A water circulation and filtration system for maintaining a high level of water quality in aquariums is provided. In one embodiment, the inventive system comprises a vertical water flushing tube connected to a water supply or a reverse power-head pump and having an opening positioned in proximity to the base of the aquarium. A water circulation tube and water draining tube, each of which has openings located immediately above the base of the aquarium, are provided at the opposing end of the aquarium. The water circulation tube is connected at its other end to a standard filter, while the water draining tube is connected at its other end to a hose leading to a sink, drain or external container. In a second embodiment, water from the aquarium passes through a water draining tube to a filtration chamber which is connected in series to at least one additional filtration chamber. A pump is connected to the final filtration chamber and positioned, in the direction of water flow, after the final filtration chamber. Filtered water passes from the final filtration chamber into the aquarium by means of a water draining tube.

This invention is in the field of water circulation and filtration systems for both freshwater and salt-water aquariums.
The maintenance of high water quality in aquariums is essential for successfully keeping many breeds of fish and other aquatic organisms. For example, it is the dream of every discus fish hobbyist to decorate their living space with plant-containing aquariums in which large discus fish live comfortably. However, it is not only labor-intensive, but also impractical for amateur hobbyists, or even professional breeders, to keep discus fish in tanks with plants due to the fact that discus require ultra clean water. The major source of contamination in an aquarium tank is debris from left-over food, plant and animal waste accumulated under the gravel, with the resulting release of excessive amounts of toxic metabolites and substances such as ammonium and organic acids from decaying substances. In addition, the presence of such debris promotes the growth of infectious bacteria and fungi. It is therefore strongly recommended that aquariums with discus fish do not contain any kind of bottom substrate in order to avoid the accumulation of debris. The only way to make a more attractive discus tank is to decorate the tank with individually potted plants, thereby lowering the aesthetic quality of the aquarium.
Various filter systems have been invented to maintain water quality in an aquarium tank. Regardless of the different features of individual filtration systems, all systems fail to work for a prolonged period. For example, under gravel filtration systems have been widely used. However, accumulation of insoluble debris between and under the pieces of gravel is significant, since no debris is removed from the tank. Therefore, this system requires a complete, periodic cleaning of the gravel, which is labor intensive. Other examples of filter systems, which are currently popular include outside filter systems that hang onto the side of the aquarium, top on filters, canister filters, and sump systems. However, these systems have similar problems to the gravel filtered systems, since insoluble debris is not removed effectively and accumulates between and under gravel pieces. Another disadvantage of using an outside filter is that anaerobic regions form within the bottom substrates due to a lack of water circulation. Therefore, many hobbyists, regardless of the type of systems used, have experienced a sudden death of animals. To prevent this, labor intensive, periodic cleaning of the bottom substrate is required.
Since ammonia is the most toxic substance in aquarium water, it should be removed by culturing aerobic bacteria, which convert ammonia to nitrate and nitrite, and by culturing anaerobic bacteria, which convert nitrite to nitrogen gas. This idea was used in the Monaco-system, which is widely known among salt-water tank hobbyists. However, this system is not practical for relatively small aquariums at home or the office, since anaerobic degradation of organic substances also releases toxic chemicals such as sulfide gas.
The efforts in developing and improving water filtration systems of aquarium tanks in the past have been focused on how to effectively culture nitrogen-fixing bacteria flora on the filter materials to eliminate toxic substances such as urea, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. This idea was based on the misunderstanding of the major sources of nitrogen compounds. Animal metabolites including urea, creatine, amino acids and organic acids, which are generally water soluble, are not the major sources of pollutants in the water. The major source of pollutants is the insoluble materials that accumulate at the tank bottom, such as left over food, feces, dead animals and plants, and overgrown bacteria. These insoluble materials, which consist of proteins, lipids, carbohydrates and celluloses, are decomposed into small molecules such as amino acids, sugars, ammonia, urea, organic acids, nitrate, nitrite, sulfuric acid, sulfurous acid, etc. by bacteria in the water. Therefore, if debris accumulates at the bottom of the tank, the amount of pollutants released from the decomposed debris increases drastically.
In addition, overgrowth of bacteria in nutrition-rich water is another major problem, since these bacteria themselves become a source of nitrogen compounds and various kinds of toxic substances. The most effective method to remove the soluble toxic nitrogen compounds is to use plants in fresh water, and coral algae grown on live rocks and macro-algae in salt water. The effects are still underestimated and are not used widely.
Furthermore, bottom substrates such as gravel, coral sand and live rocks, provide enough surface area to cultivate bacteria flora, which degrade both soluble and insoluble organic substances. Therefore, the main purpose of a water filtration system should be the removal of insoluble organic debris from the tank before it degrades, rather than cultivating bacteria to facilitate the metabolism of nitrogen compounds.
The present invention provides a water filtration system or cleaning system, together with methods for its use, which allows for effective removal of insoluble debris at the bottom of an aquarium, thereby maintaining high water quality in the aquarium without intensive work.
In one embodiment, the inventive system comprises: (a) a water flushing tube adapted to be positioned at one end of the aquarium, the water flushing tube comprising a first generally vertical tubular member connected at one end to a hose for connection to a water supply or to a reverse power-head pump, and connected at the other end to a generally right-angled water jet tube, or connector, having an opening to be positioned in proximity to the base of the aquarium; (b) a water draining tube adapted to be positioned at the opposing end of the aquarium, the water draining tube comprising a second generally vertical tubular member being connected at one end to a hose for the drainage of water out of the aquarium and connected at the other end to a generally right-angled siphon tube, or connector, having an opening to be positioned in proximity to the base of the aquarium; and (c) a water circulation tube adapted to be positioned at the opposing end of the aquarium, the water circulation tube comprising a third generally vertical tubular member being connectable at one end to a filter located outside the aquarium and having an opening to be positioned in proximity to the base of the aquarium. In a preferred embodiment, the aquarium is provided with a gravel screen and the openings of the water flushing tube, water circulation tube and water draining tube are positioned below the screen.
In an alternative embodiment, the water flushing tube is connected to a horizontal tube which is placed along at least one inner side of the aquarium and which has multiple holes placed along its length. Preferably the holes face perpendicular to the bottom of the tank. Similarly, the water circulation and draining tubes are connected to a second horizontal tube having multiple holes along its length and which is placed along at least one opposing side of the aquarium. Preferably the holes in the second horizontal tube face down towards the bottom of the aquarium.
In the above inventive methods, water is passed through the water flushing tube, either from the water supply or by means of the reverse power-head pump, and directed towards the opposite side of the aquarium, thereby pushing debris accumulated on the bottom of the aquarium towards the water draining and water circulation tubes. Water and debris are then removed from the aquarium through the water draining tube into an external container or drain and/or through the water circulation tube to the filter. Preferably, water and debris are continually removed from the tank by means of the water circulating tube and debris is trapped by the outside filter, whereas clean water is returned into the aquarium through the water flushing tube. Furthermore, water and debris are removed from the aquarium to the outside, such as a sink, drain or containers, through the water draining tube as necessary.
In another embodiment, the inventive system comprises: (a) at least a first and a final filtration chamber which connect in series to each other and wherein the final filtration chamber contains an individual filter cartridge; (b) a water draining tube, which at one end is connected to the first filtration chamber, and at the other end has an opening which is adapted to be positioned at one end of the aquarium; (c) a pump located after the filtration chambers; and (d) a water flushing tube, connected at one end to the pump and which at the other end has an opening adapted to be positioned at an opposing end of the aquarium. Preferably, the inventive system comprises four filtration filters.
The two embodiments mentioned above use a closed, sealed water filtration system in order to avoid potential problems such as shut down of water circulation caused by a broken siphon or over flow of water caused by plugging of the water flow in the tube returning to the tank. By placing the power pump after the filtration chamber, no pre-filter is required to protect the pump from large solid materials, thus this system can be run continuously to siphon out insoluble debris that accumulates at the tank bottom. By using separate filtration chambers, which contain removable cartridges, the individual filter chambers can be cleaned independently. For example, the filter cartridge in the second chamber, which collects debris materials, can be easily replaced without disturbing other filter chambers, which are beneficial for bacteria growth.
Using the inventive system and methods, debris may be effectively removed from an aquarium without removing any objects, such as fish, live plants and gravel, thereby maintaining a high level of water quality cost-effectively and with minimal labor. The inventive system further enables effective use of the biological cleaning effect of plants, which utilizes animal waste. The water quality in aquariums with densely growing plants is much higher than in a bare aquarium. Using conventional filtering and cleaning systems, the accumulation of debris significantly increases after a certain period and overwhelms the plants"" water cleaning ability. Using the inventive system, the accumulation of debris can be readily avoided by routine removal of debris at the aquarium bottom. When plants grow well, their nitrogen uptake is significant and much less water exchange is required.
The above-mentioned and additional features of the present invention and the manner of obtaining them will become apparent, and the invention will be best understood by reference to the following more detailed description, read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.


A method for solid waste separation and processing (10) comprising the method steps of: (a) Passing a municipal solid waste (12) to a first size based separation step (14) producing at least a fine organic fraction (16) and a coarse fraction (18); (b) Passing the fine organic fraction (16) to a digestion process (20) by way of a glass and grit separation step (24); and (c) Recirculating the coarse fraction (18) of step (a) through the first size based separation step (14) at least once.

