a to 22o and the pass bands of output filters 52a to 52o , as shown in fig2 and 3 , is such that if the received signal has a frequency which is at the cut off frequency of a pair of output filter having adjacent band pass frequencies , i . e . for example , a received signal having a frequency of 5 . 0 ghz which is at the cut off frequency of both output filter 52c and output filter 52e , the received radio frequency signal will pass through input filter 22d to cause switch 54 to couple output filter 52d to twt 56 . in this way , the one of the plurality of radio frequency signals produced by summing network 48 , having the 5 . 0 ghz frequency pass through filter 52d , and in particular such one of the produced radio frequency signals will pass through the middle portion of the output filter 52d . consequently , the system 10 ensures that only one of the plurality of radio frequency signal components of the composite signal produced at the output of summing network 48 will pass to the twt 56 and that with this arrangement of input filter pass bands and output filter pass bands the produced radio frequency signal component desired for retransmission passes through the middle portion of the selected one of the output filters 52a to 52o and thereby enables such system 10 to retransmit a radio frequency signal having some finite bandwidth . having described a preferred embodiment of the invention other embodiments incorporating these concepts may now become readily apparent to those of skill in the art . it is felt , therefore , that the invention should not be limited to the disclosed embodiment but should be limited only by the spirit and scope of the appended claims . | 7 |
the following detailed description of the present invention refers to the accompanying drawings that illustrate exemplary embodiments consistent with this invention . other embodiments are possible , and modifications may be made to the embodiments within the spirit and scope of the invention . therefore , the following detailed description is not meant to limit the invention . rather , the scope of the invention is defined by the appended claims . it would be apparent to one skilled in the art that the present invention , as described below , may be implemented in many different embodiments of hardware , software , firmware , and / or the entities illustrated in the drawings . any actual software code with the specialized , controlled hardware to implement the present invention is not limiting of the present invention . thus , the operation and behavior of the present invention will be described with the understanding that modifications and variations of the embodiments are possible , given the level of detail presented herein . fig1 is a block diagram view of a maskless lithography system arranged in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention . in fig1 , a maskless lithography system 100 includes a control system 102 . the control system 102 includes a computer processor , a memory , and a user interface configured to enable a user to input data for instructing the maskless lithography system 100 to produce a printed pattern . the control system 102 is coupled to a pulsed light source 104 which provides pulses of light from a light source , such as an excimer laser or some other suitable pulsed illumination mechanism . the pulsed light source 104 is coupled to a beam relay system 106 which is typically an anomorphic system that includes a series of lenses to create a desired numerical aperture in the light beam produced by the pulsed light source 104 . the pulsed light output from the beam relay 106 is imaged onto a programmable array 108 . the programmable array 108 is configured to receive image pattern data 110 , representative of a desirable lithographic pattern , and reflect light representative of the image to a projection optics ( po ) 109 . the pattern data 110 is also known in the art as mask layout data . the light reflected from programmable array 108 passes through the po 109 and then falls onto the substrate 112 . the function of the projection optics is ( 1 ) to form an image of the object on the substrate and ( 2 ) to reduce the image compared to the dimensions of the object . a pattern , representative of the image data 110 , is then imaged onto a photosensitive surface 112 , such as a wafer substrate , which is being scanned at a constant velocity . as understood by those of skill in the art , the images that are to be projected onto the photosensitive surface 112 are contained in the programmable array 108 and may be changed by a user via the control system 102 . the programmable array 108 can include an slm , or some other suitable micro - mirror array . by way of background , an slm is an array composed of a multitude of individually controlled pixels ( otherwise referred to as slm elements ). each pixel can change its optical properties in a controllable manner so that the field in the object plane can be modulated . a typical slm has square pixels arranged in a rectangular array , with each pixel having an ability to change only one of the parameters characterizing its optical properties ( one - parametric local modulation ) within a certain range . for example , an existing slm has 16 × 16 mm 2 tilting mirrors arranged in a 2040 × 512 array and running at a 1 khz refresh rate . the light modulation principles implemented in different slms can be classified as transmittance modulation , modulation by light deflection , phase shift modulation , de - focus modulation , and / or a combination of several of the aforementioned modulation types . fig2 is a diagrammatic perspective view of more detailed aspects a maskless lithography system , such as the system 100 of fig1 . in fig2 , a system 200 includes an slm 202 , a po 203 , and a substrate 204 having a photosensitive surface . the slm 202 includes mirror elements 206 configured to reflect light pulses 208 onto the substrate 204 within two - dimensional exposure regions 210 . the light pulses 208 are used to form a pattern 212 within the exposure regions 210 . by way of background , the printed pattern in a maskless lithography tool is formed from a sequence of two - dimensional exposures or shots . each of these two - dimensional shots results from an image of a single slm being projected to the surface of the wafer , and it results in deposition of a dose within a certain exposure zone . additionally , each exposure is created by a single pulse of light from the pulsed light source . since the two - dimensional exposure zones are stitched together edge - to - edge , the stitching is very critical . a displacement of one exposure zone on the order of a few nanometers can create pattern errors along the edge that are clearly visible and detrimental to features within the pattern . a single exposure can be performed in several passes over a substrate surface , as illustrated in fig3 . fig3 is an illustration of the formation of a pattern feature that extends across the boundary , or stitching line , of adjacent exposure zones . in fig3 , stitched exposure zones 300 include exposure zones 301 , 302 , and 304 . each of these exposure zones is created through deposition of a dose on a photosensitive surface produced by a single light pulse from an illumination source , such as the pulsed light source 104 of fig1 . that is , within the duration of a single pulse , a photosensitive surface , such as the substrate 204 , is moved a predetermined distance resulting in the deposition of the dose within each of the zones 301 , 302 , and 304 . an adjacent boundary of exposure zones 302 and 304 forms a stitching line 306 . a pattern feature 308 is formed within the exposure zones 301 , 302 , and 304 and is positioned across the stitching line 306 . optical effects or distortions of the feature 308 can occur due to the fact that distribution of a dose within each exposure zone is the result of an exposure by a partially coherent light . subsequently , since the two adjacent exposure zones 302 and 304 are exposed at different times , these exposure zones are effectively incoherent . fig4 is a graphical illustration of a stitching disturbance near a stitching line in the desired uniform pattern in a scenario where coherent illumination is assumed . for purposes of illustration , examples of coherent illumination are used because coherent illumination is considered to produce the most significant stitching errors ( disturbances ) in printed patterns . the present invention , however , is not limited to such an application . in fig4 , a graph 400 illustrates that a uniformly bright field is imaged in two exposures stitched at the origin . a first exposure 402 results from the pixels to the right of the origin in the object plane set to their absolutely bright state , while the object plane field to the left from the origin is zero . the resulting relative intensity distribution , or relative dose variation , in the image plane is a well - known diffraction - limited image of a semi - plane . a second exposure 404 is a mirror image of the exposure 402 with respect to the origin . one can readily observe that the relative dose value ( or relative image intensity ) at the origin for both exposures is ( ¼ ) for the case of coherent illumination . a combination of the right - edge exposure 402 and the left - edge exposure 404 produces an exposure 406 having a relative local - dose value of ( ½ ) along a stitching boundary 407 . the combination of the exposures at the stitching line 407 with the relative local dose value of ( ½ ) forms a stitching artifact or error 408 . in a practical sense , stitching artifacts , such as the stitching artifact 408 , will disturb the morphology of features ( e . g ., the feature 308 of fig3 ) that are formed across stitching boundaries , such as the boundary 407 . one such morphology disturbance is the occurrence of variations in the line width of lines used to form the printed patterns . fig5 is an illustration of the impact stitching errors can have upon line - width variation in the absence of stitching - error compensation techniques . more specifically , fig5 is an illustration of a test case showing the stitching disturbance of an isolated dark line . in fig5 , an exemplary exposure 502 includes an isolated horizontal dark line 503 on a bright background which is approximately 2000 nanometers ( nm ) long (˜ 9 ×/ na ), where ( λ ) is the light wavelength and ( na ) is the numerical aperture . the horizontal dark line 503 is formed using tilting mirror pixels in the object plane . in the example of fig5 , a size of each pixel , scaled to the image plane , can be determined by the expression : the line 503 is formed by two adjacent horizontal arrays ( rows ) of mirrors tilted by ( α 0 = λ 2 * l ) and ( - α 0 ) , respectively , where ( α ) is the tilt angle . the pixels of these rows act almost as absolutely dark pixels . the background is bright and is formed by the pixels with their mirrors being flat . the pattern that forms the line 503 is exposed in three exposures : 502 , 504 , and 506 , in the manner illustrated in fig3 above . the exposure 502 occurs during the first pass of the substrate , and it exposes the entire line 503 . the exposures 504 and 506 are two consecutive exposures during a second pass of the substrate . each of the two exposures 504 and 506 respectively exposes one - half of the dark line 503 . dose distributions 504 a and 506 a , respectively associated with the exposures 504 and 506 , are shown near a stitching line resulting from each of the three exposures . a sum 508 of the three exposures 502 , 504 , and 506 is shown and includes an under - exposure area 509 along a stitching line 509 a . a graph 510 provides an illustration of variations in the line width near the stitching line 509 a . in the example of fig5 , the line width was computed using an image intensity threshold resulting in a 70 nm line 512 . as illustrated in the graph 510 , the variation , indicated by a line 514 , reaches as high as + 25 nm . although stitching errors can create anomalies that significantly degrade printed patterns , as illustrated in the examples of fig4 and 5 , the present invention provides several techniques to compensate for the effects created by these stitching errors . fig6 provides an illustration of an exemplary technique 600 to compensate for the effects of stitching errors . more specifically , the technique of fig6 provides stitching error compensation without utilizing overlap of exposure areas . the technique 600 permits the addition of an assist feature during the second pass of the exposure of the substrate surface . although in the present application , the assist feature is added during the second pass , any subsequent pass can be used as long as the pass in which the assist feature is added does not have a boundary line at the same location as a feature . the assist features are added to the mask layout or pattern data ( e . g ., the pattern data 110 of fig1 ) input to the slm to produce the printed pattern . in the case of fig6 , assist features are added to the pattern data in order to make the line at the second pass thicker at a same position corresponding to earlier passes to compensate for the effects of the stitching error . in fig6 , a line is produced on the photosensitive surface of a substrate during a first exposure ( i . e ., during a single pulse of light from an illumination source ). the line includes a left segment 602 and a right segment 604 , both formed during the first pass . the left and right segments 602 and 604 form a line 606 having a stitching disturbance 608 ( necking ) across a stitching line 609 . to compensate for the stitching disturbance 608 , an assist feature 610 is added to the pattern data associated with production of the line 606 . during a second pass of the substrate , the assist feature 610 produces a bulge at the stitching line 609 in a line 612 formed in the object plane . although the line 612 having the assist feature 610 is formed in the object plane , it combines with the line 606 to produce a line 614 in the image plane . the line 614 is devoid of the stitching disturbance 608 . in other words , the thicker portion represented by the assist feature 610 compensates for the resulting necking , or stitching disturbance 608 , from the first pass . more generally , if exposure zones of one pass are shifted with respect to exposure zones during another pass , the passes in which the feature is not affected by the stitching line can be used to compensate for the stitching disturbance that affected the feature . during a scan , an exposure is produced in an adjacent exposure zone . that is , the wafer is scanned once and then moves to produce another exposure zone adjacent to the previous zone . a subsequent pulse arrives and a subsequent exposure zone is formed . stitching errors occur , and can be detected , within these exposure zones . the process of detecting , or predicting , stitching errors within the exposure zones can be accomplished using several techniques known to those of skill in the art . furthermore , pre - printing analyses of patterns are accomplished using , for example , image modeling with the use of modeling and simulation tools . using these or similar modeling tools , stitching error occurrences at the stitching boundaries can also be simulated . the simulations can be performed apriorily or real - time . thus , techniques such as the technique 600 of fig6 can also be performed apriorily or real - time . another technique to compensate for stitching errors , that does not utilize overlap of exposure areas , is active compensation . with active compensation , exposures are performed by butting ( i . e ., without an overlap ), and states of the slm pixels in the vicinity of the stitching line can be adjusted . that is , the slm pixels in the vicinity of the stitching line can be selected in such a way so that stitching disturbances can be compensated for . for example , stitching disturbances can create a widening of the printed line in the vicinity of the stitching line , as a result of under - exposure due to edge effects . therefore , using brighter states of the slm pixels near the stitching line can reduce the line widening effect . thus , to compensate for widening of the printed line , the states of the four slm pixels , adjacent to the stitching line , can be adjusted by a proportional amount . adjustment of a small number of pixels , however , will not always be sufficient to compensate for the stitching effects . adequate compensation can still be achieved , however , using a larger number of pixels near the stitching line with their adjusted states computed from the solution of an inverse problem . by adding the compensating data to the pattern data ( e . g ., the pattern data 110 ), the computation of the pixel states can be adjusted in a manner such that the pixels print the desired pattern . the calculation of pixel positions is determined in a manner that takes into account positions of the stitching lines . pixel position determination also accounts for the fact that exposure areas separated by these stitching lines are exposed in different shots . since the exposures are in different shots , there is no coherence between the fields in these exposures . during active compensation , however , there is a partial coherence inside each exposure based upon the predetermined illumination mode . fig7 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method 700 of practicing the technique 600 of fig6 . in one example , method 700 is carried out by a system 200 as described above , but is not necessarily limited to this structure . in fig7 , a first exposure of a photosensitive surface is performed in accordance with predetermined image data ( step 702 ). the first exposure occurs during a first pass of the substrate surface and produces a first image within a substrate area . in step 704 , image deficiencies are identified within a region of the first image . the image data is adjusted to compensate for the identified image deficiencies ( step 706 ). in step 708 , a second exposure of the photosensitive surface is performed in accordance with the adjusted image data during a second pass . fig8 provides an illustration of another exemplary technique 800 to compensate for the effects of stitching disturbances . the technique 800 utilizes overlap of exposure zones and provides attenuation of the aerial image and within the overlap region . in short , the technique 800 utilizes a small overlap of exposure zones to compensate for the stitching disturbance of the printed pattern occurring near the stitching line . the overlap area near the stitching line receives an extra dose due to the extra multiple exposures , and attenuation of the aerial image is performed to compensate for these extra multiple exposures . the attenuation can be performed either actively or passively . active attenuation is based on dynamically adjusting the states of the pixels of the slm array to perform the attenuation in the overlap zone . this active attenuation can take into account the illumination mode , width , and geometry of the overlap and the specific pattern printed across the overlap zone , as well as other factors . passive attenuation , on the other hand , uses modifications of slm related hardware to provide the attenuation . the methods to achieve passive attenuation include , but are not limited to , apodized aperture , out - of - focus / field stop , and prefabricated modifications of the slm elements . apodized aperture . an apodized aperture can be introduced either in front of the object or in an intermediate image plane . this aperture has a variable transmission near the edge of the slm array , or its intermediate image , that ensures the attenuation of the aerial image . apodization is preferably performed near the leading and trailing vertical edges to compensate for a spare exposure in the overlap zone . formulas describing the variation of transmission can be dependent upon specific illumination conditions ( to provide better stitching illumination conditions ). the formulas can also be generic formulas , that work reasonably well for a wide range of illumination conditions ( for example , linear variation of intensity transmission ). these formulas are derived using techniques known in the art . apodization can be passive ( use of apodized aperture ), active ( adjusting the pixels of the slm array near the stitching line ), or a combination of these two . passive apodization can be performed either in the object plane or the ( intermediate ) image plane . out - of - focus / field stop . out - of - focus aperture / field stop is an alternative to apodized aperture , where an aperture that is slightly out of focus can be used or a masking plate placed in front of the slm . prefabricated modifications . prefabricated modification of the slm elements within the overlap zone is based on using an slm array in which the pixels falling within the overlap zone are pre - modified in a way that ensures the desired attenuation of the aerial image . an example of a prefabricated modification of an slm element includes varying reflectivity of the micro - mirror surfaces within the overlap zone for slm arrays , using tilting or pistoning the individual mirrors within the slm array . the variation can be discrete ( constant reflectivity within each mirror , but varying from mirror to mirror ) or continuous . varying reflectivity can be generalized for an slm array using any modulation principle ( and not utilizing micro - mirrors ). for example , within the overlap zone , pixels of an slm array that use variations of transmission can be pre - manufactured so that maximal transmission of their brightest state varies in a desired way . another example of a prefabricated modification of an slm element includes a built - in modification of discrete states of the slm elements , or pixels . this modification assumes that the discrete states ( e . g ., tilts of the tilting micro - mirrors ) of the slm elements within the overlap zone are modified or shifted , compared to the discrete states of other slm elements . this built - in modification technique is another example of passive attenuation and can be applied to an slm using any modulation principle . fig8 is an example of active attenuation , as noted above . particularly fig8 is an illustration of an exemplary technique utilizing overlap of exposure zones with attenuation of the aerial image , using an active attenuation approach . in fig8 , the exposures 502 , 504 , and 506 , shown in fig5 , are re - analyzed applying an active attenuation approach . here , a display 800 is formed by combining the exposures 502 , 504 , and 506 . for purposes of illustration , the exposures 504 and 506 are overlapped by a width of 10 pixels to produce a feature 802 within an overlap zone 804 . within the overlap zone 804 , a linear attenuation of the object plane field is implemented in accordance with one of the passive attenuation techniques , noted above . a resulting image 807 is produced by combining the exposures 502 , 504 , and 506 , after utilizing the active attenuation . a graph 808 provides an illustration of improvements realized by a reduction in the line - width variations . specifically , the graph 808 indicates that line width variations 810 associated with the line 512 , shown in fig5 , can be reduced from the 25 nm ( shown in fig5 ) to less than 5 nm . fig9 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method 900 of performing active attenuation of an aerial image within the overlap region . using the method 900 , two or more exposure areas on a photosensitive surface are defined ( step 902 ). the exposure areas overlap along respective edge portions to form an overlap zone therebetween . in step 904 , the two or more exposure areas are exposed to print an image therein , wherein the exposing extends through the overlap zone . next , the exposing that occurs within the overlap zone is attenuated , as indicated in step 906 . fig1 provides an illustration of an exemplary technique 1000 to compensate for stitching disturbances utilizing overlap without an explicit attenuation . the technique 1000 is just one exemplary approach utilizing overlap without an explicit attenuation . more specifically , the technique 1000 produces an oscillating stitching line along the stitching boundary . in other words , the overlap zone is used to create a stitching border that changes its direction in a zigzag pattern or some other fashion . in the technique 1000 , exposure zones are overlapped . and within the overlap zone , only one of the two overlapping pixels carries the pattern . the other overlapping pixel is turned off . a resulting printed pattern is thus distributed between two overlapping exposure zones in such a way that the effective border between the two adjacent exposure zones is , for example , a “ shark teeth ” line or any other rapidly oscillating line . such oscillating lines represent a spatial averaging of the stitching disturbance and , subsequently , a reduction of its effect on the printed pattern . the technique 1000 of fig1 is just one example of an oscillating stitching line approach . in fig1 , overlapping exposure zones 1002 , 1004 , and 1006 , are used to form a printed feature 1005 along a stitching zone 1007 . in the technique 1000 , however , selected pixels ( within the pixels used to produce overlapping exposures 1002 , 1004 , and 1006 ), are activated to spatially average the energy associated with the stitching disturbance . this spatial averaging creates a zigzag pattern 1009 . for example , within the exposure zone 1004 , selected ( overlapping ) pixels , within overlapping pixel sets , are representative of zone portions 1004 a , 1004 b , and 1004 c . these selected pixels are then energized such that the pattern used to form the feature 1005 is produced in one shot and only from pixels associated with the exposure 1004 . similarly , selected overlapping pixels that produce exposure zone portions 1006 a , 1006 b , and 1006 c , from the exposure 1006 , are used to form another segment of the pattern . when the exposures 1004 and 1006 are combined , an exposure 1008 is formed having substantially reduced stitching artifacts within the overlap region 1010 . alternatively , the selected pixels within pixel sets used to form the overlapping exposures can be alternately turned on and off to produce some other pattern , such as a checkerboard pattern 1020 as indicated in fig1 a . for example , the overlapping pixels can be distributed between the exposures in a checkerboard pattern with white ( on ) pixels belonging to one exposure and black ( off ) pixels belonging to another exposure . since relatively higher spatial frequencies are used than in the case of the oscillating border ( this spatial frequency can also vary across the overlap zone if the pattern is properly selected ), better stitching can be produced . in fig1 and 10 a , the exposure zones are overlapped , and within the overlap zone , only one of the two overlapping pixels carries the pattern . the other overlapping pixel is turned off . the printed pattern is thus distributed between two overlapping exposures , and the printed pattern is preferably distributed between these exposures with a relatively high spatial frequency . further , the overlapping exposures need not necessarily form an oscillating connected border between two exposures . fig1 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method 1100 of performing the present invention as illustrated in fig1 . in fig1 , two or more exposure areas are defined within a predetermined region of a substrate surface . each area corresponds to selected pixels of the slm ( step 1101 ). in step 1102 , an overlapping region is formed between two or more exposure areas , the overlapping region being defined by respective overlapping edges of the exposure areas . the overlapping edges correspond to overlapping pairs of the selected pixels from each area . in step 1104 , the pixels within each pair are alternately activated , such that only one of the pixels within the pair is used to produce the pattern . the stitching disturbance can be compensated by properly selecting the width of an overlap ( without attenuation ). for any illumination mode , the butting ( exposure with zero overlap ) results in under - exposure along the stitching line ( e . g ., for a coherent illumination , the dose along the stitching line is 50 % of its value in the absence of the stitching effect ). on the other hand , overlap by a significant length ( several times exceeding without attenuation would result in a dose over - exposure along the stitching line . if the width of the overlap zone is properly selected between these two extreme values , an exact location of the stitching line can receive the exact dose , which would allow compensation of the disturbance near the stitching line . overlap with a field stop close to the image plane will also reduce the stitching / edge effects . the exposure zones are overlapped , and a field stop is placed in close proximity to the image plane so that this field stop blocks a part of the image in the overlap zone that is most affected by the edge effects ( the outer part of the slm image ). the width of the exposure zone should be large enough to ensure that the edge effects can be blocked by the field stop . additionally , the pixels that are mostly blocked by the field stop can be modulated to provide an extra compensation of the edge effects remaining in the image that passes the field stop . as a result , an image that reaches the image plane has substantially zero or very minimal edge effects in it , and stitching can be performed by butting the two images together . one example of the overlap with a field stop is as follows : an isolated line crossing the stitching boundary is printed , and the pixels blocked by the field stop create a continuation of the image of the line on the field stop . if the width of the layer of blocked pixels is large enough ( much greater than the single exposure that creates an image of a semi - line will result in a semi - line with a sharp edge , because the edge - smearing effects are blocked by the field stop . if the second half of the line is similarly imaged , the stitching can be performed by butting the two images together . additional extraneous factors , noted below , will also affect the impact of a stitching disturbance . smearing of the image . smearing of the image due to the wafer motion during exposure is an additional phenomenon that will affect the impact of a stitching disturbance . the exposure mechanism in a maskless lithography tool may involve exposures by short laser pulses that are performed on a wafer that moves with a constant velocity . such exposure mechanisms will result in smearing of the image in the direction of motion . the duration of the laser pulse must be small enough for the smearing not to affect the printed pattern significantly . for typical scanning speeds and laser pulse durations , the effect of smearing should not exceed a small number of nanometers . this effect can be further compensated by laser pulse synchronization . at the same time , such smearing can be beneficial , as it will naturally reduce the stitching disturbance occurring near the stitching lines which are perpendicular to the direction of scan . jitter of the laser pulses . laser pulse jitter is another factor that will affect the impact of a stitching disturbance . in the exposure scenario described in the previous paragraph , the laser pulse may be arriving too early or too late ( laser jitter phenomenon ). the characteristic magnitude of the laser pulse jitter is 3σ = 10 nanoseconds ( nsec ). as a result of these delays or advances , the position of the exposure on the wafer resulting from this laser pulse may be shifted in the direction of the wafer scan or in the opposite direction . these small shifts can lead to spatial misalignment of the stitched exposures , and this misalignment ( along with the misalignment of exposures occurring due to other reasons ) contributes to the stitching disturbance . the techniques to compensate for stitching illustrated in the present application , however , can be used to compensate the effects of laser pulse jitter . as stated above , the present invention can be implemented in hardware , or as a combination of software and hardware . consequently , the invention may be implemented in the environment of a computer system or other processing system . an example of such a computer system 1200 is shown in fig1 . the computer system 1200 includes one or more processors , such as a processor 1204 . the processor 1204 can be a special purpose or a general purpose digital signal processor . the processor 1204 is connected to a communication infrastructure 1206 ( for example , a bus or network ). various software implementations are described in terms of this exemplary computer system . 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 . the computer system 1200 also includes a main memory 1208 , preferably random access memory ( ram ), and may also include a secondary memory 1210 . the secondary memory 1210 may include , for example , a hard disk drive 1212 and / or a removable storage drive 1214 , representing a floppy disk drive , a magnetic tape drive , an optical disk drive , etc . the removable storage drive 1214 reads from and / or writes to a removable storage unit 1218 in a well known manner . the removable storage unit 1218 , represents a floppy disk , magnetic tape , optical disk , etc . which is read by and written to by removable storage drive 1214 . as will be appreciated , the removable storage unit 1218 includes a computer usable storage medium having stored therein computer software and / or data . in alternative implementations , the secondary memory 1210 may include other similar means for allowing computer programs or other instructions to be loaded into the computer system 1200 . such means may include , for example , a removable storage unit 1222 and an interface 1220 . 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 the other removable storage units 1222 and the interfaces 1220 which allow software and data to be transferred from the removable storage unit 1222 to the computer system 1200 . the computer system 1200 may also include a communications interface 1224 . the communications interface 1224 allows software and data to be transferred between the computer system 1200 and external devices . examples of the communications interface 1224 may include a modem , a network interface ( such as an ethernet card ), a communications port , a pcmcia slot and card , etc . software and data transferred via the communications interface 1224 are in the form of signals 1228 which may be electronic , electromagnetic , optical or other signals capable of being received by the communications interface 1224 . these signals 1228 are provided to the communications interface 1224 via a communications path 1226 . the communications path 1226 carries the signals 1228 and may be implemented using wire or cable , fiber optics , a phone line , a cellular phone link , an rf link and other communications channels . in the present application , the terms “ computer readable medium ” and “ computer usable medium ” are used to generally refer to media such as the removable storage drive 1214 , a hard disk installed in the hard disk drive 1212 , and the signals 1228 . these computer program products are means for providing software to the computer system 1200 . computer programs ( also called computer control logic ) are stored in the main memory 1208 and / or the secondary memory 1210 . computer programs may also be received via the communications interface 1224 . such computer programs , when executed , enable the computer system 1200 to implement the present invention as discussed herein . in particular , the computer programs , when executed , enable the processor 1204 to implement the processes of the present invention . accordingly , such computer programs represent controllers of the computer system 1200 . by way of example , in the embodiments of the invention , the processes / methods performed by signal processing blocks of encoders and / or decoders can be performed by computer control logic . where the invention is implemented using software , the software may be stored in a computer program product and loaded into the computer system 1200 using the removable storage drive 1214 , the hard drive 1212 or the communications interface 1224 . provided herein are several unique approaches to compensating for the effects of stitching errors that can occur near the stitching line in maskless lithography patterns . the approaches include ( a ) techniques not utilizing overlap of exposure areas , ( b ) techniques using overlap and attenuation , and ( c ) techniques using overlap without explicit attenuation . these approaches , either alone or in combination , significantly reduce the stitching disturbances , optical anomalies , and other effects that might otherwise be introduced into lithography patterns printed on photosensitive surfaces . the present invention has been described above with the aid of functional building blocks illustrating the performance of specified functions and relationships thereof . the boundaries of these functional building blocks have been arbitrarily defined herein for the convenience of the description . alternate boundaries can be defined so long as the specified functions and relationships thereof are appropriately performed . any such alternate boundaries are thus within the scope and spirit of the claimed invention . one skilled in the art will recognize that these functional building blocks can be implemented by analog and / or digital circuits , discrete components , application - specific integrated circuits , firmware , processor executing appropriate software , and the like , or any combination thereof . 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 . the foregoing description of the specific embodiments will so fully reveal the general nature of the invention that others can , by applying knowledge within the skill of the art ( including the contents of the references cited herein ), readily modify and / or adapt for various applications such specific embodiments , without undue experimentation , without departing from the general concept of the present invention . therefore , such adaptations and modifications are intended to be within the meaning and range of equivalents of the disclosed embodiments , based on the teaching and guidance presented herein . it is to be understood that the phraseology or terminology herein is for the purpose of description and not of limitation , such that the terminology or phraseology of the present specification is to be interpreted by the skilled artisan in light of the teachings and guidance presented herein , in combination of one of ordinary skill in the art . | 6 |
the roof ( fig2 ) comprises of large number of polyethylene pipes ( 3 ) that are connected together in parallel and at a distance of one meter from each other with pipe clamps ( 4 ). these pipes ( 3 ) are placed floating on an oil product ( 5 ). two sides of the pipes ( 3 ) are closed and filled in order to avoid the entry of the oil product . the pipes ( 3 ) are covered up with polyethylene sheets ( 1 ) with a thickness of at least 1 cm and 120 cm in width . as can be seen in fig1 , an escalator ( 21 ) is embedded from the top of the tank ( 20 ) to the roof in order to visit the floating roof and change the position of reparations and operational bases ( 2 ). to drain rainwater , a flexible tube ( 22 ) made of polyethylene , 6 inches in diameter , is directed from the middle of the roof toward out of the tank body ( 20 ) at the lowest point . as seen in fig3 , these sheets ( 1 ) are tightened to the pipes ( 3 ) by plastic clamps ( 6 ). the polyethylene straps ( 7 ), 20 cm in width , are used to connect the sheets ( 1 ) to each other with bolts and rivets ( 8 ). as seen in fig4 , the pipes diameter ( 3 ) decreases from 12 inches ( 11 ) to 10 inches ( 10 ) and 8 inches ( 9 ) to create appropriate 1 % ( at least ) slope on the floating roof while approaching more to the center of the roof ( the diameters may change as needed however in the preferred embodiment the start point is 12 inches ). these pipes ( 3 ) are connected in parallel to each other by pipe clamps ( 4 ) at intervals of one meter . in order to prevent the infiltration of rain water into the tank , the surroundings of the roof are fully closed as existing metal roofs with tube sealing material with a width of 20 cm ( fig6 ). in order to attach the tube seal , another layer of polyethylene sheet ( 1 ) is connected to the existing sheet ( 1 ) by plastic rivets ( 8 ) at the junction site to reinforce the strength of the roof . finally , both polyethylene sheets are screwed to the upper and lower points of the rubber ( 19 ) on the tube seal with rivets . this connection is done at 50 cm intervals around the roof , and thus , the tube seal ( 18 ) is connected rigidly to the roof sheets . inside the tube seal ( 18 ) is filled with kerosene ( 17 ). to avoid the full coming down of the roof ( because the input and output valves of the tank are placed at the lowest point on the tank , also in case of full lowering of the roof , rainwater drain pipe will be damaged ), some bases ( 2 ) are provided in different parts of the roof ( fig4 ). the bases ( 2 ) are adjustable at two heights of 1 m and 2 m , respectively for operating mode and reparations mode . these bases ( 2 ) are connected to the roof as follows : two layers of polyethylene sheets ( 1 ) with dimensions of 50 × 50 cm are connected above and below the main sheet with plastic rivets ( 3 ) at the junction point to reinforce the roof strength . a hole 2 . 5 inches in diameter is opened in the middle of them , through which a 2 . 5 - inch polyethylene tube ( 12 ) with a length of 50 cm is passed . to tighten this tube ( 12 ) to the roof , both sides of the tube ( 12 ) at the top and bottom of the roof are connected with the tube clamps ( 15 ). above the roof , the sidewall of the tube is pierced to pass the holder pin ( 13 ) of the bases . through these tubes ( 12 ), the 2 inches rods ( 5 ) ( reparations and operational bases ) are passed . these rods are also pierced at two distances of 1 m ( operating ) ( 14 ) and 2 meters ( reparations ) from the bottom . during normal operation of the roof , where the bases should be in operational mode , the holder pin ( 13 ) is passed into the hole with a height of 1 m . in this case , when the oil product tank becomes less than 1 m in height , the roof is placed on these bases ( 2 ) and does not come down to the bottom . when there is a need to do dredging and reparations inside the tank , the pin ( 13 ) is passed into the hole with a height of 2 meters . in this case , the roof will be placed at a height of 2 m on its bases ( 2 ), and people and equipment can easily enter the tank . in addition , to prevent entering water rain into the tank , the top of the holder sheath ( 12 ) of the bases ( 2 ) is covered by a plastic shroud layer ( 16 ). all polyethylene parts of the roof that are exposed to the product and its vapors are covered with polyamide coating . the capability of lodgment the roof on adjustable bases in both operational and reparations modes , which makes it easy to perform repair and dredging inside the tank and under the roof . also , in case of complete discharge of the oil product , the roof does not come down to the bottom of the tank floor , and no damage would occur to the rainwater drainage hose and internal connections of inlet and outlet valves of the tank . very low weight of the roof , which increases the storage volume of the tank . significant reduction in manufacturing costs due to price differences of polyethylene materials compared to metal materials of available roofs enhancement of tank safety , especially in case of earthquakes ( at the time of the earthquake , metal roof collide the tank shell and cause ruptures ) avoiding the possibility of metal corrosion and rusting of floating roof reduced cost and time required to repair the roof ( due to the ease of manufacturing and low costs of the parts ) physical strength necessary for roof functioning range | 1 |
fig1 is a block diagram schematically representing a system 100 for processing large amounts of data . organizations use enterprise resource planning ( erp ) systems 102 to manage and coordinate all the resources , information , and functions of the organizations &# 39 ; business . part of this management includes the processing and storage of significant amounts of financial data . on occasion , a “ snapshot ” of an organization &# 39 ; s current financial status can be taken and recorded before the data in an erp system 102 changes . for example , a data extract file generator 104 can traverse data structures maintained by the erp system , pull financial data that is relevant to a current time period , and generate a data extract file 106 to record the financial status of the organization at a specific time . the ability to take this snapshot aids organizations in meeting legal data retention and reporting requirements . for example , the data extract file 106 can be created at the end of every financial quarter . this data extract file 106 can range be rather large , on the order of several gigabytes or even terabytes in size . the data extract file 106 can contain data from several different applications in the erp system 102 . in some implementations , the information in the data extract file 106 is organized into segments that each store a particular type of information from documents stored by the erp system . for example , one segment may include “ purchase order document header data ” and another segment may include “ purchase order line item data ,” and one segment may include “ purchase order customer data .” thus , information from a single financial accounting document stored by the erp system 102 ( e . g ., an sap fi document ) can be split into several segments , each segment including information for a portion of the document . a segment can include the same type of information from several different documents . an organization may need to occasionally access the financial information stored in the data extract file 106 . a common example is when the organization is being audited . if the auditor is an external agency , the organization may only want to disclose the portions of the financial data that are relevant to the investigation . further , the external agency may use software systems that can not manipulate the format of the data extract file 106 . even if the audit is performed internally , the data extract file 106 can be large and unwieldy . a processed file 118 that includes a subset or processed version of the information in the data extract file 106 can be generated from the data extract file 106 by a data processing application 108 . the data processing application 108 can be created with an application generator 114 specifically for processing the data extract file 106 and generating the processed file 118 . in this illustration , the data processing application is an executable file that operates autonomously to parse information from the data extract file 106 and generate the processed file 118 ( a process discussed later in this document ). the application generator 114 can access a data dictionary 120 that is associated with the data extract file 106 ( e . g ., the data dictionary can be included in the data extract file 106 ). every segment in the data extract file 106 can be based on a structure recorded in the data dictionary 114 . segments in the data extract file 106 and segment definitions in the data dictionary 114 can have the same name . the data dictionary 114 can list each segment in the data extract file , fields of each segment , and provide indexes to the fields . in some examples the data dictionary identifies field descriptions , field lengths , and line or field delimiters if the fields are not a pre - determined length . that is , the data dictionary can identify metadata for the information stored in the data extract file 106 . application generator 114 can include a graphical user interface ( gui ) that can receive user - defined configuration information 112 . the user - defined configuration information indicates a configuration of the data processing application that the application generator 114 is to generate . the data processing application generates processed file 118 in accordance to its own configuration . the user - defined configuration information 112 can identify a specific data extract file 106 from a collection of files . in some examples , the application generator 114 accesses the data dictionary 120 and presents with the gui a list of the segments and fields in the data extract file 106 . a user of the application generator 114 can select a subset of the segments and fields to include in the processed file 118 , as well as an ordering of the segments and fields . the data processing application generated in accordance with these user selections will generate a processed file that includes the selected segments and fields . in some implementations , the user - defined configuration information 112 includes selection criteria for fields . the selection criteria defines conditional operations to perform on data in a field of the data extract file . if a condition is not met , the data processing operation will not include the field ( or a segment ) in the processed file 118 . as an illustration , a field may only be copied from data extract file 106 to processed file 118 if a value contained in the field is between $ 1000 and $ 10 , 000 . in some examples , the selection criteria can filter information from a specific year , period , company code , or depreciation area from a set of financial accounting documents . a user may request that processed file 118 only include information from financial accounting documents and not from controlling documents ( e . g ., sap co documents ), source documents from material management ( e . g ., sap mm documents ), sales and distribution documents ( e . g ., sap sd components ), or asset accounting documents ( e . g ., sap fi - aa documents ). in some implementations , a user of the application generator 114 selects one or more customizing tables 110 . the customizing tables provide a template for the generation of data processing application 108 . the templates can define default values that may be changed with user - defined configuration information 112 . for example , a template entitled “ separate data extract file into financial accounting documents ” can define a configuration for parsing the portions of financial accounting documents from several segments and re - combining the portions into whole financial documents . the re - combined documents can be saved as one or more processed files 118 . in some examples , a user can save a user - defined configuration as a customizing table 110 . the user - defined configuration information 112 can identify operations for the data processing application 108 to perform upon the data from extract file 106 . for example , the user can request that the data processing application 108 perform a join operation on two or more data records from different segments to combine the data records . a user may want to specify that data for each financial accounting document should be grouped together in the processed file 118 instead of separated into segments ( as noted above , each financial accounting document is parsed into segments that include a particular type of information common to several documents ). in this example , the user would request that the data processing application 108 join data from the “ header data ” segment and data from the “ line item ” segment . additional operations that the data processing application 108 can perform upon the information parsed from the data extract file 106 are discussed later in this document . in some implementations , a user can request that the data processing application 108 combine data from two or more separate data extracts 106 . this feature can permit the merging of data from four data extract files 106 , that each represent a fiscal quarter , into a processed file 118 that represents financial data for the entire fiscal year . in some examples , the data processing application generates several processed files 118 . for example , each of several processed files can be a financial accounting document or include financial information for a fiscal quarter ( when the data extract file 106 included financial information for an entire fiscal year ). using the received user input , the customizing tables 110 , and the data dictionary 120 , application generator 114 generates the data processing application 108 . the data processing application 108 can be executed and process information from the data extract file 106 to generate the processed file 118 . this process is detailed with reference to process 200 . fig2 is a flow chart of an example process 200 for processing large amounts of data . process 200 will be described with reference to fig3 , a block diagram schematically representing a system 300 for processing large amounts of data , as an example . in step 202 , the data processing application 108 receives portions of information from a data extract file 106 that is stored in a peripheral memory storage device 322 . for example , when the data processing application 108 is executed , it performs a process that sequentially reads the portions of information from the peripheral memory storage 322 into primary storage 302 ( e . g ., a cache of the cpu 306 or the application server memory 304 ). the application server memory 304 can include a buffer for temporarily storing portions of the data extract file 106 before the portions are stored in a database , as described later in this document . in step 204 , the data processing application 108 generates at least one database table 116 in the peripheral memory storage device 322 to store the received portions of information from data extract file 106 . in some examples , the data processing application generates a database table 116 for each segment in the data extract file 106 . each table can include a column for each field in a segment . the data processing application may include information identifying the segments and fields in the data extract file 106 or can identify the segments and fields from the data dictionary 120 during runtime . in some implementations , the data processing application 108 requests that a database management system ( dbms ) 308 create the database table ( and subsequently organize , store , manage , and retrieve records in the database ). in step 206 , the data processing application locks the database table 116 . a lock provides a single application program exclusive access to the records in the database table 116 . in some examples , the application program provided exclusive access is the only application program that can write to the locked database table 116 . in various examples , the application program provided exclusive access is the only application program that can read from the locked database table 116 . in some examples , the application program provided exclusive access is the only application program that can perform database accessing techniques ( e . g ., join , merge , sort , summarization ). other application programs may be unable to read or write to the locked database table . in examples where the locking and access to the database tables is controlled by the dbms , the dbms will not provide other application programs using the dbms access to locked tables . in step 208 , the data processing application 114 stores a received portion of information into an appropriate database record . to store the information in an appropriate record , the data processing application 108 uses information from the data dictionary 120 to identify a semantic meaning of a portion of information received into primary memory storage 302 ( e . g ., a buffer in application server memory 304 ). for example , the application program 108 can identify the first 25 characters in the buffer as being associated with a “ name ” field for a “ header data ” segment that originated from a “ fiscal year 2008 ” financial accounting document . the data processing application 114 can store the 25 character portion of information in the “ name ” column for a “ header data ” database table . after storing of the portion of data in the database table 116 , the portion of data can be removed from the primary memory storage 202 or replaced in the primary memory storage 202 with a new portion of data from the data extract file 106 . the receipt of information , identification of a portion of the information , and copying of the portion of information to a database table can be repeated for an entire sequential sequence of data read from data extract file 106 . the primary memory storage 302 available to the data processing application 114 for withdrawing portions of data from the file 106 and placing the portions in the database tables 116 can be much smaller than a size of the data extract file 106 and a size of the database tables 116 . in step 210 , the data processing application 114 generates an index to the one or more database table . the database index is a data structure that improves the speed of operations ( e . g ., retrieval or processing ) on records stored in the database table . a database index provides the data processing application efficient access to the ordered portions of information stored in the database tables 116 . in some implementations , this step is optional . in other implementations , several indexes are generated for the one or more database tables . in step 212 , the data processing application 108 processes the information in the database . for example , a user of the application generator 114 may have requested that the processed file 118 only include information from three financial accounting documents ( while the data extract file includes information from several types of hundreds of documents ). because information from a financial accounting document is separated into different tables ( e . g ., one table may include “ purchase order document header data ” and another table may include “ purchase order line item data ”), the information corresponding to a single financial accounting document needs to be collected from the different tables . in this illustration , a “ join ” operation can be performed to combine data records from two or more tables ( each representing a segment ) in the database ( representing all the data from the data extract file ). the join operation can copy one record to another , place the joined records in a new table , or copy the joined records to application server memory 304 . a join request can conditionally operate , in some examples . for instance , the data processing application 108 may only join two records if the records are from the same financial accounting document . the origin of the records can be verified by checking if the document number , company code , and posting period for a group of fields for the “ header data ” segment is the same as for the “ line item data ” segment . in some implementations , the join statements compare records that contain similar data , even if the records do not share a common name . the data processing application 108 can perform other database operations upon data records in the locked tables of database 116 . for example , the data processing application 108 can perform merge , sort , and summarization operations . a merge statement can insert new records or update existing records , depending on whether or not a condition is satisfied . as an illustration , a user of the application generator can request that that data processing application program generate processed file that includes a list of fi documents ordered by document number and fiscal year for a certain range of customers . the data processing application program generates three database tables from the segments in the data extract file : one for fi document header data , one for fi document item data , and one for customer data . the user of the application generator has additionally requested that the data extract file include a subset of the information from the document items table ( e . g ., only amounts and customer numbers ) and a subset of information from the customer table ( e . g ., only customer names and addresses ). the data processing application performs a join on the three database tables with the condition “ header - doc . no .= item - doc . no .” and “ item - cust . no .= cust - cust . no .” in addition , the data processing application performs a grouping right during the database selection and a summarization of the amounts for each customer number . these operations directly provide a result for output to the processed file . if the data was stored within tables in application server memory instead of the database , similar operations would be time consuming and require additional memory . for example , processing three separate internal tables would require a nested loop about the three tables ( i . e ., a loop at the customer data within a loop at the item data within a loop at the header data ) and a comparison of the fields . the data processing application program would additionally need to manually sort and summarize the data without being able to rely upon the corresponding database operations . further , the use of nested loops requires additional time and processing resources . additional application server memory is required to copy the data into a result table to perform the sorting . in some implementations , the data processing application 114 generates the processed file 118 from information in the database tables 116 after the processing of the information in the database tables ( e . g ., after step 212 ). for example , the data processing application can perform queries ( e . g ., join or sort queries ) of tables in the database and copy the responsive information to the processed file 118 . the processed file 118 can grow in size following each database operation requested by the data processing application 114 . in step 214 , the application program clears the one or more database tables 116 by deleting all the records in the table or writing over the records in the table . the application program then unlocks the database table ( step 216 ) to free the table for use by other processes . in some examples , the database table is deleted , either after the clearing or unlocking , or in lieu of the unlocking and / or cleaning . process 200 can provide an efficient method for handling large amounts of data from the data extract file 106 . less efficient methods include reading the information from the data extract file 106 into internal tables in application server memory 304 ( e . g ., internal tables defined by the data processing application 108 using the advanced business application programming language ). access to the internal tables is quick , but the internal tables do not provide data processing application 108 the breadth of operations that are provided by a database system . in other words , the memory accessing techniques are not as robust as the database accessing techniques . when application server memory is used to store file contents for processing , the data processing application is limited in the size of the data extract file 106 that it can operate upon . as an illustration , the data extract file 106 may be five gigabytes and the application server memory 304 only one gigabyte . the inability to store the entire file in the application server memory 304 leads to either memory overflow , the use of virtual memory , or inefficient recursive calls for portions of the data extract file 106 from the peripheral memory storage 322 . during the recursive calls , data portions are processed , and upon requiring data that is not in application server memory 304 , additional portions of the data extract file 106 needs to be brought into application server memory 304 and overwrite existing data . because the data extract file 106 is not structured like the database or internal tables , accessing information from the file is inefficient . in another illustration , an ability to add additional application server memory 304 is limited . for example , a 32 - bit operating system only permits addressing four gigabytes of data . virtual memory does not provide an adequate solution because it can be very slow ( requiring the loading of page tables similar to the recursive calls previously described ) and is constrained by the addressable memory space of an operating system . if a data extract file is 217 gigabytes , virtual memory on a 32 - bit system is not capable of providing access to contents of the entire file , and recursive calls to the data extract file is too inefficient . the system described in the present disclosure does not have the same size constraints as the application server memory or the use of virtual memory . in addition , the system described in the present disclosure can provide access to information more quickly than virtual memory . with a 64 - bit operating system , the addressable memory space for the application server memory is larger than a 32 - bit system , but the cost of sufficient application server memory to handle large data extract files 106 can be prohibitively expensive . the system described in the present disclosure enables a data processing application to realize the various benefits of processing data using database accessing techniques instead of application server memory accessing techniques . the database tables are generated by the data processing application subsequent to the execution of the data processing application and are removed prior to the termination of the application program . the database tables , in this respect , are similar to the use of tables in application server memory . the use of a database , however , enables the efficient processing storing of significantly more data and the use of more robust accessing techniques . in some implementations , the application generator 114 identifies a size of the data extract file 106 or portions of the data extract file that are selected for processing . if the application generator 114 determines that the size of the data extract file or the portions thereof exceed a size of application server memory 304 , a data processing application 108 can be generated that copies the portions of information from the data extract file 106 into the database table 116 , as described above . if the application generator 114 determines that the size does not exceed the size of the application server memory 304 , a data processing application 108 can be generated that reads the portions of information from the data extract file 106 into local tables in application program memory . processing data in the application program memory local tables can be faster than processing the data in database tables . this determination by the application generator can generate a data processing application 108 that processes the data extract file 106 in the most efficient method . in some examples , the data processing application determines that the size of the file or the portions thereof exceeds a size of application server memory that is allocated for use by the data processing application , or addressable memory space available to the data processing application 108 . in some implementations , an interface receives instructions from the data processing application 108 that are intended for processing data in application server memory local tables . the interface can modify the instructions and transmit them to database tables . for example , the data processing application 108 can read a portion of information from the data extract file 106 and transmits to the interface a request that the portion of information be stored within local tables stored in application server memory . the interface can modify the request and transmit the request to a dbms . the interface can similarly intercept instructions to process data in application server memory local tables . the use of an interface enables the features discussed in this document to be implemented on an application program without modification of the application program source code . in some implementations , a separate application program receives the portions of information from the data extract file 106 and stores the portions of information in the database table generated by either the data processing application 108 or the dbms . this separate application program can be generated by application generator 114 and can signal the data processing application upon copying all the information from the data extract file 106 to the database tables 116 . information from the data extract file may never pass through the portion of application server memory 304 allocated to the data processing application 108 . in some implementations , the data processing application and the application generator 114 are portions of the same application program . the data processing application 108 can represent a portion of the application program that reads the data extract file 106 and processes information from the data extract file , while the application generator 114 can represent a portion of the application program that interfaces with a user to identify the operations that should be performed by the data processing application 108 . the data processing application program need not be a separate executable file . in some implementations , the data extract file 106 is a flat file . the data extract file can contain data that does not have any structured relationships . for example , the file can be a comma - delimited ascii file . the data extract file 106 can be a comma - separated value ( csv ) file . fields coped to the data extract file 106 may not include links to other fields copied to the data extract file 106 . the structure of the data extract file 106 may only be addressable from data processing applications 108 . in some implementations , the primary memory storage includes a cpu 306 cache and application server memory 304 . the application server memory 304 can be ram or other electronic memory storage that the cpu can access via system bus 310 and execute instructions from in synchrony with the system bus 3 10 . the application server memory 304 can store running processes . for example , application generator 108 , data processing application 114 , and dbms 308 can run or be executed from the application server memory 304 . in some examples , the application server memory 304 is only accessible to the one cpu 306 . no other cpus can access the application server memory 304 . the primary memory storage 302 can be volatile , electronic memory storage . for example , the cpu cache and application server memory 304 can lose stored information when power to the components is disrupted . in some implementations , the peripheral memory storage is persistent , non - volatile memory storage 322 . if power is disrupted to the peripheral memory storage 322 , information stored by the peripheral memory storage is not lost . for example , the data extract file 106 , the processed file 118 , and the database tables 116 are capable of being stored in memory 322 without a power source . the peripheral memory storage can be magnetic storage , for example a disk drive . in various examples , information from the peripheral memory is transferred to the primary memory storage over an external data bus 318 ( e . g ., using ids , sata , ata , or sas interfaces ). in some examples , the data extract file 106 , the processed file 118 , and the database tables 116 are stored in different peripheral memory storages 322 . fig4 is a schematic diagram of a generic computer system 400 . the system 400 can be used for the operations described in association with any of the computer - implement methods described previously , according to one implementation . the system 400 includes a processor 410 , a memory 420 , a storage device 430 , and an input / output device 440 . each of the components 410 , 420 , 430 , and 440 are interconnected using a system bus 450 . the processor 410 is capable of processing instructions for execution within the system 400 . in one implementation , the processor 410 is a single - threaded processor . in another implementation , the processor 410 is a multi - threaded processor . the processor 410 is capable of processing instructions stored in the memory 420 or on the storage device 430 to display graphical information for a user interface on the input / output device 440 . the memory 420 stores information within the system 400 . in one implementation , the memory 420 is a computer - readable medium . in one implementation , the memory 420 is a volatile memory unit . in another implementation , the memory 420 is a non - volatile memory unit . the storage device 430 is capable of providing mass storage for the system 400 . in one implementation , the storage device 430 is a computer - readable medium . in various different implementations , the storage device 430 may be a floppy disk device , a hard disk device , an optical disk device , or a tape device . the input / output device 440 provides input / output operations for the system 400 . in one implementation , the input / output device 440 includes a keyboard and / or pointing device . in another implementation , the input / output device 440 includes a display unit for displaying graphical user interfaces . the features described can be implemented in digital electronic circuitry , or in computer hardware , firmware , software , or in combinations of them . the apparatus can be implemented in a computer program product tangibly embodied in an information carrier , e . g ., in a machine - readable storage device , for execution by a programmable processor ; and method steps can be performed by a programmable processor executing a program of instructions to perform functions of the described implementations by operating on input data and generating output . the described features can be implemented advantageously in one or more computer programs that are executable on a programmable system including at least one programmable processor coupled to receive data and instructions from , and to transmit data and instructions to , a data storage system , at least one input device , and at least one output device . a computer program is a set of instructions that can be used , directly or indirectly , in a computer to perform a certain activity or bring about a certain result . a computer program can be written in any form of programming language , including compiled or interpreted languages , and it can be deployed in any form , including as a stand - alone program or as a module , component , subroutine , or other unit suitable for use in a computing environment . suitable processors for the execution of a program of instructions include , by way of example , both general and special purpose microprocessors , and the sole processor or one of multiple processors of any kind of computer . generally , a processor will receive instructions and data from a read - only memory or a random access memory or both . the essential elements of a computer are a processor for executing instructions and one or more memories for storing instructions and data . generally , a computer will also include , or be operatively coupled to communicate with , one or more mass storage devices for storing data files ; such devices include magnetic disks , such as internal hard disks and removable disks ; magneto - optical disks ; and optical disks . storage devices suitable for tangibly embodying computer program instructions and data include all forms of non - volatile memory , including by way of example semiconductor memory devices , such as eprom , eeprom , and flash memory devices ; magnetic disks such as internal hard disks and removable disks ; magneto - optical disks ; and cd - rom and dvd - rom disks . the processor and the memory can be supplemented by , or incorporated in , asics ( application - specific integrated circuits ). to provide for interaction with a user , the features can be implemented on a computer having a display device such as a crt ( cathode ray tube ) or lcd ( liquid crystal display ) monitor for displaying information to the user and a keyboard and a pointing device such as a mouse or a trackball by which the user can provide input to the computer . the features can be implemented in a computer system that includes a back - end component , such as a data server , or that includes a middleware component , such as an application server or an internet server , or that includes a front - end component , such as a client computer having a graphical user interface or an internet browser , or any combination of them . the components of the system can be connected by any form or medium of digital data communication such as a communication network . examples of communication networks include , e . g ., a lan , a wan , and the computers and networks forming the internet . the computer system can include clients and servers . a client and server are generally remote from each other and typically interact through a network , such as the described one . the relationship of client and server arises by virtue of computer programs running on the respective computers and having a client - server relationship to each other . a number of embodiments have been described . nevertheless , it will be understood that various modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of this disclosure . accordingly , other embodiments are within the scope of the following claims . | 6 |
the polycarbonate resins useful in the practice of the invention are homopolycarbonates , copolycarbonates and terpolycarbonates or mixtures thereof . the polycarbonates generally have a molecular weight of 10 , 000 - 200 , 000 ( weight average molecular weight ), preferably 20 , 000 - 80 , 000 and their melt flow rate , per astm d - 1238 at 300 ° c ., is about 1 to about 60 gm / 10 min . they may be prepared , for example , by the known interfacial process from a carbonic acid derivative such as phosgene and dihydroxy compounds by polycondensation ( see german offenlegungsschriften 2 , 063 , 050 ; 2 , 063 , 052 ; 1 , 570 , 703 ; 2 , 211 , 956 ; 2 , 211 , 957 and 2 , 248 , 817 ; french patent 1 , 561 , 518 ; and the monograph h . schnell , &# 34 ; chemistry and physics of polycarbonates &# 34 ;, interscience publishers , new york , 1964 , all incorporated herein by reference ). in the present context , dihydroxy compounds suitable for the preparation of the polycarbonates of the invention conform to the structural formulae ( 1 ) or ( 2 ) ## str1 ## wherein a denotes an alkylene group with 1 to 8 carbon atoms , an alkylidene group with 2 to 8 carbon atoms , a cycloalkylene group with 5 to 15 carbon atoms , a cycloalkylidene group with 5 to 15 carbon atoms , a carbonyl group , an oxygen atom , a sulfur atom , -- so -- or -- so 2 -- or a radical conforming to ## str2 ## e and g both denote the number 0 to 1 ; z denotes f , cl , br or c 1 - c 4 - alkyl and if several z radicals are substituents in one aryl radical , they may be identical or different ; d denotes 0 or an integer of from 1 to 4 ; and f denotes 0 or an integer of from 1 to 3 . among the useful bisphenols in the practice of the invention are hydroquinone , resorcinol , bis -( hydroxyphenyl )- alkanes , bis -( hydroxyphenyl )- ethers , bis -( hydroxyphenyl )- ketones , bis -( hydroxyphenyl )- sulfoxides , bis -( hydroxyphenyl )- sulfides , bis -( hydroxyphenyl )- sulfones and α , α &# 39 ;- bis -( hydroxyphenyl ) diisopropyl - benzenes , as well as their nuclear - alkylated compounds . these and further suitable aromatic dihydroxy compounds are described , for example , in u . s . pat . nos . 3 , 028 , 356 ; 2 , 999 , 835 ; 3 , 148 , 172 ; 2 , 991 , 273 ; 3 , 271 , 367 ; and 2 , 999 , 846 , all incorporated herein by reference . further examples of suitable bisphenols are 2 , 2 - bis -( 4 - hydroxyphenyl )- propane ( bisphenol a ), 2 , 4 - bis -( 4 - hydroxyphenyl )- 2 - methyl - butane , 1 , 1 - bis -( 4 - hydroxyphenyl )- cyclohexane , α , α &# 39 ;- bis -( 4 - hydroxyphenyl )- p - diisopropylbenzene , 2 , 2 - bis -( 3 - methyl - 4 - hydroxyphenyl )- propane , 2 , 2 - bis -( 3 - chloro - 4 - hydroxyphenyl )- propane , bis -( 3 , 5 - dimethyl - 4 - hydroxyphenyl ) methane , 2 , 2 - bis -( 3 , 5 - dimethyl - 4 - hydroxyphenyl )- propane , bis -( 3 , 5 - dimethyl - 4 - hydroxyphenyl )- sulfide , bis -( 3 , 5 - dimethyl - 4 - hydroxyphenyl )- sulfoxide , bis -( 3 , 5 - dimethyl - 4 - hydroxyphenyl )- sulfone , hydroxybenzophenone , 2 , 4 - bis -( 3 , 5 - dimethyl - 4 - hydroxyphenyl )- cyclohexane , α , α &# 39 ;- bis -( 3 , 5 - dimethyl - 4 - hydroxyphenyl )- cyclohexane , α , α &# 39 ;- bis -( 3 , 5 - dimethyl - 4 - hydroxyphenyl )- p - diisopropylbenzene and 4 , 4 &# 39 ;- sulfonyl diphenol . examples of particularly preferred aromatic bisphenols are 2 , 2 - bis -( 4 - hydroxyphenyl )- propane , 2 , 2 - bis -( 3 , 5 - dimethyl - 4 - hydroxyphenyl )- propane and 1 , 1 - bis -( 4 - hydroxyphenyl )- cyclohexane . the polycarbonates of the invention may entail in their structure units derived from one or more of the suitable bisphenols . among the resins suitable in the practice of the invention are included phenolphthalein - based polycarbonate , copolycarbonates and terpolycarbonates such as are described in u . s . pat . nos . 3 , 036 , 036 and 4 , 210 , 741 , both incorporated by reference herein . the polycarbonates of the invention may also be branched by condensing therein small quantities , e . g ., 0 . 05 - 2 . 0 mole % ( relative to the bisphenols ) of polyhydroxyl compounds . polycarbonates of this type have been described , for example , in german offenlegungsschriften 1 , 570 , 533 ; 2 , 116 , 974 and 2 , 113 , 374 ; british patents 885 , 442 and 1 , 079 , 821 and u . s . pat . no . 3 , 544 , 514 . the following are some examples of polyhydroxyl compounds which may be used for this purpose : phloroglucinol ; 4 , 6 - dimethyl - 2 , 4 , 6 - tri -( 4 - hydroxyphenyl ) heptane ; 1 , 3 , 5 - tri -( 4 - hydroxyphenyl ) benzene ; 1 , 1 , 1 - tri -( 4 - hydroxyphenyl )- ethane ; tri -( 4 - hydroxyphenyl )- phenylmethane ; 2 , 2 - bis -[ 4 , 4 -( 4 , 4 &# 39 ;- dihydroxydiphenyl )- cyclohexyl ]- propane ; 2 , 4 - bis -( 4 - hydroxy - 1 - isopropylidine )- phenol ; 2 , 6 - bis -( 2 &# 39 ;- dihydroxy - 5 &# 39 ;- methylbenzyl )- 4 - methylphenol ; 2 , 4 - dihydroxybenzoic acid ; 2 -( 4 - hydroxyphenyl )- 2 -( 2 , 4 - dihydroxyphenyl ) propane and 1 , 4 - bis -( 4 , 4 &# 39 ;- dihydroxytriphenylmethyl )- benzene . some of the other polyfunctional compounds are 2 , 4 - dihydroxybenzoic acid , trimesic acid , cyanuric chloride and 3 , 3 - bis -( 4 - hydroxyphenyl )- 2 - oxo - 2 , 3 - dihydroindole . in addition to the polycondensation process mentioned above , other processes for the preparation of the polycarbonates of the invention are polycondensation in a homogeneous phase and transesterification . the suitable processes are disclosed in the incorporated herein by references u . s . pat . nos . 3 , 028 , 365 ; 2 , 999 , 846 ; 3 , 153 , 008 ; and 2 , 991 , 273 . the preferred process for the preparation of polycarbonates is the interfacial polycondensation process . other methods of synthesis in forming the polycarbonates of the invention such as disclosed in u . s . pat . no . 3 , 912 , 688 , incorporated herein by reference , may be used . suitable polycarbonate resins are available in commerce , for instance , under the trademark makrolon from mobay corporation , pittsburgh , penn . particularly suitable are bisphenol a based homopolycarbonate resins having melt indices per astm d - 1238 in the ranges of 3 . 5 - 60 gm / 10 min . the plating modifier in accordance with the invention is at least one member selected from the group consisting of a polyanhydride , and a monovinyl aromatic - acrylonitrile copolymer . in the present context , polyanhydride conforms to ## str3 ## wherein r is a hydrogen atom or a c 1 - c 28 alkyl , aryl or alkylaryl radical , n is an integer of from 1 to 200 and m is an integer of from 1 to 3 . preferably r is either a hydrogen atom or a c 14 - c 16 alkyl group . preparation of suitable polyanhydrides was disclosed in u . s . pat . no . 3 , 586 , 659 which is incorporated herein by reference . commercial products suitable in the practice are ema resins from monsanto and polyanhydrides from gulf oil chemical company . the monovinyl aromatic - acrylonitrile copolymer herein san copolymer , is well known and is available commercially . the monovinyl aromatic monomers utilized are generically described by the formula : ## str4 ## wherein y 1 - y 8 independently are selected from the group consisting of hydrogen , alkyl groups containing from 1 to 5 carbon atoms , chloro and bromo . examples of the monovinyl aromatic compounds and substituted monovinyl aromatic compounds that may be used are styrene and other vinyl - substituted aromatic compounds including alkyl -, cycloalkyl -, aryl , alkaryl -, aralkyl -, alkoxy -, arloxy - and other substituted vinyl aromatic compounds . examples of such compounds are 3 - methylstyrene , 3 , 5 - diethylstyrene and 4 - n - propylstyrene , alpha - chlorostyrene , vinyl toluene , α - bromostyrene , chlorophenylethylenes , dibromophenylethylenes , tetrachlorophenylethylenes , 1 - vinylnaphthalene , 2 - vinyl - naphthalene , mixtures thereof and the like . the preferred monovinyl aromatic hydrocarbon used herein is styrene . the second group of monomers are acrylonitrile and / or substituted acrylonitrile . the acrylonitrile and substituted acrylonitrile are described generically by the formula ## str5 ## wherein y 9 - y 11 independently are selected from the group consisting of hydrogen , alkyl groups containing from 1 to 5 carbon atoms , chloro and bromo and z is selected from the group consisting of cyano and carbalkoxy wherein the alkyl group of the carbalkoxy group contains from 1 to about 12 carbon atoms . examples are acrylonitrile , alpha - chloroacrylonitrile , beta - chloroacrylonitrile , alpha - bromoacrylonitrile and beta - bromoacrylonitrile . the preferred acrylic monomer used herein is acrylonitrile . in the practice of the invention , a thermoplastic molding composition is prepared by blending a polycarbonate resin with said percents being relative to the total weight of the resin and modifier . 0 . 5 to 5 percent , preferably 0 . 5 to 2 percent of polyanhydride or 0 . 8 to 5 %, preferably 1 to 2 % of san . the compositions of the invention may further contain auxiliary additives such as flame retarding agents , pigments , stabilizers , release agents , fillers and reinforcing agents all of which are conventional and known in the art . flame retardant agents for polycarbonate resins are known in the art . these agents have been widely reported in the patent literature and include halogenated compounds , especially brominated compounds and most particularly aromatic brominated compounds , sulfonate salts of alkali metals or alkaline earth metals and complex ion metal salts , such as sodium aluminum fluoride , and phosphorus compounds . the relevant literature includes u . s . pat . no . 3 , 823 , 175 relating to halogenated neopentyl chloroformates , u . s . pat . no . 4 , 195 , 156 entailing disulfonic acid salts and u . s . pat . no . 4 , 269 , 762 relating to tetrahydrocarbyl borate salts . also relevant are u . s . pat . nos . 3 , 027 , 349 ( phosphate polymers ), 3 , 475 , 372 ( metal salts of mercaptobenzotriazoles ), 3 , 509 , 090 ( halogenated organosilicones ), 3 , 535 , 300 ( organo metal salts ), 3 , 557 , 053 ( tris - halophenyl phosphates ), 3 , 597 , 390 ( tris - halophenyl phosphonites ), 3 , 775 , 367 ( perfluorosulfonate salts ), 3 , 836 , 490 ( alkali metal salts ), 3 , 875 , 107 ( alkali metal salts ), 4 , 017 , 457 ( ferrocene ), 4 , 098 , 754 ( alkali metal organic salts ), 4 , 100 , 130 ( sulfur ), 4 , 174 , 359 ( oligomeric tetrabromo polycarbonate and sulfonate salts ), 4 , 223 , 100 ( alkali metal salts , ptfe and an aromatically bound bromine ) as well as u . s . pat . nos . 3 , 382 , 207 ( decabromodiphenyl carbonate ), 3 , 647 , 747 ( barium carbonate ), 3 , 651 , 174 ( baco 3 , organosiloxane and ptfe ), 3 , 796 , 772 ( titanates ), 3 , 867 , 336 ( an aryloxy substituted polyhalogenated aromatic compound ); u . s . pat . nos . 3 , 931 , 100 , 3 , 940 , 366 , 3 , 951 , 910 , 3 , 953 , 396 , 3 , 978 , 024 , 4 , 001 , 175 , 4 , 007 , 155 , 4 , 032 , 506 , 4 , 033 , 930 , 4 , 039 , 509 , 4 , 064 , 101 , 4 , 067 , 846 , 4 , 073 , 768 , 4 , 075 , 164 , 4 , 093 , 590 , 4 , 093 , 589 , 4 , 104 , 245 , 4 , 104 , 246 , 4 , 115 , 354 , 4 , 153 , 595 , 4 , 201 , 832 , 4 , 263 , 201 , 4 , 268 , 429 , 3 , 909 , 490 , 3 , 917 , 559 , 3 , 919 , 167 ( sulfonic acid salts ), 3 , 933 , 734 ( sulfonates ), 3 , 948 , 851 , 4 , 092 , 291 ( sulfone - sulfonic salts ), 3 , 953 , 399 ( carboxylic acid esters ), 3 , 971 , 756 ( alkali metal salts and siloxanes ), 4 , 028 , 297 ( salts of inorganic sulfur oxyacids ), 4 , 066 , 618 ( metal salts of halogenated nonaromatic carboxylic acid ), 4 , 069 , 201 , 4 , 111 , 977 ( unsubstituted or halogenated oxycarbon acids ), 4 , l04 , 253 , 4 , 113 , 695 ( halogenated organic metal salts ), 4 , 209 , 427 ( formaldehydes ), 4 , 220 , 583 ( partially fluorinated olefins ), 4 , 235 , 978 ( organopolysiloxanes ), 4 , 241 , 434 ( alkali or alkaline earth metal salts ), 4 , 254 , 252 ( cyclic polyformates ), the disclosures of each of the above patents is incorporated herein by reference . preferably the flame retarding agents are sulfonate salts and halogenated aromatic compounds . the invention is illustrated below but is not intended to be limited by the examples in which all parts and percentages are by weight unless otherwise specified . compositions within the scope of the invention were prepared and test specimens molded therefrom . the preparation and molding steps followed conventional procedures and used known equipment . in the examples , the resin was a bisphenol a based polycarbonate . a flame retarding agent , potassium perfluorobutane sulfonate at a level of 0 . 1 percent was included in the compositions . about 1 . 6 % of a pigment and mold release agent having no present criticality were also included . the molded specimens were coated with a thin layer of copper deposited by an electroless process . the table below summarizes the results of the evaluation of the compositions . example 1 ( control ) contained no plating modifier while examples 2 and 3 contained respectively 0 . 5 and 1 . 0 percent of polyanhydride ( ema 1103 from monsanto ). ______________________________________example 1 2 3______________________________________polycarbonate , % 98 . 3 98 . 3 97 . 3flame retarding agent , % 0 . 10 0 . 10 0 . 10plating modifier , % -- 0 . 5 1 . 0pigment and release 1 . 6 1 . 6 1 . 6agentmelt flow gms / 10 min . 17 . 9 15 . 8 16 . 5flammability rating , ul - 94 (@ 1 / 8 &# 34 ;) as is v - 2 v - 0 v - 0after 7 days aging v - 0 v - 0 v - 0adhesion force lbs / in ( range ) 2 . 7 - 5 . 0 2 . 5 - 6 . 2 4 . 2 - 7 . 9 ( average ) 3 . 7 4 . 9 5 . 6______________________________________ in examples 4 and 5 the plating modifier was a copolymer of styrene and acrylonitrile ( 28 % acrylonitrile - 72 % styrene ). ______________________________________example 4 5______________________________________polycarbonate , % 98 . 3 97 . 3flame retarding agent , % 0 . 10 0 . 10plating modifier , % 0 . 50 1 . 00pigment and release 1 . 6 1 . 6agentmelt flow gms / 10 min . 14 . 7 14 . 5flammability rating , ul - 94 (@ 1 / 8 &# 34 ;) as is v - 0 v - 0after 7 days aging v - 0 v - 0adhesion force lbs / in ( range ) 1 . 3 - 3 . 8 2 . 3 - 8 . 2 ( average ) 2 . 6 5 . 2______________________________________ in the experiments , a 6 &# 34 ;× 6 &# 34 ; plate was molded from each of the compositions and a thin layer of cu / ni was deposited on each by an electroless plating process . the adhesion of the metallic layer to the substrate was determined by a test in accordance with astm b - 533 . the invention is characterized in that the composition contains no conjugated diene and in that the copolymer contains no basic nitrogen atoms . although the invention has been described in detail in the foregoing for the purpose of illustration , it is to be understood that such detail is solely for that purpose and that variations can be made therein by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention except as it may be limited by the claims . | 2 |
in fig1 , a fiber bundle 17 ′ arranged in a mold 50 ′ is shown , wherein the mold 50 ′ is arranged on a centrifuge ( not shown ) and is rotated about an axis of rotation d of the centrifuge . hereby , an oxygenator module 10 ′ is to be produced step - by - step . fig1 shows the prior art . a rectangular , particularly quadratic mold 17 ′ is used . firstly , one of the four lateral surfaces of the oxygenator module 10 ′ is provided with a potting 11 ′ by introducing potting compound for one of the four sides of the fiber bundle 17 ′ into the mold 50 ′ and by rotating the mold 50 ′ about the axis of rotation d . a centrifugal force acting as a result of the rotation affects the potting compound and drives it to the point that is located furthest radially outward . this is at least in rough approximation the ( entire ) lateral surface of the mold 50 ′ located radially outward . in the process , the outer surface of the potting 11 ′ takes on the geometry of an inner surface of the lateral surface of the mold 50 ′ located radially outward . here , the mold 50 ′ is arranged eccentrically to the axis of rotation d in order to achieve an essentially even inner sheath surface . as soon as the potting compound is inherently stable , i . e ., at least somewhat solidified , the rotation can be interrupted and the form 50 ′ can be arranged rotated by 90 degrees about its own central longitudinal axis in order to pot another one of the lateral surfaces . in doing so , the fiber bundle 17 ′ is braced in the axial direction between two blood covers ( not shown ) to avoid that the fiber bundle 17 ′ is turned relative to the longitudinal axis . the steps can be repeated until all four sides are potted and the fiber bundle is completely fixed in the potting 11 ′. in fig2 a , a hollow fiber mat 16 is shown , which is formed from a plurality , in particular eight , fibers 13 arranged next to one another , whereby the fibers 13 are connected with one another via warp threads 14 . the warp threads 14 extend orthogonally to the fibers 13 . the number of fibers can be up to 200 , with only eight fibers being shown in fig2 a for reasons of clarity . in fig2 b , another hollow fiber mat 16 is shown that is arranged on another hollow fiber mat 16 rotated by 90 degrees with respect to the latter and has the same structure . the two hollow fiber mats 16 can be folded into one fiber bundle by initially folding over the lower hollow fiber mat ( arrow 1 ) and then making additional foldings ( arrows 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , and 6 ). in fig2 c , a fiber bundle 17 folded from the hollow fiber mats 16 shown in fig2 b is shown , where hollow fiber layers 12 . 1 , 12 . 2 were formed that are rotated with respect to one another by approximately 90 degrees and which protrude from one another with the free ends 13 . 1 , 13 . 2 of the respective fibers 13 . all of the hollow fiber layers 12 . 1 , 12 . 2 overlap in a ( particularly square ) core region . furthermore , there are regions in which only those hollow fiber layers 12 . 1 or 12 . 2 overlap where the fibers 13 are oriented in the same direction . in these regions , the fibers 13 of the one layer 12 . 1 can be processed , in particular opened , at their ends 13 . 1 , 13 . 2 without the fibers of another layer 12 . 2 being damaged . in fig3 a , a hollow fiber mat 16 is shown , which is formed from a plurality of hollow fiber packages 16 b that are provided at a distance to one another so that empty positions 16 b result . each hollow fiber package 16 b has a plurality of fibers 13 , in particular up to 200 fibers 13 arranged one next to the other ( eight fibers are illustrated by way of an example ), wherein the fibers 13 or hollow fiber packages 16 b are connected with one another by means of warp threads 14 . the warp threads 14 extend orthogonally to the fibers 13 and are longer than the fibers 13 . in fig3 b , another hollow fiber mat 16 is shown that is arranged on another hollow fiber mat 16 rotated by 90 degrees with respect to the latter and has the same structure . the two hollow fiber mats 16 can be folded into one fiber bundle by initially folding over the lower hollow fiber mat ( arrow 1 ) and then making additional foldings ( arrows 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , and 6 ). here , several hollow fiber layers 12 . 1 , 12 . 2 , 12 . 3 are formed , each of which has fibers 13 that are arranged independently of one another , i . e ., are not connected with one another . here , the free ends 13 . 1 , 13 . 2 of the fibers 13 can be opened or closed . in fig3 c , a fiber bundle 17 folded from the hollow fiber mats 16 shown in fig3 b is shown . the warp threads 14 are provided across a section with square basic shape , i . e ., also in regions were no fibers 13 are provided . here , the warp threads 14 are separated from the fiber bundle 17 after it was folded . in fig4 a , a hollow fiber bundle 17 is shown , which is arranged in a mold 50 to produce a potting . in this mold 50 , the hollow fiber bundle 17 can be rotated about a central longitudinal axis m of the hollow fiber bundle , for which it can be arranged on a centrifuge ( not shown ). here , the hollow fiber bundle 17 can be fixed in the mold 50 by means of two blood covers or covers ( not shown ) relative to the mold 50 as long as no potting compound has been introduced into the mold . the individual hollow fiber layers 12 are arranged rotated by 90 degrees with respect to one another and each has a rectangular basic shape with different lateral lengths so that overlapping core regions 12 a and protruding , non - overlapping sections 12 b are formed . in this way , the free ends 13 . 1 , 13 . 2 of the fibers 13 of one hollow fiber layer 12 each can be enclosed by potting compound , in particular above and below the hollow fiber layer 12 ( with respect to the central longitudinal axis m ). this results in a good anchoring or fixing of the fibers in the potting compound and also in good accuracy with regard to the orientation of the fiber ends . between the individual layers 12 , potting compound can be provided in each of the non - overlapping sections 12 b . according to one variant , the hollow fiber layers shown in fig4 a can also be arranged at an angle of 45 or 60 degrees to one another , particularly layers laying on top of one another can each be arranged rotated by 45 or 60 degrees to the adjacent layer . in this arrangement of the layers , the surface of the fibers can be utilized even better in comparison to the 90 degree arrangement ( orthogonal arrangement ). in fig4 b , the hollow fiber bundle 17 is shown in a state of rotation about the axis of rotation d of a centrifuge ( here corresponding to the central longitudinal axis m ), where potting compound 11 has been introduced into the mold 50 . here , the hollow fiber bundle 17 and / or the mold 50 are fixed on the centrifuge , in particular a rotary disk . here , the hollow fiber bundle 17 is fixed in the mold 50 . due to a centrifugal force acting on the potting compound 11 as a result of the rotation , the potting compound 11 is driven toward an inner sheath surface of the mold 50 so that the potting compound 11 is given an outer sheath surface 11 b , which is a negative of the inner sheath surface of the mold 50 . at the same time , an inner sheath surface 11 a is formed , the cross section of which is essentially circular as shown and which is at least essentially cylindrical with respect to the central longitudinal axis m . in the case described , an annular potting is created that is at least essentially pipe - like with respect to the central longitudinal axis m and which surrounds an at least essentially cylindrical cavity k . blood , for example , can flow through this cavity k . fig5 a shows the fiber bundle 17 in a state removed from the mold ( not shown ), in which the potting compound 11 is solidified and the fiber bundle 17 is already fixed in the potting compound 11 . in case polyurethane is used as the potting compound , a curing of the potting compound has already taken place . a circularly potted oxygenator module 10 is provided . the mold can have been removed from the fiber bundle 17 so that the fiber bundle 17 can continue to be arranged or fixed on a rotary disk of a centrifuge . fig5 b shows that the circularly potted oxygenator module 10 can be further processed by means of a cutting device 60 in order to give the outer sheath surface llb of the potting 11 a certain geometry , for example , or to provide it with a certain structure , roughness or quality . here , the oxygenator module 10 can continue to be arranged on a centrifuge and the cutting device 60 can be guided toward the rotating oxygenator module 10 like a turning chisel . here , the cutting (- off ) of the fiber ends and / or a lathing of the potting material 11 ( in particular by the same cutting process ) can also be performed , for example , in order to expose the fiber ends of the fiber bundle 17 . in fig5 c , the oxygenator module 10 is shown with a reworked circular potting . the cross section of the outer sheath surface 11 b is designed to be circular ; the potting itself is designed to be annular or pipe - like along the central longitudinal axis . in fig6 a , a hollow fiber bundle 17 is shown , which is arranged in a mold 50 to produce a potting just like the hollow fiber bundle shown in fig4 a . according to one variant , the hollow fiber layers of the hollow fiber bundle 17 shown in fig6 a can also be arranged at an angle of 45 or 60 degrees to one another , particularly layers lying on top of one another can each be arranged rotated by 45 or 60 degrees with respect to the adjacent layer . in fig6 b , the hollow fiber bundle 17 is shown in a state of rotation about the axis of rotation d of a centrifuge ( here corresponding to the central longitudinal axis m ), where both potting compound 11 and a barrier fluid f have been introduced into the mold 50 . the barrier fluid f is arranged , during rotation of the mold 50 about the axis of rotation d , outside of the potting compound 11 , in particular due to its higher density ( relative , volume - specific mass ). the barrier fluid f rests against an inner sheath surface of the mold 50 . in fig6 c , the barrier fluid was removed after setting of the potting compound 11 in the mold 50 so that a potting is formed which is arranged at a radial distance from the inner sheath surface of the mold 50 . the free ends 13 . 1 , 13 . 2 of the fibers 13 protrude radially outward from the potting . it can be seen that sufficient barrier fluid f was introduced in the process step shown in fig6 b so that the potting is arranged radially inward of all free ends 13 . 1 , 13 . 2 . the outer sheath surface 11 b of the potting has a smaller diameter than the fibers 13 in their direction of extent . the potting is integrated into the fiber bundle 17 as a thin - walled pipe within the fiber bundle 17 , i . e ., it is formed by relatively few potting material 11 . the potting preferably surrounds a core region , where a first hollow fiber layer 12 . 1 and a second hollow fiber layer 12 . 2 completely overlap one another . in other words , the inner sheath surface 11 a of the potting 11 preferably has an inner diameter that corresponds to the dimensions of the quadratic core region 12 a ( shown with diagonal lines ). in this way , the potting 11 can also be provided in the four corner regions , where the layers 12 . 1 , 12 . 2 respectively abut each other with their non - overlapping , protruding sections . thus , the fiber bundle 17 can , on the one hand , be anchored / fixed in the potting 11 with good stability ; on the other hand , it can be avoided that a flow path with particularly low flow resistance is formed in these corner regions ( which would be the case if the inner diameter of the potting were larger than the length of the diagonal of the quadratic core region 12 a ). in fig7 a , an oxygenator 1 is shown , which has an oxygenator module 10 that is fixed in a housing 2 of the oxygenator 1 . a potting 11 of the oxygenator module 10 is connected with a cover 20 by means of fasteners 21 . the potting 11 has a cylindrical inner sheath surface and with it defines a cylindrical cavity which can be perfused by blood in a homogeneous manner . a blood stream can be distributed onto a hollow fiber bundle 17 by means of an aspect distributor 40 ( without swirl elements ) or of a swirl distributor 30 with wing - like swirl elements . another cover ( not shown ; see cover 20 in fig7 b ) is arranged between the oxygenator module 10 and the aspect distributor 40 . in this way , the blood stream flows through the hollow fiber bundle 17 in a uniform manner . the hollow fiber bundle 17 has a diameter that is larger than a diameter of the aspect distributor 40 or the swirl distributor 30 . in fig7 b , the blood stream b is shown in the form in which it can flow through the oxygenator module 10 from a blood inlet 4 . 1 to a blood outlet 4 . 2 of the housing 2 . before the blood stream b impinges upon the swirl distributor 30 , it is spread by the aspect distributor 40 . the swirl distributor 30 has a deflector surface 30 b which is arranged below the blood inlet 4 . 1 and is part of a centrally arranged mandrel or rotationally symmetrical circulation body from which wings 30 . 1 , 30 . 2 extend radially outward . the swirl distributor 30 laterally directs the blood stream b radially outward , before the blood stream b impinges upon the hollow fiber bundle 17 of the oxygenator module 10 . the oxygenator module 10 is coupled by means of the potting 11 with fasteners 21 of the respective cover 20 . upstream of the oxygenator module 10 , the respective cover 20 is arranged between the aspect distributor 40 and the potting 11 . a blood inlet 4 . 1 is provided by the aspect distributor 40 , and a blood outlet 4 . 2 is provided by the lower cover 20 . in fig8 , a swirl distributor 30 is shown which is designed for the ( in particular static , rigid , i . e ., unmoved ) arrangement in an oxygenator according to fig7 a , 7 b , in particular upstream of an oxygenator module , and which has a deflector surface 30 b that is concentrically arranged about a central longitudinal axis m and from which four swirl elements or wings 31 . 1 , 31 . 2 , 31 . 3 , 31 . 4 extend radially outward up to an inner sheath surface 30 a against which they respectively abut at least approximately orthogonally . the inner sheath surface 30 a is designed to be at least approximately concentrical about a central longitudinal axis m and has a cross section with a circular geometry . the wings 31 . 1 , 31 . 2 , 31 . 3 , 31 . 4 merge with one another in the region of the central longitudinal axis m so that the blood stream is separated into different partial flows . each partial flow can be given a new flow direction which preferably is accompanied by a respective deflection in the range of 90 degrees . in this way , a blood stream can flow through a cavity of an oxygenator module in such a way that a surface as large as possible of hollow fibers arranged in the cavity is circulated , which can ensure an effective gas exchange . by means of the wings 31 . 1 , 31 . 2 , 31 . 3 , 31 . 4 , a blood stream can be deflected particularly strongly . as a result of the uniform design of the wings 31 . 1 , 31 . 2 , 31 . 3 , 31 . 4 , the partial flows can be given a swirl that is largely comparable to the other partial flows so that the partial flows flow through the fibers in the cavity in a uniform manner , in particular with the same angle of inflow and the same flow rate , and also can merge again into one blood stream after a certain distance . by means of the deflector surface 30 b , a blood stream can be distributed in a homogeneous manner to four subareas that are defined by the wings . the deflector surface 30 b has a curvature that is convex against the flow direction which allows for the deflection of the blood stream in a particularly blood - friendly manner . in fig9 a , an aspect distributor 40 is shown , which is designed for the ( in particular static , rigid , i . e ., unmoved ) arrangement in an oxygenator according to fig7 a , in particular upstream of an oxygenator module , and which has an inner sheath surface 40 a that is arranged concentrically about a central longitudinal axis m . the aspect distributor 40 has a central orifice 41 , through which a blood stream can flow in order to then flow along the inner sheath surface 40 a and spread with respect to the central longitudinal axis m according to the course of the inner sheath surface 40 a . the aspect distributor 40 is designed to be rotationally symmetrical about the central longitudinal axis m . the aspect distributor 40 can optionally be used alone or in connection with a swirl distributor . fig9 b shows that an inner sheath surface 40 a of the aspect distributor 40 can have a stepped geometry . the inner sheath surface 40 a is divided into a , in the flow direction , first inner sheath surface 40 a . 1 , a second inner sheath surface 40 a . 2 and a third inner sheath surface 40 a . 3 , each of which having a larger radius than the preceding inner sheath surface . in this way , the aspect distributor 40 can be coupled or connected to a cover and a swirl distributor in an appropriate manner as shown in fig8 b . the swirl distributor can centrally abut against the second inner sheath surface 40 a . 2 , and the aspect distributor 40 itself can be centered with respect to the cover by means of the third inner sheath surface 40 a . 3 . here , a blood stream only comes into contact with the first inner sheath surface 40 a . 1 . the aspect distributor 40 shown in fig1 b can optionally also be provided with one or several swirl elements and be developed into a swirl distributor . fig1 shows a tangential distributor 45 , which has an orifice 46 and a tangential inlet 47 as well as an inner sheath surface 45 a that is arranged concentrically about a central longitudinal axis m . the tangential distributor 45 has no swirl elements . the inner sheath surface 45 a is divided into a , in the flow direction , first inner sheath surface 45 a . 1 , a second inner sheath surface 45 a . 2 and a third inner sheath surface 45 a . 3 , with the first inner sheath surface 45 a . 1 and the second inner sheath surface 45 a . 2 preferably having the same radius . the inlet 47 opens at the second inner sheath surface 45 a . 2 and thus in the area of a swirl distributor , for example , with which the tangential distributor 45 can optionally be coupled . in this way , the deflection of the blood stream can take place in a more effective manner . by means of the tangential inflow and the associated rotation of the blood stream , it can be avoided that air bubbles form that cannot escape . in case that air bubbles occur anyway , they can collect in the center of the distributor and escape in particular in the direction of the orifice 46 . here , a supply blood stream can optionally be guided in part through the orifice 46 , which preferably is designed to be smaller in comparison to the orifice of an aspect distributor . fig1 shows an oxygenator 101 , which has a hexagonal potting 111 . the potting 111 has an outer sheath surface 111 b with six , at least approximately flat , even surface sections . the hexagonal outer geometry of the potting 111 can particularly be manufactured by cutting . furthermore , a cover 120 is shown , which is connected with the potting 111 . the cover 120 has a hexagonal geometry with six equilateral outer sheath surface sections . on the cover 120 are arranged fasteners 121 , by means of which the cover 120 can be connected with the potting 111 ( the set / setting potting compound ). the fasteners 121 can be designed as snap - in noses , protruding shoulders or edges and / or as recesses . the fasteners 121 can be embedded into the potting 111 during casting of the potting compound . the fasteners 121 respectively extends lengthwise along each outer sheath surface section . below the potting 111 , another cover 120 is provided . at least one oxygenator module ( not shown ) is arranged between the covers 120 . in the cover 120 , a distributor or distributor section 140 is formed . the distributor 140 is preferably formed by the cover 120 and can have radially oriented reinforcement bars . the cover 120 can optionally also have an opening or receptacle that geometrically corresponds to the distributor 140 and in which a separate distributor can be arranged . on the distributor 140 is provided a centrally arranged blood inlet 4 . 1 or blood outlet 4 . 2 . the distributor 140 also has a laterally arranged inlet 147 or outlet 148 , in particular a vent , which is arranged at the uppermost point of the oxygenator 101 . fig1 a shows an oxygenator module 110 or at least components thereof , which can be used in connection with the cover 120 shown in fig1 and the distributor 140 . the oxygenator module 110 has a plurality of individual hollow fiber layers of which a first hollow fiber layer 12 . 1 , a second hollow fiber layer 12 . 2 and a third hollow fiber layer 12 . 3 are illustrated here by way of example . each hollow fiber layer has a plurality of fibers 13 oriented linearly in one direction . here , the first hollow fiber layer 12 . 1 is arranged at the bottom . the second hollow fiber layer 12 . 2 is arranged on top of the first hollow fiber layer 12 . 1 , and the third hollow fiber layer 12 . 3 is arranged on top of the second hollow fiber layer 12 . 2 . the respective hollow fiber layers are arranged rotated at an angle to one another . the first hollow fiber layer 12 . 1 is arranged at an angle of rotation α 1 with respect to the second hollow fiber layer 12 . 2 . the second hollow fiber layer 12 . 2 is arranged at an angle of rotation α 2 with respect to the third hollow fiber layer 12 . 3 . the third hollow fiber layer 12 . 3 is arranged at an angle of rotation α 3 with respect to the first hollow fiber layer 12 . 1 . preferably , the angles of rotation are each at least approximately 60 degrees . preferably , the angles of rotation are exactly the same size . with angles of rotation of exactly 60 degrees , the same relative arrangement of additional layers can be ensured after three layers each so that each of the layers can be flown about in the same way . the hollow fiber layers are arranged on a hexagonal cover 120 , on each corner of which an orientation element 124 , in particular a centering pin , is arranged , by means of which the layers 12 . 1 , 12 . 2 , 12 . 3 can be positioned relative to the cover 120 . here , the orientation element 124 can also be used for the relative positioning of the opposite covers 120 at a predefined distance to one another , in particular during casting , i . e ., when forming the potting . here , the orientation element 124 can also fulfill the function of a spacer . with respect to the three layers 12 . 1 , 12 . 2 , 12 . 3 , the arrangement staggered by 60 degrees respectively results in three different regions or sections . in a core region 12 a , all three layers overlap one another . the core region 12 a has a hexagonal basic shape . in a respective , protruding region or section 12 b , none of the three layers overlaps the other two layers . in total , six of these non - overlapping , exposed sections 12 b are formed . the non - overlapping , exposed sections 12 b each have a triangular geometry with a rectangular section that is radially outward directly adjacent to it . furthermore , partially overlapping sections 12 c are also formed , in which two of the three layers overlap one another . the partially overlapping sections 12 c have a triangular geometry . the non - overlapping , exposed sections 12 b each have exposed lateral edge sections 12 b . 1 , by means of which a respective layer abuts against the respective orientation element 124 . the oxygenator module 110 or the three layers 12 . 1 , 12 . 2 , 12 . 3 and the cover 120 are at least approximately designed to be superposable . in a plan view , the three layers 12 . 1 , 12 . 2 , 12 . 3 and the cover 120 at least approximately take up the same base area . here , the length of the layers after a processing step , in particular after a cutting , is shown . prior to the processing step , the lengths can be longer . in fig1 a , a circumferential line u is also indicated , which marks an outer sheath surface of a potting ( not shown ), in particular a minimum diameter of the outer sheath surface . the circumferential line u or the potting surrounds a cavity k , in which the hollow fiber layers 12 . 1 , 12 . 2 , 12 . 3 are essentially arranged and which can be perfused by a fluid . in manufacturing the oxygenator module 110 , a barrier fluid can be used , which is driven outward as a result of a centrifugal force . the amount of the barrier fluid can define the position of the outer sheath surface of the potting . the circumferential line u is circular , with the diameter of the circumferential line u corresponding at least approximately to the distance of opposite fiber ends . preferably , the diameter is at most as large as the distance , more preferably slightly smaller than the distance so that all fiber ends protrude from the potting and are exposed . by the diameter preferably being ( almost ) equal to the distance , the fiber material can be used particularly effectively . according to one variant ( as shown ), the circumferential line u intersects the respective lateral edge of a respective layer at a point p where the lateral edges of adjacent layers also intersect . by means of this arrangement of the potting , a particularly advantageous compromise in utilizing the available volume and the usable fiber surface can be ensured , especially in connection with the arrangement of the layers rotated by 60 degrees . fig1 b essentially shows the same components as fig1 a . in addition , the potting 111 is shown , from which orientation elements 124 protrude . the potting 111 is arranged on a cover 120 . the potting 111 has an annular section 111 . 1 , in which the oxygenator module 110 is embedded . the annular section 111 . 1 is limited on the inside by the inner sheath surface 111 a of the potting and on the outside by the circumferential line u . the potting 111 has an outer sheath surface 111 b , the cross section of which has a hexagonal geometry . it can be seen that the potting 111 is only used for embedding the fiber layers in a comparably small region , namely in a region respectively radially outside of the orientation elements 124 . fig1 a shows an oxygenator 101 with an ( outer ) housing 102 , which has an additional fluid inlet 5 . 1 ( in particular gas inlet ) and an additional fluid outlet 5 . 2 ( in particular gas outlet ). a cover 120 , for example the cover shown in fig1 , is arranged in the housing 102 and supported by an inner sheath surface of the housing by means of fasteners 123 . here , an oxygenator module arranged in the oxygenator 101 can be inserted into the outer housing 102 with two covers and be supported . furthermore , an additional cover ( not shown ) can be provided , which seals the outer housing 102 in an air - tight manner . fig1 b shows an additional cover 122 for covering the ( outer ) housing 102 . the cover 122 has the form of a disk - shaped ring . fig1 shows an oxygenator 101 with two hexagonal covers 120 , orientation elements 124 , a hexagonal oxygenator module 110 as well as two circular distribution elements 130 ( blood distributor plate which is designed to geometrically correspond to the cavity ). the cover 120 could be constructed identically , which increases the symmetry of the arrangement and can reduce the number of components . in the assembled state , the cover 120 is surrounded by a cavity k which extends along the indicated central longitudinal axis m of the oxygenator 101 or the oxygenator module 110 . the lower cover 120 has an outlet 148 or a rear vent . furthermore , an invisible , centrally arranged blood outlet is provided . the cover 121 has recesses 125 to accommodate a respective orientation element 124 . the two distribution elements 130 are arranged on both sides of the oxygenator module 110 . optionally , only a single distribution element 130 can also be provided , in particular on the upstream side . each distribution element 130 has a plurality of holes or passages 131 which are arranged at least approximately uniformly distributed on the distribution element 130 . as shown , the passages 131 can be arranged on different partial circles concentrically to a central point of the distribution element 130 . all passages 131 have at least approximately the same distance to one another . the distribution elements 130 are designed to be disk - like . by means of the respective distribution element 130 , a fluid stream can be spread areally across the entire cross sectional area of the cavity k . 5 . 1 ( additional ) fluid inlet , in particular gas inlet 5 . 2 ( additional ) fluid outlet , in particular gas outlet 11 ′ potting in an oxygenator module according to the prior art 11 a ; 111 a inner sheath surface of the potting 11 b ; 111 b outer sheath surface of the potting 13 . 1 ( first ) free end of a hollow fiber 13 . 2 ( second ) free end of a hollow fiber 17 ′ hollow fiber bundle in an oxygenator module according to the prior 50 ′ mold for an oxygenator module according to the prior art p intersection point between circumferential line and lateral edge of a layer α 1 angle of rotation about the central longitudinal axis between the first and second layer α 2 angle of rotation about the central longitudinal axis between the second and third layer α 2 angle of rotation about the central longitudinal axis between the third and first layer the various embodiments described above can be combined to provide further embodiments . all of the 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 sheet are incorporated herein by reference , in their entirety . aspects of the embodiments can be modified , if necessary to employ concepts of the various patents , applications and publications to provide yet further embodiments . these and other changes can be made to the embodiments in light of the above - detailed description . in general , in the following claims , the terms used should not be construed to limit the claims to the specific embodiments disclosed in the specification and the claims , but should be construed to include all possible embodiments along with the full scope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled . accordingly , the claims are not limited by the disclosure . | 0 |
there is described herein a thermal anemometer that offers distinct advantages when compared to the prior art . two different embodiments are described within the scope of this invention . the first provides a single differential temperature setpoint , while the second allows the differential temperature to be adjusted through the use of microprocessor computations or other similar means . a thermal anemometer in accordance with the present invention is illustrated in fig2 . the circuit of fig2 comprises a current source i 201 used to measure the resistance of the ambient sensor r 2 through switch s 1 , and the velocity sensor r 3 through switch s 2 . switch s 3 and capacitor c 1 form a sample - and - hold circuit for the ambient measurement . amplifier a 1 and capacitor c 2 form a combined error amplifier and sample - and - hold circuit . switch s 4 controls the resistance sampling of the velocity rtd r 3 , while switch s 5 and transistor q 1 form the switched heating voltage driver . the combined error amplifier and sample - and - hold functions in a 1 and c 2 significantly reduce the complexity of this circuit over other implementations . the timing sequence for switch operation is illustrated in fig3 . it should be noted that a logic “ 1 ” or “ high ” value in the diagram corresponds to a switch being closed . circuit operation is properly divided into three phases . during phase 1 , the velocity sensor ( r 3 in fig2 ) has a voltage applied that causes it to heat . in this phase , amplifier a 1 is connected to transistor q 1 through switch s 5 , as can be discerned from the high level of the switch s 5 signal during phase 1 . all other switches are off during phase 1 . the controlled voltage applied to sensor r 3 maintains the sensor at the desired temperature by balancing the heat generated through power dissipation with the heat lost by the airflow past the sensor . on a periodic basis , phase 2 and phase 3 are performed to correct differences between the setpoint temperature and the actual temperature of the velocity sensor r 3 . phase 2 performs a measurement of the ambient temperature . phase 2 begins with the heating voltage disabled by opening switch s 5 , as shown in fig3 . switch s 1 is then closed to connect the current source i 201 to the resistor network comprising resistor r 1 and sensor r 2 . resistors r 1 and r 2 are chosen such that the voltage across them with current i is the desired voltage across r 3 with current i passing through it . after a stabilization time interval , switch s 3 is closed to transfer the voltage across r 1 and r 2 to capacitor c 1 . phase 2 is effectively completed when switches s 3 and s 1 are opened . phase 3 measures the resistance of the velocity sensor r 3 , determines the difference between the desired setpoint temperature and the actual temperature , and then saves the new value as a voltage on capacitor c 2 that corrects the drive voltage . phase 3 begins with switch s 5 disabled ( off ), then switch s 2 is closed to allow current i to flow through velocity sensor r 3 . this produces a voltage proportional to the resistance of r 3 . when the circuit has stabilized , switch s 4 is closed to apply the voltage to the amplifier a 1 . amplifier a 1 detects the difference between the voltage on r 3 with respect to the voltage stored on c 1 . this difference causes the amplifier a 1 to integrate this difference and store the integration value on capacitor c 2 . at the completion of the cycle , switch s 4 is opened , then switch s 2 is opened , disconnecting the current source i 201 from the sensors . switch s 5 is closed to allow the corrected drive voltage to be applied to the velocity sensor r 3 . phase 1 is started again . as with the traditional analog bridge circuit , the control of the sensor temperature takes advantage of its nonlinear behavior as a circuit element . velocity computation can be performed by measuring the voltage across the velocity sensor during the heating cycle and computing the power dissipation in the sensor . this power can be related to the velocity by a polynomial or other mathematical function derived and calibrated for the particular sensor . there are several unique characteristics of this circuit . first , temperature measurement and heating are separated into distinctly separate time phases . second , the use of a single current source for resistance measurement makes the operation of the circuit independent of the current source , since the circuit depends only on the ratio of the ambient and velocity resistance measurements . third , amplifier a 1 and c 2 perform both error amplifier and sample - and - hold functions . more particularly , the circuit of fig2 provides several advantages over the typical bridge control circuit . in the first place , self - heating of the ambient temperature sensor r 2 is minimized by applying the excitation current i for very brief periods of time . in addition , using the same excitation current source eliminates differential errors between the ambient sensor and the velocity sensor . furthermore , when rtd sensors r 2 and r 3 have the same characteristic resistance , resistance of the lead wires connecting the sensors r 2 and r 3 can be automatically corrected simply by making the lead length the same for both sensors . and , last of all , the circuit of fig2 is self - starting . the bridge circuit of the prior art , as shown in fig1 requires additional components to ensure the circuit starts properly when first powered . in an alternative embodiment of the present invention , the ambient sensor r 2 and related circuit elements r 1 , s 1 , and s 3 ( as shown in fig2 ) are replaced by a microprocessor - controlled voltage source . the purpose of this approach is to allow the system to select different probe temperature differentials for different velocity ranges . referring now to fig4 current source i 401 provides a reference current upon which all resistance measurements are made . switches s 2 , s 4 , and s 5 direct this current to different elements during the measurement cycle . switch s 1 connects or disconnects the drive voltage to the velocity sensor r 2 . similar to the previous circuit , s 3 , c 1 and a 1 form a combination sample - and - hold and integrating amplifier . r 1 provides a reference resistance . the network r 3 , r 4 , r 5 , r 6 , r 7 and a 2 measures the ambient temperature sensed by rtd r 5 . an analog - to - digital converter ( adc ) 402 measures the various voltage values present during the measurement cycle . in the preferred form of the invention , the adc 402 is implemented as a tlv2544 analog - to - digital converter manufactured by texas instruments incorporated of dallas , tex . of course , many other suitable adcs meeting similar specifications would also function adequately . a microprocessor ( μp ) 403 provides all control and computation resources for the system . preferably , the microprocessor 403 is a pic16f76 microprocessor , manufactured by microchip technology inc . of chandler , ariz . of course , there are many other microprocessors , obtainable through various manufacturers , that would function equally well in this application . a digital - to - analog converter ( dac ) 404 is programmed to produce a voltage relating the ambient temperature and required differential temperature to the resistance of the velocity sensor r 2 . in the preferred embodiment of the invention , the dac 404 is included within the microprocessor 403 as a pwm ( pulse - width modulation ) dac , but the dac may be implemented just as well as a separate component using a number of available dac technologies . the measurement and control timing is illustrated in fig5 . note that a logic “ 1 ” or “ high ” value in the diagram of fig5 corresponds to a switch being closed or a measurement being actively taken . the measurement cycle is divided into six measurement phases , φ 1 through φ 6 phase φ 1 measures the ambient temperature . phase φ 2 measures the reference resistance r 1 . phase φ 3 measures the sensor drive voltage . phase φ 4 measures the velocity sensor r 2 resistance . phase φ 5 measures the lead resistance for r 2 , while phase φ 6 performs a control loop sample to control the power dissipation in sensor r 2 . operation in the various phases is described in detail below . the measurement and control process is designed to maintain the temperature of sensor r 2 such that the r 2 temperature remains a fixed differential temperature above the ambient temperature . this process begins by measuring the ambient temperature sensed by rtd r 5 . the sub - circuit of fig4 including rtd r 5 and the resistance network r 3 , r 4 , r 6 , and r 7 connected to amplifier a 2 produces a voltage related to the ambient temperature . the microprocessor 403 computes the ambient temperature from the measurement of this voltage . the differential temperature is known from the velocity range selected for measurement . the desired velocity sensor temperature , or target temperature , is computed by summing the ambient temperature with the differential temperature . from this , the desired target resistance of the velocity sensor r 2 is computed . an important element of the measurement process disclosed herein is the inclusion of a known reference resistance r 1 . in phase φ 2 , the current i is directed through r 1 via switch s 4 . the measured voltage relates the current source i 401 and the known resistance r 1 . using this reference resistance allows the computation of resistance measurements to be related to the ratio of measured voltages and the known resistance value . the following equations demonstrate this : r lead = r 1 v lead v r1 r 2 = r 1 ( v r2 - v lead ) v r1 reference resistance r 1 is known a priori from the value selected during design . as can be seen , the resistance measurements are determined from the ratios of measured voltages and the known value of r 1 . since the voltage measurements are all related to the adc reference voltage 405 , the accuracy of the resistance measurement is constrained only by the absolute accuracy of the reference resistor r 1 and the resolution of the adc 402 . it can also be appreciated that the resistance measurements in accordance with the inventive system are independent of the current source i 401 . the resistance set point produced by the dac 404 requires the inclusion of the lead resistance , which is measured in phase φ 5 and computed as described above . as is depicted in fig4 the same reference voltage 405 used by the adc 402 is also used by the dac 404 which can be used to make the measurement and output processes completely ratiometric , eliminating many potential errors . using these relationships , the dac code can be computed by the following relationship : c dac = k v r1 ( r 2 _tgt + r lead ) r 1 v ref where c dac is the code sent to the dac 404 , k is the dac scaling constant , v r1 is the voltage value measured for r 1 , r 1 is the value of the reference resistor , v ref is the reference voltage 405 for the adc 402 and dac 404 , r 2 — tgt is the velocity sensor target resistance , and r lead is the lead resistance for the velocity sensor r 2 . having determined the desired resistance setpoint for r 2 and produced the control voltage with the dac 404 , the temperature control loop must be closed . this is accomplished with a periodic loop refresh cycle . this cycle , as shown in φ 6 of fig5 begins by disabling the heating drive voltage produced by q 1 by opening switch s 1 . the current source i 401 is connected to the rtd r 2 by closing switch s 2 . after allowing the circuit to settle for a predetermined time , switch s 3 is closed so that the voltage produced on r 2 by current i is placed on the inverting (−) input of amplifier a 1 . the error between this voltage and the target voltage produced by the dac 404 causes the output of a 1 to change through an integration process with capacitor c 1 , with r 2 being the integration source resistance . this in turn drives the gate of transistor q 1 and changes the heating drive voltage impressed on the rtd r 2 during its heating cycle . in this way , after many refresh cycles , r 2 is forced to a temperature such that its resistance matches the computed target resistance . there are several unique characteristics of this circuit . first , as in the circuit of fig2 the temperature measurement and heating are separated into distinctly separate time phases . second , the use of a single current source for resistance measurement makes the operation of the circuit independent of the current source , since the circuit depends only on the ratio of the ambient and velocity resistance measurements . third , use of a single reference voltage makes measurement and control fully ratiometric , making these measurements independent of the absolute value of the reference voltage . fourth , amplifier a 1 and c 2 form both an error amplifier and a sample - and - hold function . just as in the circuit of fig2 the circuit of fig4 provides a number of distinct advantages over the typical bridge control circuit . first , self - heating of the ambient temperature sensor r 5 is minimized by the design of the ambient sensor circuit values . in addition , selection of the differential temperature between the ambient temperature and the velocity sensor r 2 can be made under microprocessor control to optimize measurement of different velocity ranges . it is also true for the circuit of fig4 that lead wire resistance is automatically corrected by a separate dynamic lead resistance measurement . the circuit is also self - starting . the bridge circuit of the prior art requires additional components to ensure the circuit starts properly when first powered . furthermore , all measurements and control are relative to the reference voltage v ref and the reference resistor r 1 that has a known value . this makes all measurements ratiometric to known values , eliminating several sources of error found with other techniques . and , finally , selection of the velocity rtd resistance is not constrained by the ambient rtd resistance or type . in fact , a completely different ambient sensor may be used , such as ( but not limited to ) a semiconductor sensor or a thermocouple . there has been described herein a thermal anemometer that offers distinct advantages when compared with the prior art . it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention . for example , it should be noted that the two specific embodiments described above are representative of the concept , but the principle is not limited to these specific forms . those skilled in the art will observe , for instance , that any heated element exhibiting a change in value with temperature change resulting from heating could be used . a thermistor is an example of one such single element , but the use of a controlled heating element and a separate but physically coupled temperature sensor could also be used . additionally , the excitation used for the heating is not limited to an applied variable voltage . again , those skilled in the art will recognize that a current source could be substituted for the voltage drive source . any other mechanism can be used whereby the temperature of the velocity sensing element is controlled by changing the power dissipated in the sensor . | 6 |
