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described herein are exemplary tape library architectures , and methods for recording an error in a tape drive . the methods described herein may be embodied as logic instructions on a computer - readable medium . when executed on a processor , the logic instructions cause a general purpose computing device to be programmed as a special - purpose machine that implements the described methods . the processor , when configured by the logic instructions to execute the methods recited herein , constitutes structure for performing the described methods . in exemplary embodiments , the architectures and methods may be implemented in tape storage libraries such as the tape storage libraries described in u . s . pat . nos . 5 , 926 , 341 ; 6 , 028 , 733 ; or 6 , 421 , 306 , commonly assigned to the assignee of the present application , the disclosures of which are incorporated by reference herein in their entirety . fig1 is a schematic illustration of an exemplary embodiment of a tape library 100 . the tape library 100 includes a library controller module 110 , including a processor 114 which is coupled to a memory medium 112 , and one or more tape drive controllers 120 , which are coupled to ( or contained within ) a plurality of tape drives 130 a - 130 b via one or more interface buses , such as a small computer system interface ( scsi ) bus . the library controller 110 is coupled to the tape drive controllers 120 via one or more interface buses such as , e . g ., an rs422 bus or an inter - integrated circuit ( i2c ) bus . it is noted that the library controller 110 can be embodied as a separate component ( as shown ), or can be co - located with one or more of the driver controllers 120 , or within a separate host computer 150 . the library controller 110 may be implemented as a software module that runs on a general purpose processing unit of the tape library , or as a special - purpose chipset . in some embodiments the host computer 150 may be connected to the drive controllers and the library controller by another bus . by way of example , the host computer 150 may be connected to the library and drives using scsi and the library may be connected to the drives using rs422 . the tape drive controllers 120 coordinate data transfer to and from the one or more tape drives 130 a - 130 b . in one embodiment , the library includes two tape drive controllers : a first tape drive controller 122 a and a second tape drive controller 122 b . the controllers may operate independently or may be configured to operate in parallel to enhance reliability by providing continuous backup and redundancy in the event that one controller becomes inoperable . tape drive controllers 122 a and 122 b have respective processors 128 a and 128 b and respective memories 124 a and 124 b . processors 128 a , 128 b may be implemented as general purpose processors that may be configured to execute logic instructions in the respective memories 124 a , 124 b , or as special purpose processors adapted to implement logic instructions embodied as firmware , or as asics . the memories 124 a and 124 b may be implemented as battery - backed , non - volatile rams ( nvrams ). although only two controllers 122 a and 122 b are shown and discussed generally herein , aspects of this invention can be extended to other multi - controller configurations where more than two controllers are employed . the controller &# 39 ; s memories 122 a and 122 b may be physically coupled via a communication interface 126 such as , e . g ., a pci bus or another suitable communication bus . controllers 122 a and 122 b may monitor data transfers between them to ensure that data is accurately transferred and that transaction ordering is preserved ( e . g ., read / write ordering ). in one embodiment , the tape drives 130 a , 130 b are configured to receive a tape cartridge 132 a , 132 b , respectively . input / output ( i / o ) operations requested by host computer 150 may be executed against the respective tape cartridges 132 a , 132 b . the tape cartridges 132 a , 132 b may include respective unique external identifiers 134 a , 134 b , which may be implemented as a bar code or other external identifying indicia associated with the respective tape cartridge 132 a , 132 b . the external identifiers 134 a , 134 b need not be readable by human operators . for example , a radio frequency identification ( rfid ) tag may be used as an identifier . in addition , optical identifiers such as holograms , diffraction patterns , and the like may be used as external identifiers 134 a , 134 b . fig2 is a schematic illustration of an exemplary embodiment of a tape library . referring to fig2 , the tape library includes a library controller 210 and a plurality of tape controllers 220 , 230 , 240 communicatively connected to the library controller 210 by a suitable communication bus 250 . the particular embodiment of the communication bus 250 is not critical . in one embodiment the communication bus may be implemented as a backplane and the respective tape controllers 220 , 230 , 240 may be implemented as cards that connect to the backplane . in alternate embodiments the communication bus may be implemented by a bus such as a pci bus , or by a point - to - point connection such as an rs422 connection . in one embodiment one or more of the tape controllers 220 , 230 , 240 maintain one or more event logs . among other things , errors that occur in the tape drive are recorded in the tape drive &# 39 ; s event log . in the embodiment illustrated in fig2 each tape controller 220 , 230 , 240 maintains a separate event log 222 , 232 , 242 , respectively , in a memory location associated with the controller . in addition , the library controller 210 maintains a separate tape log 224 . in alternate embodiments the separate controllers may maintain a single event log in a memory location shared between the controllers . the respective event logs 222 , 232 , 242 may include information identifying , among other things , hardware and software packages operating on the respective tape drive controllers 220 , 230 , 240 , the version number ( s ) of firmware executing on the controller , and other information associated with the controller . the event logs 222 , 232 , 242 may also log information regarding an error , including an error number 222 a , 232 a , 242 a assigned to the error , a internal identifier such as , e . g ., a tape serial number 222 b , 232 b , 242 b and an error identifier 222 c , 232 c , 242 c associated with the error . the tape serial number is not necessarily associated with a human - readable identifier on the tape cartridge . in one embodiment , tape log 224 may be stored in a suitable memory location such as , e . g ., a non - volatile memory module , associated with the library controller 210 . tape log 224 may include fields for storing information identifying , among other things , the respective internal identifiers 224 a and external identifiers 224 b associated with each tape inserted into the drive . optionally the tape log 224 may also include an identifier associated with one or more drives in which the tape was previously inserted . in an alternate embodiment , the respective event logs 222 , 232 , 242 may include a field for recording the external identifier 134 a , 134 b of a tape cartridge 132 a , 132 b that resides in a tape drive 130 a , 130 b . operations for recording errors in tape drives will be explained with reference to fig3 - 4 . fig3 is a flowchart illustrating operations in one embodiment of a method for recording an external identifier associated with a tape . referring to fig3 , at operation 310 a library controller such as library controller 210 records in memory an external identifier associated with a tape cartridge . in one embodiment the external identifier may be implemented as a bar code or other external identifying indicia associated with the tape cartridge . the library controller may read the barcode using a conventional optical scanner and associated software , for example , when the library controller is picking the cartridge for delivery to a tape drive controller . at operation 315 the library controller may verify the format of the external identifier . in one embodiment the format of the external identifier is encoded into a multi - character symbol , which may be verified by comparing the external identifier against one or more templates for external identifiers . if the format is incorrect , then an error routine may be invoked . at operation 320 the library controller transfers the tape to a tape drive , such as one of the tape drives 130 a , 130 b , depicted in fig1 . when the tape cartridge is loaded into the tape drive , the tape drive controller may read the internal identifier associated with the tape cartridge from the medium on which the internal identifier is stored . at operation 325 the library controller issues a request to the tape drive controller for the internal identifier associated with the tape . at operation 330 the tape drive controller receives the request from the library controller . optionally , at operation 335 , the tape drive controller determines whether there is a tape cartridge in the drive , and if not an error routine may be invoked , at operation 350 . in one embodiment the error routine may include transmitting a reply to the library controller , wherein the reply indicates that a tape cartridge is not properly installed in the drive . in response to the reply , the library controller may initiate a routine to locate the tape cartridge and insert the cartridge into the drive . alternatively , or in addition , the error routine may involve generating an alert to notify a user or administrator of the system of a malfunction . by contrast , if there is a tape cartridge in the drive at operation 335 , then control passes to operation 340 , in which the drive controller determines whether the format of the internal identifier is correct . in one embodiment the format of the internal identifier is encoded into a multi - character symbol , which may be verified by comparing the external identifier against one or more templates for identifiers . if the format is incorrect , then an error routine may be invoked at operation 350 . in one embodiment the error routine may include logging an error in a memory associated with the drive controller and / or transmitting a reply to the library controller , wherein the reply indicates that a received internal identifier is incorrectly formatted . in response to the reply , the library controller may record the error in a memory medium . alternatively , or in addition , the error routine may involve generating an alert to notify a user or administrator of the system of the error . by contrast , if at operation 340 the internal identifier is formatted correctly , then the drive controller transmits the internal identifier to the library controller ( operation 345 ). in one embodiment , the drive controller transmits the internal identifier to the library controller using a read_attribute command using the automation / drive interface ( adi ) protocol . the internal identifier is recorded in a suitable memory medium ( operation 355 ) associated with the library controller . in one embodiment , the internal identifier may be recorded in the tape log 224 in association with the external identifier associated with the tape cartridge . fig4 is a flowchart illustrating operations in an exemplary embodiment of a method for managing errors in a tape library . at operation 410 the library controller receives a request from a diagnostic utility for managing errors in a tape library . in one embodiment the request includes an internal identifier associated with a tape cartridge . the request may be generated by an administrator or other user of the diagnostic utility . in alternate embodiments the diagnostic utility may generate the request . the diagnostic utility may be embodied as any suitable diagnostic utility for evaluating errors in a tape library . particulars operational aspects of the diagnostic utility are beyond the scope of this disclosure . in one embodiment , the diagnostic utility may issue a scsi log sense request to the library controller . at operation 415 the library controller determines whether the internal identifier associated with the request received from the diagnostic utility is recorded in the tape log 224 . if not , then an error routine may be invoked at operation 425 . the error routine may involve communicating with the diagnostic utility and / or generating notices or warnings for users of the system . if , at operation 415 , the internal identifier is recorded in tape log 224 , then control passes to operation 420 , and the library controller reads the external identifier from tape log . at operation 430 the library controller passes the external identifier to the diagnostic utility . fig5 is a flowchart illustrating operations in an exemplary embodiment of a method for managing errors in a tape library . at operation 510 the library controller receives a request from a diagnostic utility for managing errors in a tape library . the request may be generated by an administrator or other user of the diagnostic utility . in alternate embodiments the diagnostic utility may generate the request . the diagnostic utility may be embodied as any suitable diagnostic utility for evaluating errors in a tape library . particulars operational aspects of the diagnostic utility are beyond the scope of this disclosure . in one embodiment , the diagnostic utility may issue a scsi log sense request to the library controller . at operation 515 the library controller determines whether the library controller is adapted to support a tape log function . if not , then an error routine may be invoked at operation 525 . the error routine may involve communicating with the diagnostic utility and / or generating notices or warnings for users of the system . if , at operation 515 , the library controller determines that the tape log function is supported , then control passes to operation 520 , and the library controller returns at least a portion of the tape log to the diagnostic utility . in one embodiment the library controller may transmit the entire tape log to the diagnostic utility . in an alternate embodiment , the diagnostic utility may request only a portion of the tape log , and the library controller may transmit the requested portion . at operation 530 the diagnostic utility analyzes the tape log . the operations of fig3 - 5 permit a tape library controller to manage a tape log that records an external identifier associated with tapes in the tape library . the external identifier may be provided to a diagnostic utility for error management purposes . further , specialized firmware is not required on the tape drives . not all operations depicted in fig3 - 5 are required . for example , the operations 335 and 340 may be omitted . although the described arrangements and procedures have been described in language specific to structural features and / or methodological operations , it is to be understood that the subject matter defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or operations described . rather , the specific features and operations are disclosed as preferred forms of implementing the claimed present subject matter . reference in the specification to “ one embodiment ” or “ an embodiment ” means that a particular feature , structure , or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least an implementation . the appearances of the phrase “ in one embodiment ” in various places in the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment . thus , although embodiments have been described in language specific to structural features and / or methodological acts , it is to be understood that claimed subject matter may not be limited to the specific features or acts described . rather , the specific features and acts are disclosed as sample forms of implementing the claimed subject matter .	6
in the following detailed description , numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the invention . however it will be understood by those skilled 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 so as not to obscure the present invention . unless specifically stated otherwise , as apparent from the following discussions , it is appreciated that throughout the specification discussions utilizing terms such as “ processing ,” “ computing ,” “ calculating ,” “ determining ,” or the like , refer to the action and / or processes of a computer or computing system , or similar electronic computing device , that manipulate and / or transform data represented as physical , such as electronic , quantities within the computing system &# 39 ; s registers and / or memories into other data similarly represented as physical quantities within the computing system &# 39 ; s memories , registers or other such information storage , transmission or display devices . in addition , the term “ plurality ” may be used throughout the specification to describe two or more components , devices , elements , parameters and the like . while the following detailed description may describe various embodiments of the present invention in relation to wireless networks utilizing orthogonal frequency division multiplexing ( ofdm ) modulation , the embodiments of present invention are not limited thereto and , for example , may be implemented using other modulation and / or coding schemes where suitably applicable . further , while example embodiments are described herein in relation to wireless metropolitan area networks ( wmans ), the invention is not limited thereto and can be applied to other types of wireless networks where similar advantages may be obtained . such networks specifically include , but are not limited to , wireless local area networks ( wlans ), wireless personal area networks ( wpans ), and / or wireless wide area networks ( wwans ). the following inventive embodiments may be used in a variety of applications including transmitters and receivers of a radio system , although the present invention is not limited in this respect . radio systems specifically included within the scope of the present invention include , but are not limited to , network interface cards ( nics ), network adaptors , mobile stations , base stations , access points ( aps ), gateways , bridges , hubs and cellular radiotelephones . further , the radio systems within the scope of the invention may include cellular radiotelephone systems , satellite systems , personal communication systems ( pcs ), two - way radio systems , two - way pagers , personal computers ( pcs ) and related peripherals , personal digital assistants ( pdas ), personal computing accessories and all existing and future arising systems which may be related in nature and to which the principles of the inventive embodiments could be suitably applied . reference is made to fig1 , which schematically illustrates a wireless network 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention . wireless network 100 may include provider network ( pn ) 120 , a base station ( bs ) 118 , and one or more subscriber or other stations 110 , 112 , 114 , and / or 116 , which may be for example mobile or fixed subscriber stations . in some embodiments , base station 118 , for example , in wlans , may be referred to as an access point ( ap ), terminal , and / or node , and subscriber stations 110 , 112 , 114 , and / or 116 may be referred to as a station ( sta ), terminal , and / or node . however , the terms base station and subscriber station are used merely as an example throughout this specification and their denotation in this respect is in no way intended to limit the inventive embodiments to any particular type of network or protocols . wireless network 100 may facilitate wireless access between each of subscriber stations 110 , 112 , 114 , and / or 116 and pn 120 . for example , wireless network 100 may be configured to use one or more protocols specified in by the institute of electrical and electronics engineers ( ieee ) 802 . 11 ™ standards (“ ieee standard for wireless lan medium access control ( mac ) and physical layer ( phy ) specification . 1999 edition ”, reaffirmed jun . 12 , 2003 ), such as ieee 802 . 11a ™- 1999 ; ieee 802 . 11b ™- 1999 / cor1 - 2001 ; ieee 802 . 11g ™- 2003 ; and / or ieee 802 . 11n ™, in the ieee 802 . 16 ™ standards (“ ieee standard for local and metropolitan area networks — part 16 : air interface for fixed broadband wireless access system ”, oct . 1 , 2004 ), such as ieee 802 . 16 - 2004 / cor1 - 2005 or ieee std 802 . 16 - 2009 , which may herein be referred to as the “ ieee std 802 . 16 - 2009 ” or “ wimax ” standards , and / or in the ieee 802 . 15 . 1 ™ standards (“ ieee standard for local and metropolitan area networks — specific requirements . part 15 . 1 : wireless medium access control ( mac ) and physical layer ( phy ) specifications for wireless personal area networks ( wpans ™)”, jun . 14 , 2005 ), although the invention is not limited in this respect and other standards may be used . in some embodiments , attributes , compatibility , and / or functionality of wireless network 100 and components thereof may be defined according to , for example , the ieee 802 . 16 standards ( e . g ., which may be referred to as a worldwide interoperability for microwave access ( wimax )). alternatively or in addition , wireless network 100 may use devices and / or protocols that may be compatible with a 3 rd generation partnership project ( 3gpp ) long term evolution ( lte ) cellular network or any protocols for wpans or wwans . embodiments of the invention may enable the next generation of mobile wimax systems ( e . g ., based on ieee 802 . 16m standard ) to efficiently support substantially high mobility and low latency applications , such as , for example , voice - over - internet protocol ( voip ), interactive gaming over the air - interface , deployment in larger cell - sizes or lower frequency bands , and / or “ multi - hop ” relay operations , while enabling backward compatible operations and integration with reference standards ( e . g ., the legacy mobile wimax systems based on ieee std 802 . 16 - 2009 ). in some embodiments , base station 118 may manage and / or control wireless communications among subscriber stations 110 , 112 , 114 , and / or 116 and between subscriber stations 110 , 112 , 114 , and / or 116 and provider network 120 . subscriber stations 110 , 112 , 114 , and / or 116 may , in turn , facilitate various service connections of other devices ( not shown ) to wireless network 100 via a private or public local area network ( lan ), although the embodiments are not limited in this respect . reference is made to fig2 , which schematically illustrates an apparatus 130 for use in a wireless network according to an embodiment of the invention . for example , apparatus 130 may be a terminal , device , or node ( e . g ., one of subscriber stations 110 , 112 , 114 , and / or 116 , base station 118 , and / or provider network 120 , described in fig1 ) for communicating with other terminals , devices , or nodes , in a wireless network ( e . g ., wireless network 100 , described in fig1 ). apparatus 130 may include a controller or processing circuit 150 including logic ( e . g ., including hard circuitry , processor and software , or a combination thereof ) to determine the false frame detection rate and / or adjust the sensitivity of frame detection as described in one or more embodiments of the invention . in some embodiments , apparatus 130 may include a radio frequency ( rf ) interface 140 and / or a medium access controller ( mac )/ baseband processor circuit 150 . in one embodiment , rf interface 140 may include a component or combination of components adapted for transmitting and / or receiving single carrier or multi - carrier modulated signals ( e . g ., including complementary code keying ( cck ) and / or orthogonal frequency division multiplexing ( ofdm ) symbols ) although the inventive embodiments are not limited to any specific over - the - air interface or modulation scheme . rf interface 140 may include , for example , a receiver 142 , a transmitter 144 and / or a frequency synthesizer 146 . interface 140 may include bias controls , a crystal oscillator and / or one or more antennas 148 and / or 149 . in another embodiment , rf interface 140 may use external voltage - controlled oscillators ( vcos ), surface acoustic wave filters , intermediate frequency ( if ) filters and / or rf filters , as desired . due to the variety of potential rf interface designs an expansive description thereof is omitted . processing circuit 150 may communicate with rf interface 140 to process receive and / or transmit signals and may include , for example , an analog - to - digital converter 152 for down converting received signals , a digital - to - analog converter 154 for up converting signals for transmission . further , processor circuit 150 may include a baseband or physical layer ( phy ) processing circuit 156 for phy link layer processing of respective receive / transmit signals . processing circuit 150 may include , for example , a processing circuit 159 for medium access control ( mac )/ data link layer processing . processing circuit 150 may include a memory controller 158 for communicating with processing circuit 159 and / or a base station management entity 160 , for example , via interfaces 155 . in some embodiments of the present invention , phy processing circuit 156 may include a frame construction and / or detection module , in combination with additional circuitry such as a buffer memory , to construct and / or deconstruct super - frames as in the embodiments previously described . alternatively or in addition , mac processing circuit 159 may share processing for certain of these functions or perform these processes independent of phy processing circuit 156 . in some embodiments , mac and phy processing may be integrated into a single circuit if desired . apparatus 130 may be , for example , a base station , an access point , a subscriber station , a device , a terminal , a node , a hybrid coordinator , a wireless router , a nic and / or network adaptor for computing devices , a mobile station or other device suitable to implement the inventive methods , protocols and / or architectures described herein . accordingly , functions and / or specific configurations of apparatus 130 described herein , may be included or omitted in various embodiments of apparatus 130 , as suitably desired . in some embodiments , apparatus 130 may be configured to be compatible with protocols and frequencies associated one or more of the ieee 802 . 11 , 802 . 15 and / or 802 . 16 standards for wlans , wpans and / or broadband wireless networks , cited herein , although the embodiments are not limited in this respect . embodiments of apparatus 130 may be implemented using single input single output ( siso ) architectures . however , as shown in fig2 , certain implementations may include multiple antennas ( e . g ., antennas 148 and 149 ) for transmission and / or reception using adaptive antenna techniques for beamforming or spatial division multiple access ( sdma ) and / or using multiple input multiple output ( mimo ) communication techniques . the components and features of station 130 may be implemented using any combination of discrete circuitry , application specific integrated circuits ( asics ), logic gates and / or single chip architectures . further , the features of apparatus 130 may be implemented using microcontrollers , programmable logic arrays and / or microprocessors or any combination of the foregoing where suitably appropriate . it is noted that hardware , firmware and / or software elements may be collectively or individually referred to herein as “ logic ” or “ circuit .” it should be appreciated that the example apparatus 130 shown in the block diagram of fig2 may represent one functionally descriptive example of many potential implementations . accordingly , division , omission or inclusion of block functions depicted in the accompanying figures does not infer that the hardware components , circuits , software and / or elements for implementing these functions would be necessarily be divided , omitted , or included in embodiments of the present invention . reference is made to fig3 , which schematically illustrates a frame 300 structure according to an embodiment of the present invention . frame 300 ( e . g ., a radio frame ) may be a portion of a transmitted and / or received communication in , for example , wireless network 100 . in some embodiments , frame 300 may describe a periodically repeating segment structure of a larger communication signal or stream . in some embodiments , repeating frame 300 may include substantially different information , for example , during substantially each separate transmission . frame 300 may be defined and may include broadband wireless access technology according to , for example , the ieee std 802 . 16 - 2009 or mobile wimax profiles . according to the mobile wimax profiles , the duration of frame 300 or transmission time interval ( tti ) may be , for example , approximately 5 ms . other frame or radio frame sizes such as for example 2 , 2 . 5 , 4 , 8 , 10 , 12 , and 20 ms may be used as for example specified in the ieee std 802 . 16 - 2009 specification . in some embodiments , frame 300 may be transmitted and / or received , for example , according to a time division duplex ( tdd ) mode or scheme . other time and / or frequency schemes may be used ( e . g ., such as a frequency division duplex ( fdd ) mode or scheme ) according to embodiments of the invention . frame 300 may include an integer number of ofdm symbols or other multiplexing symbols . the number of ofdm symbols per frame may be determined , for example , according to a choice of ofdm numerology ( e . g ., sub - carrier spacing , cyclic prefix length , sampling frequency , etc .). in some embodiments , ofdm numerologies may be determined , set , or obtained , for example , depending , on a bandwidth and sampling frequency ( e . g ., or an over - sampling factor according to the mobile wimax profiles ). in various embodiments , substantially different ofdm numerologies may be used , which may result in substantially different number of ofdm symbols in frame 300 . in some embodiments , frame 300 may include idle symbols and / or idle time slots . in one embodiment , frame 300 may include one or more switching periods 302 and / or 304 , for example , for changing between a pre - designated downlink ( dl ) transmission 306 and a pre - designated uplink ( ul ) transmission 308 when a tdd duplex mode or scheme is used . in other embodiments , for example , when an fdd duplex scheme is used , since dl transmissions 306 and ul transmissions 308 may be sent substantially at the same or overlapping times ( e . g ., over different frequencies or network channels ) frame 300 may include substantially few or no idle symbols , idle time slots , and / or switching periods 302 and / or 304 . in some embodiments , the tti or the duration of frame 300 may be , for example , approximately 5 ms . a round trip time ( rtt ) ( e . g ., the time interval between two consecutive pre - scheduled dl transmissions 306 to a specific wireless node may be , for example , approximately 10 ms . wireless networks ( e . g ., wireless network 100 ) having rapidly changing channel conditions and / or small coherence times ( e . g ., rapidly moving mobile stations or nodes , such as automobiles having vehicular speeds of , for example , in the excess of approximately 120 kilometers per hour ( km / h )) may use mechanisms for supporting substantially high mobility in varying channel conditions . embodiments of the invention may support wireless network 100 having substantially small round trip times , for example , to enable substantially fast - varying channel condition feedback between subscriber stations 110 , 112 , 114 , and / or 116 , such as a mobile station , and base station 118 . other time durations may be used . the current ieee std 802 . 16 - 2009 specification standard frame structure may include restrictions , such as substantially long ttis that are typically not suitable for supporting substantially fast feedback and low access latency ( e . g ., less than 10 ms ), which may be used by , for example , emerging radio access technologies . embodiments of the present invention may include or use a modified version of the frame 300 structure for supporting lower latency operations , while maintaining backward compatibility , for example , to the ieee std 802 . 16 - 2009 specification frame structure . frame 300 structure may be used , for example , in the next generation of mobile wimax systems and devices ( e . g ., including the ieee 802 . 16m standard ). in some embodiments , frame 300 structure or portions thereof may be transparent to the legacy terminals ( e . g ., which operate according to mobile wimax profiles and ieee std 802 . 16 - 2009 ) and may be used only for communication between bss , subscriber stations , and / or mss that both operate based on the ieee 802 . 16m standard . according to embodiments of the invention , wireless network 100 and components thereof , which may communicate using the new frame structure ( e . g ., described according to fig3 - 15 ), may be backward compatible with a reference network , which may communicate using a legacy frame structure ( e . g ., described according to the mobile wimax profiles and based on the ieee std 802 . 16 - 2009 ). in some embodiments , backward compatibility may include for example , that a legacy terminal ( e . g ., which may communicate using legacy and / or reference frame structures ) may operate in a wireless network with no significant impact on the performance and operation of the terminal relative to a legacy network . in some embodiments , a new ( e . g ., a non - legacy ) terminal or subscriber station using the new ( e . g ., a non - legacy ) frame structure may operate in a legacy network with no significant impact on the performance and operation of the terminal relative to the wireless network . for example , the new terminal may be “ backward compatible ”. in some embodiments , wireless network 100 may support both legacy and new ( e . g ., a non - legacy ) terminals , for example , at substantially the same time ( e . g ., where time division multiplexing of the new and legacy frames overlap in the same frame ). in some embodiments , wireless network 100 may enable seamless communication , mobility , and handoff between legacy terminals and new terminals . when used herein , “ new ”, “ evolved ” or “ updated ,” and “ next generation ” are merely relative to “ old ”, “ legacy ” or “ current ”, etc . for example , a “ new ” standard may be a standard that is in use as of the date of the filing of this application , and a “ legacy ” system may be one that is in use both prior to the date of filing this application and for some time after the filing of this application ; a “ new ” system is one implemented or developed after a “ legacy ” system , typically including improvements and updates . “ new ”, “ evolved ”, “ updated ”, etc . systems are often backward compatible such that they are usable with “ old ”, “ legacy ” or prior systems or standards . according to embodiments of the invention , the new frame structure may include new synchronization and broadcast channels to extend the capabilities of the ieee std 802 . 16 - 2009 by , for example , enhancing system acquisition and / or enhancing cell selection at low signal to interference + noise ratios ( sinr ). according to the ieee std 802 . 16 - 2009 a broadcast channel ( e . g ., and a dl channel descriptor and ul channel descriptor ) are typically not located at a pre - defined location in a frame , the mobile stations have to decode the common control channel ( e . g ., map ) for acquiring system configuration information . according to an embodiment of the present invention , the new frame structure may include for example a super - frame that includes an integer number of radio frames , which may include synchronization and / or broadcast information and / or messages , such as , system configuration information , which may simplify wireless network 100 operations and further reduce the overhead and acquisition latency of wireless network 100 . reference is made to fig4 , which schematically illustrates a super - frame 400 structure according to an embodiment of the present invention . in some embodiments , a transmission between terminals or nodes may include , for example , one or more super - frames 400 . super - frame 400 may include or be partitioned into a fixed and / or pre - determined number of frames 410 . in other embodiments , the number of frames 410 in each of two or more of super - frames 400 may be different . the number of frames , m , 410 within a super - frame 400 ( e . g ., m , may be an integer , where m = 2 , 3 , 4 . . .) may be a design parameter and may be specified in a standard specification and , for example , may be fixed for a particular profile and deployment . in some embodiments , the number of frames 410 within super - frame 400 may be determined by one or more factors , including but not limited to , for example , target system acquisition time , a maximum permissible distance between two consecutive preambles ( e . g ., synchronization channels ), the minimum number of preambles that may be averaged during system acquisition for the detection of the preamble , and / or a maximum permissible distance between two consecutive broadcast channels ( e . g ., system configuration information or paging channels ). in one embodiment , substantially each super - frame 400 may be partitioned into or include two or more ( e . g ., four ( 4 )) frames 410 . other numbers of partitions , divisions , or frames may be used . the length of each frame 410 may be for example approximately 5 ms , for example , for establishing backward compatibility with systems compliant with ieee std 802 . 16 - 2009 . other frame or radio frame lengths may be used . each of frames 410 may be further partitioned or sub - divided into two or more ( e . g ., eight ( 8 )) sub - frames 420 . other numbers of divisions may be used . the length of sub - frame 420 may determine the tti for terminals that may be compliant with the new standard and , for example , incorporate super - frame 400 and / or frame 410 structures . the beginning and end of each of the ttis may be substantially aligned or synchronized with , for example , a sub - frame boundary . each tti may contain an integer number of sub - frames ( e . g . typically one or two sub - frames ). each sub - frame 420 may be partitioned into or include a fixed number of ofdm symbols 430 . in one embodiment , each sub - frame 420 may be partitioned into or include , for example , six ( 6 ) ofdm symbols , so that the number of ofdm symbols 430 within a sub - frame ( e . g ., the length of sub - frame 420 ) may be compatible to resource block sizes ( e . g ., sub - channels ) corresponding to various permutation schemes , for example , specified in the ieee std 802 . 16 - 2009 . in other embodiments , there may be other or alternative numbers , lengths , sizes , and / or variations , of super - frames 400 , frames 410 , sub - frames 420 , and / or ofdm symbols 430 . the numbers used herein are presented for demonstrative purposes only . in another embodiment , the length of frames 410 ( e . g ., approximately 5 ms ) and the number of ofdm symbols 430 ( e . g ., six ( 6 )), may be set for establishing backward compatibility with ieee std 802 . 16 - 2009 compliant systems , devices , and / or transmissions . permutation schemes , for example , defined according to current standard specifications , may include a number , for example , from one to six , slots for transmitting signals and / or resource blocks . the boundary of physical a resource block may , for example , be aligned with a sub - frame boundary . in some embodiments , each physical resource block may be substantially contained within a single sub - frame 420 . in other embodiments , each physical resource block may be substantially contained within two consecutive sub - frames . it may be appreciated by those skilled in the art that embodiments of the invention , for example , including , super - frame 400 structures , may be applied using either of the tdd and fdd duplexing schemes or modes . in the fdd duplex mode , each of the dl and ul transmissions may be communicated , for example , concurrently , on respective frequencies or channels . in the tdd duplex mode , each of the dl and ul transmissions may be communicated , for example , at substantially non - overlapping intervals ( e . g ., according to time division multiplexing ( tdm ) scheme ) over substantially the same frequency or channel . in the tdd duplex mode of operation and within any frame 410 , sub - frames 420 may be configured to dl and ul transmissions ( e . g ., dl transmission 306 and ul transmission 308 ) for example statically in each deployment . the dl and ul transmissions may be separated by idle times and / or idle symbols for switching between dl and ul transmissions ( e . g ., during switching periods 302 and / or 304 ). in one embodiment of the invention , “ legacy zones ” and “ new zones ” may include periods , portions or zones , for example , of dl or ul transmission , specifically designed to substantially only communicate with legacy terminals or new terminals , respectively . in the tdd duplex mode of the ieee std 802 . 16 - 2009 , each of dl transmission 306 and ul transmission 308 may be further partitioned into two or more permutation zones . in some embodiments , the number of contiguous ofdm or other symbols 430 in a frame 410 , may be referred to as , for example , a permutation zone ( e . g ., permutation zone 310 , described in reference to fig3 ). the permutation zone may , for example , include a number of contiguous ofdm symbols ( e . g ., in dl and ul transmissions 306 and 308 , described in reference to fig3 ) that use substantially the same permutation ( e . g ., partially used sub - channel ( pusc ) to distributed allocation of sub - carriers , adaptive modulation and coding ( amc ) for localized allocation of sub - carriers , etc .). according to an embodiment of the invention , a frame may include or may be partitioned into legacy zones and new zones ( other terms may be used ). in one embodiment , legacy terminals and new terminals may communicate using legacy zones and new zones , respectively . in some embodiments , new terminals may communicate using both legacy zones and new zones . legacy terminals typically only communicate using legacy zones . in one embodiment , in the frame , each of dl transmissions may be further partitioned into two or more zones , for example , including a dl transmission legacy zones and a dl transmission new ( e . g ., non - legacy ) zones and each of ul transmissions may be further partitioned into two or more zones , for example , including ul transmission legacy zones and ul transmission new ( e . g ., non - legacy ) zones . embodiments of the invention may provide a partitioning of frames into sub - frames ( e . g ., where the boundaries of transmission blocks or zones may be synchronized with the sub - frame boundaries ). according to the ieee std 802 . 16 - 2009 , the boundaries of transmission blocks or zones may start and end at any ofdm symbol within the boundary of a frame . according to embodiments of the invention , the new zones may use a new and more efficient resource allocation and feedback mechanism . the total number of ofdm symbols within a frame may vary depending on the ofdm numerology . in order to maintain backward compatibility with the legacy mobile wimax systems , the same frame size and ofdma numerology ( e . g ., or ofdma parameters ) may be used for the ieee 802 . 16m systems and the legacy mobile wimax systems . it may be appreciated by those skilled in the art that all permissible numerologies and / or frame sizes , for example , specified by the 802 . 16e - 2005 standard , may be used in accordance with embodiments of the present invention . embodiments of the invention may provide super - frame structures that may be compatible with legacy standards , such as , the ieee std 802 . 16 - 2009 and / or other standards . for example , the super - frame structure may include or may be compatible with a subset of features , for example , as specified in the mobile wimax profile ( e . g ., and may be backwards compatible with the mobile wimax profile ). embodiments of the invention may provide a super - frame structure , which may be partitioned into a number of frames that include , for example , one or more , legacy synchronization channel ( e . g ., a ieee std 802 . 16 - 2009 preamble ), new synchronization channels ( e . g ., a ieee 802 . 16m preamble ), broadcast channel ( bch ), medium access protocol ( maps ) or common control channel ( ccch ) in the new and legacy zones corresponding to each frame or an integer number of frames . reference is made to fig5 , which schematically illustrates a super - frame 500 structure according to an embodiment of the present invention . in one embodiment , super - frame 500 may include a legacy preamble 502 , for example , which may be referred to as primary synchronization channel ( psch ). in some embodiments , super - frame 500 may include an additional or supplemental preamble 504 , for example , for improving system timing acquisition and cell selection for new terminals . supplemental preamble 504 may , for example , be referred to as secondary synchronization channel ( ssch ). the synchronization channels may include sequences , which may be used and / or deciphered by both base stations and mobile stations , for example , for acquiring frame timing and / or scheduling . in some embodiments , new preamble 504 may be effectively or partially transparent , unreadable , or undetectable to legacy terminals , while legacy preamble 502 may be detectable to both legacy and new terminals . in some embodiments , super - frame 500 may include a broadcast channel ( bch ) 506 . the broadcast channel may contain information that may for example include system configuration information , paging , and / or other broadcast type information , and may be sent by a base station to all mobile stations in the network and / or surrounding area . as shown in fig5 , supplementary or new preamble 504 ( e . g ., ssch ) may be located at a fixed position in new or legacy zones . in one embodiment of the present invention , for example , the new preamble 504 may be positioned at a fixed offset , which may be referred to as , for example , “ ssch_offset ”. the ssch_offset may be a measure of a location of the new preamble 504 , for example , relative to the location of the legacy preamble , for example , in every frame . in some embodiments , the legacy preamble in mobile wimax systems may be located in the first ofdm symbol of every frame ( as shown in fig9 ). the value of ssch_offset may be included and broadcasted as part of the system configuration information . in some embodiments , when new preamble 504 is detected by a mobile terminal , the ssch_offset may be used to locate the beginning of a frame . in one embodiment , when ssch_offset = 0 , there may be no legacy preamble 502 , which may indicate that the network does not support legacy terminals . in some embodiments , a new synchronization channel and the broadcast channel may span a minimum system bandwidth ( bw ). in some embodiments , the legacy synchronization channel typically spans the entire system bw , an example of which is shown in fig9 . the region pre - designated for communicating new preamble 504 ( e . g ., via multiple sub - carriers ) may be , for example , transparent and / or ignored by legacy terminals . a scheduler for downlink base station or terminal transmissions typically does not allocate user / system traffic / control / signaling in the region pre - designated for communicating new preamble 504 . in another embodiment of the present invention , for example , new preamble 504 may be located , for example , in the beginning of the new frame where the new frame may be located at a fixed offset relative to the legacy frame . in one embodiment , the fixed offset may be referred to as , for example , “ frame_offset ”, and may be fixed within the frame timing . in some embodiments , the value of the frame_offset may be set by a network operator or administrator ( e . g ., and not broadcast ). the new mobile terminals may detect new preamble 504 , which may indicate the beginning of the new frame and , for example , other information channels relative to the beginning of the new frame ( e . g ., as shown in fig6 ). for example , the timing or periodicity of bch 506 may be substantially aligned with the timing or periodicity of super - frame 500 transmissions . in various embodiments , super - frame 500 may have substantially different structures , which may be distinguished , for example , based on the relative position of legacy preamble 502 and / or new preamble 504 in super - frame 500 , and / or other features or design considerations for the frame structure ( e . g ., such as a dl scan latency , physical layer overhead , and other information ). it may be appreciated to those skilled in the art that although three options for the structure of super - frame 500 , including for example , options i , ii , and iii , may be described , various other structures and / or variations thereof may be used in accordance with embodiments of the present invention . the description that follows may include embodiments that may individually or collectively be referred to as option i . option i , and other “ options ” presented herein are examples only , and are non - limiting . in some embodiments , new preamble 504 and / or bch 506 may be positioned substantially at the beginning of each super - frame 500 , for example , in the first frame of each super - frame 500 in a communication stream . in such embodiments , legacy preamble 502 and new preamble 504 may be separately positioned ( e . g ., spaced or offset along the length of super - frame 500 ). in such embodiments , the impact or visibility of new preamble 504 to legacy terminals ( e . g ., which typically only detect legacy preamble 502 ) and operations thereof , such as , system acquisition , may be minimized . new preamble 504 may be periodically repeated at any desirable frequency , for example , substantially every frame . bch 506 may contain system - configuration information , paging channels , and / or other broadcast information . in some embodiments , bch 506 may be synchronized with super - frame 500 intervals and may appear every integer number of super - frames . in some embodiments , new terminals may use new preamble 504 ( e . g ., exclusively or additionally ) to improve system timing acquisition and fast cell selection . for example , new preamble 504 may include cell identification ( id ) information or codes and may be used for acquisition of frame timing by new terminals . for example , a cell id code may include a concatenated base station group id code , base station id code , a sector id code , and / or other codes or information , for example , to simplify the detection ( e . g ., execute a structured search ) of the cell id . according to embodiments of the invention described in reference to option i , since new preamble 504 may be spaced from legacy preamble 502 , new preamble 504 may be minimally detectable by legacy terminals . in some embodiments , in order to minimize the physical layer overhead ( layer 1 overhead ), for example , which may be increased by using an ofdm symbol for transmitting new preamble 504 , new preamble 504 may be transmitted , for example , over a limited ( e . g ., minimal ) bandwidth or time , or by using additional sub - carriers corresponding to the same ofdm symbol for scheduling user traffic , for example , as shown in fig9 . the description that follows may include embodiments that may individually or collectively be referred to as option ii . reference is made to fig6 , which schematically illustrates a super - frame 600 structure according to an embodiment of the invention . in some embodiments for tdd duplex mode , super - frame 600 may be partitioned into , for example , four frames with pre - designated legacy periods , intervals or zones and new or non - legacy periods , intervals or zones . in one embodiment , legacy frame 610 may be further partitioned into sub - frames , including , for example , dl transmission legacy zones 612 and ul transmission legacy zones 616 . the new frame 620 may begin at a fixed offset ( e . g ., frame_offset ) relative to the beginning of the legacy frame . the value of the frame_offset may be an integer number of sub - frames and may be determined based on the ratio of the lengths or time of the dl to ul transmissions ( e . g ., in tdd duplex mode ). for example , when frame_offset = t offset and t sub - frame denotes the length of the sub - frame and t f denotes the frame length the value of the minimum and maximum permissible values for t offset may be determined as follows : 0 ≦ α ≦ 1 : the fraction of frame allocated to dl example : α = 0 . 625 for dl : ul = 5 : 3 t offset = mt sub - frame 0 ≦ m & lt ; ( number of dl sub_frames )− n in some embodiments , legacy terminals may communicate using legacy frames 610 and new terminals may communicate using new frames 620 and / or legacy frames 610 . according to embodiments of the invention , for example , in option iii , the beginning of new frames 620 and legacy frames 610 may be offset by a fixed value , for example , by a frame offset 622 or an offset interval ( e . g ., a fixed duration of time and / or number of sub - frames ). the relative positions of new frames 620 and legacy frames 610 according to one embodiment are depicted in fig6 , for example , in tdd duplex mode . for example , in tdd duplex mode , legacy frame 610 structure may start with a dl transmission 612 and end with an ul transmission 616 . for example , new frame 610 structure may start with a dl transmission 614 , followed by a ul transmission 618 , and end with a dl transmission 614 . in some embodiments , each new frame 610 may contain a new preamble ( e . g ., ssch ), for example , in a sub - frame at the start or beginning of frame 610 . in other embodiments , each super - frame 600 may include a super - frame header ( sfh ) 624 , for example , in a sub - frame at the start or beginning of super - frame 600 . for example , sfh 624 may include a new preamble and a broadcast channel . for example , k and 6 - k , k = 1 , 2 , . . ., 6 may denote the number of ofdm symbols that are allocated to new preamble and broadcast channel , respectively . the number of ofdm symbols allocated to the new and legacy preambles may be as small as one ofdm symbol per channel . in one embodiment , the remainder of the ofdm symbols available in the sfh 624 sub - frame may be allocated , for example , for user traffic , control , and / or control and signaling information , which may minimize the system layerl overhead . sfh 624 may include a new preamble sequence and the broadcast information ( e . g ., including system configuration information and a paging channel ). in some embodiments , legacy frames and new frames may have a fixed frame offset 622 , which may be configurable by the network operator . in some embodiments of the present invention , the legacy zone and new zone may be offset by a fixed number of sub - frames . the offset value may be substantially stable or fixed within a practical deployment . due to the dynamic nature of network traffic in practice , in some frames , the legacy zone may be under - utilized while the new zone may be fully loaded or vice versa . in some embodiments , a pointer in a ieee 802 . 16m common control channel may be designed and / or used , for example , to point to or indicate a sub - frame in the legacy zone that may be unused by legacy terminals . for example , when legacy zone and / or new zone partitions are fixed , the resources ( e . g ., sub - frames ) may be dynamically allocated from frame to frame maximize the use of physical resources , which may otherwise be unused . the description that follows may include embodiments that may individually or collectively be referred to as option iii . reference is made to fig7 , which schematically illustrates a super - frame 700 structure having a new preamble 704 multiplexed with a legacy preamble 702 , according to an embodiment of the present invention . in some embodiments , a new preamble 704 may be multiplexed with a legacy preamble 702 , for example , every m frames ( e . g ., where m may be the number of frames within a super - frame 700 ). for example , the first ofdm symbol of the first frame 710 in super - frame 700 may include new preamble 704 and the m - 1 succeeding frames 710 in super - frame 700 may include legacy preamble 702 . in some embodiments , a common control channel ( e . g ., including dl and ul maps ) and / or frame control header ( fch ) 708 and a bch 706 transmission may occur , for example , at super - frame 700 and frame 710 intervals , respectively . the acquisition of legacy preamble 702 ( e . g ., by legacy terminals ) may break as a result of interruption in the reception of the periodic legacy preamble 702 . since new preamble 704 and legacy preamble 702 may share physical resources , for example , and may be transmitted at substantially the same or overlapping times or locations along super - frame 700 , there may typically be no additional physical resource needed for including the new preamble 704 into a super - frame 700 structure . additionally , in some embodiments , the position of new preamble 704 may be fixed within a periodic number ( one or more ) of frames 710 . in some embodiments , when new preamble 704 and legacy preamble 702 are code division multiplexed , for example , in substantially the same ofdm symbol , there is typically no substantial impact on the layerl overhead . in such embodiments , some legacy preambles 702 may be transmitted in succession and , for example , other legacy preambles 702 may be superimposed with new preamble 704 ( e . g ., according to multiplexing scheme discussed herein ). in some embodiments , new preamble 704 may be multiplexed with legacy preamble 702 using , for example , a code division multiplexing ( cdm ) scheme . a cdm scheme may include code division multiplexing new preamble 704 and legacy preamble 702 , for example , substantially every m frames 710 , for example , as shown in fig7 . in one embodiment , new preamble 704 and legacy preamble 702 sequences may be superimposed and transmitted ( e . g ., by a new base station or terminal ) every m frames , for example , according to the following equation : y k = u k + x k u ′ k where u k , u ′ k , x k may denote the k th primary synchronization sequence , the k th new synchronization sequence , and the k th spreading function . other ( e . g ., linear ) combinations may be used . for example , the spreading function may include a set of robust spreading functions , which may substantially cover the new synchronization sequences . other multiplexing schemes or combinations thereof may be used . in one embodiment , legacy preamble 702 and new preamble 704 may be , for example , code division multiplexed every fixed number ( e . g ., m = 1 , 2 , 3 . . .) frames . in such embodiments , legacy terminals may experience or include a small degradation in the energy of the legacy preamble every m frames . the new terminals may detect and extract new preamble 704 that may encroach or may be superimposed on legacy preamble 702 . as presented herein , new preamble may be referred to , for example , as “ new preamble ”, “ new preamble ”, “ new synchronization channel ”, “ ssch ” and “ secondary synchronization channel ”, a new system , profile , and / or standard , may be referred to , for example , as an “ evolved version ” of the reference system standard . reference is made to fig8 , which schematically illustrates a super - frame 800 structure having a new preamble 804 multiplexed with a legacy preamble 802 , where legacy preamble 802 may be obscured from legacy terminals , according to an embodiment of the present invention . in some embodiments , the superposition of new preamble 804 on the legacy preamble 802 may , for example , increase interference levels or , for example , an interference over thermal 820 ( iot ) value . the objective is to find the minimum signal to interference + noise ratio ( sinr ) that is required for proper detection of the legacy preamble or alternatively the maximum iot that can be tolerated by the legacy terminals ( this leads to the maximum power that can be used for the new preamble ). in one embodiment of the present invention , a signal received at the s th sub - carrier , y s , may be calculated , for example , as shown in the equations that follow . in one embodiment , new preamble 804 associated with each new base station or relay station may be substantially different , for example , for enabling a mobile station to distinguish , detect , and / or select , different base stations or relay stations in a network . in some embodiments , since the received power 822 of new preamble 804 may be determined , or be directly proportional to , the iot 820 , it may be desirable for the iot 820 to be maximized , for example , to the extent that the minimum sinr level would allow the legacy terminals to correctly detect legacy preambles 802 . in some embodiments , an optimization of the iot 820 value may be performed , for example , according to the equations that follow : other criteria for the optimization of the iot value may be used . in some embodiments , when legacy preambles 702 and 802 are code division multiplexed , transmitting new preamble 704 and 804 , respectively , may have substantially no or minimal effect on the physical layer overhead of the system in which they are transmitted . in such embodiments , superimposing new preamble 804 onto legacy preamble 802 respectively , may limit the received power 822 of new preamble 704 and may potentially interfere with or obscure system acquisitions of legacy preamble 802 by legacy terminals , for example , due to additional interference from new preambles transmitted by neighboring base stations or relay stations . the effect of additional interference may be minimized , for example , using robust preamble detection algorithms , for example , having minimal sensitivity to instantaneous degradation in the preamble power . it may be appreciated by those skilled in the art that each of three options for embodiments of the structure of a super - frame and / or partitions thereof , including for example , embodiments described in reference to each of options i , ii , and iii , may be applied to both tdd and fdd duplex schemes . the size and distribution of the new and legacy zones and their corresponding dl and ul transmissions and / or sub - frames , may depend , for example , on factors including but not limited to the distribution of the new and legacy terminals , network load and performance optimizations for new and legacy terminals . reference is made to fig1 , which schematically illustrates a frame 1000 structure in fdd duplex mode according to an embodiment of the present invention . frame 1000 may include sub - frames 1030 . in some embodiments , super - frame 1000 may include a legacy preamble 1002 , a new preamble 1004 , and a bch 1006 , which may be transmitted every integer number of super - frame transmissions . in one embodiment , legacy preamble 1002 , new preamble 1004 , and / or bch 1006 may be positioned at the beginning of frame 1000 . according to embodiments of the invention , in the fdd duplex mode , dl transmissions 1016 and ul transmissions 1018 may occur substantially simultaneously , for example , at different frequencies ( e . g ., dl frequency f 1 1024 and ul frequency f 2 1026 , respectively ). reference is made to fig1 - 13 , which schematically illustrate frame structures 1100 , 1120 , 1200 , 1220 , 1300 , and 1320 and their respective sub - frames , 1110 , 1130 , 1210 , 1230 , 1310 , and 1330 , according to various embodiments of the present invention . in fig1 , tdd frame 1100 is shown with a dl / ul ratio of 4 : 3 and fdd frame 1120 for 5 , 10 or 20 mhz channel bandwidth with a cyclic prefix of ¼ of useful ofdm symbol length . the tdd frame 1100 may consist of seven sub - frames 1110 of six ofdm symbols each and fdd frame 1120 may have the same configuration as the tdd frame to maximize commonality or may consists of six sub - frames 1110 of six ofdm symbols and one sub - frame 1130 of seven ofdm symbols . as an example , for an ofdm symbol duration of 114 . 386 microseconds ( tb ) and a cp length of ¼ tb , the length of six - symbol sub - frames 110 and seven - symbol sub - frames 1130 are 0 . 6857 ms and 0 . 80 ms , respectively . in this case , the transmit - to - receive transmission gap ( ttg ) and receive - to - transmit transmission gap ( rtg ) are 139 . 988 microseconds and 60 microseconds , respectively . in fig1 , tdd frame 1200 is shown with a dl / ul ratio of 3 : 2 and fdd frame 1220 for 7 mhz channel bandwidth with a cp of ¼ tb . the tdd frame 1200 may consist of five six - symbol sub - frames 1210 and the fdd frame 1220 may have the same structure as the tdd frame to maximize commonality or may consist of four six - symbol sub - frames 1210 and one seven - symbol sub - frame 1230 . assuming ofdm symbol duration of 160 microseconds and a cp length of ¼ tb , the length of six - symbol sub - frame 1210 and seven - symbol sub - frame 1230 are 0 . 960 ms and 1 . 120 ms , respectively . the ttg and rtg are 140 microseconds and 60 microseconds , respectively . in fig1 , tdd frame 1300 is shown with a dl / ul ratio of 4 : 2 and fdd frame 1320 for 8 . 75 mhz channel bandwidth with a cp of ¼ tb . the tdd frame 1300 has four six - symbol sub - frames 1310 and two seven - symbol sub - frames 1330 and fdd frame 1320 has three six - symbol sub - frames 1310 and three seven - symbol sub - frame 1330 . assuming ofdm symbol duration of 128 microseconds and a cp length of ¼ tb the length of six - symbol sub - frame 1310 and seven - symbol sub - frame 1330 are 0 . 768 ms and 0 . 896 ms , respectively . the number of ofdm symbols in a sub - frame may be related to , for example , the length of each ofdm symbol and / or the cyclic prefix value . however , to simplify the implementation of the system , it is desirable that all sub - frames within a frame have the same size and consists of the same number of ofdm symbols . embodiments of the invention may be used having any suitable ofdma numerology . it may be appreciated by those skilled in the art that although a variety of parameters ( e . g ., duplex modes , cyclic prefix values , ofdma numerologies , etc .) may be used according to embodiments described herein , suitable variations may be used , for example , as depicted in the variations of fig1 - 13 . reference is made to fig1 , which is a table of ofdma parameters according to embodiments of the present invention . fig1 lists parameters for a cp of ¼ . the cp length of one quarter is equal to 22 . 85 microseconds ( for bandwidths of 5 , 10 or 20 mhz ) which corresponds to a cell size of approximately 5 km . therefore , a delay spread of up to 22 . 85 microseconds can be mitigated . reference is made to fig1 , which is a flow chart of a method according to an embodiment of the present invention . in operation 1500 , a processor in a terminal may partition each frame into two or more sub - frames . the frames ( e . g ., frames 410 described in reference to fig4 , or other frames ) may be backward compatible with a reference system profile and for example , defined according to a reference standard system ( e . g ., ieee std 802 . 16 - 2009 or mobile wimax profiles ). thus , as compared with the frames from which sub - frames are partitioned , the sub - frames ( e . g ., sub - frames 420 described in reference to fig4 ) may be shorter and therefore processed and transmitted / received faster with smaller periodicity . transmitting according to the sub - frame structure may provide over the air communications having a periodicity on the scale of several sub - frames instead of the relatively longer periodicity of several frames . in operation 1505 , a transmitter may transmit one or more sub - frames during a pre - designated downlink transmission ( e . g ., pre - designated dl transmissions 306 , described in reference to fig3 ). in operation 1510 , the transmitter may transmit one or more sub - frames during a pre - designated uplink transmission ( e . g ., pre - designated ul transmissions 308 , described in reference to fig3 ) in operation 1515 , the transmitter may transmit one of the plurality of sub - frames including a legacy preamble for communicating with a legacy terminal , for example , operating according to the reference system profile during a pre - designated legacy transmission period or zone ( e . g ., legacy zone 612 and / or 616 , described in reference to fig6 ). in operation 1520 , the transmitter may transmit one of the plurality of sub - frames including a new preamble for communicating with a new ( e . g ., a non - legacy ) terminal , for example , operating according to an evolved or newer version of the reference system standard , such as , the ieee 802 . 16m standard , during a pre - designated new ( e . g ., a non - legacy ) transmission period or zone ( e . g ., new zone 614 and / or 618 , described in reference to fig6 ). in various embodiments , the first and second signals may be transmitted in a tdd duplex mode or an fdd duplex mode . in some embodiments , when the signals are transmitted in a tdd duplex mode , operations 1505 and 1510 may be executed over substantially different time intervals , or frame positions , such that the first and second signals may be transmitted separately . in other embodiments , when the when the signals are transmitted in an fdd duplex mode , operations 1505 and 1510 may be executed in substantially overlapping time periods , such that the first and second signals may be transmitted over substantially distinct frequencies and / or channels . in some embodiments , the sub - frames may be further partitioned into two or more ( e . g ., six ) information - carrying , multiplexing , and / or ofdm symbols . in some embodiments , the first and second signals may include a legacy preamble for communicating with legacy terminals operating according to the reference system profile and a new preamble for communicating with a new ( e . g ., a non - legacy ) terminal operating according to a second system standard and / or an evolved version of the reference system . in one embodiment , each of the first and second sub - frames may be pre - designated for communicating with one of a legacy terminal , a non - legacy terminal , or both a legacy and non - legacy terminal . for example , one of two or more sub - frames in operation 1510 may be pre - designated for communicating with both a legacy and a non - legacy terminal . in some embodiments , the beginning of the frames , which may be pre - designated for communicating with legacy terminals and non - legacy terminals , may be offset , for example , by a fixed number of sub - frames . in some embodiments , a super - frame may be defined . for example , the super - frame may include two or more frames ( e . g ., the frames described in operation 1500 ) that may be transmitted in succession . in one embodiment , the new preamble may be transmitted substantially once during the transmission of each super - frame . in one embodiment , the new preamble may be transmitted substantially once every frame . according to embodiments such as that of option i described herein , the legacy preamble and the new preamble may be transmitted separately , for example , at a substantially fixed distance apart along the length of the frame . in one embodiment , a process may execute operations 1500 , 1505 , and 1510 and need not execute operations 1515 and 1520 . in another embodiment , a process may execute operations 1500 , 1515 , and 1520 and need not execute operations 1505 and 1510 . in yet another embodiment , a process may execute operations 1500 , 1505 , 1510 , 1515 , and 1520 . the process may execute other sequences , orders , and / or permutations of operations described herein . while the invention has been described with respect to a limited number of embodiments , it will be appreciated that many variations , modifications and other applications of the invention may be made . embodiments of the present invention may include other apparatuses for performing the operations herein . such apparatuses may integrate the elements discussed , or may comprise alternative components to carry out the same purpose . it will be appreciated by skilled in the art that the appended claims are intended to cover all such modifications and changes as fall within the true spirit of the invention .	7
turning now to the drawings , there is shown an oil level sensor 11 having a main or body portion 13 , which houses the on - board electronics of the sensor , terminating on the left in a suitable connector 15 , such as the packard - type connector shown . sensor body 13 has integrally formed therewith a hexagonal wrench - engaging surface 17 to facilitate the securing of the sensor in the block or the like ( not shown ) of an internal combustion engine . adjacent hexagonal surface 17 are screw threads 19 which constitute means for mounting the sensor on the engine block . screw threads 19 are integrally formed on the outer surface of a probe 21 which extends distally from the main portion of body 13 . this outer surface is preferably integrally formed with body 13 and constitutes a first electrode 23 of a sensing capacitor described below . probe 21 is cylindrical , which makes fabrication and installation of the probe relatively easy . a plurality of holes or orifices 25 pass through electrode 23 at various locations to allow the oil whose level is being sensed to flow freely into and out of the interior of the probe . also shown in fig1 although not physically present on sensor 11 itself , is an ellipse 27 which illustrates the set points of the sensor ( see discussion in connection with fig3 - 5 ). disposed inside cylindrical electrode 23 is a second , smaller cylindrical electrode 29 ( fig2 ) which is substantially concentric with electrode 23 . a pair of ceramic ( or an alternative insulating material ) disks 31 and 33 support electrode 29 at each end and secure it against radial movement with respect to outer electrode 23 . electrode 29 has hollowed out end portions to receive shoulders 35 and 37 on disks 31 and 33 . with this method of attachment , the smaller electrode is supported solely from inside . this reduces the stray capacitance between electrodes 23 and 29 since no high dielectric material is introduced into the gap between the two electrodes . in addition , since electrode 29 is supported at both ends , the electrode is not subjected to the fatigue - inducing low - frequency vibrations which affect cantilevered electrodes . ceramic disk 33 at the distal end of the probe is held in place by crimping of the distal end of electrode 23 at shown at 39 . this , or some other simple and economical mechanical attachment , holds the inner electrode in place . a belleville washer 41 is disposed in the proximal end of the recess or hollow in electrode 23 in which electrode 29 fits . this washer allows the fabrication tolerances for sensor 11 to be increased while still preventing vibration of the inner electrode . washer 41 has a central opening through which passes a conductor 43 which makes the electrical connection between electrode 29 and the circuitry of fig7 . conductor 43 passes through a suitable seal 45 , of glass or the like , in the wall of sensor body 13 . since the seal 45 is completely separate from the supporting structure for the inner electrode , stress on conductor 43 and seal 45 are drastically reduced . sensor body 13 has a circuit board 47 mounted and potted therein . the circuit board carries the electronics of fig7 and the electrical connection to conductor 43 is made on this board . a similar conductor 49 electrically connects electrode 23 ( the outer electrode ) to circuit board 47 . four wires ( see fig6 for the corresponding pins ) connect circuit board 47 to the external control system via plug or connector 15 . electrode 29 is preferably metal with an insulated layer over nearly its entire surface area . anodized aluminum works well as the material for electrode 29 , since the insulation formed by the anodizing is durable and easy to fabricate . it has been found that various oils begin to conduct electricity to a slight , but significant degree at elevated temperatures such as are typical of internal combustion engines . as a result , the oil which functions solely as a dielectric at room temperature becomes a conductor ( albeit a poor one ) at elevated temperatures and the conductivity effects begin to mask the dielectric constant / capacitive effects which sensor 11 is designed to detect . insulating electrode 29 minimizes this problem and results in a sensor 11 with increased temperature stability . electrode 29 extends proximally a significant distance past the distal end of screw threads 19 . in fact it extends all the way past the proximal end of the threads , even though this part of probe 21 is located in the wall of and outside the block . this feature of recessing the electrodes which make up the sensing capacitor results in significantly more capacitive signal potential for the probe without increasing the sensor size . as a result sensor 11 can be used in places where the space available is constrained . in addition , since the sensor has more capacitance than it would otherwise , the gap between the electrodes can be selected from a greater possible range of values to provide an increased operating margin and reliability . for a given maximum outer electrode diameter , the gap between electrodes 23 and 29 is selected to provide an operating margin for the sensor optimized with respect to response time and electronics stability . in selecting the gap size , two primary factors must be taken into consideration . one is that the capacitance of the probe increases as the gap size decreases . since the detection of the presence or absence of oil depends on the capacitance detected by the electronic circuitry , and since these capacitances are in general very small , the gap size should be decreased as much as possible to increase the capacitance . however , the extent to which oil &# 34 ; clings &# 34 ; in the gap , even when the surrounding oil drops below the level of the oil in the probe , also increases when the gap size decreases . once the gap size is reduced to a certain point , the probe will always indicate the presence of oil , even when no oil is present around the probe , because of the cling effect . for a gap size less than the critical gap size which the working fluids cannot bridge ( typically 0 . 1 inches for most oils ), there will always be a certain amount of oil clinging to the inside of the probe . this amount results in a &# 34 ; useless &# 34 ; volume of the probe , which reduces the probe &# 39 ; s useful signal variation and makes electronic detection of the oil level a more demanding and expensive task . of course , the larger the gap size the quicker oil tends to drain out of the sensor , and the faster the response time of the sensor to falling oil level . for many applications , a response time of ten seconds is satisfactory so the gap is selected to ensure this response time or better . for the present sensor configuration , a gap of approximately 0 . 05 inch has been found to provide such a response time . note that this gap is about one - half the gap of 0 . 1 inch found in prior art sensor which have no oil clinging in the gap . but such a large prior art gap provides substantially less capacitance for a given configuration and thus requires considerably more expensive electronics to detect the smaller capacitance changes . with the smaller gap of the present invention , relatively inexpensive electronics may be used and , in addition , the operating margin of the sensor is increased at the same time . the operating margin in this sense is the capacitance of the probe having its gap filled with an oil of the minimum dielectric minus the capacitance of the probe with oil having a maximum dielectric clinging in the gap . for generally acceptable response times ( e . g . ten seconds or less ), the operating margin is a decreasing function of gap size . more importantly these acceptable response times are achievable with gap sizes which result in significant clinging of oil to the probe . as a result , operating margin is improved using gap sizes heretofore not used in capacitive probes because of clinging . the ellipse 27 ( see fig3 - 5 ) illustrates the typical set point of sensor 11 ( which is determined by the electronic circuit ). for any orientation , the ellipse should be covered for the sensor to register the presence of oil . the full / low set point is , therefore , determined by drawing a horizontal line tangent the upper extent of ellipse . the set points are illustrated for a vertical orientation of the sensor ( fig3 ), for a horizontally disposed probe ( fig4 ), and for the probe disposed at a forty - five degree angle ( fig5 ). in fig6 the four conductors 51a - d which connect the sensor electronics with the external control system are shown . as will become apparent two of these pins form the power supply for the circuitry of sensor 11 , one provides the self - test feature of the present invention , and the final pin carries the output of the circuitry to the external control system . the components on circuit board 47 are selected for their ability to withstand temperatures of 150 degrees centigrade and above . the circuit itself is designed so that component drift with temperature and age is for the most part self - compensating . for example , matched components such as a matched diode package 55 are used . additionally , the circuit provides inexpensive control over drift effects by comparing two circuit legs of similar design and construction . more particularly , pin 51a supplies a predetermined voltage from 4 . 5 to 15 volts dc to the circuitry of fig7 . pin 51d provides the circuit ground and completes the power supply for the circuitry . a 0 . 1 micro - f capacitor c1 is connected across the supply . power is supplied to an oscillator 57 which comprises a ca3290 - type comparator 59 , a 15k resistor r1 , a 1 . 5k resistor r2 , a 27k resistor r3 , a 39k resistor r4 , a 5 . 1k resistor r5 , and a 1000 pf capacitor c2 connected as shown . the output of comparator 59 is a train of pulses at a predetermined frequency determined by the values of the components listed above , which pulse train is supplied through matched diode pair 55 to the two legs of the circuit . the upper leg of the circuit of fig7 includes probe 21 , and specifically electrodes 23 and 29 of probe 21 . since the capacitance of the capacitor formed by these two electrodes varies depending upon the amount of oil ( dielectric ) in the gap between them , this leg of the circuit is the variable portion . a 0 . 1 micro - f capacitor c3 is connected between electrode 23 and the circuit ground . the pulse train from oscillator 57 , as modified by the capacitance of probe 21 , passes through a filter consisting of a 221k resistor r6 , a 0 . 01 micro - f capacitor c4 and a 200k resistor r7 to the non - inverting input of a comparator 61 . a 12 pf capacitor c5 provides positive feedback for comparator 61 and a 5 . 1k resistor ro is connected between its output and the positive voltage source . the lower leg of the circuit is similar to the upper leg , but it is connected to the inverting input of comparator 61 . instead of the capacitor made up of electrodes 23 and 29 , the lower leg of the circuit includes a 22 pf capacitor c6 in parallel with a selectively adjustable capacitor c7 having a capacitance of between two and ten pf . capacitor c7 is provided so that the set point of the sensor may be adjusted . the pulse train from oscillator 57 , as modified by capacitors c6 and c7 , passes through a filter consisting of a 200k resistor r8 , a 0 . 15 micro - f capacitor c8 , and a 200k resistor r9 to the inverting input of comparator 61 . when oil is present in the sensor at the level corresponding to the set point of sensor 11 , the signal on the non - inverting input to comparator 61 is greater than that on the inverting input , so the output of the comparator goes high . this high signal is supplied over pin 51b to the external control circuitry and indicates the presence of oil at the sensor . conversely , when the oil level is below the set point , the output of comparator 61 is low . of course shorting of electrodes 23 and 29 by water or metal particles also result in the output of the comparator going low , to indicate a possible problem condition . as is readily apparent , the circuitry of fig7 is dc - current isolated , which eliminates ground loops and enhances system reliability . the self - test signal for the circuitry of fig7 is supplied to the circuitry over pin 51c . this pin is ordinarily grounded , reducing system power requirements . when the pin goes high , it switches on an npn transistor q1 . more specifically , the signal on pin 51c is supplied through a voltage divider made up of two 10k resistors r10 and r11 to the base of transistor q1 . when transistor q1 conducts , it disables oscillator 57 . the values of the components in the two legs of the circuit discussed above have been selected so that whenever the oscillator is disabled , the output of comparator 61 goes high momentarily , followed by a stable low output so long as the self - test signal is applied . in this way regardless of the initial oil level indication of the sensor , the opposite output state can be induced , verifying the ability of the circuit to indicate both states . if the oscillator has failed before the self - test signal is applied , the comparator output stays low even after the self - test signal is removed . although the present invention has been described with reference to an oil level sensor which indicates only the presence or absence of oil , it should be appreciated that this is a feature of the switched output and that the sensor and circuitry are not inherently so limited and can , in fact , be used in a sensor which indicates the actual level of the oil as well . in view of the above , it will be seen that the objects of this invention are achieved and other advantageous results obtained . as various changes could be made in the above constructions without departing from the scope of the invention , it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense .	5
as shown in the drawing fig1 - 89 , the present invention is directed to a mission - adaptable set of components forming a convertible cart / utility table . for example , the present invention may include foldable cart 1 , having a load support for carrying a load , such as a boat , such as a canoe , which can also function as a game cart or a wagon for carrying gear in outdoor field applications . fig1 shows cart 1 in a disassembled storage position with a pair of horizontal load support members 10 laid parallel adjacent to each other , supporting wheels 30 thereon . wheels 30 are secured in place by a transverse connecting rod 31 through wheel hubs 30 a and by one or more load securing straps 50 . disassembled storage cart 1 is inserted within carry bag 120 , which includes ledge 121 and fabric loops 122 for holding bracket members 60 , 70 and handle 80 outside of carry bag 120 . to transport portable cart 1 by hand carry straps 124 are attached to carry bag 120 . conversely as shown in fig2 , to transport portable cart 1 upon the back of a user , carry straps 124 are attached to carry bag 120 , which supports portable cart 1 in a weight bearing manner , or else horizontal support members 10 are inverted to support portable cart 1 in a weight bearing manner , and carry bag 120 covers portable cart 1 in a non - weight bearing manner . to be disassembled in a carry position , u - shaped bracket rails 60 , 70 , wheels 30 and axle members 32 are inversely attached to horizontal load supports 10 to comprise a folded manually transportable cart . as shown in the exploded view of fig3 , in the storage position , in a preferred embodiment , cart 1 includes a pair of parallel , spaced apart inverted horizontal load support members 10 . support members 10 each have a front - end 10 a and a rear end 10 b . the front and rear ends 10 a , 10 b each have at least one axially placed receptacle aperture 12 extending longitudinally within each load support member 10 , for holding structural components therethrough in a storage position , such as axle members 32 for wheels 30 . in this storage position , axle members 32 are also inserted within aperture of 33 of axle connector 34 . fig3 also shows horizontal load support members 10 having preferably a generally upside down u - shaped configuration when viewed in cross - section , wherein a generally flat member 10 c has downwardly extending flanges 10 d , 10 e including one or more linearly extending slots 10 f for insertion of holding straps 50 therein . although apertures 12 are shown in the drawings , it is contemplated that other configurations may be applicable to horizontal load support members 10 , so long as other members , such as rails 60 , 70 and so forth , may be attached thereto by fasteners , preferably in an axis parallel to the axis of horizontal support members 10 . while size may vary , support member 10 is preferably sixteen ( 16 ) inches long and two and a quarter ( 2 . 25 ) inches wide . each flange 10 d , 10 e extends down about one ( 1 ) inch from flat member 10 c . slots 10 f are preferably 2 . 125 inches wide and 0 . 1875 inches high , to accommodate straps 50 , such as , for example , standard 2 - inch wide fabric straps . fig3 also shows vertical struts 20 optionally having at least one small hole 22 , such as kickstand receptacle aperture 22 , for insertion of optional kickstand 40 therein . fig3 also shows horizontal load support members 10 being respectively demountably attached to a pair of vertical struts 20 , having apertures 21 and 22 . in one embodiment , horizontal load support members 10 can be demountably attached to vertical struts 20 , but in an alternate embodiment they can be permanently affixed to each other , such as in the alternate embodiments shown in fig3 a and 3b . moreover , while preferably horizontal struts are u - shaped , as in fig3 , in alternate embodiments other configurations can be used , as long as vertical strut 20 can be attached to horizontal support member 10 . for example , in fig3 a vertical strut 20 ′ is in a unified t - shaped member with horizontal support member 10 ′. in fig3 b , vertical struts 20 ′ and horizontal support members 10 ′ are attached by weldment 20 ″. in fig3 c , vertical strut 20 ′ is inserted in hole 10 ″ of horizontal support member 10 ′, and attached by fastener 10 ′″, such as a screw or other fastener . in these alternate embodiments shown in fig3 a , 3b or 3 c , horizontal load support members 10 ′ may be solid in cross sectional configuration . one such configuration shown in fig3 a , 3b and 3 c is that of a parallelepiped , namely a solid form , all of whose sides are parallelograms , such as rectangles , and whose opposite sides are parallel to one another . in another embodiment vertical strut 20 may be adjustable in length with a sleeve containing a telescopic shaft ( not shown ) and with a spring urging the shaft in and out of the sleeve , with a lock provided . kickstand 40 is shown deployed in fig4 . kickstand 40 is secured in place by a fastener , such as nylon set screw 37 . set screws 37 also hold axle members 32 in the storage position through vertical struts 20 . vertical struts 20 are preferably made from 1½ × 2 - inch solid bar stock anodized aluminum , or stainless steel . vertical struts 20 are preferably about 10 . 25 inches long , 2 inches wide and 1½ inches in depth . also shown in fig3 , the plurality of optional larger holes 21 , such as holes , which are 0 . 765 or 1 . 625 inches in diameter , are located on a front side of vertical strut 20 . smaller hole 22 on the bottom accommodates kickstand 40 , which is preferably a hollow aluminum tube of 0 . 75 - inch diameter and 16 inches in length . optional larger holes 21 within vertical strut 20 are provided for weight reduction of portable cart 1 . on a side 23 transverse to the front 24 of each vertical strut 20 , at a lower portion 20 a thereof , is provided a further hole 25 of about 1 - inch in diameter for insertion of each axle member 32 therethrough . hole 25 has a permanently affixed , bushing 26 therein , such as a pvc ( polyvinyl chloride ) bushing , to prevent wear and tear of each aluminum axle member 32 by the aluminum surface of hole 25 . as also shown in fig3 and 6 , each wheel 30 is demountably attached at an end , respectively , to a pair of axle members 32 , with axle members 32 extending inwardly from and demountably attached to lower portion 20 a of the respective vertical struts 20 , wherein axle members 32 are in a transverse relationship to horizontal load support members 10 . fasteners , 36 , such as cotter pins , hold each wheel 30 upon each axle 32 . each axle member 32 is received within each hole 25 , of each lower portion 20 a of each vertical strut 20 . a compression groove 27 exists from the underside of vertical strut 20 to hole 25 and continues to further through hole 27 a , providing for compression of lower portion 20 a of vertical strut 20 . to accommodate narrow or wider cargo , such as watercraft of varying widths , the distance between vertical struts 20 can be varied along the axle length by loosening and tightening the tightening member 28 and moving vertical struts 20 laterally apart or towards each other along axle members 32 . although optionally a one - piece axle may be used ( not shown ), preferably the pair of axle members 32 are held in opposite axial orientation by straight rigid axle connector 34 . axle connector 34 has tightening member 35 , and a pair of receptacles 33 at the respective two ends of axle connector 34 , so that axle members 32 respectively extend outwardly from , and are demountably attached within , the axle connector receptacle bore 33 . while the axle may be optionally a one - piece axle , such as shown as reference numeral 606 in fig3 herein , preferably the pair of connected oppositely extending axle members 32 form together an axle for wheels 30 . each axle member 32 is made of solid round stock of anodized aluminum or stainless steel , approximately 0 . 75 inches in diameter . at the wheel - supporting end 32 a , the diameter is about 0 . 59 inches in diameter with shoulders 32 b of about 0 . 08 inches in height , transverse to the axis of axle member 32 . these shoulders 32 b provide a resting surface to prevent axial movement of wheel 30 upon axle member 32 . as shown in fig7 , each wheel 30 rotates about press fit bearings 32 b , while each wheel 30 is positioned upon each respective axle member 32 of fig8 . as shown in fig6 , at the opposite end of one axle member 32 , there is provided a hollow , threaded recess 32 c of about 0 . 75 inches deep , to accommodate a connecting threaded member 32 d of other axle member 32 , to axially connect both axle members 32 together within axle connector 34 , with a wheel 30 at each end . fig8 and 9 show how axle connector 34 is compensated along groove 38 , thereby locking axle members 32 within bushing 39 , which is within receptacle bore 33 of axle connector 34 , by tightening of tightening bolt 35 a of tightening member 35 . preferably bushing 39 is a pvc ( polyvinyl chloride ) bushing . groove 38 is preferably 1 / 16 to ⅛ inch , in width , which allows for the compression of axle connector 34 around axle members 32 . tightening bolt 35 a is inserted within a conventional receptacle which is a through hole at the proximal end and which is tapped with threaded grooves at the distal end , to allow for compression of axle connector 34 . fig4 and 6 also show at least one kickstand 40 , preferably a pair , respectively extending horizontally rearward from each lower portion of vertical struts 20 . each kickstand member 40 extends rearwardly from the at least one kickstand receptacle aperture 22 of respective vertical struts 20 and each kickstand 40 is demountably attached within each respective kickstand receptacle aperture 22 . each kickstand member 40 is preferably contoured so as to contact the ground to stabilize portable cart 1 is a parked position of rest . as shown in fig5 , to hold a canoe , game or cargo in place upon cart 1 , one or more adjustable load - securing straps 50 are slidably attached to both respective horizontal load supports 10 in a transverse relationship to load supports 10 . straps 50 are preferably reinforced flexible canvas straps of about 2 inches in width . to complete portable cart 1 as a canoe or boat cart , fig4 shows support cushions 13 mounted upon respective horizontal load supports 10 . support cushions 13 are flexible , such as of rubber or foam , to support the weight of boat 2 thereon . fig1 and 11 show the precision balancing of boat 2 upon cart 1 , wherein the placement of boat 2 upon cart 1 causes cart 1 to rotate from a position of rest in fig1 to a horizontal load position of fig1 , in the direction of the arrow . fig1 - 17 show another embodiment that converts portable cart 1 into a game cart . alternatively , fig1 - 20 show how to convert cart 1 into a cargo wagon with a hollow well . first , in either situation , carry frame 55 is secured to horizontal load supports 10 . although a one piece , generally rectangular frame ( not shown ) may be used , preferably frame 55 includes a pair of u - shaped brackets 60 , 70 joinable together to form frame 55 . various fasteners may be provided to horizontal load supports 10 to carry objects , such as carriers , thereon . alternatively , for example , a clamp may be provided to horizontal load supports 10 to carry a frame of a discrete transportable carrier directly thereon , as disclosed hereinafter with respect to fig2 - 24 . in that case , instead of the frame being integrally part of the portable chart , as in fig1 - 17 , in fig2 - 24 , the frame is clamped to the horizontal load supports 10 of portable cart 1 . other fasteners may include longitudinally extending channel slots , such as in fig3 - 39 described further below . meanwhile , further with respect to fig1 - 17 , u - shaped front bracket 60 extends horizontally forward from front - end receptacle apertures 12 of horizontal load supports 10 , wherein front bracket 60 is demountably attached within front - end receptacle apertures 12 at one end of horizontal load supports 10 . u - shaped rear bracket 70 extends horizontally rearward from oppositely positioned rear end receptacle apertures 12 of horizontal load supports 10 and rear bracket 70 is demountably attached within each oppositely positioned rear end receptacle aperture 12 of horizontal load supports 10 . fig1 shows how frame 55 is secured to cart 1 . each distal end of u - shaped front bracket 60 is inserted through apertures in respective ends 10 b of horizontal supports 10 until each distal end engages a corresponding hole in each vertical support 20 , where they are held in place by pins 29 . pins 29 engage lateral holes 18 in horizontal supports 10 and corresponding through holes 19 in distal ends of u shaped brackets 60 . likewise , each distal end of u - shaped rear bracket 70 is inserted through apertures in respective ends 10 a of horizontal supports 10 until each distal end engages a corresponding hole in each vertical support 20 , where it is also held in place by a pin 29 . pins 29 engage lateral holes 18 in horizontal supports 10 and corresponding through holes 19 in distal ends of u shaped brackets 60 , 70 of frame 55 . u - shaped brackets 60 , 70 are preferably of hollow , anodized aluminum tubing of about 0 . 75 inches in diameter . the length of each distally extending side member thereof is about 23 . 50 inches and the width of the cross bar connecting the distal side members is about 21 . 63 inches . about 0 . 75 inches from each distal end is a scoring , to accommodate a clamp thereon , to form frame 55 . as shown in fig1 and 15 for pulling or pushing game or cargo upon portable cart 1 , handle 80 extends rearwardly at an upward angle from joints 71 of either u - shaped rear bracket 70 for pushing portable cart 1 , or from front u - shaped bracket 60 for pulling portable cart 1 ( not shown ). furthermore , handle 80 may be permanently attached to either u - shaped bracket 60 or 70 , or handle 80 may be removable and demountably attached to either front u - shaped bracket 60 or rear u - shaped bracket 70 . handle 80 has preferably two aluminum tubing connecting members about 22 . 5 inches in length , connected by a hand accommodating transverse bar of solid aluminum , and is 17 . 5 inches in width . handle 80 includes connectors 81 , having distal sleeves , such as pvc ( polyvinyl chloride ) sleeves 82 , permanently affixed thereto , which are insertable within joints 71 by locking member 72 , having threaded member 72 a which passes through bore 71 a of joint 71 and bore 81 a of handle 80 . compression groove 73 exists in joint 71 , providing compression of joint 71 . handle 80 may optionally have an auxiliary extension member and clamp ( not shown ), so that it can be attached to the rear frame of a bicycle ( not shown ), to pull portable cart 1 . to carry game 3 , as shown in fig1 , or to carry an injured person in a rescue operation , fig1 shows portable cart 1 having fabric stretcher 100 stretched tautly between horizontal load members 10 and preferably mounted over and around front and rear u - shaped brackets 60 and 70 of frame 55 , by threading brackets 60 , 70 through fasteners such as sewn - in loops 102 of fabric stretcher 100 , which may alternatively be made of plastic or other taut load bearing material . other types of fasteners can be used . for example , fig1 shows that loop 102 a is openable , and closed by fastener , such as zipper fastener 102 b . as also shown in fig1 , handle 80 may include a pair of posts extending obliquely off of a horizontal axis of portable cart 1 , wherein a head rest cushion 85 extends between the posts to support the head and neck of an injured person being transported upon stretcher 100 . fig1 - 20 show that to carry cargo , hollow fabric cargo well 110 is attached in the same manner to frame 55 . hollow cargo well 110 may also alternatively be made of plastic or other taut load bearing material , and covered by cover 112 . fig1 and 19 also show wider wheels 130 for use on sand or granular terrain . the various embodiments of the mission adaptable multiple - purpose portable cart / utility table can be quickly and easily assembled and disassembled . for example , for making a canoe cart from the disassembled portable cart 1 , wheel - retaining members , such as cotter pins 36 , are taken out of axle members 32 in their stored position , and wheels 30 come out . axle members 32 are then removed from between vertical struts 20 . the axle members 32 are then clamped in a horizontal use position into receptacles 33 of rigid axle connector 34 . axle members are inserted between vertical struts 20 and locked in place . wheels 30 are placed upon axle members 32 and secured by cotter pins 36 . kickstand 40 is loosened from its rest position and placed in place in receptacles within vertical struts 20 . canoe supporting cushions 13 are installed upon horizontal load supports 10 to support a canoe or boat thereupon . straps 50 hold the canoe or boat installed upon cushions 13 in a secure transportable position . to convert portable cart 1 into a game cart as in fig1 or a rescue cart as in fig1 , kickstands 40 are removed and fabric stretcher 100 is installed on u - shaped frame members 60 , 70 of frame 55 frames by fasteners such as sewn loops 102 thereof . u - shaped frame members 60 , 70 are placed on horizontal load supports 10 , and kickstand members 40 are installed as braces for fabric stretcher 100 . straps 50 are then installed to securely hold game or an injured party upon stretcher 100 . then handle 80 is installed upon u - shaped bracket 60 or 70 of frame 55 to pull or push portable cart 1 . to convert portable cart 1 into a wagon to haul cargo , as in fig1 and 19 , fabric stretcher 100 is removed and hollow well 110 is installed over u - shaped members 60 , 70 of frame 55 . to make the portable chart 1 portable again , the components are disassembled in reverse into bag 120 . strap or straps 50 are used as a carry handle or for backpack shoulder loops . while the rescue stretcher shown in fig1 has its own customized stretcher 100 , in another embodiment shown in fig2 - 24 , to convert portable cart 1 to a retrofit disabled person - bearing transportable carrier cart for search and rescue operations , using conventional railed stretcher 230 , support cushions 13 are removable from horizontal load supports 10 and replaced by clamping assembly 200 . clamping assembly 200 includes lower jaw 202 , and upper jaw 204 . while different jaw configurations can be used , the embodiment shown in fig2 - 24 shows each having longitudinally extending recesses 206 and 208 therein to grip perimeter frame rails of a load supporting transportable carrier , such as conventional railed stretcher 230 therebetween , as shown in fig2 . lower jaw 202 of clamping assembly 200 includes an engaging surface 210 with threaded studs 212 which are inserted into through - holes 214 of load supports 10 , and permanently locked with nuts 216 . upper jaw 204 is provided with a pair of oblong through - slots , 218 , to allow upper jaw 204 to slide on upper surface of lower jaw 202 , when threaded t - handles 220 are loosened . as shown by the arrows in fig2 this sliding action allows for quick removal of any stretcher frame rail secured between jaw assembly 200 . fig2 and 24 are perspective views of a typical stretcher 230 , and a stokes - type rescue basket 240 , securely clamped to portable cart 1 utilizing the previously described clamping assembly 200 . as shown in fig2 in this embodiment , instead of being permanently attached to each horizontal load support 10 , removable support cushion 13 is permanently attached to removable plate 302 with an adhesive 304 . this cushion assembly is removably attachable by nuts 316 and threaded studs 312 , to each horizontal load support 10 . fig2 illustrates portable cart 1 , outfitted with a plurality of racking assemblies 400 , each comprising a rail clamp 410 , an upstanding post 424 , and a hanger clamp 430 . rack assembly 400 , when used in conjunction with additional rack assemblies 400 , allows for transportation and quick removal of essential hunting gear such as a chair stand 440 , archery equipment 441 , and rifle 442 . other related items such as knapsacks and bedrolls may be supported by rack assembly 400 , as well . rack assembly 400 is easily disassembled from cart 1 upon reaching a chosen destination , and the components are conveniently transported within cart 1 &# 39 ; s storage backpack , such as carry bag 120 shown in fig1 . also illustrated in fig2 are stabilizing assemblies 450 and 460 . assembly 450 makes use of post 420 , which is friction - fit into an inverted rail clamp 410 . assembly 460 comprises an inverted tubular sleeve 462 , optionally permanently welded to the handle assembly crosspiece . sleeve 462 accepts kickstand post 424 in a similar fashion to rail clamp 410 . these assemblies 450 460 serve to brace the cart 1 when it is parked . moreover , kickstand post 424 may be used with any embodiment having a handle , such as handle 80 of fig1 and 17 - 19 , or handle 81 of fig3 and 33 . turning to fig2 , which is highlighted in fig2 , an exploded perspective close - up detail view of rail clamp 410 is presented . clamping block 411 is provided with a bore 412 to receive post 424 , an attachment face 413 including a semi bore 414 , and notch 415 , and threaded bore 416 . plate 417 includes semi bore 418 , through hole 419 , and protruding rib 420 . as shown in fig2 , when threaded knob 422 is inserted into hole 419 of plate 417 and tightened into threaded bore 416 of block 411 , clamping is achieved against frame member 60 . rib 420 is secured within notch 415 by a camming action in the direction of arrow “ a ”. fig2 shows cantilevered hanger clamp 430 , poised to slide down upstanding post 424 . hanger clamp 430 is provided with a bore 431 , which is notched in a similar manner to clamping receptacles 71 of the handle assembly . the notch separates the body of hanger clamp 430 into two walls . threaded knob 422 will compress the walls surrounding the notch , thereby tightening bore 431 around post 424 . l - shaped region 432 is integrally formed with the body of the hanger clamp , and provides a strong and durable support for transporting hunting or other gear . fig3 is a perspective view of an anti - tipping linkage 500 , which couples cart 1 to a bicycle . linkage 500 counteracts cart rollover caused by centrifugal force as the bicycle negotiates turns . fig3 illustrates the components of linkage 500 . bicycle seat - stem compression clamp 510 is formed of a body portion 511 , and plate 512 , fastened by screws 513 . bore 514 is angled so that clamp 510 remains perpendicular when installed on a typical bicycle seat - stem . clamp 510 is provided with a bore 515 on rear face 516 , which accepts a shaft 520 . pin 517 passes through clamp and fixes shaft 520 via a through - bore . shaft 520 includes through - bore 522 at its distal end . another through - bore 523 is provided slightly proximal of aperture 522 . when shaft 520 is inserted into coil spring 530 , hooked leg 531 of the spring will fit into bore 522 . a sliding collar 524 will then extend over leg 531 to prevent pull - out , and a pin 526 will be fitted into collar hole 525 , and into bore 523 of the shaft 520 , thereby securing the collar to the shaft and preventing removal of the coil spring . a shaft 540 is provided for the opposite end of coil spring 530 . hooked leg 532 fits into bore 542 of the shaft , and collar 544 slides over and is fixed by pin 546 , fitted into collar hole 535 and shaft bore 543 . support rails 550 and 551 are fixed to handle clamps 71 of cart 1 . the rails are bent into an inverted v configuration , and permanently affixed to block 552 . block 552 is provided with bore 553 , into which the free end of shaft 540 is fitted . pin 555 is inserted into through bore 554 of block 552 , and passes through bore 547 of shaft 540 , creating the continuous , secure anti - tipping linkage 500 between cart 1 and a bicycle . it is understood that during maneuvers of the bicycle , there will be no problems associated with a typical universal or pivot joint ; the coil spring will absorb and disperse any rotational stresses , and will react as a 360 ° “ living hinge ”. fig3 a - 32g , 33 and 33 a show an alternate embodiment 600 of the portable cart using four wheels 30 in an overlapped configuration . a hard molded cover 601 is illustrated although any cover or no cover can be used as well . cover 601 covers bin 602 with lower overlapping edge cap 601 a fitting over peripheral shoulder 602 a of bin 602 . bin 602 also has longitudinally extending concave channels 603 , which rest upon rails 604 of cart 600 of fig3 . downward pressure of the weight of bin 602 and its contents helps stabilize bin 602 upon rails 604 , which may be optionally covered with rubber or other resilient linearly extending cushions . although fig3 illustrates portable cart 600 with covered bin 602 , portable cart 600 can be used with other embodiments , such as , for example , boat cushions 13 shown in fig4 , framed rail stretchers 100 as in fig1 , the game cart of fig1 , the cargo cart of fig1 , the conventional rescue carriers of fig2 and 24 or the gear rack of fig2 , among others . fig3 h shows an exploded inverted view of an alternate embodiment for a ruggedized handle assembly , including handle 630 and handle shaft 626 with spring pin 628 lined up to enter the end of stanchion truss weldment 620 . stanchion truss weldment 620 has two downward extending struts 632 , which accommodate axles 624 therethrough , which axles 624 , in - turn , attach to wheels 622 . central bushing receptacle 634 accepts the end of handle shaft 626 . receptacle 634 also has a lower pushpin aperture and a pair of opposite holes for a through pin to hold handle shaft in place . fig3 h also shows kickstand 640 stowable within handle shaft 626 . fig3 i shows a close - up inverted view of receptacle 634 , showing handle shaft 626 located within truss weldment 620 , and held in place by spring pin 628 of handle shaft 626 and / or through pin 629 . fig3 j shows a four wheel cargo hauling cart with kickstand 640 attached to kickstand attachment bracket 638 , which is part of handle 630 . also shown are stacked cargo bin shell containers 634 held securely by straps 636 . fig3 j a shows bin 600 on a cargo hauling cart used as the basis for oxygen therapy in the field . oxygen concentrator 2102 can be used directly for patient oxygen supply , or it can feed into compressor 2104 to supply oxygen for filling compressed oxygen tanks for use by other patients in remote venues . oxygen therapy cart 2100 is shown in fig3 j b supplying oxygen via a face mask to a patient on a mobile stretcher converted to a surgical utility table , directly from a concentrator 2102 . in fig3 j c , cart 2100 is used in a mine , supplying oxygen from a tank to a miner . the tank was filled from oxygen supplied by concentrator 2102 and compressed air by compressor 2104 . other deployment examples of these cargo - hauling four wheel carts are illustrated in fig3 q and 32r . in fig3 q , a cart 600 with cargo bin 602 is shown being unloaded from a military or other emergency response truck , while in fig3 r a cart is shown being delivered to an emergency response pick - up site via a hovering helicopter , such as to an flooded community having no road surface access thereto . in the sequence of fig3 k , 32m , and 32 n , straps 636 have been detached from bin shell containers 634 , and the sequence of removal of top bin 634 is shown ending with a vertically oriented bin drawer cabinet 635 with a cover panel 639 removed , thereby exposing slidably openable drawers 642 on its front surface . fig3 n shows drawers 642 behind drawer retaining panel 639 in a cutaway view . fig3 n a shows a rear view of a drawer 642 with drawer slide 2110 and side drawer cover panel channels 2112 . there is also a similar front drawer channel 2114 . in the detail of fig3 n b , drawer cover panel 2116 , preferably formed of polycarbonate or other suitable strong but slightly flexible flat substrate material , is shown sliding in side channel 2112 as pulled via manually graspable member 2118 , such as , for example , elastomer grommeted finger hole 2118 . this panel 2116 must seat within the groove of channel 2114 in the secure position before drawer 642 can be closed flush within bin 635 , to permit cover panel 639 to properly seat for latching . lower bin 634 optionally contains related medical supplies for a field hospital , such as power packs , oxygen tanks , and other necessary medical supplies . fig3 o is an optional hitch assembly 644 , which replaces the handle assembly . hitch legs 646 are received into handle 630 . spring pins 651 also participate in this coupling . connector 646 , with hitch tongue 652 , form a structure engageable with receiver clevis 653 attached to all terrain vehicle 656 . fig3 p shows hitch 644 being used to pull cart 632 by all - terrain vehicle 656 . fig3 shows a perspective view of the frame of cart 600 . long axle 606 attaches front wheels 30 while short axle 605 attaches rear wheels 30 through respective vertical support pairs 20 . the use of four wheels doubles the carrying capacity of the cart of this invention while the overlapped positioning of the wheels maintains a short wheelbase for compactness and for maneuverability such as turning with fixed axles and the ability to easily climb ledges . for durability , the rails 604 may be a double pair of parallel rails . double axled cart 600 has increased maneuverability , since user pushing upon an optional handle 81 enables user to lift the farther away , distal pair of wheels 30 off the ground , and the user pulling upward of handle 81 raises the nearer proximal wheels 30 off the ground . fig3 through 39 are concerned with an alternate embodiment of the horizontal load support member 10 . the alternate embodiment 610 has an integral t - slot channel 611 in its top surface to facilitate easy installation and removal of a variety of attachments , such as cushions 615 shown in fig3 - 36 , clamps 620 , 630 , 640 , shown in fig3 - 39 , or platform 1450 shown in fig5 . load member 610 can be conveniently extruded of aluminum or magnesium ; it can be used either with the two - wheel cart 1 or the four - wheeled embodiment 600 . fig3 shows a resilient cushion 615 installed in the t - slot 611 of support member 610 . this cushion 615 can be extruded of a variety of rubber or thermoplastic elastomers and serves the same purpose as cushion member 13 described above . a perspective view of fig3 shows cushions 615 installed on a four - wheel cart 600 . as described above , clamp assembly 200 is used to convert portable cart 1 to a disabled person - bearing transportable carrier cart . three separate alternate embodiments of clamp assembly 200 are presented ; all are compatible with the use of horizontal support member 610 . fig3 shows a one - piece clamp 620 with full width top section 622 and short end pieces 621 , which mate with , and slip into the t - slot 611 of horizontal support member 610 . fig3 shows clamp 630 with a full width bottom member 631 which mates with and slides into t - slot 611 of horizontal support 610 . fig3 shows another alternate embodiment consisting of two short identical clamp members 640 , which are inserted into the t - slots 611 of member 610 at the two extreme ends . in all cases , the short clamping sections can be sized to offer spring - like gripping action on the tubular members , or fasteners , such as thumbscrews or ball plungers ( not shown ) can be used for retention . a preferred embodiment of short clamp 2122 is shown in fig3 a and 39b . it includes movable jaw 2124 separated from lower jaw 2126 by spring 2130 around a screw , with ratchet handle 2128 used to tighten onto a tubular member such as 2140 . a ratchet handle is provided to facilitate tightening in short arc strokes in confined spaces while providing high torque capability ; it also provides a means for parking the handle out of the way once tightening is accomplished . grooves 2132 facilitate sliding into the t - slot of horizontal support member 610 . knob 2138 is used to tighten plate 2134 via screw 2136 . plate 2134 presses against the side of member 610 thereby locking clamp 2122 within the t - slot , and preventing its inadvertent withdrawal . fig4 - 50 show alternate embodiments for converting a conventional hand carried , railed medical rescue stretcher to a lightweight wheeled version . for example , fig4 - 42 show shortened horizontal support members 710 with tightening members 711 . rails 713 are held either by clamps , such as shown in fig3 - 39 , or alternatively through apertures in horizontal support members 710 , as shown in fig1 . horizontal support members 710 are demountably attached to vertical struts 720 having extending therethrough transverse axles 732 supporting wheels 730 . optional pivotable kickstand 740 is attached to rails 713 by clamp 800 . as also shown in fig4 - 50 ; clamp 800 includes two jaws 801 , 802 having aperture recess 803 for insertion of rails 713 therethrough . clamp 800 is closed and tightened by fastener 804 operated by rotatable knob 805 . internal spring pins 806 , as shown in fig4 , cooperate with fastener 804 and knob 805 to tighten clamp 800 about rail 713 . internal grooves 807 , 808 accommodate kickstand 740 in the respective positions of support and rest , as shown in fig4 and fig4 respectively . fig4 shows an alternate embodiment for a military or emergency rescue carrier cart 900 with a profile set low to the ground , including shortened horizontal members 910 with tightening fasteners 911 . rails 913 are also held by clamps as in fig3 - 39 , or alternately through apertures in horizontal support members 910 , as in fig1 . horizontal support members 910 are demountably attached to shortened vertical struts 920 to keep stretcher rails 913 close to the ground . optional bent handle 945 is connected by clamps 800 disclosed in fig4 - 50 , as discussed above . fig4 - 46 show how the stretcher version shown in fig4 - 42 can be converted to a stationary medical gurney 1000 . rails 1013 are supported by horizontal support members 1010 , which hare demountably attached to vertical struts 1020 , having axles 1032 supporting wheels 1030 . to stabilize gurney 1000 , horizontally extending tie rods 1036 , 1037 are joined by threaded clamp 1038 or other fastening means . the major structural components of an alternate embodiment low profile rescue carrier are shown in fig4 a . latch clamps 1800 of stretcher bearing tube assemblies 950 support stretcher 1730 and also engage handles 630 at each end . handles 630 may be rotated into an upward locking position or downward . tube assemblies 950 include lateral spring pins 962 and upper spring pins 963 for proper placement of wheel assemblies comprising struts 920 having rail bearing clamps 910 operable by latch handles 911 . fig4 b shows an exploded view of handles 630 engageable with stretcher bearing tube assemblies 950 of fig4 a . handles 630 are attached to short handle shafts 956 with spring pins 958 ( as in detail callout fig4 c ) within . similarly , a coupling section detailed in fig4 c has spring pins 958 installed as shown . spring pins 958 include bent leaf spring section 960 which tail end impinges on the inside of tube 956 or tube 952 while the other end is attached to spring pin button 962 which protrudes through a hole in the side of tube 956 or 952 . buttons 962 couple with a tube mid sections 954 via holes near the ends of these tubes . buttons 963 function as wheel set locators and fit into wheel set clamps for proper fixturing , as shown in fig4 a . the low profile rescue carrier is also shown in the side elevational view of fig4 d , which illustrates the feature of the handles 630 rotated to the downward position and functioning as kickstands . as shown in fig4 e , the low profile rescue carrier is easily converted into a low profile transport rotating handles 630 from the kickstand support position to an upright handle position which is easily grasped by medical personnel . short handle shafts 956 are shown in the optionally extended position in fig4 e , to allow for clearance between the medic and the stretcher . the medic may drag the stretcher 1730 upon stretcher bearing assembly 950 as shown , or alternatively , push or pull the stretcher or other carrier bearing assembly 950 forward by reversing his or her orientation . fig4 f shows a reconfigurable , modular rescue carrier 1700 transporting a stretcher 1730 atop an auxiliary fabric carrier 2141 slung underneath . fig4 g through 43i show the same rescue carrier 1700 as fitted with a multi - purpose waterproof bag 2142 slung under the top frame members . it is attached via flaps at its top edge which are placed over the side rails and then zippered in place . fig4 g shows that bag 2142 does not interfere with the transportation or use of a stretcher 1730 which is placed over , and attached by clamps to horizontal parallel rails , of cart 1700 . fig4 h shows bag 2142 used to catch water and effluent from a patient washing operation facilitated by frame members , such as wood slats 2144 , on the top surface of carrier 1700 for this purpose . fig4 i shows a patient with hyperthermia upon carrier 1700 being treated in ice cubes 2146 within bag flexible 2142 . carrier 1700 of fig4 f through 43i is a free standing wheeled stretcher / litter stand which not only provides a platform for patient movement , but when utilized with the cargo carrier bins of fig3 to 32 r , assists in deployment and resupply of a mobile medical field installation system of which it is part . when accessorized , carrier 1700 is a mobile medical field facility in itself . carrier 1700 can be provided with accessories , such as a second set of wheels in lieu of a kickstand , a flexible bin stored underneath , a waterproof bath tub bag , fluid capture bags , assorted accessory clamps , medical accessories , portable such as portable x - ray or other medical imaging diagnostic equipment , intravenous fluid dispenser supports , surgical instrument trays , portable lamp assemblies , arm rests , leg stirrup and patient support stretchers with rails clampable to the horizontal support arils of carrier 1700 . a typical unit &# 39 ; s weight may vary , but is typically from about 57 pounds to about 135 pounds in weight , with a cargo carrying capacity of about 350 pounds to about 500 pounds . carrier 1700 is unique in its ability to provide a functional surgical operating table which is lightweight and compact for transportation to remote previously inaccessible areas , such as ravines , flooded areas or riverbeds inaccessible to container trailers of hirayama &# 39 ; s mobile hospital . carrier 1700 allows doctors and nurses to stabilize disaster casualties and to operate when necessary prior to evacuation transportation of a wounded patient . the carrier 1700 enables doctors and nurses to customize the utility table to the medical personnel &# 39 ; s specific needs for treatment in seconds . fig5 - 53 show a further embodiment for portable cart 1101 which folds down to a disassembled storage position as in fig5 and which unfolds to an assembled position of use as in fig5 . cart 1101 includes a pair of horizontal load support members 1110 laid parallel to each other , which rotate axially to move perpendicularly extending vertical struts 1120 outward from a position within a storage bag 1101 a , where vertical struts 1120 face each other &# 39 ; s distal ends , to a position of use 90 degrees perpendicular to the storage position , where vertical struts 1120 extend in the same plane but outward from horizontal load support members 1110 . in this embodiment shown in fig5 - 53 , the resilient rails 1178 are engaged to horizontal supports 1110 such that when in a position of storage the rails 1178 are biased to return to their normal position of use , when released from the storage position , thus causing vertical struts 1120 attached to horizontal supports 1110 to pivot upward and bow , thus increasing the strength of the cart . the same is true with other embodiments of the present invention . for example , placing a boat 2 upon cart 1 causes horizontal support members 10 and wheel axles 31 to bow , giving it the strength of an uncollapsible roman arch . the same is true with respect to stretcher or cargo hauling embodiments shown in fig1 , 17 - 19 , 40 - 45 and 58 - 66 , for example , wherein putting weight makes the carrier portion taut and bows the frame members into a position of strength . also the multiple floating overlapping rails as in fig1 , for example , bow the rails and strengthen the cart with a load supported thereon . moreover , vertical struts 1120 can be further strengthened in place to horizontal supports 1110 by connecting braces , such as v - shaped braces 1121 . wheels 1130 are held by axle 1131 , which in a storage position is placed within the storage bag 101 a . to lengthen cart 1101 , rails 1178 move away from each other within holes 1112 within horizontal supports 1110 , and are stopped from further movement by spring stop buttons 1171 . fig5 - 55 show portable cart 1201 which can be converted from a cargo hauling wagon configuration with cargo well 1290 attached to frame 1255 , to a rescue stretcher with taut rescue canvas or other stretcher 1292 when stretcher 1292 , which sits loosely above hollow well 1290 during the cargo hauling configuration , but which becomes taut when peripheral fasteners , such as zippers 1296 , snaps or the like tighten stretcher 1292 in place about frame 1255 . optional kickstand 1240 or handle 1280 may be attached to cart 1201 by joints 1271 . a further accessory arm bag 1201 b may be draped down from handle 1280 for further storage . an optional hard floor member 1294 may be provided below stretcher layer 1292 within cargo well 1290 for cargo hauling strength . fig5 shows optional ski attachments 1330 for cart 1301 , wherein ski portions 1331 are attached by braces 1332 to vertical struts 1320 . the length of braces 1332 is equal to the radius of wheels 30 in previous embodiments . fig5 shows optional platform base 1450 for supporting object such as camera tripods , cooking devices , ordnance , etc . upon cart 1401 . platform base 1450 slides within channels 1411 and is secured in place by fasteners such as recessed hex nuts . fig5 shows a portable cart frame of this invention configured as a cargo hauler or as a multi - victim stretcher . the cart includes two outer longitudinal horizontal parallel rigid load support frame members 1501 , which are preferably tubular . the cart also may include an optional center frame member 1502 , also preferably tubular , as well as optional transverse frame members 1503 , overhead tube frame 1505 , two vehicle actuators , such as wheels 30 and axle 32 . it is contemplated that in snow conditions the vehicle actuators can alternatively be skis , such as shown in fig5 herein . also as shown in fig5 , fasteners , such as cotter pins 1504 are used to attach horizontal support members 1501 and 1502 within holes , such as circular holes for tubular shaped horizontal support members in transverse members 1503 . also as in fig5 , vertical struts having the wheel subassembly with wheel 30 are attached to outer horizontal support members 1501 , such as tubes , with mechanisms 1506 which permit quick attachment and detachment . attachment clamps 1507 secure overhead handle 1505 to outer ends of horizontal support members 1501 . although not shown in the drawings , any of the embodiments herein shown in all the drawing fig1 - 70 may have vertical length adjustment means ( not shown ), such as a sleeve containing a telescoping shaft , the sleeve having a spring means for urging the shaft in a selectably extendable manner out of the sleeve and a lock for locking the telescoping shaft into a selected extended position . fig5 shows a single cargo or person hauling fabric top surface sheet 1512 , which can be made of canvas or similar material . sheet 1512 preferably has sewn longitudinal pockets at the outer edges to accept horizontal support members 1501 and a central pocket 1513 to accommodate optional central frame member 1502 when inserted in direction 1514 as shown . optional apron sections 1513 can be flipped over the side edges . fig6 shows the frame of this cargo hauling or multi - victim cart readjusted to foreshorten the distance between transverse members 1503 by securing cotter pins 1504 in holes in horizontal support members 1501 and 1502 which are located farther in from the ends . as shown in fig6 , this adjustment can be used to accommodate separate stretchers 1525 with locating extensions 1526 and handles 1527 . fig6 and 63 show end views of the quick disconnect / connect mechanisms 1506 ( in viewing direction “ 62 - 62 ” in fig5 ) with horizontal support member 1501 shown optional as tubular in cross section . top clamping member 1532 has slot 1531 which permits it to slide from the locking position shown in fig6 to the unlocked position of fig6 thereby releasing side horizontal support member 1501 from the wheel 32 subassembly which continues below lower clamp jaw 1533 . in fig6 , spring 1534 is compressed since the locking shaft concentric with it has been threaded downward by turning handle 1530 in a clockwise direction . in fig6 , handle 1530 has been turned about 180 degrees counter - clockwise thereby permitting spring 1534 to push up on top member 1532 releasing horizontal support member 1501 . fig6 is a partial end cross section ( in plane “ 64 - 64 ” of fig5 ) of clamp 1507 . the split 1544 in clamp body 1540 permits selective grasping of horizontal support member 1501 as per the clamping force from screw 1542 as applied through knob 1541 . stainless steel insert 1543 prevents collapse of the end of tube 1505 of the overhead assembly . fig6 shows yet another embodiment of the cart of this invention as a frame for a portable operating room table or a gurney . this portable operating room table / gurney includes side horizontal support members 1550 , such as , for example , frame tubes , auxiliary side bars 1551 , transverse frame members 1552 , vertical struts 1553 , overhead support frames 1554 , overhead rails 1555 , trolley 1556 , and attachment clamps 1557 . the portable operating room table / gurney rides on four wheels 30 with axles 32 . the fully configured gurney is shown in fig6 . additional features shown include flexible fluid capture collection sling 1562 , fluid collection tube 1563 , fluid collection tank 1564 , adjustable side clamp 1560 , side rest or surgical instrument table 1561 , wheel brakes 1558 , and overhead accessory 1569 for attaching lights or other surgical accessories . fig6 and 68 show the construction and operation of wheel brake assembly 1558 . brake frame 1570 is rigidly attached to vertical strut 1553 . upper pivot frame 1572 works in conjunction with handle / link 1574 , curved spring link 1573 , and plunger shaft 1575 to form an “ over - center ” mechanism with two stable states , clamped or unclamped . in fig6 , handle 1574 is pushed down into a snap - locked position pushing tip 1576 into contact with wheel 32 tire 1571 thereby contacting the top surface and deforming it to prevent wheel 32 from rotating . fig6 shows the “ brake - off ” position which is obtained by lifting handle 1574 past the center position thereby lifting tip 1576 out of contact with tire 1571 . fig6 is an end view of adjustable side clamp 1560 with side tube 1550 and auxiliary rod 1551 in cross section ( see plane “ 69 - 69 ” in fig6 ). instrument table 1561 attached to clamp body 1580 can be moved longitudinally along tube 1561 and locked in place as desired by turning knob 1581 which impinges the end of screw 1582 against horizontal support member 1550 . fig7 shows an exploded view of attachment clamp 1557 used in a variety of locations on overhead frames 1554 . it includes main body 1590 with groove 1591 , outer clamp member 1593 with lip 1593 and screw 1596 with knob 1595 . in operation , lip 1593 pivots within groove 1591 ; tube 1554 is grasped by the concave surfaces of body 1590 and outer member 1593 as tightened by screw 1596 . a tube end 1594 which can represent a tube 1555 or an accessory 1568 is inserted in the hole in the end of body 1590 and locked . fig7 is a flow chart showing the use of the convertible cart / utility table of the present invention in a medical emergency response triage environment . for example , in disaster medical care , triage is the medical screening of patients to determine their relative priority for treatment . three groups are defined , the first is those casualties not expected to survive even with treatment , second is the group who will recover without treatment , and third the highest priority group who need treatment in order to survive . fig7 illustrates how the convertible cart / utility table ( ccut ) of this invention can be utilized in this environment . for example , as in fig7 , incoming casualties 1650 arrive at triage center 1652 by ambulance , helicopter or otherwise . here they are screened into the three categories , labeled “ type 1 ”, “ type 2 ” and “ type 3 ” and those who can be treated are then transported via exit path 1654 to field hospital unit 1656 by using a wheeled version of the convertible cart / utility table ( ccut ). after prep at a pre - operative station , the patient is wheeled via path 1658 to the operating room ( or ) where a table version of the convertible cart / utility table ( ccut ) is used in a utility table mode as an operating platform . patient is then wheeled upon convertible cart / utility table ( ccut ) via path 1660 to the post - operative / post recovery station for monitoring , which may be done , on either a wheeled or table version of convertible cart / utility table ( ccut ). the patient may need further surgery , which would require transporting wheeled on convertible cart / utility table ( ccut ) back via path 1666 to the pre - operative station . if patient is sufficiently recovered , he or she is transported via path 1662 upon wheeled convertible cart / utility table ( ccut ) back to triage center 1652 vicinity for further transportation merging with others from triage in the outgoing exit queue path 1664 . fig7 shows an exploded view of the major components of convertible cart / utility table ( ccut ) 1700 for supporting stretcher 1730 thereon . these include axle support struts 1712 with rail clamps 1716 at the top ends and wheels 1718 located by axle 1715 . kick stands 1704 , used with heavy duty rail clamps 1714 , convert convertible cart / utility table ( ccut ) to the stationary utility table configuration . adjustable feet 1710 provide a high friction surface and terrain adjustability . macro adjustment of leveling or height is via multiple holes 1706 , in kickstand like 1704 , which accept spring pin 1713 attached near the end of foot extension 1708 . side rails 1702 complete the basic structure . fig7 shows side rails 1702 , which are mounted to kickstands 1704 by clamps 1714 , which engage tubing rails 1702 . tubing rails 1702 have middle connecting tube 1723 and side tubes 1722 , connected by connectors , such as , for example , spring pins and holes . fig7 shows convertible cart / utility table ( ccut ) 1700 configured as a utility table with auxiliary power pack 1732 and stretcher 1730 . fig7 shows the feature , which tilts the table top by adjusting the height of kickstands 1704 on different ends at different heights . fig7 also shows an optional body fluid capture collector 1760 such as a concave sling connected to a medical waste collector 1762 . fig7 shows details of kickstand foot 1710 . threshold shaft 1752 is screwed into nut 1754 and into foot extension 1713 thereby providing a micro adjustment of height up to about one inch . high friction pad 1756 and tilt adjustment ball and socket joint 1754 complete foot 1710 . fig7 shows reversible clamp 1800 , as in fig4 a , which is used with convertible cart / utility table ( ccut ) 1700 . it includes housing block 1802 , with rail aperture 1812 , which clamps onto tubing 1722 via lever screw 1814 . groove 1816 receives tubing rail 1730 , such as that from a stretcher , which rail 1730 is locked in place via over - center clamp 1804 with jaw 1808 , operable by actuator lever 1810 . the opposite grooves 1818 , 1820 and 1822 are spaced laterally to accommodate stretchers of different widths . these can be optionally locked via a clamp 1806 having a jaw similar to jaw 1808 , which is moved to the desired groove 1818 , 1820 or 1822 . fig7 shows reversible clamp 1800 inverted to use the multiple width grooves 1818 , 1820 or 1822 . fig7 and 80 show details of heavy duty clamp 1900 , which has upper block 1902 with groove 1904 to receive a stretcher side tube 1730 . over - center latch 1906 locks stretcher tube via jaw 1910 and actuator lever 1908 . lower block 1912 has side rail groove 1920 , holding rail 1722 , which groove 1920 is lockable via latch 1914 with jaw 1918 and lever 1916 . lower extension 1922 accommodates either stretcher tube or fluid drape in groove 1924 . a preferred embodiment of heavy duty stretcher clamp 2150 is illustrated in fig8 a - 80e . clamp 2150 has body 2152 with a lower extension with a transverse hole to receive side tube 1722 ( or its equivalent ) which is locked via a fastener , such as a nylon tipped knob screw 2158 . the upper section of body 2152 has a groove to accept blade 1902 ( or similarly shaped elements ). blade tightening panel 2154 uses a mechanical incremental moving device , such as a ratchet handle 2156 , for tightening blade 1902 in its appropriate position . lower stretcher tube holder 2160 is used , for example , in a trendelenberg maneuver ; it is screwed to rectangular crossection cross member 2162 , which is also screwed into the bottom of body 2152 . fig8 a and 80b show blade 1902 in the extended position supporting stretcher 1730 tube at the upper position , and retracted with stretcher tube resting on holder 2162 respectively . the view of fig8 c shows the two accessory pole support holes 2164 which can be used for iv poles . fig8 d and 80e show details of the stretcher pole hook 1904 . the inner hook surface is preferably chamfered on each side 2168 of a central region 2170 to provide flat bearing surfaces to a stretcher tube in either tilt position as well as the flat position . the end view of clamp 1900 in fig8 shows that upper retaining latch block 1932 can pivot to permit stretcher tube 1930 to tilt relative to side rail 1722 . in the more complete perspective view of fig8 , it can be seen that the lower ( foot ) end of stretcher rail 1731 of stretcher 1730 is then supported by recess or groove 1924 in the lower extension 1922 of the second clamp 1900 . a kit 2180 of components for the attachment of stirrups using the preferred embodiment stretcher clamp 2150 is shown in fig8 a - 82c . the kit includes two stirrups ( or foot supports ) 2182 with attached stirrup support rods 2184 , two bent stirrup support bars 2192 with attached rod clamps 2186 , stretcher clamp tightening plate with stretcher bar access hole 2196 , and stirrup blade extension 2200 . in operation , hole 2190 in stirrup rod clamp 2186 accepts rod 2184 which is then tightened by clamping screw with knob 2188 . tightening plate 2196 with accessory pole support holes 2197 is substituted for part 2154 of stretcher clamp 2150 . then stirrup blade 2200 is used in a second 2150 clamp spaced away from the end stretcher clamp . the distal end of bent stirrup support bar 2192 is then passed through both bar access holes 2198 in plate 2196 and 2200 respectively . blade 2200 has two holes , 2204 and 2208 , in blade end 2200 to provide two positions of lateral support in clamp body 2152 . the detail drawing of fig8 c shows this arrangement with support bar fastener , such as , for example , retaining screw 2206 in blade 2200 ( it can be used in addition or instead in hole 2199 of plate 2196 ). note that blade 2200 is retained in body 2152 with a simple knob screw instead of a tightening plate . fig8 b shows in schematic form two different positions of stirrups 2182 as provided by the bent angle of support bars 2192 . if angled inward as shown on the left , there is a smaller distance between the stirrups as for a gynecological exam . the larger distance between the stirrups can be used for more major abdominal surgery for both male and female patients . fig8 depicts auxiliary pivotable medical support platform assembly 2000 including base 2001 , clamp insert 2002 and platform 2003 . this versatile mechanism clamps onto a side rail of the convertible cart / utility table ( ccut ). body limb member support 2004 holds a limb . assembly 2000 has movable hinge section can swivel relative to clamp base 2016 . fig8 shows medical support platform assembly 2000 with pole 2022 used to support intravenous ( iv ) bag 2026 with infusion line 2028 . extension rod 2024 provides more height for proper infusion gravity head . tray 2030 is similarly supported . fig8 shows medical support assembly 2000 used to support gooseneck examination / surgical lamp 2040 attached to flexible neck conduit 2042 held in and movable arm support 2046 . fig8 shows another use of medical support assembled 2000 to support multiple instrument trays 2050 . a universal accessory clamp 2250 is illustrated in fig8 a - 87f . the parts of clamp 2250 can be understood by reference to fig8 a , which shows a closed configuration and fig8 b which shows the open jaw position . clamp frame 2252 has a recess to accept a portion of a structural tube , threaded holes 2262 provide for other attachments . dual accessory pole clamp 2256 is attached to frame 2252 and provides accessory pole clamping holes 2258 which are clamped via fasteners , such as clamping screws with knobs 2260 . swinging jaw 2254 is pivoted on spring pin axle 2266 and locked via swinging locking screw with knob 2270 , which pivots on spring pin axle 2264 and locks within clearance groove 2272 . hole 2268 is provided for clearance of any protruding snap spring tips that may be used on tubing assemblies . fig8 c and 87d illustrate clamping around tube 1722 shown in crossection . note gap 2274 which remains in the tightened clamped configuration to insure proper grip force on tube 1722 . fig8 e shows clamp 2250 in use supporting two accessory poles 2166 . fig8 f shows an exploded view of the use of clamp 2250 with arm support 2280 . arm support panel 2282 is attached to arm support bracket 2284 which engages pole 2166 in hole 2286 and locking screw 2288 . the distal end of pole 2166 is then adjusted and clamped in one side of clamp 2256 . fig8 g and 87h show details of an improved surgical lamp 2281 incorporating a feature that mechanically precludes drop - down of lamp over accessory pole 2166 . flange bracket 2285 is attached to gooseneck 2042 which is then attached to pole bracket 2287 with a blind hole at its lower end to accept accessory pole 2166 . the blind hole prevents drop - down . transverse pin 2291 in pole 2166 fits in recess 2293 at the entrance of the blind hole to prevent lamp 2281 assembly from rotating on pole 2166 ; this gives lamp 2281 more stability and resistance to movement when lightly brushed against personnel . pole 2166 supporting lamp 2281 is attached via pole clamp 2256 of clamp 2250 . yet another application of universal accessory clamp 2250 is shown in fig8 i . when a convenient flat table top exists , it can be converted into a base for a stretcher for holding or operating on a patient . this is accomplished by using a flat crossbar 2162 which is attached to a pair of clamps 2250 using threaded screw holes 2262 . the width of the crossbar is such that stretcher poles 1730 are conveniently gripped at the correct position . one such crossbar with attached clamps 2250 and short legs with feet 2295 is used at the front and at the rear of the stretcher . each clamp 2250 has two accessory pole clamps which can be used to support one or more intravenous fluid dispensers ( iv &# 39 ; s ) or transfusion bags as needed . a preferred embodiment of lower leg clamp 2300 is shown in fig8 a - 88b . clamp 2300 includes frame 2302 , which is pinned by pin 2312 to the end of lower tube 2316 . it has swinging clamping screw 2306 pinned at 2310 and swinging jaw 2304 pinned at 2314 . swinging jaw 2304 has a clearance groove 2308 for locking screw 2306 . clamp 2300 is simply placed at the desired position on leg 2318 and clamped around leg 2318 and tightened . this provides quick attachment or detachment or adjustment of the distance from foot 2320 . pin 2330 facilitates up or down movement of leg 2318 . note , all elements of clamp 2300 are permanently attached . fig8 shows a portable medical utility table 2400 with many of the features and accessories described in the earlier drawings . it is an example of a “ bed ” serving one patient that can be one of many in a reconfigurable , modular , expandable , transportable , mobile , medical critical care point of need field installation system . it is further noted that other modifications may be made to the present invention , without departing from the scope of the invention .	0
the present invention provides a heat lamp assembly that can include a heating lamp mounted onto a thermally conductive block that provides efficient reflection of radiation generated by the lamp onto a selected surface , for example , a surface of a semiconductor wafer disposed in an ion implantation chamber . the block can include a plurality of openings that allow ingress / egress of one or more cooling fluids to / from inner passageways allowing for removal of heat from the block . the block can also include further openings that allow a cooling fluid , e . g ., a gas , to flow over the lamp to facilitate removal of heat from the lamp . these , and other features , are described herein . fig1 illustrates an exemplary ion implantation apparatus 10 in which a heating assembly 12 coupled with a mount 40 according to the teachings of the invention is used . the ion implantation system 10 includes a beam delivery assembly 14 , a beam - forming device 16 , and an end - station 28 . the beam delivery assembly 14 can include an ion source 18 that generates a beam of ions 24 . the beam delivery assembly 14 can further include an ion analyzer 20 , such as a magnetic analyzer , that selects appropriately charged ions . an accelerator 22 accelerates the selected ions to a desired energy , e . g ., about 200 kev , and a beam - forming device 16 shapes the accelerated ions into an ion beam 24 having a selected cross - sectional shape and area . the beam 24 is directed to a plurality of targets , e . g ., semiconductor wafers 26 , to implant a selected dose of ions therein . in this exemplary embodiment , the targets are disposed in the end - station 28 with a rotating support structure 30 . a drive mechanism ( not shown ) can rotate the support structure 30 to sequentially expose one or more of the wafers 26 to the ion beam 24 . during ion implantation , one or more vacuum pumps 34 evacuate the chambers , e . g ., the ion source 18 , accelerator assembly 22 , and end - station 28 . the heating assembly 12 formed according to the teachings of the invention is disposed in the end - station 28 to heat the wafers 26 during ion implantation and / or subsequent annealing steps . the assembly is preferably positioned so as not to interfere with the ion beam 24 . in the illustrated embodiment , the assembly 12 is attached to a mount 40 which provides for placement of the assembly 12 within the end - station 28 . the mount 40 also provides for electrical coupling of the assembly 12 via electrical connectors 32 . cooling fluids can be circulated within the assembly 12 via fluid couplings 36 , 38 provided by the mount 40 for the removal of heat from the assembly 12 and / or mount 40 . the fluids can be , for example , water or air , or other fluids suitable for dissipating heat from the assembly . multiple assemblies 12 can be placed within the end - station 28 , and be coupled to a single mount 40 . in some embodiments , multiple mounts 40 can be placed within the end - station 28 . fig2 shows the assembly 12 , with fig3 depicting major components of the assembly 12 according to one embodiment of the invention . the exemplary assembly 12 includes , among other elements , a heating lamp 42 , a thermally conductive block 44 to which the heating lamp is mounted , and a cover 46 . the cover 46 insulates the lamp 42 and block 44 from an external environment , for example , a vacuum environment of the ion implantation chamber . in this embodiment , the cover 46 is in the form of a tube that surrounds the block 44 allowing operation of the heating assembly 12 within the vacuum of the ion implantation device , but the cover can be of different shapes and / or materials that are suitable depending on the external environment . seals 68 located on end portions 57 , 56 of the block 44 function with the cover 46 to separate the internal environment of the assembly 12 from the exterior environment . the illustrated seals are of a conventional “ o - ring ” configuration , but they can be labyrinth or other designs known in the art . the heating lamp 42 has a central portion containing a heat producing material 48 , providing heat upon electrical stimulation . the heating material 48 can be tungsten , quartz or any other material that produces sufficient heat upon electrical simulation for a desired application . in one embodiment , the heating lamp 42 can be approximately 10 - 12 inches long . in other embodiments , the length of the lamp 42 can vary according to the heating application and / or physical size limitations of a device in which the heat lamp assembly is disposed . two end portions 50 , 52 provide electrical coupling of the heat producing material 48 to a source of electrical power , and farther allow physical mounting of the heating lamp 42 to the block 44 via heat - isolation pads 58 a - 58 d ( collectively , 58 ). the heat - isolation pads 58 a , 58 b , 58 c , and 58 d , ( fig3 a ) are mounted to the block 44 by utilizing , for example , a plurality of fasteners , such as , screws 60 . the heat - isolation pads 58 are preferably positioned in proximity of the end portions 56 , 57 to enhance isolation of heat generated by the lamp from these end portions , e . g ., in proximity with high - temperature gradients , and consequently from the seals 68 , thereby ensuring proper operation of the seals . the heat - isolation pads 58 can be formed of any material having a high coefficient of thermal conductivity . for example , the pads can be formed of aluminum . the pads can have a non - reflective surface facing the lamp to maximize heat transfer from the heating assembly . in some embodiments , the pads have a reflective surface on faces not receiving radiated energy from the heating assembly to increase cooling characteristics of the pads . the thermally conductive block 44 includes a central portion 54 and two end portions 56 and 57 . the end portions 56 , 57 ( fig2 , 5 , 6 and 7 ) allow physical mounting of the lamp 42 to the block 44 , and further allow electrical coupling of the lamp to a source of electrical power ( not shown ). in addition , the end portions 56 , 57 include elements for coupling of the heat lamp assembly 12 to a mounting block as described in detail below with reference to fig7 and fig8 . in particular , each end portion 56 , 57 includes a tab , e . g ., 62 , or other coupling element , that can physically and electrically couple with an end portion 50 , 52 of the heating lamp 42 . in the illustrated embodiment , the lamp end portion , e . g ., 52 , is extruded or otherwise placed within a channel along a longitudinal axis of a block end portion 56 , and coupled with the tab 62 . fig3 and fig4 depict two reflective sloping surfaces 55 a , 55 b which reflect light and heat generated by the lamp 42 onto a desired location , for example , a surface of a semi - conductor wafer 26 ( fig1 ). the reflective surfaces 55 a , 55 b can have a coating of a high reflectivity material , e . g ., gold , that is deposited on the material forming the block 44 , e . g ., aluminum , via an intermediate primer layer , e . g ., nickel . the primer layer advantageously enhances adhesion of the gold layer to the material forming the block 44 . a plurality of openings 66 formed in the reflective surfaces 55 a and 55 b allow flowing a cooling gas , for example , air , introduced into the block 44 via an inner passageway as described below , over the lamp 48 in order to remove heat therefrom . the cooling gas can be nitrogen or other compressible or non - compressible fluids suitable for contact with the heating lamp 48 . in one illustrated embodiment ( fig3 ) the openings are arranged in two rows such that the openings in one row are offset relative to those in the other row to maximize an area of the lamp that will be in contact with the flowing gas . in other embodiments ( e . g ., fig4 and 6 a ), there can be a single row 66 . with further reference to fig4 ( see also fig5 b - 7 c ) the thermally conductive block 44 further includes networks of inner passageways 70 , 72 , and 74 that extend along a longitudinal axis of the block and provide conduits for flow of fluids , such as , air and water . in this illustrated embodiment , cooling water is circulated through the block via passageways 70 and 72 , for example , by introducing water into the block via passageway 70 and removing water from the block via the passageway 72 , or vice versa . the flow of the cooling water advantageously cools the block to ensure proper operation of various seals , for example seal 68 . other cooling fluids , such as , ethylene glycol , or other heat - removing fluid suitable for circulation through the block can also be employed . in this embodiment , the inner passageway 74 is in fluid communication with the openings 66 to allow flow of a cooling fluid , e . g ., air , introduced via the passageway 74 under pressure , over the lamp 48 . the cooling air is then extracted from the area between the lamp 48 and the interior of the cover 46 via a central coupling of one or both of the end portions 56 , 57 . with reference to fig2 , 4 and 7 a - 7 c , each end portion 57 includes openings that provide ingress and egress of fluids into and out of the inner passageways 70 , 72 , and 74 . more particularly , cooling water ( or other heat - removing fluid ) can be introduced and extracted via ports 64 and 84 , and cooling air ( or other gaseous fluids ) can be introduced into the inner passageway 70 via an inlet port 86 and removed via an outlet port 88 . a variety of materials can be employed to manufacture the thermally conductive block 44 . for example , in one preferred embodiment , aluminum is utilized to form the block 44 as a unibody structure . the use of aluminum is particularly advantageous because it readily allows machining , e . g ., boring a network of inner passageways and seal seats in the block . the manufacture can utilize , for example , so - called gun - drilling techniques to generate inner passageways in a unitary block of aluminum instead of braise - joining multiple machined pieces . as described above , a primer coating , e . g ., nickel , can be applied to the aluminum surfaces of the block , and a coating of a highly reflective material , such as , gold , can subsequently be applied to the primer so as to generate highly reflective surfaces for directing radiation generated by the lamp to a desired location . with reference to fig8 the heat lamp assembly 90 can be coupled to a mount 92 that allows positioning the heat lamp assembly within an ion implantation chamber . the mount 92 provides electrical couplings 94 cooling water couplings 96 and cooling air couplings 98 , 100 . the couplings can have a variety of different configurations . for example , the air inlet coupling 98 can be a flange coupling , a nipple coupling , or any other coupling known in the art . multiple heating lamp assemblies of the invention can be coupled to a single mount , thus enabling a variety of configurations depending on physical shape and dimensions of an ion chamber and desired wafer temperatures to be achieved . in some embodiments , sensors can be attached to the heating assembly and / or mount to control the heat output , cooling water and air flow , and other characteristics of operational parameters . further , the block can be connected to anti - static or other voltage differential detection / correction equipment to protect the mount and coupled assemblies from electrical damage . in some embodiments , sensors capable of detecting the temperature of a wafer 26 can be used , such as a thermocouple , infrared sensor , or other temperature - sensing device . those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that various modifications can be made to the above embodiments without departing from the scope of the claimed invention as described by claims . for example , the size of the heating assembly can vary , the heating capacity can vary , and the cooling fluids can vary , depending on the requirements of the application .	7
an engine for an automotive vehicle is generally indicated at 10 in fig1 . the engine 10 includes a crankshaft 12 driving an endless serpentine belt 14 , as commonly known by those having ordinary skill in the art . the engine 10 also includes a belt driven accessory 16 driven by the belt 14 . described in greater detail below , a decoupler assembly 20 is operatively assembled between the belt 14 and the belt driven accessory 16 for automatically decoupling the belt driven accessory 16 from the belt 14 when the belt 14 decelerates relative to the belt driven accessory 16 and allowing the speed of the belt 14 to oscillate relative to the belt driven accessory 16 . additionally , a detailed description of the structure and function of a decoupler assembly can be found in applicant &# 39 ; s u . s . pat . no . 6 , 083 , 130 , which issued on jul . 4 , 2000 and pct application no . wo 2004 / 011818 , the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference . referring to fig2 and 3 , the decoupler assembly 20 generally includes a hub 22 , a pulley 50 , a clutch assembly 70 , a torsion spring 90 and a torque limiter 110 . in the first embodiment , the torque limiter 110 is preferably a sleeve . hub 22 has a generally cylindrical body 28 having an axially extending bore 24 and a flange 26 at one end thereof . flange 26 has a generally helical first slot 46 on an inner face thereof . since the slot 46 is helical , the slot 46 will have a step . the bore 24 is configured for fixedly securing the hub 22 to a drive shaft extending from the belt driven accessory 16 . a pulley 50 is rotatably journaled to the hub 22 . a ball bearing assembly 57 is coupled between the pulley 50 and the hub 22 at a distal end while a bushing journal 102 mounts the pulley 50 on the circumferential face of flange 26 . the bearing assembly 57 is conventional comprising an inner race , an outer race and a plurality of ball bearings rollingly engaged therebetween . the pulley 50 typically includes a plurality of v - shaped grooves 66 formed on the outer periphery for engaging and guiding the belt 14 . other belt or chain profiles may be utilized to facilitate other drive configurations , well known in the art . a one - way clutch assembly 70 is operatively coupled between the hub 22 and the pulley 50 . the clutch assembly 70 includes a clutch spring 71 and a carrier 75 . the clutch spring 71 includes a plurality of helical coils 72 . preferably , the clutch spring 71 is formed from an uncoated , spring steel material and has a non - circular cross - section to improve frictional contact . most preferably , the cross - section of clutch spring 71 is rectangular or square . the clutch spring 71 is press fitted into frictional engagement with the inner surface 56 of the pulley 50 . preferably , a lubricant similar or compatible with grease used in the ball bearing assembly 57 is applied to minimize wear between the clutch spring 71 and the inner surface 56 of the pulley 50 . the carrier 75 is rotatably mounted on the hub 22 . the carrier 75 is generally ring shaped and has an inner face 78 , a bore 80 and an outer circumferential surface 82 . a slot 84 is formed on the inner face 78 and is configured to retain an end of the clutch spring 71 . a generally helical second slot 86 is also formed on the inner face 78 and inside of slot 84 , defining a second locating surface 88 and a step . an annular thrust washer 39 is seated against the end of the carrier 75 and abuts against the inner bearing race of bearing assembly 57 . the outer periphery of the thrust washer 39 is circular with a step 41 to complementarily fit with a tab . thrust washer 39 has one or more radial or circumferential serrations 43 to engage hub 22 and mechanically lock the thrust washer 39 to the hub 22 to prevent relative motion therebetween . a helical torsion spring 90 is axially compressed between the hub 22 and the carrier 75 . the torsion spring 90 and the clutch spring 71 are co - axial and typically coiled in opposite directions . in certain applications , the torsion spring 90 and clutch spring 71 can be wound in the same sense to produce a desired decoupling action . one end of the torsion spring 90 is retained in the first slot 46 of the hub 22 and the other end is retained in the slot 86 of the carrier 75 . axial forces due to the compression of the torsion spring 90 retain the carrier 75 in abutting engagement with the thrust washer 39 . typically , the shaft of the hub 22 has an area of reduced diameter 23 to provide clearance between the torsion spring 90 and the shaft 28 of hub 22 to prevent uncontrolled contact and friction wear at the interface between shaft 28 and torsion spring 90 . thus , the torsion spring 90 allows relative movement between the carrier 75 and the hub 22 to accommodate minor variations in the speed of the pulley 50 due to oscillations in the operating speed of the engine . the oscillations are not sufficient to activate the clutch assembly 70 . a torque limiter 110 is wrapped about the torsion spring 90 in a surrounding relation . preferably , torque limiter 110 has a split or opening 112 and a circumferentially extending shoulder step 114 . shoulder step 114 configures the torque limiter 110 to complementarily fit with bushing 102 mounted on the flange 26 of hub 22 . in a first preferred embodiment , torque limiter 110 is an organic resinous material , preferably a nylon ™ material , with or without reinforcement material such as glass fibres , etc . torque limiter 110 has a thickness selected to take up the play between the torsion spring 90 , the clutch spring 71 and the inside diameter of the pulley 50 . as torque increases , the torsional spring 90 expands outwardly until physically constrained by the torque limiter 110 against the clutch spring 71 and the inside diameter of bore 56 . when the radial clearance between the torsion spring 90 , torque limiter 110 , the clutch spring 71 and the inside bore 56 of the pulley 50 is closed , the spring 90 is prevented from further expanding , locking the decoupler 10 , coupling the hub 22 with the pulley 50 . in other words , the torque limiter 110 limits the amount of outward expansion of the torsion spring 90 , preventing overloading of the torsion spring 90 . the amount of radial expansion of the torsion spring 90 can be calculated and the torque limiter 110 can be designed to ensure that the torque transferred through the torsion spring 90 is maintained below a predetermined torque value . a second embodiment of the sleeve is illustrated in fig8 . torque limiter 110 ′ is a closed metal ring . the metal ring would only expand to a relatively small degree , directly limiting outward expansion of the torsion spring 90 . a third embodiment of the sleeve is illustrated in fig9 a . torque limiter 110 ″ has a plurality of axially elongate openings 116 spaced circumferentially spaced about the torque limiter 110 ″. the openings 116 enable the grease lubricant to travel outwardly to the clutch spring 71 . an alternative third embodiment of the sleeve is illustrated in fig9 b . the torque limiter 110 * has a series of circumferentially spaced openings 116 * and 117 . preferably , openings 116 * are elongate and openings 117 are circular and spaced in a regular pattern , resembling dimples on a golf ball . additionally , torque limiter 110 * has an integrally extending radial flange 119 that acts a thrust bearing . a cap 100 is attached to the end of pulley 50 for preventing contaminants from entering the decoupler assembly 20 and for retaining the lubricant within the decoupler assembly 20 . in operation , the engine 10 is started and the pulley 50 is accelerated and rotated in a driven direction by the belt 14 driven by the engine 10 . acceleration and rotation of the pulley 50 in the driven direction relative to the hub 22 creates friction between the inner surface 56 of the pulley 50 and preferably all of the coils 72 of the clutch spring 71 . it should be appreciated that the clutch spring 71 will function even where at the onset at least one of the coils 72 of the clutch spring 71 is frictionally engaged with the inner surface 56 of the pulley 50 . the clutch spring 71 is helically coiled such that the friction between the inner surface 56 of the pulley 50 and at least one of the coils 72 would cause the clutch spring 71 to expand radially outwardly toward and grip the inner surface 56 of the pulley 50 . continued rotation of the pulley 50 in the driven direction relative to the hub 22 would cause a generally exponential increase in the outwardly radial force applied by the coils 72 against the inner surface 56 until all of the coils 72 of the clutch spring 71 become fully brakingly engaged with the pulley 50 . when the clutch spring 71 is fully engaged with the inner surface 56 , the rotation of the pulley 50 is fully directed toward rotation of the drive shaft 15 ( fig1 ) of the belt driven accessory 16 . additionally , centrifugal forces help to retain the clutch spring 71 in braking engagement with the inner surface 56 of the pulley 50 . the rotational movement of the carrier 75 in the driven direction is transferred to the hub 22 by the torsional spring 90 such that the carrier 75 , thrust washer 39 , hub 22 , and the drive shaft 15 ( fig1 ) from the belt driven accessory 16 rotate together with the pulley 50 . additionally , the torsional spring 90 resiliently allows relative movement between the carrier 75 and the hub 22 to accommodate oscillations in the speed of the pulley 50 due to corresponding oscillations in the operating speed of the engine 10 . when the pulley 50 decelerates , the hub 22 driven by the inertia associated with the rotating drive shaft 15 ( fig1 ) and the rotating mass within the belt driven accessory 16 will initially “ overrun ” or continue to rotate in the driven direction at a higher speed than the pulley 50 . more specifically , the higher rotational speed of the hub 22 relative to the pulley 50 causes the clutch spring 71 to contract radially relative to the inner surface 56 of the pulley 50 . the braking engagement between the clutch spring 71 and the pulley 50 is relieved , thereby allowing overrunning of the hub 22 and drive shaft 15 ( fig1 ) from the belt driven accessory 16 relative to the pulley 50 . the coils 72 may remain frictionally engaged with the inner surface 56 while the pulley 50 decelerates relative to the clutch assembly 70 and the hub 22 . the coils 72 of the clutch spring 71 begin to brakingly reengage the inner surface 56 as the pulley 50 accelerates beyond the speed of the hub 22 . in conditions of high loading , such as a fast engine start profile and / or rapid acceleration during a wide open throttle shift , the coils of the torsion spring 90 will be urged to expand outwardly , due to relative rotation between the hub 22 and the pulley 50 . the torsion spring 90 will expand , frictionally engaging the torque limiter 110 which will then engage the clutch spring 71 . full frictionally engagement is selected to occur at a predetermined torque value by selecting the thickness of the torque limiter 110 . once fully engaged , the hub 22 will be locked with the pulley 50 and torques above a predetermined torque value will be transmitted directly therebetween . thus , the higher torques do not overstress the torsion spring 90 and ultimately improving durability of the decoupler assembly 10 . referring to fig1 to 14 , a fourth embodiment of the torque limiter 110 is illustrated . elements common with the embodiment of fig2 and 3 retain the same reference number . in this embodiment , the torque limiter 110 ′″ is in the form of a wire coil spring . torque limiter 110 ′″ is positioned about the torsion spring 90 . preferably , torque limiter 110 ″ is formed of a small gauge wire , compared to torque spring 90 , with a square or rectangular cross - section . the gauge and dimensions of torque limiter 110 ′″ are selected such that any play which would otherwise be present between torsion spring 90 , clutch spring 71 and the inside surface 56 of pulley 50 is substantially removed , while still allowing relative motion between torsion spring 90 and clutch spring 71 . further , the coils of torque limiter 110 ′″ allow grease , or any other lubricant , to travel outwardly to the clutch spring 71 . it is presently preferred that the coils of torque limiter 110 ′″ be wound in the same sense of the coils of clutch spring 71 , although this is not essential to proper operation of decoupler 20 . as torque to pulley 50 increases , torsional spring 90 expands outwardly until physically constrained by torque limiter 110 ′″. when the radial clearance between torsion spring 90 , torque limiter 110 ′″, clutch spring 71 and the inside surface 56 of pulley 50 is closed , spring 90 is prevented from further expanding , locking decoupler 20 , coupling the hub 22 with the pulley 50 . in other words , torque limiter 110 ″ limits the amount of outward expansion of the torsion spring 90 , preventing overloading of torsion spring 90 . the amount of radial expansion of torsion spring 90 can be pre - determined and torque limiter 110 ′″ can be designed to ensure that the torque transferred through torsion spring 90 is maintained below a preselected torque value . referring to fig1 to 14 , a second variant of the clutch assembly 70 is illustrated . the clutch assembly 70 includes clutch spring 71 ′, comprising a helical coil , and a carrier 75 ′. preferably , clutch spring 71 ′ is formed from an uncoated , spring - steel material and the material forming the helical windings 72 has a non - circular cross - section to improve frictional contact . most preferably , the cross - section of the helical winding material is rectangular or square . clutch spring 71 ′ is press - fitted into frictional engagement with the inner surface 56 of the pulley 50 . preferably a lubricant , similar or compatible with the grease used in the ball bearing assembly 57 , is applied to minimize wear between the clutch spring 71 ′ and inner surface 56 of the pulley 50 . carrier 75 ′ is rotatably mounted on the hub 22 and carrier 75 ′ is generally ring shaped , with an inner face 78 , a bore 80 and an outer circumferential surface 82 . a slot 84 ′ is formed on inner face 78 and is configured to retain an end of the clutch spring 71 ′. a generally helical second slot 86 is also formed on the inner face 78 and inside of slot 84 , defining a second locating surface 88 and a step . in this variant , the end of clutch spring 71 ′ is bent at 73 and 77 . slot 84 ′ is complementarily configured to receive the end of the clutch spring 71 ′ and frictionally engage with the bends 73 and 77 . the bore 80 of carrier 75 ′ has a keyway 81 and a series of axially extending dimples . the decoupler illustrated in fig1 to 14 operates in the same fashion as described with respect to the decoupler illustrated in fig1 to 9 . in conditions of high loading , such as a fast engine start profile and / or rapid acceleration during a wide open throttle shift , the coils of the torsion spring 90 will be urged to expand outwardly , due to relative rotation between hub 22 and pulley 50 . the torsion spring 90 will expand , expanding torque limiter 110 ′″ in turn , which will then frictionally engage the clutch spring 71 . full frictional engagement is selected to occur at a predetermined toque value by selecting the thickness of the windings of torque limiter 110 . preferably , decoupler 20 further includes an adapter 104 which is press fit into the inner race of bearing 57 and which allows decoupler 20 to be fit to belt driven accessories with drive shafts of different sizes and / or to position decoupler 20 on the driven shaft to ensure correct alignment of grooves 66 with the serpentine belt . however , adapter 104 is not necessary and decoupler 20 can be installed directly onto the drive shaft of a belt driven accessory if the diameter of that drive shaft will properly engage the inner race surface of bearing 57 and / or if grooves 66 will be properly aligned with the serpentine belt . the invention has been described in an illustrative manner , and it is to be understood that the terminology , which has been used , is intended to be in the nature of words of description rather than of limitation . many modification and variations of the present invention are possible in light of the above teachings . it is , therefore , to be understood that within the scope of the appended claims , the invention may be practiced other than as specifically described .	4
a propellant magazine according to the present invention , which is shown in fig1 through 3 , has a plurality of spaced from each other pockets 2 for receiving each a propellant 3 and an initiating composition 4 for igniting the propellant 3 . the pockets 2 are formed by a pocket foil 1 . a cover foil 5 , which is unreleasably glued to the pocket foil 2 , closes the separate pockets 2 . in the region of each pocket 2 , between the cover and pocket foils 1 , 5 , a conducting strip 7 extends . the conducting strip 7 is interrupted in the region of the initiating composition and forms two contact points 8 and 9 which are arranged , in the radial direction outside of the pocket 2 . the propellant is formed as a pellet . however , the propellant 3 can be in form of powder filling a pocket 2 . the pocket foil 1 and the cover foil 5 are formed each of a strip - shaped , thin - walled foil formed , e . g ., of a plastic material that conducts no current . it is also possible to form the pocket foil 1 and the cover foil 5 circular , so that separate pockets 2 are arranged not after one another but rather next to each other . as show in fig1 , both the pocket foil 1 and the cover foil 5 are provided , along their longitudinal edges , with a plurality of recesses 10 in form of indentations in which during the displacement of the propellant magazine , a displacing pawl ( not shown ) of a setting tool ( which is likewise not shown ) can formlockingly engage . the separate , spaced from each other pockets 2 are arranged between the respective recesses 10 . the recesses 10 can also be formed as through - openings which extend in the central region of the propellant magazine between two pockets 2 through both the pocket foil 1 and the cover foil 5 . the conducting strip 7 , which is connected with the initiating composition 4 , extends , as it has already been discussed previously , between the pocket foil 1 and the cover foil 5 and is interrupted to provide for a spark discharge in the ignition region 6 of the initiating composition 4 upon application of a voltage to the conducting strip 7 . instead of the interrupted conducting strip 7 , it is possible to provide , in the region 6 of the initiating composition 4 , a conducting strip having a reduced cross - section where a spark discharge can take place . as it has also been discussed above , the end regions of the conducting strips 7 lie , in the radial direction , outside of respective pockets 2 and have each two contact points 8 , 9 connectable with respective electrodes 35 . an electrode 35 , which extends through the cover foil 5 and the conducting strip 7 is shown in fig3 . the electrode 35 forms part of non - shown setting tool and has a sharp tip . the conducting strip 7 is glued to a side of the cover foil 5 facing the pocket foil 1 . it is also possible to press the conducting strip 7 into the cover foil 5 or to roll it into the cover foil 5 . fig4 shows a propellant magazine in which the cover foil 15 is formed of an electroconductive material , whereas the pocket foil 11 is formed of a nonconductive material . a glue layer 20 extends between the cover foil 15 and the pocket foil 11 . within each pocket 12 , a propellant 13 in form of a pellet is located . between the pellet and the cover foil 15 , a initiating composition 14 is provided . between the glue layer 20 and the pocket foil 11 , a conducting strip 17 with two contact points 18 , 19 extends . the conducting strip 16 extends up to the initiating composition 14 . for igniting the propellant 13 , which is located in a pocket 12 of the propellant magazine , two electrodes of a setting tool ( not shown ) are used to which voltage is applied . before the voltage is applied , one of the electrodes is pressed against the cover foil . the other electrode is pushed through the cover foil 15 and forms contact with the conducting strip 17 . the voltage applied to the two electrodes generates a spark discharge in the ignition region 16 . a pocket 22 of a further embodiment of a propellant magazine according to the present invention , which is shown in fig5 , is designed for receiving a propellant 23 formed as a pellet provided , in the region adjacent to the cover foil 25 with electroconductive particles 24 . the cover foil 25 and the pocket foil 21 are formed both of a non - electroconductive material and are glued to each other . between the cover foil 25 and the pocket foil 21 , a conducting strip 27 extends . the conducting strip 27 in interrupted in each of its region associated with a respective electroconductive particle 24 in the propellant pellet . the conducting strip 27 has two contact points 28 , 29 through which voltage is applied to the conducting strip 27 . the spark discharge takes place in the ignition region 26 . a cover foil 25 , which is shown in fig6 , has , at its side adjacent to the pocket foil ( not shown in fig6 ), a continuous conducting strip 27 . both sections of the conducting strip 27 have two or more contact points 28 , 31 ; 29 , 32 which serve for coding of the propellant magazine . generally , there are provided two pairs of two located opposite each other contact points 28 , 31 and 29 , 32 . the contact points 28 , 29 , 31 , 32 lie on a common circle 33 . for the displacement of the propellant magazine , recesses 30 in form of side indentations provided in the longitudinal edges of the cover foil 25 , are used . fig7 show another embodiment of a propellant magazine according to the present invention in form of a magazine strip 47 located in a strip guide 41 of a setting tool ( not shown in detail ). the magazine strip has a plurality of pockets 42 , 42 ′ with a propellant charge , with the pocket 42 ′ being located in a cartridge chamber 45 of the setting tool . the magazine strip 47 has a conducting strip 37 interrupted above the pockets 42 , 42 ′. the free space , which is formed between two halves of the conducting strip 37 , serves as a spark track for a to - be - generated ignition spark . in the embodiment of a propellant magazine shown in fig7 , the conducting strip 37 extends on both sides of the magazine strip 47 from a front , in the displacement direction of the magazine strip 47 , pocket 42 ′ toward the following pocket 42 . the contact points 38 , 39 of the conducting strip 37 are provided in the region of the following pocket 42 on opposite sides of the magazine strip 47 . the contact points 38 , 39 cooperate with electrical contact elements 43 , 44 of the setting tool . the electrical contact elements 43 , 44 are formed as sliding contacts spring - biased toward the magazine strip 47 in directions shown with arrows 46 . the contact elements 43 , 44 contact following each other contact points 38 , 39 as the magazine strip 47 is advanced . as soon as the setting tool control initiates ignition , the current flows via slide contact elements 43 , 44 and contact points 38 , 39 to the conducting strip 37 , generating an ignition spark at the interruption of the contacting strip 37 . though the present invention was shown and described with references to the preferred embodiments , such are merely illustrative of the present invention and are not to be construed as a limitation thereof , and various modifications of the present invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art . it is , therefore , not intended that the present invention be limited to the disclosed embodiments or details thereof , and the present invention includes all variations and / or alternative embodiments within the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims .	1
referring more particularly to the drawings , fig1 is illustrative of an automatic ball return 10 in which the present invention is intended to be used . as will be understood by those skilled in the art , bowling pins ( not shown ) and bowling balls ( not shown ) drop into pit 11 from alley a and are carried rearward by conveyor 12 . located beneath the upper lap 12a of conveyor 12 are bounce boards 13 which extend transversely across pit 11 and are supported on the resilient blocks 14 secured to channels 15 which , in turn are attached to brackets 16 ( only one shown ) mounted on the sides or &# 34 ; kickback &# 34 ; 17 of pit 11 . a plate 18 is provided between bounce boards 13 to provide a groove into which a ball may depress upper lap 12a as the ball moves thereover to allow the ball to roll off lap 12a and through ball door 20 in kickback 17 . as a ball exits pit 11 through door 19 , it comes into contact with kicker wheel roller 20c which is affixed to shaft 21 which , in turn , is continuously rotated by belt 22 . rotating kicker wheel roller 20c frictionally engages the ball and directs or &# 34 ; kicks &# 34 ; the ball into ball elevating mechanism 24 which , in turn , is comprised of conveyor belt 26 and ball track 27 . the spacing between conveyor belt 26 and track 27 decreases upwardly so that the ball will be frictionally carried upward on track 27 to a return chute ( not shown ) by conveyor belt 26 when a ball is trapped therebetween . ball return mechanisms of the type described are well known in the art and are in widespread use in commercial bowling houses . examples of such a return mechanism are automatic pin setters , models 8230 and 8270 , distributed by american machine & amp ; foundry company ( amf ) and which are basically disclosed and described in u . s . pat . no . 3 , 297 , 322 which is incorporated herein by reference . the kicker wheel roller 20 of the present invention is adpated to replace roller 20c of the ball return mechanism 10 shown in fig1 and described above . roller 20 is comprised of a permanent hub member 25 and a replaceable contact surface member 26 . hub member 25 is formed from a durable material , e . g . aluminum , steel , hard rubber , or the like and has bore 27 therethrough of a proper diameter to fit over shaft 21 of ball return mechanism 10 . as illustrated , hub member 25 has an upper portion 29 and an integrally formed lower , driving portion 30 . driving section 30 has a non - circular , outer periphery , e . g . square as shown in fig2 ; splined as shown in fig5 ; triangular ( not shown ), rectangular ( not shown ); or the like , for a purpose discussed below . a shoulder 31 is provided on hub member 25 to insure the proper longitudinal positioning of contact surface member 26 on hub member 25 . as shown , upper portion 29 is rounded and has a diameter greater than the length of a side of the square driving portion 30 that portion 29 projects at least partially outward above the periphery of the driving portion 30 to form shoulder 31 . however , it should be understood that shoulder 31 can be formed in other ways without departing from the present invention . for example , although not shown , upper 29 and lower 30 portions of hub member 25 can be integral and of the same dimensions throughout their combined length ( e . g . square from top to bottom ). a groove is provided around the periphery of hub 25 to thereby define upper and lower portions 29 , 30 so . a snap ring or the like is inserted in this groove and extends outward from hub 25 to provide a shoulder thereon . replaceable contact surface member 26 comprises a cylindrical element 35 which is molded or otherwise formed form any suitable elastomeric resilient frictional material , e . g . polyurethane , natural or synthetic rubber , or the like . the thickness t ( fig2 ) of element 35 is approximately the same as the length of driving portion 30 of hub member 25 . the outer surface 36 of cylindrical element 26 provides the surface which engages the bowling balls when roller 30 is in an operating position in the ball return mechanism 10 . where a large number of light bowling balls ( e . g . 9 - 10 pounds ) are routinely encountered , an annular groove 34 ( e . g . 3 / 8 inch deep , see fig3 b ) can be provided in and around outer peripheral surface 36 thereby providing a better gripping surface or &# 34 ; thread &# 34 ; for these light weight balls . cylindrical element 35 has a non - circular opening 37 ( e . g . square in fig2 splined in fig5 etc .) through the center . opening 37 has an inner periphery configuration and dimensions substantially identical to those of the outer periphery of driving portion 30 of hub member 25 so that member 26 can easily be forced onto driving portion 30 and held there only by the resiliency of element 35 . preferably , wear indicating groove 38 is provided in the upper surface of element 35 to warn a user when control surface member 26 wears to point where it should be replaced . in operation , kicker wheel roller 20 ( i . e . assembled hub member 25 and replaceable contact surface member 26 ) is positioned on shaft 21 of ball return mechanism 10 and is held thereon by set screw 28 or the like . it should be understood that normally , kicker wheel roller 20 of the present invention will replace the single unit kicker wheel 20c that is commonly in use today . to aid in installation in some ball return mechanisms , the upper surface 39 of element 35 may be formed with a tapered surface 39 as shown in fig3 a and 3b . when contact surface member 26 wears out , a new member 26 is now installed on permanent hub 25 which , in turn , is continuously reused . the savings which result from only having to replace contact surface member 26 are substantial . a modified hub member 25a is shown in fig3 a , 3b , and 4 which is useful where contact surface member 26 may wear down to the driving portion of the hub before it is detected by a user . hub 25a has an upper portion 29a and an integral shaft 29b depending thereform . a driving portion 30a having a non - circular outer configuration is bonded or otherwise permanently affixed to shaft 29b . driving portion 30a is formed of a material , e . g . polyurethane , which has a hardness less than that of the materials used in forming bowling balls . if contact surface member 26 wears completely out before it is detected , bowling balls will contact the softer driving portion 30a and will not be damaged or marred thereby . to be more specific , the dimensions of a typical kicker wheel roller assembly are as follows . cylindrical element 35 which may be formed of molded polyurethane has a diameter of 3 inches and a thickness t of 1 inch . opening 37 is a 11 / 2 inch square . hub 25 which may be formed of aluminum is 11 / 2 inch long with driving portion 30 being 1 inch long and having a 11 / 2 inch square periphery . bore 27 has a 3 / 8 inch diameter . while these dimensions are given to illustrate a typical roller assembly , it should be understood that any or all of these dimensions may be changed to meet the requirements of a particular ball return mechanism without departing from the present invention .	8
