An underwater light-equipped watercraft system includes a watercraft and a removable submersible lighting system. The lighting system includes a harness and a light unit coupled to the harness. The watercraft has a bottom surface that is disposed underwater when the watercraft is used in the water. The harness is removably mounted around at least a portion of the watercraft such that the light unit is disposed against the bottom surface of the watercraft.

1. Field of the Present Invention
The present invention relates generally to submersible lighting systems, and, in particular, to submersible lighting systems for small watercraft such as surfboards, paddleboards, sailboards, kayaks, canoes, and rafts.
2. Background
A wide variety of small watercraft are known to exist, and their popularity continues to increase. Many of these are powered by mechanical engine, but others are powered only by the manual efforts of their riders or by the forces of nature, i.e. by paddle, wind, wave, or the like. Watercraft of the latter category include surfboards, paddleboards, sailboards, kayaks, canoes, rafts, and the like.
The use of small watercraft becomes more dangerous and less enjoyable in conditions of low or no light, particularly at night. A variety of lighting systems have been developed for larger watercraft, but most are not suitable for use with smaller watercraft because of their size, the way they are mounted or carried by the watercraft, or their inability to be used in a submerged environment. One of the few attachable light systems known for use with powered watercraft is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,874,920, but is specifically designed for use with a boat motor, and is generally unsuitable for use with small unpowered watercraft.
Lighting systems for use in or with surfboards are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,238,075 and, to a lesser extent, in U.S. Pat. No. 8,083,238. However, such systems are intended to make the surfboard (or other board) visible, rather than illuminating the water beneath the surfboard. Further, such systems must be integrated into the surfboard itself, rather than being removably attached in a way that does not affect the integrity of the surfboard or other watercraft.
Thus, a need exists for a submersible lighting system that may attached to a small watercraft, such as a surfboard, a paddleboard, a sailboard, a kayak, a canoe, a raft, or the like, and subsequently removed, without affecting the integrity of the watercraft, and that illuminates the water beneath or adjacent the watercraft to facilitate viewing marine life, improving navigation, and enhancing the safety of the user and those around him or her.

Submersible lighting system for small watercraft


The present invention provides a method and apparatus for manufacturing a magnetic drawing board having a plurality of areas, each of which is designated with a specific color, with clear border between adjacent areas of different color. The present invention makes use of magnetic force to ensure that magnetic particles of a specific color will be filled into cells designated for that specific color. As a result, the present invention is capable of manufacturing a magnetic drawing board with a clear division of areas of different colors. There is no longer any limitation on the size and shape of the areas of different colors in the present invention.

Magnetic drawing boards have been introduced to markets for many years. They are a popular form of erasable drawing board which in many times serve as a replacement for conventional drawing utensils such as ink and crayons. Parents consider that magnetic drawing boards provide a cleaner and safer alternative for their children to draw. Magnetic drawing boards are now common toys for children and very often they serve educational purposes.
A typical magnetic drawing board found in the market is the one which comprises mainly an upper substrate forming a magnetic display panel, a lower substrate, and a honeycomb structure sealedly arranged therebetween with each cell of the honeycomb structure encapsulated with a dispersion medium and magnetic particles. When a user draws a line on the upper substrate with a magnetic pen, the magnetic particles in the cell underneath the point of contact between the tip of the magnetic pen and the upper substrate will be drawn upwards towards the upper substrate, thereby forming a line on the upper substrate. When a user uses the magnetic eraser (usually in form of a magnetic strip slidably attached to the lower substrate) to remove the line, the magnetic particles in the cell on top of the point of contact between the magnetic eraser and the lower substrate will be drawn downwards towards the lower substrate, thereby rendering the line on the upper substrate to disappear.
In some magnetic drawing boards, it is possible to attain multi-color display. In such case, the drawing board is divided into a number of areas, and the cells in each area are encapsulated with magnetic particles of a color specific for that area. Therefore, when the user draws a line on the upper substrate with a magnetic pen in one area in which the cells are encapsulated with magnetic particles of a specific color, the line appeared on the upper substrate will be in that specific color in that area.
The existing method to manufacture the aforementioned magnetic drawing board with multi-color display is as follows: (1) the honeycomb structure is attached to the lower substrate; (2) a mesh which is partitioned into a plurality of areas is placed on top of the honeycomb structure, and each of the areas is designated with a specific color; (3) magnetic particles of the specific colors are placed onto the corresponding areas of the mesh designated with corresponding specific colors, so that all areas of the mesh are filled with magnetic particles of corresponding specific colors; (4) the magnetic particles are brushed to pass through the mesh and fall into the honeycomb structure, so that all cells in the honeycomb structure are correspondingly filled with magnetic particles of specific colors; (5) the cells are then filled with dispersion medium; (6) finally the upper substrate is sealingly attached onto the honeycomb structure. The existing method is disadvantageous in that it is impossible to achieve fine division of areas of different colors. This is because when the magnetic particles of a specific color pass through the mesh and fall into the cells of the honeycomb structure designated for that specific color, some of the magnetic particles may escape to adjacent cells designated for a different color through gaps between the mesh and the honeycomb structure. As a result, the border of the areas of different colors is always unclear as the cells contain magnetic particles of different colors. As a result, there is a limit on the size and shape of the areas of different color.

Method and apparatus for manufacturing magnetic drawing board


Disclosed are an image encoding method using a skip mode and a device using the method. The image encoding method may comprise the steps of: judging whether there is residual block data of a prediction target block on the basis of predetermined data indicating whether residual block data has been encoded; and, if there is residual block data, restoring the prediction target block on the basis of the residual block data and an intra-screen predictive value of the prediction target block. Consequently, encoding and decoding efficiency can be increased by carrying out the encoding and decoding of screen residual data only for prediction target blocks where there is a need for a residual data block in accordance with screen similarity.

Recently, the demand for high resolution and high quality video such as a high definition (HD) video and an ultra high definition (UHD) video has increased in various applications. As resolution and quality of video data have increased, a data amount relatively increases as compared to existing video data. Therefore, when the video data are transmitted using media such as an existing wired and wireless broadband line or are stored using the existing storage media, transmission costs and storage costs increase. In order to solve these problems occurring due to the increase in the resolution and quality of the video data, high efficiency video compression technologies may be utilized.
As the video compression technologies, there are various technologies such as an inter prediction technology of predicting pixels values included in a current picture from pictures before or after the current picture, an intra prediction technology of predicting pixel values included in a current picture using pixel information in the current picture, and an entropy coding technology of allocating a short code to a value having high appearance frequency and a long code to a value having low appearance frequency, and the like. The video data may be effectively compressed, transmitted, or stored by using the video compression technologies.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Image encoding method using a skip mode, and a device using the method

ELECTRONICS AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS RESEARCH INSTITUTE

UNIVERSITY-INDUSTRY COOPERATION GROUP OF KYUNG HEE UNIVERSITY


A Bharatnatyam headgear comprising a wearable hair net, the hair net being pliable and expandable to be worn over a dancer's head and covering the head, the wearable hair net matching a color of the dancer's hair. A circular piece is affixed to the hair net. The circular piece is capable of being positioned in a middle of a forehead at a forward end of the hair partition of the dancer. A forehead piece is affixed to the hair net, the forehead piece extending in a horizontal direction capable of being positioned to coincide with a hairline in a left and right direction and extending at least beyond eyebrows of the dancer. A vertical piece is affixed to the hair net, the vertical piece being attached to the circular piece and extending across a middle of the head to cover the hair partition.

This disclosure teaches a Bharatnatyam headgear that includes all the ornamentation and that can be worn without much difficulty. Methods for using the Bharatnatyam headgear are also disclosed
The country of India has at least seven forms of classical dances; namely Bharatnatyam, Kuchipudi, Yakshagana, Kathakali; Odishi, Manipuri, Kathak, Sattria and Mohiniattam. Bharatanatyam is the most popular and originated in the state of Tamil Nadu. Bharatnatyam expresses South Indian religious themes and spiritual ideas, particularly those representing stories and mythologies from the triumvirate and various others from the pantheons of Gods and Godesses. Natya Shastra by the venerated sage Bharat muni lays the theoretical foundations of Bharatnatyam. Texts as early as the Silappatikaram from the second century AD detail this dance form. Temple sculptures from the 6th to 9th century CE provide clear evidence that this dance was performed popularly through the first millenia AD. It is the oldest classical dance form in India.
Bharatanatyam uses a fixed upper torso with legs bent or knees flexed and uses a spectacular footwork. A vocabulary of sign language noted for its sophistication is used involving gestures of hands, eyes and face muscles. Live music accompaniment is provided usually with a main vocal musician and other accompanying instrumentalists. It uses an interpretive narration of mythical legends and spiritual ideas from the Hindu texts. The performance repertoire of Bharatanatyam includes nrita (pure dance), nritya (solo expressive dance) and natya (group dramatic dance).
The dress worn by a Bharatnatyam dancer consists of a fitted, brilliantly colored Sari which is mainly of warm colors with reflective pieces attached to it. The sari also has special pleated cloth stitched that falls in front and opens like a hand fan when the dancer flexes her knees or performs footwork. The dress is worn in a special way and typically held in place with a jewelry belt. The dancer is typically adorned with jewelry on her ear, nose, and neck that outlines her head or hair like a chain. Her face has conventional makeup, eyes lined and ringed accentuating her expressions. Her hair is tied up in the traditional way, often braided in with fragrant flowers (veni or gajra). She wears one or more leather anklets (ghungroos or salangai).
The dancer's fingers and feet outlines may be partially colored red with kumkum powder or alta, a costume tradition that helps the audience more easily view her hand and foot gestures.
The head jewelry typically consists of a Jumka which comprises a pair of earrings with an upward extending piece each. A Mattal which is worn on the forehead with a central piece that covers the parting of the hair ending in a round shaped bracelet positioned exactly on the forehead. It has two sidepieces that extend on either sides tracing the hairline on either sides. Surya, a sun piece is positioned on the left side of the head and a Chandra, a moon piece is positioned on the left side of the head. Traditionally all this jewelry is positioned separately on the head and clipped using hair clips.
Typically, for a performance in the late afternoon or evening a dancer has to start the dressing up and makeup process in the morning. After the hair do and facial makeup these jewelry pieces have to be positioned in its proper places on by one and attached using hair clips. After this, the rest of the makeup is done. The whole process can take upwards of three hours. All the while, the dancer is stressed and tired and her mobility is restricted significantly through the day.
It will be desirable to shorten the process and make it easier for the dancer to wear and position the jewelry in the appropriate place without causing much stress.