[ 0026 ] fig4 a to 4 e are sectional views of successive steps illustrating a first embodiment of the present invention . first , as shown in fig4 a , gate insulating film 13 of a silicon oxide base , for example , is formed on silicon substrate 11 on which element isolation region 12 is formed . then , as shown in fig4 b , silicon film 14 of 2 to 20 nm thick is formed as a first layer conductive film by chemical vapor phase growth , in which silane gas or disilane gas is used , on the silicon substrate . on the first layer conductive film , germanium - silicon film 15 of 20 to 100 nm thick whose germanium concentration is 5 to 50 % is deposited as a second layer conductive film by chemical vapor phase growth in which silane gas or disilane gas and germane gas are used . then , amorphous silicon film 16 of 20 to 100 nm thick is formed as a third layer conductive film on the second layer conductive film by chemical vapor phase growth . preferably , silicon film 14 is formed from polycrystalline silicon , and besides the particle size of the polycrystalline silicon is preferably smaller than the film thickness . further , preferably the first to third layer conductive films are formed successively in the same chamber , and further preferably , the movement between the formation step of gate insulating film 13 and the formation step of the first layer conductive film is performed under vacuum . then , as shown in fig4 c , the layered first , second and third layer conductive films are worked into a gate electrode shape by an ordinary lithography step and etching step . thereafter , as shown in fig4 d , a cvd silicon oxide film is deposited as a cover film on the surface of the substrate , and germanium in the second layer conductive film is diffused into the first layer conductive film by heat treatment of 600 to 1000 ° c . to form silicon - germanium film 15 ′. furthermore , the cvd silicon oxide film is etched back to form gate electrode sidewalls 18 . then , impurities are doped into the surface of the silicon substrate and the gate electrode by ordinary ion implantation . furthermore , heat treatment is performed to activate the impurities to convert the gate electrode into a conductor and form source - drain regions 20 . thereafter , as shown in fig4 e , a metal film such as a titanium film or a cobalt film is deposited by 1 to 10 nm . then , metal silicide film 19 is formed in a self - aligning state on the source - drain regions and the gate electrode by heat treatment , and the unreacted metal film is removed , thereby completing the manufacturing process of the mis transistor according to the present invention . next , a first concrete example of the present embodiment will be described with reference to fig4 a to 4 e . as shown in fig4 a , element isolation region 12 is formed on silicon substrate 11 by shallow trench , and a silicon nitride oxide film of 2 nm thick is formed as gate insulating film 13 by a thermal oxide nitriding method or cvd . then , as shown in fig4 b , silicon film 14 of 10 nm thick is deposited as a first layer conductive film by ordinary cvd , and germanium - silicon film 15 of 50 nm thick containing 30 % germanium is deposited as a second layer conductive film on silicon film 14 . further , amorphous silicon film 16 of 100 nm thick is deposited as a third layer conductive film on germanium - silicon film 15 . germanium - silicon film 15 was deposited by a cvd method in which silane gas or disilane gas and germane gas were used . amorphous silicon film 16 was deposited at a temperature lower than 550 ° c . by cvd . then , as shown in fig4 c , the first to third conductive films are patterned to form a gate electrode by an ordinary lithography step and etching step . thereafter , as shown in fig4 d , a silicon oxide film or a silicon nitride film is deposited by 8 nm on the surface of the substrate by cvd , and then , heat treatment at 800 ° c . is performed for 30 minutes to diffuse germanium in the second layer conductive film into silicon film 14 of the first layer conductive film to form silicon - germanium film 15 ′. further , the cvd silicon oxide film or silicon nitride film is etched back to form gate electrode side walls 18 , and impurities such as arsenic , phosphor or boron are doped by approximately 5 × 10 15 cm − 2 into the gate electrode and the surface of the substrate by ordinary ion implantation . furthermore , heat treatment for a short time at 1000 ° c . is performed to activate the impurities to reduce the resistance of the gate electrode and form source - drain regions 20 . then , as shown in fig4 e , a titanium film is deposited by 5 nm by sputtering , and metal silicide film ( titanium silicide film ) 19 is formed in a self - aligning manner on the source - drain regions and the gate electrode by heat treatment for a short time at 700 ° c . further , the unreacted metal film is removed by wet etching , thereby completing the manufacturing process of the mis transistor of the present concrete example . while , in the present concrete example , titanium is used as the metal for the silicide formation , the metal is not limited to titanium , and some other metal such as cobalt may be used instead . [ 0044 ] fig5 a to 5 e are sectional views of successive steps illustrating a second concrete example of the present embodiment . as shown in fig5 a , element isolation region 12 is formed on silicon substrate 11 by shallow trench , and a silicon nitride oxide film of 1 nm thick is formed as gate insulating film 13 by a radical oxide nitriding method . then , as shown in fig5 b , silicon film 14 of 5 nm thick is deposited as a first layer conductive film by ordinary cvd , and germanium - silicon film 15 of 50 nm thick containing 20 % germanium is deposited as a second layer conductive film on silicon film 14 . further , large particle size silicon film 17 of 100 nm thick is deposited as a third layer conductive film on germanium - silicon film 15 . germanium - silicon film 15 was deposited by cvd in which silane gas or disilane gas and germane gas were used . large particle size silicon film 17 was deposited by cvd at a temperature higher than 600 ° c . the film thickness of large particle size silicon film 17 is preferably 20 to 100 nm , and besides , the particle size of large particle size silicon film 17 is preferably greater than the film thickness . then , as shown in fig5 c , a gate electrode pattern is formed by an ordinary lithography step and etching step . thereafter , as shown in fig5 d , a silicon oxide film or a silicon nitride film is deposited by 5 nm on the surface of the substrate by cvd , and then , heat treatment at 800 ° c . is performed for 30 minutes to diffuse germanium in the second layer conductive film into silicon film 14 of the first layer conductive film to form silicon - germanium film 15 ′. further , the cvd silicon oxide film or silicon nitride film is etched back to form gate electrode side walls 18 , and impurities such as arsenic , phosphor or boron are doped by approximately 3 × 10 15 cm − 2 into the gate electrode and the surface of the substrate by ordinary ion implantation . furthermore , heat treatment for a short time at 1000 ° c . is performed to activate the impurities to reduce the resistance of the gate electrode and form source - drain regions 20 . then , as shown in fig5 e , a cobalt film is deposited by 5 nm by sputtering , and metal silicide film ( cobalt silicide film ) 19 is formed in a self - aligning manner on the source - drain regions and the gate electrode by heat treatment for a short time at 600 to 700 ° c . further , the unreacted metal is removed by wet etching , thereby completing the manufacturing process of the mis transistor of the present example . while , in the present concrete example , arsenic , phosphor or boron is used as the impurities to be doped into the gate electrode and the source - drain regions , the impurities need not be limited to them , but some other impurities such as indium or antimony may be used instead . [ 0052 ] fig6 a to 6 e are sectional views of successive steps illustrating a third concrete example of the present embodiment . first , as shown in fig6 a , element isolation region 12 is formed on silicon substrate 11 by shallow trench , and a silicon nitride oxide film of 0 . 5 nm thick is formed as gate insulating film 13 by a radical oxide nitriding method . then , a tantalum pentoxide ( ta2o5 ) film is deposited to 2 nm thick on the silicon nitride oxide film by cvd , and further , a silicon oxide film of 0 . 5 nm thick is deposited on the tantalum pentoxide film by cvd . then , as shown in fig6 b , silicon film 14 of 5 nm thick is deposited as a first layer conductive film by ordinary cvd . further , germanium - silicon film 15 of 50 nm thick containing 40 % germanium is deposited as a second layer conductive film on silicon film 14 . germanium - silicon film 15 was deposited by cvd in which silane gas or disilane gas and germane gas were used . then , as shown in fig6 c , silicon - germanium film 15 ′ is formed by heat treatment by an ordinary heat treatment step at approximately 800 ° c ., and amorphous silicon film 16 of 100 nm thick is deposited by low temperature cvd . thereafter , the deposited conductive films are patterned into a shape of a gate electrode by an ordinary lithography step and etching step . then , as shown in fig6 d , a silicon oxide film or a silicon nitride film is deposited by 5 nm on the surface of the substrate by cvd , and then , it is etched back to form gate electrode side walls 18 . further , impurities such as arsenic , phosphor or boron are doped by approximately 5 × 10 15 cm − 2 into the gate electrode and the surface region of the substrate by ordinary ion implantation . furthermore , heat treatment for a short time at 1000 ° c . is performed to activate the impurities to reduce the resistance of the gate electrode and form source - drain regions 20 . then , as shown in fig6 e , a cobalt film is deposited by 5 nm by sputtering , and metal silicide film 19 is formed in a self - aligning manner on the source - drain regions and the gate electrode by heat treatment for a short time at 600 to 700 ° c . further , the unreacted metal film is removed by wet etching , thereby completing the manufacturing process of the mis transistor of the present example . while , in the present concrete example , a silicon nitride oxide film , a tantalum pentoxide film and a silicon oxide film are used for the gate insulating film layer structure , the gate insulating film layer structure is not limited to them , but aluminum oxide , zirconium oxide , hafnium oxide , lanthanum oxide , titanium oxide , barium strontium titanate ( bst ) or the like may be used for the high dielectric constant film of the medium layer . also it is possible to omit the silicon oxide film . furthermore , it is possible to use a silicon oxide film in place of the silicon nitride oxide film or use a silicon nitride oxide film in place of the silicon oxide film . also it is possible to use a layered gate insulating film including a high dielectric constant film in place of the gate insulating film of the other concrete examples . [ 0059 ] fig7 a to 7 e are sectional views of successive steps illustrating a fourth concrete example of the present embodiment . first , as shown in fig7 a , element isolation region 12 is formed on silicon substrate 11 by shallow trench , and a silicon nitride oxide film of 2 nm thick is formed as gate insulating film 13 by a thermal oxide nitriding method . then , as shown in fig7 b , silicon film 14 of 10 nm thick which is a first layer conductive film and germanium - silicon film 15 of 50 nm thick containing 50 % germanium which is a second layer conductive film are deposited each by ordinary cvd , and impurities such as arsenic , phosphor or boron are doped by approximately 1 × 10 15 cm − 2 . thereafter , conductive multilayer film 21 composed of a titanium nitride film of 2 nm thick and a tungsten film of 10 nm thick is deposited on germanium - silicon film 15 . a titanium nitride film is a stable against a silicon film or a silicon - germanium film even upon heat treatment at a high temperature and is not likely to allow a silicidation reaction to occur therewith . then , as shown in fig7 c , silicon oxide film 22 of 20 nm thick is deposited on the tungsten film by cvd , and then heat treatment for 30 minutes at 800 ° c . is performed to diffuse germanium in the second layer conductive film into silicon film 14 of the first layer conductive film to form silicon - germanium film 15 ′. thereafter , the multilayer conductive films are patterned into a shape of a gate electrode by an ordinary lithography step and etching step . then , as shown in fig7 d , a silicon oxide film or a silicon nitride film is deposited by 10 nm on the surface of the substrate by cvd , and then , it is etched back to form gate electrode side walls 18 . thereafter , impurities such as arsenic , phosphor or boron are doped by approximately 5 × 10 15 cm − 2 into the surface region of the silicon substrate by ordinary ion implantation . furthermore , heat treatment for a short time at 1000 ° c . is performed to activate the impurities to form source - drain regions 20 . then , as shown in fig7 e , a titanium film is deposited by 7 nm by sputtering , and metal silicide film 19 is formed in a self - aligning manner on source - drain regions 20 by heat treatment for a short time at 700 ° c . further , the unreacted metal film is removed by wet etching , thereby completing the manufacturing process of the mis transistor of the present concrete example . while , in the present example , titanium nitride is used for the metal nitride film for reaction prevention , the film for reaction prevention need not be limited to this , and some other metal compound film of tantalum nitride , tungsten nitride or the like may be used instead . [ 0066 ] fig8 a to 8 d are sectional views of successive steps illustrating a second embodiment of the present invention . first , as shown in fig8 a , a dummy mis transistor is formed on silicon substrate 11 on which element isolation region 12 is formed . the dummy mis transistor includes dummy gate electrode 31 having dummy gate electrode side walls 32 formed on side faces thereof , dummy gate insulating film 33 , source - drain regions 20 formed on the surface of the silicon substrate , and metal silicide film 19 on source - drain regions 20 . the surface of the dummy mis transistor is covered with interlayer insulating film 34 . then , as shown in fig8 b , dummy gate electrode 31 and dummy gate insulating film 33 below dummy gate electrode 31 are removed , and gate insulating film 13 of the silicon dioxide base , for example , is formed on a channel region of the exposed silicon substrate . then , silicon film 14 of 2 to 20 nm thick is deposited as a first layer conductive film by chemical vapor phase growth in which silane gas or disilane gas is used . then , germanium - silicon film 15 is formed whose germanium concentration is 5 to 50 % to 20 to 100 nm thick as a second layer conductive film on silicon film 14 by chemical vapor phase growth in which silane gas or disilane gas and germane gas are used . further , large particle size silicon film 17 of 20 to 100 nm thick is deposited as a third layer conductive film on germanium - silicon film 15 by chemical vapor phase growth . preferably , the particle size of silicon film 14 is smaller than the film thickness and the particle size of large particle size silicon film 17 is greater than the film thickness . then , heat treatment at 600 to 1000 ° c . is performed to diffuse germanium in the second layer conductive film into the first layer conductive film to form silicon - germanium film 15 ′ as shown in fig8 c . then , as shown in fig8 d , impurities are doped into the gate electrode by ordinary ion implantation , and the impurities are activated by heat treatment , whereafter a metal film such as a cobalt film is deposited to 1 to 10 nm . further , metal silicide film 19 is formed on the gate electrode by heat treatment , and then , the unnecessary metal films are removed by etching . then , the gate electrode is formed by an ordinary lithography step and etching step , thereby completing the manufacturing process of the mis transistor of the present embodiment . [ 0075 ] fig8 a to 8 d are sectional views of successive steps illustrating a fifth concrete example of the present embodiment . first , as shown in fig8 a , element isolation region 12 is formed on silicon substrate 11 by shallow trench . thereafter , a dummy mis transistor is formed to include dummy gate insulating film 33 of 2 nm thick formed on silicon substrate 11 , dummy gate electrode 31 of 150 nm thick having dummy gate electrode side walls 32 formed on side faces thereof , and source - drain regions 20 having metal silicide film 19 formed on the surface thereof . further , interlayer insulating film 34 is formed , and the upper surface of dummy gate electrode 31 is exposed by a flattening method such as cmp . then , as shown in fig8 b , dummy gate electrode 31 and dummy gate insulating film 33 are removed , and a silicon nitride oxide film of 2 nm thick is formed as gate insulating film 13 by a thermal oxide nitriding method . then , silicon film 14 of 8 nm thick is deposited as a first layer conductive film by ordinary cvd . then , germanium - silicon film 15 of 70 nm thick containing 40 % germanium is formed as a second layer conductive film on silicon film 14 , and large particle size silicon film 17 of 50 nm thick is deposited as a third layer conductive film on germanium - silicon film 15 by cvd at a temperature higher than 600 ° c . then , as shown in fig8 c , heat treatment at 800 ° c . for 30 minutes is performed to diffuse germanium in the second layer conductive film into silicon film 14 of the first layer conductive film to form silicon - germanium film 15 ′. then , as shown in fig8 d , impurities such as arsenic , phosphor or boron are doped to approximately 5 × 10 15 cm − 2 into the gate electrode by ordinary ion implantation , and the impurities are activated by heat treatment for a short time at 1000 ° c . further , a titanium film is deposited to 7 nm by sputtering , and metal silicide film 19 is formed by heat treatment for a short time at 700 ° c . then , the unreacted metal film is removed by wet etching , and the multilayer conductive films are patterned to form a gate electrode , thereby completing the manufacturing process of the mis transistor of the present example . [ 0080 ] fig9 a to 9 d are sectional views of successive steps illustrating a sixth concrete example of the present embodiment . the steps until interlayer insulating film 34 shown in fig9 a is formed are similar to those in the fifth example described hereinabove with reference to fig8 a , and therefore , description of them is omitted herein . then , as shown in fig9 b , dummy gate electrode 31 and dummy gate insulating film 33 are removed , and a silicon nitride oxide film of 2 nm thick which serves as gate insulating film 13 is formed by a radical nitride oxide nitriding method . then , silicon film 14 of 5 nm thick is deposited as a first layer conductive film by ordinary cvd . then , silicon - germanium film 15 of 50 nm thick containing 40 % germanium is formed as a second layer conductive film on silicon film 14 , and amorphous silicon film 16 of 100 nm thick is deposited as a third layer conductive film on silicon - germanium film 15 . amorphous silicon film 16 was deposited at a temperature lower than 550 ° c . by cvd . then , as shown in fig9 c , heat treatment at 800 ° c . for 30 minutes is performed to diffuse germanium in the second layer conductive film into silicon film 14 of the first layer conductive film to form silicon - germanium film 15 ′. then , as shown in fig9 d , impurities such as arsenic , phosphor or boron are doped to approximately 5 × 10 15 cm − 2 into the gate electrode by ordinary ion implantation , and the impurities are activated by heat treatment for a short time at 1000 ° c . further , a cobalt film is deposited to 5 nm by sputtering , and metal silicide film ( cobalt silicide film ) 19 is formed by heat treatment for a short time at 700 ° c . finally , the unreacted metal film is removed by wet etching , and the multilayer conductive films are patterned to form a gate electrode , thereby completing the manufacturing process of the mis transistor of the present concrete example . [ 0085 ] fig1 a to 10 d are sectional views of successive steps illustrating a seventh concrete example of the present embodiment . first , as shown in fig1 a , element isolation region 12 is formed on silicon substrate 11 by shallow trench . thereafter , a dummy mis transistor is formed to include dummy gate insulating film 33 of 1 . 5 nm thick formed on silicon substrate 11 , dummy gate electrode 31 of 100 nm thick having dummy gate electrode side walls 32 formed on side faces thereof , and source - drain regions 20 having metal silicide film 19 formed on the surface thereof . further , interlayer insulating film 34 is deposited , and the upper surface of dummy gate electrode 31 is exposed by a flattening method such as cmp . then , as shown in fig1 b , dummy gate electrode 31 and dummy gate insulating film 33 are removed , and a gate nitride oxide film of 1 nm thick is formed as gate insulating film 13 by a radical oxide nitriding method . then , silicon film 14 of 10 nm thick is deposited as a first layer conductive film by ordinary cvd . then , germanium - silicon film 15 of 70 nm thick containing 30 % germanium is deposited as a second layer conductive film on silicon film 14 . then , as shown in fig1 c , heat treatment at 800 ° c . for 30 minutes is performed to diffuse germanium in the second layer conductive film into silicon film 14 of the first layer conductive film to form silicon - germanium film 15 ′. thereafter , silicon - germanium film 15 ′ on interlayer insulating film 34 is removed by etching back , and further , amorphous silicon film 16 is deposited to 20 nm thick on silicon - germanium film 15 ′, which serves as a gate electrode , by selective cvd . then , as shown in fig1 d , impurities such as arsenic , phosphor or boron are doped to approximately 5 × 10 15 cm − 2 into the gate electrode by ordinary ion implantation , and the impurities are activated by heat treatment for a short time at 1000 ° c . further , a cobalt film is deposited to 3 nm by sputtering , and metal silicide film 19 is formed by heat treatment for a short time at 700 ° c . finally , the unreacted metal films are removed by wet etching , thereby completing the manufacturing process of the mis transistor of the present concrete example . [ 0090 ] fig1 a to 11 d are sectional views of successive steps illustrating an eighth concrete example of the present embodiment . the steps until interlayer insulating film 34 shown in fig1 a is formed are similar to those in the fifth concrete example described hereinabove with reference to fig8 a , and therefore , description of them is omitted herein . then , as shown in fig1 b , dummy gate electrode 31 and dummy gate insulating film 33 are removed , and a silicon nitride oxide film of 2 nm thick which serves as gate insulating film 13 is formed by a thermal oxide nitriding method . then , silicon film 14 of 10 nm thick is deposited as a first layer conductive film by ordinary cvd . then , silicon - germanium film 15 of 50 nm thick containing 50 % germanium is deposited as a second layer conductive film on silicon film 14 , and impurities such as arsenic , phosphor or boron are doped to approximately 5 × 10 15 cm − 2 by ordinary ion implantation . further , conductive multilayer film 21 composed of a titanium nitride film of 10 nm thick and a tungsten film of 30 nm thick is formed as a third layer conductive film on silicon - germanium film 15 . then , as shown in fig1 c , heat treatment at 800 ° c . for 30 minutes is performed to diffuse germanium in the second layer conductive film into silicon film 14 of the first layer conductive film to form silicon - germanium film 15 ′. at this time , the titanium nitride film does not react with the undercoat silicon - germanium film . then , as shown in fig1 d , the multilayer conductor films are patterned by an ordinary lithography step and etching step to form a gate electrode , thereby completing the manufacturing process of the mis transistor of the present concrete example . it is to be noted that , while a gate insulating film formed from a single film of a silicon oxide film or a silicon nitride oxide film is used in the fifth to eighths concrete examples , it may be replaced by another gate insulating film formed from a multilayer film including a high dielectric constant film . while preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described using specific terms , such description is for illustrative purposes only , and it is to be understood that changes and variations may be made without departing from the spirit or scope of the following claims . | 7 |
the cholesterol is a kind of lipids exists in most of animals , especially in vertebrate animals at least the substances of this kind existing in the bodies of mammals have a common fundamental skeletal structure , so that they are included in the category of the cholesterol . they exist in a free state or in the forms of esters with higher fatty acid . furthermore , there are dihydro - type and saturated type cholesterols . this cholesterol is also called as cholesterin . the term &# 34 ; cholesterol &# 34 ; referred to in the present invention designate these compounds . especially , the cholesterol in the present invention indicates a substance which is deposited in the intima of artery and , in the case of human , which causes atherosclerosis . all of the compounds used in the method of the present invention are fluorescent compounds ( photosensitizers ). tetrapyrrole carboxylic acid of the foregoing general formula is firstly named . the tetrapyrrole carboxylic acid has at least one and preferably three carboxylic acid groups . also included in the compounds of the present invention are dior tetrahydrotetrapyrrole carboxylic acid which corresponds to the above tetrapyrrole . furthermore , pharmaceutically acceptable salts of the carboxyl groups of these carboxylic acids such as salts of alkali metals , alkaline earth metals , ammonium and amines are included . furthermore , the compounds used in the present invention are mono -, di - or polyamides of amino monocarboxylic acid with the above tetrapyrrole carboxylic acids . another usable group of compounds are pharmaceutically acceptable salts of the carboxyl groups of these mono -, di or polyamides such as salts of alkali metals , alkaline earth metals , ammonium and amines . the above amino monocarboxylic acids which forms mono -, di - or polyamide by connecting to the above tetrapyrrole carboxylic acid by way of polypeptide bonds are exemplified by serine , glycine , α - aminoalanine , β - aminoalanine , ε - amino - n - caproic acid , piperidine - 2 - carboxylic acid , piperidine - 6 - carboxylic acid , pyrrole - 2 - carboxylic acid , piperidine - 2 - propionic acid , pyrrole - 5 - acetic acid , and similar such acids the preferred amino acids are the naturally occurring α - amino monocarboxylic acids such as serine , alanine and glycine , which are readily available and up to the present , have provided the best results . exemplar amino dicarboxylic acids are α - aminosuccinic acid ( aspartic acid ) α - aminoglutaric acid ( glutamic acid ), β - aminoglutaric acid , β - aminosebacic acid , 2 , 6 - piperidine dicarboxylic acid , 2 , 5 - pyrrole dicarboxylic acid , 2 - carboxypyrrole - 5 - acetic acid , 2 - carboxypiperidine 6 - propionic acid , α - aminoadipic acid , and α - aminoazelaic acid . the preferred amino dicarboxylic acids are the naturally occurring α - amino dicarboxylic acids such as aspartic acid and glutamic acid . the tetrapyrrole carboxylic acids used in the method of the present invention are represented by the following structural formula . ## str2 ## wherein r 2 is h , vinyl , ethyl , ## str4 ## acetyl , ch 2 ch 2 co 2 h or ═ chcho ; r 4 is h , vinyl , ethyl , ## str6 ## ch 2 ch 2 co 2 h , ═ chcho or ## str7 ## r 9 is h , cooh , ch 2 cooh or methyl ; provided that when r 1 , r 2 , r 3 , r 4 , r 7 and r 8 represents two substituents or are divalent and attached to the same carbon , the respective pyrrole ring to which attached is a dihydropyrrole ; r 6 and r 9 , taken together are ## str10 ## with the proviso that at least one of r 1 - r 9 is a free carboxyl group . the preferred tetrapyrrole carboxylic acids are those wherein at least three carboxylic acid groups are present in the tetrapyrrole , preferably asymmetrically attached to the porphyrin ring system , e . g ., the carboxylic acid groups are present on the rings a and b side of the molecule or on the rings d and c side of the molecule . the particularly preferred tetrapyrrole is represented by the following general formula : ## str11 ## wherein ; typical compounds of the tetrapyrrole classes are illustrated in table 1 in which the numbered positions of the tetrapyrrole ring structure are used to designate the position of the indicated substituent . the absence of double bonds in the ring system is designated under &# 34 ; dihydro &# 34 ; with each set of numbers ( ring position ) indicating the absence of a double bond between the designated positions . table 1__________________________________________________________________________ ring position a b c dporphyrin 1 2 6 7 11 12 14 16 17 dihydro__________________________________________________________________________coproporphyrin iii me pr me pr me pr h pr me -- deuteroporphyrin ix me h me h me pr h pr me -- hematoporphyrin ix me ## str12 ## me ## str13 ## me pr h pr me -- protoporphyrin ix me v me v me pr h pr me -- photoprotoporphyrin ix ( one of two isomers shown ) me v ## str14 ## chcho me pr h pr me 6 , 7mesoporphyrin ix me et me et me pr h pr me -- transmesochlorin ix ## str15 ## ## str16 ## me et me pr h pr me 1 , 2transmesochlorin ix me et ## str17 ## ## str18 ## me pr h pr me 6 , 7chlorin e . sub . 4 me v me et me co . sub . 2 h me ## str19 ## ## str20 ## 16 , 17chlorin e . sub . 6 me v me et me co . sub . 2 h ac ## str21 ## ## str22 ## 16 , 17mesochlorin e . sub . 4 me et me et me co . sub . 2 h me ## str23 ## ## str24 ## 16 , 17isochlorin e . sub . 4 me v me et me h ac ## str25 ## ## str26 ## 16 , 17mesoisochlorin e . sub . 4 me et me et me h ac ## str27 ## ## str28 ## 16 , 17mesochlorin e . sub . 6 me et me et me co . sub . 2 h ac ## str29 ## ## str30 ## 16 , 17bacteriochlorin e . sub . 6 me acl ## str31 ## ## str32 ## me co . sub . 2 h ac ## str33 ## ## str34 ## 6 , 7 16 , 17bacteriochlorin e . sub . 4 me acl ## str35 ## ## str36 ## me co . sub . 2 h me ## str37 ## ## str38 ## 6 , 7 16 , 17bacterioisochlorin e . sub . 4 me acl ## str39 ## ## str40 ## me h ac ## str41 ## ## str42 ## 6 , 7 16 , 172 - desvinylchlorin e . sub . 6 ( or deuterochlorin e . sub . 6 ) me h me et me co . sub . 2 h ac ## str43 ## ## str44 ## 16 , 172 - acetylchlorin e . sub . 6 me acl me et me co . sub . 2 h ac ## str45 ## ## str46 ## 16 , 172 - formylchlorin e . sub . 6 me cho me et me co . sub . 2 h ac ## str47 ## ## str48 ## 16 , 17__________________________________________________________________________ notes : me : ch . sub . 3 ( methyl group ) et : ch . sub . 2 ch . sub . 3 ( ethyl group ) pr : ch . sub . 2 ch . sub . 2 cooh ( propionic acid group ) ac : ch . sub . 2 cooh ( acetic acid group ) v : chch . sub . 2 ( vinyl group ) acl : ch . sub . 3co ( acetyl group ) in the following , exemplar amides used in the present invention will be described . the following compounds are exemplified as the mono -, di - or polyamides of amino monocarboxylic acids . chlorin derivatives : similarly , by utilizing other amino acids , the following peptides can be employed , however , they do not limit the present invention . in the following , mono -, di - or polyamides of amino dicarboxylic acids are exemplified . especially preferable compounds in the present invention are dihydro or tetrahydro type amides of tetrapyrrole carboxylic acids with amino acids . several methods for preparing the compounds of the present invention are known in the conventional art . for example , they can be prepared by the methods as described in the foregoing european laid - open patent publication nos . 168831 , 168832 , 200218 , 210351 and 213272 . the practical method for measuring the deposited cholesterol in living bodies will be described in detail in the following examples . the outline of the measurement method is described in the first place . a compound of the present invention which is dissolved in an appropriate aqueous solution such as a phosphate buffered saline solution ( ph 7 . 4 ), is administered by a proper method to the living body of a host to be examined . the aqueous solution may be an aqueous dispersion containing a suitable dispersing agent . when the cholesterol deposited in the intima of artery is to be examined , it is preferable that the aqueous solution is administered by a direct method such as injection . meanwhile , the oral , intramuscular and hypodermic administration are also possible . in any case , the solution of the compound of the present invention may also contain the following materials : a binder such as gum tragacanth ; an excipient such as dicalcium phosphate ; a disintegrating agent such as corn starch ; a lubricant such as magnesium stearate ; a sweetening agent such as sucrose ; a preservative such as paraben ; a dye ; a flavoring such as cherry flavor ; a solvent or dispersion medium such as water , ethanol or glycol ; an antiseptic ; and an isotonic agent such as sugar and sodium chloride . the quantity of administration is determined on the degree of accumulation to cholesterol , however , it is generally selected within the range of 0 . 01 to 100 mg / kg ( weight of living body ). the host which is a living body to receive the administration , is a mammal which has cholesterol within its body . even though the method of the present invention can be applied to almost all other animals as well as mammals , especially to vertebrates , there is not considered any practical application to other animals . even though the reason has not been clear , the compounds of the present invention are specifically and selectively accumulated in the area in which cholesterol is deposited . accordingly , after the passage of an appropriate time , for example , after several minutes to several tens of hours from the intravenous administration of a compound , a light ray of 360 to 760 nm , e . g . 405 nm , in wavelength is applied to an aorta in which cholesterol is deposited . the light source for the irradiation in diagnosis is not limited , however , a laser beam is generally used because a strong light ray within a desired wavelength range can be applied selectively . in addition , the intensity of light can also be selected properly . relatively weak irradiation is sufficient for the measurement because the fluorescence emitted by the compound of the present invention is intense , however , the intensity of irradiation can be generally selected from the range of 10 to 1000 mw / cm 2 . the compound of the present invention which is accumulated in a area containing deposited cholesterol , emits fluorescence when it is applied with light rays . the amount of deposited cholesterol is determined by measuring the intensity of fluorescence in the range around the specific wavelength of emitted fluorescence . because emitted fluorescence is characteristic of each substance , it is necessary that the specific wavelength must be confirmed by measuring it in advance . the specific wave - length is , for example , 670 nm for mono - l - aspartyl chlorin e 6 and mono - l - serinyl chlorin e 6 were used in the examples of the present invention . the emitted fluorescence is measured ( detected ) by means of an appropriate fluoro - spectrometric analyzer . in the measurement of deposited cholesterol in an interior part of living body such as in an intima , it is desirable that fluorescence is introduced and measured using a glass fiber bundle . in the area in which any deposition of cholesterol is not detected by angioscopic observation or histological test with incision of artery , even when the compound of the present invention is administered to the host and a light ray of the above specific wavelength is applied to the relevant part , any substantial emission of fluorescence of the above wavelength is not detected generally . incidentally , the specific wavelength of fluorescence which is emitted from the compound of the present invention that is caught in the deposited cholesterol , is shifted by about 10 nm as compared with the same compound in a phosphate buffered saline solution from this fact , it is considered that the compound of the present invention is not simply and physically caught within cholesterol but it is connected to the cholesterol by some interconnection mechanism . when the wavelength is shifted , the change in the intensity of fluorescence is also caused to occur usually . however , in the case of the compounds of the present invention , the intensity of fluorescence is not weakened but rather strengthened . accordingly , the compounds of the present invention is most suitable for the photodynamic - diagnosis ( pdd ). in comparison with the use of conventional hpd and photofrin ii , it has been observed that the compounds of the present invention generate more intense fluorescence with an administration in the same quantity in similar part of cholesterol deposition . the degree of deposition of cholesterol can be also confirmed totally by histological diagnosis , endoscopic observation and measurement of the degree of thickening of the intima of artery as well as the measurement of the emission of fluorescence . the compound of the present invention is apparently innocuous with the dose for the above - described diagnostic purpose . for example , it is apparent from the fact that any test animals were not killed owing to the compound of the present invention in experiments using doses up to the extent of 20 mg / kg . test compound of mono - l - aspartyl chlorin e 6 was prepared according to the method described in the foregoing european laid - open patent publication no . 168832 . 150 mg of chlorin e 6 and 250 mg of l - aspartic acid di - t - butyl ester hydrochloride were dissolved in 20 ml of dimethyl formamide . there was made a total of 3 - 100 mg additions of n , n &# 39 ;- dicyclohexyl - carbodiimide at one hour intervals . after 4 hours , the reaction mixture was diluted with 300 ml ether , washed twice with 200 ml h 2 o then extracted with 40 ml 1 m koh . the koh solution was allowed to hydrolyze overnight , then heated to 70 ° c . for 10 minutes . the ph of the solution was adjusted to 7 , then any residual ether was removed by flash evaporation . the solution was then applied to a reverse phase ( c - 18 silica ) column ( 1 . 5 cm × 30 cm ). the product was purified by a stepwise elution of methanol / 0 . 01 m ph 6 . 85 kpo 4 buffer . eluted with 5 % methanol until unwanted polar pigments were removed . monoaspartyl chlorin e 6 was eluted off with 6 - 8 % methanol , and unreacted chlorin e 6 was removed with 25 % methanol . the product was precipitated at ph 3 after flash evaporating briefly to remove methanol , then washed at the centrifuge 3 times with dilute acetic acid . the product was dried under vacuum . yield of mono - l - aspartyl chlorin e 6 was 50 mg . test compound of mono - l - serinyl chlorin e 6 was prepared according to the method described in the foregoing european laid - open patent publication no . 213272 . 100 mg of chlorin e 6 ( free acid form ) and 35 mg of 1 - ethyl - 3 -( 3 - dimethylaminopropyl ) carbodiimide hydrochloride were dissolved in 2 ml of n , n &# 39 ;- dimethyl formamide . after 5 minutes , 125 mg of l - serine benzyl ester hydrochloride was added , stirred vigorously until solution was complete , then allowed to stand at room temperature for 2 hours . at this time 0 . 5 ml of glacial acetic acid was added then 30 ml of methanol and 12 ml of h 2 o . the solution was applied to a c - 18 reverse phase column ( 14 × 2 cm ). the column was washed with h 2 o ( 100 ml ) then 4 ml of 1 n nh 4 oh , then with h 2 o again ( 50 ml ). eluted product with meoh / h 2 o . fractions eluted from the column with 30 % to 80 % meoh contained product as well as carbodiimide activated chlorin as determined by tlc on c - 18 reverse phase plate with solvent 70 % meoh / 30 % buffer ( 0 . 1 m sodium phosphate , ph 6 . 85 ) v / v . these fractions were pooled and enough 3 n naoh was added to make the solution 0 . 1 n naoh . after 1 hour , the hydrolysis was complete as determined by tlc in the above system . removed the methanol by rotary evaporation and adjusted the ph of the solution to 7 . 5 with hcl . the chlorin solution was then reapplied to the same reverse phase column , washed with water , and eluted with meoh / water using a stepwise gradient from 10 to 50 % methanol . the fractions containing pure mono - l - serinyl chlorin as determined by tlc ( r f slightly greater than the unsubstituted chlorin ) were pooled , the methanol removed by rotary evaporation , and the product dried as the trisodium salt by lyophylization . these test compounds were used by dissolving them in phosphate buffered saline solution ( ph 7 . 4 ). as a comparative compound , photofrin ii ( trademark , made by photofrin medical inc .) was used as it stands . photofrin ii was obtained in a concentration of 2 . 5 mg / ml as an aqueous solution . normal japanese white rabbits ( supplied by japan laboratory animals inc .) and another group of the same white rabbits which took artificial arteriosclerosis ( hereinafter referred to as &# 34 ; atherosclerotic rabbits &# 34 ;) were used for experiments . by inserting a fogarty catheter into the inguinal region of a rabbit , the abdominal aorta and thoracic aorta were scrubbed and peeled . after that , the rabbits were bred with a feed containing 2 % cholesterol and 10 % peanut oil for 8 to 12 weeks , thereby obtaining atherosclerotic rabbits . the apparatus for this experiment includes an angioscopic catheter ( made by sumitomo electric industries , ltd . ), an excimer dye laser ( made by hamamatsu photonics k . k .) for exciting photosensitizer and an angioscopic fluorescence analyzer system . this spectrum analyzer can observe the image of the angioscope . the angioscopic catheter is provided with an image fiber , a light fiber , a fluorescence introducing fiber and multifunctional working channel the measurement was carried out by inserting the angioscopic catheter into an artery . the excimer dye laser generates pulse laser of 405 nm in wavelength , 10 nsec . in pulse width , 0 . 1 mj / pulse in the output of tip of introducing fiber and 3 . 75 hz in frequency . this pulse laser was introduced into a quartz fiber bundle of 300 micrometer in core diameter and it is then passed to the multifunctional working channel and further led into artery . by the way , when both the angioscopic image and fluorescence spectrum were measured simultaneously , a phosphate buffered saline solution ( ph 7 . 4 ) was injected through the multifunctional working channel in order to remove the obstructive blood . 1 ) observation of intima of artery by means of angioscopic fluorescence analyzer system each photosensitizer was administered to atherosclerotic rabbits intravenously according to the following conditions in table 2 . table 2______________________________________compound dose after injection______________________________________photofrin ii 5 mg / kg 24 hoursmono - l - aspartyl chlorin e . sub . 6 5 mg / kg 24 hoursmono - l - aspartyl chlorin e . sub . 6 0 . 5 mg / kg 6 hoursmono - l - serinyl chlorin e . sub . 6 0 . 5 mg / kg 6 hours______________________________________ an angioscope was introduced into the abdominal aorta at 6 hours and 24 hours after the administration and the fluorescence spectrum of the photosensitizer in the atheroma area and normal area in artery was measured by the fluorescence analyzing system . at the same time , the endoarterial image in the angioscope was observed . a similar experiment was carried out with regard to normal rabbits as controls furthermore , similar experiment was also carried out with regard to atherosclerotic rabbits which were not administered with the photosensitizer . relative to the degree of arteriosclerosis a dose 0 . 5 mg / kg of mono - l - aspartyl chlorin e 6 was administered to an atherosclerotic rabbit , and at 6 hours after the administration , the abdominal aorta was excised and it was cut open . the fluorescence spectrum of the photosensitizer was measured by scanning the intima of the artery . furthermore , the intimal thickness was measured with regard to the section of the same area , thereby investigating the relation between the accumulation of photosensitizer and the intimal thickness . 1 ) observation of intima of artery by means of angioscopic fluorescence analyzer system ( a ) the angioscope was introduced into the abdominal aorta of the atherosclerotic rabbits which was administered with none of the photosensitizer and the intima of artery was then observed when both normal areas and atheroma areas were excited with 405 nm beam no fluorescence was detected in the wavelength range of 600 to 700 nm . ( b ) the foregoing doses of photosensitizer were administered to normal rabbits at 6 hours and 24 hours after the administration , the fluorescence spectrum of the substance in the intima was not observed at all . ( c ) doses of 0 . 5 mg / kg or 5 mg / kg of each photosensitizer were administered to atherosclerotic rabbits and fluorescence spectra in intimae were observed at 6 hours and 24 hours after the administration . in the atheroma areas , the fluorescence spectrum having a specific peak at 670 nm was observed in mono - l - aspartyl chlorin e 6 in mono - l - serinyl chlorin e 6 and twin - peak fluorescence spectrum having specific peaks at 630 and 690 nm was observed in photofrin ii . relative intensities of fluorescence of photosensitizer were calculated from the areal integral of fluorescence spectra in the range of 600 to 700 nm . the relative intensities of the photosensitizer were 4 . 25 in photofrin ii and 18 . 30 in mono - l - aspartyl chlorin e 6 in the cases of 5 mg / kg doses measured at 24 hours after the administration ; and 17 . 48 in mono - l - aspartyl chlorin e 6 and 16 . 30 in mono - l - serinyl chlorin e 6 in the cases of 0 . 5 mg / kg doses measured at 6 hours after the administration . in normal areas , the relative intensities were 1 . 35 in photofrin ii and 0 . 88 in mono - l - aspartyl chlorin e 6 in the cases of 5 mg / kg doses measured at 24 hours after the administration ; and 1 . 68 in mono - l - aspartyl chlorin e 6 and 1 . 75 in mono - l - serinyl chlorin e 6 in the cases of 0 . 5 mg / kg doses measured at 6 hours after the administration . furthermore , with regard to each photosensitizer , the ratio of maximum value ( atheroma area ) to minimum value ( normal area ) was calculated . the ratios were 3 . 1 in photofrin ii and 20 . 8 in mono - l - aspartyl chlorin e 6 in the cases of 5 mg / kg doses measured at 24 hours after the administration , showing a high selectivity to atheroma area ; and 10 . 4 in mono - l - aspartyl chlorin e 6 and 9 . 3 in mono - l - serinyl chlorin e 6 in the cases of 0 . 5 mg / kg doses measured at 6 hours after the administration , also showing a good selectivity to atheroma area . these results are summarized in the following table 3 . table 3______________________________________ dose hoursphoto - ( mg / after atheroma rabbit normalsensitizer kg ) injection max . min . ratio * rabbit______________________________________photofrin ii 5 . 0 24 4 . 25 1 . 35 3 . 1 0 . 0mono - l - 5 . 0 24 18 . 30 0 . 88 20 . 8 0 . 0aspartylchlorin e . sub . 6mono - l 0 . 5 6 17 . 48 1 . 68 10 . 4 0 . 0aspartylchlorin e . sub . 6mono - l - 0 . 5 6 16 . 30 1 . 75 9 . 3 0 . 0serinylchlorin e . sub . 6______________________________________ note : * ratio = max ./ min . a dose of 0 . 5 mg / kg of mono - l - aspartyl chlorin e 6 was administered to an atherosclerotic rabbit , and at 6 hours after the administration , the abdominal aorta was excised and it was cut open . the fluorescence spectrum of the photosensitizer was measured by scanning the intima of the artery and the intimal thickness was measured with regard to the section of the same part , thereby examining the relation between the accumulation of photosensitizer and the intimal thickness . the quantities of photosensitizer taken into intimae were varied in proportion to the thickening of intimae . the coefficient of correlation was 0 . 92 and the coefficient of determination was 0 . 84 between the intensity of fluorescence and the thickening of intima in mono - l - aspartyl chlorin e 6 , which showed a close correlation between them . these results are shown in the following table 4 and fig1 . table 4______________________________________tested relative intensity intimal thicknesspoint of fluorescence ( mm ) ______________________________________point 1 39 90point 2 159 200point 3 191 200point 4 76 130point 5 31 10point 6 135 130point 7 41 40point 8 65 50point 9 61 40point 10 142 170______________________________________ ( a ) in the atheroma areas , a fluorescence spectrum having a specific peak at 670 nm was observed in mono - l - aspartyl chlorin e 6 and in mono - l - serinyl chlorin e 6 . meanwhile a twin - peak fluorescence spectrum having specific peaks at 630 and 690 nm was observed in photofrin ii . ( b ) in the areas which are considered to be normal , the fluorescence spectra of photosensitizer were scarcely detected in the range of 600 to 700 nm . ( c ) according to the comparison in the ratios of the quantities of photosensitizer accumulated in atheroma areas to those in normal areas , the hystological selectivities ( tendency to be accumulated in atheroma areas ) of mono - l - aspartyl chlorin e 6 and mono - l - serinyl chlorin e 6 were superior to that of photofrin ii . ( d ) the quantity of accumulation of mono - l - aspartyl chlorin e 6 in the tissue of artery was proportional to the thickening of intima and their correlation was significant . ( e ) with regard to the state of distribution of mono - l - aspartyl chlorin e 6 in the tissue of artery , red fluorescence was observed in atheroma areas in intimae showing the existence of mono - l - aspartyl chlorin e 6 , however , the fluorescence was not found in the normal tissues of elastic fiber , media and adventitia . from the above results , it was made possible to examine the occurrence of arteriosclerosis in the intima of artery by using photosensitizer which are selective to atheroma area and an angioscopic fluorescence analyzer system . each of the following photosensitizer was administered to atherosclerotic rabbits intravenously . ______________________________________mono - l - aspartyl chlorin e . sub . 6 0 . 5 mg / kg dosemono - l - serinyl chlorin e . sub . 6 0 . 5 mg / kg dosephotofrin ii 1 mg / kg dose______________________________________ in order to measure the concentrations of the photosensitizer in serum , blood was collected before the administration and at 2 . 5 , 15 , 30 , 45 and 60 minutes and 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 and 24 hours after the administration . serum was separated by a centrifuge of 3000 rpm for 10 minutes and it was subjected to the measurement of fluorescence spectra . the concentration of each photosensitizer was calculated by a calibration curve which was prepared by the following procedure . as controls , normal rabbits were also administered with the following doses , respectively . before the administration , blood was taken from each rabbit and serum was separated , to which was added one of the photosensitizer and mixed together to prepare respective mixtures of 1 × 10 - 6 to 1 × 10 - 8 mol / l in final concentration . the thus prepared mixtures were left to stand for 1 hour in a dark room and the spectra of photosensitizer were measured to make calibration curves . 3 ) changes in concentrations of photosensitizer in serum with the passage of time normal rabbits were administered with 0 . 5 mg / kg of any one of mono - l - aspartyl chlorin e 6 , mono - l - serinyl chlorin e 6 and photofrin ii and , the concentrations of photosensitizer were measured with the passage of time . the concentrations in serum of both the mono - l - aspartyl chlorin e 6 and mono - l - serinyl chlorin e 6 were reduced rapidly . at 3 hours after the administration , the concentration of mono - l - asparyl chlorin e 6 was 2 . 6 μg / ml and mono - l - serinyl chlorin e 6 , 0 . 3 μg / ml . the concentration of photofrin ii in serum was about 10 μg / ml and was not so changed during 2 . 5 minutes to 3 hours after the administration and the concentration was reduced gradually thereafter . at 24 hours after the administration , the concentration in serum of remaining mono - l - aspartyl chlorin e 6 was as low as 0 . 2 μg / ml and mono - l - serinyl chlorin e 6 , 0 . 0 μg / ml , while the concentration of remaining photofrin ii was 2 μg / ml . atherosclerotic rabbits were administered with 0 . 5 mg / kg of mono - l - aspartyl chlorin e 6 , 0 . 5 mg / kg of and 1 mg / kg of mono - l - serinyl chlorin e 6 and 1 mg / kg of photofrin ii and concentrations in serum were measured in the like manner as the above . the concentration of mono - l - aspartyl chlorin e 6 was 42 . 4 μg / ml at 15 minutes after the administration , and then the concentration was rapidly reduced to 21 . 2 μg / ml after 30 minutes , 6 . 6 μg / ml after 1 hour and 1 . 6 μg / ml after 6 hours . the concentration of mono - l - serinyl chlorin e 6 was 12 . 9 μg / ml at 15 minutes after the administration , and then the concentration was also rapidly reduced to 7 . 9 μg / ml after 30 minutes , 6 . 1 μg / ml after 1 hour and 0 . 8 μg / ml after 6 hours . the concentration of photofrin ii was not so changed as about 35 μg / ml during 15 minutes to 2 hours after the administration and 21 . 5 μg / ml after 6 hours . setting the concentration at 15 minutes after the administration as 100 %, the percentage in the concentration at 6 hours after the administration were as follows : 3 . 8 % in mono - l - aspartyl chlorin e 6 and 6 . 2 % in mono - l - serinyl chlorin e 6 and 61 . 4 % in photofrin ii . therefore , photofrin ii remained considerably in serum , however , mono - l - aspartyl chlorin e 6 and mono - l - serinyl chlorin e 6 were rapidly excreted from serum . the above test results are plotted in fig2 and fig3 . | 0 |
[ 0020 ] fig1 and 2 are , respectively , a cumulative distribution function ( cdf ) and a histogram representing a set of data having a roughly bell - shaped distribution . the histogram of fig2 is the most common type of histogram , in which the buckets are all of equal width , and the bucket endpoints are fixed . [ 0021 ] fig3 illustrates an alternative procedure for creating a histogram , in which the bucket endpoints are not fixed , but instead are adjusted in accordance with the data being characterized . each bucket endpoint in the histogram of fig3 corresponds to a defined quantile level on the cdf of fig1 . thus , in the example illustrated by fig3 the intervals are chosen corresponding to quantiles spaced by 0 . 25 . the procedure chooses x 2 so that 25 % of the scores are less than x2 . similarly , x 3 is chosen so that 25 % of the scores are between x 2 and x 3 , and x 4 is chosen so that 25 % of the scores are between x 3 and x 4 . the values x 1 and x 5 are chosen so that all the scores are greater than x 1 and no scores are greater than x 5 . it will be clear that as the data are accumulated , the endpoints will shift along the data axis in order to keep the appropriate fraction of all the data within each respective bucket . it should be noted that in practice , the ratio of the number of scores in each interval to the total number of scores might not be precisely equal across all intervals . however , it will suffice , in general , to choose the intervals in such a way that shifting any one of them will shift at least one such ratio farther from the chosen value . if the defined quantile levels are equally spaced along the probability axis , the resulting filled buckets will all be of equal probability , because each interval between quantiles will represent an equal fraction of all of the accumulated data . that is the case illustrated in fig3 . it should be noted , however , that in practice there are often good reasons to space the defined quantile levels unequally along the probability axis . in such cases , the buckets will not all be of equal probability . [ 0024 ] fig4 is a histogram of a set of e - mail transaction times that we acquired from a network . it will be clear that the data represented in fig4 have a complicated distribution , including multiple peaks , a short left tail that ends at 1 ms , and a right tail extending from about 300 ms to times beyond 900 ms . in fact , the data from which the histogram of fig4 was generated , which consisted of 1779 measured transaction times , included scores extending out to 34 , 000 ms . thus , the right tail is extremely long , and only a small portion of it is shown in the figure . we have found that for characterizing data such as those of fig4 a quantile - based histogram is preferable to a fixed - length histogram , because the quantile - based histogram generally preserves more information about the distribution of data . for that reason , among others , the method that we are about to describe is based on the use of quantile endpoints to partition the data — i . e ., the raw scores — into buckets . [ 0026 ] fig5 is a symbolic representation of a pair of buffers useful for practicing the invention in an exemplary embodiment . the buffer denoted the “ d buffer ” in the figure holds , at a given time , n scores x 1 , . . . , x n sampled from the incoming data stream . the buffer denoted the “ q buffer ” holds , at a given time , m values q 1 , . . . , q m , each of which is an endpoint value for a respective , defined quantile . generally , q 1 is the endpoint for the 0 . 00 quantile level , and q m is the endpoint for the 1 . 00 level . the q buffer also contains the positive integer t , which represents the total number of scores that have entered into the computation of the present values of q 1 , . . . , q m . as will be described in detail below , the scores temporarily stored in the d buffer will be used to update the endpoint values in the q buffer . the d buffer will then be cleared and filled with a new sample of data , and the process will repeat . on the initial application of the method with a new data stream , t is zero . this has the effect that only the data in the d buffer is used . [ 0027 ] fig6 is a flowchart of our method , in an exemplary embodiment . the object of the procedure represented in fig6 is to update a set of endpoint values stored in the q buffer . as noted above , each endpoint value corresponds to a probability level , here denoted p m , for one of the m desired quantiles . at block 10 , the probability levels p m , m = 1 , . . . , m , for the defined quantiles are read . at block 20 , the corresponding endpoints q 1 , . . . , q m are read from the q buffer . we refer to these values as approximate quantile endpoints , because they are based on an initial portion of the incoming data stream , and are to be updated . at block 30 . the weight tis read from the q buffer . t is the total number of scores that have been taken into consideration in computing the endpoint values currently stored in the q buffer . at block 40 , the total number n of scores currently stored in the d buffer is read . at block 50 , the raw scores x 1 , . . . , x n are read from the d buffer . at block 60 , a function f q ( x ), referred to here as the “ provisional cdf ,” is defined . the variable x runs along the data axis . f q ( x ) is defined with reference to the probability levels p m and the endpoints q m according to the following rules : for intermediate values of x , i . e ., for values of x between q m − 1 and q m , the value of f q ( x ) is determined by interpolating between the value at q m − 1 and the value at q m . [ 0032 ] fig7 includes an example a of a provisional cdf constructed by linear interpolation between the endpoints q m it should be noted that in at least some cases , especially when the distribution of data has a long right tail , accuracy will be improved by using nonlinear interpolation instead of linear interpolation . by way of example , we have advantageously applied to the probability scale p the following nonlinear transformation g ( p ) prior to interpolation : g ( p ) = { log ( p / ( 1 - p ) , if p & gt ; 0 . 5 p - 0 . 5 , if p ≤ 0 . 5 g - 1 ( x ) = { ( 1 + exp ( - x ) ) - 1 , if x & gt ; 0 max ( 0 , x + 5 ) , if x ≤ 0 . the expression “ max ( 0 , x + 5 ) in the preceding formula is present because it is assumed that g − 1 ( x ) is defined for all real x . interpolation is then done linearly with respect to g ( p m ) at block 70 , a function f x ( x ) is computed from the raw scores in the d buffer . the function f x ( x ) approximates the statistical distribution of the data from the data stream during the period between the previous update and the present update . in the absence of other information , f x ( x ) will be computed as the empirical cumulative distribution according to well - known statistical procedures . however , it should be noted that our method is also advantageously practiced using alternative methods for estimating f x ( x ). for example , the estimate of f x ( x ) could be based on knowledge of the changing nature of the data stream . such knowledge can be incorporated , for example , when f x ( x ) is estimated as a parametric distribution described by a set of updateable parameters . in the illustrative embodiment described here , f x ( x ) is the empirical cumulative distribution . accordingly , in the following discussion , f x ( x ) will be referred to for convenience as the “ empirical cdf .” however , the use of that term does not limit the scope of the possible alternative forms and definitions that f x ( x ) might take . f x ( x ) is defined , for a given x , as the total number of scores x n that are less than or equal to x . an example b of an empirical cdf f x ( x ) is included in fig7 . it will be apparent from fig7 that f x ( x ) is typically a piecewise constant function , with the endpoints of each constant piece defined by successive , distinct scores x n . at block 80 , a further cdf , denoted f ( x ), is computed as a weighted average of the provisional cdf and the empirical cdf . the weight given to the provisional cdf is proportional to t , and the weight given to the empirical cdf is proportional to n . that is , f ( x ) is defined by : f ( x ) = t · f q ( x ) + n · f x ( x ) t + n . the above averaging procedure is illustrated in fig7 . fig7 includes an example c of a cdf obtained by taking the weighted average of provisional cdf a and empirical cdf b . at block 90 , the q buffer is updated with new quantile endpoints , and t is incremented by n to reflect the fact that n more scores have entered into the computation of the current set of quantile endpoints . the new quantile endpoints are computed from the weighted average cdf f ( x ) according to the following rule : q m new = the smallest x such that f ( x )≧ p m . it will be appreciated that the method described above processes incoming data block - by - block , where each block is one filling of the d buffer . such a method is not limited to the processing of a single stream of data that arrive sequentially in time . on the contrary , methods of the kind described above are readily adaptable for , e . g ., merging short - term data records , such as daily records , into longer - term records , such as weekly records . methods of the kind described above are also readily adaptable for merging records acquired by a collection of independent agents into a single , master record . the agents need not have operated sequentially , but instead , e . g ., may have carried out concurrent data acquisition . according to one possible scenario , each of a collection of k agents acquires data , and sends the data to a central location in a record of length i + 1 . two examples of agent records are provided in fig8 . agent record 100 contains t k scores , where t k ≦ i , and the record also contains the weight t k . where record 100 is the k ′ th of k records , the scores that it contains are denoted x k , 1 , . . . , x k , t k . agent record 110 is used when the agent has already computed a provisional cdf as described above , and from the provisional cdf together with a set of defined quantile probability levels has computed quantile endpoints r k , i , . . . , r k , i . in that case , agent record 110 contains the i computed endpoints , and also contains the weight t k , which is now the total number of scores taken into consideration in computing the current set of quantile endpoints r k , i , i = 1 , . . . , i . whether the agent sends a record of the type 100 or the type 110 will typically depend on the volume of data being processed by the agent . if in a particular iteration the agent is required to process more scores than can fit on its d buffer , or if the agent &# 39 ; s q buffer is already full , the agent will typically update the q buffer as described above in connection with fig6 and will send a record of the type 110 . otherwise , the agent will send a record of the type 100 . [ 0043 ] fig9 is a flowchart of a method for merging agent records , according to the invention in another exemplary embodiment . we first note that three different sets of quantiles , may be defined : one set for the q buffer at the central processing location , one set for the agent records , and one set for the output record that represents the merged data . accordingly , at block 120 of fig9 a set of quantile probability levels is read for use in the q buffer at the central processing location . this set consists of m quantile probability levels p m q , m = 1 , . . . , m . at block 130 , a set of quantile probability levels is read for use in the agent records . this set consists of i probability levels p i r , i = 1 , . . . , i . the generation of an output record is discussed below in connection with fig1 . at block 300 of fig1 , as will be seen , a set of quantile probability levels is read for use in the output record that characterizes the merged data . this set consists of j probability levels p j s , j = 1 , . . . , j . at block 150 , the current approximate quantile endpoints q 1 , . . . , q m are read from the q buffer at the central processing location . as noted above , t is zero in the initial application of the method . as a consequence , the contents of the q buffer are not used . at block 160 , the approximate quantile endpoints are used to define a provisional cdf f q ( x ) as explained above in connection with fig6 . as indicated at block 170 , agent record k is now obtained . if this is the first iteration , then record k is the first agent record ; otherwise , it is the next agent record in sequence . as indicated at block 180 , the treatment of agent record k depends on whether or not the record holds quantiles ; i . e ., on whether it is a record of the type 110 or a record of the type 100 . if the record contains quantiles , control passes to block 190 , to be described below . otherwise , control passes to block 220 , to be described below . if control has passed to block 190 , agent record k contains quantiles . accordingly , at block 190 , the quantile endpoints r k , i , . . . , r k , i are read from the agent record . the weight t k , indicative of the total number of scores taken into consideration in computing the quantile endpoints , is also read . at block 200 , a provisional cdf f k ( x ) is defined using the quantile endpoints from agent record k and the probability levels p i r for the agent records . that is , for x = r k , i , f k ( x )= p i r . for values of x that fall between the endpoints r k , i , interpolation is used as described above . at block 230 , a representation of the resulting provisional cdf f k ( x ) is stored , together with the weight t k . if control has passed to block 220 , agent record k does not contain quantiles , but instead contains raw scores x k i , . . . , x k , t k . at block 220 , these raw scores are read from the agent record into the d buffer at the central processing location , and t k is read . additionally , the cdf f k ( x ) is constructed at block 220 , as an empirical cdf , from the raw scores that have been read into the d buffer at the central processing location . in fig9 these scores are denoted x i , . . . , x n . the construction of an empirical cdf is as described earlier with reference to fig6 . at block 220 , the raw scores from any number of individual agent records are optionally pooled and treated as a single data set , with t k adjusted to reflect the total weight of the pooled scores . as noted above , the term “ empirical cdf ” has been adopted for convenience , and should not be understood as limiting the possible forms that the agent cdf might take . instead , like the method described with reference to fig6 the method described here remains valid if f k ( x ) is chosen as any appropriate estimate for the distribution of the incoming data . the empirical cdf , in the strict sense of that term , is the typical choice in the absence of other information . at block 230 , t k and the cdf f k ( x ) are stored at the central processing location . if the current agent record is not the last agent record , control now returns to block 170 for a further iteration . otherwise , control passes to block 240 . at block 240 , a new cdf , denoted f merged ( x ) in fig9 is exemplarily constructed by computing a weighted average of : the provisional cdf f q ( x ) related to the q buffer at the central processing location , and each of the provisional or empirical cdfs f k ( x ) related to the respective agent records . specifically , f merged ( x ) is defined by : f merged ( x ) = tf q ( x ) + ∑ k t k f k ( x ) t + ∑ k t k . the summations in the preceding expression are carried out over all agent records . it will be appreciated that the preceding formula for the merged cdf gives equal weight to each score . this formula is readily generalized by permitting each of the agent weights t k to be freely adjustable . for example , setting each of the agent weights to unity results in a merged cdf in which each agent , rather than each score , has equal weight . it should be noted that arithmetic averaging is only one of various methods for updating a merged cdf , all of which lie within the scope of the present invention . for example , the merged cdf may be defined by a set of parameters , and the updating of the merged cdf may be performed by updating the parameters so that they reflect knowledge both of the previous merged cdf and of the agent records . at block 250 , new quantile endpoints q m new are computed for storage in the q buffer at the central processing location according to : q m new = the smallest x such that f merged ( x )≧ p m q . at block 260 , the weight factor t is updated by adding to it the total of all agent weight factors t k . that is , output records may be produced at any time , using the current cdf f merged ( x ). as noted above , a set of quantile probability levels is read at block 300 of fig1 for use in the output record that characterizes the merged data . this set consists of j probability levels p j s , j = 1 , . . . , j . at block 310 of fig1 , the output record is prepared by setting new quantile endpoints s j , j = 1 , . . . , j . these endpoints , denoted “ output record quantile endpoints ” in fig1 , are prepared from the cdf f merged ( x ) and from the probability levels p j s that were read in block 300 . specifically , the endpoints s i are defined by : s j = the smallest x such that f merged ( x )≧ p j s , j = 1 , . . . , j . it should be noted that when merging , e . g ., hourly records into daily records . it is convenient to start the q buffer and the d buffer at the beginning of each new hourly period . however , there are at least some circumstances , e . g . in the analysis of network performance data , when data from one reporting period ( such as an hourly period ) are relevant to performance in the next reporting period . under such circumstances , it may be advantageous to start the q buffer , at the beginning of the next , e . g ., hour , in its final state from the previous hour , but with a scaled - down weight factor . | 8 |
inasmuch as the etch rate of photoresist utilizing a solution of o 3 in di water increases linearly with the increase in o 3 concentration , the object of the present invention is to provide a method which significantly increases the o 3 concentration in a di water solution from the methods currently available . in addition , the series of nozzles seek to increase the velocity rate of the dio 3 water so as to reduce the boundary layer thickness and therefore increase the rate of etching . the increase in velocity rate of the dio 3 water coming out of the nozzles is a function of nozzle pressure . the higher the nozzle pressure , the higher the velocity . additionally , the o 3 concentration in the dio 3 water can be increased by providing a pressurized ozone gas atmosphere in the process tank as the nozzles spray the wafers with the dio 3 water . by providing an ozone gas atmosphere within the tank and under pressure , the o 3 more readily diffuses into the dio 3 water as it being sprayed from the nozzles and contacting the wafers . the increase in diffusion increases the o 3 concentration , thus increasing strip rates . in processing semiconductor wafers , the wafers are often transported and processed in cassettes that can hold a plurality of wafers . in the present invention , semiconductor wafers having a layer or multi - layers of photoresist are exposed to pressurized dio 3 water at ambient temperature and with a velocity produced by a series of nozzles . the process tank is pressurized and / or contains an ozone gas atmosphere when the wafers are positioned therein for processing . this results in an etching or removal of the photoresist at a higher rate than previously known . referring to fig1 the illustrated photoresist removal apparatus includes a process tank 10 which holds semiconductor wafers 20 in a cassette 30 . the semiconductor wafers 20 have a layer or multiple layers of photoresist baked onto them . the semiconductor wafers 20 are first loaded into cassette 30 . loaded cassette 30 is then positioned within process tank 10 . as illustrated , wafers 20 are in a substantially vertical position and are spaced so that the photoresist can be removed as quickly and completely as possible . alternatively , cassette 30 does not have to be used and wafers 20 can be positioned and supported in process tank 10 in any acceptable manner . moreover , the present invention is applicable to single wafer processing methods and apparatus . once wafers 20 are positioned in process tank 10 , lid 15 is closed . the semiconductor wafers 20 are exposed to dio 3 water 70 through spray nozzles 80 . process tank 20 and dio 3 water 70 is maintained or above ambient temperature . the temperature can range from 20 - 50 ° c . dio 3 water 70 is produced in the following manner . first , oxygen ( o 2 ) 45 is fed into ozone generator 60 . ozone generator 60 converts oxygen 45 into pure ozone gas 50 using conventional methods . pure ozone gas then feeds into ozonator 100 where it can take one of two routes : ( 1 ) pure ozone gas 50 can pass directly into process tank 10 by passing through 03 pressure plenum 90 ; or ( 2 ) pure ozone gas 50 will be combined with deionized water 40 by ozonator 100 , thus forming dio 3 water 70 which is then fed into process tank 10 via nozzles 80 . in performing a photoresist stripping process according to one embodiment of the present invention , pure ozone gas 50 is first produced in ozone generator 60 as described above . this pure ozone gas 50 flows into ozonator 100 . a portion of this pure ozone gas 50 is allowed to flow directly into process tank 10 through 03 pressure plenum 90 until a pressurized ozone gas atmosphere is created in process tank 10 at a desired pressure between 1 to 3 atmospheres . ozonator 100 also combines a portion of incoming pure ozone gas 50 with incoming deionized water 40 , thus forming dio 3 water 70 to be pumped into process tank 10 via multiple nozzles 80 . the multiple nozzles 80 thus produce a dio 3 fog wherein the dio 3 fog interacts with the photoresist on the semiconductor wafers 20 . alternatively , nozzles 80 can be adjusted to spray dio 3 water 70 over wafers 70 as droplets . the multiple nozzles 80 can produce dio 3 droplets varying in diameter which then interact with the photoresist on the semiconductor wafers 20 . the droplet size of the sprayed deionized_water will range from a few microns in the fogging stage to a few millimeters in size once collected on the semiconductor wafers 20 . the level of ozone in the dio 3 water 70 is kept in constant through regulation of a first o 3 gas sensor located downstream of ozonator 100 but before nozzles 80 . if the ozone level is high enough , the pure ozone gas 50 is allowed to pass directly into process tank 10 through o 3 pressure plenum 90 . on the other hand , if the ozone level is too low , the ozone gas 50 is combined with deionized water 40 in ozonator 100 where more ozone is added until it reaches the proper level , at which time the dio 3 water 70 passes into the process tank 10 . upon condensation of the dio 3 water 70 as droplets upon the semiconductor wafers 20 the dio 3 water 40 is collected in the bottom of the process tank 10 as liquid 150 . the dio 3 liquid 150 is recirculated through process tank 10 by flowing the dio 3 liquid 150 from the process tank 10 , into pump 120 , through filter 140 , and back through ozonator 100 for introduction back into tank 10 via nozzles 80 . before recirculated dio 3 liquid 150 passes into ozonator 100 , it passes through a second dissolved o 3 gas sensor ( not illustrated ) which measures the concentration of o 3 present in the recirculated dio 3 liquid 150 . if the o 3 concentartion level is too low , a signal is sent to ozonator 100 to add more pure ozone gas 50 to the recirculated liquid 150 as it passes therethrough . as mentioned above the pressure in the process tank 10 is maintained at or above the atmospheric pressure to help maintain a high ozone concentration in the dio 3 water 70 contacting wafers 20 , thus enhancing the stripping rate . further , since the process tank 10 is kept pressurized the temperature within the process tank 10 is increased above ambient temperature , preferably process tank 10 is maintained between 20 and 50 degrees celsius through the use of temperature sensor 160 which will be operably connected to a source of heat and a properly programmed processor . alternatively , the temperature sensor can be operably connected to measure ( and adjust if necessary ) the temperature of dio 3 water 70 prior to being sprayed by nozzles 80 . referring now to fig2 the rate relationship between the ambient temperature and concentration of ozone in the dio 3 water 70 indicates that a process time of 15 - 25 minutes can be used to strip about 15000 angstrom of positive hard baked photoresist at ambient temperature . the photoresist strip rate depends on the dissolved o 3 concentration and average fluid velocity . referring now to fig3 which presents experimental data showing the relationship between the etching rate and the velocity of dio 3 water 40 , the higher the kinetic energy ( from the fluid velocities ) and ozone concentration , the shorter the strip time . by increasing the fluid velocity and turbulence intensity , ozone is introduced to the wafer surface and penetrates the boundary layer . the series of nozzles play a significant role to reduce the process time significantly when optimized . the removal rate has shown to depend on the fluid velocity , turbulence intensity , and ozone concentration . as mentioned earlier , as the nozzle pressure of nozzles 80 is increased , the fluid velocity also increases . it has been fond that a nozzle pressure of 1 to 10 atmospheres is acceptable , with a nozzle pressure of 5 - 10 atmospheres being preferable . the nozzle pressure of the dio 3 water directly affects the o 3 concentration on the boundary layer and correspondingly affects the etch rate . in summary , the etch rate is affected by the o 3 concentration in the di water which is in turn affected by the temperature and pressure of the dio 3 water . further , the etch rate is directly affected by the velocity rate of the dio 3 water . various modifications and alterations of this invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of this invention , and it should be understood that this invention is not limited to the illustrative embodiments set forth herein . | 8 |
before entering into the detailed description of the preferred embodiments , several terms are defined , which terms will be revisited later , when some relevant analytical issues are discussed . for the purposes of this disclosure a cavity wall with a larger - than - normal or high - span cavity is defined as a wall in which the exterior surface of the inner wythe is spaced from the interior surface of the outer wythe by more than four inches ( as measured along a line normal to the surfaces ). when such high - span cavities occur , the effect is that stronger joint reinforcements are required in the inner wythe to support the stresses imparted by anchoring the more distant outer wythe or brick veneer . as described hereinbelow , this is accomplished while still maintaining building code requirements for masonry structures , including the mortar bed joint height specification of 0 . 375 inches . although thicker gage wire formatives are required for greater strength , it is still preferable to have some of the bed joint mortar covering the wall anchor structure . thus , in practical terms , the optimal height of the assemblage inserted into the bed joint of the outer wythe is approximately 0 . 300 inches . another term defined for purposes of this application is wall reinforcement . a wall reinforcement is a continuous length of lox all ® truss mesh or lox all ® ladder mesh manufactured by hohmann & amp ; barnard , inc ., hauppauge , n . y . 11788 or equivalent adapted for embedment into the horizontal mortar joints of masonry walls . the wall reinforcements are prefabricated from cold - drawn steel wire and have parallel side rods with butt welded cross rods or truss components . the wall reinforcements for high - span anchoring systems are generally structured from wire that is at least 3 / 16 - inch in diameter . referring now to fig1 through 4 , the first embodiment of a high - span anchoring system for a cavity wall is now discussed in detail . for the first embodiment , a cavity wall having an insulative layer of 3½ inches ( approx .) and a total span of 6 inches ( approx .) is chosen as exemplary . this structure meets the r - factor requirements of the public sector building specification , see supra . the high - span anchoring system is referred to generally by the numeral 10 . a cavity wall structure 12 is shown having an inner wythe 14 of masonry blocks 16 and an outer wythe 18 of facing brick 20 . between the inner wythe 14 and the outer wythe 18 , a cavity 22 is formed . the cavity 22 is insulated with strips of insulation 23 attached to the exterior surface 24 of the inner wythe 14 and having seams 25 between adjacent strips 23 coplanar with adjacent bed joints 26 and 28 . the cavity 22 is larger - than - normal and has a 6 - inch span . successive bed joints 26 and 28 are formed between courses of blocks 16 . the bed joints 26 and 28 are substantially planar and horizontally disposed and in accord with building standards are 0 . 375 - inch ( approx .) in height . also , successive bed joints 30 and 32 are formed between courses of bricks 20 and the joints are substantially planar and horizontally disposed . selected bed joint 26 and bed joint 30 are constructed to be interconnected utilizing the construct hereof ; however , in this embodiment , the joints 26 and 30 are unaligned . for purposes of discussion , the cavity surface 24 of the inner wythe 14 contains a horizontal line or x - axis 34 and an intersecting vertical line or y - axis 36 . a horizontal line or z - axis 38 also passes through the coordinate origin formed by the intersecting x - and y - axes . a wall anchor 40 is shown which has an insulation - spanning portion 42 . wall anchor 40 is a wire formative tie which is constructed for embedment in bed joint 26 and an interconnecting veneer tie 44 . the masonry or wall anchor 40 is adapted from one shown and described in hohmann , u . s . pat . no . 5 , 454 , 200 , which patent is incorporated herein by reference . the wall anchor 40 is shown in fig1 as being emplaced on a course of blocks 16 in preparation for embedment in the mortar of bed joint 26 . in this embodiment , the system includes a ladder - type wall reinforcement 46 , a wall anchor 40 and a veneer tie 44 . the wall reinforcement 46 is constructed of a wire formative with two parallel continuous straight , side wires 48 and 50 spaced so as , upon installation , to each be centered along the outer walls of the masonry blocks 16 . an intermediate wire body or a plurality of cross rods 52 are interposed therebetween and connect wire members 48 and 50 forming rung - like portions of the ladder - type reinforcement 46 . at intervals along the ladder - type reinforcement 46 , spaced pairs of transverse wire members 54 are attached thereto and are attached to each other by a rear leg 56 therebetween . these pairs of wire members 54 extend into the cavity 22 . the spacing therebetween limits the x - axis movement of the construct . each transverse wire member 54 has at the end opposite the attachment end , an eye wire portion 58 formed continuous therewith . upon installation , the eye 60 of eye wire portion 58 is constructed to be within a substantially vertical plane normal to exterior surface 24 . the eye 60 is elongated vertically in both directions to accept a veneer tie threadedly therethrough from the unaligned bed joint . the eye 60 is slightly larger horizontally than the diameter of the tie . this dimensional relationship minimizes the z - axis movement of the construct . for positive interengagement , the eye 60 of eye wire portion 58 is sealed forming a closed loop . the wall tie or box tie 44 fig2 , is , when viewed from a top or bottom elevation , generally rectangular in shape and is a basically planar body . the box wall tie 44 is dimensioned to be accommodated by a pair of eye wire portions 58 described , supra . the wall tie 44 has a rear leg portion 62 , two parallel side leg portions 64 and 66 , which are contiguous and attached to the rear leg portion 62 at one end thereof , and two parallel front leg portions 68 and 70 . to facilitate installation , the front leg portions 68 and 70 are spaced apart at least by the diameter of the eye wire member 58 . the longitudinal axes of leg portions 66 and 68 and the longitudinal axes of the contiguous portions of the side leg portions 64 and 66 are substantially coplanar . the side leg portions 64 and 66 are structured to function cooperatively with the spacing of transverse wire members 54 to limit the x - axis movement of the construct . the box tie 44 is constructed so that with insertion through eye 60 , the misalignment tolerated is approximately one - half the vertical spacing between adjacent bed joints of the facing brick course . as will be described in more detail hereinbelow , the insertion portion 72 of veneer tie 44 is considerably compressed with the vertical height 74 being reduced . upon compression , a pattern or corrugation 76 is impressed . for high - span applications , the above - described arrangement of wire formatives has been strengthened in several ways . first , in place of the standard 9 - gage ( 0 . 148 - inch diameter ) wall reinforcement wire , a 3 / 16 - inch ( 0 . 187 - inch diameter ) wire is used . additionally a 0 . 250 - inch wire is used to form both the wall anchor 40 and the veneer anchor 44 . to approximate the 0 . 300 - inch optimal height , see supra , the insertion ends of both anchors 40 and 44 and the corresponding attachment site at cross rod 52 are compressively reduced in height . in this regard , side rod 48 and cross rod 52 are reduced to 68 % to a height of 0 . 130 - inch ; and the anchors 68 %, to a height of 0 . 170 - inch . although in this example to compressively size the components the same reduction is used , the components are selectively compressible . by way of further example , when the wall reinforcement at 0 . 187 - inch is not reduced in height , the corresponding wall anchor may be reduced to 46 % to meet the 0 . 300 - inch optimal height . as a general rule , compressive reductions up to 75 % are utilized and high - span strength calculations are based thereon . as described in a prior patent of the present inventors , namely , hohmann et al ., u . s . pat . no . 6 , 279 , 283 , the insertion ends of the wall anchor is , upon cold - forming , optionally impressed with a pattern on the mortar - contacting surfaces . for this application , while several patterns — corrugated , diamond and cellular — are discussed in the patent , only the corrugated pattern is employed . the ridges and valleys of the corrugations are shown in fig1 and 2 and are impressed so that , upon installation , the corrugations are parallel to the x - axis . in fig3 , the lower surface of wall reinforcement 46 is shown having corrugations 78 impressed on side rod 48 and corrugations 80 impressed on cross rods 52 . the high - span cavity , as previously mentioned , results from a requirement of a thick , high r - factor insulation layer 23 which is shown in fig4 . the successive insulation strips 23 when in an abutting relationship the one with the other are sufficiently resilient to seal at seam 25 without air leakage therebetween . the extended insulation - spanning portions 42 of wall anchor 40 are flattened . this results in minimal interference with seal at seam 25 . the description which follows is of a second embodiment of the high - span anchoring system of this invention . for ease of comprehension , where similar parts are used reference designators “ 100 ” units higher are employed . thus , the veneer tie 144 of the second embodiment is analogous to the veneer tie 44 of the first embodiment . referring now to fig5 and 6 , the second embodiment of a high - span anchoring system of this invention is shown and is referred to generally by the numeral 110 . as in the first embodiment , a wall structure 112 is shown having an inner wythe 114 of masonry blocks 116 and an outer wythe 118 of facing brick 120 . between the inner wythe 114 and the outer wythe 118 , a cavity 122 is formed . the cavity 122 is insulated with strips of insulation 123 attached to the exterior surface 124 of the inner wythe 114 and having seams 125 between adjacent strips coplanar with adjacent bed joint 126 . the cavity 122 is larger - than - normal and has a 5 - inch span . successive bed joints 126 and 128 are formed between courses of blocks 116 and the joints are substantially planar and horizontally disposed . also , successive bed joints 130 and 132 are formed between courses of bricks 120 and the joints are substantially planar and horizontally disposed . selected bed joint 126 and bed joint 130 are constructed to be interconnected utilizing the construct hereof ; however , the joints 126 and 130 are unaligned . for purposes of discussion , the exterior surface 124 of the interior wythe 114 contains a horizontal line or x - axis 134 and an intersecting vertical line or y - axis 136 . a horizontal line or z - axis 138 normal to the xy - plane also passes through the coordinate origin formed by the intersecting x - and y - axes . the wall anchor 140 is shown in fig6 as having an insulation - spanning portion or extension 142 for interconnection with veneer tie 144 and further is shown as being emplaced on a course of blocks 116 in preparation for embedment in the mortar of bed joint 126 . in this embodiment , a truss - type wall reinforcement 146 is constructed of a wire formative with two parallel continuous straight side wire members 148 and 150 spaced so as , upon installation , to each be centered along the outer walls of the masonry blocks 116 . an intermediate wire body 152 is interposed therebetween and connect wire members 148 and 150 separating and connecting side wires 148 and 150 reinforcement 146 . at intervals along the truss - type reinforcement 146 , spaced pairs of transverse wire members 154 are attached thereto and are attached to each other by a rear leg 156 therebetween . these pairs of wire members 154 extend into the cavity 122 . each transverse wire member 154 has at the end opposite the attachment end an eye wire portion 158 formed continuous therewith . upon installation , the eyes 160 of eye wire portion 158 are constructed to be within a substantially horizontal plane normal to exterior surface 124 . the eyes 160 are horizontally aligned to accept the pintles of a veneer tie 144 threaded therethrough from the unaligned bed joint . the eyes 160 are slightly larger than the diameter of the pintles , which dimensional relationships minimize the x - and z - axis movement of the construct . for ensuring engagement , the pintles of veneer tie member 144 are available in a variety of lengths . the low - profile veneer tie or wire formative wall tie 144 is , when viewed from a top or bottom elevation , generally u - shaped . the low - profile wall tie 144 is dimensioned to be accommodated by a pair of eye wire portions 158 described , supra . the wall tie 144 has two rear leg portions or pintles 162 and 164 , two parallel side leg portions 166 and 168 , which are substantially at right angles and attached to the rear leg portions 162 and 164 , respectively , and a front leg portion 170 . an insertion portion 172 of veneer tie 144 , upon installation extends beyond the cavity 122 into bed joint 130 , which portion includes front leg portion 170 and part of side leg portions 166 and 168 . the longitudinal axes of side leg portions 166 and 168 and the longitudinal axis of the front leg portion 170 are substantially coplanar . in the second embodiment and for the high - span applications , the above - described arrangement of wire formatives has been strengthened in several respects . first , in place of the standard 9 - gage ( 0 . 148 - inch diameter ) wall reinforcement wire , a 3 / 16 - inch ( 0 . 187 - inch diameter ) wire is used . additionally a 0 . 250 - inch wire is used to form both the wall anchor 40 and the veneer anchor 144 . in contradistinction to the first embodiment to approximate the 0 . 300 - inch optimal height , see supra , the insertion ends of only anchors 140 and 144 are compressively reduced in height . in this regard , wall anchor 140 is reduced by 50 % to a height of 0 . 125 - inch ; and veneer tie 144 by 68 %, to a height of 0 . 170 - inch . also and similar to the first embodiment , the successive insulation strips 123 when in an abutting relationship the one with the other are sufficiently resilient to seal at seam 125 without air leakage therebetween . the extended insulation - spanning portions 142 of wall anchor 140 are flattened . this results in minimal interference with seal at seam 125 . upon compressing the insertion ends of wall anchors 140 and 144 , a corrugated pattern is optionally impressed thereon . the ridges and valleys of the corrugations 176 are shown in fig5 and 6 and are impressed so that , upon installation , the corrugations 176 are parallel to the x - axis 134 . the insertion portion 172 of veneer tie 144 is considerably compressed and , while maintaining the same mass of material per linear unit as the adjacent wire formative , the vertical height 174 is reduced . the vertical height 174 of insertion portion 172 is reduced so that , upon installation , mortar of bed joint 130 flows around the insertion portion 172 . upon compression , a pattern or corrugation 176 is impressed on either or both of the upper and lower surfaces of insertion portion 172 . when the mortar of bed joint 128 flows around the insertion portion , the mortar flows into the valleys of the corrugations 176 . the corrugations enhance the mounting strength of the veneer tie 144 and resist force vectors along the z - axis 138 . with wall tie 144 compressed as described , the wall tie is characterized by maintaining substantially all the tensile strength as prior to compression . the description which follows is of a third embodiment of the high - span anchoring system of this invention . for ease of comprehension , where similar parts are used reference designators “ 200 ” units higher are employed . thus , the wall anchor 240 of the third embodiment is analogous to the wall anchor 40 of the first embodiment . the veneer anchor of this embodiment is adapted from that shown in u . s . pat . no . 5 , 454 , 200 to r . p . hohmann . referring now to fig7 and 8 , the third embodiment of a high - span anchoring system of this invention is shown and is referred to generally by the numeral 210 . in this embodiment , a wall structure 212 is shown having an inner wythe 214 of masonry blocks 216 and an outer wythe 218 of facing brick 220 . between the inner wythe 214 and the outer wythe 218 , a cavity 222 is formed , which cavity 222 has an exterior surface 224 . in the third embodiment , successive bed joints 226 and 228 are formed between courses of blocks 216 and the joints are substantially planar and horizontally disposed . also , successive bed joints 230 and 232 are formed between courses of bricks 220 and the joints are substantially planar and horizontally disposed . for each structure , the bed joints 226 , 228 , 230 and 232 are specified as to the height or thickness of the mortar layer and such thickness specification is rigorously adhered to so as to provide the uniformity inherent in quality construction . selected bed joint 226 and bed joint 230 are constructed to align , that is to be substantially coplanar , the one with the other . for purposes of discussion , the exterior surface 224 of the inner wythe 214 contains a horizontal line or x - axis 234 and an intersecting vertical line or y - axis 236 . a horizontal line or z - axis 238 normal to the xy - plane also passes through the coordinate origin formed by the intersecting x - and y - axes . in the discussion which follows , it will be seen that the various anchor structures are constructed to restrict movement interfacially — wythe vs . wythe — along the z - axis and , in this embodiment , along the y - axis . the system 210 includes a masonry wall anchor 240 constructed for embedment in bed joint 226 , which , in turn , includes a cavity - spanning or extension portion 242 . further , the system 210 includes a low - profile , wire formative veneer tie member 244 for embedment in bed joint 230 . the wall anchor 240 is shown in fig7 as being emplaced on a course of blocks 216 in preparation for embedment in the mortar of bed joint 226 . in the best mode of practicing the invention , a ladder - type wall reinforcement wire portion 246 is constructed of a wire formative with two parallel continuous straight wire members 248 and 250 spaced so as , upon installation , to each be centered along the outer walls of the masonry blocks 216 . an intermediate wire bodies or cross rods 252 are interposed therebetween and connect wire members 248 and 250 forming rung - like portions of the ladder structure 246 . at intervals along the wall reinforcement 246 , spaced pairs of transverse wire members 254 are attached thereto and are attached to each other by a rear leg 256 therebetween . these pairs of wire members 254 are contiguous with extension portions 242 and extend across the cavity 222 to veneer tie 244 . as will become clear by the description which follows , the spacing between the transverse wire member 254 is constructed to limit the x - axis movement of the construct . each transverse wire member 254 has at the end opposite the attachment end an eye wire portion 258 formed continuous therewith . upon installation , the eye 260 of eye wire portion 258 is constructed to be within a substantially vertical plane normal to exterior surface 224 . the eye 260 is dimensioned to accept a veneer tie threadedly therethrough and is thus slightly larger than the diameter of the tie . this relationship minimizes the z - axis movement of the construct . for positive engagement , the eye 260 of eye wire portion 258 is sealed forming a closed loop . the veneer tie 244 is generally rectangular in shape and is dimensioned to be accommodated by a pair of eye wires 258 previously described . the wall tie 244 has a rear leg portion 262 , two parallel side leg portions 264 and 266 , and two front leg portions 268 and 270 , which have been compressively reduced in height . the front leg portions 268 and 270 are spaced apart at least by the diameter of the veneer reinforcing wire member 271 . an insertion portion 272 of wall tie 244 , upon installation , extends beyond cavity 222 into bed joint 230 , which portion includes front leg portions 268 and 270 and part of side leg portions 264 and 266 adjacent to front leg portions 268 and 270 , respectively . the longitudinal axes of leg portions 262 , 264 , 266 , 268 and 270 are substantially coplanar . the side leg portions 264 and 266 are structured to function cooperatively with the spacing of transverse wire members 254 to limit the x - axis movement of the construct . the insertion portion 272 is considerably compressed and , while maintaining the same mass of material per linear unit as the adjacent wire formative , the vertical height 274 is reduced . the vertical height 274 of insertion portion 272 is reduced so that , upon installation , mortar of bed joint 230 flows around the insertion portion 272 . upon compression , a pattern or corrugation 276 is impressed on insertion portion 272 and , upon the mortar of bed joint 230 flowing around the insertion portion , the mortar flows into the corrugations 276 . for enhanced holding , the corrugations 276 are , upon installation , substantially parallel to x - axis 234 . in this embodiment , an indentation 278 is swaged into leg portion 266 opposite the opending between front leg portions 268 and 270 , which indentation is dimensioned to accommodate veneer reinforcing wire 271 . with the insertions end 272 of veneer tie 244 as described , the wall tie is characterized by maintaining substantially all the tensile strength as prior to compression while acquiring a desired low profile . the third embodiment is for high - span applications in which larger - than - normal cavities occur , but for reasons other than increased insulation . the above - described arrangement of wire formatives has been strengthened in several ways . first , in place of the standard 9 - gage ( 0 . 148 - inch diameter ) wall reinforcement wire , a 3 / 16 - inch ( 0 . 187 - inch diameter ) wire is used throughout . here , wall reinforcement 246 , wall anchor 240 , the veneer tie 244 , and veneer reinforcing wire 271 are all formed from 0 . 187 - inch diameter wire . in the inner wythe 214 to approximate the 0 . 300 - inch optimal height the attachment site at cross rod 252 are compressively reduced in height . in this regard , side rod 248 and cross rod 252 are reduced to 60 % of original height to a height of 0 . 113 - inch . additionally , the insertion end 272 of veneer tie 244 is reduced in height to 75 % of original height to a height of 0 . 140 - inch with the indentation 278 to a height of 0 . 110 - inch . this enables the veneer reinforcing wire 271 to interlock with the veneer tie within the 0 . 300 - inch tolerance . although in this example compressive sizing is limited , the embodiment demonstrates the flexibility provided to architectural engineers by selectively compressing either or both the inner and outer wythe anchoring components . analytically , wall anchor calculations entail viewing a weight hanging from the end of a beam . here , the circular cross - section of a wire provides greater flexural strength than a sheetmetal counterpart . in the embodiments described herein the wire components of the wall anchors are cold - worked or partially flattened so that the above - referenced height specification is maintained and high - strength anchors are provided for the high - span cavities . it has been found that , when the appropriate metal alloy is cold - worked , the desired plastic deformation takes place with a concomitant increase in tensile strength and a decrease in ductility . these property changes suit the application at hand . in deforming a wire with a circular cross - section , the cross - section of the resultant body is substantially semicircular at the outer edges with a rectangular body therebetween , fig9 . the deformed body has substantially the same cross - sectional area as the original wire . in each example in fig9 , progressive deformation of a wire is shown . disregarding elongation and noting the prior comments , the topmost portion shows the original wire having a radius , r 1 = 1 ; and area , a 1 = π ; length of deformation , l = 0 ; and a diameter , d 1 . upon successive deformations , the illustrations shows the area of circular cross - section being progressively ½ , ⅜ , and ¼ of the area , a 1 , or a 2 = ½ π ; a 3 = ⅜ π ; and a 4 = ¼ π , respectively . with the first deformation , the rectangular portion has a length l = 1 . 11r ( in terms of the initial radius of 1 ); a height , h 2 = 1 . 14 ; ( or d 2 = 0 . 71d 1 , where d = diameter ); and therefore has an area of approximately ½π . likewise , with the second deformation , the rectangular portion has a length , l = 1 . 38r ; a height , h 3 = 1 . 14 ; a diameter d 3 = 0 . 57d 1 ; and therefore has an area of approximately ⅝ π . yet again , with the third deformation , the rectangular portion has a length , l = 2 . 36r ; a height h 4 = 1 ; a diameter , d 4 = 0 . 50d 1 ; and therefore has an area of approximately ¾ π . from these estimation formulas , the degree of plastic deformation to remain at a 0 . 300 inch ( approx .) combined height for the truss and wall tie can , as will be seen hereinbelow , be used to optimize the high - span anchoring system . turning once again to practical considerations , high - strength truss and ladder reinforcements for extra heavy applications utilize 9 gage — 0 . 148 inch diameter — and 3 / 16 inch – 0 . 187 inch diameter wires . in these applications , the 9 - gage wire is used in the cross rods of the reinforcement with the 3 / 16 - inch wire being used for the side rods and thereby filling 0 . 335 inch of the 0 . 375 bed joint space . optimizing the added strength provided by the cold working of the metal alloy and using wire compression techniques , high - span anchoring systems are now able to utilize 0 . 187 - inch diameter wire in the side rods and 0 . 250 - inch diameter wire with compressive reduction in height up to 75 %. this enables the stacked elements to have a combined height in the 0 . 300 - inch range and thereby permits an adequate mortar coverage in the bed joint . because many varying and different embodiments may be made within the scope of the inventive concept herein taught , and because many modifications may be made in the embodiments herein detailed in accordance with the descriptive requirement of the law , it is to be understood that the details herein are to be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense . | 4 |
it should be understood that the figures are merely schematic and are not drawn to scale . it should also be understood that the same reference numerals are used throughout the figures to indicate the same or similar parts . fig4 schematically depicts a top view of a bipolar transistor according to an embodiment of the present invention . visible are an emitter region 40 , field plates 50 , an etch protect oxide layer 34 and an isolation region such as sti ( shallow trench isolation ) 12 . a method of manufacturing such a bipolar transistor will be explained with the aid of fig5 ( a )-( i ) and fig6 ( a )-( i ). in the following embodiments , the collector region , the buried collector if present and the emitter of the bipolar transistor are doped with an impurity of a first conductivity type whereas the base is doped with an impurity of a second conductivity type , with the second conductivity type being different to the first conductivity type . for instance , the first conductivity type may be n - type , whereas the second conductivity type may be p - type . alternatively , the first conductivity type may be p - type , whereas the second conductivity type may be n - type . the collector region and the buried collector may be formed in a substrate of the same conductivity type as the collector , e . g . an n - type collector may be formed in an n - type substrate , such as an n - type silicon substrate . the buried collector typically has a higher doping level than the collector region . although the present invention may be applied to any bipolar transistor design , the present invention will be explained by way of non - limiting example for a heterojunction bipolar transistor produced in a cmos process with additional process steps for forming the bipolar transistor , i . e . a bicmos process , and having an n - type collector and emitter and a p - type base . it should be understood that different types of bipolar transistors , e . g . having a p - type collector and emitter and an n - type base are also feasible . a possible starting point of the method of the present invention is shown in fig5 ( a ) and fig6 ( a ). a substrate 10 comprising isolation regions 12 such as shallow trench isolation regions is provided . the isolation regions 12 typically delimit an active region of a bipolar transistor in the substrate 10 . in an embodiment , the substrate 10 is an n - type silicon substrate 10 , which may for instance be doped with an n - type impurity such as arsenic ( as ). the substrate 10 typically comprises a collector region 11 , e . g . a relatively lowly - doped collector formed by epitaxial growth or implantation in the substrate 10 . the substrate 10 typically comprises a highly - doped collector region 20 , e . g . a buried collector formed by a buried layer grown epitaxially in the substrate 10 or an implanted collector . the highly - doped collector region 20 typically comprises the same impurity type as the collector 11 but at a higher concentration . at least part of the substrate 10 between the highly - doped collector region 20 and the base region 30 on which the emitter is formed as will be explained later defines the collector 11 . the substrate 10 further comprises a collector contact region 22 preferably having a yet higher concentration of the same type of impurity than the highly - doped collector region 20 and the substrate 10 to provide for a reduced series resistance between the top surface of the collector contact region 22 and the highly - doped collector 20 . any suitable implementation of the highly - doped collector 20 and / or the collector contact region 22 may be contemplated . as such implementations are well - known to the skilled person they will not be explained in further detail for reasons of brevity only . a patterned nitride layer ( not shown ) optionally may be formed over the isolation regions 12 , whilst leaving exposed the active region in between the isolation regions 12 . on this structure , a base layer 30 may be epitaxially grown , resulting in monocrystalline base layer portions growing on the exposed regions of a monocrystalline substrate 10 and polycrystalline base layer portions on amorphous or polycrystalline surfaces such as the isolation regions 12 or the nitride layer if present . the base layer 30 typically comprises sige doped with a p - type impurity such as boron ( b ). in a preferred embodiment , the base layer 30 comprises a si / sige : c layer stack , which by way of non - limiting example may be formed as follows . prior to the growth of the epitaxial base layer , the exposed silicon surfaces may be passivated by a hydrogen bake . the base layer is formed by first growing an undoped si buffer layer , followed by the growth of an undoped sige : c collector - base spacer , a boron - doped sige : c base , an undoped sige : c base - emitter spacer and a doped si emitter cap . the carbon content in the sige layers may be selected in the range of 0 . 1 - 0 . 3 atom % and the germanium content may be selected in the range of 15 - 30 atom % in these layers . the carbon in the sige : c layers prevents the outdiffusion of boron impurities from the boron - doped base , as is known per se . however , it should be understood that the exact composition and structure of the base in the bipolar transistor of the present invention is not important ; any suitable base construction may be chosen . after the formation of the base layer , an etch protection layer 32 is formed over the part of the base layer 30 that defines the emitter region to be formed as will be explained in more detail later . the etch protection layer 32 protects the emitter window region of the base layer 30 from etch recipes capable of damaging silicon . such an etch protection layer may be formed by depositing the layer over the base layer and subsequently patterning the etch protection layer to its desired dimensions , e . g . by forming a patterned mask over the etch protection layer , removing the exposed parts of the etch protection layer and subsequently removing the mask . such patterning is well - known to the skilled person and has not been explained in further detail for this reason . the etch protection layer preferably comprises a silicon nitride portion 32 , as silicon nitride is known to be highly resistant to oxidation enhanced diffusion of the impurities in the base layer 30 , e . g . boron impurities . in an embodiment of the present invention , an oxide portion 34 is formed over the nitride portion 32 to improve the selectivity of the etch protection layer to subsequent silicon etching steps , as will be explained in more detail later . the oxide portion 34 may be formed and patterned in any suitable manner , as previously explained for the silicon nitride portion 32 . the oxide portion 34 may be any suitable type of oxide , e . g . sio 2 or teos . the nitride layer 32 preferably has a thickness of at least 10 nm , as at this thickness the outdiffusion of the base layer impurities is effectively prevented . a thin oxide layer may be present between the nitride portion 32 and the base layer 30 to protect the base layer 30 from defect formation by the nitride portion 32 during subsequent elevated temperature steps . in an embodiment , the etch protection layer may be an ono ( oxide - nitride - oxide ) stack . the respective thicknesses of the oxide portion 34 and the thin oxide layer if present may be separately optimized . it should be understood that the etch protection portion is not limited to a nitride portion 32 optionally combined with an oxide portion 34 . the emitter region on the base layer 30 may be protected using any suitable material . a polysilicon base contact layer 35 is grown over the resultant structure in any suitable manner , e . g . by means of a suitable vapour deposition process such as cvd , followed by the formation of an electrically insulating layer 60 , which may be any suitable dielectric material , e . g . an oxide such as silicon oxide or teos . the method subsequently proceeds to step ( b ). a further etch resist layer such as a nitride layer ( not shown ) may be formed over the electrically insulating layer 60 to protect the layer from etch damage during further processing steps . a standard photo resist material ( not shown ) may be deposited over the nitride layer and patterned to define an emitter window and a field plate trench of the bipolar transistor . an opening 70 is subsequently etched in the layer stack over the substrate 10 , which includes the emitter window 72 terminating on the oxide layer portion 34 and the field plate trench 74 extending into the collector region 11 . in an embodiment , the field plate trench 74 terminates in the substrate 10 close to or in the highly - doped collector region 20 . in an embodiment , this etching step is performed using a number of selective etch steps to selectively remove the nitride layer over the electrically insulating layer 60 if present , a selective etch to remove the dielectric or electrically insulating layer 60 , e . g . by using a selective oxide etch followed by one or more selective etch steps to remove the polysilicon base contact layer 35 , the base layer 30 and the substrate 10 e . g . using a poly - si or si etch recipe including cf 4 , cl 2 , hbr and o 2 . an etch recipe based on hbr / cl 2 is particularly suitable . it is emphasized that the etching step sequence therefore facilitates the simultaneous formation of the emitter window 72 and the field plate trench 74 without requiring an additional mask to facilitate the inclusion of such a field plate . this absence of such an additional mask makes it possible to pattern the field plates extremely close to the base - collector junction , i . e ., extremely close to the region of highest electric field , where the field plates are the most efficient . next , spacers 52 and 54 are grown on the exposed vertical surfaces of the opening 70 , as shown in step ( c ). this is known per se and will not be explained in further detail for the sake of brevity only . any suitable spacer material may be used . in an embodiment , the spacers 52 and 54 are ono spacers . the first oxide layer prevents that the nitride is in direct contact with silicon , which can create defects during a subsequent high temperature step such as an anneal step . the silicon nitride is included to protect the base from oxidation enhanced diffusion . the final oxide layer protects the nitride from etching during a further etch step . the ono spacers 52 form the electrical insulation between the collector and the vertical part of the field plates as well as between the field plates and the base layer . the ono spacers 54 form an electrical isolation between the emitter and the base contact layer . the spacers may have any suitable shape but preferably have a rectangular shape as this maximizes the electrical insulation . the nitride layer of the spacers preferably has a thickness of at least 10 nm to prevent outdiffusion of boron from the base layer 30 during subsequent elevated temperature steps . step ( d ) is an optional step that is performed when an oxide portion 34 is present on the nitride etch protect portion 32 . in this step , the oxide portion 34 is selectively removed by a suitable etch recipe , which will be known per se to the skilled person . if this step is present in the method of the present invention , this will also attack the exposed oxide layer of the ono spacers 52 and 54 . in this case , the exposed oxide layer of the spacers 52 and 54 should be formed to a thickness such that they are only partially removed during this etching step , i . e . the remainder of the oxide layer of the spacers 52 and 54 still provide sufficient electrical insulation between the base contact layer 35 and the emitter to be formed as well as between the field plate and the collector region 11 and the base region 30 . next , as shown in step ( e ), the bottom of the field plate trench 74 is lined with an electrically insulating oxide portion 56 , which may be formed by a thermal wet oxidation step performed at a temperature in the range of 700 - 750 ° c . in which the exposed silicon is oxidized to form silicon oxide . the silicon oxide portion 56 preferably has a thickness of at least 20 nm such that it can withstand a potential difference between the emitter and the collector 11 or the highly - doped collector 20 of 10 v . however , it should be understood that the thickness of the silicon oxide portion 56 may be tuned to the application domain in which the transistor is operable . for instance , if the silicon oxide portion 56 has to withstand higher potential differences its thickness may be increased accordingly , whereas if the silicon oxide portion 56 has to withstand higher potential differences its thickness may be decreased accordingly . in a preferred embodiment , the silicon substrate 10 , the collector region 11 and the highly - doped buried collector 20 comprise as doping . this increases the oxidation speed of the relevant material exposed at the bottom of the field plate trench 74 by a factor 10 - 100 depending on the level of as doping , e . g . 1 * e 20 cm − 3 or higher , which is a typical doping level of the highly - doped buried collector 20 . this limits the duration of the oxidation step , which further limits the outdiffusion of boron from the base layer 30 , which outdiffusion is already limited by the presence of the nitride etch protect portion 32 and the nitride sidewall spacers 52 protecting the base layer 30 from exposure to the thermal wet oxidation recipe , especially if the nitride etch protect portion 32 and the nitride sidewall spacers 52 each have a thickness of at least 10 nm . in step ( f ), the nitride etch protect portion 32 is removed to expose the emitter region over the base layer 30 . this may be done using any suitable nitride etch recipe . if a thin oxide layer is present underneath the nitride etch protect portion 32 this is also removed , e . g . using a separate etch recipe . it is noted that the nitride layer of the spacers 52 and 54 may be protected from being attacked by the presence of an oxide layer over the nitride layer as previously explained . in the absence of such a protective oxide layer the nitride layer of the spacers 52 and 54 must be thick enough such that at the completion of this etching step the nitride layer of the spacers 52 and 54 have been reduced in thickness without removing them altogether . in step ( g ), an emitter material is deposited over the resultant structure in any suitable manner , such as an as - doped polysilicon emitter material . this material forms an emitter region 40 and at the same time at least partially fills the field plate trench 74 such that the emitter region 40 is electrically connected to the field plate 50 formed in the field plate trench 74 . as such deposition techniques are entirely routine , they are not explained in further detail for the sake of brevity only . the bipolar device may now be finalized in any suitable manner . for instance , as shown in step ( h ), the resultant structure may be patterned , e . g . using a sequence of patterning steps such as etching steps to expose the base contact layer 35 and the collector contact 22 after which the collector contact 120 , base contact 130 and emitter contact 140 are formed as shown in step ( i ). the process flow shown in fig5 and fig6 yields a heterojunction bipolar transistor having a vertical field plate 50 , i . e . a field plate that has a lateral dimension or width that is smaller than the vertical dimension or depth . it should be understood that this is by way of non - limiting example only . it is equally feasible to adjust the shape of the field plate trench shown in fig5 ( b ) and fig6 ( b ) as shown in fig7 ( b ) ( the view along the x - direction is unaltered ), in which a field plate trench 74 is formed that has a lateral dimension or width that is larger than its vertical dimension or depth , thus yielding a horizontal field plate 50 if the device is finished as per the above described further processing steps shown in fig5 and fig6 ( c )-( i ). it should be noted that the above - mentioned embodiments illustrate rather than limit the invention , and that those skilled in the art will be able to design many alternative embodiments without departing from the scope of the appended claims . in the claims , any reference signs placed between parentheses shall not be construed as limiting the claim . the word “ comprising ” does not exclude the presence of elements or steps other than those listed in a claim . the word “ a ” or “ an ” preceding an element does not exclude the presence of a plurality of such elements . the invention can be implemented by means of hardware comprising several distinct elements . in the device claim enumerating several means , several of these means can be embodied by one and the same item of 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 |
in the following description , reference is made to the accompanying drawings that form a part hereof , and in which is shown by way of illustration specific embodiments in which the invention may be practiced . these embodiments 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 structural , logical and electrical changes may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention . the following description is , therefore , not to be taken in a limited sense , and the scope of the present invention is defined by the appended claims . the functions or algorithms described herein are implemented in software or hardware , or a combination of software and hardware . the software comprises computer executable instructions stored on computer readable media such as memory or other type of storage devices . the term “ computer readable media ” is also used to represent carrier waves on which the software is transmitted . further , such functions correspond to modules , which are software , hardware , firmware or any combination thereof . multiple functions are performed in one or more modules as desired , and the embodiments described are merely examples . the software is executed on a digital signal processor , asic , microprocessor , or other type of processor operating on a computer system , such as a personal computer , server or other computer system . fig1 shows a wireless network generally at 100 . the wireless network in one embodiment comprises a number of intermediate nodes 110 , 112 , 114 , 116 , 118 , 120 , 122 , 124 and 126 , also referred to as infrastructure nodes . the infrastructure nodes are coupled to a central control 135 . associated with the infrastructure nodes are a plurality of wireless nodes 140 , 142 , 144 , 146 , 148 , 150 , 152 , and 154 . the wireless nodes may be leaf nodes in one embodiment that contain a sensor . infrastructure nodes may be coupled by a high power connection as indicated at 160 . high power connection 160 may be in the form of a wireless connection , such as long range rf , or may also be a wired connection . the infrastructure nodes are also coupled to the central control 135 via connections 160 . connections 160 are shown in one particular arrangement , but are not intended to be limited to this type of arrangement . any connection that provides suitable communications capabilities are within the meaning of connections 160 . wireless nodes transmit signals as represented by lines 170 emanating toward selected infrastructure nodes . for instance , wireless node 140 is shown as transmitting a signal in multiple directions as represented by lines 170 . lines 170 show four infrastructure nodes , 110 , 112 , 114 and 116 as receiving a signal transmitted by wireless node 140 . each wireless node in fig1 is represented as have its signals received by more than one infrastructure nodes . some wireless node signals are only received by two infrastructure nodes , such as wireless node 152 . wireless node 152 has its signals only being received by infrastructure nodes 122 and 124 . further wireless nodes may have signals received by more than two infrastructure nodes , such as wireless nodes 140 , 144 , 148 . while the network 100 may have some wireless nodes whose signals are not received by more than one infrastructure node , such wireless nodes &# 39 ; signals will not be estimated using diversity . while a limited number of wireless nodes are shown in fig1 for simplicity , it should be understood that each infrastructure node may receive signals from many more wireless nodes than represented . larger numbers of infrastructure nodes may also be used in network 100 . the wireless nodes , shown in further detail in fig2 at 200 , in one embodiment comprise a sensor 210 coupled to a low power transceiver 220 . transceiver 220 may also have only transmit capability in further embodiments . the wireless node is powered by a battery 230 , or may have another power source , such as solar power in one embodiment . the wireless node 200 transmits at a low power . each wireless node is associated with at least one infrastructure node . in other words , it is located close enough to the associated infrastructure node such that it &# 39 ; s signal transmitted at low power can be adequately received by the infrastructure node . in one embodiment , the wireless nodes are leaf nodes , but may be at any location within the network . the signals transmitted by the sensors or wireless nodes are also received by other independent infrastructure nodes . the infrastructure nodes are spaced apart from each other , and more than one of them can receive the signals transmitted by sensors associated with a different independent infrastructure node . at least two infrastructure nodes receive signals from one wireless node . the combination of infrastructure nodes and associated wireless nodes provide the ability to monitor and or control a desired environment , such as an industrial process . as seen in fig3 , a sensor / wireless node 310 , transmits a signal that is received by a first infrastructure node 320 and a second infrastructure node 330 . these infrastructure nodes further transmit the received signals to a control center 340 . each of the infrastructure nodes 320 and 330 receive signals from the sensor / wireless node over a wireless channel , each having a wireless channel coefficient h1 and h2 as indicated at 350 and 360 . the wireless channel coefficient is a function of signal propagation along multiple paths and objects such as walls between the sensor / wireless node 310 and the infrastructure node . the wireless channel coefficient may be determined by sending a known signal and measuring the signal received at the infrastructure node . the control center combines the received signals using a diversity technique . diversity techniques have been in use by single devices with multiple antennas for receiving a signal . such techniques include many different ways of combining the received signals to improve the estimation of the transmitted signal . in the present embodiments , the transmitted signals are received by independent infrastructure nodes that are spaced from each other , and associated with different sets of wireless nodes . in one embodiment , the infrastructure nodes send the received signal to the control center 340 , which implements maximal ratio combining . the received signal , r1 or r2 , at each infrastructure node is a function of the channel coefficient ( h1 or h2 ) times the transmitted signal ( s ) plus a noise factor , n1 or n2 . thus , the received signal at infrastructure node 330 is r1 = h1 × s + n1 , and the received signal at infrastructure node 320 is r2 = h2 × s + n2 . the received signals are then transmitted via high power wireless links , or hardwire links to the control center . the control center uses the signals transmitted from the infrastructure nodes to compute the combined signal , rc . in one embodiment , maximal ratio combining is used : rc =( h1 ″× r1 + h2 ′× r2 ), where h1 ′( h2 ′) is the complex conjugate of h1 ( h2 ). the snr of the combined signal is equal to the sum of the individual snrs of r1 and r2 , i . e ., snr rc = snr r1 + snr r2 . the increased snr improves the estimation process of the transmitted signal ( s ). in further embodiments , other diversity techniques , such as equal gain combining , selection combining , switched combining , and others may be used . in one embodiment , the combining and estimation is provided by a module located in the control center 340 . in an embodiment in fig4 , the combining and estimation is provided by one of the infrastructure nodes , and then is transmitted to the control center . in fig4 , a sensor / wireless node 410 transmits signals to infrastructure nodes 420 and 430 . infrastructure node 420 also receives a signal from infrastructure node 430 representative of the signal received at node 420 . in one embodiment , the infrastructure nodes are externally powered , or otherwise have a high power source . they can thus transmit signals at a higher power , or may even be hardwired together . infrastructure node 420 then provides the estimation to the central control 440 . | 7 |