in a first aspect , the present invention relates to a topical composition for the treatment of diabetic neuropathy . the composition includes a compound that promotes synthesis of nerve growth factor , an aldose reductase inhibitor and an antioxidant formulated in a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier for a topical composition . the compound that promotes synthesis of nerve growth factor may be selected from suitable compounds that have been shown to have this activity . suitable compounds that promote synthesis of nerve growth factor are those that do not induce significant , adverse side effects when topically applied to a patient in amounts that promote synthesis of nerve growth factor , and which do not react with one or more of the ingredients of the topical composition resulting in a substantial loss of activity of one or more active ingredients . preferred compounds for promoting synthesis of nerve growth factor are those that occur naturally in the human body and / or materials obtained from plants or animal which may be ingested or topically applied by humans without significant , adverse side effects in the amounts used or derivatives thereof exemplary compounds that promote synthesis of nerve growth factor are vitamin d 3 , vitamin d 3 derivatives such as 1 ( s ), 3 ( r )- dihydroxy - 20 ( r )-( 1 - ethoxy - 5 - ethyl - 5 - hydroxy - 2 - heptyn - 1 - yl )- 9 , 10 - seco - pregna - 5 ( z ), 7 ( e ), 10 ( 19 )- triene . the preferred nerve growth factor used in the topical composition is vitamin d 3 . also , pharmaceutically acceptable salts of the compounds that promote synthesis of nerve growth factor may be employed . the compound that promotes synthesis of nerve growth factor is used in an amount effective to promote the synthesis of nerve growth factor of about 10 , 000 to about 3 million iu . per kg of the composition . more preferably , the compound that promotes synthesis of nerve growth factor is employed in an amount of about 50 , 000 to about 2 million iu per kg of the composition , and most preferably an amount of 100 , 000 to about 1 million iu is used per kg of the composition . the preferred compounds that induce synthesis of nerve growth factor may , in addition to this activity , also function to prevent neurotrophic deficits . this additional effect of the preferred compounds may also contribute to the overall beneficial effect of the topical composition of the present invention . in order to formulate the compound that promotes synthesis of nerve growth factor in the topical composition of the present invention , it may be necessary to use a dispersant . suitable dispersant materials are known to persons skilled in the art . a particularly suitable dispersant for the compounds that promote synthesis of nerve growth factor is corn oil . corn oil also has the advantage that it is a natural product . the amount of corn oil used is an amount sufficient to disperse the compound that promotes synthesis of nerve growth factor . the second active ingredient of the topical composition of the present invention is an aldose reductase inhibitor . numerous suitable aldose reductase inhibitors are known to persons skilled in the art . again , suitable aldose reductase inhibitors are those that do not induce significant , adverse side effects when topically applied to a patient in an amount effective for aldose reductase inhibition , and which do not react with one or more of the ingredients of the topical composition resulting in a substantial loss of activity of one or more active ingredients of the composition . preferred aldose reductase inhibitors are those that occur naturally in the human body and / or materials obtained from plants or animal which may be ingested or topically applied by humans without significant , adverse side effects in the amounts used or derivatives thereof as mentioned above , numerous aldose reductase inhibitors are known to persons skilled in the art . however , significant adverse side effects are associated with the use of many aldose reductase inhibitors in humans . thus , it is important to select one or more aldose reductase inhibitors for use in the topical composition of the present invention based on minimizing the risk associated with use of the aldose reductase inhibitor taking into account the amount of that particular inhibitor that must be employed to achieve the desired level of aldose reductase inhibition . different aldose reductase inhibitors exhibit different levels of inhibition . with this in mind , the preferred aldose reductase inhibitors for use in the topical compositions of the present invention are flavonoids and flavonoid derivatives . exemplary aldose reductase inhibitors include (−)- epigallocatechin ; (−)- epigallocatechin - gallate ; 1 , 2 , 3 , 6 - tetra - o - gallyol - β - d - glucose ; 2 ′ o - acetylacetoside ; 3 , 3 ′, 4 - tri - o - methyl - ellagic acid ; 6 , 3 ′, 4 ′- trihydroxy - 5 , 7 , 8 - trimethoxyflavone ; 6 - hydroxy - luteolin ; 6 - hydroxykaempferol - 3 , 6 - dimethyl ether ; 7 - o - acetyl - 8 - epi - loganic acid ; acacetin ; acetoside ; acetyl trisulfate quercetin ; amentoflavone ; apiin ; astragalin ; avicularin ; axillarin ; baicalein ; brazilin ; brevifolin carboxylic acid ; caryophyllene ; chrysin - 5 , 7 - dihydroxyflavone ; chrysoeriol ; chrysosplenol ; chrysosplenoside - a ; chrysosplenoside - d ; cosmosiin ; δ - cadinene ; dimethylmussaenoside ; diacerylcirsimaritin ; diosmetin ; dosmetin ; ellagic acid ; ebinin ; ethyl brevifolin carboxylate ; flavocannibiside ; flavosativaside ; genistein ; gossypetin - 8 - glucoside ; haematoxylin ; hispiduloside ; hyperin ; indole ; iridine ; isoliquiritigenin ; isoliquiritin ; isoquercitrin ; jionoside ; juglanin ; kaempferol - 3 - rhamnoside ; kaempferol - 3 - neohesperidoside ; kolaviron ; licuraside ; linariin ; linarin ; lonicerin ; luteolin ; luetolin - 7 - glucoside ; luteolin - 7 - glucoside ; luetolin - 7 - glucoronide ; macrocarpal - a ; macrocarpal - b ; macrocarpal - d ; macrocarpal - g ; maniflavone ; methy scutellarein , naringenin ; naringin ; nelumboside ; nepetin ; nepetrin ; nerolidol ; oxyayanin - a ; pectolinarigenin ; pectolinarin ; quercetagetin ; quercetin ; quercimertrin ; quercitrin ; quercitryl - 2 ″ acetate ; reynoutrin ; rhamnetin ; rhoifolin ; rutin ; soutellarein ; sideritoflavone ; sophoricoside ; sorbarin ; spiraeoside ; trifolin ; vitexin ; and wogonin . the most preferred flavonoid and / or flavonoid derivative aldose reductase inhibitors are quercetin , quercetrin , myricetin , kaempferol and myrecetrin since these compounds exhibit a high level of aldose reductase inhibition in combination with a relatively low toxicity . also , pharmaceutically acceptable salts of these aldose reductase inhibitors may be employed . the flavonoids and flavonoid derivatives are also preferred since some of these compounds may provide additional beneficial effects in the composition of the present invention . for example , quercetin may act as a chelator for transition metals that some studies have linked to certain symptoms of diabetic neuropathy . flavonoids may also have some anti - inflammatory activity and / or may help stabilize cell membranes , both of which activities may be beneficial in the treatment of diabetic neuropathy . the aldose reductase inhibitor is used in an amount of about 2 to about 40 grams per kg of the composition . more preferably , the aldose reductase inhibitor is employed in an amount of about 5 to about 30 grams and most preferably an amount of 8 to about 20 grams per kg of the composition . another active ingredient in the composition of the present invention is the antioxidant . the antioxidant may be a single compound or a mixture of two or more compounds . also , the antioxidant may include one or more compounds that provide additional beneficial effects beyond the antioxidant activity , such as aldose reductase inhibition , compounds which may be used as antioxidants are those which exhibit antioxidant activity when administered topically without causing any severe adverse side affect when used in an amount effective to provide sufficient antioxidant activity , and which do not react with one or more of the ingredients of the topical composition resulting in a substantial loss of activity of one or more active ingredients . preferred antioxidants are those that occur naturally in the human body and / or materials obtained from plants or animal which may be ingested or topically applied by humans without significant , adverse side effects in the amounts used or derivatives thereof more preferred antioxidants are selected from ascorbyl palmitate , ascorbic acid ( vitamin c ), vitamin a , vitamin e acetate , α - lipoic acid , especially dl - α - lipoic acid , coenzyme q10 , glutathione , catechin , glangin , rutin , luteolin , morin , fisetin , silymerin , apigenin , gingkolides , hesperitin , cyanidin , citrin and derivatives thereof which exhibit antioxidant activity . even more preferably , mixtures of two or more antioxidants are employed in the composition of the present invention . particularly preferred antioxidant mixtures are ascorbyl palmitate with one or both of vitamin a and vitamin e acetate . the antioxidants may also be used in the form of their pharmaceutically acceptable salts and this may be preferred in some cases to increase solubility or dispersability , to reduce adverse side effects , etc . the antioxidant is used in an amount of about 1 to about 50 grams per kg of the composition . more preferably , the antioxidant is employed in an amount of about 2 to about 30 grams , and most preferably an amount of about 5 to about 20 grams per kg of the composition . the antioxidants used in the composition of the present invention are preferably selected not only for their antioxidant activity , but also based on other beneficial effects that particular compounds may provide . for example , ascorbyl palmitate not only has antioxidant activity , but also may act as an aldose reductase inhibitor and may help prevent degradation of nitric oxide ( no ) and thus is a particularly preferred antioxidant for the present invention . similarly , vitamin e may also help prevent degradation of nitric oxide and is thus a preferred antioxidant . vitamin a is a fat - soluble material and thus is preferred for use due to this additional beneficial property . however , due to its solubility characteristics , vitamin a may need to be formulated in a suitable dispersant such as corn oil in much the same manner as vitamin d 3 as described above , suitable additional beneficial properties for compounds useful in the compositions of the present invention include absorbability when applied topically , aldose reductase inhibition , antioxidant properties , free radical scavenging , transition metal chelation , nitric oxide stabilization , and anti - inflamatory activity . the compositions in accordance with the present invention may provide one or more of the following beneficial effects to a patient when topically applied in effective amounts ; relief of pain , burning , tingling , electrical sensations and / or hyperalgesia , increased microcirculation , nitric oxide stabilization , promotes healing of skin ulcers and lesions , protein kinase c inhibition , decreased oxidative stress , anti - inflammation , protection against radiation damage , particularly ultraviolet radiation , blockage of the formation of leukotrienes , stabilization of cell membranes , and promotion of the synthesis of nerve growth factor . the method of the present invention involves the topical application of a composition of the present invention to areas of the skin in the vicinity of tissue that suffers from diabetic neuropathy . in particular , the present invention is useful on the patients &# 39 ; extremities such as the fingers , toes , hands and feet where diabetic neuropathy is often the most pervasive . in the method , a suitable amount of the composition of the invention is applied one to six times daily as needed to relieve pain and other symptoms of the diabetic neuropathy . preferably , the composition is applied two to four times daily , as needed for pain . a sufficient amount should be applied to cover the area afflicted with the diabetic neuropathy with a thin layer of the composition and the composition should be rubbed into the skin until little or no residue remains on the skin . treatment begins initially to treat acute symptoms but may be continued indefinitely to relieve pain , prevent symptoms of diabetic neuropathy from returning and possibly restore some nerve and / or skin function . the method of the present invention may provide one or more of the beneficial effects described above for the compositions of the invention . in addition , the method of the present invention may provide some additional beneficial effects due to one or more of the ingredients contained in the pharmaceutically acceptable carrier as described in more detail below , the pharmaceutically acceptable carrier of the present invention is suitable for use as a carrier for topical compositions wherein the active ingredients are dissolved , dispersed and / or suspended in the composition . the carrier of the present invention contains at least a hydrophilic ointment base , panthenol or a panthenol derivative and a dispersant if needed to disperse one or more insoluble or partially insoluble active ingredients in the carrier . suitable hydrophilic ointment bases are known to persons skilled in the art . exemplary hydrophilic ointment bases suitable for use in the present invention are non - u . s . p . hydrophilic ointment bases such as those made by fougera , inc . sufficient hydrophilic ointment base is employed to act as a garrier for the active ingredients of the composition . typically the hydrophilic ointment base will make up more than about 80 % of the total composition and more preferably about 80 - 90 % of the composition is the hydrophilic ointment base . the hydrophilic ointment base functions as a carrier and enhances penetration into the skin . the panthenol or panthenol derivatives useful in the present invention include at least d - panthenol , dl - panthenol and mixtures hereof this component of the carrier has skin moisturizing properties and acts as a quick , deep penetrating component of the carrier that helps deliver the active ingredients through the skin to the area to be treated and imparts a healing effect to damaged tissue . the amount of panthenol or panthenol derivative to be employed is from about 0 . 25 to about 10 weight percent , more preferably from about 0 . 5 to about 5 weight percent and most preferably from about 1 to about 2 weight percent , based on the total weight of the composition . the carrier of the present invention may also include additional ingredients such as other carriers , moisturizers , humectants , emollients dispersants , radiation blocking compounds , particularly uv - blockers , as well as other suitable materials that do not have a significant adverse effect on the activity of the topical composition . preferred additional ingredients for inclusion in the carrier are sodium acid phosphate moisturizer , witch hazel extract carrier , glycerine humectant , apricot kernal oil emollient , and corn oil dispersant . other materials which may optionally be included in the topical compositions of the present invention include inositol , other b - complex vitamins , and anti - inflammatory agents . the composition of the present invention may also be employed to facilitate wound healing , for the treatment of skin cancer and / or one or more symptoms thereof or as a composition for protecting skin from the harmful effects of radiation such as radiation breakdown . the composition of the present invention is made by cold compounding . this is an important feature of the invention since one or more of the compounds employed in the topical composition are sensitive to heat or other types of energy and thus the activity of the composition may be detrimentally affected as a result of the formulation of the compositions in other manners . thus , the ingredients of the topical composition the present invention are merely mixed together , without heating using a sufficient amount of the carrier to provide a substantially homogeneous cream or ointment . it may be necessary to dissolve , disperse or suspend one or more of the ingredients prior to cold compounding in order to ensure substantially homogeneous distribution of the active ingredients in the composition . a preferred composition of the invention can be made using the following ingredients , all based on use of one pound of hydrophilic ointment base . 25 - 35 cc of a 50 % aqueous solution of sodium acid phosphate moisturizing agent , 5 - 10 cc of d - or dl - panthenol , 5 - 10 cc of glycerine , 1 - 3 cc of apricot kernal oil , 3 - 5 cc of a dispersion of vitamins a and d 3 in a corn oil base , 10 - 20 cc of witch hazel extract , 0 . 5 - 2 cc of vitamin e acetate , 2 - 4 grams of ascorbyl palpitate and 4 - 8 grams of quercetin powder . optionally , one or more of the glycerin , witch hazel extract , vitamins a and e and / or the ascorbyl palmitate can be reduced or eliminate from a particular composition , if desirable or larger amounts of one type of component , i . e . antioxidant , can be employed while reducing the amount of another component of the same type or having a similar type of activity , the invention will now be further illustrated by the following example . a topical composition including a mixture of an hydrophilic ointment base , sodium acid phosphate moisturizing agent , a witch hazel extract carrier , glycerine , apricot kernal oil and dl - panthenol as the pharmaceutically acceptable carrier and vitamins a and d 3 , ascorbyl palmitate , quercetin and vitamin e acetate was prepared by cold compounding . the formulation of the composition is given in table 1 . the composition was prepared by first placing the hydrophilic ointment base in a stainless steel bowl and mixing briskly until the ointment becomes creamy . then , the sodium acid phosphate , panthenol , ascorbyl palmitate , glycerine , apricot kernal oil , vitamins a and d 3 , witch hazel extract , vitamin e acetate and quercetin are added in that order . after each ingredient is added , mixing is continued until all traces of dry ingredients have disappeared and a substantially homogeneous mixture is obtained . the final color should be a consistent yellow and the cream should have the consistency of cake frosting . the mixture is then placed in a sterile container . all containers which contact the composition during mixing must also be sterilized with , for example , zephiran choride or a chlorox solution such as betadine . this composition was topically administered , under the supervision of a physician , to several patients diagnosed with the most difficult cases of diabetic peripheral neuropathy . the topical composition was applied twice daily in the morning and afternoon , except that patients were permitted to apply the composition up to six times daily , as needed for pain relief over a period of a few days . all of the eight patients treated experienced immediate positive results that lasted up to a day or two after treatment was discontinued . the effects noted by the patients included the relief of burning pain , tingling , healing of damaged skin , and reversal of skin discoloration due to impaired circulation . the foregoing detailed description of the invention and examples are not intended to limit the scope of the invention in any way and should not be construed as limiting the scope of the invention . the scope of the invention is to be determined from the claims appended hereto .	0
referring now to the drawings , like elements are represented by like numerals throughout the several views . fig1 illustrates schematically a key reader which may be constructed as shown in the said prior patent . the housing 10 has a key slot 11 for receiving key 18 ( fig2 ). a pair of reading pins 12 and 13 are urged outwardly by resilient means 14 into key slot 11 . when key 18 is inserted into slot 11 , all of its reading positions will pass by pins 12 and 13 and be read before the key reaches its fully inserted position . control means 15 senses the code being read , wherein the presence of any code conveys to means 15 the fact that a reading position is in location at the pins and is being read . referring primarily to fig2 the key 18 comprises two parallel rows of reading positions which are identified in fig3 as 41 - 50 in the right row and 51 - 60 in the left row , respectively . each reading position has a matched pair in the other row , the two together forming a cooperating pair , there being ten pairs as indicated by the roman numerals i - x in fig2 . at each reading position , there may be provided two recesses such as recesses 41 and 51 at position i , or only a recess in the left row , such as at 52 in position ii , or only a recess in the right row , such as at 44 or 45 in positions iv and v . hence , at any of the ten positions , three conditions are possible . many modifications and variations of the key codes will be evident . in the preferred arrangement only recesses are used so that in any given position the key will include either a flat surface or a recess . alternatively , raised projections can be used so that at any given position the key will have either a flat surface or a raised projection . for purposes of economics , recesses are far preferable to raised projections . further , since each reading pin only requires two positions , there is no need to mix on a given key three different levels by mixing the flat surface , recesses and raised projections . however , if it were desired to provide three different positions for the reading key , this could be accomplished . also , while the present invention illustrates only two rows of codes with a total of ten reading positions , it will be apparent that if desired , a third or more rows could be provided and more or less then ten reading positions could be provided . as merely one example , if in a given situation the length of the key had to be severely reduced but slightly more horizontal space was possible , and the apparatus and the key were constructed with four reading positions i - iv with four code positions at each reading position to cooperate with four different reading pins , then fifteen different conditions would be possible at each of the reading positions i - iv , ( i . e . all combinations except the absence of any indentations or projections since this combination would not create a clock pulse signal ) so that the total number of combinations for this key would be fifteen to the fourth power , or 50 , 625 . if a fifth reading position v were added , this would increase the number of combinations to 759 , 375 . there is shown schematically in fig1 a box 15 which represents means for sensing the positions of the pins at each reading position and transmitting a signal to the unit 16 which is representative of a virtually unlimited number of kinds of devices which can utilize this information , examples being means for identifying the person having possession of the key , permitting access to a door or other security area , manufacturing a key which will duplicate the inserted key , etc . diagrammatic element 15 would also include a clock line means , the details of which are known per se and need not be described herein , which would sense and distinguish each time that a new key reading position was cooperating with the pins . since each key reading position contains at least one depression , then the sensing of one or two depressions at the key reading position would provide the signal for the clock line means . the operation of the invention will be apparent from the preceding discussion . however , briefly by way of summary , the present invention would operate as follows , using as an example the specific key 18 shown herein . as the key 18 is inserted , its bevelled tip 35 would engage both pin tips 12 and 13 and move them rearwardly until they rode up onto the flat leading edge area 61 just behind the bevelled front 35 . position x would then engage the two reading pins . during this reading the clock line means associated with element 15 would sense that the first position is being read . a change from the no key position to the leading edge position would have alerted sensor 15 to the fact that a reading position will now commence . as the key 18 is moved farther into the slot , position ix would engage the pins , both of which would move into the respective recesses 49 and 59 . again , the clock line means would sense that the key has now brought the next reading position to the pins . this sequence would continue until the last position , namely position i , has been read after which the pin tips 12 and 13 would ride up on rear flat area 62 . in practice , these readings can be made so rapidly that the operator would simply insert the key rapidly without discerning the individual positions . specifically , each reading can be made in no more than seventy milliseconds . in the present example , assuming that a recess in the left row is read as &# 34 ; one &# 34 ;, a dimple in the right row is read as &# 34 ; two &# 34 ; and a dimple in both rows is read as &# 34 ; three &# 34 ;, then the code of key 18 , reading from position i to x , would be 3 , 1 , 3 , 2 , 2 , 1 , 3 , 2 , 3 and 2 , just one out of 59 , 049 combinations . although the invention has been described in considerable detail with respect to preferred embodiments thereof , it will be apparent that the invention is capable of numerous modifications and variations , apparent to those skilled in the art , without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention .	4
the above described developer solution of the invention for a positive - type photoresist has been developed as a result of the extensive investigations undertaken by the inventors with an object to provide a novel developer solution free from the problem of the temperature dependency on the sensitivity of the photoresist , which led to a discovery that , when an aqueous solution of a tetraalkyl ammonium hydroxide and an aqueous solution of a triakyl hydroxyalkyl ammonium hydroxide are used each alone as a developer solution of a positive type photoresist , the temperature dependency on the sensitivity of the photoresist when using one of them is reversed to that when using the other . the present invention has been completed on the basis of this discovery . the alkyl group in the tetraalkyl ammonium hydroxide has preferably from 1 to 3 carbon atoms and , more preferably , the alkyl group is a methyl group . accordingly , the tetraalkyl ammonium hydroxide is preferably tetramethyl ammonium hydroxide , which is referred to as tmah hereinbelow . the alkyl group in the trialkyl hydroxyalkyl ammonium hydroxide , on the other hand , also should have from 1 to 3 carbon atoms and should preferably be a methyl group . the hydroxyalkyl group also should have from 1 to 3 carbon atoms , but the most preferably hydroxyalkyl group is a hydroxyethyl group . accordingly , the preferable trialkyl hydroxyalkyl ammonium hydroxide is trimethyl hydroxyethyl ammonium hydroxide , which is referred to as thah hereinbelow . when an aqueous solution of tmah is used as a developer solution of a positive type photoresist , its sensitivity is highest at a temperature in the range from 20 ° to 25 ° c . and decreases as the temperature of the developer solution is increased above or decreased below this temperature range . when an aqueous solution of thah is used as the developer solution , on the other hand , higher temperatures of the solution always result in higher sensitivity . in connection with the relationship between the temperature of the developer solution and the thickness reduction of the photoresist layer in the unexposed areas , it has been found that an increase in the temperature of the developer solution has an effect of decreasing the thickness reduction , when the developer solution is an aqueous solution of tmah , but increasing the thickness reduction when an aqueous solution of thah is used in the developer solution . the principle of the advantages obtained with the inventive developer solution result from the combination of the different characteristics possessed by tmah and thah when each is used singly in the form of an aqueous solution as a developer solution ; and the combined use thereof mixed together in an aqueous solution provides a novel developer solution for a positive - type photoresist with which the temperature dependencies can be minimized with respect to the sensitivity of the photoresist and the solubility of the photoresist in the unexposed areas . a preferable formulation of the inventive developer solution should contain from 0 . 5 to 3 . 0 % by weight or , preferably , from 1 . 0 to 2 . 0 % by weight of the tetraalkyl ammonium hydroxide , e . g ., tmah , and from 1 . 0 to 4 . 0 % by weight or , preferably , from 2 . 0 to 3 . 0 % by weight of the trialkyl hydroxyalkyl ammonium hydroxide , e . g ., thah , in the solution , the balance being water . when the concentrations of these components are lower than the above ranges , the sensitivity of the photoresist is unduly decreased . when the concentrations thereof are excessively high , on the other hand , a disadvantage is caused in the increase of the thickness reduction of the photoresist layer in the unexposed areas . owing to the very small dependencies on temperature of the developer solution of the present invention , in the development treatment with respect to the sensitivity of the photoresist and the thickness reduction of the photoresist layer in the unexposed areas by dissolution in the developer solution , the temperature of the developer solution in the course of the development is relatively free from limitation . it is , however , recommendable that the development should be performed with the inventive developer solution at a temperature in the range from 20 ° to 40 ° c ., since the sensitivity of the photoresist is too small to be practical at a temperature below 20 ° c . the manner in which the inventive developer solution is used for development is not particularly limited and any conventional method is applicable , including dipping and spraying , which provide quite satisfactory results . in addition , it is of course optional to add small amounts of additives such as coloring inhibitor , surface active agent and the like , if so desired to obtain further improvements . the positive - type photoresist compositions which can be subjected to development treatment by use of the developer solution of the present invention include those containing a quinone diazide type compound as the photosensitive component such as o - benzoquinone diazide , o - naphthoquinone diazide and o - anthraquinone diazide as well as nucleus - substituted derivatives thereof , e . g ., esters of o - naphthoquinone diazide sulfonic acid . furthermore , the photosensitive component in the photoresist can be a reaction product of o - quinone diazide sulfonyl chloride and a compound having a hydroxy or amino group in the molecule such as phenol , 4 - methoxyphenol , dimethyl phenol , hydroquinone , bisphenol a , naphthol , trihydroxy benzophenone , pyrocatechol , pyrogallol , pyrogallol monomethyl ether , gallic acid , esterified or etherified gallic acid leaving one or two of the hydroxy groups in the molecule , aniline , 4 - aminodiphenyl amine and the like . the film - forming component in the photoresist composition is an alkali - soluble resin exemplified by novolac resins , polyvinyl alcohols , polyvinyl alkyl ethers , copolymers of styrene and acrylic acid , copolymers of acrylic acid and an alkyl methacrylate , polymers of hydroxystyrene , polyvinyl hydroxybenzoate , polyvinyl hydroxybenzal and the like . several grades of positive - type photoresist compositions are commercially available on the market , of which preferable ones include the microposit - series products manufactured by shipley co ., az - series products manufactured by hoechst co ., hpr - series products manufactured by hunt chemical co ., ofpr - series products manufactured by tokyo ohka kogyo co ., ltd ., and the like . particularly preferable positive type photoresist compositions are those comprising a novolac resin and an esterification product obtained by the condensation reaction between naphthoquinone -( 1 , 2 )- diazido -( 2 )- 5 - sulfonyl chloride and 2 , 3 , 4 - trihydroxy benzophenone described in japanese patent publication no . 37 - 18015 . these commercially available positive - type photoresists can also be used with the developer solution of the presently claimed invention . when a positive - type photoresist layer of the composition of the above - described type is subjected to the development treatment after pattern - wise exposure to light by use of the inventive developer solution , changes in the temperature of the developer solution only have very small influences on the sensitivity of the photoresist and the thickness reduction of the photoresist layer in the unexposed areas , so that the temperature control of the developer solution in the development treatment need not be so exact as in the use of a conventional developer solution . accordingly , this aspect of the present invention greatly facilitates the line width control of the patterned photoresist layer . in particular , development treatment by spraying of the developer solution can be easily performed with good line width control by use of the inventive developer solution , in contrast to what it has been generally understood by those in the art ; namely , that the spraying development is not suitable when exactness is desired in the line width control due to the uncontrollable temperature decrease of the solution by the evaporation of the solvent by spraying . thus , the developer solution of the present invention is very advantageous because a pattern - wise photoresist layer of high resolving power can readily be obtained with very little fluctuation in the line width of the pattern . in the following , the present invention is described in more detail by way of examples . an aqueous developer solution wa prepared by dissolving in water , tetramethyl ammonium hydroxide and trimethyl hydroxyethyl ammonium hydroxide in amounts to give concentrations of 1 . 4 % by weight and 2 . 1 % by weight , respectively , in the resulting developer solution . a positive - type photoresist composition was prepared by dissolving 3 . 2 parts by weight of an esterification product obtained by the condensation reaction , according to the disclosure in japanese patent publication no . 37 , 18015 , between 1 mole of 2 , 3 , 4 - trihydroxy benzophenone and 2 moles of naphthoquinone -( 1 , 2 )- diazido -( 2 )- 5 - sulfonyl chloride and 12 . 8 parts by weight of a cresol formaldehyde resin in 84 parts by weight of ethyleneglycol monoethyl ether acetate . a substrate plate was uniformly coated with this positive - type photoresist composition to give a film thickness of 1 . 3 μm after drying by a heat treatment . this was followed by exposure to light , and then developed by dipping for 60 seconds or 180 seconds in the above prepared developer solution . the temperature of the developer solution was varied to 20 °, 25 °, 30 ° and 40 ° c . the results obtained by the determination of the sensitivity of the photoresist and the thickness reduction of the photoresist layer in the unexposed areas are shown in table 1 . as is clear from the results , the sensitivity of the photoresist and the thickness reduction of the photoresist layer in the unexposed areas are only slightly dependent on the temperature of the developer solution . the experimental procedure as in example 1 was repeated except that the developer solution used in this case was an aqueous solution of tetramethyl ammonium hydroxide alone in a concentration of 2 . 5 % by weight . the sensitivity of the photoresist and the thickness reduction of the photoresist layer in the unexposed areas are also shown in table 1 . as is clear from the table , the temperature dependencies of the sensitivity of the photoresist and the thickness reduction of the photoresist layer in the unexposed areas are considerably large , with decrease in the sensitivity and decrease in the thickness reduction as the temperature of the developer solution is increased . the same experimental procedure as in example 1 was repeated , except that the developer solution used in this case was an aqueous solution containing trimethyl hydroxyethyl ammonium hydroxide alone in a concentration of 4 . 5 % by weight . the sensitivity of the photoresist and the thickness reduction of the photoresist layer in the unexposed areas are shown in table 1 for each of the temperatures of the developer solution . as is clear from the table , the temperature dependencies of the photosensitivity of the photoresist and the thickness reduction of the photoresist layer are considerably large with increase in the sensitivity and increase in the thickness reduction as the temperature of the developer solution increases . further , comparison of the data of the thickness reduction in example 1 and comparative examples 1 and 2 between the development time of 60 seconds and 180 seconds indicates that the increase of the thickness reduction is relatively small when the inventive developer solution is used even when the developing time is unduly extended so that the inventive developer solution can be used without exact control of the developing time . table 1______________________________________tempera - thickness reduction , nmture of sensi - 60 second 180 secondsdeveloper tivity develop - develop - solution ,. seconds ment ment ° c . (* 1 ) ( a ) ( b ) ( b )/( a ) ______________________________________example 20 4 . 1 110 220 2 . 01 25 3 . 7 130 260 2 . 0 30 3 . 7 130 270 2 . 1 40 3 . 7 130 300 2 . 3compa - 20 3 . 3 120 400 3 . 3rative 25 3 . 5 90 310 3 . 4example 30 3 . 9 70 240 3 . 41 40 5 . 3 50 170 3 . 4compa - 20 4 . 2 80 310 3 . 9rative 25 3 . 7 90 420 4 . 7example 30 3 . 4 100 520 5 . 22 40 2 . 6 140 1050 7 . 5______________________________________ (* 1 ) sensitivity is given by the minimum exposure time in seconds require for the image reproduction with fidelity of the pattern on the photomask . a substrate plate was coated uniformly with the same photoresist composition as used in example 1 , followed by a heat treatment , and the resulting photoresist layer was exposed to light through a photomask having a line pattern of 3 . 0 μm line width to give a predetermined irradiation dose . the thus pattern - wise exposed photoresist layer on the substrate was developed by respectively dipping for 60 seconds in the developer solution prepared in example 1 , comparative example 1 and comparative example 2 at different temperatures , as shown below and the width of the line pattern of the photoresist layer as developed was measured to give the results shown in table 2 below for each of the developer solutions at each of the temperatures of the solution . as is clear from the table , the line width obtained by use of the inventive developer solution had higher fidelity and higher reproducibility than those obtained by use of the comparative developer solutions . in particular , the line width obtained by use of the developer solution of the present invention varies little with respect to temperature of the developer solution . table 2______________________________________ developer solutiontemper - comparative comparativeature example 1 example 1 example 2______________________________________20 ° c . 2 . 9 μm 2 . 85 μm 3 . 17 μm25 3 . 0 3 . 0 3 . 030 3 . 05 3 . 18 2 . 75______________________________________	6
please refer to fig1 a , which is a schematic diagram of an integrated circuit 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention . as shown in fig1 a , the integrated circuit 10 comprises a housing 100 , a plurality of first signal ends 102 , a plurality of second signal ends 104 and an electronic signal transmitting device 106 . the first signal ends 102 are configured at a side ( e . g . the left side ) of the housing 100 and the second signal ends 104 are configured at another side ( e . g . the right side ) of the housing 100 . please note that a number of the first signal ends 102 and a number of second signal ends 104 can be appropriately changed according to different system requirements and design concepts . the electronic signal transmitting device 106 is configured in the housing 100 and comprises a plurality of electromagnetic transmitting units 108 and an electromagnetic insulating layer 110 . the electronic signal transmitting device 106 is utilized for transmitting an electronic signal es between the plurality of first signal ends 102 and the plurality of second signal ends 104 . through the electromagnetic insulation characteristic of the electromagnetic insulating layer 110 , the effect of the electro - static discharge ( esd ) and electromagnetic interference ( emi ) toward the integrated circuit 10 can be reduced . the electronic signal es can therefore be steadily transmitted . please refer to fig1 b , which is a cross - sectional view of the integrated circuit 10 shown in fig1 a . please note that fig1 b only shows a first signal end 102 , a second signal end 104 and an electromagnetic transmitting unit 108 as an example . as shown in fig1 b , the electromagnetic transmitting unit 108 comprises a magnetizer eb and a magnetic coil ec twining round the magnetizer eb . when the integrated circuit 10 wants to transmits the electronic signal es , the magnetizer eb and the magnetic coil ec form an electromagnetic transmitting state , for performing the transmission of the electronic signal es . the electromagnetic insulating layer 110 is realized by electromagnetic insulation materials , such as varnish and insulating coating , and covers the magnetizer eb and the magnetic coil ec . via the electromagnetic insulating layer 110 , the magnetizer eb and the magnetic ec can be fixed . moreover , a capacitance between the first signal end 102 and the second signal end 104 can be increased via using the electromagnetic insulating layer 110 to cover the magnetizer eb and the magnetic coil ec . the resistance of the electro - static discharge and the electromagnetic interference can thereby be improved . please refer to fig2 , which is an equivalent circuit diagram of the integrated circuit 10 shown in fig1 b . as shown in fig2 , the electromagnetic transmitting unit 108 comprises the magnetic coil ec and an electronic signal transmitting capacitor estc . the magnetic coil ec is utilized for performing transmission of the electronic signal es . the electronic signal transmitting capacitor estc represents an equivalent capacitor between the first signal end 102 and the second signal end 104 . since the space between the first signal end 102 and the second signal end 104 is fully filled by the electromagnetic insulation material ( i . e . the electromagnetic insulating layer 110 ), the capacitance of the electronic signal transmitting capacitor estc is increased . as a result , the electro - static protection ability can be effectively improved . in other words , both the electromagnetic interference resistance and the electro - static protection ability can be improved . please refer to fig3 a and fig3 b , which are schematic diagrams of an integrated circuit 30 according to an embodiment of the present invention . the integrated circuit 30 shown in fig3 a and fig3 b is similar to the integrated circuit 10 shown in fig1 a and fig1 b , thus the signals and the components with similar functions use the same symbols . unlike the integrated circuit 10 shown in fig1 a and fig1 b , the integrated circuit 30 further stacks an electromagnetic heat - conducting layer 300 , coupling to a plurality of cooling holes ch of the housing 100 , on the electromagnetic insulating layer 110 . the electromagnetic heat - conducting layer 300 can be a thermal grease layer , which can radiate heat rapidly through the cooling holes ch . in such a condition , the electromagnetic insulating layer 110 not only can fix the magnetizer eb and the magnetic coil ec , but also can conduct heat generated when the electromagnetic transmitting unit 108 transmits the electronic signal es to the electromagnetic heat - conducting layer 300 , so as to radiate the heat via the electromagnetic heat - conducting layer 300 and the cooling holes ch . this prevents the integrated circuit 30 from overheating and functioning abnormally . noticeably , the integrated circuit of the above embodiments utilizes the electromagnetic insulating layer made by electromagnetic insulation material to cover the electromagnetic transmitting unit , for increasing the equivalent capacitance between the first signal ends and the second signal ends . the resistance of the electro - static discharge and the electromagnetic interference of the electronic signal transmitting device can therefore be improved . in another embodiment , the integrated circuit radiates the heat generated when the electronic signal transmitting device transmits the electronic signal via the electromagnetic heat - conducting layer configured in the housing of the integrated circuit and the cooling holes of the housing , for preventing the integrated circuit from working abnormally due to overheating . according to different applications and requirements , those with ordinary skill in the art may observe appropriate alternations and modifications . for example , the electronic signal transmitting device may further comprise a waveform filter unit for filtering the noise of the electronic signal . please refer to fig4 , which is another equivalent circuit diagram of the integrated circuit 10 shown in fig1 b . the integrated circuit 10 shown in fig4 is similar to the integrated circuit 10 shown in fig2 , thus the components and signals with the similar functions use the same symbols . unlike fig2 , the equivalent circuit shown in fig4 further comprises a waveform filter unit 400 electrically connected between the first signal end 102 and the magnetic coil ec ., respectively . the waveform filter unit 400 is utilized for filtering the noise of the electronic signal es so that the noise of the electronic signal es can be reduced . to sum up , the electronic signal transmitting device and the integrated circuit of the above embodiments improve the resistance of electro - static discharge and the electromagnetic interference between the first signal ends and the second signal ends via covering the electromagnetic insulating layer . furthermore , the electronic signal transmitting device and the integrated circuit of the above embodiments can also improve the heat - radiating ability via adding the electromagnetic heat conducting layer coupled to the cooling holes of the housing , to prevent abnormal functioning of the integrated circuit due to overheating . those skilled in the art will readily observe that numerous modifications and alterations of the device and method may be made while retaining the teachings of the invention . accordingly , the above disclosure should be construed as limited only by the metes and bounds of the appended claims .	7
the embodiments of the invention and the various features and advantageous details thereof are explained more fully with reference to the non - limiting embodiments and examples that are described and / or illustrated in the accompanying drawings and detailed in the following description . it should be noted that the features illustrated in the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale , and features of one embodiment may be employed with other embodiments as the skilled artisan would recognize , even if not explicitly stated herein . descriptions of well - known components and processing techniques may be omitted so as to not unnecessarily obscure the embodiments of the invention . the examples used herein are intended merely to facilitate an understanding of ways in which the invention may be practiced and to further enable those of skill in the art to practice the embodiments of the invention . accordingly , the examples and embodiments herein should not be construed as limiting the scope of the invention , which is defined solely by the appended claims and applicable law . moreover , it is noted that like reference numerals represent similar parts throughout the several views of the drawings . the invention provides an enhanced decoding scheme , such as roi ( region of interest ) decoding for jpeg images . a decoder application of the invention may provide a unified application programming interface ( api ) and configuration parameter to execute various functions such as jpeg decoding , generating thumbnail images , rotating , moving and zooming in / out images , decoding roi and the like . these functions may be useful in handheld devices , for example , such as monahans lv ™ processor based handheld devices and the like , running on operating systems for such devices . examples of such operating systems include microsoft windows ™ mobile 5 . 0 for pocketpc ™, eabi linux ™ or a nucleus ™ operating system used in a handheld device and so on . in particular , fig1 illustrates a flow chart for an image processing process of a decoder application from a usage standpoint . specifically , the flow chart illustrates an example of the steps taken by a decoder application to process a jpeg image in response to one or more user selections . once a user starts the decoder application and selects a jpeg image to be processed , the selected jpeg image may be decoded at step 100 . the user may select to rotate , zoom or move the image . if the user selects to rotate the image at step 102 , the decoder application processes the image to rotate the yuv data of the decoded image at step 104 and may display the rotated image . if the user selects to save the rotation of the image at step 106 , the decoder application calls a rotate engine application from an application library at step 108 . upon completing step 108 , if the user does not select to rotate the image at step 102 or to save the rotated change at step 106 , the user may select to zoom or move the image at step 110 . if the user selects move or zoom , the decoder application calls a roi decode routine or algorithm from a jpeg library at step 112 . if the user further selects to zoom or move the image at step 114 ( e . g ., move the image after zooming ), step 112 may be repeated . when the user no longer selects zoom or move the image at step 114 or the user selects not to zoom or move the image at step 110 , the image processing for that image is completed . if the user selects to process another image at step 116 , the image processing process may start over again from step 100 . otherwise , the image processing process may be terminated . in particular , fig2 illustrates a flow chart for the image processing process from a codec standpoint . specifically , this flow chart illustrates an example of pulling and executing routines in a library in response to one or more user selections for manipulating an image . at step 200 , the decoder initiates an input / output ( i / o ) buffer allocation for a jpeg image , such as in the form of a “ decoderinitalloc_jpeg ( )” routine . this allocation routine may be provided from a library and initializes the device for decoding one or more jpeg images . the initialization may include allocating space in a buffer for image data . at step 202 , space may be allocated in the buffer based on user selections . at step 204 , the decoder application parameters are set based on the users &# 39 ; selection . at step 206 , the jpeg information may be decoded . the decoding routine may be provided from a jpeg library , such as in the form of a “ decode_jpeg ( )” routine . the jpeg information may be decoded using known techniques for jpeg data decoding . at step 208 , a determination is made if the input stream is decoded . if the input stream is decoded , the user may select to manipulate the image , such as to zoom , move or rotate , at step 210 . the process may be redirected to set the user decoding parameter at step 204 . decoding parameters may be set by a user when selecting what portions of an image to display and how the image should be displayed . thus , decoding parameters may change when a user rotates an image , or zooms in on a specified area of an image . if the input stream is not decoded at step 208 ( partial jpeg decoding ), the process may be directed to perform decoding at step 206 . if the user does not select to zoom , move or rotate the image at step 210 , the viewer ends the jpeg initiation . a routine ( e . g . “ decoderfree_jpeg ( )”) to end the image processing is executed at step 214 , such as from a routine from the jpeg library . the i / o buffer allocation may be freed by the user at step 216 . the invention further improves a handheld device &# 39 ; s viewing performance by providing a high quality roi decoding feature , enhanced performance for larger jpeg images and an optimized codec from the usage model standpoint . an image may be subject to a dct domain low - pass filter , direct down sampling and small size bilinear resizing for a high quality but lower computation large image resizing . this provides a handheld device with higher quality images , while reducing the computation requirements when resizing , zooming and moving images , including larger images . to achieve this aspect , a jpeg roi decoding algorithm according to the invention decodes an roe region in the original image and rescales the roi of the image into a smaller size . this results in higher quality , lower computation and more accurate roi decoding . the roe decoding may be performed by subjecting the image data to a dct domain low - pass filter . after the filtering , the image data is subject to direct down sampling . smaller size bilinear resizing may then be applied to the data to create the image . as described above , the image data may be passed through a low - pass filter . the low - pass filter may be applied first to eliminate frequency aliasing . the jpeg dct coefficient may serve as the frequency analysis target . fig3 illustrates a graph of a frequency of a jpeg dct coefficient . a cutting frequency may be calculated from the resizing factor . the low pass filter is applied directly by setting the target dct coefficient to zero . next , a particular down sample approach is discussed . in an embodiment , the direct down sampling may be performed for row and column independently by a factor of ⅛ , ¼ and ½ , for each mcu tile ( such as a 16 pixel by 16 pixel tile ) or an 8 × 8 dct block according to a row and column resizing factor , as shown in fig4 ( a ) , 4 ( b ) and 4 ( c ), respectively . while the invention uses a direct down sampling technique , it is understood that other down sampling techniques may also be used . fig5 ( a ) illustrates a graph of a frequency of a jpeg dct coefficient after down - sampling with no filtering . as illustrated , aliasing may occur at regions 510 and 520 . fig5 ( b ) illustrates a graph of a frequency of a jpeg dct coefficient after down sampling with filtering , generated according to the principles of the invention . when filtering is used prior to direct down sampling , aliasing may be reduced or avoided , thereby improving the image displayed . for each mcu , the direct down sampling may also require a resizing ratio , as the combination of passing the image data through a low pass filter and a direct down sampling may result in a value of half the dct coefficient . after the direct down sampling , the image size may be one or two times larger in one direction than the ultimate size . therefore , a bilinear interpolation or the like may be applied to resize the image to the ultimate image size . according to another embodiment of the invention , it is also desirable to avoid abrupt changes at boundaries of mcu tiles . this may be particularly important when padding or joining adjacent mcu tiles . fig6 illustrates a method of avoiding boundary break in padding delta regions of a new roi according to the principles of the invention . for each interpolating pixel , such as pixel 612 , an x offset and y offset may be the offsets to the nearest source integer pixel position , such as pixel 614 . this may be calculated from the original image , not from roi image . thus , the boundary interpolation factor may be continuous as the interpolation occurs based on the overall image and may not be hindered by mcu tile boundaries , such as the boundary 618 between mcu tiles 616 a and 616 b . according to an embodiment of the invention , to support an arbitrary move , a minimum destination roi region 620 may be 1 pixel by one pixel ( 1 × 1 ) in the proposed roi decoding method of the invention . fig7 illustrates how the decoder application adjusts or moves an roi of an image according to the principles of the invention . an initial roi 710 for a larger image ( not shown ) is defined . this roi may be calculated using principles of the invention based on instructions from a user , such as the selection of an roi of an image . the user defines a new roi 720 for an image . in this example , the new roi 720 partially overlaps with the initial roi 710 . the user may define a new roi 720 by , for example , manipulating controls of the hand held device to move a portion of the image being displayed . as shown , region b of the new roi 720 overlaps the initial roi 710 , while regions a and c of the new roi 720 are new . therefore , for the new roi 720 , the regions a and b may need to be decoded . the decoded information for the overlapped initial roi 710 is used along with the decoded information for the regions a and b within the new roi 720 . regions a and b then are padded or joined together , as discussed above , with the overlapping region c to form the new roi 720 . the invention provides for decoding an roi and then , upon moving or rotating the image and / or roi , maintains the information common to both the initial roi and the new roi and only processes the new areas . this reduces the processing required when changing the roi . by reducing processing , a roi image may be displayed with greater speed and less delay . thus , the invention may further enhance the decoder application &# 39 ; s performance for larger jpeg images . this may include optimizing codec usage for displaying the jpeg image . in addition , the invention may provide an improved , more user - friendly interface for the hand held device and ease code maintenance . to achieve this , an internal huffman index tree may be re - used for roi decoding , as well as for rotating images and thumbnails . in addition , this huffman index tree may be used for generating a thumbnail image to optimize the decoder application usage model . also , the invention may provide a more user - friendly api , as one code base may be needed to be maintained for all these jpeg processing features . the huffman tree index may use huffman coding . huffman coding is an entropy encoding algorithm used for lossless data compression . huffman coding may use a specific method for choosing the representation for each symbol , resulting in a prefix - free code that may express the most common characters using shorter strings of bits than are used for less common source symbols . a simple example of huffman coding is shown in fig9 which codes two reds and three blues 902 to generate a huffman tree 904 according to an embodiment of the invention , the decoder application usage model may perform image rotation only on a full image to speed rotation . image rotation may be first performed on the decoded raw yuv data . the rotate engine may be called when the user chooses to save the change . for faster zoom and movement of an image , a huffman tree may be built when a zoom , move or rotate function is to be applied to an image . future processing , such as when a further zoom , move , or rotate function is called , may be based on the already - built tree thereby improving performance by reducing processing . as described above , only a delta roi may be decoded during the image move . three directional moves ( i . e ., horizontal , vertical and diagonal moves ) may be supported during moving an roi for an image . when rotating an roi of a jpeg image according to the invention , the absolute value of a dct coefficient may remain unchanged after rotation , while the coefficient sign and location may change . the rotation algorithm may be carried out by building the huffman index tree from the input jpeg stream using known methods . then , for each destination minimum coding unit ( mcu ) tile a source mcu index is located according to the rotating pattern . the source mcu index provides information on how each mcu is rotated from its original position . for example , fig1 shows an exemplary mcu index that will associate a particular mcu with the amount of rotation from the original position of that mcu . thus , the coefficient of each position may be changed , thereby avoiding the need to perform an inverse dct calculation . the dct coefficient in an mcu tile may be changed according to a rotating pattern , and written to the destination jpeg stream . when the source image is rotated , the first pixel column becomes the first in the destination image . when the image is rotated , the huffman index tree is accessed to obtain the information for the first column . the coefficient is transposed in the first mcu , thereby rotating the image without needing to perform a dct calculation . for an image that includes partial mcu tiles i . e . when the image width or height is not aligned to the mcu boundary , it may not be possible to rotate in a lossless manner as the first data in the jpeg image is specified as unused . in such a case , the image may need to be cropped into the mcu boundary . for example , fig8 ( a ) , 8 ( b ), 8 ( c ) illustrate an image in fig8 ( a ) being rotated 90 degrees in the clockwise direction in fig8 ( b ) . the age is cropped in fig8 ( c ) to fit the mage to the mcu tile boundary . the processes described above may also be used in thumbnail image generation for the roi decoding with some modification . according to the invention , an image with a large number of pixels , e . g ., 1 , 000 × 1000 pixels , may be processed to create a thumbnail image . the output of the thumbnail image may be ycbcr raw data , and a typical thumbnail image size may be 80 × 80 . in such a situation , only a dc value is needed for each mcu . this dc value is used to form the smaller image , thereby reducing the processing needed . in addition , the resulting dc values may be subject to bilinear resizing to create the thumbnail image from the original image . although reference is made to a specific image data protocol , any image data protocol is within the scope of the invention . moreover , any future enhancement of a current protocol or any future protocol is contemplated for use with the invention . in accordance with various embodiments of the invention , the methods described herein are intended for operation with dedicated hardware implementations including , but not limited to , semiconductors , application specific integrated circuits , programmable logic arrays , and other hardware devices constructed to implement the methods and modules described herein . moreover , various embodiments of the invention described herein are intended for operation as software programs running on a computer processor . furthermore , alternative software implementations including , but not limited to , distributed processing , component / object distributed processing , parallel processing , virtual machine processing , any future enhancements , or any future protocol can also be used to implement the methods described herein . it should also be noted that the software implementations of the invention as described herein are optionally stored on a tangible storage medium , such as : a magnetic medium such as a disk or tape ; a magneto - optical or optical medium such as a disk ; or a solid state medium such as a memory card or other package that houses one or more read - only ( non - volatile ) memories , random access memories , or other re - writable ( volatile ) memories . a digital file attachment to email or other self - contained information archive or set of archives is considered a distribution medium equivalent to a tangible storage medium . accordingly , the invention is considered to include a tangible storage medium or distribution medium , as listed herein and including art - recognized equivalents and successor media , in which the software implementations herein are stored . while the invention has been described in terms of exemplary embodiments , those skilled in the art will recognize that the invention can be practiced with modifications in the spirit and scope of the appended claims . these examples given above are merely illustrative and are not meant to be an exhaustive list of all possible designs , embodiments , applications or modifications of the invention .	7
in accordance with the foregoing summary of the invention , the following presents the preferred embodiments of the present invention , which are considered to be the best mode thereof . fig1 is an elevation view of a lumbar reinforcement portion in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention , showing the lumbar reinforcement portion in an open , extended configuration . fig1 shows base outer base portion 1 and relatively flexible inner portion 2 , the inner portion moveably fixed to the outer base portion 1 so as to be able to be bowed away from the outer base portion as shown in this view . fig1 also shows inflatable air bladder 3 positioned between the inner portion 2 and the outer base portion 1 , and having an air conduit 4 adapted to reverseably inflate and deflate the air bladder 3 . fig1 also shows slots 5 and 6 through which pass bolts or screws 7 and 8 respectively with corresponding plastic washers 9 and 10 , to slidingly hold the outer base portion 1 and relatively flexible inner portion 2 in position . as bladder 3 inflates to expand along direction line a , the relatively flexible inner portion 2 bows so as to be drawn along direction line b . fig2 is an elevation view of the opposite side of a lumbar reinforcement portion shown in fig1 , in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention , again showing the lumbar reinforcement portion in an open , extended configuration with the same reference numerals used to indicate the parts thereof . fig3 is a front perspective view of a lumbar reinforcement portion in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention , showing the lumbar reinforcement portion in an open , extended configuration , with the same reference numerals used to indicate the parts thereof . fig4 is a side perspective view of a lumbar reinforcement portion in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention , showing the lumbar reinforcement portion in a closed configuration with the air bladder removed , with the same reference numerals used to indicate the parts thereof . if desired , the bladder 3 may be provided with a hook and loop pad 11 to hold it in place between the outer base portion 1 and the relatively flexible inner portion 2 , such as by providing a corresponding hook and loop pad ( not seen in the figure ) on the base portion 1 , to allow the bladder 3 to be inflated while the relatively flexible inner portion 2 may move freely with respect to the bladder 3 . fig5 is a side perspective view of a lumbar reinforcement portion in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention , showing the lumbar reinforcement portion in a closed configuration with the air bladder inserted , with the same reference numerals used to indicate the parts thereof . fig6 is a bottom plan view of a lumbar reinforcement portion in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention , showing the lumbar reinforcement portion in a closed configuration with the air bladder inserted , and with the same reference numerals used to indicate the parts thereof . this view also shows additional plastic washers 12 and 13 that may be used to secure bolts 7 and 8 to the outer base portion 1 . fig7 is a side perspective view of an air bladder 3 , as used in conjunction with a lumbar reinforcement portion in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention , showing the air bladder deflated . fig8 is a side perspective view of an air bladder 3 with hook and loop fastener 11 and hand pump bulb 14 that may be used in conjunction with a lumbar reinforcement portion in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention , showing the air bladder inflated . the conduit 4 typically is long enough to reach around the torso of the wearer to provide a convenient pumping of the bladder 3 while the brace is being worn . the hand pump bulb 14 may be removable with a valve at the end of the conduit , so that the hand pump bulb 14 may be removed from the brace after adjustment . fig9 is a representative view of a lumbar reinforcement portion 15 and a lumbal - sacral orthosis 16 having a pocket 17 into which a lumbar reinforcement portion may be inserted in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention . fig9 further shows lumbal - sacral orthosis 16 having a frontal portion 18 , strap 19 , and a pocket 17 adapted to receive lumbar reinforcement portion 15 . fig1 is representative view of a lumbal - sacral orthosis having a lumbar reinforcement portion in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention . fig1 shows lumbal - sacral orthosis 16 having a lumbar reinforcement portion 15 inserted into pocket 17 of lumbal - sacral orthosis 16 . fig1 further shows a lumbal - sacral orthosis having frontal portion 18 and strap 19 . the relatively rigid base portion may be made of a rigid plastic such as abs plastic , typically of a thickness greater than ⅛ inch . the relatively flexible inner portion is typically made of a plastic more flexible than the relatively rigid base portion , such as ldpe and is preferably of a thickness less than or equal to that of the relatively rigid base portion , typically about 1 / 16 inch . some of the advantages of the present invention are that the brace provides several of the advantages of prior art braces , while also offering infinite customized adjustment of the brace within a range of movement of the device as provided by the dimensions of the outer base portion 1 and the relatively flexible inner portion 2 . the lumbar reinforcement of the present invention has the ability to provide lumbar support that is adjustable in terms of snugness and the degree of support to the lumbar portion of an orthotic brace . while the invention may be rendered in embodiments in many different forms , there have been shown in the drawings and described herein , in detail , the preferred embodiments of the present invention . it should be understood , however , that the present disclosure is to be considered an exemplification of the principles of the invention and is not intended to limit the spirit or scope of the invention and / or claims of the embodiments illustrated .	0
the disclosed methods and systems below may be described generally , as well as in terms of specific examples and / or specific embodiments . for instances where references are made to detailed examples and / or embodiments , it should be appreciated that any of the underlying principals described are not to be limited to a single embodiment , but may be expanded for use with any of the other methods and systems described herein as will be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art unless otherwise stated specifically . fig1 shows a schematic diagram 100 according to an embodiment of the present subject matter . a pressurized pipe 105 , which could be a water line or sewer line , or other type of transmission line including oil or gas , carries liquid under pressure through the pipe 105 . a pump 110 ( or also a series of pumps ) provides pressure at one end of the pipe to force the liquid through the pipe 105 . one or a multiple of pressure sensors 120 are placed at various positions along the pipe 105 , contact the liquid in the pipe 105 either directly or through a pressure - loss free connector , and continuously or periodically measure instantaneous pressure in the pipe 105 . the locations may be along the pipe , around the pipe , or both , and may create a functional form of location that optimizes the pattern recognition measurements from the sensors 120 . each pressure sensor 120 is has a communications connection 130 ( wired or wireless ) to an instrumentation unit 140 . while fig1 shows communications connection 130 in a wired configuration , the present disclosure also contemplate the communication connection in a wireless configuration . the instrumentation unit 140 may contain some or all of the following items : a power supply ; a ( micro ) processor ; an analog to digital ( a / d ) converter ; a digital clock ; a two - way wireless communications means such as a pager ; cell phone or other communications device ; software ; environmental packaging ( e . g . nema 6p ) and communications ports . of course , more or less items may be part of the instrument unit 140 , according to design preference . in certain embodiments , this instrumentation unit 140 has a power supply which for example without limitation may be a replaceable primary battery , as a non - limiting example , a lithium thionyl chloride battery package with long shelf life , connected to a separate environmental enclosure that contains the power electronics , the microprocessor , the a / d converter , and the wireless radio . the battery package may also be environmental , and may include circuitry that limits rapid discharge of the batteries in order to minimize or eliminate sparks if the battery is short - circuited , and may also include “ smart - battery ” circuitry that continuously measures the effective discharge of the battery package and enables the lifetime of the batteries to be determined externally and remotely . the connection between the battery package and the electronics enclosure may be achieved through a rugged waterproof connector , typically one that is used , for example , in the automobile industry . other power sources may also be ac power , solar power , fuel cells , electromechanical power sources , or other power supplies . referring again to fig1 , data collection , data processing , and two - data communications processing takes place in the instrumentation unit 140 . communications means 150 is a two - way link between instrumentation unit 140 and a larger , more global communications network 160 , which may be a wireless network such as a cell phone or two - way pager network . communications means 170 is a two - way link between the communications network 160 and a local communications device 180 that typically would sit with a user , for example , a cell phone , two way pager , personal data assistant ( pda ), personal computer , or other capable one way or two way communications devices . the communications means 150 and 170 may comprise any form of wireless or wired communication protocol , device , mechanism , system , and so forth . thus , digital and / or analog transmissions can be used via the communications means 15 and 170 according the design implementation . depending on the resources available to the managing entity , various frequencies ( either singly or multiply ) may be used for communication information between the instrumentation unit 140 , communications network 160 and local communications device 180 . instrumentation unit 140 may operate in one or more of several modes . a first mode is an “ alarm ” mode , in which the microprocessor in the instrumentation unit 140 makes a determination that the pressure profile from the single or multiple sensors has generated a unique signature indicating that a leak has occurred . in this mode , an alarm is sent through wired or wireless means 150 to a communications network 160 , which then further processes the data , for example determining the location from where the alarm originated and to where the alarm is to be sent , and sends this data via wired or wireless means 170 to a local two - way communications device 180 that allows the action to be taken to respond to a leak . it should be noted that the communications network 160 may be connected to the internet or other network resource . similarly , the communications device 180 may be connected to the internet or other network resource . connection to the communications network 160 and communications device 180 may also be facilitated via a host or local server , according to design implementation . in this instance , the server may act as a central server and may parse information from the various devices attached to the network . based on the “ type ” of device communicating to the server , the server may forward different status or different priority messages or use a different communication means to forward information to the communications device 180 . accordingly , information warranting a rapid response may be sent via a page , versus information that does not require a rapid response , for example . in certain embodiments , the instrumentation unit 140 sends messages though a two - way paging network 150 , such as those operated by skytel ( clinton , mo . ), usa mobility ( plano , tex .) or space data ( chandler , ariz . ), as non - limiting examples of commercial / private providers , to a dedicated server 160 , which sends data through the internet to portable devices 180 such as pagers , cell phones , pdas , and so forth , and also posts this data on a secure web site to be viewed by users of the system , in which the communications devices 180 are computers with internet access . a second mode is a “ reporting ” mode , in which pressure data is taken on a periodic basis from each of the pressure sensors 120 and stored in the instrumentation unit 140 . on a periodic basis , the instrumentation unit 140 spontaneously transmits the stored data through communication means 150 to the communications network 160 and finally through communications means 170 , to a user communications device 180 . a third mode is a “ control ” mode in which commands may be sent in the “ reverse ” direction from communications device 180 through the communications means 170 and network 160 to instrumentation unit 140 . these commands are processed by the microprocessor in instrumentation unit 140 and cause the instrumentation unit to modify some aspect of operations . examples of a control mode could include , without limitation : turning sensors on or off ; changing the frequency at which the sensors take pressure measurements ; changing the internal operating software of the instrumentation unit ; changing the frequency at which the instrumentation package sends historical data ; changing the algorithms that determine if a leak has occurred ; and changing the content of the data that is sent from the instrumentation unit periodically . a fourth mode is a “ maintenance ” mode in which maintenance data representing environmental parameters such as , for example , temperature and humidity or operating parameters of the system , including , for example , pressure sensor 120 operations , power supply voltage , communications level ( e . g . received signal strength indicator ); and other diagnostic operation parameters are sent from the instrumentation unit 140 to the user communication device 180 on either an alarm basis or a periodic basis . a fifth mode is a “ request ” mode in which a user , through the communications device 180 , may request current pressure , environmental , operational performance and / or maintenance parameter values or other data in the “ reverse ” direction through communications means 170 to the communications network 160 , through another communications means 150 , finally to the instrumentation unit 140 . software in the instrumentation unit 140 can cause a real - time measurement of requested parameters and sends the results immediately back through the communications means to the data collection / reception device 180 . since indication that a leak has occurred or is occurring is one of the most important aspects , the means by which a leak is detected is a critical part in addressing this issue . two cases are considered : a static case in which the fluid in the pipe is quiescent ( not pumped ), and a second in which the fluid in the pipe is experiencing normal or typical pumping conditions . fig2 shows an example 200 of data generated by pressure sensors in a quiescent condition that may be used by instrumentation unit 140 to process pressure data received to make a determination that a leak has occurred in a pressurized pipe , such as a force main in a sewer system . consider pressured pipe 105 in fig1 that has a natural upward slope from the pump 110 . if the pump 110 were turned off for a period of time , the pressure as a function of time can be measured at various locations along the pipe , generating a graph 200 like that shown in fig2 . a pressure profile like that shown in 210 in fig2 indicates that there are no leaks , as the static pressure in the pipe stays constant over time . pressure profiles 220 and 230 could occur is there is a leak along the section of the pipe between the pressure sensors and the top of the pipe . in the case of pressure profile 200 , a leak is farther from the pressure sensors and higher on the pipe than a leak indicated by pressure profile 300 . by combining measurements from several pressure sensors , a small leak at a specific location can be identified . in addition , in some embodiments when the pumps are turned off , an active acoustic signal can be generated , and the signal analyzed using methods listed below to determine whether or not a leak exists in the pipe . fig3 shows an example 300 of data generated by a pressure sensor at a specific location on a pressurized pipe during periods of pumping . curve 310 corresponds to an example of how the pressure may vary over time under normal operating conditions , with no leak in the pipe . the maximum pressure is indicated by the horizontal line 315 . under leak conditions , a pipe will not be able to maintain the same pressure profile , and the leak will manifest itself in a pressure profile signature that is different than normal operating conditions . this signature will vary depending upon the location of the pressure sensor , the location of the leak , the pump ( s ) operational performance , and the hydrodynamic details of the pipe and hole causing the leak . as one simple example , the maximum pressure would drop under a leak condition . for example , curve 320 corresponds to a leak condition as measured by a pressure sensor . in this case , the curve has a somewhat different profile , but most markedly , does not have the same maximum value 325 as the non - leaking case . fig4 shows a schematic diagram 400 of how certain embodiments use multiple pressure sensors to make a decision about whether or not a leak is present . the pressure sensors 120 , per fig1 , are placed at various locations along the pipe 105 . baseline ( normal , non - leak ) measurements are made to determine the “ pressure signature ” of the pipe 105 as a function of time , operating parameters and location along the pipe . the variability of these signatures is captured in the data collected by sensors 410 in fig4 . when a leak occurs , it creates a signature that is determined by the algorithm 420 to be significantly different enough from the baseline that an alarm is generated 460 and sent to a user , per the system shown in fig1 . various signal processing and pattern recognition techniques can be applied to this problem , including , but not limited to the following : least mean squares analysis of variance ( anova ) multiple analysis of variance ( manova ) matched filter ( s ) numenta neural networks bayesian analysis rules engine fourier / frequency analysis kalman filtering hamming filtering auto - correlation cross - correlation heuristic algorithms analysis of the dynamic pressure conditions may also include contemporary data collected directly from the pumps used to pressurize the pipe , in order to minimize false positives and increase the fidelity of the decision - making process . optimization of an applicable algorithm can be performed to reduce the number of false positives or false negatives . it should therefore be appreciated that given the teachings provided herein , one of ordinary skill may be able to monitor the integrity of a sealed transport systems , such as pressurized pipes , for example . as such , methods and systems have been disclosed that enable the described embodiments to be applicable for fluid conveying systems as well as gas conveying systems , or a combination of the two . also , while the context of the embodiments are described in terms of pipes , other vessels or conveying constructs may be used according to design preference . it should also be noted that while fig2 - 3 shown a certain pressure “ profile ,” other profiles may be relevant according to design . additionally , the methods and systems may be implemented by various devices . for example , the identification algorithm 420 of fig4 may be processed by a computer or hardware or analogy thereof . stand alone or distributed systems may be configured . single or multiple types of processing engines may be used , such as application specific integrated circuits ( asics ), digital signal processors ( dsps ), programmable logic devices ( plds ), microcontrollers , microprocessors and other forms of electronic or electrical devices capable of operating as a decision or execution engine . further , networking of such systems or hardware may be envisioned according to design implementation . in some embodiments , software for operation of the exemplary methods and systems may be integrated into the hardware platform , or may be distributed . accordingly , serial or parallel or a combination of the two , including neural or cloud computing approaches may be used . thus , communication between various aspects of the embodiments described herein may be hardwired or wireless , or combinations of the two . additionally , each or several of the various elements of the embodiments described may be contained in an environmentally secure enclosure . in some instances , the embodiments may have selective elements within the enclosure and selective elements outside the enclosure . for example , the pressure sensors may be exterior to the enclosure while the instrumentation unit 140 and / or the communications means 150 may be interior to the enclosure , for example . thus , elements that need to be protected can be protected via the environmental enclosure . as varied as the hardware implementation can be , modifications or variations of the software algorithm 420 may be similarly performed without departing from the spirit and scope . therefore , improvements to or combinations of the listed signal processing and pattern recognition techniques may be used , according to design implementation . as the listed techniques are not intended to exhaustive , but to illustrate the breath of applicable techniques , other techniques not described herein can also be used . what has been described above includes examples of one or more embodiments . it is , of course , not possible to describe every conceivable combination of components or methodologies for purposes of describing the aforementioned embodiments , but one of ordinary skill in the art may recognize that many further combinations and permutations of various embodiments are possible . accordingly , the described embodiments are intended to embrace all such alterations , modifications and variations that fall within the spirit and scope of the appended claims . furthermore , to the extent that the term “ includes ” is used in either the detailed description or the claims , such term is intended to be inclusive in a manner similar to the term “ comprising ” as “ comprising ” is interpreted when employed as a transitional word in a claim .	6
turning to fig1 the device 11 for preparing hot beverages in a microwave oven shown therein has a lower coffee or tea carafe 10 . carafe 10 collects the finished brewed hot beverage , such as coffee or tea , and is preferably a pot with a handle 12 . a fresh water holder or reservoir 13 having a bottom 14 is attached on top of carafe 10 in a form - locking manner . reservoir 13 has a siphoning overflow pipe 15 which has an entry opening 16 located in the interior of reservoir 13 and which has an outlet opening 17 opening to the exterior through bottom 14 . siphoning overflow pipe 15 can function as an overflow or as a siphon . there is also a removable lid 18 on top of reservoir 13 . reservoir 13 is open to the atmosphere , and is ventilated by a vent in lid 18 or , alternatively , lid 18 can be placed on top of reservoir 13 in a manner which allows air to enter . in the preferred embodiment of fig1 outlet opening 17 of pipe 15 opens into an attached nozzle 19 which extends outwardly from bottom 14 of reservoir 13 . there is a filter holder 20 removably attached to the outwardly extending regions of nozzle 19 . the attachment can be made by a bayonet - or screw - type member . nozzle 19 includes a sieve 21 for spreading out the heated water from outlet opening 17 and for releasing the water into filter holder 20 . the bottom of filter holder 20 also has a plurality of outlet openings 22 . reservoir 13 rests , with a circumferential flange 23 , on top of an upper rim 24 of carafe 10 , preferably with an encircling seal 25 therebetween . in the supporting regions between reservoir 13 and carafe 10 there is at least one ventilation opening 26 in the form of a one - way valve through which air is vented to the exterior of carafe 10 , and into which no air can enter when reservoir 13 is in place on top of carafe 10 . at least one very small drip opening 27 is provided in bottom 14 of reservoir 13 in an area outside of the region of inlet opening 17 of pipe 15 and outside of the region of nozzle 19 . in use , the operation of the embodiment of fig1 is as follows . reservoir 13 is filled with the desired amount of fresh water . filter holder 20 is filled with an aromatics carrier or flavor - containing substance such as coffee or tea . conventionally , a paper filter can be placed in filter holder 20 which is then attached to nozzle 19 and reservoir 13 is placed on top of carafe 10 . the entire apparatus 11 is then placed in a microwave oven , which is turned on to heat the water in reservoir 13 . at the same time , the air in carafe 10 is warmed and , accordingly , expands . the warming of the air is chiefly a result of radiant heat from the walls of reservoir 13 . a small amount of water drips through drip opening 27 during the heating of the fresh water , and this small amount of water now in carafe 10 is also heated and vaporized by action of the microwaves . accordingly , in conjunction with the warming of the air , some of the air within carafe 10 escapes through ventilation valve 26 . the operating time of the microwave oven is selected so that the water in reservoir 13 is brought to the boil . after the microwave oven is turned off , a partial vacuum develops in carafe 10 , owing to the cooling down within carafe 10 and owing , in particular , to the condensation of the water vapor therein . in that manner , a pressure difference results between carafe 10 and reservoir 13 , with the pressure in carafe 10 being the lower of the two . given this pressure difference , the lower pressure in carafe 10 causes the heated water in reservoir 13 to be drawn over the highest point of pipe 15 into nozzle 19 and thus flow into filter holder 20 . the water - dividing sieve 21 ensures that the hot water is spread out evenly over the aromatics carrier received in filter holder 20 . after extraction of the aromatics , the heated water flows into carafe 10 as the finished hot beverage . reservoir 13 is almost entirely emptied of water through pipe 15 thanks to the action of the low pressure developed in carafe 10 . the hot beverage collected in carafe 10 can be consumed immediately after taking off reservoir 13 . after the brewing step , filter holder 20 can be removed from nozzle 19 and easily taken care of and cleaned . to shield the interior of filter holder 20 from the microwaves , filter carrier 20 is preferably made of metal or a metal - containing substance such as plastic . turning now to fig2 another preferred embodiment of the invention will be described . the preferred embodiment of fig2 differs from the preferred embodiment of fig1 chiefly in that reservoir 13 is constructed in an airtight manner . this airtight sealing is achieved by the provision of a seal 28 in the region of covering lid 28 on reservoir 13 . furthermore , the filter holder 20 is sealed off by a sealing ring 29 provided around the periphery of the nozzle 19 . an additional characterizing difference between the preferred embodiments of fig2 and fig1 is that the carafe 10 of fig2 can be filled with and emptied of air by means of , for example , a ventilating opening 26a in the upper region of the rim of carafe 10 for communicating the interior of carafe 10 with the atmosphere . in other respects the construction of the apparatus of fig2 is identical to that of fig1 . the operation of the preferred embodiment of fig2 differs from the operation of the embodiment of fig1 . as the reservoir 13 has an airtight seal , when the entire device with a full reservoir 13 is in an operating microwave oven , the water vapor derived from the heated water creates a pressure rise in reservoir 13 . this pressure causes the heated water to be forced through pipe 15 . as the heated water is forced out , the ever increasing space between the water surface and lid 18 is constantly completely filled with water vapor which supplies the necessary pressure for forcing the heated water out of reservoir 13 . the heated water is rapidly forced out of reservoir 13 thanks to the high pressure developed in reservoir 13 . however , the aromatics carrier placed in filter holder 20 gives rise to a certain amount of back pressure which acts against the flow of water streaming out of outlet 17 , by which the filter holder and the space above the filter holder in the area of nozzle 19 fills completely with water . in that manner , the hot water is continually forced back through the aromatics carrier to a certain extent , such being particularly useful for the brewing of coffee . since , owing to the use of pipe 15 , a complete emptying of reservoir 13 is practically impossible , there will always be water vapor present in reservoir 13 as long as the water dwelling in the reservoir 13 is being heated by microwaves . when the useful volume of water has been forced out of reservoir 13 , the microwave oven is shut off . the water vapor remaining in reservoir 13 then cools off very quickly and condenses , thus giving rise to a partial vacuum . as there is no longer water filling pipe 15 , air can be drawn back into reservoir 13 from vented carafe 10 until the pressure is the same as atmospheric pressure . a still further preferred embodiment is shown in fig3 . the operating principle of the fig3 embodiment is similar to that of the embodiment of fig2 . one difference between the embodiments of fig2 and 3 is the provision of an intermediate reservoir 30 between carafe 10 and reservoir 13 . intermediate reservoir 30 rests on carafe 10 , while reservoir 13 rests on intermediate reservoir 30 . intermediate reservoir 30 has an extension 19a to which a filter holder 20 is attached . reservoir 13 has an airtight seal in the region of lid 18 by means of a seal 28 in a manner analogous to the embodiment of fig2 . the volume of intermediate reservoir 30 is at least as large as the volume of reservoir 13 . in use , the heated water in the embodiment of fig3 is forced through pipe 15 as a result of the higher pressure developed in reservoir 13 when the device is heated in a microwave oven similarly to the embodiment of fig2 . the resulting hot water then collects within intermediate reservoir 30 at substantially atmospheric pressure thanks to the presence of the aromatics carrier in filter holder 20 that keeps the water from flowing out as quickly as it flows in . accordingly , the hot beverage is produced in a manner similar to the way in which manually operated devices work . it will be understood that the above description of the present invention is susceptible to various modifications , changes , and adaptations , and the same are intended to be comprehended within the meaning and range of equivalents of the appended claims .	8
fig1 is a perspective view of a system 10 for vibratory separating materials of different sizes and fig2 is a top view of system 10 . system 10 includes a stand 12 for supporting a hopper 11 for receiving the material to be separated and a vibratory screener 14 that is supported from stand 12 by a set of four cables and springs 16 that permit vibration of vibratory screener 14 while maintaining the vibratory screener 14 in a position to continually receive material from hopper 11 . a vibratory motor 15 is mounted on top of vibratory screen 14 to provide the necessary vibration forces to vibratory screener 14 . fig3 shows an isolated perspective view of the vibratory screener 14 and fig5 shows an end view of the vibratory screener 14 with the vibratory screener having a housing 21 comprising a trough or channel like shape and a top member 22 with the top member secured to housing 21 by bolts or the like to form an elongated channel 25 for dispensing materials there through . located on top of member 22 is a conventional vibratory motor 15 powered from a source ( not shown ). vibratory motors typically comprise a motor and a shaft with offset weights on the end of the shaft so that rotation of the shaft produces vibration . located in one end of top member 22 is an inlet 23 that allows material from hopper 11 to fall under the influence of gravity onto a receiving region in vibratory plate screen 30 . the receiving region 30 d is shown in fig6 and generally comprises a region that is void of screen openings and preferably extends a distance x so that as the material falls on to the screen from the hopper 11 it does not fall directly onto the screen openings , which could cause material compacting in the openings . however , if material compacting is not a problem in the delivery of materials to the vibratory screener 14 the receiving region could also contain screen openings . located on the opposite end of vibratory screener 14 is an outlet 24 for unscreened material and located at the bottom of vibratory screener 14 is an outlet 39 for material that has been screened by virtue of having fallen through a set of screen openings 30 e in vibratory plate screen 30 . fig4 shows an isolated view of vibratory screener 14 with the top member 22 removed in order to show the vibratory plate screen 30 mounted in an operational mode : fig6 shows an isolated top view of the vibratory plate screen 30 which is mounted in housing 21 . fig6 shows a vibratory plate screen 30 comprising a metal plate having a top wear surface 30 a , a first end 30 b for restraining in one end of housing 21 , a second end 30 c for fixedly securing to the opposite end of housing 21 and an intermediate section therebetween including a receiving region 30 d and a set of openings 30 e therein for screening material there through . a set of holes 30 g allows for insertion of a stud bolt or the like there through to allow vibratory screen 30 to be fixedly mounted in vibratory screener 14 . fig7 shows an alternate embodiment of a portion of a plate screen 33 that includes a set of openings 33 b with the openings 33 a extending to the edge of the plate screen . by having the openings extend to the edge of the plate screen 33 it ensures that materials will not flow along the sides of the screen and thus avoid the screening process . fig3 a shows an isolated view of a portion of the vibratory plate screen 30 to show a stud bolt 35 extending through screen opening 30 g in screen second end 30 c to fixedly hold the vibratory screen 30 in housing 21 . in operation the operator secures stud bolt to member 37 to hold the end of vibratory screen 30 in position . although a stud bolt is shown other means of fixedly fastening the vibratory plate screen can be used . in the embodiment shown in fig4 the first end 30 b is restrained in vibrator housing 21 through coaction of a set of rails and the sidewalls 21 a and 21 b of housing 21 . fig4 shows the housing sidewalls 21 a and 21 b and one rail 29 . rail 29 comprises a cross rail that extends from side to side of housing 21 to restrain vibratory plate screen end 30 b from vertical displacement . the second end 30 c of vibratory plate screen 30 is fixedly secured to a cross member 37 ( see fig4 ) by stud bolts 35 . to illustrate the underside peripheral rail support for vibratory plate screen 14 reference should be made to fig8 to fig1 b . fig8 shows a top view of vibratory screen housing 21 without the top member 22 and without the vibratory plate screen 30 . located along side 21 a of housing 21 is a curved side rail 40 and located along the opposite side 21 b of housing 21 is a second curved side rail 41 . rail 40 and 41 extend along the sides of housing 21 and are fixedly secured thereto to become side peripheral rail supports for the under side of vibratory plate screen 30 . the top cross rail 29 which extends along the end of housing 21 and side rails 40 and 41 comprise a set of rails for restraining vibratory plate screen 30 . to fixedly secure the end 30 c of vibratory plate screen 30 housing 21 includes a cross member 37 having threaded openings 37 a therein for receiving a stud bolt or the like . fig1 shows a sectional view taken along lines 10 - 10 if fig8 to show support rail 40 secured to housing 21 with the rail 40 having a top rail support surface 40 b with a set of recesses 40 a therein . rail 40 provides peripheral side support for one side of vibratory screen 30 . similarly , the rail 41 , which is secured to the opposite side of housing 21 , provides a peripheral side support for the opposite side of vibratory screen 30 . fig1 shows an isolated side view of rail 40 showing that rail 40 is provided with a curvature r and a top surface 40 b with a set of recess 40 a located along at least a portion of the top surface . similarly , fig1 a shows an isolated top view of rail 40 which has a planer side 40 c for securement to the inside side of the vibratory n housing 21 as shown in fig1 . as the rail 41 for the opposite side of housing 21 is identical it is not shown in detail . fig9 shows the positioning of the rail recess 40 a with respect to openings 30 e in the vibratory screen 30 in a position that inhibits material from adhering to the vibrator housing 21 . in the embodiment shown the recess 40 a on the rails are aligned with openings 30 e in the screen so that material that falls through screen 30 will have a passageway to the discharge chute 39 . the support for vibratory plate screen 30 allows vibratory plate screen 30 to be made with openings that extend from side to side of the vibratory plate screen 30 . one of the features of the invention is the quick mounting of the vibratory plate screen 30 . since vibratory screens are subject to wear as the materials are vibrated thereon the vibratory screens needs to be replaced from time to time . in the present invention one can quickly remove an old vibratory screen and replace it with a new vibratory screen . fig1 a shows how end 30 b of vibratory plate screen 30 is inserted or slid beneath a top cross rail 29 that extends from side to side of housing 21 while using the side rails 40 and 41 as guides . fig1 b shows the end 30 b of vibratory plate screen 30 supported vertically by rail 40 and top rail 29 . while the end 30 b can be slid in or out of the spacing between rails 29 a the screen 30 is restrained from lateral movement by the sides of housing 21 and from vertical movement by the rail 29 . a further feature of the invention is the rail support of vibratory plate screen 30 that allows removable fasteners on end 30 c to secure the vibratory plate screen in fixed position during vibratory screener . the rails allow for removal and replacement of the vibratory plate screen 30 through the open end or outlet 24 of housing 21 . that is , the stud bolts 35 are located at a discharge outlet 24 and are accessible to an operator . once the stud bolts 35 are removed one can slide the vibratory plate screen 30 out of the housing 21 since the set of rails do not longitudinally restrain vibratory plate screen therein . a further feature of the invention is the stress mounting of the vibratory plate screen 30 to ensure that the vibratory plate screen dynamically moves back and forth with the vibrations induced in the vibratory housing 21 . a reference to fig1 shows a curvature r to the rail 40 and a reference to fig6 a shows a side view of vibratory plate screen 30 in a planar or flat condition with essentially an infinite radius of curvature . thus there exists a difference in the radius of curvature of the side rail supports and the vibratory plate screen 30 . in the stress installation mounting of the end 30 b of vibratory plate screen 30 , which has a first radius of curvature that is different from the radius of curvature of the rails , the end 30 b is inserted beneath rails 29 as shown in fig1 a . next , the operator grasps the end 30 c of vibratory plate screen 30 and with a downward force on the topside of vibratory screen 30 forces screen 30 against cross member 37 ( see fig8 ) bringing the radius of curvature of the vibratory plate substantially equal to the radius of curvature of the side rails . this produces stress in vibratory plate screen causing the cross rail 29 and the side rails to vertical restrain the vibratory plate screen . once in the stress mounting position the side rails 40 and 41 provide vertical peripheral side support and the sides of housing 21 namely , 21 a and 21 b can assist in laterally restraining screen 30 . when the vibratory screen 30 is in forced to conform to the curvature of side rails 40 and 41 the stud bolts 35 are inserted through openings 30 g ( see fig6 ) and into the member 37 a ( see fig8 ) to secure the vibratory plate screen 30 in a flexed or curved condition in housing 21 . while a stress mounting of the vibratory plate screen 30 has been shown it should be understood that the vibratory plate screen could also be secured without stress mounting . thus with the use of removable fasteners on only one end of the vibratory screen 30 the vibratory screen can be brought into a fixed support in housing 21 . that is , as the vibratory screen is subject to vibration and shaking it is necessary to hold the screen firmly in position in the housing . by use of a rail on one end and on the sides , which combined with the stress , mounting of the screen 30 allows the screen 30 to be firmly held in position by fasteners located only at the discharge end of the screen 30 . once the screen is in position the vibratory motor 15 shakes or vibrates the vibratory screener 14 thus causing materials to flow along the vibrator 25 in the vibratory screener 14 with the smaller sized materials falling through screen 30 and the larger materials flowing along the screen 30 and discharge from the outlet 24 . thus the invention includes a two phase method of mounting a vibratory plate screen in a vibratory housing comprising the steps of slideably positioning a first end 30 b of the vibratory plate screen 30 into engagement with a set of rails 29 , 40 and 41 on the vibratory screener housing 21 ; and fixedly securing a second end 30 c of the vibratory plate screen 30 to the vibratory screen housing 21 . in addition by applying a face force i . e . a force perpendicular to the second end 30 c of the vibratory plate screen while restraining the first end 30 a with the set of rails one can bring the second end into a securable position . to provide for ease installing the vibratory plate screen the step of restraining the first end includes inserting the first end beneath an end rail 29 which is spaced sufficiently far apart from the side rails 40 and 41 so as to form a snug but non - interference fit there between . thus in one embodiment the vibratory plate screen comprises a plate having a top wear surface 30 a , a first end 30 b , a second end 30 c and an intermediate region with openings 30 e therein for screening material therethrough with the first end 30 b slideably engageable with a vibratory housing rail 29 and the second end 30 c fixedly securable to a vibrator housing 21 to thereby secure the vibratory plate screen 30 in an operational mode . by forming the screen from a flat metal plate the vibratory plate screen can include a top surface 30 a of the vibratory plate screen which lies in a single plane with the vibratory plate screen free of protrusions . thus , the vibratory plate screen has a first radius of curvature but is sufficiently flexible so as to flex into a second radius of curvature when secured to a vibratory housing .	1
it should be understood that occasional reference herein to the optically functional layer as a &# 34 ; top coat &# 34 ; or the like , is for ease of discussion and understanding , especially taken in conjunction with the drawings wherein the optically functional layer is illustrated as a mono - film in a &# 34 ; top &# 34 ; position . it is not intended , however , to limit the optically functional layer to one exposed to the atmosphere or otherwise necessarily occupying a &# 34 ; top &# 34 ; position . thus , for example , in certain embodiments of the invention additional layers , for example protective layers , may cover the optically functional layer . in other embodiments the coated surface may be laminated to a second ply of the glazing article . anti - iridescence undercoats of the present invention are applicable both to provide a colorless appearance for a coated substrate , and , in the alternative , to provide a single , substantially uniform , muted , perceptible color in the glazing article . based on the present disclosure , selection of refractive indices and film thicknesses to achieve one or the other of these results , along with determining other optical features and properties of the finished product can be readily determined empirically by those skilled in the art or , for example , by employing a commercially available optics prediction software program . such programs , typically run on commercially available computer systems , are well known to greatly facilitate close approximation of an optimized final commercial product . typically , a graphic presentation of the optical properties of a given glazing article , sorted by individual layer thickness and refractive index , can be used to determine the regions of optimum film stack design . in particular , such graphic representation can assist in readily identifying industrially robust film stack designs of the present invention . that is , designs in which performance is tolerant of variations in film thickness , refractive index and other parameters normal during industrial production of coated glazing articles . referring specifically to fig1 a substantially transparent glazing article 10 is seen to comprise a glass substrate 12 having coating 14 carried on its upper surface 16 . the glass substrate 12 preferably is soda - lime glass having a refractive index of about 1 . 5 . the glazing article may , for example , be adapted for use in an architectural glazing application or the like . those skilled in the art will recognize that substrates alternative to glass will be suitable , although certain methods of forming coating 14 , such as pyrolytic deposition , may be unsuitable for certain alternative substrate materials , for example , certain plastic substrates . the coating 14 comprises an optically functional layer 18 having a higher refractive index than the substrate . layer 18 is exposed to the atmosphere . according to the preferred embodiment of fig1 the coating provides optical functionality including low emissivity and infrared and ultraviolet reflectivity . preferably , optically functional layer 18 is about 2 , 000 to 10 , 000 angstroms thick . more preferably the optically functional layer is about 2 , 000 to 5 , 000 angstroms thick , most preferably about 3 , 500 to 4 , 000 angstroms thick , having an average refractive index ( over the visible wavelength range ) of about 1 . 7 to 2 . 5 , more preferably about 1 . 9 to 2 . 1 , most preferably about 1 . 9 ( measured at 550 nm wavelength ). such preferred materials for the optically functional layer 18 include , for example , tin oxide , fluorine doped tin oxide and other metal oxides of suitable refractive index . according to a most preferred embodiment , layer 18 consists essentially of fluorine doped tin oxide having a refractive index ( average ) of 1 . 9 . in such embodiment layer 18 is substantially transparent , that is , it is substantially transparent ( within the context of its intended use ) to visible light . it also provides infrared reflectivity and ultraviolet reflectivity for solar load control . in addition , it has good electrical conductivity and could be used , therefore , for applications including electrical resistance heating , etc . the high / low / high refractive index sandwiching feature of the invention is especially effective in use under an optically functional layer consisting of fluorinated tin oxide in certain distinct thickness ranges : 2500 - 3000 angstroms , 3500 - 4000 angstroms and 4800 - 5200 angstroms . tolerance to thickness variations is especially good for fluorinated tin oxide in the first two ranges . approximately the same preferred thickness ranges apply to unfluorinated tin oxide . in general , the terms &# 34 ; tin oxide &# 34 ; and &# 34 ; sno 2 ,&# 34 ; as used hereinafter , mean both fluorinated and unfluorinated tin oxide , unless otherwise specified . such preferred embodiments of the invention are particularly advantageous for use in insulated glazing units and like applications . insulated glazing units include those with multiple panes having an air gap between adjacent panes . in a two pane glazing unit , taking the outside surface of the outer pane as the no . 1 surface , its inside surface ( i . e ., the surface facing the air gap ) as the no . 2 surface , the outside surface of the inner pane ( again , facing the air gap ) as surface no . 3 , and the inside surface of the inner pane as the no . 4 surface , a coating of the invention according to such preferred embodiments would preferably be on the no . 3 surface in a colder climate ( such as northern u . s .) and on the no . 2 surface in a warmer climate ( such as southern u . s .). in a triple glazed unit , the coating preferably is on the no . 2 surface in a warmer climate and on the no . 5 surface ( the air gap side of the innermost pane ) in a colder climate . according to another highly preferred embodiment of the invention , glazing article 10 is adapted for architectural glazing purposes and the coating 14 is a low emissivity coating in which layer 18 consists essentially of fluorinated tin oxide , having a thickness between about 3 , 500 and 4 , 000 angstroms . in conjunction with the preferred anti - iridescence layer described below , the resulting glazing article is substantially colorless in both reflected and transmitted light . that is , the visible iridescence which would otherwise be shown by such glazing article is eliminated without substantially impairing the optical properties of the coating . specifically , the low emissivity property of the tin oxide or fluorine - doped tin oxide layer is not significantly reduced or impeded by the anti - iridescence layer . it is a significant advantage of preferred embodiments of the invention that anti - iridescence is achieved with such thin optically functional films . as noted above , certain prior art teaching has recommended the use of thicker films to avoid iridescence , although this involves several disadvantages , including a greater tendency toward thermal stress cracking , longer ( and , hence , more costly ) deposition periods , greater loss of transparency , etc . it will be recognized by those skilled in the art in view of the present disclosure that numerous alternative optically functional layers can be employed in lieu of , or together with , the tin oxide layer 18 of the above discussed preferred embodiment of the invention . particularly advantageous alternative materials include , for example , zinc oxide , titanium oxide , indium tin oxide , antimony doped tin oxide , and tungsten oxide . the optically functional layer 18 also may be a composite of multiple films and may not be exposed to the atmosphere , as noted above . thus , for example , the aforesaid low emissivity film may be provided with an overcoating of protective material , such as silicon dioxide , etc . those skilled in the art will recognize innumerable additional and alternative films which may be used together with the main film of the optically functional layer 18 including adjunct films such as , for example , abrasion resistant films , color imparting films , and the like . with respect to coating 14 not being exposed to the atmosphere , it may be positioned at an interface between laminated plies of a glazing article . alternatively , it may be employed on an inside surface of a transparent substrate used in a double glazing article , such that the coating is exposed to a vacuum or air gap between two spaced plies . coating 14 further comprises anti - iridescence layer 20 which substantially eliminates the visible iridescence which would otherwise show , particularly in viewing sunlight reflected from the coated surface . the anti - iridescence layer 20 eliminates visible iridescence while not significantly impairing the optically functional film &# 39 ; s desirable properties discussed above , including most notably its visible transparency , infrared reflectivity , ultraviolet reflectivity and low emissivity . layer 20 is less thick than the optically functional layer 18 , preferably being about 400 to 1 , 300 angstroms thick , more preferably about 700 to 1 , 000 angstroms . in the preferred embodiment of fig1 it consists essentially of a low refractive index zone sandwiched between two high refractive index zones . high refractive index zone 22 is deposited directly on surface 16 of glass substrate 12 . it should be understood that description of a layer or zone as being deposited &# 34 ; directly &# 34 ; on or over another surface or another layer is intended to mean that it forms an interface with such layer or surface without any other layer of zone intervening between them . in the preferred embodiment illustrated , anti - iridescence layer 20 is positioned directly on surface 16 and directly under layer 18 . as used herein , this is intended to mean there is no thin film coating or the like mediate the anti - iridescence layer 20 and the substrate 12 . thus , surface 16 is a surface of the bulk material of substrate 12 , rather than of some other coating material deposited onto substrate 12 prior to deposition of coating 14 . similarly , anti - iridescence layer 20 is positioned directly under optically functional layer 18 in the sense that there is no mediate film or coating between them . high refractive index zone 22 preferably is about 100 to 500 angstroms thick , more preferably 100 to 300 angstroms thick . it is a significant feature of the embodiment of fig1 in accordance with general principles of the invention discussed above , that first zone 22 has a refractive index higher than that of the substrate 12 . for a substrate of soda - lime glass or other material having a refractive index about 1 . 5 , the refractive index of zone 22 is higher than that of glass substrate 12 . the refractive index of zone 22 preferably is between about 1 . 6 and 2 . 5 , more preferably 1 . 9 to 2 . 1 , most preferably about 1 . 9 . suitable materials for high refractive index zone 22 are readily commercially available and will be apparent to those skilled in the art in view of the present disclosure . tin oxide , having a refractive index of 1 . 9 , is most preferred for zone 22 in the above mentioned low emissivity embodiment of the invention employing a glass substrate 12 and a tin oxide ( optionally fluorinated ) optically functional layer 18 . suitable materials for high refractive index zone 22 are listed in table a below . table a______________________________________coating materials with high refractive index refractivematerial formula index______________________________________tin oxide sno . sub . 2 1 . 9silicon nitride si . sub . 3 n . sub . 4 2 . 0silicon monoxide sio about 2 . 0zinc oxide zno 2 . 0indium oxide in . sub . 2 o . sub . 3 2 . 0vanadium oxide v . sub . 2 o . sub . 5 about 2 . 0tungsten oxide wo . sub . 3 about 2 . 0niobium oxide nb . sub . 2 o . sub . 5 2 . 1tantalum oxide ta . sub . 2 o . sub . 5 2 . 1zirconium oxide zro . sub . 2 2 . 1cerium oxide ceo . sub . 2 2 . 2zinc sulfide zns 2 . 3titanium oxide tio . sub . 2 2 . 5______________________________________ in the preferred embodiment of the invention illustrated in fig1 a first gradient step zone above high refractive index zone 22 is low refractive index zone 24 positioned directly on high refractive index zone 22 . a second gradient step zone , high refractive index zone 26 , is positioned directly on low refractive index zone 24 , directly under optically functional film 18 . thus , low refractive index zone 24 is sandwiched between higher refractive index zones 22 and 26 . zones 24 and 26 together preferably have a thickness in the range of about 300 to 800 angstroms . in the preferred embodiment illustrated in fig1 each of zones 24 and 26 most preferably is about 100 to 400 angstroms thick . the refractive index of low refractive index zone 24 preferably is between about 1 . 0 and 1 . 9 , more preferably between about 1 . 4 and 1 . 7 . it need only be sufficiently below that of high refractive index zone 22 to establish an optically functional refractive index gradient step . thus , in the preferred low emissivity embodiment referred to above , it need only be sufficiently below the refractive index 1 . 9 of the tin oxide preferably used in zone 22 . preferably , however , the refractive index of zone 24 also is lower than that of the substrate . this is found to provide in the finished product excellent anti - iridescence functionality even with the extremely thin zone thicknesses recited above . in the preferred low emissivity embodiment referred to above , low refractive index zone 24 consists essentially of silicon dioxide , sio 2 , having a refractive index of about 1 . 44 . alternative materials are readily commercially available and will be apparent to those skilled in the art in view of the present disclosure . materials suitable for low refractive index zone 24 are listed in table b below . table b______________________________________coating materials with low refractive index refractivematerial formula index______________________________________aluminum oxide al . sub . 2 o . sub . 3 1 . 65silicon dioxide sio . sub . 2 1 . 44silicone polymer [( ch . sub . 3 ). sub . 2 sio ]. sub . n 1 . 4magnesium fluoride mgf . sub . 2 1 . 38cryolite na . sub . 3 alf . sub . 6 1 . 33______________________________________ the change in the value of the refractive index from each gradient step zone to the next should be at least about 0 . 1 , more preferably at least about 0 . 2 . in addition , the step must involve a zone or film thickness sufficient to function as a substantially discrete film . preferably , each such step or change involves a film thickness of at least about 100 angstroms . those skilled in the art will recognize that all industrial deposition methods involve the creation of a region of some thickness wherein the change from one zone to the next occurs . the change or step in the context of the present invention from one gradient step zone to the next is sufficiently sharp , taking the refractive index change in conjunction with the thickness of the film , that the optical properties of a substantially discrete refractive index step ( either from high to low or low to high , as the case may be ) is achieved . preferably , the refractive index of zone 26 is between about 1 . 55 and 1 . 75 . most preferably it is about 1 . 65 . suitable materials for high refractive index zone 26 are readily commercially available and will be apparent to those skilled in the art in view of the present disclosure . according to the highly preferred low emissivity embodiment referred to above , having a glass substrate and employing tin oxide for layer 14 and zone 22 , zone 24 is about 100 to 400 angstroms consisting essentially of silicon dioxide having a refractive index of about 1 . 44 , and zone 26 is about 100 to 400 angstroms consisting essentially of either aluminum oxide , al 2 o3 , or an homogenous composition of silicon dioxide and tin dioxide , sio 2 / sno 2 , having a refractive index of about 1 . 65 . additional suitable materials include , for example , blends of materials listed in table a and table b , above . it will be apparent to those skilled in the art in view of the present disclosure that if a material having a relatively higher refractive index is employed for the low refractive index film , i . e ., the first gradient step zone , such as aluminum oxide having a refractive index of about 1 . 65 , then a material having an even higher refractive index must , of course , be selected for zone 26 . it will be appreciated from the above description that in at least one preferred embodiment of the invention , as illustrated in fig1 all layers of coating 14 are formed of tin oxide , silicon dioxide , or a mixture of the two . significant processing advantage can be achieved employing so few materials in the formation of the coating . several processes for forming the coatings of the present invention are readily commercially available and are well known to those skilled in the art . preferred processes for depositing the anti - iridescence layer 20 and the optically functional layer 18 , include , for example , vacuum sputtering , sol - gel , and pyrolytic deposition , including spray pyrolysis and chemical vapor deposition . it should be recognized that the refractive index of the materials employed in the layers of the coating of the present invention may vary slightly depending on the method used in their deposition . referring now to fig2 a second preferred embodiment of the invention is illustrated . specifically , substantially transparent glazing article 50 comprises a substantially transparent glass substrate 52 . substantially transparent coating 54 is carried on surface 56 of glass substrate 52 . the coating 54 comprises an optically functional layer 58 exposed to the atmosphere and an anti - iridescence layer 60 mediate the substrate 52 and the optically functional layer 58 . as in the case of the embodiment of fig1 the anti - iridescence layer 60 can be employed to eliminate visible iridescence from the thin film coating , resulting in either a colorless appearance or providing a single , substantially uniform , muted , slightly perceptible color . in either case , the anti - iridescence layer performs such function without substantially impeding or preventing the desirable optical properties of the optically functional layer 58 , including visible transparency , infrared reflectivity , ultraviolet reflectivity , low emissivity , and / or electrical conductivity , depending on the particular optically functional layer employed in the coating . preferably the optically functional layer 58 is a low emissivity layer of tin oxide or the like having a thickness of about 0 . 7 microns . according to certain preferred embodiments , coating 54 is a substantially transparent , low emissivity coating wherein optically functional layer 58 is about 2 , 000 to 10 , 000 angstroms thick , more preferably between about 2 , 000 and 5 , 000 , most preferably between about 3 , 500 and 4 , 000 angstroms thick , having a refractive index ( over the visible wavelength range ) between about 1 . 7 and 2 . 5 , most preferably about 1 . 9 ( measured at 550 nm wavelength ). suitable materials for layer 58 include those described above for optically functional layer 18 of the embodiment of fig1 . most preferred is a tin oxide layer having a refractive index of about 1 . 9 and a substantially uniform thickness of about 3 , 500 to 4 , 000 angstroms . layer 60 in the embodiment of fig2 consists essentially of a high refractive index zone 62 directly on surface 56 of glass substrate 52 followed by four gradient step zones . layer 60 is less thick than low emissivity layer 58 . the refractive index of zone 62 is higher than that of the substrate 52 , preferably being between about 1 . 6 and 2 . 5 , most preferably being about 1 . 9 . materials described above for high refractive index zone 22 in the embodiment of fig1 are suitable also for high refractive index zone 62 in the embodiment of fig2 . the preferred thickness of high refractive index zone 62 is between about 100 and 500 angstroms , more preferably between about 100 and 300 angstroms . tin oxide is highly preferred for zone 62 in view of its high refractive index of about 1 . 9 , its transparency , ease of uniform deposition , environmental stability , and compatibility with other preferred materials of the glazing article . a first gradient step zone , low refractive index zone 64 , is deposited directly on high refractive index zone 62 . suitable materials for low refractive index zone 64 include those described above for low refractive index zone 24 of the embodiment of fig1 . preferably zone 64 has a refractive index between about 1 . 0 and 1 . 9 , more preferably between 1 . 4 and 1 . 5 , most preferably being about 1 . 44 . the thickness of zone 64 preferably is between about 100 and 400 angstroms . most preferred is a layer of silicon dioxide having a refractive index of about 1 . 44 and a substantially uniform thickness between about 100 and 400 angstroms . low refractive index zone 64 is sandwiched directly between high refractive index zone 62 and a second high refractive index zone , second step gradient zone 66 . the second high refractive index zone in the embodiment of fig2 is followed by two additional gradient step zones 68 and 70 , each having a refractive index higher than the preceding zone . specifically , zone 66 is deposited directly on low refractive index zone 64 and has a refractive index higher than that of zone 64 . thus , in the preferred embodiment wherein low refractive index zone 64 has a refractive index of about 1 . 44 , zone 66 has a refractive index between about 1 . 5 and 1 . 6 , most preferably having a refractive index of about 1 . 55 . suitable materials for zone 66 include any of numerous blends of materials from table a and table b above . preferably the thickness of sub - zone 66 is between about 100 and 400 angstroms in thickness . the next gradient step zone , zone 68 , is deposited directly on zone 66 and has a refractive index higher than that of zone 66 . preferably , the refractive index of zone 68 is between about 1 . 6 and 1 . 7 , most preferably being about 1 . 65 . the thickness of sub - zone 66 is preferably between about 100 and 400 angstroms . suitable materials include those recited above for second high refractive index zone 26 of the embodiment of fig1 including aluminum oxide and a blend of silicon dioxide and tin oxide , the latter being preferred in view of its ease of deposition , transparency , compatibility with other materials in the preferred embodiment , and commonality of materials . finally , the last gradient step zone , zone 70 , is deposited directly on zone 68 and is directly under optically functional layer 58 . it has a refractive index higher than zone 68 and lower than layer 58 , preferably being between about 1 . 7 and 1 . 8 , most preferably being about 1 . 75 . suitable materials are readily commercially available and will be apparent to those skilled in the art in view of the present disclosure . preferred materials include blends of materials listed in table a and table b , above . as in the case of the embodiment of fig1 coating 54 can be formed by any of various commercially known and used deposition methods , including sputtering , spray pyrolysis , sol - gel , and chemical vapor deposition . the following example illustrates production of a preferred embodiment of the invention . soda - lime float glass is heated to about 600 ° c . in a laboratory belt furnace . a gaseous mixture consisting of 7 . 0 % difluoroethane , 0 . 4 % water , 0 . 4 % tin tetrachloride and the balance nitrogen is passed over the heated glass resulting in deposition of a tin oxide film approximately 270 angstroms thick . the tin tetrachloride and water vapor are kept separated until just prior to reaction . a second film of silicon dioxide is deposited over the tin oxide film by passing a gaseous mixture consisting of 0 . 4 % silane , 60 % oxygen and the balance nitrogen over the heated glass . the second film is approximately 140 angstroms thick . a third film of aluminum oxide is formed by passing a gaseous mixture of 0 . 1 % diethylaluminum chloride , 10 % nitrous oxide and the balance nitrogen over the heated glass . the reactants are kept separate until just prior to reaction . the thickness of this layer is approximately 170 angstroms . a thick layer of tin oxide , approximately 3 , 500 angstroms thick , is formed by passing a gaseous mixture over the glass which has the same composition as the gaseous mixture used for the first tin oxide film . the resulting product has a color purity of about 3 % and an infrared emissivity of about 0 . 2 . it will be understood by those skilled in the art in view of the present disclosure that the foregoing discussion of certain preferred embodiments is intended for purposes of illustration , rather than limitation . various modifications will be readily apparent in view of the present disclosure and the following claims are intended to cover the full scope of the invention , including all such apparent modifications .	8
fig1 shows an overhead view of a base plate 10 of a carbon brush holding device , which may be made , for example , of plastic , such as a thermoplastic . the base plate 10 is equipped with a disc - shaped ground wall 12 with a partition wall 14 that projects from this base , and a margin or side wall 16 that extends around the circumference of the base , with an inner step 17 that extends along the edge . on the side wall 16 , centered over the step 17 , an element such as a centering element 18 of a motor casing 80 , for example , can be placed upon the base plate 10 , which in this case is pot - shaped ; this centering element is connected to or extends from a motor casing , or is a part of the motor casing . this serves to protect the elements taken up in the base plate 10 and the motor casing 80 . the centering element 18 is also equipped with a centering notch 19 . the base plate 10 is equipped with a central boring 20 , through which an armature shaft that is equipped with a commutator , not illustrated here , can be inserted . in the exemplary embodiment , a total of four carbon brushes 22 are directed toward this , which can be connected via electrical conductors 24 to a voltage supply . in addition , the circuitry for the carbon brushes 22 may be connected as desired , in accordance with the prior art . this will be limited , however , to sufficiently known - in - the - art constructions and designs . in order to mount the carbon brush holder or the brush holders , and to direct the carbon brushes 22 toward the commutator bars of a commutator or a slip ring , the carbon brushes 22 are first pulled back to a retracted position , each in its own carbon brush guide 28 , via a retaining element 26 . this serves to ensure that when the base plate 10 is pushed over to the armature shaft , the carbon brushes 22 will not collide with the commutator or the slip rings . as the detailed diagrams in fig4 and 5 show , the retaining element 26 is comprised of an element that can be shifted within a guide that is formed from two parallel partitions 30 , 32 that extend outward from the ground wall 12 ; this element — as is clearly shown in the overhead view in fig1 — is rectangular in its cross - section , and , as is shown in the side view of fig4 and 5 , comprises a base section 36 from which extend a first section 40 that reaches to the upper , open edge 38 of the side wall 16 , and a cylindrical or pin - shaped extension 42 that extends parallel to the first section ; the cross - section of this extension corresponds to that of a recess 44 at the back of the carbon brush 22 . this provides the possibility that when the pin - shaped extension 42 is engaged in the recess 44 in the carbon brush 22 , in the manner of a pocket hole , the carbon brush 22 will be retracted against a spring element that is exerting pressure on the brush in the direction of the commutator or slip ring , like a scroll spring 46 . opposite the first section 40 and the pin - shaped extension 42 there extends from the base section 36 a second leg 47 that is rectangular in its cross - section , and that extends within the guide 34 , which runs perpendicular to the flat piece that is mounted on the ground wall 12 . within the guide 34 , in other words between the ground wall 12 and the second section or leg 47 of the retaining element 26 , is a spring element 48 , via which the retaining element 26 exerts a force in the direction of the upper , open edge 38 , that is , in the direction of the carbon brush 22 . if , in keeping with the illustration in fig4 the pin - shaped extension 42 is engaged in the recess 44 , which is designed as a pocket hole , then the carbon brush 22 is held in a retracted position within the carbon brush guide 28 . at the same time , the retaining element , with its upper , open edge 50 , extends to the area of the upper , open edge 38 of the side wall 16 . now when , following the successful positioning of the armature shaft and the commutator , the brush holder , in other words the base plate 10 with its centering element 18 or the motor casing 80 , is closed , then — as is shown by a comparison of fig4 and 5 — in closing , in other words by moving the motor casing 80 in the direction of the arrow 52 , the retaining element 26 is pressed into the guide 34 , against the spring element 48 . this causes the extension 42 to become disengaged from the recess 44 in the carbon brush 22 , thus releasing the brush . in this manner , the carbon brush 22 is pushed in the direction of the commutator or slip ring within the carbon brush guide 28 , via the spring elements , which in the exemplary embodiment are designed as scroll springs 46 . according to an alternative proposal as illustrated in fig1 and 13 , it is not absolutely necessary in mounting the carbon brush 22 for the spring element 48 to exert force against the retaining element 26 . rather , it is possible for the retaining element 26 to become wedged , specifically when the adjustment forces acting against the carbon brush 22 and created by the spring element 46 , such as a scroll spring , are sufficient . thus it is provided that sections of the side walls or parallel partition 30 , 32 can interlock with the retaining element 26 . to this end , the retaining element 26 may be provided with grooves 98 , into which ridges 99 protruding from the side walls or parallel partition 30 , 32 become engaged . other designs are also possible . in other words , a wedging takes place between the retaining element 26 and the carbon brush with the extension 42 that is positioned within the pocket hole or recess 44 , without the danger of an unintended release of the carbon brush 22 in the case of insufficient force in the lengthwise direction of the retaining element 26 . furthermore , the combined action of the grooves 98 and the ridges 99 at the same time causes an axial guidance of the retaining element 26 . the carbon brush guide 28 itself may be comprised of a u - shaped metal element 54 , whose side legs 56 , 58 extend along opposite sides 60 , 62 of the carbon brush 22 . the center leg 64 extends along the top 66 of the carbon brush 22 . the side legs 56 , 58 are bent outward , with the corresponding outer sections 68 , 70 extending parallel to the ground wall 12 or the partition wall 14 , to which , in the exemplary embodiment , the carbon brush guide 28 is fastened . the knee - shaped outer sections 68 , 70 of the u - shaped metal element 54 extend along a metal element 74 that is positioned on the surface 72 of the partition wall 14 that faces the carbon brush ; the carbon brush 22 is supported against this metal element such that it can slide . the metal element 74 and the outer sections 68 , 70 of the side legs 56 , 58 can be connected or riveted to one another , which also connects them at the same time to the partition wall 14 . alternatively , in accordance with fig1 , the sections 68 , 70 which extend parallel to the base or partition wall 14 , may be omitted , so that the u - shaped or folded section that encompasses the carbon brush 22 , in other words its side legs 56 , 58 , protrude directly through the wall 14 . in order to enable a secure mounting or fastening of the carbon brush guide 28 , the outer sections 68 , 70 of the side legs 56 , 58 may also be bent , so that they extend with an end section 76 through the metal element 74 and through the partition wall 14 , as is shown in fig7 through 10 . thus , as is shown in fig8 the end section can be bent in the direction of the underside 78 of the partition wall 14 that lies opposite the carbon brush . the section 76 may also be bent , as is shown in fig9 . it is also possible for the open end of the section 76 to be t - shaped , thus securing it to the underside 78 of the partition wall 14 .	7
the invention is useful in a near infrared quantitative analysis instrument of the type disclosed in the rosenthal et al application , ser . no . 73 , 965 , filed sept . 10 , 1979 . such instrument utilizes a plurality of pulsed infrared emitting diodes ( ireds ) with narrow bandpass filters to direct radiant energy through a grain sample toward a detector . the energy is detected , and depending on the absorption at particular wavelengths , the chemical constituents can be measured and the measurements displayed . it is in the environment of such instrument , which is now commercially available on the market as the trebor 90 from trebor industries , inc . in gaithersburg , md ., that the present invention applies . as shown in fig1 there is an instrument with a plurality of ireds 10a , 10b , 10c , etc . which as shown in fig2 are positioned in a four by three matrix . these individual ireds are separated light - wise from each other by baffles 12 and their radiation is directed to the right as viewed in fig1 through individual narrow bandpass filters 14 . a sample chamber 16 containing a sample s , for example grain , has windows 18 and 20 which are transparent to the radiation . a stop gate , not shown , holds the sample in the chamber during measurement . on the side of the sample chamber opposite the ireds there is a photodetector means 22 to detect the radiation passing through the sample in the sample chamber . the photodetection means is connected to a means 24 for calculating and displaying the result of the quantitative analysis . the foregoing is more fully disclosed in the application of rosenthal et al . ser . no . 73 , 965 , filed sept . 10 , 1979 . fig3 a and 3b show the ideal ired and the practical ired . typically ireds have collimating lenses 10 &# 39 ; built into them . the purposes of such lenses is to provide a light beam that is as parallel as possible . however , because of practical limitations in optics the light emitted is not truly parallel and typically emanates from the ireds at angles of up to 8 degrees off of a parallel path as shown schematically in fig3 b . fig4 illustrates the practical problem which occurs when the light beams from the ireds are not truly parallel . this shows the sample chamber 16 and window 18 with schematic illustrations , for example of a light pattern from ired 10a , p10a and a light pattern from ired 10c , p10c . it is seen that the light emitting from the lens 10 &# 39 ; of the ired 10 tends to have a large scattering pattern near the focal plane . that is , the pattern of light from the individual ireds because of the nonparallel nature of such light tends to be scattered over an area considerably larger than is needed from a measurement standpoint . one solution to the problem which is within the scope of the invention but not the preferred embodiment is shown in fig1 . in that case there is a large convex converging lens 26 which converges the light from the matrix m of ireds and a smaller lens 28 to provide parallel light exiting from that lens which passes toward the window 18 . the preferred embodiment of the overall invention is illustrated in fig5 . in this embodiment there is the same matrix m of ireds , baffles and narrow bandpass filters as in fig1 and 2 . in place of the dual lens system of fig1 however , the preferred embodiment utilizes a fresnel lens 30 to direct the light from the ireds on a focal plane diffuser 32 . that is , the fresnel lens directs the radiation from each of the ireds and focuses it at a focal plane . in the focal plane there is positioned a diffusing plate 32 . the plate 32 is of a diffusing material , for example a matte surface , and the result is that such diffusing material causes light to be emitted in all directions essentially with uniform energy . this is schematically illustrated in fig6 . in fig5 between the diffusing plate 32 and the sample chamber 16 there is an opaque material or sheet 34 with a single small aperture 36 positioned in front of , but smaller than the window 18 . the material of diffusing plate 32 can be , for example , a translucent plexiglass where the surface has been rough - sanded to provide a diffuser , i . e ., a matte finish . the pattern of light because of the nonparallel nature of the ired light tends to be scattered over an area considerably larger than is needed from a measurement standpoint . to minimize this problem the opaque plate 34 having aperture 36 in it , is placed on the side of the diffusing plate adjacent the sample . this aperture 36 limits the amount of light that the sample can &# 34 ; see &# 34 ; and thus , tends to only let the light from the same direction contact the sample . a preferred embodiment of the diffuser means is a pair of diffuser plates as shown in fig7 . in this figure there is a diffuser plate 35 closest to the ireds and a spaced - apart diffuser plate 37 closest to the apertured plate 34 . a spacer 40 , for example 1 / 16th inch thick , spaces the two diffusers . in this embodiment the scattered light from the diffuser 35 is spread more evenly by the diffuser 37 , and thus , the light emitting from the second diffuser through the aperture 36 is essentially uniform in nature and can be used for exacting measurement requirements in the field of near infrared quantitative analysis . a nonlimiting example of the invention in the preferred embodiment has been implemented in a commercially available trebor 90 grain tester implement first sold in december 1980 , with the following details . 12 ge 1n6264 ireds are mounted in a three by four array , one - half inch on center . in front of each ired is a narrow bandpass filter that only allows a specific wavelength of light to pass . a fresnel lens from edmund scientific no . 30389 is placed in the light beam so that the light from all 12 sequentially illuminated ireds passes through the fresnel lens . the fresnel lens bends the light so that the light from each of the 12 ireds comes close to a theoretical focal point of the lens . at this focal point two diffuser plates ( each one a sanded piece of plexiglass from rohm & amp ; haas no . 7204 ) are separated by 1 / 16th inch spacer . a 5 / 8th inch aperture is provided so that only light through that aperture can exit from the optical arrangement . a test sample in a sample chamber can be placed essentially at any distance including extremely small distances from the aperture . in the trebor 90 the distance of a test sample is approximately 1 / 16th inch away from the aperture plate . although the above invention has been described in connection with pulsed infrared light emitting diodes , the invention has also applicability for other radiation - emitting diodes used in such instruments , such as light - emitting diodes ( leds ).	6
the interferometer system is shown fig1 in an embodiment that most easily illustrates the essence of the idea , but is not necessarily the preferred embodiment or the only embodiment . it consists of four main parts : the beam conditioning optics ; the interferometer ; the detection system ; and the computer system . the major components of the beam conditioning optics are the light source , intensity and contrast controls , and the phase shifting module . referring to fig1 a linearly polarized collimated beam 10 from a light source 12 ( e . g ., a laser ) passes through a variable neutral density filter 14 which is used to control the light level to the interferometer . the beam 10 then passes through a half - wave retardation plate 16 which produces two orthogonally polarized beams , beam 18 having vertical ( out of plane ) polarization and beam 20 having horizontal ( in plane ) polarization , both beams within beam 10 . the angular orientation of the half - wave retardation plate 16 is used to adjust the relative intensity between the vertical and horizontal components of polarization . beams 18 and 20 having these two polarization components are then split by a polarization beamsplitter 22 so that the horizontal polarization ( beam 20 ) is transmitted while the vertical polarization ( beam 18 ) is reflected . the transmitted beam 20 is then reflected by a fixed retroreflector 24 back through the polarization beamsplitter 22 to a turning mirror 26 . the reflected beam 18 is reflected by a retroreflector 28 , mounted on a piezoelectric translator ( pzt ) 30 , back through the polarization beamsplitter 22 to the same turning mirror 26 so that is it parallel to the other beam but laterally displaced from it . applying a voltage to the pzt 30 translates the retroreflector 28 thus shifting the relative phase between the two orthogonally polarized beams . the two beams pass through a polarizer 32 ( axis at 45 °) to give them the same polarization and are brought to focus , with a microscope objective 34 , on the interferometer plate 36 . referring to fig2 a , the interferometer plate 36 comprises a glass substrate 38 coated with a highly reflecting , low transmission , metallic film 40 , through which a circular aperture 42 has been etched . the diameter of the aperture 42 is on the order of the wavelength of the source 12 . metallic film 40 may typically comprises aluminum having a thickness of 65 nanometers . in the embodiment shown in fig2 b , the interferometer plate 36 comprises a glass substrate 38 coated with a highly reflecting , low transmission , metallic film 40 , through which a circular aperture 42 has been etched , and over which a second partially transmitting metallic film 44 has been coated . the diameter of the aperture 42 is on the order of the wavelength of the source 12 . metallic film 40 may typically comprises aluminum having a thickness of 65 nanometers and metallic film 44 may typically comprises aluminum having a thickness of 26 nanometers . in both embodiments of the interferometer plate 36 , the metallic film 40 and the second metallic film 44 may comprise materials other than aluminum , for example , materials selected from a group consisting of chromium , gold , nickel , silicon and silver . the thicknesses of the film would vary depending on the material used . this plate serves to generate the point source measurement beam , using one of the beams focused on the plate , to illuminate the optic under test . it simultaneously serves to generate the point source reference beam , using the other focused beam . beams 18 and 20 are focused on the interferometer plate 36 so that they are both incident on the aperture 42 in the metallic film 40 . both beams are diffracted by the aperture 42 , producing two spherical wavefronts that diverge as they leave the aperture . each wavefront is perfectly spherical over a finite angular range ( defined by the diameter of the aperture relative to the wavelength ) centered about the illumination direction defined by the lateral separation of the beams as they entered the microscope objective . the measurement beam 46 illuminates the optic 50 under test . this optic typically comprises a concave mirror and is adjusted to focus the measurement beam 46 back onto the interferometer plate 36 . due to the finite extent of the optic 50 and aberrations therein , the focused measurement beam 46 is much larger than the aperture 42 in the metallic film 40 , so nearly all of the focused measurement beam 46 is reflected by the film 40 in the embodiment of the interferometer plate 36 shown in fig2 a . in embodiment of the interferometer plate 36 shown in fig2 b , focused measurement beam 46 is reflected by the film 44 . it diverges and is coincident with the reference beam 48 which was diffracted by the aperture 42 . the measurement beam 46 and the reference beam 48 interfere to produce a fringe pattern that represents a contour map of optical path difference between the wavefront from the optic 50 and a perfect spherical wavefront . the detection system consists of an imaging system to image the optic under test onto a ccd array camera . the imaging system comprises a lens 52 , an aperture 54 for spatially filtering the interfering beams , and a lens 56 . the aperture 54 is large enough so that it does not diffract the beam focused through it . a typical size is micrometers . the size of the lenses 52 , 56 , depends on the size of the optic under test . the coincident measurement beam 46 and reference beam 48 , diverging from the interferometer plate , are collected by a spatial filter imaging system which images the surface of the optic 50 under test onto a screen ( not shown ) or onto a charge coupled device ( ccd ) camera 58 . this guarantees that the phase of the interfering wavefronts at each pixel in the ccd camera 58 has a one - to - one correspondence with a unique point on the optic 50 . it also minimizes effects of edge diffraction from the optic . aperture 54 , at the intermediate focus of the interfering beams , is used to filter out any light not coming from the immediate area around the aperture in the interferometer plate 36 . the ccd camera 58 captures a series of interference patterns and transfers them to the computer system 60 . the computer system consists of a computer having a monitor and software to control the light level and contrast of the interference pattern , software to translate the pzt and thus shift the relative phase between the measurement and reference beams , software to calculate the phase at each pixel using the transferred interference patterns , and software to display the resultant phase map . this software for analyzing the interference pattern read into the computer can presently be supplied by several companies . zygo corporation produces &# 34 ; metro pro &# 34 ; software . phase shift technology produces &# 34 ; optic code analysis software &# 34 ;. wyko corporation produces &# 34 ; wisp &# 34 ; software . the series of interference patterns that are transferred to the computer are captured as the pzt shifts the relative phase of the interfering beams by 2 π radians . the interference patterns are analyzed to determine the proper settings for the light level and contrast of the interference fringes . this information is used by the computer to adjust the position of the neutral density filter 14 and half - wave retardation plate 16 . a second series of interference patterns are then captured and analyzed to determine the phase at each pixel . this is typically displayed as a contour or 3d plot of the phase . this phase map corresponds to the deviation of the surface of the optic from a perfect sphere . a . the measurement beam is generated by diffraction and is a perfect spherical wave over some finite solid angle . the solid angle is defined by the size of the aperture in the interferometer plate relative to the wavelength of light from the source . smaller apertures produce larger solid angles . b . the reference beam is generated by diffraction and is a perfect spherical wave over the same solid angle as the measurement beam . c . no reference surface is required for this interferometer . reference surfaces are a major source of error in interferometry and ultimately limit the accuracy that can be achieved . d . the measurement beam reflected from the optic under test is imaged back onto the aperture of the interferometer plate , giving exact coincidence with the reference beam . this is the ideal condition for achieving the highest degree of accuracy . e . the relative phase between the measurement and reference beams can be shifted in a controlled way . this permits a series of interference patterns to be analyzed to determine the phase at each pixel position with the highest degree of accuracy . f . the relative intensities of the measurement and reference beams can be adjusted ( with the half - wave retardation plate ) to give maximum possible contrast . this produces the greatest signal - to - noise , necessary for achieving the highest degree of accuracy . referring to fig3 interferometer plate 37 may be useful in certain circumstances depending on the optic under test . here beams 18 and 20 each pass through a prism 17 , 19 respectively , and are focused by lens 34 onto two distinct apertures : aperture 41 and aperture 43 in the interferometer plate 37 . a tilt is introduced between beam 20 and beam 18 by the prisms . the usable metallic films are the same as described for interferometer plate 36 . apertures 41 and 43 are typically separated from each other by 10 to 500 micrometers . the typical angle between the two focused beams is in the range of 10 to 60 degrees . in the embodiment shown on fig3 beam 18 passes through prism 17 and is focused by lens 34 onto aperture 43 in interferometer plate 37 . the resulting diffracted measurement beam 47 is then reflected from test optic 51 to the reflective area surrounding aperture 41 of interferometer plate 37 . this beam is reflected along the same path as reference beam 49 to produce an interference pattern therebetween . this embodiment is used to test optical surfaces that are concave with respect to the interferometer plate 37 . another distinctive form of this interferometer system , based on fiber optic technology , operates on the principles described supra . referring to fig4 light source 12 is focused by lens 62 onto the end of a single mode fiber 64 . a variable fiber coupler 66 splits the beam into two fibers : fiber 68 and fiber 72 . the ratio of light split into each fiber is chosen for maximum fringe contrast . fiber 68 is used for the measurement beam 70 . fiber 72 , transmitting reference beam 74 , is wrapped around a pzt cylinder 76 that expands with an applied voltage . this stresses the fiber 72 , changing its refractive index , and introduces a phase shift relative to the measurement beam 70 from fiber 68 . the measurement beam 70 leaving the end of the fiber is diffracted , producing a perfect spherical wavefront over some finite solid angle . the solid angle is defined by the size of the fiber core relative to the wavelength of light from the source 12 . this spherical measurement beam 70 illuminates the optic 78 under test , which focuses the beam onto the end of the fiber for the reference beam . fig5 shows a magnified view of the exit portion of fiber 72 . measurement beam 70 is focused onto reflective metallic film 73 on the end of fiber 72 , and is reflected along the same path as reference beam 74 . this embodiment is used to test positive lenses . referring to fig6 it may be necessary to shrink the core diameter of fibers 68 and 72 to match the aperture size for the interferometer . this is accomplished by heating and pulling the fiber . for example , fiber 72 , having cladding 84 and core 80 is heated and pulled to produced a stretched portion 82 with a core 81 having a diameter that is smaller than the unstretched core portion 80 . metallic film 73 is coated after heating and stretching and can comprise any of the films described supra . one embodiment of the metallic film comprises aluminum having a thickness of 26 nanometers . single mode fibers typically have core diameters of about 4 micrometers . the measurement beam is reflected from the end of the fiber while the reference beam is transmitted through the film and diffracted , giving a perfect spherical wavefront over the same finite solid angle as the measurement wavefront . the solid angle is defined by the size of the fiber core relative to the wavelength of light from the source 12 . the imaging , computer systems , data acquisition and analysis are the same as described above . this fiber optic approach has all the advantages of the system described above as well as the flexibility to independently move the measurement and reference fibers to any positions to suit the interferometric measurement configuration . if light source 12 comprises a short coherence length , the fiber lengths 68 and 72 must be adjusted so that the optical path lengths from variable fiber coupler 66 to the end of fiber 72 for both the measurement beam 70 and reference beam 74 are equal . another embodiment of the invention is shown in fig7 . in this embodiment light source 12 comprises a short coherence length and beams 18 and 20 are reflected back through the polarization beamsplitter 22 so they are coincident and collinear . retroreflector 24 is positioned such that optical path length acd is equal to optical path length abded . in other word , retroreflector 24 is moved to a position where the round - trip beam path difference between the two retroreflectors is equal to the round - trip path between the interferometer plate and the optic under test . the optical path lengths of the interfering measurement and reference beams are then the same . in this configuration , the light source is spatially coherent but temporally incoherent . examples are : a white light source , a light emitting diode , a tungsten lamp and a multimode laser . as in fig1 pzt 30 can be attached to either retroreflector . this condition produces high contrast fringes in the interference pattern and eliminates any extraneous interference due to light from the measurement beam spreading into the reference beam . this configuration also eliminates any extraneous interference due to light from the reference beam spreading into the measurement beam . although only those embodiments for the measurement of concave mirrors and positive lenses were described , other embodiments exist for measurement of convex mirrors and negative lenses . changes and modifications in the specifically described embodiments can be carried out without departing from the scope of the invention , which is intended to be limited by the scope of the appended claims .	6
as mentioned above , fig1 illustrates , in block diagram form , a data processing system which includes a plurality of data transmitting / receiving devices 11 , 12 , 13 and a plurality of primary computers 21 , 22 and 23 which can communicate with each other and / or with a larger computer 3 by way of the data transmitting / receiving devices 11 , 12 and 13 . the first data transmitting / receiving device 11 is connected to the larger computer 3 by way of a first modem connection line . the third data transmitting / receiving device 13 is likewise connected to the larger computer 3 by way of a second modem connection line . the three data transmitting / receiving devices 11 , 12 and 13 illustrated in the exemplary embodiment of fig1 are connected to one another in the manner specified by way of their respectively remaining first and / or second modem connection lines , so that a data exchange between each of the three primary computers 21 , 22 and 23 provided with every other primary computer and / or with the larger computer 3 can be carried out . as already explained , fig2 illustrates the block diagram of a data transmitting / receiving device 10 having the various devices arranged therein and the connection lines provided for connection to external devices . data can be transmitted to and from a further local device , i . e . a further device situated at the location of the data transmitting / receiving device such as , for example , a primary computer , by way of a double - directed local data exchange line 112 and a parallel character interface 105 , and can optionally be converted and justified for transmission by a microprocessor 101 in cooperation with a process store 102 , oriented bit - wise or character - wise , by means of correspondingly input switching commands which can , in turn , be a component of the information received or exist as a component of the program information of the data transmitting / receiving device in question . given bit - oriented data messages , the sdlc method , known per se , or the hdlc method , also known per se , can be carried out . the data messages which can be transmitted or received by way of the first or , respectively , second modem connection line 113 or 114 , comprises serial characters . the editing of out - going data messages to be undertaken for the known hdlc or sdlc methods or , respectively , functions required for processing incoming data messages , are carried out by a module 108 , in particular , a z80 - sio , a sdlc / hdlc module . this module emits information to the input / output device 109 or receives information therefrom . the data to be transmitted or to be received are supplied to or taken from the sdlc / hdlc module 108 by way of a data bus 111 . in addition to the microprocessor 101 and the process store 102 , the parallel character interface 105 , a timer 106 , an interrupt control 107 and a parallel interface 103 are also connected to the data bus 111 . such arrangements are known per se , as illustrated and discussed , for example , in &# 34 ; microprocessor devices data book 1976 / 77 &# 34 ;, system sab 8080 , published by siemens ag , components area , pp , 63 - 79 : &# 34 ; interfacing the sab 8080 with other microcomputer devices &# 34 ;. this parallel interface 103 is connected by way of a character channel to a driver 104 whose output can be connected by way of a modem control line 115 to a modem which is constructed , for example , as an automatic selection device for data transmission awd . dial connections within a private telephone network , or within the public telephone network , to other data processing devices such as , for example , a large computer , can be completed by way of such an automatic selection device for data transmission awd . for completing such a dial connection , corresponding dial information are transmitted from the microprocessor 101 by way of the data bus 111 to the parallel interface 103 and , therefore , to the driver 104 . the data messages to be transmitted or to be received are transmitted by way of the telephone network , for example , in multi - frequency code ( mfc ). the individual devices of a transmitting / receiving device constructed in accordance with the present invention , namely the device 10 connected to the data bus 111 , are addressable by way of an address bus 110 . the interrupt control 107 has the task of interrupting respectively cycling procedures due to procedure requests of higher priority . the timer 106 has the task of monitoring chronological sequences of running procedures . moreover , by means of , it the baud rates are controlled , i . e . the character transmission speeds are controlled . the parallel character interface 105 is organized interface - specific and mechanically constructed in such a manner that a simple interchangeability is provided . a further development of the invention provides that a parallel character interface 105 is programmably constructed so that an adaptation to a local data exchange line 112 , designed as may be desired , is rendered possible . another further development of the invention provides that a plurality of data transmitting / receiving devices 10 are connected to the local data exchange line 112 . in a further development of the invention , a plurality of local data processing systems can likewise be connected to the local data exchange line 112 . another further development of the invention provides that a plurality of data transmitting / receiving devices 10 and a plurality of local data processing systems are connected to the local data exchange line 112 . in addition to the task of storing process information , the process store 102 , which is usually executed as a read only memory ( rom ) or random access memory ( ram ) also has the job of operating as a communication buffer for the data to be transmitted or to be received . as already set forth above , fig3 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a data processing system arranged in a concentrator structure with a plurality of transmitting / receiving devices 11 , 12 and 13 constructed in accordance with the present invention , a plurality of data terminals 41 - 46 and a primary computer 20 . the data transmitting / receiving devices 11 , 12 and 13 are respectively connected to the primary computer 20 by way of their local data exchange line and are connected to an individual data terminal , for example the terminal 41 , by way of their first or , respectively , second modem connection line 113 or , respectively , 114 . the further development of the invention illustrated in fig3 offers the advantage that a multitude of data terminals have access to a central data processing system such as , for example , the primary computer 20 , without the exchange - oriented devices which are otherwise necessary . fig4 as likewise already discussed above , illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a data processing system arranged in a tree structure having a plurality of data transmitting / receiving devices 1001 - 1013 constructed in accordance with the present invention , a primary computer 20 , a first front - end computer 51 , a second front - end computer 52 , and third , fourth , fifth and sixth front - end computers 53 - 56 . it can be derived from this illustration of a further development of the invention that the primary computer 20 is connected to an input computer 51 by way of the appropriate local data exchange line , the data transmitting / receiving device 1001 assigned thereto and the appropriate first or , respectively , second modem connection line and is connected to a second front - end computer 52 by way of the data transmitting / receiving device 1002 or , respectively , 1003 respectively individually assigned to the front - end computers 51 , 52 , whereby each front - end computer 51 , 52 is connected to the first or second modem connection line of the data transmitting / receiving device 1002 or , respectively , 1003 assigned thereto . these two data transmitting / receiving devices 1002 and 1003 are connected to one another by way of respective first or , second modem connection lines . a third front - end computer 53 and a fourth front - end computer 54 are , respectively , a fifth front - end computer 55 and a sixth front - end computer 56 are respectively post - connected to the first and second front - end computers 51 and 52 by means of further data transmitting / receiving devices 1004 , 1006 , 1007 or 1005 , 1008 , 1009 in the same manner as the first and second front - end computers 51 and 52 are post - connected to the primary computer 20 . a branched , multi - level system structure thereby arises which allows flexibility and time - saving data processing in that partial problems of an entire processing operation are carried out in front - computers specifically provided and programmed for this purpose or , respectively , time - saving partial processing operations to be developed chronologically parallel can be implemented . fig5 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a data processing system arranged in a mesh network structure having a plurality of data transmitting / receiving devices 1020 - 1029 and a plurality of primary computers 24 - 28 . two individual data transmitting / receiving devices 1020 , 1021 ; 1022 , 1023 ; 1024 , 1025 ; 1026 , 1027 ; and 1028 , 1029 are assigned to each of these five primary computers 24 - 28 . the first and second modem connection lines of all data transmitting / receiving devices 1020 - 1029 are interconnected in such a manner with the first and second modem connection lines of the further data transmitting / receiving devices that each of the five primary computers 24 - 28 can communicate with each of the further primary computers . such a meshed system structure represents a so - called fault - tolerant system when it is assumed that each of the five main computers can respectively perform the task of any one of the further main computers of the five main computers . the system structures illustrated in fig1 , 4 and 5 are only exemplary embodiments of the system application of data transmitting / receiving devices constructed in accordance with the present invention . in accordance with the properties of data transmitting / receiving devices of the present invention , further examples of applications not shown herein can be realized . therefore , for example , a plurality of main computers 20 can be provided , of which respectively two main computers 20 are connected by way of respective data transmitting / receiving devices 10 individually assigned thereto . another further development of the invention provides that three main computers are provided , that an individual data transmitting / receiving device 10 is assigned to each of the three main computers , and that each data transmitting / receiving device 10 is connected to every further data transmitting / receiving device 10 by way of its first or , respectively , second modem connection line 113 or , respectively , 114 , so that every main computer can correspond or communicate with every further main computer . the relief of the internal data processing device respectively concerned which is attainable by means of practicing the present invention permits the advantageous employment of the arrangements constructed in accordance with the present invention , particularly in data processing systems which work in real - time operation . included here are , among others , process controls and program - controlled telephone or data communication systems . although we have described our invention by reference to particular illustrative embodiments thereof , many changes and modifications thereof may become apparent to those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention . we therefore intend to include within the patent warranted hereon all such changes and modifications as may reasonably and properly be included within the scope of our contribution to the art .	6
while the invention is susceptible of various modifications and alternative constructions , certain illustrated embodiments thereof have been shown in the drawings and will be described below in detail . it should be understood , however , that there is no intention to limit the invention to the specific form disclosed , but , on the contrary , the invention is to cover all modifications , alternative constructions , and equivalents falling within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the claims . the compounds and a variety of other compounds of formulas i and ii of the present invention may be formed and utilized within the scope of the present invention . the following tables 1 and 2 set forth various compounds of formulas i and ii which are considered a part of the present invention . the compounds of the present invention have been shown to provide various smooth muscle relaxant activities . recently some reports have stated that theophyllline has an adenosine acceptor antagonist and phosphodiesterase ( pde ) inhibitor function . some of these derivatives of the present invention have been demonstrated to function as tracheal relaxation activity mechanism and provide for reduced heart rate functions . some synthesized xanthine derivatives were observed to have their affinity and selective effect on adenosine a 1 and a 2 receptors . fig4 a illustrates the experimental results and the effects of compound 14 on phenylphrine precontracted rabbit corpus cavemosal in the absence and presence of l - name , methylene blue , odq . fig4 b illustrates the experimental results and the effects of compound 14 on phenylphrine precontracted rabbit corpus cavernosal in absence and presence of potassium channel blockers . fig5 illustrates the additive effects of compound 14 and ibmx ( 3 - isobutyl - 1 - methylxanthine ) on phenylephrine precontracted rabbit carvernosal strips . please refer to fig2 in which two embodiments of processes for the preparation of a compound of formula ii are disclosed . in a reaction a , the reactant of a compound of formula iii is reacted with 1 - 2 - di - bromoethane to produce a monobromo compound of formula iv . then , in a first embodiment of the processes , by a reaction b , the monobromo compound of formula iv is reacted with an n - substituted piperazine of formula piperazinyl - r2 to produce a compound of formula ii . in a second embodiment of the processes , after the reaction a is carried out to obtain the monobromo compound of formula iv , the monobromo compound of formula iv is reacted with piperazine according to a reaction c to produce a compound of formula v . then , the compound of formula is reacted with a compound of formula r2 - x to produce a compound of formula ii according to a reaction d . please refer to fig3 . the compound of formula iii is reacted with 1 , 2 - di - bromoethane as shown in the reaction a to produce a monobromo compound of formula iv . then , the monobromo compound of formula iv is reacted with piperazinyl ring which is a secondary amine , and naoh is added to precipitate nabr to obtain the product which contains the piperazinyl ring of formula i . the compounds shown in fig2 and 3 have their main structures shown as formulas i and ii . in these compounds , various substitutions of the two bases lead to changes in the various intermediate products so that different serial preparing processes were developed . the preparing process for formula ii , comprises the steps of dissolving 3 - isobutyl - 1mehtylxanthine ( ibmx ) into halogenated ethylamine solution , for example 2 - bromoethylamine solution and stirring while heating the mixture until the solid is completely dissolved . then naoh is added to react with this mixture at a temperature of less than 150 ° c . over night . this is then concentrated under a reduced pressure to obtain a white coarse crystal which was re - crystallized to obtain a compound d ( n7 - bromoethyl 3 - isobutyl - 1 - methylxanthine ) which appears as a white crystal powder . into a three neck round bottom flask equipped with a mechanical stirrer , a thermometer , and a reflux condenser , there were added 210 g of chlorosulfonic acid and 20 g of para - hydroxyl sulfonate sodium . this mixture is then heated and stirred at 65 ° to 67 ° c ., and then poured onto crushed ice . the precipitate is then separated by filtration . the precipitate is then washed with cold water and dried at 20 - 25 degrees c . under a reduced pressure . the precipitate is then purified by dissolution in 200 ml of acetone and precipitated again in cold distilled water , then filtered and dried in vacuum . this precipitate is then reacted with 10 ml of methylpiperazine for 1 hours to obtain a precipitate . this precipitate is then recrystallized in acetone to obtain a white crystal . this is then dissolved in a mixture of methanol , formalin ( 5 ml 37 %), acetic acid 1 ml , and 10 g compound d ( n7 - bromoethyl 3 - isobutyl - 1 - methyl - xanthine ), then followed by mixing overnight at 75 degrees c ., purification by column chromatography and eluted by a solvent system containing ethyl acetate and methanol . the eluate is then recrystallized from methanol to obtain compound 39 . this compound 39 is dissolved in 50 ml methanol together with 1 g naoh and 10 ml ethyl bromide , heated at 75 c for 2 hours and concentrated under a reduced pressure , dissolved and recrystallized in 50 ml methanol to obtain compound 40 . under the same rule , compound 41 can be obtained by replacing ethyl bromide with propyl bromide . compound 42 , 43 or 44 were also obtained when replacing theophylline with ibmx , separately . parahydroxybenzoic acid ethyl ester is dissolved in methanol , added with formalin and acetic acid to react overnight , added to nh 3 ( aq ) to obtain para - hydroxy benzoic amide . this product was added with formalin , acetic acid and n7 - bromoethyl 3 - isobutyl - 1 - methylxanthine processed through a mannich reaction to obtain compound 33 . through purification and then dissolution into methanol , add naoh and ethyl bromide to gain compound 34 . various substitutions can be made to produce other desired compounds . for example , by replacing ethyl bromide with propyl bromide , compound 35 can be obtained . by replacing theophylline with ibmx , compounds 36 , 37 , and / or 38 can be obtained . the process of preparing the compound of formula i comprises the steps of dissolving 3 - isobutyl - 1 - methylxanthine ( ibmx ) into methanol and stirring with 2 - bromoethylamine upon a mantle heater , reacting this mixture with naoh and then recrystallizing this mixture with methanol to obtain n7 - bromoehtyl 3 - isobutyl - 1 - methylxanthine . to produce the serial compounds 1 - 8 , which have different substitutes on a major structure , the preparing methods are as follows : refluxing compound a with methanol and added with one of the following compounds : 1 - phenylpiperazine , 1 -( 2 - pyrimidyl ) piperazine , 1 -( 2 - pyridyl ) piperazine , 1 -( 2 - chlorophenyl ) piperazine , and 1 -( 4 - chlorophenyl ) piperazine . compounds 11 ˜ 18 were obtained by substituting the theophylline base with ibmx . a solution of benzenesulfonyl chloride , piperazine and methanol allows us to obtain benzenesulfonyl piperazine . this product is dissolved into methanol and replaced with compound a ( n - 7 - bromoethyl 3 - isobutyl - 1 - methylxanthine ) to obtain compound 21 . by replacing the ethyl bromide with propyl bromide , compounds 22 and 23 can be produced . by replacing p - toluene - sulfonyl chloride or o - toluenesulfonyl chloride with benzenesulfonyl chloride , compounds 24 , 25 , or 26 may be produced . dissolving theophylline with methanol , added with 1 , 2 - di - bromoethane and naoh , heated under reflux conditions , concentrated under a reduced pressure and purified through silica gel column chromatography , we can obtain compound a . dissolving compound a into methanol and combining with piperazine , we can obtain compound b . then steps of dissolving compound b in methanol , adding 2 - furoyl chloride or 4 - chloronitrobenzene and proceeding under reflux conditions allow for the formation of compounds 9 and 10 . adding 4 - chlorobenzene sulfonyl chloride and methylpiperazine into methanol and then refluxing , dissolving the product compound and n7 - bromoethyl 3 - isobutyl - 1 - methylxanthine in methanol , and then refluxing this solution , compound 45 is produced . according to the same rule , steps of replacing ethyl bromide with propyl bromide and replacing theophylline with ibmx allow the parties to obtain compound 46 . after purification and crystallization , the products are individually tested for their physio - chemical information including element analysis , ms , ir , h - nmr ( cdcl 3 ), and uv etc as shown table 3 . appropriate experimental models may also be utilized to evaluate their pharmacological activities , and examples of the experiments are shown in tables 4 - 6 and in the following portions of the specification . the compound of this invention includes various carriers , diluents and pharmacologically approved salts to provide desired therapeutic efficacy . such pharmaceutical preparation could be in solid form for oral or rectal administration , liquid form for non - intestinal injection or ointment form for direct application on an affected part . such forms are manufactured according to common pharmaceutical preparation methods and combined with common carriers such as starch , glycerine , carboxy methylcellulose , lactose , magnesium and similar materials . the general dosage of the compound could be varied . however , a normal person could utilize 50 to 300 mg , approximately three times a day .	2
