The developing apparatus of the present invention includes a developer holding member for supplying a developer including a toner and a carrier onto the surface of an electrostatic latent image holding member; first developer transporter for transporting the developer in a first direction, the first developer transporter being disposed in a first developer transport path; second developer transporter for transporting the developer in a second direction that is opposite to the first direction and supplying the developer to the developer holding member, the second developer transporter being disposed in a second developer transport path; a magnet roller for drawing up the developer that has been transported through the second developer transport path into the first developer transport path; and an inclined surface that is disposed in contact with or close to the surface of the magnet roller and that is inclined such that the height thereof decreases along the first direction, wherein the developer that is held on the magnet roller is detached by the inclined surface, and the detached developer is transported in the first direction, and wherein a space in the first developer transport path that surrounds the magnet roller has a portion having a cross-sectional open area larger than that of a space in the first developer transport path that surrounds the first developer transporter.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to developing apparatuses used for image forming apparatuses such as copiers, printers, and facsimiles.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, electrophotographic image forming apparatuses optically scan an original image portion, which is an outer circumferential surface of a uniformly charged photosensitive drum, to form an electrostatic latent image and this electrostatic latent image is visualized using a toner, which is a colored resin. Such image forming apparatuses are capable of forming an image at a high speed and thus have been used widely in digitized printers and copiers, for example.
In recent years, there have been increasing demands particularly for forming images in color, and also in the electrophotographic image forming apparatuses, image forming apparatuses for forming a full color image consisting of toner images of four colors, cyan, magenta, yellow, and black, have been realized. In such image forming apparatuses, there has been recently an increasing demand for reducing the size of the body of the apparatuses in order to achieve space-saving, in addition to demands for increasing the speed and the image quality.
On the other hand, as a developer used for development of the electrostatic latent image, two-component developers constituted by a carrier and a toner, with which a high image quality and a low running cost can be realized, have been used widely. In this case, the electrostatic latent image that is formed on the surface of the drum is developed, using a developing apparatus provided with a development sleeve having magnets disposed therein, by rubbing the developer in the form of a magnetic brush against the surface of the photosensitive drum.
In such a developing apparatus, two screws are disposed horizontally in the developing apparatus, and homogenous mixing of the toner and the carrier and frictional charging of the toner can be performed sufficiently by circulating the developer between these two screws.
In this configuration, since the two screws are disposed in the horizontal direction, the developing apparatus was enlarged transversely when viewed from a cross section in a direction that is orthogonal to the shafts of the screws. Thus, there has been a problem in that when such a developing apparatus is used for a 4-drum tandem type image forming apparatus in which image forming units corresponding to various toner colors are disposed side by side in the transverse direction, the spacing between adjacent photosensitive drums is increased and thus the size of the body of the image forming apparatus is increased.
As a developing apparatus for solving this problem, for example, JP H10-31363A discloses a developing apparatus employing a vertically circulating system. In this developing apparatus, a development housing in which a development sleeve is accommodated is partitioned into an upper part and a lower part. The development sleeve is disposed in the lower part, and a screw is provided in each of the upper part and the lower part along the axial direction of the development sleeve, with the screws delivering the developer in opposite directions.
Furthermore, accumulation of the developer in a drawing-up portion and stress imposed on the developer, which are caused by drawing up the developer from the screw in the lower part to the screw in the upper part against gravity, are prevented by drawing up the developer using a magnet roller. In this way, the developing apparatus in which the developer is transported smoothly in the vertical direction and the width of the cross section of the apparatus is narrower in the direction that is orthogonal to the shafts of the screws is realized.
However, in the conventional developing apparatus employing a vertically circulating system as described above, the developer is transported by the screw provided in the upper part, immediately after the developer is drawn up. For this reason, the ability to mix the developer in the drawing-up portion is poor, so that it takes much time to render the developer uniform, the toner density of which has been made uneven through development.
Moreover, depending on the timing of toner replenishment, which is performed downstream of the drawing-up portion, the unevenness of the toner density of the developer may be promoted even more.
On the other hand, if the size of the developing apparatus is further reduced, the time for stirring the developer during each cycle of circulation is reduced, and furthermore, the capacity of the screw to stir the developer also is decreased with a reduction in the diameter of the screws. That is to say, a reduction in size leads to a problem in that the time needed for uniformly mixing the toner until the toner density is stabilized is increased, and uneven density is likely to occur in an output image.
Moreover, the developing apparatus employing a vertically circulating system as disclosed in the above-mentioned conventional art has a structure in which the developer is drawn up from the lower part into the upper part. For this reason, if the upper part into which the developer is drawn up does not have a sufficient space and sufficient transporting capacity for receiving the developer that has been transported by the screw in the lower part, accumulation and clogging of the developer occur in an end portion of the screw in the lower part.
When the accumulation of the developer is present in a portion on the screw that corresponds to an image printing area, there will be a problem in that the amount of the developer that is formed in a layer on the development sleeve is changed, resulting in an uneven image density.
Moreover, in the accumulation of the developer, great stress is imposed on the developer, which also will result in a problem of deterioration of the developer.
Furthermore, when clogging of the developer occurs, the screws may be broken and the apparatus may no longer function as a developing apparatus, in the worst case.
In particular, when further reductions in the size of the developing apparatus are to be achieved, the amount of the toner in the developing apparatus decreases in proportion to the size of the apparatus, and thus a difference in density between left and right portions of the output image is likely to occur when the toner is consumed through development. In order to prevent such a difference in density from occurring, it is necessary to increase the speed of circulation of the developer. In this case, it also is necessary to increase the speed of drawing-up, so that accumulation and clogging of the developer and deterioration of the developer become more likely to occur.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


Various embodiments of systems and methods for providing extended file storage for cloud applications are described herein. The method involves receiving a deployment request from a cloud application for file storage service, at the time of deployment. The deployment request includes information identifying a local folder and a mode of storage. The metadata relating to the information in the deployment request is stored in a persistent storage. Further, in response to receiving a start request to run the cloud application an application virtual machine is allocated and a block level storage volume is identified and attached to the application virtual machine. Further, the identified block level storage volume is mapped to the local folder identified in the stored metadata and the application virtual machine running the cloud application is started. The block level storage volume mapped to the local folder is accessed by application processes for performing read/write operations.

IT organizations are challenged to meet today's constantly changing business needs and evolving workloads. Current approaches to solving these challenges include leveraging virtualization and automation technologies as part of a company's data center. An emerging mechanism for meeting the next level of flexibility, agility and rapid response challenges is cloud computing, which allows customers to run applications in a third party's hosted environment and quickly add or remove instances of these applications as required.
Different cloud applications have different requirements to the file system of the virtual machines (VMs) that they run on. For example, some cloud applications may require bigger file system space than what is provided by the virtual machine template. The free file system that comes with the VM templates may not be sufficient if the application has more extensive file operations. Conventionally, this requirement is addressed, although partially, by providing large virtual machines. However, large virtual machines have large CPUs, which may not be utilized efficiently. Alternatively, this requirement may be addressed by providing bigger file system to each of the virtual machines, however, it may not be an optimal and cost effective solution for the cloud service provider. Further, some other cloud applications may require stored data to be available even after the application is restarted or require that the stored data be available to all virtual machines that the application runs on.

