An information processing apparatus includes a recording unit operable to record data in a predetermined area, a detecting unit operable to detect a device connected to the apparatus, and an unmounting unit operable to unmount the predetermined area in the recording unit when the device connected to the apparatus is detected. Accordingly, data recorded in the recording unit of the information processing apparatus is prevented from being viewed and edited through an external device connected to the apparatus. The information processing apparatus may include, for example, a camera having two recording media.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to information processing apparatuses and methods and programs, and in particular, relates to an information processing apparatus and method for preventing an external device connected to the apparatus from editing data stored in the apparatus, and a program therefor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Widespread image processing apparatuses, such as digital still cameras,and digital video cameras, each use an imager, e.g., a charge coupled device (CCD) or a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS), to capture a still image or a moving image.
In such an image processing apparatus, image data of a still or moving image captured is recorded onto a recording medium. In the following description, when it is unnecessary to distinguish between a still image and a moving image, they will simply be referred to as images.
In some cases, in recording image data of a captured still image onto a recording medium, a still image whose size is smaller than that of the captured still image is generated and the generated still image with the smaller size is also recorded. The smaller-size still image is called a thumbnail image. On the other hand, in recording image data of a captured moving image onto a recording medium, a moving image whose size is smaller than that of the captured moving image may be generated and the generated moving image with the smaller size may also be recorded. Each of the above-described smaller-size still and moving images is used as a reference image to retrieve the original still or moving image. Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2001-160947 discloses the above-described apparatus and method.
The image processing apparatuses include another type of apparatus having a function of displaying (playing) an image based on image data recorded in a recording medium. The apparatuses include further another type of image processing apparatus having a function of outputting recorded image data to an external device connected thereto.
As described above, in some cases, image data recorded on a recording medium is outputted to an external device connected to the image processing apparatus. Assuming that the image processing apparatus is connected to, e.g., a personal computer, image data recorded on the recording medium may be supplied from the image processing apparatus to the personal computer, an image based on the supplied image data may be displayed on a display of the personal computer, and the image data may be edited. Assuming that the image processing apparatus is connected to, e.g., a printer, image data recorded on the recording medium may be supplied from the image processing apparatus to the printer and an image based on the image data may be printed by the printer.
In other words, image data recorded on the recording medium may be read and edited by a device connected to the image processing apparatus.
As for image data recorded on the recording medium, it may be undesirable to view or edit the image data through an external device. Furthermore, the recording medium may store a program and/or data which are not provided to a user basically. In other words, in the recording medium, data that should not be viewed and edited by the user may be recorded in addition to data that is viewable and editable.
As for data (or a data file) that should not be viewed and edited by the user, the attribute of the data is set to "hidden file", "system file", or "read-only file", thus preventing the data from being edited or viewed through an external device.
However, just setting the attribute of the file is not going to solve the above problem. The user may change the attribute within the allowable range of operation. Accordingly, the above-described approach to setting the attribute of a file, which should not be viewed and edited by a user, is insufficient to prevent the file from being viewed and edited by the user.
In other words, the user may view and/or edit a file that should not be viewed and edited by the user so long as the attribute of the file is set in order to protect the file. An apparatus handling a recording medium storing a file which may be data that should not be edited and viewed has to be designed so that the apparatus continues to function normally even if the file is edited (modified).
The present invention is made in consideration of the above-described circumstances and it is desirable to realize a technique of preventing a file that need not be provided for a user from being provided for the user.

Information processing apparatus and method, and program


A prosthetic trial for a joint prosthesis includes a stem having a proximal section and a distal section for implantation in a bone. A body includes a channel receiving at least the proximal section of the stem. A locking mechanism is at least partially disposed within the body. The locking mechanism is biased into a locking position in which the mechanism locks the stem within the first channel of the body. The locking mechanism is accessible outside said body to be pulled into a releasing position to unlock the stem from the body.

During the lifetime of a patient, it may be necessary to perform a joint replacement procedure or anthroplasty on the patient as a result of, for example, disease or trauma. One such type of joint replacement procedure is a hip replacement procedure in which a diseased and/or damaged hip joint is replaced with a prosthetic hip joint. A typical hip replacement procedure utilizes a prosthesis that generally includes a femoral stem component, a proximal body component, and a neck segment. The femoral stem is implanted in a prepared medullary canal of the patient's femur.
During performance of such a hip replacement procedure, the surgeon must evaluate the size and condition of the patient's bones (e.g. the patient's femur) in order to determine the proper type and configuration of each of the various types of prosthetic components that are to be implanted. One or more provisional components are temporarily fixed to a bone prior to permanent fixation of the prosthetic joint. The provisional components are intended to mimic certain aspects of the permanent prosthetic joint in order for a surgeon to validate measurements and to test several different possible component sizes and shapes. Hence, provisional components are aptly known as "trials", and the procedure is known as "trialing."
Currently, in a majority of revision total hip arthroplasties, the bone has little or no supportive metaphysis or diaphyseal areas. This makes it difficult for surgeons to reproduce the proper anatomy. To do this, the surgeon may use a distally fixed implant. This facilitates trialing from the distal femoral cortex and subsequent proximal anatomy. Many trials are used in surgery having one basic anterior/posterior proximal anatomical body with altering characteristics (i.e., stem lengths, bow, offsets, neck lengths, neck anteversion). Each instance requires a single monolithic trial that duplicates the implant, which is therein made from casting substrate.
Other modular devices contain modular similarities but may not address multi-functional characteristics as per using both neck segments and distal stem variations simultaneously. They also may not use preexisting broach system neck segments and its instrumentation technology to simplify case sizing.
Other techniques require that the broach be removed from the medullary canal to allow the use of a trial having a stem portion, a head and a neck. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,100,407 discloses a system including a group of variously sized trial neck/body portions and a group of differing length trial stem portions which are mixed and matched to create a suitable trial. However, repetitive removal and insertion of successions of trial stems accompanied by successive assembly and disassembly with respect to the body can require more time, which will increase operating room cost.
Another known trial includes a stem to which a collar is secured at successive points along the length of the trial until an appropriate neck length and stem length have been ascertained. Undesirably, this type of trial induces measurement inaccuracies resulting from stem movement as the collar is repeatedly engaged and disengaged from the stem. Additionally, as the collar is moved toward the distal end of the stem, less of the stem is disposed within the medullary canal, causing the trial to become increasingly unstable and rendering accurate measurements difficult to achieve.
Any additional anatomical complexity can increase the undesirable numbers of trial components in a kit. For example, trials for long hip stems must be different for the right and left femur due to the curvature or bow of the respective femurs. In other words, a long left stem trial cannot be used in the right femur and vice versa. It is believed that a trial system consisting of numerous parts that must be selected and mated in various combinations, possibly many times, is cumbersome.
Another example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,193,759, uses two component embodiments but has not included an additional neck segment component that encompasses different geometries. The '759 patent does not address the ability to be used on one single broaching system. The system of the '759 patent also does not used the same instrument system to implant or extract both the broach and trial.
Because many variations in sizes and shapes of trials are required to be available to the surgeon, it is necessary to maintain a large inventory of trials and/or trial components. Such a large inventory is costly, occupies valuable operating room space, and is difficult to manage. Another problem is that if a trial is to be assembled from multiple components, the assembly and disassembly of the trial can consume large periods of operating room time.
What is needed therefore is a femur implant trial that can be quickly and easily assembled and disassembled from multiple components.
What is further needed therefore is an apparatus and method for assembling various sizes and shapes of trials from a minimum number of components to be kept in inventory.


A storage (10) is provided with a supporting portion (11) capable of supporting a load (3), a horizontal driving portion (13) capable of moving said supporting portion back and forth in a horizontal one direction, a vertical driving portion (14) capable of moving said supporting portion back and forth in a vertical direction, and a rack (15) having a plurality of putting surfaces, each being capable of transferring said load mutually with said supporting portion, said putting surfaces being disposed at a plurality of stages in the vertical direction to each of which said supporting portion can access by said horizontal driving portion, one or more than one of said putting surfaces being disposed at a horizontal position to which said supporting portion can access by said horizontal driving portion. At least one of said putting surfaces functions as a port for unloading and loading said load.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a storage such as a stocker for temporarily storing a load (i.e., a transported object or an object), such as a FOUP (Front Opening Unified Pod) for accommodating or housing various substrates for manufacturing semiconductor elements and the like, at the position located close to a track, in a traveling system for transporting the load on the track. Here, the "load" (i.e., the "transported object" or "object") in the present invention means a products an intermediate product, a part, an article, a work, a partly-finished good, a good or the like (e.g, a semiconductor or LCD device), or means a box or container for containing such a product or the like (e.g, a container containing the semiconductor or LCD device), which has been transported or is to be transported by the transporting carriage. The load may be a carrier for containing an object to be carried such as a FOUP.
2. Description of the Related Art
This kind of storage is installed close to a track on which a transporting carriage such as a vehicle travels for example. In the storage, a lot of rack portions are installed so as to store a lot of loads which are transported or to be transported by the transporting carriage. Further, a transporting apparatus in a storage, which is called as a "stacker robot", a "stacker crane" or the like, is provided to perform the transportation of the load between a "port" and the assigned or designated rack portion (i.e., to perform transportation within the storage). The "port" is to perform the delivery-and-receipt or the taking-out and putting-in of the load (i.e., loading and unloading of the load) between the inside of such a storage and the transporting carriage. Especially, the transportation within the storage including a lot of rack portions arranged crisscross is made possible by the stacker robot or the like (refer to Japanese Patent Application Publication Laying Open No. 2006-049454 and 2003-182815).
On the other hand, as this kind of storage, there is a storage, which is relatively compact, and in which a load is directly transferred (i.e., loaded and unloaded) from a transporting carriage of ceiling hanging type onto a rack stage capable of going up and down along the side of rack portions, which are vertically arranged by a plurality of levels, In this storage, when a load is unloaded (i.e., taken-out from the storage), the load is directly transferred from the rack stage capable of going up and down, to the transporting carriage (refer to Japanese Patent Application Publication Laying Open No. 2004-238191).

