1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to valve arrangements for beverage dispensers in which a diluent (e.g., carbonated water) is mixed with a beverage syrup, and more specifically, this invention relates to a quick disconnect arrangement for such beverage dispenser valves which prevents removal of the dispenser valve for cleaning, repair, or replacement while the syrup and diluent is being supplied to the valve under pressure.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Beverage dispensers are in standard use in restaurants and in vending machines to mix and provide soft drink beverages such as colas and the like upon demand. Such soft drinks typically comprise a beverage syrup which includes all of the ingredients and flavorings mixed with a diluent such as carbonated water. Beverage dispensers are preferred over premixed bottled or canned beverages in restaurants and in some vending machines because of the greatly reduced storage requirements for unmixed syrup as opposed to the finished canned or bottled beverage.
However, because such beverage dispenser valves are electromechanical devices usually operated by solenoids such as the fast flow valve arrangement illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,266,726--Brown, et al., and because the beverage syrup contains numerous ingredients including a high concentration of sugar, it is often necessary to remove the valve arrangement for cleaning and/or repair.
Further, since the carbonated water and the beverage syrup are supplied to the dispensing valve under pressure, it is desirable to provide a disconnect arrangement which permits easy, rapid removal of the dispensing valve but which assures that the dispensing valve cannot be removed while the carbonated water and beverage syrup are being supplied to the dispensing valve under pressure. Very often in restaurants and other fast food establishments, multiple valve arrangements for different beverages are being supplied by the same source of carbonated water. Thus, it is desirable to provide a disconnect arrangement which does not require a shutdown of the entire system to permit removal of a single valve arrangement.


When an electronic document such as a webpage is displayed, a part of the image may be magnified.
This application provides an information-processing device includes a display controller that, when a scaling operation for changing a scale of an image to be displayed is not performed, displays the image with a first magnification in a display, and when the scaling operation is performed, displays the image with a second magnification that is greater than the first magnification in the display.


The electric power grid has become more distributed. More localized electrical generation facilities operated by users produce an ever greater share of electricity. As the prevalence of localized electrical general facilities increases, more and more electronic loads localized throughout the grid increase problems of power factor (PF).
The PF typically refers to the relationship between current and voltage in an alternating current (AC) electric power system. The PF of an AC electric power system can be defined as the ratio of the real power flowing to a load to the apparent power that is seemingly being drawn from a power source. PF typically is a number between 0 and 1, and is frequently expressed as a percentage. Real power can be understood as the capacity of a circuit to perform work in a particular time. Apparent power can be understood as the product of the current and the voltage of the circuit.


In electrophotography, also known as Xerography, electrophotographic imaging or electrostatographic imaging, the surface of an electrophotographic plate, dram, belt or the like (imaging member or photoreceptor) containing a photoconductive insulating layer on a conductive layer is first uniformly electrostatically charged. The imaging member is then exposed to a pattern of activating electromagnetic radiation, such as light. The radiation selectively dissipates the charge on the illuminated areas of the photoconductive insulating layer while leaving behind an electrostatic latent image on the non-illuminated areas. This electrostatic latent image may then be developed to form a visible image by depositing finely divided electroscopic marking particles on the surface of the photoconductive insulating layer. The resulting visible image may then be transferred from the imaging member directly or indirectly (such as by a transfer or other member) to a print substrate, such as transparency or paper. The imaging process may be repeated many times with reusable imaging members.
An electrophotographic imaging member may be provided in a number of forms. For Example, the imaging member may be a homogeneous layer of a single material such as vitreous selenium or it may be a composite layer containing a photoconductor and other materials. In addition, the imaging member may be layered in which each layer making up the member performs a certain function. Current layered organic imaging members generally have at least a substrate layer and two electro active or photo active layers. These active layers generally include (1) a charge generating layer containing a light-absorbing material, and (2) a charge transport layer containing hole transport molecules or materials. These layers can be in a variety of orders to make up a functional device, and sometimes can be combined in a single or mixed layer. The substrate layer may be formed from a conductive material. Alternatively, a conductive layer can be formed on a nonconductive inert substrate by a technique such as but not limited to sputter coating.
The charge generating layer is capable of photogenerating a charge and injecting the photogenerated charge into the charge transport layer or other layer.
In the charge transport layer, the hole transport molecules may be in a polymer binder. In this case, the hole transport molecules provide hole or electron transport properties, while the electrically inactive polymer binder provides mechanical properties. Alternatively, the charge transport layer can be made from a charge transporting polymer such as vinyl polymer, polysilylene or polyether carbonate, wherein the charge transport properties are chemically incorporated into the mechanically robust polymer.
Imaging members may also include a charge blocking layer(s) and/or an adhesive layer(s) between the charge generating layer and the conductive substrate layer. In addition, imaging members may contain protective overcoatings. These protective overcoatings can be either electroactive or inactive, where electroactive overcoatings are generally preferred. Further, imaging members may include layers to provide special functions such as incoherent reflection of laser light, dot patterns and/or pictorial imaging or subbing layers to provide chemical sealing and/or a smooth coating surface.
Imaging members are generally exposed to repetitive electrophotographic cycling, which subjects the exposed charge transport layer or alternative top layer thereof to mechanical abrasion, chemical attack and heat. This repetitive cycling leads to a gradual deterioration in the mechanical and electrical characteristics of the exposed charge transport layer.
Although excellent toner images may be obtained with multilayered belt or drum photoreceptors, it has been found that as more advanced, higher speed electrophotographic copiers, duplicators and printers are developed, there is a greater demand on copy quality. A delicate balance in charging image and bias potentials, and characteristics of the toner and/or developer, must be maintained. This places additional constraints on the quality of photoreceptor manufacturing, and thus, on the manufacturing yield.
Despite the various approaches that have been taken for forming imaging members, there remains a need for improved imaging member design, to provide improved imaging performance, longer lifetime, and the like.


The present invention relates generally to the field of disposable articles utilized for absorption and containment of urine and other body exudates. More particularly, the invention relates to a disposable article, for example a diaper, that incorporates components such as an absorbent insert pad which may be removed from the article and flushed down a toilet.
Disposable articles for the absorption and containment of urine and other body exudates are generally known in the art. Such disposable articles have found particular utility in the fields of infant care, child care, feminine care, and adult incontinency. Present commercially available disposable articles for such uses are generally unitary, preshaped or prefolded, and comprised of a fluid pervious bodyside liner, a fluid impervious backing sheet, and an absorbent material disposed between the bodyside liner and the backing sheet. Disposable articles of this type effectively and efficiently absorb and contain urine or other body exudates. Such articles are designed for a single use and are simply deposited after use in a waste receptacle. This ease and convenience of disposal has contributed to the increasing popularity of such disposable absorbent articles.
Until now, the vast majority of the absorbent articles of :he aforementioned type have been designed to be disposed of by delivery to solid waste landfills. Such absorbent articles have not generally been compatible with being flushed down a toilet. The relatively few products that have been designed specifically to be disposed of, at least partially, by flushing have been ineffective or impractical.
With regard to diapers, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,211,147 to P. O. Pherson et al. discloses a diaper pad that is intended to be completely disposed of in household toilets and septic tanks. The pad includes a paper web, several fluff pads, and paper reinforcing strips. The diaper employs numerous channels to distribute fluids. Because the pad contains only wood pulp derivatives, the user may separate the diaper into pieces and flush the pieces in a toilet.
A diaper with a flushable portion is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,667,466 to H. J. Ralph. This patent discloses a diaper having a flushable layer and a reusable retainer. The flushable layer is composed of top and bottom layers of wet-strength material that surround an absorbent layer. The diaper incorporates numerous perforations which cause the diaper to be self-segmenting and self-disintegrating when immersed in a toilet.
Another diaper with a flushable portion is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,964,857 to C. Osborn. This patent discloses a diaper that incorporates a removable and flushable inner sheet of material. The inner sheet has a liquid permeable layer, an absorbent layer, and a moisture repellent layer. The inner sheet, which is attached to the remainder of the diaper by adhesives, is constructed with a plurality of perforations and a series of hollow channels. A drawstring located within the channels is used to remove the inner sheet from the remainder of the diaper.
These attempts to provide diapers that are completely or partially flushable have not been entirely successful. For example, the above-mentioned completely flushable diapers must necessarily be limited to materials that can be flushed. Consequently, completely flushable diapers have provided less than desirable fit and absorbency characteristics. On the other hand, the diapers having a flushable layer and a reusable retainer are frequently messy and inconvenient. Finally, the diapers that incorporate a removable insert have not effectively utilized the absorbent material contained within the insert and have tended to prematurely experience saturation spots. Consequently, these diapers have not provided an adequate amount of comfort and dryness. Additionally, these diapers have included devices such as drawstrings to remove the inserts. Devices of this type present numerous manufacturing difficulties and increase the expense and complexity of production.
The present invention teaches an improved disposable article which provides components, such as an absorbent insert pad, which may be quickly and conveniently removed from the article. The user can dispose of the insert pad, as well as any solid feces material held in the article, in any toilet that is connected to a holding tank, a municipal sewer, or other municipal wastewater treatment system. The insert pad may then be flushed down the toilet, and the remainder of the article may be composted or recycled where suitably equipped facilities are available, disposed at a conventional landfill site, or incinerated. Alternately, the complete absorbent article including the insert pad may be directed into the solid waste stream. Thus, the user may select among several alternative disposal methods, thereby accommodating the individual's preferences and the community's capabilities.