The treatment of mixed municipal solid waste ("MSW") presently most typically comprises passing that waste to some form of separation process by which organic materials therein are first separated, as much as possible, from inorganic materials. This initial separation step is invariably a size based separation, with organic material typically being smaller or softer than much of the inorganic material. The organic materials are subsequently directed, at least in part, to a rotting process, whilst the inorganic material is sorted into recyclables and non-recyclables, the latter being passed to landfill. The product of the rotting process is ideally a compost material and a biogas.
The efficiency of such processes are highly dependent upon the effectiveness of the manner in which the various separation steps are conducted. Further, the usefulness of the final products of such processes are dependent in large part upon their purity. For example, it is highly preferable if each of glass and grit, film plastics material and both ferrous and non-ferrous materials are removed from the organic material. However, there is invariably a compromise struck between the time taken to achieve a completely efficient result and the cost associated with such.
The composting processes utilised in traditional processes often produce odours which must be combated with expensive and complicated odour treatment arrangements if the treatment facility is anywhere near urban development. Alternatively, the treatment facility must be placed in very remote locations, which is not always possible or desirable.
Regarding the rotting process employed, it is known that solid organic waste material may be treated under either anaerobic or aerobic conditions to produce a bioactive, stable end product that, for example, may be used as compost for gardens or agriculture. This process is achieved through the action of, respectively, anaerobic or aerobic microorganisms that are able to metabolise the waste material to produce the bioactive, stable end product.
It is also known that the aerobic decomposition of solid organic waste material takes place in the presence of oxygen. The temperature of the waste material rises as some of the energy produced during aerobic decomposition is released as heat, often reaching temperatures of approximately 75° C. under ambient conditions. The solid end product is often rich in nitrates which are a readily bio-available source of nitrogen for plants, making the end product particularly suitable as a fertiliser.
It is further known that the anaerobic digestion of solid organic waste material takes place in the absence of oxygen. Anaerobic microbial metabolism is understood to be optimised when the organic material is heated to temperatures at which mesophilic or thermophilic bacteria are operative. The process of anaerobic microbial metabolism results in the production of biogas, in turn predominantly methane and carbon dioxide. The solid product of the process is often rich in ammonium salts. Such ammonium salts are not readily bio-available and are, consequently, generally treated under conditions in which aerobic decomposition will occur. In this manner the material is used to produce a product that is bio-available.
Typically, systems for the biodegradation of organic waste material are directed to either aerobic or anaerobic processes. However, there are a small number of systems that have sought to combine both anaerobic and aerobic biodegradation processes. The processes of German Patent 4440750 and International Patent Application PCT/DE1994/000440 (WO 1994/024071) each describe the combination of an anaerobic fermentation unit and an aerobic composting unit. Importantly, these systems describe discrete and separate vessels for the aerobic and anaerobic biodegradation processes.
International Patent Application PCT/AU00/00865 (WO 01/05729) describes an improved process and apparatus in which many of the inefficiencies of the previous processes and apparatus are overcome. The improved process and apparatus are characterised at a fundamental level by the sequential treatment of organic waste material in a single vessel, through an initial aerobic step to raise the temperature of the organic waste material, an anaerobic digestion step and a subsequent aerobic treatment step. During the anaerobic digestion step a process water or inoculum containing micro organisms is introduced to the vessel to create conditions suitable for efficient anaerobic digestion of the contents and the production of biogas. The introduced inoculum also aids in heat and mass transfer as well as providing buffer capacity to protect against acidification. Subsequently, air is introduced to the residues in the vessel to create conditions for aerobic degradation. It is further described that the water introduced during anaerobic digestion may be sourced from an interconnected vessel that has undergone anaerobic digestion.
In US Publication 20050199028 A1 there is described a method and apparatus for treating and recycling mixed municipal solid waste that is intended to minimise the quantity of waste passing to landfill. This involves biological treatment as a first step prior to subsequent separation steps to remove inorganic materials and recover recyclables. A further aerobic microbial treatment is provided before additional screening to remove inert compounds. A final washing step is used to remove salts from the composted organics. No provision is made for the removal of glass and grit in this method. Further, the first separator employed, in the form of a rotating drum, performs a limited size separation, thereby restricting the efficiency of the remainder of the method.
US Publication 20110008865 A1 discloses &method and apparatus for treatment of municipal solid waste in an effort to separate recyclables and to transform solid waste into energy and clean fuel. An initial autoclaving step is integral to the method and is aimed at breaking down fiber to fiber bonds of cellulosic material. A single trommel is used for separation and produces a homogenous organic fraction that is mixed with water from sludge dewatering. The organic stream undergoes fermentation and thermophilic anaerobic digestion. The methane produced is used to generate heat and electrical energy for plant operation. A thickened dewatered sludge is produced by the digesters that is intended as a feedstock for pyrolysis. The oversize from the trommel separation step is passed to steps in which metals, aluminium, glass and plastics are removed. The separation steps employed are coarse and relatively inefficient, including the fact that it is only the oversize from the trommel that is subjected to a number of the separation steps. No provision is made for the capture of organics that may have passed through the single trommel. Further, no provision is made for the separation of glass and grit. The method for solid waste separation of the present invention has as one object thereof to overcome substantially the abovementioned problems of the prior art, or to provide a useful alternative thereto.
The preceding discussion of the background art is intended to facilitate an understanding of the present invention only. The discussion is not an acknowledgement or admission that any of the material referred to is or was part of the common general knowledge as at the priority date of the application.
Throughout the specification and claims, unless the context requires otherwise, the word "comprise" or variations such as "comprises" or "comprising", will be understood to imply the inclusion of a stated integer or group of integers but not the exclusion of any other integer or group of integers.

Method for solid waste separation and processing


The invention is a boring machine including: a guide rail linearly extending in one direction; a main part slidably mounted on the guide rail; a sleeve extending from the main part in a plane substantially parallel to the guide rail; and a rotatable face plate mounted at a distal end of the sleeve; wherein a deflection-compensating wedge plate is provided between the distal end of the sleeve and the rotatable face plate.

FIG. 9 chows a conventional boring machine 100 for carrying out a boring process to a large-sized work. The boring machine 100 comprises a guide, rail 120 linearly extending in one direction, a main part 130 slidably mounted on the guide rail 120, a sleeve 140 extending from the main part 130 in a plane substantially parallel to the guide rail 120, and a rotatable face plate 160 mounted at a distal end of the sleeve 140.
A cutting tool 165 is mounted on the rotatable face plate 160. When the rotatable face plate 160 is rotated, the cutting tool 165 is also rotated, so that a boring process is carried out. Another cutting tool 158 is mounted on the rotatable face plate 160, on the opposite side of the cutting tool 165, in order to achieve a weight balance.
In addition, the cutting tool 165 is mounted on the rotatable face plate 160 preferably via a U-axis controlling mechanism which can extend and contract in a radial direction of the rotatable face plate 160. In this case, it is easy to machine a surface perpendicular to an axis of a boring hole, in a desired manner.


A set machine instruction is provided that has associated therewith a result location to be used with a set operation. The set machine instruction is executed, which includes checking contents of a selected field, and determining, based on the checking, whether the contents of the selected field indicate a first condition, a second condition or a third condition represented in one data type. The result location is set to a value based on the determining, wherein the value, based on the setting, is of a data type different from the one data type and represents a result of a previously executed instruction. The result of the previously executed instruction being one of the first condition, the second condition or the third condition.

One or more aspects relate, in general, to processing within a computing environment, and in particular, to comparison processing within the computing environment.
Many programming languages, which are used to create applications that perform functions within a computing environment, execute operations that employ a three way indicator to indicate certain predicates, such as less than (<), greater than (>), or equal (=). For instance, in string processing (e.g., string compares or memory compares), a −1, 1, or 0 is returned based on whether a first operand is less than, greater than or equal to a second operand, respectively. A further example is provided when a sign function is computed as an integer.
In order to provide this three way indicator, however, multiple comparisons are typically used within a complex, data dependent control flow. Further, optimizations, such as automatic prediction, may be attempted, but these still use an excessive number of (e.g., more than 2) instructions and/or architected registers.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Efficient quantization of compare results

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION


The packing container for a bottled commodity is made a hollow cylinder with a cylindrical cover, both made from papers; the hollow area is for receiving the bottled commodity, the container especially suits containing a bottled liquid commodity such as wine, bubbled beverage etc. Wherein the bottom of the hollow cylinder has an inner flange with a predetermined height, the bottom of a glass bottle is braced at such predetermined height to prevent undue impact against the bottom of the glass bottle. And the cylindrical cover includes a sleeve having a lower area defining a protruding section to contact the shoulder of the glass bottle and position the bottle; thereby better protection as well as long-term preservation can be provided. The temperature of the bottled liquid can be kept for a long term, and an effect of heat preservation is obtained.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to a packing container for a bottled commodity, and especially to a packing container suiting containing a bottled liquid commodity such as wine, bubbled beverage etc.; the container can provide better protection as well as long-term preservation for the bottled commodity; and the bottled commodity can effectively keep its temperature after refrigeration or heating.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A normal bottled liquid commodity such as wine, bubbled beverage and edible oil etc. mostly is given a glass bottle as its container to prolong its period of preservation and assure stability of the quality of the bottled liquid commodity. Therefore, many bottled liquid commodities are packed each with an additional packing box (or packing can) to enhance the feeling of quality of the commodities, and to give the bottles suitable protection. By all means, some liquid commodities being given containers like ceramic or plastic bottles are also packed with packing boxes (or packing cans).
As shown in FIG. 1 which is a schematic view showing a paper-box structure often seen to pack a glass bottle, a ceramic bottle or a plastic bottle (they are represented by the glass bottle hereinafter), the paper box 10 mainly is used to provide a simple protecting function for the glass bottle 20 by encircling of the folded paper, i.e., by the separation between the paper box 10 and the bottle body, external impact can be suitably buffered. And more, there are positioning sheets 11 in the paper box 10 or in an opening; both the positioning sheets 11 have positioning holes 12 to frame the glass bottle 20 from shaking in the paper box 10.
However basically, the bottom of the glass bottle 20 still is directly abutted against the bottom of the paper box 10, it is probable that the bottom of the glass bottle 20 will be directly impacted to break in case the packed glass bottle 20 is subjected to an undue force when it is placed.
Moreover, when the glass bottle is opened, the packing paper box has no function on the packed glass bottle; the glass bottle now is exposed to the normal temperature (room temperature), by the heat transfer between the glass bottle and the outside temperature, the temperature of the interior liquid commodity will be raised or lowered. If the liquid commodity is wine, this may affect the flavor of the wine; for example, red grape wine is preserved under a better preservation temperature, but its temperature will be raised or lowered when its bottle is opened to expose to the room temperature, and this may affect the flavor of the wine.