Storage, transporting system and storage set


A substrate processing apparatus includes a substrate holding unit 31 configured to hold a substrate W; an outer nozzle 45 configured to discharge a processing liquid toward a surface of the substrate from a position at an outside of an outer edge of the substrate held by the substrate holding unit such that at least a central portion of the surface of the substrate is covered with a liquid film of the discharged processing liquid; and an actuator 46 (90) configured to change a height position or a discharge angle of the outer nozzle.

In a manufacturing process of a semiconductor device, a liquid processing such as wet etching or chemical liquid cleaning is performed on a substrate such as a semiconductor wafer by supplying a processing liquid onto a surface of the substrate while rotating the substrate around a vertical axis. Though the supply of the processing liquid onto the substrate is generally performed by a movable nozzle held by a nozzle arm, it may be performed by an outer nozzle provided at an outside of an outer edge of the substrate (see, for example, Patent Document 1).
The outer nozzle is used to supply the processing liquid to a central portion of the substrate to suppress the central portion of the substrate being rotated from being dried when the movable nozzle is unable to supply the required processing liquid onto the central portion of the substrate. The outer nozzle is immovably fixed to the outside of the outer edge of the substrate. Therefore, an arrival position of the processing liquid discharged from the outer nozzle is entirely determined based on a discharge flow rate of the processing liquid (force of the liquid). For the purposes of suppressing the substrate from being dried, the processing liquid discharged from the outer nozzle is required to cover the central portion of the substrate. For this reason, the flow rate of the processing liquid supplied onto the substrate from the outer nozzle cannot be changed flexibly as required.

Substrate liquid processing apparatus, substrate liquid processing method and recording medium


A method for identifying a person based on their tongue is provided in which an image of a tongue of a person is compared to recorded details of tongues in a database. If a match is found, the person is identified.

Biometrics have a number of advantages over security measures which use tokens such as physical keys, and those which are knowledge-based such as password protection. Biometric features cannot be easily stolen, lost, guessed, forgotten, or duplicated. The list of physiological and behavioral biometric characteristics that have so far been developed and implemented is extensive including the face, iris, fingerprint, palm print, hand shape, voice, written signature and gait. These biometrics have drawbacks. For example, fingerprint and palm print are usually frayed; voice, signatures, hand shape and iris images are easily forged; face recognition can be made difficult by occlusions or if the person has undergone a face-lift. Various experiments have shown that biometrics such as fingerprint, iris and face recognition are susceptible to spoofing attacks, that is, the biometric features are copied and used to create artifacts that deceives many biometric devices.
All authentication systems based on biometrics are flawed if they cannot distinguish between a photograph and the live presence of a person. Therefore, a technique of detecting liveness should be done to ensure that input biometric features are not collected from an inanimate object. The aim of liveness detection (or vitality detection as it is sometimes known) is to determine if the biometric data is captured from a legitimate living user physically present before a biometric data acquisition device. Various liveness detection methods have been implemented, for example, perspiration is used for proof of liveness of a fingerprint and iris shrink is used for verifying liveness of an iris. However, these liveness detection methods require complex hardware, or can be easily defeated.
Accordingly, there is a desire for an authentication system and method that ensures that sensed measurements for verifying the identity of a person are not fraudulent.

Method and system for identifying a person based on their tongue


A connection part which connects a terminal part and a processing part include an equalization resistor that is inserted into each main line and a 0-Ω resistor that is a short circuit line for short circuiting a main line of a first terminal and a main line of a second terminal. In the terminal part, the second terminal s unused, and a battery cell adjacent to a high-potential side of a stack bar is connected between the first terminal and a third terminal.

A battery pack used in an electric car, a hybrid car or the like has a structure including a plurality of battery stacks in combination. Each of the battery stacks has a structure including a plurality of battery cells connected in series. A bus bar (hereinafter referred to as "stack bar") which mutually connects the battery cells across the battery stacks is longer and has a greater resistance than a bus bar (hereinafter referred to as "cell bar") which mutually connects the battery cells in the same battery stack.


A method for annotating points on a 2D image of a hand, includes:                capturing several images of the hand from different views;        for each viewpoint, the hand is imaged using cameras including: one first 2D camera and one 3D camera;        using a 3D engine for:                    creating a 3D hand representation from the 3D camera;            considering a 3D model of an articulated hand with predefined annotation points;            considering several 3D viewpoints of the hand;            for each viewpoint considered:                        modifying the articulated hand to be superimposed with the 3D representation;                    considering a 2D image captured from the first 2D camera;            superimposing the modified articulated hand on the hand captured on the 2D image;            applying the annotation points of the modified articulated hand on the hand captured on the 2D image; and                        storing the 2D image with annotation on the hand.

The present invention relates to a method for annotating points on 2D images of a hand. Annotating points are key points placed on strategic area of the hand. The key points allow the hand to be completely recognized by computer in an augmented reality or virtual reality.
In computer vision, hand tracking involves extracting the pose of the hand for each image included in a video, or in a sequence of images. A hand pose can generally be expressed as a collection of the locations of the joints of the fingers and the palm. Hand tracking is gaining momentum in academia and industry due to its broad applications, such as human-machine interaction, robotic design, avatar animation, gesture comprehension and augmented reality. Although a lot of effort has been put into this area, hand tracking remains very difficult due to these issues:                large dimensional configuration space of the hand pose;        homogeneous distribution of the colors of the skin of the hand;        frequent self-occlusion and occlusion by other objects;        quick hand movement.
In order to improve the hand tracking system, it is imperative to effectively detect a hand. Given the diversity of hands, machine learning technology seems to be a good candidate for effective hand identification. However, designing a machine learning engine requires a lot of training data.
The performance of Machine Learning (ML), whether it is considered supervised or unsupervised, depends primarily on the learning training dataset used. This training dataset is supposed to be made up of a large population of annotated samples representing the various possible contexts of use and the expected results in these situations. For generalization to be possible, that is, for predictions to be correct on data not present in the training samples, the training dataset must be fairly substantial.
In the context of gesture recognition, for example, learning samples are mostly 2D images in which a hand adopts a particular pose. Depending on the pose, a gesture is recognized and an action is triggered by software. This software is particularly in demand in the context of AR/VR (Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality) headsets. The problem added by this material is that the rendering expected by the users is in 3D whereas the shooting cameras are generally 2D cameras. Indeed, the AR/VR equipment has a display screen for the user in 3D. It is therefore imperative to deduce the position of the hand in 3D space from 2D cameras which are most often monochrome. Training datasets of ten thousand samples minimum are available on the internet. In theory, the samples should be varied: hands of different ethnicities and sizes, different environments and changing light conditions. If these variations are not respected, the result of the learning called "model" may be over-trained.
The creation of substantial training datasets is necessary for each new 2D camera used in the AR/VR equipment and each new point of view (front or back camera of the smartphone, above the console of a car, in an AR/VR, etc.). This creation of samples is usually manual and can be particularly time consuming. Manual annotation of, say, twenty-two points for a 3D image can take up to four minutes with a simple 3D engine. It involves placing for example twenty-two points on predefined joints and areas of the hand. Another disadvantage of the manual method is that without physical constraints or length benchmarks, the Z (depth) is annotated differently depending on the annotator. For the same hand, the fingers can vary from five to twenty centimeters apart depending on the annotator. In cases where part of the hand is hidden, the position of the fingers can be difficult to deduce.
Document US20200151884A1 discloses an automated annotated object tracking tool that allows machine-learning teams to annotate an object within a frame and have that annotation persist across frames as the annotated object is tracked within a series of frames.
Document WO2017031385A1 discloses a user device within a communication architecture, the user device comprising an asynchronous session viewer configured to receive asynchronous session data, the asynchronous session data comprising at least one image, camera pose data associated with the at least one image, and surface reconstruction data associated with the camera pose data; select a field of view position; and edit the asynchronous session data by adding/amending/deleting at least one annotation object based on the selected field of view.
Document US20200090409A1 discloses a method comprising the steps of capturing a first image at a location and location data associated with the first image; placing an augmented reality (AR) object within the first image with reference to the location data associated with the first image; storing the AR object and location data associated with the first image; and placing the AR object into a second image when location data associated with the second image corresponds to the location data associated with the first image.
The object of the present invention is to propose a dynamic solution in the recognition of gestures. Another goal of the invention is a new fast and efficient method for creating training data for a machine learning engine. Another object of the invention is a new method for creating rich data to improve learning when machine learning is used.

