The invention relates to a piezoelectric vibrator having a piezoelectric laminate in which oriented film layers made of a polylactic acid and conductive layers are laminated alternately and grippers gripping both ends of the piezoelectric laminate, wherein one of two conductive layers neighboring via an oriented film layer is short-circuited to a negative electrode and the other conductive layer is short-circuited to a positive electrode, the oriented film layers interposed between the respective conductive layers are laminated such that the oriented film layers expand and contract in the same direction when a current is applied, the piezoelectric laminate has two parallel surfaces which are parallel to the plane direction of the oriented film layers and two end faces A and B which are between the parallel surfaces and parallel to each other, and the gripped ends respectively include the end face A and the end face B.

PTL 1 discloses that a transparent piezoelectric film speaker is curved and attached to the screen of a mobile phone so that the sounds are output from a wide area and the hearing property from the speaker is improved. In a specifically disclosed method which is suggested, a surface of one of rectangular PVDF (polyvinyl vinylidene fluoride) films in the thickness direction and a surface of the other PVDF film are laminated in such a manner that the surfaces have opposite expansion and contraction behaviors when an electric charge is applied (so-called bimorph structure), and the two short sides are fixed. Sounds are produced by the vibrations generated by curving the films.
PTL 2 proposes a piezoelectric speaker in which an active electrode area is provided on a polymer piezoelectric sheet in the direction along the main surface and the active electrode area is sectioned. By applying electric charges to the active electrode area in such a manner that the electric field vectors generated in neighboring active electrode sections in the thickness direction of the piezoelectric sheet are opposite to each other, even when the four sides of a square piezoelectric sheet are fixed, the piezoelectric sheet warps and sounds can be output. In addition, an L-polylactic acid, which is a chiral polymer, is proposed as the polymer constituting the piezoelectric sheet.
Moreover, in PTL 3 and PTL 4, the present inventors have suggested that the displacement force can be increased by laminating layers made of a poly-L-lactic acid and a poly-D-lactic acid.
Here, in order to bond a piezoelectric element to a diaphragm and produce a sound, there are two systems: a system in which the expansion and contraction displacement of the piezoelectric element warps the diaphragm and the curving vibration produces a sound, and a system in which in-plane expansion and contraction of the piezoelectric element produces an in-plane vibration in the adhered diaphragm and the resonance produces a sound. Because a piezoelectric element made of a polymer has a lower piezoelectric modulus and a weaker force than a piezoelectric ceramic such as PZT, such a piezoelectric element is not suitable for resonating a hard diaphragm, and the system using the curving vibrations of the piezoelectric element has been used as in PTLs 1 and 2.


A data gathering computer and host data display computer interface system, methodology and protocol are described that utilize a shared control program. The data gathering computer uses this program to determine what measurements are to be made and when and how the data is to be compressed into its data storage. The host display and analysis computer receives and utilizes the control program and the stored data from the data gathering computer, and expands the stored data responsive to the control program, and reconstructs the value and engineering units of the values measured as well as the time that the measurements were made. By passing the control program gathered by the data gathering computer, a single display computer program is all that is needed to display any number of completely different data streams from any number of data gathering computers.

This invention relates to an interface system, methodology and protocol used by data gathering computers to gather data, and by analysis and display computers to display and/or analyze the data gathered by the data gathering computers, and more particularly to an interlace system, methodology and protocol for use by a data gathering computer which utilizes a unified control program to control the gathering and storing of data and a display and analysis computer which utilizes the unified control program and stored data to reconstruct the data values, units, and other information.
This logging equipment is used to measure sensors and store the results of these measurements for later analysis. A logger could, for example, measure three sensors (e.g., temperature, pressure and humidity) once a second and store the results in memory. Usually when a sensor is measured by a computer, the result is an integer value which can be converted to engineering units by a mathematical equation. The logger could store these results unambiguously by first converting the data to engineering units and then storing them, for example, in a form below:
Time: Jul. 19, 1990 10:56:38 PA1 Tire Pressure: 15.43 psi PA1 Engine Temperature: 25.34.degree. C. PA1 Intedor RH: 73% PA1 Time: Jul. 19, 1990, 10:56:39 PA1 Tire Pressure: 15.43 psi PA1 Engine Temperature: 25.34.degree. C. PA1 Interior RH: 73%
Here the first line defines the time that the measurement was taken, and the subsequent lines of each block show the parameter measured, its value, and the units of measurement. Even this might not be enough, for example, if two pressures were measured, a location of these two measurements would be needed as well (manifold pressure and tire pressure, for example).
This is an extremely inefficient storage method for storing data, since a large fraction of the information is repeated each time it is stored. Most data logging equipment eliminate the redundant information by storing the measurement result in its most primitive form, leaving the conversion to engineering units for a separate computer that is used to analyze the stored data. This optimizes the storage efficiency, but makes it impossible for the data analysis computer to convert the data to engineering units without additional information telling it the sequence of measurements and the equation needed to convert the stored data to engineering units.
One solution to this problem is to write a separate data analysis program for each data gathering program, an approach that has two disadvantages. First, for every modification of the data gathering program, a similar modification must be made to the data analysis program, and second, each newly written analysis program must be tested to confirm its proper operation. These two problems can vastly increase the time needed and cost involved in data analysis.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an interface system, methodology and protocol for use by a display and analysis computer and a data gathering computer wherein only one program is required for both controlling the measurements and storage, and for guiding the analysis of the stored data, instead of requiring two programs (one for gathering and one for analysis), greatly simplifying the process of data gathering and analysis. This single program can be called the "unified program."

Data gathering computer and analysis display computer interface system and methodology


A power semiconductor device includes a power semiconductor module having cylindrical conductors which are joined to a wiring pattern so as to be substantially perpendicular to the wiring pattern and whose openings are exposed at a surface of transfer molding resin, and an insert case having a ceiling portion and peripheral walls, the ceiling portion being provided with external terminals that are fitted into, and passed through, the ceiling portion, the external terminals having outer-surface-side connecting portions at the outer surface side of the ceiling portion and inner-surface-side connecting portions at the inner surface side of the ceiling portion. The power semiconductor module is set within the insert case such that the inner-surface-side connecting portions of the external terminals are inserted into the cylindrical conductors.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a power semiconductor device in which a power semiconductor module is used, and particularly to a power semiconductor device, with a reduced size, which is excellent in terms of productivity.
2. Description of the Background Art
Power semiconductor devices are required to be reduced in size and operate with a large current. One of the methods for realizing such large-current operation is to wire power semiconductor modules of the same capacity in parallel to each other, thereby realizing large-current operation.
In an existing method for reducing the size of a power semiconductor device, a power semiconductor module sealed with transfer molding resin is used. Among such power semiconductor modules sealed with transfer molding resin, a power semiconductor module that particularly realizes the size reduction is the one in which: power semiconductor elements are mounted on a circuit pattern of a circuit substrate; terminals for connecting to external wiring are joined to the circuit pattern so as to be substantially perpendicular to a surface of the circuit pattern; and the terminals are exposed at a surface of the transfer molding resin.
A copper block, a cylinder having a screw hole, and a nut fixed by resin molding, are each used for a terminal of the power semiconductor module. The terminal that is a copper block is connected to the external wiring by soldering. The terminal that is a cylinder having a screw hole, or the terminal in which a nut is fixed by resin molding, is connected to the external wiring by a bolt (see, e.g., Page 7 and 8, FIGS. 2 and 3 of Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2007-184315 (hereinafter, referred to as Patent Document 1)).
In the case where such power semiconductor modules as described in Patent Document 1 are wired in parallel in order to realize large-current operation, wiring components between the power semiconductor modules are connected by soldering or bolts. For this reason, it is necessary to perform connection of the wiring components for each power semiconductor module sequentially. Also, in each power semiconductor module, connection of a wiring component needs to be performed for each one of the multiple terminals provided therein.
Thus, since the connection is performed for each power semiconductor module and for each of the multiple terminals, the number of wiring components for the connections is large, and connection processes are complex and the number of connection processes is large. This results in low productivity of the power semiconductor device, causing a high cost. Further, space is necessary between the power semiconductor modules in order to perform an operation of connecting the wiring components. This results in having a wide space between the power semiconductor modules, causing a problem that the power semiconductor device becomes large-sized.


At a data switching device in a data center, it is detected whether a host has connected to a cloud computing network of which the data switching device and the data center are components. The detection is performed without directly communicating with the host. The data switching device determines properties of the host and generates a message comprising data representative of the properties of the host. The message is sent from the data switching device to a node in the cloud computing network that is configured to manage components of the cloud computing network associated with the host.

