Author: claimsbot

What is claimed is:

1. A system for the evacuation of individuals trapped in multiple story buildings by gliding down a tubular rescue sleeve, stored in a compact package form located at an elevated story of the building, comprising:
a sleeve composed of sections, each section being made of a sheet material strengthened by a circumferential rigid support member;
a first tension cable stretched along the sleeve, following the top generatrix thereof, being freely passed through respective eyelet means mounted to the support members;
means for selectively ejecting and unfolding the sleeve along the first tension cable down to ground level; and
means for tying the first tension cable to a remotely located stationary object.
2. The system as claimed in claim 1 further comprising a second tension cable stretched along the sleeve following the bottom generatrix thereof, being freely passed through respective eyelet means mounted to the support members.
3. The system as claimed in claim 2 wherein the first and the second cables are threaded through every second eyelet, respectively, in a staggered order.
4. The system as claimed in claim 3 further comprising a winch system for winding the first and second cables into a dedicated location at the said elevated building story so that the sleeve becomes folded into the said compact package form.
5. The system as claimed in claim 4 wherein the first and second cables are each wound through a guide tube, the vertical distance between the guide tubes exceeds the distance between the top and the bottom eyelets, so that the sleeve becomes folded in a zig-zag, space-saving order.
6. The system as claimed in claim 5 wherein coil springs are located in each guide tube around their respective cable.
7. The system as claimed in claim 6 wherein a pair of winch systems are provided, each comprising a drum around which the cables are wound.
8. The system as claimed in claim 7 wherein the winch systems comprise means for releasing their drums to enable the said ejecting and unfolding of the sleeve.
9. The system as claimed in claim 8 wherein a backup plate is provided against which the sleeve becomes folded upon winding of the cables.
10. The system as claimed in claim 9 further comprising a slidable door adapted to close an opening in the building through which the sleeve is folded by the winch system(s).
11. The system as claimed in claim 2 wherein the eyelets are swivably mounted to their respective rigid support members.
12. The system as claimed in claim 1 further comprising means for forming at least one knee-like section of the sleeve in the unfolded state thereof.
13. The system as claimed in claim 12 wherein the knee-like section forming means comprise a stretch of cable tied between selected eyelets located at the top of the sleeve, the length of the cable being less than the distance between the eyelets when the sleeve is unfolded.
14. The system as claimed in claim 1 further comprising auxiliary cables adapted to be anchored to stationary objects at ground level for stabilizing the sleeve in its unfolded state.
15. The system as claimed in claim 14 wherein the auxiliary cables are connected to selected ones of the rigid support members, at two diametrically opposite sides thereof in a horizontal plane.
16. The system as claimed in claim 15 wherein the auxiliary cables are constituted by loops passed through respective rings mounted to the rigid support member(s).

The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.

1. A memory system, comprising:
a central processing unit (CPU);
a nonvolatile flash memory electrically coupled in the memory system to communicate with said CPU; and
a main memory configured to swap an incoming code page read from a nonvolatile non-flash memory for a target code page therein, in response to a first command issued by said CPU;
wherein said main memory is configured to swap the target code page in said main memory to said nonvolatile flash memory in the event a page capacity of said main memory is at a threshold capacity; and
wherein said main memory includes a page table configured to maintain refault bit values therein, which indicate for each of a plurality of code pages stored in said main memory how many times the corresponding code pages have been discarded from said main memory without being written into said nonvolatile flash memory.
2. The memory system of claim 1, wherein said CPU is configured to perform a frequency of use analysis on the target code page by accessing the page table to determine whether the target code page is to be swapped into said nonvolatile flash memory or discarded because the corresponding refault bit value indicates an insufficient number of prior discards associated with the target code page.
3. The memory system of claim 1, wherein the nonvolatile non-flash memory is a disk drive storage device.
4. A memory system, comprising:
a CPU;
a nonvolatile memory configured to directly exchange data with the CPU; and
a main memory configured to store data loaded from a disk and the nonvolatile memory in response to operation of the CPU;
wherein the nonvolatile memory is used as a swap device of the main memory;
wherein the CPU swaps a code page selected as a replacing target to the nonvolatile memory from the main memory; and
wherein said main memory includes a page table configured to maintain refault bit values therein, which indicate for each of a plurality of code pages stored in said main memory how many times the corresponding code pages have been discarded from said main memory without being written into said nonvolatile memory.
5. The memory system of claim 4, wherein the CPU selects a replacing target according to a Least Recently Used (LRU) policy.
6. A method of operating a memory system containing a volatile main memory, a nonvolatile flash memory and a nonvolatile disk drive memory therein, said method comprising:
swapping a first incoming code page read from the disk drive memory for a target code page within the main memory, in response to a first CPU command, said main memory containing a page table configured to maintain refault bit values therein, which indicate for each of a plurality of code pages stored in the main memory, including the target code page, how many times each corresponding code page has been discarded from the main memory without being written into the flash memory; and
swapping a second incoming code page read from the disk drive memory for the first incoming code page within the main memory, in response to a second CPU command, by evaluating a first refault bit value associated with the first incoming code page and then either: (i) discarding the first incoming code page from the main memory upon determining that the first refault bit value has a magnitude less than a predetermined threshold, or (ii) transferring the first incoming code page from the main memory to the flash memory upon determining that the first refault bit value has a magnitude at or greater than the predetermined threshold.