A method of preparing a highly dispersible whole grain flour by hydrolyzing, milling and agglomerating grain flour. Highly dispersible hydrolyzed whole grain flours made in accordance with the present invention include an enzyme that hydrolyzes the whole grain flour while maintaining the integrity of the whole grain throughout processing. The whole grain flours of the present invention are highly dispersible in liquid and semi-solid media.

Due to high cholesterol, obesity, and heart disease concerns, many consumers are interested in making healthier choices with respect to their diets. For this reason, a need exists to provide consumers with whole grain, low cholesterol products. However, with fast-paced lifestyles, it is difficult for consumers to prepare healthy meals or snacks. Therefore, a need also exists to provide the consumer with ready-to-eat nutritious products. Furthermore, there exists a need in the marketplace for a comestible that contains high levels of whole grains in drinkable forms.
It is desired to prepare a whole grain product that maintains its structure during processing (i.e., the starchy endosperm, germ and bran) to meet the FDA threshold necessary to justify a health claim. More specifically, it is desired to prepare a hydrolyzed whole grain flour that is highly dispersible in liquid or semi-solid media that maintains the structure of the whole grain during processing.
Attempts have been made in the food industry to provide a hydrolyzed whole grain that maintains its whole grain structure throughout processing; however, the hydrolyzed whole grain flours tend to clump, have an unacceptable mouthfeel and/or are unappealing to consumers. The present invention overcomes the aforementioned problems and provides consumers with a hydrolyzed whole grain flour that maintains its whole grain structure and nutritional value, and is highly dispersible in liquid and semi-solid media, thereby having an improved mouthfeel and improved consumer acceptance.

Method of preparing highly dispersible whole grain flour


A thermal sensing bulb for an expansion valve, the bulb containing a ballast material, the ballast material including a plurality of particles including a calcium silicate hydrate.

A long-standing problem in the refrigeration arts is the "hunting" phenomenon, which is the excessive cycling of thermostatic control valves in response to transient changes in the refrigeration system. A refrigeration system generally includes a thermostatic expansion valve and a thermal sensing bulb. The thermal sensing valve is located in a position selected to provide feedback information about the thermal condition of the system which is used by the thermal expansion valve to make changes in refrigerant flow to effect changes in the thermal condition of the system. In general, a thermal sensing bulb communicates with the thermostatic expansion valve by means of a working fluid which expands or contracts with temperature changes experienced by the thermal sensing bulb and thereby affects operation of the thermostatic expansion valve. The hunting phenomenon occurs when the working fluid is, in effect, overly sensitive, resulting in rapidly fluctuating changes being communicated to the thermostatic expansion valve. In the prior art, many attempts have been made to reduce the sensitivity of the working fluid while maintaining adequate thermal control. In general, these attempts have included the use of materials that form a ballast or buffer generally located in the thermal sensing bulb, to attenuate rapid changes in the working fluid due to transient changes in the thermal condition of the system.
The assignee of the present invention has used with some success a thermostatic expansion valve and a thermal sensing bulb in which the thermal sensing bulb is provided with a single block of a material normally used as a thermal insulating board in sheet form. The sheet material is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,128,434, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. The '434 patent describes the manufacture of the material in large sheet form (e.g., 4′×8{tilde over (′)} 122 cm.×244 cm.) for the construction industry, in which the material is used as a thermal insulation material, e.g., in walls, floors or ceilings of structures. In the assignee's previous thermal sensing bulbs, single blocks of this material are cut from such boards and one such block is inserted as a single piece into the thermal sensing bulb and forms the ballast. The block of thermal insulation material acts as a ballast for the working fluid, when the bulb is operatively attached to an appropriate thermostatic expansion valve. The material in the '434 patent is described as a thermal insulation body formed of a tobermorite calcium silicate reinforced with wollastonite. The '434 patent discloses various methods for making the sheet material. Such sheet material is available commercially under the trademark MARINITE® from BNZ Materials, Inc., Littleton, Colo.
The success had with this system has been tempered by the recurring and previously unsolved problems of variations in the material both from sheet to sheet and within a single sheet and of variations between the single blocks cut from such sheets. That is, some sheets have different thicknesses within a single sheet and compared to other, ostensibly identical sheets. Other sheets have variations in the structure of the material itself on either the macro- or micro-scale, such as differences in porosity, hardness, durability, etc. Variations also arise from differences in cutting of the individual blocks of insulation material. These variations, while not detrimental to the thermal insulation function for which the panels were designed, have resulted in problems of non-uniform operation between otherwise identical thermal expansion valves including thermal sensing bulbs using this material as ballast. Such variation in operation is undesirable for a variety of reasons, known in the art.
Other materials have been suggested for use as the ballast material in such thermal sensing bulbs used with thermostatic expansion valves. Activated carbon is one such material, sought for its porosity and adsorption characteristics. The activated carbon is used due to its controllable pore size for controlling adsorption of the working fluid. This material has its own problems, including small particle sizes, formation of fines due to breakage of the particles, and changes in adsorption due to contaminants in the working fluid. These problems manifest themselves in poor performance or performance varying with time as the adsorption characteristics change.
Thus, there is a continuing and unmet need for improved materials for use in thermal sensing units for use with expansion valves such as thermostatic expansion valves.

Calcium silicate hydrate material for use as ballast in thermostatic expansion valve


Systems and methods of a Hierarchical Smart Asset Control Application development and Integrated Smart Asset Control System optimization are disclosed. In various embodiments, the system may develop a Hierarchical Asset Control Application and corresponding control hardware requirements. This can be used to create an Integrated Smart Asset Control System in order execute various processes for a set of equipment elements. The smart assets associated with the system may utilize intelligent agents to balance operational constraints and operational objects in order to determine real-time optimized operational parameters for a process and implement the appropriate controls to facilitate achieving the improved operational objectives.

