A bio-printing process comprises a step of preparing a target digital model representative of the three-dimensional organization of the tissue to be produced, a step of controlling a bio-printing instrument for the deposition of a plurality of layers of living cells and of biomaterials, a step of calculation of a digital printing model as a function of the digital model of the product to be produced, and of a model predicting change, and also characteristics of the constituents to be printed. The step of controlling the bio-printing instrument is carried out according to the digital printing model calculated in this way. A system is also described for implementing this process.

Tissue engineering aims to design and develop biologically suitable alternatives to replace, restore or maintain the functions of native tissue or even an organ. An example is described in the article by Griffith, L. G., & Naughton, G. (2002), Tissue engineering—current challenges and expanding opportunities, Science, 295(5557), 1009-1014.
For these artificial (re)construction methods to be effective, they must reproduce as closely as possible the complexity of the target tissue, characterized and resulting from the action and counter-reaction loops exerted by the different tissue components (cells, extracellular matrix, morphogens) from the microscopic to the macroscopic scale. These interactions imply a close relationship between the shape or organization of tissues and their function. The fact is that traditional tissue engineering approaches have a number of limitations, in particular, the difficulty of controlling the complexity of tissues, their vascularization, the resulting customization and the safety of their production.
To overcome these limitations, the printing of biological elements, more commonly referred to as bio-printing, began to be imagined, as discussed in Klebe, R. (1988), Cytoscribing: A Method for Micropositioning Cells and the Construction of Two- and Three-Dimensional Synthetic Tissues, Experimental Cell Research, 179(2):362-373, and in Klebe, R., Thomas, C., Grant, G. Grant, A. and Gosh, P. (1994), Cytoscription: Computer controlled micropositioning of cell adhesion proteins and cells, Methods in Cell Science, 16(3):189-192.
This technique allows organization of the different components of a biological tissue (living cells, biomaterials, molecules, etc.) while guaranteeing the maintenance of their post-printing properties, then assembling in 3D, layer by layer, these different components of the tissue. The major advantages of bio-printing over more traditional bio-manufacturing methods are reproducibility (automation), speed of execution (computer planning/parallelization) and the ability to customize.
There are now three key bio-printing technologies: ink-jet, bio-extrusion and laser-assisted printing (LAB) as outlined in Dabababneh, A. B., & Ozbolat, I. T. (2014), Bioprinting technology: a current state-of-the-art review, Journal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering, 136(6).
The state of the art is a solution known as "AFA-LIFT" and described in B. Hopp, T. Smausz, N. Kresz, N. Barna, Z. Bor, L. Kolozsvâri, D. B. Chrisey, A. Szabo, and A. Nôgrâdi, "Survival and proliferative ability of various living cell types after laser-induced forward transfer," Tissue Eng. 11, 1817-23 (2005).
The article J. A. Barron, P. Wu, H. D. Ladouceur, and B. R. Ringeisen, Biological laser printing: a novel technique for creating heterogeneous 3-dimensional cell patterns," Biomed, Microdevices 6, 139-147 (2004), also describes equipment of the "AFA LIFT or DRL-LIFT" type, where the laser direction is fixed, and the film supporting the cells to be transferred is mobile.
Another article, published in the Journal of laser micro/nanoengineering, Vol. 9, No 2-2014 under the title "Laser tool for single cell transfer," describes another example of process and equipment of the AFA-LIFT type.
The article F. Guillemot, A. Souquet, S. Catros, B. Guillotin, J. Lopez, M. Faucon, B. Pippenger, R. Bareille, M. Remy, S. Bellance, P. Chabassier, J. C. Fricain, and J. Amédée, High-throughput laser printing of cells and biomaterials for tissue engineering, Acta Biomater. 6, 2494-2500 (2010), describes an example of equipment to implement such a process.
In the state of the art, Patent Application Publication No. WO2016097619 is also known, which describes a method and equipment for printing with at least one ink, the method comprising a step of focusing a laser beam so as to generate a cavitation bubble in an ink film, a step of forming at least one ink droplet from a free surface of the ink film and a step of depositing the droplet onto a depositing surface of a receiving substrate, wherein the laser beam is oriented in the direction opposite to the gravitational force, the free surface of the film being oriented upwards toward the depositing surface placed over the ink film.
This configuration makes it possible, in particular, to obtain a substantially constant thickness for the ink film, while limiting the occurrence of settling phenomena, an also enables the use a wide range of inks.
Previously known solutions are not well adapted to the manufacture of tissues from living cells, which transform after the bio-printing step. Living cells deposited by transfer can adhere, proliferate, deform, move, differentiate, and/or enter into quiescence and apoptosis. As a result, the biological item produced by bio-printing is not fixed, and the tissue obtained after a maturation phase does not necessarily correspond to the tissue that was produced.
The previously known solutions do not allow construction of a predetermined model when the components of the tissue transform over time (4D printing) under the action of its own components or under the action of external (exogenous) stimuli such as temperature, pH, oxygen or CO2 levels, etc.


An expansion plug including a cam lever with a securing portion, and a top plate with a flange. A first hole is centered in the securing portion and a second hole is centered in the flange. During engagement of the cam lever, the securing portion adjoins the flange, aligning the two holes. Thus, a lock may be inserted through both holes to securely fasten the cam lever to the top plate.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cam lever operated expansion plug, and more particularly, to a cam lever expansion plug which can be locked by fastening the cam lever.
2. Background and Related Art
A typical expansion plug comprises an expandable rubber stopper, and some type of means for expanding the rubber stopper, which operates as the opening and closing apparatus. To operate the expansion plug, the closing apparatus is activated to compress the rubber stopper which expands radially to plug and seal an opening.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,292,149 to Moeller discloses a typical expansion plug having a cam lever closing apparatus. U.S. Pat. No. 2,773,619, also to Moeller, discloses a typical expansion plug having a screw-type handle closing apparatus.
Expansion plugs were later adapted to provide adjustability and to prevent accidental tampering or removal. U.S. Pat. No. 2,822,103 to Moeller describes a cam lever operated plug having a lever locking means which prevents the lever from accidental rotational when in the engaged location. U.S. Pat. No. 2,822,108 to Moeller discloses a plug having an adjustable lock wherein a lock plate holds the plug in a predetermined set position irrespective of the movement of a cam lever. Thus, the cam lever may be rotated without affecting the seal. U.S. Pat. No. 3,295,712 to Peterson describes an adjustable and improved safety plug having a ribbed stem. A U-shaped locking plate may be inserted between the ribs of the stem to maintain a desired seal even if the closing apparatus is accidentally released.
Expansion plugs have proved excellent closure mechanisms due to their air-tight closure characteristics. However, as applications requiring more security have arisen, for example in fuel tanks of aircraft, expansion plugs have been less frequently used. The inventors of the present invention have recognized a need to fasten the expansion plugs in a tamperproof way in order to prevent removal. Moreover, the inventors have recognized a fairly simple and straightforward manner of doing this.
The prior art has never devised a quality means for making the device tamper proof. Although the prior art teaches means for preventing a cam lever from rotating, and means for preventing accidental release, the teachings only go to preventing accidental rotation or release. Deliberate attempts to remove a plug would almost always be successful when using the prior art structure, as they are designed to allow manual release, so that access to the plugged area could be obtained. Thus, conventional expansion plugs tend not to prevent deliberate tampering, for example, theft of gasoline, or terrorist activities by tampering with the gasoline.


A disclosed apparatus for accomplishing such a task may include (1) a circuit board incorporated into a module designed for insertion into slots of computing devices, (2) at least one conductive contact disposed on the circuit board, (3) a counter circuit disposed on the circuit board and communicatively coupled to the conductive contact, wherein the counter circuit comprises (A) a signal-change detector that detects signal changes as the module is inserted into one of the slots of the computing devices and (B) a counter device that maintains a dynamic count indicative of a number of times that the module has been inserted into one of the slots of the computing devices based at least in part on the signal changes, (4) a battery electrically coupled to the counter circuit, wherein the battery powers the counter device prior to the insertion. Various other apparatuses, systems, and methods are also disclosed.

Computing devices often undergo quality-control testing prior to shipment and/or delivery to retailers and/or customers. To perform this quality-control testing, a manufacturer may insert test modules into slots of computing devices (e.g., routers and/or switches) to ensure functionality and/or diagnose defects. Unfortunately, these test modules may have a limited lifespan and/or need replacement after a certain number of uses and/or insertions to ensure proper testing of the computing devices.
For example, a test module may include a circuit board with conductive edge fingers that mate and/or interface with a connector. In this example, the conductive edge fingers may wear and/or degrade to the point of no longer being reliable for testing purposes. To determine whether the test module has reached that point of wear and/or degradation, the test module may implement a counting mechanism intended to track the number of uses and/or insertions into slots of computing devices.
Unfortunately, conventional counting mechanisms may suffer from certain deficiencies that impair accuracy and/or precision in tracking the number of uses and/or insertions. For example, if the slot undergoing testing loses power for one reason or another, a conventional counting mechanism may increment the count representing the number of insertions erroneously once power returns to the slot. As a result, the testing module may appear to have been inserted more than it actually has been. In another example, if the test module is inserted without ever receiving power from the slot, the conventional counting mechanism may fail to increment the count representing the number of insertions. As a result, the testing module may appear to have been inserted less than it actually has been.
The instant disclosure, therefore, identifies and addresses a need for additional and improved apparatuses, systems, and methods for achieving and/or maintaining accurate insertion counts on removable modules.