Packing container for a bottled commodity


The invention discloses a MRAM (Magnetoresistive RAM) based on vertical current writing and its control method, the operation of information writing in the MRAM unit is completed by the corporate effect of the magnetic field generated by the current parallel to the MFC unit and the other current vertical to the MFC unit and passing through this unit. The advantage of such structure is: eliminating a word line (WL) of the prior art especially for information writing, reducing the number of the metal wiring layers and the contact holes, and reducing the complexity of MRAM's structure, and difficulty and cost of manufacturing process.

1. MFC (Magnetic Film Cell) in MRAM
As a memory cell in MRAM, the magnetic film contains at least such a film structure as [F1/NF/F2], in which F1 and F2 represent two magnetic material layers and NF represents a nonmagnetic material layer interposed between the F1 layer and F2 layer. There is one and only one layer of the F1 and F2, the magnetization direction of which is fixed by a certain layer or layers of external materials (referred to as a nailed layer), thus can not vary as desired under the effect of a small external magnetic field; whereas the other layer is a soft magnetic layer, the magnetization direction of which can vary under the effect of a small external magnetic field (referred to as a free layer). The thickness of the nonmagnetic material layer is very thin which is typically between 0.5 nm and 3.0 nm. Taking such a magnetic film as a memory cell, when the magnetization directions of F1 and F2 are identical, the magnetic film cell MFC shows a low resistance state, and when the magnetization directions of F1 and F2 are opposite, the magnetic film cell MFC shows a high resistance state.
Therefore, the magnetic film cell MFC has two stable resistance states. By changing the magnetization direction of the free layer with respect to the nailed layer in the magnetic film cell MFC, the magnetic film cell MFC can be made to record information. By detecting the resistance state of the magnetic film cell MFC, the information stored therein can be obtained.
2. Typical MRAM Unit Structure
The structure of a commonly used magnetic film cell MFC is shown in FIG. 1. The MRAM structure is configured on a semiconductor substrate and needs totally 3 metal wiring layers M1, M2, M3 and a transitional metal layer TM. Except a read word line RWL, its ground line GND, write word line WWL and bit line BL are located in different metal wiring layers, respectively. The magnetic film cell MFC is connected to the drain region of a transistor ATR through the transitional metal layer TM, the metal wiring layers M2 and M1 as well as pertinent contact holes. The source region of the transistor ATR is connected with the ground line GND, and the gate of the transistor ATR is also the read word line RWL simultaneously.
The writing of information in the magnetic film cell MFC is completed by the cooperation of the bit line BL and the write word line WWL. When writing operation current pass through the bit line BL and the write word line WWL in a certain sequential relation, the corporate magnetic field of the magnetic fields generated by the both currents will make the magnetization direction of the free layer in the magnetic film cell MFC reverse to a certain direction, and the magnetization direction can be stabled on one desired state of its two stable states after canceling the currents of the bit line BL and the write word line WWL. Thus, the writing and storing of information in the magnetic film cell MFC is implemented.
The reading of the information in the magnetic film cell MFC is controlled by the read word line RWL. When the reading is enabled, the read word line RWL is controlled onto an appropriate level to make the transistor ATR to turn on. At this time, there exists an electronic closed circuit from the bit BL (metal wiring layer M3) to the ground line GND through the magnetic film cell MFC, the transitional metal layer TM, a contact hole, the metal wiring layer M2, a contact hole, the metal wiring layer M1, a contact hole, the drain region of the transistor ATR and the source region of the transistor ATR. Therefore, when an appropriate current is provided by the bit line BL, the current resistance state of the magnetic film cell MFC can be extracted. Thus, the reading of information in the magnetic film cell MFC is implemented.
As mentioned above, the MRAM with this kind of structure needs up to 3 metal wiring layers and a transitional metal layer to form its electronic connection, which makes the manufacturing process of the MRAM complicated and its cost high. In addition, before manufacturing the magnetic film cell MFC, the processing operations such as deposition, wiring, punching, insulating medium filling and covering up, and etc. have been experienced on the substrate many times, which makes the smoothness of the surface of the manufacturing face of the magnetic film cell MFC relatively poor, so a special surface polishing processing (such as CMP, Chemical-Mechanical Polishing) should be conducted so as to meet special requirement of the magnetic film cell for the smoothness of the substrate surface. This is also an issue increasing processing difficulty and manufacturing cost.

MRAM based on vertical current writing and its control method

Institute of Physics Chinese Academy of Science


An analog floating gate circuit (10-3, 10-4) includes a first sense transistor (21, 3), a first storage capacitor (20, 5), and first (24, 4) and second (31A, 42) tunneling regions. Various portions of a first floating gate conductor (12, 2) form a floating gate of the first sense transistor, a floating first plate of the first storage capacitor (20, 5), a floating first plate of the first tunneling region, and a floating first plate of the second tunneling region, respectively. A second plate of the first storage capacitor is coupled to a first reference voltage (VREF, GND), and a second plate of the second tunneling region is coupled to a second reference voltage (VPROG/GND). Compensation circuitry (44-1, 44-2) is coupled to the first floating gate conductor, for compensating loss of trapped charge from the first floating gate conductor.

