A snow throwing machine including a housing, an engine, an impeller and an auger for collecting snow and directing it to the impeller. The auger including an auger shaft disposed transversely in the housing and drivable by the engine, and a plurality of flytes mounted on the auger shaft. Each flyte includes a hub and a plurality of fins and is mounted on the auger shaft with a shear pin extending through the hub and auger shaft. The flytes are configured such that an outer peripheral edge of adjacent flytes forms a helix around the auger shaft directing snow toward the impeller.

1. Field of Invention
This invention relates a snow throwing machine, and more particularly, to a snow throwing machine having an auger formed from a plurality of individually stamped flytes.
2. Description of Related Art
Snow throwers designed to remove snow from sidewalks, driveways and roadways after a snowstorm are well known in the art. Snow throwers can be mounted to a motor vehicle such as a tractor or can be walk-behind models that are self-propelled or manually pushed by the operator. Conventional snow throwers are usually classified as having either a single stage or two stage snow propelling design. Snow throwers typically have a housing with a front opening through which snow is taken in between spaced apart sidewalls and a snow chute and snow deflector through which snow is discharged from the housing. A powered rotating member, such as an impeller or paddle, cuts or sweeps the snow. The impeller is rotated by a power source, such as an internal combustion engine mounted on the snow thrower. In a single stage snow thrower, the impeller or paddle is the only powered device used for collecting and throwing the snow. This may be contrasted with two stage snow throwers which utilize two separate means for consecutively handling the snow. In a conventional two stage model, a snow gathering auger is journalled in a front portion of the snow thrower housing. The auger typically has a pair of opposing helical members that rotate to gather the snow and feed it inwardly toward the center of the housing. The snow then passes through an opening in the housing where an impeller forces the snow up and out of the discharge chute.
Conventional auger designs are functional in gathering the snow and directing it to the impeller, they are, however, not without problems. The helical members are difficult and expensive to manufacture, especially if they are made of a corrosion resistant material. Additionally, if the snow thrower encounters an obstruction, such as a rock or other hard object buried in the snow, one or both of the helical members may break or significant damage to the driving components of the snow thrower may occur. If a helical member breaks, the entire auger must be replaced. Accordingly, there remains a need in the art to improve upon the conventional auger designs to provide more economical and reliable augers for snow throwers.


This invention relates to a composite processing machine designed so as to be movable in a longitudinal and lateral direction on the side of a work table so that cutting process, discharge process, electrolytic grinding process and the like may be accomplished by a single machine, comprising means for moving a work table (1) on a machine bed (2) in a direction of x-axis and y-axis, a processing unit (9) having a chuck (14) capable of being detachably engaged with various tools and a discharge electrode at the fore end of a spindle (1) positioned upwardly of the work table (1) and comprising a motor (15) for rotating spindle and a fixing brake (12), means for moving a processing unit (9) in a direction of z-axis, an auto tool changer (18) for holding a cutting tool, a discharge electrode, a measuring probe, a grinding wheel and the like to selectively feed them to the chuck, and a processing power source (22) connected over a discharge electrode (26) or a grinding wheel (51) mounted on the chuck (14) and a work (4) within the liquid tank or a nozzle (50) for coolent to apply a dc current to a processing power source (22).

Generally, cavity processing of a molding mold used for injection molding, compression molding and transfer molding of synthetic resins, and die casting molding of metal and the like is accomplished principally by combination of cutting process using milling and process using discharge. Two machine tools, a milling machine and a discharge processing machine, are used for the aforesaid process.
Because of the foregoing, there arises problems that a wide installation space for the machine tools in the factory is required, equipment cost increases, time required for movement of work between the processing machines and locating thereof and required for arrangements attended by preparation work programs increases, and the processing precision is deteriorated.


A high-fidelity audio telephone conferencing arrangement which provides talker position information is economically provided between telephone stations over a single standard digital telephone channel. Digitized high-fidelity audio is combined with digitized phase information, derived from talker position detecting circuitry in a local telephone station, and transmitted over the telephone channel to one or more remote telephone stations. A receiver in each remote station decodes the digital information and provides the high-fidelity audio signal to multiple spatially separated acoustic output devices. The digitized pulse information controls "panning" of the audio signal among the acoustic output devices. By varying the level of audio signal flowing to each acoustic device, the position of the talker can be created in a specific position in the remote listener's sound field and the talker's identity thereby more easily determined. In addition, talker location information may be shared among multiple telephone stations participating in a telephone conference. Information as to the location of the talker along with the position of the talker is provided to each remotely located telephone station. The location of the talker is represented by the audio signal occurring in a designated general area of the remote listener's sound field and the position of the talker is represented by the creation of the audio signal in a specific position in this general area.

1. Technical Field
This invention relates to telephone conferencing arrangements and more particularly, to arrangements for identifying locations and directions of remote sound sources.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In current telephone conferencing arrangements, multiple parties participating at a telephone station receive only audio information from other parties participating at one or more remote telephone stations. No information is provided as to the remote location of a participant who is speaking or the identity of that participant. This limitation is present in existing analog and digital network telephone conferencing arrangements.
With digital networks, however, methods are now available that allow simultaneous transmission of both high quality telephony and data at a moderate speed. These methods are set forth in CCITT Recommendations G.722, G.725 and H.221 which allow for transmission of analog signals with a 7 kHz bandwidth along with optional data at rates at 6.4 or 14.4 kilobits per second over a digital channel. Such a digital channel currently supports only digitized 3 kHz audio signals (Recommendation CCITT G.711). The optional data provided over this digital channel is typically that which is used for communicating digital information between personal computers or facsimile machines.
A stereo signal may be used to convey information as to which participant in a telephone conference call is speaking. This generally requires employing a separate channel for both a left-direction signal and for a right-direction signal. The requirement of the two telephone channels, however, makes this both a cumbersome and expensive option.
An alternative to using two telephone channels for transmitting the stereo signal is to employ one of known signal processing schemes to reduce the digital bandwidth of the encoded signal. Typical of this type of signal processing is a perceptual entropy-based coder wherein a wide-bandwidth analog signal is digitized and encoded into a digital stream whose bandwidth is much less than that of the unprocessed digitized signal. This method, or a similar method, could be used to encode the stereo signals into a lower bit rate digital stream which could then be transmitted over a single digital channel of the digital network. The hardware and/or software to perform this type of encoding, however, is complex and expensive.
While the above methods employing a stereo signal can convey information as to which participant in a telephone conference call is speaking, they do not allow both high quality telephony and speaker location information to be economically conveyed over a single digital telephone channel.


The present invention is directed toward a system and method for effectively managing, transporting, and taking care of patients in a hospital facility. Primarily this is done through the use of an automated bed with corresponding controls and devices installed within the facility. Precautionary fail safes are implemented such that any medical profession can override the system should an error be detected. Constant monitoring and control of all automated beds may occur from a centralized system. These systems and methods will allow for better allocation of hospital resources, providing much more efficient care to all patients.

Hospitals remain one of the most hectic and stressful environments to work in. The importance of timing and efficient management of all resources is critical to providing the best care. Nurses are often understaffed and overworked. Nurses are responsible for a wide range of essential tasks from administering medicine at appropriate times to the transportation of patients from room to room. The current hospital bed is ill equipped to meet the ever-pressing demands placed on nurses and other health-care professions. The cumbersome and time-consuming process of manually requiring at least one, likely two or more, people to accomplish the simple task of transporting a bed from one room to another needlessly wastes valuable resources that could be utilized elsewhere in the hospital. What is needed in the art is a better system of transporting patients around a hospital or other health-care facility. The present invention seeks to address this problem.

System and method for automated hospital beds


A concentrated, cooked-grain flavorant which is heat stable and of low volatility is prepared for incorporation into a foodstuff, preferably a ready-to-eat cereal or biscuit. This flavorant is produced by producing a slurry of distillers malt flour, advisably with gelatin or gelatin hydrolysate. The slurry is prepared at a concentration and processed at a temperature controlled to favor proteolysis by the naturally occurring proteases in distillers malt. The slurry is then diluted to a concentration and processed at a temperature controlled to favor starch hydrolysis by the naturally occurring amylases in distillers malt. The slurry is then fermented with yeast and may be used as is or further concentrated by known drying techniques.

Recent advances in the food art have resulted in the preparation of extruded dough products which have desirable functionality and certain organoleptic characteristics such as texture. However, these products lack sufficient flavor due to the short time, high temperatures, and pressure drop of the extrusion process. Traditionally, starch-based food products were more flavorful because the longer processing times employed allowed the flavor precursors to develop through such steps as cooking, tempering, baking, and toasting. These traditional methods of processing took several hours while today's modern extruder can produce similar products in under one minute.
Many attempts have been made to produce flavorants, the addition of which would augment the deficient flavor profiles of extruded food products. The inventions resulting from these attempts seem to rely upon malt as a primary constituent. Malt, especially that obtained from barley, is known as an important carrier of flavorable grain and cereal flavors. U.S. Pat. No. 3,615,697 issued to Hollenbeck specifically discloses a process by which whey is added to Lactobacillus bacteria and malt, and the mixture is fermented to form a heat-labile, volatile food flavorant. This flavorant, while combining the desirable malt flavor with the sour taste of lactic acid and the related fermented flavors, would not be sufficiently stable to adequately withstand the rigorous conditions of the extruder. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,663,168 and 4,752,482, issued to Fulger and Lou disclose processes by which malt is fermented by yeast to form a heat-stable, low volatile food flavorant which attempts to duplicate the typical cooked grain flavors. However, upon extrusion, these flavorants do not produce as strong, a cooked-grain flavor as compared to the product produced by this invention.