the present invention provides for a 3 - d imaging system and method of obtaining 3 - d images adapted for remote information acquisition . an embodiment of the present invention comprises a platform for supporting and conveying the imaging system , an illumination source affixed to the platform which transmits light to an object being scanned a light detector affixed to the platform adapted to collect light reflected back from the object being scanned and a data processing system in communication with the light detector for compiling data obtained from the reflected light to produce an image therefrom . the present invention further provides for detecting the change in wavelength associated with light received from the object being scanned . the illumination source for use with the present invention can be any light emitting device . it , however , is preferred in this invention to use a laser , and more preferably to use a laser with a planar geometry . the laser used by this invention can have a wavelength in the range of 400 to 630 nm , preferably in the range of 450 to 600 nm , and most preferably in the range of 500 to 575 nm . the present invention can analyze and scan a variety of objects . for example , the present invention can analyze and scan sea floor , objects resting on the sea floor , tethered objects , ship &# 39 ; s hulls , seawalls , and floating objects . the data processing system compiles the data obtained from the reflected light which can be stored for later use or transmitted to a remote location in real time for projection of the image on a display . the present invention can be used with a navigational sensor system in order to facilitate locating an object being scanned . referring now to fig1 , the instant system 10 includes a platform 11 which contains an illumination source 12 which is directed a object 13 , which is in turn recorded by virtue of a light detector 14 . the platform 11 may be of any design for conveying the imaging apparatus , these including auvs , rovs , and other underwater conveying means . in addition , boats or ships may be outfitted with the apparatus of the instant invention . the imaging may occur below , above , on the surface of a body of water or as a side - scanning function with respect to the horizontal axis of the platform . in addition , if aerial observation is intended as the use , any form of manned or unmanned vehicle may be used as the supporting and impelling means . also contemplated is the use of stationary underwater platforms geared to image ships or other water vessels as they pass over it . for the purposes of the preferred embodiments of this application , however , rovs or auvs are the preferred platforms . the illumination source 12 may also be any suitable illumination means known to one of ordinary skill in the art , but for the purposes of the preferred embodiment , is a laser source . this source may be selected as a narrow wavelength source as desired for the fluorescence embodiment of the instant invention , or may be of a broader range of wavelengths for more general illumination . in addition , a single source may be used or a plurality or sources , including use of a multiplicity of different types of illumination devices as known to those of ordinary skill in the art . the source or sources are preferably movably mounted to provide flexibility in changing the source to detector separation as desired . it is considered preferable to use a very high intensity laser source so that a high degree of illumination is achieved from this source . in addition , various filter mechanisms may be used in combination with the light source to screen out or isolate certain wavelengths . it is preferred that the source should have a narrow field of view in the along - track direction such as provided by a spot or cross - track - dispersed fan beam . object 13 may be any object desired for inspection . some of these include , but are not limited to , sea floor , ship &# 39 ; s hulls , seawalls , and objects resting on the sea floor or tethered to it and floating objects . it is understood for the purposes of this application that the term “ sea ” encompasses any body of water , fresh or salt in nature and of any size . in the case of ship &# 39 ; s hulls , the instant invention is arranged so that the illumination is directed to a side - facing surface or even an upwardly facing surface , such as the actual bottom of a ship . in addition , in the above in - water embodiments , the apparatus may be used to image tops , sides , or bottoms of objects of interest . the light detector 14 may comprise any type of known device to those of ordinary skill in the art such as still cameras , video cameras , computer digitization , and graphic representations . in addition , it is contemplated that a plurality of these means may be used jointly either solely or in combination to provide information storage and display means . the recording or detection device is preferably also movably mounted to allow for adjustments in the source - to - detector - separation and the viewing angle of the detector as desired . both real time imaging and data storage are the recording or detection device of choice in certain preferred embodiments . in addition , any known camera enhancement systems may be employed , these including filters and focusing means — such systems are readily known and available to one of ordinary skill in the art . fig2 is a more detailed representation of the imaging system of the instant invention . in this embodiment , the illumination source 12 is directed downward toward the object 13 with the detector 14 . by virtue of their fixed relationship to one another , the height and geometric features of the object 13 can be represented both visually by the camera and digitally by virtue of the digital image generated by the calculations made by the equation : totalrows = total # of vertical imaging elements or pixels row #= current row where line is detected r = the distance between the source and the object being scanned s = the distance between the source and the detector f . o . v .= the field of view as seen by the detector in relation to the object φ = the vertical angle between the illumination beam and the center of the field of view of the camera because the illumination source 12 and recorder or detector 14 are separated and not coaxial , backscatter effects from the illumination source due to the presence of particulates in the water are reduced . in addition , the calculated digital image offers a graphic representation of the image either in combination with the visual image or as a sole product of the imaging apparatus 10 . it will be understood that a total visual image is also possible without digitization . thus , when an illumination beam is fanned out across the vehicle path and viewed with a camera , the above equation can be developed in 3 - dimensions for each point where the fan beam hits a solid object . the 3 - d image of the object is calculated as the distribution of the progression in the values of r as each sequential line is recorded and assessed according to the equation above and the removal or subtraction of the height of the background , such as the actual sea floor . because the emitted light from the illumination source 12 can be adjusted to be a fine thin line for calculation purposes , the resultant image obtained can actually be a compilation of a large plurality of sequential lines calculated back to the r value with adjustments made for variation in intensity , these being a function of both the r value and a compensated value obtained algorithmetically . due to the fact that light within the water milieu is subject to varying amounts of scattering , the algorithmic adjustment is necessary to compensate for these scattering effects in the aqueous environment . an additional adjustment can also be made to incorporate navigational and / or vehicle speed data into the final positional equation so that a more accurate location is assigned to the object . this can be achieved by incorporation of navigational sensors or sensor systems which are attuned to respond to gsp , compass , gyro navigational systems , or others such systems as known to those of ordinary skill in the art . in addition , compensation for the pitching and rolling of the platform can also be taken into account so that the accuracy of the depiction of the image obtained is increased . by use of compensation , a more exact location is achieved with respect to a fixed object as well as the ability to locate objects on a moving surface also being possible . this could enable scanning of ship hulls for foreign objects relative to fixed positions along their extent while they are underway or drifting . in a further embodiment of the instant invention , as depicted in fig3 , a fluorescent analysis system or other alternative systems can be used either solely or in combination with the primary system . in this embodiment the camera or other detection means is replaced with a fluorescent detection means . this enables analysis of organic material present on the surface of the object . this particular knowledge is useful when a determination is necessary to ascertain the amount of time a particular surface has been in the aqueous environment with respect to other surfaces in the environment . for example , if an object has been recently added to a ship &# 39 ; s hull , the amount of organic material present in that portion of the hull will be less than on the surrounding surfaces , and if that object is not otherwise accounted for by recent repair activities , then its presence may be of a suspicious nature . this type of knowledge is very helpful when it is desired that ships entering a possible port be free of possible terrorist - connected problems or when a ship may have been in some other way compromised in its integrity . in order to effect the fluorescent embodiment of the instant invention , it is desired that the illumination source 12 illuminate at the desired wavelength . as known to those of ordinary skill in the art , for example , the use of a green light illumination at 532 nm is absorbed by organic material and fluoresced at 685 nm in the red range . thus , if a scanning system is used where a combination of green and red detectors are reading the backscattered light , a change in the concentration of the organic material changes the ratio of the green / red returned signals . in this application , as the surface is scanned , if a new object has been recently added , then the amount of red given off by that object goes to zero and the ratio instantly signals that a surface change is present . the illumination means itself may be tuned to a specific wavelength or wavelengths , or an appropriate filtering means may be used in concert with the source to tune the emitted light . this is also true of the detection or sensor means which may also have attenuating means connected with it to aid in selection of the desired wavelength . of course , to maximize sensitivity with less costly illumination sources and detectors , it is preferable to use filtering means at both the source and detection portions of the analytical equipment . this choice as well as the choice of the specific source , detector , and filtering means are well within the scope of ordinary skill in the art . it is further contemplated that the illumination source may also be a pulsed , strobe , or other “ time - gating ” source as known to one of ordinary skill in the art . this time - gating enables synchronization of the source with the detection means so that effects of outside interference are minimized . by collecting light only during the appropriate positive pulses of the time - gates , appropriate speed of light in water , and appropriate distance to the surface of interest , the effects of ambient light on the system are reduced . motion blur effects can also be reduced in a time - gated system . it is also contemplated that a simpler version of the fluorescence system may be used without the dual ratio calculating capacity . thus a green - green system , a red - red system , a green - red system , a red - green system , or even multi - source illumination in the blue and green regions are possible with a red receiver / sensor . this would allow discrimination of the type of organism involved in bio - fouling which results in fluorescence . in addition a broad wavelength system may also be used for material analysis of the surface , excluding the presence of organic material and instead directed to the presence of foreign materials on the surface of the scanning target . it is further contemplated that any analytical system based on reflected light known to one of ordinary skill in the art may be incorporated into the instant system . these may be used for metals , plastics , fibrous materials , or other light detectable materials as desired by one of ordinary skill in the art . in addition to the single illumination source and single camera system of fig1 - 3 , a plurality of sources , cameras and / or detectors and , indeed , the combination of both a plurality of detection means and sources is also contemplated by the instant invention . the addition of a plurality of analysis systems in a multiple sensing system allows for the simultaneous assessment of a variety of surfaces or for the performance of multiple types of analysis at one time . this is particularly helpful when it is desired to scan the entire surface of an object without changing the direction of movement of the platform . an embodiment of a multiple sensing system is shown in fig4 . here , a single illumination source 12 supplies the light incident on object 13 which is reflected back to the two cameras 14 and 41 through lenses 42 and 43 . it is also contemplated that a dual source , single detection system may also be used . by use of this geometry , it is possible to examine a plurality of surfaces with the platform moving only once over the object &# 39 ; s location . this is particularly useful when the object or desired feature for study is then calculated back to a specific position or position on a an object . thus the need for a multiplicity of passes over the object is obviated and the inherent problems of having to compensate for the new directional parameters are not present . this affords the user a simpler method of not only performing the scan , but also allows for analyses to be made under a wider variety of conditions such as rough water or on free - floating ship &# 39 ; s surfaces . because a single set of operating parameters is presented for calculation purposes , the resultant system is easier to handle and the data thus obtained are more reliable . in addition , by use of a single scan over a multiple direction scan , the optimum single direction whether it is chosen due to water conditions or because of its relation to another feature or surface , may be examined without having to gather performance data multiple times with respect to direction . in the embodiment depicted in fig5 , an additional beam - splitting device 55 is inserted into the system . this device serves to physically divide the reflected signal into a plurality of equal components which are then conveyed into separate detectors such as 14 a and 14 b . this device may be a mirror type of device or any other reflective type of device available to one of ordinary skill in the art , such as an optical switch . this embodiment shows two detectors , but it is considered within the scope of the invention that any number of detection means may be chosen as desired by the particular application . if desired , each detector may be tuned to a different frequency or wavelength for simultaneous , multispectral imaging . in this fashion , 3 - d and fluorescent imaging can occur simultaneously . in addition , the location or locations of the cameras or detection means and the illumination source or sources may be moved to any desired location along the extent of the platform . this enables the artisan to stabilize the analysis system with respect to the movement of the platform and serves to reduce the effects of motion on the camera and illumination equipment . also , by selectively locating the camera with respect to the body of the platform , the effects of pitch and yaw in rough conditions can be minimized by using the platform body as a stabilizer . it is also contemplated that a plurality of geometries for the actual target of the illumination source 12 may be used . thus , the system 10 may be configured with respect to the platform for scanning not only under the platform as shown in fig1 , but also configurations for scanning above and sideways with respect to the longitudinal axis of the platform are contemplated . indeed , when a plurality of illumination and detection / camera systems are used , a plurality of combination of configurations is possible . the ability to locate the proper scanning system or systems , and subsequent configuration , is considered within the scope of ordinary skill in the art and can be chosen for the desired application . it is also contemplated that additional types of analysis systems may be added to the platform in order to vary the type of analyses made by the instant system . some of these include , but are not limited to , sonar systems , fluorescence systems , and other sensor based systems which may be used to monitor a variety of additional parameters simultaneously as chosen by one of ordinary skill in the art . in addition , when it is desired , other spectroscopic systems may also be used , including those operating in the uv , ir , and visible ranges . in order to effect the fluorescent or other spectroscopic embodiments of the instant invention , it may be desired that the illumination source 12 be tuned to give a desired wavelength . in addition , the detection system may also be tuned to screen out undesired backscattered light in order to optimize the readout of the system . also , any combination of tuned and untuned detectors and sources are considered within the scope of the instant invention and are a matter of choice as desired for particular applications . the tuning means may be an optical filter system or other means as known to those of skill in the art . indeed , if a laser source is used , the laser itself may be tuned or , in the interest of economy , a separate tuning means may be used in conjunction with the laser . as known to those of ordinary skill in the art , as discussed before , the use of a green light illumination at 532 nm is reflected back at 685 nm in the red range due to the presence of organic material . thus , if a scanning system is used where a combination of green and red detectors are reading the backscattered light , then a change in the concentration of the organic material changes the ratio of the green / red returned signals . in this way , as the surface is scanned , if a new object has been recently added , then the amount of red given off by that object goes to zero and the ratio instantly signals that a surface change is present . by use of appropriate optical filters and tuning means , the source and detectors may be optimized for a specific set of wavelengths . modification and variation can be made to the disclosed embodiments of the instant invention without departing from the scope of the invention as described . those skilled in the art will appreciate that the applications of the present invention herein are varied , and that the invention is described in the preferred embodiment . accordingly , additions and modifications can be made without departing from the principles of the invention . particularly with respect to the claims it should be understood that changes may be made without departing from the essence of this invention . in this regard it is intended that such changes would still fall within the scope of the present invention . therefore , this invention is not limited to the particular embodiments disclosed , but is intended to cover modifications within the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined in the appended claims .	6
referring to fig1 a tape cartridge 10 has a rectangular boxlike enclosure 11 consisting of a baseplate 12 and a cover 13 . journalled on shafts projecting from the baseplate are a pair of identical fixed reel hubs 15 and 16 and a fixed belt - driving roller 17 that is positioned between the reel hubs adjacent a first cutaway portion 18 of a first edge 19 of the enclosure . the first cutaway portion 18 allows the capstan of a recording device to contact the belt - driving roller . a length of magnetic recording tape 20 is convolutely wound on the reel hubs in opposite directions to provide two tape packs and is drawn past a pair of pins 21 and 22 and over three tape guide pins 23 , 23a , and 24 to extend along the first edge 19 across said first cutaway portion 18 and a second cutaway portion 25 at which the tape can be contacted by a recording head ( not shown ) of a tape recorder . near corners of the cartridge at either end of a second edge 27 that extends parallel to the first edge 19 of the enclosure 11 , first and second idler rollers 29 and 30 are journalled on fixed pins projecting from the baseplate 12 . near corners at either end of the first edge 19 are third and fourth idler rollers 31 and 32 that are identical to the first and second except that the third idler roller 31 is of slightly reduced diameter because of space constraints deemed necessary to make the tape cartridge of fig1 interchangeable with the 1 / 4 inch ( 6 . 35 mm ) von behren tape cartridge now on the market as mentioned above . an elastic , preferably polyurethane , belt 34 is stretchably entrained around the tape packs , the belt - driving roller 17 , and the idler rollers 29 , 30 , 31 , and 32 , the positions of which , as there shown , give the belt an angle of wrap of from about 170 to 230 degrees at the periphery of each of the tape packs . the pins on which the idler rollers are journalled are lubricated to maintain a predetermined drag on the elastic belt 34 . like that in the tape cartridge of the von behren patent , the belt - driving roller 17 has a larger diameter portion that extends over the tape path between the guide pins 23 and 24 to be contacted by a capstan ( not shown ) of a tape recorder . the bearing surface of each idler roller and each belt - driving roller is crowned to keep the belt centered without edge guides . a prototype of the belt - driven tape cartridge shown in fig1 had the following significant features : ______________________________________baseplate 12 aluminumthickness 2 . 5 mmcover 13 polycarbonate resinreel hubs 15 , 16 glass - filled polycarbonate resindiameter 40 mmmagnetic recording tape 20length 300 mwidth 6 . 35 mmmaximum tape pack diameter 73 mmbelt - driving roller 17diameter 17 . 4 mmlarger diameter portion 22 . 6 mmidler rollers 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 acetal resindiameter of 29 , 30 , 32 10 mmdiameter of 31 8 . 5 mmpins hardened steeldiameter 2 mmelastic belt 34 polyurethanelength 73 . 7 cmwidth 3 . 5 mmthickness 0 . 1 mm______________________________________ the installed elastic belt had a pre - tension of 3 . 3 nt and minimum and maximum angles of wrap at the reel hubs of about 170 and 230 degrees , respectively . the cartridge was operated at tape speeds up to 200 ips ( 5 . 1 m / sec ) and at start / stop accelerations up to 75 m / sec 2 while maintaining a tape tension of at least 0 . 17 nt throughout a large number of test cycles . at all times , both the belt and tape tracked precisely , thus producing a mirror - like appearance at the faces of the tape packs . the motor force to attain a tape speed of 2 . 3 m / sec was 0 . 7 nt . tested for comparison was a belt - driven tape cartridge of the von behren patent of the same size . its elastic belt had a pre - tension of 4 . 4 nt , because a pre - tension of at least about 4 . 4 nt was required to prevent failure in start / stop operation at tape speeds up to 90 ips ( 2 . 3 m / sec ). even at this higher belt pre - tension ( as compared to that of the cartridge of example 1 ), the tape tension dropped below zero at a speed of 3 . 4 m / sec . the motor force to attain a tape speed of 2 . 3 m / sec was 0 . 9 nt . after being driven at tape speeds up to 90 ips ( 2 . 3 m / se ), the tape packs had a mirror - like appearance , but not after being driven at tape speeds above 120 ips ( 3 m / sec ) which resulted in tape edges protruding from the faces of the tape packs , thus evidencing scatterwind . as compared to a belt - driven tape cartridge of the von behren patent , it is believed that the novel tape cartridge can be operated at lower belt tension because the greater wrap angles better guard against slippage . in fig2 line 50 charts the driving force and line 51 charts the tape tension while driving the tape of the cartridge of the example from one reel hub to the other at 2 . 3 m / sec . for comparison , line 54 charts the driving force and line 55 charts the tape tension of the cartridge of the von behren patent at the same tape speed . this comparison shows that the tape cartridge of the example as compared to that of the von behren patent , attains higher tape tension at significantly less driving force . to maintain uniform tape tension at the recording head , the tape tension ideally remains constant from bot to eot and back . comparison of lines 50 and 54 shows that the tape cartridge of the example came closer to this ideal than did the cartridge of the von behren patent . various changes and modifications to the embodiments of the invention as described will be readily apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art . the present invention therefore is intended to be limited only by the following claims .	6
the preferred embodiment is best described by summarizing generally its cooperating elements and providing details of certain elements as require for understanding . the stoker 10 of the present invention has a rearward upright mounted hopper 12 made of sheet metal , whose furnace side consists of a mounting flange 14 . the hopper accepts and stores coal ; typically rice - sized anthracite . at the bottom of the hopper is a covered pusher assembly 16 , cf . fig2 which is designed so as to be protected from the generally acidic atmosphere of combustion , particularly if lower grade or wet coal is used . the pusher has a variable stroke ( see fig6 of u . s . pat . no . 4 , 662 , 290 ), and is intermittently slidingly reciprocated ( see the &# 39 ; 290 fig3 a with pusher advanced ). by this means , the amount of infed coal is regulated and is squeezed compressingly through a port 18 ( fig3 ) in the flange , and into a restricting passageway 20 defined by an upper grate cover 22 roofing over the passage by bolt means 24 . the passageway whose sides are formed by upright sidewalls 26 of side rails 28 . the top of a planar fire grate 30 , which is projected horizontally , ensures that the coal will not heap or run away over the fire grate 30 , which grate has a multiplicity of air holes 32 ( fig2 ) disposed therethrough . the fire grate forms the top ( fig1 ) of an air box 36 ( fig3 ), which is forced air fed typically with a 100 cfm squirrel cage , blower ( fig1 ), whose air intake is made variable by a sidewall , swivel cover plate 40 . the blower is sealed at its output end to the intake of the air box 36 by a gasket 42 . the pusher assembly ( fig3 ) is a rectangular box - shaped component which has an upper casting 44 forming a top 46 . this assembly is described in relation to fig4 of potts u . s . pat . no . 4 , 662 , 290 , which is incorporated here by reference . cam 64 is attached to a gear motor 65 which typically turns at about 0 . 75 rpm . the rotation of cam 64 imparts a reciprocal sliding motion to the pusher assembly 58 , which , when installed , necessarily gives a vibratory motion to the hopper . an angle bar ( not seen ) when adjusted in its angle by the adjusting screw , regulates the length of the stroke of the pusher assembly and thereby regulates the amount of infed coal into the passage . the foregoing features are in the art . referring now to fig4 there is seen schematically , a partial longitudinal vertical section of a stoker 10 . stoker 10 is illustrated to include a highly perforated , planar grate 66 , bottom plate 68 , and upright sidewall 16 . coal advances from the hopper ( not seen ), through a lower sloped passage 18 , onto fire grate 66 . the action of a pusher plate through the earlier described camming action , enhances the progressive flow of rice coal in an even manner onto the fire grate 66 . with the forced air draft from the blower 38 , a substantially complete combustion of infed coal is accomplished . i have determined the enshrouded coal pusher ancillary feature of the potts patent &# 39 ; 290 works more effectively with the modified fire grate 66 of the present invention ( fig4 ). the compacted coal strips traverse grate 66 by a lateral pressure of successive coal feed strips from the described pusher mechanism . the resulting powder - like ash , with minimal unburned coal , drops off the distal transverse edge of the fire grate 66 to the ash pan ( not seen ). as depicted in fig2 the modules 33 a / b , forming the perforated grate 66 , may be fabricated in rectangular planar form , with the serial perforations already inscribed . by use of this variable dimension grate modules , the range of fire grate planar dimensions can be readily developed . in the end vertical view of fig5 taken along lines 5 — 5 of fig4 the steeper trough defined by sidewalls 16 abutting the grate component is better seen . the resulting deeper fire bed effects improved combustion of the coal . in operation , at the start , after a fire is started on the grate , a defined quantity of rice coal is found on the step in front of the pusher which quantity is squeezed compressingly into the passage and held by its restriction . successive quantities of coal are deposited into the passage with each reciprocation cycle pushing the previous deposit further into the passage . the result of successive deposits is the ejection from the passage of a continuous strip of compressed coal of rectangular cross - section , which works its way across the plane of the fire grate , between the side rails . in this way , as combustion takes place on the grate , clinkers cannot form and ash is continuously cleared from the grate . as may be understood , the amount of coal delivered for burning can be varied from zero , to typically six 6 pounds , per hour based on cam size , at a maximum and forced air flow regulated accordingly to ensure complete burning . stack temperature measurements tend to show that up to 85 % use of generated btu &# 39 ; s is quite possible , demonstrating a high degree of efficiency . of course , the principles involved in the current invention would allow for the construction of a much larger capacity stoker than the one disclosed . comparative performance of coal combustion was conducted using a prior art stoker which provides a prior art inclined fire grate . such prior art stoker is depicted in fig3 a of potts &# 39 ; 290 patent and more graphically , in the prior art stoker of fig1 and 2 of the instant set of drawings . this is being compared with the substantially horizontal fire grate 30 a as described in the present inventive embodiment . the modified grate configuration is sold commercially as the model flat grate by keystone manufacturing co . of schuylkill haven , pa . 17972 . two successive runs of rice coal were loaded into respective hoppers , 12 and 12 a , with the initial coal weight load and total ash weight determined per each run . the burning of 40 lb . of rice anthracite in each stoker was so effected . the weight of collected ash from operation of the prior art pott stoker slant grate was 6 . 5 lb ., or 13 % by weight . a similar run was conducted for the presently taught horizontal grate with the same two weight measurements being made . the weight of ash was just 4 . 0 lb , or 8 % by weight of the coal charge . this is a 38 % reduction in the amount of disposable ash from the prior art stoker with the same amount of starting coal . this also indicates that 2 . 5 lb . more of rice coal were combusted in the stoker of the present invention . a second comparative run of the two stokers ( 50 lb . coal charge to each hopper ) produced comparable data , to 7 . 29 lb . for the prior art stoker , vs . 4 . 47 lb . of ash for the inventive stoker . the second run showed that that 2 . 82 lbs more ( 7 . 29 - 4 . 47 ) was combusted on the horizontal vs . the slant grate . the reduction in the ash amount was 38 . 5 % for the second run . qualitatively , the ash from the flat grate stoker was markedly more dense than the ash collected from the horizontal grate unit . a quality control expert concluded that the anthracite coal was burned more completely in the inventive stoker of the present invention . this was confirmed by the marked variance in the measurable ash from each run , confirming fuller coal combustion . since many modifications , variations , and changes in detail may be made to the presently described embodiments , it is intended that all matter in the foregoing description , accompanying drawings , and formal claims being interpreted as illustrative and not by way of limitation .	5
embodiments of the present invention relate to structure and operation of a current dissipation circuit . for example , referring to fig1 , a circuit 100 includes two circuit nodes 101 and 102 , and a current dissipation circuit 110 interposed therebetween to induce a current idiss . if the induced current idiss is positive , then the current dissipation circuit 100 draws current from the first circuit node 101 into one or more second circuit node ( s ) 102 . if the induced current idiss is negative , then the current dissipation circuit 100 provides current from the one or more second circuit nodes 102 into the first circuit node 101 . fig2 a and 2b each illustrate one example use of the current dissipation circuit 100 of fig1 . in each case of fig2 a and 2b , the first circuit node 201 ( corresponding to first circuit node 101 of fig1 ) is coupled to second circuit node ( s ) 202 ( corresponding to second circuit node ( s ) 102 of fig1 ) through the current dissipation circuit 210 ( corresponding to the current dissipation circuit 110 of fig1 ). in addition , protected circuit 220 is shown coupled to the first circuit node 201 . if excessive current 231 a is provided to the first circuit node 201 as illustrated in the case of fig2 a , then the current dissipation circuit 210 may draw current 232 a from the first circuit node 201 , thereby leaving a more manageable current 233 a to be dissipated within the protected circuit 220 . on the other hand , if excessive current 231 b is drawn from the first circuit node 201 as illustrated in the case of fig2 b , the current dissipation provides current 232 b to the first circuit node 201 , thereby once again leaving a more manageable current 233 b that is dissipated within the protected circuit 220 . excessive current may be provided to or drawn from the first circuit node 201 in cases of electrical overstress ( eos ) such as , for example , electrostatic discharge ( esd ) being applied to the first circuit node 201 or to a component electrically close to the first circuit node 201 . thus , the amount of current that passes through the current dissipation circuit is different depending on the state of the circuit , where the state is defined as controlled by a voltage applied at the first circuit node 101 , or at least by a voltage differential between the first and second circuit nodes 101 and 102 . in the case of fig2 a and 2b , the voltage at the first circuit node 201 controls how the current dissipation circuit 210 acts . accordingly , in the case of fig2 a and 2b , the first circuit node 201 may also be referred to in this description as a “ monitored ” circuit node . conventional current dissipation circuits often come in the form of silicon or semiconductor controlled rectifiers ( scrs ). such scrs often operate in one of two states , often referred to as a “ non - regenerative mode ” and “ regenerative mode ”. so long as the voltage at the monitored circuit node ( e . g ., circuit node 201 ) is within a safe range , the current dissipation circuit is in non - regenerative mode in which it draws or provides little , if any , current , and thus has little effect on the protected circuitry . if the monitored circuit node has a voltage that is outside of that safe range , the current dissipation circuit is triggered into the regenerative mode thus drawing or providing ( as appropriate ) substantial amounts of current . thus , when the voltage applied at the monitored circuit node transitions from within the safe range to outside the safe range , the current dissipation circuit begins immediately to dissipate relatively large amounts of current , thereby preserving the protected circuitry . this triggering can be relatively abrupt . the level of voltage required for such triggering can differ significantly depending on the application , since it is the application that will define the safe and unsafe ranges . accordingly , any mention of specific trigger voltages made herein is strictly for example purposes only , and not to restrict the scope of the invention . in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention , however , there may be an additional state in which a reverse voltage is applied between the first and second circuit nodes 101 and 102 . such a condition might be realistic in many applications . for instance , in battery powered circuitry , the battery may simply be applied with an unintentionally reversed electrical polarity . in those situations , the protected circuitry may be designed to provide some limited functionality given the reverse applied voltage . fig3 illustrates a current dissipation circuit 300 manufactured on a semiconductor substrate that may be used to protect circuitry from eos while permitting operation in a reverse voltage condition . for clarity , portions of the protection circuit 300 are illustrated in cross - section as they might be processed on a semiconductor substrate , while other portions are illustrated using simple circuit symbols . in addition to providing reverse voltage protection without triggering the current dissipation circuit 300 , the current dissipation circuit 300 may also be processed using a single - well technology in which all wells are manufactured of the same polarity ( i . e ., all n - type or all p - type ). in the illustrated case of fig3 , all of the wells are n - type . in this description and in the claims , an “ n - type ” region or “ n - region ” of a semiconductor material is said to have an n - type polarity and is a region in which there are more n - type dopants than p - type dopants , if there are any p - type dopants at all . on the other hand , a “ p - type ” region or “ p - region ” of a semiconductor material is said to have a p - type polarity and is a region in which there are more p - type dopants than n - type dopants , if there are any n - type dopants . generally , the p - type polarity is considered to be the opposite of the n - type polarity . the current dissipation circuit 300 includes two autonomous n - well regions 311 and 312 within a p - type semiconductor substrate 305 . an “ n - well ” region is a well that is formed as an n - type region within a larger p - type region , as opposed to a “ p - well ” region which is formed as a p - type region within a larger n - type region . techniques for forming n - well and p - well regions in a substrate are well known in the art and thus will not be discussed here . it will be understood that a p - type semiconductor region in contact with an n - type semiconductor region will cause a diode effect , with current being permitted to pass from the p - type region to the n - type region if the voltage at the p - type region is higher than the voltage at the n - type region . however , current is not permitted to flow from the n - type region to the p - type region absent a significantly high voltage at the n - type region with respect to the p - type region . this higher voltage is often referred to as a diode &# 39 ; s “ breakdown ” voltage or “ reverse breakdown ” voltage . occasionally , while describing the operation of the current dissipation circuit 300 of fig3 , reference will be made to the pnpnp stack 700 a of fig7 a , which illustrates the relationship of the p - type and n - type junctions of fig3 . likewise , fig8 a illustrates the relationship in the form of interconnected bipolar transistors 800 a . since fig7 a is used to describe only the principles of operation , the size of the n - type and p - type regions of fig7 a are not drawn to scale when compared to the corresponding components of fig3 . in fig7 a , the n - region 702 a corresponds to the n - well 311 of fig3 , and the n - region 704 a corresponds to the n - well 312 of fig3 . the p - region 703 a corresponds to the p - type substrate 305 of fig3 . note that in fig3 , there may be an n - channel field 314 surrounding the n - well 311 . the thickness of this n - channel field 314 may be controlled at the time of circuit manufacture to thereby control the breakdown voltage between the diode defined by the n - well 311 and the p - type substrate 305 . mechanisms for forming such an n - channel field of a specific width are known in the art and thus will not be described here . although not shown , an n - tub of higher n - type dopant density than the n - well 311 may be used internal to the n - well 311 to provide a further adjustment to the breakdown voltage . referring to fig7 a and 8a , the n - region 702 a of fig7 a corresponds to the n - type base terminal of the pnp bipolar transistor 801 a and the n - type collector terminal of the npn bipolar transistor 802 a , which are shown coupled together in fig8 a since the terminals are both formed using the same n - type region 702 a . also , the n - region 704 a of fig7 a corresponds to the n - type emitter terminal of the npn bipolar transistor 802 a and corresponds to the n - type base terminal of the pnp bipolar transistor 803 a . once again , these terminals are coupled together since they are formed of the same n - type region 704 a the p - region 703 a of fig7 a corresponds to the p - type collector terminal of pnp bipolar transistor 801 a , the p - type emitter terminal of pnp bipolar transistor 803 a , and the p - type base terminal of npn bipolar transistor 802 a , which are shown coupled together . referring back to fig3 , the n - well 311 is coupled to a first circuit node 301 through a first parallel combination of a p - type contact region 331 and an n - type contact region 332 . the net dopant density of each of the p - type contact region 331 and the n - type contact region 332 is greater than the net dopant density of the n - well 311 . this higher net dopant density is expressed in fig3 by the p - type contact region 331 being designated as “ p +”, and the n - type contact region 332 being designated as “ n +”. the “ net dopant density ” is the concentration per unit volume of dominant dopant species ( n - type dopants if an n - type region , and p - type dopants if a p - type region ) minus the concentration per unit volume of minority dopant species ( p - type dopants if an n - type region , and n - type dopants if a p - type region ). referring to fig3 and 7a , the p + contact region 331 of fig3 corresponds to the p - region 701 a of fig7 a . the p - region 701 a is coupled to one terminal 721 a of the pnpnp stack 700 a . the terminal 301 of fig3 corresponds to the terminal 721 a of fig7 a . the resistor 303 of fig3 corresponds to the resistor 711 a of fig7 a having resistance r . referring to fig3 and 8a , the p + contact region 331 of fig3 corresponds to the p - type emitter terminal of the pnp bipolar transistor 801 a . the terminal 301 of fig3 corresponds to terminal 821 a of fig8 a . the resistor 303 of fig3 corresponds to the resistor 811 a of fig8 a . referring back to the illustrated embodiment of fig3 , the n + contact region 332 is coupled to the first circuit node 301 through a resistor circuit element 303 . in this description and in the claims , a “ resistor circuit element ” is a resistor that is specifically formed as a desired portion of a circuit pattern . the p + contact region 331 is coupled to the first circuit node 301 without an intervening resistor circuit element in h the illustrated embodiment . a second n - well 312 is coupled to the second circuit node 302 through a parallel combination of a p + contact region 321 and an n + contact region 322 . in the illustrated embodiment , the third and fourth contact regions 321 and 322 are coupled to the second circuit node 302 without an intervening resistor element . in one embodiment , the first circuit node 301 is an i / o pad in which input and / or output signals may be applied . the second circuit node 302 may be a substantially fixed voltage supply such as , for example , ground . the substrate 305 may also be connected to ground . the remaining circuit elements 323 serve to reduce the breakdown voltage of the diode defined by the interface between the n - well 311 to p - type substrate 305 . referring to fig3 and 7a , the p + contact region 321 of fig3 corresponds to the p - region 705 a of fig7 a . the second circuit node 302 of fig3 corresponds to the circuit node 722 a of fig7 a . since the n - well 312 is connected through the n + region 322 to the circuit node 302 with some resistance , fig7 a shows a small resistor 712 a having resistance r 1 coupled between the n - region 704 a and the second circuit node 722 a . furthermore , since p - type substrate 305 may well be grounded , and the second circuit node 302 is grounded , the p - region 703 a is shown coupled to the second circuit node 722 a ( which may be grounded ) through resistor 713 a having resistance r 2 . the resistors r 1 and r 2 may be parasitic , as opposed to an expressed resistor circuit element in the design . however , the resistors may also be expressed design elements . referring to fig3 and 8a , the p + contact region 321 of fig3 corresponds to the p - type collector terminal of pnp bipolar transistor 803 a of fig8 a . the second circuit node 302 of fig3 corresponds to the circuit node 822 a of fig8 a . since the n - well 312 is connected through the n + region 322 to the circuit node 302 with some resistance , fig8 a shows a small resistor 812 a having resistance r 1 coupled between the n - type base terminal of pnp bipolar transistor 803 a and the second circuit node 822 a . furthermore , since p - type substrate 305 may well be grounded , and the second circuit node 302 may well be grounded , the p - type base terminal of npn bipolar transistor 802 a is shown coupled to the second circuit node 822 a through resistor 813 a having resistance r 2 . referring back to fig3 , in normal operation mode , the first circuit node 301 will carry a moderately higher voltage than the second circuit node 302 . in one secondary operation mode ( referred to hereinafter as “ moderate reverse voltage mode ”), the first circuit node 301 may carry a moderately negative voltage as compared to the second circuit node 302 . this might occur , for example , if the circuit was battery - connected , and the battery was incorrectly configured in reverse . in a third operating mode ( referred to herein as a “ positive excessive voltage mode ”), the first circuit node 301 has an excessive positive voltage as compared to the second circuit node 302 . in a fourth operating mode ( referred to herein as a “ negative excessive voltage mode ”), the first circuit node 301 has an excessive negative voltage as compared to the second circuit node 302 . these third and fourth operating modes might be characteristic of some electrical overstress ( eos ) condition such as , for example , electrostatic discharge ( esd ) occurring at the first circuit node 301 . referring to the voltage - current characteristic graph 600 of fig6 , the evaluation begins with the current applied through the current dissipation circuit being negligible . when the first circuit node 301 is driven to a voltage below that of the substrate 305 as in the moderate reverse voltage mode , the parasitic diode junction defined by the pn junction at the interface of the substrate 305 and n - well 311 becomes forward - biased . the negative voltage at the first circuit node 301 is not yet sufficient at this stage to overcome with breakdown voltage of the pn junction between n - well 311 and p + contact region 331 . however , after some amount of capacitive pre - charging , the current is free to flow from the p - type substrate 305 to the n - well 311 , through the n + contact region 332 , through the resistor 303 and to the first circuit node 301 . the presence of the resistor 303 , however , serves to limit the amount of current that flows through the resistor 303 . referring to fig7 a , in this moderate reverse voltage mode , current may flow from the p - type region 703 a to the n - type region 702 a , and through the resistor 711 a . referring to fig6 , in this moderate reverse voltage mode in which the voltage transitions from zero to somewhere below approximate 37 volts , the current remains still relatively small ( below 1 amp ) within region 601 . if the protected circuitry has functionality for operating under this moderate reverse voltage condition , the circuitry may continue to thus operate , since the current dissipation circuit is not dissipating significant amounts of current . if the reverse voltage were to increase , however , to the triggering voltage ( approximately 37 volts in the case of fig6 ), the current dissipation circuit would enter excessive negative voltage mode . in this case , the current through ( and the voltage across ) the resistor 303 becomes sufficiently large , that the diode defined by the p + region 331 and the n - well 311 enters avalanche breakdown . in this case , the current flowing from n - well 311 through p + contact region 331 and to the first circuit node 301 increased dramatically thereby causing the voltage at circuit node 301 to drop . this transition is represented in fig6 by region 602 . this avalanche breakdown voltage may be adjusted as needed for the application , as will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art after having reviewed this description . for instance , the dopant profile of the p + contact region 331 may be made less abrupt to increase the breakdown voltage , or more abrupt to decrease the breakdown voltage . furthermore , the n - channel field 314 thickness , and the n + region 323 position may be altered to adjust the breakdown voltage . there may be other parameters that may be adjusted at design time to control the breakdown voltage , as will be known to those of ordinary skill in the art after having reviewed this invention . for instance , the distance between n + region 323 and either the n - well 311 or the n - channel field 314 may be adjusted during the design to thereby move the breakdown voltage to a desired tolerance . once the current rises above a particular level , the current dissipation circuit enters a positive feedback mode in which more and more current is dissipated with only minor voltage changes present at the first circuit node 301 . this positive feedback mode will be further explained with respect to fig7 a and 8a and is represented in fig6 by region 603 . in negative excessive voltage mode , the current passing from p - region 703 a to n - region 702 a through resistor 711 a becomes large enough that the voltage drop across resistor 711 a exceeds the reverse breakdown voltage of the pn junction defined by the n - region 702 a and p - region 701 a . accordingly , significant current passes from the n - region 702 a through the p - region 701 a and to the first circuit node 721 a . referring to fig8 a , this means that the bipolar transistor 801 a activates , thereby permitting more and more current to pass between circuit nodes 821 a and 821 b as the negative voltage differential increases . accordingly , in excessive negative voltage mode , the current dissipation circuit 300 provides significant current to the first voltage node 301 , such that the current drawn from the first circuit node 301 does not cause excessive current to be drawn from the protected circuit itself as in the case of fig2 b . fig5 , on the other hand , illustrates one example of voltage - current characteristics of the current dissipation circuit 300 of fig3 in the case in which a positive voltage is applied on the first circuit node 301 as compared to the second current node 302 . so long as this positive voltage remains below a certain positive trigger voltage ( about 16 volts in the example of fig5 ), the current drawn by the current dissipation circuit 300 remains negligible due to the reverse bias of the parasitic diode between the n - well 311 and the p - type substrate 305 . referring to fig7 a , the reverse bias voltage at the pn junction defined by the n - region 702 a and the p - region 703 a is not sufficient to allow significant current to flow from n - region 702 a to p - region 703 a . accordingly , negligible current would pass through the current dissipation circuit 300 . when the positive voltage rises above the positive trigger voltage due to , for example , an eos event applied on the first circuit node 301 , the n - well 311 is charged up by the first circuit node 301 through the p + contact region 332 . referring to fig7 a , the n - region 702 a would charge up through p - region 701 a . in fig8 a , the current would flow from the emitter terminal into the base terminal of the bipolar transistor 801 a . this serves to activate the flow of current through the current dissipation circuit 300 into the second circuit node 300 . as represented by fig5 , for example , with this increasing current , the voltage at the first circuit node 301 drops significantly , thereby protecting the protected circuitry from excessive current flow in the same way as shown in fig2 b . as will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art , the polarities of each of the regions of fig3 , 7 a and 8 a , may be reversed . in other words , p - type regions may be replaced by n - type regions , and vice verse . fig7 b illustrates a stack 700 b which shows a series of npnpn regions 701 b through 705 b , which applies this principles to fig7 a , with resistors 711 b through 713 b corresponding to resistors 711 a through 713 a . fig8 b illustrates a bipolar transistor configuration 800 b that includes bipolar transistors 801 b through 803 b and resistors 811 b through 813 b , that applies this principle to fig8 a . fig4 illustrates a dual reference mode form of the current dissipation circuit 300 of fig3 . while the current dissipation circuit 300 of fig3 uses a single reference node 302 as a current source or sink , the current dissipation circuit 400 of fig4 includes two references nodes 402 and 404 to source current to or sink current from the circuit node 401 . the operation of the components 401 , 402 , 403 , 405 , 411 , 412 , 421 , 422 , 423 , 431 and 432 of fig4 will operate much as described above for the components 311 , 312 , 321 , 322 , 323 , 331 and 332 described with respect to fig3 in sourcing or sinking current to or sinking current from circuit node 401 using reference node 402 . however , the reference node 404 will operate using regions 441 , 442 and 443 within n - well 413 much as described above for the reference node 302 operating using regions 321 , 322 and 323 within n - well 312 . accordingly , dual reference node current dissipation is achieved . therefore , a current dissipation circuit is described that permits for proper and adjustable current dissipation while permitted normal reverse voltage operation . furthermore , this is achieved by using single well technology thereby simplifying the fabrication of the current dissipation circuit . the present invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from its spirit or essential characteristics . the described embodiments are to be considered in all respects only as illustrative and not restrictive . the scope of the invention is , therefore , indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description . all changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are to be embraced within their scope .	7
the present invention will be described in the following in connection with one embodiment thereof with reference to fig1 ( a ) and 1 ( b ). a digitized speech 13 coming from an input unit 1 is converted by a spectral analysis unit 2 into a feature pattern expressing the feature of the speech at a predetermined time interval so that it is outputted as a time series of feature pattern 14 . a candidates selection unit 3 receives the time series of feature pattern 14 to output an n - number ( e . g ., n = 5 ) of more significant candidates of the speech category thought to exist in the input . the n - number of candidates selected by the candidates selection unit 3 are sent to a pair generation unit 4 so that a n c 2 - number of pairs ( e . g ., n c 2 = 10 for n = 5 ) to be subjected to pair discrimination are generated and sent to a pair discrimination unit 5 . this pair discrimination unit 5 discriminates each of the n c 2 - number of pairs sent from the pair generation unit 4 , but the operations of only one pair will be described . if two candidates are categories a and b , the pair discrimination unit 5 first refers to a second memory 7 to examine what is the feature ( e . g ., plosiveness , fricativeness or buzzbar ) intrinsic to the phoneme acting as a cue for discriminating the categories a and b . now , if there are a k - number of the features ( as will be referred to as &# 34 ; acoustic cues &# 34 ;) intrinsic to the phoneme for cueing the discrimination of the categories a and b , it is examined whether or not each of the k - number of acoustic cues exists in the time series of feature pattern inputted . in accordance with the present invention , this processing is realized by a neural network . for the acoustic cue extraction processing , a first memory 6 stores in advance the name of each of the acoustic cues , the type of the neural network for extracting the acoustic cue , and connection coefficients . if it is found , as described above , with reference to the second memory 7 that there are k - number of acoustic cues for discriminating the categories a and b , the types of the neural networks and the connection coefficients are sequentially sent for the k - number of acoustic cues from the first memory 6 to a neural network calculation unit 51 to extract the acoustic cues . thus , a result of the extractions of the k - number of acoustic cues is obtained . this extraction result is sent to a membership function calculation unit 52 so that it is transformed into a membership function value . the calculation of this membership function value is accomplished by referring to a transformation table which is prepared in advance for each pair of each category in the second memory 7 for transforming the extracted values of the acoustic cues into the membership functional values . if the extracted value of the k - th acoustic cue is designated at o k and if the membership function value of the corresponding category a is designated at μ a / b , k while the membership function value of the category b is designated at μ b / a , k &# 39 ; the processings to be accomplished by the membership function calculation unit 52 can be expressed by : here , t a / b , k and t b / a , k designate transformation tables . thus , the k - number of membership function values for the speech categories a and b , respectively , are sent to a fuzzy logic or device 53 so that the certainties of the categories a and b are calculated considering their contrasts . if the certainties of the categories a and b considering their contrasts are expressed by μ a / b and μ b / a &# 39 ; the processings at the fuzzy logic or device 53 can be expressed by : ## equ1 ## by these processings , the certainties μ a / b and μ b / a of the categories a and b are determined to end the pair discriminations of the categories a and b . the pair discriminations of all the remaining pairs are accomplished by similar procedures . thus , the discriminated results 11 of the n c 2 - number of pairs are obtained from the pair discrimination unit 5 and are summarized in a decision unit 8 . on the basis of this summation , the n - number of candidates are ranked and outputted as a final result 12 . the input unit 1 is constructed , as customary , of a microphone , an analog amplifier and an analog / digital converter and will not need an additional explanation . the spectral analysis unit 2 may be effected by a filter bank analysis unit or a linear prediction ( lpc ) device , the former of which is used in the present embodiment , as will be specifically described with reference to fig2 . an input speech x n is inputted to a group of band pass filters ( bpfs ) 21 and 22 having different center frequencies and band widths . in the present embodiment , the bpf group has a two - stage structure so as to perform a frequency resolution . the bpfs 21 and 22 are made of quadratic butterworth type filters , which are constructed of two adders , four multipliers and two delays . the waveform of the bpf results is rectified by an absolute value transformer ( abs ) 23 and has its high - frequency components cut by an low pass filter lpf 24 , a re - sampling device 25 and an lpf 26 so that an output pattern x i is obtained . the lpfs are made to have a two - stage structure for effecting a frequency resolution like the bpf , and the lpfs 24 and 26 are of the butterworth type having a processing scale like the bpfs . in the present embodiment , the filter bank is exemplified by 16 channels , in which bands of 100 hz to 6 khz are logarithmically arranged . the bands and the arrangements of the filters could naturally be modified in various way . next , the candidates selection unit 3 will be described in the following . the candidates selection unit 3 can be exemplified by several methods , but the present embodiment employs the template matching of the prior art , by which the more significant candidates ( e . g ., an n - number of candidates having the shorter distances ) are outputted . the template matching may be exemplified by the method which is disclosed in &# 34 ; minimum prediction residual principle applied to speech recognition &# 34 ; by f . itakura et al ., ieee trans on acoustics , speech and signal processing , vol . assp - 23 , pp . 57 to 72 , feb . 1975 . in this disclosure , the likelihood ratio is used as distance measure , which may by exemplified in the present embodiment by the euclidean distance between the feature ( or spectral ) pattern . for the n - number of candidates obtained from the candidates selection part 3 , the pair generation unit 4 generates an n c 2 - number of all pairs of combinations considered . this is such a simple combinatorial algorithm that it can be easily realized by software , as specifically shown as a flow chart in fig3 . in fig3 the n - number of speech categories enumerated as the candidates are designated at c 1 , c 2 , - - - , and c n . according to this flow chart , the pairs of the speech categories are generated in the total number of n c 2 in the order of ( c 1 , c 2 ), ( c 1 , c 3 ), - - - , ( c 1 , c n ), ( c 2 , c 3 ), - - - , and ( c n - 1 , c n ). next , the specific structure of the pair discrimination unit 5 shown in fig1 ( b ) will be described in the following with reference to fig4 . the digitized speech 13 has its frequency analyzed by the spectral analysis unit 2 so that its output channels 10 - 1 to 10 - 16 are inputted to the pair discrimination unit 5 . in this pair discrimination unit 5 , the output of the spectral analysis 2 is added to a group of acoustic cue extraction processors 51 . these acoustic cue extraction processors 51 are exemplified by twenty kinds , as shown in fig5 to extract the various cues for expressing the features of the individual phonemes of the speech . other kinds can be conceived for the cues , and all the cues need not be used but can naturally be combined in various ways for the performances demanded and the languages to be analyzed . it also goes without saying that the outputs of the acoustic cue extraction processors may be fed as features to the input of the candidates selection unit 3 . the output of each acoustic cue processor 51 - i ( 1 ≦ i ≦ n ) is added through a transformation unit 52 - j - k ( 1 ≦ j ≦ m , 1 ≦ k ≦ n ) to a group of pair discrimination units 53 - l ( 1 ≦ l ≦ n ). each pair discrimination unit 53 - l ( 1 ≦ l ≦ n ) discriminates which of the phoneme pairs ai and bi the input speech may possibly be , and is prepared for each of the various kinds of pairs . the transformation unit 52 is used to transform the output result of the acoustic cue processor , which is stored in the transformation table in the second memory 7 of fig1 into a value optimum for discriminating each pair discrimination unit 53 . the transformation unit 52 can naturally be eliminated if the acoustic cue processor is provided especially for optimizing each pair discrimination unit . if , on the other hand , the discrimination performance of each pair discrimination unit can be slightly dropped , another modification can naturally be made by eliminating the transformation unit 52 . the outputs 11 - a , 11 - b , - - - , 11 - a m , and 11 - b m of the individual pair discrimination unit 53 are inputted to the decision unit 8 ( as shown in fig1 ). next , the structure of the acoustic cue processor will be described in more detail . letters a to e appearing in the &# 34 ; type &# 34 ; column of fig5 designate the types of the characteristics of the acoustic cue . the type a has steady characteristics ( i . e ., type 1 ). of the types b , c and d which are featured ( type 2 ) to have timely changes within a constant time width : the type b has a transition , the type c has a discontinuity , and the type d has a temporary feature . the type e is characterized ( type 3 ) in the timely order relations . in the present embodiment , the structures of the acoustic cue extraction processors are classified according to three types and are constructed of neural networks having respectively suitable basic structures . since the acoustic cues to be extracted are different even for the common type , the individual networks are so independently learned as to produce respectively proper values and naturally have different characteristics . the acoustic cue extraction processor of the type 1 is constructed of a hierarchical neural network such as shown in fig6 . this network has two hidden layers between the input layer i and the output layer o . this hierarchical neural network is described in detail together with its learning method in &# 34 ; parallel distributted processing &# 34 ; by d . e . rumelhart et al ., mit press , cambridge ( 1986 ). the connection coefficient between an input unit i i and the hidden first layer unit h ij is designated at w 1ji ; the connection coefficient between each unit h 1j of the hidden first layer and the each unit h 2k of the second layer is designated at w 2kj ; and the connection coefficient between each unit h 2k of the hidden second layer and the unit o of the output unit is designated at w 3k . moreover , each unit of each layer has its output o constructed , as follows : ## equ2 ## here , for i = 0 , j = 0 and k = 0 , the unit receives the constant 1 at the righthand end of each layer of fig6 and the threshold values of the individual units are equivalently obtained at w 1j0 , w 2k0 and w 30 . this acoustic cue extraction processor outputs , if it is learned to detect the fricativeness , for example , a value at or near 1 , when it receives a fricative , but a value at or near 0 in response to other inputs . next , the learning procedures will be described in the following . the learning may be accomplished either ( 1 ) by constructing the neural network having another but similar structure in advance on a computer or the like , and by extracting a connection coefficient after the learning and introducing it into the corresponding acoustic cue extraction processor ; or ( 2 ) by disposing such a structure in the apparatus as can perform the following learning procedures . this structure per se can be easily realized by those skilled in the art . generally speaking , however , long processing periods and mass data have to be prepared for the learning of the neural network so that the data may be inputted for the learning . it is , therefore , more economical to construct the neural network separately on a computer system , as has been described above , than to prepare the structure for each apparatus . even if the fundamental portion is separately learned in advance , the learning function has to be realized on the apparatus in case it is desired to provide a function to correct the characteristics for each speaker . ( of course , it is more general and desirable to realize the studying function on a general - purpose processor for the control of the apparatus and by software rather than by the use of the same portion as the acoustic cue extraction processor of the apparatus and to load down each acoustic cue extraction processor after the learning . the general procedures of the learning are described in detail on pp . 318 to 362 , vol . 1 , sec . 8 , the aforementioned publication of d . e . rumelhart . the present embodiment is devised to match the present object with reference to the procedures . for simplifying the following descriptions , the characteristics of the units of the individual layers expressed by ( 3 ) to ( 5 ) are equalized without losing the generalities , and the following formulas are made : here the letter p designates the layer number ( p = 1 , 2 , 3 and 4 ) from the input ; the letter q designates the unit number of the p - th layer ; and the letter r designates the unit number of the ( p - 1 ) th layer . moreover , the letters t 0 designate the target value of the learning . here , a number of learning sample speeches are prepared , and outputs through the filter bank 2 ( as shown in fig4 ) are extracted every ten milliseconds , at which the acoustic cues of fig5 are visually featured or not . now , in case the acoustic cue extraction processor for detecting the third fricativeness is to be studied , for example , the output of the filter bank 2 is added from the input of the same processor by using the speech thus prepared , and the learning target value t . sub . θ is presented from the output side by &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; for the fricative and by &# 34 ; 0 &# 34 ; for the others . if an error between the output by the input signal of each unit and the target value given from the learning target is designated at δ , it is determined according to the aforementioned literature by : likewise , the error δ is determined up to the input layer . the correction δw of the weight of each coupled portion is determined in the following manner by using that error : the value α may be set by examining the converging rate experimentally . other acoustic cue extraction processors are also constructed to output the existence of the feature of each cue as a value within the range of [ 0 , 1 ] by a similar learning of the cue . thus , the acoustic cue extraction processors output the value &# 34 ; 1 &# 34 ; for complete features , the value &# 34 ; 0 &# 34 ; for incomplete features , and an intermediate value for other cases . the acoustic cue extraction processors of the types 2 and 3 are provided with the hierarchic neural networks having the structures shown in fig7 and 8 , respectively . the difference between the types 2 and 1 resides in that the structure of each layer of the neural network is apparently two - dimensional . although this two - dimensional arrangement is simply expressed in a plane for feasible illustration in fig7 the units are arranged two - dimensionally in each plane . the connections of the individual layers are identical to those of the case of the type 1 if the units in each layer are sequentially numbered from the end and are arranged in the same order in a row . thus , the interlayer processings and the learning procedures are identical to those of the type 1 . the difference inbetween resides in that the data inputs to the input layers are different . in fig7 more specifically , the oblique sixteen units are connected directly with the outputs of the filter bank 2 , and the data of the outputs of the filter bank of 10 , 20 , - - - , and 40 milliseconds before are inputted in the transverse direction . thus , the outputs of the individual channels of the filter bank are connected to five - stage shift registers , the outputs of which are inputted to the first - layer unit . since , however , the connections in the neural network are all equally coupled and since the degree of coupling is determined by the learning , the neural network has substantially the same structure as that of the type 1 from the standpoint that all the outputs of 16 × 5 = 80 data of the filter bank of 40 milliseconds before are inputted . the type 3 is similar in the structure of the input data to the type 2 but is different in the restrictions upon the coupling in the neural network . in order to illustrate this difference , fig8 presents a portion of the section of a predetermined one - channel output portion of the filter bank output . as seen from fig8 sixteen channels are arranged depthwise two - dimensionally . what is different from the type 2 is the restriction on the connections of the layers . for example , a unit h1 2 is connected not to a unit i 1 but to units i 2 to i 5 . a unit hi 3 is connected not to the units i 1 and i 2 but to the units i 3 to i 6 . the units i 1 , i 2 , - - - , and so on are shifted from the outputs of the channels of the filter bank for every ten milliseconds so that only the data of the timely - shifted portion is coupled to the more significant layers . except for this point , the type 3 is absolutely similar to the types 1 and 2 . the learning procedures can be realized absolutely irrespective of the result of the formula ( 10 ) except that the uncoupled units are always set at 0 . incidentally , the indications of the constant units for automatically learning the threshold values of the individual units are omitted from the illustrations of the types 2 and 3 , which can naturally be constructed like the type 1 . for convenience of explanation , the pair discrimination units 53 will be described in the following prior to the transformation units 52 . the pair discrimination units 53 use the outputs of the grouped acoustic cue extraction processors to discriminate how likely the input speech is one of two phonemes &# 34 ; ai &# 34 ; and &# 34 ; bi &# 34 ; if it is assumed to be either / p / or / k /. the information of using which acoustic cue is stored in the second memory 7 shown in fig1 . in case , therefore , the kinds of the phonemes contained in the speech of a language to be recognized are n , it is necessary to consider the pair discrimination units in the number of n = n c 2 of the combination of all pairs . it is , however , needless to say that the combination of the phonemes will raise few errors practically or the pairs containing the phonemes having a low frequency of appearance will raise few problems so that the errors can be ignored . in accordance with the information in the second memory 7 of fig1 which one of the acoustic cue extraction processors j is to be used is perceived ( by making the couplings of fig4 in advance ) to obtain the output o j of the acoustic cue used . in accordance with the table values of the transformation unit 52 of the second memory 7 , as conceptionally shown in fig9 all the acoustic cues using the values μ ai / bi , j and μ bi / ai , j indicating the certainties of the phonemes ai and bi are extracted to decide the fuzzy logic or for each of the phonemes ai and bi so that the decided fussy logic or is outputted as the pair decided result μ ai / bj and μ bj / ai of the phonemes ai and bi . these values are stored in related positions shown as the object positions in the table of fig1 . the fuzzy logic or is a processing for taking the maximum of the related membership functions and resorts to a method of selecting the most certain one of the related several acoustic cues . if all the phonemic pairs are thus examined , there can be created a two - dimensional table of the membership functions shown in fig1 . these values are the outputs of the pair discrimination unit 5 . in this table , the value μ p / t is the membership function value expressing the certainty of the phoneme / p / in case the input is assumed to be the phoneme / p / or / t /. next , the result collection ( or final decision ) unit 8 shown in fig1 will be described in the following . the result collection unit 8 accomplishes the processing of deciding which of the input phonemes is the most certain from the values tabulated in fig1 . in the present embodiment , the fuzzy logic or is taken from the individual rows of the matrix shown in fig1 and is defined as a certainty corresponding to each row so that its maximum may decide the input phoneme . if the certainty of each phoneme is designated at μ ai , the present processing can be expressed by : ## equ3 ## the category ( or phoneme ) giving the n - th value is accepted as the n - th recognition result . the fuzzy logic or is identical to the processor for determining the minimum of the membership functions so that the processing selects the value which is judged for each pair to be the phoneme to some extent at the worst . as has been described hereinbefore , according to the present embodiment , the processings of the pair discrimination pairs and the result collection unit 8 may be accomplished by remarkably simple algorithms and can be coped with using simple software . next , a second embodiment will be described in the following . the second embodiment has an overall structure similar to that of the first embodiment such that the pair discrimination units 53 of the first embodiment shown in fig4 are constructed of a neural network but do not include fuzzy processing . this neural network is shown in fig1 . if the outputs of the grouped acoustic cue extraction processors 51 or the transformation units 52 are inputted to input layers 111 - 1 to 111 - n , the pair discrimination outputs ( as designated at 11 - ai and 11 - bi in fig4 ) are outputted from output layer units 114 - 1 and 114 - 2 . the fundamental structure of the neural network is absolutely the same as that of the case of fig6 but is different in that the output layers are constructed of two units corresponding to the pair discrimination performances . in case the phoneme ai is inputted as the study input , the study target value t ai of the output layer unit at the ai side is set at 1 whereas the study target value of the other output unit is set at 0 . if the study input phoneme is bi , on the other hand , the setting is reversed . for either of the inputs ai and bi , the value 0 is set so that they may be studied like the case in which the neural network of fig6 is studied . in case the input phonemes are the best match , a value near 1 is outputted from the outputs of the incident side . in the non - coincident case , a value near 0 is outputted . fig1 shows a diagram for explaining a third embodiment . this embodiment is similar in its basic overall structure to the first embodiment but is different in that the result collection unit 8 of fig1 ( a ) is constructed of a neural network . the neural network of the present embodiment has each of its layers constructed apparently two - dimensionally such that an output layer 124 is composed of units corresponding to the number of the phonemes . to the individual units of an input layer 121 , there is inputted the two - dimensional data of fig1 or the outputs coming from the pair discrimination units of fig4 . since all the units of the input layer 121 are coupled to the individual units of the second layer , the data can be substantially deemed as one - dimensional data like the first layer of fig1 . likewise , the second and third layers are substantially made as a one - dimensional structure . for the study , the pair discrimination results of the input speech are inputted to the individual units of the input layer 121 so that the study target value of the units of the output layer 124 corresponding to the phonemes of the input speech may be set at 1 whereas the target value of the other units may be set at 0 . thus , the coupling weight may be studied in the procedures like those of the case in which the neural net of fig6 is studied . when the study is completed , the output of the output unit to be presumed as the phoneme of the input speech , if any , is as close as 1 . the category name corresponding to the unit for giving an n - th value near 1 can be deemed as the n - th recognition result . since the present invention has been constructed as described hereinbefore , it can attain the following effects . since the processing by the neural network or fuzzy processing is used , the ambiguity of the speech can be flexibly eliminated by the present invention to achieve a high recognition . since , moreover , these processings are used in the logic structure of the pair discrimination type , the causes for an error can be easily discovered and coped with to accumulate improvements in the performances . since , still moreover , an automatic studying function of the neural network is utilized , the processing suitable for each category can be automatically set to achieve a high recognition . since , furthermore , each portion is constructed in advance in a structurally divided manner , it can be assembled and studied stably and easily to eliminate the difficulty in the study of the large - scaled neural network system .	8
high boiling isocyanate compounds a ) are compounds and mixtures having isocyanate groups and boiling points of above 180 ° c ., preferably above 250 ° c . and more preferably above 300 ° c . under standard conditions . under the reaction conditions the boiling temperature of isocyan ate component a ) must be at least 10 ° c ., preferably 20 ° c . and more preferably 40 ° c . above the adjusted reaction temperature . suitable isocyanate compounds a ) are known and include compounds having aliphatically , cycloaliphatically , araliphatically or aromatically bound isocyanate groups . examples include monoisocyanates such as stearyl isocyanate and naphthyl isocyanate ; diisocyanates such as 1 , 4 - diisocyanatobutane , 1 , 6 - diisocyanatohexane ( hdi ), 2 - methyl - 1 , 5 - diisocyanatopentane , 1 , 5 - diisocyanato - 2 , 2 - dimethylpentane , 2 , 2 , 4 - or 2 , 4 , 4 - trimethyl - 1 , 6 - diisocyanatohexane , 1 , 10 - diisocyanatodecane , 1 , 3 - and 1 , 4 - diisocyanatocyclohexane , 1 , 3 - and 1 , 4 - bis ( isocyanatomethyl ) cyclohexane , 1 - isocyanato - 3 , 3 , 5 - trimethyl - 5 - isocyanatomethyl cyclohexane ( isophorone diisocyanate , ipdi ), 4 , 4 ′- diisocyanatodicyclohexyl methane , 1 - isocyanato - 1 - methyl - 4 ( 3 )- isocyanatomethyl cyclohexane ( imci ), bis ( isocyanatomethyl ) norbornane , 2 , 4 - and / or 2 , 6 - diisocyanatotoluene ( tdi ), 2 , 4 ′- and / or 4 , 4 ′- diisocyanatodiphenylmethane and higher homologs , 1 , 5 - diisocyanatonapbthalene and dipropylene glycol duisocyanate ; truisocyanates and / or higher functional isocyanates such as 4 - isocyanatomethyl - 1 , 8 - octane diisocyanate ( nonane truisocyanate ), 1 , 6 , 11 - undecane truisocyanate ; and mixtures of these isocyanate compounds . modified isocyanate compounds prepared from the preceding duisocyanates and triisocyanates by oligomerization reactions , such as trimerization , are also usable . mixtures of the modified and unmodified isocyanates may also be used . compounds containing aromatically bound isocyanate groups are preferably used . polyisocyanates of the diphenylmethane series having a bicyclic content ( total of 2 , 2 -, 2 , 4 - and 4 , 4 - diphenylmethane diisocyanate ) of at least 85 wt . %, based on the total weight of the isocyanate component a ), are preferably used as the isocyanate component a ). it is essential that the isocyanate component a ) has an hc content ( hydrolyzable chlorine compounds content ) of at least 50 ppm , preferably at least 150 ppm and more preferably at least 300 ppm . this can be ensured either by an existing sufficiently high chlorine content of the isocyanate component a ) due to its method of preparation , or by the addition of compounds which contain hydrolyzable chlorine . examples of such compounds are benzoyl chloride , terephthaloyl dichloride and isophthaloyl chloride . the hydrolyzable chlorine content of the isocyanate component a ) may be determined by known methods . any aliphatic , cycloaliphatic or aromatic compounds having a primary amino group and where the monoisocyanates forming as reaction products can be removed by distillation from the reaction mixture under the reaction conditions , may be used as low molecular weight monoamines b ). the monoamines may contain , in addition to the amino group , other functional groups that are inert to isocyanate groups under the reaction conditions . the monoamines may be directly used at the purity available industrially without special purification . examples of suitable monoamines include c 3 - c 18 - alkylamines such as the isomeric butylamines , pentylamines , hexylamines ,. heptylamines , octylamines , nonylamines , decylamines and dodecylamines ; c 3 - c 18 - alkylene amines such as alkylamine ; monoamines based on optionally unsaturated , long - chain fatty acids ; c 5 - c 18 - cycloalkylamines such as cyclohexylamine ; aromatic amines such as phenylamine , ortho - and parafluorophenylamine , ortho - and para - chlorophenylamine and naphthylamine ; alkyl phenylamines ; and alkyl phenylamines containing halogen atoms . the carbon chains of the amines may be contain oxygen and / or sulfur atoms in the form of ether or thioether groups . monoamines containing an aromatically bound amino group are preferably used . anilines containing halogen are especially preferred . monoisocyanates c ) prepared according to the invention are derived from monoamines b ) and must be distillable under the specified reaction conditions . they have a boiling point of at least 70 ° c ., preferably at least 110 ° c . and at most 320 ° c ., preferably at most 240 ° c ., at standard pressure . the molecular weight of these monoisocyanates is generally 83 to 270 . in the process according to the invention high boiling isocyanate component a ) and monoamine component b ) are reacted at a molar ratio of isocyanate groups to primary amino groups of at least 4 : 1 , preferably 5 : 1 to 20 : 1 and more preferably from 6 : 1 to 8 : 1 , and at a maximum temperature of 180 ° c ., preferably 80 ° c . to 160 ° c . and more preferably 120 ° c . to 140 ° c . monoamine component b ) may be incorporated in pure form or in a blend with other non - reactive compounds . the monoamine is preferably incorporated as a solution in a solvent that does not boil under the process conditions . the solution preferably has a concentration of 10 to 90 %, more preferably 40 to 60 %. examples of suitable solvents include high boiling trialkyl phosphates or tritoluyl phosphates . the reaction temperature and bottom temperature in the reaction vessel is limited to a maximum of 180 ° c . working is preferably at reaction temperatures of from 100 ° c . to 170 ° c . and particularly preferably from 120 ° c . to 160 ° c . the removal by distillation of monoisocyanate c ) may take place under ambient pressure or at reduced pressure , preferably at reduced pressure and more preferably at a pressure of 5 to 200 mbar . the process according to the invention enables monoisocyanates to be industrially prepared simply and at yields of over 70 %. the bottom product that forms may be handled without difficulty . the purity of monoisocyanates c ) is preferably over 90 %, more preferably over 99 %. therefore , monoisocyanate c ) may be used directly in modification reactions and as intermediates without further purification . the invention is further illustrated but is not intended to be limited by the following examples in which all parts and percentages are by weight unless otherwise specified . the hydrolyzable chlorine content was determined by potentiometric titration . methanol was added to the sample for analysis and the urethane reaction was carried out under reflux for 10 minutes . after dilution with water , the resulting mixture was then hydrolyzed by boiling under reflux . after acidification with nitric acid and addition of a known amount of sodium chloride , the ionic chlorine formed was titrated argentometrically with a silver nitrate standard solution . the titration was carried out with incremental reagent addition and automatic end point evaluation with drift control ( equilibrium titration ). 420 kg of a technical grade polyisocyanate of the diphenylmethane series having a bicyclic content of 90 wt . % ( desmodur mdi 90 / 10 , commercial product of bayer ag , nco content 32 %, viscosity 13 mpa . s , hc content 357 ppm , determined potentiometrically ) were drawn under vacuum at room temperature into a reaction vessel with a distillation unit , and were heated to 130 ° c . after purging with nitrogen . at this temperature 53 . 7 kg of n - hexylamine were incorporated from a supply into the reactor such that the reactor internal temperature did not rise above 150 ° c . ( clearly exothermic reaction , cooling essential ). when the hexylamine addition was finished the boiler internal temperature was adjusted to 160 ° c ., and careful evacuation took place until a reflux was clearly observed . the reflux divider of the distillation unit was then adjusted to 5 parts take - off and 1 part reflux . the hexyl isocyanate that formed was distilled off . based on the amount of distillate formed , the boiler internal pressure was carefully reduced to 20 mbar during the distillation . towards the end of the distillation the reflux ratio was adjusted to full take - off . after approx . 10 hours the reaction / distillation was complete , and after purging with nitrogen , the bottom product was cooled to 120 ° c . at this temperature the bottom still flowed well and was removed by the application of a slight over - pressure and filled into containers . 2 , 100 g of 4 , 4 ′- diisocyanatodiphenylmethane ( hc content & lt ; 10 ppm , determined potentiometrically ) were charged into a 4 , 000 ml four - necked flask ( equipped with a stirrer , internal thermometer and distillation bridge ), melted and heated to approx . 130 ° c . at this temperature 270 g of n - hexylamine were incorporated . the temperature increased to 160 ° c . when the addition was finished careful evacuation took place , and the monoisocyanate obtained was removed by distillation . the reaction temperature was increased to 190 to 195 ° c . after a reaction time of 5 hours the reaction batch was so highly viscous that it could not be removed from the four - necked flask . despite these severe conditions the yield of hexyl isocyanate removed by distillation was 83 %, which is less than the production trial ( see example 1 ). the reaction flask could not be cleaned after the trial was over and was discarded with its contents . 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
explanation will be given below on embodiments of the present invention with reference to drawings . it should be noted that , “ outgoing power ” hereafter represents the power of laser light outwent from an objective lens . in addition , “ emission power ” represents the power of laser light which a laser diode emits . fig1 a is a block configuration diagram showing one embodiment of an optical disc apparatus according to the present invention . here , descriptions on blocks not participating directly to the present embodiment were omitted . a microcomputer 101 performs communication with a host apparatus such as a pc through an interface such as atapi not shown . in addition , the microcomputer 101 performs emission control for a laser driver 102 , and the laser driver 102 outputs current to drive a laser diode 103 corresponding to a control of the microcomputer 101 . the laser diode 103 emits an emission power corresponding to a drive current of the laser driver 102 . a power monitor 105 detects an emission power of the laser diode 103 via a beam splitter 104 , converts the detected power to a voltage value , and outputs it to the microcomputer 101 . the emission power detected here is a total light intensity before splitting the laser light using a diffraction grating 106 . the diffraction grating 106 switches the laser light to one beam and three beams corresponding to a control of a diffraction grating driver 107 . as a method for switching the one beam and the three beams , for example , it is considered a method for inserting and pulling out the diffraction grating 106 in a laser light path . an element to switch the laser light to the one beam and the three - beams is not especially limited to by the inserting and pulling out the diffraction grating mechanically in this way , but the laser light may be switched to the one beam and the three - beams by switching characteristics of an optical element by an optical element or an electrical element . an objective lens 108 focuses the laser light onto an optical disc 109 . the laser light reflected at the optical disc 109 retains disc information as a light intensity . in performing reproduction , the laser light is reflected by a polarizing beam splitter 110 , and focused onto the detector 111 . the detector 111 detects the laser light focused , and outputs a signal corresponding to the intensity of the laser light to a waveform equalizer 112 . the waveform equalizer 112 performs a processing such as equalization , amplification for a signal waveform detected by the detector 111 , and outputs the signal waveform to a signal processor 113 . the signal processor 113 performs a signal processing such as analogue / digital conversion , equalization , and decoding , for the signal waveform output by the waveform equalizer 112 , and outputs a data thus decoded to the microcomputer 101 . in an example of fig1 a , blocks 102 to 108 , 110 and 111 within a frame indicated by a dotted line shall be mounted on an optical pickup . it should be noted that , although fig1 a showed an example of mounting the laser diode 103 and the power monitor 105 in a separated way , a power monitor may be packaged , and a laser diode which outputs the detected power to the microcomputer 101 may be used . in addition , in the present specification , an example of controlling the diffraction grating 106 by the diffraction grating driver 107 was shown , however , the diffraction grating 106 may be driven by the microcomputer 101 without using the diffraction grating driver 107 . in addition , although an example of the diffraction grating 106 was shown as an element to split the laser light , however , the laser light may be split using a liquid crystal element or the like . fig1 b is an example representing the detector 111 in detail . the detector 111 is provided with a main detector 114 which receives reflected light of the main beam , and a sub - detector 115 which receives reflected light of the sub - beams . fig2 a shows a schematic view of a light spot focused onto an optical disc when the function of the diffraction grating was made effective . on the optical disc , a groove 201 and a land 202 are engraved , and they function as guides to make the optical spot followed . 203 and 204 each represents the optical spot of the main beam and the sub - beams split using the diffraction grating , and the light intensity ratio of both is typically about 15 : 1 . reflected light of the main beam is received at the main detector 114 of fig1 b , and reflected light of the sub - beams is received at the sub - detector 115 . because a reproduced signal is generated only at the main - detector 114 , when the light intensity ratio of the main beam to the sub - beams is smaller than a designed value , reduction of reproduction performance is incurred . on the other hand , when the light intensity ratio of the main beam is higher than a designed value , data which has been recorded on the optical disc could be erased . the sub - detector generates a sub - push - pull signal in the case of the dpp method , and in the case of the three - beam method , it generates a tracking error signal . because only one beam outwent from the objective lens , when the function of the diffraction grating was made ineffective , only the spot 203 by the main beam is light - focused on the optical disc . here , although an example in which data is recorded in the groove 201 was shown in the present specification , it may be recorded in the land 202 , or it may be recorded in both of the groove and the land . in addition , although fig2 a represented an example of a recording - type optical disc , in the case of a read - only compact disc , pits 205 function as a guide as represented in fig2 b . fig3 represents an example of a flow chart from inserting an optical disc into the optical disc apparatus according to the present invention to starting reproduction . here , descriptions on actions not directly participating to the present embodiment were omitted . in a step 301 , a disc is loaded . in a step 302 , laser light is emitted . in a step 303 , the function of the diffraction grating is made ineffective , and one beam outgoes from the objective lens . the outgoing power in this case can be adjusted to a desired power of , for example , 0 . 3 mw or the like , by monitoring with the power monitor 105 in fig1 a . after starting servo - control such as focus or tracking in a step 304 , an amplitude of a reproduced signal is measured in a step 305 . in a step 306 , the function of the diffraction grating is made effective to form the three beams . in a step 307 , the reproduced signal amplitude is measured , while maintaining the emission power of the laser in the step 302 as it is . by comparing the reproduced signal amplitude in this case and the reproduced signal amplitude measured in the step 305 , the light intensity ratio of the main beam and the sub - beams can be obtained . for example , when the reproduced signal amplitude measured in the step 305 was 300 mv , and the reproduced signal amplitude measured in the step 307 was 250 mv , it is understood that the light intensity ratio of the main beam and the sub - beams ( sub : main : sub ) is 1 : 10 : 1 . in a step 308 , the outgoing power of the laser light is adjusted , based on the light intensity ratio thus obtained . as described above , when the light intensity ratio of the main beam and the sub - beams is 1 : 10 : 1 , for example , in order to outgo the main beam at an intensity of 0 . 3 mw , the total outgoing power may be adjusted so as to be 0 . 36 mw . after performing the above adjustment , reproduction is started in a step 309 . here , a place for measuring the reproduced signal amplitude may be a user data region , or may be a place where a signal for test has been recorded in advance such as an opc region or a pre - write region . as described above , the light intensity ratio of the main beam and the sub - beams can be obtained by switching the function of effective - ineffective of the diffraction grating and reproduction at the desired reproduction power is possible , so that the quality or the reliability of reproduction can be improved . in addition , a data reproduced by switching the one beam and the three beams may be a user data in the user data region , or may be a data in a trial writing region used in the adjustment of the recording power or the like . fig4 shows an example of a flow chart representing actions of the optical disc apparatus according to the present invention , when temperature varies from starting reproduction . in a step 401 , reproduction is started . in a step 402 , an internal temperature of the optical disc apparatus is measured , for example , with a sensor installed inside a drive , or a sensor installed at the optical pickup . a specific portion for measuring the temperature comprises the peripherals of an element with high temperature dependency , such as the laser diode , the diffraction grating , the liquid crystal element . when the temperature measured in the step 402 has changed equal to or more than a specified value of temperature measured at the previous measurement time , the diffraction grating is made ineffective in a step 403 , and the reproduced signal amplitude is measured in a step 404 . in a step 405 , the diffraction grating is made effective , and the reproduced signal amplitude is measured in a step 406 . by comparing the reproduced signal amplitude in this case and the reproduced signal amplitude measured in the step 404 , a light intensity ratio of the main beam and the sub - beams can be obtained . in a step 407 , outgoing power of the laser light is adjusted , based on the light intensity ratio obtained , and the reproduction is started in a step 408 . for the measurement of the reproduced signal amplitude , the user data region may be used , or it may be performed by transferring it to a place where a signal for testing has been recorded in advance , such as the opc region , or the pre - write region . in addition , before making the diffraction grating ineffective in the step 403 , the emission power of the laser diode may be decreased to a predetermined value . this is because of the prevention of deterioration of the signal recorded in the disc due to an increased outgoing power by outgoing in one beam . although , in the present specification , an example of adjusting the outgoing laser power when the temperature changed was shown , the adjustment may be performed also when the action was changed from recording to reproduction . this is because the recording is considered to increase the temperature of the laser diode and change the emission characteristics . it should be noted that , the present invention should not be limited to the above embodiments , and should contain various modified embodiments . for example , the above embodiments are those for explaining the invention in detail so as to explain the present invention for easy - understanding , and therefore , the present invention should not necessarily be limited to the one provided with all configurations explained . in addition , it is possible to substitute a part of a configuration of a certain embodiment with a configuration of other embodiment , and it is also possible to add a configuration of other embodiment to a configuration of a certain embodiment . in addition , it is possible to add , delete or substitute other configurations for a part of a configuration of each embodiment .	6
monoolefins suitable for the practice of this invention include c 2 to c 20 hydrocarbons and halohydrocarbons which may be type i olefins and haloolefins having the general formula r - ch ═ ch 2 and type iii olefins and haloolefins having the general formula ## str2 ## wherein r and r &# 39 ; are independently selected from the group consisting of halogen ; hydrogen ; straight and branched - chain alkyl radicals ; aryl ; alkylaryl ; aralkyl and cycloalkyl radicals having from 1 to 18 carbon atoms and halo substituents of said radicals . non - limiting examples of suitable type i olefins and haloolefins include : ethylene ; propylene ; 1 - butene ; 1 - pentene ; 1 - hexene ; 4 - methyl - 1 - pentene ; 1 - heptene ; 4 , 4 - dimethyl - 1 - pentene ; 1 - octene ; 1 - nonene ; 1decene ; 3 , 7 - dimethyl - 1 - octene ; 1 - dodecene ; 1 - tridecene ; 1 - tetradecene ; 1 - octadecene ; styrene ; 4 - methyl styrene ; vinyl cyclohexane ; 2 - vinyl norbornene ; vinyl naphthalene ; vinyl chloride ; allyl chloride ; 4 - chloro - 1 - butene ; 4 - chlorostyrene ; 4 - chlorovinyl cyclohexane ; and 4 - chloroallyl benzene . non - limiting examples of suitable type iii olefins and haloolefins include : isobutylene ; 2 , 3 - dimethyl - 1 - butene , 2 , 4 , 4 - trimethyl - 1 - pentene ; 2 , 6 - dimethyl - 1 - octene ; 4 - isopropenyl toluene ; isopropenyl cyclohexane ; α - methylstyrene ; α - chlorostyrene ; 4 - chloro - α - methylstyrene ; and vinylidene chloride . the general formulae used to illustrate the types of olefins suitable for the practice of this invention are based on the boord classification described by schmidt and boord in j . a . c . s . 54 , 751 ( 1932 ). c 1 to c 20 acyclic or alicyclic esters of acrylic acid in which the ester radical moiety is free of olefinic unsaturation may be illustrated by the general formula ch 2 ═ ch - coor wherein r is selected from the group consisting of straight or branched chain primary alkyl radicals , arylalkyl radicals and cycloalkyl alkylene radicals . non - limiting examples are : methyl ; ethyl ; propyl ; n - butyl ; isobutyl ; n - amyl ; hexyl ; 2 - ethylhexyl ; n - octyl ; isooctyl ; derived from the oxonation of mixed heptenes followed by hydrogenation ; isodecyl ; 3 , 5 , 5 - trimethyl hexyl ; n - dodecyl ; tridecyl ; tetradecyl ; heptadecyl ; octadecyl ; benzyl ; and hexahydrobenzyl radicals . c 4 to c 10 acylic conjugated diolefins include 1 , 3 - butadiene ; isoprene ; cis and trans piperylene ; 1 , 3 - hexadiene ; 2 , 3 - dimethyl - 1 , 3 - butadiene ; 3 , 7 - dimethyl - 1 , 3 - octadiene and 3 -( 4 - methylpentyl )- 1 , 3 - butadiene . catalyst compositions suitable for the practice of this invention comprise , in combination , a lewis acid , a vanadium compound and a free - radical source . while a variety of lewis acids may be used , preferred are organoaluminum halides having the general formula al r m x n wherein r is a monovalent hydrocarbon radical selected from the group consisting of c 1 to c 12 alkyl , aryl , alkylaryl , arylalkyl and cycloalkyl radicals , m is a number from 1 to 3 , x is a halogen selected from the group consisting of chlorine , bromine and iodine and the sum of m and n is equal to three . non - limiting examples of useful organoaluminum halides include et 2 al cl , et al cl 2 , et 1 . 5 al cl 1 . 5 used either alone or in admixture with one another . useful vanadium compounds have the general formula vo z x t wherein z has a value of zero or one ; t has a value of 2 to 4 ; and x is independently selected from the group consisting of chlorine , bromine , iodine , acetylacetonates , haloacetylacetonates , alkoxides and haloalkoxides . non - limiting examples include vcl 4 ; vocl 3 ; vo ( oet ) 3 ; vocl 2 ( obu ); v ( acac ) 3 ; vo ( acac ) 2 ; and vocl 2 ( acac ) where ( acac ) is an acetylacetonate unit . while free - radical generators such as ultra - violet light and high - energy radiation may be used as the source of free - radicals in the catalyst system of this invention , preferred are organic peroxides , hydroperoxides , peracids , peroxyesters and certain azo compounds . non - limiting examples include benzoyl peroxide ; lauroyl peroxide ; acetyl peroxide , t - butyl peroxide , t - butyl peracetate . t - butyl peroxypivalate , cumene hydroperoxide , 2 - methyl pentanoyl peroxide , dicumyl peroxide and 2 , 2 &# 39 ; azo bis ( isobutyronitrile ). the concentration of the individual catalyst components may be varied over a wide range depending on the reactivity of the individual monomers . suitable mole ratios of acrylate ester per mole of organoaluminum compound may range from 1 to 2000 or higher . preferred is a ratio of from 5 to 1500 . most preferred is a ratio of from about 10 to 1000 mols of acrylate ester per mol of organoaluminum halide compound . the molar ratio of the organoaluminum compound to the vanadium compound may also be varied over a wide range . usable molar ratios are from 1 to 100 mols of organoaluminum compound per mol of vanadium compound . preferred is a range of from about 2 to 50 . most preferred is a molar ratio of from 3 to about 30 mols of organoaluminum compound per mol of vanadium compound . the peroxide component is similarly variable over a wide range of mol ratios . suitable ratios range from 10 to 2000 mols of acrylate ester per mol of peroxide . preferred is a ratio of from about 20 to 1000 . most preferred is a ratio of from 30 to 500 mols of acrylate ester per mol of peroxide . suitable media for dissolving or dispersing the catalyst components and polymeric reaction products include the general group of aliphatic and aromatic petroleum hydrocarbons and halogenated hydrocarbons . acyclic c 8 or lower straight or branched chain saturated hydrocarbons may be used with certain olefins and acrylate esters but c 5 to c 9 alicyclic or aromatic hydrocarbons are preferred . halogenated hydrocarbons having from one to six carbon atoms are also useful . choice of a particular solvent or mixture of solvents will depend on the process conditions , e . g . whether a homogeneous solution process , suspension or slurry process or cement suspension process is used . in a homogeneous solution process for the production of a high - molecular weight interpolymer , the concentration of polymer in the cement is usually limited to a range of 5 to 10 weight percent since higher concentrations require excessive power input to insure good mixing , efficient heat exchange is difficult to achieve and the high viscosity of the solution at the temperatures which are employed causes sticking and fouling of the reactor . in a slurry process in which the monomers and catalyst components are soluble in the solvent but in which the polymer is not , higher concentrations of polymer in the range of 10 to 20 wt . percent may be attained . similar concentrations may be attained in a cement - suspension process in which a mixture of solvents is chosen which yields two phases ; a cement phase of polymer swollen with monomers and solvent dispersed in a continuous second phase of essentially pure solvent containing a small amount of monomers . any of the above solvent systems may be used in batch , semi - continuous of fully continuous processes . non - limiting examples of suitable solvents include : butane ; pentane ; cyclopentane ; hexane ; heptane ; isooctane ; benzene ; cyclohexane ; toluene ; mixed xylenes ; cumene ; methylene chloride ; dichloroethane ; orthodichlorobenzene and fluorinated or chlorofluorinated c 2 to c 4 acyclic hydrocarbons . solvents which are known to form stable complexes with any of the catalyst components , particularly the lewis acid or the vanadium compound are undesirable and should be avoided . the interpolymers of this invention may be prepared in batch , semi - continuous or fully continuous processes in which homogeneous solution , slurry , or cement - suspension systems are utilized . in a typical batch process , a reactor fitted with efficient agitation means , and means for heat exchange , is purged of air by displacement with oxygen - free nitrogen , argon or low - boiling saturated hydrocarbon vapors such as methane , ethane or propane and charged with a solvent or mixture of solvents . in all process versions monomers and catalyst components , pre - diluted with solvent if desired , may be introduced into the stirred reactor , either simultaneously or sequentially , at a rate consistent with the means used for heat - exchange to maintain the desired temperature range . pressure on the reactor is maintained at a level sufficient to keep the reactants in the liquid phase . the catalyst components may be mixed in line in the absence of monomers before they are added to the reactor , or they may be added directly to the reactor in the presence of unreacted monomers . temperatures at which polymerization may be conducted may range from - 100 ° c . to 100 ° c . preferred are temperatures in the range of - 80 ° c . to 50 ° c . most preferred are temperatures in the range of - 40 ° c to 40 ° c . the temperature may be varied during the time required for optimum yield and polymer properties , with for example a low temperature during the initial phase of the reaction and a higher temperature during the final phase . reaction time may vary widely , depending on the reactivity of the particular monomers , catalyst concentration and temperature of the reaction . generally , reaction times are shorter at higher monomer , organoaluminum and peroxide concentrations and at higher polymerization temperatures . accordingly , polymerization times may vary from as little as two minutes to 200 hours . preferred are reaction times in the range of from 10 minutes to 24 hours . most preferred are reaction times in the range of 15 minutes to 10 hours . isolation of the interpolymer at the completion of the reaction may be accomplished in a variety of ways . in a preferred embodiment , the homogeneous polymer cement solution , or polymer suspension , or polymer cement suspension is fed from the reactor in the case of a batch process , or final reactor or holding drum in the case of a semi - continuous or fully continuous process to a mixing drum where the reaction mixture has been mixed either in line or is mixed in the drum with a quantity of a lower alcohol such as methanol , ethanol or isopropanol in order to inactivate the catalyst mixture . the alcohol may optionally contain a sequestering reagent such ethylene diamine tetra acetic acid or its disodium salt or acetylacetone . while inactivation of the catalyst in the manner indicated is preferred it is not essential and may be omitted if desired . the polymer solution or suspension , with or without catalyst inactivation is fed to an agitated wash drum where it is mixed with a dilute aqueous solution of an acid such as hydrochloric or sulfuric acid in order to deash the polymer . acid treatment followed by thorough water washing under efficient agitation is repeated if necessary so as to obtain a polymer with a minimal ash content . final isolation of the polymer in crumb form is accomplished by feeding the polymer solution or suspension to a slurry flash drum where it is treated with steam and hot water to precipitate the polymer and vaporize the solvent . typically , antioxidants , stabilizers and slurry aids are added to the polymer solution or suspension before slurrying and removal of solvent . the water slurry of polymer is finally fed to dewatering and drying extruders before packaging in bale or crumb form . solvent and unreacted monomers , vaporized in the slurry flash drums are purified and recycled to the polymerization reactors . in the case of interpolymers which have been prepared from substantially straight - chain c 12 to c 20 alpha - olefins or from substantially straight - chain c 12 to c 20 alkyl acrylates , or both , the deashed solution or suspension of the interpolymer intended for use as a dispersant or viscosity - index improver may be mixed with a solvent extracted , low - pour neutral oil and a solution of the polymer in the oil obtained by solvent exchange . concentrates prepared in this manner may be compounded with other additives such as antioxidants , pour depressants , oiliness agents and the like . the preparation of the interpolymers of this invention and the advance over the prior art is more clearly demonstrated in the following examples . the polymerization was carried out in a pressure vessel which had been fabricated from a cylinder of polypropylene which had been bored to create a cylindrical cavity of 800 ml . the vessel was sealed by means of a threaded cap and oil - resistant o - ring fashioned from an acrylonitrile rubber . the polymerization vessel , contained in a dry - box from which air was excluded by means of a positive internal pressure of oxygen - free nitrogen , was charged with 200 ml . of toluene which had been purified by percolation through a column of linde 5a molecular sieves , and 50 grams ( 0 . 5 mol ) of a commercial grade of ethyl acrylate containing 15 ppm of 4 - methoxyphenol as a stabilizer . the pressure vessel was then immersed in a freon 11 ( trichlorofluoromethane ) bath , maintained at - 20 ° c ., located in the dry - box and after the solution had reached the lower temperature there was then added in succession to the solution 20 ml . of a 1 . 5 molar solution of al et cl 2 in purified n - hexane ; 2 . 0 ml . of a 1 molar solution of vocl 3 in purified hexane ; 56 grams ( 1 . 0 mol ) of liquified isobutylene ; 3 . 5 grams ( 0 . 065 mol ) of liquified 1 , 3 - butadiene and 1 mmol of lauroyl peroxide dissolved in 20 ml . of purified toluene . the vessel was sealed , removed from the freon bath and allowed to warm to room temperature , which required about 1 hour . the reaction vessel was then placed in a tumbling water bath maintained at 32 ° c . and tumbled at that temperature for a period of 90 hours . the contents were transferred to a flask , treated with efficient agitation with 15 ml . of isopropyl alcohol and 10 ml . of methanol , followed by agitation in a waring blender with 100 ml . of 0 . 5 wt . % h 2 so 4 . after washing the polymer solution free of acid with distilled water the polymer cement was stripped with steam and hot water to remove the solvent and any unreacted monomers . the polymer was collected and dried under vacuum at a pressure of 20 torr . for 6 hours at a temperature of 60 ° c . the yield of interpolymer was 66 grams . the inherent viscosity ( n inh ) of the polymer measured in benzene at 25 ° c . at a concentration of 0 . 1 g / dl was 1 . 04 . no insoluble gel was observed in the solution used for the determination of the inherent viscosity . samples of the polymer were examined by proton nmr at 100 mhz in c 6 d 6 solution at 80 ° c . and in cdcl 3 solution at 32 ° c . the molar composition was determined using the chemical shift at 4 . 1 ppm due to the -- och 2 -- group of the ethyl acrylate units , the chemical shift at 0 . 8 ppm due to the gem - dimethyl groups of the isobutylene units , and the olefinic residue at 5 . 3 ppm due to the 1 , 4 - enchained butadiene units , in the cdcl 3 solvent . the molar composition calculated from these data was 55 mol percent of ethyl acrylate , 39 mol percent of isobutylene and 6 mol percent of butadiene . the sum of the isobutylene and butadiene units in the polymer was 45 mol percent which is indistinguishable within the accuracy and precision of the method from 50 percent . based on nmr examination of ethyl acrylate - isobutylene alternating copolymers and holopolymers of the individual monomers comprising the interpolymer of this example , the detailed spectra observed for the above product of this invention are consistent with a polymer structure consisting mainly of ethyl acrylate monomer units alternating with either isobutylene units or randomly disposed butadiene units . an infrared spectrum of the interpolymer , obtained between rock - salt plates , indicated the main structural feature as absorption in the olefin region at 970 cm - 1 due to the ch out of plane bending mode of the ## str3 ## units derived from butadiene . no absorption is evident at 910 cm - 1 which would indicate ch 2 out of plane mode of a pendant vinyl group , nor is significant absorption evident in the 690 - 730 cm - 1 region which would be due to a cis - 1 , 4 - butadiene enchainment . for a discussion of infrared analysis of polybutadienes and band assignments reference may be had to j . l . binder , j . poly . sci . pta , 47 ( 1963 ) and r . r . hampton , anal . chem . 21 , 923 ( 1949 ). the conclusion from the infrared analysis is that the butadiene in the interpolymer is enchained predominantly in the 1 , 4 - trans fashion . the interpolymer product of example 1 was formulated on a 3 × 7 inch rubber mill with the following recipe : interpolymer 100 ; stearic acid 2 ; phenyl - β - naphthylamine 0 . 5 ; 2 , 2 - methylene bis ( 4 - methyl - 5 - tert - butyl phenol ) 0 . 5 ; zinc oxide 5 ; sulfur 2 ; tetramethyl thiuram disulfide 1 . 5 ; and benzothiazyl disulfide 0 . 5 . pads measuring 2 . 5 × 1 . 75 × 0 . 025 inches were vulcanized in aluminum molds at 135 ° c . for 5 hours in a steam heated press under a pressure of 1200 psi on the mold . dumbbell shaped specimens were prepared from the sheet with a 0 . 1 inch wide test area and tested at a 20 inch per minute strain rate on an instron machine . the vulcanized sample showed a tensile at break of 1500 psi , an elongation at break of 245 %, a modulus of 235 psi at 100 % extension , and a modulus of 1045 psi at 200 % extension . in order to illustrate the advance of this invention over the prior art a series of runs were made in an attempt to prepare essentially the same interpolymer by the methods taught by the prior art and by the improved process of the instant invention . the same equipment , temperature and sequence of catalyst component addition and temperature for the reaction , except as noted , as was used in the preparation of the interpolymer of example 1 was followed . the details of the experimental runs are given in table 1 . isolation and deashing of the polymers was the same as was used for the polymer made in example 1 . table i__________________________________________________________________________exp . type prior art this inventionexp . no .. sup . ( a ) 3a 3b 3c 3d 3e__________________________________________________________________________butadiene - mols none 0 . 065 0 . 065 0 . 065 noneisoprene - mols 0 . 05 none none none 0 . 05 . sup . ( c ) et al cl . sub . 2 - mols 0 . 02 0 . 02 none 0 . 03 0 . 03et . sub . 1 . 5 al cl . sub . 1 . 5 - mols none none 0 . 02 none nonevocl . sub . 3 - mols none none none 0 . 002 0 . 002lauroyl peroxide - mmols 1 1 1 1 0 . 5reaction time - hrs . 65 88 88 90 112reaction temp .- ° c . 32 32 32 32 26polymer yield - gms . 73 . 5 71 . 2 75 . 3 70 80inherent viscosity . sup . ( b ) 1 . 19 1 . 18 0 . 90 1 . 04 0 . 77__________________________________________________________________________ . sup . ( a ) all experimental runs contained 200 ml . of toluene . 0 . 5 mol of ethyl acrylate and 1 . 0 mol of isobutylene . . sup . ( b ) determined in benzene at 25 ° c . at a concentration of 0 . 1 g / dl . . sup . ( c ) the isoprene was added in 5 equal portions over the course of 3 . 75 hours in order to simulate a continuous process . samples of the polymers were formulated on a 3 × 7 inch rubber mill with the same recipe as was used in example 2 and vulcanized at 135 ° c . for 420 minutes under a pressure of 1200 psi on the mold . dumbbells were cut from the pads and used for the following tests . sample 3a . this sample was very fragile and could not be evaluated for tensile on the instron machine . further testing showed the &# 34 ; vulcanized &# 34 ; sample to be soluble to the extent of 80 % in toluene at room temperature , thereby indicating the absence of a cross - linked structure . sample 3b . the vulcanized sample was 47 % soluble in toluene at room temperature and in the tensile test showed a yield type failure ( the modulus decreased with increasing extension ) indicating the absence of an elastomeric network . sample 3c . the vulcanized sample was 44 % soluble in toluene at room temperature and in the tensile test exhibited a tensile of 545 psi at break under an extension of 310 %. the modulus at 200 % extension was 315 psi . table ii gives the results obtained with samples 3d and 3e . table ii______________________________________ sample samplevulcanizate from : 3d 3e______________________________________tensile , psi atbreak 2265 1710elongation , % 300 405modulus (% extension ) 955 ( 200 ) 1140 ( 300 ) ______________________________________ the results obtained in the tensile tests on the vulcanizates of examples 2 , 3d and 3e show that commercially acceptable vulcanizates can be obtained with the elastomeric products of this invention when they are vulcanized with sulfur and sulfur compounds . the stress - strain behavior of increasing modulus with increasing strain is characteristic of a true elastomer and is evidence that the extensive network structure has been achieved . comparison of the products prepared according to this invention with the products prepared according to the teachings of the prior art suggest that the diolefin residues are more nearly distributed at random along the macromolecule chain in the products of this invention , which leads to their effectiveness in the vulcanization reaction to yield a three dimensional network system . the same equipment and experimental procedure , except as noted , was used for the preparation of the following elastomeric interpolymer as was used for the preparation of the polymer in example 1 . the reactor contained in an oxygen - free dry - box was charged with 200 ml of purified toluene , cooled in the freon bath to - 20 ° c . and then fed in successive order : 0 . 5 mol of ethyl acrylate ; 30 mmols of et al cl 2 ; 2 mmols , vocl 3 ; 1 . 0 mol of isobutylene ; 1 . 0 mmol of lauroyl peroxide , and 6 . 5 mmols of 1 , 3 - butadiene , added in 5 equal portions over the course of 3 . 3 hours . the reactor was sealed , allowed to come to room temperature and then tumbled in a water bath for 90 hours at 32 ° c . the polymer was deashed and isolated in crumb form in the same manner as in example 1 . the yield of polymer was 69 grams ; it had an inherent viscosity of 0 . 86 and a glass transition temperature ( tg ) of - 17 ° c . the interpolymer product of example 4 was formulated on a 3 × 7 inch rubber mill with the following recipe : interpolymer 100 ; haf carbon black 50 ; stearic acid 2 ; phenyl - β - naphthylamine 0 . 5 ; 2 , 2 &# 39 ; methylene bis ( 4 - methyl - 5 - tert - butyl phenol ) 0 . 5 ; zinc oxide 5 ; sulfur 2 ; tetramethyl thiuram disulfide 1 . 5 ; and benzothiazyl disulfide 0 . 5 . pads were cured at 307 ° f . for 45 minutes , and post - cured for 16 hours at 300 ° f . under a pressure of 1200 psi on the mold . tensile tests on dumbbells cut from the pad showed the following : tensile 940 psi ; elongation 200 %; modulus at 100 % extension , 890 psi . the above shows that acceptable products containing carbon black may be formulated from the interpolymers of this invention . many variations may be introduced in the processes used to synthesize the interpolymers of this invention , particularly in a continuous process . all of the monomers and catalyst components may be fed to a first reactor which then overflows to an agitated time tank . alternately , some of the ingredients may be blended in line before entering the reactor , or one or more of the catalyst ingredients may be mixed with one or more of the monomers in a separate vessel at a different temperature before being fed to the main reactor . other variations with the scope of this invention will be apparent to those having skill in the art .	2
as an example we selected a pattern device which is provided on large circular knitting machines and which effects there the election of the needles . the pattern device comprises cam controlled selector elements which cooperate with the pattern feet of jacks which in turn and conventionally , cooperate with the needle butts to effect the knitting operation . the pattern device consists of stacks 2 of selector elements 3 guided in a frame 1 . these selector elements 3 carry on their inner side a cam 4 which each act on a plane of the pattern selector butts ( not shown ). at their outer end the selector elements 3 are equipped with a lug 5 which is engaged selectively by the cams 6 of a pattern drum 7 . the selector elements 3 are each held in the extreme position by a spring 8 . the pattern drum 7 is stepped up from one switching position into the other by means of a drive ( not shown ). the pattern drum 7 consists of a plurality of disks 10 , 11 on an axle 9 . these disks 10 , 11 are divided into two groups , one disk 10 of one group always alternating with a disk 11 of the other group . one group of the disks are guide disks 10 , whose outside diameter corresponds to the diameter of the pattern drum 7 ( fig5 ). they have for each switching position a bore 12 in a distance from the outer surface of the guide disk . radially outside the bore 12 , a recess 13 is formed in the outer circumference of the guide disk 10 . the second group of the disks are the so - called spacer disks 11 . they are arranged each between two guide disks 10 and have a substantially v - shaped recess 14 in the range of each switching position ( fig6 ). when assembling the disks 10 , 11 the cams 6 represented in fig7 which have a bore 15 at one end and a second bore 16 substantially in the center ( see fig7 ), are inserted from the outside into the v - shaped recess 14 and held by a bolt 17 passing through the bores 12 of the guide disk 10 and the bores 15 of the cams 6 . a rod 18 inserted , from the outside parallel to the axle 9 of the pattern drum 7 , passes through the second bore 16 of the cam 6 and is held in the recess 13 of the guide disk 10 . for selecting the patterns , the cams 6 which control the selector elements 3 are brought into the radial position and are held by rods 18 in that position . before insertion of bolt 18 , the cams 6 which are not to act on selector elements 3 are turned about bolt 17 through an acute angle to an inoperative position in which they abut the right hand boundary of recesses 14 . upon insertion of bolt 18 through bore 16 of those cams in the operative or radial position , the cams in the inoperative position are held between the bolt 18 and the boundary of recess 14 . the selector elements 3 , particularly their lugs 5 opposite the cam 6 , are so designed that no pattern selection movement is caused by the swung - out , i . e ., those not in the radial position , cams 6 . it is necessary to remove the selector elements 3 out of the range of the cams 6 during the stepping of the drum so that they are not contacted by those cams during that stepping operation . this is effected by a device as represented in fig1 . on the frame 1 , which guides the selector elements 3 , is mounted a rail 20 which is vertically immovable but which can be displaced parallel to itself in the direction of motion of the selector elements 3 . the outside of this rail bears on the lugs or projections 21 of the selector elements 3 . this rail 20 has two stops 22 , 23 , which are connected to two camming surfaces 24 , 25 of a vertically displaceable strip 26 . the strip 26 is not displaceable horizontally . at the bottom end of the strip 26 is arranged a two - arm lever 27 whose fulcrum 28 is rotatably mounted on the frame 1 of the pattern device and whose left end 29 ( fig1 ) engages a recess 30 of the strip 26 . the right arm 31 of the lever 27 bears on a plunger 32 which is guided for vertical movement in the lock carrier plate 33 . below the lock carrier plate 33 is arranged the driving wheel 34 on which is secured the switching element 35 for the plunger 32 . the switching element 35 consists of a cam whose rising leg is formed by a roller 36 . the bottom end of the plunger 32 is curved . the roller 36 strikes longitudinally against the cam 37 of the plunger 32 and pushes the latter upward so that the strip 26 is lowered and the rail 20 moves the selector elements 3 away from the pattern drum . it will of course be appreciated that the movement of strip 26 is effected by means of the cam and plunger arrangement and lever 31 from the drive of the needle cylinder or alternatively that movement is effected manually through lever 40 . after the stroke is completed , the roller 36 places the plunger 32 on the upper surface 38 of the switching element 35 so that the plunger 32 remains in the top position . when the switching process of the pattern drum 7 is completed , the plunger 32 slides again off the surface 38 , due to the pull of the spring 39 which keeps the strip 26 in its top position . the rail 20 returns to its original position and releases again the selector elements 3 , so that their lugs rest either on the operative cams 6 of the pattern drum , i . e ., the cams in the radial position or against the outside diameter of the pattern drum 7 as shown in chain line in fig4 . it is also possible to displace the selector elements 3 manually , to which end a slide or lever 40 is provided on the frame 1 which can displace the strip 26 downward over a cam 41 and thus move the rail 20 toward the needle cylinder . the stepping mechanism is known and could be that , for example , illustrated in u . s . pat . no . 3 , 759 , 069 issued july 31 , 1973 to ludwig et al . it is to be noted that the elements 35 and 36 of the present invention are connected non - rotatably with the rotating cylinder of the circular knitting machine as are the switching elements 17 through 20 of u . s . pat . no . 3 , 759 , 069 and the elements are arranged on a common drive element . referring now to the present invention , the roller 36 and the surface 38 of the switching element 35 causes the plunger 32 to be lifted before switching elements begin to act on the star wheel . the length of the surface 38 is so selected that the cam 37 of the plunger 32 slides off the latter only when the switching elements 17 and 19 , respectively , have passed over the star wheel 12 of the u . s . patent aforementioned . alternatively , rather than the rods 18 being positioned to pass through the cams 6 which are to be held in an operative position ( fig4 ), the rods 18 may be positioned to pass through the cams 6 which are to be in an inoperative position and the edge of those rods 18 abut other cams 6 in an operative position ( fig4 a ).	3
the following description is of the best - contemplated mode of carrying out the invention . 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 . one embodiment discloses a fabrication method for a dynamic random access memory stack capacitor according to the invention . as shown in fig2 , an etching stop layer 3 and a sacrificial dielectric layer 4 having an opening 10 is formed on a semiconductor substrate 1 in sequence . typically , the semiconductor substrate 1 is made up of a silicon wafer including metal layers ( not shown ), interlayer dielectric layers ( not shown ) and other elements ( for example , a metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor ). the etching stop layer 3 uses materials such as silicon nitride . the sacrificial dielectric layer 4 uses materials such as silicon dioxide . the formation of the etching stop layer 3 includes typical deposition processes . the sacrificial dielectric layer 4 having an opening 10 is formed , for example , by typical photolithography processes . the etching stop layer 3 has a conductive region 2 which is exposed via the opening 10 , and the conductive region 2 is typically made up of tisi x , cosi x , nisi x , or doped semiconductor materials . as shown in fig3 , a layer 12 of semi - spherical grains is then formed covering the sacrificial dielectric layer 4 and the sidewalls and bottom of the opening 10 . the layer 12 of semi - spherical grains uses materials such as silicon , and the formation thereof includes a typical epitaxy processes . as shown in fig4 , a typical photolithograph process or an etching process is performed on the layer 12 of semi - spherical grains to leave a pattern 12 ′ of semi - spherical grains on the sidewalls of the opening 10 . for example , a photoresist material ( not shown ) is used to fill the opening 10 and to cover the surface of the sacrificial . dielectric layer 4 . thereafter , the photoresist material is patterned , and the photoresist material outside the opening 10 is then removed . next , the layer 12 of semi - spherical grains is partly removed except for the part remaining on the sidewalls of the opening 10 i . e . the pattern 12 ′ of semi - spherical grains . each semi - spherical grain of the pattern 12 ′ has a diameter between 5 and 50 nm . as shown in fig5 , a conductive material 14 is utilized to fill the opening 10 and to cover the surface of the sacrificial dielectric layer 4 . the conductive material 14 , for example , is conductive carbon . due to the deposition process of the conductive material 14 , a void 16 is thus formed within the opening 10 . a recess etching process is performed to open the void 16 within the opening 10 and to remove the conductive material from the surface of the sacrificial dielectric layer 4 , thus , the residual conductive material covering the pattern 12 ′ of semi - spherical grains and the bottom of the opening 10 serves as a first capacitor electrode 14 ′ ( i . e . the lower electrode ). the recess etching process is performed using oxygen or argon plasma , for example . as shown in fig7 , the sacrificial dielectric layer 4 is removed to expose the surface ( i . e . the outer surface ) of the first capacitor electrode 14 ′ possessing the pattern 12 ′ of semi - spherical grains and a portion of the surface of the etching stop layer 3 . the removal of the sacrificial dielectric layer 4 includes an etching process . as shown in fig8 , the pattern 12 ′ of semi - spherical grains on the outer surface of the first capacitor electrode 14 ′ is then removed , thus , leaving a wavy surface on the outer surface of the first capacitor electrode 14 ′. that is , arc - shaped cavities are formed on the outer surface of the first capacitor electrode 14 ′. the formation increases the effective area of the outer surface of the first capacitor electrode 14 ′, thus , leading to increased capacitance . as shown in fig9 , a capacitor dielectric layer and a second capacitor electrode 18 ( i . e . the upper capacitor ) are formed on the exposed surfaces of the first capacitor electrode 14 ′ and the etching stop layer 3 in sequence . the first capacitor electrode 14 ′, the capacitor dielectric layer and the second capacitor electrode 18 constitute a capacitor . the capacitor dielectric layer can be high dielectric constant materials , such as al 2 o 3 , ta 2 o 5 , tio 2 or ferroelectrics , and the formation thereof can be by chemical vapor deposition . the second capacitor electrode 18 can use materials such as metal or conductive carbon , and the metal materials can be pt , ir , ru , or pd . the formation of the second capacitor electrode 18 includes chemical vapor deposition , physical vapor deposition or reactive ion sputtering . in other embodiments , the second capacitor electrode 18 can use metal oxide such as iro 2 or ruo 2 . while the invention has been described by way of example and in terms of the preferred embodiments , it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments . to the contrary , it is intended to cover various modifications and similar arrangements ( as would be apparent to those skilled in the art ). therefore , the scope of the appended claims should be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similar arrangements .	7
below , an embodiment of the present invention applied to a refrigerant condenser of a car air - conditioner is described with reference to fig1 to fig7 . fig2 shows an mf type refrigerant condenser . in fig2 a pair of headers 11 and 12 are connected by a core 13 . the core 13 is comprised of a plurality of tubes 13a comprised of flat tubes between which are welded corrugated fins 13b . separators 14 are disposed at predetermined positions in the headers 11 and 12 . it is possible to set the number of turns of the refrigerant passage to any number as shown in fig3 by the position of disposition of the separators 14 . that is , when there are 32 tubes 13a , with 0 turns , all the 32 tubes 13a form a refrigerant passage oriented in one direction . in this case , the condensation distance l becomes w . here , w is the distance between the headers 11 and 12 and matches with the lateral width of the core 13 . with 1 turn , it is possible to set the tubes 13a to a combination of 16 and 16 , a combination of 24 and 8 , etc . in this case , the condensation distance l becomes 2w . further , with 2 turns , it is possible to set the tubes 13a to a combination of 11 , 11 , and 10 , a combination of 16 , 12 , and 4 , etc . in this case , the condensation distance l becomes 3w . fig3 shows an example of a combination of the tubes 13a , but is possible to set any combination . fig4 and fig5 show the trend in the number of turns of the refrigerant passage when the core size is set to various dimensions in the case of an equivalent hydraulic diameter de of the inside of the tubes 13a of 0 . 67 mm . that is , fig4 shows the ratio of performance with respect to 0 turns when setting the core width w to from 300 mm to 700 mm in 100 mm increments and setting the number of turns of the refrigerant passage from 1 to 5 in a heat exchanger with 24 tubes 13a , a core height h of 235 . 8 mm , and a core thickness d of 16 mm ( fig2 ). fig5 shows the ratio of performance with respect to 0 turns when setting the core width w to from 300 mm to 700 mm in 100 mm increments and setting the number of turns of the refrigerant passage from 1 to 6 in a heat exchanger with 40 tubes 13a , a core height h of 387 . 8 mm , and a core thickness d of 16 mm . the dots on the curves in fig4 and fig5 show the optimal performance points of each . the &# 34 ; equivalent diameter de &# 34 ; indicates the hydraulic diameter corresponding to the total sectional area of combined bores of a single tube 13a , since the shape of the tubes 13a is at a section of the tube 13a , usually the sectional shapes shown in fig6 a and 6b . that is , it is defined as de ( equivalent diameter )= 4 ×( total hydraulic sectional area )/( total wet edge length ). here , various combinations of numbers of tube 13a are considered for various numbers of turns , but fig4 and fig5 show the ones with the optimal performance obtained as a result of calculation . that is , the performance of a condenser is determined by the balance of the improvement of the heat exchange rate and the pressure loss . the two have effects on each other , so it is possible to derive this by converting the relationship between the two to a numerical equation . using this , it becomes possible to find the efficiencies of various heat exchangers . further , for this calculation , detailed heat transmission rate characteristics and pressure loss characteristics were found by experiment and the results were used to prepare a simulation program and perform analysis . for the settings of the parameters at this time , the heaviest load conditions in the refrigeration cycle of a car air - conditioner were envisioned and use was made of an air temperature at the condenser inlet of 35 ° c ., a condenser inlet pressure of 1 . 74 mpa , a superheating of the condenser inlet of 20 ° c ., a subcooling of the condenser outlet of 0 ° c ., an air flow of the condenser inlet of 2 m / s , and a refrigerant of hfc - 134a . the analysis and the experimental findings were compared . as a result , the present inventor confirmed that the results of analysis and the experimental values substantially matched in the range of an equivalent diameter of the tubes 13a of 0 . 6 mm to 1 . 15 mm . further , the inventor confirmed that the number of turns giving the optimal performance shown in fig4 and fig5 ( optimal number of turns ) is substantially the same even if the pitch of the fins differs or the core thickness d differs . from fig4 and fig5 it is learned that so long as the core width w is the same , the optimal number of turns is the same even if the number of tubes 13a differs . this means if the core width is the same , the optimal number of turns is the same regardless of the combination of the numbers of tubes 13a . fig7 shows the results of the above calculation for tubes 13a of different equivalent diameters de to find the optimal number of turns for different core widths w . in this case , while there are only whole numbers of turns in actuality , regions other than those of integers are also shown so as to illustrate the trends . now then , in fig7 looking at the tubes 13a with a de of 0 . 67 mm for example , the condensation distance l at the optimal number of turns is 3 when w = 300 mm , so l =( 3 ( turns )+ 1 )× 300 = 1200 mm . when w = 400 mm , it becomes 2 turns , so l =( 2 + 1 )× 400 = 1200 mm . when w = 500 mm , it becomes 2 turns , so l =( 2 + 1 )× 500 = 1500 mm . when w = 600 mm , it becomes 1 turn , so l =( 1 + 1 )× 600 = 1200 mm . when w = 700 mm , it becomes 1 turn , so l =( 1 + 1 )× 700 = 1400 mm . further , when the equivalent diameter de of the tubes 13a is 0 . 9 mm , the condensation distance l becomes 1500 mm when w = 300 mm , 1600 mm when w = 400 mm , 1500 mm when w = 500 mm , 1800 mm when w = 600 mm , and 1400 mm when w = 700 mm . further , when the equivalent diameter of the tubes 13a is 1 . 15 mm , the condensation distance l becomes 1800 when w = 300 mm , 2000 mm when w = 400 mm , 2000 mm when w = 500 mm , 1800 mm when w = 600 mm , and 2100 mm when w = 700 mm . usually , the core width w of a refrigerant condenser used for a car air - conditioner is about 300 mm to 800 mm , so from the results of the above calculations , it is learned that when the equivalent diameters de of the tubes 13a are the same , there is not that much effect on the core width w and the optimal condensation distance l lies in a certain range . therefore , it is possible to specify the optimal condensation distance l for an equivalent diameter de of tubes 13a . fig1 shows the results when changing the equivalent diameters de and finding by the above analysis the range of the optimal condensation distances l for those de . linear approximation of the data obtained enables the optimal condensation distance l to be set as therefore , if the equivalent diameter de of the tubes 13a of the core 13 of the heat exchanger is known , it is possible to find the optimal condensation distance l from equation ( 1 ), so it becomes possible to set the optimal number of turns ( n ) by finding the number of turns matching that condensation distance from the following equation ( 2 ): further , since the number of turns must be an integer , it is necessary to round off the number of turns found from equation ( 2 ). in recent years , advances in the manufacturing technology for tubes of refrigerant condensers have made possible the production of tubes with extremely small equivalent diameters . if the above equation ( 1 ) is applied to such very small tubes , the number of turns is set to 0 . for example , fig9 shows the results obtained by using the above - mentioned simulation program to find the optimal condensation distance at an idle high load ( a ) and a 40 km / h constant load ( b ) for tubes with an equivalent diameter de of less than 0 . 60 mm . looking at just the line of the idle high load ( a ), when the equivalent diameter is 0 . 18 mm to 0 . 5 mm , the optimal condensation distance l becomes 300 to 800 mm , so as mentioned above , 0 number of turns is the optimal specification when the core width w is 300 mm to 800 mm . in this way , by making the tubes ones with an equivalent diameter of 0 . 18 mm to 0 . 5 mm , it is possible to provide a refrigerant condenser with a good efficiency with 0 number of turns . a condenser with 0 number of turns does not require any separators for dividing the headers , so the work of inserting the separators and the process of detecting leakage of refrigerant from the separator portions become unnecessary . further , it becomes possible to simplify and standardize the shape of the header portions . further , compared with the case of use of tubes with a large equivalent diameter as shown in fig9 the fluctuation in the optimal condensation distance due to load fluctuations becomes smaller , so it is possible to maintain the optimal state for the load conditions even if the load conditions fluctuate . as explained above , in the present invention , the optimal condensation distance l is determined from the equivalent diameter de of the tubes 13a of the core 13 of the heat exchanger and the optimal number of turns of the refrigerant passage is found from the condensation distance l , so the present invention differs from the related art , which only suggested that an increase of the number of turns or a decrease of the sectional area of the passage contributed to an improvement of the heat exchange rate and therefore it is possible to design a heat exchanger with a high heat exchange rate .	8
fig2 shows an embodiment of an integrated humidity sensor 1 fabricated using a hcmos ( high speed cmos ) technology , with the sensor 1 formed in a backend manufacturing step . in detail , the sensor 1 is formed in a chip 2 , including a semiconductor substrate 3 , e . g ., of silicon , and an insulating structure 4 , overlying the substrate 3 . specifically , the sensor 1 is formed in a sensing portion 50 of the chip 2 . a processing portion 60 may also be provided , laterally to the sensing portion 50 , in a per se known manner , to integrate reading and processing circuitry components 61 . in turn , the sensing portion 50 includes a sensing capacitor area 51 and a reference capacitor area 52 . the insulating structure 4 is typically formed by a plurality of superimposed insulating layers , not separately shown , accommodating a plurality of metal regions 8 formed in a plurality of metal levels ( here four ), indicated by m 1 ( lower metal level ), m 2 ( first intermediate metal level ) and m 3 ( second intermediate metal level ) and m 4 ( upper metal level ) mutually connected through vias 7 . the metal regions 8 may be of aluminum . in addition , the metal regions 8 of the lower metal level m 1 may be connected to conductive regions 9 on the substrate 3 and / or to conductive regions 30 in the substrate 3 . the metal regions 8 of the upper metal level m 4 form , for example , first and second electrodes 12 , 13 of a sensing capacitor 10 and of a reference capacitor 11 arranged respectively in the sensing capacitor area 51 and in the reference capacitor area 52 . as visible in the top view of fig3 , the capacitors 10 , 11 are of a multifingered , interdigitated type , with the first electrodes 12 connected together by a conductive line 15 and biased at a first potential ( e . g ., a higher potential ), and the second electrodes 13 connected together by a conductive line 14 and biased at a second potential ( e . g ., a lower potential ). referring again to fig2 , protection layer 16 , e . g ., of nitride , extends on the entire upper surface of the insulating structure 4 to protect the electrodes 12 , 13 from water molecules of the environment that may cause any oxidation thereof and a dielectric layer 17 , e . g ., of oxide (“ padopen oxide ”), extends on the protection layer 16 , except for in the sensing capacitor area 51 . in particular , the dielectric layer 17 extends in the reference capacitor area 52 . a conductive shielding layer 18 extends on the dielectric layer 17 , except for on the sensing capacitor area 51 . the conductive shielding layer 18 is of a good electric conductive material , with a resistivity lower than 50 mω /□, such as a metal , for example aluminum , that is impervious to water molecules and may have a thickness of about 1 μm . therefore , in the reference capacitor area 52 , the conductive shielding layer 18 forms an electrical shield 22 . a passivation layer 19 of insulating material , for example a double layer of psg ( phosphorous silicon glass ) and nitride , extends on the conductive shielding layer 18 , except for in the sensing capacitor area 51 and , here , on the reference capacitor area 52 . a hygroscopic layer 25 extends on the entire surface of the sensing portion 50 of chip 1 , over the passivation layer 19 , where present , and directly on the protection layer 16 , in the sensing capacitor area 51 , or on the electrical shield 22 , in the reference capacitor area 52 . the hygroscopic layer 25 is a thick layer , compared with the other layers ; for example its thickness may be less than 10 μm . the hygroscopic layer 25 may be the so called “ pix ”, that is an aqueous positive polyimide , which can be defined with high resolution and has storage and room temperature stability that is used in the semiconductor industry , or another polyimide material or another polymeric material . in addition , also porous low - k silicon dioxide may be used . fig4 shows a different embodiment , wherein the shielding layer is covered by a further protection layer 26 , e . g ., of nitride , acting as a humidity barrier for protecting the electrical shield 22 from any water molecules reaching it . the further protection layer 26 has a thickness lower than 0 . 5 μm , for example 0 . 1 - 0 . 2 μm , to avoid a loss of sensitivity of the sensing capacitor 10 . in the alternative , the further protection layer 26 may be removed from the sensing capacitor area 51 . according to another embodiment , the passivation layer 19 is not removed from the reference capacitor area 52 , as shown in fig5 . in all the above embodiments , by virtue of the conductive shielding layer 18 that covers the reference capacitor 11 , the electric field lines extending between the first and second electrodes 12 , 13 are bent and constrained to pass along the conductive shielding layer 18 , as shown in the enlarged detail of fig6 . thereby , the electric field lines cannot reach the hygroscopic layer 25 in the reference capacitor area 52 so that the reference capacitor 11 is insensitive to the humidity content of the hygroscopic layer 25 . thus , the reference capacitor 11 does not change its electric property , in particular its capacity , as a function of the humidity of the external environment . fig7 - 9 show subsequent manufacturing steps for the integrated humidity sensor 1 . in particular , an upper portion of the chip 2 is shown , including the two upper metal levels m 3 , m 4 , the upper portion of the insulating structure 4 and the overlying layers . in particular , fig7 - 9 show the sensing capacitor area 51 , the reference capacitor area 52 and a pad area 53 . initially , after forming the integrated electronic components 61 in the substrate 3 ( fig2 ), the insulating structure 4 is formed by depositing alternating silicon nitride and silicon dioxide layers and forming conductive regions 8 of metal and respective vias 7 . in particular , when the fourth or upper metal layer m 4 is formed , the electrodes 12 , 13 and the conductive lines 14 , 15 of the sensing and reference capacitors 10 , 11 are also formed . the protection layer 16 and the dielectric layer 17 are deposited ; and the conductive shielding layer 18 is formed on the dielectric layer 17 . to this end , a metal layer ( such as aluminum ) is deposited on the entire surface of the dielectric layer 17 and etched away from the sensing capacitor area 51 or selected portions of metal are formed , e . g ., grown on the dielectric layer 17 . in any case , the conductive shielding layer 18 extends on the reference capacitor area 52 , where it forms the electrical shield 22 , and on the pad area 53 , where it forms pads 23 . thereafter , the passivation layer 19 is deposited on the entire surface of the chip 2 , obtaining the structure of fig7 . as shown in fig8 , a resist mask 40 is formed . here , the resist mask 40 covers the reference capacitor area 52 and has openings or windows 41 over the sensing capacitor area 51 and the pad area 53 . using the resist mask 40 , the exposed portion of the passivation layer 19 is etched from the pad area 53 ; in addition , the exposed portions of the passivation layer 19 and then of the protection layer 16 are removed from the sensing capacitor area 51 . thereby , the structure of fig8 is obtained . after removing the resist mask 40 , fig9 , the hygroscopic layer 25 is deposited and removed from the pad area 53 . thereby , the final structure of fig9 is obtained . according to a different embodiment , during the etching of the passivation layer 17 from the pad area 53 and the sensing capacitor area 51 , the passivation layer 17 may also be removed from the reference capacitor area 52 . the sensor 1 may be integrated together with a processing circuitry , as shown in fig1 , where the processing circuitry components 60 ( fig2 ) are integrated in a specific area of the chip 2 . in particular , the processing circuitry components 60 may form a bridge 70 , together with the sensing capacitor 10 , the reference capacitor 11 and standard capacitors 71 . the capacity variation of the bridge 70 is then converted into an output voltage signal through for example a switched - capacitor operational amplifier 72 having an input coupled to the bridge 70 . the advantages of the present disclosure are clear from the above . in particular , it is emphasized that the present sensor is able to measure the environmental humidity in a reliable way through a differential technique , due to the reference capacitor 11 that is substantially unaffected by moisture , even at high levels of the latter . the sensing and the reference capacitors are matched so that the thermal behavior and the ageing effect may be compensated in a differential reading ; thereby the humidity sensor is unaffected by variations in environmental condition ( except humidity ) or over time . the sensor may be manufactured in a simple and economic way , since no critical patterning operations are needed for the hygroscopic material . if a polyimide layer is used , the manufacture is quite simple and economic , since this material is routinely used as a mechanical environmental protection in standard silicon cmos processes . the humidity sensor disclosed therein may be used in weather stations ; hvacs ( heating , ventilation and air conditioning systems ); respiratory equipment ; humidifiers ; gas sensors measurement correction ; condensation level monitoring ; air density monitoring ; multiple type interfaces . finally , it is clear that numerous variations and modifications may be made to the humidity sensor described and illustrated herein . for example , the conductive shielding layer 18 may be of a different conductive material that has high conductivity ( typically , a resistivity lower than 50 mω /□) and is substantially impervious to water molecules . moreover , the conductive shielding region 22 may be arranged over the hygroscopic layer 25 . in addition , if the hygroscopic layer 25 ha as sufficient thickness to avoid the captured molecules to reach the electrodes 12 , 13 , the protection layer 16 may be omitted . the various embodiments described above can be combined to provide 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 .	6
referring now to the drawings , a dynamoelectric machine 9 according to the invention is an electric generator . the generator comprises a rotor 11 which is rotatable about the axis b -- b as shown in fig1 . a stator 13 is located radially outward from the rotor 11 and secured within a housing 15 of the apparatus . the housing 15 is preferably formed of a metal , for example of aluminum or magnesium alloy . the generator components shown in fig1 are generally symmetric about the axis b -- b but only that portion to the lower side of the axis b -- b as illustrated in fig1 are depicted . the stator 13 includes a laminated stator core 28 formed of a plurality of slacked laminates of a magnetic material , e . g . steel laminations 17 , and stator windings 19 with end turns 21 which extend beyond both axial ends of the stator core 28 as depicted in fig1 , 3 and 4 . the stator windings 19 extend through openings 23 ( fig5 ) in the laminations 17 of the stator core 28 . the cooling fluid channels or grooves 25 in the radially inner surface of the housing 15 adjacent the outer periphery of the stator core 28 extend about the circumference of the stator core 28 for cooling the radially outer portion or back iron of the stator core 28 . the configuration of the fluid channels 25 in the housing 15 for cooling the stator can be like that shown in u . s . pat . no . 4 , 578 , 962 , for example . according to the invention , the dynamoelectric machine 9 further comprises axially extending fluid coolant passages 27 which communicate with the channels 25 for conveying fluid coolant to fluid coolant exit ports 37 ( fig2 - 4 ) located adjacent the stator winding end turns 21 via transfer channels 35 which are integrally formed within the stator core 28 ( see fig2 and fig4 ), or alternatively within the housing 15 ( see fig3 ). the coolant passages 27 are formed by grooves 29 formed in the outer periphery of the laminations 17 of the stator core 28 located adjacent the housing 15 between the end laminations 31 and 33 , see fig5 . in the preferred embodiment the fluid coolant from the axially extending fluid coolant passages 27 flows through a plurality of circumferentially spaced , linear radial transfer bores 39 which communicate radially inwardly from the outer periphery of the stator core 28 with a like number of axial transfer bores 41 extending from the point of communication internal of the stator core 28 to the end laminations 31 , 33 allowing the fluid coolant to reach the fluid coolant exit ports 37 defined thereby . a plurality of these two perpendicularly communicating bores 39 , 41 form the transfer channels 35 allowing fluid coolant to be channeled to the exit ports 37 so that fluid coolant can be sprayed in the direction of the end turns 21 to cool the end turns 21 . in an alternate embodiment illustrated in fig3 the fluid coolant from the axially extending fluid coolant passages 27 flows through a plurality of circumferentially spaced axial fluid transfer passages 43 being formed between the radially outer periphery of the stator core 28 and the housing 15 and extending beyond the axial end of the stator core 28 thus defining radially directed fluid coolant exit ports 37 allowing fluid coolant to be sprayed in the direction of the end turns 21 to cool the end turns 21 . in a third embodiment fluid coolant from the axially extending fluid coolant passages 27 flows along annular passages 47 , formed as a result of the end laminations 31 , 33 having a diameter d 1 which is smaller than the diameter d 2 of the laminations 17 intermediate the end laminations 31 , 33 , to a plurality of circumferentially spaced slots 45 formed in the end laminations so as to extend radially inwardly from the outer periphery of the end laminations as shown in fig7 . these slots 45 in the end laminations 31 , 33 together with the adjacent housing 15 and the stator core laminations 17 adjacent the end laminations define radially inwardly extending fluid coolant passages 46 for conveying the fluid coolant to a location adjacent the stator winding end turns 21 . radially inwardly of the inner surface 49 of housing 15 the slots 45 are open on the side of each end lamination adjacent end turns 21 so that the coolant oil can be sprayed from the slots in the direction of the end turns , shown by the arrows 50 in fig4 to cool the end turns . to facilitate this spraying , the radially inner ends of the slots 45 are defined by surfaces 51 which are angled in the direction of the end turns for deflecting the fluid coolant toward the end turns . the end laminations 31 and 33 in the disclosed embodiment are formed of an insulating material , for example insulating material commercially sold and marketed as nomex ®, with the end laminations being glued or epoxied to the stator core 28 . alternatively , the end laminations 31 , 33 could also be formed of the same or another magnetic material as the intermediate laminations of the stator core . an annular collar 53 ( fig1 ) of the housing 15 is releasably fastened to one axial end of the housing by bolts 55 for clamping the radially outer portion of the stator core 28 in position in the housing 15 . the collar 53 also forms part of the annular passage 47 adjacent end lamination 31 for retaining coolant in the passage in the third embodiment discussed above . the dynamoelectric machine 9 shown in fig1 also carries a generator differential current transformer 57 on end turns 21 at one end of the stator 13 . the transformer 57 may be attached to the end turns using a glass tie or cord formed of another insulating material , such as that commercially sold and marketed as nomex ® or other insulating cord which is epoxied in place after attachment . the outside diameter of the stator 13 is typically six inches in the illustrated embodiments , for the two - pole generator with the rotor 11 having an outside diameter of three inches . for a four - pole generator , the outside diameter of the stator is typically eight inches , for example . the laminations 17 of the laminated stator core 28 preferably each have a thickness within the range 0 . 006 - 0 . 020 inch . the laminations 17 in the preferred embodiment are 0 . 014 inch thick . the radial and axial transfer bores 39 and 41 in the preferred embodiment may be drilled into the assembled stator core 28 or may be formed by punching the laminations during manufacture prior to assembly . the axial fluid passages are machined into the housing 15 during the manufacture process at the same time as the fluid channels 25 . the width of the slots 45 in the end lamination 31 and 33 for the third embodiment is preferably 0 . 020 - 0 . 030 inch with the radially inner edge of the slots being angled in the direction of the adjacent stator winding end turns as seen in the drawings of fig4 and 7 . the slots are open , through slots extending from one side of the end laminations to the other . as a result of this construction , the slots 45 and also the grooves 29 in the other periphery of the end lamination 31 and 33 can be formed during manufacturing by punching . while we have shown and described only three embodiments in accordance with the present invention , it is understood that the present invention is not limited thereto but is susceptible to variations as will be understood by the skilled artisan . for example , the dynamoelectric machine of the invention can be used in other types of apparatus than a generator , such as in an induction motor or other electrical apparatus wherein stator winding end turns must be cooled . therefore , we do not wish to be limited to the details shown and described therein , but intend to cover all such changes and modifications as are encompassed by the scope of the appended claims .	7
referring to fig1 magazine unit 10 comprises an elongated , generally tubular magazine 12 defining an interior cavity 14 , the cross section of which may be varied in size and shape responsive to that of the devices 100 ( such as the aforementioned tsops ) to be contained therein . magazine 12 may be formed of any suitable metallic or non - metallic material , although it is contemplated that it be molded from an anti - electrostatic discharge ( esd ) polymer , or coated with such a material . as shown , magazine cavity 14 is sized to accommodate a plurality of devices 100 stacked in vertically superimposed relationship . also as shown , one or more walls of magazine 12 may include an elongated view port 16 , so that the filled versus empty status of the magazine may be visually verified as desired . it is also desirable that magazine 12 include a floor 18 movable within interior cavity 14 . as shown in fig1 a , floor 18 is preferably larger than aperture 14a at the bottom of interior cavity 14 , so that devices 100 in magazine 12 will be retained from below by floor 18 when magazine 12 is being handled . as shown in fig1 b , floor 18 may include skirts or other peripheral extensions 18a to prevent tilting , cocking and jamming of floor 18 as it moves up and down within magazine cavity 14 . magazine 12 is placed above an elevation assembly 20 at a fixed vertical level l , and may be stabbed into a fixture , depicted in fig1 as receptacle 22 ( shown in broken lines ), to provide proper horizontal , vertical and angular ( about a vertical axis ) orientation for magazine 12 . it is preferred , although not required , that magazine 12 be secured against vertical movement by a detent assembly comprised of one or more resiliently - biased detent elements 24 cooperating with a like number of recesses 26 in a sidewall of magazine 12 . the detent assembly may comprise a leaf - spring biased detent element as shown , or biasing may be provided by a coil spring , a resilient elastomer , or otherwise as known in the art , or may comprise a resilient wall portion molded into receptacle 22 . alternatively , magazine 12 may be frictionally retained within receptacle 22 , or may be positively locked within receptacle 22 by a latch or pin - type locking arrangement , such mechanisms being conventional . an elongated , rod - like indexing element 30 is extendable upwardly into interior cavity 14 of magazine 12 under the power and control of drive 32 , which may comprise a stepper motor , a screw drive , or other suitable incrementally or continuously controllable drive mechanism as known in the art . as shown , indexing element 30 extends vertically through drive 32 and upwardly into magazine 12 , where it contacts the bottom of floor 18 . as shown in fig1 a and 1b , element 30 may be received within a cup 34 formed in the bottom of floor 18 . cup 34 , like skirts 18a , may alleviate any tendency of floor 18 to tilt , cock or jam . if desired , the upper end of indexing element 30 may be of rectangular or other suitable cross section , and the interior blind bore of cup 34 configured to mate therewith . drive 32 may be controlled responsive to removal or addition of a device to its associated magazine 12 by a pick - and - place mechanism to , respectively , extend or retract indexing element 30 by an increment equivalent to the depth ( thickness ) of a given device 100 . such movement may be software - controlled for ease of accommodating different devices 100 . optionally and desirably , each magazine 12 may carry identifying indicia or an identification device thereon to facilitate proper identification and use of a given magazine and its contents . for example , as shown in fig1 magazine 12 may bear an identification device 40 such as a bar code or magnetic strip ( such as is employed with credit cards ) on an exterior sidewall thereof alternatively , and again as shown in fig1 magazine 12 may bear a more sophisticated electronic identification device 42 utilizing a memory device such as an eeprom or flash memory . an rfid ( radio frequency identification ) device may also be employed for enhanced remote inventory and theft control through electronic tracking or monitoring . such bar code 40 or identification devices 42 may be employed to retain and provide &# 34 ; bin &# 34 ; information as to the test characteristics exhibited by the binned devices carried by the magazine , part count , manufacturing origin , test date , test equipment , test protocol , and other useful information , such as the location of a specific part in a stack of parts deposited in a given magazine 12 . as depicted in fig2 a plurality of magazine units 10 , optionally in identical modular form ( hereinafter &# 34 ; magazine modules &# 34 ;), may be arranged in a close horizontally - adjacent array 110 to dispense or receive devices 100 in association with a pick - and - place mechanism . this arrangement is particularly beneficial for receiving tested and sorted devices 100 , with each magazine 12 of the array 110 comprising a &# 34 ; bin &# 34 ; to receive devices exhibiting particular characteristics under test and sorted accordingly . as shown in broken lines 60 , the magazine module array 110 may be arranged to simulate the device containment pattern size and shape of the aforementioned jedec trays , while eliminating the previously - described conventional practice of presenting different trays for receiving differently binned devices . moreover , using the invention , a pick - and - place mechanism may thus be programmed to dispense tested , sorted chips to only one specific x - y plane ( transverse to the axes of magazines 12 ) location for each sort category , or bin , of tested devices . as desired , the magazine units or modules 10 may be arranged to comprise a square array ( for example , four modules 10 by four modules as shown in fig5 ), another rectangular array ( for example , four modules 10 by two modules 10 as shown in fig2 ), a linear array ( for example , a line of eight modules as shown in fig6 ), or in any other desired arrangement . further , and again as desired , two or more module arrays 110 may be employed if a large number of bins are required and the pick - and - place device 120 has a limited horizontal travel , the multiple arrays 110 being alternatively placeable within reach of a target field 124 of the pick - and - place arm 122 , as shown in fig7 . also , a longitudinally extended module array 110 may be mounted so as to be linearly translatable through a target field 124 of a pick and place arm 122 , as shown in fig8 . finally , and as illustrated in fig9 a circular carousel - type array 110 may be employed to rapidly , rotationally present each magazine module 10 at the same , specific , fixed target field 124 for pick - and - place . as shown in both fig1 and 2 , the magazine modules 10 may be easily bolted or otherwise secured by fasteners to a module or array support plate in any desired pattern and spacing using apertures 72 in flange plates 70 at the tops of drives 32 . alternatively , the magazine modules 10 may be frictionally seated in recesses in a support , spring - loaded or positively - locked clamps may be employed to retain magazine modules 10 , resiliently - biased detent devices employed , or any other suitable retention structure known in the art . further , drives 32 may be linked to a test apparatus and sorting device by quick - release electrical connections ( such as male - female connectors , resiliently - biased surface contacts , or other suitable connections known in the art ). when a given magazine 12 is completely filled , such status being conveyed to the operator by , for example , a sensor 50 ( see fig1 ) sensing the position of indexing element 30 or a proximity sensor 52 ( see fig1 ) located on the interior of receptacle 22 sensing the proximity of floor 18 to the bottom of that magazine 12 , the full magazine 12 is removed and replaced by an empty one . triggering of such sensors 50 , 52 may result in an alarm or other indicator to alert the operator , and a signal to a control system to stop the binning process until the full magazine is replaced . position sensor 50 may sense actual travel of indexing element 30 , or may merely react to proximity of an indicator located on the shaft of indexing element 30 . proximity sensor 52 may comprise a contact switch , a photocell , a reflection type optical encoder , an ultrasound sensor , or other suitable sensor known in the art . in lieu of being associated with receptacle 22 , sensor 52 may be built into the lower end of each magazine 12 , and electrical contact for providing power and passing a signal from the sensor made with a host device such as a programmed computer associated ( for example ) with a testing device or a sorting device when magazine 12 is plugged into receptacle 22 . male \ female mating contacts , resiliently - biased surface contacts , or other conventional arrangement may be employed to make the connection . position sensor 50 might also be employed to indicate when a dispensing magazine 12 has been emptied ( i . e , indexing element 30 is at full extension ), and a proximity sensor 52a might be employed at the top of each dispensing magazine 12 to signal the proximity of floor 18 to the mouth 14b of interior magazine cavity 14 , sensor 52a having a quick - disconnect electrical connection 54 associated therewith for connecting sensor 52a to an alarm or other indicator , to the control for the mechanism being fed by the magazine , and to the control for elevator drive 32 . alternatively , the connection for sensor 52a may be located at the bottom of magazine 12 so that entry of the bottom of magazine 12 into a receptacle 22 also effects an electrical connection for the sensor . further , the sensor may extend longitudinally along the vertical length of the magazine as shown at 52b , to sense the proximity of the floor 18 in a continuous manner , and thus the magnitude of the interior cavity 14 , of the magazine 12 above floor 18 on a continuous basis . in a very simple form , the &# 34 ; sensor &# 34 ; may comprise a graduated indicator scale 52c inscribed on the exterior of magazine 12 next to view port 16 in gradations equal to the thickness of the devices contained therein and numbered to visually indicate the number of devices in the magazine , the remaining magazine capacity , or both . alternatively , the scale 52c may be printed on an adhesive - backed strip or film to be removably adhered to a magazine 12 so that different scales may be used for devices of different thicknesses . as shown in fig3 the magazine of the present invention may be configured in an embodiment 210 to present or receive a plurality , for example four ( 4 ), of devices 100 by employing four interior cavities 14 arranged about a central passage 212 for receiving an indexing element 30 , the floors 18 within the four cavities 14 being linked to a central support 214 which is engaged by indexing element 30 . fig4 schematically depicts the dispensing of devices 100 from an array 110a of magazine units 10 according to the present invention , retrieval with arm 122a of a pick - and - place mechanism 120a and placement into a test board preparatory to passage through test apparatus 130 for electrical testing ( optionally at elevated temperature ) and sorting devices of , 100 as known in the art , retrieval of tested devices 100 with arm 122b of , a second pick - and - place mechanism 120b and binning of same into additional magazine units 10 in an array 110b in accordance with their exhibited test characteristics . other types of device handling mechanisms may also be employed , and it is specifically contemplated that a translatable chute - type gravity feed mechanism is suitable for dispensing tested devices 100 into various magazines 10 in accordance with their test characteristics . many types of such electrical tests being known and conventionally practiced in the art , and the type of such tests being unrelated to the present invention and its practice , no further description thereof will be made herein . the present invention has been disclosed as having specific utility with tsop devices . however , it is contemplated as having utility with any type of semiconductor device , particularly packaged devices such as ( for example ) small outline j - lead ( soj ) devices , thin quad flat pack ( tqfp ) devices , dual - in - line package ( dip ) devices , ball grid array ( bga ) devices , and chip scale package ( csp ) devices . while the present invention has been described in terms of certain illustrated embodiments , those of ordinary skill in the art will readily recognize that it is not so limited . many additions , deletions and modifications may be made to the embodiments disclosed , as well as combinations of features from different disclosed embodiments , without departing from the scope of the invention as hereinafter claimed .	8
referring now to the drawings , particularly fig1 there is shown a pipetting system 10 made in accordance with the present invention . pipetting system 10 includes a hand held pipettor 12 , the details of which are shown in fig2 and a control assembly 14 . pipettor 12 has a motor 16 , for example a stepping motor , which drives a pump assembly 18 for aspirating and dispensing liquid into and from a pipette 20 which is removably attached to the pipettor . control assembly 14 includes a keyboard 22 which is connected to a micro - processor 24 . keyboard 22 provides an operator with the ability of manually inputting micro - processor 24 . data signals generated from micro - processor 24 are applied to latches 26 and 28 , as well as a memory 30 . latch 26 and memory 30 are used in conjunction with a display 32 for indicating the status of pipetting system 10 . latch 28 is used in connection with motor 16 . the signals at the output of latch 28 are applied to a driver 34 which generates drive signals for controlling motor 16 . a calibration memory unit 36 is provided for storing calibration data signals for use in pipetting system 10 as hereinafter described . a power supply 38 generates a 5 volt signal , for example , which is applied to the electronic circuits hereinbefore . the detail construction of pipettor 12 is shown in fig2 . pipettor 12 includes a casing 40 having a handle 42 at one end and a pipette receiving receptacle 44 at the other end . a trigger 46 is slidably mounted to casing 40 and engages a switch 48 when the trigger is actuated . switch 48 energizes motor 16 whereupon a shaft 50 moves upwardly and downwardly relative to motor 16 in response to rotation of the motor armature 52 . the motor 16 is mounted to handle 42 in a pair of bearings 54 , 56 , the motor housing and stator 57 being constrained against movement relative to the handle . in the illustrated embodiment , shaft 50 is externally threaded and armature 52 is an internally threaded member . accordingly , clockwise and counterclockwise rotational movement of armature 52 produces upward and downward linear movement of shaft 50 . when armature 52 rotates in a clockwise direction shaft 50 moves up , for example , and when the armature rotates in a counterclockwise motion the shaft moves down . a sensor 58 is positioned adjacent bearing 56 and senses the relative position of shaft 50 . in the illustrated embodiment , by way of example , sensor 58 is a hall effect sensor and a magnet 60 is mounted to the lower end of shaft 50 . the hall effect sensor 58 generates signals which define the position of magnet 60 relative to the sensor . a piston 62 , which is constrained for reciprocating movement within a cylinder 64 , is attached to the upper end of shaft 50 . the upper end of cylinder 64 is sealed with a cap 66 having an internal passage 68 which is configured to sealably receive one end of a tube 70 . the other end of tube 70 is received in an adaptor 72 which is composed of rubber , for example . one end of a filter 74 , for example a sterilizing grade filter , is held in adaptor 72 in communication with tube 70 . the other end of filter 74 is received in a filter retainer 76 which is composed of rubber , for example . pipette receiving receptacle 44 captively fits about retainer 76 . as shown in fig3 receptacle 44 has an outer housing 78 and a plurality of downwardly extending fingers 80 , for example three fingers , which are radially disposed . the lower section of each finger 80 a projecting gripping member 82 which is configured to engage a pipette inserted into receptacle 44 . in the embodiment shown in fig2 and 3 , gripping members 82 are configured to engage an annular recess or constriction portion of a pipette 20 which is inserted into receptacle 44 . in an alternative embodiment , not shown , the pipette has an annular ribbed portion which is engaged by gripping members 82 . in a further embodiment , the pipette has a smooth outer surface . when pipette 20 is inserted into receptacle 44 , gripping members 82 lock onto ribbed portion 84 . when the pipette 20 is locked into position , the upper end of the pipette communicates with and is seated in filter retainer 76 , the upper end of the pipette being frictionally engaged by the filter retainer . the operation of pipettor 12 is initiated by actuation of trigger 46 . when trigger 46 is squeezed , an actuating arm 86 depresses a contact 88 in switch 48 . switch 48 is actuated and motor 16 is energized . armature 52 of motor 16 rotates , thereby causing either upward or downward linear movement of shaft 50 relative to the fixed position of motor 16 . piston 62 , which is mounted on the end of shaft 50 in sealing engagement with the walls of cylinder 64 by means of an &# 34 ; o &# 34 ; ring 90 , moves upwardly and downwardly with movement of the shaft . when piston 62 moves downwardly in cylinder 64 , a suction is created in tube 70 , whereby liquid is aspirated into pipette 20 which is attached to filter 74 . when piston 62 moves upwardly in cylinder 64 , pressure is applied to tube 70 and liquid is dispensed from pipette 20 . an indicator 92 , for example a light emitting diode , provides an indication that liquid is being dispensed from pipette 20 and an indicator 94 , for example a light emitting diode , provides an indication that liquid is being drawn into pipette 20 . in the illustrated embodiment , by way of example , indicator 92 is a red light emitting diode and indicator 94 is a green light emitting diode . sensor 58 provides an indication of the relative position of piston 62 in cylinder 64 by generating signals defining the position of magnet 60 with respect to the sensor . an initial or home position of magnet 60 relative to sensor 58 is the position where filling of pipette 20 begins and equates to zero volume in the pipette . pipetting system 10 is calibrated by means of a high precision pipette which is inserted into receptacle 44 . the purpose of the calibration process is to calibrate the pipetting system for a liquid of a specific density and at a specific temperature . the calibration procedure begins with the squeezing of trigger 46 and the energizing of motor 16 . the liquid is aspirated into the precision calibrated pipette 20 until the liquid level reaches a graduation mark 96 on the calibration pipette . it is preferred that the liquid used during the calibration process has the same density and it is at the same temperature as the liquid which is to be used during normal operation of the pipetting system . once the desired quantity of liquid has been aspirated into pipette 20 , a calibration button 98 on keyboard 22 is pressed and calibration data signals generated in micro - processor 24 are stored in calibration memory 36 . the calibration data signals stores the number of steps motor 16 moved to displace the liquid in pipette 20 to the graduation mark . in one example , the graduation line on the calibration pipette represents 10 ml . the calibration of the instrument for each liquid is accomplished by using the calibration data at 10 ml and normalizing the values over the volume range of the instrument , for example 0 - 12 ml . in the illustrated embodiment , calibration memory 36 is capable of storing five separate calibration data signals . once the pipetting system 10 has been calibrated , the precision calibration pipette is removed and a laboratory pipette is inserted in its place . in selected operating modes , the quantity of liquid aspirated and dispensed from the laboratory pipette is governed by the calibration data signals stored in calibration memory 36 . trigger 46 is depressed and motor 16 is energized . data signals corresponding to present piston 62 position are compared in micro - processor 24 with the calibration data signals . when the present position data signals or normalized calibration data signals , depending upon the quantity of liquid to be aspirated , equal the calibration data signals , motor 16 is deenergized and the quantity of liquid aspirated into the laboratory pipette is accurate because it considers that liquid specific temperature and density characteristic captured during the calibration procedure . keyboard 22 includes various control keys which govern the speed of motor 16 . in the illustrated embodiment , by way of example , keyboard 22 contains 10 speed control buttons for regulating the speed of motor 16 which , in turn , governs the rate of aspirative and dispensing liquids . the ability of pipetting system 10 to pipette liquids at varying speeds is particularly useful as it relates to special applications . the slowest speeds , for example , allow the user to remove supernatent laying on top of cell monolayers without disturbing or resuspending the cells into solution . conversely , the faster speeds are useful in applications where a powerful stream of liquid is aimed at a cell button that has been formed at the bottom of a test tube after centrifugation . this liquid stream is utilized to resuspend the cells into solution and is a delicate procedure that requires a powerful stream to resuspend the cells , yet one that will not lyse the cells rendering them unsuitable for further use . in the illustrated embodiment , display 32 is provided with five indicating zones . zone 1 , the upper left section of the display , displays the current volume level of liquid in the pipette . zone 2 , the upper right section of the display , presents an indication of the pre - selected volumes for the ( f ) fill and ( d ) dispense modes as well as the current mode of operation of system 10 . zone 3 , the lower left section of the display , is a message area which displays the mode of operation being performed , displays error messages , and provides operator instructions . zone 4 , the lower middle right section of the display , displays the cumulative volume of liquid which has been dispensed since last filled . zone 5 , the lower right section of the display , indicates which calibration channel is being used . the number 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 appears and denotes which one of the five channels is available to preset and store in memory the specific gravity and temperature of various liquids . in a first automatic mode of operation , a single pull of trigger 46 will activate motor 16 and liquids will be aspirated or dispensed in the volumes programmed using keyboard 22 and displayed on display 32 in a calibration scheme according to the previously stored calibration data for the particular liquid . in a second automatic mode , trigger 46 is depressed throughout the pipetting step . if trigger 46 is released prior to completion of the pipetting step , display 32 and led 92 or 94 provide an indication that the pipetting step has not been completed . the next time trigger 46 is depressed and held , the pipetting step is completed . this second automatic mode is unique in that it allows the user to be interrupted in the middle of a pipetting step and then continue with the pipetting step . in a manual mode of operation , the programmed values are overridden and pipetting system 10 fills or dispenses as long as trigger 46 is depressed . the first trigger activation aspirates and subsequent trigger activations dispense until the pipette is empty . since certain changes may be made in the foregoing disclosure without departing from the scope of the invention herein involved , it is intended that all matter contained in the above description and depicted in the accompanying drawings be construed in an illustrative and not in a limiting sense .	1
fig2 a , 2b and 2c illustrate a comparison of the arrangement of full and half - pitch contacts on their respective carriers . fig2 a illustrates the array of the conventional full pitch contact of the prior art ; fig2 b illustrates the array of one embodiment of a half - pitch contact ; fig2 c illustrates the arrangement of a half - pitch contact in accordance with this invention . referring to fig2 b and 2c , it is apparent that the centerline spacing &# 34 ; a / 2 &# 34 ; of the adjacent contacts in the half - pitch contact set is one - half the spacing &# 34 ; a &# 34 ; of the full pitch contact sets . accordingly , the material required using the full pitch carrier design of fig2 a is double that of the half - pitch layout of fig2 b and 2c . the full pitch design allows multiple variation of the design to meet design criteria . the additional material when designing the full pitch socket connectors will result in additional material scrappage and additional plating which will increase cost to produce the contact . a comparison of the advantages and disadvantages of the full pitch layout to the half - pitch layout is as follows : 1 . the material required for a contact formed in a full pitch layout is sufficient to form two contacts with half - pitch layout . in the mass production environment , the half - pitch layout obviously possesses a cost - effective advantage . 2 . the centerline spacing of the terminal - receiving passages in the typical electrical connector insulator housing is a half - pitch pattern even a full pitch contact spacing is used , which requires two individual insertion procedure steps to insert full pitch contacts into each row of half - pitch terminal - receiving passages of an insulator housing as shown in fig1 while only one insertion procedure step is required for contact sockets formed by a half - pitch layout to complete the same insertion operation as shown in fig3 . accordingly , contacts having a half - pitch layout may require only half of the assembly time when compared to contacts having a full pitch layout . 3 . when conveying a continuous carrier strip with a plurality of connector contacts through a plating bath using an automatic conveyor , a half - pitch layout carrier strip exhibits a time - saving advantage when compared to the full pitch layout carrier strip under the same electrical plating conditions and plating processes when plating a plurality of materials . in other words , in a plating environment of specific length of carrier and specific amount of time , it may be expected that more half - pitch contacts will pass through the plating bath than is the case with full pitch layout carrier , which results in the saving of plating time and plating cost . considering the significant economic effect , it is an advantage to design and produce a half - pitch contact which satisfies all design and performance parameters . the fact that available material surface area on the strip for each contact with half - pitch layout is half as much as that of full pitch layout , imposes a limitation of feasible design patterns as well as an obstacle to obtaining optimum physical features , especially the connection feature at the contact portion of the conventional connector contact of fig1 whereby the cantilever arms are formed by first stamping strip material stock into two parallel strips with partly conjoined portions 21 and 22 shown in fig2 b such that said parallel strips 21 and 22 are revolved with respect to the centerline spacing of the connector contact to form the mating section which is the typical conventional fabricating method of generally recognized conventional connector contacts . in contrast , the contact of this invention is the result of novel design efforts and is an innovative contact structure which exhibits the desired physical features for optimum performance , and is manufactured using novel and unique techniques which distinctly distinguish over the generally recognized method . fig3 illustrates an exploded perspective view of this invention with connector contact socket designated generally by the numeral 31 and the insulator housing designated by numeral 32 . as shown , each contact socket includes a terminating section 34 that connects the contact to the carrier strip 34 &# 39 ;, a barbed retention section 35 that retains the contact in the housing 32 and a mating section 36 . the terminal - receiving passages 33 of fig3 of the insulator housing 32 and the contact sockets 31 are all in a half - pitch pattern so that only a one step inserting procedure is necessary for insertion of each row of contact sockets . fig4 illustrates the major characteristic steps of the contact socket manufacturing method of this invention from the carrier strip illustrated in fig2 c . in accordance with this invention , the contact is stamped and formed by first strip 41 and second strip 42 wherein the first strip 41 and second strip 42 are conjoined through the integral portion 43 as shown in fig4 a , 4b and 4c . the second strip 42 comprises a retention section and a terminating section while the first strip 41 comprises a mating section . one of the distinctions of this invention is that the receiving opening of the mating section is formed in the first strip and is a result of the following two fabricating steps . referring to fig4 a , strips 41 and 42 are initially in a common plane and conjoined at 43 as shown . referring to fig4 b , the first strip 41 is bent through 90 degrees with respect to the second strip while remaining integrally connected at 43 . as is shown in fig4 c , first strip 41 consists of two free ends 41a and 41b , wherein first free end 41a is bent through 180 degrees with respect to the second free end 41b to define a u - shaped portion . the above mentioned two - step - process is interchangeable . through this two - step - process , a u - shaped bent portion and a pair of cantilever arms are stamped and formed whereby a connector contact featuring significant material scrap reduction and good electrical connection characteristics is fabricated from the restricted material available , and exhibits a significant breakthrough over the conventional layout . in addition to the two steps of the process described above , the contact manufacturing method of this invention includes another step that includes the edge 42 &# 39 ; of second strip 42 which is opposite to the conjoined portion 43 being bent toward mating section 41 , defining a stop 59 in fig5 to act against u - shaped bent portion such that the contact force of the mating section is well supported and retained to provide a good mechanical and electrical connection relationship . fig5 illustrates another embodiment of the contact structure of this invention , wherein the socket contact includes a terminating section 51 formed at one end of the contact and adapted to be connected to a pc board or conductor . a mating section designated generally by the numeral 53 is formed at the opposite end of the contact and includes a u - shaped bent portion 54 integral with a pair of cantilever arms 55 and 56 . the u - shaped bent portion 54 and cantilever arms are formed from conductive metallic strip stock , cantilever arms facing toward each other as shown in fig5 wherein cantilever arm 55 extends from u - shaped portion 54 converging toward cantilever arm 56 through a predetermined degree while cantilever arm 56 extends from the other end of the u - shaped bent portion 54 , firstly extending outwardly or diverging from arm 55 then inwardly or converging toward cantilever arm 55 . a pair of divergent receiving ends 57 and 58 extend from the corresponding free ends of cantilever arms 55 and 56 and define a receiving opening for a mating contact . a retention section designated generally by the numeral 52 is formed integrally between the terminating section 51 and mating section 53 to secure the contact inside the insulator housing . a stop 59 acting against the u - shaped bent portion 54 of the mating section 53 limits the displacement of cantilever arms 55 and 56 to ensure a good mechanical and electrical connection feature when mating with another connector . stop 59 and the retention section 52 are joined integrally by a conjoined portion 69 which is formed by a revolved strip portion to strengthen the contact structure . the retention section 52 also includes barbs 60 for engaging the insulator and a rib 50 to strengthen and rigidify the flat portion . fig6 illustrates another embodiment of the contact structure of this invention which is distinguished from the embodiment of fig5 by two stops 61 and 62 wherein the upper edge 63 of stop 61 is formed as high as the upper edge 64 of u - shaped bent portion 54 to exhibit a better effect on restricting the displacement of cantilever arm 55 and 56 . in accordance with the new contact structure and manufacturing method of this invention , a connector contact featuring characteristics of good electrical and mechanical connection and manufacturing cost - saving may be fabricated which may benefit the connector industry . it is to be understood that the above described arrangements are simply illustrative of the preferred embodiment of this invention . other arrangements may be devised by those skilled in the art which will embody principles of the invention and fall within the spirit and scope of the claims appended hereto .	7