Existing process control systems evolved out of the pneumatic and electronic analog control systems that preceded them. These early control systems were designed to provide process control functions for a control loop or a number of related control loops of a production process in an autonomous or semi-autonomous, but coordinated manner, with the coordination often being achieved through the appropriate settings of set points across the multiple controllers. As such the architecture of early control systems was aligned to the process flow of the production process with each control typically limited to the control of a very small component of the overall production flow of the operation. As a result, each controller could be reasonably applied to the component of the operation it was responsible to control.
With the introduction of digital computer technology as the delivery vehicle for process control, the potential scope of automatic coordinated control increased dramatically. But in order to make these emerging digital control systems market acceptable they were programmed to directly replicate the functionality and architecture of the analog systems that preceded them. To accomplish this, one solution provided a software configuration environment for process control based on "software blocks" to perform the exact functions of the analog control system components. As such, the control system architectures that evolved after the initial introduction of digital technologies were aligned to the process flows of the production operation and therefore were designed to be configured to control from a process-centric perspective. This alignment and architecture worked quite well for the last 60 years and has been the basis of process control system software design ever since.
Initially, the job of configuring the process control functions in these process-centric automation systems was effectively accomplished by the engineers in industrial plants who had configured the traditional analog control systems. This was because the control software was designed to replicate the functionality and components of analog control systems. The transfer of knowledge from analog to digital control was very effective.
The scope of control of many of the early digital control systems was typically about the same scope that had been implemented in analog systems. Perhaps, this was due to the fact that the specifications of control systems had been done with the thought being that an analog control system would be utilized or perhaps it was due to the comfort level of the engineers experienced using analog systems. In any case, as digital systems were introduced, the scope of control did not tend to expand to the potential offered by digital control systems. During this phase the limitations of process-centric designs did not become obvious.
Over time, as process control engineers became more proficient and comfortable using digital process control systems, a natural tendency arose to want to integrally control larger and larger operational domains with a single automation system. During the 1980s there was a push to control entire process units in a coordinated manner. Over time, a desire emerged to control entire plant areas, trains, and even entire plants utilizing a single coordinated control strategy. The belief was that the more unified and coordinated the control strategy could be across larger operational domains, the more efficient the operation would be. However, a significant limitation to the process-centric design of the automation systems surfaced that made implementation of such a strategy not feasible. A process-centric perspective of a few control loops or, perhaps even an entire process unit seemed manageable, but as the scope increased the complexity increased exponentially. A process-centric view over large operational domains presents complex and challenging coordinated control challenges as illustrated by the example piping and instrument diagram 100 of a partial operation depicted in FIG. 1. In fact, the complexity of the process-centric perspective was so extreme that only the industrial operations with huge central engineering functions continued to move toward large domain coordinated control. Most industrial operations continued to control their plants much in the same manner as they had during the analog control system period. As a result, much of the potential benefit of moving from analog to digital control was not realized.
A new class of control system known as Enterprise Control System (ECS) was designed in an effort to enable large domain coordinated control by combining the traditional digital control system technology with open industrial software. Although the combined architecture was a step forward, the process-centric approach to control strategy design still limited the effective scope of coordinated control strategies.
The process-centric design of traditional control software remained as a preferred way of developing control strategies by industrial and industrial automation suppliers. When batch control strategies became available, it helped simplify some of the complexities of the process centric automation and control systems. Batch control strategies require a low layer of process and logic control for the basic equipment and loops in a plant. But over this basic control is a higher level of batch control in which the control is oriented to the process units, trains, areas and the products being produced in them. Although the batch control strategies were much simpler than if they had been attempted through the strict process centric perspective, the complexity level associated with engineering, operating and maintaining the automation and control system remained relatively high. Moreover, the batch control strategies also did not address various challenges related to reliability and integrity of the system, for example, in the event of failure.

Systems and methods of hierarchical smart asset control application development and optimization


Glutathione deficiencies and deficiencies in glutathione synthetase activity, and therapeutic methods for the treatment thereof.

Glutathione synthetase deficiency (OMIM 231900 and OMIM 266130) is a rare disorder characterized by a deficiency of the enzyme glutathione synthetase. This enzyme is part of the chemical process by which the body creates glutathione, a protein molecule that plays a role in many cell processes. Glutathione synthetase deficiency is often classified as mild, moderate or severe. Consequently, the specific symptoms and severity can vary greatly from one person to another. Generally, the mild form (OMIM 231900) only affects red blood cells (erythrocytes). The severe form (OMIM 266130) is widespread (generalized) affecting many types of cells of the body. The moderate form falls in between these two extremes. All forms of this rare disorder are caused by alterations (mutations) in the GSS gene and are inherited in an autosomal recessive manner.
Glutathione is a tripeptide (cysteine, glycine, and glutamic acid) found in relatively high concentrations in many bodily tissues. It plays a pivotal role in reducing oxidative stress, maintaining redox balance, enhancing metabolic detoxification, and regulating the immune system. Various chronic, age-related diseases such as those related to neurodegeneration, mitochondrial dysfunction, and even cancer, have been related to suboptimal or deficient glutathione levels. There is increasing awareness of its utility in mitigating body toxin load through its ability to enhance hepatic conversion and excretion of compounds such as mercury and persistent organic pollutants (POPs). Pizzorno J. Glutathione! Integr. Med. 2014; 13:8-12.
As a result, it is possible that supporting the body's endogenous levels of glutathione would be important for maintaining health and mitigating disease, although clear causal relationships between low glutathione and disease risk remain to be determined. One confounding factor is the complexity of antioxidants, referred to by Halliwell as the "antioxidant paradox", or the situation in which antioxidants such as glutathione can possess prooxidant activity causing a hormetic effect enabling the body to bolster its endogenous antioxidant defenses. Indeed, redox balance can be the cause or consequence of a disease, and in some cases, it is difficult to know the level at which an antioxidant becomes a prooxidant. Therefore, there is much to understand about the role of glutathione levels in health. Halliwell B. The antioxidant paradox: less paradoxical now? Br. J. Clin. Pharmacol. 2013; 75:637-644.
One factor influencing glutathione status, as discussed above in connection with glutathione synthetase deficiency (OMIM 231900 and OMIM 266130), is the degree of variability in an individual's capacity to produce glutathione, mainly due to genetic variability in enzymes involved in its production and/or regeneration. In addition, human clinical research suggests that nutritional interventions, including amino acids, vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, and foods can have important effects on glutathione synthetase activity and/or circulating glutathione which may translate to clinical benefit.
It would seem to be most efficient to administer oral glutathione directly to override the effects of potentially inefficient enzymes. However, some studies have shown no change in glutathione levels or in parameters of oxidative stress despite acute or chronic (four weeks) oral glutathione supplementation, potentially due to peptidase degradation during the digestive process. There is also some evidence to the contrary. One six-month, randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial found that taking oral glutathione at either 250 or 1000 mg/day led to significant increases in the body stores of glutathione in 54 non-smoking adults in a dose-dependent manner. There was also a decrease in the markers for oxidative stress at six months as indicated through an improvement in the oxidized (GSSG) to reduced (GSH) glutathione ratio in whole blood, in conjunction with favorable increases in natural killer cell cytotoxicity. Deanna M. Minich, and Benjamin I. Brown. A Review of Dietary (Phyto)Nutrients for Glutathione Support. Nutrients 2019, 11, 2073.
Several lines of evidence also indicate that Nrf2 plays a key role in the regulation of cellular GSH homeostasis: (i) there is low GSH or a loss of induction of GSH in Nrf2−/− cells and tissues; (ii) Nrf2 regulates GSH biosynthesizing enzymes (GCLM, GCLC); (iii) Nrf2 regulates the cysteine/glutamate exchange transporter that maintains intracellular GSH levels by regulating cysteine influx; and (iv) Nrf2 regulates GPX2 and GST, which use GSH as a cofactor. In addition, several researchers have shown that in response to oxidative stress, Nrf2−/− cells and tissues accumulate greater levels of GSSG than wild-type Nrf-2 cells. C. J. Harvey, R. K. Thimmulappa, A. Singh, D. J. Blake, G. Ling, N. Wakabayashi, J. Fujii, A. Myers, and S. Biswal. Nrf2-regulated glutathione recycling independent of biosynthesis is critical for cell survival during oxidative stress. Free Radic Biol Med. 2009 Feb. 15; 46(4): 443-453.
L-ergothioneine is a thiolhistidine derivative, first isolated from rye ergot (Claviceps purpurea) in 1909. It occurs naturally in common foods, including mushrooms, offal, cereals, and some varieties of black and red beans (Phaseolus vulgaris). It is chemically defined as (2S)-3-(2-thioxo-2,3-dihydro-1H-imidazol-4-yl)-2-(trimethylammonio)-propanoate, and has the following chemical structure:
"Safety of synthetic 1-ergothioneine (Ergoneine®) as a novel food pursuant to Regulation (EC) No 258/97", EFSA Journal (2016) 14(11).
Various sources of L-ergothioneine are marketed commercially, including a mushroom extract marketed by Blue California (Tomas, RSM, CA) and a chemically synthesized compound manufactured by Tetrahedron, Vincennes, France (U.S. Pat. No. 8,399,500 B2). A production process using a genetically modified S. cerevisiae was recently proposed by van der Hoek S A et al. (2019) "Engineering the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae for the production of L-()-ergothioneine." Front Bioeng Biotechnol 7, 262.
The European Food Safety Authority ("EFSA") previously reviewed a petition for the use of synthetic L-ergothioneine as a novel food ingredient at levels of up to 5 mg per serving in specific conventional foods, including alcohol-free beverages, cereal bars, milk, fresh dairy products, and chocolates, and in dietary supplements with a recommended maximum daily dose of 30 mg L-ergothioneine per day for adults and 20 mg L-ergothioneine per day for children. EFSA (2016). L-ergothioneine has been reported to be a "longevity" vitamin because of its anti-inflammatory activities and its ability to reduce oxidative stress. Beelman et al., "Is ergothioneine a 'longevity vitamin' limited in the American diet?" Journal of Nutritional Science (2020), vol. 9, e52.
What is needed are methods of improving glutathione status and glutathione synthetase activity, particularly in patients suffering from a deficiency of glutathione of glutathione synthetase activity.

Methods of treating glutathione deficiencies and deficiencies in glutathione synthetase activity

NANJING NUTRABUILDING BIO-TECH CO., LTD.


A method for manufacturing a fin field-effect transistor (FinFET) device, comprises patterning a first layer on a substrate to form at least one fin, patterning a second layer under the first layer to remove a portion of the second layer on sides of the at least one fin, forming a sacrificial gate electrode on the at least one fin, and a spacer on the sacrificial gate electrode, selectively removing the sacrificial gate electrode, depositing an oxide layer on top and side portions of the at least one fin corresponding to a channel region of the at least one fin, performing thermal oxidation to condense the at least one fin in the channel region until a bottom portion of the at least one fin is undercut, and stripping a resultant oxide layer from the thermal oxidation, leaving a gap in the channel region between a bottom portion of the at least one fin and the second layer.