Malt flavor material and preparation thereof


Systems and methods are provided for identifying potentially compromised cloud-based access information. The systems and methods include providing a unique signature for insertion into application programming interface (API) communications to be sent from a network resource to a cloud application executable in a cloud environment. The unique signature can be associated with an access token that a particular identity can use to request access to the cloud application. The systems and methods include accessing a log associated with the cloud environment, identifying the unique signature and the access token using information in the log, accessing a trusted validation resource storing signature information associated with the access token, determining whether the unique signature is valid, and determining whether the access token is potentially compromised.

Cloud computing technologies are broadly applicable in many technological fields. As a result, many organizations worldwide are using cloud technologies, such as AMAZON WEB SERVICES, MICROSOFT AZURE, and others. Rely on a cloud computing implementation of an application architecture can reduce development times and development costs, while increasing the flexibility and scalability of applications. But cloud computing implementations add a new layer of security risks. Access to a cloud environment can be controlled through access credentials. If these access credentials are stolen, malicious users can alter an organization's cloud deployment to serve their own purposes, for example stealing data or incurring fees. Stolen access credentials, for instance, could be used to create a cryptocoin mining operation using an organization's cloud-computing account. The mining operation would provide the mined cryptocurrency to the hackers, while the costs of mining would be assessed to the cloud-computing account of the hacked organization.
Current approaches to securing access credentials are limited, often complicated to implement, time-consuming, costly, or requiring specific security knowledge or training to use. Cloud credentials should be difficult to guess, securely stored, periodically rotated, used according to a least-privileged philosophy, monitored, audited, recorded, and secured at rest in a tamper-proof storage location. Unfortunately, such a comprehensive approach to security is rarely feasible. An organization's cloud environment might have hundreds of access keys and perform thousands API function calls every day. Managing such an expansive deployment requires significant time and effort.
Therefore organizations must balance the effort required to manage access credentials security with many other security tasks, given a limited security budget and limited time. Organizations must prioritize and cannot always devote an ideal amount of effort to access credentials security. Further, organizations often fail to perform the security mitigation steps described above. Even when an organization does devote the time and effort to properly securing access credentials, an advanced attacker (one with the budget, knowledge, time, and motivation) can still break or bypass such defense mechanisms and steal the access credentials of the organization.
Consequently, systems and methods for securely managing access credentials are necessary. Such systems and methods should enable detection of compromised or unsecured access credentials, or the use of such access credentials. The disclosed systems and methods enable such detection, addressing a technical problem arising in computer networking and providing a technical solution to existing problems with cloud computing security.

Detecting compromised cloud-identity access information


A system for connecting multiple users to multiple computers uses a switch for making and breaking connections between individual computers and input/output devices such as display screens, keyboards and pointing devices at user locations. A supervisory computer system includes one or more helper computers which run programs to aid the user in selecting connections to be made. The switch is arranged to capture preselected input sequences as designating commands, such as a command to connect the helper computer, and to forward these to the supervisory computer system. The supervisory computer system actuates the switch in response to these commands so that the user can establish communication with the helper computer.

Various computer systems allow a user to employ a computer at a remote location. For example, some mainframe computer systems support remote terminals connected to the mainframe computer by dedicated lines or by other communications links. As the computing power available in small computers referred to as personal computers or "PCs" has increased, many applications previously performed on mainframe systems has been transferred to PCs. In many cases, PCs are connected to one another, to larger computers or both through networks which allow the transfer of information among the various computers. Thus, a user at any location can run programs on his or her own computer using files taken from other computers on the network, and also can run programs on other computers.
While this approach offers numerous advantages, it also suffers from certain disadvantages. Maintaining all of the individual computers at dispersed locations takes considerable time and effort. The dispersed computers and their components are vulnerable to theft and damage. Moreover, controlling software updates on all of the various computers and assuring that each individual computer has the appropriate software presents a significant challenge. This challenge is especially significant in environments such as software development laboratories where the software to be used is changing continually. Moreover, the requirement that a computer be present in the immediate vicinity of the user means that the user must put up with the noise and heat generated by the computer and means that the computer will occupy some of the space which would otherwise be available at the user's desk. This latter drawback is especially annoying to users who must employ several computers at once as, for example, some securities and commodities traders.
Various proposals have been advanced to alleviate these problems. For example, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,721,842, input devices such as a keyboard and mouse and output devices such as a display monitor and speaker may be provided at numerous user locations. These devices are connected to signal conditioning circuits or "pods", which in turn connect to a crosspoint switch. Numerous computers are also provided. The computers are connected through other "pods" to other terminals of the crosspoint switch. The crosspoint switch is arranged to connect any of the pods associated with user locations to any of the pods associated with the computers, so that each user can be connected to any computer. These connections include both digital connections for passage of input signals such as keyboard and mouse data to the computer and analog connections for video signals sent by the computer. Thus, the user can operate the remote computer in much the same manner as a user having a keyboard, mouse and display screen directly linked to the computer. In order to allow the user to select different computers, the system provides a processor within each pod at each user location. This processor recognizes special command keystroke sequences entered by the user, formats these commands and transmits the commands over separate command data lines to the crosspoint switch. The pod contains a rudimentary program which actuates the monitor to display a menu of the available commands when the user enters the beginning of the command sequence on the keyboard.
This approach suffers from several serious drawbacks. The pods can at most display rudimentary lists of commands. This offers little or no guidance to the user in selecting appropriate computers to connect with for specific purposes. Moreover, it is difficult to control access by specific users to specific computers. Further, the need for separate command channels extending through the user locations, as well as the need for even rudimentary programmability and display generation capabilities at the user locations significantly increase the cost and complexity of the system. Thus, despite significant efforts heretofore in the development of multi-user, multi-computer systems, there still remains a considerable need for improvement in such systems.


A vehicle spot or floodlight system includes a vehicle rear-mounted light source such as a backup light array configured to emit light at a first intensity and at another intensity that is different from the first intensity. Emission of light at the another intensity is caused by an actuator operatively associated with the rear-mounted light source. A controller selectively allows the actuator to cause the emission at the another intensity. The controller allows the actuator to cause the emission of light at the another intensity only on receiving a signal indicating that the vehicle transmission is in a park or on receiving a signal indicating that the vehicle ignition is set on run, accessory, or off. The controller resets the actuator to off after a predefined time period when the ignition system is set on accessory or off, or when the transmission is placed in drive.

Modern motor vehicles include a variety of illumination systems, such as headlamps, running lights, brake lights, backup lights, fog lights and others. Other than the vehicle headlamps and fog lights, most illumination associated with a vehicle is intended to increase visibility of the vehicle to others, rather than for improving the ability of a vehicle operator or passenger to better see fore and/or aft of the vehicle.
There are situations where additional flood or spot lighting is advantageous. For example, many vehicles including trucks, sport-utility vehicles (SUVs), crossover utility vehicles (CUVs), and others are used to tow or haul items such as trailers, boats, etc. On arrival at a destination, the vehicle user often will want to unhook and/or inspect the towed item. Alternatively, the user may need to hook up the towed item prior to a trip. Still more, the vehicle user may want to perform tasks near the vehicle, such as pitching a tent, unloading items from the vehicle, and others. These tasks are made more difficult due to poor visibility at dawn, dusk, night-time, or in poorly lit areas. The user's only solution may be to carry extra lighting such as handheld flashlights, spotlights, work lights, or other light sources, but this is often not convenient.
Some level of illumination can be achieved with existing vehicle rear-mounted lighting arrays such as brake lights and backup lights. However, use of such lights requires user interaction, for example placing the vehicle in reverse to actuate the backup lights, depressing the brake pedal to actuate the brake lights, etc. Moreover, rear-mounted lighting arrays for a vehicle typically emit only sufficient light to serve as a warning, for example brake lights to alert others that the vehicle is braking, backup lights to alert others that the vehicle has been placed in reverse, etc. These lighting arrays do not emit sufficient light to properly illuminate the area behind the vehicle for such tasks as hooking/unhooking/inspecting towed items.
To solve this and other problems, the present disclosure relates at a high level to a vehicle lighting system architecture for utilizing a backup light system as a rear spot or floodlight. Advantageously, the described system can be used as conventional backup lighting, but at need increases the intensity of the backup lights to project desired spot or floodlighting over an area to the rear of the vehicle.


An analog-digital conversion apparatus has a jitter detecting circuit for detecting the amount of jitter included in a sampling clock generated, and a jitter applying circuit for providing an analog signal to be subjected to the analog-digital conversion with a delay based on the amount of jitter detected to prevent phase shift of the sampling due to jitter of the sampling clock in the analog-digital converter.