Method for annotating points on a hand image to create training dataset for machine learning


Modular belt link of the type having a leading and trailing edge and a top surface there between, and two side surfaces at right angles to the leading and trailing edges, and a lower carrying surface and furthermore provided with a plurality of eye parts for hingedly connecting to adjacent modular belt links, characterised in that the modular belt link is made from a polymer material, and that at least in a side surface a conductive material insert is embedded, such that the conductive material is exposed on the top surface and the side surface, and is part of said top and side surface.

In the art, it is well-known to create conveyor belts by assembling a plurality of substantially identical modular belt links into an endless conveyor structure.
One application for such conveyor belts is conveyor belts used for conveying goods or people. For these purposes, it is necessary to provide means such that any static electricity which arises due to the interaction of other goods or people being transported with relation to the surroundings is discharged without discomfort to the people and possible damage to goods being transported.
An example of such an electric conductive modular belt is known from U.S. Pat. No. 7,360,643 in which a plurality of modules are provided with a plurality of cavities in which cavities inserts made from an electric conductive material are inserted in such a way that points across the surface of the modular belt made up from modules comprising electric conductive inserts, the static electricity will be able to be discharged by conducting the electricity from the surface of the belt by means of the electric conductive inserts to a discharge structure arranged underneath the belt.
This arrangement requires that a good connection is assured between the underside of the belt or at least the underside of the electric conductive inserts and the underlying structure in order to assure an electrical contact such that a good electrical contact and thereby safe discharge of the current may be assured. This intimate contact with the underlying structure causes a relatively high degree of friction and heat development between the belt and the carrying structure, especially when loaded, which is detrimental to the overall performance of the endless conveyor structure.


A system and method are disclosed for avoiding nulls in a composite radiation pattern synthesized from a plurality of antenna beams. The disclosed invention teaches the use of delays in the signal paths associated with ones of the antenna beams utilized to synthesize the desired radiation pattern in order to avoid destructive combining of the signals. In a preferred embodiment delays are introduced in each antenna beam signal having a common attribute such as a common phase center. Accordingly, a minimum number of phase differential boundaries are introduced in order that certain communications, such as CDMA, are not adversely affected.

It is often desirable to provide a signal simultaneously in multiple beams of a multibeam antenna system. For example, a cellular communication system may provide communications between a base transceiver station (BTS), having an antenna system associated therewith, and a plurality of mobile units operating within a predefined area, or "cell," defined by the antenna system's radiation pattern. Often such cells, although providing communications in a full 360.degree. about the BTS, are broken down into three 120.degree. sectors in order to provide more capacity and less interference over that of an omni cell 360.degree. system. Additionally, such a sectorized cell achieves extended range as compared to an omni cell 360.degree. system due to the greater signal gain at the sector antennas resulting from their more focused coverage.
Further advantage may be realized by providing multiple narrow beams at the BTS rather than the three 120.degree. sectors. For example, twelve 30.degree. narrow antenna beams may be utilized to provide the same 360.degree. communication coverage within the cell as the 360.degree. omni cell configuration and its 120.degree. sectorized cell replacement. Such a multiple narrow beam arrangement is desirable because, as with the 120.degree. sector system described above, the multiple beams provide a greater signal gain resulting from their greater focused coverage. A further advantage of the multiple narrow beams is the flexibility offered in synthesizing any desired sector size. Combining adjacent narrow beams provides a wider composite beam, with a beam width roughly equal to the sum of the individual beams widths. Accordingly, synthesized sectors may be formed of any size from a full 360.degree., by simulcasting a signal on each of the narrow beams, to as small as the narrow beams themselves, by providing the signal only within one narrow beam.
However, it should be appreciated that there is a potential for phase nulling associated with simulcasting of identical signals within multiple beams. For example, it may be necessary to synthesize a 120.degree. sector pattern comprised of four 30.degree. beams. Conceptually the 120.degree. sector may be synthesized by simply simulcasting the desired signal (CDMA waveform or AMPS signaling channel) over the four contiguous 30.degree. narrow beams making up the desired 120.degree. radiation pattern. However, phase differences between the signals radiated by the four constituent beams can cause signal cancellation. This cancellation leads to undesirable shaping, i.e. "holes," in the composite radiation pattern. For example if the antennas creating the narrow beams are separated by several wavelengths, deep nulls occur in the resulting antenna pattern, giving it a "rippled" appearance azimuthally. This pattern is not desirable for a BTS as it implies that there are "holes" in the coverage corresponding to the nulls in the pattern.
This phase nulling problem created by simulcasting is an artifact of the multibeam approach and is potentially a problem regardless of the type of signal transmitted, i.e., phase nulling is not unique to digital systems such as with respect to dynamic beam mapping in code division multiple access (CDMA) systems, but also exists with respect to signalling in analogue systems such as the advanced mobile phone system (AMPS) and narrowband advanced mobile phone system (NAMPS). Therefore, it is desirable to identify a solution that addresses both CDMA and AMPS/NAMPS. However, due to dynamic beam mapping desirable in CDMA, there may be some unique aspects associated with CDMA.
A need therefore exists in the art for systems and methods by which signals may be provided to a multibeam antenna system for simulcasting over multiple ones of the antenna beams without producing undesirable nulls.
A further need exists in the art for the systems and methods to avoid nulls in the simulcasting over multiple antenna beams of digital signals as well as analogue signals.
A still further need exists in the art for the systems and methods avoiding nulls to be adapted so as not to adversely affect forward link performance.

System and method providing delays for CDMA nulling


In a power supply apparatus including a plurality of power supply circuits, each of the power supply circuits has a piezoelectric transformer, a rectification element which rectifies and smoothes a voltage output from the piezoelectric transformer in accordance with a load and outputs the voltage, a voltage-controlled oscillator which controls the frequency of an output signal in accordance with an input control signal, and a power supply voltage supply element which is driven by a signal output from the voltage-controlled oscillator and supplies a power supply voltage to the piezoelectric transformer. One power supply circuit includes a resonance frequency change unit which is connected to the output side of the piezoelectric transformer. The resonance frequency change unit drives the piezoelectric transformer of the power supply circuit at a driving frequency which is different from the driving frequency of the piezoelectric transformer in another power supply circuit by shifting the peak of the resonance frequency.