Apparatus, system, and method for achieving accurate insertion counts on removable modules


A bidirectional pumping device or two unidirectional pumping devices arranged to pump in opposite directions are connected in series with a conventional cold heat-absorbing or warm heat-dissipating energy discharge device, in order to carry out periodic positive and reverse directional pumping. By changing the flow direction of the fluid passing through the flow circuit, temperature differences and impurity accumulation in the heat absorbing/release device are reduced.

(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention is an improvement over conventional heat-absorbing energy discharge devices for cooling applications and heat-dissipating energy discharge devices for warming applications. The improvement is to vary the fixed flow direction of the single direction circuit to include periodic positive and reverse directional pumping, thereby improving the temperature distribution between a fluid and a heat absorbing/release device, and reducing the disadvantage of impurity or pollutant accumulation in a fixed flow direction.
(b) Description of the Prior Art
FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing the main structure of a conventional single-direction fluid flow circuit with a pumping device having a fixed flow direction and a heat-absorbing energy discharge device for cooling applications or a heat-dissipating energy discharge device for warming applications. As shown in FIG. 1, the fluid (10) is pumped into the fluid port at a side with a first temperature and discharged out of the fluid port at another side with a different temperature as it is pumped through the flow circuit (101) by a fluid pumping device (120) in a fixed flow direction. Because the fluid flow direction of the fluid (10) passing through the flow circuit (101) is fixed, the temperature difference gradient inside the heat-absorbing or heat-dissipating energy discharge device (100) is unchanged.

Single flow circuit heat absorbing/release device for periodic positive and reverse directional pumping


Provided are an image forming apparatus and a method for print control which can carry out printing using appropriate toners without selecting an apparatus to be used from apparatuses loaded with different toner groups depending on a print object. In an image forming apparatus provided with an image forming section including photoreceptor drums, writing units to form electrostatic latent images on the photoreceptor drums, and development devices to carry out development by feeding toners to the latent image, there are loaded, as the toners, a first toner group (for example, normal toners) containing three colors of CMY; a second toner group (for example, Vivid toners) containing three colors of CMY with a wider color reproduction area than the first toner group; and a K (black) toner.

Printing apparatuses (hereinafter referred to as image forming apparatuses) such as printers or digital multifunction peripherals have become widespread. In such an image forming apparatus, an image is formed based on a print job transmitted from a computer terminal, and then a charged photoreceptor is irradiated with light based on the image to form an electrostatic latent image, which is developed with charged toner being attached. The resulting toner image is transferred to a sheet of paper via an intermediate transfer body such as a transfer roller or a transfer belt.
Members such as toners used for an image forming apparatus each have color characteristics. Some colors are easy to reproduce and other colors are difficult to reproduce with them. Therefore, in view of the color characteristics of these members, various types of methods for image forming have been proposed to reproduce the original image color as precisely as possible.
For example, Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2002-182634 discloses an apparatus in which characteristics of a target image are automatically identified and then switching is carried out to an optimum color reproduction processing (color matching) method based on these detected image characteristics. Further, Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication Nos. H08-244254 and H10-44473 disclose apparatuses using seven color inks of cyan, magenta, yellow, black (K), red, green, and blue.
In such manners, reproduction methods are switched based on image characteristics, or a color formed via superimposition of plural inks is replaced by a single-color ink, whereby a color close to the original image can be reproduced. However, a toner group containing toners of CMY, CMYK, or CMYK+RGB has a reproducible color area (referred to as a color reproduction area). Therefore, when any color falling outside the color reproduction area is contained in the original image, an image exhibiting a desired color is unable to be reproduced.

Image forming apparatus and method for print control

Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.


Aspects of the disclosure relate to dynamic and automated spear phishing management. A computing platform may identify users to receive a simulated spear phishing message. In some instances, the computing platform may receive a very attacked persons (VAP) list and may identify the users to receive the simulated spear phishing message based on the VAP list. Based on historical message data associated with a first user, the computing platform may identify message features associated with the first user. Using a predetermined template and for a first user account linked to the first user, the computing platform may generate a first spear phishing message based on the message features. The computing platform may then send, to the first user account, the first spear phishing message.

Increasingly, organizations face various cybersecurity threats through electronic communications. More specifically, individuals (e.g., employees and/or customers of an enterprise organization) may be vulnerable to spear phishing attacks, which may be highly personalized messages from an apparently trustworthy source, that encourage an individual to perform unsafe actions (e.g., click a link and/or access a site that harbors malicious code, requests sensitive or confidential information, and/or installs malware). Many enterprise organizations make efforts to educate enterprise users about cybersecurity risks like spear phishing. Because spear phishing involves using personal details to elicit emotional reactions from individuals, however, it may be difficult to train users to recognize and avoid spear phishing attacks. This problem may be particularly complex for large enterprise organizations with large user bases, as the personalized nature of spear phishing attacks may make it especially difficult to train a large set of different enterprise users to recognize such attacks. These issues are further compounded when trying to balance and optimize the providing of user training and the ensuring of network security with the consumption of computing resources, such as the processing power and network bandwidth, that may be required to deliver such training and provide such security.

Dynamically initiating and managing automated spear phishing in enterprise computing environments


A head-end in a data-over-cable system transmits a multicast message in a downstream channel to all the cable modems in a particular MAC layer. The message includes an address field that contains an upstream channel multicast MAC address that identifies a particular channel, and is used to send a multicast message for which only cable modems transmitting in the upstream direction in that channel are to respond. When the message is received by the cable modems, the cable modems compare the upstream channel multicast MAC address with addresses stored in a memory. If a match is found, indicating that the cable modem happens to transmit in the upstream direction in the particular channel, it processes the message. If no match is found, the message is discarded. The upstream channel multicast MAC address helps noise avoidance or redundancy problems associated with a particular channel to be quickly remedied, and avoids the head-end from having to send out a large number of unicast messages in order to communicate with all the modems sharing a given upstream channel.

A. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of data communication and data-over-cable systems. More particularly, the invention relates to a method of broadcasting a message from a head-end or cable modem termination system of a data-over-cable system to a plurality of remotely located cable modems which happen to share a common channel in an upstream direction.
B. Description of Related Art
Cable modem systems for wide area network access, e.g., Internet access, are now being rolled out in selected metropolitan areas of the United States. Basically, these systems provide high-speed data communications over a cable television infrastructure. Background information related to cable modem systems in general is described in the Data-Over-Cable Service Interface Specifications (DOCSIS)xe2x80x94Radio Frequency Interface Specifications, Interim Draft, dated Jul. 24, 1998, issued by Cable Television Laboratories, Inc. This document, known to persons working in the art, is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
The basic overall architecture of a data over cable system is shown in FIG. 1. The system of FIG. 1 provides a mechanism by which a computer 10 connected to a backbone network 12 (either directly or indirectly by intermediate networks) may communicate with another computer 14 via a cable television infrastructure indicated generally by reference numeral 16. The cable television infrastructure 16 includes a distribution hub or xe2x80x9chead-endxe2x80x9d 18 that is connected to the backbone network 12 via a wide area network and a switch or router 20. A cable system head-end is a central location in the cable television network that is responsible for sending cable signals in the downstream direction. The head-end 18 modulates digital data into analog form and supplies analog signals to a fiber network 22, which is connected to a plurality of O/E nodes 24. The O/E nodes 24 convert optical signals in the fiber network 22 to electrical signals for transmission over a coax cable network 26 to a cable modem 28 at the customer""s location. The cable modem 28 demodulates the analog signals and extracts the digital data and supplies the data to the customer promises equipment 14, which, in a typical situation, is a general purpose computer in a home environment.
The head-end 18 includes a cable modem termination system or CMTS 30. This device provides a network side interface to a wide area network, indicated at 32, and an RF interface between the cable modem termination system and the cable network in both the downstream and upstream directions, indicated at 34 and 36. The term xe2x80x9cdownstreamxe2x80x9d, as used in the present document, refers to transmission in the direction from the head-end 18 or cable modem termination system 30 to the cable modem 28 at the customer premises. The term xe2x80x9cupstreamxe2x80x9d refers to transmission in the direction from the cable modem 28 at the customer premises to the cable modem termination system 30.
For transmission in the downstream direction, the CMTS 30 supplies data from the computer 10 to a modulation circuit MOD and to a combiner 38, where the data is combined with video signals for the cable television system. The combined signals are sent to a transmission module 40 where they are imparted onto the fiber network. In the receiving direction, data from the CPE 14 is received from the fiber network at a receive module 42, sent to a splitter and filter bank 44 and sent to a demodulation circuit DEMOD in the CMTS 30. The data is processed by a network termination unit 46, sent to the switch or router 20 and routed onto the WAN for transmission to the remote computer 10.
Many cable television networks provide only unidirectional cable systems, supporting only a xe2x80x9cdownstreamxe2x80x9d cable data path. A return data path via a telephone network (i.e., a xe2x80x9ctelephony returnxe2x80x9d), such as a public switched telephone network provided by ATandT, GTE, Sprint, MCI and others, is typically used for an xe2x80x9cupstreamxe2x80x9d data path. A cable television system with an upstream connection to a telephony network is called a xe2x80x9cdata-over-cable system with telephony return.xe2x80x9d Such a return system is indicated at 48 where the cable modem 28 is also shown connected to the public switched telephone network (PSTN).
An exemplary data-over-cable system with telephony return includes customer premises equipment (e.g., a customer computer), a cable modem, a cable modem termination system, a to cable television network, a public switched telephone network, a telephony remote access concentrator (TRAC 49 in FIG. 1) and a data network 12 (e.g., the Internet). The cable modem termination system 30 and the telephony remote access concentrator 49 together are called a xe2x80x9ctelephony return termination system.xe2x80x9d
In a two-way cable system without telephony return, the customer premises equipment 14 sends data packets to the cable modem 28, which sends the data packets upstream via the cable television network 22 and 26 to the cable modem termination system 30. Such a system is shown in FIG. 1. The cable modem termination system 30 sends the data packets to appropriate hosts on the data network 12. The cable modem termination system 30 sends the response data packets back to the appropriate cable modem 28.
Like all network devices, cable modems filter at the hardware level based on the media access control (MAC) destination address contained in messages received at the cable modem. The MAC layer in the ISO reference model consists of the lower half of the data link layer as defined in the IEEE 802.3 standard. Generally speaking, the MAC layer contains specifications for frame formats as well as the rules for accessing the physical portions of the network. The MAC destination address is matched against addresses stored in the cable modem to determine if the message is intended for the cable modem. These addresses that are stored include the well-known broadcast, multicast and all stations addresses. For cable modems compliant with the DOCSIS specifications, the stored addresses also include the multicast MAC address of the hexadecimal form 01-E0-2F-00-00-01, which enables the addressing of all cable modems on a MAC sublayer domain.
Within this prior art addressing scheme, a message can be sent from a cable modem termination system 30 to a single cable modem (a xe2x80x9cunicast messagexe2x80x9d), and to all the cable modems on a given MAC sublayer domain (i.e., a multicast message directed to all the cable modems in a given MAC domain), but there is no way to address a given subset of cable modems within the MAC domain. For example, there is no way to associate all cable modems on a given upstream channel with a singe multicast address. This would be a useful capability, as it would (1) conserve downstream bandwidth, (2) conserve CPU processing time in the cable modem termination system, and (3) reduce the time for the message to be acted upon, since a single multicast message could be sent quickly to a group of cable modems on an upstream channel, instead of sending a unicast message to each cable modem as would be required by prior art methods. This latter capability of sending a single multicast message to a group of cable modems on an upstream channel rather than sending a series of unicast messages to each cable modem, is critical to systems implementing redundancy or noise avoidance algorithms to facilitate increased reliability, since data links can be lost if timing or nose/power limits are exceeded. However, to the inventors knowledge, the prior art has not provided such a capability.
Thus, in a principal aspect of the invention, improvements in a data-over-cable system are described below which allow for a cable modem termination system or other point in the cable network to send a single multicast message to a group of cable modems on a given upstream channel.
In a first aspect of the invention, an improvement to a cable modem for a data-over-cable system is provided. The cable modem includes, among other things, a machine-readable storage medium, e.g., memory device, containing a set of media access control (MAC) addresses. The improvement comprises including or adding to the set of addresses stored in the cable modem an upstream channel multicast MAC address, with the upstream channel multicast MAC address associated with all cable modems transmitting in a common upstream channel in the data-over-cable system.
The upstream channel multicast MAC address could be autonomously added and updated by the cable modem each time it received a new channel assignment from the cable modem termination system. Alternatively, the upstream channel multicast MAC address could be added via a network management protocol packet such as simple network management protocol (SNMP), or through any other convenient means. The particular upstream channel multicast MAC address added to the set of addresses stored in the cable modem would correlate to the cable modem""s current upstream channel assignment. Upon receipt of a new message from the cable modem termination system, the cable modem would examine the destination MAC address in the header and attempt to match it with its list of stored address. If the destination addressed matches the upstream channel multicast MAC address stored in the cable modem, then the cable modem would process the message. If no match is found, then the cable modem would discard the message.
In this manner, the ability of the cable modem termination system to send a single multicast message targeted to only those cable modems in a particular upstream channel is provided. The cable modem termination system does not have to send unicast messages to send messages to all the modems operating in a given channel. Thus, if the cable modem termination system determines that a problem or impairment is occurring in a particular upstream channel in the cable network, it can quickly and efficiently send messages to the affected modems. This allows redundancy or noise avoidance algorithms to be implemented in efficient manner, while conserving bandwidth on the downstream channel.
In one possible embodiment of the invention, the upstream channel multicast MAC address comprises a modification to one or more bytes in a media access control multicast address. The modification is a replacement of the one or more bytes of the media access control multicast address with one or more bytes identifying the upstream channel that the affected cable modems are in. For purposes of example and not limitation, the media access control multicast address for DOCSIS compliant devices takes the form 01-E0-2F-00-00-01 (hex). This multicast address could be modified to become the inventive upstream channel multicast MAC address by changing the address to either 01-E0-2F-xx-00-01 or 01-E0-2F-00-xx-01, wherein the xx byte comprises two hexadecimal characters that identify the upstream channel of interest.
In another aspect of the invention, an improvement to a cable modem termination system for a data-over-cable system is provided. The cable modem termination system sends messages to cable modems in a downstream channel in the system, with one or more of the cable modems communicating with the cable modem termination system in an upstream channel in the system. The improvement comprises providing the cable modem termination system with the ability or means for broadcasting an upstream channel multicast MAC message to a plurality of cable modems in a downstream channel of the data over cable system. The message identifies an upstream channel in the data-over-cable system and includes an upstream channel multicast MAC address that is stored in at least one of the cable modems in the downstream channel. The only cable modems that respond to the message are those cable modems that store an upstream channel multicast MAC address matching the upstream channel multicast MAC address contained in the message. As in the first aspect of the invention, the upstream channel multicast MAC address may consist of a modification to one or more bytes in a media access control multicast address.
The concept of customizing a multicast MAC message to target a specific group of cable modems could be applied to other types of addressing and identification techniques, and apply to other groups of cable modems besides those communicating in a common upstream channel, in accordance with the invention. For example, a group of cable modems in a data-over-cable network may be dedicated to status monitoring functions, may be assigned to a particular customer, may be located on a particular part of a network, or may be supplied by a certain manufacturer, or otherwise may be grouped together. The cable modem termination system sends a xe2x80x9cgroupxe2x80x9d multicast MAC message, e.g., a status inquiry message, containing a xe2x80x9cgroupxe2x80x9d multicast MAC address, that is to be responded to only by those cable modems that belong to the group. The group multicast MAC message has an address that includes a particular byte or bytes that are associated with the cable modems in the group. This address will have been previously stored by the cable modems that are in the group so that they can respond to the group multicast MAC message. When the multicast message is sent, all the cable modems that receive the message check the address with the addresses stored in memory. If a match is found the cable modem responds. If not, the message is discarded.

Upstream channel multicast media access control (MAC) address method for data-over-cable systems


The present invention is directed to new and improved industrial containment bags wherein the improvement comprises providing methods and technologies for improving the integrity of such bags during processes designed for lifting, transporting storing and/or disposing of the same. In certain embodiments, the improvement includes providing methods and technologies for improving the sealing capabilities of the bag's closure systems. In other embodiments, the improvement includes providing methods and technologies for assessing the load balance of materials being contained in such industrial containment bags; and thereafter, compensating for any significant load imbalances. The present invention is also directed to methods of manufacturing, using, filling, lifting, transporting, storing, and/or disposing of such new and improved industrial containment bags.