It is known in an analog-digital conversion apparatus that jitter included in an input sampling clock will vary the sampling phase of the signal to be converted and deteriorate conversion accuracy. To suppress the deterioration in conversion accuracy due to jitter, a method is generally employed which uses an oscillator with low jitter to generate the sampling clock. In addition, Patent Document 1, for example, proposes a method of correcting the deterioration due to jitter after converting a signal to be converted to a digital signal.
On the other hand, the same deterioration in conversion accuracy due to jitter occurs in a digital-analog conversion apparatus as well. With this apparatus, the period over which the analog value is maintained at a fixed value is identical to the period of the sampling clock. Thus, the period over which the analog value is maintained at a fixed value fluctuates owing to jitter, and spurious frequency components are superimposed, thereby deteriorating the conversion accuracy. In this case also, to reduce the deterioration in conversion accuracy, a method is generally employed which uses an oscillator with low jitter to generate the sampling clock.
Patent Document 1: Japanese patent laid-open No. 4-150354/1992.
Although the conventional analog-digital conversion apparatus and digital-analog conversion apparatus employ the foregoing methods to reduce the deterioration in conversion accuracy, they have a problem of increasing cost because of the high accuracy required when using the oscillator with low jitter. In addition, the method described in Patent Document 1 has a problem of requiring a configuration for carrying out complicated digital processing to correct the deterioration in conversion accuracy.
The present invention is implemented to solve the foregoing problems. Therefore it is an object of the present invention to provide an analog-digital conversion apparatus and a digital-analog conversion apparatus capable of preventing the deterioration in the conversion accuracy even if the sampling clock includes jitter.

Analog-digital conversion apparatus and digital-analog conversion apparatus


A method and arrangement for optimizing performance and data safety in a system includes first and second database servers coupled to a communication network. The first database server accepts transactions from a client application, stores them according to a data storage method, and sends them to the second database server via the communication network, whereupon the second database server also store the transactions. The first database server receives information about the server availability state of the second database server and detects changes in the availability state of the second database server in a such manner, that the data storage method of the first database server is changed according to the change in the availability state of the second database server.

Database systems may be built either as a stand-alone system utilizing hardware resources of only one computer system (typically consisting of CPU, communication means and disk system) or as a fault-tolerant system where fault-tolerance is achieved by the computer system redundancy.
To achieve redundancy, a copy of the data managed by the database system needs to be maintained on at least one backup computer system.
Data redundancy in a fault-tolerant database system is typically achieved with data replication where all transactions that are executed in the primary database, are also executed in the secondary database(s). The replication may be synchronous or asynchronous. In synchronous replication, the transaction is replicated to the secondary database as it happens in the primary database. In practise, the primary server must wait for an acknowledgement from the secondary database before it can report successful transaction execution to the client application. This replication method is also known as 2-safe replication. In asynchronous replication, the primary server may send data to the secondary server and continue its operation without receiving acknowledgement about receipt of the transaction(s) from the secondary server. This replication method is also known as 1-safe replication.
Another essential property of a data management system is data persistence. It is typically achieved by writing the committed transactions to a transaction log that typically resides in a non-volatile memory such as disk drive. The performance characteristics of a disk drive are such that writing one byte of data to the disk is about equally expensive in terms of performance than writing a larger chunk, e.g. 8 kilobytes. In other words, the number of write operations has higher impact on the performance than the volume of data to be written. To maximize the data durability, all transactions must be written to the disk as they occur. However, as explained above, such disk use may be non-optimal in terms of performance. To maximize the speed of the transaction log write operations, the number of disk write operations should be minimized and each write operation should write larger chunk of transactions' data to the disk. This can be achieved by buffering the data write operations in volatile memory and trigger the actual disk write operation after enough data has been accumulated or enough time has elapsed since the previous disk write operation. The down side of transaction log buffering is that committed transactions that have not yet been written to the disk, are lost in exceptional situations, for example if the database server process fails abruptly or the server hardware loses power.
The database servers of the fault-tolerant database system may have different states depending on what is the status (availability state) of the replication in the system. In this document, following exemplary states are used:                PRIMARY ACTIVE—server availability state, where primary server is connected to the secondary server and is able to send transactions to it. All transactions are committed in both primary and secondary servers.        SECONDARY ACTIVE—server availability state, where secondary server is connected to the primary server and is able to receive transactions from it. All transactions are committed in both primary and secondary servers.        PRIMARY ALONE—server availability state, where primary server queues transactions for later sending to the secondary server. Server is able to execute the transactions but it constitutes a single point of failure.        STANDALONE—server availability state, where server is currently not part of a fault tolerant database system. Server is able to execute transactions but it constitutes a single point of failure,
Of these states, PRIMARY ACTIVE, PRIMARY ALONE and STANDALONE are states where a DBMS may accept write transactions and are applicable in this context, PRIMARY ACTIVE is a state where the server is not a single point of failure, i.e. there's at least one another, secondary server (that is in SECONDARY ACTIVE state) available to immediately take over if the primary fails. If the state is PRIMARY ALONE or STANDALONE, then the server is a single point of failure, meaning that if the server becomes unavailable, there is no other server to immediately continue the service from the point where the failed server ended.
A typical fault-tolerant data management system of prior art consists of a primary database and at least one secondary database to which the transactions are replicated using 1-safe or 2-safe replication. If data loss in server failure situations is not acceptable, then the replication method must be 2-safe replication. For ensuring persistence, the servers may use either unbuffered or buffered transaction log write modes. However, the buffered transaction logging mode does not guarantee data persistence if the other database server of the system fails for any reason. To guarantee data persistence in all possible situations, unbuffered logging must be used. This, however, has an adverse effect on the performance in "normal use" where both servers are functioning properly. The performance difference between buffered and unbuffered disk writes may be several hundred per cent.
FIG. 1 depicts an exemplary fault-tolerant database system known from the prior art. A client application 100 is connected to primary DBMS 102 via some communication means 101, such as a network connection. The primary DBMS 102 has access to a persistent storage 103 and it is connected to a secondary DBMS 105 via some communication means 104, most typically a network connection. The primary DBMS 102 is arranged to replicate transactions to the secondary DMBMS 105 in synchronous and/or asynchronous manner. The secondary DBMS 105 has access to its own persistent storage 106.
The flow diagram of FIG. 2 illustrates the basic operations involved when executing a transaction in a fault-tolerant manner. In step 201, the primary DBMS 102 accepts a transaction from client application 100, executes 202 the transaction in the primary DBMS, replicates 203 the transaction to the secondary DBMS and writes 204 the transaction data to its persistent storage 103. It should be noted that steps 201, 202, 203 and 204 may occur also in different order than shown in the drawing and that a transaction may be accepted from the client application in multiple steps 201 and where each of the execution step 202 may involve data replication 203 and data write operations 204 to storage device.
The FIG. 3 depicts in a form of a flow diagram the method of unbuffered writing of transaction data to storage device known from prior art. The client application 100 requests 301 a transaction to be committed by the DBMS 102 or 105. To commit the transaction in the local database, the DBMS requests 302 operating system to write the data of the transaction to the storage device 103 or 106. The DBMS waits 303 until the operating system has successfully written the data to the storage device. Upon receiving 304 the success info from the operating system, the DBMS reports to client application that the transaction was successfully committed.
In FIG. 4, a buffered transaction log write method known from the prior art is explained. In step 401, client application 100 requests a transaction commit. Upon this request, the DBMS 102 or 105 writes 402 the transaction data to a volatile memory buffer and reports 403 immediately success back to client application.
The methods of the prior art described above do provide either guaranteed persistence of data in all situations via unbuffered data write operations or high performance via buffered data write operations, but they don't allow selecting the optimal method based on the current availability state of the servers.

Arrangement and method for optimizing performance and data safety in a highly available database system


Disclosed herein are novel support structures for pad reinforcement in conjunction with new bond pad designs for semiconductor devices. The new bond pad designs avoid the problems associated with probe testing by providing a probe region that is separate from a wire bond region. Separating the probe region 212 from the wire bond region 210 and forming the bond pad 211 over active circuitry has several advantages. By separating the probe region 212 from the wire bond region 210, the wire bond region 210 is not damaged by probe testing, allowing for more reliable wire bonds. Also, forming the bond pad 211 over active circuitry, including metal interconnect layers, allows the integrated circuit to be smaller.