This invention relates to apparatus for determining the opening combination of a safe lock and, in particular, to a programmable device capable of automatically dialing an ordered sequence of combinations into the lock and testing the lock after each combination has been set in to determine if the combination will open the lock.
Where the combination of a safe or vault has been forgotten, lost or otherwise unobtainable, it is generally left to the skill of the individual locksmith who is employed to open the safe to determine exactly what digits are embodied in the opening combination. Even under ideal conditions, where the workings of the lock are familiar and one or more numbers in the combination are known, the task of opening the safe can be extremely time consuming and costly. In some procedures, particularly where the workings of the lock mechanism are old and not understood, holes are sometimes drilled into the lock assembly to allow the locksmith to actually see and/or manipulate the tumblers and release mechanism embodied therein. These drilling procedures while effective in opening the safe or vault usually make it necessary to replace the lock. In any event, regardless of the procedures involved, finding the opening combination of a safe or vault has typically proven to be an extremely difficult and sometimes frustrating task.


1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method, system, program, and data structures for testing a network system including input/output (I/O) devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
A storage area network (SAN) comprises a network linking one or more servers to one or more storage systems. Each storage system could comprise a Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) array, tape backup, tape library, CD-ROM library, or JBOD (Just a Bunch of Disks) components. Storage area networks (SAN) typically use the Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop (FC-AL) protocol, which uses optical fibers to connect devices and provide high bandwidth communication between the devices. In Fibre Channel terms the switch connecting the devices is called a “fabric”. The link is the two unidirectional fibers, which may comprise an optical wire, transmitting to opposite directions with their associated transmitter and receiver. Each fibre is attached to a transmitter of a port at one end and a receiver of another port at the other end. When a fabric is present in the configuration, the fibre may attach to a node port (N_Port) and to a port of the Fabric (F_Port).
Because a Fibre Channel storage area network (SAN) is an amalgamation of numerous hosts, workstations, and storage devices, troubleshooting for errors can often be a somewhat complex process. Currently, in the prior art, a technician will perform a series of tests from a host system in the SAN and test various channels and connections to the storage devices to detect problems and then try to locate the specific source of a problem. Technicians generally rely on their own knowledge, experience and expertise when diagnosing the SAN system for errors. Such knowledge is not a shared resource, but rather an individual point of view and an accumulation of guess work and personal experience. As a result, it is unlikely that different storage experts troubleshoot a storage system in the same manner, thereby leading to possible incorrect or inconsistent diagnosis as well as an increase in the Mean Time To Diagnose (MTTD). Moreover, as the number of SAN systems proliferate, it may become more and more difficult for system administrators to locate available diagnosticians.
Certain “cookbook” approaches to testing a Fibre Channel network have been proposed, such as the “Fibre Channel FC-AL-2 Parametric Test Suite Rev. 7.0”, published by the Fibre Channel Consortium, document no. ANSI X3.272-199X (January 2000), which publication is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. Such documents describe specific tests that may be performed to troubleshoot a Fibre Channel network. However, again the order in which the tests are selected and performed is still a matter of choice for the diagnostician performing the troubleshooting operations.
Notwithstanding current efforts at troubleshooting network components, such as a SAN, the current art lacks tools that provide an integrated and consistent approach toward diagnostic testing of a SAN and its components.


1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to optical devices and a method for making such devices. More particularly this invention is related to devices for viewing the interior of a passageway in a selective region.
2. Description of Related Art
There are a variety of applications which require an individual to view the interior of a remote chamber. In an industrial environment, for example, it is desirable to view portions of the interior of a machine, such as a jet engine, that is otherwise inaccessible. In medical applications it is desirable to view a passageway in the body. Viewing scopes that enable one to view such remote passages are well known in the art. Such devices used for mechanical applications are generally called borescopes. For medical applications the viewing scopes take many forms and are known by different names. Generically the name "endoscope" means any slender, tubular optical instrument used as a viewing system for examining an inner part of the body. In practice such viewing scopes have a variety of names, such as endoscopes, laparoscopes and bronchoscopes. In the following discussion the phrase "viewing scope" is meant to include generically both (1) borescopes and (2) endoscopes in any form including laparoscopes, bronchoscopes, etc.
Viewing scopes generally have an eyepiece at a proximal end, an objective lens at a distal end and an image guide interposed between the eyepiece and the objective lens. The image guide uses two general forms of optics, namely: rigid optics and fiber optics. Image guides using rigid optics include relay or rod lenses to transfer an image from a distal end of the viewing scope to its proximal end. The following patents disclose examples of image guides using such rigid optics:
U.S. Pat. No. 4,036,218 (1977) Yamashita et al PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 4,993,817 (1991) Hoogland PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 4,776,668 (1988) Fujimoto PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 4,938,205 (1990) Nudelman PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 4,945,894 (1990) Kawashima PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 4,961,738 (1990) Mackin
Image guides using fiber optics generally interpose a bundle of optical fibers between the proximal and distal ends of the viewing scope. The following patents disclose image guides that incorporate such fiber optics:
The Fujimoto patent discloses a viewing scope with a coherent fiber optic bundle as an image guide. Each fiber comprises a pure quartz silica strand coated with a reflective layer. This patent discloses structure eliminating differential expansion between the fiber optic bundle and other portions of the viewing scope during flexure.
The Nudelman patent discloses an endoscope that includes a fiber optic bundle between distal and proximal ends. The fiber optic bundle is flexible between the ends.
The Kawashima patent discloses an endoscope in which image guide fibers transmit an image formed at the objective to a proximal end of the endoscope.
The Mackin patent discloses an angioplasty catheter that includes a fiber optic bundle for conveying an image between the distal and proximal ends.
Conventionally fiber optic bundles used in such image guides comprise a preferred three-glass fiber or two-glass fiber. A three-glass fiber has a glass core that acts as a light transmitter, a concentric reflective layer and a fusible, acid soluble outer layer. In conventional processing, a bundle of such fibers are assembled together and heated to fuse just the outer layer. Then the ends are isolated and the entire structure is immersed in an acid bath as a leaching solution to remove portions of the fusible glass between the ends so the bundle will be flexible along its length. It is difficult to control this leaching process. If the leaching continues for too long a time, the solution acid can etch through the outer glass layer and the reflective layer thereby detracting from the image by lowering its contrast. This leaching step effectively controls the minimum diameter of the individual fibers and the number of individual fibers that can be formed into a bundle of a given size. As the diameter of the fibers becomes smaller, the effort required to control the leaching process increases because the fusible layer becomes thinner. Consequently costs increase because the manufacturing is more difficult and because production yields decrease.
Optical fibers used in two-glass fiber optic bundles have a light transmitting core and a reflective outer cladding. Multiple drawing steps can reduce the light transmitting core to under 10 microns. During each drawing step a bundle of fiber passes through a die that reduces both its core and cladding and that causes the bundles and fibers within each bundle to adhere. When such fibers are drawn below 10 microns, however, the cladding becomes very thin and transmissive. Cross talk can occur and limit the contrast resolution of the viewed image. In some situations this requires the insertion of black glass or other barriers to prevent light from one fiber from transferring to another fiber through the thin cladding.
The basic criteria for selecting rigid optics or fiber optics for an image guide include spatial resolution as a primary criteria and contrast resolution, cost and ruggedness. Rigid optics provide the best spatial and contrast resolution. However, they are fragile and have the highest manufacturing costs. An image guide must be designed separately for each combination of a viewing scope length and diameter. Fiber optics, on the other hand, provide a rugged image guide and require less design effort and have lower costs. However, image guides using fiber optic bundles have limited spatial resolution. In viewing scopes of the type contemplated by this invention, the spatial resolution is limited to 5,000 to 30,000 pixels in an image. Fiber optics also provide somewhat lower contrast resolution than rigid optics and require an inventory of one bundle for each combination of viewing scope diameter and length.


The present disclosure relates generally to internet protocol television (IPTV), and more particularly, to methods, systems, and computer program products for providing IPTV support.
Currently, IPTV services are provided to users through IPTV networks and in-home devices, such as set top boxes (STBs). When a user experiences difficulty in receiving the IPTV services, the existing process is for the user to call a customer service representative to seek assistance. The customer service representative can often respond to routine issues, but may have difficulty responding to more complex issues. This often results in the IPTV service provider sending a technician to the user's location to diagnose and resolve the issue. Unfortunately, the task of sending technicians to a user's location is costly and time consuming for both the service provider and the user.
There is a need in the art for methods and systems to facilitate diagnosis and resolution of IPTV service issues without requiring sending a technician to visit the user.


Current networks typically include devices, such as routers, switches or gateways, which transfer or switch data, such as packets, from one or more sources to one or more destinations. A packet is one format of data in which encapsulated data can be transmitted through a network based on control information that is stored in a header portion of the packet. A router is a switching device that can receive a packet and, based on the packet header, may forward the packet towards its final destination.
Existing routers include forwarding engines for receiving and forwarding incoming packets to their intended destinations. To forward incoming packets from an input port to an appropriate output port, routers may perform complex data manipulation actions on the packet header. Such data manipulation actions frequently result in the router rewriting a portion of the packet header before transmitting the packet to an appropriate output port of the router.