the principle of the present invention will be generally described prior to the description of each preferred embodiment . each embodiment of the present invention has a detailed description of welding that is the mainstream of joining method and welder ( welding equipment ) as joining equipment . as described above , in an quality inspection for a joining portion and the controlling technology , there are problems to be solved for practical use . to address such problems , according to the joining control of the present invention , a feedback - type neural network technology is applied to welding control , in addition to a conventional feed - forward type . a neuron is the fundamental element of a neural network . the neuron in the present invention employs a dynamic analog model , in which a neuron output is returned back to an input of the neuron . ( see p . 9 to 20 , y . uesaka , mathematical funamentals of neuro - computing , kindai - kagaku - sya , july 1997 .) the dynamic analog model can provide input history records . that is , employing the dynamic analog model , thermal history records fed into a joining portion ( welding zone )— joining ( welding ) quality - determining primary factor — can be reflected on evaluation of joining ( welding ) quality . for this reason , in the neural network used for the present invention , the feedback - driven dynamic analog model is employed for the input layer accepting various data that relate to heat input to the welding zone . according to the present invention , a thermal conduction equation is applied to a resistance welder . in this case , for accelerated calculation time and a reduced cost for numerical calculation , the thermal conduction equation is solved as the following procedure . ∂ t ∂ t = ∇ ( k  ∇ t ) + ρ c   σ  δ 2 ( a ) the following equation is derived by representing the equation ( a ) in a discrete form . t  ( n ) - t  ( o ) = k  ∇ t  δ   t δ   l + ρ   δ 2 c   σ ( b ) the equation ( b ) means that the temperature change in the left side is represented by the summation of : the heat movement change in the first term of the left side , and the heat - up by heat input in the second term of the right side . herein , assuming that the heat moves and changes similarly in shape in the first term of the right side , the following equation is derived . as a result , the following equation for seeking the temperature at welding zone is obtained : t ( n )≅( 1 − α · k · δt / δ 1 ) t ( 0 )+( δ v · i · δt )/( c · σs · δ 1 ) ( 1 ) where t ( n ) is the temperature at the center of a weld zone ; t ( 0 ) is the temperature at the center of the weld zone measured time δt before ; α is the constant on the assumption that the heat moves and changes similarly in shape ; δv is voltage for joining ( welding voltage ) applied to the welding zone ; i is current for joining ( welding current ) fed through the welding zone . that is , the temperature t ( n ) of the weld zone at a certain time is represented as a summation of the weld zone temperature at very little time δt before ( the first term of the right side ) and heat - up by the heat input during δt . herein , the second term in the parenthesis of the first term of the right side represents the heat movement change . with equation ( 1 ), the temperature in a welding zone can be obtained in a single - step calculation , by which the calculation time is accelerated higher than that required for the prior art calculation . this also promises a reduced cost numeric calculation . a general solution to a dynamic analog model is given by equation ( 2 ) below . ( see eq . ( 13 ), p . 19 , y . uesaka , mathematical funamentals of neuro - computing , kindai - kagaku - sya , july , 1997 .) a solution to the thermal conduction equation for a thermal conduction model of a resistance welding zone is given by equation ( 3 ) below . ( see eq . ( 6 . 17 ), p . 235 , t . ouji , fundamental of welding and joining process , selection on welding and joining vol . 1 , sanpo - publishing , june , 1996 .) as is evident from equations ( 2 ) and ( 3 ), the fundamentals for the solutions to these equations have the same form each other . where τ is a time constant , tc is the temperature at the center of a welding zone , to is the maximum temperature in the welding zone . the internal potential ( output ) of a dynamic analog model is assumed to be a parameter for the state in temperature at a welding zone . suppose that welding conditions , such as ( i ) a small range of variation in current path diameter in a welding zone ; ( ii ) a negligible change in thickness of a welding zone , are provided . under such limited conditions , it can be assumed that at least current for joining ( welding current ) and voltage for joining ( welding voltage ) will do for the input elements to a neural network . in the case that any factor that affects the welding state is found prior to welding , the factor can be added to the input elements for the neural network . this method makes a well - configured neural network system easily prepared before welding , appropriately matching with a joining state ( welding state ), for example , the shape of a work piece , and the shape of an electrode . the explanation above has been described taking a case of utilizing a similarity between a solution to a thermal conduction equation in resistance welding and a general solution to a dynamic analog model . this is also applicable to other factors — light , heating by laser , convective heating with a heated tool , providing another neural network based on the same similarity . that is , by replacing the current and voltage , which function as the factors in resistance welding , with heat generated by light input , a radiation diameter , a tool temperature in convective heating . thus , as is the case in resistance welding , another neural network can be established with ease . in this case , not only a variety of input items , but also the number of items that should be learned for the control by the neural network can be specified . the joining control ( welding control ) is performed employing joining strength ( welding strength ) that represents joining quality ( welding quality ). therefore , the neural network utilizes the neuron form shown in fig3 . using a dynamic analog model , the output ( internal potential ) of the neuron element is obtained by solving equation ( 4 ) as a difference equation . u ( t + dt )= a 0 · u ( t )+ x i ( 4 ) where a 0 is a the feedback factor , x i is the amount of input change . the output will be represented by sigmoid function , for example , the function that satisfies the equation ( 5 ) below . with equations ( 4 ) and ( 5 ), the relationship between welding current and welding voltage contained in the teacher data supplying to a dynamic analog model , and welding strength of the teacher data is fed into the neural network so that the network learns the relationship . saturated strength at a welding zone determines b in the equation . by solving simultaneous equations derived from learning results , the unknown parameters , a 0 , u 0 , and w are defined . the output value obtained from the dynamic analog model employing equations ( 4 ) and ( 5 ) corresponds to welding strength . with the value used as a reference , it will be able to perform the welding control with welding strength being optimally controlled . such configuration also enables the data of welding strength for teacher data to be fed into the neural network through a learning process . as described above , a dynamic analog model can be used for controlling by incorporating it into a neural network and giving limitations to welding procedures to be controlled thereunder . to apply the control much more extensively for various work pieces , the dynamic analog model described above will need to be corrected . physical constants for a work piece can be changed through the following methods . a ) changing a physical constant factor that affects the internal potential of a dynamic analog model , according to the extent of the internal potential &# 39 ; s variation . b ) changing the constant according to a welding - zone temperature determined by other detecting method , for example , a welding - zone temperature derived from a thermal conduction equation , or a welding - zone temperature evaluated from thermal image data . c ) shape variations in work pieces — a change in thickness of a welding zone is correctable by detecting the amount of movement of electrode and the amount of change in electrode force . d ) current path areas — can be determined according to a welding - zone temperature , the specific resistance value at the temperature of the work piece to be processed , and the resistance value at the welding zone from the current and voltage applied at the moment . the following events can be also useful for detecting condition changes of the welding zone for welding control . i ) a change in sound at welding ; ii ) light generated at welding ; iii ) a change in composition of a material estimated from a change in sound at welding ; iv ) the distribution of temperature at the welding zone . the temperature distribution mentioned in iv ) can be obtained from , for example , the amount of movement of electrode , and the method was disclosed in japanese patent publication no . 7 - 16791 mentioned earlier . with the methods for changing physical constants described above , the constant α in equation ( 1 ) can be appropriately corrected for each joining material ( welding material ). a destructive inspection for weld zone has been mainly conducted to check whether the welder properly works or not on the welding site . doing it takes a great deal of expertise derived from practical experience . on - the - spot evaluation has therefore not been an easy work . as described earlier , an output ( internal potential ) of a dynamic analog model incorporated in a neural network shows a value pertinent to saturated strength at a weld zone . the internal potential fed out from the neural network is determined as a welding evaluation index . examining a change in color at the welding zone during welding , the welding evaluation index - to - change in color correspondence table is prepared . the inspection based on the correspondence table provides a good grasp of on - the - spot welding . furthermore , the quality check of welding procedure may be conducted in such a way that the image representing the welding zone , which has been subjected to the image process , is evaluated according to color information . this makes possible to check on the progress of welding while the welder works . besides , the correspondence table is useful to ensure high and consistent welding quality . if the welding evaluation index or the change in color is out of its acceptable range as shown in the table , welder or other equipment and the work piece in process can be checked whether something wrong happened in the process . now will be described a case employing a dynamic analog model for controlling welding of a weld zone . as explained above , the internal potential of a dynamic analog model serves as an evaluation index for a weld zone . in this case , the internal potential is given as a function of time . in resistance welding , the welding evaluation index depends on the amount of heat input , i . e ., welding current and welding voltage . this is also true in the welding employing light or laser . welding current in resistance welding can be set as an external input . on the other hand , welding voltage can be represented as a function , with the welding current given as a variable , while the welding process is being monitored . as the welding procedures , referencing the welding zone - evaluation index calculated , a predicted value of the welding zone - evaluation index on the completion of welding is calculated from employing the welding - current value at predetermined time in progress and a predicted value of welding voltage represented with the welding current given as a variable . if the predicted value differs from the target value of the welding zone - evaluation index as a goal on the completion of welding , the welding current is changed to get closer the two values . the comparison of the two values can be a guide for determining the period of welding time : if the welding zone - evaluation index exceeds the target value before a predetermined ending time , the welding may be curtailed ; if the index will not reach the target value by the predetermined ending time , the welding may be extended . performing the comparison between the two values over and over again until the predetermined ending time allows the predicted value to reach closer to the target value on the completion of welding . if the difference between the two values persists , the welding time should be adjusted , setting it slightly longer or shorter . hereinafter will be described the first preferred embodiment of the present invention . in resistance projection welder 11 ( hereinafter referred to as welder 11 ) shown in fig1 welding zone 104 of work pieces 100 and 102 shown in fig4 is sandwiched with electrodes ( not shown ), and applied pressure by a pressuring mechanism ( not shown ) for projection welding . welding condition - setting unit 12 determines joining conditions ( welding conditions ), and predetermines specifications for aimed - welding quality and prepares teacher data 16 . welder controller 13 provides welder 11 with instructions for welding in response to the output value from neural network 14 . in the embodiment , controller 13 controls welding current . herein , welder 11 includes a detecting portion ( not shown ). the detecting portion observes and detects joining states ( welding states ) at the joining portion ( weld zone ). neural network 14 comprises a single neuron of the dynamic analog type , accepting welding voltage v and welding current i used for welding from welder 11 . teacher data 16 is fed into learning unit 15 , where an output target value and a feedback coefficient for neural network 14 are defined . these values are set into neural network 14 . welding condition - setting unit 12 changes the combination of welding current , welding duration , and electrode force — hereinafter referred to these three factors as welding conditions . teacher data 16 employs the data having achieved temperature at the weld zone . as other factors to determine teacher data 16 , information on discoloration due to burns on the surface of welding zone 104 may be available . when using the information , the welding zone should be examined , from the direction indicated by arrow 106 in fig4 for a discolored area on its surface . in addition to changes of welding voltage and current for a certain electrode force , changes in dimension of welding zone is also effective to teacher data 16 . besides , the weld zone 104 reaches at high temperature and then emits light . the light is also usable as teacher data 16 . in case of laser welding , the laser - reflected light at the laser - welded zone is also effective to teacher data 16 . learning unit 15 captures teacher data 16 therein . employing a group of data having similar welding results and solving simultaneous equations , unit 15 derives a feedback coefficient . the target value of neuron output required for control is obtained from the following ways . i ) after the calculation of the feedback coefficient , learning unit 15 may review teacher data 16 and determine the target value being in the range of neuron output values with good welding results , for example , acquired by evaluation of tensile strength . ii ) in reverse , determining the target value , the feedback coefficient may be adjusted so that the predetermined target value is to be the output data . [ 0139 ] fig5 shows the relationship between the target value of neuron output and tensile strength that is the key to good result of welding . in the embodiment , referencing to fig5 the range of neuron output in which a desirable tensile strength is provided . as is apparent from the figure , the target value of neuron output is set at 90 with the preferable range of neuron output provided +/− 20 . [ 0141 ] fig6 shows an example of neuron output from the start of welding until the end of welding . the values determined by learning unit 15 are fed into neural network 14 , which completes preparation for welding . while welding is in operation , neural network 14 outputs the difference between the target value of neuron output and a neuron output , which is fed out during the work shown in fig6 . the difference is entered to welder controller 13 . receiving the data , controller 13 changes welding conditions for welder 13 to eliminate the difference , so that the desired welding result is provided . according to the embodiment , welding current i is changed to change welding conditions . when the duration of welding is used for changing welding conditions , the welding work may complete at the time the neuron output reaches the target value of neuron output . in this case , the target value given only at the completion of welding is important . the characteristic of the value during the work is not required to be monitored . electrode force may be used for the parameter for changing welding conditions . in this case , the same effect as the case described above is expected if the response of a pressuring system is faster . now will be described the second preferred embodiment of the present invention . in resistance spot welder 21 shown in fig7 welding zone 22 of work pieces is sandwiched between electrode tips , with application of pressure and heat , to generate a nugget . temperature measurement unit 23 calculates the temperature at a weld zone , employing the voltage and current applied to weld zone 22 , data ( a ) 26 indicating specific resistance characteristics in a work piece , and data ( b ) 27 indicating specific heat temperature characteristics . herein , welder 21 includes a detecting portion ( not shown ). the detecting portion observes and detects welding states at the weld zone . in addition to that , unit 23 calculates resistance between electrode tips rm . comparing calculated rm with measured resistance between electrode tips re , identifying processing unit 24 determines a current path diameter dc and supplies it to unit 23 . estimating controller 25 controls the current and voltage applied to resistance welder 71 according to the weld - zone temperature calculated at unit 23 . [ 0154 ] fig8 is a flow chart indicating the working principle of the embodiment . referencing to fig8 the control sequence of welding operation will be described . at the start of welding , the temperature at welding zone t 0 is set at 20 ° c . substituting the values of data ( a ) 26 and ( b ) 27 , current , and voltage into equation ( 1 ) yields the internal temperature t1 . the current path area s in equation ( 1 ) is found in such a way that its diameter dc measures 6 mm as an initial value upon welding . after the calculation of temperature , the resistance value r at the welding zone is obtained from measured voltage and current , then the resistance value r is obtained by calculation . where ρ is specific resistance , l is a thickness at a welding zone , s is a current path area . then the resistance value r at the welding zone and measured resistance value r are compared in magnitude . the result determines the value of diameter dc : ( i ) when r & gt ; r , the value of dc should be decreased ; ( ii ) r & lt ; r , the value of dc should be increased ; ( iii ) r = r , the calculation cycle is continued with the value of dc having no alteration . unlike the initial setting of t0 , calculated internal temperature , t1 is given to t0 for the next calculation . data ( a ) 26 , i . e . specific resistance characteristics in a work piece and data ( b ) 27 , i . e . specific heat temperature characteristics are given values measured at temperature t1 , and the value determined in the previous calculation is for diameter dc , while newly measured values are used for voltage and current . the density , the thickness of a weld zone , and the thermal conductivity , which are required to equation ( 1 ), are contained in the welding condition factors given at the start of the procedure . with the same procedure as the previous calculation , t2 is calculated and dc is determined by comparing measured resistance value r and calculated resistance value r . if the welding work does not complete , the control sequence continues the next cycle . to calculate a time - varying temperature at the weld zone , the loop will execute until the welding work is over . herein , the coefficient α may be adjusted based on the output of temperature measurement unit 23 . [ 0162 ] fig9 a and 9b are graphs that illustrate a well - controlled nugget production according to changes in temperature at a welding zone . temperature measurement unit 23 , as shown in fig9 b , continuously calculates the temperature at the center of the welding zone with the calculation procedure described above . the nugget was produced on target time ts by controlling welding current appropriately , as shown in fig9 a , according to temperature variations . [ 0163 ] fig1 shows the relationship between changes in current and changes in nugget diameter a the number of weld increases . the prior art constant - current welding has the traditional limit of nugget production by the time the number of weld gets into the range of 1500 to 2000 due to wear of the electrodes . with the method of the embodiment , however , nuggets can be still produced over 3000 times of weld , which means the electrode life extremely increased . in this example , welding current increased from approx . 6 ka at the start of welding up to 7 . 5 ka at approx . 3000 times of weld . besides , a low - cost cpu will do for temperature measurement unit 23 of the embodiment , instead of an expensive device equipped with high - speed numeric calculation ability . in the embodiment , calculated temperature was controlled so as to reach the target temperature on the target time . in this case , the target temperature is based on the melting temperature of steel plates . as an additional effect , controlling an increasing rate of the calculated temperature effectively suppresses weld expulsion occurred during a welding work . now will be described third preferred embodiment of the present invention . in the actual welding site , an error in dimension or shape of each work piece , or variations in dimension due to deformation occurred in pressing often forces the welding work to weld with an edge portion of a work piece . the welding work at the edge portion of a work piece differs from the work at a normal ( that is , not at the edge ) position of a work piece in terms of thermal capacity , exothermic distribution . therefore , providing the same welding condition as that applied to the welding at a normal position can cause a extreme deformation or weld expulsion , degrading welding quality . to handle such a situation and get a higher welding quality , welding conditions should be changed so as to be suitable for each situation . the embodiment makes use of a neural network in coping with the situation . the neural network estimates a position to be weld and automatically changes welding conditions according to the state . an important point in the estimation is whether or not the position to be weld locates at the edge of a work piece . the neural network employs changes in electrode force as a guide for the estimation . now will be described the system and its working principle of the embodiment . in fig1 , welding power source 31 contains a pressuring section . neural network 34 outputs calculation results to output controller 33 , which controls welding power source 31 . employing teacher data 36 , learning section 35 calculates a feedback coefficient and a weighted coefficient for the neural network . welding voltage detector 37 , which works as a joining voltage detector , detects welding voltage , while welding current detector 38 , which works as a joining current voltage detecctor , detects welding current . pressuring power detector 39 detects changes in electrode force generated during welding . receiving pressuring power change characteristic from detector 39 , pressuring power change characteristic output unit 40 calculates the value measured at a predetermined time interval since the welding has started . the calculated result is sent to neural network 34 . welding setting unit 32 sets the welding condition for output controller 33 . welding power source 31 sandwiches a steel plate — or aluminum plate — made work piece ( not shown ) with its pressuring section ( not shown ) and performs resistance welding by applying welding current according to the welding instruction from welding setting unit 32 . welding current detector 38 detects welding current applied to the welding zone . welding voltage detector 37 detects welding voltage occurred in the work piece and transmits it to one of neurons in the input layer of neural network 34 . the signals from the built - in sensor ( not shown ) of the pressuring section are fed into pressuring power detector 39 . furthermore , output unit 40 sends the results calculated with the values measured at a predetermined time interval from the start of welding — pressing force change characteristic h — to a different neuron in the input layer of neural network 34 . now will be described the configuration of neural network 34 . neural network 34 in fig1 comprises the input layer having three neuron elements , the intermediate layer having two elements , and the output layer having one element . one output from one of neurons in the input layer is returned back to an input of the same neuron . the input layer accepts pressing force change characteristic h from pressuring power change characteristic output means 40 , welding current i , and welding voltage v . characteristic h is obtained by normalizing , with respect to the maximum value that pressing force characteristic shown in fig1 b has reached , the value measured with 5 ms delayed from the maximum value - achieved point . after that , characteristic h is fed into neural network 34 . neural network 34 is controlled so as to wait for the input of characteristic h with output c unchanged . therefore , output controller 33 continues welding operations according to the welding condition determined by welding setting unit 32 until characteristic h is accepted . prior to welding , the neurons , which are supposed to accept welding current i and welding voltage v , have experienced learning process since the welding started . the learning process employs teacher data 36 and feedback coefficient a 0 determined by learning unit 35 . weighted coefficients wij , vij are determined in advance by learning section 35 according to teacher data 36 . receiving characteristic h , neural network 34 changes output c with predetermined such coefficients . output controller 33 controls , according to output c , the welding current value for welding power source 31 to change welding conditions . [ 0186 ] fig1 a and 13b are examples of teacher data 6 of the embodiment . as shown in fig1 a , a group of plural data of current and voltage during welding is fed into the neuron responsible for performing the learning process of neural network 34 . in other words , plural kinds of data on current vs . welding time and voltage vs . welding time are fed into the neuron . herein , the value represents tensile strength is employed for the criteria for evaluating a welding result and feedback coefficient a 0 is defined — a 0 = 0 . 94 for this embodiment .) [ 0188 ] fig1 b shows a change in pressuring force during welding . it is apparent from fig1 b that pressuring power change characteristic changes as the position to be weld gets close to the edge of a work piece , changing the shape from curves 41 through 44 . with respect to the maximum value of pressuring force characteristic , characteristic h is obtained by normalizing the value measured with 5 ms delayed from the maximum value - achieved point , then fed into neural network 34 . a personal computer ( pc ) is employed for learning unit 35 . the pc contains a history data - learning program and a learning program for calculating weighted coefficients for a static analog model — typical type comprising an input layer , an intermediate layer , and an output layer . the weighted coefficients are calculated by the back - propagation method . with the prior art welding , an error in positioning of work pieces to be weld together has often occurred , as mentioned earlier , due to variations in their shapes . besides , the welding done with the edge of a work piece has sometime caused spatters of melted metal , i . e . weld - expulsion , at the weld zone , sparking around the site . the expulsion could cause the spatters remained in the welding equipment , degrading the reliability of the equipment including a weld unit . according to the embodiment , however , in the welding to be done at the edge of a work piece , the welding conditions — welding current , welding voltage , and electrode force — can be rapidly decreased suitable for the welding point , with the expulsion substantially eliminated . in addition , the welding strength achieved a satisfactory degree . although the embodiment employs pressuring power change characteristic for the learning process of a welding position , the amount of electrode displacement , i . e ., the amount of movement of electrode is available for good effect . to obtain a higher leveled result , a ccd camera shooting is effective . according to the image of the welding position taken by the camera , the welding position can be directly fed into the neural network . 1 ) providing a versatile control method responding with changes in complicate joining states ( welding states ). 2 ) accelerating the time for numerical calculations ; realizing a higher control speed and a low - cost device required for numerical calculations ; providing an economical and learning process - free control method . 3 ) minimizing the number of input items into a neural network ; minimizing an error of the network output with fewer learning items , with the result that a joining equipment having high joining capability with an effective learning process . 5 ) providing a versatile joining control that can obtain a good result with higher accuracy . 6 ) providing an easy - handling of joining control equipment on a joining ( welding ) site , and a confirmation method of the working state of the equipment .	1
reference may be had to fig1 which illustrates schematically a monitoring , control and maintenance system 10 for remotely located autonomously powered lighting , security / video , monitoring ( weather , environmental ( including pollution ), industrial ( flow , sewage , water ) or telecommunications ( cellular , wifi , etc .) installation systems . in the embodiment shown , the system 10 includes an autonomously powered light pole array 12 , a central processing unit ( cpu ) 14 for receiving operational data signals from and providing central signals to the array 12 and a data storage repository 16 . the light pole array 12 , central processing unit 14 and data storage repository 16 are most preferably provided in wireless electronic communication by a suitable cellular , zigbee or wifi communications network 18 . the light pole array 12 preferably consists of a number of autonomously powered light poles 20 which are installed for operations at a geographic location remote from the cpu 14 . the light poles 20 forming each array 12 may optionally include at least one telecommunications aggregator pole 20 ′, as well as a number of conventional poles 20 . in particular , by reason of their autonomous power source , the light poles 20 are particularly suitable for installation in geographically remote regions which , for example , may lack conventional power infrastructure such as electrical or telephone transmission lines , or even seasonal roads . in this regard , the light pole array 12 may be situated several hundred or even thousands of kilometers from the cpu 14 , not only in developed areas , but also along borders or in other geographically inaccessible areas . fig2 shows best the basic design of each light pole 20 using the system 10 . the poles 20 include an aluminum column 22 which extends vertically from a hollow base 24 . the column 22 is used to mount above the ground a pair of led lights 26 a , 26 b as respective electric loads , as well as a pair of solar or photovoltaic panels 28 a , 28 b and a top mounted wind turbine generator 30 . a fuel cell or battery 38 is housed within the interior of the base . as will be described , the fuel cell 38 both receives and stores charging electric current generated by the photovoltaic panels 28 a , 28 b and wind generator 30 , and supplies a discharge electric current to the led lights 26 a , 26 b in response to control signals received from a pole communications and monitoring controller 42 . the photovoltaic panels 28 a , 28 b and wind turbine generator 30 are each electronically coupled to respective voltage / current sensors 32 a , 32 b , 34 . the voltage / current sensors 32 a , 32 b , 34 are operable to provide signals correlated to the voltage and electric current generated by the panels 28 a , 28 b and wind turbine 30 in real time . in addition to the current sensors 32 a , 32 b , 34 , each pole 20 includes additional sensors for monitoring environmental and / or pole operating parameters . optionally , a photovoltaic sensor 44 is provided to provide signals respecting ambient and / or sun light at each pole location . similarly a battery temperature sensor 40 within the interior of the column adjacent to the fuel cell 38 provides data relating to the battery temperature and / or ambient air temperature . in addition , optionally wind sensors may be provided as either a separate anemometer , or more preferably as part of the turbine generator 30 itself . fig3 shows best schematically the pole communications and monitoring controller 42 as being operable to receive data signals from the sensors 32 a , 32 b , 34 , 44 , 46 and provide control signals to regulate the supply of charging current from power generation produced by the photovoltaic panels 28 a , 28 b and wind generator 30 to the fuel cell 38 , as well as battery status and the discharge supply current therefrom to the led lights 26 a , 26 b . although not essential , most preferably , the communications and monitoring controller 42 further includes signal transmission and reception capability allowing the communication and / or transmission data and programming respecting the operating parameters of the pole 20 , fuel cell 38 and / or load conditions between adjacent poles 20 within the light pole array 12 by either ethernet or serial usb connections . the telecommunications aggregator pole 20 ′ is essentially identical to the other poles 20 , with the exception in that its communications and monitoring controller 42 , which includes a zigbee , cell , ethernet , or wifi transmitter 50 ( fig3 ) configured to upload data and / or receive control programming from the cpu 14 for the entire array 12 via the cellular communications network 18 . in one most preferred embodiment , within the light pole array 12 , each pole 20 is provided with a zigbee , cell , or ethernet transmitter to communicate data to the data storage repository 16 directly without going through a telecommunications aggregator pole 20 ′. in a more economical construction , however , a single telecommunications aggregator light pole 20 ′ is provided with the zigbee or cell transmission capability . the light pole 20 ′ is adapted to receive and retransmit data from the remaining light poles 20 within the array 12 to the cellular communications network . in a further optional embodiment , the communications and monitor controller 42 may also electronically communicate with either a stand - alone weather station situated at the remote location , and / or motion detector or other environmental sensors . the operation of the system 10 is shown best with reference to fig4 . in particular , in a most preferred mode of operation , data from the individual light poles 20 is uploaded via the cellular communications network 18 to a cloud - based processing and data storage repository 16 . although not essential , the use of a central data processing and data storage repository 16 permits multiple individual users accessing their own cpu 14 to monitor , assess and affect maintenance requirements on a number of different geographically remote light pole arrays 12 . in particular , the communications and monitoring controller 42 of the poles 20 in each array 12 monitors inputs from the various sensors 32 a , 32 b , 34 , 44 , 46 . this permits the system 10 to collect and monitor data respecting the voltage and current which is generated by each light pole 20 , turbine 30 and photovoltaic panels 28 a , 28 b , and record data as external factors such as temperature , wind and / or sunlight conditions at each remote region received from the photovoltaic and environmental sensors 32 , 32 b , 34 , 44 , 46 . the system 10 provides the ability to intelligently change the energy use of the individual light pole 20 loads under certain conditions to achieve lower maintenance , better performance , higher reliability and maximize the life cycle of the system . by way of example , if a weather forecast for the next 10 days may be for cloudy weather , the system 10 may determine not enough sun will be received . the cpu 14 proactively manages energy use of the light or other system load to manage through this ‘ brown - out ’ time period . similarly the micro wind environment of specific locations or the sun profiles of a specific location of the pole 20 dictates lower energy generation . it is possible to change the energy use to manage it so that the system 10 delivers light at reduced hours of operations or dimmed levels to ensure the system continues to perform . the system 10 further allows for the analysis of specific device or pole 20 performance against all of the other poles 20 (‘ calibration in the cloud ’). where on a select pole 20 the solar panels 28 do not operate according to the specifications or according to the expected performance relative to how the other systems are performing , or the battery does not meet specified levels , the system can change the energy use to make the pole 20 perform and meet the life cycle targets . the life cycle of the poles 20 may evolve and change due to battery discharges and other stresses . the system 10 allows for recording of the history and performance of the system and to evolve the energy use / charging to maximize the life of the battery . customization of the battery charging algorithms based upon environment , application and age of the system of the specific unit may also be achieved . most preferably , the communications and monitoring controller 42 includes an internal processor which may pre - filter the collected data to ensure that the individual operating parameters of the light pole 20 are performing within a predetermined acceptable range . where the sensed data determines that power generation and / or load output falls outside the pre - selected ranges , the communications and monitoring controller 42 may be used to effect power reduction to the loads ( i . e . dimming of the led lamps 26 a , 26 b ) and / or adjust the fuel cell 38 charging time accordingly . the data received from the light pole sensors 32 a , 32 b , 34 , 44 , 46 is transmitted by the communications and monitoring controller 42 by the telecommunications aggregator pole 20 ′, for each pole in the array 12 via the cellular and / or zigbee communications network 18 to the data storage repository 16 . data respecting the light pole power generation and load usage as well as environmental data for each pole 20 is stored in the repository 16 for each pole 20 of each array 12 . by means of the cpu 14 , a system administrator can thus monitor power generation for the entire array 12 in aggregate , as well as on an individual light pole 20 basis . similarly , environmental , wind generation and / or photovoltaic conditions can be aggregated for the entire pole array 12 ( or part thereof ) and compared against individual data on a selected pole - by - pole basis . the system 10 thus advantageously allows a user to monitor and control individual light poles 20 having regard to not only the individual pole operating parameters , but also overall environmental conditions . in one mode , the system 10 is used to monitor and / or control led light operations 26 a , 26 b , and if necessary provide maintenance instructions as a result for a selected light pole 20 . in particular , in the case of led lights 26 a , 26 b , initially led lamps have a tendency to burn with increased brightness in the first instance , characterized by a reduction in lumen output over time . as such , over the lifespan of a conventional led bulb , the bulbs may be initially too bright , and subsequently insufficiently bright for the intended site of installation . in one preferred mode , the cpu 14 is used to transmit control signals 104 to the communications and monitoring controller 42 to operate led light loads 26 a , 26 b at reduced power levels for an initial pre - selected period . as the lamps in the led lights 26 a , 26 b age , the cpu 14 controls the communications and monitoring controller 42 to increase power to the lights 26 to compensate for any reduction in performance . in another embodiment , external data from other sources outside of the system 10 may also be loaded into the data storage repository 16 for the purposes of servicing the pole 20 . in one instance , where there is an external weather forecast of severe weather with high winds , the cpu 14 may by way of communications and monitoring controller 42 modify the power draw from the wind turbine 30 and configure the turbine 30 to be best able to withstand a high wind event that could cause a failure to the system 10 . with the present system 10 , the communications and monitoring controller 42 will upload to the data storage repository 16 to log historical profiles of battery performance . depending upon the number and rate of battery charging and discharging over periods of time , the cpu 14 may by way of the communications and monitoring controller 42 modify the charging and discharging rate to and from the battery 38 with a view to extending battery life performance . in addition , depending upon environmental conditions for the pole array 12 as determined by the photovoltaic and environmental sensors 36 , 46 , where , for example , the geographic region where the light pole array 12 is subject to prolonged periods of either cloudiness and / or becalmed winds so as to result in a reduction of charging power to the battery , the cpu 14 may be used to signal the communications and monitoring controllers 42 of each light pole 20 within the light pole array 12 to either dim the output light intensity of the led lights 26 a , 26 b and / or their operation time to compensate for regional environmental anomalies . the present system 10 therefore allows for the remote troubleshooting and performance testing of the solar panels 28 a , 28 b , as well as the wind turbine 30 for each individual pole 20 , by a remote web based user or smart device 108 . most preferably , the cpu 14 is operable to effect control signals to the communications and monitoring controller 42 to provide remote open voltage tests and remote short circuit tests on solar panels 28 a , 28 b . similar tests for other systems components are also enable by cpu 14 . by assessing the operating data stored in the data storage repository 16 for a number of light poles 20 and / or light pole arrays 12 , it is therefore possible to compare individual light pole 20 performance across an aggregate number of poles to filter environmental versus hardware defects . the analysis of the performance of individual light poles 20 as compared to the aggregate of the light pole array 12 advantageously may eliminate and / or reduce needless service calls , particularly in case of the light pole arrays 12 which are installed at highly remote or physically inaccessible locations . by way of example , typically power line tree removal is currently undertaken on a ten year cycle , irrespective of whether or not an actual determination has been made whether it is needed . the present system therefore allows a system administrator to assess whether or not a number of light poles 20 in a particular array 12 are performing at a substandard level , triggering a call for intelligent maintenance when for example plant growth is adversely effecting the solar panel 28 a , 28 b and / or wind turbine 30 operation . it also allows for a system administrator to eliminate a scheduled maintenance operation in the event that a light pole 20 is operating according to design objectives . in a first exemplary mode of operation , the system 10 is used to identify installation defects where for example solar panels are installed in an incorrect orientation or with over shading structures . by comparing individual solar panel degradation within a configuration of multiple panels , and optionally comparing the performance over a longer period of time to take into consideration the seasonal change in power , the system 10 can identify upcoming potential service issues . in another situation , where a visual inspection of pole 20 may indicate potential shading or other issues , the system may identify that such degradation does not affect the overall performance of pole 20 and therefore , no servicing action is required . by tracking changing power output levels for each solar panel 28 a , 28 b over the calendar year and the change in sun position , it is possible to identify incorrectly positioned solar panels 28 a , 28 b and obstructions arising from seasonal changes by comparing the average solar panel output for the geographic population of the solar panel array . it is also possible to identify individual solar panels 28 a , 28 b that provide increasing or decreasing outputs on a seasonal basis . seasonal change in solar output provides an indication that the changing azimuth of the sun causes the solar panels 28 a , 28 b to be mis - positioned where overlying obstructions may provide shadows . in the event performance drops below predetermined thresholds , the cpu 14 is used to output a maintenance control signal to either a third party maintenance technician or alternately power down pole 20 or alter load power to preserve battery integrity . in a second exemplary mode of operation , the system 10 is used to identify component defect or failure for a selected pole 20 within the array 12 . the cloud 16 is used to provide a pooled performance output of the array 12 , taking into consideration internal and external data point factors , on both a calendar and anticipated product lifespan basis . the cpu 14 is used to identify any individual poles 20 which are providing performance output parameters , which fall below a preselected threshold or warranty thresholds from the average performance for the array 12 . in a simplified analysis , individual poles 20 , which are operating below the predetermined threshold of the array 12 , are identified and tagged for possible maintenance or repair . more preferably , individual pole 20 performance as well as array 12 performance is further assessed with respect to the anticipated degradation rates expected by manufacturer . in this regard , the system 10 advantageously may be used to identify arrays 12 where environmental factors have affected array 12 . corresponding assessments may be made with respect to wind turbine 30 performance . in measuring turbine performance of an individual pole 20 , the cpu 14 may be used to assess data from the cloud 16 to provide an indication of anemometer measured wind speed within the geographic region of the array 12 or alternatively a portion of the geographic region . the measured wind speed may be compared against pre - projected energy output of the mass performance of the turbines 30 to identify any individual turbines 30 , which have fallen below acceptable threshold levels . in an alternate embodiment , power output data for a selected number of pole turbines 30 within a portion of the array 12 is used as a reference . individual turbine 30 output within the sample population is then assessed for any selected poles 20 which are performing below outside threshold tolerance levels . assessment may be made periodically and / or averaged over various time periods based upon certain factors . in an alternate embodiment , testing may be prescheduled having regard to anticipated optimum wind or environmental conditions , selected to provide the desired reference output . in a further exemplary embodiment , battery temperature , depth of discharge and frequency of deep discharge for each battery 38 within the array 12 is recorded and stored within the cloud data repository 16 , over time . the depth and frequency discharge data for individual batteries 38 may thus be compared against averages for the population and optionally adjusted for manufacturer &# 39 ; s anticipated life span degradation to identify instances where battery 38 performance falls below acceptable performance levels . in this manner , the system 10 may be used to highlight and isolate individual poles where individual batteries may be susceptible to individual failure . in a further exemplary embodiment , the system 10 is operated to monitor and predict ongoing maintenance needs for the array 12 as a whole . the system 12 could be used to assess the performance of the entire array 12 against a series of further geographically remote arrays 12 ; as well system 10 may be used to assess an array 12 of poles 20 against the manufacturer &# 39 ; s projected performance having regard to component age . in a further exemplary embodiment , the system 10 may be used to identify and or predict scheduled maintenance needs for individual light pole components such as solar panels 28 a , 28 b , batteries 38 , led lamps 26 a , 26 b or other load or energy generation devices . the cpu 14 may be used to access historical data from the repository 16 to monitor the discharge supply current for each pole 20 in the individual array 12 and / or alternatively other arrays 12 of similar attributes . on a degradation of the discharge supply current for the selected array 12 , cpu 14 analysis may , for example , provide an indication of dirt fouling of the solar panels 28 a , 28 b or lights such that systems begin to fall under manufacturer &# 39 ; s performance projections . data can be compared with environmental data stored on the repository 16 to provide an assessment whether or not solar panel blockage is a result of cloud or fog conditions or more direct environmental impacts such as dust or snow or alike . in the latter case , the system 10 may be used to provide a signal to remote maintenance personnel signalling that the solar panels 28 a , 28 b or lamps 26 a , 26 b may need cleaning or other maintenance . alternatively , the system 10 can be signalled to modify the operation of the system 10 to reduce the discharge power output level and time ensuring the system 10 continues to perform for a longer period of time before the maintenance can be scheduled and delivered . by using data stored in the repository 16 for a number of different autonomously powered light installations within similar regions , the system 10 allows for layout and performance calculations to be undertaken using theoretical calculations from tools such as homer ™. in particular , over time the system 10 will gather actual performance data for the light poles 20 within the array 12 and will permit the calculations of variance versus theoretical algorithms allowing future systems to be designed and / or tailored having regard to the actual measured performance data . more preferably , the cpu 14 will allow for the system 10 to self - learn , permitting the modification of theoretical adjustments and / or assumptions , as more and more systems 10 are brought online . by the use of the systems 10 , it is further possible to generate performance curves for the individual wind turbine generators 30 . the turbine performance curves can thus permit users to monitor individual turbine power generation for a selected pole 20 as compared to the average for the entire pole array 12 , allowing for an individual assessment of performance and / or deterioration . similarly , the system may be used to provide maintenance warnings or indications of solar or photovoltaic panel deterioration . in particular , as individual photovoltaic panels 28 a , 28 b become pitted and damaged , by monitoring the performance of power generated for individual poles 20 versus the entire light pole array 12 , or even a regional average of photovoltaic panels for a particular area , it is possible to assess whether maintenance and / or panel replacement may be required where power generation falls below a pre - selected value . in yet a further exemplary embodiment , the cpu 14 is operable to access third party predictive environmental data including predictive near - term data such as short term weather forecast data for the coming one to three weeks ( i . e . cloud coverage , wind speeds , etc . ); as well as predictive seasonal data ( sunlight , solar intensity , predicted short term and / or average seasonal temperature , average wind speeds , average precipitation , etc .). in response to the predicted environmental data , the cpu 14 is operable to output control signals via the communications and monitoring controller 42 , to modify load profiles including one or more of power intensity and / or time of operation of the lights and the charging and / or discharging rates to and from the battery with the embodiment , load profiles can be configured at the light pole 20 or device , or through the cpu 14 . either way , the load requirements can be determined from an energy requirements perspective in order to determine how much available energy is available on - hand in the event that energy generation is anticipated to be problematic due to upcoming weather conditions . in one possible mode , the cpu 14 determines that the system 10 has an exemplary storage ( i . e . five days &# 39 ; worth ) of stored energy to operate , assuming the battery 38 is to provide a load profile without degradation , and may be fully recharged by average wind and / or solar output over that time period . where the cpu 14 receives weather data predicting significant cloud cover approaching for an extended period , the cpu 14 may anticipate situations where the stored available energy on - hand may decrease , and could potentially run out . with advance weather predictions available on the internet , and from third parties , it is possible to predictively forecast when adverse weather conditions are to occur and adjust the operating parameters of the system 10 to extend the amount of energy available , as for example through decreased windows of light operation and / or through dimming of operational light sources . in a mode of implementation an operating matrix for each system 10 includes a prediction model for each light 42 or load device based upon its installation gps coordinates , time , and date . the further north or south that a light 42 or device is located will impact the seasonally maximum amount of energy generated under optimum conditions . a base level matrix may thus be utilized by the cpu 14 to determine on which days the system 10 can be expected to fully recharge batteries 38 , as well as predict situations where battery charging can be compromised . the matrix can furthermore be utilized with other diagnostic applications , as for example to determine when the system 10 is not performing as expected . it can also be utilized from a sizing perspective to design new installations to meet the changing light for each individual location , and / or provide diagnosis warning of post installation growth , obstruction , or building that was not present when the system 10 was installed and / or when solar panels 28 a , 28 b need cleaning due to buildup of materials on the surface of the panel ( more noticeable in southern climates where solar panels are angled more horizontally in nature ). in one possible monitoring mode , the light poles 20 continuously transmit telemetry data to the cpu 14 on a user - configurable schedule . this information may for example include information about monitor sensor activation , low voltage disconnects , low voltage reconnects , etc . the light pole array data is sued by the cpu 14 for predictive analysis of the normal operating environment for each light pole 20 and / or the array 12 . in situations where a motion sensor is included , the cpu 14 could collect data and determine whether the motion sensor activates repeatedly between pre - set period ( i . e . the hours of 8 p . m . and 11 p . m . at an office location ) which can be used to accurately predict the energy requirements at smaller time intervals . on an hourly , daily , etc . period , the cpu 14 will update its weather parameter such as predicted wind speeds and / or predicted sunshine intensity , as for example as a weighted valve calculated by one or more of time of year , period of each system 10 based upon third party weather reporting api . the predictive model will only force changes at the light pole 20 / device level when the amount of storage fails to meet the anticipated load profile and the battery charging profile required to maintain the load profile . in such a case , the cpu 14 provides a control signal to the light pole array 12 requesting a profile change to extend energy storage . the cpu 14 signals will also include recommended programming changes based on the inventory of the attached energy generation devices ( solar panels 28 a , 28 b , wind turbines 30 , etc . ), as well as available battery or power storage facilities . in addition , the owner / operator of multiple systems 10 can indicate to the cpu 14 which arrays 12 and / or individual light poles 20 have a higher priority than others ( security cameras , for example ). this information is used by the cpu to weight the operational performance of the light poles having regard to similar weather and / or seasonal conditions and to control that a selected remote light pole 20 or device changes its operating parameters for energy conservation . in one possible mode , a security camera could be kept online as long as possible whilst other loads in the array 12 such as lighting could be dimmed and / or disabled entirely ( weather sensors , etc .). while fig2 illustrates a preferred light pole 20 which includes as electric loads a pair of led lights 26 a , 26 b , the invention is not so limited . reference may be had to fig5 which illustrates a light pole 20 in accordance with a further embodiment of the invention , in which like reference numerals are used identify like elements . in fig5 , the light pole 20 is provided with a single led light 26 . in addition , as further load sources , the pole 20 is used to mount one or two video sensing cameras 52 , one or two infrared light sensors ( likely with photocell ) 50 , one or two motion detectors , and separate wireless router for redundant and / or secure communications . it is to be appreciated that in the embodiment shown , the communications and monitoring controller 42 is used to provide control signals to and receive control signals from the infrared light 50 , the motion detector and the security camera 52 , as well as receive and transmit to the data storage repository 16 and or directly to the cpu 14 video images there from . it is believed that incorporating light poles 20 of the type shown in fig5 within the light pole array 12 advantageously may be used to provide off grid security . fig6 shows schematically the pole communications and monitoring controller 42 as being operable to receive data signals from the sensors 32 a , 32 b , 34 , 44 , 46 and provide control signals to regulate the supply of charging current from power generation produced by the photovoltaic panels 28 a , 28 b and the wind generator 30 to the fuel cell 38 , as well as battery status and the discharge supply current therefrom to the video sensing cameras 52 , infrared light sensors 57 , and motion detectors 54 . although not essential , most preferably , the communications and monitoring controller 42 further includes signal transmission and reception capability allowing the communication and / or transmission of data and programming respecting the operating parameters of the pole 20 , fuel cell 38 and / or load conditions between adjacent poles 20 within the pole array 12 , as well as information captured by the sensing cameras 52 , infrared sensors 57 and motion detectors , by either ethernet or serial usb connections 55 , 56 . although the detailed description describes the system 10 as used in the remote monitoring and control of an array of combination solar and wind powered lampposts , the invention is not so limited . it is to be appreciated that in an alternate embodiment , the system 10 could incorporate a variety of other autonomous solar powered , wind powered , other direct current or alternating current power sources and / or grid - powered devices providing a load . such devices could include without restriction , electrically powered security cameras , radio or cellular transmitters , parking and / or utility meters , monitoring stations traffic lights , display boards or the like . in still a further embodiment of the invention , the system could be provided with autonomous electricity generating wind turbines and / or other power generation sources in addition to , or in place of , the photovoltaic powered light poles , without departing from the current invention . although the detailed description describes and illustrates various preferred embodiments , it is to be understood that the invention is not limited strictly to the precise constructions , which are disclosed . modifications and variations will now occur to persons skilled in the art .	7
one possible scheduling request scheme is to define an sr as being a single bit message where the single bit ( i . e ., the “ signal request bit ”) has been set to a particular predefined value ( e . g ., set to “ 1 ”) and to configure the ues such that the ues transmit an sr to the scheduler whenever : ( 1 ) the ue has data to transmit ( e . g ., the ue has data in a transmit buffer ) and ( 2 ) the ue does not have an uplink resource allocation for transmitting the data to the enodeb . however , a potential drawback of this approach is illustrated by the example scheduling message flow shown in fig4 . the example shown in fig4 assumes there are two synchronized ues ( i . e ., ue 1 and ue 2 ), neither of which initially has an uplink resource allocation for data transmission . it is further assumed that the ues have a dedicated sr channel . as shown in fig4 , when data arrives in the transmit buffer of ue 1 , ue 1 provides to the scheduler notification of this event by transmitting an sr ( e . g ., a “ 1 ”) to the scheduler using its next sr opportunity . in response , the scheduler grants ue 1 some resources for data transmission and transmits an sg to the ue 1 . in response , the ue 1 transmits a buffer status report to the enodeb . the ue 1 may also transmit data to the enodeb , depending on the ul resources allocated to it . as further shown in fig4 , when ue 2 has data for transmission , ue 2 transmits an sr ( e . g ., a “ 1 ”) at its next sr opportunity . for the sake of this example , we shall assume that ue 2 &# 39 ; s data has a lower priority than ue 1 &# 39 ; s data . in response to receiving the sr transmitted by ue 2 , the scheduler , which at this point in time does not know that ue 2 &# 39 ; s data has a lower priority than ue 1 &# 39 ; s data , grants ue 2 some resources blindly . ue 2 uses the allocated resource to transmit a buffer status report containing qos information and some data depending on the size of the allocation . using the buffer status reports transmitted by ue 1 and ue 2 , respectively , the scheduler compares ue 1 &# 39 ; s buffer status to ue 2 &# 39 ; s buffer status and , based on the comparison , prioritizes the data from ue 1 because the comparison indicates the low priority nature of ue 2 &# 39 ; s data . because the data from ue 1 is prioritized , the scheduler does not schedule the ue 2 further , thus preventing ue 2 from transmitting its data . consequently , because ue 2 has data to send , ue 2 will continue to transmit an sr in each of the tti &# 39 ; s in which it has an sr opportunity . relying on the data buffer report last transmitted from ue 2 , which reports indicated that the ue 2 had only low priority data waiting for transmission , the scheduler ignores the srs transmitted from ue 2 . the scheduler ignores these srs even after the ue 2 subsequently has high priority data to send because , other than through transmitting a buffer status report , there is no way for ue 2 to notify the scheduler that it has higher priority data . accordingly , in some cases , the scheduler may not be immediately aware of new high priority data arriving at ue 2 &# 39 ; s transmit buffer . this problem could be avoided if the scheduler were configured to grant some uplink resources to ue 2 every once in a while , thereby providing the ue 2 with opportunities to transmit to the scheduler a buffer status report indicating the new high priority data . however , if there are many users , this solution is quite costly in terms of resources . another solution is to extend the sr from one bit to more than one bit so that the sr can contain information regarding data priority . however , this solution creates significant overhead for the sr channel , particularly if there are many priority levels . embodiments of the present invention overcome the above described problem without the disadvantages suffered by these two solutions . embodiments of the present invention define an alternative sr triggering mechanism that is based on changes in transmit buffer status . with such an alternative triggering mechanism , the problems described above can be solved without increasing the sr from one bit to several bits and without periodically scheduling ues to transmit buffer status reports . according to embodiments of the present invention , the ues are configured to transmit an sr only when certain predefined conditions are met , such as , for example , changes in the ue &# 39 ; s transmit buffer content compared to what has been reported previously or what has been transmitted previously . for example , a predefined condition may be met whenever data arrives in the ue &# 39 ; s transmit buffer and the data has a higher priority than the priority of the previously reported data ( or transmitted data ). the changes in buffer status that trigger an sr are typically configured through radio resource control ( rrc ) signaling . in some embodiments , the ues are configured to transmit an sr only when all of the following are true : ( 1 ) the ue has no uplink grant ; ( 2 ) the ue has data to transmit to the enodeb ; and ( 3 ) the buffer status has “ changed ” since the last acknowledged buffer report was transmitted by the ue or the last acknowledged transmission was transmitted by the ue . in these embodiments , the scheduler is configured so that it will not ignore an sr from a ue configured as described above . in some embodiments , the buffer status is considered to have “ changed ” only if one or more of the following conditions are met : ( 1 ) higher prioritized data has arrived in buffer ; ( 2 ) the buffer size increase exceeds a predetermined threshold ( threshold a ); or ( 3 ) the elapsed time since the transmission of the last sr exceeds a predetermined threshold ( threshold b ). the thresholds a and b can typically be configured through rrc signaling . one exception to the above rule is that when data arrives to an empty buffer in the ue , the ue should always transmit an sr at the next sr opportunity . in the above examples , when a ue receives a ul scheduling grant from the scheduler , the scheduler is subsequently made aware of the ue &# 39 ; s buffer content through regular buffer status reports transmitted by the ue . this could be a continuous buffer report for each scheduled transmission . however , in some embodiments criterions are used for causing the ue to transmit buffer status reports . this means that if a ue is not granted further ul resources the latest acknowledged buffer report will be up - to date . it is also possible to use a variation of the above described sr triggering rules in case the ue does not send regular buffer reports . for example , assuming the ue employs strict priority between radio bearers ( i . e ., data from higher prioritised radio bearers is always transmitted before data from lower prioritised radio bearers ), then the scheduler will know that there is no higher priority data in the transmit buffer than what is being transmitted . in such a situation , the buffer status is considered to have “ changed ” only if one or more of the following conditions are met : ( 1 ) higher prioritized data has arrived in the buffer ; or ( 2 ) the elapsed time since the last sr was transmitted exceeds a threshold ( threshold b ). as before , one exception to the rule is that when data arrives to an empty buffer in the ue , the ue should always transmit an sr at its next sr opportunity . the threshold b is typically configured through rrc signaling . several alternatives and combinations of the examples above can be constructed . the present invention provides an improvement in that , instead of configuring the ue to transmit an sr whenever the ue has data to transmit , the ue is configured to transmit an sr only when it has data to transmit and some other event has occurred ( e . g ., a certain amount of time has elapsed since the last sr was transmitted , the amount of data in the buffer grew by at least a certain amount since the most recent transmission of data or a status report , or the transmit buffer was empty just prior to it receiving the data ). in some embodiments , a triggered but not yet transmitted sr should be cancelled whenever the ue obtains a scheduling grant from the enodeb before the sr transmission opportunity . in these cases , the ue will send high priority data first and optionally include a detailed buffer status report . in any case , the enodeb is aware of the change even without obtaining a scheduling request . referring now to fig5 , fig5 illustrates a message flow in a system according to an embodiment of the invention , which system includes two ues ( ue 1 and ue 2 ). the illustrated message flow begins when ue 1 receives high priority data in its transmit buffer . as shown in fig5 , in response to this event , ue 1 transmits an sr to the enodeb at its next sr opportunity . in response , the enodeb transmits an sg to ue 1 . in response to the sg , ue 1 may transmit a buffer report that indicates the high priority of the data in ue 1 &# 39 ; s transmit buffer . some time after ue 1 transmits the buffer report , ue 2 may receive data in its transmit buffer , which event causes ue 2 to transmit an sr at its next sr opportunity . for the sake of this example , we shall assume that ue 2 &# 39 ; s data has a lower priority than ue 1 &# 39 ; s data . in response to receiving the sr transmitted by ue 2 , the enodeb , which at this point in time does not know that ue 2 &# 39 ; s data has a lower priority than ue 1 &# 39 ; s data , grants ue 2 some resources blindly . ue 2 uses the allocated resource to transmit a buffer status report containing qos information and some data depending on the size of the allocation . based on the buffer status report , which indicates the low priority nature of ue 2 &# 39 ; s data , the enodeb prioritizes the data from ue 1 and , thus , does not schedule the ue 2 further , thereby preventing ue 2 from transmitting its data ( e . g ., the enodeb transmits to ue 2 a hybrid automatic repeat request ( harq ) ack for the transmission containing the buffer report and the ue 2 stores the latest ack &# 39 ; ed report ). however , rather than continue to transmit an sr at each subsequent sr opportunity , as is shown in fig4 , ue 2 is configured so as to not transmit an sr until after one or more certain predefined events occur ( e . g ., the ue 2 may transmit to the enodeb the signal request bit with the bit set to the value of “ 0 ” instead of “ 1 ” until one of the events happen , as is shown in fig5 ). accordingly , ue 2 is configured to check whether one or more certain events have occurred ( such as the receipt of high priority data ) prior to each subsequent sr opportunity so that , if one such event has occurred , the ue 2 can transmit an sr at that next sr opportunity . in this example , some time after ue 2 transmitted the buffer status report , high priority data arrives in ue 2 &# 39 ; s transmit buffer . the ue 2 detects this event and , in response , transmits an sr ( e . g ., a “ 1 ”) to the enodeb . the ue 2 may be configured to detect this event by comparing the last acknowledged buffer status report , which indicates the status of the transmit buffer at some previous point in time , to a newly generated buffer status information that indicates the current status of the transmit buffer . the enodeb is configured to respond to the sr by granting an uplink resource to ue 2 , as opposed to ignoring the sr , even though the enodeb has not received from ue 2 a new buffer status report indicating that ue 2 now has higher priority data . accordingly , in this manner , embodiments of the present invention solve the problem discussed in connection with fig4 . referring now to fig6 a , fig6 a is a flow chart illustrating a process 600 , according to some embodiments of the invention , performed by a ue . process 600 may begin in step 602 . process 600 assumes that the ue initially has no data to transmit to the enodeb ( e . g ., the ue &# 39 ; s transmit buffer is initially empty ), accordingly , in step 602 the ue waits until data is placed in the transmit buffer . in response to the ue having data to send to the enodeb , the ue transmits an sr to the enodeb ( step 604 ). in step 606 , the ue receives an sg from the enodeb . in step 608 , the ue uses the resource allocated by the enodeb to transmit to the enodeb a buffer status report and / or some data depending on the allocated resource . in step 609 , the ue may record a value representing the amount of data currently in its transmit buffer . in step 610 , the ue receives from the enodeb a harq ack for the transmission containing the buffer status report . in step 612 , the ue stores the latest ack &# 39 ; ed buffer status report ( i . e ., the report transmitted in step 608 ). in step 614 , the ue determines whether it has data to send to the enodeb ( e . g ., the ue determines whether its transmit buffer is empty ). if it does not have data to send ( e . g ., the buffer is empty ), process 600 may proceed back to step 602 , otherwise it may proceed to step 616 . in step 616 , the ue determines whether an sr triggering event has occurred . if so , process 600 proceeds back to step 604 , otherwise process 600 may proceed to step 618 . in step 618 , at the very next sr transmission opportunity , the ue transmits to the enodeb a message indicating that a triggering event has not occurred ( e . g ., the ue transmits a one bit message to the enodeb where the value of the bit is set to “ 0 ”). after step 618 , process 600 may proceed back to step 616 . referring now to fig6 b , fig6 b illustrates a process , according to some embodiments of the invention , for determining whether a triggering event has occurred . that is , fig6 b illustrates steps that may be performed in performing step 616 of process 600 . as shown in fig6 b , the process may begin in step 656 , where the ue determines whether new data has arrived in the transmit buffer since a particular point in time . for example , the ue may determine whether new data has arrived in the transmit buffer since the last buffer status report was generated or since the last time the ue performed step 616 . if the ue determines that new data has arrived , then the process may proceed to step 658 , otherwise it may proceed to step 662 . in step 658 , the ue determines whether the new data has a higher priority than the data that was in the transmit buffer when the new data arrived . the ue may determine this by comparing information in the buffer status report stored in step 612 to newly generated information reflecting the status of the current state of the transmit buffer . if the new data has a higher priority , then process may proceed to step 604 ( i . e ., the ue transmits an sr to the enodeb ), otherwise the process may proceed to step 660 . in step 660 , the ue determines whether the difference between the amount of data currently in the transmit buffer and the amount of data that was in the transmit buffer at a previous point in time exceeds a threshold . for example , in step 660 , the ue may find the difference between a value representing the amount of data currently in the transmit buffer and the value that was recorded in step 609 and compare the difference to the threshold value . if the difference equals or exceeds the threshold , then the process may proceed to step 604 , otherwise the process may proceed to step 662 . in step 662 , the ue determines whether the amount of time that has elapsed since the last sr was transmitted exceeds a threshold . if so , the process may proceed to step 604 , otherwise the process may proceed to step 618 . error case 1 : in this first error case , either ( a ) the enodeb misinterprets an sr ( e . g ., the enodeb detects that the signal request bit is set to a “ 0 ” instead of a “ 1 ”) and will not grant a resource or ( b ) the resource assignment message cannot be decoded by the ue . to handle this situation , the ue is configured to transmit an sr in all sr occasions until a ul grant is obtained ( i . e ., until the ue is given the opportunity to transmit data and / or a buffer status report ). error case 2 : in the second error case , the enodeb fails to decode the message containing the buffer status report or the initial data transmission . waiting for the harq retransmission could cause excessive delay . the scheduler repeats the ul grant : ( 1 ) until a reliable report is obtained if buffer reports are transmitted with each ul transmission ; ( 2 ) if buffer reports are triggering with similar criterions as for the sr ( the ue will have a buffer change compared with the latest acknowledged report and continue to transmit reports until a reliable report is obtained ); or ( 3 ) if no buffer reports are triggered new data is transmitted until the enodeb is able to decode . error case 3 : in the third error case , the enodeb detects the message containing the buffer report or the initial data transmission but the harq ack is misinterpreted as a nack by the ue . in this situation , the ue performs a regular harq retransmission , which fails as the enodeb does not expect any further transmission attempts . the ue stops after the maximum number of transmission attempts . the ue does not need to perform another scheduling request if some subsequent transmission has succeeded . with the error handling in case 2 , the enodeb would have issued another grant if the transmission had failed . referring now to fig7 , fig7 is functional block diagram of some components of a ue 700 according to an embodiment of the invention . as shown in fig7 , the ue may include : a transmit buffer 702 for buffering data to be transmitted to an enodeb ; a storage unit 704 for storing the last transmitted buffer status report ; a data processor 706 for executing software 708 for determining whether an sr should or should not be transmitted ( i . e ., software 708 may be configured to perform , among other steps , steps 616 - 622 of process 600 ) and for causing an sr to be transmitted if it determines that an sr should be transmitted ; a transmitter for wirelessly transmitting data to an enodeb ; and other elements . referring now to fig8 , fig8 is functional block diagram of uplink resource scheduler 202 according to an embodiment of the invention . as shown in fig8 , scheduler 202 includes : a storage unit 804 for storing buffer status reports 810 ; a data processor 806 for executing software 808 . software 808 is configured such that , when executed by data processor 806 , software 808 causes the scheduler 202 to function as described above . that is , for example , software 808 may cause the scheduler 202 to schedule uplink resources based on a comparison of the buffer status of the ue &# 39 ; s attempting to communicate with the enodeb 240 and to respond to each sr . although not shown , data processor 806 is coupled to a transmission means ( e . g ., transmit buffers and / or transmitters or the like ) that enables the scheduler to communicate with ues . referring now to fig9 , fig9 is a flow chart illustrating a process 900 performed by a base station configured according to an embodiment of the invention . as illustrated in fig9 , in step 902 the base station allocates an uplink resource to a first ue ( ue 1 ), thereby enabling ue 1 to transmit data to the base station . in step 904 , the base station receives an sr from a second ue ( ue 2 ) while ue 1 is utilizing the uplink resource . in step 906 , the base station reallocates the uplink resource to ue 2 in response to receiving the sr . in step 908 , the base station receives from ue 2 information related to the priority of the data in ue 2 that is waiting to be transmitted to the base station . in step 910 , the base station compares the priority of ue 1 &# 39 ; s data to the priority of ue 2 &# 39 ; s data using the respective priority information . in step 912 , the base station reallocates the uplink resource to ue 1 in response to determining that ue 1 has higher priority data than ue 1 . in step 914 , the base station receives a subsequent sr from ue 2 , wherein the subsequent sr is received after receiving the priority information from ue 2 and before receiving any other data priority information from ue 2 . in step 916 , the base station reallocates the uplink resource to ue 2 in response to receiving the subsequent sr . one advantage of embodiments of the invention is that the scheduler in the base station ( enodeb ) is provided with selected updates of the terminal &# 39 ; s buffer status and appropriate quality of service ( qos ) knowledge even with a single bit sr , while decreasing the ue power consumption for the scheduling request channel ( in case on / off keying is used ). while various embodiments / variations of the present invention have been described above , it should be understood that they have been presented by way of example only , and not limitation . thus , the breadth and scope of the present invention should not be limited by any of the above - described exemplary embodiments . further , unless stated , none of the above embodiments are mutually exclusive . thus , the present invention may include any combinations and / or integrations of the features of the various embodiments . additionally , while the processes described above and illustrated in the drawings are shown as a sequence of steps , this was done solely for the sake of illustration . accordingly , it is contemplated that some steps may be added , some steps may be omitted , and the order of the steps may be re - arranged .	7
the treatment of this invention applies to poultry generally , but more especially to turkeys and chickens which are produced in large numbers . the poultry is slaughtered and the feathers and entrails removed . this carcass , with its skin still on , may then be treated in accordance with my invention by hand dipping the carcass in the heated oil , but preferably the process is carried out by attaching the carcass by its feet to a conveyor chain and arranging a vat of hot oil through which the carcass is passed as the conveyor chain moves forwardly , the speed of the conveyor being such that the carcass remains immersed for the period of time presribed . the process may also be carried out by placing poultry carcasses in a wire basket and immersing the basket into hot fat in a suitable container . after the prescribed period of time the basket is removed from the fat the poultry drained , chilled and sent on its way in the usual packing operation . the fat in which the poultry is immersed may be any animal or vegetable oil or any edible triglyceride which is liquid at a temperature of about 150 ° f .. for example , i may use corn oil , cottonseed oil , soya oil , lard , or mixtures of natural or synthetic triglycerides . the oil may be placed in a suitable container and heated to a temperature of from 180 ° f . to 315 ° f ., and this temperature maintained during the treatment of the poultry . the poultry is then immersed in a heated oil as above explained and left immersed for a period of from 10 to 60 seconds at which time it is removed from the oil . after the excess oil drains from the carcass it may be packed in accordance with usual practices and passed into marketing channels . the temperatures and times just mentioned are critical to the success of the treatment . if the temperature of the fat is too low and / or the time of immersion too low , the pasteurization of the surface of the poultry will be inadequate , and if the temperature of the fat is too high and / or the time of immersion is too great the treated poultry will appear to be &# 34 ; cooked &# 34 ; and the natural bloom of the raw poultry will be lost . it may also be understood that somewhat greater immersion times may be coupled with lower temperatures and lower immersion times with higher temperatures , within the ranges specified . i find that better results are obtained when the poultry to be treated is chilled to a temperature within the range of about 32 ° to 42 ° f . before it is subjected to immersion in the fat . chilling the poultry permits surface heating without substantially raising the temperature of the carcass or the part which is being treated . the treated poultry may then be packaged for shipment without further chilling and while avoiding recontamination . in the usual practice of my invention the carcasses , after the dipping treatment , are drained of excess fat and packaged , chilled and marketed . if desired , the carcasses may be frozen , either before or after the treatment in hot oil . the benefits from the improved process appear to flow principally from the lower bacteria count on the skin surface of the poultry . i find that this count is very dramatically reduced by the fat treatment , and this may be a reduction from a count of about 10 , 000 without the treatment to a count of about 40 with the fat treatment , a reduction of about 99 %. at the same time the treated poultry retains its natural bloom and appearance and has increased shelf life at refrigerated temperatures . cooking of the treated poultry demonstrates that it is unchanged in flavor , tenderness , and juiciness . by this process the consumer is provided with a wholesome poultry product free of pathogenic organisms such as salmonella and staphylococcus , and having a very low count of total surface bacteria . further , the thin surface coating of the fat which is retained on the poultry serves to reduce the moisture lost through dripping during distribution and marketing , and when the poultry is cooked the thin fat layer provides initial basting material . instead of dipping the whole carcass into the fat as above described , the carcass may be cut up into thighs , breasts , or other parts , and these parts subjected to dipping in the hot fat . in such case the bacteria on the skin of the various parts are substantially reduced and the skin retains the original appearance of raw poultry . the following examples demonstrate more specifically the practice of my process and the benefits to be obtained from it . whole fresh chickens in cut up form , were obtained from a market and swabs were taken on the breasts and thighs and the bacteria count determined to be of the order of 10 , 000 per square inch . the parts were dipped in a hydrogenated vegetable fat heated to 250 ° f ., for 10 seconds . after dipping , swabs of the treated parts were again tested and the bacteria count was found to be reduced by the order of 90 %. the above treatment was repeated using oil having a temperature of 300 ° f .. no noticeable changes were noted on the parts except for the liver and gizzard . at the 300 ° f . temperature some whitening of the exposed flesh did occur , but this was not objectionable , and this effect tended to diminish after a time . upon draining , the oil left a very thin coating on the chicken parts . a series of tests were planned to demonstrate the effect of using oil compared to water and the effect of different oil temperatures and dipping times both as to the reduction in bacterial count and appearance of the treated poultry . in each case a count of bacteria was taken before and after treatment . the bacteria counts before and after each of the different tests is given as follows : ______________________________________ total plate count______________________________________before using water at 212 ° f . for 20 seconds 44 , 000before using water at 212 ° f . for 40 seconds 37 , 000after using water at 212 ° f . for 20 seconds 23after using water at 212 ° f . for 40 seconds 44before using oil at 300 ° f . for 5 seconds 18 , 000before using oil at 300 ° f . for 10 seconds 9 , 200before using oil at 300 ° f . for 15 seconds 5 , 000after using oil at 300 ° f . for 5 seconds 450after using oil at 300 ° f . for 10 seconds 500after using oil at 300 ° f . for 15 seconds 980before using oil at 325 ° f . for 5 seconds 4 , 600before using oil at 325 ° f . for 10 seconds 1 , 600before using oil at 325 ° f . for 15 seconds 8 , 000after using oil at 325 ° f . for 5 seconds 1 , 400after using oil at 325 ° f . for 10 seconds 180after using oil at 325 ° f . for 15 seconds 2______________________________________ both tests using boiling water produced a cooked appearance on the chicken which would be unacceptable in the market . the tests using 300 ° f . fat produced a poultry product which looked good with substantially no change from the prior natural raw appearance . the tests using 325 ° f . fat produced a boiling effect about the chicken parts when they were immersed and thre treated poultry showed some change toward a cooked appearance . the poultry subjected to the above tests had been chilled to a temperature of about 40 ° f . to test the effect of temperature of the poultry which is subjected to treatment . two parts of chilled poultry were left to stand at room temperature for an hour and then were dipped in 300 ° f . fat for 15 seconds . this treated poultry appeared not to be quite as desirable as the poultry which , in chilled condition , was subjected to immersion in 300 ° f . fat for 15 seconds . to test the reduction in bacterial count comparing oil with water and variation of temperature between 180 ° f . and 315 ° f . and variation of times between 10 and 60 seconds , i made the tests described as follows : ______________________________________ total plate approximate count reduction______________________________________before treatment of poultry in180 ° f . oil for 60 secs 74 , 000after treatment in 180 ° f . oilfor 60 sec 160 99 . 7 % before treatment in hot waterat 180 ° f . for 10 sec 210 , 000after treatment in hot waterat 180 ° f . for 10 sec 12 , 000 94 % before treatment in hot oil at210 ° f . for 60 sec 350 , 000after treatment in hot oil at210 ° f . for 60 sec 50 , 000 88 % before treatment in hot waterat 212 ° f . for 5 sec 360 , 000after treatment in hot waterat 212 ° f . for 5 sec 12 , 000 96 % before treatment in oil at 250 ° f . for 25 sec 300 , 000after treatment in oil at 250 ° f . for 25 sec 11 , 000 96 % before treatment in oil at 250 ° f . for 15 sec 1 , 100 , 000after treatment in oil at 250 ° f . for 15 sec 140 , 000 87 % before treatment in oil at 275 ° f . for 10 sec 1 , 100 , 000after treatment in oil at 275 ° f . for 10 sec 26 , 000 97 % before treatment in oil at 275 ° f . for 15 sec 650 , 000after treatment in oil at 275 ° f . for 15 sec 9 , 800 98 . 5 % before treatment in oil at 300 ° f . for 5 sec 120 , 000after teatment in oil at 300 ° f . for 5 sec 9 , 800 91 . 8 % before treatment in oil at 300 ° f . for 10 sec 130 , 000after treatment in oil at 300 ° f . for 10 sec 5 , 000 96 % before treatment in oil at 315 ° f . for 5 sec 4 , 000after treatment in oil at 315 ° f . for 5 sec 33 99 . 1 % before treatment in oil at 315 ° f . for 10 sec 3 , 500after treatment in oil at 315 ° f . for 10 sec 5 99 . 9 % ______________________________________ although a reduction in bacteria count was obtained also when using water as the liquid in which the chicken was dipped , the appearance of the chicken subjected to water treatment was so altered as to be unacceptable in the market place . in order to demonstrate the effect of the improved process on frozen poultry carcass parts , chicken thighs and chicken drumsticks were purchased at a local supermarket , placed in a freezer and left over night . the following day the frozen chicken parts were dipped into a hydrogenated vegetable shortening for various times and temperatures . the poultry was tested for development of bacteria both before and after treatment by swabing one square inch of surface on the parts or by removing skin samples before and after treatment . in the case of the skin samples the skin was blended in sterile water and plated out using difco plate count agar . ______________________________________ total bacteria counttemperature time of emer - before after percentof the oil sion ( seconds ) treatment treatment kill______________________________________a . drumsticks310 ° 30 6 . 6 × 10 . sup . 6 1 . 1 × 10 . sup . 4 99 . 8310 ° 20 5 . 8 × 10 . sup . 7 4 . 2 × 10 . sup . 5 99 . 3310 ° 15 3 . 5 × 10 . sup . 6 1 . 1 × 10 . sup . 5 96 . 9b . thighs325 ° 30 3 . 0 × 10 . sup . 4 1 . 0 × 10 . sup . 3 96 . 5310 ° 20 2 . 6 × 10 . sup . 4 1 . 3 × 10 . sup . 3 95 . 0310 ° 10 5 . 7 × 10 . sup . 4 5 . 5 × 10 . sup . 3 90 . 5______________________________________ two whole turkey carcasses which had been held in frozen storage were thawed and dipped into a heated vegetable shortening for 15 seconds and also for 20 seconds . bacterial counts were made before and after dipping as to the breast and as to the cavity of each carcass . the results were as follows : ______________________________________ total bacteria counttemperature time of emer - before after percentof the oil sion ( seconds ) treatment treatment kill______________________________________a . breast - sample no . 1300 ° 15 4 . 1 × 10 . sup . 4 1 . 8 × 10 . sup . 3 95 . 6300 ° 20 2 . 7 × 10 . sup . 4 4 . 0 × 10 . sup . 2 98 . 5b . breast - sample no . 2300 ° 15 2 . 2 × 10 . sup . 4 2 . 0 × 10 . sup . 2 99 . 1300 ° 20 1 . 8 × 10 . sup . 4 1 . 0 × 10 . sup . 2 99 . 5c . cavity - sample no . 1300 ° 15 6 . 0 × 10 . sup . 2 2 . 0 × 10 . sup . 2 66 . 6300 ° 20 1 . 7 × 10 . sup . 3 1 . 0 × 10 . sup . 2 94 . 1d . cavity - sample no . 2300 ° 15 1 . 7 × 10 . sup . 3 5 . 0 × 10 . sup . 2 70 . 6300 ° 20 1 . 0 × 10 . sup . 3 1 . 0 × 10 . sup . 2 90 . 0______________________________________ while only certain embodiments of my invention have been described in detail it is to be understood that many embodiments may be practiced and many changes and variations made all within the spirit of the invention and with the scope of the appended claims .	0
a first embodiment of the invention will be described hereinunder with reference to fig3 to 5 . referring to fig3 and 4 , the heat transfer portion of the scroll type laminated heat exchanger of the first embodiment has two heat transfer plates and three spacers laminated in layers as illustrated . each spacer 7 has a scroll - like shape defined by involute curves a → b , c → d , e → f and g → h . the form of the spacer 7 can be expressed by the values of x and y axes of an x - y coordinates as follows . where , λ represents a parameter and a o represents the radius of the basic circle of the involute . the points a and c are located on the same basic circle , while the points e and g are located on another basic circle . the curves are in congruity to the curves on an x &# 39 ;- y &# 39 ; coordinates which is obtained by rotating the x -- y coordinates around a point ( 0 , 0 ) by an angle θ . namely , these curves are defined as loci of the point ( x &# 39 ;, y &# 39 ;) represented by the following equation ( 5 ). ## equ1 ## thus , the curve e → f is obtained by rotating the curve a → b by an angle θ = π . similarly , the curve g → h is a curve which is obtained through rotating the curve c → d by an angle θ = π . the points b , d , f and h are the points where the involute curves contact the outer circle . thus , the portions of the spacer extending further from these points have forms of parts of a circle . if it is necessary to form three or more fluid passages , the angle θ is selected to be not greater than π . for instance , for forming three fluid passages , three involute curves are drawn at angles θ = 0 , θ = π / 3 and σ = 2π / 3 , respectively , and are connected to three involute curves which are represented by θ = α , θ = π / 3 + α and θ = 2π / 3 + α . by so doing , it is possible to form three grooves , i . e . three fluid passages , in the spacer 7 . the symbol α represents a factor which determines the width of the scroll of the spacer 7 , i . e . the width of the partition between a fluid passage and adjacent fluid passages . in the embodiment shown in fig3 thru 5 , the ratio of area between the passages for the fluids a and b is 1 : 1 while the ratio of area between the passages is able to be varied by changing an angle θ . the heat transfer plates 9 made of a metal and having a multiplicity of holes 8 and the spacers 7 are laminated alternatingly in - layers , and the portions of contact between the spacers 7 and the heat transfer plates 9 are bonded metallurgically or by means of an adhesive . the passages 3a and 3b for the fluids a and b are separated from each other by a spacer 7 on a common heat transfer plate 9 , and each passage has a constant width over the entire involute region which does not contact the outer circle . the spacers 7 are in the same phases with one another in relation to the x and y axes , so that the fluid passages have constant cross - sectional area also in the direction of flow of the fluids a and b . the heat exchange in this laminated heat exchanger owes to the transfer of heat through the wall of each heat transfer plate in the radial direction of the heat exchanger . viewing in the radial direction of the heat exchanger , each turn of passage of each fluid is sandwiched between the turns of the passage of the other fluid excepting the outermost portion of the scroll , so that it is possible to increase the fin efficiency of the heat transfer plate 9 over the entire length of the fluid passages 3a , 4a by a suitable selection of the widths of the flow passages . in addition , by increasing the number of turns of the scroll , it is possible to increase the areas of the flow passages without being accompanied by a reduction in the fin efficiency . it is to be noted also that , since the fluid passage of the same fluid is continuous on each heat transfer plate 9 , it is possible to absorb the variance of pressure of the fluid in the passage between adjacent heat - transfer plates 9 over the entire length of each fluid passage . in consequence , the tendency of local concentration of the fluid in the direction of lamination is effectively suppressed to ensure a good heat transfer performance of the heat exchanger . on the other hand , since the outermost peripheral surface of the scroll grooves forms a concentric circle , it is possible to minimize the outside diameter d o of the spacer 7 . fig5 shows the heat transfer portion shown in fig3 and 4 with headers attached to both ends thereof . each header 10 is provided on its one thicknesswise side with scroll grooves 11 of the same size and shape as those in the spacer 7 . the grooves 11 in the header 10 communicating with the fluid passages 3a and 4a are provided with ports 12 and 13 , respectively . these ports 12 and 13 constitute the inlet or outlet of the fluids a and b . namely , by provideding such ports 12 and 13 in each header 10 , it is possible to distribute the fluids to all portions of the flow passages in the heat transfer portion . accordingly , it is possible to remarkably simplify the construction of the header . referring to fig5 an intermediate flow distribution plate 14 has the same scroll shape as the spacer 7 but its thickness is greater than that of the spacer 7 . therefore , even when a non - uniform pressure distribution is formed in the groove in the spacer 7 , the pressure distribution is uniformalized in the groove of the intermediate flow distribution plate 14 having a greater volume , thereby to further eliminate the local concentration of the flow of fluid to ensure a higher heat transfer efficiency . fig6 and 7 show another embodiment of the invention in which ports 15 and 16 communicating with the outside of the heat exchanger are formed in the outermost peripheral portion of the fluid passages 3a and 4a formed in the intermediate flow distribution plate 14 . in this embodiment , therefore , it is possible to distribute parts of the fluids a and b to the outside of the heat exchanger through this intermediate flow distribution plate 14 . this means that the flow rates of the fluids a and b can be increased or decreased at the intermediate portion of the laminated heat exchanger . thus , the intermediate flow distribution plate 14 in this embodiment serves as a flow distribution header . fig8 shows still another embodiment in which the outermost portions of the fluid passages which neighbour the passage of the other fluid only at their one sides , i . e . the passage portions extending over the curves f &# 39 ;- a &# 39 ; and h &# 39 ;- b &# 39 ;, are made to have a width smaller than that of the other portions of the passages which are sandwiched between the passages of the other fluid . namely , the curves constituting the outermost peripheral portions of the scroll grooves are determined to preserve a constant width or distance w from the curves defining the inner circumference of the corresponding portions of the scroll grooves , as will be clearly seen from fig8 . according to this embodiment , it is possible to increase the fin efficiency of the outermost peripheral portions of the scroll passages neighbouring the passages of the other fluid only at their one sides can be increased by reducing the width of such portions of the scroll grooves , thereby to further improve the efficiency of the heat exchanger as a whole . although the invention has been described through specific embodiments in which the scroll grooves have spiral forms , this is not exclusive and the scroll grooves can have angular or polyginal forms . namely , the present invention can be carried out using heat transfer plates and spacers having polygonal shape . as has been described , the invention provides a laminated heat exchanger having a plurality of heat transfer plates and spacers laminated in layers alternatingly to form fluid passages for different fluids in the space between adjacent heat transfer plates , wherein the spacers have scroll - like shape so that a plurality of scroll fluid passages each being continuous in the scrolling direction are formed such that the fluid passages for different fluids neighbour on each other in the radial direction of the scroll . in consequence , according to the invention , it is possible to eliminate the local concentration of fluid in each passage thereby to remarkably improve the heat transfer performance of the heat exchanger .	8
referring to fig1 and 2 , an instrument panel and dashboard 10 ( shown in phantom ) having a structural member 12 embodying the principles of the present invention is shown therein . the instrument panel 10 and structural member 12 are installed in the interior of a motor vehicle . the structural member 12 is illustrated as a cross bar 14 . the cross bar 14 extends horizontally across the motor vehicle generally from the left a pillar 18 to the right a pillar 18 . additionally , the cross bar 14 has an aperture 20 to accommodate a steering wheel and may have additional features to attach different components , such as a glove compartment , an audio system , a display for the climate control , a passenger airbag , etc . a support bracket 16 serves as an upright support for the cross bar 14 . the support bracket 16 is positioned substantially perpendicular to the cross bar 14 and is attached to the cross bar 14 at one end and attached to the floor ( not shown ) of the motor vehicle at the other end . the structural member 12 forms the backbone of the instrument panel and dashboard 10 . although in the drawings the structural member 12 is shown and described as a cross beam 14 , it must be understood that the structural member 12 is not limited to use exclusively in this arrangement . the structural member 12 can be used in a variety of components in a motor vehicle . for example , it may be used as a duct for the air conditioning unit in a car , or fluid in the radiator support . alternatively , the structural member 12 may be used in other application not relating to motor vehicles such as routing for electrical lines in a building walls etc . referring to fig3 the structural member 12 comprises an extruded substrate 22 and a blow molded member 24 located within and reinforcing the substrate 12 . preferably , the substrate 22 is formed from a suitable metal such as aluminum , iron , copper or alloys thereof . the blow molded member 24 is preferably formed from materials such as plastic , plastic composite or thermoplastic resin such as pet or nylon . the substrate 22 is formed by extrusion , and an inwardly extending channel 26 in a wall portion 27 of the substrate 22 is part of the extrusion profile . any appropriate number of inwardly extending channels 26 may be defined in the substrate , and three such channels 26 are shown herein as an example . the inwardly extending channel 26 is formed such that it is defined by a neck portion 28 and a body portion 30 . the neck portion 28 is adjacent to the wall portion 27 of the substrate 22 and defines a first outer dimension 32 . the body portion 30 extends from the neck portion 28 toward an interior of the substrate 22 and defines a second dimension 34 . this second dimension 34 is greater than the first dimension 32 , and the neck portion 28 forms an undercut relative to the body portion 30 . the body portion 30 such that portions 36 of the blow molded member 24 engage the inwardly extending channel 26 and wrap around the inwardly extending channel 26 adjacent the neck portion 28 . the portions 36 of the blow molded member 24 adjacent the neck portion 28 are secured in place by the larger body portion 30 , as shown in fig3 . the engagement of the blow molded member 24 and the inwardly extending channel 26 provides the necessary mechanical bond to hold the blow molded member 24 to the substrate 22 . the substrate 22 of the structural member 12 can have an open profile , such as that shown in fig3 wherein the substrate 22 provides a substantially c - shaped profile . if the substrate 22 has an open profile , preferably the blow molded member 24 is further secured to the substrate 22 by using a portion of the blow molded member 24 to encapsulate an edge 42 of the substrate 22 , as shown by the circle designated by reference letter a of fig3 . alternatively , the blow molded member 24 can be further secured to the substrate 22 by folding a flange portion 44 of the substrate 22 over onto the blow molded member 24 , as shown by the circle designated by reference letter b of fig3 . the substrate 22 can also have a closed profile , as shown in fig4 wherein the substrate 22 has a substantially circular , or square , or rectangular shape , such that the substrate 22 presents a hollow tubular profile . the inwardly extending channel 26 can serve various other purposes within the vehicle and elsewhere . referring to fig3 the inwardly extending channel 26 can be adapted to support communication members 38 , such as electrical wiring , or fiber optic cable or other devices adapted to transport electrical current or signals , fluids , air , between various components within the motor vehicle . further , the inwardly extending channel 26 can also be used to support a mounting device 40 that could be used to attach objects to the structural member 12 , or to mount the structural member 12 to another object . as a person skilled in the art will recognize from the previous description and from the figures and claims , modifications and changes can be made to the preferred embodiment of the invention without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the following claims .	8
the present invention is directed to a high inductance inductor in a semiconductor package . the following description contains specific information pertaining to various embodiments and implementations of the invention . one skilled in the art will recognize that the present invention may be practiced in a manner different from that specifically discussed in the present application . moreover , some of the specific details of the invention are not discussed in order not to obscure the invention . the specific details not described in the present application are within the knowledge of a person of ordinary skills in the art . the drawings in the present application and their accompanying detailed description are directed to merely example embodiments of the invention . to maintain brevity , other embodiments of the invention that use the principles of the present invention are not specifically described in the present application and are not specifically illustrated by the present drawings . structure 100 in fig1 illustrates a top view of an exemplary structure in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention . structure 100 includes semiconductor die 102 , which can be attached to top surface 104 of substrate 106 in a manner know in the art . it is noted that a “ semiconductor die ,” such as semiconductor die 102 , is also referred to as a “ chip ” or a “ semiconductor chip ” in the present application . substrate 106 “ houses ” semiconductor die 102 , and can comprise , for example , an organic laminate material or a ceramic material . it is also noted that a “ substrate ,” such as substrate 106 , is also referred to as a “ package substrate ” in the present application . however , in one embodiment , substrate 106 may be a printed circuit board (“ pcb ”). structure 100 also includes inductor 108 , which is situated , or “ housed ,” on top surface 104 of substrate 106 . in other embodiments , inductor 108 may be housed in a pin grid array package , a ball grid array package , a land grid array package , or on a laminate pcb . the package or laminate materials might comprise , for example , various ceramic or organic materials known in the art . inductor 108 comprises winding 110 , core 112 , insulator 114 , substrate bond pad 116 , also referred to as a “ terminal ” of inductor 108 in the present application , and substrate bond pad 118 , also referred to as a “ terminal ” of inductor 108 in the present application . winding 110 further comprises bonding wires , such as bonding wire 120 , and trace metal segments , such as trace metal segment 122 . it is also noted that a “ trace metal segment ,” such as trace metal segment 122 , is also referred to as a “ conductor ” in the present application . trace metal segment 122 is fabricated on top surface 104 of substrate 106 . for example , a mask can be used to pattern conductors on a copper metallization layer on top surface 104 of substrate 106 . the excess copper can be etched away , resulting in a defined metal trace pattern that can include , for example , trace metal segment 122 . winding 110 is also referred to as an “ inductor winding ” in the present application . in structure 100 , trace metal segment 122 can comprise nickel - plated copper . trace metal segment 122 can further comprise a layer of gold plating over the nickel - plated copper to provide a surface for wire bonding . a first end of trace metal segment 122 is connected to substrate bond pad 116 , and a second end of trace metal segment 122 is connected to bonding wire 120 . similar to trace metal segment 122 , substrate bond pad 116 can be fabricated on top surface 104 of substrate 106 , and can comprise nickel - plated copper . substrate bond pad 116 can also further comprise a layer of gold plating over the nickel - plated copper to provide a surface for wire bonding . bonding wire 120 can comprise gold or can comprise other metals such as aluminum . the diameter of bonding wire 120 can be approximately 1 . 0 mil to 6 . 0 mils . for example , in an application where inductor 108 provides filtering for a high - current voltage regulator , the diameter of bonding wire 120 can be approximately 6 . 0 mils . by way of further example , in an application where inductor 108 is used with a low - current micro module , the diameter of bonding wire 120 can be approximately 1 . 0 mil . winding 110 will be discussed in greater detail in relation to fig2 . continuing with fig1 insulator 114 , also referred to as an “ insulator layer ” in the present application , is situated under core 112 so as to electrically insulate core 112 from trace metal segments such as trace metal segment 122 . insulator 114 can be a nonconducting material such as solder mask . in one embodiment , insulator 114 can be solder mask comprised of aus - 5 . as shown in fig1 bonding wires , such as bonding wire 120 , pass over core 112 and do not make contact with core 112 . in the present embodiment , core 112 can comprise a high permeability material such as a ferrite rod . by way of background , ferrite is a powdered , compressed , and sintered magnetic compound composed of iron oxide , a metallic oxide such as zinc , nickel , cobalt , or iron , and ceramic . instead of a ferrite rod , any other high or medium permeability material suitable for increasing inductance can also be used . the particular metallic oxide ( for example , zinc , nickel , cobalt , or iron ) that is used to form the ferrite rod affects the permeability of the ferrite rod , which can be , for example , approximately 40 . 0 to 100 . 0 . since the inductance of an inductor is proportional to the permeability of its core , the inductance of inductor 108 can be increased approximately 40 . 0 times if core 112 comprises a ferrite rod with a permeability of 40 . 0 . core 112 will be discussed in greater detail in relation to fig2 . continuing with fig1 a first end of bonding wire 124 is bonded to substrate bond pad 116 of inductor 108 , and a second end of bonding wire 124 is bonded to semiconductor die bond pad 126 . bonding wire 124 can be gold or can comprise other metals such as aluminum . the diameter of bonding wire 124 can be 30 . 0 microns or other diameter of choice . bonding wire 124 electrically connects substrate bond pad 116 of inductor 108 , i . e . a terminal of inductor 108 , to semiconductor die bond pad 126 . in to another embodiment , a bonding wire can electrically connect substrate bond pad 116 of inductor 108 to another substrate bond pad on the periphery of top surface 104 , such as substrate bond pad 128 . as shown in fig1 a first end of bonding wire 130 is bonded to substrate bond pad 118 of inductor 108 , and a second end of bonding wire 130 is bonded to substrate bond pad 132 . bonding wire 130 can be comprised of similar material as bonding wire 124 discussed above . substrate bond pads 118 , 128 , and 132 can be fabricated on top surface 104 of substrate 106 in a similar manner as substrate bond pad 116 discussed above . substrate bond pads 118 , 128 , and 132 can also comprise the same material as substrate bond pad 116 . bonding wire 130 electrically connects substrate bond pad 118 of inductor 108 , i . e . a terminal of inductor 108 , to substrate bond pad 132 , which “ abuts ” via 134 . thus , bonding wire 130 can , in one embodiment , electrically connect substrate bond pad 118 of inductor 108 to a land ( not shown in fig1 ) that is connected to via 134 on the bottom surface of substrate 106 by way of substrate bond pad 132 and via 134 . in a different embodiment , a bonding wire can electrically connect substrate bond pad 118 of inductor 108 to a semiconductor die bond pad , such as semiconductor die bond pad 136 on semiconductor die 102 . in another embodiment , a bonding wire can connect substrate bond pad 116 or substrate bond pad 118 to a component on top surface 104 of substrate 106 , such as a capacitor . it is noted that in fig1 only trace metal segment 122 , bonding wire 120 , substrate bond pads 128 and 132 , via 134 , and semiconductor die bond pads 126 and 136 are specifically discussed herein to preserve brevity . referring now to fig2 inductor 208 illustrates a perspective view of an exemplary inductor in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention . inductor 208 corresponds to inductor 108 in fig1 . in particular , core 212 , winding 210 , insulator 214 , substrate bond pad 216 , substrate bond pad 218 , trace metal segment 222 , and bonding wire 220 , respectively , correspond to core 112 , winding 110 , insulator 114 , substrate bond pad 116 , substrate bond pad 118 , trace metal segment 122 , and bonding wire 120 in fig1 . now discussing fig2 in more detail , winding 210 comprises trace metal segments 222 , 224 , 226 , 228 , 230 , 232 , 234 , and 236 , and bonding wires 220 , 238 , 240 , 242 , 244 , 246 , 248 , and 250 . trace metal segments 222 , 224 , 226 , 228 , 230 , 232 , 234 , and 236 are similar to trace metal segment 122 in fig1 and are fabricated on top surface 204 of substrate 206 in a similar manner as trace metal segment 122 described above . winding 210 is also referred to as an “ inductor winding ” in the present application . continuing with fig2 the first ends of bonding wires 220 , 238 , 240 , 242 , 244 , 246 , 248 , and 250 , respectively , are connected to the first ends of trace metal segments 222 , 224 , 226 , 228 , 230 , 232 , 234 , and 236 . the second ends of bonding wires 220 , 238 , 240 , 242 , 244 , 246 , 248 , and 250 , respectively , are connected to the second ends of trace metal segments 224 , 226 , 228 , 230 , 232 , 234 , and 236 , and substrate bond pad 218 , also referred to as a “ terminal ” of inductor 208 in the present application . in the present embodiment , first ends of bonding wires 220 , 238 , 240 , 242 , 244 , 246 , 248 , and 250 , respectively , can be connected to the first ends of trace metal segments 222 , 224 , 226 , 228 , 230 , 232 , 234 , and 236 by bonding . similarly , the second ends of bonding wires 220 , 238 , 240 , 242 , 244 , 246 , 248 , and 250 , respectively , can be connected to the second ends of trace metal segments 224 , 226 , 228 , 230 , 232 , 234 , and 236 , and substrate bond pad 218 by bonding . bonding wires 220 , 238 , 240 , 242 , 244 , 246 , 248 , and 250 are similar to bonding wire 120 in fig1 and comprise the same material as bonding wire 120 , such as gold or aluminum . the diameter of bonding wires 220 , 238 , 240 , 242 , 244 , 246 , 248 , and 250 can be approximately 1 . 0 mil to 6 . 0 mils . trace metal segments 222 , 224 , 226 , 228 , 230 , 232 , 234 , and 236 can comprise nickel - plated copper . trace metal segments 222 , 224 , 226 , 228 , 230 , 232 , 234 , and 236 can further comprise a layer of gold plating over the nickel - plated copper to provide a surface for wire bonding . continuing with fig2 each trace metal segment of winding 210 and the bonding wire connected to the first end of the trace metal segment form a “ turn ” of winding 210 . for example , trace metal segment 222 and bonding wire 220 that is connected to the first end of trace metal segment 222 as discussed above form one “ turn ” of winding 210 . the inductance of an inductor is generally proportional to the square of the number of “ turns ” in the inductor &# 39 ; s winding . thus , the inductance of inductor 208 can be increased or decreased by increasing or decreasing the number of “ turns ” in winding 210 . for example , adding trace metal segments and bonding wires to winding 4 210 can increase the number of “ turns ” in winding 210 , and thus increase the inductance of inductor 208 . by way of further example , the inductance of inductor 208 can be decreased by removing bonding wires to decrease the number of “ turns ” in winding 210 . thus , by increasing or decreasing the number of “ turns ” in winding 210 , the inductance of the invention &# 39 ; s inductor 208 can be “ fine tuned ” to more closely match a required inductance in a particular application . for example , in the development phase of an lc resonance circuit , bonding wires can be removed or added to “ fine tune ” the inductance of inductor 208 to obtain a particular resonance frequency . thus , the present invention &# 39 ; s inductor 208 provides the flexibility to allow the number of “ turns ” in winding 210 to vary as required to produce an inductance in a range of approximately 1 . 0 nh to 100 . 0 μh . as shown in fig2 substrate bond pad 216 , also referred to as a “ terminal ” of inductor 208 in the present application , is connected to trace metal segment 222 to provide a connection to a first end of winding 210 . as discussed above , a second end of bonding wire 250 is bonded to substrate bond pad 218 to provide a connection to a second end of winding 210 . substrate bond pads 216 and 218 are fabricated on top surface 204 of substrate 206 in a similar manner as substrate bond pads 116 and 118 described above . substrate bond pad 216 can be wire bonded to a semiconductor die bond pad , such as semiconductor die bond pad 126 in fig1 or a substrate bond pad , such as substrate bond pad 128 . similarly , substrate bond pad 218 can be wire bonded to a semiconductor die bond pad , such as semiconductor die bond pad 136 in fig1 or a substrate bond pad , such as substrate bond pad 132 . in another embodiment , substrate bond pad 216 or substrate bond pad 218 can be connected to a component on top surface 204 of substrate 206 , such as a capacitor . continuing with fig2 core 212 is situated over insulator 214 ( or “ insulator layet ” 214 ) but under bonding wires 220 , 238 , 240 , 242 , 244 , 246 , 248 , and 250 . core 212 can be secured to top surface 204 of substrate 206 by glue . however , other methods known in the art may be used to attach core 212 to top surface 204 of substrate 206 . in the present embodiment , core 212 is housed on top surface 204 of substrate 206 , which also houses a semiconductor die , such as semiconductor die 102 in fig1 . in other embodiments , core 212 may be housed in a pin grid array package , a ball grid array package , a land grid array package , or on a laminate pcb . in the present embodiment , length 252 of core 212 can be approximately 20 . 0 mils , width 256 can be approximately 10 . 0 mils , and thickness 254 can be approximately 10 . 0 mils . in another embodiment , length 252 can be approximately 40 . 0 mils , width 256 can be approximately 15 . 0 mils , and thickness 254 can be approximately 10 . 0 mils . core 212 , as discussed above , can comprise a ferrite rod that can have a permeability of approximately 40 . 0 to 100 . 0 . also , as discussed above , core 212 can increase the inductance of inductor 208 in proportion to the increase in the value of the permeability of core 212 . therefore , inductor 208 can decrease in length and still maintain the same inductance by proportionally increasing the permeability of core 212 . moreover , in the manner described in relation to fig1 inductor 208 in fig2 can be fine - tuned to meet a required inductance in a particular application . fig2 further illustrates an inductor that can provide an inductance in a range of approximately 1 . 0 nh to 100 . 0 μh while maintaining a relatively small size . from the above description of the invention it is manifest that various techniques can be used for implementing the concepts of the present invention without departing from its scope . moreover , while the invention has been described with specific reference to certain embodiments , a person of ordinary skill in the art would recognize that changes can be made in form and detail without departing from the spirit and the scope of the invention . for example , in one embodiment , two inductors , each one similar to inductor 208 , can be mounted on a top surface of a substrate to form a transformer . in such instance , the core , i . e . the ferrite rod , of the first inductor can be mounted in close proximity to the core of the second inductor to form a transformer by coupling the magnetic fields generated by the windings of each inductor . as such , the described embodiments are to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive . it should also be understood that the invention is not limited to the particular embodiments described herein , but is capable of many rearrangements , modifications , and substitutions without departing from the scope of the invention . thus , a high inductance inductor in a semiconductor package has been described .	7
the present invention is described hereinbelow with reference to the signals received from a radionavigation satellite , but obviously it is not limited to this single application , and it can be implemented in various applications in which signals are received that have to vary in time in an at least partially nonrandom manner and that can be disturbed by various systematic causes , and for which there is a history of the variation of these disturbing signals . the present invention is based on the fact that an accurate orbit prediction algorithm works in batch processing mode ( processing a large number of consecutive values contained within a time period or “ arc ”), its first step mandatorily being the accurate estimation of the position and orbit parameters of a satellite along an estimation arc related to the past . the estimated positions are then extrapolated for a prediction period in order to provide the predictions of the orbit parameters . in the present case , the periods used for the determination of the predictions are always overlapping with one or more estimation arcs used in the last arcs of the prediction processing . furthermore , the accuracy of the restored values is much higher than that of the predicted values . the comparison ( namely their difference ) of these two sorts of values says a lot about the defects of the predictive method . known signal processing methods may be applied to the time - oriented series of these differences in order to extrapolate the behavior of the defects and correct them before they manage to produce their effects . the method of the invention makes it possible to significantly reduce the potential systematic effects ( of the type of those mentioned above ) by virtue of their observation in the past , which leads to prediction error distributions that are much more appropriate to the needs of the integrity computation standards . let x ( t ) be any parameter , dependent on time , which may relate to the clock or to the orbit of a satellite . this parameter x may be either a point of the orbit of this satellite with x = x , y or z which are the spatial coordinates of x , or be defined by x = δt , that is to say the offset of the satellite &# 39 ; s clock . the method of the invention comprises the following three main steps : estimation of the prediction error , analysis of the factors systematically affecting the prediction error , correction of the predictions . in detail , these steps are explained below . firstly , the prediction error is estimated on the basis of two batches of prediction values . the computation of the orbit of a satellite begins with a recording of measurements over an estimation arc e 1 =[ t b , 1 , t e , 1 ] which is relatively long ( more often than not from a few days to a few weeks ). this estimation arc is used to estimate the restored values as restored by the conventional computation circuits of the parameter x orbitography and synchronization instruments . let x r1 ( t ) be the function making it possible to obtain the restored values of this parameter during the time period tεe 1 . the details of the restoration method are unimportant in the context of the invention , and it is only necessary to have x r1 ( t ) for the duration of the arc e 1 . these restored values can , moreover , originate from a source that is different from the prediction computation circuit . the restored values are linked to the estimation of certain parameters ( orbit parameters , earth &# 39 ; s rotation parameters , satellite reflectivity model , etc .) that can be used to calculate the values of x at instants after t e , 1 ( t e , 1 being the start of p 1 ). let x p1 ( t ) be values obtained in this way for : in this expression , t p , 1 is the last prediction instant . these values of x p1 ( t ) provide a first prediction of the parameter concerned . it will also be noted here that the details of how the prediction method is implemented is unimportant for the invention , and it is only necessary to have x p1 ( t ) for the duration of the arc p 1 . fig1 shows the time variation of the estimation arcs ( e 1 , e 2 , e 3 , etc .) and of the corresponding prediction arcs ( p 1 , p 2 , p 3 , etc .). in this time diagram , the solid - line curve represents the restored values of x , whereas the broken - line curve segments relate to the predicted values of x . in fig2 , the points defining the solid - line curve correspond to the prediction errors of x obtained as the difference between the predicted values and the restored values of x at the same instants . for the next batch of orbit prediction values , the preceding operations are repeated for a second estimation arc e 2 =[ t b , 2 , t e , 2 ] with t e , 2 ≦ t p , 1 . furthermore , for most of the time : t b , 2 ≦ t e , 1 because the estimation arcs must be longer than the prediction arcs in order to obtain a good prediction quality , and then p 1 ⊂ e 2 . typically , but in a nonlimiting manner , in the present application , these estimation arcs may last from 1 hour to 48 hours . the measurements performed during the time period e 2 make it possible to obtain a set of restored orbit or clock parameter values x r , 2 ( t ) corresponding to this period e 2 and being able to be propagated during the period p 2 =[ t e , 2 , t p , 2 ] and obtain for this period orbit or clock predictions x p , 2 ( t ). it should be noted that , for the time period p 1 , two values of x are available because p 1 ⊂ e 2 , namely x p , 1 ( t ) and x r , 2 ( t ) for [ t e , 1 , t p , 1 ]. given that x p , 1 and x r , 2 are both approximations of the same orbit or clock parameter at the same instants , but with much better accuracy for x r , 2 than for x p , 1 , an approximation of the prediction error is obtained for the time period p 1 by : δ x ( t )= x p , 1 ( t )− x r , 2 ( t ) for [ t e , 1 , t p , 1 ] ( 1 ) for the following prediction batches , in the same way as δx ( t ) was established by comparing the prediction of x in the first batch to its restoration in the second , an estimation of the prediction error can be obtained for a batch n by comparing the prediction of x p , n ( t ) for this batch n to the restoration x r , n + 1 ( t ): δ x ( t )= x p , n ( t )− x r , n + 1 ( t ) pour [ t e , n , t p , n ] ( 2 ) this succession of estimation and prediction batches , and the prediction error estimation function δx ( t ) have been represented in fig2 . to sum up , the first main step of the method of the invention consists , for a batch n + 1 of prediction values , in constructing a time - oriented series δx ( t ) of prediction errors for each orbit or clock parameter x by comparing the restored values of the available batches with the predicted values of the preceding batch or batches . the next step of the method of the invention consists in isolating the systematic effects in the prediction error . the time - oriented series of prediction errors supplied by the function δx ( t ), as represented in a simplified manner in fig2 , contain all the information relating to the prediction error . if this prediction error resulted only from the measurement errors , the curve representing δx ( t ) would have a random variation . in most cases , this is not true , and , for example , a wavelet analysis or fourier analysis of the time - oriented series of prediction errors , as represented in fig3 , reveals the characteristics of these time - oriented series of errors which clearly show that it is not a purely random variation . these characteristics correspond to systematic errors affecting the prediction process , and they are due to the presence of errors in the model used to predict the orbit itself or due to limitations of the prediction process . fig3 shows a diagram of an example of fourier analysis giving the spectrum of the error on the power \| δx ( f )\| 2 according to the normalized frequency f . in this example , the components of the spectrum whose value is significantly greater than the average value of the spectrum ( the five narrow pulses that can be seen in the diagram ) can be attributed to the systematic effects . these components correspond , in the case of the fourier analysis , to the contributions δx s , i ( t )= a ( i ) e jωi ( t ) for different noteworthy values of ω ( i ) in the spectrum concerned . to sum up , the second main step of the method of the invention consists in analyzing the time - oriented series of prediction errors using an appropriate signal processing method ( fourier analysis , wavelet analysis , or other signal processing methods ) and isolating the contributions of the systematic effects δx s , i ( t ). the next step consists in performing the prediction and the correction of the systematic prediction errors . once the contributions δx s , i ( t ) of the systematic effects have been identified , it is relatively simple to extrapolate their behavior and time during the future prediction time period p n + 1 . these contributions can therefore be used to correct the predictions in the prediction batch n + 1 by subtracting the effects of the various contributions of the values of the function δx ( t ). to sum up , the third main step of the method of the invention consists in extrapolating the behavior of the contributions of the systematic effects δx s , i ( t ) in the prediction interval concerned and correcting the predictions with these contribution values . it will be noted that the method of the invention can be implemented for corrected or uncorrected predictions . also , the prediction arcs ( corresponding to the time periods p 1 , p 2 , p 3 represented in fig1 ) are advantageously mutually overlapping , but not necessarily .	6
in the fuel injection nozzle shown only partially in fig1 a needle valve 3 is disposed axially movable in a nozzle holder 1 and a nozzle body 2 . the needle valve 3 cooperates with its associated valve seat 4 and is lifted from the seat 4 by the force of fuel streaming through a fuel supply channel 5 in opposition to the force of a valve - closing spring 6 . a chamber 7 , in which the spring 6 is located , is connected with a leakage fuel line ( not shown ) through interconnected channels 8 . the fuel leakage line leads away fuel that is collected in the spring chamber 7 from leaks between the nozzle body 2 and the needle valve 3 . an electrically conductive probe 9 extends into the spring chamber 7 , and it is fastened in an apertured , electrically insulating screw 10 . the probe 9 is electrically insulated with respect to the nozzle holder 1 and carries a spade ( plug - on ) electrical connection 11 by means of which an electrical conductor ( not shown ) leads to a diesel testing instrument ( not shown ). on the side of the probe 9 facing away from the spade connection 11 , a turned - down portion 12 of the probe 9 carries a contact spring 13 which comes into contact with the needle valve 3 as soon as the latter has lifted from its seat 4 , i . e ., as soon as fuel injection has begun . contact between the probe 9 and the needle valve 3 is broken when fuel injection ends . during the process of further opening strokes of the needle valve 3 , the contact spring 13 is further compressed and thereby maintains , in such condition , an electrical circuit between the diesel test instrument and the nozzle holder 1 because of its elasticity , the circuit including the probe 9 , the spring 13 , the needle valve 3 and the nozzle body 2 . only when the needle valve 3 has again been pushed onto its seat 4 by the spring 6 is the electrical circuit again interrupted . the testing instrument counts the number of the nozzle openings and therefore the speed ( rpm ) and it further indicates the beginning and / or the end of each opening stroke and thereby records the injection adjustment and / or the fuel supply onset . the probe 9 , the contact spring 13 and the spade connection 11 can be installed in a majority of the mass - produced conventional fuel injection nozzles without any alteration of the precision parts . all that is required is a conventional tensioning screw 14 having an opening at one end and another in its wall , the latter providing communication to an annular tube connection 15 leading to the leakage line via one of the channels 8 . fig2 and 3 show an exemplary embodiment of another fuel injection arrangement direction from that of fig1 . as shown in fig2 the second embodiment includes a closing spring 20 which lies further below . the spring 20 is disposed in a spring chamber 21 into which one end of an electrically conductive probe 22 extends . the other end of the probe 22 extends into a leakage fuel line 23 . an insulating plastic bushing 24 is pressed into the space between the wall of the leakage fuel line 23 and the probe 22 . the bushing 24 has an axial slit ( not shown ) for the passage of the leakage fuel . the probe 22 is fixed in the leakage fuel line 23 by a transversely disposed conductive rod 25 which serves as a plug - on , electrical connector and by means of a fastening screw 26 . the probe 22 has a turned - down portion 27 into which a contact sleeve 28 having a shoulder 29 engages , as best seen in fig3 which shows these parts in enlarged scale . when the injection nozzle is closed , the contact sleeve 28 is in contact , on the one hand , with a spring support disc 30 , through which the forces of the spring 20 are transmitted to a needle valve 31 , and , on the other hand , with an end 32 of the probe 22 as limited by the shoulder 29 . radially between the contact sleeve 28 and the turned - down portion 27 of the probe 22 , an insulating bushing 33 of synthetic material is disposed . an insulating sleeve 34 having a stepwise bore is supported on the end face formed by the turned - down portion 27 of the probe 22 facing away from its end 32 . a contact spring 35 is disposed between the insulating sleeve 34 and the contact sleeve 28 . the purpose of the contact spring 35 is to ensure that the contact sleeve 28 maintains a contact with the spring disc 30 and , therefore , always maintains contact with the nozzle holder or with electrical ground . a play equalization spring 37 , having a lesser pretension than that of contact spring 35 , is disposed between the insulating sleeve 34 , axially slidable on the probe 22 , and an upper face 36 of the spring chamber 21 . when the entire switching system is installed , i . e . the probe , the springs and the sleeves , the fastening screw 26 is tensioned only after , with a closed injection nozzle , the quiescent position for the switching system has occurred because of the action of a play equalization spring 37 , i . e . the contact sleeve 28 must touch the spring disc 30 , and , furthermore , the shoulder 29 of the contact sleeve 28 must touch the end 32 of the probe 22 . after that , as soon as the needle valve 31 is lifted from its seat ( not shown ), the contact sleeve 28 is moved in opposition to the force of the contact spring 35 and the end 32 of the probe 22 is separated from the shoulder 29 of the contact sleeve 28 and , in this way , the electrical connection between the nozzle holder ( ground ) and the test instrument is interrupted . fig4 shows the connection of a fuel injection nozzle from the side of the leakage line , the switching system having been installed in the nozzle . in this third exemplary embodiment , the fuel displaced from a spring chamber ( not shown ) during the opening stroke of a needle valve is used to displace a yielding piston 40 in opposition to force of a return spring 41 positioned in a spring chamber , where the return spring 41 is in electrically conductive contact with a bolt 42 to which a spade connector 43 of the conductor leading to a test instrument is fastened . in its quiescent position , the yielding piston 40 touches an electrically conductive plate 44 which is connected within a fastening screw 45 which also holds a hollow semi - spherical member 46 . a bushing 48 is disposed between the yielding piston 40 and the bore 47 of the fastening screw 45 and it is guided within that bore permitting a predetermined amount of fuel leakage . the bushing 48 is insulated electrically , with respect to the yielding piston 40 , by a plastic member 49 . as soon as the needle valve lifts from its seat , the fuel displaced from the spring chamber acts to separate the yielding piston 40 from the conductive plate 44 and thus interrupts the connection from the test instrument to the nozzle holder ( ground ). it is to be understood that the foregoing description of the illustrative embodiments has been given by way of example , not of limitation . numerous variants and other embodiments are encompassed within the spirit and scope as defined in the appended claims .	5
the present invention provides for an efficient process for separating components of a gas stream containing three or more components by the integration of one or more membrane units with a suitable cryogenic separation unit . the process as shown in fig2 and 3 shows one or more process streams leaving the cryogenic unit and being fed to one or two membrane units . the number of streams taken from the cryogenic unit , as well as the composition , pressure , and temperature of the streams is dependent upon the specific cryogenic cycle used , and is adjusted so that the performance of the total plant is at its optimal point consistent with co - production of nitrogen and crude argon products . the mixed gas stream is initially fed to a main cryogenic processing unit where it undergoes cryogenic treatment . the specific cryogenic treatment will depend upon the composition of the gas stream being treated and the end product desired , but in any case will involve cooling and at least partial removal of one component of the gas stream . at least a portion ; i . e ., at least about 5 % based on initial feed , of the treated gas stream is removed continuously from the cryogenic separation unit and fed to a membrane separation unit . the amount withdrawn at this point is dependent upon equipment size and capacity , flow rates , desired end product purity , and optimization conditions . the withdrawn portion of the gas stream is partially separated in the membrane unit thereby forming a permeate stream and a reject stream . the type of membrane used is dependent upon its selectivity for the components which are to be separated and , hence , may vary with the make - up of the feed . the feed to the membrane is partially separated to form a permeate stream and a reject stream . depending upon the product desired , at least one of the streams from the membrane unit is returned to the cryogenic separation unit for further treatment . i . e . cooling and separation , to form a purified gaseous and / or liquid product . a general description of the state - of - the - art process for nitrogen production can be had by reference to the drawing . as shown in fig1 an ambient air stream 100 is compressed by compressor 102 to provide stream 103 which is subsequently passed through a molecular sieve clean - up unit 104 to remove carbon dioxide and water . the entire purified stream 105 is cooled in sequential exchangers 106 and 107 and fed to the bottom of distillation column 108 . distillation column 108 splits the single feed stream 109 into a high - purity nitrogen overhead stream 111 and a nitrogen - depleted underflow stream 112 . stream 112 is subcooled in a third heat exchanger 113 and reduced in pressure through valve 114 to provide a source of refrigeration for reflux condenser 115 located at the top of distillation column 108 . the pure nitrogen stream 111 is warmed sequentially in heat exchangers 113 , 107 and 106 , becoming the primary nitrogen product stream 116 . the vaporized , nitrogen - depleted overhead stream 117 is also warmed in heat exchangers 113 and 107 , prior to the warmed stream 120 being expanded in expander 118 to provide refrigeration for the process . the expander outlet stream 119 is then rewarmed in heat exchangers 107 and 106 , and is vented at atmospheric pressure as a waste oxygen stream 121 . a part of stream 117 which is not required for refrigeration purposes may be removed as stream 122 which is then warmed sequentially through heat exchangers 107 and 106 and leaves the process as an intermediate pressure waste oxygen steam 123 . according to the invention , an integrated cryogenic - membrane process was configured to produce gaseous nitrogen as the main product and an argon - rich liquid or vapor as a by - product . this process is illustrated by fig2 and fig3 . a first embodiment of the present process is illustrated by fig2 . this embodiment uses a two - stage membrane separation system which is technically feasible , using membranes which are manufactured today . in this embodiment , an ambient air stream 200 is compressed by compressor 201 to provide stream 202 which is subsequently passed through a molecular sieve clean - up unit 203 to remove carbon dioxide and water . the purified stream 204 is combined with o 2 - rich recycle streams 205 and 206 and the combined stream 207 , is fed to the first stage 208 of a two - stage membrane gas separation system 209 , where it is split into a relatively oxygen - rich permeate stream 211 , and a relatively nitrogen - rich and argon - rich &# 34 ; reject &# 34 ; stream 212 . the permeate stream 211 is recompressed by compressor 213 and fed via line 214 to a second membrane stage 215 where it is separated into an oxygen - rich vent stream 216 and a relatively nitrogen - rich and argon - rich recycle stream 217 . stream 217 is cooled in heat exchanger 218 providing stream 219 which is subsequently condensed in reboiler / condenser 221 located at the bottom of side arm column 222 providing reboiler duty for column 222 and yielding a condensed liquid side stream 223 . the major stream n 2 - rich 212 from the membrane gas separation system 209 is cooled in heat exchangers 218 and 224 providing stream 225 , which is fed to the bottom of main distillation column 226 . liquid stream 223 from side column 222 is reduced in pressure through valve 228 , and the resulting stream 229 is also fed at , or near , the bottom of distillation column 226 . distillation column 226 is concurrently fed by the overhead vapor stream 231 from side - arm column 222 . column 226 separates the combined feeds into a high - purity nitrogen vapor overhead stream 232 ; a small , relatively argon - rich liquid side stream 233 , and an oxygen - rich liquid underflow stream 234 . stream 234 is subcooled in heat exchanger 235 and reduced in pressure through valve 236 to provide a source of refrigeration for reflux condenser 237 located at the top of distillation column 226 . the pure nitrogen overhead stream 232 is warmed in heat exchangers 235 , 224 , and 218 , becoming the nitrogen product stream 238 . one of the unique features of the disclosed process , a small , relatively argon - rich liquid side stream 233 is withdrawn from distillation column 226 , and fed to the top of the side distillation column 222 . distillation column 222 serves to remove nitrogen from this stream , producing a bottoms liquid stream 241 which is an argon / oxygen mixture containing more than 80 % argon and substantially devoid of nitrogen . overhead vapor stream 231 from side column 222 is returned to main column 226 . the bottoms liquid stream 241 of column 222 is withdrawn as crude argon product . overhead vapor stream 242 , resulting from the vaporization of stream 243 in the reboiler - condenser 237 at the top of distillation column 226 , is warmed in heat exchangers 235 and 224 to form partially re - warmed stream 244 . a portion 245 of stream 244 is fed to expander 246 , which provides the refrigeration needed for the cryogenic portion of the process . the expanded stream 247 , is warmed in heat exchangers 224 and 218 , forming stream 246 , which is subsequently compressed by compressor 247 to form recycle stream 206 . the un - expanded stream 248 is warmed only in heat exchanger 218 to form stream 249 , which is subsequently compressed by compressor 251 to form companion recycle stream 205 . the membrane characteristics adaptable to the present invention are based on a surface treated polymeric membrane ( poly [ trimethyl silylpropyne ]) developed and tested by air products and chemicals , inc ., which has an oxygen to argon selectivity ratio of 2 . 63 . this low selectivity causes about 80 % of the total argon feed to the membrane 209 ( stream 207 ) to remain in the reject stream 212 of the first stage . added argon recovery is achieved by recompressing the first stage permeate stream 211 and feeding it to the second stage membrane 215 . this membrane system recovers 33 % of the argon and 90 % of the nitrogen in the feed ( stream 200 ), and produces a waste stream rich in oxygen ( 90 % oxygen ), which is purged from the system via line 216 . in the next embodiment , the single - stage membrane separates only the recycle stream , rather than a combined feed air and recycle flow . a second embodiment of the invention is illustrated by fig3 . this version depends upon the use of a single - stage membrane which is highly selective for oxygen relative to argon and nitrogen . in this embodiment , ambient air stream 200 is compressed by compressor 201 to provide stream 202 which is subsequently passed through a molecular sieve clean - up unit 203 to remove carbon dioxide and water . the purified stream 204 is split into a larger stream 205 , and a smaller stream 206 , with a mass flow ratio of about 7 : 3 , respectively . the smaller stream 206 is further compressed by compressor 207 , subsequently split into a larger stream 208 and a smaller stream 209 , with a mass ratio of about 4 : 1 , respectively . stream 208 is further compressed by compressor 210 , cooled in heat exchanger 218 , and expanded in expander 211 , to provide refrigeration for the cycle . stream 209 is also cooled in heat exchanger 218 , providing stream 219 which is subsequently condensed in reboiler / condenser 221 located at the bottom of side arm column 222 , providing reboiler duty for column 222 , and yielding a condensed liquid side stream 223 . the major air stream 205 is cooled in heat exchangers 218 and 224 and is combined with discharge stream 250 , from the expander 211 , to form stream 251 which is fed to the bottom of distillation column 226 . side column liquid stream 223 is reduced in pressure through valve 228 to form stream 229 which is fed at or near the bottom of column 226 . distillation column 226 is also fed by the overhead vapor stream 231 from column 222 . distillation column 226 separates the combined feeds into a high - purity nitrogen vapor overhead stream 232 ; a small , relatively argon - rich liquid side stream 233 ; and an oxygen - rich liquid bottoms stream 234 . stream 234 is subcooled in heat exchanger 235 , and reduced in pressure through valve 236 to provide a source of refrigeration for reflux condenser 237 located at the top of distillation column 226 . the essentially pure nitrogen stream 232 is warmed in heat exchangers 235 , 224 , and 218 becoming the nitrogen product stream 238 . by one of the unique features of the present invention , a small , relatively argon - rich liquid side stream 233 is withdrawn from main distillation column 226 and fed to the top of side distillation column 222 . distillation column 222 serves to remove nitrogen from this stream , producing a bottoms liquid stream 241 which is an argon / oxygen mixture , containing more than 70 % argon , and substantially devoid of nitrogen . overhead vapor 231 from distillation column 222 is returned to column 226 . the liquid bottom stream 241 is warmed in heat exchangers 224 and 218 , forming crude argon product stream 254 . alternatively , stream 241 may be withdrawn directly as a liquid product due to its small flow rate . overhead stream 242 , resulting from the vaporization of stream 243 in the reboiler - condenser 237 at the top of distillation column 226 , is warmed in heat exchangers 235 , 224 , and 218 , providing stream 214 which is fed to membrane separation system 215 . membrane separation system 215 separates stream 214 into an oxygen - rich permeate 211 , and a relatively argon and nitrogen - rich reject stream 212 . stream 211 is vented at atmospheric pressure as a waste oxygen - rich stream . stream 212 is compressed by compressor 213 and recycled to distillation column 226 , a few stages above the bottom , after having been cooled in heat exchangers 218 and 224 , via line 252 . the crude argon stream 254 may be subsequently purified , for example , by membrane separation , cryogenic distillation and / or catalytic de - oxo systems . all or part of the recycle compression ( compressor 213 ) may be supplied upstream of membrane separator 215 resulting in increased ar and n 2 recovery . side distillation column 222 could be operated at a lower pressure than column 226 , in which case the overhead n 2 stream 231 would have to be recompressed or added to recycle stream 242 . table i compares the process of fig1 with the new processes of fig2 and 3 . all process calculations were done using the attached &# 34 ; standards for hybrid cycle work &# 34 ; ( table ii ) to ensure a fair comparison . the processes of fig3 having a membrane separation system were calculated assuming a single - stage high - oxygen - selectivity membrane ( selectivity of o 2 / ar = 53 and o 2 / n 2 = 100 ) . the simulated cases in table i may be described as follows : the first column is the optimized present practice , but without a membrane and without argon production , as depicted by fig1 . case a is the first embodiment of the new process , using membranes with currently available selectivities for oxygen and argon relative to nitrogen . this case corresponds to fig2 and illustrates the technical feasibility of the flow sheet to produce crude argon having & gt ; 80 % purity . incremental power consumption is required . case b is an alternate embodiment of the process ( fig3 ) employing a highly selective membrane such as may be obtained with an active transport membrane . given the existence of such a membrane , it is preferable to put the membrane on the recycle stream 214 only . it shows that 29 % argon recovery may be obtained , with no increase in power relative to production of nitrogen alone , by the addition of the sidearm column . this is also true when the oxygen concentration stream 212 of fig3 is maintained between 13 % and 16 %. case c is the same as case b , except that argon recovery has been increased to 46 %, at the expense of increased power and reduced argon purity , by increasing the oxygen content and flow . case d shows the effect of increasing the membrane feed pressure to 80 psia . this improves argon recovery and crude argon purity substantially relative to case b , while not exceeding the power required for the optimized base case of fig1 . membrane area is also reduced . case e shows the effect of increasing the membrane feed pressure to essentially that of the distillation column pressure . argon recovery and purity are increased and membrane area is very much reduced at the expense of increased power consumption . case e also produces a &# 34 ; waste oxygen &# 34 ; stream 211 containing 89 % oxygen . the present invention has been described with reference to some specific embodiments thereof . these embodiments should not be considered a limitation of the scope of the present invention . the scope of the present invention is ascertained by the following claims . table i__________________________________________________________________________argon separation process cycle comparison present practice new process ( fig2 and 3 ) ( fig1 ) case a case b case c case d case e__________________________________________________________________________nitrogen product , moles / 100 47 . 9 72 . 4 71 . 4 73 . 9 74 . 3 75 . 9moles dryair feed : crude argon product , moles / 100 0 0 . 36 0 . 37 0 . 60 0 . 46 0 . 56moles dryair feed : o . sub . 2 in n . sub . 2 product , ppm 5 5 5 5 5 5n . sub . 2 product press ., psia 115 115 115 115 115 115ar in crude ar product , -- 83 . 2 71 . 8 70 . 7 78 . 6 83 . 1 ( stream 241 ,), % moles contained ar in ar product , 0 32 29 46 39 50moles / 100 molear in air feed : pressure of expander 73 126 121 121 121 121inlet stream , psiaflow rate of stream , 212 0 171 70 85 78 85moles / 100moles dry air feed : o . sub . 2 concentration in stream 212 -- 22 . 4 14 . 3 19 . 4 12 . 8 11 . 8membrane feed pressure , psia -- 126 57 55 80 120power , kwh / 100 scf n . sub . 2 0 . 533 0 . 791 0 . 530 0 . 541 0 . 532 0 . 541productno . of membrane stages -- 2 1 1 1 1relative membrane area per 100 0 2288 1814 1223 700 255moles dry air feed ( assumingsame permeance for n . sub . 2for all cases ): membrane selectivityo . sub . 2 / n . sub . 2 -- 5 . 5 100 . 0 100 . 0 100 . 0 100 . 0o . sub . 2 / ar -- 2 . 9 52 . 8 52 . 8 52 . 8 52 . 8__________________________________________________________________________ table ii______________________________________standards for hybrid process cycle work______________________________________product : 100 , 000 scfh nitrogen ( gan ) gan product pressure : 115 psiagan product : 4 . 5 - 5 . 0 mppm 02fixed distillation tray countfixed reboiler delta tfixed pressure dropsplant heat leak : fixed btu / lbmol of gasflowtotal ntu count for main exchanger : 50 - 70reboiler purge flow : 0 . 2 % of air flowfixed expander isentropic efficiencyfixed isothermal compression efficiencyfixed motor efficiencyair feed relative humidity : 50 % air feed temperature : 70 ° f . air feed suction pressure : 14 . 5 psiastandard conditions : 14 . 7 psia ; 70 ° f . air feed temperature to mainexchanger : 45 ° f . main exchanger warm end delta t : 5 ° f . recycle feed temperature to mainexchanger : 45 ° f . minimum gas pressure in cycle : 15 psiano credit for power generated byexpander______________________________________ basis : air at 100 lbmol / hr ( 78 . 12 %; 20 . 95 % o . sub . 2 ; 0 . 93 % ar )	8
fig1 shows a perspective view of a fire - fighting system 10 according to the present invention . the fire - fighting system 10 includes a truck 12 , a boom 14 , a conveying pipeline 16 , and a nozzle 18 . the truck 12 acts as a support or a base for the boom 14 . the boom 14 supports and articulates the conveying pipeline 16 . the truck 12 provides the ability for the fire - fighting system 10 to be mobile and transported to a location near the vicinity of the fire . the boom 14 and the conveying pipeline 16 function to allow the dispensing point of a quenching agent ( such as water or a fire retardant chemical foam ) to be located near the fire source . the quenching agent is dispensed through the nozzle 18 , which is mounted at the outermost end of the boom 14 . although the preferred embodiment , as shown in fig1 shows the fire - fighting system 10 having a boom 14 and conveying pipeline 16 mounted on the truck 12 , in other embodiments the boom 14 and conveying pipeline 16 may be mounted on a stationary support structure . the truck 12 , as best shown in fig1 and 3 , includes a chassis 20 , front outriggers 22 l , 22 r , rear outriggers 23 l , 23 r , a tank 24 , a pump 26 , and a boom base 28 . the chassis 20 of the truck 12 provides the main structural support for supporting the boom 14 and the conveying pipeline 16 . the front outriggers 22 l , 22 r and rear outriggers 23 l , 23 r extend laterally from the chassis 20 and impose a downward force on the surrounding ground . the front outriggers 22 l , 22 r and rear outriggers 23 l , 23 r function to stabilize the truck 12 and prevent it from tipping during deployment of the boom 14 and conveying pipeline 16 . the tank 24 holds a supply of the quenching agent used to suppress or quench the fire . the quenching agent may also be supplied by a source external to the truck 12 . the pump 26 acts to move quenching agent from the tank 24 or external source through the conveying pipeline 16 and out the nozzle 18 . the base 28 provides a surface for mounting the boom 14 . the boom 14 includes a turret 30 , a first boom section 32 , a second boom section 34 , a third boom section 36 , a first actuator assembly 38 , a second actuator assembly 40 , and a third actuator assembly 42 . the turret 30 of the boom 14 is mounted to the base 28 of the truck 12 . the turret 30 allows rotatable motion , about a vertical axis , of the boom 14 with respect to the truck 12 . as shown in fig1 a proximal end of the first boom section 32 is pivotally coupled to the turret 30 . a distal end of the first boom section 32 is pivotally connected to a proximal end of the second boom section 34 . a distal end of the second boom section 34 is pivotally connected to a proximal end of the third boom section 36 . although the preferred embodiment shown in fig1 includes three boom sections , the boom 14 could include any number of boom sections . as further shown in fig1 the first actuator assembly 38 is connected between the turret 30 and the first boom section 32 . the first actuator assembly 38 extends or retracts to control the angular position of the first boom section 32 with respect to the truck 12 . the second actuator assembly 40 is coupled between the first boom section 32 and the second boom section 34 and controls the angular position of the second boom section 34 with respect to the first boom section 32 . the third actuator assembly 42 is coupled between the second boom section 34 and the third boom section 36 and controls the angular position of the third boom section 36 with respect to the second boom section 34 . an operator of the fire - fighting system 10 can control the position of the distal end of the third boom section 36 by controlling the position of the turret 30 , the first actuator assembly 38 , the second actuator assembly 40 , and the third actuator assembly 42 . the position of the distal end of the third boom section 36 , which is where the nozzle 18 is located , determines the dispensing point of the quenching agent . the fire - fighting system 10 of the present invention allows an operator to manipulate the actuators 38 , 40 , 42 and strategically position the nozzle 18 for maximum fire - fighting efficacy . to safely deploy and position the nozzle 18 by manipulating the boom sections 32 , 34 , 36 with respect to one another , it is important that the boom base 28 , supporting the turret 30 , is approximately gravitationally level . the boom base 28 must be within three degrees offset from gravitational level along any axis through a center point . if the boom base 28 ( which supports the boom 14 and the conveying pipeline 16 ) is not gravitationally level , it may result in unsafe operating conditions . for example , the boom 14 may experience unintended slewin ( i . e ., rotation about a vertical axis ) at the turret 30 . also , a gravitationally level boom base 28 is important to prevent tipping of the truck 12 . leveling of the truck chassis 20 and the boom base 28 is performed using the front outriggers 22 l , 22 r and the rear outriggers 23 l , 23 r . as shown in fig2 . the outriggers 22 l , 22 r , 23 l , 23 r include a support arm 46 , a foot 48 , cribbing 50 , solenoid 52 , pressure switch 54 , and extend sensor 56 . once the truck 12 has reached its intended operating position , the outriggers 22 l , 22 r , 23 l , 23 r are deployed ( i . e ., extended out and away from truck ) by moving the support arm 46 to place them into position to help level and stabilize the truck 12 . the extend sensor 56 is a proximity sensor that provides a signal when the outrigger 22 l , 22 r , 23 l , 23 r is fully extended away from the truck 12 . the outriggers 22 l , 22 r , 23 l , 23 r apply pressure to the surrounding ground by lowering the foot 48 down onto the cribbing 50 , which is placed on the ground under the extension foot 48 for additional support . the raising and lowering of the foot 48 is done hydraulically using a system generally known to those of ordinary skill in the art . although in fig2 the solenoid 52 is shown located on the outrigger 22 l , 22 r , 23 l , 23 r , it may also be located on the truck 12 near the corresponding outrigger 22 l , 22 r , 23 l , 23 r . the solenoid 52 receives an electrical control signal and acts to open or close a hydraulic fluid valve , which controls the flow of fluid to a hydraulic cylinder , and thereby adjusts the vertical position of the foot 48 with respect to the support arm 46 . the pressure switch 54 provides a signal when it detects some threshold pressure level upon the arm 48 . the purpose of the pressure switch 54 is to provide a signal when the arm 48 is sufficiently lowered to generate the minimum pressure required upon the cribbing 50 for safe operation on the ground . this minimum pressure is generally around 500 pounds per square inch and functions to evenly distribute the weight between the four outriggers 22 l , 22 r , 23 l , 23 r . fig3 shows a top view of the fire - fighting system 10 according to the present invention . fig3 also shows the positions of the front outriggers 22 l , 22 r and the rear outriggers 23 l , 23 r with respect to the truck 12 , when the outriggers 22 l , 22 r , 23 l , 23 r have been fully deployed . the fire - fighting system 10 of the present invention operates to automatically level the chassis 20 of the truck 12 . leveling of the chassis 20 also levels the base 28 , which is attached to the chassis 20 . leveling of the base 28 acts to level the turret 30 and thus the entire boom 14 that it supports . as previously mentioned , leveling of the chassis 20 of the truck 12 is performed by using the outriggers 22 l , 22 r , 23 l , 23 r to apply pressure to the surrounding ground . as shown in fig3 the truck 12 has a tilt sensor 60 mounted to its chassis 20 near a longitudinal center line and closer to a front end of the truck 12 . the tilt sensor 60 is centered at the intersection of the imaginary line extending from the front outrigger 22 r to the rear outrigger 23 l and the imaginary line extending from the front outrigger 22 l to the rear outrigger 23 r . as shown in fig3 a y - axis 62 runs along a longitudinal centerline of the truck 12 of the fire - fighting system 10 , and an x - axis 64 runs orthogonal to the y - axis and through a center of the tilt sensor 60 . the tilt sensor 60 is disposed at the intersection of the y - axis 62 and the x - axis 64 and oriented such that it may provide a signal representing the angle between the y - axis 62 and gravitational level and the angle between the x - axis 64 and gravitational level . as further shown in fig3 a y ′- axis 66 extends between a center of the foot 48 of the front outrigger 22 l and a center of the foot 48 of the rear outrigger 23 r . an x ′- axis 68 extends between a center of the foot 48 of the front outrigger 22 r and a center of the foot 48 of the rear outrigger 23 l . both the y ′- axis 66 and the x ′- axis 68 extend through the intersection of the y - axis 62 and the x - axis 64 . using standard trigonometric relationships , and the signals from the tilt sensor 60 , it is thus possible to calculate the angles of the y ′- axis 66 and the x ′- axis 68 from gravitational level . these signals are then used to calculate which of the outriggers 22 l , 22 r , 23 l , 23 r to adjust as explained in greater detail below . fig4 shows a block schematic of the inputs and outputs from a microcontroller 70 used to perform the autoleveling function in the fire - fighting system 10 of the present invention . as shown in fig4 the microcontroller 70 accepts input signals from the tilt sensor 60 , extend sensor signals 56 a , 56 b , 56 c , and 56 d ( corresponding to the front left outrigger 22 l , the front right outrigger 22 r , the rear left outrigger 23 l , and the rear right outrigger 23 r , respectively ), and pressure switch signals 54 a , 54 b , 54 c , and 54 d ( corresponding to the front left outrigger 22 l , the front right outrigger 22 r , the rear left outrigger 23 l , and the rear right outrigger 23 r , respectively ). based on these input signals , the microcontroller 70 generates a drive signal to each of the outriggers 22 l , 22 r , 23 l , 23 r . the drive signal ( generated by the microcontroller 70 is an electrical control signal used to operate the solenoids 52 on the outriggers 22 l , 22 r , 23 l , 23 r , which adjust hydraulic valves to affect the position of the feet 48 of the respective outriggers . during operation the truck 12 is transported to a strategic position for fighting a fire . the operator then manually deploys the outriggers 22 l , 22 r , 23 l , 23 r . the operator then commands the two front outriggers 22 l , 22 r and the two rear outriggers 23 l , 2 r to deploy or extend away from the chassis 20 . the outriggers 22 l , 22 r , 23 l , 23 r continue to deploy until a signal is received from the corresponding extend sensors 56 a , 56 b , 56 c , 56 d . the operator continues to deploy the outriggers 22 l , 22 r , 23 l , 23 r until the signal is received from the extend sensor 56 a , 56 b , 56 c , 56 d , deployment of the corresponding outrigger ceases . once all four outriggers 22 l , 22 r , 23 l , 23 r have been fully deployed , the operator selects the autoleveling function . the microcontroller 70 operates the solenoids 52 of each of the outriggers 22 l , 22 r , 23 l , 23 r to begin extension ( i . e ., movement down and away from the support arm 56 ) of the foot 48 . this extension continues until a programmed pressure level is reached within the hydraulic fluid driving the foot 48 of the outrigger 22 l , 22 r , 23 l , 23 r . when the pressure level is reached the pressure switch 54 a , 54 b , 54 c , 54 d activate and the microcontroller 70 ceases extension of the foot 48 of the corresponding outrigger 22 l , 22 r , 23 l , 23 r . this process continues until each foot 48 of each outrigger 22 l , 22 r , 23 l , 23 r is extended to a minimum pressure point . at this point the microcontroller 70 executes the autoleveling routine described below . as discussed above , and as illustrated in fig3 the outriggers 22 l , 22 r , 23 l , 23 r are positioned on the y ′- axis 66 and the x ′- axis 68 . the tilt sensor 60 , however , provides a signal indicative of the angle with respect to gravitational level of the y - axis 62 and the x - axis 64 . based on the angle provided by the tilt sensor 60 , in the form of a voltage , the microcontroller 70 calculates the slope of the chassis 20 . the tilt sensor 60 provides two voltages , one indicative of the slope of the y - axis 62 and the other indicative of the slope of the x - axis 64 . if the voltage provided by the tilt sensor 60 is positive , the slope is positive . a positive slope along the y - axis 62 is defined by a point on the rear of the truck 12 having a higher altitude than a point on the front of the truck 12 . a positive slope along the x - axis 64 is defined by a point on the right side of the truck 12 having a higher altitude than a point on the left side of the truck 12 . once the microcontroller 70 has calculated the slope along the y - axis 62 and the slope along the x - axis 64 , it calculates the slope along the y ′- axis 66 and along the x ′- axis 68 by performing a coordinate transformation using the following equations : where m ′ x is the slope along the x ′- axis 68 , and m ′ y is the slope along the y ′- axis 66 , m x is the slope along the x - axis 64 , m y is the slope along the y - axis 62 , θ is the angle between the x - axis 64 and the x ′- axis 68 ( as shown in fig3 ), and φ is the angle between the y - axis 62 and the y ′- axis 66 ( as shown in fig3 ). the microcontroller 70 then generates a drive signal to each of the outriggers 22 l , 22 r , 23 l , 23 r based on m ′ x and m ′ y using the following equations : where x1 ( t ) is the drive signal to the solenoid 52 of the outrigger 23 l as a function of time , x2 ( t ) is the drive signal to the solenoid 52 of the outrigger 22 r as a function of time , y1 ( t ) is the drive signal to the solenoid 52 of the outrigger 23 r as a function of time , y2 ( t ) is the drive signal to the solenoid 52 of the outrigger 22 l as a function of time , and k is an adjustable constant that affects the response rate of the system . the autoleveling system of the fire - fighting system 10 of the present invention is designed to operate so that leveling is obtained only by raising the position of one of the outriggers 22 l , 22 r , 23 l , 23 r . therefore , if the drive signal calculated using the above equations is negative , it will not be transmitted to the corresponding solenoid 52 . only positive drive signals are sent causing one or more of the solenoids 52 to open and cause extension or lowering of the corresponding arm 46 . the microcontroller 70 continues to perform this procedure until the results from the tilt sensor 60 indicate that the chassis 20 of the truck 12 is sufficiently close to gravitationally level , and the pressure switches 54 a , 54 b , 54 c , 54 d have activated , at which time the autoleveling function is complete . the microcontroller 70 will also terminate the autoleveling procedure if the truck 12 enters an unsafe position such that it may tip . unsafe positions may be programmed into or calculated by the microcontroller 70 for this purpose . although the present invention has been described with reference to a fire - fighting vehicle , it should be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that the disclosed system would function equally as well to gravitationally level a boom and pipeline system mounted to another type of vehicle or even mounted to a base not intended to be mobile . for instance , the device of the present invention could be applied to a concrete pumping boom truck . the principle of the present invention may be employed to automatically level a boom system to insure its safe operation . although the present invention has been described with reference to preferred embodiments , workers skilled in the art will recognize that changes may be made in form and detail without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention .	1
referring now in detail to the drawings wherein like parts are designated by like reference numerals throughout , there is schematically illustrated in fig1 a dual fuel engine system which is designated generally by reference numeral 10 . dual fuel engine system 10 incorporates generally a dual fuel engine 12 , a fuel oil supply system 30 , a fuel gas supply system 80 , and , optionally , a turbocharger 90 . generally described , dual fuel engine system 10 includes a dual fuel engine 12 which is of the large , stationary , reciprocating engine type . in the preferred embodiment described herein , the dual fuel engine 12 is a lsvb - 20 - gdt four cycle engine manufactured by cooper - bessemer reciprocating division of cooper industries , the assignee of this invention . dual fuel engine 12 includes a plurality of cylinders , only one of which is illustrated schematically in fig1 and is designated generally by reference numeral 11 . the cylinders and the reciprocating pistons ( not shown ) in the cylinders are arranged in a v configuration , have a 151 / 2 in . bore , a 22 in . stroke , and develop 420 bhp per cylinder at 400 engine rpm . while the lsvb engine is typically built with 12 , 16 , or 20 cylinders , it will be appreciated that the invention may be applicable to any type of large reciprocating engine whether stationary or mobile . dual fuel engine 12 is provided with a diesel fuel supply header 14 for supply of diesel fuel through line 15 to a plurality of individual fuel injection pumps 16 ( only one shown ) of a diesel fuel injection system 18 for each cylinder 11 of the dual fuel engine , as will be described in detail hereinafter . the pressure in diesel fuel supply header 14 is regulated by a pressure regulator 20 , and a diesel fuel drain header 22 collects excess fuel oil not used by fuel injection pumps 16 for reuse . each cylinder of dual fuel engine 12 is also provided with a gas induction system 24 for supply of gaseous fuel mixed with air . a governor 26 provided on dual fuel engine 12 supplies a signal to adjust the pressure of the fuel gas supplied by gas induction system 24 , and a signal to control the exhaust gas exhausted from an exhaust manifold 28 of dual fuel engine 12 in a manner known in the art and therefore not described in further detail herein . still referring to fig1 the system for supplying diesel oil fuel to the cylinders of the dual fuel engine , designated generally by reference numeral 30 , will now be described in detail . a supply of diesel oil fuel is held in a fuel oil day tank 31 . fuel is pumped from tank 31 through line 32 by fuel oil transfer pump 34 , through line 36 to duplex filters 38 , thence through line 40 to fuel oil supply header 14 . pressure of the diesel oil in fuel oil supply header 14 is regulated by pressure regulator 20 , connected to fuel oil return line 42 . diesel oil fuel flows from header 14 via line 15 to the individual fuel injection pumps 16 of a diesel oil fuel injection system 18 provided for each of the plurality of cylinders of dual fuel engine 12 . referring now to fig2 wherein the fuel oil injection system 18 of fig1 is illustrated in greater detail , fuel oil injection system 18 comprises generally a fuel injection pump 16 and a fuel injection nozzle 44 which is supplied with fuel from pump 16 through high - pressure fuel line 46 . fuel injection pump 16 is of the &# 34 ; jerk pump &# 34 ; type known in the art and is located on the cylinder block directly above the cam follower in the cooper - bessemer lsvb engine . pump 16 generally comprises a delivery valve holder 48 , a delivery valve assembly 50 , and a barrel and plunger assembly 52 . flanges 54 are provided for connection of pump 16 to the cylinder block of dual fuel engine 12 . a high pressure line nut 56 connects delivery valve holder 48 to high pressure line 46 . further details of the structure and operation of pump 16 are not provided since pump 16 is of a type conventionally available from manufacturers such as bendix and l &# 39 ; orange gmbh of stuttgart , west germany . fuel oil is pumped from pump 16 through high pressure line 46 to fuel injection nozzle 44 from which it is sprayed into an individual cylinder 11 of the dual fuel engine 12 . the fuel injection nozzle 44 is located at the center of the cylinder head in the lsvb engine . fuel injection nozzle 44 comprises generally a nozzle body holder 58 , a nozzle valve assembly 60 , and a nozzle spray tip 62 projecting into the combustion chamber of the cylinder 11 . further details of the structure and operation of nozzle 44 are not provided since nozzle 44 , similar to pump 16 , is conventionally available from manufacturers such as the bendix and l &# 39 ; orange gmbh . nozzle spray tip 62 is provided with a specified number of orifices arranged annularly around the tip , each orifice having a specified diameter and arranged at a specified angle with respect to the longitudinal axis of the nozzle 44 , in order to provide a precisely metered quantity and spray configuration of fuel injected into the cylinder . in accordance with the present invention , the orifices of the spray tip 62 are so structured and configured in terms of number , size and spray angle as to limit the supply of diesel fuel to the each cylinder to pilot ignition quantities only as defined hereinabove . operation of the dual fuel engine with pilot ignition quantities of diesel fuel results in a significant reduction of nox emissions , more specifically according to the present invention to an emission rate of less than 1 gm / hp - hr of nox . referring now to fig4 through 7 , there are illustrated details of various embodiments of the portion of fuel injection nozzle 44 , which includes nozzle spray tip 62 constructed according to the invention . nozzle spray tip 62 comprises a plurality of orifices 64 , which are typically arranged symmetrically about the central longitudinal axis of nozzle 44 . orifices 64 are oriented with their axes at a predetermined spray angle , defined in fig4 as angle b . the number of orifices , orifice diameter , and spray angle are determined empirically for a given dual fuel engine , to produce the desired pilot ignition quantity of fuel oil which will result in the reduced exhaust emission rate set forth hereinabove . as illustrated in fig5 and 7 , three embodiments of nozzle spray tips 62 according to the invention are provided with 4 , 6 , and 7 orifices 64 , respectively , for use with the lsvb engine described above . values of the orifice diameter and spray angle for the embodiments of fig5 and 6 are set forth in table i below , while in the embodiment of fig7 the seven ( 7 ) orifices 64 have a diameter of 0 . 0177 in . and are set at a spray angle b of 140 °. during the course of development of the present invention , several embodiments of dual fuel engine systems were tested . those embodiments are summarized below . table i______________________________________ specific emission percent rate nox pilot ( gm / hp - nozzle tip oil hr ) ______________________________________system one lsvb 8 - orifices 6 . 0 4 . 70 ( prior art ) universal 0 . 0177 in . standard system diameter 140 ° spray anglesystem two lsvb 6 - orifices 4 . 8 4 . 31 ( 1st experiment ) universal 0 . 0157 in . modified tip diameter 120 ° spray nozzlesystem three js 4 - orifices 2 . 2 0 . 95 ( 2nd experiment ) universal 0 . 0157 in . modified nozzle diametertip 120 ° spray anglesystem four pilot 6 - orifices 1 . 54 0 . 80 ( 3rd experiment ) nozzle 0 . 0106 in . pump and diametermodified nozzle 120 ° spray angle______________________________________ it is apparent from the foregoing table i that in the embodiments of system one ( prior art ) and system two ( 1st experiment ) specific emission rates of nox emissions exceeded 4 . 0 gm / hp - hr where the percent pilot oil was in the typical prior art range of 4 - 7 %. however , in the embodiments of system three ( 2nd experiment ) and system four ( 3rd experiment ), specific emission rates of nox emissions were reduced to less than 1 . 0 gm / hp - hr where the percent pilot oil was maintained below the 4 - 7 % range , i . e ., limited to pilot ignition quantities only . referring now to fig3 an additional embodiment of fuel oil injection system 18 according to the invention is illustrated . in the fig3 embodiment , fuel injection nozzle 44 is a &# 34 ; pencil nozzle &# 34 ; made by the stanadyne company and identified as a 5 . 4 mm &# 34 ; slim tip ,&# 34 ; pencil nozzle . fuel injection nozzle 44 is supplied with fuel oil through high pressure line 46 by pump 16 , which in the illustrated embodiment is the bd - 2 &# 34 ; automotive &# 34 ; type pump also manufactured by the stanadyne company . the fuel injection system 18 of fig3 is identified in table i as system four , and uses a nozzle spray 62 having 6 orifices of 0 . 0106 in . diameter , set at a 120 ° spray angle . referring once again to fig1 dual fuel engine system 10 is provided with a fuel gas supply system , generally designated by reference numeral 80 . before proceeding with an explanation of the fuel gas supply system 80 , a brief explanation of the characteristics of the gaseous fuel used in dual fuel engine system 10 is appropriate . the gaseous fuels used in such systems have two heating values : a high heating value ( hhv ), which includes the heat content of the water vapor released during combustion of hydrocarbons and oxygen ; and a low heating value ( lhv ), which excludes the heat content of the water vapor . for example , natural gas has a hhv of 1000 btu / ft 3 and a lhv of 930 btu / ft 3 . for various reasons , when specifying the heat content of a gaseous fuel it is customary in the industry to refer to the lhv . unless otherwise stated , that usage is employed in the present specification when referring to gaseous fuel heating values . normally , a natural gas fuel with a heat content of 930 btu / ft 3 is used in the dual fuel engine described above . however , according to another aspect of the present invention , it is appropriate to use alternative gaseous fuels , such as a digester gas to further reduce polluting exhaust emissions , particularly those containing nox emissions . digester gas is a relatively low heat content hydrocarbon gaseous fuel obtained from landfills and / or sewage treatment facilities and is diluted with inert components , such as co 2 , which constitute up to about 50 percent of the prime gaseous fuel charge . such digester gas has a low heating value of 450 - 550 btu / ft 3 . where digester gas is used as the fuel gas for dual fuel engine system 10 , still further improvements can be made in emissions rate reductions . for example , when digester gas is used as the fuel gas in the embodiment of the invention described in the above table i as system four , specific nox emission rates are reduced to 0 . 47 gm / hp - hr , with 1 . 4 percent pilot oil . nox emissions according to this embodiment of the invention are thus reduced below 0 . 5 gm / hp - hr . fuel gas supply system 80 comprises generally a supply of fuel gas through a line 82 , a gas regulating valve 84 which regulates the pressure of gaseous fuel supplied to the engine , and a line 86 through which the pressure regulated gaseous fuel is supplied to a gas induction system generally designated by reference numeral 24 . gas regulating valve 84 is controlled by a signal generated by governor 26 through a control line 85 . air is supplied to gas induction system 24 through a line 99 from a turbocharger 90 . gas induction system 24 comprises generally a gas inlet valve 88 and an air inlet valve 89 . gaseous fuel to the engine is inducted from line 86 through gas valve 88 which is concentric to and commonly operable with air inlet valve 89 as described below . air inlet valve 89 is opened by a conventional cam - operated valve gear . after the air inlet valve 89 begins to open , a shoulder on the air inlet valve stem pushes open the gas inlet valve 88 to create a delayed opening of the latter , and gaseous fuel flows into the combustion chamber of cylinder 11 in concert with the inlet air . referring again to fig1 dual fuel engine system 10 is optionally supplied with a turbocharger , generally designated by reference numeral 90 . turbocharger 90 comprises an impeller 92 , a turbine 94 , an exhaust stack 96 , a turbine inlet line 98 , and a turbocharged air discharge line 99 . as is conventional , turbine 94 receives exhaust gas from exhaust manifold 28 of dual fuel engine 12 . the exhaust gas rotates the blades of turbine 94 and compresses the air supplied to impeller 92 through air inlet line 93 . the turbocharged air is discharged from impeller 92 through line 99 where it is supplied to the air inlet valve 89 of gas induction system 24 for mixing with the gaseous fuel . by means of turbocharger 90 , a high air charging pressure , in excess of 28 psig is imparted to the air supplied to the engine , thereby further enhancing the exhaust emission performance of the dual fuel engine . in addition to the use of a turbocharger , the exhaust emission performance of the dual fuel engine may be further improved by imparting a high swirl or turbulence to the gaseous fuel mixture within the combustion chamber , using conventional engine design techniques . although only preferred embodiments are specifically illustrated and described herein , it will be appreciated that many modifications and variations of the present invention are possible in light of the above teachings and within the purview of the appended claims without departing from the spirit and intended scope of the invention .	8