The present invention relates generally to the fabrication of semiconductor devices, and the packaging of semiconductor devices. More specifically, this invention pertains to bonding pads, probing pads and solder bump pads on semiconductor devices and support structures for bonding pads.
Following the fabrication of the semiconductor devices on a wafer, each device (also known as a chip or die) is tested for functionality, or the wafers are "sorted". Typically, a wafer having devices fabricated thereon is placed on a vacuum chuck. Electrical probes from a tester contact bonding pads formed on each of the devices to determine if individual devices are functional.
After the wafers are sorted, the wafer is cut and the devices are separated from one another using cutting tools known to those skilled in the art. The devices are then assembled onto a substrate using procedures known as die attach or die bonding.
Subsequent to the attachment of the devices to package substrates, electrical connections are made between the bonding pads on the devices and the electrical leads on the package. The electrical connections are made using different techniques including wire bonding, flip-chip bonding and tape-automated bonding. At least with respect to wire bonding, a bonding pad is subjected to a force applied directly to the bond that may damage underlying layers, materials, or components of a device.
In wire bonding techniques, such as thermo-compression, ultra-sonic bonding and thermo-sonic, a metal wire is pressed against a bond pad. Depending on the particular technique, the wire is heated and/or subjected to ultra-sonic vibrations to bond the metal wire to the bonding pad of the semiconductor device. The wire is then connected to electrical leads on the device package.
After the die attachment and wire bonding operations are completed, the device is then "packaged" into a plastic molded package or a ceramic package or similar package, depending upon the die size, package application and end-use.
The devices are subjected to thermal and mechanical stresses during electrical testing during wafer "sort" and subsequent assembly procedures. Damage to the device may be caused during wafer sorting, when the testing probes are pressed against the bonding pad. Probe testing involves the use of a probe needle or other contact devices which may damage and/or contaminate the bond pad. During the probing operation, bond pad metal may be deformed, "gouged" or "ploughed" into one or more regions of the bond pad, exposing underlying layers such as barrier materials, dielectrics and/or other conductors such as aluminum and copper, thus preventing a reliable electrical connection between the bond pad and the packaging pin during subsequent wire bonding. Moreover, the nature of the bond may be mechanically and metallurgically weak, leading to wire lift-off or a "non-stick" (no adherence) situation. This problem is exacerbated by the ever decreasing sizes of bond pad on which smaller wire bonds are formed, leaving very small regions where a sound wire bond is possible. Furthermore, during the wire bond operations, device layers underlying the bond pad are compressed and in some instances materials or components may be cracked and damaged. Dielectric cracking can occur and cracks can propagate through the layer to device components, which in turn may be damaged. Components may also be fabricated underneath the bond pad, and may be damaged directly from the force of the probe and wire bond operations.
Thus, a need exists to provide a bonding pad support structure that effectively protects device components that are disposed within the device directly under the pad in conjunction with minimizing the damage caused by probe testing and wire bonding or flip chip solder bumping. Such a support structure should isolate the damage within an underlying layer to an area subjacent the bonding pad. The structures of the present invention will prevent damage propagation to regions proximal to the bond pad. An added benefit is that the substructure will inhibit bond pad peeling that may result from underlying layer damage.

Reinforced bond pad for a semiconductor device


A columnar programmable logic device (PLD) design converted to a columnar application specific integrated circuit-like (ASIC-like) design is described. A user design is instantiated in a PLD having a columnar architecture associated with the columnar PLD design. The columnar architecture has adjacent columns of circuitry, and one or more of the columns of circuitry as associated with instantiation of the user design in the PLD are identified. At least a portion of one or more of the identified columns are swapped with application specific circuitry for implementing all or part of the user design for converting the columnar PLD design to the columnar ASIC-like design.

Programmable logic devices (PLDs) are a well-known type of integrated circuit that can be configured to perform specified logic functions. One type of PLD, the field programmable gate array (FPGA), typically includes an array of configurable tiles. These configurable tiles can include, for example, input/output blocks (IOBs), configurable logic blocks (CLBs), dedicated random access memory blocks (BRAM), multipliers, digital signal processing blocks (DSPs), processors, clock managers, delay lock loops (DLLs), and so forth. Notably, as used herein, the terms "include" or "including" mean include or including without limitation.
Each configurable tile typically includes both configurable interconnect and configurable logic. The configurable interconnect typically includes a large number of interconnect lines of varying lengths interconnected by interconnect points. The configurable logic implements the logic of a user design using configurable elements that can include, for example, function generators, registers, arithmetic logic, and so forth.
The configurable interconnect and configurable logic are typically configured by loading a stream of configuration data into internal configuration memory cells (for example, volatile or non-volatile memory cells) that define how the configurable elements are configured. For example, in the case of a CLB, for one set of configuration data a first logic circuit is formed and for a second set of configuration data a second logic circuit is formed. The configuration data can be read from memory (e.g., from an external PROM) or written into the FPGA by an external device. The collective states of the individual memory cells then determine the function of the FPGA.
FIG. 1 is a simplified illustration of an exemplary FPGA. The FPGA of FIG. 1 includes an array of programmable logic blocks ("LBs") 11a through 11i and input/output circuit elements ("I/Os") 12a through 12d. The LBs and I/O sections are interconnected by a programmable interconnect structure that includes a large number of interconnect lines 13 interconnected by programmable interconnect points ("PIPs") 14, which are shown as small circles in FIG. 1. PIPs 14 are often coupled into groups, such as group 15, that implement multiplexer circuits selecting one of several interconnect lines to provide a signal to a destination interconnect line or logic block.
I/Os 12a through 12d can include input/output blocks (IOBs) and high speed transceivers. I/Os 12a through 12d form a perimeter input/output ring having, for example, I/O rows 12a and 12c and I/O columns 12b and 12d. In a conventional FPGA such as Virtex™-II FPGA from Xilinx, Inc., of San Jose, Calif. or Stratix® II device from Altera, Inc., the I/O blocks are located exclusively in the perimeter region of the FPGA, as illustrated by I/Os 12a, 12b, 12c, and 12d of FIG. 1.
The LBs can include configurable logic blocks (CLBs) having look-up-tables, block random access memories (BRAMs), digital signal processing (DSP) blocks, and the like. Typically, the LBs are arranged in partial columns of the same type, for example a partial column of CLBs that may include LBs 11a, 11d, and 11g. The term partial column is used because in FIG. 1 the top and bottom of, for example, the column having LBs 11a, 11d, and 11g, are I/Os 12a and 12c, respectively.
While FPGAs offer much flexibility, they typically have less performance and cost more than an application-specific integrated circuit ("ASIC"). An ASIC is an integrated circuit ("IC") customized for a particular use, rather than intended for general-purpose use, like an FPGA. Thus, in the past, an FPGA was used for prototyping a design for a particular use and then when the design was verified, the FPGA design was converted to an ASIC for production.
Another variation on this approach, namely of using an FPGA as a prototype and ASICs for production, used the structured ASIC. In a structured ASIC, the logic mask-layers of a device are predefined by the ASIC vendor; in other words, blocks of logic have their transistors already wired together forming gates along with some combination of multiplexers, flip/flops, look up tables, RAMs, and the like. Design customization is achieved by creating custom metal layers that create custom connections between the above-described predefined lower-layer logic elements.
Thus, the Altera Hardcopy™ devices as described in the Hardcopy Series Handbook, Volume 1, pp. 2-1 to 2-7 and 6-1 to 6-10, Copyright 2005 from Altera Inc., allegedly convert a circuit design in an FPGA such as illustrated in FIG. 1 to a structured ASIC design with the same functionality as the FPGA implementation. Basically, the reprogrammable FPGA logic and routing, including the configuration memory and configuration related logic, are stripped from the structured ASIC. Thus, for example, all FPGA programmable and configuration resources may be replaced with direct metal connections, hence there should be a reduction in die size and cost. The structured ASIC also has an I/O perimeter ring, and the I/O features between the FPGA and structured ASIC design are the same. One disadvantage of the structured ASIC is that the DSP block functions are implemented using logic blocks known as HCells (which are also used to implement the CLBs) rather than dedicated DSP blocks. Thus, any advantages due to the customization of the dedicated DSP blocks are lost.
The perimeter I/O ring of the FPGA of FIG. 1 generally means that input/output circuit elements need to be confined to a perimeter region and cannot be in the interior of the IC. The disadvantage of this configuration is that with flip-chip technology, I/O circuit elements can be located in the interior region of the IC. An example is the Virtex-4 columnar architecture FPGA from Xilinx, Inc., which has no perimeter I/O ring, but has I/O circuit elements in one or more columns.
Accordingly, it would be both desirable and useful to provide a columnar application specific circuitry architected design premised on a columnar programmable logic device.

Formation of columnar application specific circuitry using a columnar programmable logic device


An alkaline detergent is described which includes the use of polycarboxylic acid copolymers or salts thereof in combination with alkali metal hydroxide. The detergent composition reduces spotting and filming and prevents hard water scale accumulation between 145-180 degrees Fahrenheit and with a pH of 10.5 to about 13.

