A system and method for using asymmetrical offsets for products in a risk management analysis system are disclosed. Conventional systems assign symmetrical offsets for products, that is, if two products have an 80% correlation they each would be assigned an offset of 80% with respect to each other. However, it is desirable to allow for asymmetrical offsets. In the disclosed system and method, when two products have a correlation of 80%, one may be assigned an offset of 75% and the other may be assigned an offset of 80%. There are many reasons to vary the offset between the products. The varying offset may reflect an asymmetry in the risk in one of the products, such as being traded in an illiquid market or in a less desirable venue. The varying offset may correct for an imbalance in spread credits due to special charges from intra spreading.

Futures Exchanges, referred to herein also as an "Exchange", such as the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. (CME), provide a marketplace where futures and options on futures are traded. Futures is a term used to designate all contracts covering the purchase and sale of financial instruments or physical commodities for future delivery on a commodity futures exchange. A futures contract is a legally binding agreement to buy or sell a commodity at a specified price at a predetermined future time. Each futures contract is standardized and specifies commodity, quality, quantity, delivery date and settlement. An option is the right, but not the obligation, to sell or buy the underlying instrument (in this case, a futures contract) at a specified price within a specified time. In particular, a put option is an option granting the right, but not the obligation, to sell a futures contract at the stated price prior to the expiration date. In contrast, a call option is an option contract which gives the buyer the right, but not the obligation, to purchase a specific futures contract at a fixed price (strike price) within a specified period of time as designated by the Exchange in its contract specifications. The buyer has the right to buy the commodity (underlying futures contract) or enter a long position, i.e. a position in which the trader has bought a futures contract that does not offset a previously established short position. A call writer (seller) has the obligation to sell the commodity (or enter a short position, i.e. the opposite of a long position) at a fixed price (strike price) during a certain fixed time when assigned to do so by the Clearing House. The term "short" refers to one who has sold a futures contract to establish a market position and who has not yet closed out this position through an offsetting procedure, i.e. the opposite of long. Generally, an offset refers to taking a second futures or options on futures position opposite to the initial or opening position, e.g. selling if one has bought, or buying if one has sold.
Typically, the Exchange provides a "clearing house" which is a division of the Exchange through which all trades made must be confirmed, matched and settled each day until offset or delivered. The clearing house is an adjunct to the Exchange responsible for settling trading accounts, clearing trades, collecting and maintaining performance bond funds, regulating delivery and reporting trading data. Clearing is the procedure through which the Clearing House becomes buyer to each seller of a futures contract, and seller to each buyer, and assumes responsibility for protecting buyers and sellers from financial loss by assuring performance on each contract. This is effected through the clearing process, whereby transactions are matched. A clearing member is a firm qualified to clear trades through the Clearing House. In the case of the CME's clearing house, all clearing members not specifically designated as Class B members are considered Class A clearing members. In the CME there are three categories of clearing members: 1) CME clearing members, qualified to clear transactions for all commodities; 2) IMM clearing members, qualified to clear trades for only IMM and IOM commodities; and 3) IMM Class B clearing members, solely limited to conducting proprietary arbitrage in foreign currencies between a single Exchange-approved bank and the IMM and who must be guaranteed by one or more Class A non-bank CME or IMM clearing member(s). Note that a "member" is a broker/trader registered with the Exchange.
While the disclosed embodiments will be described in reference to the CME, it will be appreciated that these embodiments are applicable to any Exchange, including those which trade in equities and other securities. The CME Clearing House clears, settles and guarantees all matched transactions in CME contracts occurring through its facilities. In addition, the CME Clearing House establishes and monitors financial requirements for clearing members and conveys certain clearing privileges in conjunction with the relevant exchange markets.
The Clearing House establishes clearing level performance bonds (margins) for all CME products and establishes minimum performance bond requirements for customers of CME products. A performance bond, also referred to as a margin, is the funds that must be deposited by a customer with his or her broker, by a broker with a clearing member or by a clearing member with the Clearing House, for the purpose of insuring the broker or Clearing House against loss on open futures or options contracts. This is not a part payment on a purchase. The performance bond helps to ensure the financial integrity of brokers, clearing members and the Exchange as a whole. The Performance Bond to Clearing House refers to the minimum dollar deposit which is required by the Clearing House from clearing members in accordance with their positions. Maintenance, or maintenance margin, refers to a sum, usually smaller than the initial performance bond, which must remain on deposit in the customer's account for any position at all times. The initial margin is the total amount of margin per contract required by the broker when a futures position is opened. A drop in funds below this level requires a deposit back to the initial margin levels, i.e. a performance bond call. If a customer's equity in any futures position drops to or under the maintenance level because of adverse price action, the broker must issue a performance bond/margin call to restore the customer's equity. A performance bond call, also referred to as a margin call, is a demand for additional funds to bring the customer's account back up to the initial performance bond level whenever adverse price movements cause the account to go below the maintenance.
The accounts of individual members, clearing firms and non-member customers doing business through CME must be carried and guaranteed to the Clearing House by a clearing member. As mentioned above, in every matched transaction executed through the Exchange's facilities, the Clearing House is substituted as the buyer to the seller and the seller to the buyer, with a clearing member assuming the opposite side of each transaction. The Clearing House is an operating division of the Exchange, and all rights, obligations and/or liabilities of the Clearing House are rights, obligations and/or liabilities of CME. Clearing members assume full financial and performance responsibility for all transactions executed through them and all positions they carry. The Clearing House, dealing exclusively with clearing members, holds each clearing member accountable for every position it carries regardless of whether the position is being carried for the account of an individual member, for the account of a non-member customer, or for the clearing member's own account. Conversely, as the contra-side to every position, the Clearing House is held accountable to the clearing members for the net settlement from all transactions on which it has been substituted as provided in the Rules.
The Clearing House does not look to non-member customers for performance or attempt to evaluate their creditworthiness or market qualifications. The Clearing House does monitor clearing members for the adequacy of credit monitoring and risk management of their customers. In addition, although the Exchange has established character and financial standards for its individual members, the Clearing House looks solely to the clearing member carrying and guaranteeing the account to secure all payments and performance bond obligations. Further, when an individual member executes orders for a clearing member, his or her guarantor clearing member is held accountable as principal for the brokered transaction until the transaction has been matched and recorded by the Clearing House as a transaction of the clearing member for whom the individual member had acted.
The risk management and financial surveillance techniques employed by CME are designed to:                Prevent the accumulation of losses;        Ensure that sufficient resources are available to cover future obligations;        Result in the prompt detection of financial and operational weaknesses;        Allow swift and appropriate action to be taken to rectify any financial problems and protect the clearing system.These techniques are consistent with risk management recommendations by authoritative organizations.
CME derives its financial stability in large part by removing debt obligations among market participants as they occur. This is accomplished by determining a settlement price at the close of the market each day for each contract and marking all open positions to that price, referred to as "mark to market." Every contract is debited or credited based on that trading session's gains or losses. As prices move for or against a position, funds flow into and out of the trading account. Debt obligations from option contracts are also immediately removed, since the purchaser of an option must pay the premium (cost of the option) in full at the time of purchase. Sellers of options post performance bonds, discussed above, as determined by the CME according to the prevailing risk characteristics of the options sold. In the case of the CME, each business day by 6:40 a.m. Chicago time, based on the mark-to-the-market of all open positions to the previous trading day's settlement price, the Clearing House pays to or collects cash from each clearing member. This cash flow, known as settlement variation, is performed by CME's settlement banks based on instructions issued by the Clearing House. All payments to and collections from clearing members are made in "same-day" funds. In addition to the 6:40 a.m. settlement, a daily intra-day mark-to-the market of all open positions, including trades executed during the overnight GLOBEX®, the CME's electronic trading systems, trading session and the current day's trades matched before 11:15 a.m., is performed using current prices. The resulting cash payments are made intra-day for same day value. In times of extreme price volatility, the Clearing House has the authority to perform additional intra-day mark-to-the-market calculations on open positions and to call for immediate payment of settlement variation. Settlement variation payments through the Clearing House average $1.4 billion per day and have reached a peak of $6.4 billion. CME's mark-to-the-market settlement system stands in direct contrast to the settlement systems implemented by many other financial markets, including the interbank, Treasury securities, over-the-counter foreign exchange and debt, options, and equities markets, where participants regularly assume credit exposure to each other. In those markets, the failure of one participant can have a ripple effect on the solvency of the other participants. Conversely, CME's mark-to-the-market system does not allow losses to accumulate over time or allow a market participant the opportunity to defer losses associated with market positions.