Conventionally, for the purpose of preventing the occurrence of operating noises of a compressor inside a room, a compressor unit has been provided outside the room and helium gas discharged from the compressor has been air-cooled by an air-cooling heat exchanger. However, since the cooling by the air-cooling heat exchanger installed outside the room is air-cooling, the helium gas cannot be cooled to a temperature lower than the air temperature by this air-cooling heat exchanger. Therefore, when the outdoor temperature is high in summer or in a similar case, the temperature of the helium gas supplied to the cryogenic expander is hard to be maintained at a temperature not higher than a temperature (35.degree. C., for example) at which the insulating property of a motor is assured.
In view of the above, there is proposed a cryogenic refrigerating apparatus (Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. HEI 6-249148) which can cool the helium gas to a lower temperature through two-stage cooling by installing a compressor unit provided with a compressor and a first air-cooling heat exchanger outside a room and installing an intermediate unit provided with a second air-cooling heat exchanger inside the room.
In this cryogenic refrigerating apparatus which performs the two-stage cooling, as shown in FIG. 7, a compressor unit 1 is constructed of a helium gas compressor 11, a first air-cooling heat exchanger 12 comprised of, for example, a cross fin coil provided in communication with discharge side piping 21 of this compressor 11 and an oil separator 13 provided in communication with the discharge side piping 21 on the outlet side of this first air-cooling heat exchanger 12, while an intermediate unit 3 provided with a second air-cooling heat exchanger 31 comprised of, for example, a cross fin coil is provided separately from this compressor unit 1, the compressor unit 1 being installed outside a room and the intermediate unit 3 being installed inside the room.
An end portion which belongs to the discharge side piping 21 connected to the discharge side of the compressor 11 is connected to gas supply piping 41 of the intermediate unit 3, while an end portion which belongs to an intake side piping 22 connected to the intake side of the compressor 11 is connected to gas return piping 42 of the intermediate unit 3.
The gas supply piping 41 of the intermediate unit 3 is connected to a high-pressure side communication piping 51 communicated with a cryogenic expander 5, while the gas return piping 42 of the intermediate unit 3 is connected to a low-pressure side communication piping 52 communicated with the cryogenic expander 5.
Further, the second air-cooling heat exchanger 31 is connected to the gas supply piping 41, an adsorber 32 is provided in communication with the outlet side of the second air-cooling heat exchanger 31 and the second air-cooling heat exchanger 31 is provided with a fan 33.
It is to be noted that oil collected in a bottom portion of the oil separator 13 is injected into a compression element of the compressor 11 via oil injection piping 23 and oil collected to a height higher than a specified oil surface height inside the oil separator 13 is returned from the intake side piping 22 into the compressor 11 via an oil return piping 24. On the other hand, oil collected in a bottom portion inside the compressor 11 is cooled in the first air-cooling heat exchanger 12 via an oil cooling piping 25 and thereafter returned from the intake side piping 22 into the compressor 11.
Then, in the first air-cooling heat exchanger 12 of the compressor unit 1 installed outside the room, by making compressed high-temperature helium gas to exchange heat with the outdoor air to firstly cool it by the outdoor air for the achievement of the greater part of the heat radiation of the helium gas outside the room and further cooling the helium gas by the second air-cooling heat exchanger 31 of the intermediate unit 3 installed inside the room, the compressed helium gas is cooled in two steps by the outdoor air and the indoor air. This arrangement has allowed the helium gas to be cooled to a temperature not higher than a specified temperature (35.degree. C., for example) even when the outdoor temperature is high and prevented the operating noises inside the room with the compressor unit 1 installed outside the room.
In the cryogenic refrigerating apparatus constructed as above, the helium gas, of which cooling has been insufficient in the compressor unit 1, can be cooled in the intermediate unit 3. However, in regard to the cooling in the intermediate unit 3, constant cooling is consistently performed no matter whether the cooling capacity of the first air-cooling heat exchanger 12 of the compressor unit 1 depending on the outside air temperature is great or small, i.e., a fan 33 for cooling the second air-cooling heat exchanger 31 is driven to rotate consistently at a constant rotating speed so as to make the air flow constant. Therefore, when the outdoor temperature is low in winter, constant cooling is performed by the second air-cooling heat exchanger 31 regardless of the load from outside the room in spite of the fact that sufficient cooling has been performed in the first air-cooling heat exchanger 12, and this has resulted in excessive cooling and a significant change in refrigerating capacity, causing a disadvantage that a stable refrigerating operation can still not be performed.
Furthermore, although not shown in FIG. 7, the first air-cooling heat exchanger 12 of the compressor unit 1 is normally provided with an outdoor fan for cooling. When starting the refrigerating apparatus in a case where the outdoor temperature is extremely low in winter, the viscosity of the oil (mainly ether-based oil) inside the units 1 and 3 is very high. Therefore, when excessive cooling is performed by the operation of the outdoor fan at the first air-cooling heat exchanger 12, the viscosity of the oil does not reduce, and this has tended to cause a disadvantage that the units 1 and 3 do not correctly operate.
The present invention is intended to solve the aforementioned problems, and its principal object is to provide a cryogenic refrigerating apparatus capable of reducing the change in refrigerating capacity as far as possible with respect to a wide range of change in outdoor temperature and performing a stable refrigerating operation.
Another object is to allow the units to regularly operate by speedily reducing the viscosity of the oil even when the outdoor temperature becomes very low in winter.


Many different enterprises run complex networks of servers to implement various automated communication functions to the enterprise. For example, as mobile wireless communications have become increasingly popular, carriers such as Verizon Wireless™ have customer communication systems to provide notifications of account related activities to their customers, for example, as Short Message Service (“SMS”) messages to account holders' mobile stations, as emails, etc. Because of the large number of customers served by a major carrier, and the level of account activities, the volume of notification message traffic is quite large. To effectively provide such notifications, Verizon Wireless™ implemented its Customer Communication Enterprise Services (“CCES”) as an enterprise middleware web service.
At a high level, the CCES middleware comprises a web server layer and an application layer. The architecture allows clients to send a request, for example for a notification, to a web server. The http web server then forwards the client request to one of a number of application servers. Each application server has multiple applications running on it. The application server determines the proper application to process the client request based on the context root of the client request. The application server processes the client request, in the CCES example, by sending one or more request messages to a back end system such as the Vision Billing System, Mobile Telephone Activation System (“MTAS”), the SMS gateway and others, for example, to implement account activity and to initiate subsequent automatic notification thereof to the account holder. Once the application server has processed the request, a reply is then sent back to the web server which will then forward the reply back to the client.
In a multiple server environment described above, there are many servers running many applications that perform a variety of functions. These applications may require constant updating and modifications. The updates may be done on scheduled basis once a week, for example. The process of updating these applications with new code/configuration may generally be the same from week to week with subtle but important differences. This process is called a “Change Control” at, for example, Verizon Wireless™. At Verizon Wireless™ there are about seven groups of servers, which may run the same applications, for implementing the CCES functionality. Each group of server may have anywhere from eight to sixteen physical machines. There are four steps to the current software “Change Control” process.
The first step in installing new or updated server software includes installing updated application code. In this step, an updated version of the application code is to be deployed on the servers in the group. This is involves: (a) taking down the affected servers running the file to be updated, (b) backing up current server application code, (c) installing the new An Enterprise ARchive (“EAR”) file, (d) restarting the server (e.g., each machine has its own GUI to do this process), and (e) notifying the testers to begin once the server application is back on line. The EAR is a file format used for packaging one or more modules into a single archive so that the deployment of the various modules onto an application server happens simultaneously and coherently.
The second step includes installing updated application configuration files. In about 70% of the update deployments several files may need to be deployed/updated. These are supporting application configuration files or simply files that customers may download depending on the application being used by the customer. The process to accomplish this is by copying files to some/all of the machines in the group.
The third step includes executing Structured Query Language (“SQL”) files. After performing the first and second steps, the SQL may need to be executed. This may be done once and may not be per machine type process. The deployer may be given some SQL files and may run them against three different Oracle tables. These may be run on one central Graphical User Interface (“GUI”).
The fourth step includes running of scripts. In some of the server groups, scripts may need to be run at various points within the deployment process. These scripts are small programs that need to be run at specific points/steps within the process to perform functions that aid in the deployment.
The steps in the above process are manual and require the deployer to log onto individual machines in the server group to perform the steps sequentially. That is, deploying two to three groups of servers would involve manually logging into twenty-four machines and running multiple process steps on each. This requires more than one person because one person cannot keep up with all the tasks that are occurring simultaneously. Therefore, there is a need to improve on the time-consuming repetitive tasks requiring two or more human resources to perform the four step deployment process described above, for example, on as many as twenty-four machines.