The level of hardness in water can have a deleterious effect in many cleaning applications. For example, when hard water alone, or in conjunction with cleaning compositions, contacts a surface, it can cause precipitation of hard water scale on the contacted surface. Scaling is the precipitation of a salt from solution that is supersaturated with respect to the salt. In general, hard water refers to water having a total level of calcium and magnesium ions in excess of about 100 ppm expressed in units of ppm calcium carbonate. Often, the molar ratio of calcium to magnesium in hard water is about 2:1 or about 3:1. The level of water hardness and ratio of calcium to magnesium are influenced by many factors such as geographic location, soil quality, pollutants and pH.
Hard water is also known to reduce the efficacy of conventional alkaline detergents used in the vehicle care, warewashing and laundry industries. One method for counteracting this includes adding chelating agents or sequestrants into detersive compositions that are intended to be mixed with hard water in an amount sufficient to handle the hardness. However, in many instances the water hardness exceeds the chelating capacity of the composition. As a result, free calcium ions may be available to cause precipitation, or to attack active components of the composition causing other deleterious effects, such as poor cleaning effectiveness or lime scale build up.
Alkaline detergents, particularly those intended for institutional and commercial use, generally contain phosphates, nitrilotriacetic acid (NTA) or ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) as a sequestering agent to sequester metal ions associated with hard water such as calcium, magnesium and iron and also to remove soils.
In particular, NTA, EDTA or polyphosphates such as sodium tripolyphosphate and their salts are used in detergents because of their ability to solubilize preexisting inorganic salts and/or soils. When calcium and/or magnesium salts precipitate, the crystals may attach to the surface being cleaned and cause undesirable effects. For example, calcium carbonate precipitation on the surface of ware can negatively impact the aesthetic appearance of the ware, giving an unclean look. The ability of NTA, EDTA and polyphosphates to remove metal ions facilitates the detergency of the solution by preventing hardness precipitation, assisting in soil removal and/or preventing soil redeposition during the wash process.
While effective, phosphates and NTA are subject to government regulations due to environmental and health concerns. Although EDTA is not currently regulated, it is believed that government regulations may be implemented in the future due to environmental persistence. There is therefore a need in the art for an alternative, and preferably environment friendly, cleaning composition that can reduce the content of phosphorous-containing compounds such as phosphates, phosphonates, phosphites, and phosphinates, as well as persistent aminocarboxylates such as NTA and EDTA.
Accordingly it is an object herein to provide an improved process for the prevention of scale in alkaline cleaning such as that used in ware washing, hard surface or CIP cleaning, car washing, instrument cleaning, boiler or cooling tower cleaning, laundry cleaning and the like.
It is another object to provide scale control compositions that may be used in conjunction with a cleaning composition for prevention of scale deposits not only on surfaces to be cleaned, but also on the cleaning machine components themselves.
Other objects, aspects and advantages of this invention will be apparent to one skilled in the art in view of the following disclosure, the drawings, and the appended claims.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Detergent composition comprising alkali metal hydroxide and methods of modifying a surface


Systems and methods for managing a collaborative environment are provided. A plurality of sheets is stored in a collaboration system. The collaboration system tracks user interactions with the plurality of sheets and generates a collaboration graph based on the interactions. The collaboration graph is analyzed to determine similarities between the sheets and/or the users. One or more visualizations are generated based on the collaboration graph and the determined similarities. In some embodiments, the collaboration system is able to provide project management information even for dynamic workflows that are not explicitly defined.

Management software tools (including project management, work collaboration, and work coordination software tools) permit users to collaborate on tasks and to track task status. Many management software tools identify and store assets such as documents, which are the objects of or used for the completion of tasks. Some management software tools also provide for the review tasks from an operations management point of view in order to efficiently assign, approve and route task steps. These tools further provide a means of managing the workflow to of an organization, including notifications, approvals, and achievement of milestones such as due dates, document completion, submissions, and so forth.
One typical type of management software tool is a structured project management tool such as Microsoft® Project® and its many competitors. Structured project management tools track key project steps using calendar, task lists, notifications, and workflows focused on item completion. Another typical type of management software tool is a team task management tool, such as Asana, which is configured to coordinate user communications and work assignments around specific tasks tracked by the tool. Yet another type of management software tool is a social collaboration tool which hosts threaded discussions around a topic or set of related topics. Document sharing and management tools are also used as management software tools. Document sharing and management tools capture documents from various sources in an enterprise (e.g., web form, fax, print, scan) and direct them to business workflows (insurance form processing, sales, etc.). Custom-purpose tools directed to specific organizations and tasks, of which there are myriad examples across business disciplines, are also used as management software tools. These custom-purpose tools are directed to particular tasks, including but not limited to insurance form processing, HR/recruiting process, sales channel communications, sales contact management, trade show planning, etc.
In working with management software tools, users often adopt additional tools which add complementary data to the task elements tracked by the management software tools. Examples, without limitation, include financial tools (such as budget creation and expense tracking), managerial tools (such as staff time allocations and tracking), human resource record management tools (such as training, level, job description) and training materials which document the proper workflow and instructions for tasks.
Much of this information uses intensive cross-referencing of data resources and communication between users to complete tasks. The application of standard reporting tools for graphical visualization of a user's tasks and relationships with others within a project (within an organization or external to an organization) create results which are difficult to interpret when rich data resources, often of multiple types, are incorporated in the analysis. It is also the case that the evolution of projects, and individual participation in them, is difficult to track, whether as a snapshot at a given point in time or in terms of participation over time.
To that end, a more dynamic, interactive tool to visualize an individual user's work and the other individuals, groups and organizations to which their work is connected is desirable.

Systems and methods for analyzing electronic communications to dynamically improve efficiency and visualization of collaborative work environments


An article useful in laser-effected surgery and therapy on humans and animals which reduces or eliminates undesired exposure of said humans, animals and other articles to said lasers comprising. (a) a first member proximal to the laser source comprising a xerogel comprising at least one hydrophilic water-insoluble polymer; PA0 (b) a second, backing member; PA0 (c) water;. wherein, if desired, said xeogel layer further comprises at least one additive selected from the group consisting of pharmaceutically acceptable salts, colorants, including pigments, and medications.. The invention further comprises an article comprising at least one metallic layer disposed between said xerogel and backing members the proximal surface of said metallic layer being reflective or non-reflective of the laser beams as required.. If desired adhesives may also be disposed between the layers of the article and/or between the article and the surface to be protected.

This invention relates to articles for the prevention of undesired exposure of humans, animals and articles to laser beams. More particularly, it relates to protective barriers such as protective clothing, sheaths for instruments, surgical drapes, endotracheal tubes, vaginal dilators and the like, for use in or during laser-effected surgery or therapy which are useful in the protection of such humans, animals and articles from said undesired exposure to said lasers, said barriers being comprised of hydrophilic xerogels or hydrogels and, if desired, additional additives such as salts, colorants, pigments and medications.
Lasers have recently made a significant breakthrough as a preferred, in some, and the only modality, in other surgical and therapeutic areas. These areas of increasing use of lasers in surgery and other treatments include, e.g., otolaryngology, gynecology and ophthalmology.
Amongst the main advantages of lasers, in surgery, are their ability to incise and/or remove precisely controlled areas of tissue while permitting visual assessment of the procedure through use of an operating microscope. This visual assessment is facilitated by reduction of bleeding and absence of other instrumentation, which might block the surgeon's view, in laser surgery when compared to conventional surgical techniques.
Furthermore, if the blood vessels are sufficiently small they are sealed, by the laser, after incision. If some bleeding were to occur, for instance, in the case of larger blood vessels it can be efficiently stopped by coagulation using a defocused beam, the defocusing being accomplished by partial retraction of the focusing tip, i.e., by increasing the working distance of the laser beam.
Additional advantages of using lasers in surgery are the limitation of the area of undesirable tissue destruction and the zone of devitalized tissue, fewer post-operative complications and less post-operative pain and scar formation which might hinder healing. As a consequence hospitalization time is reduced.
Nevertheless, the use of lasers, in medical treatments and surgery, is not without disadvantages and hazards, chief among which are the danger of fire and the destruction of viable tissue on the margins, or periphery, of the operative site.
As a consequence normal drape procedures commonly used in laser surgery and treatment are of limited value and potentially dangerous. For instance, a fire hazard is especially present when wet Cottonoids (cotton gauze pads wet with saline) which are used to protect the surrounding tissues and organs from exposure to extraneous laser beams, whether direct or reflected, dry out and ignite due to the high inflammability of dry cotton or cellulosics. This is an always present danger due to the high levels of energy associated with laser beams. Thus, it is necessary for the surgical team to be constantly aware of that possibility and to keep the gauze moistened at all times.
Yet other problems arise in the use of drapes on compound surfaces, i.e. surfaces that are not smooth but rather have cavities and ridges, whereby the usual drapes do not conform to the surface topography thereby permitting gaps to be formed between the tissue surface and drape. These gaps permit the gathering of gases and/or heat therein which ultimately result in undesirable tissue damage.
Furthermore, stray beams may impinge on personnel and articles within the operating arena with concomitant damage thereto, e.g., burning the skin of said personnel, charring of clothing, melting of plastic articles, ignition of flammable materials, overheating of equipment, and the like. A. H. Andrews, Jr., and Polanyi, T. G., "Hazards and Safety Considerations When Using the CO.sub.2 Laser" in A. G. Andrews, Jr. (ed.): Microscopic and Endoscopic Surgery With the CO.sub.2 Laser, Boston, MA., John Wright-PSG, Inc., pp75-6, 1982.
An additional aspect of the fire hazard is that the laser beam will burn through most plastics or rubbers of which tubes for insertion into body cavities, e.g., endotracheal tubes and vaginal drapes or dilators, are constructed. Thus, the use of plastic or most rubber endotracheal tubes is usually contraindicated when surgery employing lasers is contemplated. Therefore red rubber tubing or steel, which are less sensitive to lasers, are used, e.g., in the construction of endotracheal tubes. However, because endotracheal tubes prepared from such materials lack built-in cuffs, they do not make completely air-tight seals with the organ walls. To get around that problem it has been necessary to place a separable, inflatable cuff over the distal end of the tube which has, therefore, resulted in the addition of a balloon-filling tube, passed through the larynx, to an already crowded lumen. Furthermore, if the beam impacts upon such a cuff it usually creates a hole or holes therein whereby the inflating medium escapes with a resultant deflation of the cuff and undesirable and potentially dangerous mixing of the environments normally separated by the cuff.
A method to prevent such an occurrence by disposing a thermal shield, comprising a plurality of laser-reflecting petals extending from the outer walls of said tubes to the inner walls of the cavity, between the cuff and the portion of the cavity wherein the surgery or treatment is to be performed, is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 4,378,796.
However, as the above shield functions by "reflecting" the laser beam its use would be diadvantageous to the patient in that the reflected beam may then impact upon healthy tissue, rather than on the surgical site, with deleterious effects thereto.
Additional protection against such undesired impact by the "laser beam [may be provided] by wrapping the tube with an aluminum adhesive tape". . . However, [a]lthough the aluminum tape provides protection, it should not be relied on heavily. . . The tape is only a safety factor and is not absolute." Ibid, p. 77.
Another problem, the destruction of viable tissue near the operative site is due to the fact that, during surgery using lasers, it is often impossible to concentrate the laser exactly and exclusively on the surgical site. For instance, the incident beam may have a larger diameter than the surgical site or part of the beam may be dispersed or reflected, although at a lower intensity, to a distance from the surgical site. This results in undesirable destruction of healthy tissue at the periphery of, and/or at a distance from, the surgical site. The damage occurs in the same manner as the surgery is effected, i.e., by ablative removal of the water (about 90%) and organic matter of which the tissue is comprised.
It has now been found that the articles of the instant invention obviate the above problems thereby providing for enhanced protection of humans, animals and articles during laser-effected surgery and treatments whereby healing of the wounds is facilitated.