When an image forming apparatus which forms an image by an electrophotographic process adopts a direct transfer system of transferring an image by bringing a transfer member into contact with a photoconductor, the transfer member uses a conductive rubber roller having a conductive rotating shaft. Driving of the transfer member is controlled to match the process speed of the photoconductor.
A voltage applied to the transfer member is a DC bias voltage. At this time, the polarity of the DC bias voltage is identical to that of a transfer voltage for general corona discharge. To achieve satisfactory transfer using the transfer roller, a voltage of generally 3 kV or more (required current is several μA) must be applied to the transfer roller. This high voltage necessary for the above image forming process is conventionally generated using a wire-wound electromagnetic transformer. The electromagnetic transformer is made up of a copper wire, bobbin, and core. When the electromagnetic transformer is used in application of a voltage of 3 kV or more, the leakage current must be minimized at each portion because the output current value is as small as several μA. For this purpose, the windings of the transformer must be molded with an insulator, and the transformer must be made large in comparison with supply power. This inhibits downsizing and weight reduction of a high-voltage power supply apparatus.
In order to compensate for these drawbacks, it is examined to generate a high voltage by using a flat, light-weight, high-output piezoelectric transformer. By using a piezoelectric transformer formed from ceramic, the piezoelectric transformer can generate a high voltage at higher efficiency than that of the electromagnetic transformer. Since electrodes on the primary and secondary sides can be spaced apart from each other regardless of coupling between the primary and secondary sides, no special molding is necessary for insulation. The piezoelectric transformer brings an advantage of making a high-voltage generation apparatus compact and lightweight.
An example of the high-voltage generation apparatus by using the piezoelectric transformer is disclosed in, e.g., Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-206113.
A conventional high-voltage power supply circuit using a piezoelectric transformer will be explained with reference to FIG. 6. In FIG. 6, reference numeral 101Y denotes a piezoelectric transformer (piezoelectric ceramic transformer) for a high-voltage power supply. An output from the piezoelectric transformer 101Y is rectified and smoothed to a positive voltage by diodes 102Y and 103Y and a high-voltage capacitor 104Y, and supplied to a transfer roller (not shown) serving as a load. The output voltage is divided by resistors 105Y, 106Y, and 107Y, and input to the inverting input terminal (negative terminal) of an operational amplifier 109Y via a protection resistor 108Y. The non-inverting input terminal (positive terminal) of the operational amplifier receives, via a resistor 114Y, a high-voltage power supply control signal (Vcont) which serves as an analog signal and is input to a connection terminal 118Y from a DC controller 201. The operational amplifier 109Y, the resistor 114Y, and a capacitor 113Y construct an integrating circuit. The control signal (Vcont) smoothed by an integral time constant determined by the component constants of the resistor and capacitor is input to the operational amplifier 109Y. The output terminal of the operational amplifier 109Y is connected to a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) 110Y. A transistor 111Y whose output terminal is connected to an inductor 112Y is driven to supply power to the primary side of the piezoelectric transformer.
The high-voltage power supply unit of an electrophotographic image forming apparatus comprises a plurality of high-voltage power supply circuits (corresponding to image forming units for, e.g., yellow (Y), magenta (M), cyan (C), and black (K)) using the piezoelectric transformer shown in FIG. 6. The high-voltage power supply unit outputs biases for charging, development, transfer, and the like.
In the above example, pluralities of piezoelectric transformers and control circuits are arranged in the high-voltage power supply unit, and a plurality of bias voltages are output to form images. Especially a high-voltage power supply unit mounted in a color image forming apparatus of a tandem system requires four bias output circuits for charging, development, transfer, and the like in correspondence with formation of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black images. The circuits corresponding to cyan (C), magenta (M), yellow (Y), and black (K) colors are controlled at almost the same bias output voltages. Piezoelectric transformers mounted in the high-voltage power supply unit are driven at almost the same frequencies (close frequencies) in the respective bias output circuits (C, M, Y, and K) for charging, development, transfer, and the like.
In this manner, a plurality of piezoelectric transformers are driven at close frequencies to output the same bias voltages. In this case, adjacent piezoelectric transformers interfere with each other via the power supply line or depending on electrostatic capacitive coupling or the like, which makes it difficult to improve the output precision of a high bias voltage. Alternatively, the image quality may degrade due to, e.g., generation of fluctuations of a high bias voltage by the interference frequency.
In order to avoid the influence on an image depending on the precision of a high bias voltage, piezoelectric transformers are arranged at a large interval. In order to suppress interference via the power supply line, the pattern length is increased or the capacitance of a decoupling capacitor is increased in designing the pattern of the power supply line. However, it is difficult to take these measures by theoretical calculation. In a case where problems are solved by many experiments, it is necessary to determine concrete measures by the many experiments. This prolongs the period of product development. Even if the problems are solvable, the high-voltage power supply unit can hardly achieve downsizing and a high image quality at the same time.

Power supply apparatus, and image forming apparatus having the same


A semiconductor device and a method of fabricating the same are provided. The semiconductor device includes a first interlayer insulating layer including a first trench, on a substrate a first liner layer formed along a side wall and a bottom surface of the first trench and including noble metal, the noble metal belonging to one of a fifth period and a sixth period of a periodic chart that follows numbering of International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) and belonging to one of eighth to tenth groups of the periodic chart, and a first metal wire filling the first trench on the first liner layer, a top surface of the first metal wire having a convex shape toward a bottom surface of the first trench.

With development of electronic technology, and as down-scaling of a semiconductor device has rapidly progressed in recent years, high-integration and low-power of a semiconductor chip have been required.
To meet the high-integration and lower power goals, semiconductor devices have been fabricated with improvements in wire resistance and electromigration resistance. Copper, which is relatively high in conductivity and high in resistance to electromigration, may be used as a wire material.

Semiconductor device having a trench with a convexed shaped metal wire formed therein


A bicycle stand includes a flexible supporting arm adapted to be retracted into coiled condition within an associated housing. When extended from the housing, the arm is angularly oriented by guide means on the housing. A brake keeps the supporting arm extended.

Conventional bicycle stands usually consist of a mounting bracket and an elongated, rigid supporting arm which is disposable in a retracted position or an extended position in which the lower extremity of the arm engages the adjacent ground surface. Such arms are conventionally pivotally mounted on the mounting bracket.
Recent innovations in bicycle technology, particularly the mountain bike, raise questions as to the utility and safety of the above-described bicycle stand. This is due to the fact that mountain bikes are built for rough terrain and, frequently, conventional bicycle stands have the supporting arm dislodged because of the jarring to which the mountain bike is subjected, resulting in severe injury to the rider or, at the very least, damage to the bike.
The art also teaches the provision of rigid, axially-extendable, spring-biased or spring-retractable bicycle stands having elongated supporting arms extensible from a corresponding tubular or other housing.
Various other types of bicycle stands are disclosed in the following U.S. Letters Patents:
______________________________________ U.S. Pat. No. Inventor Issue Date ______________________________________ 355,413 Read Jan. 4, 1887 576,346 Jerome, et al. Feb. 2, 1897 607,395 Hunt Jul. 12, 1898 635,618 Weyde Oct. 24, 1899 1,962,547 Zerk Jun. 12, 1934 4,288,090 Muller Sep. 8, 1981 4,819,957 Printy Apr. 11, 1989 ______________________________________
However, none of the prior art bicycle stands is of a compact construction adapted to be incorporated in a relatively small housing or mounted on a relatively small support easily attached to the desired location on the frame of the bicycle and being retracted so that accidental dislodgment is precluded.


Metal and metal oxide nanoparticles can be prepared via a simple synthesis by using a hydrolysable gallotannin, such as tannic acid, to reduce a metal precursor compound and to act as a stabilizer for the resultant nanoparticles. By controlling the molar ratio of hydrolysable gallotannin to metal precursor and/or the initial pH of the reagents one can achieve control over the size and polydispersity of the resultant nanoparticles. In particular, the controlled addition of a metal precursor into a solution of the hydrolysable gallotannin, as described herein, can yield small nanoparticles, for example 1 nm to 40 nm diameter nanoparticles, with low polydispersity. The methods disclosed herein can be performed at room temperature.

Nanoparticles have sparked interest and excitement among the research community in the last decade. Gold nanoparticles, in particular, have potential applications in various fields like catalysis, biomedical engineering, energy conversion, electronics, photonics, sensors etc. To harness the novel properties of gold nanoparticles it is essential to have a synthesis route that has control over size, shape and polydispersity.
Many routes for producing nanoparticles are solution-based redox reactions, commonly referred to as wet synthesis. Widely used methods for aqueous phase synthesis of gold nanoparticle involve the reduction of chloroauric acid with i) trisodium citrate, or ii) a mixture of tannic acid and trisodium citrate that forms nanoparticles with mean size ranging from 3.5 nm to 16 nm depending on the amount of tannic acid with respect to citrate. It has been reported that lower pH of reducing agent results in bigger nanoparticles. Protocols are performed at elevated temperature, viz. 100° C. and 60° C. respectively.
Other protocols for synthesizing nanoparticles at room temperature fail to produce particles over a wide size range with less polydispersity. For example, gold nanoparticles have been prepared at room temperature using hydrazine or sodium borohydride, ascorbic acid, starch, gallic acid and chitosan. In aqueous phase synthesis, gold nanoparticles of size smaller than 3 nm are synthesized using hazardous, strong reducing agents like sodium borohydride and hydrazine. Many attempts have been made to synthesize gold nanoparticles through "green synthesis" approach using starch or glucose, chitosan and soybean, but they do not yield a wide size range of nanoparticles with low polydispersity.

Methods for preparing metal and metal oxide nanoparticles


A thermally broken hollow polycarbonate sheet or vessel for day-lighting or sky-lighting applications. The hollow polycarbonate sheet comprises of an internal cavity walls that are thermally broken by thermal breaks and, or, a continuous thermal break component. The hollow polycarbonate sheet is a two sheet component. The two sheets are connected by means of the thermal break or breaks. In another embodiment of the invention, the hollow sheet is a one part sheet. Panels can be connected in series.

Polycarbonate hollow sheets, twin wall, triple wall and multiwall in many sizes and configurations, are being used for windows and skylights and have a minimal ability to insulate due to their continuous nature. Products such as twin wall, triple wall, multiwall and panels having a honeycomb design are commonplace industry terms. One popular trade name for the resin used to manufacture these hollow sheets or panels is Lexan. Some have filled these with aerogel particles to increase their insulating properties. The air or aerogel inside these panels in the panel cavities add a moderate amount on insulating properties. Heat is transferred through the solid non-thermally broken polycarbonate walls that create the hollow cavities. Many have tested the use of these hollow polycarbonate sheets while filled with aerogel or air for day-lighting windows and skylights and due to the thermal transfer and its negative effect the market share growth have been mediocre. This problem up until this invention has not been effectively addressed. By having thermally broken hollow polycarbonate sheets that are not continuous, as traditionally polycarbonate hollow sheets are, that are filled with air or aerogel having a significant improvement in regard to insulating performance the advancement of this industry and related day-lighting, window and skylight products would advance.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Thermally broken hollow polycarbonate sheet window glazing


A therapeutic wound gel is provided which will enhance healing of the wound and reduce swelling and increase elasticity of the skin. Humatrix is bacteriostatic protectant with no bacteriocidal activity. The gel consist essentially of by weight percent, about 88-97% water, about 0.4-0.6% carbomer, about 1.2-7.8% propylene glycol, about 0.6-1.3% glycerin, about 0.5% DMDM Hydantoin, about 0-0.8% citric acid, about 0.1% chondroitin sulfate and animal protein, and about 0-0.6% triethanolamine. The gel is formed in three phases which are combined together, the first phase consisting essentially of about 88-99% of the water of the gel, the carbomer, the propylene glycol, and the glycerin; the second phase consisting essentially of the remaining water, the DMDM Hydantoin, and the citric acid if needed; and the third phase consisting essentially of the chondroitin sulfate and animal protein and the triethanolamine, if needed.