Methods of, and apparatus for, transporting, storing and/or disposing of cargo (or goods) are as varied as the cargo itself. As for transporting, that involves moving one or more items of the cargo from one place (i.e., the point of origin) to another place (i.e., the destination point). The cargo may be said to be "shipped" or "transported" from the point of origin to the destination point.
When the items of the cargo are loose, such items are not contained for transport by other than the walls or the bottom or the top of the transport vehicle (e.g., a railroad car, a dumpster, a truck, etc.) that is used for the transport. Thus, the loose items are not in packages or boxes when they are transported. Such loose cargo is said to be transported "in bulk" and may be referred to as industrial "bulk cargo" or as industrial "bulk goods".
Transportation of industrial bulk materials and wastes in the United States is regulated by the United States Department of Transportation. For normal bulk cargo, such as plastic pellets for extruding machines or bulk foodstuffs, the regulations are relatively simple, as compared to regulations controlling the transport of industrial wastes and/or industrial hazardous materials. Such industrial wastes and/or industrial hazardous materials may include waste generated during manufacturing operations, such as toxic chemicals, or waste resulting from discarding a product after use, e.g., polychlorinatedbiphenols ("PCBs") which were in electrical transformers. Although such toxic chemicals and PCBs are closely regulated at the state and Federal levels, industrial hazardous materials that are radioactive or that are nuclear wastes ("radioactive hazardous material waste") are even more closely regulated. Such radioactive hazardous material waste includes materials resulting from the manufacture of weapons (e.g., radioactive dirt) and radioactively contaminated demolition debris (e.g., building materials, concrete pillars and beams and scrap steel found, for example, at sites which are being dismantled). Radioactive hazardous material waste may include radioactive materials that meet criteria as "low level radioactive" radioactive hazardous material waste, which while being radioactive, their level of radioactivity is typically two picocuries or less.
Regulations controlling the containment, transportation, disposal and/or storing of such radioactive hazardous material waste include the following:
(i) a complete accountability and documentation of every pound of radioactive hazardous material waste;
(ii) state licensing of certain containers in which radioactive hazardous material waste is transported, e.g., licensing of intermodal containers ("IMCs"), which includes documenting the transport of such IMCs;
(iii) Federal, local, and state control of the movement of radioactive hazardous material waste at or from a site at which the radioactive hazardous material waste was generated (the "remediation site");
(iv) requirements that the containers in which radioactive hazardous material waste is transported either does not become contaminated with the radioactive hazardous material waste, or if they become contaminated, that such contaminated containers be decontaminated after use;
(v) prohibitions against transferring loose (uncontained) radioactive hazardous material waste from one transport container to another, and if radioactive hazardous material waste is to be transferred from one transport vehicle to the next transport vehicle, requiring that the radioactive hazardous material waste be contained within a licensed container prior to and during the transfer;
(vi) establishing "exclusionary zones" at sites at which radioactive hazardous material waste is located, defining Personal Protection Levels ("PPLs") which vary according to the level of radioactivity of the radioactive hazardous material waste, and requiring that personnel who enter such "exclusionary zones" wear clothing suitable for protecting against injury from the radioactive hazardous material waste (i.e., personnel must be "suited up") according to the applicable PPL; and
(vii) prohibitions against allowing loose liquid ("free liquid") from being transported in anything other than a special tank car (whether via railroad or truck); for example.
If the point of origin (e.g., the remediation site) does not have a railroad spur on-site (i.e., if it is not "rail-served"), such transporting can be "intermodal", such as via truck (one mode) from the remediation site (the point of origin) to a nearby railroad for long-distance railroad transport (another mode) to the destination point. If the destination point is not rail-served and the licensed container is an intermodal container ("IMC"), the railroad can be used to deliver the licensed IMC (which contains radioactive hazardous material waste) to an intermodal railyard near the destination point. At the intermodal railyard, such licensed IMC can be taken off the railroad car and put on a truck for further transport to the destination point (e.g., a storage site for the radioactive hazardous material waste). Such IMC may be moved within the storage site to a "cell" to which the radioactive hazardous material waste from the particular point of origin is assigned for storage.
Radioactive hazardous materials are said to be "stored" because the radioactive materials of such hazardous material waste do not decompose in the manner of other hazardous material waste, due to the very long half-life of radioactive materials. Hazardous material waste that does not contain radioactive materials is said to be "disposed of", or put into a landfill for "disposal", because it decomposes over a relatively short time period, e.g., a few years.
Low level radioactive contaminated hazardous solid waste materials and debris are generated during industrial maintenance, spill response, and building decontamination projects. Such debris can include piping, pumps, valves, duct work, process tanks, wooden and concrete flooring, spill control booms, personnel protective equipment (PPE), soils and a wide variety of other solid items. Disposal of such radioactive contaminated hazardous waste materials is a major concern, especially in the United States. Low level radioactive contaminated wastes are defined in the Low-level Radioactive Waste Policy Act of 1985, as later amended (including Class A, B and C wastes) 40 USC 2021, and also in 10 CFR 61.2.
Low level radioactive wastes are generally defined as radioactive waste not classified as high-level radioactive waste (those being transuranic waste, spent nuclear fuel, or byproduct material as defined in Section 11e (2) of the Atomic Energy Act (AEA)). Low level radioactive wastes characterization does not depend upon the level of radioactivity it contains. Solid wastes are defined in Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA).
Hazardous wastes are solid wastes meeting certain criteria as established in (and regulated by) the RCRA—See e.g., 40 CFR Part 261. Mixed Wastes are a specific class of hazardous wastes and include a mix of low-level radioactive wastes and hazardous wastes. Such mixed wastes are regulated by both the RCRA and the AEA. While these types of contaminated materials are generally disposed in landfills, the contaminated solid materials have to be properly treated and "packaged" for disposal to reduce the potential for spread of contamination by leachate. While the materials of concern are solid materials (as opposed to liquid), some entrained liquids may be present in the materials. In the following, the materials are understood to be such solid low-level radioactive contaminated hazardous wastes or "mixed wastes" (as classified by the Department of Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission).
Generally, the contaminated materials are stored on site in temporary containers, such as metal drums or boxes. For transport and disposal, the materials are moved out of the temporary storage containers to an approved disposal container and the approved disposal container is then buried in a landfill. An approved disposal container is generally a highly corrosion resistant container, such as a stainless-steel container or a plastic drum or box. Prior to the burying of the approved disposal container, the container will be sealed shut, such as by welding the container top shut to prevent fluids from entering or exiting the container. Standard metal boxes or standard metal drums cannot be used for ultimate disposal, unless the hazardous materials in the interior of the metal box are encased in an encapsulating material within the metal container, such as Portland cement. However, encasement of the materials makes that container extremely heavy, and presents significant problems in shipping due to the weight.
Low-level radioactive hazardous waste materials may be disposed of using a macroencapsulation technique. In the industry, the term "macroencapsulation" is defined as the encapsulation of the hazardous materials with: (1) surface coating materials, or (2) the use of a jacket of inert inorganic materials to substantially reduce surface exposure to potential leaching media. The treatment objective of macroencapsulation is to meet the treatment standards for debris as specified in 40 CFR 268.45 and radioactive lead solids as specified in 40 CFR 268.40 and 40 CFR 268.42. Depending upon the size and weight of the waste and the radiation hazard presented by that waste either a commercially available macroencapsulation unit or a custom macroencapsulation process will be used.
Conventional industrial containment bags are typically not used for disposal of debris having many sharp or jagged edges, as the integrity of the bag with such sharp-edged debris could be jeopardized. For disposal of these types of materials, the standard macroencapsulation techniques are used. These include placing the wastes in a stainless-steel box or plastic drum, or encased in Portland cement in a standard metal box.
The United States guidelines specify testing requirements that certain packaging must undergo to be certified—see e.g., 49 CFR 173.465. Included in these testing/certification procedures are a free drop test and a stacking test. The free drop test requires a package to be loaded or filled to its design weight capacity and dropped from a specific height (e.g., 1-10 feet, depending on design, weight, and/or materials contained therein) and to maintain structural integrity after impact. The stack test requires a loaded package to be subject to a compressive load of, for example, 2-10 times the actual capacity weight of the package. Such testing requirements place substantial restrictions on possible construction of the packaging. For packaging that comprises a flexible bag capable of being lifted when loaded, the drop test and stack test present heavy design hurdles—see generally, 49 CFR 173 (incorporated herein in its entirety by reference) and specifically Subpart I. Certain packaging design guidelines for Industrial Packaging, Types 1, 2, or 3, or Type A package (see e.g., 40 CFR 173.403).
Transportation of industrial bulk materials, industrial wastes and/or industrial hazardous materials with varying levels of radioactivity is similarly regulated in Europe and other parts of the world. Industrial containment bags designed to large scale storage and transportation are typically adapted to carry loads in excess of 10,000 pounds.
Notwithstanding the extensive use of the industrial containment bags throughout the world, studies of such conventional methods of, and apparatus for, manufacturing, using, filling, lifting, transporting, storing and/or disposing of the same have shown that fairly significant problems exist that have yet to be remedied. Many of these problems pertain to the bags' closure systems, as well as to the inherent flexible nature of industrial containment bags.
For example, since industrial containment bags can be used to lift, transport, store and/or dispose of tens of thousands of pounds of industrial wastes—some of which are highly toxic and/or radioactive, it is critical that the bags' closure system(s) maintain secure once sealed, and that such closure system(s) remain uncompromised during typical lifting, transporting, storing and/or disposing processes. For, if a closure system of an industrial containment bag containing thousands of pounds of highly toxic or radioactive material was to fail, the results will most likely be catastrophic and extremely dangerous to the surrounding people and environment.
Moreover, since industrial containment bags inherently have at least a partially flexible nature, during their lifting and transporting processes, materials contained therein often times shift. This, in turn, can result in there being an uneven load distribution in the bag. Such unevenness can cause the bag to tip over and/or to slip off of its lifting or transportation device. If this was to occur, the integrity of the bag's closure system (and/or the bag's outer surface itself) can be compromised. As stated above, if an industrial containment bag containing thousands of pounds of highly toxic or radioactive material was to fail, this will produce catastrophic and extremely dangerous results.
Accordingly, those in the industrial containment bag industry are continually seeking new and better processes and technologies, not only for sealing such bags (especially those designed for containing toxic or radioactive wastes); but also, for insuring that such bags remain sealed while they are being handled. Accordingly, if there were methods and/or technologies that can improve the overall integrity of such a bag during its lifting, transporting, storing and/or disposing processes (e.g., by providing methods/technologies for improving the integrity and sealing capabilities of the closure system(s) being employed in industrial containment bags and/or by providing methods/technologies for assessing the load balance of the materials being contained therein so that, if necessary, adjustments can be made before something catastrophic was to occur), such would be overwhelmingly welcomed by all in the industry as a great advancement in the art.
Therefore, one object of this invention is to provide new and improved industrial containment bags wherein the improvement comprises improving the integrity of such bags by providing a means for improving the sealing capabilities of the bags' closure system(s)—including methods of manufacturing, using, filling, lifting, transporting, storing, and/or disposing of such improved bags.
Another object on this invention is to provide new and improved industrial containment bags wherein the improvement comprises improving the integrity of such bags by providing a means for assessing the load balance of the materials being contained therein; and thereafter, compensating for any significant load imbalances—including methods of manufacturing, using, filling, lifting, transporting, storing, and/or disposing of such improved bags.
Other objects will become apparent to those skilled in the art as the various embodiments of the invention become better understood by reference to the following DETAILED DESCRIPTION, especially when such is considered together with the accompanying CLAIMS appended hereto, and the FIGURES, briefly described below.