Fin field-effect transistor (FinFET) devices include a transistor architecture that uses raised source-to-drain channel regions, referred to as fins. A FinFET device can be built on a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrate, where a semiconductor material, such as silicon, is patterned into a fin-like shape and functions as the channel of the transistor.
A gate can be wrapped around and over the fin. A double or dual gate structure includes a gate oxide and gate contact formed on two sides of the channel. A 3D or tri-gate FinFET includes a gate structure wrapped on three sides of a fin. Gate-all-around FinFETs include gate structures that surround the channel region on all sides, e.g., on all four sides of the fin.
Gate-all-around FinFETs have improved electrostatics over tri-gate or double-gate devices due to improved gate control. However, nanowires tend to have a smaller perimeter than fins, and also larger external resistance due to the under-spacer component.

Gate all-around FinFET device and a method of manufacturing same

International Business Machines Corporation


Methods for operation fragmentation with metadata serialization in query processing pushdowns are performed by systems and devices. A compute node receives a query directed to database data, and generates query text fragments. Portions of metadata of the database are read from different page servers, and are serialized by the compute node. Page identities of data pages in a page server that stores the data are determined from a page index at the compute node, and the compute node provides the text fragments, the serialized metadata, and the page identities to the page server storing the data. The page server compiles the text fragments based on the serialized metadata to generate an executable query plan for the query. The page server initializes and performs execution of the executable query plan against the data as a pushdown query operation, and a result of pushdown query operation is provided to the compute node.

Large scale query processing systems can include one or more compute nodes that handle and process queries against databases having data in data pages stored and maintained by page servers. In current systems, compute nodes perform the processing operations based on data that is retrieved from the page servers, and this requires very high volumes of network traffic between the compute nodes and the page servers, and also causes very high processing and memory burdens on the compute nodes. These issues are compounded when databases are scaled out to larger sizes.

Operation fragmentation with metadata serialization in query processing pushdowns


A Ho:YAG crystal laser is disclosed which is doped with less than 2% holmium to reduce the lasing threshold and up-conversion, thereby increasing the operating efficiency of the laser. The laser does not need sensitizer ions so energy mismatches introduced by the sensitizer ions ale eliminated to the thereby increase the efficiency of the laser while minimizing detrimental thermal loading in the laser caused by up-conversion loss processes. The Ho:YAG crystal laser is directly pumped by a Thulium fiber laser at 1.9 μm at the holmium 5I7 to 5I8 transition to produce an output at 2.1 μm yielding a very low quantum defect. The laser is embodied as a thulium fiber laser pumped oscillator or an amplifier.

In many crystal lasers used in coherent light amplifiers and oscillators a light-emitting element is added as a dopant to a material that serves as a crystalline host. The characteristics of a crystal laser depend on the dopant and crystalline host selected. Light emitting dopant materials include all the trivalent rare earth ions.
All laser materials have characteristic energy levels and transitions so that photons are emitted at certain transitions when electrons drop from excited states to lower states. Likewise, the materials absorb light at characteristic wavelengths when they are in the ground state or other low levels.
Light absorption can be at a narrow or broad range of wavelengths depending on the transitions involved. Laser operation at the holmium 5I6 to 5I7, and 5I7 to 5I8 transitions have been reported at near 2.9 microns (μm) and 2.1 microns (μm) in several different host crystals. Consequently, laser performances using broad spectral emission pump sources have been poor except where additional sensitizer (co-dopant) ions have been used. However, the use of sensitizer ions has its shortcomings.
Thulium (Tm) sensitized holmium doped laser materials have proven to be quite useful but have several disadvantages. For example, the near energy resonance between the Tm 3F4 and Ho 5I7 states results in incomplete energy transfer from the sensitizer ions. At room temperature with otherwise optimal densities of sensitizer, transfer of only approximately 60% of the stored excitation density to holmium ions can occur. This incomplete transfer proportionally increases the already high lasing thresholds associated with holmium and increases thermal loading. Further, the interaction of Tm 3F4 and Ho 5I7 meta-stable ions create a detrimental up conversion loss process that severely limits energy storage lifetimes and small signal gains. In addition, the short pulse performance of Tm/Ho lasers are limited by the up conversion loss process and the relatively slow energy transfer from Tm 3F4 and Ho 5I7. Finally, the thermal loading of the Tm/Ho laser material is increased by the incomplete energy transfer and up conversion losses, thereby limiting the utility of such material for average power production. Other sensitizer co-dopants also create problems.
Thus, there is a need in the prior art for a way to improve lasing thresholds associated with holmium doped crystal lasers of oscillators and amplifiers, while reducing thermal loading, reducing up conversion losses and minimizing other problems.

BAE Systems Information and Electronic Systems Integration Inc.


The invention relates to a PET regranulate which, after modification of a granulated PET recyclate, has an intrinsic viscosity of at least 0.95 dl/g measured according to ASTM D 4603, preferably greater than 1.0 dl/g and particularly preferably between 1.1 dl/g and 1.7 dl/g and is suitable for the production of extrusion blow-molded containers.

The production of plastic containers, in particular plastic bottles, for example of polyethylene or polypropylene, usually takes place in an extrusion blow molding method. Thereby, a plastic tube is extruded from a tube head, which is introduced into a blow-molding tool with a cavity, inflated via a blow mandrel by overpressure and thereby pressed against the inside of the cavity and cured by cooling. Due to the curing on the inside of the cavity, the blow-molded article assumes the contour of the inside of the cavity on its outside. After curing, the blow-molded article is removed from the blow-molding tool. The extrusion blow molding machines used for this purpose generally have at least one extruder for feeding and melting the plastic material. The outlet of the extruder is connected to the tube head, at the outlet nozzle of which, preferably adjustable in the opening width, the extruded tube emerges. When closing the blow-molding tool for squeezing the plastic tube introduced between its tool halves, parts of the plastic tube project on the top and the bottom, so-called slugs, which are separated in a separate work step and can be fed to the recycling stream. The plastic tube can be single-layered or multi-layered, it can be extruded as a plastic tube with viewing strips, decorative strips or related to the circumference, with several, for example, different colored segments.
The blowing station with the blow mandrel is usually arranged laterally of the tube head, wherein the blow-molding tool supplied with the extruded plastic tube must be moved into the blow station, where the blow mandrel is then usually driven into the blow mold cavity from above.
In most cases, the plastic tube is extruded vertically. Due to gravity, the plastic tube exiting at the blow nozzle is pulled downwards. However, if the material of the plastic tube is too thin, i.e. has no sufficient melt strength, it is changed in its length due to the own weight of the plastic tube such that the subsequent blowing process is no longer possible.
For the production of PET containers on extrusion blow molding machines, extrusion blow molding can only be used if the PET molding compound has the necessary melt strength, i.e. the plastic tube has a shape and consistency when the blow mold halves are closed, which leads to a hollow body during subsequent inflation and curing that meets the specified specifications. The melt strength of the PET material used in the stretch blow molding process in which the containers are formed from a preform made by injection molding, a so-called preform, does not meet the requirements for extrusion blow molding, as its intrinsic viscosity is too low and leads to the mentioned impermissible lengths of the plastic tube when used in extrusion blow molding. For extrusion blowing, the PET material must be modified accordingly.
According to the prior art, PET molding compounds are used for extrusion blow molding, which are known by short designations such as PET X (extrudable), PET G (glycol modified) and PET B (branched). In the USA, terms such as EPET, PETE or even EBM PET are common. These are PET materials specially developed for extrusion blow molding, produced quantity of which is low and therefore has a correspondingly high price. However, the PET hollow bodies produced with these PET molding compounds with the EBM method can partially not be supplied to the PET recycling stream, as they cannot be processed like standard PET during recycling.
Standard PET types are understood to be linear PET types (not branched) with a low copolymer fraction of less than 5% by weight and an intrinsic viscosity (IV) of between 0.74 and 0.86 dl/g (according to ASTM D 4603).
In US 2013/0029068 A1, a PET molding composition is proposed, which is suitable for the EBM process and is said to behave without problems in the PET recycling stream. The PET molding compound is made of PET virgin material, that is, so-called "virgin PET" or short v-PET. By definition, PET virgin material has not been extruded from fossil raw materials or renewable raw materials after its production.
Due to the low melt strength, post-consumer PET, so-called r-PET, is not suitable for use in an EBM machine. The reason for the too low melt stability of r-PET is probably due to the fact that the plastic mass is degraded again during extrusion by the repeated heat exposure and the impact of shear forces and thus the molecular weight is reduced again.
Standard PET (polyethylene terephthalate) is not suitable for extrusion blow molding due to its low melt strength. Therefore, modified PET molding compounds have been developed which have an improved melt strength. The improved melt strength can be affected among others by an extension or crosslinking of the molecular chains by adding chain extension or crosslinking additives to the PET. However, such PET molding compounds cannot be supplied to the PET recycling stream from the containers produced from a preform, as the extension and crosslinking additives are regarded as contamination of the PET recycling stream.
Post-use PET, so-called PET recyclate (r-PET), as available on the market, has an intrinsic viscosity of at most 0.88 dl/g according to ASTM D 4603 and is unsuitable for use in the extrusion blow method.