This invention relates to gels used to treat tissues, and in particular to a gel which stimulates wound healing in chronic wound, 1st degree, 2nd degree, and 3rd degree burns.
Major tissue trauma requires a lengthy time to heal. If the trauma is not properly treated or managed, the wound can suffer from dehydration, hyperthermia and consequent swelling, hyper-contracture, hyper-granulation, and scarring. These are all obstacles to proper healing and significantly affect health care costs.
One object of the present invention is to provide a gel which will enhance the healing of tissue wounds via bio-chemistry.
Another object is to provide such a gel which will provide rapid heat reduction for the wound bed or damaged tissue.
Another object is to provide such a gel which will reduce hyper-granulation, hyper-contracture, and scarring.
Another object is to provide such a gel which will enhance the extensibility and flexibility of human skin.
These and other objects will become apparent to those skilled in the art in light of the following disclosure and accompanying drawings.
In accordance with the invention, generally stated, a therapeutic wound gel is provided which will enhance healing of the wound and reduce swelling and improve elasticity of the skin. The gel consist essentially of by weight percentage about 88-97% water, about 0.4-0.6% carbomer, about 1.2-7.8% propylene glycol, about 0.6-1.3% glycerin, about 0.5% DMDM Hydantoin, about 0-0.8% citric acid, about 0.1% chondroitin sulfate and animal protein, and about 0-0.6% triethanolamine. The gel is formed in three phases which are combined together, the first phase consisting essentially of about 80-99% of the water of the gel, the carbomer, the propylene glycol and the glycerin; the second phase consisting essentially of the remaining water, the DMDM Hydantoin, and the citric acid if needed; and the third phase consisting essentially of chondroitin sulfate and collagen and the triethanolamine, if needed.

Microclysmic gel for treatment of tissue trauma and burns


Realtime on-site mechanical characterization of wellbore cuttings is described. At a surface of a wellbore being drilled at a wellbore drilling site, multiple cuttings resulting from drilling the wellbore are received. At the wellbore drilling site, nano-indentation tests on each of the multiple cuttings are performed. At the wellbore drilling site, mechanical properties of the multiple cuttings are determined based on the results of the nano-indentation tests.

In hydrocarbon production, a wellbore is drilled into a hydrocarbon bearing geologic formation. In some instances, a completed wellbore is fractured to increase the production rate of the completed wellbore. Mechanical properties of the formation can be analyzed to enhance hydrocarbon production, optimize fracturing operations or to improve other formation-related operations. Sonic logs are sometimes employed to estimate the mechanical properties of geologic formations. Such logs can be costly, time consuming, and have limited capability and accuracy. For example, logging tools are not able to estimate the stiffness in the in-plane direction as it is needed in hydraulic fracturing operational planning. Another source of information about the properties of the formation are wellbore cuttings that are formed when the wellbore is drilled into the formation.

Real-time onsite mechanical characterization of wellbore cuttings


Systems and methods for instrumenting code are disclosed. The entry to a subroutine is trapped and the subroutine's return address is mutated to create an invalid instruction pointer. The mutated return address is stored in the architecture reserved space for the return address. An exception handler is executed that has been instrumented to handle the fault caused by the mutated return address such that the exit from the subroutine is instrumented.

Code Instrumentation
In the field of computer science, instrumenting code refers to placing additional instructions in code, which can be used, for example, to monitor the code or for adding additional functionality. Instrumenting code allows for additional software to take control of the program and monitor it during runtime to determine what the computer is actually doing while the program is executing. The program being monitored may be referred to as the target program, and the additional software may be referred to as the controlling program or meta-program. When code is instrumented, transferring control during execution of the target program to the instrumented code at a particular instruction in the target program is referred to as "trapping" that instruction.
Examples of uses for instrumenting code include, but are not limited to, measuring the level of performance for a piece of software, diagnosing errors, and receiving messages about the execution of an application at run time. Examples of controlling programs include, but are not limited to, tracing infrastructures, debuggers, profilers and virtual machine monitors.
Subroutines and Subroutine Calls
In the field of computer science, a subroutine (also called procedure, subprogram, method, function, or routine) is a portion of code within a larger program which performs a task and may be relatively independent of the remaining code. To simplify the process of programming a large software system, the system is structured as a set of smaller sub-problems. Subroutines are programmed to solve these sub-problems. Examples of subroutines include, but are not limited to, reading from a file, testing for the presence of an entry in a cache, and computing a particular mathematical function on its inputs.
A subroutine comprises a number of program statements (and optionally data structures) to perform the specific task assigned to the subroutine. Large software systems are organized as collections of subroutines. Subroutines allow for code reuse; i.e. once a solution to a sub-problem has been implemented and made available as a subroutine, the subroutine can be used as a building block for solving many different problems. Because each subroutine contains or "encapsulates" the individual statements comprising it, the entire subroutine may be invoked or "called" from elsewhere in the program. The part of code which calls the subroutine is referred to as the "caller." When a subroutine has been called, the encapsulated statements are executed, and when the last such statement completes, the program continues executing from the point in the program where the subroutine was invoked, i.e., the instruction in the caller following the instruction to call the subroutine. The address where this next instruction is located in computer memory is referred to as the return address for the subroutine. The return address of a subroutine is a type of instruction pointer. An instruction pointer is the location or "addresses" in computer memory of an instruction.
Programs are generally written in high-level programming languages, such as C, C++, or Java, which can be easily understood by programmers. The code written in these languages is referred to as source code. All of these languages provide subroutines in some form, and while the details vary in terms of both syntax and semantics, there are many similarities. For example, all languages include a "return from subroutine" statement.
Because of the frequent use of subroutines in computer programs, instruction set architectures provide explicit support for calling a subroutine and returning from the subroutine through specialized call and return instructions. Architectures also impose an application binary interface, or ABI, which establishes conventions for locating the inputs and outputs to subroutines. ABIs enable dynamic linking, i.e., dynamically calling external subroutines during program execution; programming development across different languages; and debugging tools. ABIs cover details such as the calling convention, which controls how subroutines' arguments are passed and return values retrieved. The ABI general purpose CPU architectures provide a linking convention for specifying the return address of a subroutine, such as reserving a space in memory for the return address.
As discussed above, the return address is the location in the code of the instruction following the instruction to call the subroutine. One example of reserving space in memory for the return address includes placing the return address in a specific register when a subroutine is called, as is done in the MIPS architecture and the DEC Alpha architecture. A "register" is a small amount of storage available on the CPU whose contents can be accessed more quickly than storage available elsewhere. In MIPS the register where the return address is placed is referred to as the $ra register.
FIG. 1A is a diagram illustrating a subroutine call in an architecture that places the return address in a specific register when a subroutine is called. For purposes of illustrating a call to a subroutine, the diagram shows the process of calling a subroutine denoted as "P." The MIPS implementation is illustrated as an example, but is not meant to be limiting in any way, and it is well understood in the field of computer science how to specify the return address of a subroutine in different architectures using a specific register. FIG. 1B is a diagram illustrating the $ra register used in the MIPS architecture to store the return address for a subroutine. MIPS assembly language includes an instruction for calling a subroutine, the "jal" or jump and link instruction. As illustrated in FIG. 1A, when the jal P is called at 104, the program jumps to the subroutine 102 named P at 108, i.e., the CPU starts executing the first instruction of P 110, and simultaneously stores the address of the following instruction, "R" in register $ra as illustrated at 112 in FIG. 1B.
In MIPS, once P has finished executing its instructions, which are illustrated by the doted lines at 114 of FIG. 1A, the instruction jr $ra is called at 116. This instruction will cause the CPU to jump to the address in the $ra register 112 of FIG. 1B, which as explained above is the return address, or the address of the instruction after the instruction to call P. Thus, when jr $ra is called, the program "jumps" to the instruction 106 after the instruction to call P as illustrated at 118 (i.e., the CPU begins executing that instruction), and continues executing the caller 100 of P.
Another convention for storing the return address is to place the return address in the architecture's in-memory stack when the subroutine is called. The stack is usually implemented as a contiguous area of memory with a pointer to the top of the stack. In some architectures, the top of the stack is the lowest address in use within the area and the stack will grow downwards in memory. In other architectures, the top of the stack is the highest address in use within this area, and the stack will grow upwards in memory. It is an arbitrary design choice whether the top of the stack is the lowest or highest address within this area, but the common convention is for the stack to grow downwards in memory. Examples of architectures using stacks to store the return address include x86, x86-64, and the Power architectures.
Below is an example illustrating the process of using the stack to specifying the return address of a subroutine. The particular architecture illustrated is the x86 architecture. However, the example is provided for illustrative reasons, and it is well understood in the field of computer science how to specify the return address of a subroutine using a stack in different architectures. FIG. 2A is a diagram illustrating the contents of a stack before a call to a subroutine. % esp 202 denotes the top of stack pointer which indicates the current top of the stack. The wn denotes that it would contain some word of memory. FIG. 2B is a diagram illustrating the contents of the stack after execution of the call instruction.
The x86 architecture includes assembly language instructions for calling a subroutine. An example of calling a subroutine denoted as "P" is illustrated in TABLE 1.
TABLE 1Call P//call the subroutine that begins at address SR <some instruction>; //the next instruction following the call is at address R.
When executed, this call instruction will (1) "push," i.e., place, onto the memory stack the address, "R", of instruction following the instruction to call P as illustrated at 206 of FIG. 2B. The call instruction will also (2) set the program counter (PC), which on the x86 platform is named % eip, to the address P as illustrated at 212 of FIG. 2C. The program counter is the register containing the address of the instruction in the program that is executing.
Now the subroutine that begins at address P executes. The subroutine may make use of the stack to hold temporary data or make further calls, thereby pushing more items onto the stack. When the subroutine that began at address P has completed and is ready to return, the stack must have returned to the state illustrated in FIG. 2B. To return, the subroutine P executes a return instruction as illustrated below in Table 2. This will "pop," the topmost element from the stack and place it in the program counter, referred to as % eip. Thus, when Ret is called, it will set the program counter % eip equal to R, the return address, as illustrated at 228 of FIG. 2D. This will cause the CPU to begin executing the instruction at address R, i.e., the instruction following the instruction to call P The instruction will also update the top of stack pointer register so that the stack contents will return to the pre-call state as illustrated in FIG. 2A.
TABLE 2Ret:// return to the caller of this subroutine.
Once source code for a program has been written, the source code is compiled into machine-readable object code, also referred to as machine code, which can be understood by the computer. Object code is in the form of 1's and 0's. Subroutines which are created in human readable source code, are visible to the machine in readable object code once the source code has been compiled. Thus, information presented in terms of subroutines is both meaningful to humans, and machine-visible, which makes monitoring subroutines during runtime useful for a variety of reasons. For example, debuggers may stop the program for inspection at entry to or return from a given subroutine. Additionally, tracing infrastructures can record the value returned from the subroutine. It is well understood in the field of computer science that there are a variety of other reasons that it would be useful to monitor the entry to and return from a subroutine during runtime. Therefore, it would be useful to have a way to instrument the entry and return from a subroutine so that the subroutine may be monitored during runtime.
As is understood in the field of computer software, instrumenting and trapping the entry into a subroutine is straightforward because in typical high-level languages, subroutines are entered through a single instruction pointer. In other words, there is one instruction that is executed at the start of the subroutine, and the CPU jumps to that instruction every time the subroutine is called. Thus, the entry to the subroutine can be trapped by instrumenting the code to trap that instruction pointer.
Additionally, some architectures, such as the x86 and x86-64 architectures, offer debug registers which can be programmed to trap on execution of a particular physical or virtual address.
Trapping the return from a subroutine, however, presents special problems. For example, it is not feasible to decode forward in the instruction stream from entry to the subroutine to find the subroutine's return instruction for several reasons. A single subroutine may be compiled so that it contains multiple returns, making it difficult to determine at what instruction the subroutine will return to its caller during runtime. Therefore, it cannot be known before the subroutine is running when to stop scanning. Additionally, subroutines often contain branches, such as if then statements, that result in the subroutine executing different sections of code at run time. Thus, discovering the actual body of the subroutine that will run at a particular time is impossible before the subroutine is actually running Further, often when a code is compiled, the compiler will include read-only data interspersed with the subroutine's instructions. This data might look like return instructions and determining at run time what is a return instruction and what is data may be undecideable. Also, the compiler might not use, or the architecture may not provide a special instruction for returning from subroutines. The compiler might choose to instead implement subroutines with a memory or register indirect branch. For example, as described above, the MIPS architecture implements returns from subroutines with ordinary register-indirect control transfers.
It would be useful to have a means for trapping the exit to a subroutine. In particular, it would be useful to have a means for dynamically instrumenting the return from a subroutine in binaries, i.e., after the code has been compiled.