to make the object , technical solutions , and beneficial effects of the present disclosure more apparent , the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings and embodiments . it should be noted that , the embodiments described herein are for explanation only and not intended for restriction of the present disclosure . as illustrated in fig1 , the unlocking method for a vehicle according to an embodiment of the present disclosure can include the following steps . s 101 , a sending end is electrically conducted to a human body . the sending end is in contact with the skin of the human body , and therefore , the sending end can be electrically conducted to the human body . most wearable devices , such as watches and bracelets , can be in contact with the skin of the human body . for this reason , the sending end can be incorporated in a wearable device that in contact with the skin of the human body . s 102 , based on the contact between the human body and a vehicle body , a connection is established between the sending end and the vehicle body through the human body . when the human body is in contact with the vehicle body , the connection is established between the sending end carried by the human body and the vehicle body ; and during the connection between the sending end and the vehicle body , the sending end carried by the human body is required to be in contact with the skin of the human body . according to user habits of opening the door of a vehicle , the contact between the human body and the vehicle body can be the contact between the hand of the human body and the door handle of the vehicle body . the medium for establishing the connection between the sending end and the vehicle body is the human body , and in this embodiment , human body coupling communication technology can be adopted . the human body coupling communication technology is to adjust the voltage of a transmitting circuit and monitor the potential difference of a receiver electrode so as to send signals ; here , in addition to a potential difference in the human body , a small current will flow through the human body either . transmission and reception of required data can be conducted with aid of bio - electricity of a biological ( that is , human body ) surface , and effective communication between the two parties can be achieved . because the power of electrical signals transmitted through the human body is very low , it will not cause any harm to the human body . the human body coupling technology can use the capacitive character of the human body for signal transmission , and transfer information among equipment such as the human body and the like . a human body coupling module is provided in the sending end and the vehicle body respectively , and the process of establishing the connection between the sending end and the vehicle body can include the follows : when the human body is in contact with the vehicle body , the human body coupling module of the sending end and the human body coupling module of the vehicle body can cause the sending end to be conducted to electrical signals of the vehicle body , so as to establish a communication connection . the human body coupling module of the sending end can include a modulation circuit ; the modulation circuit is connected with a first conductor , which is in contact with the skin of the human body and can transmit data by utilizing the capacitive character of the human body . the human body coupling module of the vehicle body can include a reception modulation circuit ; the reception modulation circuit is connected with a second conductor , which is in contact with the skin of the human body and can detect a weak signal transmitted through the human body . in this embodiment , the transmission of a signal is as follows : the sending end sends out a signal ; after passing through the modulation circuit , the signal is transmitted to the human body by the first conductor ; the signal can be transmitted through the human body and transferred to the vehicle body by using the human body as a medium , and through the second conductor , the vehicle body can receive the signal transmitted from the human body . in this embodiment , the second conductor in the human body coupling module of the vehicle body is provided on an outer surface of the door handle of the vehicle body . in this embodiment , before the communication connection between the sending end and the vehicle body is established , the human body coupling module of the vehicle body will perform authorization judgment on the human body coupling module of the sending end . when the human body is in contact with the vehicle body , the human body coupling module of the vehicle body will distinguish the identity of the human body coupling module of the sending end . if the human body coupling module of the sending end has been authorized , the communication connection will be established between the sending end and the vehicle body ; otherwise , if the human body coupling module of the sending end has not been authorized , the vehicle body will refuse to establish the communication connection with the sending end . s 103 , the sending end sends an unlocking instruction to unlock the vehicle body . after the connection between the sending end and the vehicle body is established , the sending end will send the unlocking instruction , and the vehicle body will be unlocked after the unlocking instruction sent from the sending end is received . in this embodiment , s 103 can include the follows . the sending end sends the unlocking instruction to a vehicle door lock system of the vehicle body ; the vehicle door lock system of the vehicle body verifies the unlocking instruction ; if the verification is correct , the vehicle door lock system of the vehicle body will unlock the vehicle body ; if the verification is erroneous , the vehicle door lock system of the vehicle body will not unlock the vehicle body . as can be seen , the vehicle door lock system of the vehicle body can verify the unlocking instruction of the sending end and unlock the vehicle body if the verification is successful . to sum up , while the user pulls the door handle to open the door of the vehicle , the hand of the human body and the second conductor are in contact , the human body coupling module of the sending end ( to be specific , through the first conductor ) and the human body coupling module of the vehicle body ( to be specific , through the second conductor ) can cause the connection between the sending end and the vehicle body to be established by using the human body as a medium . the sending end can send the unlocking instruction to unlock the vehicle door lock system of the vehicle body , and the unlock action and the door opening action are the same action ; therefore , the user can unlock and open the door of the vehicle at the same time , and the operation is more convenient . in order to achieve the above - mentioned unlocking method for a vehicle , an unlocking system for a vehicle is provided . as illustrated in fig2 , the unlocking system for a vehicle according to an embodiment of the present disclosure can include a sending end 11 . the sending end 11 is configured to send an unlocking instruction to unlock a vehicle body . the sending end is electrically conducted to a human body ; based on the contact between the human body and the vehicle body , a connection is established between the sending end 11 and the vehicle body through the human body . the sending end 11 is further configured to be in contact with the skin of the human body ; therefore , the sending end is conducted to electrical signals of the human body . most wearable devices , such as watches and bracelets , can be in contact with the skin of the human body . for this reason , the sending end 11 can be incorporated in a wearable device that in contact with the skin of the human body . when the human body is in contact with the vehicle body , the connection is established between the sending end 11 carried by the human body and the vehicle body ; and during the connection between the sending end 11 and the vehicle body , the sending end carried by the human body is required to be in contact with the skin of the human body . according to user habits of opening the door of a vehicle , the contact between the human body and the vehicle body can be the contact between the hand of the human body and the door handle of the vehicle body . the medium for establishing the connection between the sending end 11 and the vehicle body is the human body , and in this embodiment , human body coupling communication technology can be adopted . the human body coupling communication technology is to adjust the voltage of a transmitting circuit and monitor the potential difference of a receiver electrode so as to send signals ; here , in addition to a potential difference in the human body , a small current will flow through the human body either . transmission and reception of required data can be conducted with aid of bio - electricity of a biological ( that is , the human body ) surface , and effective communication between the two parties can be achieved . because the power of electrical signals transmitted through the human body is very low , it will not cause any harm to the human body . the human body coupling technology can use the capacitive character of the human body for signal transmission , and transfer information among equipment such as the human body and the like . a human body coupling module is provided in the sending end 11 and the vehicle body respectively , and the process of establishing the connection between the sending end 11 and the vehicle body can include the follows : when the human body is in contact with the vehicle body , the human body coupling module of the sending end 11 and the human body coupling module of the vehicle body can cause the sending end to be conducted to electrical signals of the vehicle body , so as to establish a communication connection . the human body coupling module of the sending end 11 can include a modulation circuit ; the modulation circuit is connected with a first conductor , which is in contact with the skin of the human body and can transmit data by utilizing the capacitive character of the human body . the human body coupling module of the vehicle body can include a reception modulation circuit ; the reception modulation circuit is connected with a second conductor , which is in contact with the skin of the human body and can detect a weak signal transmitted through the human body . in this embodiment , the transmission of a signal is as follows : the sending end sends out a signal ; after passing through the modulation circuit , the signal is transmitted to the human body by the first conductor ; the signal can be transmitted through the human body and transferred to the vehicle body by using the human body as a medium , and through the second conductor , the vehicle body can receive the signal transmitted from the human body . in this embodiment , the second conductor in the human body coupling module of the vehicle body is provided on an outer surface of the door handle of the vehicle body . in this embodiment , the human body coupling module of the vehicle body can includes : an authentication module , configured to perform authentication judgment on the human body coupling module of the sending end before the connection is established between the sending end and the vehicle body . when the human body is in contact with the vehicle body , the human body coupling module of the vehicle body will distinguish the identity of the human body coupling module of the sending end 11 . if the human body coupling module of the sending end 11 has been authorized , the communication connection will be established between the sending end 11 and the vehicle body ; otherwise , if the human body coupling module of the sending end 11 has not been authorized , the vehicle body will refuse to establish the communication connection with the sending end . the sending end 11 can send the unlocking instruction so as to unlock the vehicle body . after the connection between the sending end 11 and the vehicle body is established through the human body , the sending end 11 will send the unlocking instruction , and the vehicle body will receive the unlocking instruction sent by the sending end 11 to unlock the vehicle body . in this embodiment , the vehicle body can include : a receiving end 12 , configured to receive the unlocking instruction from the sending end 11 ; a verifying module 13 , configured to verify the unlocking instruction ; if the verification is correct , a vehicle door lock system of the vehicle body will unlock the vehicle body ; if the verification is erroneous , the vehicle door lock system of the vehicle body will not unlock the vehicle body . as can be seen , the verifying module 13 can verify the unlocking instruction of the sending end , and the vehicle door lock system of the vehicle body will unlock the vehicle body if the verification is successful . to sum up , while the user pulls the door handle to open the door of the vehicle , the hand of the human body and the second conductor are in contact , the human body coupling module of the sending end 11 ( to be specific , through the first conductor ) and the human body coupling module of the vehicle body ( to be specific , through the second conductor ) can cause the connection between the sending end 11 and the vehicle body to be established by using the human body as a medium . the sending end 11 can send the unlocking instruction to unlock the vehicle door lock system of the vehicle body , and the unlock action and the door opening action are the same action ; therefore , the user can unlock and open the door of the vehicle at the same time , and the operation is more convenient . according to another embodiment of the present disclosure , it is provided an unlocking system for a vehicle . as an implementation , this unlocking system can be arranged in the vehicle body of the vehicle . fig3 is a block diagram illustrating the unlocking system according to the embodiment of the present disclosure . as shown in fig3 , the unlocking system 30 includes a connection controlling unit 31 , a receiving unit 33 , a human body coupling module 35 , and a vehicle door lock system 37 . the connection controlling unit 31 is configured to establish a connection between the vehicle body and external equipment ( such as the above - mentioned sending end ) electrically conducted to a human body , wherein the human body is in contact with the vehicle body . the receiving unit 33 is configured to receive an unlocking instruction sent from the external equipment . the human body coupling module 35 is configured to be conducted to a human body coupling unit of the external equipment through electrical signals of the human body . the vehicle door lock system 37 is configured to control the unlocking of the vehicle body . as an implementation , the unlocking system can further include a verifying module 39 , configured to verify the unlocking instruction . if the verification is correct , the vehicle door lock system 37 will unlock the vehicle body ; if the verification is erroneous , the vehicle door lock system 37 will not unlock the vehicle body . as another implementation , the unlocking system can further include an authentication module 32 , configured to perform authentication judgment on the human body coupling module 35 of the external equipment before the connection is established between the external equipment and the vehicle body by the connection controlling unit 31 . the vehicle body can further include a door handle which is not illustrated in the figure , and the contact between the human body and the vehicle body can be the contact between the hand of the human body and the door handle of the vehicle body . as an implementation , the human body coupling module 35 can include a reception modulation circuit connected with a conductor , and the conductor is configured to be in contact with the skin of the human body and detect signals transmitted through the human body . the method and the functional units or modules of the system can be implemented through an apparatus equipped with at least one processor and a memory . the memory can be used to store program codes , when executed by the processor , the program codes are adapted to cause the processor to perform the steps or processor of the method or invoke the units of the system , so as to implement the technical scheme of the present disclosure . in order to avoid redundancy , details will not be repeated here and can be comprehended with reference to the above mentioned embodiments and the accompanying drawings . while the present disclosure has been described in detail above with reference to the exemplary embodiments , the scope of the present disclosure is not limited thereto . as will occur to those skilled in the art , the present disclosure is susceptible to various modifications and changes without departing from the spirit and principle of the present disclosure . therefore , the scope of the present disclosure should be determined by the scope of the claims . | 1 |
referring now to fig1 a preferred embodiment of the land rower 50 is illustrated in which a frame 52 is constructed of rectangular aluminum tubing and ¼ ″ aluminum bar stock . although , aluminum is used , a variety of materials can be substituted , including , but not limited to , steel tubing , graphite material , carbon fiber , etc . the frame 52 has two joists 54 running down the middle to support the hammock seat 56 . in this model , the joists 54 are 16 ″ apart on the inside . the joists 54 are also made from rectangular aluminum tubing . the footrest 58 is mounted between the joists 54 with foot activated brakes 60 , a leg support 62 and a pivoting back support 64 . these three supports are each attached to sliding attachments 66 which slide along the tubing . the location of the supports is adjusted by taking out the locking pins 68 in the tops of the sliding attachments 66 , sliding the attachments 66 , and reinserting the locking pins 68 . the chassis is stiffened in this model by a brace 55 which runs across the land rower in front of the drive wheels . in front of the rider is a pivoting front wheel 74 . the front wheel 74 can pivot and be raised or lowered . the wheel assembly consists of a fork component 76 and a wheel 74 . the bottom of the fork component has a plurality of holes 78 on each side so the wheel can be raised or lowered . raising and lowering the wheel 74 lowers and raises the front of the land rower along with the rider &# 39 ; s sitting position . the wheel 74 pivots as the rider turns . the two drive wheels 72 and the pivoting front wheel 74 give the land rower three points of contact with the ground and thus making it inherently stable . however , the design of the land rower could be easily accommodated to reverse the position of the two drive wheels and the front wheel to put the drive wheels in front and the third wheel behind the rider . in addition , the land rower could also be adapted to use a type of ski as the third wheel and chains or tracks for the drive wheels in snow and ice conditions . moreover , the drive wheels and third wheel could also include shock absorbers or chain tensioners . now referring to fig4 the pivoting backrest 64 is very advantageous because it allows the rider to rock back and forth ; the action is similar to rowing . the design and pivoting action of the backrest 64 gives the rider continuous , seamless support and minimizes back fatigue . the backrest perimeter frame is made from tubing with cloth 90 stretched horizontally above and below the pivoting support rod 88 . the pivoting support rod 88 is attached to the backrest 64 and goes through two bearings mounted on the sliding devices 66 ( shown in fig1 ) on the right and left joists . the location of the backrest &# 39 ; s top cloth 90 leaves about a ½ ″ gap above the rod 88 . the hammock 56 runs through this gap and over the pivoting rod 88 . the backrest 64 is able to pivot because the rod 88 can rotate in the bearings inside the sliding devices 66 . the rider &# 39 ; s back gets full support because the hammock passes through the seat . now referring to fig5 the hammock 56 is made of a breathable , washable material and passes through the pivoting backrest 64 . the hammock 56 is attached to a front attachment 80 and to a back attachment 82 . the height of the rider above the ground can be adjusted by adjusting the front and back attachments 80 , 82 . the preferred embodiment is implemented with the hammock looped around a ½ ″ tube 84 between the joists in the front and a 1 ″ tube 86 in the back . the back tube 86 projects about 2 ″ from the joist on the right side and has a folding crank for turning the tube to adjust the seat height . a hole on the left side is for the locking pin . to adjust the seat height , the rider holds the crank , the locking pin is removed , the crank used to rotate the tube , and the locking pin put back . this hand crank feature lets the physically challenged rider slide from their wheelchair across a flat surface and then loosen the hammock for stability . when the ride is over , they can crank the hammock flat again and slide back into their wheelchair . now referring to fig6 optional wheel guard 160 protects the rider from the spokes of the drive wheels . the wheel guard 160 is preferably composed of any durable , lightweight material that will protect the rider and the spokes of wheel . the brakes can be used to slow the land rower &# 39 ; s speed , as well as , for steering the land rower . now referring to fig1 bicycle caliper brakes 92 are setup to squeeze the rims of the drive wheel 72 in order to slow down the land rower . the rider could also steer the land rower by independently activating the right and left brakes . the very low center of gravity and resulting stability lets the rider safely turn with surprising speed . the brakes can be activated by a variety of embodiments . one embodiment would have foot activated brakes as part of the footrest is depicted in fig1 . in this embodiment , the rider would activate the brakes by pressing down on either the right or the left foot brake 60 . the depressed foot brake 60 would then operate the caliper brakes 92 to retard the movement of the drive wheels 72 . the brake pedals on fig1 can be raised or lowered also . another embodiment uses a shimano nexxus hub with coaster brakes as depicted in fig8 . in this embodiment , the rider would just start to rotate the crank handles 111 in reverse to stop the drive wheels 72 . in this embodiment , the crank handle 111 is more streamlined than crank handle depicted in fig1 since it does not include the template for gear shifting . another alternative is to have the brakes mounted on handles above the drive wheels as depicted in fig9 . in this embodiment , another handle 146 extends just beyond the path of the rider &# 39 ; s hand as it revolves the crank handle . the rider would activate the brakes by squeezing the brake handle 142 with their hands . the brake handle 142 would then active the caliper brakes 92 to retard the movement of the drive wheel 72 . another embodiment for the brakes is depicted in fig1 - 13 . in this embodiment , the rider rests their feet on the foot rest bar 170 as depicted in fig1 . when the rider wants to brake , they push their feet forward to push on the brake pedals 172 . the brake pedals 172 are attached to a brake bar 174 . the brake bar 174 can be raised or lowered on the brake bar support 176 in the relation to the foot rest bar 170 to accommodate different sized people . the foot rest bar 170 is attached to frame 52 by a strap 178 that is attached by bolts 180 . the brake pedal 174 would also be attached to a brake cable 182 that activates the caliper brakes ( not shown ). now referring to fig1 , the rider &# 39 ; s foot 184 rests on the foot rest bar 170 and when needed , pushes on brake pedal 172 mounted on the brake bar 174 . fig1 shows the top view of how the foot rest bar 170 , the brake pedals 172 , the brake bar 174 and the brake bar supports 176 are attached to frame 52 . fig1 shows the back view of how the foot rest bar 170 , the brake pedals 172 , the brake bar 174 and the brake bar supports 176 are attached to frame 52 . the drive mechanism can be implemented in a variety of embodiments . one embodiment utilizes a template method to change gear ratios between the crank handle , and the drive wheel hub . the concept behind the template is for the handle to be farther from the axle of the handle hub when leverage is needed ( starting and uphill ) and closer to the axle when speed is required ( level and downhill ). now referring to fig3 a , the handle 96 and its base 98 form a ‘ t ’; the base 98 slides inside a long flat rectangular tube 112 . a template 100 guides the handle 96 at preset sites 128 in the long tube to give the riders different leverages or speeds . the rider would change leverages by pulling the rod 138 outward , which is spring activated , until it slips out of the holes 128 in the base and the holes 120 in the template 100 , then slide the handle 96 up or down , until it catches the appropriate hole 120 in the template 100 and the appropriate hole 128 in the base . the template 100 and the handle base 98 are held into place by attaching block 115 with four nuts 122 and bolts 118 through base holes 126 and block holes 114 . the template 100 is restricted in movement by attaching pin 116 through pin hole 125 in the template 100 and through pin hole 124 in the base . although , template 100 has five preset holes 120 and is used for advanced riders , another template 110 with three preset holes 120 may be used for beginners . the base 112 as configured , will accommodate both templates 100 and 110 . the base 112 is attached to an axle 134 and a chain sprocket 136 . a chain ( not shown ) transfers the rotational movement from the chain sprocket 136 to ratcheting hub screwed onto the drive wheel ( both ratcheting hub and drive wheel not shown in fig3 a or 3 b ). fig3 b shows the back of base 112 , along with the other sides of the axle 134 and the sprocket 136 . the preferred embodiment is implemented as the base 112 being composed of a flat square tube approximately 3 ″ wide and ½ ″ outside thickness and 20 ″ long . the base 112 has holes 128 every ¾ ″ on the side away from the rider . the ‘ t ’ handle subassembly 98 is implemented with a spring loaded rod and sleeve of aluminum bar stock ⅛ ″ thick 1½ ″ wide and 6 ″ long . the handle 96 is composed of a hollow ½ ″ inside diameter handle ( not shown ), that attaches to the 6 ″ bar stock 98 to make a ‘ t ’. a slightly larger sleeve ( shown as outside of handle 96 ) fits over the ½ ″ inside diameter tube . the sleeve allows rotation of the rider &# 39 ; s hand as the rider rotates the crank handle . a spring - loaded rod 138 with a loop at one end fits inside the hollow tube . the loop projects outside the handle , toward the rider . the template 100 is 1½ ″ wide , ⅛ ″ thick and 12 ″ long with a plurality of holes 120 to vary the leverage of the handle . the clip 116 holds the inserted template 100 in place . referring to fig7 now , the preferred embodiment of the land rower uses bicycle components for the drive wheels 72 . the hand crank 112 is attached to a short axle 134 . the base 112 is attached to an axle 134 and a chain sprocket 136 . as stated earlier , the chain 138 transfers the rotational movement from the chain sprocket 136 to the ratcheting sprocket 140 screwed onto the drive wheel 72 . this embodiment is similar to a bicycle except the hand crank takes the place of the pedals on a bicycle . the preferred embodiment has an 18 tooth sprocket 136 driving an 18 tooth hub 140 . if the rider wants a higher top speed , they can substitute a 24 tooth sprocket and a longer chain . low speed , but more torque , can be obtained with a 12 tooth sprocket and a shorter chain . most bicycles have the chain and hub on the right side . this format works for the drive wheel for the land rower &# 39 ; s left side , but not the right wheel . however , one solution is to screw the ratcheting hub assembly to the right wheel backwards . a keyway is then used to prevent the hub from unscrewing . another solution is to reverse the thread on the right - hand wheel and hub to keep the hub from unscrewing . another alternative embodiment utilizes bicycle hubs like those available from shimano ( sg - 7r40 and sg - 7c21 ). they have seven speeds and come with and without brakes . the speeds are selected by a cable , which can be built into another handle 142 as shown in fig8 . yet another alternative embodiment utilizes wheelchair hubs similar to those used in u . s . pat . no . 3 , 563 , 568 and 4 , 727 , 965 . the designs embodied in those patents discuss ratcheting hubs for wheelchairs but clearly indicate standard wheelchairs with outside pushrims and the usual high sitting position . however , the wheelchair hubs encompassed in those designs could be adapted to have the pushrims , or another type of crank handle similar to that of the preferred embodiment , on the inside of the drive wheel . now referring to fig1 again , the rider sits down on the hammock 56 , grabs the handles 96 and rotates them to the top . they then put their thumbs in the loops 138 of the spring - loaded rods and pull out . this action pulls the other ends of the rods out of the matching holes in the template ( shown in detail in fig3 a ). the rider then slides the handles 96 as far away from the axle 134 as possible and releases the loops 138 . the other end of the spring - loaded rod drops through the matching holes in the template and tube assembly and locks into place ( shown in detail in fig3 a ). the land rower is now in first gear . the rider propels the land rover forward by rotating the handles forward . as speed increases , the rider can change to second gear . with the handles 96 at the top , they put their thumbs in the loops 138 , pull out , and then pull the handles 96 slightly toward the axle . they then release the loops 138 and continue to slide the handles 96 toward the axle 134 . the rod end will be pressed against the template by the spring until it comes to the next hole ( shown in detail in fig3 a ). it will then drop into the hole and lock into place . this process is repeated as the terrain and speed varies . the drop and lock ability makes shifting very easy . in addition , if the hubs allow coasting , there is no reverse gear and the rider goes backwards by rotating the wheels by hand . to change the ratios or number of gears , the rider changes templates in the right and left assemblies ( shown as template 100 and 110 in fig3 a ). they pull out the locking pins , pull out the old templates , insert the new templates , and insert the pins to lock them into place . the beginner &# 39 ; s template has three easy gears while an advanced rider &# 39 ; s has five harder ones . the templates can be changed out in about 10 seconds a side . if the land rower had the shimano , or similar , multi - speed hubs implemented , the rider would just change gears by clicking the gear selection knob 194 as shown in fig1 . moving the gear selection knob 194 would then change gears on either the wheel hub ( not shown ) or the handle hub ( also not shown ). the gear selection knob is attached to another handle 192 that just above the rider &# 39 ; s hand path so that it is easy to change gears as the rider completes a rotation of the crank handle 111 . the preferred embodiment for physically challenged riders would omit the footrest brakes and have brake locks 152 as shown in fig1 . the brake locks 152 would lock the drive wheels 72 while the rider gets into the land rower . in addition , the gears and brakes could be implemented similarly to the handles and brakes of fig8 . however , the shimano nexxus hub is preferred for the brakes since the rider only need to reverse direction on the crank handle to brake . in sum , the land rower is intuitive to ride . the action of cranking the handles is like rowing . its low center of gravity makes it inherently stable at any speed , including at rest . the design , propulsion method and pivoting backrest make it comfortable and fun to ride . the main skill for the rider to master is going around corners . the rider can brake the inside wheel and / or crank the outside wheel . this skill is easier and safer to learn than rollerblading or riding a bike . accordingly , the reader will see that the land rower is carefully and simply designed to give physically challenged people an alternative to current racing wheelchairs , as well as provide able - bodied people a unique , upper - body workout . it is a viable complement to running , biking or rollerblading . the land rower , as described , has at least seven important features . the land rower has an efficient propulsion design . the rider uses a circular motion that produces power during the entire movement . the motion uses muscles in the arms , back , shoulders and abdomen , and is a very efficient use of the rider &# 39 ; s efforts . in addition , the drive mechanism has a plurality of leverage positions or speeds . in the template transmission version , the handles , set at right angles to the drive wheels , are positioned far from the axle when starting or going uphill . as speed increases and the need for leverage decreases , the rider shifts the handles closer to the axle . the mechanism can be easily modified to change the number of speeds and their leverage relationships . the drawings show a five - speed arrangement for an advanced rider . the geared transmission version uses existing drive hubs such as the shimano 7 - speed . furthermore , the drive mechanism has a coast or freewheel feature . like a bicycle &# 39 ; s pedals , the handles do not move when the rider is coasting . moreover , the seat incorporates a hammock , and adjustable locations for the pivoting back support , and leg and foot rests . the hammock is attached at the front and back of the chassis . the hammock gives a comfortable , lightweight , shock absorbing , ventilated seat . it passes through the pivoting back support , resting on top of the support &# 39 ; s pivoting axle . the back support pivots with the rider &# 39 ; s movement . the action is similar to rowing . the hammock gives seamless , constant support for the back to minimize back strain and fatigue . additionally , because the handles are on the inside , the rider can sit much lower . wheelchairs typically have seat heights ranging from 12 ″ to 15 ″; the land rower rider is about 5 ″ above the ground . the rider &# 39 ; s height can be adjusted by varying the length of the hammock . the drive mechanism lets the rider pivot the vehicle with one wheel stationary . like most bicycles , the land rower uses caliper brakes that squeeze the metal wheel rims . the brake levers can be mounted for either foot or hand activation . hand controls are for riders with limited or no power in their legs . the right and left brakes can be applied independently for turning corners . lastly , the locations of the back , leg and foot supports can be adjusted for the riders . the third , pivoting wheel can be moved up and down to suit the rider and the racing conditions . although the description above has specific information , it should not be interpreted as limiting the scope of this invention but simply providing illustrations of some of the present aspects of this invention . for example , a snow going version would have wider drive wheels , or belts , and a pivoting ski in the front . the version for wheel - chair athletes can be shortened to accommodate folded legs . the scope of this invention should be determined by the appended claims and their legal equivalents , rather than by the examples given . | 1 |
referring now in detail to the drawings , the reference numeral 10 denotes generally a global property trading board game in accordance with this invention . the board game 10 includes a game board 12 , as illustrated in fig1 a and 1b , having a substantially smooth planar surface bearing a pattern on one face thereof which defines a travel path 14 . the travel path 14 is segregated into spaces or stations 16 including stations associated with designated countries and having a designated asset evaluation based on its representative gross domestic product . the game board 12 is further divided into six global regions , namely , north american free trade area 18 , african union countries 20 , asian / asean countries 22 , european union member countries 24 ; austria / oceania nations 26 , and south american community of nations 28 . the several global regions 18 - 28 are readily distinguishable by color . for example , the north american free trade area 18 is in the color “ blue ”; the african union countries 20 in the color “ green ”; the asian / asean countries 22 is in the color “ tan ”. furthermore , within each of the global regions 18 - 28 , there are four stations 16 that are identified by a country designation being representative of countries indigenous to the respective global region . also , a numeral designation in each of the global regions 18 - 28 indicates the game starting station 16 . the game board 12 further includes designated areas for placement a plurality of game cards , namely , “ goods news ” cards 30 , “ bad news ” cards 32 , “ country ” cards 34 , and “ neutral zone ” cards 36 . further with regard to the cards 30 , 32 and 36 , each of these cards bears a message — the “ good news ” cards 32 provide the player with an advantage , the “ bad news ” cards 32 provide the player with a penalty , and the “ neutral zone ” cards 36 provide the player with an opportunity to nullify a penalty . more specifically and by way of example , the “ good news ” cards 30 include the following messages : you won the nobel prize for finding a way to reverse nuclear fusion . for your formula each trade - bloc must pay you $ 1 trillion , please collect ; your country signed a 10 year contract to supply the world &# 39 ; s 10 largest countries with grain , yielding you a profit of $ 1 trillion , please collect ; due to a boom in manufacturing , your country &# 39 ; s economy grew by 20 % this percentage accounts for , $ 2 trillion please collect ; for the last 10 years your global insurance company has been increasing at a yearly rate of 50 %, and now has a net worth of $ 2 trillion , please collect ; your global aviation company just sold on the european stock market for $ 2 trillion , please collect ; you found a cure for the bird flu and averted the tragedy of many lives , to date your vaccine has earned you $ 3 trillion , please collect ; your company has been contracted to build space shuttles and rockets for 6 large nations totaling $ 4 trillion , please collect ; congratulations you have invented a new fuel source that replaces oil , and have just sold your first global order for $ 5 trillion , please collect ; you were voted global hero for finding a cure for the aids virus and have been awarded $ 6 trillion , please collect ; your hover car replaced the motor car ; earnings on your first shipment $ 7 trillion , please collect ; 5 years ago on your first trip to the moon you discovered a precious metal called , “ urichium ” today it is worth $ 8 trillion , please collect ; and your international pharmaceutical company discovered a cure for cancer , your first year &# 39 ; s profit $ 8 trillion , please collect . with regard to the bad news cards 32 the following are typical messages : a computer virus called , “ shut down ” corrupted computers all over your country ; cost to replace those computers $ 1 trillion , please pay ; your country &# 39 ; s currency devalued by 25 % causing a substantial lost of revenue of $ 2 trillion , please pay ; dangerous ultraviolet rays penetrated the ozone layer causing a nation wide black - out ; cost to repair your electrical power grids $ 2 trillion , please pay ; a new strain of flu virus broke out in your country causing a mass pandemic ; cost of curable vaccines $ 2 trillion , please pay ; three storm systems merged causing catastrophic damage to 12 major cities ; a cost to your insurance company of $ 3 trillion , please pay ; a 200 foot super tsunami caused severe damage to your country &# 39 ; s hotel industry and coastlines ; cost of reconstruction $ 3 trillion , please pay ; your country &# 39 ; s oil reserves ran out forcing you to develop a new form of fuel ; cost to implement $ 3 trillion , please pay ; due to severe famine your country is forced to buy food from a foreign nation ; cost to you $ 4 trillion , please pay ; a massive meteor shower rained down on your country destroying all your agricultural crops ; costing you $ 5 trillion , please pay ; a massive earthquake measuring 12 . 5 on the richter scale totally devastated 23 of the 56 cities in your country ; cost to rebuild $ 7 trillion , please pay ; an under water volcano erupted 15 miles off the coast of your country destroying your tourism infrastructure ; cost to rebuild $ 7 trillion , please pay ; and due to severe drought your country &# 39 ; s water supply depleted by 50 % and you &# 39 ; re forced to purchase water from another nation ; cost $ 8 trillion , please pay . the above penalty payments are placed in a “ players &# 39 ; pool ”, being a designated area ( not shown ) on or off the game board 12 . each of the neutral zone cards bear the same exemplary message , namely . this is a get out of trouble card , use it to cancel any adverse situation or command given during the course of the game . the simulated currency used in this board game 10 , is in the form of a “ line of credit ” represented by a plurality of international business cards 38 which may be surrendered for the face amount indicated thereon in order pay the above “ penalties ” or to “ purchase ” assets as will be further discussed hereinafter . by way of example , the international business cards 38 are provided in various denominations with each denomination being color - coded , for example : also included is a set of “ country ” cards 34 corresponding to the country designations on respective stations 16 . in this typical embodiment there are a total of twenty - four country cards 34 . each of the country cards 34 bears a respective country name corresponding to the country name on the twenty - four stations . additionally , the country card 34 designates a purchase price for acquiring the assets and a “ property fee ” or tax payable by a competing player when landing within the station represented by said country card 34 . the game apparatus also includes a game - piece 40 . preferably , there are six game - pieces 40 , each being color - coded to match a correspondingly color - coded global regions 18 - 28 . movement of the game - piece 40 is determined primarily by the throw of three dice 44 , with one game die 42 , being designated the game die and being differentiated from the remaining two dice by having a different color or other markings . the game is intended for play by from two ( 2 ) to six ( 6 ) participants . this will comfortably permit the players to position themselves around the game board 12 . each player , at the beginning of the game , is given the equivalent of $ 300 , 000 trillion in monetary value represented by the international business cards 38 . the remaining business cards 38 that have not been distributed to players are held in reserve in a “ bank ” placed at the side of the game board 12 . each player is also given one neutral card 36 . to start the game , each player rolls the single game die 42 to determine the starting position . for example , if the numerical die count is one , then that player &# 39 ; s starting position is at the station marked # 1 , bearing the country designation “ puerto rico , hawaii islands , u . s . v . islands ” located in the north american free trade area 18 . similarly , starting stations in global regions 20 - 28 are respectively marked # 2 , # 3 , # 4 , # 5 and # 6 . the player then selects a game - piece 40 , in the shape of a miniature airplane , which is correspondently color - coded to the north american free trade area 18 . additionally , the countries in the north american free trade area 18 are assigned to and constitute that player &# 39 ; s trade - bloc . the movement of the game - piece 40 then advances in a clockwise direction as determined by the throw of the three dice 44 . game play progresses with each player , in order of the numerical starting position , throwing the three dice 44 . the game die 42 is read first and provides for a jump move that will advance the player &# 39 ; s game - piece 40 to one of the global regions 18 - 28 , having the corresponding numerical starting position . this jump move helps to accelerate game play . for example , if a player in starting position # 1 should throw the dice 44 and the game die 42 has a numerical equivalent of 4 on its upturned face , then the player moves his / her game - piece 40 to starting position # 4 corresponding to global region 24 . then the player adds the numerical value of both of the remaining two dice and will move his / her game - piece 40 the equivalent amount of stations 16 represented by the sum of the numerical value appearing on face of each of the two dice . if the game - piece 40 is now positioned on a country station , for example , australia , then the player may purchase the country assets for an equivalent value of $ 30 trillion with payment being made to the “ bank ” by the international business cards 38 and the player will in return will receive a country card 34 corresponding to australia . if however australia is a country within a competing players &# 39 ; trade - bloc and said player has not purchased the assets of said country , that competing player may prevent purchase of the assets by implementing a move called “ defending sovereignty ”. the player asserting this move must then pay the opposing player one - half the cost of the asset evaluation ($ 15 trillion ) for obtaining ownership of this country &# 39 ; s assets . if however , a player lands on a country and it is not owned by another player , or a player does not wish to defend sovereignty , then that player may purchase the assets . the owner of a previously acquired country &# 39 ; s assets is allowed to collect “ taxes ” if an opposing player lands in that country . the taxes are rated at 10 % of the value of the assets based on ownership of that country &# 39 ; s assets . if a player owns the assets of two countries in his / her trade - bloc and an opposing player lands on one of said countries so owned , that player must pay to the owner taxes equivalent to 20 % of the value of the assets of that country . if a player owns the assets of three countries within a trade - bloc , the taxes will be increased to 30 %, and if the player owns the assets of all four countries in the trade - bloc , the taxes will be increased to 40 % of the value of the assets of that country . when a player &# 39 ; s international business cards 38 have been substantially or completely depleted and the player can no longer defend his / her sovereignty , he may sell or redeem one or more assets back to the “ bank ” and receive the equivalent monetary value in international business cards 38 . however , if another player &# 39 ; s game - piece 40 should land on the so redeemed assets , he / she may buy the assets from the “ bank ”. it should further be noted that the travel path 14 contains “ special ” stations namely , a “ good news ” station 45 , a “ bad news ” station 46 , and “ neutral zone ” station 48 . when a player &# 39 ; s game - piece 40 lands on either of the stations 45 , 46 he / she must select the upper most card from a corresponding stack of cards placed in the designated positions on the game board 10 and then follow the instructional message . when a player lands on the neutral zone station 48 he / she may receive a neutral card 36 from the designated position on the game board 10 which card may be held until needed to reverse an adverse situation . a hostile takeover station 50 allows a player that lands on this station to throw the dice 44 again and that player shall be permitted to purchase any unowned asset in which his / her game - piece 40 may land without challenge from a competing player . a station 52 designated “ free zone players &# 39 ; pool ”, entitles a player whose game - piece 40 lands on this station to receive all of the international business cards 38 that have been placed in the “ players &# 39 ; pool ” as a result of penalties assessed during the previous course of play . a station 54 designated “ removal of tariffs ” entitles a player to move his / her game - piece 40 around the travel path 14 without payment of any taxes to competing players for a total of three throws of the dice 44 . a station 56 designated “ bermuda triangle ”, allows a player landing on this station to throw the dice 44 a second time within the same move , and if the moving player &# 39 ; s game - piece 40 lands on a country in a trade - bloc owned by a competing player , the competing player &# 39 ; s game - piece 40 is confiscated and the competing player misses a turn at throwing the dice 44 . in order for the competing player to reenter the game he / she must pay , via international business cards 38 , a fee of $ 5 trillion into the “ players &# 39 ; pool ” and pay $ 2 trillion to the opposing player to regain the game - piece 40 . if the competing player is unable to repurchase his / her game - piece , the opposing player may confiscate one of the competing player &# 39 ; s country &# 39 ; s assets causing the competing player to remove himself / herself from the game with the remaining assets going to the “ bank ” for purchase by any other player landing on that country &# 39 ; s station . a station 58 marked “ free movement of goods & amp ; services ”, will entitle the player whose game - piece 40 lands on this station to receive $ 1 trillion dollars , from the player defending the trade - bloc wherein the station 58 appears , namely global region 22 . another station 60 entitled “ free movement of capital ”, 60 , enables a player whose game - piece 40 lands within the station 60 to another throw of the dice 44 and to be exempt from taxes and from any penalties during this move . a station 61 designated “ free movement of labour & amp ; skills ” entitles a player who game - piece 40 lands this station to another throw of the dice 44 . if the player &# 39 ; s game - piece 40 lands on a competing player &# 39 ; s country station , the competing player must pay that opposing player 20 % of the cost of that country &# 39 ; s asset . another aspect of this board game , further intended to accelerate movement of the game - piece 40 includes the four corner spaces 62 , 64 , 66 , 68 . the station 62 is designated “ csme caricom ” and a player whose game - piece 40 lands within the station 62 is entitled to a “ triple point play ” wherein the player may execute three moves with one throw of the dice 44 and entitles the player to move the game - piece 40 in three consecutive moves , each move being equal to the numerical face value of one of the die , and at each move the player has an opportunity to purchase the country assets of the station landed upon . another corner station 64 designated “ central america double point ” entitles the player landing thereon to a “ double point play ” which allows the player to throw the game dice 44 and after moving his / her game - piece 40 in accordance with game die 42 , may then take two consecutive moves corresponding to the numerical face value of each of the remaining dice , thus allowing the player the possibility of purchasing the assets of two countries . still another corner space 66 titled “ middle east blockbuster ” provides the player who lands on this station the right to demand $ 1 trillion in compensation from each of the other players or alternatively the player may demand that a competing player pay $ 1 trillion for each asset the competing player owns within his / her trade - bloc . a fourth corner station 68 is entitled “ antarctica the big chill ”. when a player lands on the station 68 , that player will miss one turn of the throw of the dice 44 . the player who best defends his / her national economic sovereignty by acquiring and holding the most or all of the countries in his / her trade - bloc is the winner . the second place goes to the player who has ownership of the second most properties in his / her respective trade - bloc . in the event of a tie , the winner is that player having the largest monetary value remaining in the international business cards 38 in his / her possession . the rules of play can be modified for a short version of the game 10 wherein the first player to acquire the assets of the four countries within his / her trade - bloc is declared the winner . it should thus be seen that there is provided a global property board game that achieves the various preferred objects of this invention and which is well adapted to meet conditions of practical use . since various possible embodiments might be made in the present invention or modifications might be to the exemplary embodiments set forth , for example , the game may be digitized for electronic or computer format , it should be understood that all materials shown and described in the accompanying drawings are to be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense . | 0 |
throughout this specification and in the drawings like parts will be referred to by the same reference numerals . fig1 illustrates part of a non - boil boiling point indicator device having a probe ( 2 ) and a display housing ( 31 ) shown schematically in fig1 and similar to that shown in fig2 . the probe in fig1 preferably projects from a bottom end of the display housing ( 31 ), and the power lead from the top or side thereof . the embodiment shown in fig2 differs from the fig1 device in that the display housing ( 31 ) is separate from the probe ( 2 ), the two parts being connected by a flexible lead ( 32 ). the probe part of the boiling point indicator device ( 1 ) comprises an outer elongate tubular sheath or housing ( 3 ), preferably of stainless steel , in which is located a heater ( 4 ) for heating , for example , hygroscopic fluid such as motor vehicle brake fluid located within the housing , and a thermocouple ( 5 ) for use in measuring the temperature of fluid within the probe housing ( 3 ) during heating of the fluid . a tubular sheath ( 6 ) lies co - axially within the tubular housing ( 3 ) for housing both the thermocouple ( 5 ) and electrical leads ( 7 , 8 ) connecting the heater ( 4 ) with electronic circuitry in the display housing ( 31 ) for controlling the operation of the heater . the electronic circuitry is in turn connected with a power source , which is not shown . the power source is preferably a battery of the motor vehicle for which the brake fluid is being tested . the electronic circuitry is not disclosed herewith in detail because it does not form part of the present invention . the thermocouple ( 5 ), sheath ( 6 ), and leads ( 7 , 8 ) are held in position within the probe by a circular sealing disc ( 9 ) that extends transversely of the longitudinal axis of the tubular housing ( 3 ). the disc ( 9 ) seals off the end of the tubular housing containing the heater ( 4 ) from that part of the tubular housing which enters the display housing including the electronic circuitry referred to above . the thermocouple ( 5 ) and leads ( 7 , 8 ) pass through the disc ( 9 ) and are sealed relative thereto . a shroud ( 20 ) is mounted on or forms a part of , the sheath ( 6 ) and diverges outwardly from the sheath to engage and lie coaxial with inner surface ( 21 ) of the tubular housing ( 3 ) of the probe ( 2 ). the form of the shroud serves to divide a portion ( 22 ) of the tubular housing ( 3 ) between disc ( 9 ) and an outer , or free , end ( 23 ) of the tubular housing ( 3 ) remote from the disc ( 9 ), into an outer and an inner chamber ( 24 , 25 ). the two chambers ( 24 , 25 ) are interconnected via non - restrictive apertures ( 26 ). the outer chamber ( 24 ) is in turn connected with the environment surrounding the probe housing ( 3 ) by non - restrictive apertures ( 27 ) around the tubular housing ( 3 ); only two apertures ( 27 ) of more than two apertures being indicated in fig1 . the inner chamber ( 25 ) is closed by a bung ( 28 ) in which there are a plurality of non - restrictive apertures ( 29 ) that connect the inner chamber ( 25 ) with the environment external to the probe . the non - restrictive apertures ( 29 ) allow free fluid flow into and out of the inner chamber . in the embodiment of fig1 the diverging shroud ( 20 ) is separate from the sheath ( 6 ) but is arranged to have a friction fit with a reduced diameter outer surface portion ( 6 a ) at the end of the sheath ( 6 ) that is adjacent the heater ( 4 ). the shroud ( 20 ) engages an end stop ( 6 b ) at the innermost end of the surface portion ( 6 a ). alternatively , the sheath and shroud may be a single integral molding . as shown in fig1 , the portion ( 20 a ) of the shroud that engages the internal surface of the housing ( 3 ) is thicker than the portion that engages the portion ( 6 a ) of the sheath . this is to restrict the volume of the inner chamber ( 25 ) and so minimize the amount of fluid to be heated . a shown in fig1 and 2 , the display housing ( 31 ) houses a visual display ( 32 ). in cases where the indicator device ( 1 ) is being used to test the brake fluid of a motor vehicle and the power source is a battery of the vehicle , device ( 1 ) is operable once the vehicle is switched off and the power leads ( 33 , 34 ) of the test device are connected to the vehicle battery ( 36 ). immediately electrical power is applied to the indicator device ( 1 ) the display ( 32 ) will indicate the device is ready . the probe ( 2 ) is then dipped a number of times into hydraulic fluid ( 35 ) in the reservoir ( 37 ) provided for the hydraulic fluid of that vehicle so as to ensure the probe and fluid temperature are compatible . the probe is then dipped without stirring into the test fluid and held steady with the holes ( 27 ) in the side of the tubular housing ( 3 ) immersed in the hydraulic fluid . to start the test , a start button is pressed and held . the start button is effective to operate the heater ( 4 ) for five seconds , or until the display ( 32 ) shows a moving pattern indicating the heater is on and the test is in progress . the moving display slows as the test nears completion . the brake fluid boiling point will then be displayed . the reading remains on - screen on the display ( 32 ) until the device ( 1 ) is switched off or the start button is pressed for a further five seconds . operating the device ( 1 ) as described causes the probe heater ( 4 ) to be energized in a pulsatory manner . the first heating cycle is at high power and , at a set time within the cycle , the electronics look at the temperature reached by the heated fluid . this enables the fluid type to be determined and the power applied to the probe heater ( 4 ) during following cycles is reduced , according to the temperature reached , to prevent the heated fluid from reaching boiling point . the rising temperature of the fluid in subsequent heating cycles is monitored by control and calculating electronics in the electronic circuitry and , as the temperature rise slows , indicative of an approach to the boiling point but substantially before the boiling point is reached , the power to the probe heater is switched off . a boiling point indication is then derived using previously stored look - up tables within the electronics software and this temperature reading is displayed on the display ( 32 ) as the boiling point of the test fluid . it is important when performing tests to perform at least two tests to avoid the effect of atmospheric moisture contamination on the probe . having performed two tests the first reading can be disregarded . inaccurate readings will also occur if the heater ( 4 ) has not cooled sufficiently between tests and it is recommended that at least two minutes is allowed between the two tests . the cooling of the heater ( 4 ) can be achieved by repeatedly dipping the probe into cool , brake fluid . methods of cooling involving stirring the fluid with the probe , or using compressed air , will provide distorted readings because of undue air bubbles appearing within the device and the fluid being stirred . the electronic circuitry advantageously allows switching of temperature scales even when a final temperature reading is displayed . should the display ( 32 ) indicate an err 2 reading the device ( 1 ) requires servicing . lo indicates a low battery , which will not allow the indicator device ( 1 ) to operate . should the indicator device malfunction , the power connections should be checked first . the graph of fig3 a illustrates an initial high power input ( vh ) over time ( 40 ) applied to the heater ( 4 ), which is then varied at and after a preset time ( 41 ) in accordance with the temperature attained by the semi - encapsulated test fluid at that time ( 41 ). the electronic control electronics decides at the preset test time ( 41 ) what the basic boiling point is of the type of fluid being tested . a low boiling point fluid is denoted by a low temperature rise , for example ( tl ) in fig3 b . the heater power input is lowered accordingly , for example , as shown at v l . if the control and display electronics decide at the preset test time ( 41 ) that what is being tested is a high boiling point fluid , denoted by a high temperature rise for example ( th ) in fig3 b , at the preset test time the heater power input ( 42 ) is accordingly increased to v h for example . referring to fig3 c , the rise in temperature curve ( tc ) as sensed by the thermocouple ( 5 ) tends to flatten out at ( p ), a point ahead of the boiling point ( bp ). at this stage , the control and display electronics looks for a first point at which the temperature rise is less than a set amount ( tr ) within a set time scale ( st ). a particular predetermined algorithm is used by the control and display electronics to equate the temperature in the calculation window ( 43 ) ( using pre - programmed calculus ) to a figure equivalent to the actual boiling point ( bp ), or any other temperature reading required . that figure is shown on the display ( 32 ). there has been described a boiling point indicator device having a restricted size fluid heating chamber situated at the free end ( 23 ) of the probe ( 2 ) with fluid inlet and outlet apertures ( 29 ) in a base ( 28 ) intermediate the inner chamber ( 25 ) and the fluid to be tested . further apertures ( 27 ) are situated on the side of the probe housing at an appropriate set height to communicate with the outer chamber . in use , at a predetermined time within the heating cycle , within the first few seconds , the electronics looks at the temperature reached by the heated fluid . a higher boiling point fluid will have attained a much higher temperature than a lower boiling point fluid . using the temperature attained at and after the preset time as a guide , the power applied to the heating ( 4 ) is sustained , increased or reduced . this is done to prevent the heated fluid from being overheated or reaching boiling point . the rise in the temperature curve monitored by the temperature sensing device ( thermocouple ( 5 )) immersed in the heated fluid . the control and calculation electronics constantly looks for a set temperature rise within a set timescale , that can be used as a calculation window . as the temperature rise slows , substantially before the boiling point is reached , an extremely repeatable result can be extrapolated from a set temperature rise within a set time scale ( the calculation window ). once this point is reached the power to the heater ( 4 ) is switched off . a temperature reading at a set time within the calculation window is correlated with stored “ look up ” tables held within the electronic software . this temperature reading within the calculation window ( or any other repeatable temperature point ) can be used to correlate the actual boiling point or any other temperature reading required . this boiling point temperature can be displayed as required on a suitable electronics display 32 such as that shown in fig1 and 2 . while this invention has been described as having a preferred design , it is understood that it is capable of further modifications , and uses and / or adaptations of the invention and following in general the principle of the invention and including such departures from the present disclosure as come within the known or customary practice in the art to which the invention pertains , and as may be applied to the central features hereinbefore set forth , and fall within the scope of the invention or limits of the claims appended hereto . | 6 |
in order that the present invention may be better understood , it is believed advantageous to first review a typical prior art type bridge or power conversion unit . fig1 a shows an electrical schematic diagram for a state - of - the - art three phase , full wave , reversing drive for supplying a d . c . motor m from a three phase source indicated by the terminals l 1 , l 2 and l 3 . the bridge of fig1 a is shown having six thyristors for forward direction operation and six thyristors for the reverse direction operation but it is also to be understood that diodes could be used where appropriate . the forward bridge , indicated generally at 10 , has six thyristors 1f , 2f , 3f , 4f , 5f and 6f and a pair of d . c . output terminals 18 and 20 across which the motor m is connected . the three a . c . source phases l 1 , l 2 and l 3 are individually connected , respectively , to the thyristor pairs 1f - 4f , 2f - 5f and 3f - 6f . in order to protect the thyristors from transients and to aid in the firing of these thyristors in a manner well known in the art , there is connected in parallel with each of the thyristors 1f through 6f a snubber circuit which is shown in its simplest form and includes a resistor 14 in series with a capacitor 16 . the reverse bridge 12 is substantially identical to the forward bridge 10 and includes six thyristors 1r through 6r , each of which has an associated , parallel connected snubber circuit including a resistor 14 in series with a capacitor 16 . the motor m is connected across the d . c . output terminals 22 and 24 of the reverse bridge 12 . motor operation in the first direction , here arbitrarily designated the forward direction , occurs when the thyristors of bridge 10 are rendered conductive at the appropriate points within the a . c . cycle . conversely , when motor direction in the opposite or reverse direction is desired , bridge 12 is rendered operative . fig1 b illustrates the mechanical / electrical schematic equivalent of the circuit shown in fig1 a in accordance with the prior art . in fig1 b , the six thyristors 1f through 6f of the forward bridge are connected in a unitary heat sink assembly such that each of the three thyristors 1f , 2f and 3f is in contact with a conducting member 18 , which may be in the form of a flat conducting bar ( e . g ., aluminum ) to form a common cathode terminal connection of each of these three thyristors . the anodes of these three thyristors are connected to individual heat sink assemblies 26 which may be , for example , of a fin type structure as is illustrated at the left hand side of fig1 b . a snubber circuit 14 - 16 is connected between the common conductor 18 and each of the individual heat sink assemblies 26 . in a similar manner , thyristors 4f through 6f have their anodes connected to a common bus heat sink assembly member 20 , which may be a bar similar to bar 18 . the cathodes of the thyristors 4f - 6f are each connected to an individual heat sink member 26 . snubber circuits are also connected in parallel with each of these thyristors . the two heat sink assemblies 26 associated with each of the thyristor pairs 1f - 4f , 2f - 5f and 3f - 6f are electrically joined . from this , as is better seen when viewed in conjunction with fig1 a , the individual heat sink members 26 form the a . c . side of the bridge while the bars or common members 18 and 20 form the d . c . side ( i . e ., corresponding to the terminal points 18 and 20 shown in fig1 a ). bars 18 and 20 are maintained electrically isolated one from the other by means of suitable insulating spacers 28 . the lower depiction of fig1 b corresponds to the reverse bridge 12 and is substantially identical in structure and appearance to the upper portion and like components have been given like designations . beyond pointing out the correspondence of terminals 22 and 24 ( fig1 a ) to the bars 22 and 24 ( fig1 b ), further description is believed unnecessary . as shown by fig1 a and 1b , in the prior art type assembly operation in the forward direction involves the use of the upper depiction of fig1 b while operation in the reverse direction employs the assembly shown in the lower portion of fig1 b . thus , during operation , each of the thyristors associated with an assembly generates heat and contributes to the overall heat of the assembly . as such , while operating in the forward direction for example , the upper portion of fig1 b would become relatively hot while the lower portion would remain at ambient temperature . the reverse would be true for operation in the reverse direction . fig2 a and 2b correspond in type to fig1 a and 1b and illustrate the present invention in its preferred embodiment as applied to the three phase , full wave , reversing bridge . insofar as is appropriate , the same designations are used in fig2 a and 2b as were used with respect to fig1 a and 1b . referring now to fig2 a , it is seen that , although the general configuration is similar to that shown in fig1 a , the upper portion of the bridge here includes thyristors from both the forward and the reverse portions of the bridge . the same is true for the lower bridge portion . specifically , it is seen that the lines of the three phase source , once again represented by the lines l 1 , l 2 and l 3 , are connected , respectively , in the upper portion of the bridge to the anodes of the thyristors 1f , 2f and 3f and to the cathodes of the thyristors 4r , 5r and 6r . similarly , in the lower portion , lines l 1 , l 2 and l 3 are connected , respectively , to the anodes of thyristors 1r , 2r and 3r and to the cathodes of the thyristors 4f , 5f and 6f . the cathodes of the thyristors 1f through 3f are connected to the common d . c . terminal 30 which is , in turn , connected to the common terminal 32 and the anodes of the thyristors 4r through 6r . terminal 30 is further connected to one side of the motor m . the other side of the motor m is connected to a d . c . terminal 34 which is connected to the cathodes of the three thyristors 1r through 3r and this terminal is further connected to the d . c . terminal 36 which forms a connection to the anodes of the three thyristors 4f through 6f . as is shown , because of this particular electrical configuration , the number of snubber circuits required may be reduced by one - half and it is necessary , in this case , to provide only six snubbers instead of twelve as was the prior art case . in that a forward thyristor , for example thyristor 1f , cannot be conducting at the same time as the corresponding reverse thyristors of a pair ( thyristor 4r ), the single snubber circuit is effectively connected in parallel with each of these thyristors and will thus serve as a snubber circuit for both . the physical arrangement of the thyristors of the bridge shown in fig2 a with respect to the semiconductor heat sink assembly is illustrated in fig2 b . a comparison of fig1 b and 2b clearly demonstrates that very little change is required in existing assemblies to achieve the present invention . the first significant difference noted is that in the present invention there is an intermixing of the thyristors of the forward and reverse bridges . as shown in the upper portion of fig2 b , three reverse thyristors 4r through 6r have their anodes connected to the heat sink bus or common terminal 32 while the three forward thyristors 1f through 3f have their cathodes connected to the heat sink bus or common terminal 30 . similarly , in the lower portion of fig2 b , thyristors 4f through 6f are connected with their anodes in contact with the heat sink bus 36 and the thyristors 1r through 3r have their cathodes connected to the heat sink bus 34 . as before , individual heat sink members , which may be of the finned type as illustrated in fig1 b , are connected to the free sides of each of the thyristors and the individual heat sink assemblies 26 of each thyristor pair ( e . g ., pair 1f and 4r ) are electrically connected . the next significant difference between the fig1 b and fig2 b assemblies concerns the spacing elements 38 between the heat sink bus bars 30 , 32 and 34 , 36 . whereas in the prior art assembly of fig1 b , the spacers 28 were of insulating material , in the present situation these spacers are of a conductive material , both electrical and heat . thus , it is apparent that , although spacers are used in this particular embodiment to demonstrate the ability to use the same basic type structure as was used in the prior art , the bus bars 30 and 32 could be a single unit . the use of the dual bus bar structure shown does , however , permit commonality of design and also improves heat dissipation by allowing the cooling medium to circulate between the bars . still with reference to fig2 b , it is seen that the present invention will permit a more severe duty cycle for a given size and design of heat sink . assume first that the motor of fig2 a is being run in the forward direction such that the thyristors 1f through 6f are operational . using thyristor 1f as an example , the heat appearing at its anode will be directly dissipated by the individual heat sink member 26 . the heat at its cathode , however , is transmitted to the bar bus 30 , thence through the conducting spacer 38 to the bar 32 . from bar 32 , heat has a path by way of the thyristors 4r - 6r to the respective members 26 associated with those thyristors , the primary path being , in this example , through thyristor 4r . it has been found that this path from one electrode to the heat sink 26 associated with the other thyristor of the pair approximates the direct path to the individual heat sink 26 associated with the other electrode of a thyristor . from the foregoing , it is seen that by this structure and arrangement the heat dissipating capacity of a given thyristor bridge assembly is greatly enhanced in that at any one time only a half of the thyristors associated with a physical structure are operating and generating heat while the full capability of the structure from the heat dissipation standpoint is operative . stated in another way , with a given heat sink assembly , the duty cycle of the bridge may be increased without heat damage to the bridge semiconductors . the additional advantage of a reduction in the required number of snubber circuits has already been mentioned . fig3 a and 3b illustrate the application of the present invention to a single phase , full wave , reversing or regeneration bridge . these depictions are very similar to those of fig2 a and 2b with the primary distinction being that the forward and reverse ( regeneration ) bridges employ only four semiconductor devices each as opposed to the six as shown in fig2 a and 2b . looking at the bridges from an overall viewpoint , it is seen that the d . c . sides of the bridge are indicated by terminal 40 ( common with terminal 42 ) and terminal 44 ( common with terminal 46 ). in fig3 b , these terminals are again shown as bus bars . spacers 38 are , as before , electrically and heat conductive . thus , it is seen that there have been shown and described readily manufacturable semiconductor and heat sink assemblies which take advantage of known structures and yet provide improved operational capabilities . while there have been shown and described what are at present considered to be the preferred embodiments of the present invention , modifications thereto will readily occur to those skilled in the art . it is not desired , therefore , that the invention be limited to the specific circuits shown and described and it is intended to cover in the appended claims all such modifications as fall within the true spirit and scope of the invention . | 7 |
reference is now made to fig1 showing a block diagram representing the main components of an encapsulated display device 100 according to a first embodiment of the current invention . the display device 100 comprises a plurality of pixels 120 . each pixel 120 includes an optical element 122 sandwiched between two electrodes 124 a , 124 b wired to a pixel driver 140 . it is a particular feature of the current invention that the pixel 120 and pixel driver 140 are hermetically sealed from the environment by an encapsulating sealing layer 160 therearound . the optical element 122 includes an optically active material , such as a liquid crystal , capable of assuming two or more physical states , the optical characteristics thereof , depending upon its state . the driver 140 is configured to provide a switching voltage across the electrodes 124 such that when the switching voltage exceeds a predetermined threshold , the optical state of the optical element changes from a first optical state to a second optical state . for example , a switching voltage may cause a polarization effect , absorbing some of the light passing through liquid crystals such that the intensity of the light beam passing therethrough varies with the voltage . according to some embodiments , the optical element may be a monostable material which is actively held in its second optical state for as long as the switching voltage is maintained above the threshold . a number of monostable display technologies are known in the art and include , for example scattering devices , twisted nematic devices ( tn ), super - twisted nematic devices ( stn ), vertically aligned nematic devices ( van ), in - plane switching ( ips ), electrically controlled surfaces ( ecs ) and the like . in preferred embodiments , the optical element is selected to be a bistable material in which the first optical state and the second optical state are both stable . in a bistable device , the switching voltage switches the optical element from the first stable optical state to the second stable optical state and when the switching voltage is removed the second optical state is maintained . a number of bistable display technologies are known in the art and include , for example ferroelectric liquid crystal devices ( flc ), binem devices , zenithally bistable devices ( zbd ), post - aligned bistable displays ( pabn ), cholesteric liquid crystal devices ( clcd ) and the like . reference is now made to fig2 a and 2 b showing two ways to construct an image with pixels in an encapsulated display device according to further embodiments of the invention . fig2 a shows a simple seven segment display 200 as used in various displays , particularly numeric displays such as pocket calculators , digital clock displays , vehicle dashboards and the like . in the segment driving method , shaped electrode segments 224 are wired to dedicated pixel drivers ( not shown ) and may used to construct numbers , letters , icons and the like . fig2 b shows a dot matrix 300 as used for high - resolution displays , such as televisions screens and computer monitors . the matrix driving method constructs characters and images from a matrix of pixel dots . the pixels 320 of the matrix may be driven directly using dedicated drivers in a manner similar to the segments of the segment driving method . however , if there are n rows and m columns , a direct driving method needs n × m connections . thus , as the number of pixels is increased , the wiring of dedicated drivers becomes increasingly complex . alternatively , the so called multiplex driving method may be used . the pixels are arranged at the intersections of vertical signal electrodes ( or column electrodes ) 322 and horizontal scanning electrodes ( or row electrodes ) 323 . thus all the pixels across each row are connected together on one substrate and all the pixels in each column are connected on the opposite substrate . to switch a pixel , a voltage (+ v ) is applied to the row including that pixel , and then an opposite voltage (− v ) is applied to the column including that pixel , with no voltage being applied to the columns which do not need to be switched . thus instead of requiring n × m connections , a multiplex method only requires n + m connections . it will be appreciated that in applications where the electrodes and connecting wires would otherwise obscure the viewers line of sight to the optical element , it is advantageous to use electrodes constructed from a transparent conductive material such as indium tin oxide ( ito ) for example . the sealing layer 160 ( fig1 ) of the encapsulated display device is provided to protect the optical elements 122 from deterioration through aeration and oxidation . according to certain embodiments of the invention , the sealing layer 160 is configured to encapsulate a single pixel individually . alternatively a sealing layer 160 may be provided encapsulating a plurality of pixels or even an entire display matrix . typically , the sealing layer 160 is an electrically insulating coating , such as glass , ceramic , polymer , epoxy , lacquer , silicon based glue , rtv or the like , which is laminated onto the surface of the pixel or group of pixels . because no conductive pathway is possible through such an insulating coating , in preferred embodiments of the invention , the pixel driver 140 ( fig1 ) is configured to receive power inductively across the insulating layer . inductive power coupling allows energy to be transferred from a power supply to an electric load without a conductive connection therebetween . a power supply is wired to a primary inductor , typically an inductive coil , and an oscillating electric potential is applied across the primary inductor , thereby inducing an oscillating magnetic field . the oscillating magnetic field may induce an oscillating electrical current in a secondary inductor placed close to the primary inductor but not in conductive contact therewith . in this way , electrical energy may be transmitted from a primary coil to a secondary coil by electromagnetic induction without the two coils being conductively connected . reference is now made to fig3 showing an inductively enabled encapsulated pixel 420 hermetically sealed from the environment by a sealing layer 460 according to an exemplary embodiment of the current invention . the inductive encapsulated pixel 420 includes an optical element 422 sandwiched between an upper substrate 410 a and a lower substrate 410 b . each substrate includes a glass plate 412 a , 412 b and , where required , additional functional layers , such as polarizers 416 a , 416 b , alignment layers 414 a , 414 b , color filters or minors . the substrates 410 also support the pixel driver 420 , consisting of two electrodes 424 a , 424 b in conductive contact with the optical element 422 . the electrodes 424 a , 424 b are wired to inductive coils 426 a , 426 b which are in conductive contact with each other . in certain embodiments a ferrite layer may additionally be provided for improving the efficiency of the inductive coupling . an electrical circuit diagram of the pixel driver 420 is represented in fig4 . the inductive coils 426 a , 426 b are shown to be wired in series with the optical element which behaves electrically as a capacitor . the inductive coils 426 a , 426 b are configured to inductively couple with a primary inductor 428 , wired to an oscillating voltage source 429 . the inductive coils 426 of the pixel driver 420 behave as secondary inductors thereby receiving power from the primary inductor 428 , which is brought into proximity therewith . an oscillating voltage is thus induced in the secondary coils 426 which provides the switching voltage to the electrodes 424 . it will be further appreciated that the polarity of the electrode voltage , in an inductively driven pixel , oscillates . consequently , the net voltage across the optical element 422 is zero . thus , in contradistinction to direct current drivers of the prior art , cumulative degradation of optical element 422 by electrolysis is intrinsically avoided . although the single encapsulated pixel 420 described in the exemplary embodiment hereabove may be driven by the segment driving method , it will be appreciated that the multiplex driving method may be used to drive inductive pixel drivers by connecting driving coils to each strip electrode . alternatively n × m coils may be provided ; each connected a specific pair of electrodes such that each coil drives a single pixel . furthermore , the resonance of the inductive pixel 420 is dependent upon the inductance of the secondary coils 424 and the capacitance of the optical element 422 . according to certain embodiments , the resonance of each pixel is uniquely selected such that a single primary coil may be configured to drive a plurality of pixels by selecting an oscillating frequency known to resonate with a specific secondary coil associated with a specific pixel driver . according to a further embodiment of the invention a free standing display is constructed from inductive pixels with bistable optical elements . such a free standing display may be configured to receive data in the form of electrical signals and maintain a visual image even after the signals have been removed . one advantage of such a display is that it needs no permanent electrical infrastructure or power source . a free standing display of this type may be useful , for example , for advertisement boards situated at a distance from a source of electricity . such advertising boards can be configured to display a particular image by inductively applying a signal thereto , and will retain that image until actively switched back , despite not having power actively applied thereto . it is noted that display devices using encapsulated pixels may be incorporated into various applications for example including but not limited to the following : advertising boards , framed picture displays , calculators , digital clock displays , vehicle dashboards , electrical monitors , computer screens , television screens , ebook displays , presentation boards , walling units , flooring , roofing and the like , as well as combinations thereof . with reference now to fig5 , a flowchart is presented , showing a method for producing an encapsulated pixel for a display device according to still a further embodiment of the invention . the method includes the following steps : a . providing a first substrate comprising a first transparent conductor such as indium tin oxide ( ito ); b . printing or etching a first electrode from the first transparent conductor ; c . printing or etching a first coil onto the first transparent conductor ; d . providing a second substrate comprising a second transparent conductor ; e . printing or etching a second electrode from the a second transparent conductor ; f . printing or etching a second coil onto the second transparent conductor ; g . stacking the first substrate together with the second substrate ; h . introducing an active optical material between the first substrate and the second substrate to form a pixel , and i . sealing the pixel from the environment . the scope of the present invention is defined by the appended claims and includes both combinations and sub combinations of the various features described hereinabove as well as variations and modifications thereof , which would occur to persons skilled in the art upon reading the foregoing description . in the claims , the word “ comprise ”, and variations thereof such as “ comprises ”, “ comprising ” and the like indicate that the components listed are included , but not generally to the exclusion of other components . | 6 |
in fig1 a lens - fitted photographic film unit comprises a film housing 2 and an outer casing 3 which is shown partially torn away . the outer casing 3 is provided with an opening 6 for exposing a protruding portion 4 and a taking lens 5 , an opening 8 for a flash window 7 , an opening 11 for a flash button 9 and a barrier 10 surrounding the flash button 9 , and further unnumbered openings for a shutter button 12 , a film advancing wheel 13 , a film frame counter window 14 , a rear finder window 15 and a front finder window 16 . therefore , it is possible to take photographs with the film housing 2 encased in the outer casing 3 . the outer casing 3 has illustrations and information printed on its external surface so as to impart a decorative appearance to the film unit . in fig2 the film housing 2 is shown to consist of a main body 20 , a front cover 21 and a rear cover 22 . the main body 20 has an exposure opening 25 , a film take - up chamber 24 for accommodating a photographic film cartridge 23 and a film supply chamber 27 for accommodating a roll of unexposed photographic film 26 formed after having been withdrawn from the photographic film cassette 23 . by rotating the film advance wheel 13 , a spool 23a of the photographic film cartridge 23 is rotated to rewind the exposed frames of the photographic film 26 into the photographic film cartridge 23 . upon depression of the shutter release button 12 , a shutter 28 is actuated to cause light passing through the taking lens 5 to be incident on the photographic film 26 . the shutter 28 is cocked by that movement of the photographic film which occurs as the film advance wheel 13 is turned an amount corresponding to one frame . reference numeral 29 designates a printed circuit board of a flash device . in fig3 illustrating a cross section taken along line 3 -- 3 of fig1 the flash button 9 is formed of plastic integrally with a front wall 21a of the front cover 21 . the flash button 9 is partially separated from the front wall 21a by a channel - shaped slit 18 , and has an indented portion 19 at its root . the indented portion 19 is in a semicircular shape and formed thinly relative to the remainder of wall 21a . a conductor element 30 is secured to the inside surface of the flash button 9 by thermal caulking to face a pair of electrodes 31a , 31b formed on the printed circuit board 29 . the barrier 10 project alongside the slit 18 and is formed integrally with the front wall 21a so as to surround the flash button 9 . when depressing the flash button 9 , the photographer &# 39 ; s fingertip is nested conveniently within the barrier 10 owing to the inclined surface 10a which facilitates the depressing operation . prior to actuation , the flash button 9 occupies the position shown in solid line in fig3 and the front surface of the flash button 9 is recessed relative to the barrier 10 . if the film unit is carried about in a bag , or if a collection of the film units is kept randomly heaped up in a bin in a shop , the barrier 10 prevents the flash button 9 from being depressed by articles surrounding the flash button 9 . it would be possible to protect the flash button 9 by recessing the flash button 9 relative to the outer surface of the front wall 21a instead of providing the barrier 10 . however , to sink the flash button 9 sufficiently , metal molds having complicated structures would be required and in addition the number of metal molds might need to be increased . on the other hand , it is sufficient to use simple metal molds to provide the barrier 10 integrally on the outer surface of the front wall 21a . the flash button 9 is depressed for flash photography . at this time , since the barrier 10 is provided with the inclined surface 10a , the photographer &# 39 ; s fingertip is positioned conveniently on the flash button 9 , which makes it possible to operate the flash button 9 stably . when the flash button 9 is depressed against the inherent elasticity of its plastic , the flash button 9 is bent inward from the indented portion 19 , as indicated by the phantom line in fig3 . thereby , the conductor element 30 secured to the rear surface of the flash button 9 is brought into contact with the electrodes 31a , 31b to charge a main capacitor ( not shown ) of the flash device . when the shutter release button 12 is depressed after completion of charging , a flash photograph is taken . fig4 illustrates another preferred embodiment , wherein the present invention is applied to the shutter release button 12 . the shutter release button 12 is formed integrally with an upper wall 21b of the front cover 21 and separated partially therefrom by a channel - shaped slit 33 , the same as for the shutter release button 12 . a plurality of barriers 34a to 34c are formed on the upper wall 21b proximate to the slit 33 so as to surround the shutter release button 12 . the shutter release button 12 is formed integrally with a lever 36 whose cam end 36a is in contact with a side face of a release lever 37 . when the shutter release button 12 is depressed from above , it is bent downward about an indented portion 35 to cause the cam end 36a of the lever 36 to rotate a release lever 37 for a shutter release . in this embodiment the barriers 34a to 34c are separated by spacings , but perform the same function as the barrier 10 in the above - described embodiment as long as the respective spacings are not overly wide . accordingly , the shutter release button 12 will not be depressed inadvertently by neighboring articles . the present invention may be applied to a film unit in which a flash button and a shutter release button are operated by depressing overlying portions of an outer casing , which overlying portions are delimited by channel - shaped slits formed in the outer casing . in that case , a barrier may be exposed through a corresponding slit formed in the outer casing , or may be concealed completely by the outer casing . the present invention may also be applied to a film unit with no outer casing . although the present invention has been fully described by way of the preferred embodiments thereof with reference to the accompanying drawings , various changes and modifications will be apparent to those having skill in this field . therefore , unless otherwise these changes and modifications depart from the scope of the present invention , they should be construed as being included therein . | 6 |
in the above general formula ( i ), the alkyl group shown by r and the integer of n are not particularly critical , but it is preferable that r has a carbon number of up to 18 and n is up to 16 from a viewpoint of actual production factors such as easy availability of starting materials and the like . moreover , carbon bonding c m h 2m + 1 in the above formula is an asymmetric carbon and , when an optical activity is introduced into the compound taking this carbon as an asymmetric center , the resulting optically active compound forms a ferroelectric liquid crystal having a fast response rate alone or in admixture with another compound . examples of the novel compounds shown by the formula ( i ) and their physical and chemical properties are as follows : ir ( kbr , cm - 1 ); 2910 , 2840 , 1745 , 1675 , 1600 , 1225 , 1190 . ir ( kbr , cm - 1 ): 2910 , 2840 , 1745 , 1675 , 1600 , 1230 , 1190 , 1150 . ir ( kbr , cm - 1 ): 2910 , 2840 , 1745 , 1675 , 1600 , 1225 , 1190 , 1145 . ir ( kbr , cm - 1 ): 2910 , 2840 , 1755 , 1675 , 1462 , 1375 , 1200 , 1140 , 975 , 827 ir ( kbr , cm - 1 ): 2910 , 2840 , 1750 , 1675 , 1600 , 1275 , 1220 , 1185 . ir kbr , cm - 1 ): 2910 , 2840 , 1755 , 1675 , 1600 , 1460 , 1260 , 1220 , 972 , 950 , 820 . ir ( kbr , cm - 1 ): 2910 , 2840 , 1680 , 1600 , 1480 , 1372 , 820 . moreover , the length of the carbon chain of the alkyl group r shown by the formula ( i ) can properly be selected in accordance with the use purpose because the compound affects the temperature region forming a liquid crystal state . of course , such compounds may be used alone or in admixture with the other liquid crystal material . at first , compounds in which a in the formula ( i ) is a single bond are obtained by reacting 2 - alkyl - 1 - alkanoic acid represented by the following general formula ( 1 ): ## str11 ## ( wherein m and n are the same as mentioned above ) with an inorganic halogen compound such as thionyl chloride , phosphorus pentachloride , phosphorus trichloride , phosphoryl chloride or the like to form an acyl halide , and then reacting the acyl halide with 4 - alkyl - biphenyl in the presence of a catalyst such as anhydrous aluminum chloride , boron trifluoride or the like according the friedel - crafts reaction . moreover , 4 - alkyl - biphenyl is obtained by acylating biphenyl with an alkyl carboxylic acid according to the friedel - crafts reaction to reduce a carbonyl group thereof to a methylene group . alternatively , commercially available 4 - alkyl - biphenyl may be used . in order to obtain 2 - alkylalkanoic acid of the general formula ( 1 ), 2 - alkyl - 1 - alkanol represented by the following general formula ( 2 ): ## str12 ## ( wherein m and n are the same as mentioned above ) is compound having an optical activity , 2 - alkyl - 1 - alkanol having an optical activity may be used . in the latter case , an oxidizing agent capable of conducting oxidation without racemization is selected . such an oxidation is most convenient to be carried out by using potassium permanganate under an acidic condition . secondly , compounds in which a of the general formula ( i ) is -- coo -- or -- ocoo -- are obtained as follows . at first , 2 - alkylalkanoic acid of the above formula ( 1 ) is esterified with hydroxy biphenyl by condensation . this esterification easily proceeds at a temperature of 60 ° ˜ 120 ° c . in the presence of a mineral acid catalyst . in this case , it is favorable to carry out the reaction in the presence of an organic solvent such as benzene , toluene , xylene or the like under reflux . as the mineral acid catalyst , use may be made of hydrochloric acid , sulfuric acid , thionyl chloride , boron fluoride and so on . then , biphenyl - 2 - alkylalkanoate is reacted with a 2 - alkylalkanoyl halide . that is , when biphenyl - 2 - alkylalkanoate and the halide are reacted in the presence of a catalyst such as anhydrous aluminum chloride , boron trifluoride or the like , 2 - alkylalkanoyl is added to 4 &# 39 ;- position of the above biphenyl ester to produce 4 &# 39 ;-( 2 - alkylalkanoyl ) biphenyl - 2 - alkylalkanoate without racemization when 2 - alkylalkanoyl halide has an optical activity . in this case , 2 - alkylalkanoic acid may be the same as 2 - alkylalkanoic acid used in the above esterification , or another compound having a different chain length may naturally be used . this reaction operation may be carried out by dissolving the above biphenyl - 2 - alkylalkanoate and 2 - alkylalkanoyl halide in an organic solvent such as nitrobenzene , dichloromethane or the like , maintaining temperature at - 20 ° c .˜ 50 ° c . and stirring for 1 - 100 hours . the resulting 4 &# 39 ;-( 2 - alkylalkanoyl ) biphenyl - 2 - alkylalkanoate is hydrolyzed with an alkali such as sodium hydrogen carbonate , potassium hydrogen carbonate or the like in the presence of a solvent such as alcohol / water or the like , and then neutralized with an inorganic acid such as hydrochloric acid , sulfuric acid or the like to obtain 4 - hydroxy - 4 &# 39 ;-( 2 - alkylalkanoyl ) biphenyl represented by the following general formula ( 3 ): ## str13 ## ps ( wherein m and n are the same as mentioned above ). the compounds in which a of the formula ( i ) is -- coo -- are obtained by esterifying the above compound ( 3 ) with an alkanoic acid or a halide thereof , while the compounds in which a is -- ocoo -- are obtained by reacting the above compound ( 3 ) with an alkyl chloroformate . thirdly , compounds in which a of the formula ( i ) is -- oco -- are obtained as follows . at first , commercially available 4 - halobiphenyl and acetyl chloride are reacted to form 4 - acetyl - 4 &# 39 ;- halobiphenyl , which is converted into 4 &# 39 ;- halobiphenyl - 4 - carboxylic acid according to a haloform reaction and reduced with lithium aluminum hydride to form 4 &# 39 ;- halo - 4 - hydroxymethyl biphenyl . this compound is reacted with an alkylvinyl ether to form 4 -( 4 - halophenyl ) benzyl -( 1 - alkoxy ) ethylether , which is coupled with 2 - alkylalkanoyl chloride according to grignard &# 39 ; s reaction and a protective group is removed therefrom under an acidic condition to obtain 4 &# 39 ;-( 2 - alkylalkanoyl )- 4 - hydroxymethyl biphenyl represented by the following general formula ( 4 ): ## str14 ## ( wherein m and n are the same as mentioned above ) without racemization in the case of compounds having an optical activity . then , the above 4 &# 39 ;-( 2 - alkylalkanoyl )- 4 - hydroxymethyl biphenyl is oxidized with an oxidizing agent such as potassium permanganate or the like to obtain 4 &# 39 ;-( 2 - alkylalkanoyl ) biphenyl - 4 - carboxylic acid represented by the following general formula ( 5 ): ## str15 ## ( wherein m and n are the same as mentioned above ) without racemization in case of compounds having an optical activity . thereafter , the above compound ( 5 ) is esterified with an alkanol to obtain the compound in which a of the formula ( i ) is -- oco --. fourthly , compounds in which a of the formula ( i ) is -- co -- are obtained as follows . at first , a 2 - alkylalkanoyl halide of the formula ( 1 ) is reacted with biphenyl . that is , when biphenyl and the halide are reacted in the presence of a catalyst such as anhydrous aluminum chloride , boron trifluoride or the like , 2 - alkylalkanoyl is added to the 4 - postion of biphenyl without racemization when 2 - alkylalkanoyl halide has a optical activity to produce 4 -( 2 - alkylalkanoyl ) biphenyl . then , the above 4 -( 2 - alkylalkanoyl ) biphenyl is reacted with an acyl complex of alkanoyl halide and aluminum chloride or the like to obtain 4 - alkanoyl - 4 &# 39 ;-( 2 - alkylalkanoyl ) biphenyl . moreover , it is a matter of course that the order of acylations of 2 - alkylalkanoic acid and alkanoic acid may be changed in the above reactions . the compounds according to the invention can have a stable thermotropic liquid crystal state and form ferroelectric liquid crystals having a large spontaneous polarization and a fast response rate , so that they develop a very excellent effect as a material for optoelectronics and their related elements . therefore , it can be said that the compounds according to the invention are liquid crystal materials suitable for optoelectronics and their related elements utilizing liquid crystal properties or electro - chemichromism , for example , a display for liquid crystal television receiver , optical printer head , opto - fourier transform element , light valve and the like . the following examples are given in illustration of the invention and are not intended as limitations thereof . into a flask were charged 1800 ml of water and 255 g of sulfuric acid , to which were suspended 100 g ( 1 . 13 mol ) of (-)- 2 - methyl butanol . thereafter , 278 g ( 1 . 76 mol ) of potassium permanganate were added thereto over 3 hours while maintaining at 23 °˜ 25 ° c ., and further reacted at this temperature . after the completion of the reaction , the reaction solution was placed in a vessel containing 1 l of ice water , added with 220 g ( 2 . 11 mol ) of sodium bisulfite and further with 30 ml of concentrated sulfuric acid to adjust the ph to not more than 1 , and extracted with diethyl ether . the extract was extracted with a 10 % aqueous solution of sodium hydroxide , which was then added with 200 ml of water and 370 ml of concentrated hydrochloric acid to adjust the ph to not more than 1 . after the aqueous solution was extracted with dichloromethane , the extract was dried on anhydrous magnesium sulfate . the dried extract was concentrated and distilled under a reduced pressure ( 59 . 5 °˜ 60 ° c ./ 4 ˜ 5 mmhg ) to obtain 78 . 0 g ( yield : 68 %) of a transparent liquid of (+)- 2 - methyl butanoic acid . then , 5 . 49 g of the above (+)- 2 - methyl butanoic acid , 8 . 50 g of 4 - hydroxybiphenyl and 20 ml of toluene were charged into a flask , and added with 4 . 0 ml of thionyl chloride with stirring , which was reacted for 8 hours while maintaining the temperature at 70 °˜ 80 ° c . after completion of the reaction , the reaction solution was cooled to room temperature , added with water to decompose excess thionyl chloride , washed with water , and dried on anhydrous magnesium sulfate . after the solvent was distilled off , the residue was purified through a column chromatography of silica gel to obtain 12 . 69 g of oily (+)- bphenyl - 2 - methylbutanoate having a specific rotary power [ α ] 25 d + 15 . 1 ° ( 11 . 03 % by weight in chloroform ). in a flask was charged 11 . 7 g ( 98 . 3 mmol ) of thionyl chloride and was maintained at 36 °˜ 38 ° c ., to which was added dropwise 8 . 98 g ( 87 . 3 mmol ) of the above (+)- 2 - methylbutanoic acid over 7 minutes with stirring . after stirring and reacting at room temperature for 40 minutes , the reaction mixture was further reacted by stirring at a temperature of 80 ° c . for 30 minutes . then , it was distilled to obtain 6 . 5 g ( 53 . 9 mmol , yield : 64 %) of a colorless and transparent (+)- 2 - methyl butanoyl chloride . then , 4 . 0 g of (+)- 2 - methyl butanoyl chloride and 7 ml of nitrobenzene were charged into a flask and cooled to 0 ° c ., added with 10 . 74 g ( 80 mmol ) of anhydrous aluminum chloride and further with a solution of 4 . 97 g ( 19 . 6 mmol ) of (+)- biphenyl - 2 - methylbutanoate in 9 ml of nitrobenzene , which was stirred at room temperature for 70 hours . after the addition of 2 normal hydrochloric acid and ice , the extraction with chloroform was performed . the extracted chloroform phase was washed with water , dried on anhydrous magnesium sulfate , and the solvent was distilled off . the residue was purified through a column chromatography of silica gel after distillation off of the solvent to obtain 3 . 60 g ( yield : 54 %) of an oily (+)- 4 -( 2 - methylbutanoyl ) biphenyl - 2 - methylbutanoate . the nmr analytical values of this product were as follows . 1 h - nmr ( in cdcl 3 , tms standard , ppm ): 8 . 02 ( d , 2h ), 7 . 63 ( d , 2h ), 7 . 60 ( d , 2h ), 7 . 20 ( d , 2h ), 3 . 42 ( m , 1h ), 2 . 67 ( m , 1h ), 1 . 75 - 1 . 95 ( m , 2h ), 1 . 4 - 1 . 75 ( m , 2h ), 1 . 32 ( d , 3h ), 1 . 20 ( d , 3h ), 1 . 06 ( t , 3h ), 0 . 96 ( t , 3h ) to a mixture of 0 . 67 g of the above (+)- 4 -( 2 - methylbutanoyl ) biphenyl - 2 - methylbutanoate , 95 ml of methanol and 5 ml of water was added 1 . 14 g ( 13 . 6 mmol ) of sodium hydrogen carbonate with stirring , which was subjected to a hydrolysis reaction at room temperature for 40 hours . after completion of the reaction , methanol was distilled off , and the residue was added with 1 normal hydrochloric acid to adjust the ph to not more than 1 and extracted with dichloromethane . the extract was washed with water , dried on anhydrous magnesium sulfate and the solvent was distilled off . the residue was purified through a column chromatography of silica gel after the distillation off of the solvent to obtain 0 . 44 g ( yield : 88 %) of a light yellow crystal of (+)- 4 - hydroxy - 4 &# 39 ;-( 2 - methybutanoyl ) biphenyl . ○ 1 1 h - nmr ( in cdcl 3 , tms standard , ppm ): 8 . 05 ( d , 2h ), 7 . 65 ( d , 2h ), 7 . 53 ( d , 2h ), 7 . 06 ( d , 2h ), 3 . 50 ( m , 1h ), 2 . 10 - 1 . 40 ( m , 2h ), 1 . 22 ( d , 3h ), 0 . 96 ( t , 3h ), ○ 2 ir ( kbr , cm - 1 ): 3300 , 2930 , 2910 , 1650 , 1590 . ○ 4 [ α ] 25 d ( 8 . 6 % by weight , in cdcl 3 ): + 19 . 0 ° into a flask were charged 240 . 4 mg ( 0 . 95 mmol ) of 4 - hyroxy - 4 &# 39 ;-( 2 - methylbutanoyl ) biphenyl , 0 . 15 g ( 1 . 29 mmol ) of hexanoic acid , 0 . 24 g ( 1 . 17 mmol ) of dicyclohexyl carbodiimide , 10 mg ( 0 . 08 mmol ) of 4 - dimethylamino pyridine and 7 ml of dried dichloromethane , which were stirred at room temperature for 1 hour . after the resulting solid was filtered off and the solvent was distilled off , the residue was purified through a column chromatography of silica gel and recrystallized from ethanol to obtain 25 . 5 mg ( yield : 8 %) of a white crystal of 4 - hexanoyloxy - 4 &# 39 ;-( 2 - methylbutanoyl ) biphenyl . after the above compound was placed in a 4 μm thick cell having ito deposited glass plates with rubbed polyimide films , the temperature of the cell was controlled on a hot stage , during which the state of the compound in the cell was observed under crossed nicols . when the change of the compound was observed by varying the temperature in the hot stage at a rate of 2 ° c ./ min , it changed from an isotropic liquid to smectic a phase at 57 ° c ., a highly ordered liquid crystal phase at 32 ° c . and another highly ordered liquid crystal phase at 15 ° c ., and was crystallized at - 27 ° c . during the cooling . into a flask were charged 247 . 7 mg ( 0 . 98 mmol ) of 4 - hydroxy - 4 &# 39 ;-( 2 - methylbutanoyl ) biphenyl obtained in the same manner as in example 1 , 10 ml of dried pyridine and 0 . 5 ml ( 2 . 50 mmol ) of nonanoyl chloride , which was stirred at room temperature for 4 . 5 hours . thereafter , a saturated aqueous solution of sodium hydrogen carbonate was added and extraction with ether was carried out three times . the extracted organic layers were combined and washed with a saturated aqueous solution of sodium chloride . then , it was dried on anhydrous magnesium sulfate and the solvent was distilled off . the residue was purified through a column chromatography of silica gel and recrystallized from ethanol to obtain 160 . 4 mg ( yield : 42 %) of a white crystal of 4 - nonanoyloxy - 4 &# 39 ;-( 2 - methylbutanoyl ) biphenyl . when the above compound was observed by the same method as in example 1 , it changed from an isotropic liquid into smectic a phase at 65 . 1 ° c . and was crystallized at 40 ° c . during the cooling . further , it changed from the crystal into smectic a phase at 47 . 8 ° c . during heating . into a flask were charged 229 . 0 mg ( 0 . 90 mmol ) of 4 - hydroxy - 4 &# 39 ;-( 2 - methylbutanoyl ) biphenyl obtained in the same manner as in example 1 , 0 . 5 ml ( 1 . 82 mmol ) of tetradecanoyl chloride and 6 ml of dried pyridine , which was stirred at room temperature for 4 hours . then , a saturated aqueous solution of sodium hydrogen carbonate was added , and the extraction with ether was carried out three times . thereafter , the extracts were dried on anhydrous magnesium sulfate and the solvent was distilled off . the residue was purified through a column chromatography of silica gel and recrystallized from ethanol to obtain 292 . 5 mg ( yield : 70 %) of a white crystal of 4 - tetradecanoyloxy - 4 &# 39 ;-( 2 - methylbutanoyl ) biphenyl . when the above compound was observed by the same method as in example 1 , it changed from an isotropic liquid into smectic a phase at 66 . 7 ° c . and was crystallized at 62 ° c . during cooling . further , it changed from the crystal into an isotropic liquid at 69 . 4 ° c . during heating . to 21 . 2 g ( 147 mmol ) of (-)- 2 - methyloctanol were added an aqueous solution of 330 ml of water and 46 . 4 g of concentrated sulfuric acid , which was stirred to form an emulsion . to this emulsion was added dropwise 63 . 4 g ( 401 mmol ) of potassium permaganate over 7 hours . then , the reaction mixture was added with 51 . 5 g of sodium bisulfite and poured into 270 ml of ice water together with 70 ml of ice water and 200 ml of ether . after the separation into two layers , the reaction product was extracted from the aqueous layer with ether , which was further extracted with a 10 % aqueous solution of sodium hydroxide , added with ice and further with a concentrated hydrochloric acid to adjust the ph to not more than 1 . thereafter , the extraction with chloroform on the aqueous layer was performed , which was washed with water , dried on magnesium sulfate and filtered . the filtrate was concentrated and distilled under a reduced pressure to obtain 16 . 5 g ( yield : 71 %) of a colorless and transparent liquid of (+)- 2 - methyl octanoic acid . then , 2 . 02 g ( 12 . 8 mmol ) of the above (+)- 2 - methyl octanoic acid , 2 . 02 g ( 11 . 9 mmol ) of 4 - hydroxy biphenyl and 10 ml of toluene were charged into a flask , and further 1 . 0 ml ( 13 . 7 mmol ) of thionyl chloride was added with stirring , which were then reacted for 9 hours while maintaining at a temperature of 70 °˜ 80 ° c . after the completion of the reaction , the reaction mixture was cooled to room temperature , added with water to decompose excess thionyl chloride , washed with water and then dried on anhydrous magnesium sulfate . after the solvent was distilled off , the residue was purified through a column chromatography of silica gel to obtain 3 . 43 g of an oily (+)- biphenyl - 2 - methyloctanoate having a specific rotary power [ α ] 25 d =+ 16 . 3 ° ( 2 . 6 % by weight , in chloroform ). then , 2 . 38 g ( 19 . 0 mmol ) of thionyl chloride was maintained at a temperature of 36 °˜ 38 ° c . in a flask , to which was added dropwise 2 . 51 g ( 15 . 9 mmol ) of the above (+)- 2 - methyl octanoic acid over 7 minutes with stirring . after the reaction with stirring at room temperature for 40 minutes , the reaction was further continued by stirring at a temperature of 80 ° c . for 30 minutes . then , the reaction product was distilled to obtain 2 . 81 g ( 15 . 9 mmol , yield : 100 %) of a colorless and transparent (+)- 2 - methyl octanoyl chloride . next , 2 . 02 g ( 11 . 4 mmol ) of the above (+)- 2 - methyl octanoyl chloride and 3 ml of nitrobenzene were cooled to 0 ° c . in a flask and added with 3 . 06 g ( 22 . 9 mmol ) of anhydrous aluminum chloride with stirring , which were stirred at room temperature for 30 minutes . thereafter , 2 . 89 g ( 7 mmol ) of (+)- biphenyl - 2 - methyloctanoate biphenyl dissolved in 3 ml of nitrobenzene was added thereto , which was reacted by stirring at room temperature for 140 hours . after the completion of the reaction , 2 normal hydrochloric acid and ice were added and extracted with chloroform . the extract was washed with water , dried on anhydrous magnesium sulfate and distilled to remove the solvent . the residue was purified through a column chromatography of silica gel to obtain 1 . 55 g ( yield : 49 %) of an oily (+)- 4 -( 2 - methyloctanoyl ) biphenyl - 2 - methyloctanoate . into a flask were charged 0 . 85 g ( 1 . 9 mmol ) of the above (+)- 4 -( 2 - methyloctanoyl ) biphenyl - 2 - methyloctanoate , 70 ml of methanol and 5 ml of water , and 0 . 98 g ( 11 . 7 mmol ) of sodium hydrogen carbonate was added with stirring , which were then reacted at room temperature for 46 hours . after the completion of the reaction , methanol was distilled off , and the residue was added with 1 normal hydrochloric acid to adjust the ph to not more than 1 and extracted with dichloromethane . the extract was washed with water , dried on anhydrous magnesium sulfate , distilled to remove the solvent and purified through a column chromatography of silica gel to obtain 0 . 54 g ( yield : 92 %) of a light yellow crystal of (+)- 4 - hyroxy - 4 &# 39 ;-( 2 - methyloctanoyl ) biphenyl having the following physical and chemical properties : ○ 1 1 h - nmr ( in cdcl 3 , tms standard , ppm ): 7 . 98 ( d , 2h ), 7 . 60 ( d , 2h ), 7 . 50 ( d , 2h ), 6 . 92 ( d , 2h ), 6 . 00 ( br , 1h ), 3 . 84 ( m , 1h ), 2 . 00 - 1 . 15 ( m , 0 h ), 1 . 22 ( d , 3h ), 1 . 0 - 0 . 75 ( m , 3h ). ○ 2 ir ( neat cm - 1 ): 3300 , 2900 , 2850 , 1650 , 1585 ○ 4 [ α ] 25 d ( 3 . 2 % by weight , in chcl 3 ) + 6 . 2 ° into a flask of were charged 130 . 0 mg ( 0 . 42 mmol ) of the above 4 - hydroxy - 4 &# 39 ;-( 2 - methyloctanoyl ) biphenyl , 5 ml of dried pyridine and 0 . 3 ml of nonanoyl chloride , which were stirred at room temperature for 40 hours . then , a saturated aqueous solution of sodium hydrogen carbonate was added , and the extraction with ether was carried out three times . thereafter , the extract was dried on magnesium sulfate and the solvent was distilled off . the residue was purified through a column chromatography of silica gel and recrystallized from ethanol to obtain 77 . 1 mg ( yield : 41 %) of a white crystal of 4 - nonanoyloxy - 4 &# 39 ;-( 2 - methyloctanoyl ) biphenyl . when the above compound was observed by the same method as in example 1 , it changed from an isotropic liquid into a crystal at 45 . 8 ° c . during the cooling . further , it changed from the crystal into the isotropic liquid at 50 . 6 ° c . during the heating . into a flask were charged 210 . 1 mg ( 0 . 83 mmol ) of 4 - hydroxy - 4 &# 39 ;-( 2 - methylbutanoyl ) biphenyl , 5 ml of dried pyridine and 0 . 5 ml ( 2 . 34 mmol ) of octyl chloroformate , which were then stirred at room temperature for 2 hours . then , a saturated aqueous solution of sodium hydrogen carbonate was added , and the extraction with ether was carried out three times . thereafter , the extract was dried on anhydrous magnesium sulfate and distilled to remove the solvent . the residue was purified through a column chromatography of silica gel and recrystallized from ethanol to obtain 04 . 7 mg ( yield : 60 %) of a white crystal of 4 - octyloxycarbonyloxy - 4 &# 39 ;-( 2 - methylbutanoyl ) biphenyl . when the above compound was observed by the same method as in example 1 , it changed from an isotropic liquid into a smectic a phase at 41 . 6 ° c . and was crystallized at - 6 . 3 ° c . during the cooling . further , it changed from the crystal into the isotropic liquid at 47 . 3 ° c . during the heating . into a flask were charged 132 . 0 mg ( 0 . 43 mmol ) of 4 - hydroxy - 4 &# 39 ;-( 2 - methyloctanoyl ) biphenyl obtained in the same manner as in example 4 , 3 ml of dried pyridine and 0 . 2 ml ( 1 . 02 mmol ) of octyl chloroformate , which were then stirred at room temperature for 2 hours . then , a saturated aqueous solution of sodium hydrogen carbonate was added , and the extraction with ether was carried out three times . then , the extract was dried on anhydrous magnesium sulfate and distilled to remove the solvent . the residue was purified through a column chromatography and recrystallized from ethanol to obtain 59 . 1 mg ( yield : 30 %) of a white crystal of 4 - octyloxycarbonyloxy - 4 &# 39 ;-( 2 - methyloctanoyl ) biphenyl . when the above compound was observed by the same method as in example 1 , it changed from an isotropic liquid into a crystal at 34 . 8 ° c . during cooling . further , it changed from the crystal into the isotropic liquid at 48 . 6 ° c . during heating . into a flask were charged 1 . 00 g ( 5 . 67 mmol ) of 2 - methyloctanoyl chloride obtained in the same manner as in example 4 , 2 ml of dried nitrobenzene and 0 . 80 g ( 5 . 99 mmol ) of anhydrous aluminum chloride , which were then stirred at room temperature for 10 minutes . then , 0 . 90 g ( 5 . 84 mmol ) of biphenyl was added thereto and further stirred at room temperature for 1 hour . separately , 2 . 00 g ( 11 . 33 mmol ) of nonanoyl chloride and 1 . 60 g ( 11 . 98 mmol ) of anhydrous aluminum chloride were charged into a flask and stirred at room temperature for 10 minutes to form an acyl - aluminum complex . the complex was added to the aforementioned flask , which was stirred at room temperature for 3 days and at 50 ° c . for 2 days . thereafter , 1 normal hydrochloric acid was added , and the extraction with ether was carried out three times . the extracted organic layers were combined , washed with a saturated aqueous solution of sodium hydrogen carbonate two times and dried on anhydrous magnesium sulfate . after the solvent was distilled off , the residue was purified through a column chromatography of silica gel and recrystallized from ethanol to obtain 149 . 1 mg ( yield : 6 %) of a light yellow crystal of 4 - nonanoyl - 4 &# 39 ;-( 2 - methyloctanoyl ) biphenyl . when the above compound was observed by the same method as in example 1 , it changed from an isotropic liquid into a crystal at 133 ° c . during cooling . there was prepared an equimolar mixture of 4 - octyloxycarbonyloxy - 4 &# 39 ;-( 2 - methylbutanoyl ) biphenyl obtained in example 5 and 4 - octyloxycarbonyloxy - 4 &# 39 ;-( 2 - methyloctanoyl ) biphenyl obtained in example 6 . when the liquid crystal properties of this mixture were measured by the same method as in example 1 , the mixture changed from an isotropic liquid into smectic a phase at 28 ° c . and ferroelectric phase at - 5 ° c . and was completely crystallized at - 15 ° c . during cooling . thus , the ferroelectric liquid crystal phase could be developed even at a fairly low temperature by mixing . 4 - octyloxycarbonyloxy - 4 &# 39 ;-( 2 - methylbutanoyl ) biphenyl obtained in example 5 was mixed with a wellknown compound of 4 - octyloxyphenyl - 4 - octyloxy benzoate having no ferroelectricity but exhibiting chiral smectic c phase at various mixing ratios to prepare a phase diagram , which was shown in fig1 . in fig1 the abscissa shows a mol ratio of the compound mixed , and the ordinate shows a phase transformation temperature , and also mark ○ shows a phase transformation temperature during cooling and mark ⊚ shows a temperature of fusing the crystal during heating . as seen from fig1 the liquid crystal composition exhibiting a chiral smectic c phase at about room temperature was prepared by mixing about 50 mol % of 4 - octyloxycarbonyloxy - 4 &# 39 ;-( 2 - methylbutanoyl ) biphenyl . for comparison , fig2 shows a phase diagram when the aforementioned 4 - octyloxy - 4 &# 39 ;-( 2 - methylbutanoyl ) biphenyl obtained by replacing the connecting group between alkyl chain and biphenyl in 4 - octyloxycarbonyloxy - 4 &# 39 ;-( 2 - methylbutanoyl ) biphenyl ( japanese patent laid open no . 60 - 13729 ) was mixed with 4 - octyloxyphenyl - 4 - octyloxy benzoate at various mixing ratios . in fig2 the abscissa , ordinate , mark ○ and mark ⊚ are the same as in fig1 . in this case , it is understood that the chiral smectic c phase is not exhibited when mixing with 50 mol % of 4 - octyloxy - 4 &# 39 ;-( 2 - methylbutanoyl ) biphenyl . therefore , it can be seen that the compounds according to the invention form a preferable liquid crystal composition having a more stable chiral smectic c phase . a liquid crystal composition obtained by mixing 50 mol % of 4 - octyloxycarbonyloxy - 4 &# 39 ;-( 2 - methylbutanoyl ) biphenyl obtained in example 9 with 50 mol % of 4 - octyloxyphenyl - 4 - octyloxy benzoate was placed in a 5 μm thick cell having ito deposited glass plates with rubbed polyimide films , and then gently cooled from a state of an isotropic liquid to orient into a smectic a phase . further , the state was changed into a chiral smectic c phase by lowering the temperature , during which when electric field was applied to the cell while observing under crossed nicols , clear switching operation was observed . when a rectangular wave of 66 vpp was applied at 24 ° c . to the cell and a light transmitted quantity was measured by means of a photodiode to detect the switching operation , the response time was 31 μsec . | 2 |
reference will now be made in detail to presently preferred embodiments of the invention . wherever possible , the same reference numbers will be used throughout the drawings to refer to the same or like parts . as shown in fig1 the rear end of a vehicle 10 ( e . g ., a minivan , sport utility vehicle , etc .) has a sill 14 , such as a step , which contains rack 20 for holding and supporting gear ( e . g ., a bicycle , snowboard , etc .). the sill 14 is connected to the vehicle 10 so that it can be slid in a horizontal direction ( for example , manually using a handle recessed in the sill or via a motorized drive ). when the sill 14 is slid outward ( in a direction away from the vehicle 10 ), a top surface of the sill 14 is approximately level with an interior or “ cargo ” surface 12 of the vehicle 10 . the sill 14 is preferably designed and configured to be able to support the weight of a human , so that the sill 14 can be used as a step or surface on which a human can stand in order to gain access to a roof rack ( not shown ) on a top surface of the vehicle 10 . preferably , the sill 14 can be locked in an inward “ stored ” position , so that an outer surface of the sill 14 is approximately flush with an outer surface of the vehicle 10 and the sill 14 does not protrude outward from the vehicle . also , according to one embodiment of the present invention , the sill 14 may be locked in an outward “ deployed ” position , where the sill 14 can be used as a step or as a support for a bike ( via the rack 20 ). the sill 14 preferably includes rack 20 , which has two joints 16 , each joint being connected to a respective arm 18 . the joints 16 are horizontally rotatable - i . e ., they can be rotated with respect to the vehicle 10 about a vertical axis . the rack 20 is connected to the sill 14 so that it can be slid in a vertical direction with respect to the sill 14 . when the rack 20 is in a lower “ stored ” position , as shown in fig1 a top surface of each of the joints 16 is approximately flush with the top surface of the sill 14 , and the arms are below the top surface of the sill 14 so that they are not exposed . when the rack 20 is in an upper “ deployed ” position , as shown in fig2 and 3 , the arms 18 are above the top surface of the sill 14 , so that they can rotate with joints 16 with respect to the sill 14 . when the rack 20 is in its lower position , the sill 14 can be used as a step , as discussed . when the rack 20 is in its upper position , the rack 20 can be used to support gear ( e . g ., a bicycle , snowboard , etc .) by swinging out the arms 18 so that their free ends face a direction away from the vehicle , as shown in fig3 . preferably , the rack 20 can be locked in one or both of its two positions . according to one embodiment of the present invention , the rack 20 may be locked in one of the upper and lower positions using a “ touch - and - pop ” mechanism , in which , when the rack 20 is in the lower position , the rack 20 can be moved to the upper position by lightly pushing down on the rack 20 and then releasing . a spring or other similar device in the touch - and - pop mechanism then pushes the rack 20 into the upper position . similarly , the rack 20 can be returned to the lower position by pushing down on the rack 20 to a position slightly beyond ( or lower than ) the lower position and then releasing . when the rack 20 is in its upper position , the arms 18 can rotate via the joints 16 . preferably , the rotation of the joints 16 is limited so that the arms 18 can only swing between a closed position ( as shown in fig2 ) and an open position ( as shown in fig3 ). in a closed position , the arms 18 are approximately parallel to an axis passing through the width of the vehicle 10 ( i . e ., a major axis of the sill ) and an unattached or free end of each arm 18 points in a direction of the joint 16 of the other arm 18 . in an open position , the arms 18 are approximately perpendicular to the major axis of the sill and the unattached or free end of each arm 18 points in a direction away from the vehicle 10 . in other words , each joint 16 is configured to rotate through an angle of approximately 90 ° from a position in which the arms 18 are closed to a position in which the arms 18 are open . in one embodiment , the arms 18 may lock in one of the open and closed positions . the arms 18 may be bent , as shown in fig3 so that there is a slight dip or groove in the approximate middle of each arm 18 to help stabilize or prevent movement of a bicycle that is supported by the rack 20 . the arms may be configured other than as shown in fig3 and may include additional curves , hooks , and other features . the arms 18 may also have a protective coating , such as rubber , to pad the bicycle and prevent damage or scratches . the joints ( and the free ends of the arms 18 when the arms are in the open position ) may be separated by a distance of approximately 20 inches . the operation of the rack will now be described . starting from an initial position in which the sill 14 is in the inward position , the sill 14 can be slid ( e . g ., manually ) to the outward position . while the figures show the interior surface 12 of the vehicle 10 , in which case the hatchback door or lift gate door ( not shown ) is open , the rack may also be operated while the hatchback door / lift gate door is closed . the sill 14 may then be used as a step or support . to use the rack 20 , the rack 20 can be moved from a lower position ( fig1 ) to an upper position ( fig2 ) by , for example , slightly pushing down on the rack 20 and then releasing , by lifting the arms 18 and then rotating them , etc . if a touch - and - pop or press - and - release mechanism is used , the arms 18 are then rotated from a closed position ( fig2 ) to an open position ( fig3 ) after the joints 16 are raised . the door is then preferably closed , at which point a bicycle or the like may be mounted on top of the arms 18 and held in place , for example , using rope or elastic ties . it should be appreciated that while the figures show the door open during initial deployment , the door is preferably closed after the arms 18 are deployed . alternatively , the sill 14 may , in some embodiments , be slid out while the door is closed , thus not necessarily requiring the door to be open for deployment of the rack . the foregoing description of preferred embodiments of the invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and description . it is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise form disclosed , and modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teachings or may be acquired from practice of the invention . for example , the vertical height between the arms ( in the deployed position ) and the top of the sill may be varied . the embodiments were chosen and described in order to explain the principles of the invention and its practical application and to enable one skilled in the art to utilize the invention in various embodiments and with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated . it is intended that the scope of the invention be defined by the claims appended hereto , and their equivalents . | 8 |
referring to fig1 and 2 , a fuel cell assembly 10 includes a manifold 12 , which may be made of a solid piece of metallic material , such as aluminum , although a plastic or polymer material could satisfy the mechanical requirements of the material . coupled to the side of the manifold 12 are a plurality of fuel cell stacks 14 , 16 , 18 and 20 . each stack includes a plurality of standard commercially available fuel cells 19 coupled together in a conventional manner to form a fuel cell stack . each stack preferably has a different power capacity and a different characteristic , such as an area or “ footprint ” on its side facing the manifold 12 . for example , stacks 14 and 16 may have a 1 kilowatt capacity , stack 18 may have a 5 kilowatt capacity and stack 20 may have a 10 kilowatt capacity . as best seen in fig1 , the manifold 12 includes individual passages formed therein for the communication of hydrogen fuel , air and coolant into and out of the fuel cell stacks , including hydrogen inlets 22 and 28 , coolant inlets 24 and 30 , and air outlets 26 and 32 . as best seen in fig2 , fuel cell stack 20 includes a positive electrical terminal 34 , a negative electrical terminal 36 , a hydrogen inlet 38 , a coolant inlet 40 , an air outlet 42 , an air inlet 44 , a coolant outlet 46 and a hydrogen outlet 48 . fuel cell stacks 14 , 16 and 18 have similar components similarly arranged , but stacks with different capacities will have different spacings among their terminals , inlets and outlets . as best seen in fig3 , the manifold 12 has a plurality of zones 14 ′, 16 ′, 18 ′ and 20 ′, each corresponding to one of the fuel cell stacks 14 , 16 , 18 and 20 . the zones 14 ′, 16 ′, 18 ′ and 20 ′ preferably have differing characteristics corresponding to the differing characteristics of the fuel cell stacks 14 , 16 , 18 and 20 . for example , zones 14 ′ and 16 ′ may have a smaller area or “ footprint ” corresponding to a small capacity fuel cell stack , zone 18 ′ may have an intermediate area or “ footprint ” corresponding to an intermediate capacity fuel cell stack and zone 20 ′ may have a larger area or “ footprint ” corresponding to a larger capacity fuel cell stack . in each zone the separation of the electrical connections and inlet and outlet ports is larger or smaller , in proportion to the dimensions of the corresponding zone . manifold zone 20 ′ includes a positive electrical terminal 34 ′ a negative electrical terminal 36 ′, a hydrogen outlet 38 ′, a coolant outlet 40 ′, an air inlet 42 ′, an air outlet 44 ′, a coolant inlet 46 ′ and a hydrogen inlet 48 ′. fig4 is a sectional view which shows the right - hand ( viewing fig2 ) set of connections between the fuel cell stack 20 and the manifold 12 . negative terminal 36 is connected to a negative conductor 50 in the manifold 12 . air inlet port 44 is connected to an air supply passage 52 in the manifold 12 . coolant outlet port 46 is connected to a coolant passage 54 in the manifold 12 . hydrogen outlet port 48 is connected to a hydrogen passage 56 in the manifold 12 . referring now to fig5 , a fuel cell stack 14 , 16 , 18 or 20 is clamped to the manifold 12 by a pair of spring toggle clamps 60 on opposite sides of the stack . each clamp 60 releasably engages a tab 62 formed on the side of the stack . referring now to fig6 , a block - off plate 64 may be clamped to the manifold 12 in place of one or more of the fuel cell stacks 14 , 16 , 18 or 20 . each block - off plate 64 includes a pair of tabs 66 which engage a pair of the spring toggle clamps 60 . fig7 illustrates a representative connection between the manifold 12 and a fuel cell stack 16 – 20 or a block - off plate 64 . a bore 70 extends into the manifold 12 and forms an annular shoulder 72 between bore 70 and a smaller diameter passage 74 . a bore 76 extends into the fuel cell stack 16 – 20 and forms an annular shoulder 78 between bore 76 and a smaller diameter passage 80 . the bore 76 will be a blind bore and there will be no passage 80 in the case of block - off plate 64 . an o - ring seal 82 is mounted in an annular groove 84 formed in the wall of bore 76 . a cylindrical tube 86 has one end sealingly received by bore 70 , such as a press fit , and engaging shoulder 72 . the other end of tube 86 is releasably received by bore 76 and is sealingly engaged by o - ring 82 . such a connection would be used for each of the ports 38 – 48 . fig8 – 10 illustrates an alternate connection between the manifold 12 and a fuel cell stack 16 – 20 . this alternate connection self - seals the various manifold ports and eliminates the need for the block - off plate . referring to fig8 , a bore 90 extends into the manifold 12 and forms an annular shoulder 92 between bore 90 and a smaller diameter passage 94 . the outer portion 96 of bore 90 forms screw threads . a check valve seat member 98 is screwed into the threaded portion 96 and forms a check valve seat 100 . a spring 102 is mounted in the bore 90 and urges a check valve ball 104 into engagement with seat 100 . a threaded bore 110 extends into the fuel cell stack 16 – 20 and receives a valve plunger 112 . referring to fig8 and 9 , the plunger 112 has a hollow threaded base 114 , a hollow cylindrical sleeve 115 , a central stern 116 and a ball engager 118 on the outer end of the stern 116 . the stem comprises four axially and radially extending web members 117 . the base 114 , sleeve 115 and stem 116 form passages 120 which communicate the end of the stem 116 with passage 80 in the stack 16 – 20 . o - ring seals 122 and 124 are mounted in grooves on the sleeve 115 and engager 118 , respectively . when the fuel cell stack 16 – 20 is spaced apart from the manifold 12 , the ball 104 is held against seat 100 and the corresponding manifold passage is sealed from the exterior environment . as best seen in fig9 , flat surfaces 126 , 128 are formed on the periphery of sleeve 115 so that plunger 112 may be manipulated with a wrench ( not shown ). referring now to fig1 , when one of the fuel cell stacks 16 – 20 is placed against the manifold 12 , the ball engager 118 moves the ball 104 away from seat 100 and the manifold passage is communicated with the corresponding cell stack passage via passages 120 . if no fuel cell stack is to be mounted to a particular manifold zone , then a simple threaded plug ( not shown ) may be screwed into the ports in that zone to seal them from the environment . while the present invention has been described in conjunction with a specific embodiment , it is understood that many alternatives , modifications and variations will be apparent to those skilled in the art in light of the foregoing description . for example , instead of different zones and stacks having different areas , they could have similar areas , but have different spacings or arrangements of components . accordingly , this invention is intended to embrace all such alternatives , modifications and variations which fall within the spirit and scope of the appended claims . | 7 |