Articles for protection of living tissues


Disclosed are techniques for the creation, communication, negotiation, and storage of promotion events between trading partners. A promotion event is managed between a retailer and a vendor each having an associated computer in communication with a data network. The promotion event is defined to include terms, including an event description and a designated items description. The terms are situated in fields of a promotion event record. The designated items description is matched to a list of items stored in an item table. This list of items is authorized for sale by the retailer. A validation operation includes determining whether the fields in the promotion event record conform to requirements of a deal sheet associated with the retailer. The promotion event record is stored as a deal in a deal transaction storage medium. The retailer computer is provided with read access to the stored deal. The retailer can then negotiate the stored deal with the vendor. The vendor can revise the terms of the stored deal as desired. Further negotiation can occur until the deal is accepted.

Manufacturers, wholesalers, suppliers, distributors, and other types of vendors in a supply chain communicate the attributes and terms of any items offered for purchase through the exchange of business forms, each of which is unique to the specific retailer. Of these several processes of communication, there is an especial and complex effort to promote products to retailers and encourage sell-through to the consumer by offering the retailers a complex assortment of discounts, allowances, payments, terms, and performance incentives. Examples of these promotion schemes include reducing the price per case of a product, funding an advertising event, and conditional payment based on sales. However, many vendors and retailers (e.g., grocers) of consumer packaged goods (CPG) consider these promotions their primary management and spending problem. The more money vendors invest in promotions, the greater the number of individual promotions, and the greater the burden of keeping the paperwork in order. Each deal imposes a variety of transaction costs on the trading partners. These costs include completing tens of millions of deal sheets, planning and negotiating each deal's terms, auditing performance, and reconciling payments. For retailers, these costs often limit consumer pass through to half the value offered by the promotion.
The direct costs of promotions are a substantial and material portion of the manufacturer's costs, often amounting to 15% of sales. In addition, manufacturers incur material costs meeting an individual retailer's business process requirements for the creation, dissemination, negotiation and documentation of promotions. Manufacturers are also obliged to offer promotions to their retailers in compliance with federal and state anti-trust regulations, such as the Robinson-Patman Act.
Retailers compete for the promotions and payment terms offered by their vendors. For retailers, promotions are an important and profitable merchandising tool. For example, grocers often earn up to 40% of their net income through promotional programs. Generally, the value of the promotions retailers receive can be equal to 10% or more of their sales. However, retailers also incur material costs associated with managing their business processes for promotions. These costs are commonly as high as 5% of their sales. Similar to their vendors, retailer participation in promotions is also subject to antitrust regulations, including the Robinson-Patman Act.
Retailers and their supply chain trading partners are also required, as applicable, to satisfy accounting and reporting requirements, including Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) directives, SEC and other stock exchange regulations, and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. These rules and regulations require companies to document the terms of their promotions, adjust sales and costs of goods sold according to the terms of each promotion, administer internal financial controls and certify the accuracy of their financial reports. The value of the promotion is a material modification of the listed prices for the promoted products; therefore, compliance with financial regulations is dependent upon scrupulous documentation of any promotions.
In current practice, documented promotions are considered by retailers to be binding commitments of the vendors to comply with the terms of the promotion; however, retailers usually do not commit themselves as counterparties to a contract through the process of negotiating a promotion. Retailers may or may not undertake to fulfill any performance required of them by the terms of the promotion in order to earn any allowance, payment or incentive negotiated with a vendor. Consequently, retailers and their trading partners must subsequently determine and agree whether or not a retailer has met the burdens of performance required to earn the benefits offered per terms of a promotion. The quality of this process of auditing and reconciliation is critically dependent upon the quality and consistency of the trading partners' sources of information documenting their promotions. Given the limitations of conventional systems and methods for managing the business processes associated with promotions, the auditing and reconciliation process is time consuming, often requiring years to achieve a final reconciliation. It is frequently a source of controversy and mistrust between trading partners.
There are several systematic and methodical approaches to the current art of managing promotion business processes. In one approach, the vendor uses an EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) protocol and means of EDI messaging, such as a Virtual Private Network to communicate the terms of a promotion to a retailer. The trading partners may thereafter negotiate final terms requiring the vendor to submit an amended EDI document. The limitation of this system is that the EDI protocol supports a small fraction of the diverse types of promotions commonly offered. Additionally, EDI systems are costly and not widely used. They have been adopted by less than 10% of the retail supply chain members.
In another conventional approach, the retailer provides its vendors with a multi-page carbon paper form. Vendors must complete this form to document their offers of any promotions. In the event of any negotiated changes to the terms of the promotion, the vendor submits an additional revised paper form. When paper forms are used, the workload and organizational requirements of manual submission and processing of millions of paper forms for various promotions are unmanageable, inefficient, and a source of friction between trading partners. Problems include heavy administrative burdens (filing, storing, retrieving), keypunch and other input costs, data entry errors, duplicated effort (i.e. missing items on deals, wrong dates), limited access to information, and missed promotional monies. In addition, with all of the paper shuffling, offers or requests for promotions can be entirely missed.
In another conventional approach, the retailer provides its vendor with an Excel template form. The process of managing Excel template forms is otherwise similar to the process of managing carbon paper forms.
In yet another conventional approach, a retailer adopts proprietary software presenting the vendors an interface requiring the vendor to input the terms of the promotion into the data fields of the interface. This software may be offered to the vendors for installation on their own computers, or, the retailers may present the interface through kiosks that are accessible to their vendors. As applicable, vendors may be required to retransmit promotion terms.
In addition, conventional techniques of retail supply chain communications may be predicated upon the abandonment of the unique and company specific data standards and forms that characterize the accepted processes in favor of a common industry standard, or, in favor of some other proprietary standard based upon a shared data type definition and transaction set that may be applied piecemeal to such companies. For instance, one conventional technique attempts to standardize a portion of the attributes that characterize an item, such as its color or weight. Conventional approaches do not provide any such standard for the communication of prices or promotions.
Each of the above-mentioned approaches to promotion management is considered by persons knowledgeable in the field to be limited and suboptimal in consideration of recent growth in the number of promotions, increasing complexity of the terms of promotions, and new regulatory requirements. In addition, none of these approaches directly supports the interactive negotiations that are a necessary process within the overall process for managing the promotion business process. The above-mentioned approaches may also suffer from suboptimal security, authentication of trading partners, and legal enforceability of any output documents. And in some cases, the techniques employed do not contribute to a shared record or other mutual understanding of the promotion terms negotiated between the trading partners.

International Business Machines Corporation


Construction methods and clip apparatus for joining or repairing wall or ceiling panels such as sheet rock, gypsum boards, plywood, or other generally planar wall panels. The clip is enables permanent edgewise joining of wallboard panels, ceiling panels, or the like at any desired position along the length of the wall frame or ceiling framework independent of framing back- up studs or joists. A plurality of metallic clips unite to provide an edgewise mechanical bond between adjacent panel edges by creating an artificial backing in wall regions having no studs or support columns. A preferred clip comprises a generally planar, elongated body having a pair of parallel reinforcement grooves, and body is preferably stamped from metal stock and selectively perforated. A pair of integral, spaced apart, prong-like spring tab structures formed on opposite sides of the clip body initially grasp the edges of a panel. Each spring tab includes an integral, upwardly extending vertical portion disposed substantially perpendicularly to the body and an integral, arcuate, substantially horizontal flange portion. The flange portion is separated from its vertical companion by a weakened, scored tear edge which permits manual removal of the flange by appropriate bending after clip installation. The spring tabs project toward the clip front to maximize the working area of the clip body available for fastening to the second or later panels. A pair of opposing riser wings extend upwardly from either side of the front body portion. When installed, the wallboard paneel is contacted by the riser wings and retained at an angular disposition relative to the next adjacent panel, to insure a smooth, gap-free seam.