If a clearing member does not have sufficient performance bond collateral on deposit with the Clearing House, then the clearing member must meet a call for cash performance bond deposits by 6:40 a.m. and/or by 2:00 p.m. Chicago time, which results in a direct debit to the clearing member's account at one of CME's settlement banks. Clearing members' performance bond deposits may only be:                Cash (such as U.S. dollars, Japanese yen, Euro currency, Swiss francs, British pounds, Canadian dollars, Australian dollars, Norwegian krone, and Swedish krona);        U.S. Treasury securities;        Letters of credit issued in the Exchange's name by approved banks;        Stocks selected from among approximately half of those in the Standard & Poor's 500® Stock Price index and depository trust shares based on the Standard & Poor's 500 Stock Price Index;        Selected sovereign debt of Canada, France, Germany, and the UK;        Discount notes issued by the Federal Farm Credit Banks, Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, Federal Home Loan Bank System, or Fannie Mae, provided that the notes have less than six months remaining to maturity;        Fixed rate note and bond securities issued by the Federal Farm Credit Bank, Federal Home Loan Bank, Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, Fannie Mae or Ginnie Mae;        Interest Earning Facility (IEF□), a CME managed fund program;        IEF2: Money Market Mutual Funds allowable under CFTC Regulation 1.25; and        IEF3 and IEF4: Clearing firm self-directed collateral management program, which allows collateral instruments allowable permitted under CFTC Regulation 1.25.
Securities are revalued every day and are subject to prudent haircuts. Additionally, foreign cash is subject to haircuts in selected circumstances. Various forms of collateral are also subject to limits.
CME's Clearing House also maintains a Concentration Margining Program, which allows the Clearing House to charge additional performance bond requirements when clearing firms' potential market exposures become large relative to the financial resources available to support those exposures.
In recognition of the growing linkages among the markets for exchange-traded equity derivative products, as well as the need to promote efficient clearing procedures and to focus on the true intermarket risk exposure of clearing members, CME, in conjunction with the Options Clearing Corporation (OCC) and the New York Clearing Corporation (NYCC), has developed a cross-margining system with respect to market professionals and proprietary accounts. By combining the positions of joint or affiliated clearing members in certain broad-based equity index futures and options into a single portfolio, and utilizing the sophisticated risk-based systems of each clearing organization, a single performance bond requirement across both markets is determined. The clearing organizations jointly hold a first lien on and security interest in the positions in cross-margined accounts. All performance bond deposits associated with these accounts are jointly held. The cross-margining system significantly enhances both the efficiency and financial integrity of the clearing system by treating all positions as being held in the same account, which allows gains accruing to futures or options positions to be immediately available to meet the requirements for funds from losing positions. In the event that a clearing organization suspends a cross-margining member, the positions in the cross-margin accounts would be liquidated and all performance bond collateral would be converted to cash and applied toward each clearing organization's costs of liquidating the cross-margin accounts. CME, the OCC and the NYCC are each entitled to proportional shares of any surplus to apply toward other obligations of the clearing member; if one clearing organization did not need its entire share of the surplus, the excess would be made available to the other clearing organizations.
CME also maintains cross-margin agreements with the London Clearing House and Fixed Income Clearing Corporation. These programs involve the cross-margining of selected interest rate products. The design of these two cross-margin programs differ from the above mentioned OCC/NYCC program in that performance bond collateral is held separately at each respective clearing organization. In the event that a clearing organization suspends a CME/LCH cross-margining participant, the cross-margined positions would be liquidated and performance bond collateral would be converted to cash at each respective clearing organization. If as a result of the liquidation of cross-margined positions and performance bond there is a resulting cross-margin loss, there will be a cross-margin guarantee payment from one clearing organization to the other to share the loss. A similarly structured cross-margin program is in place between CME and NYMEX for NYMEX energy products versus CME's commodity index complex.
The Clearing House Division monitors intra-day price movements throughout the trading session. To assess the impact of these price changes on clearing members, an intra-day mark-to-the-market calculation is performed on clearing member futures and options positions and reviewed by the Clearing House and Risk Management Departments several times each day, more frequently if price volatility is high. Large or concentrated positions on the losing side of the market receive special attention. The Audit Department may either contact or visit a clearing firm to determine whether proper performance bonds have been collected for these positions and to determine their impact on the clearing member's capital position and liquidity.
CME also conducts stress testing of clearing member positions on a daily basis. Numerous stress scenarios have been modeled to reflect a diverse universe of possible market events. Stress results are evaluated against performance bond on deposit and also with clearing member adjusted net capital. Results of stress tests may lead the Clearing House to request that the clearing member provide additional information about its customer accounts such as whether there are non-CME offsetting positions in other markets. In some cases stress test results may cause the Clearing House to increase a clearing member's performance bond requirement, or reduce or transfer positions.
Through the Division of Market Regulation at CME and working in conjunction with CBOT's Office of Investigations and Audits (OIA), CME's Risk Management Team has daily access to specific account position information regarding individual members, nonmember customers and clearing members, all of which is maintained on a highly confidential basis. Such critical information allows the identification of concentrated positions as they arise and the aggregation of positions that may be owned by common principals through several different clearing members. Knowledge of concentrated or high-risk positions, coupled with information routinely gathered on the cash and/or related derivative markets, enables CME to respond rapidly to market situations that might adversely affect the clearing system and/or the financial stability of a clearing member.
The Exchanges periodically visit their clearing member firms to review their financial, operational and risk management procedures and capabilities. Senior Clearing House staff evaluate how well each firm's procedures and capabilities correspond to its line of business. Senior staff from Audit, Clearing House, Risk Management, and Market Regulation follow up with the clearing member's senior management if there are deficiencies found in their risk management procedures and capabilities.
Risk management and financial surveillance are the two primary functions of CME's financial safeguard system. The system is designed to provide the highest level of safety and the early detection of unsound financial practices on the part of any clearing member. Its purpose is to protect all clearing members and their customers from the consequences of a default by a participant in the clearing process. The system is constantly being updated to reflect the most advanced risk management and financial surveillance techniques.
In order to minimize risk to the Exchange while minimizing the burden on members, it is desirable to approximate the requisite performance bond or margin requirement as closely as possible to the actual positions of the account at any given time. Accordingly, there is a need to improve the accuracy and flexibility of the mechanisms which estimate performance bond requirements.

System and method for asymmetric offsets in a risk management system


Methods and systems for tracking focus of an adjustable variable focus lens-based imaging system are disclosed. An example method includes identifying an initial focus position of an adjustable variable focus lens assembly and determining focusing parameters corresponding to that focus position. The focusing parameters are compared to a lens behavior model and a new, compensated focus position of the lens assembly is determined correcting for changes in lens assembly performance. A small window focusing sweep range, between forward and aft positions, may also be adjusted based on the lens behavior model to better identify the compensated focus position.