fig1 is a diagram showing one conceptual embodiment of a system for maintaining skills for agents of a contact center and the automated updating of agent skills for a skill - based routing system within that contact center . fig1 shows how customers , potential customers , or other people may use fax machines 105 , phones 110 , email messages 115 or other systems ( now known or developed in the future ) 120 to contact a corporation , government group or other entity . a routing system 130 may use routing logic to determine which agent 135 should handle a particular contact . routing logic may include rules and / or source data for determining the routing . in this document , the term routing logic also encompasses the source data used by the logic . this routing logic may use , among other factors , agent availability as a part of the routing decision . furthermore , the routing system 130 may use agent capability / skill information ( sometimes stored in a database as part of the agent &# 39 ; s profile ) to make the routing decisions . once the routing is determined , the transferring system 125 may transfer the contact ( such as a phone call , email message , web chat , web call - through , web call - back , paper - based correspondence converted to electronic form , fax or instant message , for example ) to the proper agent 135 . in one embodiment , the transferring system 125 may be a pbx / acd switch system sold by avaya inc . other hardware and / or software may be used in other embodiments . for example , the transferring system 125 may also be a system sold by aspect or nortel . in one embodiment , the routing system 130 may be the avaya advocate system sold by avaya inc . the avaya advocate system may be deployed on - board the pbx / acd transferring system 125 . or , the avaya advocate system may be separated from the transferring system 125 . in other embodiments , systems sold by genesys or cisco may be used as the routing system 130 , for example . the routing system 130 may include a database used to store agent profile and / or routing data . to make the skill data in the routing system 130 more robust and up - to - date , a centralized skill tracking system 140 is implemented in one embodiment of the present invention . the skill tracking system 140 has , in one embodiment , a database 145 for storing the skill data for each agent 135 . skill data may be updated either manually or automatically by data sent from various skill - impacting systems . a learning management educational system 150 , a call monitoring system , a customer satisfaction scoring system 155 , a crm application , a performance metrics system 160 , a staff scheduling / forecasting system , a compensation management system , a knowledge management system , a custom - developed reporting system , an automatic call distributor system , a call management / reporting system , a computer telephone integration system , an interactive voice response system and other skill - impacting systems ( now known or implemented in the future ) 165 are some of the types of systems that can feed skill - impacting data to the skill tracking system 140 . skill - impacting data may be satisfaction assessments from completed customer contacts , completion or results of a training course , coaching outcomes , and / or performance metrics , such as if an agent &# 39 ; s handle time is greater than a predetermined threshold . of course , there are many other types of skill - impacting data and skill - impacting systems that can be used with the present invention . as shown in fig1 , the skill tracking system 140 may be used ( in one embodiment ) to update and / or synchronize the skill - related data for an agent from the skill tracking system 140 to the routing system 130 . once data is updated to the routing system 130 , routing decisions by the routing system 130 and / or the transferring system 125 may be improved . fig1 shows several types of systems that may submit skill - impacting data . examples of a learning management educational system 150 include docent enterprise developed by docent , inc . examples of a call monitoring system include the equality software suite developed by witness systems , inc . examples of a customer satisfaction system 155 include applications of conversant interactive voice response systems developed by avaya . examples of a crm application include siebel call center developed by siebel systems , inc . examples of an agent performance metrics system 160 include call management system ( cms ) developed by avaya . while the system shown in fig1 is highly abstracted , fig3 shows one embodiment of implementing the present invention on a siebel / genesys architecture . here , agents 135 have access to the system via a siebel web client 170 . the pbx / acd 125 and t - server 125 components are part of the transferring system 125 to transfer client contacts to the appropriate agent based on the routing system , which is implemented through a genesys urs server 130 and a genesys configuration database 130 . the administrative interface 305 shown in fig3 is the traditional way to input and update agent profiles ( including skill levels of various agents ) to the routing system 130 . as shown in the figure , the capability - impacting systems ( 150 , 155 , 160 and 165 ) send skill - related data to the skill - tracking system of the capability profile update system 140 and the siebel database 145 . the siebel database of fig3 stores not only the data used by the siebel crm or erm application , but also the skill - based data within agent profiles . as one skilled in the art will understand , the various embodiments of the present invention can be implemented as a system of modular components and / or as a series of code segments of one or more computer programs stored on a computer - readable medium . the computer program code segments can be written in java , c , c ++, or any computer language now known or developed in the future . for a conceptual diagram of one embodiment of the invention as a system , refer to fig6 and 7 , which represent a system with modular components including a profile module 610 , a skill receiver 615 , an updating module 620 , a synchronization module 625 , a contact receiver 630 , a routing processor 635 , and a contact router 640 , and a system with modular components including a profile module 710 , a profile maintenance module 715 , a source data module 720 , an update module 725 , an identification module 730 , and an agent selector 735 . similar in many ways to fig3 , fig4 is a diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention in a siebel / avaya architecture framework . here , the routing system 130 includes the avaya advocate routing engine and configuration database as well as the avaya call management system . the transferring system 125 is the avaya pbx / acd . of course , other embodiments of the present invention could be made using other combinations of hardware , software and technical architectures . fig2 is a high - level flowchart of one embodiment of providing the functionality of updating the capability profile 140 and then synchronizing 310 the data in the routing system . when a capability - impacting system ( 150 , 155 , 160 , and / or 165 ) modifies skill - related information , an external event is triggered 205 . for an example using an oracle database available from oracle corp ., as database elements in the database change , a trigger may be executed automatically . the event generates a transaction 210 , which in turn triggers a workflow 215 . ( a workflow is a state table utilized by sibbel and other systems .) the workflow 215 updates the centralized capability profile 220 . this update triggers a second workflow 225 which in turn initiates an intermediary process to mimic 230 the typically manual administration ( i . e ., a supervisor using the administrative interface 305 ) of the agent skill information of the routing system 130 . other embodiments of the present invention use other methodologies to update the skill tracking system 140 / 145 and to synchronize the routing system 130 . for example , in one embodiment , a custom interface automates the changing of agent skills by looking for and processing files sent to the avaya call management system 130 . this is done on an adjustable , periodic interval . when a change is noticed , the interface automatically updates the skill set as appropriate and provides a log that indicates when it has received and processed a file for a skill change . fig5 is a conceptual diagram of an example agent profile as can be stored in the system . as shown in fig5 , several skill / capability scores can be tracked . each skill has an associated rating . for example , fig5 reflects an agent highly skilled in : ( a ) product a , ( b ) product b , ( c ) sales business function and ( d ) value segment d . some skills may have a boolean rating in which the skill is either present or not . for example , a foreign language skill such as “ speaks spanish ” may be boolean since the agent either can speak spanish or she cannot . other skill ratings may be a range . such ratings may be a number ( such as between 1 and 5 ), or a level ( such as beginner , intermediate , or advanced ), for example . other ratings can be implemented as well . in some embodiments , profiles are stored for groups of agents instead of for ( or in addition to ) individual agents . in some embodiments , skill - impacting data is received that is representative of a group of agents rather than for a single agent . the foregoing description addresses embodiments encompassing various principles of the present invention . the embodiments may be changed , modified and / or implemented using various types of arrangements . those skilled in the art will readily recognize various modifications and changes that may be made to the invention without strictly following the exemplary embodiments and applications illustrated and described herein , and without departing from the scope of the invention , which is set forth in the following claims .	6
an exemplary embodiment of a variable pitch propeller system made according to the invention is illustrated in the drawings and with reference to fig1 is seen to include a rotatable hub , generally designated 10 , constituting the rotatable side of the variable pitch propeller system , and a stationary side , generally designated 12 , of conventional construction . the hub 10 is rotatable about an axis 14 and is driven by any suitable power plant , most often a gas turbine engine ( not shown ). a shaft 16 is bolted as by bolts 18 to the hub 10 and is journaled for rotation about the axis 14 by bearings including a transfer bearing , generally designated 20 of conventional construction . the transfer bearing 20 , in addition to journaling function , serves as an interface between the hub 10 and the stationary part 12 of the propeller system by serving to transmit , as is conventional , three streams of hydraulic fluid . one such stream commands the propeller system towards a coarse pitch and is designated p c . another stream is operative to bias the propeller towards a fine pitch condition and is designated p f . the third stream is a governor disable signal and is designated p gds . the stream &# 39 ; s p f and p c will be at selected variable , elevated pressures controlled by an epc ( not shown ) or other conventional control while the stream p gds will typically be at one or the other of two different pressure values . the shaft 16 includes an interior cavity 22 in which a valving system , generally designated 24 , and shown in fig2 is contained . the valving system 24 communicates in a manner to be seen with a shaft / transfer tube 26 and a concentric transfer tube 27 having a central flow path or conduit 28 and a concentric flow path 30 , formed by the shaft / transfer tube 26 and the transfer tube 27 , which respectively receive the streams p f and p c . the shaft / transfer tube 26 extends into a double acting hydraulic cylinder , generally designated 32 having a double acting piston 34 therein . the piston 34 is connected to a piston rod 36 which extends out of the cylinder 32 and which is reciprocally mounted on the shaft / transfer tube 26 for movement along the axis 14 . the central conduit 28 in the shaft 26 opens through a radial port 37 to a first or fine pitch side 38 of the piston 34 . at the same time , the concentric conduit 30 opens via a port 40 to the opposite or coarse pitch side 42 of the piston 34 . within hub 10 , and disposed between the double acting cylinder 32 and the valve assembly 24 , the piston rod 36 mounts a conventional reciprocating to rotary motion converting mechanism , generally designated 42 . this mechanism may be of any conventional form and as illustrated , includes a pair of bell - shaped plates 44 , 46 that are abutted near their center and at their point of connection to the piston rod 36 . they are separated to provide a bearing receiving space 48 at their peripheries . a self - aligning spherical bearing 50 is located in the space 48 for each of a plurality of propeller blades 52 carried by the hub 10 . the blades 52 have shanks 54 which are journaled to the hub 10 and retained in the hub 10 by a retention bearing system , generally designated 56 , of conventional construction . the rotational axis of one blade is shown at 58 and it will be observed that the shank 54 , at its radially innermost end , includes an eccentrically located pin 60 on which the bearing 50 is mounted . as a consequence , when the piston 34 moves within the cylinder 32 , the reciprocating to rotary motion converting mechanism 42 reciprocates along the axis 14 and such motion , because of the eccentricity of the pin 60 , is converted to rotary motion of the blades 52 within the hub 10 . as viewed in fig1 when the piston 34 is moved to the left , the blades 52 will be pivoted towards a coarse pitch position . conversely , when the piston 34 is moved to the right as viewed in fig1 the propeller blades 52 will be moved toward a fine pitch position and , in a case where reverse thrusting propellers are involved , ultimately toward a reverse thrust position . finally , with reference to fig1 it is to be noted that a reciprocal push rod 62 optionally having a roller 64 thereon is positioned to be engaged by an end 66 of the piston rod 36 to move reciprocally in a path that is generally parallel to the rotational axis 14 . the purpose of this linkage will be described hereinafter . turning now to fig2 the backup governing system contained within the valve assembly 24 will be described in greater detail . the system includes a spool valve , generally designated 68 , having a spool 70 reciprocally mounted therein . adjacent one end 72 of the spool 70 , a chamber 74 is provided for housing a flyweight assembly , generally designated 76 . the flyweight assembly 76 includes a plurality of flyweights 78 that are generally l - shaped and which include arms 80 in operative relation with a radial flange 82 on the end 72 of the spool 70 . a bearing 84 is interposed between the ends of the arms 80 and the flange 82 and each of the flyweights 78 is mounted for pivoting movement about a pivot pin 86 . as a consequence of this , as the rotational speed of the hub 10 increases , an increasing amount of centrifugal force will be generated within the flyweight assembly 76 which in turn will be conveyed via the arms 80 and the bearings 84 to the flange 82 on the spool 70 . this speed dependent force will tend to drive the spool 70 to the right as viewed in fig2 . also within the chamber 74 is a spring retainer 88 which retains a compression coil spring 90 against the side of the flange 82 opposite the bearings 84 . this spring 90 applies a biasing force against the spool 70 that is to the left as viewed in fig2 . suitable means ( not shown ) are provided for varying the position of the retainer 88 to pre - set the degree of bias applied by the spring 90 . also within the chamber 74 is a bell crank 92 mounted for pivotal movement by a pivot pin 94 . the bell crank 92 , at one end , includes a roller 96 that may be abutted against one of the flyweights 78 to move the same . specifically , the bell crank 92 has sufficient mass to assure this movement of the flyweight 78 . the contact occurs on the radially inner side of the flyweight 78 and is such that the motion of the rod 62 in the decrease pitch direction will cause the flyweight 78 , either by the addition of mass or by physical displacement to move radially outward . the effect of such is to drive the spool 70 to the right as viewed in fig2 and the resulting action in response to a low pitch condition is similar to that caused by an increase in rotational speed . the other end of the bell crank 92 includes a roller 98 engaged with a cam surface , generally designated 100 , on an end of the push rod 62 . the cam surface 100 includes a valley 101 between two lobes 103 . it will be observed from fig2 that when the push rod 62 is in the position illustrated , the bell crank 94 will be rotated to a counterclockwise most position with the result that the roller 96 will be at its radially inward most position and out of contact with the flyweight 78 . it should be noted that bell crank 94 has enough mass so that it will over power all spring forces in the flyweight system , insuring that it will always be in contact with the cam surface 100 . on the other hand , when allowed to contact the flyweight 78 , it will physically position the flyweight 78 . thus , when the push rod 62 is moved to the right as viewed in fig2 the roller 98 will follow the cam surface 100 into the cam surface valley 101 , thereby allowing the bell crank 92 to pivot in a clockwise direction with the result that the roller 96 , in contact with the radially inner side of a flyweight 78 , will move the flyweight 78 in the counterclockwise direction . consequently , in the illustrated embodiment , the bell crank 92 serves to position the flyweight assembly 76 . specifically , when the bell crank 92 is introduced into the flyweight assembly 76 , as will occur when a low pitch condition is sensed as will be explained in greater detail hereinafter , the same urges the upper flyweight 78 in a counterclockwise direction about its pivot 86 which allows the lower flyweight 78 to rotate in the clockwise direction , thereby moving the flyweight assembly 76 against the flange 82 of the spool 70 . thus , movement of the spool 70 to the right will occur as a result . the actuator 34 , in turn , will reposition the spool to a position where the balance of forces on the actuator will cause equilibrium of the system . in short , when the actuator 34 is positioned in response to a low pitch condition , it will always position the spool 70 accordingly , thereby guaranteeing direct control of the low pitch stop position and the flyweights 78 have no effect at this time . still a further biasing force is applied to the spool 70 by a compression coil spring 102 abutted against the end 104 of the spool 70 , opposite the end 72 . the spring 102 is interposed between the spool end 104 and an end 106 of a piston valve 108 . the piston valve 108 has a seal 110 at the end 106 and an enlarged end 112 also bearing a seal 114 . the same is disposed in a stepped bore 116 communicating with the bore in which the spool 70 is received . the step is shown at 118 and acts as a valve seat when the piston valve 108 is shifted to the right from the position illustrated in fig2 . returning to the spool valve 68 , the valve body includes two spaced annuluses 120 and 122 while the spool 70 , for purposes of the present invention , includes three lands 124 , 125 and 126 separated by grooves 127 and 128 . a conduit 129 opens the groove 127 to the conduit 134 , which eventually communicates with the sump pressure . an internal conduit 130 is connected to the transfer bearing 20 ( fig1 ) to receive the p f stream of hydraulic fluid under pressure . the conduit 130 is connected to a first port 132 within the piston valve 108 and located to the side thereof closest the spring 102 . the conduit 130 has a second port 134 which opens to the spool 70 between the annuluses 120 and 122 in the body of the spool valve 68 , depending upon the position of spool 70 . a conduit 136 is connected to the annulus 120 and extends to a pitch delay valve , generally designated 138 . a further conduit 140 extends to the stepped bore 116 on the large side of the step 118 while a further conduit 142 extends from the same location to the central conduit 28 in the shaft / transfer tube 26 and the transfer tube 27 . it is to be noted that an orifice 144 interconnects the conduits 136 and 140 in bypass relation to the pitch delay valve 138 . a conduit 150 is connected to the annulus 122 and extends to an annulus 152 in a reverse enable valve , generally designated 154 . the reverse enable valve 154 includes a second annulus 156 that is connected to the sump . a biasing spring 158 biases a valve spool 160 within the reverse enable valve 154 toward the right as viewed in fig2 and includes a groove 162 sized to allow fluid communication between annulus 152 and groove 162 when the valve spool 160 is moved to the left . it should be noted that a conduit 163 communicates through the groove 162 , with either the annulus 152 or the annulus 156 , but not both for any position of the spool 160 . between the annuluses 152 and 156 , the conduit 163 is in fluid communication with the interior of the valve 154 and extends to the pitch delay valve 138 . the pitch delay valve includes an internal spool 164 which is biased to the left as viewed in fig2 by a spring 166 . an end 168 of the pitch delay valve spool 164 is subjected to the hydraulic stream p c by a conduit 170 , which also includes a branch 172 extending to and in fluid communication with the conduit 30 between the shaft / transfer tube 26 and the transfer tube 27 . the spool 164 includes a pair of grooves 174 and 176 separated by a land 178 . the groove 176 is sized to allow fluid communication between the conduits 136 , 140 when the valve 164 is in the position illustrated in fig2 while the groove 174 is sized to allow fluid communication between the conduit 163 and a conduit 180 that extends to the large side of the stepped bore 116 and is in fluid communication with the side of the piston valve 108 opposite the spring 102 . the land 178 is sized so that when the valve 164 moves to the left from the position illustrated in fig2 communication between the conduits 163 , 180 is cut off and communication between the conduits 180 and 140 is established , while communication between the conduits 136 , 140 is also cut off , with the exception of flow through orifice 144 . in normal operation , the components are generally in the position illustrated in fig2 . the spool 70 will be essentially ineffective with flow to the conduit 150 blocked by the land 126 , with the conduit 150 ported to sump pressure via the groove 127 and the conduit 129 . at the same time , the p f stream will be directed to the fine pitch side 38 ( fig1 ) of the piston 34 via the conduit 130 , the port 132 , past the valve seat 118 , to the conduit 142 and then to the central conduit 28 within the shaft / transfer tube 26 and the transfer tube 27 . similarly , the p c stream will be directed via the conduit 170 , the branch 172 and the concentric conduit 30 to the coarse pitch side 42 of the piston 34 . control of the pitch of the propeller will then be effected by the relative pressures p f and p c in a conventional fashion , i . e ., controlled by the electro - hydraulic servo valve , or a hydro - mechanical control valve , in the stationary part of the propeller . in the case of an overspeed condition coming into existence , the flyweight 78 ( fig2 ) will exert an increasing bias against the spool 70 tending to move the same against the spring 90 . as that occurs , the groove 128 on the spool 70 begins to meter the p f stream entering at the port 134 into the annulus 122 from which it enters the conduit 150 , passes through the reverse enable valve to the conduit 163 , passes through the pitch delay valve 138 to the conduit 180 to be applied to the piston valve 108 on the side thereof opposite the spring 102 . as a consequence , the piston valve 108 shifts to the right and will close against the seat 118 cutting off the flow of the p f from the port 132 to the conduit 142 . the shifting of the piston valve 108 increases the biasing force applied by the spring 102 to the spool 70 as well as the counteracting force applied to the spool 70 by the spring 90 . the spring constant of the springs 90 and 102 as well as the force supplied by the flyweight 78 is chosen so that the balance of forces positions the spool 70 so that as propeller speed reaches 101 . 5 % of maximum speed , the land 126 begins to open the annulus 122 to the port 134 . the resulting movement of the piston valve 108 changes the set point of the system to 103 % of maximum speed . it is to be particularly noted that as the spring 102 is further compressed , it tends to cause a greater opening to the annulus 122 at the land 126 , thus providing positive feedback , which establishes a new set point at 103 % of maximum speed . as mentioned above , the piston valve 108 will have shifted to the right as viewed in fig2 to close against the seat 118 . as a consequence , flow from the conduit 130 to the conduit 142 about the seat 118 is terminated , and the resetting of the set speed to 103 % allows speed to increase to 103 % before the governor can control the overspeed . at this speed and time , the shifting of the spool 70 to the right allows a groove 182 in the spool to come into fluid communication with the annulus 120 . the groove 182 is in fluid communication with a conduit 184 extending to the sump . thus , the conduit 136 is gradually connected to the sump via the groove 182 . the conduit 136 remains connected to the central conduit 28 in the shaft / transfer tube 26 leading to the fine pitch side 38 ( fig1 ) of the double acting piston 34 . hydraulic fluid on that side of the piston is then permitted to flow to the sump out of the center conduit 28 , through the conduit 142 to the conduit 140 and either through the orifice 144 or the groove 176 in the pitch delay valve 138 to the conduit 136 . thus , pressure is relieved in the double acting cylinder 32 allowing the rotational and aerodynamic force existing in the propeller assembly and the p c pressure signal to urge the piston 34 to the left as viewed in fig1 thereby increasing the propeller pitch in the coarse direction . as a consequence , propeller speed will begin to diminish as the pitch increases resulting in the flyweight 78 applying a lesser biasing force to the spool 70 which tends to allow the spool 70 to shift to the left until the new equilibrium point is established by the movement of the piston valve 108 is reached . at this time , the land 124 will be modulating flow to or from the fine pitch side 38 of the piston 34 to the sump or from groove 134 at the annulus 120 . essentially , the main control system has been locked out by shifting of the piston valve 108 until propeller speed decreases to 100 % of maximum speed , at which time the flyweight 78 allows the spool 70 to return to its normal - operating position . if one or the other of the main controls is operating properly , propeller pitch to prevent overspeed is maintained by it . if not , as speed increases , the backup system again cycles into backup operation as described above . in a low pitch condition , the same sort of action occurs . however , in this particular case , it is initiated by the push rod 62 being engaged by the end 66 of the piston rod 36 to cause the cam 100 to cause the bell crank 92 to physically position the flyweight assembly 76 . consequently , the spool 70 now becomes a motion control valve rather than a force control valve and pitch is increased . when it is desired to reverse pitch , a manual control is shifted to the conventional ground stop position . this in turn energizes a solenoid valve ( not shown ) which allows the stream p gds signal to be applied to the right - hand side of the reverse enable valve 154 . the resulting shift of the spool 160 causes the groove 162 to establish fluid communication between the line 161 and the sump while cutting off flow from the annulus 152 . as a consequence , the piston 108 , if not already in the position illustrated in fig2 will be shifted back to that position primarily by the balance of pressure forces on piston 108 and secondarily by the bias of the spring 102 . at the same time , the flow path to the conduit 180 is cut off within the reverse enable valve 154 to again prevent the piston valve 108 to be shifted to the right . consequently , the backup governing system is disabled , allowing the propeller to be operated below flight idle or even in the reverse thrust position . in some instances , during aircraft maneuvers that could result in so - called negative g &# 39 ; s coming into effect , oil pressure may be temporarily lost . in such a situation , it is not desirable that a rapid pitch change in the propeller occur during normal operation . in such a situation , the pressures of streams p f and p c may momentarily drop . when p c drops in pressure , it allows the spring 166 to move the spool 164 of the pitch delay valve to the left as viewed in fig2 . this not only cuts off communication between the conduits 163 , 180 , but it also connects conduit 180 and conduit 140 , and cuts off communication between the conduits 136 and 140 through the pitch delay valve 138 and allowing communication between those conduits only through the orifice 144 . it is to be noted that where the propeller is counterweighted , as is frequently the case , the blades will naturally tend toward coarse pitch under the influence of rotational and aerodynamic forces . this causes the cavity on the side 38 of the piston 34 to be pressurized as the piston 34 moves toward coarser pitch . with the conduits 140 and 180 connected by the spool 164 , continued flow from the fine pitch side 38 of the piston 34 is directed against the piston 108 , shifting it to the right as viewed in fig2 to seat against the valve seat 18 . only at this time does the flow from the fine pitch side 38 pass through the orifice 44 , which now acts as a flow limiter , limiting the flow back to the conventional electro hydraulic servo valve ( not shown ) in the main control to a limited flow rate so that a rapid pitch change will not be effected . there will be , however , an initial flow rate greater than such limited flow rate until the piston 108 closes against the valve seat 118 . from the foregoing , it will be appreciated that a backup governing system made according to the invention provides excellent control of the propeller during situations such as overspeed for low pitch and governs the propeller at 103 %+/− 3 % of maximum speed . the same eliminates mechanical components at the interface between the fixed and rotating propeller system parts and yet is completely compatible with conventional systems to the point where it may be readily retrofitted therewith .	1
reference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodiments of the invention , which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings . with reference to fig2 ( a ) and ( b ), an air blowing system 10 according to a first embodiment of the invention is shown in a ground vehicle v . while the ground vehicle v is illustrated as an automobile , it should be understood that the invention is not limited to just automobiles but may be used with other types of ground vehicles , such as trucks , trains , trailers , and recreational vehicles . further , the invention is not limited to a ground vehicle having the specific contours but may be incorporated into ground vehicles of various different shapes and sizes . the blowing system 10 has a source of compressed air 14 for supplying compressed air through piping or ducts 22 to a flow valve 16 . after passing through the flow valve 16 , the air is routed through piping 24 into a plenum 12 and then out a tangential slot 26 formed in an outer surface of the vehicle v . the plenum 12 distributes the air so that the air is discharged through the tangential slot 26 along the entire length of the plenum 12 which extends transversely of the vehicle . the slot 26 preferably extends across the entire rear portion of the vehicle v and partially along the sides thereof . downstream of the slot 26 is a curved surface 27 leading to the aft contour of the vehicle v . the flow of air through the valve 16 and hence into the plenum 12 is regulated by a controller 18 . fig2 ( b ) shows an enlarged detail . the air blown from the tangential slot 26 is preferably at a very low pressure and is discharged near the rear of the vehicle v over curved surface 27 , although , as will be apparent hereinafter , the air flow velocity can for certain applications be quite high . as shown by the arrows representing the flow of air , the air remains attached to the rear rounded surfaces 27 of the vehicle , entrains the flow - field , and reduces , if not eliminates , flow separation . as a result , a clean , smooth , small wake is left behind the car , thereby greatly reducing the separation - induced drag . because the drag is reduced , the cruise efficiency , fuel economy and performance can all be increased while the amount of interior noise can be decreased . due to the aerodynamic geometry of this aft surface 27 and slot 26 , the source 14 of compressed air need only provide a minimal amount of compressed air in order to generate significant aerodynamic forces . due to the small amounts of or small pressure requirements for the compressed air , the source 14 may comprise a component which already exists on the vehicle v and which requires no modifications or only slight modifications , such as an air conditioning compressor , a heater blower , a turbocharger , or a supercharger . on the other hand , the source 14 may be an entirely separate component which supplies compressed air only to the blowing system 10 . the blowing system 10 may be controlled in many different ways . for instance , the controller 18 may open the valve 16 only when the flow separation is detected by one or more turbulence sensors 28 located at the rear of the vehicle v . thus , the controller 18 could adjust the flow of air through the valve 16 until a sufficient amount of air is discharged through the slot 26 to eliminate flow separation . the controller 18 may also adjust the valve 16 based upon an external input from a sensor or group of sensors 29 . for instance , the controller 18 may open the valve 16 when the vehicle v reaches a certain speed and / or when the vehicle is accelerating less than a certain threshold amount . with this control scheme , the sensors 29 may comprise an engine rpm detector and an accelerometer . this approach in controlling the flow of air is preferred when the source 14 comprises a supercharger or turbocharger since these components would have excess flow at non - accelerating highway speeds . this control scheme is also desirable since the blowing system 10 generates a positive lift on the vehicle . thus , at cruising speeds , the blowing system 10 may be activated to reduce the amount of weight on the vehicle &# 39 ; s tires thereby reducing the amount of ground or rolling friction and increasing the cruising efficiency . as another example of a control scheme , the blowing system 10 may have a sensor 29 for sensing the application of brakes . the blowing system 10 would discontinue the blowing of air through the plenum 12 when the brakes are applied so as to increase the amount of weight on the vehicle &# 39 ; s tires , thereby improving the braking ability of the vehicle v . other ways in which the blowing system 10 may be controlled will readily be apparent to those skilled in the art and , accordingly , will not be described in any further detail . in the preferred embodiment , the controller 18 is a computer , the valve 16 is a solenoid valve , and the piping 22 and 24 are light - weight flexible tubing . the computer forming the controller 18 may comprise a separate computer dedicated to the blowing system 10 or may comprise an existing on - board computer that performs other functions in the operations of the vehicle v . depending upon the specific manner in which the blowing system 10 is controlled , however , the controller 18 may comprise a programmable logic array ( pla ) or other types of logic circuitry . the plenum 12 is preferably positioned near the gap between the rear trunk and the surface of the vehicle v whereby the blowing system 10 may be easily incorporated therein . the blowing system 10 may also be used to eliminate , or at least reduce , the vortex roll - up . with reference to fig3 if the slot 26 curves with the rear contour of the vehicle v so that air is blown outward as well as downward , the discharged air offsets the vortex roll - up . this occurs because the jet exits tangentially to the surface 27 which is curved downstream of the slot 26 . aerodynamically , the jet remains attached to the surface because of the well known &# 34 ; coanda effect .&# 34 ; in fig3 the left rear portion of the vehicle v is shown without the blowing system 10 and the effects thereof while the right rear portion of the vehicle v is shown with the blowing slot 26 of the invention . since the induced drag on the vehicle v is a function of the vehicle lift coefficient squared , any reduction in vortex roll - up will significantly reduce the amount of induced drag on the vehicle v . an additional control feature here is that the blowing slot 26 may be tailored in height in the span - wise direction towards the curved side of the vehicle v , so that for the same pressure in plenum 12 , varying slot mass flow rates are possible as needed to offset the vortex formation . as shown in fig4 when the vehicle v experiences a relative wind rw , the air flow over the vehicle v becomes separated s at the rear portion of the vehicle v . additionally , the vehicle v experiences nose - up pitch and lift as a result of a high velocity flow and negative pressures (- cp ) over the front upper surface of the vehicle v . nose - up pitch relative to the vehicle &# 39 ; s center of gravity c can unload the front steering wheels of the car , thereby reducing the amount of traction and the amount of steering control . if the vehicle v experiences too much lift , the vehicle v can lose traction in both the straight ahead and sideways directions . a blowing system 40 according to a second embodiment of the invention can control the amount of lift and nose - up pitch as well as reduce the flow separation . with reference to fig4 the blowing system 40 discharges air through the slot 26 formed at the rear portion of the vehicle v . in addition to eliminating the separated flow s , the air discharged through slot 26 generates a large negative pressure region b at the rear portion of the vehicle v . the negative pressure region b tends to produce a nose - down pitch in the vehicle v , thereby offsetting the nose - up pitch caused by the relative wind rw . the effect of this negative pressure region b is also to return traction and steering control to the vehicle v . this upper surface negative pressure also produces lift , which reduces weight on the rear wheels and thus reduces rolling friction . the blowing system 40 also has a slot 26 &# 39 ; located in a lower rear portion of the vehicle v . as with the slot 26 , air blown out of the lower slot 26 &# 39 ; can also reduce separated flow . the lower slot 26 &# 39 ;, however , can additionally generate a negative lift on the vehicle &# 39 ; s undersurface , thus increasing the download on the wheels and increasing traction . although the lower slot 26 &# 39 ; and the slot 26 may be controlled jointly , the lower slot 26 &# 39 ; preferably has a separate valve 16 &# 39 ; for independently adjusting the amount of air blown through the slot 26 &# 39 ;. while not shown , the valves 16 and 16 &# 39 ; are both controlled by the controller 18 and both receive a supply of compressed air from the source 14 . the controller 18 may selectively blow air out of the lower slot 26 &# 39 ; during sharp cornering or in braking in order to increase traction . the sensor 29 could therefore sense the angle of steering and / or the application of the brakes . the amount of desired pitch and lift can be easily controlled by variation of the blowing rate . in general , blowing - enhanced forces and moments usually vary linearly above a certain threshold with the blowing coefficient and can generate forces which occur virtually instantaneously . in fact , the air blown out of the slots 26 and 26 &# 39 ; can be at a velocity equal to or even greater than the speed of sound . the blowing coefficient parameter c 82 can be determined according to the following equation : where m is the blowing mass flow , v j is the blowing jet velocity , q is the free - stream dynamic pressure , and s is the reference frontal area . as apparent from equation 1 , significant blowing forces and moments can be generated when the blowing jet velocity v j is near the speed of sound . this means that aerodynamic response to the blowing is practically instantaneous , yielding very high response rates when employed as a control system . the pressure of air from the source 14 or the dimensions of the slot 26 may be varied in order to adjust the value of the blowing coefficient parameter c . sub . μ . fig5 depicts a number of aerodynamic forces and moments which are exerted on a vehicle v when the vehicle v travels in a direction d and is subjected to a relative wind rw at a yaw angle ψ . the relative wind rw at the yaw angle ψ may be caused by side gusts of wind or may be caused by other ground vehicles passing the vehicle v in the same or opposite directions . this relative wind rw will cause the vehicle v to have vortex roll - up vr on the same side of the vehicle v as the wind rw and at the rear of the vehicle v . the vehicle will also have flow separation s at the rear of the vehicle v on the opposite side of the vehicle v to the wind rw . due to the relative wind rw , the vehicle v is subjected to a side force f s pushing the vehicle v at an angle relative to the direction d of travel . the vehicle v will have drag from the flow separation s and the vortex roll - up vr and will experience both roll and yaw moments in the directions shown . these moments can produce lateral and directional instabilities which can make driving the vehicle v extremely hazardous at higher speeds with side winds . with reference to fig6 a blowing system 50 according to a third embodiment of the invention is able to counteract these moments and asymmetric forces . the blowing system 50 has a number of sensors 52 positioned about the surface of the vehicle v to detect the direction and pressure of the relative wind rw . the sensors 52 preferably comprise differential pressure probes which react to the difference in pressure between the pressure on the surface of the vehicle v and a reference space 57 , which is connected to the atmosphere through a throttle path 55 . each sensor 52 is connected to the reference space 57 by a pipe or hose 58 and provides its electrical output to a controller 59 . based upon the outputs from the sensors 52 , the controller 59 determines the direction and pressure of the relative wind rw . the preferred manner of determining the direction and pressure of the relative wind rw is disclosed in u . s . pat . no . 4 , 987 , 542 to tran , which is hereby incorporated by reference . the blowing system 50 comprises a left plenum 56l and a right plenum 56r which respectively receive a supply of compressed air from valves 54l and 54r . while not shown , the valves 54l and 54r both receive compressed air from the same source , such as source 14 , but are independently controlled by the controller 59 . thus , the valves 54l and 54r may be controlled so that air is blown out through neither of the plenums 56l or 56r , through only the left plenum 56l , through only the right plenum 56r , or through both plenums 56l and 56r at the same or unequal rates . with reference to fig7 when the vehicle v receives a relative wind at a yaw angle ψ at the front left portion of the vehicle v as shown in fig5 the vehicle v will have vortex roll - up on the left rear portion of the vehicle v . the blowing system 50 will detect the direction and pressure of the relative wind rw through the sensors 52 and controller 59 . based on this information , the controller 59 will cause air to be blown out of only the right slot 56r at a certain calculated rate . the air blown out of right slot 56r reattaches the flow and generates yawing and rolling moments due to asymmetric blowing and an aft side force f y to the right and right lift force f z which oppose the moments and force generated by the relative wind rw . thus , by blowing air out of slot 56r , the vehicle v is returned to its desired straight - ahead motion and has its yaw and roll stability restored . the same results will occur by blowing the slot on the left side when the side wind is from the right side . these counteracting forces and moments are produced by very low blowing rates . based upon estimates from two - dimensional wind - tunnel tests by this inventor , the blowing system 50 can obtain aerodynamic force augmentation of up to 80 times the input blowing momentum . a blowing system 60 according to a fourth embodiment of the invention is shown in fig8 . the blowing system 60 comprises a plurality of apertures 66 for blowing jets of air perpendicular or nearly perpendicular to the vehicle &# 39 ; s surface . the apertures 66 are divided into apertures 66l on the left side of the vehicle v which are controlled independently from apertures 66r on the right side of the vehicle v . after detecting the direction and pressure of the relative wind rw , the blowing system 60 can blow jets of air out of the apertures 66l near the vortex roll - up vr . these jets act as pneumatic spoilers . thus , with this blowing system 60 , the jets of air blown out of the apertures 66l counteract the vortex roll - up vr and prevent any unstable yaw or roll forces from occurring . while not shown , the blowing system 60 may have a left plenum for supplying compressed air to the left set of apertures 66l and a right plenum for supplying compressed air to the right set of apertures 66r . by separately adjusting the flow of air into each plenum , the jets of air discharged by the left apertures 66l may be controlled independently from the jets of air discharged through the right apertures 66r . alternatively , each aperture 66 in the outer surface of the vehicle v may be controlled independently . a blowing system 70 , according to a fifth embodiment of the invention shown in fig9 comprises upper and lower plenums 72 and 72 &# 39 ; with respective control valves 73 and 73 &# 39 ;. the control valves 73 and 73 &# 39 ; independently adjust the rates of air flowing through the plenums 72 and 72 &# 39 ; based upon signals from a controller 74 . in a manner similar to the embodiment of fig4 the valves 73 and 73 &# 39 ; may be controlled to reattach flow , reduce drag , generate a negative or positive lift , and generate nose - down pitch . the blowing system 70 is shown on a vehicle v having a rear bumper 78 . as shown by the arrows tangential to the surface of the vehicle v , the air does not become separated at the rear of the vehicle v but rather remains attached and generates a smooth wake . the air additionally produces over pressure regions op on the rear surface of the vehicle v which produces a force in the direction of travel . therefore , the effects of the rear bumper 78 may actually operate to reduce pressure drag on the vehicle v . the blowing system may have an actuator 76 for controlling the positioning of a rear bumper 78 . the air traveling along the rear surface of the vehicle v produces a jet thrust jt as it separates from the rear bumper 78 . this jet thrust jt may be selectively directed to adjust the lift or the amount of nose - down pitch . for instance , the controller 74 may command the actuator 76 to pivot the rear bumper 78 to be at a downward angle when the vehicle v is cruising at non - accelerating highway speeds . the jet thrust jt leaving the rear bumper 78 would then produce a nose - down force and would generate lift at the rear of the vehicle v . the rear bumper 78 can therefore be used as an additional tool in controlling the aerodynamic forces on the vehicle v . the actuator 76 may comprise any suitable device for altering the position of the rear bumper 78 . as an example , the actuator 76 may comprise a motor and gearing for angling the bumper 78 . the actuator 76 could alternatively be comprised of one or more pistons which are extended or retracted to position the bumper 78 . other variations will be apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading this description . in simplest form , the bumper could be fixed at a predetermined angle and require no actuator or adjustment . the foregoing description of the preferred embodiments of the invention has been presented for purposes of illustrating the features and principles thereof . 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 teachings . for example , the invention may have a greater or lesser number of plenums than that described . thus , in addition to having left and right plenums for either the upper or lower portions of the vehicle , each left or right plenum may be further divided into a number of regions . in this manner , the aerodynamic forces generated by the blowing system of the invention can be even more accurately controlled and directed . also , as will be apparent to those skilled in the art , the blowing slot heights may vary along the span to produce varying distributions of lift , drag , and moments . also , it should be understood that a single embodiment may incorporate features of the other embodiments . for instance , while not illustrated , the embodiments of fig4 and 6 to 9 may comprise the turbulence sensors 28 and the sensor or sensors 29 depicted in fig2 ( a ). as another example , all of the embodiments may have the sensors 52 and other components for detecting the direction and pressure of the relative wind . the invention , however , is not limited to the number or type of sensors 52 shown in fig6 but may detect the direction and pressure in other ways . a blowing system according to the invention may additionally comprise various types of safety features . for instance , a blowing system may have another valve or another device to ensure that the plenum is completely disconnected from the source of compressed air . the embodiments were chosen and described in order to explain the principles of the invention and their practical application ; various other possible embodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particular use are also contemplated and fall within the scope of the present invention .	1
with reference to fig1 , according to the method of the invention , the two reagents are poured in predetermined volumes in a preferably but not necessarily cylindrical test tube 1 during the manufacturing stage of the device for performing said method , said test tube 1 comprising a first inner container 2 able to be inserted in a second outer container 3 that forms the main body of the test tube 1 . the container 2 is configurated to form a cap for the container 3 . the two containers 2 and 3 are then assembled so that the wad a ( fig3 ) with the sample to be tested sequentially passes through the reagent r 2 , placed inside the container 2 , and the reagent r 3 , placed inside the container 3 , respectively , by breaking the mechanical barrier 4 that forms the bottom wall of said container 2 and separates said two reagents r 2 and r 3 . the containers 2 and 3 can be manufactured with any kind of material compatible with the reagents r 2 and r 3 contained therein , and can have a proper shape and a sufficient volume to contain the wad a , said reagents r 2 and r 3 being in turn either in liquid or in solid state . the test tube 1 is sealed at its top using any known sealing system , for example with a metallic sheet ( not shown ). another embodiment of the device for performing the method according to the present invention is shown in fig2 . after pouring the reagent r 3 in the test tube 1 , it is possible to form a partition wall 14 in said test tube 1 having the same function of the container 2 mechanical barrier 4 , for example by adding solid paraffin , heating it up to its melting and thus letting it cool down until it forms a proper physical partition element 14 similar to said mechanical barrier 4 , thus being able to define two separate containers , an upper one 12 and a lower one 13 , inside the same test tube 1 . at this point it is possible to add the second reagent r 2 into the so formed upper container 12 of the test tube 1 . in this case too the test tube 1 is subsequently sealed at its top using a known sealing system . the device consisting of the test tube 1 for performing the method according to the invention is then able to ensure that the two reagents r 2 and r 3 are put in contact only when the wad a bearing the sample is present . therefore , according to the method of the invention , the transportation of the first reagent to the second reagent is performed by the wad a itself . another most preferred embodiment of the invention is shown in fig4 and 5 . a test tube 101 comprises an inner container 102 shaped and configurated to be inserted in an outer container 103 and to form a cap for this latter . to this end , the outer container 103 comprises a body 104 and an open portion 105 . the body 104 is substantially cylindrical in shape and is closed at the bottom , preferably with a rounded profile . advantageously , the body 104 is tapered downwardly . the inner surface of the body 104 comprises an annular rib 107 that is situated in a position wherein it can interfere with the outer surface of the inner container 102 , while this latter is fitted in the outer container 103 , and thus can act as a gasket ring . the open portion 105 has a larger diameter than the body 104 and presents a stepped internal profile . the inner container 102 comprises a body 108 and an open portion 109 , both having a diameter substantially equal to or slightly less than the internal diameter of the corresponding parts of the outer container 103 , so that the inner container 102 can be inserted in the outer container 103 without substantial clearance between the two surfaces . to this end , the body 108 of the inner container 102 is substantially cylindrical in shape and slightly tapered downwardly , in order to follow the profile of the outer container 103 . the body 108 has a closed beveled bottom , so that a proximal connecting portion 110 a and a distal connecting portion 110 b , with respect to the open portion 109 , are defined . the closure wall 110 is substantially planar and has a thickness that decreases from the proximal connecting portion 110 a to the distal connecting portion 110 b to the body 108 . this feature is very important while the wad is inserted in the inner container 102 and , after having absorbed the reagent contained therein , is then forced against the closure wall 110 in order to puncture it . in fact , the beveled shape of the bottom of the inner container 102 together with the smaller thickness of the distal connecting portion 110 b allow to concentrate the force in that point and to make easier the puncturing of the wall . thus , thanks to this particular shape of the closure wall 110 , the inner container 102 is made of one piece , so that the barrier to be punctured by the wad can be made of a material , such as polyethylene , that is thicker and more resistant that a paraffin film . this provides for enhanced impermeability and tightness to leakage with respect to the paraffin barriers as normally used in the prior art devices , wherein the paraffin ( or similar weak materials ) is employed to improve the puncturing action . another advantage deriving from the use of a harder , thicker material for the closure wall 110 of the inner container 102 is that , when the wad has punctured it and is then removed , it sticks against the stiff edge of the closure wall 110 . in such a way , as shown in fig6 , the removing action of the wad also brings the inner container 102 out , thus leaving the outer container 103 ready for the subsequent analysis . the body 108 of the inner container 102 extends for a length that is less than the length of the outer container 103 , in order to create in this latter a bottom chamber 111 , wherein a reagent r 3 can be kept . the length of the inner container 102 is such as to allow the annular rib 107 of the outer container 103 to interfere with the surface of the substantially cylindrical portion of the body 108 above the bottom portion thereof . the open portion 109 of the inner container 102 has an external profile that can substantially fit with the internal profile of the corresponding portion of the outer container 103 . to this end , the outer surface of the open portion 109 of the inner container 102 is stepped . in a particularly preferred embodiment of the invention , the upper rims 113 , 114 of the outer and inner containers 103 , 102 , respectively , have tooth - shaped annular corrugations 113 a , 114 a . as shown in fig5 , these corrugations 113 a , 114 a serve the function of allowing a secure welding of a closure sheet 115 , such as a conventional peelable metallic sheet . in fact , in absence of such corrugations , it may happen that the upper rims 113 , 114 of the inner and outer containers 102 , 103 are not perfectly levelled , so that the closure sheet can be welded on one rim only . as a consequence , leakage can occur or the internal reagents can be contaminated by outside . conversely , the tooth - shaped corrugations 113 a , 114 a are sufficiently thin to melt during the thermal welding of the closure sheet 115 , so that they auto - level themselves to give a complete and efficient welding . very preferably , the outer container 103 is made of a flexible material , such as polyethylene . this allows the body 104 to be squeezed when the wad , after having put into contact , the two reagents r 2 and r 3 , is removed from the test tube 101 , thus assuring that the whole antigen solution is released from the wad . preferably , both the inner container 102 and the outer container 103 are made of the same material such as polyethylene . as in the previous embodiments , in this case too the two reagents r 2 and r 3 are poured in predetermined amounts in the inner and in the outer containers 102 , 103 , respectively , during the manufacturing stage of the device , which is then sealed on the top openings with conventional peelable films . during use of the device , the sealing film is removed and the wad — which was previously used to contact a body fluid or mucuous membrane of a patient — is dipped in the inner container 102 in order to contact the reagent r 2 contained therein . after the required time is elapsed , the wad is pushed to puncture the closure wall 110 of the inner container 102 and is then put into contact with the reagent r 3 . at this time the reaction takes place and the extraction of the antigen from the wad is performed . after the prescribed time is elapsed , the wad is removed by simultaneously squeezing the body 104 of the outer container 103 in order to squeeze also the wad to release all the antigen solution imbibed thereon . after squeezing the wad , the removal of the wad is completed and this action allows the inner container 102 to be removed together with the wad , as explained above . at this stage , the outer container 103 , containing the whole antigen solution to be tested , is ready for the subsequent analysis . the analysis is typically an immunochromatographic test performed by means of a strip that is dipped in the antigen solution directly in the outer container 103 of the test tube 101 . in this connection , the fact that the removal of the inner container 102 does not leave any residue of the barrier separating the two containers in the outer container 103 ( as this barrier is associated with the removed inner container 102 ), avoids the risk that the strip test is altered by the presence of solid material that could interfere with the capillarity movement of the liquid solution on the strip . according to a preferred aspect of the invention , the sample is taken with a pharyngeal wad a following well known procedure . the wad a is then inserted into the first container 2 or 12 of the test tube 1 , after the removal of the seal , and it is then driven in the second container 3 or 13 , by breaking the barrier 4 between the containers 2 and 3 or the partition wall 14 between the containers 12 and 13 . the extraction of the antigen by means of the so formed nitrous acid is thus started . when the expected extraction time is lapsed , the wad a is removed , preferably with the first container 2 if present , from the test tube 1 and the liquid can be poured directly from said test tube 1 into the immunochromatographic device for the antigen detection . for example , according to the method of the invention , the reagent r 2 contained in the first container 2 , 12 can be a 0 . 4 m acetic acid . the operator inserts the wad a into the first container 2 , 12 of the test tube 1 . the reagent r 2 is almost fully absorbed by the wad a . by pushing the wad a against the bottom 4 , 14 of the container 2 , 12 , said bottom 4 , 14 breaks , allowing said wad a to pass through and thus to reach the reagent r 3 , for instance a 2 m sodium nitrite , in the second container 3 , 13 . at this point , the nitrous acid formation reaction takes place . therefore , if the antigen is present , the antigen extraction takes place in the best conditions for the effectiveness of said extraction . once the expected time for the extraction of the bacterial antigens from the wad a is lapsed , the wad a is removed from the test tube 1 and the liquid can be poured in the immunochromatographic strip cartridge well . another example of the method according to the present invention allows to extract chlamydia antigens from cervical or urethral wads . the sample is taken with a cervical or urethral wad according to well known procedures . the wad is then inserted into the first container 2 , 12 of the test tube 1 , after the removal of the said test tube seal , and it is left in contact with the reagent r 2 for the required extraction time . once the extraction is finished , the wad is pushed into the second container 3 by breaking the barrier 4 , or into the second container 13 by breaking the partition wall 14 , and it is put in contact with the neutralization reagent r 3 . in this case , the reagents comprise an alkaline reagent ( r 2 ) and an acidic neutralization reagent ( r 3 ). according to a traditional method , the cervical o urethral wad is inserted into a test tube containing 5 drops of 0 . 2 n sodium hydroxide , and it is left in the solution for 2 minutes . after shaking the wad , a predetermined volume of 0 . 1 n hydrochloric acid is added to neutralize the extraction solution . after shaking the wad again , said wad is then removed and a certain volume of the extraction solution is added to the test cartridge . in order to take biological samples from particular sites , for example from the nasal cavities or the urethra , devices having a flexible and thin structure are available on the market , thus being difficult to break the partition wall between the two reagents with said devices . in this case , the sampling device can be inserted in advance into an assembly provided with the proper stiffness and resistance features for breaking the partition wall . for example , after the insertion of the sampling wad a into the test tube 1 , 101 , it is possible to surround said wad a with a tube b having a proper diameter . by pushing the tube b , that breaks the barrier 4 or the closure wall 110 , the wad a is transported into the container 3 , 13 , 103 ( see fig3 ). it should be understood that several modifications could be made to the device , formed by the test tube 1 , 101 , that performs the method of rapid antigen extraction according to the present invention , as it is also defined in the appended claims . for example , the sealing of the test tube 1 can be obtained by using a cap , or by thermal sealing with an aluminum sheet coupled with polyethylene . furthermore , although in the description the sample collection system is indicated as a “ wad ”, this denomination is merely used for convenience , since the most common systems for taking the a group streptococcus are the pharyngeal wads , while the most common systems for taking the chlamydia trachomatis are the cervical or urethral wads . therefore , it should be obvious for a man skilled in the art that it is possible to use any sampling system compatible with the immunological array format .	1
hereinafter , embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings . the disclosure may , however , be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as being limited to the embodiments set forth herein . rather , these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete , and will fully convey the scope of the disclosure to those skilled in the art . in the drawings , the shapes and dimensions of elements may be exaggerated for clarity , and the same reference numerals will be used throughout to designate the same or like elements . in addition , in the present specification , it is to be noted that a first lens refers to a lens that is the closest to an object , and a sixth lens refers to a lens that is the closest to an image sensor . further , it is to be noted that the term ‘ forward ’ refers to a direction from the lens module toward the object , while the term ‘ backward ’ refers to a direction from the lens module toward the image sensor . in addition , it is to be noted that a first surface of each lens refers to a surface disposed toward the object ( or an object - side surface ) and a second surface of each lens refers to a surface disposed toward the image sensor ( or an image - side surface ). further , in the present specification , units of all of a radius of curvature , a thickness , a ttl , an sl , an imgh of the lens , an overall focal length of the optical system , and a focal length of each lens are provided in millimeters ( mm ). further , in descriptions of lens shapes , the meaning that one surface of the lens being convex is that an optical axis portion of the corresponding surface is convex , and the meaning that one surface of the lens is concave is that an optical axis portion of the corresponding surface is concave . therefore , although it is described that one surface of the lens is convex , an edge portion of the lens may be concave . likewise , although it is described that one surface of the lens is concave , an edge portion of the lens may be convex . fig1 is a configuration view of a lens module according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure , fig2 and 3 are graphs showing aberration characteristics of the lens module shown in fig1 , fig4 and 5 are tables showing characteristics of the lens module shown in fig1 , fig6 is a configuration view of a lens module according to another exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure , fig7 and 8 are graphs showing aberration characteristics of the lens module shown in fig6 , and fig9 and 10 are tables showing characteristics of the lens module shown in fig6 . a lens module according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention may include an optical system including six lenses . specifically , the lens module may include a first lens , a second lens , a third lens , a fourth lens , a fifth lens , and a sixth lens . however , the lens module is not limited to including only six lenses , but may further include other components , if necessary . for example , the lens module may include a stop for adjusting an amount of light . in addition , the lens module may further include an infrared cut - off filter for filtering infrared light . in addition , the lens module may further include an image sensor ( i . e ., an imaging device ) for converting an image of a subject incident through the optical system into an electrical signal . in addition , the lens module may further include interval maintaining members for adjusting distances between lenses . the first lens to the sixth lens configuring the optical system may be formed of plastic . further , at least one of the first lens to the sixth lens may have an aspherical surface . in addition , the first lens to the sixth lens may have at least one aspherical surface . that is , at least one of a first surface and a second surface of the first lens to the sixth lens may be aspherical . further , the optical system including the first lens to the sixth lens may have an f no . of 2 . 4 or less . in this case , the subject may be clearly imaged . for example , the lens module according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure may be able to clearly capture an image of the subject , even under low illuminance conditions ( for example , 100 lux or less ). the optical system including the first lens to the sixth lens may satisfy conditional expressions 1 . in conditional expressions 1 , sd is a size of a stop opening and f is an overall focal length of the optical system . the optical system including the first lens to the sixth lens may satisfy conditional expressions 2 . in conditional expressions 2 , ttl is a length from the first surface of the first lens to an image surface and f is an overall focal length of the optical system . here , in the case of the lens module having a value outside of a lower limit value of conditional expressions 2 , it may be difficult to secure optical performance of the lens module , and in the case of the lens module having a value outside of an upper limit value of conditional expressions 2 , it may be difficult to implement the miniaturization thereof . the optical system including the first lens to the sixth lens may satisfy conditional expressions 3 . in conditional expressions 3 , v4 is an abbe value of the fourth lens and v5 is the abbe value of the fifth lens . here , the lens module satisfying conditional expressions 3 may be easily miniaturized . the optical system including the first lens to the sixth lens may satisfy conditional expressions 4 . in conditional expressions 4 , r2 is a radius of curvature of the second surface of the first lens and r1 is a radius of curvature of the first surface of the first lens . here , in the case of the first lens satisfying conditional expressions 4 , a shape thereof may be easily fabricated and sensitivity thereof depending on fabrication tolerance may be reduced . the optical system including the first lens to the sixth lens may satisfy conditional expressions 5 . in conditional expressions 5 , sa is a sweep angle of the second surface of the sixth lens . here , conditional expressions 5 may be a numerical condition for significantly decreasing total reflection of the sixth lens . for example , the lens module having a value outside of the upper limit value of conditional expressions 5 may easily generate an internal reflection . the optical system including the first lens to the sixth lens may satisfy conditional expressions 6 . in conditional expressions 6 , f1 is a focal length of the first lens , and f4 is a focal length of the fourth lens . the optical system including the first lens to the sixth lens may satisfy conditional expressions 7 . in conditional expressions 7 , f5 is a focal length of the fifth lens , and f6 is a focal length of the sixth lens . next , the first to sixth lenses configuring the optical system will be described . the first lens may have refractive power . for example , the first lens may have positive refractive power . the first surface of the first lens may be convex , and the second surface thereof may be concave . for example , the first lens may have a meniscus shape in which it is convex toward the object . at least one of the first and second surfaces of the first lens may be aspherical . for example , both surfaces of the first lens may be aspherical . the first lens may be formed of a material having high degrees of light transmissivity and processability . for example , the first lens may be formed of plastic . however , a material of the first lens is not limited to plastic . for example , the first lens may be formed of glass . the second lens may have refractive power . for example , the second lens may have positive refractive power . both surfaces of the second lens may be convex . at least one of the first and second surfaces of the second lens may be aspherical . for example , both surfaces of the second lens may be aspherical . the second lens may be formed of a material having high degrees of light transmissivity and processability . for example , the second lens may be formed of plastic . however , a material of the second lens is not limited to plastic . for example , the second lens may be formed of glass . the third lens may have refractive power . for example , the third lens may have negative refractive power . both surfaces of the third lens may be concave . alternatively , the first surface of the third lens may be convex , and the second surface thereof may be concave . for example , the third lens may have a meniscus shape in which it is convex toward the object or a plano - convex shape in which it is convex toward the object . at least one of the first and second surfaces of the third lens may be aspherical . for example , both surfaces of the third lens may be aspherical . the third lens may be formed of a material having high degrees of light transmissivity and processability . for example , the third lens may be formed of plastic . however , a material of the third lens is not limited to plastic . for example , the third lens may be formed of glass . further , the third lens may have a diameter smaller than those of the first and second lenses . for example , an effective diameter of the third lens ( that is , a diameter of a portion in which available light is substantially incident and refracted ) may be smaller than those of the first and second lenses . the fourth lens may have refractive power . for example , the fourth lens may have positive refractive power . the first surface of the fourth lens may be concave , and the second surface thereof may be convex . for example , the fourth lens may have a meniscus shape in which it is convex toward the image or a plano - convex shape in which it is convex toward the image . at least one of the first and second surfaces of the fourth lens may be aspherical . for example , both surfaces of the fourth lens may be aspherical . the fourth lens may be formed of a material having high degrees of light transmissivity and processability . for example , the fourth lens may be formed of plastic . however , a material of the fourth lens is not limited to plastic . for example , the fourth lens may be formed of glass . the fifth lens may have refractive power . for example , the fifth lens may have negative refractive power . the first surface of the fifth lens may be concave , and the second surface thereof may be convex . for example , the fifth lens may have a meniscus shape in which it is convex toward the image . at least one of the first and second surfaces of the fifth lens may be aspherical . for example , both surfaces of the fifth lens may be aspherical . the fifth lens may be formed of a material having high degrees of light transmissivity and processability . for example , the fifth lens may be formed of plastic . however , a material of the fifth lens is not limited to plastic . for example , the fifth lens may be formed of glass . the sixth lens may have refractive power . for example , the sixth lens may have negative refractive power . the first surface of the sixth lens may be convex , and the second surface thereof may be concave . in addition , the sixth lens may have an inflection point formed on at least one surface thereof . for example , the second surface of the sixth lens may be concave at the center of the optical axis thereof and may be convex toward an edge thereof . at least one of the first and second surfaces of the sixth lens may be aspherical . for example , both surfaces of the sixth lens may be aspherical . the sixth lens may be formed of a material having high degrees of light transmissivity and processability . for example , the sixth lens may be formed of plastic . however , a material of the sixth lens is not limited to plastic . for example , the sixth lens may be formed of glass . meanwhile , in the lens module according to exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure , the first to sixth lenses may be disposed such that effective diameters thereof are decreased from the first lens toward the third lens and are increased from the fourth lens toward the sixth lens . the optical system configured as described above may increase an amount of light incident to the image sensor to thereby increase resolution of the lens module . the lens module configured as described above may improve aberration , which may result in a deterioration of image quality . further , the lens module configured as described above may improve resolution . further , the lens module configured as described above may be allow for lightness and be advantageous in decreasing manufacturing costs . a lens module according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure will be described with reference to fig1 through 5 . a lens module 100 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure may include an optical system including a first lens 10 , a second lens 20 , a third lens 30 , a fourth lens 40 , a fifth lens 50 , and a sixth lens 60 , and may further include an infrared cut - off filter 70 , and an image sensor 80 . in an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure , the first lens 10 may have positive refractive power . in addition , a first surface of the first lens 10 may be convex , and a second surface thereof may be concave . the second lens 20 may have positive refractive power . in addition , both surfaces of the second lens 20 may be convex . the third lens 30 may have negative refractive power . in addition , a first surface of the third lens 30 may be convex , and a second surface thereof may be concave . the fourth lens 40 may have positive refractive power . in addition , a first surface of the fourth lens 40 may be concave , and a second surface thereof may be convex . the fifth lens 50 may have negative refractive power . in addition , a first surface of the fifth lens 50 may be concave , and a second surface thereof may be convex . the sixth lens 60 may have negative refractive power . in addition , a first surface of the sixth lens 60 may be convex , and a second surface thereof may be concave . further , the sixth lens 60 may have an inflection point . for example , the sixth lens 60 may have an inflection point formed on the second surface thereof . the lens module 100 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure may include at least one stop st . for example , the stop st may be disposed between the second lens 20 and the third lens 30 . the stop st disposed as described above may perform an adjustment of an amount of light and a vignetting function . the lens module configured as described above may have aberration characteristics as shown in fig2 and 3 and lens characteristics as shown in fig4 and 5 . for reference , fig4 is a table showing radii of curvature , thicknesses , distances , and the like of the respective lenses , and fig5 is a table showing aspherical surface values of the respective lenses . for example , a ( 1 ) of fig4 represents a radius of curvature of an object - side surface of the first lens and a ( 2 ) of fig4 represents a radius of curvature of an image - side surface of the first lens . here , values of a ( 1 ), a ( 2 ), ( ai ) may be calculated through fig5 . for example , a value corresponding to a ( 1 ) of fig4 is a reciprocal number of a value corresponding to a ( 1 ) in a column and curv in a row in fig5 . as an example , a radius of curvature a ( 5 ) of an object - side surface of the third lens 30 may be 9 . 138 [ mm ], the reciprocal number of 0 . 109435 corresponding to a ( 5 ) in the column and curv in the row in fig5 . as another example , a radius of curvature a ( 8 ) of an image - side surface of the fourth lens 40 may be − 6 . 155 [ mm ], the reciprocal number of − 0 . 162472 corresponding to a ( 8 ) in the column and curv in the row in fig5 . further , the thicknesses of the respective lenses and distances between the lenses may be confirmed through fig4 . for example , a thickness of the first lens 10 may be 0 . 49 [ mm ] corresponding to 1 in a column and a thickness / distance in a row in fig4 , and a distance between the first lens 10 and the second lens 20 may be 0 . 0955 [ mm ], as described below the value of the thickness of the first lens 10 . further , refractive indices and abbe numbers of the respective lens may be confirmed through gla values of fig4 . for example , the refractive index of the second lens 20 may be 1 . 544 , and the abbe number thereof may be 56 . 0 . as another example , the refractive index of the third lens 30 may be 1 . 639 , and the abbe number thereof may be 23 . 0 . next , a lens module according to another embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to fig6 through 10 . the lens module 100 according to another exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure may include the optical system including the first lens 10 , the second lens 20 , the third lens 30 , the fourth lens 40 , the fifth lens 50 , and the sixth lens 60 , and may further include the infrared cut - off filter 70 , and the image sensor 80 . in another exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure , the first lens 10 may have positive refractive power . in addition , the first surface of the first lens 10 may be convex , and the second surface thereof may be concave . the second lens 20 may have positive refractive power . in addition , both surfaces of the second lens 20 may be convex . the third lens 30 may have negative refractive power . in addition , the first surface of the third lens 30 may be convex , and the second surface thereof may be concave . the fourth lens 40 may have positive refractive power . in addition , the first surface of the fourth lens 40 may be concave , and the second surface thereof may be convex . the fifth lens 50 may have negative refractive power . in addition , the first surface of the fifth lens 50 may be concave , and the second surface thereof may be convex . the sixth lens 60 may have negative refractive power . in addition , the first surface of the sixth lens 60 may be convex , and the second surface thereof may be concave . further , the sixth lens 60 may have an inflection point . for example , the sixth lens 60 may have an inflection point formed on the second surface thereof . the lens module 100 according to another exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure may include at least one stop st . for example , the stop st may be disposed between the second lens 20 and the third lens 30 . the stop st disposed as described above may perform an adjustment of an amount of light and a vignetting function . the lens module configured as described above may have aberration characteristics as shown in fig7 and 8 and lens characteristics as shown in fig9 and 10 . for reference , fig9 is a table showing radii of curvature , thicknesses , distances , and the like of the respective lenses , and fig1 is a table showing aspherical surface values of the respective lenses . for example , a ( 3 ) of fig9 represents a radius of curvature of an object - side surface of the second lens and a ( 4 ) of fig9 represents a radius of curvature of an image - side surface of the second lens . here , values of a ( 1 ), a ( 2 ), ( ai ) may be calculated through fig1 . for example , a value corresponding to a ( 3 ) of fig9 is a reciprocal number of a value corresponding to a ( 3 ) in a column and curv in a row in fig1 . as an example , a radius of curvature a ( 3 ) of the object - side surface of the second lens 20 may be 2 . 302 [ mm ], the reciprocal number of 0 . 434377 corresponding to a ( 3 ) in the column and curv in the row in fig1 . as another example , a radius of curvature a ( 4 ) of an image - side surface of the second lens 20 may be − 147 . 102 [ mm ], the reciprocal number of − 0 . 006798 corresponding to a ( 4 ) in the column and curv in the row in fig1 . further , the thicknesses of the respective lenses and distances between the lenses may be confirmed through fig9 . for example , a thickness of the third lens 30 may be 0 . 28 [ mm ] corresponding to 3 in the column and a thickness / distance in the row in fig9 , and a distance between the third lens 30 and the fourth lens 40 may be 0 . 45 [ mm ] as described below the value of the thickness of the third lens 30 . further , refractive indices and abbe numbers of the respective lens may be confirmed through gla values of fig1 . for example , the refractive index of the fifth lens 50 may be 1 . 639 , and the abbe number thereof may be 23 . 0 . the respective exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure configured as described above are slightly different from each other in terms of some optical characteristics as shown in table 1 , but satisfy all of the conditional expressions 1 to 7 . while exemplary embodiments have been shown and described above , it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that modifications and variations could be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure as defined by the appended claims .	6
a preferred embodiment of the control apparatus for an engine will be described with reference to the drawings . the construction of the control apparatus of the present invention is the same as those shown in fig1 and 2 . accordingly , the same reference numerals designate the same or corresponding parts . the operation of the control apparatus will be described with reference to the flow chart shown in fig5 . at step 101 , an average air quantity a ( n ) between adjacent tdcs is obtained by dividing an accumulated air quantity s which is obtained in a constant time interruption routine ( not shown in the drawings ) by the number of accumulations i , and then , the memory in a ram which keeps the values s and i in the ecu is reset . at step 102 , a determination is made whether or not there is a high load state , i . e . the load is at a predetermined value or higher , by using a load parameter such as a throttle opening degree , a boost pressure or another . when it is found that there is a low load , a predetermined value is set at a clip control counter cmax at step 103 . on the other hand , when a high load is found , determination is made at step 104 whether or not the value of the clip control counter cmax is 0 . when the determination is negative , counting down is conducted in the clip control counter cmax at step 105 . on the other hand , when it is found that the value of the clip control counter cmax is 0 , the maximum value amax of intake air quantity is read at step 106 . the maximum value amax may be determined by using the revolution speed as a parameter and the maximum value is stored in a rom in the ecu 9 . at step 107 , determination is made as to whether or not the average air quantity a ( n ) between the tdcs exceeds the maximum value amax . when the determination is affirmative , the value a ( n ) is set as amax at step 108 , whereby the clipping operation is effected . fig4 is a time chart showing the waveforms of the major components of the engine in a case that the intake air quantity exceeds the maximum value at the time of rapid acceleration of the engine . fig4 a is the waveform of the crank angle signal . in fig4 d , the solid line e indicates a case that the throttle opening degree is suddenly made large . fig4 c shows that the negative pressure d in the surge tank 4 increases with an amount of air charged in the surge tank . at this moment , there takes place an overshoot in an air flow rate a detected by the afs 2 . the waveform of the overshoot corresponds to that of the actual amount of intake air . the judgement as to how much amount of load is applied to the engine depends on the throttle opening degree e , and when a value of the load exceeds the level g at which the judgement of high load is made , the counting - down of the count value f is effected each time of ignition at the clip control counter cmax . during the counting operation , the intake air quantity detected by the afs 2 is continuously used as the intake air quantity . when the count value f becomes 0 , determination is made as to whether or not the detected air flow rate a exceeds the maximum value c ( i . e . amax ). when the detected air flow rate exceeds the maximum value c , the detected air flow rate is clipped at the maximum value c . when a low load is applied to the engine , or the air flow rate a is lower than the maximum value c even when the value counted by the counter is 0 , the detected air flow rate a is used . accordingly , air flow rate indicated by the dotted line b in fig4 b is obtainable , and the fuel injection corresponding to the air flow rate can be attained : in the conventional control apparatus , on the other hand , the air flow rate is clipped immediately after the air flow rate exceeds maximum value c , whereby the fuel injection quantity does not correspond to the intake air quantity . in the above - mentioned embodiment , the judgement as to the high load is made depending on the throttle opening degree of the throttle valve . however , the judgement may be determined by using a negative pressure or a charging efficiency . further , the counting - down at the counter may be conducted each time of ignition . further , the counting - down may be effected at constant time intervals . in fig5 description is made as to use of the average value of the output of the afs 2 between the tdcs . on the other hand , in fig4 description is made as to use of the output of the afs 2 directly . thus , the effect of the present invention can be obtained by either of the cases . obviously , numerous modifications and variations of the present invention are possible in light of the above teachings . it is therefore to be understood that within the scope of the appended claims , the invention may be practiced otherwise than as specifically described herein .	5
fig1 a depicts a regular sized pickup 100 having one of my inventive racking systems 50 in place on the bed 20 . as there depicted , inboard slanting upright posts 14 have been inserted in the pockets of bed 20 . ( an outward slanting post 15 is shown in fig5 to be described later ). the post slant determines the width for my narrower or wider racking systems . this fig1 embodiment is a typical example of my novel to racking system selections . it is referred to as a deluxe unit . the rearmost “ over the bed part ” of the rack 50 may advantageously be fabricated from 2 inch schedule 40 aluminum pipe supported in position by circular pipe openings in a plurality of couplings 10 . each of my rack systems use a number of such couplings 10 that are configured for different functions in accordance with the rack type under consideration . as is obvious from a closer study , one will note in fig1 that my coupling 10 is repeated in many locations throughout the rack system 50 . such couplings are all of the same basic shape and only the functions that they accomplish varies depending upon their position and fabrication for my given rack models . such couplings 10 are extruded from aluminum stock material , and they make a decidedly and relatively inexpensive — yet highly versatile — building block throughout my various rack models . in fig1 b one can see a vertically oriented pair of couplings 10 , namely 10 a and 10 b , which pair is bolted or otherwise suitably fastened to spaced openings in the top of upright post 14 . these couplings support the upper and lower rails 20 and 25 respectively . just forward of that coupling pair and holding forward cross rail 30 in a rigid , but adjustable , position is another coupling assembly 10 c . this coupling 10 c is actually a pair of my couplings connected together base to end and forming a corner coupling assembly 150 . fig2 b includes an enlarged view of a partially exploded corner assembly 10 c . in fig2 b a base to end junction of my individual coupling units is achieved by knurled threaded assembly fasteners 40 . in this view one coupling 45 a is joined with another to coupling 45 b to form a corner assembly 150 . coupling 45 has formed there through a pair of slightly oversized bore holes 40 a ( relative to the shaft diameters of fastener bolts 40 ). these oversized fastener openings are parallel to the base is 180 and are located in the shaded quadrant area above the coupling base 180 and slightly below inwardly directed grooves 2 . ribs 3 are just above a slot 7 , which slot 7 yields or springs back slightly for controlled tension around rail pipe 25 . the function for my couplings 10 depends upon the rack selection and is readily achieved by simply tightening or loosening my transverse - to - the - base tensioning screw 4 . i use split couplings 155 in several embodiments and always at every telescoping junction . thus , in fig1 b both the upper and lower rails 20 and 25 carry my split coupling 155 at the sliding member telescope junction as rail 25 steps down from 2 inch rail pipe to the smaller sliding telescoped 1½ inch diameter of front telescope slide 60 . in my method of use , the craftsman tightens the anchor part of split coupling 155 on the larger pipe rails 20 ( both sides of the rack ) and loosens the smaller diameter slide member on both side rails of the system . the user then manually pulls the front telescoping slide 60 forward and tightens the slide tension adjustment screw 4 on the slide part of the split coupling . the reverse step follows a reverse procedure . fig3 , 4 , 5 and 6 will be described together in this section of the application since the operational principles have already been covered by the earlier descriptions . thus , fig3 is essentially the lower rack portion of fig2 c and need not be described in detail in view of the foregoing description . the same couplings , rails and cross bars described in connection with fig2 c are employed in fig3 , 4 and 5 with like numbered elements achieving same functions as earlier described . fig6 is the same as fig2 c and thus has already been sufficiently described . the double rail rack of fig4 includes an additional upper rail pair 20 further racking capability . fig5 is referred to as a farm or ranch rack and is particularly useful for bulky relatively lightweight loads such as hay , insulation , foam planks , plastic conduits . i have used my outwardly slanted upright posts in order to increase the hauling capacity for such materials . again please note that the outwardly slanting uprights allow a plank to be placed close to a wall or similar immovable structure for added user convenience and safety purposes . with the prior art straight uprights the truck mirrors and other side protrusions prevent the workers from getting very close to buildings with the prior art rack systems . again cross rail 30 , upon selective user adjustment slides back and forth . every similarly located coupling unit need not be numbered in every figure since it is believed that persons of ordinary skill in this art will readily understand their functions in view of the earlier descriptions herein . fig7 and 8 are taken together and are mostly self explanatory in view of the earlier descriptions of operation for the earlier figures . in fig7 and 8 it should be noted that the rack invention includes an optional upper railing that parallels the first lower railing . both of these parallel railing pairs have been equipped with telescoping members . lower rail 25 has a forward telescope slide 60 whereas upper rail pair 20 has a rear telescoped slide 70 with a dropped rear cross pipe to increase the rack length for carrying long loads across a common horizontal load plane . lower rail 25 includes a front telescope slide 60 and in this rack model upper and lower pairs of split couplings 155 are employed . additional front support is provided by upper rail 20 bending down to connect with telescope slide 60 via a corner assembly 45 as earlier described in connection with fig1 b . very heavy loads may be placed on the telescoped end of the rack system of fig7 without fear of bending or breaking the rack system . an extreme overhang of the forward telescoped slide 60 of the rack proper extends load support out almost to the hood end of a truck so equipped . this forward overhang is a decided point of departure from the prior art and provides added versatility to the invention . fig8 is the same rack as that of fig7 with the telescoped slides parked or withdrawn . it is likewise very strong and rigid . fig8 is not believed to require any further description . fig9 includes fig9 a and 9b which are telescoped and parked or withdrawn embodiments , achieving functions similar to that of fig7 and 8 wherein the double rails take the form of a trombone shaped railing system . the trombone double rail also presents a stylish look for that certain market segment . this is considered to be the strongest of the rack systems , but may be less costly to manufacture . fig1 is another additional embodiment wherein two pairs of attachment plates 180 are provided for the top of both sides of a truck box that may not have any stake pockets . the uprights 15 of fig1 are formed from curved pipes of the type described herein . otherwise the earlier descriptions are believed self sufficient as explanation of this racking system . fig1 depicts a symbolic line drawing of a truck and “ planks ” or “ platforms ” 190 that are known to the art and are available for use to great advantage with my telescoping rack system invention . these platforms 190 are carried by my couplings that have a lower section of the circular collar segment removed to fabricate semi - circular hooks 195 . ( please see fig1 b .) these hooks 195 drop snuggly in place over cross piece 30 of any of my rack systems . sliding and fastening the positions for my various cross pipes 30 and 40 , as described herein , readily allows such planks 190 widespread usage throughout my various model rack systems . this fig1 also depicts that selected sections of my platforms 190 may be dropped at one end into the truck bed 20 for additional load moving freedom . platforms 195 are very handy for contractors since the height of the truck and my rack system elevates workers far above the ground on a secure and moveable base . a fine example is fig1 wherein the rack invention has been extended upwardly for a higher platform for painters . fig1 is believed self explanatory also note the fact that such platforms 195 may be hooked in the manner herein describe over the elevated cross rails 210 . obviously the platforms 195 will span rails 210 and form a high scaffold for painters , roofing contractors and the like . when platforms 195 are removed from my rack system and placed from the rear of the pickup bed 20 to the ground , loading of supplies , various vehicles , tools and equipment is greatly facilitated . fig1 show such an application . examples of use for sportsmen are the ease and capability to load atvs , motorcycles , wheelbarrows etc . from the ground into the pickup bed . when one intends to load an atv , for example , into the pickup bed along a platform 195 from the bed to the ground , the invention provides another feature wherein the tailgate 198 is equipped by a rail accessory 200 that fits to the top of the tailgate . my semicircular hooks 195 again drop over the pipe 200 attached to the tailgate 198 and provide a long incline ramp from the ground into the bed 20 of pickup 100 . a still further advantage of my racking system is shown in fig1 wherein the rearmost cross rail 40 is fitted with a snap hook 195 at one end as depicted in the enlarged view of fig1 b . a loose swivel or hinge connection is provided by coupling 10 around the rear end of a rail 20 . these connections allows the rear cross piece to drop down over the tail end of one the said rails in one position and be removed from that rail in another pivoting position . such rotation as shown in fig1 allows the cross rail 40 to swing upward and swivel out of the way as needed to clear the way for headroom into the bed 20 during the example of an atv loading process . while my invention has been described with reference to particular examples of some preferred embodiments , it is my intention to cover all modifications and equivalents within the scope of the following claims . it is therefore requested that the following claims , which define my invention , be given a liberal interpretation commensurate with my contribution to the relevant technology .	8
in the following detailed description , reference is made to the accompanying drawings which form a part hereof wherein like numerals designate like parts throughout , and in which is shown by way of illustration embodiments in which the disclosure may be practiced . it is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized and structural or logical changes may be made without departing from the scope of the present disclosure . therefore , the following detailed description is not to be taken in a limiting sense , and the scope of embodiments in accordance with the present disclosure is defined by the appended claims and their equivalents . various operations may be described as multiple discrete operations in turn , in a manner that may be helpful in understanding embodiments of the present disclosure ; however , the order of description should not be construed to imply that these operations are order dependent . for the purposes of the present disclosure , the phrase “ a and / or b ” means ( a ), ( b ), or ( a and b ). for the purposes of the present disclosure , the phrase “ a , b , and / or c ” means ( a ), ( b ), ( c ), ( a and b ), ( a and c ), ( b and c ), or ( a , b and c ). various logic blocks may be introduced and described in terms of an operation provided by the blocks . these logic blocks may include hardware , software , and / or firmware elements in order to provide the described operations . while some of these logic blocks may be shown with a level of specificity , e . g ., providing discrete elements in a set arrangement , other embodiments may employ various modifications of elements / arrangements in order to provide the associated operations within the constraints / objectives of a particular embodiment . the description may use the phrases “ in an embodiment ,” or “ in embodiments ,” which may each refer to one or more of the same or different embodiments . furthermore , the terms “ comprising ,” “ including ,” “ having ,” and the like , as used with respect to embodiments of the present disclosure , are synonymous . embodiments of the present disclosure describe a dynamic element matching ( dem ) technique , which may also be referred to as a dithering technique , to suppress fractional spurs due to tdc mismatch in , e . g ., a dpll . in some embodiments , a randomized phase shift may be added before the tdc and then removed in the digital domain after the tdc . this dithering technique allows for the fractional spurs suppression without degrading the output spectrum since the introduction of the randomized phase shift breaks the periodicity of the vco phase , thus the periodicity of the phase error due to the tdc mismatch , and the same phase shift is then removed in the digital phase domain after the tdc . fig1 illustrates a dpll 100 in accordance with some embodiments . the dpll 100 may include a phase detector 102 that receives a digital word 104 , from a feedback path 106 , representing a phase of an output signal 108 output by vco 110 . the phase detector 102 may also receive a clock signal 112 and a reference digital word ( ref ) 114 . the phase detector 102 may generate and output a digital phase error ( dpe ) 116 based on the differences between the digital word 104 and the reference digital word 114 . in the figures , the block arrows indicate a digital signal , while line arrows indicate an analog signal . the digital phase error 116 may be filtered at filter 118 to generate a digital control signal ( dcs ) 120 . the digital control signal 120 may be converted to an analog control signal ( acs ) 122 by a dac 124 . the analog control signal 122 may be provided to the vco 110 to adjust the phase of the output signal 108 . the output signal 108 may be provided to a phase shifter ( ps ) 126 of the feedback path 106 . the phase shifter 126 may dither the output signal 108 by , e . g ., providing a randomized phase shift to the output signal 108 , to provide a dithered , or delayed output signal ( dos ) 128 . the amount of the randomized phase shift provided by the phase shifter 126 may be controlled by a digital phase shift control signal ( pscs ) 130 that is provided to the phase shifter 126 by shift controller 132 . the shift controller 132 may include a pseudo - random number generator ( prng ) 134 and a summer 136 . the phase shifter 126 may be coupled with , and provide the delayed output signal 128 to , a tdc 138 . the tdc 138 may include a dll and may generate a digital word 140 that represents a phase of the delayed output signal 128 . the feedback path 106 may further include an adder 142 coupled with the tdc 138 and the shift controller 132 . the adder 142 may generate the digital word 104 based on the digital word 140 and the phase - shift control signal 130 and provide the digital word 104 to the phase detector 102 . by receiving the phase shift control signal 130 from the shift controller 132 , the adder 142 may have accurate knowledge of the amount of randomized phase shift provided by the phase shifter 126 to the delayed output signal 128 . thus , the adder 142 may be able to accurately remove the amount of randomized phase shift such the digital word 104 represents the phase of the output signal 108 , rather than the phase of the delayed output signal 128 , which is represented by the digital word 140 . how the above - described dithering technique breaks the periodicity of the vco phase may be illustrated by reference to the waveforms depicted in fig2 . fig2 shows waveforms of a reference clock , a vco signal ( e . g ., a digital representation of the output signal 108 ), and a vco + φ signal ( e . g ., a digital representation of the delayed output signal 128 ) in accordance with various embodiments . t_vco represents a period of the vco signal . with the frequency of the vco signal divided by the frequency of the reference clock being equal to 2 . 25 , the phase of the vco signal may repeat after four samples . the addition of randomized φ values as shown , causes the vco + φ signal to lose its periodicity and , therefore , not repeat every four - sample period . the specific φ values that are shown do not restrict φ values in other embodiments . fig3 illustrates the phase shifter 126 in accordance with various embodiments . the phase shifter 126 may include a delay line 304 with a plurality of delay elements , e . g ., delay elements 308 , 312 , 316 , and 320 , coupled with one another in series , through which the output signal 108 will be propagated . while fig3 shows four delay elements , it is understood that any number of delay elements may be used . the delay line 304 may be coupled with a phase detector ( pd )/ charge pump ( cp ) 324 that provides a control signal to each of the delay elements of the delay line 304 so that each of the delay elements provides an equal phase delay ( or simply “ delay ”) of , e . g ., 90 degrees . in general , the phase delay provided by each delay element of a dll may be determined by dividing the total signal period , e . g ., 360 degrees , by the number of delay elements . taps following each delay element may be coupled with a multiplexer ( mux ) 328 as inputs that respectively represent the output signal delayed by a different number of delays . for example , the first tap may provide the mux 328 with the output signal 108 delayed by one delay , the second tap may provide the mux 328 with the output signal 108 delayed two delays , etc . the mux 328 may select one of the inputs for output as the delayed output signal 128 based on the phase - shift control signal 130 received from the shift controller 132 . in this manner , a phase shift introduced to the output signal 108 may be randomized among a discrete set of known values , yet knowledge of the discrete set of values ( and the selected input ) may allow the adder 142 to accurately remove the introduced phase shift prior to providing the digital word 104 to the phase detector 102 . removal of the introduced phase shift in the digital domain may facilitate accurate removal . in this manner , the dithering technique may break the periodicity without constituting an additional noise source for the dpll 100 . in some embodiments , it may be desirable for the whole dynamic range ( as phase ) of the tdc 138 to be exercised by the additional phase shift added by the mux 328 in order to get an effective dynamic element matching over the tdc 138 . however , as shown in fig4 a - b , it may also be desirable for a randomized phase shift to be limited in magnitude . fig4 a - b provide waveforms 404 and 408 respectively illustrating introductions of phase shifts of 120 degrees and 60 degrees in accordance with various embodiments . to avoid glitches , it may be desirable to switch from one phase to another when both signals have the same logic value . as can be seen from fig4 a - b , switching from 0 degrees to 120 degrees provides a significantly smaller window in which the phase switch may be performed ( phase - switching window ), as compared to switching from 0 degrees to 60 degrees . in order to exercise the whole dynamic range of the tdc 138 , while limiting the magnitude of the phase shift , the shift controller 132 may use the running sum of a prng sequence to drive the mux 328 and thus provide a random walk through the entire range of possible phase shifts . consider , for example , an embodiment in which the mux 328 had ten inputs , thus , enabling ten different phase shifts to be applied . in one embodiment , it may be desirable to limit the phase shift to 3 delay phases . that is , the first phase shift may include 0 , 1 , 2 , or 3 delay phases ; the second phase shift may have 0 , 1 , 2 , or 3 delay phases added to the first phase shift ; and so on . the prng 134 and the summer 136 may cooperatively implement the above - described random walk as follows . the prng may generate a pseudo - random number ( prn ) from a number of possible values that corresponds to the number of delay phases to which the phase shift may be limited . in some embodiments , the number of possible values may be one greater than the number of delay phases to which the phase shift may be limited to accommodate the possibility that no delay phase is added . the number of possible values will be less than the total number of inputs to the mux 328 . in the above example , the prng 134 may be used to generate a sequence with a uniform randomized distribution from 0 - 3 . the summer 136 may be a modulo - m adder that implements a modulo - m operation , where m is in the number of phases coming to the mux 328 . the summer 136 may receive the prn and add the prn to the previous selection . even if the prng 134 were to produce a sequence having low variance , the running sum will span all the possible m - levels and its variance will increase with time . moreover , the consecutive phase shifts may be kept small , e . g ., less than 90 degrees , due to the relatively small number of possible values of the prng output . fig5 illustrates a flowchart 500 describing operation of the feedback path 106 of the dpll 100 in accordance with some embodiments . at block 504 , the operation may include receiving , e . g ., by the phase shifter 126 , the vco output signal 108 . at block 508 , the operation may include receiving , e . g ., by the phase shifter 126 , the phase - shift control signal 130 from the shift controller 132 . the operation may then include , at block 512 , selecting and adding , e . g ., by the phase shifter 126 , a phase shift from a discrete set of possible phase shifts based on the received phase - shift control signal . the phase - shifter 126 may provide the discrete set of possible phase shifts by inputting the vco output signal 108 through a dll as described above . a mux 328 of the phase shifter 126 may output the delayed output signal 128 . at block 516 , the operation may include generating , e . g ., by the tdc 138 , a digital word 140 representing a phase of the delayed output signal 128 . the tdc 138 may include a dll to facilitate generation of the digital word 140 . at block 520 , the operation may include generating , e . g ., by the adder 142 , a digital word representing a phase of the vco output signal based on the phase - shift control signal 130 and the digital word 140 . as described above , the phase shift added by the phase shifter 126 may be removed by the adder 142 . fig6 and 7 respectively illustrate charts 600 and 700 depicting phase noise as a function of frequency . chart 600 is associated with a prior art dpll , while chart 700 is associated with a dpll in accordance with embodiments of the present invention . values common to both charts include : dpll reference frequency of 80 megahertz ( mhz ) and a fractional number , n , of 60 + 1 / 1024 , thus , the output frequency is 4800 . 078125 mhz , while spurs may appear at 78 . 125 kilohertz ( khz ) and its multiples ; dpll loop bandwidth of approximately 1 mhz ; delay of each delay cell of the dll of the tdc generated using a gaussian distribution with a variance of 1 picosecond ; and frequency bins of 76 hz . with respect to chart 700 , the number of inputs to a mux of a phase shifter is 32 and a prng sequence generates a uniform distribution from 0 - 7 , which may result in maximum phase shift of approximately 7 / 32 * 360 = 79 degrees . chart 600 shows that the output spectrum exhibits spurs as high as − 39 decibels relative to the carrier ( dbc ). in chart 700 , on the other hand , the fractional spurs lower to − 58 dbc . moreover , the total phase noise integrated inside the transmission channel ( 100 hz to 10 mhz ) is − 31 . 7 dbc in a prior art dpll and − 38 . 8 dbc with a dpll , e . g ., dpll 100 , using the dithering techniques disclosed herein . thus , the dpll 100 may reduce fractional spurs by 18 db and the integrated phase noise by 7 db compared to a prior art dpll . the disclosed dynamic element matching technique works in the background to suppress fractional spurs . the disclosed embodiments do not require a modification to a tdc used in a feedback path of a dpll and they do not have inherent bandwidth limitations since they do not attempt to compensate for mismatch of each tdc delay element . still further , the disclosed embodiments provide insensitivity to process , voltage and temperature ( pvt ) variations since the dll of the phase shifter automatically tracks any pvt variations associated with the dll of the tdc . embodiments of the present disclosure do not require calibrations when the dpll frequency is adjusted ; rather , the dll of the phase shifter will automatically settle over a relatively short amount of time , e . g ., within a few microseconds . while disclosed embodiments discuss the dem techniques with respect to specific circuits , e . g ., dpll 100 with dll - based tdc 138 , other embodiments may use the disclosed dem techniques with other circuits . for example , the disclosed dem techniques may be used with non - dll based tdcs ; may be used with digitally controlled oscillator , rather than a vco ; etc . although certain embodiments have been illustrated and described herein for purposes of description of the preferred embodiment , it will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art that a wide variety of alternate and / or equivalent embodiments or implementations calculated to achieve the same purposes may be substituted for the embodiments shown and described without departing from the scope of the present disclosure . similarly , memory devices of the present disclosure may be employed in host devices having other architectures . this application is intended to cover any adaptations or variations of the embodiments discussed herein . therefore , it is manifestly intended that embodiments in accordance with the present disclosure be limited only by the claims and the equivalents thereof .	7
fig1 illustrates a logical arrangement of a physical disk 106 , a virtual disk 102 and a virtual machine 100 . a virtual machine runs in a virtualized environment which is generally created by installing a hypervisor on a physical host . a virtual machine uses virtual devices and hardware such as a virtual processor , virtual network interface card , virtual disk , etc . these virtualization details are well known in the art , hence a detailed discussion is being omitted . virtual machine 100 uses virtual disk 102 , which is viewed as a normal storage disk by guest software ( such as an operating system 112 and applications 110 ) running in virtual machine 100 . virtual disk 102 includes virtual blocks 104 , which are used by applications or operating system running in virtual machine 100 to store file data . these virtual blocks 104 represent storage space in virtual disk 102 . in one embodiment , a virtual disk provides normal file system capabilities to applications running in virtual machine 100 . however , the virtual disk itself may be stored as a single file in physical disk 106 . in other embodiment , virtual disk 102 may be stored on physical disk 106 in multiple files form . when guest software stores data in virtual blocks 104 of virtual disk 102 ( which appears to be a normal storage device to guest software ), through file system 114 , the previously unused virtual blocks are marked as “ used .” to store this data in physical blocks 108 in physical disk 106 , more physical blocks are allocated for data by host file system 116 . when guest software deletes some data , file system 114 marks corresponding virtual blocks as unused . however , host file system 116 remains unaware of this reclamation of virtual blocks by guest software . hence , host file system continues treating the underlying corresponding physical blocks as “ used .” hence , the size of virtual disk 102 as stored in physical disk 106 does not shrink . fig2 illustrates a logical diagram of virtual machine 100 configured to use more than one virtual disks 102 , 102 t . virtual disk 102 t has its own file system 114 ′. applications and operating system ( i . e ., guest software ) running in virtual machine 100 create temporary files for the duration of a session and then either delete these temporary files or don &# 39 ; t use these files during the next session . however , since host file system 116 remains unaware of these file deletions ( because file system 114 marks virtual blocks unused but the status of corresponding physical blocks remain the same ), the size of virtual disk 102 in physical disk 106 does not shrink . over the period of time in which virtual disk 102 remains in use , the size occupied by virtual disk 102 on physical disk 106 continues to grow . temporary files are files that are created and used by guest software during one power - on session only . in one embodiment , virtual machine 100 is configured to use more than one virtual disks . a temporary virtual disk 102 t is created every time virtual machine 100 is started . temporary virtual disk 102 t is configured to be used for storing temporary files . when virtual machine 100 shuts down or powered off , temporary virtual disk 102 t is deleted . a virtual disk is composed of one or more files . taking at least one snapshot results in one base disk and one or more delta disk files . in another embodiment , a snapshot of temporary virtual machine 102 t is taken upon power - on of virtual machine 100 , thereby creating a delta disk ( or redo log file ). a snapshot of a virtual disk is typically taken to preserve the state of the virtual disk so the virtual disk can be reverted back the same state at a later time . in one embodiment , this delta disk is deleted during power off . in other words , the snapshot is reverted back to its original state during powering off . in another embodiment , the delta disk is preserved upon a power off operation and continues to persist until a user explicitly reverts the virtual disk back to its original state . during the powered on period of virtual machine 100 any “ write ” to temporary virtual disk 102 t is routed to the delta disk . hence , temporary files are written to this delta delta disk . the term “ non - persistent ” means that the information saved in the disk is lost when virtual machine 100 is powered off . fig3 illustrates a process 200 of adding a temporary virtual disk to a virtual machine . at step 202 , a new virtual disk is created . various virtualization infrastructure providers ( for example , vmware , microsoft , etc .) provide tools , apis and methods for creating new virtual disk files . for example , vmware workstation ™ product provides a wizard ( add -& gt ; new hard disk -& gt ; create a new virtual disk ) to add a new virtual disk to a virtual machine . at step 204 , virtual machine configurations are modified to enable the virtual machine to see this newly added virtual disk . at step 206 , the newly created virtual disk is formatted . disk formatting means creating an empty file system on the disk . with a host file system compatible with guest software , at step 208 , the newly created virtual disk is set to be non - persistent . alternatively , if the underlying platform or virtualization system does not provide functionality to create non - persistent virtual drives , this step may be omitted and process 200 may be repeated every time virtual machine starts . however , if a virtualization platform provides this functionality of creating non - persistent virtual drives , then process 200 only needs to be performed once for a particular virtual machine . at step 210 , applications and guest operating system running in virtual machine 100 are configured to store temporary files in the file system on the newly added temporary virtual disk . in one embodiment , environment variables such as temp and tmp ( in the case of microsoft windows ™) may be changed to store temporary files in the file system on the temporary virtual disk ( for example , by changing the value of the % temp % environment variable c :\ temp to d :\ temp , wherein drive letter c refers to the file system on the main virtual disk and d to the file system on the temporary virtual disk ). in other embodiments , symbolic / hard linking , or folder redirection mechanism may be employed to route temporary file creation to the temporary virtual disk . fig4 a illustrates creating and adding a temporary virtual disk to virtual machine 100 , in a preferred embodiment . when a temporary and non - persistent virtual disk 102 t is added to virtual machine 100 , virtual machine 100 creates a snapshot of non - persistent temporary virtual disk 102 t at startup . as a result of taking the snapshot operation , a delta disk file 102 f 1 of base disk 102 f is created and all subsequent writes to non - persistent temporary virtual disk 102 t are routed to delta disk 102 f 1 . if non - persistent temporary disk 102 t is configured in the “ non - persistent mode ,” this delta virtual disk 102 f 1 is automatically discarded when virtual machine 100 is powered off . in one embodiment , the size of base disk file 102 f is kept at the minimum at the time of its creation . since a snapshot is created every time virtual machine 100 is started , base disk file 102 f is not used for write operations , and hence base disk file 102 f does not grow in size . fig4 b illustrates a process 300 of creating a delta disk for storing temporary files . at step 302 , a request for powering on a virtual machine is entertained . at step 304 , a delta disk is created for storing temporary files during the power - on session of the virtual machine . at step 306 , the virtual machine is powered on . at step 308 , guest software runs and uses the delta disk for storing temporary files . at step 310 , the virtual machine is powered off . at step 312 , the delta disk is deleted . fig5 illustrates fig2 in another embodiment . a redirecting file system driver 120 is inserted between virtual machine 100 and virtual disks 102 , 102 t . with redirecting file system driver 120 monitoring write operations to file systems , step 210 of process 200 ( fig3 ) does not need to be performed in this embodiment . in one embodiment , all file operations go through redirecting file system driver 120 . redirecting file system driver 120 is configured to separate out temporary file data and automatically send this temporary file data to temporary virtual disk 102 t , without a need to configure the guest operating system and applications in virtual machine 100 . in one embodiment redirecting file system driver 120 is a part of a file system driver . in another embodiment redirecting file system driver 120 exists separately from the file system driver and is loaded when the file system driver is loaded . when this temporary file data is needed by guest software , redirecting file system driver 120 automatically redirects read operations to temporary virtual disk 102 t . with the above embodiments in mind , it should be understood that the invention can employ various computer - implemented operations involving data stored in computer systems . these operations are those requiring physical manipulation of physical quantities . any of the operations described herein that form part of the invention are useful machine operations . the invention also relates to a device or an apparatus for performing these operations . in one embodiment , the apparatus can be specially constructed for the required purpose ( e . g . a special purpose machine ), or the apparatus can be a general - purpose computer selectively activated or configured by a computer program stored in the computer . in particular , various general - purpose machines can be used with computer programs written in accordance with the teachings herein , or it may be more convenient to construct a more specialized apparatus to perform the required operations . the embodiments of the present invention can also be defined as a machine that transforms data from one state to another state . the transformed data can be saved to storage and then manipulated by a processor . the processor thus transforms the data from one thing to another . still further , the methods can be processed by one or more machines or processors that can be connected over a network . the machines can also be virtualized to provide physical access to storage and processing power to one or more users , servers , or clients . thus , the virtualized system should be considered a machine that can operate as one or more general purpose machines or be configured as a special purpose machine . each machine , or virtual representation of a machine , can transform data from one state or thing to another , and can also process data , save data to storage , display the result , or communicate the result to another machine . the invention can also be embodied as computer readable code on a computer readable medium . the computer readable medium is any data storage device that can store data , which can thereafter be read by a computer system . examples of the computer readable medium include hard drives , network attached storage ( nas ), read - only memory , random - access memory , cd - roms , cd - rs , cd - rws , magnetic tapes and other optical and non - optical data storage devices . the computer readable medium can include computer readable tangible medium distributed over a network - coupled computer system so that the computer readable code is stored and executed in a distributed fashion . although the method operations were described in a specific order , it should be understood that other housekeeping operations may be performed in between operations , or operations may be adjusted so that they occur at slightly different times , or may be distributed in a system which allows the occurrence of the processing operations at various intervals associated with the processing , as long as the processing of the overlay operations are performed in the desired way . although the foregoing invention has been described in some detail for purposes of clarity of understanding , it will be apparent that certain changes and modifications can be practiced within the scope of the appended claims . accordingly , the present embodiments are to be considered as illustrative and not restrictive , and the invention is not to be limited to the details given herein , but may be modified within the scope and equivalents of the appended claims .	6
as shown in fig1 a blade - like connecting needle 1 according to a first embodiment of the present invention has the blade signal line 10 disposed in a blade body thereof , a support insulator 8 covering the blade signal line 10 , and a plurality of guard patterns 12 a , 12 b , 12 c , 12 d covering the surface of the insulator 8 , so as to have a coaxial - type signal line . this is in contrast to the blade signal line 111 exposed on the surface of the blade 115 according to the conventional design . the blade - like connecting needle 1 thus provides an excellent and complete guard environment for minimizing exposure of the signal line and an electric coupling with an adjacent signal line ( which corresponds to the coupling between the terminals 60 , 64 shown in fig1 ). the blade - like connecting needle 1 is thus capable of minimizing dielectric absorption and a steady leakage current between itself and another signal line of different potential present near the blade - like connecting needle 1 . a signal obtained from a probe 2 by the coaxial blade - like connecting needle 1 is outputted via the blade signal line 10 to a signal output section 11 to which a measuring unit ( not shown ) is connected . the blade - like connecting needle 1 is shown as having a rectangular cross - sectional shape , but may have a circular or polygonal cross - sectional shape . the blade - like connecting needle 1 can simply be manufactured by combining insulating materials corresponding to existing blades having signal lines on their surfaces . the probe 2 ( which corresponds to the probe 116 shown in fig2 ) mounted on the tip end of the blade - like connecting needle 1 may comprise the conventional probe or any other probe manufactured according to one of any other known technique . the guard patterns may be produced by depositing films of an electrically conductive material such as metal in or on the insulator by plating , evaporation , or the like . the probe 2 may also be of a coaxial structure produced by covering a signal line with a support insulator and covering the support insulator with guard patterns . since the coaxial structure reduces the exposure of the signal line of the probe , the characteristics of the probe can be improved . fig2 ( a ) through 2 ( c ) show the blade - like connecting needle 1 as seen from different directions . specifically , fig2 ( a ) shows in front elevation the coaxial blade - like connecting needle 1 with the signal output section 11 on its front side . fig2 ( b ) and 2 ( c ) are side elevational and bottom views , respectively , of the coaxial blade - like connecting needle 1 . as shown in fig3 the signal output section 11 connected to the blade signal line 10 is connected to a coaxial cable 20 and a probe card 22 , which is connected to a measuring unit ( not shown ). a process of producing the blade - like connecting needle 1 according to the present invention will be described below . the blade - like connecting needle 1 is of a symmetrical shape as viewed in front elevation , for example , with respect to an axis x thereof which is indicated by the broken lines . therefore , the blade - like connecting needle 1 may be produced by defining grooves in two respective members that are separated by the broken - line axis x , and bonding the two members to each other with the blade signal line 10 housed in the grooves . according to the first embodiment , the blade signal line 10 and the coaxial cable 20 are connected to each other by an exposed aerial wire . however , the blade signal line 10 and the coaxial cable 20 may be connected to each other by a coaxial connector . for example , a coaxial connector may simply be connected to the signal output section 11 of the coaxial blade - like connecting needle 1 . because a conventional blade - like connecting needle is also connected to a coaxial cable by an exposed aerial wire , use of such a coaxial connector in the conventional coaxial blade - like connecting needle is also effective . [ 0035 ] fig4 shows a coaxial blade - like connecting needle 49 according to a second embodiment of the present invention . in fig4 the coaxial blade - like connecting needle 49 is used in combination with a shielded electric conductive path 48 on a probe card blank board 39 . the coaxial blade - like connecting needle 49 shown in fig4 differs from the coaxial blade - like connecting needle 1 shown in fig1 in that a signal output section 43 of a blade signal line 30 is disposed between guard patterns 12 e , 12 f on a surface corresponding to the guard pattern 12 a shown in fig1 . the signal output section 43 is surrounded by an insulating layer 41 in the shielded electric conductive path 48 , and is connected to a pogo pin block 50 of a test head by the shielded electric conductive path 48 . the shielded electric conductive path 48 is covered with a guard pattern 40 except for exit areas for a signal line 42 . the guard pattern 40 is connected as by soldering to guard patterns 12 ( 12 b , 12 c , 12 d , 12 e , 12 f , 12 g ) of the coaxial blade - like connecting needle 49 . the signal output section 43 is connected as by soldering to a signal connecting pad 47 on the shielded electric conductive path 48 . the signal connecting pad 47 is isolated from the guard pattern 40 by an insulating layer 45 . the signal line 42 in the shielded electric conductive path 48 is connected to a sense connecting pad 44 and a force connecting pad 46 which are connected to a measuring unit ( not shown ) respectively through a sense terminal s and a force terminal f of the pogo pin block 50 . the guard pattern 40 is connected to a guard terminal g of the pogo pin block 50 and held at a guard potential according to the guard technique used . preferably , an active guard is employed to keep the guard terminal g at substantially the same potential as the sense terminal s and the force terminal f . with the above arrangement , the coaxial blade - like connecting needle 49 shown in fig4 has a smaller exposed signal line area than the coaxial blade - like connecting needle 1 shown in fig3 for improved characteristics . the shielded electric conductive path 48 on the probe card blank board 39 is in accordance with one of the embodiments ( wiring is provided on one general - purpose pc board ) described in japanese patent application no . 2000 - 036636 ( japanese laid - open patent publication no . 2001 - 231195 ), and the blade - like connecting needle according to the present invention can be used in combination with the shielded electric conductive path 48 . in the present embodiment , the support insulator 8 between the blade signal line 10 and the guard patterns 12 a , 12 b , 12 c is not limited to any materials . the support insulator 8 may be made of a ceramic material having relatively good dielectric characteristics which is used in the conventional blade - like connecting needle . if no guard can be used with conventional insulating materials or if a passive guard is used , then a suitable insulator having desired characteristics may be used . as described above in the first embodiment , the probe 2 may be covered with the support insulator 8 or any of other suitable insulating materials . an effect produced when the blade - like connecting needle is contaminated during measurements on semiconductor wafers will be described below with reference to fig5 ( a ) and 5 ( b ), which are graphs of settling characteristics . the data shown in fig5 ( a ) and 5 ( b ) represent current values after applying of a step voltage of 10 v , and indicate measured values of the conventional blade - like connecting needle and expected values of the blade - like connecting needle according to the present invention . fig5 ( a ) shows the data when a signal output pin is a 14th pin , and fig5 ( b ) shows the data when a signal output pin is a 24th pin . in fig5 ( a ), the time that elapses until the current value becomes 100 fa or less after the voltage is changed by 10 v is about 3 seconds with the conventional blade - like connecting needle , but 1 second or less with the blade - like connecting needle according to the present invention . similarly , in fig5 ( b ), the time that elapses until the current value becomes 100 fa or less after the changing of 10 v is about 4 seconds or more with the conventional blade - like connecting needle , but about 1 second with the blade - like connecting needle according to the present invention . fig5 ( b ) for the 24th pin indicates that a current of 42 fa continues to flow even after the elapse of 10 seconds . in this case , the measurement of a current on the order of fa cannot be started unless a waiting time of several tens of seconds is additionally spent . if the blade - like connecting needle is significantly contaminated , then the current may not fall to a value of the order of 10 fa , making it impossible to measure the current . a model used to produce the settling characteristics , shown in fig5 ( a ) and 5 ( b ), of the blade - like connecting needle according to the present invention will be described below with reference to fig6 ( a ) and 6 ( b ). as shown in fig6 ( a ), a region where a blade signal line is exposed can be considered as having a capacitive coupling and a resistor in each of four areas a , b , c , d . settling times ( time constants ) due to the capacitive coupling and the resistor in the air in the areas a , b , c , d are represented respectively by τ a , τ b0 and τ b1 , τ c , and τ d . these settling times ( time constants ) are usually much faster than τ b2 which represents a sum of settling times due to capacitive couplings through small regions on the blade . the dielectric characteristics of the sum ρ b2 of settling times are usually most influential . while such regions are also present in the other areas a , c , d , they are less influential than τ b2 in view of the continuity of the material . the overall settling time ( time constant ) τ of the model can be expressed using the settling times ( time constants ) τ a , τ b0 and τ b1 , τ c , and τ d through the air in the areas a , b , c , d , as follows : if the coupling distance through the air is constant , then the capacitive couplings per unit length of respective signal portions are equal to each other , and the capacitive couplings in the respective areas a , b , c , d are proportional to the length of respective exposed portions of the signal line . this is because if the settling time ( time constant ) in the circuit of the model is represented by t , the capacitance thereof c , and the resistance thereof r , then t ∝ cr , indicating that the capacitance c and the settling time ( time constant ) t are proportional to each other . if the lengths of the respective areas a , b , c , d are indicated by l a , l b , l c , l d , respectively , then in view of the fact that the overall settling time ( time constant ) σ of the model is at least proportional to these lengths ( τ a ∝ l a , τ b ∝ l b , τ c ∝ l c , τ d ∝ l d ), the overall settling time ( time constant ) τ is expressed as : this relationship is illustrated in fig6 ( b ). the measured values of these lengths of the respective areas a , b , c , d were l a = 8 mm , l b = 22 mm , l c = 2 mm , l d = 2 mm , respectively . the effect of the coaxial blade is estimated from the above model . as described above , if the settling time ( time constant ) is represented by t , the capacitance thereof c , and the resistance thereof r , then since the capacitance c and the settling time ( time constant ) t are proportional to each other , the settling time ( time constant ) t can be expected from a change in the capacitance c . a value ( expected value ) that estimates the effect of the coaxial blade as a very small level can be derived by comparing with a situation where the length l b is 0 mm . if the coefficient value ( expected value ) is represented by η , then it can be expected to be equal to or smaller than : since the examples shown in fig5 ( a ) and 5 ( b ) are based on the measurement of a total contribution of the probe and the blade signal line , in worst cases , the coefficient value ( expected value ) η can be expected to be equal to or smaller than 26 . 7 %, which is found as follows : processes of producing the blade - like connecting needle according to the present invention will be described below . since the process of producing the blade - like connecting needle by bonding two members to each other has already been described above , other processes of producing the blade - like connecting needle will be described below . fig7 ( a ) and 7 ( b ) are illustrative of a process of producing the blade - like connecting needle from multilayer plates by way of routing and end - face plating . as shown in fig7 ( a ), an internal wire 76 is placed between multilayer - plate insulators 70 , 72 , 74 as a base material , and then the multilayer - plate insulators 70 , 72 , 74 are machined to a desired shape by routing . finally , as shown in fig7 ( b ), sides 78 a , 78 b , 78 c , 78 d of a multilayer base are plated with metal , forming a coaxial blade - like connecting needle which has surfaces 79 a , 79 b covered with guard patterns by plating or the like . a process of producing the coaxial blade - like connecting needle according to the present invention from a base and a lid by way of routing , four - face plating , slotting , and bottom - face plating will be described below with reference to fig8 ( a ), 8 ( b ), and 9 . first , a base 80 shown in fig8 ( a ) is machined to a desired shape by routing , and then four sides 82 , 84 , 86 , 88 of the base 80 are plated . thereafter , as shown in fig8 ( b ), the base 80 is slotted to form a groove 90 therein , and the bottom 92 of the groove 90 is plated . then , as shown in fig9 a metal lid 94 is attached to close the groove 90 , thus forming a hollow coaxial blade - like connecting needle . the blade - like connecting needle can also be produced by an ic fabrication process which may be one of epitaxy , etching , metallization , cmp , etc . if the blade insulator is made of a material such as ptfe which is of better dielectric characteristics than ceramics , then the resultant blade - like connecting needle provides somewhat good characteristics even if no guard can be used or if a passive guard is used . the conventional blade insulator of ceramics poses no problem at present . even if the blade - like connecting needle is used as a bias path ( the guard is normally at the ground potential ) before a small current is measured , a waiting time required to switch different between applications can be shortened by selecting a good insulator as described above . by using a general - purpose blade fabrication process to realize a complete guard structure , it is possible to incorporate , into a probe card , another circuit network which could not conventionally be introduced in view of a possible degradation of small current characteristics . compared with the less reliable coaxial structure using a needle , the blade - like connecting needle which provides its coaxial structure using a blade according to the present invention can easily be handled , and can quickly be repaired inexpensively should it be damaged . the cost of management and the cost of transportation for the blade - like connecting needle according to the present invention can also be reduced . since the blade - like connecting needle is compatible with the conventional blade - like connecting needle , the customer can regard the blade - like connecting needle as a simple higher - level compatible device , and the conventional blade - like connecting needle can be unified with the blade - like connecting needle according to the present invention . the complete guard structure according to the first and second embodiments is capable of reducing a measurement waiting time due to the dielectric absorption of an insulating material which would be present between the signal line and another potential , to a negligible level . since no insulating material is present , of which one end is connected to the signal line and the other end is connected to the other potential , no characteristic variations which might be caused by such an insulating material are present . the fully guarded structure provides good insulating characteristics under severe conditions such as high temperature , high humidity , etc . the blade - like connecting needle of the above structure can be produced according to a usual blade fabrication process , the blade - like connecting needle can stably be manufactured inexpensively . furthermore , since the blade - like connecting needle according to the present invention is of substantially the same dimensions as the conventional blade - like connecting needle , the blade - like connecting needle according to the present invention does not need to be of a special material and a special shape . therefore , the blade - like connecting needle according to the present invention is compatible with the conventional blade - like connecting needle . the entire disclosure of japanese patent application no . 2001 - 114861 filed on apr . 13 , 2001 including the specification , claims , drawings and summary are incorporated herein by reference in its entirety .	6
hereinafter , preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings . referring to fig3 , there is shown a schematic configuration of a direct down - conversion receiver in accordance with the present invention . as shown therein , the direct - conversion receiver comprises an in - phase channel frequency mixer ( hereinafter referred to as an i - channel frequency mixer ) 310 , a quadrature phase channel frequency mixer ( hereinafter referred to as a q - channel frequency mixer ) 320 , an rf 90 ° phase shifter 330 , an lo 90 ° phase shifter 340 , a low noise amplifier ( lna ) 350 and a voltage controlled oscillator ( vco ) 360 . first , an rf signal is received by an antenna ( not shown ) and is applied to the lna 350 . the rf signal is of a single - phase signal , not a differential signal . the lna 350 amplifies the received rf signal while minimizing noise therein . the output from the lna 350 is then provided to the rf 90 ° phase shifter 330 by which the single - phase rf signal is orthogonally divided into two rf signals having phases of 0 ° and 90 °. the divided rf signal having 0 ° phase is fed to the i - channel sub - harmonic frequency mixer 310 , while the rf signal having 90 ° phase is fed to the q - channel sub - harmonic frequency mixer 320 . in the meantime , an lo signal having half of the rf signal frequency is created by the vco 360 , and is provided to the lo phase shifter 340 wherein the lo signal is also of a single - phase signal , not a differential signal . the lo signal is orthogonally divided into two lo signals having phases of 0 ° and 90 ° by the lo phase shifter 340 . the divided 0 ° and 90 ° lo signals are then applied to the i - channel sub - harmonic frequency mixer 310 and the q - channel sub - harmonic frequency mixer 320 , respectively . according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention as set forth above , it is possible to make a topology of the circuit configuration simply and lower the power consumption because the lna 350 and the vco 360 produce the single - phase rf signal and the single - phase lo signal , respectively . in addition , by using the lo 90 ° phase shifter 340 in place of the poly - phase filter embedded in the prior art as described above , it is possible to decrease the power loss of the lo signals and further reduce the power consumption because the direct - conversion receiver does not require an lo buffer amplifier . each of the mixers 310 and 320 generates an in - phase component i and a quadrature component q of desired signals whose center frequencies are a difference between rf frequency ( f rf ) and a twice of lo frequency ( f 2lo ). fig4 a and 4b are detailed circuit diagrams of the direct - conversion receiver shown in fig3 . as shown in fig4 a , the rf 90 ° phase shifter 330 is connected to the output of the lna 350 ; and receives a single - phase rf signal via its rf input node 332 . the rf 90 ° phase shifter 330 functions to divide the rf signal into two rf signal having phase difference of 90 °. the rf 90 ° phase shifter 330 is comprised of rc - cr network in which a resistor r 1 and a capacitor c 2 are connected in parallel to the rf input terminal 332 , and a capacitor c 1 and a resistor r 2 are coupled between two output terminals 334 and 336 that issues two rf signals having phase of 0 ° and 90 °. on the other hand , the lo 90 ° phase shifter 340 is connected to the output of the vco 360 ; and receives a single - phase lo signal via its lo input node 342 . the lo 90 ° phase shifter 340 serves to divide the single - phase lo signal into two lo signals having phase of 0 ° and 90 °. similarly to the rf 90 ° phase shifter 330 shown in fig4 a , the lo 90 ° phase shifter 340 is composed of an rc - cr network in which a resistor r 3 and a capacitor c 4 are coupled in parallel with the lo input node 342 , and a capacitor c 3 and a resistor r 4 are coupled between two output nodes 344 and 346 that provide two lo signals having phase of 0 ° and 90 °, respectively . the values of capacitance and resistance in each phase shifter 330 and 340 are optimized to operate at rf and lo frequencies in order to minimize the phase and amplitude mismatches between i channel and q channel . an operational principle of one , e . g ., of the 90 ° phase shifters will be described with reference to fig5 . if it is assumed that an input signal vin is of 0 °, a phase of an output vout 1 is shifted by − 45 °, compared to the phase of the input signal vin , by an rc - cr network of resistors r 1 , r 2 and capacitors c 1 , c 2 . meanwhile , a phase of an output vout 2 is shifted by + 45 °, compared to the phase of the input signal vin , by the rc - cr network . therefore , the signals having phase difference of 90 ° can be obtained from between the two outputs vout 1 and vout 2 , as calculated below equations . if the resistor and capacitor values are combined to allow a multiplication of the two values to be consistent with a frequency of each of the rf signals and the lo signals , signals having same magnitude but 90 ° phase difference from each other can be obtained at output nodes of the 90 ° phase shifter 330 . the rf signals having phase of 0 ° and 90 ° produced by the rf 90 ° phase shifter 330 are then fed to the i - channel mixer 310 and the q - channel mixer 320 , respectively . in the meantime , an operation of the lo 90 ° phase shifter 340 is substantially identical to that of the 90 ° rf phase shifter 330 ; and therefore , detailed description thereof will be omitted for the sake of simplicity . the lo signals having phase of 0 ° and 90 ° obtained by the lo 90 ° phase shifter 340 are then delivered to the i - channel mixer 310 and the q - channel mixer 320 , respectively . the i - channel mixer 310 includes two transistor pairs 312 and 314 whose emitters and collectors are respectively coupled with each other . in the transistor pairs 312 and 314 , each of the transistors q 1 to q 4 includes a bipolar junction transistor ( bjt ). inputted to bases of the transistors q 2 and q 3 in each of the transistor pairs 312 and 314 is the rf signal having 0 ° phase from the rf 90 ° phase shifter 330 ; and applied to another bases of the transistors q 1 and q 4 in each of the transistor pairs 312 and 314 is the lo signal having 0 ° phase from the lo 90 ° phase shifter 340 . further , connected between an emitter common node and a ground of each of the transistor pairs are current sources that provide bias currents i 1 and i 2 , respectively . likewise , the q - channel mixer 320 includes two transistor pairs 322 and 324 whose emitters and collectors are coupled with each other , respectively . an input to bases of the transistors q 6 and q 7 in each of the transistor pairs 322 and 324 is the lo signal having 90 ° phase from the lo 90 ° phase shifter 340 ; and an input to another bases of the transistors q 5 and q 8 in each of the transistor pairs 322 and 324 is the lo signal having 90 ° phase from the lo 90 ° phase shifter 340 . in operation , first of all , single - phase lo signals having 0 ° and 90 ° phases are applied to the transistors q 1 and q 4 , respectively . and single - phase rf signals having 0 ° and 90 ° phases are fed to the transistors q 2 and q 3 with same bias conditions as the transistors q 1 and q 4 and that make pairs therewith , respectively . in this circuit arrangement , a frequency mixing is made by the lo signals having a relatively high power compared to the rf signals , so that baseband signals having a 180 ° phase difference and a frequency of f rf - f 2lo are produced at + i and − i output nodes 316 and 318 . more specifically , the transistors q 1 and q 4 have nonlinear characteristics because of receipt of the lo signal having a higher power than that of the rf signal , thereby creating harmonic frequency components corresponding to an integral multiple of the lo signal frequency due to such nonlinear characteristics . in other words , there occurs frequencies of f lo , f 2lo , f 3lo , . . . and , in turn , output frequency components corresponding to a multiplication of these frequency components and a frequency component f rf of the rf signal are generated . as a result , such frequency components as f rf ± f lo , f rf ± f 2lo and f rf ± f 3lo are produced at the output nodes 316 and 318 of the i - channel mixer 310 and a desired down - converted frequency component of f rf - f 2lo can be obtained by low pass filtering . output currents i 2 and i 3 incurred by the rf signal may be linearly represented as follows : the transfer functions of the transistors q 1 and q 4 by the lo signal may be given by the following equations with nonlinear characteristics . output voltages can be defined by a multiplication of the currents by the rf signal as in eq . ( 3 ), to the lo transfer functions of eqs . ( 4 ) and ( 5 ) and load resistors rl 1 and rl 2 , as indicated in eqs . ( 6 ) and ( 7 ). namely , the output voltages across the load resistors rl 1 and rl 2 , having differential baseband output voltage components that is 180 ° difference in phase and is same in magnitude , can be detected by a low pass filter ( not shown ). fig4 b is a detailed circuitry diagram illustrating another embodiment of the direct - conversion receiver shown in fig3 . the embodiment of fig4 b is substantially identical to that of fig4 a except that field effect transistors ( fets ) are used therein in lieu of bjts . therefore , in the embodiment of fig4 b , the bases , emitters and collectors given in the embodiment of fig4 a will be designated as gates , sources and drains , respectively ; and therefore , a further description of the same elements will be omitted . in comparison with a frequency mixer of a conventional gilbert cell structure , the input nodes of the lo signals and the rf signals are not formed in a multi - level but arranged in a same level ; and therefore , sufficiently large output voltages can be obtained at the output terminals , + i and − i nodes , even under lower supply voltage . accordingly , since the frequency receiver of the present invention can provide the sufficient output voltages while using the low supply voltage , this circuit architecture is adaptable for a low power circuit . in addition , by help of the use of the rf 90 ° phase shifter at the rf input section , the structure of the frequency mixer can be more simplified because the single - phase rf signal is adopted therein , instead of differential rf signals . and also , since the lo 90 ° phase shifter has a smaller number of resistor - capacitor stages at the lo input section compared to the common poly - phase filter , the power loss of the lo signals can be reduced . reducing the power loss of the lo signals does not need the lo amplifier that has been used to compensate the loss of the lo signals by the existing poly - phase filter , thereby further decreasing the power dissipation of the overall receiver . as described above , the present invention can contribute to a low power and low cost implementation of mobile communication terminals by considerably reducing the number of components used in the direct - conversion receiver and thus simplifying the whole structure and alleviating power consumption . furthermore , the invention enables the use of lower supply voltage owing to a single - level design of the sub - harmonic frequency mixer circuit . moreover , the invention can share analog and digital circuits that follow the receiver and a power because of the use of low supply power in a high frequency circuit . through such features , microwave circuits and analog / digital circuits can be implemented on a single chip , which can highly contribute to the development of a system - on - chip ( soc ). while the invention has been shown and described with respect to the preferred embodiments , it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the following claims .	7
referring to fig1 , a computer based fire sprinkler drawing system 10 having integrated voice activated command features is illustrated in block diagram form . it should be noted that , while the fire sprinkler drawing system 10 is described herein as being implemented in software executed on a personal computer , this system could be executed on any other type of computer as well , such as in any laptop computer , handheld computer or data assistant , any larger mainframe type computer , etc . still further , the fire sprinkler drawing system 10 described herein could be implemented in firmware or hardware elements such as in application specific integrated circuits ( asics ) as well as in typical software routines . it will also be understood that , as described herein , the different modules , routines or programs stored in a computer memory may be stored in any desired manner in volatile memory , such as in a magnetic type memory , random access memory , etc ., as well as in any desired type of non - volatile memory such as in eproms , eeproms , asics , etc . still further , these routines may be embodied in hardware logic circuits ( which are considered to be memories ) of any desired types , such as asics . moreover , while the description herein specifically describes the use of voice activated commands in a fire sprinkler drawing system , this same concept could be embodied in any building construction drawing system implemented on a computer , including , for example , in plumbing drawing systems , electrical drawing systems , architectural drawing systems , gas delivery drawing systems , etc . in those cases , the drawing program could be tailored to the specific type of system being drawn , each of which is generally a building construction system , such as a distribution system . as illustrated in fig1 , the fire sprinkler drawing system 10 includes a display device 12 , such as an lcd screen , crt screen , plasma panel display , printer or other type of display , a processing unit 14 and a database 16 . the system 10 may also include user input ports 18 which may include standard or known inputs for a keyboard 20 , a mouse device 22 . and a microphone 24 or other voice input device . if desired , the system 10 may also include one or more input / output ports 25 that enable files , such as drawing files or other types of data to be delivered to the processing unit 14 from , for example , a cd or floppy disk drive 26 , the internet , etc . further , a printer 27 may be connected to the fire sprinkler drawing system via one of the input / output ports 25 and any other external communication port may be included and used to enable the system 10 to print out or to download reports or other data generated by the system 10 . the database or memory storage unit 16 may be a ram on a hard drive or any other type of memory and is connected to the processing unit 14 via any appropriate input / output ( i / o ) driver or device 28 . furthermore , the database 16 may include different storage regions for pipes , fittings and other sprinkler system elements available to be used to draw a fire sprinkler system , for building elements available to be used to draw a building , and for the building and sprinkler systems currently being drawn , etc . the memory 16 may be organized in any desired manner and may be accessed using any suitable database access software . a number of different programs or routines may be stored in and executed on the processing unit 14 which , of course , includes a memory and a typical processor such as a general purpose processor of any desired type . as illustrated in fig1 , the processing unit 14 may store and execute a number of modules or routines which are used to provide user input / output functions as well as to implement or provide assistance in drawing a fire sprinkler system for a building . in particular , the processing unit 14 may implement a graphics or image display controller 30 which may store , in an image data memory 32 , data associated with the image being displayed on the display device 12 and may process or manipulate that data as needed . while the image data memory 32 will generally be ram or a buffer memory that is easily accessible , the image data memory 32 may be within the hard drive of the computer or may be any other suitable memory . the image or display controller 30 may be implemented using any desired or known image or display control software or routine , such as that associated with the microsoft windows operating system . the processing unit 14 also includes a program store 36 which stores the programs or routines ( or the portions thereof currently being used ) and which are executing within the processor . the program store 36 stores or implements the programs needed to perform the numerous tasks associated with the fire sprinkler drawing program that will be described in more detail herein . the processing unit 14 also includes a number of input drivers , such as any standard keyboard input unit 38 and mouse input unit 40 which process the keyboard and mouse generated commands . such input drivers may be those as provided by the microsoft windows operating system . still further , and importantly , the processing unit 14 stores and executes a voice processing module or routine 42 . the voice processing unit 42 which , preferably , is a voice recognition unit , may be implemented using , for example , the microsoft speech api program . however , this voice processing unit 42 may be any other desired type of voice processor . the processing unit 14 also includes an arbiter or controller 44 that controls the order of and the timing of the execution of the different programs or modules within the processing unit 14 . thus , the controller 44 arbitrates the timing and execution of the different programs , routines or modules such as the programs within the program store 36 , the input drivers 38 , 40 and 42 , the image controller 30 , etc . to assure that these programs interact together in a seamless manner . in one embodiment , a fire sprinkler drawing program 50 is stored in the program store 36 . this fire sprinkler system drawing program 50 may be , for example , based on the auotsprink program described above . in any event , the fire sprinkler drawing system routine 50 may be implemented in a cad programing structure developed using an object oriented programming paradigm . in this situation , the logical concept for describing components of the computer program are known as objects . an object is used to define the properties and interfaces of a system component . the computer program is an assembly of one or more objects and this object structure helps to clearly define and encapsulate the components of the computer program . the program uses “ object oriented programming ,” an industry standard practice , well known in the art , for program definition , design , and development . in one embodiment , the objects are implemented in c ++ program code as classes . a class is a c ++ programming language data structure that exists to implement the logical concept of an object and is used to encapsulate the data properties and methods / interfaces of an object into a single data structure . generally speaking , three basic foundation structure programs are initially stored into the computer memory 16 or the processing unit 14 to implement the fire sprinkler system objects for display in a fire sprinkler system drawing produced on the display device 12 . first , microsoft foundation program structure is a program based upon the microsoft standard multi - document interface ( mdi ). this program model is built upon a base including four fundamental objects , namely , application , frame , document , and view . the application , sold under the trademark , microsoft foundation class libraries ( mfc ), provides utilitarian objects and represents a program itself . it is through the application object that the process is initiated and all other objects come into existence . the application creates the frame , document , and view objects . the frame object represents the frame window of the application that becomes visible to the user and acts as the manager for subsequent user interface objects , such as other windows . the frame object encapsulates the internal data structures used by the operating system , sold under the trademark microsoft windows , to create and maintain an application &# 39 ; s parent window . the document object represents an instance of the user &# 39 ; s data and is stored to memory for later retrieval . many document objects can exist for each instance of the program , enabling the program to open several documents simultaneously . the view object represents a view into the data of a document object . the view object provides the user with a visual interface to the document . the view object encapsulates the internal data structures used by the microsoft windows operating system to create and maintain an application &# 39 ; s child window . many view objects can exist for each document object , enabling the program to display several different views of the same document simultaneously . the second foundation program within the routine 50 is a cad foundation program sold under the trademark symmetrica , for the piping system design software . this software includes a set of programming objects that expands upon the mfc program structure . it adds capability to the mfc application , frame , document , and view objects , enabling them to offer the fundamental behavior and interfaces of a cad program . many essential objects provided by this program support the needs of a cad program . an application object necessary to support the cad program , and a frame object which establishes the parent window framework required to support the cad program objects are derived from microsoft mfc objects . a document object is used to provide all the capability required to encapsulate cad drawing data , which includes drawing elements and user settings appropriate to each drawing . a view object provides a visual interface to the document object . this view object provides the three dimensional view , rotation and scaling properties , enabling the user to view the document &# 39 ; s data from any arbitrary three dimensional position , view rotation , and magnification . it also provides for requesting three dimensional cartesian coordinate ( x , y , z ) point input from the user . input is provided by the system pointing device 22 ( mouse ), the keyboard 20 , or both . also provided is a base class object of all cad drawing elements , such as lines , arcs , circles , etc ., that can be managed by the document object and displayed by the view object . this object defines the interface to the cad drawing elements that all derived classes inherit through standard c ++ mechanisms . this standard interface enables the definition of the new kinds of elements for the cad drawing , such as a pipe layout object derived from a line segment . the cad foundation program further acts as the foundation program for other programs . the third foundation program is the program sold under the trademark object dbx . this program is a collection of objects for reading , writing , and viewing dwg and dxf drawing files . this file format is well known in the art , the industry standard for the exchange of drawing files , and is used in one embodiment of the fire sprinkler drawing system described herein . using object dbx objects , the above cad foundation has the capability to read , write , and view dwg and dxf drawing files . this capability is implemented in the cad program document and view objects . dwg and dxf drawing files can be read / appended to a cad drawing and the cad drawings may be stored on a data storage medium as dwg and dxf drawing files . additionally , dwg and dxf drawing files can be selected as a backdrop to the current cad drawing . this method enables the cad program to make full use of the high - speed display objects to view dwg and dxf drawings . when the display must be refreshed , the background drawing is displayed first , immediately followed by the elements of the cad drawing . in general , the cad program stores fire sprinkler system elements , such as pipes , sprinkler heads , hangers , fittings , couplings , etc ., as well as building elements , such a walls , ceilings , floors , beams , electrical components , plumbing components , etc . as templates or generic objects in one or more parts databases in , for example , the memory 16 . the cad program may also store information describing features and capabilities of the drawing routine in the form of a help database , in the memory 16 . during operation , the cad program enables the user to perform any of numerous commands to create or produce a building and / or a fire sprinkler system drawing having a plurality of fire sprinkler system elements connected together at particular locations in the drawing using the parts and elements in the parts databases . in the past , these commands were generated solely using mouse and keyboard inputs and the design or function of these commands is known in the art . during operation , and in response to the user initiated commands , the cad program produces the fire sprinkler system drawing essentially as a set of interconnected objects each having particular properties ( as specified by the user initiated commands ), such as location , size , color , etc . that define these objects and the interconnection of these objects . the cad program stores the fire sprinkler system drawing , which may include fire sprinkler system elements with or without building elements therein , in the memory 16 or other memory associated with the system 10 . the cad program , using the image controller 30 and other programs described herein , also displays the fire sprinkler system drawing , or portions thereof , on the display unit 12 . in some cases , the cad program may enable a user to perform other functions or analyses on or with respect to the fire sprinkler system drawing , such as performing any desired or known hydraulic calculations or analysis on the drawing . such hydraulic calculations may include finding a remote area in the drawing , as that term is generally known in the art , and performing hydraulic calculations using that remote area to understand or view the flow capabilities or properties of the fire sprinkler system which has been drawn . such hydraulic calculations are known and need not be described herein . the cad program may also implement a system optimizer that enables the user to change elements within the drawing and to determine the hydraulic effects of that change to thereby optimize the fire sprinkler system in terms of function and cost . still further , the cad program may implement a report that lists all of the parts in the fire sprinkler system or a selected portion of the fire sprinkler system , or any other desired report . of course , the functionality of the fire sprinkler system drawing routine itself is not new and , thus , will not be described in detail herein . also , while the fire sprinkler drawing routine is described herein as being an object - oriented routine , it could be any other type of routine , using other programming structures or paradigms , that provides a user with the capability to produce a fire sprinkler system drawing on a display device using a set of user initiated commands . as will be described below , the fire sprinkler drawing program 50 is responsive to user initiated commands in the form of keyboard and mouse commands as well as voice commands . fig2 illustrates the generic form of a possible graphics image that may be placed on the display unit 12 including an image or drawing region 52 and a command region 54 . the image region 52 is the region in which the fire sprinkler system drawing and , if desired , the building in which the fire sprinkler system being drawn , is illustrated in graphical form . the building and the fire sprinkler system can be drawn in any form , such a in two - dimensional form , three - dimensional form , etc . in this case , each part of the drawing , such as each building wall , floor , ceiling , pipe , fitting , coupling , etc . is a separate object which is instantiated to have some particular qualities or parameters as well as a particular location in some coordinate space . the user can add or delete elements from the drawing on the image region 52 as desired using appropriate commands . generally speaking , the command region 54 , provides or displays commands that can be used to draw a fire sprinkler system and a building in which this system is to be used . such commands typically take the form of pull down menus having numerous commands that can be selected by the user with , for example , the mouse 22 or the keyboard 24 ( via , for example , function keys ) to perform certain tasks within the image region 52 . the command region 54 may also include a section 54 a that displays templates or other drawing commands that can be used to place , delete or modify objects within the image region . these commands may cause the curser to draw , for example , a wall , a ceiling , a pipe , a fitting , etc . when the command is selected and the cursor is placed in the image region 52 . when a user selects one of these commands and draws an element in the image region , the program 50 will instantiate the element as an object within the fire sprinkler system drawing , as stored in the database 16 . fig3 provides an example of an image 60 that may be generated on the display screen 12 having an image region 62 and a command region 64 in the form of that illustrated in fig2 . as shown in fig3 , a fire sprinkler system drawing 65 having interconnected sprinkler heads , branch lines , cross mains , etc . is displayed in the image region 62 . furthermore , the left hand side of the command region 64 a of fig3 includes a set of templates or drawing commands that can be used to place objects on the image region 62 . there are also numerous commands available in the form of pull down menus on the top portion of the command region 64 . in particular , these commands may be accessed via pull down menus entitled file , edit , select , snaps , tools , actions , commands , auto draw , roof planes , wizards , hydraulics , finish , listing , parts database , settings , etc . in fig3 , the wizards pull down menu is selected illustrating a 3 point system command , a grid system command , an in - rack system command , a loop system command and a tree system command . when any of these wizards commands is selected , a wizard or routine within the program 50 in initiated which aids the user in drawing the particular type of fire sprinkler system , such as a grid fire sprinkler system , a loop fire sprinkler system , etc . thus , as illustrated in fig3 , each of the pull down menus in the command region 64 may be selected to illustrate or access commands that can be used to perform functions within the image region 62 . as will be understood , some of the commands , such as the 3 point system command , runs a routine that asks the user for additional information . in particular , the 3 point system wizard is a routine that first asks the user to select and area on the image region 62 in which a sprinkler system is to be drawn , and then asks the user for hundreds of other design criteria to be used in drawing a fire sprinkler system . after the user enters all of the design criteria , the 3 - point wizard then draws a fire sprinkler system within the designated area as specified by the design criteria entered by the user . thus , certain commands , when selected , will cause the user to use other commands to , for example , input particular information which is needed to implement a function or operation within the image region 62 . it can be seen that there are many , many commands that are available to the user of the drawing system , and , at least , initially , the user can be overwhelmed with the sheer number of commands that he or she can initiate at any given time . thus , the user may be unable to easily and quickly find the command that he or she needs at a particular time . to help alleviate this problem , the fire sprinkler drawing system 10 of fig1 incorporates a voice command acquisition and recognition feature to enable a user to more quickly and easily draw a fire sprinkler system using voice commands . as illustrated in fig1 , the voice recognition unit 42 is stored in the processing unit 14 and is executed on the processor associated therewith to process incoming voice signals generated by the microphone 24 . during this processing activity , a voice signal is processed to determine a voice command , which is then compared to a list of appropriate or possible commands for the situation or context . thus , in some contexts , a command may not be appropriate or available because of the state in which the program 50 lies and , if so , an error signal or other message may be displayed to the user to indicate that the voice command is inappropriate . in any event , if the decoded voice signal is determined to be , according to some statistical measure , one of the possible or currently appropriate commands , that command is sent to the processor to be processed within the context of the fire sprinkler drawing program 50 in a manner similar to the manner in which a mouse or keyboard generated command would be processed . more particularly , when the voice processing unit 42 receives speech , voice or other sound signals from the microphone 24 , the voice processing unit 42 performs voice or speech recognition processing thereon in any known or desired manner and delivers a potential command to the controller unit 44 based on recognized voice inputs which is then delivered to the program 50 in the same manner that decoded keyboard and mouse commands are delivered to the program 50 . of course , the voice processing unit 42 may deliver a decoded command to the program directly if so desired . the voice processing unit 42 may perform any desired or known type of processing on the received speech signals to identify certain recognized speech commands or words . during this process , the voice processing unit 42 may compare an identified voice command to a list of stored or recognized commands which may be stored in a memory 70 to determine if a valid command is being delivered via the voice or speech input . of course , if desired , the controller 42 may determine if the received command is a valid command within the context of the program 50 and may notify the user when an unrecognized command is received . the voice processing unit 42 may , if so desired , have learning capabilities of any desired type . referring now to fig4 , a flowchart 72 depicts the operation of one embodiment of software associated with an embodiment of the voice processing unit 42 that may be used to implement voice activated commands within the fire sprinkler drawing system or program 50 . it should be noted that the flowchart 72 is general in nature and can be implemented using any desired programming structure , routines or commands . in the flowchart 72 , a block 74 receives a speech or voice signal from the microphone 24 or other voice input device . a block 76 processes the voice signal to identify a voice command within the signal using any desired or standard voice recognition processing routine , such as that indicated above . a block 78 next determines a potential decoded command and a block 80 compares the identified decoded command or input with a set of recognized commands stored in , for example , the memory 70 , to determine if the decoded command is a valid command . of course , the set of recognized commands may change depending on the state of the program 50 at any particular time . if the voice command is recognized as being the same or similar to one of the recognized commands as determined by the block 82 , a block 84 provides the command to the fire sprinkler drawing program 50 via , for example , the controller 44 , and control is returned to the block 74 . the command is then used by the fire sprinkler drawing program 50 in the manner in which it would be used if received via a keyboard or mouse input . if , at the block 82 , the voice command signal is not recognized as a valid command , a block 86 may notify the user via , for example , a screen prompt or a voice or sound indication , such as a beep , and control is returned to the block 74 which receives and processes further voice signals . if desired , however , the program 50 may implement a check to determine if a decoded voice command is a valid command and may ignore invalid commands . thus , the blocks of the flowchart 72 do not need to be all within the voice processing unit 42 . generally speaking , the voice processing unit 42 may implement or allow a user to perform using spoken command any number or type of commands including , for example , drawing placement commands , wizard initiation commands , autodraw commands , edit commands , view commands , parts listing commands , hydraulics calculation commands , software management commands , and help commands , to name but a few . generally speaking , drawing placement commands enable the user to place specific building , pipe and sprinkler elements , such as pipes , hangers , columns , sprinkler heads , mains , etc . into the image area of a drawing or layout being designed by the user . wizard initiation commands enable the user to initiate a wizard that asks for exact specifications of a variety of elements and that then uses these specifications to draw a fire sprinkler system within the image area . autodraw commands allow the user to have the computer perform particular drawing functions , such as placing fittings , hangers , etc . within a fire sprinkler system being drawn . edit commands enable the user to modify and manipulate existing elements in a drawing and includes commands such as copy , paste , delete , rotate , mirror , etc . view commands determine , change or manipulate the size , contour and color of a drawing displayed by the computer in the image region . these commands includes zoom , 3 - d / 2 - d , element colors , distance between points , etc . parts listing commands enable the user to view , in list format , the sprinkler and pipe elements used in a drawing within the image region . these commands may allow the user to view elements according to different categories such as cost , pipe size , manufacturer , etc . hydraulics calculation commands initiate routines that perform different types of known hydraulic calculations which enable the user to examine the hydraulic performance of a fire sprinkler system depicted in the fire sprinkler system drawing . these commands include defining a remote area , creating analysis reports , etc . software management commands allows the user to store and retrieve various files and program specifications and includes such commands as save , print , adding parts to database , changing default settings , etc . help commands allow the user to access a database of information describing the software &# 39 ; s features and capabilities and may include accessing tutorial videos , daily tips which are tips given to the user pertaining to the operation of the fire sprinkler drawing program 50 , etc . the table below lists one set of commands that may be recognized by the voice processing unit 42 and stored in the memory 70 , along with a description of the function performed by each command within the fire sprinkler drawing program 50 of course these commands are but of few of the voice commands that can be used in a fire sprinkler drawing system to provide a user with more accurate and faster drawing capabilities . thus , any other commands could be used instead of or in addition to those listed above . in fact , in some instances , a single voice command can eliminate the need to perform two or more mouse or keyboard selection operations , thereby making these commands more readily available and easier to use . in particular , in some instances , the user has to use a mouse to select a pull down menu and then move the mouse to a command and then select that command , all of which takes time and hand coordination . however , that same command may be initiated by a single voice command in a fraction of the time and with a fraction of the effort . still further , it has been determined that , in the complex drawing environment of fire sprinkler systems , it is often easier for the user to remember the names of the commands he or she needs to use than the location or place at which the user needs to access that command from the windows menu . this fact is especially true when the designer or user is unfamiliar with the fire sprinkler drawing program such as when he or she is first learning to use the system . thus , the incorporation of the voice activated commands within the fire sprinkler drawing environment is especially beneficial as it reduces the time it takes a user to draw a fire sprinkler system as well as the time it takes the user or designer to learn to use the fire sprinkler drawing program effectively . while the present invention has been described with reference to specific examples , which are intended to be illustrative only and not to be limiting of the invention , it will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that changes , additions or deletions may be made to the disclosed embodiments without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention .	6