Industrial containment bags for bulk materials, waste materials and/or hazardous materials with varying levels of radioactivity


A replacement motor mount for a pitch system of a wind turbine includes a bracket assembly configured for attachment to a first motor mount and a second supporting structure. The replacement motor mount is configured for mounting and securing a pitch motor having a geared drive end. The replacement motor mount is configured to displace the pitch motor from the first motor mount by a predetermined distance.

This invention relates generally to wind turbines, and more specifically to a replacement motor mount for a pitch system and a method for installing the replacement motor mount.
Some known wind turbines have pitch control systems comprised of a bearing coupled between a blade and a hub with a pitch motor positioning the blade attached to the bearing. The bearing may include a row of teeth that engage a gear of the motor. The motor's gear turns or pitches the blade by interacting with the teeth on the pitch bearing. Over time some of the bearing's teeth can become damaged, worn or may break off. The portion of the ring gear adjacent to the pitch motor is one region that often experiences excessive wearing. Current known solutions to repair a pitch control component require the removal of the affected blade or the entire rotor. In either case, a large crane is required for removal, and cranes of this type are costly. In addition, the wind turbine is taken off-line until the repairs can be completed.
In some wind turbines, the blades are up to 60 meters in length, but may be designed to be up to 100 meters, so removal to change a damaged pitch control system can be costly and time consuming. Other known wind turbines are offshore, requiring extensive equipment to remove a blade and replace the pitch control system components. Wind turbine hub heights can be over 120 meters and in high winds, making it dangerous for workers to be on the wind turbine.
A malfunctioning pitch control system can also cause a blade to move out of a pitch setting such that the blades of the wind turbine asymmetrically load the hub and rotor shaft. If the rotor begins to move within the stator due to the asymmetric loading, there is a possibility of the rotor contacting the stator, for example, in direct drive application with the turbine rotor being attached directly to the generator. An electrical transient can occur if the rotor and stator contact, and the wind turbine may then have to be taken off-line.

Method for repairing a pitch system in a wind turbine


A locking mechanism for a helmet with a rotatable face shield includes an operating element that, when the shield is in a fully closed position, holds the shield from the outside against the outer wall of the helmet main body, and to open the shield, spreads out the shield and disengages a projection from a fitting portion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a locking mechanism that maintains a fully closed position for a helmet shield.
2. Description of the Related Art
A known locking mechanism for maintaining a fully closed position for a helmet shield is arranged so that a through hole is formed as a fitting portion in the lower edge of the shield, while a projection to be fitted into the fitting portion is formed on the face of a helmet main body, and is opposite the fitting portion in the shield when the shield is fully closed. Thus, the projection is fitted into the fitting portion in the fully closed shield position, so that the fully closed position is maintained.
And to open the shield, while maintained in the fully closed position, a helmeted person spreads the shield outward in the vicinity of the locking mechanism for the shield to disengage the projection from the fitting portion, and pivots the shield upward while maintaining this unlocked position.
That is, in the position wherein the fully closed shield position is maintained, the locking mechanism of the shield inhibits upward pivoting of the shield, which is the normal opening movement, and because of this pivoting inhibition, ensures the fully closed shield position.


Computer-implemented systems and methods for determining second content which was not selected by the user but which is related to first content which was selected by the user. For example, a system and method can be configured to receive, using one or more processors, first and second content where the first and second content are rich media (e.g., content containing audio or video elements). Systems and methods may be further configured where the relationship between the first content and second content are determined based on data or metadata of the first content (e.g., the title of the content or an episode number). Systems and methods may be further configured where the relationship between the first content and second content are determined based on scheduling data of the first content (e.g., the time and channel when the first content is transmitted).

Traditional broadcast media (i.e., content bound for television or radio and delivered to its audience over channels such as terrestrial radio, satellite, coax or fiber-optic cable) is delivered within the context of a schedule (e.g., radio programming schedule, television broadcast schedule). By convention, each content item (e.g., television episode, movie, radio program) is scheduled to fit within a time slot that begins and ends on either the top or the bottom of the hour (e.g. 10:00 or 10:30). By conforming to this convention, broadcasters (i.e., companies that transmit or delivery broadcast media) can attract viewers in one time slot who were watching content from another broadcaster in another time slot.
Following the broadcast schedule convention allows viewers of broadcast content to experience tremendous amounts of fluidity in the way that their content is consumed. For instance, a viewer can consume content from multiple broadcasters in the same day. By conforming to this convention, the number of scheduling conflicts can be reduced to a discrete number of "time slots". Furthermore, by having multiple well defined time-slots, a broadcaster has the ability to deliver a very broad menu of content to all potential viewers.
Contrary to the existence of these time slots, the individual units of artistic expression (i.e., broadcast content) are sometimes produced in blocks larger than the time slots available for broadcast. Furthermore, many broadcasters require that broadcast content to be shortened into even smaller blocks (e.g., 22 minutes for a ½ hour slot and 44 minutes for an hour slot) so that interstitial advertisements (i.e., commercials) can be inserted into the content and make its delivery commercially viable for a broadcaster. Such discrepancy between the original runtime of the broadcast content and the time available in the broadcast schedule generally results in elements of the broadcast content being trimmed for delivery over the broadcast medium.
In order to overcome the limitations of the traditional broadcast schedule, creators of broadcast content often make additional content available to the broadcast audience by uploading additional media assets to a website or by republishing the additional media assets via alternate means (e.g., selling the show on a DVD or through an Internet media outlet). This approach requires the audience to perform additional, manual actions (e.g., go to a website, sign up for an account on an Internet media outlet, download files, buy a copy of the media asset that has been packaged for commercial sale) which is only performed by audiences for a percentage of the time. This approach is further limited because audiences often cannot perform the actions to get the additional media assets until a later time (e.g., when they are at a computer or at a store). This barrier to immediacy also reduces the percentage of the audience that finally gains access to the additional content.
With the broad availability of home media devices that can store broadcast content for later playback (e.g., VCRs, DVRs, home media centers, etc), audiences now have a way to consume broadcast outside of a pre-defined broadcast schedule. This allows the broadcast audience to begin the consumption of broadcast content at a time that is different than the time it was originally scheduled to be broadcast (e.g., by recording a TV show on one day and playing it on another, recording a movie that is playing in the afternoon while the viewer works so that it can be played when the viewer returns home in the evening, or scheduling a series of recordings to be played back when the audience member returns from vacation). Many of these home media devices offer other functions that allow the broadcast audience to fast-forward, replay or pause the broadcast content. Such functions allow the broadcast audience to cause the runtime of the runtime content to be modified from its original scheduled runtime. The result of such technologies allow audiences to no longer be constrained to the broadcast schedules while still having the ability to consume the broadcast content.
Even with the availability of home media devices, broadcast content continues to be delivered within the context of a broadcast schedule. This means that even though home media devices are available for storing content for consumption outside of a predefined schedule, that the content that is consumed remains in the format of a predefined schedule.
Additionally, a savvy Internet user may be able to find some content that is scheduled by their home media device to record but which is presented in another context (e.g., on a website, as part of a subscription service) at an earlier time or day than would be available to them through the use of their broadcast provider alone. In these cases, users should not be constrained to a broadcast schedule that unnecessarily delays delivery of content that they have selected.
Thus, what is needed in the art are systems and methods for empowering creators of broadcast content and broadcasters to deliver additional content to broadcast audiences who use home media devices. This delivery of additional content must be done in a way that removes barriers such as manual processing or lack of immediacy for the broadcast audience.