Providing extended file storage for applications


A method of conducting a verifiable transfer of data over a network comprising generating a batch of data sets (18) at a secure database (14), each of the data sets comprising an identifier (22) and an indexed array of digital symbols, and transferring an encrypted version (30) from the secure database to a public database (28). The method, which may be performed in an environment like an on-line lottery, further comprises selecting one of the data sets of the batch and removing the selected data set from the batch and transferring the digital symbol associated with a user-selected index of the indexed array of digital symbols of the selected data set from the secure database to the user-operated device. Finally, the method comprises transferring a decryption key from the secure database to the public database and reproducing the batch of data sets at the public database. This method ensures that a user of a remote device (26) can verify the integrity of the generated data set (18), which was not integrally downloaded initially.

Online lotteries are mostly derived from previous lotteries in which physical lottery tickets are used. Online lotteries have the advantage, apart from the increased accessibility by the user (i.e. there is no need to visit a lottery kiosk or the like), that it is possible to implement additional safety features in the lottery. These added safety features will allow a greater user involvement in the lottery, which will add to the total lottery excitement and experience of the user.
Standard scratch off lottery tickets, both virtual online tickets and physical tickets, typically include a number of obscured fields which are to be scratched by the user to reveal digital symbols which may be combined to result in either a win or a loss. Whereas the digital symbols of physical scratch off lottery tickets are obscured by a polymeric layer which may be removed to reveal the digital symbols, the online tickets use computer visualization methods to obscure and reveal the digital symbols. Typically, in case a user reveals three identical digital symbols, the user will win a prize, such as an amount of money, otherwise the user has lost the money paid for the ticket. In most lotteries, however, the scratching of the fields is a mere gimmick, intended to create excitement and entertainment for the user, since each lottery ticket normally has a unique identifier, such as an ID number, which is used for the purposes of determining a winning lottery ticket at the lottery organizer. The use of ID numbers instead of the actual scratchable fields by the organizer eliminates the possibility of committing fraud by manipulating the scratchable fields of the ticket and makes it easier for the lottery organizer to post the results of the lottery.
Thus, in the above mentioned scratch off lotteries, the winning and losing tickets are predetermined. Thus, in an online lottery, the complete lottery ticket including the digital symbols of all scratchable fields may be sent to the user, since the lottery organizer may immediately, even without the lottery ticket being scratched, determine whether or not the ticket is a winning or loosing ticket simply by checking the ID number of the lottery ticket. The present invention, on the contrary, relates to a different type of online scratch lottery in which all lottery tickets have a chance of being a winning ticket, depending on user choices. Thus, not all of the fields are to be scratched and depending on which fields the user scratches, the outcome may be a win or a loss. In such a lottery the organizer cannot determine outcome simply by using the ID number alone since the user input is decisive on the outcome. For this reason, the complete lottery ticket including the unscratched digital symbols cannot be transferred to the user since it would allow a fraudulent user the possibility to gain access to the digital symbols beneath unscratched fields of the online lottery ticket before scratching any of the fields and thus the fraudulent user would scratch only the fields yielding the highest prize every time.
For avoiding such fraudulent behaviour it is intended to transfer to the user, apart from a lottery ticket ID number and the number of available fields, only the digital symbols of the fields which the user has indicated to be scratched. Thus, the user may never see the complete lottery ticket, or may only see the complete lottery ticket after the last allowable field is scratched. This allows the lottery organizer to be substantially safe from fraudulent behaviour from the user, however, other fraudulent behaviour will still be possible. In particular, such fraudulent behaviour may be that the secure database of the lottery organizer is hacked or otherwise manipulated such that the user will always loose, or a third party may intercept and modify the communication between the secure database and the user, a so-called "man in the middle attack". It is thus an object of the present invention to provide technologies for allowing the user to feel safe and be confident that the lottery is conducted properly. Further, there may exist laws and regulations which require the lottery organizer to ensure that no fraudulent behaviour has taken place and the present invention further provides the advantage of satisfying such needs.
A large amount of prior art exists in the present technical field. EP 722 353 B1 relates to a win checking system for use with a computerized wagering system. The user may use the system to check whether a winning configuration is found or not on the user's lottery ticket.
EP 956 117 B1 relates to a lottery system whereby instant tickets with a predetermined outcome can be rendered on a gaming computer. The gaming computer does not require an on-line connection to the central computer after purchase of the ticket in order to view the outcome.
EP 999 883 B1 relates to a computerized lottery in which an animation is generated to present the lottery winner.
EP 1 355 705 B1 relates to a system for purchasing lottery tickets over the Internet. A server hosts at least one virtual group of lottery ticket purchasers. The server then communicates the results of the purchases of lottery tickets to the purchasers on the basis of the group information.
EP 1 556 840 B1 relates to a telelotto system including a maze labyrinth arranged for the distribution of the prize draws.
EP 2 346 005 A2 relates to a method of conducting a lottery wherein the lottery participant fills in data fields of the lottery ticket with values received during a preliminary lottery that he/she participated in, participation in the preliminary lottery enabling the lottery participants to increase or decrease the face value of the lottery ticket.
WO 03/042897 A1 relates to a method of administering a lottery including the steps of deducting a cost of the chosen play from the balance of said user account, and if it is verified that the chosen play is a winner, crediting a winning monetary amount for the chosen play to the user account.
WO 03/091923 A1 relates to a marketing lottery card in a form of a mosaic puzzle, wherein the winning or losing status of the marketing lottery card is verified by over-lapping the marketing lottery card on a bingo confirmation table provided on-line or offline.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,109,828 B2 relates to a system for playing a game of chance. A partial result of the game of chance is revealed to a player in an offline portion of the game. The remaining portion of the result is revealed to the player in an online portion of the game. The games may be e.g. a slot machine game, a bingo game, a roulette game.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,393,949 B2 relates to a computer implemented method for conducting a game of chance. The game includes a ticket-based game and a computer-based game. The ticket includes a code to reveal the result of the ticket based game and access the computer-based game.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,398,484 B2 relates to an instant online lottery game. The system comprises a server, which can have a first random number generator that can generate the instant online lottery number and a second random number generator that generates a plurality of game-play combinations. The instant online lottery number and the plurality of game-play combinations can be provided to the player at the time of purchase of the instant online lottery ticket.
US 2004/0254019 A1 relates to an online game of chance. The game is based on a map having multiple branches, where a desired path is selected by clicking on the branch. Each available branch that is selected results in a prize value being increased, decreased, or a token being awarded for later use in the game.
US 2005/0098951 A1 relates to a card game method. The method comprises shuffling the deck, placing at least one wager, dealing each of the playing cards in an arrangement and revealing a face of each of the playing cards, totaling a number of points associated with the dealt playing cards and paying any winning wager according to the bet and odds associated with the winning wager.
US 2012/0323708 A1 relates to a user interface for purchasing and redeeming lottery tickets, wherein the lottery facility has only write-only access to a winning lottery numbers database, wherein the lottery vending service has only read-only access to the winning lottery numbers database, wherein the lottery vending service providers have only write-only access to a purchased lottery numbers database, wherein the lottery facility has only read-only access to the purchased lottery numbers database.
US 2014/0315614 A1 relates to an online lottery scratcher system. The user has a wireless touch screen device for interactively interfacing with the at least one digital programmable online lottery scratcher application to display a digital scratch-off ticket.
WO 2009/038629 A2 relates to a device for registering a domain name, comprising a scratch card including an identifier concealed by an opaque substance, the identifier being adapted for a system for registering domain names, the opaque substance being adapted for at least partial removal from the card in order to expose the identifier to a user.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,572,471 B1 relates to a slot machine having a video display screen controlled to display a game image divided into a matrix of elements or player selectable zones.
The video screen is preferably of the touch sensitive variety. The player may select one of the matrix elements, thereby causing the image in the element to change to reveal whether or not a prize value is associated with that zone.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,133,104 B2 relates to an online poker gaming system comprising a live or recorded poker game. The player terminal displays images of the live or recorded game being broadcast for view by an online player. The player terminal also includes a key-pad, enabling the online player to select one or more players to win, and select a value for each selection. So while the online player cannot make gaming decisions, the online player can participate by making selections, much as one would make selections at a racetrack. The online player can make multiple playing selections unavailable to the player sitting at the table.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,641,522 B2 relates to a gaming system in which players are assigned individual gaming devices comprising electronic game boards. The gateway confirms the identity of each player so that a player may only access their assigned and dedicated gaming device.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,016,662 B1 relates to a gaming system in which one or more parameters for a game are defined and the parameters are communicated in a parameter file to a trusted third party.
US 2007/0082722 A1 relates to a card game. The game comprises betting, dealing at least thirteen playing cards, placing a hold on any cards, replacing each non-held card with one playing card dealt face up, comparing the thirteen cards to the predetermined winning combinations to determine if a winning card combination exists.
US 2014/0045568 A1 relates to a system for lottery ticket verification. A first server system stores a validation file having validation records for lottery tickets. A second server system stores a verification file having verification records for the lottery tickets provided to the players and is made accessible to players prior to redemption of the lottery ticket, wherein a player enters a code provided on the lottery ticket that is linked to the specific verification record for the lottery ticket and is provided with the winning or losing status of the lottery ticket.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,273,817 B1 relates to a tamper resistant lottery ticket for preventing payoff of invalid tickets comprising: a ticket body, a plurality of game fields which can be chosen by a lottery player, at least one winning digital symbol for the ticket positioned in a game field, a scratch-off material covering the game fields to hide the contents of the game fields, a readable security code printed in each of the game fields. The security codes of the ticket may be read to ensure that the proper number of game fields is revealed and the lottery ticket is valid.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,980,937 B2 relates to an instant lottery ticket system having a ticket validation file. Security of the validation file is provided by an audit system. Audit data, based on ticket data that is used to print the instant lottery tickets, can be compared to the information in the validation file to confirm the integrity of the validation file. The audit data can include all or a portion of the records that should be in the validation file or selected portions of data in the records such as ticket redemption values.
WO 2009/156874 A1 relates to a validity control method in a lottery based on the principle that a player scratches covered fields on a ticket to uncover hidden information like letters, numbers figures etc. The ticket comprises a number of scratchable fields, more than the number of fields to actually be scratched. When a player, when scratching the ticket, detects an ultimate loss, the remaining scratchable fields may also be scratched to thereby check its original winning possibilities.