Pet regranulate having high intrinsic viscosity and method for the production thereof


A vehicle masking material and method of use. The masking material in one embodiment includes polyvinyl alcohol, ethyl alcohol, glycerine or triethylene glycol, a surfactant, and water. The masking material is applied to a surface which is to be protected from paint overspray or other mechanical process, allowed to dry, and paint is applied. After drying of the paint, the masking material is removed by peeling or water washing.

The present invention relates to the field of protective coatings to be used during mechanical processing operations of vehicles or buildings. More specifically, in one embodiment the invention provides an improved method and composition for masking selected portions of a vehicle from paint.
It is well known that painting operations often require masking of certain portions of the vehicle or building to prevent overspray. For example, it is often necessary to mask trim and windows on a vehicle from paint overspray. Also, building stucco must frequently be protected from paint or primer coats. On occasion, it is necessary to mask painted portions of a vehicle or building from paints of a different color and overspray of paints of the same color. It is also well known that many surfaces are susceptible to marring and scratching during mechanical processing operations on proximate surfaces. For example, welding and grinding can have deleterious effects on surrounding surfaces.
In practice, masking operations are often one of the most time consuming and, therefore, expensive parts of the painting process. In spite of attempts to develop suitable chemical masks for vehicle painting, vehicle painters continue to use primarily masking tape and paper to cover portions of a vehicle where paint is not desired. To mask the trim on a car, for example, will often require many hours of tedious labor. Furthermore, even when done carefully, defects in such paint masks allow paint to contact surfaces which are desired to be protected.
Solutions have been proposed to the problem of protecting surfaces during mechanical processing operations. However, such techniques have often not found extensive use. Some of the proposed chemical masks have been unsuitable for application to portions of a vehicle or building because of damage which would potentially occur to the protected portions of the vehicle or building. Other compositions are not water soluble. This causes particular problems because environmental controls of solvents are becoming stricter with time. Other compositions are difficult to apply, difficult to remove, excessively costly, or the like.
From the above it is seen that an improved masking composition is needed.

Protective coating and method of using such coating


A multiple component tennis scoring and vibration dampening device including a pair of housing sections that are matable in communication with and attachable to the strings of a tennis racket. Each preferred housing section further includes a rubberized material which functions as a vibration dampening member, and a rotary dial on each of the housing section to designate the score of each player or team.

The present invention relates to a device for attachment to the strings of a tennis racket, where the device is a dampening member to control vibrations to the player, which may effect his/her well being, and a score keeper for the player and the opponent.
Dampening devices to help a tennis or other racket player are well known in the respective sports fields. A shockproof device in a tennis racket, for instance, is very important. It prevents the shock waves from transmitting to the handle of a racket in order to protect the hand of a player and to promote the scores of the player in a competition, especially by those weekend players who do not have a professional trainer or coach. In any case, a hit of a tennis racket against a flying ball can create a great deal of shock waves. If the tennis racket has no shockproof arrangement, the shock waves will transmit to the handle of the racket that injure the hand and wrist of the player which could cause 'tennis elbow'. Though some new rackets have such devices on the rackets, they are of limited value. Some recent patent developments illustrating and describing vibration dampening devices may be found in the following U.S. patents:
a.) U.S. Pat. No. 4,909,509, to Boschian, is directed to a device for dampening vibrations in strung rackets, including a first pair of opposed plates and a central body portion which connect the plates. The body portion is receivable in the space defined by two pairs of intersecting racket strings such that the plates grip at least two racket strings. The device further includes a second pair of plates removably attachable to the device, each of the second pair of plates being generally parallel and opposed to one of the plates in the first pair. The device further includes means for removably attaching additional plates such that when the device is mounted on a racket there is a series of parallel, opposed plates extending axially from each side of the racket face. Because the plates may be readily added or removed, and may be of different sizes, the vibration dampening effects of the racket may be tuned to meet a particular player's needs.
b.) U.S. Pat. No. 6,537,164, to Hsu, teaches an elastic sheath damper for the tennis racket throat that includes a racket having a frame, a stringing surface in the frame and a throat separated from a handle to respectively form a truncated triangular configuration and a Y-shaped configuration, each of which has a pair of hollow interior branches made engageable with each other and connected by a pair of cylindrical bars by adhesives. The cylindrical bars have a pair of elastic sheaths respectively sleeved on two ends and inserted into the branches, whereby the shock waves from the frame are absorbed twice by the elastic sheaths in the throat without transmitting to the handle.
c.) U.S. Pat. No. 7,012,111, to Kanemitsu et al., relates to a high specific-gravity EPDM composition, having moldability and weather resistant properties, suitable as a dynamic damper mounted on sports goods, such as a tennis racket.
Personal tennis scoring devices are also well known, and can be helpful aids to the week-end tennis players where scoreboards are neither used nor available. Such devices that are commercially available are typically attached to the racket handle or worn by the player about the wrist. Several examples of tennis scoring devices are taught and illustrated in the following U.S. patents:
d.) U.S. Pat. No. 5,489,122, to Pittner, covers a personal tennis score keeper comprising a strip of sheet material having an upper surface and a lower surface and with the upper surface thereof bearing squares arranged in a linear array and forming three columns, one of the columns bearing indicia indicating the number of games won by a player, another column bearing indicia indicating the number of games won by an opposing player, and the remaining column bearing indicia for indicating a score of each player during a game; and a plurality of scoring markers slidably secured to the strip in a juxtaposed slidable relation with respect to a column for marking a score.
e.) U.S. Pat. No. 5,048,452, to Haddock et al., is directed to a scoring device for use in racket games. A track member is mounted to a base member by an attachment means which allows relative movement between the base and track members. Scoring indicators move along the track member. An adhesive label is attached to the base member to allow its attachment to a curved surface and more particularly to the curved surface such that of a throat of a racket.
f.) U.S. Pat. No. 4,712,504, to Zarley et al., teaches a tennis scoring device comprising an elongated body member having a longitudinal axis, with a visible tennis scoring indicia secured on the top surface of the body member and extending along the longitudinal axis thereof. The indicia strip is divided into a plurality of duplicate scoring segments representing the scores of the player and the opponent. A pair of slide members are resiliently slidably mounted on the edges of the body member and extend over the indicia strip. An apertures in each of the slide members provides visible access to a given indicia segment. The width of the body member is greater than the normal width of the slide members so that the slide members are slightly expanded upon being mounted on the body member to resiliently hold the slide members in position on the body member.
g.) U.S. Pat. No. 4,498,668, relates to a device for scoring the opposing sides of a tennis match which is adapted to be mounted on the side of a tennis racket handle. A vibration of this device may be employed to keep count of the games won by each side. The device comprises an elongated, flexible, transparent structure which is segmented into two compartments by a seam across its mid section. Enclosed within each compartment is a bead-like chip or marker which is slideably movable therein when the marker is pressed gently. Each chip is held in place by a spring-like action wedging it against the wall of its compartment and preventing it from being moved inadvertently during the game. The structure itself is sandwiched between two strips of film which are adhesively attached together. The outer film layer includes an elongated transparent panel through which each marker may be viewed within its compartment and upon which are imprinted indicia, each of which corresponds to a score in a tennis game. The markers are movable to positions beneath these indicia, which represent the tennis scoring points "love" to "15", "30" and "40". When a marker is slid beneath a particular indicia, that marking stands out from its background so that the score can be easily read. Otherwise, the indicia above each compartment and the layer of film disposed beneath it are difficult to distinguish visually from each other.
h.) U.S. Pat. No. 4,189,143, to Van Auken et al., covers a tennis scorekeeping device having a pair of separately formed scorekeeping units adapted to be mounted one each side of a tennis racket handle between the head of the racket and the handle grip of the racket, first manually manipulatable means on one of said units for scoring game points won by opposing players, and second manually manipulatable means on the other of said units for scoring the games won by opposing players.
i.) U.S. Pat. No. 3,986,715, to Glick, is directed to a scoring device capable of being mounted on the handle of a tennis racket with a pair of padlike members, having a series of parallel grooves, which are adhesively mounted to opposite sides of the handle of the racket, the grooves extending in a direction normal to the longitudinal axis of the handle. A resilient band having a pair of beads at diametrically opposed positions on the band is stretched around the handle, the beads being conformed to be seated in one of the recesses of the respective pad members of the handle.
It is apparent from both commercially known products, and those devices of the foregoing prior art that various tennis aids are available to tennis players, but none teach or suggest a convenient and readily usable combination device that offers both scoring and dampening capabilities, particularly as found in the device of the present invention. The manner by which this invention brings together these capabilities will become more apparent from the following specification, especially when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Combination tennis scoring and dampening device


The presently disclosed technology includes a friction stir welding apparatus comprising a frame, a moving platform and a parallel mechanism composed of three branch mechanisms, wherein a first branch mechanism comprises a first sliding pair, a first revolute pair, a telescopic rod and a first spherical pair connected in sequence. A second branch mechanism and a third branch mechanism both comprise a third sliding pair, a second revolute pair, a third linkage and a second spherical pair connected in sequence. The friction stir welding apparatus has high stiffness, low inertia, high dynamic performance and high accuracy, which can achieve precision welding with high requirements on processing quality and accuracy for jointing annular seams of large-scale rocket fuel storage tank barrels in the aviation field, for example. The presently disclosed technology also includes a corresponding friction stir welding system.