the liquid filter according to fig1 comprises a housing 10 that is sealingly closed with a cover 11 . the cover is attached to the housing by a threaded connection 12 . a sealing system 13 is provided as a seal between cover 11 and housing 10 . inside the housing 10 there is a filter insert 14 . the filter insert is made of a zigzag - folded ( i . e ., pleated ) filter paper that is formed into an annular ring and provided with end disks 15 , 16 at its axial end faces . the end disks fit against the support tube 17 or the sealing flange 18 so as to provide a seal . the support tube 17 has support ribs 19 , 20 for the filter insert 14 . in addition , openings 21 are distributed around the circumference of the support tube to allow the filtered liquid to flow away . the unfiltered liquid enters through the liquid inlet 22 , flows through the filter insert 14 in the direction indicated by the arrows 23 , 24 and leaves the liquid filter — as described — through the openings 21 of the support tube 17 and the liquid return line 25 . in its upper area , the support tube 17 has locking tabs 27 . they engage with locking tabs 28 , 29 of the cover and create an essentially permanent connection between the cover and the support tube 17 . by applying sufficient pulling forces , it is of course possible to detach the support tube 17 from the cover 11 . in a normal replacement of the filter insert 14 , when the filter insert 14 is pulled off the support tube , the support tube remains reliably attached to the cover 11 . on the cover 11 , ribs 30 , 31 , which function as limit stops , are provided for the filter insert and thus define the axial position of the filter insert . a bypass valve 32 is arranged inside the support tube 17 . the purpose of this valve is to maintain liquid circulation even if the filter insert is very dirty . the bypass valve 32 is composed of a mounting element 33 , a valve body 34 , a compression spring 35 and a valve body support 36 , which is constructed as a part of the support tube . the valve body support 36 forms part of the support tube 17 . the mounting element 33 has an outer edge 64 and is inserted into the support tube 17 in a press fit . the manner of fixing the mounting element which is shown provides a reliable seal . the fixation must merely ensure that the particles retained by the filter insert 14 are retained in this area as well . in other words the leakage rate of this fixation must correspond to the filter fineness of the filter insert 14 . the seal is produced by the press or interference fit of the outer edge 64 in a mounting opening 61 . the press fit occurs due to an elastic deformation of both the plate 60 forming the mounting element 33 and the mounting opening 61 in the support tube 17 . furthermore , a valve seat 62 , against which the valve body 34 is supported , is integrated into the mounting element 33 . these two components thus ensure the function of the bypass valve . the valve body is urged against the valve seat 62 by the compression spring 35 . fig2 shows an alternative embodiment of the mounting element 33 in the mounting opening 61 . in other respects , the detail depicted in fig2 corresponds to the variant of the liquid filter shown in fig1 . like components are identified by the same reference numerals . the disk 60 of the mounting element 33 is completely coated with an elastomer 65 that was applied to the plate after deep drawing . alternatively , a coating on one side is also feasible . this elastomer improves the sealing action of the valve seat 62 and the sealing between mounting plate and the mounting opening 61 . the illustrated embodiment of the plate 60 shows an arrangement in which the valve seat 62 and the seal in the mounting opening 61 are on the same side of the plate . an alternative production of the mounting element , which is to coat the plate - like semi - finished steel product with elastomer on one side , is therefore feasible . when the punched blanks are subsequently shaped , the elastomer yields due to its material properties , so that a mounting element coated on one side with elastomeric material is produced . the mounting opening 61 is provided with a shoulder 63 to prevent the mounting element from slipping out . to facilitate installation of the mounting element 33 , the element can first be produced with the contour 66 indicated by the broken line in fig2 . to install it , the element can be easily brought into the mounting position by sliding it past the shoulder 63 . subsequently , a suitable tool is used to enlarge the outside diameter of the mounting element , so that the outer edge 64 fits against the shoulder 63 . in this manner , the mounting element on the one hand is fixed inside the support tube 17 and the elastomer 65 on the other hand produces a reliable seal along the outer edge 64 between the unfiltered liquid side and the filtered liquid side of the filter element . limit stops 38 are provided on the support tube 17 . they limit or fix the axial position of the mounting element 33 and facilitate its insertion into the support tube 17 . the mounting element 33 can be provided with snap elements so that it can be locked onto the support tube 17 . fig3 shows an embodiment in which the mounting element 33 and the remaining valve components form a valve unit 67 . a valve receptacle 70 is integrated in the mounting element to receive the valve body 34 , which is provided with a guide plate 69 . the compression spring 35 , which provides the sealing pressure of the valve , engages the guide plate . with the aid of punching burrs 68 , using the same principle shown in fig1 , the valve unit 67 can be inserted into a housing . in this context , the support tube can be understood as the housing component . direct coupling to the housing is just as feasible , however . an additional seal by means of an elastomer coating is not provided in this embodiment . the punching burr 68 digs so deeply into the mounting location that it is sufficient to provide a reliable seal . if desired , the valve body can be made of an elastomer , so that the seal of the valve does not need to be provided by an additional elastomer coating of the mounting element 33 . the foregoing description and examples have been set forth merely to illustrate the invention and are not intended to be limiting . since modifications of the described embodiments incorporating the spirit and substance of the invention may occur to persons skilled in the art , the invention should be construed broadly to include all variations within the scope of the appended claims and equivalents thereof . | 1 |
the instant invention provides a crosslinked polymer which is the addition polymerization product of ( a ) a macromer containing perfluoropolyalkylether and polyalkylether segments and ethylenically unsaturated moieties , having the formula i , more specifically as seen in formulas ia to id , z is --( c a f 2a o ) b -- cf 2 --, where x is a direct bond , -- ch 2 --, -- ch 2 och 2 chohch 2 --, -- ch 2 ( och 2 ch 2 ) y -- or carbonyl where y is 1 to 10 and where in each case the carbon atom is attached to z or g ; q is a direct bond or -- aconh -- r -- nhco -- where a is oxa or imino and r is a divalent aliphatic group having from 2 to 14 carbon atoms , a divalent 5 - or 6 - membered cycloaliphatic group having 5 to 14 carbon atoms or an arylene group having 6 to 14 carbon atoms ; l is -- a ( c m h 2m o ) n c m h 2m ay -- or l 1 where y is a direct bond or h and m is 2 to 4 or mixtures thereof and n is 5 to 100 , where a is attached to q ; t is -- conh -- r 5 a -- or -- conh -- r -- nhcoor 5 a -- or -- conh -- r -- nhco -- a -- or -- r 5 a -- or direct bond where the carbonyl group is attached to l , where r 5 is alkylene or hydroxy - substituted alkylene of 2 to 15 carbon atoms and r is as above ; ## str1 ## where r 1 is hydrogen or methyl , and r 3 is hydrogen or alkyl of 1 to 4 carbon atoms with the proviso that , r 1 is methyl , r 2 is hydrogen , r 4 is hydrogen or methyl and g is --( c a f 2a o ) b -- cf 2 [ ch 2 -- oconh -- r -- nhcooch 2 cf 2 ( oc a f 2a ) b ] x or --( c a f 2a o ) b -- cf 2 [ ch 2 -- nhconh -- r -- nhconhch 2 cf 2 ( oc a f 2a ) b ] x l 1 is -- a ( c m h 2m o ) n [ c m h 2m aconh -- r -- nhcoa ( c m h 2m o ) n . sbsb . 1 ] z c m h 2m ay where n 1 is 5 to 100 , z is 1 to 10 and y is a direct bond or h ; and ( i ) hydrophilic monomers selected from hydroxy - substituted lower alkyl acrylates and methacrylates , acrylamide , methacrylamide , c 1 - c 2 lower alkyl acrylamide and methacrylamide , ethoxylated acrylates and methacrylates , hydroxy substituted lower alkyl acrylamide and methacrylamide , hydroxy substituted lower alkyl vinyl ethers , sodium ethylene sulfonate , sodium styrenesulfonate , 2 - acrylamido - 2 - methylpropanesulfonic acid , n - vinylpyrrole , n - vinylsuccinimide , n - vinylpyrrolidone , 2 - and 4 - vinylpyridine , acrylic acid , methacrylic acid , amino ( by amino including quaternary ammonium ), - monoloweralkylamino - or diloweralkylamino - lower alkyl acrylates or methacrylates and allyl alcohol ; ( ii ) hydrophobic monomers selected from c 1 to c 18 alkyl acrylates and methacrylate , c 3 to c 18 alkyl acrylamides and methacrylamides , acrylonitrile , methacrylonitrile , vinyl c 1 to c 18 alkanoates , c 2 to c 18 alkenes , c 2 to c 18 haloalkenes , styrene , c 1 to c 6 alkyl styrenes , vinyl alkyl ethers wherein the alkyl portion has 1 to 6 carbon atoms , c 3 - c 12 perfluoroalkyl ethyl thiocarbonylaminoethyl acrylates and methacrylates , c 3 - c 12 fluoroalkyl acrylates and methacrylates , acryloxy and methacryloxy - alkyl - siloxanes , n - vinylcarbazole , c 1 - c 12 alkyl esters of maleic , fumaric , itaconic , and mesaconic acids ; ( iii ) polyreactive crosslinking agents such as allyl methacrylate , diallyl itaconate , monoallyl itaconate , diallyl maleate , diallyl fumarate , diallyl succinate , diallyl phthalate , triallyl cyanurate , triallyl isocyanurate , diethylene glycol bis - allyl carbonate , triallyl phosphate , triallyl trimellitate , allyl ether , n , n - diallylmelamine ; vinyl compounds , e . g . divinyl benzene , n , n &# 39 ;- methylene - bis - acrylamide , ethylene glycol dimethacrylate , neopentylglycol dimethacrylate , tetraethylene glycol dimethacrylate , hexamethylene - bis - maleimide , divinyl urea , bisphenol a bis methacrylate , divinyl adipate , glycerin trimethacrylate , trimethylolpropane triacrylate , trivinyl trimellitate , 1 , 5 - pentadiene , 1 , 3 - bis ( 4 - methacryloxybutyl ) tetramethyl disiloxane , divinyl ether , divinyl sulfone ; and the dimethacrylate formed by reacting perfluoropolyalkylether dimethanol or poly ( ethylene glycol ) with two moles of isocyanatoethyl methacrylate ; and ( iv ) mixtures of ( i ), ( ii ) and ( iii ). in the foregoing perfluoropolyether portion , z , of the macromonomer , a is preferably 1 or 2 , and b is preferably 3 to 50 . x is preferably -- ch 2 -- or -- ch 2 ( och 2 ch 2 ) y -- where y is 1 or 2 . q is preferably -- oconh -- r -- nhco -- where r is a radical derived from diisocyanates including hexane - 1 , 6 - diisocyanate , trimethyl - hexane - 1 , 6 - diisocyanate , tetramethylene - diisocyanate , phenylene - 1 , 4 - diisocyanate , toluene - 2 , 4 - diisocyanate , toluene - 2 , 6 - diisocyanate , m - and p - tetramethylxylene - diisocyanate , isophorone - diisocyanate and cyclohexane - 1 , 4 - diisocyanate , and most preferably isophorone - diisocyanate . l is preferably a polyalkylether , -- o ( c m h 2m o ) n c m h 2m o -- where m is 2 or a mixture of 2 and 3 , more preferably m = 2 and n is 10 - 50 . where m is a mixture of 2 and 3 , the mixture contains a major proportion of m = 2 . t is preferably -- conh -- r 5 a -- where r 5 is preferably ethylene . where t is -- conh -- r -- nhcoor 5 a --, r is preferably a radical derived from isophorone diisocyanate and r 5 is preferably ethylene . ## str2 ## where r 1 is preferably methyl and r 2 is preferably hydrogen . where e is ## str3 ## where e is ## str4 ## r 1 is preferably methyl and r 2 is hydrogen . where g is present , x is preferably 1 , and r is preferably a radical derived from isophorone diisocyanate . where l 1 is present , a is preferably oxa , r is preferably a radical derived from isophorone diisocyanate , z is preferably 1 to 5 and preferably n = n 1 . the vinylic macromonomers of formula i can be prepared by methods known , per se . for example , the perfluoropolyalkylether / polyalkylether containing divinylic macromonomers of formula ia can be prepared in a three - step sequential synthesis . in the first step , a perfluoropolyalkylether dialkanol of the formula hoch 2 -- c a f a o ) b --( cf 2 )-- ch 2 oh is reacted with two moles of a difunctional reactive diisocyanate of the formula ocn -- r -- nco in the presence of a urethane catalyst to form the corresponding reactive group containing endcapped derivative , z 1 -- nco ) 2 , where z 1 is a moiety containing a perfluoropolyalkylether segment . in the second step , the resulting endcapped perfluoropolyalkylether derivative z 1 -- nco ) 2 can then be reacted with two moles of a polyoxyalkylene diol of the formula ho --( c m h 2m o ) n h preferably in the presence of a conventional aprotic solvent at a temperature between about - 10 ° c . to about 100 ° c ., to form the corresponding polyalkylether - perfluoropolyalkylether - polyalkylether derivative of the formula ## str5 ## in the third step , this triblock diol can be then reacted with two moles of reactive group containing vinylic monomer , wherein the reactive group is an isocyanate , say , of the formula ## str6 ## wherein r , a , r 1 , and r 2 are as above defined and t = 0 or 1 , at a temperature between about - 10 ° c . to about 100 ° c . in the presence of a conventional aprotic solvent , in the further presence or absence of a catalytic amount of urethane catalyst . materials comprising polymers of the formulas ib and id are formed by partial ( or incomplete ) capping in a reaction step . these materials are useful where post - polymerization modifications are performed such as tinting with reactive dyes . suitable aprotic solvents for conducting the reactions include formamide , n , n - dimethylformamide , phosphoric acid tri - dimethylamide , n - methyl - 2 - pyrrolidone , n , n - dimethylacetamide , acetamide , acetonitrile , acetone , tert - butyl acetate and preferably isopropyl acetate . suitable urethane catalysts include tertiary amines such as trimethylamine , triethylamine , n , n - dimethylbenzylamine , or an organo - metallic urethane catalyst , such as stannous octoate or dibutyltin dilaurate , or sodium acetate . alternatively the difunctional reactive agent can be an activated carboxy , such as anhydride , an acid halide , a carboxy ester or oxirane , or is a leaving group , such as halide , sulfato or the like . it is clear that reactants in the various steps of the synthesis be coreactive , e . g . if the perfluoropolyalkylether is terminated with an amine group , the reactive agent can contain an isocyanate , ester , acid halide , halide and the like . these coupling reactions are well known in the art . the perfluoropolyalkylether starting materials are known and some are commercially available . they are described in u . s . pat . nos . 3 , 810 , 874 , 3 , 810 , 875 , 3 , 847 , 978 , 4 , 085 , 137 , 4 , 094 , 911 , 4 , 089 , 319 and 4 , 440 , 918 and european patent applications nos . ep0084406 and ep0211237 and japanese patent applications cited in the background of the invention . perfluoropolyalkylether dimethanols can be prepared by photooxidation of tetrafluoroethylene followed by cleavage and reduction reactions . some of these are available from ausimont , u . s . a . and are known as fomblin zdol derivatives such as fomblin zdol 2000 , fomblin zdeal 2000 and fomblin z - disoc with the respectives formulas being z -- ch 2 oh ) 2 , z -- cooch 3 ) 2 , z -- conh -- c 6 h 3 ( ch 3 ) nco )] 2 where z = cf 2 o ( c 2 f 4 o ) r --( cf 2 o ) s -- cf 2 ( r / s ˜ 0 . 7 ). one can also chain extend these materials , for example the diols with diisocyanates , before use . difunctional ( or multifunctional ) reactive materials such as diisocyanate , diester , diepoxides and so on are known and many are commercially available . the polyalkylether starting materials are also well known and many are commercially available ( e . g . from aldrich , olin and , polysciences ). hydroxy terminated polyethylene glycols , average molecular weights 200 - 10 , 000 are available from aldrich chemical company , inc . u . s . a . amine - terminated polyethylene glycols are known and some are commercially available , for example , jeffamine d - 400 ( jefferson chemical and texaco ). it is also possible to use polyalkylether copolymers such as ethylene / propylene oxide polymeric diols where the more hydrophilic ethylene oxide is in major proportion . many polymeric copolymeric diols are known and are described in u . s . pat . no . 4 , 780 , 488 . these copolymers include poloxamers which are sold under the trade name pluronic ( basf wyandotte ). one can also chain - extend the diols with , for example , diisocyanates before use . in the third step of the reaction , the reactive vinylic group is introduced . isocyanate terminated vinylic monomers are known and some are described in u . s . pat . no . 4 , 665 , 123 . some are commercially available such as isocyanatoethyl methacrylate ( dow corning , u . s . a .) and m - isopropenyl - 2 , 2 - dimethylbenzyl - isocyanate ( m - tmi , cyanamid ). epoxy terminated vinylic monomers , e . g . glycidyl methacrylate , are known and are commercially available . it is useful to add minor amounts i . e . up to about 10 % of vinylic comonomer to the composition , for example , to enhance tintability of the materials . these vinylic comonomers contain reactive groups such as hydroxyl , amine , oxirane and so forth . it is also useful to fine tune a particular physical property such as modulus , elongation , tensile strength , hydrophilicity or oxygen permeability by adding minor amounts of additional comonomers . the vinylic comonomer may be hydrophilic , hydrophobic or may be a mixture of hydrophilic and hydrophobic vinylic monomers . suitable vinylic monomers include those conventional vinylic monomers generally employed in the fabrication of soft and hard contact lenses . by a hydrophilic vinylic monomer is meant a monomer which , when polymerized by conventional free radical polymerization , characteristically yields a polymer which either dissolves in water or is capable of absorbing at least 10 % by weight water under ambient equilibrium conditions . similarly , suitable hydrophobic vinylic monomers are those monomers which , when polymerized by conventional free radical polymerization , characteristically yield a polymer which neither dissolves in water , nor is capable of absorbing at least 10 % by weight water under ambient ( i . e . 20 ° c .) equilibrium conditions . the vinylic comonomers are reacted with derivatives of formula i advantageously in the presence of an inert diluent or solvent , such as a suitable organic solvent , including a lower alkanol , e . g . ethanol , methanol or the like , or an aprotic solvent such as n , n - dimethylformamide , acetamide , acetonitrile , n , n - dimethylacetamide , dimethyl sulfoxide , acetone , tert - butyl acetate , isopropyl acetate or mixture thereof . also , aqueous / organic solvent systems may be employed . the derivative of formula i in the presence of vinyl comonomer ( s ) are polymerized in the presence of actinic radiation or in the presence of a conventional free radical initiator , such as a peroxide , e . g . di - tert - butyl peroxide , benzoyl peroxide , lauryl peroxide , decanoyl peroxide , acetyl peroxide , succinic acid peroxide , methyl ethyl ketone peroxide , 2 , 4 - dichlorobenzoyl peroxide , isopropyl peroctoate , tert - butyl hydroperoxide , tert - butyl perpivalate , tert - butyl peroctoate , diisopropyl peroxydicarbonate , cumene hydroperoxide , tert - butyl perbenzoate , tert - butyl peroxymaleic acid , tert - butyl peroxyacetate , and potassium persulfate , an azo compound , e . g . 2 , 2 - azo - bis - isobutyronitrile , 2 , 2 &# 39 ;- azo - bis -( 2 , 4 - dimethylvaleronitrile ), 1 , 1 &# 39 ;- azo - bis -( cyclohexane carbonitrile ), 2 , 2 &# 39 ;- azo - bis -- 2 , 4 - dimethyl - 4 - methoxyvaleronitrile ) and phenyl - azo - isobutyronitrile , a photoinitiator , e . g . benzoin methyl ether and 1 - hydroxycyclohexylphenyl ketone or actinic radiation such as uv light or ionizing rays e . g . gamma rays or x - rays . the derivative of formula i in the presence of vinyl comonomer ( s ) is advantageously polymerized upon placement into a mold . the mold may be a conventional spin - casting mold for preparing contact lenses such as described in u . s . pat . no . 3 , 408 , 429 , or in a static mold , e . g . as described in u . s . pat . no . 4 , 347 , 198 . alternately , one may prepare a swollen lens blank , dry the lens blank to form the corresponding xerogel , shape the xerogel into a contact lens precurser by lathing methods known to the art , and swell the shaped xerogel in aqueous medium to form the corresponding contact lens , as described in u . s . pat . no . re . 27 , 401 . the solution of derivative of formula i in the presence of vinylic comonomer ( s ) is advantageously placed into a mold in shape of a contact lens and polymerized . after polymerization , the crosslinked polymer is equilibrated in aqueous or aqueous saline solution . optimally this post treatment further includes a heat treatment of the molded lens shaped polymer . such heat treastment is characteristically conducted at a temperature between about 60 ° to 100 ° c ., e . g . in the presence of an aqueous medium . the treatment can vary greatly , but usually is accomplished in about 5 to 90 minutes . the purpose of this post treatment is to dimensionally stabilize the crosslinked contact lens material . also , the treatment may further serve to sterilize such lens material . suitable vinylic comonomers for polymerization with the derivative of formula i include conventional hydrophobic and hydrophilic monomers . suitable hydrophobic monomers include , without limitation , c 1 to c 18 alkyl acrylates and methacrylate , c 3 to c 18 alkyl acrylamides and methacrylamides , acrylonitrile , methacrylonitrile , vinyl c 1 to c 18 alkanoates , c 2 to c 18 alkenes , c 2 to c 18 haloalkenes , styrene , c 1 to c 6 alkyl styrenes , vinyl alkyl ethers wherein the alkyl portion has 1 to 6 carbon atoms , c 3 - c 12 perfluoroalkyl ethyl thiocarbonylaminoethyl acrylates and methacrylates , c 3 - c 12 fluoroalkyl acrylates and methacrylates , acryloxy and methacryloxy - alkyl - siloxanes , n - vinylcarbazole , c 1 - c 12 alkyl esters of maleic , fumaric , itaconic , and mesaconic acids and the like . examples of suitable hydrophobic monomers include methyl acrylate , ethyl acrylate , propyl acrylate , isopropyl acrylate , cyclohexyl acrylate , 2 - ethylhexyl acrylate , methyl methacrylate , ethyl methacrylate , propyl methacrylate , vinyl acetate , vinyl propionate , vinyl butyrate , vinyl valerate , styrene , chloroprene , vinyl chloride , vinylidine chloride , acrylonitrile , 1 - butene , butadiene , methacrylonitrile , vinyl toluene , vinyl ethyl ether , perfluorohexylethylthiocarbonylaminoethyl methacrylate , isobornyl methacrylate , hexafluorobutyl methacrylate , 3 - methacryloxypropylpentamethyldisiloxane , and bis ( methacryloxypropyl ) tetramethyldisiloxane . suitable hydrophilic monomers include , without limitation , hydroxy substituted lower alkyl acrylates and methacrylates , acrylamide , methacrylamide , c 1 - c 2 lower alkyl acrylamide and methacrylamide , ethoxylated acrylates and methacrylates , hydroxy substituted lower alkyl acrylamide and methacrylamide , hydroxy substituted lower alkyl vinyl ethers , sodium ethylene sulfonate , sodium styrenesulfonate , 2 - acrylamido - 2 - methylpropanesulfonic acid , n - vinylpyrrole , n - vinylsuccinimide , n - vinylpyrrolidone , 2 - and 4 - vinylpyridine , acrylic acid , methacrylic acid , amino ( by amino including quaternary ammonium ), - monoloweralkylamino - or diloweralkylamino - lower alkyl acrylates or methacrylates , allyl alcohol , and the like . specific hydrophilic monomers include hydroxyethyl methacrylate , hydroxyethyl acrylate , acrylamide , methacrylamide , n , n - dimethylacrylamide , allyl alcohol , vinylpyridine , n - vinylpyrrolidone , glycerol methacrylate , n -( 1 , 1 - dimethyl - 3 - oxobutyl ) acrylamide , and the like . optionally , an additional conventional polyreactive crosslinking agent may be added , such as , allyl compounds e . g . allyl methacrylate , diallyl itaconate , monoallyl itaconate , diallyl maleate , diallyl fumarate , diallyl succinate , diallyl phthalate , triallyl cyanurate , triallyl isocyanurate , diethylene glycol bis - allyl carbonate , triallyl phosphate , triallyl trimellitate , allyl ether , n , n - diallylmelamine ; vinyl compounds , e . g . divinyl benzene , n , n &# 39 ;- methylene - bis - acrylamide , ethylene glycol dimethacrylate , neopentylglycol dimethacrylate , tetraethylene glycol dimethacrylate , hexamethylene - bis - maleimide , divinyl urea , bisphenol a bis methacrylate , divinyl adipate , glycerin trimethacrylate , trimethylolpropane triacrylate , trivinyl trimellitate , 1 , 5 - pentadiene , 1 , 3 - bis ( 4 - methacryloxybutyl ) tetramethyl disiloxane , divinyl ether and divinyl sulfone ; hydroxyl reactive compounds such as : polyvalent isocyanates e . g . hexamethylene diisocyanate , isophorone diisocyanate , toluene diisocyanate ; polyaldehydes e . g . glutaraldehyde and glyoxal ; polyacids e . g . glutaric acid and oxalic acid ; polyepoxides e . g . butane diepoxide , vinylcyclohexene dioxide and butanediol diglycidyl ether ; polyols ( acid catalysis ) e . g . dimethylol urea and diethylene glycol . also the dimethacrylate formed by reacting perfluoropolyalkylether dimethanol or poly ( ethylene glycol ) with two moles of isocyanatoethyl methacrylate can be used . when employed , about 0 . 01 to 10 weight percent of crosslinking agent , based upon the weight of formula i derivative , may be present , preferably about 0 . 01 to about 5 percent , most preferably about less than 2 weight percent . the resultant contact lenses are optically clear , strong , flexible , highly oxygen permeable and wettable . further , the instant lenses are characterized by their ease of manufacture . in the following examples , all parts are by weight unless otherwise described . a description of testing methods used on the polymer films is as follows : ( a ) oxygen permeability ( dk ) is determined from measurements on a schema versatae or createch polarographic cell . ( b ) wettability or lubricity is evaluated by a feel comparison to crosslinked polyhema ( i . e . polymerized 2 - hydroxyethyl methacrylate + 1 % ethylene glycol dimethacrylate ). the surface lubricity of polyhema is designated ( b ); more wettable than polyhema is designated ( a ) and a less wettable surface than polyhema is designated ( c ). ( c ) tensile strength is qualitatively evaluated by pulling on a sheet of the material by hand and then comparing the result to a material previously evaluated by a micromechanical tester to be 14 kg / cm 2 . a measurement found to be similar to this &# 34 ; standard &# 34 ; is designated ( 2 ); a higher value is designated ( 1 ); a lower value is designated ( 3 ); while a much lower value is designated ( 4 ). this example illustrates the sequential synthesis of the perfluoropolyether / polyether urethane - linked adduct , z 1 -- ipdi - peg - iem ) 2 , where z 1 is a perfluoropolyether , ipdi is isophorone diisocyanate , peg is a polyethylene glycol and iem is isocyanatoethyl methacrylate ; and , the solution polymerization of this adduct . 30 . 06 g ( 0 . 0136 mole ) fomblin zdol 2000 ( mw 2200 ; montedison , ausimont ) is combined with 6 . 07 g ( 0 . 02734 mole ) ipdi and 10 μl dibutyltin dilaurate , mixed well and stirred overnight at room temperature forming z 1 -- ipdi ) 2 . the percentage of isocyanate reacted ( generally 48 - 54 %) is determined by dibutylamine titration and varies with the precise value of the z 1 molecular weight actually used . then , the calculated molar amount of peg is added to a solution ( solvent , 30 - 70 %) of z 1 -- ipdi ) 2 to form z 1 -- ipdi - peg ) 2 . then a urethane catalyst , i . e . dibutyltin dilaurate ( 0 . 66 ml per gram of solute ) is added and the solution allowed to react at 50 ° c . with stirring overnight ( complete disappearance of isocyanate ir absorption at 2270 cm - 1 ). the calculated molar amount of iem is added , with rapid stirring , to a solution of z 1 -- ipdi - peg ) 2 and reacted at 40 °- 50 ° c . ( see example 2 samples 1 - 3 ) or at room temperature ( see example 2 sample 5 and 6 ). the z 1 -- ipdi - peg - iem ) 2 adduct in solvent is mixed with initiator ( benzoin methyl ether , bme ), poured into flat &# 34 ; sandwich &# 34 ; molds and polymerized with uv light ( sylvania , blacklight blue , 15 w ) at room temperature for 3 hours . the polymerized films are removed from the molds , extracted in water several times , heated in boiling water for 10 minutes and then allowed to equilibrate in room temperature water ( generally overnight ). this example shows the resultant water content and oxygen permeability values of perfluoropolyalkylether / peg hydrogels , i . e . crosslinked z 1 -- ipdi - peg - iem ) 2 , solution polymerized using different molecular weights of peg ( 400 , 600 ) in various amounts of solvent ( acetone ). __________________________________________________________________________wt . % in the polymerization mixture wt . % % h . sub . 2 o dksample z . sub . 1 ipdi peg ( mw ) iem acetone bme content ( barrer ) __________________________________________________________________________1 39 . 2 7 . 9 14 . 3 ( 400 ) 5 . 5 33 . 0 0 . 1 14 . 5 67 . 02 20 . 3 4 . 1 7 . 4 ( 400 ) 2 . 9 65 . 3 0 . 2 28 . 9 68 . 43 34 . 7 7 . 1 19 . 0 ( 600 ) 4 . 9 34 . 3 0 . 04 29 . 2 46 . 24 31 . 6 6 . 4 17 . 4 ↓ 4 . 5 40 . 1 0 . 3 37 . 3 51 . 65 26 . 0 5 . 3 14 . 3 ↓ 3 . 7 50 . 8 0 . 3 36 . 9 53 . 06 16 . 1 3 . 3 8 . 9 ↓ 2 . 3 69 . 5 0 . 4 49 . 2 51 . 5__________________________________________________________________________ as shown above , water content increases with higher molecular weight peg and reaction solvent content . the oxygen permeability , however , decreases with the higher molecular weight peg . this example illustrates a range of z 1 / peg hydrogel water contents obtained by varying the molecular weight of the peg and the proportion of solvent ipac ( isopropyl acetate ). films are made as in example 1 except that the molecular weight of the peg is 600 , 900 , 1000 or 1500 and the solvent used is isopropyl acetate . iem is reacted at 40 °- 50 ° c . for all samples . __________________________________________________________________________wt . % in the polymerization mixture wt . % % h . sub . 2 osamplez . sub . 1 ipdi peg ( mw ) iem ipac bme content__________________________________________________________________________1 35 . 3 7 . 2 19 . 3 ( 600 ) 5 . 0 33 . 2 0 . 06 21 . 92 27 . 1 5 . 5 14 . 8 ↓ 3 . 8 48 . 8 0 . 06 31 . 23 20 . 8 4 . 2 11 . 3 ↓ 2 . 9 60 . 8 0 . 04 45 . 84 29 . 4 5 . 9 24 . 0 ( 900 ) 4 . 1 36 . 6 0 . 05 39 . 55 25 . 2 5 . 1 20 . 6 ↓ 3 . 6 45 . 7 0 . 04 40 . 76 20 . 9 4 . 2 17 . 1 ↓ 3 . 0 54 . 8 0 . 05 42 . 87 27 . 3 5 . 5 24 . 9 ( 1000 ) 3 . 9 38 . 4 0 . 05 42 . 98 23 . 8 4 . 8 21 . 7 ↓ 3 . 4 46 . 3 0 . 05 45 . 19 22 . 0 4 . 4 20 . 0 ↓ 3 . 3 47 . 7 0 . 05 45 . 010 20 . 2 4 . 1 18 . 3 ↓ 2 . 8 54 . 6 0 . 03 48 . 111 15 . 9 3 . 2 14 . 5 ↓ 2 . 2 64 . 2 0 . 05 54 . 212 13 . 9 2 . 8 12 . 6 ↓ 2 . 0 68 . 7 0 . 04 52 . 913 18 . 9 3 . 9 25 . 9 ( 1500 ) 2 . 7 48 . 6 0 . 05 57 . 914 16 . 5 3 . 4 22 . 6 ↓ 2 . 3 55 . 2 0 . 06 61 . 115 14 . 7 3 . 1 20 . 1 ↓ 2 . 1 60 . 1 0 . 07 61 . 5__________________________________________________________________________ as shown above water content increases with increasing molecular weight peg and solvent content . this example shows the effect of hydrophilic comonomer addition on the physical properties of z 1 / peg hydrogel films . films are made as in example 3 except that comonomer n , n - dimethylacrylamide , dma ; n - vinylpyrrolidone , nvp ; or 2 - hydroxyethyl methacrylate , ( hema ) is added just prior to the addition of initiator . __________________________________________________________________________ physical properties of hydrogelwt . % in the polymerization mixture % % h . sub . 2 osample z . sub . 1 ipdi peg ( mw ) iem comonomer ipac bme content clarity wettability strength__________________________________________________________________________ 1 24 . 4 4 . 9 19 . 9 ( 900 ) 3 . 4 17 . 1 dma 30 . 3 0 . 05 54 . 4 clear a 3 2 24 . 5 4 . 9 20 . 0 ↓ 3 . 5 16 . 7 nvp 30 . 4 0 . 05 48 . 8 ↓ ↓ 3 3 24 . 5 4 . 9 20 . 0 ↓ 3 . 5 16 . 6 hema 30 . 5 0 . 05 37 . 1 ↓ ↓ 2 4 29 . 4 5 . 9 24 . 0 ↓ 4 . 1 -- 36 . 6 0 . 05 39 . 5 ↓ ↓ 2 5 24 . 8 5 . 0 22 . 6 ( 1000 ) 3 . 5 9 . 1 dma 35 . 0 0 . 05 52 . 6 ↓ ↓ 3 6 22 . 8 4 . 6 20 . 7 ↓ 3 . 2 16 . 6 32 . 1 0 . 05 57 . 1 ↓ ↓ ↓ 7 21 . 0 4 . 3 19 . 1 ↓ 3 . 0 9 . 5 43 . 1 0 . 06 54 . 4 ↓ ↓ ↓ 8 19 . 2 3 . 9 17 . 5 ↓ 2 . 7 17 . 4 39 . 4 0 . 05 60 . 1 ↓ ↓ 3 - 4 9 24 . 8 5 . 0 22 . 6 ↓ 3 . 5 9 . 2 nvp 34 . 9 0 . 05 48 . 6 ↓ ↓ 310 22 . 7 4 . 6 20 . 7 ↓ 3 . 2 16 . 8 32 . 0 0 . 05 54 . 7 hazy ↓ 411 21 . 1 4 . 3 19 . 2 ↓ 3 . 0 9 . 0 43 . 4 0 . 04 49 . 7 clear ↓ 312 19 . 2 3 . 9 17 . 4 ↓ 2 . 7 17 . 5 39 . 3 0 . 05 52 . 3 ↓ ↓ 413 24 . 8 5 . 0 22 . 6 ↓ 3 . 5 9 . 1 hema 35 . 0 0 . 05 42 . 7 ↓ ↓ 314 22 . 8 4 . 6 20 . 7 ↓ 3 . 2 16 . 6 32 . 1 0 . 05 40 . 0 ↓ ↓ ↓ 15 21 . 0 4 . 2 19 . 0 ↓ 3 . 0 9 . 8 43 . 0 0 . 05 44 . 9 sl . hazy ↓ ↓ 16 19 . 2 3 . 9 17 . 5 ↓ 2 . 7 17 . 4 39 . 4 0 . 05 44 . 8 sl . hazy ↓ ↓ 17 27 . 3 5 . 5 24 . 9 ↓ 3 . 9 -- 38 . 4 0 . 05 42 . 9 clear ↓ ↓ 18 15 . 7 3 . 3 21 . 5 ( 1500 ) 2 . 2 16 . 8 dma 40 . 5 0 . 05 69 . 6 ↓ ↓ 219 15 . 7 3 . 3 21 . 5 ↓ 2 . 2 16 . 8 nvp 40 . 5 0 . 05 63 . 2 ↓ ↓ 3 - 420 15 . 4 3 . 2 21 . 5 ↓ 2 . 2 18 . 9 hema 39 . 8 0 . 06 55 . 8 hazy ↓ 221 18 . 9 3 . 9 25 . 9 ↓ 2 . 7 -- 48 . 6 0 . 05 57 . 9 clear ↓ 3__________________________________________________________________________ dma = dimethylacrylamide ; nvp = nvinylpyrrolidone ; hema = 2hydroxyethyl methacrylate as shown above , addition of hydrophilic comonomers has little effect on wettability or tensile strength . this example compares the effect of initiator level on the physical properties of similar composition z 1 / peg hydrogel films . the films are prepared in a similar manner to that in example 1 . in general , 3 . 00 g ( 0 . 0016 mole ) fomblin zdol 2000 , mw 1851 ( previously bubbled with nitrogen for 2 hours while stored over molecular sieves ) is combined with 0 . 72 g ( 0 . 0032 mole ) ipdi and 2 . 5 μl dibutyltin dilaurate ( dbtl ) catalyst under nitrogen , mixed well and stirred overnight at room temperature . the percentage of isocyanate reacted is determined by titration to be 48 - 53 %. peg 1000 is reacted with z 1 -- ipdi ) 2 in the presence of solvent ( approximately 38 % by weight isopropyl acetate , ipac ). then 0 . 66 μl dbtl is added per gram solute and the solution reacted at 50 ° c . with stirring overnight under nitrogen . the solution is cooled to room temperature and initiator ( bme ) added . the solution is centrifuged five minutes ( eppendorf 5412 ) poured into &# 34 ; sandwich &# 34 ; molds and uv irradiated at room temperature for three hours . after water extraction , strength and wettability testing is performed . __________________________________________________________________________ physical properties of hydrogelwt . % in the polymerization mixture % h . sub . 2 osample z . sub . 1 ipdi peg iem ipac % bme content clarity wettability strength__________________________________________________________________________1 24 . 8 5 . 9 26 . 8 4 . 2 38 . 4 0 . 05 36 . 7 clear b 22 24 . 6 5 . 9 26 . 7 4 . 2 38 . 7 0 . 05 47 . 9 ↓ a 43 25 . 9 5 . 8 25 . 9 4 . 0 38 . 4 0 . 1 46 . 3 ↓ b 24 24 . 8 6 . 0 26 . 8 4 . 1 38 . 3 0 . 1 47 . 5 ↓ a 35 24 . 7 6 . 0 26 . 8 4 . 2 38 . 4 0 . 1 50 . 4 ↓ a 36 25 . 9 5 . 8 25 . 9 4 . 0 38 . 4 0 . 2 48 . 4 ↓ b 27 24 . 8 6 . 0 26 . 8 4 . 1 36 . 3 0 . 2 51 . 3 ↓ a 38 25 . 9 5 . 8 25 . 9 4 . 0 38 . 4 0 . 5 48 . 8 ↓ a 2__________________________________________________________________________ as shown above , increasing initiator level from 0 . 05 to 0 . 1 % and higher appears to improve property reproducibility especially water content and strength ; but no added strength is found by further increasing initiator level to 0 . 5 %. this example illustrates the effect of various crosslinking agents on the physical properties of perfluoropolyether / peg hydrogel films . the crosslinkers used are : a dimethacrylate of peg 600 , a dimethacrylate of zdol 1000 and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate . the dimethacrylate of peg 600 is synthesized by combining 2 . 425 g ( 0 . 004 mole ) peg 600 with 1 . 2578 g ( 0 . 008 mole ) iem , mixing well and adding 2 μl dbtl and stirring overnight at room temperature . reaction completion is indicated by disappearance of isocyanate ir absorption at 2270 cm - 1 . the dimethacrylate of zdol 1000 , z 1 -- iem ) 2 , is synthesized by combining 1 . 1115 g ( 0 . 00085 mole ) fomblin zdol 1000 ( mw 1301 ) with 0 . 2652 g ( 0 . 0017 mole ) iem , mixing well and then adding 2 μl dbtl and stirring for three hours at room temperature . disappearance of the isocyanate ir absorption is used to monitor reaction completion . ethylene glycol dimethacrylate ( egdma ) is distilled from a commercial source ( sartomer ) before use . __________________________________________________________________________wt . % in the polymerization mixture physical properties of hydrogel peg % h . sub . 2 o wetta - sample z . sub . 1 ipdi 1000 iem ipac comonomer % bme content clarity bility strength__________________________________________________________________________1 22 . 4 5 . 4 24 . 3 3 . 8 34 . 8 9 . 3 peg 600 -( iem ). sub . 2 0 . 1 49 . 8 clear a 32 19 . 9 4 . 8 22 . 4 3 . 5 36 . 2 13 . 1 peg 600 -( iem ). sub . 2 0 . 1 48 . 3 ↓ a 43 20 . 7 4 . 9 22 . 3 3 . 5 35 . 4 13 . 2 peg 600 -( iem ). sub . 2 0 . 09 48 . 6 ↓ a 44 24 . 4 5 . 9 26 . 4 4 . 1 38 . 1 1 . 1 egdma 0 . 1 45 . 3 ↓ b 35 24 . 5 5 . 9 26 . 4 4 . 1 38 . 1 1 . 0 zdol 1000 ( iem ). sub . 2 0 . 1 53 . 6 ↓ a 2 - 36 24 . 7 5 . 9 26 . 7 4 . 2 38 . 5 ↓ 0 . 1 46 . 7 ↓ a 3__________________________________________________________________________ peg 600 ( iem ). sub . 2 = peg 600 dimethacrylate ; egdma = ethylene glycol dimethacrylate ; zdol 1000 ( iem ). sub . 2 = zdol 1000 dimethacrylate this example shows the physical properties of perfluoropolyether / peg hydrogel films made by combining the diadducts of z 1 -- ipdi - peg - iem ) 2 which have different pegs , but the same z 1 ( i . e . zdol 2000 ). the pegs used are 400 , 600 and 1000 . the reaction solutions are prepared in isopropyl acetate as in example 5 except that nitrogen degassing is not used . the solutions are mixed in various ratios just prior to initiator ( bme ) addition . __________________________________________________________________________ physical properties of hydrogelmole ratio wt . % in the polymerization mixtures % h . sub . 2 o wetta - sample z . sub . 1 -( ipdi - peg - iem ). sub . 2 z . sub . 1 ipdi peg ( mw ) iem ipac % bme content clarity bility strength__________________________________________________________________________1 1 peg 1000 / 1 peg 600 27 . 1 6 . 5 14 . 8 ( 1000 ) 4 . 6 38 . 3 0 . 05 39 . 0 clear a 3 8 . 7 ( 600 ) ↓ ↓ ↓ 2 3 peg 1000 / 1 peg 600 25 . 9 6 . 2 21 . 1 ( 1000 ) 4 . 3 38 . 4 0 . 06 42 . 4 ↓ ↓ ↓ 4 . 1 ( 600 ) ↓ ↓ ↓ 3 1 peg 1000 / 1 peg 400 28 . 6 6 . 5 15 . 6 ( 1000 ) 4 . 8 38 . 3 0 . 05 35 . 0 ↓ ↓ ↓ 6 . 1 ( 400 ) ↓ ↓ ↓ 4 3 peg 1000 / 1 peg 400 26 . 5 6 . 4 21 . 2 ( 1000 ) 4 . 5 38 . 3 0 . 05 40 . 9 ↓ ↓ ↓ 2 . 9 ( 400 ) ↓ ↓ ↓ 5 peg 1000 24 . 7 5 . 9 26 . 7 ( 1000 ) 4 . 2 38 . 5 0 . 1 46 . 7 ↓ ↓ ↓ __________________________________________________________________________ the results show that though the water content of a z 1 -- ipdi - peg 1000 - iem ) 2 film is lowered slightly by the copolymerization with z 1 -- ipdi - peg 400 - iem ) 2 or z 1 -- ipdi - peg 600 - iem ) 2 , the clarity , wettability and strength appear the same . this example shows the effect of a lower molecular weight ( i . e . approximately 1000 as opposed to approximately 2000 ) perfluoropolyether on the properties of a z 1 / peg hydrogel . the synthesis of these z 1 -- ipdi - peg - iem ) 2 diadducts is similar to that described in example 3 . more specifically , 5 . 0082 g ( 0 . 0038 mole ) fomblin zdol 1000 ( mw 1301 ) is reacted with 1 . 7121 g ( 0 . 007 mole ) ipdi in solvent ( 20 % isopropyl acetate ) while stirring at room temperature overnight in the presence of 2 μl dbtl ; some samples ( i . e . sample numbers 3 , 5 and 6 ) are reacted without solvent . the z 1 -- ipdi ) 2 diadduct is then reacted with 2 moles of peg ( i . e . 200 , 400 , 600 , 900 or 1000 ). the peg is first dissolved in a certain quantity of isopropyl acetate ( the weight of solvent calculated to be 40 % of the final reaction mixture ) at 50 ° c . ( peg 600 , 900 , 1000 ) or at room temperature ( peg 200 , 400 ). in sample 1 for example , 0 . 2211 g ( 0 . 0011 mole ) peg 200 is dissolved in 0 . 5692 g ipac then 1 . 2098 g of the z 1 -- ipdi ) 2 adduct is added , the mixture mixed well followed by the addition of 0 . 78 μl dbtl and stirring overnight at 50 ° c . the solution is then cooled to room temperature , 0 . 1714 g ( 0 . 0011 mole ) iem added and the mixture reacted with stirring at room temperature overnight . addition of initiator ( bme ), polymerization and water equilibration are similar to that described in example 1 . __________________________________________________________________________ physical properties of hydrogel % ipac in the oxygen permeabilitysample mw peg polymerization mixture % bme % h . sub . 2 o content ( barrer ) observation__________________________________________________________________________1 200 40 0 . 48 5 . 92 25 . 3 very slightly hazy on edges ; wettability = b2 400 0 . 49 19 . 48 24 . 0 clear ; wettability = b3 600 0 . 06 34 . 29 20 . 8 clear ; yellow edges ; wettability = a4 900 0 . 51 47 . 66 25 . 9 clear ; wettability = a5 1000 0 . 07 50 . 28 22 . 9 clear ; wettability = a6 1000 0 . 48 51 . 50 -- clear ; wettability = __________________________________________________________________________ a as shown above , water content and wettability increase with increasing molecular weight of peg . this example shows the effect of peg molecular weight and solvent content ( isopropyl acetate ) on various physical properties if perfluoropolyether / polyether hydrogels obtained using fomblin zdol tx 2000 ( z 1 tx , mw 2288 ) a perfluoropolyether with an additional 1 or 2 ethylene oxide units adducted to the terminal hydroxyl groups of zdol 2000 . films are made in a similar manner to those described in example 3 . the reaction of z 1 tx and two moles of ipdi is monitored by isocyanate titration and the percent isocyanate reacted is found to be approximately 50 % ( 47 - 52 %). the product , z 1 tx -- ipdi - peg - iem ) 2 is formed through the reaction of two moles of iem with z 1 tx -- ipdi - peg ) 2 adduct in ipac at room temperature overnight . as shown in the table below , in general , use of the perfluoropolyether z 1 tx yielded strong clear films whose percent water content increases with peg molecular weight and solvent content . __________________________________________________________________________ % ipac in the physical properties of hydrogelsample mw peg polymerization mixture % h . sub . 2 o content clarity / wettability / strength__________________________________________________________________________1 400 28 16 clear a 22 ↓ 39 17 clear b 13 ↓ 48 21 hazy b 24 ↓ 66 28 cloudy b 25 600 38 29 clear a 16 ↓ 50 30 sl . hazy a 27 ↓ 59 39 hazy b 38 900 29 39 clear a 49 ↓ 40 40 clear ↓ 110 ↓ 50 43 clear ↓ 111 ↓ 58 47 clear ↓ 112 1000 28 47 clear ↓ 113 ↓ 38 42 clear ↓ 114 ↓ 38 40 clear ↓ 215 ↓ 49 43 clear ↓ 116 ↓ 59 47 sl . hazy ↓ 417 1500 39 55 clear ↓ 218 ↓ 39 56 clear ↓ 219 ↓ 49 57 clear ↓ 220 ↓ 59 60 clear ↓ 1__________________________________________________________________________ this example shows the synthesis of a perfluoropolyether / polyether hydrogel in which the urethane group linking the perfluoropolyether chain and polyether chain ( reaction with ipdi ) is replaced by an ether linkage ; this is accomplished by using an epoxy - terminated peg . more specifically , 2 . 1091 g ( 0 . 00096 mole ) fomblin zdol 2000 ( mw 2200 ) is reacted at 60 ° c . overnight with 0 . 7749 g ( 0 . 0096 mole ) polyethylene glycol 400 diglycidyl ether ( pege 400 , polysciences ), using 0 . 0167 g triethylamine catalyst . after 16 hours , the temperature of the mixture ( opaque ) is raised to 70 ° c ., 0 . 0220 g triethylamine added and the mixture stirred overnight leading to a clear , yellow , viscous product , z 1 -- o - peg 400 ) 2 . then 0 . 5213 g ( 0 . 00017 mole ) of z 1 -- o - peg 400 ) 2 is combined with 1 . 8890 g dimethyl sulfoxide , dmso , ( aldrich gold label , 99 . 9 %) and 0 . 0539 g ( 0 . 00035 mole ) iem which is added dropwise to the rapidly stirring mixture . the solution is reacted at room temperature approximately 72 hours . then 0 . 0040 g bme is added and the solution poured into a &# 34 ; sandwich &# 34 ; mold and uv irradiated at room temperature for 13 hours resulting in a soft gel . this material after equilibration in water becomes a clear hydrogel film . this example shows the fabrication of prototype perfluoropolyether / polyether lenses from polypropylene contact lens molds . the reaction solution is made as in example 5 ( samples 3 - 5 ) using 0 . 1 % bme as initiator . the solution is pipetted into the lens molds and uv cured for 3 hours . after water extraction and boiling , one obtains optically clear , strong lenses . micromechanical tensile tests performed on the lenses yield the following properties ; stress of 3 . 6 kg / cm 2 , young &# 39 ; s modulus of 26 kg / cm 2 and a 13 % elongation . this example illustrates the preparation of hydrogels obtained via polymerization of partially iem capped z 1 -- ipdi - peg 1000 ) 2 adduct ( z 1 adduct ). the incompletely capped adduct , i . e . mixtures of peg - ipdi - z 1 -- ipdi - peg - iem and iem - peg - ipdi --- z 1 -- ipdi - peg - iem , is prepared as in example 1 except that 50 %- 90 % of the amount of iem is added to partially react the peg 1000 hydroxyl groups . the adducts are then polymerized with or without comonomer ( dma , hema , nvp ) into sheets ( samples 1 - 5 ) or lenses ( samples 6 - 8 ) using uv irradiation ( 3 hours , 0 . 05 % bme initiator ) and water equilibration . __________________________________________________________________________polymerization mixturez . sub . 1 : ipdi : peg : iem % z . sub . 1 physical properties of hydrogelsamplemolar ratio adduct % ipac % comonomers % h . sub . 2 o content clarity wettability__________________________________________________________________________1 1 : 2 : 2 : 1 61 . 9 38 . 1 -- 54 . 7 clear a2 ↓ 54 . 6 45 . 4 -- 64 . 1 clear a3 ↓ 49 . 6 41 . 2 9 . 2 dma 68 . 7 clear a4 ↓ 49 . 6 41 . 2 . sup . 9 . 2 hema 55 . 7 hazy a5 ↓ 49 . 7 41 . 2 9 . 1 nvp . sup . 58 . 3 clear a6 1 : 2 : 2 : 1 . 5 66 . 3 33 . 7 -- 52 . 9 clear a7 1 : 2 : 2 : 1 . 8 61 . 1 38 . 9 -- 52 . 7 clear a8 1 : 2 : 2 : 2 61 . 6 38 . 4 -- 48 . 7 clear a ( control ) __________________________________________________________________________ this example illustrates the preparation and physical properties of the hydrogels obtained when various amounts of the z 1 -- ipdi - peg - iem ) 2 diadduct ( z 1 diadduct ) are copolymerized with the reaction product ( rp adduct ) of z 1 -- ipdi - peg ) 2 and an equal molar amount of iem . the z 1 -- ipdi - peg - iem ) 2 diadduct is prepared as in example 1 using 37 . 4 % ipac as solvent . the rp adduct is also prepared as in example 1 with 38 . 1 % ipac except that 50 % of the amount of iem is added . these materials , i . e . z 1 diadduct and rp adduct in ipac are combined in various ratios and uv polymerized ( 3 hours , 0 . 05 % bme initiator ) into sheets . __________________________________________________________________________polymerization mixture % rp % z . sub . 1 physical properties of hydrogelsample adduct diadduct % h . sub . 2 o content clarity wettability strength__________________________________________________________________________1 85 . 4 14 . 6 53 . 01 clear a 3 - 42 84 . 6 15 . 4 52 . 08 ↓ a 43 50 . 0 50 . 0 44 . 39 ↓ a 34 50 . 0 50 . 0 48 . 01 ↓ a 35 14 . 8 85 . 2 44 . 16 ↓ a 36 100 . 0 -- 54 . 71 ↓ a 47 -- 100 . 0 44 . 45 ↓ a 3__________________________________________________________________________ as shown above , water content tends to increase with increasing rp adduct content . this example illustrates the tensile strength of lenses polymerized from the z 1 -- ipdi - peg 1000 - iem ) 2 diadduct ( z 1 diadduct ) with or without additional comonomer adducts . the z 1 -- ipdi - peg 1000 - iem ) 2 diadduct is prepared as in example 1 . the comonomers used are prepared by reaction of 1 mole z 1 with one mole iem ( z 1 / iem ) or two moles iem ( z 1 -- iem ) 2 ) using dibutyltin dilaurate as catalyst . the diadduct in ipac is combined with the additional comonomer adduct ( s ) and polymerized using uv irradiation ( 3 hours , 0 . 1 % bme initiator ). __________________________________________________________________________polymerization mixture physical properties of hydrogel % z . sub . 1 % comonomer young &# 39 ; s modulus stresssamplediadduct adduct % ipac % h . sub . 2 o content ( kg / cm . sup . 2 ) ( kg / cm . sup . 2 ) % elongation__________________________________________________________________________1 61 . 0 1 . 0 z . sub . 1 -( iem ). sub . 2 38 . 0 47 . 6 21 ± 4 3 . 0 ± 0 . 9 14 ± 32 57 . 6 1 . 1 z . sub . 1 -( iem ). sub . 2 35 . 8 44 . 3 22 ± 5 2 . 9 ± 0 . 4 13 ± 3 5 . 5 z . sub . 1 / iem3 61 . 6 -- 38 . 4 48 . 7 25 ± 5 4 . 0 ± 0 . 7 15 ± 2control__________________________________________________________________________ | 8 |
referring to fig3 - 8 , a five - way manifold of the present invention comprises a unitary body member 140 and a rotatable flange assembly 142 . rotatable flange assembly 142 is of conventional construction , and has a generally circular shape and is machined out of a metal such as stainless steel . rotatable flange assembly 142 has a recess 144 into which is rotatably mounted a flange ring 146 . the latter is welded to body 140 at 145 so as to form a rotatable flange , in known manner . the end face 147 of flange assembly 142 has an annular recess at 148 which has an annular knife edge 149 for accommodating and engaging a metal sealing gasket ( not shown ) in known manner . a plurality of bolt holes 150 are formed through flange assembly 142 for bolting the assembly to a mating component or device ( not shown ). holes 150 may be threaded or smooth walled . in a preferred embodiment of the invention , flange assembly 142 includes both threaded holes and smooth walled holes . body 140 comprises an end port 152 and four angled side ports 154 spaced equi - distant from one another around the circumference of the body 140 . end port 152 and side ports 154 are hollow and communicate with a hollow 156 formed centrally of body 140 . the end faces of port 152 and side ports 154 , which form the sealing surfaces of the body ports 152 and 154 , each include an annular recess 158 having an annular knife edge 159 for accommodating and engaging a metal sealing gasket ( not shown ) in known manner . a plurality of blind threaded holes 160 are formed into the end faces of end port 152 and side ports 154 for accommodating bolts for mounting mating components or devices ( not shown ). a feature and advantage of the present invention results from forming body 140 , including ports 152 and 154 , as a unitary piece . referring also to fig9 and 10 , starting with a short cylindrical blank of stainless steel , the blank is turned on a lathe to produce a rough turned blank 162 having a spherical surface portion 168 . thereafter blank 162 is milled out at 164 and 166 . threaded holes 160 , annular recess 158 and knife edge 159 also may be formed at this time whereby to form the end port 152 sealing surface . thereafter , the spherical surface portion 168 of blank 162 is machined flat across selected planes ( shown in phantom at 169 ), e . g . using fly cutters to form the planar end wall surfaces of side ports 154 . for example , in order to form four side ports 154 , e . g . as in the embodiment shown in fig3 - 8 cuts are made across four planes . annular recesses 158 and knife edges 159 are then milled in the planar end wall surfaces of side ports 154 whereby to form the side port 154 sealing surfaces , the ports are bored out at 170 , blind threaded holes 160 formed therein , and the side walls 161 cut back in order to reduce weight and provide clearance for accessing bolt holes 150 . the flange assembly 142 which is separately formed in known manner is then welded to body 140 in known manner . as can be seen from the foregoing , the present invention provides a process for making improved manifolds which overcomes the aforesaid and other disadvantages of the prior art . a particular feature and advantage of the present invention which results from machining body 140 from a unitary piece of metal is that milling tolerances can be extremely tightly controlled using numerically controlled milling machines . thus , alignment of the side ports and end port is assured . also , all but one weld line is eliminated , and there is far more metal supporting the end port 152 than in conventional construction . as a result , vacuum manifolds made in accordance with the present invention are stronger , and the end port 152 is more resistant to movement . the invention also provides simplicity and economy in the manufacturing process . this invention is susceptible to modification . for example , referring to fig1 - 13 , there is shown a two - way manifold indicated generally at 180 , made in accordance with the present invention . two - way manifold 180 comprises a unitary body including an integrally formed flanged base 182 and two angled side ports 184 , 186 . flanged base 182 includes a facial annular recess 188 having an annular knife edge 190 for accommodating and engaging a soft metal gasket in known manner , and a plurality of smooth wall holes 192 and threaded holes 194 . the two angled side ports 184 , 186 are hollow and communicate with a common hollow 196 formed centrally of body 180 . as before , ports 184 and 186 each include planar sealing surfaces with a facial annular recess 198 having an annular knife edge 200 for accommodating and engaging a metal sealing gasket . a plurality of blind threaded holes 202 are formed in the face of side ports 184 , 186 . additional blind threaded holes 204 are formed between ports 184 , 186 for affixing accessories . as before , two - way manifold 180 may be formed from a unitary piece of metal . referring also to fig1 , starting with a short cylindrical blank of stainless steel , the blank is turned on a lathe to produce a rough turned blank 206 having a spherical surface portion 208 . holes 192 and 194 , annular recess 188 and annular knife edge 190 , and hollow 196 may all then be formed . thereafter , the spherical surface portion 208 of blank 206 is machined flat across two planes shown in phantom at 209 in fig1 , e . g . using fly cutters , to form the planar end wall sealing surfaces of side ports 184 , 186 . annular recesses 198 and annular knife edges 200 are then milled in the planar end wall surfaces of ports 184 , 186 , the ports bored out at 210 , and blind threaded holes 202 formed in the planar end wall surfaces of ports 184 , 186 . blind threaded holes 204 also may be formed at this time . finally , the sides of side ports 184 , 186 are machined flat at 212 and 214 . referring to fig1 - 17 , there is shown a three - way manifold 220 made in accordance with yet another embodiment of the present invention . three - way manifold 220 is similar to two - way manifold 180 ( fig1 - 13 ) and comprises a unitary construction including an integral flanged base portion 222 having a recess 224 and an annular knife edge 226 for accommodating and engaging a metal sealing gasket . also , flange 222 includes a plurality of smooth wall holes 228 and threaded holes 230 . three - way manifold 220 also includes three port planar sealing faces 232 , 234 , 236 , each of which includes an annular recess 238 and annular knife edge 240 for accommodating and engaging a metal sealing gasket . planar port faces 232 , 234 , 236 are spaced apart 180 ° and are angled at 45 ° from base flange 220 . port faces 234 , 236 and 238 are bored through at 242 and communicate with an inner chamber 246 which is bored through flange 222 . referring also to fig1 , three - way manifold 220 is formed as a unitary piece starting with a short cylindrical blank of stainless steel . the blank is turned on a lathe to produce a rough turned blank 248 having a spherical surface portion 250 . thereafter , spherical surface portion 250 is machined flat across three planes ( only one of which is shown in phantom at 252 ) using fly cutters to form the planar end wall sealing surfaces of flanges 232 , 234 , 236 . bores 242 , annular recesses 238 and annular knife edges 240 are then machined in the planar end wall surfaces , blind threaded holes 256 are bored in the planar end wall surfaces and also at selected locations in the cylindrical surface 258 remaining after the three planes are cut . finally , bore 246 , annular recess 224 and annular knife edges 226 are machined through flange 222 , and holes 228 and 230 are bored through flange 222 . various changes may be made in the foregoing without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention . for example , while the base flange in the five - way manifold shown in fig3 - 8 was formed separately as a rotatable flange , the base flange could be made as a unitary part of the manifold , for example , as illustrated in the case of the two - way and three - way manifolds of fig1 - 13 and 15 - 17 . similarly , the base flange of the two - way and three - way manifolds of fig1 - 13 and 15 - 17 , respectively , may be formed separately and made rotatable . yet other changes may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention . for example , and with reference to fig1 - 24 , following the manufacturing process of the present invention , it is possible to form , e . g . three - way , four - way , five - way , six - way , seven - way or even eight - way manifolds , connectors and adapters , all from a unitary piece of metal . as can best be seen in fig1 - 23 , for manifolds , connectors and adaptors having ports which bisect only two planes , the parts can be machined directly from cylindrical blanks by machining the planar end wall sealing surfaces of the ports by cutting an appropriate number of planes directly across the cylindrical surface ( shown in phantom at 260 ) of the blank . alternatively , as shown in fig2 , the blank may first be formed with spherical surfaces so that when the sealing surfaces are formed by cutting across planes , rounded surfaces 265 are left . the manufacturing process of the present invention also may be used advantageously to form reaction chambers of unitary construction . referring specifically to fig2 , six - way cube chambers have been machined from solid blocks of metal . however , such prior art six - way cube chambers have several disadvantages . for one , prior art six - way cube chambers have substantial excess material at their corners 270 , and thus are heavy . also , prior art six - way cube chambers have very limited interior space 272 and thus have limited capacity for tools , etc . six - way cube chambers made in accordance with the present invention ( see fig2 ) are lighter weight and , have substantially larger and unincumbered interior space 274 . also , six - way cube chambers made in accordance with the present invention may be provided with blind - threaded holes 276 on their exterior spherical surfaces 278 for fixturing , heaters or other tools . referring to fig2 , it is also possible to fabricate , for example , a ten - way chamber from a unitary block of metal using the process of the present invention , by forming a five - way manifold 280 integral with a base cube chamber 282 . referring to fig2 and 29 , it is also possible to form different diameter sealing surfaces 282 , 284 by cutting across different planes . as can be seen from the foregoing , the present invention provides several significant advantages . for one , chambers made in accordance with the present invention have increased internal volume for a given size . this translates to more working space , less mass and higher pumping speeds . moreover , chambers made in accordance with the present invention can be designed with customized port angles and higher density port packing than possible with conventional constructions . while several preferred embodiments of the invention have been disclosed in detail , it will be understood that other embodiments are possible . for example , it is also possible to form circular sealing surfaces by cutting across other compound curved surfaces such as ellipsoids or the like . still other changes may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention . | 8 |
referring now more specifically to the drawings , and to fig1 in particular , numeral 10 designates a bin or hopper having disposed therein a discharge apparatus 12 embodying the present invention . apparatus 12 is provided for effecting a continuous metered discharge of a material 14 to a conveyor 16 . bin 10 includes parallel vertical walls 18 and 20 defining 2 sides of the bin , and angularly converging walls 22 and 24 disposed between the vertical perpendicular walls . discharge apparatus 12 is disposed in the lower portion of the bin or hopper 10 , and separates the bin into a retention area thereabove , generally indicated by numeral 26 , and a discharge area 28 therebelow . it will be understood by those familiar with the art that the size and shape of the bin or hopper 10 may vary . above the angular walls 22 and 24 , bin walls may extend substantially vertically . the bin or hopper may include angular portions on all walls , may include only vertically oriented walls with no angular walls , the walls defining right angles in the corners , may be round or oblong in cross - section thereby defining no corners , or the like . the present discharge apparatus can be adopted for use in any shape bin or hopper , with similarly advantageous results . material sifted from the retention area 26 by discharge apparatus 12 falls through discharge area 28 onto conveyor 16 . the conveyor shown in fig1 and 2 is a belt conveyor having an endless , revolving receiving belt 30 guided by turning rolls at either end , one of which is shown in fig2 and designated with numeral 32 . additionally , idler guide rolls 34 are disposed within the loop defined by the belt 30 . it will be understood by those knowledgeable in the art that other types of conveyors such as slat conveyors , augers , or the like may be used beneath the bin 10 for receiving and transporting material therefrom . in some processes , it may be advantageous to provide a loading chute beneath the bin , for transferring material from the bin to trucks , railroad cars , or the like , or , in other operations , it may be advantageous to dispose sizing screens or other process apparatus beneath the bin 10 . as shown in fig1 and 2 , discharge apparatus 12 includes an upper row of rolls 40 , 42 , 44 , and 46 ; and a lower row of rolls including large outer rolls 48 and 50 ; and a pair of smaller inner rolls 52 and 54 . the lower rolls are positioned to obstruct the flow of material along the paths defined by the upper rolls . thus , lower roll 48 is positioned in the vertical material flow path generally indicated by arrow 55 and defined by upper rolls 40 and 42 , and lower roll 50 is positioned in the vertical material flow path generally indicated by arrow 56 and defined by upper rolls 44 and 46 . the pair of small lower rolls 52 and 54 are cooperatively disposed in the vertical material flow path generally indicated by arrow 57 and defined by upper rolls 42 and 44 . a single , larger lower roll can be used in place of the pair of smaller lower rolls 52 and 54 . for some materials , it may be advantageous to use a number of different size rolls within each row , either upper or lower . hence , it is not essential , and in some applications perhaps even undesirable for all of the upper rolls to be equal in size . in some situations , it may be advantageous to use more than two rows of rolls , and additional rows can be provided beneath the lower row or above the upper row shown in fig1 . each of the rolls extend from one side wall of the bin to the opposite side wall , and each is journalled in bearings 58 at either end . floating bearings can be used advantageously to support the rolls and prevent damage from passage of oversize or hard material through the discharger . in the embodiment shown in fig1 and 2 , each of the rolls is essentially smooth and cylindrical , and has disposed on the surface thereof a plurality of outwardly extending knobs or cleats 60 . the knobs or cleats 60 perform a raking or sifting operation on the material , moving it from the retained area and positioning it for passage through the space between adjacent rolls . the rolls can be disposed horizontally , or , as shown by the phantom line 62 in fig2 the rolls may be inclined , either front to back or vice versa . the rolls can be disposed between any opposed wall surfaces in the bin or hopper . for example , in a rectangularly shaped bin , shorter rolls can be disposed between the opposed longer walls of the bin , or longer rolls can be disposed between the opposed shorter walls . in some applications , it may be advantageous to position the rolls angularly with respect to the bin walls . as shown in fig1 by the arrows on each of the rolls , adjacent rolls rotate in opposite directions . this rotational relationship is effective for granular and powderous materials ; however , in some applications in which the flow characteristics of the material are different , the rotational pattern of the rolls may be different . while each of the rolls may rotate at the same peripheral speed , it may be advantageous to operate various rolls at different speeds . the ease of flow , angle of repose , size , bulk density , and other characteristics of the material stored in the bin will affect the various alternate arrangements described herein . in this regard , the rolls can each run at constant speeds or at variable speeds . fig3 shows a pair of adjacent rolls 63 and 63a for the discharge apparatus depicted in fig1 and 2 . as shown , the rolls may be adjacent , either in the horizontal or vertical planes . while substantially cylindrical roll surfaces are shown , it should be recognized that other shapes can be used for the rolls . in fig4 oppositely directed , generally frustoconically shaped rolls 64 and 64a are shown . in fig5 interleaved staggered cylinders are shown on adjacent rolls , with each roll including a central portion or shaft 65 and larger cylindrical sections 66 . adjacent sections 66 on a shaft 65 are spaced from each other to accommodate interleaving of sections from adjacent shafts . in fig6 a complimentary concave roll 67 , and a convex roll 68 are shown . each of the rolls is shown having knobs or cleats 60 thereon . it should be recognized that the arrangement pattern , proximity , shape , and length of the knobs or cleats may vary , substantially depending on the characteristics of the material being stored . in fig7 through 10 , a modified embodiment of the rotating rolls is shown , in which each of the rolls includes a plurality of radially extending projections or plates 70 . the plates 70 may extend continuously along the length of the roll , or may be sporadically placed thereon , with plates of adjacent rolls interleaving . the relatively long projections or plates 70 are particularly suitable for applications in which a single row of rolls is disposed along the bottom of the bin . in fig7 and 8 , four rolls 72 , 74 , 76 , and 78 are shown , with the projections or plates 70 extending the length of each roll . adjacent plates 70 on a single roll define pocket areas 80 around the roll . as shown , each roll includes 6 plates 70 , defining 6 pockets on each roll . the number of plates on each roll , and the number of pockets defined thereby may vary . as shown in fig7 the rotor pockets 80 of adjacent rolls interleave , such that a plate of defined by the other roll . in fig9 rolls 82 and 84 are positioned such that only minimal clearance is provided between tips of the projections or plates 70 , and the pockets defined by the plates do not interleave . in fig1 , rolls 90 and 92 , at a slightly higher position , are shown disposed with rolls 94 and 96 , operating at a slightly higher position . again , the pockets 80 defined by the plates 70 of each roll interleave with the pockets of adjacent rolls . the rotational direction of the rolls of any of the embodiments except the interleaved plate embodiments may be the same or opposite . for discharging some types of material subject to compacting , it is advantageous to rotate all rolls in the same direction , and periodically reverse the direction of rotation to relieve pinching or wedging of material near nonrotating surfaces , such as bin walls . the interleaved plates or pockets must have adjacent rolls rotating in opposite directions . as with the previous embodiments , the rolls may be installed longitudinally , perpendicularly , or even angularly with respect to the longitudinal extent of the hopper or bin . the axis of any of the rolls may be horizontal , or , as shown by phantom line 100 in fig8 the rolls may be inclined , either front - to - back or back - to - front . the rotational speed of the rotors in any of the embodiments influences the discharge rate of material through the apparatus . where metering of material is required , the interlaced rotors are most effective in controlling free - flow and capturing regular , discrete volumes of material for discharge . the interlaced pockets of rolls having long , radially extending plates 70 such as those shown in fig7 and 10 physically prevent the material from moving downwards inside the hopper under action of gravity when the rolls are not being turned . thus , for granular , powdery or other free - flowing materials , the interleaved pockets act as an effective and accurate metering device . as shown in fig2 an appropriate drive train 110 is provided for rotating each of the rolls , with the drive train 110 being connected to a rotational drive source 112 . a similar drive train 114 is shown in fig8 for rotating the single row or rolls , also connected to a rotational drive source 112 . the type of drive train required , rotational power source , and the like will be familiar to those versed in the art , and will not be described in further detail herein . in the use and operation of a discharge apparatus embodying the present invention , material is loaded into the bin or hopper for storage , and falls , by gravity , to the bottom of the retention area 26 . so long as the rolls of the discharge apparatus are not rotated , the material will not fall from the bin or hopper . the shape and arrangement of the rolls , the type of knobs or projections used thereon , etc ., are selected depending on the type and characteristics of material being stored . the selection is such that the slope of the path imposed by the rolls is less than the internal angle of repose of the material , thereby inhibiting gravitational flow from the hopper . when it is desired to remove material from the bin or hopper , the rotational drive source 12 is activated and the drive train transfers power to each of the driven rolls of the discharger . as the rolls are rotated , the material is dislodged from the bottom of the retention area 26 and flows between the rolls , through the discharge area 28 , and into the conveyor 16 . the material is transported by the conveyor to the desired location . when rotation of the rolls is stopped , free - flow of material from the bin is obstructed by the rolls . for interleaved pocket designs , essentially the entire bin outlet is physically closed . while particularly suitable for nonfree - flowing materials such as wood chips , the present discharge apparatus will also work well for granular or powder materials . rotational speed of the rolls influences the discharge rate of the apparatus , and effective metering of the outflow of material from the bin can be performed without causing compaction or bridging . essentially , all of the material freed from the retention area 26 flows from the bin or hopper , and metering is effected by the rate at which the rolls extract material from the discharge area . with the apparatus covering a large area and providing a bottom for the retention area in a substantially unrestricted portion of the bin , bridging of the material above the discharge apparatus is not a problem . while several embodiments of a discharge apparatus embodying the present invention have been shown and described in detail herein , various changes may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention , as defined by the following claims . | 1 |
there is shown in fig1 a machine 10 for crimping terminals onto the ends of conductors of a flexible flat cable 12 . the flexible flat cable 12 is secured to a movable table 14 by means of a suitable clamp 16 . the table 14 is arranged to slide within guide ways 18 , its movement being incrementally controlled by a suitable ratchet and pawl mechanism which is not shown . a handle 20 is coupled to the ratchet and pawl mechanism so that manipulation of the handle will disengage the mechanism thereby allowing the table 14 to slide freely within the ways 18 . a structural member 22 rigidly attached to the frame of the machine , extends over an edge of the table 14 and includes an anvil 24 directed downwardly as shown in fig1 . a mating terminal crimping die 26 is positioned directly under and in alignment with the anvil . a reel 30 of terminals 32 is disposed on a reel holder 34 in the usual manner and the strip of terminals arranged around a guide 36 and along a track 38 which leads to the crimping die 26 and anvil 24 . the crimping die is arranged to undergo reciprocating motion toward and away from the anvil and is driven by an electric motor , not shown , that is housed within the machine 10 and interconnected by a drive mechanism 50 that will be described below , see fig2 and 3 . while a similar drive mechanism 52 , shown only in fig2 is arranged to move a locating jaw into and out of engagement with the terminals 32 during the crimping cycle , only the drive mechanism 50 will be described . as best seen in fig3 the drive mechanism 52 includes a pivoting bar 54 arranged to pivot about a shaft 56 which is fixed relative to the machine 10 . a cam follower 58 is journaled for rotation in one end of the bar 54 and operationally engages a cam 60 which in turn is driven by a drive shaft 62 . a crimp height adjusting mechanism 64 is pivotally coupled to the other end of the bar 54 by means of a pin 66 . the crimp height adjusting mechanism includes a plate 68 having a first end 70 and a second end 72 . an opening 74 is formed through the plate , which is rectangular in the present example , including clearance openings 76 at the four corners . a hole 77 is formed through the plate 68 to receive the pin 66 for coupling to the arm 54 . the opening 74 forms a flat bearing surface 78 along its lower extremity . a wedge block 80 is arranged within the opening 74 and includes a lower surface 82 that is in sliding engagement with the bearing surface 78 , as best seen in fig5 and 6 . the wedge block 80 includes an opposite upper surface 84 that is inclined so that it slopes toward the bearing surface 78 toward the first end 70 and slopes away from the lower surface toward the second end 72 . the wedge block is arranged to slide along the bearing surface 78 between the first and second ends 70 and 72 within the limits of the opening 74 . an adjusting screw 86 is disposed in clearance holes 88 in the plate 68 so that the axis of the screw is directly over and parallel with the bearing surface 78 , the screw spanning the opening 74 . the adjusting screw 86 includes a head 89 which engages the second end 72 of the plate 68 and a slot 90 formed in the end of the screw opposite the head for a purpose that will be described below . the adjusting screw 86 is held captive to the plate 68 by means of a snap ring 94 disposed within a slot formed in the plate in the usual manner . the wedge block has a threaded hole 96 therethrough in threaded engagement with the adjusting screw 86 so that as the screw is turned in one direction the wedge block 80 is caused to slide along the bearing surface 78 toward the first end 70 . as the screw 86 is turned in the opposite direction the wedge block 80 is caused to slide toward the second end 72 . a compression spring 98 is arranged to urge the wedge block 80 in a direction axially along the screw 86 toward the second end 72 to remove the play in the mating parts . a follower link 100 , as best seen in fig4 includes a head 102 having a pair of flat parallel surfaces 104 and a through hole 106 . a shank 108 of cylindrical shape projects from the head 102 substantially parallel to the surfaces 104 . the free end of the shank 108 includes a follower surface 110 which is inclined with respect to a perpendicular to the outer surface of the shank . a groove 112 is disposed in the shank 108 for accommodating a snap ring 114 , shown in fig5 and 6 . the shank 108 is disposed in a slip fit hole 118 formed in the plate 68 substantially perpendicular to the bearing surface 78 . the follower surface 110 is inclined an amount that exactly matches the incline of the upper surface 84 of the wedge block 80 . a clearance slot 120 is formed through the plate 68 so that it intersects the hole 118 . a clearance hole 122 is formed in the plate 68 in axial alignment with the hole 118 and includes a compression spring 124 which engages the snap ring 114 and urges the shank toward the bearing surface 78 so that the follower surface 110 remains in following engagement with the upper surface 84 . a cover 130 having a hole slightly smaller than the outer diameter of the spring 124 is fastened to the plate 68 to retain the spring 124 within the hole 122 and in engagement with the snap ring 114 . a pair of side plates 132 , one being secured to each side of the plate 68 by means of the screw fasteners 134 , are provided to reduce the chance of contamination entering the opening 74 and interfering with the operation of the mechanism . the crimp height adjusting mechanism 64 , as will be described below , effects a change in crimp height by changing the distance d between the holes 77 and 106 . by accurately controlling this distance the crimp height of the terminals being crimped can be maintained within tolerance . the distance d is altered by loosening the lock nut 92 and rotating the adjusting screw 86 to cause the wedge block 80 to move toward the first end 70 if the distance d is too small or to move toward the second end 72 if the distance d is too great . note that figure 6 shows the wedge block 80 in its right most position near the second end 72 . in this position the shank 108 has extended through the hole 118 a maximum amount so that the snap ring 114 is near the lower surface of the slot 120 . similarly , fig5 shows the wedge block 80 in its left most position near the first end 70 . as best seen in fig2 and 3 , the crimping die 26 is attached to a mounting block 150 by means of the screw fasteners 152 . the mounting block has a pair of flanges 154 extending downwardly , as viewed in fig2 which are spaced to loosely receive the head 102 of the follower link 100 . the follower link 100 is pivotally coupled to the mounting block 150 by means of a pin 155 extending through the hole 106 and into the flanges 154 . the mounting block 150 is arranged to reciprocate vertically within guideway 156 in the frame of the machine 10 . a cover plate 158 , covering the guideway , is attached by means of the screw fasteners 160 . in operation , the drive shaft 62 and rotating cam 60 cause the bar 54 to undergo a periodic pivoting motion . this pivoting motion is transferred to the mounting block 150 through the crimp height adjusting mechanism 64 by means of the pins 66 and 155 , thereby causing the mounting block and attached crimping die 26 to undergo reciprocating motion toward and away from the anvil 24 . during operation , when it is desired to adjust the crimp height , the machine is stopped , the lock nut 92 loosened , and the adjusting screw turned the proper amount thereby adjusting the distance d . the lock nut 92 is then tightened and production resumed . by selecting a suitable thread size for the adjusting screw and a suitable angle for the inclined upper surface 84 , the sensitivity of the final adjustment of crimp height can be easily controlled . in the present example , a thread size of 8 - 36 unf - 2b and an angle of inclination from the horizontal of ten degrees . this permits adjustments in the distance d of the order of 0 . 0005 inch resulting in correspondingly accurate adjustments in the crimp height . an important advantage of the present invention is the accuracy achieved by the adjusting mechanism and its ease of use by a relatively unskilled operator . | 1 |
as used herein , the term “ lower alkyl ” denotes a saturated straight - or branched - chain group containing from 1 to 7 carbon atoms , for example , methyl , ethyl , propyl , isopropyl , n - butyl , i - butyl , 2 - butyl , t - butyl and the like . preferred alkyl groups are groups with 1 - 4 carbon atoms . as used herein , the term “ lower alkoxy ” denotes a group wherein an alkyl residue as defined above is attached via an oxygen atom . as used herein , the term “ lower alkyl substituted by halogen ” denotes an alkyl group as defined above , wherein at least one hydrogen atom is replaced by halogen , for example cf 3 , chf 2 , ch 2 f , ch 2 cf 3 , ch 2 ch 2 cf 3 , ch 2 cf 2 cf 3 and the like . as used herein , the term “ lower alkoxy substituted by halogen ” denotes a group wherein the alkyl residue is as defined above and which is attached via an oxygen atom and wherein at least on hydrogen atom is replaced by halogen . the term “ cycloalkyl ” is an alkylene ring containing from 3 to 6 carbon ring atoms . the term “ aryl ” denotes an aromatic carbon ring such as phenyl or naphthyl , preferably the phenyl . the term “ heteroaryl ” refers to an aromatic 6 membered monocyclic ring or to a 10 membered bicyclic ring which contains 1 , 2 or 3 heteroatoms selected from nitrogen , such as pyridinyl , pyridazinyl , pyrimidinyl , pyrazinyl or quinolinyl . preferred heteroaryl groups are pyridinyl , pyrimidinyl , pyrazinyl or quinolinyl . the term “ pharmaceutically acceptable ” denotes an attribute of a material which is useful in preparing a pharmaceutical composition that is generally safe , non - toxic , and neither biologically nor otherwise undesirable and is acceptable for veterinary as well as human pharmaceutical use . the term “ pharmaceutically acceptable acid addition salts ” embraces salts with inorganic and organic acids , such as hydrochloric acid , nitric acid , sulfuric acid , phosphoric acid , citric acid , formic acid , fumaric acid , maleic acid , acetic acid , succinic acid , tartaric acid , methane - sulfonic acid , p - toluenesulfonic acid and the like . the term “ therapeutically effective amount ” denotes an amount of a compound of the present invention that , when administered to a subject , ( i ) treats or prevents the particular disease , condition or disorder , ( ii ) attenuates , ameliorates or eliminates one or more symptoms of the particular disease , condition , or disorder , or ( iii ) prevents or delays the onset of one or more symptoms of the particular disease , condition or disorder described herein . the therapeutically effective amount will vary depending on the compound , the disease state being treated , the severity of the disease treated , the age and relative health of the subject , the route and form of administration , the judgment of the attending medical or veterinary practitioner , and other factors . r 2 is hydrogen or is heteroaryl , optionally substituted by one or more halogen , lower alkyl , lower alkyl substituted by halogen , lower alkoxy , lower alkoxy substituted by halogen , cyano , s - lower alkyl , s ( o )- lower alkyl , s ( o ) 2 - lower alkyl , c ( o )- lower alkyl or c 3 - 6 - cycloalkyl ; r 3 is hydrogen , halogen , lower alkyl , lower alkyl substituted by halogen , lower alkoxy , lower alkoxy substituted by halogen , cyano , s - lower alkyl , s ( o )- lower alkyl , s ( o ) 2 - lower alkyl , c ( o )- lower alkyl or c 3 - 6 - cycloalkyl ; is phenyl or pyridinyl , wherein the n - atom may be in different positions ; ar is aryl or heteroaryl , optionally substituted by one or more r 3 ; a group of compounds of formula ia are those , wherein ar is aryl , selected from phenyl or naphthyl , for example the following compounds : ( s )- 4 -( 4 -( naphthalen - 1 - ylamino ) phenethyl )- 4 , 5 - dihydrooxazol - 2 - amine ; ( s )- 4 -( 4 -( 8 - chloronaphthalen - 1 - ylamino ) phenethyl )- 4 , 5 - dihydrooxazol - 2 - amine ; ( s )- 4 -{ 2 -[ 4 -( 4 - chloro - phenylamino )- phenyl ]- ethyl }- 4 , 5 - dihydro - oxazol - 2 - ylamine ; ( s )- 4 -{ 2 -[ 4 -( 4 - chloro - 2 - fluoro - phenylamino )- phenyl ]- ethyl }- 4 , 5 - dihydro - oxazol - 2 - ylamine ; ( s )- 4 -{ 2 -[ 4 -( 4 - trifluoromethyl - phenylamino )- phenyl ]- ethyl }- 4 , 5 - dihydro - oxazol - 2 - ylamine ; ( s )- 4 -{ 2 -[ 4 -( 4 - methoxy - phenylamino )- phenyl ]- ethyl }- 4 , 5 - dihydro - oxazol - 2 - ylamine ; ( s )- 4 -( 4 -( 3 - methyl - 4 -( trifluoromethoxy ) phenylamino ) phenethyl )- 4 , 5 - dihydrooxazol - 2 - amine ; ( s )- 4 -[ 2 -( 4 - phenylamino - phenyl )- ethyl ]- 4 , 5 - dihydro - oxazol - 2 - ylamine ; ( s )- 4 -( 4 -( p - tolylamino ) phenethyl )- 4 , 5 - dihydrooxazol - 2 - amine and ( s )- 4 -( 4 -( 3 , 4 - dichlorophenylamino ) phenethyl )- 4 , 5 - dihydrooxazol - 2 - amine . a further group of compounds disclosed in formula ia are those , wherein ar is heteroaryl , selected from pyridinyl , pyridazinyl , pyrimidinyl , pyrazinyl and quinolinyl , for example the following compounds ( s )- 4 -( 4 -( quinolin - 8 - ylamino ) phenethyl )- 4 , 5 - dihydrooxazol - 2 - amine ; ( s )- 4 -( 4 -( 5 - fluoropyridin - 2 - ylamino ) phenethyl )- 4 , 5 - dihydrooxazol - 2 - amine ; ( s )- 4 -( 4 -( 6 - methylquinolin - 8 - ylamino ) phenethyl )- 4 , 5 - dihydrooxazol - 2 - amine ; { 4 -[ 2 -(( s )- 2 - amino - 4 , 5 - dihydro - oxazol - 4 - yl )- ethyl ]- phenyl }-( 5 - trifluoromethyl - pyridin - 2 - yl )- amine ; { 4 -[ 2 -(( s )- 2 - amino - 4 , 5 - dihydro - oxazol - 4 - yl )- ethyl ]- phenyl }-( 5 - chloro - pyridin - 2 - yl )- amine ; 6 -{- 4 -[ 2 -(( s )- 2 - amino - 4 , 5 - dihydro - oxazol - 4 - yl )- ethyl ]- phenylamino }- nicotinonitrile ; ( s )- 4 -( 4 -( 6 -( trifluoromethyl ) pyrimidin - 4 - ylamino ) phenethyl )- 4 , 5 - dihydrooxazol - 2 - amine ; { 4 -[ 2 -(( s )- 2 - amino - 4 , 5 - dihydro - oxazol - 4 - yl )- ethyl ]- phenyl }-( 5 - chloro - pyrimidin - 2 - yl )- amine ; { 4 -[ 2 -(( s )- 2 - amino - 4 , 5 - dihydro - oxazol - 4 - yl )- ethyl ]- phenyl }-( 5 - fluoro - pyrimidin - 2 - yl )- amine ; { 4 -[ 2 -(( s )- 2 - amino - 4 , 5 - dihydro - oxazol - 4 - yl )- ethyl ]- phenyl }-( 3 - fluoro - pyridin - 2 - yl )- amine ; { 4 -[ 2 -(( s )- 2 - amino - 4 , 5 - dihydro - oxazol - 4 - yl )- ethyl ]- phenyl }-( 4 - fluoro - pyridin - 2 - yl )- amine ; { 4 -[ 2 -(( s )- 2 - amino - 4 , 5 - dihydro - oxazol - 4 - yl )- ethyl ]- phenyl }-( 4 - trifluoromethyl - pyridin - 2 - yl )- amine ; { 4 -[ 2 -(( s )- 2 - amino - 4 , 5 - dihydro - oxazol - 4 - yl )- ethyl ]- phenyl }-( 6 - methyl - pyrimidin - 4 - yl )- amine ; { 4 -[ 2 -(( s )- 2 - amino - 4 , 5 - dihydro - oxazol - 4 - yl )- ethyl ]- phenyl }-( 6 - methyl - pyridin - 2 - yl )- amine ; { 4 -[ 2 -(( s )- 2 - amino - 4 , 5 - dihydro - oxazol - 4 - yl )- ethyl ]- phenyl }-( 6 - trifluoromethyl - pyridin - 2 - yl )- amine ; { 4 -[ 2 -(( s )- 2 - amino - 4 , 5 - dihydro - oxazol - 4 - yl )- ethyl ]- phenyl }-( 6 - chloro - pyrazin - 2 - yl )- amine ; { 4 -[ 2 -(( s )- 2 - amino - 4 , 5 - dihydro - oxazol - 4 - yl )- ethyl ]- phenyl }-( 6 - chloro - pyridin - 2 - yl )- amine ; { 4 -[ 2 -(( s )- 2 - amino - 4 , 5 - dihydro - oxazol - 4 - yl )- ethyl ]- phenyl }-( 5 - methyl - pyridin - 2 - yl )- amine ; { 4 -[ 2 -(( s )- 2 - amino - 4 , 5 - dihydro - oxazol - 4 - yl )- ethyl ]- phenyl }-( 5 - methoxy - pyridin - 2 - yl )- amine ; 6 -{- 4 -[ 2 -(( s )- 2 - amino - 4 , 5 - dihydro - oxazol - 4 - yl )- ethyl ]- phenylamino }- pyrazine - 2 - carbonitrile ; { 4 -[ 2 -(( s )- 2 - amino - 4 , 5 - dihydro - oxazol - 4 - yl )- ethyl ]- phenyl }-( 6 - chloro - pyrimidin - 4 - yl )- amine ; { 4 -[ 2 -(( s )- 2 - amino - 4 , 5 - dihydro - oxazol - 4 - yl )- ethyl ]- phenyl }-( 6 - methoxy - pyrimidin - 4 - yl )- amine ; { 4 -[ 2 -(( s )- 2 - amino - 4 , 5 - dihydro - oxazol - 4 - yl )- ethyl ]- phenyl }-( 2 - methyl - pyrimidin - 4 - yl )- amine ; ( s )- 4 -( 4 -( pyrimidin - 4 - ylamino ) phenethyl )- 4 , 5 - dihydrooxazol - 2 - amine hydrochloride ; { 4 -[ 2 -(( s )- 2 - amino - 4 , 5 - dihydro - oxazol - 4 - yl )- ethyl ]- phenyl }-( 4 - methoxy - pyrimidin - 2 - yl )- amine ; { 4 -[ 2 -(( s )- 2 - amino - 4 , 5 - dihydro - oxazol - 4 - yl )- ethyl ]- phenyl }-( 5 - ethyl - pyrimidin - 2 - yl )- amine ; { 4 -[ 2 -(( s )- 2 - amino - 4 , 5 - dihydro - oxazol - 4 - yl )- ethyl ]- phenyl }-( 5 - methoxy - pyrimidin - 2 - yl )- amine ; 5 -{- 4 -[ 2 -(( s )- 2 - amino - 4 , 5 - dihydro - oxazol - 4 - yl )- ethyl ]- phenylamino }- pyrazine - 2 - carbonitrile ; { 4 -[ 2 -(( s )- 2 - amino - 4 , 5 - dihydro - oxazol - 4 - yl )- ethyl ]- phenyl }-( 4 - trifluoromethyl - pyrimidin - 2 - yl )- amine ; { 4 -[ 2 -(( s )- 2 - amino - 4 , 5 - dihydro - oxazol - 4 - yl )- ethyl ]- phenyl }-( 3 - chloro - pyrazin - 2 - yl )- amine ; { 4 -[ 2 -(( s )- 2 - amino - 4 , 5 - dihydro - oxazol - 4 - yl )- ethyl ]- phenyl }-( 6 - chloro - 4 - trifluoromethyl - pyridin - 2 - yl )- amine ; { 4 -[ 2 -(( s )- 2 - amino - 4 , 5 - dihydro - oxazol - 4 - yl )- ethyl ]- phenyl }-( 6 - methyl - pyrazin - 2 - yl )- amine ; { 4 -[ 2 -(( s )- 2 - amino - 4 , 5 - dihydro - oxazol - 4 - yl )- ethyl ]- phenyl }-( 6 - chloro - 2 - methoxy - pyrimidin - 4 - yl )- amine ; { 4 -[ 2 -(( s )- 2 - amino - 4 , 5 - dihydro - oxazol - 4 - yl )- ethyl ]- phenyl }-( 4 - methylsulfanyl - pyrimidin - 2 - yl )- amine ; { 4 -[ 2 -(( s )- 2 - amino - 4 , 5 - dihydro - oxazol - 4 - yl )- ethyl ]- phenyl }-( 5 - methyl - pyrimidin - 2 - yl )- amine ; 1 -( 2 -{ 4 -[ 2 -(( s )- 2 - amino - 4 , 5 - dihydro - oxazol - 4 - yl )- ethyl ]- phenylamino }- pyrimidin - 5 - yl )- ethanone ; { 4 -[ 2 -(( s )- 2 - amino - 4 , 5 - dihydro - oxazol - 4 - yl )- ethyl ]- phenyl }-( 4 - methyl - pyrimidin - 2 - yl )- amine ; { 4 -[ 2 -(( s )- 2 - amino - 4 , 5 - dihydro - oxazol - 4 - yl )- ethyl ]- phenyl }-( 5 - propyl - pyrimidin - 2 - yl )- amine ; { 4 -[ 2 -(( s )- 2 - amino - 4 , 5 - dihydro - oxazol - 4 - yl )- ethyl ]- phenyl }-( 2 - chloro - pyrimidin - 5 - yl )- amine ; { 4 -[ 2 -(( s )- 2 - amino - 4 , 5 - dihydro - oxazol - 4 - yl )- ethyl ]- phenyl }-( 5 - bromo - pyrimidin - 2 - yl )- amine ; { 4 -[ 2 -(( 4s , 5s )- 2 - amino - 5 - methyl - 4 , 5 - dihydro - oxazol - 4 - yl )- ethyl ]- phenyl }-( 5 - chloro - pyrimidin - 2 - yl )- amine ; { 4 -[ 2 -(( s )- 2 - amino - 4 , 5 - dihydro - oxazol - 4 - yl )- ethyl ]- phenyl }-( 5 - cyclopropyl - pyrimidin - 2 - yl )- amine ; { 4 -[ 2 -(( s )- 2 - amino - 4 , 5 - dihydro - oxazol - 4 - yl )- ethyl ]- phenyl }-( 5 - ethoxy - pyrimidin - 2 - yl )- amine ; ( s )- 4 -( 4 -( 5 -( trifluoromethyl ) pyrimidin - 2 - ylamino ) phenethyl )- 4 , 5 - dihydrooxazol - 2 - amine ; ( s )- 4 -( 4 -( 5 - tert - butylpyrimidin - 2 - ylamino ) phenethyl )- 4 , 5 - dihydrooxazol - 2 - amine ; ( s )- 4 -( 4 -( 5 -( pentan - 3 - yl ) pyrimidin - 2 - ylamino ) phenethyl )- 4 , 5 - dihydrooxazol - 2 - amine ; 2 -{- 4 -[ 2 -(( s )- 2 - amino - 4 , 5 - dihydro - oxazol - 4 - yl )- ethyl ]- phenylamino }- pyrimidine - 5 - carbonitrile ; ( s )- 4 -( 4 -( 5 - cyclobutylpyrimidin - 2 - ylamino ) phenethyl )- 4 , 5 - dihydrooxazol - 2 - amine ; ( s )- 4 -( 4 -( 5 - isopropylpyrimidin - 2 - ylamino ) phenethyl )- 4 , 5 - dihydrooxazol - 2 - amine ; { 4 -[ 2 -(( s )- 2 - amino - 4 , 5 - dihydro - oxazol - 4 - yl )- ethyl ]- 2 - methyl - phenyl }-( 5 - chloro - pyrimidin - 2 - yl )- amine and ( s )- 4 -( 4 -( 5 -( 2 , 2 , 2 - trifluoroethoxy ) pyrimidin - 2 - ylamino ) phenethyl )- 4 , 5 - dihydrooxazol - 2 - amine . r 2 is hydrogen or is heteroaryl , optionally substituted by one or more halogen , lower alkyl , lower alkyl substituted by halogen , lower alkoxy , lower alkoxy substituted by halogen , cyano , s - lower alkyl , s ( o )- lower alkyl , s ( o ) 2 - lower alkyl , c ( o )- lower alkyl or c 3 - 6 - cycloalkyl ; r 3 is hydrogen , halogen , lower alkyl , lower alkyl substituted by halogen , lower alkoxy , lower alkoxy substituted by halogen , cyano , s - lower alkyl , s ( o )- lower alkyl , s ( o ) 2 - lower alkyl , c ( o )- lower alkyl or c 3 - 6 - cycloalkyl ; is phenyl or pyridinyl , wherein the n - atom may be in different positions ; ar is aryl or heteroaryl , optionally substituted by one or more r 3 ; a group of compounds from of ib are those , wherein ar is aryl , selected from phenyl or naphthyl , for example the following compounds : ( 4s )- 4 -( 4 -( 1 -( 4 - chlorophenyl )- 2 , 2 , 2 - trifluoroethylamino ) phenethyl )- 4 , 5 - dihydrooxazol - 2 - amine ( 1 : 1 mixture of epimers ); (+)-( s )- 4 -( 4 -(( s )- 1 -( 4 - chlorophenyl )- 2 , 2 , 2 - trifluoroethylamino ) phenethyl )- 4 , 5 - dihydrooxazol - 2 - amine ; (−)-( s )- 4 -( 4 -(( r )- 1 -( 4 - chlorophenyl )- 2 , 2 , 2 - trifluoroethylamino ) phenethyl )- 4 , 5 - dihydrooxazol - 2 - amine ; ( 4s )- 4 -( 4 -( 2 , 2 , 2 - trifluoro - 1 -( 3 - fluorophenyl ) ethylamino ) phenethyl )- 4 , 5 - dihydrooxazol - 2 - amine and ( 4s )- 4 -( 4 -( 2 , 2 , 2 - trifluoro - 1 -( 4 -( trifluoromethyl ) phenyl ) ethylamino ) phenethyl )- 4 , 5 - dihydrooxazol - 2 - amine . a group of compounds of formula ib are those , wherein ar is heteroaryl , selected from pyridinyl , pyridazinyl , pyrimidinyl , pyrazinyl and quinolinyl . a further embodiment of the invention provides compounds of formula i , wherein the present compounds of formula i and their pharmaceutically acceptable salts can be prepared by methods known in the art , for example , by processes described below , which process comprises wherein the definitions for r 1 , r 2 , r 3 , r 4 , ar and x are as described above , and , if desired , converting the compounds obtained into pharmaceutically acceptable acid addition salts . the preparation of compounds of formula i of the present invention can be carried out in sequential or convergent synthetic routes . syntheses of the compounds of the invention are shown in the following schemes 1 - 5 and in the description for preparation of the specific compounds 1 - 75 . the skills required for carrying out the reaction and purification of the resulting products are known to those skilled in the art . the substituents and indices used in the following description of the processes have the significance given herein before unless indicated to the contrary . in more detail , the compounds of formula i can be manufactured by the methods given below , by the methods given in the examples or by analogous methods . appropriate reaction conditions for the individual reaction steps are known to a person skilled in the art . the reaction sequence is not limited to the one displayed in schemes 1 to 5 , however , depending on the starting materials and their respective reactivity the sequence of reaction steps can be freely altered . starting materials are either commercially available or can be prepared by methods analogous to the methods given below , by methods described in references cited in the description or in the examples , or by methods known in the art . step a : wittig reaction between aldehyde 1 ( cas 95715 - 87 - 0 ) and phosphonate ester 2 ( 4 - nitro - benzyl )- phosphonic acid diethyl ester [ cas 2609 - 49 - 6 ] or ( 3 - methyl - 4 - nitro - benzyl )- phosphonic acid diethyl ester [ cas 873458 - 20 - 9 ]) can be accomplished by using a base such as nah , kotbu , naome , naoet , n - buli , lihmds , nahmds , khmds , lda in a solvent such as thf , dioxane , acetonitrile , 1 , 2 - dimethoxyethane , dmf , benzene , toluene or mixtures thereof at temperatures from − 78 ° c . to 80 ° c . for 15 min - 8 hrs and if appropriate optional addition of a crown ether for ylide generation and then condensing the ylide with the carbonyl compound in the same solvent at a temperature between 0 and 80 ° c . for 1 - 24 hrs . alternatively , the base , the carbonyl compound and the optional crown ether can be added to the reaction mixture at the same time without preformation of the ylide at temperatures from − 78 ° c . to 80 ° c . preferred conditions are ylide formation at − 78 ° c . using lda ( prepared in situ from treatment of n , n - diisopropylamine with n - buli ) as base and thf as solvent , reacting the phosphonic acid ester for 1 hour at − 78 ° c ., and then condensation with the carbonyl component warming to room temperature overnight . step b : reduction of the alkene 3 with concomitant reduction of the nitro group can be effected by hydrogenation with hydrogen under normal or elevated pressure or by transfer hydrogenation using ammonium formate or cyclohexadiene as hydrogen source with a catalyst such as pto 2 , pd — c or raney nickel in solvents such as meoh , etoh , h 2 o , dioxane , thf , hoac , etoac ch 2 cl 2 , chcl 3 , dmf or mixtures thereof . preferred conditions are ammonium formate in the presence of palladium on charcoal in meoh at 50 ° c . for 1 hour . step c : c — n bond formation can be accomplished by treatment of aryl amine 4 with aryl bromide 5 in the presence of a palladium or copper catalyst , a ligand and a base in solvents such as dioxane , dme , thf , toluene , dmf and dmso at elevated temperatures , for instance using a palladium - catalysed buchwald - hartwig reaction . preferred conditions are catalytic tris ( dibenzylidineacetone ) dipalladium chloroform complex , catalytic 9 , 9 - dimethyl - 4 , 5 - bis ( diphenylphosphino ) xanthene ( xantphos ) and caesium carbonate in dioxane in a sealed tube heated at 110 ° c . overnight according to a modification of the procedure of van leeuwen and co - workers ( tetrahedron . lett . 1999 , 40 , 3789 - 3790 ). alternative preferred conditions are catalytic palladium ( ii ) acetate , catalytic 2 , 2 ′- bis ( diphenylphosphino )- 1 , 1 ′- binaphthalene ( binap ) and potassium carbonate in toluene in a sealed tube heated at 110 ° c . for 1 hour according to the procedure of dommisse and co - workers ( tetrahedron 2001 , 57 , 7027 - 7034 ). step d : simultaneous cleavage of the amino alcohol protecting groups of 6 can be effected with a mineral acid such as hcl , h 2 so 4 or h 3 po 4 or an organic acid such as cf 3 cooh , chcl 2 cooh , hoac or p - toluonesulfonic acid in a solvent such as ch 2 cl 2 , chcl 3 , thf , meoh , etoh or h 2 o at 0 to 80 ° c . preferred conditions are cf 3 cooh in aqueous acetonitrile at 80 ° c . for 2 hours or 4 n hcl in dioxane and thf at 60 ° c . for 2 hours . step e : cyclisation of the amino alcohol 7 to the corresponding 2 - aminooxazoline ia - 1 can be accomplished by treatment with cyanogen bromide in thf as solvent and k 2 co 3 as base at r . t . overnight , or by treatment with cyanogen bromide in methanol as solvent and sodium acetate as base at 0 ° c . to r . t . overnight followed by treatment with aqueous ammonia solution at room temperature for 1 hour . preferred conditions are methanol as solvent and sodium acetate as base at r . t . overnight followed by treatment with aqueous ammonia solution at room temperature for 1 hour . step a : wittig reaction between aldehyde 2 ( cas 95715 - 87 - 0 ) and ( 4 - bromo - benzyl )- phosphonic acid diethyl ester 8 ( cas 38186 - 51 - 5 ) can be accomplished by using a base such as nah , kotbu , naome , naoet , n - buli , lihmds , nahmds , khmds , lda in a solvent such as thf , dioxane , acetonitrile , 1 , 2 - dimethoxyethane , dmf , benzene , toluene or mixtures thereof at temperatures from − 78 ° c . to 80 ° c . for 15 min - 8 hrs and if appropriate optional addition of a crown ether for ylide generation and then condensing the ylide with the carbonyl compound in the same solvent at a temperature between 0 and 80 ° c . for 1 - 24 hrs . alternatively , the base , the carbonyl compound and the optional crown ether can be added to the reaction mixture at the same time without preformation of the ylide at temperatures from − 78 ° c . to 80 ° c . preferred conditions are ylide formation at − 78 ° c . using lda ( prepared in situ from treatment of n , n - diisopropylamine with n - buli ) as base and thf as solvent , reacting the phosphonic acid ester for 1 hour at − 78 ° c ., and then condensation with the carbonyl component warming to room temperature overnight . step b : simultaneous cleavage of the protecting groups of 9 to afford amino alcohol 10 can be effected with a mineral acid such as hcl , h 2 so 4 or h 3 po 4 or an organic acid such as cf 3 cooh , chcl 2 cooh , hoac or p - toluonesulfonic acid in a solvent such as ch 2 cl 2 , chcl 3 , thf , meoh , etoh or h 2 o at 0 to 80 ° c . preferred conditions are cf 3 cooh in aqueous acetonitrile at 80 ° c . for 3 hours . step c : selective protection of the amino group of amino alcohol 10 can be effected by treatment with di - tert - butyl carbonate in the presence of an organic base such as triethylamine , n , n - diisopropylethylamine or n - methylmorpholine in halogenated solvents such as dichloromethane or 1 , 2 - dichloroethane or ethereal solvents such as diethyl ether , dioxane , thf or tbme . step d : reduction of the olefinic bond of 11 without concomitant cleavage of the aryl - bromine bond can be accomplished by hydrogenation with hydrogen under normal or elevated pressure with a catalyst such as pto 2 or pt / c in solvents such as meoh , etoh , h 2 o , dioxane , thf , hoac , etoac ch 2 cl 2 , chcl 3 , dmf or mixtures thereof . preferred conditions are 10 % platinum on charcoal in meoh at room temperature for 3 hours . step e : oxidation of the alcohol 12 to the corresponding aldehyde 13 can be accomplished using dmso - derived oxidation reagents , e . g . dmso activated by the use of oxalyl chloride with subsequent treatment with triethylamine according to the method of swern , or dmso activated by use of sulphur trioxide - pyridine complex in the presence of triethylamine according to the method of doering . preferred conditions are sulphur trioxide - pyridine complex and triethylamine in dmso at a temperature between 0 ° c . and room temperature for 30 min . step f : nucleophilic addition of a methyl group to aldehyde 13 can be accomplished by reaction with an organometallic reagent such as methylmagnesium chloride , methylmagnesium bromide , methylmagnesium iodide or methyllithium . the reaction is performed in ethereal solvents such as diethyl ether , dioxane , thf or tbme . preferred conditions are methylmagnesium bromide in a mixture of thf and diethyl ether at 0 ° c . and then at room temperature for 4 hours . the reaction affords alcohol 14 as a mixture of epimers which need not be separated at this stage . step g : protection of alcohol 14 as a cyclic aminal can be accomplished by treatment with 2 , 2 - dimethoxypropane in the presence of a catalytic amount of an organic acid such as p - toluenesulphonic acid or camphorsulphonic acid . the reaction can be performed using excess 2 , 2 - dimethoxypropane as solvent , or in the presence of additional non - protic co - solvents such as halogenated solvents such as dichloromethane or 1 , 2 - dichloroethane or ethereal solvents such as diethyl ether , dioxane , thf or tbme . the reaction can be performed at room temperature or at an elevated temperature such as the reflux temperature of the solvent . preferred conditions are p - toluenesulphonic acid in dichloromethane at room temperature overnight . the reaction affords epimeric products 15 & amp ; 16 which can be readily separated by chromatography at this stage . step h : c — n bond formation to afford imine 17 can be accomplished by coupling reaction between aryl bromide 15 and diphenylmethanimine in the presence of a palladium or copper catalyst , a ligand and a base in solvents such as dioxane , dme , thf , toluene , and dmf at elevated temperatures . preferred conditions are pd 2 ( dba ) 3 , binap and sodium tert - butoxide in toluene at 100 ° c . overnight . step i : deprotection of imine 17 to afford aniline 18 can be accomplished by hydrogenation with hydrogen under normal or elevated pressure or by transfer hydrogenation using ammonium formiate or cyclohexadiene as hydrogen source with a catalyst such as pto 2 , pt / c or pd / c in solvents such as meoh , etoh , h 2 o , dioxane , thf , hoac , etoac ch 2 cl 2 , chcl 3 , dmf or mixtures thereof . preferred conditions are 10 % palladium on charcoal and ammonium formate in meoh at 60 ° c . for 1 hour . aryl bromide 16 can be converted to aniline 19 following a similar sequence of reaction steps h and i . step a : c — n bond formation can be accomplished by treatment of aryl amine 18 with aryl bromide 5 in the presence of a palladium or copper catalyst , a ligand and a base in solvents such as dioxane , dme , thf , toluene , dmf and dmso at elevated temperatures , for instance using a palladium - catalysed buchwald - hartwig reaction . preferred conditions are catalytic tris ( dibenzylidineacetone ) dipalladium chloroform complex , catalytic 9 , 9 - dimethyl - 4 , 5 - bis ( diphenylphosphino ) xanthene ( xantphos ) and caesium carbonate in dioxane in a sealed tube heated at 110 ° c . overnight according to a modification of the procedure of van leeuwen and co - workers ( tetrahedron . lett . 1999 , 40 , 3789 - 3790 ). alternative preferred conditions are catalytic palladium ( ii ) acetate , catalytic 2 , 2 ′- bis ( diphenylphosphino )- 1 , 1 ′- binaphthalene ( binap ) and potassium carbonate in toluene in a sealed tube heated at 110 ° c . for 1 hour according to the procedure of dommisse and co - workers ( tetrahedron 2001 , 57 , 7027 - 7034 ). step b : simultaneous cleavage of the amino alcohol protecting groups of 20 can be effected with a mineral acid such as hcl , h 2 so 4 or h 3 po 4 or an organic acid such as cf 3 cooh , chcl 2 cooh , hoac or p - toluonesulfonic acid in a solvent such as ch 2 cl 2 , chcl 3 , thf , meoh , etoh or h 2 o at 0 to 80 ° c . preferred conditions are cf 3 cooh in aqueous acetonitrile at 80 ° c . for 2 hours or 4 n hcl in dioxane and thf at 60 ° c . for 2 hours . step c : cyclisation of the amino alcohol 21 to the corresponding 2 - aminooxazoline ia - 2 can be accomplished by treatment with cyanogen bromide in thf as solvent and k 2 co 3 as base at r . t . overnight , or by treatment with cyanogen bromide in methanol as solvent and sodium acetate as base at 0 ° c . to r . t . overnight followed by treatment with aqueous ammonia solution at room temperature for 1 hour . preferred conditions are methanol as solvent and sodium acetate as base at r . t . overnight followed by treatment with aqueous ammonia solution at room temperature for 1 hour . amine 19 can be converted to 2 - aminooxazoline ia - 3 following a similar sequence of reaction steps a , b and c . step a : wittig reaction between aldehyde 1 ( cas 95715 - 87 - 0 ) and phosphonate ester 22 ( 6 - chloro - pyridin - 3 - ylmethyl )- phosphonic acid diethyl ester [ cas 561066 - 65 - 7 ]) can be accomplished by using a base such as nah , kotbu , naome , naoet , n - buli , lihmds , nahmds , khmds , lda in a solvent such as thf , dioxane , acetonitrile , 1 , 2 - dimethoxyethane , dmf , benzene , toluene or mixtures thereof at temperatures from − 78 ° c . to 80 ° c . for 15 min - 8 hrs and if appropriate optional addition of a crown ether for glide generation and then condensing the ylide with the carbonyl compound in the same solvent at a temperature between 0 and 80 ° c . for 1 - 24 hrs . alternatively , the base , the carbonyl compound and the optional crown ether can be added to the reaction mixture at the same time without preformation of the ylide at temperatures from − 78 ° c . to 80 ° c . preferred conditions are ylide formation at − 78 ° c . using lda ( prepared in situ from treatment of n , n - diisopropylamine with n - buli ) as base and thf as solvent , reacting the phosphonic acid ester for 1 hour at − 78 ° c ., and then condensation with the carbonyl component warming to room temperature overnight . step b : reduction of the alkene 23 without concomitant reduction of the chloro group can be effected by hydrogenation with hydrogen under normal or elevated pressure with a catalyst such as pto 2 or pt — c in solvents such as meoh , etoh , h 2 o , dioxane , thf , hoac , etoac ch 2 cl 2 , chcl 3 , dmf or mixtures thereof . preferred conditions are hydrogenation in the presence of platinum on charcoal as catalyst with meoh as solvent at room temperature and atmospheric pressure for 15 minutes . step c : c — n bond formation can be accomplished by treatment of aryl chloride 24 with aryl amine 25 in the presence of a palladium or copper catalyst , a ligand and a base in solvents such as dioxane , dme , thf , toluene , dmf and dmso at elevated temperatures , for instance using a palladium - catalysed buchwald - hartwig reaction . preferred conditions are catalytic tris ( dibenzylidineacetone ) dipalladium chloroform complex , catalytic 9 , 9 - dimethyl - 4 , 5 - bis ( diphenylphosphino ) xanthene ( xantphos ) and caesium carbonate in dioxane in a sealed tube heated at 100 ° c . overnight according to a modification of the procedure of van leeuwen and co - workers ( tetrahedron . lett . 1999 , 40 , 3789 - 3790 ). step d : simultaneous cleavage of the amino alcohol protecting groups of 26 can be effected with a mineral acid such as hcl , h 2 so 4 or h 3 po 4 or an organic acid such as cf 3 cooh , chcl 2 cooh , hoac or p - toluonesulfonic acid in a solvent such as ch 2 cl 2 , chcl 3 , thf , meoh , etoh or h 2 o at 0 to 80 ° c . preferred conditions are cf 3 cooh in aqueous acetonitrile at 80 ° c . for 2 hours or 4 n hcl in dioxane and thf at 60 ° c . for 2 hours . step e : cyclisation of the amino alcohol 27 to the corresponding 2 - aminooxazoline ia - 4 can be accomplished by treatment with cyanogen bromide in thf as solvent and k 2 co 3 as base at r . t . overnight , or by treatment with cyanogen bromide in methanol as solvent and sodium acetate as base at 0 ° c . to r . t . overnight followed by treatment with aqueous ammonia solution at room temperature for 1 hour . preferred conditions are methanol as solvent and sodium acetate as base at r . t . overnight followed by treatment with aqueous ammonia solution at room temperature for 1 hour . step a : addition of a trifluoromethyl group to aromatic aldehyde 28 can be accomplished by treatment with ( trifluoromethyl ) trimethylsilane in the presence of a source of fluoride ion such as tetrabutylammonium fluoride . preferred conditions are using thf as solvent at 0 ° c . for 30 minutes and then at room temperature for 2 hours . step b : conversion of alcohol 29 to the corresponding triflate ester 30 can be can be accomplished by deprotonation with a base such as nah , kotbu , n - buli , lihmds , nahmds , khmds or lda in non - protic organic solvents such as thf , dioxane , 1 , 2 - dimethoxyethane , dmf , benzene , toluene or mixtures thereof at temperatures from − 78 ° c . to 80 ° c . for 15 min - 2 hrs followed by treatment with trifluoromethane sulfonyl chloride . preferred conditions are deprotonation at room temperature for 30 min using sodium hydride as base and diethyl ether as solvent , followed by treatment with trifluoromethane sulfonyl chloride at room temperature for 15 min . step c : c — n bond formation can be accomplished by treatment of triflate 30 with aryl amine 4 in the presence of a base such as nah , kotbu , n - buli , lihmds , nahmds , khmds or lda in non - protic organic solvents such as thf , dioxane , 1 , 2 - dimethoxyethane , dmf , benzene , toluene or mixtures thereof at temperatures from − 78 ° c . to 80 ° c . for 15 min - 2 hrs followed by treatment with trifluoromethane sulfonyl chloride . preferred conditions are deprotonation of amine 4 at room temperature for 15 min using sodium hydride as base and thf as solvent , followed by treatment with triflate 30 at room temperature overnight . step d : simultaneous cleavage of the amino alcohol protecting groups of 31 can be effected with a mineral acid such as hcl , h 2 so 4 or h 3 po 4 or an organic acid such as cf 3 cooh , chcl 2 cooh , hoac or p - toluonesulfonic acid in a solvent such as ch 2 cl 2 , chcl 3 , thf , meoh , etoh or h 2 o at 0 to 80 ° c . preferred conditions are cf 3 cooh in aqueous acetonitrile at 80 ° c . for 2 hours or 4 n hcl in dioxane and thf at 60 ° c . for 2 hours . step e : cyclisation of the amino alcohol 32 to the corresponding 2 - aminooxazoline ib - 1 can be accomplished by treatment with cyanogen bromide in thf as solvent and k 2 co 3 as base at r . t . overnight , or by treatment with cyanogen bromide in methanol as solvent and sodium acetate as base at 0 ° c . to r . t . overnight followed by treatment with aqueous ammonia solution at room temperature for 1 hour . preferred conditions are methanol as solvent and sodium acetate as base at r . t . overnight followed by treatment with aqueous ammonia solution at room temperature for 1 hour . the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 13 using 8 - bromo - quinoline instead of bromobenzene in step a ). yellow solid . ms ( isp ): 333 . 2 ([ m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 13 using 1 - bromo - naphthalene instead of bromobenzene in step a ). off - white solid . ms ( isp ): 332 . 2 ([ m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 13 using 2 - bromo - 5 - fluoropyridine instead of bromobenzene in step a ). light yellow oil . ms ( isp ): 301 . 2 ([ m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 13 using 8 - bromo - 6 - methyl - quinoline instead of bromobenzene in step a ). yellow solid . ms ( isp ): 347 . 2 ([ m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 13 using 1 - bromo - 8 - chloro - naphthalene instead of bromobenzene in step a ). off - white solid . ms ( isp ): 368 . 1 ([{ 37 cl } m + h ] + ), 366 . 1 ([{ 35 cl } m + h ] + ). to a stirred solution of diisopropylamine ( 10 . 9 ml ) in thf ( 350 ml ) cooled to − 78 ° c . was added dropwise a solution of n - butyllithium in hexane ( 48 . 3 ml , 1 . 6 m ). the cooling bath was removed and the reaction mixture was allowed to warm up to 10 ° c . before being re - cooled to − 78 ° c . a solution of ( 4 - nitro - benzyl )- phosphonic acid diethyl ester ( 16 . 3 g , cas 2609 - 49 - 6 ) in thf ( 300 ml ) was then added dropwise and the reaction mixture stirred at − 78 ° c . for 1 hour . a solution of ( r )- 4 - formyl - 2 , 2 - dimethyl - oxazolidine - 3 - carboxylic acid tert - butyl ester ( 15 . 0 g , cas 95715 - 87 - 0 ) in thf ( 250 ml ) was then added dropwise over 1 hour and the mixture was then allowed to warm to room temperature overnight . the mixture was then diluted with ethyl acetate and acidified by addition of 2 n aq . hydrochloric acid . the mixture was then washed sequentially with water and saturated brine . the organic phase was separated and dried over sodium sulphate and concentrated in vacuo . the reside was purified by column chromatography ( sio 2 ; gradient : heptane / etoac ) to give ( s )- 2 , 2 - dimethyl - 4 -[( e )- 2 -( 4 - nitro - phenyl )- vinyl ]- oxazolidine - 3 - carboxylic acid tert - butyl ester ( 15 . 9 g , 77 %) as a yellow oil . ms ( ei ): 333 ([ m − ch 3 ] + ), 292 ([ m − c 4 h 8 ] + ), 277 ([ m − ch 3 — c 4 h 8 ] + ), 57 ([ c 4 h 9 ] + ). to a stirred suspension of ( s )- 2 , 2 - dimethyl - 4 -[( e )- 2 -( 4 - nitro - phenyl )- vinyl ]- oxazolidine - 3 - carboxylic acid tert - butyl ester ( 12 . 0 g ) in methanol ( 500 ml ) were added ammonium formate ( 32 . 6 g ) and palladium on charcoal ( 1 . 83 g , 10 wt %) and the mixture was heated at 50 ° c . for 1 hour . the mixture was then cooled to room temperature , filtered through celite and the filtrate was concentrated in vacuo . the residue was then taken up in ethyl acetate and washed with water . the phases were separated and the organic phase was dried over sodium sulphate and concentrated in vacuo . the reside was purified by column chromatography ( sio 2 ; gradient : heptane / etoac ) to give ( s )- 4 -[ 2 -( 4 - amino - phenyl )- ethyl ]- 2 , 2 - dimethyl - oxazolidine - 3 - carboxylic acid tert - butyl ester ( 8 . 72 g , 79 %) as a yellow oil . ms ( isp ): 321 . 4 ([ m + h ] + ). in a pressure tube , ( s )- 4 -[ 2 -( 4 - amino - phenyl )- ethyl ]- 2 , 2 - dimethyl - oxazolidine - 3 - carboxylic acid tert - butyl ester ( 0 . 3 g ), 1 - bromo - 4 - chlorobenzene ( 215 mg ) and cesium carbonate ( 458 mg ) were combined with dioxane ( 3 ml ) to give a yellow suspension . the mixture was degassed by bubbling through argon for several minutes . xantphos ( 32 . 5 mg ) and tris ( dibenzylideneacetone ) dipalladium chloroform complex ( 29 . 1 mg ) were then added and the tube was sealed . the reaction mixture was stirred at 110 ° c . overnight . the reaction mixture was then cooled to room temperature and concentrated in vacuo . the residue was purified by flash chromatography ( sio 2 ; gradient : 0 % to 100 % etoac in hexane ) to afford ( s )- 4 -{ 2 -[ 4 -( 4 - chloro - phenylamino )- phenyl ]- ethyl }- 2 , 2 - dimethyl - oxazolidine - 3 - carboxylic acid tert - butyl ester ( 228 mg , 57 %) as a yellow oil . ms ( ei ): 432 ({ 37 cl } m + ), 430 ({ 35 cl } m + h — oh + ), 376 ({ 37 cl }[ m − c 4 h 8 ] + ), 374 ({ 35 cl }[ m − c 4 h 8 ]), 231 ({ 37 cl }[ clc 6 h 4 nhc 6 h 4 ch ═ ch 2 ] + ), 229 ({ 35 cl }[ clc 6 h 4 nhc 6 h 4 ch ═ ch 2 ] + ), 57 ([ c 4 h 9 ] + ). to a solution of ( s )- 4 -{ 2 -[ 4 -( 4 - chloro - phenylamino )- phenyl ]- ethyl }- 2 , 2 - dimethyl - oxazolidine - 3 - carboxylic acid tert - butyl ester ( 220 mg ) in thf ( 3 ml ) in a pressure tube was added hcl solution ( 2 . 55 ml , 4 m solution in dioxane ). the tube was sealed and the reaction mixture was shaken at 60 ° c . for 2 hours . the mixture was then cooled to room temperature and poured into 1 m aq . naoh and extracted with etoac . the phases were then separated and the organic phase was dried over sodium sulphate and concentrated in vacuo to afford ( s )- 2 - amino - 4 -[ 4 -( 4 - chloro - phenylamino )- phenyl ]- butan - 1 - ol ( 148 mg , quant .) as a yellow oil which was used in the next step without further purification . ms ( isp ): 293 . 0 ([{ 37 cl } m + h ] + ), 291 . 1 ([{ 35 cl } m + h ] + ). to a stirred suspension of ( s )- 2 - amino - 4 -[ 4 -( 4 - chloro - phenylamino )- phenyl ]- butan - 1 - ol ( 210 mg ) and sodium acetate ( 121 mg ) in methanol ( 5 ml ) was added dropwise a solution of cyanogen bromide ( 68 mg ) in methanol ( 0 . 3 ml ). the resulting pale yellow solution was then stirred at room temperature for 16 h . aqueous ammonia solution ( 0 . 4 ml , 25 %) was added dropwise and stirring was continued for a further hour . the mixture was then concentrated in vacuo and the residue was purified by column chromatography ( isolute ® flash - nh 2 from separtis ; gradient : heptane / etoac / meoh ) to give ( s )- 4 -{ 2 -[ 4 -( 4 - chloro - phenylamino )- phenyl ]- ethyl }- 4 , 5 - dihydro - oxazol - 2 - ylamine ( 74 mg , 48 %) as a yellow solid . ms ( isp ): 318 . 1 ([{ 37 cl } m + h ] + ), 316 . 1 ([{ 35 cl } m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 6 using 1 - bromo - 4 - chloro - 2 - fluorobenzene instead of 1 - bromo - 4 - chlorobenzene in step c ). off - white solid . ms ( isp ): 336 . 1 ([{ 37 cl } m + h ] + ), 334 . 1 ([{ 35 cl } m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 6 using 1 - bromo - 4 -( trifluoromethyl ) benzene instead of 1 - bromo - 4 - chlorobenzene in step c ). off - white solid . ms ( isp ): 350 . 1 ([ m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 6 using 1 - bromo - 4 - methoxybenzene instead of 1 - bromo - 4 - chlorobenzene in step c ). off - white solid . ms ( isp ): 312 . 2 ([ m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 6 using 4 - bromo - 2 - methyl - 1 -( trifluoromethoxy ) benzene instead of 1 - bromo - 4 - chlorobenzene in step c ). off - white solid . ms ( isp ): 380 . 2 ([ m + h ] + ). in a pressure tube , ( s )- 4 -[ 2 -( 4 - amino - phenyl )- ethyl ]- 2 , 2 - dimethyl - oxazolidine - 3 - carboxylic acid tert - butyl ester ( 100 mg ), 2 - chloro - 5 -( trifluoromethyl ) pyridine ( 57 mg ) and potassium carbonate ( 431 mg ) were combined with toluene ( 1 ml ) to give a yellow solution . the mixture was degassed by bubbling through argon for several minutes . binap ( 12 mg ) and palladium ( ii ) acetate ( 2 mg ) were then added and the tube was sealed . the reaction mixture was stirred at 110 ° c . for 1 hour . the reaction mixture was then cooled to room temperature and concentrated in vacuo . the residue was purified by flash chromatography ( sio 2 ; gradient : 0 % to 40 % etoac in hexane ) to afford ( s )- 2 , 2 - dimethyl - 4 -{ 2 -[ 4 -( 5 - trifluoromethyl - pyridin - 2 - ylamino )- phenyl ]- ethyl }- oxazolidine - 3 - carboxylic acid tert - butyl ester ( 55 mg , 38 %) as a yellow amorphous solid . ms ( isp ): 466 . 3 ([ m + h ] + ), 410 . 2 ([ m + h — c 4 h 8 ] + ), 366 . 2 ([ m + h — c 4 h 8 — co 2 ] + ). to a solution of ( s )- 2 , 2 - dimethyl - 4 -{ 2 -[ 4 -( 5 - trifluoromethyl - pyridin - 2 - ylamino )- phenyl ]- ethyl }- oxazolidine - 3 - carboxylic acid tert - butyl ester ( 54 mg ) in acetonitrile ( 0 . 5 ml ) were added water ( 1 . 5 ml ) and trifluoroacetic acid ( 0 . 071 ml ). the mixture was heated at 80 ° c . for 2 h . the mixture was then cooled to room temperature and diluted with ethyl acetate . the resulting mixture was washed sequentially with 1 n aq . sodium hydroxide solution and saturated brine , the phases were then separated and the organic phase was dried over sodium sulphate and concentrated in vacuo to afford ( s )- 2 - amino - 4 -[ 4 -( 5 - trifluoromethyl - pyridin - 2 - ylamino )- phenyl ]- butan - 1 - ol ( 38 mg , quant .) as a yellow oil which was used in the next step without further purification . ms ( isp ): 326 . 3 ([ m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 6 step e ) using ( s )- 2 - amino - 4 -[ 4 -( 5 - trifluoromethyl - pyridin - 2 - ylamino )- phenyl ]- butan - 1 - ol instead of ( s )- 2 - amino - 4 -[ 4 -( 4 - chloro - phenylamino )- phenyl ]- butan - 1 - ol . white solid . ms ( isp ): 351 . 2 ([ m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 11 using 6 - chloronicotinonitrile instead of 2 - chloro - 5 -( trifluoromethyl ) pyridine in step a ). yellow amorphous solid . ms ( isp ): 410 . 2 ([ m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 6 steps a )- c ) using bromobenzene instead of 1 - bromo - 4 - chlorobenzene in step c ). yellow oil . ms ( isp ): 397 . 2 ([ m + h ] + ), 297 . 3 ([ m + h — c 4 h 8 — co 2 ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 11 step b ) using ( s )- 2 , 2 - dimethyl - 4 -[ 2 -( 4 - phenylamino - phenyl )- ethyl ]- oxazolidine - 3 - carboxylic acid tert - butyl ester in place of ( s )- 2 , 2 - dimethyl - 4 -{ 2 -[ 4 -( 5 - trifluoromethyl - pyridin - 2 - ylamino )- phenyl ]- ethyl }- oxazolidine - 3 - carboxylic acid tert - butyl ester . yellow solid . ms ( isp ): 257 . 2 ([ m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 6 step e ) using ( s )- 2 - amino - 4 -( 4 - phenylamino - phenyl )- butan - 1 - ol instead of ( s )- 2 - amino - 4 -[ 4 -( 4 - chloro - phenylamino )- phenyl ]- butan - 1 - ol . off - white solid . ms ( isp ): 282 . 2 ([ m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 13 using 1 - bromo - 4 - methylbenzene instead of bromobenzene in step a ). off - white solid ms ( isp ): 296 . 2 ([ m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 13 using 2 , 5 - dichloropyridine instead of bromobenzene in step a ). off - white solid ms ( isp ): 319 . 1 ([{ 37 cl } m + h ] + ), 317 . 1 ([{ 35 cl } m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 13 using 6 - chloronicotinonitrile instead of bromobenzene in step a ). off - white solid ms ( isp ): 308 . 2 ([ m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 13 using 4 - chloro - 6 -( trifluoromethyl ) pyrimidine instead of bromobenzene in step a ). white solid ms ( isp ): 352 . 1 ([ m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 13 using 2 , 5 - dichloropyrimidine instead of bromobenzene in step a ). white solid ms ( isp ): 320 . 1 ([{ 37 cl } m + h ] + ), 318 . 1 ([{ 35 cl } m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 13 using 4 - bromo - 1 , 2 - dichlorobenzene instead of bromobenzene in step a ). colourless amorphous solid ms ( isp ): 354 . 1 ([{ 37 cl } m + h ] + ), 352 . 1 ([{ 37 cl 35 cl } m + h ] + ), 350 . 1 ([{ 35 cl } m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 13 using 2 - chloro - 5 - fluoropyrimidine instead of bromobenzene in step a ). white solid ms ( isp ): 302 . 1 ([ m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 13 using 2 - chloro - 3 - fluoropyridine instead of bromobenzene in step a ). colourless oil . ms ( isp ): 301 . 1 ([ m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 13 using 2 - chloro - 4 - fluoropyridine instead of bromobenzene in step a ). light yellow solid . ms ( isp ): 301 . 1 ([ m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 13 using 2 - chloro - 4 - trifluoromethylpyridine instead of bromobenzene in step a ). light yellow solid . ms ( isp ): 351 . 1 ([ m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 13 using 4 - chloro - 6 - methylpyrimidine instead of bromobenzene in step a ). light yellow solid . ms ( isp ): 298 . 2 ([ m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 13 using 2 - chloro - 6 - methylpyridine instead of bromobenzene in step a ). light yellow solid . ms ( isp ): 297 . 2 ([ m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 13 using 2 - chloro - 6 - trifluoromethylpyridine instead of bromobenzene in step a ). light yellow solid . ms ( isp ): 351 . 1 ([ m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 13 using 2 , 6 - dichloro - pyrazine instead of bromobenzene in step a ). yellow solid . ms ( isp ): 320 . 1 ([{ 37 cl } m + h ] + ), 318 . 1 ([{ 35 cl } m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 13 using 2 , 6 - dichloro - pyridine instead of bromobenzene in step a ). colourless solid . ms ( isp ): 319 . 1 ([{ 37 cl } m + h ] + ), 317 . 1 ([{ 35 cl } m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 13 using 2 - chloro - 5 - methylpyridine instead of bromobenzene in step a ). colourless solid . ms ( isp ): 297 . 2 ([ m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 13 using 2 - chloro - 5 - methoxypyridine instead of bromobenzene in step a ). colourless solid . ms ( isp ): 313 . 2 ([ m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 13 using 6 - cyano - 2 - chloropyrazine instead of bromobenzene in step a ). colourless solid . ms ( isp ): 309 . 1 ([ m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 13 using 4 , 6 - dichloropyrimidine instead of bromobenzene in step a ). white solid . ms ( isp ): 320 . 1 ([{ 37 cl } m + h ] + ), 318 . 1 ([{ 35 cl } m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 13 using 4 - chloro - 6 - methoxypyrimidine instead of bromobenzene in step a ). white solid . ms ( isp ): 314 . 2 ([ m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 13 using 4 - chloro - 2 - methylpyrimidine instead of bromobenzene in step a ). off - white solid . ms ( isp ): 298 . 2 ([ m + h ] + ). { 4 -[ 2 -(( s )- 2 - amino - 4 , 5 - dihydro - oxazol - 4 - yl )- ethyl ]- phenyl }-( 6 - chloro - pyrimidin - 4 - yl )- amine ( 16 mg , example 32 ) was dissolved in methanol to give a colourless solution . the mixture was degassed by bubbling through argon for several minutes . 10 % palladium on charcoal ( 11 mg ) was added and the reaction mixture was stirred under a hydrogen - filled balloon at room temperature for 2 hours . the reaction mixture was filtered through celite and the filtrate was concentrated in vacuo to afford ( s )- 4 -( 4 -( pyrimidin - 4 - ylamino ) phenethyl )- 4 , 5 - dihydrooxazol - 2 - amine hydrochloride ( 14 mg , 87 %) as a white solid . ms ( isp ): 284 . 2 ([ m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 13 using 2 - chloro - 4 - methoxypyrimidine instead of bromobenzene in step a ). white solid . ms ( isp ): 314 . 2 ([ m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 13 using 2 - chloro - 5 - ethylpyrimidine instead of bromobenzene in step a ). white solid . ms ( isp ): 312 . 2 ([ m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 13 using 2 - chloro - 5 - methoxypyrimidine instead of bromobenzene in step a ). white solid . ms ( isp ): 314 . 2 ([ m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 13 using 5 - cyano - 2 - chloropyrazine instead of bromobenzene in step a ). yellow solid . ms ( isp ): 309 . 1 ([ m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 13 using 2 - chloro - 4 -( trifluoromethyl ) pyrimidine instead of bromobenzene in step a ). light yellow solid . ms ( isp ): 352 . 1 ([ m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 13 using 2 , 3 - dichloropyrazine instead of bromobenzene in step a ). yellow solid . ms ( isp ): 320 . 1 ([{ 37 cl } m + h ] + ), 318 . 1 ([{ 35 cl } m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 13 using 2 , 6 - dichloro - 4 - trifluoromethylpyridine instead of bromobenzene in step a ). white solid . ms ( isp ): 387 . 1 ([{ 37 cl } m + h ] + ), 385 . 1 ([{ 35 cl } m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 13 using 2 - chloro - 6 - methylpyrazine instead of bromobenzene in step a ). light yellow solid . ms ( isp ): 298 . 2 ([ m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 13 using 4 , 6 - dichloro - 2 - methoxypyrimidine instead of bromobenzene in step a ). white solid . ms ( isp ): 350 . 3 ([{ 37 cl } m + h ] + ), 348 . 2 ([{ 35 cl } m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 13 using 2 - chloro - 4 -( methylthio ) pyrimidine instead of bromobenzene in step a ). amorphous yellow solid . ms ( isp ): 330 . 1 ([ m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 13 using 2 - chloro - 5 - methyl - pyrimidine instead of bromobenzene in step a ). white solid . ms ( isp ): 298 . 2 ([ m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 13 using 1 -( 2 - chloro - pyrimidin - 5 - yl )- ethanone instead of bromobenzene in step a ). white solid . ms ( isp ): 326 . 2 ([ m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 13 using 2 - chloro - 4 - methyl - pyrimidine instead of bromobenzene in step a ). amorphous colourless solid . ms ( isp ): 298 . 2 ([ m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 13 using 2 - chloro - 5 - propylpyrimidine instead of bromobenzene in step a ). light yellow solid . ms ( isp ): 326 . 2 ([ m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 13 using 5 - bromo - 2 - chloropyrimidine instead of bromobenzene in step a ). white solid . ms ( isp ): 320 . 1 ([{ 37 cl } m + h ] + ), 318 . 1 ([{ 35 cl } m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 13 using 2 , 5 - dibromopyrimidine instead of bromobenzene in step a ). white solid . ms ( isp ): 364 . 1 ([{ 81 br } m + h ] + ), 362 . 1 ([{ 79 br } m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 6 ( a ) using ( 4 - bromo - benzyl )- phosphonic acid diethyl ester instead of ( 4 - nitro - benzyl )- phosphonic acid diethyl ester . yellow solid . ms ( isp ): 284 . 0 ([{ 81 br } m + h − c 4 h 8 — co 2 ] + ), 282 . 0 ([{ 79 br } m + h — c 4 h 8 — co 2 ] + ). to a solution of ( s , e )- tert - butyl 4 -( 4 - bromostyryl )- 2 , 2 - dimethyloxazolidine - 3 - carboxylate ( 13 g ) in acetonitrile ( 30 ml ) were added sequentially water ( 35 ml ) and a solution of trifluoroacetic acid ( 18 . 3 ml ) in water ( 50 ml ). the mixture was heated at 80 ° c . for 3 hours . the mixture was then cooled to room temperature and diluted with ethyl acetate / thf ( 1 : 1 ). the resulting mixture was washed sequentially with 1 n aq . sodium hydroxide solution and saturated brine , the phases were then separated and the organic phase was dried over sodium sulphate and concentrated in vacuo . the residue was triturated in diethyl ether ( 40 ml ) and the resulting crystals were collected by filtration to afford ( e )-( s )- 2 - amino - 4 -( 4 - bromo - phenyl )- but - 3 - en - 1 - ol ( 5 . 59 g , 68 %) as a brown solid . the filtrate was concentrated in vacuo and the residue was purified by column chromatography ( sio 2 ; gradient : 0 - 30 % meoh in dichloromethane ) to afford a further amount of ( e )-( s )- 2 - amino - 4 -( 4 - bromo - phenyl )- but - 3 - en - 1 - ol ( 2 . 21 g , 27 %) as a brown solid . ms ( isp ): 227 . 1 ([{ 81 br } m + h — nh 3 ] + ), 225 . 1 ([{ 79 br } m + h — nh 3 ] + ). ( e )-( s )- 2 - amino - 4 -( 4 - bromo - phenyl )- but - 3 - en - 1 - ol ( 7 . 8 g ) and n , n - diisopropylethylamine ( 11 . 1 ml ) were combined with thf ( 150 ml ) to give a colourless solution . the reaction mixture was cooled to 0 ° c . and di - tert - butyl carbonate ( 7 . 17 g ) was added . the reaction mixture was stirred at room temperature overnight to afford a yellow solution . the reaction mixture was then poured into etoac and washed sequentially with 1 m aq . hcl , 1 m aq . naoh and saturated brine . the organic layer was dried over na2so4 , filtered , and the filtrate was then stirred over charcoal ( 2 g ) for 30 min . the mixture was then filtered through celite and the filtrate was concentrated in vacuo to afford [( e )-( s )- 3 -( 4 - bromo - phenyl )- 1 - hydroxymethyl - allyl ]- carbamic acid tert - butyl ester as an off - white solid ( 10 . 8 g , 98 %). ms ( isp ): 344 . 0 ([{ 81 br } m + h ] + ), 342 . 0 ([{ 79 br } m + h ] + ), 287 . 9 ([{ 81 br } m + h — c 4 h 8 ] + ), 286 . 0 ([{ 79 br } m + h — c 4 h 8 ] + ). to a solution of [( e )-( s )- 3 -( 4 - bromo - phenyl )- 1 - hydroxymethyl - allyl ]- carbamic acid tert - butyl ester ( 14 . 7 g ) in methanol ( 150 ml ) was added 10 % pt / c ( 1 . 68 g ) and the resulting mixture was stirred under a h 2 balloon at room temperature for 3 hours ( whereby the reaction progress was checked continuously by 1 h nmr ). the reaction mixture was filtered through celite and the filtrate was concentrated in vacuo to afford [( s )- 3 -( 4 - bromo - phenyl )- 1 - hydroxymethyl - propyl ]- carbamic acid tert - butyl ester as a yellow solid ( 11 . 5 g , 78 %). ms ( isp ): 346 . 0 ([{ 81 br } m + h ] + ), 344 . 0 ([{ 79 br } m + h ] + ), 289 . 9 ([{ 81 br } m + h — c 4 h 8 ] + ), 288 . 0 ([{ 79 br } m + h — c 4 h 8 ] + ), 246 . 1 ([{ 81 br } m + h — c 4 h 8 — co 2 ] + ), 244 . 1 ([{ 79 br } m + h — c 4 h 8 — co 2 ] + ). to a solution of [( s )- 3 -( 4 - bromo - phenyl )- 1 - hydroxymethyl - propyl ]- carbamic acid tert - butyl ester ( 11 . 5 g ) and triethylamine ( 27 . 9 ml ) in dmso ( 70 ml ) was added dropwise sulfur trioxide - pyridine complex ( 16 . 0 g ) while the reaction mixture was cooled in a ice bath . the mixture was then stirred at room temperature for 30 min to afford a yellow solution . the reaction mixture was poured into etoac and extracted sequentially with water and with saturated brine . the organic layer was dried over na2so4 and concentrated in vacuo . the residue was purified by column chromatography ( silica gel , heptane / etoac 3 / 1 ) to afford [( s )- 3 -( 4 - bromo - phenyl )- 1 - formyl - propyl ]- carbamic acid tert - butyl ester as a yellow oil ( 7 . 3 g , 64 %). ms ( ei ): 343 ([{ 81 br } m ] + ), 341 ([{ 79 br } m ] + ), 287 ([{ 81 br } m − c 4 h 8 ] + ), 285 ([{ 79 br } m − c 4 h 8 ] + ), 214 ([{ 81 br } m − c 4 h 8 — co 2 ] + ), 212 ([{ 79 br } m − c 4 h 8 — co 2 ] + ), 171 , 169 , 103 , 57 ([ c 4 h 9 ] + ). to a stirred , cooled solution of [( 5 )- 3 -( 4 - bromo - phenyl )- 1 - formyl - propyl ]- carbamic acid tert - butyl ester ( 7 . 3 g ) in thf ( 40 ml ) and et2o ( 30 ml ) at 0 ° c . was added dropwise over 30 min a solution of methylmagnesium bromide ( 20 . 0 ml , 3 m solution in et2o ). the reaction mixture was then stirred at room temperature for 4 hours before being quenched by dropwise addition of water ( gas formation !). the reaction mixture was then poured into etoac , the layers were separated and the organic layer was washed sequentially with diluted aq . hcl ( ph 5 ) and saturated brine , then dried over na2so4 and concentrated in vacuo . the residue was purified by flash chromatography ( silica gel , gradient : 0 % to 80 % etoac in hexane ) to afford {( 1s , 2rs )- 1 -[ 2 -( 4 - bromo - phenyl )- ethyl ]- 2 - hydroxy - propyl }- carbamic acid tert - butyl ester as a colourless amorphous solid comprising a mixture of epimers ( 5 . 1 g , 66 %). ms ( ei ): 303 ([{ 81 br } m − c 4 h 8 ] + ), 301 ([{ 79 br } m − c 4 h 8 ] + ), 258 ([{ 81 br } m − c 4 h 8 — co 2 h ] + ), 256 ([{ 79 br } m − c 4 h 8 — co 2 h ] + ), 214 , 212 , 171 , 169 , 57 ([ c 4 h 9 ] + ). {( 1s , 2rs )- 1 -[ 2 -( 4 - bromo - phenyl )- ethyl ]- 2 - hydroxy - propyl }- carbamic acid tert - butyl ester ( 5 . 07 g ), p - toluenesulfonic acid monohydrate ( 538 mg ) and 2 , 2 - dimethoxypropane ( 26 . 1 ml ) were combined with ch2cl2 ( 300 ml ) to give a colourless solution . the reaction mixture was stirred at room temperature overnight before being washed with sat . aq . nahco3 solution . the layers were separated and the organic layer was dried over na2so4 and concentrated in vacuo . the residue was purified by flash chromatography ( silica gel , gradient : 0 % to 25 % etoac in hexane ) to afford ( 4s , 5s )- 4 -[ 2 -( 4 - bromo - phenyl )- ethyl ]- 2 , 2 , 5 - trimethyl - oxazolidine - 3 - carboxylic acid tert - butyl ester as a yellow oil ( 2 . 85 g , 51 %, fractions eluting first ) and ( 4s , 5r )- 4 -[ 2 -( 4 - bromo - phenyl )- ethyl ]- 2 , 2 , 5 - trimethyl - oxazolidine - 3 - carboxylic acid tert - butyl ester as a yellow oil ( 475 mg , 8 %, fractions eluting last ). to a solution of ( 4s , 5s )- 4 -[ 2 -( 4 - bromo - phenyl )- ethyl ]- 2 , 2 , 5 - trimethyl - oxazolidine - 3 - carboxylic acid tert - butyl ester ( 3 . 13 g ) in toluene ( 30 ml ) were added diphenylmethanimine ( 1 . 71 g ) and sodium tert - butoxide ( 1 . 06 g ). the reaction mixture was degassed by bubbling argon through the mixture for several minutes . binap ( 489 mg ) and pd2 ( dba ) 3 ( 216 mg ) were then added and the reaction mixture was stirred at 100 ° c . for 20 h . the reaction mixture was then cooled to room temperature , poured into etoac , and extracted with water . the organic layer was separated , dried over na2so4 , and concentrated in vacuo . the residue was purified by flash chromatography ( silica gel , gradient : 0 % to 30 % etoac in hexane ) to afford ( 4s , 5s )- 4 -{ 2 -[ 4 -( benzhydrylidene - amino )- phenyl ]- ethyl }- 2 , 2 , 5 - trimethyl - oxazolidine - 3 - carboxylic acid tert - butyl ester as a yellow oil ( 3 . 