Verifiable transfer of data over a network


A lighting device capable of lighting a surface of an observed section of a specimen sample so as to permit an object of observation of the surface to be satisfied even when the surface has relatively fine unevenness. Any one of light field illumination mainly using vertically projected light, dark field illumination mainly using laterally projected light and a combination thereof is selectively carried out with respect to the surface of the specimen sample as desired, to thereby selectively provide a lighted two-dimensional image of the surface and its lighted three-dimensional image as desired.

This invention relates to a lighting device for an observation unit, an image pickup unit or the like which is used for observing or picking up an image of a surface of a specimen sample, and more particularly to an improvement in a lighting device which is adapted to light or illuminate a surface of a section to be observed (hereinafter referred to as "observed section") of a specimen sample while providing a light field due to vertical projection and/or a dark field due to lateral projection as required.
There are conventionally known an observation unit for observing an image or magnified image of a surface of an observed section of a specimen sample which is an object subject to observation and an image pickup unit for displaying the image on a picture plane of a monitor TV to indirectly observe it. Each of the observation unit and the image pickup unit is adapted to locate a lighting head or an image pickup head each having a projecting means incorporated therein in a manner to face the surface of the observed section of the specimen sample to light the observed section, to thereby permit the observation to be carried out. In each of the observation unit and image pickup unit thus constructed, lighting is generally carried out by a vertical projection method mainly using vertically projected light wherein parallel light beams are vertically irradiated to a longitudinal surface portion of the surface of the observed section of the specimen sample in a direction perpendicular thereto or by a lateral projection method mainly using laterally projected light wherein light beams are obliquely irradiated to the longitudinal surface portion of the surface of the observed section a direction oblique with respect to the surface portion.
However, when the surface of the specimen sample which is an object subject to observation has relatively fine unevenness, individual execution of the vertical projection method or lateral projection method fails to permit the fine unevenness on the surface to be precisely observed. In order to avoid the problem, concurrent execution of both projection methods would be considered. Unfortunately, this causes the observation device or image pickup device to be highly complicated in structure.