System and method for augmenting rich media content using multiple content repositories


This invention provides a support arm to couple a monitor to a surface such as a wall or ceiling to remotely adjust the viewing angle of the monitor. The support arm includes at least one motor along a pivot axis in the support arm. The motor may be activated by a processor based on the control signal provided by the remote control. The support arm may include a plurality of pivot axes with a motor in each of the pivot axis to adjust the viewing angle along the vertical and horizontal planes. The support arm may be also provided with a tracking device that follows the movement of the viewer to adjust the viewing angle of the monitor corresponding to the movement of the viewer. The support arm may also receive periodic signal from the remote control to determine the location of the remote control. Based on the periodic signal, the processor may adjust the viewing angle of the monitor towards the location of the remote control.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention is directed to a support arm capable of adjusting the viewing angle of a monitor remotely and/or automatically to allow a viewer to watch the monitor more comfortably at the desired viewing angle.
2. General Background
Flat screen monitors such as computer monitors and plasma televisions (collectively referred to as "monitor(s)") are becoming popular because they can be mounted onto a wall to save floor space and for their aesthetically pleasing appearance. In particular, monitors are generally mounted to a wall with a mechanical support arm then fixed in a desired orientation to maximize the viewing angle of the monitor. To later adjust the viewing angle of the monitor, however, a viewer generally tilts the monitor manually to a new viewing angle so that the viewer may more comfortably view the monitor from a different location. For instance, a monitor may be fixed to a wall in a family room to allow the family members or one viewer to view the monitor at the desired viewing angle. As the viewer moves from one area to another area, such as from the family room to the kitchen, the viewer may not be able to view the monitor. In addition, in situations where the monitor is mounted in a remote location or high above the floor, it may be inconvenient for the viewer to adjust the viewing angle of the monitor. As such, there is a need for adjusting the viewing angle of a monitor so that a viewer may view the monitor comfortably from a variety of locations.

Viewing angle adjustment system for a monitor


A system detecting and protecting against identity theft by abusing a computer users ID and password or protecting a user against identity replication through parallel user session via a second authentication level using a second channel, a one-time-passcode and user contextual location information. When accessing networks, computer systems or programs, the said networks, computer systems or programs will validate user ID and password and collect contextual information about the user, the device, the used network etc. Once validated, a message is send by a second means that may be a cell phone SMS network or an instant message, said message containing a real-time session-specific one-time passcode. The session specific code and the collected information provides information enabling the user to detect a compromised identity through a mismatch between presented information and the information representing the user and the passcode protects against fraudulent access.

In the context of multi-user computers, authentication procedures are widely used to give a user access to the programs and system resources to which the user has been granted access. In the context of the present description, the term target component of a computer system is intended to refer to any entity of a computer system to which user-access may be granted based on an authentication scheme. Examples of such target components include a computer or group of computers, a computer network, a communications network, one or more computer programs executed on a data processing system, functionality of one or more computer programs, computer resources, such as drivers, memory, computer peripherals, data stored in a memory, services provided by a computer, etc. Traditional means of giving access make use of a user identification and a password. With the arrival of wide area networks and the internet, millions of computer programs and systems are now security-wise solely based on giving personalized access using a user identification and password. When communicating over a network, the method to keep track of the communication between the first and second computer device is done using a session identifier. In recent years, methods and programs to acquire a user's identity in the form of user identification and password have exploded in usage resulting in users being defrauded daily.
Sophisticated methods of stealing a user's identification and password involve so-called phishing, where a 3rd party gains access to a user's ID and password by criminal means. These methods may even involve more sophisticated attacks such as man-in-the-middle attacks, where a fraudulent 3rd party intercepts the communication between the user and a network, computer system or program when the user logs into said network, computer system or program. Once intercepted, the fraudulent 3rd party either establishes a parallel process and log into the same network, computer system or program as the user or simply acts as a middle-man and passes the user actions on to the said network, computer system or network for identity theft purposes.
One method for securing users against such attacks is to ensure that a second means of authentication is deployed. Such second means are also referred to as a second factor of authentication. The first generations of these solutions used a hardware device called a token that the user would carry with him/her everywhere. The method also seen as soft-tokens or sms-delivered token codes uses the method of a pre-issued passcode that is valid for a period of time or until used. These concepts have proven ineffective in preventing both phishing and in particular man-in-the-middle attacks as the user never knows, whether a fraudulent 3rd party has been present and intercepted the session.
A new generation of solutions is based on a message-based approach, most widely seen using the widely used Short Message System (SMS or Text Messaging) systems in cellular phone networks to send a passcode typically to a user's cell phone or, in an alternative implementation, the user will access a central server that then opens the system for the user's ID and password login process to be authorized. It is a problem of some current approaches that they use a separated login process where the SMS code is entered at the same time as the user ID and password, thus enabling phishing and similar methods for compromising credentials. The current implementations of these solutions also use pre-issued passcodes that are valid for a period of time or until used further, thus exposing them to man-in-the-middle attacks.
US 2007/0136573 discloses a system and method for authentication using at least one multiple multi-factor authentication. This prior art method relies on the presence and use of a trusted computer, and this prior art document does not disclose any method for establishing such a trusted computer such that the process for establishing the trusted computer is protected against man-in-the-middle attacks. It thus remains a problem to provide increased security against man-in-the middle attacks without the need for a trusted computer.

Method and system protecting against identity theft or replication abuse


Techniques are described for upgrading systems that include a first set of agents for collecting target data from a plurality of targets and sending the target data to a first management server. In an embodiment, a second set of agents is pre-deployed. Each pre-deployed agent is configured to, upon activation, collect target data from a respective target of the plurality of targets and send the target data to a second management server. While the pre-deployed agent remains inactive, an agent from the first set of agents collects and sends the target data to the first management server. When a first batch of one or more pre-deployed agents is activated, each activated agent begins collecting target data and sending the target data to the second management server. For agents not in the first batch, the first set of agents continues to collect and send the target data.

The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.
An enterprise manager is a computer application or set of applications that manages targeted software and/or hardware in an enterprise system. In a typical implementation, the enterprise manager comprises collection agents, a management server, and a repository. Each agent monitors and collects data from a target host. The management server receives the collected data from the agents and aggregates the collected data into the repository. The management server may also comprise a user interface that allows a system administrator to configure the settings of the enterprise manager and view the status of the target software and hardware systems.
Upgrading an enterprise manager can be a time-consuming and resource-intensive activity given the typical scale and complexity of the system on which the enterprise manager is deployed. For example, there may be thousands of collection agents distributed across different network nodes in a variety of regions and offices. In order to install a product update, each of these agents may need to be replaced with a new agent that is compatible with the new features. This complexity can become particularly burdensome on the system administrator responsible for managing the upgrade process. The system administrator must ensure that all agents are updated and functioning correctly. In addition, the system administrator may need to schedule a significant chunk of time to perform the system upgrade.
One straightforward approach to performing an upgrade involves completely shutting down the currently executing enterprise manager before the new enterprise manager is deployed. During this shutdown period, the collection agents stop monitoring their targets and sending data to the management server until the new enterprise manager is installed and activated. In large-scale systems, this approach results in significant downtime, especially where the collection agents need to be replaced with new agents. Because the collection agents are temporarily inactive, the enterprise manager may suffer from substantial monitoring loss.
In another approach, the new enterprise system maintains backward compatibility with the pre-update agents. This approach may reduce downtime and monitoring loss incurred from installing the new management system. However, maintaining backward compatibility often involves significant development costs, especially when the next generation system involves complex changes or other significantly differences from the legacy system. In addition, this approach constrains the development process of the next generation system, which leads to sub-optimal design that can permanent affect the next generation's product release.


Multipath RAKE receiver structure that allows for the concurrent demodulation of multipath signals that arrive at the receiver at arbitrarily low arrival time differences. The fingers are set to be a fixed offset from one another. One finger tracks the shift in the peak of the multipath component and the additional fixed offset fingers follow the tracking.