"Cloud computing" can be defined as Internet-based computing in which shared resources, software and information are provided to client or user computers or other devices on-demand from a pool of resources that are communicatively available via the Internet, or other electronic network. Cloud computing is envisioned as a way to democratize access to resources and services, letting users efficiently purchase as many resources as they need and/or can afford.
In some possible implementations, cloud computing comprises dynamically linking backend resources (e.g., memory, processors, etc.) to provide web-based services, applications, and data storage on-demand via a cloud computing network. This approach has the potential effect of providing services at lower cost than current options, and with less complexity, greater scalability, and wider reach. However, keeping track of the potentially thousands of compute and associated devices (switches, firewalls, etc.) as services are brought up and torn down on those compute devices can be daunting. Indeed, network management of cloud computing systems currently rely on orchestration tools that learn about cloud elements within a given Data Center, make all placement decisions for all cloud elements within the Data Center, and render and provision the cloud service request by communicating directly with each cloud element in the Data Center. Keeping track of such a dynamic environment is a significant challenge, especially as demand for cloud computing services continues to increase.


A medical device system (10) including a distributed database (10a to 10f); a plurality of medical devices (12) operating with the distributed database (10a to 10f); and a logic implementer (20) associated with each medical device (12), wherein each logic implementer (20) is programmed to access the distributed database (10a to 10f), so that each medical device (12) of system (10) periodically (i) delivers at least one of prescription input parameters or treatment output data to and (ii) retrieves at least one of prescription input parameters or treatment output data from each of the other medical devices (12).

The present disclosure relates generally to computer networks. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to computer networks for medical devices that pump fluids.
Hemodialysis ("HD") in general uses diffusion to remove waste products from a patient's blood. A diffusive gradient that occurs across the semi-permeable dialyzer between the blood and an electrolyte solution called dialysate causes diffusion. Hemofiltration ("HF") is an alternative renal replacement therapy that relies on a convective transport of toxins from the patient's blood. This therapy is accomplished by adding substitution or replacement fluid to the extracorporeal circuit during treatment (typically ten to ninety liters of such fluid). The substitution fluid and the fluid accumulated by the patient in between treatments is ultrafiltered over the course of the HF treatment, providing a convective transport mechanism, which is particularly beneficial in removing middle and large molecules (in hemodialysis there is a small amount of waste removed along with the fluid gained between dialysis sessions, however, the solute drag from the removal of that ultrafiltrate is typically not enough to provide convective clearance).
Hemodiafiltration ("HDF") is a treatment modality that combines convective and diffusive clearances. HDF flows dialysate through a dialyzer, similar to standard hemodialysis, providing diffusive clearance. In addition, substitution solution is provided directly to the extracorporeal circuit, providing convective clearance.
The above modalities are provided by a dialysis machine. The machines can be provided in a center or in a patient's home. Dialysis machines provided in a center are used multiple times a day for multiple patients. Prescription input data is inputted into the dialysis machines before treatment, while treatment output data is collected from the dialysis machines during and after treatment. The data is useful to the clinic to track how the patient's treatment is proceeding over time, so that the treatment can be modified if needed. The data is also useful to see how a particular machine is performing. For example, if the data indicates that a particular machine is alarming for the same reason over multiple treatments with different patients, the clinic may determine that the problem is with the machine, not the patients. The data is also useful as a basis for billing and reimbursement purposes. The data can track how many different drugs or solutions (e.g., heparin or saline) and disposables are consumed over a treatment, so that the clinic can then bill and be reimbursed for the proper amount for the materials consumed.
It is known to install centralized servers that collect treatment data from multiple dialysis machines over multiple treatments. The drawbacks that the central servers present are many. First, the central servers result in significant hardware and installation costs. Second, the central servers require a good deal of computer experience to install and maintain. Many clinics simply do not have the information technology ("IT") support for the centralized data systems. These drawbacks in many cases result in the clinics not using automated data collection systems and instead collecting the data manually, which is time consuming and error prone. For example, many backend software systems handle dialysis related information, disconnected from the dialysis machines, manually and far from the point of care in both space and time, which is time consuming and prone to failure. It would be advantageous if this and other types of data collection could be performed closer to the machine and the treatment.
A need accordingly exists for an improved data network system for medical devices.

Medical device system and method having a distributed database


A method includes receiving a register-transfer-level description and a gate-level description for an integrated circuit design. The gate-level description includes one or more spare latches implemented as reconfigurable latch filler cells. The method further includes receiving an engineering change order, and, responsive to the engineering change order, adding the at least one additional latch to the register-transfer-level description and, for at least one of the at least one additional latch, selecting one of the one or more spare latches in the register-transfer-level description to yield a selected spare latch. The method further includes, for the selected spare latch, identifying a selected reconfigurable latch filler cell in the gate-level description and replacing the selected reconfigurable latch filler cell with an operational latch in the gate-level description. The method further includes finalizing the integrated circuit design. A corresponding computer program product and computer systems are also disclosed.

The present invention relates generally to the field of integrated circuit design, and more particularly to accommodating engineering change orders by including spare latch circuits.
Integrated circuit design is a complex and drawn-out process. From time to time, requirements to change a circuit design are made after substantial design work has been completed. These requests, termed "Engineering Change Orders" ("ECOs") introduce additional complexity into the process. Engineers anticipate ECOs by including extra combinatorial logic and spare latches, which can be reconfigured, if needed, by metal-only ECO. Metal-only ECO is common practice in Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) designs. In metal-only ECO, only a few of the masks for the original design are altered, typically for metal layers, hence the designation metal-only. Using metal-only ECO, engineers can activate extra latches, gates, and other structures that have been placed in the design in case of an eventual ECO requirement for additional structures. Engineers continue to face challenges in anticipating and facilitating ECOs.

Accommodating engineering change orders in integrated circuit design

International Business Machines Corporation


A signal supply apparatus for a public and private mobile communication system. The apparatus has Internet protocol base transceiver subsystems, and a private base station controller that controls the Internet protocol base transceiver subsystems. Instead of having a global positioning system receiver (GPSR) in each of the Internet protocol base transceiver subsystems to receive time of day (TOD) signals, the TOD signals are relayed to each of the Internet protocol base transceiver subsystems via a LAN cable. It is only the base station controllers that have the GPSR that receives the TOD signals. Then, these TOD signals are relayed from the base station controller to respective collective base station transceivers and then from each collective base station transceiver to their respective Internet protocol base transceiver subsystems via a LAN cable.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mobile communication system, and more particularly to a signal supply apparatus in a system that can provide both public and private mobile communication services.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In a general mobile communication system, a base station controller (BSC) receives a reference clock signal from a satellite, and synchronizes its internal equipment. For instance, the BSC provides a link between the BSC and a mobile switching center (MSC), a link between the BSC and a base transceiver subsystem (BTS), and a vocoder. In order to receive the reference clock from the satellite, a global positioning system receiver (GPSR) is mounted in the respective BSCs and BTSs, respectively. The GPSR receives GPS information that includes the reference clock and time of day (TOD) information from the satellite, and provides the GPS information to the corresponding equipment.
As described above, in order to receive the reference clock, the GPSR should be mounted on the respective BSCs and BTSs. However, if it is possible to supply the GPS information including at least the reference clock to the respective BTSs that belong to the BSC in a state that the GPSR is mounted only in the corresponding BSC, the system cost can be reduced. Also, if it is possible to supply the GPS information including at least the reference clock to the BSC and BTS using the existing lines, the cost of system installation can be reduced.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2001/0046215 to Kim pertains to a public/private mobile telephone system where only pBSC 203 has a GPS receiver. However, Kim '215 does not teach relaying the date and time information received by the GPS receiver over a LAN cable to a large plurality of Internet protocol private base transceiver subsystems to run a clock in these Internet protocol private base transceiver subsystems, thereby avoiding the need of many GPS receivers.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2001/0024455 to Thaler et al. teaches distributing a reference time signal throughout a IEEE 1394 network. Thaler '455 contemplate receiving the reference signal from GPS. Non 1394 networks are also contemplated. Thaler '455 teaches that the network may be wired or wireless. An 8 kHz clock is contemplated in FIG. 4. Thaler '455 also teaches distribution of the time reference signal over a LAN.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2002/0072381 to Becker et al, teaches transmission of time synchronization signals from one base station to another in a mobile telephone communication system. Becker '381 seeks to do this to reduce the costs of having numerous GPS receivers in a mobile phone system. The synchronization signals are transmitted by wireless communications.
However, I have not seen the transmission of time and date signals received from a GPS receiver to a large number of private base transceiver subsystems in a public/private mobile communications system. Further, I have not seen the transmission of GPS time and date information over a LAN cable to a large number of private base transceiver subsystems. Further, I have not seen the transmission of GPS time and date signals to recipient private base transceiver subsystems to generate a plurality of internal clocks in these private base transceiver subsystems where the private base transceiver subsystems do not have a GPS receiver or a GPS antenna.

Signal supply apparatus and method for public and private mobile communication system


A method for hydrometallurgical extraction of rare earth elements and niobium from a an ore or a flotation concentrate containing rare earth elements, niobium, iron and alkali earth metals, the method comprising removal of the alkali earth metals using an acidic solution of a pH in a range between about 1 and about 6, leaching the rare earth elements; precipitation of the rare earth elements from a resulting pregnant leach solution using sodium hydroxide, sodium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate; physically separating metal hydroxides from a resulting leach residue containing metal hydroxides, iron oxide, silicate, and pyrochlore; removing the iron oxide by physical beneficiation and then by atmospheric acid leaching; and recovering niobium from a clean solid residue by pressurized acid leaching.