Machine vision is use of automated imaging-based inspection and analysis for such applications as part inspection, process control, and robot guidance. In typical machine vision systems, focusing distance of an imaging system is fixed. If necessary, the focus has to be manually adjusted to a particular distance to focus on an object of interest. However, manual focusing requires an external computer and display for an operator. While an autofocus system can alleviate some of the limitations of manual focus, autofocus systems tend to be slow and cannot be used effectively in a moving system such as a conveyer belt. In a presence of multiple objects within the field of view (FOV) of an imager, an autofocus algorithm may select a wrong object to focus on, which may result in a blurry image of an intended object of interest.
Some have proposed liquid lens assemblies to help speed up autofocusing. However, liquid lens present an entirely new set of problems. In particular, over time, in response to aging and temperature changes, the focus of a liquid lens focus will drift from its held position. In conjunction with longer refocusing delays (30-40 ms for a full sweep) and the fact that there is no feedback, using a Liquid Lens in fixed imaging poses particular challenges. Some have proposed operating liquid lens over a narrow, reduced temperature range or below a maximum temperature range. Others accept these focus drift errors as unsolvable and then merely advise their customers of the likely chances for performance errors. Accordingly, there is a need for solutions that track the ageing of a liquid lens and the drift of liquid lens over time and over temperature and compensate for the same.

Intelligent method of tracking focus in machine vision applications


A high performance bulk magnetic component includes a plurality of layers of crystalline, ferromagnetic metal strips adhesively bonded together to form a polyhedrally shaped part. When the component is excited at an excitation frequency xe2x80x9cfxe2x80x9d to a peak induction level Bmax, it exhibits a core-loss less than xe2x80x9cLxe2x80x9d wherein L is given by the formula L=0.0135 f (Bmax)1.9+0.000108 f1.6 (Bmax)1.92, said core loss, said excitation frequency and said peak induction level being measured in watts per kilogram, hertz, and teslas, respectively. Performance characteristics of the high performance bulk magnetic component of the present invention are significantly better when compared to silicon-steel components operated over the same frequency range.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to bulk magnetic components; and more particularly, to a generally three-dimensional high performance bulk metal magnetic component for large electronic devices such as magnetic resonance imaging systems, television and video systems, and electron and ion beam systems.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Certain steel alloys have long been used in magnetic devices in numerous technological applications. The most commonly used of these steels are low-carbon alloys and alloys with up to 3-3.5 weight percent silicon, often referred to as electrical steels and silicon steels, respectively. (As is conventional in the silicon steel art, the content of Si and other elemental additions recited herein is to be understood as a weight percentage unless otherwise specified.) These alloys find widespread use in electric motors, transformers, actuation devices, relays, and the like. Although steels are generally inexpensive, they are often unsuitable for demanding requirements. Among their most significant limitations are their core losses and their magnetostrictions. The low carbon steels are generally the least expensive alloys used for magnetic devices; they are widely available in commerce as unoriented sheet in thicknesses as low as 350 xcexcm (0.014xe2x80x3). However, their core losses are high enough to preclude their use in most applications requiring high efficiency or excitation frequencies greater than line frequency (50-60 Hz). Somewhat lower losses are exhibited by the silicon-containing alloys. They are produced in vast quantities either as non-oriented or oriented sheets in thicknesses as low as 125-175 xcexcm (0.005-0.007xe2x80x3). Oriented sheets have marked crystallographic texture that results in a substantial difference in their magnetic properties for excitation in different directions within the sheet. Oriented sheets are thus most suited for applications wherein flux is predominantly along a defined single direction including transformers and segmented components. Non-oriented materials are best suited to applications wherein the flux direction is not constant during operation, e.g. motor stators.
In addition to steels, other high induction, crystalline materials are known for use in certain magnetic applications, including Fexe2x80x94Sixe2x80x94Al alloys like Sendust, Fexe2x80x94Co alloys, and Fexe2x80x94Ni alloys. In each of these alloy families, small additions of other elements may be added for the sake of metallurgical processing or enhancement of soft magnetic properties.
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has become an important, non-invasive diagnostic tool in modern medicine. An MRI system typically comprises a magnetic field generating device. A number of such field generating devices employ either permanent magnets or electromagnets as a source of magnetomotive force. Frequently the field generating device further comprises a pair of magnetic pole faces defining a gap with the volume to be imaged contained within this gap.
The earliest magnetic pole pieces were made from solid magnetic material such as carbon steel or high purity iron, often known in the art as Armco iron. They have excellent DC properties but very high core loss in the presence of AC fields because of macroscopic eddy currents. Some improvement has been gained by forming a pole piece of laminated conventional steels.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,672,346 teaches a pole face having a solid structure and comprising a plate-like mass formed from a magnetic material such as carbon steel. U.S. Pat. No. 4,818,966 teaches that the magnetic flux generated from the pole pieces of a magnetic field generating device can be concentrated in the gap therebetween by making the peripheral portion of the pole pieces from laminated magnetic plates. U.S. Pat. No. 4,827,235 discloses a pole piece having large saturation magnetization, soft magnetism, and a specific resistance of 20 xcexcxcexa9-cm or more. Soft magnetic materials including permalloy, silicon steel, amorphous magnetic alloy, ferrite, and magnetic composite material are taught for use therein.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,124,651 teaches a nuclear magnetic resonance scanner with a primary field magnet assembly. The assembly includes ferromagnetic upper and lower pole pieces. Each pole piece comprises a plurality of narrow, elongated ferromagnetic rods aligned with their long axes parallel to the polar direction of the respective pole piece. The rods are preferably made of a magnetically permeable alloy such as 1008 steel, soft iron, or the like. The rods are transversely electrically separated from one another by an electrically non-conductive medium, limiting eddy current generation in the plane of the faces of the poles of the field assembly. U.S. Pat. No. 5,283,544, issued Feb. 1, 1994, to Sakurai et al. discloses a magnetic field generating device used for MRI. The devices include a pair of magnetic pole pieces which may comprise a plurality of block-shaped magnetic pole piece members formed by laminating a plurality of non-oriented silicon steel sheets.
Notwithstanding the advances represented by the above disclosures, there remains a need in the art for improved pole pieces. This is so because these pole pieces are essential for improving the imaging capability and quality of MRI systems. Although steel alloys are widely available, they have still been considered unsuitable for use in bulk magnetic components such as the tiles of poleface magnets for advanced magnetic resonance imaging systems (MRI), largely because of their high core losses under AC excitation.
It has also been known in the magnetic materials art that certain advantages might potentially be obtained by using silicon steels with considerably higher silicon content than the typical 3-3.5%. That limit is set by fundamental metallurgical constraints. An alloy with silicon content of greater than about 2.5% is said to have a closed xcex3 loop. That is, upon cooling an alloy with lower than 2.5% Si from high temperature, there is a series of successive allotropic transformations of the alloy from the body-centered cubic (bcc) xcex4 crystallographic phase to the face-centered cubic (fcc) xcex3 phase and finally to the room-temperature bcc xcex1 phase. Instead, at higher Si the alloy remains bcc throughout. This allows a careful interplay of rolling operations and controlled grain growth essential for producing thin-gage, low core loss sheet stock. However, above about 4-4.5% Si there is another difficulty, namely the formation of DO3 and B2 phases which are characterized by superlattice ordering. The presence of the ordered DO3 and B2 phases results in brittleness, precluding normal rolling operations.
It has been recognized that alloys with 6-7% Si have certain attractive electromagnetic characteristics. The increased solute content increases the alloy""s electrical resistivity, tending to improve the eddy current component of core loss. At about 6.5%, the magnetostriction of the alloy is nearly zero, reducing the susceptibility of the component to degradation of its magnetic properties by internally or externally imposed stresses. However, processing difficulties have meant that high silicon iron alloys are still not widely recognized or applied.
Several non-conventional methods have recently been taught for producing sheets of high silicon content Fe-base alloys. First, rapid solidification processing has been used to form directly thin strip material with high Si content. U.S. Pat. No. 4,265,682 to Tsuya et al. discloses a high silicon steel strip consisting of 4-10 weight % of Si and the remainder being substantially Fe and incidental impurities. The strip is produced by rapidly cooling a melt to form a microstructure comprising very fine crystal grains with substantially no ordered lattice. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,865,657 and 4,990,197, each to Das et al., disclose heat treatment of a rapidly quenched Fexe2x80x94Si containing 6-7 weight % Si to promote and control grain orientation and an order-disorder reaction.
Another method for producing sheets of high silicon content Fe-base alloys is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,089,061, which teaches subjecting steel strip to siliconization by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) from an atmosphere containing SiCl4 and a subsequent diffusion treatment for diffusing Si uniformly through the steel strip.
Still another method is provided by U.S. Pat. No. 5,489,342, which discloses a method of manufacturing a silicon steel sheet having grains precisely arranged in the Goss orientation, the strip containing 2.5 to 7.0 weight % Si. Goss orientation is a crystallographic texture defined by (110) less than 001 greater than  preferred grain orientation.
Presented is a high performance bulk metal magnetic component having the shape of a polyhedron and being comprised of a plurality of layers of crystalline, ferromagnetic metal strips. Also provided by the present invention is a method for making a high performance, bulk metal magnetic component. The magnetic component is operable at frequencies ranging from about 50 Hz to 20,000 Hz and exhibits improved performance characteristics when compared to conventional silicon-steel magnetic components operated over the same frequency range. More specifically, a magnetic component constructed in accordance with the present invention and excited at an excitation frequency xe2x80x9cfxe2x80x9d to a peak induction level xe2x80x9cBmaxxe2x80x9d may have a core loss at room temperature less than xe2x80x9cLxe2x80x9d wherein L is given by the formula L=0.0135 f (Bmax)1.9+0.000108 f1.6 (Bmax)1.92, the core loss, the excitation frequency and the peak induction level being measured in watts per kilogram, hertz, and teslas, respectively. In an embodiment the magnetic component may have (i) a core-loss of less than or approximately equal to 1 watt-per-kilogram of magnetic metal material when operated at a frequency of approximately 60 Hz and at a flux density of approximately 1.0 Tesla (T); (ii) a core-loss of less than or approximately equal to 20 watts-per-kilogram of magnetic metal material when operated at a frequency of approximately 1000 Hz and at a flux density of approximately 1.0 T, or (iii) a core-loss of less than or approximately equal to 105 watt-per-kilogram of magnetic metal material when operated at a frequency of approximately 20,000 Hz and at a flux density of approximately 0.30 T.
In one embodiment of the present invention, a high performance bulk metal magnetic component comprises a plurality of substantially similarly shaped layers of ferromagnetic metal strips having a high saturation induction and being laminated together by adhesive bonding to form a polyhedrally shaped part.
The present invention also provides methods of constructing a high performance bulk metal magnetic component. In one embodiment of the method, ferromagnetic high saturation induction metal strip material is cut to form a plurality of cut strips having a predetermined length. The cut strips are stacked to form a bar of stacked high saturation induction metal strip material which is impregnated with an epoxy resin and cured. The component is then cut in the requisite shape from the impregnated bar.
In another embodiment of the method, ferromagnetic high saturation induction metal strip material is wound about a mandrel to form a generally rectangular core having generally radiused corners. The core is then impregnated with epoxy resin and cured. The short sides of the rectangular core are then cut to form two magnetic components having a predetermined three-dimensional geometry that is the approximate size and shape of said short sides of said generally rectangular core. The radiused corners are removed from the long sides of said generally rectangular core and the long sides of said generally rectangular core are cut to form a plurality of polyhedrally shaped magnetic components having the predetermined three-dimensional geometry.
Yet another embodiment of the method includes the steps of stamping laminations in the requisite shape from ferromagnetic high saturation induction metal strip feedstock, stacking the laminations to form a three-dimensional shape, applying and activating adhesive means to adhere the laminations to each other forming a component having sufficient mechanical integrity, and finishing the component to remove any excess adhesive and to give it a suitable surface finish and final component dimensions. The method may further comprise an optional annealing step to improve the magnetic properties of the component. These steps may be carried out in a variety of orders and using a variety of techniques including those set forth in more detail hereinbelow.
The present invention is also directed to a bulk high performance metal component constructed in accordance with the above-described methods. In particular, high performance bulk metal magnetic components constructed in accordance with the present invention are especially suited for metal tiles for poleface magnets in high performance MRI systems; television and video systems; and electron and ion beam systems and other devices. The advantages afforded by the present invention include simplified manufacturing, reduced manufacturing time, reduced stresses (e.g., magnetostrictive) encountered during construction of high performance bulk metal components, and optimized performance of the finished magnetic component.