We claim:

1. Process for the production and recovery of crystalline terephthalic acid containing less than about 150 parts per million by weight (ppmw) p-toluic acid, based on the weight of the terephthalic acid, by the steps comprising:
(1) feeding (i) a dialkyl benzene compound, (ii) aqueous acetic acid reaction medium having oxidation catalyst components dissolved therein, and (iii) an oxygen-containing gas to a first pressurized oxidation zone wherein liquid-phase, exothermic oxidation of the dialkyl benzene compound occurs, wherein the temperature and pressure within the first pressurized oxidation reactor are maintained at about 150 to 180 C. and about 3.5 to 13 bar absolutebara (about 50 to 189 pounds per square inchpsia);
(2) removing from the upper portion of the first reactor a vapor comprising vaporized aqueous, acetic acid reaction medium and oxygen-depleted gas comprising carbon dioxide, inert components, and less than about 9 volume percent, based on the non-condensable components of the vapor, oxygen;
(3) removing from the lower portion of the first reactor an oxidizer product comprising (i) solid and dissolved terephthalic acid and incomplete oxidation products and (ii) the aqueous, acetic acid reaction medium having the oxidation catalyst dissolved therein;
(4) feeding (i) the oxidizer product of step (3) and (ii) an oxygen-containing gas to a second pressurized oxidation zone wherein liquid-phase, exothermic oxidation of the incomplete oxidation products occurs, wherein the temperature and pressure within the second pressurized oxidation reactor are maintained at about 185 to 230 C. and about 4.5 to 18.3 bara (about 65 to 265 psia);
(5) removing from the upper portion of the second reactor a vapor comprising vaporized aqueous, acetic acid reaction medium and oxygen-depleted gas comprising carbon dioxide, inert components, and less than about 5 volume percent, based on the non-condensable components of the vapor, oxygen;
(6) removing from the lower portion of the second reactor a second oxidizer product comprising (i) solid and dissolved terephthalic acid and (ii) the aqueous, acetic acid reaction medium having the oxidation catalyst dissolved therein;
(7) separating terephthalic acid from the (ii) the aqueous, acetic acid reaction medium of step (6) to obtain terephthalic acid containing less than about 900 ppmw 4-carboxyaldehyde and p-toluic acid.
(8) dissolving the terephthalic acid obtained in step (7) in water to form a solution containing about 10 to 35 weight percent dissolved terephthalic acid having dissolved therein less than about 900 ppmw 4-carboxybenzaldehyde and p-toluic acid, based on the weight of the terephthalic acid present, at a temperature of about 260 to 320 C. and a pressure sufficient to maintain the solution in the liquid phase and contacting the solution with hydrogen in the presence of a hydrogenation catalyst to produce a hydrogenation product solution;
(9) feeding the solution of step (8) to a crystallization zone comprising a plurality of series-connected crystallizers wherein the solution is subjected to rate-controlled evaporative cooling by sequential reduction in pressure and temperature to cause crystallization of terephthalic acid, wherein the pressure of the solution at the end of the crystallization zone is about ambient pressure or less;
(10) condensing solvent evaporated from the crystallizers and returning the condensed solvent to the crystallization zone at a point subsequent to the crystallizer from which it was obtained; and
(11) recovering solid, crystalline terephthalic acid containing less than about 150 parts ppmw p-toluic acid, based on the weight of the terephthalic acid, by solid-liquid separation at ambient pressure.
2. Process according to claim 1 wherein steps (1)-(7) comprise:
(1) feeding (i) p-xylene, (ii) aqueous acetic acid reaction medium having oxidation catalyst components dissolved therein, and (iii) an oxygen-containing gas to a first pressurized oxidation zone wherein liquid-phase, exothermic oxidation of the dialkyl benzene compound occurs, wherein the temperature and pressure within the first pressurized oxidation reactor are maintained at about 150 to 180 C. and about 3.5 to 13 bar absolute (bara);
(2) removing from the upper portion of the first reactor a vapor comprising vaporized aqueous, acetic reaction medium and oxygen-depleted gas comprising carbon dioxide, methane, inert components, and less than about 9 volume percent, based on the non-condensable components of the vapor, oxygen;
(3) removing from the lower portion of the first reactor an oxidizer product comprising (i) solid and dissolved terephthalic acid and incomplete oxidation products and (ii) the aqueous, acetic acid reaction medium having the oxidation catalyst dissolved therein;
(4) feeding (i) the oxidizer product of step (3) and (ii) an oxygen-containing gas to a second pressurized oxidation zone wherein liquid-phase, exothermic oxidation of the incomplete oxidation products occurs, wherein the temperature and pressure within the second pressurized oxidation reactor are maintained at about 185 to 230 C. and about 4.5 to 18.3 bara;
(5) removing from the upper portion of the second reactor a vapor comprising vaporized aqueous, acetic acid reaction medium and oxygen-depleted gas comprising carbon dioxide, inert components, and 0 to about 1 volume percent, based on the non-condensable components of the vapor, oxygen;
(6) removing from the lower portion of the second reactor a second oxidizer product comprising (i) solid and dissolved terephthalic acid and (ii) the aqueous, acetic acid reaction medium having the oxidation catalyst dissolved therein; and
(7) separating the terephthalic acid from the (ii) the aqueous, acetic acid reaction medium of step (6) to obtain the terephthalic acid containing less than about 900 ppmw p-carboxyaldehyde and p-toluic acid.
3. Process according to claim 2 wherein step 1 is carried out at about 155 to 165 C. and about 5.2 to 6.9 bara in the presence of aqueous acetic acid reaction medium containing about 4 to 5 weight percent water having oxidation catalyst components comprising cobalt, manganese and bromine dissolved therein; the second pressurized oxidation zone of step (4) are maintained at a temperature and pressure of about 205 to 215 C. and about 13.4 to 17.2 bara; and the terephthalic acid of step (7) containing about 400 to 900 ppmw p-carboxyaldehyde and p-toluic acid.
4. Process according to claim 3 wherein the atomic ratio of Co:Mn:Br is about 5 to 40:1.0:4 to 40.
5. Process according to claim 1 wherein the second oxidizer product of step (6) is fed to a flash evaporation zone wherein the temperature and pressure of the second oxidizer product are reduced by flash evaporation.
6. Process according to claim 2 wherein the second oxidizer product of step (6) is fed to a flash evaporation zone comprising (i) a first flash vessel operated at a temperature of about 170 to 190 C. and a pressure of about 2.4 to 5.2 bara and (ii) a second flash vessel operated at a temperature of about 60 to 100 C. and a pressure of about 0.3 to 0.8 bara, wherein the temperature and pressure of the second oxidizer product are reduced by flash evaporation.
7. Process according to claim 1 wherein the solution of step (8) contains about 25 to 35 weight percent dissolved terephthalic acid; the hydrogenation product solution of step (8) has dissolved therein about 400 to 900 ppmw p-toluic acid, based on the weight of the terephthalic acid present, and the plurality of series-connected crystallizers consists of two to eight crystallizers.
8. Process according to claim 7 wherein the temperature of the first crystallizer is in the range of about 260 to 320 C. and the temperature of the last crystallizer is in the range of about 90 to 110 C. and the plurality of series-connected crystallizers consists of three to six crystallizers.

The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.