Intercepting subroutine return in unmodified binaries


In one embodiment, an apparatus includes a frame for mounting in a rack in a position adjacent and external to a network device supported by the rack and a filter module for holding a filter for filtering air entering an air inlet of the network device. The frame includes an opening for receiving the filter module and positions the filter adjacent to the air inlet of the network device when installed on the rack.

Network communications systems utilize network devices that include complex and sensitive electronic components. The network devices are typically designed to operate in a controlled environment such as data centers and central offices with controlled temperature, humidity, and air quality. However, with pervasive use of the Internet in mobility, smart grid, and IoT (Internet of Things) applications, network equipment is being deployed closer to a user base and deployments are often exposed to non-protected outdoor environments.
Corresponding reference characters indicate corresponding parts throughout the several views of the drawings.

External rack mounted filter for network device


For a shopping cart, an undercarriage comprises a tubular frame and a tray, a back portion of which includes an integral basket having a front wall, a back wall, and two side walls. The frame has two lateral portions extending longitudinally between the front and back ends of the undercarriage, at a lower level and a transverse portion extending transversely near the back end of the undercarriage, at a higher level. The tray and the basket are made of welded wires. The back portion is disposed to rest against the transverse portion of the frame in a generally level position of the tray and is elevated in an upwardly tilted position of the tray. At the back portion, one of the wires defines a bail, which extends backwardly so as to overlie the transverse portion of the frame in the generally level position of the tray.

Shopping carts are in widespread use in supermarkets, hardware stores, and other similar and dissimilar establishments. Generally, a shopping cart has a chassis or undercarriage, which includes a frame provided with wheeled casters and with a handle, and a large, upper basket, which is supported by an upper portion of the frame. Often, it also has a lower tray supported by a lower portion of the frame, below the main basket. The lower tray is useful to hold goods that are heavy or bulky, such as packages of beverage cans or large bottles.
Commonly, a shopping cart is nestable, which means that a similar cart can nest into the shopping cart. Further, it is common for the lower tray of the shopping cart to be pivotally mounted near a front end of the lower frame of its chassis or undercarriage, so that the lower tray can tilt upwardly so as not to interfere with the lower portion of the frame of the chassis or undercarriage of a similar cart being nested into the shopping cart.
This invention has resulted from efforts to improve a shopping cart having a tiltable tray on its undercarriage, generally as described above, so that the tiltable tray can be better utilized by a shopper.

Shopping cart having undercarriage tray with integral basket


An integrated-inverter electric compressor whose grounding effect and grounding reliability are increased by reliably grounding an inverter device to a housing and in which the size the inverter device are reduced by simplifying the grounding structure is provided. The integrated-inverter electric compressor includes an inverter device provided in an inverter container on the outer circumference of a housing. The inverter device includes an inverter module formed by integrating a power-related metal substrate and a resin case and is provided with a control-related substrate on the upper surface of the inverter module; the resin case is integrated with mounting legs provided at a plurality of locations on the circumference; the mounting legs are grounded to the power-related metal substrate and the control-related substrate; and grounding terminals, which frame-ground the substrates to the housing, are insert-molded in such a manner that the grounding terminals are securable to the inverter container with screws.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an integrated-inverter electric compressor for an in-vehicle air-conditioning apparatus, the compressor being formed by integrating an inverter with the outer periphery of a housing accommodating electric motor and a compressor.
This application is based on Japanese Patent Application No. 2008-88598, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of Related Art
Recently, various electric compressors having integrated inverters have been proposed for in-vehicle air-conditioning apparatuses. These integrated-inverter electric compressors have an inverter container (inverter box) on the outer circumference of a housing accommodating an electric motor and a compressor, and an inverter device, provided inside the inverter container, that converts DC power supplied from a high-voltage power supply unit to three-phase AC power and supplies it to the electric motor via a glass sealed terminal. In this way, the rotational speed of the compressor is variably controlled according to the air-conditioning load.
As described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. 2004-162618, the inverter is integrated with the outer circumferential section of the compressor housing by providing a power-related substrate (including a pedestal and unit base) a control-related substrate (printed circuit board) in two vertical layers. The power-related substrate has a plurality of power semiconductor switching devices (IGBT) for converting DC power to three-phase AC power. The control-related substrate has a control and communication circuit having a device, such as a CPU, that operates at low voltage. The substrates are mounted to the outer circumferential section of the compressor housing by accommodating them inside an inverter case or an external frame.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. HEI-7-304327 describes an air conditioner, for electric vehicles, which is capable of eliminating electromagnetic-wave interference by using shielded lines as power-supply lines, which supply DC power to an electric compressor driving device (inverter device) and three-phase lines which supply three-phase electric power from the electric compressor driving device to a motor, and by grounding the shield to a metal case for the components, including the electric compressor driving device, via a capacitor.
However, with an integrated-inverter electric compressor in which an inverter device, which includes a power-related substrate and a control-related substrate, is integrated with a housing, such as that described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. 2004-162618, both substrates are frame-grounded separately. Therefore, the grounding structure is complicated, and to reduce the size of the inverter device, there are problems in how to frame-ground noise currents, such as electromagnetic noise generated at the power-related substrate due to the switching operation of the IGBT etc., and electromagnetic noise transmitted from the outside to the control-related substrate via a communication line, to the housing of the electric compressor in order to reduce noise interference and noise leaking to the outside.
In other words, when reducing the size of the inverter device, one problem is how to simplify the grounding structure from the power-related substrate and the control-related substrate to the electric compressor housing. Another problem is how to ground the power-related substrate and the control-related substrate to the electric compressor housing. Although Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. HEI-7-304327 describes the metal case for components, including an electric compressor driving device, it does not describe any specific grounding structure.