Methods are provided for treating freshly harvested olives to substantially retain the quality of oil contained therewithin for enabling production of high quality olive oil from said treated olives at a prolonged time after harvest and treated freshly harvested olives with retained oil qualities characterized in that the oil extracted therefrom after a prolonged storage time meets the standards of the IOC for Virgin Olive Oils.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to olive oil production and more specifically to olive oil production at a prolonged time after olive harvesting.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Olive oil is produced by grinding fresh olives into a paste and extracting the oil from the paste by mechanical or chemical means. The amount of oil contained in the olive depends on the particular cultivar and the degree of ripeness. Typically 1 Kg of olives yields about 150-200 ml of oil. The oil is accumulated in the mesocarp cells, mostly in the vacuoles and to a smaller extent in the cytoplasm. Grinding or crushing of the olives breaks the olive stones and flesh, creating a paste. Typically, grinding is followed by malaxation of the paste to facilitate breaking of the mesocarp cells, assisted by the sharp stone segments, thus releasing the oil contained in the vacuoles and resulting in coalescence of the oil droplets and separation of the liquids from the solids. The liquid, which contains both oil and vegetation water, is extracted from the paste by applying pressure or centrifugation and is then separated into oil and water. Depending on the specific method and equipment, the separation of the paste into liquid and solid and the separation of the liquid into oil and water may be performed sequentially or concurrently. There exist various modifications of these basic steps. For example, the method known as "Sinolea" is based on the different surface tension of the vegetable water and the oil. According to this method, rows of metal discs or plates are dipped into the paste. The oil adheres to the metal disks and is removed with scrapers in a continuous process while the solid and water phases stay behind.
The quality of olive oil depends on the extraction method, the olive cultivar, the maturity (ripeness) index of the olives and also, to a great extent, on the time delay between olive harvest and oil extraction. Because olive oil is extracted from the fruit flesh, the time elapsing from harvesting to oil extraction is very crucial. In the period between harvesting and oil extraction, the fruits' enzymes are very active. The oxidation and enzymatic reactions, which begin in the fruit immediately upon harvesting, increasingly degrade the quality of the oil. Therefore, olive oil needs to be extracted from the fresh harvested olives as soon as possible, preferably within no more than 24 hours. Oil obtained after a longer wait is of lower quality presenting higher acidity levels. Thus, unlike seed oils (e.g. sunflower oil, sesame oil, soybeans oil, etc.) which are extracted from seeds or nuts that can be stored for prolonged time and processed all year round, the olive oil industry is a seasonal industry which depends on availability of fresh olives. Harvesting time varies in each country and with the season and the cultivar. Generally, fresh olives are available for about four months during opposing seasons in the Northern and Southern hemispheres (October to January in the Northern Hemisphere and April to July in the Southern hemisphere). Another important factor that influences the oil quality is the freshness of the olive oil itself, namely the storage period and the storage conditions until consumption. Olive oil, even when stored under optimal conditions, deteriorates over time. It is therefore recommended to consume olive oil close to its production time.
The quality of olive oil can be characterized by various analytic and organoleptic parameters, the most common being the free fatty acid (FFA) expressed as percent of oleic acid. Other characteristics include peroxide value and various positive and negative organoleptic attributes. Most countries use the International Olive Council (IOC) standards for defining oil quality and oil category. The IOC, which has a United Nations charter to develop criteria for olive oil quality and purity, consolidates standards for olive oils categories as well as guidelines for analyzing and tasting the oils. For example, olive oils that can be qualified under the category of virgin olive oils are oils that are obtained from the olives by using only mechanical or other physical means which do not involve any chemical processes such as use of solvents or re-esterification. Additionally, they should meet the specific standards set by the IOC with regard to the concentration of specific ingredients and organoleptic tests. Within the Virgin Olive Oil category, the oils fit for consumption are classified as Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Virgin Olive Oil and Ordinary Virgin Olive Oil according to their FFA level (≦0.8%, ≦2% and ≦3.3, respectively).
Olive oil production is a traditional industry originating in the Mediterranean and known since as early as 3,000 B.C. Today, olives are cultivated in many regions of the world and olive oil is used throughout the world. However, olive oil production and consumption is still the highest in the Mediterranean. The oil is considered to be a prime component of the so called 'Mediterranean diet'.
In recent years, the olive oil market has been growing dramatically. The increasing interest in olive oil stems from both its unique rich taste and its health benefits and coincides with the growing public awareness to health food, as well as with the general increasing interest in gourmet food. The health benefits associated with olive oil consumption include controlling LDL level while raising HDL level and reducing risk of coronary heart diseases. These health benefits are attributed to the high level of monounsaturated fatty acids, mainly oleic acid, and to the relatively high content of minor nutrients, in particular anti-oxidants such as polyphenols. Studies also suggest beneficial effects of olive oil consumption on blood sugar level and on the gastrointestinal tract, including reducing the risk of ulcers, gastritis and colon cancer. Indeed, olive oil is considered by many to be superior to other vegetable oils. However, side by side with the prosperity in the olive oil market, the olive oil fraud industry flourishes as well. Olive oil is one of the most adulterated agricultural products. Customers are therefore becoming increasingly aware of the possibility that oil distributed as high quality olive oil is actually adulterated oil mixed with, or even consists almost entirely of, inferior oils of lower cost.
The awareness to health food products, as well as to their freshness and authenticity, has brought with it a new trend of small scale production of basic food products (e.g. bread) for self consumption at home or in small food establishments such as restaurants, delicatessen and specialized boutiques. This way control over freshness and ingredients is ensured. In accordance with this trend, small scale appliances, sized to be placed on a kitchen counter, such as bread machine, home-use coffee roasting device, etc., are now gaining popularity. With respect to olive oil, recent years show an increasing number of olive oil boutiques which specialize in production of high quality oil by careful selection of olives and close control over production. A household countertop cold press machine for producing small quantities of olive oil designed by the inventors of the present invention is described in international publication WO2010/007610. However, although olive oil can be consumed as is when freshly pressed from the fruit, the need to extract olive oil within a very short time from harvesting does not enable producing olive oil out of season or in countries distant from olive growing regions.
It is therefore the general object of the present invention to provide olives suitable for oil extraction all year round and/or at locations remote from olive growing regions.
In particular, it is all object of the invention to provide olives which retain their oil qualities for a prolonged storage period without adding chemical food preservatives.
It is a further object of the invention to provide methods for treating freshly harvested olives to substantially retain their oil quality for a prolonged time after being treated so as to enable extraction of high quality oil from the olives at a prolonged time after they have been harvested.

Method for treating olives to be utilized for olive oil production


Methods and apparatus are disclosed, including an apparatus that has a memory cell array with a memory cell selectively coupled to a bit line. A control circuit is configured to provide a control signal. A voltage generator is configured to provide a sense signal and a precharge signal in response to the control signal. The apparatus further includes a page buffer configured to provide a bit line voltage to the bit line based on the sense signal and the precharge signal, to thereby control a programming of the memory cell.

Recently, there has been an increasing demand for non-volatile memory devices such as a flash memory which can be electrically programmed and erased. Non-volatile memory devices are widely used in storage media for portable electronic devices, such as digital televisions, digital cameras, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and MP3 players.
Typically, non-volatile memory devices include an array of cells and bit lines and word lines to control the programming operations of the cells. To perform a program operation in a non-volatile memory device, a bit line setup operation is performed, in advance, to provide a voltage to a bit line according to a programming state of a cell coupled to the bit line. As a result of the bit line setup operation, the cell connected to the bit line may be distinguished typically from among the following types of cells: a cell to be programmed, a cell inhibited from being programmed, and a cell to be slowly programmed.