The viability of an extractive metallurgy method of rare earth elements (REEs) to produce an intermediate mixed concentrate depends upon a low-cost simple process. It has been known that regardless of the mineral, the operational cost (OPEX) of any REE extraction method, particularly when the initial REE grade is low, is tightly related to acid consumption during the method. Beside acid, other reagents used in the method also impact the operational cost. This makes minimizing acid consumption in an REE extraction method a priority. The acid consumption in different methods has been reported to be between about 100 kg ant about 1000 kg HCl 100% per ton of ore, with an average of about 500 kg/T HCl 100, depending on the REE grade in the ore and in the concentrate.
There is still a need in the art for a system and a method for metallurgical extraction of rare earth elements.

System and a method for metallurgical extraction of rare earth elements and niobium


A refrigerator includes at least one storage chamber for accommodating cosmetics. The refrigerator further includes electrical parts for maintaining cosmetics accommodated in the storage chamber at appropriate temperature, a control means for controlling operations of checking and displaying failures of the electrical parts, and a display unit for displaying the results of the checking of the failures.

This application claims the benefit of Korean Application No. 2002-32219, filed Jun. 8, 2002 in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a refrigerator for cosmetics and a control method thereof, which checks for and copes with failures of various electrical parts of the refrigerator.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Generally, cosmetics are apt to spoil because they are stored under a condition in which they are exposed to the air. If the spoiled cosmetics are mistakenly used, there can occur harmful side effects such as blocked pores and skin diseases. Accordingly, it is desirable to store cosmetics in dry and cool places. Therefore, there is an increasing need for a refrigerator for storing cosmetics, and small-sized articles are being developed in consideration of a convenience of use.
Accordingly, the present invention has been made keeping in mind the above and other problems, and an aspect of the present invention is to provide a refrigerator for cosmetics and a control method thereof, which performs a prompt and convenient checking operation that checks for and displays the failures of various electrical parts, and enhancing the reliability of products by providing a proper countermeasure driving function against the failures of the various electrical parts.
Additional aspects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and, in part, will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention.
In order to accomplish the above and other aspects, an embodiment of the present invention provides a refrigerator for cosmetics, the refrigerator comprising a storage chamber to accommodate the cosmetics, electrical parts to maintain the cosmetics accommodated in the storage chamber at an appropriate temperature, a control unit to control operations of checking for and displaying failures of the electrical parts, and a display unit to display the results of the checking for the failures.
In another embodiment of the present invention, a control method of a refrigerator for cosmetics comprises setting a sequence of checks in which to check for failures of electrical parts used to maintain the cosmetics received in a storage chamber at an appropriate temperature, checking the failures of the electrical parts according to the set sequence of checks, and displaying results of the checking for the failures.

Refrigerator for cosmetics and control method thereof


An air curtain generator is provided in which an arrangement is incorporated for purposes of heating input air so that an air curtain is generated which is formed with heated air. The air is heated by igniting a mixture of combustible gas and air with the combustion products thereof being distributed through an elongated conduit provided with openings through which the combustion products are discharged. Intake air flows over the conduit into an air curtain generator which causes the thusly heated air to be distributed along a rectilinear path to form an air curtain.

In my earlier U.S. Pat. No. 4,450,755 which issued May 29, 1984 I disclosed a blower apparatus provided for the generation of an air curtain, screen or barrier. The apparatus of the aforemention patent includes a blower in the form of a plurality of blades arranged to describe a cylinder and a guide is provided which encircles the blower but which is open-ended and extends axially beyond the blower to generate an airstream, the width of which is greater than that of the blower. In addition in the apparatus of the aforementioned patent a deflector or interceptor plate is arranged which is coextensive with that portion of the guide which extends beyond the blower and which is coextensive with a portion of the blower in a moderate range thereof. The deflector or interceptor plate prevents air from circulating in an axial direction back into the blower and therefore improves the effectiveness of generation of the airstream which flows tangential out of the blower arrangement.
In the aforesaid patent the casing which houses the fan is provided with an intake opening covered with a screen and capable of admitting intake air This intake air flows into the casing at an angle which is perpendicular to the discharge of such air in the form of an air curtain or the like. In the apparatus of U.S. Pat. No. 4,450,755 the temperature of the air relies upon ambient conditions in the space in which the air blowing apparatus is installed. This means, since there is no provision for controlling the temperature of the air which is employed and discharged, that the temperature of the air curtain depends upon the temperature of the air which is fed into the system without any control being exercised thereupon. Accordingly it is frequently possible and even usual that the air of the air curtain which is generated is cold air which may be uncomfortable and humid and which is hardly likely to be ergonometrically qualified to offer the most suitable conditions for employees and the like who in the performance of whatever functions are assigned to them may have to pass through the opening which is being protected by the air curtain which is being generated.

Method and apparatus for generating an air curtain with heated air


A speaker recognition system for authenticating a mobile device user includes an enrollment and learning software module, a voice biometric authentication software module, and a secure software application. Upon request by a user of the mobile device, the enrollment and learning software module displays text prompts to the user, receives speech utterances from the user, and produces a voice biometric print. The enrollment and training software module determines when a voice biometric print has met at least a quality threshold before storing it on the mobile device. The secure software application prompts a user requiring authentication to repeat an utterance based at least on an attribute of a selected voice biometric print, receives a corresponding utterance, requests the voice biometric authentication software module to verify the identity of the second user using the utterance, and, if the user is authenticated, imports the voice biometric print.

Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the field of speaker recognition, and more particularly to the field of using voice biometrics to identify or authenticate speakers using a mobile device.
Discussion of the State of the Art
Identification and authentication of mobile phone users is an issue of significant importance, particularly because of the dramatic variety and rapid rate of adoption of mobile applications. As just one example, as new types of location-based services proliferate that allow users and business to connect and transact while one or both of them are mobile, it becomes more and more difficult to ensure the safety of such transactions. Simple authentication techniques, for example use of basic passwords, while possibly adequate in a time when web usage was primarily carried out by users on personal computers generally associated with fixed locations, are clearly inadequate today, when web usage mostly is occurring from a wide and expanding variety of mobile devices. For example, most mobile devices connect to the Internet in myriad different ways, many of which are far less secure than connecting via a dedicated home broadband connection, such as connecting via an unsecured WiFi at a coffee shop.
In the art, three main approaches have been used in securing interactions between users of computing devices and the various web-based services and content repositories they wish to access or use. These are shown, along with some examples, in FIG. 4. The first method can be referred to as authentication based on "something the user knows", or more formally as a first factor 403 based on a user's knowledge, such as a static password 404. The second approach can be referred to as authentication based on "something the user has", or more as a second factor 410 based on a user's possessing something that is his alone, such as a one-time password (OTP) 410 or a secure identification token 411. The third approach can be referred to as authentication based on "something the user is", or more formally as a third factor 420 based on a permanent biometric attribute of the user to be authenticated, such as a fingerprint 421. The axes in FIG. 4 represent increasing level of security along x axis 401 (that is, methods that are further to the right are generally more secure than those on their left), and a number of authentication factors along y axis 402. As shown in FIG. 4, the first factor 403 corresponding to what a user knows is the least secure of the three, with the second factor 410 corresponding to what a user has being more secure and the third factor 420 corresponding to what a user is being most secure. It is common in the art to combine two or three of these factors in various ways to achieve greater security. In general, an overall level of security is sought that is consistent with the value of the underlying activity and the damage that might occur if security measures for a given scenario were defeated by one or more malefactors. For example, it is quite common in national defense, counterterrorism, and law enforcement applications for three-factor authentication systems to be used, sometimes even featuring more than one type of biometrics (for example, combining fingerprint and voiceprint identification).
FIG. 5 illustrates a typical example, known in the art, of knowledge-based authentication, which is a implemented as an extension of existing simple-password authentication. A user 520 initiates some action via interface 532 on a computing device such as a laptop computer 510 or a smart phone 511. Accordingly, the computing device sends a request via interface 531 to server 500, which returns an authentication request to the computing device, which requires user 520 to enter some previously agreed knowledge credential. If the user 520 enters the appropriate credential, she is allowed to carry out the requested action. Examples of knowledge-based authentication include Bank of America's "SiteKey" function, HSBC's virtual keyboard, and the like. This approach only improves on basic password-based authentication slightly, since it still is a single-factor approach and is carried out "in-band", that is using the same interface as is used to carry out the requested action (a usual example is a web browser, and a typical application would be online banking using laptop 510 or mobile device 511).
FIG. 6 illustrates a somewhat improved authentication approach that uses out-of-band communication, known as server-generated one-time password (OTP) authentication. Again, user 520 requests some action to be taken using interface 611 on laptop computer 510. The request is forwarded to a server 500 such as a web server, which determines that request is one that requires authentication of the user. Having previously stored information about user 520 (specifically, the user's mobile phone number in this example), server 500 sends a special code to the user's mobile device 511 in step 620. The user receives this special code in step 621 (typically a text-based code is displayed on the screen of the mobile device), and the user 520 then enters the special code in step 622 at laptop computer 510, which then sends the code to server 500 for authentication. This approach has the advantage of using two factors, one of which is carried out using a separate device (that is, out-of-band), and thus is stronger than the approach illustrated in FIG. 5.
FIG. 7 illustrates another common authentication approach used in the art, known as client-generated OTP. These are similar to conventional OTP tokens such as RSA™ SecurID, VeriSign™ VIP OTP, and the like. In this approach the user 520 again requests an action using interface 611 on laptop computer 510, the request the being sent on via interface 610 to server 500. Server 500 then sends an authentication request to the computer 510, which then requests a code from the user 520. The user 520 gets the code from her mobile device 511 via interface 620 (typically a special mobile application provided by the entity that operates server 500), and the user 520 enters the code on computer 510 in step 630 and the computer 510 sends the code on to the server 500 in step 631. Once the server 500 validates the code, the user 520 is authenticated and the server 500 performs the requested service. This approach is more secure than that shown in FIG. 6, as it is two-factor and does not depend on transmitting a one-time password on any public network. But it is still susceptible to man-in-the-middle attacks.
FIG. 8 shows yet another approach to authentication known in the art, known as out-of-band authentication. In this approach, user 520 requests an action on computer 510 via interface 811. The computer 510 then requests the action from server 500, which causes a phone call (or other out-of-band communication) to be initiated with the user's mobile device 511 via interface 820 (typically a mobile phone network). The user answers the call and using interface 821 is requested to authenticate for example using voice authentication. This approach is even more secure, since the authentication is separate from the browser on computer 510 and since a biometric factor is used. However, this approach is expensive since it requires phone calls to be made over public phone networks, and it is somewhat unwieldy from a usability perspective.
FIG. 9 illustrates an even newer approach to mobile authentication, which is refereed to as in-band mobile OTP authentication. In this case everything happens through mobile device 900, 910, using specialized authentication applications provided by an entity desiring to engage in secure interaction with its users (for example, AOL™. PayPal™, and eBay™ provide applications along these lines). Looking at mobile device 900, a token application 910 is displayed that functions much as secure tokens have done for some time, providing a time-based unique code to use as an OTP (it can be made unique because it is based on some hidden algorithm that is based on a universal time and an identity of the device on which the application is running, which device is associated with a single user). Similarly, mobile device 910 shows a variation in which a VIP Access application 920 is provided that displays both a credential ID 921 and a security code 922 to a user. These applications are useful, but they have two main drawbacks. First, they tend to be useful only for the purposes provided for by the provider of the application (for instance, a corporate IT department), so a user would potentially have to have several such applications available on her mobile device. Second, the approach is only as secure as the user's custody of their mobile device is; if the user misplaces her mobile device, security may not be as readily ensured (essentially, this is a two-factor approach based on what you have and what you know, but not based on what you are).
Another approach that has been used in the art is out-of-band mobile device-based authentication, which is essentially the use of a mobile device as a secure "what you have" authentication token. Several solutions are known in the art, such as those using iOS's APNS and Android's C2DM services. These can be used to provide a real-time out-of-band challenge and response mechanism on a mobile device. Upon performing a sensitive transaction or login, a user immediately receives a challenge pushed to her mobile device. She is then prompted with the full details of the proposed transaction, and is able to respond to approve or deny the transaction by simply pressing a button on her mobile phone. Smart phone push-oriented two-factor authentication is attractive because it is at once both more user-friendly and more secure than previous approaches.
Even though two-factor authentication provides significantly better security, organizations are discovering that as attacks increase in sophistication, the two-factor authentication is simply not enough. There are many challenges with the various OTP devices out in the market today. These challenges include weakness of static passwords, difficult to carry form factors, and insecure form factors.
The initial purpose of OTP and USB tokens was to strengthen the static password and to add an additional one-time password that was harder to obtain. The rationale behind the two-factor authentication approach was that user needed to have two different data elements, both secure, to access a secure region. The user usually chooses their individual static passwords. Most users have a tendency to choose a memorable combination of numbers and characters that is easy for the user to remember. The users may also write down their password in case they forget it. The combination of these reasons makes static passwords easily stolen or easily guessed by fraudsters. Now that the static password is no longer a secure data element, the only real data element that is preventing unauthorized entrance to secure regions is the OTP. This fact makes it easy for fraudsters to access unsecure regions simply by stealing OTP tokens.
Another challenging issue is that the OTP and USB tokens are hardware devices that are not easy to carry. Most OTP and USB devices are in from of tokens that are made to be a part of the key chain held by the end user. The market is leaning towards hardware that can be stored in the wallet and therefore this challenge may eventually be addressed. However, for now the majority of OTP tokens reside in a very clumsy form.
The last challenge that OTP tokens have is the fact that the token itself is not secure. All the tokens today are either time based (the token changes the one time password every x min/sec) or event based (the token changes the one time password every time a button is pressed on the token). There is no security measure taken when the one time password appears. This, theoretically, increases the chance that the token and static password could be stolen, compromising the security of the site.
Nevertheless, a better solution for the challenges above is to use another strong authentication method that addresses the "what you are" factor in a multi-factor authentication approach. The most common "what you are" solution is a biometric solution. The strong authentication market is reaching a point of understanding that the two elements of a two-factor authentication solution need to be "what you have" and "what you are" rather than "what you know" and "what you have". The reason for this change is the understanding that "what you know" data elements are no longer secure. Static passwords are easily stolen and gaining personal information regarding a certain individual is not a high barrier for fraudsters and identity thieves. This, and the fact that biometric authentication devices have become mature enough that it is possible for them to process biometric authentication with a very low false positive rate and at reasonable cost, make biometric authentication a valid and promising solution in the market.
Evaluating multi-factor authentication solutions requires a look at three critical areas—the security and scalability of the technology, hurdles to user adoption, and the total cost (including internal costs) to deploy and support the system. Because of the cost and complexity of most biometric systems, use of biometric authentication is generally limited to ultra high security applications (e.g. the defense industry). Historically, biometric systems have been a mixed bag when it comes to availability, compatibility, and security. Training is a significant issue and logistics are perhaps more difficult than with any other two-factor solution. Deployment involves collecting the biometric data to compare against, which can be a daunting task for users and IT departments. In addition, most biometric authentication solutions rely on fingerprint readers, retinal scanners, or other biometric devices, which are attached to the pc or laptop. The cost and IT resources required to purchase, deploy, and maintain biometric readers often presents an impractical challenge to surmount.
One approach to addressing these problems would be to use strong authentication such as through biometrics (that is, based on "what you are") carried out directly on a mobile device. However, in the current art speaker recognition approaches are still too heavy (resource intensive) to run on even very advanced capability mobile devices, so both voice print creation and comparison are typically performed on remote servers. This further means that audio collected on a mobile device must be transmitted through a data channel to a server, which creates a bandwidth problem, as well as the risk of a man in the middle attack. In fact, successful man-in-the-middle attacks may send recorded voice signals to a speaker recognition server, and thus, may be able to perform false authentication remotely. In general, codecs could be used to reduce the bandwidth required when sending voice signals, but in that case accuracy degradation would be expected.
What is needed in the art is a cost-effective voice biometric capability adapted for easy adoption and use on plural mobile devices per user. Such a capability must be capable of winning user trust, particularly in terms of being practically unbreakable. In addition, privacy concerns suggest an approach where there is no need for the centralized storage of large numbers of voice biometric prints, since breach of such a database would compromise potentially millions of voice biometric prints—a clearly undesirable situation since users cannot change their voices, and since voices can be duplicated (making voice biometrics potentially more vulnerable than fingerprint or retina biometrics). Furthermore, what is needed is a voice biometric capability that does not require much bandwidth to operate, and that is able to operate with acceptable accuracy on a wide range of mobile devices (which often suffer from limited memory or processing capacity relative to the demands of robust voice biometrics).

System and method for speaker recognition on mobile devices


A computing device communicates with a different computing device over a network. The computing device and the different computing device communicate with one another in a peer-to-peer architecture such that the computing device and the different computing device are peers to one another. An agent is executed on the computing device and receives an artifact deployed at the different computing device for deployment at the computing device. The agent receives the artifact via a user-initiated command. A run-time engine is executed on the computing device at which the artifact is to be deployed. After the user-initiated command has been triggered, the agent receives and deploys the artifact without further user interaction.

An artifact is an object that is developed using a software tool or a software product, and generally is a resource or other output created by the software tool or product that contains business implementation logic. In enterprises and other organizations, there may be a variety of different environments in which artifacts are deployed. For example, an artifact may first be deployed within a development environment. Once the artifact has been developed, it may be deployed within a testing environment, and after testing has been completed, the artifact may be deployed within a quality assurance environment. Ultimately, the artifact may be deployed within a production environment, in which the artifact is actually used by end users.

International Buisness Machines Corporation


A power unit and method of manufacturing a power unit. The power unit may include one or more inductors arranged in an alternating pole configuration. The inductors are attached to a circuit board to form an electrical generator configured to provide electrical energy to a wireless charger. The wireless charger may be detached from the generator.