various types of cyclomethicones may be used . illustratively , and not by way of limitation , the volatile silicones are one or more members selected from the group consisting of cyclic polydimethylsiloxanes such as those represented by formula i : where n is an integer with a value of 3 - 7 , particularly 5 - 6 . by volatile silicone material is meant a material that has a measurable vapor pressure at ambient temperature . for example , dc - 245 fluid or dc - 345 fluid from dow corning corporation ( midland , mich .) is a type of cyclomethicone which can be used . these include a tetramer ( or octylmethylcyclotetrasiloxane ) and a pentamer ( or decamethylcyclopentasiloxane ). the antiperspirant active can be selected from the group consisting of any of the known antiperspirant active materials . these include , by way of example ( and not of a limiting nature ), aluminum chlorohydrate , aluminum chloride , aluminum sesquichlorohydrate , zirconyl hydroxychloride , aluminum - zirconium glycine complex ( for example , aluminum zirconium trichlorohydrex gly , aluminum zirconium pentachlorohydrex gly , aluminum zirconium tetrachlorohydrex gly and aluminum zirconium octochlorohydrex gly ), aluminum chlorohydrex pg , aluminum chlorohydrex peg , aluminum dichlorohydrex pg , and aluminum dichlorohydrex peg . the aluminum - containing materials can be commonly referred to as antiperspirant active aluminum salts . generally , the foregoing metal antiperspirant active materials are antiperspirant active metal salts . in the embodiments which are antiperspirant compositions according to the present invention , such compositions need not include aluminum - containing metal salts , and can include other antiperspirant active materials , including other antiperspirant active metal salts . generally , category i active antiperspirant ingredients listed in the food and drug administration &# 39 ; s monograph on antiperspirant drugs for over - the - counter human use can be used . in addition , any new drug , not listed in the monograph , such as aluminum nitratohydrate and its combination with zirconyl hydroxychlorides and nitrides , or aluminum - stannous chlorohydrates , can be incorporated as an antiperspirant active ingredient in antiperspirant compositions according to the present invention . particular types of antiperspirant actives include aluminum zirconium trichlorohydrex and aluminum zirconium tetrachlorohydrex either with or without glycine . a particular antiperspirant active is aluminum trichlorohydrex gly such as azz - 902 suf ( from reheis inc ., berkley heights , n . j .) which has 98 % of the particles less than 10 microns in size . antiperspirant actives can be incorporated into compositions according to the present invention in amounts in the range of 10 - 25 % ( on an actives basis ) of the final composition , but the amount used will depend on the formulation of the composition . at lower levels the antiperspirant active material will not substantially reduce the flow of perspiration as effectively , but will reduce malodor , for example , by acting also as an antimicrobial material . the antiperspirant active material is desirably included as particulate matter suspended in the composition of the present invention in amounts as described above , but can also be added as solutions or added directly to the mixture . emollients are a known class of materials in this art , imparting a soothing effect to the skin . these are ingredients which help to maintain the soft , smooth , and pliable appearance of the skin . emollients are also known to reduce whitening on the skin and / or improve aesthetics . examples of chemical classes from which suitable emollients can be found include : ( a ) fats and oils which are the glyceryl esters of fatty acids , or triglycerides , normally found in animal and plant tissues , including those which have been hydrogenated to reduce or eliminate unsaturation . also included are synthetically prepared esters of glycerin and fatty acids . isolated and purified fatty acids can be esterified with glycerin to yield mono -, di -, and triglycerides . these are relatively pure fats which differ only slightly from the fats and oils found in nature . the general structure may be represented by formula iii : wherein each of r , r 2 , and r 3 may be the same or different and have a carbon chain length ( saturated or unsaturated ) of 7 to 30 . specific examples include peanut oil , sesame oil , avocado oil , coconut , cocoa butter , almond oil , safflower oil , corn oil , cotton seed oil , castor oil , hydrogenated castor oil , olive oil , jojoba oil , cod liver oil , palm oil , soybean oil , wheat germ oil , linseed oil , and sunflower seed oil ; ( b ) hydrocarbons which are a group of compounds containing only carbon and hydrogen . these are derived from petrochemicals . their structures can vary widely and include aliphatic , alicyclic and aromatic compounds . specific examples include paraffin , petrolatum , hydrogenated polyisobutene , and mineral oil . ( c ) esters which chemically , are the covalent compounds formed between acids and alcohols . esters can be formed from almost all acids ( carboxylic and inorganic ) and any alcohol . esters here are derived from carboxylic acids and an alcohol . the general structure would be r 4 co — or . the chain length for r 4 and r 5 can vary from 7 to 30 and can be saturated or unsaturated , straight chained or branched . specific examples include isopropyl myristate , isopropyl palmitate , isopropyl stearate , isopropyl isostearate , butyl stearate , octyl stearate , hexyl laurate , cetyl stearate , diisopropyl adipate , isodecyl oleate , diisopropyl sebacate , isostearyl lactate , c 12 - 15 alkyl benzoates , myreth - 3 myristate , dioctyl malate , neopentyl glycol diheptanoate , neopentyl glycol dioctanoate , dipropylene glycol dibenzoate , c 12 - 15 alcohols lactate , isohexyl decanoate , isohexyl caprate , diethylene glycol dioctanoate , octyl isononanoate , isodecyl octanoate , diethylene glycol diisononanoate , isononyl isononanoate , isostearyl isostearate , behenyl behenate , c 12 - 15 alkyl fumarate , laureth - 2 benzoate , propylene glycol isoceteth - 3 acetate , propylene glycol ceteth - 3 acetate , octyldodecyl myristate , cetyl ricinoleate , myristyl myristate . ( d ) saturated and unsaturated fatty acids which are the carboxylic acids obtained by hydrolysis of animal or vegetable fats and oils . these have general structure r 6 cooh with the r 6 group having a carbon chain length between 7 - 10 straight chain . ( e ) saturated and unsaturated fatty alcohols ( including guerbet alcohols ) with general structure r 7 coh where r 7 can be straight chain and have carbon length of 7 to 10 . ( f ) lanolin and its derivatives which are a complex esterified mixture of high molecular weight esters of ( hydroxylated ) fatty acids with aliphatic and alicyclic alcohols and sterols . general structures would include r 8 ch 2 —( och 2 ch 2 ) n oh where r 8 represents the fatty groups derived from lanolin and n = 5 to 75 or r 9 co —( och 2 ch 2 ) n oh where r 9 co — represents the fatty acids derived from lanolin and n = 5 to 100 . specific examples include lanolin , lanolin oil , lanolin wax , lanolin alcohols , lanolin fatty acids , isopropyl lanolate , ethoxylated lanolin and acetylated lanolin alcohols . ( g ) alkoxylated alcohols wherein the alcohol portion is selected from aliphatic alcohols having 2 - 18 and more particularly 4 - 18 carbons , and the alkylene oxide portion is selected from the group consisting of ethylene oxide , and propylene oxide having a number of alkylene oxide units from 2 - 53 and , more particularly , from 2 - 15 . specific examples include ppg - 14 butyl ether and ppg - 53 butyl ether . ( h ) silicones as the linear organo - substituted polysiloxanes which are polymers of silicon / oxygen with general structure : ( 1 ) ( r 10 ) 3 sio ( si ( r 11 ) 2 o ) x si ( r 12 ) 3 where r 10 , r 11 and r 12 can be the same or different and are each independently selected from the group consisting of phenyl and c1 - c60 alkyl ; or ( 2 ) ho ( r 14 ) 2 sio ( si ( r 15 ) 2 o ) x si ( r 16 ) 2 oh , where r 14 , r 15 and r 16 can be the same or different and are each independently selected from the group consisting of phenyl and c1 - c60 alkyl ; ( with specific examples including dimethicone , dimethiconol behenate , c 30 - 45 alkyl methicone , stearoxytrimethylsilane , phenyl trimethicone and stearyl dimethicone ); one particular group of emollients includes c12 - 15 alkyl benzoate ( finsolv tn from finetex inc ., elmwood park , n . j . ), medium volatility dimethicone ( especially 10 - 350 centistoke material and more especially 10 - 50 centistoke material ), isopropyl myristate ; and neopentyl glycol diheptanoate . the emollient or emollient mixture or blend thereof incorporated in compositions according to the present invention can , illustratively , be included in amounts of 1 - 15 %, and particularly 3 - 12 % by weight of the total weight of the composition . polyethylenes may be made in a variety of ways . each polymerization method has its own advantages and disadvantages and may e used to obtain a polymer with specific properties . for example , free radical polymerization of ethylene using radical initiators usually gives highly branched polymers known as low - density polyethylene . this method usually requires high temperatures and pressures . preparation of linear polyethylene can be achieved at low temperatures and pressures using transition metal compounds and organometallic compounds as a catalyst . zeigler - natta catalyst ( for example , ticl 4 and al ( c 2 h 5 ) 3 ) is a widely used catalyst system for commercial preparation of linear polyethylene . the molecular weight of the polymer can be manipulated by controlling temperature , pressure and the ratios of the two - part catalyst system used . the molecular weight can also be controlled by using chain transfer agents such as molecular hydrogen and zn ( c 2 h 5 ) 2 . active hydrogen compounds ( for example , methanol ) can also bring about termination of the growing chains just as they do in anionic polymerization . the method for making both low and high molecular weight linear polyethylene is the same . low molecular weight polymer is obtained by controlling the molecular weight using chain transfer agents such a hydrogen gas or methanol followed by isolation of the desired molecular weight through fractionation by distillation or re - precipitation with solvents of varying polarities . one can also use a catalyst system which employs a combination of transition metal compound or an element from groups iv to viii such as vanadium , chromium , or cobalt as well as an organometallic compound of a metal from groups i and iii of the periodic table . one typical example for making linear polyethylene is described below ( see example pe ). the polyethylenes useful in this invention include those sold under the performalene ™ product line ( new phase technology , piscataway , n . j . ); marcus polyethylenes ( for example m200 , m300 , m500 and m4040 ) ( marcus oil and chemical , houston , tex . ); hpwax polyethylene waxes ( for example , hp cwp 200 , hp cwp 500 and hp 400m ) ( hase petroleum wax co ., arlington heights , ill .). mixtures of neutral polyethylene wax / polypropylene wax may also be used such as polarwachs ® pt30 , polarwachs ® pt70 , and polycerit ® at - grades ( th . c . tromm gmbh , germany ). suitable polyethylenes may also be made using information found in the art such as british patent 1 450 285 . one particular elastomer of interest is ksg - 15 silicone elastomer from shin - etsu silicones of america ( akron , ohio ). the stick antiperspirant / deodorant products of this invention is an opaque product which leaves little or no white residue when applied and which exhibits improved efficacy and stability as compared to other stick formulations made with stearyl alcohol . reduction of sweat of at least 10 % more than that achieved with sticks gelled with stearyl alcohol can be achieved with the compositions of the invention . suitable antibacterial or antimicrobial agents include , for example , bacteriostatic quaternary ammonium compounds such as 2 - amino - 2 - methyl - 1 - propanol ( amp ), cetyl - trimethylammonium bromide , cetyl pyridinium chloride , 2 , 4 , 4 ′- trichloro - 2 ′- hydroxydiphenylether ( triclosan ), n -( 4 - chlorophenyl )- n ′-( 3 , 4 - dichlorophenyl ) urea ( triclocarban ), silver halides , octoxyglycerin ( sensiva ™ sc 50 ) and various zinc salts ( for example , zinc ricinoleate ). the bacteriostat can , illustratively , be included in the composition in an amount of 0 - 5 %, particularly 0 . 01 - 1 . 0 % by weight , of the total weight of the composition . triclosan , can illustratively be included in an amount of from 0 . 05 % to about 0 . 5 % by weight , of the total weight of the composition . a variety of fragrances can be used in these compositions if scented products are desired . fragrances can be used in an amount in the range of 0 - 5 %, particularly 0 . 01 - 2 . 0 %, and , for example , at a level of 1 %. masking agents can be used in an amount of 0 . 05 - 5 . 0 % ( particularly 0 . 05 - 2 %) by weight based on the total weight of the composition if an unscented product is desired . for additional hardening of sticks , other additives having a melting point in the range of 78 - 98 degrees c . such as long chain alcohols ( such as performacol 350 ( having an average carbon chain length of 24 carbons ), performacol 425 ( having an average carbon chain length of 30 carbons ), or performacol 550 ( having an average carbon chain length of 40 carbons )); alcohol ethoxylates ( such as performathox 420 ( 20 % by weight ethoxylation ) and performathox 450 ( 50 % by weight ethoxylation ) all available from new phase technology , piscataway , n . j . may be used . for reducing whitening in sticks liquid or solid high refractive index materials may be used such as diethylhexyl 2 , 6 - naphthalate ( from c . p . hall co ., chicago , ill .) or phenyltrimethicone ( from dow coming corp ., midland , mich .) as well as other suitable ingredients . other various optional components include those described in u . s . pat . nos . 5 , 019 , 375 to tanner et al ; 4 , 937 , 069 to shin ; and 5 , 102 , 656 , each of which is incorporated by reference in its entirety herein . examples of such additional ingredients include fragrances , coloring agents , opacifiers , etc . in types and amounts conventionally used for such products . these compositions are sticks made as suspensions and thickened or gelled by the combination of polyethylene and selected wax components . the products of the invention can be made by conventional mixing techniques . the emollients are selected , weighed out and heated with stirring to about 65 degrees c . next the wax component is added and heating is continued to a temperature in the range of 82 - 85 degrees c . the polyethylene is added . the mixture is cooled to about 80 degrees c . and the elastomer plus additional cyclomethicone ( which has been preheated to about 70 degrees c .) is added . the mixture is cooled further to 75 degrees c . and the antiperspirant active is added . the temperature is increased to about 80 degrees c . and held there for about 10 minutes with mixing . fragrance , an antibacterial agent , coloring , etc . are then added if desired and thoroughly mixed . the final mixture is poured into suitable containers and then passed through a cooling tunnel which is at about 4 degrees c . or placed in a refrigerator for a suitable length of time on a laboratory scale . cooling is then completed ( completion of cooling can also be done at room temperature ). the composition can be rubbed onto the skin from the top surface of the container ( itself fed from a reservoir of product in the container ) so as to deposit an adequate amount of the cosmetic composition on to the skin . the cosmetic composition , for example , an antiperspirant / deodorant may be applied to the skin in the axillary regions to deposit sufficient amounts of antiperspirant and / or deodorant active material to reduce body malodor and / or reduce perspiration in axillary regions of the human body . various forms of the invention can be exemplified by the following formulations but should not be construed as limitations on the invention : the following examples are offered as illustrative of the invention and are not to be construed as limitations thereon . in the examples and elsewhere in the description of the invention , chemical symbols and terminology have their usual and customary meanings . in the examples as elsewhere in this application ( a ) values for n , m , etc . in formulas , molecular weights and degree of ethoxylation or propoxylation are averages ; ( b ) temperatures are in degrees c . unless otherwise indicated ; and ( c ) the amounts of the components are in weight percents based on the standard described ; if no other standard is described then the total weight of the composition is to be inferred . various names of chemical components include those listed in the ctfa international cosmetic ingredient dictionary ( cosmetics , toiletry and fragrance association , inc ., 7 th ed . 1997 ). mixing techniques used to make the compositions are those conventionally used in the art including those described above . a 3 - liter flask reactor is equipped with a manometer and stirring apparatus and is set at atmospheric pressure with constant stirring . the reactor temperature is set at 65 degrees c . by thermostat , purged with nitrogen , purged with ethylene , and then charged with 1 liter of purified dry cyclohexane , 4 . 6 millimoles of ticl 4 , and 2 . 0 millimoles of al ( c 2 h 5 ) 3 . ethylene is then fed at the rate of 1 liter / minute into the reactor . after 15 minutes , the reaction is quenched by bubbling hydrogen gas through the reaction mixture . the low molecular weight polymers ( which are oligomers ) are separated by fractional distillation of the product mixture at reduced pressure ( 200 torr , 26 , 664 pascals ). the emollients ( for example , dimethicone ( for example , dc - 200 , 10 centistokes and / or dc - 200 350 centistokes from dow corning corp .) and c12 - 15 alkyl benzoate ( finsolv tn brand product ) are weighed out and placed in a 600 ml beaker . each of the other ingredients is weighed out separately . heating with stirring is initiated for the emollients in the 600 ml beaker until the temperature is about 65 degrees . c . the wax component is then added ( for example , japan wax sub 525 and / or microcrystalline wax from ross ). heating and stirring are continued until the temperature is in the range of 82 - 85 degrees c . the polyethylene ( for example , performalene - 400 from new phase technology , piscataway , n . j .) is then added with stirring . the mixture is cooled to about 80 degrees and the elastomer ( ksg - 15 ) plus additional cyclomethicone ( dc - 345 from dow corning corp .) which has been preheated to about 70 degrees c . is then added with stirring . the mixture is further cooled to about 75 degrees c . and the antiperspirant active salt ( for example , reach azz 902 suf aluminum zirconium salt or reach azp 908 from reheis inc ., berkeley heights , n . j .) is added with mixing . the temperature is increased to about 80 degrees c . and held there for about 10 minutes with mixing . fragrance is added and mixing is continued for 1 minute . the mixture is poured into oval containers of the type normally used for antiperspirant / deodorant products and placed in a refrigerator at about 4 degrees c . for about 15 minutes . cooling is completed at room temperature . in some of the examples additional ingredients such as diethylhexyl 2 , 6 - naphthalate or performacol 350 alcohol can be added .	0
so as to facilitate comprehension of the invention , the following are the readily accepted definitions of some terms used in this description : 1 . primers : single strand synthetic oligonucleotide , normally used in pairs in hybridisation with strands complementary to a dna section . the inner extremities of the primer / dna template complex are used by the dna polymerase as points of initiation of the synthesis in a pcr . 2 . polymerase chain reaction ( pcr ) : technique involving the application of cycles of denaturation , annealing with the primer and extension with a thermostable dna polymerase , e . g . the taq dna polymerase , to amplify a target sequence of dna . the pcr process for amplifying nucleic acid is described in the documents u . s . pat . no . 4 , 683 , 195 and u . s . pat . no . 4 , 683 , 202 . an inadequate choice of primers may produce various undesirable effects , such as : impossibility of amplification , amplification at various sites , formation of primer dimers , amongst others , rendering the amplification reaction non - informative . the object of the present invention is accomplished by the amplification , by pcr , of a specific region of the schistosoma sp . genoma and latter separation by electrophoresis of the products of this amplification , followed by appropriate colouring techniques that permit an adequate visualisation of the dna in the gel including , but not limited to : colouring by silver salts , radioisotopes and enzymes combined with substrates that permit their detection , without the undesirable effects mentioned above . the method of the present invention may be employed for the detection of the dna of the genera schistosoma in any biological sample that contains cells or dna free of the parasite having sufficient integrity to be amplified by pcr . some samples , such as faeces and urine , need to be submitted to some kind of treatment so that the membranes or envelopes that may eventually enclose the dna in the cell of the parasite , may be ruptured , releasing the dna in solution . other samples , e . g . the serum of infected people , already contains the free molecules and do not need such treatment . generally , the membranes can be ruptured by the use of special chemical substances , such as detergents and chaotropic salts , or by using physical and mechanical processes , such as induced osmotic pressure and sonication . after the rupture of the cell membranes , the dna must be isolated from the other cell molecules , which can also be done by physicochemical processes , such as precipitation by ethanol or with the use of silica matrixes . once free in the solution , the dna may be detected in the sample , after amplification by pcr . the dna must be , preferentially , purified employing standard techniques for the removal of eventual substances that inhibit the amplification reaction . after extraction , the dna is selectively amplified by polymerase chain reaction . through the pcr , a specific sequence of the schistosoma sp . genoma is selectively copied millions of times , permitting the detection of the parasite dna . the reaction is a sequential process that requires at least two primers , small sequences of dna complementary to the parasite dna , that will be extended enzymatically , presenting a faithful copy of this dna . adding large quantities of primers , together with other necessary reagents , millions of copies of the parasite dna are obtained . the primers of the pcr employed here were specially designed for this invention , based on the original highly repetitive sequence of the s . mansoni genoma as described in id seq n . 1 and also illustrated in fig1 . it must be understood that other primers may be constructed having nucleotide sequences that are functionally equivalent in relation to id seq n . 2 and id seq n . 3 . such sequences are termed equivalent if functionally the corresponding biopolymers can perform the same role , without being identical , in view of the usage or purpose considered . the equivalent sequences may be the result of variability , as such , any modification in a sequence , spontaneous or induced , whether by substitution and / or deletion and / or insertion of nucleotide , and / or extension and / or shortening of the sequence at one of its extremities . an unnatural variability can result from genetic engineering techniques . each primer of the pair is , preferentially , constructed in a manner as to be substantially complementary to a different strand of the sequence that flanks the specific sequence of the schistosoma sp . genoma to be amplified . thus , a primer from each pair is sufficiently complementary to be able to hybridise with a part of the sequence in the sense and the other primer of each pair is also sufficiently complementary to hybridise with a different part of the same sequence in the antisense . despite the sequence of the primer not necessarily needing to mirror the exact sequence of the template , the closer the terminal 3 ′ sequence corresponds to the exact sequence the better the link during the matching stage of the polymerase chain reaction . the primers may be prepared by any appropriate method known to those skilled in the art and include , for example , cloning and digestion of adequate sequences and direct chemical synthesis . the product from the amplification promoted by pcr is a fragment , or a series of dna fragments of different sizes which can be separated through electrophoresis , followed by appropriate techniques of colouring which allow adequate visualisation of the dna in gel . due to the great specificity of pcr , the amplified dna of the parasite can be differentiated from the other products of the amplification based on its specific size . in this manner , the presence or absence of the infection can be determined , most times , simply by visual analysis of the amplified products , therefore , by the presence or not of the fragment with a weight corresponding to that of the parasite . in the present invention , the pcr is employed to amplify and visualise a specific fragment of dna originally described in s . mansoni , and also amplify specific regions of other species of schistosoma , leading to the conclusion that the repetitive and specific region of the dna originally verified in s . mansoni and described in id seq n . 1 is common to all the other species of schistosoma . the amplification of the specific region of the schistosoma sp . genoma is done by pcr , with the primers specially constructed to be used in the present invention and defined in table 1 or functionally equivalent sequences , therefore , that are capable of amplifying the sequence of s . mansoni or homologous sequences of other species of schistosoma . the kit of the present invention includes all the reagents necessary to allow the detection of any infection caused by helminths of the genera schistosoma . the kit consists of specific primers for a specific region of the schistosoma sp . genoma as shown in table 1 or functionally equivalent sequences and , furthermore , reagents and additives normally used in the pcr technique are also supplied , e . g . appropriate nucleotide , such as dgtp ( desoxyguanidine - triphosphate ), datp ( desoxyadenosine - triphosphate ), dctp ( desoxycitidine - triphosphate ) and dttp ( desoxytimidine - trisphosphate ); appropriate buffer solution ( e . g . 10 to 20 mm of tris - hcl , 50 to 60 mm of kcl , 1 . 5 to 2 . 0 mm of mgcl 2 , ph 8 . 0 to 8 . 5 ); taq dna polymerase , preferentially . a certain quantity of dna to be used as a positive control of the reaction will also be supplied , along with an instructions manual containing the protocol to be used in the test , with an illustrative diagram of the results to be expected . the present invention is described in detail through reference to the following examples . it must be understood that the present invention is not limited to these examples but also includes variations and modifications within the scope of the functions of the invention . the eggs of s . mansoni were extracted from the livers of mice previously infected with 100 cercariae , and stored in 0 . 9 % saline solution at − 20 ° c . until being used ( pellegrino e siqueira , 1956 , rev . bras . malar . 8 : 589 ). for the rupture of the eggs , 10 μl of the saline solution containing 100 . 000 eggs / ml was mixed with 90 μl of distilled water and the final solution submitted to 5 minutes of agitation in a mechanical mixer . this mixture , containing ruptured eggs , was used directly in the extraction of the dna . extraction of dna , through a modification of the steiner method ( steiner , j . j ., c . j . poklemba , r . g . fjellstrom and l . f . elliott . 1995 . a rapid one - tube genomic dna extraction process for pcr and rapd analyses . nucleic acids res . 23 ( 13 ): 2569 - 2570 ). 100 μl of the ruptured egg solution was diluted in 200 μl of buffer containing 10 mm of tris - base , ph 8 . 0 ; 270 mm of edta , ph 8 . 0 ; 1 % of sodium dodecyl sulphate ( sds ); 1 % of polyvinylpolypyrrolidone ( pvpp ). this mixture was incubated at 95 ° c . for 20 minutes , with a rapid manual agitation after the first 10 minutes of incubation and , then centrifuged for 10 minutes at 8000 × g , at room temperature . the dna contained in the skim was precipitated with ethanol , the skim was removed and the precipitate was incubated for 15 minutes at 37 ° c . for the evaporation of the remaining alcohol and later replaced in suspension in buffer t . e . ( 10 mm of tris , ph 8 . 0 ; 1 mm of edta , ph 8 . 0 ). the dna was then quantified by optical density reading at 260 nm , and stored at − 20 ° c . until being used in the pcr . amplification by polymerase chain reaction employing the specific primers shown in table 1 : briefly , 1 μl of extracted dna was submitted to amplification in a reaction tube containing pcr buffer ( 20 mm tris - hcl ph 8 . 0 , 50 mm de kcl , 1 . 5 mm mgcl 2 ), 200 μm dntps ( deoxinucleotides ), 0 . 5 μm of each primer and 0 . 75 units of taq polimerase enzyme , in a total volume of 10 μl . the amplification reaction involved denaturation of the double - stranded parasite dna at 95 ° c . ; for 45 seconds and primer annealing at 63 ° c . ; for 30 seconds . these two steps were repeated sequentially in 35 consecutives cycles . in the first cycle , the denaturation step was prolonged for five minutes , in order to assure complete denaturation , and at the last cycle an additional step , at 72 ° c . ; for 2 minutes , was included to finalise the extension of the remaining annealed primers . [ 0051 ] fig2 shows the electrophoretic pattern obtained from the amplification of the dna of s . mansoni and , also , the maximum sensitivity obtained for the detection of this dna . in lane m is the molecular weight marker ; in lanes 1 to 5 : 20 , 10 , 5 , 1 and 0 . 5 fg of dna , respectively . the reaction by pcr was capable of detecting down to 1 fg of s . mansoni dna . fig3 shows the electrophoretic pattern obtained after the amplification of the dna of five other species of genus schistosoma , amplified with the same primers and in the same pcr conditions as used for s . mansoni . lane m : molecular weight marker ; lane 1 : dna of s . mansoni ; lane 2 : s . haematobium ; lane 3 : s . japonicum ( strain from the phillipines ); lane 4 : s . japonicum ( strain from japan ); lane 5 : s . matthei ; lane 6 : s . bovis ; lane 7 : s . leipperi ; lane 8 : negative control . the pcr reaction was capable of amplifying the dna of all the species of schistosoma sp . tested . fig4 shows the attempt to amplify the dna of worms of other genera , also under the same conditions used for s . mansoni . lane m : molecular weight marker ; lane 1 : positive control ( dna of s . mansoni ); lane 2 : ascaris lumbricoides ; lane 3 : ancilostoma duodenales ; lane 4 : taenia solium ; lane 5 : trichiuris trichiuria . no product of amplification can be visualised when using the dna of worms of other genera . the pcr described in this invention is , therefore , specific for genera schistosoma . detection of the s . mansoni dna in faecal samples of patients : in these experiments , the eggs contained in the infected faeces ( naturally or artificially ) were ruptured in the manner described in example 1 . the dna was then extracted from the faeces by the same technique used for the extraction of dna from pure s . mansoni eggs ( example 2 ). after extraction , 1 μl of the s . mansoni ( diluted 100 times ) was amplified with the same primers and in the same conditions described in example 3 . fig5 shows the products of the amplification of the s . mansoni dna in faeces artificially infected with the eggs of the parasite . briefly , 100 mg of a faecal sample of a patient , containing 216 eggs / gramme , was mixed to 900 mg of negative faeces , forming a sample with an expected concentration of approximately 20 eggs / gramme . this procedure was repeated two more times originating faeces samples with 2 and 0 , 20 eggs / gramme , approximately . an aliquot of each sample was then submitted for analysis by the kato - katz method an for detection of the parasite dna by the pcr of the invention , with the aim of comparing the sensitivity of the two methods . in lane m is the molecular weight marker ; lane 1 : positive control ( 0 . 1 ng of s . mansoni egg dna ); lanes 2 to 5 : amplified dna of samples containing 200 , 48 , 4 . 8 and 0 . 48 eggs / gramme of faeces , respectively . the pcr was capable of detecting the dna of s . mansoni down to the sample containing approximately 4 . 8 eggs / gramme , whilst the sensitivity of the kato - katz method was of 48 eggs / gramme , therefore , 10 times lower . [ 0055 ] fig6 shows the result of the amplification of the s . mansoni dna in faeces of patients with various concentrations of parasites , previously determined by the kato - katz method . lane m : molecular weight marker ; lane 1 : positive control ; lanes 2 to 9 : samples of human faeces containing 0 . 96 ; 0 . 168 ; 432 ; 600 ; 96 . 912 and 72 eggs / gramme , respectively . the result of the pcr was in accordance with those obtained by the parasitological test in all the samples . the dna of 4 samples of serum was purified using 100 μl / sample employing the glass - max ® dna isolation spin cartridge system ( life technologies ), in accordance with the instructions of the manufacturer . 2 μl of this dna were then used in the amplification by pcr , in the same conditions described above . the serum from persons previously examined by the kato - katz method was used , having 2 positive and 2 negative samples . [ 0058 ] fig7 shows the result of this amplification . in lane m is the molecular weight marker ; lane 1 : positive control ; lanes 2 to 5 : serum of persons containing 0 ; 96 ; 0 and 216 eggs / gramme of faeces respectively .	8
various embodiments of polarization conversion systems that receive light from a projector are described . the polarization conversion systems present a brighter screen image in cinematic applications utilizing polarized light for three - dimensional viewing . fig2 is a schematic diagram showing a polarization conversion system ( pcs ) 100 for cinematic projection . an embodiment of the polarization conversion system 100 includes a polarizing beam splitter ( pbs ) 112 , a polarization rotator 114 ( e . g ., a half - wave plate ), a relecting element 116 ( e . g ., a fold mirror ), and a polarization switch 120 , arranged as shown . the polarization conversion system 100 may receive images from a conventional projector with a projection lens 122 . in operation , ray bundles a , b , and c emerge randomly polarized from the lens 122 and are projected toward a screen 130 to form an image . in this embodiment , a pbs 112 is inserted in place of the polarizer 22 shown in fig1 . the pbs 112 transmits p - polarized light 124 , and reflects s - polarized light 126 . the p - polarized light 124 passes through the polarization switch ( bundles a , b , and c ) and is rotated by the polarization switch in alternating frames , same as bundles a , b , and c in fig1 . the s - polarized light 126 reflected by the pbs 112 passes through a polarization rotator 114 ( e . g ., a half - wave plate , preferably achromatic in some embodiments ) and is rotated to p - polarized light 128 . the new p - polarized light 128 passes to a fold mirror 116 . the fold mirror 116 reflects the new p - polarized light 128 and passes it to polarization switch 120 . the polarization switch 120 , acting on p - polarized ray bundles a ′, b ′, and c ′, rotates the polarization of the ray bundles in alternating frames , in synchronization with the rotation of bundles a , b , and c . the position of bundles a ′, b ′, and c ′ at the screen may be adjusted ( e . g ., by adjusting the tilt of the fold mirror 116 ) to closely or exactly coincide with the positions of bundles a , b , and c at the screen . since nearly all of the randomly polarized light 106 from the projection lens 122 is imaged at the screen 130 with a single polarization state , the resulting image of the system in fig2 is approximately two times brighter than the image at the screen for the system in fig1 . in this exemplary embodiment , the pbs 112 in fig2 is depicted as a plate . however , various types of pbss may be used . for example , the pbs plate may be constructed using a wire grid layer on glass ( e . g ., proflux polarizer from moxtek in orem , utah ), polarization recycling film ( e . g ., double brightness enhancing film from 3m in st . paul , minn . ), polarization recycling film on glass ( for flatness ), or a multi - dielectric layer on glass . the pbs 112 in fig2 could alternatively be implemented as a glass cube ( with wire grid , polarization recycling film , or dielectric layers along the diagonal ) to reduce astigmatism in the final image associated with light passing through a tilted plate . alternatively , the tilted plate pbs 112 in fig2 may , in various embodiments , be implemented with spherical , aspheric , cylindrical or toroidal surfaces to reduce astigmatism in the final image at the screen 130 . de - centered spherical , aspheric , cylindrical or toroidal surfaces on the plate , and / or additional de - centered spherical , aspheric , cylindrical or toroidal elements in the optical path after the plate can be implemented to reduce astigmatism in the final image . see , e . g ., “ simple method of correcting the aberrations of a beamsplitter in converging light ,” v . doherty and d . shafer , proc . spie , vol . 0237 , pp . 195 - 200 , 1980 , which is hereby incorporated by reference . it should also be noted that a second flat plate may be inserted into the system after the tilted pbs plate 112 and its tilt adjusted to reduce or correct astigmatism in the final image . in some embodiments , the polarization rotator 114 in fig2 may be an achromatic half - wave plate . the half - wave plate may be implemented with polymer films ( e . g ., achromatic retardation plate from colorlink , inc ., boulder , colo . ), quartz plates , or a static liquid crystal device optionally patterned to account for geometric polarization alteration . the half - wave plate 114 may be positioned as shown in fig2 , or in other embodiments , it may be positioned between the fold mirror 116 and polarization switch 120 , intersecting ray bundles a ′, b ′, and c ′. this implementation may be desirable , as bundles a ′, b ′, and c ′ reflect from the fold mirror 116 in s - polarization state and mirrors often have a higher reflection for s - polarized light . however , with such an implementation , the half - wave plate 114 should be located such that bundles a ′ and c do not overlap at the plate . although in most described embodiments herein , the polarization rotator 114 is located in the second light path , it may alternatively be placed in the first light path instead , and the polarization conversion system will operate in a similar manner in accordance with the principles of the present disclosure . in some embodiments , the fold mirror 116 may be replaced with a pbs element ( e . g ., wire grid plate ). in this case , a purer polarization may be maintained after the pbs element . polarization switch 120 may be a switch as taught by u . s . pat . no . 4 , 792 , 850 ; a switch as taught by any of the switches of commonly - assigned u . s . patent application ser . no . 11 / 424 , 087 entitled “ achromatic polarization switches ”, filed jun . 14 , 2006 ; both of which are incorporated by reference in their entirety for all purposes , or any other polarization switch known in the art that selectively transforms an incoming state of polarization . in some embodiments , the polarization switch 120 can be split ( i . e ., to increase yield of the device ). if the polarization switch 120 is split , it is desirable that the two devices are located such that there is no overlap of bundles a ′ and c in fig2 . splitting the polarization switch 120 allows one portion to be relocated in the a ′, b ′, c ′ optical path between the half - wave plate 114 and fold mirror 116 . placing the polarization switch 120 here may call for the fold mirror 116 to have better polarization preserving properties ( e . g ., a silflex coating from oerlikon in golden , colo .) as this may be the last element in the a ′, b ′, c ′ optical path prior to the screen . in the polarization conversion system 100 of fig2 , the optical path of ray bundle a ′ is longer than that of ray bundle a ( similarly b ′- b and c ′- c ) resulting in a magnification difference between the images produced by a ′, b ′, c ′ and a , b , c . this magnification difference may be unacceptable to an audience , especially for wide angle and short - throw projection systems . some techniques for correcting this magnification difference may include ( 1 ) providing a curved surface on the fold mirror 116 with optical power that compensates for the magnification difference ; this solution is achromatic , which is desirable ; ( 2 ) adding a fresnel or diffractive surface with optical power to the fold mirror 116 to compensate for the magnification difference ( which may or may not be achromatic ); ( 3 ) adding a refractive element ( lens ) between the fold mirror 116 and polarization switch 120 , or between the pbs 112 and fold mirror 116 ; a singlet lens is unlikely to be achromatic , but a doublet solution can be achromatic ; ( 4 ) addition of a telephoto lens as illustrated in fig3 and 4 ; or ( 5 ) a combination of at least two of the above four techniques . although as described , p - polarized light is transmitted toward the polarization switch 120 , while s - polarized light is directed toward half - wave plate 114 , it should be apparent to a person of ordinary skill in the art that an alternative configuration may be employed in which s - polarized light is transmitted toward the polarization switch 120 , while p - polarized light is directed toward the half - wave plate 114 . fig3 is a schematic diagram showing another embodiment of a pcs for cinematic projection 200 . the elements of pcs 200 may be of similar type and function for those shown with respect to pcs 100 of fig2 . for instance , elements 2 xx are similar to elements 1 xx , where xx are the last two digits of the respective elements . in this embodiment , ray bundles a , b , and c may be directed through an additional set of fold mirrors 232 , 234 operable to equalize the optical path lengths of bundles a and a ′, b and b ′, c and c ′ as shown in fig3 . [ note : bundles a ′ and c ′ are present , but not illustrated . they follow a similar path to the a ′, b ′, c ′ bundles shown in fig2 ]. note that although the pbs and fold mirrors are shown here to be orientated at 45 degrees to the optical axis , the pbs 212 and fold mirrors 216 , 232 , 236 may have other orientations in accordance with the present teachings . additionally , glass may be inserted into the optical path of a ′, b ′, and c ′ ( e . g ., by replacing the fold mirror 216 with a right angle prism and / or using a glass cube pbs in place of a plate pbs ) to reduce or eliminate the optical path difference between the a , b , c and a ′, b ′, c ′ bundles , respectively . with reference to fig2 and 3 , the image from bundles a ′, b ′, and c ′ should substantially overlap the image from bundles a , b , and c for viewing comfort ( although perfect overlap is not necessarily required ). some techniques of adjusting one image location relative to the other include ( 1 ) using thumb screws or a similar mechanical techniques to tilt the fold mirror , pbs plate , or pbs cube ; ( 2 ) mechanically de - centering a lens or element with optical power ( e . g . curved mirror ); ( 3 ) utilizing a feedback system to automatically adjust image position via one of the aforementioned image adjustment techniques ; or ( 4 ) a combination of at least two of the above three techniques . optical transmission and stray light control may be optimized on optically transmissive elements by providing an anti - reflection coat thereon for high transmission and low reflection . reflections from transmissive elements can cause stray light in the system which degrades contrast and / or produces disturbing artifacts in the final image . in some embodiments , additional absorptive polarizers may be placed after the half - wave plate 114 in the a ′, b ′, c ′ path and / or after the pbs 112 in either path to control polarization leakage and improve the final image contrast . fig4 is a schematic diagram showing another embodiment of a pcs for cinematic projection 300 . the elements of pcs 300 may be of similar type and function for those shown with respect to pcs 100 of fig2 . for instance , elements 3 xx are similar to elements 1 xx , where xx are the last two digits of the respective elements . in this exemplary embodiment , a telephoto lens pair 340 may be implemented in the optical path where light transmits through the pbs 312 . here , telephoto lens pair 340 is located along an optical path and with the field of view centered on the optical axis . typically , telephoto lens 340 allows control of magnification , distortion , and imaging properties with two elements such that the two images overlay relatively close , i . e ., within 1 - 4 pixels of each other , while maintaining spots sizes on the order of a fraction of a pixel and lateral color on the order of a pixel . alternatively , a reverse telephoto lens ( not shown ) may be implemented in the optical path where light reflects from the pbs 312 ( located between the polarization switch 320 and fold mirror 316 , or after the fold mirror 316 ). if a telephoto or reverse telephoto lens is used for controlling magnification in one optical path , the radial distortion and keystone distortion of the final image can be tuned by laterally displacing the individual elements or pair of elements from the optical axis . fig5 is a schematic diagram showing another embodiment of a pcs for cinematic projection 400 . the elements of pcs 400 may be of similar type and function for those shown with respect to pcs 100 of fig2 . for instance , elements 4 xx are similar to elements 1 xx , where xx are the last two digits of the respective elements . in this exemplary embodiment , a telephoto lens pair 440 may be implemented in the optical path where light transmits through the pbs 412 . here , telephoto lens pair 440 is located along an optical path and with the field of view decentralized from the optical axis . just as described above , the radial distortion and keystone distortion of the final image can be tuned by laterally displacing the individual elements or pair of elements 440 from the optical axis . fig6 is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of a pcs for cinematic projection 500 that provides a circularly polarized output . pcs 500 includes a telephoto lens pair 540 along an optical path , with field of view centered on an optical axis . in this case , each polarization switch 520 is a circular polarization switch ( or z - screen ), e . g ., as described in u . s . pat . no . 4 , 792 , 850 . the cleanup polarizers 542 , 544 in each path are optional , depending on the level of contrast desired from the system . for example , including one or both cleanup polarizers may enhance the system contrast . fig7 is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of a pcs for cinematic projection 600 that provides a linearly polarized output . here , each polarization switch 620 is an achromatic linear polarization switch , as described in u . s . patent application ser . no . 11 / 424 , 087 entitled “ achromatic polarization switches ”, filed jun . 14 , 2006 ; also manufactured by colorlink , inc ., of boulder , colo . similar to the example in fig6 , cleanup polarizers 642 , 644 in each path are optional , depending on the level of contrast desired from the system . for example , including one or both cleanup polarizers may enhance the system contrast . additionally , the achromatic rotator 648 is optional , depending on the achromatic properties of the polarization switch 620 . fig8 is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of a pcs for cinematic projection 700 , showing an alternative configuration in which the polarizers 746 , achromatic rotator 714 , and polarization switches 720 are located after other optical components . the elements of pcs 700 may be of similar type and function for those shown with respect to pcs 100 of fig2 . for instance , elements 7 xx are similar to elements 1 xx , where xx are the last two digits of the respective elements . in operation , light exits projection lens 722 toward pbs 712 . p - polarized light passes through pbs 712 toward telephoto lens pair 740 , then toward polarization switch 720 . an optional cleanup polarizer 746 may be located between telephoto lens pair 740 and polarization switch 720 to further enhance contrast . the s - polarized light reflected by pbs 712 is directed toward fold mirror 716 , where it reflects toward an achromatic rotator 714 that transforms the s - polarized light into p - polarized light , then it passes through an optional cleanup polarizer 746 . next , the p - polarized light from achromatic rotator 714 passes through polarization switch 720 . in this configuration , the s - polarized light reflected by the pbs 716 is efficiently reflected , with polarization maintained by the fold mirror 716 . this relaxes any want for polarization preservation from the fold path and maximizes brightness . an achromatic 90 ° rotator 714 ( probably retarder stack based ) can be used to convert light from the fold mirror to the orthogonal state . in order to eliminate p - reflection from the pbs 712 , a clean up polarizer 746 is likely desirable . this preferably follows the achromatic rotator 714 , thereby reducing polarization conversion efficiency as a factor in system level contrast . pcs 700 provides a high contrast image on the screen . in this exemplary embodiment , the final screen image has a center located on the optical axis of the projection lens . in some other embodiments , the final screen image may be located off - center from the optical axis — for example , a half screen height below the optical axis of the projection lens . in such embodiments , the polarizing beamsplitter 712 may be relocated to intercept the full illumination from the projection lens 722 , and the fold mirror 716 may be tilted to properly overlay the two images on the screen . the polarization switch 720 in this embodiment has been split into two elements ( one for each path ) to increase fabrication yield ; although , as previously discussed , it could alternatively be a single unit . as used herein , the term “ cinematic projection ” refers to the projection of images using front and / or rear projection techniques , and includes , but is not limited to , applications for cinema , home theatre , simulators , instrumentation , head - up displays ,. and other projection environments where stereoscopic images are displayed . while several embodiments and variations of polarization conversion systems for stereoscopic projection have been described above , it should be understood that they have been presented by way of example only , and not limitation . thus , the breadth and scope of the invention ( s ) should not be limited by any of the above - described exemplary embodiments , but should be defined only in accordance with any claims and their equivalents issuing from this disclosure . furthermore , the above advantages and features are provided in described embodiments , but shall not limit the application of such issued claims to processes and structures accomplishing any or all of the above advantages . additionally , the section headings herein are provided for consistency with the suggestions under 37 cfr 1 . 77 or otherwise to provide organizational cues . these headings shall not limit or characterize the invention ( s ) set out in any claims that may issue from this disclosure . specifically and by way of example , although the headings refer to a “ technical field ,” such claims should not be limited by the language chosen under this heading to describe the so - called technical field . further , a description of a technology in the “ background ” is not to be construed as an admission that technology is prior art to any invention ( s ) in this disclosure . neither is the “ brief summary ” to be considered as a characterization of the invention ( s ) set forth in issued claims . furthermore , any reference in this disclosure to “ invention ” in the singular should not be used to argue that there is only a single point of novelty in this disclosure . multiple inventions may be set forth according to the limitations of the multiple claims issuing from this disclosure , and such claims accordingly define the invention ( s ), and their equivalents , that are protected thereby . in all instances , the scope of such claims shall be considered on their own merits in light of this disclosure , but should not be constrained by the headings set forth herein .	6
systems and methods described herein potentially enable electrical connections between flex circuits and electronic components to be made at locations that are difficult for operators to reach . by way of example , some embodiments accommodate electrical interconnecting of components that may be located in an area of insufficient clearance for an operator to conveniently grasp and / or position a flex circuit and / or component . as shown in fig1 an embodiment of a flex circuit assembly 100 includes a flex cable 102 . for ease of illustration , only a portion of the flex cable is shown in fig1 . flex cable 102 is attached to a connector 104 at one of its ends , with another connector ( not shown ) typically being attached at the other of its ends . connector 104 is sized and shaped to mate with a corresponding connector of a component , such as a circuit assembly , e . g ., a printed circuit board ( pcb ), so that the component can electrically communicate with the flex cable . similarly , the other end of the flex cable and corresponding connector are configured to electrically communicate with another component so that the components attached to the flex cable can electrically communicate with each other . various types of connectors , e . g ., a fine pitch , surface mount compatible connector , such as a “ mictor ” series connector manufactured by tyco , can be used . in the embodiment depicted in fig1 guide posts 106 and 107 are mounted adjacent to opposing end walls 108 , 109 of the connector . the guide posts 106 and 107 are sized and shaped to be received within corresponding orifices ( not shown ) of a mating connector , which typically is attached to the component to which the flex cable is to be connected . the guide posts assist in aligning the connector of the flex cable with the connector of the component so that the connectors can electrically communicate with each other . clearly , various shapes , sizes and numbers of guide posts can be used . in some embodiments , guide posts may even be omitted . a bolster plate 110 that supports guide posts 106 , 107 is located at end 112 of the flex cable , with the bolster plate 110 and the connector 104 being positioned on opposite sides of the flex cable . in addition to supporting the guide posts , the bolster plate 110 supports , e . g ., stiffens , the flex cable so that the flex cable is more resistant to bending . this tends to improve the integrity of the solder joints that typically are used to attach the flex cable 102 to the connector 104 . as shown more clearly in fig2 retention members 113 and 114 are supported by and extend outwardly from the bolster plate 110 . retention members can , however , be attached to a flex circuit assembly in various manners . by way of example , retention members can be directly adhered to a flex circuit assembly , such as with high strength adhesive . alternatively , one or more mechanical fasteners can be used . for instance , fasteners can be inserted through a flex cable to clamp the retention members to the flex cable . clearly , any fastener that extends through a flex cable should be positioned so that the fastener does not interfere with internal circuitry / conductors of the flex cable . in fig3 an embodiment of a retention member 300 is shown that includes a post 310 and a cap 312 . post 310 is generally cylindrical in shape and extends from a first end 314 , which attaches to a bolster plate ( not shown in fig3 ). the second end 316 is attached to cap 312 . cap 312 includes multiple segments , the ends of which are movable toward the post 310 . specifically , the embodiment of the cap of fig3 includes four segments ( segments 318 , 320 and 322 of which are shown ), each of which is generally triangular in shape . the apex of each segment is attached in a vicinity of the second end 316 of the post . since only the apex of each segment is fixed to the post 310 , the base of each segment can be deflected toward the post . for example , segments can be deflected inwardly toward the post as the cap is inserted through an orifice that has a smaller diameter than that of the cap . after being inserted into such an orifice , continued insertion of the retention member can enable the segments to return to their unbiased positions so that an interference fit is formed with the structure defining the orifice . referring now to fig4 mounting of an embodiment of a flex circuit assembly 402 to a support structure 410 will be described . in fig4 a support structure 410 is depicted that is generally configured as a plate . support structure 410 can be a portion of a chassis or other component that is adapted to mount the flex circuit assembly . in the embodiment depicted in fig4 support structure 410 includes holes 412 and 414 that are used to receive mechanical fasteners for mounting the support structure to a chassis . support structure 410 also includes mounting holes 420 and 422 , each of which is adapted to receive a retention member of the flex circuit assembly 402 . specifically , hole 420 is adapted to receive retention member 421 , and hole 422 is adapted to receive retention member 423 . as the respective caps 424 , 426 of the retention members 421 , 423 are directed through the holes 420 , 422 , the segments of the caps are deflected inwardly toward their respective posts . once inserted through the holes , the segments return to their unbiased positions and form interference fits with the support structure 410 so that the flex circuit assembly 402 is mounted to the support structure as shown in fig5 . note that the holes can vary in size so that , in some embodiments , the flex circuit assembly is able to move or “ float ” in a limited manner , while still maintaining the interference fit . this is particularly useful in applications where components are to be blind - mated , since it is often required that at least one of the components is able to float in order to compensate for manufacturing dimensional tolerances , for example . also note in fig5 that the support structure 410 includes protruding portions 428 , 430 that extend outwardly from a centerline of the support structure . as shown in fig8 protruding portions 428 , 430 serve as mounts for an anchor 610 . as will be described in detail below , the anchor 610 is configured to receive the distal end of a shaft that is used to align and engage the connector of the flex circuit assembly with a corresponding connector of an electronic component . an embodiment of a method for electrically interconnecting components is depicted in the flowchart of fig6 . as shown in fig6 the method may be construed as beginning at block 602 , where a flex circuit assembly is provided . in block 604 , a support structure is provided that is used to support at least a portion of the flex circuit assembly . in particular , as depicted in block 606 , an interference fit is formed between the support structure and a portion of the flex circuit assembly . typically , the portion of the flex circuit assembly forming the interference fit is located near a connector of the flex circuit assembly . this enables the connector to supported so that the connector is readily accessible for interconnecting with a corresponding connector of a component . continuing with the flowchart of fig7 some embodiments of a method may further include providing a component , such as depicted in block 608 . for instance , the component can be an electronic component such as a printed circuit board . in block 610 , an alignment feature of the support structure is engaged with an alignment feature of the component . note , representative alignment features will be described in detail later with respect to fig8 and 9 . in block 612 , the component is electrically interconnected with the flex cable of the flex circuit assembly . specifically , engagement of the corresponding alignment features facilitates electrical interconnection of the component and the flex cable . reference is now made to fig8 which depicts support structure 410 and flex circuit assembly 402 of fig5 positioned for engaging a connector of a component . in particular , the component depicted is a pcb 810 that includes an alignment feature for engaging a corresponding alignment feature of the anchor 610 . note , the anchor 610 is generally configured as a bar that extends between the protruding portions 428 , 430 of the support structure 410 . the alignment feature anchor 610 is an orifice 812 located at an intermediate portion of the anchor . the alignment feature 812 is adapted to engage an alignment feature of pcb 810 , which is configured as the distal end 814 of a shaft 820 . as shown in fig8 shaft 820 extends generally across the pcb 810 . the distal end 814 is located in a vicinity of connector 822 , which is adapted to mate with the connector 823 of the flex circuit assembly 402 . mounts , e . g ., mounting blocks 824 , 826 , are used to support the shaft 820 and allow the shaft to rotate so that the distal end 814 can engage within the orifice 812 . in some embodiments , the distal end 814 and the orifice 812 are threaded so that when the distal end engages the orifice and the shaft is rotated , such as by use of a handle 828 , rotation of the shaft draws the connectors 822 , 823 into mating engagement with each other . note that in fig8 the shaft 820 is located on the underside of pcb 810 , i . e ., the side that does not include the electrical traces and attached components . clearly , the shaft could be located in various other positions . typically , however , the shaft is located adjacent to the connector that is to engage the flex circuit assembly . in fig9 a portion of a representative chassis 900 is shown , in which component 810 is mounted . specifically , component 810 is electrically interconnected with flex circuit assembly 402 . note that the flex circuit assembly 402 is located at a generally central portion of the interior of the chassis 900 . this is a location that would be difficult for an operator to access by hand , particularly when a top cover of the chassis , which is not depicted in fig1 for clarity , is installed . typically , component 810 is supported within the chassis 900 by one or more of various support components ( not shown ), such as card guides or sliding rails , for example . shaft 820 provides additional structural support for component 810 since , in the installed position depicted in fig9 the shaft engages anchor 610 , which is attached to support structure 410 of the chassis . in order to remove component 810 from the chassis 900 , an operator rotates handle 828 , such as in the direction indicated by arrow a , to disengage the distal end 814 of the shaft from the anchor 610 . after the shaft disengages the anchor , the component 810 and accompanying shaft can be slid out of the chassis . the component 810 can be remounted within the chassis by reversing the above - mentioned process . it should be emphasized that the above - described embodiments of the present invention are merely possible examples of implementations set forth for a clear understanding of the principles of the invention . many variations and modifications may be made to the above - described embodiments of the invention without departing substantially from the spirit and principles of the invention . by way of example , the embodiments described herein incorporate shafts with threaded distal ends that engage threaded orifices of corresponding support structures . however , in other embodiments , mechanical interfaces other than threads can be used . for instance , hardware that activates on quarter turn operation could be used . additionally or alternatively , the single shaft structures described here could be substituted with various combinations of mechanical linkages , such as linkages that operate by rotation and / or longitudinal and / or transverse displacement . by way of example , an over - center draw latch , a level action assembly , or a cam action assembly could be used . as another example , the distal end of the shaft could include an orifice that receives an externally - threaded protrusion of the anchor . all such modifications and variations are intended to be included herein within the scope of this disclosure and the present invention and protected by the following claims .	7
a pitch containing 5 to 35 wt . % of mesophase is obtained by heat - treating a carboneous pitch such as a coal pitch or a petroleum pitch to allow mesophase to be formed . the mesophase formation is carried out usually by heat treatment at a temperature ranging from 340 ° to 450 ° c ., preferably 370 ° to 420 ° c ., at atmospheric or reduced pressure . it is also preferable that this heat treatment be conducted while introducing an inert gas such as nitrogen gas . the duration of the heat treatment may vary according to conditions such as the treating temperature and the amount of inert gas introduced , but usually ranges from 1 minute to 30 hours , preferably 5 minutes to 20 hours . the amount of inert gas introduced is preferably in the range of 0 . 7 to 5 . 0 scfh / lb pitch . the mesophase formation is carried out while adjusting to give a mesophase content of the pitch in the range of 5 to 35 wt . %. outside this range , it is impossible to expect the effect of the present invention . the pitch containing 5 to 35 wt . % of mesophase is then contacted with sulfur . usually , this treatment is conducted by adding sulfur into the pitch and heating the pitch composition at a temperature ranging from 150 ° to 400 ° c ., preferably 200 ° to 350 ° c ., at an atmospheric pressure or under application of pressure . the duration of this treatment may vary according to conditions such as the treating temperature and the amount of sulfur added , but usually ranges from 5 minutes to 3 hours , preferably 10 minutes to 2 hours . the amount of sulfur added is in the range of 0 . 5 to 10 wt . %, preferably 1 to 5 wt . %. the pitch thus treated is then subjected to melt spinning by a conventional method . the resultant pitch fiber is then rendered infusible in an oxidizing gas atmosphere . as the oxidizing gas , there may be used one or more of oxidizing gases such as oxygen , ozone , air , nitrogen oxide , halogen and sulfurous acid gas . this treatment for rendering the pitch fiber infusible is carried out under a temperature condition under which the melt - spun pitch fiber being treated does not soften and change in shape , for example , at a temperature in the range of 20 ° to 360 ° c ., preferably 20 ° to 300 ° c . the duration of this treatment usually ranges from 5 minutes to 10 hours . the pitch fiber thus rendered infusible is then subjected to carbonization and subsequent graphitization if required , in an inert gas atmosphere , to obtain carbon fiber . the carbonization treatment is carried out at a temperature usually ranging from 800 ° to 2 , 500 ° c . generally , the time required for carbonization is 0 . 5 minute to 10 hours . subsequently , graphitization may be performed , if required , at a temperature in the range of 2 , 500 ° to 3 , 500 ° c . for usually 1 second to 1 hour . during the treatment for rendering the pitch fiber infusible or for carbonizing or graphitizing it , the pitch fiber being treated may be held under a slight load or tension . the following examples and comparative examples . are given to further illustrate the present invention , but it is to be understood that the invention is not limited thereto . a heavy oil ( properties of which are shown in table 1 ) with a boiling point not lower than 200 ° c . by - produced in steam cracking of naphtha at 830 ° c . was heat - treated at 400 ° c . under a pressure of 15 kg / cm 2 . g for 3 hours . the heat - treated oil thus obtained was distilled at 250 ° c ./ 1 mmhg to distill off the light fraction therefrom to obtain a starting pitch ( 1 ) having a softening point of 82 ° c . 30 g . of the starting pitch ( 1 ) was heat - treated at 400 ° c . for 1 hour with stirring while nitrogen was introduced therein at a rate of 600 ml / min , to obtain a pitch ( 2 ) having a melting point of 220 ° c . and a mesophase content of 20 wt . %. then , 30 g . of the pitch ( 2 ) was stirred with 3 wt . % of sulfur for 90 minutes at 300 ° c . to obtain a pitch ( 3 ) having a softening point of 255 ° c . and a mesophase content of 20 wt . %. the pitch ( 3 ) thus prepared was melt - spun at 325 ° c . by means of a spinning apparatus having a nozzle diameter of 0 . 3 mm and an l / d ratio of 2 . 0 to obtain pitch fiber of 16 - 19μ . the pitch fiber thus obtained was then rendered infusible , carbonized and graphitized under the following conditions to obtain carbon fiber . infusiblization condition : heat in an air atmosphere at a rate of 3 ° c ./ min up to 200 ° c . and 1 ° c ./ min up to 300 ° c ., and hold at 300 ° c . for 30 minutes . carbonization condition : heat in a nitrogen atmosphere at a rate of 5 ° c ./ min and hold at 1 , 000 ° c . for 30 minutes . graphitization condition : heat in an argon gas stream up to 2 , 500 ° c . at a rate of 25 ° c ./ min . the carbon fiber thus obtained proved to have a tensile strength of 250 kg / mm 2 and a young &# 39 ; s modulus of 22 ton / mm 2 . table 1______________________________________heavy oil propertiesspecific gravity ( 15 ° c ./ 4 ° c .) 1 . 039______________________________________distillation initial boiling point 192 ° c . property 5 % 200 10 % 206 20 % 217 30 % 227 40 % 241 50 % 263 60 % 290 70 % 360______________________________________ the pitch ( 2 ) used in example 1 was subjected , directly without going through the treatment with sulfur , to melt spinning in the same way as in example 1 . as a result , there occurred breakage of thread frequently and it was impossible to effect spinning continuously . the starting pitch ( 1 ) used in example 1 was heat - treated at 400 ° c . for 2 hours with stirring while nitrogen was introduced therein in the same way as in example 1 , to obtain a pitch ( 4 ) having a softening point of 230 ° c . and a mesophase content of 33 wt . %. then , the pitch ( 4 ) thus obtained was stirred with 1 wt . % of sulfur for 90 minutes at 30 ° c . to obtain a pitch ( 5 ) having a softening point of 270 ° c . and a mesophase content of 33 wt . %. the pitch ( 5 ) thus obtained was melt - spun at 340 ° c . by means of the spinning apparatus used in example 1 and then subjected to infusiblization , carbonization and graphitization treatments in the same way as in example 1 , to obtain carbon fiber . the carbon fiber thus obtained proved to have a tensile strength of 270 kg / mm 2 and a young &# 39 ; s modulus of 30 ton / mm 2 . the starting pitch ( 1 ) used in example 1 was heat - treated at 400 ° c . for 30 minutes with stirring while nitrogen was introduced therein in the same way as in example 1 , to obtain a pitch ( 6 ) having a softening point of 198 ° c . and a mesophase content of 8 wt . %. then , the pitch ( 6 ) thus obtained was stirred with 5 wt . % of sulfur for 90 minutes at 300 ° c . to obtain a pitch ( 7 ) having a softening point of 243 ° c . and a mesophase content of 8 wt . %. the pitch ( 7 ) thus obtained was melt - spun at 315 ° c . by means of the spinning apparatus used in example 1 and then subjected to infusiblization , carbonization and graphitization treatments in the same way as in example 1 to obtain carbon fiber . the carbon fiber thus obtained proved to have a tensile strength of 200 kg / mm 2 and a young &# 39 ; s modulus of 20 ton / mm 2 . a heavy oil ( properties of which are shown in table 2 ) obtained by subjecting a vacuum - distilled light oil from arabic crude oil to catalytic cracking at 500 ° c . in the presence of a silica - alumina catalyst was heat - treated at 430 ° c . under a pressure of 15 kg / cm 2 . g for 3 hours . the heat - treated oil thus obtained was distilled at 250 ° c ./ 1 mmhg to distill off the light fraction therefrom to obtain a starting pitch ( 8 ) having a softening point of 85 ° c . 30 g . of the starting pitch ( 8 ) was heat - treated at 400 ° c . for 1 . 5 hours while nitrogen was introduced therein in the same way as in example 1 , to obtain a pitch ( 9 ) having a softening point of 225 ° c . and a mesophase content of 32 wt . %. then , the pitch ( 9 ) thus obtained was stirred with 3 wt . % of sulfur for 90 minutes at 300 ° c . to obtain a pitch ( 10 ) having a softening point of 260 ° c . and a mesophase content of 32 wt . %. the pitch ( 10 ) thus obtained was melt - spun at 310 ° c . by means of the apparatus used in example 1 and then subjected to infusiblization , carbonization and graphitization treatments in the same way as in example 1 to obtain carbon fiber . the carbon fiber thus obtained proved to have a tensile strength of 250 kg / mm 2 and a young &# 39 ; s modulus of 35 ton / mm 2 . table 2______________________________________heavy oil propertiesspecific gravity ( 15 ° c ./ 4 ° c .) 0 . 965______________________________________distillation initial boiling point 320 ° c . property 5 % 340 10 % 353 20 % 370 30 % 385 40 % 399 50 % 415 60 % 427 70 % 445 80 % 467 90 % 512viscosity cst @ 50 ° c . 18 . 21______________________________________ the pitch ( 9 ) used in example 4 was subjected , directly without going through the treatment with sulfur , to melt spinning in the same way as in example 1 . as a result , there occurred breakage of thread frequently and it was impossible to effect spinning continuously .	3
fig1 through 3 show a buckling - restriction bracing member according to a first embodiment of the present invention . in a steel buckling - restriction member 1 , steel rib plates 4 for reinforcement are rigidly fixed by welding on the respective surfaces of the respective ends of a steel center axis force member 2 which is formed of band steel plate . a plurality of bolt through holes 5 are provided in the respective ends of the steel center axis force member 2 and the rib plates 4 . a stick preventing coat 3 is applied to the whole surface of an intermediate portion of the steel center axis force member 2 . steel buckling - restriction member bodies 6 each having a channel section are disposed on the respective sides of the steel center axis force member 2 . band steel plates 8 are disposed along flanges 7 of the respective steel buckling - restriction member bodies 6 . the flanges 7 are clamped with many bolts 9 to the band steel plates 8 . further , the stick preventing coat 3 contacts with the whole inner periphery of the steel buckling - restriction member 1 . fig4 shows a buckling - restriction bracing member according to a second embodiment of the present invention . in a steel buckling - restriction member 1 , a steel center axis force member 2 has a cross - shaped section . four steel buckling - restriction member bodies 6 each having an l - shaped section are disposed around the steel center axis force member 2 . rod - type steel spacers 10 are disposed between the respective side edges of the adjacent steel buckling - restriction member bodies 6 . the respective side edges of the adjacent steel buckling - restriction member bodies 6 are clamped with many bolts 9 . the rest is the same construction as in the case of the first embodiment as shown in fig1 through 3 . fig5 shows a buckling - restriction bracing member according to a third embodiment of the present invention . in a steel buckling - restriction member 1 , two steel buckling - restriction member bodies 6 each provided with a groove having a channel section are disposed such that the respective grooves are opposed to each other . the respective side edges of the respective steel buckling - restriction member bodies 6 are clamped with many bolts 9 . the rest is the same construction as in the case of the first embodiment as shown in fig1 through 3 . fig6 shows a buckling - restriction bracing member according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention . in a steel buckling - restriction member 1 , two steel buckling restriction member bodies 6 each having a t - shaped section are disposed such that respective plate portions of the steel buckling - restriction member bodies 6 are disposed in spaced apart parallelism with each other . rod - type steel spacers 10 are disposed between the respective side edges of the respective steel buckling - restriction member bodies 6 . the side edges of the respective steel buckling - restriction member bodies 6 are clamped with many bolts 9 . the rest is the same construction as in the case of the first embodiment as shown in fig1 through 3 . fig7 shows a buckling - restriction bracing member according to a fifth embodiment of the present invention . in a steel buckling - restriction member 1 , two square steel pipes 11 are disposed in spaced apart parallelism with each other . band steel plates 8 are disposed between a pair of coplanar plate bodies of the two square steel pipes 11 . the respective side edges of the band steel plates 8 are rigidly fixed by welding on the square steel pipes 11 . the rest is the same construction as in the case of the first embodiment as shown in fig1 through 3 . fig8 through 10 show a buckling - restriction member according to a sixth embodiment of the present invention . the buckling - restriction bracing member includes a steel center axis force member 2 having an h - shaped section , and a steel buckling - restriction member 1 formed of a square steel pipe . further , a stick preventing coat 3 is closely disposed between the respective flanges 12 of the steel center axis force member 2 and the plate bodies 13 of the steel buckling - restriction member 1 . a plurality of bolt through holes 5 are provided in the respective ends of the steel center axis force member 2 . fig1 shows a buckling - restriction member according to a seventh embodiment of the present invention . a steel buckling - restriction member 1 comprises a steel center axis force member 2 having a h - shaped section . a pair of steel buckling - restriction member bodies 6 each having a channel section are disposed in grooves of the steel center axis force member 2 . band steel plates 8 are disposed in overlying relation to the outer surface of the respective flanges 14 of the steel center axis force member 2 . rod - type steel spacers 10 are disposed between the respective sides of the band steel plates 8 and the flanges 15 of the steel buckling - restriction member bodies 6 . the side edges of the band steel plates 8 and the side edges of the flanges 15 of the steel buckling - restriction member bodies 6 and the steel spacers 10 are clamped with bolts 9 . a stick preventing coat 3 is closely disposed between the whole periphery of the steel center axis force member 2 and the inner periphery of the steel buckling - restriction member 1 . a plurality of bolt through holes are provided in the flanges 14 at the respective ends of the steel center axis force member 2 . fig1 through 14 show a buckling - restriction member according to an eighth embodiment of the present invention . in a steel buckling - restriction member 1 , a steel center axis force member 2 formed of a circular steel pipe passed through the steel buckling - restriction member 1 formed of a circular steel pipe . a stick preventing coat 3 is closely disposed between the steel buckling - restriction member 1 and the whole surface of the steel center axis force member 2 . steel connecting plates 17 with a cross - shaped section have many bolt through holes 5 . the steel connecting plates 17 are rigidly fixed by welding through steel connectors 18 on the respective ends of the steel center axis force member 2 projecting from the respective ends of the steel buckling - restriction member 1 . form parting agent , oil paint , asphalt , tar , rubber and so on may be used as the stick preventing coat 3 of the present invention . this invention is clearly new and useful . moreover , it was not obvious to those of ordinary skill in this art at the time it was made , in view of the prior art considered as a whole as required by law . it will thus be seen that the objects set forth above , and those made apparent from the foregoing description , are efficiently attained and since certain changes may be made in the above construction without departing from the scope of the invention , it is intended that all matters contained in the foregoing construction or shown in the accompanying drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense . it is also to be understood that the following claims are intended to cover all of the generic and specific features of the invention herein described , and all statements of the scope of the invention which , as a matter of language , might be said to fall therebetween .	4
the current subject matter describes methods , systems , apparatuses , and articles ( sometimes referred to herein as “ privbank ” or the “ privbank system ”— privbank being a registered trademark of discoverready llc ) for collecting information and insight gained from reviewing more than 10 million electronic files ( 100 million pages ) for privileged material over hundreds of cases and from thousands of hours of independent research . the current subject matter can be implemented in connection with a wide variety of platforms including , without limitation , the platform ( and related systems , methods , and articles ) described in co - pending application ser . no . 13 / 014 , 643 , the contents of which are hereby fully incorporated by reference , as well as the i - decision ® platform by discoverready , llc . with reference to fig1 , a method 100 is illustrated in which , at 110 , a set of documents is imported / received . thereafter , at 120 , attributes of each of the documents are compared with a plurality of predefined indicators that characterize a likelihood of the document containing such attributes being privileged . based on this comparison , at 130 , it is determined which of the documents are potentially privileged based on the comparison . data can then be provided , at 140 , that identifies which of the documents are potentially privileged . the attributes can comprise content of the documents and / or contextual information associated with the document . example attributes include , but are not limited to : terms within a document , metadata , document id , sending entity , receiving entity , copied entity , blind copied entity , subject line , date and / or time sent , date and / or time received , file name , file size , file checksum , reviewed , hash , attachment , confidentiality , author , title , file type , document extension , pre - defined category , privilege , and pre - defined issues . fig2 is a system diagram illustrating a system 200 in which one or more documents sources 210 provide data characterizing documents ( or the documents themselves ) to a privbank system 220 . as will be discussed in more detail below , the privbank system 220 can compare terms within imported documents in relation to domains obtained from a domains database 240 and / or other contextual information obtained from a secondary data source 250 . the secondary data source 250 can include , for example , a custom e - mails datastore 252 and / or a decision bank 254 datastore . documents determined not to be privileged and / or data identifying such documents can be transferred to one or more document production applications 230 . documents determined to be potentially privileged can be segregated and , in some cases , stored in a separate privilege database 260 . the custom e - mails datastore 252 can represent data that a customer / user of the privbank system 220 can add in for any e - mail addresses that are unique to its business or case that should also be considered an indicator of potentially privileged communications . the decision bank datastore 254 can represent data that is collected over each use of the privbank system 220 to retain unique identifying information ( such as a hashcode or other document characteristics that associate documents with each other ) on documents that have been previously analyzed and the resulting decisions ( e . g ., privileged / non - privileged , etc .) so that document matches can be identified and past decisions reused without the time and load of performing full text searches repeatedly or requiring any additional processing or human review . the privbank system 220 can retain other identifying information ( such as author , sender , recipient , full text ) so past decisions can be used with respect to substantially similar documents that are later encountered . the custom e - mails datastore 252 can be populated in a variety of manners . e - mail addresses can be manually input , imported from an e - mail client , or otherwise mapped from a first format to another format . the domains database 240 can contain names , e - mail addresses and domain names associated with attorneys , law firms and consultants from around the world . this can be combined with complex queries for identifying privileged communications and work product which have been optimized by thousands of hours formulating and refining . the current subject matter is advantageous in that it can identify a high percentage of privileged records using the domains database 240 and stored queries . at the outset of each litigation matter , the privbank system 220 can help identify and segregate documents imported from the document sources 210 containing key indicators of privilege . with this segregated data , a segregated data storage area can be created for each client in the privilege database 260 and corresponding data can be deposited therein . a resulting “ fingerprint ” for each file within a client - specific area within the privilege database 260 and corresponding content can be reused from one matter to the next , allowing for an increasingly effective privilege screening process . the system 200 of fig2 ( and environment ) can be implemented in a client application ( e . g ., a windows application , etc .) and / or a web - based / networked application . with a client application , the system 200 can be distributed / sold / licensed for customer usage to retrieve documents from a document repository and / or one or more remote document sources 210 , compare attributes of the documents against various items such as , for example , pre - defined search terms ( in the secondary data source 250 ) and bank of domains ( in the domains database 240 ) to look for a set of documents , and export a potential privilege mark for all the documents with hits into the document production applications 230 . with either a client application or a web - based application , all data can be secured using any variety of technologies / protocols . for example , encrypted xml files can be used for client based implementations and secure transmission technologies such as ssl protocols can be used for web - based implementations . the domains database 240 can be used by the privbank system 220 to scan whether corresponding indicators ( e . g ., domain names , domains , etc .) are referenced within a set of documents , and if they are , the documents can be considered as potentially privileged due to attorney - client communications . in addition , scripts and processes can be used automatically or manually by highly technical people to generate query strings to search for custom names , terms , and e - mail addresses in a similar manner . these functions and processes can be used against a set of documents to identify which documents are “ hits ” and should be considered as potentially privileged . the domains database 240 can be made available to a plurality of separate entities / clients and can include information derived from , for example , historical litigation matters . while the domains database 240 and the secondary data source 250 are illustrated as being separate , it will be appreciated that the data contained therein can be integrated into a single database . in some cases , the single database can provide partitioning for multiple tenants such that tenant specific information is segregated from other tenants and the domains database is accessible by multiple tenants . in addition , while fig2 illustrates the integration of the privbank system 220 with a plurality of applications 210 , 230 , it will be appreciated that the privbank system 220 can incorporate the functionality of one or more of such applications 210 , 230 , whether or not such applications are identified in fig1 . for example , the privbank system 220 can be integrated into a document classification application that classifies documents according to categories such as privileged / non - privileged , a document management system , e - mail servers , and the like . in some cases in which the privbank system 220 is offered as a service , the domains datastore 240 can be offered / consumed as a secured database to customers . stated differently , the domains datastore 240 can be configured so that it is accessible as a service and does not expose any of the underlying data such as the aggregated domains list , but rather , information can be returned which indicates whether a hit is present . the privbank system 220 can render a graphical user interface which allows a user to set up / configure the system . the interface can allow a user to enter search terms which in turn can produce sql or boolean keyword queries and alias combinations for case searches . the interface can allow for the ability to modify the application of the custom e - mails datastore 252 by adding / update / delete search terms within case searches ( created above ). the interface can provide the ability to run some or all defined searches against a document set and produce a report of all the document ids with a hit and what search ( es ) it hit . the privbank system 220 can be used to generate or it can contain search query logic to perform , for example , one or more of the following ( which in turn is used to determine whether a particular document is potentially privileged ): “ domains list ” ( sql )— searching for e - mail domains that are on a pre - defined list of domains of law - firm or litigation - support entities ( the “ domains list ”). “ generic subset in e - mail address header fields ” ( sql )— look for selected privilege - rich terms in the header of an e - mail ( such as “ law ” or “ legal ”). running this query can be helpful to identify documents that are highly likely to be privileged . “ generic subset in subject ” ( sql )— look for selected privilege - rich terms in the subject line of an e - mail ( such as “ law ” and “ legal ”). running this query can be helpful to identify documents that are highly likely to be privileged . “ domains list ” ( full text )— this includes the use of the domain list as a full - text boolean search . the domain search can be run for each domain that is found to exist in a prior matter for the client or in the domains list - sql search ( above ) that is run earlier . the goal is to find references to a legal entity domain in the header , subject line , or body of e - mail and in the searchable text of other documents . “ client internal e - mail ” ( sql )— using client - provided e - mail addresses for the client &# 39 ; s internal legal personnel , search in the data for other potential e - mail addresses for identified legal personnel , and build searches for likely e - mail addresses if no particular e - mail address is provided or can be found for a given legal department person . to identify communications with internal legal personnel , which are highly likely to be privileged , a query can be run on the back end that searches the e - mail address header fields for those given , found , and built e - mail addresses . “ client internal e - mail ” ( full text )— text search for e - mail addresses of client - specific internal legal personnel found anywhere within a document ( such as “ john . smith @ client . com ”). “ client internal names ” ( full text )— text search for the names of client - specific internal legal personnel found anywhere within a document ( such as “ smith , john ” or any internal counsel nickname ). because legal personnel names may occur within the text of a document , and because either in the history of an e - mail chain a “ display name ” may be shown rather than an e - mail address , it is important to search for the names , as well as any nicknames , of legal personnel . name searches can be built to consistently account for common nicknames for given names . “ client - specified outside counsel names ” ( full text )— text search for specific outside counsel attorneys who worked on the underlying matter found anywhere within a document . because legal personnel names may occur within the text of a document , and because either in the history of an e - mail chain a “ display name ” may be shown rather than an e - mail address , it is important to search for the names , as well as any nicknames , of legal personnel . name searches can be built to consistently account for common nicknames for given names . “ client internal counsel department names ” ( full text )— text search for specific client departments ( such as “ legal dept .” or “ compliance dept .”) found anywhere within a document . “ names list ” ( full text )— proper names of law firms and legal support companies that correspond to domains from the document universe matching the domains list - sql ( search ( 2 ), above ). a proper name search can be run for each domain that is found to exist in a prior or current client matter . “ generic terms ” ( full text )— this text search contains standard terms to capture indicia of privilege that are not captured by law firm names . this search can vary slightly depending on the type of matter , and whether the client is concerned about client confidentiality as well as privilege . it can also be customized to avoid common footers or disclaimers which may contain text that otherwise would be suggestive of privilege . “ privacy terms ” ( full text )— text search for potentially personally sensitive or embarrassing terms such as curse words , illicit drugs , medical conditions , allusions to sexual activity and family - related matters . “ third party confidentiality terms ” ( full text )— generic terms designed to identify documents that may need to be withheld until third party clearance is obtained . for example , documents subject to third party non - disclosure agreements would fall under this search . this search could be generic ( such as “ nda ” or “ confidentiality agreement ”) or specific to search for parties that are known to have non - disclosure agreements in place . “ previously privileged ” ( sql )— using hash values or other methodologies to identify exact duplicates or substantial similar instances , documents are reviewed against privileged documents for the client from earlier review (“ previously privileged does ”). the privbank system 220 can report the results in a variety of manners . for example analytics reports can identify hit rates for a particular case . such hit rates can be broken down by document source , document type , and / or other factors . past document decisions can be imported into the decision bank datastore 254 from a variety of sources such as a generic / proprietary data file . a query builder can allow a user to get all document ids ( or other designated fields ) that meet user defined criteria ( such as all those that were found privileged from specific case databases ). the decision bank datastore 254 can be accessed while processing documents to determine if the document has already had a past decision made . options can be provided for a user to define how documents are matched up ( such as to use the file name , created date and file size or substantial textual similarity instead of the hash code ). decision bank datastore 254 can also allow for the storage of decisions made on a document after performing queries . in addition , analytics can be utilized to compare results of custom queries against past decisions and provide suggestions for changes to the queries ( i . e ., queries can be optimized based on past decision knowledge , etc .). in arrangements in which third party applications are integrated or utilized by the privbank system 220 , generic integrations can be provided that allow for custom delimited files to import / export data with such third party applications . custom delimited in this regard means that a user can define what character is used for field delimiters and what character is used for record delimiters ( for example , a tsv file uses & lt ; tab & gt ; for the field delimiter and cr / lf for the record delimiter ). an interchangeable model can be provided such that external interfaces can be built for each third party application to interact directly with the database tables producing the exact same results as the generic integration achieved . this data can consist of a minimum of document id , e - mail to , e - mail from , and subject . additional fields such as e - mail cc and e - mail bcc can be optionally available for field mapping . the privbank system 220 interface can include a variety of screens ( see , for example , fig3 - 8 ) to aid the determination of whether certain documents are potentially privileged and resulting analystics . fig3 is a screenshot 300 illustrating domain comparison search results and generated keyword search strings . fig4 is a screenshot 400 illustrating an interface for client and case setup that can be used to input and track information customized for a specific client or matter . fig5 is a diagram 500 illustrating an interface for banking documents for which a decision ( e . g ., privileged / non - privileged , etc .) have already been made ( i . e ., historical decisions ). this interface can be used to compare attributes of new documents with previous determinations in prior matters . fig6 is a report snapshot 600 that illustrates the top ten domains which were found in a corpus of analyzed documents . such information can be useful in high granularity characterizations of a certain corpus of documents . similarly , fig7 is a report snapshot 700 that illustrates the top e - mail addresses that were identified within a corpus of analyzed documents . fig8 is a report snapshot 800 that shows relative numbers of privileged and non - privileged documents within a corpus of analyzed documents . further , a main screen can include the navigation to all functionality including setup , updates , to import documents , to define search terms , launch a privilege search process , and export results ( e . g ., document tags , etc .). a setup screen can be used to define any parameters necessary for the operation of the privbank system 220 , define parameters about how it will run , and perform maintenance such as creating backups of the database and restoring from previous backups . an update screen can allow users to check whether there are any published updates ( software or data ) to the privbank system 220 or domain databases 240 and will download / install as necessary . in addition , an import document screen can prompt the user for the source application to be used for the import , and any necessary information such as file location , database name , field delimiters ( such as & lt ; tab & gt ;), record delimiters ( such as cr / lf ), etc . as required for that integration . a define search term screen can define search terms that allow for the user to enter names / terms they wish to consider privilege and to generate the appropriate aliases and query string appropriate to accommodate the search term entered . these terms can be saved off to the custom database specific to that user &# 39 ; s installation . a privilege search screen can be displayed while searching for privileged documents and is primarily a status screen that will show the user the progress (% complete , # of hits found , etc .) of the search in real time as it is occurring . upon completion , a report will be available to the user listing all the doc id &# 39 ; s that were hits and the search terms they hit on . an export privilege tags screen can be provided that is similar to the import document screen . the export tags screen can prompt the user for the destination application to be exported into , and any necessary information such as file location , database name , field delimiters ( such as & lt ; tab & gt ;), record delimiters ( such as cr / lf ), etc . as required for that integration . upon completion , a summary screen can be displayed showing the number of privilege tags that were updated . fig9 a and 9b are sample sql table diagrams 900 that may be used to implement the current subject matter . it will be appreciated that this particular table arrangement is illustrative and can be adapted or modified depending on the desired configuration . various implementations of the subject matter described herein may be realized in digital electronic circuitry , integrated circuitry , specially designed asics ( application specific integrated circuits ), computer hardware , firmware , software , and / or combinations thereof . these various implementations may include implementation in one or more computer programs that are executable and / or interpretable on a programmable system including at least one programmable processor , which may be special or general purpose , coupled to receive data and instructions from , and to transmit data and instructions to , a storage system , at least one input device , and at least one output device . these computer programs ( also known as programs , software , software applications or code ) include machine instructions for a programmable processor , and may be implemented in a high - level procedural and / or object - oriented programming language , and / or in assembly / machine language . as used herein , the term “ machine - readable medium ” refers to any computer program product , apparatus and / or device ( e . g ., magnetic discs , optical disks , memory , programmable logic devices ( plds )) used to provide machine instructions and / or data to a programmable processor , including a machine - readable medium that receives machine instructions as a machine - readable signal . the term “ machine - readable signal ” refers to any signal used to provide machine instructions and / or data to a programmable processor . to provide for interaction with a user , the subject matter described herein may be implemented on a computer having a display device ( e . g ., a crt ( cathode ray tube ) or lcd ( liquid crystal display ) monitor ) for displaying information to the user and a keyboard and a pointing device ( e . g ., a mouse or a trackball ) by which the user may provide input to the computer . other kinds of devices may be used to provide for interaction with a user as well ; for example , feedback provided to the user may be any form of sensory feedback ( e . g ., visual feedback , auditory feedback , or tactile feedback ); and input from the user may be received in any form , including acoustic , speech , or tactile input . the subject matter described herein may be implemented in a computing system that includes a back - end component ( e . g ., as a data server ), or that includes a middleware component ( e . g ., an application server ), or that includes a front - end component ( e . g ., a client computer having a graphical user interface or a web browser through which a user may interact with an implementation of the subject matter described herein ), or any combination of such back - end , middleware , or front - end components . the components of the system may be interconnected by any form or medium of digital data communication ( e . g ., a communication network ). examples of communication networks include a local area network (“ lan ”), a wide area network (“ wan ”), and the internet . the computing system may include clients and servers . a client and server are generally remote from each other and typically interact through a communication network . 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 . although a few variations have been described in detail above , other modifications are possible . for example , the logic flow depicted in the accompanying figures and described herein do not require the particular order shown , or sequential order , to achieve desirable results . other embodiments may be within the scope of the following claims .	6
sucralose , or 4 , 1 ′, 6 ′- trichloro - 4 , 1 ′, 6 ′- trideoxygalactosucrose , a sweetener with a sweetness intensity several hundred times that of sucrose , is derived from sucrose by replacing the hydroxyl groups in the 4 , 1 ′, and 6 ′ positions with chlorine . synthesis of sucralose is technically challenging because of the need to selectively replace specific hydroxyl groups with chlorine , while preserving other hydroxyl groups including a highly reactive primary hydroxyl group . numerous approaches to this synthesis are known . sucralose from these and other methods of synthesis may be advantageously used for in the compositions and devices of this invention . such useful sucralose is not limited to any material obtained from any particular synthetic route . because of its intense sweetness , other advantageous sensory attributes , and its good stability in solution , sucralose may be advantageously used in the compositions and devices of the present invention . in addition to sucralose , other sweeteners may be used within the meaning of his in this invention . such sweeteners include aspartame , neotame , saccharin , cyclamate , acesulfame , thaumatin ( or katemfe ), neohesperidin , and other high intensity sweeteners with sufficient solubility in water or other food grade solvents . additional sweeteners suitable for the purposes of this invention include stevia ( extract of the leaf of stevia rebaudiana ); hernandulcin ( extract of phyla scaberrima ); monellin , an extract of the serendipity berry ( dioscorophyllum cumminsii ); brazzein , an extract of the fruit of pentadiplandra brazzeana ; and mogroside , from the fruit of siraitia grosvernorii . for the purposes of this invention , any of the aforementioned sweeteners may be used alone , or they may be used in combination with other his . sweetness intensity of the compositions of the present invention can of course be increased by increasing the concentration of sucralose to levels of up to 300 mg / ml . the actual level of sweetener in the concentrate or solution is determined by the sweetening needs of the intended product applications and the volume of material dispensed at each use . the sweeteners herein described may also be termed “ non - nutritive sweeteners .” although some of these sweeteners may be metabolized by the body and yield some slight nutrient value , any nutrient value will be quite small because the levels of ingestion of these sweeteners is quite low under normal circumstances . hence the term “ non - nutritive sweeteners ” is appropriate for these materials regardless of their metabolic fate . in preparing the spray sweetener according to the present invention , an appropriate amount of sucralose , other his , or a mixture thereof is dissolved in water , or another appropriate food grade solvent , such as , ethanol , to achieve the desired sweetness delivery amount . this produces a high intensity sweetener solution or concentrate . the specific concentration of his is determined in part by the intensity of the selected sweetener or sweeteners used and the amount of solution dispensed as an aerosol during use . the amount and coverage of the high intensity sweetener solution dispensed should be sufficient to provide uniform coverage of the solution over the surface of the food to which it is applied . however , the volume of solution dispensed should not be so great as to cause sogginess or other obvious alterations in the textural properties of the food to which it is applied . the composition of the present invention may utilize a single high intensity sweetener such as sucralose , or it may contain a combination of sweeteners such as sucralose and saccharin . when sucralose is used as the only his in the his solution , the concentration of sucralose is from about 0 . 01 to about 30 weight percent of the his solution , or from about 0 . 1 to about 5 weight percent of the his solution , or from about 0 . 2 to about 3 weight percent of the his solution . other high intensity sweeteners may of course be used at concentrations that will provide equivalent levels of sweetness . the amount of high intensity sweetener solution delivered to the food product is preferably about 0 . 1 ml to about 5 ml , more preferably about 0 . 2 ml to about 2 . 5 ml , and most preferably about 0 . 5 ml to about 1 . 5 ml . also important is avoiding foam generation on the surface of the treated food , as the foam is visually unappealing in many applications and often indicates less than uniform coverage of the high intensity sweetener solution . for the purposes of this invention , “ non - foam forming ” means that no foam from the application of the high intensity sweetener solution remains on the surface of the food for more than 10 seconds after application . to aid in preparing a non - foam forming composition an antifoam agent may be added to the sweetener solutions . examples of suitable antifoam agents include simethicone , dimethicone , polydimethylsiloxane , and mixtures thereof . the high intensity sweetener concentrate may contain only the his dissolved in a suitable solvent , or it may additionally include buffers , stabilizers , preservatives , flavors , and mixtures thereof . examples of sucralose solutions include those embodied in examples i through xii of u . s . pat . no . 5 , 384 , 311 , which is incorporated herein in entirety by reference . the his solution may be delivered by a spray device . such device includes pump - type or squeeze - type sprayer , or alternatively , incorporated into a pressurized aerosol container . the compositions embodied in this invention are free of added nutritive sweeteners . such nutritive sweeteners include , but are not limited to , sucrose , glucose , high fructose corn syrup , or fructose . as a result of the low sweetness potency of these sweeteners ( compared to his ), relatively little additional sweetness is provided by incorporating these nutritive sweeteners into the spray compositions that are dispensed in small volumes . frequently food ingredients , such as , flavors that may be used in this invention , contain some levels of nutritive sweeteners to serve as fillers or stabilizing agents . therefore , the compositions of this invention may contain small amounts of nutritive sweeteners introduced from other ingredients . it is contemplated that generally any nutritive sweetener introduced from other food ingredients will be less than about 5 to about 10 weight percent of the final composition . although nutritive sweeteners do not contribute substantially to the sweetness imparted by the compositions disclosed herein , inclusion of these nutritive sweeteners into the spray composition would provide an excellent substrate for the growth of many microorganisms . to control this susceptibility to microbial growth , there is a need to incorporate into nutritive sweetener containing spray compositions substantial levels of antimicrobial preservatives such as benzoic acid , sorbic acid , methyl paraben , propyl paraben , butyl paraben , and mixtures thereof . these antimicrobial preservatives have significant adverse taste impacts , contributing notes of bitterness or sourness . alternatively , pastuerization or sterilization techniques could be used to prevent microbial spoilage of sweetener spray compositions containing nutritive sweeteners . however , such techniques add cost and complexity to manufacturing operations , and the heat exposure resulting from these processes can also have adverse effects on taste of the sweetener composition . his spray compositions without added nutritive sweeteners thus provide a better tasting composition with less risk of microbial spoilage , in contrast to sweetener compositions that also contain nutritive sweeteners . sucralose is especially desirable for the compositions of this invention because of its resistance to attack by microorganisms . the amount of antimicrobial preservatives needed to attain adequate preservation in a sucralose solution can be reduced in comparison to the amount needed in a nutritive sweetener containing composition . a variety of mechanical approaches may be used to dispense the sweetener compositions described herein . one contemplated embodiment of the invention is dispensing the his solution from a squeeze bottle , which generates a spray by means of a pump handle or by a squeeze mechanism by which physical pressure is exerted on the container holding the sweetener composition , and the solution is expelled through a narrow orifice , creating a spray or aerosol . the above described squeeze bottle is distinguished from aerosol containers , in which a propellant is incorporated inside a pressure - resistant vessel in which the sweetener composition is also contained . a number of propellant gases may be used , including , but not limited to , propane , butane , carbon dioxide , compressed air , fluorocarbon derivatives , and mixtures thereof . the fluorocarbon derivatives are generally less suitable because of possible adverse environmental consequences of their use . the propellant and sweetener concentrate may be contained within the same chamber of the aerosol container . alternatively , the aerosol container may be partitioned into two or more separate chambers by the use flexible membranes or diaphragms . in this embodiment , the pressure of the propellant squeezes the membrane or diaphragm , thereby indirectly causing the sweetener composition to be under pressure . the invention of this disclosure includes the physical means of generating and dispersing a spray or aerosol as mentioned above , and include but are not limited to spray bottles , squeeze bottles , and pressurized or aerosol devices . one embodiment of the present invention is an aerosol spray that delivers the sweetness equivalent of one teaspoon of sugar each time the spray actuator is fully depressed or the pump spray handle depressed or the bottle squeezed . one teaspoon of sugar ( table sugar , or sucrose from a beet or cane source ) weighs about 4 g . since sucralose is about 600 times as sweet as table sugar , the amount of sucralose needed to provide equivalent sweetness is about 0 . 0067 g or 6 . 7 mg . if the amount of solution dispensed per use is designed to be 1 . 0 ml , then the concentration of sucralose would be 6 . 67 mg / ml , or 6 . 67 g / l ( 0 . 667 % weight / volume ). a 150 ml portion of water was placed in container , and 350 mg of sucralose was added , and the contents were stirred to dissolve . this yielded a high intensity sweetener concentrate containing about 2 . 3 mg / ml of sucralose . the solution so obtained was placed in a pump spray bottle ( ace hardware all purpose sprayer ). each full depression of the spray bottle handle dispensed a mean of 1 . 35 ml of the high intensity sweetener solution . the spray bottle so prepared was used to spray the solution onto a bowl of cereal ( cheerios ®, general mills , inc .) to which skim milk had been previously added . one depression of the spray bottle handle was made while the spray bottle nozzle was held about 20 cm from the cereal , and the spray bottle was rotated over the top of the bowl in a circular manner during dispensing of the sweetener . the cereal in the bowl was found to be lightly but pleasantly sweetened . in particular , the sweetness remained localized on the surface of the cereal , instead of becoming generally dispersed in the milk . a more microbiologically stable form of example 1 is prepared by adding 150 mg each of potassium sorbate and sodium benzoate to the solution prepared as described in example 1 , and then stirring to achieve dissolution of these materials . finally , 272 mg of anhydrous citric acid and 258 mg of sodium citrate dihydrate are added , and stirring is continued until all materials are fully dissolved . this composition is resistant to growth of spoilage microorganisms . a sucralose solution containing antimicrobial preservatives and a buffer system is prepared as described in example 2 . approximately 200 ml of solution are placed in an empty steel aerosol can . the can is then pressurized by the addition of a charge of liquid propane , and the can is sealed and fitted with a spray actuator . the orifice of the spray actuator is designed so that , when the can is fully charged with propellant , about 0 . 5 ml of solution is dispensed over a 5 second interval . approximately one cup of sliced , capped strawberries is placed in an open bowl . the actuator of the aerosol can is held about 10 cm above the surface of the strawberries , and the actuator is depressed for 5 seconds while the spray is gently directed over the entire surface of the fruit . the fruit is found to be evenly sweetened on the surface , and the addition of sweetener by this method does not result in powdered material on the surface of the fruit , or an excessive amount of moisture on the fruit . one liter of ingestible grade , non - denatured 70 % ethanol is placed into a large covered beaker . with gentle stirring , 6 . 67 g of sucralose are gradually added , and stirring is maintained until dissolution is complete . ethyl vanillin ( 1 g ) is then added , and dispersed in the solution by stirring . the solution is then dispensed into a pump - type spray dispenser bottle as described in example 1 . sliced bread made from white wheat flour is gently toasted , and spread with a thin coating of benecol ® spread ( mcneil nutritionals ). the spray bottle is held about 15 cm above the surface of each slice of toast , and the spray handle is squeezed once over each slice of toast . the toast possesses a pleasant sweet taste with a vanilla note ; the toast remains crisp , and is not rendered soggy by the amount of solution sprayed onto the surface . one liter of ingestible grade , non - denatured 70 % ethanol is placed into a large covered beaker . with , gentle stirring , 6 . 67 g of sucralose is gradually added , and stirring maintained until dissolution is complete . caramel flavor ( 1 g ) is added , along with caramel color ( 1 g ). these materials are dispersed by stirring , and the solution is dispensed into a pump - type spray dispenser bottle as described in example 1 . popcorn is prepared in a microwave corn popper to provide approximately one liter of popped corn . while the corn is still warm , the spray bottle is held about 20 cm above the surface of the popcorn , and the spray handle is squeezed 10 times while the popcorn is stirred with a spoon . the corn is found to have a sweet , caramel taste and a pleasing color . the composition of example 1 is prepared . additionally , 0 . 1 ml of a 1 : 10 aqueous dilution of antifoam af emulsion ( 30 % simethicone polymers , dow corning ) is added with through mixing , and the solution is placed in a spray bottle . the solution is sprayed onto the surface of a food product ; no residual foam remains on the surface of the food . the antifoam agent can be used to prevent the formation of foam when other materials with a foaming tendency are also incorporated into the composition .	0
in the following description of the various embodiments , reference is made to the accompanying drawings , which form a part hereof , and in which is shown by way of illustration various embodiments in which the invention may be practised . it is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized , and structural and functional modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention . fig1 illustrates an example of a device according to an embodiment of the present invention . a device of fig1 has a control block 107 , which manages all functions and other blocks of the device . control block 107 handles and processes data , and transmits information between blocks . as an input means there is presented a keyboard 108 . devices may include other means for user input , such as mouse , pen or touch panel . as an output means there is presented a display 109 for presenting graphical and textual data . fig1 presents a microphone 106 for voice input . inputted analog voices are coded to digital form by a coder 105 . for voice and sound output there is presented a loudspeaker 104 . before digital sounds can be outputted by a loudspeaker 104 , sounds are decoded to analog form by a decoder 103 . the device of fig1 has also memory block 110 for storing information and settings . typically devices include different kind of memories , e . g . read - only memory ( rom ), random access memory ( ram ), flash memory , volatile and non - volatile memory . memory has typically different data structures for different purposes in order to store and access data in the most suitable way . in fig1 there is a transceiver block 102 and an antenna 101 for establishing connections and for transmitting and receiving data , radio waves or signals through the connection established . typically , connections are formed through a radio network to another devices , terminals , endpoints or nodes of the network . security settings are specified using a block 113 . typically , there are two determined security levels , namely secure and insecure . according to an embodiment of the invention , it is also possible to have more security levels , each including different determinations and settings regarding safety settings of a device . the settings include locking modes . according to an embodiment , security settings of block 113 are determined during the manufacturing phase and the user is typically not able to edit the settings . the stored security settings 113 are accessible for the user . the user can associate a locking mode to a certain feature of a device by associating a security level including a locking mode . according to an embodiment of the present invention , security levels stored in settings in block 113 are presented in user profile 112 . according to the embodiment the user may choose the wanted security level similarly as other items of the user profile . the security level setting is linked to a certain user profile and changed according to user profiles . according to an embodiment of the present invention , locking modes are presented in the user profile 112 settings . according to the embodiment , the user may choose the wanted locking mode similarly as other items of the user profile . the chosen locking mode is associated to the user profile and the locking mode currently in use is chosen according to currently valid user profiles . according to an embodiment of the present invention , the user can associate a certain locking mode to certain place . this is typically implemented by determining certain area , for example coordinates of the place . according to an embodiment certain often visited , insecure place is determined and a certain chosen , safe locking mode is associated to it . the present situation of the device is typically located with the aid of the global positioning system gps 111 , or some similar system for positioning the current location of the device . when the present coordinates or the location is detected to correspond to the predetermined , insecure place , to which a certain locking mode is associated to , the locking mode in question is set to be valid . when the locking mode is valid , it will be used for locking the device after the locking event is triggered manually by the user of automatically after a predetermined time of inactivity detected in the device . typically , the certain locking mode is valid , as long as it is detected that the device is within the predetermined , insecure area . according to an embodiment of the present invention , the user can associate a security level mode to certain place . when the present coordinates or the situation is detected to correspond to the determined , insecure place , for which certain security level is associated to , the security level in question is set to be valid . typically , the certain security level is valid , i . e . the locking mode is used if the device is locked , as long as it is detected that the device is within the determined , insecure area . generally , there are different kinds of opening codes for different kinds of locking modes . an insecure locking mode having a key locking function for enabling handy and flexible use is typically released by inputting certain short key combination . the key combination is typically universal , common to all devices , thus basically anyone can release it . according to an embodiment , a second secure locking mode has a safe locking and closing function for protecting the device from an unauthorized access . the safe locking function is typically released by a code specified by the user . thus , usually only the owner of the device knows the code and can release the safe device lock . according to embodiments of the invention , it is also possible to have multiple safe locking modes each having certain own specified features in order to be suitable for different situations and environments . a certain locking mode can be selected to be activated and used according to embodiments of the present invention . releasing can be implemented according to the locking mode selected , although a commonly sensible number of releasing codes are employed . for example , two codes are typical in order to release locking codes classified as secure , and on the other hand locking codes classified as insecure , even though according to an embodiment , there can be few different locking codes having a bit different features under the each classification . fig2 a presents a method according to an embodiment of the present invention . in phase 201 the user determines user profiles of the user device . typically , there is determined several user profiles for different situations and environments . the user profiles typically include settings for ringing tone , loudness , alarm , and so on . the chosen features of the user profile depend on requirements of the environment or situation , wherein the user profile is to be used . according to an embodiment of the present invention , a locking mode is also a feature to be selected in the user profile . in phase 202 existing locking modes are presented as alternatives to the user in user profile settings . according to another embodiment , locking modes can alternatively or additionally be selected manually from the menu of the device . according to another embodiment , there is presented security level alternatives in phase 202 in user profile settings . the user can thus select a security level to be associated to the user profile , i . e . to be used when the user profile is valid to be used . the security level includes a certain locking mode to be used with the security level . the user selects the locking mode automatically by selecting a certain security level , since the security level includes locking mode determinations . in this embodiment in phase 203 the user selects a locking mode from the alternatives presented in phase 202 . the chosen locking mode is associated with the user profile . according to an embodiment , the user chooses a security level to be associated with the user profile in question . the chosen locking mode is then valid when the user profile is valid to be used , and thus activated by activating the user profile . fig2 b presents a method according to an embodiment relating to locking the device after the determinations according to embodiment presented with the accompanying fig2 a are made . the device is locked in phase 204 . a device is typically locked manually by certain constant command input by the user . in some devices locking is performed automatically after a certain period of inactivity , i . e . after the device has not been used for a certain period of time . despite the triggering event for the locking of the device , after the device obtains a command to lock , the currently active locking mode or security level is determined in the user profile . the user profile currently valid for use is checked in order to discover the currently valid locking mode in phase 205 . the currently valid locking mode can be determined in the user profile settings directly or through security level settings . the user profile may have some constant predetermined security level , which is used , when no locking mode is determined by the user . typically , different user profiles have different security requirements and thus different selected locking modes and / or security levels . after the currently valid locking mode is found , the locking is performed according to it in phase 206 . the locking is performed according to locking mode associated to the currently active user profile in phase 206 . fig3 a presents a method according to an embodiment of the present invention . according to the embodiment , in phase 301 alternative locking modes are presented to the user in a menu . the user may choose a locking mode he desires to associate to certain determinable place , area or location . according to another embodiment , in phase 301 security levels including locking modes are presented to the user in a menu . the security levels including certain predetermined functions and settings are then presented to the user in phase 301 for the user to be able to choose the most applicable among those . the locking modes and / or security levels are predetermined possibly already in the manufacturing phase . in the embodiment of fig3 a , the user determines certain place , area or location in phase 302 . it is possible to determine place like a museum , theatre , park , stadium , market place , factory , or any other place requiring a certain level of security . typically , a place , area or location is determined using its location information , which is determined for example using gps equipment . in phase 303 the user associates the locking mode or the security level selected in phase 301 , to the determined location information . typically , often - visited places , which are determined to be insecure , i . e . requiring safe and secure settings for the mobile device , are associated with the high security level or secure locking mode . fig3 b presents a method according to an embodiment relating to locking the device after the determinations according to the embodiment presented with the accompanying fig3 a are made . the device is locked in phase 304 . a device is typically locked manually by certain constant command input by the user . in some devices , locking is performed automatically after a certain period of inactivity , i . e . after the device has not been used for a certain period of time . despite of the triggering event for the locking of the device , after the device obtains a command to lock , the present location information of the device is determined in phase 305 . typically , the location information is verified with the global positioning system , gps . it is also possible to check the current position of the mobile device from the radio network . regardless of how the current position is determined , after the current position is verified , it is compared in phase 306 to predetermined location information to which certain security level or locking mode is associated . if , according to the current location information , the mobile device is found to be in the area to which certain locking mode and / or security level is linked , the locking is performed according to the locking mode predetermined to be used in the area in phase 307 . usually , some insecure places or locations are associated with high security level and / or secure locking mode . the assumption is to use low security level and / or insecure locking mode , unless the location information determined in phase 305 is found to correlate with the predetermined location information in phase 306 to which a secure locking mode is associated . embodiments relating to fig2 a and 2 b , and embodiments relating to fig3 a and 3 b are well fit to be realized together in the same device . the embodiments may be overlapping such that there is certain priority in between those . for example , it can be specified that the locking mode associated to a certain area or location always overrides a locking mode determined in the user profile settings . further , there can be a locking mode determined manually to be used at the moment , which can be used as an assumption , if no other determination is found , e . g . associated to the determined current location information , or from the settings of the currently valid user profile . according to an embodiment of the present invention , a location information and possible security levels associated to it are checked first . when no locking mode or security level is found to be associated to the current location , the currently valid user profile is checked in order to find a locking mode or a security level determined in the user profile settings . according to another embodiment , the user profile is checked first . if no locking mode or security level is found , the location information is determined . it is also possible to check the location information and possible security levels associated to the current position of the device , when the security level of the user profile is found to be a predetermined constant , which is used if no other determinations is found . according to an embodiment of the invention , the user uses a positioning service to record the position information of the most commonly visited locations . according to an embodiment in the user device , there is presumptive locking mode , which is used when nothing else is specified . according to the embodiment , the presumptive locking mode is safe - one , i . e . it locks the whole device , not only the keys , and is releasable only by a device - specific locking code . if the user considers some determined location , e . g . her office , to be secure , there is no need to use safe locking , but keyboard locking would be sufficient . according to embodiments , the user determine a certain location to be secure by associating only keyboard locking function to be performed on location in question . the mobile device traces its current location . while the device is on a location , which is determined to be secure and the device lock is activated , only the keyboard lock is turned on . on other locations , namely presumed or determined to be insecure , the secure locking code for protecting the device from unauthorized access is turned on .	7
the elements designated with numbers in the drawings correspond to the parts indicated as follows . the cabinet described consists of a box - shaped body ( 1 ) in general orthoedric shape , with walls made of a material of great resistance ( in order to support , in case of the explosion of one or more bottles of compressed air , the stresses resulting from this incident ). body ( 1 ) opens on its front vertical face and on its upper base , by which its utilization is verified and where the two doors ( 2 ), ( 3 ) for access to the interior are located . door ( 2 ) moves vertically on the plane of the front face , and is operated by a mechanism for its elevation and descent , which will be described . door ( 3 ) moves horizontally on the upper base of the body 1 , sliding with rollers ( 3 a ) on two lateral guides , and equipped with two handles ( 4 ) for manual movement . the movement of door ( 3 ), apart from the manual method indicated , can likewise be carried out with an electromechanical device that is known , such as with a nut ( 39 ), a lead screw and an electric motor ( 40 ). the door can also be folding or other type . the operating mechanism of the front door ( 2 ) includes an electric motor ( 5 ), actuator of a transversal axle - shaft ( 6 ), the ends of which , sustained by bearings ( 7 ), carry the conical cog wheels ( 8 ), meshed with other wheels ( 9 ) attached to the lateral and vertical spindles ( 10 ). the spindles ( 10 ), in their turning , determine the vertical movement of the nuts ( 11 ), attached to the supports ( 12 ) fixed to the front door ( 2 ) and which will produce the vertical movement of the same . conventionally , the heads of the spindles ( 10 ) rest with bearings ( 13 ) on the supports ( 14 ) on the upper and lateral parts of the body ( 1 ). the vertical movement of the front door ( 2 ) could likewise be carried out with pneumatic or hydraulic cylinders , chain and / or belt mechanisms and similar . the grease pump ( 15 ), located on one of the exterior sides of the body ( 1 ), serves for maintenance of the device , especially of the spindles ( 10 ). bottles ( 16 ), ( 17 ) which are to be filled with compressed air are inserted in horizontal position into the cabinet . initially , they are allowed to rest on a transversal roller ( 41 ), located on the upper edge of the front door ( 2 ) and are then deposited by horizontal pushing , according to fig3 to 8 , on sets of rollers ( 18 ), ( 19 ) of rubber or similar material , of low hardness and conical shape , associated two by two at their smaller bases ( defining shapes of the known “ diavolo ”). this characteristic ensures the stability and virtual immobility of the bottles ( 16 ), ( 17 ) during the filling operation ; it likewise ensures that no scratching occurs or other aggressions on the outer surface of the bottles ( 16 ), ( 17 ). rollers ( 18 ), ( 19 ) are mounted on fixed horizontal shafts ( 20 ), parallel and equidistant , sustained by the side faces ( 21 ), ( 22 ) of a common support ( 23 ) in a low box shape . inside of it there is a partition ( 24 ) parallel to the faces ( 21 ), ( 22 ); thus , there is a section in e shape , which is passed through by the shafts ( 20 ). one part ( 18 ) of the rollers can turn freely on the shaft sections ( 20 ) ( fixed ) located between the face ( 21 ) and the partition ( 24 ), and cannot move axially . another part ( 19 ) of the rollers is first contained inside of a support ( 27 ) in the shape of a channel of rectangular section , the side faces of which , provided with perforations ( 28 ), are passed through by the same fixed shafts ( 20 ). the space defined between the partition ( 24 ) and the face ( 22 ) of the support ( 23 ) is greater in width than the distance between the face ( 21 ) and the partition ( 24 ) itself ; thus , the length of the shaft sections ( 20 ) in this space is greater than that of each conical roller pair ( 19 ) and their support ( 27 ). for this reason , support ( 27 ) can move , always parallel to itself , leaving exposed equivalent sections of the shafts ( 20 ). consequently , the distances between the roller pairs ( 18 ), ( 19 ) mounted on the shafts ( 20 ) can be modified at will , according to the diameters of the bottles ( 16 ), ( 17 ) placed horizontally on them . alternatively , instead of the elastic rollers ( 18 ), ( 19 ) mentioned , forming a unit of support for the bottles ( 16 ), ( 17 ) oriented horizontally , a shelf or drawer could be used , sliding horizontally on guides and forming “ beds ” or elongated entries for receiving and sustaining the bottles ( 16 ), ( 17 ). the bottles ( 16 ), ( 17 ) remain with their taps ( 29 ) located on the front , upper and inner part of the body ( 1 ) of the cabinet ( fig4 ), and for their filling , receive the coupling of the filling taps ( 30 ) ( fig5 ), disposed in number of four , according to fig3 and 3 bis , or of two , according to fig6 and 7 . the filling taps ( 30 ) ( fig4 and 5 ) are fed through respective flexible tubular hoses ( conduits ) ( 31 ), associated to an air collector ( 32 ) to which , in turn , the air intake ( 25 ) is connected , pertaining to the installation of an air compressor not shown in the drawings . conventionally , suitable purgers will be used . the new cabinet has a control panel ( 26 ) which includes an emergency switch ( 33 ) ( fig7 ), a filling gauge ( 34 ), a compressor filling switch ( 35 ), a stop switch ( 36 ), and switches ( 37 ), ( 38 ) for the vertical movement of the front door ( 2 ) and the horizontal movement of the upper door ( 3 ) simultaneously . the control panel ( 26 ) mainly occupies an upper part of the body ( 1 ). the passive safety of the described cabinet with respect to occasional explosions due to the release of air at high pressure and breakage of bottles ( 16 ), ( 17 ) is guaranteed by the sturdiness of the walls of the body ( 1 ) and of the doors ( 2 ), ( 3 ), made mainly of iron plate of a suitable thickness . the objective is the personal safety of the users of the filling cabinet . on the inner , lower and rear parts of the body ( 1 ) ( fig4 and 5 ) there is a tube or camera ( 42 ) ( fig5 ) with escape openings for the shock wave which would be produced in the case of explosion or breakage of one or more high - pressure air bottles ( 16 ), ( 17 ). to be included among the advantages of the filling cabinet described are , in addition to its safety and ease of use , its portability and the possibility of simultaneously filling bottles ( 16 ), ( 17 ) of different types and at different values of air pressure . it is not necessary to lift and maintain an upper door which may injure the user of the cabinet if it falls , or use pins or other auxiliary elements to position said upper door , as is the case with other types of cabinets for filling bottles . all that does not affect , alter , change or modify the essence of the cabinet described will be variable by the holder of this patent , for the purposes of the protection provided by the same . modifications may not be introduced by other persons with the purpose of eluding the protection of this patent , without authorization of the holder .	5
referring to the embodiment of fig1 - 3 , the arrangement therein illustrated comprises a housing 10 constructed of a nonconducting material illustratively shown to be bakelite and cylindrically shaped . located in the housing in aligned relationship are two electrical transfer plates 11 , two circuit transfer plates 12 , one heat transfer plate 13 , two air gap assemblies 14 , two plungers 15 , two springs 16 and two heat coil assemblies 17 . the plungers are made of any suitable material such as steel or brass . the plates and springs are made of any suitable material such as beryllium copper or phosphor bronze . electrical transfer plates 11 , circuit transfer plates 12 and heat transfer plate 13 are mounted through slots in the housing and held in place by deforming the connector terminals 11c , 12c and 13c on their respective plates , after installation . electrical transfer plate 11 and heat transfer plate 13 each has a pair of spaced blades 11a , 11b and 13a , 13b respectively . each pair of associated blades comprise a holding clip . the holding clips are aligned to receive and hold the over - voltage gas protector 18 . in the embodiment illustrated in fig3 - 4 this over - voltage gas protector is of known construction ; examples of which are an aei type 16 gas tube protector , a tii - 16 type surge arrester , a siemens type ti - 6350 surge voltage arrester . a cartridge of this type comprises a gas - filled housing having a pair of opposed , spaced electrodes each of which makes electrical contact with one of the cartridge and terminals 18a and 18b . in the presence of an excessive voltage the gas between the electrodes is ionized thereby effectively shorting the end terminals and connecting them to the case of the protector and to external ground as described below . the lines and apparatus connected to these electrodes via the electrical transfer plates are thus short - circuited to thereby prevent the over - voltage condition from causing excessive current flow in the protected apparatus . in the application of this device each of the circuit transfer plates 12 is connected to a different entering line wire 20 of the two line system , each of the electrical transfer plates 11 is connected to a different apparatus wire 21 of the two line system and the heat transfer plate 13 is connected to external ground wire 22 . these connections are illustratively accomplished by such means as ` faston ` female connectors 19 manufactured by amp co . these are push - on - quick - disconnect receptacles which mate tightly with the connector terminals 11c , 12c , 13c on one end and firmly crimp to different wires 20 , 21 and 22 on the other end . the air gap assembly 14 is illustratively shown to be the same type as used in independently mounted air gap protectors such as manufactured by cook electric co ., western electric co ., reliable electric co . or reliance electric co .. this assembly contains carbon electrodes although metal electrodes will also suffice . there are two carbon electrodes 41 , 42 one fusible disc 43 , and a metal cage housing 44 . the carbon electrodes are insulated from each other by an air gap which allows the grounding of high voltage surges through the development of an arc path between line carbon electrode 41 and grounded carbon electrode 42 . should these high voltage surges on the line persist , the continued arcing will heat and melt the fusible disc 43 , thereby allowing repositioning of components due to urging of spring 16 , so that plunger 15 contacts grounded metal cage 44 thereby shorting across the air gap and causing the incoming line and all voltage surges to be grounded . the fusible disc 43 may be lead , solder , babbit or other appropriate material in accordance with ratings and installation requirements , the fusible disc being designed to melt when the current rating of the device is exceeded . the heat coil assembly 17 is composed of two identical conducting rings 71 , an insulating washer 72 and coil wire 73 . suitable material for the conducting ring is steel , brass or copper and for the insulating washer is bakelite . each conducting ring is fastened to an opposite face of the insulating washer as by glue , and each ring has a tab 71d used to connect by solder means one end of the heat coil wire 73 . the heat coil wire 72 is insulated and maintained in place within the center of the heat coil assembly by its own stiffness , the coil wire being designed to open when the current rating of the apparatus wire is exceeded over a predetermined time period , as when a voltage appears which is not large enough to cause arcing of a protector . since the coil wire is a series element in the incoming line its opening will assure apparatus safety from any excessive current . the coil is not affected by short duration over - voltage surges which produce arcing across the protector . in fig4 there is illustrated the combination of an over - voltage gas protector with the device . under normal operation the signal path is from either one of the wires 20 and its associated connector 19 to one of the terminals 12c . it then passes to circuit transfer plate 12 to ring 71 , through coil wire 73 to the other ring 71 on the same heat coil assembly where it enters electrical transfer plate 11 , connector 19 and wire 21 to the apparatus . if excessive voltage exists on the line the current developed will be conducted to ground through the path consisting of its associated wire 20 to its connector 19 to its associated circuit transfer plate 12 to ring 71 , through coil wire 73 to the other ring 71 on the same heat coil assembly to electrical transfer plate 11 to its associated gas protector end terminal 18a or 18b , then through the gas protector 18 which will ionize , to the protector case , through heat transfer plate 13 , the terminals at 13c , connector 19 and wire 22 to ground . as an added measure of reliability a back up path to ground is provided for excessive voltage if the over - voltage gas protector should fail or be removed from the device . with the gas protector 18 inoperable or missing from the device an excessive voltage arriving at electrical transfer plate 11 will pass to spring 16 , plunger 15 and line carbon electrode 41 . the excessive voltage then arcs across the air gap to grounded carbon electrode 42 , to fusible disc 43 to metal cage 44 , heat transfer plate 13 , terminal at 13c , connector 19 and wire 22 to ground . with gas protector 18 installed and operable an entering excessive voltage can be grounded through either of two parallel paths ; one utilizing the gas protector and the other utilizing the carbon electrodes in the air gap assembly . however , the gas protector should conduct first because it can be more accurately set for a lower firing voltage . in the case of a prolonged over - voltage condition there is a possibility that the gas tube or other protective element will fail . if the element becomes an open conduit the apparatus and lines connected thereto are no longer protected . to eliminate this possibility the embodiment of fig3 includes a shorting arrangement which provides an extra measure of safety and reliability as described hereinafter . in the event of a sustained excessive voltage the heat generated in the gas protector will be conducted by spaced blades 13a , 13b of the heat transfer plate 13 to cage 44 and to the fusible disc 43 in air gap assembly 14 . as excessive heat melts the fusible disc , its compressed spring 16 expands , pushing plunger 15 towards cage 44 . during this movement electrical contact between the plunger and grounded cage is prevented by insulation means within air gap assembly 14 . eventually , when the fusible disc is melted , plunger 15 contacts cage 44 which is in contact with the grounded heat transfer plate 13 thus connecting the incoming line to ground through the path of its associated wire 20 , connector 19 , terminal 12c , circuit transfer plate 12 , ring 71 , coil wire 73 , second ring 71 , electrical transfer plate 11 , spring 16 , plunger 15 , cage 44 , heat transfer plate 13 , terminal 13c , connector 19 and wire 22 . in the illustrated use of this device there are two fusible discs , each providing similar heat sensitive means and similar grounding means for said excessive voltage . when the gas protector is not in operation these fusible discs function in the same manner as discussed , to ground the incoming line and sustain excessive voltage causing heat to be generated in the carbon electrodes . an extra measure of assurance that the device is installed may be easily obtained . since it is possible that the device may be removed from existing terminals it is necessary to provide means whereby it must be replaced . these means consist of a slight wiring rearrangement and a change of wire termination hardware as hereinafter described . as presently configured , the subscriber station utilizes three screw terminals , one for each line of the two line system and one for ground . for connection purposes bared wires are now wrapped around each terminal and held in place by use of a nut on the screw . although this clip - on device may be easily adapted to existing subscriber terminals , it is proposed to eliminate the present screw terminals and place female connectors on each of the wires . these connectors were previously described and are shown as item 19 in fig1 , 4 . each of the two incoming lines accepts a connector which is placed on a different terminal 12c . each of the two apparatus wires accepts a connector which is placed on a different terminal 11c . the existing grounded wire and the apparatus ground wire accept one common connector which is placed on terminal 13c . through this rewiring additional safety is obtained since the device becomes a series element rather than a parallel element in the use of the apparatus and it becomes impossible for the apparatus to function without the device in its proper place . in addition , ease of maintenance and safety of personnel is provided in the removal and replacement of the device after the fusible disc has melted . although connector 19 firmly grasps connector terminals 11c , 12c , 13c , it can be disconnected rapidly and safely since connector 19 has insulation on its crimped portion where it may be held without fear of shock as with the present screw terminal connection . an important aspect of this device is its adaptability to existing terminals of presently utilized protectors , which may be removed from operation due to one or more undesirable deficiencies and may be replaced by this device without major installation costs . this device may be operated across existing circuit terminals which presently utilize an air gap type protector with the air gap protector removed , since safety during prolonged overload is provided by its own fusible element and is not dependent upon the fusible element backup accompanying the independent air gap protector . this small mobile holder for the gas - filled over - voltage protector may be encapsulated with a gas protector using a potting material , stycast 2651 - 40 or rtv - 21 are suitable examples , with terminals 11c , 12c , 13c left exposed , and may be maneuvered and positioned into place so that it is quickly and easily connected as previously described or by utilizing a connector 19 having a pigtail wire for connection to existing circuit screw terminals . another important feature of this small device is its adaptability to existing central office equipment presently utilizing densely packaged gas - filled over - voltage protectors which operate without the use of any fusible safety elements , such as in the tii 700 block . one possible minor wiring modification is removing the existing block ground connection at each gas protector case and placing the ground onto connector terminal 13c of heat transfer plate 13 . while only one embodiment of the present invention has been shown and described , it is to be understood that many changes and modifications can be made hereto without departing from the spirit and scope hereof .	7
variations described for the present invention can be realized in any combination desirable for each particular application . thus particular limitations , and / or embodiment enhancements described herein , which may have particular advantages to the particular application need not be used for all applications . also , it should be realized that not all limitations need to be implemented in methods , systems and / or apparatus including one or more concepts of the present invention . referring to fig1 , an interconnection structure 10 suitable for the connection of microelectronic integrated circuit ( ic ) chips to packages is provided by this invention . in particular , the invention pertains to the area - array or flip - chip technology often called c4 ( controlled collapse chip connection ). the blm ( also named an under bump metallurgy ( ubm ))) 11 is deposited on passivated integrated circuit ( ic ) device 12 ( e . g ., a silicon wafer ). a first layer of the blm 11 is an adhesion / diffusion barrier layer 14 which may preferably be a metal , alloy or compound selected from the group consisting of cr , ti , tiw , v , zr , ta and their alloys ( or compounds ), and may have a thickness of about 100 to 5 , 000 angstroms , and may be deposited by evaporation , sputtering , or other known techniques . a solder reaction barrier layer 16 of a metal or compound preferably selected from the group consisting of ni , co , ru , hf , nb , mo , w , v and their alloys ( or compounds ) may be subsequently deposited on the adhesion layer , preferably by , for example , sputtering , plating , or evaporation to a thickness of about 500 to 30 , 000 angstroms . top layer 18 is a solderable layer consisting preferably of a metal selected from the group of cu , au , pd , pt , sn and their alloys , by , for example , sputtering , plating , or evaporation to a thickness of about 500 to 20 , 000 angstroms . in some special applications , the three - layer blm structure can be simplified to two layers if when the same element is selected for both the second and third layer ; the same applies to the first and second layer . an optional fourth layer , 38 , such a thin layer preferably of gold or sn , may be deposited on layer 18 to act as a protection layer against oxidation or corrosion . solder 40 is then applied , as shown in fig1 . the c4 structure 10 may be completed with a lead - free solder ball 20 comprising tin as the predominate component and preferably one or more alloying elements selected from ag , cu , bi , ni , co , in and sb . in accordance with the present invention , a preferred adhesion layer 14 is tiw or ti , which is preferably either sputtered or evaporated , at a preferred thickness of about 100 to 5000 angstroms . the thickness of the adhesion layer 14 can vary widely as long as both good adhesion and good barrier properties are maintained . if blanket tiw is deposited and subsequently etched as the final step in forming the patterned blm structure , 11 , the film thickness should be minimized consistent with adequate performance . an alternative adhesion layer is cr , ta , w or their alloys at a thickness of about 100 to 5000 angstroms . the second layer 16 is a solder reaction barrier layer , preferably typically a few thousand angstroms to several microns in thickness , deposited preferably by sputtering , evaporation or plating . since the high tin content pb - free solders are highly reactive than the eutectic pb - rich pb — sn solder , a thick reaction barrier layer is needed to survive multiple thermal cycles without being totally consumed . a total consumption of blm will lead to a “ floating blm ” failure that degrades the mechanical integrity of the solder joint . since cu is highly reactive with high sn solder , a less reactive metal , such as ni or its alloys , in the blm is preferred for lead - free application . in accordance with the invention , it has been found that suitable solder reaction barrier layers may preferably be formed of ni , ru , co , w , hf , nb , mo , v , and their alloys . the third layer 18 is a solder wettable layer . layer 18 is easily wettable by , and potentially totally dissolved into , the molten solder during reflow joining , thus allowing for the formation of a reliable metallurgical joint to the blm pad through the formation of intermetallic compounds with the reaction barrier layer . the wettable layer is a metal preferably selected from the group consisting of cu , au , pd , pt , sn , and their alloys . both copper and gold react very rapidly with high - tin solders and do not provide a suitable reaction barrier layer . however , these metals all react and wet well with solder and therefore serve as the top layer for oxidation protection , wetting and joining to the c4 solder . in an added benefit , cu dissolving into solder can be used as an alloying element for the solder . for example , when cu is dissolved into pure sn solder , it forms the binary sn — cu solder alloy . when dissolved into binary snag alloy , it forms the ternary near eutectic sn — ag — cu solder . both sn — cu and sn — ag — cu are the leading pb - free solder candidates for microelectronic assembly . the dissolution and incorporation of cu as an added alloying element in solder is shown to simplify the plating processes . instead of plating a ternary alloy of sn — ag — cu , which is very complicated , a simpler plating of binary snag alloy can be easily performed , with the alloying element cu coming from the blm pad . the same approach applies to the plating of pure sn which is very simple , and the subsequent reaction of pure sn with cu , which is from the blm pad , to form a simple binary alloy system which is simpler than plating the binary sn — cu alloy to facilitate manufacturability . maintaining the bath chemistry and precise control of solder composition during plating of multicomponent solder alloys is very complicated , and this complexity can be simplified using this approach . it is noted that cu rapidly dissolves into the essentially liquid solder during the reflow portion of the process , thus assuring that the composition of the solder ball is relatively uniform . the manner in which the solder wettable layer is dissolves into the solder ball is shown in fig1 a for the first exemplary embodiment of the invention , and in fig4 a for a second embodiment of the invention . the solderable layer may be sputtered , evaporated or plated using the same procedure as that used for the deposition of the other blm layers . subsequently , the blanket films must be patterned to form the blm 11 in the finished structure depicted in fig1 . in this example , the first layer is preferably tiw , cr or ti . the second layer is preferably ni , co , ru , w or their alloys ( or compounds ). the third layer is preferably cu , pd , pt or their alloys . a fourth layer preferably may be au or sn . in this example , the first layer is preferably tiw , ti or cr which serves as an adhesion / reaction barrier layer . the second layer is preferably selected from the group consisting of ru , ni , cu , co , sn , or their alloys . in all three or four layer structures cu is the preferred wettable layer , fast reaction and dissolution of cu into molten solder alloy during reflow joining forms the cu — sn intermetallic compounds which adheres well at blm / solder interface to enhance the mechanical integrity of the solder joint . the melting properties of the solder alloy that is used over the ubm must be compatible with manufacturing requirements . the preferred deposition method for the solder is c4np , electrodeposition ( either direct electrodeposition of the alloy or sequential deposition of the individual alloy components ), stencil printing or by paste screening . fig2 a to fig2 d illustrate steps in producing the structure of fig1 . in fig2 a the blm 11 of fig1 , including layers 14 , 16 and 18 is produced on a wafer or substrate 12 , as explained above . the c4 pattern is defined on the wafer with an appropriate photoresist pattern 24 , of thickness at least as great as the thickness of the solder which is to be deposited . referring to fig2 b , the lead - free solder 26 is transfer deposited onto blm by means of molten solder injection , plating , paste screening , stencil printing or solder jetting , to name a few . sequential electroplating of the solder components , followed by mixing upon reflow , is an alternative to direct plating of the alloy . the blanket blm layer in fig2 c not covered under the solder is subsequently etched as shown in fig2 d . the solder is reflowed in an appropriate atmosphere to form a solder ball , as illustrated in fig1 . the wafer 12 may then be diced , sorted , picked and good chips are joined to a ceramic or organic chip carrier employing a suitable flux or by fluxless joining . fig3 a to fig3 d illustrate an alternative process to form the structure of fig1 . in fig3 a , a photoresist pattern 24 , is deposited over the blanket blm 11 . fig3 b illustrates the etching of the layers of the blm 11 which is not covered under the photoresist 24 . the photoresist pattern 24 being used as an etch mask to pattern the blm . in fig3 c , the photoresist pattern 24 is stripped off the patterned blm layers . in fig3 d , the solder bumps are selectively deposited on the patterned blm 11 on either wafer or substrate by means of c4np molten solder transfer , paste screening , stencil printing , etc . the solder bump 26 is then reflowed in an appropriate atmosphere . the wafer is then diced , sorted and picked . good chips are selected and joined to a chip carrier either with a suitable flux or fluxlessly joined . fig4 is a cross - sectional view of a , exemplary second embodiment of c4 structure in accordance with the invention . the blm 30 is a two layer structure suitable for deposition on a substrate or wafer with oxide , nitride or polyimide passivation 32 . the first layer 34 , which is deposited on the surface of the passivated wafer or substrate may preferably be cr , ti , tiw , zr , v or their alloys . the next layer 36 serves both as a reaction barrier and solderable layer , is deposited on the layer 34 , and may preferably be selected from the group of ru , ni , co , cu , pd , pt , or their alloys . an optional third layer 38 , such as preferably a thin layer of gold or sn , may be deposited on layer 36 to act as an oxidation protection layer . optional layer 38 should be a material other than that already selected for the second layer . again , with the described layered structure if the selected element is already used in the prior layer it will not be used for the subsequent layer to avoid duplication . solder 40 is then applied , as in fig1 . as noted above , when the optional layer 38 is not applied and the top layer of fig4 is , for example cu , the manner in which the solder wettable layer is dissolved into the solder ball 40 is shown fig4 a . the embodiment illustrated in fig4 may be formed using either one of the methods illustrated in fig2 a to fig2 d or in fig3 a to fig3 d . fig5 is a sem cross - sectional view of a binary sn0 . 7 % cu pb - free solder alloy after reaction with a three - layer tiw / nisi / cu blm at 250 degree c . continuously for 40 minutes . fig5 a is lower magnification , and fig5 b is higher magnification . tiw is an adhesion layer ; nisi is a reaction barrier layer ; and cu is a solderable layer which , after reflow joining , is totally dissolved into solder . fig6 is a sem cross - sectional view of binary sn0 . 7 % cu pb - free solder alloy after reaction with a three - layer tiw / niw / cu blm at 250 degree c . continuously for 40 minutes . fig5 a is for lower magnification , and fig5 b for higher magnification . tiw is an adhesion layer ; niw is a reaction barrier layer ; and cu is a solderable layer which is totally consumed by reacting with solder . fig7 is a sem cross - sectional view of binary sn3 . 8 % ag pb - free solder alloy after reaction with a two - layer tiw / ru blm at 250 degree c . continuously for 20 minutes ; tiw is an adhesion layer ; ru serves both as a reaction barrier layer and solder wettable layer . a thin layer of intermetallic compound is formed at solder and blm interface . the first layer is preferably tiw , ti or cr or its alloys . the second layer is preferably ru , cu , ni , co , sn or its alloys serving both as a reaction barrier layer and a wettable surface . a three layer blm structure comprising preferably a tiw , ti or cr as an adhesion layer deposited on a substrate , a ni or its alloys serving as a reaction barrier layer on the adhesion layer , and a cu sacrificial layer for plating solder deposition . a lead free solder of sn , or an snag binary alloy is deposited on the cu layer . when reflowed , as described above , the cu layer is dissolved into the resulting solder ball to alloy with the solder . the solder is preferably lead - free , and a binary sn — cu alloy or a ternary sn — ag — cu alloy is formed when the cu is dissolved into the solder wherein the original solders were pure sn and binary sn — ag , respectively . the blm metallurgy of the present invention may be further improved in robustness by annealing at 150 - 350 degrees c . for 30 to 90 minutes either before or after blm patterning . thus , while there have been shown and described and pointed out fundamental novel features of the invention as applied to currently preferred embodiments thereof , it will be understood that various omissions , substitutions and changes in the form and details of the method and product illustrated , and in their operation , may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention . in addition it is to be understood that the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale . it is the intention , therefore , to be limited only as indicated by the scope of the claims appended herewith and equivalents thereof . it is noted that the foregoing has outlined some of the more pertinent objects and embodiments of the present invention . the concepts of this invention may be used for many applications . thus , although the description is made for particular arrangements and methods , the intent and concept of the invention is suitable and applicable to other arrangements and applications . it will be clear to those skilled in the art that other modifications to the disclosed embodiments can be effected without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention . the described embodiments ought to be construed to be merely illustrative of some of the more prominent features and applications of the invention . other beneficial results can be realized by applying the disclosed invention in a different manner or modifying the invention in ways known to those familiar with the art . thus , it should be understood that the embodiments has been provided as an example and not as a limitation . the scope of the invention is defined by the appended claims .	7
[ 0016 ] fig1 is a diagrammatic drawing of an auto associative neural network ( aann ) 10 including an input layer 12 ; three hidden layers comprising a mapping layer 14 , a bottle - neck layer 16 , a de - mapping layer ; and an output layer 20 . the overall transfer function of the aann 10 of the present invention is equal to 1 , as the outputs are trained to be equal to the values on the corresponding inputs . the design of the aann 10 uses compression of data in the bottleneck layer 16 to achieve an overall transfer function that is not trivially equal to 1 . for this type of aann to work properly , the input data has the property of analytical redundancy where the inputs to the aann 10 are physically related somehow . the analytically redundant information will be used to generate correct output values when the inputs are only partially correct or in a fault condition . for example , when a sensor is faulty on one input , there is enough information coming from the other inputs to generate a correct output value for the faulty sensor . the aann 10 of the present invention with analytical redundancy can be used to calculate expected values for each output that can then be used to detect bad input values and provide fail - soft values for the system in place of the faulty sensor value . to achieve robustness and to produce a non - corrupted output value for inputs containing gross errors , the aann 10 is trained on exemplars that represent this input - output behavior . once an aann 10 is initially trained using a sufficient number of good data values to represent the system over its complete operating range , it has the capability to make its outputs equal to its inputs as long as a sensor fault is not present . if the training is stopped at this point , the aann 10 is trained to model a good system such that it could be used to detect faults in a traditional manner . the current sensor values are compared to the calculated outputs of the aann 10 , and a fault is flagged when the differences between the two exceeded a threshold . however , if the training is taken a step further , and the system is trained on data that is representative of bad sensors , then the output of the aann 10 may be used to provide fail - soft values for the bad input all at once . training the aann 10 involves the compilation of heuristic data , as there are several “ knobs ” that can be turned during the training process . the end result of training is an aann 10 that will produce outputs equal to its inputs when good sensor values are present and fail - soft values when faulty sensors are present . aanns that have gone through this second step of training , with exemplars of faulty sensors , will be referred to as robust aanns . the aann 10 developed in the preferred embodiment of the present invention will be of the robust type . the present invention in a preferred embodiment utilizes the aann 10 in an automotive application as show by the engine control system 30 of fig2 but any sensor application is considered within the scope of the present invention . the engine control system 30 includes an engine controller 32 receiving sensor measurements of coolant temperature ; air temperature ; manifold pressure ( map ) from map sensor 34 ; manifold air flow rate ( maf ) from maf sensor 36 ; engine speed and engine position from engine position sensor 38 ; pedal position ; throttle position or angle ( tps ) from throttle position sensor 40 ; and exhaust oxygen measurements before and after a catalytic converter 42 by oxygen sensors 44 and 46 air enters an internal combustion engine ( ice ) 50 through an intake manifold 52 . a throttle plate 54 controls air flow through the ice 50 and may be controlled electronically or manually by a wire connected to an accelerator pedal . the air is mixed with fuel from a fuel injector 56 controlled by the engine controller 32 . the air / fuel mixture enters a piston 58 where it is ignited to rotate a crankshaft , as is commonly known in the art . the exhaust gases are oxidized and reduced by the catalytic converter 42 , as is commonly known in the art . the sensors relating to air entering the engine manifold have the property of analytical redundancy and will be used in the preferred embodiment of the present invention . specifically , the map sensor 34 , maf sensor 36 , and tps sensor 40 are related to air flow through the ice 50 . the maf sensor 36 measures the amount of air being drawn into the ice 50 , the map sensor 34 measure the pressure in the ice 50 , and the tps sensor 40 measure the throttle blade 54 angle or area . [ 0021 ] fig3 is a diagrammatic drawing of a preferred embodiment of an aann 60 in the present invention . map , maf , and tps sensors 34 , 36 , and 40 are input to a normalization function 62 . the normalized sensor values are processed at an input layer 64 having a linear transfer function . the input layer generates outputs to weighted connections 66 . a mapping layer 68 having sigmoidal transfer functions outputs values to weighted functions 70 . a bottleneck layer 72 processes the inputs from the weighted connections 70 and generates outputs to weighted connections 74 . the weighted connections 74 output signals to a de - mapping layer 76 and outputs values to weighted connections 78 . an input layer 80 having a linear transfer function processes the outputs from weighted connections 78 . block 82 un - normalizes the outputs from block 80 to generate representative values maf ′, map ′, and tps ′. the functions of auto associative neural network 60 ( layers 62 - 82 ) described above is as follows : a = f 1 ( w 5 f 2 ( w 4 f 1 ( w 3 f 2 ( w 2 f 1 ( w 1 p + b 1 )+ b 2 )+ b 3 )+ b 4 )+ b 5 ) w 1 = weight vector for input layer 64 ( 3 × 3 matrix ) w 2 = weight vector for mapping layer 68 ( 6 × 3 matrix ) w 3 = weight vector for bottleneck layer 72 ( 2 × 6 matrix ) w 4 = weight vector for de - mapping layer 76 ( 6 × 2 matrix ) w 5 = weight vector for output layer 80 ( 3 × 6 matrix ) b 1 = bias vector for input layer 64 ( 3 × 1 matrix ) b 2 = bias vector for mapping layer 68 ( 6 × 1 matrix ) b 3 = bias vector for bottleneck layer 72 ( 2 × 1 matrix ) b 4 = bias vector for de - mapping layer 76 ( 6 × 1 matrix ) b 5 = bias vector for output layer 80 ( 3 × 1 matrix ) the representative values maf ′, map ′, and tps ′ should generally equal the values generated by the map , maf and tps sensors 34 , 36 , and 40 under normal operating conditions or under a fault condition for any of the sensors 34 , 36 , and 40 . accordingly , the engine control system 30 may still operate within normal parameters if there is a fault , or in alternate embodiments , the representative values may be used to replace a physical sensor . in alternate embodiments of the present invention , other related sensor groupings such as engine speed , transmission speed , wheel speed sensors , related sensors such as throttle position sensors , and other similar sensor groupings may be used in the present invention . it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the exact construction illustrated and described above , but that various changes and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the following claims .	5