The present invention relates generally to AFG (analog floating gate) circuits, and more particularly to circuits that compensate for loss of charge stored on analog floating gates used in extremely low power integrated circuits, such as voltage reference circuits.
Floating gate field effect transistors have long been used as digital memory elements. More recently, floating gate field effect transistors have been used in extremely low power analog integrated circuits, such as precision voltage reference circuits.
FIG. 1 shows a conventional EEPROM (electrically erasable programmable read only memory) cell 1 which includes a N-channel floating gate MOS (metal oxide semiconductor) field effect transistor or "sense transistor" or "read transistor" 3 having a floating gate electrode 2 disposed on a thin oxide layer over the channel region of the transistor. EEPROM memory is designed to retain a sufficient level of charge on the floating gate MOS transistor over the desired lifetime of the memory that an undesired change of a stored state due to lost charge never occurs. Some charge may be lost from the floating gate of the EEPROM cell 1, but never enough to switch the stored state. Floating gate 2 typically is composed of suitably doped polycrystalline silicon, and the thin oxide layer typically is roughly 70 Angstroms to 120 Angstroms thick. A portion of floating gate 2 functions as one plate of a "control gate" capacitor 5, the other plate of which is connected to a control gate terminal 7 on which a control gate voltage VCG may be applied.
A portion of floating gate 2 also is connected to one plate of a thin oxide capacitor 4 which is referred to as a "tunneling region". The other plate of tunneling region 4 is connected to a terminal 6 on which a programming voltage VTG may be applied to permanently or semi-permanently write a "1" or a "0" voltage level onto floating gate 2.
Control gate capacitor 5 has a larger capacitance than tunneling region 4 and sense transistor 3. The larger capacitance of control gate capacitor 5 allows the voltage on floating gate 2 to be controlled by means of control gate terminal 7. The amount of voltage control one has over the floating gate 2 depends on the voltage coupling to floating gate 2 from control gate terminal 7. The coupling is equal to the capacitance of control gate 5 divided by the total capacitance of floating gate 2. Control gate capacitor 5 has a large capacitive voltage coupling from terminal 7 to floating gate 2. Therefore, the amount of charge tunneling through control gate capacitor 5 is small. That is, the voltage VCG on terminal 7 minus the voltage on floating gate 2 is small, e.g., less than 10% of VCG−VTG. Stated differently, the voltage on floating gate 2 follows the control gate voltage VCG.
The amount of tunneling through tunneling region 4 depends on the amount of voltage drop across its tunneling oxide, with a higher voltage drop across tunneling region 4 causing a larger amount of tunneling current through it and vice versa. Tunnel gate capacitor 4 has a relatively small capacitive voltage coupling between terminal 6 and floating gate 2, so the amount of charge tunneling through tunnel gate capacitor 4 is relatively large compared to the amount of charge tunneling through control gate capacitor 5. That is, the voltage VTG on terminal 6 minus the voltage on floating gate 2 is relatively large, e.g., typically approximately 90% of VCG−VTG.
FIG. 1 also shows an optional P-channel (or N-channel) floating gate MOS transistor 9 having its floating (i.e., electrically isolated) gate connected to and continuous with floating gate 2 of sense transistor 3 for the purpose of providing faster hot electron injection programming of a "0" or "low" voltage level onto floating gate 2 than may be achieved by use of tunneling region 4. It is possible to use P-channel (or N-channel) floating gate transistor 9 to accomplish HCI (hot carrier injection) programming. Both options inject electrons onto floating gate 2, causing negative voltage bias thereon. However, using a P-channel transistor as floating gate transistor 9 allows use of a lower programming voltage.
FIG. 2 shows a "conceptual" equivalent circuit that may be helpful in understanding tunneling region 4 in FIG. 1. Tunneling region 4 may be conceptualized as a capacitor 4A coupled in parallel with back-to-back zener diodes 4B and 4C, as shown. A circuit symbol for tunneling region 4 is shown to the right of the conceptual equivalent circuit. A current tunnels from a first plate of capacitor 4A through a thin oxide (i.e., a "tunnel oxide") to a second plate of capacitor 4A if sufficient voltage is applied across the tunneling oxide of capacitor 4A to cause charge to flow through its tunneling oxide to the first plate of capacitor 4A. The tunneling current may be thought of as electrons (e−) flowing from the first plate to the second plate of capacitor 4A if the zener voltage of one of zener diodes 4B or 4C is exceeded. The charge resulting from the tunneling current then remains trapped on the second plate of capacitor 4A as long as the applied voltage between the two terminals of the tunneling region is kept below the threshold voltage of the tunnel oxide.
Referring again to FIG. 1, the programming accuracy of, and charge "loss" from, floating gate 2 of sense transistor 3 in EEPROM cell 1 are not a significant problem as long as the stored potential on floating gate 2 is sufficient to keep read transistor 3 in a preset "1" state or a preset "0" state. The term "charge loss" as used herein may refer to either an undesired increase or an undesired decrease in the amount of charge trapped/stored on the floating gate. In EEPROM memory a negative (electrons) or positive (holes) charge may be stored on the floating gate, so a net negative or a net positive charge may be lost. That may erroneously switch the stored logic state from a "1" to a "0" or visa versa, depending on the reference voltage used for detection of the stored logic level.
Sense transistor 3 in Prior Art FIG. 1 also may be used in an analog circuit. However, in AFG (analog floating gate) circuit applications, both the programming accuracy of the amount of charge stored on a floating gate and the amount of undesired charge "loss" from the electrically floating gate in an analog circuit application may be problematic because the resulting voltage of the floating gate directly and continuously affects the achievable accuracy of the application circuit in which the floating gate transistor 3 is used. This is in contrast to EEPROM circuits, in which a small increase or decrease in the amount of trapped charge has no effect on the stored "1" or "0" state except in the narrow transition region between an "on" condition and an "off" condition of the read transistor.
Charge stored on a floating gate creates a voltage difference between the floating gate (i.e., the floating plate of a tunneling region or a control gate capacitor) and a reference plate of the tunneling region or control gate capacitor. The floating gate voltage is determined mainly by a reference voltage applied to the control gate terminal 7 and by old that the charge stored on the floating gate 2. The voltages applied to the other terminal (of sense transistor 3 and tunnel region terminal 6) have a smaller impact due to their smaller capacitance. The equation for floating gate voltage is given by:Vfg=Kcg*Vcg+Ktg*Vtg+Ks*Vss+Kd*Vsd+Kb*Vbs+Q/Ctotal,where each of the "K" values refers to the coupling coefficient for a corresponding terminal associated with the floating gate and is given by the capacitance of that terminal divided by the total capacitance Ctotal of the floating gate, and where:
Vfg is the floating gate voltage,
Kcg is the control gate capacitance divided by total capacitance,
Vcg is the control gate voltage,
Ktg is the tunnel gate capacitance divided by total capacitance,
Vtg is the tunnel gate voltage,
Ks is the floating gate overlap of source capacitance,
Vss is the source voltage,
Kd is the floating gate overlap of drain capacitance,
Vsd is the drain voltage,
Kb is the floating gate overlap of transistor channel (bulk) capacitance,
Vbs is the bulk voltage,
Q is the charge on the floating gate, and
Ctotal is equal to the sum of the control gate capacitance, the tunnel gate capacitance, the source overlap capacitance, the drain overlap capacitance, and the bulk overlap capacitance.
If some or all of the charge trapped on the floating gate 2 is lost (i.e., unintentionally modified/degraded), the effective threshold voltage of sense transistor 3 changes. This, of course, may cause an unacceptable loss in the accuracy of analog circuitry in which floating gate transistor 3 is used.
The mechanisms that may cause loss of charge from a floating gate include FNT (Fowler-Nordheim Tunneling), SILC (stress induced leakage current), mobile ion contamination, and/or HCI (Hot Carrier Injection). Providing additional charge onto the floating gate is usually accomplished by FNT tunneling. FNT tunneling may be used for the AFG (analog floating gate) applications described herein and also for other known voltage reference circuits. HCI is common in OTP (one time programmable) memory, and flash memory. FNT tunneling may be considered to be a high voltage process. For a 70 Angstrom tunneling oxide, roughly 12 volts applied for a duration of approximately 100 milliseconds may be used to program the floating gate. Electrons may be tunneled onto the floating gate by applying roughly 12 volts to the control gate and grounding the tunnel gate, or alternatively, electrons may be tunneled away from the floating gate by applying roughly 12 volts to the tunnel gate and grounding the control gate, depending on whether the resulting charge on the floating gate needs to be increased or decreased. Thus, FNT tunneling may be used to accomplish both programming and erasing of the floating gate voltage.
The other common way of programming a floating gate is by using hot carrier injection. This is accomplished by injecting high-energy electrons through the gate oxide of a sensing transistor, rather than by using a FNT charge tunneling mechanism. A typical voltage used to accomplish hot carrier injection is approximately 5 to 6 volts on the drain of a P-channel MOS programming transistor, such as transistor 9 in FIG. 1, to cause injection of hot electrons onto the floating gate. (More specifically, the bulk and drain electrodes of the programming transistor are connected together and the source electrode is grounded.) This has the effect of increasing the effective threshold voltage of a N-channel sense transistor (e.g., transistor 3 in FIG. 1) so that a greater positive gate-to-source voltage is required to turn it on. As long as the drain voltage of the sense transistor does not exceed approximately 5 to 6 volts, essentially no change in its floating gate charge will occur.
FNT tunneling may be used to provide any charge on the floating gate, typically to provide an amount of charge that results in a floating gate voltage in the range of roughly −5 volts to +5 volts. In contrast, hot electron injection may only be used to program or increase the threshold voltage of an N-channel sense transistor from an initial low level up to approximately 5 volts. (Hot electron injection makes the floating gate more negative with respect to ground, and therefore a higher control gate voltage then is required to turn on an N-channel sense transistor.) A common approach to programming of a floating gate is to program one polarity of the floating gate voltage by using hot electron injection and to program the other polarity using FNT tunneling. Several known AFG precision manufacturing process require 2 or 3 levels of polycrystalline silicon (hereinafter referred to as "poly") and associated additional masking steps to create unique tunneling structures. Consequently, use of the bipolar FNT tunneling technique as used in such structures is not very scalable to present state-of-the-art wafer fabrication processes.
The floating gate of an AFG device is capacitive in nature and therefore may be influenced by external capacitive coupling not only by means of a control gate capacitor, but also by other external capacitive coupling. A control gate voltage may be applied to one plate of the control gate capacitor, the other plate of which is part of the floating gate. Any charge introduced by any means onto and stored on the floating gate causes an offset to a voltage applied to the other plate of the control gate capacitor.
AFG technology has been used primarily in low power analog integrated circuit applications, including voltage reference circuits. In "nanopower" applications wherein the quiescent current needs to be less than a micrompere, the problem of providing accurate reference voltages is very important and challenging because the resistors of the voltage reference circuits must be very large, and consequently the associated thermal noise becomes unacceptably large. Conventional bandgap voltage reference circuits for generating accurate reference voltages usually consume substantial amounts of current, because reducing resistor noise in a bandgap voltage reference circuit typically requires increasing the amount of current therein (since the input-referred thermal noise is inversely proportional to the square root of current in the bandgap voltage reference circuit). For some applications, use of a AFG voltage reference circuit has been found to be a good practical solution to this problem.
FIG. 3 shows a basic prior art AFG-based precision voltage reference circuit 10-1. Voltage reference circuit 10-1 includes an error amplifier 11 having its (+) input coupled to a floating gate 12, part of which is shared with a first plate of a tunneling region 13. The (+) input of amplifier 11 is connected to the gate of a (+) input transistor (not shown) of amplifier 11. Another part of floating gate 12 forms a first plate of another tunneling region 14, and also forms a first plate of a reference or storage capacitor 15. The second plate of tunneling region 13 may be coupled to a positive programming voltage VTRp1, and a second plate of tunneling region 14 may be coupled to a negative programming voltage VTRn1. The second plate of reference capacitor 15 is connected to ground. The output 16 of voltage reference circuit 10-1 is the output reference voltage Vout=VREF, and is connected to a first plate of a feedback capacitor 20, the second plate of which is connected to another floating gate conductor 17.
Part of floating gate 17 forms the gate of a (−) input transistor (not shown) of error amplifier 11. Another part of floating gate 17 forms a first plate of a tunneling region 18, and yet another part of floating gate 17 forms a first plate of another tunneling region 19. The second plate of tunneling region 18 may be coupled to a positive programming voltage VTRp2, and the second plate of tunneling region 19 may be coupled to a negative programming voltage VTRn2. In the prior art, both positive and negative tunneling regions conduct simultaneously under control of a feedback loop. This simultaneous conduction approach to programming of floating gate voltages results in accuracy sufficient for precision analog use, but requires some additional process complexity for the tunneling structure.
AFG-based voltage reference circuit 10-1 of FIG. 3 may be used to replace a conventional bandgap voltage reference circuit. Those skilled in the art know that a bandgap reference voltage is established by the difference between a pair of bipolar transistor collector currents. Most of the noise generated in a conventional bandgap voltage reference circuit is caused by the two collector currents, and it is necessary to increase those collector currents in order to reduce the noise of the bandgap voltage reference circuit. In contrast, the tunneled charge for AFG-based voltage reference circuit 10-1 is stored on a floating gate rather having a reference voltage maintained by flow of current through a resistance, so there are no bipolar transistor collector currents and therefore no shot noise. Furthermore, a bandgap voltage inherently is a fixed voltage determined by the bandgap of the semiconductor material and its temperature, whereas an AFG-based reference voltage is not fixed but is readily adjustable or programmable to any desired value.
FIG. 4 shows another conventional AFG-based voltage error or reference circuit 10-2 in which the output 16 of reference amplifier 11 generates an output reference voltage Vout=VREF and is connected to a first plate of feedback capacitor 20. The second plate of feedback capacitor 20 is formed by a portion of floating gate 12. Another part of floating gate 12 forms the (−) input transistor 22 of reference amplifier 11. C11 is the capacitance of the portion of floating gate 12 that forms the gate of input transistor 22. Floating gate 12 also forms a first plate of a tunneling region 24, a second plate of which is connected to ground. The capacitance of tunneling region 24 is C13. The voltage Vfg1 of floating gate 12 may be set to approximately Vout/2. The (+) input transistor 23 of reference amplifier 11 is a floating gate transistor, the gate of which is formed by a portion of floating gate 17. Floating gate 17 also forms a first plate of a tunneling region 25 and a first plate of a control gate capacitor (or reference capacitor or storage capacitor) 26. The second plate of tunneling region 25 and the second plate of control gate capacitor 26 are connected to ground. C21 is the capacitance of the gate portion of (+) input transistor 23. The capacitance of tunneling region 25 is C23, and the capacitance of control gate capacitor 26 is C22. The voltage Vfg2 of floating gate 17 also may be set to Vout/2. Input transistors 22 and 23 typically are MOS floating gate transistors connected in a differential configuration.
In FIG. 4, all of the gate oxides, tunnel region oxides and capacitor dielectric oxides may be "thin oxides", with thicknesses in the range about 70 to 120 Angstroms. The e− symbols and associated arrows indicate electrons tunneling through the various floating gate tunneling oxides in the directions indicated. In many of the likely circuit applications, analog floating gates are provided for both of the differential input transistors of the amplifier. The arrow and e− symbol next to storage capacitor 26 indicates that tunneling could occur in it because of the thin oxide.
The e− symbols indicate the direction of electron flow during normal operation and/or during shelf life. The minute amount of charge loss during powering up and down of the circuit is insignificant. The current flowing through the various capacitances in FIG. 4 depends on the electric fields across their associated oxides. When AFG-based voltage reference circuit 10-2 device is OFF (i.e., not powered up), the charge on the floating gates tends to leak off over time due to the electric fields caused by the charge stored on each floating gate. During operation, the electric fields across the various capacitances are different due to the different applied voltage biases. Under the influence of a bias voltage, electrons may flow onto a floating gate, instead of flowing from the floating gate. The electron flow will be in the direction toward the side of a capacitance which is biased at the higher voltage.
It is believed that the closest prior art is directed mainly to the initial programming of the analog floating gates and to long-term retention of the programmed charge on the floating gates. It also is believed that the prior art does not disclose passive or active direct compensation for loss of charge the analog floating gates which generally occurs over the product lifetime. When "indirect" compensation for loss of trapped charge on floating gates has been attempted, it is believed to have taken the form of either additional re-programming or re-calibration of analog floating gate circuits.
Thus, there is an unmet need for a circuit and method for compensating loss of trapped charge on a floating gate in an AFG (analog floating gate) circuit.
There also is an unmet need for a inexpensive circuit and method that makes it more practical for precision analog floating gate circuits to retain their accuracy over acceptable circuit lifetimes.
There also is an unmet need for a way to avoid the need to provide complex circuitry to compensate for undesired loss of charge on analog floating gates of AFG circuitry.
There also is an unmet need for a way to avoid calibration cycles or reprogramming cycles to compensate for undesired loss of charge on analog floating gates of AFG circuitry.