2 g , 82 %). ms ( isp ): 499 . 3 ([ m + h ). to a solution of ( 4s , 5s )- 4 -{ 2 -[ 4 -( benzhydrylidene - amino )- phenyl ]- ethyl }- 2 , 2 , 5 - trimethyl - oxazolidine - 3 - carboxylic acid tert - butyl ester ( 3 . 23 g ) in methanol ( 50 ml ) was added ammonium formate ( 6 . 13 g ). the reaction mixture was degassed by bubbling argon through the mixture for several minutes . 10 % pd / c ( 207 mg ) was added and the reaction mixture was stirred at 60 ° c . for 1 hour . tlc showed the reaction was complete . the reaction mixture was filtered through celite and concentrated in vacuo . the residue was purified by flash chromatography ( silica gel , gradient : 0 % to 100 % etoac in hexane ) to afford ( 4s , 5s )- 4 -[ 2 -( 4 - amino - phenyl )- ethyl ]- 2 , 2 , 5 - trimethyl - oxazolidine - 3 - carboxylic acid tert - butyl ester as a yellow oil ( 1 . 76 g , 81 %). ms ( isp ): 335 . 2 ([ m + h ), 235 . 2 ([ m − c 4 h 8 — co 2 ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 6 ( c ) using ( 4s , 5s )- 4 -[ 2 -( 4 - amino - phenyl )- ethyl ]- 2 , 2 , 5 - trimethyl - oxazolidine - 3 - carboxylic acid tert - butyl ester instead of ( s )- 4 -[ 2 -( 4 - amino - phenyl )- ethyl ]- 2 , 2 - dimethyl - oxazolidine - 3 - carboxylic acid tert - butyl ester and 2 , 5 - dichloropyrimidine instead of 1 - bromo - 4 - chlorobenzene . yellow oil . ms ( isp ): 449 . 2 ([{ 37 cl } m + h ] + ), 447 . 2 ([{ 35 cl } m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 11 step b ) using ( 4s , 5s )- 4 -{ 2 -[ 4 -( 5 - chloro - pyrimidin - 2 - ylamino )- phenyl ]- ethyl }- 2 , 2 , 5 - trimethyl - oxazolidine - 3 - carboxylic acid tert - butyl ester in place of ( s )- 2 , 2 - dimethyl - 4 -{ 2 -[ 4 -( 5 - trifluoromethyl - pyridin - 2 - ylamino )- phenyl ]- ethyl }- oxazolidine - 3 - carboxylic acid tert - butyl ester . white solid . ms ( isp ): 309 . 1 ([{ 37 cl } m + h ] + ), 307 . 1 ([{ 35 cl } m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 6 step e ) using ( 2s , 3s )- 3 - amino - 5 -[ 4 -( 5 - chloro - pyrimidin - 2 - ylamino )- phenyl ]- pentan - 2 - ol instead of ( s )- 2 - amino - 4 -[ 4 -( 4 - chloro - phenylamino )- phenyl ]- butan - 1 - ol . white solid . ms ( isp ): 334 . 1 ([{ 37 cl } m + h ] + ), 332 . 1 ([{ 35 cl } m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 13 using 1 -( 2 - chloropyrimidin - 5 - yl ) propan - 1 - one ( cas 212621 - 61 - 9 ) instead of bromobenzene in step a ). yellow solid . ms ( isp ): 340 . 3 ([ m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 13 using 2 - chloro - 5 - cyclopropylpyrimidine ( cas 166740 - 44 - 9 ) instead of bromobenzene in step a ). off - white solid . ms ( isp ): 324 . 3 ([ m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 13 using 2 - chloro - 5 - ethoxypyrimidine instead of bromobenzene in step a ). white solid . ms ( isp ): 328 . 3 ([ m + h ] + ). to a solution of 5 -( trifluoromethyl ) pyrimidin - 2 - ol ( 300 mg ) in dichloromethane ( 10 ml ) at 0 ° c . were added dropwise n , n - diisopropylethylamine ( 939 μl ) and trifluoromethanesulfonic anhydride ( 185 μl ). the reaction mixture was stirred at 0 ° c . for 2 h . the crude reaction mixture was then concentrated in vacuo to afford a red solid contained trifluoro - methanesulfonic acid 5 - trifluoromethyl - pyrimidin - 2 - yl ester which was used immediately in the next step without further purification . the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 13 using trifluoro - methanesulfonic acid 5 - trifluoromethyl - pyrimidin - 2 - yl ester instead of bromobenzene in step a ). yellow solid . ms ( isp ): 352 . 3 ([ m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 6 steps a )- c ) using 2 , 5 - dibromopyrimidine instead of 1 - bromo - 4 - chlorobenzene in step c ). yellow oil . ms ( isp ): 479 . 1 ([{ 81 br } m + h ] + ), 477 . 1 ([{ 79 br } m + h ] + ). to ( s )- tert - butyl 4 -( 4 -( 5 - bromopyrimidin - 2 - ylamino ) phenethyl )- 2 , 2 - dimethyloxazolidine - 3 - carboxylate ( 100 mg ) and bis ( tri - t - butylphosphine ) palladium ( 0 ) ( 21 . 4 mg ) in thf ( 10 ml ) under argon was added tert - butylzinc ( ii ) bromide ( 1 . 26 ml , 0 . 5 m solution in thf ). the reaction mixture was stirred at 22 ° c . for 1 hour . the reaction was quenched by addition of etoac then washed sequentially with saturated aqueous ammonium chloride solution and 1 n aqueous sodium bicarbonate solution . the phases were separated and the organic phase was dried over mgso4 , filtered and then concentrated in vacuo . the crude material was purified by preparative hplc ( column : zorbax 5 micron c18 50 × 20 , flow rate : 30 ml / min ; eluant gradient : water (+ 0 . 1 % formic acid )/ acetonitrile ( 80 %- 20 % to 5 %- 95 %)) to afford ( s )- tert - butyl 4 -( 4 -( 5 - tert - butylpyrimidin - 2 - ylamino ) phenethyl )- 2 , 2 - dimethyloxazolidine - 3 - carboxylate ( 8 . 4 mg , 9 %) as a yellow oil . ms ( isp ): 455 . 5 ([ m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 11 step b ) using ( s )- tert - butyl 4 -( 4 -( 5 - tert - butylpyrimidin - 2 - ylamino ) phenethyl )- 2 , 2 - dimethyloxazolidine - 3 - carboxylate in place of ( s )- 2 , 2 - dimethyl - 4 -{ 2 -[ 4 -( 5 - trifluoromethyl - pyridin - 2 - ylamino )- phenyl ]- ethyl }- oxazolidine - 3 - carboxylic acid tert - butyl ester . amorphous solid . ms ( isp ): 315 . 3 ([ m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 6 step e ) using ( s )- 2 - amino - 4 -( 4 -( 5 - tert - butylpyrimidin - 2 - ylamino ) phenyl ) butan - 1 - ol instead of ( s )- 2 - amino - 4 -[ 4 -( 4 - chloro - phenylamino )- phenyl ]- butan - 1 - ol . white solid . ms ( isp ): 340 . 4 ([ m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 57 using pentan - 3 - ylzinc ( ii ) bromide instead of tert - butylzinc ( ii ) bromide in step b ). white solid . ms ( isp ): 354 . 3 ([ m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 13 using 2 - chloropyrimidine - 5 - carbonitrile instead of bromobenzene in step a ). white solid . ms ( isp ): 309 . 2 ([ m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 57 using cyclobutylzinc ( ii ) bromide instead of tert - butylzinc ( ii ) bromide in step b ). white solid . ms ( isp ): 338 . 3 ([ m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 57 using isopropylzinc ( ii ) bromide instead of tert - butylzinc ( ii ) bromide in step b ). white solid . ms ( isp ): 326 . 3 ([ m + h ] + ). to a cooled , stirred solution of 5 - bromopyridine - 2 - carbaldehyde ( 3 . 72 g , cas 31181 - 90 - 5 ) and ( trifluoromethyl ) trimethylsilane ( 3 . 56 ml ) in thf ( 30 ml ) at 0 ° c . was added dropwise tetrabutylammonium fluoride solution ( 1 . 0 ml , 1 m solution in thf ). the reaction mixture was stirred at 0 ° c . for 30 min and then at room temperature for 2 hours . the mixture was then diluted with 1 n aq . hcl ( 20 ml ) and stirring was continued for a further 2 hours . the mixture was diluted with water and extracted twice with ethyl acetate . the combined organic phases were dried over sodium sulfate and concentrated in vacuo . the residue was purified by column chromatography ( sio 2 ; gradient : heptane / etoac ) to give ( rs )- 1 -( 5 - bromo - pyridin - 2 - yl )- 2 , 2 , 2 - trifluoro - ethanol as a light yellow solid ( 3 . 35 g , 65 %). ms ( isp ): 258 . 0 ([{ 81 br } m + h ] + ), 256 . 1 ([{ 79 br } m + h ] + ). to a stirred suspension of sodium hydride ( 765 mg , 60 % dispersion in mineral oil ) in dry diethyl ether ( 20 ml ) under an argon atmosphere at 0 ° c . was added dropwise a solution of ( rs )- 1 -( 5 - bromo - pyridin - 2 - yl )- 2 , 2 , 2 - trifluoro - ethanol ( 3 . 06 g ) in diethyl ether ( 10 ml ) and the resulting mixture was stirred at room temperature for 30 min . trifluoromethanesulfonyl chloride ( 1 . 4 ml ) was added and stirring was continued for a further 15 min at room temperature . the reaction mixture was quenched by addition of 10 % aq . sodium bicarbonate solution and the mixture was extracted with diethyl ether . the phases were separated and the organic phase was washed with saturated brine . the organic phase was separated , dried over sodium sulphate , and concentrated in vacuo . the reside was purified by kugelrohr distillation ( 60 ° c . oven temperature , 0 . 3 mbar ) to give ( rs )- trifluoro - methanesulfonic acid 1 -( 5 - bromo - pyridin - 2 - yl )- 2 , 2 , 2 - trifluoro - ethyl ester ( 3 . 6 g , 78 %) as a white solid . ms ( ei ): 389 ([{ 81 br } m ] + ), 387 ([{ 79 br } m ] + ), 320 ([{ 81 br } m − cf 3 ] + ), 318 ([{ 79 br } m − cf 3 ] + ), 256 ([{ 81 br } m − cf 3 — so 2 ] + ), 254 ([{ 79 br } m − cf 3 — so 2 ] + ), 240 ([{ 81 br } m − oso 2 cf 3 ] + ), 238 ([{ 79 br } m − oso 2 cf 3 ] + ). to a stirred solution of ( s )- 4 -[ 2 -( 4 - amino - phenyl )- ethyl ]- 2 , 2 - dimethyl - oxazolidine - 3 - carboxylic acid tert - butyl ester ( 150 mg , example 6b ) in dry thf ( 0 . 2 ml ) under an argon atmosphere was added sodium hydride ( 34 mg , 60 % dispersion in mineral oil ) and stirring was continued for 15 minutes . trifluoro - methanesulfonic acid 1 -( 5 - bromo - pyridin - 2 - yl )- 2 , 2 , 2 - trifluoro - ethyl ester ( 182 mg ) was then added and the mixture was stirred overnight at room temperature . the reaction mixture was diluted with ethyl acetate and washed sequentially with water and with saturated brine . the organic phase was separated , dried over sodium sulphate , and concentrated in vacuo . the reside was purified by column chromatography ( sio 2 ; gradient : heptane / etoac ) to give ( s )- 4 -( 2 -{ 4 -[ 1 -( 5 - bromo - pyridin - 2 - yl )- 2 , 2 , 2 - trifluoro - ethylamino ]- phenyl }- ethyl )- 2 , 2 - dimethyl - oxazolidine - 3 - carboxylic acid tert - butyl ester ( 99 mg , 38 %) as a yellow oil . ms ( isp ): 560 . 1 ([{ 81 br } m + h ] + ), 558 . 1 ([{ 79 br } m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 11 step b ) using ( s )- 4 -( 2 -{ 4 -[ 1 -( 5 - bromo - pyridin - 2 - yl )- 2 , 2 , 2 - trifluoro - ethylamino ]- phenyl }- ethyl )- 2 , 2 - dimethyl - oxazolidine - 3 - carboxylic acid tert - butyl ester in place of ( s )- 2 , 2 - dimethyl - 4 -{ 2 -[ 4 -( 5 - trifluoromethyl - pyridin - 2 - ylamino )- phenyl ]- ethyl }- oxazolidine - 3 - carboxylic acid tert - butyl ester . yellow oil . ms ( isp ): 420 . 1 ([{ 81 br } m + h ] + ), 418 . 2 ([{ 79 br } m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 6 step e ) using ( s )- 2 - amino - 4 -{ 4 -[ 1 -( 5 - bromo - pyridin - 2 - yl )- 2 , 2 , 2 - trifluoro - ethylamino ]- phenyl }- butan - 1 - ol instead of ( s )- 2 - amino - 4 -[ 4 -( 4 - chloro - phenylamino )- phenyl ]- butan - 1 - ol . amorphous yellow solid . ms ( isp ): 445 . 1 ([{ 81 br } m + h ] + ), 443 . 1 ([{ 79 br } m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 62 using 4 - chloro - benzaldehyde instead of 5 - bromopyridine - 2 - carbaldehyde 1 in step a ). colourless foam . ms ( isp ): 400 . 2 ([{ 37 cl } m + h ] + ), 398 . 2 ([{ 35 cl } m + h ] + ). ( 4s )- 4 -( 4 -( 1 -( 4 - chlorophenyl )- 2 , 2 , 2 - trifluoroethylamino ) phenethyl )- 4 , 5 - dihydrooxazol - 2 - amine ( 1 : 1 mixture of epimers ) was separated by preparative chiral hplc ( chiralpak ad , eluant : heptane / etoh 6 / 4 ). 1 st fraction : (+)-( s )- 4 -( 4 -(( s )- 1 -( 4 - chlorophenyl )- 2 , 2 , 2 - trifluoroethylamino ) phenethyl )- 4 , 5 - dihydrooxazol - 2 - amine colourless oil . ms ( isp ): 400 . 2 ([{ 37 cl } m + h ] + ), 398 . 2 ([{ 35 cl } m + h ] + ). 2 nd fraction : (−)-( s )- 4 -( 4 -(( r )- 1 -( 4 - chlorophenyl )- 2 , 2 , 2 - trifluoroethylamino ) phenethyl )- 4 , 5 - dihydrooxazol - 2 - amine colourless oil . ms ( isp ): 400 . 2 ([{ 37 cl } m + h ] + ), 398 . 2 ([{ 35 cl } m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 62 using 3 - fluoro - benzaldehyde instead of 5 - bromopyridine - 2 - carbaldehyde in step a ). colourless oil . ms ( isp ): 382 . 2 ([ m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 62 using 4 - trifluoromethyl - benzaldehyde instead of 5 - bromopyridine - 2 - carbaldehyde in step a ). colourless oil . ms ( isp ): 432 . 2 ([ m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 62 using 5 - chloropyridine - 2 - carbaldehyde instead of 5 - bromopyridine - 2 - carbaldehyde in step a ). light yellow oil . ms ( isp ): 401 . 2 ([{ 37 cl } m + h ] + ), 399 . 2 ([{ 35 cl } m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 62 using 3 , 5 - dichloro - benzaldehyde instead of 5 - bromopyridine - 2 - carbaldehyde in step a ). colourless waxy solid . ms ( isp ): 436 . 2 ([{ 37 cl } m + h ] + ), 434 . 2 ([{ 37 cl 35 cl } m + h ] + ), 432 . 2 ([{ 35 cl } m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 62 using 6 - methoxypyridine - 2 - carbaldehyde instead of 5 - bromopyridine - 2 - carbaldehyde in step a ). colourless oil . ms ( isp ): 395 . 2 ([ m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 6 step ( a ) using ( 6 - chloro - pyridin - 3 - ylmethyl )- phosphonic acid diethyl ester ( cas 561066 - 65 - 7 ) instead of ( 4 - nitro - benzyl )- phosphonic acid diethyl ester . yellow oil . ms ( isp ): 341 . 2 ([{ 37 cl } m + h ] + ), 339 . 1 ([{ 35cl } m + h ] + ). to a stirred suspension of ( s )- 4 -[( e )- 2 -( 6 - chloro - pyridin - 3 - yl )- vinyl ]- 2 , 2 - dimethyl - oxazolidine - 3 - carboxylic acid tert - butyl ester ( 1 . 0 g ) in methanol ( 70 ml ) was added platinum on charcoal ( 0 . 58 g , 10 wt %) and the mixture was stirred under an atmosphere of hydrogen at room temperature for 15 min . the mixture was then filtered through celite and the filtrate was concentrated in vacuo to give ( s )- 4 -[ 2 -( 6 - chloro - pyridin - 3 - yl )- ethyl ]- 2 , 2 - dimethyl - oxazolidine - 3 - carboxylic acid tert - butyl ester ( 949 mg , 94 %) as a colourless oil . ms ( isp ): 343 . 2 ([{ 37 cl } m + h ] + ), 341 . 1 ([{ 35 cl } m + h ] + ), 287 . 0 ([{ 37 cl } m + h — c 4 h 8 ] + ), 285 . 1 ([{ 35 cl } m + h — c 4 h 8 ] + ). in a pressure tube , ( s )- 4 -[ 2 -( 6 - chloro - pyridin - 3 - yl )- ethyl ]- 2 , 2 - dimethyl - oxazolidine - 3 - carboxylic acid tert - butyl ester ( 0 . 94 g ), 5 - chloropyrimidin - 2 - amine ( 357 mg ) and cesium carbonate ( 1 . 35 g ) were combined with dioxane ( 5 ml ) to give a yellow suspension . the mixture was degassed by bubbling through argon for several minutes . xantphos ( 96 mg ) and tris ( dibenzylideneacetone ) dipalladium chloroform complex ( 86 mg ) were then added and the tube was sealed . the reaction mixture was stirred at 100 ° c . overnight . the reaction mixture was then cooled to room temperature and concentrated in vacuo . the residue was purified by flash chromatography ( sio 2 ; gradient : 0 % to 70 % etoac in hexane ) to afford ( s )- 4 -{ 2 -[ 6 -( 5 - chloro - pyrimidin - 2 - ylamino )- pyridin - 3 - yl ]- ethyl }- 2 , 2 - dimethyl - oxazolidine - 3 - carboxylic acid tert - butyl ester ( 417 mg , 35 %) as a yellow solid . ms ( isp ): 436 . 3 ([{ 37 cl } m + h ] + ), 434 . 4 ([{ 35 cl } m + h ] + ), 380 . 3 ([{ 37 cl } m + h — c 4 h 8 ] + ), 378 . 3 ([{ 35 cl } m + h — c 4 h 8 ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 11 step b ) using ( s )- 4 -{ 2 -[ 6 -( 5 - chloro - pyrimidin - 2 - ylamino )- pyridin - 3 - yl ]- ethyl }- 2 , 2 - dimethyl - oxazolidine - 3 - carboxylic acid tert - butyl ester in place of ( s )- 2 , 2 - dimethyl - 4 -{ 2 -[ 4 -( 5 - trifluoromethyl - pyridin - 2 - ylamino )- phenyl ]- ethyl }- oxazolidine - 3 - carboxylic acid tert - butyl ester . light brown solid . ms ( isp ): 296 . 3 ([{ 37 cl } m + h ] + ), 294 . 1 ([{ 35 cl } m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 6 step e ) using ( s )- 2 - amino - 4 -[ 6 -( 5 - chloro - pyrimidin - 2 - ylamino )- pyridin - 3 - yl ]- butan - 1 - ol instead of ( s )- 2 - amino - 4 -[ 4 -( 4 - chloro - phenylamino )- phenyl ]- butan - 1 - ol . white solid . ms ( isp ): 321 . 1 ([{ 37 cl } m + h ] + ), 319 . 1 ([{ 35 cl } m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 6 steps a )- c ) using ( 3 - methyl - 4 - nitrobenzyl )- phosphonic acid diethyl ester ( cas 873458 - 20 - 9 ) instead of ( 4 - nitro - benzyl )- phosphonic acid diethyl ester in step a ) and 2 , 5 - dichloropyrimidine instead of 1 - bromo - 4 - chlorobenzene in step c ). yellow oil . ms ( isp ): 449 . 0 ([{ 37 cl } m + h ] + ), 447 . 3 ([{ 35 cl } m + h ] + ), 393 . 3 ([{ 37 cl } m + h — c 4 h 8 ] + ), 391 . 1 ([{ 35 cl } m + h — c 4 h 8 ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 11 step b ) using ( s )- 4 -{ 2 -[ 4 -( 5 - chloro - pyrimidin - 2 - ylamino )- 3 - methyl - phenyl ]- ethyl }- 2 , 2 - dimethyl - oxazolidine - 3 - carboxylic acid tert - butyl ester in place of ( s )- 2 , 2 - dimethyl - 4 -{ 2 -[ 4 -( 5 - trifluoromethyl - pyridin - 2 - ylamino )- phenyl ]- ethyl }- oxazolidine - 3 - carboxylic acid tert - butyl ester . white solid . ms ( isp ): 309 . 2 ([{ 37 cl } m + h ] + ), 307 . 3 ([{ 35 cl } m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 6 step e ) using ( s )- 2 - amino - 4 -[ 4 -( 5 - chloro - pyrimidin - 2 - ylamino )- 3 - methyl - phenyl ]- butan - 1 - ol instead of ( s )- 2 - amino - 4 -[ 4 -( 4 - chloro - phenylamino )- phenyl ]- butan - 1 - ol . off - white solid . ms ( isp ): 334 . 1 ([{ 37 cl } m + h ] + ), 332 . 1 ([{ 35 cl } m + h ] + ). to sodium hydride ( 303 mg ) under an argon atmosphere at 0 ° c . was added dropwise 2 , 2 , 2 - trifluoroethanol ( 775 μl ) and the mixture was then stirred at rt for 90 min . a solution of 2 , 5 - dibromopyrimidine ( 1 . 5 g ) in dmf ( 8 ml ) was then added and stirring continued at rt for 2 hours . the reaction mixture was poured into ice ( 50 ml ) and extracted with etoac ( 2 × 50 ml ). the organic layers were dried over mgso 4 and concentrated in vacuo to afford 5 - bromo - 2 -( 2 , 2 , 2 - trifluoro - ethoxy )- pyrimidine ( 790 mg , 49 %) as a yellow oil which was used in the next step without further purification . ms ( ei ): 258 ([{ 81 br } m ] + ), 256 ([{ 79 br } m ] + ), 189 ([{ 81 br } m − cf 3 ] + ), 187 ([{ 79br } m − cf 3 ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 13 using 5 - bromo - 2 -( 2 , 2 , 2 - trifluoro - ethoxy )- pyrimidine instead of bromobenzene in step a ). yellow oil . ms ( isp ): 382 . 2 ([ m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 6 steps a )- c ) using 2 - chloro - 5 -( methylthio ) pyrimidine ( cas 115581 - 36 - 7 ) instead of 1 - bromo - 4 - chlorobenzene in step c ). yellow oil . ms ( isp ): 445 . 2 ([ m + h ] + ). to a stirred solution of ( 5 )- tert - butyl 2 , 2 - dimethyl - 4 -( 4 -( 5 -( methylthio ) pyrimidin - 2 - ylamino ) phenethyl ) oxazolidine - 3 - carboxylate ( 393 mg ) in dichloromethane ( 5 ml ) was added m - cpba ( 218 mg ) and stirring was continued at rt for 40 min . the reaction mixture was then diluted with aq . na 2 so 3 solution and extracted with dichloromethane . the organic layers were dried over mgso 4 and concentrated in vacuo to give ( 4s )- tert - butyl 2 , 2 - dimethyl - 4 -( 4 -( 5 -( methylsulfinyl ) pyrimidin - 2 - ylamino ) phenethyl ) oxazolidine - 3 - carboxylate ( 454 mg , 85 % purity , 95 % yield ) as a yellow oil . ms ( isp ): 461 . 4 ([ m + h ] + ), 405 . 3 ([ m + h — c 4 h 8 — co 2 ] + ). to a stirred solution of ( 4s )- tert - butyl 2 , 2 - dimethyl - 4 -( 4 -( 5 -( methylsulfinyl ) pyrimidin - 2 - ylamino ) phenethyl ) oxazolidine - 3 - carboxylate ( 227 mg ) in dichloromethane ( 5 ml ) was added m - cpba ( 155 mg ) and stirring was continued at rt for 40 min . the reaction mixture was then diluted with aq . na 2 so 3 solution and extracted with dichloromethane . the organic layers were dried over mgso 4 and concentrated in vacuo to give ( s )- tert - butyl 2 , 2 - dimethyl - 4 -( 4 -( 5 -( methylsulfonyl ) pyrimidin - 2 - ylamino ) phenethyl ) oxazolidine - 3 - carboxylate ( 269 mg , 70 % purity , 94 % yield ) as a brown oil . ms ( isp ): 477 . 4 ([ m + h ] + ), 421 . 3 ([ m + h — c 4 h 8 — co 2 ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 11 step b ) using ( s )- tert - butyl 2 , 2 - dimethyl - 4 -( 4 -( 5 -( methylsulfonyl ) pyrimidin - 2 - ylamino ) phenethyl ) oxazolidine - 3 - carboxylate in place of ( s )- 2 , 2 - dimethyl - 4 -{ 2 -[ 4 -( 5 - trifluoromethyl - pyridin - 2 - ylamino )- phenyl ]- ethyl }- oxazolidine - 3 - carboxylic acid tert - butyl ester . white solid . ms ( isp ): 337 . 2 ([ m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 6 step e ) using ( s )- 2 - amino - 4 -( 4 -( 5 -( methylsulfonyl ) pyrimidin - 2 - ylamino ) phenyl ) butan - 1 - ol instead of ( s )- 2 - amino - 4 -[ 4 -( 4 - chloro - phenylamino )- phenyl ]- butan - 1 - ol . white solid . ms ( isp ): 362 . 2 ([ m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 11 step b ) using ( 4s )- tert - butyl 2 , 2 - dimethyl - 4 -( 4 -( 5 -( methylsulfinyl ) pyrimidin - 2 - ylamino ) phenethyl ) oxazolidine - 3 - carboxylate ( example 74b ) in place of ( s )- 2 , 2 - dimethyl - 4 -{ 2 -[ 4 -( 5 - trifluoromethyl - pyridin - 2 - ylamino )- phenyl ]- ethyl }- oxazolidine - 3 - carboxylic acid tert - butyl ester . yellow oil . ms ( isp ): 321 . 1 . 2 ([ m + h ] + ). the title compound was obtained in analogy to example 6 step e ) using ( 2s )- 2 - amino - 4 -( 4 -( 5 -( methylsulfinyl ) pyrimidin - 2 - ylamino ) phenyl ) butan - 1 - ol instead of ( s )- 2 - amino - 4 -[ 4 -( 4 - chloro - phenylamino )- phenyl ]- butan - 1 - ol . white solid . ms ( isp ): 346 . 2 ([ m + h ] + ). the compounds of formula i and their pharmaceutically usable addition salts possess valuable pharmacological properties . specifically , compounds of the present invention have a good affinity to the trace amine associated receptors ( taars ), especially taar1 . the compounds were investigated in accordance with the test given hereinafter . for the construction of expression plasmids the coding sequences of human , rat and mouse taar 1 were amplified from genomic dna essentially as described by lindemann et al . [ 14 ]. the expand high fidelity pcr system ( roche diagnostics ) was used with 1 . 5 mm mg 2 + and purified pcr products were cloned into pcr2 . 1 - topo cloning vector ( invitrogen ) following the instructions of the manufacturer . pcr products were subcloned into the piresneo2 vector ( bd clontech , palo alto , calif . ), and expression vectors were sequence verified before introduction in cell lines . hek293 cells ( atcc # crl - 1573 ) were cultured essentially as described by lindemann et al . ( 2005 ). for the generation of stably transfected cell lines hek293 cells were transfected with the piresneo2 expression plasmids containing the taar coding sequences ( described above ) with lipofectamine 2000 ( invitrogen ) according to the instructions of the manufacturer , and 24 hrs post transfection the culture medium was supplemented with 1 mg / ml g418 ( sigma , buchs , switzerland ). after a culture period of about 10 d clones were isolated , expanded and tested for responsiveness to trace amines ( all compounds purchased from sigma ) with the camp biotrak enzyme immunoassay ( eia ) system ( amersham ) following the non - acetylation eia procedure provided by the manufacturer . monoclonal cell lines which displayed a stable ec 50 for a culture period of 15 passages were used for all subsequent studies . hek - 293 cells stably expressing rat taar1 were maintained at 37 ° c . and 5 % co 2 in dmem high glucose medium , containing fetal calf serum ( 10 %, heat inactivated for 30 min at 56 ° c . ), penicillin / streptomycin ( 1 %), and 375 μg / ml geneticin ( gibco ). cells were released from culture flasks using trypsin / edta , harvested , washed twice with ice - cold pbs ( without ca 2 + and mg 2 + ), pelleted at 1 &# 39 ; 000 rpm for 5 min at 4 ° c ., frozen and stored at − 80 ° c . frozen pellets were suspended in 20 ml hepes - naoh ( 20 mm , ph 7 . 4 ) containing 10 mm edta and homogenized with a polytron ( pt 6000 , kinematica ) at 14 &# 39 ; 000 rpm for 20 s . the homogenate was centrifuged at 48 &# 39 ; 000 × g for 30 min at 4 ° c . subsequently , the supernatant was removed and discarded , and the pellet resuspended in 20 ml hepes - naoh ( 20 mm , ph 7 . 4 ) containing 0 . 1 mm edta using the polytron ( 20 s at 14 &# 39 ; 000 rpm ). this procedure was repeated and the final pellet resuspended in hepes - naoh containing 0 . 1 mm edta and homogenized using the polytron . typically , aliquots of 2 ml membrane portions were stored at − 80 ° c . with each new membrane batch the dissociation constant ( kd ) was determined via a saturation curve . the taar1 radioligand 3 [ h ]-( s )- 4 -[( ethyl - phenyl - amino )- methyl ]- 4 , 5 - dihydro - oxazol - 2 - ylamine ( described in wo 2008 / 098857 ) was used at a concentration equal to the calculated kd value , that was usually around 2 . 3 nm , resulting in the binding of approximately 0 . 2 % of the radioligand and a specific binding representing approximately 85 % of the total binding . nonspecific binding was defined as the amount of 3 [ h ]-( s )- 4 -[( ethyl - phenyl - amino )- methyl ]- 4 , 5 - dihydro - oxazol - 2 - ylamine bound in the presence of 10 μm unlabeled ligand . all compounds were tested at a broad range of concentrations ( 10 pm to 10 μm ) in duplicates . the test compounds ( 20 μl / well ) were transferred into a 96 deep well plate ( trefflab ), and 180 μl of hepes - naoh ( 20 mm , ph 7 . 4 ) containing mgcl 2 ( 10 mm ) and cacl 2 ( 2 mm ) ( binding buffer ), 300 μl of the radioligand 3 [ h ]-( s )- 4 -[( ethyl - phenyl - amino )- methyl ]- 4 , 5 - dihydro - oxazol - 2 - ylamine at a concentration of 3 . 3 × kd in nm and 500 μl of the membranes ( resuspended at 50 μg protein per ml ) added . the 96 deep well plates were incubated for 1 hr at 4 ° c . incubations were terminated by rapid filtration through unifilter - 96 plates ( packard instrument company ) and glass filters gf / c ( perkin elmer ) presoaked for 1 hr in polyethylenimine ( 0 . 3 %) and washed 3 times with 1 ml of cold binding buffer . after addition of 45 μl of microscint 40 ( perkinelmer ) the unifilter - 96 plate was sealed and after 1 hr the radioactivity counted using a topcount microplate scintillation counter ( packard instrument company ). hek - 293 cells stably expressing mouse taar1 were maintained at 37 ° c . and 5 % co 2 in dmem high glucose medium , containing fetal calf serum ( 10 %, heat inactivated for 30 min at 56 ° c . ), penicillin / streptomycin ( 1 %), and 375 μg / ml geneticin ( gibco ). cells were released from culture flasks using trypsin / edta , harvested , washed twice with ice - cold pbs ( without ca 2 + and mg 2 + ), pelleted at 1 &# 39 ; 000 rpm for 5 min at 4 ° c ., frozen and stored at − 80 ° c . frozen pellets were suspended in 20 ml hepes - naoh ( 20 mm , ph 7 . 4 ) containing 10 mm edta and homogenized with a polytron ( pt 6000 , kinematica ) at 14 &# 39 ; 000 rpm for 20 s . the homogenate was centrifuged at 48 &# 39 ; 000 × g for 30 min at 4 ° c . subsequently , the supernatant was removed and discarded , and the pellet resuspended in 20 ml hepes - naoh ( 20 mm , ph 7 . 4 ) containing 0 . 1 mm edta using the polytron ( 20 s at 14 &# 39 ; 000 rpm ). this procedure was repeated and the final pellet resuspended in hepes - naoh containing 0 . 1 mm edta and homogenized using the polytron . typically , aliquots of 2 ml membrane portions were stored at − 80 ° c . with each new membrane batch the dissociation constant ( kd ) was determined via a saturation curve . the taar1 radioligand 3 [ h ]-( s )- 4 -[( ethyl - phenyl - amino )- methyl ]- 4 , 5 - dihydro - oxazol - 2 - ylamine ( described in wo 2008 / 098857 ) was used at a concentration equal to the calculated kd value , that was usually around 0 . 7 nm , resulting in the binding of approximately 0 . 5 % of the radioligand and a specific binding representing approximately 70 % of the total binding . nonspecific binding was defined as the amount of 3 [ h ]-( s )- 4 -[( ethyl - phenyl - amino )- methyl ]- 4 , 5 - dihydro - oxazol - 2 - ylamine bound in the presence of 10 μm unlabeled ligand . all compounds were tested at a broad range of concentrations ( 10 μm to 10 μm ) in duplicates . the test compounds ( 20 μl / well ) were transferred into a 96 deep well plate ( trefflab ), and 180 μl of hepes - naoh ( 20 mm , ph 7 . 4 ) containing mgcl 2 ( 10 mm ) and cacl 2 ( 2 mm ) ( binding buffer ), 300 μl of the radioligand 3 [ h ]-( s )- 4 -[( ethyl - phenyl - amino )- methyl ]- 4 , 5 - dihydro - oxazol - 2 - ylamine at a concentration of 3 . 3 × kd in nm and 500 μl of the membranes ( resuspended at 60 μg protein per ml ) added . the 96 deep well plates were incubated for 1 hr at 4 ° c . incubations were terminated by rapid filtration through unifilter - 96 plates ( packard instrument company ) and glass filters gf / c ( perkin elmer ) presoaked for 1 hr in polyethylenimine ( 0 . 3 %) and washed 3 times with 1 ml of cold binding buffer . after addition of 45 μl of microscint 40 ( perkinelmer ) the unifilter - 96 plate was sealed and after 1 hr the radioactivity counted using a topcount microplate scintillation counter ( packard instrument company ). the preferred compounds show a ki value ( μm ) in mouse or rat on taar1 in the range of & lt ; 0 . 01 μm as shown in the table below . the compounds of formula i and the pharmaceutically acceptable salts of the compounds of formula i can be used as medicaments , e . g . in the form of pharmaceutical preparations . the pharmaceutical preparations can be administered orally , e . g . in the form of tablets , coated tablets , dragées , hard and soft gelatine capsules , solutions , emulsions or suspensions . the administration can , however , also be effected rectally , e . g . in the form of suppositories , or parenterally , e . g . in the form of injection solutions . the compounds of formula i can be processed with pharmaceutically inert , inorganic or organic carriers for the production of pharmaceutical preparations . lactose , corn starch or derivatives thereof , talc , stearic acids or its salts and the like can be used , for example , as such carriers for tablets , coated tablets , dragées and hard gelatine capsules . suitable carriers for soft gelatine capsules are , for example , vegetable oils , waxes , fats , semi - solid and liquid polyols and the like . depending on the nature of the active substance no carriers are however usually required in the case of soft gelatine capsules . suitable carriers for the production of solutions and syrups are , for example , water , polyols , glycerol , vegetable oil and the like . suitable carriers for suppositories are , for example , natural or hardened oils , waxes , fats , semi - liquid or liquid polyols and the like . the pharmaceutical preparations can , moreover , contain preservatives , solubilizers , stabilizers , wetting agents , emulsifiers , sweeteners , colorants , flavorants , salts for varying the osmotic pressure , buffers , masking agents or antioxidants . they can also contain still other therapeutically valuable substances . medicaments containing a compound of formula i or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof and a therapeutically inert carrier are also an object of the present invention , as is a process for their production , which comprises bringing one or more compounds of formula i and / or pharmaceutically acceptable acid addition salts and , if desired , one or more other therapeutically valuable substances into a galenical administration form together with one or more therapeutically inert carriers . the most preferred indications in accordance with the present invention are those which include disorders of the central nervous system , for example the treatment or prevention of depression , psychosis , parkinson &# 39 ; s disease , anxiety and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder ( adhd ). the dosage can vary within wide limits and will , of course , have to be adjusted to the individual requirements in each particular case . in the case of oral administration the dosage for adults can vary from about 0 . 01 mg to about 1000 mg per day of a compound of general formula i or of the corresponding amount of a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof . the daily dosage can be administered as single dose or in divided doses and , in addition , the upper limit can also be exceeded when this is found to be indicated . mg / tablet item ingredients 5 mg 25 mg 100 mg 500 mg 1 . compound of formula i 5 25 100 500 2 . lactose anhydrous dtg 125 105 30 150 3 . sta - rx 1500 6 6 6 30 4 . microcrystalline cellulose 30 30 30 150 5 . magnesium stearate 1 1 1 1 total 167 167 167 831 1 . mix items 1 , 2 , 3 and 4 and granulate with purified water . 2 . dry the granules at 50 ° c . 3 . pass the granules through suitable milling equipment . 4 . add item 5 and mix for three minutes ; compress on a suitable press . mg / capsule item ingredients 5 mg 25 mg 100 mg 500 mg 1 . compound of formula i 5 25 100 500 2 . hydrous lactose 159 123 148 — 3 . corn starch 25 35 40 70 4 . talc 10 15 10 25 5 . magnesium stearate 1 2 2 5 total 200 200 300 600 1 . mix items 1 , 2 and 3 in a suitable mixer for 30 minutes . 2 . add items 4 and 5 and mix for 3 minutes . 3 . fill into a suitable capsule . | 2 |
a better understanding of the present invention might be achieved by first referring to fig1 , a depiction of the hdlc / atm standard requirements , in which 50 is a scrambler operatively connected to a transmitter ( not shown ), and 55 is a xor gate for scrambling a sequence of data bits . xor gate 55 has as one input d ( k ), the k - th data bit in a sequence , and as the other input scrambling bit s ( k − 43 ). xor gate 55 output is s ( k ), the k - th scrambled bit . s ( k ) is then transmitted to a receiver ( not shown ) to which descrambler 60 is operatively connected . s ( k ) is then descrambled by xor gate 65 having as one input s ( k ), as the second input s ( k − 43 ), i . e . the scrambling bit , and as the descrambled output — bit d ( k ), the data bit . referring now to fig2 , there is depicted a schematic sd system representative of those taught in prior art hdlc / atm standard related publications , in which transmitter 10 transmits data serially along line 12 into scrambler 20 of a communication system . line 12 is connected to one of two input terminals of xor gate 22 that performs the scrambling operation on bit d ( k ) by xor - ing it with s ( k − 43 ) and outputs the scrambled bit s ( k ) into lines 24 and 26 . line 26 is connected to a serial forty three bit storage cells comprising shift register 28 , for storing already scrambled and transmitted data . said bit storage cells forming part of a register could be constituted by flip - flops and will be referred to hereinbelow as “ cells ”. the data is loaded one bit at a time : as newly scrambled bits are input one at a time via line 26 and stored in cell 34 of shift register 28 , the other previously stored bits are shifted towards cell 32 of the shift register and are eventually lost . a clock ( not shown ) provides a line with an enabling signal via parallel connections to the appropriate cells , for the bit storage and the bit shifting . the oldest bit s ( k − 43 ), stored in shift register 28 leftmost cell 32 , is the scrambled output s ( k − 43 ) of data bit d ( k − 43 ) and therefore precedes the current data bit d ( k ) to be scrambled by forty three bits . bit s ( k − 43 ) is input into the second input terminal of xor gate 22 , and is xor - ed with bit d ( k ) to generate the gate &# 39 ; s output bit s ( k ). bit s ( k ) is then transmitted along line 24 to receiver 100 and along line 26 to shift register 28 into which it is then loaded . while bit s ( k − 43 ) is lost and bit s ( k − 42 ) is shifted into cell 32 and is ready to be input into xor gate 22 next operation on d ( k + 1 ). thus , a forty three bit difference always exists between the xor - ed data bit and the scrambled bit . an initial sequence of forty three bits is then loaded into register 28 to permit the initial sd operation . the descrambling of the transmitted data takes place in descrambler 120 . transmitted bit s ( k ) is input via line 24 to receiver 100 , by line 126 to cell 134 of shift register 128 , and via line 124 into one of two input terminals of xor gate 122 . stored bit s ( k − 43 ) is input via line 127 to the second terminal of xor gate 122 . the output bit of xor gate 122 is output to line 129 and is identical to d ( k ). therefore circuit 120 descrambles bit s ( k ), scrambled by circuit 20 . referring now to fig3 , there is shown a schematic illustration of the storage requirements for the parallel scrambling of thirty two serially transmitted bits at a time , according to the present invention , in which “ n ” is the ordinal number of the group of bits currently processed in parallel , n equals 32 in this embodiment . shift register 140 stores bits d ( 32 * n ) to d ( 32 * n + 31 ), the thirty two current input bits to be scrambled and transmitted . shift register 150 stores s ( 32 * n − 1 ) to s ( 32 * n − 32 ), i . e . the thirty two bits scrambled and transmitted during the previous parallel scrambling step , and shift register 160 stores at least s ( 32 * n − 33 ) to s ( 32 * n − 43 ), i . e . the last eleven bits of the thirty two bits scrambled and transmitted during the prior to the previous operation . storing of scrambled bits from two preceding thirty two bit groups is necessary , since the scrambling of input bit d ( 32 * n + i ) is done by inputting to a xor gate the d ( 32 * n + i ) bit and an s ( 32 * n + i − 43 ) bit , and thus scrambled bits from two previous steps need to be stored and be accessible for scrambling of new data . in this way d ( 32 * n + 31 ) is scrambled by being input with s ( 32 * n − 11 ) and d ( 32 * n ) is scrambled by being input with s ( 32 * n − 43 ). similar sd schemes could be devised for different number of input bits processed in parallel , such as 8 , 16 , 24 or 40 , or for standards which call for scrambling the input data by using scrambled input bits that are spaced apart by spacings other than forty three . also note that up to forty three bits can be processed in parallel according to the hdlc / atm standard by the application of the present invention . with reference to fig4 , there is shown a schematic illustration of a circuit according to an exemplary embodiment of a thirty two bit parallel scrambler constructed in accordance with the present invention . it should be realized that a different number of bits could be processed in parallel according to the present invention , however thirty two has been selected as illustrative of an example where a relatively large number of bits are processed in parallel , and yet the method remains convenient in terms of economics and current technology . systems and methods for the parallel processing of other numbers of bits , such as 8 , 16 , or 24 bits could easily be constructed based on the description of the invention presented herein . all of the devices such as memory cells and xor gates that require enabling and disabling signals are connected by conductor lines to appropriate signal sources such as clocks , as is familiar . a transmitter 210 serially transmits bits d ( k ) via line 212 into a serial - to - parallel shift register 253 . register 253 comprises thirty two cells 220 to 251 storing thirty two currently processed bits numbered d ( 32 * n ) to d ( 32 * n + 31 ), said parallel numbering being equivalent to serial numbering of d ( k ) to d ( k + 31 ). each one of thirty two memory cells 220 to 251 is connected to one of corresponding thirty two cells 300 through 331 of parallel register 333 via corresponding lines 260 through 291 , said lines 260 through 291 forming bus 295 . once register 253 is loaded , an enabling signal is generated , permitting the contents of its cells 220 to 251 to be copied in parallel into corresponding cells 340 to 371 of register 300 . corresponding output terminal of each of memory cells 340 to 371 is connected to a corresponding input terminal of thirty two xor gates 500 to 531 via corresponding lines 340 to 371 , forming bus 375 . the second input terminal of each xor gate 500 to 531 is correspondingly connected to memory cells 441 to 472 of at least forty three cell shift register 440 , storing at least forty three previously scrambled bits s ( 32 * n − 43 ) to s ( 32 * n − 11 ) for scrambling current input bits d ( 32 * n ) to d ( 32 * n + 31 ). at least eleven other memory cells 473 to 483 of scrambling register 440 , for storing scrambled bits s ( 32 * n ) to s ( 32 * n − 11 ), are not connected to xor gates 500 to 531 . their contents are stored for use in the next parallel scrambling step . therefore , the two input terminals of each one of xor gates 500 to 531 , generally denoted as number ( 500 + i ), are connected to d ( 32 * n + i ) and to s ( 32 * n + i − 43 ), respectively , i being a number between 0 and 31 , e . g each xor gate is connected to a first input bit and to a scrambled bit outputted from an input bit that preceded said first input bit by forty three bits , as is required by the hdlc / atm standard . the output bit of each of said 500 to 531 xor gates is transmitted via corresponding lines 600 to 631 , forming bus 575 , into corresponding cells 640 to 671 in register 673 . after performance of the xor operation , the contents of register 440 cells s ( 32 * n − 1 ) through s ( 32 * n − 11 ) are shifted by thirty two places , into cells s ( 32 * n − 33 ) through cell s ( 32 * n − 43 ). then the contents of cells 640 to 671 of register 673 , the newly scrambled bits s ( 32 * n ) to s ( 32 * n + 31 ), are moved into cells 472 to 441 of scrambling register 440 , replacing s ( 32 * n − 32 ) to s ( 32 * n − 1 ), correspondingly . registers 253 and 300 can then be loaded with the next thirty two transmitted input bits . also , during the loading of register 440 from register 673 , newly scrambled bits s ( 32 * n ) to s ( 32 * n + 31 ) can be serially transmitted via line 700 . referring now to fig5 , there is shown a descrambling system used by the receiver for the processing of thirty two bits parallel according to the present invention . additionally , methods for the parallel processing of other numbers of bits , such as eight , sixteen , or twenty four could easily be adapted from the invention presented herein . also , it is not required to have both the scrambler and the descrambler made to process in parallel the same number of bits . one of them could even be a simple serial scrambler or descrambler . a receiver 1210 serially receives scrambled bits s ( 32 * n + i ) via line 1212 and into a serial to parallel shift register 1253 . shift register 1253 comprises of thirty two memory cells 1220 to 1251 storing thirty two most recently transmitted scrambled bits s ( 32 * n ) to s ( 32 * n + 31 ). memory cells 1220 to 1251 are connected to thirty two corresponding cells 1300 through 1331 of parallel register 1333 via corresponding lines 1260 through 1291 , said lines forming bus 1295 . output terminals of each one of memory cells 1300 to 1331 are correspondingly connected to one input terminal of each one of thirty two xor gates 1500 to 1531 via corresponding lines 1340 to 1371 forming bus 1375 . the second input terminal of each one of xor gates 1500 to 1531 is correspondingly connected to memory cells 1441 to 1472 of a forty three cell shift register 1440 , storing thirty two previously received scrambled bits s ( 32 * n − 43 ) to s ( 32 * n − 12 ). eleven other memory cells 1473 to 1483 of scrambling register 1440 , storing received , scrambled bits s ( 32 * n − 1 ) to s ( 32 * n − 11 ), are not connected to xor gates , their contents is stored to be used in the next parallel scrambling step after shifting . therefore , the two input terminals of each one of said xor gates , generally denoted as number ( 1500 + i ), are connected to s ( 32 * n + i ) and to s ( 32 * n + i − 43 ), i being a number between 0 and the number of bits processed in parallel , thirty two in this embodiment . each xor gate is connected to a first input bit and to a scrambled bit outputted from an input bit that preceded said first input bit by forty three bits , as is required by the hdlc / atm standard . the output bit of each of said xor gates d ( 32 * n ) to d ( 32 * n + 31 ) is transmitted via corresponding lines 1600 to 1631 , forming bus 1700 , into corresponding cells 1750 to 1781 in register 1783 . after carrying out of the xor operation , the contents of register 1440 cells s ( 32 * n − 1 ) to s ( 32 * n − 11 ) is shifted by thirty two places , into cells s ( 32 * n − 12 ) to cell s ( 32 * n − 43 ). then the newly received , scrambled bits s ( 32 * n ) to s ( 32 * n + 31 ), forming the contents of cells 1640 to 1671 , connected to line 1212 by line 1214 of register 1673 is moved into cells 1472 to 1441 of scrambling register 1440 , replacing the contents of cells s ( 32 * n − 32 ) to s ( 32 * n − 1 ), correspondingly . registers 1253 and 1333 can then be loaded with the next thirty two received bits . also , during the loading of register 1440 from register 1673 , newly descrambled bits d ( 32 * n ) to d ( 32 * n + 31 ) can be serially transmitted via line 1700 . referring now to fig6 , there is shown a detailed view of an embodiment 2100 of the present invention of a system for the parallel scrambling of thirty two serially transmitted bits . xor gates 2000 through 2031 are divided into four sequential eight - bit groups each , for the scrambling of unscrambled bits d ( 31 ) through d ( 0 ) respectively , wherein bit d ( 31 ) is the first to be input and bit d ( 0 ) is the last to be input in a sequence of thirty two serial bits . each one of bits d ( 31 ) through d ( 0 ) forms one input to said xor gates , the second input bit being an already scrambled bit : scrambled bits designated s i ( 31 ) through s i ( 0 ) ( wherein si designates scrambled input ) were scrambled in the previous cycle , and scrambled bits designated a ( 10 ) through a ( 0 ) were scrambled in the cycle preceding said previous cycle . bits a ( 0 ) through a ( 7 ) are stored in register 2051 , and bits a ( 8 ) through a ( 10 ) are stored in register 2052 . the thirty two output bits of xor gates 2000 through 2031 are the currently scrambled bits s o ( 0 ) through s o ( 31 ), respectively ( wherein s o denotes scrambled output ), and are stored in four eight - bit registers 2041 through 2044 , from which they may be transmitted serially or in parallel by any other device , not shown here . referring now to fig7 , there is shown a detailed view of an embodiment 2600 of the present invention of a system for the parallel descrambling of thirty two serially transmitted scrambled bits . xor gates 2500 through 2531 are divided into four eight - bit groups each , for the descrambling of transmitted , scrambled bits s ( 31 ) through s ( 0 ) respectively , wherein bit s ( 31 ) is the first to be input and bit s ( 0 ) is the last to be input in a sequence of thirty two serial bits . each one of bits s ( 31 ) through s ( 0 ) forms one of two inputs to said xor gates , the second input bit being a scrambled bit previously transmitted forty three bits earlier : bits designated c ( 31 ) through c ( 0 ) were scrambled and transmitted in the previous thirty two bit sequence , and are stored in flip - flop register 2550 . bits designated a ( 10 ) through a ( 0 ) were scrambled in the sequence preceding said previous cycle and are stored in flip - flop register 2551 , a ( 7 ) through a ( 0 ) and in flip - flop register 2552 , a ( 10 ) through a ( 8 ). the thirty two output bits of xor gates 2500 through 2531 are the descrambled bits d ( o ) through d ( 31 ), respectively , and are stored in four eight - bit flip - flop registers 2541 through 2544 , from which they may be transmitted serially or in parallel for further processing . the foregoing description of an exemplary embodiment is presented in order to enable a person of ordinary skill in the art to design , make and utilize the present invention . various modifications and adaptations to the exemplary embodiment will be apparent to those skilled in the art , and different modifications may be applied to different embodiments . therefore , it will be appreciated that the invention is not limited to what has been described hereinbelow merely by way of example . rather , the invention is limited solely by the claims which follow this description . | 7 |
referring to the drawings for clearer understanding of the invention , there can be seen in fig1 a wheelchair 11 and an upright mobile i . v . stand 12 . the i . v . stand 12 carries an i . v . pump or bag 13 and is supported by a plurality of wheels 14 . an upright tubular member 15 of variable diameter and dimensions carries the pump or bag 13 of i . v . stand 12 . the diameter or dimensions of the tubular member 15 varies with the size of the pump or bag 13 it supports as well as differing among manufactures of the i . v . stand 12 . the wheelchair 11 has as part of its frame tubular cross members 16 and 17 which cross at a junction 18 and have coaligned apertures 20 at this junction 18 . a fastener is normally inserted through the coaligned apertures 20 of cross members 16 and 17 to provide stability , support and folding nature of wheelchair 11 . a coupling device 19 connects the i . v . stand 12 to cross members 16 and 17 of wheelchair 11 at junction 18 . the coupling 19 includes a first tubular member 21 having affixed at an end thereof a tubular boss 24 of a first semicylindrical guide 23 . first semicylindrical guide 23 is adapted to mate with either tubular cross member 16 or 17 at the junction 16 . a fastener 26 is affixed to the first tubular member and in any number of ways . in the described embodiment a cross bolt 27 extends through first tubular member 21 and fastener 26 . the fastener 26 is inserted through aligned apertures 20 of cross members 16 and 17 as the first semicylindrical guide 23 is brought into engagement with cross member 16 . a nut 25 secures fastener 26 and semicylindrical guide 23 to cross member 16 of wheelchair 11 as shown in fig4 . the first tubular member 21 extends horizontally from the wheelchair 11 proximal said first semicylindrical guide 23 . a second set of apertures 33 and 36 are formed through a wall of the first tubular member 21 . a second tubular member 22 slidably engages an end of said first tubular member 21 distal said wheelchair 11 for movement between an inward and extended position . a pin 31 is resiliently mounted to an end of the second tubular member 22 proximal said first tubular member 21 . the pin 31 engages aperture 32 or 33 to secure the second tubular member 21 in an inward or outward position . in the alternative , the second tubular member 22 can be rotated such that pin 31 engages aperture 36 at secured outward position . second tubular member 22 supports at an end distal the first tubular member 21 clamping means designated generally by reference numeral 37 . in one embodiment the clamping means 37 includes a second semicylindrical guide 38 with a protruding tubular boss 39 . the boss 39 is affixed to the distal end of the second tubular member 22 . the second semicylindrical guide 38 is formed perpendicular to boss 39 as shown in fig . 3 . a concave face 40 of second semicylindrical guide 38 is adapted to engage the upright tubular member 15 of i . v . stand 12 . a resilient strip 41 is affixed at one end to a distal end of said second tubular member 22 adjacent the second semicylindrical guide 38 and extends partially around the upright tubular member 15 of i . v . stand 12 . this will also engage various other dimensions . resilient strip 41 has attached to an end thereof a latch hook 42 which engages a latch bar member 43 pivotally mounted to a latch lever 44 . the latch lever 44 is affixed to said second semicylindrical guide 38 and or second tubular portion 22 on a side opposite said strip 41 . latch hook 42 is engaged or disengaged from said latch bar member 43 by manual manipulation of latch lever 44 . thus the tubular member 15 of i . v . stand 12 is secured in mated abutment with face 40 of second semicylindrical guide 38 by latch lever 44 . in actual operation , the coupling device 19 is secured to wheelchair 11 as discussed hereinabove . the second tubular member 22 slides into the first tubular member 21 and is secured by pin 31 engaging aperture 32 . in the inward position the second tubular member 22 is in close proximity with the rear of wheelchair 11 and does not interfere with operation of the wheelchair 11 without an attached i . v . stand 12 . when transporting a patient who requires an i . v . stand 12 , the operator manually extends second tubular member relative to first tubular member 21 . the pin 31 engages aperture 33 and secures the second tubular member 22 in an outward position relative to first tubular member 21 . the face 40 of the second semicylindrical guide 38 must be oriented in a vertical position to engage upright tubular member 15 of the i . v . stand 12 . thus , the angle to which the first tubular member 21 is attached to cross members 16 or 17 will at times require that the second tubular member 22 be rotated and secured with the pin 31 engaging aperture 36 to insure that the second semicylindrical guide 38 is vertically oriented to conform with upright tubular member 15 of i . v . stand 12 . a clamping means 37 secures the tubular member 15 of i . v . stand 12 to the semicylindrical guide 38 . one method of clamping includes an elastic strip 41 which engages a portion of the tubular member 15 . the strip 41 has a latch hook 42 affixed to an end thereof which engages a pivotable latch bar member 43 of a latch lever 44 mounted to an opposite side of the second semicylindrical guide 38 or distal end of second tubular member 22 . other securing means , such as velcro ® strips or metallic bands , may also be used in the embodiment . when secured , the i . v . pump 13 and stand 12 trail to the rear of the wheelchair 11 between the operator and the wheelchair 11 . with the i . v . stand 12 in line with wheelchair 11 the unit is narrow and maneuverable about various obstacles . additionally , because the i . v . poles is held between the wheelchair wheels and immediately behind the patient it does not interfere with the operator pushing wheelchair 11 . the i . v . stand 12 raises and lowers with the rear of wheelchair 11 as the operator lifts or tilts the wheelchair 11 over obstructions . this gives the operator more control over the unit especially across uneven surfaces . the wheelchair 11 and secured i . v . stand 12 are moved through doorways , elevators and down ramps with as little lifting , tilting , or complex maneuvering as possible . although i have shown my invention in one form , it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that it is not so limited but susceptible of various changes and modifications without departing from the spirit thereof . | 8 |
reference will now be made in detail to the presently preferred embodiments of the invention , examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings . throughout the following detailed description , the same reference numerals refer to the same elements in all figures . the term water - tight seal refers to the ability of the seal to reduce or prevent penetration by standing water , water vapor , high water , driven water and the like . this term is not absolute , in that , under certain circumstances , water is capable of penetrating the seal . such circumstances are related to the pressure exerted by the water and to the surface on which the water - tight seal is installed . the disclosures in this application can be designed , implemented , combined or installed in all or in part to this inventor &# 39 ; s patent applications , including the application entitled “ comprehensive surface treatment methods and emissions control ” filed mar . 8 , 2006 ; the content of which is incorporated herein by reference . fig1 shows a typical structure 1 / 4 such as a pre - manufactured tent frame 1 / 4 covered with a sheet material forming an enclosure having a weather - tight , climate - controlled atmosphere . prior to the present invention , a method of securing the structure 1 / 4 to a flat or semi - flat surface such as a ship deck used tie - down cables 3 . the enclosure and the vacuum seal base frame 6 ( see fig5 ), according to the present invention , may be produced of any material , size , or shape . a sheet material covering ( not shown ) may be of any desired material that can be installed or applied in an applicable manner known to those skilled in the art . in some embodiments , the enclosure includes interior lighting . in some embodiments of the enclosure system , two or more enclosures are positioned as gable - end to gable - end at a distance equal to the spacing of the truss 30 and additional proper fitting sheet material is installed to cover the void . in some embodiments of the enclosure system , appendages or extensions of the enclosure are fabricated for the purpose of adjoining to a side wall of the enclosure and extending to provide additional work areas . environmental controlled enclosure embodiments of the present invention include a vacuum sealed base frame . the vacuum sealed base frames , at either adjoining end , are removable to provide an un - obstructed work area throughout the complete interior area . in some embodiments , the enclosure includes wheels for moving the enclosure to the desired location . in some embodiments , the enclosure is custom - designed and built to fit for the purpose required and the frame work is designed to strengthen the enclosure to prevent racking of the enclosure while it is being relocated to the next desired location . fig2 shows the interior strengthening frame work 5 , which is detachably affixed to the perimeter base frame 6 , and has a seal as shown in fig5 . in some embodiments of this invention , the interior frame 5 has wheels 7 at all vertical support columns . in some embodiments , these wheel assemblies in all , or in part , either swivel or are adjustable in any desired position to direct the path in which the enclosure is to be moved . any type of wheel assemblies known by a person skilled in the art is anticipated . in some embodiments , the wheel assemblies include a calibration disk at the top of the axle shaft . in some embodiments , the interior frame 5 includes additional strengthening cables 8 and 9 . cables 8 are detachable from the base frame 6 in each end . cables 9 are capable of being slackened or left tightened so the interior frame 5 , cables 8 and 9 and wheel assemblies 7 will detach from the frame 6 and elevate into the overhead thereby providing an unobstructed work area . cables 9 include turnbuckles , ratchets , or any means known for tightening / loosening to those skilled in the art . the interior base strengthening members 5 or struts are dropped into sockets , custom designed holders , bolted , pins or detachably installed by any means known to those skilled in the art as well . fig3 shows the base framing struts or strengthening framing 5 detachably affixed to the vertical truss 9 at the perimeter seal base frame 6 . in the preferred embodiment , strut 37 has a hinge 10 and the wheel assemblies 7 a are installed to the swing away frame 11 ; so that when the interior detachable framing is elevated into the overhead as wheel assembly 12 , the wheel assemblies 7 a / 7 b are pivoted back flush with strut 37 as shown at 11 a to clear vertical upright 9 . the securing device 12 is a securing slot , hanger device ( not shown ), or any other means of securing the strut 5 a . the base frame 6 and seal are discussed later . the hinged swing away frame 11 is shown moved to the upper storage position with wheel assemblies 7 b or 7 c . in some embodiments , the frame 11 a is pivotal back against the brace or strut 37 . the modular interior frame means permits the entire interior of the enclosure to be free from any wheel assemblies and or supporting structures of said wheel assemblies . in one embodiment the wheel assembly 7 are fabricated inline with perimeter base frame 6 as shown in fig4 . in such , the wheels remain in position and the seal is formed or positioned around the wheels to complete the continuous seal . the adjacent vacuum cells draw down said seals around the wheels . the wheel assemblies are detachable affixed to vertical upright stanchions at 9 a or 9 b . however , in the some embodiments , the wheel 7 a is attached to the frame 11 . in some embodiments , two or more wheel assemblies have a lock - in direction 13 by means of a pivoting shaft 13 a and have an optional dial gauged directional indicator , set in the desired direction and then locked in the desired position by set screws or any means known to those skilled in the art . in some embodiments , the shaft 13 a has a directional indicator 14 , in which the shaft includes a means of locking into position and set and locked into the desired direction that the enclosure is to move and thereby guides the enclosure as it is pulled , pushed or motor - driven ( not shown ) to the next position . as indicated before , in some embodiments , two or more wheels are locking directional wheels . any remaining wheel assemblies swivel by means of a vertical shaft penetrating or affixed by any known means to the base perimeter base frame 6 interior brace framing or struts 37 or the interior strengthening frame work . the directional wheel assemblies are rotated by any means known to those skilled in the art . the interior struts or frame work 5 is elevated after the enclosure is in position for work to be performed . the frame 5 is elevated in the preferred embodiment by means of a cable 16 or any known means affixed to the said frame by means of a winch 15 that may be located at 15 or 15 a . the frame 5 is detached by means of pins , bolts lifting out of receiving and stabilizing slots not shown . fig4 depicts a plan view of a wheel assembly 7 a positioned inline with the base frame 6 with the interior frame 5 detachably affixed to said wheel assembly . the wheel assembly 7 a pivots or is directionally secured in the desired direction that the enclosure is required to move . the wheel assemblies that are required to provide the desired direction to move the enclosure are installed in any two or more wheel assembly locations . fig5 shows the underside of base frame 6 and shows the water - tight seal 18 with vacuum seal cells 17 . the frame 6 is made of a rigid or semi - rigid material such as aluminum , plastic , steel or iron ; enabling conformation to uneven work surfaces . the water - tight seal 18 is made from a soft , pliable material that conforms to lesser deviations in the work surfaces , thereby sealing the vacuum ports 17 and providing a water - tight seal to the overall base frame 6 . the water - tight seal 18 is made from a soft , pliable material such as neoprene , rubber and foam rubber . fig6 is a close - up view of one vacuum port 17 . the vacuum inlet 19 is affixed to a vacuum conduit and valves ( see fig8 ). when the frame 6 is placed on the work surfaces , such as a ship deck , a vacuum pump , not shown , draws air through vacuum inlet port 19 and thereby pulling the seal firmly to the work surface and creating a water - tight seal . any configuration of vacuum cells is anticipated . in the preferred embodiment of the present invention , the vacuum cells are separated by dividers 20 so that each cell operates independently by its associated vacuum inlet port and valves . with such , if one or more seal cells fail or are positioned over an obstacle such as a pad eye on an aircraft carrier deck causing that vacuum cell 17 to lose vacuum , the adjacent cells will still maintain a satisfactory vacuum to secure the enclosure to the said surface . the vacuum is capable of securing the enclosure to the said surface in winds or bad weather conditions . the base frame sections 6 are , in the preferred embodiment , made of aluminum that is semi - flexible to conform to variable deviations in the work surfaces by bending of the base frame sections 6 and the strength of the vacuum pulling the base frame 6 tight to the said surface . in other embodiments , the base frame 6 is made of plastics , alloys or any material that conforms to such deviation in said surfaces . the base frame 6 is used in any configuration and on any applicable surface , such as ship decks with rough , non - skid coating , on ship hulls , on superstructures and in combination with one or more other vacuum seal means , any number , shape , size and characteristics of vacuum cells within any size , shape or configuration or combination of frame rails . in some embodiments , the base frame 6 has wheels . the base frame 6 is formed in any dimension , orientation , length , etc ., to match any applicable enclosure . the enclosure is held in any desired formation , location , or aided in same by means of any applicable configuration , combination of brackets , tie backs , tension cable , or any means know to those skilled in the art . multiple vacuum base frames 6 form a continuous water - tight seal along its length / width placement . each is individually operated ( locked or free ) or delivered different vacuum pressures , to provide a frame and pliable seal . in some embodiments , a pliable seal ( not shown ) is custom - cut to install on the underside of the existing water - tight seal 18 to form a complete seal that fills large deviations in a surface . the base frame 6 conforms to deviations in a deck or similar surface without the use or any semi - liquid , liquid foam or any similar sealants . in some embodiments , the vacuum base frames are made from durable plastics with hinged sections and are semi - flexible or formed in any shape dimensions , configuration , or length . the base frames are configurable to be affixed to a frame of any applicable enclosure . the enclosure and covering is affixed to the frame rail 6 by clamps , tension cables , or any means known to those skilled in the art . any number of base frames 6 are affixed to an enclosure frame , tension cables , or an enclosure that is air supported or by any means known to those skilled in the art , thereby enabling work to be performed or weather prevention to be performed within , can withstand strong winds without harm by means of the vacuum created and only requires to take up its own foot print without the need for guy cables , etc . in some embodiments , the sheet material that makes up the enclosure can be removed from the roof trussed by means of the uprights and truss components from manufactures . the sheet material is erected and stricken by means of channels formed in the roof trusses so that the edges of the sheet material is designed to slide in and out or the channels , and the side sheets may simply be slid off the vertical uprights by means of the design . in alternate embodiments , the base frame 6 has a vacuum seal ( vacuum port 17 ) on one or more edges , sides , upper and lower edges , or any required configuration , to prevent water intrusion from those directions . in some embodiments , each vacuum cell is configured with a valve as known to those skilled in the art . the present invention utilizes internal framing , bracing , cabling , or any means that stabilizes the enclosure and the vacuum base frame rail . the water - tight seal 18 is made from any pliable material . if the water - tight seal 18 fails , replacement is performed by means of inserting the frame rail with the water - tight seal 18 affixed through a jig with a hot wire to cut off the failed water - tight seal 18 and a new water - tight seal 18 is affixed . alternately , the water tight seal 18 is cut off by a custom made knife that , in some embodiments , is heated . the water - tight seal 18 is affixed to the base frame 6 by means of fasteners , glues or any mean known to those skilled in the art . in some embodiment the base frames 6 are made in 20 foot lengths , but there is no restriction on the length or width of the base frames 6 . in some embodiments , the base frames 6 are attachable or affixed between each vertical upright stanchion and truss 9 . the water - tight seal 18 is made of any suitable material such as rubber , foam rubber , neoprene , nylon , etc . the water - tight seal 18 is made of any desired thickness and of a material having the to conform to the surface to which it is applied . the water - tight seal 18 is replaceable by means of cutting it from the base frame 6 with a hot blade , fitted into slots , or by any means known to those skilled in the art . fig7 shows a top view of one base frame section 6 . in this embodiment , the base frame 6 is a channel iron that provides room and protection of the vacuum conduit 22 ( see fig8 ) and valve assemblies during operation of the enclosure and shipping . during shipment , the base frames 6 are stacked seal - to - seal and top edge of the channel in an alternating position and bolted to brackets ( not shown ) in groups for shipping . the base frame 6 is made of any rigid or semi - flexible material and in any applicable form . the present invention uses , in the preferred embodiment , a channel of any alloy or applicable material . the flanges or upright sides 35 of the channel permit protection of the valve assemblies . in one embodiment of the present invention , the vacuum conduits of each base frame 6 are connected one to another in series so the vacuum can be drawn from one or more locations and that each base frame 18 can communicate with one another by means of quick disconnects , detachably affixed conduit connectors or any means known to those skilled in the art . fig8 is a close - up view of the vacuum conduit and valve system . each base rail 6 has a main vacuum conduit line 22 which runs substantially the length of the base rail 6 and is connected to other base rails 6 by means of hoses or conduit ( not shown ) and to one or more vacuum pumps ( not shown ). the vacuum pumps are of any type known in the art , such as bubble stage rapid draw vacuum pump or pumps that create a rapid initial seal or a high pressure vacuum pump or pumps to pull the maximum vacuum compressing the seal to the work surface and will draw the seal into irregularities in the work surface . some work surfaces have rough non - skid textures such as a ship flight deck , concrete and asphalt . in the preferred embodiment , a t - adapter 29 in the main vacuum line 22 connects to a valve assembly that connects with a vacuum cell or chamber 17 through a vacuum inlet port 19 as shown in fig7 . each vacuum cell 17 is independently controlled by an optional valve 25 , an optional check valve 26 and an optional release valve 28 . the one - way check valve 26 prevents a vacuum leak should the vacuum pump or another vacuum cell 17 fail . air is sucked in through the valve 25 , through the check valve 26 and in through the vacuum inlet port 19 . in some embodiments , a release valve 28 is provided to release the vacuum and is useful in situations where the base frames 6 needs to be relocated . the check valve 26 is an additional safety precaution to prevent the loss of vacuum in the main vacuum line 22 should there be a breach in the base seal 18 at that particular vacuum cell 17 . if a breach occurs in one or more particular vacuum cells 17 , all other vacuum cells 17 will still function by means closing control valve 25 for the failed vacuum cell 17 . when the seal is no longer required as in when the base frame 6 is to be moved , the vacuum needs to be releases to releasing the seal from the work surface as for the purpose of relocation of the enclosure . in this case , the release valve 28 is opened releasing the vacuum from the vacuum inlet port 19 . if vacuum is still needed in the main line 22 , the control valve 25 is closed . control valve 25 is opened to allow for a vacuum to be created in its associated vacuum cell and closed when a water - tight seal fails or leaks , thereby preventing water or air from being drawn into the main line 22 . fig9 shows one embodiment of an optional wheel assembly 11 that enables the enclosure to be lifted from the work surface . the wheel housing assembly 7 is connected to base rail frame 6 . a hydraulic jack 30 is coupled at one end to the wheels 45 and at the other end to the jack frame 24 . the hydraulic jack 30 is shown in the extended position , lifting the base rail 6 off the work surface . the ram 31 is hydraulically forced against the top of the jack frame 24 , and the base of the jack forced against the movable plate 33 , thereby pressing down on the wheel 45 . a fluid system ( not shown ) controls the hydraulic jack 30 and is coupled to the hydraulic jack 30 by hydraulic tubing 29 . the wheel lifting system of fig9 is an example and any jack , screw or other means known to those skilled in the art for lifting the base frame 6 and hence , the enclosure , is anticipated . fig1 is an elevated view of a typical vertical upright stanchion 9 , which is detachably affixed to wheel assembly 11 . a securing receiver 36 is detachably affixed to base plate 37 that connects upright stanchion 9 to base rail 6 . in this example , base rails 6 are adjoining in contact with each other , end to end ; thereby providing a seal 17 that is continuous , preventing water intrusion around the entire perimeter of the base frame 6 . receiver 36 secures interior base framing 5 when the enclosure is in the movable mode ( raised up on wheels 45 ). fig1 shows an alternate embodiment with the pivoting wheel assembly 11 with wheel 7 a which is , in turn , connected to the upright stanchion 9 . a female receiver 36 on the base frame connector 37 accepts the male receiver 26 a on wheel assembly . fig1 is a plan view of a means for securing or stabilizing the enclosure 1 to the deck of a ship or other work surface . tension cable 38 / 39 is adjustably and detachably secured to pad eyes 40 or any placement of anchor installations by any means known to those skilled in the art . the enclosure 1 is moved along the tension cable 38 / 39 by means of snatch blocks 41 or any means known to those skilled in the art , for example , a ratchet system . in some embodiments ( not shown ), one end of the tension cable 38 / 39 is relocated to a distal set of pad eyes 40 to facilitate the non - linear movement of the enclosure 1 . once the tension cable 38 / 39 is affixed to the distal set of pad eyes 40 , the tension cable 38 / 39 is tightened to shift the enclosure 1 to align with the new set of pad eyes 40 , then the enclosure 1 is pulled along the tension cable 38 / 39 . in some embodiments , the interior base structural framing is retractable into the overhead . in some embodiments , any required interior frame bracing is installed at the turn of the vertical upright stanchions and the trusses . fig1 shows a disk 300 for sealing over a pad eye 400 on a flight deck of a ship . an aircraft carrier deck has thousands of pad eyes 400 that are approximately 5 inches in diameter . when the perimeter base frame 6 with its water - tight seal 18 is positioned over one or more pad eyes 400 , the vacuum will not function properly . to seal the pad eye 400 , a thin metal disk 100 with a rubber seal 200 affixed on a bottom surface is placed over the pad eye 400 creating a water - tight seal . the vacuum press down on the disk 100 and forms a seal over the pad eye 400 preventing loss of vacuum in the vacuum cells 17 situated over the pad eye 400 , thereby preventing water intrusion . in some embodiments , the disk 100 is reinforced with ribs 300 . fig1 shows a cross - section showing the cupped form of the pad eye 400 . the disk 200 reduces water or air leakage into the enclosure or into the vacuum securing means . when an enclosure base frame 6 is positioned over or partially over a pad eyes 400 , the downward force of the enclosure 1 with stanchions 9 will assert pressure on the disk 100 forming a seal over the pad eye by means of a perimeter rubber seal 200 that forms the seal at the perimeter of the pad eye and the deck 110 . the rubber seal conforms to the peaks and valleys of the deck coating 70 . in some embodiments of the present invention , the enclosure includes clean room . in some embodiments of the present invention , additional means are deployed to secure and hold the base frame 6 to the work surface , assisting in preventing the base frame 6 from moving or sliding on the work surface . examples of such are brackets , tension cables , and / or any other fastening means known by a person skilled in the art . in some embodiments , the enclosure comprises doors , windows , or any other means to allow a person to get in and out of the enclosure . one or more base frames 6 may be readily removed by means of unbolting , un - pining , or by any known means to enable heavy equipment for work inside of the enclosure to be performed . equivalent elements can be substituted for the ones set forth above such that they perform in substantially the same manner in substantially the same way for achieving substantially the same result . it is believed that the system and method of the present invention and many of its attendant advantages will be understood by the foregoing description . it is also believed that it will be apparent that various changes may be made in the form , construction and arrangement of the components thereof without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention or without sacrificing all of its material advantages . the form herein before described being merely exemplary and explanatory embodiment thereof . it is the intention of the following claims to encompass and include such changes . | 1 |
the present invention is applicable to any kind of refrigerator in which gas is cycled in and out of the expander by a valve unit , including g - m refrigerators , solvay refrigerators , and g - m type pulse tube refrigerators . it is of particular value when applied to low temperature pulse tubes that have multi - stages and multi - ports . fig1 shows a cross section of valve assembly 29 along with small schematics of the compressor and a single stage double inlet pulse tube refrigerator to show the flow relations . valve unit 29 has a valve motor assembly 5 , a valve housing 7 and a valve base 17 , all of which are sealed by means of a variety of ‘ o ’- ring seals , and by bolts 1 . inside the valve base and housing , there are various components . a valve seat 21 is held and sealed within the valve housing . a thrust bearing 60 is assembled with the valve seat . a valve disc 4 is turned by valve motor 5 through a motor shaft 6 and a pin 3 passing through shaft 6 . valve disc 4 is free to move axially relative to pin 3 . valve disc 4 is in contact with the face of thrust bearing 60 . the valve disc 4 can be spaced apart from valve seat 21 by a very small gap or it can have very light contact with valve seat 21 . if there is a gap between the face of valve disc 4 and valve seat 21 , the preferred gap should be 0 to 25 μm . if the valve disc 4 is lightly in contact with valve seat 21 , most of the force should be exerted on the face of the thrust bearing 60 instead of the face of the valve seat 21 . since the face of the valve disc 4 and the face of thrust bearing 60 rotate together , no wear will be generated during rotating and the required torque to drive the valve disc can be small . a spring 8 is used to keep valve disc 4 in contact with thrust bearing 60 when the refrigerator is off . pin 35 prevents valve seat 21 from rotating relative to housing 17 . an inlet 10 is connected to the supply side of compressor 20 through a gas line 19 . the return side of compressor 20 connects to valve assembly 29 through the gas line 18 and an outlet 14 . gas at low pressure then flows out of the center of valve disc 4 through channel 13 . the force , which is generated from the differential pressure between the supply pressure exerted on the distal face of the valve disc 4 and the pressure exerted on the face of valve disc 4 , keeps the face of the valve disc 4 in contact with the face of the thrust bearing 60 . fig2 shows the gas flow cavities in the face of valve disc 4 . the cross section shown in fig1 is noted by section arrows a - a in fig2 and 3 . gas from ports 15 flows into cavities 40 then to low - pressure , pl , port 13 through cross slot 41 . regions 12 that are under cut in the outer edge of valve disc 4 connect to high - pressure , ph , gas that is supplied from the compressor fig3 shows the face of seat 21 . although not essential to an understanding of the invention , the nature of this porting will be briefly described with reference to fig1 , 2 , and 3 . fig1 shows a double inlet type pulse tube refrigerator driven by the invented valve unit . it consists of a regenerator 22 , a pulse tube 25 with warm end flow smoother 26 and cold end flow smoother 24 , and a cold end heat exchanger 23 . a phase shifter , which includes a buffer volume 28 , a buffer orifice 27 , and a double inlet valve 30 . by rotating valve disc 4 , by means of valve motor 5 and shaft 6 , holes 15 and 16 are alternately pressurized by gas flowing through cavities 12 and depressurized by flow through slots 40 . the porting shown in fig2 and 3 produce two complete cycles to pressurize and depressurize the pulse tube for every rotation of valve disc 4 . it is to be understood that the expander can be operated with one , or more than one , cycle per cycle of the rotary valve by properly arranging the supply and return porting on valve disc 4 and valve seat 21 . although the expander shown in fig1 is a single stage pulse tube , it is also possible to design the valve unit and porting so that it can be used to drive a multi - stage pulse tube with multiple control ports as shown for example in fig9 of u . s . pat . no . 6 , 256 , 998 . by properly arranging the porting on the valve disc 4 and the valve seat 21 , and by arranging necessary passages to communicate with the warm end 26 of the pulse tube 25 , the invented valve unit can also be used to drive any type of pulse tube refrigerator , such as , orifice type , four valve type , active - buffer type and five - valve type . it must be pointed out that this valve unit can be used for other kinds of refrigerators , such as gm or solvay types . fig4 shows a second embodiment of the present invention in which thrust bearing 60 is attached to valve disc 4 and valve seat 21 is in contact with the surface of the thrust bearing 60 . in fig4 , like references denote like parts in fig1 . fig5 shows a third embodiment of the present invention in which thrust bearing 60 is attached to valve seat 21 and valve disc 61 is in contact with the surface of thrust bearing 60 . in fig5 , like references denote like parts in fig1 . in fig5 , the force exerted on the thrust bearing 60 is reduced by having a valve holder 2 which is held by pin 3 and sealed in valve disc 61 by an ‘ o ’- ring 9 . the exterior surfaces of valve disc 61 and valve holder 2 are surrounded by high - pressure gas except for the surface of valve disc 61 that is in contact with thrust bearing 60 and the surface facing valve seat 21 . the force required to keep the face of valve disc 61 in contact with the face of thrust bearing 60 is obtained by having the product of the pressures and areas on the distal side of valve disc 61 be greater than the product of the maximum average pressure on the face of valve disc 61 and the area of the face of valve disc 61 . this can be expressed in the form of an equation in which ac is the area of the distal side of valve disc 61 in cavity 11 , as is the annular area of the distal side of valve disc 61 around ac , av is the area of the face of valve disc 61 , and pv is the average pressure acting on av ( both including the area and pressure of cavity 12 ), as the opposing force is transmitted to motor shaft 6 and puts an axial load on the motor bearings in the direction toward valve disc 61 . in practice the diameter of cavity 11 is adjusted by testing different sizes to see what gives the best balance between maintaining a seal and minimizing the load on thrust bearing 60 . fig6 shows a fourth embodiment of the present invention in which thrust bearing 60 is attached to valve disc 61 and valve seat 21 is in contact with the surface of the thrust bearing 60 . in fig6 , like references denote like parts in fig5 . fig7 shows a fifth embodiment of the present invention in which thrust bearing 60 is attached to valve seat 21 and valve disc 61 is in contact with the surface of the thrust bearing 60 . in fig7 , like references denote like parts in fig5 . in fig7 , the exterior surfaces of valve disc 61 and valve holder 2 are surrounded by low - pressure gas except for the surface of valve disc 61 that is in contact with thrust bearing 60 and the surface facing valve seat 21 . the force can be expressed in the form of an equation in which ac is the area of the distal side of valve disc 61 in cavity 11 , as is the annular area of the distal side of valve disc 61 around ac , av is the area of the face of valve disc 61 , and pv is the average pressure acting on av ( both including the area and pressure of cavity 12 ), as the opposing force is transmitted to motor shaft 6 and puts an axial load on the motor bearings in the direction away from valve disc 61 . in equations 1 and 2 av is equal the sum of ac and as . having high pressure in the center of the valve disc face and low pressure on the outside results in most of the dust being blown directly to the low - pressure space and never entering the pulse tube . fig8 shows a sixth embodiment of the present invention in which thrust bearing 60 is attached to valve disc 61 and valve seat 21 is in contact with the surface of the thrust bearing 60 . in fig8 , like references denote like parts in fig7 . fig9 shows a seventh embodiment of the present invention in which a fixture is used to fix thrust bearing 60 to valve housing 17 . thrust bearing 60 rests on a shoulder of valve seat and valve disc 61 is in contact with the surface of thrust bearing 60 . in fig9 , like references denote like parts in fig1 . this embodiment has the advantage of easy replacement of the thrust bearing if maintenance is needed . fig1 and fig1 show an option of a means to fabricate the first embodiment of the present invention . during initial operation valve disc 4 is in contact with the face of valve seat 21 , but not in contact with the face of the thrust bearing 60 . after the valve unit has run for some time and has experienced some wear , valve disc 21 starts to be in contact with the face of the thrust bearing 60 . then the load exerted on the thrust bearing 60 starts to increase gradually , which results in the load exerted on the engaged faces of valve seat 21 and disc 4 decreasing . at some point , the load exerted on the engaged faces of the valve seat 21 and disc 4 becomes 0 and no further wear will be generated . in this case , there is almost no gap between the face of valve seat 21 and disc 4 , therefore , the leak rate from high pressure to low pressure can be maintained at a very small value . | 5 |
an embodiment of the present invention is now described with reference to the drawings . fabrication processes for a semiconductor device including element isolation regions according to this embodiment are described with reference to fig1 to 11 . as shown in fig1 an n + - type buried layer 2 is formed on the main surface of a p - type silicon substrate 1 . an n - type epitaxial silicon layer 3 is formed on the n + - type buried layer 2 . the p - type silicon substrate 1 , the n + - type buried layer 2 and the n - type epitaxial silicon layer 3 are examples of the “ semiconductor substrate ” in the present invention . a silicon oxide film ( sio 2 film ) 4 is formed on the n - type epitaxial silicon layer 3 by thermal oxidation with a thickness of about 100 nm . an si 3 n 4 film 5 is formed on the silicon oxide film 4 for serving as a stopper film in a cmp step . a resist film 6 is formed on a prescribed region of the si 3 n 4 film 5 . as shown in fig2 the resist film 6 is employed as a mask for dry - etching the si 3 n 4 film 5 and the silicon oxide film 4 , and the epitaxial silicon layer 3 is thereafter etched by a thickness of about 500 nm . thus , shallow trenches 20 having a depth of about 500 nm are formed to enclose an element forming region 50 . the shallow trenches 20 are examples of the “ first trench ” in the present invention . thereafter the resist film 6 is removed . as shown in fig3 an hdp - nsg film 7 is formed by high density plasma cvd ( hdp - cvd ) with a thickness of about 600 nm , to completely fill up the shallow trenches 20 . in this state , the upper surface of the hdp - nsg film 7 is positioned higher than that of the element forming region 50 of the n - type epitaxial silicon layer 3 . according to this embodiment , an hto ( high - temperature oxide ) film 8 is formed on the hdp - nsg film 7 by low pressure cvd under a temperature condition of about 800 ° c . with a thickness of at least about 300 nm and not more than about 500 nm , as shown in fig4 . this hto film 8 is superior in step coverage to the hdp - nsg film 7 . on the other hand , the hdp - nsg film 7 is superior in embedding property to the hto film 8 . therefore , the shallow trenches 20 can be excellently filled up with the hdp - nsg film 7 . the hdp - nsg film 7 is an example of the “ first film ” in the present invention , and the hto film 8 is an example of the “ second film ” in the present invention . the hto film 8 is formed with the thickness of at least about 300 nm since a problem of defective etching described later cannot be solved if the thickness of the hto film 8 is smaller than about 300 nm . the hto film 8 is formed with the thickness of not more than about 500 nm since it is difficult to pattern the hto film 8 and the hdp - nsg film 7 if the thickness of the hto film 8 exceeds about 500 nm . after the aforementioned formation of the hto film 8 , resist films 9 are formed on prescribed regions of the hto film 8 . as shown in fig5 the resist films 9 are employed as masks for patterning the hto film 8 and the hdp - nsg film 7 by dry etching . thereafter the resist films 9 are removed , thereby obtaining a shape shown in fig6 . the hto film 8 and the hdp - nsg film 7 are employed as hard masks for dry - etching the n - type epitaxial silicon layer 3 , the n + - type buried layer 2 and the p - type silicon substrate 1 , thereby forming deep trenches 30 for isolating the n + - type buried layer 2 as shown in fig7 . the thickness of the hto film 8 is reduced due to the etching for forming the deep trenches 30 . the deep trenches 30 are formed to have a depth of about 6 μm from the upper surface of the n - type epitaxial silicon layer 3 . the deep trenches 30 are examples of the “ second trench ” in the present invention . a disadvantage in a case of forming the deep trenches 30 without forming the hto film 8 is described with reference to fig6 and 12 . fig1 is a sectional view showing a case of performing etching through only the hdp - nsg film 7 serving as a hard mask without forming the hto film 8 in the step of forming the deep trenches 30 shown in fig7 . the hdp - nsg film 7 having an excellent embedding property and a high deposition rate is an optimum film for filling up the shallow trenches 20 . in thickness distribution of the hdp - nsg film 7 formed by repeating deposition and etch - back , however , portions 7 a ( see fig7 ) located on step portions of the n - type epitaxial silicon layer 3 are disadvantageously extremely reduced in thickness . if the deep trenches 30 are formed by etching through only the hdp - nsg film 7 serving as a hard mask , therefore , the portions 7 a of the hdp - nsg film 7 are scraped to partially expose the n - type epitaxial silicon layer 3 , disadvantageously leading to formation of slitlike etched portions 31 on the step portions of the n - type epitaxial silicon layer 3 as shown in fig1 . in order to prevent this disadvantage , the hto film 8 superior in step coverage to the hdp - nsg film 7 is formed on the hdp - nsg film 7 while the hto film 8 and the hdp - nsg film 7 are employed as hard masks for forming the deep trenches 30 by etching in this embodiment . thus , no slitlike etched portions 31 shown in fig1 are formed when the deep trenches 30 are formed by etching . according to this embodiment , further , the hto film 8 is formed with the thickness of at least about 300 nm as hereinabove described , for reliably preventing formation of the slitlike etched portions 31 . if the etching selection ratio of the hto film 8 serving as a mask with respect to si can be improved when forming the deep trenches 30 by etching , the hto film 8 can be formed with a thickness smaller than about 300 nm . after the step shown in fig7 silicon oxide films ( sio 2 films ) 10 are formed on the inner surfaces of the deep trenches 30 according to this embodiment , as shown in fig8 . as shown in fig9 a polysilicon film 11 is formed by cvd to fill up the deep trenches 30 while covering the hto film 8 . the polysilicon film 11 is an example of the “ embedded film ” in the present invention . the silicon oxide films 10 electrically insulate the polysilicon film 11 from the n - type epitaxial silicon layer 3 , the n + - type buried layer 2 and the p - type silicon substrate 1 . finally , excess depositional portions of the polysilicon film 11 , the hto film 8 and the hdp - nsg film 7 are simultaneously removed by cmp through the si 3 n 4 film 5 serving as a stopper film . thereafter the si 3 n 4 film 5 is removed by phosphoric acid of about 160 ° c . while the silicon oxide film 4 is removed by dilute hydrofluoric acid . the surface of the hdp - nsg film 7 is also scraped when the silicon oxide film 4 removed , thereby finally forming element isolation regions of the semiconductor device according to this embodiment having flat upper surfaces as shown in fig1 . thereafter insulator films 51 of sio 2 are formed to cover the element isolation regions , as shown in fig1 . a base electrode 52 , an insulator film 53 of sio 2 covering the base electrode 52 and an emitter electrode 54 are formed on the element forming region 50 , thereby forming a bipolar transistor . according to this embodiment , as hereinabove described , the hdp - nsg film 7 is formed to fill up the shallow trenches 20 , the polysilicon films 11 are formed in the deep trenches 30 and the excess depositional portions of the hdp - nsg film 7 and the polysilicon films 11 are simultaneously removed through a single cmp step , whereby the fabrication processes can be simplified as compared with a case of removing the excess depositional portions of the insulator film filling up the shallow trenches 20 and the embedded film filling up the deep trenches 30 through different cmp steps . further , the high - priced cmp step may be carried out only once , whereby the fabrication cost can be reduced . according to the aforementioned embodiment , further , the hto film 8 superior in coverage to the hdp - nsg film 7 is formed on the hdp - nsg film 7 excellent in embedding property but inferior in coverage while the hto film 8 and the hdp - nsg film 7 are employed as hard masks for forming the deep trenches 30 by etching , whereby it is possible to effectively suppress formation of the slitlike etched portions 31 resulting from the scraped portions 7 a of the hdp - nsg film 7 close to the step portions of the n - type epitaxial silicon layer 3 in the step of etching for forming the deep trenches 30 . thus , defective etching can be inhibited . although the present invention has been described and illustrated in detail , it is clearly understood that the same is by way of illustration and example only and is not to be taken by way of limitation , the spirit and scope of the present invention being limited only by the terms of the appended claims . for example , while the hdp - nsg film 7 excellent in embedding property is employed as the insulator film for filling up the shallow trenches 20 in the aforementioned embodiment , the present invention is not restricted to this but another insulator film may alternatively be employed . while the hto film 8 is employed as the film excellent in step coverage formed on the hdp - nsg film 7 filling up the shallow trenches 20 in the aforementioned embodiment , the present invention is not restricted to this but another film may alternatively be employed so far as this film has excellent coverage and functions as a hard mask in the step of etching for forming the deep trenches 30 . for example , this film may be an sio 2 film , a teos film or an si 3 n 4 film formed by lp - cvd ( low pressure cvd ) or ap - cvd ( atmospheric pressure cvd ) or an sog film formed by application . while the polysilicon film 11 is employed for filling up the deep trenches 30 in the aforementioned embodiment , the present invention is not restricted to this but an insulator film may alternatively be employed . while the hto film 8 and the hdp - nsg film 7 are employed as hard masks in the step of etching for forming the deep trenches 30 shown in fig7 after removing the resist films 9 in the aforementioned embodiment , the present invention is not restricted to this but the resist films 9 , the hto film 8 and the hdp - nsg film 7 may alternatively be employed as masks for carrying out the etching step without removing the resist films 9 . in this case , the thickness of the hto film 8 can be reduced . while the silicon oxide films ( sio 2 films ) 10 are formed on the inner surfaces of the deep trenches 30 constituting second openings by thermal oxidation in the aforementioned embodiment , the present invention is not restricted to this but silicon oxide films ( sio 2 films ) 10 a may alternatively formed on the inner surfaces of deep trenches 30 by cvd , as in a modification of the embodiment shown in fig1 to 16 . according to this modification , the silicon oxide films ( sio 2 films ) 10 a are formed to cover the inner surfaces of the deep trenches 30 and hto films 8 , as shown in fig1 . as shown in fig1 , a polysilicon film 11 is formed by cvd with a thickness of about 800 nm to fill up the deep trenches 30 while covering the silicon oxide films 10 a . thereafter a bipolar transistor is formed through fabrication processes shown in fig1 and 16 similar to those shown in fig1 and 11 . when the silicon oxide films ( sio 2 films ) 10 a are formed on the inner surfaces of the deep trenches 30 by cvd as in this modification , the shapes of shallow trenches ( first openings ) 20 and the deep trenches ( second openings ) 30 are not disadvantageously changed due to thermal oxidation dissimilarly to a case of forming the silicon oxide films ( sio 2 films ) 10 a by thermal oxidation . | 7 |
referring to fig1 a , the anchor 10 has a top sub 12 , which is connected at thread 14 to body 16 . a rupture disc 20 closes off a passage 18 . at its lower end , the body 16 is connected to bottom sub 22 at thread 24 . body 16 supports a seat 26 with at least one snap ring 28 . a seal 30 seals between body 16 and seat 26 . the purpose of seat 26 is to receive a ball 31 ( fig1 c ) to allow pressure buildup in passage 32 to break rupture disc 20 , if necessary . a passage 34 communicates with cavity 36 to allow pressure in passage 32 to reach the piston 38 . seals 40 and 42 retain the pressure in cavity 36 and allow piston 38 to be driven downwardly . piston 38 bears down on a plurality of gripping slips 40 , each of which has a plurality of carbide inserts or equivalent gripping surfaces 42 to bite into the casing or tubular . the slips 40 are held at the top and bottom to body 16 using band springs 44 in grooves 46 . the backs of the slips 40 include a series of ramps 48 that ride on ramps 50 on body 16 . downward , and by definition outward movement of the slips 40 is limited by travel stop 52 located at the end of bottom sub 22 . fig2 shows the travel stop 52 engaged by slips 40 . the thickness of a spacer 54 can be used to adjust the downward and outward travel limit of the slips 40 . located below the slips 40 is closure piston 56 having seals 58 and 60 and biased by spring 62 . a passage 64 allows fluid to escape as spring 62 is compressed when the slips 40 are driven down by pressure in passage 34 . closure piston 56 is located in chamber 57 with ratchet piston 59 . a ratchet plug 61 is biased by a spring 63 and has a passage 65 though it . a dog 67 holds a seal 69 in position against surface 71 of ratchet piston 59 . a seal 73 seals between piston 59 and bottom sub 22 . area 75 on piston 59 is greater than area 77 on the opposite end of piston 59 . in normal operation , the ratchet piston 59 does not move . it is only when the slips 40 refuse to release and rupture disc 20 is broken , then pressure drives up both pistons 56 and 59 to force the slips 40 to release and the ratchet teeth 79 and 81 engage to prevent downward movement of piston 56 . passage 65 allows fluid to be displaced more rapidly out of chamber 83 as piston 59 is being forced up . referring now to fig3 , the pressure - magnifying tool 66 has a top sub 68 connected to bottom sub 22 of anchor 10 at thread 70 . a body 72 is connected at thread 74 to top sub 68 . a passage 76 in top sub 68 communicated with passage 32 in anchor 10 to pass pressure to upper piston 78 . a seal 80 is retained around piston 78 by a snap ring 82 . piston 78 has a passage 84 extending through it to provide fluid communication with lower piston 86 through tube 88 secured to piston 78 at thread 90 . shoulder 92 is a travel stop for piston 78 while passage 94 allows fluid to move in or out of cavity 96 as the piston 78 moves . tube 88 has an outlet 98 above its lower end 100 , which slidably extends into lower piston 86 . piston 86 has a seal 102 held in position by a snap ring 104 . tube 106 is connected at thread 108 to piston 86 . a lower sub 110 is connected at thread 112 to tube 106 to effectively close off passage 114 . passage 114 is in fluid communication with passage 76 . passage 116 allows fluid to enter or exit annular space 118 on movements of piston 86 . shoulder 120 on lower sub 110 acts as a travel stop for piston 86 . a ball 122 is biased by a spring 124 against a seat 126 to seal off passage 128 , which extends from passage 114 . as piston 86 reaches its travel limit , ball 122 is displaced from seat 126 to allow pressure driving the piston 86 to escape just as it comes near contact with its travel stop 120 . thread 130 allows swage body 132 ( see fig4 ) to be connected to pressure magnifying tool 66 . the illustrated swage 134 is illustrated schematically and a variety of devices are attachable at thread 130 to allow the repair of a bent or collapsed tubular or casing 136 by an expansion technique . the operation of the tool in the performance of the service will now be explained . the assembly of the anchor 10 , the force magnifying tool 66 and the swage 134 are placed in position adjacent to where the casing or tubular is damaged . pressure applied to passage 32 reaches piston 38 , pushing it and slips 40 down with respect to body 16 . ramps 48 ride down ramps 50 pushing the slips 40 outwardly against the return force of band springs 44 . inserts 42 bite into the casing or tubing and eventually slips 40 hit their travel stop 52 . piston 56 is moved down against the bias of spring 62 . the pressure continues to build up after the slips 40 are set , as shown in fig2 . the pressure applied in passage 76 of pressure magnification tool 66 forces pistons 78 and 86 to initially move in tandem . this provides a higher initial force to the swage 134 , which tapers off after the piston 78 hits travel stop 92 . once the expansion with swage 134 is under way , less force is necessary to maintain its forward movement . the tandem movement of pistons 78 and 86 occurs because pressure passes through passage 84 to passage 98 to act on piston 86 . movement of piston 78 moves tube 88 against piston 86 . after piston 78 hits travel stop 92 , piston 86 completes its stroke . near the end of the stroke , ball 122 is displaced from seat 126 removing the available driving force of fluid pressure as piston 86 hits travel stop 120 . with the pressure removed from the surface , spring 62 returns the slips 40 to their original position by pushing up piston 56 . if it fails to do that , a ball ( not shown ) is dropped on seat 26 and pressure to a high level is applied to rupture the rupture disc 20 so that piston 56 can be forced up with pressure . when piston 56 is forced up so is piston 59 due to the difference in surface areas between surfaces 75 and 77 . ratchet plug 61 is pushed up against spring 63 as fluid is displaced outwardly through passage 65 . ratchet teeth 79 and 81 lock to prevent downward movement of piston 56 . if more of casing or tubing 136 needs to be expanded , weight is set down to return the force - magnifying tool 66 to the run in position shown in fig3 and the entire cycle is repeated until the entire section is repeated to the desired diameter with the swage 134 . those skilled in the art can see that the force - magnifying tool 66 can be configured to have any number of pistons moving in tandem for achieving the desired pushing force on the swage 134 . optionally , the swage can be moved with no force magnification . the nature of the anchor device 10 can be varied and only the preferred embodiment is illustrated . the provision of an adjacent anchor to the section of casing or tubular being repaired facilitates the repair because reliance on surface manipulation of the string , when making such repairs is no longer necessary . multiple trips are not required because sufficient force can be delivered to expand to the desired finished diameter with a swage such as 134 . even greater versatility is available if the swage diameter can be varied downhole . with this feature , if going to the maximum diameter in a single pass proves problematic , the diameter of the swage can be reduced to bring it through at a lesser diameter followed by a repetition of the process with the swage then adjusted to an incrementally larger diameter . optionally the anchor 10 can also include centralizers 138 and 140 . a single or multiple cones or other camming techniques can guide out the slips 40 . spring 63 can be a bowed snap ring or a coiled spring . slips 40 can have inserts 42 or other types of surface treatment to promote grip into the casing or tubular . additional flexibility can be achieved by using flexible swage 138 . fig8 shows it in perspective and fig5 a – 5 c show how it is installed above a fixed swage 134 . the adjustable swage 138 comprises a series of alternating upper segments 140 and lower segments 142 . the segments 140 and 142 are mounted for relative , preferably slidable , movement . each segment , 140 for example , is dovetailed into an adjacent segment 142 on both sides . the dovetailing can have a variety of shapes in cross - section , however an l shape is preferred with one side having a protruding l shape and the opposite side of that segment having a recessed l shape so that all the segments 140 and 142 can form the requisite swage structure for 360 degrees around mandrel 144 . mandrel 144 has a thread 146 to connect , through another sub ( not shown ) to thread 130 shown in fig3 e at the lower end of the pressure magnification tool 66 . the opening 148 made by the segments 140 and 142 ( see fig8 ) fits around mandrel 144 . segments 140 have a wide top 150 tapering down to a narrow bottom 152 with a high area 154 , in between . similarly , the oppositely oriented segments 142 have a wide bottom 156 tapering up to a narrow top 158 with a high area 160 , in between . the high areas 154 and 160 are preferably identical so that they can be placed in alignment , as shown in fig6 a . the high areas 154 and 160 can also be lines instead of bands . if band areas are used they can be aligned or askew from the longitudinal axis . the band area surfaces can be flat , rounded , elliptical or other shapes when viewed in section . the preferred embodiment uses band areas aligned with the longitudinal axis and slightly curved . the surfaces leading to and away from the high area , such as 162 and 164 for example can be in a single or multiple inclined planes with respect to the longitudinal axis . segments 140 have a preferably t shaped member 166 engaged to ring 168 . ring 168 is connected to mandrel 144 at thread 170 . during run in a shear pin 172 holds ring 168 to mandrel 144 . lower segments 142 are retained by t shaped members 174 to ring 176 . ring 176 is biased upwardly by piston 178 . the biasing can be done in a variety of ways with a stack of belleville washers 180 illustrated as one example . piston 178 has seals 182 and 184 to allow pressure through opening 186 in the mandrel 144 to move up the piston 178 and pre - compress the washers 180 . a lock ring 188 has teeth 190 to engage teeth 192 on the fixed swage 134 , when the piston 178 is driven up . thread 194 connects fixed swage 134 to mandrel 144 . opening 186 leads to cavity 196 for driving up piston 178 . preferably , high areas 154 and 160 do not extend out as far as the high area 198 of fixed swage 134 during the run in position shown in fig5 . the fixed swage 134 can have the variation in outer surface configuration previously described for the segments 140 and 142 . the operation of the method using the flexible swage 138 will now be described . the assembly of the anchor 10 , the force magnifying tool 66 , the flexible swage 138 shown in the run in position of fig5 , and the fixed swage 134 are advanced to the location of a collapsed or damaged casing 133 until the swage 134 makes contact ( see fig4 ). at first , an attempt to set down weight could be tried to see if swage 134 could go through the damaged portion of the casing 133 . if this fails to work , pressure is applied from the surface . this applied pressure could force swage 134 through the obstruction by repeated stroking as described above . if the fixed swage 134 goes through the obstruction , the flexible swage could then land on the obstruction and then be expanded and driven through it , as explained below . as previously explained , the slips 40 of anchor 10 take a grip . additionally , pressure from the surface can start the pistons 78 and 86 moving in the force magnification tool 66 . finally , pressure from the surface enters opening 186 and forces piston 178 to compress washers 180 , as shown in fig6 b . lower segments 142 rise in tandem with piston 178 and ring 176 until no further uphole movement is possible . this can be defined by the contact of the segments 140 and 142 with the casing or tubular 133 . this contact may occur at full extension illustrated in fig6 b or 9 , or it may occur short of attaining that position . the full extension position is defined by alignment of high areas 154 and 160 . washers 180 apply a bias to the lower segments 142 in an upward direction and that bias is locked in by lock ring 188 as teeth 190 and 192 engage as a result of movement of piston 178 . at this point , downward stroking from the force magnification tool 66 forces the swage downwardly . the friction force acting on lower segments 142 augments the bias of washers 180 as the flexible swage 138 is driven down . this tends to keep the flexible swage at its maximum diameter for 360 degree swaging of the casing or tubular 133 . the upper segments do not affect the load on the washers 180 when moving the flexible swage 138 up or down in the well , in the position shown in fig6 a . when it is time to come out of the hole it will be desirable to offset the alignment of the high areas 154 and 160 . when aligned , these high areas exceed the nominal inside diameter of the casing or tubing 133 by about 0 . 150 inches or more . to avoid having to pull under load to get out of the hole , the mandrel 144 can be turned to the right . this will shear the pin 172 as shown in fig7 a . ring 168 will rise , taking with it the upper segments 140 . high areas 154 and 160 will be offset and at a sufficiently reduced diameter due to this movement to be brought out of the casing or tubing without expanding it on the way out . the reason the dimension on full alignment of high areas 154 and 160 exceeds the nominal casing or tubing inside diameter is that the casing or tubing 133 has a memory and bounces back after expansion . the objective is to have the final inside diameter be at least the original nominal value . therefore the expansion with the flexible swage 138 has to go about 0 . 150 inches beyond the desired end dimension . the angled configuration of the segments , which interlock on a straight track allows the desired outer diameter variation and could be configured for other desired differentials between the smallest diameter for run in and the largest diameter for swaging . it should be noted that the swaging could begin at a diameter less than that shown in fig6 a or 9 . the swaging diameter can grow as the swaging progresses due to the combined forces of washers 180 , friction forces on surfaces 164 and the condition of the casing or tubular 133 . those skilled in the art will appreciate that swaging can be done going uphole rather than downhole ; if the flexible swage 138 shown in fig5 is inverted above the fixed swage 134 . the flexible swage 138 can be used in the described method or in other methods for swaging downhole using other associated equipment or simply the equipment shown in fig5 . the advantages of full 360 degree swaging at variable diameters makes the flexible swage 138 an improvement over past spring or arm mounted roller swages , which had the tendency to cold work the pipe too much and cause cracking . the collet type swages would not always uniformly extend around the 360 degree periphery of the inner wall of the casing or tubular causing parallel stripes of expanded and unexpanded zones with the potential of cracks forming at the transitions . the interlocking or side guiding of the segments 140 and 142 presents a more reliable way to swage around 360 degrees and provides for simple run in and tripping out of the hole . it can also allow for expansions beyond the nominal inside dimension , with the ability to trip out quickly while not having to do any expanding on the way in or out . the foregoing disclosure and description of the invention are illustrative and explanatory thereof , and various changes in the size , shape and materials , as well as in the details of the illustrated construction , may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention . | 4 |
synthetic inorganic and organometallic chemistry has been used to produce a variety of metal - containing polymer species which , upon pyrolysis or other energetic treatment , decompose to yield substantially pure metal carbides and / or metal borides . two different approaches were used to obtain such organometallic precursor polymers . in a first embodiment , a transition metal salt is mixed with one or more organometallic ( s ) containing at least one unsaturated carbon - carbon bond to form organo - transition metal complexes , which are polymerized to form the precursor polymer . this embodiment has the advantage of guaranteeing that each unit of monomer will contain a metal atom . one disadvantage of this embodiment is that it does not produce high molecular weight precursor polymers . high molecular weight precursor polymers are advantageous for use in polymer infiltration pyrolysis ( pip -- used to prepare ceramic matrix composites ) and could prove to be advantageous for making high temperature coatings . unfortunately , the viscosity of a polymer also increases with the molecular weight of the polymer . precursor polymers with lower viscosity are preferred for an ideal pip process , and may be preferred for making high temperature coatings . this inherent conflict may be resolved by using high molecular weight precursor polymers having relatively low viscosity , preferably a viscosity similar to a warm honey - like consistency . in order to produce such precursor polymers , the organo - transition metal complexes described above are polymerized with other comonomers which have low tendency to increase viscosity , as described in more detail below . preferred organometallics for use in this first embodiment include , but are not necessarily limited to metal coordinated substituted and unsubstituted allyl and vinyl organometallics comprising in the range of from about 2 to about 8 carbon atoms , preferably in the range of from about 2 to about 4 carbon atoms . suitable allyl organometallics include , but are not necessarily limited to 1 - methyl - 2 - propenyl , magnesium chloride , 1 - methyl - 2 - propenyl - magnesium bromide , 2 - methyl - 1 - propenyl magnesium chloride , 1 - methyl - 2 - propenyl - magnesium bromide , allyl magnesium chloride , allyl magnesium bromide . suitable vinyl organometallics include , but are not necessarily limited to substituted and unsubstituted : vinyl lithium chlorides ; vinyl magnesium chlorides ; vinyl magnesium bromides ; and similar compounds . such compounds are available from aldrich chemical co . a preferred organometallic is allyl magnesium bromide . the organometallic should be reacted with a salt of a transition metal , defined herein as a transition metal selected from the group consisting of hafnium , tantalum , zirconium , titanium , vanadium , niobium , chromium , molybdenum , and tungsten . preferred transition metals are selected from the group consisting of tantalum , hafnium , and zirconium . such salts include but are not necessarily limited to metal halides , metal nitrates , metal sulfates , and metal acetates , with preferred salts being hafnium and tantalum chloride . hafnium and tantalum chloride , and other metal halides , are available from a number of chemical sources . for example , hafnium chloride is available from advance research chemicals , inc ., catoosa , okla ., and teledyne wah cheng , albany , oreg . hafnium boride is available from noah chemical , div . noah technologies corp ., san antonio , tex . hafnium bromide and tantalum bromide are available from wilshire chemical co ., inc ., gardena , calif . tantalum chloride is available from several sources , including aithaca chemical corp ., uniondale , n . y . and trinitech international , inc ., twinsberg , ohio . in a preferred embodiment , hafnium or tantalum chloride is suspended in a suitable organic solvent , preferably dry ether , and chilled to a temperature in the range of from about - 70 ° c . to about - 90 ° c ., preferably about - 78 ° c . an excess of organometallic is added over a period of about 5 minutes . the excess preferably should be a slightly more than a ratio based on the number of halogen atoms in the transition metal salt . for example , if the transition metal salt contains four chloride atoms , then an excess of organometallic of just over about 4 : 1 is preferred . if the salt contains five chloride atoms , than an excess of organometallic of just over about 5 : 1 is preferred , etc . the resulting solution , which typically will have an orange ( hafnium ) or green ( tantalum ) color , is stirred under an inert gas besides nitrogen , preferably argon , for a time in the range of from about 10 to about 20 hours , preferably about 16 hours , and the product is isolated by filtration through a suitable medium , such as filter paper . in a preferred embodiment , using allyl magnesium bromide , the product is allyl hafnium or allyl tantalum , which converts to the respective carbide in substantially pure form upon pyrolysis . if it is necessary to increase the molecular weight of the precursor polymer , comonomers may be copolymerized with the foregoing organo - transition metal complexes during the same reaction . suitable comonomers include , but are not necessarily limited to styrene , vinyl and divinyl benzene , and alkadienes having a number of carbon atoms in the range of from about 4 to about 14 . in an alternate reaction , the &# 34 ; organic compounds &# 34 ; are boranes and carboranes , preferably ortho - deca - carboranes ( c 2 b 10 h 12 ). the carboranes are polymerized by reaction with organometallic halides to form what is believed to be the following : ## str1 ## to prepare these precursor polymers , ortho - carborane , which may be obtained from aldrich chemical co ., should be lithiated , preferably by reaction with butyl lithium at about - 78 ° c . for a time in the range of from about 1 to about 3 hours . about 0 . 5 equivalents of a suitable organometallic halide , preferably bis ( pentamethyl cyclopentadienyl ) hafnium dichloride , should be added to the above prepared solution of the lithiated ortho - carborane at about - 78 ° c . and the solution should be slowly warmed to room temperature . other suitable commercially available boranes and carboranes include , but are not necessarily limited to meta - deca - carborane and closo -, nido -, arachno -, hypho -, and conjuncto - boranes , which could be deprotonated to the sodium , lithium , or potassium salt using techniques well known to persons of ordinary skill in the art . boranes are widely commercially available , for example , from aldrich chemical co . and from fluka chemical co . ortho - deca - carborane and meta - deca - carborane are commercially available from aldrich chemical co . suitable ligands for the metal halide include , but are not necessarily limited to phosphines , amines , imines , sulfur - containing ligands , and cycloalkenyl groups . preferred metal halides , which minimize the chance of adding impurity to the resulting borides , have the metal bound to at least one , preferably bound to two cycloalkenyl groups . preferred cycloalkenyl groups are pentamethyl cyclopentadienyl groups . in a second embodiment , organometallic moieties are immobilized on ( or &# 34 ; grafted to &# 34 ;) functional groups in a preformed backbone polymer . suitable backbone polymers for use in this embodiment have repeated double bonds , and include , but are not necessarily limited to olefins , nitrites , acids , and ketones . in this embodiment , the molecular weight of the resulting precursor polymer is dictated by the molecular weight of the backbone polymer . suitable backbone polymers include a broad range of molecular weights , preferably in the range of from about 1500 to about 7000 . in a preferred embodiment , the backbone polymers include , but are not necessarily limited to heteroatom free polyalkadienes , heteroatom free polystyrene polyalkadiene block copolymers ( pspb &# 39 ; s ), and isoprene polymers . suitable pspb &# 39 ; s and polyalkadienes are widely commercially available . suitable commercially available isoprene polymers include , but are not necessarily limited to polybutadiene - isoprene , poly ( isoprene ), and poly ( isoprene - styrene ), which are available from polysciences , inc . a preferred backbone polymer is polybutadiene , available from phillips chemical co ., div . of phillips petroleum co ., borger , tex ., and from e . l . puskas co ., akron , ohio . the backbone polymers possess alkene groups which are reactive to certain organometallic compounds , such as those containing metal hydride ( m -- h ) functions . the alkene bond will react with a metal hydride , incorporating the metal into the backbone polymer . substantially any hydride comprising a transition metal selected from the group consisting of hafnium , tantalum , zirconium , titanium , vanadium , niobium , chromium , molybdenum , and tungsten should work in the invention . preferred hydrides comprise a metal selected from the group consisting of hafnium , tantalum , and zirconium . preferred organometallic hydrides for use in this embodiment are bis ( pentamethylcyclo - pentadienyl ) hafnium dihydride , which may be obtained from strem chemicals , inc . and dicyclopentadienyl tantalum trihydride . organo - hafnium and tantalum dihydrides may be made from the respective commercially available chlorinated compounds as illustrated in the following equations wherein &# 34 ; cp *&# 34 ; stands for a pentamethyl cyclopentiadienyl compound : the cp * hafnium dichloride and the lithiated butyl compound preferably should be mixed at a pressure of about 101 . 325 kpa ( 1 atm ) and at a temperature in the range of from about - 50 ° c . to about - 90 ° c ., preferably about - 78 ° c . and stirred for a period of time in the range of from about 15 minutes to about 3 hours , preferably for about 2 hours . the chloride atoms in the cp * hafnium dichloride will be substituted by the butyl groups from the lithiated butyl compounds , resulting in dibutyl cp * hafnium . the butyl cp * hafnium then should be mixed with hydrogen gas at ambient temperature ( typically in the range of from about 20 to about 25 ° c .) and at ambient pressure ( typically about 101 . 325 kpa or 1 atm ) for a time period in the range of from about 10 hours to about 20 hours . the butyl groups will be substituted by hydrogen atoms to form dicyclopentadienyl hafnium dihydride . to manufacture dicyclopentadienyl tantalum trihydride , tantalum ( v ) chloride is reacted with sodium cp and sodium borohydride as follows : pure cp 2 tah 3 , which can be obtained by sublimation , may be reacted with the backbone polymer , such as polybutadiene , under refluxing conditions or under high temperature ( about 200 ° c .) and high pressure ( 120 psi ). the foregoing reactions produce yellow or off - white precursor polymers , which are believed to have the following structure : ## str2 ## pyrolysis of the off - white or yellow precursor polymers at between about 1200 - 1400 ° c . produces the respective metal carbide . polymer immobilized metal hydrides are sensitive to air and moisture and should be stored in an inert atmosphere , such as a dry - box , and transferred under a blanket of inert gas besides nitrogen , preferably argon . the precursor polymers may be directly converted into high temperature coatings . the precursor polymer should be applied to a desired surface . suitable surfaces comprise a wide variety of materials including , but not necessarily limited to , metals , alloys , intermetallics , ceramic matrix composites , metal matrix composites , polymer matrix composites , and polymers . the precursor polymer may be applied to the surface using any suitable method including , but not necessarily limited to , painting , spraying , and dipping . if needed , the precursor polymer may be mixed with a filler including , but not necessarily limited to one or more powder selected from the group consisting of ceramics , metals , and alloys . once coated with the precursor polymer , the surface should be treated with an energy source sufficient to convert the precursor polymer to a refractory carbide or boride . suitable energy sources include , but are not necessarily limited to pyrolysis and microwave treatment . in a preferred embodiment , the coated surface is fired to a temperature in the range of from about 800 ° c . to about 1600 ° c ., preferably to about 1400 ° c ., for about two hours , or for a time sufficient to form a coating of refractory carbide or boride . surfaces bearing such coatings exhibit high temperature oxidation resistance . the foregoing synthesis procedures are sufficiently flexible to provide a range of precursor polymers having a range of viscosities . the refractory metal carbides and metal borides should provide increased oxidation resistance . the invention will be better understood with reference to the following examples , which are illustrative only , and should not be construed as limiting the present invention : hafnium chloride ( 6 . 6 g , 20 . 6 mmol ) was suspended in 500 ml of dry ether and chilled to - 78 ° c . 84 ml ( 84 mmol ) of 1m allyl magnesium bromide was added dropwise over a period of 5 minutes . the orange solution was stirred under argon overnight and then filtered . the solvent was removed under vacuum and 0 . 98 g of the residue was fired at 1400 ° c . with an argon purge . the resulting char weighed 0 . 19 g ( 19 % ceramic yield ). the powder x - ray diffraction ( xrd ) trace indicated that the char was mostly hafnium carbide with only a trace impurity of magnesium oxide . tantalum chloride ( 5 . 0 g , 14 mmol ) was suspended in 100 ml of ether chilled to - 78 ° c . and 70 ml of 1m allyl magnesium bromide was added over a period of 5 minutes . the dark green solution was stirred at - 78 ° c . under an argon blanket overnight and then filtered . the solvent was removed by vacuum and 0 . 99 g of the residue fired at 1400 ° c . with an argon purge . the resulting char weighed 0 . 19 g ( 19 % ceramic yield ). the powder xrd trace of the char indicated that the product was purely tantalum carbide . bis ( pentamethyl cyclopentadienyl ) hafnium dihydride was prepared as described in d . m . roddick , et al , organometallics 4 ( 1985 ) 97 - 104 , incorporated herein by reference . 0 . 69 g of the bis ( pentamethyl cyclopentadienyl ) hafnium dihydride was dissolved in 20 ml of dry toluene and 0 . 1 g of polybutadiene ( mw = 3 , 000 ) was added . the solution was stirred for 24 hours at room temperature under an argon atmosphere . the solvent was removed by vacuum leaving an orange solid . a 0 . 63 g sample of the residue was fired at 1400 ° c ., yielding 0 . 25 g of a black char ( 39 . 7 % ceramic yield ). powder xrd analysis of the char indicated a mixture of hafnium carbide and a small impurity of various hafnium oxide phases . bis ( pentamethyl cyclopentadienyl ) hafnium dihydride was dissolved in 20 ml of dry toluene and 0 . 12 g of polybutadiene ( mw = 1800 ) was added . the solution was stirred overnight under argon atmosphere . the solvent was removed by vacuum and 0 . 51 g of the residue was fired at 1400 ° c ., yielding 0 . 13 g of char ( 25 . 5 % ceramic yield ). the xrd trace of the gray char material indicated largely hafnium carbide with a significant hafnium oxide phase . 1 . 0 g of cp 2 tah 3 was dissolved in 35 ml of 1 , 2 - dimethoxyethane . 15 ml of polybutadiene ( mw 3000 ) was added . the mixture was refluxed for 16 hours . the mixture was cooled to room temperature and the solvent was evaporated under vacuum to produce a yellow polymer . the polymer was heated to 1400 ° c . for 1 / 2 hour to obtain pure tac at a 25 % ceramic yield . 14 mmoles of ortho - carborane was dissolved in 120 ml of dry ether which was cooled to - 78 ° c ., to which 14 mmoles of methyllithium was added . the mixture was stirred at - 78 ° c . for two hours and thereafter warmed to room temperature . a solution of 7 mmoles of cp * 2 hfcl 2 in 50 ml of toluene was added . the mixture was stirred at room temperature for 40 hours . after filtration , the solvent was evaporated , producing a yellow tacky polymer . when heated to 1400 ° c ., the polymer produced pure hafnium boride in a 38 % ceramic yield . persons of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that many modifications may be made to the present invention without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention . the embodiment described herein is meant to be illustrative only and should not be taken as limiting the invention , which is defined in the following claims . | 2 |