High performance bulk metal magnetic component


The invention relates to a system (1) for conveying a strip of material (20) along a production line, and a production line provided with such a system, the system (1) comprising:                a bearing means (10) for the strip of material (20);        at least one chain (11) provided with means (111) for driving the strip of material (20);        at least one return wheel (12) for the chain (11) to position the chain (11) facing the strip of material (20);characterized in that the return wheel (12) also forms a counter-bearing means for the chain (11) to press said chain against the bearing means (10), so that the means (111) of driving the strip of material can penetrate into the strip of material (20).

The invention applies to all fields for which a strip of material has to be conveyed along a production line. More particularly, the invention relates to the field of the production of food pots, for example yoghurt pots.
In this field, it is in fact necessary to convey a strip of material, more often than not plastic material, along the production line to stations for forming pots from the strip of material.
One known system for conveying such a strip of material comprises a bearing means for the strip of material, one or more link chains, of which certain links include a lateral plate provided with a means for driving the strip of material, and a counter-bearing means for pressing the chain against the bearing means on which the strip of material bears.
The bearing means consists of a roll with a circumferential groove. The means of driving the strip of material provided on certain links is formed by a spike arranged at the centre of the link. The counter-bearing means consists of an anvil which thus has a planar face on which the link bears.
When a strip of material is positioned between the roll and the link chains, the spikes penetrate into the strip of material as the latter moves. The penetration of the spikes into the strip of material is assisted by the anvil which presses the chain against the roll, the spikes penetrating into the strip of material and then fitting into the groove provided in the roll.
The system generally comprises two chains with spikes arranged either side of the roll in order for each side of the strip of material to be driven by the spikes.
One known system as described hereinabove is, for example, represented in FIGS. 1 to 3. FIG. 1 is a diagram representing, from a side view, a system for conveying a strip of material according to the prior art. FIGS. 2 and 3 represent enlarged views of the system of FIG. 1 showing the area of penetration of the spikes into the strip of material to be conveyed, these figures illustrating two positions of the strip of material relative to the chain.
In these FIGS. 1 to 3, the strip of material 20 to be conveyed, the roll 10 forming bearing means for the strip of material 20, the link chain 11 with spikes and the anvil 12 forming counter-bearing means for the chain can be distinguished.
The path of the chain 11 is represented by the broken lines 110. The link chain 11 is returned between the roll 10 and the anvil 12 by virtue of at least one return wheel R. The chain 11 is thus brought into position facing the strip of material by the return wheel R.
The strip of material 20 is conducted roughly in a straight line by means referenced 14, 15.
The chain 11 meets the strip of material 20 to be conveyed along the production line at a counter-bearing area where the spikes 111 of the chain can penetrate into the strip of material 20. This counter-bearing area is situated between the roll 10 and the anvil 12.
Such a system is effective inasmuch as it allows the strip of material to be effectively conveyed along the production line, but it also has a number of drawbacks.
Firstly, this system comprises numerous parts in order to operate, which generate a relatively significant bulk. In particular, it provides for a return wheel R for the chain arranged at a distance from the anvil 12 of the chain 11. By positioning the return wheel R at a distance from the anvil 12, it becomes possible to position the chain 11 substantially parallel to the anvil and, consequently, arrange the spikes 111 perpendicularly to the anvil to facilitate the penetration of the spikes 111 into the strip of material 20.
Secondly, this system implements an anvil as counter-bearing means for the chain, which forms a wear part which must be regularly changed.
The nature and the quantity of parts involved correspondingly increases the service time needed to change or adjust these parts.
Finally, the spikes 111 provided on the links of the chain 11 have dimensions that are not inconsiderable to ensure their good penetration into the strip of material, and a significant quantity of material is therefore needed to make them.