I. Field
The present invention relates to communications. More particularly, the present invention relates to a novel and improved method and apparatus for demodulating code division multiple access (CDMA) signals.
II. Description of the Related Art
In a wireless radiotelephone communication system, many users communicate over a wireless channel to connect to wireline telephone systems. Communication over the wireless channel can be one of a variety of multiple access techniques that allow a large number of users in a limited frequency spectrum. These multiple access techniques include time division multiple access (TDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), and code division multiple access (CDMA).
The CDMA technique has many advantages. An exemplary CDMA system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,901,307, entitled "SPREAD SPECTRUM MULTIPLE ACCESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM USING SATELLITE OR TERRESTRIAL REPEATERS," assigned to the assignee of the present invention.
In the '307 patent, a multiple access technique is disclosed where a large number of mobile telephone system users, each having a transceiver, communicate through satellite repeaters or terrestrial base stations using CDMA spread spectrum communication signals. The base station-to-mobile station signal transmission path is referred to as the forward link and the mobile station-to-base station signal transmission path is referred to as the reverse link.
In using CDMA communications, the frequency spectrum can be reused multiple times thus permitting an increase in system user capacity. Each base station provides coverage to a limited geographic area and links the mobile stations in its coverage area through a cellular system switch to the public switched telephone network (PSTN). When a mobile station moves to the coverage area of a new base station, the routing of that user's call is transferred to the new base station.
The CDMA modulation techniques discussed in the '307 patent and in U.S. Pat. No. 5,102,459 entitled "SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR GENERATING SIGNAL WAVEFORMS IN A CDMA CELLULAR TELEPHONE SYSTEM," assigned to the assignee of the present invention, mitigate the special problems of the terrestrial channel, such as multipath and fading. Instead of being an impediment to system performance, as it is with narrowband systems, separable multipaths can be diversity combined in a mobile rake receiver for enhanced modem performance. The use of a RAKE receiver for improved reception of CDMA signals is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,109,390, entitled "DIVERSITY RECEIVER IN A CDMA CELLULAR TELEPHONE SYSTEM," assigned to the assignee of the present invention. In the mobile radio channel, multipath is created by reflection of the signal from obstacles in the environment, such as buildings, trees, cars, and people. In general the mobile radio channel is a time varying multipath channel due to the relative motion of the structures that create the multipath. For example, if an ideal impulse is transmitted over the time varying multipath channel, the received stream of pulses would change in time location, attenuation, and phase as a function of the time that the ideal impulse was transmitted.
The multipath properties of the terrestrial channel produce, at the receiver, signals having traveled several distinct propagation paths. One characteristic of a multipath channel is the time spread introduced in a signal that is transmitted through the channel. As described in the '390 patent, the spread spectrum pseudonoise (PN) modulation used in a CDMA system allows different propagation paths of the same signal to be distinguished and combined, provided the difference in path delays exceeds the PN chip duration. If a PN chip rate of approximately 1 MHz is used in a CDMA system, the full spread spectrum processing gain, equal to the ratio of the spread bandwidth to the system data rate, can be employed against paths having delays that differ by more than one microsecond. A one microsecond path delay differential corresponds to a differential path distance of approximately 300 meters.
Another characteristic of the multipath channel is that each path through the channel may cause a different attenuation factor. For example, if an ideal impulse is transmitted over a multipath channel, each pulse of the received stream of pulses generally has a different signal strength than other received pulses.
Yet another characteristic of the multipath channel is that each path through the channel may cause a different phase on the signal. If, for example, an ideal impulse is transmitted over a multipath channel, each pulse of the received stream of pulses generally has a different phase than other received pulses. This can result in signal fading.
A fade occurs when multipath vectors are added destructively, yielding a received signal that is smaller than either individual vector. For example, if a sine wave is transmitted through a multipath channel having two paths where the first path has an attenuation factor of X dB, a time delay of d with a phase shift of Q radians, and the second path has an attenuation factor of X dB, a time delay of d with a phase shift of Q+π radians, no signal would be received at the
As described above, in current CDMA demodulator structures, the PN chip interval defines the minimum separation two paths must have in order to be combined. Before the distinct paths can be demodulated, the relative arrival times (or offsets) of the paths in the received signal must first be determined. The demodulator performs this function by "searching" through a sequence of offsets and measuring the energy received at each offset. If the energy associated with a potential offset exceeds a certain threshold, a demodulation element, or "finger" may be assigned to that offset. The signal present at that path offset can then be summed with the contributions of other fingers at their respective offsets.
A method and apparatus of finger assignment based on searcher and finger energy levels is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,490,165, entitled "FINGER ASSIGNMENT IN A SYSTEM CAPABLE OF RECEIVING MULTIPLE SIGNALS," assigned to the assignee of the present invention. In the exemplary embodiment, the CDMA signals are transmitted in accordance with the Telecommunications Industry Association TIA/EIA/IS-95-A, entitled "MOBILE STATION-BASE STATION COMPATIBILITY STANDARD FOR DUAL-MODE WIDEBAND SPREAD SPECTRUM CELLULAR SYSTEM." An exemplary embodiment of the circuitry capable of demodulating IS-95 forward link signals is described in detail in U.S. Pat. No. 5,764,592, entitled "MOBILE DEMODULATOR ARCHITECTURE FOR A SPREAD SPECTRUM MULTIPLE ACCESS SYSTEM," assigned to the assignee of the present invention. An exemplary embodiment of the circuitry capable of demodulating IS-95 reverse link signals is described in detail in U.S. Pat. No. 5,654,979, entitled "CELL SITE DEMODULATOR ARCHITECTURE FOR A SPREAD SPECTRUM MULTIPLE ACCESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM," assigned to the assignee of the present invention.
FIG. 1 shows an exemplary set of signals from a base station arriving at the mobile station. It will be understood by one skilled in the art that FIG. 1 is equally applicable to the signals from a mobile station arriving at the base station. The vertical axis represents the power received on a decibel (dB) scale. The horizontal axis represents the delay in the arrival time of a signal due to multipath delays. The axis (not shown) going into the page represents a segment of time. The signals in the common plane traveled along different paths arriving at the receiver at the same time, but having been transmitted at different times.
In a common plane, peaks to the right were transmitted at an earlier time by the base station than peaks to the left. For example, the left-most peak spike 2 corresponds to the most recently transmitted signal. Each signal spike 2-7 has traveled a different path and therefore exhibits a different time delay and a different amplitude response.
The six different signal spikes represented by spikes 2-7 are representative of a severe multipath environment. Typical urban environments produce fewer usable paths. The noise floor of the system is represented by the peaks and dips having lower energy levels.
The task of the searcher is to identify the delay as measured by the horizontal axis of signal spikes 2-7 for potential finger assignment. The task of the finger is to demodulate one of a set of the multipath peaks for combination into a single output. It is also the task of a finger, once assigned to a multipath peak, to track that peak as it may move in time.
The horizontal axis can also be thought of as having units of PN offset. At any given time, the mobile station receives a variety of signals from a base station, each of which has traveled a different path and may have a different delay than the others. The base station's signal is modulated by a PN sequence. A local copy of the PN sequence is also generated at the mobile station. Also at the mobile station, each multipath signal is individually demodulated with a PN sequence code aligned to its received time offset. The horizontal axis coordinates can be thought of as corresponding to the PN sequence code offset that would be used to demodulate a signal at that coordinate.
Note that each of the multipath peaks varies in amplitude as a function of time, as shown by the uneven ridge of each multipath peak. In the limited time shown, there are no major changes in the multipath peaks. Over a more extended time range, multipath peaks disappear and new paths are created as time progresses. The peaks can also slide to earlier or later offsets as the path distances change when the mobile station moves relative to the base station. Each finger tracks these small variations in the signal assigned to it.
In narrowband systems, the existence of multipath in the radio channel can result in severe fading across the narrow frequency band being used. Such systems are capacity constrained by the extra transmit power needed to overcome a deep fade. As noted above, CDMA signal paths may be discriminated and diversity combined in the demodulation process.
Three major types of diversity exist: time diversity, frequency diversity, and space/path diversity. Time diversity can best be obtained by the use of repetition, time interleaving, and error correction and detection coding that introduce redundancy. A system may employ each of these techniques as a form of time diversity.
CDMA, by its inherent wideband nature, offers a form of frequency diversity by spreading the signal energy over a wide bandwidth. The frequency selective fading that can cause a deep fade across a narrowband system's frequency bandwidth usually only affects a fraction of the frequency band employed by the CDMA spread spectrum signal.
The rake receiver provides path diversity through its ability to combine multipath delayed signals; all paths that have a finger assigned to them must fade together before the combined signal is degraded. Additional path diversity is obtained through a process known as "soft hand-off" in which multiple simultaneous, redundant links from two or more base stations can be established with the mobile station. This supports a robust link in the challenging environment at the cell boundary region. Examples of path diversity are illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 5,101,501 entitled "SOFT HAND-OFF IN A CDMA CELLULAR TELEPHONE SYSTEM," and U.S. Pat. No. 5,109,390 entitled "DIVERSITY RECEIVER IN A CDMA CELLULAR TELEPHONE SYSTEM," both assigned to the assignee of the present invention.
Both the cross-correlation between different PN sequences and the autocorrelation of a PN sequence, for all time shifts other than zero, have a nearly zero average value. This allows the different signals to be discriminated upon reception. Autocorrelation and cross-correlation require that logical "0" take on a value of "1" and logical "1" take on a value of "−1", or a similar mapping, in order that a zero average value be obtained.
However, such PN signals are not orthogonal. Although the cross-correlation essentially averages to zero over the entire sequence length for a short time interval, such as an information bit time, the cross-correlation is a random variable with a binomial distribution. As such, the signals interfere with each other in much the same manner as if they were wide bandwidth Gaussian noise at the same power spectral density.