Engine torque may be increased in response to a change in a requested or desired engine torque. Engine torque may be increased via increasing an amount of air and fuel supplied to the engine, at least up to a condition where the engine lacks capacity to induct additional air into engine cylinders. The amount of fuel supplied to the engine may be increased as the amount of air inducted to the engine increases such that the engine operates near stoichiometric conditions. However, there may be conditions where the amount of air inducted to engine cylinders is less than desired. For example, if the engine is supplied gaseous fuel, the gaseous fuel may displace some air in the cylinder, thereby limiting the amount of torque the engine may produce. Consequently, a desired engine torque response may not be provided.
The inventor herein has recognized the above-mentioned disadvantages and has developed an engine operating method, comprising: directly injecting a gaseous fuel to an engine in response to a pressure of gaseous fuel stored in a fuel tank exceeding a threshold level; and increasing an idle speed of the engine and injecting the gaseous fuel to an engine air intake in response to the amount of gaseous fuel stored in the fuel tank being less than the threshold level.
By increasing idle speed of an engine in response to a pressure of fuel stored in a fuel tank, it may be possible to improve an engine's torque response. For example, if a gaseous fuel is directly injected to engine cylinders, the engine may respond quickly to an increase in desired engine torque. However, if the engine transitions to injecting the gaseous fuel via engine intake injection (e.g., injecting fuel to an engine intake manifold or intake ports) when higher pressure gaseous fuel is not available from the gaseous fuel storage tank, engine output torque at engine idle may not respond as quickly as is desired. The engine torque response at lower engine speeds may be dampened since the engine may generate less torque at lower engine speeds because a portion of cylinder volume may be displaced by fuel. However, if engine idle speed is increased, engine power output may increase more rapidly in a short period of time since more combustion events occur for each second of engine operation. Thus, performance of an engine having engine intake injection may be improved so that vehicle acceleration may be more consistent between direct injection and engine intake injection modes.
The present description may provide several advantages. In particular, the approach may reduce improve engine torque response. Further, the approach may make changes between fuel injection modes less noticeable to a driver. Further still, the approach may extend a vehicle's travel range while operating on a gaseous fuel.
The above advantages and other advantages, and features of the present description will be readily apparent from the following Detailed Description when taken alone or in connection with the accompanying drawings.
It should be understood that the summary above is provided to introduce in simplified form a selection of concepts that are further described in the detailed description. It is not meant to identify key or essential features of the claimed subject matter, the scope of which is defined uniquely by the claims that follow the detailed description. Furthermore, the claimed subject matter is not limited to implementations that solve any disadvantages noted above or in any part of this disclosure.


1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a golf club head with a face component composed of a metal material, and an aft-body composed of a light-weight material. More specifically, the present invention relates to a golf club head with face component composed of a metal material for a more efficient transfer of energy to a golf ball at impact, and a non-metallic aft-body to control the mass distribution.
2. Description of the Related Art
When a golf club head strikes a golf ball, large impacts are produced that load the club head face and the golf ball. Most of the energy is transferred from the head to the golf ball, however, some energy is lost as a result of the collision. The golf ball is typically composed of polymer cover materials (such as ionomers) surrounding a rubber-like core. These softer polymer materials having damping (loss) properties that are strain and strain rate dependent which are on the order of 10-100 times larger than the damping properties of a metallic club face. Thus, during impact most of the energy is lost as a result of the high stresses and deformations of the golf ball (0.001 to 0.20 inch), as opposed to the small deformations of the metallic club face (0.025 to 0.050 inch). A more efficient energy transfer from the club head to the golf ball could lead to greater flight distances of the golf ball.
The generally accepted approach has been to increase the stiffness of the club head face to reduce metal or club head deformations. However, this leads to greater deformations in the golf ball, and thus increases in the energy transfer problem.
Some have recognized the problem and disclosed possible solutions. An example is Campau, U.S. Pat. No. 4,398,965, for a Method Of Making Iron Golf Clubs With Flexible Impact Surface, which discloses a club having a flexible and resilient face plate with a slot to allow for the flexing of the face plate. The face plate of Campau is composed of a ferrous material, such as stainless steel, and has a thickness in the range of 0.1 inches to 0.125 inches.
Another example is Eggiman, U.S. Pat. No. 5,863,261, for a Golf Club Head With Elastically Deforming Face And Back Plates, which discloses the use of a plurality of plates that act in concert to create a spring-like effect on a golf ball during impact. A fluid is disposed between at least two of the plates to act as a viscous coupler.
Yet another example is Jepson et al, U.S. Pat. No. 3,937,474, for a golf Club With A Polyurethane Insert. Jepson discloses that the polyurethane insert has a hardness between 40 and 75 shore D.
Still another example is Inamori, U.S. Pat. No. 3,975,023, for a Golf Club Head With Ceramic Face Plate, which discloses using a face plate composed of a ceramic material having a high energy transfer coefficient, although ceramics are usually harder materials. Chen et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,743,813 for a Golf Club Head, discloses using multiple layers in the face to absorb the shock of the golf ball. One of the materials is a non-metal material.
Lu, U.S. Pat. No. 5,499,814, for a Hollow Club Head With Deflecting Insert Face Plate, discloses a reinforcing element composed of a plastic or aluminum alloy that allows for minor deflecting of the face plate which has a thickness ranging from 0.01 to 0.30 inches for a variety of materials including stainless steel, titanium, KEVLAR®, and the like. Yet another Campau invention, U.S. Pat. No. 3,989,248, for a Golf Club Having Insert Capable Of Elastic Flexing, discloses a wood club composed of wood with a metal insert.
Although not intended for flexing of the face plate, Viste, U.S. Pat. No. 5,282,624 discloses a golf club head having a face plate composed of a forged stainless steel material and having a thickness of 3 mm. Anderson, U.S. Pat. No. 5,344,140, for a Golf Club Head And Method Of Forming Same, also discloses use of a forged material for the face plate. The face plate of Anderson may be composed of several forged materials including steel, copper and titanium. The forged plate has a uniform thickness of between 0.090 and 0.130 inches.
Another invention directed toward forged materials in a club head is Su et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,776,011 for a Golf Club Head. Su discloses a club head composed of three pieces with each piece composed of a forged material. The main objective of Su is to produce a club head with greater loft angle accuracy and reduce structural weaknesses. Aizawa, U.S. Pat. No. 5,346,216 for a Golf Club Head, discloses a face plate having a curved ball hitting surface.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,146,571 to Vincent, et. al., discloses a method of manufacturing a golf club head wherein the walls are obtained by injecting a material such as plastic over an insert affixed to a meltable core. The core has a melt point lower than that of the injectable plastic material so that once the core is removed, an inner volume is maintained to form the inner cavity. The insert may comprise a resistance element for reinforcing the internal portion of the front wall of the shell upon removal of the core where the reinforcement element is comprised of aluminum with a laterally extending portion comprised of steel.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,149,534 to Peters, et al., discloses a golf club head having upper and lower metal engagement surfaces formed along a single plane interface wherein the metal of the lower surface is heavier and more dense than the metal of the upper surface.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,570,886 and 5,547,427 to Rigal, et al., disclose a golf club head of molded thermoplastic having a striking face defined by an impact-resistant metallic sealing element. The sealing element defines a front wall of the striking surface of the club head and extends upward and along the side of the impact surface to form a neck for attachment of the shaft to the club head. The sealing element preferably being between 2.5 and 5 mm in thickness.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,425,538 to Vincent, et al., discloses a hollow golf club head having a steel shell and a composite striking surface composed of a number of stacked woven webs of fiber.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,377,986 to Viollaz, et al., discloses a golf club head having a body composed of a series of metal plates and a hitting plate comprised of plastic or composite material wherein the hitting plate is imparted with a forwardly convex shape. Additionally, U.S. Pat. No. 5,310,185 to Viollaz, et al., discloses a hollow golf club head having a body composed of a series of metal plates, a metal support plate being located on the front hitting surface to which a hitting plate comprised of plastic or composite is attached. The metal support plate has a forwardly convex front plate associated with a forwardly convex rear plate of the hitting plate thereby forming a forwardly convex hitting surface.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,106,094 to Desboilles, et al., discloses a golf club head having a metal striking face plate wherein the striking face plate is a separate unit attached to the golf club head with a quantity of filler material in the interior portion of the club head.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,568,088 to Kurahashi discloses a wooden golf club head body reinforced by a mixture of wood-plastic composite material. The wood-plastic composite material being unevenly distributed such that a higher density in the range of between 5 and 15 mm lies adjacent to and extends substantially parallel with the front face of the club head.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,021,047 to Mader discloses a golf club wherein the sole plate, face plate, heel, toe and hosel portions are formed as a unitary cast metal piece and wherein a wood or composite crown is attached to this unitary piece thereby forming a hollow chamber in the club head.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,624,331 to Lo, et al. discloses a hollow metal golf club head where the metal casing of the head is composed of at least two openings. The head also contains a composite material disposed within the head where a portion of the composite material is located in the openings of the golf club head casing.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,167,387 to Daniel discloses a hollow golf club head wherein the shell body is comprised of metal such as aluminum alloy and the face plate is comprised of a hard wood such as beech, persimmon or the like. The face plate is aligned such that the wood grain presents endwise at the striking plate.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,692,306 to Glover discloses a golf club head having a bracket with sole and striking plates formed integrally thereon. At least one of the plates has an embedded elongate tube for securing a removably adjustable weight means.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,410,798 to Lo discloses a method of manufacturing a composite golf club head using a metal casing to which a laminated member is inserted. A sheet of composite material is subsequently layered over the openings of the laminated member and metal casing to close off the openings in the top of both. An expansible pocket is then inserted into the hollow laminated member comprising sodium nitrite, ammonium chloride and water causing the member to attach integrally to the metal casing when the head is placed into a mold and heated.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,877,249 to Thompson discloses a wood golf club head embodying a laminated upper surface and metallic sole surface having a keel. In order to reinforce the laminations and to keep the body from delaminating upon impact with an unusually hard object, a bolt is inserted through the crown of the club head where it is connected to the sole plate at the keel and tightened to compress the laminations.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,897,066 to Belmont discloses a wooden golf club head having removably inserted weight adjustment members. The members are parallel to a central vertical axis running from the face section to the rear section of the club head and perpendicular to the crown to toe axis. The weight adjustment members may be held in place by the use of capsules filled with polyurethane resin, which can also be used to form the faceplate. The capsules have openings on a rear surface of the club head with covers to provide access to adjust the weight means.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,750,194 to Clark discloses a wooden golf club head with weight adjustment means. The golf club head includes a tray member with sides and bottom for holding the weight adjustment preferably cast or formed integrally with the heel plate. The heel plate with attached weight member is inserted into the head of the golf club via an opening.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,193,811 to Okumoto, et al. discloses a wood type club head body comprised primarily of a synthetic resin and a metallic sole plate. The metallic sole plate has on its surface for bonding with the head body integrally formed members comprising a hosel on the heel side, weights on the toe and rear sides and a beam connecting the weights and hosel. Additionally, U.S. Pat. No. 5,516,107 to Okumoto, et al., discloses a golf club head having an outer shell, preferably comprised of synthetic resin, and metal weight member/s located on the interior of the club head. A foamable material is injected into the hollow interior of the club to form the core. Once the foamable material has been injected and the sole plate is attached, the club head is heated to cause the foamable material to expand thus holding the weight member/s in position in recess/es located in toe, heel and/or back side regions by pushing the weight member into the inner surface of the outer shell.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,872,685 to Sun discloses a wood type golf club head wherein a female unit is mated with a male unit to form a unitary golf club head. The female unit comprises the upper portion of the golf club head and is preferably composed of plastic, alloy, or wood. The male unit includes the structural portions of sole plate, a face insert consists of the striking plate and weighting elements. The male unit has a substantially greater weight being preferably composed of a light metal alloy. The units are mated or held together by bonding and or mechanical means.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,398,935 to Katayama discloses a wood golf club head having a striking face wherein the height of the striking face at a toe end of the golf club head is nearly equal to or greater than the height of the striking face at the center of the club head.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,780,625 to Mattern discloses a club head with a rear portion composed of a light-weight metal such as magnesium. U.S. Pat. No. 1,638,916 to Butchart discloses a golf club with a balancing member composed of persimmon or a similar wood material, and a shell-like body composed of aluminum attached to the balancing member.
The Rules of Golf, established and interpreted by the United States Golf Association (“USGA”) and The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of Saint Andrews, set forth certain requirements for a golf club head. The requirements for a golf club head are found in Rule 4 and Appendix II. A complete description of the Rules of Golf are available on the USGA web page at www.usga.org. Although the Rules of Golf do not expressly state specific parameters for a golf club face, Rule 4-1e prohibits the face from having the effect at impact of a spring with a golf ball. In 1998, the USGA adopted a test procedure pursuant to Rule 4-1e which measures club face COR. This USGA test procedure, as well as procedures like it, may be used to measure club face COR.
Although the prior art has disclosed many variations of multiple material club heads, the prior art has failed to provide a multiple material club head with a high coefficient of restitution and greater forgiveness for the typical golfer.