exemplary embodiments of the present invention are described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings . the same reference numbers are used throughout the drawings to refer to the same or like parts . detailed descriptions of well - known functions and structures incorporated herein may be omitted to avoid obscuring the subject matter of the present invention . in the conventional harq mechanism in which a ue uses only the ndi to discriminate the uplink transmission resource assignment messages indicative of initial transmission and retransmission , the ue may fail to discriminate the messages . in some embodiments of the present invention the ue discriminates the uplink transmission resource assignment messages indicative of initial transmission and retransmission in consideration of the ndi , rv and harq buffer status so as to improve the discrimination accuracy . typically , the uplink transmission resource assignment message indicative of an initial transmission of a new packet takes place after the previous packet transmission has completed even though the uplink transmission resource assignment message has the ndi identical to that of the previous uplink transmission resource assignment message . in consideration of this feature , according to some embodiments of the present invention , the ue the received the uplink transmission resource assignment message indicative of initial transmission in a harq process calculates the last available retransmission time and , if the last available retransmission time has expired , flushes the harq buffer even though the mac pdu transmission has failed . also , if the harq buffer has no data when an uplink transmission resource assignment message is received in a harq process , i . e . the uplink transmission resource assignment message indicates the first uplink transmission resource assignment message after flushing the harq buffer , then the ue determines that the uplink transmission resource assignment message is indicative of initial transmission of a new mac pdu regardless of the ndi value of the uplink transmission resource assignment message . fig6 is a diagram illustrating a problematic situation that can be encountered in a mobile communication system and solved with a signal transmission method according to an embodiment of the present invention . referring to fig6 , the ue receives an uplink transmission resource assignment message 605 indicative of an initial transmission of a new packet for a harq process x . once the uplink transmission resource assignment message 605 indicative of an initial transmission of a new packet is received , the ue waits for a time t to elapse from the point in time at which the uplink transmission resource assignment message is received and transmits a mac pdu 610 using the uplink transmission resource indicated by the uplink transmission resource assignment message for the harq process x . if a nack 625 is received in response to the mac pdu 610 , then the ue retransmits the mac pdu 615 . the retransmission 615 and 620 of the mac pdu repeats in response to the nack 625 and 630 at an interval of harq rtt . the retransmission can be repeated until a maximum retransmission time is reached . in fig6 , the ue receives a harq ack 635 in response to the mac pdu . upon receipt of the harq ack 635 , the ue stops retransmission of the mac pdu . next , the ue monitors the maximum retransmission time and flushes the harq buffer 640 for the harq process x when the maximum retransmission time is reached 645 . in fig6 , an uplink transmission resource assignment message 650 indicative of initial transmission of a new mac pdu is transmitted for the harq process x after the ue has completed the transmission of the previous mac pdu 620 but the ue fails to receive the uplink transmission resource assignment message 650 . in this case , since no mac pdu is transmitted by the ue , the enb repeats noise decoding at an interval of the harq and determines that the mac pdu transmission of the ue is terminated with a failure when the last available retransmission time has expired . after some time elapses from the transmission of the previous uplink transmission resource assignment message 650 , the enb transmits another uplink transmission resource assignment message 655 indicative of initial transmission of a new mac pdu to the ue , and the ue receives the uplink transmission resource assignment message 655 . in this case , the ndi of the uplink transmission resource assignment message 655 is set to 0 , identical to the ndi of the uplink transmission resource assignment message 605 which the ue has received most recently . if referring to the ndi for discriminating whether the uplink transmission resource assignment message 655 is indicative of initial transmission or retransmission , then the ue misidentifies the uplink transmission resource assignment message 655 indicative of initial transmission of a new mac pdu as an uplink transmission resource assignment message indicative of retransmission of previous mac pdu . in an embodiment of the present invention the ue checks the harq buffer status in order to avoid such misidentification . if the harq buffer is not empty , then the ue discriminates the uplink transmission resource assignment message with reference to the ndi . otherwise if the harq buffer is empty , then the ue determines that the uplink transmission resource assignment message is indicative of initial transmission of a new mac pdu regardless of the ndi . fig7 is a flowchart illustrating a signal transmission method for a mobile communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention . referring to fig7 , a ue receives an uplink transmission resource assignment message for a harq process in step 705 . once the uplink transmission resource assignment message is received , the ue determines whether the harq buffer for the harq process is empty in step 710 . if the harq buffer is empty , then the ue determines that the uplink transmission resource assignment message is indicative of initial transmission of a new mac pdu , and the process goes to step 715 . otherwise , if the harq buffer is not empty , the process goes to step 730 . at step 730 , then the ue determines whether the ndi of the uplink transmission resource assignment message is toggled , i . e . whether the uplink transmission resource assignment message is indicative of initial transmission of a new mac pdu or retransmission of previous mac pdu . if the harq buffer is empty at step 710 , this means that the ue is requesting to transmit a new pdu using the uplink transmission resource indicated by the uplink transmission resource assignment message . at step 715 , the ue checks the redundancy version ( rv ) to determine whether the rv is set to 0 . the rv set to 0 means that the uplink transmission resource assignment message is indicative of initial transmission of a new mac pdu rather than retransmission . if the rv is set to 0 , then the process goes to step 725 . if the rv is set to a value other than 0 , then the process goes to step 720 . before further progress of the explanation , the rv is described in more detail with reference to fig8 and 9 . fig8 is a diagram illustrating a sequence of redundancy versions ( rvs ) for requesting data retransmission in a mobile communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention , and fig9 is a diagram illustrating how to set rvs for adaptive retransmission in a mobile communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention . referring to fig8 and 9 , the rv field is used to indicate a part of the original data to be retransmitted in the harq process . the uplink transmission resource assignment message indicative of initial transmission of a new mac pdu includes the transmission resource assignment information the mcs level information . the ue that received an uplink transmission resource assignment message determines the size of the data to be transmitted based on the number of resource blocks and mcs level indicated by the uplink transmission resource assignment message and generates a mac pdu 805 of the determined size . the mac pdu is channel - coded according to the mcs level indicated by the uplink transmission resource assignment message , and the channel - coded data 810 is stored in the harq buffer for the corresponding harq process . the ue transmits a part of the channel - coded data 810 which is indicated by the rv and performs retransmission in a sequential order of the rv value . the sequence of rvs is defined to be rv 0 , rv 2 , rv 3 , and rv 1 , and the ue repeats retransmissions in the sequence cyclically . the rv 0 , rv 1 , rv 2 , and rv 3 point to the respective parts 815 , 820 , 825 , and 830 constituting the channel coded data 810 . in practice , the parts pointed to by the rvs are not continuous unlike the exemplary case shown in fig8 . in general , the transmission is started from the rv 0 815 and then in order of rv 2 825 , rv 3 830 , and rv 1 820 . the transmission order is cyclic such that the data pointed to by the rv 1 815 is transmitted after the last part of the channel coded data has been transmitted . in the case of an adaptive retransmission , the rv can be indicated in the uplink transmission resource assignment message indicative of the adaptive retransmission . for instance , if an uplink transmission resource assignment message 905 indicative of initial transmission of a new mac pdu is received at a point in time , then the ue transmits the part ( of the mac pdu ) pointed to by the rv 0 915 through the assigned uplink transmission resource after the time t 910 elapses from the receipt of the uplink transmission resource assignment message . assuming that the mac pdu is continuously retransmitted , the ue sequentially transmits the parts pointed to by the rv 2 920 and rv 3 925 through the same uplink transmission resource at intervals of the harq rtt . at this time , if it is required to move the retransmission of the ue to another uplink transmission resource , then the enb transmits an uplink transmission resource assignment message 930 of which ndi is identical to that of the previous uplink transmission resource assignment message indicative of initial transmission of the new mac pdu . at this time , the enb may change the sequential order of the rvs by resetting the value of the rv of the uplink transmission resource assignment message for the adaptive retransmission . for instance , if the enb resets the rv of the uplink transmission resource assignment message for the adaptive retransmission to 2 , then the ue transmits the data pointed to by the rv 2 935 although it is time to transmit the data pointed to by the rv 1 , and the changed sequence is maintained until the transmission is completed or the sequence is changed by the enb again . that is , the sequence is changed such that the rv 3 940 , rv 1 945 , rv 0 950 are sequentially transmitted following the rv 2 935 . as described above , the rv set to 0 indicates that the uplink transmission resource assignment message is indicative of initial transmission of a new message rather than adaptive retransmission . accordingly , the ue generates a new mac pdu with reference to the information indicated by the uplink transmission resource assignment message and stores the mac pdu within the harq buffer after channel coding , and transmits a data part pointed to by the rv of the uplink transmission resource assignment message at step 725 . strictly speaking , the rv can be set to 0 for the uplink transmission resource assignment message indicative of the adaptive retransmission . for instance , if the uplink transmission resource assignment message indicative of the adaptive retransmission transmitted to the ue which is preparing the fifth transmission , then the sequence returns to the original rv sequence so as to be more efficient . nevertheless , if it is permitted for the enb to use the rv 0 for the adaptive retransmission , there can be a possibility that the ue may misidentify the uplink transmission resource assignment message indicative of adaptive retransmission as the uplink transmission resource assignment message indicative of initial transmission or vice versa . accordingly , in the embodiments of the present invention , it is not permitted for the enb to use the rv 0 for adaptive retransmission . in other words , the enb must set the rv of the uplink transmission resource assignment message , which is transmitted at a time reserved for the data pointed to by the rv 0 and indicative of the adaptive retransmission , to a non - zero value . with this strategy , it is possible to secure the protocol reliability with little compromise of transmission efficiency . returning to fig7 , if the rv is not set to 0 at step 715 , then the ue determines that the uplink transmission resource assignment message is indicative of adaptive retransmission of a new mac pdu , and this means that an uplink transmission resource assignment message indicative of initial transmission of a new mac pdu is lost before receiving the uplink transmission resource assignment message that is indicative of adaptive retransmission . as described above , the harq retransmission is restricted to the maximum number of harq transmissions . accordingly , when the uplink transmission resource assignment message indicative of initial transmission is lost , the ue does not know how many times the uplink transmission resource assignment message indicative of adaptive retransmission is transmitted . if the last possible retransmission point in time is misidentified , then the ue may transmit the data through an unavailable uplink transmission resource that is not reserved for the ue at that time , resulting in interference . accordingly , if the rv of the uplink transmission resource assignment message is set to a nonzero value and the harq buffer is empty , then the ue ignores the uplink transmission resource assignment message and does not transmit data in step 720 . if the harq buffer is not empty at step 710 , then the ue determines whether the ndi of the current uplink transmission resource assignment message is toggled as compared to the last previously received uplink transmission resource assignment message in step s 730 . if the ndi is toggled , i . e . the ndi of the current uplink transmission resource assignment message is not identical to the ndi value of the last previously received uplink transmission resource assignment message for the harq process , then the ue determines that the uplink transmission resource assignment message is indicative of initial transmission of a new mac pdu and flushes the harq buffer in step 735 . after flushing the harq buffer , the process goes to step 715 . otherwise , if the ndi is not toggled , then the ue determines that the uplink transmission resource assignment message is indicative of adaptive retransmission of previous mac pdu and transmits the part of the coded data , which is stored in the harq buffer pointed by the rv , using the uplink transmission indicated by the uplink transmission resource assignment message in step 740 . fig1 is a flowchart illustrating a signal transmission method for a mobile communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention in view of ue . the harq procedure depicted in fig1 is substantially similar to that of fig7 but more simplified by inspecting the rv prior to the harq buffer inspection . referring to fig1 , a ue receives an uplink transmission resource assignment message for a harq process x in step 1005 . once the uplink transmission resource assignment message is received , the ue determines whether the rv of the uplink transmission resource assignment message is set to 0 in step 1010 . if the rv is set to 0 , then the ue determines that the uplink transmission resource assignment message is indicative of initial transmission of a new mac pdu such that the process goes to step 1015 . at step 1015 , the ue generates a new mac pdu and performs channel coding on the mac pdu based on the information contained in the uplink transmission resource assignment message , stores the channel coded data within the harq buffer , and then transmits the part of the channel coded data which is pointed to by an rv of the uplink transmission resource assignment message , i . e . rv 0 . otherwise , if the rv is not set to 0 , then the ue determines whether the harq buffer for the harq process x is empty , i . e . whether the uplink transmission resource assignment message is indicative of initial transmission of a new mac pdu in step 1020 . if the harq buffer is empty , then the ue determines that the uplink transmission resource assignment message is indicative of adaptive retransmission of a new mac pdu . if the rv is not set to 0 and the harq buffer is empty , this means that an uplink transmission resource assignment message indicative of initial transmission of a new pdu is lost before receiving the current uplink transmission resource assignment message such that the ue ignores the currently received uplink transmission resource assignment message and does not transmit data in step 1025 . if the harq buffer for the corresponding harq process is not empty at step 1020 , then the ue determines whether the ndi of the current uplink transmission resource assignment message is toggled as compared to the ndi value of the last previously received uplink transmission resource assignment message in step 1030 . if the ndi of the current uplink transmission resource assignment message is toggled as compared to the ndi value of the last previously received uplink transmission resource assignment message , i . e . if the ndi of the current uplink transmission resource assignment message is different from that of the last previously received uplink transmission resource assignment message , then the ue determines that the uplink transmission resource assignment message is indicative of the adaptive retransmission of a new mac pdu , and the process goes to step 1025 . if the ndi is not toggled at step 1030 , then the ue determines that the uplink transmission resource assignment message is indicative of the adaptive retransmission of a previous mac pdu , and process goes to step 1035 . at step 1035 , the ue transmits a part of the channel coded data which is stored in the harq buffer and pointed by the rv through the uplink transmission resource indicated by the uplink transmission resource assignment message . in short , the ue discriminates the following three types of uplink transmission resource assignment messages and operates depending on the type of the uplink transmission resource assignment message . the first type of uplink transmission resource assignment message is an uplink transmission resource assignment message indicative of initial transmission of a new mac pdu . when an uplink transmission resource assignment message of which rv is set to 0 is received for the harq process of which harq buffer is empty , the uplink transmission resource assignment message is determined as the uplink transmission resource assignment message indicative of initial transmission of a new mac pdu , whereby the ue transmits the uplink data according to the normal initial transmission process . the second type of uplink transmission resource assignment message is an uplink transmission resource assignment message indicative of adaptive retransmission of the mac pdu stored in the harq buffer . when an uplink transmission resource assignment message of which the rv is set to a non - zero value and the ndi is not toggled is received for the harq process of which harq buffer is not empty , the uplink transmission resource assignment message is determined as the uplink transmission resource assignment message indicative of adaptive retransmission of the mac pdu stored in the harq buffer , whereby the ue retransmits the mac pdu stored in the harq buffer according to the normal retransmission process . the third type of uplink transmission resource assignment message is an uplink transmission resource assignment message indicative of adaptive retransmission of a new mac pdu . when an uplink transmission resource assignment message of which the rv is set to a nonzero value is received for the harq process of which harq buffer is empty or an uplink transmission resource assignment message of which the rv is set to a nonzero value and the ndi is toggled is received for the harq process of which harq buffer is not empty , the uplink transmission resource assignment message is determined as the uplink transmission resource assignment message indicative of adaptive retransmission of a new mac pdu , whereby the ue ignores the uplink transmission resource assignment message and does not transmit data . in an embodiment of the present invention , an uplink transmission resource assignment message discrimination method and apparatus using the ndi , rv , and harq buffer status in bundled transmission is proposed . fig1 is a flowchart illustrating a signal transmission method for a mobile communication system according to another embodiment of the present invention . in this embodiment , the ue first inspects the ndi to simplify the procedure for discriminating the uplink transmission resource assignment messages . referring to fig1 , a ue receives an uplink transmission resource assignment message for a harq process x in step 1105 . once the uplink transmission resource assignment message is received , the ue determines whether the ndi of the uplink transmission resource assignment message is identical to or incremented from the last previously received ndi for the harq process x in step 1110 . the last previously received ndi can be the ndi of the last previously received uplink transmission resource assignment message for the corresponding harq process . if the ndi of the current uplink transmission resource assignment message is incremented compared to the ndi of the last previously received uplink transmission resource assignment message , i . e . if the value of the ndi is changed , the ue determines that the uplink transmission resource assignment message is indicative of initial transmission of a new mac pdu so as to form a new mac pdu based on the information included in the uplink transmission resource assignment message , perform channel coding to the mac pdu , store the channel coded mac pdu in the form of channel coded data , and transmit a part of the channel coded data that is pointed to by the rv of the uplink transmission resource assignment message in step 1115 . at step 1115 , the ue forms a new mac pdu and performs channel coding and stores the new mac pdu in the harq buffer with reference to the information contained in the uplink transmission resource assignment message and transmits a part of the channel coded mac pdu that the rv of the uplink transmission resource assignment message points . if the ndi of the current uplink transmission resource assignment message is identical to that of the last previously received uplink transmission resource assignment message , the ue determines whether the corresponding harq buffer is empty in step 1120 . if the harq buffer is empty , the ue determines that the uplink transmission resource assignment message is indicative of initial transmission of a new mac pdu such that the process goes to step 1115 . otherwise , if the harq buffer is not empty at step 1120 , the ue determines that the uplink transmission resource assignment message is indicative of adaptive retransmission of a previous mac pdu so as to transmit a part of the coded data stored in the harq buffer , the part being pointed to by the rv of the uplink transmission resource assignment message , using the uplink transmission resource indicated by the uplink transmission resource assignment message . fig1 is a flowchart illustrating a signal transmission method for a mobile communication system according to another embodiment of the present invention . in this embodiment , the ue discriminates the uplink transmission resource assignment messages indicative of initial transmission and retransmission with reference to the rv rather than harq buffer status while simplifying the message discrimination procedure by first inspecting the ndi of the uplink transmission resource assignment message . referring to fig1 , the ue receives an uplink transmission resource assignment message for a harq process x in step 1205 . once the uplink transmission resource assignment message is received , the ue determines whether the ndi of the uplink transmission resource assignment message is identical to or incremented from the last previously received ndi for the harq process x in step 1210 . if the ndi of the current uplink transmission resource assignment message is incremented from the last previously received ndi , i . e . if the value of the ndi is changed , the ue determines that the uplink transmission resource assignment message is indicative of initial transmission of a new mac pdu so as to form a new mac pdu based on the information included in the uplink transmission resource assignment message , perform channel coding to the mac pdu , store the channel coded mac pdu in the form of channel coded data , and transmit a part of the channel coded data that is pointed by the rv of the uplink transmission resource assignment message in step 1215 . if the ndi of the current uplink transmission resource assignment message is identical to that of the last previous received uplink transmission resource assignment message , the ue determines whether the rv of the uplink transmission resource assignment message is set to 0 in step 1220 . if the rv of the uplink transmission resource assignment message is set to 0 , the ue determines that the uplink transmission resource assignment message is indicative of initial transmission of a new mac pdu such that the process goes to step 1215 . otherwise , if the rv of the uplink transmission resource assignment message is set to a nonzero value at step 1220 , the ue determines that the uplink transmission resource assignment message is indicative of adaptive retransmission of a previous mac pdu so as to transmits a part of the coded data stored in the harq buffer , the part being pointed to by the rv of the uplink transmission resource assignment message , using the uplink transmission resource indicated by the uplink transmission resource assignment message . the bundled transmission according to an embodiment of the present invention is a feature that a ue retransmits data a predetermined number of times using an uplink transmission resource to solve the problem caused by the lack of transmission power at the cell boundary . in the bundled transmission , the ue sequentially transmits the data pointed to by the rv 0 , rv 2 , rv 3 , and rv 1 through the identical uplink transmission resource assigned by the enb . the enb performs soft combining on the data received through four uplink transmissions , error check on the combined data , and transmits a harq ack or harq nack . fig1 is a diagram illustrating a bundled transmission process of a signal transmission method for a mobile communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention . referring to fig1 , an uplink transmission resource assignment message 1305 indicative of initial transmission of a new mac pdu is transmitted to a ue configured to operate in a bundled transmission mode . upon receipt of the uplink transmission resource assignment message 1305 , the ue transmits the data 1315 pointed by the rv 0 , rv 2 , rv 3 , and rv 1 included in the uplink transmission resource assignment message 1305 for the four transmission time intervals ( ttis ) after the time t has elapsed from the receipt of the uplink transmission resource assignment message 1305 . if a harq nack is received after transmission of the data , then the ue retransmits the data 1325 pointed to by the rv 0 , rv 2 , rv 3 , and rv 4 at an interval of the harq rtt 1320 that is defined for the bundled transmission . in the bundled transmission , the same rv is used for the initial transmission and retransmission . that is , the rv of the uplink transmission resource assignment message indicative of adaptive retransmission and the rv of the uplink transmission resource assignment message indicative of initial transmission are identical with each other . for instance , when transmitting an uplink transmission resource assignment message 1330 indicative of adaptive retransmission , the enb sets the rv of the uplink transmission resource assignment message 1330 to the rv value of the previously transmitted uplink transmission resource assignment message 1305 . in the case where the same rv is used for the initial transmission and retransmission , the ue should discriminate the uplink transmission resource assignment messages indicative of initial transmission and retransmission with reference to the ndi and harq buffer status . if an uplink transmission resource assignment message indicative of initial transmission is lost as aforementioned , it is impossible to discriminate the uplink transmission resource assignment messages indicative of initial transmission and retransmission only with the ndi and harq buffer status . assuming that the uplink transmission resource assignment message 1305 indicative of initial transmission is lost such that the ue receives the uplink transmission resource assignment message 1330 indicative of retransmission without awareness of the uplink transmission resource assignment message 1305 , the ndi is likely to be toggled in the uplink transmission resource assignment message 1330 as compared to the previous uplink transmission resource assignment message 1305 . accordingly , the ue is likely to misidentify the uplink transmission resource assignment message 1330 indicative of adaptive retransmission as an uplink transmission resource assignment message indicative of initial transmission . in order to solve this problem , the signal transmission method according to an embodiment of the present invention sets the rv to indicate a number of retransmission times rather than to point to corresponding data . fig1 is a diagram illustrating a diagram illustrating a bundled transmission process of a signal transmission method for a mobile communication according to another embodiment of the present invention . referring to fig1 , when an uplink transmission resource assignment message 1405 indicative of initial transmission and first to third uplink transmission resource assignment messages 1420 , 1430 , and 1440 indicative of retransmission are transmitted in sequential order , the enb sets the rvs of the uplink transmission resource assignment messages 1405 , 1420 , 1430 , and 1440 to 0 , 1 , 2 , and 3 , respectively . that is , the value of rv increments by 1 from 0 as the number of transmissions of uplink transmission resource assignment messages increases . if the rv of the uplink transmission resource assignment message for the harq process of which the buffer is not empty is set to a non - zero value , i . e . if an uplink transmission resource assignment message indicative of adaptive retransmission is received without receipt of an uplink transmission resource assignment message indicative of initial transmission , then the ue ignores the uplink transmission resource assignment message indicative of adaptive retransmission . fig1 is a flowchart illustrating a signal transmission method for a mobile communication system according to another embodiment of the present invention . referring to fig1 , a ue receives an uplink transmission resource assignment message for a harq process x in step 1505 . once the uplink transmission resource assignment message is received , the ue determines whether the rv of the uplink transmission resource assignment message is set to 0 in step 1510 . if the rv of the uplink transmission resource assignment message is set to 0 , then the ue determines that the uplink transmission resource assignment message is indicative of initial transmission of a new mac pdu and determines whether the uplink transmission resource assignment message is indicative of bundled transmission in step 1513 . whether the uplink transmission resource assignment message is indicative of bundled transmission is configured by a control message of an upper layer . if the uplink transmission resource assignment message is indicative of bundled transmission , then the process goes to step 1517 . otherwise , if the uplink transmission resource assignment message is not indicative of bundled transmission , then the process goes to step 1515 . at step 1515 , the ue generates a new mac pdu and performs channel coding on the mac pdu based on the information extracted from the uplink transmission resource assignment message , stores the channel coded data within the harq buffer , and transmits the data pointed to by the rv (= 0 ) of the uplink transmission resource assignment message . at step 1517 , the ue generates a new mac pdu and performs channel coding on the mac pdu based on the information extracted from the uplink transmission resource assignment message , stores the channel coded data within the harq buffer , and transmits the data pointed by the rv 0 , rv 2 , rv 3 , and rv 1 in sequential order . if the rv of the uplink transmission resource assignment message is set to a non - zero value , then the ue determines whether the harq buffer for the harq process x is empty in step 1520 . if the harq buffer is empty , then the ue determines that the uplink transmission resource assignment message is indicative of adaptive retransmission of a new mac pdu . here , the empty harq buffer means that an uplink transmission resource assignment message indicative of initial transmission of a new mac pdu is lost after the harq buffer is flushed . as aforementioned , the harq retransmission is restricted to the maximum number of harq transmissions . accordingly , when the uplink transmission resource assignment message indicative of initial transmission is lost , the ue does not know how many times the uplink transmission resource assignment message indicative of adaptive retransmission is transmitted . if the last possible retransmission point in time is misidentified , then the ue may transmit the data through an unavailable uplink transmission resource that is reserved for the ue at that time , resulting in interference . accordingly , if the rv of the uplink transmission resource assignment message is set to a nonzero value and the harq buffer is empty , then the ue ignores the uplink transmission resource assignment message and does not transmit data in step 1525 . if the harq buffer is not empty at step 1520 , the ue determines whether the ndi of the current uplink transmission resource assignment message is toggled as compared to the last previously received uplink transmission resource assignment message in step 1530 . if the ndi of the current uplink transmission resource assignment message is toggled , i . e . the ndi of the current uplink transmission resource assignment message is not identical to the ndi value of the last previously received uplink transmission resource assignment message for the harq process , then the ue determines that the uplink transmission resource assignment message is indicative of retransmission of a new mac pdu , and process goes to step 1525 . otherwise , if the ndi is not toggled , the ue determines that the uplink transmission resource assignment message is indicative of adaptive retransmission of the previous mac pdu and determines whether the uplink transmission resource assignment message is indicative of bundled transmission in step 1533 . if the uplink transmission resource assignment message is not indicative of bundled transmission , then the ue transmits a part ( of the coded data pointed by rv 0 , rv 2 , rv 3 , and rv 1 within the harq buffer ) corresponding to the rv of the uplink transmission resource assignment message using the uplink transmission resource indicated by the uplink transmission resource assignment message in step 1535 . otherwise , if the uplink transmission resource assignment message is indicative of the bundled transmission , then the ue ignores the rv of the uplink transmission resource assignment message and transmits the data ( mac pdu ) stored within the harq buffer in sequential order of the rv 0 , rv 2 , rv 3 , and rv 1 in step 1537 . in short , the ue discriminates following three types of uplink transmission messages and operates depending on the type of the uplink transmission resource assignment message . the first type of uplink transmission resource assignment message is an uplink transmission resource assignment message indicative of initial transmission of a new mac pdu . when an uplink transmission resource assignment message of which rv is set to zero is received for the harq process of which harq buffer is empty , the uplink transmission resource assignment message is determined as the uplink transmission resource assignment message indicative of initial transmission of a new mac pdu , whereby the ue transmits the uplink data according to the normal initial transmission process . the second type of uplink transmission resource assignment message is an uplink transmission resource assignment message indicative of adaptive retransmission of the mac pdu stored in the harq buffer . when an uplink transmission resource assignment message of which rv is set to a nonzero value and the ndi is not toggled compared to the previous uplink transmission resource assignment message is received for the harq process of which harq buffer is not empty , the uplink transmission resource assignment message is determined as the uplink transmission resource assignment message indicative of adaptive retransmission of the mac pdu stored in the harq buffer , whereby the ue retransmits the mac pdu stored in harq buffer according to the normal retransmission process . the ue configured to operate in bundled transmission mode ignores the rv of the uplink transmission resource assignment message and transmits the data stored in the harq buffer in sequential order , e . g . the order of the rv 0 , rv 2 , rv 3 , and rv 1 . the third type of uplink transmission resource assignment message is an uplink transmission resource assignment message indicative of adaptive retransmission of a new mac pdu . when an uplink transmission resource assignment message of which rv is set to a nonzero value is received for the harq process of which harq buffer is empty or an uplink transmission resource assignment message of which rv is set to nonzero value and the ndi is toggled is received for the harq process of which harq buffer is not empty , the uplink transmission resource assignment message is determined as the uplink transmission resource assignment message indicative of adaptive retransmission of a new mac pdu , whereby the ue ignores the uplink transmission resource assignment message and does not transmit data . fig1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a signal transmission apparatus of a ue for a mobile communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention . referring to fig1 , the signal transmission apparatus includes an upper layer unit 1605 , a harq unit 1610 , a transmission resource control unit 1620 , a transmission / reception unit 1625 , and a pdcch processing unit 1630 . the transmission / reception unit 1625 is responsible for receiving a physical downlink control channel ( pdcch ) through a radio channel and communicating other traffic . the transmission / reception unit 1625 decodes the signal received on the pdcch and outputs the decoded signal to the pdcch processing unit 1630 . the pdcch processing unit 1630 performs a crc check on the decode signal output by the transmission / reception unit 1625 and outputs the uplink transmission resource assignment message that passes the crc check to the transmission resource control unit 1620 . the transmission resource control unit 1620 extracts the ndi and rv from the uplink transmission resource assignment message and discriminates the uplink transmission resource assignment message indicative of initial transmission of a new mac pdu , adaptive retransmission of the mac pdu stored in the harq buffer , and adaptive retransmission of a new mac pdu with reference to the ndi , rv , and the harq buffer status . if the uplink transmission resource assignment message is indicative of initial transmission of a new mac pdu , the transmission resource control unit 1620 controls the upper layer unit 1605 to determine the size of the mac pdu to be transmitted with reference to a number of assigned transport blocks and mcs level , generate the mac pdu of the determined size , and deliver the mac pdu to the harq process . if the uplink transmission resource assignment message is indicative of adaptive retransmission of the previous mac pdu , the transmission resource control unit 1620 controls the harq unit 1610 to perform the adaptive retransmission of the previous mac pdu . if the uplink transmission resource assignment message is indicative of adaptive retransmission of a new mac pdu , the transmission resource control unit 1620 ignores the uplink transmission resource assignment message and does not transmit data . the upper layer unit 1605 represents the pdcp layer device and multiplexer of mac layer . the harq unit 1610 includes a plurality of harq processes and performs harq operation for each of the harq processes . as described above , the signal transmission method and apparatus for a mobile communication system according to the present invention enables a ue to accurately discriminate the uplink transmission resource assignment messages indicative of initial transmission and retransmission of data , thereby reducing a waste of resources caused by a misidentification of the uplink transmission resource assignment message . although embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail hereinabove , it should be clearly understood that many variations and / or modifications of the basic inventive concepts herein taught which may appear to those skilled in the present art will still fall within the spirit and scope of the present invention , as defined in the appended claims .	7
the invention can be implemented in numerous ways , including as a process , an apparatus , a system , a composition of matter , a computer readable medium such as a computer readable storage medium or a computer network wherein program instructions are sent over optical or electronic communication links . in this specification , these implementations , or any other form that the invention may take , may be referred to as techniques . a component such as a processor or a memory described as being configured to perform a task includes both a general component that is temporarily configured to perform the task at a given time or a specific component that is manufactured to perform the task . in general , the order of the steps of disclosed processes may be altered within the scope of the invention . a detailed description of one or more embodiments of the invention is provided below along with accompanying figures that illustrate the principles of the invention . the invention is described in connection with such embodiments , but the invention is not limited to any embodiment . the scope of the invention is limited only by the claims and the invention encompasses numerous alternatives , modifications and equivalents . numerous specific details are set forth in the following description in order to provide a thorough understanding of the invention . these details are provided for the purpose of example and the invention may be practiced according to the claims without some or all of these specific details . for the purpose of clarity , technical material that is known in the technical fields related to the invention has not been described in detail so that the invention is not unnecessarily obscured . creating and validating digital signatures for multiple encodings are disclosed . in some embodiments , creating a digital signature for a document includes computing a signature for two or more encodings of the document information . the signatures are labeled and packaged together as a multiple encoding signature . when a document with a multiple encoding signature is validated , a signature corresponding to the encoding of the document is located within the multiple encoding signature and used to validate the document . the document can be converted into another encoding for which a corresponding signature exists in the multiple encoding signature and still have a valid multiple encoding signature . if no exact signature corresponding to the encoding of the document is found , the document can be canonicalized before signature validation . fig1 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of a multiple encoding signature creation . in the example shown , three different xdp encodings , 102 , 104 , and 106 , and three different pdf encodings , 108 , 110 , and 112 , for a document are shown as encodings associated with multiple encoding signature 124 . for example , difference between the different encodings of xdp or pdf can be due to different encoding versions and / or different ordering of data within the document . any encoding used to encode data can be associated with multiple encoding signature 124 , including any encoding variations on xdp encoding , xml encoding , binary xml encoding , and pdf encoding . any number of encodings can be associated with multiple encoding signature 124 . the encodings associated with multiple encoding signature 124 can be preconfigured or dynamically configured . xdp ′″ encoding 102 , xdp ″ encoding 104 , and xdp ′ encoding 106 is canonicalized as xdp encoding 114 . any encoding variation or any number of encodings can be canonicalized into a common canonical form . in generating multiple encoding signature 124 , a hash of various encodings is made . xdp encoding 114 is hashed to generate xdp hash 122 . pdf ′″ encoding 108 is hashed to generate pdf ′″ hash 116 . pdf ″ encoding 110 is hashed to generate pdf ″ hash 118 . pdf ′ encoding 112 is hashed to generate pdf ′ hash 120 . in some embodiments , one or more of xdp encoding variations , 102 , 104 , and 106 , are hashed in addition to the canonical xdp encoding . any hashing function can be used to generate the hashes , including the md5 hashing function . one or more hashes produced from various encodings are encrypted and combined to form multiple encoding signature 124 . the hashes can be combined before encryption or combined after individual encryption . any encryption method may be used , including any public key encryption methods . fig2 a illustrates an embodiment of a multiple encoding signature coupled to one or more electronic documents . multiple encoding signature 202 comprises two or more hashes corresponding to one or more encodings of electronic documents contained in 204 . in some embodiments , multiple encoding signature 202 is multiple encoding signature 124 of fig1 . in some embodiments , multiple encoding signature 202 comprises hashes for two or more unrelated documents contained in one or more documents of 204 . multiple encoding signature 202 and document 204 are coupled together in a single file . the multiple encoding signature can exists in any location of the file . in some embodiments , multiple encoding signature 204 and document 204 do not exist in the same file . for example , they may exist in different files and / or exist in a database . multiple encoding signature 202 may be a part of another document signature . fig2 b illustrates an embodiment of a single encrypted multiple encoding signature . in some embodiments fig2 b is the multiple encoding signature 202 of fig2 a . in the example shown , multiple hashes generated for different encodings have been combined before they are encrypted . the contents of the multiple encoding signature comprises hashes , 208 , 212 , and 216 , and labels , 206 , 210 , and 214 , corresponding to the hashes . there may any number of hashes and any number of labels . in some embodiments , a label corresponds to more than one hash . a label contains one or more data related to one or more hashes , including hash location , hash size , one or more encoding identifiers corresponding to one or more hashes , identifier identifying documents corresponding to one or more hashes , and any hash attributes . two or more hashes and one or more labels are encrypted together to form a multiple encoding signature . the hashes may be encrypted separately from the labels . the labels may be unencrypted . the labels may be included as metadata , i . e . header data , of a document . the order of the hashes and / or labels within the multiple encoding signature may be preconfigured or dynamically configured . if the location and attributes of the hashes are predetermined , labels do not have to be included . in some embodiments , labels are not included in the multiple encoding signature . fig2 c illustrates an embodiment of a multiple encoding signature with individually encrypted hashes . in some embodiments fig2 c is the multiple encoding signature 202 of fig2 a . in the example shown , multiple hashes generated for different encodings are encrypted individually before they are packaged together as a multiple encoding signature . the contents of the multiple encoding signature comprise single encoding signatures , 220 , 224 , and 228 , and labels , 218 , 222 , and 226 , corresponding to individually encrypted hashes . there may any number of individually encrypted hashes and any number of labels . in some embodiments , a label corresponds to more than one individually encrypted hash . a label contains one or more data related to one or more individually encrypted hashes , including individually encrypted hash location , individually encrypted hash size , one or more encoding identifiers corresponding to one or more individually encrypted hashes , identifier identifying documents corresponding to one or more individually encrypted hashes , and any individually encrypted hash attributes . two or more individually encrypted hashes and one or more labels are packaged together to form a multiple encoding signature . the labels may be left unencrypted or encrypted separately or together with a corresponding individually encrypted hash . the labels may be included as metadata , i . e . header data , of a document . the order of the individually encrypted hashes and / or labels within the multiple encoding signature may be preconfigured or dynamically configured . if the location and attributes of the individually encrypted hashes are predetermined , labels do not have to be included . in some embodiments , labels are not included in the multiple encoding signature . fig3 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of a multiple encoding signature system . in the example shown , author system 302 is connected to recipient system 306 by network 304 . author system 302 generates the multiple encoding signature and recipient system validates the multiple encoding signature . network 304 is any public or private network and / or combination thereof , including without limitation the internet , intranet , lan , wan , and other forms of connecting multiple systems and or groups of systems together . the network is used to send data between the author and the recipient . in some embodiments , the author and recipient system is physically located inside the same system . author system 302 comprises encoders , 308 , 310 , and 312 , hash generator 314 , and encrypter 316 . encoders 308 - 312 each corresponds to one or more encodings used to encode one or more documents . there can be any number of encoders . hash generator 314 generates hashes based at least in part on encodings of one or more documents . encrypter 316 encrypts one or more hashes individually or together in order to generate a multiple encoding signature . recipient system 306 comprises decoder 318 , decrypter 320 , hash generator 322 , and validator 324 . decoder 318 decodes the multiple encoding signature to determine and locate the hash needed to verify one or more documents . decrypter 320 decrypts the encoded signature . for example , if the signature was encoded using a public key cryptography , the public key is used to decrypt the signature . hash generator 322 generates the same hash used to generate the hash contained in the signature . validator 324 compares the generated hash and the hash of the signature in order to validate the signature . other components may exist in both the author and recipient system . this system diagram has been simplified to illustrate the embodiment clearly . fig4 illustrates an embodiment of a process for generating a multiple encoding signature . in the example shown , data to be encoded is received at 402 . at 404 the data is encoded to one or more encodings . encodings to be produced are preconfigured and / or dynamically configured . a canonical encoding may be used as one or more of the encodings . in some embodiments , already encoded documents are received and one or documents may be converted to a canonical encoding . at 406 , the encodings are hashed to produce hashes corresponding to each encoding . in some embodiments , only portions of the documents are hashed . the portions to be hashed can be preconfigured , dynamically configured , or specified by the author . at 408 the hashes are combined together . a label containing data corresponding to the hashes may be combined together with the hashes . at 410 , the combined hashes are encrypted to produce a multiple encoding signature . in some embodiments , the hashes are encrypted individually to produce individual signatures to be combined into a multiple encoding signature . the multiple encoding signature may be packaged into together with one or more corresponding documents or data . in some embodiments , the signatures are stored in an order , e . g ., a hierarchical order . in some embodiments , the signatures are stored in a separate module in an order , e . g ., a hierarchical order . the hierarchical order may be based on any signature or electronic document attribute or data . fig5 illustrates an embodiment of a process for validating a multiple encoding signature . the multiple encoding signature is received at 502 . at 504 , one or more efficient hashes that could be used to validate the document are determined . efficient hashes include hashes not requiring canonicalization of the document to be verified and hashes requiring less than the maximum amount of computation required to convert / canonicalize the document to be verified . in some embodiments , one or more efficient hashes are requested from a module containing multiple hashes . at 506 , the multiple encoding signature is decrypted and the most efficient hash contained in the multiple encoding signature is located . the most efficient hash may be a hash corresponding to the specific encoding of the document to be verified or a hash corresponding to an encoding that requires conversion of the document to be verified . if the document requires conversion , the document is converted / canonicalized to the required encoding . at 508 , all or a portion of the document encoding corresponding to the most efficient hash is hashed with the same hashing algorithm used to generate the most efficient hash . at 510 , the generated hash and the most efficient hash are compared to determine the validity of the signature . in some embodiments if the hashes match , the signature is verified . the processes shown in fig4 and 5 and described above may be implemented in any suitable way , such as one or more integrated circuits and / or other device , or as firmware , software , or otherwise . digital signatures for electronic documents have been described above as illustrative examples . digital signatures can be used to sign and validate data other than electronic documents . although the foregoing embodiments have been described in some detail for purposes of clarity of understanding , the invention is not limited to the details provided . there are many alternative ways of implementing the invention . the disclosed embodiments are illustrative and not restrictive .	7
this detailed description begins with a technical description of the manufacturing requirements for pwb imaging , including image sharpness , resist uniformity in thickness ; registration ( accuracy of placement ) and hole tenting . also the light intensity requirements of the uv curable photopolymers to achieve polymerization is defined . next , this detailed description illustrates the techniques for mating the coated phototool with a copper - clad printed wiring board ; the near - simultaneous technique for curing ; the selection of high temperature photo imaging means hereinafter termed a phototool , followed by the preferred embodiment for production printed wiring board imaging . throughout this disclosure the process of joining together the substrate , the photopolymer and the phototool into a unified assembly s referred to as mating . computer grade pc boards are typically manufactured in panel form in sizes of the order of 18 by 20 inches ( 0 . 46 m by 0 . 5 m ). conductor lines and spaces are of the order of 0 . 010 inches wide ( 0 . 025 cm ) with sharply defined edges , free of nicks and bulges . additionally , the imaging resist forming the conductors must maintain a constant thickness , consistent with the plating or etching chemicals , temperature and immersion time . too thin a resist results in breakdowns and the plating of metal at unwanted locations . with regard to image placement on the copper - clad board , the 18 by 20 inch ( 0 . 46 m by 0 . 5 m ) panel will typically have an accuracy of 0 . 002 inches ( 0 . 05 mm ) on drilled hole location , requiring the imaging be accurate to within 0 . 005 inches ( 0 . 13 mm ) in order to maintain an annular ring of the order of 0 . 005 inches ( 0 . 13 mm ) around the hole . as described earlier , the uv curable photopolymers used in pwb manufacture have been developed to be applied by screen printing over the copper surface and cured by conveying under 200 watt - per inch mercury vapor lamps at a speed of 12 feet ( 3 . 66 m ) per minute . the surface temperature rise is significant , for the board receives approximately 200 watt - seconds of energy per square inch of area . typically , surface temperatures in excess of 300 degrees f . are experienced . the aforementioned 200 watt - seconds per square inch ( 6 . 45 cm 2 ) energy requirement is for photopolymer whose surface is exposed to air . most all of the tested photopolymers are affected by air to the extent that the exposure energy can be reduced to only 50 watt - seconds per square inch ( 6 . 45 square cm ) when the air is completely excluded by the mating process described herein . a phototool , as used herein , is a transparent sheet with light opaque areas corresponding to the image to be reproduced , and this phototool is placed between the uv lamp and the substrate to control those areas of photopolymer to be hardened . the terms photo image , photomask and phototool can be used interchangeably . while it is possible to image the coated pwb with the phototool off - contact , it is not cost - effective , since an expensive collimated light source is required ; other light sources will produce light undercutting , reduced line widths , and loss of line fidelity . in order to use a non - collimated light source and still achieve fine line imaging , it is necessary for the phototool to intimately contact the photopolymer , as is accomplished herein . fig1 shows a section of a pwb 1 in which the phototool is being mated to the coated surface 3 . pwb 1 has been previously roughly coated with photopolymer layer 3 . phototool 4 is positioned above and off contact with pwb 1 with opaque areas 7 registered to drilled holes 47 in the pwb 1 . assembly 6 movable in the direction of arrow 46 has rubber blade 10 of 50 durometer , which traverses the top surface of phototool 4 . force f 1 in direction 8 on phototool 4 causes the phototool to contact the photopolymer and force f 2 in the direction of movement 9 causes blade 10 to traverse the topside of the phototool and progressively mate the phototool with the photopolymer . this technique purges the photopolymer of air bubbles which may have been entrapped during the coating cycle , and also prevents the entrapment of air resident between the phototool and photopolymer surface . this mating technique has several highly desirable features not readily obtainable otherwise . first , the photopolymer surface , when coated , may be mottled or have an orange - peel effect . these surface irregularities are smoothed out and the mated surface conforms to the smooth plastic surface topology of phototool 4 as well as the substrate . in the case of a pwb the substrate carries a copper layer 52 surface which is to be conformed to the image of the phototool 4 , for example . this is illustrated in fig1 with crosshatched photopolymer area 2 being in surface to surface contact because of the previous scanning of surface contact member 10 , preferably a rubber blade , across the phototool 4 surface . while this mating technique smoothes out surface irregulatiries , there is no tendency for the photopolymer to be forced out ahead of the blade and thereby reduce the coating thickness . at the point 5 where the blade edge contacts the phototool , the instantaneous pressure may reach 300 pounds per square inch ( 2067 kpa ). this high pressure causes any trapped air bubbles to burst and the air is forced out ahead of the blade . experiments with the substitution of a rubber roller in the manner of u . s . pat . no . 3 , 837 , 887 -- k . akamatsu et al ., sept . 24 , 1974 in lieu of the blade yielded inferior results , for air was entrapped under the phototool . on those areas of the phototool now mated with the ( crosshatched ) photopolymer , a strong holding force is maintained between the phototool and pwb surface . thus , atmospheric pressure 11 ( fig1 ) maintains the phototool in intimate contact with the photopolymer surface indefinitely , without an outside vacuum source . phototool opaque areas 7 ( which usually do not constitute surface irregularities ) are in intimate contact with the photopolymer surface , and the photopolymer can be exposed with a non - collimated light source and produce high fidelity reproduction of images on the phototool on the pwb plating resist pattern . fig2 shows a preferred method for curing photopolymer 3 . for this purpose , uv lamp 14 and reflector - focuser 13 are mounted on the same movable transversing assembly 21 as blade 10 . after the blade causes the phototool to mate with the photopolymer , light rays 12 expose and polymerize the photopolymer layer 2 directly beneath the phototool transparent areas . light rays 12 cannot expose those areas ahead of blade 10 . fig2 shows the coolant dispensing apparatus ; reservoir 15 , supplying coolant 17 to sponge 16 and thence to phototool 4 in a film shown as droplets 18 . shuttering is accomplished automatically by pivoted shutter 19 as the assembly 21 is lowered into contact with phototool 4 . light shroud 20 contacts phototool 4 and slides upward along the reflector - focuser 13 , and actuates the pivoting shutter 19 which opens to expose the mated photopolymer . arrow 53 shows the reciprocal movement of the transversing assembly to move from rest into engagement on transversal and then back into a spaced separation position from the photopolymer layer 3 . fig2 shows 3 distinct zones or conditions of photopolymer . photopolymer 2 under lamp 14 is polymerized as shown by crosshatching , while photopolymer 2 under sponge 16 is under vacuum but not yet exposed as indicated by lining ; photopolymer 3 is not yet contacted by phototool 4 and is therefore at atmospheric pressure as indicated by dotting . this progressive exposure method is an advancement in the art of producing printed plates with photopolymers , since present systems require a time of several seconds for drawdown of he entire phototool before the exposure begins as for example in the aforementioned u . s . pat . no . 4 , 070 , 110 . similarly vacuum drawdown techniques are costly and time consuming . since the disclosed system requires no external vacuum and exposes during scanning , this drawdown period and equipment is eliminated . the following sections describe the preferred phototool construction techniques to image the major photopolymer resists in use in pwb manufacture and photopolymers used in graphics imaging . ______________________________________manufacturer product code description______________________________________w . r . grace corp . spr 7263 lr plating resistcolumbia , md . spr 7263 m etch resistdynachem corp . sr 30 h screen resisttustin , calif . mac dermid corp . 9403 uv plating resistwaterbury , conn . colonial printing ink uv 50 - 48 solder maske . rutherford , n . j . advance processing & amp ; uval graphics imagingsupply corp . chicago , ill . uv curable photo - polymer______________________________________ these photoresists have been developed to be screen printed to a thickness of 1 to 2 thousandths of an inch ( 0 . 025 mm to 0 . 05 mm ), and cured by a two - lamp assembly , each lamp rated at 200 watts per linear inch ( 2 . 54 cm ), with a conveyor speed of 12 feet per minute . with the disclosed equipment the phototool is placed between the lamp and pwb , subjecting the phototool to temperature ranging up to 300 degrees f . while the phototool temperature can be reduced to less than 100 degrees f . by utilizing a different lamp source and increasing the exposure time to the order of 40 seconds , the preferred embodiment is the use of polyester sheet and a high temperaure silicone rubber layer to bond the opaque areas 7 ( fig1 ) to the sheet 4 ; and the use of a liquid coolant on the surface of the sheet . referring to fig1 phototool 4 is seen to be subjected to a horizontal force 9 which tends to stretch the phototool and thereby introduce registration errors . polyester sheet in the thickness of 4 to 8 thousandths of an inch ( 0 . 1 to 0 . 2 mm ) provides the stability needed by the phototool , plus the ability to withstand short temperature excursions to 250 degrees f . phototool opaque areas consist of etched metal foil , preferably aluminum . to make a phototool , a sheet of clear polyester and a thin sheet of aluminum foil are laminated together , with a thin layer of clear silicone rubber adhesive bonding the two securely . the foil is given a pre - etch in sodium hydroxide in order to reduce the foil thickness to the order of 0 . 0001 inch ( 0 . 0025 mm ). the foil is then coated with a photographic etch resist , exposed , washed out and then etched again to produce the phototool image in etched foil . etched aluminum foil is preferred over other black emulsion systems since a large area of black emulsion would absorb large quantities of heat which could distort the phototool , while the aluminum surface reflects heat and reduces the total amount absorbed . for use in this invention the phototool is previously coated and imaged for subsequent use in imaging substrates . the aforementioned polyester sheet 4 with bonded foil is stretched in phototool frame 24 , fig3 coated and inserted into the apparatus of fig4 . exact registration between the phototool pattern and substrates to be imaged in production is achieved by placing a production substrate onto the substrate mounting plate 22 in register such as by use of registration pins 27 . next the master artwork is placed in frame 24 over the substrate in exact register . the mounting plate is secured to the phototool frame as in fig3 in register by means of hinge 23 . the resilient blade 10 is drawn across the polyester sheet 4 which was previously developed from an artwork master and photopolymer coated polyester sheet , thereby transferring the artwork in the form of a foil surface 7 . the flexible polyeser sheet phototool 4 is coated over the foil surface with silicone rubber adhesive , dow corning product code 734 rtv , which serves two major functions . first , the resilient rubber can accommodate small dirt particles on the pwb surface . during the mating cycle pwb surface irregularities can cause a separation to exist between phototool and pwb surface which will mar the image over a much wider area than the irregularity itself . the silicone rubber , being resilient , conforms to the irregularity and reduces the marred area . secondly , the silicone rubber adhesive forms a non - stick surface on the phototool to which hardened photopolymer will not adhere . while a silicone rubber adhesive is the preferred bonding material for the foil coating , other materials can be used . polyethylene was used in tests conducted by the applicant , with good results . polyethelene provides a non - stick surface and has the added advantage of providing a surface which does not dewet when coated with photopolymer . however , polyethelene is thermoplastic and if subjected to temperatures of 250 degrees f . can melt and react with the photopolymer and thereby damage the phototool . the phototool can also be made from polyester photographic film having either a silver halide emulsion or a diazo emulsion , with a suitable non - stick surface added . the aforementioned heat build up in large opaque areas may distort and damage this type of phototool . thus far in this disclosure , the use of a flexible phototool has been described . the phototool need not be flexible in all cases . for example , when imaging flexible printed wiring circuits , the phototool may be a glass plate and the flexible substrate mated with the phototool by drawing the blade across the flexible substrate . thus , in the frame of fig3 simply the substrate and phototool are interchanged in position . the photo scanning need then occur on the opposite side . depending on exposure time and distance of phototool from uv lamps , the temperature rise of the phototool can be up to 300 degrees f . and beyond . there are two practical techniques for reducing substrate temperature rise in conventional uv lamp conveyorized systems . first , the uv lamps can be water - jacketed to reduce convected thermal transfers and non - functional infra - red radiations . however , the cooling water must be distilled and exceptionally free of minerals and other impurities , which could reduce light output . the cost of piping and a stainless - steel heat exchanger is prohibitive . a second technique for substrate cooling is to force cold air , at 30 degrees f . onto the substrate while under the uv lamp . this cooling technique is expensive and wasteful of energy . a water spray on printed substrates to prevent overheating presents the hazard of water impinging on the hot lamp surface and causing catastrophic damage . this disclosure teaches a way of introducing a liquid coolant onto the phototool surface at the trailing edge of the mating blade . a 50 percent water - alcohol solution is applied across the width of the phototool by a sponge . while many liquids can be used , it is necessary that the phototool be wetted completely and beading of coolant prevented . the coolant absorbs heat from the phototool by evaporation , yet does not significantly reduce the transmittance of the uv light energy . the alcohol - water solution will keep the phototool temperature to 200 degrees f . or lower . as shown in fig2 reservoir 15 contains the coolant solution , which is applied to phototool 4 by sponge 16 . when two successive lamps are used , coolant film shown as droplets 18 is partially evaporated by the first lamp 14 , and remain in diminished quantity to provide phototool cooling when passing under the second uv lamp . coolant solution is introduced after the mating blade , as the solution would be forced ahead of the blade if introduced there . in fig2 uv light source 14 is a commercially available medium pressure mercury vapor lamp , whose length is chosen to correspond to the width of the substrate to be imaged . one suitable lamp is manufactured by canrad - hanovia company of newark , n . j . the lamp is mounted in irridator 13 , fig2 which is manufactured by the same company . fig3 shows a fixture for mounting the phototool and pwb in register and off contact . the fixture shown in fig3 is used when precise registration is required when a conveyorized uv curing unit is used as the exposure source , or when a pre - registered fixture is needed , but the process of fig2 can be carried out by hand without the needs of a fixture . in the fixture 42 , pwb 1 mounts on base 22 and is registered via pins 27 . phototool 4 is mounted on frame 24 which maintains the phototool in registration with drilled pwb 1 . hinge 23 allows frame 24 to be raised and lowered for placement and removal of pwb 1 . spacers 26 maintain off - contact distance between phototool 4 and pwb 1 top surface . in fig3 mounting base 22 has a metal strip 48 affixed to the under side , whose purpose is to cause the generation of an electrical signal when the exposure assembly is conveyed in direction 49 past a sensor 50 serving to actuate a lowering mechanism at control center 51 for positioning the mating blade 10 . a similar electrical signal at 52 will in turn cause the mating blade to rise . thus contact of the phototool at the leading edge of the image area with the blade 10 is automated . also the signal at sensor 52 will also cause the blade to be raised automatically at the trailing edge of the image area . the following chart shows the process steps of this invention to be followed where hole tenting is not required . f . separate the phototool from the pwb leaving hardened photopolymer on pwb . g . wash out unexposed paste photopolymer on pwb and post cure if desirable . h . blot the phototool to remove any photopolymer paste adhering thereto , and reinstituting the cycle . the pwb is coated , step b , by screen printing to the desired thickness , normally from 0 . 5 to 2 thousandths of an inch ( 0 . 013 mm to 0 . 51 mm ), as determined by plating bath requirements ( temperature , immersion time , plating current density and chemical composition ), and the plating thickness to be deposited . the photopolymer thickness is controlled primarily by the screen fabric thickness and percent open area . for example , a 156 mesh polyester fabric will coat the pwb to a thickness of approximately 1 mil , while a 230 mesh fabric will deposit a coating 0 . 3 mils ( 0 . 076 mm ) thick . the phototool is maintained off - contact , but correctly positioned above the coated pwb by the fixturing as shown in fig3 . off contact distance is of the order of 0 . 060 inches ( 0 . 15 cm ) for a 12 by 18 inch ( 0 . 3 by 0 . 46m ) pwb . the phototool is mated with the coated pwb by pressing the blade down at one end of the pwb and drawing the blade across the pwb length , using a downward force of 2 pounds ( 8 . 9 n ) per linear inch ( 2 . 54 cm ) of blade length . step e , exposure to uv light source , may be accomplished concurrently with the phototool mating step d . alternatively , the positioning fixture ( with mated phototool ) may be exposed to a remote light source . as previously described , the mating process forces out all air from the photopolymer , and all air from between the phototool and photopolymer surface , producing a vacuum . this vacuum is maintained indefinitely , provided the phototool does not start to lift away at the pwb edge in response to the upward pull of the phototool . thus , without the use of an external vacuum source , the mated phototool pwb can be exposed to various light sources to effect polymerization . while the preferred embodiments used tubular mercury vapor lamps to effect exposure in several seconds under the lamps , a flip - top platemaker exposure system of lower power can be used for exposure , but the exposure time increases . other suitable lamp sources are the drawer type exposure units such as the colight dmvl - hp with exposure times of the order of 2 minutes . the washout of unexposed photopolymer , step f , is accomplished by using a solvent spray bath lasting from 10 to 30 seconds . the du pont &# 34 ; a &# 34 ; processor with trichlorethane is one combination of equipment and solvent which produced excellent quality images . step h , the blotting of the underside of the phototool is required to smooth out unexposed photopolymer which remains on the phototool after the exposed pwb is removed . if left on the phototool , then the next image may be marred by the presence of entrapped air . usually it is necessary to blot the phototool after every second or third exposure cycle , depending on the photopolymer coating thickness on the pwb . blotting is accomplished by use of a rubber roller to obliterate the patterns and distribute the remaining photopolymer more evenly . where selected holes are to be tented by the photoimaged resist , the primary difference in the procedures for hole tenting is step b , in which the phototool is coated rather than the pwb . another difference is that blotting the phototool is not necessary when tenting , since the next step , phototool coating , obliterates the residual photopolymer patterns . as described earlier , the phototool has a thin layer of clear silicone rubber on the underside . when a coating of photopolymer is applied by screen printing ( or other means ) onto the silicone rubber , the photopolymer will develop &# 34 ; fish - eyes &# 34 ; or voids which will continue to expand in area with time . this is caused by the inability of the wet photopolymer to grip the silicone rubber , and the photopolymer surface tension causes the photopolymer to form beads , similar to the beading of water on a waxed surface . in order to prevent the formation of fish - eyes or voids , the disclosed apparatus exposes or flashes the photopolymer through the phototool as the coating is being applied . this flashing step is of sufficient intensity to slightly polymerize the photopolymer over the clear areas of the phototool , but not to the point of exterior surface hardening . that photopolymer above the phototool opaque areas need not be flashed . it would appear that this flashing step is critical with regard to lamp intensity and exposure time , but in practice it is not . the photopolymers listed in this disclosure , and all photopolymers tested are air - inhibited , meaning that the photopolymer cure with less uv energy in the absence of air than is required in the presence of air . thus , as the phototool is coated with photopolymer via screen printing , only a thin line of photopolymer immediately under the squeegee is deprived of air , for the screen fabric is off - contact , and touches the phototool only along a line underneath the squeegee . previously deposited photopolymer , though exposed , will retain a wet surface for good adhesion to the substrate to be printed . this flashing technique is an important aspect of tenting holes in pwb resist imaging , for the flashing ensures a thicker film over the tented hole than would be attained without flashing , for without flashing the photopolymer would thin out at the edges of the holes and would be more likely to break down during washout and immersion in the plating solution . this flashing step has produced a polymerized image which is hardened on the phototool side , but wet on the exterior side , so that the next step of phototool mating with the substrate can be considered to be an image transfer technique . the apparatus and procedures disclosed herein can also be used to image pwb using dry film photoimaging resists as manufactured by the du pont company and others . the following du pont photopolymers are representative of those which can be mated and exposed as described herein : type 6 ; 1105 ; 1010 ; x1135 ; 1020 and 310 . the procedure shown in the foregoing chart a through f are followed as described for paste - consistency photopolymer , with the exception of the coating cycle , wherein the dry film photopolymer is laminated to the pwb by a heated roller laminator . using the disclosed mating and exposing apparatus , the resolution of dry film images can be significantly improved . this increased resolution is achieved by removing the protective polyester sheet which covers the dry film photopolymer prior to exposure . the manufacturer recommends leaving the polyester film in place during exposure and up to the time of development . however , the film , being 0 . 75 mils ( 0 . 019 mm ) thick separates the phototool emulsion from the photopolymer surface during exposure and results in loss of image fidelity . when the cover sheet is removed , the unexposed dry film is tacky to the point that a phototool cannot be placed on the photopolymer and moved about to achieve register . the disclosed apparatus used in accordance with these procedures mates the phototool without air entrapment and exposes the photopolymer without the normal vacuum drawdown period , saving time and improving image fidelity . in arriving at the preferred embodiment substrates were imaged using three available production equipments modified as described . while these alternates do not provide the capability for coating , mating and exposing as readily as the preferred embodiment , they have high production capacities or other merits . a substrate can be coated via screen printing , placed in the exposure fixture and imaged with a modified conveyorized uv curing unit , consisting of horizontal tubular uv lamps with a conveyor belt for moving substrates under the lamps . these uv curing units can be used for producing images per this disclosure by the addition of a mating blade assembly and phototool coolant - dispensing apparatus as shown in fig4 . conveyor belt 36 conveys the phototool assembly 42 under blade 10 . blade 10 is pulled downward by vacuum cylinders 40 , for a period of time beginning when the leading edge of metal strip on the bottomside of phototool assembly 42 bridges electrical contacts mounted under conveyor belt 36 . the conveyor belt on most uv curing units are made of fiberglass mesh encased in a heat resistant plastic , enabling the filaments comprising the electrical contacts to extend thru the mesh and contact the blade control strip . this action permits precise control of the blade and prevents the blade from striking the leading or trailing edge of the phototool frame . co - mounted with blade 10 is reservoir 15 containing the phototool coolant which is dispensed by a sponge not shown in fig4 . uv curing unit 37 is a standard 2 lamp system manufactured for example by argus manufacturing inc . of hopewell , n . j . or colight inc . of minneapolis , minn ., modified to accommodate blade 10 , blade activator vacuum cylinder 40 , and blade activator switch previously described . lamps 41 expose the photopolymer . the use of a modified uv - curing unit as an exposure source has two attributes not afforded by the preferred embodiment . first , the use of a modified uv curing unit permits a much higher rate of production , for many different types of images can be exposed sequentially with no uv curing unit changes . this allows a large production facility to coat pwb on multiple screen printers and to expose with a single high speed curing unit . the second attribute of the use of uv curing unit is that substrates of exceptional length can be mated and exposed , obviating the need for oversize cabinetry . the second alternative apparatus is the use of an automatic screen printer with modifications including the addition of a tubular lamp integrally mounted with the print bar assembly ; a power supply ; and coolant dispensing apparatus . precision automatic printers , such as made by autoroll , can maintain the required registration without the need for fixturing as shown in fig3 . the automatic printers can be used in two ways ; with and without positioning fixture 42 . when used without the positioning fixture , the coated substrates are mated and exposed , with registration being maintained by the printer . when used with the positioning fixture then a single printer can mate and expose different types of intermixed pwb for high speed production . the third alternative apparatus which can be used for exposure of mated substrates is the use of a platemaker , such as the units made by nuarc of chicago , ill . the non - stop platemaker has a cabinet - mounted lamp and a swivel top which allows one substrate to be exposed while a second substrate is being prepared on the top surface . when used as an exposure source for imaging as disclosed herein , an exposure fixture as in fig3 is mounted on each side of the flip - top ; one exposure fixture for each side of a double sided pwb , for example . the substrates are coated on auxiliary equipment and mated manually . this alternative apparatus represents the least expensive method for imaging per this disclosure in a manual environment . having therefore set out the construction and operation of a preferred embodiment of the invention and advanced the state of the art , these features of novelty believed descriptive of the spirit and nature of the invention are set forth with particularity in the appended claims . there is provided an improved process and apparatus for making precision photo images particularly useful in the production of printed wiring circuits , where a resist image is put on a copper - clad board to limit the plated metal to those areas which will become electrical conductors . thus , a uv curable photopolymer of paste - consistency is applied over the board surface and selectively exposed through a phototool in contact with the wet photopolymer , producing a hardened resist pattern which withstands the subsequent solvent wash - out step . additionally , the disclosed process and apparatus provides an improvement in half - tone dot printing , particularly for substrates heretofore imaged by screen printing .	6
[ 0020 ] fig3 illustrates the architecture diagram of the dac system according to an embodiment of the present invention . referring to fig3 the dac system 30 includes an element pool 31 , a plurality of switches sa 1 ˜ san and sb 1 ˜ sbn , two summing nodes 32 and 33 , and a random number generator 34 . the summing nodes 32 , 33 generate a first analog output signal and a second analog output signal , respectively . thus , the embodiment outputs two analog output signals . of course , the dac system 30 may utilize more than two summing nodes to provide more than two analog output signals , as may be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art . in this embodiment , the element pool 31 includes a plurality of dac elements e 1 ˜ en , which are substantially the same . the dac system 30 utilizes two switches sa and sb to couple each dac element to the two summing nodes 32 and 33 , respectively . the on / off states of the two switches sa and sb are controlled by the first and second random control signals ca and cb , in order to control the connection / disconnection of the element signals of the dac elements to the summing nodes 32 and 33 . for example , the element signal of the dac element e 1 is connected to the summing nodes 32 and 33 through the switches sa 1 and sb 1 . in an embodiment , the switches sa 1 and sb 1 are designed not to be turned on simultaneously but may be turned off simultaneously . similarly , the element signal of the dac element e 2 is connected the summing nodes 32 and 33 through the switches sa 2 and sb 2 , and so on . the dac system 30 utilizes the random number generator 34 to receive two digital input data d a and d b , and to output the first and second random control signals ca 1 ˜ can and cb 1 ˜ cbn according to the two received digital input data d a and d b . therefore , it is possible to control each of the dac elements e 1 ˜ en among the element pool 31 to selectively be coupled to the summing nodes 32 or 33 , and as a result , the first and second analog output signals are respectively corresponding to the digital input data d a and d b . although the embodiment of fig3 provides two analog output signals , the architecture of the dac system also may be modified to provide multiple analog output signals as long as the number of summing nodes is increased . it is to be noted that the total number of dac elements in the element pool 31 is not required to be exactly the same as the sum of the numbers of dac elements in two separate dacs . instead , it is enough to have a total number of dac elements in the element pool 31 that is sufficient to provide a maximum output bit number simultaneously required by such two dacs . of course , the resolution of two digital input data d a and d b can be different . moreover , the dac elements may be of different types . for example , the dac element in a resistor string dac is a resistor ; the dac element in a charge - redistribution switched - capacitor dac is a capacitor ; and the dac element in a current - steering dac is a current source . there are several ways to generate the random control signals for the dac system 30 . fig4 shows an example of the random control signals of the random number generator , wherein fig4 a shows the relationship between the digital input data d a , d b and the random control signals ca , cb at each time point , and fig4 b shows the dac elements assigned to each set of outputs corresponding to fig4 a . the first digital input data da corresponds to the first random control signal ( ca 1 to can ) of fig3 for controlling the switches sa 1 to san , while the second digital input data d b corresponds to the second random control signal ( cb 1 to cbn ) of fig3 for controlling the switches sb 1 to sbn . in fig4 it is assumed that the element pool 31 has eight dac elements e 1 to e 8 , whereof the output element signals are of substantially the same current amount , while output signal errors caused by manufacturing process variation exist . in addition , i and q are assumed to be the queues used in the random control signals ca and cb , respectively . p is the queue of the element pool . a method of generating the random control signal according to an embodiment of the invention is described as following . when the newly - inputted digital input data d a ( or d b ) is greater than the current digital input data d a - 1 ( or d b - 1 ), the method pulls the required element number from the queue p and pushes it into the queue i ( or q ); and when the newly - inputted digital input data d a ( or d b ) is smaller than the current digital input data da - i ( or db - i ), the method pulls the redundant element number from the queue i ( or q ) and pushes it back to the queue p . when the newly - inputted digital input data d a ( or d b ) is equal to the current digital input data d a - i ( or d b - i ), the queues i , q and p are kept unchanged . thereafter , the switches are controlled according to the contents of the queues i and q . as can be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art , the architecture of a common element pool with multiple analog output signals eliminates potential errors existing among different dacs , and randomized control signals also serve the error balancing purpose . therefore , the obtained relative error between the two analog output signals gets significantly smaller . the switch operation at each time point will be described with reference to fig4 a and 4b . time point to : when the digital input data d a and d b are both 0 , the first and second analog output signals are also 0 . so , the random control signals ca and cb are both “ 00000000 ”, the queues i and q are null , and contents in the queue p are dac elements of e 1 to e 8 . time point t 1 : when the digital input data da is changed to 1 and the digital input data d b is changed to 4 , the first analog output signal should be 1 , and one element signal is to be outputted to the summing node 32 . so , the queue i is pushed into one dac element e 1 , which is pulled out from the queue p , and the first random control signal ca is changed to “ 00000001 ”. meanwhile , the second digital output signal should be 4 , and four element signals are to be outputted to the summing node 33 . thus , the queue q is pushed into four dac elements e 2 , e 3 , e 4 and e 5 , which are pulled out from the queue p , and the second random control signal cb is changed to “ 00011110 ”. the elements of e 6 , e 7 , and e 8 are remained in the queue p . time point t 2 : when the digital input data d a is changed to 2 and the digital input data d b is changed to 3 , the first analog output signal should be 2 , and two element signals are to be coupled to the summing node 32 . so , the queue i is pushed into one element e 6 , which is pulled out from the queue p , and the first random control signal ca is changed to “ 00100001 ”. meanwhile , the second analog output signal should be 3 and three element signals are to be coupled to the summing node 33 . thus , the queue q is pulled out one element e 2 , which is pushed into the queue p , and the second random control signal cb is changed to “ 00011100 ”. the elements of e 7 , e 8 , and e 2 are remained in the queue p . time point t 3 : when the digital input data da is changed to 3 and the digital input data d b is changed to 2 , the first analog output signal should be 3 , and three element signals are to be coupled to the summing node 32 . so , the queue i is pushed into one element e 7 , which is pulled out from the queue p , and the first random control signal ca is changed to “ 01100001 ”. meanwhile , the analog output signal b should be 2 , and two element signals are to be coupled to the summing node 33 . thus , the queue q is pulled out one element e 3 , which is pushed into the queue p , and the second random control signal cb is changed to “ 00011000 ”. the elements of e 8 , e 2 , and e 3 remain in the queue p . the signals and queues at other time points may be derived analogically . [ 0030 ] fig5 shows a flow chart of a method for generating the random control signal according to an embodiment of this invention . in this embodiment , the queue p is the redundant element data of the element pool , the queue i is the element data used by the first control signal ca , and the queue q is the element data used by the second control signal cb . the method comprises the following steps . step s 502 : read the new first and second digital input data d a and d b . step s 504 : calculate the difference e between the new data da and the current data d a - 1 . that is , e = d a − d a - i . then , the data d a - 1 is updated to be data d a . step s 506 : if the difference e is greater than 0 , it means that the new data d a is greater than the current data d a - 1 , and at least a new element signal is to be coupled to the first summing node . if the difference e is smaller than 0 , the process jumps to step s 516 . if the difference e is 0 , the process jumps to step s 526 . step s 508 : call the n = pull ( p ) procedure . a data n is pulled out from the queue p . step s 510 : call the push ( i , n ) procedure . the data n is then pushed into the queue i . step s 512 : set the n - th bit of the first random control signal to 1 , and the difference e is subtracted by 1 . step s 514 : check whether the difference e is 0 . the process jumps to step s 526 if the difference e is 0 ; otherwise the process jumps back to step s 508 . step s 516 : if the difference e is smaller than 0 , it means that the new data d a is smaller than the current data d a - 1 , and the number of element signals coupled to the first summing node is to be decreased . thus , the process jumps to step s 518 . if the difference e is 0 , the process jumps to step s 526 . step s 518 : call the n = pull ( i ) procedure . a data n is pulled out from the queue i . step s 520 : call the push ( p , n ) procedure . the data n is pushed into the queue p . step s 522 : set the n - th bit of the first control data to 0 , and the difference e is added by 1 . step s 524 : check whether the difference e is 0 . the process jumps to step s 526 if the difference e is 0 ; or otherwise the process jumps back to step s 518 . the steps s 526 ˜ s 546 resemble the steps s 504 ˜ s 524 with da being substituted by d b . note that the flow chart of fig5 is divided into two stages . the first stage from steps s 504 to s 524 is to set the first control data according to the first digital input data . the second stage from step s 526 to s 546 is to set the second control data according to the second digital input data . consequently , if more than two analog output signals are needed , a third stage can be added , and the steps resemble those in the second stage . [ 0046 ] fig6 shows an embodiment of the pull ( l ) procedure of fig5 wherein symbol l may represent the queue i , q or p . each queue has four variables , i . e ., “ list ”, “ size ”, “ avail ”, and “ vacc ”, and the general forms thereof are represented by “ l . list ”, “ l . size ”, “ l . avail ”, and “ l . vacc ”. “ list ” is an array for storing the numbers of the elements ; “ size ” is the maximum capacity of this queue ; “ avail ” is the index of the elements that may be pulled out , wherein avail = 0 represents that the queue is null ; and “ vacc ” is the null index into which the element may be pushed , wherein vacc = 0 represents that the queue is full . the steps of the pull ( l ) procedure will be described with reference to fig6 . step s 602 : check whether the queue is null . that is , to determine whether the l . avail is 0 . when l . avail = 0 , it means that the queue is null , and the process jumps to the error procedure step s 604 , or otherwise jumps to step s 606 . step s 606 : check whether the queue is full . that is , to determine whether the l . vacc is 0 . when l . vacc = 0 , it means that the queue is full , and the process jumps to step s 608 ; or otherwise jumps to step s 610 . step s 608 : set the null index to the position at which the element is to be pulled out . that is , l . vacc = l . avail . step s 610 : pull the element number at the avail position in the queue , that is , n = l . list [ avail ], and the avail is added by 1 to indicate a next usable position . step s 612 : check whether the avail exceeds the range , i . e ., determine whether the l . avail is greater than the l . size . the process jumps to step 614 if l . avail & gt ; l . size ; or otherwise the process jumps to step s 616 . step s 614 : wrap around the l . avail to the beginning of the list , i . e ., set the l . avail to 1 . step s 616 : check whether the queue is null . if l . avail = l . vacc , it means that the queue is null and the process jumps to step s 618 ; or otherwise the process jumps to step s 620 . step s 620 : return the n that is pulled out , and end the procedure . of course , in the above - mentioned procedure , steps s 602 and s 604 may be omitted if the output signal being negative is avoided ( i . e ., no condition of taking the element from the null queue exists ). [ 0057 ] fig7 shows a flow chart of the push ( l , n ) procedure in the flow chart of fig5 wherein symbol l may represent the queue i , q or p , and symbol n is the element number . the steps of the push ( l , n ) procedure will be described with reference to fig7 . step s 702 : check whether the queue is full , i . e ., determine whether the l . vacc is 0 . when l . vacc = 0 , it means that the queue is full , and the process jumps to step s 704 , or otherwise jumps to step s 706 . step s 704 : process the error procedure . when the queue is full , the element cannot be pushed in . so , the error processing operation is performed , and the process is temporarily terminated . step s 706 : check whether the queue is null , i . e ., determine whether the l . avail is 0 . when l . avail = 0 , it means that the queue is null , and the process jumps to step s 708 ; or otherwise jumps to step s 710 . step s 708 : set the usable position to the position at which the element is to be placed . that is , l . avail = l . vacc . step s 710 : push the data n to the position of vacc in the queue , i . e ., l . list [ vacc ]= n , and add the vacc by 1 in order to indicate a next null position . step s 712 : check whether the vacc exceeds the range , i . e ., determine whether the l . vacc is greater than the l . size . if l . vacc & gt ; l . size , the process jumps to step s 714 , or otherwise jumps to step s 716 . step s 714 : wrap around the l . vacc to the beginning of the list . that is , the l . vacc is set to be 1 . step s 716 : check whether the queue is full again . that is , determine whether the l . vacc equals l . avail . if l . vacc = l . avail , it means that the queue is full , and the process jumps to step s 718 , or otherwise jumps to step s 720 . of course , in the above - mentioned procedure , if it is avoided that the output signal is greater than the queue maximum ( i . e ., no condition of placing the element to the full queue exists ), the steps s 702 and s 704 may be omitted . please note that although in the embodiment presented above the dac elements provide currents with substantially the same amount , other quantities of current provided by these dac elements may also be adopted , such as a combination of 1i , 2i , 4i , 8i , . . . etc . likewise , the randomized control signal scheme presented above is of exemplary purpose only and is not intended to serve as limitation . other control schemes may also be adopted in the same hardware configuration . while certain exemplary embodiments have been described and shown in the accompanying drawings , it is to be understood that such embodiments are merely illustrative of and not restrictive on the broad invention , and that this invention not be limited to the specific construction and arrangement shown and described , since various other modifications may occur to those ordinarily skilled in the art .	7
fig1 is a schematic diagram of distributed engine control system 2 according to a possible embodiment of the invention . the control system comprises multiple engines 4 in communication with a central controller 6 by way of a wired or wireless communications link 8 . for purposes of illustration only , fig1 shows three of the engines 4 , and engines 4 of the gas turbine type . the control system 2 may alternatively have as little as two engines 4 or more than three engines 4 , and the engines 4 may be of another type , such as of the reciprocating internal combustion type . each engine 4 drives a load 10 by way of an engine drive shaft 12 . the load 10 may be mechanical or electrical . by way of example only , fig1 shows each load 10 as an electrical generator , with each electrical generator load 10 coupled to a common electrical grid 14 . each engine 14 has a fuel control valve 16 for metering fuel at a fuel metering point along a fuel line 18 . the valve 16 has at least a valve actuator 20 and a valve position sensor 22 that senses the position of the valve 16 . a fuel valve controller 24 drives the actuator 20 with an actuator drive signal by way of an actuator control line 26 . the valve position sensor 22 generates a valve position signal representative of valve position and transmits it to the valve controller 24 by way of a valve position signal line 28 . in one mode of operation , the central controller 6 may transmit a control signal representative of a desired fuel flow to each engine 4 by way of its fuel line 18 , such as a desired fuel valve position signal or a desired fuel flow signal . if the control signal comprises a desired valve position signal , the valve controller 24 compares the valve position signal that it receives on the valve position signal line 28 and generates a respective actuator drive signal on the actuator control line 26 to adjust the position of the valve 16 so that the valve position signal on the valve position line 28 correlates to the control signal from the central controller 6 that represents desired valve position . if the control signal comprises a desired flow signal , the valve controller 24 may correlate the control signal with a desired position of the valve 16 and generate a respective actuator drive signal on the actuator control line 26 to adjust the position of the valve 16 so that the valve position signal on the valve position line 28 correlates to the desired valve position . the valve controller 24 may transmit a monitoring signal to the central controller 6 by way of the communications link 8 that is representative of the adjusted fuel metering , such as the valve position signal on the valve position line 28 . the valve controller 24 may correlate the position of the valve 16 as represented by the valve position signal on the valve position line 28 with the effective flow area of the fuel at the fuel metering point along the fuel line 18 . furthermore , the valve controller 24 may correlate the position of the valve 16 as represented by the valve position signal on the valve position line 28 with actual fuel flow through the fuel line 18 and generate the monitoring signal as representing this actual fuel flow . the valve controller 24 may receive additional signals from additional sensors that represent other fuel flow parameters . for instance , an upstream fuel pressure sensor 30 that senses fuel pressure upstream of the fuel metering point may generate an upstream fuel pressure signal representative of the sensed pressure on an upstream fuel pressure signal line 32 . a fuel temperature sensor 34 that senses fuel temperature upstream of the fuel metering point may generate an upstream fuel temperature signal representative of the sensed temperature on an upstream fuel temperature signal line 36 . a downstream fuel pressure sensor 38 that senses fuel pressure downstream of the fuel metering point may generate a downstream fuel pressure signal representative of the sensed pressure on a downstream fuel pressure signal line 40 . the valve controller 24 may correlate the effective flow area of the valve 18 as represented by the valve position signal on the valve position line 28 , the upstream fuel pressure signal on the upstream fuel pressure signal line 32 , the upstream fuel temperature signal on the upstream fuel temperature signal line 36 and the downstream fuel pressure signal on the downstream fuel pressure signal line 40 with actual fuel mass flow . in this case , the control signal from the central controller 6 may represent desired fuel mass flow , and the valve controller 24 may compare the actual fuel mass flow to the desired fuel mass flow and generate the actuator drive signal on the actuator control line 26 to adjust the position of the valve 16 so that the actual fuel mass flow matches the desired fuel mass flow . each engine 4 has a compressor 42 and a turbine 44 that couples to its drive shaft 12 . a compressor inlet temperature sensor 46 may sense compressor inlet temperature and generate a compressor inlet temperature signal representative of the sensed temperature on a compressor inlet temperature signal line 48 . a turbine inlet temperature sensor 50 may sense turbine inlet temperature and generate a turbine inlet temperature signal representative of the sensed temperature on a turbine inlet temperature signal line 52 . an engine speed sensor 54 may sense engine speed and generate an engine speed signal representative of the measured speed on an engine speed signal line 56 . the valve controller 24 may analyse engine parameters as represented by the compressor inlet temperature signal on the compressor inlet temperature signal line 48 , the turbine inlet temperature signal on the turbine inlet temperature signal line 52 and the engine speed signal on the engine speed signal line 56 and compare them with desired engine operating characteristics . the valve controller 24 may compare the actual engine operating characteristics to the desired engine operating characteristics and generate the actuator drive signal on the actuator control line 26 to adjust the position of the valve 16 so that the actual engine operating characteristics correlate with the desired engine operating characteristics . the desired engine operating characteristics may comprise setpoints , such as an engine speed setpoint and a turbine input temperature setpoint , and engine operating schedules , such as engine start , acceleration and deceleration schedules , speed - based fuel schedules and an engine temperature schedule . the central controller 6 may correlate the monitoring signal that it receives from the valve controller 24 aboard each engine 4 with a level of a power system parameter , such as the level of power that the electrical generator load 10 of each engine 4 delivers to the common electrical grid 16 , then compare the correlated power system level with a desired power system level and finally adjust its control signal that it transmits to the valve controller 24 aboard each engine 4 in response to any difference between the correlated power system level and the desired power system level . the desired power level may be a cumulative power level for all of the engines 4 , in which case the central controller 6 correlates each monitor signal from the valve controller 24 of each engine 4 to a corresponding level of the power system parameter , combines the correlated engine power system levels to produce a cumulative correlated power system level and adjusts its control signal that it transmits to the valve controller 24 aboard each engine 4 in response to any difference between the cumulative correlated power system level and the desired power system level . since the central controller 6 and the communication link 8 only has to handle the monitoring signal from the valve controller 24 aboard each engine 4 and the controller 6 needs only transmit a control signal to the valve controller 24 aboard each engine 4 that represents a single desired fuel system parameter , the complexity and data rate of both are greatly reduced with the distributed control system 2 . the described embodiments of the invention are only some illustrative implementations of the invention wherein changes and substitutions of the various parts and arrangement thereof are within the scope of the invention as set forth in the attached claims .	5
fig1 through 3 illustrate the principles of various rotary screen printing methods . fig1 shows a rotary screen printing apparatus integrated on a sheet - fed press . the circular screen 1 is fitted , optionally , with an indentation 1 ′. the squeegee 2 mounted inside the screen is linked to a device ( not shown ) for lifting the squeegee 2 in a controlled manner . a sheet 25 that can be gripped by a gripper 24 rests on the impression cylinder 3 . when the gripper 24 projects from the pit of the impression cylinder , the circular screen 1 will be provided with an indentation 1 ′ ( for instance in the form of a cross - strip with an uncovered zone for the projecting gripper 24 at the impression cylinder 3 ). when the gripper 24 is countersunk ( not shown ), the circular screen does not need an indentation . however , in both cases the squeegee 2 must be lifted above the indentation 1 ′ or the pit with countersunk gripper 24 . fig2 diagrammatically shows a rotary screen printing apparatus integrated on a web - fed press with reciprocating web transport . an impression cylinder 3 with an uncovered zone 3 ′ is present beside the circular screen 1 with squeegee 2 ( with a linked device ( not shown ) to lift the squeegee in controlled manner ). in this embodiment the squeegee 2 must be lifted each time above the uncovered zone 3 ′ because of the web being drawn back ( reciprocation ). fig3 shows the principle of a rotary screen printing apparatus integrated on a substrate printing machine . in this design , the circular screen 1 is fitted with a squeegee 2 raised in controlled manner . the substrates ( impression cylinders ) to be printed may be planar bodies 26 ( for instance glass plates ) moved on a conveyor belt 27 or they may be cylindrical bodies 28 ( for instance bottles ). the substrates 26 or 28 to be printed form the impression cylinders . the squeegee 2 must be raised when between the individual substrates . fig4 shows a synchronized drive system for the circular screen 1 , the squeegee 2 and the impression cylinder 3 ( in this case an impression cylinder with an uncovered zone of a reciprocating machine ) of a screen printing apparatus . the synchronized drive system is situated on one side of the printing apparatus . however , a further cam disk with a lever controlling the squeegee 2 may be provided on the other side of the circular screen 1 . the synchronized drive system for the circular screen 1 , squeegee 2 and impression cylinder 3 is substantially implemented by means of the following components : driven by a motor 6 , the gears 4 , 5 move the circular screen 1 and the impression cylinder 3 . the motor 6 in this design drives the printing apparatus . in principle , such a drive also may be delivered by the main machine shaft . the gears 7 through 10 drive a bevel gear 11 , which is part of the control system for the squeegee 2 . the cam disk 14 is driven by a further bevel gear 12 , which is positioned in transversely displaceable manner by an adjusting mechanism 13 . due to bevel gear , this adjusting mechanism 13 allows highly accurately setting the phase of the cam disk 14 ( also during operation ). the contour of the cam disk 14 may be fixed or variable , for instance by consisting of two mutually oppositely rotatable panes 21 , 22 . the squeegee is controlled , i . e . lifted , by means of an idler roller 15 and the squeegee lever 16 , which illustratively is a kind of rocking lever pivoted about the point 16 ′. because of the support at point 16 ′, the squeegee pressure can be made adjustable . in the case of two cam - disk panes , the squeegee 2 is held in place and is controlled more precisely and the compression is more easily regulated . besides the purely mechanical design of the drive system , a hybrid electro - mechanical design also may be used . fig5 is a design similar to that of fig4 and shows a rotary screen printing system with discontinuous squeegee pressure . in this embodiment , the circular screen 1 , the squeegee 2 , or the control cam disks 14 , and the impression cylinder 3 ( shown as a reciprocating device ) are driven by three mutually independent motors 17 , 18 , 19 , as a result of which maximum adjustment flexibility is attained when in synchronization . in this design the cam disks 14 may assume a fixed or a variable contour , as discussed above in relation to fig4 and the squeegee pressure can be adjusted at the squeegee - lever &# 39 ; s fulcrum 16 ′. the squeegee pressure can be adjusted during operation ( printing , see paper web 20 ). the squeegee 2 always must be lifted in the absence of an opposing pressure , as otherwise the circular screen 1 might be damaged . due to the independent drives means , the circular screen may , for instance , be rotated into a position precluding the leakage of ink , however it may especially be driven in a suitable manner to insert the screen at an arbitrary , appropriate position .	1
the treatment for bacterial and viral infections in cattle , horses , pigs , sheep and other domestic and non - domestic animals of the present invention is comprised in a liquid state of trace minerals , cobalt amino acid chelates , acidophilus sp ., kelp and vitamins in a solution using distilled water as the carrier . trace mineral elements have been linked to immune system health , cell growth enhancement , glucose tolerance factor and other overall health concerns . furthermore , metal ions have been shown to have certain antimicrobial properties . the above mentioned trace elements , when combined in the current formulation have an unexpected synergy in treatment of a diseased animal . the second solution used to formulate the new treatment composition is composed of a bacterial species that would recolonize the gastrointestinal tract as well as a nutritional formulation to provide needed vitamins and minerals to the affected animal . in addition , kelp , a natural source of carbohydrates , amino acids , vitamins , minerals and trace elements is also added . kelp contains over 60 minerals and elements including iodine , 21 amino acids , simple and complex carbohydrates . it is believed to be a promoter of glandular health , especially for the pituitary , adrenal and thyroid glands . the thyroid and pituitary glands regulate certain functions of digestion . kelp also provides a natural source of fiber . after the two solutions are mixed , an oral dose of approximately 10 - 15 ml . of the resultant treatment solution is administered to the affected animal . the dose is repeated every 24 hours until symptoms are relieved . after the animal responds to the treatment , and regains its appetite , a regular diet and feeding schedule can be resumed . furthermore , with the instant treatment for bacterial , fungal and viral infections in cattle , horses , pigs , sheep and other domestic and non - domestic animals composition , there is no requirement for isolation and identification of the causative agent or antimicrobial sensitivity testing of etiologic agents in order to determine antibiotic resistance . in addition , because the present composition does not incorporate synthetic antibiotics such as penicillin or amoxycillin , there is no selection for antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria which would necessitate concurrent or sequential administration of antibiotics . the present composition was administered on the above - noted 24 hour cycle to several test groups of infected animals . there was no mortality among those animals treated with the present treatment for bacterial and viral infections . affected animals that were treated with the present composition were asymptomatic after 1 to six days of treatments . a field trial was conducted where 15 yearling calves , all diagnosed with pneumonia , were each treated with 10 milliliters of the present treatment for bacterial and viral infections . the dose was administered orally once a day for up to 5 days . of these treated calves , 33 % were asymptomatic within 24 hours after having been given only one dose of the present composition . eight calves were asymptomatic within 48 hours having been given 2 doses . the other two calves were asymptomatic after 4 dosages . a second field trial included one limousin bull diagnosed with pneumonia .. the normal weight of the bull was 1 , 950 pounds but at the time of treatment , the weight was 1 , 625 pounds . the bull had experienced a weight loss of 325 pounds since the onset of symptoms . the bull would not eat or drink , had a severe dry cough with no discharge from the nose , was weak and lethargic . the bull was administered an oral dosage of 30 milliliters of the present composition . within one hour , he was eating hay and drinking water . he was asymptomatic within 3 days . on the seventh day , still asymptomatic , he was given a 30 milliliter follow up dose . the bull fully recovered and regained his normal weight . he was being used in a registered limousin breeding program . a third field trial was conducted on two hereford crossbred calves . the 4 month old calves were diagnosed with coccsidiosis . the symptoms included profuse , watery green stool with mucous and large amounts of bright red blood . both calves were weak . one calf , # 178 , had these symptoms for seven days without treatment and was steadily getting worse . the other calf , # 162 , had been sick for 3 days . both calves were given oral doses of 15 milliliters of the novel treatment for bacterial and viral infections once a day for two days . after the first administration , both calves were in a much improved condition . both were asymptomatic within 48 hours after having received a total of two doses of the present composition . a fourth field trial was conducted on 23 horses in a herd of 165 . the horses showing symptoms had deep rumbling cough , profuse green / yellow mucous discharge from both nostrils , dull glassy eyes , lowered heads , and were lethargic and despondent . the infected horses had displayed these symptoms for 7 to 20 days . symptoms continued to worsen with continued duration of the disease . all 23 horses were given 15 milliliters of the current composition once a day . nine of these horses were asymptomatic after 48 hours and two doses . ten horses were asymptomatic within four days having been administered three doses . four horses were asymptomatic within six days having been given five doses . a fifth field trial was conducted on a hereford crossbred cow . the cow had been diagnosed with foot rot in her left hind foot . she could not put any weight on it . the foot was swollen twice the normal size and red in color between the toes and around the comet band . there was a hole in the sole of the left toe at the heel , ½ inch in diameter , which was oozing putrefied matter . the cow was given an oral dose of 30 milliliters of the present composition . in addition , the novel treatment compound was administered topically around the cornet band and 10 milliliters was injected into the hole in the sole of the left toe using a needle - less syringe . within four days , the cow was walking on that foot . at that time , the oral and topical administration was repeated using the same protocol . within seven days of the second administration , the cow was fully recovered . these field tests demonstrated that the current composition for treatment infections in animals worked on a broad range of pathogens with no recurrence of symptomology . all animals recovered in a very short period of time with bright eyes , shiny coats , good appetites and vigorous carriage . in addition to the field trials conducted with the present composition for treatment of disease in animals , minimum inhibitory concentrations of the composition were determined for several bacteria and one mycotic organism . the protocol for performing this test is found in the national committee for clinical laboratory standards 9nccls ) publication m7 - t2 . the tests were conducted by larry w . harris , registered microbiologist rm ( n . r . m .) 3053 . the minimum inhibitory concentration ( mic ) measures the ability of the antimicrobial agent to inhibit multiplication of the organisms being challenged . thus , organisms in the innoculum are inhibited from replicating by the antimicrobial agent . examples of bacteriostatic agents are chloramphenicol and erythromycin , nalidixic acid , sulfonamides and tetracyclines . dilutions of the present composition were made in a nutrient broth . the nutrient broth is known to support growth of the organisms used to challenge the efficacy of the composition . a one to ten , a one to one hundred dilution and a one to one thousand dilution of the present composition were made in the nutrient broth . further dilutions of each concentration were made as follows in table 1 below : the undiluted antimicrobial composition and 1 : 10 , 1 : 100 and 1 : 1000 dilutions were each diluted as indicated in the chart above resulting in a set of 11 tubes for each . all of the tubes then received , one milliliter ( ml ) of nutrient broth . at this point each tube contained 2 ml . a bacterial suspension was added to each tube . 0 . 1 ml of the test organism suspension 1 × 10 6 cfu / ml , where cfu is an abbreviation for colony forming units , was added to each tube . each tube contained 2 . 1 milliliters of liquid at this point with a concentration of 2 . 5 × 10 4 cfu / ml . of the challenge innoculum . this procedure was conducted using four bacteria as the challenge innoculum . two gram negative organisms , psuedomonas aeruginosa and k - 12 escherichia coli were used as challenge organisms . two gram positive organisms , staphyloccocus aureus , and bacillus subtilis were used as challenge organisms . the tubes were then incubated at 35 ° c . over night . the tubes that were turbid were evaluated to have growth of bacteria . the nonturbid tubes were determined to be negative for growth of bacteria ( see table 2 below ). after overnight incubation of the tubes , 0 . 001 ml from the control tube and each of the non - turbid tubes was subcultured to nutrient agar , mannitol - salt agar and macconkey agar ( see table 3 , table 4 and table 5 below ). these subcultures were incubated at 35 ° c . overnight . cfu on subcultures were determined . additionally , 0 . 001 ml of the broth from control tubes were subcultured to agar resulting in a count of 250 colonies . in addition , efficacy of the present composition against mycotic organisms was tested . the minimum inhibitory concentration ( mic ) of the present composition was established using the previously described protocol . again , the minimum inhibitory concentration is that concentration of the compound which successfully prevents multiplication of the organisms being challenged . a one to ten , a one to one hundred dilution and a one to one thousand dilution of the present composition were made in the sabouraud dextrose broth . sabouraud dextrose broth is known to support growth of mycotic organisms used to challenge the efficacy of the composition . the results are illustrated in table 7 below . further dilutions of each concentration were made as follows in table 6 below : the undiluted antimicrobial composition and 1 : 10 , 1 : 100 and 1 : 1000 dilutions were each diluted as indicated in the chart above resulting in a set of 11 tubes for each . all of the tubes then received , one milliliter ( ml ) of nutrient broth . at this point each tube contained 2 ml . a suspension of the test organism was added to each tube . 0 . 1 ml of the test organism suspension 1 × 10 6 cfu / ml , where cfu is an abbreviation for colony forming units , was added to each tube . each tube contained 2 . 1 milliliters of liquid at this point with a concentration of 2 . 5 × 10 4 cfu / ml . of the challenge innoculum , in this case , saccharomyces cerevisiae . the tubes were then incubated at 35 ° c . over night . the tubes that were turbid were evaluated to have growth of the organism . the nonturbid tubes were determined to be negative for growth of the organism . after overnight incubation of the tubes , 0 . 001 ml from the control tube and each of the non - turbid tubes was subcultured to sabouraud dextrose agar . these subcultures were incubated at 35 ° c . overnight . cfu on subcultures were determined . additionally , 0 . 001 ml of the broth from control tubes were subcultured to agar resulting in a count of 250 colonies . the results are illustrated in table 8 below . the treatment for bacterial and viral infections in cattle , horses , pigs , sheep and other domestic and non - domestic animals of the present invention is comprised in a liquid state of 22 constituents . these constituents are formulated in two liquid solutions which are then combined and stored in liquid form . the composition is readily available in this form for administration to the animal at 10 - 15 ml per dose most commonly at 24 hour intervals . the first solution is composed of trace minerals in microgram amounts . the following is a list of trace minerals with the approximate amount of each in micrograms ( mcg ): cobalt 200 mcg copper 200 mcg silicon 120 mcg neodymium 100 mcg praseodymium 100 mcg nickel 70 mcg chlorine 65 mcg zinc 62 mcg yttrium 60 mcg strontium 15 mcg titanium 15 mcg aluminum 15 mcg chromium 10 mcg gallium 10 mcg rubidium 10 mcg total trace minerals 1052 mcg the trace organic minerals are suspended in a liquid carrier prior to final formulation of the new treatment composition . the following are the constituents of the second solution suspended in 1 oz . of water : acidophulus sp . 3 . 0 grams water ( distilled ) 1 . 0 liquid ounce dried kelp 1 . 0 gram folic acid 1 . 0 gram vitamin a supplement 0 . 5 grams vitamin d 3 supplement 0 . 5 grams cobalt amino acid chelates 0 . 2 grams all ingredients are mechanically mixed to form the liquid composition which may then be administered orally to affected animals in doses of 10 to 15 ml . the ratio of group 1 to group 2 is 24 : 1 respectively . a needle - less syringe is used to administer the required dosage into the back of the affected animals mouth . this treatment is repeated every 24 hours as needed . in severe cases , the dosage can be increased to 15 to 30 ml every 24 hours until the afflicted animal is asymptomatic . it should be understood , however , that even though these numerous characteristics and advantages of the invention have been set forth in the foregoing description , together with details of the composition and method of application of the invention , the disclosure is illustrative only , and changes may be made in detail , especially in matters of chemistry , dosage and implementation within the principal of the invention to the full extent indicated by the broad general meaning of the terms in which the appended claims are expressed .	0
the present invention uses the process steps of separating co 2 from a flue gas stream and converting at least a fraction of that co 2 to co . the co 2 is preferably separated from the flue gas stream though a cryogenic air separation process , in which the co 2 is converted to its liquid phase . in order to ensure that the co 2 is in liquid phase , it is preferred that the pressure be maintained at approximately 7 . 0 atmospheres and the temperature maintained at approximately 78 ° c . the temperature and pressure needed to contain the co 2 as a liquid can be estimated from the phase diagram of the carbon oxygen system as shown in fig2 . cryogenic air separation units are well known . universal industrial gases , inc . has installed such plants to recover the co 2 from high - purity or low - purity feed streams generated by various sources such as ammonia , ethanol or hydrogen plants . in addition , cryogenic air separation units have also been used in the steel industry which are capable of removing 40 . 8 tons of o 2 in one hour . the conversion of the separated co 2 to co is accomplished by introducing carbon to the liquid co 2 in the presence of heat to enable the following reaction to proceed : as shown in fig3 nearly all of the co 2 is converted to co at temperatures in excess of 1200 ° c . the carbon used in this reaction can be of various forms including graphite . the liquid co 2 and carbon are passed into a plasma furnace where the reaction will take place to form co . the co generated from this reaction can be used to supplant other forms of energy such as coal , hydrogen , or natural gas . other forms of carbon injection may be utilized , but the results of other methods of adding carbon to the gas stream may not result in the same extent of creation of co as obtained by mixing the graphite with the liquid co 2 . preferably , the carbon that is used in the process is graphite , which is the purest form of carbon that can be found . if the goal of the process is to remove all of the deleterious materials such as arsenic , sulfur , mercury and the like , then graphite powder should be used to prevent all such deleterious materials commonly found in coal and the like from ever entering the flue gas . if it is not required to have flue gas of such purity then other forms of carbon such as charcoal and the like may be utilized . the form of carbon used can be mixed with the liquid co 2 and can go through the plasma arc furnace together to form co . the co produced by the reaction of co 2 and carbon provides a source of potential energy . it is possible to sequester the co 2 to a tank that could contain substantially enough liquid co 2 that when reacted with carbon would create enough co that its combustion would provide enough energy to maintain the generation of heat at substantially the same level so that the reaction would function with either carbon or such hydrocarbon products as a fuel . the co 2 can be transferred from the storage pressure vessel to a pressure vessel immediately adjacent to burners such as are used on ships or on the boilers of electric generation plants . any pressure vessel situated adjacent to the burners should be double walled and water filled so that the heat generated by the action of plasma arc system would be absorbed by the water flowing through the walls of the pressure vessel . this absorbed heat can be utilized in the boilers or other methods of utilizing heat to produce steam or other requirements for heat in other applications . when the heated gases are finally admitted to the burners of the boiler or other requirement for heating they contain 32 . 9 kcal of energy resulting from the transformation of co 2 to co . when the 2 moles of co are mixed with oxygen , the combustion results in the formation of an additional 164 . 367 kcals . therefore , the sequestration of the co 2 prior to its transformation to co results in an additional amount of heat that when combined with the energy created by combustion of the co amounts to a substantial increase in the heating value of the gas . in addition , the safety of the operation would be advanced in that large quantities of co would not have to be either sequestered or transported to the burners where they would be utilized . a thermal plasma heating system always contains some mechanism of inducing the flow of electricity through an ionized working gas . the current flow heats the gas to a very high temperature through the mechanism of resistive or joule heating . through electronic , atomic , and molecular collisions the gas is maintained in an ionized state and the plasma becomes self sustaining . typical thermal plasma temperatures are in the range of 10 , 000 ° k to 30 , 000 ° k and result in heat transfers that are difficult to match by alternative processing techniques . the liquid co 2 and carbon are passed through the plasma arc with the formation of co according to equation ( 1 ). specific methods and compositions described herein are representative of preferred embodiments and are exemplary and not intended as limitations on the scope of the invention . other objects , aspects , and embodiments will occur to those skilled in the art upon consideration of this specification , and are encompassed within the spirit of the invention as defined by the scope of the claims . where examples are given , the description shall be construed to include but not to be limited to only those examples . it will be readily apparent to one skilled in the art that varying substitutions and modifications may be made to the invention disclosed herein without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention , and from the description of the inventions , including those illustratively set forth herein , it is manifest that various modifications and equivalents can be used to implement the concepts of the present invention without departing from its scope . a person of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that changes can be made in form and detail without departing from the spirit and the scope of the invention . the described embodiments are to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive . thus , for example , additional embodiments are within the scope of the invention and within the following claims .	2
the dental product of the present invention is a tooth gel / dentifrice that cleans and brightens / whitens teeth . however , the instant dental product can also be a mouth wash , a paste , a gel , a dental pack , or dental floss . it may also be used to treat gum disease . it is equally well suited to prevent caries , calculi and tartar formation as well as to help remove them . the dental product of the present invention contains acetic acid . preferably the composition also contains sodium hexametaphosphate . examples of some acids which may be used according to the present invention instead of or in addition to acetic acid are phosphoric acid , boric acid , hydrochloric acid , maleic acid , benzoic acid , citric acid , lactic acid , malic acid , oxalic acid , tartaric acid , succinic acid , glutaric acid , glycolic acid , gentisic acid , valeric acid , gallic acid , beta - resorcylic acid , acetyl salicylic acid , salicylic acid , perchloric acid , barbituric acid , sulfanilic acid , phytic acid , p - nitro benzoic acid , stearic acid , palmitic acid , oleic acid , myristic acid , lauric acid ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid ( edta ), ethylene glycol - bis { beta - aminoethyl ether }- n , n , n ′, n ′- tetraacetic acid , and diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid and the like . the most preferred salts are those of acetic acid but any pharmaceutically acceptable salts of the above acids are equally suitable in the compositions of this invention , acetic and other organic acids are present preferably in an amount ranging from about 0 . 001 % to about 5 . 0 % by weight of the total composition ; more preferably from about 0 . 01 % to about 3 . 0 %; most preferably from about 0 . 05 % to about 1 . 2 %, even more preferably from about 0 . 08 to about 1 . 0 %. the desired ph range achieved by the content of acid in the composition is between 4 and 7 inclusive . preferably , the ph is 5 . 5 ± 1 , more preferably , the ph is about 5 . 0 . in order to maintain the preferred ph range in some occasions it can be desirable to add a buffer system to the dental composition . the selection of the buffer is well known in the art and the buffer is preferably compatible with the other ingredients , that is , it should not have any negative effect on same , and should be non - toxic . the present invention successfully cleans and brightens teeth while inhibiting and reducing the growth of plaque bacteria , which is achieved when acetic acid or other equivalent organic acid is utilized in combination with conventional dental ingredients in effective concentrations to treat the oral cavity . small quantities of this unexpectedly simple and nevertheless active component is required to obtain effective inhibition of plaque and other bacteria . since low quantities of active component can be used in the compositions of this invention , the side effects associated with use of the present invention is correspondingly reduced or eliminated . microorganisms that may be eliminated by the present composition and methods include but are not limited to candida albicans , cryptococcus neoformans , aspergillus fumigatus , candida krusei , candida parapsilosis , candida tropicalis , malassezia species , trichophyton rubrum , epidermophyton species , microsporum species , sporothrix species , blastomyces dermatitidis , coccidiodes immiitis , histoplasma capsulatum , staphylococcus aureus , streptococcus faecalis , escherichia coli , pseudomonas aeruginosa , enterobacter aerogenes , klebsiella pneumoniae , staphylococcus epidermis , zanthomonus maltrophilia , acinetobacter , enterobacter cloacae , serratia marscens , listeria , monocytogenes , enterococcus faecalis , streptococcus pyogenes , streptococcus pneumonia , viridans streptococci , haemophilus influenzae , proteus mirabills , proteus vulgaris and bacterioides fragilis among many others . in one form of this invention , the composition may be a liquid such as a mouthwash or rinse . in such a composition the vehicle is typically a water - alcohol mixture . generally the ratio of water to alcohol is in the range of from about 1 : 1 to about 20 : 1 , preferably about 3 : 1 to about 20 : 1 and most preferably about 3 : 1 to about 10 : 1 by weight . the most preferred mouthwash or mouth rinse compositions comprise from 0 to about 30 % by weight alcohol , such as ethanol . the total amount of water - alcohol composition in a mouthwash composition is typically in the range from about 70 % to about 99 . 9 % by weight of the composition . the ph value of such a mouthwash composition is generally from about 4 . 0 to about 7 . 0 and preferably from about 5 to about 6 . 5 . a ph below 4 would be irritating to the oral cavity . a ph greater than 7 would result in an unpleasant feel . oral liquid compositions may also contain surface active agents in amounts up to about 5 % and fluorine - providing compounds in amounts up to about 2 % by weight of the composition . the composition also comprises chelating agents , including but not limited to , ethylenediaminetatraacetic acid , edetate sodium , edetate disodium , edetate trisodium , edetate calcium disodium , deferoxamine , ditiocarb sodium , aluminum salts , citric acid - sodium salt , gluconic acid - sodium salt , tartaric acid , sodium hexametaphosphate , anthranilic acid , phosphonate , polyacrylic acid , alkyl - diamine polyacetic acids and salts , penicillamine , pentetic acid , succimer and trientine . the preferred chelator is sodium hexametaphosphate . these chelators are especially useful in preventing and dissolving calculus build - up . surface active agents are organic materials which afford complete dispersion of the composition throughout the oral cavity . the organic surface active material may be non - ionic , amphoteric , or cationic . preferred non - ionic surface active agents include condensates of sorbitan mono - oleate with from 20 to 60 moles of ethylene oxide ( e . g ., “ tweens ” a trademark of ici united states , inc . ), condensates of ethylene oxide with propylene oxide and condensates of propylene glycol (“ pluronics ” a trademark of basf - wyandotte corp .). other suitable non - ionic surfactants are the condensation products of an alpha - olefin oxide containing 10 to 20 carbon atoms , a polyhydric alcohol containing 2 to 10 carbons and 2 to 6 hydroxyl groups and either ethylene oxide or a heteric mixture of ethylene oxide and propylene oxide . the resulting surfactants are heteric polymers having a molecular weight in the range of about 400 to about 1600 and containing 40 % to 80 % by weight of ethylene oxide , with a alpha - olefin oxide to polyhydric alcohol mole ratio in the range of about 1 : 1 to 1 : 3 . amphoteric surfactants useful in the present invention are zwitterions having the capacity to act as either an acid or a base . they are generally non - irritating and non - staining . non - limitative examples of suitable amphoteric surfactants include cocoamidopropyldimethylsultaine and cocodimethylbetaine ( commercially available from lonza chem . co . under the trade - names lonzaine cs and lonzaine 12c , respectively ). cationic surface active agents are molecules that carry a positive charge such as the quaternary ammonium compounds and are well know to those of skill in the art . a fluorine providing compound may be present in the oral compositions of this invention . these compounds may be slightly water soluble or may be fully water soluble and are characterized by their ability to release fluoride ions or fluoride containing ions in water . typical fluorine providing compounds are inorganic fluoride salts such as soluble alkali metal , alkaline earth metal , and heavy metal salts , for example , sodium fluoride , potassium fluoride , ammonium fluoride , cuprous fluoride , zinc fluoride , stannic fluoride , stannous fluoride , barium fluoride , sodium fluorosilicate , ammonium fluorosilicate , sodium fluorozirconate , sodium monofluorophosphate , aluminum mono - and difluorophosphate and fluorinated sodium calcium pyrophosphate . in an oral liquid composition such as a mouthwash , the fluorine providing compound is generally present in an amount sufficient to release up to about 0 . 15 %, preferably about 0 . 001 % to about 0 . 05 %, fluoride by weight of the composition . the compositions of this invention may be substantially solid or pasty in character such as dental cream , toothpaste , toothpowder or chewing gum . such solid or pasty oral compositions may also contain polishing materials . typical polishing materials are abrasive particulate materials having particle sizes of up to about 20 microns . nonlimiting illustrative examples include water - insoluble sodium metaphosphate , potassium metaphosphate , tricalcium phosphate , dehydrated calcium phosphate , anhydrous dicalcium phosphate , dicalcium phosphate , calcium pyrophosphate , magnesium orthophosphate , trimagnesium phosphate , calcium carbonate , alumina , aluminum silicate , zirconium silicates , silica , bentonite , and mixtures thereof . polishing materials are generally present in an amount from about 20 % to about 99 % by weight of the composition . preferably , such materials are present in amounts from about 20 % to about 75 % in toothpaste , and from about 70 % to about 99 % in toothpowder . in clear gels , a polishing agent of colloidal silica and alkali metal aluminosilicate complexes are preferred since they have refractive indices close to the refractive indices of gelling agent liquid systems commonly used in such dentifrices . the compositions of the present invention may additionally contain sweeteners , flavorants and colorants . in the instance where auxiliary sweeteners are utilized , the present invention contemplates the inclusion of those sweeteners well known in the art , including both natural and artificial sweeteners . water - soluble sweetening agents such as monosaccharides , disaccharides and polysaccharides such as xylose , ribose , glucose , mannose , galactose , fructose , dextrose , sucrose , maltose , partially hydrolyzed starch , or corn syrup solids and sugar alcohols such as sorbitol , xylitol , mannitol and mixtures thereof . without limiting to these examples , water - soluble artificial sweeteners such as the soluble saccharin salts , i . e ., sodium , or calcium saccharin salts , cyclamate salts , acesulfame - k and the like , and the free acid form of saccharin are equally suitable . other sweeteners such as dipeptide based sweeteners such as l - phenylalanine methyl ester and materials described in u . s . pat . no . 3 , 492 , 131 ( herein incorporated by reference ) and the like are equally suitable . in general , the amount of sweetener will vary with the desired amount of sweetness selected for a particular composition . this amount will normally be 0 . 01 % to about 40 % by weight . the water - soluble sweeteners are preferably used in amounts of about 5 % to about 40 % by weight , and most preferably from about 10 % to about 20 % by weight of the final composition . in contrast , the artificial sweeteners described are preferably used in amounts of about 0 . 005 % to about 5 . 0 % and most preferably about 0 . 05 % to about 2 . 5 % by weight of the final composition . these amounts are ordinarily necessary to achieve a desired level of sweetness independent from the flavor level achieved from flavorants . suitable flavorings include both natural and artificial flavors , and mints such as peppermint , citrus flavors such as orange and lemon , artificial vanilla , cinnamon , various fruit flavors and the like . in one embodiment the flavoring agent comprises cinnamon - clove beads . such beads can be additionally filled with fillers consisting of inert materials or medicinal agents such as vitamins or antibacterial agents . both individual and mixed flavors are contemplated . the flavorings are generally utilized in amounts that will vary depending upon the individual flavor , and may , for example , range in amounts of about 0 . 1 % to about 6 % by weight of the final composition . the colorants useful in the present invention , include the pigments which may be incorporated in amounts of up to about 2 % by weight of the composition . also , the colorants may include other dyes suitable for food , drug and cosmetic applications , and known as fd & amp ; c dyes and the like . the materials acceptable for the foregoing uses are preferably water - soluble . illustrative examples include the indigo dye , known as fd & amp ; c blue no . 2 , which is the disodium salt of 5 , 5 - indigotindisulfonic acid . similarly , the dye known as fd & amp ; c green no . 1 , comprises a triphenylmethane dye and is the monosodium salt of 4 -[ 4 - n - ethyl - p - sulfobenzyl amino ) diphenylmethylene ]-[ 1 -( n - ethyl - n - p - sulfoniumbenzyl )- 2 , 5 - cyclohexadie nimine ]. a full recitation of all fd & amp ; c and d & amp ; c colorants useful in the present invention and their corresponding chemical structures may be found in the kirk - othmer encyclopedia of chemical technology , 3rd edition , in volume 6 , at pages 561 - 595 , which text is accordingly incorporated herein by reference . a medicated dental floss for controlling the bacterial activity associated with gingivitis is also contemplated . the floss incorporates acetic acid which , as a result of the flossing action , is deposited to the inter - dental area of the teeth . the slow dissolution of the antimicrobial agent ensures that effective levels of medication are attained for sustained periods , thereby reducing bacterial activity . examples of making such floss are well known and are disclosed for example in u . s . pat . no . 5 , 603 , 921 herein incorporated by reference . the present invention also involves a method for treating teeth or gums to reduce plaque or gingivitis comprising applying to the surface of the teeth and / or gums the compositions of this invention as described above . the compositions can be applied to the teeth and gums by any conventional means such as brushing , spraying , painting or rinsing of the oral cavity and the like . the compositions not only cleans and brightens the teeth and retards plaque accumulation , but has been demonstrated to remove pre - existing plaque as well . additionally , the compositions show a prolonged effect on plaque accumulation following cessation of treatment for at least about one week after use . this property is especially useful in veterinary applications where animals are not necessarily treated on a daily basis , but where longer intervals of time occur between treatments . the compositions of this invention are also useful as a topical antiseptic , disinfectant or antibacterial which is applied externally to the skin around the mouth or oral cavity . the composition can be delivered in form of a cream , lotion , lip balm , lipstick , or other art - known forms of carriers . other uses and applications for compositions prepared according to the present invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art . preferred uses include , but are not limited to , formulations for oral use such as a mouthwash or dentifrice , mouth rinses ( including swish and swallow preparations ). other preferred formulations for topical use are contemplated which include , but are not limited to , skin sanitizers , surgical scrubs and preparations , handwashs and towlettes ; formulations for treatment of infections of the skin or mouth area in a human ; veterinary medicament for animal skin , hooves , claws , fur , or teeth ; nail paints and polishes ; skin preparations ; and footwear inserts . the following examples are presented to further illustrate this invention . the examples are intended in an illustrative sense and not in a limitative sense . the present invention includes the embodiments described and shown and any equivalents thereof . all parts and percentages are on a weight basis unless otherwise indicated . [ 0044 ] tooth paste abrasive powder 12 . 9 calcium phosphate 25 . 0 acetic acid 1 . 0 carrageenan 1 . 0 glycerin 10 . 0 sorbitol 15 . 0 sodium lauryl sulfate 2 . 0 flavor 1 . 0 sodium saccharinate 0 . 1 silicon dioxide 2 . 0 water 30 . 0 [ 0045 ] tooth powder abrasive powder 95 . 3 sodium lauryl sulfate 2 . 0 acetic acid 1 . 0 flavor 1 . 5 sodium saccharinate 0 . 2 [ 0046 ] wet tooth powder abrasive powder 64 . 38 calcium phosphate 10 . 0 sorbitol 10 . 0 sodium lauryl sulfate 2 . 0 acetic acid 1 . 0 flavor 1 . 5 calcium phosphate 1 . 0 water 10 . 0 sodium saccharinate 0 . 12 [ 0047 ] mouthwash acetic acid 1 . 0 nonionic surfactant 0 . 7 sorbitol solution 50 . 0 ethanol ( 95 % in water ) 10 . 0 coloring agent 0 . 0004 flavoring agent 0 . 15 water to 100 % [ 0048 ] dentifrice acetic acid 3 . 0 sodium fluoride 0 . 24 hydrated silica 10 - 50 xylitol 10 - 40 xanthan gum 0 . 1 - 1 . 5 cocobetaine 0 . 1 - 1 . 5 flavoring agent 0 . 9 water to 100 % [ 0049 ] oral spray citric acid ; hydrous 1 . 0 nonionic surfactant 1 . 2 ethanol 12 . 0 glycerol 20 . 0 sweetening agent 0 . 01 flavoring agent 0 . 10 water to 100 % [ 0050 ] chewing gum ( per stick ) estergum 142 mg coumarone resin 213 mg latex 71 mg paraffin wax 47 mg sorbitol 1309 mg corn syrup 400 mg flavoring q . s . sodium bicarbonate 0 . 2 - 43 mg sodium chloride 0 . 3 - 23 mg sodium thiocyanate 0 . 4 - 32 mg sodium fluoride 0 . 2 - 16 mg ascorbic acid 10 mg acetic acid 10 mg [ 0051 ] breath freshener tablet wintergreen oil 0 . 6 mg talc 10 . 0 mg menthol 0 . 85 mg peppermint oil 0 . 3 mg sodium saccharin 0 . 3 mg mannitol usp 180 . 95 mg sodium stearate 2 . 0 mg sodium bicarbonate 0 . 2 - 43 mg sodium chloride 0 . 3 - 23 mg sodium thiocyanate 0 . 4 - 32 mg sorbitol usp 180 . 0 mg lactose usp q . s . 1 gm sodium flouride 0 . 2 - 16 mg acetic acid 2 mg [ 0052 ] chewable multivitamin tablet vitamin a 5000 usp units vitamin d 400 usp units ascorbic acid 60 mg thiamine hcl 1 mg riboflavin 1 . 5 mg pyridoxine hcl 1 mg cyanocobalamin 2 mcg calcium pantothenate 3 mg niacinamide 10 mg mannitol 236 mg corn starch 16 . 6 mg sodium saccharin 1 . 1 mg sodium stearate 6 . 6 mg talc 10 mg wintergreen oil 1 . 2 mg menthol 1 . 7 mg peppermint oil 0 . 6 mg sodium bicarbonate 0 . 2 - 43 mg sodium chloride 0 . 3 - 23 mg sodium thiocyanate 0 . 4 - 32 mg sodium fluoride 0 . 2 - 16 mg acetic acid 22 mg [ 0053 ] veterinary , e . g ., dog , tooth gel water 65 . 95 sd alcohol 40 - b 18 . 00 sorbitol 10 . 00 pvm / ma decadiene crosspolymer 1 . 80 acetic acid 1 . 00 c11 - 15 pareth - 12 1 . 00 flavor 0 . 50 methylparaben 0 . 20 lactose ( and ) cellulose ( and ) 0 . 10 hydroxypropyl methylcellulose ( and ) chromium hydroxyde green ( and ) tocopheryl acetate lactose ( and ) cellulose ( and ) 0 . 10 hydroxypropyl methylcellulose ( and ) ultramines ( and ) tocopheryl acetate ( and ) retinyl palmitate lactose ( and ) cellulose ( and ) 0 . 10 hydroxypropyl methylcellulose ( and ) iron oxide and tocopheryl acetate triethanolamine 1 . 10 sodium benzoate 0 . 10 sodium hexametaphosphate 0 . 05 a solution of 0 . 1 % of neutral red is applied to the front teeth of each of two male adults a and b who had been using conventional commercially available dentifrice . thereafter , a similar dyeing operation is conducted one day after they began to use the dentifrice of example 1 and the plaque - stained areas before and after the use of the dentifrice of example 1 is compared . in the case of a , the stained area after the change is about only 10 % of the initial stained area indicating that the decontamination of the plaque area is about 90 %. in the case of b the decontamination of the plaque area is about 50 % superior to conventional dentifrice . these beneficial effects result from the twice - daily application of about 5 to 25 gram of the dentifrice of example 1 . similar beneficial results are obtained when a third subject rinsed the mouth with about 50 to 100 ml of mouthwash of example 4 . minimum inhibitory concentration studies are performed using the gram - negative enterobacterium pseudomonas aerugenosa ( american type culture collection # 9027 ) in accordance with the protocol for testing the bactericidal activity of antimicrobial agents ( document m26 - t of the national center for clinical and laboratory standards ). p . aeruienosa is cultured overnight at 37 ° c . in trypsin soy broth to a final density of approximately 1 × 10 8 cfu / ml ( 0 . 5 mcfarland standard ) and then diluted 1 : 10 with cation - adjusted mueller - hinton medium . 10 microliters of this bacterial culture is then added to 200 microliters of an already - prepared dilution series of the test solution ( composition of example 4 ). after a 5 minute incubation at room temperature , 10 microliters of wash test solution is plated onto a sector of a letheen - agar plate and incubated at 37 ° c . overnight . mic breakpoint is interpreted as the highest dilution for which no growth is evident . the results show that compositions of example 4 are far more effective in vitro at inhibiting the growth of p . aerugenosa than the control solution , which contains the usp benzalkonium chloride mixture . the invention has been described with respect to certain preferred embodiments but it will be understood that variations and modifications may be made therein without departing from the spirit of this invention and the scope of the appended claims .	0
the embodiments of the present invention are explained in the following , in reference to the above - described drawings . fig1 illustrates a network configuration according to the present embodiment . ip telephone apparatus ( a ) 101 , pc ( personal computer ) 102 , web server 103 or the like are provided within local network 100 . local network 100 is connected to internet / intranet 105 via router 104 . on internet / intranet 105 , enum server 106 , dns server 107 , ca ( call agent ) server 108 are in operation . in addition , another ip telephone apparatus ( b ) 110 may be connected to internet / intranet 105 via router 109 . this network configuration simply shows one example . for example , dns server 107 and ca server 108 may not be used in another network . also , the location of each communication device is not limited to the above description . enum server 106 , dns server 107 and ca server 108 are shown as an example . the configuration may include a plurality of apparatuses connected to each other so as to provide a function which is described later . ip telephone apparatuses ( a ) 101 and ( b ) 110 have the same functions that enable voice communication with another ip telephone apparatus connected via internet / intranet 105 . enum ( telephone number mapping ) server 106 is equipped with a database ( db ) that stores a naptr ( the naming authority pointer ) resource record ( hereafter referred to as “ naptr record ”), which is described later . enum server 106 transmits , to ip telephone apparatus ( a ) 101 ( 110 ), the naptr record stored in the db in response to a query ( hereafter referred to as “ enum query ”) from ip telephone apparatus ( a ) 101 ( 110 ). in the specification , enum is used as a general term describing a system that searches enum dns ( enum server ) based on a predetermined number ( including an electronic communication number ) and obtains one or a plurality of applications in a uri form , the application being applicable in relation to the predetermined number . dns ( domain name system ) server 107 is equipped with a db that stores a domain name ( including a uri { uniform resource identifier }) specified in the naptr record and stores an ip address corresponding to the domain name . dns server 107 transmits , to ip telephone apparatus ( a ) 101 ( 110 ), the ip address stored in the db in response to a query from ip telephone apparatus ( a ) 101 ( 110 ). ca server 108 controls a call control between ip telephone apparatuses ( a ) 101 and ( b ) 110 connected to local network ( ip network ) 100 ca server 108 controls a call connection with a destination ip telephone apparatus in response to a call connection request from a source ip telephone apparatus . dns server 107 is not required when ca server 108 controls a call connection . fig2 illustrates a block diagram describing a hardware configuration of ip telephone apparatus ( a ) 101 . ip telephone apparatus ( a ) 101 is mainly configured with cpu 201 , memory 202 , handset 203 , display 204 and network interface ( hereafter referred to network i / f ) 205 . cpu 201 controls all operations needed to perform voice communication with another ip telephone apparatus ( b ) 110 via internet / intranet 105 , which is an ip network , based on a voice communication control program stored in memory 202 . cpu 201 performs , for example , a communication control utilizing the ip network , a call control via the ip network and a voice processing control . call controls are represented by sip ( session initial protocol ) and h . 323 . cpu 201 also displays necessary information on display 204 and performs ip communication via network i / f 205 . ip communication is designed to , for example , transmit to enum server 106 a query ( hereafter referred to as “ enum query ”) for a naptr record corresponding to a destination terminal , receive a response ( hereafter referred to as “ enum response ”) to the enum query , transmit to dns server 107 a query ( hereafter referred to as “ ip address query ”) for an ip address and control reception of a response ( hereafter referred to as “ ip address response ”) to the ip address query . memory 202 is configured with a rom ( read only memory ) and a ram ( random access memory ). the rom stores a voice communication control program or the like executed by cpu 201 . the ram is used as a work memory when cpu 201 executes the program . handset 203 is used to output an on - or - off hook signal to cpu 201 according to a user &# 39 ; s on - or - off hook operation . handset 203 is configured with a microphone and a speaker . handset 203 converts the user &# 39 ; s transmitting voice , through the microphone , into the transmitting voice signal , when starting communication with the destination terminal . at the same time , handset 203 outputs , through the speaker , the receiving voice signal input from cpu 201 as the receiving voice . display 204 is configured with an lcd ( liquid crystal display ) or the like and displays the current status of ip telephone apparatus ( a ) 101 . display 204 also displays a telephone number or the like input by cpu 201 . network i / f 205 is an interface for local network ( ip network ) 100 to which ip telephone apparatus 101 is connected . network i / f 205 functions as a transmitter and a receiver . fig3 illustrates a front view of ip telephone apparatus ( a ) 101 . ip telephone apparatus ( a ) 101 is configured with handset 203 , display 204 , numerical keys 1102 , am ( answering machine ) button 1103 , speaker button 1104 , and function button 1105 . numerical keys 1102 is used to enter a telephone number or the like . am button 1103 is used to switch to the answering machine mode . speaker button 1104 is used to switch the mode to the external output voice . function button 1105 is able to set various functions such as a single touch transmission function . ip telephone apparatus ( a ) 101 further includes , on its side , lan interface ( lan i / f ) 1106 to be connected to local network 100 and includes public line interface ( public line i / f ) 1107 to be connected to a pstn ( public switched telephone network ). fig4 illustrates a block diagram describing a configuration of enum server 106 . enum server 106 is mainly configured with cpu 301 , memory 302 , db 303 , input / output device 304 and network i / f 305 . cpu 301 controls the entire operation of enum server 106 based on the control program stored in memory 302 . upon receiving an enum query ( inquiry ) from ip telephone apparatus ( a ) 101 , for example , cpu 301 searches for a naptr record corresponding to the enum query from the data stored in db 303 , which is described later , and transmits the naptr record to ip telephone apparatus ( a ) 101 that has transmitted the enum query . in the present embodiment , it is possible to use a reversed natra query transmitted from web server ( described later ). memory 302 may be configured with a rom and a ram . the rom stores the control program executed by cpu 301 . the ram is used as a work memory when cpu 301 executes the program . db 303 , which is configured with a hard disk device or the like , stores the above - noted naptr record . fig5 illustrates an example of the naptr record stored in db 303 . the example shows that db 303 stores the naptr record corresponding to domain name “ 0 . 0 . 0 . 0 . 0 . 0 . 0 . 1 . 3 . 1 . 8 . e164 . arpa ” obtained from telephone number “ 0310000000 ”, and the naptr record corresponding to domain name “ 1 . 0 . 0 . 0 . 0 . 0 . 0 . 1 . 3 . 1 . 8 . e164 . arpa ” obtained from telephone number “ 0310000001 ”. particularly , db 303 stores a call recipient profile html . for example , for the user who has a uri including telephone number “ 0310000000 ”, html file “// www . tokyo . sip . com / useraaa . html ” is stored . when a corresponding icon is clicked on the browser , web server 103 transmits a reversed naptr query based on the call recipient profile html . in this example , a reversed naptr query indicates a query for a telephone number uri stored in connection with a call recipient enum domain name , the domain name being reversely obtained from the uri . in response to the reversed naptr query , enum server 106 first searches the db storing the naptr record , and retrieves the enum domain name corresponding to the uri , based on the call recipient profile html file name ( uri ). enum server 106 then transmits the extracted telephone number uri ( 050 system number ), the uri being stored in connection with the retrieved enum domain name . in the example shown in fig5 , an html file name such as “// www . tokyo . sip . com / useraaa . html ” is designated and used for the reversed naptr query . “ 0 . 0 . 0 . 0 . 0 . 0 . 0 . 1 . 3 . 1 . 8 . e164 . arpa ” is reversely obtained as the call recipient enum domain name . telephone number uri “ 05011112222 @ tokyo . sip . jp ” is stored in connection with the call recipient enum domain name . input / output device 304 is configured with an input device such as a keyboard and an output device such as a display . the input device is used for the maintenance of enum server 106 . the output device is used to display the maintenance information . network i / f 305 is an interface for internet / intranet 105 to which enum server 106 is connected . fig6 illustrates a block diagram describing a configuration of web server 103 . web server 103 is mainly configured with cpu 401 , memory 402 , db 403 and network i / f 404 . cpu 401 controls the entire operation of web server 103 based on the control program stored in memory 402 . upon receiving a phonebook search request from pc 102 , cpu 401 searches for the call recipient profile html from phonebook data stored in db 403 ( described later ), and transmits the profile html to pc 102 that has transmitted the request . memory 402 may be configured with a rom and a ram . the rom stores a control program executed by cpu 401 . the ram is used as a work memory when cpu 401 executes the program . db 403 , which is configured with a high - capacity hard disk device or the like , stores the phonebook data . the phonebook data may be searched by the phonebook search system , which is an application executed by cpu 401 . fig7 illustrates a display example of personal data ( personal profile data ) searched and retrieved by the phonebook search system . in the present embodiment , the profile shown in fig7 is created in an html file ( referred to as profile html ) that may appear on the browser . when name column 410 in the profile html is clicked on the browser , a reversed naptr query is transmitted to web server 103 . as shown in fig8 , db 403 stores a user id and a password that cpu 401 uses for user authentication when the user logs in to the phonebook search system . db 403 further stores a uri or an ip address corresponding to the user id for the user of the ip telephone apparatus . in the following , in the fig1 network configuration , a case is explained wherein the call recipient is specified by the phonebook search system at pc 102 and a call is placed to ip telephone apparatus ( b ) 110 by clicking the call recipient name on the browser . fig9 , 10 , 11 and 12 are referred for the illustration . fig9 illustrates a sequence describing operations from when the user logs in to the phonebook search system at pc 102 to when communication starts between ip telephone apparatuses ( a ) 101 and ( b ) 110 . fig1 illustrates a flow chart for pc 102 ; fig1 illustrates a flow chart for web server 103 ; fig1 illustrates a flow chart for the ip telephone apparatus . first , operations between pc 102 and web server 103 are described . the user starts the browser at pc 102 and logs in to the web server 103 phonebook search system . as shown in fig1 , pc 102 starts the browser in accordance with the user &# 39 ; s operation ( s 101 ) and transmits , to web server 103 , a request for displaying an initial screen of the phonebook search system by using the uri received from web server 103 , the uri being specified by the user . when the user logs in on the initial screen by entering the user id and password , pc 102 transmits a login request to web server 103 ( s 102 ). as shown in fig1 , upon receiving the login request to the phonebook search system ( s 201 ), web server 103 cross - checks the obtained id and password with those stored in the phonebook ( fig8 ). when they match , web server 103 allows the user to login ( s 202 ). web server 103 transmits , to the client ( pc 102 ) that logged in , a phonebook search screen . fig1 illustrates an example of the phonebook search screen . the phonebook search screen appears on the browser &# 39 ; s window of pc 102 that logged in to the phonebook search system . when entering a search condition in name column 411 provided on the phonebook search screen and clicking search button 412 , an advanced search condition is transmitted to web server 103 ( s 103 ). web server 103 transmits the advanced search condition to the phonebook system and searches for the corresponding data from the phonebook data ( s 203 ). for example , when the name targeted as the advanced search condition is “ tokkyo taro ”, the personal data shown in fig7 is retrieved as a search result . web server 103 transmits , to pc 102 , the call recipient profile html (“// www . tokyo . sip . com ./ useraaa . html ”) which displays the personal data shown in fig7 on the browser ( s 204 ). when there are a plurality of corresponding records , a plurality of other parties &# 39 ; htmls are transmitted . the browser &# 39 ; s window of pc 102 displays the call recipient profile , which shows the personal data shown in fig7 , based on the call recipient profile html received from web server 103 . when the user places a call to “ tokkyo taro ”, which was retrieved by the phonebook search system , for example , name 410 is clicked , the name which was displayed in the call recipient profile html ( s 104 ). when the call recipient name 410 is clicked , web server 103 transmits a reversed naptr query and a telephone number request , using a cgi ( common gateway interface ) based on the call recipient profile html information . web server 103 first transmits , to enum server 106 , the reversed naptr query for the call recipient enum domain name based on the call recipient profile html information ( s 206 ). enum server 106 stores , in db 303 , the naptr record shown in fig5 . when the reversed naptr query is received from web server 103 , enum server 106 , at cpu 301 , reversely obtains the call recipient enum domain name based on the call recipient profile html included in the request . as an example , enum server 106 searches the uri schemes corresponding to the http service , the uri schemes contained in the naptr record stored in db 303 . enum server 106 then retrieves the naptr record specifying , in the uri , the same file name as the call recipient profile html . next , enum server 106 extracts the telephone number uri ( 050 system ) corresponding to the sip service ( ip telephone ) from the naptr record ( uri ) stored in connection with the retrieved call recipient enum domain name . in other words , enum server 106 extracts all of the uris or the telephone numbers ( 050 system ) included therein for the call recipient that was clicked on pc 102 , the uris or telephone numbers corresponding to the ip telephone service ( sip ) stored on enum server 106 . in the fig5 example , when “ tokkyo taro ” is clicked on the browser , the call recipient enum domain name “ 0 . 0 . 0 . 0 . 0 . 0 . 0 . 1 . 3 . 1 . 8 . e164 . arpa ” is reversely obtained from the call recipient profile html “// www . tokyo . sip . com / useraaa . html ”. after that , uri “ 05011112222 @ tokyo . sip . jp ” is retrieved , the uri corresponding to the sip service ( ip telephone ) and being stored in connection with the call recipient enum domain name . upon receiving the reversed naptr query , enum server 106 transmits , to web server 103 that has transmitted the request , telephone number uri “ 05011112222 @ tokyo . sip . jp ” or only telephone number “ 05011112222 ” as the call recipient number response . web server 103 then receives the call recipient number response from enum server 106 ( s 207 ). when enum server 106 does not store the naptr record , an error notification is transmitted to enum server 106 . the error notification is forwarded to pc 102 that has transmitted the request , after which the process is terminated ( s 208 ). web server 103 transmits , to the uri ( ip address ) of the source ip telephone apparatus ( a ) 101 , the uri being confirmed when the user logged in to pc 102 , the call recipient telephone number uri , using a refer message ( s 209 ). pc 102 transmits , to web server 103 , a click - to - dial request when name 410 is clicked on the browser ( s 105 ). after that , pc 102 performs an automatic logout process by a timer , or upon the user request ( s 106 ). when the logout request is received from the client ( s 210 ), which is pc 102 , web server 103 terminates the process . after the above - noted steps , the process proceeds to operations performed among the source ip telephone apparatus ( a ) 101 , ca server 108 and the destination ip telephone apparatus ( b ) 110 . fig1 illustrates a flow chart for the source ip telephone apparatus ( a ) 101 . ip telephone apparatus ( a ) 101 receives the call recipient telephone number ( including a uri containing a telephone number ) by the refer message transmitted from web server 103 , which initiates a call process ( s 301 ). ip telephone apparatus ( a ) 101 creates the “ invite ” message which includes the call recipient telephone number and the telephone number of ip telephone apparatus ( a ) 101 . the call recipient telephone number was received in s 301 as an intended recipient telephone number (“ to ” field ). the telephone number of ip telephone apparatus ( a ) 101 is specified as the source telephone number (“ from ” field ). ip telephone apparatus ( a ) 101 then transmits the “ invite ” message to ca 108 ( s 302 ). ip telephone apparatus ( a ) 101 previously stores an ip address of ca server 108 . fig1 illustrates an example of the “ invite ” message . when receiving the “ invite ” message from ip telephone apparatus ( a ) 101 , ca server 108 confirms the call recipient telephone number (“ to ” field ), and forwards the “ invite ” message to the ip address of ip telephone apparatus ( b ) 110 , which has the call recipient telephone number . in other words , ca server 108 obtains the ip address of ip telephone apparatus ( b ) 110 having the call recipient telephone number , based on the call recipient telephone number , sets the ip address of ip telephone apparatus ( b ) 110 as an ip packet destination , and transmits the “ invite ” message to internet / intranet 105 . upon receiving the “ invite ” message , the destination ip telephone apparatus ( b ) 110 sounds a ring tone and transmits , to ca server 108 , the “ 180 ringing ” message . ca server 108 then forwards the “ 180 ringing ” message to the source ip telephone apparatuses ( a ) 101 . upon receiving the “ 180 ringing ” message ( s 303 ), the source ip apparatus ( a ) 101 sounds a ring back tone through the speaker of handset 203 ( s 304 ). in response to the ring back tone , the user , who searched for the call recipient name from the phonebook system at pc 102 and clicked the name , picks up handset 203 of ip telephone apparatus ( a ) 101 provided close to the user of pc 102 , puts the handset 203 to the ear , and hears the ring tone directed to the destination ip telephone apparatus ( b ) 110 . when an off - hook condition is detected at the destination ip telephone apparatus ( b ) 110 , the destination ip telephone apparatus ( b ) 110 transmits , to the source ip telephone apparatus ( a ) 101 , the “ 200 ok ” message via ca server 108 . upon receiving the “ 200 ok ” message ( s 305 ), the source ip telephone apparatus ( a ) 101 transmits the “ ack ” message to the destination ip telephone apparatus ( b ) 110 ( s 306 ), after which communication becomes available ( s 307 ). when an error message is received in s 303 , it indicates that the communication was unsuccessful ( s 308 ), and the process is terminated . as described above , in the present embodiment , when the call recipient name is clicked on the search result screen of the phonebook search system , the html file name displaying the call recipient profile ( personal data ) is transmitted to enum server 106 . enum server 106 then extracts the uri corresponding to the call recipient ip telephone service from the naptr record based on the html file name , and transmits the uri to ip telephone apparatus ( a ) 101 . therefore , the user becomes able to place a call to the destination ip telephone apparatus ( b ) 110 without entering the call recipient telephone number at ip telephone apparatus ( a ) 101 . in addition , in the above - described embodiment , ca server 108 is involved until a connection is established between the source ip telephone apparatus ( a ) 101 and the destination ip telephone apparatus ( b ) 110 . it is also possible , however , to establish a connection by performing a call control directly between ip telephone apparatuses ( a ) 101 and ( b ) 110 without involving ca server 108 . fig1 illustrates a sequence describing a call control directly performed between ip telephone apparatuses ( a ) 101 and ( b ) 110 without involving ca server 108 . fig1 shows a case where web server 103 transmits , to the uri ( ip address ) of the source ip telephone apparatus ( a ) 101 , the uri being confirmed when the user logged in to pc 102 , the call recipient telephone number uri , using the refer message . upon receiving , from web server 103 , the call recipient telephone number uri , the source ip telephone apparatus ( a ) 101 starts a process for obtaining the ip address of the destination ip telephone apparatus ( b ) 110 based on the domain name corresponding to the uri . more specifically , the source ip telephone apparatus ( a ) 101 transmits , to dns server 107 , a request for the ip address by specifying the domain name . dns server 107 has a function which obtains the ip address of the corresponding terminal ( ip telephone apparatus ( b ) 110 ) based on the domain name . dns server 107 transmits , to ip telephone apparatus ( a ) 101 , the obtained ip address of ip telephone apparatus ( b ) 110 . the source ip telephone apparatus ( a ) 101 then directly transmits , to the destination ip telephone apparatus ( b ) 110 , the “ invite ” message , using the obtained ip address , via internet / intranet 105 . the “ invite ” message is structured as shown in fig1 . communication then starts after the direct exchange of the messages “ 180 ringing ”, “ 200 ok ” and “ ack ” between the source and destination ip telephone apparatuses . in the above description , the user at the transmitting side accesses the phonebook search system and clicks the call recipient name at pc 102 . it is also possible , however , to have the source ip telephone apparatus ( a ) 101 perform all operations , the operations initiated by starting the browse at pc 102 . in other words , it is possible to perform the operation of pc 102 shown in fig1 at ip telephone apparatus ( a ) 101 . in this case , the process does not require web server 103 . instead of displaying personal data for only one individual as show in fig7 , it is further possible to display personal data for a plurality of parties , to click on the selected party , and to transmit to enum server 106 a request for a reversed naptr search as well as a telephone number request by specifying the call recipient profile file html for the party that was clicked . in addition , personal data stored on web server 103 is not limited to phonebook data , but may take the form of other types of data as well . it is also possible to display all of the personal data or part of the data on pc 102 . it is noted that the foregoing examples have been provided merely for the purpose of explanation and are in no way to be construed as limiting of the present invention . while the present invention has been described with reference to exemplary embodiments , it is understood that the words which have been used herein are words of description and illustration , rather than words of limitation . changes may be made , within the purview of the appended claims , as presently stated and as amended , without departing from the scope and spirit of the present invention in its aspects . although the present invention has been described herein with reference to particular structures , materials and embodiments , the present invention is not intended to be limited to the particulars disclosed herein ; rather , the present invention extends to all functionally equivalent structures , methods and uses , such as are within the scope of the appended claims . the present invention is not limited to the above described embodiments , and various variations and modifications may be possible without departing from the scope of the present invention .	7
the central element of the network protection system is a protection device 18 , which is installed on the local - area network on which is located each receiving email server 14 to be protected . optionally , a protection device 18 is installed outside this local area network , but can connect to each receiving email server 14 using the internet or other network . in the case where protection device 18 is installed on the local - area network with a receiving email server 14 , each receiving email server 14 is configured with a new ip address 44 . the former ip address 44 of each receiving email server 14 is assigned to protection device 18 . optionally , the protection device 18 is assigned a valid ip address 44 , and the dns record for the domain name of each receiving email server 14 is changed to resolve to protection device 18 , while the receiving email server &# 39 ; s ip address 44 is not changed . in the case where protection device 18 is installed outside the local - area network on which is located a receiving email server 14 , the ip address 44 of each receiving email server 14 is not changed . protection device 18 is assigned an ip address 44 for each protected receiving email server 14 , and the dns record for the domain name of each receiving email server 14 is changed to resolve to protection device 18 . after installation in either of these cases , protection device 18 accepts email connection attempts from any sending email server 12 on behalf of each receiving email server 14 , from which in turn a receiving email client 48 can retrieve messages . the protection device 18 functions by making use of server information 42 from public or private server attribute databases 26 , and optionally other information , to calculate a blocking score 32 . the blocking score 32 is compared to a failing threshold 34 to determine whether to allow or disallow a sending email server 12 to send an email message to a protected receiving email server 14 . the blocking score 32 is determined by a novel , efficient , and effective method involving the use of a hierarchical score tree 28 , described in more detail below . the use of this method results in highly accurate identification of sources of spam , very low “ false positives ” ( legitimate email servers classified as spam sources ), and very efficient use of computing and communication resources . together these advantages provide a price / performance ratio far superior to existing solutions , and enable packaging of the protection device 18 in a low - cost , embedded systems platform or a software application that uses minimal server resources . the method of allowing or disallowing the sending email server 12 is a novel , efficient , and effective method involving the termination of a mail connection . the termination is done with rejection information 46 that includes an error code that prevents the transmission of the email message , optionally adding handling or other information to the error code . the protection device 18 may use any standard email connection error code . each , in combination with optional handling information , indicates to any legitimate sender that a connection was rejected . for example , rejection information 46 may include customized text including an email blocking policy , alternate means of contacting the recipient ( e . g . phone , fax , mailing , web page ), or other information desired by the protection device 18 operator . the optional inclusion of handling information with an error code provides not only a positive feedback mechanism to the rejected sender , but can provide additional instructions to resolve any problems in the case of a sending email server 12 that was incorrectly identified as a source of spam . the prevention of transmission saves communications costs for the protected email network , as well as for the “ public internet ”, across which email messages are normally transmitted . most importantly , with the method of termination resulting in a legitimate sender knowing about a delivery failure , false positives do not cause the “ black hole ” problem of existing quarantine solutions , where critical messages may reside for days in a spam folder among many spam messages . instead a legitimate sender may be expected to contact the intended recipient by phone or other method , in which case the legitimate sender can optionally be added to a global white list 20 or personal white list 24 . the protection device 18 itself is comprised of several elements , including a hardware computing device on which is installed software or firmware , as well as an optional global white list 20 , optional global black list 22 , optional personal white list 24 , blocking score 32 , failing threshold 34 , optional delaying threshold 36 , and hierarchical score tree 28 . the optional global white list 20 is a database , each record of which contains an identifier or identifiers for each sending email server 12 that is explicitly allowed to send email messages to the receiving email server 14 . in the preferred embodiment , an optional global white list 20 is stored within the protection device 18 . in another embodiment , an optional global white list 20 is stored outside the protection device 18 , but is accessible to the protection device 18 . the optional global black list 22 is a database , each record of which contains an identifier or identifiers for each sending email server 12 that is explicitly prohibited from sending email messages to the receiving email server 14 . in the preferred embodiment , an optional global black list 22 is stored within the protection device 18 . in another embodiment , an optional global black list 22 is stored outside the protection device 18 , but is accessible to the protection device 18 . the optional personal white list 24 is a database , each record of which contains an identifier or identifiers for an email user of a protected receiving email server 14 , paired with an identifier or identifiers for a sending email server 12 that is explicitly prohibited from sending email messages to that email user . in the preferred embodiment , an optional personal white list 24 is stored within the protection device 18 . in another embodiment , an optional personal white list 24 is stored outside the protection device 18 , but is accessible to the protection device 18 . the blocking score 32 is a score that the protection device 18 calculates by use of a hierarchical score tree 28 and server information 42 from public or private server attribute databases 26 , and optionally other information . the failing threshold 34 is a configurable threshold that the protection device 18 compares with the blocking score 32 to determine if the blocking score 32 should result in an accepted or denied email connection . the optional delaying threshold 36 is a configurable threshold that the protection device 18 compares with the blocking score 32 to determine if the blocking score 32 should result in an accepted or temporarily denied email connection . a hierarchical score tree 28 , of which an example is depicted in fig3 , is comprised of a node 30 , or more than one node 30 in a dependent , hierarchical structure . node 30 arrangement consists of one or more levels , each level containing one node 30 or more than one node 30 . each node 30 features a score condition 38 triggered by server information 42 or other information , and a contributing score 40 that contributes to a blocking score 32 . in the preferred embodiment , a hierarchical score tree 28 is stored on the protection device 18 . in another embodiment , the hierarchical score tree 28 is stored outside the protection device 18 , but is accessible to the protection device 18 . a score condition 38 is a logical statement evaluating to true or false . an example is the presence or absence of an ip address 44 of a sending email server 12 in a any server attribute databases 26 such as public dns blocking lists of known sources of spam . another example is server information 42 indicating whether or not a sending email server 12 is located in a particular country . another example is the presence or absence of an error condition resulting from an mx record query of the internet dns system . a contributing score 40 may be positive , negative , or zero . a contributing score 40 is the score contributed to the blocking score 32 by a node 30 if the score condition 38 of that node 30 is met , and the score condition 38 is met for the node 30 on which said node 30 depends . in the fig3 example , the 3 . 1 node 30 will only contribute its contributing score 40 of 5 if its score condition 38 “ sending server located in country x ”) is met , and if the score condition 38 (“ presence of sending server ip address 44 in blocking list a ”) of the 2 . 1 node 30 is also met . a hierarchical score tree 28 may be configured with a variety of topologies from one to many layers , each including one node 30 or more than one node 30 . for example , one embodiment of a hierarchical score tree 28 could be comprised of a single node 30 . this enables use of a single score condition 38 , such as presence of an ip address 44 of a sending email server 12 on a black list , to calculate a contributing score 40 , which due to the singular node 30 would then become the blocking score 32 . another embodiment of a hierarchical score tree 28 could be comprised of a single layer of more than one node 30 this enables use of more than one node 30 without any dependency of one node 30 to another . this is useful for representing a set of conditions , any one of which could contribute to the blocking score 32 without depending on the value of any other node 30 representing another condition . also , each score condition 38 and contributing score 40 may be changed by manual configuration or automated adjustment based on performance history and other information . this enables protection device 18 to be optionally adjusted or to self - adjust over time to improve effectiveness , calculation efficiency , or other performance metrics . keeping in mind all of the above elements , a network protection system operates as flowcharted in fig2 and explained in sections a through h below : a . a sending email server 12 attempts an email connection to protection device 18 , which is acting on behalf of a receiving email server 14 . typically a sending email server 12 will be attempting to deliver an email message delivered to it by a sending email application 10 , which can be an email client such as microsoft outlook , or a bulk email creation application . b . the protection device 18 receives initial email connection information from the sending email server 12 , obtaining the ip address 44 and optionally other attributes of the sending email server 12 . c . optionally , protection device 18 determines whether the ip address 44 of the sending email server 12 is in global white list 20 . if this ip address 44 is in global white list 20 , then protection device 18 allows the email transaction to proceed , by passing through email session information to receiving email server 14 , optionally inserting any desired or necessary information into the packet stream . after completion of the email session for transmission of the email message , the email connection is terminated normally . d . optionally , if no global white list 20 evaluation was performed , or if ip address 44 is not in global white list 20 , then protection device 18 determines whether ip address 44 is in global black list 22 . if ip address 44 is in global black list 22 , then protection device 18 terminates the email session , transmitting rejection information 46 to the sending email server 12 . e . optionally , if no black list evaluation was performed , or if ip address 44 is not in global black list 22 , then protection device 18 determines whether ip address 44 is in a personal white list 24 . if ip address 44 is in the personal white list 24 , then protection device 18 allows the email transaction to proceed until “ rcpt - to :” information is encountered . protection device 18 then checks the personal white list 24 for the recipient identified by the “ rcpt - to :” information . if the recipient is present in the personal white list 24 , and the ip address 44 is identified as allowed by the same recipient , protection device 18 allows the email transaction to proceed by passing through email session information to receiving email server 14 , optionally inserting any desired or necessary information into the packet stream . after completion of the email session for transmission of the email message , the email connection is terminated normally . f . protection device 18 queries any server attribute databases 26 required to evaluate score conditions of nodes in a hierarchical score tree 28 , or queries one or more temporary caches , to determine whether the ip address 44 is in any of the server attribute databases 26 , or to obtain server information 42 by querying based on ip address 44 or other information obtained from the email connection . g . using resulting server information 42 , protection device 18 uses a hierarchical score tree 28 to determine a blocking score 32 for ip address 44 , in the context of the current email transaction attempt . optionally the blocking score 32 can influence a stored score that can be used across multiple transaction attempts from a particular ip address 44 . h1 . if the blocking score 32 is below a failing threshold 34 , then protection device 18 allows the email transaction to proceed by passing through email session information to receiving email server 14 , optionally inserting any desired or necessary information into the packet stream . after completion of the email session for transmission of the email message , the email connection is terminated normally . h2 . if the blocking score 32 is at or above a failing threshold 34 , then protection device 18 executes the appropriate blocking action . for example , in one embodiment , protection device 18 terminates the email session , transmitting rejection information 46 to the sending email server 12 . h3 . in another embodiment , an additional delaying threshold 36 is used . if the blocking score 32 is above the delaying threshold 36 , but below the failing threshold 34 , protection device 18 terminates the email session , transmitting rejection information 46 indicating temporary unavailability of receiving email server 14 . this enables the sending email server 12 to re - try the transaction at a later time , when server attribute databases 26 may have changed . h4 . in another embodiment , a series of thresholds may be used to choose from a variety of actions of varying severity , from various kinds of temporary delays or queuing , to termination of an email session with more severe rejection information 46 , for example an smtp code 554 . the above describes the overall process by which a network protection system operates to prevent spam from burdening an email network , within the context of an email network . since other modifications and changes varied to fit particular operating requirements and environments will be apparent to those skilled in the art , the invention is not considered limited to the example chosen for purposes of disclosure , and covers all changes and modifications which do not constitute departures from the true spirit and scope of this invention . having thus described the invention , what is desired to be protected by letters patent is presented in the subsequently appended claims .	7
fig1 to 8 illustrate a process for fabricating a transistor with a high - k dielectric sidewall spacer according to an embodiment of the present invention . in these figures an nfet transistor and a pfet transistor are shown arranged in a side - by - side manner for convenience of description . however , this is not meant to limit the present invention . embodiments of the present invention can be directed to one or more nfet transistors , one or more pfet transistors , or a combination of these two types of transistors . the process begins with a silicon - on - insulator ( soi ) wafer that has a silicon substrate 102 , an overlying oxide layer (“ box ”) 104 ( e . g ., of 3 μm ), and an overlying silicon layer 106 . one or more sti regions 110 are formed in the silicon layer 106 . conventional hafnium dioxide ( hfo 2 ) and titanium nitride ( tin ) depositions are used to form a high - k dielectric layer 112 and a metal layer 114 for the gate stack , as shown in fig1 . the hafnium dioxide layer 112 has a k value in the range of about 20 - 25 ( as compared to 3 . 9 for sio 2 ) and has an exemplary thickness in the range of about 1 - 3 nm . the titanium nitride layer 114 has an exemplary thickness of about 10 nm . these layers 112 and 114 together form the ( as yet unpatterned ) mhk gate stack . this initial structure represents a conventional 501 cmos with a mhk gate stack . fig2 shows the structure after the deposition of an amorphous silicon ( or polysilicon ) layer 216 having an exemplary thickness in the range of about 30 - 100 nm , and the subsequent deposition and patterning of a photoresist layer 220 . the photoresist 220 is left where a device gate is desired to be formed . fig3 , which is a partial view that does not include the silicon substrate 102 and oxide layer 104 for simplicity , shows the result after a gate stack etch and subsequent removal of the photoresist 220 . in this embodiment , the gate stack etch stops at the high - k material ( hafnium dioxide layer 112 ). fig4 shows the structure after deposition , for example a blanket deposition by chemical vapor deposition ( cvd ), plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition ( pecvd ), or atomic layer deposition ( ald ), of a high - k spacer material layer 218 . as opposed to an amorphous silicon or polycrystalline silicon material , the high - k spacer material is a material with a dielectric constant greater than about 10 . the high - k layer 218 of this embodiment illustratively has a thickness in the range of about 10 - 20 nm . as shown in fig4 , the high - k spacer layer 218 covers the high - k layer 112 and the exposed surfaces of the metal layer 114 and the silicon layer 216 of the gate stack . the high - k spacer layer 218 and the high - k layer 112 can comprise the same or different high - k materials . a process such as reactive ion etching ( rie ) is used to selectively etch the high - k spacer layer 218 so that it remains only on the sidewalls of the gate stack , as shown in fig5 . therefore , a high - k sidewall spacer is created on the sides of each of the gates , extending down to the high - k layer 112 . the high - k sidewall spacer of this embodiment has an exemplary thickness of about 6 - 15 nm . further , this etching is continued through the high - k hafnium dioxide layer 112 , so that only the portions of the high - k layer 112 located below the gate stacks 114 and 216 and the sidewall spacers 218 remain , as shown in fig6 . thus , the gate stack is formed by the high - k layer 112 , the metal layer 114 , and the silicon layer 216 . in this gate stack , a lateral extent ( width ) of the high - k layer 112 is greater than a lateral extent ( width ) of the metal and silicon layers 114 and 216 . in this embodiment , a wet etch using a dilute hydrofluoric acid ( dhf ) solution is used to remove portions of the high - k hafnium dioxide layer 112 . such a process is described in the article “ etching of zirconium oxide , hafnium oxide , and hafnium silicates in dilute hydrofluoric acid solutions ” ( v . lowalekar et al ., materials research society , vol . 19 , no . 4 , pp . 1149 - 1156 ), which is hereby incorporated by reference . in further embodiments , other processes are used to etch the high - k layer . as shown in fig7 , extension implants 720 are then alternately performed on the nfet and pfet transistors . in particular , photolithography is used to selectively define the areas for the source / drain extension implants for the nfet and pfet , and ions are implanted . the extension implant is performed using an n - type species for the nfet , and using a p - type species for the pfet . because of the presence of the high - k sidewall spacers , these implantations can be performed at a much lower dose than with a conventional structure having a conventional sidewall spacer , such as at an at least a 50 % lower dose ). for example , in preferred embodiments the implantation is performed at a dose of less than about 1 . 5 e 15 / cm 3 , and in this exemplary embodiment is performed at a dose of 0 . 5 to 0 . 8 e 15 / cm 3 ( compared to a typical dose of 2 . 0 to 3 . 0 e 15 / cm 3 in a conventional fabrication processes ). the remainder of the fabrication process is the same as the conventional cmos fabrication process . as shown in fig8 , oxide and / or nitride diffusion spacers 824 are formed ( for example , by pecvd ). the diffusion spacers 824 of this embodiment have an exemplary thickness of about 2 - 10 nm . source and drain regions are then implanted . the source / drain implant is performed using a p - type species for the nfet ( for example , as or p ), and using an n - type species for the pfet ( for example , b or bf 2 ). a subsequent rapid thermal anneal ( rta ) is performed ( e . g ., millisecond laser anneal or flash anneal ) to provide relatively deep diffusions for the source and drain regions . subsequent conventional processing is used to silicide the gates , sources , and drains ( typically with ni or co ) to complete the nfet and pfet transistors . as shown in fig8 , extensions 721 and halos 722 are formed in the silicon layer 106 by the extension implants and annealing . the extension implant dose and subsequent anneal operate to drive each extension implant ( i . e ., extension region 721 ) under part but not all of the high - k sidewall spacer 218 , and not under any of the gate stack . that is , each high - k sidewall spacer 218 is only partially underlapped by an extension junction . this results in the effective device length leff being greater than the physical device length lgate . in contrast , in the conventional mhk transistor with conventional oxide and / or nitride sidewall spacers as shown in fig9 , the extension implant dose and anneal drive operate to drive each extension implant 920 ( i . e ., extension region ) completely under the sidewall spacers 924 and partially under the gate stack , which causes the effective device length leff to be less than the physical device length lgate . because the present invention provides an effective device length leff that is greater than the physical device length lgate , the gating action of the fringing fields from the gate is enhanced , so as to invert the extension regions in proximity to the gate . the gate electrode gates both the normal inversion layer under the gate as well as regions to the left and right of the gate . although the overlap capacitance component from the outer fringe increases , the capacitance component from gate to extension region drops , as the direct overlap capacitance component is eliminated . the extension region can also be implanted right before the spacer deposition to reduce the effect in the region . fig1 - 13 illustrate a process for fabricating a transistor with a high - k dielectric sidewall spacer according to an embodiment of the present invention . in this embodiment , the gate stack etch stops on the silicon layer 106 , as shown in fig1 . thus , the gate stack is formed by the high - k layer 112 , the metal layer 114 , and the silicon layer 216 . in this gate stack , a lateral extent ( width ) of the high - k layer 112 is the same as a lateral extent ( width ) of the metal and silicon layers 114 and 216 . after the gate stack etch , a high - k spacer material layer 218 is deposited , for example with a thickness in the range of about 10 - 20 nm . as shown in fig1 , the high - k spacer layer 218 covers the exposed surfaces of the high - k layer 112 , the metal layer 114 , and the silicon layer 216 of the gate stack . the high - k spacer layer 218 and the high - k layer 112 can comprise the same or different high - k materials . a process such as reactive ion etching ( rie ) is used to selectively etch the high - k spacer layer 218 so that it remains only on the sidewalls of the gate stack , as shown in fig1 . therefore , a high - k sidewall spacer is created on the sides of each of the gates , extending down to the silicon layer 106 . the high - k sidewall spacer of this embodiment has an exemplary thickness of about 6 - 15 nm . extension implants are then performed . because of the presence of the high - k sidewall spacers , this implant can be performed at a much lower dose than with a conventional structure having a conventional sidewall spacer ( for example , a 50 % lower dose ). the remainder of the fabrication process is the same as in the embodiment described above . as shown in fig1 , oxide and / or nitride diffusion spacers 824 are formed ( for example , by pecvd ) with an exemplary thickness of about 2 - 10 nm . source and drain region are then implanted , and a subsequent rapid thermal anneal ( rta ) is performed ( e . g ., millisecond laser anneal or flash anneal ) to provide relatively deep diffusions for the source and drain regions . subsequent conventional processing is used to silicide the gates , sources , and drains ( typically with ni or co ) to complete the nfet and pfet transistors . as shown in fig1 , in this embodiment also the extension implant dose and subsequent anneal operate to drive each extension implant ( i . e ., extension region 721 ) under part but not all of the high - k sidewall spacer 218 , and not under any of the gate stack . that is , each high - k sidewall spacer 218 is only partially underlapped by an extension junction . this results in the effective device length leff being greater than the physical device length lgate . the embodiments of the present invention described above are meant to be illustrative of the principles of the present invention . these mhk device fabrication processes are compatible with cmos semiconductor fabrication methodology , and thus various modifications and adaptations can be made by one of ordinary skill in the art . all such modifications still fall within the scope of the present invention . for example , while the exemplary embodiments of the present invention described above relate to gate structures that use hafnium dioxide for the high - k layer and titanium nitride for the metal layer , further embodiments can use other compatible materials , such as zro 2 or hfsi x o y , which both exhibit the high dielectric constant ( e . g ., k of approximately 20 - 25 ) needed to provide a larger equivalent oxide thickness . similarly , other metal oxide - based materials may be used , such as a uniform or a composite layer comprised of one or more of ta 2 o 5 , tio 2 , al 2 o 3 , y 2 o 3 and la 2 o 5 . the metal - containing layer 114 could also be formed of another material , such as one or more of ta , tan , tacn , tasin , tasi , aln , w and mo . additionally , in further embodiments the silicon layer 216 described above can be comprised of another material that is able to be etched , remain conductive , and withstand high temperatures . similarly , while the embodiments described above relate to a transistor on an soi wafer , the transistors and fabrication methods of the present invention are also applicable to bulk technologies . likewise , the various layer thicknesses , material types , deposition techniques , and the like discussed above are not meant to be limiting . furthermore , some of the features of the examples of the present invention may be used to advantage without the corresponding use of other features . as such , the foregoing description should be considered as merely illustrative of the principles , teachings , examples and exemplary embodiments of the present invention , and not in limitation thereof . it should be understood that these embodiments are only examples of the many advantageous uses of the innovative teachings herein . in general , statements made in the specification of the present application do not necessarily limit any of the various claimed inventions . moreover , some statements may apply to some inventive features but not to others . in general , unless otherwise indicated , singular elements may be in the plural and vice versa with no loss of generality . the circuit as described above is part of the design for an integrated circuit chip . the chip design is created in a graphical computer programming language , and 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 transmits 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 is then 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 are utilized to define areas of the wafer ( and / or the layers thereon ) to be etched or otherwise processed . the method as described above is used in the fabrication of integrated circuit chips . the resulting integrated circuit chips can be distributed by the fabricator in raw wafer form ( that is , as a single wafer that has multiple unpackaged chips ), as a bare chip , or in a packaged form . in the latter case , the chip is mounted in a single chip package ( such as a plastic carrier , with leads that are affixed to a motherboard or other higher level carrier ) or in a multichip package ( such as a ceramic carrier that has either or both surface interconnections or buried interconnections ). in any case , the chip is then integrated with other chips , discrete circuit elements , and / or other signal processing devices as part of either ( a ) an intermediate product , such as a motherboard , or ( b ) an end product . the end product can be any product that includes integrated circuit chips , ranging from toys and other low - end applications to advanced computer products having a display , a keyboard , or other input device , and a central processor .	7