Friction stir welding uses a special form of stirring head to proceed forward while rotating, and generates heat by friction between the stirring head and the workpiece to be welded, and the workpiece to be welded is in a thermoplastic state at local position due to the generated friction heat, and the generated friction heat plastically flows from the front end to the rear end under the pressure of the stirring head, thereby the workpiece to be welded is pressure-welded into an integral member. Since the above method is solid-phase welding, the heating process has the characteristics of high energy density and rapid heat input speed. Therefore, the welding deformation is small and the residual stress after welding is small. Meanwhile, the friction stir welding process does not generate arc radiation, smoke and dust, as well as spatter, and has low noise, therefore the friction stir welding process is an environment friendly production and processing. Therefore, friction stir welding has been widely used.
At present, as for welding parts with complicated welding surfaces, the existing friction stir welding apparatus generally adopts a series-connected structure so that the apparatus has five-axis linkage processing capability, however it will generate a large forging force during the processing, and the forging force results in the deformation of the series-connected structure, which affects the welding quality and the welding precision. In order to obtain welded parts having higher precision, the welding apparatus needs to have a sufficiently large rigidity.

Friction stir welding apparatus and friction stir welding system comprising the same


A vacuum supply system for a brake power assist unit of a motor vehicle with at least one additional vacuum consuming device is achieved by the installation of a valve, which can be switched as a function of existing vacuum level in a pipe leading from the vacuum generating device to the at least one additional consuming device. Switching of the valve causes a throttling of this pipe to be more extensive when the existing vacuum level is above a certain absolute pressure value.

The invention relates to a vacuum supply system for a brake power assist unit of a vehicle, as well as for at least one additional consuming device and has a vacuum generating device connected to a main pipe being provided with a first check valve between a suction connection of the vacuum generating device and the brake power assist unit. A secondary pipe leads at least indirectly from the vacuum generating device to the additional consuming device and this secondary pipe contains at least one flow control device for throttling the suction flow from the secondary consuming device to the vacuum generating device, as well as a valve for controlling the suction flow.
A vacuum supply system of this type is known from German Unexamined Patent Application DE-OS 31 24 153.
Check valves between vacuum generating devices and different consuming devices, or groups of consuming devices, are normally installed in the corresponding supply pipes in order to avoid incoming atmospheric air, due to leakages at individual consuming devices, which has a disadvantageous effect on the vacuum level at other consuming devices which are not leaking.
Flow control devices such as brake power assist units which are arranged in front of secondary or so-called vacuum-consuming comfort devices (e.g., headlight adjusting motors, air-conditioning system control motors, etc.) require vacuum supply priority, which is desirable for reasons of driving safety. With a secure priority system, such priority devices can be evacuated by the same vacuum generating device as the secondarY vacuum consuming devices.
It is known to use vacuum pumps with two separate suction connections (German Unexamined Patent Application DE-OS 32 43 984), in which case the suction connection belonging to the secondary consuming devices is equipped with a flow control device.
The above-mentioned arrangement is in use in diesel engine equipped vehicles manufactured by Daimler-Benz Aktiengesellschaft, in which however, a check valve is arranged in the suction pipe leading from the brake power assist unit to the vacuum source in order to maintain the vacuum level at the brake power assist unit during an atmospheric pressure flow short circuit of the vacuum pump. Between the brake power assist unit and the check valve, a throttled secondary pipe branches off from the suction pipe leading to the brake power assist unit. This throttled secondary pipe is bled only for the zero adjustment of the injection pump control rod when the diesel engine is shut off. For safety reasons, it must be a single pipe.
The growing number of comfort enhancing vacuum consuming devices used in motor vehicles make it necessary to be able to continuously ensure their vacuum supply. This supply should be improved over known systems mainly in view of the requirement that the lowest vacuum level be available at the brake power assist unit only when the power brake is actually actuated.
It is therefore the object of the invention to develop a vacuum supply system of this type, such that when the power brake is not actuated, the vacuum supply of secondary consuming devices is improved.
According to the invention, this object is achieved by having a valve that can be switched between at least two positions (I, II) as a function of the vacuum instantaneously existing in the system. The suction flow between the vacuum generating source and the consuming device(s) in position (I) of the valve is by an additional flow control device which valve is fluidly connected in series with the first flow control device, and wherein the valve in its other position (II) limits throttling only by the first control device.
By a bridging provided by the bypass, the check valve flow control device unit connected between the vacuum generating device and the secondary consuming devices, ensures that overall flow resistance of the supply of the secondary consuming devices is reduced, despite the additional flow control devices, so that when the power brake is not actuated, practically the complete vacuum output is available for use by the secondary consuming devices.
A vacuum supply system for a brake power assist unit and at least one additional consuming device is known from German Unexamined Patent Application DE-OS 31 05 041. There, the branch pipe of the secondary consuming device contains a flow control device for securing the priority of the supply of the brake power assist unit as well as a check valve, which fluidly is switched in parallel with this flow control device. Although the throttled pipe section is called a "detour pipe", it actuallY, because of the provided orientation of the parallel check valve through which an evacuation of the secondary consuming device must not be possible, represents the only bleeding possibility of the secondary consuming device. The check valve permits only an additional evacuation of the brake power assist unit at the expense of the vacuum level at the secondary consuming device.
Because of the specified opposite objectives, the mentioned German Unexamined Patent Application DE-OS 31 05 041 can supply no reference with respect to the construction of the type of vacuum supply system having a valve that can be switched between at least two positions (I, II) as a function of the vacuum instantaneously existing in the system. The suction flow between the vacuum generating source and the consuming device(s) in position (I) of the valve is by an additional flow control device which valve is fluidly connected in series with the first flow control device, and wherein the valve in its other position (II) limits throttling only by the first control device.
It is advantageous if the valve can be directly pneumatically switched within a certain vacuum value range by the vacuum existing in the system. The valve can be switched electromagnetically and in a controlled manner by an electric pressure switched responding to the vacuum existing in the system within a certain vacuum value range. The valve is constructed as a 2/2-way valve.
It is also advantageous if the valve is located in a chamber which has a suction connection path, a consuming device connecting path and an atmosphere connecting path and if both the suction connection path and the consuming device connecting path from the atmosphere connecting path are constantly separated by a diaphragm. The diaphragm can be switched within a certain range of the relationship between the vacuum at the suction connection path and the atmospheric pressure at the atmosphere connecting path and is connected with a valve body by which the switching of the valve takes place between the two positions (I and II). A throttling restriction is provided in the atmosphere connecting path of the valve.
Additionally, the additional flow control device of the valve is constructed as a narrowing of a round cross-section with a clear diameter of between 0.5 and 1.0 mm, preferably 0.8 mm, while the first flow control device has a clear diameter of between 0.8 and 1.2 mm, preferably 1.0 mm. In such a design, the additional flow control device can be integrated into the valve body. The valve should have an adjustable switching threshold in the vacuum valve range set between 0.7 and 0.4 bar, preferably at 0.5 bar. The valve should be arranged between the first flow control device and the secondary consuming device.
Special constructions of check valves combined with flow control devices are known in the vacuum supply systems of the above-mentioned types. However, in these, a flow control device becomes operative only when the check valve is opened against its restoring force. German Unexamined Patent Application DE-OS 28 14 384 describes a check valve having a flow control device which is integrated and fluidly is arranged in parallel.
By providing the check valve connected between the vacuum generating device and the consuming device(s) with a relatively strong return spring, it is ensured that the secondary consuming devices and the relatively wide flow control device, which is connected behind it (in parallel to the narrow bypass flow control device) will not be evacuated by means of this check valve before a required vacuum level is reached at the brake power assist unit. The priority of the supply of the brake power assist unit continues to be ensured, because as soon as its vacuum chamber is bled during braking operations, the (absolute) pressure in the suction pipe will rise, and the second check valve will close. A slight increase of the achievable (absolute) vacuum level as a result of the bypass pipe, while the consuming device output remains the same, can be accepted without any difficulties.
Another advantageous development for even more reliably ensuring the priority of the brake power assist unit from the vacuum supply system is achieved, if the second check valve, during each braking operation, can be power actuated by any of electrical, hydraulic or pneumatic means.
A check valve in a vacuum supply system for a brake power assist unit which can be power operated is known from German Patent DE-AS 11 20 293. In addition to being operated by pressure differences, it is also controlled by an electric switch coupled with the brake pedal. It is opened electromagnetically and connects the brake power assist unit with a vacuum compensating tank, in order to improve the vacuum level acting upon it.
According to another embodiment of the invention (shown in FIG. 4), a valve is arranged in a secondary pipe between the vacuum generating device and the at least one secondary consuming device and can be controlled as a function of the instantaneously existing vacuum and can be switched into at least two positions.
The secondary pipe either starts out directly from the vacuum generating device, or from its own suction connection (dual-flow system); or leads only indirectly to the secondary consuming device (single-flow system); i.e., leading away as a branch pipe, in front of the check valve, from the main pipe leading to the brake power assist unit.
The overall throttling of the secondary consuming device suction flow is varied, in that in one position of the valve an additional flow control device can be connected in series with the already existing flow control device. In the other valve position, no additional throttling takes place. The valve switches over with a given vacuum value range, i.e., at approximately 0.5 bar. Above this range (in the direction of the atmospheric pressure), the suction flow is throttled more, in order to continue to evacuate the brake power assist unit as a priority. Below this range, the vacuum level existing in the system is sufficient for a reliable operation of the brake power assist unit, so that the throttling of the secondary consuming device suction flow may be reduced without any loss of reliability, and thus the supply of the secondary consuming devices may be improved.
With respect to their basic principles, valve arrangements which allow a variable throttling of flows are known. German Unexamined Patent Application DE-OS 30 11 360 shows a compressed air system for a vehicle, which has a 3/2-way valve, which pneumatically can be switched into two positions and to two corresponding pipe sections. In one position, this 3/2-way valve switches a freely passable pipe section into a compressed air pipe and in the other position, switches a pipe section equipped with a control device into a compressed air pipe. By this arrangement, the amount of air is reduced which must be released by a pressure regulator connected behind the valve since the system pressure behind the valve, or in the pressure regulator, switches it, starting from a certain sufficient pressure level into a "throttling" position. In addition, from German Patent DE-PS 35 26 763, a similar arrangement of an electromagnetically switchable 3/2-way valve is known which, as a function of an electrically detected system pressure, switches either a throttled or an unthrottled pipe section between a bi-pressure pump and consuming devices. This arrangement has the purpose of making it possible to connect several consuming devices with different pressure level requirements to a single pressure source. However, neither of the latter texts supplies any reference to the endeavored improvement referenced in this invention.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Vacuum supply system with throttling valve in a motor vehicle