The present invention relates generally to apparatus and method for joining wall or ceiling panels such as gypsum wallboard or drywall. More particularly, the present invention relates to an improved fastener clip and a method for applying the clip for permanently joining the edges of wallboard panels, ceiling panels, or the like at any desired position along the length of the wall frame or ceiling framework independent of framing back-up studs or joists.
As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art of wall construction, conventional "drywall" gypsum wall boards of four-foot width are customarily nailed, screwed, or stapled to a substructure of vertical framing studs typically constructed of wooden two-by-fours spaced apart at sixteen or twenty-four inch intervals. Using conventional methods of wall construction a builder will typically align one edge of the wallboard with the central axis of a framing stud. In the application of gypsum panels in the vertical plane walls it is customary to measure the distance from one end of the panel to the middle of the stationary backing nearest the other end of the panel. The panel is then cut back to the middle of the stud. Thus the next panel can be attached to the same stud and the procedure repeats itself. When the board is thus correctly positioned, it will be permanently fastened to the stud upon any one of a wide variety of conventional fasteners, such as clamps, nails, screws, clips, or the like. The wallboard will typically be extended over to meet the central axis of the next proximate vertical framing stud, where the center of the board will be similarly permanently fastened. Thus wallboard widths of eight, ten, twelve, fourteen etc. feet will extend between many of the vertical studs spaced at twenty-four inches or sixteen inches.
The fastening of conventional wall panels would entail no particular difficulty or waste where the framing stud spacing "matches" standard factory gypsum dimensions. However, it is almost always necessary to space the framing studs closer together on irregular or shortened walls, on cathedral ceilings, at corners, and about doors. In such instances, the wallboard panel is fastened at one edge to the center of a vertical stud and extended across the frame to the next proximate studs. Any length of panel which extends beyond the center of the last proximate stud will then be cut away from the board and simply discarded. As a result, more time is required, and a substantial amount of wallboard material is also wasted, which results in higher costs. Moreover, the discarded scrap material is virtually never profitably reclaimed.
Typically, adjacent panels are placed in edge-to-edge abutment and carefully aligned to create the appearance of a smooth, uniform wall surface. Small intermediate gaps or air spaces often remain in the seams between the edges of adjacent panels as a result of rough, uneven cutting or improper alignment of panels. Even when the seams are filled, floated, and taped, some visually detectable irregularity in the resulting wall surface almost inevitably results. Such irregularities are particularly noticeable along long expansions of wall surface such as in corridors, conference centers or other large rooms, or on vaulted ceilings. Correction of the defect normally requires a great deal more additional effort time, and expense than is economically justifiable.
The repair of damaged wallboards or the opening and removal of an inspection plate requires that a complete section of the wallboard be removed. It is very difficult for replacement sections or strips to be thereafter properly fastened in place when no stud or ceiling joist is readily proximate for anchoring or backup.
Prior art panel fastener devices known to me fail to address the desirability of joining wallboard panels together along the expanse of the frame where no vertical framing studs are disposed. Representative of the broad prior art panel fasteners which are adapted to be fastened to vertical studs are U.S. Pat. No. 4,127,975, issued to Judkins on Dec. 5, 1978; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,333,286, issued to Weinar on June 8, 1982. The earlier fastener system described in Judkins, 4,127,975, comprises a rigid clip adapted to anchor the edges of prefinished wall board panels to steel or framing studs. The Judkins clip includes a pair of sharpened points which are adapted to penetrate the hard interior gypsum of the wallboard.
However, the '975 fastener cannot be used to join panel edges independent of a supporting stud or joist. Moreover a special application tool is normally required to provide sufficient driving force to penetrate the gypsum board.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,448,007, issued to Adams on May 15, 1984 discloses a panel fastener comprising an elongated body portion having a pair of rigid prongs or tabs adapted to forcibly penetrate and anchor into the wallboard panel. Swiss patent CH-610-386, issued Dec. 4, 1979 to Sabes discloses a panel clip adapted for use in conjunction with the assembly of tongue-and-groove panels. The clip includes angular teeth adapted to engage the panel board to prevent slippage.
Swenson, U.S. Pat. No. 2,799,058, issued July 16, 1957, teaches a method of fastening tongue-and-groove panels which facilitates construction of the panels in either edge-to-edge abutment or in overlapping relationship. The fastener disclosed therein includes a flattened body portion having pairs of interconnecting flanges. A screw-receptive mounting orifice is provided for anchoring the fastener into a supporting back-up wall surface. A similar panel construction system is disclosed by Hawes, U.S. Pat. No. 4,958,388. The Hawes system includes a multiplicity of fastener clamps designed to create a dovetail mortise.
One prior art method and apparatus for joining panel edges is described by Bains, U.S. Pat. No. 4,363,201, issued Dec. 14, 1982. Bains provides a pair of channel members which are permanently fastened to a vertical stud upon insulative spacer members. The reference fails to provide means or apparatus for joining panels independent of vertical studs or similar framing members. Other similar prior art systems of somewhat lesser relevance are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,308,590; 3,038,276; 3,529,918; and, 4,366,660. Finally a variety of other wallboard fasteners or clips exist in the prior art which are used for securing wallboards to framing members at corners. Among such prior art devices known to me are the clip of Conville U.S. Pat. No. 3,881,293, issued May 6, 1975; of Adams, U.S. Pat. No. 4,498,272 issued Feb. 12, 1985; U.S. Pat. 3,688,459, issued to Mattix on Sept. 5, 1972; and Anderson, U.S. Pat. No. 2,317,428, issued Apr. 27, 1943.
The device disclosed by Metz, U.S. Pat. No. 3,289,374, is adapted for use in the repair of plaster walls The device comprises a box adapted to be fastened to the back of the damaged wall to support a plaster patch. The device is securely fastened in place by a multiplicity of integral angular brackets.
None of the prior art systems known to me provides means for properly fastening wallboard or ceiling panels independently of supportive framing members. Moreover, none of the prior art systems of which I am aware provide or suggest means for conveniently temporarily fastening panels in position to permit the worker freedom of movement to assure proper alignment before fastening. Neither do the prior art devices known to me disclose or suggest means for effectively securing a patch or a section of panel to an existing panel member independently of framing members. A further disadvantage of the known prior art panel fastening techniques is that none provides means to completely close the intermediate air spaces or gaps between adjacent panel edges to create a desirable smooth, even wall surface.
Certain prior art dry wall repair kits do exist however, and two known kits are sold under the trademarks PRO PATCH and THE WALL DOCTOR. Both kits require the cutting of an appropriately dimensioned orifice in the damaged wallboard prior to fitting of a repair piece. And, in both instances, the repair piece is cemented or "glued and taped" in place without the use of any appropriate anchoring clips or fasteners. Without appropriate edgewise peripheral bracing, the repair panels or inserts fail to rigidly unite with the repaired wall board and noticeable misalignment may be occur.

Panel fastener clip and method of panel assembly


A modular launch-cell system for a launch vehicle. The method includes a number of launch-cells, a base and an upper attachment arrangement. The launch-cells include a missile and are arranged in a structure which includes a number of layers, each of the layer includes two or more launch cells. The launch-cells are substantially directly reversibly mechanically connected to the base. One of the launch-cells includes a lower attachment arrangement configured for reversibly mechanically connecting one launch-cell to one or more of the base and another of the launch-cells disposed below the one launch-cell. The upper arrangement is designed for reversibly mechanically connecting one launch-cell to another of the launch-cells disposed above the one launch-cell.

The present invention relates to a launch-cell system and, in particular, it concerns a modular launch-cell system.
Of most relevance to the present invention is U.S. Pat. No. 6,125,734 to Yagla, which teaches a modular horizontal launch-cell system. A modular frame structure is assembled to create the launch-cell system. Individual launchable devices can then be inserted into canisters. The canisters are then inserted horizontally into the frame structure. A shortcoming of the aforementioned system is due to the requirement of a frame structure which adds to the bulk, expense and complexity of the system and complicates the loading and unloading process, requiring a horizontal insertion of the canisters.
Also of relevance to the present invention is U.S. Pat. No. 5,682,005 to Crowley, U.S. Pat. No. 6,691,600 to Boudreau, et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 5,452,640 to Bovee, et al. These patents teach inserting launch-cells into a container at the location from where the missiles are to be launched. Bovee, et al. also teaches vertically mounting individual missiles to a base alongside a launch-cell container. A shortcoming of the aforementioned systems is that the launch-cells need to be individually loaded by the soldiers at the battlefield.
There is therefore a need for a launch-cell system, which can be assembled off-site, easily transported to the battlefield, protects the launch-cells from rough handling, which therefore eliminates the need to stiffen each launch-cell against rough handling and does not require soldiers to individually handle the launch-cells at the battle field.

Rafael-Armament Development Authority Ltd.


An image presentation card, comprising an image holder, constructed of a transparent sheet of polypropylene plastic. The plastic is bent twice, to form an image holder tab that is backed with pressure sensitive adhesive, and to form an image holder back, which is wrapped around behind the image and tucked into the image holder tab, for holding a ultrasound image within. The pressure sensitive adhesive that backs the image holder tab is used to mount the image holder to a mounting surface. The mounting surface comprises a window opposite the location where the image holder is mounted, so that the mounting surface may be bent, covering the image, except for a cropped portion that can be viewed through the window. The mounting surface may be further bent, to form a cover that can cover the window completely, to protect the image from light.