the product object of the present invention , is obtained from the combination of the zam ® ( activated and micronized zeolite ) and raspberry powder ( according to the process registered in the mexican institute of industrial property , in patent application number mx / a / 2010 / 000827 dated 21 / ene / 2010 , foliomx / e / 2010 / 004489 ). therefore some modifications are specified that improve the protected product object of the mentioned application . the base powder works to prepare functional beverages , refreshing drinks , or as an additive for food products and other products for tobacco addiction control . the base powder is made from pulp and dried strawberry raspberry juice fruit and zam ® ( micronized and activated zeolite ) that serves as a vehicle ( carrier ) to improve the bioavailability of ellagic acid and other ellagitannins in the raspberry , as well as detoxifying agent for nicotine and other toxic substances present in tobacco smoke . the fruit is selected by assessing the clear red color , making sure that it is free of any toxic substances in accordance with the allowed tolerance by the secretariat of health and welfare for processing fruits . the raspberry juice extract is obtained using the method of kettle or water bath method , or some other alternative method . once raspberry juice extract is obtained , the powder is obtained by a drying process , for example by aspersion usinn and equipmento of spray - dryer type , or a lyophilization process , or any other alternative method . optionally , the powder obtained form raspberry juice extract can be added with any allowed sweetener , for example sugar or aspartame . to the powder obtained from extract raspberry juice , added with any allowed sweetener , for example sugar or aspartame , an anti - humectant is added , such as silicon dioxide or tricalcium phosphate . the ingredients are mixed and homogenized . once adding any allowed sweetener and whit an allowed antihumectan , the powder obtained from the juice extract of raspberry zam ® ( activated and micronized zeolite ) is added . the ingredients are mixed and homogenized to obtain the final base powder . optionally , the homogenized product may be packaged in glass jar with twist off cap and plastisol seal , or in polyethylene - aluminum laminated pouches and glassed paper , or any other allowed packaging method . additionally , the powder reconstituted with water , preserve its minerals content such as calcium , iron , aluminum , magnesium , potassium , silicon , sodium , manganese , sulfates and phosphates , carbohydrates and nitrogenous compounds ; as well as vitamins a , b1 , b2 and c and chemical components of the zam ® ( activated and micronized zeolite ), sio2 , cao , k2o , mgo , na2o . also , the powder product has a shelf life superior than one year , keeping its original properties . the base powder is rehydrated with water instantly and can be used to prepare functional beverages , refreshing drinks or as an additive in food preparations or other products , retains all therapeutic properties , such as we can mention : auxiliary in tobacco addition control , based in the content of ellagitannins , specifically the ellagic acid and the zam ® ( activated and micronized zeolite ); promote the precipitation and elimination of nicotine , helps to maintain low levels of anxiety caused by withdrawal syndrome in the suspending use of tobacco , and with this the administration of nicotine , as well as helps to diminish the nicotine addiction , these make it in an excellent support to quit tobacco smoking , and because the antioxidant , antimutagenic , anticancer , and inmunostimulatin properties , helps to fight some of diseases caused by tobacco smoking and helps to keep them free of smoking . the base powder is instantly rehydrated with water and can be used to prepare functional beverages , refreshing drinks or as an additive in food preparations or other products , retains all its minerals like calcium , iron , aluminum , magnesium , potassium , silica , sodium , manganese , sulfates and phosphates , carbohydrates and nitrogenous composite , plus vitamins a , b1 , b2 and c , as well as the chemical components of the zam ® ( activated and micronized zeolite ), s1o2 , cao , k2o , mgo , na2o . the base powder is instantly rehydrated with water and can be used to prepare functional beverages , refreshing drinks or as an additive in food preparations or other products , and retains its bioactivity and increased bioavailability , activity provided by the zam ® ( activated and micronized zeolite ), giving it the quality of being an excellent antioxidant to fight free radicals . the base powder is instantly rehydrated with water and can be used to prepare functional beverages , refreshing drinks or as an additive in food preparations or other products , and provides a bittersweet sui generis solution . the details and characteristics of the process to develop this base powder from raspberry and zam ® ( activated and micronized zeolite ), to obtain a functional beverage , refreshing drinks or as an additive in food preparations and other products , are shown in detail in the following description : process to obtain of base powder to prepare functional beverages , refreshing drinks or as an additive in food preparations or other products made with red raspberry , rubus idaeus and zam ® ( activated and micronized zeolite ). raspberry fruit is selected so that it is not too ripe , evaluating its clear red color . bunches of stems are separated and remove the leaves , the peduncles are removed ; these are usually divided into two or three pedicels , and the fruits are placed in a clean surface , as for example a clean tray or other similar . the raspberry bunches are weighed before dehydrating . raspberry juice extract is obtained by using any of the known methods for example : 1 ) the method of marmite —. the fruit previously crushed is placed in a marmite , which is slowly heated but not exceeding 70 ° c ., in such way that the fruit juice begins to flow , during one hour for every 3 kg of fruit approximately . this method prevents that the fruit experience excessive overcooking , that destroys both the color and the fresh taste , and favour a mayor concentration of ellagic acid in the powder . once the fruit has released plenty of juice , it is crushed again . once the fruit juice is extracted it is filtered by passing through medium pore filter paper . 2 ) the water bath method . — the fresh fruit is crushed with a mortar or other means in a large bowl . the fruit bowl is placed in a water bath without exceeding a temperature of 70 ° c . to 80 ° c ., until the fruit juice begins to flow . optionally , once extracted fruit juice is obtained it could be filtered using filter paper medium pore . once the juice extracted , to obtain the powder , the extract is subjected to a drying process , for example by aspersion using a spray - dryer equipment type , with an inlet temperature of 110 ° c . and outlet of 80 ° c ., with an air flow of 600 ml / min and 30 millibars vacuum . it can be done also by lyophilization or any other known method . to the formulation obtained in stage 3 , is added with any allowed antihumectant , for example , silicon dioxide or tricalcium phosphate . additionally any allowed sweetener may be added , for example , sugar or aspartame . stage 5 —. use of zam ® ( activated and micronized zeolite and homogenization in the formulation of the base powder . to the formulation obtained in stage 4 , zam ® ( activated and micronized zeolite ) is added for 250 g of powder raspberry 20 g of zeolite zam ® are added . this is mixed and homogenized to obtain the final product . optionally , the homogenized product may be packaged in glass jar with twist - off cap and plastisol seal , or in polyethylene - aluminum laminated pouches and glassed paper , or by any other allowed method . this way the product retains its properties for more than 1 year , as the study of shelf life of the product was subject to , in extreme temperature and humidity conditions , correctly packed and in jars and it maintain its original properties . the present example is illustrative and not limiting , such as one skilled in the art , will understand there are variants that fall within the protection of the present invention . process to obtain a base powder to prepare functional beverages , refreshing drinks or to be used as an additive for food preparations or other products , made with red raspberry , rubus idaeus and zam ® ( activated and micronized zeolite ). 1 ) raspberry fruit with adequate ripeness condition and sanitation is selected . 2 ) fruit leaves and stems are removed . 3 ) raspberry juice is extracted by placing fresh fruit previously crushed in a kettle . the kettle is heated slowly without exceeding 70 ° c . until it starts flowing fruit juice , during approximately 20 minutes per kilogram of fruit . this method for extracting juice , avoid fruit experiment excess overcooking , and any destruction of both the color and the fresh taste and the medicinal properties and at the same time allows a higher concentration of ellagic acid . when the fruit has released plenty of juice , it is crushed again . 3 ) optionally , the fruit juice is filtered by passing through medium pore filter paper . 4 ) after extraction of the juice , it is subjected to spray drying process using a spray - dryer equipment , with an inlet temperature of 110 ° c . and outlet temperature of 80 ° c ., and an air flow of 600 ml / min and vacuum of 30 millibars . 6 ) to prepare the base powder , the spray dried raspberry juice powder is used , and can be prepared for example , in some of the following presentations , mixing the following proportions : a ) base powder unsweetened light —. the product consists of 100 % powder , obtained from raspberry juice extract using the spray drying . b ) powder base with sweetener .— were mixed in the following proportions , spray dried obtained extract raspberry juice 50 % and 50 % aspartame . 7 ) in each of the presentations described above , food grade anti - humectant is added to them , as silicon dioxide or tricalcium phosphate , among others . 8 ) the ingredients of any of the formulations described above and the anti - humectant are mixed with zam ® ( activated and micronized zeolite ) and homogenized to obtain final base powder . 9 ) the homogenized final base powder , is packaged in glass jar with twist - off cap and plastisol seal or in polyethylene - aluminum pouch envelopes and glassed paper . main uses of base powder to prepare functional beverages , refreshing drinks or as an additive to food preparations or other products made with red raspberry rubus idaeus and zam ® ( activated and micronized zeolite ). the powder product corresponds to a natural functional food , nutritional order , which can be used to prepare functional beverages , refreshing beverages as an additive in food preparations and in the preparation of other products . 1 . the product is rehydrated with water instantly providing a sui generis solution bittersweet flavor . 2 . the product may have various presentations , such as : a ) base powder unsweetened light and b ) base powder with sweetener or sweetener , among others . 3 . in the case of the base powder presentation with sweetener or sweetener , sugar can be used or fructose or aspartame . 4 . the base powder used to prepare functional beverages , refreshing drinks , as an additive in food preparations or other products , uses zam ® ( activated and micronized zeolite ) as a vehicle ( carrier ) when it is ingested ; also the zam ® has the function of detoxifying , to carry , selectively nicotine and other toxic substances present in the tobacco smoke , to be eliminated . 5 ) the base powder can be used to prepare functional beverages , refreshing drinks , and also can be used as an additive in food preparations or other products . after reconstituted with water , fruit juices , any kind of milk , among other ingestible substances , except alcohol , preserves all the fruit properties : color and flavor , as well as the therapeutic properties of the raspberry together with the zam ® ( activated and micronized zeolite ). 6 . the base powder reconstituted with water retains its therapeutic properties , we can mention such as : antioxidant , anti - mutagenic , anti - carcinogenic and inmunostimulant , also in the detoxification for nicotine use and other toxic substances present in the tobacco smoke and in removing heavy metals in various forms presentations , activity based in the content of ellagic acid and zeolite - clinoptilolite ; helps in the withdrawal syndrome control associated with anxiety provoked by the suppression of nicotine , and therefore allows controlling nicotine addiction . therefore the intake of the power is recommended not only for people with nicotine addiction because of the cigarette consumption , but also for non - smokers people exposed to tobacco smoke , based in its function as an auxiliary in the control of anxiety and in the detoxification of nicotine and other toxic substances present in the tobacco smoke . the mentioned properties in raspberry powder , ellagic acid and zam ® ( activated and micronized zeolite ) have been demonstrated by the patent applicants in different biological models ; both nicotine withdrawal induced syndrome , and addictive behavior to it in animals , together with the anxiolytic effect . likewise it has been demonstrated that the product is auxiliary in the withdrawal syndrome treatment , specifically helping with the anxiety , and also helps to control the addictive behavior in humans . 7 . using raspberry powder and pure ellagic acid ( sigma aldrich ) two experiments in mice were developed , one was to evaluate the effect of those in the anxiety caused by nicotine withdraw syndrome ; and the other was to evaluate the nicotine addiction . based on the process mentioned in the mexican institute of industrial property in patent application number mx / a / 2010 / 000827 record dated 21 / ene / 2010 , folio mx / e / 2010 / 004489 . in the first case the high - cross test was used and in the second test site selectivity paradigm . nicotine was administered to mice for 14 consecutive days and when it was suspended , anxiety was developed . it was demonstrated that ellagic acid ( ea ) and raspberry powder ( rp ) significantly reduce signs related to anxiety caused by the refraining from exposure to nicotine , also raspberry powder reduces the natural anxiety that was generated in the group control mice , which means that an anxiolytic effect was obtained , even without withdrawal syndrome of nicotine . furthermore , it was demonstrated that nicotine is able to condition the behavior of mice , in order to receive more stimulation from it ; meanwhile the administration of ea and rp are able to modulate this behavior in a significant way . 8 . it was demonstrated that the product is an auxiliary in the withdrawal syndrome control , particularly in relation to anxiety ; and in controlling nicotine addiction in humans , using an experiment in which persons used different treatments with obtaining different results as follows : 9 . treatment 1 :— two persons , a man and a woman of 54 and 38 years respectively , used zam ® ( activated and micronized zeolite ) at doses of 5 g daily during 14 days . 10 . treatment 2 :— two persons , a man and a woman of 45 and 47 years respectively , used the raspberry powder recorded in january 2010 in the mexican institute of industrial property ( patent application number record mx / a / 2010 / 000827 , at folio mx / e / 2010 / 004489 ). at a dose of 5 g per day during 14 days . 11 . treatment 3 : a person , a man of 63 years used a commercial product of raspberry , with similar characteristics to the raspberry powder , mentioned in the previous section , in combination with zam ® ( activated and micronized zeolite ) at dose of 5 g per day . 12 . treatment 4 : two persons , a woman of 57 and a man aged 53 , used raspberry powder registered in the patent application number mx / a / 2010 / 000827 , folio mx / e / 2010 / 004489 ) in combination with zam ® ( micronized and activated zeolite ) in a dose of 7 g per day during 14 days . 13 . treatment 5 :— a person , a man of 39 years old , used varenicline , commercial brand , at dose of 1 mg twice daily during 7 days , then 0 . 5 mg daily for the next 3 days ; continuing with 0 . 5 mg twice a day during 4 days , and finally 1 mg during 1 day , every 12 h . this cycle was repeated 12 weeks . treatment 5 . 14 . anxiety was assessed by the hamilton anxiety scale ( hamilton , 1969 ; bulbena , 2000 ; apa , 2000 ) and the degree of nicotine dependence with fagerstrom test ( 1991 ). 15 . the hamilton anxiety scale ( table 1 ) is one of the most used instruments in pharmacological studies of anxiety . it was used according to the criteria established by the american psychological association ( apa , 2000 ), to assess the severity of anxiety in a global manner in patients who met criteria for anxiety or depression and to monitor response to treatment . 16 . 14 scale items were evaluated , 13 related to anxiety symptoms and signs , and the last item values the patient &# 39 ; s behavior during the assessment interview . in all cases it was applied by a medical doctor before and after each treatment ( treatments 1 to 5 , described in points 9 to 13 of this section ). the interview lasted 25 to 30 minutes before and after treatment . each item presents a number of signs and symptoms that are helpful in their assessment , although no specific anchor points . in each case both the item intensity and the item frequency were considered . each item is rated on a scale of 0 to 4 points , since just some questions refer to signs that can only be observed during the interview , each patient was questioned about their situation in the last 2 weeks before the interview ( both before starting treatment and once it was completed ) for treatments 1 to 4 , according to what reported by bech ( 1993 ) and for the treatment 5 ( varenicline ), lasting 12 weeks , the interview was applied 3 times , 1 time at the end of each month of treatment ; always considering in each interview , the evaluation of the last two weeks before the new interview , according considerations bech ( 1993 ). 17 . the physician scored from 0 to 4 points each item , assessing both the intensity and the frequency of it . the total score was obtained from the sum of the scores of each of the items . the range is from 0 to 56 points . the scale does not provide cutoff points to distinguish people with and without anxiety , so the results were interpreted as a quantification of the intensity ( kellner , 1968 ; lozano , 1990 ), resulting particularly useful variations after smoke quitting ; the first evaluation in the case of 1 to 4 treatments , was performed on day 7 after smoke quitting ; and in the case of the treatment 5 , the evaluation was the fixed day for smoke quitting . the last assessment ( 2dn for treatments 1 to 4 and 3 rd for treatment 5 ) was performed after the treatment finish , a day after the last dosage , interviewing the patient about the signs and symptoms of the scale during the last two weeks , prior to the interview ; the same period that lasted intake treatment in the case of 1 to 4 . 18 . according to kellner ( 1968 ) two scores were obtained corresponding to psychological anxiety ( items 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 and 14 ) and the somatic anxiety ( items 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , and 13 ), since the effects of treatments can have different degrees of psychic and somatic symptoms ( apa , 2000 ), resulting useful subscale scores , however for the purposes of this document , only the scale was considered for assessing generalized anxiety , asking about symptoms between anxiety attacks . so , under the criteria of bech ( 1993 ) were considered , for guidance : 0 a 5 points “ not anxious ”, 6 to 14 “ anxiety minor ” 15 or more “ anxiety greater .”. 19 . data were analyzed by statistical software , using anova and statistically significant differences were obtained , then the results are shown : 20 . the persons who used the treatment 1 , zam ® ( activated and micronized zeolite ) showed lower anxiety before and after treatment , even they stopped smoking ; and reported less anxiety than they had the last time they tried to quit , both persons tried to quit smoking before with other kind of treatments . tracking by phone and two weeks after completing the treatment 1 , both persons remained without smoking . 21 . the persons who used the treatment 2 , raspberry powder ( registered patent application number mx / a / 2010 / 000827 , file , folio mx / e / 2010 / 004489 ) showed lower anxiety before treatment and not anxiety at the end of this . both persons stopped smoking during the proposed period of treatment ( 21 days ). tracking was made by telephone every month , and even four months after the end of treatment , both persons still were able to be without smoking ; one of them during the third month felt the desire of smoking , but was able to stay without smoking . 22 . the person who used the treatment 3 , a commercial product of raspberry , similar to the raspberry powder mentioned in the previous section in combination with zam ® ( activated and micronized zeolite ) showed higher anxiety before the treatment and minor anxiety features at the end . the person quit smoking in the proposed period ( 21 days ). monitoring was conducted by telephone each month , and a month after the treatment , went back to smoke again ; then this person asked to receive treatment again , which was provided to him and relapsed after a week , four months after the end of treatment , the person was still smoking . 23 . in the case of the persons who used the treatment 4 , raspberry powder ( registered patent application number mx / a / 2010 / 000827 file , folio mx / e / 2010 / 004489 ) in combination with zam ® ( micronized and activated zeolite ), one of them had higher anxiety before treatment and the other less anxiety . after treatment the first had lower anxiety and second no anxiety . followed by telephone every month and four months after the end of treatment , both were still without smoking . 24 . the person who used the treatment 5 , varenicline showed less anxiety during the first month of treatment and increased anxiety during the second and third month . monitoring by telephone every month was conducted , and the person reported that quit smoking in the second month of treatment , remaining smoke - free for two months ; but also reported increased anxiety caused to fall smoking again , 1 month after treatment ends . 25 . fagerstrom test ( table 2 ) allows the measurement of the degree of physical dependence that smokers have for the nicotine , is one of the most significant findings in the clinical examination of smoking ( peto , 1996 ). fagerstrom test has proven to be the most useful tool among those available to measure such dependence ( salleras , 1994 ). it has been the most universally used and with better quality parameters ( plans , 1995 ). this is a test with six items with multiple answers . depending on the answer that each one of smoker gives to each of the questions you get a certain score . by sum the points earned in each of the issues a total score between 0 and 10 points is obtained . 26 . the assessment of the test , not only serves to ascertain the degree of physical dependence that smoking has by the nicotine , but also can be used for prognostic purposes and therapeutic indication ( jiménez , 2000 ). the evaluation is done according to the following scheme : from 0 to 1 points the degree of physical dependence is very low . from 2 to 3 points shows a low degree of dependence . the use of treatment pharmacology for smoking cessation in this group of patients is helpful . of 4 - 5 points indicates moderate degree of physical dependence on nicotine and a significant risk of illness associated with the consumption of tobacco . approximately 30 % of smokers have this score and in their attempts to quit tobacco consumption should use pharmacotherapy ( jiménez , 2000 ). the smokers with 6 or 7 points suffer high physical dependence and are at high risk associated with the consumption of tobacco diseases . 15 % of smokers get this score . according to jiménez ( 2000 ) is essential to use drug therapy to quit smoking when making a serious attempt to abandonment . from 8 - 10 points indicate extreme degree of dependence . 5 % of smokers get this score and your risk of developing associated diseases to tobacco consumption is very high . 27 . in a research study ( prieto , 2003 ) concluded that 90 % of smokers smoked daily and only 1 , 7 % did so weekly , finding that the average consumption was 15 . 21 cigarettes / day . 44 % of smokers had nicotine dependence ( assessed with a score equal to or greater than 5 on the fagerström test ), although the dependence was variable . the main motivation for continuing smoking was the pleasure ( 30 . 5 %), followed by the routine habits ( 27 . 1 %) and the feeling of relaxation ( 15 . 3 %). 28 . under these considerations fagerstrom test and treatment was given , as described above , to the 8 patients referenced herein . the following results were obtained : 29 . of those who used the treatment 1 ( activated and micronized zeolite ), one of them presented low physical dependence and other moderate physical dependence before treatment , both , as described before , quit smoking and after 14 days of treatment , both showed low physical dependence . 30 . the persons who used the treatment 2 , ( raspberry powder ( registered patent application number mx / a / 2010 / 000827 , folio mx / e / 2010 / 004489 ) showed moderate physical dependence before treatment , and finished showing very low physical dependence . tracking was made by telephone every month , and four months after the end of treatment , they still maintained without smoking . 31 . the person who used the treatment 3 ( a commercial product of raspberry , similar to the raspberry powder mentioned in the previous section in combination with zam ® ( activated and micronized zeolite ) presented moderate physical dependence before treatment and low physical dependence at the end . however , tracking was made by telephone each month , and four months after finishing the treatment continue smoking . 32 . of the persons who used the treatment 4 , ( raspberry powder ( registered patent application number mx / a / 2010 / 000827 file , folio mx / e / 2010 / 004489 ) in combination with zam ( micronized and activated zeolite ), one moderate physical dependence before treatment and the other low physical dependence . after treatment both showed very low physical dependence . tracking was made by telephone every month , and four months after the end of treatment , they still were without smoking . 33 . the person who used the treatment 5 , varenicline presented moderate physical dependence before treatment , and high at the end of it . tracking was made by telephone every month and reported having stopped smoking for 2 months , but then have fall smoking in the third month , and the person continue smoking . 34 . the attention protocol of patients with treatments 1 to 4 was fundamental for best results , so that patent applicants , we are exposing to also protect this application . which is described below : 35 . on a first meet to patients is asked to them to list the reasons why you smoke and why you have to leave ; on that same meeting , using a cognitive - behavioral process , the hazards and risks are explained that the snuff smoke implies for the health of himself and those around him ; he need to set a date to quit smoking and is given a list of circumstances that allow you to measure the chances of success and they are required to analyze them and fill out the questionnaire containing this list before going to the next appointment . 36 . in a second date is discussed with the patient the date to quitting and is reinforced on the fact that should be a significant date for him , while analyzes and reinforces the list of circumstances that speak of the possibilities successful smoking cessation . selected the date is programmed a third date , it will happen 5 days before the date fixed for smoking cessation program . a list of activities to be solved by the patient before going to the third date come is given , prompts make a diary in which you must record each cigarette smoked and why it does ; are asked to think , before lighting each cigarette , because it does ; is asked to whether it is really necessary , and if you considered this you can smoke . you are asked to delay a little every day the first cigarette of the morning . you are instructed not to accumulate snuff , advising buy one package at a time . you are invited to try smoking in a spaced form and not smoke the cigarettes that would not be entirely necessary and to turn them off in the middle . you are instructed to refuse offers of snuff other smokers and think of the fact that although fall into any of the deals , gradually get used to reject them . it makes you reflect on snuff trap “ light ”, indicating that the fact of having less nicotine can lead to smoke more often and take deeper puffs . you are instructed to practice any physical activity you can do regularly ( walking , running , cycling , etc .). you are invited to comment to the people around you that you will quit in a few days . you are encouraged to seek company and to form a group to know that you can support to overcome the bad times together . it makes you think you can ask family and / or friends who are part of the support group , who can go , even by telephone , to overcome some point of crisis , the physician and / or therapist phone are provides the or treating institution . 37 . from that moment appointment is given 5 days prior to the date fixed for quitting . on the third appointment , is forewarned that from this moment you have 5 days to quit and reviewed with the patient what they should do every day : 38 . first day , should set the time to quit . you are invited to talk again with your friends and family of your plan . you are prompted to stop buying cigarettes and write the date in a “ letter of commitment ”, which specify the time , day , month and year will be to quit smoking . 39 . second day you are prompted to make another list of when and why you smoke . it invites you to think of that day in new ways to relax , things can get his hands instead of a cigarette , you are invited to analyze habits or routines that you want to change and are requested write this into a list . 40 . third day . will be show on that day make a list of things you can do with the money you &# 39 ; ll save by quitting . you are invited to call a friend , an ex - smoker or your support group when you need help . 41 . fourth day . you are told to take 1 capsule of 500 mg of composed valerian each / 8 hours . for 5 days . you are instructed to wash their clothing , and bedding to remove cigarette smell . 42 . fifth day is suggested that you choose a reward and the acquiring , to give it to yourself after you quit . you are instructed to make an appointment with your doctor and / or treating institution . it tells you that the end of the day all cigarettes and matches be discarded , and keep lighters and ashtrays 43 . final day . this day is the date set in the first day . it tells you kept well occupied , you change your routine when possible and do things out of the usual . it tells you to remind your family , friends and work colleagues that this is the day to quit and invites you to ask them to give you help and support . 44 . day after . congratulate yourself and your reward be purchased , a gift or do something to celebrate . you are instructed to avoid alcohol . it is suggested that when you want a cigarette , you do something that is not related to smoking , such as a walk in the park , take a glass of water , or deep breathing . 45 . upon completion of the third appointment are delivered in writing the above indications and gather to the day after the date for quitting . are also given , in writing , information on what to do in case of anxiety , constipation , hunger and / or weakness . 46 . the fourth appointment is scheduled for the 6th day , after starting the countdown 5 days to the date specified has quit . at this appointment the patient is advised about treatments that support the process of quitting , advantages and disadvantages are communicated . are explain what the process of detoxification of the body and is guided on using the treatment with the product , resulting from the combination of the zam ® ( micronized and activated zeolite ), as described in the trademark registration , and raspberry powder ( according to process registered in the mexican institute of industrial property , in patent application number mx / a / 2010 / 000827 record dated 21 / ene / 2010 , folio mx / e / 2010 / 004 , 489 ), subject to registration of this patent document . treatment with this product is indicated for 14 days at doses of 7 g of powder diluted , preferably in fruit juice or any other drink except alcohol and suggesting that ingested daily at the same time , preferably in the morning . 47 . the base powder reconstituted with water retains its content of minerals such as calcium , magnesium , potassium , silicon , sodium , manganese , sulfates and phosphates , carbohydrates and nitrogenous compounds , as well as vitamins a , b1 , b2 and c , the latter will give the quality of being an excellent antioxidant to counter free radicals , being vitamins preferred , but it is feasible and it is permissible to add any other vitamin supplement . likewise retains chemical components zam ® ( activated and micronized zeolite ) sio2 , cao , k2o , mgo , na2o by strengthening antioxidant and detoxificant effect by be mineral negatively charged microcrystalline and naturally attract and adsorb positively charged toxicants because either air or the skin and blood . the product covered by this application provoke benefic effects in health in the process of abandon of smoking interfering in the anxiety caused by nicotine withdrawal , and need of nicotine and the need to keep using nicotine as stimulant and in the detoxify the body of this substance and others present in the tobacco smoke . it can be used diluted in water or in any permissible drink except alcohol , or as an additive in any food such as cookies , jellies , cakes , gelatins , yogurt , among others , as well as other personal care products such as oral rinses , toothpaste , and skin creams , among others cleaning products like laundry detergents , soap for the whole body , shampoo , among others , cigarette filters and others . 48 . the base powder has a shelf life of more than one year while retaining its original properties . having sufficiently described the invention , it is considered as a new product , process and therapeutic properties obtained from it and therefore claim as our exclusive property contained in the following claims . | 0 |
an embodiment of the present invention will now be described with reference to fig1 . a rock bolt , generally designated by reference numeral 1 comprises a shank 2 . the shank 2 , in this embodiment , is comprised of a hollow tubular member 5 and a reinforcing arrangement 4 . in this embodiment , the hollow tubular member 5 has a longitudinally extending passageway 3 which extends the length of the shank 2 . in this embodiment , the hollow tubular member 5 is a hollow tube formed from rigid hollow pipe . the reinforcing arrangement 4 , is of high strength and forms a deformed outer surface which provides high load transfer through the cementations grout / resin which is placed between the strands and borehole wall . in this particular example , the reinforcement arrangement is in the form of reinforcing strand which is wound around the outside of the hollow tube 5 . in this embodiment , the strands 4 are high tensile “ pc ” steel strand wound about the outside of the hollow tubular member 5 . the strand is welded to the hollow tubular member 5 at a distal end 6 of the rock bolt 1 . the deformations in the outer surface are formed by the nature of the strands , not being a smooth outer surface . as well as the nature of the wound strands providing deformed surface , additional deformation may be added by indenting the strands or using “ spiral type ” pc wire . in more detail , the rock bolt 1 also includes , at the distal end 6 , a drill bit 8 mounted on the tubular member 5 to enable self drilling of the rock bolt 1 . in order to secure together the reinforcing strands 6 , for purpose of tensioning and load bearing , a securing arrangement 9 is arranged at the tail end 7 of the rock bolt 1 . the securing arrangement 9 includes a cylinder 10 incorporating a wedge arrangement in the interior of the cylinder . the cylinder and wedge are mounted about the outer surface of strand 6 and the cylinder is then deformed onto the wedge so that the wedge bites into the strand 6 to provide further securing . the hollow tubular member provides the radial resistance to maintain the strands in position against the wedge compressing radially inwards . the securing arrangement 9 is shown in more detail in fig2 a and 2b . within the cylinder 10 there are mounted three inserts 12 , which , in this embodiment , are not “ wedge ” shaped as such but part cylindrical sections . fig2 b shows a front on plan view of an inside face of one of the inserts 12 . in use , the inside face 12 buts against the strand 6 . the inside face 12 is provided with a plurality of serrations or teeth 13 . alternatively , this may be in the form of a thread 13 . when the cylinder 10 is compressed over the inserts 12 the serrations / teeth 13 penetrate or otherwise interfere with the strand 6 to secure the strand 6 . the compression is carried out by machine operation during manufacture of the rock bolt 1 . this is a swage type of end fitting . once the cylinder 10 has been compressed about the inserts 12 , an outer thread is formed on the outside of the cylinder 10 , for receiving retention nut 11 . as an alternative to the part cylindrical inserts , wedge shaped inserts could be used . the outer surface of the cylinder has a thread formed on it to receive a cooperatively threaded tension nut 11 . in operation , the tension nut 11 may be tensioned against a mounting plate ( not shown ) hard up against the rock face when the rock bolt is in place . to install the rock bolt , the tail end 7 of the shank 2 is placed into a rock drilling motor . a drill rig rotates the rock bolt 1 and the drill bit 8 drills into the rock . as drilling proceeds , water or other cooling fluid may be provided via the central passageway 3 . the whole tubular member provides sufficient strength to provide for rotation / impact of the drilling bit into the rock . when the rock bolt is into the rock at sufficient depth , cementations grout / resin is injected into the hollow tube to flow out of the drill bit and down the bolt between the borehole wall and reinforcing strand . alternatively , grout can be pumped upwards between the bore hole and the outer circumference of the rock bolt 1 . the passageway 3 in this case is used as a breather tube to allow air to escape as grout fills the voids . the grout is allowed to cure and secure the reinforcing strand to the rock . the tension nut is then rotated hard up against the mounting plate in order to tension the bolt and plate against the rock face . the reinforcing strand , when bonded to the borehole wall with resin , acts to provide the rock reinforcement . this is achieved through having an overall deformed surface / circumference to bond to the rock and the required very high strength to carry the load transferred to the reinforcing member through rock movement . a further embodiment will now be described with reference to fig3 and 4 . the same reference numerals have been used in these figures to identify similar features of this rock bolt to the rock bolt of fig1 and no further description will be given of these features . in this embodiment , the rock bolt 20 comprises an alternative securing member to secure the reinforcement arrangement 4 . in more detail , a securing member arranged at the tail end 7 of the rock bolt 20 comprises drive nut 21 . the drive nut 21 is fixed to the hollow tubular member 2 by way of a thread on the inside of the drive nut 21 and outside of a portion of tubular member 5 . the drive nut 21 also includes a number of bores 23 for receiving strands 4 of the reinforcing arrangement . the strands have a button head 26 formed onto the ends for securing against the bores 23 . a reinforcing nut 24 at the distal end 6 of the rock bolt 20 is arranged for mounting on a threaded portion 25 of the distal end 6 . in manufacture , when the drive nut 21 is twisted in a clockwise direction , it will cause winding on the originally straight strands 4 to form a helically twisted formation . in operation , when the rock bolt 20 has been drilled into the bore hole , grouting may then be carried out via the central passageway 3 as usual . in this embodiment , “ button distals ” 26 may be formed at the ends of the reinforcing strands 4 , to secure the strands within the passageways 23 in drive nut 21 ( and also in the securing nut 24 ). a variation on the securing member for securing the reinforcement arrangement 4 is illustrated in fig5 a , 5 b and 5 c . in this alternative , the securing member is in two parts . one part comprises a cylindrical end block 22 which includes circumferential bores 23 for receiving the ends of reinforcing strand 4 . the end block 22 may be secured to the hollow tubular member 5 by welding or threads on its inner surface 27 . referring to fig5 a , reference numeral 26 clearly indicates a forged button on the end of each individual wire of the strand 4 . the button - end 26 is formed after the wires are inserted through the passageways 23 in the end block 23 . the other part of the securing member comprises a tensioning nut 28 , which includes a nut 28 having a cylindrical recess 29 which is arranged to receive the end block 22 to seat therein , as best illustrated in fig5 c . the tensioning nut also includes a passageway 35 which extends around the outside of the strand 4 . a thread may be provided at this portion of the strand 4 to engage with a corresponding thread on the inside of the passageway 35 . in operation , the rock bolt 20 is drilled into the rock . after grouting , the tensioning nut 29 may then be rotated up against a mounting plate ( not shown ) to post - tension the rock bolt 20 . in the alternative using the securing member 21 , no post - tensioning is required and drilling occurs until the securing member 21 is drilled up against the rock or a mounting plate ( not shown ), and then grouting is introduced into the bore hole . fig6 shows a detail of the distil end 6 of the rock bolt of fig3 . the securing nut 24 has bores 36 for receiving reinforcing strand 4 . no button heads are required on the strand for this end . the nut 24 and strand 4 could be welded to the tubular member 5 if required . as this end 6 of the bolt 20 is grouted within the rock , less strength is required than at the proximal end 7 of the rock bolt 20 . a further embodiment will now be described with reference to fig8 , 9 and 10 . again , the same reference numerals have been used to denote features which are the same as already described for previous embodiments , and no further description will be given of these features . in the rock bolt 30 of this embodiment , an alternative securing arrangement 31 is utilised to assist in securing the reinforcement strands 4 and tensioning the rock bolt 30 . a reinforcing member 31 includes a tapered internal surface 33 and wedges 32 that are arranged to slide against the tapered internal surface 33 . in operation , the member 31 is tensioned against a mounting plate when the rock bolt 30 is in place within the bore hole . upon subsequent loading as the member 31 is pulled up against the mounting plate , it forces the wedges to bite into the strands 4 and secure the strands 4 . in the embodiment of fig8 and 9 , there are three wedges 32 . an exploded view of the barrel 31 and wedge 32 arrangement is shown in fig1 . again , although not clearly shown in fig1 , there are 3 wedges 32 . it will be appreciated that there may be more or less wedges . in operation , the rock bolt 30 is drilled into the rock up until the mounting plate and barrel are tensioned against the rock surface and the barrel 31 is forced backwardly over the wedges 32 to secure the strands 4 . grouting is then implemented . fig1 shows a portion of the embodiment of fig8 , showing a mounting plate 39 in section . the barrel 31 seats in a hole or recess 38 in the mounting plate 39 . yet a further embodiment is illustrated in fig1 a and 11b . the rock bolt 40 of fig1 a includes a mechanical anchoring arrangement , generally designated by reference numeral 45 , at the distal end 6 of the rock bolt 40 . the mechanical anchoring arrangement 45 is of similar construction to the mechanical anchoring arrangement disclosed in provisional patent application number 2006903922 , referenced above . the mechanical anchoring arrangement 45 operates to point anchor the rock bolt 40 . the mechanical anchoring arrangement 45 will now be described in more detail . towards the distal end 6 of the rock bolt 40 , the tubular member 5 is threaded with screw threads 49 . the threaded portion 49 extends up to the drill bit 8 . the drill bit 8 comprises a base forming a stop 50 where the threaded portion 49 meets the drill bit 8 . the mechanical anchoring arrangement 45 includes an expansion shell 47 and chuck 46 . the expansion shell 47 in this example , has longitudinally extending leaves 52 , 53 ( note only two are shown in the drawings but there are three leaves ). note that the number of leaves on the expansion shell 47 could vary . for example , the leaves could vary from two to four . the leaves 52 , 53 are arranged to move outwardly on expansion of the expansion shell 47 and are formed with a plurality of external protrusions 54 which assist in gripping the sides of the borehole to secure the rock bolt 40 in place . the expansion shell 47 also includes a bore 55 for sliding engagement with the threaded portion 49 . an abutment member in the form of a threaded nut 56 is mounted on the threaded portion 49 and operates to prevent the expansion shell 47 from sliding further towards the tail end 7 . the chuck 46 has a threaded bore ( not shown ) for threaded engagement with the threaded portion 49 . rotation of the rock bolt 40 relative to the chuck 46 thus causes axial motion of the chuck 46 along the threaded portion 49 . the chuck 46 includes tapered surfaces in sliding keying engagement with complementary surfaces on the extension leaves 52 , 53 , such that axial motion of the chuck 46 towards the tail end 7 relative to the expansion shell 47 will cause the leaves 52 , 53 to diverge outwardly and grip the walls of the borehole . the chuck also includes projections 57 which extend into slots 58 formed between the leaves 52 , 53 and prevent relative rotation of the chuck 46 and expansion shell 47 with respect to each other . stop 50 formed by the base of the drill bit 8 prevents chuck 46 and expansion shell 47 from moving over the distal end of the rock bolt 40 . the protrusions 54 are in a spiral formation , to assist with the flow of fluid during drilling , and aid in clearance of filings / cuttings . the spiral runs in the opposite direction to the thread form i . e . right hand spiral for left hand thread . installation of the rock bolt 40 will now be described . a drill rig and spanner is attached to the rock bolt . drilling into the rock substrate is implemented by rotating the rock bolt in the clockwise direction ( in this embodiment ). it will be appreciated that a reverse threaded arrangement may be rotated in the anticlockwise direction . as drilling proceeds , the expansion shell 47 may resist rotation as it abuts the walls of the borehole , and this will result in relative anticlockwise rotation of the expansion shell 47 and chuck 46 relative to the rock bolt 40 . this will cause the chuck 46 to travel along the threaded portion 49 towards the distal end of the rock bolt 40 where it will abut the flat 50 . once flat 50 is engaged by the chuck 46 then the expansion shell 47 and chuck 46 will continue to rotate in the drilling direction with the rock bolt 40 . once the rock bolt 40 has created a borehole of the desired length , drilling in the forward direction is ceased and rotation in the reverse direction ( anticlockwise in this embodiment ) is applied by the drill rig . by virtue of the anticlockwise motion of the threaded portion 49 , the chuck 46 will now move towards the tail end 7 . as the chuck 46 moves along the threaded portion 49 , the tapered surfaces in sliding keying engagement with the complementary surfaces on the extension leaves 52 , 53 , cause the expansion shell 47 to expand outwardly . the protrusions 54 on the external surfaces of the leaves 52 , 53 engage the walls of the borehole and mechanically secure the rock bolt 40 in place and provide tension to the reinforcement member . grouting the rock bolt 40 can then be carried out as discussed with reference to the previous embodiments . fig1 b shows a exploded view of the head end of the rock bolt 40 of fig1 a , more clearly showing the components of the point anchoring mechanism . the tail end of the rock bolt 40 may have any securing arrangement . in fig1 a , the securing arrangement comprises a barrel 31 and wedge 32 assembly as shown . fig1 and 14 show cross sections through the shanks of rock bolts in accordance with embodiments of the present invention . these diagrams illustrate that different widths of reinforcing strands and different dimensions of tubular member may be utilised . in fig1 , for example , strands 4 may be 6 mm in diameter and the internal diameter of the tube 5 is 12 mm . relatively large particle grout can be used with increasing hollow tube internal diameter . the arrangement of fig1 , on the other hand , has smaller diameter strands 4 ( 5 . 5 mm ) and a smaller diameter tube 5 ( 12 . 7 mm ), for possible resin injection . the rock bolt of the present invention is not limited to the dimensions shown in fig1 and 14 . these are example dimensions only . in the above embodiments , the reinforcing arrangement is formed by strands of strong material ( such as steel ). other materials then steel may be used for the strands . further , the reinforcing arrangement may comprise other forms than strands . for example , a webbing of strong material may form the reinforcing arrangement . all the above embodiments relate to self drilling rock bolts . the present invention is not limited to self drilling rock bolts . a conventional rock bolt with a hollow tube and reinforcing arrangement also falls within the scope of the present invention . in the above embodiments , various arrangements are illustrated and described for securing the reinforcing arrangement at the head and tail of the rock bolt . other arrangements than described may be utilised . for example , in a simple embodiment , the strand may be welded at the head end and also welded at the tail end . in the above embodiments , the reinforcing arrangement comprises reinforcing strands of a metal material , such as pc steel . the reinforcing arrangement may be of other material . for example , it may comprise fibreglass or plastics . it may comprise fibreglass or plastics strand . any other suitable material may be used . in the above embodiments , the tubular members of hollow steel pipe or other metal material . it may be of any other suitable material , such as fibreglass , for example . in embodiments of the invention , there is the advantage that the tubular member holds the initial tension and then the reinforcing arrangement , in examples being reinforcing strand , takes over the load when the rock bolt is secured in the bore e . g . by grouting . in the claims which follow and in the preceding description of the invention , except where the context requires otherwise due to express language or necessary implication , the word “ comprise ” or variations such as “ comprises ” or “ comprising ” is used in an inclusive sense , i . e . to specify the presence of the stated features but not to preclude the presence or addition of further features in various embodiments 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 invention as broadly described . the present embodiments are , therefore , to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive . | 4 |
fig1 is an embodiment of the fixed - direction wheel control mechanism ( 1 ) equipped on the frame of a stroller to facilitate switching wheels between a fixed - direction mode and a free steering mode . in this embodiment , the fixed - direction wheel control mechanism ( 1 ) is installed between the handle tube ( 12 ) of a baby stroller ( 10 ) and a wheel assembly ( 2 ), and includes a far - end controller ( 5 ), a connecting member ( 6 ), and a positioning member ( 3 ). in this embodiment , the frame of the baby stroller ( 10 ) includes a front foot tube ( 11 ) having an end extended towards the center section thereof , and a handle tube ( 12 ) for a user to hold in order to push the baby stroller around . as shown in fig2 and 3 , the wheel assembly ( 2 ) is equipped at the lower end of the front foot tube ( 11 ) and includes a base seat ( 21 ) and a wheel seat ( 22 ). the base seat ( 21 ) is connected to the lower end of the front foot tube ( 11 ) and includes a fastener ( 23 ) to keep the base seat ( 21 ) connected with the wheel seat ( 22 ). the wheel seat ( 22 ) for a carrying wheel ( 20 ) has a pivot shaft ( 24 ) extending upwardly from the top portion thereof , for pivotally connecting the wheel seat ( 22 ) with the base seat ( 21 ). a limiting ring ( 241 ) is provided at the distal end of the pivot shaft ( 24 ). the wheel seat ( 22 ) is capable of rotating freely with the pivot shaft ( 24 ), and is detachable from the base seat ( 21 ) before the fastener ( 23 ) is secured into the limiting ring ( 241 ). to catch the wheel seat ( 22 ) and fix the wheel seat ( 22 ) to prevent it from freely rotating , the top of the wheel seat ( 22 ) is provided with a recess to form a positioning portion ( 25 ). preferably , a spring ( 26 ) can be provided at the wheel seat ( 22 ) to absorb any shocks from a bumpy road , to provide a smoother ride for the baby sitting on the stroller . as shown in fig2 and 4 , a positioning member ( 3 ) pivotally connected to the base seat ( 21 ) includes a connecting end ( 31 ) and a salient block ( 32 ). the salient block ( 32 ) is installed between the base seat ( 21 ) and the positioning member ( 3 ). in this embodiment , the salient block ( 32 ) can be a compression spring for biasing the positioning member ( 3 ) to move into the positioning portion ( 25 ), in order to catch and fix the wheel seat ( 22 ). in this way , the baby stroller is kept in a fixed - direction mode . as shown in fig2 and 5 , the resilient element ( 4 ) is compressed and the positioning member ( 3 ) is pulled by connecting member ( 6 ) and removed from the positioning portion ( 25 ). in this way , the baby stroller is switched into a free steering mode . in the present embodiment , the fixed - direction wheel control mechanism ( 1 ) includes a far - end controller ( 5 ), a connecting member ( 6 ) and a positioning member ( 3 ). the connecting member ( 6 ) is connected between the far - end controller ( 5 ) and the connecting end ( 31 ) of the positioning member ( 3 ). the far - end controller ( 5 ) is capable of being installed on any portion of the frame of baby stroller ( 10 ), to allow a user to more conveniently switch the wheel modes without bending their body in front of the stroller . in the present embodiment , as shown in fig1 , 4 and 5 , the far - end controller ( 5 ) is equipped on the side of handle tube ( 12 ), in order to facilitate the switching operation . as shown in fig4 , the connecting member ( 6 ) can be made of any flexible material , such as a wire , as is illustrated in the present embodiment . when switching the stroller into free steering mode , a user draws the connecting member ( 6 ) by forcing the far - end controller ( 5 ) to move on the handle tube ( 12 ). in this way , the salient block ( 32 ) leaves the positioning portion ( 25 ) and releases the wheel seat ( 22 ). as shown in fig5 , when the connecting member ( 6 ) is released , the resilient element ( 4 ) pushes the salient block ( 32 ) back into the positioning portion ( 25 ). inthis way , the stroller is kept in a fixed - direction mode . as shown in fig1 and 6 , the far - end controller ( 5 ) includes a securing seat ( 51 ), a pulling member ( 52 ), a push button ( 53 ), and a restoring spring ( 54 ). the securing seat ( 51 ) is equipped at the handle tube ( 12 ) of the frame of baby stroller ( 10 ). the pulling member ( 52 ) is pivotally connected to the securing seat ( 51 ) and is connected to an end of the connecting member ( 6 ). the pulling member ( 52 ) includes a handle ( 521 ) and a positioning slot ( 522 ). the push button ( 53 ) includes a press portion ( 531 ) and a positioning tooth ( 532 ). the restoring spring ( 54 ) is installed between the push button ( 53 ) and the pulling member ( 52 ), and maintains the positioning tooth ( 532 ) of the push button ( 53 ) locating at the positioning slot ( 522 ) of the pulling member ( 52 ), in order to fix the pulling member ( 52 ). this makes the pulled member ( 52 ) unable to turn under normal conditions . when the user presses the push button ( 53 ), the positioning tooth ( 532 ) of the push button ( 53 ) is capable of separating from the positioning slot ( 522 ), in order to make the pulling member ( 52 ) turn freely to pull the connecting member ( 6 ). by using the above - mentioned members , as shown in fig4 , the resilient element ( 4 ) biases the salient block ( 32 ) and maintains the salient block ( 32 ) in the positioning portion ( 25 ). meanwhile , the wheel seat ( 22 ) is caught and fixed , and the stroller is switched into a fixed - direction mode . as shown in fig4 and 6 , once a user wishes for the wheel seat ( 22 ) to turn freely , he or she can manipulate the push button ( 53 ) of the far - end controller ( 5 ) to release the limitation with respect to the pulling member ( 52 ). at this moment , the user can turn the pulling member ( 52 ) to pull the connecting member ( 6 ) through the handle ( 521 ). since the connecting member ( 6 ) is connected between the pulling member ( 52 ) and the positioning member ( 3 ), once the pulling member ( 52 ) is turned , the positioning member ( 3 ) will be driven to turn , thereby compressing the resilient element ( 4 ). in this way , the salient block ( 32 ) of the positioning member ( 3 ) will be separated from the positioning portion ( 25 ) of the wheel seat ( 22 ), in order to release the limitations with respect to the wheel seat ( 22 ). this allows the wheel seat ( 22 ) to turn freely . at this moment , the user releases the push button ( 53 ) of the far - end controller ( 5 ) to allow the positioning tooth ( 532 ) of the push button ( 53 ) to engage with the positioning slot ( 522 ) of the pulling member ( 52 ), by using the resilience of the restoring spring ( 54 ). in this way , the positioning member ( 3 ) is able to maintain a released position , for releasing the limitations with respect to the wheel seat ( 22 ), as shown in fig4 . the invention being thus described , it will be obvious that the same may be varied in many ways . such variations are not to be regarded as a departure from the spirit and scope of the invention , and all such modifications as would be obvious to one skilled in the art are intended to be included within the scope of the following claims . | 1 |
the invention in it &# 39 ; s broadest form , illustrated in fig1 incorporates a layer of laminated safety glass 2 with a standoff region 3 inboard of the bulletproof glass layer 1 . such a window system provides a more compliant and energy absorbing contact surface than bulletproof glass alone . if the gap between the bulletproof window and the laminated glass is sufficient , the energy absorbed by glass fracture and plastic deformation of the interlayer can significantly reduce the impact velocity of the head with the bulletproof glass or prevent contact altogether . in order to most conveniently be used in place of existing bullet - proof glass installations with little modification , it is envisioned that the laminate glass layer can be attached to the bullet - proof glass layer , as will be described below , either to an existing bulletproof layer , or as an assembly that can be used in place of a single bulletproof glass layer . for these cases , the inner safety layer is attached to the bulletproof glass layer across the stand - off region . it is also within the capability of one skilled in the art to envision a range of mounting frame possibilities for cases where the novel window system is designed in for a new or modified vehicle . the laminate safety glass may be of a type already used in the automotive industry . such window glass as shown in fig2 , consists of two glass layers 4 and 6 which are formed into a sandwich about interlayer 5 commonly consisting of polyvinyl butyral ( pvb ). such glass is typically constructed with the glass layers of thickness in the 2 mm range , and the pvb interlayer in the 0 . 75 mm range . other materials and dimensions are possible as will be discussed below . it is known that the thinness of the glass layers provides a survivable head impact scenario , while the sandwich construction around the soft pvb interlayer provides overall structural strength along with relatively safe fracture characteristics . such glass laminates are increasingly used in window and windshield design for vehicles , and are many times less dangerous in head impacts than 20 mm bulletproof glass , yet are perfectly acceptable optically and from a durability standpoint . since typical bullet proof glass is 20 mm thick , and common laminate safety glass is about 5 mm thick , an overall width for the system was chosen as about 75 mm , to avoid an impractically thick overall window system , indicating a desired standoff gap in the 50 - 65 mm range . using a variety of dimensions in the ranges above , hybrid iii dummy headform impacts were simulated using the ls - dyna finite element program . a model of a hybrid iii headform developed by livermore software technology corp . ( lstc ) was modified to improve correlation with head acceleration data from a 0 . 65 meter drop test of a hybrid iii headform on the top of the head . the model was also shown to meet peak acceleration requirements for a 2 . 7 m / s forehead impact for the headform validation portion of the fmvss 201 occupant protection standard . a 19 mm - thick bulletproof window design was modeled , as well as various laminated glass panels with the same shape as the bulletproof window . the laminated glass was fixed inboard of the bulletproof window by perimeter standoffs of various heights within the above ranges dictating the gap between the laminated glass and the bulletproof window . the laminated window designs considered consisted of a typical interlayer of polyvinyl butyral ( pvb ) sandwiched between two identical plates of glass . the laminated glass finite element model was validated with force - deflection data from various quasi - static ring - on - ring bending tests . 15 - mph lateral head impacts with various bulletproof window systems were simulated . the impacts were centered on the upper rear quadrant of the window , and the headform was tilted laterally 27 degrees from vertical . the strain - rate dependent pvb stress - strain properties were selected based on the strain rates seen in the laminated glass during failure in the 15 - mph impacts . a depiction of the modeling is shown in fig3 . for baseline comparison , a 15 - mph impact with the unprotected bulletproof window was simulated that produced excessive head injury criterion ( hic ) and peak head accelerations . for the range of system designs considered , it was found that a window spacing of about 50 - 65 mm was sufficient to keep hic levels well below head injury thresholds for the 15 - mph lateral impact modeled . in order to keep the stand - off gap around 50 - 65 mm it was found that thicker than standard pvb interlayers are desirable . however sticking with the common glass layer thicknesses , in the 2 mm range , such laminate glass with thicker pvb interlayers is easily obtainable from existing sources . however thinner glass designs , alternate glass materials , thicker interlayers or interlayers of alternate materials are also possible . glass alternatives include polycarbonates , glass - plastic , or plastic - composites . alternative interlayer materials include surlyn and sentryglas - plus . use of alternative materials may allow for thinner laminates and / or thinner stand - off gaps . however , the commonly available glass - pvb - glass laminates in the dimensions tested produce acceptable results example results shown in the table below of selected laminated glass lay - ups and window spacings show that for pvb based formulations 50 - 57 mm gaps provide substantial improvements in head injury measures . in this table the hic and peak acceleration values are normalized to the baseline unprotected bulletproof window values . a lay - up designation of 2 . 4 / 1 . 14 / 2 . 4 refers to a laminate with 1 . 14 mm of pvb sandwiched between two 2 . 4 mm plates of glass , and so on . of those alternatives shown the 2 . 4 / 1 . 14 / 2 . 4 laminate with 57 mm spacing had performance almost 40 times better than the baseline . the same design also performed well for a 15 - mph head impact located at the center of window ( normalized peak acceleration and hic of 0 . 312 and 0 . 073 respectively ). alternative stand - off arrangements are possible which may lead to either decreased overall stand - off width , or increased head impact protection . as shown in fig4 , the standoff layer 3 could have an energy absorbent material 7 installed around the perimeter of the window and providing the stand - off connection between the bullet - proof layer and the laminate layer . it is also possible to employ a clear energy absorbing material and fill the stand - off region . in this case , the glass layers would protect against scratching and aging of the clear stand - off material . or , as shown in fig5 perimeter standoffs 8 could be used . the perimeter standoffs between the bulletproof glass and laminate layer could be constructed of energy absorbing material such as honeycomb to absorb impacts on the edge of the window . alternatively , a variety of materials including metal , foam , rubber , composite , or plastic perimeter standoffs in various physical shapes could be employed . if a stiff stand - off is employed then as shown in fig6 , exterior padding 9 around the perimeter in conjunction with the mounting assembly would be desirable to protect against impacts with the window edge . to prevent condensation in the chamber between the windows , the standoff should be provided with vent holes . the window chamber could also be incorporated into the vehicle defroster system . costs for the improved performance are low compared to the costs for the bulletproof glass itself . the novel bulletproof window system has been shown to provide up to a 40 times reduction in hic levels over unprotected bulletproof glass for the 15 - mph impacts simulated . the system design is modular and provides for insertion into the vehicle in a way that is compatible with current assembly techniques for insertion of bulletproof glass modules . costs are similar to the original bullet proof glass costs since the material and module assembly costs are low . improved performance can be provided with alternate interlayer materials . other glass plastic , plastic , composite , plastic composite structures can be utilized for the inner layer . | 8 |
referring to fig1 b , when the generator is in service , the perimeter of the airbag ( 3 ) closes off the radial nozzles ( 7 ), thereby preventing gas outflow via the radial nozzles ( 7 ). in this configuration , the gas , being unable to escape via the closed - off radial nozzles ( 7 ), flows via the annular passage ( 5 ) before joining the axial nozzles ( 6 ) formed in the side wall ( 2 ) of the tube ( 1 ) and thus reaching the inflatable airbag ( 3 ), as shown by the arrows f 3 in fig1 b . in order for the radial nozzles ( 7 ) to be properly closed off , the perimeter of the open end of the airbag ( 3 ) is held in place by means of a clamping clip ( 9 ) that surrounds the tube ( 1 ). in a second embodiment shown in fig2 a to 3b , a duct ( 106 , 206 ) passes through the closed end section ( 108 , 208 ) of the tube ( 101 , 201 ), approximately along its center , the axis of said duct being roughly coincident with the axis ( a ) of the tube ( 101 , 201 ) and thus constituting axial gas outflow toward the airbag ( 103 , 203 ) when the latter is fitted . this duct ( 106 , 206 ) has a first end , called the outlet end , which emerges outside the tube ( 101 , 201 ) into the airbag , when it is fitted , and a second end ( 105 , 205 ), called the inlet end , which emerges inside the tube ( 101 , 201 ). the inlet ( 105 , 205 ) of the duct ( 106 , 206 ) lies roughly level with the abovementioned transition ( 112 , 212 ) in the section of the tube ( 1 ). in a first variant of this second embodiment , shown in fig2 a and 2b , a deflector ( 104 ) is placed in front of the inlet ( 105 ) of the duct ( 106 ), said deflector having a solid circular domed central portion ( 115 ), the convexity of which is oriented toward the upstream end of the tube ( 101 ). formed in the deflector ( 104 ) on either side of this central portion ( 115 ) are two orifices ( 140 ), the axes of which are roughly parallel to the axis ( a ) of the tube ( 101 ). this deflector ( 104 ) is fixed via its perimeter ( 142 ) to the internal wall ( 120 ) of the tube ( 1 ) just upstream of the section transition ( 112 ) of the tube ( 101 ). the solid central portion ( 115 ) of the deflector ( 104 ) is placed in front of the inlet ( 105 ) of the duct ( 106 ). the diameter d 6 of this solid central portion , bounded by the orifices ( 140 ), is greater than the diameter of the duct ( 106 ) at its inlet ( 105 ), defined by d 5 in fig2 a and 2b . the radius of curvature of the doming of the central portion ( 115 ) of the deflector ( 104 ) is sufficient to leave a space between the inlet ( 105 ) of the duct ( 106 ) and the central portion ( 115 ) of the deflector ( 104 ). a cylindrical part ( 117 ) is placed just upstream of the deflector ( 104 ). this part ( 117 ) is fixed via its periphery to the internal wall ( 120 ) of the tube ( 101 ). this part ( 117 ) has a central channel ( 116 ) of frustoconical shape , the axis of symmetry of which is roughly coincident with the axis ( a ) of the tube ( 101 ), this frustoconical shape thus creating , in the tube ( 101 ), a change in the flow section . this frustoconical channel ( 116 ) is oriented in such a way that the smallest flow section is the most upstream . the largest flow section of this central channel ( 116 ) has a diameter d 7 defined in such a way as to be equal to or greater than the sum of the diameter d 6 of the central portion ( 115 ) of the deflector ( 104 ) and of the diameter of each orifice ( 140 ) of the deflector ( 104 ). in this variant , orifices or nozzles ( 107 ) are formed radially through the side wall ( 102 ) of the tube ( 101 ), downstream of the section transition ( 112 ) of the tube ( 101 ). these orifices or nozzles ( 107 ) are distributed so as to give the generator a neutral - thrust configuration when it is initiated outside its module . these orifices or nozzles ( 107 ) may be closed off as in the first variant described with reference to fig1 a and 1b by the perimeter of the airbag ( 3 ). the central portion ( 115 ) of the deflector ( 104 ) and the frustoconical shape of the central channel ( 116 ) of the part ( 117 ) located upstream , deflect and guide the gas toward the orifices ( 140 ) of the deflector ( 104 ). at the orifices ( 140 ), the gas accelerates owing to the venturi effect created by the restriction formed by these orifices . upon accelerating , the gas expands around the duct ( 106 ), to be directed toward the radial nozzles ( 107 ), as indicated by the arrows f 102 in fig2 a . if the generator is not in service , i . e . it is outside its module , the gas escapes via these radial nozzles ( 107 ) thus creating neutral thrust owing to the balanced distribution of the radial nozzles ( 107 ). if these radial nozzles ( 107 ) are closed off , for example by the perimeter of the open end of the airbag ( 3 ) as described above , the gas can then flow only via the space existing between the central portion of the deflector ( 104 ) and the inlet ( 105 ) of the duct ( 106 ), in order thus to reach the duct ( 106 ) and be discharged into the airbag ( 3 ) as indicated by the arrow f 103 in fig2 b . in order for the radial nozzles ( 107 ) to be properly closed off , the perimeter of the airbag ( 3 ) is held in place by means of a clamping clip ( 109 ) that surrounds the tube ( 101 ). in a second variant of this second embodiment , shown in fig3 a and 3b , the inlet ( 205 ) of the duct ( 206 ) is flared . a deflector ( 204 ) is fixed to the flared edge of the inlet ( 205 ) of the duct ( 206 ), over a portion of its perimeter , for example less than one half . in this variant , said deflector ( 204 ) is a frustoconical part placed in such a way that its axis of symmetry is roughly coincident with the axis ( a ) of the tube ( 201 ) and the axis of the duct ( 206 ). the end ( 220 ) of smallest section of this part is located furthermost upstream and the end ( 221 ) of largest section is located roughly level with the section transition ( 212 ) of the tube ( 201 ). the end ( 221 ) of largest section of this part has a diameter d 8 equal to or greater than the diameter d 9 of the duct ( 206 ) taken at its inlet at the end of the flared edge . the end ( 221 ) of largest section has a smaller diameter d 8 than the inside diameter d 4 of the tube ( 201 ) taken at the reduced section of the tube ( 201 ) so that a passage ( 240 ) is formed , around the deflector ( 204 ), between the upstream end and the downstream end of the deflector ( 204 ). along a portion of the perimeter of its largest section ( 221 ), the deflector ( 204 ) has a projecting portion ( 218 ), allowing it to catch onto a corresponding portion of the flared edge of the inlet ( 205 ) of the duct ( 206 ). when the deflector ( 204 ) is secured to the inlet of the duct ( 206 ), a space ( 219 ) is left between the plane formed by the inlet ( 205 ) of the duct ( 206 ) and the plane containing the end ( 221 ) of largest section of the deflector ( 204 ). the duct ( 206 ) also has , near its outlet , a projecting ring ( 222 ), one of the lateral surfaces of which bears inside the tube ( 201 ) against the end section ( 208 ) of the tube ( 201 ). this ring ( 222 ) has a diameter d 10 smaller than the inside diameter d 4 of the tube ( 201 ) taken at its reduced section , so as not to close off the radial nozzles . a fillet ( 223 ) is formed all around the duct ( 206 ) between the lateral surface opposite the lateral surface for bearing against the end section ( 208 ) of the tube ( 201 ). the fillet is able , for example , to guide the gas toward the radial nozzles ( 207 ). placed upstream of the deflector ( 204 ) is a part ( 217 ) with a central channel identical to that described in the first embodiment with reference to fig2 a and 2b . in this second variant , the frustoconical shape of the deflector ( 204 ) makes it possible to deflect and guide the gas toward the passage ( 240 ) existing between the perimeter ( 240 ) of the deflector ( 204 ) and the internal wall ( 220 ) of the tube ( 201 ). the passage ( 240 ) constitutes a restriction in the flow section in the tube ( 201 ). as the gas flows into this restriction , a venturi effect is created , that is to say the gas is accelerated . owing to this acceleration , the gas is directed directly into the radial nozzles ( 207 ) of the tube ( 201 ) that are formed in the first variant of this second embodiment . if these radial nozzles ( 207 ) are not closed off , the gas escapes via the radial nozzles ( 207 ) as indicated by the arrows f 202 in fig3 a . if these radial nozzles ( 207 ) are closed off , for example by the perimeter of the airbag ( 3 ) held in place by a clamping clip ( 209 ), the gas has no other option but to pass into the space ( 219 ) existing between the deflector ( 204 ) and the inlet ( 205 ) of the duct ( 206 ). this gas then escapes directly via the duct ( 206 ), constituting an axial gas outflow into the airbag , as indicated by the arrow f 203 in fig3 b . since the projecting portion ( 218 ) of the deflector ( 204 ), serving to fasten the deflector ( 204 ) to a portion of the perimeter of the flared edge of the duct ( 206 ), is solid , it also allows the gas to be guided into the duct ( 206 ). in both embodiments described above , the venturi - effect makes it possible to direct and lead the gas into the radial nozzles ( 7 , 107 , 207 ) and thus to give the generator a neutral - thrust configuration when it is not in service . when these radial nozzles ( 7 , 107 , 207 ) are closed off , the gas has no other option but to escape axially in the direction of the airbag ( 3 ), that is to say via the axial nozzles ( 6 ) in the first embodiment or via the duct ( 106 , 206 ) in the second embodiment . in a variant , the clamping clip ( 9 , 109 , 209 ) may for example be meltable , so as to release the radial outlets ( 7 , 107 , 707 ) of the generator when the module is fired , and thus gives the generator a neutral - thrust configuration . it should be obvious to those skilled in the art that the present invention allows embodiments in many other specific forms without departing from the field of application of the invention as claimed . consequently , the embodiments presented must be regarded by way of illustration ; however , they may be modified within the field defined by the scope of the appended claims and the invention must not be limited to the details given above . | 1 |
this disclosure relates in part to the common power format , which is a known circuit design tool ( software ) directed towards design of low power circuits , including testing thereof , and especially intended for circuits having complex power domains and operating modes . see also u . s . patent application ser . no . 11 / 489 , 384 , filed jul . 18 , 2006 , title “ method and system for simulating state retention of an rtl design , yonghao chen , and no . 11 / 489 , 385 , filed jul . 18 , 2006 , title “ simulation of power domain isolation ”, yonghao chen , both incorporated herein by reference in their entireties . the following descriptions are presented to enable any person skilled in the art to make and use the invention . descriptions of specific embodiments and applications are provided only as examples . various modifications and combinations of the examples described herein will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art , and the general principles defined herein may be applied to other examples and applications without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention . thus , the present invention is not intended to be limited to the examples described and shown , but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and features disclosed herein . some portions of the description that follows are presented in terms of pseudo - code or flowcharts , or logic blocks , or other symbolic representations of operations on information that can be performed on a computer system . a procedure , computer - executed step , logic block , process , etc ., is here conceived to be a self - consistent sequence of one or more steps or instructions leading to a desired result . the steps are those utilizing physical manipulations of physical quantities . these quantities can take the form of electrical , magnetic , or radio signals capable of being stored , transferred , combined , compared , and otherwise manipulated in a computer system . these signals may be referred to at times as bits , values , elements , symbols , characters , terms , numbers , or the like . each step may be performed by hardware , software , firmware , or combinations thereof . in one embodiment , a system for simulating an integrated circuit is conventionally implemented using a conventional computer system . the computer system includes one or more central processing units ( cpus ), at least a user interface , a memory device , a system bus , and one or more bus interfaces for connecting the cpu , user interface , memory device , and system bus together . the computer system also includes at least one network interface for communicating with other devices on a computer network . in alternative embodiments , much of the functionality of the circuit simulator may be implemented in one or more application - specific integrated circuits or field - programmable gate arrays , thereby either eliminating the need for a cpu , or reducing the role of the cpu in simulating the integrated circuit . the memory device may include a high - speed random access memory or may also include a non - volatile memory , such as one or more magnetic disk storage devices . the memory device may also include mass storages that are remotely located from the central processing unit ( s ). the memory device preferably stores : an operating system that includes procedures for handling various basic system services and for performing hardware - dependent tasks ; a register - transfer - level ( rtl ) netlist describing the integrated circuit to be simulated ; a circuit elaborator for compiling the rtl netlist to form a hierarchical simulation data structure ; a hierarchical simulation data structure that represents a data structure of the integrated circuit design to be simulated ; a power information database ; and a circuit simulator that simulates the integrated circuit represented by the simulation data structure with power information specifications provided by the power information database . note that the circuit elaborator also instantiates circuit components , connects the circuit components , and sets up run - time simulation elements of the integrated circuit design . in addition , the hierarchical simulation data structure represents the integrated circuit design as a hierarchically arranged set of branches , including a root branch and a plurality of other branches logically organized in a graph . the hierarchically arranged set of branches includes a first branch that includes one or more circuit elements and a second branch that includes one or more circuit elements where the first branch and second branch are interconnected in the graph through a third branch at a higher hierarchical level in the graph than the first and second branches . also note that an rtl netlist description of an integrated circuit may be written in either the verilog or vhdl design language . the circuit elaborator , simulation data structure , circuit simulator , power information database , and the rtl netlist may include executable procedures , sub - modules , tables , and other data structures . in other embodiments , additional or different modules and data structures may be used , and some of the modules and / or data structures listed above may not be used . in accordance with the present invention , since the design intent , power constraint , and / or technology library information are embedded within the cpf ( common power format ) file in some embodiments , verification and sign - off processing are possible even at the functional stage . in fact , the information can be used throughout the entire software flow to more efficiently and effectively allow the circuit designer to design , verify , and physically implement the design . the atpg based power estimation process is as described here in one embodiment fully automated and transparent to the end user ( designer ) in terms of configuring and running atpg , extracting switching activity from test patterns , and estimating and reporting estimated power consumed during scan shift operation the rtl compiler environment . this is achieved in one embodiment by the rtl compiler software command report scan_power : [- flop flop_switching_activity |- scan_vectors file_name |- atpg [- atpg_options string ]] [- library string ] [& gt ; file } fig1 depicts the flow of this command as carried out by the rtl compiler ( or any similar software ). note that preparing the necessary script ( program ) and data to run ett atpg is fully automated and is transparent to the end user . this is used , in one embodiment , to generate the test vectors as described here , but is not the only way to do so . ett atpg , by default , generates the most efficient test patterns without limiting the switching activity during scan testing . it also has a low power mode where the switching activity during scan is set to be absolute minimal , thus greatly reducing power consumed during scan test . however , in general this can undesirably result in an increase in the number of total test patterns required to achieve the target fault coverage , and increased computer runtime to generate those test patterns . during scan mode power estimation from the rtl compiler , the user can instruct the ett atpg tool to select the desirable test patterns — normal test patterns that are generated by default , or low - power test patterns , using the - atpg_options option ( command ). the atpg option that generates low power vectors is - atpg_options latchfill = repeat . under this option , atpg tries to create test patterns that have reduced 0 to 1 or 1 to 0 transitions along the scan shift path , as described further below . this reduces the chip &# 39 ; s switching activity — and hence the power consumed — during test . power consumption during manufacturing test of digital integrated chips ( ic &# 39 ; s ) is thus an important consideration . due to high switching activity during conventional scan based manufacturing test , the power consumption may exceed the thermal limit or the power - supply limit of the chip — causing failure of the test due to ground - bounce or other related issues , or even premature failure of the chip due to excessive heat generation . hence it is important to limit both average and peak instantaneous power consumption during test . a typical ( conventional ) ic test operation requires : scanning in test data ( the vectors ) through scan chains ( sequences of registers or other memory elements ) to control registers and primary inputs of an ic to a target test pattern or vector capturing the response of the ic to the applied test pattern scanning out the registers of the ic to observe the response of the ic and comparing it against the expected response . since shifting data through scan chains consumes many chip operating cycles during test , it is a critical operation to target for reducing power dissipation . scan chains are usually shifted at a much slower frequency than during operating mode . hence average power dissipation during scan shift is not as big a problem as the instantaneous or peak power consumed during scan shift ( test mode ). there are a number of existing approaches that address this problem . some of these techniques are based on ic design changes that limit power consumption during test , such as : gating the clock for scan - chains and scanning data only through a selected few chains at a time , thus , limiting the number of registers changing state in any cycle . gating the output of scan registers during scan operation , thus limiting the switching activity through combinational logic during scan operation . turning off the power to combinational logic while shifting the scan chains . typically , when atpg targets test pattern generation for a chip , it targets a few potential chip manufacturing faults and determines a few bits ( care bits ) of the required test vector . the majority of the bits in each test vector are then randomly filled , and fault simulated against the entire untested fault set . any potential fault that is marked detected by the test vector is considered covered or tested by the test vector and is removed from the set of faults targeted for test pattern generation and fault simulation . in this disclosure , we control the filling of the initially unspecified bits to minimize switching activity . ett atpg has an option to repeat - fill all the unspecified bits in a test vector . this is effective in reducing switching activity during scan shift — but at the cost of poor quality of test patterns — and hence may result in an increase in the number of patterns to achieve the target fault coverage . instead of full repeat - filling of bits , we fill the bits using a probabilistic process , thus achieving a balance between the switching activity and quality of test patterns . so for example , if it is permissible to have 20 % of the ic flip - flops ( e . g ., gates ) switching at any time , then we can control the random fill in for each unspecified bit to repeat the previous bit value with a probability of 80 %. assume a partially specified atpg vector ( sequence ) for a chain with 10 bits , where only three of the 10 bits are initially specified (“ care bits ”), is : 0 x x x 1 x x x x 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 “ x ” represents an unspecified bit , and 0 / 1 represents the specified bits . number the bits from 1 through 10 starting from the left most bit ( as shown , written just under the bit position ). so , using a probabilistic repeat factor of 80 % for unspecified bits , we get the following constraints : bit 2 should be the same as bit 1 with a probability of 80 % bit 3 should be the same as bit 2 with a probability of 80 % bit 4 should be the same as bit 3 with a probability of 80 % bit 6 should be the same as bit 5 with a probability of 80 % bit 7 should be the same as bit 6 with a probability of 80 % bit 9 should be the same as bit 8 with a probability of 80 % bit 10 should be the same as bit 9 with a probability of 80 %. in one embodiment , the probability factor ( e . g ., 80 % above ) is applied using a 0 to 9 random number generator , for instance if the random ( decimal ) digit generated is 0 to 7 , the prior bit value is repeated ; if it is 8 or 9 , the prior bit value is not repeated . since the atpg specified bits are usually a very small proportion of each test vector ( less than 3 %), this probabilistic method of repeat - filling in bits gives better quality vectors while limiting the switching activity of the test vectors based on the ic being tested . computer code to carry out the present method is readily written by one of ordinary skill in the art in light of this disclosure . the rtl compiler as described above ( via simulation ) estimates chip power consumption using the switching profile of the ic &# 39 ; s flip - flops or gates during scan testing , thus guiding what the appropriate repeat - fill probability should be to stay within the ic &# 39 ; s electric power constraints during test mode . a repeat - fill probability of 50 % would effectively fill - in the unspecified bits randomly giving the best quality vector from coverage point of view , but also with the most switching . a repeat - fill probability of 100 % provides pure repeat on unspecified bits giving the lowest switching activity , but perhaps the poorest quality vectors and requiring many more vectors to achieve desirable test coverage . in accordance with this disclosure , the value of the repeat - fill probability is set at a value between 50 % and 100 % to get the best quality test vectors while still remaining within the chip power constraints . a typical value is 80 %, as shown above . the repeat - fill probability is controlled ( determined ) based on what test vectors are generated by the atpg tool and how many bits are filled in by the atpg tool , so as to keep the switching , and hence the power consumption , during scan shift to under the desired limit . in one embodiment , modifications are made to the ett atpg software to support user specification of upper and lower bounds of the repeat - fill . this is done in one example by providing an ett atpg tool run - time option for the user ( chip designer ) specify a limit for the fraction of fill bits that are not repeat - filled . the relevant parameter is : where m specifies the maximum percentage of bits not filled with repeat values , stated as an integer percentage ( 0 to 100 ). advantages of this method are : there is no need to alter design to target low power consumption during test , it reduces both average power and peak instantaneous power during test , it gives a trade - off between the number of patterns and maximum power consumed during test . also , it allows one to generate the best quality test vectors while still remaining within the power budget for the ic design , and distributes the switching power during test mode evenly over all the test vectors . conventionally , atpg algorithms attempt to reduce ( compact ) the total number of test patterns generated , by merging test patterns which do not have conflicting care bit values . for instance , test pattern 01xxx10 can be merged with test pattern x11xx0 since the bit positions having care bits ( 0 or 1 ) do not conflict . the merged pattern is 0111 - x10 . if the atpg tool user requests the atpg tool to seek maximum possible compaction , it is possible that the number of unspecified bits ( only 1 in this example ) is too few to help with test mode power reduction . to support the above “ maxscanswitching ” parameter , it should prevent merging of test patterns if the resulting merged test pattern would contain more than m percent care bits total . the reason is that in the worst case , each care bit may result in a switched value along the scan path during the shifting in of the test pattern . an experiment was performed on the exemplary ic of fig2 to estimate ( by simulation ) power consumption during scan test . this ic is a 32 bit risc style processor with multiple power domains . the ic has about 35k “ instances ” with about 9k sequential cells . this ic &# 39 ; s design of fig2 was mapped to a 90 nm technology library for simulation purposes and the power was estimated for the ic &# 39 ; s functional mode at 500 mhz , and scan mode at 50 mhz . for the scan mode power estimation , two different sets of atpg patterns were used regular patterns that had about 46 % switching activity , and low power mode patterns that had about 6 % switching activity on the scan chain flip - flops during scan shift . table 1 gives the experimental results of simulated scan mode power dissipation for the fig2 c . in the first column , the modes of operation are listed . column 2 lists the clock frequency for each mode . column 3 lists the estimated switching power as calculated by the rtl compiler . the electric power consumption numbers in column 4 are normalized with respect to the functional mode power . note that the functional mode power consumption while clocking the ic at 500 mhz is only about 3 mw , while in the scan mode , even when clocking at a much lower frequency of 50 mhz , the power consumption is four times the functional mode power . if atpg targets low power test patterns , then the test mode power consumption drops to about 56 % of that of the functional mode . thus the experiment indicates that scan mode power may be an issue for this ic unless the atpg tool can determine the low power test patterns . low power atpg patterns do come at a cost . in this case the low power atpg patterns requires about 23 % more test vectors and about 20 % increased computer time for atpg ( generating the test patterns ) as compared to conventional atpg patterns . however , the same fault coverage of 99 . 7 % was achieved in both cases . the above shows that it is important to understand and estimate scan - mode power consumption as it may be much higher than the normal functional mode power , even when the ic is clocked at a lower frequency for scan - mode . higher power consumption can lead to test invalidation or chip failure . having the ability to quickly estimate power consumption in test mode while still at early stages of ic design can save expensive re - designs at a later stage to address these power issues . atpg can help reduce power consumption during scan mode if it targets low power vectors . the encounter rtl compiler in one embodiment provides the support to run the ett atpg tool in different power modes and estimate the power dissipation during test scan mode for different atpg patterns from within the synthesis ( design ) environment . this achieves controllable repeat fill of unspecified bits in atpg patterns to reduce power during scan shift using a probability based method . it also controls the trade - off between number of patterns and maximum power consumed during test . it also allows one to generate the best quality test vectors while still remaining within the power constraints for the ic design . this disclosure is illustrative and not limiting . further embodiments will be apparent to one skilled in the art in light of this disclosure , and are intended to fall within the scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims . | 6 |
fig1 is a schematic diagram of a pay - per - view system applied to a direct broadcast system utilizing a broadcast satellite . a broadcast wave from a broadcast satellite 13 is directly received by a receiving parabolic antenna 2 and supplied to a dbs ( direct broadcast system ) tuner unit 1 . audio and video signals reproduced by the dbs tuner 1 are supplied to a monitor 14 . an unscrambled broadcast signal is reproduced by a decoder in the tuner 1 in the free mode . however , in the pay mode or the pay - per - view mode , a scrambled broadcast signal is descrambled and reproduced on the tv screen . when the pay - per - view mode is utilized by the user , the user deposits funds using a cash card 8 or the like , advance money from an account within a bank 6 to a broadcast center 9 . the cash card 8 is conveniently used with an automatic teller machine or atm ( not shown ). the deposit data is transmitted from a computer system 7 of the bank 6 to a computer system 10 of the broadcast center 9 . the desired program is transmitted from the center 9 to the user through a satellite broadcast link . the deposit data is inserted in the data coded in a pcm data signal transmitted during a vertical blanking period of the video signal . the deposit data is transmitted from a transmitter 11 to the parabolic antenna 2 of each user through a broadcast parabolic antenna 12 by way of the broadcast satellite 13 . the tuner 1 of each user has an advance money memory , and the deposit data is stored therein . the content of the storage can be displayed anytime on a display 5 . the broadcast center 9 transmits a television signal having a pcm data signal pcmad with the format shown in fig2 during a vertical blanking period of the video signal . the pcm audio signal pcmad incorporates a plurality of data fields for data of different types . two fields correspond to two ( alternately used ) channels of audio data dadl and dad2 . also included are a field for the deposit money data dcin ( representing the amount of the deposited fees ) and a field for address data dadd ( including the user id code ). a data code field ddcd is added to the above data string , and an error check code field dbch is also added to the end of the data string . the data code field ddcd contains a frame sync code fsyn as the initial data thereof . the following data consist of the mode data word mode , a program status code word prom , a channel code chcd representing a broadcast channel number , first and second range bits regl and reg2 used to expand the compressed audio data , a scramble sync code scrm used for descrambling the signal , a charge code chag representing the program fees , a data code date , and user bits usbt . the program status code prom comprises a 4 - bit code signal representing the pay mode assigned to the current broadcast program . for example , in one embodiment the program status code prom is set to be &# 34 ; 0000 &# 34 ; in the free mode and &# 34 ; 0001 &# 34 ; in the pay mode . the pay - per - view mode is further classified into a time pay - per - view mode represented by a code &# 34 ; 0101 &# 34 ; and a program pay - per - view mode represented by a code &# 34 ; 0110 &# 34 ;. the free and pay mode are , respectively , a mode for allowing free reception of programs and a mode for subscription programs on a monthly basis in the same manner as in the conventional system . the time pay - per - view sub - mode is set to charge for the length of listening time , and the program pay - per - view sub - mode is set to charge predetermined fees for the program regardless of reception time . the broadcast center 9 transmits with each program the program status code prom added to the data code ddcd . a proper pay mode is predetermined in accordance with the contents of the program by the broadcast station , so that the appropriate program status code prom is added to the data code ddcd , and the resultant broadcast signal is transmitted to the user . thus , fees can be charged in accordance with charging modes suitable for the respective programs . in the dbs tuner unit 1 which receives the broadcast signal , the pcm data signal pcmad is supplied to a pcm decoder 21 ( fig3 ), located within the dbs tuner unit 1 ( fig1 ). the pcm decoder 21 decodes the pcm audio signal pcmad to extract the first and second channel audio data dad1 and dad2 ( fig2 ) which are supplied to an audio processor 22 . the other data data are supplied to a central processing unit ( cpu ) 23 which is preferably a microcomputer . a video signal vdin ( which may be scrambled ) in the broadcast signal is supplied to the input of a video processor 24 , which is adapted to unscramble the video signal if necessary . as shown in fig4 the step sp1 inspects the code word prom and controls subsequent operation accordingly . when the program status code prom represents the time pay - per - view mode or the program pay - per - view mode ( step sp1 ) a pay - per - view program sp2 runs under the control of the cpu 23 to perform a processing step sp3 . however , when the program status code prom represents the free mode , a free mode program sp4 is executed . in this case , the cpu 23 causes the audio processor 22 to decode the audio data dad1 and dad2 and the video processor 24 to decode the video input signal vdin . when the program status code prom represents the pay mode , a pay program sp5 is executed under control of the cpu 23 . the cpu 23 determines in step sp6 whether or not the user id signal included in the data data is as same as a unique user id assigned to the tuner unit 1 . if yes in step sp6 , the cpu 23 supplies the scramble sync code scrm to the audio and video processors 22 and 24 so as to cause them to perform descrambling of the audio data dad1 and dad2 in step sp7 . therefore , the audio and video signals are both reproduced . however , if the result is no in step sp6 , the cpu 23 does not supply the scramble sync code scrm to the audio and video processors 22 and 24 so as not to cause them to perform descrambling of the audio and data dad1 and dad2 . the audio signal reproduced by the audio processor 22 is supplied to a digital - to - analog d / a converter 25 . the d / a converter 25 generates an audio output signal audio . the video signal reproduced by the video processor 24 is supplied to a buffer amplifier 26 . a video output signal video is generated as the sum output of an adder 27 . in the pay - per - view mode , the cpu 23 performs the processing step sp3 , as shown in fig5 . when the processing step sp3 is started , the cpu 23 checks in step sp11 whether or not a pay - per - view switch 4 is turned on . as shown in fig1 the pay - per - view switch 4 is mounted on the operation panel of the tuner unit 1 . after the user enters a desired channel with a ten - key pad 3 , he depresses the pay - per - view switch 4 in case when the program is a pay - per - vew program , which sets the tuner 1 in the pay - per - view mode . the reception channel number is displayed on the display 5 . the above sequential operations are performed under the control of the cpu 23 . if the result of step sp11 is no ( fig5 ), the cpu 23 determines that the user has not set the tuner 1 in the pay - per - view mode . control then advances to step sp12 , and no descrambling is performed . thereafter , the flow returns repeatedly to step sp11 . the cpu 23 thus waits until the user turns on the pay - per - view switch 4 . when the pay - per - view switch 4 is turned on by the user , the result of the decision step sp11 is yes . the cpu 23 then supplies the scramble sync code scrm to the audio and video processors 22 and 24 for descrambling . the cpu 23 thus controls the generation of both the audio and video output signals audio and video . when the content of the program status code prom represents the time pay - per - view mode , the cpu 23 fetches this data in step sp14 , and the flow advances to step sp15 . the cpu 23 checks in step sp15 the length of viewing time in the time pay - per - view mode . more specifically , the cpu 23 checks whether or not a unit time has been counted by a timer incorporated in the cpu 23 . if the result is no in step sp15 , the control flow returns to step sp11 . the cpu 23 waits until counting of the unit time by the timer is completed by a loop of the steps sp11 , sp13 , sp14 , sp15 and sp11 . when the unit time has elapsed , the result of step sp15 is yes . the control flow then advances to the charge step sp16 , in which one unit time fee is subtracted from the contents of the memory 28 ( fig3 ). this may be a fixed quantity , or a quantity designated by the chag field of the pcm data . the control flow returns to step sp11 again to reset the timer . the cpu 23 waits for the predetermined unit time to elapse by the loop of steps sp11 , sp13 , sp14 , sp15 and sp11 . in the same manner as described above , the cpu 23 sends out the audio and video output signals audio and video which are descrambled and reproduced by the audio and video processors 22 and 24 while the time pay - per - view mode program is being received by the user . a fee corresponding to the viewing time of the program is subtracted from the contents of the advance money memory 28 in the step sp16 . when the user wishes to stop receiving the program in the time pay - per - view mode , he merely turns off the pay - per - view switch 4 . in this case , the decision step sp11 is determined by the cpu 23 to be no , and the cpu 23 then causes the audio and video processors 22 and 24 to disable descrambling by the loops of steps sp11 - sp12 - sp11 . . . , etc . when the user wishes to watch programs in the program pay - per - view mode , the user simply turns on the time pay - per - view switch 4 of the tuner 1 in the same manner as in the time pay - view mode . in this case , after the decision step sp11 is determined by the cpu 23 to be yes , the cpu 23 controls the audio and video processors 22 and 24 to perform descrambling in step sp13 . in this case , the program status code prom included in the data data represents the program pay - per - view mode detected by the cpu 23 in step sp21 . the control flow advances to the decision step sp22 . the cpu 23 determines in step sp22 whether the current program being received is the same as the program being received when the unit sp22 last had control or whether the program being received has been changed . if the result is no in step sp22 , the cpu 23 determines that the same program is being received . then the control flow returns to step sp11 . the user can continuously watch the program in the program pay - per - view mode by a loop of the steps sp11 , sp13 , sp21 , sp22 and sp11 . when the user wishes to change the content of the current program being received , the decision step sp22 is determined by the cpu 23 to be yes . then a charge is subtracted from the contents of the advance money memory 28 at the step sp23 , and the flow returns to step sp11 . once the program is changed , the mode is set to continue the changed program . the cpu 23 monitors this program by the loop of steps sp11 , sp13 , sp21 , sp22 and sp11 . every time one program is completed or finished , the cpu 23 performs charge processing , so that the user is charged per program , irrespective of the elapsed time . when the user operates the pay - per - view switch 4 , the mode of the tuner 1 is set to be either the time pay - per - view mode or the program pay - per - view mode . the cpu 23 supplies to an input of the adder 27 ( fig3 ) a display signal des representing that the current program is set in the time or program pay - per - view mode . for example , numerical value &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; representing the time pay - per - view mode or numerical value &# 34 ; 2 &# 34 ; representing the program pay - per - view mode is displayed on the screen of the monitor 14 . the user can easily visually determine the charging mode being used for the current program . fig6 illustrates a flow chart of operations continuously checked by the cpu 23 . normally , control stays in one of the loops illustrated in fig5 . these loops are represented in fig6 by the fetch charge code step sp31 , which passes control through the return step sp38 . the return step sp38 returns control to step sp30 which normally passes control to the fetch charge code step sp31 , to define the loop of fig5 which is active ( for the appropriate sub - mode ). periodically , the check routine step sp30 sends control to two other paths illustrated in fig5 . preferably this is accomplished by a signal from a timer of the cpu 23 which interrupts the normal control loop , to check the balance data maintained in the memory unit 28 at periodic intervals , or to update the data stored in the memory unit 28 in response to detection of data within the dcin field of pcmad ( fig2 ). in the loops represented by the step sp31 , the charge code data chag superposed on the program by pcmad is detected by the cpu 23 , and , as previously described , when the program or channel is changed , the step sp31 is executed . the step sp32 receives control periodically by a timer interrupt . alternatively , execution of a charge step sp16 or sp23 ( fig5 ) may include the setting of a flag which causes the step sp30 to pass control to the step sp32 . in step sp32 , the cpu 23 compares the balance of the advance money memory 28 with the charge code chag fetched by step sp31 . when the cpu 23 determines that the balance of the advance money memory 28 is smaller than the data represented by the charge code chag , the cpu 23 causes the monitor 14 to display a message representing a request for deposit in step sp37 . in this case , the dpu inhibits the scrm signal , so that the program cannot be watched . the deposit data is checked in step sp33 . the step sp30 passes control to the step sp33 periodically , by a timer interrupt , so that the control data pcmad may be checked for deposit information . alternatively , the step sp30 may check each incoming control word pcmad for deposit data and branch to the deposit routine sp33 whenever data is detected within the dcin field . when deposit money data dcin is detected as present in step sp33 ( fig6 ), the cpu 23 checks the id code included in the address data dadd . in this case , if the result is yes in step sp34 , the deposit money data dcin is added to the content of the advance money memory 28 in step 36 . when all the routines are completed in fig6 the flow returns from the step sp38 . preferably , the advance money memory 38 comprises a nonvolatile memory device such as an mnos semiconductor ram . with the above arrangement , the pay - per - view mode for designating a pay program is classified into time and program pay - per - view sub - modes . charging is determined in units of time or programs . therefore , a reasonable charging system suitable for the purposes of users can be established . a desired program need not be reserved by telephone , and the user can conveniently enjoy the direct broadcast satellite system . if the user does not watch a reserved program no charge is made . furthermore , when the pay - per - view switch 4 is depressed , the user can watch any program at any time , provided the sum stored in the memory 28 is enough . since the user is not charged through a telephone line ( bidirectional communication system ), the configuration of the user &# 39 ; s receiver and the broadcast center system can be simplified and made less expensive . the user simply receives a message via sp37 representing a request for a deposit when the value of the advance account memory is less than the predetermined value which is needed for viewing a particular program . the user pays a fee in accordance with the message , or else has it automatically deducted from the memory 28 , so that a simple efficient system can be provided . in the pay - per - view system of this embodiment , the transmission line from each user to the center comprises a link through a bank or the like . such a link may be located at the user &# 39 ; s home , or a public link may be used such as the link of a bank &# 39 ; s automatic teller machine or atm . program fee data , deposit amount data , and the like are sent from the center to the user through a transmission line using the regular broadcast channel as shown in fig1 . shortage of a deposit amount is automatically displayed by the user &# 39 ; s monitor . therefore , a conversational two - way communication between the user and the center is provided , though only a one - way line terminating at the user &# 39 ; s home is actually used . according to the present invention , the center may , but need not , send the id signal to all users when payment data is obtained . many control words relative to payment data can be sent to users within a limited time , and additional information such as a text or message can be sent , if desired . the above embodiment exemplifies a dbs broadcast system . however , the present invention can be applied to other pay broadcast systems such as a cable television ( catv ) system . the present invention can also be applied to an audio pay broadcast system . alternatively , in the above embodiment , the fee corresponding to the actual viewing time detected by the timer incorporated in the cpu 23 can be subtracted from the contents of the advance account memory periodically , by means of a timer interrupt procedure , which is enabled during the course of a pay mode . according to the present invention , charging is determined in units of time and programs , so that a reasonable charging system can be established to suit for user &# 39 ; s interests . | 7 |
for the purpose of promoting an understanding of the present invention , references are made in the text to exemplary embodiments of a point - of - production brewing system , only some of which are described herein . it should be understood that no limitations on the scope of the invention are intended by describing these exemplary embodiments . one of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate that alternate but functionally equivalent shapes , materials and designs may be used . the inclusion of additional elements may be deemed readily apparent and obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art . specific elements disclosed herein are not to be interpreted as limiting , but rather as a basis for the claims and as a representative basis for teaching one of ordinary skill in the art to employ the present invention . it should be understood that the drawings are not necessarily to scale ; instead , emphasis has been placed upon illustrating the principles of the invention . in addition , in the embodiments depicted herein , like reference numerals in the various drawings refer to identical or near identical structural elements . moreover , the terms “ substantially ” or “ approximately ” as used herein may be applied to modify any quantitative representation that could permissibly vary without resulting in a change in the basic function to which it is related . fig1 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of point - of - production (“ pop ”) brewing system 100 . in the exemplary embodiment shown , pop brewing system 100 is comprised of three main brewing modules : wort production equipment (“ wpe ”) module 20 ; fermentation / maturation equipment (“ fme ”) module 30 ; and packaging module 40 . in the embodiment shown , wpe module 20 includes structurally integrated equipment and systems necessary to convert raw materials or malted extract into a fermentable liquid known in the art as wort . fme module 30 includes structurally integrated equipment used to ferment the wort and produce an alcoholic beverage . in the embodiment shown , packaging module 40 includes equipment and systems to package the beverage into containers for distribution and consumption purposes . pop brewing system 100 uses specifically built and arranged equipment to best utilize the space within each housing and maximize production output . in other embodiments , pop brewing system 100 may include a plurality of modules to create a higher output of a beverage . fig2 illustrates an exemplary embodiment a pop brewing system module which includes equipment and systems permanently and structurally integrated within a shipping container . in the embodiment shown , a pop brewing system module is comprised of six - sided housing 10 which may be steel or aluminum , and may be either flat or corrugated . in the exemplary embodiment shown , housing 10 is approximately 40 feet long , 8 feet high , and 8 feet wide , conforming to the dimensions of a standard shipping freight container . in other embodiments , housing 10 may range from 8 - 56 feet in length , 8 - 9 . 5 feet in height , and 6 - 10 feet wide depending on whether an ocean or road shipping freight is used . in the embodiment shown , pop brewing system 100 is constructed from a standard steel shipping container or intermodal container . in other embodiments , housing 10 may be comprised of any six - sided structure which may be shipped and / or transported with necessary equipment to create pop brewing system . in the embodiment shown , housing 10 has a finished wall system constructed of drywall , pre - existing shipping container floor and also includes windows . in various other embodiments , housing 10 may include other windows , interior walls , stairs and doors to access the interior of the housing . further , housing 10 may be insulated and / or refrigerated . in other embodiments , the outside of housing 10 may also be adapted to receive advertising indicia . in the embodiment shown , module 20 may be comprised of one or more housings operatively connected to create one module for creating wort . some equipment may span between the two individual housings to create one module . in the exemplary embodiment shown , two housings are stacked upon each other and structurally integrated to house all the necessary equipment and systems . in other embodiments housings may be operatively connected horizontally or in other configurations . fig3 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a layout of the necessary equipment in wpe module 20 which includes mill 21 , grist hydrator 22 , mash conversion vessel 23 , mash conversion filter 24 , trub separation vessel 25 , hot water tank 26 , chiller 27 and aeration device 28 . in the embodiment shown , wpe module 20 is comprised of housing 10 and the critical components to convert raw fermentable materials or malt extract into wort ready for fermentation . as shown in the embodiments of fig1 and fig2 , wpe module 20 may be comprised of two vertically stacked housings operatively connected with all necessary equipment . in other various embodiments , all equipment and systems for wort production may be structurally integrated with a single housing . in the exemplary embodiment shown , mill 21 cracks and grinds malted or unmalted raw fermentable material and sprays the raw material into grist hydrator 22 where it is hydrated . mill 21 may be either a roll or hammer type mill which are standard mills used by those skilled in the art . in the embodiment shown , grist hydrator 22 is a short term storage unit ( e . g . a metal hopper ) for milled ( crushed ) material that is processed by mill 21 . grist hydrator 22 adds hot water to the cracked material . in the embodiment shown , hot water is stored in hot water tank 26 . the hydrated material is then sent into mash conversion vessel 23 where it is heated and starches are broken down into fermentable sugars , proteins and other derivative known in the art . in other embodiments , a steam boiler may be used to heat hot water tank 26 , mash conversion vessel 23 and trub separation vessel 25 . after starch conversion , the material is sent through mash filter 24 where liquid is separated from solids . in the exemplary embodiment , this is where the wort is separated from the mash . the wort is then carried to trub separation vessel 25 where the wort is may be heated on the way or within trub separation vessel 25 . trub separation vessel also removes extra solids from the wort . hops and other ingredients such as malt extract may be added directly into mash conversion vessel 23 or trub separation vessel 25 . in various alternative embodiments , trub separation vessel 25 may be a whirlpool which is a type of separator that brewers use to separate solids from the wort . in other embodiments , mash conversion vessel 23 , mash filter 24 , and trub separation vessel 25 may be combined into one system known in the art as a lauter tun . in the embodiment shown , chiller 27 is a heat exchanger used to cool the wort after leaving trub separation vessel 25 . chiller 27 uses water from a cold water tank . water used throughout pop brewing system 100 may require some sort of water treatment such as carbon filtration , water softening , ro treatment and / or uv treatment . in the exemplary embodiment shown , the final step in wpe module 20 is aerating the cold wort before it leaves wpe module 20 . aeration device 28 is typically comprised of oxygen tanks or compressed air and supplies air to the cold wort ; the aeration process may be fully automated or manually controlled . in alternative embodiments , the aeration process may be done directly in fermentation / maturation vessel 32 ( shown in fig5 ). fig4 illustrates an alternative exemplary embodiment of a wpe module 20 . in the embodiment shown , wpe module 20 may include optional or additional components such as material reservoir 50 which in the present embodiment may be a suspended sack , or super sack , temporarily affixed with an overhead support structure such as a hook , but may be in any type container . in other embodiments , wpe module 20 may contain more than one material reservoir . in the embodiment shown , material reservoir 50 may be a 2 , 000 pound sack of malted barley , or any other malted grain known in the art for making beer . in the embodiment shown , wpe module 20 may include hopper 51 which is used to funnel raw materials from material reservoir 50 into mill 21 . in other embodiments , raw material may be fed directly into mill 21 . further , in the exemplary embodiment shown , wpe module 20 may include water treatment device 52 which may include but is not limited to carbon filtration , water softening , reverse osmosis ( ro ) treatment , ultraviolet ( uv ) treatment and any combination thereof . in other embodiments , wpe module 20 may be insulated with doors and windows , vents and lifting devices for bringing up raw materials . fig5 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of fermentation / maturation equipment ( fme ) module 30 where the cold aerated wort is fermented into a final brewed product . fme module 30 includes the critical components yeast brink 31 , fermentation / maturation vessel 32 , pressure holding valve 33 and temperature control component 34 . in the embodiment shown , yeast brink 31 is used to store yeast for fermenting the wort . yeast may be introduced directly into fermentation / maturation vessel 32 or into the line where the wort enters fermentation / maturation vessel 32 . in the embodiment shown , fme module 30 further includes fermentation / maturation vessel 32 where fermentation takes places under a controlled temperature and pressure . in other embodiments , fem module may contain more or fewer fermentation / maturation vessels . in the embodiment shown , pressure holding valve 33 maintains a desired pressure within fermentation / maturation vessel 32 and temperature control equipment 34 is used to spray cold water or glycol chiller around fermentation / maturation vessel 32 . fig6 illustrates an alternative exemplary embodiment of a fme module 30 . in the embodiment shown , fme module 30 may include optional or additional equipment and systems such as yeast propagation component 35 where yeast may be grown or propagated on site . further fme module 30 may include carbonation system 36 which adds carbonation to the beverage after leaving fermentation / maturation vessel 32 . in various other embodiments , carbonation is added to the fermented liquid , and may only have carbonation generated by the fermenting process . in the embodiment shown , fme module 30 may also include filter 37 which is operatively connected to fermentation / maturation vessel 32 and which is used specifically to filter additional sediment or particles from the brewed liquid . filter 37 may be any filter known to those skilled in the art including but not limited to coarse , fine , centrifuge , depth , kenall , de filter , plate and frame , sterile filters and combinations thereof . in the embodiment shown , fme module 30 further includes blending component 38 which is used to blend additional water into the beverage leaving fermentation / maturation vessel 32 . blending component 38 may also include a deaeration system which removes the oxygen from the water before it is blended with the brewed beverage . in other embodiments , fme module 30 may include utility / support system which is comprised of all the support and maintenance systems equipment including but not limited to water treatment systems , steam boilers , water deaeration systems , cleaning - in - place ( cip ) and any combination thereof . utility / support system will provide all the typical maintenance and support systems needed to operate a brewery . in other embodiments , utility / support components may be housed in a separate module and operatively connected to the other brewing modules . fig7 illustrates an exemplary embodiment packaging module 40 . after the beverage is brewed , it enters packaging module 40 where it may be packaged , stored and shipped . packaging module 40 includes bottling device 41 which fills and prepares bottles , cans , kegs and other containers for shipping and consumption purposes . packaging module 40 may also have a refrigerator storage compartment and loading doors . in the embodiment shown , packaging module 40 further includes at least one container cleaning system 42 for cleaning and sterilizing bottles , cans , and / or kegs . in other embodiments , packaging module 40 may include a labeling device for labeling cans and bottles . fig8 a and 8 b illustrate exemplary embodiments of pop brewing system 100 in a vertical configuration and are capable of producing beer for on - site storage and consumption . as shown in the embodiment , a vertical arrangement of modules 20 , 30 and 40 decreases the foot print and area need to create a brewing system . in fig8 a , each module is comprised of a single housing , and each module is operatively connected to the other for full production . fig8 b illustrates an exemplary embodiment where each module may be comprised of two housing operatively connected to create a brewing module . in the exemplary embodiments shown , pop brewing system 100 in the vertical configuration may be placed near an existing structure with using only minimum space . further , pop brewing system 100 is capable of outputting eighteen different beer types in 15 days . in other embodiments , more modules may be added to output more beverages . fig9 a and 9 b illustrate exemplary embodiments of pop brewing system 100 which is configured horizontally to create a building like structure . in the embodiment shown , wpe module 20 , fme module 30 , and packaging module 40 may be configured in a square like arrangement to create an open inner area which may be used for a restaurant , pub , beer garden , storage or other operations . in the embodiment shown , a roof or canopy may be added to protect the entire structure from the elements . in other embodiments , pop brewing modules may contain a washroom which may use post treated water from the brewing operation . this arrangement will allow for a usable restroom in remote areas where typical water lines are not attached pop brewing system 100 . | 2 |
for clarity , same elements have been designated with same reference numerals in the different drawings . one aspect of the present invention comprises the direct provision to the second input of the pcm conversion unit of the pwm signal provided by the pwm conversion unit . this enables direct taking into account by the pcm conversion unit of the noise introduced by the pwm conversion unit . since the pcm conversion unit acts as a bandpass filter towards noise introduced in the feedback loop , it filters , in the useful frequency band , the noise originating from the pwm conversion unit , which ensures the obtaining of a pwm signal having a minimum noise level in the useful frequency band of the digital - to - analog converter . fig4 shows an example of the forming of a digital - to - analog converter 30 according to the present invention . similarly to converter 10 described in fig1 , converter 30 comprises a pwm conversion unit 20 which receives , at frequency f 1 , a pulse - code modulated signal pcm over m + 1 states and provides a pulse - width modulated signal pwm at a cyclic frequency f 1 . the resolution of the pwm signal provided by pwm conversion unit 20 is determined by control signal clk at frequency f 2 equal to m times f 1 . unlike converter 10 , converter 30 comprises a pcm conversion unit 32 which receives at a first input a digital input signal in ′ at frequency f 2 and provides a pulse - code modulated signal pcm ′ at frequency f 2 . signal pcm ′ is transmitted to a decimator 24 which performs a decimation operation of factor m , for example by selecting a sample of signal pcm ′ every m samples , and which provides a pcm signal at frequency f 1 to pwm conversion unit 20 . the pwm signal is provided by a feedback loop 33 to a second input of pcm conversion unit 32 . since the pwm signal is a two - state signal provided in cyclic fashion at frequency f 1 and which may occupy a same state for a minimum time period equal to the inverse of frequency f 2 , it may be directly put in the form of a digital signal transmitted at frequency f 2 having the same number of bits as signal in ′ to be usable by pcm conversion unit 32 . unlike converter 10 shown in fig1 , signal in ′ thus is a digital signal provided at frequency f 2 , equal to m times f 1 . pcm conversion unit 32 thus operates at a frequency which is m times as high as pcm conversion unit 18 of converter 10 . however , the pwm conversion unit 20 of converter 30 according to the present invention may operate identically to converter 10 shown in fig1 and , in particular , may be controlled by control signal clk at frequency f 2 . to obtain pcm conversion unit 32 operating at a frequency f 2 greater than frequency f 1 , it is necessary to modify the structure of pcm conversion unit 18 . fig5 shows an example of the forming of pcm conversion unit 32 according to the present invention showing the modifications that can be brought to a conventional pcm unit when its operating frequency is desired to be increased . as an example , a pcm conversion unit 32 which performs a filtering of order 5 and comprises a main line formed of a succession of given integrators 34 , 36 , 38 , 40 , and 42 has been shown . each integrator 34 , 36 , 38 , 40 , and 42 is preceded by an amplifier 44 , 46 , 48 , 50 , and 52 respectively having an amplification coefficient a / m , b / m , c / m , d / m , and e / m . an adder 54 receives at a first input the signal provided by integrator 34 and at a second input the signal provided by integrator 38 , amplified by an amplifier 56 having an amplification coefficient f , and drives amplifier 46 . an adder 58 receives at a first input the signal provided by integrator 38 and at a second input the signal provided by integrator 42 , amplified by an amplifier 60 having an amplification coefficient g , and drives amplifier 50 . pcm conversion unit 32 comprises a subtractor 62 having its positive input receiving signal in ′, its negative input receiving the shaped pwm signal , and its output driving amplifier 44 . the outputs of integrated 34 , 36 , 38 , 40 , and 42 are provided to respective inputs of an adder 64 , respectively via amplifiers 66 , 68 , 70 , 72 , and 74 having respective amplification coefficients h , i , j , k , and l . adder 64 drives a quantization unit 76 which provides a pulse - code modulated digital signal pcm ′ at frequency f 2 over a number of bits smaller than the number of bits of signal in ′. an example of a structure of pcm conversion unit 18 operating at frequency f 1 would be the structure shown in fig5 in which the amplification coefficients of amplifiers 44 , 46 , 48 , 50 , and 52 would respectively be a , b , c , d , and e , the other amplification coefficients being unchanged . to operate pcm conversion unit 32 at frequency f 2 equal to m times f 1 , a possibility thus is to modify certain amplification coefficients of pcm conversion unit 18 by dividing them by m . in the present example , to obtain pcm conversion unit 32 operating at frequency f 2 and have a transfer function substantially equivalent to the transfer function of pcm conversion unit 18 operating at frequency f 1 , a possibility is to divide , by a factor m , the amplification coefficients of amplifiers 44 , 46 , 48 , 50 , and 52 , used for an operation at frequency f 1 . this ensures the stability of pcm conversion unit 32 in an operation at frequency f 2 . one aspect of the present invention provides a specific alternative embodiment which enables decreasing the switching frequency of the pwm signal . according to such an alternative embodiment , an even or odd index is successively assigned to the successive cycles at frequency f 1 at which pwm conversion unit 20 provides a new pwm signal . for a cycle of even index , pwm conversion unit 20 provides a pwm circuit unmodified with respect to what is illustrated in fig2 and , for an odd cycle , pwm conversion unit 20 provides a pwm signal which is the time - symmetrical of the signal which should have been provided . in fig6 , pwm signals to be transmitted when the pcm signal can code 9 states have been shown . on the right - hand side , the pwm signals provided for an odd cycle have been shown and , on the left - hand side , the pwm signals provided for an even cycle have been shown . with such a pwm conversion , for each cycle , at most one transition between the high and low states can be observed . with a conventional pwm conversion , there may be two transitions in a cycle , one transition during the cycle and one transition just at the beginning ( or at the very end ) of the cycle . the fact of decreasing the number of transitions per cycle enables decreasing the switching frequency of signal pwm . this is particularly advantageous when pwm conversion unit 20 drives a class - d amplifier having its consumption directly linked to the switching frequency of the pwm signal . the consumption of the class - d amplifier is thus decreased , which enables improving its power efficiency . the implementation of the variation of the previously - described embodiment of pwm conversion unit 20 can be envisaged due to the structure of digital - to - analog converter 30 according to the present invention in which the pwm signal is provided , by a feedback loop , to an input of pcm conversion unit 32 . indeed , the use of the alternative pwm conversion unit 20 would be difficult to envisage with the previously - described conventional digital - to - analog converter structures , since it tends to increase the noise level in the useful frequency band of the pwm signal . this is not disturbing with digital - to - analog converter 30 according to the present invention since pcm conversion unit 32 rejects such noise out of the useful frequency band . although , in the present invention , pcm conversion unit 32 operates at a frequency f 2 higher than the operating frequency of a conventional digital - to - analog converter , and thus consumes more , this is little prejudice since the consumption of pcm conversion unit 32 is low with respect to the consumption of class - d amplifier 16 . an advantage of the present invention is that it may be totally formed with components currently used to form logic circuits and may be implemented with a small number of components ( gates , operators , storage elements . . . ). another advantage of the present invention is that it enables not increasing the resolution of the pwm conversion unit , that is , not increasing the frequency of the control signal of the pwm conversion unit , which would have required the use of expensive components to provide the control signal , such as phase - locked loops . fig7 shows an example of use of converter 30 according to the present invention in a digital - to - analog converter receiving digital signal in ′ and providing an analog signal out for the control of a load , not shown , for example a loudspeaker or a motor . the pwm signal provided by converter 30 drives an amplifier 82 connected to two sources of reference voltages v refp and v refn . amplifier 82 provides a signal pwm ′ which drives a temporally continuous low - pass filter 84 . filter 84 provides a signal pwm ″ to a power amplifier 86 , for example , a class - a - b amplifier , which provides signal out . amplifier 82 is a low - power amplifier . it converts digital signal pwm into an analog signal pwm ′ at low power according to the following relation : the electric current provided by amplifier 82 is low given that low - pass filter 84 receiving signal pwm ′ has a strong input impedance . reference voltage source v refp is a source capable of providing a “ natural ” voltage enabling obtaining a high signal - to - noise ratio snr . further , voltage source v refp may be selected to obtain a non - zero power supply rejection ratio ( psrr ), for example , of approximately 50 db . this is particularly advantageous since it enables directly using a portable phone battery to power the digital - to - analog converter . continuous - time low - pass filter 84 for example is a filter of second or third order and enables suppressing the wide band noise of analog signal pwm ′ to only keep the wanted signal , for example , the signal present in the audio band . filter 84 may comprise an amplifier , for example , an operational amplifier . for the performances of such an amplifier not to be altered by the presence of the wide - band noise contained in analog signal pwm ′ ( due to the risk of crosstalk of the high - frequency noise ), it is advantageous for the low - pass filter to then comprise , at its input , at least one rc - type passive filter . of course , the present invention is likely to have various alterations , modifications , and improvements which will readily occur to those skilled in the art . in particular , the present invention may be implemented with a pcm conversion unit having a structure different from that shown in fig5 . in particular , the order of the pcm conversion unit is adapted to the desired processing of digital signal in ′. such alterations , modifications , and improvements are intended to be part of this disclosure , and are intended to be within the spirit and the scope of the present invention . accordingly , the foregoing description is by way of example only and is not intended to be limiting . the present invention is limited only as defined in the following claims and the equivalents thereto . | 7 |