A system and method for combining two separate types of human machine interfaces, e.g., a voice signal and a gesture signal, performing voice recognition to a voice signal and gesture recognition to the gesture signal. Based on a confidence determination using the voice recognition result and the gesture recognition result the system can, for example, immediately perform the command/request, request confirmation of the command/request or determine that the command/request was not identified.

Human machine interfaces (HMIs) are common in many consumer devices and vehicles. A problem with conventional systems is that human machine interfaces are limited in the ability to recognize a user's command/request based on, for example a voice signal or visual signal. A more robust HMI and command/request recognition system is needed.

System and method for incorporating gesture and voice recognition into a single system


A method for detecting a fake finger for fingerprint acquisition software with improved performance, the method implementing a static analysis step including a calculation of a Gray Level Run Length matrix of an image of a finger. Optionally, but preferably, the static analysis and a dynamic analysis are combined so as to optimize the ability to detect fake fingers.

The acquisition and recognition of fingerprints have today become inescapable in the context of the checking of the identity of persons. Current systems for acquiring fingerprints comprise a hardware component and a software component. The hardware component relies essentially on the implementation of a sensor allowing the acquisition of an image of the finger whose print it is sought to acquire. The software component comprises a man-machine interface allowing the acquisition of details, the recording of personal data, the displaying of information intended for the operator and the subject.
Moreover, currently, an aim of fingerprint acquisition software consists increasingly in detecting possible attempted frauds of these systems, through the use of fake fingers, such as molded fingers, latex fingers, etc. These frauds may be motivated by a wish to hide one's identity so as not to be recognized, to usurp somebody's identity, or else to seek to create a fake identity for example. To guarantee the effectiveness of the fingerprint acquisition stations, it is important to develop systems for detecting these attempted frauds.
The invention lies in this context of searching for more effective solutions aimed at detecting fake fingers, by way of a software approach to the problem.
The prior art comprises a certain number of technical solutions making it possible to detect fake fingers. In particular, several technologies based on a hardware approach to the issue have been developed, such as that described in patent U.S. Pat. No. 7,415,139; they usually consist in determining whether the finger for which the image is acquired is indeed alive, by way of measurements of temperatures, blood flow, or by detecting sweating phenomena for example. Other technologies are based on an analysis of the image of the print of the finger; such techniques are for example disclosed in publications such as R. DERAKHSHANI ET AL, "Determination of vitality from a non-invasive biomedical measurement for use in fingerprint scanners", in Pattern Recognition, v 36, n 2, p 383-96, February 2003, or else in S. NIKAM ET AL, "Wavelet energy signature and GLCM features based fingerprint anti-spoofing", for Sixth IIEEE International conference on Wavelet Analysis and Pattern Recognition (ICWAPR-2008), Hong Kong, 30-31 Aug. 2008, to give an example proposing a wavelet analysis of the image acquired.

Method for detecting a fake finger for fingerprint acquisition software


A system for conveying pasty material through a conduit has an eccentric screw pump having a stator, a rotor that rotates in the stator, a housing with an intake port, and an output port connected to the conduit. A drive rotates the rotor and thereby draws the pasty material in through the intake port and expels the drawn-in material as a compressed-material strand into the conduit. A valve supplies gas pulses to the conduit at time intervals for separating the compressed-material strand into material plugs of limited length traveling through the conduit.

A conveying system for pasty material such as sludge or comminuted food waste or the like typically has an eccentric screw pump having a stator, a rotor that rotates in the stator, a suction housing forming an intake port at a low-pressure side of the stator, and preferably a pressure housing with output port that is connected to the a high-pressure side of the stator.
Such an eccentric screw pump is from the group of rotary displacement pumps that are used to convey a wide variety of media and in particular highly viscous liquids in a wide variety of industrial sectors, with the media or liquids to be conveyed often having high solids contents. In the context of the present invention, the eccentric screw pump is used to convey pasty material and thus highly viscous liquids with (high) solids contents.
The stator is made of elastic or elastomeric material, for example, and is usually surrounded by a one-piece or multipart stator casing or stator housing. The eccentric screw pump has a drive for the rotor and preferably a coupling rod in the suction housing that is preferably connected via a drive-side joint to a drive-side shaft and via a rotor-side joint to the rotor, with the coupling rod allowing eccentric rotation of the rotor. An eccentric screw pump is preferably constructed as a hopper pump in which a feed hopper is connected to the intake port. In such an embodiment for conveying pasty or highly viscous media with solids content, the coupling rod is preferably equipped with conveying tools, for example with an auger or with conveyor paddles promoting transport of the material from the intake port to the rotor.
In practice, there is a need to transport pasty material or media such as dewatered sludge, for example, over long distances, and this poses great challenges to local wastewater treatment, for example, since a substantial pressure drop in the conduit caused by the high viscosity and abrasiveness of this material/medium must be overcome. These pressure losses scale proportionally over the length of the conveying route, which makes conveyance over distances in the range of kilometers extremely difficult. The commonly used pump solutions must build up high pressure in order to overcome the pressure losses, so that they are limited by their pressure rating to a maximum conveying distance. In addition, high back pressure places an extreme load on the pumps, resulting in frequent, time-consuming, and expensive maintenance cycles due to wearing of the rotor-stator structures and/or the joints. When eccentric screw pumps are used for such long conveying routes, commensurately large, heavy-duty eccentric screw pumps must be used with considerable maintenance and associated costs.
Alternatively, sequential conveyance solutions with multiple drives such as conveyor belts or augers are used in practice. Disadvantages include high energy consumption and maintenance costs, and an open design is often associated with corresponding odor nuisance or rewatering dried sludge by rain. Such conveyance solutions are also inefficient for vertical or angled transport. The use of closed piping usually requires the use of multistage eccentric screw pumps or, alternatively, piston pumps, that are suitable for high-viscosity media and high pressures; however, due to the high back pressure, they require a relatively high drive power and are thus associated with high energy consumption and high maintenance.
Pneumatic conveyance and so-called plug conveyance in particular are also known from practice, but these are mainly used to transport loose bulk materials. Such a method and device for the pneumatic conveyance of bulk material is known for example from WO 2001/002274. The bulk material is to be conveyed from a low to a high level, with the bulk material being first conveyed substantially horizontally, then pneumatically raised and subsequently conveyed pneumatically. The initial conveyance occurs in the form of discrete plugs of bulk material, and the bulk material is lifted in the form of a largely continuous flow of bulk material.
A conveyor system with a pipeline for the transport of short, similar fluent plugs of a granular or powdery material is also known for example from DE 33 19 076. This system consists of a conduit and branch lines parallel thereto. In addition, a feeder, for example a pumps, is provided that has a seal against a pipeline pressure caused by a fluid pressure source. In principle, the feeder can also be an eccentric screw pump with rotor and stator. In any case, the pump is downstream from a material-holding chamber at the upstream end of which a connection for the fluid pressure source is provided so that fluid pressure can be applied continuously to the conduit via the holding chamber on the intake side. In addition, at least one opening for allowing entry of a small quantity of the fluid into the conduit is provided in the subsequent conduit for material plug transport. When using an eccentric screw pump, it is also proposed to that a cellular wheel sluice be provided at the downstream-end holding chamber whose intended purpose is not only to better seal the pump against the prevailing pressure in the conduit, but also to reduce the size of the material emerging from the pump.
In addition, devices for conveying moist and mushy material in pipelines in terms of a plug transport are known from DE 874 877 and DE 559 237.
Finally, DE 42 03 571 describes a mobile device for producing lightweight concrete with a screw mixer and a screw pump to which a pressurized chamber of a compressed air mixing and conveying machine is connected via a connecting line.