Analog floating gate charge loss compensation circuitry and method


A medical mechatronic male interface device for coupling a surgical assistance system to a mounting structure has a base with an end face, a functional body, extending from the end face, first mechanical coupling means for positive and/or non-positive coupling to a corresponding medical mechatronic female interface device, and at least one first electronic interface for connecting to a corresponding second electronic interface of the female interface device. The functional body has a centring device to center the surgical assistance system free of play relative to the base. The centring device has a first functional surface, a second functional surface, and a third functional surface that are not parallel to each other and that have normals which do not lie in a common plane. A corresponding female interface device and a mounting arm and a surgical assistance system are also described.

Mounting arms of the type indicated above have already been known for a long time and are used in surgery, in particular to relieve user of static effort. Such a mounting arm is used in order to mount a surgical assistance system such as a manipulator, an endoscope, a surgical clamp, and the like. Mountings arms of the above type have proven themselves particularly for mounting endoscopes. For endoscopic surgery, a user typically operates an instrument with both hands while an assistant holds the endoscope in order to make the operating field visible on a screen. Holding the endoscope over a longer period of time is very fatiguing. More mounting arms are used for this reason.
One such mounting arm, for example, is known from DE 195 26 915 B4. The mounting device for medical purposes disclosed there comprises a connecting part and a mount for surgical tools and an arm disposed between the mount and the connecting part. The arm is connected to the mount and the connecting part, or to an adjacent arm, via a joint and coupled to a pneumatically actuated device for selectively fixing and releasing the joints, wherein said device fixes the joints under the action of a mechanical spring exerting a braking force on the joint and wherein the device is pneumatically transferable against the force of said spring into a state releasing the joint. An actuating member is disposed at the mounting element at the proximal end of the arm, by means of which a valve can be opened so that the individual joints of the arm can be adjusted. When the actuating member is released, the valve is closed again, so that the joints are fixed.
A similar mounting arm is disclosed in EP 1 958 587 B1. The mounting arm disclosed there also comprises a plurality of joints and a touch-sensitive sensor is provided for actuating the joints. Said sensor is disposed on the mounting arm adjacent to the medical instrument, so that when grasping the medical instrument, the operator makes contact with the touch-sensitive sensor, whereby the joints of the mounting arm are released.
Both of the above-mentioned mounting arms are so-called passive mounting arms, which comprise only braked joints, but no active drives in the joints. The joints are releasable due to the actuation of the control device and locked when these are released again.
A further such mounting arm is disclosed in DE 10 2011 004 926 A1. The mounting arm comprises a plurality of arm segments and a plurality of joints, by means of which the individual arm segments are coupled together. The mounting arm according to DE 10 2011 004 926 A1 further comprises a first interface at the proximal end in order to couple the mounting arm to a standard rail of an operating table. The first interface is substantially implemented in accordance with a clamp. In addition, the mounting arm comprises an interface at the distal end, which is also implemented as a clamp and serves to receive an endoscope. Although said arm is generally well suited for the mere mounting of endoscopes, there is still a need to make the field of use of such mounting arms more flexible, in particular to adapt it to different tasks. Further, it is desirable to improve the safety of such mounting arms such that a risk of injury to a patient is reduced during an operation using the mounting arm.
A mounting arm having the features of the preamble of claim 1 is further known from DE 10 2014 016 823 of the present applicant.
In such mounting arms, there is a need to be able to connect different assistance systems. In particular, depending on the type of operation or the type of mounting task, it is necessary to be able to connect various such systems. In addition, different manufacturers have different interfaces, and it is preferred that these various assistance systems, such as in particular instruments and the like, are connectable to the mounting arm.

Medical mechatronic male and female interface device


The present invention provides a handover method based on a mobile relay comprising: when handover of the mobile relay occurs, a source Donor evolved NodeB (DeNB), as an intermediate node, connecting a relay access network with an Evolved Packet Core (EPC), the relay access network at least comprising a target DeNB and a mobile relay; and the source DeNB forwarding data from the relay access network to the EPC and forwarding the data from the EPC to the relay access network. With the present invention, the handover of the mobile relay is implemented, and the mobility of the relay can be supported.