the invention provides a wall panel which may be assembled by mounting one or more modules to a wall . fig1 shows a wall panel module 20 according to the invention . module 20 comprises a generally planar front surface 24 . front surface 24 is divided into a regular array of rectangular segments 26 by intersecting grooves 30 , 32 . preferably the spacing between grooves 32 is the same as the spacing between grooves 30 and segments 26 are generally square . grooves 30 intersect grooves 32 at an angle θ . in fig1 grooves 32 are perpendicular to grooves 32 and θ is a right angle . the corners 34 , 36 , between segments 26 and grooves 30 , 32 are preferably rounded for ease of insertion of accessories 40 and because rounded corners have a pleasing appearance . grooves 30 , 32 are preferably uniformly spaced and penetrate substantially entirely through module 20 . preferably grooves 30 , 32 all have the same depth . for retail display applications , grooves 30 , 32 are typically between approximately 5 cm and 8 cm apart and between approximately 2 cm to 6 cm deep and are preferably between 2 . 5 cm and 4 cm deep . in general , increasing the dimensions of module 20 by increasing the spacing between grooves 30 , and 32 , increasing the depth of grooves 30 and 32 and increasing the thickness of the material from which module 20 is made tends to increase the load which can be supported by an accessory attached to panel 20 . panels 20 may be made in any convenient size . for example , approximately 60 cm by 120 cm is a convenient size for transporting and installing panels 20 . panels 20 may be conveniently manufactured by vacuum - forming a suitable plastic , such as the 0 . 45 cm thick general purpose abs plastic sheet which is available from basf corporation , plastic materials div ., of parsippany , n . j . or monsanto company , of st . louis , mo ., into a female mould . fig2 shows an accessory 40 about to be inserted into a module 20 which has been affixed to a wall 42 . accessory 40 comprises a hook 43 and a mounting end 44 . mounting end 44 comprises a first planar member 46 and a second planar member 48 which is mounted at an angle θ to planar member 46 . in module 20 θ is 90 degrees so planar members 46 and 48 intersect each other at a fight angle . as shown in fig2 and 4 , accessory 40 is mounted to module 20 by aligning planar member 46 with a groove 30 , aligning planar member 48 with a groove 32 and pushing planar members 46 and 48 until they are frilly inserted in grooves 30 and 32 respectively . after accessory 40 has been mounted ( fig4 ), hook 43 is left projecting from module 20 . as is described more fully below with respect to fig5 and 6 , planar members 46 and 48 are held in place in grooves 30 and 32 by friction between the faces of planar members 46 and 48 and the walls of grooves 30 and 32 . layers 50 of friction material , such as friction tape , may be applied to the faces of planar members 46 , 48 to increase the frictional force resisting the withdrawal of accessory 40 from module 20 . 3m ™ part number 8562 clear urethane abrasion resistant tape is a suitable material for layers 50 . preferably layers 50 cover as much of the surfaces of planar members 46 , 48 that contact the walls of grooves 30 , 32 as possible . as an alternative to using friction tape for layers 50 , layers 50 may be integral with accessories 40 . for example , fig3 shows a shelf , 52 , having a body 51 extruded from rigid pvc plastic . layer 50a on shelf 52 is a thin layer of flexible pvc plastic which has been co - extruded with body 51 . layer 50a may be , for example , approximately 0 . 05 cm ( 0 . 02 inches ) thick . layer 50a may extend over one or more faces of the portion of shelf 52 which fits into grooves 30 , 32 . as shown in fig4 a flat shelf 52 or a divider 54 may be mounted to module 20 by inserting an edge of the shelf or divider into one of grooves 30 , 32 . once inserted , the shelf or divider is held in place by friction between the walls of the groove and the faces of the divider or shelf . ribs 56 may be provided on a divider 54 or shelf 52 to further prevent the divider or shelf from sliding along the groove in which it is mounted . vertical grooves 32 allow accessories such as divider 54 or vertical signs ( not shown ) to be easily and directly mounted to module 20 . this is in contrast to slot wall systems in which it is difficult to mount vertical accessories . fig5 and 6 show the construction of grooves 30 and planar members 46 in detail . it is to be understood that grooves 32 and planar members 48 interact in an manner analogous to the interaction of grooves 30 and planar members 46 . as shown in fig6 planar member 46 has a tight interference fit in groove 30 . grooves 30 have generally parallel walls 60 and 62 . the width , w , of groove 30 is slightly less than the thickness , t , of planar member 46 . for example , when w is 0 . 46 cm ( 0 . 18 inches ) and modules 20 are constructed as described above , then t is preferably approximately 0 . 48 cm ( 0 . 188 inches ). when accessory 40 is mounted to module 20 , planar member 46 is forced into groove 30 as indicated by arrow 63 . during this process , walls 60 and 62 of groove 30 are forced slightly away from each other by the passage of planar member 46 . rounded corners 65 help to guide planar member 46 into slot 30 . walls 60 and 62 are resilient . when walls 60 and 62 are moved apart by the introduction of planar member 46 they subject planar member 46 to restoring forces as indicated by arrows f in fig6 . these forces squeeze planar member 46 and tend to increase the frictional force between the faces of planar member 46 and walls 60 , 62 . for a groove of width w the thickness t of planar member 46 is limited by the degree to which walls 60 and 62 of groove 30 may be forced apart without becoming non - parallel . if planar member 46 is too thick for a groove 30 then inserting planar member 46 in groove 30 may wedge walls 60 , 62 apart at an angle . then , only the innermost portion of planar member 46 will be in contact with walls 60 , 62 and planar member 46 will not be firmly retained in slot 30 . for maximum strength , when planar member 46 is fully inserted in slot 30 , walls 60 and 62 should be parallel and in flat forceful contact with opposing sides of planar member 46 . for a given slot 30 , to obtain maximum holding force , planar member 46 is preferably as thick as possible without making walls 60 and 62 non - parallel when planar member 46 is inserted into slot 30 . if module 20 is vacuum formed , as described above , then front face 24 and the walls 60 , 62 of grooves 30 , 32 are formed from a single unitary sheet 66 of material . grooves 30 , 32 comprise indentations in sheet 66 . the resiliency of walls 60 and 62 depends upon resiliency of the material from which they are formed and , to some degree upon the shape of grooves 30 . the corners 65 formed between walls 60 and 62 and front face 24 are rounded and preferably have a radius of curvature on the order of 0 . 32 cm ( 0 . 125 inches ). voids 64 may optionally be filled with a resilient foam material to enhance the resiliency of walls 60 and 62 . as an alternative to vacuum forming , module 20 may be made by injection moulding a resilient plastic material or by moulding a resilient foamed plastic or rubber material . as shown in fig5 module 20 may be affixed to a wall by passing screws 70 through the rear walls 72 of grooves 30 and 32 . the screws are hidden from sight and so do not detract from the appearance of module 20 . preferably the width w of grooves 30 and 32 is large enough that a mounting screw 70 may be easily installed at the junction of a groove 30 and a groove 32 and small enough that screw 70 is reasonably well hidden from view when the installation is complete . preferably the radius of curvature of the corners formed at the intersections of grooves 30 and 32 by walls 60 , 62 of grooves 30 and the walls of grooves 32 is on the order of 0 . 38 cm ( 0 . 15 inches ). this radius and the widths of grooves 30 , 32 together define the maximum size of screw head that can be inserted at the intersections of grooves 30 and 32 . v - shaped notches 74 may be provided in the centres of rear walls 72 to assist in placing screws 70 and to act as guides for cutting modules 20 to size with a knife . as shown in fig5 notches 74 are preferably v - shaped notches formed by two planar surfaces 74a which have a dihedral angle of approximately 90 degrees . preferably surfaces 74a extend the full width of the forward faces of rear walls 72 . the mounting edges of planar members 46 , 48 ( or the mounting edges of shelves or other accessories to be inserted into grooves 30 , 32 ) may be bevelled for easy insertion . screwing module 20 to a wall increases the rigidity of module 20 and , consequently , increases the weight bearing capacity of accessories mounted to module 20 . generally , the more points of attachment there are between module 20 and a wall the more rigid is the resulting wall panel and the greater is the holding strength . the holding strength of module 20 is maximized when module 20 is affixed to a rigid wall with a suitable adhesive and / or a large number of closely spaced mounting screws 70 . because module 20 is reinforced by the wall to which it is attached it is possible to provide a display panel according to the invention which is durable and strong when installed , and yet is considerably lighter in weight than a slot wall panel , with correspondingly lower shipping costs , and correspondingly easier handling and installation . as shown in fig7 a backing sheet 75 , such as a sheet of abs plastic on the order of approximately 0 . 15 cm to 0 . 3 cm ( 0 . 06 inches to 0 . 125 inches ) thick may be bonded to the rear surface of a module 20 to increase the rigidity of module 20 . with a sufficiently rigid backing sheet 75 , module 20 may be used in free - standing applications such as in an office divider or a free - standing display unit . several modules 20 may be affixed to a wall next to each other to cover a large area . as shown in fig1 modules 20 have a rim 76 projecting in a flange - like fashion from their rear edges . rim 76 is one half of the width of grooves 30 and 32 , so that when two modules 20 are butted against each other a groove having the same dimensions of grooves 30 , 32 is formed between the two modules 20 . the seam between adjacent modules 20 is thereby hidden at the bottom of a groove and the groove formed between the adjacent modules may be used in the same manner as other ones of grooves 30 , and 32 . it is convenient to make rim 76 have the same profile in cross section as one half of a rear wall of grooves 30 , 32 . where the wall surface to be covered with modules 20 is an odd size , modules 20 may be trimmed to fit , simply by cutting along the centre of one of grooves 30 or 32 with a hand held knife . unlike slot - wall panels , modules 20 are omni - directional . the module 20 , shown in fig1 will function identically in any orientation turned through any multiple of 90 degrees from an initial orientation . because modules 20 , or portions of modules 20 , can be combined to cover a large area without leaving any unsightly seams the problem of wasting panel parts which are left over after an installation is virtually eliminated . such left over parts can be easily re - used . even a portion of a module 20 as small as two segments 26 wide by two segments high , may be installed and used . as shown in fig4 a flat shelf 52 of suitable thickness may be simply inserted into horizontal grooves 30 in a module 20 . flat shelves 52 are suitable for bearing light weight objects . fig8 shows an alternative shelf 80 which may be mounted to module 20 of fig1 for bearing heavier loads . shelf 80 is mounted to a module 20 by inserting mounting edge 81 into a horizontal groove 30 . as described above with reference to planar member 46 , mounting edge 81 fits into a groove 30 with an interference fit . shelf 80 has vertical supports 82 projecting from its underside . vertical supports 82 are spaced apart by a distance d which is equal to a multiple of the spacing of vertical grooves 32 in module 20 . vertical supports 82 fit into vertical grooves 32 of module 20 with an interference fit . to further increase the resistance of shelf 80 to pulling out from module 20 strips 84 of friction tape may be provided on one or both sides of the mounting edge of shelf 80 . accessories , such as shelf 80 , may optionally be equipped with mechanical fasteners 86 to further enhance the resistance of such accessories to pulling out from module 20 . fasteners 86 may be , for example , rubber expansion bolts which can be tightened after the accessory has been mounted to module 20 . when they are tightened , fasteners 86 expand against the sides of grooves 30 or 32 to hold the accessory in place on a module 20 with a tight friction grip . fig9 shows an alternative module 90 according to the invention . in addition to vertical grooves 32 and horizontal grooves 30 , module 90 has diagonal grooves 92 , 94 . diagonal grooves 92 , and 94 allow accessories to be mounted to module 90 at an angle and provide an alternative appearance . fig1 shows a further alternative module 95 and an accessory 96 for use with module 95 . module 95 has three sets of grooves 97 , 98 , and 99 . grooves 97 , 98 , and 99 are all at an angle of 60 degrees to one another . module 95 is symmetrical with respect to rotations through any multiple of 60 degrees . as will be apparent to those skilled in the art in the light of the foregoing disclosure , many alterations and modifications are possible in the practice of this invention without departing from the spirit or scope thereof . accordingly , the scope of the invention is to be construed in accordance with the substance defined by the following claims . | 0 |
fig1 shows one example of a digital camera . in this example is shown a housing 1 , a trigger button 3 , and a lens arrangement 2 . it is possible to use the present invention in many solutions . in some solutions the device is a typical digital camera and in some solutions the camera unit is integrated with other units . for example , the device could be a mobile phone , a computer , a game device , a communication device , etc . fig2 shows a block diagram of a device according to the present invention . the device comprises at least an optical unit ou , a control unit cu , a memory unit memory and a user interface ui . the optical unit ou typically comprises some kind of a lens arrangement and an image sensor ( described hereinafter as simply a sensor ) component , such as a ccd or a cmos - component . usually the sensor component comprises a detector matrix . in the detector matrix there are several detector rows and detector columns ( in other words , detector lines ). the control unit cu is , in turn , arranged to control the function of the camera . the user interface ui comprises at least one display . different kinds of information is shown on the display . usually the display is also used as a viewfinder . the memory unit is arranged to store the pictures . the memory unit can be , for example , a fixed unit , a removable unit or some kind of a combination of fixed and removable units . usually some kind of removable memory cards are used . fig3 shows a simple flow diagram of one embodiment . first , the recording starts , for example , when the user pushes the trigger button 3 of a camera . the system detects the direction and the speed of motion ( sweeping direction and speed ). the system senses and records picture elements . one detector line or a plurality of adjacent detector lines can be used as a “ picture element ,” according to the present invention , for forming a panoramic image when sweeping a scene panoramically . the first picture element is stored in the memory . next , the picture elements to be stored in the memory are selected based on sweeping speed . the camera processes the picture elements stored in the memory to create a image . the recording stops , for example , when the trigger button 3 is released . in the following , the operation of the camera will be described by means of a simplified use case . in this case a user wants to take a picture of a scene that is so large that it is partly out of the viewfinder area 4 , as shown in fig4 . in fig5 the viewfinder area 4 is described in more detail . a viewfinder area 4 and the middle area 5 of the viewfinder area are shown . the viewfinder area 4 comprises several vertical detector lines 6 . usually there are hundreds or thousands of detector lines 6 , but in the figures , less detector lines are shown in a bigger scale in order to emphasize the characteristics of the embodiments . the middle area 5 comprises a line of detectors 6 a that is adapted to produce a picture element . in the embodiment shown , the surrounding lines are not used , i . e ., the line or lines 6 a are used to the exclusion of the lines in the surrounding areas to the left and right of area 5 . the middle area 5 that is adapted to produce a picture element is arranged perpendicularly to the sweeping direction s . the middle area 5 is in fig4 in a vertical position because the sweeping direction s is essentially horizontal . in a case where the sweeping direction s is essentially vertical , the middle area 5 is horizontal . the user starts sweeping the scene manually , for example by pushing the trigger button 3 and moving the camera . the sweeping motion can be effected in many different ways and it can be , for example , a rotating or a linear motion . in one embodiment the sweeping speed and direction s of the camera is estimated from the viewfinder data . in one embodiment the estimation of the sweeping speed and direction s is pixel - based . when the middle area 5 is moved at least one line 6 in the desired sweeping direction s , the lines 6 a of the middle area are captured and merged to the final image . the concept is shown in fig4 and fig6 . fig6 shows an unfinished image during the sweeping process . the image shown in fig6 is the image where the picture element produced by the detector line 6 a of fig4 is added . in real - time , the viewfinder of the camera may progressively show the parts of the scene that have been already created , until the entire image is captured . the recordable picture elements can be captured at a higher resolution than the viewfinder data used for motion estimation . the dataflow from the sensor is still low compared to capturing the whole image with full resolution . because the captured picture elements can be fetched also from sub - pixel locations , i . e . the picture elements are partially overlapping , the spatial sampling grid of the captured picture elements can be denser than the sampling grid of the final image , as shown in fig7 . therefore , decimation to the final sampling grid is required . super resolution techniques can also be used for obtaining an increased resolution image . in one embodiment , if the captured picture element contains the same data as the already stored picture element , the captured picture element can be discarded , if super resolution is not used . this situation can exist , for example , when there is a low sweeping speed or no motion at all . the free camera movements may also include translational motion , which means that motion may be different for objects that are close by than for objects that are far . in one embodiment the motion estimation may be implemented so that if a large enough part of the scene at the captured picture element is moving by one line , the captured area is merged to the image . because horizontal rotation ( about the optical axis ) of the camera may also exist , the captured picture elements may be rotated with respect to each other . in one embodiment , in order to compensate this , a few vertical lines in the middle of the images may be captured and the motion estimation and compensation may be used to compensate the rotational movement as shown in fig8 . in one embodiment the rotation compensation can also be relaxed . in this case it is possible to form different kinds of bent images . if the sweeping speed is fast compared to the frame rate , so that the captured picture element has moved more than the width of one line , one captured line / frame is not necessarily enough . in one embodiment several detector lines 6 a , 6 b may be recorded . for example , all lines ( post - capture picture elements 6 b ) between the capturing lines 6 a , 6 b are recorded . this situation can be seen in fig9 . if the frame rate is so low that no frames are available between t 1 and t 2 , all lines between lines 6 a , 6 b captured at t 1 and t 2 are also recorded and merged to the image . in one embodiment a picture element contains data from several detector lines . in another embodiment there are several picture elements , each of which has produced a detector line , which detector lines are side by side . because the low sampling rate equals to sparser spatial sampling grid than used in the final image , interpolation techniques can also be used , but then the quality of the result is decreased . in one embodiment the color , contrast and brightness of adjacent lines are automatically matched because the exposure changes smoothly when the camera is moved ( for example rotated ) and aimed at different locations in the scene . this eliminates the need to compensate for different exposure and awb settings , as is the case with traditional stitching . additionally , the exposure settings can be adjusted according to spatial and temporal differences . the whole sensor area 4 can be used for getting the data for the adjustment . for example , the lines 6 c in the sweeping direction can be used to predict the exposure setting for the forthcoming lines . the concept of pre - capture lines 6 c is depicted in fig9 . in one embodiment the pre - capture data can be used to assist in correcting the errors due to moving objects . because the actual recording lines 6 a capture the image at different time , the comparison between the recording areas reveal moving objects . in traditional rotating panoramic film cameras the moving objects may be captured distorted and bent . the different embodiments can operate in either vertical or horizontal directions . if vertical panorama is needed , the operation is the same , but the horizontal measuring line or lines progress vertically . the mode may be selected by ui / buttons or automatically based on the direction of the initial movement . in one embodiment the motion estimation can detect changes in the sweeping ( for example rotation ) direction s . if same area of the scene is re - swept , the data can be discarded or used for increasing the resolution . if new areas appear , those are inserted into the image . this makes the left - center - right , right - center - left , center - left -( center )- right and center - right -( center )- left sweeping order possible , and corresponding behavior in vertical dimension . in one embodiment the focus setting or the zoom position ( focal length ) of the lens can be changed when the sweeping proceeds , which provides extra effects . for instance , extended depth of focus can be achieved when the focus is changed according to the distance of the object . then , both short - distance and long - distance areas of the object can appear sharper than panoramas made from multiple images . the focus adjustment can be made using any auto focus system . if the focal length is changed ( zooming ), the effect is more artistic , but unique to this invention . the different embodiments can be implemented into many digital camera devices . fig1 briefly describes a simplified implementation alternative that can be used to realize real - time panorama sweeping . the implementation can also be made off - line , so that a pre - recorded video clip containing panoramic movement is processed , as if it were a viewfinder data - stream . as discussed above , there are different alternatives to implement the synchronization of the frame rate with the hand motion ( i . e . capturing all required lines to cover the amount of the motion and handling the sub - pixel shifts ). as the sensitivity of the sensor component is expected to improve , it will be possible to reduce the exposure times and to increase the frame rate , thus enabling faster sweeping of the scene . it will also be possible to record more redundant detector lines , which can be used to improve the performance of the motion estimation and the spatial resolution of the final image . the speed of hand motion can be guided by various user - interface means and implementations . for example , the ui can show markers , such as arrows , for informing the user whether the speed is correct , too low or too high . the composed image can also be moved with some predetermined speed and mixed with the viewfinder data so that the user tries to keep them aligned , which causes the camera movement with optimal speed . in one embodiment the camera may be used in conjunction with a cheap motor that rotates the camera . the motion compensation eliminates the need for the mechanical precision traditionally required to achieve the desired result . by combining , in various ways , the modes and structures disclosed in connection with the different embodiments of the invention presented above , it is possible to produce various embodiments of the invention in accordance with the spirit of the invention . therefore , the above - presented examples must not be interpreted as restrictive to the invention , but the embodiments of the invention may be freely varied within the scope of the inventive features presented in the claims hereinbelow . | 7 |
describing now the drawings , it is to be understood that to simplify the showing thereof , only enough of the false - twist jet spinning apparatus , and the related apparatus or structure for monitoring a predeterminate yarn quality have been illustrated therein as are needed to enable one skilled in the art to readily understand the underlying principles and concepts of this invention . turning now specifically to fig1 of the drawings , the therein depicted exemplary embodiment of false - twist jet spinning apparatus 90 comprises a drafting arrangement 50 , a false - twist spinning jet 51 defining a spinning position or location , a yarn guide tube or conduit 52 connected thereto and a withdrawal or delivery roller pair 53 . only the withdrawal roller pair 54 and the fiber guiding aprons 55 of the drafting arrangement 50 have been conveniently illustrated in as much as such construction is well known . the false - twist spinning jet 51 comprises an infeed portion 56 , a guide orifice or port 57 and a twist generating portion 58 . a pressure or pressurized air infeed duct 59 opens into the infeed region of the twist generating portion 58 following the guide orifice 57 as viewed in the predeterminate direction of yarn movement indicated by the arrow r . the pressure or pressurized air is fed in or delivered by a pressure air infeed duct 59 by means of an infeed nozzle 60 which is adjustable in the airflow direction . the relation of the diameter to the length of the pressure air infeed duct 59 must be so selected that the airflow blown in by the infeed nozzle 60 is disturbed neither by the walls nor by the opening of the pressure air infeed duct 59 . the infeed nozzle 60 is provided in a spherical or semi - spherical jet body 61 ( only the first possibility being shown ). this jet body 61 is rotatably supported in the manner of a ball joint in the false - twist spinning jet 51 . in order to adjust the jet body 61 , the latter is provided with an adjusting lever or lever member 62 which is connected via a triple ball joint 63 ( fig1 a and 1b ) with a horizontally disposed adjusting motor 64 ( fig1 a ) and a vertically disposed adjusting motor 65 ( fig1 ). the terms &# 34 ; horizontally disposed &# 34 ; and &# 34 ; vertically disposed &# 34 ; are to be conveniently interpreted only with reference to the view represented in fig1 and otherwise are not to be construed in any limiting sense . the term &# 34 ; triple ball joint &# 34 ; relates to a ball 100 with a hollow partial ball or pan 102 mounted thereon serving as a socket and a second hollow ball or pan 104 , likewise serving as a socket , mounted over the first hollow partial ball or pan 102 , as such arrangement is depicted in fig1 b . the sockets defined by the pans 102 and 104 , can be provided with resilient or elastic regions through the provision of suitable slits or cuts in such pans 102 and 104 . in the arrangement depicted , the adjusting or adjustment lever 62 is connected , for example , with the ball or ball member 100 and the adjusting motors 64 and 65 are connected , for instance , with the respective sockets defined by the pans 104 and 102 . each adjusting or adjustment motor 65 and 64 , is supported individually at its end remote from the triple ball joint 63 , by means of a single ball joint 66 and 67 , respectively , in a fixedly mounted housing portion or part 67 and 79 , respectively . a yarn tension measuring device 68 is provided after or downstream of the yarn guide tube or conduit 52 and before the withdrawal roller or roll pair 53 . such yarn or thread tension measuring devices 68 are known in the art , and one such suitable construction is commercially available , for example under the trade designation electronic - tensiometer r - 1192 from the swiss firm rothschild company of traubenstrasse 3 , ch - 8002 , zurich , switzerland . this yarn tension measuring device 68 delivers measurement signals in the form of output signals and representative of the momentarily measured yarn tension and appearing on the line or conductor 69 to a suitable control unit or device 70 . this control unit or device 70 is of conventional design and does not constitute subject matter of the present invention . basically , the control unit 70 has a reference or set input 70a at which there is set a desired reference or set value of the yarn tension or tolerance value or range with which there is then compared the yarn tension measured by the yarn tension measuring device 68 and on the basis of such comparison in the comparator , generally indicated by reference character 70b , there is delivered at the output side or section 70c of the control unit or device 70 , a suitable output signal which perfects a suitable control operation for either increasing or decreasing the yarn tension as the need dictates and as will be described more fully hereinafter . control units or devices suitable for such purposes are well known in the electrical and electronic art as well as in the textile art . an example of a suitable control device which can be utilized in the arrangement of the present invention has been disclosed , by way of example and not limitation , in u . s . pat . no . 4 , 275 , 483 , granted june 30 , 1981 , to which reference may be readily had and the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference . further , the infeed nozzle 60 is connected with an adjustable pressure regulating valve or valve unit 71 which is supplied with pressure or compressed air by a suitable pressure or pressurized air source 72 . the withdrawal or delivery roller pair 53 is driven by a drive motor 73 . the control unit or device 70 processes the measurement signals appearing on the line or conductor 69 to form an output signal appearing , for instance , on the line or conductor 74 in order to control the adjusting or adjustment motor 64 , an output signal appearing on the line or conductor 75 in order to control the adjusting or adjustment motor 65 , an output signal appearing on the line or conductor 76 in order to control the pressure regulating valve 71 and an output signal appearing on the line or conductor 77 in order to control the speed of rotation of the drive motor 73 . as desired various combinations of individual ones of these output signals could be generated if desired . an airflow infeed angle α ( fig1 ) and an airflow infeed angle β ( fig1 a ) are adjusted with the aid of the adjusting motors 64 and 65 . the airflow infeed angle α is contained in an imaginary plane w which contains the axis of symmetry 84 ( fig1 and 1a ) of the inflow nozzle 60 and which is either parallel to the axis of symmetry 83 ( fig1 and 1a ) of the guide orifice 57 or contains that axis of symmetry 83 . the angle α is formed in this plane between the axis of symmetry 84 and a straight line ( not shown ) which is either substantially parallel to the axis of symmetry 84 if the plane w is substantially parallel to the axis of symmetry 83 , or is substantially coaxial with the axis of symmetry 83 if the plane w contains the axis of symmetry 83 . the air inflow angle β is defined between the plane w and a further imaginary plane t which contains the axis of symmetry 83 . the angle β is essentially a right angle ( 90 °- angle ) if the plane w also contains the axis of symmetry 83 . the smallest angle β is defined if the plane w is essentially parallel to the axis of symmetry 83 such that the airflow from the infeed nozzle 60 enters the twist - generating jet 58 substantially tangentially . inflow of pressure or compressed air into the twist - generating portion or part 58 with air inflow angles α and β selected lower than 90 ° causes , in addition to a crank - like twisting effect on the yarn , as will be described later , a suction effect for the infeed portion or part 56 so that air is drawn into this infeed portion or part 56 from the delivery rolls 54 . this air blown in via the infeed nozzle 60 together with the air drawn in via the infeed portion 56 flows through the twist - generating portion or part 58 and leaves the yarn guide tube or conduit 52 at its exit opening 80 . in operation , a fiber sliver is fed into the drafting arrangement 50 and is drawn or drafted therein to a desired degree . at the exit from or outlet side of the drafting arrangement 50 , the delivery rolls 54 thereof pass the sliver 82 , spread to a desired extent , into the infeed portion 56 which guides this fiber sliver 82 with the aid of the air drawn in by suction towards the guide orifice 57 . a yarn core is formed in known manner by means of this guide orifice 57 and is grasped by the airflow of the infeed nozzle 60 upon entering the twist - generating portion or part 58 and is rotated in a crank - like fashion . twist is generated in the yarn core by this crank - like motion and travels opposite the direction of thread movement indicated by the arrow r back towards the clamping line or nip of the delivery roller pair 54 . this procedure , including the wrapping of the twisted yarn core with edge fibers , is known state - of - the - art and published for example , in european published patent application no . 131 , 170 , published jan . 16 , 1985 , and to which reference may be readily had and the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference . further examples are set out in the article written by professor hans w . krause and published in &# 34 ; melliand textilberichte 1 / 1987 &# 34 ;. assuming a constant infeed speed to the delivery roller pair 54 , the yarn tension in the region of the yarn tension measuring device 68 is variable either by adjustment of the angles α and β and / or of the air throughflow ( m3 / min ) through the infeed nozzle 60 and / or the speed of the withdrawal roller pair or withdrawal rollers 53 . by the adjustment of the angles α and β and the intensity or energy of the air infeed into the infeed nozzle 60 , the crank effect can be changed as can the transporting or forwarding effect on the yarn 81 in the yarn movement direction represented by the arrow r . by adjusting the speed of rotation of the withdrawal rollers or rolls 53 , the so - called spinning draft can be adjusted , the term &# 34 ; spinning draft &# 34 ; referring to the relationship between the speed of the running yarn 81 at the withdrawal rollers 53 and the speed of the fiber sliver 82 at the delivery roller pair 54 . if now , for example , in operation a signal is issued or delivered by the yarn tension measuring device 68 , and is determined to be too high , in other words , above the yarn tension tolerance , by the control unit or device 70 , then the intensity of air infeed into the infeed nozzle 60 , with constant angles α and β and constant spinning draft , can be reduced within a tolerance or tolerance range defined therefor . alternatively , the angle α , with constant inflow intensity and constant angle β and constant spinning draft , can be reduced within a tolerance range defined therefor . as a further alternative , the angle β can be reduced within a tolerance or tolerance range defined therefor with constant infeed intensity and constant angle α and spinning draft . as a still further alternative , the speed of rotation of the withdrawal rollers or rolls 53 can be reduced , also within a tolerance or tolerance range defined therefor , with constant infeed intensity , constant angles α and β and constant speed of the fiber sliver 82 at the delivery roller pair 54 . furthermore , the spinning speed can be adjusted with constant measures as previously discussed and given yarn count until settling within the given yarn tension tolerance or tolerance range . on the other hand , if the yarn tension is too low , the opposite steps are carried out . it will be clear that a combination of the aforedescribed steps can be performed if an individual step alone does not give the desired effect or result . it is also noted that the yarn tension measured by the yarn tension measuring device 68 can be appropriately displayed or indicated by the display or indicator device 110 ( fig1 ) and on the basis of which the yarn tension can be then altered or controlled by manually initiating or accomplishing the aforedescribed yarn tension correction measures . a simplified variant of the embodiment shown in fig1 and 1a comprises a jet body 61 movable solely in the direction of movement of the angle α . in this case , the adjusting or adjustment motor 64 is eliminated with all related structure required for its functioning . also , the adjusting or adjustment motor 65 no longer can be supported on the ball joint 66 but must be pivotably supported such that the infeed nozzle 60 is movable only in the region of the angle α . the control unit 70 shown for the false - twist jet spinning apparatus 90 of fig1 to 1c is designed as an individual unit for each so - called spinning position or location ( a plurality of spinning positions or locations constitute a spinning machine ). it will be clear , however , that a solution of this type is expensive and is not absolutely necessary in view of the tension variations which occur slowly as a rule . it is therefore known from the rotor open - end spinning technique that so - called travelling devices or robots carry out checking and operating functions on respective spinning units , so that an optimalization can be achieved as regards costs and frequency of the operations to be performed per spinning position or location . it is therefore clear and should be so understood that a range of modifications can be provided in connection with travelling devices or robots , for example , all adjusting or positioning motors or the like required for adjusting the elements can be provided per spinning position , and only the yarn tension measuring equipment and control is allocated to the travelling device or robot ; this represents the simplest solution mechanically . as another variant , a travelling device or robot can measure the yarn tension and indicate it by display means , such as the previously described display or indicator device 110 , and the elements to be adjusted in order to change the tension are operated manually until the tension again lies in the given tolerance range . a further application of the yarn tension measurement lies in the simple monitoring of the spinning position or location by means of the yarn tension measuring step or operation , i . e . that none of the aforedescribed measures to adjust the yarn tension are carried out , and on the basis of the given yarn tension tolerances a decision is made to stop the spinning unit in order to deal with the corresponding defect . it will therefore be clear that the inventive concept of using the yarn tension to maintain the spinning apparatus on a yarn quality level corresponding to the desired yarn quality , is not limited to the illustrated and described examples . while there are shown and described present preferred embodiments of the invention , it is to be distinctly understood that the invention is not limited thereto , but may be otherwise variously embodied and practiced within the scope of the following claims . accordingly , | 3 |
referring to fig1 of the drawings , an aluminium anchorage rail 10 of known design is of channel section , open at its top , with a pair of inturned lips 12 so that the width a of the gap 14 between the lips 12 is less than the width b of the channel below the lips 12 . the lips 12 are arcuately cut back at regular intervals along the rail 10 to form a series of widened portions 16 of the gap 14 each with a diameter c equal to or slightly less than the width b of the channel below the lips 12 . the widened portions 16 have a pitch d of , for example , 1 inch ( 25 . 4 mm ). the base of the rail 10 is formed with a series of fixing holes 18 ( partly obscured in fig1 ), by which the rail 10 can be fixed to the floor of a vehicle or to some reinforcing member on the floor . the rail 10 also has a pair of out - turned flanges 20 for covering the edges of a floorcovering on the vehicle floor . an anchorage assembly 22 as shown in fig1 to 18b comprises the components 25 shown in fig2 to 14 . referring in particular to fig2 a and 2b , an anchorage member 24 is formed from a length of steel square - section tube . an elongate rectangular aperture 26 ( for receiving a locking assembly 28 as shown in fig1 a and 11b ) is formed in the bottom of the member 24 adjacent its front end 30 . opposed holes 32 ( for receiving a cam member 34 as shown in fig1 a and 13b ) are formed in the sides of the member 24 about half - way along the aperture 26 . behind the hole 32 in one of the sides of the member 24 , a slot 36 ( for receiving a linkage operating bolt 38 as shown in fig5 ) is formed in that side of the member 24 . a hole 40 ( for receiving a positioning plug 42 as shown in fig3 ) and a slot 44 ( for receiving a locking foot 46 as shown in fig6 ) are formed in the bottom of the member 24 adjacent its rear end 48 , with the hole 40 and slot 44 being spaced apart in the longitudinal direction of the anchorage member 24 , and with the slot 44 extending in the longitudinal direction . one or more formations 50 are formed on the top of the anchorage member 24 for securing the legs or frame on one side of a vehicle seat to the member 24 . referring to fig3 , the steel positioning plug 42 has a fixing portion 52 which is inserted into the hole 40 in the anchorage member 24 and clinched or burred over to hold it fast , as shown in fig1 . a positioning portion 54 of the plug 42 then projects below the anchorage member 24 and is of a shape and size such that it is a snug fit into any of the widened portions 16 of the gap in the anchorage rail 10 , but cannot slide from one widened portion 16 to the next . referring to fig4 a - b , an elongate linkage 56 is formed by a length of steel angle 58 of a size that fits into and can slide in the anchorage member 24 . adjacent one end , a threaded hole 60 ( for receiving the locking foot 46 of fig6 ) is formed in the lower limb of the angle 58 . at the other end , an arm 62 projects from the side limb of the angle 58 and is formed with a threaded hole 64 ( for receiving the operating screw 38 of fig5 ). the operating bolt 38 of fig5 may be provided by a standard steel threaded bolt . referring to fig6 , the steel locking foot 46 has an upper screw - threaded shank 66 for passing through the slot 44 in the anchorage member 24 and screwing into the hole 60 of the linkage 56 . the shank 66 is of a diameter less than the width a of the narrow portions of the gap 14 in the anchorage rail 10 . at its lower end , the shank 66 has an enlarged portion 68 of a 25 diameter greater than the width a of the narrow portions of the gap 14 , but slightly less than the diameter c of the widened portions 16 . referring now to fig7 to 11b , the locking mechanism 28 comprises a pair of brass hinged elongate locking members 70 and 72 which are identical apart from having complementary portions 74 and 76 , respectively , for containing a steel hinge pin 78 which connects the members 70 , 72 for hinging movement about a hinge axis 80 . each locking member 70 , 72 has an upper portion above the hinge axis 80 with an outwardly directed flange 82 , and a lower portion beneath the hinge axis 80 with an outwardly directed flange 84 . the inner faces of the upper portions are formed with pairs of blind holes 86 to receive the ends of compression coil springs 88 as shown schematically in fig1 ( but which are not shown in fig1 a and 11b ). the springs 88 serve to urge the upper flanges 82 apart to an unlocked position , as shown in fig1 b , in which the width e occupied by the lower flanges 84 is less than the width a of the narrow portions of the gap 14 in the anchorage rail 10 . however , the locking mechanism 28 can be forced to assume a locked position , as shown in fig1 a , in which the width f occupied by the lower flanges 84 is less than the width a of the narrow portions of the gap 14 in the anchorage rail 10 . a pressure plate 90 as shown in fig1 comprises a strip 92 of steel of a width less than the internal width of the anchorage member 24 , and a pair of posts 94 welded or screwed to the strip 92 . referring to fig1 a - b , the cam assembly 94 comprises the steel cam member 34 which over the majority of its length is cylindrical , except for an elongate flat 96 , and of a diameter that fits in the holes 32 in the anchorage member 24 . at one end , the cam member 34 has an enlarged cylindrical boss 98 and beyond that a square spigot 100 ( to which an operating lever 102 as shown in fig1 is fitted ). the cam assembly 94 also comprises a set screw 104 , with a washer , that screws into a threaded hole to secure the lever 102 to the cam member 34 , and a further set screw 106 , with a washer 108 , that screws into the other end of the cam member 34 . the washer 108 has a larger diameter than the holes 32 in the anchorage member 24 so that the cam assembly 94 can be retained in the anchorage member 24 but is allowed to rotate . as shown in fig1 , the operating lever 102 comprises an arm 110 formed from steel plate with an enlarged portion 112 at one end . a square hole 114 is formed in the enlarged portion 112 to receive the spigot 100 of the cam member 34 . the enlarged portion 112 also has a spiral slot 116 having a width slightly larger than the diameter of the operating bolt 38 of fig5 . over an angle of about 45 to 60 degrees centred on the square hole 114 , the distance of the slot 116 from the square hole 116 changes by about one half of the pitch d of the widened portions 16 of the gap 14 in the anchorage rail 10 . referring now to fig1 to 19 , the various components described above are assembled into the anchorage assembly 22 so that the upper flanges 82 of the locking mechanism 28 are disposed inside the anchorage member 24 , and the locking mechanism 28 projects through the rectangular aperture 26 in the anchorage member 24 so that the lower flanges 84 of the locking mechanism 28 are disposed outside the anchorage member 24 . the pressure plate 90 rests on top of the locking mechanism 28 . the cam member 34 passes through the holes 32 in the anchorage member 24 and over the strip 92 of the pressure plate 90 between the posts 94 . the cam member 34 is retained by the screw 106 and washer 108 . the square hole 114 in the operating lever 102 is fitted to the spigot 100 on the cam member 34 , and the operating lever 102 is fixed to the cam member 34 by the screw 104 and its washer . the linkage 56 is disposed in the anchorage member 24 with the hole 64 in its arm 62 adjacent the slot 36 in the anchorage member 24 and with the hole 60 in the linkage 56 adjacent the slot 44 in the anchorage member 24 . the shank of the operating bolt 38 passes through the slots 116 and 36 in the operating lever 102 and the anchorage member 24 , and the threaded end of the bolt 38 is screwed into the hole 64 in the linkage 56 . the shank of the locking foot 46 passes through the slot 44 in the anchorage member 24 , and its threaded end is screwed into the hole 60 in the linkage 56 . the positioning plug 42 is fitted to the anchorage member 24 as described above . the anchorage assemblies 22 would normally be employed in pairs , with one anchorage assembly 22 being secured to the right - hand side of the base frame of a vehicle seat , and the other anchorage assembly 22 being secured to the left - hand side of the base frame , so that the spacing of the anchorage assemblies 22 is substantially identical to the spacing of a pair of the anchorage rails 10 on the floor of the vehicle to which the seat is to be fitted . the two anchorage assemblies 22 would preferably be mirror images of each other so that the two operating handles are equally accessible . to facilitate this , a slot may be formed in the opposite side wall of the anchorage member 24 , similar to the slot 36 , so that the anchorage member is not handed . the linkage 56 would , however , need to be handed for the right of left anchorage assembly 22 . the anchorage assembly is movable between an unlocked state , as shown in fig1 a and 17a , and a locked state , as shown in fig1 , 16 b and 17 b . in the unlocked state of fig1 a and 17a , the arm 110 of the operating lever 102 is inclined upwardly , and the flat 96 on the cam member 34 is horizontal underneath the cam member 34 . this permits the upper flanges 82 of the locking members 70 , 72 to be forced apart by the springs 88 , and the lower flanges 84 of the locking members 70 , 72 to be near each other , as shown in particular in fig1 a , so that the lower flanges 84 can be inserted through the gap 14 in the anchorage rail 10 . the linkage 56 and the spiral slot 116 in the operating lever 102 are arranged so that , when the operating lever 102 is in this position , the centre spacing g 1 ( see fig1 a ) between the positioning plug 42 and the locking foot 46 is an integral multiple of the pitch d ( see fig1 ) of the widened portions 16 of the gap 14 in the anchorage rail 10 . the plug 42 and the enlarged portion 68 of the locking foot 46 can therefore also be inserted through the gap 14 in the anchorage rail 10 . in order to change from the unlocked state to the locked state , the arm 110 of the operating lever 102 is manually pushed downwardly so that it becomes aligned alongside the anchorage member 24 . this action rotates the cam member 34 so that the cam member 34 presses the pressure plate 90 downwardly , which in turn causes the upper flanges 82 of the locking members 70 and 72 to pivot towards each other , and the lower flanges 84 of the locking members 70 and 72 to pivot away from each other , to the locked position as shown in fig1 b . the lower flanges of the locking member 70 and 72 engage underneath the adjacent lip portions 12 of the anchorage rail 10 so as to lock the anchorage member 24 to the anchorage rail 10 . furthermore , this movement of the operating lever 102 , through the action of the spiral slot 116 and the operating bolt 38 , causes the linkage 56 to move by a distance approximately equal to one half of the pitch d of the widened portions 16 of the gap 14 in the anchorage rail 10 , so that the centre spacing g 2 ( see fig1 b ) between the positioning plug 42 and the locking foot 46 is about half a pitch d different from an integer multiple of the pitch d . as a result , the enlarged portion 68 of the locking foot 46 becomes engaged underneath the adjacent lip portions 12 of the anchorage rail 10 also so as to lock the anchorage member 24 to the anchorage rail 10 . when the anchorage member 24 is locked to the anchorage rail 10 in this manner , the positioning plug 42 serves to prevent the anchorage member 24 from sliding along the anchorage rail 10 . provided that the part - cylindrical portion of the cam member 34 rides onto the pressure plate 90 when the assembly 22 is in the locked position , the assembly 22 will remain in the locked position due to friction between the various components . in order to change from the locked state to the unlocked state , the arm 110 of the operating lever 102 is manually lifted , and the components of the anchorage assembly 22 revert to their originally described positions so that the anchorage assembly 22 can be removed from the anchorage rail 10 . various modifications and developments may be made to the anchorage assembly described above . for example , a catch may be provided to lock the operating lever 102 positively in its locked position to reduce the risk of the lever 102 inadvertently being moved to its unlocked position . the catch may be spring - loaded , or it may be provided by a stop which falls under the influence of gravity to a position where it blocks movement of the lever 102 from its locked position , but which can be raised manually to allow the lever 102 to be moved . also , a resilient crinkle washer may be provided on the shank 66 of the locking foot 46 between the linkage 56 and the lower portion of the anchorage member 24 so as to prevent rattling . furthermore , two of the anchorage assemblies on the same seat may have their cam members 34 interconnected and operated by a single operating lever 102 . | 1 |
fig1 illustrates an implementation of a preferred embodiment of the present invention wherein a mainframe computer 102 functions as a central billing computer for a large enterprise . in the following description , a telephone company will be used as the exemplary “ large enterprise ”. however , those skilled in the art will appreciate that the present invention is applicable to any enterprise where a relatively large number of bills must be periodically generated and a bill verification process might be desirable . an important aspect of the present invention is the independent verification of bills that are generated by mainframe computer 102 . to perform useful bill verification many of the functions of the present invention are , therefore , implemented independently of mainframe computer 102 , and most preferably on a local server 130 that is in communication with several terminals or personal computers ( pcs ) 125 via an electronic data network 120 . data networks , such as local area networks , wide area networks and intranets and the like , which are well known in the art , are suitable for implementing data network 120 . data network 120 may also comprise the internet , especially if bill verifiers ( system users ) are geographically dispersed . in a preferred embodiment of the present invention , mainframe computer 102 periodically downloads billing information to an intermediate server 105 . this billing information is stored in mechanized tax worksheet ( mtw ) database 108 , which may be separate from local server 130 or , preferably , is coextensive with local server 130 as a single data processing machine 135 as shown . in either case , local server 130 preferably is capable of reading from , writing to and updating the data stored in mtw database 108 . preferably , intermediate server 105 is periodically purged of the billing information received from mainframe computer 102 so that intermediate server 105 can be utilized for other functions , which may or may not be related to billing functions . that is , in the context of the present invention , intermediate server 105 may be used only for purposes of facilitating data transfer and may even be eliminated altogether if local server 130 can effectively download data directly from mainframe computer 102 . billing for telephone usage can be divided , generally speaking , into two categories : ( i ) usage or toll type charges and ( ii ) services and other charges , other than toll / usage charges . usage and toll type charges include , for example , long distance charges and directory assistance . on the other hand , services other than toll / usage include , for example , standard line charges , local number portability , inside wire service and trouble determination plans , call waiting and emergency 911 charges . typically , the usage / toll type charges tend to vary during a single billing cycle , while the second category of charges tends to be more stable . referring again to fig1 , the first type of data toll / usage data , is hereinafter referred to as prebill data 140 . the second , or relatively more constant billing data , is hereinafter referred to as demand print data 145 . prebill data preferably is downloaded to local server 130 and stored on mtw database 108 on , e . g ., a daily basis so that this more volatile type of billing information is as up to date as possible . more specifically , prebill data is preferably downloaded on the day that bill verification takes place . demand print data may be downloaded less often , but preferably at a frequency sufficient to capture changes to the vast majority of accounts . thus , demand print data 145 may be downloaded a few days before bill verification with the assumption that this data has remained constant during this time . in addition to prebill data 140 and demand print data 145 , mtw database is also preferably loaded with tax rate information from tax tar ( taxing area responsibility ) database 110 . this information preferably includes local tax rates and e911 surcharge information by tar code . preferably , but not necessarily , the tax rate information that is loaded into mtw database 108 is the same tax rate information that is supplied to and used by mainframe computer 102 . this helps maintain consistency between the mainframe computer billing calculation and the bill verification calculation functions described below . tax tar database 110 and / or a separate revenue directory ( not shown ) includes information regarding which charges among the several charges contained in the prebill and demand print data files are taxable as well as the appropriate rate at which the respective charges are to be taxed . thus , preferably , two files are created that contain information about customer accounts that are to be sampled . a prebill file and a demand print file are downloaded to local server 130 ( though not necessarily on the same day ). at this point , many of the data fields in the respective files are loaded directly into mtw database 108 . for example , the account telephone number and whether the account is a residence or a business are transferred from the appropriate file to a record in mtw database 108 without modification . on the other hand , some of the downloaded data is first processed before being stored in the appropriate records in mtw database 108 . specifically , individual late payment charges , emergency 911 surcharges , directory advertising charges , installment billing charges and toll charges , preferably , are respectively added together so that a single numerical value only may represent , on individual lines of the tax worksheet ( described below ), all of these respective charges . once the pre - calculation is complete , these data are also then loaded and stored in the appropriate mtw database 108 records , e . g ., by account number . fig2 illustrates a tax worksheet input screen in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention . the several “ cells ” in the worksheet are preferably automatically filled in once an account number ( e . g ., a customer telephone number ) is entered . the account number then accesses a record of billing data that has been stored in mtw database 108 and “ pulls ” that data for display on the worksheet . building such “ records ” in a database is well - known to those skilled in the art . the following description of the features of the worksheet of the present invention also provides a more detailed description of the data that is downloaded from mainframe computer 102 . in accordance with a preferred embodiment , the present invention is implemented in visual basic . however , any programming language suitable for providing a user interface to a relational database , i . e ., mtw database 108 may also be used . referring now to fig2 . the tax worksheet of the present invention includes a menu 210 at the top portion of the worksheet . menu item “ mtw ” has a drop down option ( not shown ) for exiting the worksheet . the next menu item entitled “ operations ” includes menu options to “ apply full rate ” for over - riding a discounted rate , “ calculate taxes ” for initiating the application of the taxing rates to the various charges and summing the taxes , “ review tax results ” which changes the displayed worksheet to a tax calculations results screen ( fig4 ), and “ erase all data ” which erases all the data on the input screen and thereby prepares the worksheet for a new telephone / account number . under the “ settings ” menu , there are options for “ calculate taxes first ,” which causes the mechanized tax worksheet to jump directly to the tax calculations results screen ( fig4 ) instead of first showing the data that is displayed in the tax worksheet input screen of fig2 , “ auto - fill services ,” which allow input of data with all fields being duplicated except , preferably , for the rate field , and “ remarks preferred ,” which allows input in the remarks column . finally , the “ about ” menu item preferably provides details regarding the current version of the mechanized tax worksheet of the present invention . area 220 includes a box for the account number which corresponds to the account telephone number . there are also boxes for tax exemption indicators ( tax codes ) for the account entered , whether the account is a residence or a business and when the next bill period date of the account is . boxes in information area 230 include highlighted symbols that indicate whether ( i ) the screen is permitting remarks to be input , ( ii ) data is being automatically filled ( except preferably the rate field ), ( iii ) whether the worksheet is in edit mode ( in the edit mode a user can edit or modify the data in any field ), and ( iv ) whether to calculate taxes using historical tax rates instead of current tax rates ( rcats — refund calculation and tracking system ), e . g ., if a refund is due for a charge for which the tax rate has now changed . function buttons 240 include a calculate and a review button . if calculate is depressed , the summable fields ( e . g ., rate field ) are added together and if the review button is depressed , the screen changes to the tax calculations results screen of fig4 . function box 250 includes an “ erase all ” button which erases all the current data and presents a refreshed mechanized tax worksheet input screen and an “ exit mtw ” button which closes out the program entirely . preferably , when the “ exit mtw ” button is pressed a dialogue box ( not shown ) appears which asks the user whether he would like to save the worksheet . if yes , the data in the worksheet is saved in a conventional manner . the main portion of the mechanized tax worksheet input screen ( fig2 ) includes several columns with headings of “ type ,” “ entity ,” “ tar / geo ,” “ remarks ,” “ from , thru ,” “ a / c ” and “ rate .” the fields in the type column may , for example , be one of the following : the entity column represents , in this case , the telephone company that is providing service to the customer . thus , the entity is the billing entity or , in the case of telephone companies , the carrier . the tar / geo column indicates the tar code or geographic code that represents the city and county of the account , as is well known in the art . the remarks column preferably includes a usoc ( universal service operations code ) or some other brief description of the charge . in fig1 , the following usocs are used : the “ from ” and “ thru ” columns are used to bound the dates over which certain other charges and credits ( oc & amp ; cs ) are fractionalized . the next column in the mechanized tax worksheet is entitled a / c , or account code , for the particular line item . the account code preferably is an internal account code used by the billing entity . finally , the rate column lists the amount of charge or credit for the particular line item . fig3 through 5 illustrate exemplary reports that are output by the mechanized tax worksheet of the present invention . specifically , fig3 is a services report which provides details of what has been entered into the system for a particular account . in this case , fig3 has data that corresponds identically to fig2 . fig4 illustrates a breakdown of the tax calculations results implemented by the mechanized tax worksheet of the present invention . specifically , as can be seen in fig4 , the tax is broken down by federal , state , county , city and franchise . these taxes are calculated using taxing information provided by tax tar database 110 or tax tables stored within mtw database 108 . near the bottom of the tax results report of fig4 are regulated and unregulated totals as well as a total billed line . fig5 a and 5b show a summary report that is also generated by the mechanized tax worksheet of the present invention . this summary report preferably is used to compare the several independently calculated charges with the charges appearing on the bill calculated by mainframe computer 102 , i . e ., hold bill 185 . specifically , in one preferred implementation , as shown in fig1 , mainframe computer 102 is in communication with printer 180 . this printer preferably prints several hold bills 185 that correspond to accounts that have been downloaded via the prebill and demand print data 140 / 145 . then , after the download process and tax calculation that is completed by the mechanized tax worksheet of the present invention , the bill verifier ( user ) compares the charges on the hold bills to the charges that have been independently calculated by the present invention . if any inconsistency is apparent , then the bill verifier preferably then determines the source of the error , which may be algorithms , etc ., run on mainframe computer 102 or calculation performed by the mechanized tax worksheet of the present invention . once the bill verifier / user determines that all inconsistencies have been resolved , then the hold bins may be “ released ” thereby permitting release of the complete batch of bills that were held for purposes of verification . in another preferred embodiment of the present invention , the printed hold bills are scanned by scanner 190 and the digital images thereof are made available to network 120 . then , these digital images are preferably displayed in split screen format on pc 125 along with , for example the summary report of fig5 a and 5b . thus , in this second preferred embodiment , the bill verifier need not handle any papers but instead , can accomplish his function using only a screen of pc 125 . of course , two screens may be used , either on the same pc 125 , or using two separate pcs . in still another preferred embodiment of the present invention , optical character recognition ( ocr ) software 195 is provided in connection with the scanner whereby the data on the hold bill can be stored electronically . then , the “ compare ” function that the bill verifier himself performed in the previous embodiment , can , instead , be accomplished directly by the present invention by performing electronic data comparisons . in another embodiment of the present invention , instead of printing hold bills 185 via printer 180 , the data files in mainframe computer 102 that ultimately are used to generate the printed hold bills 185 are separately downloaded to local server 130 and made available to network 120 . then , instead of comparing a printed version of the hold bill to the independently generated verification bill , an electronic data comparison can be performed between the two data files , namely , the data files from mainframe computer 102 and data files that store the information for , for example , summary report of fig5 a and 5b . in this embodiment , the entire process is fully automated whereby a printing step and a manual verification step are eliminated . a useful by - product of the present invention is that users of the present invention can easily be trained to learn the necessary tax information to properly work as a bill verifier . specifically , the present invention , since it is implemented on a pc network can easily store individual worksheets that have been calculated . accordingly , if a relatively new user of the present invention has a question regarding a possible error generated by the mainframe computer , the user can save the worksheet and that worksheet can then be brought up on another computer , and even at a later date , for discussion and education purposes . further , the present invention can be used to manually enter data to verify taxing or fractionalization outside of the described automated download process . this is a very useful tool for quick checking of tax issues . the foregoing disclosure of embodiments of the present invention and specific examples illustrating the present invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and description . it is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed . many variations and modifications of the embodiments described herein will be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art in light of the above disclosure . thus , the scope of the invention is to be defined only by the claims appended hereto , and by their equivalents . | 6 |
turning to fig1 - 4 , examples of screen displays that may be presented in certain embodiments of the present invention are illustrated . fig1 shows a market cell 100 that may be used to display one or more bid and / or one or more offer 101 for an item to be traded . as illustrated , bid and offer 101 indicates a price 102 which a buyer is willing to pay for a selected item 103 at a given size 106 ( i . e ., a number of the item ) and a price 104 which a seller is willing to accept for selected item 103 at a given size 108 . each component of a market shown in market cell 100 may be marked with a color , or in any other suitable manner , to indicate features of that component . for example , as shown in fig1 , the entire area of fields 102 , 103 , 104 , 106 , and 108 may be colored , or only the symbols in those fields may be colored , to assign a meaning to each field . as a further example , a specific color may be assigned to field 102 to indicate that a price in the field is a bid price . preferably , a trader is able to specify the color assigned to each component of a trade . the fields , or symbols contained therein , may be continuously colored or may be shown in a chosen color when a mouse pointer is passed over each field or used to click on each field . in order to bid for , offer to sell , buy , and / or sell an item through market cell 100 , a trader may submit a trading command indicating the action to be taken using various approaches . for example , in preferred embodiments , a trader may submit the trading command using a command - line interface , by clicking on components of bid and offer 101 , and / or using a graphical interface . when using a command - line interface , a trading command may be entered in any non - graphical interface desired . for example , a trader may submit a trading command by pressing buttons on a keyboard . likewise , a trader could use a voice recognition system to enter commands verbally , or a trader could use some combination of voice recognition , keyboard , and pointing device . a trader may also indicate a desire to bid , offer , buy , and / or sell an item by clicking on different portions of a bid and offer 101 for that item in market cell 100 . for example , if the trader clicks on bid price 102 , the trader may indicate to submit a bid for the item . if the trader clicks on offer price 104 , the trader may indicate to submit an offer for the item . if the trader clicks on bid size 106 , the trader may submit a command to sell the item . and , if the trader clicks on offer size 108 , the trader may submit a command to buy the item . preferred embodiments of the present invention may allow a trader to use different levels of mouse button entries to initiate a trading command . that is , for flexibility , this invention may allow a trader to determine how many clicks on components of bid or offer 101 using a button of a mouse are required before the trader either bids for , offers to sell , buys , and / or sells an item corresponding to the market cell . for example , for maximum speed and slightly more risk , the trader may choose that a market be acted upon after a single click on a component of bid or offer 101 . likewise , a trader may choose to use a double click on a market before it is acted upon . fig2 illustrates one embodiment of a graphical interface for submitting trading commands . as shown , the graphical interface comprises a dialog window 200 with various buttons and entry fields 202 - 242 . using these buttons and entry fields , a trader may submit a bid command , an offer command , a buy command , or a sell command for an item corresponding to a market cell 100 . preferably , each traded item uses a unique dialog window 200 . dialog window 200 may be opened automatically and / or manually before , during , and / or after a trade , and may allow a trader to submit a trade command at any time . the dialog window may be repositioned on a trader &# 39 ; s display and / or fixed in place . the trader , preferably , will keep the window associated with a particular instrument below the market cell 100 for the same tradable item . the number of dialog windows 200 that can be kept open at any one time is preferably unlimited . as shown in fig2 , dialog window 200 may comprise a variety of on - screen buttons and entry fields . generally , a button , as displayed in box 200 , may be “ pushed ” by placing a pointing device &# 39 ; s pointer over the button and pressing a switch on the pointing device , as is commonly known in the art . at the center of window 200 , a numeric keypad 202 may be displayed . the numeric keypad 202 may provide buttons for numbers zero through nine , and may contain buttons for numbers ten , twenty - five , fifty , and one hundred or any other suitable or desirable values . the numeric keypad 202 may also contain a plus button (“+”), a minus button (“−”), a decimal point button (“.”), a backspace button (“ bks ”), and a delete button (“ del ”). in addition to displaying a numeric keypad as described above , dialog window 200 may also provide a user with a buy button 204 , a sell button 206 , a cancel buys button 208 , a cancel sells button 210 , a bid button 212 , an offer button 214 , a cancel bids button 216 , a cancel offers button 218 , cancel all buttons 220 , cancel all for all instruments button 222 , a price entry field 224 , price up and down buttons 226 , bid price up and down buttons 228 , offer price up and down buttons 234 , a size entry field 230 , and size up and down buttons 232 . finally , dialog window 200 may contain a preference field 236 that allows a user to specify preferred types of orders , a close - on - action box 238 that causes dialog window 200 to be automatically closed after specified actions are performed , a configure keypad button 240 that allows a user to arrange the keypad for dialog window 200 , a close button 242 that closes the dialog window 200 on demand , a settings button 241 , and a display history button 243 that causes a history list of order entries to be display when pressed . preference field 236 may be used to indicate the user &# 39 ; s preferred trade type and may allow the user to select any type of trade that a particular exchange or trading system supports . although fig2 provides specific examples of trade types ( e . g ., good - till - canceled ( gtc ), limit , all - or - none ( aon ), stop , and market - if - touched ( mit )), the invention may be implemented with any type of trade . configure keypad button 240 may allow a trader to arrange buttons appearing in dialog window 200 to be anywhere a trader prefers by first pressing the configure keypad button 240 , by then dragging the buttons to new positions , and finally by clicking on button 240 again . also , the configuration or re - configuration of buttons can change the function of those buttons depending on the type of trading desired or what type of item is being traded . although any of the approaches described herein to submitting a trading command may be used independently of the others , two or more approaches may also be used in conjunction . for example , when using a command - line interface , an entry verification feature of the present invention may display a graphical interface to confirm a trader &# 39 ; s intentions after a command - line trade command has been entered . similarly , as another example , after clicking on a component of a bid and offer 101 in a market cell 100 , an entry verification feature of the present invention may display a graphical interface to a trader to allow the trader to alter and / or confirm the command being submitted . to speed entry of a trading command when using various approaches to submit a trading command in conjunction , the present invention preferably includes a pointer warping feature that redirects the focus of the pointing device pointer to another location of the trader &# 39 ; s display . in accordance with this feature , for example , when a trader clicks on a bid price 102 ($ 100 . 21 as depicted in fig1 ) in a market cell 100 , a dialog window 100 may pop - up ( if not already open ), and a pointer that is being used by the trader may be immediately redirected to a bid button 212 to save the trader the time of repositioning the pointer to that location . once in the new location , the trader may then use the pointer to confirm and / or modify the trade command and then submit the trade command using bid button 212 . although this feature of the present invention is described in connection with a pointing device pointer , this feature may be implemented using any suitable graphical interface pointer , cursor , or similar object . assume instead that , in the previous example , the trader wants to increase bid price 102 to $ 100 . 22 . when the appropriate trade submission approaches are used in conjunction , the trader may click anywhere on the displayed bid and offer 101 , and thereby cause dialog window 200 to appear . at this point , the trader may press bid button 212 once and thereby cause bid price 102 ($ 100 . 21 as illustrated in fig1 ) to appear in price entry field 224 . to increase bid price 102 from $ 100 . 21 to $ 100 . 22 , the trader may then press price up button 226 , or press bid price up button 228 . when dealing with an offer , the trader may press offer price up button 226 or press price up button 234 . because time is typically of the essence , the trader will preferably use bid price up button 228 or offer price up button 234 because it is closer to bid button 212 . finally , to submit the bid , the trader may click on bid button 212 again to submit the bid . alternatively , if the trader didn &# 39 ; t want to alter the price , the trader could have double clicked immediately on bid button 212 . after any trade command is entered by pressing bid button 212 , offer button 214 , buy button 204 , or sell button 206 , the mouse pointer may then be maintained in its position above the just - pushed button in case the trader wants to repeat entry of the same trade command shortly thereafter . as indicated above , a trader may never need to type a full price in field 102 . instead , a trader may configure the dialog window to automatically post in price entry field 224 either the current bid or offer price or a pre - programmed - increment - better bid or offer price of a bid or offer that the trader clicks on . alternatively , a trader may point to each individual number or quantity ( i . e ., 0 - 9 , 10 , 25 , 50 , or 100 ) in keypad 202 and , in effect , input the desired price ( or size ) using a mouse . in order to enter a size for a bid , offer , buy , or sell command , a trader may either choose to use a pre - programmed default size or adjust the size of a trade in size entry field 230 . when the trader is either bidding or offering , size entry field 230 preferably will initially always show a pre - set size amount as configured by the trader . to increase or decrease the size , the trader may either push the size up or size down buttons 232 , or delete the size and enter a new size using the keypad 202 . preferably , by default , size entry field 230 is filled with a selected bid or offer &# 39 ; s size and highlighted when dialog window 200 is opened in response to a trader clicking on the selected bid or offer size . by highlighting the size entry field 230 , a trader may change the size by simply pushing any of the buttons on keypad 202 without first highlighting and / or deleting numbers in that field . once a desired size is entered , a trader may then push sell button 206 or buy button 204 and submit an order to sell or buy the size appearing in size entry field 224 . another way for a trader to bid is to choose an instrument and a size and then press bid button 212 without designating a price . by entering a bid in this manner , the trader simply joins the best bid that appears on the trader &# 39 ; s screen for that instrument . although this approach to entering a bid is extremely easy and fast , a trader is risking that in the moment just prior to pressing bid button 212 , the bid price appearing on the screen may change and thus force a trader to use the new price . should this occur , a trader may press the cancel bids button 216 and re - enter a desired bid using the method described above . as mentioned above , an entry verification feature of the present invention may be used in conjunction with a command - line interface or a click on bid or offer interface to cause a graphical interface to be presented after a trader submits a command - line trade command or a clicks on a component of a bid or offer . for example , if using a command - line interface , a trader submits a command to bid at a certain price for a certain size , a dialog window 200 may automatically appear ( if not already shown ), price and size fields 224 and 230 may be populated with the certain price and the certain size , and the pointer may be warped to just above bid button 212 . the trader can then press bid button 212 to confirm the command or alter the price and / or size as described above . although the illustrations above are discussed in connection with bidding for and buying of an item , it should be obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art that the same features of the present invention are available in the offering for and selling of an item . offer and sell buttons may be used instead of bid and buy buttons to offer and sell , respectively , an item . fig3 shows a system settings screen 300 that may be presented upon a trader pressing “ settings ” button 241 in dialog window 200 or a corresponding function key . in order for preferred embodiments of the present invention to operate ideally for a trader , the trader may have to configure at least one setting in systems settings screen 300 . systems setting screen 300 may comprise a “ more settings ” button 302 , an item type selection field 304 , input preference settings 306 , display preference settings 308 , an on - startup preference setting 310 , an “ ok ” button 312 , and a “ cancel ” button 314 . within the item type selection field 304 , a trader may select a preferred item type by indicating a type of item to be traded . for example , as illustrated in fig3 , item type selection field 304 indicates that the item to be traded is a 5 year u . s . treasury bond . other available item types , including financial instruments , bets or wagering instruments , or other tradable items , however , may be displayed and selected using a drop - down list associated with item type selection field 304 . input preference settings 306 may allow a trader to enable or disable the entry verification feature , use short codes to facilitate futures contracts transactions ( when futures contracts are a tradable item ), open dialog window 200 when a single click is entered on a bid or offer , select whether an entered size is treated as a total size or an incremental size , and select whether a price is displayed in 32nds format or decimal format . display preference settings 308 may enable a trader to specify how bids and offers are displayed . more particularly , preference settings 308 may allow a trader to indicate whether to display a current instrument in a market cell 100 , whether to display the current instrument by name or description , whether to list sizes for various bids and offers in the market cell , whether to display the net position in the market cell , whether to display scroll bars for the market cell , whether to display executing orders for the instrument first in the market cell , and whether to allow the trader to configure other display preferences by pressing “ more display settings ” buttons . an on - startup preference setting 310 may enable a trader to indicate whether trades from a previous trading session are loaded into the trade history upon start - up of dialog window 200 . finally , an “ ok ” button 312 and a “ cancel ” button 314 may be provided to enable a trader to indicate whether to accept recently inputted changes or cancel the changes , respectively . if , from systems settings screen 300 , a trader presses “ more settings ” button 302 , a second settings screen 400 may be displayed as shown in fig4 . as can be seen , second settings screen 400 may provide the trader with an ability to specify , using trade preferences , whether to buy or sell all 402 of the size of an offer or bid as displayed , or , regardless of the displayed size , to buy or sell a certain pre - designated size ( buy / sell partial size 404 ) when clicking on a security in a market cell . likewise , second settings screen 400 also permits the trader to specify a default size 406 for bids and offers , a default size increment 408 for bids and offers that will be used for size up / down button depressions , and a default price increment 410 for bids and offers that will be used for price up / down button depressions . second settings screen 400 also allows the trader to specify limits to prevent accidental entry of a command for a price or size that is outside a reasonably expected range . by selecting box 412 , the trader may enable a confirmation alert that prompts the trader for authorization to submit a command for a size larger than the limit ( previously selected by the trader or set by the system based on the trader &# 39 ; s previous trading history and the traded item &# 39 ; s overall market history ). by selecting and setting a bid / buy price limit 414 and an offer / sell price limit 416 , the trader may also specify a maximum bid / buy price and a minimum offer / sell price . finally , as shown in second settings screen 400 , the trader may select whether to automatically populate a bid / offer with a last trade price or a last bid / offer price using entry verification preferences 418 and 420 . once a trader has completed setting the preferences , a trader may submit the preferences by pressing an “ ok ” button 422 or cancel the preferences by pressing a “ cancel ” button 424 . if a trader presses the “ more display settings ” button in display preferences 308 of settings screen 300 of fig3 , display settings screen 500 may appear to allow the trader to specify screen colors , window positioning , and other display functions . by selecting “ on ” button 502 , a trader may choose to highlight a particular field of the dialog window whenever the pointing device passes over that field . thus , for example , when a user passes a pointer over the price field , the field will automatically be highlighted while the system awaits user input into that field . the trader may turn this function off by pushing “ off ” button 804 . in addition to dragging the window and placing it in a preferred area on the screen , a user may set the default position of market cell 100 and dialog window by using pull - down menus 506 and 508 . specifically , the position of the market cell may be selected using market cell menu 506 . menu 506 may allow a trader to drag the main trading window to any position on the screen and thereafter use that position as the default position for the main trading window , to select a quadrant of the screen , or to select any other desired portion of the screen . dialog window menu 508 may allow the trader to select the position of the dialog window using menu options similar to those described for market cell menu 506 . display settings screen 500 also allows a user to select the color or other characteristic ( e . g ., blinking text , font size , etc .) of the bid or offer . a trader may select bid menu 510 to select a color or other display characteristic for the bid . offer menu 512 may be selected to select the color or other display characteristics for an offer . similar options may be implemented to allow a trader to select the color and other display factors for all parameters of a trade . finally , “ ok ” button 514 and “ cancel ” button 516 may be used to either confirm changes or cancel the changes selected on display settings screen 500 , respectively . although illustrated in a particular fashion for trading particular types of items , the present invention , and thus the interfaces shown in fig1 - 5 , may be altered to facilitate trading of any type of tradable items . one embodiment of a main process 600 that may be used to control the presentation of the interfaces illustrated in fig1 - 5 is illustrated in fig6 a - 6c . as shown in fig6 a , once process 600 has begun at step 602 , the process may load trading interface settings at step 604 . the setting loaded at step 604 may include all of the settings configurable through screens 200 , 300 , 400 , and 500 , and any other suitable settings . once these settings are loaded , process 600 may display a dialog window 200 at step 606 . based upon the settings loaded at step 604 , process 600 then determines whether the item configured to be traded in dialog window 200 is to be displayed in a market cell . if it is , then process presents a market cell 100 at step 610 . otherwise , or after displaying the market cell , process 600 proceeds to step 612 where the process waits for trader input . once trader input has been received at step 612 , process 600 determines whether the trader pushed settings button 241 in dialog window 200 . if the trader did push the settings button , then process runs a settings process at step 616 . an example of a settings process is shown in fig7 . once the settings process is completed , process 600 proceeds back to step 612 to wait for more trader input . if process 600 determines that the trader did not push the settings button at step 614 , however , then process 600 proceeds to step 618 to determine if the trader pushed a bid button 212 , an offer button 214 , a buy button 204 , or a sell button 206 . if the trader did push one of these buttons , then the corresponding order is placed at step 620 . otherwise , process 600 proceeds to step 622 to determine if the trader pushed one of cancel buttons 208 , 210 , 216 , 218 , 220 , or 222 . if so , then process 600 cancels the corresponding orders that can be canceled at step 624 . once an order has been placed at step 620 , or orders have been canceled at step 624 , process 600 determines at step 626 whether “ close on action ” box 238 is checked in dialog window 200 . if not , process 600 loops back to step 612 . otherwise process 600 closes dialog window 200 at step 628 and then proceeds to step 612 . if , at step 622 , process 600 determines that the trader did not push a cancel button , however , then process 600 proceeds to step 634 as shown in fig6 b via link 630 . at step 634 , process 600 determines whether the trader pushed a price or size up or down button 226 , 228 , 232 , or 234 . if the trader did push one of these buttons , process 600 changes the price or size accordingly at step 636 and then loops back to step 612 via link 632 . otherwise , process 600 proceeds to step 638 to determine if the trader pushed a button on keypad 202 . if the trader did push one of these buttons , then the process changes the value of either the price or size highlighted accordingly at step 640 and then loops back to step 612 via link 632 . if the trader did not push one of the keypad buttons , process 600 next determines at step 642 whether the trader entered a value in price or size field 224 or 230 . if the trader did enter a value , then process 600 changes the value in that field accordingly at step 640 and loops back to step 612 via link 632 . if process 600 determines at step 642 that the trader did not enter a value in one of the price or size fields , then process 600 determines at step 644 whether the trader changed the trade type preference 236 . if the trader did change this preference , the trade type preference is changed at step 646 and process 600 loops back to step 612 via link 632 . otherwise , process 600 determines at step 648 whether the trader pushed configure keypad button 240 . if the trader did push this button , then the process allows the trader to drag buttons in dialog window to new locations until the trader pushes the configure keypad button again . the new locations of the relocated buttons are then stored as settings for dialog window 200 that are loaded at step 602 and used to define the button locations each time the dialog window is opened . if process 600 determines at step 648 that the trader did not push the configure keypad button , then process 600 proceeds to step 654 via link 652 . at step 654 , process determines if the trader pushed close button 242 . if so , then process 600 loops back to step 628 via link 634 to close dialog window 200 . otherwise , process 600 determines at step 656 whether the trader clicked on a price 102 or 104 or size 106 or 108 in market cell 100 . if not , process 600 loops back to step 612 via link 632 to wait for more trader input . if the trader did click on a price or size in the market cell , then process 600 determines whether the entry verification feature is active at step 658 . if the entry verification feature is not active , then process 600 submits a bid , offer , buy , or sell order based upon which price or size button was clicked , as described above , and then proceeds to step 626 via link 635 . otherwise , process 600 next determines whether dialog window 200 is open at step 662 . if the dialog window is not open , then process 600 opens a dialog window 200 at step 666 . after opening dialog window 200 at step 666 , or if the dialog window was determined to be open at step 662 , process 600 warps the pointer to the bid , offer , buy , or sell button based upon what was clicked in the market cell , and then process 600 loops back to step 612 via link 632 . one embodiment of a system settings process 700 that may be used to set system setting as illustrated in fig3 - 5 is shown in fig7 . as can be seen , upon pressing settings button 241 ( fig2 ), process 700 will preferably display system settings screen 300 as described in connection with fig3 - 5 at step 701 . after displaying the system settings screen , process 700 awaits user input at step 702 . once user input is received , at step 703 , process 700 determines whether the trader selected “ more settings ” button 302 . if the trader selects “ more settings ” button 302 , process 700 displays a second settings screen at step 704 , as described in the description of fig4 . at step 704 , the trader may then have an opportunity to adjust any setting on the second settings screen , and , at step 705 , process 700 determines whether the trader pressed “ ok ” button 422 or “ cancel ” button 424 . if process 700 determines that the trader selected “ cancel ” button 424 , any changes made by the trader in the second settings screen will be ignored at step 706 . if , however , the trader selected “ ok ” button 422 , process 600 will proceed to step 707 and apply any changes made by the trader in the second settings screen . if , at step 703 , the trader was determined to not have chosen the “ more settings ” button , or after the completion of either step 706 or step 707 , process 700 branches to step 708 . at step 708 , process 700 determines whether the trader selected the “ more display settings ” button from screen 300 . if so , then process 700 displays display settings screen 500 at step 709 . next , at step 710 , process 700 determines whether the trader selected “ ok ” button 514 or “ cancel ” button 516 within display settings screen 500 . if the trader pressed “ cancel ” button 516 , process 700 cancels any display settings changes at step 711 . if the trader pressed “ ok ” button 514 , process 700 applies any display settings changes at step 712 . after completing step 711 or 712 , or if process 600 determines that the “ more display settings ” button was not selected at step 708 , process 700 determines whether the trader selected “ ok ” button 312 or “ cancel ” button 314 at step 713 . if neither “ ok ” button 312 or “ cancel ” button 314 was selected , process 700 loops back to step 702 where the process will once again await user input . if the trader selected “ cancel ” button 314 , however , process 700 will proceed to step 614 and cancel all changes made at the system settings screen . hitting “ cancel ” button 314 , however , preferably will not cancel changes that the trader may have made in the second setting screen displayed at step 704 or in the display settings screen display at step 709 . if the trader , selected “ ok ” button 312 , process 700 will proceed to step 715 . step 715 accepts and applies any changes made in the system settings screen . after completing step 714 or 714 , process 700 terminates . in accordance with the present invention , a data window may be used in addition to or instead of market cell 100 to initiate or submit order commands via dialog window 200 . the data window may be any window for displaying data on tradable items . for example , a data window may be a market data display , a web page including financial data or auction information , a spread sheet , etc . as another example , as shown in fig8 , a data window 800 may be used for this purpose . data window 800 is a bond analysis window that is part of the reuters 3000 xtra product that is available from reuters limited . within data window 800 is a field 802 that contains information on various bonds 804 - 816 . by clicking on any of bonds 804 - 816 , a trader can cause a bid order command to be submitted via dialog window 200 . an example of an order entry process 900 for enabling the submitting of order commands via dialog window 200 and a data window is shown in fig9 . through this process , an entry window that is either a replica of the data entry window or the data window itself is used to detect when a trader selects an item within the data window . as illustrated , after process 900 has begun at step 902 , this process loads settings for an entry window at step 904 . next , based upon the settings loaded , process 900 determines at step 906 whether to replicate a data window for the entry window or to use the data window itself as the entry window . if the data window is to be replicated for the entry window , then process 900 proceeds to step 916 at which the data window is replicated as the entry window . although replication of the data window is illustrated as part of process 900 , replication may be performed using an automated process or may be performed in conjunction with manual copying of the data window . next , at step 918 , process 900 monitors data that is being sent to the data window and populates fields within the entry window with that data . through steps 916 and 918 , the entry window preferably appears identical to the data window . alternatively , the entry window may be different from the data window and use the data window data . following step 918 , process 900 determines at step 920 whether a trader clicked on a field in entry window . as part of the replication of the data window , the entry window is preferably constructed to facilitate detection of clicks on various fields within the entry window . if the trader did click on a field in the entry window , the click and corresponding data in the entry window are sent to dialog window 200 as a substitute for a click on a price or size in market cell 100 at step 922 . the click and corresponding data are preferably detected by main process 600 at step 656 and appear to process 600 like a click on a price or size in a market cell . because the trader may click on a variety of items in the entry window , the data accompanying the click may be used by process 600 to select another tradable item prior to submitting a bid , offer , buy , or sell command . if no click is detected at step 920 , or after the click and data have sent to main process 600 at step 922 , process 900 loops back to step 918 . if , at step 906 , process 900 determines that the data window is not to be replicated , then process 900 displays the data window and uses the data window as the entry window . because the data window may not be an interactive window , process 900 may monitor the mouse position and clicks at step 910 to determine whether the trader is trying to click on an element in the data window as the entry window . next , at step 912 , process 900 determines whether the trader clicked on a monitored field in the entry window . if the trader did click on a monitored field , process 900 , at step 914 , strips the data from the monitored field , substitutes the click and stripped data for a click on a price or size in the market cell , and sends that click and data to main process 600 . the data may be stripped by monitoring the data being fed to the data window , by scanning video memory corresponding to the field of the data window clicked on , or using any other suitable process . the click and stripped data are preferably detected by main process 600 at step 656 and appear to process 600 like a click on a price or size in a market cell . because the trader may click on a variety of items in the entry window , the data accompanying the click may be used by process 600 to select another tradable item prior to submitting a bid , offer , buy , or sell command . if no click is detected at step 912 , or after the click and data have sent to main process 600 at step 914 , process 900 loops back to step 910 . one example of a system 1000 for implementing the present invention is shown in fig1 . as illustrated , system 1000 may include one or more computers 1001 , including a mouse 1006 , that are connected by one or more communication links 1002 to a computer network 1003 that is linked via a communication link 1005 to a trading server 1004 . in system 1000 , trading server 1004 may be any suitable server , processor , computer , or data processing device , or combination of the same . computer network 1003 may be any suitable computer network including the internet , an intranet , a wide - area network ( wan ), a local - area network ( lan ), a wireless network , a digital subscriber line ( dsl ) network , a frame relay network , an asynchronous transfer mode ( atm ) network , a virtual private network ( vpn ), or any combination of any of the same . communication links 1002 and 1005 may be any suitable communication links suitable for communicating data between computers 1001 and server 1004 , such as network links , dial - up links , wireless links , hard - wired links , etc . user computers 1001 may be any suitable computers , processors , computer terminals , displays , portable computers , personal digital assistants , or any other suitable data processing devices , or combinations of the same . it should be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art that the present invention may be practiced in embodiments other than those illustrated herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention , and that the invention is only limited by the claims which follow . | 6 |
i have discovered that certain organic compounds will greatly improve the relative volatility between 3 - carene , limonene and phellandrene and permit the separation by rectification when employed as the agent in extractive distillation . table 3 lists the compounds that i have found to be effective in separating 3 - carene from limonene in the presence of phellandreene . they are methyl heptanoate , dibutyl phthalate , 3 - isopropyl phenol , o - cresol , 2 , 6 - dimethyl phenol , o - sec . butyl phenol , nitrobenzene , 3 - nitrotoluene , adiponitrile , diethylene glycol ethyl ether , salicylaldehyde and 2 - phenyl phenol . table 4 lists the compounds that are effective in separating 3 - carene from limonene . they are ethyl salicylate , dibutyl phthalate , 4 - ethyl phenol , 3 - isopropyl phenol , o - sec . butyl phenol , 4 - nitrotoluene , nonyl phenol , 2 - phenoxy ethanol , diethylene glycol phenyl ether and tripropylene glycol methyl ether . table 5 lists the compounds that are effective in separating phellandrene from 3 - carene and limonene . they are propyl benzoate , ethylene glycol diacetate , diethyl maleate , methyl salicylate , dibutyl phthalate , diethyl succinate , 1 - octanol , phenethyl alcohol , 2 - undecanone , 2 - pyrrolidone , 2 - pyrrolidinone , 1 -( 2 - hydroxyethyl )- 2 - pyrrolidinone , 2 - tert . butyl phenol , nonyl phenol , 2 - undecanol , diethylene glycol butyl ether , diethylene glycol ethyl ethers , diethylene glycol hexyl ether , salicylaldehyde , m - cresol , p - cresol , 4 - phenyl phenol and 4 - fluoro - 1 , 1 - biphenyl . table 3______________________________________effective extractive distillation agents for separating 3 - carenefrom limonene and phellandreneagent temp . ° c . rel . vol . 3 - car / lim______________________________________methyl heptanoate 168 1 . 35dibutyl phthalate 170 1 . 353 - isopropyl phenol 180 1 . 5o - cresol 170 1 . 32 , 6 - dimethyl phenol 178 1 . 3o - sec . butyl phenol 180 1 . 3nitrobenzene 178 1 . 33 - nitrotoluene 181 1 . 3adiponitrile 170 1 . 3diethylene glycol ethyl 173 1 . 45ethersalicylaldehyde 170 1 . 3o - cresol - 2 - phenyl phenol 170 1 . 35______________________________________ table 4______________________________________effective extractive distillation agents for separating 3 - carenefrom limoneneagent temp . ° c . rel . vol . 3 - car / lim______________________________________ethyl salicylate 187 1 . 3dibutyl phthalate 180 1 . 354 - ethyl phenol 169 1 . 33 - isopropyl phenol 187 1 . 3o - sec . butyl phenol 179 1 . 354 - nitrotoluene 175 1 . 3nonyl phenol 179 1 . 552 - phenoxyethanol 174 1 . 45diethylene glycol phenyl 179 1 . 6ether______________________________________ table 5______________________________________effective extractive distillation agents for separatingphellandrene from 3 - carene and limoneneagent temp . ° c . rel . vol . ph / lim______________________________________propyl benzoate 183 1 . 6ethylene glycol diacetate 169 1 . 3diethyl maleate 180 1 . 35methyl salicylate 182 1 . 3dibutyl phthalate 170 1 . 5diethyl succinate 181 1 . 31 - octanol 174 1 . 5phenethyl alcohol 178 1 . 452 - undecanone 185 1 . 32 - pyrrolidone 173 1 . 32 - pyrrolidinone 170 2 . 01 -( 2 - hydroxyethyl )- 2 - pyrrolidin - 171 1 . 9one2 - tert .- butyl phenol 181 1 . 4nonyl phenol 178 1 . 3diethylene glycol butyl ether 180 1 . 82 - undecanol 186 1 . 4diethylene glycol ethyl ether 173 1 . 65diethylene glycol hexyl ether 180 1 . 7salicylaldehyde 170 1 . 4m - p - cresol , 4 - phenyl phenol 170 1 . 64 - fluoro - 1 , 1 - biphenyl 186 1 . 35______________________________________ the usefulness or utility of this invention can be demonstrated by referring to the data presented in tables 3 , 4 and 5 . all of the successful agents show that 3 - carene , limonene and phellandrene can be separated from each other by means of extractive distillation in a rectification column and that the ease of separation as measured by relative volatility is considerable . 1 . fifty grams of a 3 - carene , limonene , phellandrene mixture and 50 grams of diethylene glycol ethyl ether were charged to a vapor - liquid equilibrium still and refluxed for seven hours . the vapor composition was 54 . 6 % 3 - carene , 31 . 9 % limonene and 13 . 5 % phellandrene ; the liquid composition was 40 . 7 % 3 - carene , 34 . 9 % limonene and 24 . 4 % phellandrene . this indicates a relative volatility of 3 - carene to limonene of 1 . 45 and limonene to phellandrene of 1 . 65 . 2 . fifteen grams of 3 - carene , 35 grams of limonene and 50 grams of nonyl phenol were charged to the vapor - liquid equilibrium still and refluxed for two hours . the vapor composition was 37 . 6 % 3 - carene , 62 . 4 % limonene ; the liquid composition was 28 . 1 % 3 - carene and 71 . 9 % limonene . this indicates a relative volatility of 1 . 55 . 3 . fifty grams of a 3 - carene , limonene , phellandrene mixture and 50 grams of diethylene glycol butyl ether were charged to the vapor - liquid equilbrium still and refluxed for four hours . the vapor composition was 71 . 1 % 3 - carene , 12 . 9 % limonene and 16 % phellandrene ; the liquid composition was 63 . 8 % 3 - carene , 11 . 2 % limonene and 25 % phelladrene . this indicates a relative volatility of limonene to phellandrene of 1 . 8 and of 3 - carene to limonene of 0 . 97 . | 2 |
fig1 a illustrates three stakeholders 1001 , 1002 , 1003 of an internet - based technology platform ( fig1 b and 1c ), which receives , organizes , aggregates , markets and distributes broadcast - standard , high quality video footage . “ video footage ” may be any length of video material ( e . g ., sequence of frames ) and may include news events , new products , new services , background material , locations , cultural activities , sports , technology , automobiles , aerospace , defense , human interest , business , entertainment , government affairs , etc . the “ customer ” 1002 represents any individual , company or organization that provides multimedia content to the service - provider 1001 for preview and access by a user 1003 . the customer 1002 provides content 1005 to a service - provider 1001 . the service - provider 1001 represents administrators , processes and automated systems , including but not limited to a web site . the “ user ” 1003 represents any individual , company or organization who is registered with the service - provider 1001 to preview and access content presented by the service - provider 1001 . the user 1003 contacts the service - provider 1001 to obtain content provided by a customer 1002 . for example , the user 1003 may be a person who works with a media ( e . g ., television , radio , photo , print , including newspapers and magazines ) organization ( broadcast news community ) who is responsible for gathering content for a specific media type . the user 1003 may be an operator , manager or administrator who manages the content for or on behalf of the service - provider 1001 . the user 1003 may be a manager representing the customer 1002 . the user 1003 registers with the service - provider 1001 to access and use the content 1004 . “ content ” refers to multimedia materials ( video , photo , document or audio ) provided by the customer 1002 to the service provider 1001 . “ content ” broadly includes “ assets ” and “ items .” the terms “ content ,” “ asset ” and “ item ” may be used interchangeably in the flowcharts described below ( fig2 a - 8d ). an “ asset ” refers to content provided by the customer 1002 to the service provider 1001 and is processed ( extracted , broken up , edited , etc .) by the service provider 1001 . every asset may be represented or tracked in the content management system 153 ( fig1 d ) of the service provider 1001 by a unique asset id . an asset may have both a logical and a physical entity . an asset has a “ type ,” such as video , still ( also called image ), document and audio . every asset has one or more digital file ( s ) associated to it . for example , a document asset may have an adobe pdf and / or microsoft word document file . similarly , a video asset may have multiple streaming format files ( e . g ., microsoft windows media video file , quicktime format file , etc ) and a broadcast standard video file ( e . g ., motion picture experts group mpeg2 or mpeg4 ). “ mpeg - 1 ” may refer to a video resolution of 352 - by - 240 at 30 frames per second ( fps ). this produces video quality slightly below the quality of conventional vcr videos . mpeg - 2 offers resolutions of 720 × 480 and 1280 × 720 at 60 fps with full cd - quality audio . this is sufficient for all the major tv standards , including ntsc , and even hdtv . “ mpeg - 2 ” is used by dvd - roms . mpeg - 2 can compress a 2 - hour video into a few gigabytes . “ mpeg - 3 ” was proposed for high definition tv and has been incorporated into mpeg - 2 . “ mpeg - 4 ” is a graphics and video compression algorithm standard that is based on mpeg - 1 and mpeg - 2 and apple quicktime technology . wavelet - based mpeg - 4 files are smaller than jpeg or quicktime files , so they are designed to transmit video and images over a narrower bandwidth and can mix video with text , graphics and 2 - d and 3 - d animation layers . mpeg - 4 was standardized in october 1998 in the iso / iec document 14496 . an “ item ” refers to an asset of a particular type ( e . g ., video , document ) of a particular format ( ms windows media video streaming file , quicktime format streaming file , broadcast quality mpeg file , etc . for video type assets ; adobe pdf , ms word document files , etc , for document type assets , etc .). an item is the most granular representation of content . an item could also be an analog version of content that can been created using existing digital items / assets . an example would be a document printed from the digital version of a digital document asset , or a beta - sp tape created from digital video items / assets . a “ story ” is a logical collection of relevant assets with an abstract . stories can be described as editorial compilations of related media assets around a particular announcement or news story . by accessing / viewing a story , a user is presented with all assets needed to illustrate the story , either via video , or still images as well as all supporting documents around the story ( e . g ., shot lists , press releases ). every story is represented or tracked in the content management system 153 ( fig1 d ) of the service provider 1001 by a unique story id . a story is purely a logical entity . fig1 b illustrates a web site infrastructure for the three stakeholders 1001 , 1002 , 1003 of fig1 a . the infrastructure includes a hosted server environment 100 , production facilities 102 a , 102 b , and a user environment 104 . any number of hosted server environments , production facilities and user environments may be implemented . the service - provider may control or manage the hosted server environment 100 and production facilities 102 a , 102 b . the hosted server environment 100 may include a firewall 112 , a web server 108 , a database server 106 and a central media server 110 . the production facilities 102 a , 102 b may include a local media server 116 a , 116 b and other components . the local - media - server 116 is a computer system that stores assets and may be located within the premises of a service - provider . the user environment 104 may include a server 118 , a workstation 120 and / or a laptop 122 or any device or tool that allows access to the content hosted by the service provider . the user may control access information to access the ftp server 118 . the production facilities 102 a , 102 b receive analog tapes or other forms of content ( like dvd , cd , dv tape , see block 1005 in fig1 c ) directly from customers ( see fig2 a and 3 ). these tapes are digitized , tagged with meta data , and transferred to the hosted server environment 100 . all the digital media files may be stored on the central media server 110 in the hosted server environment 100 . the end users at user environments 104 order content directly from a web site hosted by the hosted server environment 100 and also provide user preferences on how to receive the file assets they ordered ( see fig6 - 7 ). a server application at the hosted server environment 100 then processes each individual order and moves digital files to the various destinations depending on the order detail ( see fig8 a - 8d ). the file destinations may be selected from one of the following : the hosted server environment 100 , where end users can directly download the media files from the web server 108 onto their desktops 120 using the file transfer protocol ( ftp ) standard or http ; from the ftp server 214 in fig1 c onto their desktops 120 using the file transfer protocol ( ftp ); a user specified ftp server ; or a production infrastructure at the production facilities 102 a , 102 b for processing tape orders . fig1 c illustrates a more detailed view of the infrastructure in fig1 b . a customer 1002 provides content 1005 to the production facilities 102 a , 102 b . a content acquisition and creation system 200 ( e . g ., beta decks , computers ) processes the content . a content trans - coding system 202 trans - codes the content into desired digital formatted assets and transfers the assets to the central media servers 110 located in the central hosted infrastructure 100 . for example , the content trans - coding system 202 may include telestream clipmail pro to create mpeg files from beta sp tape content and other inputs and telestream flipfactory to flip the mpeg files into . asf /. wmv ( windows media player ) and . qt ( quick time player ) and other desired formats like mpeg2 and mpeg4 . the local media server 116 a is used as part of the local production workflow and may be closely coupled to the central media server 110 in the central hosting environment 100 using ftp and web services . the central hosted environment 100 may integrate various components and processes in an automated way . hypertext markup language ( html ) web servers 212 render dynamically generated html pages based on data which the web server applications receive from the business components on a business server 204 and user inputs . the html web servers 212 also provide access to streaming files , various image files and other data files for users to preview content . web services web servers 108 expose web services interfaces to support external web services based interfaces for : management of content by customers , administrators and managers ; created tools for viewing and accessing content ; interfaces to enable customer systems to integrate their workflow with the processes and content described herein . ftp servers 214 hosts ftp service and data to enable users to download items ordered through a shopping cart ( described below ). ftp servers 214 are used for the digital pull delivery . an email server 208 sends various notifications generated by the system to managers , administrators , users and customers . a business server 204 hosts various business components , services and scheduled jobs to manage reporting , fulfillment , content management and notification . the business server 204 may also host components that interact with the fedex shipping services apis 211 ( or any other apis that integrate with other mail / shipping providers ). a payment server 206 is an interface to a payment gateway . a database server 106 may host data desired and generated by the system , trigger background processes periodically or based on requests , and perform transactions triggered by business components on the business server 204 using stored procedures . the central media servers 110 host various formats of the digital files associated with the various assets managed by the system as a whole . there may be one or more firewalls 112 a - 112 c for the central hosted environment 100 . the database server 106 and the central media server 110 may be protected using firewall rules and may also be on a separate virtual local area network ( vlan ) for added security . other components may be implemented instead of or in addition to the components shown in fig1 c . a satellite service provider 218 transmits content to users 104 . alternatively , the service provider operating the central hosted environment 100 may operate its own satellite transmission system . fig1 d illustrates a plurality of processes , which may include software applications , modules and engines , of the infrastructure in fig1 b . a core engine 150 may tie together several modules to create a powerful platform . an indexing module 151 manages all key content meta data to allow digital assets to be found efficiently . “ meta data ” for an asset may include asset title , asset description , and keywords ( including company name ). a search module 152 enables intelligent searches and may incorporate a thesaurus . a content management system 153 manages all digital content . a digital fulfillment engine 154 manages the delivery of broadcast quality video and other assets . a media server 155 allows the preview of videos ( e . g ., . mov , . wmv and . asf files ). a workflow engine 156 enables a multi level process for the approval of content . a media management module 157 enables targeting and managing the registrations of media contacts around the world . interfaces and applications may be built on top of the core engine 150 to interact with users , customers and other applications . for example , a media portal 180 is an intuitive web based interface that allows users to search or browse for indexed content 181 , preview digital content on the web , set personalized options 182 , and order content 183 . as another example , a content distribution and fulfillment module 190 enables the user to access broadcast quality digital content using hypertext transfer protocol ( http ) 192 , file transfer protocol ( ftp ) 191 or associated press television news ( aptn ) 193 . the downloaded broadcast quality video ( e . g ., mpeg 2 , mpeg 4 or variations ) can be used by broadcast media personnel directly in their production rooms . as another example , a content manager 160 is a backend web based interface that manages digital content throughout its lifecycle , including production , interchange , and also provides archiving , workflow and reporting functionality . the infrastructure in fig1 c may use a code base built on the latest microsoft net platform . this allows the infrastructure to provide users and customers with web services interface , pda enablement , advanced alerts , multiple language support , etc . the core engine application 150 may be built using vb . net — for the various assemblies . the web services interface 170 may be built using asp . net ( vb . net can be the language of choice again ). web services 170 is used by the core engine application 150 to manage content between the hosted server environment 100 and the production facilities 102 a , 102 b . critical user information is encrypted and stored in the database server 106 . this ensures that all critical user information is secure even at the database level . for example , the media portal 180 may use a 128 - bit secure socket layer ( ssl ) for user login and user profile management using a verisign digital certificate . the managed server hosting environment 100 may provide 24 hour , 7 days a week monitoring of servers , a managed firewall 112 to control access to servers 106 - 110 , redundant hard drives for all critical data , regular update of security patches on all servers , internal server access auditing , and regular full and incremental backups of our data . these features may ensure that that all critical data and servers are safe , secure and resistant to hardware failures . there are three major workflows or processes : ( a ) customer registration and content formation ; ( b ) user registration and approval ; and ( c ) asset request and fulfillment . fig2 a illustrates an overall workflow 2000 of the infrastructure in fig1 b . a customer signs a contract with a service - provider in 2001 . the customer provides content to the service - provider in 2002 . the service - provider formats items from the content and tags the items appropriately in 2003 . the service - provider presents the items to a user in 2004 . fig2 b illustrates another workflow 2100 of the infrastructure in fig1 b . a user browses and previews items that the service - provider has presented to the user in 2101 . the user indicates to the service - provider which specific items the user prefers to access along with how the user prefers to receive the items in 2102 . the service - provider provides requested items to the user based on the user preferences in 2103 . fig3 illustrates a content intake / ingestion workflow 3000 . a customer provides content ( e . g ., cd / dvd , tape , files via email ) to the service - provider in 3001 . the service - provider breaks the content into multiple assets as desired in 3002 . the service - provider creates an individual record ( data file ) for each asset in 3003 . the service - provider creates preview ( multiple formats ) and production ( multiple formats ) versions of each asset and associates the multiple formats with the asset record in 3004 . examples of preview formats include quick time player , windows media player and real media player . examples of production formats include mpeg - 1 , mpeg - 2 , mpeg - 3 and mpeg - 4 . the service - provider tags each asset record with appropriate meta information in 3005 . the service - provider processes assets and makes them available to other automated processes in 3006 . the service - provider marks newly ingested assets as “ new ” in 3007 . the service - provider may time code tapes received from a customer and establish a number of assets from the tape . then the source tape is logged into the database server 106 or a media server 110 and a desired number of clips are generated . then the clips are digitized with an asset id . then the digitized clips may be sent to the flip factory server 130 to be transcoded / converted to windows media ( wmf ) and quick time ( qt ) files . once the content transcoding system processing is complete , the desired assets are transferred to the central hosted environment 100 . fig4 illustrates a content presentation workflow 4000 . the service - provider and / or customer reviews all assets marked as “ new ” in 4001 . the service - provider and / or customer groups related assets into a logical related collection ( s ) called a “ story ” or adds new assets to existing story / stories as appropriate in 4002 . the service - provider and / or customer creates an individual record ( data file ) for each new story in 4003 . the service - provider and / or customer tags each new or edited story with appropriate meta information in 4004 . the service - provider tags each new or edited story as pending - approval in 4005 . the service - provider presents the pending - approval asset or pending - approval story for preview to a customer in 4006 . the customer approves each new story ( along with assets associated therein ) or new asset in 4007 . the service - provider receives feedback from customer on changes to be made in 4012 . changes are made to the pending - approval asset or pending - approval story based on the customer feedback in 4011 . the service - provider makes the approved asset ( s ) and / or story / stories live in 4008 . the service - provider makes the live asset ( s ) available to users in 4009 . the live asset ( s ) may be organized into categories such as stories and “ beats .” examples of “ beats ” include aerospace and defense , automotive and transportation , business and industry , en espafiol , entertainment , environment , government - international affairs , healthcare , human interest , locations , public service announcements , science and technology , sports and leisure , and trade shows . the service - provider may also present assets individually as in a library of individual assets categorized by a beat or type . the service - provider processes assets and stories and make them available to other automated processes in 4010 . fig5 a illustrates a user registration process 5000 , 5100 and 5200 . a customer may provide the service - provider with a list of potential users along with desired information in 5001 . the service - provider sets the rule for all users to approve - all in 5002 . alternatively , a potential user indicates a desire to register with the service - provider in 5101 . the potential user provides information about themselves to the service - provider in 5102 . the service - provider initiates the approval process in one of many ways based on configurable internal rules for the registration process in 5201 . the service - provider determines whether rule = approve - all or rule = approve - selectively in 5202 . the service - provider determines whether potential user is part of a predefined list of a potential users meeting user criteria that the service - provider maintains in 5203 . the service - provider approves user ( s ) in 5213 . the service - provider automatically sets an expiration date for access to service in 5214 . the service - provider assigns roles and access privileges based on registration information in 5215 ( see fig5 b , which shows a list of access privileges that are automatically assigned based on the user type ). the service - provider informs the potential user if they have been approved or rejected in 5216 . the service - provider verifies potential users credentials in 5204 . the service - provider determines whether potential user credentials match registration requirements in 5205 : if there is no match , the service - provider decides if more information should be elicited in 5211 . if the service - provider decides that more information should be elicited , the service - provider contacts potential user and requests additional information in 5210 . the potential user provides additional information in 5209 . if the service - provider decides that more information should not be elicited in 5211 , the service - provider rejects potential user in 5212 . the service - provider approves the user in 5206 . the service - provider automatically sets expiration date for access to service in 5207 . the service - provider assigns roles and access privileges based on registration information in 5206 . fig5 b is a table 5217 of user roles and corresponding privileges . there are four user roles and three privileges shown as examples , but more user roles and more privileges may be implemented as shown by user type x and privilege x . fig6 illustrates a content access workflow 6000 . a user browses , searches , and previews items that the service - provider has presented to the user in 6001 . the user may use a standard web browser , such as internet explorer or netscape , or some other tool that allows browsing , searching and requesting content , such as rss news feed aggregator . the user indicates to the service - provider which specific items they prefer to access in 6002 . the user indicates to the service - provider their preference on how to receive the items in 6003 . the user accepts the terms and conditions for access and use of items in 6004 . “ terms ” refer to conditions enumerated by the service - provider which the user agrees to prior to accessing and using any content / asset / item . terms include ( but not limited by ) price , usage , rights etc . the service - provider implements processes to enable the user to access requested items based on their indicated preferences in 6005 . the service - provider informs user of availability of items along with instructions to access the items in 6006 . fig7 illustrates a content request process 7000 by user . the user browses items by one or more of the following methods : by visiting the web site ; by running a tool that runs on the user &# 39 ; s desktop ; going through email alerts that the service - provider sends to the user in 7001 ; or using rss content aggregator tools . the user adds / removes items to / from cart in 7002 . a “ cart ” is a virtual location of assets / items requested by user . the user checks ( e . g ., by a prompt from the user interface or web site ) whether all desired items are present in the cart in 7003 . the user proceeds to checkout in 7004 . the user reviews and verifies the terms associated with each item in the cart in 7005 . the user removes the items that they do not agree to the terms from the cart in 7014 . the user interface or web site may prompt the user to determine whether the user wishes to modify items present in the cart in 7013 . the user may modify items present in the cart in 7013 if they desire . the service - provider determines whether the user agrees with the terms associated with each item in cart in 8006 . the user proceeds to a next step in the checkout process in 7007 . the user chooses the format in which they would prefer to receive the items in the cart from a list of available options for each item in 7008 . the user chooses the mechanism by which they prefer to receive the items in 7009 . the user provides additional information specific to the delivery mechanism they have chosen in 7010 . the user confirms request in 7011 . the user request is entered into the service - provider &# 39 ; s request management system in 7012 . fig8 a illustrates an item fulfillment process 8000 . a user request is received in 8001 . the service - provider determines whether there are any items requested by the user available for immediate download , e . g ., via http , in 8002 . specifically , the service - provider determines whether there are any items requested by the user for a given assettype - format having a value =“ yes ” for delivery type =“ download .” if yes , the service - provider implements operations to enable the user to access items that can be immediately downloaded in 8003 . the system may create a temporary area where all requested content is stored , and a web server provides a conduit to this repository for access via http . the service - provider sets partial fulfillment flag to true in 8004 if some items were made available for immediate download . in some cases , the download mechanism may be in tandem with other delivery mechanisms to achieve efficiency and to enhance the user experience . depending on various configurable rules and user choices ( implicit or explicit ), the system may enable all non - video assets ( i . e . stills , audio , documents , etc .) to be downloaded immediately after checkout . the requested video content ( if part of the user request ) is then sent to the user via one of the other mechanisms described herein . the service - provider determines whether all items requested by the user have been fulfilled in 8005 . the service - provider determines whether partial fulfillment flag = true in 8006 . the service - provider informs the user of availability of some of the requested items along with instructions to access the items in 8007 . the user is also informed that the rest of the items requested will be fulfilled shortly in 8007 . the service - provider determines whether all requested items pending fulfillment are available in the desired formats in 8008 . the service - provider automatically creates desired formats of the unavailable requested items pending fulfillment in 8009 . the service - provider determines a delivery type in 8010 selected by the user . if the user selected digital push or digital pull , then the service - provider follows a digital fulfillment process in 8011 ( fig8 c ). if the user selected tape or satellite , then the service - provider follows a tape or satellite fulfillment process in 8012 ( fig8 d ). payment and invoicing processes , if any , may occur in 8013 . the service - provider automatically creates a shot - list document containing information about all requested items in the user order , along with relevant item access information in 8014 . a “ shot - list ” is a text description of content of one or more scenes or assets ( e . g ., a digital file or a printed document ) in an order requested by a user . a shot - list may be automatically generated when an order is fulfilled . the service - provider informs the user of availability of requested items along with instructions to access the items in 8015 . the service - provider also provides the shot - list along with this information . fig8 b illustrates examples of delivery methods 8015 . one example of satellite is associated press television news ( aptn ), which allows content to be multicasted into a number of locations . the service provider may provide specific content during a specific time slot to one or more users . other content types may be implemented as shown by content type x , and other delivery types may be used , such as mailing dvds . fig8 c illustrates a digital fulfillment process 8100 . the service - provider determines a delivery type in 8101 . if the delivery type is a digital pull , the service - provider creates a password protected ftp folder for the user if it is not present on the ftp server 214 of the service - provider in 8102 . requested items in the desired format are automatically transferred to the password protected ftp folder for the user present on the ftp server of the service - provider in 8103 . the service - provider may allocate a memory portion of the ftp server to the requesting user . the service - provider may transmit access information to the requesting user , which permits the requesting user to access the memory portion so that the requesting user can obtain one or more selected assets . if the delivery type is a digital push , requested items in the selected formats are automatically transferred to the user - specified destination ftp location ( server 118 in fig1 c , which is part of the user &# 39 ; s environment ) in 8104 . the system may send a notification to the user with details on how to access the content . digital delivery requests may be checked to see if they have been fulfilled , e . g ., by internal double - checking at the service - provider or by sending emails to the user . fig8 d illustrates a tape or satellite fulfillment process 8200 . the service - provider checks whether all requested items in the selected format are already available in the local - media - server of the service - provider in 8201 . if not , unavailable requested items in the desired formats are automatically transferred to the local - media - server of the service - provider in 8202 . requested items in the desired formats are compiled using files on the local media server and transferred to tape in 8203 . delivery type is determined in 8204 . if satellite is selected , a tape is sent to a satellite service provider in 8206 . the satellite service provider 218 in fig1 c processes the tape and delivers the items , e . g ., via satellite ( e . g ., aptn ), in 8207 . the system may send a notification to the user with details on how to receive / access the content . if tape is selected , then tape is sent to the user , e . g ., via fedex , in 8205 . other delivery methods may be used , such as compiling requested content on a cd or dvd using files present on the service provider &# 39 ; s local media server , and then sending the cd or dvd with the items to the user . a “ module ” is software , a portion of software , hardware , or a combination of hardware and software . the service provider may receive a preference description from a user of one or more delivery options . the preference description may include supplemental information for the service provider to transmit assets to the first user according to said one or more delivery options of the preference description . the service provider may allow the user to change the preference description . the supplemental information may comprise a first user &# 39 ; s mailing address . the supplemental information may comprise access information for an ftp server controlled by the first user . the service provider may assign assets to one or more categories , receive an identification of one or more categories of interest from a user ; and send to the user an email message or email alert that identifies specific assets within one or more identified categories . the email message may include a hyperlink to a web page that describes specifically identified assets and permits the first user to preview previewable versions of the specifically identified assets , select assets , and request delivery of selected , specifically identified assets . the web page may include a text description of the specifically identified assets . the email message may include a text description of the specifically identified assets . a number of aspects have been described . nevertheless , it will be understood that various modifications may be made . accordingly , other aspects are within the scope of the following claims . | 6 |