A metronome that marks musical time by displaying a clock face having a measure of music depicted about the periphery includes a rotating indicator that sweeps about the clock face to indicate the rhythm. In one aspect, a computer program generates a screen display having a clock face and a clock hand mounted in the center to rotate continuously in typical clock fashion. Using drag-and-drop techniques, notes and other rhythm symbols are placed on the clock face. As the clock hand rotates past each of the indicia, an audible sound is generated to denote that particular aspect of the rhythm in real time. In addition, a display of one or more regular polygons may be presented to indicate counting in a number equal to the number of sides of the polygon. Polygons may be overlaid to display and sound polymetric rhythms, each vertex corresponding to a counted beat. The metronome may comprise a mechanical or electromechanical device having a variable speed clock drive, and the clock hand may sound the rhythm directly by percussive contact or proximity interaction with each note indicator on the clock face. The display of the clock face may be augmented by providing lighted indicators placed at each of the indicia and illuminated as the clock hand passes by. Alternatively, a plurality of lighted points are spaced about the periphery of the clock face and illuminated in clockwise sequence to indicated the progress of counting a measure of music.

The present invention relates to a metronome having expanded potential both for indicating musical time and as a teaching aids for musical education, and, more particularly, to a device for teaching musical rhythm and rhythm notation.
Generally speaking, most music students are exposed to melody and rhythm before they begin to study music. Children acquire songs through listening to recordings, radio, television, and children's songs sung by parents and family members. Rhythms may be learned from similar sources, and also from playground games and chants. Thus an innate sense of music may develop before any formal instruction begins.
For beginning students, the placement of notes on a staff bears a spatial relationship to the tune that the notes represent, and there is usually an intuitive understanding of this association. However, the teaching of rhythm involves time signatures and note values that have no spatial relationship, and are thus not as intuitive as melody. For some students, rhythm notation may be an obstacle to early understanding of music, particularly for younger students. Although pedagogical techniques have been developed to deal with this problem, there is a lack of a simple spatial or graphic visual aid for teaching rhythm notation, and for relating that notation to the dynamic presentation of musical rhythm.
For more advanced music students, and for music professionals, the metronome remains a fundamental tool for practice. Aside from the familiar pendulum metronome, there are now electrical and electronic metronomes for keeping time in music. These device are generally characterized as marking time by emitting clicks or beeps or flashes of light at regular, selectable intervals. However, these devices are typically devoid of any display of musical rhythm, and have no means for indicating the proper manner of marking the rhythm of a measure of music.


A system for machine learning model parameters for image compression, including partitioning image files into a first set of regions, determining a first set of machine learned model parameters based on the regions, the first set of machine learned model parameters representing a first level of patterns in the image files, constructing a representation of each of the regions based on the first set of machine learned model parameters, constructing representations of the image files by combining the representations of the regions in the first set of regions, partitioning the representations of the image files into a second set of regions, and determining a second set of machine learned model parameters based on the second set of regions, the second set of machine learned model parameters representing a second level of patterns in the image files.

Digital images may be transmitted, stored, and displayed using 2-dimensional arrays of data in the form of digital image files. Digital image files require substantial amounts of digital storage capacity and large transmission bandwidths to store and transmit from computing device to computing device. Compression techniques have been designed to reduce this data volume, while minimizing the amount of distortion that results from the compression-decompression process. Such compression techniques are generally based on redundancies in information content of the data and on the limits of the human eye and brain to detect high frequency changes in brightness over an image area.
The data structure of a digital image file, which is used to render the image on a display, consists of an array of values representing "pixel" intensities. A pixel is the smallest controllable element of an image represented on a display, and the intensity is the value that pixel takes when used to display the image. For example, in a grayscale image, a pixel value represents the relative lightness of that point of the image. A representation of a digital image file is shown in FIG. 1. The partial face image consists of a 168 by 168 array of pixel intensities. Several 8 by 8 blocks, or regions, of the array are expanded to illustrate that each pixel is represented by a number. In this case, each pixel intensity is represented by a byte of digital data (therefore, the intensities range from 0 to 255). The image of FIG. 1, then, contains 168×168=28,244 bytes of data (28 kilobytes). The goal of image compression techniques, generally, is to transform the original grid of image pixels into a new, much smaller set of digital values holding the information needed to regenerate the original image. In other words, to reduce the file size of FIG. 1 to something less than 28 kilobytes.
Compressing digital image files helps reduce the amount of resource usage for storing and transmitting the digital images. With the increasing quantity of digital images being captured, stored, and transferred at ever higher resolutions, the computing resources required to handle these images is ever increasing. Reducing the amount of data required to handle these images, through digital image compression, allows computing devices to be made with less physical memory, enabling them to be made smaller and cheaper. Existing devices are able to store even more digital images reducing the requirement for a user to delete images to make room for new images or to acquire additional digital storage space that may be expensive and take up limited space in the computing device. Additionally, less data needs to be transmitted when transferring compressed images between computing devices, which enables faster transmission times and creates less of a load on the network used to transmit the compressed images. Thus, compression of digital images is important in making computing devices smaller and cheaper and in increasing the usability of computing devices for sharing digital images.
There are a variety of approaches to the problem of image compression, which may be classified by virtue of their predominant encoding algorithms, such as, for example, predictive coding, transform coding, statistical coding and interpolation coding. Contemporary image compression systems often utilize a combination of coding techniques tailored to the characteristics of the image. For example, the Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) standard utilizes Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) and Huffman statistical coding, among others.
Conventional image compression techniques are generally referred to as being either "lossless" or "lossy", depending upon whether data is discarded in the compression process. Examples of conventional lossless compression techniques include Huffman encoding, arithmetic encoding, and Fano-Shannon encoding. With a lossless compression, the decompression process will reproduce all bits of the original image and there will be no distortion caused by the compression process. However, lossless compression is limited to compression ratios generally below 8:1. Lossy compression, in contrast, provides greater efficiency over lossless compression in terms of speed and storage because some of the data in the original image file is discarded. As a result, lossy techniques are employed where some degree of inaccuracy relative to the input data is tolerable. JPEG is an example of a lossy compression method. The amount of compression achievable by convention lossy compression techniques depends on the acceptable level of image degradation. Generally, a 10:1 compression ratio based on the JPEG standard results in almost no perceptible degradation, whereas a 100:1 compression ratio results in significant distortion.
Many conventional image compression techniques, such as JPEG, transform an image into the frequency domain and then quantize and/or truncate the number of bits used to sample the higher frequency components. This step is typically followed by entropy encoding of the frequency coefficients. JPEG uses a discrete cosine transform (DCT), a relative of the Fourier transform, on 8×8 pixel blocks to transform the image into the frequency domain, while wavelet techniques use more sophisticated methods on larger areas of pixels. Transform compression is based on the premise that when the data contained in a pixel block (often called a signal) is passed through the Fourier (or other) transform, the resulting data values will no longer be equal in their information carrying roles. The low frequency components of a signal will be more important than the high frequency components. Removing 50% of the bits from the high frequency components might remove, say, only 5% of the information. This removing of bits results in a compressed image file that contains less data than the original image.
As shown in FIG. 1, JPEG compression starts by breaking an image into 8×8 pixel groups. In this example, each pixel is a single byte, a grayscale value between 0 and 255. These 8×8 pixel groups are treated independently during compression. That is, each group is represented by 64 bytes. After transforming and removing data, each group is represented by, for example, 2 to 20 bytes. During decompression, the inverse transform is taken of the 2 to 20 bytes to create an approximation of the original 8×8 group. These approximated groups are then fitted together to form the uncompressed image.
The amount of compression, and the resulting loss of image quality, can be selected in a typical JPEG compression program. FIGS. 2A-C illustrates image degradation resulting from high compression ratios. The reconstructed image resulting from 10:1 compression, shown in FIG. 2B, shows some degradation though not severe. However, the reconstructed image resulting from 45:1 compression ratio, shown in FIG. 2C, is significantly degraded.
As demonstrated, conventional image compression methods, such as JPEG, are limited in the level of compression by the tolerable amount of image distortion. At the 45:1 compression of FIG. 2C, the image is distorted to a level that may be unacceptable to a viewer. Furthermore, with the increasing amount of digital image data being captured, stored, and transferred from device to device, even compression ratios in the range of 45:1 are increasingly inadequate to reduce this amount of digital image data needed to store and transfer image files. Therefore, there is a need for an image compression method that can produce compression ratios that exceed conventional methods without resulting in unacceptable levels of degradation.

Ultra-high compression of images based on deep learning