System for conveying a strip of material along a production line and production line provided with such a system


Measuring equipment for a crimp connection comprises a signal processing unit (150), a ranging sensor arrangement (100) based on using optical radiation, and a moving mechanism (102) that moves a formed crimp connection (104) and the ranging sensor arrangement (100) in relation to each other. The ranging sensor arrangement (100) measures the distance between the ranging sensor arrangement (100) and crimp connection (104) while the ranging sensor arrangement (100) and moving mechanism (102) are moved in relation to each other. The signal processing unit (150) generates surface profile data on the basis of the measured distances, uses the surface profile data of the crimp connection (104) to determine the quality of the crimp connection (104), and displays data related to the crimp connection (104).

Crimp connectors may be attached to the ends of electric conductors. It is important to be able to measure the quality of the crimp connection so as to ensure the electrical conductivity and mechanical strength of the connection as well as a sufficiently uniform quality, among other things.
The quality of a connection is measured manually by using a mechanical measuring tool. The measuring can be performed with a slide gauge or micrometer screw, for instance. In such a case, the outer dimensions of the connector are measured to find out, whether the connector has been crimped too much, sufficiently, or too little. It is also possible to determine, whether the connector is of a correct shape.
The quality of a connection can also be measured in a destructive manner. Destructive measurements include cross-section measurement and tensile measurement. In cross-section measurement, the connector is physically cut in half in the transverse direction, the dimensions, shape and conductor locations, etc., are measured from the cross-section or its image. In tensile measurement, the conductor is pulled off the connection and the force required to separate it is measured. This shows, whether the connection was mechanically all right.
Mechanical measurement is slow and imprecise, and the measurer affects the result. Destructive measurements literally break the connection and the measured connection is no longer usable. When using destructive measurement, specifically the unmeasured connections will be used in the final product, which means that their quality cannot be ensured by measurement. Therefore, there is a need to further develop the measuring of crimp connections of conductors.

Sensor arrangement, measuring device and measuring method


A gondola tipping system for tipping a pivotally mounted container includes a frame having a substantially horizontal beam, a trolley translatable across the beam, a winch mounted on the beam, and a lower block connectable to the pivotal container, the lower block being reeved to the trolley and winch such that rotation of the winch and translation of the trolley causes the lower block to move both vertically and horizontally.

Gondolas, and such similarly related devices, are used in many industries to transport loose materials. Gondolas typically include a bucket or open-top container on a wheeled base. The container is hingedly connected to the wheeled base along one side so that the container can be tipped on its hinge and its contents emptied. For example, in the wine-making industry, gondolas are used to transport grapes from a field to a bin for processing into wine. Similarly, in the mining industry, hinged cargo containers are used to transport and dispense ore from a mine.
Conventional gondola tipping systems typically include a hoist and drive chain that lift and tip the gondola container to empty its contents. The hoist of a conventional gondola tipper includes a hook that is connected to one side of the container of the gondola opposite the hinged side of the container. The hoist lifts the hook, thereby lifting one side of the gondola container. The drive chain moves the hoist in a horizontal direction, positioning the hoist in different horizontal locations relative to the hinged side of the container. As the hook lifts one side of the gondola, the center of mass of the gondola and its contents pivot about the hinge. When the center of mass passes a vertical line extending upward from the hinge, gravity causes the container to tip over and rapidly accelerate downward, dumping its contents. The rapid downward acceleration of the container can place tremendous side load on the gondola tipping system, causing damage to the drive chain and potential harm to bystanders.


A hybrid power converter system that comprises a first power bus connected to a DC power source, a second power bus connected to an AC load, and a third power bus connected to an energy storage device. One or more power converters are connected to the first power bus in parallel and are connected with the second and third power buses, each by a switch. The system includes a first switch for connecting or disconnecting a power converter to or from the second power bus and a second switch for connecting or disconnecting the power converter to or from the third power bus, to switch the source of power being provided to the AC load either from the DC power source or the energy storage device. With additional power converters connected into the system in a similar manner, several combinations of power supply are possible.

Field of the Invention
The prevent disclosure relates to power conversion for a renewable energy site. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to a hybrid power converter system that is configured to provide connections of three different power buses together. The power buses may include a power bus for a DC power source, a power bus for an AC load, and a power bus for an energy storage unit. Embodiments of the disclosure may also include a renewable energy site comprising the hybrid power converter system and a method of energy conversion at a renewable energy site.
Description of Related Art
By way of background, the following patents and patent applications are each hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties: Chinese Patent Application Nos. CN 102769302 and CN 103296695; Japanese Patent Application No. JP 2012075224; Korean Patent Application Nos. KR 20110014027, KR 20120110478, and KR 20130138611; Taiwanese Patent Application No. TW 201328101; U.S. Patent Application Nos. US 20090189445, US 20110095606, US 20110137481, US 20120013190, US 20120013192, US 20120313436, US 20130051105, US 20130234521, and US 20130328397; U.S. Pat. No. 7,411,308, U.S. Pat. No. 8,344,550, and U.S. Pat. No. 8,482,155; and PCT Application Nos. WO 2013004067 and WO 2007018830.
Renewable energy sources like solar power plants are subject to unpredictable power output due to changes in the environment in their vicinity. Chief among these are the movement of clouds which can rapidly cause their power output to fluctuate. As the percentage of power from such plants supplied to the public power grid increases the severity of the problem also increases. Recently, power utilities are demanding that new solar power plants be designed with features to prevent their output from changing faster than a specified rate.
There are two methods to meet these new requirements. The first and most common approach is to include some type of energy storage or generation capability within the scope of the power plant. These include battery systems or diesel generators which can supplement the power produced by the plant when cloud events occur such that the power output remains within the required specifications. While technically straightforward this approach severely affects the economic viability of the project due to the high cost of the storage element or resistance to application of diesel generators. The second and less common approach is to forecast weather in such a way that the output of the plant can be gradually changed in advance of when cloud cover would appear. The above methods can be applied independently or in combination in varying degrees.
Previous approaches of the power storage method have required some form of power conversion. Power conversion allows power flow from power sources and loads which have much different characteristics. In particular, voltage and frequency often do not match between a power source and a power load. In addition, different loads may have different characteristics. In systems with three power buses, typically two power converters must be applied to connect the three buses- one converter to convert power between the renewable source and the AC grid and a second converter between the AC grid and the energy storage element, often a battery bank. One problem with this approach is that it requires two converters and the infrastructure to connect them to the AC grid. This effectively doubles the cost of the converter hardware. Thus, there is a need in the art for improved systems and methods for power conversion at renewable energy sites.