The invention relates to a clutch disc for a friction clutch, in particular of a motor vehicle.
From DE-A-3,340,896(U.S. Pat. No. 4,635,780) a friction clutch disc is known which comprises a hub with a hub disc which projects from the hub radially to an axis of rotation of the hub and with a cylindrical bearing face axially to the side of the hub disc and two lateral discs which are arranged axially on either side of the hub disc. The two lateral discs are rigidly connected to one another to form a unit together with the friction linings of the clutch disc and are rotatable relative to the hub disc about a limited angle of rotation. Each lateral disc has a central opening through which the hub passes. Several springs couple the lateral discs rotatably to the hub disc. A plastics mounting ring which is held non-rotatably in the central opening of a first lateral disc of the two lateral discs guides the two lateral discs on the hub. The mounting ring has the form of an annular disc which rests axially laterally on the lateral disc and from whose internal periphery spring tongues shaped to a cone extend through the central opening in the lateral disc. The spring tongues carry the lateral disc in their base region and lie with their ends under radial tension on a cylindrical bearing face of the clutch disc hub. A mounting ring of this type which can be produced inexpensively holds the lateral discs without clearance on the hub and compensates production tolerances.
It has been found that a mounting ring of the known type can compensate for errors of alignment between gearbox shaft and crankshaft only to a limited extent. In particular, with engine/gearbox constructions in which the gearbox shaft is no longer mounted in a pilot bearing of the crankshaft, as previously the case, relatively great errors of alignment between gearbox shaft and crankshaft can occur and can impair the operation of a torsional vibration damper provided in the clutch disc. Although the basic friction of the torsional vibration damper caused by the known mounting ring is relatively slight, it is still too great for a plurality of applications and detrimentally affects the damping devices of the torsional vibration damper, particularly if errors of alignment between the gearbox shaft and the crankshaft or inclination errors of these shafts occur. With the known clutch disc, the spring tongues lie with their tongue edges on the hub, leading to increased edge pressure, increased wear and differing coefficients of friction. A primary object of the invention is to provide a clutch disc provided with a torsional vibration damper, in which even relatively great errors of alignment between gearbox shaft and crankshaft can be compensated without impairing operation of the torsional vibration damper.


The present invention relates to a knife feed system in a rotary drum cutter provided in a tobacco shredder or the like.
Generally, in a shredding machine for tobacco, tobacco leaves as raw material are conveyed under compression to a shredding port by means of two upper and lower press conveyors, the shredding port being formed in front of the press conveyors, and are shredded with a rotary drum cutter rotating in close proximity to the shredding port.
The rotary drum cutter is composed of a rotary drum and a plurality of knives disposed at predetermined intervals on the outer peripheral surface of the rotary drum. The cutting edge of each knife is ground continually during operation of the cutter by means of a grinder provided separately so as to be suited to a high speed processing over a long period of time. Further for maintaining constant the spacing between the knife edge and the shredding port, a knife feed system for feeding each knife continuously or intermittently little by little is provided in the interior of the rotary drum.
The abrasion loss of the knife differs depending on the raw materials to be shredded. If the feed of the knife is small despite of a large abrasion loss, it will be impossible to attain sharpness of the knife even after grinding and so consequently difficult to obtain shredded tobacco leaves of good quality, causing an increased loss of raw material. Furthermore if the knife is ejected to a larger extent than necessary despite a small abrasion loss, the knife which is expensive will be wasted. Therefore, it is necessary that the feed of the knife be changed according to the raw material to be shredded. In this connection, the knife feed system in conventional rotary drum cutters is constructed so that each knife is ejected in interlock with the rotation of the rotary drum. This construction was given rise to the problem that the replacement of parts must be done for adjusting the amount of ejection of the knife according to the kind of raw material used. An additional problem has existed in that when changing the knife the spacing between the knife and the shredding port must be adjusted under no-load rotation of the drum without feed of raw material, thus requiring much time for the adjustment.


As compared with other permanent magnetic material, sintered NdFeB permanent magnetic material has some outstanding advantages such as high magnetic property and low cost, so that it has been widely developed and applied. At present, sintered NdFeB permanent magnetic material has been applied in many fields due to a relative higher comprehensive magnetic property.
However, new energy and environmental protection have obtained increased concern and become a developing trend, and a permanent magnetic material with a high coercivity and a high remanence is required. A permanent magnetic material with a high coercivity needs relative more expensive elements dysprosium and/or terbium. But if too much such elements are added, neither the requirement of high remanence can be meet, nor the light weight of motor and high availability of electric energy and wind energy can be obtained.
The coercivity of prepared permanent magnet material at present has a significant difference from a theoretical limit 80 kOe, and a relative high content of Dy and/or Tb is needed in order to improve the coercivity of the permanent magnet material at present. In addition, when the coercivity of the permanent magnet material is increased, the remanence may be decreased. Therefore, it is required to improve the coercivity with only a small decrease of the remanence of the permanent magnetic material by using a small amount of Dy and/or Tb.