An electrical connector for connecting a plurality of cables with a PCB comprises an insulating housing and a plurality of first and second contacts received therein. The insulating housing comprises a first mounting surface and a second mounting surface parallel to each other and a tongue portion extending downwardly in an up-to-down direction. The first mounting surface is lower than the second mounting surface in the up-to-down direction forming a stepped surface. The tongue portion extends far away from the stepped surface and comprises opposite periphery surfaces. The first contact comprises a first connecting portion on the first mounting surface and a first contacting portion extending along one periphery surface of the tongue portion while the second contact comprises a second connecting portion on the second mounting surface and a second contacting portion extending along the other periphery surface of the tongue portion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to an electrical connector, and more particularly to an electrical connector connecting cables with a printed circuit board (PCB).
2. Description of the Related Art
U.S. Patent Publication No. 20090227138 discloses an electrical connector. The electrical connector comprises an insulating housing and a plurality of contacts received in the insulating housing. The contacts are arranged into two rows in a longitudinal direction and the contacts in different rows comprise connecting beams thereof extending in two opposite directions perpendicular to the longitudinal direction. Tow rows of cables are assembled onto the connecting beams respectively and extend in the opposite directions. As the contacts and the cables are divided into two rows, the longitudinal dimension of the electrical connector could be reduced even if the number of the cables increases. However, as the cables extend in two opposite directions, the arrangement of the cables occupy more space in said two opposite directions and can not meet the miniaturization tendency of the electrical connector.
In view of the above, an improved electrical connector is desired to overcome the problems mentioned above.

Electrical connector and assembly thereof


An initial trust status is assigned to a first object, the trust status representing one of either a relatively higher trust level or a relatively lower trust level. Based on the trust status, the first object is associated with an event type to be monitored, where the event type is selected from among: essential events, occurrence of which is informative as to trust status evaluating for an object, and critical events, including the essential events, and additional events, occurrence of which is informative as to execution of suspicious code. Occurrences of events relating to the first object are monitored. In response to the first object being assigned the relatively higher trust level, only the essential events are monitored. In response to the first object being assigned the relatively lower trust level, the critical events are monitored. A need for performing malware analysis is determined based on the trust status of the first object and the event type. In response to determination of the need for performing the malware analysis, the malware analysis for the first object is either performed, or not.

Malicious software, commonly referred to as malware, describes any software designed for infiltration into a computer system in order to gain control over such a system and to perform unauthorized actions, such as theft of confidential information, for example. A wide variety of malware exists today, including network worms, trojan programs, rootkits, exploits and computer viruses. Therefore, many owners of computer devices (for example, personal computers) use various antivirus applications for protection, which allow to detect and remove malicious programs. Usually, today's antivirus applications are multi-component complex systems, which include various protection modules.
One of the protection technologies is signature scanning, which allows to identify known malicious programs among all programs installed in a computer system. For this purpose, this technology has a database which contains information on known malicious programs—for example, in the form of hashes of such programs. Such databases are usually updated by receiving information on newly detected malicious programs from a manufacturer of antivirus security through distribution on the Internet.
Another protection technology is the technology known as "whitelisting", which ensures monitoring of applications using "white" lists of trusted programs. This technology allows not to restrict and to permit operation of software in a computer system, if the software is classified as trusted.
Another technology, which is also used in contemporary antivirus applications, is behavioral detection, which allows to analyze the behavior of applications. This technology can be based, for example, on the interception of the application programming interface (API) functions called by an application, and on their subsequent analysis. It should be noted that it is not the API functions themselves that are studied, but the sequence of the calls for various API functions and their parameters. The analysis identifies various suspicious actions, such as an attempt to access system files by a non-trusted process (for example, a process launched from a file which appeared in the system rather recently and has not been checked by an antivirus application). After the identification of suspicious actions, an analysis is performed, and a decision is made regarding the maliciousness of the software.
The above-described technologies, used jointly to detect malicious programs, have one substantial deficiency. This deficiency is related to the fact that a malicious code (for example, due to a vulnerability of the program or of the operating system) can infiltrate the address space of a trusted process and continue to be executed with the rights of the trusted process. Then an access attempt by the infiltrated malicious code will not be considered suspicious and will be completed, because it will be completed (apparently) by the trusted process.
In known approaches for detecting malicious programs, monitoring, analysis, and evaluation of the behavior of all the processes, are very resource-consuming tasks, the performance of which can cause the so-called "freezing" of the applications run by the user or of the whole operating system. A solution to these, and related issues, is needed.

System and method for reducing load on an operating system when executing antivirus operations


An apparatus and a method are provided for allocating resources, in which a base station allocates a time slot to a terminal in a wireless communication system supporting a time division multiple access scheme. The method includes a monitoring block of monitoring a channel state of the terminal after allocating a time slot for the terminal. The method also includes adjusting, by increasing or reducing, the number of the existing allocated time slots when the channel state of the terminal satisfies a preset time slot adjustment requirement.

In a mobile communication system, a base station allocates resources to terminals located in a service area of the base station. There may be various resources allocated by the base station. For example, the base station may allocate frequency resources to the terminals. The type of resource that the base station allocates to a terminal may be determined according to a communication scheme supported by the mobile communication system.
In the example of a mobile communication system (hereinafter referred to as a "TDMA system") supporting a Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) scheme, a base station may allocate time-type resources to terminals. The time-type resources may be uplink/downlink (UL/DL) time slots. In this embodiment, a terminal transmits data to the base station in a time slot allocated for UL (hereinafter referred to as a "UL time slot"), and receives data from the base station in a time slot allocated for DL (hereinafter referred to as a "DL time slot").
In the example of a mobile communication system (hereinafter referred to as an "FDMA system") supporting a Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) scheme, a base station may allocate frequency-type resources to terminals. The frequency-type resources may be UL/DL frequency bands. In this embodiment, a terminal transmits data to the base station in a frequency band allocated for UL (hereinafter referred to as a "UL frequency band"), and receives data from the base station in a frequency band allocated for DL (hereinafter referred to as a "DL frequency band").
In the mobile communication system, the base station may not discriminatively but equitably allocate resources to the terminals. For example, in the example of the TDMA system, the base station allocates an identical number of time slots to each of all the terminals.

Apparatus and method for allocating resources in wireless communication system


A downhole rotary diverter assembly includes multiple passages for selectively aligning with multiple boreholes. The diverter assembly can be selectively actuated to direct a tool or tubing through-passage toward a desired borehole. The primary tool through-passage of the diverter assembly can be alternately and continually aligned and re-aligned with a desired borehole out of multiple boreholes, while the diverter assembly remains in the well. After a single trip into the well, and placement of the diverter assembly in a well junction, the diverter assembly can be actuated to rotate flow passages into alignment with multiple boreholes. An actuation tool may be lowered into the diverter assembly and manipulated to activate a mandrel. The mandrel is guided by an indexing mechanism to rotatably cycle through discrete and predetermined alignment positions that correspond generally with the stop positions of a guide pin in a guide slot of the indexing mechanism.

This disclosure relates generally to hydrocarbon exploration and production, and in particular, to managing placement of wellbore tubulars and other tools in a borehole to facilitate hydrocarbon exploration and production.
A main borehole may be provided with one or more lateral boreholes which branch from the main borehole and extend the well into one or more directions laterally therefrom. During downhole operations, it may be necessary to separately and selectively enter the main and lateral boreholes with a wellbore tubular. For example, different tubular members, tools or other devices may need to be guided into and out of the main and lateral boreholes.
The principles of the present disclosure are directed to overcoming one or more of the limitations of the existing apparatus and processes for providing access to multiple boreholes in a single well.