A method for etching features in an etch layer is provided. A patterned photoresist mask is provided over the etch layer, the photoresist mask having at least one photoresist line having a pair of sidewalls ending at a line end is provided. A polymer layer is placed over the at least one photoresist line, wherein a thickness of the polymer layer at the line end of the photoresist line is greater than a thickness of the polymer layer on the sidewalls of the photoresist line. Features are etched into the etch layer through the photoresist mask, wherein a line end shortening (LES) ratio is less than or equal to 1.

During semiconductor wafer processing, features of the semiconductor device are defined in the wafer using well known patterning and etching processes. In these processes, a photoresist (PR) material is deposited on the wafer and is then exposed to light filtered by a reticle. The reticle is generally a glass plate that is patterned with exemplary feature geometries that block light from propagating through the reticle.
After passing through the reticle, the light contacts the surface of the photoresist material. The light changes the chemical composition of the photoresist material such that a developer can remove a portion of the photoresist material. In the case of positive photoresist materials, the exposed regions are removed, and in the case of negative photoresist materials, the unexposed regions are removed. Thereafter, the wafer is etched to remove the underlying material from the areas that are no longer protected by the photoresist material, and thereby define the desired features in the wafer.
The minimum feature size of integrated circuits (ICs) continues to shrink with each generation of semiconductor wafer processing improvements. As transistors and metal lines get smaller and move closer together, previously insignificant third-order variables now dominate IC design and fabrication. One problem that has arisen is "line end shortening" (LES). FIGS. 1A and 1B illustrate one line end shortening problem. LES is characterized as the difference between the actual printed position of the end of a line and the intended (designed) position. FIG. 1A illustrates the design of a transistor 10 with a polysilicon line 12 running from left to right, that may form a gate region used to electrically couple an upper diffusion region with a lower diffusion region.
FIG. 1B illustrates the actual printed image that results from the design with the dotted lines 16 illustrating the desired design. Due to the etch effects and photoresist pullback, there is a significant amount of line end shortening 14. An LES ratio may be defined, with reference to FIG. 1B, as (Y-Y1)/(X-X1), which is the ratio of the reduction of the length to the reduction of the width, which is currently greater than 2.
FIGS. 2A and 2B illustrate another LES problem. The design illustrated in FIG. 2A may have a photoresist line 20 having a width W1, side walls 24, and line ends 22 between an active source 26 and drain 28. The resulting printed image is illustrated in FIG. 2B. The resulting image has a photoresist line 30 with a width W2, sidewalls 32, and line ends 34. The width, W3, between the design line end 22 and the printed image line end 34 results in a gap between the source 26 and drain 28 that causes leakage and failure of the device. As stated above, and illustrated in FIG. 2B, LES at W3, is much greater than the difference between W1 and W2. Thus, LES is greater at the line ends 22 as compared to the sidewalls 24. Although extensions may be added to the line to print a longer photoresist line, it is typically not possible because there is not enough room in the mask design to compensate for LES. The LES ratio may be defined as (W1-W2)/(2·W3).
Others have added "hammer heads" onto line ends to compensate for LES. However, hammer heads may give rise to the design rule violations that can potentially cause bridging between the hammer head and polysilicon line. Although this bridging problem may be alleviated by a separation between the hammer head and polysilicon lines, the separation would increase the size of the circuit element, which means fewer circuit elements that can be integrated into a semiconductor device. Additionally, the use of hammer heads may cause larger line width roughness.
LES may result in degraded device performance, reduced reliability, lost yield, leakage in the device, limitations on critical dimensions (CD) and other related problems.

Line end shortening reduction during etch


Force K processing is presented to replace gray color values of input data with only levels of black ink/toner when color management is not specified in the print job. A system converts input data of a print job to a CMYK color space of a printer by processing a lookup table of color values for the color space of the input data based on a detected color space of the input data to identify gray color values of the lookup table. The system also determines that these gray color values produce an output in the CMYK color space of the printer that includes one or more of cyan, magenta, and yellow color components. The system replaces the gray color values with black color values and corresponds the black color values of the lookup table with gray color values of the input data for conversion of the input data.

In color printing, a printer prints input data onto a tangible medium, such as paper, by converting colors in the input data to a color space of the printer. A CMYK printer, for example, has a color space that is used to represent the input data with various levels of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black ink or toner. Before the input data is printed, the input data is converted to the color space of the CMYK printer.
Generally, the input data is prepared for printing by configuring the input data in a print job that directs a color management system to manage the color printing. For example, the color gamut of the printer may be smaller than that of the incoming input data. A host system may therefore configure the input data in a print job via specialized formats known as page description languages (PDLs) that direct a color management system to map the incoming input data to the color gamut of the printer. In doing so, the PDL encodes the input data such that it may be translated into a rasterized format for the printer before it is printed.
The PDL may also direct the color management system to conserve ink/toner during the printing process. For example, in CMYK printing, cyan, magenta, and yellow ink/toner is generally more expensive than black ink/toner. The color management system may therefore compute certain CMYK replacement values for the converted CMYK input data so as to reduce the amount of cyan, magenta, and/or yellow ink/toner being used during printing while maintaining an aesthetically/perceptually similar printed image.
One method of color management is a process known as "Force K" that replaces all black and gray color values of a converted image with various levels of black ink/toner (i.e., K color values). In this process, the color management system employs ICC color profiles to convert all color values of input data to a color space of an output device. Thereafter, the color management system identifies the black color values converted by the ICC color profiles and replaces them with K color values. Thus, all levels of cyan, magenta, and yellow in those black and gray color values are set to zero during CMYK printing, which as mentioned reduces the overall cost of printing.
However, not all print jobs are alike. In many instances, customers create print jobs with input data from devices (e.g., imaging device data) that do not specify any type of color management. Accordingly, the printer is tasked with printing the input data without instructions for performing color conversion. For example, a customer may generate a print job having CMYK input data without specifying any type of color management to reduce various levels of cyan, magenta, and/or yellow ink/toner. The CMYK input data may be generated directly from an input device or generated from a color conversion of the color space thereof. Once received by the printer, the printer simply applies various levels of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black ink/toner to the print medium as directed by the CMYK input data. Thus, gray and black color values of the input data are often printed with levels of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black ink/toner when they could have been simply represented with various levels of black ink/toner. Such results in the unnecessary use of the more expensive cyan, magenta, and yellow ink/toner.

Force K processing in a CMYK color conversion


A learning device includes one or more processors. The processors input, to an input layer of a neural network including hidden layers defined for respective first arrangement patterns indicating arrangement of one or more words, and output layers connected with some of hidden layers, one or more first morphemes conforming to any of first arrangement patterns, among morphemes included in a document, and learn the neural network to minimize a difference between one or more second morphemes conforming to any of second arrangement patterns indicating arrangement of one or more words, among morphemes included in the document, and output morphemes from the neural network for the input first morphemes. The processors output an embedding vector of the first morphemes that is obtained based on a weight of the learned neural network.

There has been proposed a technique of obtaining information (embedding vector) indicating a feature of a word or a word sequence representing contiguous words, using a neural network. For example, a word (word sequence) in a document is used as an input, and a neural network is learned so that a word (word sequence) surrounding the word (word sequence) can be predicted. Each row of a weighting matrix of the neural network obtained in this manner is obtained as an embedding vector.