The invention relates to an image presentation card, specifically adapted for protecting and presenting typically a fetal ultrasound image.
A fetal ultrasound is a common procedure in modern pre-natal care. Following the procedure, the OB/GYN physician often gives the parents a printout image from the ultrasound. This gesture is often well appreciated by the parents, who then wish to preserve it as a keepsake in their baby's scrapbook.
The paper that the image is printed on is thermographic paper, which is similar to fax paper. This paper is thin, and has a tendency to curl and crease. In addition, when the print paper comes into contact with acidic materials, or experiences heat, pressure or light for a sustained period of time, the image will dissipate.
The volatility of the image creates special storage problems for parents who wish to maintain it as a keepsake.


A golf club is disclosed which comprises a hollow shaft and a club head, at least a portion of which is hollow and in communication with the hollow shaft. A portion of the shaft defining a reservoir to carry a supply of fluent weight material in a valve for permitting the flow of the weight material into and out of the club head for changing the weight of the club head.

When playing golf, it is desirable to select a golf club which has playing characteristics best suited to the shot to be played, e.g. a lofted club to lift the ball from the rough or to pitch the ball onto a green. However, having selected the correct club, the playing conditions on the day may affect the shot played; eg in wet conditions, a heavier weighted club head would produce the same resulting shot as a lighter club head in fine conditions.
The rules of golf as published by The Royal and Ancient Club of ST.Andrews are very precise on the nature of implements that are used for playing golf. Many features of a golf club may not be altered within the rules. The only characteristic of a golf club that may be altered within these rules is the weight of a golf club.
There are some known golf clubs which have attempted to incorporate a weight-adjustment means as a feature of the club either by providing replaceable inserts of different weights or a series of washers for securing to the head by eg a polygonal pin Key.
These items for weight adjustment require physical removal or addition, also the exercise is time consuming and requires care. The present invention aims to obviate, or mitigate the above disadvantages associated with the above described clubs.


A sensor for detecting acoustic energy emitted by a target is disclosed. The sensor comprises a housing including a plurality of transducers for receiving acoustic energy. The transducers are randomly deployed within a predetermined area around the housing, forming an array and a self-survey technique is utilized to determine the positions of the sensors. Beamforming techniques are utilized to analyze the acoustic energy detected by the transducers to provide the azimuth of a target and a class estimate of the target. A plurality of sensors may be utilized to provide target location, course and velocity.

Previously, air acoustic sensors have been utilized to form arrays and provide azimuth estimates of sound sources. However, these systems require either large mechanical devices for fixed arrays or do not provide a compact deployable unit which produces accurate results.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,208,738 by Lamborn relates to a deployable sonar array with interconnected transducers including a housing with electronics where the transducers are released when the housing is launched.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,027,333 to Hailing is directed to an acoustic array including a plurality of the transducing elements which are free floating.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,559,605 to Norsworthy relates to beamforming method utilizing a number of sensing elements which take up random positions where the relative positions of the elements are determined using triangulation.
Also, a device known as Smart Standoff Mine Active Countermeasures (SSMAC) beamformer utilizes mechanical deployment of a complex shaped predetermined array to employ beamforming techniques.
Consequently, a need remains for a compact, easily deployable system where transducers are randomly dispersed and a coordinate system may be formed so that accurate azimuth outputs and target class estimates are obtained from advanced beamforming techniques. The present invention eliminates physical constraints in transducer locations allowing use of larger arrays with a greater number of transducers which results in significant performance improvement.


A multiple rod assembly for multipole mass spectrometers in which the rods are supported in cooperative aligned relationship by ceramic rings with metal rings and brackets.

Quadrapole mass spectrometers are well known in the art. Generally they employ four parallel rods with suitable AC and/or DC voltages applied between pairs of the rods to generate shaped electric fields in the area between the rods. A beam of charged particles to be analyzed is injected into the electric field at one end of the rods. The electric fields serve to filter the particles whereby only particles of selected mass-to-charge ratio exit from the other end. The mass-to-charge ratio, which is passed is determined by the voltages applied to the rods. The particles exiting the rods are detected and an output signal is generated. By scanning the voltages, the output signal represents a spectrum of the masses which are present in the input beam.
In quadrapole mass spectrometers the selectivity and sensitivity of the mass spectrometer is critically dependent upon accurately spacing the rods from one another in both the circumferential and radial directions. In present practice the rods are supported by ceramic mounts located near each end of the rods. The ceramic mounts are machined to provide grooves which receive the rods. The rods are secured to the ceramic mounts by screws. The screws extend through holes in the ceramic mount and into tapped holes in the rods. Machining required both for the ceramic mount and the tapped holes is relatively expensive and is critical to the proper mounting of the rods. Pairs of rods are then interconnected by metal straps or conductors. Hexapole and octapole mass spectrometers are also known. The rod mounts in such mass spectrometers are substantially more complicated and the accuracy of positioning is more critical.

Rod assembly for multipole mass spectrometers


A molded plastic tubular coupling including a plastic sleeve having an integral head at one end. The sleeve provides a cylindrical outer surface to engage in a corresponding bore of another component. The cylindrical outer surface has an encircling annular recess and an integral radially extending flexible annular diaphragm formed in the recess. The diaphragm has an outer periphery extending outwardly from the cylindrical surface to engage and grip the corresponding surface of another component.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to moulded plastics tubular couplings and is particularly although not exclusively applicable to tube end supports for locating a tube end in a tube coupling.
2. Background Prior Art
My European Patent Publication No. 0756126 discloses a tube coupling comprising a coupling body having a throughway open at one end to receive a tube, the diameter of the throughway increasing towards said open end at a first step to form a first enlarged diameter portion to receive a tube and a second step to form a second enlarged diameter portion to receive a tube locking device to hold a tube in the coupling body. A thin wall sleeve has one end engageable in the throughway and the other engageable in the tube to be located in the coupling body so that, in use, the sleeve extends from the tube past the first step into the throughway. The sleeve has a sealing engagement with the internal diameter of the tube to prevent leakage between the sleeve and tube and the end of the sleeve projecting from the tube has an annular seal with seals with the throughway in the coupling body to prevent leakage between the sleeve and coupling body.
My European Patent Application No. 99308504.2 discloses a tube end support for locating a tube end in a tube coupling, comprising a sleeve to be received in a tube, an encircling end stop adjacent one end of the sleeve to limit entry of the sleeve into the tube, encircling gripper means on the sleeve to grip on the internal diameter of a tube to hold the tube on the sleeve and a separate annular seal supported by the end and projecting radially outwardly thereof to seal with the internal diameter of a tube coupling in which the assembly of the end support and tube are located.
This invention provides a moulded plastics tubular coupling having a cylindrical surface to engage with a corresponding surface of another component, the surface having an annular recess therein and a flexible annular diaphragm formed in the recess integrally with the coupling and having an outer periphery extending proud of the cylindrical surface to engage and grip the corresponding surface of another component.
In one construction according to the invention the annular recess in the cylindrical surface of the coupling is V-shaped and the flexible diaphragm is formed at the apex of the V to be able to flex towards either side of the v when the coupling is engaged with another component.
In a preferred form of the invention the recess and diaphragm are formed on the outer cylindrical surface of the coupling to engage an inner surface of a component to encircle the coupling.
More specifically, in the case where the coupling is intended to receive an end of a length of tubing, the coupling may have a sleeve portion having said recess and diaphragm formed around the outer surface of the sleeve portion partway along the sleeve; a tapered portion at one end of the sleeve to facilitate insertion of the sleeve into an end of a length of tubing and an end stop at the other end of the sleeve to limit the insertion of the sleeve into the tube.
By way of example the end stop may comprise an annular head formed at said other end of the sleeve projecting outwardly of the sleeve.
In one specific arrangement the head may be formed with means to grip/seal with an encircling component in which the sleeve is engaged
For example the head may have an encircling groove in which an O-ring or similar seal is mounted.
In a further arrangement the outer surface of the head may have an annular recess in which a further flexible diaphragm is formed integral with the head and projecting proud of the outer surface of the head to engage and lock the head in the bore of a component in which the coupling is located.


Embodiments provide a computer implemented method in a data processing system including a processor and memory storing instructions, which are executed by the processor to cause the processor to implement the method for providing an annotation policy for annotating a corpus including a plurality of electronic documents. The method includes: annotating an occurrence of a first term with a class in an electronic document; recommending a new annotation policy based on at least one annotation for the occurrence of first term; and storing the new annotation policy in a storage device.

Watson Knowledge Studio provides easy-to-use tools for annotating unstructured domain literatures, and uses those annotations to create a custom machine-learning model that understands the language of the domain. When human annotators label corpus data to create ground truth to train a machine learning model, i.e., a classifier, it is necessary to consistently align their annotations with established annotation polices.
Annotation polices are difficult to enforce across multiple users, i.e., annotators. Conflicting annotations from different annotators must be adjudicated because inaccurate or inconsistent annotations will negatively impact the performance of the machine learning model. This process requires time-consuming discussion among human annotators until all conflicts are resolved and/or annotation policies are modified in terms of the discussion.

Annotation policies for annotation consistency