Downhole multiple bore rotary diverter apparatus


An all-optical polarization independent optical time division multiplexer and demultiplexer which are stable as well as very fast, while being independent of the polarization state of the input optical signal pulses. The demultiplexer has a wavelength-division-multiplexing coupler for wavelength-division-multiplexing time-division-multiplexed optical signal pulses and optical control pulses, and splitting the optical signal pulses at a splitting ratio of 1:1 into two ports, the optical control pulses being in a polarization state in which two orthogonally polarized components have a substantially identical amplitude; an optical Kerr medium with birefringence, for connecting two ports of the wavelength-division-multiplexing coupler, the optical Kerr medium incorporating a birefringence compensation mechanism for compensating a polarization dispersion between two principal axes of the birefringence; and a wavelength division demultiplexer for wavelength-division-demultiplexing time-wise overlapping optical signal pulses and optical control pulses propagated through the optical Kerr medium, to obtain time-division-demultiplexed optical signal pulses. In the multiplexer, the input and output relationship is reversed in the same configuration.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an all-optical polarization independent optical time division multiplexer and demultiplexer for multiplexing and demultiplexing the modulated optical signal pulses on a time axis by using the optical Kerr effect.
2. Description of the Background Art
Conventionally, there has been a proposition for the all-optical configuration for the multiplexing and demultiplexing of the optical signal pulses on a time axis, using the optical Kerr medium as the optical time division multiplexer and demultiplexer, which utilizes the optical phase shift (optical Kerr effect) induced on the optical signal pulses through the cross-phase modulation by the optical control pulses.
Such a conventional optical time division demultiplexer utilizing the optical Kerr effect is called a nonlinear optical loop mirror, which has a configuration as shown in FIG. 1.
In this configuration of FIG. 1, input optical signal pulses F, which are time-division-multiplexed at a bit rate of Nf.sub.0 (bit/s) where N is an integer which is set equal to 2 in FIG. 1, are entered from an input port 12 of an optical circulator (CIR) 11 and directed from an output port 13 of the optical circulator 11 to an input port 16 of an optical wavelength division multiplexer (WF1) 15. On the other hand, optical control pulses G at a bit rate of f.sub.0 (bit/s), are entered from an input port 17 of the optical wavelength division multiplexer 15. Then, the wavelength-division-multiplexed pulses obtained from the input optical signal pulses F and the optical control pulses G are outputted from an output port 18 of the optical wavelength division multiplexer 15 to a first input port 20 of a 2.times.2 optical coupler (CO) 19. The splitting ratio of the optical coupler 19 depends on the wavelengths of the pulses, so that the optical signal pulses are split at the splitting ratio of 1:1 and outputted from both of output ports 22 and 23 of the optical coupler 19, while the optical control pulses are entirely outputted from one output port 22, i.e., at the splitting ratio of 1:0.
The output ports 22 and 23 of the optical coupler 19 are connected with an optical Kerr medium 24, and the pulses propagated through the optical Kerr medium 24 are outputted from a second input port 21 of the optical coupler 19 to an input port 26 of an optical wavelength division demultiplexer (WF2) 25. Then, the output optical signal pulses I are outputted from a first output port 27 of the optical wavelength division demultiplexer 25 as the switched optical signal pulses (transmitted signals), while the optical control pulses are outputted from a second output port 28 of the optical wavelength division demultiplexer 25.
Here, the output ports 22 and 23 of the optical coupler 19 are connected with the optical Kerr medium 24, so that the optical control pulses entered into the optical coupler 19 propagates through the optical Kerr medium 24 only in a clockwise direction, while the optical signal pulses propagates through the optical Kerr medium 24 in both clockwise and counter-clockwise directions.
In this case, the optical signal pulses propagating in the clockwise direction in overlap with the optical control pulses time-wise will have the phase shift .DELTA..phi. due to the cross-phase modulation. This phase shift .DELTA..phi. can be expressed by the following equation (1): EQU .DELTA..phi.=(2.pi./.lambda.s)L.multidot.2n.sub.2 .multidot.Ic(1)
where n.sub.2 is a nonlinear index coefficient of the optical Kerr medium 24, L is a length of the optical Kerr medium 24, Ic is a peak intensity of the optical control pulses, and .lambda.s is a wavelength of the optical signal pulses.
On the other hand, the optical signal pulses propagating in the counter-clockwise direction will receive the phase shift due to the counter-propagating optical control pulses, so that the phase shift takes a very small value proportional to an average power of the optical control pulses.
Consequently, the phase difference between the optical signal pulses which are propagated through the optical Kerr medium 24 in the clockwise and counter-clockwise directions and wavelength-division-multiplexed at the optical coupler 19 can be set to .pi. and 0, depending on whether the optical control pulses are present or not. At this point, in a case the phase difference is equal to .pi., the optical signal pulses are led to the input port 21 different from the input port 20 from which they have been entered because of the interference effect in the optical coupler 19, whereas they are returned to the input port 20 from which they have been entered.
In other words, among the input optical signal pulses F, only those which had overlapped time-wise with the optical control pulses are outputted to the output port 27 of the optical wavelength division demultiplexer 25 as the switched optical signal pulses (transmitted signals) which are time-division-multiplexed at a bit rate of f.sub.0 (bit/s), while the remaining ones are outputted from the output port 14 of the optical circulator 11 through the optical wavelength division multiplexer 15 as the unswitched optical signal pulses (reflected signals) which are time-division-multiplexed at a bit rate of f.sub.0 (bit/s), so that the function of the optical time-division-demultiplexing can be realized.
In a case of utilizing this nonlinear optical loop mirror configuration of FIG. 1 as the optical time division multiplexer, the first optical signal pulses to be multiplexed are entered from the input port 12 of the optical circulator 11, while the second optical signal pulses to be multiplexed are entered from the output port 27 of the optical wavelength division demultiplexer 25, such that the second optical signal pulses overlap with the optical control pulses time-wise, and the multiplexed optical signal pulses can be obtained at the output port 14 of the optical circulator 11.
Now, in this configuration of FIG. 1, the above equation (1) for expressing the phase shift .DELTA..phi. is valid only when the polarizations of the optical signal pulses and the optical control pulses coincide with each other, and the actual phase shift .DELTA..phi. largely depends on the difference in the polarizations. Consequently, in order to stably operate the nonlinear optical loop mirror configuration of FIG. 1 as the optical time division demultiplexer, it is necessary to put the polarizations of the optical signal pulses and the optical control pulses in coincidence with each other, throughout the entire length of the optical Kerr medium 24. For this reason, conventionally, the optical signal pulses and the optical control pulses have been linearly polarized as shown in FIG. 2, along an identical axis (y axis in FIG. 2).
In addition, it has conventionally been necessary for the optical Kerr medium 24 to be in a form of a polarization maintaining optical fiber having birefringence or an ordinary optical fiber combined with a polarization controller, for the purpose of maintaining the polarization state of the optical signal pulses and the optical control pulses propagated through the optical Kerr medium 24, along a fixed principal axis.
However, in order to operate such conventional optical time division multiplexer and demultiplexer, it has been necessary to detect the polarization state of the input optical signal pulses F and control this polarization state to be in coincidence with that of the optical control pulses G by means of an external circuit.
This requirement, however, presents a particularly difficult problem in the field of the optical fiber communication systems in which the stabilization of the polarization state is quite difficult.