Learning device, learning method, computer program product, and information processing system


A suspension fluid prepared by dispersing polyethylene oxide particles into a solvent including water and one or more types of compounds selected from the group consisting of ethylene glycol and propylene glycol, and a method for manufacturing the same. The phase-change suspension fluid can be a shear-thinning fluid showing a constant newtonian behavior in a low shear rate or low frequency region, but showing a non-newtonian behavior appearing as liquid-like suspension in a high shear rate or high frequency region due to viscosity decrease, and is capable of reversible phase changes by the vibration of a vehicle, and therefore, may provide effects of having advantages of a hydraulic bush in a low frequency region and also having advantages of a solid bush in a high frequency region.

(a) Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a phase-change suspension fluid composition including polyethylene oxide particles and a method for manufacturing the same. More particularly, it relates to a phase-change suspension fluid composition prepared by dispersing polyethylene oxide particles into a solvent including water and one or more types of compounds selected from the group consisting of ethylene glycol and propylene glycol, and a method for manufacturing the same.
(b) Background Art
'Phase-change fluids' collectively refer to fluids of which mechanical and physical properties change by an external force applied, and are generally divided into shear thickening fluids (STF) and shear thinning fluids.
A shear thickening fluid (STF) is formed with concentrated suspension colloids in which unaggregated solid particles are dispersed into fluids, and viscosity is shown to distinctly increase when exceeding a critical shear rate [Xianzhou Zhang, Weihua Li, Gong, X. L., Smart Mater. Struct., Vol. 17, 015051 (2008)].
Under a high shear rate, viscosity of a shear thickening fluid (STF) increases, and the fluid becomes a solid-like suspension, and when shock stress is removed, the shear thickening fluid (STF) reversibly goes back to a liquid-like state quickly [Chang, L., Friedrich, K., Schlarb, A. K., Tanner, R., Ye, L., J Mater Sci, Vol. 46, 339-346 (2011)].
Meanwhile, a shear thinning fluid has a property that, in a normal flow, viscosity decreases as shear rate increases, and shear rate and viscosity are inversely proportional. In addition, a shear thinning fluid usually has a yield point, and such a material has no flowability under low shear stress, and has flowability (liquidity) only when a yield point is reached.
Particularly, a phase-change fluid is a fluid having a property that nanoparticles show a liquidification phenomenon under a high shear rate due to a sudden decrease of viscosity, and is generally present as being dispersed into a solvent such as ethylene glycol (EG), propylene glycol (PG), ethylene glycol (EG)/water or propylene glycol (PG)/water.
Nanoparticles have been a subject of much research due to a hydrocluster phenomenon between particles. However, a hydrocluster phenomenon between nanoparticles has a rather big difference compared to various theoretically proposed models depending on size of particles. Phase-change fluids show viscosity changes and yield stress behavior by an external force applied, and reaction is very fast and reversible with respect to the external force applied, and this is referred to as a 'phase-change effect'. Such a phase-change fluid shows the behavior of a Bingham fluid having yield stress, and the yield stress may be obtained as the function of a shear rate.
These fluids may be used for a variable damping mechanism that is capable of controlling movement such as a brake, an engine mount, a damper and a bush, and power systems such as a brake and clutch, and are broadening their application to automotive and aviation industries, and robot industries as well.
As one example, an existing fluid-filled hydraulic bush is a component filling and sealing a fluid using cured rubber part, and may provide relatively more superior ride comfort caused by a spring-like property due to the combination of rubber elasticity and a fluid.
However, such a fluid-filled hydraulic bush has a limit, and this is due to the fact that all vehicle driving conditions having various changes may not be satisfied with just a constant amount of the fluid injected. In addition, fluids that have been used in the art are newtonian fluids showing a newtonian behavior having almost no viscosity changes by a frequency or a shear rate. Fluids absorb vibration when moving along a flow path, and such a fluid-filled hydraulic bush has a limit in that high speed operation stability and durability are inferior while having excellent ride comfort compared to general solid-type bushes.
Meanwhile, the Korean Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 10-2010-0125980 discloses a fluid-filled hydraulic bush capable of adjusting the amount of injected fluids. However, the constitution of the disclosed bush is not simple and, therefore, there is a limit in vehicle applications and a disadvantage in cost.
Generally, conventional hydraulic bushes have an excellent loss factor in a low frequency region compared to solid-type bushes, but may show an excessive increase in a dynamic spring constant due to a frequency increase, and in addition, when reviewing vehicle driving evaluation results, hydraulic bushes have a vibration isolation effect in a low frequency region compared to solid-type bushes, but may show an occurrence of excessive vertical vibration due to a frequency increase. Therefore, advantages of hydraulic bushes and advantages of solid-type bushes need to coexist.
Consequently, the needs for developing a fluid filled hydraulic bush and thereby developing an intelligent polymer-based dispersion fluid having advantages of a hydraulic bush in a low frequency region and advantages of a solid-type bush in a high frequency region, and capable of reversible phase changes by the vibration of vehicles have been raised.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the disclosure and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.

Phase-change suspension fluid composition including polyethylene oxide particles and method for manufacturing the same


The invention relates to a support structure for vehicles, made from a longitudinal member (1) comprising at least two interconnected hollow sections (10, 11). One of the hollow sections continues in the direction of the bumper (5). In the case of a crash with low-speed impact, there is a targeted deformation of the single hollow section (10c), which makes it possible to carry out repairs economically. In the case of a higher-speed impact, the more rigid support structure of the double hollow section for protecting passengers comes into play. Since in this design the impact absorber, which is usually arranged between the longitudinal member and the bumper, can be done without, there is also a reduction in the number of components required, and thus in the overall weight.

The invention relates to a support structure for vehicles, made from hollow steel sections, comprising a longitudinal member made from at least two hollow sections which are interconnected in parallel, wherein said hollow sections, in front of the support structure of the passenger compartment, bifurcate into a first hollow section supported by the lateral sill, and a second hollow section supported by other parts of the support structure.
Various designs of support structures of this type are known. U.S. Pat. No. 4,986,597 describes a design made from extruded aluminium sections comprising a longitudinal member which comprises two hollow sections, wherein the hollow sections reach both into the sill region and into the A-pillar of the support structure of the passenger compartment. A second structural member reaches from the A-pillar to the sill region so that overall, the longitudinal member, the A-pillar and the sill comprise a design featuring a double structural member. With such a design, a favourable force progression within a support structure is achieved without the need for separate gusset structures. There is a disadvantage in that there is a strong deflection to the A-pillar of the longitudinal forces experienced in the case of a crash. Moreover, aluminium extrusion technology cannot be used for steel materials in motor vehicle construction so that the findings cannot be transferred to steel constructions.
In another similar support structure (GB-A-529,631), but the hollow sections of which are composed of half-shell shaped profiles, a single longitudinal member branches in the direction of the passenger compartment into a first hollow section going over into the lateral sill of the passenger compartment and into a second hollow section supported on other parts of the support structure. Therefor starting from the branching point the longitudinal member is extending as a single hollow member in the direction of the bumper. For this reason in the case of a crash the longitudinal member will be deformed over its whole length up to the branching point. No means are provided for a stepwise reduction of the impact energy.
EP 0 749892 B1 describes a method for producing structural members of a support structure of vehicles, which structural members with the use of interior high-pressure metal forming technology comprise at least two hollow sections which in some regions are hollow sections that are interconnected in a positive-locking way.
Depending on the locally occurring load, the longitudinal member of this support structure comprises the hollow sections which are interconnected in a positive-locking way, as described above, or comprises a single hollow section. The structural members can be made from steel or light metal. Interior high-pressure metal forming technology implies material doubling at the connection surfaces of the hollow sections which are interconnected in a positive-locking way, so that the design is heavy if steel materials are used. The printed publication does not deal with the force progression in the support structure in the case of a crash.
DE 4208700 C2 describes a lateral sill which comprises two hollow sections of rectangular cross section, which sill, in the direction of the front of the vehicle, bifurcates into an engine compartment brace, positioned across the direction of travel, and into a bulkhead member which also extends across the direction of travel.
A lateral frame, arranged at the height of the engine compartment, is supported by the engine compartment brace and the bulkhead crossmember. In the case of a load in longitudinal direction of the vehicle as a result of a crash, said lateral frame ensures a lead-in of forces by deflecting the longitudinal forces to the lateral sill. Materials other than aluminium can be used. This design, too, is associated with the disadvantage of being heavy, in particular if steel materials are used, since among other things doubling of materials has to be accepted in the region of the lateral sill.
Finally, WO 92/11159 describes a rear panel of a vehicle body comprising two crossmembers, wherein each of the ends of the lower crossmember, which are bent in longitudinal direction of the vehicle, is connected to an impact absorber which forms the rear end of a longitudinal member. Apparently this is a longitudinal member which comprises a single hollow section.
Consequently, the crash energy introduced into the longitudinal member during impact from the rear is evenly absorbed along the entire length of the longitudinal member or transferred to the passenger compartment since no additional strengtheners of the design are provided to protect said passenger compartment.
It is thus the object of the present invention to provide a support structure for vehicles, of the type mentioned in the introduction, which support structure, with the use of high-strength steel materials with a light overall weight and a small number of components, provides improved crash behaviour.

Support structure for vehicles, made from hollow steel sections