A cellular wireless communication system, as shown in FIG. 1, is mainly comprised of a User Equipment (UE), an access network and a Core Network (CN). A network comprised of eNodeBs, or eNodeBs and base station controllers is referred to as a Radio Access Network (RAN), which is responsible for transactions of an access layer, such as radio resource management. A physical or logical connection may exist between eNodeBs, and each eNodeB can be connected to one or more CN nodes. The CN is responsible for transactions of a non-access layer, such as location update, etc., and is an anchor point of a user plane.
In the cellular wireless communication system, wireless coverage of a fixed eNodeB network is limited due to various reasons, for example, coverage leaks exist inevitably in the wireless network coverage due to barrier of various building constructions to wireless signals. In addition, at edge regions of a cell, due to attenuation of wireless signal strength and interferences between adjacent cells, communication quality of the UE is poor and the error rate of the wireless transmission will increase when the US is at edges of the cell. In order to improve data transmission throughput, group mobility, temporary network deployment, throughput at edge regions of the cell and coverage of a new area, at present, a solution is to introduce a wireless network node, which is referred to as a relay, in the cellular wireless communication system.
The relay is a station which relays data between other network nodes through a wireless link, which is also referred to as a relay node/relay station, and its working principle is shown in FIG. 2. A UE which is directly served by the eNodeB is referred to as a macro UE, and a UE which is served by the relay is referred to as a relay UE. A wireless link between the eNodeB and the UE is referred to as a direct link, including an uplink/downlink (DL/UL) direct link; a link between the relay and the UE is referred to as an access link, including a DL/UL access link; and a wireless link between the eNodeB and the relay is referred to as a backhaul link, including a DL/UL backhaul link.
There are a number of methods for the relay to relay data, for example, directly amplifying a radio signal from the eNodeB; or processing data transmitted by the eNodeB accordingly to forward to the UE, wherein the processing may be demodulation or decoding; or the eNodeB and the relay cooperatively transmitting data to the UE, and conversely, the relay also relaying the data transmitted from the UE to the eNodeB.
Among many types of relay, there is one type of relay, which has the following characteristics.
A UE can not distinguish cells under a relay and a fixed eNodeB, i.e., from the perspective of the UE, there is no difference between the cell under the relay and the cell under the fixed eNodeB. Such a cell under the relay may be referred to as a relay cell. The relay cell, like all the other cells, has its own Physical Cell Identity (PCI), and transmits broadcast like ordinary cells. When the UE resides in the relay cell, the relay cell can individually allocate and schedule radio resources to the UE for use, and the resource scheduling of the relay and radio resource scheduling of the eNodeB (which is also referred to as a Donor eNodeB, i.e., the eNodeB to which the relay is connected by a backhaul link) participating in relay are independent of each other. The interface and protocol stack between the relay cell and the relay UE are the same as those between an ordinary eNodeB cell and an ordinary UE.
The current Long Term Evolution (LTE) cellular wireless communication system, as shown in FIG. 3, uses an Internet Protocol (IP) based flattened architecture, and is comprised of an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN), Evolved Packet Core (EPC) nodes and other support nodes. The EPC nodes include a Mobility Management Entity (MME), a Serving Gateway (S-GW) and a Packet Data Network Gateway (P-GW). The MME is responsible for control plane signaling, including control plane related operations, such as mobility management, non-access layer signaling processing, user mobility management, context management, etc. The S-GW is responsible for transmitting, forwarding, route handover of UE user plane data. The eNodeBs (eNBs) are logically connected via an X2 interface, and are used to support the mobility of the UE within the entire network to ensure seamless handover of the user. The P-GW is a node which connects the EPC with a packet data network (such as Internet), and is responsible for assigning an IP address of the UE, filtering IP data packets by service type into service data flows and binding the service data flows to a corresponding transmission bearer, and so on.
Each eNB is connected to a System Architecture Evolution (SAE) core network via a S1 interface, i.e., is connected to a MME via a control plane S1-MME interface, is connected to a S-GW via a user plane S1-U interface. The S1 interface supports multipoint connections between the eNB and the MME and S-GW. The MME and the S-GW are connected via a S11 interface, the S-GW and the P-GW are connected via a S5 interface, and the eNBs are connected via an X2 interface. Each eNB transmits signaling and data to the UE through an Uu interface. After the relay is introduced, the wireless interface between the relay and the eNB is the Un interface. The interface between the relay and the UE, like the interface between the eNB and the UE, is also an Uu interface.
Current relays are divided into three categories: fixed relays, nomadic relays, and mobile relays. Both the fixed relays and the nomadic relays are fixedly deployed, and the difference between them is that the nomadic relays can support plug and play, and are more convenient to deploy than the fixed relays. The mobile relays themselves have certain mobility, and in typical application scenes, the mobile relays are deployed on vehicles, such as trains, cars, etc., to facilitate provision of better services for the UE in the vehicles. As for mobile handover, the mobile relay, as a convergence network element, converges a large number of simultaneous movements of the UE into a movement of a network element, i.e., the mobile relay, thus reducing the overhead of signaling in the air interface and the network during handover.
However, based on the above deployment requirements of the mobile relay, the existing technology can not yet provide a mobile wireless relay system supporting the mobile relay and a handover method based on the mobile relay, thereby bringing inconvenience to practical applications.

Handover method based on mobile relay and mobile wireless relay system


The breathing assistance apparatus of the present invention includes a manifold that is provided with or retrofittable to gases supply and humidifying devices. The manifold allows gases from an oxygen concentrator to be combined with the flow through a gases supply and humidifying device, most usually air. The combined output of oxygen and other breathing gases (air) is then humidified. The breathing assistance apparatus and manifold of the present invention provides a safe method to add oxygen to the input air stream of a gases supply and humidifying device and reduces the amount of accumulation of oxygen within the gases supply device, reducing fire risk should sparking occur within the device.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a gases supply and gases humidification apparatus including a manifold that allows for the addition of oxygen to the gases supply.
2. Summary of the Prior Art
A number of methods are known in the art for assisting a patient's breathing. Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) involves the administration of air under pressure to a patient, usually by a nasal mask. It is used in the treatment of snoring and Obstructive Sleep Apnoea (OSA), a condition characterised by repetitive collapse of the upper airway during inspiration. Positive pressure splints the upper airway open, preventing its collapse. Treatment of OSA with nasal CPAP has proven to be both effective and safe, but CPAP is difficult to use and the majority of patients experience significant side effects, particularly in the early stages of treatment.
Upper airway symptoms adversely affect treatment with CPAP. Mucosal drying is uncomfortable and may awaken patients during the night. Rebound nasal congestion commonly occurs during the following day, simulating a viral infection. If untreated, upper airway symptoms adversely affect rates of CPAP use.
Increases in nasal resistance may affect the level of CPAP treatment delivered to the pharynx, and reduce the effectiveness of treatment. An individual pressure is determined for each patient using CPAP and this pressure is set at the patient interface. Changes in nasal resistance affect pressure delivered to the pharynx and if the changes are of sufficient magnitude there may be recurrence of snoring or airway collapse or reduce the level of pressure applied to the lungs.
CPAP is also commonly used for treatment of patients with a variety of respiratory illnesses or diseases, including Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).
Oxygen is the most common drug prescribed to hospitalized patients with respiratory or other illnesses. The delivery of oxygen via nasal cannula or facemask is of benefit to a patient complaining of breathlessness. By increasing the fraction of inspired oxygen, oxygen therapy reduces the effort to breathe and can correct resulting hypoxia (a low level of oxygen in the tissues).
The duration of the therapy depends on the underlying illness. For example, postoperative patients may only receive oxygen while recovering from surgery while patients with COPD require oxygen 16 to 18 hours per day.
Currently greater than 16 million adults are afflicted with COPD, an umbrella term that describes a group of lung diseases characterized by irreversible airflow limitation that is associated mainly with emphysema and chronic bronchitis, most commonly caused by smoking over several decades. When airway limitation is moderately advanced, it manifests as perpetual breathlessness without physical exertion. Situations such as a tracheobronchial infection, heart failure and also environmental exposure can incite an exacerbation of COPD that requires hospitalization until the acute breathlessness is under control. During an acute exacerbation of COPD, the patient usually experiences an increase in difficulty of breathing (dyspnea), hypoxia, and increase in sputum volume and purulence and increased coughing.
Oxygen therapy provides enormous benefit to patients with an acute exacerbation of COPD who are hypoxic, by decreasing the risk of vital organ failure and reducing dyspnea. The major complication associated with oxygen therapy is hypercarpnia (an elevation in blood carbon dioxide levels) and subsequent respiratory failure. Therefore, the dose of oxygen administered is important.
To accurately control an oxygen dose given to a patient, the oxygen-enriched gas must exceed the patient's peak inspiratory flow to prevent the entrainment of room air and dilution of the oxygen. To achieve this, flows of greater than 20 L/min are common. Such flows of dry gases cause dehydration and inflammation of the nasal passages and airways if delivered by nasal cannula. To avoid this occurrence, a heated humidifier may be used.
The majority of systems that are used for oxygen therapy or merely delivery of gases to a patient consists of a gases supply, a humidifier and conduit. Interfaces include facemasks, oral mouthpieces, tracheostomy inlets and nasal cannula, the latter then having the advantage of being more comfortable and acceptable to the patient than a facemask.
It is usual for the gases supply to provide a constant, prescribed level of gases flow to the humidifier. The humidifier and conduit can then heat and humidify the gases to a set temperature and humidity before delivery to the patient. Many patients using blowers or continuous positive pressure devices to treat COPD are on long term oxygen therapy. Such patients often need in excess of 15 hours per day of oxygen therapy and as such the only practical method to expose these patients to several hours humidification therapy per day as well as oxygen therapy is to combine the oxygen therapy and humidification therapy. As the oxygen therapy is known to dry the airways there are likely to be benefits from combining the treatments.
Currently CPAP systems are commonly integrated with oxygen flow systems to provide increased fraction of oxygen for the treatment of respiratory disorders. These systems commonly combine the oxygen source on the high pressure (flow outlet) side of the blower. This results in three main disadvantages. Firstly, by integrating the oxygen on the high pressure side, a connection port with a sealing cap is required to seal off the oxygen inlet port and avoid high pressure gases escaping when the oxygen flow source is not connected. Secondly, in the event that the oxygen source is turned on before the blower is turned on the breathing circuit, humidification chamber and blower become flooded with 100% oxygen. This is likely to create a fire safety risk if sparking should occur within the blower or heated breathing tube when turned on. Thirdly, if the oxygen gases source is added at the outlet of the humidification chamber, the oxygen gas, when mixed with other gases delivered to the patient, lowers the overall humidity of the gases delivered.