Hybrid power converter for renewable energy power plant


Disclosed is a method of monitoring tire pressure monitoring systems in a motor vehicle. The motor vehicle has a tire pressure monitoring system with indirect measurement which detects tire inflation pressure loss on the basis of wheel speed data, and a tire pressure monitoring system with direct measurement (TPMS) which detects tire inflation pressure loss from tire inflation pressure values measured directly by pressure modules on the vehicle tire. According to the method a warning relating to tire inflation pressure loss emitted by a pressure module of the tire pressure monitoring system with direct measurement (TPMS) is not transmitted to the driver until this tire inflation pressure loss is confirmed by the tire pressure monitoring system with indirect measurement or by all pressure modules that are still working in fail-free manner. Also disclosed is a computer program product.

The present invention relates to a method of monitoring tire pressure monitoring systems in a motor vehicle having both a direct pressure measuring system and an indirect pressure measuring system, as well as to a computer program product containing the method therein.
Tire pressure monitoring systems are used at an increasing rate in up-to-date vehicles in order to improve safety. On the one hand, so-called direct tire pressure monitoring systems are known in the art which monitor the tire inflation pressure by means of pressure modules in the vehicle tires. Further, so-called indirect tire pressure monitoring systems are known in the art, e.g. from WO 01/87647 A1, U.S. Pat. No. 6,385,553 B1, and EP 0 832 767 B1, which determine the tire inflation pressure from rotational speed data (wheel speed, angular velocity, frequency, etc.) of the vehicle wheels. DE 100 60 392 A1 also discloses a tire pressure monitoring system which describes a combination of an indirect tire pressure monitoring system and a reduced direct tire pressure monitoring system. This tire pressure monitoring system uses, on the one hand, the wheel speed data of wheel sensors which are already provided in a vehicle with an anti-lock system (ABS), while, on the other hand, it uses directly measured tire inflation pressures which are provided in one to two pressure modules in the vehicle tires in order to detect tire inflation pressure loss. Thus, the tire pressure monitoring system described in DE 100 60 392 A1 includes two tire pressure monitoring systems (direct and indirect) which are designed independently of one another, and each of these tire pressure monitoring systems generates a warning signal independently of the other tire pressure monitoring system, while taking into consideration defined evaluation criteria.
The advantage of the tire pressure monitoring system with direct measurement (TPMS) involves that tire inflation pressure loss is detected on each individual wheel and on a combination of optional wheels. However, this system suffers from the shortcoming that the required pressure modules in the tires in general are not designed redundantly or, respectively, that the pressure modules are not monitored, with the possible result of omission of alarms or the occurrence of spurious alarms as far as tire inflation pressure loss is concerned.
As has been described hereinabove, the tire pressure monitoring system with indirect measurement is based on the rotational speed data of the rotational speed sensors which are provided in an anti-lock system (ABS). These wheel speed sensors are monitored in a per se known fashion in the anti-lock system (ABS). This condition allows detecting a possible defect of one or more of the wheel speed sensors, with the result that spurious alarms due to defective wheel speed sensors are almost ruled out. It is, however, disadvantageous in this system that a simultaneous tire inflation pressure loss on all wheels cannot be detected under certain circumstances. The system detects tire inflation pressure loss by way of different wheel speeds of the individual wheels, and a wheel suffering from tire inflation pressure loss rotates faster than a wheel without tire inflation pressure loss. If all wheels exhibit the same tire inflation pressure loss, the system does not detect this simultaneous tire inflation pressure loss because the difference in rotational speeds is missing.

Method for monitoring tyre pressure monitoring systems in a motor vehicle


A subject (180) is illuminated whose movements of at least one eye are to be registered by an eye-tracker for producing resulting data (DEYE). To this aim, a coherent light source in light producing means (140) produces at least one well-defined light beam (L1, L2). A diffractive optical element is arranged between the coherent light source and an output from the light producing means (140). The diffractive optical element is configured to direct a light beam (L1) towards at least a first designated area (A1) estimated to cover the at least one eye of the subject (180). Image registering means (150) registers light from the at least one light beam (L1, L2) having been reflected against the subject (180). The resulting data (DEYE) are produced in response to these light reflections, which resulting data (DEYE) represent movements of the at least one eye of the subject (180).

The prior art includes directional optical illuminators for eye-trackers. Such illuminators are advantageous relative to static ditto because, at each point in time, they only illuminate a fraction of a surface inside a volume within which the subject moves. Thereby, power is conserved corresponding to the size of the non-illuminated surface that would otherwise have been illuminated. US 2010/0066975 describes a solution, using a matrix-based illuminator with imaging optics, or a collimated beam, and a tiltable mirror to direct illumination towards the user of an eye-tracker.
Furthermore, diffractive optical elements (DOEs) are known, which are configured to transform a coherent light beam into an arbitrary intensity pattern. A brief DOE description is available via the URL http://www.rpcphotonics.com/optical.asp.
US 2004/0213463 reveals a solution for imaging and range detection, wherein a DOE-based technique is used for spatial encoding of light. Here, the position and shape of a light pattern can be changed instantly by inserting a different DOE into the light beam.
DOEs are sometimes also referred to as holographic optical elements. In such cases, the DOE often includes a phase mask, analog or digital, which is configured to transform a coherent light beam into a desired spatial pattern. The phase amplitude is typically less than one wavelength. It is also possible that the DOE includes an amplitude mask.


Provided is a decoding apparatus capable of reducing the error rate of the decoding results and also the circuit scale. A computing unit computes a plurality of distances only for a number of code word candidates of code words from demodulated data, the number being smaller than a number of values the code words can express, the code words having a possibility of being transmitted. A decoding unit decodes the code words from the plurality of computed distances. This invention is applicable to a decoding apparatus for Long Term Evolution (LTE).