Electronic devices and gadgets have become ubiquitous in modern times. Devices including gaming devices, cellphones, and computers have been designed for portability and on-the-go use. Many of these devices are equipped with rechargeable batteries which, depending on the frequency and duration of the device usage, may only last a few hours without charge.
With traditional recharging devices, a consumer may need to plug their device into a wall outlet to charge their device. Thus, the mobility of the device would be negated during the charging process, as the device would need to be attached to the wall outlet to achieve a recharged battery.
Other recharging devices create only a temporary fix. Portable power banks, wireless chargers, and renewable battery packs can be charged separately and then plugged into the device to recharge the device's battery. However, these portable recharging devices are not a sustainable solution as they eventually require energy from a wall outlet that has an alternating current (AC) power source. They simply offer a process for plugging a device into a wall outlet to charge, but one step removed.
Some recharging devices can be charged by solar cell or magnetic resonance power. However, these recharging devices can often be slow or otherwise inefficient. Accordingly, existing techniques are generally directed towards generating and providing power, but in an inefficient or inconvenient manner.
A need exists, therefore, for methods and systems that overcome the disadvantages of existing techniques and devices.


An automatic zoom camera and driving method therefor by which a user can take an optimal photograph, while controlling a zoom operation by synthetically controlling a shading of a picture and a change of colour varied in response to a zoom operation in accordance with a distance of an object, sensitivity of a film, environmental brightness and a brightness index of a strobe, while operating a zoom function. The automatic zoom camera is constituted by a switch block to sense information about an automatic zoom mode, a strobe mode, a sensitivity of film and a zoom position. In addition, the camera is able to sense the distance of an object via an infrared-emitting element and a light receiving element; information about an environmental brightness via a photoconductive cell; and a micro controller to minimize changes of colour and shading of a photograph in accordance with the distance of the object, the sensitivity of the film, the environmental brightness and a strobe brightness index, while automatically carrying out the zooming operation in case the operation mode is an automatic zoom mode. A flash driving circuit is used for compensating a lack of sufficient light by driving the strobe in response to an output signal of the micro controller; and a motor driving circuit and a shutter driving circuit for automatically adjusting a focus are driven for adjusting an exposure value, taking a photograph and advancing the film in response to the output signal of the micro controller.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an auto zoom camera and driving method therefor. More particularly, this invention relates to an automatic zoom camera and driving method therefor by which a user can take an optimal photograph by synthetically controlling a shading of a picture and a varying change of colour in response to a zoom operation in accordance with a distance of an object, sensitivity of a film, environmental brightness and a brightness index of a strobe.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In order to make operation easy, generally middle class and low class cameras are made as automatic cameras with electronic circuits, such as a distance detecting means for automatically controlling the focus of a lens, a brightness detecting means and a shutter driving means for automatically controlling the exposure of film, a motor driving means for automatically controlling the transfer of the film and the movement of a lens group, a flash driving means for automatically compensating for a lack of sufficient light.
These automatic cameras have also been enhanced by mounting a zooming apparatus on the camera which is responsive to the request of a user. This allows the user to obtain have various visual angles while remaining still and to convert into a wide-angle lens or a telephoto lens by varying a focus distance of the lens.
As is known, the zooming apparatus of an ordinary automatic camera generally utilizes a lens block which can be moved back and forth within a body tube in order to provide for a wide-angle position and a telescopic position. However, this type of zooming apparatus has a disadvantage in that the user cannot obtain a photograph of a good quality due to changes of the colour and the shading of the picture when the user carries out the zoom function.
Korea Utility Model Publication No. 92-7904, filed on Dec. 18, 1992, and entitled with "Diaphragm Control Circuit in Response to Zoom Operation of a Video Camera", discloses a control circuit which can adequately control a diaphragm in response to a zoom operation of the camera to improve the abovementioned disadvantage of the changes of the colour and the shading of the image in case of zooming.
However, there is still a disadvantage in that the above-mentioned control circuit can not synthetically control the changes of the colour and the shading of the photograph during a zoom operation since this control circuit simply controls an exposure value by closing the diaphragm little by little as the zoom operation moves to a wide stage, namely, zooms out, and opening the diaphragm little by little as the zoom operation moves to a tele stage, namely, zooms in.
Also, there is an inconvenience in that the zooming apparatus of an automatic camera including the above-mentioned control circuit can not automatically set the zoom function.

Automatic zoom camera and driving method therefor


A technique facilitates geophysical exploration and comprises deploying an optical fiber in a borehole formed in a formation. A seismic signal, e.g. seismic waves, is excited into the formation, and an optical interrogation system is used to obtain data at a plurality of fixed, sampling locations along the optical fiber. The data is processed to determine features in the formation. Based on the processed data, updated sampling locations are selected along the optical fiber to enable further analysis of the features of interest.

Hydrocarbon fluids such as oil and natural gas are obtained from a subterranean geologic formation, referred to as a reservoir. Various forms of geophysical exploration are employed to better understand the location, size, and characteristics of the reservoir. For example, seismic exploration techniques have been employed to facilitate an improved understanding of the reservoir. Some applications use an array of seismic receivers which are oriented in a specific direction with respect to the earth coordinate system to obtain desired seismic data. In other applications, conventional data obtained during seismic exploration can be pre-processed to a form representative of data obtained with such oriented seismic receivers. The seismic array places the seismic receivers at fixed spacing to obtain point measurements when accumulating the seismic data.


An electromagnetic valve, having a valve closing element which is arranged in a valve housing and which is capable of opening or closing a valve passage in a valve seat, having a magnet armature provided for actuating the valve closing element, and having a substantially cylindrical restoring spring which is braced between the magnet armature and a magnet core. In a parallel arrangement with respect to the restoring spring, a spring ring is arranged between the magnet armature and the magnet core, which spring ring has a smaller number of spring windings in relation to the number of spring windings of the restoring spring.

EP 1231082 B1, incorporated by reference herein, has already disclosed an electromagnetic valve of the stated type, which has a valve closing element arranged in axially movable fashion in a valve housing, which valve closing element is capable of opening or closing a valve passage in a valve seat, for which purpose, in the valve housing, there are arranged a magnet armature and a substantially cylindrical restoring spring which is braced between the magnet armature and a magnet core. Furthermore, between the magnet armature and the magnet core, there is situated a spring washer, which permits continuously variable stroke control of the magnet armature in a manner dependent on the selected electromagnetic current intensity of a valve coil. The precise production of the spring washer without burrs and with thin walls entails high costs in order to ensure the desired spring characteristics.

Electromagnetic valve, in particular for slip-regulated motor vehicle brake systems


The present invention provides a protective cover for a surface of molten steel used in a continuous casting apparatus provided with a pair of movable mold walls arranged in parallel to each other and a melt receiver formed between said movable mold walls, for example a twin-roll type casting apparatus, said protective cover comprising a central heat insulator capable of bringing into contact with a central portion of a surface of the molten steel other than portions close to portions where the surface of the molten steel is brought into contact with the respective movable mold walls and side heat insulators mounted on said central heat insulator, covering spaces above said portions close to the portions where the surface of the molten steel is brought into contact with the respective movable mold walls and being brought into slidable contact with the surfaces of the respective movable mold walls at pointed end portions thereof. The protective cover having such the construction can prevent the oxidation and temperature reduction of the surface of the molten steel, so that no foreign substance is mixed in the molten steel thereby a thin plate showing no defect can be produced.

A twin-roll type continuous casting apparatus has been known as an apparatus for continuously casting a thin metallic plate. This twin-roll type continuous casting apparatus is, as described later with reference to the drawings, provided with a pair of mold rolls (hereinafter referred to as rolls), weir members for forming a melt receiver between said rolls and a tundish provided with a molten metal-pouring nozzle for pouring the molten steel into the melt receiver. The molten steel accumulated in the melt receiver is joined and pressed to be turned into a piece of slab by rotating the rolls and then the thin plate is produced by drawing out the slab.
However, when a surface of the molten steel poured into the melt receiver is oxidized or cooled, oxides, a shell formed on the surface thereof when cooled, dissolved substances from refractories of the tundish and the nozzle raised to the surface of the molten steel and the like are swallowed up by a flow of the molten steel. This causes internal defects or surface defects of the thin plate. Accordingly, the upper part of the surface of molten steel has been covered with a cover and inert gases have been poured into the cover to prevent the oxidation. Also a measure, in which a surface of molten steel is covered with heat-insulating powders to not only cut off air and prevent a temperature reduction but also adsorb the dissolved refractory substances thereby reducing a quantity of the dissolved refractory substances swallowed up by the flow of the molten metal, has been thought.
However, the above described conventional measure using inert gases has shown a problem in that a space within the cover has not only a large volume but also a large surface area, so that a radiant heat capacity is large thereby the surface of the molten steel is cooled to form the shell on the surface of the molten steel. In addition, in the case where the powders are used, if the powders are swallowed up by the flow of the molten steel to not only make the slab not uniform in thickness but also be turned into floating materials which are mixed in the molten steel, the internal defects are brought about, so that the defects are brought about in the products similarly.