All-optical polarization independent optical time division multiplexer and demultiplexer with birefringence compensation

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation


The present invention relates to a corrosion control coating, more particularly a high-temperature corrosion control coating, and to a method for producing it.

The present invention relates to the technical field of corrosion control, more particularly the corrosion control of metallic substrates during and after temperature exposure.
More particularly the present invention relates to a coating, more particularly a high-temperature corrosion control coating, for generating cathodic high-temperature corrosion protection on a metallic substrate.
The present invention further relates to a first coating composition for producing a cathodic corrosion control layer and to a second coating composition for producing an oxygen barrier layer.
Furthermore, the present invention relates to a method for producing a high-temperature corrosion control coating on a metallic substrate.
Moreover, the present invention relates to a coated metallic substrate which comprises a corrosion control coating.
Moreover, the present invention relates to the use of an oxygen barrier layer for improving the temperature stability of a cathodic corrosion control coating.
Lastly the present invention relates to the use of a coating composition for improving the temperature stability of a cathodic corrosion control coating.
Signs of corrosion on metals are observed across all fields of industry, and are of high significance, since the durability or service life of machines, vehicles, industrial plant, or even buildings is dependent, often decisively so, on the corrosion properties of the metals used. Corrosion means that metal parts must be replaced or renovated, operations which always involve time, materials and costs.
According to DIN EN ISO 8044, corrosion is the physico-chemical interaction between a metal and its environment that leads to a change in the properties of the metal and that can lead to considerable adverse effects on the functions of the metal, its surroundings, or the technical system in which the metals are being used. Metal corrosion generally comprises electrochemical processes, specifically the oxidation of metals by oxygen, optionally in the presence of aqueous electrolyte solutions, with formation of metal oxide layers.
Since corrosion processes often determine the durability or service life of metals or metal components, it is necessary to reduce the corrosion susceptibility and corrosion rate of metals. One way of protecting metals from corrosion is to use passive systems—coatings, for example, such as protective coatings—which are intended to protect the metal from environmental events and hence from corrosion. Another way is to use active systems, where the metal component for protection acts as a cathode—electrochemical processes are being used—and hence oxidation of the metal or metal ions formed are immediately reduced. This cathodic corrosion control may be obtained on the one hand by application of an external electrical voltage; on the other hand, however, it is also possible for the metal component for protection to be brought into contact electrically with a baser metal, i.e. one with a lower electrochemical standard potential. The two metals form an electrochemical system, in which the baser metal represents the anode, referred to as the sacrificial anode, and is oxidized, while the more noble metal is the cathode, at which reduction takes place.
One specific form of cathodic corrosion control is the coating of the metal parts for protection with a metal which is baser by comparison with the metal for protection. One particularly widespread form of the coating of metals, especially of steel sheets, is that of galvanizing. With galvanizing, steel customarily, especially steel sheets, are coated with elemental zinc by being dipped into baths of molten zinc, in a process known as hot-dip galvanizing, to produce sheets of hot dipped galvanized steel—HDGS.
A further, widespread possibility for galvanizing is electrolytic zinc plating or electrogalvanization, in which steel sheets or steel components are coated with a layer of zinc by application of an external voltage in an electrolyte bath comprising zinc ions.
Both aforementioned processes result in uniform, durable zinc coats, which are able to extend significantly the lifetimes of the metal components, but which under certain conditions of application exhibit a series of disadvantages.
In the case of higher-strength steels, the formation of hydrogen in the plating process may be a disadvantage, owing to the possibility of hydrogen embrittlement. Complex geometries or bulk material for coating, in turn, cannot be hot-dip galvanized without disadvantages, since, for example, dished regions would become filled with the zinc, or finely structured surface morphologies would become clogged with zinc.
Furthermore, coatings of pure elemental zinc do not exhibit satisfactory results under temperature load, these unsatisfactory results being blamed on the one hand on the low melting point of zinc, of around 420° C., and on the other hand on the accelerated oxidation of the zinc to zinc oxide by atmospheric oxygen even at temperatures well below the melting point.
In order to avoid at least some disadvantages of hot-dip-galvanized or electrogalvanized metal parts, what are called zinc flake coatings are often employed in practice. Zinc flake coatings contain zinc lamellae, i.e. platelet-shaped zinc pigments, in a predominantly inorganic binder. The mixture of binder and zinc lamellae is applied, customarily in the form of a dispersion, to the metal part for protection, and the binder is subsequently crosslinked to produce an impervious, homogeneous layer having a thickness of 5 to 15 μm. Despite the embedding of the zinc particles into a binder matrix, zinc flake coatings exhibit electrical conductivity and ensure high cathodic protection; in particular, in the salt spray test at the scribe mark in accordance with DIN EN ISO 9227, zinc flake coatings exhibit significantly improved corrosion resistance relative to galvanized or electrogalvanized metal parts.
Zinc flake coatings consist customarily of a predominantly inorganic matrix of silicon dioxide or titanium dioxide, in which the zinc lamellae are embedded. Typical zinc flake coatings, which are applied in the form of the corresponding coating composition, also called zinc flake primer, to a substrate, are described for example in WO 2007/130838 A2.
Under normal conditions, the coatings obtained by electrogalvanizing, hot-dip galvanizing or zinc flake coatings provide a high level of protection against corrosion; at elevated temperatures, however, the cathodic corrosion control afforded by zinc coatings, especially zinc flake coatings, reduces sharply or even breaks down completely even after short temperature exposures. For example, steel panels treated with a zinc flake primer, after undergoing temperature exposure at 200° C. over a period of several hours, or accelerated temperature exposure at 300° C., and subsequently subjected to a salt spray test with scribe mark in accordance with DIN EN ISO 9227, no longer exhibit corrosion control, or at least no longer exhibit sufficient corrosion control, a fact attributable to the oxidation of the zinc to form zinc oxide, which does not provide cathodic protection.
In the prior art, therefore, there has been no lack of attempts to increase the temperature stability of zinc coatings. In some cases, for instance, coatings of zinc alloys containing substantial fractions of manganese are used, in order to permit brief heating of coated steel parts to temperatures of 900° C. for subsequent hot shaping operations, without detriment to the cathodic corrosion control. The use of substantial amounts of manganese, however, makes this process costly. Furthermore, this type of cathodic corrosion control is resistant only to short-term temperature loads. Over the long term, cathodic corrosion control cannot be maintained at elevated temperatures.
The temperature stability of zinc-containing coatings can be obtained by what are called galvannealed processes, in which first a zinc layer is applied to a steel substrate and, by subsequent heat treatment, defined iron-zinc alloys are obtained on the surface of the substrate. Iron-zinc alloys are less sensitive both to temperature load and to mechanical stress than pure zinc coatings, but they rapidly exhibit superficial red rust, necessitating costly and inconvenient cleaning in the case of subsequent coating. In view of the susceptibility to red rust, galvannealed steel substrates have a surface of low aesthetic appeal, thus often ruling out applications in the visible sector without further coating. A further disadvantage of the galvannealed coatings is that the production of the iron-zinc alloy takes place, in a manner which is costly and inconvenient from the standpoints of technology and energy, under an inert gas atmosphere, and the coatings at a high temperature also exhibit a tendency towards increased corrosion, albeit less than in the case of pure zinc.
DE 10 2012 005 806 A1 describes a two-layer coating system, having a first layer, comprising zinc particles, and above said layer a second layer, which comprises aluminium particles. Both layers contain epoxide-modified alkoxysilanes as binders. The intention, through selection of appropriate catalysts, is to achieve simultaneous curing of both layers, thus supposedly producing well-adhering coatings having cathodic corrosion control properties. This coating as well, however, withstands only short-term temperature loads of around 300° C. without the cathodic corrosion control being dramatically reduced or broken down.
In the prior art, therefore, there is a lack of suitable active corrosion control, especially on the basis of a zinc coating, which maintains a cathodic corrosion control effect even in the event of relatively long-lasting temperature loads and subsequent to such temperature loads. A high-temperature-resistant corrosion control coating of this kind would be able for example to achieve significant increases in the durability or service life of metal parts in engines, exhaust systems and screw systems in temperature-exposed areas, energy recovery plants or industrial plants.