Breathing assistance apparatus with a manifold to add auxiliary gases to ambient gases


An air-powered vacuum tool for handling multiple workpieces includes vacuum ports formed in a vacuum manifold body and associated air-powered vacuum generators operatively connected with the vacuum manifold body such that each of the vacuum ports is provided with vacuum. Groups of pickup orifices associated with the vacuum ports engage multiple workpieces. Each of the pickup orifices is operatively connected with at least one of the vacuum ports.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a material handling tool for simultaneously handling a multitude of workpieces. The tool is powered by vacuum generated within the tool itself.
2. Disclosure Information
The simultaneous processing of multiple workpieces presents interesting design challenges to the designers of material handling machines. These challenges are particularly mettlesome in the case of metallic and nonmetallic containers of the end-consumer types used for soft drinks and other canned and bottled goods. Such containers present a challenge to the designers of automated material handling equipment because the containers must be handled at various points during manufacturing, storage, and distribution, in both in the full and empty states. Needless to say, all handling must be done without crushing or otherwise injuring the containers. Moreover, it is frequently desirable to handle a large number of containers simultaneously so as to increase throughput on a given process line. Although fixed automation has been used to attain this goal, the lack of flexibility in terms of the ability to handle a variety of containers or other workpieces provokes the additional expense of purpose-built machinery.
Vacuum has been used to hold containers and other workpieces to end of arm tools mounted upon robot arms in the past, but such vacuum devices have not generally proven to be satisfactory because known devices generally used a single vacuum source, which if impaired, would render the entire device nonfunctional. Another problem with known vacuum devices resided in the fact that if integrity of the vacuum system were to become impaired, vacuum would be lost for the entire tool, as opposed to a portion of the tool. A tool according to the present invention solves these problems, while providing the flexibility to handle a widely differing array of workpieces, such as single serving beverage containers and packaged good of various sizes.

Air-powered vacuum tool for handling multiple workpieces


A heat-resistant adhesive sheet for semiconductor testing, used in a performance test while semiconductor chips are heated includes: a base material; and an adhesive layer provided on the base material, the base material having a thermal shrinkage of lower than 1% when being heated at 150 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes and a linear expansion coefficient of equal to or lower than 5.0×10−5 at 60 to 150 degrees Celsius, and the adhesive layer containing a (meth)acrylic acid ester copolymer, a photopolymerizable compound, a polyfunctional isocyanate curing agent, and photoinitiator. The adhesive layer contains 5 to 200 parts by mass of the photopolymerizable compound, 0.5 to 20 parts by mass of the polyfunctional isocyanate curing agent, and 0.1 to 20 parts by mass of the photoinitiator, with respect to 100 parts by mass of the(meth)acrylic acid ester copolymer. The adhesive layer is free of tackifying resin.

A semiconductor chip can be produced in the following manner. First, a circuit pattern is formed on a semiconductor wafer and an adhesive sheet is bonded to the semiconductor wafer, and then, the semiconductor wafer undergoes the following steps: cutting the wafer into chips (dicing step); washing and drying the sheet; expanding the sheet (expansion step); peeling the chips off from the sheet (pick-up step); and mounting the chips. It is required that the adhesive sheet such as a dicing tape used in those steps has a sufficient adhesive force to adhere the diced chips from the dicing step to the drying step, while reducing such adhesive force in the pick-up step to such an extent that adhesive deposit does not occur.
There has been known an adhesive sheet formed by applying an adhesive layer which will be cured by polymerization with ultraviolet light and so forth, to a base material having a transmittivity when being passed through by an active light such as UV light and/or an electron beam. With this adhesive sheet, the diced chips are picked up after the adhesive strength is reduced by irradiating the adhesive layer with the UV light and curing the adhesive layer with polymerization.
There has been disclosed an adhesive sheet formed by coating the base material surface with an adhesive layer containing a compound (polyfunctional oligomer) having a photopolymerizable unsaturated double bond in its molecule, which maybe turned into a three-dimensional network by irradiation with, for example, an active light. This has been disclosed in Patent Literatures 1 and 2.

Heat-resistant adhesive sheet for semiconductor testing


Prediction methods for navigation message symbols of satellite systems, such as GPS (Global Positioning System) and GLONASS (Global Orbiting Navigation System), that use information repetition in navigation data messages are disclosed. The methods enable one to eliminate the impact of symbol modulation for a received signal on the threshold performance of any navigation receiver, thereby permitting its operation in severe environments when the carrier-to-noise ratio C/N0 of xe2x80x9cweakxe2x80x9d satellite signals falls to levels below C/N0=20 dB*Hz.

The present invention relates to receivers, utilized for range measurements, which use radio signals modulated with navigation message symbols, and which function in environments where signal power may not be sufficient for proper operation of conventional receivers.
Current navigation GPS/GLONASS receivers usually track satellite signal parameters with tracking estimators such as phase lock loops (PLLs) and delay lock loops (DLLs).
A typical global positioning satellite signal comprises a high frequency carrier signal which is modulated by one or more pseudo-random number sequences (PR-codes) of lower frequency, which in turn is modulated a 50 Hz data stream which provides navigational information. The task of a phase-lock loop is to track the high-frequency carrier signal or a down-converted version thereof, the latter being the typical situation, and the task of a DLL is to track a pseudo-random number sequence. The 50 Hz data stream in the received satellite signal is a barrier for the improvement of tracking system threshold characteristics. In this case, a symbol demodulation method determines the ultimate threshold parameters of the tracking system.
The same problem of interference immunity is the key performance for modern navigation receivers that employ processing of discrete signal records with high-speed signal processors instead of tracking measuring estimators.
In order to increase the interference immunity of the measurements of the signal carrier phase and code delay (pseudorange), it is necessary to eliminate the signal symbol modulation of the 50 Hz data stream. In this case, an extra receiver, located in certainly favorable conditions, is used to provide error free symbol demodulation. Let us call such a receiver a base station, while the other receiver whose location is to be measured will be called a rover station. One of the interference immunity methods for the receiver-rover system is to transmit the demodulated symbol stream from the base station to the rover station. (Lawrence R. Weill, xe2x80x9cUltra-High Performance Differential Systems: Extending Accuracy and Weak-Signal Tracking Capability,xe2x80x9d Proceedings of the 9th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of the Institute of Navigation, ION GPS-96, Sep. 17-20, 1996, pages 1753-1762).
The drawbacks of this method are, first, the necessity of the base station to provide the rover station with navigation symbols; second, the fact that the method""s efficiency for noise immunity tracking depends upon the capabilities of a radio link (e.g., radio link delay, partial loss of symbols due to short-term interruptions in the radio link or fading); third, the necessity to account for the delay in the transmission of navigation symbols from the base station to the rover, which results in a substantial complicating of the rover""s firmware.
Another method (U.S. Pat. No. 6,052,081) suggests that a rover remove P/N data and create a record of the satellite data message, and thereafter transmit the record to a base station. The base station then performs a cross correlation of the record transmitted from the rover with a xe2x80x9creferencexe2x80x9d record made by the base station. From this cross correlation, the base station determines the time of the transmitted record instead of using the rover to demodulate this information (ephemeris reading). With such a processing, the key moment is the use of navigation symbols demodulated on the base station.
The disadvantages of the above method are, first, the usage of the auxiliary base station for determining the satellite time for the signal that was received at the rover; second, the method allows measurements only of pseudoranges at the rover, and not carrier phases of the received satellite signals.
Accordingly, there is a need to provide for a more simple and reliable way of improving the tracking system threshold characteristics for weak signals and the interference immunity for all signals in receivers of GPS and GLONASS satellite signals.
The present invention is directed to methods and apparatus for predicting navigation symbols for use in a global positioning tracking processes. The navigation symbols are transmitted from a global positioning satellite in the form of a carrier signal modulated by a data-stream signal comprising the symbols. The navigation data symbols are conveyed in a sequence of one or more repeating frames, with a first group of symbols being repeated within the stream once every number M of frames at predetermined locations in the frames. For the present invention, M can be equal to or greater than 1.
An exemplary method according to the present invention comprising the first step of detecting the symbols of the first group within the frames of the information data stream signal, and the second step of storing in a memory a sequence of the detected symbol values of the first group over at least M frames. The method thereafter provides the sequence stored in the memory to the global positioning tracking process. The exemplary method may subsequently monitor the data-stream signal to detect a change in the symbol values of the first group. This may be done by detecting the symbols of the first group within subsequently transmit frames, comparing their values with the sequence of previously detected symbol values stored in memory to find differences, and counting the number of differences encountered since the start of a groups of frames. If the number of differences exceeds a predetermined number, such as for example a number between 10 and 30, the method may then repeat the above described first and second steps.
Another exemplary method according to the present invention comprising the step of detecting the symbols of the first group within the frames of the information data stream signal, and the step of storing in a memory a sequence of the detected symbol values of the first group over at least M frames. The method thereafter modifies one or more correlation signals which are input to a discriminator of a satellite tracking channel (e.g., PLL discriminator, DLL discriminator) in relation to the sequence stored in the memory.
The use of navigation symbol prediction in the above ways enables a substantial improvement in the receiver""s tracking threshold performance (for example, up to 10 dB).
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to improve the tracking performance of satellite tracking channels for GPS and GLONASS navigation satellites.
It is another object of the present invention to improve the interference immunity for navigation receivers.
These and other objects of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description of the invention, the accompanying drawings, and the appended claims.