In Long Term Evolution (LTE), a physical control format indicator channel (PCFICH) is used as a control channel. The PCFICH notifies a receiving terminal of the number of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols with which a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) is to be transmitted. The receiving terminal is notified of the number of OFDM symbols as a control format indicator (CFI). A code word of the CFI consists of 3 bits. When a value of the CFI is 1, the code word is expressed as "011" in binary. When the value of the CFI is 2, the code word is expressed as "101" in binary. When the value of the CFI is 3, the code word is expressed as "110" in binary. When the value of the CFI is 4, the code word is expressed as "000" in binary.
On the transmission side, the CFI is further converted to repetition codes to generate a 32-bit transmission signal sequence. The receiving terminal receives the 32-bit transmission signal sequence, decodes the repetition codes of the 32-bit transmission signal sequence, and then decodes the CFI. As a decoding method, soft decision decoding is commonly used. In the case of the PCFICH, distances between decoding results of the repetition codes and respective code word candidates are calculated, and the CFI corresponding to the code word candidate having the highest correlation is produced as a decoding result.
Note that, the PDCCH is a control channel for transmitting control information for receiving a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) by the receiving terminal. The PDSCH is a channel for transmitting packet data to the receiving terminal.
FIG. 6 illustrates the CFI that has been converted to the repetition codes. First, a 32-bit sequence CPCFICHsoftbit (i) for decoding the repetition codes is divided into eleven units of 3 bits. Note, however, that the 11th unit contains 2 bits. Each of the bits in a unit corresponds to a code word of the CFI. In decoding the repetition codes, the eleven units are summed for each of the bits. It is assumed that the decoding results of the repetition codes are first to third sums A, B, and C, the first to third sums A, B, and C are expressed by Equations (1):A=ΣCPCFICHsoftbit(i) where i=0, 3, 6, 9, . . . 30B=ΣCPCFICHsoftbit(i) where i=1, 4, 7, 10, . . . 31C=ΣCPCFICHsoftbit(i) where i=2, 5, 8, 11, . . . 29  Eqs. (1)
In the soft decision decoding, distances from the code word candidates are taken. At this time, '0' and '1' each constituting 1 bit of the code word are converted to +1 and −1 for transmission, respectively, and hence Euclidean distances are taken on the receiving terminal side. When the Euclidean distances from the respective code word candidates are denoted as first to fourth Euclidean distances PCFI1, PCFI2, PCFI3, and PCFI4, respectively, the first to fourth Euclidean distances PCFI1, PCFI2, PCFI3, and PCFI4 are expressed by Equations (2):PCFI1=A−B−C PCFI2=−A+B−C PCFI3=−A−B+C PCFI4=A+B+C  Eqs. (2)
From the plurality of distances, the CFI corresponding to the code word candidate having the highest correlation is decoded by the computation expressed by Equation (3):
                    CFI        =                  {                                                    1                                                                                if                                                                                P                                              CF                                                                                11                                                                              =                                      Max                                                              (                                                                        P                                                      CF                                                                                11                                                                          ,                                                  P                                                      CF                                                                                12                                                                          ,                                                  P                                                      CF                                                                                13                                                                          ,                                                  P                                                      CF                                                                                14                                                                                )                                                                                2                                                                                if                                                                                P                                              CF                                                                                12                                                                              =                                      Max                                                              (                                                                        P                                                      CF                                                                                11                                                                          ,                                                  P                                                      CF                                                                                12                                                                          ,                                                  P                                                      CF                                                                                13                                                                          ,                                                  P                                                      CF                                                                                14                                                                                )                                                                                3                                                                                if                                                                                P                                              CF                                                                                13                                                                              =                                      Max                                                              (                                                                        P                                                      CF                                                                                11                                                                          ,                                                  P                                                      CF                                                                                12                                                                          ,                                                  P                                                      CF                                                                                13                                                                          ,                                                  P                                                      CF                                                                                14                                                                                )                                                                                4                                                                                if                                                                                P                                              CF                                                                                14                                                                              =                                      Max                                                              (                                                                        P                                                      CF                                                                                11                                                                          ,                                                  P                                                      CF                                                                                12                                                                          ,                                                  P                                                      CF                                                                                13                                                                          ,                                                  P                                                      CF                                                                                14                                                                                )                                                                                Eq        .                                                    (          3          )
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (JP-A) No. 2006-173724 (hereinafter, referred to as "Patent Document 1") discloses a decoding apparatus capable of significantly reducing an amount of calculation in the trellis or turbo-trellis coded modulation scheme. The trellis decoding apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 1 includes a decoder, a hard decision block, and a high-order bit decoder. The decoder comprises squared Euclidean distance calculation means, branch metric calculation means, and forward path metric calculation means. The squared Euclidean distance calculation means specifies a representative metric with respect to a received signal by referring to a lookup table for specifying a candidate signal point to calculate a squared Euclidean distance. The branch metric calculation means calculates a branch metric obtained by inverting the sign of the squared Euclidean distance. The forward path metric calculation means calculates a path metric in time series. The hard decision block performs a hard decision on the path metric to determine 3 low-order bits. The high-order bit decoder decodes high-order bits with the 3 low-order bits and the received signal.
However, in the LTE, the CFI having the value of 4 is never transmitted under the specification. In the case of a Multimedia Broadcast and Multicast Service (MBMS) single frequency network (MBSFN) sub-frame, the CFI having the value of 3 is never transmitted, either. In such case, simple soft decision decoding of the CFIs as in Equation (3) may lead to deterioration of the error rate and an increase in circuit scale.
Specifically, in the case where there is data that is never transmitted and the data may be discriminated in the receiving terminal, when the received transmission signal sequence is simply decoded, the data that is never transmitted may be produced as the decoding result to deteriorate the error rate.

Decoding apparatus, decoding method and recording medium


An information exchange system provides an integrated approach to exchanging information real-time among members of a partnership. The web-based system including a server having a centralized database of business data and at least one client system facilitates a method of restricting database access only to authorized users within the partnership, providing forms stored within server as web pages for the insertion of updated business data for display within web pages displayed on a client system. The method facilitated further includes uploading updated forms for use by other authorized users within the partnership to the server, where the updated business data is stored within the database The uploaded business data is stored within server and authorized users can download web pages causing the updated business data to be displayed on a client system.

This invention relates generally to a computer network-based system and more particularly to a system and method for providing information exchange to members of a partnership on a variety of issues.
For partnerships having numerous partners located in multiple places worldwide, information exchange on a timely basis for partnership related business issues is a major challenge. Most partnership information exchange is paper-driven, therefore resolving issues is sometimes difficult in such business arrangements. Another challenge simply involves the time spent in assembling, formatting and submitting the information to be exchanged. Sometimes after such a lengthy gathering process, the information compiled is already outdated. In addition, much of the manual labor involved is repetitive. As with any paper driven process, archiving is another issue to be dealt with.
Electronic information exchange has dealt with these problems to some extent, however in diverse partnerships, legacy formatting issues and differences in procedures have left much of the inefficiencies unaffected, for example, time expended manually in gathering the information and possibly converting the information into a different format. Overall, both the traditional paper methods and known electronic methods can be very frustrating and may not necessarily facilitate resolving partnership information exchange issues.
It would be desirable to facilitate partnership information exchange by providing a system that allows real-time access to partnership business information, and facilitates updates to the information, while eliminating the inefficiencies of known systems.
The invention provides an integrated approach to providing members of a partnership with information and feedback regarding the business. The method incorporated into the web-based system includes restricting database access only to authorized users within the partnership, providing forms stored within a server as web pages for the insertion updated business data, uploading business data updates intended for use by other authorized users within the partnership to the server for storage in the database, formatting the business data for display using web pages stored within server, and downloading and displaying the web pages to authorized users.

Web-based method and system for exchanging information among partners

GE Capital Services Structured Finance Group, Inc.


A semi-automatic pistol has a frame having a trigger guard defining a trigger finger space, a barrel connected to the frame and defining a bore axis, a slide connected to the frame and operable to reciprocate along the bore axis between a forward battery position and a rearward open position, a recoil mechanism operably connected between the slide and the frame, and operable to bias the slide to the battery position, and the recoil mechanism being entirely below the barrel axis and forward of the trigger finger space. The recoil mechanism may be a recoil spring defining a spring axis. The spring axis may be parallel to the bore axis. The recoil spring may be a helical shape defining a bore receiving a guide rod. The guide rod may be below the barrel. The trigger guard may have a downwardly facing upper surface defining the trigger finger space.