1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an apparatus and method for granulating plastic strands that emerge from nozzles in molten form and are supplied to a following, downward inclined runoff channel in which the plastic strands are transported by a liquid stream, in particular water stream, the apparatus further having a dewatering zone for the plastic strands and a granulator disposed after said dewatering zone for granulating the solidified plastic strands with the aid of at least one knife assembly.
2. Description of the Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 5,182,115 discloses an apparatus for cooling, drying and granulating strands emerging from nozzles in molten form having a runoff channel disposed with its receiving-side end below the nozzles, and further having a device for producing a coolant stream on the runoff channel, while the runoff channel is followed by a granulator and furthermore a dewatering zone is disposed in the runoff channel before the discharge-side end, the runoff channel being provided in said dewatering zone with openings for free passage of the coolant.
In addition the runoff channel in this known apparatus is provided in its bottom in the area after the dewatering zone with admission nozzles for a gas or air stream over such a length and so close together that the strands are guided for removal of residual water along the runoff channel in largely frictionless fashion with respect to the bottom into the granulator disposed at its discharge-side end with a degree of dryness permitting immediate processing. This granulator has essentially two draw-in rolls for the plastic strands one above the other within a corresponding housing, further a knife roll cooperating with a corresponding counterknife. This knife roll and the counterknife granulate the plastic strands supplied by the draw-in rolls, and the granules thus produced by the granulator fall out through a discharge shaft for further processing.
In addition U.S. Pat. No. 4,180,539 discloses an apparatus of the above-defined type wherein the runoff channel is followed by an upward inclined dewatering and drying zone for the plastic strands that consists essentially of a circulating, endless and latticed conveyer belt on which the plastic strands leaving the runoff channel and thereby entraining at least part of the liquid stream are transported further toward the granulator. Above this circulating latticed conveyer belt a number of air nozzles are disposed for directing relatively sharp air jets ("air knives") onto the surface of the plastic strands. These air knives serve to dry the strands on their surfaces during transportation, whereby they blow away the water sticking thereto and remove it downward through the lattice belt. The latticed formation of the transport belt is necessary in the known apparatus of U.S. Pat. No. 4,180,539 in particular because relatively sharp air jets are directed onto the strands from above so that the air must likewise be removed downward through the lattice belt since the strands would otherwise not have the right contact pressure on the surface of the lattice belt; the strands subjected to the air knives would instead "fly up" and "swirl around" as it were. In addition, the known dewatering and drying zone ensures only a dewatering and drying process with respect to the strand surfaces while the interior of the strands still has an elevated temperature compared to the surface, so that the plastic strands entering the granulator directly after the dewatering and drying zone are not yet equalized in their temperature profile.
It is fundamentally necessary, however, that the plastic strands to be processed into granules be neither too soft nor too brittle when they are supplied to the knife roll of the granulator. In view of this requirement and also because of the extremely different properties of the plastics marketed in granular form, these properties ranging from "very elastic" to "extremely brittle", the cooling devices used between an extruder and a granulator in known apparatuses are already adapted by the manufacturer to the type of plastic later to be processed in order to ensure that the newly extruded plastic strands are cooled with such an intensity that they have the desired strength properties when they reach the knife roll of the granulator. When processing certain plastics, in particular glass fiber-reinforced plastics, one requires that the granulating temperature be over about 100.degree. C., whereby the temperature profile should be as homogeneous as possible across the strand cross section. The same requirement also holds quite generally for example in the processing of plastics that are fundamentally relatively poor heat conductors.
In the apparatus known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,180,539 the dewatering and drying process does not permit the plastic strands to be given a homogeneous temperature distribution across the entire strand cross section before they enter the granulator, because the dewatering and drying process concentrates in particular on the strand surfaces.


Regular expression search operations are employed in various applications including, for example, intrusion detection systems (IDS), virus protections, policy-based routing functions, internet and text search operations, document comparisons, and so on. A regular expression can simply be a word, a phrase or a string of characters. For example, a regular expression including the string “gauss” would match data containing gauss, gaussian, degauss, etc. More complex regular expressions include metacharacters that provide certain rules for performing the match. Some common metacharacters are the wildcard “.”, the alternation symbol “|”, and the character class symbol “[ ]”. Regular expressions can also include quantifiers such as “*” to match 0 or more times, “+” to match 1 or more times, “?” to match 0 or 1 times, {n} to match exactly n times, {n,} to match at least n times, and {n,m} to match at least n times but no more than m times. For example, the regular expression “a.{2}b” will match any input string that includes the character “a” followed exactly 2 instances of any character followed by the character “b” including, for example, the input strings “abbb,” “adgb,” “a7yb,” “aaab,” and so on.
Traditionally, regular expression searches have been performed using software programs executed by one or more processors, for example, associated with a network search engine. For example, one conventional search technique that can be used to search an input string of characters for multiple patterns is the Aho-Corasick (AC) algorithm. The AC algorithm locates all occurrences of a number of patterns in the input string by constructing a finite state machine that embodies the patterns. More specifically, the AC algorithm constructs the finite state machine in three pre-processing stages commonly referred to as the goto stage, the failure stage, and the next stage. In the goto stage, a deterministic finite state automaton (DFA) or search tree is constructed for a given set of patterns. The DFA constructed in the goto stage includes various states for an input string, and transitions between the states based on characters of the input string. Each transition between states in the DFA is based on a single character of the input string. The failure and next stages add additional transitions between the states of the DFA to ensure that a string of length n can be searched in exactly n cycles. More specifically, the failure and next transitions allow the state machine to transition from one branch of the tree to another branch that is the next best (i.e., the longest prefix) match in the DFA. Once the pre-processing stages have been performed, the DFA can then be used to search any target for all of the patterns in the pattern set.
One problem with prior string search engines utilizing the AC algorithm is that they are not well suited for performing wildcard or inexact pattern matching. As a result, some search engines complement the AC search technique with a non-deterministic finite automaton (NFA) engine that is better suited to search input strings for inexact patterns, particularly those that include quantifiers such as “k” to match 0 or more times, “+” to match 1 or more times, “?” to match 0 or 1 times, {n} to match exactly n times, {n,} to match at least n times, and {n,m} to match at least n times but no more than m times.
Employing an NFA engine to search an input string for a regular expression generally involves converting the regular expression into an NFA search tree that includes a number of states interconnected by goto or “success” transitions. Then, to search the input string for the regular expression, a state machine starts at an initial state of the NFA and transitions to one or more states of the NFA according to its goto transitions. If in a given state the input character matches the goto transition, the goto transition is taken to the next state in the string path and a cursor is incremented to point to the next character in the input string. Otherwise, if there is not a character match at a particular state, the state becomes inactive.
For example, FIG. 1 shows an NFA 100 that embodies the regular expression R1=“[a-z][a-z0-9]{5},” which includes a prefix pattern P1 including the character class “[a-z]” followed by a quantified character class “[a-z0-9]{5}.” An input string of characters will match the regular expression R1 if the input string includes a first character that matches the prefix character class [a-z] followed by n={5} characters that match the quantified character class [a-z0-9]. The NFA 100 for R1 includes an initial state or root node S0, intermediate states S1-S5, and a match state. The sequence of states S0-S5-Match are connected by goto transitions representing character matches with an input string, as indicated in FIG. 1. For example, if an input character within the prefix character class [a-z] is received while the state machine is in the initial state S0, the state machine transitions from S0 to S1 along the “[a-z]” goto transition, and the cursor is incremented to the next input character in the input string. Then, if the next input character is within the quantified character class [a-z0-9], the state machine transitions from S1 to S2 along the “[a-z0-9]” goto transition. Then, if the next input character is within the quantified character class [a-z0-9], the state machine transitions from S2 to S3 along the “[a-z0-9]” goto transition, and so on until a match is detected at the match state. Conversely, if at S1-S5 the input character is anything other than a character within the quantified character class [a-z0-9], then no transition occurs and the current state is deactivated. The initial state S0 remains active for the NFA, as indicated by the arrow 101, which matches on the wildcard “.”. Thus, regardless of what the input character is, the root state S0 remains active.
The regular expression R1=“[a-z][a-z0-9]{5}” is considered a complex regular expression because multiple states of the corresponding NFA 100 can be active at the same time. More specifically, because the quantified character class [a-z0-9] overlaps with (i.e., is a superset of) the prefix character class [a-z], each input character that matches the quantified character class also matches the prefix character class, and therefore not only causes the state machine to transition from one of states S1 to S5 to another of states S2-Match but also causes the state machine to activate an additional instance of state S1. The activation of the additional instance of S1 indicates the beginning of another separate and overlapping portion of the input string that can potentially match the regular expression R1. For example, Table 1 depicts a search operation between an input string IN1=“abcdefgh” and the regular expression R1 according to the NFA 100 of FIG. 1.
TABLE 1CycleInput CharacterActive StatesAction1a02b1,03c2,1,04d3,2,1,05e4,3,2,1,06f5,4,3,2,1,0match7g5,4,3,2,1,0match8h5,4,3,2,1,0match
As shown in Table 1, the number of active states in the NFA 100 can quickly escalate because after the match between the first input character “a” and the prefix character class [a-z], each subsequent input character that matches both the prefix character class [a-z] and the quantified character class [a-z0-9] triggers another potentially matching sub-string and counts towards the quantified number {5} of matches of the character class [a-z0-9], which in turn can quickly exhaust counter resources within the NFA engine.
Unfortunately, the available memory to support an NFA engine is limited, and therefore the number of active states that can be maintained by the NFA engine is limited. As a result, information regarding active states may become lost due to unavailable state memory. Moreover, increasing the number of active states for each regular expression search operation may undesirably degrade search performance by overly taxing processing resources during each compare cycle.
Thus, a need exists for an NFA-based search system that minimizes the memory resources devoted to maintaining lists of active states and tracking numerous overlapping sub-string matches.
Like reference numerals refer to corresponding parts throughout the drawing figures.