Navigation data prediction for GPS and GLONASS weak signal tracking


The technology disclosed relates to cybersecurity attacks and cloud-based security. The technology disclosed is a method and apparatus for detecting documents with embedded threats in the form of malicious macros and malicious OLE objects. The technology disclosed detects obfuscated malicious code using a trained machine learning model to predict documents having malicious code without a known signature. The technology disclosed can thus predict which documents include signatureless malicious code. Feature engineering is used to define a set of features for detecting malicious macros and malicious OLE objects, based on features selected from a list of known characteristics and attributes possessed by files that have historically indicated malicious content. The selected features are used to train a supervised machine learning model. In another aspect, an office classifier receives incoming documents over a network, parses those documents, and applies the machine learning algorithm to classify the documents as to threat level, as safe, suspicious, or malicious. Safe documents are allowed into the network. Suspicious documents are subjected to additional processing, including quarantining or sandboxing methods. Malicious documents are rejected from the network. In a further aspect, the disclosed technology combines machine learning with other network security methods, to further increase the capability of a network security system to detect malicious macros and malicious OLE files.

The subject matter discussed in this section should not be assumed to be prior art merely as a result of its mention in this section. Similarly, a problem mentioned in this section or associated with the subject matter provided as background should not be assumed to have been previously recognized in the prior art. The subject matter in this section merely represents different approaches, which in and of themselves can also correspond to implementations of the claimed technology.
In the six months prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Microsoft Office files accounted for only 5% of the Trojans and downloaders detected on the Netskope Security Cloud platform. After COVID, especially when EMOTET became active again, that percentage increased to nearly 45%, while portable executable files and other types decreased. Microsoft Excel files—typically containing malicious links, VBA scripts, or PowerShell scripts—account for nearly three-quarters of the malicious Office documents detected, often incorporating malicious macros. More than 90% of the malicious Office documents are distributed through cloud applications, compared to 50% of all other malicious file types.
Authors of malware code have become increasingly clever in finding ways to deliver a malware payload into a secure network using MS Office. Documents with malware use advanced techniques of obfuscation to hide the malicious code so that it cannot be easily detected and often go unnoticed until they do severe damage to the network.
There is a need for detecting obfuscated macros and OLE objects delivered through Microsoft Office documents files that follow a VBA document object model, using feature engineering combined with machine learning to predict malicious content MS Office files. This problem is solved by feature engineering in which the features are determined by a network security system such as Netskope which is then used to train a supervised machine learning algorithm to predict and distinguish between: legitimate or safe documents; suspicious documents that may include malware, and malicious documents that definitely do include malicious code.
In this way, network devices may predict the presence of malware in document files without using a known signature for the unknown malware. Additionally, the detection of malicious office files may happen in near real-time, greatly improving network security while having reduced negative impact on system throughput, by reducing latencies in network security processing time.

Signatureless detection of malicious MS office documents containing advanced threats in macros


Provided is an ink jet recording method including: discharging first ultraviolet curable ink of a radical polymerization reaction type which contains a radical photopolymerization initiator and a radical polymerization compound and in which transmittance at a wavelength of 395 nm is equal to or less than 1 %, onto a recording medium; and curing the first ultraviolet curable ink which is landed on the recording medium by irradiating the ink with ultraviolet light, in which a light source which initially emits the ultraviolet light in the curing of the ink is an ultraviolet light emitting diode in which peak intensity of the irradiated ultraviolet light is equal to or more than 800 mW/cm2.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an ink jet recording method, an ultraviolet curable ink and an ink jet recording apparatus.
2. Related Art
In the related art, as a recording method for forming an image based on an image data signal on a recording medium such as paper, various methods have been used. Among them, since an ink jet method is used with an apparatus with a low cost which discharges ink only to a necessary image unit and performs direct image formation on a recording medium, it is possible efficiently to use the ink and to keep the running cost is low. Furthermore, since noises are small in the ink jet method, the ink jet method is excellent as a recording method.
In recent years, in order to form an image having excellent water resistance, solvent resistance, rub fastness and the like on a surface of a recording medium, an ink jet recording method using ultraviolet curable ink which is cured when being irradiated with ultraviolet light has been used.
For example, JP-A-2010-131975 discloses a line recording type image forming method of discharging a photoacid generator solution PI-1 (CPI-100P manufactured by San-Apro Ltd., a photoacid generator solution of sulfonium salt which is dissolved in propylene carbonate) onto a recording material in advance, subsequently irradiating the photoacid generator solution which is landed onto the recording material with ultraviolet light from a metal halide lamp (VZero270 manufactured by Integration Technology, the maximum illumination of 400 mW/cm2), discharging cationic polymerization-based active light curable ink (in order of black, cyan, magenta, yellow and white) formed of a photoacid generator (photo radical generator is not used), a cationic polymerization compound, a pigment dispersion, a surfactant and a sensitizer, each of which has predetermined types and amounts sequentially, to form an image, and then, performing irradiation with active light from an LED (manufactured by Nichia Corporation, 365 nm-multi chip array, a water cooling type, the maximum illumination of 1,500 mW/cm2) to fix an image (Paragraphs [0028], [0088], [0094] to [0097], [0099] to [0101] (Table 1), and [0106], Sample No. 1 in Table 5 in [0107], FIG. 1, and Paragraph [0112] in JP-A-2010-131975).
In addition, for example, International Publication No. WO 2011/039081 discloses a recording method of discharging ultraviolet curable ink jet ink consisting of 15% by weight of a dispersion liquid including C.I. Pigment Blue 15:4 which is a pigment, 62.55% by weight of propoxylated neopentyl glycol diacrylate (SR9003), 13% by weight of 2-(2-vinyloxy ethoxy) ethyl acrylate (VEEA), 0.83% by weight of a polymerization inhibitor, 6% by weight of a photopolymerization initiator, 2.5% by weight of ethyl-4-(dimethylamino)benzoate, and 0.1% by weight of polyether-modified polydimethylsiloxane which is a wetting agent from a print head in which density of nozzles and an outer diameter thereof are set as the predetermined values, and performing irradiation with ultraviolet light (Example 1 in International Publication No. WO 2011/039081).
However, when manufacturing a cured film, that is, a coating film of cured ink, from ultraviolet curable ink jet ink using the image forming method which is disclosed in JP-A-2010-131975, the following problems occur.
When a coating film of ink is irradiated with ultraviolet light, a pigment strongly tends to absorb a part of ultraviolet light, and accordingly, although irradiation is performed with the ultraviolet light, an energy necessary for the complete curing of the coating film which is discharged onto a recording medium, is insufficient, and thus the vicinity of the surface of the coating film is initially cured, and thus, the inner portion of the coating film is incompletely cured or more time is necessary for the curing, in some cases. In addition, when the uncured ink existing in the inner portion of the coating film is cured, wrinkles are generated on the vicinity of the surface of the coating film which is initially cured, or by irregular flow of the ink before the ink in the inner portion of the coating film is cured, wrinkles (hereinafter, referred to as "cured wrinkles") are generated on the surface of the coating film after the curing. Due to the cured wrinkles, problems of degradation of various kinds of film properties on the coating film occur. The thicker the film thickness of a cured film, the stronger such a tendency is.
In addition, when a cured film, in other words, a coating film of an ink which is cured, from an ultraviolet curable ink jet ink using a recording method which is disclosed in International Publication No. WO 2011/039081, is attempted to be formed, problems occur as below.
Firstly, in a case where the film thickness of a cured film is relatively thin, the hardenability is inferior due to the affects of oxygen inhibition in a case of a radical polymerization reaction system. Therefore, the film has to be thickened in excess to the extent in which oxygen inhibition does not occur when printing and a problem of the printed image quality occurs where the image becomes very poor. On the other hand, in a case where the film thickness of a cured film is relatively thick, there is a strong tendency that a pigment absorbs a part of ultraviolet light, and then, even if ultraviolet light is irradiated, the energy which is needed for completely curing the coating film which is discharged onto a recording medium, becomes insufficient, therefore, there is a case where the curing of the inside of the coating film becomes incomplete due to the vicinity of the surface of the coating film being cured in first or there is a need to take time for curing. Further, due to the vicinity of the surface which has been cured before wrinkles when an uncured ink which is present inside the coating film is cured or an ink irregularly flowing before an ink inside the coating film is cured, wrinkles (hereinafter also referred to as "cured wrinkles") occur on the surface of the film coating after curing. Due to the cured wrinkles, problems occur wherein film characteristics on the coating film are inferior.

Ink jet recording method, ultraviolet curable ink, and ink jet recording apparatus


Modification of a digital image includes determining a likelihood of a pixel belonging to a memory color region (110). The memory color region has a preferred color. The modification further includes shifting original color of the pixel toward the preferred color (120). The original color is shifted by an amount that is a function of the likelihood and that is generally less than the difference between the original and preferred colors.

People have preferences and expectations regarding the appearance of certain objects in images. For instance, studies have shown that people prefer the reproduced sky to be more saturated than the real one, and the skin and the grass to be yellower than the real ones.
The colors of skin, sky and foliage are examples of "memory colors." A memory color refers to the color of a familiar object. An observer chooses to match the color of a familiar object to his or her memory of the color rather than the actual color. Sky, skin and foliage are very familiar objects in an image.
The reproduction of memory colors might be unsatisfactory due to imperfections in digital images and the capture, color processing, and display of digital images. For instance, white balancing by a digital camera might produce memory colors that appear unpleasant.
Even if the memory colors are captured and reproduced accurately, they still might appear unpleasant. For instance, a digital camera accurately captures a grayish-blue sky, and a photo printer accurately reproduces the sky, but the sky still appears unpleasant.
Memory color enhancement is performed on digital images to modify the colors of familiar objects so they appear more familiar and pleasant. These objects are typically identified by image segmentation, and their colors are modified independently of each other. The color of vegetation might be modified to a more pleasant green. Skin color might be modified to appear warmer and more natural. The color of the sky might be modified to a deeper blue.
Although memory color enhancement might produce more pleasant colors for certain objects in the image, it does not necessarily produce a better looking image overall.

Modification of memory colors in digital images

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.