1. A method for testing a software application, the software application executable at a predetermined logical position in a stack-based computing environment, the method comprising:
identifying an operation performed during execution of the software application;
identifying an expected result of the operation;
arranging for communication between the software application and a first set of computer-executable instructions at a first test position in the stack-based computing environment, the first test position logically above the predetermined logical position, the first set of computer-executable instructions executable to implement a first interaction with the software application;
arranging for communication between the software application and a second set of computer-executable instructions at a second test position in the stack-based computing environment, the second test position logically below the predetermined logical position, the second set of computer-executable instructions executable to implement a second interaction with the software application;
executing the software application to perform the operation using an input generated via execution of the first set of computer-executable instructions or the second set of computer-executable instructions;
identifying a test result of the operation via execution of the first set of computer-executable instructions or the second set of computer-executable instructions;
comparing the test result and the expected result; and
based on the step of comparing, determining whether a failure of the software application occurred.
2. The method according to claim 1, wherein
execution of the software application affects contents of a stack, the expected result associated with content at a predetermined position in the stack, and
execution of the first set of computer-executable instructions affects content at a first test position in the stack, and
execution of the second set of computer-executable instructions affects content at a second test position in the stack,
the test result based on content at the predetermined position in the stack after the operation is performed, the test result based on content at the first test position or the second test position or both.
3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the first test position is above or below the predetermined position in the stack, and wherein the second test position is above or below the predetermined position in the stack.
4. The method according to claim 2, wherein the stack comprises a protocol stack, and wherein
execution of the first set of computer-executable instructions affects information within a network packet transmitted or received by a software layer associated with the first test position, and
execution of the second set of computer-executable instructions affects information within a network packet transmitted or received by a software layer associated with the second test position.
5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the test result is selected from the group consisting of: information regarding the interoperability of the software application with another software layer at another logical position in the stack-based computing environment; information regarding statistical information, including information regarding load distribution performed by the software application; and information regarding performance of the software application.
6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:
prior to executing the software application to perform the operation, identifying a configuration of the software application, the expected result based on the identified configuration.
7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the software application comprises a driver that links a peripheral device to an operating system of a computer.
8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the software application comprises a network filter driver.
9. The method according to claim 7, wherein
the first set of computer-executable instructions comprises a first filter driver that is used to simulate inputs to and validate outputs from a first interface of the software application, the first interface lying logically above the predetermined position in the stack, and
the second set of computer-executable instructions comprises a second filter driver that is used to simulate inputs to and validate outputs from a second interface of the software application, the second interface facing logically below the predetermined position in the stack.
10. The method according to claim 9, wherein the simulated inputs comprise invalid or corrupt inputs.
11. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first set of computer-executable instructions and the second set of computer-executable instructions comprise a single binary file that inserts itself at two different locations during runtime and dynamically determines its location.
12. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:
when it is determined that a failure of the software application occurred, identifying a programming error using the test result.
13. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of identifying an operation performed during execution of the software comprises arranging for receipt of user input usable for identifying the operation.
14. The method according to claim 1, wherein the software application operates in a distributed client-server system.
15. The method according to claim 1, wherein the software application operates in a single-computer system.
16. A method for testing a software application, the software application executable at a predetermined position in a stack-based environment, the software application having a first interface and a second interface, the first interface lying logically above the predetermined position in the stack-based environment, the second interface facing logically below the predetermined position in the stack-based environment, the method comprising:
identifying an operation performed by the software application;
setting up a first software module logically above the predetermined position in the stack-based environment, the first software module operable to communicate with the software application via the first interface;
setting up a second software module logically below the predetermined position in the stack-based environment, the second software module operable to communicate with the software application via the second interface;
simulating an input to the software application using the first software module or the second software module or both; and
after the software application executes to perform the operation based on the simulated input, receiving a test output based on performance of the operation via the first software module or the second software module or both,
when the first software module is used for simulating the input, the second software module is used for receiving the test output, and
when the second software module is used for simulating the input, the first software module is used for receiving the test output,
the test output usable to identify a failure of the software application.
17. The method according to claim 16, wherein the simulated input comprises invalid or corrupt information.
18. The method according to claim 16, wherein the first software module and the second software module comprise a single binary file that inserts itself at two different locations during runtime and dynamically determines its location.