Protective cover for surface of molten steel used in continuous casting apparatus


A mattress is described, comprising an ergonomic layer made of foam material and a breathable layer made of three-dimensional polymeric material. The ergonomic layer and the breathable layer are mutually coupled. The breathable layer is individually wrapped in a casing made of a three-dimensional breathable fabric. The combination between the breathable layer and the respective casing, which is also manufactured with a three-dimensional breathable type of material, allows to obtain the maximum breathable characteristics for the mattress.

These mattresses have orthopaedic characteristics which can be divided into two categories: biomechanical characteristics and microclimatic characteristics.
The biomechanical characteristics relate to the elasticity of the mattress, its tensile strength and its resistance to pressure. Said characteristics serve as the basis (to be completed with further criteria deriving from combined analysis) for defining the performance of the mattress, when subjected to pressure by people with different weights and body sizes.
The microclimatic characteristics typically relate to resistance to humidity and thermal capacity, that contribute to the development of a given contact temperature and humidity between a mattress and a person lying thereon.
In addition to having the orthopaedic characteristics mentioned above, the known mattresses must also be fireproof, hypoallergenic, anti-decubitus (they must prevent and cure bed sores), easy to wash, at least at 60° C. and highly breathable, particularly in the contact area with the user or the patient.
There are currently several types of known mattresses, also known as sanitary mattresses, that adopt different technical solutions.
One of the more known solutions is the memory foam mattress, namely manufactured with a viscoelastic polyurethane foam which deforms with the weight and heat of the human body. These mattresses memorise the shape of the body and as a consequence deform. When the weight is removed, the mattress quickly regains its original shape.
An alternative to the memory foam mattress is the latex mattress, made with natural latex processed in order to provide a foam material to which elasticity and strength are added, by means of a vulcanisation process.
Other types of mattresses also exist, such as, for example, the water-foam mattress (also known as water foamed mattress, made through a polyurethane foam treatment process), the bagged spring mattress, the three-dimensional polymer (or 3D polymer) mattress, normally made of polyester polymer, or the mattress known as anti-decubitus with forced air ventilation. This latter mattress is normally entirely protected by a breathable three-dimensional cover.


Disclosed is a method of inducing a reduced immune response to a transplant in a recipient by treating said recipient with an amount of fibroblasts or a supernatant from a fibroblast culture effective to reduce or inhibit host rejection of the transplant. The fibroblasts or a supernatant from a fibroblast culture can be administered before, at the same time as, or after the transplant. This method is effective in reducing an immune response to a transplant without compromising the immune response to other foreign antigens. Also disclosed is a method of inducing a reduced immune response against a host by foreign tissue, i.e., graft versus host disease.

Tolerance is the acquired lack of responsiveness to an antigen to which an immune response would normally occur. Typically, to induce tolerance, there must be an exposure to a tolerizing antigen, which results in the death or functional inactivation of certain lymphocytes. Complete tolerance is characterized by the lack of a detectable immune response, either antibody or cell mediated, to the second antigenic challenge. Partial tolerance is typified by the quantitative reduction of an immune response.
The function of the immune system is to eliminate foreign bodies which may contain pathogens, and to maintain unresponsiveness or tolerance against self antigen. T cell tolerance is achieved 1) in the thymus where thymocytes reactive for self-peptides are eliminated by clonal deletion (central tolerance), and 2) in the periphery by exposure to self-antigens under tolerogenic conditions (peripheral tolerance).
Unfortunately, the immune system does not distinguish beneficial intruders, such as transplanted tissue, from those that are harmful, and thus the immune system rejects transplanted tissue or organs. Rejection of transplanted organs is significantly mediated by alloreactive T cells present in the host which recognize donor alloantigens or xenoantigens.
At present, patients rejecting transplants are treated with powerful immunosuppressive drugs. The infusion of individuals with drugs that prevent or suppress T-cell immune response does inhibit transplant rejection, but can also result in general immune suppression, toxicity and even death due to opportunistic infections. Because of the toxicity and incomplete response rate to conventional treatment of donor tissue rejection, alternative approaches are needed to treat patients who cannot withstand or do not respond to current modes of drug therapy.
Accordingly, there is a need for the reduction or elimination of an unwanted immune response by a host to a transplant as a method to avert host rejection of donor tissue. Also advantageous would be a method to eliminate or reduce an unwanted immune response by a donor tissue against a recipient tissue, known as graft-versus-host disease.
It has been reported that human gingival fibroblasts, when both treated with IFN-γ and contacted with T cells, are ineffective stimulators of alloreactive peripheral T cells and inhibited a proliferative response of allogeneic antigen presenting cells or mitogen stimulated cells. (Shimabukuro, Y. et al., Immunology 76:344-347 (1992)).

Uses of fibroblasts or supernatants from fibroblasts for the suppression of immune responses in transplantation


A flexible route marker post which comprises an upright post having an upper end and a lower end, the lower end having first and second flexible members secured thereto, the lower end of the flexible members being secured to a base, the arrangement being such that there is a bending zone in between the upright post and the base. The upper end and the lower end of the post have a reinforcing material extending thereabout.

The use of posts to carry signs or to otherwise demarcate a certain zone is well known. Thus, one will encounter posts at most public parking lots, the posts typically carrying signs to convey information to a motorist such as "Reserved parking", "No parking", etc.
Posts have also been used to indicate a route either for vehicles or pedestrians. The use of posts to separate bicycle or walking paths from other vehicular traffic is well known in the art. However, the use of a rigid post is not desirable in that the posts inevitably are impacted by vehicles. The posts must then be replaced. Also, there is the risk of substantial damage to the vehicle.
The use of flexible posts is also well known in the art. However, generally such flexible posts have not been designed to withstand impact from a vehicle while at the same time, providing a highly visible marking.


A HTS switch includes a HTS conductor for providing a superconducting path for an electrical signal and an serpentine wire actuator for controllably heating a portion of the conductor sufficiently to cause that portion to have normal, and not superconducting, resistivity. Mass of the portion is reduced to decrease switching time.

With the advent of very low loss, low dispersion transmission lines made from high temperature superconducting (HTS) materials, e.g., materials that are superconducting at a temperature on the order of 77K, an easily insertable microwave switch becomes an important adjunct component for high performance signal control circuits. Potential applications include switched delay line phase shifters and microwave signal distribution networks. Such a switch would be useful in coplanar waveguides, microstrip lines and a variety of other known transmission systems. A practical device is characterized by low on-state insertion loss, good isolation and switching times on the order of a microsecond for many control applications. Faster switches can be attained with Josephson junction, as disclosed by T. Van Duzer et al., Principles of Superconductive Devices and Circuits, New York: Elsevier, 1981, Chp. 5[4]or flux flow devices, as disclosed by J. S. Martens et al. "Novel applications of Tl-Ca-Ba-Cu-O thin films to active and passive high frequency devices," presented at the 1990 Int. Symp. on Supercond., Sendai, Japan, Nov. 6-9, 1990, and J. S. Martens et al.,"A model and equivalent circuit for a superconducting flux flow transistor," IEEE Trans. on Appl. Supercond., vol. 1: Jun 1991. However, both of these switch types suffer from poor isolation unless they include fairly complicated, and, therefore, expensive, circuitry.
Another known type of switch, semiconductor-based switches, are difficult to integrate with superconductor materials and have insertion losses typically on the order of 2 dB.

The United States of America as repesented by the United States Department of Energy


A method for mounting an accessory at a vehicular windshield includes adhesively attaching a base portion of each of at least three fixing elements at an interior cabin side of the windshield in a spaced apart non-contiguous manner. A frame includes a plurality of individual receiving portions. With the windshield installed in the vehicle, the frame is attached at the fixing elements via receiving an elongated portion of a respective and corresponding one of the fixing elements in a respective and corresponding one of the receiving portions of the frame. With the windshield installed in the vehicle, and with the frame attached at the fixing elements, a camera is disposed at the frame and received at structure of the frame, such that the camera views through the windshield via an aperture existing in the frame and a light transmissive aperture in a light absorbing layer of the windshield.

Certain accessories of a vehicle, such as a rain sensor assembly or imaging sensor assembly, typically are mounted tight against an interior surface of a windshield or window. This is required in some cases to maintain a desired distance between a light emitter/light sensor and the interior surface of the windshield, and/or to optically or thermally couple the component to the windshield, and/or to substantially seal the component at the windshield to prevent dust, dirt, smoke or other contaminants from affecting the component. However, as a result of this requirement, the accessory module assembly must be sufficiently rigid to apply and maintain a suitable force to the various components in order to maintain the components or accessories in intimate contact with the windscreen. As a result, the module assembly has little or no resilience, and is thus not generally capable of slight deformations to closely follow the contour of the windscreen.
It is also desired to provide a blacked out area or ceramic frit region in areas where such accessories are mounted at the windshield, in order to enhance the appearance of the vehicle. Therefore, an aperture or port may have to be formed in the frit layer for the camera or image sensor to be aligned with. However, the frit layer then may include the port or aperture even for vehicles where the camera-based or other accessory is not selected as an option. In order to provide an appropriate frit layer for the camera-based accessory option, the vehicle manufacturer may need to plan or design different frit layers for different options available to the vehicle, which may result in a proliferation of windshields and part numbers for the different optional accessories.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


An MCF according to one embodiment simultaneously achieves excellent economic rationality and high compatibility in short-distance optical transmission. The MCF includes a plurality of core portions, a common cladding, and a resin coating. Each of the core portions includes a core, an inner cladding, and a trench layer. At least four core portions arranged on a straight line have substantially the same relative refractive index difference between the core and the inner cladding. The refractive index profile of a first core portion and a second core portion adjacent to each other among the four core portions has a shape in which the refractive index of the inner cladding is offset with respect to the refractive index of the common cladding so that the magnitude relationship of the refractive index between the inner cladding and the common cladding is reversed.