It is well known in the art that a set of n orthogonal binary sequences, each of length n, for n any power of 2 can be constructed (see Digital Communications with Space Applications, S. W. Golomb et al., Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1964, pp. 45-64). In fact, orthogonal binary sequence sets are also known for most lengths that are multiples of four and less than two hundred. One class of such sequences that is easy to generate is called the Walsh function; a Walsh function of order n can be defined recursively as follows:
                              W                                (            n            )                          =                                                                                        W                                                        (                                          n                      /                      2                                        )                                                                                W                                                        (                                          n                      /                      2                                        )                                                                                W                                                        (                                          n                      /                      2                                        )                                                                                W                                                        (                                          n                      /                      2                                        )                                                                                                                    (        1        )            where W′ denotes the logical complement of W, and W(1)=|0|.
A Walsh sequence or code is one of the rows of a Walsh function matrix. A Walsh function matrix of order n contains n sequences, each of length n Walsh chips. A Walsh function matrix of order n (as well as other orthogonal functions of length n) has the property that over the interval of n bits, the cross-correlation between all the different sequences within the set is zero. Every sequence in the set differs from every other sequence in exactly half of its bits. It should also be noted that there is always one sequence containing all zeroes and that all the other sequences contain half ones and half zeroes.
In the system described in the '459 patent, the call signal begins as a 9600 bit per second information source which is then converted by a rate ½ forward error correction encoder to a 19,200 symbols per second output stream. Each call signal broadcast from a cell is covered with one of sixty-four orthogonal Walsh sequences, each sixty-four Walsh chips, or one symbol, in duration. Regardless of the symbol being covered, the orthogonality of all Walsh sequences ensures that all interference from other user signals in that cell are canceled out during symbol integration. The non-orthogonal interference from other cells limits capacity on the forward link.
Each base station in a CDMA system transmits in the same frequency band using the same PN sequence, but with a unique offset relative to an unshifted PN sequence aligned to a universal time reference. The PN spreading rate is the same as the Walsh cover rate, 1.2288 MHz, or 64 PN chips per symbol. In the preferred embodiment, each base station transmits a pilot reference. In the description of the present invention different information is transmitted on the I and Q channels which increases the capacity of the system.
The pilot channel is a "beacon" transmitting a constant zero symbol and spread with the same I and Q PN sequences used by the traffic bearing signals. In the exemplary embodiment, the pilot channel is covered with the all zero Walsh sequence 0. During initial system acquisition the mobile searches all possible shifts of the PN sequence and once it has found a base station's pilot, it can then synchronize itself to system time. As detailed below, the pilot plays a fundamental role in the mobile demodulator rake receiver architecture well beyond its use in initial synchronization.
FIG. 2 depicts a generic rake receiver demodulator 10 for receiving and demodulating the forward link signal 20 arriving at the antenna 18. The analog transmitter and receiver 16 contain a QPSK downconverter chain that outputs digitized I and Q channel samples 32 at baseband. The sampling clock, CHIPX8 40, used to digitize the receive waveform, is derived from a voltage controlled temperature compensated local oscillator (TCXO).
The demodulator 10 is supervised by a microprocessor 30 through the databus 34. Within the demodulator, the I and Q samples 32 are provided to a plurality of fingers 12a-c and a searcher 14. The searcher 14 searches out windows of offsets likely to contain multipath signal peaks suitable for assignment of fingers 12a-c. For each offset in the search window, the searcher 14 reports the pilot energy it found at that offset to the microprocessor. The fingers 12a-c are then surveyed, and those unassigned or tracking weaker paths are assigned by the microprocessor 30 to offsets containing stronger paths identified by searcher 14.
Once a finger 12a-c has locked onto the multipath signal at its assigned offset it then tracks that path on its own until the path fades away or until it is reassigned using its internal time tracking loop. This finger time tracking loop measures energy on either side of the peak at the offset at which the finger is currently demodulating. The difference between these energies forms a metric which is then filtered and integrated.
The output of the integrator controls a decimator that selects one of the input samples over a chip interval to use in demodulation. If a peak moves, the finger adjusts its decimator position to move with it. The decimated sample stream is then despread with the PN sequence consistent with the offset to which the finger is assigned. The despread I and Q samples are summed over a symbol to produce a pilot vector (PI, PQ). These same despread I and Q samples are Walsh uncovered using the Walsh code assignment unique to the mobile user and the uncovered, despread I and Q samples are summed over a symbol to produce a symbol data vector (DI, DQ). The dot product operator is defined asP(n)·D(n)=PI(n)DI(n)+PQ(n)DQ(n),  (2)where PI(n) and PQ(n) are respectively the I and Q components of the pilot vector P for symbol n and DI(n) and DQ(n) are respectively the I and Q components of the data vector D for symbol n.
Since the pilot signal vector is much stronger than the data signal vector it can be used as an accurate phase reference for coherent demodulation; the dot product computes the magnitude of the data vector component in phase with the pilot vector. As described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,506,865, entitled "PILOT CARRIER DOT PRODUCT CIRCUIT" and assigned to the assignee of the present invention, the dot product weights the finger contributions for efficient combining, in effect scaling each finger symbol output 42a-c by the relative strength of the pilot being received by that finger. Thus the dot product performs the dual role of both phase projection and finger symbol weighting needed in a coherent rake receiver demodulator.
Each finger has a lock detector circuit that masks the symbol output to the combiner 42 if its long term average energy does not exceed a minimum threshold. This ensures that only fingers tracking a reliable path will contribute to the combined output, thus enhancing demodulator performance.
Due to the relative difference in arrival times of the paths to which each finger 12a-c is assigned, each finger 12a-c has a deskew buffer that aligns the finger symbol streams 42a-c so that the symbol combiner 22 can sum them together to produce a "soft decision" demodulated symbol. This symbol is weighted by the confidence that it correctly identifies the originally transmitted symbol. The symbols are sent to a deinterleaver/decoder circuit 28 that first frame deinterleaves and then forward error correction decodes the symbol stream using the maximum likelihood Viterbi algorithm. The decoded data is then made available to the microprocessor 30 or to other components, such as a speech vocoder, for further processing.
To demodulate correctly, a mechanism is needed to align the local oscillator frequency with the clock used at the cell to modulate the data. Each finger makes an estimate of the frequency error by measuring the rotation rate of the pilot vector in QPSK I, Q space using the cross product vector operator:P(n)XP(n−1)=PI(n)PQ(n−1)−PI(n−1)PQ(n)  (3)
The frequency error estimates from each finger 44a-c are combined and integrated in frequency error combiner 26. The integrator output, LO_ADJ 36, is then fed to the voltage control of the TCXO in the analog transmitter and receiver 16 to adjust the clock frequency of the CHIPX8 clock 40, thus providing a closed loop mechanism for compensating for the frequency error of the local oscillator. Fingers 12a-c are coupled to power combiner 24 which outputs a transmit gain signal 38 to analog transmit and receiver 16.
As described above, in current demodulator structures, a path must differ by at least one PN chip to have a separate finger allocated to its demodulation. However, there are cases when paths differ by less than a PN chip interval in the time, this situation leads to the existence of a "fat path." Under traditional demodulator implementations, only one finger could be allocated to demodulate the fat path. One of the reasons for this is that once assigned to a path, the finger tracks the path movement independently. Without central coordination of the fingers multiple fingers will converge to the same peak of the fat path. In addition, the searcher tends to get confused when paths are tracked which are to close to one another.
On an orthogonal forward link, there is a great deal of energy in each of the paths because all of the energy from the base station to all mobiles is transmitted using the same PN offset which are channelized by use of orthogonal code sequences. Moreover, orthogonal code sequences have poor autocorrelation in that the correlation between orthogonal code sequences is high. Thus, when paths on the forward link differ by less than a PN chip interval, the signals cannot be distinguished from one another by the outer PN spreading nor is the coding gain of the orthogonal spreading realized because of the time shift. The energy of the close multipath components in this case serves as noise and substantially degrades the performance of the demodulator assigned to the fat path. On the reverse link, close multipath components can also cause degradation of the demodulator assigned to the fat path.
The present invention is described with respect to the improvement of the demodulation of the forward link. However, the present invention is equally applicable to improving the demodulation of the reverse link.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and apparatus for multipath demodulation in a code division multiple access communication system


In a motion tracking method using an image capturing device that is installed on a track system, images of a monitored area are captured in real-time using a lens of the image capturing device. The captured images are analyzed to check for motion in the monitored area, and a movement direction of the motion is determined when the motion is detected in the monitored area. The image capturing device is controlled to move along the track system to track the motion using a driving device according to the movement direction.

1. Technical Field
Embodiments of the present disclosure relate generally to surveillance technology, and more particularly, to an image capturing device and a motion tracking method using the image capturing device.
2. Description of Related Art
Cameras installed on a track system have been used to perform security surveillance by capturing images of a monitored area. A typical camera installed on the track system can automatically and can regularly move along the track system but cannot move according to specific movements.

Image capturing device and motion tracking method