1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the art of label roll packages.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
The following U.S. patents are made of record:
______________________________________ 354,984 J. Keleher Dec. 28, 1886 2,748,931 J. Taylor June 5, 1956 2,912,102 A. Scott Nov. 10, 1959 3,161,999 G. Klusmire Dec. 22, 1964 3,338,399 R. Burt Aug. 29, 1967 3,562,999 R. Barbedienne Feb. 16, 1971 ______________________________________
The Keleher patent discloses a container, a compound braid roll and a case therefor. The Taylor patent discloses a dispensing container for a plurality of rolls. The Scott patent discloses a package for spools wrapped with a transparent plastics material. The Klusmire patent discloses a tray of objects overwrapped with plastics film material in which a shaping tool is used for forcing the material to at least partially conform to the contents. The Burt patent discloses a package wrapped with a heat shrinkable film which is subjected to heat to cause the overwrap film to shrink snugly around the frame to increase the rigidity of the frame structure. The Barbedienne patent discloses a container for packing flexible tubes in an envelope that is contracted by heat.


1. Field of Invention
The invention relates generally to the field of oil and gas production. More specifically, the present invention relates to a perforating system. Yet more specifically, the present invention relates to a shaped charge having a modified boss for use in a perforating gun system.
2. Description of Prior Art
Perforating systems are used for the purpose, among others, of making hydraulic communication passages, called perforations, in wellbores drilled through earth formations so that predetermined zones of the earth formations can be hydraulically connected to the wellbore. Perforations are needed because wellbores are typically completed by coaxially inserting a pipe or casing into the wellbore. The casing is retained in the wellbore by pumping cement into the annular space between the wellbore and the casing. The cemented casing is provided in the wellbore for the specific purpose of hydraulically isolating from each other the various earth formations penetrated by the wellbore.
Perforating systems typically comprise one or more perforating guns strung together, these strings of guns can sometimes surpass a thousand feet of perforating length. In FIG. 1 an example of a perforating system 4 is shown. For the sake of clarity, the system 4 depicted comprises a single perforating gun 6 instead of a multitude of guns. The gun 6 is shown disposed within a wellbore 1 on a wireline 5. The perforating system 4 as shown also includes a service truck 7 on the surface 9, where in addition to providing a raising and lowering means, the wireline 5 also provides communication and control connectivity between the truck 7 and the perforating gun 6. The wireline 5 is threaded through pulleys 3 supported above the wellbore 1.
Perforating guns typically include a cylindrical gun strip 16 coaxially housed within a gun body 14. Shaped charges 8 are provided within the gun strip 16 and aimed generally perpendicular to the axis of the wellbore 1. FIG. 2 provides an example of a shaped charge 8 that includes a housing 18, a liner 22, a quantity of high explosive 24 inserted between the liner 22 and the housing 18, and a booster charge 26 adjacent the base of the high explosive 24.
The shaped charges 8 are typically connected to a detonating cord 27 which is affixed to the shaped charge 8 by a case slot 25 proximate to the booster charge 26. Igniting the detonation cord 27 creates a compressive pressure wave along its length that initiates the booster charge 26 that in turn ignites the high explosive 24. When the high explosive 24 is detonated, the force of the detonation collapses the liner 22 and ejects it from one end of the charge 8 at very high velocity in a pattern called a “jet” 12. The jet 12 perforates the casing and cement lining the wellbore 1 and creates a perforation 10 that extends into the surrounding formation 2.
Shaped charges 8 also include a boss 20 protruding outward from the case 18 perpendicular to the axis ASC of the case 18. The boss 20 fully circumscribes the case 18 outer circumference. A perspective example of the gun strip 16 is provided in FIG. 3 illustrating holes 28 formed through the gun strip 16 for receiving shaped charges 8 therein. The shaped charge 8 is inserted into the hole 28 until the boss 20, whose outer diameter extends past the hole 28 outer diameter, contacts the outer surface of the gun strip 16. Thus the boss 20 supports the shaped charge 8 in the gun strip 16 and vertically aligns the shaped charge 8 in the gun strip 16. However, because the boss 20 is generally planar but the gun strip 16 outer diameter is curvilinear, the entire radius of the boss 20 does not lie above the hole 28, but instead the hole 28 outer diameter is shaped to accommodate the shaped charge 8 placement. Accordingly although the shaped charge 8 outer diameter is substantially circular, the typical gun tube 16 hole 28 is not. This can be a problem in certain perforating guns employing a “high density” shot pattern. For example, FIG. 3 illustrates an example of a gun tube 16 having high density shot pattern wherein adjacent holes 28 are sufficiently close that a web portion 30 between the holes 28 is too narrow to provide adequate structural support.


Feature detection of a two-dimensional code is a first critical step in two-dimensional data processing. This is because it is impossible to continue the processing once the detection is failed. However, a two-dimensional code generally has a large amount of data, hence whether the two-dimensional code feature can be quickly detected has a direct influence on the utilization performance of the two-dimensional code. Therefore, a quick and accurate detection of two-dimensional code feature has become an important demand in the two-dimensional code data processing.
A quick response (QR) code is a type of two-dimensional code. The QR code has three position detection patterns which are located at an upper-left corner, an upper-right corner and a lower-left corner of the QR code respectively. Each of the position detection patterns may be considered to be formed by three overlapped concentric squares which are a 7*7 dark color module, a 5*5 light color module and a 3*3 sized dark color module, respectively. Therefore, a proportion of lengths of black and white line segments divided by the center of the position detection pattern meets 1:1:3:1:1.
At present, in most two-dimensional code feature detection methods, scan and detection are performed row by row, and the detection speed is slow.
Chinese invention patent No. CN104517090A, discloses a method and system for detecting a QR code detection pattern. The method includes: detecting a QR code in a first direction, detecting a first line segment of which a proportion of lengths of black: white: black: white: black line segments meets a preset proportion so as to determine a center of the first line segment; detecting, in a second direction, a straight line passing a center point of the first line segment, to obtain a second line segment of which a proportion of lengths of black: white: black: white: black line segments meets a preset proportion, and determining a center point of the second line segment as a center point of the detection pattern. Although only a row-by-row full coverage detection is required in the first direction detection and the detection speed is improved, only the center point of the detection pattern can be found in detecting the detection pattern of a QR code image, and the boundary lines of the detection pattern of the complete QR code can not be determined. Particularly, the boundary lines of the detection pattern of the QR code can not be determined accurately in the case that the QR code is deformed and distorted.


1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to digital information storage, and more particularly, to a method for adjusting a delay time for opening a servo sector detection window in a disk drive.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A magnetic disk drive provides a nonvolatile disk media for storage of user and application information. The disk media is generally formatted to store the information in concentric rings or tracks. The concentric tracks are followed using embedded servo wedges that are sampled during disk access operations. To switch from one track to another, the disk drive must perform a mechanical seek operation to move a transducer head to the desired track. During a seek, the stored in formation may not be accessed. When the disk drive is providing streaming media information, such as a video or audio information, to a host, the information must be buffered to prevent annoying discontinuities during playback of the streaming media. Also, to increase the storage capacity of the disk drive, the disk media may be divided into zones, with more uniformly-sized data blocks being written between the servo wedges on the outer tracks than are written between the servo wedges on the inner tracks. Nevertheless, the linear circumferential distance of a track wires as its radial distance from the center of the disk varies. Thus, a substantial number of the tracks often have a portion that is unused because it is smaller that the uniformly-sized data blocks. Alternatively, the tracks may have data blocks that straddle servo wedges using techniques requiring increased format overhead.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a disk drive and related techniques for using a magnetic disk media format that efficiently stores information and that allows more continuous information playback from a magnetic disk. The present invention satisfies this need.


1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to ink compositions and, more particularly, this invention relates to ink compositions useful in jet printing applications with plain paper at room temperature, and methods of ink jet printing on plain paper.
2. Description of Related Art
Printing according to the "ink jet printing" principle, and apparatus for carrying out such printing operations, are well known. In general terms, a fluid ink is forced, under pressure and often at an elevated temperature, through a very small orifice in a printing head.
In so-called "continuous" jet printing operations, ink droplets are passed through a charging area wherein individual droplets receive an electrical charge in response to a signal. The droplets then pass through an electrical field, causing a varied deflection of the individual droplets dependent on the intensity of the charge and field. The droplets are produced continuously, and are directed to the substrate to be printed or, alternatively, to a by-pass gutter.
Due to the nature of the "continuous" jet printing process, inks used therein must be conductive so as to accept a charge. Such inks are generally water-based, as aqueous solutions or dispersions are easily rendered conductive. Water-based inks are generally characterized as having a low viscosity and high volatility. In addition, the interaction of water with paper can cause dimensional changes in the paper. These characteristics can be disadvantageous.
If the viscosity of a jet printing ink is excessively low, misting and the production of stray droplets can result, which in turn result in poor print quality. High volatility of a jet printing ink can result in clogging of jet nozzles due to evaporation. Also, only a few water-based inks are capable of use on plain paper (i.e. a paper not bearing a pigment coating) and are capable of providing a high dye concentration on the surface of the paper so that it is possible to produce fine-sized droplets and to avoid build-up of dyestuff on the substrate surface while providing high color intensity.
So-called "drop on demand" (DOD) systems differ from continuous jet printing systems in that ink droplets are expelled from the nozzle of a printing head only when required during the printing process.
In a DOD printing system, ink is provided from a reservoir via a supply system to a nozzle/actuator system in the printing head. The actuators are generally of the piezoelectric or bubble type, and pressurize ink upon activation to force the ink from a chamber defined by the actuator through a jet nozzle associated therewith.
Since inks used in DOD systems need not be conductive, they have generally been formulated using primarily non-aqueous solvents such as ethylene glycols, particularly diethylene glycols, which are characterized as having low volatility. As such, ethylene glycol and similar solvent-based inks do not evaporate quickly and, thus, exhibit reduced clogging problems.
However, ethylene glycol and other non-aqueous solvents have a relatively high viscosity (which varies significantly with temperature) and thus require relatively more energy for production of droplets.
Solvent-based inks exhibit desirable drying characteristics and are generally biologically stable while water-based inks generally tend to sorb air from the environment and also are susceptible to biological fouling.
In some cases, it may be desirable to use a non-conductive ink (or one having extremely low conductivity) in DOD printers. For example, in DOD actuators wherein piezoelectric electrodes are disposed within an ink-containing chamber, the ink is preferably non-conductive in order to minimize or eliminate electrochemical effects.
Another class of inks used in jet printing are referred to in the art as "hot melt" inks and comprise wax or other thermoplastic materials such that the ink is solid or semisolid at ambient temperatures but fluid at elevated temperatures. The heated ink fluid solidifies when it comes in contact with a paper target.
Such inks generally tend to exhibit excellent dye stability, lightfastness, and no solvent volatility. However, these inks accommodate only relatively low dye concentration and therefore necessitate the production of relatively large drops in order to provide acceptable color intensity. Also, the thermoplastic component of such inks tends to form raised waxy deposits which are easily smeared or scratched off by rubbing.
Hot melt jet inks tend to be viscous and thus require high energy input in order to eject the drop from the printer nozzle. Also, since the entire ink must be rendered fluid by heating, high energy inputs and lengthy time periods are required to reach the printer operating temperature.