in this document , all temperatures are stated in degrees celsius unless otherwise indicated . all amounts , ratios , concentrations , proportions and the like are stated in weight units , unless otherwise stated , except for ratios of solvents , which are in volume units . percentages are by weight unless otherwise indicated . by oh value is meant hydroxyl value , a quantitative measure of the concentration of hydroxyl groups , usually stated as mg koh / g , i . e ., the number of milligrams of potassium hydroxide equivalent to the hydroxyl groups in 1 g of substance . by nco / oh index is meant the molar ratio , multiplied by 100 , of isocyanate groups to hydroxyl groups ( including those contributed by water ) in the reaction between the polyol blend and the polyisocyanate . by functionality is meant the number of reactive groups , e . g ., hydroxyl groups , in a chemical molecule . by uniform open cell content is meant a polyurethane foam having an average open cell content that does not vary substantially between two or more samples removed from the same foam material and separated in the foam material by a distance of at least about 2 cm . the polyol blends of the invention are preferably “ dispersed polyol blends .” by the term “ dispersed polyol blend ” is meant a polyol blend or polyol resin , i . e ., a mixture comprising a polyol formulation , cell opening agent , diluent and blowing agent , together with any optional components , where the cell opening agent , preferably as particles , and more preferably as particles having a mean diameter of less than about 50 %, is stably suspended in the polyol blend . such a dispersion is stable for a period of time sufficient to allow reaction with the polyisocyanate to form an open - celled foam having an open - cell content sufficient to prevent or resist shrinkage . preferably , the dispersed polyol blends are stable at a temperature of about 25 ° c . for at least about 1 week , more preferably , the blends are stable at 25 ° c . for at least about 3 months . by softening point as used herein is meant a temperature at which a material becomes more liquid , less rigid , softer , or more elastic ; i . e ., a temperature at or above its glass transition temperature . as used herein , resistance to shrinkage means less than about 5 % shrinkage of a polyurethane foam material . the polyol blends of the invention preferably have particles having mean diameters of less than about 50μ , more preferably less than about 25μ , even more preferably less than about 10μ , and most preferably less than about 1μ . smaller particles are believed to result in improved stability of the polyol blends which in turn results in improved uniformity of the open celled content of the final polyurethane foams . the invention provides polyurethane foams suitable for use as insulating materials disposed on or between a variety of substrates . suitable substrate materials comprise metal such as aluminum or sheet metal ; wood , including composite wood , acrylonitrile - butadiene - styrene ( abs ) triblock of rubber , optionally modified with styrene - butadiene diblock , styrene - ethylene / butylene - styrene triblock , optionally functionalized with maleic anhydride and / or maleic acid ; polyethylene terephthalate , polycarbonate , polyacetals , rubber modified high impact polystyrene ( hips ), blends of hips with polyphenylene oxide ; copolymers of ethylene and vinyl acetate , ethylene and acrylic acid , ethylene and vinyl alcohol ; homopolymers or copolymers of ethylene and propylene such as polypropylene , high density polyethylene , high molecular weight high density polyethylene , polyvinyl chloride , nylon 66 , or amorphous thermoplastic polyesters , fiberglass or fiberglass composites ; roof decking materials such as gypsum board , dens - deck , iso - board , cementitious wood fiber ( tectum deck ), light weight concrete , modified bitumen , and a variety of rubber based membranes . the foams of the invention have in - place densities of from about 2 to 5 . 0 and , in one embodiment , the foams of the invention have in - place densities of from about 2 . 3 to 3 . 5 , lbs ./ ft 3 ( pcf ) . the sprayed foams of the invention have sprayed in - place densities of from about 2 . 0 to 3 . 5 and , preferably , from about 2 . 3 to 3 . 3 , pcf . as explained in more detail below , the foams of the invention may be water blown foams . the water blown foams according to the invention have k - factors of at least about 0 . 16 to 0 . 24 . the polyurethane foam of the invention comprises the product of the reaction of the aromatic polyisocyanate with at least one polyol component in a polyol blend . the polyurethane foam is rigid , meaning that the ratio of tensile strength to compressive strength is high , on the order of 0 . 5 to 1 or greater , and has less than 10 percent elongation . the blends disclosed herein are generally free of cfc and / or hydrocarbon blowing agents and are highly suited for use in spray foam applications , i . e ., insulative roof spray foams . although not critical to the invention , the blends of the invention may optionally contain from about 0 . 01 - 50 . 0 percent by weight of a cross linking agent . suitable cross linking agents are , for example , higher functionality alcohols such as triols or pentaerythritol . in a preferred aspect , the invention provides polyol blends suitable for preparing a urethane foam , comprising : ( a ) from about 28 % to about 85 %, more preferably 80 %, by weight , based on the weight of the composition , of a polyol formulation ; ( b ) from about 0 . 05 % to about 3 , preferably 2 . 0 %, by weight , based on the weight of the composition , of a cell opening agent ; ( c ) from about 3 . 5 %, preferably about 5 %, to about 50 , preferably about 45 %, by weight , based on the weight of the composition , of a diluent ; and ( d ) from about 0 . 5 % to about 5 % by weight , based on the weight of the composition , of water . more preferred polyols formulations of the invention comprise from about 1 % to about 100 % by weight of a polyester polyol or mixtures of such polyols . more preferably , the polyol formulation or mixtures thereof comprise polyester polyols having an oh value of from about 150 to 350 and a molecular weight of from about 350 to 700 . even more preferred polyol formulations comprise from about 30 - 48 % of polyester polyol by weight of the polyol blend , and most preferably from about 30 - 45 % of polyester polyol by weight of the polyol blend . ( e ) from about 0 . 25 % to about 5 % by weight , based on the weight of the composition , of a urethane catalyst ; and / or ( f ) from about 0 % to about 1 % by weight , based on the weight of the composition , of an acid ; and / or ( g ) from about 0 % to about 3 % by weight , based on the weight of the composition , of a surfactant . in a preferred embodiment , the polyol formulation comprises from about 1 % to 100 %, more preferably about 75 - 100 %, by weight , based on the weight of the polyol formulation , of a diethylene glycol phthalate polyester polyol having an oh value of from about 150 to 350 and comprising ( a ) the reaction product of mixture comprising a phthalic acid compound and a low molecular weight aliphatic diol and ( b ) an optional nonionic surfactant , and where the diethylene glycol phthalate polyester polyol has a molecular weight of from about 350 to 700 . in a particularly preferred embodiment , the polyol blend comprises from about 50 - 85 % by weight of a polyol formulation comprising a modified diethylene glycol phthalate polyester polyol having an oh value of about 290 - 325 , an mannich type polyol having an oh value of 415 - 435 , and diethylene glycol . in another particularly preferred embodiment , the polyol blend comprises from about 50 - 85 % by weight of a polyol formulation comprising a modified diethylene glycol phthalate polyester polyol having an oh value of about 23 - 350 , an mannich type polyol having an oh value of 415 - 435 , and diethylene glycol . in another particularly preferred embodiment , the polyol blend of the invention comprises about ( a ) 30 - 35 % by weight of a modified diethylene glycol phthalate polyester polyol having an oh value of about 290 - 325 or a modified diethylene glycol phthalate polyester polyol having an oh value of about 230 - 250 ; ( b ) 20 - 30 % by weight of an mannich type polyol having an oh value of 415 - 435 ; in another preferred embodiment , the polyol blend comprises , based on the weight of the blend , about 30 - 35 % by weight of the modified diethylene glycol phthalate polyester polyol having an oh value of about 290 - 325 or the modified diethylene glycol phthalate polyester polyol having an oh value of about 230 - 250 , from about 20 - 30 by weight of the mannich type polyol having an oh value of 415 - 435 , in one aspect , the invention relates to a urethane foam made from a reaction mixture comprising ( a ) a polyol blend of the invention , and ( b ) an isocyanate , a polyisocyanate , or a mixture thereof . in this embodiment , the isocyanate preferably is 2 , 4 - and / or 2 , 4 / 2 , 6 - toluene diisocyanate , diphenyl methane 4 , 4 ′- diisocyanate , hexamethylene diisocyanate , isophorone diisocyanate , or a mixture thereof . also in this embodiment , the polyisocyanate is alternatively a polyphenyl polymethylene polyisocyanate . the invention further relates to a method for preparing polyol compositions which is suitable for preparing a urethane foam . this method comprises combining : ( a ) from about 38 % to about 90 % by weight , based on the weight of the composition , of a polyol formulation ; ( b ) from about 0 . 05 % to about 2 . 0 % by weight , based on the weight of the composition , of a cell opening agent ; ( c ) from about 5 % to about 45 % by weight , based on the weight of the composition , of a diluent ; and ( d ) from about 0 . 5 % to about 5 % by weight , based on the weight of the composition , of water . the methods of the invention can further include adding the following optional components : ( e ) from about 0 . 25 % to about 5 % by weight , based on the weight of the composition , of a urethane catalyst ; and / or ( f ) from about 0 % to about 1 % by weight , based on the weight of the composition , of an acid ; and / or ( g ) from about 0 % to about 3 % by weight , based on the weight of the composition , of a surfactant . in anther embodiment , the invention provides a polyurethane foam comprising from about 0 . 01 to 1 % by weight of a cell opening agent which is a divalent metal salt of a fatty acid , where the foam has an open - cell content sufficient to resist shrinkage and exhibits less than about 5 % shrinkage when stored at about 158 ° f . and about 100 % relative humidity for about 28 days . these foams comprise the reaction product of an aromatic polymeric isocyanate with a polyol blend of the invention . preferably , the polyurethane foam exhibits less than about 3 % shrinkage when stored at − 20 ° f . for 28 days . in yet another embodiment , the invention relates to a method for preparing a urethane foam comprising reacting the polyol composition with an isocyanate , a polyisocyanate , or a mixture thereof , to produce the foam . in accordance with this embodiment , the nco / oh index of the foam is 85 - 125 . the foam produced in accordance with the embodiments disclosed herein is pourable , and / or is sprayable . accordingly , the invention also relates to methods of applying spray foams , which are derived from the blends described herein , to various substrates , particularly roofs . the polyols suitable for use in the invention are polyester polyols , polyether polyols and mannich - type polyols . preferred polyol blends are those that comprise a polyester polyol . in these preferred blends , the polyester polyol can be up to about 100 % of the polyol formulation . in other preferred polyol blends , the polyol formulation is a mixture of polyols , e . g ., ( a ) polyester polyol and polyether polyol , ( b ) polyester polyol and polyether polyol , ( c ) polyether polyol and mannich - type polyol , or ( d ) polyether polyol , polyester polyol , and mannich - type polyol . thus , the polyol formulation may be up to about 100 % by weight of polyether polyol , i . e ., it may be polyester polyol free , or may contain a mixture of polyether and polyester polyols . starting polyol components suitable for use in the polyol blends or mixtures according to the invention include polyesters containing at least two hydroxyl groups , as a rule having a molecular weight of from 300 to 10 , 000 , in particular polyesters containing from 2 to 8 hydroxyl groups , and , in some embodiments of the invention , having a molecular weight of from 350 to 700 , in other embodiments having a molecular weight of from 350 to 600 , wherein the acid component of these polyesters comprise at least 50 % by weight in one embodiment , and at least 70 % by weight in another embodiment , of phthalic acid residues . these polyesters containing hydroxyl groups include for example , reaction products of polyhydric , such as dihydric and trihydric , alcohols with phthalic acids and other polybasic , such as dibasic , carboxylic acids . instead of using the free phthalic acids or polycarboxylic acids , the corresponding acid anhydrides or corresponding acid esters of lower alcohols or mixtures thereof may be used for preparing the polyesters . orthophthalic acids , isophthalic acids and / or terephthalic acids may be used as the phthalic acid . the optional polybasic - carboxylic acids may be aliphatic , cycloaliphatic , aromatic and / or heterocyclic and may be substituted , for example , with halogen atoms and / or may be unsaturated . the following are mentioned as examples ; succinic acid , adipic acid , suberic acid , azelaic acid , sebacic acid , trimellitic acid , trimellitic anhydride , tetrahydrophthalic acid anhydride , hexahydrophthalic acid anhydride , endomethylene tetrahydro phthalic acid anhydride , glutaric acid anhydride , maleic acid , maleic acid anhydride , fumaric acid , dimeric and trimeric fatty acids , such as oleic acid , optionally mixed with monomeric fatty acids . suitable polyhydric alcohols include , for example , ethylene glycol , propylene glycol -( 1 , 2 ) and -( 1 , 3 ), diol -( 1 , 8 ), neopentyl glycol , cyclohexane dimethanol ( 1 , 4 - bis - hydroxymethylcyclohexane ), 2 - methyl - 1 , 3 - propane diol , glycerol , trimethylolpropane , hexanetriol -( 1 , 2 , 6 ) butane triol -( 1 , 2 , 4 ), trimethylolethane , pentaerythritol , quinitol , mannitol and sorbitol , methylglycoside , also diethylene glycol , triethylene glycol , tetrathylene glycol , polyethylene glycols , dibutylene glycol , and polybutylene glycols . the polyesters may also contain carboxyl end groups . polyesters of lactones , such as ε - caprolactone , or hydroxycarboxylic acids , such as δ - hydroxycaproic acid , may also be used . in one embodiment , polyester polyols for use in the invention comprise the reaction products of ( a ) phthalic acid compounds , ( b ) low molecular weight aliphatic diol compounds , ( c ) and nonionic surfactant compounds . such polyester polyols are described in u . s . pat . nos . 4 , 644 , 047 and 4 , 644 , 048 , each of which is incorporated herein in its entirety . suitable polyols for the invention also include mannich - type polyols . mannich - type polyols are prepared by reacting , for example , nonylphenol , formaldehyde , and mono or dialkanolamines or mixtures thereof . this intermediate is then typically reacted with alkylene oxide to produce the final “ mannich polyol .” the preparation of mannich - types polyols is also described in u . s . pat . nos . 3 , 297 , 597 ; 4 , 137 , 265 ; 4 , 383 , 102 ; 4 , 247 , 655 ; 4 , 654 , 376 , each of which is incorporated herein in its entirety . according to the invention , polyethers containing at least one , generally from 2 to 8 , and , in one embodiment of the invention , 3 to 6 hydroxyl groups and having a molecular weight of from 100 to 10 , 000 may be used in the polyol blend . these are prepared , for example , by the polymerization of epoxides , such as ethylene oxide , propylene oxide , butylene oxide , tetrahydrofuran , styrene oxide , or epichlorohydrin , either on its own for example in the presence of bf 3 , or by chemical addition of these epoxides , optionally as mixtures or successively , to starting components having reactive hydrogen atoms , such as alcohols or amines , for example water , ethylene glycol , propylene glycol -( 1 , 3 ) or -( 1 , 2 ), trimethylol propane , 4 , 4 - dihydroxy diphenylpropane aniline , ammonia ethanolamine or ethylene diamine . sucrose polyethers which have been described , for example in german auslgeschrift nos . 1 , 176 , 358 and 1 , 064 , 938 may also be used according to the invention . among the corresponding polythioethers which may also be used are the condensation products obtained from thiodiglycol on its own and / or with other glycols , dicarboxylic acids , formaldehyde , aminocarboxylic acids or aminoalcohols should be particularly mentioned . the products obtained are polythio mixed ethers , polythio ether esters or polythio ether ester amides , depending on the co - components . polyhydroxyl compounds already containing urethane or urea groups and modified or unmodified natural polyols , such as castor oil , carbohydrates or starch may also be used . addition products of alkylene oxides and phenyl / formaldehyde resins or of alkylene oxides and urea / formaldehyde resins are also suitable according to the invention . representatives of these compounds which may be used according to the invention have been described , for example , in high polymers , volume xvi , “ polyurethanes , chemistry and technology ”, by saunders and frisch , interscience publishers , new york ; london , volume i , 1962 , pages 32 - 42 and pages 44 to 54 and volume ii , 1964 , pages 5 and 6 and 198 - 199 , and in kunststoff - handbuch , volume vii , vieweg - hochtlen , carl - hanser - verlag , munich , 1966 , for example , on pages 45 to 71 . in certain embodiments , the polyol formulation comprises a phthalate polyester - ether polyol . these polyester - ether polyols are the reaction product of a phthalate polyester polyol (“ intermediate polyester polyol ” and a polyhydridic polyol . the intermediate phthalate polyester polyol is the reaction product of : ( 1 ) about 2 - 60 % by weight , based on the weight of the polyester polyol , of phthalic anhydride or phthalic acid ; and ( 2 ) about 40 - 98 % by weight , based on the weight of the polyester polyol , of at least one polyol of the formula : ( a ) alkylene groups of about 2 to 10 carbon atoms ; or the r 1 alkylene group may be branched or straight chain , saturated or unsaturated , and when r 2 contains a hydroxyl moiety , such hydroxyl group may be optionally alkoxylated . ( a ) alkylene groups of about 2 to 10 carbon atoms ; or suitable polyhydridic polyols include ( i ) alkoxylated glycerine , such as propoxylated glycerine , ( ii ) alkoxylated sucrose , and ( iii ) alkoxylated glycols , such as diethylene glycol , ethylene glycol , propylene glycol , butylene glycol , and the like , or mixtures of any of these polyhydric alcohols . typical alkoxylating agents for any of these polyhydric alcohols are ethylene , propylene and / or butylene oxide . in a preferred aspect , the polyester and polyhydric alcohol are combined together in the polyol blend and before reacting the blend with the isocyantate “ a - side ”. in these blends , the polyester polyol and polyhydric alcohols may be present at a variety of suitable ratios . suitable ratios of polyester polyol to polyhydric alcohol are from about 25 : 1 to 1 : 1 . more preferred ranges are from higher ratios of about 20 : 1 or 15 : 1 to lower ratios of about 1 . 5 : 1 . even more higher ratios are about 8 : 1 . more preferred lower ratios are 3 : 1 or 2 : 1 . the polyester - ether polyols of the invention may be the reaction product of phthalic anhydride ( pa ), a polyhydroxyl compound , and an alkoxylating agent , e . g ., propylene oxide , as shown below : wherein r is branched or linear , saturated or unsaturated c 2 - 10 alkyl , cycloalkyl , alkenyl , alkynyl , aromatic , polyoxyethylenic , polyoxypropylenic ; wherein r may contain pendant secondary functionality such as hydroxyl , aldehyde , ketone , ether , ester , amide , nitrile , amine , nitro , thiol , sulfonate , sulfate , and / or carboxylic groups . where pendant secondary hydroxyl functionality is present , such hydroxyl groups may optionally be alkoxylated . in some embodiments of the invention , phthalic anhydride is reacted with a polyol , i . e ., a diol such as diethylene glycol to form a polyester polyol . wherein n = 2 - 10 , x = 1 - 500 . in accordance with this embodiment , pa polyester polyol intermediates for use in the invention are derived from the condensation of phthalic anhydride and ethylene glycol , diethylene glycol , propylene glycol , dipropylene glycol , neopentyl glycol , 1 , 4 - butanediol , 1 , 6 - hexanediol , polyethylene glycol , polypropylene glycol triethylene glycol , and tetramethylene glycol and mixtures thereof . specific polyester polyols suitable for use in the compositions of the invention include for example phthalic acid diethylene glycol polyester polyols . suitable phthalic acid diethylene glycol polyester polyols are commercially available from stepan company , northfield , ill . representative auxiliary polyols are stepanpol ® ps - 2002 ( a phthalic anhydride diethylene glycol polyester polyol having an ohv of 195 and a functionality of 2 ), stepanpol ® ps - 3152 ( a phthalic anhydride diethylene glycol polyester polyol having an ohv of 315 and a functionality of 2 ), stepanpol ® ps - 4002 ( a phthalic anhydride diethylene glycol polyester polyol having an ohv of 400 and a functionality of 2 ), and stepanpol ps - 2502a ( an aromatic polyester polyol having an ohv of 245 ) and mixtures thereof . in the invention , by oh value ( ohv ) is meant hydroxyl value , a quantitative measure of the concentration of hydroxyl groups , usually stated as mg koh / g , i . e ., the number of milligrams of potassium hydroxide equivalent to the hydroxyl groups in 1 g of substance . by functionality is meant the number of reactive groups , e . g ., hydroxyl groups , in a chemical molecule . other auxiliary polyester polyols , i . e . non - phthalic anhydride - based polyester polyols , include for example , polyester polyols derived from the condensation of caprolactone and a poly alcohol , and terate polyester polyols ( e . g . terate - 203 ; a diethylene glycol terephthalate polyester polyol having an ohv of 315 and a functionality of 2 . 3 ; commercially available from kosa ). specific auxiliary polyether polyols suitable for use in the methods and compositions of the invention include for example the condensation products of propylene glycol / propylene oxide , trimethylolpropane / ethylene oxide / propylene oxide , trimethylolpropane / propylene oxide , sucrose / propylene glycol / propylene oxide , alkylamine / propylene oxide , and glycerin / propylene oxide , and mixtures thereof . the polyisocyanate starting components used according to the invention include aliphatic , cycloaliphatic , araliphatic , aromatic and heterocyclic polyisocyanates , such as those described , for example , by w . siefken in justus liebigs annalen der chemie 562 : 75 - 136 . examples include ethylene diisocyanate ; tetramethylene - 1 , 4 - diisoyanate , hexamethylene - 1 , 6 - diisocyanate ; dodecane - 1 , 12 - diisocyanate ; cyclobutane - 1 , 3 - diisocyanate ; cyclohexane - 1 , 3 - and 1 , 4 - diisocyanate and mixtures of these isomers 1 - isocyanato - 3 , 3 , 5 - trimethyl - 5 - isocyanatomethylcyclohexane ( german auslegeschrift no . 1 , 202 , 785 , u . s . pat . no . 3 , 401 , 190 ); hexahydrotolylene - 2 , 4 - and 2 , 6 - diisocyanate and mixtures of these isomers ; hexahydrophenylene - 1 , 3 - and / or - 1 , 4 - diisocyanate ; perhydrodiphenylmethane - 2 , 4 ′- and / or 4 , 4 ′- diisocyanate ; phenylene - 1 , 3 - and - 1 , 4 - diisocyanate ; tolylene - 2 , 4 - and - 2 , 6 - diisocyanate and mixtures of these isomers ; diphenylmethane - 2 , 4 ′- and / or - 4 , 4 ′- diisocyanate ; naphthylene - 1 , 5 - diisocyanate ; triphenylmethane - 4 , 4 ′, 4 ″- triisocyanate ; polyphenylpolymethylene polyisocyanate which may be obtained by aniline / formaldehyde condensation followed by phosgenation and which have been described , for example , in british pat . nos . 874 , 430 and 848 , 671 ; m - and p - isocyanatophenyl sulphonyl isocyanate according to u . s . pat . no . 3 , 454 , 606 ; perchlorinated aryl polyisocyanate as described , for example , in u . s . pat . no . 3 , 277 , 138 ; polyisocyanate ; containing carbodiimide groups as described in u . s . pat . no . 3 , 152 , 162 ; the diisocyanates described in u . s . pat . no . 3 , 492 , 330 ; polyisocyanates containing allophanate groups as described , for example , in british pat . no . 994 , 890 , belgian pat . no . 761 , 626 and published dutch patent application no . 7 , 102 , 524 ; polyisocyanates containing isocyanurate groups as described , for example , in u . s . pat . no . 3 , 001 , 973 , in german pat . nos . 1 , 022 , 789 ; 1 , 222 , 067 and 1 , 027 , 394 and in german offenlegungsschriften nos . 1 , 929 , 034 and 2 , 004 , 048 ; polyisocyanates containing urethane groups as described , for example , in belgian pat . no . 752 , 261 or in u . s . pat . no . 3 , 394 , 164 ; polyisocyanates containing acrylated urea groups according to german pat . no . 1 , 230 , 778 ; polyisocyanates containing biuret groups as described , for example , in u . s . pat . nos . 3 , 124 , 605 and 3 , 201 , 372 ; and in british pat . no . 889 , 050 ; polyisocyanates prepared by telomerization reactions as described , for example in u . s . pat . no . 3 , 654 , 016 ; polyisocyanates containing ester groups as mentioned , for example , in british pat . nos . 965 , 474 and 1 , 072 , 956 , in u . s . pat . no . 3 , 567 , 763 and in german pat . no . 1 , 231 , 688 ; reaction product of the above - mentioned isocyanates with acetals according to german pat . no . 1 , 072 , 385 ; and , polyisocyanates containing polymeric fatty acid groups as described in u . s . pat . no . 3 , 455 , 883 . also suitable for use in the present invention are isocyanate terminated pre - polymers using hydroxy containing reactants of any of the foregoing . the distillation residues obtained from the commercial production of isocyanates and which still contain isocyanate groups may also be used , optionally dissolved in one or more of the above - mentioned polyisocyanates . mixtures of the above - mentioned polyisocyanates may also be used . in some embodiments of the invention , the polyisocyanates which are readily available are used , for example , toluene - 2 , 4 - and - 2 , 6 - diisocyanate and mixtures of these isomers (“ tdi ”); polyphenyl polymethylene polyisocyanates which may be obtained by aniline / formaldehyde condensation followed by phosgenation crude mdi ”); and , polyisocyanates containing carbodiimide groups , urethane groups , allophanate groups , isocyanurate groups , urea groups or biuret groups (“ modified polyisocyanates ”), and mixtures thereof . in some embodiments of the invention , polyisocyanates are 2 , 4 - and / or 2 , 4 / 2 , 6 - toluene diisocyanate , diphenyl methane 4 , 4 ′- diisocyanate , hexamethylene diisocyanate , and isophorone diisocyanate , and mixtures thereof . in one embodiment of the invention , the polyisocyanate is methylene bis ( phenyl isocyanate ). suitable polyisocyanurates useful in the invention also include , as is well known to those skilled in the art , the cyclotrimerization product of any of the aforementioned polyisocyanates . in a typical rigid spray - in - place application the polyisocyanate mixture is reacted with a polyol blend at a ratio of 0 . 9 - 1 . 1 : 1 ( v / v ) ratio . the reaction can be achieved using a spray gun apparatus or other suitable mixing devices . alternatively , the reaction can be achieved using a high pressure impingement machine provided with a nozzle capable of filling a void volume . as another alternative , the reaction may be achieved using a low pressure static mixing machine equipped with a nozzle to fill a void volume . some embodiments of the polyol formulation used in the invention comprises a polyester polyol and an acid . the acid is used in an amount capable of maintaining the dispersed polyol blend as a dispersion for a period of time sufficient to allow for the production of a polyurethane foam and preferably a foam having a uniform open celled content . the foam is made by reacting the polyol blend with an aromatic polyisocyanate . the amount of acid optionally present is generally up to about 5 % by weight of the polyol blend . in one embodiment , the amount of the acid is from about 0 . 05 to 5 % by weight of the polyol blend . in another embodiment , the amount of acid is from about 0 . 1 to 1 %. suitable acids are generally bronsted acids , i . e ., substances that can donate protons . in one embodiment of the invention , the acids are organic acids . in another embodiment , the acids are various alkanoic or alkenoic acids of the formula rco 2 h , where r is hydrogen , a straight or branched chain alkyl group having from about 1 to 12 carbon atoms , or a straight or branched chain alkenyl group having from about 2 to 12 carbon atoms . representative acids include , for example , formic , acetic , isobutryic , and 2 - ethylhexanoic acids . in a preferred embodiment , the acid is 2 - ethylhexanoic acid . according to the invention , the reaction of the dispersed polyol blend as set forth above with a polyisocyanate provides an open cell rigid polyurethane foam as desired . in a preferred embodiment of the invention , water is used as a primary blowing agent in the dispersed polyol blend . in this embodiment , the amount of water as a blowing agent is about 0 . 5 - 5 %, and can be about 1 - 4 %, and further can be 1 . 5 - 2 . 5 %, based on the weight of the composition . when the amount of water is insufficient , a low density foam may not be produced . although the preparation of the foam is typically carried out using a dispersed polyol blend having water as a blowing agent , in another embodiment , the blowing agent comprises a secondary blowing agent , either alone , or preferably in combination with the primary blowing agent , water . suitable secondary blowing agents include both cfc and non - cfc blowing agents . secondary blowing agents are typically liquids having low boiling points . suitable secondary blowing agents include , but are not limited to , halogenated hydrocarbons such as , for example , 2 , 2 - dichloro - 2 - fluoroethane ( hcfc - 141b ), water , and hydrocarbons such as pentane , hydrofluorocarbons ( hfcs ) and perfluorocarbons for example . other suitable organic blowing agents include , for example , acetone , ethyl acetate , halogenated alkanes , such as methylene chloride , chloroform , ethylidene chloride , vinylidene chloride , and also butane , pentane , hexane , heptane or diethylether . the effect of a blowing agent may also be obtained by adding compounds which decompose at temperatures above room temperature to liberate gases , such as nitrogen , for example , azo compounds , such as azoisobutyric acid nitrile . other examples of blowing agents and details about the use of blowing agents may be found in kunststoff - handbuch , volume vii , published by vieweg - hochtlen , carl - hanser - verlag , munich , 1966 , for example , on pages 108 and 109 , 453 to 455 and 507 - 510 . further examples of suitable optional blowing agents are described in u . s . pat . nos . 5 , 346 , 928 , which is incorporated herein in its entirety . cell opening agents suitable for use in the invention include known powdered divalent metal salts of long chain fatty acids having from about 1 - 22 carbon atoms . examples of such agents are divalent metal salts of stearic or myristic acid , such as calcium stearate , magnesium stearate , strontium stearate , zinc stearate or calcium myristate , as disclosed in japanese patent application laid - open no . 61 - 153480 . the cell opening agent is used in an amount of about 0 . 01 - 2 . 0 % based on the weight of the composition . the cell opening agent is typically capable of forming a stable dispersion with the polyester polyol . in preferred embodiments of the invention , cell opening agents having melting or softening points of from about 100 to 180 ° c . are used . in one embodiment , dispersed polyol blends comprise from about 0 . 05 to 1 . 5 % cell opening agent based on the weight of the composition . in another embodiment , dispersed polyol blends comprise from about 0 . 1 to 0 . 8 % cell opening agent based on the weight of the composition . compounds which readily initiate a polymerization reaction of the nco - groups at temperatures as low as room temperature are used as the catalyst system for polymerization . compounds of this type are described , for example , in french pat . no . 1 , 441 , 565 , belgian pat . nos . 723 , 153 and 723 , 152 and german pat . no . 1 , 112 , 285 . such catalyst systems are , in particular , mononuclear or polynuclear mannich bases of condensable phenols , oxo - compounds and secondary amines which are optionally substituted with alkyl groups , aryl groups or aralkyl groups , and , in one embodiment of the invention , those in which formaldehyde is used as the oxo - compound and dimethylamine as the secondary amine . according to the invention , the catalysts that may be used as the catalyst for the polyurethane reaction include , for example , tertiary amines , such as triethylamine , tributylamine , n - methyl morpholine , n - ethyl - morpholine , n - cocomorpholine , n , n , n ′, n ′- tetramethylethylenediamine , 1 , 4 - diaza - bicyclo -( 2 , 2 , 2 )- octane , n - methyl - n ′- dimethyl aminoethyl - piperazine , n , n - dimethylbenzylamine , bis -( n , n - diethylaminoethyl )- adipate , n , n - diethylbenzylamine , pentamethyldiethylenetriamine , n , n - dimethylcyclohexylamine , n , n , n ′, n ′- tetramethyl - 1 , 3 - butane - diamine , n , n - dimethyl -. beta .- phenylethylamine , 1 , 2 - dimethylimidazole and 2 - methylimidazole and curithane 52 ( available from air products ). tertiary amines containing isocyanate - reactive hydrogen atoms used as catalysts include , for example , triethanolamine , triisopropanolamine , n - methyl - diethanolamine , n - ethyl - diethanolamine , n , n - dimethylethanolamine and the reaction products thereof with alkylene oxides , such as propylene oxide and / or ethylene oxide . silaamines having carbon - silicon bonds as described , for example , in german pat . no . 1 , 229 , 290 ( corresponding to u . s . pat . no . 3 , 620 , 984 ) may also be used as catalysts , for example , 2 , 2 , 4 - trimethyl - 2 - silamorpholine and 1 , 3 - diethylaminomethyl - tetramethyl - disiloxane . the catalysts used may also be basic nitrogen compounds , such as tetralkylammonium hydroxides , alkali metal hydroxides , such as sodium hydroxide , alkali metal phenolates , such as sodium phenolate , or alkali metal alcoholates , such as sodium methylate . hexahydrotriazines may also be used as catalysts . typically , the amine catalyst is employed in excess of the required acid . however , any of the catalysts derived from amines may be used in the invention as the corresponding ammonium salts or quaternary ammonium salts . thus , in the practice of the invention , catalysts derived from amines may be present in the polyol blends as their corresponding acid blocked form . accordingly , in certain embodiments , such a catalyst and the requisite acid may be simultaneously added conveniently as the amine salt of the acid . according to the invention , organic metal compounds , in particular organic tin compounds , may also be used as catalysts . suitable organic tin compounds are , in some embodiments of the invention , tin ( ii )- salts of carboxylic acids , such as tin ( ii )- acetate , tin ( ii )- octoate , tin ( ii )- ethylhexoate and tin ( ii )- laurate , and the tin ( iv )- compounds , for example dibutyl tin oxide , dibutyl tin dichloride , dibutyl tin diacetate , dibutyl tin dilaurate , dibutyl tin maleate or dioctyl tin diacetate . suitable organo lead compounds for use as primary catalysts include lead naphthanate and lead octoate . further representatives of catalysts which may be used according to the invention , as well as details on the mode of operation of the catalyst are described in kunststoff - handbuch , volume iii , published by vieweg - hochtlen , carl - hanser - verlag , munich , 1966 , for example , on pages 96 to 102 . still other catalysts suitable for use in the invention include amino acid salt catalysts , e . g ., those derived from sarcosine . suitable amino salts derived from sarcosine include various n -( 2 - hydroxy or 2 - alkoxy - 5 - alkylphenyl ) alkyl sarcosinates . the alkyl groups are independently c 1 - c 18 alkyl groups and the alkoxy groups are c 1 - c 6 alkoxy groups . of course , each of the sarcosinate derivatives includes a suitable counterion , such as , for example , sodium , potassium , magnesium , lithium , etc . in one embodiment of the invention , the amino acid salt is sodium n -( 2 - hydroxy - 5 - nonylphenyl ) methyl sarcosinate . each of the amino acid derivatives may be prepared according to the procedures set forth in u . s . pat . no . 3 , 903 , 018 . representative amino acid salt catalysts are , for example , sodium n -( 2 - hydroxy - 5 - methylphenyl ) methyl sarcosinate ; sodium n -( 2 - hydroxy - 5 - ethylphenyl ) methyl sarcosinate ; sodium n -( 2 - hydroxy - 5 - butylphenyl ) methyl sarcosinate ; sodium n -( 2 - hydroxy - 5 - heptylphenyl ) methyl sarcosinate ; sodium n -( 2 - hydroxy - 5 - nonylphenyl ) methyl sarcosinate ; sodium n -( 2 - hydroxy - 5 - dodecylphenyl ) methyl sarcosinate ; potassium n -( 2 - hydroxy - 5 - nonylphenyl ) methyl sarcosinate ; lithium n -( 2 - hydroxy - 5 - nonylphenyl ) methyl sarcosinate ; and mixtures thereof . other suitable catalysts include , for example , the disodium salt of 2 , 6 - bis -( n - carboxymethyl - n - methylaminomethyl )- p - ethylphenol and the disodium salt of 2 , 6 - bis -( n - carboxymethyl - n - methlaminomethyl )- p - nonylphenol ; and mixtures thereof . the catalysts are generally used in a quantity of from about 0 . 001 to 10 %, by weight , based on the quantity of the polyesters used according to this invention . as used herein , the terms diluent or diluents include within their scope plasticizer materials . diluents suitable for use in the invention include those described in u . s . pat . nos . 3 , 773 , 697 , 5 , 929 , 153 , 3 , 929 , 700 and 3 , 936 , 410 , the disclosures of each of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety . suitable diluents include ( a ) phthalic plasticizers such as di - n - butyl phthalate , di - 2 - ethylhexyl phthalate , di - n - octyl phthalate , diisononyl phthalate , diisodecyl phthalate , diisooctyl phthalate , octyldecyl phthalate , butylbenzyl phthalate and di - 2 - ethylhexyl isophthalate , aliphatic ester plasticizers such as di - 2 - ethylhexyl adipate , di - n - decyl adipate , diisodecyl adipate , dibutyl sebacate and di - 2 - ethylhexyl sebacate , trimellitic plasticizers such as trioctyl trimellitate and tridecyl trimellitate , phosphoric ester plasticizers such as tributyl phosphate , tri - 2 - ethylhexyl phosphate , 2 - ethylhexyldiphenyl phosphate and tricresyl phosphate , epoxy plasticizers such as epoxy soybean oil , polyester - based high - molecular plasticizers , and the like . other diluents suitable for use in the invention include , for example , ( c ) alkyl esters of monobasic acids where the alkyl group is straight or branched chain alkyl having from 1 - 20 carbon atoms , such as 2 - ethylhexylbenzoate , methyl 2 - ethylhexanoate and the like ( hereinafter “ monobasic esters ”), ( d ) dialkyl esters of dibasic acids where each alkyl group is independently a straight or branched chain alkyl having from 1 - 20 carbon atoms ( hereinafter “ dibasic esters ”), ( e ) diacid esters of α , ω - diols where the acid is a straight or branched chain alkanoic acid having from 1 - 6 carbon atoms and the diol is a straight of branched chain aliphatic diol ( hereinafter “ diol esters ”, ( f ) mono - and di ( c 1 - c 6 ) alkyl ethers of alkylene and polyalkylene glycols ( hereinafter “ glycol ethers ”), ( g ) nonyl phenols alkoxylated with from 1 to about 50 moles of an alkoxylating agent or mixture of alkoxylating agents having from 1 - 6 carbon atoms , preferably about 7 - 12 moles of an alkoxylating agent having from 2 - 4 carbon atoms ( hereinafter “ alkoxylated nonyl phenols ”), e . g ., makon 10 ( available from stepan company ), representative glycol ethers include monomethyl diethylene glycol , monoethyl dipropylene glycol , and monomethyltripropylene glycol . suitable diesters of dibasic acids for use in the invention include , for example , dimethyl adipate , dialkyl adipate , dimethyl glutarate , dimethyl succinate , h 3 co ( co )( ch 2 ) n ( co ) och 3 , wherein n is an integer between 1 and 10 , and di ( 2 - ethylhexyl ) adipate . a preferred aspect of the invention employs mixture of dibasic esters . a particularly preferred mixture contains about 20 % by weight of dimethyl succinate , 21 % by weight of dimethyl adipate and about 59 % by weight of dimethyl glutarate . a representative diacid ester of an α , ω - diol is 2 , 2 , 4 - trimethyl - 1 , 3 - pentanediol diisobutyrate . preferred diluents include propylene carbonate , a dibasic ester mixture , alkoxylated nonyl phenols , more preferably makon 10 , tris - isopropylchlorophosphate , and glycol ethers , more preferably monomethyl dipropylene glycol and monomethyl tripropylene glycol . in preferred embodiments of the invention , the diluents are of low viscosity ( less than approximately 50 centipoise at 25 ° c .) and act as plasticizers within the polymer . surfactants suitable for use in the invention include non - ionic surfactants and amphoteric surfactants such as those disclosed in u . s . pat . no . 6 , 017 , 860 the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety . suitable nonionic surfactants in accordance with the invention are also generally disclosed at column , 13 line 14 through column 16 , line 6 of u . s . pat . 3 , 929 , 678 , the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety . generally , the nonionic surfactant is selected from the group comprising polyoxyethyleneated alkylphenols , polyoxyethyleneated straight chain alcohols , polyoxyethyleneated branched chain alcohols , polyoxyethyleneated polyoxypropylene glycols , polyoxyethyleneated mercaptans , fatty acid esters , glyceryl fatty acid esters , polyglyceryl fatty acid esters , propylene glycol esters , sorbitol esters , polyoxyethyleneated sorbitol esters , polyoxyethylene glycol esters , polyoxyethyleneated fatty acid esters , primary alkanolamides , ethoxylated primary alkanolamides , secondary alkanolamides , ethoxylated secondary alkanolamides , tertiary acetylenic glycols , polyoxyethyleneated silicones , n - alkylpyrrolidones , alkylpolyglycosides , alkylpolylsaccharides , eo - po blockpolymers , polyhydroxy fatty acid amides , amine oxides and mixtures thereof . suitable amphoteric surfactants are selected from the group comprising alkyl glycinates , propionates , imidazolines , amphoalkylsulfonates sold as “ miranol ” by rhone poulenc , n - alkylamninopropionic acids , n - alkyliminodipropionic acids , imidazoline carboxylates , n - alkylbetaines , amido propyl betaines , sarcosinates , cocoamphocarboxyglycinates , amine oxides , sulfobetaines , sultaines and mixtures thereof . additional suitable amphoteric surfactants include cocoamphoglycinate , cocoamphocarboxyglycinate , lauramphocarboxyglycinate , cocoamphopropionate , lauramphopropionate , stearamphoglycinate , cocoamphocarboxypropionate , tallowamphopropionate , tallowamphoglycinate , oleoamphoglycinate , caproamphoglycinate , caprylamphopropionate , caprylamphocarboxyglycinate , cocoyl imidazoline , lauryl imidazoline , stearyl imidazoline , behenyl imidazoline , behenylhydroxyethyl imidazoline , caprylamphopropylsulfonate , cocamphopropylsulfonate , stearamphopropylsolfonate , oleoamphopropylsulfonate and the like . other surfactants suitable for use in the invention include , but are not limited to , polyether siloxanes or alkoxylated polysiloxanes such as niax l - 5440 ( available from osi specialties , crompton ), tegostab b - 8404 ( available from goldschmidt ), dabco dc - 5357 ( available from air products ), and mixtures thereof . surface - active additives and foam stabilizers , may also be used in the invention . suitable materials include , for example , the sodium salts of ricinoleic sulphonates , or salts of fatty acids and amines , such as oleic acid diethylamine or stearic acid diethanolamine . alkali metal or ammonium salts of sulphonic acids , such as dodecyl benzene sulphonic acid or dinaphthylmethane , disulphonic acid or of fatty acids , such as ricinoleic acid , or of polymeric fatty acids may also be used as surface - active additives . the foam stabilizers used are preferably polyether siloxanes , especially those which are water - soluble . these compounds generally have a polydimethyl siloxane group attached to a copolymer of ethylene oxide and propylene oxide . foam stabilizers of this type have been described , for example , in u . s . pat . nos . 2 , 834 , 748 ; 2 , 917 , 480 and 3 , 629 , 308 . according to the invention , it is also possible to use known cell regulators such as paraffins or fatty alcohols or dimethyl polysiloxanes , as well as pigments or dyes and known flame - proofing agents , for example , trischloroethylphosphate , tricresylphosphate or ammonium phosphate or polyphosphate , also stabilizers against ageing and weathering , plasticizers , fungistatic and bacteriostatic substances and fillers , such as barium sulphate , kieslguhr , carbon black or whiting . other examples of surface - active additives , foam stabilizers , cell regulators , reaction retarders , stabilizers , flame - proofing substances , plasticizers , dyes , fillers and fungistatic and bacteriostatic substances which may also be used according to the invention and details concerning the use and action of these additives may be found in kunststoff - handbuch , volume vii , published by vieweg and hochtlen , carl - hanser - verlag , munich 1966 , for example on pages 103 and 113 . the polyol blends may optionally include emulsifiers to prolong the stability and shelf - life of the dispersed polyol blends . examples of suitable emulsifiers include sodium n -( 2 - hydroxy - 5 - nonylphenyl ) methyl sarcosinate and soybean oil . all documents , e . g ., patents and journal articles , cited above or below are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety . one skilled in the art will recognize that modifications may be made in the invention without deviating from the spirit or scope of the invention . the invention is illustrated further by the following examples which are not to be construed as limiting the invention or scope of the specific procedures described herein . the following is a description of certain materials used in the following examples : stepanpol ps - 2352 : a low functional ( functionality of 2 ) modified diethylene glycol phthalate polyester polyol having an oh value of about 220 - 250 , sold by stepan company , northfield , ill . stepanpol p5 - 3152 : a low functional ( functionality of 2 ) diethylene glycol phthalate polyester polyol having an oh value of about 290 - 325 , sold by stepan company , northfield , illinois . stepanpol ® ps - 2502 - a : a low functional ( functionality of 2 ) modified diethylene glycol phthalate polyester polyol having an oh value of about 230 - 250 , sold by stepan company , northfield , illinois . dabco ® dc5357 : a polysiloxane surfactant composed of dimethyl , methyl ( polyethylene oxide ) siloxane copolymer , sold by air products corporation of allentown , pennsylvania . tegostab b8404 : a polysiloxane surfactant composed of dimethyl , methyl ( polyethylene oxide ) siloxane copolymer , sold by godlschmidt . niax ® a - 1 : a catalyst which contains about 70 % bis ( 2 - dimethylaminoethyl ) ether in 30 % dipropylene glycol , sold by osi specialty chemical . mondur mr ®: polymethylene polyphenyl isocyanate having an isocyanate content of about 31 . 5 %, commercially available from bayer , pittsburgh , pennsylvania . thanol r - 360 : an alkoxylated sucrose glycerin polyether polyol having an oh value of about 345 - 375 , sold by eastman . polycat 8 : dimethylcyclohexylamine catalyst , sold by air products . jeffcat zr - 70 : a catalyst containing 2 -( 2 - ( dimethylamino ) ethoxy ] ethanol , sold by huntsman . pluracol p - 975 : a high functional alkoxylated sucrose diol having an oh value of approximately 380 - 420 , sold by basf . voranol - 270 : a low functional alkoxylated glycerin having an oh value of 230 - 250 , sold by dow chemical . voranol - 470x : an mannich type polyol having an oh value of 460 - 480 , sold by dow chemical . markol rb 216 : an mannich type polyol having an oh value of 470 - 490 , sold by quimica pumex . silpol sip - 425lv : an mannich type polyol having an oh value of 415 - 435 , sold by siltech corp . carbowax 400 : polyethylene glycol of approximately 400 mw sold by union carbide . makon 10 : nonyl phenol ethoxylated with an average of 10 ethylene oxide units sold by stepan company . terate - 203 : a diethylene glycol terephthalate polyester polyol having an oh value of 300 - 330 , sold by kosa . surfactant l - 5440 : an alkoxylated polysiloxane surfactant sold by crompton osi . curithane 52 : an isocyanate polymerization catalyst available from air products . amounts of components in the below examples are percentages by weight of the polyol ( resin ) blend unless indicated otherwise . the individual resin components are added and mixed until a stable homogeneous polyol dispersion is obtained . the polyol blends set forth below are prepared according to the invention and reacted by hand mixing and / or spraying with a polyisocyanate ( mondur mr ®). the hand mixed foams are reacted in an amount of 150 g of total material at an isocyanate / resin weight ratio of 52 / 48 ( approximately 1 : 1 isocyanate / resin ratio by volume ). unless otherwise indicated , the isocyanate and resin components are conditioned to 77 deg . f . prior to mixing . the isocyanate is pre - weighted in a 32 ounce no . 2 cup . the desired quantity of resin component is then added to the isocyanate and the two are mixed vigorously for 3 seconds using a double conn mix blade rotating at approximately 3500 rpm . the foam is allowed to rise and cure in the cup used for mixing . the properties of the hand mix foams are indicated below . machine sprayed foams utilize either a gusmer machine or glascraft machine with parameters as indicated by the particular examples . [ 0189 ] phthalate polyester ( stepanpol ps - 3152 ) 37 . 26 % terate polyester ( terate - 203 ) 14 . 90 % propoxylated glycerine ( voranol - 270 ) 22 . 35 % surfactant ( l - 5440 ) 1 . 49 % cell opener ( calcium stearate ) 0 . 33 % amine catalysts * 5 . 23 % lead catalyst ( 30 % pb naphthanate ) 0 . 22 % 2 - ethylhexanoic acid 0 . 37 % diluents ** 14 . 90 % water 2 . 94 % [ 0190 ] hand mix properties mix ratio ( a / b by volume ) 1 : 1 component temperatures 77 ° f . initiation time 4 sec . tack free time 11 sec . cup density 2 . 49 pcf resin viscosity ( 77 ° f .) 580 cps machine sprayed properties ( gusmer h - 2 ; gx - 7 gun ; 120 ° f . temps . ; 800 psi pressures ) dim . stability ( 100 ° f ./ 95 % r . h ., 28 day , astm d - 2126 ) − 0 . 82 % water absorption ( 28 day weight gain ) 1 . 75 % water vapor permeability ( with surface skin , astm e - 96 ) 2 . 69 perm in . ( permeability × inch ) water vapor permeability ( without surface skin , astm e - 96 ) 4 . 59 perm in . [ 0192 ] phthalate polyester ( stepanpol ps - 3152 ) 37 . 02 % terate polyester ( terate - 203 ) 14 . 81 % propoxylated glycerine ( voranol - 270 ) 22 . 21 % surfactant ( l - 5440 ) 2 . 04 % cell opener ( calcium stearate ) 0 . 30 % amine catalysts * 5 . 18 % lead catalyst ( 30 % pb naphthanate ) 0 . 22 % 2 - ethylhexanoic acid 0 . 37 % diluents ** 14 . 81 % water 3 . 04 % [ 0193 ] hand mix properties mix ratio ( a / b by volume ) 1 : 1 component temperatures 77 ° f . initiation time 5 sec . tack free time 12 sec . cup density 2 . 53 pcf resin viscosity ( 77 ° f .) 550 cps [ 0194 ] machine sprayed properties ( gusmer h - 2 ; gx - 7 gun ; 120 ° f . temps . ; 800 psi pressures ) density ( with passline , astm d - 1622 ) 2 . 76 pcf density ( no passline , astm d - 1622 ) 2 . 19 pcf compressive strength ( with passline , astm d - 1621 ) 26 . 9 psi compressive strength ( no passline , astm d - 1621 ) 22 . 8 psi shear strength ( with passline , astm c - 273 ) 30 . 2 psi shear strength ( no passline , astm c - 273 ) 26 . 6 psi tensile strength ( with passline , astm d - 1623 ) 38 . 8 psi tensile strength ( no passline , astm d - 1623 ) 54 . 6 psi friability ( with passline , % wt . loss , astm c - 421 ) 0 . 21 % friability ( no passline , % wt . loss , astm c - 421 ) 0 . 45 % dim . stab . ( with passline , − 20 ° f ., 28 day , astm d - 2126 ) − 0 . 01 % dim . stab . ( with passline , 158 ° f ., 28 day , astm d - 2126 ) − 0 . 36 % dim . stab . ( w / passline , 100 ° f ./ 95 % r . h ., astm d - 2126 ) 0 . 91 % [ 0195 ] phthalate polyester ( stepanpol ps - 3152 ) 46 . 11 % propoxylated sucrose ( pluracol p - 975 ) 23 . 05 % surfactant ( l - 5440 ) 2 . 11 % cell opener ( calcium stearate ) 0 . 21 % amine catalysts * 5 . 77 % lead catalyst ( 30 % pb naphthanate ) 0 . 15 % 2 - ethylhexanoic acid 0 . 38 % diluents ** 19 . 21 % water 3 . 01 % [ 0196 ] hand mix properties mix ratio ( a / b by volume ) 1 : 1 component temperatures 77 ° f . initiation time 5 sec . tack free time 12 sec . cup density 2 . 56 pcf resin viscosity ( 77 ° f .) 680 cps [ 0197 ] machine sprayed properties ( gusmer h - 2 ; gx - 7 gun ; 120 ° f . temps . ; 800 psi pressures ) density ( with passline , astn d - 1622 ) 2 . 64 pcf density ( no passline , astm d - 1622 ) 2 . 25 pcf compressive strength ( with passline , astm d - 1621 ) 30 . 3 psi compressive strength ( no passline , astn d - 1621 ) 17 . 2 psi shear strength ( with passline , astm c - 273 ) 22 . 3 psi shear strength ( no passline , astm c - 273 ) 20 . 8 psi tensile strength ( with passline , astm d - 1623 ) 42 . 7 psi tensile strength ( no passline , astm d - 1623 ) 36 . 6 psi [ 0198 ] phthalate polyester ( stepanpol ps - 3152 ) 45 . 27 % mannich polyol ( voranol 470x ) 20 . 89 % diethylene glycol 3 . 48 % surfactant ( l - 5440 ) 2 . 09 % cell opener ( calcium stearate ) 0 . 35 % amine catalysts * 3 . 55 % diluents ** 21 . 58 % water 2 . 79 % [ 0199 ] hand mix properties mix ratio ( a / b by volume ) 1 : 1 component temperatures 77 ° f . initiation time 6 sec . tack free time 13 sec . cup density 2 . 81 pcf resin viscosity ( 77 ° f .) 600 cps [ 0200 ] machine sprayed properties ( gusmer h - 2 ; gx - 7 gun ; 120 ° f . temps . ; 800 psi pressures ) shear strength ( with passline , astm c - 273 ) 32 . 7 psi shear strength ( no passline , astm c - 273 ) 46 . 6 psi tensile strength ( with passline , astm d - 1623 ) 64 . 7 psi tensile strength ( no passline , astm d - 1623 ) 99 . 2 psi friability ( with passline , % wt . loss , astm c - 421 ) 0 . 61 % friability ( no passline , % wt . loss , astm c - 421 ) 1 . 35 % dim . stab . ( with passline , − 20 ° f ., 28 day , astm d - 2126 ) 0 . 20 % dim . stab . ( no passline , − 20 ° f ., 28 day , astm d - 2126 ) 0 . 20 % dim . stab . ( with passline , 158 ° f ., 28 day , astm d - 2126 ) 1 . 12 % dim . stab . ( no passline , 158 ° f ., 28 day , astm d - 2126 ) − 0 . 91 % dim . stab . ( w / passline , 100 ° f ./ 95 % r . h ., astm d - 2126 ) 3 . 37 % dim . stab . ( no passline , 100 ° f ./ 95 % r . h ., astm d - 2126 ) − 0 . 05 % dim . stab . ( w / passline , 158 ° f ./ 95 % r . h ., astm d - 2126 ) 0 . 45 % dim . stab . ( no passline , 158 ° f ./ 95 % r . h ., astm d - 2126 ) − 2 . 60 % water absorption ( gusmer h - 2 , gx - 7 , 800 psi , d - 2842 ) 2 . 56 % water absorption ( gus . h - 2000 , gx - 7 , 1500 psi , d - 2842 ) 0 . 08 % [ 0201 ] phthalate polyester ( stepanpol ps - 3152 ) 36 . 93 % mannich polyol ( voranol 470x ) 26 . 87 % diethylene glycol 6 . 72 % surfactant ( l - 5440 ) 2 . 02 % cell opener ( calcium stearate ) 0 . 32 % amine catalysts * 3 . 77 % diluents ** 20 . 83 % water 2 . 54 % [ 0202 ] hand mix properties mix ratio ( a / b by volume ) 1 : 1 component temperatures 77 ° f . initiation time 5 sec . tack free time 12 sec . cup density 2 . 94 pcf resin viscosity ( 77 ° f .) 550 cps [ 0203 ] machine sprayed properties ( gusmer h - 2 ; gx - 7 gun ; 120 ° f . temps . ; 800 psi pressures ) density ( with passline , astm d - 1622 ) 2 . 74 pcf compressive strength ( with passline , astm d - 1621 ) 34 . 7 psi shear strength ( with passline , astm c - 273 ) 38 . 1 psi tensile strength ( with passline , astm d - 1623 ) 65 . 6 psi friability ( with passline , % wt . loss , astm c - 421 ) 0 . 33 % dim . stab . ( with passline , − 20 ° f ., 28 day , astm d - 2126 ) − 0 . 44 % dim . stab . ( with passline , 158 ° f ., 28 day , astm d - 2126 ) − 1 . 49 % dim . stab . ( w / passline , 158 ° f ./ 95 % r . h ., astm d - 2126 ) − 3 . 13 % water vapor permeability ( with passline , astm e - 96 ) 2 . 01 perm in . [ 0204 ] machine sprayed prop . ( gusmer h - 2000 ; gx - 7 gun ; 130 ° f . temps . ; 1500 psi pressures ) density ( with passline , astm d - 1622 ) 3 . 18 pcf density ( no passline , astm d - 1622 ) 2 . 93 pcf compressive strength ( with passline , astm d - 1621 ) 41 . 3 psi compressive strength ( no passline , astm d - 1621 ) 40 . 0 psi water vapor permeability ( with passline , astm e - 96 ) 1 . 23 perm in . [ 0205 ] phthalate polyester ( stepanpol ps - 3152 ) 42 . 54 % nannich polyol ( markol rb 216 ) 15 . 47 % diethylene glycol 5 . 80 % surfactant ( l - 5440 ) 1 . 90 % cell opener ( calcium stearate ) 0 . 48 % amine catalysts * 3 . 46 % diluents ** 27 . 85 % water 2 . 49 % [ 0206 ] hand mix properties mix ratio ( a / b by volume ) 1 : 1 component temperatures 77 ° f . initiation time 5 sec . tack free time 11 sec . cup density 2 . 99 pcf resin viscosity ( 77 ° f .) 520 cps [ 0207 ] machine sprayed properties ( gusmer h - 2 ; gx - 7 gun ; 120 ° f . temps . ; 800 psi pressures ) density ( with passline , astm d - 1622 ) 3 . 82 pcf density ( no passline , astm d - 1622 ) 3 . 22 pcf compressive strength ( with passline , astm d - 1621 ) 61 . 8 psi compressive strength ( no passline , astm d - 1621 ) 52 . 1 psi shear strength ( with passline , astm c - 273 ) 42 . 4 psi shear strength ( no passline , astm c - 273 ) 52 . 3 psi tensile strength ( with passline , astm d - 1623 ) 68 . 9 psi tensile strength ( no passline , astm d - 1623 ) 72 . 8 psi friability ( with passline , % wt . loss , astm c - 421 ) 0 . 31 % friability ( no passline , % wt . loss , astm c - 421 ) 0 . 34 % water absorption ( no passline , astm d - 2842 ) 0 . 58 % [ 0208 ] phthalate polyester ( stepanpol ps - 3152 ) 32 . 47 % mannich polyol ( silpol sip - 425lv ) 21 . 65 % diethylene glycol 7 . 22 % surfactant ( l - 5440 ) 1 . 77 % cell opener ( calcium stearate ) 0 . 39 % amine catalysts * 3 . 36 % diluents ** 30 . 97 % water 2 . 16 % [ 0209 ] hand mix properties mix ratio ( a / b by volume ) 1 : 1 component temperatures 77 ° f . initiation time 5 sec . tack free time 13 sec . cup density 3 . 08 pcf resin viscosity ( 77 ° f .) 320 cps [ 0210 ] machine sprayed properties ( glascraft ; probler gun ; 120 ° f . temps . ; 1500 psi pressures ) density ( with passline , astm d - 1622 ) 3 . 14 pcf compressive strength ( with passline , astm d - 1621 ) 43 . 0 psi shear strength ( with passline , astm c - 273 ) 46 . 8 psi tensile strength ( with passline , astm d - 1623 ) 76 . 4 psi friability ( with passline , % wt . loss , astm c - 421 ) 0 . 71 % dim . stab . ( with passline , 158 ° f ., 28 day , 0 . 58 % astm d - 2126 ) dim . stab . ( w / passline , 100 ° f ./ 95 % r . h ., − 0 . 32 % astm d - 2126 ) dim . stab . ( w / passline , 158 ° f ./ 95 % r . h ., − 2 . 44 % astm d - 2126 ) water vapor permeability ( with passline , astm e - 96 ) 2 . 09 perm in . water absorption ( no passline , astm d - 2842 ) 0 . 79 % [ 0211 ] machine sprayed prop . ( gusmer h - 2000 ; gx - 7 gun ; 130 ° f . temps . ; 1500 psi pressures ) density ( with passline , astm d - 1622 ) 3 . 18 pcf compressive strength ( with passline , astm d - 1621 ) 41 . 9 psi [ 0212 ] example 8 polyethylene glycol ( carbowax 400 ) 32 . 70 % mannich polyol ( silpol sip - 425lv ) 21 . 80 % diethylene glycol 7 . 27 % surfactant ( l - 5440 ) 0 . 75 % cell opener ( calcium stearate ) 0 . 40 % amine catalysts * 3 . 36 % diluents ** 31 . 17 % water 2 . 55 % [ 0213 ] hand mix properties mix ratio ( a / b by volume ) 1 : 1 component temperatures 77 ° f . initiation time 4 sec . tack free time 12 sec . cup density 2 . 97 pcf resin viscosity ( 77 ° f .) 130 cps cup open cell content 95 . 7 % hand mix dimensional stability & lt ; 2 . 0 % ( 158 ° f ./ 95 % r . h ., 7 days ) [ 0214 ] example 9 polyethylene glycol ( carbowax 400 ) 39 . 79 % mannich polyol ( silpol sip - 425lv ) 26 . 53 % surfactant ( l - 5440 ) 0 . 75 % cell opener ( calcium stearate ) 0 . 40 % amine catalysts * 3 . 36 % diluents ** 26 . 62 % water 2 . 55 % [ 0215 ] hand mix properties mix ratio ( a / b by volume ) 1 : 1 ( by volume ) component temperatures 77 ° f . initiation time 4 sec . tack free time 12 sec . cup density 3 . 02 pcf resin viscosity ( 77 ° f .) 180 cps cup open cell content 92 . 4 % hand mix dimensional stability & lt ; 2 . 0 % ( 158 ° f ./ 95 % r . h ., 7 days ) the invention and the manner and process of making and using it , are now described in such full , clear , concise and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains , to make and use the same . it is to be understood that the foregoing describes preferred embodiments of the present invention and that modifications may be made therein without departing from the spirit or scope of the present invention as set forth in the claims . to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter regarded as invention , the following claims conclude this specification . | 2 |
the preferred embodiment of the present invention comprises the software processes shown in fig1 . a web browser is used to access a web server , which dispatches a request to a question handling process . a question handling process passes the text of the request to a parser , and interprets the response provided by the parser to invoke one or more search processes . a search process will invoke a reading process to interpret each relevant search result , using a parser for additional validation of relevance , and then will invoke an answer process . a reading process will make use of a parser to process text in a document and generate entries in a knowledge base . an answer process will generate results using both the parsed request and any applicable knowledge bases , and display relevant results on a new web page , which it returns to the web server , which in turn passes the results page back to the web browser that dispatched the original request . to utilize this system , a user connects to a web server using a web browser , and receives a web page containing a text box in which the user may type a query using natural language , as shown in fig2 . the web browser transmits this query back to the web server , and the web server invokes a new question handling process and passes the query on to that process . both the web servers and question handling processes ( as well as all of the other processes described below ) are load - balanced across multiple computers in a computer network . alternative embodiments may utilize user interfaces in many forms , including but limited to the following : windowed interaction by using features of a computing environment , an api invoked by a computer program , textual interaction over a terminal , emulated terminal , network protocol , or electronic mail , spoken utterances in the form of audio signals , and visual information that can be interpreted as directional input . the question handling process invoked calls the parser to parse the query text into syntax trees . since most sentences have multiple possible syntactic parses , the parser builds a separate syntax tree for each possible syntactic parse of the text and assigns a probabilistic value to each one . in the preferred embodiment , this is done through the use of a hpsg grammar , although alternative embodiments can use other parsers and grammars , as well as semantic parsing . syntax trees will also be built from partial parses in the case that the parser does not recognize a complete sentence ( either because it is not provided , or because the parser &# 39 ; s grammar is not sufficient to handle all of the syntax of the text ). the knowledge base , described in more detail below , is used to eliminate possible parses that may be valid syntactically but contradict the data in the knowledge base . the question handling process then walks the most likely syntax tree ( the one with the highest probabilistic value ) and builds a list of concepts in the sentence . the question handling process then invokes a search process with the text corresponding to each of the concepts in the list . in an alternative embodiment of the present invention , the question handling process invokes the search process with the entire text of the original query , with question words ( such as “ what ”) and auxiliary verbs and commonly used words ( such as “ the ”) removed . in another alternative embodiment of the present invention , the question handling process additionally invokes the search process with each possible combination of concepts in the list . in another alternative embodiment of the present invention , the question handling process additionally invokes the search process with morphological variants of each concept in the list and related words read from a database . for example , invoking the search process with “ dogs ” would also invoke the search process with “ dog ” and “ canine ”. the search process runs web searches on the text passed to it , using multiple search engines . the preferred embodiment conducts keyword searches on google and yahoo search , but alternative embodiments can use other search engines and other types of searches , including , but not limited to auto - clustering searches , searches on other question answering systems , bigram and trigram searches , and searches on proprietary knowledge bases , local databases and document stores , and internet blogs . the preferred embodiment compiles a list of the top 50 results from each search engine , filters those results , then invokes the reading process on each item in the list . in the preferred embodiment , the reading process is invoked with the url and text of each result in the list . the text of each result is retrieved from a local cache , if available , or from the internet if that address is not cached . in the preferred embodiment , recently used web pages are cached unless marked otherwise by the appropriate html tags . the expiration date and time of each cached page is also stored , and expired pages are purged from the cache . in an alternative embodiment , only a reference to the appropriate document is passed to the reading process , and the reading process takes care of loading the appropriate text . this allows the reading process to make use of discourse level data , as well as incorporate image , multimedia , title , header , and other data when reading a document . in addition , when searching through non - internet collections of data , alternative references including file pointers , indices , and database references are used in the place of urls . when parsing document types other than html documents or text documents , an external parser can be used to provide support for additional document types , such as microsoft word documents and pdfs . the search process filters its results based on multiple criteria . in the preferred embodiment , search results are discarded without being passed to the reading process if the words searched for occur in a phrase inconsistent with the concept or concepts identified by the question handling process . inconsistencies are determined both by the parser using its grammar for validation , and by looking for contradictions in the knowledge base between entries involving each concept identified in the result document corresponding to the search words and entries involving a concept identified by the question handling process . this allows the search process to discard text such as , “ jon stood on the bank of the river ,” when the query text is , “ what bank did jon earn interest from ?” and a knowledge base contains a rule stating that a bank of a river does not pay interest . search results resulting from multiple keywords are also discarded if the keywords occur more than a whole sentence apart in the result text . in an alternative embodiment , the rankings provided by a search engine are used to establish a minimum tolerance level for results , and all results below that tolerance level are discarded . in addition , the rankings of different search engines and databases are weighted , using a statistical model developed from previous searches . weighted results that fall below a specific tolerance level are also discarded . in one alternative embodiment , the statistical model is a neural network that is rewarded or penalized by the number of knowledge base entries relevant to a posed query resulting from a given search result . in another alternative embodiment , the statistical model is a support vector machine that is rewarded or penalized by the user &# 39 ; s appraisal of the answers and citations returned by the system in response to the user &# 39 ; s query . in this case , search results that contributed to a given answer or citation that a user clicks on are rewarded , while search results that did not contribute to such answers or citations are penalized . after all of the reading processes from all of the search results are completed , the search process invokes an answer process to generate a response . the reading process takes the document provided and sequentially reads each sentence of textual data . in an alternative embodiment , the order in which sentences are read is determined by other data in a document . the paragraphs of text under the headings in the largest size are read first , then the paragraphs of text under the next largest headings , and so on . advertisements on a web page are detected by their shape and placement ( in the case of a banner ad ) or their text ( in the case of a box containing the phrase “ advertisements ” or “ sponsored ” at the top of the box ) and are ignored . another alternative embodiment only reads sentences that match the search query provided to the search process , and the immediately preceding and succeeding sentences , read in the order of ranking of the matches , as provided by a search engine . for each sentence that the reading process reads , the sentence is parsed by the parser in much the same way as described in the section on the question handling process above . however , the parser can also make use of the query to identify irrelevant parses of a sentence and discard them . for example , if the query text contains the question , “ where did the red bus stop ?” and a sentence reads , “ the city is building a new red bus stop at 5th and market ,” the parser will automatically ignore the parse which considers “ red ” to apply to the phrase “ bus stop ”, since that parse would not match the syntactic parse of the query text ( where the word “ red ” only applies to the word “ bus ”). the preferred embodiment will also further constrain the set of possible parses by using directed reasoning as described later on specific portions of the sentence ( in the above example query text , those portions are the noun phrase “ the red bus ” and the verb “ stop ”, since the system will recognize “ where ” and “ did ” as a question word and an auxiliary verb respectively , using entries in its knowledge base ). after identifying the remaining possible parses , the reading process will select the most probable parse and add its entries to a short - term knowledge base . in an alternative embodiment , every possible relevant parse is added to the short - term knowledge base in this manner . partial sentences and sentence fragments are also added to the short - term knowledge base in the same manner . each entry added to any knowledge base is tagged with a citation pointing to the document or data store and the position within the document or data store that caused the entry to be made . in the case of duplicate entries , only one entry is stored , but citations to each contributing sentence are recorded . a syntactic parse tree is used to add entries to a knowledge base by identifying the target text and constructing a fact about it . for example , the text , “ a dog has four legs ” will add a rule to the knowledge base saying that the concept “ a dog ” has the property “ has four legs ”, by identifying that the sentence consists of a noun phrase followed by a verb phrase and following a rule in the long - term knowledge base that says that a sentence that consists of a noun phrase followed by a verb phrase should result in a new rule being created that says that the noun phrase has the property consisting of a verb phrase . other rules can also be added to support more complex forms of syntactic structure . in the preferred embodiment , new entries are stored as natural language text , which allows the representation of higher - order expressions and logic rules than traditional predicate logic or first - order or second - order logic systems . other entries in a knowledge base can also be stored as functions in binary code or source code that are executed when a rule is evaluated or applied . in an alternative embodiment , a selected form of logic is applied during reasoning involving a rule . the natural language representation of knowledge base entries allows various logical formalisms to be selected when rules are applied rather than when they are stored , and allows a different logical formalism to be used during separate applications of the same rule , to allow for a richer set of context - sensitive logical capabilities . in the preferred embodiment , when applying rules , a logical evaluation function is called to operate on rules stored as the text , “ if x then y .” that will evaluate the expression y as true whenever the expression x is true and record that fact in the same natural language format in the knowledge base currently being used to store data . in an alternative embodiment , this fact is also stored as a statement in second - order logic . a rule also exists stating that the expression “ a and b ” will be true if and only if both the expression a is true and the expression b is true . a rule also exists stating that the expression “ c or d ” will be true if either one or both of the expression c and the expression d are true . a rule also exists stating that the expression “ not e ” will be true if and only if the expression e is false . these evaluations can also be chained with both themselves and other rule applications as described below , using directed reasoning . in an alternative embodiment , new entries are additionally stored as first - order logic statements , using standard first - order predicate techniques well known in the art , allowing traditional first - order predicate logical processing to occur as well if desired . when a new entry is made in a knowledge base , the reading process will also engage in logic related to that entry . in the preferred embodiment of the present invention , this takes the form of deductive reasoning applied to the new entry . in an alternative embodiment , inductive reasoning and abductive reasoning are also used , with a probabilistic score assigned to the induced or abduced rule based on 10 times the number of contradictions to the rule subtracted from the number of matches , normalized to a score between 0 and 1 . this allows specific rules to be generalized if they occur frequently . in the preferred embodiment , deductive reasoning is applied to any rule related to the new entry . for example , the rule saying that the concept “ a dog ” has the property “ has four legs ”, will be applied to a previously entered rule that states that the concept “ rover ” has the property “ is a dog ” to synthesize a new rule stating that the concept “ rover ” has the property “ has four legs ”. in one alternative embodiment , each new rule is then subject to further reasoning processes until no new conclusions can be made . however , in the preferred embodiment , these reasoning processes are directed using the query parsed by the question handling process , to prevent unnecessary reasoning . this means that only reasoning directly related to the parsed query or related to it by a continuous chain of logic will be allowed on rules deducted from other rules . in the preferred embodiment , the directed reasoning process determines that two rules or a sentence or sentence fragment and a rule are related if the portion of a first rule or sentence being used to direct reasoning also occurs in the second rule . however , other definitions of relevance can also be supported by the system by modifying the criteria for relevance . when other parts of the system , such as the parser , use the knowledge base , they can also direct reasoning in a similar manner through the same method . in an alternative embodiment , additional reasoning can also be continued in the background while the rest of the system continues normal operation . the preferred embodiment conducts such reasoning by using both the short - term and long - term knowledge bases , and by storing new rules in the short - term knowledge base . rules in the short - term knowledge base are later merged into the long - term knowledge base if they are not invalidated or deemed irrelevant by the end of the task performed by the reading process . in an alternative embodiment of the present invention , this merging does not occur until all of the results from a given source have been read by the reading processes . in another alternative embodiment , this merging does not occur until all the results from all sources have been read and the original query has been answered . in another alternative embodiment of the present invention , the short - term and long - term knowledge bases are not separate data stores , and all knowledge is stored in a central knowledge base . in another alternative embodiment of the present invention , separate short - term knowledge bases are maintained for each source , then they are all merged into the long - term knowledge base after all of the short - term knowledge bases are constructed . this allows support for simultaneously dealing with rules that might otherwise contradict each other but make perfect sense when restricted to a specific context or document , and then allow less context - specific rules to be derived from them before merging or while merging knowledge bases together . the preferred embodiment also allows the use of supplemental knowledge bases previously built or supplied by the user , to supplement a query or a search with relevant knowledge , including but not limited to domain - specific knowledge , commonsense knowledge , historical knowledge , and rules specifically relating to the query . these knowledge bases can either be kept separate but used in the reasoning process , or merged into the long - term knowledge base , at the option of the user or the system administrator . the preferred embodiment can support contradictory rules in the same knowledge base , since each rule has its own set of citations . however , in an alternative embodiment , rules that contradict rules in the long - term knowledge base are discarded during the process of merging together knowledge bases . the reading process also handles morphological variants in the text it operates on . the preferred embodiment creates a version of each syntax tree containing only the infinitive form of each verb , and performs all of the above activities on this syntax tree as well . in one alternative embodiment , this syntax tree will also only contain the present tense of verbs . in this alternative embodiment , only this syntax tree is actually processed , but rules in a knowledge base are tagged with metadata indicating their original tenses ( but not their original conjugations , which are generated on - the - fly by the answer process when generating answer sentences ). in another alternative embodiment , separate syntax trees are generated for each verb and for each form of morphology ( conjugation , tense , comparative , passive voice , etc .). in another alternative embodiment , the same process is also applied to nouns , as well as verb phrases and subordinate clauses as a whole . in the preferred embodiment , the reading process maps morphological forms to one another by first referring to a lookup table , and then by using heuristics encoded in the long - term knowledge base , if the words cannot be found in the lookup table . the reading process also attempts to resolve pronouns and other contextual referents when possible . in the preferred embodiment , this is achieved by keeping track of the last 10 references ( or , in an alternative embodiment , all of the references in the most recent two paragraphs ) to each concept that can fit into one of the following categories : noun phrase , action , masculine noun phrase , feminine noun phrase , neuter noun phrase ( for languages that support it ), verb phrase , and sentence fragment . these categorizations are determined by the parser , rules in the knowledge base , directed reasoning conducted using the knowledge base , and a separate database of word categorization listings . in some cases a word or phrase may appear in multiple categories , both because multiple categories apply , and because there may not be enough information from these sources to completely categorize a word or phrase . when a pronoun or other contextual referent is encountered , the reading process will instead substitute ( for that part of the syntax tree ) a reference to the most recent occurrence in that category that does not create a contradiction or violate constraints in the knowledge bases . additional directed reasoning about both the referent and possible substitutions will also occur at this time , to help constrain the number of possible substitutions . for example , the sentences , “ peter went to the park . he was smiling and was happy about that .” would cause the system to substitute a reference to the masculine noun phrase “ peter ” for the pronoun “ he ” and a reference to the sentence fragment “ peter was smiling ” for the contextual referent “ that ”, by chaining the substitutions . in the preferred embodiment , new rules that are entered into the knowledge base that can be used to answer the original query will be used to generate an answer sentence when they are entered into the knowledge base ( a reading process indicates to the calling search process every time an entry is made into the knowledge base , and the search process calls the answer process ). in an alternative embodiment , all possible answer sentences are generated from the entire knowledge base after all the reading processes from all of the search results have completed . the answers are generated by the answer process by first identifying the relevant fragments of the query syntax tree , using rules in either a knowledge base or a separate database . a rule states that questions of the form , “ what is x ?” should return answers of the form , “ x is y .” for any property of the concept “ x ” of the form , “ is y ”, where “ y ” is an arbitrary syntactic grammatical structure . in an alternative embodiment , the concept “ x ” and the verb “ is ” are also identified as relevant to the parse by these rules , although the verb “ is ” is only identified as relevant in situations where it involves the concept “ x ”. this usage in the alternative embodiment is described later below . additional question answering rules can be added to support more complex forms of queries and to provide more accurate and more relevant answers . in an alternative embodiment , these rules can also be used to respond to non - question statements , such as , “ name the number of dog breeds with black fur .” in the case of multiple morphological variants of otherwise equivalent answers , only a single answer is returned for each set of answers differing only by morphology . in the preferred embodiment , the answer selected from the set is the one morphologically equivalent to the morphological form of the query text . in an alternative embodiment , the first answer found is selected . in the preferred embodiment , the answer sentences are returned on a web page , sequentially ranked by number of total source citations , with a line of surrounding text from the first citation for each answer sentence and the citation source and number of citations listed . clicking on the number of citations will provide a full list of citation sources along with the relevant sentences in the cited sources . each citation source in both cases is listed as a hyperlink linking to the relevant source document . in the event that no answer sentences can be generated in response to a query , the answer process will instead return the top ranking results of the keyword searches provided by the search process . this will also occur if the number of answers falls below a certain number , where the highest - ranking of the answers falls below a set tolerance level , determined by the user or configured by the system administrator . in an alternative embodiment , rankings are weighted by a trust value assigned to each entry in the knowledge base , as well as to each source document . these trust values can be assigned by rules in the knowledge base , individual users , general user usage data , the parser ( by recognizing statements such as , “ it is not the case that & lt ; sentence & gt ;”, which would assign a trust value to the negation of & lt ; sentence & gt ;), external validation sources , and common machine learning techniques such as neural networks in response to usage of the sources , usage of the rules entered into a knowledge base , or usage of their resulting answers . multiple trust values can also be combined to take into account the accuracy ratings from multiple sources . rules in a knowledge base can also be marked always true or irrefutable with metadata tags by the user or a system administrator . in the preferred embodiment , a rule marked always true always has a trust value of 1 ( the highest possible trust value , indicating complete trust ), regardless of other factors . a rule marked irrefutable prevents any rule that contradicts it from being entered into the knowledge base . in other alternative embodiments of the present invention , rules entered in the knowledge base are used to generate metrics and responses other than answer sentences . in one such alternative embodiment , the answer process includes a rule for handling the question , “ what are people saying about x ?” the user can specify which document sources for the search processes to use . in this case , any rules entered into the knowledge base that refer to the concept “ x ” are compiled and returned as responses by the answer process in place of answer sentences . in another alternative embodiment , the reading process performs these functions instead of the answer process , so that responses can be continuously incrementally determined as the search and reading processes continue . further rules can be added to provide additional refinement and pruning of responses . in addition , aggregate statistics about such responses are returned , including the number of distinct documents that each response is derived from , for each verb phrase in the responses , the total number of responses that contain concept “ x ” followed by that specific verb phrase or its morphological variants , and any other relevant statistics that the system is configured to produce . as mentioned previously , such rules are not limited to questions , and can be augmented by calling external programs . in this alternative embodiment , the command , “ determine the number of companies that make hybrid cars ” will return a numerical result , along with a list of source sentences and citations by following a rule that says , “ determine x ” should return results that match a concept “ x ” ( in this alternative embodiment , matching refers to results that specifically consist of nothing but concept “ x ” or its morphological variants , not just results that refer to concept “ x ” somewhere in the result , although in another alternative embodiment it is enough to simply contain concept “ x ” somewhere in the result , and in yet another alternative embodiment , it is enough to contain concept “ x ” somewhere in the result if and only if concept “ x ” has also been determined to be the subject of that result ). this rule in turn will make use of a rule that says , “ the number of y ” should return a numerical value consisting of the total number of matches for concept “ y ”, along with a list of source sentences and citations for those matches . this rule in turn will make use of a rule , “ np that vp ” that matches all entries relating to concepts z in the knowledge base that say that a concept z has a property vp and concept z is an instance of np , where np is a noun phrase , as well as any morphological variants of np and vp that fit these criteria . this ability to chain rules and use deductive and other forms of logical reasoning allows many complex commands and queries to be handled by the system . for example ( if the system is configured to allow directed reasoning to occur at this point in the process ), in addition to returning results that match concept “ x ”, the system also returns any results that match concepts for which there are rules saying that those concepts are instances of “ x ”. in another alternative embodiment , the command , “ buy 12 shares of the nasdaq 100 index when most people are saying that the price of oil will be less than $ 50 ” can be used to automatically purchase stock . in this case , there is a rule stating that , “ buy x shares of y when z ” should cause an order to be executed by the current user &# 39 ; s stockbroker for x shares of the stock , index , option , fund , or derivative y when the condition z is reached , by calling an external program to execute the order for x shares of y with the user &# 39 ; s credentials . in this alternative embodiment , background processes may be continuously run or run at set , defined intervals to evaluate whether condition z has been reached yet . as previously described above , z is determined by a combination of rules . this embodiment has a rule defining “ most ” as two - thirds of matching results when “ most ” is applied to people . it also makes use of a rule that says the statement , “ people are saying that a ” should match all search results that match any morphological variant of a , keeping one result per source document . this embodiment also makes use of another rule that increases the number of search results by stating that the phrase “ less than b ” will match anything that matches a number ( or in this case an expression with a $) less than b in addition to matching the literal phrase ( which in this case is , “ less than $ 50 ”). in the preferred embodiment , after generating the answer sentences and other appropriate responses and citations , the answer process sends the generated web page back to the web server , which in turn returns it to the user &# 39 ; s web browser , to display the results to the user , as shown in fig3 . in an alternative embodiment , in the case that the answer process determines too many answers are being returned , the user may be asked clarifying questions to help narrow the search . for example , in one alternative embodiment , the question , “ what happened on jun . 24 , 2004 ?” will return too many unique answers ( as specified by the system administrator ), so the answer process will query the user ( in the web server &# 39 ; s response ) to refine his query to a specific geographic region or topic . in this case , the subsequent query will use the existing knowledge base without conducting additional searches , although this behavior can be overridden by the system administrator . this alternative embodiment can also handle specific ambiguities in a similar manner . for example , when the answer process determines that the word “ banks ” in the query , “ how many banks are in new york ?” could refer to either financial institutions or river banks , based on the rules in the knowledge base , it will ask the user , “ do you mean financial banking services or river banks ?” by appending the text of each sense of the word , “ banks ” in its knowledge base to the phrase , “ do you mean ”, and separating the senses by the conjunction “ or ”. in this alternative embodiment , wordnet is used to add definitions of each sense to the knowledge base , in addition to the rules entered by the reading processes . in another alternative embodiment , the knowledge base is preserved across all queries by a given user , unless the user indicates otherwise , so that the user can build on previous queries , regardless of whether the system asks follow - up questions . in this embodiment , pronouns and other contextual referents are resolved in queries using the same techniques described above by the reading process . the answer process also inserts contextually relevant advertisements into the page with the answers or other responses provided . in the preferred embodiment , these advertisements are obtained from an external source that the answer process provides with the text of the responses , to allow the external source to supply contextually relevant advertisements . however , twice as many advertisements are obtained as can fit in the appropriate sections of the returned page . these advertisements are then filtered based on the entries in the knowledge base , and only actually inserted into the page if they either share concepts with the text of any of the responses , or directed reasoning allows those concepts to be related using the entries in the knowledge base and the directed reasoning process . if not enough advertisements remain after the filtering process , additional advertisements are obtained from the external source and the process is repeated until enough advertisements can be inserted into the page to fill the appropriate sections of the page . if too many results remain after the filtering process , the results are inserted into the page sequentially , stopping after the appropriate sections of the page are full . the foregoing description of the preferred embodiment and select alternative embodiments of the invention has been presented for the purposes of illustration and description . it is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed . many modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teaching . | 6 |
now preferred embodiment of the present invention will be explained referring to the attached drawings . fig1 is a partially cutaway front view showing a diagrammatical construction of the magnetizing apparatus of the present invention . fig2 is a perspective view of an essential part of the apparatus of fig1 . fig3 is an enlarged view of the area “ x ” of fig1 . fig4 – fig9 are an enlarged view of the area “ x ” according to other embodiments , respectively . fig1 is a partially cutaway perspective view of an essential part of a modified embodiment shown in fig1 – fig1 . in the magnetizing apparatus a shown in fig1 – fig3 , a fixture 2 is mounted on a rotary spindle apparatus 1 so as to be rotatable around an axis l . the reference numeral 1 a is a rotary drive motor of the spindle apparatus 1 . the fixture 2 is comprised of a jaw type chuck means and three chuck jaws 2 b . . . of sector form ( 120 degrees ) made of non - magnetic material are provided on a base 2 a so as to be movable in radial direction . in the figure when the chuck jaws 2 b . . . are moved in centrifugal direction , they are tightly held in an inner tubular part of a tubular member ( work ) to hold and fix the work . although it is not shown in the figure , it goes without saying that an automatic or manual operation means for adjusting the movement of the jaw chucks 2 b . . . in radial direction is provided for the base 2 a . the chuck jaws 2 b . . . may be prepared corresponding to the size of work and detachable and exchangeable by means of a fixture ( not shown ) from the base 2 a . a ring reinforcement 3 is formed by sheet metal work of a magnetic metal like a stainless steel and is comprised of a tubular part 3 a and an outward flange portion 3 b ( two parts , namely a tubular part and an other part integrally formed with the tubular part ). the annular object to be magnetized 4 is made of a rubber material like fkm , nbr , h - nbr , epdm , cr , acm , aem , vmq , or fvmq in which magnetic powder like ferrite is mixed . the object 4 is integrally attached on the outer surface and outer circumference of the outward flange portion 3 b by means of vulcanization . the ring reinforcement 3 integrally attached with the annular body to be magnetized 4 is used as a work and the tubular part 3 a thereof is held and fixed by the fixture 2 . a magnetizing yoke 5 is constructed such that a coil 5 b is wound around a ring breakage iron core 5 a like the letter c and electric current is supplied to the coil 5 b to generate a magnetic field from the ring breakage iron cores 51 , 52 . the magnetizing yoke 5 is provided near the fixture 2 . a pressing means 5 c is provided behind the magnetizing yoke 5 so as to slightly press the ring breakage iron core 52 onto the outer circumference of the tubular part 3 a by means of a spring . a magnetizing method of the magnetizing apparatus a will be explained . the ring reinforcement 3 is formed by metal sheet work of a magnetic material , the rubber material mentioned above is attached on the outer surface ( flat surface ) and peripheral edge of the outward flange portion 3 b to be integrated , thus forming the annular body to be magnetized 4 . the ring reinforcement 3 integrated with the annular body to be magnetized 4 is held and fixed with the tubular part 3 a by means of chuck jaws 2 b . . . of the fixture 2 . the magnetizing yoke 5 is provided near the fixture 2 in such a manner that the ring breakage end 52 ( the other end ) of the magnetizing yoke 5 is pushed so as to slightly get in touch with the outer circumference of the tubular part 3 a by means of the pressing means 5 c and another ring breakage end 51 ( one end ) thereof is approached into the surface of the annular body to be magnetized 4 . a motor 1 a of the rotary spindle apparatus 1 is driven to rotate the fixture 2 around the axis l and electric current is applied to the coil 5 b wound around the magnetizing yoke 5 . application of electric current is controlled based on a control sequence which is programmed to alternately reverse current direction , i . e . change current toward a positive or negative direction at a short predetermined interval . as a result , a circular closed loop of a magnetic flux “ a ” is generated , the flux passing the ring breakage end 51 — the annular body to be magnetized 4 — the ring reinforcement 3 — the ring breakage end 52 and returning to the ring breakage 51 . the direction of the magnetic flux “ a ” is changed depending on an alternate application of the electric current , thereby alternately changing the passing direction of the flux at a short interval as shown at the arrows in fig3 . during such application of alternate magnetic flux , the annular body to be magnetized 4 rotates around the axis l , so that the magnetic powder contained in the annular body is magnetized in a manner that s poles and n poles are alternately appeared along its periphery of the annular body , thereby making a multi - pole magnetized tone wheel . the fixture 2 is made of non - magnetic body , therefore , the magnetic flux “ a ” does not leak into the fixture 2 , the density of magnetic flux “ a ” in the circular closed loop is kept constant , and the magnetizing pattern formed on the annular body to be magnetized 4 becomes constant along the circumferential direction , thereby obtaining a tone wheel of good quality . the fixture 2 is comprised of a jaw type chuck means , however , the space between the jaws does not affect magnetizing , so that a general purpose jaw type chuck means is used as a fixture , thereby obtaining wide design freedom . further , the positioning of the magnetizing yoke 5 is executed by slightly pressing the ring breakage end 52 into the outer circumference of the tubular part 3 a by means of the pressing means 5 c , thereby contributing accuracy and facilitation . the embodiment shown in fig4 explains a magnetizing method in which a ring reinforcement 3 is made of a tubular part 3 a and an inward flange portion 3 c integrally formed with the tubular part 3 a ( two parts , namely a tubular part and an other part integrally formed with the tubular part ) and the annular body to be magnetized 4 is integrally attached to the outer circumference of the tubular part 3 a . in this embodiment , like the above - mentioned embodiment 1 , the tubular part 3 a of the ring enforcement 3 is held and fixed with the fixture 2 . however , in this embodiment , the inward flange portion 3 c is positioned on the fixture 2 while they are fixed . the pressing means 5 c is provided on the magnetizing yoke 5 . the magnetizing yoke 5 is provided in such a manner that the ring breakage end 52 ( the other end ) is pushed onto the upper face of the inward flange portion 3 c by means of the pressing means 5 c and the ring open end 51 ( one end ) is approached to the outer circumference of the tubular part 3 a to which the annular body to be magnetized 4 is integrally attached . after the above - mentioned preparation , an alternate electric current is applied to the coil 5 b while rotating the fixture 2 around the axis l as mentioned above , a circular closed loop of the magnetic flux “ a ” is generated along the ring breakage end 51 — the annular body to be magnetized 4 — the ring reinforcement 3 — the ring breakage end 52 — the ring breakage end 51 . the magnetizing pattern is formed on the annular body to be magnetized 4 in a manner that s poles and n poles are alternately repeated around the its periphery . also in this embodiment , the fixture 2 is made of non - magnetic body , therefore , the magnetic flux “ a ” does not leak into the fixture 2 , the density of magnetic flux “ a ” in the circular closed loop is kept constant , and the magnetizing pattern formed on the annular body to be magnetized 4 becomes constant along the circumferential direction , thereby obtaining a tone wheel of good quality . the fixture 2 is comprised of a jaw type chuck means , however , the space between the jaws does not affect magnetizing , so that a general purpose jaw type chuck means is used as a fixture , thereby obtaining wide design freedom , like the above - mentioned embodiment . other constructions and effects are the same as those of the above - mentioned embodiment , so that the common members have the same reference numerals and their explanations are omitted here . the pressing means 5 c may not be provided in the embodiments 1 , 2 and the ring breakage end 52 of the magnetizing yoke 5 may be provided near the ring reinforcement 3 . the embodiment shown in fig5 shows a magnetizing method in which a ring reinforcement 3 is comprised of a thick tubular part 3 a and an end face 3 b corresponding to the thickness ( two parts , namely a tubular part and an other part integrally formed with the tubular part ) and the annular body to be magnetized 4 is integrally attached with the outer circumference of the tubular part 3 a . the magnetizing yoke 5 is constructed such that the coil 5 b is wound at three parts of an iron core 5 a like the letter e , two ends 52 ( other end ) are attached or approached to the upper and lower end faces 3 d of the ring enforcement 3 respectively , and another end 51 ( one end ) is approached to the outer circumference of the tubular part 3 a to which the annular body to be magnetized 4 is integrally attached . as mentioned above , an alternate electric current is applied to the coil 5 b while rotating the fixture 2 around the axis l as mentioned above , a circular closed loop of the magnetic flux “ a ” is generated along the ring breakage end 51 — the annular body to be magnetized 4 — the ring reinforcement 3 — the ring breakage end 52 — the ring breakage end 51 . in this case , the magnetic flux path is divided into two directions from the ring breakage end 51 and two circular closed loops of the magnetic flux “ a ” are formed . the magnetizing pattern is also formed on the annular body to be magnetized 4 in a manner that s poles and n poles are alternately repeated around the circumferential direction . also in this embodiment , the fixture 2 is made of non - magnetic body , therefore , the magnetic flux “ a ” does not leak into the fixture 2 , the density of magnetic flux “ a ” in the circular closed loop is kept constant , and the magnetizing pattern formed on the annular body to be magnetized 4 becomes constant along the circumferential direction , thereby obtaining a tone wheel of good quality . the fixture 2 is comprised of a jaw type chuck means , however , the space between the jaws does not affect magnetizing , so that a general purpose jaw type chuck means is used as a fixture , thereby obtaining wide design freedom . other constructions and effects are the same as those of the above - mentioned embodiments , so that the common members have the same reference numerals and their explanations are omitted here . the embodiment shown in fig6 explains a magnetizing method in which the ring reinforcement 3 is comprised of the tubular part 3 a and a plane annular part 3 e which is formed by sheet metal processing so as to bend a part of the tubular part 3 a to be folded ( two parts , namely a tubular part and an other part integrally formed with the tubular part ) and the annular body to be magnetized 4 is integrally attached on the plane annular part 3 e . in this embodiment , the tubular part 3 a of the ring reinforcement 3 is held and fixed to the fixture 2 like the above - mentioned embodiments , however , there is a space 2 c formed by the smaller diameter part of the fixture 2 in the back of the tubular part 3 a . the magnetizing yoke 5 is positioned in such a manner that the ring breakage end 51 ( one end ) of the magnetizing yoke 5 like the letter c is approached to the annular body to be magnetized 4 and the ring breakage end 52 ( the other end ) is positioned apart from the ring reinforcement 3 . the apart position is outside of the outer circumference “ b ” of the annular body to be magnetized 4 attached on the plane annular part 3 e and is near the ring reinforcement 3 from the upper face position “ c ” of the annular body to be magnetized 4 . in this case , the ring breakage end 52 ( the other end ) is preferably positioned near the ring reinforcement 3 from the back face position “ d ” of the annular body to be magnetized 4 . therefore , the magnetic circular closed loop penetrating the annular body to be magnetized 4 is efficiently formed and a tone wheel with superior magnetic characteristic is obtained . as mentioned above , an alternate electric current is applied to the coil 5 b while rotating the fixture 2 around the axis l as mentioned above , a circular closed loop of the magnetic flux “ a ” is generated along the ring breakage end 51 — the annular body to be magnetized 4 — the ring reinforcement 3 — the ring breakage end 52 — the ring breakage end 51 . in this case the ring breakage end 52 is apart from the ring reinforcement 3 , however , the members other than the magnetizing yoke 5 , the ring reinforcement 3 and the annular body to be magnetized 4 are made of non - magnetic material , so that there is no other space to form a circular closed loop of the magnetic flux and the same magnetizing as mentioned above is executed by the circular closed loop of the magnetic flux “ a ” as shown in the figure . the space 2 c is formed in the back of the tubular part 3 a and directivity of magnetic flux into the fixture 2 is weakened , thereby effectively forming a circular closed loop of the magnetic flux “ a ”. other constructions and effects are the same as those of the above - mentioned embodiments , so that the common members have the same reference numerals and their explanations are omitted here . in this case , even if the ring reinforcement 3 is made of non - magnetic material , the circular closed loop of the magnetic flux “ a ” as shown in the figure is formed . the embodiment shown in fig7 explains a modified embodiment of the magnetizing method by means of the ring enforcement 3 and the annular body to be magnetized 4 attached to the outward flange portion 3 b as explained in the embodiment 1 . as mentioned above , a circular closed loop of the magnetic flux “ a ” is generated along the ring breakage end 51 — the annular body to be magnetized 4 — the ring reinforcement 3 — the ring breakage end 52 — the ring breakage end 51 . in this case , the ring breakage end 52 is apart from the ring reinforcement 3 like the embodiment 4 , however , the members other than the magnetizing yoke 5 , the ring reinforcement 3 and the annular body to be magnetized 4 are made of non - magnetic material , so that there is no other space to form a circular closed loop of the magnetic flux and the same magnetizing as mentioned above is executed by the circular closed loop of the magnetic flux “ a ” as shown in the figure . the positioning of the ring breakage end 52 , the outer circumference “ b ” of the annular body to be magnetized 4 , the upper face position “ c ” of the annular body to be magnetized 4 , and the back face position “ d ” of the annular body to be magnetized 4 is preferably the same as that in the embodiment 4 . like the embodiment 2 the embodiment shown in fig8 explains a magnetizing method in which the ring reinforcement 3 is made of the tubular part 3 a and the inward flange portion 3 c integrally formed with the tubular part 3 a ( two parts , namely a tubular part and an other part integrally formed with the tubular part ) and the annular body to be magnetized 4 is integrally attached to the outer circumference ( plane face ) of the inward flange portion 3 c . also in this embodiment , the circular closed loop of the magnetic flux “ a ” is formed along the ring breakage end 51 — the annular body to be magnetized 4 — the ring reinforcement 3 — the ring breakage end 52 — the ring breakage end 51 . in the embodiment shown in fig9 , the ring reinforcement 3 is made of the tubular part 3 a and the outward flange portion 3 c integrally formed with the tubular part 3 a ( two parts , namely a tubular part and an other part integrally formed with the tubular part ) like the embodiment 1 , however , the outer circumference of the tubular part 3 a is held and fixed with the fixture 2 . namely , the chuck jaws 2 b of the fixture 2 externally hold the tubular part 3 a by being moved into centripetal direction . the annular body to be magnetized 4 is integrally attached to the outer circumference ( plane face ) of the outward flange portion 3 b . also in this embodiment , the circular closed loop of the magnetic flux “ a ” is formed along the ring breakage end 51 — the annular body to be magnetized 4 — the ring reinforcement 3 — the ring breakage end 52 — the ring breakage end 51 . other constructions and effects in the embodiments 5 – 7 are the same as those of the above - mentioned embodiments , so that the common members have the same reference numerals and their explanations are omitted here . fig1 shows an embodiment in which a ring - like positioning table 6 for positioning the annular body to be magnetized 4 attached to the ring reinforcement 3 made of magnetic material prior to applying alternate magnetic flux is interposed between the ring reinforcement 3 and the other end 52 of the magnetizing yoke 5 in the embodiment 4 . the positioning table 6 is provided around the fixture 2 so as to be upwardly energized on a positioning base 60 by means of a compression spring 6 a . the positioning table 6 is provided for positioning the annular body to be magnetized 4 at a fixed position . in a pre - process of magnetizing , the ring reinforcement 3 made of magnetic material attached with the annular body to be magnetized 4 is placed on the positioning table 6 as shown in the figure , a positioning base plate ( not shown ) is pressed onto the upper surface of the annular body to be magnetized 4 resisting the elasticity of compression spring 6 a from above to keep the body 4 at a fixed position . under such condition , the chuck jaws 2 b . . . of the fixture 2 are operated to fix the ring reinforcement 3 to the fixture 2 by means of the tubular part 3 a . then , the positioning base plate is retracted and the same magnetizing as mentioned above is executed while rotating the fixture 2 . the positioning table 6 is preferably designed to be retracted into other position after completing the above - mentioned positioning . however , such design makes the apparatus complicated , so that the plate 6 is integrally or separately provided around the fixture 2 in general and is interposed between the ring reinforcement 3 made of magnetic material and the other end 52 of the magnetizing yoke 5 . when the annular body to be magnetized 4 is magnetized with the magnetizing yoke 5 while rotating the fixture 2 , a circular closed loop of a magnetic flux “ a ” is formed along the ring breakage end 51 — the annular body to be magnetized 4 — the ring reinforcement 3 — the positioning table 6 — the ring breakage end 52 as shown in the figure . when the positioning table 6 is made of magnetic material , a magnetic circular closed loop is effectively formed . however , when the plate 6 is positioned as shown in the figure , even if it is made of non - magnetic material , the forming efficiency of magnetic circular closed loop is not reduced so much . that is , when the positioning table 6 made of magnetic material is interposed between the ring reinforcement 3 made of magnetic material and the other end 52 of the magnetizing yoke 5 , the alternate magnetic flux “ a ” forms the circular closed loop shown with the solid lines along the shape of the positioning table 6 . when the positioning table 6 is made of non - magnetic material , the magnetic flux “ a ′” with the two - dotted lines in the figure is formed so as to connect the shortest distance of the ring reinforcement 3 made of magnetic material and the other end 52 of the magnetizing yoke 5 . as the result , an alternate magnetic flux “ a ” forms a circular closed loop along the one end 51 of the magnetizing yoke — the annular body to be magnetized 4 — the ring reinforcement 3 — the positioning table 6 — the other end 52 of the magnetizing yoke as shown in the figure . if the positioning table 6 is integrated with the fixture 2 , they are rotated together . if the positioning table 6 is provided separately , it stands still while the fixture 2 is rotated . the positioning of the ring breakage end 52 , the outer circumference “ b ” of the annular body to be magnetized 4 , the upper face position “ c ” of the annular body to be magnetized 4 , and the back face position “ d ” of the annular body to be magnetized 4 is preferably the same as that in the embodiment 4 . other constructions are the same as those of the above - mentioned embodiments , so that the common members have the same reference numerals and their explanations are omitted here . fig1 shows an embodiment in which the ring - like positioning table 6 for positioning the annular body to be magnetized 4 attached to the ring reinforcement 3 made of magnetic material , prior to applying an alternate magnetic flux , is interposed between the ring reinforcement 3 made of magnetic body and the other end 52 of the magnetizing yoke 5 in the embodiment 5 . when the positioning table 6 is made of magnetic material or a non - magnetic material , an alternate magnetic flux forms a circular closed loop along the one end 51 of the magnetizing yoke — the annular body to be magnetized 4 — the ring reinforcement 3 — the positioning table 6 — the other end 52 of the magnetizing yoke ( if the positioning table 6 is made of non - magnetic material , along the magnetic flux “ a ′” shown with two - dotted lines like the above - mentioned embodiment ). other constructions are the same as those of the embodiment 8 , so that the common members have the same reference numerals and their explanations are omitted here . fig1 shows an embodiment in which the ring reinforcement 3 is made of the tubular part 3 a and the inward flange portion 3 c integrally formed with the tubular part 3 a ( two parts , namely a tubular part and an other part integrally formed with the tubular part ), the annular body to be magnetized 4 is integrally attached to the outer circumference ( plane face ) of the inward flange portion 3 c , the outer circumference of the tubular part 3 a is held with the chuck jaws 2 b . . . like the embodiment 7 , the ring - like positioning table 6 for positioning the annular body to be magnetized 4 attached to the ring reinforcement 3 made of magnetic material , prior to applying an alternate magnetic flux , is interposed between the ring reinforcement 3 and the other end 52 of the magnetizing yoke 5 . in this embodiment , the positioning table 6 is upwardly energized on the base 2 a of the fixture 2 via the compression spring 6 a in the chuck jaws 2 b . . . and is rotated together with the fixture 2 around the axis l . also in this embodiment , if the positioning table 6 is made of magnetic material or a non - magnetic material , the alternate magnetic flux forms a circular closed loop along the one end 51 of the magnetizing yoke — the annular body to be magnetized 4 — the ring reinforcement 3 — the positioning table 6 — the other end 52 of the magnetizing yoke ( if the positioning table 6 is made of non - magnetic material , along the magnetic flux “ a ” shown with two - dotted lines like the above - mentioned embodiment ). other constructions are the same as those of the embodiment 8 , so that the common members have the same reference numerals and their explanations are omitted here . fig1 shows a modified embodiment in which the ring - like positioning table 6 is interposed between the ring reinforcement 3 made of magnetic body and the other end 52 of the magnetizing yoke 5 . when the positioning table 6 is made of magnetic body and is fixedly provided ( not rotated ), gaps 6 c , 6 c are provided by cutting both sides of the positioning table 6 corresponding to the position of the magnetizing yoke 5 , and a screen - like part 6 b between the gaps 6 c , 6 c is formed as a part of the ring - like positioning table 6 intervened between the ring reinforcement 3 and the other end 52 of the magnetizing yoke 5 . in case of magnetizing , an alternate magnetic flux forms a circular closed loop along the one end 51 of the magnetizing yoke — the annular body to be magnetized 4 — the ring reinforcement 3 made of magnetic material — the part 6 b of the positioning table 6 — the other end 52 of the magnetizing yoke . in this case , leak of the magnetic flux is reduced because of the gaps 6 c , 6 c and the narrow part 6 b of the positioning table 6 is formed as a magnetic flux path , thereby enlarging the magnetic flux density and forming a efficient magnetic circular closed loop . the ring reinforcement 3 in this embodiment is made of the tubular part 3 a and the outward flange portion 3 c integrally formed with the tubular part 3 a ( two parts , namely a tubular part and an other part integrally formed with the tubular part ) and the annular body to be magnetized 4 is integrally attached to the outer circumference ( plane face ) of the outward flange portion 3 b . although , the positioning pattern by the positioning table 6 and the holding and fixing pattern by the fixture 2 are similar to those in the embodiment 9 , this embodiment can be applied to the positioning patterns with other ring reinforcement 3 , annular body to be magnetized 4 , and positioning table 6 and the holding and fixing pattern with other fixture 2 . the ring reinforcement 3 integrated with thus magnetized tone wheel is provided for the rotating member of the bearing system as a slinger and a combination seal ring of the bearing can be assembled . a magnetic sensor is provided for the fixing member so as to oppose the tone wheel , thus simply constructing a magnetic encoder for detecting the rotational velocity . the magnetizing pattern formed on the tone wheel is uniform and has high magnetizing accuracy in the circumferential direction , so that thus formed magnetic encoder has a large vocation for detecting the rotational velocity of automobile wheels . the mechanism of the jaw type chuck means of the fixture 2 is not limited to those shown in the figures , and it goes without saying that other kinds of generally used chuck means can be used . it is possible to further provide a speed accelerator / reducer for the motor 1 a of the rotary spindle apparatus 1 to change the formation interval of the s poles and n poles by varying the rotational speed of the fixture . or it may be possible to provide a magnetizing power source for the s poles and the n poles respectively or to control the magnetizing power source output to vary the magnetizing strength depending on the purpose , associating with the output of the magnetizing yoke 5 . in this case , the magnetizing current direction is switched ( reversed ) per a desired angle displacement by the signal from the encoder ( not shown ) provided for the spindle apparatus 1 during magnetizing . thus varying a desired angle , the interval of magnetized s poles and n poles can be optionally changed . further , the tubular part and the part integrally formed with one end thereof which comprise the ring reinforcement 3 are not limited to those shown in the figures , other configuration may be used as far as they are comprised of a tubular part and an other part integrally connected with the tubular part . | 6 |
a preferred embodiment of the present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings . first , recording and reproduction on a cassette having a tape and an integral semiconductor memory therein will be described with reference to fig1 . fig1 is a block diagram showing the construction of a digital vtr for performing recording and reproduction of such a cassette . in recording , video or audio signals selected in a tuner 31 or input from outside are output to a recording signal processor 33 through an input device 32 . the recording signal processor 33 converts the input signals into digital form . the amount of information contained in the video signals is compressed in the processor 33 by using well - known techniques , such as dct ( discrete cosine transformation ), quantization or variable - length coding , and the amount of information contained in audio signals is compressed by being converted into pcm signals . after error - correcting coding , the digital signals are output to a recording processor 34 . the recording processor 34 converts these signals into a form suitable for magnetic recording by digital modulation or the like , and outputs the converted signals to an unillustrated magnetic head , by which the output signals are recorded on a magnetic tape 36 in a cassette 35 . at this time , digital information signals ( to be described later ) concerning the signals to be recorded on the magnetic tape 36 are produced in a controller 41 , and recorded in a memory 37 , for example , a semiconductor memory . in reproduction , the digital video or audio signals are reproduced from the magnetic tape 36 by a magnetic head ( not shown ), converted by a reproducing processor 38 into a form suitable for later signal processing by demodulation or the like corresponding to the modulation performed in the recording process , and output to a reproducing signal processor 39 . the reproducing signal processor 39 corrects code errors of the reproduced signals , expands the compressed amount of information by a process reverse to that used for recording , and outputs the signals to an external monitor 43 or the like through an output device 40 . at this time , the digital information signals recorded in the memory 37 are also reproduced , subjected to predetermined processing by the controller 41 , and output to the outside through the output device 40 as signals in a form which allows the contents thereof to be confirmed . furthermore , the controller 41 controls the whole vtr ( recording and reproduction ), receives signals from a remote control ( not shown ), and manages and carries out recording of programs preselected in advance . as described above , the controller 41 produces and records predetermined information signals in the memory 37 automatically , or upon receipt of the user &# 39 ; s directions from an operation device 42 or a recording and reproducing apparatus 10 to be described later . information to be recorded in the memory 37 simultaneously with recording of the tape 36 includes , for example , recording time , positional information on the tape 36 ( time code ), date , and an index image indicating the contents of each program , as well as information recorded according to directions of the user , including for example , the name and genre of each program , keywords and comments . when the cassette 35 ( in which such information is already recorded in the memory 37 ) is loaded into the vtr , the information can be reproduced by the controller 41 in the manner mentioned above . fig2 illustrates an outward appearance of the cassette 35 . numeral 19 denotes an input / output terminal to allow the memory 37 to be accessed therethrough . a recording and reproducing apparatus in this embodiment of the present invention will now be described with reference to fig3 . fig3 is a block diagram showing the construction of a recording and reproducing apparatus 10 , which may be , for example , a remote control device . referring to fig3 the recording and reproducing apparatus 10 comprises a transmitter 11 , a display 12 , an information signal processor 13 ( referred to as &# 34 ; a cpu &# 34 ; hereinafter ), an operation device 14 , a memory input / output device 15 , a memory write unit 16 , a memory read unit 17 , and a mode select switch 18 . numeral 35 denotes a memory - contained cassette tape . the recording and reproducing apparatus 10 shown in fig3 also has a well - known function as a remote control unit . specifically , the operation device 14 is provided with various control buttons for controlling the operation of the vtr 30 ( for example , play , fast forward , reverse and record buttons ), and a control signal corresponding to the operation of these buttons is transmitted to the vtr 30 through the information signal processor 13 and the transmitter 11 . at this time , the control signal is transmitted in wireless form , such as infrared radiation , from the transmitter 11 to the vtr 30 . accordingly , the user can control the operation of the vtr 30 at a distance from the vtr 30 by manipulation of the operation device 14 . recording and reproduction of digital information signals in and from the memory 37 by this recording and reproducing apparatus 10 will now be described . in order to read the signals from the memory 37 , the recording and reproducing apparatus 10 is first placed in a memory read mode by the mode select switch 18 in the operation device 14 , and a terminal 15a of the memory input / output device 15 is brought into contact with a memory input / output terminal 19 of the cassette 35 . the memory input / output device 15 has the input / output terminal 15a corresponding to the input / output terminal 19 on the side of the cassette 35 , whereby the cpu 13 is made capable of accessing the memory 37 . accordingly , the memory 37 of the cassette 35 can be accessed without loading it into the vtr 30 . fig4 shows sample input and output signals transferred between the input / output device 15 and the memory 37 . only two signal lines of a clock signal and a data signal are used . the address of the memory , data , and the read / write mode are transmitted as one bit of serial data in synchronization with the clock signal . fig5 shows an example of the contents of information written in the memory 37 . in this example , the id of a cassette , tape length and the like are written at the head of the memory 37 , and subsequently , the start position ( time ), end position ( time ), and date of each recorded program on the tape 36 , and the title of the program as text information are also written . such information is read into the cpu 13 through the memory input / output device 15 , converted into image ( character ) data representing the contents of the information through predetermined processing by the cpu 13 , and displayed on the display 12 . the user can thereby easily know what program is recorded in the cassette 35 by only a simple operation to bring the input / output device 15 of the recording and reproducing apparatus 10 in contact with the terminal 19 of the cassette 35 . detailed information , which cannot be displayed on the display 12 , is transferred to the vtr 30 through the transmitter 11 by pressing a transmit button ( not shown ) in the operation device 14 , and such information is displayed on a screen of the monitor 43 . however , in this case , it is required that the vtr power be on and that the monitor 43 be ready to display a picture output from the vtr 30 thereon . recording of digital information signals in the memory 37 will now be described . in normal cases , since the recording start and end positions ( time or a time code ), and the date of each program , the index image and the like are automatically recorded by the vtr 30 during recording , the title ( volume name ) given to the cassette , the program title and the like are considered to be written as such digital information . first , after the contents of the memory 37 are read into the recording and reproducing apparatus 10 according to the above - mentioned procedure , editing ( addition , deletion , changes and the like ) of information is performed through key entry in the operation device 14 while watching the information displayed on the display 12 . after editing , when a memory write mode is selected by the mode select switch 18 and the memory input / output device 15 is brought into contact with the memory input / output terminal 19 of the cassette 35 , the cpu 13 writes this information into the memory 37 of the cassette 35 as digital signals through the memory write unit 16 . at the completion of writing , the contents of the memory 37 are read again to verify whether the information is written correctly , the verification result is displayed on the display 12 , and then , the writing process is terminated . at this time , editing can be performed on the screen of the monitor 43 by transferring the information from the transmitter 11 to the vtr 30 in the same manner as in reading from the memory 37 . it is unnecessary to keep the recording and reproducing apparatus 10 in contact with the cassette 35 throughout the editing process . as for another application of the memory write function , which relates to the function of the vtr 30 , it is possible to prevent a program from being recorded over another important program by previously designating such a fact during recording of the important program which is not to be erased , and recording the designation information indicating that fact in the memory 37 . the mode select switch 18 may automatically select the memory read mode when the recording and reproducing apparatus 10 is brought into contact with the cassette 35 . the construction of the recording and reproducing apparatus 10 shown in fig3 is almost the same as that of a typical remote control for a vtr , and only a mode select device and a memory read / write device are added thereto . as other embodiments , it is possible to provide a similar function to a tape rewinder , not shown , or to add a memory input / output function of a cassette to an electronic notebook , even though it is not directly related to the vtr . although recording and reproduction are performed on the cassette 35 integrally having the magnetic tape 36 and the memory 37 in the above - mentioned embodiment , the present invention is not limited to such an embodiment , but the cassette 35 may be integrally provided with a plurality of types of memories . in this case , a plurality of input / output devices corresponding to the memories are mounted in the apparatus body . as described above , in a memory device of this embodiment which is integrally provided with different types of plural memories , information signals can be recorded on and reproduced from only some of the memories , the contents recorded in the memory device can be confirmed without carrying out reproduction on all of the memories , and the contents of some of the memories can be rewritten without carrying out recording on all the memories . therefore , it is possible to ease the inconvenience resulting from the confirmation of the contents recorded in the memory device and the like , and to achieve an effective use of the memories . the present invention has been described with respect to the preferred embodiment in which the memory device comprises a video cassette storing a magnetic tape . however , the invention is also applicable to other memory devices storing other types of information such as a magnetic tape cassettes storing audio information , a compact disk device storing video and / or audio information , a magneto - optical device storing video and / or audio information , a detachable semiconductor memory storing video and / or audio information , etc . the individual component shown in outline or designated by blocks in the attached drawings are all well - known in the recording arts , and their specific construction and operation are not critical to the operation or best mode for carrying out the invention . while the present invention has been described with respect to what is presently considered to be the preferred embodiment , it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiment . to the contrary , the invention is intended to cover various modifications and equivalent arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the appended claims . the scope of the following claims is to be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and equivalent structures and functions . | 6 |
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