fig1 shows a short pulse sequential waveform generator 10 including an input - output circuit 11 , a generator circuit 12 and a bias voltage source 13 for the generator circuit 12 . the waveform generator circuit 10 has input terminals a and b and output terminals b &# 39 ; c . terminals b and b &# 39 ; are connected to ground . the input terminal a is coupled to the first terminal of an inductor 14 which has its second terminal connected to an output coupling capacitor 15 and the input of a first section 18a of a high frequency transmission line 18 which may be comprised of a plurality of lengths of coaxial line . the first terminal on a d . c . blocking capacitor 16 in the generator circuit 12 is connected to the output of the first section 18a of the line 18 . the second terminal on the output coupling capacitor 15 is connected to the output terminal c . in the generating circuit 12 the second terminal on the capacitor 16 is connected to the cathode of a step recovery diode 17 and the first terminal on a bias limiting resistor 20 which has its second terminal connected to a terminal a in the bias voltage source 13 . the anode of the step recovery diode 17 is connected to ground . the first line section 18a in combination with the capacitor 16 and the step recovery diode 17 and resistor 20 comprise the first stage of the generating circuit 12 . the second stage of the generating circuit 12 includes a second section 18b of the line 18 having its first terminal connected to the junction between the capacitor 16 , the diode 17 and the resistor 20 . the second terminal of the second section 18b is connected to the first terminal on a d . c . blocking capacitor 21 which has its second terminal connected to the cathode of a step recovery diode 22 and the first terminal on a resistor 23 which has its second terminal connected to a terminal b in the bias voltage source 13 . the third stage of the generating circuit 12 includes a third section 18c of the line 18 having its first terminal connected to the junction of the capacitor 21 , step recovery diode 22 and the resistor 23 . the second terminal of the third section 18c is connected to the first terminal on a d . c . blocking capacitor 24 which has its second terminal connected to the cathode on a step recovery diode 25 and the first terminal on a bias limiting resistor 26 which has its second terminal connected to a terminal c on the bias voltage source 13 . the fourth stage of the generating circuit 12 includes a fourth section 18d of the line 18 having its first terminal connected to the common junction between the capacitor 24 , the step recovery diode 25 and the resistor 26 . the second terminal of the fourth section 18d is connected to the first terminal on a d . c . blocking capacitor 27 which has its second terminal connected to the cathode of the step recovery diode 30 and the first terminal on the bias limiting resistor 31 which has its second terminal connected to a terminal d on the bias voltage source 13 . the anodes of the step recovery diodes 17 , 22 , 25 and 30 are all connected to the common ground for the terminals b and b &# 39 ;. the common junction between the capacitor 27 , the step recovery diode 30 and the resistor 31 is coupled to a fifth section 18e of the line 18 which has its second terminal connected to the first terminal on a coupling capacitor 32 . the second terminal on the capacitor 32 is connected to the first terminal on a terminating resistor 33 which has its second terminal connected to the common ground for terminals b and b &# 39 ;. although four stages are shown , any other number may also be used . a step recovery diode can be idealized to be thought of as a fast acting switch which during its conducting period , i . e ., when it is forward biased , has sufficient charge stored in the intrinsic , i , region of the diode so that it acts as a short - circuit with a very low forward resistance which may be designated r f . this is shown in fig3 by the resistor r f connected across the step recovery diode by the dotted lines . an incident positive pulse applied to the cathode of the step - recovery diode will be reflected as a negative pulse until all the charge is withdrawn . after the charge is withdrawn the step - recovery diode suddenly turns into an insulator having only a small capacitance designated c r in fig3 which is connected across the step recovery diode by the dotted lines . when the charge stored in the i region of the diode is depleted , the diode changes state producing two positive steps which travel in opposite directions away from the diode . the first positive step follows the negative step and cancels the original negative reflected step for all times in which t & gt ; t dl so that the net reflection from the diode is a negative pulse having a pulse width t dl . in operation an input pulse as shown to the left of fig1 is applied across the input terminals a , b of the circuit 11 which couples the applied input pulse into the first stage of the generating circuit 12 comprised of the first section 18a of the line 18 , the capacitor 16 , diode 17 and resistor 20 . the diode 17 is initially forward biased through the resistor 20 by the bias voltage source 13 . thus the step - recovery diode 17 initially carries current in the forward direction and appears like a short circuit across the transmission line . likewise the diodes 22 , 25 , and 30 are also forward biased through their associated bias resistors and the bias voltage source 13 . therefore each of these step recovery diodes has a finite amount of charge and appears as a short circuit across the transmission line . the application of the positive input pulse at the cathode of the diode 17 withdraws the stored charge until the diode abruptly changes state from low impedance , i . e ., conducting , to high impedance , i . e ., non - conducting thereby producing a negative pulse which is reflected back to the input of the line 18 . the time from the arrival of the incident positive pulse to the state change of the diode 17 is designated the charge depletion time , t d , and is a function of the characteristics of the particular diode employed , the bias voltage applied to the cathode of the diode , the amplitude and shape of the input pulse , and the ambient temperature . the charge depletion time for this first step recovery diode 17 is designated t dl and is the width of the negative pulse reflected by the step recovery diode in response to the applied input pulse . this reflected negative pulse is coupled from the step recovery diode 17 through the capacitor 16 and the first section of the line 18a to the junction of the inductive coil 14 and output capacitor 15 . these latter components function as a filter which separates the low frequency applied input pulse from the high frequency output pulse which is coupled through the output capacitor 15 as the first pulse in the sequential output waveform . when the step recovery diode 17 changes state from conducting to non - conducting , two positive steps are produced which travel away from the junction of the capacitor 16 , diode 17 , resistor 20 and line 18b . the positive step coupled through the capacitor 16 cancels the portion of the original negative reflected step produced during the withdrawal of stored charge from the diode 17 for the duration of time in excess of the depletion time of the first step recovery diode 17 , i . e ., t dl . as a result , the net reflection from step recovery diode 17 is a negative pulse having a pulse width t dl and this pulse is the first pulse in the sequential waveform . the second positive step which is produced simultaneously with the first positive step by the step recovery diode 17 is coupled through the second section 18b of the transmission line 18 and the capacitor 21 to the cathode of the diode 22 which is initially forward biased . the positive input step at the cathode of the diode 22 withdraws the stored charge in a similar manner to that described above with respect to diode 17 until the diode 22 abruptly changes state from low impedance to high impedance thereby producing a negative pulse which is reflected back through capacitor 21 , the second section of line 18b , capacitor 16 , the first section of line 18a to the junction of the inductor 14 and the capacitor 15 . the time from the trailing positive going edge of the first output pulse to the leading negative going edge of this second output pulse is designated t 12 which has a value equal to 2l 12 / v , where l 12 is the length of the second segment 18b of the transmission line 18 between the diode 17 and the capacitor 21 and v is the propagation velocity of the pulse . the diode 22 will remain in the low impedance state until the time t d2 after the arrival of the positive step at the cathode of the diode 22 . when the diode 22 changes state from low impedance to high impedance two positive steps will be produced which will travel away from the junction of the capacitor 21 , diode 22 , resistor 23 and the third section of line 18c in the same manner as described with respect to step recovery diode 17 . the process for producing the first and second output pulses in the sequential output waveform described with respect to the first and second stages is common to all of the following stages including the last step recovery diode 30 . this diode produces a second positive step output which is coupled through the last segment of transmission line 18e , the coupling capacitor 32 to the terminating resistor 33 where it is completely absorbed . the total reflected waveform is determined by summing all the reflected pulses coupled through the coupling capacitor 15 to the output terminals b &# 39 ;, c to provide the sequential output waveform shown in fig1 . the sequential output waveform may be modified by controlling the individual bias voltages applied to each stage of the generator circuit 12 . for example , if the bias voltage coupled to step recovery diode 22 is reduced to zero , i . e ., t d2 = 0 , then the leading negative going edge of the negative step from the diode 25 will follow the positive going trailing edge of the first negative pulse from the diode 17 by a time t &# 39 ; = 2 ( l 12 + l 23 )/ v . in an actually constructed embodiment of the subject invention the generator circuit 12 included three hewlett - packard 5082 - 0365 step recovery diodes , each separated approximately by 1 . 95 inches in a 50 - ohm microstrip configuration . each d . c . blocking capacitor corresponding to capacitors 16 , 21 , 24 had a capacitance of 10 3 picofarads , each bias resistor corresponding to resistors 20 , 23 and 26 had an impedance of 910 ohms and the terminating resistor corresponding to resistor 33 had an impedance of 50 ohms . in the preferred embodiment shown in fig1 the input - output circuit 11 is comprised of the inductor 14 and the coupling capacitor 15 . in this combination the inductance 14 acts as a low - pass element which allows the applied input pulse to be coupled into the generator circuit 12 but blocks the higher frequency reflected waveform from traveling to the input terminal a . whereas the capacitor 15 functions as a high - pass element which keeps the low frequency applied input signal from being coupled to the output terminals c and only produces minimal attenuation of the reflected output waveform being coupled to the output terminal c . this input - output circuit proved quite effective in efficiently separating the applied input pulse from the resulting waveform in an actual embodiment of the invention . an alternate form of input - output circuit configuration is shown in fig2 in which the input is coupled to an input circuit 34 comprised of an unbiased step recovery diode 35 which has its cathode coupled to the input terminal a and its anode coupled to the grounded input terminal b . an applied positive input signal is coupled to the first section of line 18a with minimal reflection by the diode 35 . however , each negative reflected signal produced by each of the step recovery diodes in response to the applied positive input pulse will have the proper polarity to cause the diode 35 to conduct and be almost entirely reflected back through the generator circuit 12 to the output terminals c , b &# 39 ;. in order to employ this alternate configuration of input device 34 , the width of the input pulse , t i , must be of sufficiently short duration to insure that part of the input pulse is not at the diode 35 at the time the reflected negative pulse signal arrives . otherwise the total voltage on the input line will not become negative . therefore for proper output operation , the condition to be satisfied is t i & lt ; 2l ol / v , where l ol is the distance between the diode 35 and the diode 17 in the first stage of the generator circuit 12 . in the actually constructed embodiment of the subject invention the sequential output waveform was comprised of a plurality of pulses having pulse widths less than 1 nanosecond and amplitudes greater than 10 volts in which the individual pulse widths were varied electrically by changing the bias voltage applied to the individual step recovery diodes in the generator circuit 12 . while the invention has been described in its preferred embodiments , it is to be understood that the words which have been used are words of description rather than limitation and that changes may be made within the purview of the appended claims without departing from the true scope and spirit of the invention in its broader aspects .	7
the following detailed description illustrates the invention by way of example , not by way of limitation of the principles of the invention . this description will enable one skilled in the art to make and use the invention , and describes several embodiments , adaptations , variations , alternatives and uses of the invention , including what we presently believe is the best mode of carrying out the invention . referring now to the drawings , in which like reference numbers represent similar or identical structures throughout , fig1 shows a set of fixed - angle endoscopes 10 with viewing directions of 0 , 30 , 70 , and 120 degrees . along with the traditional forward view , a 30 degree offset is often popular because it affords simultaneous straight forward and lateral viewing . greater angles of 70 and 120 provide lateral and near retrospective viewing . together these scopes 10 make up an endoscope suite as currently used in cystoscopy and neuroendoscopy . other standard viewing angles include 12 , 45 , and 90 degrees . fig2 shows a common variable direction of view endoscope 10 with a view vector 12 which can swing through a range 14 . the size of this range depends on the particular construction of the endoscope 10 . some variable direction of view scopes have a detent which settles the view vector 12 stably into a specific angular position 16 , here 90 degrees lateral , effectively transforming the scope into a fixed off - angle scope . this detent keeps the view vector 12 from drifting away from a true 90 degree angle when the scope is manipulated . the drawback with this mechanism is that the detent cannot be repositioned if the user desires a different fixed angle , and the overall design also does not let the user reconfigure the scope 10 to add or subtract other fixed angles depending on the application . in the preferred embodiment shown in fig3 , a variable direction of view endoscope 10 with a scan range 14 is configured to have its line of sight move between discrete angular positions 0 , 30 , 70 , and 120 degrees . the scope 10 was previously configured to move between a different set of angles : 0 , 12 , 45 , and 90 degrees . any set of angles can be specified , and with a continuously variable viewing direction as many discrete positions as desirable can be set by the user according to the specific application or need . depending on the construction of the endoscope 10 , this can be done mechanically by adjusting a physical setting or electronically by programming the device . mechanical configuration is accomplished with a standard transmission where a clutch can be used to shift the rotation rates , as with stick - shifted cars or revolving spindle machines like lathes or mills ( the transmission and actuation techniques are not shown as there is a wealth of well known mechanisms suitable for the purpose of the present invention .). there could for example be three settings ; continuous smooth motion , 30 degree increments , and 45 degree increments . depending on the complexity of the transmission mechanism , combinations of different settings could also be possible . with an electronic or electromechanical endoscope it is possible to reconfigure the endoscope electronically ( simple common support circuitry can be added if necessary ). this would be done simply by programming the device , much like one would set preferences in consumer electronics , such as programming favorite radio stations or one - touch phone dialing , etc . setting the desired angles could either be done with input buttons directly on the endoscope or it could be done through the graphical user interface ( described below ). depending on the electronic configuration of the device , any number of angles can be stored , and the angles can be set to any value . the user can then rapidly switch between these preset angles without the time , thought , and effort normally required to adjust the endoscopic viewing direction . it is also possible to rapidly switch between programmed sets of preset angles , say from a standard cystoscopy set to a standard sinoscopy set . a further valuable feature is that the scope 10 can be configured so that certain button presses or double clicks take the view vector 12 to a preset home position and bypass intervening angles for rapid toggle between home and a desired viewing angle ( described further below ). also , if desired , the scope 10 can always be switched into continuous mode where the angle of the view vector 12 is smoothly variable . once configured , a series of input devices can be used for controlling the endoscopic viewing direction : fig4 a shows a wheel 18 which can be actuated by the user &# 39 ; s thumb ( or other appropriate finger ). this thumb - wheel 18 , located on the endoscope handle 19 , is configured to settle into discrete positions , much like a tuning knob on a digital radio . a pointer 20 could also be used . such a pointer 20 could either serve as a control input or be passively attached to a knob or thumb - wheel 18 . aligned with the endoscopic view vector ( not shown ), the pointer 20 provides an important indication to the operator about where the endoscope 10 is “ looking ” ( see u . s . pat . no . 6 , 695 , 774 to hale et al .). a clutch 22 is used for shifting the transmission ratio between the thumb wheel 18 and the view vector . other mechanical input means include handles , triggers , or variable increment knobs 23 , as shown in fig4 b . variable increment knobs are typically found on radio tuners , oscilloscopes , and micrometers , where knobs engage different transmission ratios depending on axial position , or where there are several coaxial knobs which each engage a different setting . for an electronic or electromechanical endoscope , the input device is a joystick 24 or similar electronic switch / button , shown in fig4 c . by pushing the joystick 24 forward or backward , the endoscopic view vector position is incremented or decremented to an adjacent angular configuration . depressing the joystick 24 or moving it right or left performs additional functions , such as putting the device into set mode and adjusting settings in this mode . the device can also be configured to toggle between angular positions which are not adjacent , depending on the dynamic needs of the operator . in particular , toggling between straight forward and an off - angle is very useful . during endoscopic procedures surgeons often get disoriented and would like to be able to rapidly return the view to a home position for a reference check . the best reference view is normally straight forward as it is the one to which the surgeon can most easily relate . this type of immediate return to a home reference is not possible with current endoscopes but can be done with the present invention . double - clicking the joystick 24 for example , causes a return to home and / or there could also be a designated home - button 26 , as in the alternative button based interface shown in fig4 d ( top view ). a set - button 28 which puts the device in set mode is also included in this interface , along with forward and backward buttons 30 , 32 . generally , a wide range of interface configurations are possible , as exemplified by the multitude of different available video game joysticks and keypads . which one is used will depend on the ergonomic requirements for different users and situations . in its preferred embodiment , the present invention includes a graphical user interface ( gill ) for controlling the endoscopic viewing process . this gill , shown in fig5 , comprises a main section 34 for displaying the endoscopic image 36 , and a section for selecting viewing parameters 38 . for example , a set of default angular settings according to surgical procedure are available , allowing the user to choose the appropriate set of angles for a given procedure . a neurosurgeon would select a neurosurgical setting which runs the scope in the default multi - mode constituting the angles 0 , 30 , 70 , and 120 degrees . an ear - nose - throat surgeon would select a sinoscopy setting which provides default viewing angles of 0 , 30 , 45 , 70 , and 90 degrees . the gill also allows the user to customize settings , with specific toggles between angles , and personally preferred home positions for the endoscope . it also displays the current viewing angle 40 , which allows the user to run a combination of continuous mode and discrete mode : the scope can be operated with a smoothly variable viewing angle , but the user will also know the running angle and can thus manually move the scope to specific desired angles without being tied to discrete preprogrammed positions . the viewing angle can also be displayed on a small readout , display , or dial located on the endoscope itself , but this is less useful because during a procedure it is inconvenient to have to look at the endoscope to get the current viewing angle . further features give the user the choice of enabling advanced navigation features such as gravity leveling of the endoscopic image ( provided the endoscope in use is equipped with the appropriate instrumentation ) and superimposition of custom or default reference coordinate systems 42 . accordingly , the present invention provides a method and interface for providing endoscopists with the advantages of traditional fixed - angle endoscopy while avoiding the disadvantages of using multiple instruments . it also provides other advantages such as rapid toggling between views and immediate return to home reference positions . the present invention has been described above in terms of a presently preferred embodiment so that an understanding of the present invention can be conveyed . however , many alternative designs , interfaces , configurations , and structural arrangements are possible without departing from the principle of the invention . the scope of the present invention should therefore not be limited by the embodiments illustrated , but rather it should be understood that the present invention has wide applicability with respect to multi - directional viewing instruments and their use , which can be industrial or medical . all modifications , variations , or equivalent elements and implementations that are within the scope of the appended claims should therefore be considered within the scope of the invention .	0
as will be appreciated by one skilled in the art , aspects of the present invention may be embodied as a system , method or computer program product . accordingly , aspects of the present invention may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment , an entirely software embodiment ( including firmware , resident software , micro - code , etc .) or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects that may all generally be referred to herein as a “ circuit ,” “ module ” or “ system .” furthermore , aspects of the present invention may take the form of a computer program product embodied in one or more computer readable medium ( s ) having computer readable program code embodied thereon . any combination of one or more computer readable medium ( s ) may be utilized . the computer readable medium may be a computer readable signal medium or a computer readable storage medium . a computer readable storage medium may be , for example , but not limited to , an electronic , magnetic , optical , electromagnetic , infrared , or semiconductor system , apparatus , or device , or any suitable combination of the foregoing . more specific examples ( a non - exhaustive list ) of the computer readable storage medium would include the following : an electrical connection having one or more wires , a portable computer diskette , a hard disk , a random access memory ( ram ), a read - only memory ( rom ), an erasable programmable read - only memory ( eprom or flash memory ), an optical fiber , a portable compact disc read - only memory ( cd - rom ), an optical storage device , a magnetic storage device , or any suitable combination of the foregoing . in the context of this document , a computer readable storage medium may be any tangible medium that can contain , or store a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system , apparatus , or device . a computer readable signal medium may include a propagated data signal with computer readable program code embodied therein , for example , in baseband or as part of a carrier wave . such a propagated signal may take any of a variety of forms , including , but not limited to , electro - magnetic , optical , or any suitable combination thereof . a computer readable signal medium may be any computer readable medium that is not a computer readable storage medium and that can communicate , propagate , or transport a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system , apparatus , or device . program code embodied on a computer readable medium may be transmitted using any appropriate medium , including but not limited to wireless , wireline , optical fiber cable , rf , etc ., or any suitable combination of the foregoing more specific examples of the computer readable storage medium comprise for example , a semiconductor or solid state memory , magnetic tape , an electrical connection having one or more wires , a swappable intermediate storage medium such as floppy drive or other removable computer diskette , tape drive , external hard drive , a portable computer diskette , a hard disk , a rigid magnetic disk , a random access memory ( ram ), a read - only memory ( rom ), an erasable programmable read - only memory ( eprom or flash memory ), a portable compact disc read - only memory ( cd - rom ), a read / write ( cd - r / w ) or digital video disk ( dvd ), an optical fiber , disk or storage device , or a transmission media such as those supporting the internet or an intranet . the computer - usable or computer - readable medium may also comprise paper or another suitable medium upon which the program is printed or otherwise encoded , as the program can be captured , for example , via optical scanning of the program on the paper or other medium , then compiled , interpreted , or otherwise processed in a suitable manner , if necessary , and then stored in a computer memory . the computer - usable medium may include a propagated data signal with the computer - usable program code embodied therewith , either in baseband or as part of a carrier wave or a carrier signal . the computer usable program code may also be transmitted using any appropriate medium , including but not limited to the internet , wire line , wireless , optical fiber cable , rf , etc . computer program code for carrying out operations of the present invention may be written in any suitable language , including for example , an object oriented programming language such as java , smalltalk , c ++ or the like . the computer program code for carrying out operations of the present invention may also be written in conventional procedural programming languages , such as the “ c ” programming language , or in higher or lower level programming languages . the program code may execute entirely on a single processing device , partly on one or more different processing devices , as a stand - alone software package or as part of a larger system , partly on a local processing device and partly on a remote processing device or entirely on the remote processing device . in the latter scenario , the remote processing device may be connected to the local processing device through a network such as a local area network ( lan ) or a wide area network ( wan ), or the connection may be made to an external processing device , for example , through the internet using an internet service provider . the present invention is described with reference to flowchart illustrations and / or block diagrams of methods , apparatus systems and computer program products according to embodiments of the invention . it will be understood that each block of the flowchart illustrations and / or block diagrams , and combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustrations and / or block diagrams may be implemented by system components or computer program instructions . these computer program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer , special purpose computer , or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine , such that the instructions , which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus , create means for implementing the functions / acts specified in the flowchart and / or block diagram block or blocks . these computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer - readable memory that can direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner , such that the instructions stored in the computer - readable memory produce an article of manufacture including instruction means which implement the function / act specified in the flowchart and / or block diagram block or blocks . the computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer implemented process such that the instructions which execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide steps for implementing the functions / acts specified in the flowchart and / or block diagram block or blocks . according to illustrative embodiments of the present invention , the invention may be implemented in a sip / ss7 based system . the acronym ss7 , as used herein , refers to a set of protocols that describe a means of communication between telephone switches in public telephone networks . typically , ss7 communication protocols are used to provide signaling and control for various telephone network services and capabilities . for example , ss7 communication protocols can be used to set up telephone calls , tear down telephone calls , translate numbers , enable prepaid billing , and enable short message services . the phrase “ transfer capabilities application part ( tcap )”, as used herein , refers to a protocol for ss7 networks . the primary purpose of tcap is to control non - circuit related information switched between two or more signaling nodes . the phrase “ session initiation protocol ( sip )”, as used herein , refers to a standard protocol for initiating an interactive user session that involves multimedia elements . various aspects of the disclosed embodiment enables flexible and automated end - to - end testing of applications over networks , such as , for example , tcap and legacy ss7 networks using programmable extensible markup language ( xml ) test scripts and data tunneling in tcap messages . fig1 is an illustrative network that is shows two network legs , a leg a on the left side and a leg b on the right side . it should be understood that these are illustrative ; many different networks and network configurations can exist , including one in which legs a and b are combined into one leg . telecommunication network 204 includes a client a ( 102 ) that is connected with the a leg . a web services application under test is located at application server 208 a . client 102 is typically connected via a network link 205 to sip network 206 with application server 208 a . in the disclosed embodiment , client 102 is directly connected to application server 208 a by a connection 203 . client 102 contains a test driver 104 that initiates the execution of test cases ; for this purpose test driver 104 transmits sip messages to the application 105 at application server 208 a . the sip messages from test driver 104 cause application 105 to initiate test messages to sip / ss7 interface device 210 a using a soap protocol . these messages are converted to a tcap protocol at sip / ss7 interface device 210 a ; the tcap messages are thence transmitted via a web service system 212 a to ss7 network element 214 a . ss7 network element 214 a transmits the tcap messages to ss7 network element 214 b ; the test messages continue up leg b to test simulator 106 located in application server 208 b where one or more test responses are generated and returned over legs b and a to the application 105 where the results are collected , analyzed and possibly made available to an operator or to test driver 104 for analysis . test driver 104 initiates a test case by sending a test case ( tc ) number to application server 208 a via sip network 206 . application server 208 a uses the tc number to retrieve a test case module from storage 107 . a test case module contains instructions in an xml format ; the xml instructions direct the application 105 under test to send specific sip request messages to test simulator 106 that resides at application server 208 b . application servers 208 a and 208 b might or might not reside in the same physical component . a test module also specifies the expected response to be returned to application 105 responsive to a test message . as shown in fig1 , both application 105 and test simulator 106 have access to storage 107 where the xml test files are stored . this allows test simulator 106 to return the expected response to the application 105 under test to determine how the application treats the response . there may be any number of xml files in a module that are accessed in sequence to provide an overall test . this will become clearer in regard to a series of illustrative message flows shown in fig2 and 3 . each xml file associated with any test case describes a soap message that application 105 will invoke , the expected response from test simulator 106 , network parameters to use and the allowable pause and timeout values between these events , etc . a series of related xml test files in a test case are identified by a unique test case number . when a test case is initiated at client a , the test case number is encoded into the header of a sip invite message . each subsequent request and response also includes the test case number . specifically , the test case number is encoded in the bytearray private data field of the related soap message . by encoding the test case number as a private parameter in the bytearray field , the test case number is tunneled to test simulator 106 without the tcap / ss7 network interpreting and damaging the test case number . in this way , the test case number reaches test simulator 106 intact for synchronizing the application 105 and the test simulator 106 . this is the way that both application 105 and test simulator 106 are synchronized such that each knows what test case is being executed . both application 105 and simulator 106 have access to the same or identical xml test case files , which also specifies to test simulator 106 the exact response to return to application 105 . if application 105 deals with a response properly , then the application is working properly , at least up to this point in a test case . otherwise , there is a problem to be solved in the application . it should be understood that other ways of synchronizing application 105 and simulator 106 are possible and within the scope of this disclosure . for example , if both application 105 and simulator 106 are contained within the same physical component , then it is possible for them to communicate directly with shared memory or other interprocess communication techniques to exchange the test case numbers and perhaps the xml test files as well . table 1 following is one example of an initial xml test file in a test case . in response to a test case initiation message from test driver 104 , or to a response message from test simulator 106 , a control module including a jaxb ( java architecture for xml binding ) compiler ( not shown ) at application server 208 a unmarshalls in real time the next xml file in the test case . unmarshalling an xml document with the jaxb compiler results in a tree of java objects 103 in which the nodes of the tree correspond to xml elements containing attributes and the content as instance variables . the java application 105 manipulates the java objects 103 to create and send the java test messages according to the instructions in the xml test file and control the receipt and processing of response messages . the integrity and validity of a soap service call message is enforced by the name space schemas identified in line 0 of the above example . the test case number is encoded into the bytearraystring defined within the opcode parameters of lines 3 - 5 . the opcode , optype , opclass and dialogid of lines 3 through 8 are parameters that are defined by the tcap and ss7 protocols . according to the above arrangement , all of the parameters that might be involved in performing a web service can be made accessible via a series of xml test case files and can be quickly modified to test all combinations of service parameters . some of the java test objects 103 are used by the java application 105 to create soap service call messages that are sent to simulator 106 . other of the objects 103 are used by the java application to validate the integrity of the soap responses from the simulator 106 . a service call message consists of a soap envelope and a soap body . an illustrative soap message is shown below . the envelope in lines 1 - 5 identifies the schemas that define the message . these can contain a protocol specific schema to define message contents and soap and xml specific schemas . the soap body in lines 6 - 18 contains the test instructions . the instructions in lines 7 through 17 are identical to the corresponding xml test file that was unmarshalled by jaxb . the opcode , opclass , optype and dialogld parameters in lines 10 through 15 are tcap and itu parameters that are well known to workers skilled in the telephony and networking fields . the test case number is encoded in the bytearraystring parameter of line 11 . the following is an example of tunneling the test case number and the dialogld in a base64 byte array ; 31 3c aa 0b 86 07 01 00 23 0a 08 40 74 75 13 df 44 01 cd 85 09 04 00 21 0b 14 52 17 18 81 df 74 01 00 df 4a 03 15 03 07 df 77 01 08 df 840f 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0a 0b 0c 0d 0e 0f the last 18 bytes of the above hex string ( shown underlined ) is added by a java application 105 to tunnel the test case number and dialogld . the first byte “ df ” of this underlined portion denotes the beginning of a private data field , followed by the second byte , “ 84 ”, representing the tag of the private data field . the third byte , “ 0f ”, indicates there are 15 remaining bytes in this private field . these 15 remaining bytes are used to encode the test case number and other test session data . the original data from the test case xml file is always preserved . the tunneled data is appended to the existing data . only the second byte in the overall hex string above is adjusted , as it indicates the total number of the bytes in the bytearraystring . fig2 and 3 illustrate the message flows in two example test scenarios . the figs . are simplified by omitting network components that are not necessary for understanding the invention at this point . reference will also be made to fig3 through 7 , which contain illustrative flowcharts , at appropriate points . fig2 illustrates a normal flow in which a test process should complete successfully with the simulator returning an end message at the close . fig3 illustrates a scenario in which the simulator should return an abort response . these simple examples are used to test that application 105 responds properly to the end and abort responses , and that the intervening network components correctly transport the data in it &# 39 ; s entirety . with reference to fig2 , test driver 104 initiates a test case illustratively numbered 1113 by transmitting an invite message at 200 ( see fig4 , steps 402 , 404 ). the test case number is included in the message for tunneling to simulator 106 . application server 208 a receives the message and initiates the generation of java objects as described earlier . a java object is generated using the jaxb compiler for each message and expected response that application 105 will transmit and receive in the test case ( see fig5 , step 504 ). application server 208 a then executes the java application 105 which uses the first java object 103 to convert the invite message into a begin message and transmit it at 202 ( see fig5 , steps 504 , 508 ). application 104 then initiates a timeout mechanism at step 509 for receiving a response from simulator 106 . the begin message continues through the network at 204 and 206 to ss7 simulator 106 . simulator 106 retrieves the test case number from the begin message ( fig7 , step 702 ) and retrieves the first xml test file corresponding with the begin message from storage 107 ( fig7 , step 704 ) to determine the response . in this example , the xml file specifies that simulator 106 return a continue message , which is shown at 208 and steps 706 and 708 of fig7 . this message continues at 210 and 212 to application 105 . when the response is received by application 105 within the timeout period , step 511 disables the timeout mechanism . the execution of sending the data associated with the second java object corresponding with this test case number is also activated . the java application 105 reads the second xml test file from the test module corresponding to the test case number , which specifies that the application 105 proceed with a second continue message at 214 to simulator 106 . when simulator 106 receives this message at 218 , it reads the second xml test file , which specifies what the received soap message should look like . the simulator 106 then returns an end message to the application 105 . this occurs at 220 , 222 and 224 , which causes a second java object at application server 105 to be processed which controls the application to process the end message . application 105 processes the end message and upon determining that there are no more xml files to process , it initiates a bye message and sends any test results in the bye message to test driver 104 at 226 ( fig4 , steps 406 , 408 , and 410 . fig6 illustrates how test driver 104 is activated should application server 208 a or application 105 fail to execute a test case , due to a crash for example . if a timeout established at fig5 , step 509 occurs , application server 208 a causes an entry to 600 , where step 602 sends a timeout message to test driver 104 . step 604 then cleans up the test environment and exits . having thus described the invention of the present application in detail and by reference to embodiments thereof , it will be apparent that modifications and variations are possible without departing from the scope of the invention defined in the appended claims .	6
fig1 shows a communication network 10 in which processing can take place in accordance with the embodiments of the invention described just below . an exemplary communication network is the internet . the discussion which takes place below assumes some familiarity with the internet , and world wide web practices , formats , and protocols . a great number of books are available on these subjects . stout , rick , the world wide web : complete reference , mcgraw - hill , 1996 , is one example . communication network 10 includes a server 12 and a client 14 . the client and server communicate over a communications medium or link such as the internet 18 or some other network medium . in the described embodiment , server 12 is an internet information server . a web - site rendering engine 16 runs on server 12 . the web - site rendering engine is responsible for rendering or providing a resource that is requested by client 14 . the request for the resource includes an input url string or user - friendly url that is in a simple form or easily recognizable form , an example of which was given above . a mapping engine 22 also executes on server 12 and initially receives the input url string . in the illustrated example , mapping engine 22 includes a rule cache 24 and a parser 26 . rule cache 24 includes one or more rules which are applied to the input url string . parser 26 performs parsing functions on the input url string . the result of the operations of rule cache 24 and parser 26 is an output url string which is provided to web - site rendering engine 16 . the output url string is in a form which can be understood by web - site rendering engine 16 . web - site rendering engine 16 responds by performing the appropriate operations to generate and return the requested resource to client 14 via a response which is sent over communication medium 18 . fig2 shows a general example of a desktop computer 130 that can be used in accordance with the invention . a computer such as that shown can be used for any of the client computers 14 and server 12 . computer 130 includes one or more processors or processing units 132 , a system memory 134 , and a bus 136 that couples various system components including the system memory 134 to processors 132 . the bus 136 represents one or more of any of several types of bus structures , including a memory bus or memory controller , a peripheral bus , an accelerated graphics port , and a processor or local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures . the system memory 134 includes read only memory ( rom ) 138 and random access memory ( ram ) 140 . a basic input / output system ( bios ) 142 , containing the basic routines that help to transfer information between elements within computer 130 , such as during startup , is stored in rom 138 . computer 130 further includes a hard disk drive 144 for reading from and writing to a hard disk ( not shown ), a magnetic disk drive 146 for reading from and writing to a removable magnetic disk 148 , and an optical disk drive 150 for reading from or writing to a removable optical disk 152 such as a cd rom or other optical media . the hard disk drive 144 , magnetic disk drive 146 , and optical disk drive 150 are connected to the bus 136 by an scsi interface 154 or some other appropriate interface . the drives and their associated computer - readable media provide nonvolatile storage of computer - readable instructions , data structures , program modules and other data for computer 130 . although the exemplary environment described herein employs a hard disk , a removable magnetic disk 148 and a removable optical disk 152 , it should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that other types of computer - readable media which can store data that is accessible by a computer , such as magnetic cassettes , flash memory cards , digital video disks , random access memories ( rams ), read only memories ( roms ), and the like , may also be used in the exemplary operating environment . a number of program modules may be stored on the hard disk 144 , magnetic disk 148 , optical disk 152 , rom 138 , or ram 140 , including an operating system 158 , one or more application programs 160 , other program modules 162 , and program data 164 . a user may enter commands and information into computer 130 through input devices such as a keyboard 166 and a pointing device 168 . other input devices ( not shown ) may include a microphone , joystick , game pad , satellite dish , scanner , or the like . these and other input devices are connected to the processing unit 132 through an interface 170 that is coupled to the bus 136 . a monitor 172 or other type of display device is also connected to the bus 136 via an interface , such as a video adapter 174 . in addition to the monitor , personal computers typically include other peripheral output devices ( not shown ) such as speakers and printers . computer 130 commonly operates in a networked environment using logical connections to one or more remote computers , such as a remote computer 176 . the remote computer 176 may be another personal computer , a server , a router , a network pc , a peer device or other common network node , and typically includes many or all of the elements described above relative to computer 130 , although only a memory storage device 178 has been illustrated in fig2 . the logical connections depicted in fig2 include a local area network ( lan ) 180 and a wide area network ( wan ) 182 . such networking environments are commonplace in offices , enterprise - wide computer networks , intranets , and the internet . when used in a lan networking environment , computer 130 is connected to the local network 180 through a network interface or adapter 184 . when used in a wan networking environment , computer 130 typically includes a modem 186 or other means for establishing communications over the wide area network 182 , such as the internet . the modem 186 , which may be internal or external , is connected to the bus 136 via a serial port interface 156 . in a networked environment , program modules depicted relative to the personal computer 130 , or portions thereof , may be stored in the remote memory storage device . it will be appreciated that the network connections shown are exemplary and other means of establishing a communications link between the computers may be used . generally , the data processors of computer 130 are programmed by means of instructions stored at different times in the various computer - readable storage media of the computer . programs and operating systems are typically distributed , for example , on floppy disks or cd - roms . from there , they are installed or loaded into the secondary memory of a computer . at execution , they are loaded at least partially into the computer &# 39 ; s primary electronic memory . the invention described herein includes these and other various types of computer - readable storage media when such media contain instructions or programs for implementing the steps described below in conjunction with a microprocessor or other data processor . the invention also includes the computer itself when programmed according to the methods and techniques described below . for purposes of illustration , programs and other executable program components such as the operating system are illustrated herein as discrete blocks , although it is recognized that such programs and components reside at various times in different storage components of the computer , and are executed by the data processor ( s ) of the computer . although fig1 show all of these functions being performed within a single server computer , it is likely that actual embodiments will involve several server computers acting together to satisfy requests of large numbers of clients . furthermore , the various functions described might be distributed among more than one computer . also , the mapping engine and web - site rendering engine in the described embodiment are designed to work in conjunction with a microsoft product called “ internet information server .” this product performs many of the management functions of a web server , while allowing customization through the use of so - called “ filters ” and “ extensions ”. mapping engine 22 is implemented as an isapi ( internet server application programming interface ) filter for use in conjunction with microsoft &# 39 ; s internet information server . web - site rendering engine 16 is implemented as an “ extension ,” again for use with internet information server . as a preliminary matter , the following discussion will use the terminology below : “ input string ” is a url or other string as received by the server from a client . this is typically a user - friendly or “ friendly ” url that has been designed for easy recognition and / or recall by human users . this string is passed to the mapping engine for translation into an “ unfriendly ” format that is appropriate for web - site rendering engine 16 . “ output string ” is the url or other string that is output by mapping engine 22 in response to the input string . this string is formatted as appropriate for the web - site rendering engine . “ input expression ” is an expression that is compared with input strings to determine an appropriate mapping . in the described embodiment , an input expression is formatted syntactically in a manner that allows specification of both identity and variability among constituent parts of an input string . thus , the input expression can include literal parts that call for an exact character - by - character match between those parts and corresponding parts of the input string , and variable parts that allowed for inexact matches or no match at all between those parts and corresponding parts of the input string . an input string is said to “ match ” an input expression when there is a correspondence between the literal and variable parts of the input string and input expression . “ output expression ” is an expression that is paired with an input expression and that is used to create an output string when there is a match between the input string and the input expression . in the described embodiment , the output expression allows parts of the input string to be specified in the output string . specifically , the parts of the input string corresponding to variable parts of the input expression can be specified as parts of the output string . in any particular server , a plurality of input expressions are defined in accordance with a predefined syntax . the predefined syntax makes use of pattern matching rules . in the described embodiment , this syntax utilizes complex pattern matching rules known as regular expressions . a regular expression comprises a character string in which literal characters indicate text that must exist identically in an input url string . regular expressions can also include special characters to indicate portions of an input string in which variability is allowed . as an example , assume that it is desired to map the “ friendly ” url input string “ seattle . sidewalk . com ” to “ sidewalk . com / script / foo . dll / seattle ”. assume further that similar mappings are to be made for other cities , such as portland , cincinnati , etc . generally , a matching input string will be any string in which some undefined characters precede the string “. sidewalk . com ”. using a simple form of pattern matching rules , this might be expressed as the following input expression : “. sidewalk . com ”. the “” indicates any combination of characters , while the following literal characters (“. sidewalk . com ”) are to be matched character - by - character with the input string . to produce the appropriate output string , an output expression corresponding to the input string , is formulated as a replacement template . in this example , the output expression might be “ sidewalk . com / script / foo . dll /”. the “” in an output string is an identifier and represents whatever characters corresponded to the “” in the input string . in this example , the corresponding characters would have been those of the string “ seattle ”. thus , this output expression would generate the output string “ sidewalk . com / script / foo . dll / seattle .” it should be apparent that the same input / output expression pair would work with any city specified by a user . this example illustrates a fairly simple and easily understandable syntax . however , more powerful syntax can be used and are often desirable . fig3 shows one example of more a complex set of pattern matching rules known as regular expressions that define a plurality of special characters for specifying variability in an input expression . regular expressions in accordance with this syntax include so - called escape characters whose meanings are shown . the use of these regular expressions in mapping engine 22 provides a great deal of generality and flexibility in specifying input expressions . fig4 shows a flow diagram generally at 100 that describes certain methodical steps in accordance with an embodiment of the invention . at 102 an input url string is received by server 12 from a client 14 ( fig1 ). server 12 accesses a plurality of input expressions , each of which is associated with an output expression . at step 104 the input url string is compared with an input expression . this involves searching the input url string for a particular pattern that is defined by the input expression . if the input url string matches the input expression at 106 , then the procedure branches to a step 108 of generating an output url string or pattern from the output expression . the output expression might generate the output url string by simply causing the mapping engine to conduct a string replacement , e . g . replacing “*” with “ seattle ”, or by doing some additional work such as invoking a lookup procedure . the output url string is then passed to web - site rendering engine 16 , which responds by generating an appropriate web page or other resource . formulation of the output url string can take place through multiple transformations , in an iterative fashion , of the input url string . for example , multiple rules ( discussed below ) could be used iteratively causing , for example , multiple transformations . if , at 106 , the input url string does not match an input expression , execution proceeds to step 110 , which determines whether any more input expressions are available for comparing against the input url string . if there are , execution loops back to step 104 and 106 , in which the next input expression is identified and compared with the input url string . the input expressions might be arranged in a particular hierarchical order so that the input expressions are checked in a stepwise fashion . if there are no more input expressions and there has been no match , then the procedure branches to 112 and returns the url without modification . in the described embodiment of the invention , mapping engine 22 stores a plurality of rules in its rule cache 24 . each rule comprises an input expression and an output expression . the rules are organized in groups . the rules of a particular group are designed for a particular purpose . fig5 - 7 show three different groupings of rules that are established or defined using the regular expression syntax defined in fig3 . fig5 shows a group of rules that can be used for mapping the hostname part of an input url string . fig6 shows a rule grouping that can be used for mapping the parameters part ( e . g . the “ abs path ” portion discussed above ). fig7 shows a rule grouping that supports a scoping function which is discussed below in more detail . a rule group consists of a set of zero or more rules . each rule specifies a mapping of an input url string to an output url string using regular expression syntax . referring specifically to fig5 each rule includes a rule id . here , the rule ids number one through twelve . the rule id is a number that uniquely identifies a rule inside a rule group . rules from different groups might take on non - unique ids , but all rules within a certain group have unique ids . rules within each group are applied in the order of the rule id , which implies the order in which the rules were added to the group . each rule is also given a rule action type . three exemplary rule action types are as follows : the repeat rule action forces a rule to be applied once again if the rule succeeds . the rule will get applied until the rule fails . the abort mapping action implies that if the concerned rule is successfully applied , the mapping process should be immediately aborted and a notification is sent to server 12 . the no action action implies that no special action should be taken if the rule concerned succeeds . that is , the processing of the input url string should simply continue , i . e . continue following the prescription indicated by the current rule group . each rule also includes an input expression and an associated output expression . an input expression in the described embodiment is a regular expression in accordance with the syntax of fig3 . the output expression is a pattern in accordance with the syntax set forth in fig3 . the output expression can be a simple replacement string , or a string including special characters . a / n ( where n is a digit [ 0 - 9 ]) in the output expression of a rule corresponds to the n th - tagged expression in the input expression . this provides a convenient notation to extract variable strings from the input expression and insert them into the output expression . a rule is satisfied or succeeds if each of the following events takes place : ( 1 ) the input url string matches the input expression of the rule , based either on a simple string comparison , or a more complex regular expression search ; and ( 2 ) an attempt to generate the output string based on the output expression succeeds . if a rule is successful , the rule action associated with the rule and the group tag ( discussed below ) of the concerned rule group determines what happens next . if this is the last rule in the last group , then this completes the mapping process . fig6 shows a rule grouping that can be used to map parameters of an input url string . it might be desirable in some applications for the defined syntax to allow invocation of some external procedure such as a lookup procedure . in one embodiment , at least a portion of the output expression can be used to invoke a lookup procedure that produces a result . the result is used to produce an output url string that is used by the web - site rendering engine to provide the requested resource . the lookup procedure can be invoked in any number of ways . one exemplary way is , to instantiate a lookup object having an interface which supports the lookup procedure . by obtaining a pointer to the interface of the lookup object , the pointer can be used to invoke the lookup procedure . in this example , the lookup object might be a com object . com objects and interfaces are described in more detail in brockschmidt , kraig , inside ole , second edition , microsoft press , 1995 . it should be noted , however , that the use of com is in no way necessary to practice the invention , as any suitable object identification schema could be used ( e . g . specifying the name of a run - time library file and an entry point , use of a non - com object directory , etc .). in the illustrated rules , a new special character sequence is shown in the output expressions of rules 10 - 13 as : “\( progid , n )”, where “ n ” is a digit . the sequence invokes a lookup function that takes the nth tagged expression as its input . the string argument progid is used to create an instance of a lookup object that implements an interface iswfriendlylookup ( ) that has lookup ( ) as one of its methods . specifically , the progid obtained from the output expression is used to get the clsid of the lookup object that implements the iswfriendlylookup interface . the mapping engine then calls cocreateslnstance ( ) ( a “ windows ” operating system call ) using this clsid in order to get a pointer to the iswfriendlylookup interface of this lookup object . once the interface pointer is obtained , the mapping engine can cache the pointer for future use . the interface pointer is used to invoke the lookup ( ) method of that interface . the lookup ( ) method can take as input , any part of the input url string for the mapping that matched the tagged expressions specified in the input expressions . the output of the lookup ( ) method is also a string which replaces the tagged expression in the output expression . fig7 shows a rule group that supports regional scoping . here , instead of setting a parameter such as “ city = seattle ” in the url , a lookup function is used to resolve an incoming “ virtual city name ” into a scopeld instead . the tagged expression syntax in the output expression indicates that a lookup needs to be performed . the mapping engine uses the string “ scope ” to search a lookup cache , and if an entry is found , the cached interface pointer is selected for the object that implements the lookup method . otherwise , the mapping engine creates an instance of that particular lookup object and then calls the lookup ( ) method . the lookup ( ) method can access a database , if necessary , and then returns a scope id that replaces the tagged expression in the output expression . the rule is then considered successful . as mentioned above , in order to provide for flexibility in the application of rules , the rules can be aggregated in sets to form one or more groups . in essence then , mapping engine 22 comprises a plurality of rule groups , each of which can contain one or more rules . groups allow aggregation of rules that achieve one aspect of the mapping process into a group . for example , say an input url stream needs to be decoded by replacing ‘+’ with a space and ‘% xx ’ with the character corresponding to the hex value of xx . these operations form two separate rules that take care of one aspect of the url mapping ( that of preprocessing the url ) and can be grouped together in one group . groups have the following attributes : ( 1 ) group id , ( 2 ) group tag , and ( 3 ) group mask id . these are shown for the rule groups in fig5 and 6 . the group id is a unique identifier for the group and is used to identify the group when rules are changed , i . e . added , deleted , or modified . the group tag specifies a protocol to use when applying the rules in a particular group . for example , a “ match - all ” tag specifies that all the rules in a group should be applied . that is , if a rule succeeds , the output of that rule becomes the input of its successor . a “ match - one ” tag specifies that mapping for that rule group should terminate as soon as a rule matches or succeeds . that is , the output for the rule that succeeds becomes the input of the next group ( if one exists ) to be considered for mapping . if a rule does not succeed , the output of the rule is the same as the input for the rule ( as if the rule does not exist ). the group mask id is a bit mask which is used during the mapping process . each group is given a bit mask upon its creation . when a client needs to send a string for mapping , the client can specify a bit - mask key that is logically combined , e . g . anded , with the bit mask of each group . if the result of the logical combination is true , then the group is included in the mapping process , otherwise it is skipped . this use of the group mask id provides a convenient method of specifying which groups of rules need to get included in the mapping and which do not . an example of how this feature can be exploited is as follows . it is desirable to have mapping which is bi - directional in the sense that where a given set of rules yields a particular output url string from a given input url string , there should be another set of rules in which that particular output url string yields the given ( i . e . the same ) input url string . when doing mapping in one direction , the rules for mapping in the other direction should not apply . one way to achieve this is to provide forward - mapping sets of rule groups with one group mask id , and provide reverse - mapping sets of rule groups with another group mask id . for example , assume groups 1 , 2 , and 3 have the forward - mapping rules , and groups 4 , 5 , and 6 have the reverse - mapping rules . group mask ids can then be assigned to the respective groups as follows : if the client requests for an input string to be mapped and specifies the bit - mask key to be “ 0x0000 0007 ”, then a logical anding with the group mask ids would result in only groups 1 , 2 , and 3 getting included in the mapping . this would , in turn , provide for forward mapping . on the other hand , a bit - mask key of “ 0x0000 0070 ” would result in only groups 4 , 5 , and 6 being considered in the mapping , and not groups 1 , 2 , and 3 . in this case , reverse mapping would be applied . as another example , consider a situation where rule groups are desired to be removed . if you want to change the rules , the best way to do it is to add the new rules ( using bitmasks not currently in use ), then once they are all successfully added , switch to using the new bitmasks and stop using the old ones . subsequently , the old rule groups can be removed . in this way there is a clean move over to the new rule set . in one specific implementation , a mapping system is provided through the use of microsoft &# 39 ; s internet information server &# 39 ; s extension facilities and microsoft &# 39 ; s com methodologies mentioned above . for purposes in assisting in understanding this implementation , components of the mapping system and pertinent interfaces are described . the mapping engine is implemented as an isapi filter . hence , it implements the functions every isapi filter needs to implement , e . g . getfilterversion ( ) and httpfilterproc ( ). getfilterversion ( ): this function is called only once when iis ( internet information server ) is started . it is used for exchanging version information between iis and the mapping engine . the mapping engine also informs iis of the notifications that it is interested in . later , when a certain event occurs , iis will invoke only those filters that have requested notification for that event . httpfilterproc ( ): iis notifies the mapping engine by calling httpfilterproc ( ) and passing it the notification types and a pointer to the structure corresponding to that notification . using this pointer the mapping engine will gain access to the header information such as & lt ; hostname & gt ; and & lt ; abs_path & gt ; ( the two parts of the url discussed above ). the mapping engine is a com server . this means that it can provide its services to anyone who can obtain a pointer to its appropriate interface . this results in generic , rule - based mapping capabilities . some of the interfaces that can be used to populate and use the mapping engine are as follows : this interface provides various methods for managing and using the mapping engine &# 39 ; s rules . it provides support for adding new groups of rules to the rule cache and new rules to the groups . it can also provide support for loading rules from a file , and for storing rules back to a file so that the rules persist even after iis is restarted . other methods that can be supported can include methods for modifying and deleting rules . for example , “ remove ” operations that are analogous to the “ add ” operations discussed just below can readily be added . a few examples of such methods are given below . addgroup ( )— this method is used by the clients to add a new group to the rule cache . the client specifies a group tag and group mask id as input parameters , and the method returns a group id for the newly added group in the output parameter . the client can then use this group id to add rules to this group . // add a new group ( or cache ) of rules to friendly addrule ( )— this method is used to add a rule to a group that is identified by its group id . the client provides the following : group id of the group to which the rule is to be added , the action associated with the rule , the input expression and the output expression for the rule . processurl ( )— this method is called by the client to send an input url string to the mapping engine . the client specifies a bit - mask that is used to decide which groups of rules are to be included for mapping . // takes the incoming url as input and sends it through // the mapping engine . the input url gets sent through each this interface provides a method for conducting a lookup procedure . here , a rule can invoke a lookup procedure that gets its input from the input url string . the output of this procedure is used in the output generated by the rule , e . g . an output url string . objects that implement this interface are referred to as friendly lookup objects or flos . each flo has a clsid and a progid and registers itself in the registry on compilation . a cache is provided and is referred to as the friendly lookup cache . the friendly lookup cache contains two fields in each entry — a progid ( or a string ) and a pointer to the iswfriendlylookup interface . when a rule needs to invoke the lookup method of a flo , it will use the flo &# 39 ; s progid to create an instance of it and will then cache the pointer to the interface in its cache for future references . specifically , if the output expression of a rule has a tagged expression with the following syntax , it means that the rule requires a lookup method to be invoked : if the input url string matches the input expression for a certain rule , and the output expression contains a tagged expression of the type shown above , the mapping engine performs the following steps : 1 . it extracts the string in the tagged expression (“ foo ” in the above case ) and does a search in its lookup cache based on this string . 2 . a call to clsidfromprogid ( ) is made to obtain the clsid of the flo . using this clsid , an instance of the flo is created by calling cocreatelnstance ( ). the pointer to the interface obtained in this way is cached in the lookup cache along with the progid for future lookups . 3 . using the interface pointer , the lookup method of this interface is invoked . the input for the lookup method is the sub - string from the input url string that matches the n th tagged expression in the input url string of the rule . syntax might also be provided in the tagged expression to specify more than one string obtained from the input url string to be passed to lookup method . this can provide for more powerful lookups . 4 . the output or result of the lookup method replaces the tagged expression in the output expression . 5 . if the lookup fails , the rule is considered unsuccessful and processing continues just like it would after a rule fails . lookup ( )— this method takes as input a string ( obtained as explained above ) and returns a pointer to a string buffer pointer . the callee allocates memory to hold the output of the lookup ( ) and the caller frees the buffer . various embodiments of the invention described above provide for a flexible and generic solution to the problem of mapping input url strings to output url strings . rules for mapping can now be changed , i . e . added , deleted , or modified dynamically , without the need to access and rewrite code , or shut down the communication network server . and , while the described embodiments have been described in terms of processing input url strings , it is possible that other inputs can be used as well . for example , various mapping methods and systems can use other information as inputs , such as that gleaned from an http header . examples of such other information include cookies , user agent , user browser capabilities and the like . typically , these are provided as strings . thus , in these methods and systems , there are two or more inputs to the mapping engine . for example , the two methods specified just below can enable the use of two regular expressions ( e . g . one for the url , and one to process on all of the headers ) in order to process the rules . other advantages will be apparent to those of skill in the art . although the invention has been described in language specific to structural features and / or methodological steps , it is to be understood that the invention defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or steps described . rather , the specific features and steps are disclosed as preferred forms of implementing the claimed invention .	8
fig1 shows a perspective view , in an oblique angle from the top , of one preferred embodiment of a laying aid 1 according to the invention , having a tile - supporting region 2 . overall , the laying aid 1 has a disk shape with a circular contour . the tile - supporting region 2 is interrupted by four identical cutouts 3 . the cutouts 3 essentially have the shape of a sector of a circle , i . e ., a circular surface , which is delimited by a circular arc 4 and two circle radii 5 . the corners of the circular sector are rounded . a circular cutout 6 is present in the center of the laying aid 1 . thus , the tile - supporting region 2 is composed of an annular section 7 and four spoke - like sections 8 which are oriented at an angle of 90 ° relative to one another . a spacer web 9 is situated on each spoke - like section 8 . each spacer web 9 is situated at the level of the cutouts 3 in the radial direction with respect to the spoke - like section 8 . the height of each spacer web 9 extends perpendicularly to the plane defined by the tile - supporting region 2 . the thickness 10 of each spacer web 9 is selected corresponding to a desired joint width of the tile surface to be laid . the tile - supporting region 2 formed from the spoke - like sections 8 and the annular section 7 may be made of polystyrene , abs , pc , or san , and in one preferred embodiment is transparent . the entire tile - supporting region 2 has pointed knobs 11 . the underside of the laying aid 1 , not visible in fig1 , is the support region 12 with which the laying aid 1 is placed on the subsurface to be covered with tiles . this is identifiable in the sectional view according to fig2 , described in greater detail below . as identified particularly well in fig2 , which shows a cross section of the laying aid 1 according to fig1 along line ii - ii , the spacer webs 9 have a height 13 with respect to the tile - supporting region 2 . the height 13 of the spacer webs 9 is advantageously selected so that it is less than the thickness of the tiles to be laid . as shown in fig2 , the support region 12 is also provided with pointed knobs 11 . the spacer webs 9 are rounded at the corners 13 , on the side facing away in the tile - supporting region 2 . it is also shown in fig2 that the tile - supporting region 2 has a predetermined breaking edge 14 , which in the sectional view according to fig2 appears as a notch - like depression . as shown in fig1 , according to the exemplary embodiment described here the laying aid 1 has a predetermined breaking edge 14 at three adjacent spoke - like sections 8 of the tile - supporting region 2 . the predetermined breaking edge 14 extends in each case in the longitudinal direction of the spoke - like distance 8 , i . e ., in the radial direction relative to the circular disk - shaped laying aid 1 , starting from an outside region of the annular section 7 and continuing to the circular cutout 6 in the center of the laying aid 1 . the spacer webs 9 are each slightly offset , relative to the radial positions , in parallel to the edges of the predetermined breaking edges 14 . fig3 illustrates , based on various design variants of the laying aid according to the invention , the uses which are obtainable by means of the laying aid 1 according to the invention , without tools , with the aid of the predetermined breaking edges 14 . fig3 is structured as a matrix ; various design variants of the laying aid 1 according to the invention are shown in lines ( a ), ( b ), . . . , ( g ) in the first column highlighted by a border and denoted by column heading 1 / 1 . the columns with headings 1 / 2 and 1 / 4 show the base design of the laying aid 1 according to the invention shown in column 1 / 1 in which the laying aid 1 has been modified by breaking out segments along the predetermined breaking edges 14 , without tools . the laying aids 1 are each shown in the top view of the tile - supporting region 2 . the variant shown in line ( a ), column 1 / 1 is suitable for laying tiles in a composite joint , four spacer webs 9 having a given thickness being provided . this basic shape may be converted , without tools , to a laying aid 1 having a semicircular basic shape by breaking off the lower circular segment along the predetermined breaking edge 14 , the segment obtained now having only three spacer webs 9 . compared to the basic shape according to column 1 / 1 , in which four tiles may be aligned with one another , the segment according to column 1 / 2 is suitable for aligning two tiles with one another , and at an end wall . the device according to the invention is likewise usable for tiles and plates of all sizes and made of any material . lastly , the quarter circle - like segment according to column 1 / 4 is obtained by breaking the element according to column 1 / 2 along the predetermined breaking edge 14 . this segment now has only two spacer webs 9 , which are situated at a 90 ° angle relative to one another . lines ( b ) and ( c ) in fig3 show modifications of the basic shape according to line ( a ), and differ from the basic shape according to ( a ), 1 / 1 in that the spacer webs 9 have a spacer knob 15 . the spacer knob 15 extends parallel to the plane of the tile - supporting region 2 , at a right angle to the end face of the spacer webs 9 . on account of the spacer knobs 15 , the effective thickness of the spacer webs 9 is increased when tiles are placed on the spacer webs 9 , resulting in a larger joint width of the laid tiles . the design according to line ( c ) in fig3 differs from that according to line ( b ) in that the spacer knobs 15 are longer , resulting in a correspondingly larger joint width . line ( d ), column 1 / 1 in fig3 shows a base embodiment of the laying aid 1 according to the invention which has only three spacer webs 9 , each oriented at a 90 ° angle relative to one another . this embodiment is suitable for laying tiles in an offset joint , in which three tiles adjoin one another in each case . the variants according to lines ( e ) and ( f ) in fig3 once again differ from the basic shape according to line ( d ) by virtue of the spacer knobs 15 for producing a greater effective thickness 10 of the spacer webs 9 , which results in a greater joint width . line ( g ) in fig3 shows in the single column 1 / 1 a design variant of the device according to the invention which is particularly suited for use as a base element when laying tiles and / or plates on a wall . according to this design variant , the device has a semicircular shape with a spacer web 9 along the straight edge . fig4 illustrates the use of different embodiments of the laying aid 1 according to the invention for laying tiles . the schematic illustration in part ( a ) of fig4 shows the uses for the so - called composite joint , whereas part ( b ) of fig4 shows the conditions for an offset joint . in fig4 , the tiles are denoted by reference numeral 16 in each case . in both parts of the figure , in each case a vertical wall border 17 delimits the side , and a horizontal floor border 18 delimits the bottom , of the surface 19 to be covered with tiles 16 . in the composite joint patterns shown in fig4 ( a ), in each case four tiles 16 adjoin one another at their corner regions at positions 20 . laying aids 1 according to one of lines ( a ), ( b ), ( c ) of column 1 / 1 in fig3 may be used at these positions 20 , depending on the desired joint width . at positions 21 , in each case two tiles 16 adjoin one another as well as the wall border 17 . the designs from the basic shapes according to column 1 / 1 which are obtained by breaking along the predetermined breaking edges 14 in one of the designs according to lines ( a ), ( b ), or ( c ) in fig3 may be used in these positions 21 , depending on the desired joint width . position 22 is characterized by the meeting of the wall border 17 and the floor border 18 at a tile 16 . the designs obtained according to column 1 / 4 in one of the variants according to lines ( a ), . . . , ( f ), starting from the embodiments shown in column 1 / 1 in fig3 and twice breaking off segments along the predetermined breaking edges 14 , may be used in such a corner position 22 , depending on the desired joint spacing . in the case of the joint offset laying technique shown in fig4 ( b ), once again positions 21 are characterized by two adjacent tiles 16 which meet at the vertical wall border 17 . the designs according to fig3 which may be used in these positions 21 correspond to those described in conjunction with the composite joint according to fig4 ( a ). likewise , position 22 is characterized by the meeting of one corner of a tile 16 with the vertical wall border 17 on the one hand and with the floor border 18 on the other hand ; the embodiments of the laying aid according to fig3 which may be used in these positions 22 correspond to those described in conjunction with fig4 ( a ) for the composite joint . lastly , for laying the tiles 16 in the offset joint as shown in fig4 ( b ), positions 23 are characterized by the meeting of two tiles 16 at the corners and with an additional tile 16 at one edge . the designs according to column 1 / 2 in fig3 may be used in these regions , as well as in the case of positions 21 , depending on the desired joint width . in both fig4 ( a ) and fig4 ( b ), the use of the embodiment of the invention according to fig3 ( g ) in position 25 is shown . as is apparent , the embodiment is used as a base between the floor and wall attachment when tiles or plates are laid at a wall . the embodiment is used along the lower edge of a plate or tile in order to hold same in a specified joint spacing relative to the floor . fig5 illustrates the stackability of the embodiment of the laying aid 1 according to the invention shown in fig1 . fig5 ( a ) shows a side view of a “ tower ” composed of 80 laying aids 1 according to fig1 which are vertically stacked on top of one another . fig5 ( b ) shows a top view of the tower 24 according to fig5 ( a ) in the viewing direction of arrow b . it is apparent that the stackability is based on the fact that the spacer webs 9 are insertable into the cutouts 3 of the particular laying aid 1 thereabove . each additional laying aid 1 is rotated about the vertical with respect to the laying aid 1 on which it is placed in order to allow positioning of the spacer webs 9 and spoke - like sections 8 . this stackability is based on the fact that the cutouts 3 are shaped in such a way that they are able to accommodate the spacer webs 9 with regard to the radial extension as well as with regard to their thickness 10 .	4
referring to fig1 a segmented extendible boom includes a plurality of boom segments 10 which are compactly stored in a storage assembly 12 . the boom segments are extended or retracted by means of a segment support and driver assembly 14 , which in turn is mounted to a fork - shaped support frame 16 also shown in fig2 . the frame 16 is rotated with respect to a support post 18 . the support post is fixed to a support base . the apparatus shown provides means for extending and positioning a boom formed from a plurality of segments 10 . the boom has , for example , a hoist cable 20 positioned at the end thereof for handling and hoisting of loads . the hoist cable 20 passes over a hoist sheave 22 . a conventional hoist motor and winch assembly 24 is shown as a typical means of controlling the hoise cable 20 . the boom segment support and drive assembly 14 includes a frame formed from a pair of side plates 30 which are maintained in a spaced - apart relationship by means of a plurality of cross - brace members 32 which are welded or otherwise suitably fastened to the side plates to provide a rigid suppport . frame . as shown in fig1 and 2 , the support frame is pivotal about pins 34 which extend through appropriate apertures at the ends of the extending arms 36 of the fork - shaped frame 16 . two hydraulic cylinders 38 are each pivotally connected at one end to the frame 16 and at the other end to brackets projecting from the support and drive assembly 14 as shown . the cylinders permit the angle of elevation of the boom to be adjusted to a desired setting . the boom may be flipped all the way over to provide a low profile for storage or transportation . the forked frame 16 pivots about a center pin 40 on bearings 42 , 44 and is rotated by means of a swing motor 46 which drives a pulley 48 . a drive cable 50 driven by the pulley 48 engages a groove 52 extending around the top portion of a base 54 . rollers 58 are mounted on tabs 60 which project from a support 55 fixed to a deck or the like and the rollers guide the post 18 . the height of the entire boom assembly is adjustable and the base 54 is positioned at various points by means of a lock pin 62 which passes through the support 55 and one of a plurality of vertically spaced apertures on the post 18 , which post is adapted to have additional extensions connected thereto . the construction of a boom segment 10 is shown in cross section in fig6 . each of the segments 10 has a uniform cross - sectional configuration and the segments differ only in length . fabrication of the segments is simplified by using standardized segments . the strength of each segment is the same as the other segments , wherever located in the boom . each segment 10 is a truncated v - shaped structure which includes a generally flat bottom portion 70 with side walls 72 extending upwardly and at oblique angles to the flat bottom portion 70 . extending longitudinally along the outside of the flat bottom portion 70 is a pintle rail 74 having a generally hollow interior as shown . holes 75 as shown in fig7 are provided in the rail 74 at uniform spacings for receiving pins , or pintles 76 . the pintles 76 form a rack which is engaged by a gear for driving the segments in a longitudinal direction . a pair of downwardly extending flanges 78 are formed near the outside edge of each of the flat bottom plates 70 for each segment . these flanges cooperate with the pintle rail to provide a pair of cable troughs for a plurality of auxiliary cables 79 . laterally extending reinforcement ribs 82 are provided along the bottom plate 70 near the longitudinal ends of each segment 10 . welded in place near the top and at one end of each segment 10 is a rod , or cross member 80 , to which are affixed clamps 82 for cables , hoses , and the like . each clamp 82 has two segments which spring together to hold , for example , an electrical cable or a pneumatic hose providing power to operate the hoist motor or the like , as required . fig3 and 9 show some of the details for pivotal connection of adjacent segments . the transverse axis about which adjacent segments pivot extends perpendicularly inward at location t of fig7 and 9 . the pivotal connection of the segments 10 is utilized primarily in storing the segments and is accomplished by means of a pair of elastically extendible hinge straps 90 , as shown in fig3 . because the heavy loading on the boom is carried by a series of cables , the hinges are not necessarily required to be heavy duty . one end of each of the straps 90 or riveted by means of a rivet 92 to the exterior wall of the segment as shown . an outwardly bowed spring portion 94 is provided on each strap 90 which permits each strap 90 to be elastically lengthwise extended . pins 96 engage elongated slots 98 formed in the straps to permit elastic lengthwise extension of the straps . two straps are joined together by means of hinge pins 100 so that the longitudinal axes of adjacent segments 10 are pivotal about the hinge pins 100 lying along transverse axes by as much as 90 ° as shown in fig9 of the drawing . the elasticity of the hinge straps permits the abutting ends of the segments 10 to move slightly apart if an overload force is applied against the segments 10 to prevent damage to the segments and joints and to provide a safety factor when the support cables are stretched by heavy loading . each of the boom segments 10 is guided and locked end - to - end in an abutting relationship with adjacent segments . the segments are guided together by means of the angled plates 102 , 104 shown in fig7 and 8 . fig7 and 9 show an outwardly extending end portion of the rod 80 engaged by a cam - slot 106 formed in a projecting end portion of each segment 10 . fig9 shows a rod 80 positioned at the entrance of the cam - slot 106 . as the segments 10 are pivoted together , the rod 80 rides within the slot 106 and guides the angle plates 102 , 104 into an engaging relationship as shown in fig8 . when the angle plates are engaged , lateral movement of the adjacent segments is prevented . fig6 shows a cross - sectional end view of a boom segment 10 having a pair of oppositely extending flanges 108 located at the wider end of each segment . each flange has a lower half 110 and an upper half 112 . the flange lower half 110 is fixed to the exterior wall of a segment . the halves 110 , 112 of each flange contain corresponding countersunk apertures for receiving fastening hardware such as nuts and bolts or rivets 113 . located at the outer extremities of the flange half are the hinge straps 90 , previously described . each flange lower half 110 has a raised convex portion 114 and a grooved concave portion 116 which extend the length of the flange . similarly , each flange upper half 112 has a grooved concave portion 118 and a raised convex portion 120 . the convex portions provide some additional strengthening to the flanges in areas of greater stress under heavy loading . the raised and the grooved portions engage oppositely formed portions of guide and support rollers described below . fig6 and 7 show a plurality of longitudinally extending ribs 130 formed in the upper and lower halves 110 , 112 of the flanges 108 . a plurality of half - sleeve members 132 fit in the slots formed between the ribs 130 . each half - sleeve 132 engages and clamps one side of one of a plurality of longitudinally extending stress cables 134 ( typically shown ). when the upper and lower halves 110 , 112 of the flanges 108 are assembled together with the half - sleeve 132 , the main stress cables 134 and sandwiched and held within the flanges 108 . the main stress cables 134 extend the length of the boom from segment to segment and are tensioned to support the boom . when the segments are extended the cables 134 are placed in tension and provide the main strength for supporting vertical loads on the boom . the cables are not clamped adjacent the hinge points to allow free flexing of the cable to minimize sharp angles and abrasion . fig4 shows a force vector f having a side - load force component on the boom . the cutaway section of the boom segment shows the main stress cables 134 . the side - load force component creates a moment tending to laterally pivot the boom segments about the side 153 . the cables 134 provide forces opposing lateral pivoting . the cable furthest from the side 153 has a moment arm l and the other cables also have smaller moment arms . all of the cables with their corresponding moment arms provide moments opposing lateral pivoting of the boom . thus the wide transverse width of the flanges increase the effective moment arms of the cables to advantagely withstand lateral loads . these moments provided by the cables 134 are in addition to the forces provided by the structural design of the segments alone . referring to fig1 and 2 , boom segments 10 are driven inwardly and outwardly from the boom support means 14 by means of a main boom drive hydraulic motor 140 having a drive sprocket gear 142 connected thereto . the drive sprocket gear 142 engages a drive chain 144 which , in turn , engages a driven sprocket 146 which is affixed to the main boom segment drive pinion gear 148 , the teeth of which engage the pintles 76 forming the rack on the bottom of the boom segments 10 . the boom segments are thus moved inwardly and outwardly by a rack and pinion arrangement . the boom segments 10 are guided and supported within the boom support means 14 by a plurality of rollers . side rollers 160 contact the upwardly extending sides 72 of the segments 10 as shown in fig1 and 2 . fig1 and 6 show a plurality of rollers , each of which is spaced and aligned for support of the boom segment flanges . all of the rollers described herein are appropriately mounted using conventional bearings and mountings . fig2 and 4 show the top inside rollers 150 having convex external surfaces which mate with corresponding concave surfaces 118 on the boom segment flanges . the top inside rollers 152 have concave external surfaces which match the convex raised surfaces 120 formed on the flanges . the lower surface of the flanges are engaged by a pair of large inside rollers 154 having a concave exterior surface which mates with the corresponding convex surface 114 of the flange and lower half 110 as shown in fig1 , 5 , and 6 . a pair of smaller inside rollers 156 are aligned in the same line of direction as the rollers 154 . a pair of outside convex lower rollers 158 engage the concave portions 116 of the flange lower half 110 . the rollers as described above provide support for the boom when it is extended and serve as guides for extending and retracting the boom segments 10 . referring to fig3 and 6 , the auxiliary cables 79 are stored on a drum 170 which is concentric with the main boom drive pinion gear 148 . the cables are shown in fig6 . fig3 shows the free ends of a cable 79 looped and fastened around the axle 172 of the drum 170 with cable fasteners 174 . a cable 79 is fed through an aperture in the grooved surface of the drum 170 . a cable 79 is laid within the groove so that one portion of the cable overlays the other portion . the cables 79 are payed out from the grooves on the drums 170 into the longitudinally extending cable troughs along the bottom of the segments . the cables extend out to the endmost section as shown in fig3 and each cables passes around sheaves 176 , 178 . the sheaves 176 rotate about an axle 180 which is supported by a bracket 182 . the position of the bracket is adjusted relative to the segment by means of an adjustment screw 184 which passes through the end of the adjustment bracket 182 , through a block 186 fastened to the segment 10 and into an adjustment nut 188 . the longitudinal position of the bracket 182 is adjusted to provide sufficient tension on the cables 79 . the length of the wraps of cable 79 around the drum 170 is approximately equal to the boom segment lengths . because the inner cable wrap has a diameter slightly less than the diameter of the outer cable wrap , the outer cable wrap is somewhat longer than the inner cable wrap and the sheave 176 permits the lengths to be equalized . the purpose of the auxiliary cables 79 is to maintain the boom segments 10 in their extended positions when the boom is turned over or when an upward force is exerted against the boom . without the cables 79 , the boom segments 10 would pivot about their pivot pins 100 and collapse the boom . the cables 79 thus serve as safety cables and also permit the boom to be used in an inverted position . fig1 of the drawing shows a sectional view of a boom segment , the drum 170 and the driven pinion gear 148 . fig1 and 2 show an auxiliary hose storage reel 190 mounted on a bracket 192 . hydraulic swivel couplings 194 provide fluid connection between external hydraulic hoses ( not shown ) and a hollow hose reel shaft 195 . the hollow shaft 195 is connected to hydraulic hoses 196 coiled on each of the reels 190 . it is readily apparent that other auxiliary hoses , cables and the like may be stored on the reels 190 as required . the cables , hoses , or the like stored on said reels are used for a variety of auxiliary functions such as , for example , operating a hoist motor or winch at the end of the boom . means are provided for automatically feeding the hoses 196 into the clips 82 which extend upwardly from the rods 80 on each of the boom segments 10 . this means includes a pair of feed wheels 200 rotatably positioned beneath the storage reels 190 . fig1 a and 12b show a feed wheel 200 having a portion of a hose 196 contained within a groove 197 extending around the periphery of said wheel as shown . the spring clips 82 have resilient , opposing side spring members 202 which are normally biased together to hold a hose or the like therebetween . in fig1 b , the feed wheel 200 is shown to have tapered edges 204 formed next to the circumferential peripheral groove 197 . the tapered sides 204 of the feed wheel open the flexible arms of the clip 82 as it moves past the feed wheel 200 and the hose 196 is placed between the arms . as the hose clip 82 moves away from the wheel 200 , the resilient arms 202 spring together and hold the hose 196 in position on a boom segment . when the boom is inverted , the clips 82 securely hold the hoses in position . fig1 shows the segment storage means 12 having the interconnected boom segments 10 coiled in multiple wraps around a core 206 . the segments 10 form a generally square configuration around the core 206 and the core 206 rotates on an axis formed by an axle 208 . the ends of the cables 134 are fixed to the core 206 . the lengths of the segments 10 are chosen to have the segments compactly nest together . as an example , the sides of the core are eight inches in length . each segment increases the thickness of the configuration by two inches . the first segment on the core is nine inches long . the second and third segments are 10 inches long . the fourth and fifth segments are 12 inches long . this sequence is continued to provide the square configuration on the core 206 as shown in fig1 . the entire segment storage assembly 12 moves up and down along the storage assembly support posts 210 as shown in fig1 and 11 . the core support axle 208 extends through a pair of slideable brackets 212 , each of which is mounted for movement on one of the support posts 210 by means of four rollers 214 . attached to each of the posts 210 is a rack 216 . each rack 216 is engaged by a pinion gear 218 which is fixed to a larger gear 220 . the larger gears 220 are each driven by a chain 222 . each chain is connected to a gear 224 on one end of the axle 208 as shown in fig1 . it should be readily understood that as the segment core rotates with its axle 208 , the rack and gear arrangement will move the coiled up segments along the support posts 210 . attached to each side of the core 206 is a sheave 226 , each of which has a cable 228 wrapped around it . each cable 228 is also wrapped around one of a pair of helically grooved drums 230 which are mounted between the side plates 30 on an axle 232 . a spring motor 234 having a helically wound ribbon spring 236 tensions the cables 228 . as each boom segment 10 is removed from around the core 206 , the core 206 rotates with its axle 208 and moves along the support posts . as segments are removed from the core , the axle 208 is lowered which permits the boom segments 10 to be longitudinally aligned with the rollers in the boom support means 14 . when the boom segments are being retracted and coiled into the storage assembly 12 , the axis of the core is moved upwardly by means of the rack and gear arrangement . the spring motor 234 provides a substantially constant force to tension the cable 228 . as segments are removed from the core , the cables 228 are removed from the helically grooved drums 230 and the radius of the grooves of the drum 230 increases to counteract the increasing force provided by the spring motor 234 . this provides a substantially constant tension on the cables 228 to assist in recoiling the boom segments . fig1 shows that the entire boom assembly can be pivoted about the pins 34 so that the entire assembly can be turned upside down , as indicated by the elements shown in phantom . an overbalance spring 250 provides assistance in moving the assembly . one end of the spring is fixed to the pin engaging one end of the hydraulic cylinder 38 . the other end of the spring is moved horizontally by the slide and pivot mechanism 251 which slides along a rail 252 . the entire boom assembly can be pivoted about the pins 34 to any elevation angle desired by means of the hydraulic cylinders 38 . the boom assembly can be raised and lowered along the main support post 18 . this is accomplished by lowering the end of the boom so that the longitudinal axis of the boom is positioned in a generally vertical direction . the boom segments are then either retracted or extended , causing entire assembly to be raised with respect to the support 55 . while a particular embodiment of the invention has been shown and described , it should be understood that the invention is not limited thereto since many modifications may be made . it is therefore contemplated to cover by the present application any and all such modifications that fall within the true spirit and scope of the basic underlying principles disclosed and claimed herein .	1
referring to fig1 in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention , a tiled , flat - panel display 10 may include an optical integrator 25 having a front surface 30 . in addition , a frame 12 may surround the display 10 . a viewer observes an image on the display 10 through the front surface 30 of the optical integrator 25 . that is , the front surface 30 of the display 10 may have light emitted through it . the optical integrator 25 may be made of a substantially transparent material such as glass . the frame 12 may be made of a supportive material , such as a plastic or a metal , which may reduce the tendency of the display 10 to twist or bend at the periphery . tiling of individual display elements 16 may occur during fabrication , as shown in fig2 . the plurality of display elements 16 , on the back surface 28 of the display 20 , may ultimately create the image observed by the viewer through the front surface 30 of the display 10 . the display elements 16 emit visible light through the front surface 30 ( fig1 ). the individual display elements 16 that make up the tiled , flat - panel display 10 may be liquid crystal , field emission , plasma , or electroluminescent displays , as examples . individual display elements 16 may be square , rectangular , or another geometric shape . however , in one embodiment of the invention , the display elements 16 may be of the same size and geometric shape . weak points or seams 18 known as stress risers may develop when the display elements 16 combine to form the composite display 10 . without additional support , a bending stress placed on the display 10 may be concentrated on the optical integrator 25 at the seams 18 . this concentration of stress may result in catastrophic failures . for example , a bending stress may provide the potential for the initiation and propagation of cracks in the display 10 . thus , the optical integrator 25 may have a tendency to break at the seams 18 when subjected to a bending force . in one embodiment of the invention , each display element 16 may be adjacent to at least two other display elements 16 to form seams 18 in both the vertical and horizontal directions . thus , an increased number of display elements 16 provide an increased number of seams 18 and a decrease in the mechanical stability of the display 10 . consequently , the larger the display 10 , the greater the potential for the optical integrator 25 to break at the seams 18 especially when subjected to a non - peripheral stress . a plurality of vertical straps 20 and horizontal straps 22 may attach to the back surface 28 of the display 10 as shown in fig3 . in one embodiment of the invention , the straps 20 and 22 may bridge the seams 18 that create mechanical weakness in the display 10 . that is , each one of the straps 20 and 22 may be attached to a portion of each of two adjacent display elements 16 so that the straps 20 and 22 lie across the seams 18 . in one embodiment , straps 20 and 22 may be adhesively secured to the elements 16 . moreover , the straps 20 and 22 may be positioned over the seams 18 so that they are perpendicular to each other . to further mechanical stability and overall strength of the display 10 , the straps 20 and 22 may connect to the frame 12 by a plurality of joints 24 . in addition , the vertical straps 20 and the horizontal straps 22 may also connect to each other by a plurality of joints 26 . in one embodiment of the invention , the straps 20 and 22 may be attached to each other by an adhesive , for example . additionally , the straps 20 and 22 may also be adhesively attached to the frame 12 . however , the straps 20 and 22 may be unconnected to one another or all of the straps 20 and 22 may be formed as one integral piece . the above - described arrangement of the straps 20 and 22 may contribute to the stability of the display 10 by providing a mechanical interconnection between adjacent display elements 16 . moreover , the positioning of the straps 20 and 22 may redistribute stress from the optical integrator 25 to the straps 20 and 22 . thus , the attachments and positioning of the straps 20 and 22 may diminish the stress placed on the optical integrator 25 and hence the tendency of the display 10 to break . in one embodiment of the invention , two adjacent display elements 16 are positioned between the optical integrator 25 and one of the straps 20 , as shown in fig4 a and 4 b . the vertical strap 20 lies across the seam 18 between the two display elements 16 where it is adhered to a portion of each of the back surfaces 28 of the adjacent display elements 16 , according to one embodiment . although not shown for purposes of clarity , the horizontal straps 22 may be similarly positioned across the seams 18 between adjacent display elements 16 . stress concentrations placed on the display 10 around the seams 18 may be redistributed as tension in the straps 20 or 22 , as shown in fig4 a . the display 10 may be subjected to a bending stress “ a ” that bends the display 10 forward relative to the frame 12 , toward the front surface 30 of the optical integrator 25 . without the straps 20 and 22 , bending stress a may cause the optical integrator 25 to crack at the seams 18 . however , the straps 20 and 22 may limit the degree to which the display 10 may bend in response to the stress a . that is , the bending stress a placed on the display 10 may be redistributed as a tensional stress “ b ” placed on the strap 20 or 22 . thus , the strap 20 or 22 may significantly reduce the concentration of the bending stress a placed on the optical integrator 25 at the seam 18 . stress concentrations placed on the display 10 around the seams 18 may also be redistributed as compression , as shown in fig4 b . the display 10 may be subjected to bending stress “ c ” that bends the display 10 backward , toward the back surface 28 of the display 10 . thus , bending stress c is opposite in direction to that of bending stress a ( fig4 a ). again , the degree to which the optical integrator 25 and the display elements 16 may be subjected to bending stress c may be limited by the presence of the strap 20 or 22 . in this case , the bending stress c placed on the display 10 around the seam 18 may be redistributed as compression “ d ” placed on the strap 20 or 22 . thus , the redistribution of bending stress c to compression d may significantly reduce the concentration of stress placed on the display 10 . in sum , the redistribution of bending stress to either tension or compression may decrease the tendency of the display 10 to fail at the seams 18 . in one embodiment of the present invention , straps 20 may attach across every vertical seam 18 between display elements 16 in the display 10 , as shown in fig5 . the straps 22 may be similarly situated over every horizontal seam 18 , in one embodiment . thus , a non - peripheral bending force , in either direction , may be transferred from the optical integrator 25 over the entire back surface 28 of the display , via the straps 20 and 22 . moreover , the combination of the vertical straps 20 and horizontal straps 22 at the juncture of vertical and horizontal seams 18 may significantly redistribute bending stress at these points to improve the integrity of the display 10 . lastly , the frame 12 may reduce the tendency of the display 10 to twist or bend at the periphery . taken together , the vertical straps 20 , the horizontal straps 22 and the frame 12 may provide sufficient mechanical strength to significantly consume many types of bending and twisting stresses that may lead to cracking or other failures of the display 10 . in turn , this may allow for the construction of a large array , tiled , flat - panel display that is lightweight yet sturdy . while the present invention has been described with respect to a limited number of embodiments , those skilled in the art will appreciate numerous modifications and variations therefrom . it is intended that the appended claims cover all such modifications and variations as fall within the true spirit and scope of this present invention .	6
the present invention relates to the uses of curculigo latifolia ( c . latifolia ) extracts . hereinafter , this specification will describe the present invention according to the preferred embodiments of the present invention . however , it is to be understood that limiting the description to the preferred embodiments of the invention is merely to facilitate discussion of the present invention and it is envisioned that those skilled in the art may devise various modifications and equivalents without departing from the scope of the appended claims . more particularly , the present invention relates to a method for ameliorating blood glucose , glucose uptake activity , insulin and adiponectin level . the method of treatment involves administration of c . latifolia extracts . accordingly , it is an object of the present invention to provide c . latifolia extracts which can modulate diabetes mellitus by administrating an effective amount of c . latifolia extracts to the subject , wherein the amount of c . latifolia extracts modulates the symptoms of diabetes mellitus . in order to achieve the above object , the extensive studies in in vitro and in vivo have been conducted . in in vitro , an effective amount of c . latifolia extracts have been tested in cell lines : brin - bd11 , 3t3 - l1 adipocytes and l6 myotubes . meanwhile , in in vivo , c . latifolia extracts has been administered orally to subjects . accordingly , it is a method of cytotoxicity of brin - bd11 , 3t3 - l1 adipocyte and l6 myotubes treated with c . latifolia extracts , wherein the amount of c . latifolia extracts is found to be non - toxic towards those cell lines . the preferred embodiment of the present invention is a method of glucose uptake in 3t3 - l1 adipocyte and l6 myotubes cell lines treated with c . latifolia extracts , wherein the amount of c . latifolia extracts is found to increase glucose uptake activity in 3t3 - l1 adipocyte and l6 myotubes cell lines . further embodiment is a method of secretion of insulin in brin bd11 cell line and adiponectin in 3t3 - l1 adipocytes cell line treated with c . latifolia extracts , wherein the amount of c . latifolia extracts is found to increase secretion of insulin in brin bd11 cell line and adiponectin in 3t3 - l1 adipocyte . according to above objects , the subject has been induced to develop diabetes mellitus by combination of high fat diet ( hfd ) and low dose streptozotocin ( stz ). diabetes mellitus is non - insulin dependent diabetes mellitus ( niddm ). the symptoms of diabetes mellitus can be selected from the group that showing hyperglycemia , obesity , increased insulin level , polyphagia , polydipsia and polyuria . yet further , subject has been administered orally with an effective dose is about 100 mg / kg body weight per day . more specifically , subject has been administered for a 30 days . an embodiment of the present invention is a method of reducing blood glucose in a diabetes mellitus subject by administering an effective amount of c . latifolia extracts . according to the method for ameliorating blood glucose level of the present intervention , fasting blood glucose and oral glucose tolerance are monitored . it is envisioned that the c . latifolia extracts reduce blood glucose level and increase insulin and adiponectin levels in the subject . further envisioned of the present study , c . latifolia extracts increase oral glucose tolerance in the subject . still further , another envisioned is c . latifolia extracts increased food intake and body weight in a subject . the c . latifolia extracts according to the present invention can be prepared in accordance with the following process . fresh c . latifolia fruits were washed with distilled water . then , 50 g of c . latifolia fruits were extracted with 2 l of distilled water in 5 l beaker for 24 hours with continuous stirring at room temperature . this extract was filtered through whatman no . 1 filter paper . the filtrate was then collected and lyophilized . the lyophilized sample was kept at − 80 ° c . until use . five grams of c . latifolia leave powder were placed in 200 ml boiling ( distilled ) water . then it was removed from the heat source and allowed to infuse for 15 min . this suspension was filtered with whatman no . 1 filter paper . the filtrate was then collected and lyophilized . the lyophilized sample was kept at − 80 ° c . until use . five grams of c . latifolia leave powder were extracted with 200 ml of distilled water and were soaked for 24 hours with continuous stirring at room temperature . this extract was filtered through whatman no . 1 filter paper . the filtrate was then collected and lyophilized . the lyophilized sample was kept at − 80 ° c . until use . five grams of c . latifolia root powder were extracted with 200 ml of distilled water and were soaked for 24 hours with continuous stirring at room temperature . this extract was filtered through whatman no . 1 filter paper . the filtrate was then collected and lyophilized . the lyophilized sample was kept at − 80 ° c . until use . in vitro cytotoxicity study of c . latifolia extracts tested on 3t3 - l1 adipocyte , l6 - myotubes and brin - bd11 pancreatic cell lines brin - bd11 cell line was cultured and maintained in rpmi 1640 medium supplemented with 10 % foetal bovine serum , 1 % penicillin - streptomycin and 1 % glutamine at 37 ° c . in a humidified atmosphere of 5 % co 2 . meanwhile , 3t3 adipocytes and l6 myotubes cells were cultured in dulbecco &# 39 ; s modified eagle &# 39 ; s medium ( dmem ) supplemented with streptomycin / penicillin antibiotics and 10 % fetal bovine serum . both cells were maintained in humidified atmosphere of 5 % co 2 at 37 ° c . cells were subcultured every 2 to 3 days at approximately 80 % confluence using trypsin - edta to detach the cell from the culture flask . cell counting was done using hemocytometer . for differentiation , l6 cells were transferred to dmem with 2 % fetal bovine serum , 4 - 6 days post - confluence . the extent of differentiation was established by observing multinucleation of cells and & gt ; 90 % fusion of myoblasts into myotubes were considered . meanwhile , differentiation of 3t3 preadipocyte was grown in the plates to reach confluence in 3 days . at this point ( day 0 ) cells were switched to differentiation medium ( dmem , 10 % fbs , 0 . 25 μm dexamethasone , 0 . 25 mm ibmx , and 1 μg / ml insulin ) for 3 days , with one medium change in between . on day 3 , the dexamethasone and ibmx were removed leaving insulin on the cells for an additional 4 days , changing the medium every 2 days . thereafter the cells were maintained in the original propagation dmem , changing medium every 2 - 3 days , until use . plates where cells were & gt ; 90 % differentiated were used for experiments between days 9 to 12 post - induction . to date various methods have been developed and introduced to measure the viability cell . the celltiter 96 ® aqueous non - radioactive cell proliferation assay ( promega , madison , wis .) is one of them . the cells were seeded onto 96 - well plates at a concentration 2 × 10 5 cells / well in 100 μl of medium culture and allowed to attach for 24 hours . the cells monolayer were washed with phosphate - buffered saline ( pbs ) to remove unattached cells ; the attached cells were incubated in fresh serum free media with different concentrations of c . latifolia fruit , leave and root extracts for 72 hours . cells were then incubated with 20 μl of tetrazolium salt solution for four hours . the absorbance of each well was measured at 490 nm using a microplate reader ( opsys mr , thermolabsystems ) to quantify the formazon product . the number of living cells in culture is proportional to quantity of formazon product presence . fig1 a , 1 b and 1 c show the effect of c . latifolia extracts on min bd11 , 3t3 - l1 adipocyte and l6 myotubes cell lines , respectively . brin - bd11 cell line was used to evaluate insulin secretion . insulin secretion activity was determined using 24 - well plates . cells were seeded at a concentration 2 × 10 5 cells / well in rpmi 1640 containing 10 % foetal bovine serum , 1 % antibiotic and 1 % glutamine and allowed attachment overnight . cell were then washed thrice with kreb &# 39 ; s — ringer bicarbonate buffer ( krb ; 115 mm nacl , 4 . 7 mm kcl , 1 . 28 mm cacl2 , 1 . 2 mm kh 2 po 4 , 1 . 2 mm mgso 4 , 24 mm nahco 3 , 10 mm hepes - free acid , 1 g / l bovine serum albumin , 1 . 1 mm glucose ; ph 7 . 4 ) and preincubated for 40 minutes in krb buffer at 37 ° c . cells were then incubated for 30 min with 1 ml krb buffer in the absence and presence of c . latifolia extracts and glibenclamide as positive control . aliquots were removed from each well and stored at − 20 ° c . for insulin assay later . in order to quantify the insulin concentration , aliquot from insulin secretion in in vitro study were used and assay was done using mercodia rat insulin elisa ( uppsala , sweden ) protocol . the absorbance of each well was measured at 450 nm using a microplate reader ( opsys mr , thermolabsystems ) to quantify the insulin concentration . fig2 shows the effect of c . latifolia extract on brin - bd11 cell in insulin secretion after 30 minutes treatment . glucose uptake was measured in fully differentiated l6 myotubes and 3t3 adipocyte . cells were rinsed thrice with krebs - ringer hepes buffer ( ph 7 . 4 ) before treated with c . latifolia extracts in the presence and absence of insulin ( 100 nm ). this treatment was allowed to proceed for 30 min . after 30 min , 1 μci / ml of 2 - deoxy - d -[ 1 - 3 h ] glucose was added and allowed 30 min incubated . before the cells were digested , the medium was collected to vials and frozen at − 20 ° c . for adiponectin analysis and the collected process has done on a bed of ice . then , plates were washed thrice with ice - cold krh buffer and cells were digested with 0 . 1 % sds . an aliquot was used to measure the radioactivity by using scintillation counter ( tri - garb 2300tr , perkin elmer life and analytical services , boston , mass ., usa ) using ultima gold ™ llt as the scintillation cocktail ( perkin elmer , boston , mass ., usa ). glucose uptake was expressed as disintegrations per minute ( dpm ). fig3 a , 3 b , 3 c and 3 d show the c . latifolia extracts effect on glucose uptake activity in differentiated 3t3 adipocytes , respectively , whereas , fig4 a , 4 b , 4 c and 4 d show the c . latifolia extracts effect on glucose uptake activity in differentiated l6 myotubes , respectively . biovision rat adiponectin elisa assay ( mountain view , usa ) was used to screen c . latifolia extracts to potentiate the adiponectin secretion in differentiated 3t3 adipocytes . aliquot collected from glucose uptake assay were used and assay was done according to the kit procedure . fig5 shows the c . latifolia extracts effect on adiponectin secretion activity in differentiated 3t3 adipocytes with absence of insulin whereas fig6 shows the c . latifolia extracts effect on adiponectin secretion activity in differentiated 3t3 adipocytes with presence of insulin . a total of 42 male sprague - dawley ( sd ) rats ( 160 - 200 g ) were used for this study . they were housed individually in polypropylene cages and maintained under controlled room temperature ( 22 ± 2 ° c .) and humidity ( 55 ± 5 %) with 12 : 12 h light and dark cycle . all rats were provided with free access to water and commercially available rat normal pallet ( npd ) prior to acclimatize period . all experimental protocols for animal care and use was approved by the animal care and use committee ( acuc ) of faculty of medicine and health sciences , universiti putra malaysia . the hf diet was formulated based on the composition provided by levin et . al . ( 1989 ). it will be prepared from a mixture of 50 % normal rat chow pallet , 24 % of corn oil ( mazola brand ), 20 % of full - cream milk powder ( nespray brand from nestlé ) and 6 % sugar . development of hfd - fed and low dose stz - treated type 2 diabetic rats rats were allocated into two groups based on dietary regimens ; npd and hfd and they were fed for a month . after a month on either diet , rats which were introduced with hfd will be anesthetized with diethyl ether after an overnight fast and then inject with stz ( 35 mg / kg ) via intravenous . rats were continued to their original diets ( chow or fat ) and water after the stz injection . after seven days of stz injection , diabetes conditions were identified by polydipsia , polyuria and by measuring fasting blood glucose level ; glucose level & gt ; 170 mg / dl were included in the study . body weight , food consumption and fasting blood glucose were determined weekly . the animals are randomly divided into seven groups of three animals each . group 1 : normal control ( normal pellet diet , non - diabetic , untreated ) rats group 2 : diabetic control ( high fat - fed diet , diabetic , untreated ) rats group 3 : diabetic control ( high fat - fed diet , induced with stz , diabetic , untreated ) rats group 4 : diabetes test rats ( high fat - fed diet , induced with stz , diabetic , treated ), treatment with glibenclimide 600 μg per b . w group 5 : diabetic test rats ( high fat - fed diet , induced with stz , diabetic , untreated ), treatment with c . latifolia fruit extract 100 mg per b . w group 6 : diabetic test rats ( high fat - fed diet , induced with stz , diabetic , untreated ), treatment with c . latifolia root extract 100 mg per b . w group 7 : diabetic test rats ( high fat - fed diet , induced with stz , diabetic , untreated ), treatment with combination of c . latifolia root and fruit extract 100 mg per b . w body weight , food consumption and fasting blood glucose are determined weekly . fasting blood glucose level of each rat was determined at zero - time ( after overnight fasting with free access to water ). glucose ( 2 g / kg b . w ) was orally administered 30 minutes after an oral administration of the c . latifolia extracts or glibenclamide . blood glucose concentration was measured just before and 30 , 60 and 120 minutes after the oral administration of test sample . blood samples were collected at the end of every phase of treatments . plasma was collected by cardiac puncture for various biological assays . physical and biochemical parameters were obtained such as changes in body weights , food intake , plasma glucose , insulin and adiponectin level . insulin level was measured using an insulin elisa kit ( mercodia ab , uppsala , sweeden ) with rat insulin as a standard . adiponectin level is measured using biovision rat adiponectin elisa assay ( mountain view , usa ). fig7 a shows the effect of c . latifolia extracts on body weight in high fat - fed diet and low dose stz induced diabetic rats whereas fig7 b shows the effect of c . latifolia extracts on fasting blood glucose in high fat - fed diet induced diabetic rats . on the other hand , fig7 c shows the effect of c . latifolia extracts on insulin level in high fat - fed diet induced diabetic rats whereas fig7 d shows the effect of c . latifolia extracts on adiponectin level in high fat - fed diet induced diabetic rats	0
referring to the figures , the clip of the present invention includes a crown 10 and depending legs 12 , 14 which are connected to the crown 10 . in manufacture , the wire from which the clip is manufactured is rolled into the cross sectional form or shape such as illustrated by fig4 . the wire is then cut to an appropriate length and formed into the u - shaped configuration of fig1 for use as a clip by a clip attachment apparatus . generally the clip is manufactured from an aluminum alloy or other wire material of desired mechanical properties . the clip , when formed about packaging material , is generally formed to the shape shown in fig3 with the legs 12 , 14 being crossed one over the other to define the closure surface 18 and tightened about packaging material . the subject matter of the present invention relates particularly to the constant cross sectional shape of the clip . thus , the particular configuration of the u - shaped clip in terms of the length of the legs 12 , 14 , the extent of the crown 10 , and the radial connecting portion between the crown 10 and legs 12 , 14 is not a limiting feature of the invention . fig4 represents graphically a typical cross sectional shape of a clip which is within the scope of the invention . importantly , the dimensional characteristics of the clip , and more particularly the cross sectional shape of the clip , are defined to enhance the use of material from which the clip is formed . the amount of material is thus reduced to a minimum while the mechanical properties of the clip are maximized . simultaneously the clip is fashioned in such a manner that it remains usable with existing clip attachment machines without rebuilding of those machines , for example , by replacement of the clip channels . the configuration of the cross sectional shape in fig4 is represented by the following formulas : ## equ1 ## where : a is the cross sectional area measured in square inches ; h is the height of the cross sectional shape of the clip measured in inches ; bi is the width of the head of the cross sectional shape measured in inches ; ti is the height of the head of the cross sectional shape measured in inches ; t is the width of the upright portion of the cross sectional shape measured in inches ; r6 is the radius between the upright portion and head of the cross sectional shape measured in inches ; r2 is the radius measured in inches of the transition of the side of the head with the lower flat of the head as seen in fig4 ; alpha is the angle measured in degrees between a vertical line and the side of the upright portion of the cross section , and cross sectional shape of the clip being generally symmetrical about a plane through the head and leg and generally parallel to the crown and legs ; and the value of z generated in equation 3 will fall between z min and z max generated from equation 1 and 2 respectively , using the value of k from equation 4 . note that the cross sectional shape of the clip is symetrical about a plane defined generally by the plane 20 through the clip . the plane 20 is generally parallel with the crown and legs which form the clip . as a result of manufacture of the clip in accordance with the equations set forth , it is possible to graph the family of clips which are within the scope of this formulation and thus constitute , in general , the subject matter of the invention . fig5 is a graph which represents the range of parameters for a clip formed in accordance with the equations set forth . while there has been set forth a preferred embodiment of the invention , it is to be understood that the invention is to be limited only by the following claims and their equivalents .	1
disclosed herein various embodiments of precast traffic barrier segments that are designed to rest above an earth retaining wall of precast segments to prevent traffic from falling over the retaining wall . the objective of the current invention is to allow a uniform height precast traffic barrier be installed parallel and to the alignment grade of the proposed roadway grade above the wall even though the supporting retaining wall is constructed and installed in parallel uniform height segments along courses of modular precast units . in order to provide a differing height required to follow a roadway grade that varies along the wall length especially in vertical curves of the changing roadway grade , a leveling or variable height course of modular concrete segment block units is required . the current invention , with the use of a tilting table to cast the leveling units at various heights / angles , modifies the immediate course below the uniform height traffic barrier course to allow the traffic barrier to follow the changing vertical grade of the roadway . when roadways , driveways or vehicle access is planned above an earth retaining wall , a barrier to prevent traffic from falling over the walls leading edge is typically required . traditionally , a guard rail or poured in place concrete traffic barrier segment is installed above the retaining wall to contain vehicles above the earth retaining wall in the planned drive isle or roadway . the exemplary embodiments expedite installation of the traffic barrier segment by making it a part of the earth retaining wall system where the barrier segment can act as the top row of modular precast retaining wall system and provide resistance to overturning by using the backfill soil weight resting on the horizontal triangular stem . the downward pressure of the soil backfill beside and on top of the horizontal stem provides the resisting pressure to have the exemplary precast traffic barrier segment act as a cantilever foundation / vertical wall and resist impact loads from vehicles on the portion of the barrier segment extending above grade . generally speaking , the portion of the traffic barrier segment extending above grade has a shape that varies depending upon a state &# 39 ; s rules and regulations ( promulgated by the department of transportation ), which define certain acceptable geometries and dimensions for barrier segments installed along roadways / highways of the state . therefore , the geometry of the traffic barrier segment &# 39 ; s vertical portion extending above roadway grade may vary from state to state . referring to fig1 , an exemplary precast traffic barrier segment 100 has a vertical face 130 that extends above roadway grade and a face 120 extending below roadway grade that consists of the upper portion of the underlying earth retaining wall . the top of the barrier segment portion 140 above roadway grade is typically 32 inches above the roadway or driveway surface elevation . the back face of the barrier segment extending above grade is 180 where the vehicular impact would occur as well as the slanted portion 150 . the overall stability of the exemplary precast traffic barrier segment is prevented from overturning by a counterweight from backfill soil resting beside and above the rear stem 190 . a triangular portion 110 of the rear stem helps capture the surrounding backfill soils weight to add resisting force by means of downward weight on the exemplary traffic barrier segment stem 190 . the top of the stem 160 is approximately 30 inches below the drive or roadway grade to allow the installation of utilities and pavement section not obscured by the precast traffic barrier segment piece or segment . fig2 shows a cross section 200 of the elevated roadway grade 220 sitting on top of the earth retaining wall . the stem 190 of the exemplary precast traffic barrier segment sits well below the pavement grade 220 to prevent interference . to keep the exemplary precast traffic barrier segment from sliding on top of the retaining wall , two protruding lugs 170 extend below the exemplary traffic barrier segment to lock into the top concrete precast segment of the earth retaining wall . for installation of the exemplary precast traffic barrier segment , a square hole 240 is cast into the exemplary precast traffic barrier segment to facilitate lifting and hoisting into place . a diagonal portion of the stem 210 is required to transfer the downward cantilever pressure on the stem 190 to the vertical portion of the exemplary precast traffic barrier segment to prevent impact on the face 120 of the barrier segment facing vehicular traffic . in looking at an elevation view , fig3 , of the front face of the earth retaining wall , the exemplary precast traffic barrier segment 100 makes up the top row of the concrete earth retaining wall to complete or top out the earth retaining wall soil retention requirements . the grade of the proposed roadway 220 is below the barrier segment portion of the precast traffic barrier segment but above the stem portion 190 of the traffic barrier segment . in fig4 , the exemplary precast traffic barrier segment 100 is shown to illustrate the unique features . the lower locking lugs 170 extend below the bottom of the stem 190 to lock into the earth retaining wall system below . the front face 120 of the precast traffic barrier segment is in vertical alignment with the underlying retaining wall face to complete the earth retaining wall vertical plane alignment . fig5 shows the top view to illustrate the triangular sides 110 of the stem 190 cover approximately 50 % of the overall counterweight area of backfill soil that is available to provide weight for overturning resistance . the triangular stem portions 110 allow the reduced horizontal coverage area and hence save precast concrete area / volume . fig6 is a rear view of the exemplary precast traffic barrier segment 100 which shows the diagonal connection arm 210 from the top of the stem 160 up to the vertical portion of the traffic barrier segment 180 and 150 . it should be emphasized that the above described invention of the present disclosure is to implement an arching effect within the earth retaining wall backfill soils by the triangular stem to take advantage of the soil backfill vertical weight to provide resisting force from horizontal vehicular impact on the portion of the stem above the drive isle or roadway grade . the dimensions of the portion of the barrier segment above grade may vary depending upon various department of transportation guidelines for impact barrier segments along roadways . when roadways are located above or rest on top of the completed earth retaining wall , a traffic barrier segment may be required to handle large impact loads from trucks or other large vehicles . the results may be more pressure than the individual segments can resist from overturning and sliding . therefore , the attachment of one segment to the next horizontally in order to share the impact load may be required . in this instance , a groove is cast in the side of the segment with a slip joint to allow the segments to work together in resisting the impact . the exemplary embodiment allows the individual segments to carry more impact load by interacting with the adjacent segments to provide more resistance than any one segment can exhibit alone . also , the grove is such that when setting the segments in place , the adjacent segment slides down over the top to expedite installation of these traffic barrier segments . also , the groove allows the alignment of the segments to be kept in line so the segments do not protrude out from one another that could snag a vehicle that comes in contact with the wall and slides down the traffic barrier segment impacting several segments in series . referring to fig7 , the exemplary precast traffic barrier segment 300 has a vertical face 330 that extends above roadway grade and a face 320 extending below roadway grade that consists of the upper portion of the underlying earth retaining wall . the top of the barrier segment portion 340 above roadway grade is typically 36 inches above the roadway or driveway surface elevation . the back face of the barrier segment extending above grade is 380 where the vehicular impact would occur as well as the slanted portion 350 . the overall stability of the exemplary precast traffic barrier segment is prevented from overturning by a counterweight from backfill soil resting beside and above the rear stem 390 . a triangular portion 310 of the rear stem helps capture the surrounding backfill soils weight to add resisting force by means of downward weight on the exemplary traffic barrier segment stem 390 . the top of the stem 360 is approximately 30 inches below the drive or roadway grade to allow the installation of utilities and pavement section not obscured by the precast traffic barrier segment piece or segment . a vertical node 430 protrudes out the side of the segment to fit into the adjoining segments groove 440 to allow interconnectivity . the groove does not extend all the way to the top of the segment but terminates at 450 to not expose the joint and hide from view . fig8 shows a cross section 400 of the elevated roadway grade 420 sitting on top of the earth retaining wall . the stem 390 of the exemplary precast traffic barrier segment sits well below the pavement grade 420 to prevent interference . to keep the exemplary precast traffic barrier segment from sliding on top of the retaining wall , two protruding lugs 370 extend below the exemplary traffic barrier segment to lock into the top concrete precast segment of the earth retaining wall . for installation of the exemplary precast traffic barrier segment , a square hole 420 is cast into the exemplary precast traffic barrier segment to facilitate lifting and hoisting into place . a diagonal portion of the stem 410 is required to transfer the downward cantilever pressure on the stem 390 to the vertical portion of the exemplary precast traffic barrier segment to prevent impact on the face 380 of the barrier segment facing vehicular traffic . the vertical slot 440 receives the adjacent vertical node 430 to interlock and allow connectivity and shared resistance when impacted . in looking at an elevation view , fig9 , of the front face of the earth retaining wall , the exemplary precast traffic barrier segment 300 makes up the top row of the concrete earth retaining wall to complete or top out the earth retaining wall soil retention requirements . the grade of the proposed roadway 420 is below the barrier segment portion of the precast traffic barrier segment , but above the stem portion 390 of the traffic barrier segment . the segments connect horizontally by a node and vertical channel 460 to share impact loads from vehicles . in fig1 , the exemplary precast traffic barrier segment 300 is shown to illustrate the unique features . the lower locking lugs 370 extend below the bottom of the stem 390 to lock into the earth retaining wall system below . the front face 320 of the precast traffic barrier segment is in vertical alignment with the underlying retaining wall face to complete the earth retaining wall vertical plane alignment . the vertical slot 440 is to receive the vertical node from the adjacent segment . fig1 shows the top view to illustrate the triangular sides 310 of the stem 390 cover approximately 50 % of the overall counterweight area of backfill soil that is available to provide weight for overturning resistance . the triangular stem portions 310 allow the reduced horizontal coverage area and hence save precast concrete area / volume . the vertical node 430 extends out the side of the segment to fit inside the adjacent segments vertical slot 440 . fig1 is a rear view of the exemplary precast traffic barrier segment 300 which shows the diagonal connection arm 410 from the top of the stem 360 up to the vertical portion of the traffic barrier segment 380 and 350 . the vertical node 430 is shown as well as the receiving vertical slot or channel 440 . it should be emphasized that the second embodiment implements an arching effect within the earth retaining wall backfill soils by the triangular stem to take advantage of the soil backfill vertical weight to provide resisting force from horizontal vehicular impact on the portion of the stem above the drive isle or roadway grade . the dimensions of the portion of the barrier segment above grade may vary depending upon various department of transportation guidelines for impact barrier segments along roadways . the vertical node on one side and vertical slot or channel on the opposite side allows horizontal interaction of adjacent segments to share vehicle impact loads . referring to fig1 , shown is an exemplary precast leveling segment 500 . the precast leveling segment 500 has a front portion 320 , horizontal stem 590 , and an alignment seat 165 . the front portion 320 comprises a front surface 530 , a rear surface 535 , a top surface 540 , and a bottom surface 545 . the top surface 540 may slope in parallel to an above roadway . the bottom surface 545 is parallel to an underlying earth retaining wall . for example , the top surface 540 may run parallel to a roadway above the precast leveling segment 500 that slopes from the left side 560 to the right side 550 whereas the bottom surface 545 may run parallel to an underlying earth retaining wall that does not slope . in this example , the top surface 540 is not parallel to the bottom surface 545 but the bottom surface 545 is perpendicular to the front surface 530 . continuing the example , the height of the left side 560 is greater than the height of the right side 550 to facilitate the top surface 540 running parallel to the roadway above . allowing the top surface 540 to run parallel to the roadway and the bottom surface 545 to run parallel to the underlying earth retaining wall prevents the need to slope the underlying earth retaining wall . the horizontal stem 590 extends outwardly from a rear surface 535 of the front portion 320 . the horizontal stem 590 comprises a triangular portion 310 extending left and right from the top surface 570 of the horizontal stem 590 . the triangular portion 310 of the horizontal stem 590 helps capture the weight of the surrounding backfill soil to add resisting force by means of downward weight on the precast leveling segment 500 . two open boxed cavities 520 are cast into the lower section of the precast leveling segment 500 to allow lifting for placement . the alignment seat 165 has right and left aligning elements 370 that align the leveling segment to an underlying earth retaining wall . fig1 depicts an isometric view to illustrate that the triangular portion 310 of the horizontal stem 590 covers approximately 50 % of the overall area of backfill soil that is available to provide weight for overturning resistance . the triangular portion 310 allows a reduced horizontal coverage area and saves precast concrete area and / or volume . in reference to fig1 , a cross section 600 of a sloping elevated roadway grade 420 is shown sitting on top of an earth retaining wall . the elevated roadway grade 420 slopes toward the viewer of fig1 . the top surface 540 of the front portion of the precast leveling segment 500 slopes toward the viewer of fig1 parallel to the elevated roadway grade 420 . one of two protrusions 170 is shown . the protrusion 170 , along with the other , nonvisible protrusion , locks into the precast segment below . a horizontal stem 590 comprises at least a triangular portion 310 and square holes 240 . for installation of a precast leveling segment 500 , two square holes 240 are cast into the precast leveling segment 500 for lifting and hoisting the precast leveling segment 500 into place . a horizontal stem 590 parallel to the traffic barrier above is required to transfer downward vertical pressure from a traffic barrier above to the horizontal stem 590 below the precast leveling segment 500 . fig1 depicts an elevation view of the front face of the earth retaining wall . a leveling course 505 of precast leveling segments 500 a , 500 b , and 500 c makes up the designated row below the elevated roadway grade 420 . although many precast leveling segments are depicted , the leveling course 505 may comprise one or more precast leveling segments . the top surfaces 540 a , 540 b , and 540 c of the precast leveling segments 500 a , 500 b , and 500 c slope parallel to the sloping elevated roadway grade 420 . thus , the front surface heights of left edges 560 a , 560 b , and 560 c and right edges 550 a , 550 b , and 550 c of each of the precast leveling segments 500 a , 500 b , and 500 c may increase or decrease relative to the precast leveling segments 500 a , 500 b , and 500 c immediately to the left or right as the elevated roadway grade 420 increases or decreases . the precast leveling segments are in an order that maintains a predefined distance between the elevated roadway grade 420 and the top surfaces 540 a , 540 b , and 540 c . for example , the distance between a point at the top of the left edge 560 a and a point 422 a on the roadway that is on a line parallel to the left edge 560 a equals the distance between a point at the top of the right edge 550 a and a point 422 b on the roadway that is on a line parallel to the right edge 550 a . in one embodiment , the first front surface height of the right edge 550 a of a first precast leveling segment 500 a is greater than a second front surface height of the right edge 550 b of a second precast leveling segment 500 b . therefore , the top surfaces 540 a and 540 b slope parallel to the elevated roadway grade 420 above the leveling course 505 . the precast leveling segments 500 a , 500 b , and 500 c are aligned such that the height of the right edge 550 a of the first precast leveling segment 500 a is within a predefined delta of the height of the left edge 560 b of the second precast leveling segment 500 b to ensure a gradual slope parallel to the elevated roadway grade 420 above . in alternative embodiments , the height of the left edge 560 b may be greater than the height of left edge 560 a when the elevated roadway grade 420 increases slope or the height of the left edge 560 b may be less than the height of left edge 560 a when the elevated roadway grade 420 decreases slope . in fig1 , a side view of a precast leveling segment 500 is shown . shown is a front portion 520 , horizontal stem 590 , and alignment seat 515 . the front portion 530 comprises a front surface 525 , a top surface 540 , a rear surface 535 , and a bottom surface 545 . the horizontal stem 590 attaches to the rear surface 535 of the front portion 520 . the top surface 540 slopes downward , with a greater height of the left edge 560 than the height of the right edge 550 . the horizontal stem 590 comprises a top surface 570 and a triangular portion 310 . two square holes 520 are cast into the horizontal stem 590 of the precast leveling segment 500 for lifting and hoisting the precast leveling segment 500 into place . the alignment seat 515 comprises at least lower aligning elements 370 that extend below the horizontal stem 310 to lock in to the earth retaining wall system below . the lower aligning elements 370 may be locking lugs . it should be emphasized that the above - described embodiments of the present invention , particularly , any “ preferred ” embodiments , are merely possible non - limiting examples of implementations , merely set forth for a clear understanding of the principles of the invention . many variations and modifications may be made to the above - described embodiment ( s ) of the invention without departing substantially from the spirit and principles of the invention . all such modifications and variations are intended to be included herein within the scope of this disclosure and the present invention .	4
in that form of the present invention chosen for purposes of illustration , fig1 shows an automobile , indicated generally at 10 having a wheel 12 with a tire 14 and having a fender 16 extending above the wheel 12 . in accordance with the present invention , a wheel protection device , indicated generally at 18 , comprising a box 20 is mounted under the fender 16 above the wheel 12 and contains a protective sheath 22 , as seen at 24 in fig2 which is stored in a retracted position , as seen in fig1 . the protective sheath 22 is pivotally mounted on a bracket 19 and carries a curved ratchet 21 which is engaged by a worm gear 23 driven by reversible motor 28 , as best seen in fig3 . with the protective sheath 22 , in the retracted position , the automobile 10 an be driven in a normal manner and the protection device 18 will not interfere with the driving , but will remain hidden inconspicuously under the fender 16 . when the driver parks and wishes to protect the wheels 12 , the driver actuates a switch 26 on the dashboard which actuates a motor 28 . this causes worm gear 23 to travel along the curved ratchet 21 and to extend the protective sheath 22 to the position seen in fig2 . as best seen in fig3 the protective sheath 22 is formed of metal or other suitable material which will resist stabbing or other attempts to tamper with or remove it and is comprised of a plurality of overlapping and interconnected plates 30 , each having a leading edge flange 31 projecting inwardly and a trailing edge flange 33 wghich extends above and below the surface 35 of the plate 30 . when not extended , the plates 30 are stored within a housing member 37 which carries the curved ratchet 21 and has inwardly extending flanges 39 procided at each edge . also , the housing member 37 contains a cable reel 41 which is driven by motor 28 and worm gear 23 through worm gear 43 . the cable reel 41 is a double reel and carries twocables 45 and 47 which extend about pulleys 49 and 51 , respectively , and pass through openings 53 in the trailing edge flanges 33 of the plates 30 and are attached to the leading edges of the leading plates 55 and 57 , as best seen in fig4 . as seen in fig3 when the protective sheath 22 extends , it extends about the tire 14 and substantially encloses the tire 14 and wheel 12 . this prevents potential vandals or thieves from obtaining access to the tires , wheel covers and lug nuts and , hence , prevents vandalism or theft . the protective sheath 22 comprises a plurality of interconnected plates 30 which overlap each other and which unfold as the sheath 22 is extended to enclose the tire 14 and wheel 12 , as seen in fig3 . with the sheath 22 in this position , the sheath prevents anyone from gaining access to either the tire 14 or wheel 12 and , thereby prevents vandalism or reverse direction to retract the sheath 22 into the housing member 37 and , hence can have access to the tire 14 and wheel for servicing , changing and the like . when the plates 30 are fully retracted , tension on the cables 45 and 47 will prevent further rotation of cable reel 41 and , hence , of worm gear 43 . this causes worm gear 28 to travel off of worm gear 43 to the curved ratchet 21 , which causes the protetive sheath 22 to rotate to the stored position , as seen in fig1 . when worm gear 28 reaches the end of the curved ratcht 21 , it strikes lilmit switch 63 which turns off motor 28 and returns it to the forward polarity theft . as seen in fig4 the outer portions of the leding plates 53 and 55 are recessed , as seen at 59 , to allow the car to be towed or pushed , if necessary , but not to permit access to the tires 14 by knives , nails or the like . also , as seen in fig4 leading plate 57 carries a latch 61 which is urged by spring 63 to project through an opening 65 in the leading edge of plate 55 to latch the plates 55 and 57 together in the fully extended position . when desired , the driver can actuate switch 26 to cause motor 28 to rotate in the reverse direction to retract the sheath 22 into the housing member 37 and , hence , can have access to the tire 14 and wheel for servicing , changing and the like . obviously , numerous variations and modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention . therefore , it should be clearly understood that the form of the present invention described above and shown in the figures of the accompanying drawing are illustrative only and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention .	1
as required , detailed aspects of the disclosed subject matter are disclosed herein ; however , it is to be understood that the disclosed aspects are merely exemplary of the invention , which may be embodied in various forms . therefore , specific structural and functional details disclosed herein are not to be interpreted as limiting , but merely as a basis for the claims and as a representative basis for teaching one skilled in the art how to variously employ the present invention in virtually any appropriately detailed structure . certain terminology will be used in the following description for convenience in reference only and will not be limiting . for example , up , down , front , back , right and left refer to the invention as orientated in the view being referred to . the words , “ inwardly ” and “ outwardly ” refer to directions toward and away from , respectively , the geometric center of the aspect being described and designated parts thereof . additional examples include computing devices such as a mobile smart device including a display device for viewing a typical web browser or user interface will be commonly referred to throughout the following description . the type of device , computer , display , or user interface may vary when practicing an embodiment of the present invention . a computing device could be represented by a desktop personal computer , a laptop computer , “ smart ” mobile phones , pdas , tablets , or other handheld computing devices . healthcare providers may include any person or entity within the healthcare field , from insurance providers , to pharmacists , to hospitals , to doctors , and more . said terminology will include the words specifically mentioned , derivatives thereof and words of similar meaning . referring to the drawings in more detail , the reference numeral 2 generally designates a preferred embodiment medical disposition system 2 which generally includes a patient having a patient computing device 4 , a health care provider having a health care provider computing device 6 , and a centralized server computing device 8 , all connected via a wireless network 10 , such as the internet . the patient computing device 4 typically includes a cpu and data store 12 which stores and runs a software application 14 . the patient computing device 4 also includes a user interface display 18 . a preferred embodiment would also include a location sensor 20 , such as a global navigation satellite system ( gnss ) sensor capable of determining the precise location of the patient computing device 4 . optionally the position could be entered by a user . the patient enters a patient query input 16 into the software application 14 which is processed by the cpu and is sent through the wireless network 10 . a health care provider computing device 6 likewise includes a cpu and data storage 22 element , a separate software application 24 stored and run by the cpu and data storage elements , and stored patient data 26 logs . these patient data logs include previous patient data , such as medication being taken , past medical history , and other information known to the provider . the health care provider &# 39 ; s computing device 6 would also include a user interface display 28 for interacting with the software and a known location 30 of that healthcare provider . the health care provider &# 39 ; s computing device 6 receives patient queries 16 sent from the patient computing device 4 along with data from the central computing device 8 . the central computing device 8 includes a cpu and storage element 32 along with the core application software 34 . this software may be updated here prior to updates being applied to the software applications 14 , 24 of the patient computing device 4 and the health care provider computing device 6 . a database 36 is stored on the central computing device 8 containing all relevant and known factors which may affect how data is transferred between the patient computing device 4 , the central computing device 8 , and the health care provider computing device 6 . the database will also contain third - party data . fig2 shows the relationship between the patient query 16 and patient data 26 as it is transferred through the wireless network 10 between the various parties . as diagrammed , a patient query 16 typically includes at least one symptom 38 and other related medical information such as the medication 40 currently being taken by the patient , the duration 42 of the symptoms , or other symptom - related data . other patient history data 44 in the patient &# 39 ; s possession may also be uploaded through the patient query . photographs and audio files 45 along with other multimedia evidence of symptoms may also be uploaded with the patient query . all of this data is sent through the wireless network 10 to the centralized sever 8 . the central server has access to third party sources 56 , including health care providers , insurance providers , and other information databases . the central server will attempt to provide the patient &# 39 ; s query with a disposition result based upon the data received in the patient query along with data obtained from third parties , including health care professionals . the application software 34 , along with the cpu 32 , calculates what should be the response to the patient . if needed , the patient query is forwarded on to healthcare providers , such as the patient &# 39 ; s primary care physician , to supplement the disposition result . the healthcare provider has additional patient data 26 such as past patient history 48 , new patient data 50 based upon the patient query 16 , regional medical data 52 , such as recent outbreaks of disease in the area , along with related software application data 54 which may have been customized by the health care provider . the healthcare provider will look at the patient query and all additional information and analyze it with the health care provider computing device 6 to reach a disposition result . this result is sent back through the network to the patient , who is instructed how to proceed . all new data is stored in the central server 8 database 36 and is used for future disposition calculations , as well as by third party entities for unrelated purposes . these purposes may include : increasing the knowledge base around certain diseases and ailments ; increasing information about certain genetic diseases ; increasing the health care provider network &# 39 ; s knowledge about symptoms relating to diseases and other dispositions ; and notifying insurance agencies about claims in the area . the data may also be sent through an analytic algorithm to determine the cost savings of having a patient use this semi - automated disposition system to receive the correct disposition and healthcare instructions rather than had that patient gone straight to the emergency room or , even worse , ignored the ailment until it became worse and more costly . the present invention generally relies upon a generated decision tree which branches depending on what information is known to the disposition system 2 , what information is entered into the system by the patient via the patient query 16 , and other data that may be provided by health care providers or other third - parties during the disposition review . this decision tree concept is generally outlined through several flowcharts described below . fig3 is a flowchart diagramming the steps generally taken when a patient query is input into the system and a disposition result is sought . the method starts at 100 , and third party data is retrieved by the central server at 102 . the database 36 for disposition analysis is populated at 104 . this essentially sets up the software application 14 , 24 and the application software 34 to communicate and for the processor 32 to be able to sort through the database of symptoms , knowledge , and other data and response to a patient query 16 . if a patient query is entered at 106 then the query is encoded 108 for use within the central database to be interpreted through the application software . otherwise the database continues to retrieve inputs from external third parties at 102 and populate the database at 104 . the encoded query is sent to the server at 110 where it is processed at 112 by the central server &# 39 ; s cpu . once the query is processed , the cpu will make a determination of whether health care provider input ( e . g . a doctor ) is needed at 114 . if not , the server sends back a response at 116 which is determined by the server cpu and provided through the patient &# 39 ; s software application . the process ends at this step at 132 . the response to the patient may include instructions to see a health care provider or to go to the emergency room . if provider input is needed at 114 , the patient &# 39 ; s location is determined at 118 and the nearest health care provider is located at 120 . there may be parameters limiting which providers can be listed , such as those providers who are in network with the patient &# 39 ; s health insurance provider , or those providers who the patient has indicated are their primary care physicians . the nearest provider is contacted at 122 and a check is performed to see if the provider is capable of responding at that time at 124 . if not , the next provider on the list is located at 120 and process repeats . if the provider responds at 124 , the patient query is sent to the provider at 126 through the central server . the provider processes the query at 128 through its computer system using its database of patient history and other data to evaluate the patient query . a patient response is sent to the patient from the provider at 130 . this response could go directly from the provider to the patient , or it could be filtered through the software application located at the central server . data based upon the provider &# 39 ; s response at 130 is also sent to the central server via the dashed line shown in fig3 , which represents only data flow and not a step in the method . this data is seen as third party data and populates into the database to increase the ability of the software application at the central server , via the central server cpu , to respond to similar patient queries in the future . it should be noted that the response to the patient from either the software application or the health care provider should take the form of a patient disposition , directing the patient to the appropriate place to obtain health care , rather than to attempt to produce a diagnosis of the patient &# 39 ; s ailment based upon the patient &# 39 ; s inputs alone . fig4 is a flowchart diagraming the steps taken when the health care provider provides a response to a patient query . the process starts at 140 and the health care provider retrieves the patient query at 142 . the provider then retrieves all patient history records at 144 , and all relevant external data at 146 . the patient query is then evaluated at 148 while all of these data factors are taken into account . this process is likely performed by the health care provider computing device 6 cpu 22 . alternatively , this could be performed at the central server 8 using data stored at the health care provider . a determination is made at 150 whether manual review of the patient query and related data is needed . if no , then a second determination is made whether the determination requires a patient visit at 152 . if no , then a disposition response is formulated and sent to the patent at 154 and the process ends at 170 . if manual review is necessary at 150 , then the data is sent to a professional to review at 156 . after the review , a diagnosis is retrieved at 158 based upon the professional review , and the determination of whether a visit is required occurs at 152 . again , if no , a patient disposition response is determined and sent to the patient at 154 and the process ends at 170 . if a visit is determined necessary at 152 , direction to the medical care provider are added to the disposition response at 160 , and the response is sent to the patient at 162 . the process then is on stand - by until the patient visit occurs at 164 . the professionals will examine the patient in the ordinary course , and then the results of that examination will be given to the patient and will also be uploaded through the software application to the central server at 166 . the database ( s ) are updated at 168 and the process ends at 170 . it should be noted here that the requirements for having the patient diagnoses reached by the professional entered into the disposition system 2 allows the disposition system to essentially become “ smarter .” future patient queries with similar symptom features may not require an in - face doctor visit based upon the outcome of previous visits . fig5 is a flowchart demonstrating the steps taken for submitting a patient query 16 through a patient computing device 4 . the process starts at 172 and the software application is activated at 174 . the patient interacts with the software application through user interface , such as a touch screen , mouse and keyboard , or other standard computer user interface . the patient first enters text data at 176 which describes the symptoms the patient is suffering from and generally describes the area of the body being affected . the patient is asked whether there are physical symptoms at 178 . if yes , the patient takes a photograph of those symptoms ( e . g . rash , swelling ) at 180 . the patient is then asked whether there are audible symptoms ( e . g . cough ) at 182 . if yes , the patient takes an audio recording of the symptom at 184 . all of this symptom data is compiled and uploaded as the patient query at 186 . the query is sent at 188 . results are eventually returned to the patient at 190 in the form of a disposition , instructing the patient who to call or what to expect based upon the symptoms as presented by the patient . if the instructions require the patient to visit a health care provider , directions may be returned along with the result . this process ends at 192 . fig6 is a flow chart demonstrating how third party data and third party diagnostics are incorporated into the practice of a method of the present invention . the process starts at 200 and third party data is received at the central server at 202 . this data may be delivered directly from the third party as part of a relationship between the third party and the disposition system 2 , or it may be based upon research performed in conjunction with the disposition system 2 , or it may be some other public source of information , or , as described above , it may come directly from health care providers based upon prior patient queries . the database is populated with third party at 204 . new diagnostic data is received at 206 . this data may come from any of the sources above , and adds to the database of knowledge available to the disposition system 2 . the database is updated at 208 as this new diagnostic data is received . third parties may make requests of data from the disposition system . if such a request is not made at 210 , the database continues to be updated as new diagnostic data is received at 206 . once a third party request is made at 210 , the requested data is sent to the third party at 212 . here , third parties may be health care providers , insurance companies , or even statisticians using the data to help increase responsiveness and effectiveness of health care providers . the data is processed at the third party location at 214 , such as at a doctor &# 39 ; s office . if a change in data , or some other meaningful result is determined based upon the data , at 216 , the third party may take some action at 218 . this action may be a doctor &# 39 ; s disposition result for a patient , or it may be the recognition of an outbreak in the area of a particular disease , or it may even be a breakthrough in some genetic testing based upon data stored in the disposition system database . this updated data is sent back into the database which is updated at 208 . if no change in data as described above is determined at 216 , then the procedure returns to ask if there is another third party request . the cycle continues as new data is absorbed and new requests are performed . fig7 presents the steps of practicing an embodiment of the present invention for performing a generic example of a patient query having symptoms . the process starts at 230 and may begin with an age query at 232 . the query may ask whether the patient is less than 2 months old , over sixty years old , or some other quantifier . depending on the response at 232 , the disposition system 2 will require a determination immediately at 246 whether emergency procedures are necessary . for example , if a two - month old patient has a fever over 104 °, the disposition system will tell the patient or the user to immediately contact an emergency health provider at 248 . otherwise it will recommend contacting the patient &# 39 ; s pediatrician or other family health provider at 250 . if the age query returns a range that does not require immediate attention , the patient will be asked to enter textual symptom information into the query at 234 . this may include the location of the body where pain is occurring or the description of other symptoms ( e . g . sneezing , wheezing , and shortness of breath ). if these symptoms trigger a disposition result at 236 within the disposition system 2 , then a determination of whether or not there is an emergency response need is made at 246 . if yes , the patient is instructed to immediately contact an emergency health provider at 248 ; otherwise , the patient is instructed to contact their primary care provider at 250 . if the textual symptoms do not trigger a disposition result , the patient may then be asked to submit photographs of physical symptoms , if any , the patient is suffering from at 238 . again , if these symptoms trigger a disposition result at 240 within the disposition system 2 , then a determination of whether or not there is an emergency response need is made at 246 . if yes , the patient is instructed to immediately contact an emergency health provider at 248 ; otherwise , the patient is instructed to contact their primary care provider at 250 . if the physical symptoms do not trigger a disposition result , other additional symptom queries may be entered at 242 . these may include additional textual symptoms , or choices from a list produced by the disposition system 2 , or audio files for audible symptoms . again , if these symptoms trigger a disposition result at 244 within the disposition system 2 , then a determination of whether or not there is an emergency response need is made at 246 . if yes , the patient is instructed to immediately contact an emergency health provider at 248 ; otherwise , the patient is instructed to contact their primary care provider at 250 . if no trigger is determined , the system checks to determine whether it is capable of producing an automated result for the patient at 252 . if not , it suggests following up with the patient &# 39 ; s primary care provider . if there is a result , the system determines whether the condition is self - treatable at 254 based upon the determined disposition . if not , it suggests following up with the patient &# 39 ; s primary care provider . if the ailment is determined to be self - treatable , the system sends a result at 256 which may include a video indicating how to treat the symptom ( s ) of the ailment . for example , if it is determined that the user has a mild eye irritation , the video may show how to put eye drops into your eye to flush out the irritant or otherwise sooth the irritation . the process then ends at 258 . not shown in the chart , but possible in an optimized embodiment of the present invention , is a scheduling step . the patient computing device 4 would schedule the self - treatment procedure required by the video , and would request from the patient follow - up data after the self - treatment should have occurred according to the schedule . this follow - up data may then lead to a different diagnosis . fig8 goes one step further and provides a specific example of how a patient suffering from a fever would use a preferred embodiment disposition system 2 . the process starts at 270 and the first question posed by the disposition system software would be whether the patient &# 39 ; s temperature exceeds 100 . 3 ° fahrenheit at 272 . if not , instructions are sent to the patient at 274 which basically indicate that fevers at or below 100 . 3 ° fahrenheit are not indicative of a need for immediate medical attention . the instructions may suggest taking aspirin or another fever reducer and to continue checking the patient &# 39 ; s temperature at a regular basis . the process would then end at 298 . if the patient answers that their fever is above 100 . 3 ° fahrenheit at 272 , the next question may be whether the fever has been present for more than five days at 276 . alternatively , the question presented to the patient would simply ask how long the fever has been persisting . if the fever has been present for more than five days at 276 , the system will inform the patient to either contact their doctor immediately or to head to the nearest emergency room at 275 . instructions to the location of choice may also be provided by the disposition system . the process then ends at 298 . if the fever has not been present for more than five days at 276 , the next question presented by the disposition system may be the age of the patient at 278 . similar to the discussion above , if the age of the patient falls within a pre - determined threshold of ages ( e . g . under two months or over sixty years ), the patient may be instructed to either contact their doctor immediately or to head to the nearest emergency room at 275 . instructions to the location of choice may also be provided by the disposition system . the process then ends at 298 . if the patient does not fall within a specific age threshold at 278 , the patient may be asked whether the suffer from any immune or infection issues at 280 , or any other key factors which may require immediate medical attention . if the patient does indeed suffer from any of these factors , the patient may be instructed to either contact their doctor immediately or to head to the nearest emergency room at 275 . instructions to the location of choice may also be provided by the disposition system . the process then ends at 298 . if the patient does not suffer from additional immunity or infection issues at 280 , they may next be asked to list their symptoms or choose from some predetermined text - based symptom queries at 282 . if any of these symptoms cause the disposition system to trigger an alert at 282 , the patient may be instructed to either contact their doctor immediately or to head to the nearest emergency room at 275 . instructions to the location of choice may also be provided by the disposition system . the process then ends at 298 . similarly , the patient may be asked to provide photographs of their visible symptoms at 284 , if any . like above , if any of these symptoms cause the disposition system to trigger an alert at 282 , the patient may be instructed to either contact their doctor immediately or to head to the nearest emergency room at 275 . instructions to the location of choice may also be provided by the disposition system . the process then ends at 298 . a similar process will take place regarding audio symptoms at 286 , if any . again , the results may trigger a response instructing the patient to contact their doctor or the local emergency room at 275 . a follow - up query may be presented by the system at 288 where a number of photographs are presented to the patient . the patient may select any photographs which match their physically visible symptoms . the results could trigger the need to seek immediate medical attention . if no trigger has been reached , the patient may be asked to enter additional information about their symptoms at 290 . an optional step not shown in fig8 would send these results to a medical professional who may examine them and determine whether or not immediate medical attention is necessary . these other symptoms may also be reviewed by the disposition system 2 and may automatically trigger such a response . if no trigger for immediate medical attention has occurred , the disposition system may ask the patient whether they are suffering from common symptoms at 292 . in the case of a fever , the query may ask about sneezing , coughing , or other symptoms indicating that the patient is suffering from the common cold . if the patient indicates this is correct , the disposition system 2 will send the patient common instructions on how to treat the symptoms of the common cold at 296 , and the process ends at 298 . note that this result will only generate such a diagnosis when all other probable results have been eliminated . if the patient indicates that they are not suffering from the common symptoms listed by the disposition system at 292 , but no trigger for immediate medical attention has occurred previously , the patient will be instructed to set up an appointment with their primary care physician at 294 and the process ends at 298 . it should be understood that this is just one example of one ailment and how the disposition system 2 of a preferred embodiment invention would respond to the patient query . different ailments and symptoms may trigger different responses from the disposition system . as the disposition system evolves over time , what may trigger an emergency alert may change . other symptoms or patient data not listed in these steps may also be gathered by the disposition system 2 from the patient or third parties when evaluating a patient disposition . fig9 a - f show an example of a screenshot of a user interface 18 as it may appear on a mobile computing device 4 used by a patient when accessing the software application 14 . fig9 a in particular shows the selection of the location on the patient &# 39 ; s body where the pain , discomfort , injury , or other symptom ( s ) are occurring . the patient can choose from a list as shown , or alternatively an interactive figure resembling the human body may appear and the patient can select the portion of the body that is affected . fig9 b similarly shows how a patient may select one or more symptoms from a predetermined list . this list is narrowed down by the selection of body location . it may further be narrowed down based upon other information provided by the patient and / or third parties . alternatively the patient will type the symptoms into the user interface directly . fig9 c shows an example of a user interface where a number of audio files of different types of coughs may be reviewed by the patient by clicking on a “ play ” icon 58 . once the user has heard all of the cues , they patient will select a selectable radio button 60 relating to their symptom . options are available if the patient has “ no cough ” or if none of the sound bites sound like the patient &# 39 ; s cough . if “ none ” is selected , other options may be pulled up in a second screen . fig9 d similarly shows an example of a user interface where the patient is asked to select between two images 62 which may resemble the physically visible symptoms they are suffering from . again , the patient will select either image or “ neither image ” by selecting a selectable radio button 60 or otherwise selecting the object . alternatively the patient will take a photograph of their symptom , upload it , and view it on the user interface 18 to verify the picture is clear . fig9 e shows a user interface 18 including a text bar 19 for typing in a patient &# 39 ; s symptoms , and a results list 21 based upon what the patient has typed in . it should be noted that all results will appear at a seventh - grade health literacy level , instead of presenting large medical terms and medical conditions that a lay person would not understand . fig9 f shows a user interface 18 asking basic questions that the patient query 16 needs to establish before eliminating possible symptoms and solutions . for instance , if the gender “ male ” is selected , the question regarding pregnancy would be removed . age ranges of important medical significance are also asked about up - front . other features relating to the various elements described throughout may be incorporated into the user interface to varying degrees . any typical means of selecting items within a user interface may be used in conjunction or separate of any of the elements mentioned herein . the major feature of the present invention over the existing prior art is the ability to generate a patient disposition based upon data from parties other than the patient and instruct the patient correctly , in a manner which can be understood by nearly any patient ( e . g . at a seventh - grade health literacy level ). the patient is instructed to seek the correct guidance to resolve their medical issue , rather than being provided a laundry list of difficult to pronounce diagnoses which the patient must select between based upon similar sounding symptoms of which they have no way to differentiate . instead of worrying a patient or providing incorrect diagnoses , the present invention makes sure the patient has the best course of action for treating whatever ailment they have based upon data from all sources available , not just what the patient inputs . because the present invention can be incorporated into business models within the healthcare industry , such as insurance companies and hospitals , it is important for the software and hardware to be capable of generating reports based upon the results of the disposition system illustrated above . these data analytics will be important to the business side of the healthcare industry , and may drive the way the software application responds to patient queries to increase cost savings to both the providers and the patients . for example , the system 2 will record how many patients use the application software on a daily basis . based upon the disposition outcomes , the system 2 can generate data associated with the efficiency of preventing or averting visits to emergency departments or to urgent care that would have likely been burdened with such a visit absent the presence of the disposition system 2 . similar results would be available for averted urgent care or physician office visits that may not have been postponed had the patient been incorrectly alerted to a diagnosis that they were not actually suffering from . the system 2 will record the top presenting complaints entered into patient queries and can generate reports based upon dispositions stemming from those complaints . all of this can lead to a reigning - in of healthcare costs . the present invention could be more specifically applied to systems and methods of producing a disposition . one example would be a pregnancy tracking and advising application which records up to date information provided by the patient to predetermine what could be wrong with the patient or the unborn child during various periods of pregnancy . as data is collected and stored , the disposition system would be able to more accurately determine what may be wrong with the patient and to properly instruct the patient whether the problem can wait until the next meeting with the patient &# 39 ; s primary care or obgyn , or whether immediate emergency medical treatment should be sought . similarly , the disposition system could be used for patients with diagnosed or presumed mental health issues . the system could be setup after a traumatic event or after diagnosis of mental illness by a health care provider . the system could track the patient &# 39 ; s mood via periodic queries , and ensure that the patient is reminded to take their medication . if the patient fails to check in regularly , the system could automatically alert a guardian or medical personnel to check on the patient immediately . the same disposition tools could apply to surgical applications as well as typical non - surgical medical issues . for example , a patient who is scheduled for a surgical procedure could access the software application associated with an embodiment of the present invention and could enter information about their diagnosis and the proposed procedure . through the disposition system described herein , the patient could be instructed to seek a second opinion or be presented with questions that the patient should ask the surgeon prior to consenting to surgery . additionally , the disposition system could present alternatives to surgery . these suggestions could be beneficial to patients who otherwise may be nervous to second - guess their surgeon . it is to be understood that while certain aspects of the disclosed subject matter have been shown and described , the disclosed subject matter is not limited thereto and encompasses various other embodiments and aspects .	6

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