The present invention relates generally to the field of computer applications, and more particularly to improved performance of mobile device applications.
A mobile application is a computer program designed to run on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers. Mobile application development for mobile devices requires consideration of the constraints of mobile devices as compared with personal computers. Mobile devices typically have less powerful processors than personal computers and have user interface constraints such as a smaller screen. For access and interaction with enterprise systems, mobile device user interfaces rely on back-ends to support data routing, security, authentication, and authorization. This functionality is typically supported by various middleware components such as application servers.


The present invention relates to a method and device suitable for storing and transporting animal semen, and more particularly to a method and disposable device for storing and transporting equine semen.
A device for transporting equine and other animal semen was introduced to the equine breeding market in 1984 with the trade name xe2x80x9cThe Equitainerxe2x80x9d (at least a partial description of which can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,530,816). Since that time, horse breeding by artificial insemination using transported chilled semen has become dominant in the equine breeding sector. The technique of slowly cooling the sample en route to its destination has been an important contribution.
The Equitainer is carefully engineered to give a repeatable and reliable cooling rate and final temperature that is substantially independent of external conditions. Although the performance of the Equitainer is good, the structure is relatively bulky and not inexpensive to produce. The cost of the Equitainer implies that the container must be returned to the shipper after use. In many cases, this can be inconvenient.
The conventional Equitainer achieves a required cooling rate by placing a sample in a conductive cavity, known as the Isothermalizer, and interposing a barrier between the sample and the coolant. This configuration determines the rate at which heat can be transferred between the coolant and the sample. The volume of the sample is then adjusted using thermal ballast, to result in a desired controlled cooling rate. The sample and coolant assembly is packaged inside a large insulated cylindrical container, and dispatched to the user. There is an initial cooling rate when the start temperature is at about 37xc2x0 C. of close to xe2x88x920.3xc2x0 C./minute. The cooling continues slowly en route, down to a minimum temperature typically 6xc2x0 C., depending on exterior conditions.
It has been shown and reported in the industry that the best results are obtained for horse semen fertility when the cooling rate at 20xc2x0 C. is in the vicinity of xe2x88x920.1xc2x0 C./min. This is to avoid a high rate of change to the cell temperature at the temperature where the lipid cell membranes are changing phase. The low temperature rate of change likely allows the proteins in the cell surface time to crystallize in an orderly fashion and avoid cell damage. The Equitainer design was based on this finding.
In addition to the Equitainer, a number of other conventional devices use a process of convection to cool the sample contained within the device. With convection, cooled air transfers heat from the sample to the coolant. The sample is normally transported in syringes ready for insemination, and a thermal barrier is introduced between the coolant and the sample to adjust cooling rate. The thermal barrier used is typically a Styrofoam sheet with one or more notches cut out. The Styrofoam sheet is placed between coolant block and sample, so that air can flow through the notches as it convects. The coolant block is normally placed above the sample. Cool air then falls through the holes in the Styrofoam and cools the sample. The sample is placed in a foamed plastic box, next to the Styrofoam thermal barrier and the coolant block.
The convection system does not independently control cooling rate and final temperature. In addition, the convection system is sensitive to orientation. This is evidenced by the fact that the cooling rate is about twice as fast when the system is upright verses when it is inverted, representing the difference between air convection cooling and air conduction cooling. To make a system in which the cooling rate is independent of orientation, convective cooling cannot be used. The failure to maintain a uniformly controlled cooling rate can have negative effects on the success rates of equine insemination.
There is a need in the art for a disposable container with similar reliable cooling rate properties as the Equitainer, but with the added constraint that the materials and components required must not only produce accurate and repeatable results, but must be simple, disposable, and inexpensive. The present invention is directed toward further solutions to address this need.
In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, a storage and transportation container for storing and transporting a semen sample is provided. The container includes an insulated box having at least a first portion being a box protruding ridge, at least a second portion being a box recessed groove, and a floor. An insulated cover is provided having at least a first portion having a cover recessed groove and being located to receive the box protruding ridge only when the insulated cover is placed on the insulated box in a predetermined orientation. The insulated cover also has at least a second portion having a cover protruding ridge and being located to be received into the box recessed groove only when the insulated cover is placed on the insulated box in the predetermined orientation. A cooling pack is disposed on the floor of the insulated box. An insert is disposed to rest on the cooling pack inside the insulated box, such that the cooling pack is beneath the insert when the insulated box is in an upright position. The insert has at least one chamber for receiving a storage capsule holding the semen sample. The insulated cover frictionally fits on the insulated box and makes contact with the insert to hold the insert in place. The insert makes sufficient contact with the cooling pack to enable conductive cooling of the semen sample in the insert.
In accordance with various aspects of the present invention, the insulated box and the insulated cover are formed of foam plastic, such as Styrofoam, or the like. Likewise, the insert can also be made of foamed plastic, such as polyethylene, or the like. The choice of material rests on insulation properties and relative cost.
In accordance with further aspects of the present invention, the at least one chamber is sized and dimensioned to hold a storage capsule suitable for holding the semen sample. The semen sample is equine semen. The storage capsule is at least one of a syringe and a tube.
The storage capsule can be sized and dimensioned differently, and can include sizes with volume capacities of 20 ml or 50 ml. The relative size of the storage capsule will affect the number of chambers required in the insert to hold the storage capsules. Since the total amount of material to be cooled will affect the cooling rate, thermal ballast can be added to the storage capsule, if necessary, to keep the total volume in the range of 80 ml to 120 ml in one example embodiment. The thermal ballast is typically water, contained in a suitable tube, initially at substantially the same temperature as the semen sample. Smaller capsules would result in more capsules being required and thus a plurality of chambers required in the insert. A sum of the capacity of the semen sample and the thermal ballast able to be stored in the at least one chamber according to one embodiment is about 90 ml to about 110 ml, or about 80 ml to about 120 ml. With such a semen sample quantity, a cooling rate of the semen sample in the insert is about 0.1xc2x0 C./min at about 20xc2x0 C.
In accordance with further aspects of the present invention a method of packing a semen sample for storage or transportation includes providing an insulated box having a floor. A cooling pack is placed on the floor of the insulated box. An insert is placed on top of and substantially in contact with the cooling pack, the insert having at least one storage capsule holding the semen sample disposed within at least one chamber of the insert. An insulated cover is placed on top of and in contact with the insert, the insulated cover having a friction fit with the insulated box.


Neurostimulation (NS) systems are devices that generate electrical pulses and deliver the pulses to nervous tissue to treat a variety of disorders. For example, spinal cord stimulation (SCS) has been used to treat chronic and intractable pain. Another example is deep brain stimulation (DBS), which has been used to treat movement disorders such as Parkinson's disease and affective disorders such as depression. SCS therapy, delivered via epidurally implanted electrodes, is a widely used treatment for chronic intractable neuropathic pain of different origins. Traditional tonic therapy evokes paresthesia covering painful areas of a patient. During SCS therapy calibration, the paresthesia is identified and localized to the painful areas by the patient in connection with determining correct electrode placement.
Recently, new stimulation therapies such as burst stimulation and high frequency stimulation, have been developed, in which closely spaced high frequency pulses are delivered. In general, conventional neurostimulation systems seek to manage pain and other pathologic or physiologic disorders through stimulation of select nerve fibers that carry pain related signals. However, nerve fibers and brain tissue carry other types of signals, not simply pain related signals.
Although some neurological disorders have been treated through known neurostimulation methods, many other neurological disorders exhibit physiological complexity, functional complexity, or other complexity and have not been adequately treated through known neurostimulation methods.