A shooter's control of a firearm can be differentiated between pistols and rifles. The way a shooter holds a rifle directs most of the recoil energy into the shoulder and torso. As a result, the rifle is easier to continuously keep on target for subsequent shots because major muscle groups receive the recoil energy, and accurate follow-up shots can be made quickly. Pistols, because they are held at arm's length, require more muscle control by the shooter, and, because of that extended grip, reaction moments from firing the pistol, i.e., recoil, must be counter-acted by the shooter's hand, wrist and arm muscles. Because of the near instantaneous duration of the impulse, nearly all of that reaction moment may be sensed in a rotation of the firearm within the instantaneous "center-of-grip," which may be close to the center of rotation of the pistol. The "center of grip" is also aligned with the effective pivot point of the user's wrist, which may also be thought of as the key point of rotation. The rotation of the pistol resulting from an initial shot delays subsequent shots because the shooter has to expend time adjusting the pistol to reacquire the target prior to firing each follow-up shot. While various attempts have been made to control recoil to reduce firearm movement, recoil is considered the best mechanism for feeding semi-automatic firearms, so recoil elimination is not necessarily desirable.
The Model 1911 is a single-action, semi-automatic, magazine-fed, recoil-operated pistol that served as the standard-issue sidearm for the United States Armed Forces from 1911 to 1985, is still carried by some U.S. forces, and is still popular in the civilian market. The Model 1911, modified for increased accuracy, is popular for use in competitive shooting events. One of the reasons for the popularity of the Model 1911 as a competitive shooting pistol is the draw and break of a 1911 trigger, which has been described as the most crisp, consistent and tunable trigger of all handgun designs. The consistency of the draw and the break of a Model 1911 trigger provides a "feel" that some shooters prefer because it minimizes one variable in the shooting action. However, the Model 1911 suffers from the disadvantage of all prior art pistols in that the placement of the recoil mechanism at such a distance above the shooter's wrist contributes to greater torque about the shooter's wrist, making it difficult for the user to continuously keep the Model 1911 on target for follow-up shots.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,415,075 to Moon discloses a firearm having a moveable breech locking barrel supported on a receiver by an offset barrel cam lug. Moon discloses a recoil spring that is entirely below the barrel bore, but not the barrel, given that the protruding cam surfaces on the barrel located below the bore that the recoil spring rests against are integral to the barrel. Furthermore, Moon's recoil spring is above the trigger guard area. Moon's design forces the barrel up higher with respect to the shooter's hand, to make room between the trigger finger and the barrel for the captured recoil spring assembly. The placement of the recoil mechanism at such a distance above the shooter's wrist contributes to greater torque about the shooter's wrist, making it difficult for the user to continuously keep Moon's firearm on target for follow-up shots.
Therefore, a need exists for a new and improved semi-automatic pistol that reduces torque about a shooter's wrist by lowering the plane on which the recoil force is acting, thereby redirecting some of the recoil force straight rearward into a user's major muscle groups to prevent undesirable movement of the pistol between shots. In this regard, the various embodiments of the present invention substantially fulfills some of these needs. In this respect, the semi-automatic pistol according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in doing so provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of providing a semi-automatic pistol that reduces torque about a shooter's wrist by lowering the plane on which the recoil force is acting, thereby redirecting some of the recoil force straight rearward into a user's major muscle groups to prevent undesirable movement of the pistol between shots.


The present disclosure relates to a system and a method for detection of touching characters in a media, characterized by segmentation of adjoining character spaces. In the very first step, an aspect ratio is calculated for each connected component. A candidate touching position of each character is determined by calculating a threshold aspect ratio for each character. Further, a candidate cut column is determined based on a relation between column pixel densities and corresponding length thereof the column in order to segment the touching characters at the candidate cut column.

Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is the mechanical or electronic conversion of scanned images of handwritten, typewritten or printed text into machine-encoded text. Touching characters are always difficult to be recognized by an OCR engine. The binarized output of a TV video frame includes various noises like salt and pepper noise which represents itself as randomly occurring white and black pixels. Thus, there is a high possibility of false detection of characters due to the presence of this type of noise.
There are various methods available for touching character segmentation of texts obtained from videos. The main limitation of the available methods is that it cannot perform well for all text rich videos in the corpus. The existing method assumes that all characters are of almost equal width and thus the candidate cutting positions are not properly obtained thereby leading to an over segmented character. The existing methods consist of a possibility of segmentation at the left/right extension portion of the characters like "T" or "E". Moreover, the inventions are related to texts obtained from videos only.
Therefore, there is a need of a suitable touching character segmentation method which would help in improving the recognition accuracy of an OCR engine by calculating the exact touching position and segmenting the touching characters at that point only. Also, the method should be capable of being applied to text output obtained from both images and videos.

System and method for detection and segmentation of touching characters for OCR


The present invention comprises a noncontact method for measuring viscosity and/or surface tension information of a liquid in a liquid containment structure. The steps of the method include exciting a surface of the liquid with an excitation burst of acoustic energy that causes the surface to oscillate; generating a positional data set comprised of a plurality of positional measurements related to the detected position of the surface at a plurality of times after the surface is excited; generating a frequency domain data set from the positional data set, the amplitude spectrum of the frequency domain data set comprising information about the oscillation frequency of at least one vibrational mode of the of the surface as it oscillates; and processing the frequency domain data set and/or the positional data set to yield information about the surface tension and/or viscosity of the liquid. A Fast Fourier Transform technique may be used in generating the frequency domain data set.

Many methods for the precision transfer and handling of fluids are known and used in a variety of commercial and industrial applications. The presently burgeoning industries of the biotechnology and biopharmaceuticals are particularly relevant examples of industries requiring ultra-pure fluid handling and transfer techniques.
Various current fluid transfer methods require contacting the fluid with a transfer device, e.g., a pipette, a pin, or the like. Such contact methods dramatically increase the likelihood of contamination. Many biotechnology procedures, e.g., polymerase chain reaction (PCR), have a sensitivity that results in essentially a zero tolerance for contamination. Thus, noncontact methods for fluid transfer are desirable.
An exemplary non contact method for ejecting liquid droplets to a target location is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,596,239, issued Jul. 22, 2003 and entitled "Acoustically Mediated Fluid Transfer Methods And Uses Thereof." This fine acoustic liquid ejection technique, however, may be improved by compensating for liquids having varying surface tension and viscosity values. It has been observed that such an acoustic liquid ejector can be limited or adversely affected by varying viscosity and surface tension values of the sample liquid to be transferred. Indeed, volume and trajectory of droplet ejection depend upon the acoustic stimuli as well as the viscosity and surface tension of the liquid to be transferred. If the viscosity and surface tension are unknown, then the volume and trajectory of the transferred fluid may vary in an unknown manner. However, with knowledge of the viscosity and surface tension properties of each sample liquid, the acoustic stimuli used to transfer small amounts of fluid may be adjusted accordingly, improving the accuracy and precision of the transfer of that fluid. Thus, it would be advantageous to determine the viscosity and surface tension properties of each fluid prior to ejection. It is also desirable to determine this product in a manner that is easily automated.
Examples of conventional methods for measuring the viscosity of a fluid include capillary tube and rotary viscometers. These techniques require direct contact with the liquid to be measured which may introduce contamination when making multiple measurements.
Examples of conventional methods for measuring surface tension include: sessile drop, pendant drop, maximum bubble pressure, capillary height, the Du Noüy ring, and the Wilhelmy plate methods. All of these techniques have the disadvantage of requiring contact with the fluid or removal of a sample of the fluid.
Examples of noncontact methods of measuring surface tension of sea water are described in Can Cinbis, "Noncontact Techniques for Measuring Surface Tension of Fluids," Doctoral Thesis, Stanford University, 1992. A first method involves measuring the water surface displacement caused by the radiation pressure associated with an acoustic pulse. The displacement is measured with a confocal optical microscope. The surface tension of the liquid is calculated from the measured values. The second method utilizes two ultrasonic transducers: the first transducer generates a wave and the second transducer measures the amplitude of the transient capillary wave a distance from the first transducer. The surface tension is calculated from the measured values. The technique, however, does not provide viscosity information.
None of the above described methods provide a noncontact method to measure viscosity and surface tension information as described herein.

Acoustic method for determining the viscosity and/or surface tension of a liquid