In recent years, studies have been vigorously promoted on a multi-core optical fiber (hereinafter referred to as "MCF") including a plurality of cores and a common cladding surrounding each of the plurality of cores, as an optical transmission medium for long-haul communications.
For example, Non-Patent Document 1, (T. Matsui et al., "Design of 125 μm cladding multi-core fiber with full-band compatibility to conventional single-mode fiber," in Eur. Conf. Opt. Commun. (ECOC), Valencia, 2015, p. We. 1.4.5) has disclosed an MCF in which four trench-assisted structure cores arranged to form a square lattice in the fiber cross section (cores compatible with cores specified in ITU-T G.652 standards: hereinafter referred to as "G.652 compatible core") are incorporated in a cladding with an outer diameter of 125 μm. Non-Patent Document 1 discloses that the MCF achieves optical characteristics compatible with a fiber (hereinafter, "G.652 fiber") defined by the ITU-T G.652 standards in a wavelength range (1260 nm or more and 1625 nm or less) from O-band to L-band.
Non-Patent Document 2 (T. Hayashi et al., "125-μm-Cladding 8-Core Multi-Core Fiber Realizing Ultra-High-Density Cable Suitable for O-Band Short-Reach Optical Interconnects," in Opt. Fiber Commun. Conf. (OFC), Los Angeles, 2015, p. Th5C.6) has disclosed an MCF in which eight G.652 compatible cores (having a trench-assisted structure) are arranged in an annular shape so as to be incorporated in a cladding having an outer diameter of 125 μm. Non-Patent Document 2 discloses that the MCF achieves optical characteristics compatible with G.652 fibers in the O-band (1260 nm or more and 1360 nm or less) alone. In the wavelength range from C-band to L-band (1530 nm or more and 1625 nm or less), light in the core might couple to the coating or leak to the coating, resulting in transmission loss increase. Therefore, in the wavelength range from the C-band to the L-band, the MCF disclosed in Non-Patent Document 2 is not compatible with the G.652 fibers.
Non-Patent Document 3 (D. L. Butler et al., "Multicore optical fiber and connectors for short reach, high density links," in IEEE Photon. Conf. (IPC), Burlingame, Calif., USA, 2012, pp. 878-879) has disclosed a four-core fiber (MCF) incorporating four cores arranged in a line in a circular cladding. Non-Patent Document 3 does not disclose the cladding outer diameter, the structure or characteristics of individual cores, but suggests that the cladding outer diameter of the four-core fiber is larger than the standard outer diameter of 125 μm. From the comparison between FIGS. 1 and 3 in Non-Patent Document 3, the core pitch of the fiber in FIG. 1 is estimated to be 50 μm, and the outer diameter of the cladding is also estimated to be around 200 μm.
Non-Patent Document 4 (Y. Geng et al., "High-speed, bi-directional dual-core fiber transmission system for high-density, short-reach optical interconnects," in Proc. SPIE, San Francisco, 2015, vol. 9390, Next-Generation Optical Networks for Data Centers and Short-Reach Links II, p. 939009) has disclosed a two-core fiber (MCF) having two step-indexed cores incorporated in a 125 μm outer diameter cladding. In this two-core fiber, two cores are arranged at the same distance from the center of the cladding in the fiber cross section. Furthermore, each of the cores has a mode field diameter (hereinafter, referred to as "MFD") of 8.1 μm and a cutoff wavelength of 1160 nm, at a wavelength of 1310 nm. Non-Patent Document 4 discloses that such a core arrangement can sufficiently suppress transmission loss and crosstalk (hereinafter, referred to as "XT") at each of wavelengths of 1310 nm, 1490 nm, and 1550 nm. Non-Patent Document 4 further discloses that the number of cores equivalent to an LC duplex connector can be achieved by an LC simplex connector by mounting the two-core fiber on the LC simplex connector.
Non-Patent Document 5 (Y. Kokubun, T. Komo, K. Takenaga, S. Tanigawa, and S. Matsuo, "Selective mode excitation and discrimination of four-core homogeneous coupled multi-core fiber," Optics express, vol. 19, no. 26, pp. B905-B914, 2011) has disclosed a four-core fiber (MCF) in which four step-index cores are incorporated in a cladding having an outer diameter of 125 pin. This four-core fiber is a strongly coupled MCF in which four cores are arranged close to each other in a line. That is, the fiber according to Non-Patent Document 5 is a fiber that performs wave guiding in a propagation mode using all four cores as one waveguide and thus cannot suppress inter-core crosstalk.
Each of Non-Patent Document 6 (Y. Amma et al., "High-density Multicore Fiber with Heterogeneous Core Arrangement," in Opt. Fiber Commun. Conf. (OFC), Los Angeles, 2015, p. Th4C.4), Non-Patent Document 7 (T. Gonda, K. Imamura, R. Sugizaki, Y. Kawaguchi, and T. Tsuritani, "125 μm 5-core fibre with heterogeneous design suitable for migration from single-core system to multi-core system," in Eur. Conf. Opt. Commun. (ECOC), Dusseldorf, 2016, pp. 547-549), and Non-Patent Document 8, (Y. Sasaki et al., "Crosstalk-managed heterogeneous single-mode 32-core fibre," in Eur. Conf. Opt. Commun. (ECOC), 2016, pp. 550-552) has disclosed a heterogeneous core MCF. Designing (or prototype production) is performed on the condition that the effective cross-sectional area (Effective Area) or MFD is equalized between heterogeneous cores and that the cutoff wavelength is set to a certain value or less for all the cores. However, chromatic dispersion is disregarded. Unfortunately, however, with the core structures disclosed in Non-Patent Documents 6 to 8, it is difficult to equalize the chromatic dispersion characteristics between heterogeneous cores.


The disclosure relates to a wearable device, including a body, at least three conductive pins, and a strap. The body defines an accommodation cavity and a mounting slot. The at least three conductive pins are spaced apart from each other, located in the mounting slot and electrically connected to the mainboard. The strap includes a strap body, a locking end connected to the strap body, and a conductive component positioned at the locking end. The locking end is configured to be detachably positioned in the mounting slot. When the locking end is positioned in the mounting slot, the conductive component is electrically connected to at least two of the at least three conductive pins. The body may provide a user with a display interface. The displaying characteristics of the display interface correspond to at least two of the at least three conductive pins that are electrically connected.

Typically, a wearable device includes an electronic device body and a strap coupled to the electronic device body in order to attach the wearable device to a wrist, neck, head or other parts of a user or other object. In some related technologies, the electronic device body can obtain certain information from the strap.

GUANGDONG OPPO MOBILE TELECOMMUNICATIONS CORP., LTD.


An image combining apparatus includes a control section which acquires first position information identifying a figure on a first medium from an electronic pen by using the first medium where a pattern for the electronic pen to detect an electronic pen tip position is combined with a background of a image list, identifies an image from the position information by referring to information associating each image with a position on the first medium, further acquires second position information identifying a figure on a second medium from the electronic pen by using the second medium on which the pattern is formed, and identifies an image combining area from the first and second position information, and then associates the image combining area with the image; and an image processing section creating a combined image by combining the image combining area with the image associated with the image combining area.

The present invention relates to an image combining apparatus and image combining program, particularly to an image combining apparatus and image combining program that use an electronic pen to combine images.
One of the input devices used in recent years is an electronic pen by which handwriting is inputted by a pen and then outputted as handwriting data. This electronic pen has a small-sized camera mounted on the pen tip. The small-sized camera is used to read a position detection pattern called the Anoto (registered trademark) pattern printed on a sheet, thereby identifying the position of the pen tip and outputting handwriting such as a handwritten character, figures and pictures as handwriting data.
An example of a system using such an electronic pen includes a printing system disclosed in the Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2006-163952. This printing system includes a built-in digital camera, a digital pen having a writing function, sheets exclusive for digital pen, a communication device that receives a photographic image data from the digital pen, then sends the received image to a server, and then receives edited data from the server, and an output device which includes at least a photographic image information reading section and is connected to the aforementioned communication device to output printed matters.
When the art of the aforementioned Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2006-163952 is utilized, an image arranged on a sheet in advance can be combined with a handwritten image written on the aforementioned image by hand in order to output a combined image. However, to create a material or the like on which a great number of object images such as photographs captured by a digital camera, photos and figures read by a scanner or photos and figures stored in a recording medium such as a USB (Universal Serial Bus) memory are arranged at prescribed positions of each page, it is necessary to use a computer device to select an image and to designate the layout of the selected image to be arranged in particular positions on a sheet or screen. Thus, it has not been easy in the conventional art to produce a combined image.