A zoom lens includes, in order from an object side to an image side thereof, a first lens unit having a positive refractive power, a second lens unit having a negative refractive power, a third lens unit having a positive refractive power, and a rear lens group including one or more lens units. A distance between adjacent ones of the lens units changes during zooming. The second lens unit and the third lens unit each include a resin lens element. A focal length f2p of the resin lens element included in the second lens unit, a focal length f3p of the resin lens element included in the third lens unit, and a focal length ft of the zoom lens at a telephoto end are set to satisfy predetermined mathematical conditions.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a zoom lens and an image pickup apparatus including the same and is suitable for, for example, image pickup apparatuses including image pickup devices, such as a digital still camera, a video camera, a monitoring camera, and a broadcast camera, or image pickup apparatuses such as a silver-halide-film camera.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recent image pickup apparatuses including solid-state image pickup devices, such as a digital still camera and a video camera, have improved functions while the total sizes thereof are small. Zoom lenses intended for such apparatuses are desired to have short total lens lengths and high zoom ratios. Moreover, the zoom lenses are desired to be lightweight and to cost low.
A positive-lead zoom lens is an exemplary zoom lens having a short total lens length and a high zoom ratio and includes, in order from an object side to an image side thereof, a first lens unit having a positive refractive power, a second lens unit having a negative refractive power, a third lens unit having a positive refractive power, and a rear lens group including one or more lens units. Another exemplary zoom lens includes lens elements that are made of materials other than glass, such as resin materials, so that the weight and the cost of the zoom lens are reduced.
A positive-lead zoom lens is disclosed by Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2010-102096 in which a second lens unit includes a resin lens element having an aspherical surface and provided at the extreme end of the second lens unit on the image side. Another zoom lens is disclosed by Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-171615 in which a second lens unit includes one resin lens element having a positive refractive power and one resin lens element having a negative refractive power, and a fourth lens unit includes one resin lens element having a positive refractive power and one resin lens element having a negative refractive power.
In general, the variation in the refractive index of a resin lens element due to changes in the temperature is greater than that of a glass lens element. The effect caused by the variation in the shape of the resin lens element due to expansion or contraction is also greater than that of the glass lens element. Hence, variations in the focus, spherical aberration, and the like due to changes in the temperature are significant, leading to possible deterioration of optical performance. In a positive-lead zoom lens including a relatively small number of lens elements, the refractive power on each of lens surfaces is high. Therefore, the deterioration of optical performance due to changes in the temperature appears clearly at every zooming position.
To obtain a small-size, high-zoom-ratio zoom lens that includes resin lens elements and exhibits high optical performance at every zooming position, it is important to provide resin lens elements in a plurality of lens units and to appropriately set the refractive powers of the lens elements and the positions of the resin lens elements.

Zoom lens and image pickup apparatus including the same


A package is formed by a thermal base and a leadframe assembly. The thermal base includes a body of thermally conductive material having a top surface, wherein the top surface of the body includes a pedestal. An integrated circuit chip is mounted to the pedestal, the integrated circuit chip including bonding pads. The leadframe assembly includes leads and an encapsulant ring that partially embeds the leads. The leadframe assembly is mounted to the top surface of said body surrounding the pedestal. The pedestal is configured with a thickness that positions the bonding pad at a height substantially coplanar with the leads. Bonding wires extend from the bonding pads to the leads with a shortened length so as to provide for improved electrical characteristics of frequency response, impedance and inductance.

The components of an integrated circuit package are often made of a variety of materials. It is commonplace to mount an integrated circuit die to a die pad of a leadframe or base assembly. It is also known to include in the package a base or base assembly element functioning as a thermal dissipater, such as a heat sink. The use of different materials for the package components is a necessity given the different functions performed, but this can present a concern where different coefficients of thermal expansion (CTE) exist and mechanical stress is introduced. Failure of the package may result. There is a need in the art to design the package and choose materials that mitigate the buildup of mechanical stresses while maintaining or improving upon electrical performances and ruggedness as to environmental factors.

Stress relieved thermal base for integrated circuit packaging


Provided are techniques for optimized deployment of analytic models in an edge topology. A description of a multi-tiered edge topology with a plurality of nodes, a multimedia stream analytics composition, and performance objectives are received, where the multimedia stream analytics composition includes tasks that use analytic models. The analytic models are optimized and clustered to form clusters of optimized analytic models. A representative optimized analytic model is selected from each of the clusters. A configuration recommendation is determined that indicates deployment of the tasks and of each selected representative optimized analytic model on the plurality of nodes to meet the performance objectives. One or more workflows are generated from the configuration recommendation and executed on the plurality of nodes to generate output for the multimedia stream analytics composition.

Embodiments of the invention relate to optimized deployment of analytic models in an edge topology. For example, embodiments of the invention relate to recommending optimal compressed configurations for analytic model compositions in a multi-tiered edge topology.
Edge computing may be described as a distributed computing environment that brings data analysis/processing and data storage closer to the location where it is needed to improve response times and save bandwidth. With the emergence of smart cameras and small, single-board computers with camera add-ons, some video analytics capabilities are moving to the edge. Such smart cameras and small, single-board computers with camera add-ons may be described as edge devices.
However, edge devices are usually not powerful enough to run a typical video analytics composition on a live stream on their own. Compression techniques may help run deep learning models more efficiently on edge devices, but may produce inferior results.

Optimized deployment of analytic models in an edge topology

International Business Machines Corporation