Image combining apparatus and image combining program

Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.


A real-time load-balancing system for distributing a sequence of incoming data packets emanating from a high speed communication line to a plurality of processing means, each operating at a capacity that is lower than the capacity of the high speed communication line; the system according to the invention comprises: a parser capable of extracting a configurable set of classifier bits from the incoming packets for feeding into a compression means; the compression means is capable of reducing a bit pattern of length K to a bit pattern having a length L which is a fraction of K; a pipeline block for delaying incoming packets until a load balancing decision is found, and an inverse demultiplexer for receiving a port identifier output from said compression means as selector and for directing pipelined packets to the appropriate output port.

The present invention relates to systems and methods for load-balancing when distributing a sequence of incoming data packets emanating from a high speed communication line to a plurality of processing means (including electronic processors as well as electronic data processing units comprising a plurality of processors) e.g. for sending data packets from one processor means for transmission to another processor means, such as in a network that interconnects a multiplicity of processors.
Load balancing and hashing are two classic topics in Computer Science. Prior art channel stripping (also known as load sharing or inverse multiplexing) is frequently used in networking because of transmission, processing bottlenecks or simply because of price performance ratio. In that scheme, a Round Robin Algorithm or a Load Sharing Algorithm is used that strips the packets belonging to a stream, across multiple channels.
A major problem with stripping is that packets may be received out of order due to different delays on different channels and due to different packet sizes. Three types of solutions for reordering are known:
i) keeping each flow on only one physical link and accepting that a single flow cannot use more than this bandwidth link,
ii) reordering the received packets and accept waste of processing bandwidth, and
iii) splitting packets up into fixed transfer units.
Dynamic load balancing, on the other hand, is a the classic topics in the field of parallel processing field, dealing with three general computing entities: computations, tasks and data. Prior art approaches are related to specific algorithms for parallel/distributed processors systems. In these cases, load balancing tries to find the mapping of computations, tasks or data, to computers that results in each computer having an approximately equal amount of work in order to reduce run time and increase the Overall efficiency of a computation.
On the other hand, constant and massive increases in bandwidth demand have pushed very high speed networks into multigigabit-data-rate domain of operation. Performing real-time Layer 2 network processing according to prior art at that speed does already present a challenge for prior art technology: an ATM cell, for example, lasts 420 ns at 1 Gbit/s. The term xe2x80x9cLayerxe2x80x9d as used herein refers to the ISO reference model.
However, the transformation of the Internet into an important and ubiquitous commercial infrastructure has not only created rising bandwidth demands but also tends to significantly change consumer expectations in terms of performance, security and services.
These requirements translate into a large amount of additional network processing, as Layer 3 and Layer 4 information must be processed as well. This double trend of an increasing demand for bandwidth and an increasing demand for differentiated services (as defined by IETF standards) has put severe strains on traditional network processor architectures of currently available routers, and architecture designers are moving more and more towards pipelined and parallelized solutions in order to satisfy the processing demands imposed by very high speed networks.
Along with differentiated services support, a concept of traffic xe2x80x9cflowsxe2x80x9d has emerged within the EP community over the past few years as well. A flow is usually defined as a sequence of packets sent from a particular source to a particular (unicast or multicast) destination for which the source desires special handling by the intervening routers, cf. Deering, S.,Hinden R., xe2x80x9cInternet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) Specificationxe2x80x9d RFC 18. Further, providing special handling, such as non-default quality of service or real-time service with a concept of flows, is accompanied by a set of new difficulties and constraints.
Accordingly, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide for a system and method capable of scaling the capacity or speed rate of a network processor by distributing the traffic flows of an aggregate high speed link onto a multiplicity of independent network processing entities.
Further objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent as this specification proceeds.
The above objects and further advantages will be achieved according to a first embodiment of the invention by a load balancing system, also termed xe2x80x9cload balancerxe2x80x9d herein for brevity, as defined in claim 1.
According to a first general embodiment, the invention provides a real-time load-balancing system for distributing a sequence of incoming data packets emanating from a high speed communication line to a plurality of processing means, each operating at a capacity that is lower than the capacity of the high speed communication line, said system comprising: a parser means capable of extracting a configurable set of classifier bits from the incoming packets for feeding into a compression means;
said compression means being capable of reducing a bit pattern of length K to a bit pattern having a length L which is a fraction of K; a pipeline block for delaying incoming packets until a load balancing decision is found, and an inverse demultiplexer for receiving a port identifier output from said compression means as selector and for directing pipelined packets to the appropriate output port.
The term xe2x80x9cprocessing meansxe2x80x9d as used herein includes processors as well as switching means or switching systems.
According to a second general embodiment, the invention provides for a method
for distributing a sequence of incoming data packets emanating from a high speed communication line to a plurality of processing means (A,B; A,B,C; A,B,C,D; A,B, . . .) operating at a capacity that is lower than the capacity of the high speed communication line, said method comprising providing: a parser means for extracting a configurable set of classifier bits from the incoming packets for feeding into a compression means; said compression means reducing a bit pattern of length K to a bit pattern having a length L which is a fraction of K;
a pipeline block for delaying incoming packets until a load balancing decision is found, and an inverse demultiplexer for receiving a port identifier output from said compression means as selector and for directing pipelined packets to the appropriate output port.
According to a preferred embodiment, the system according to the invention additionally comprises a lookup memory for outputting a port identifier based on an index computed by said compression means, wherein each entry into said lookup memory is capable of dynamic coordination to any output port of said system so as to populate a large number of consumer unit requests per lookup memory entry and to collect lookup memory locations that are no longer in use for providing flexibility to perform a load balancing by providing a timeout per memory entry.
According to a further preferred embodiment, the system according to the invention additionally comprises an extended classifier means.
Further, it is preferred for many embodiments of the invention if the system additionally comprises a feed-back loop for controlling load distribution and for allocating data packets to the data processing means. Generally, a preferred embodiment of the compression means is a nonlinear hashing function.
The invention makes it possible that the more complex tasks, e.g., route lookup, buffer management, scheduling and policing, are performed by network processors, each running at a fraction of the aggregate link rate whilexe2x80x94from an external perspectivexe2x80x94the overall system acts as a single network processor operating at the full link rate.
The invention is based on a real-time, deterministic load balancing architecture that enables the dynamic distribution of traffic on a high speed (multigigabit/s) link over multiple lower rate processing entities in a flow-preserving manner. Now, according to the art, splitting and sharing of a flow over a multiplicity of processing elements is considered to constitute a complex task which tends to be avoided if the number of flows is high. A flow or connection is characterized by a concept of state that links successive packets or cells together.
A recent study of an optical carrier or OC-3 trunk within the Internet MCI""s backbone indicates an average presence of up to 120.000 flows per second during peak hours.

Load balancing system, apparatus and method

International Business Machines Corporation


A fuel injection system for use with an internal combustion engine supplies fuel to an injector (fuel injection valve) from a common rail (accumulator) through a high-pressure pipe to spray the fuel from a spray hole formed in the injector. A thin-walled portion is formed in a path member (e.g., an injector body, the high-pressure pipe, or a connector connecting the injector and the high-pressure pipe) and defined by a locally thin wall of the path member. A strain gauge (strain sensor) is affixed to the thin-walled portion to measure strain of the thin-walled portion arising from the pressure of fuel in a high-pressure fuel path.

In order to ensure the accuracy in controlling output torque of internal combustion engines and the quantity of exhaust emissions therefrom, it is essential to control a fuel injection mode such as the quantity of fuel to be sprayed from a fuel injector or the injection timing at which the fuel injector starts to spray the fuel. For controlling such a fuel injection mode, there have been proposed techniques for sensing a change in pressure of the fuel resulting from spraying thereof from the fuel injector.
For instance, the time when the pressure of the fuel begins to drop due to the spraying thereof from the fuel injector may be used to determine an actual injection timing at which the fuel has been sprayed actually. The amount of drop in pressure of the fuel arising from the spraying thereof may be used to determine the quantity of fuel sprayed actually from the fuel injector. The detection of such an actual fuel injection mode ensures the accuracy in controlling the fuel injection mode based on a detected value.
When such a change in pressure of the fuel is measured by a fuel pressure sensor (i.e., a rail pressure sensor) installed directly in a common rail (i.e., an accumulator), it will be absorbed within the common rail, thus resulting in a decrease in accuracy in determining such a pressure change. In the invention, as taught in the patent document 1, the fuel pressure sensor is disposed in a joint between the common rail and a high-pressure pipe through which the fuel is delivered from the common rail to the fuel injection valve to measure the change in pressure of the fuel before it is absorbed within the common rail.    Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent First Publication No. 2000-265892

Fuel pressure measuring device, fuel pressure measuring system, and fuel injection device