System for controlling access to automation equipments connected to a first network, from at least one client station connected to a second network. The system includes determination means of a functional profile containing a list of business functions that a user of the client station is authorized to carry out on the equipment, analysing means of a frame sent on the second network by the user, in order to determine a request and a destination equipment, definition means of a filter profile for the destination equipment, containing, for each business function and for each protocol, a list of requests that the destination equipment is capable of receiving, and filter means capable of authorizing or prohibiting transmission of the sent frame on the first network, according to the frame, the functional profile of the identified user and the filter profile of the destination equipment.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a system for controlling access to one or several automation equipments connected to a first communication network, from a client station connected to a second communication network. The invention also relates to a process for controlling access to one or several automation equipments.
2. Background of the Invention
The term "automation equipment" denotes, but is not limited to, any equipment for controlling, checking and/or monitoring any or all of an automation application particularly belonging to the field of industrial process automation, building automation, tertiary automation or monitoring/control automation for electrical distribution networks. Therefore, this term includes for instance a programmable logic controller (PLC) and a numerical control (NC), and also any unit or module that can be connected to a local or global communication network. Thus, this definition can include an industry specific module or remote inputs/outputs module, an operator dialogue terminal, a supervision station, a building technical management system (GTB), a variable speed controller, etc. In the field of electrical distribution, automation equipment also refers to a monitoring/control station, a measurement control unit, a protection and control relay, a circuit breaker/smart contactor, etc.
Distributed architectures are now quite routine in automation and therefore it is very frequent for different automation equipments to be connected together through a first communication network to form an installation, sometimes called an automation cell. For example, such a network could be based on Ethernet, and it could comply with the TCP/IP standard or the UDP/IP standard, but it could also be based on LANs such as MODBUS, FIP, CANOpen, CAN, LON, Uni-telway, etc.
Automation equipment more and more frequently integrates a WEB server so that it is easy to exchange data relating to them with any type of remote WEB client such as a navigator installed on a client station connected to the same first network or to a second communication network, particularly an Intranet, Extranet or Internet type global network. These functions are described in particular in documents WO9913418, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,061,603 and 5,805,442. Data related to the automation equipment are then formatted and sent by the WEB server, for example in the form of HTML or XML pages, or are presented by specific applets.
This openness to communication standards enables easy access from any point of a global network to a resource connected to this network or to an interconnected LAN. However, automation equipment normally executes a program to control, monitor and/or check all or some of an industrial process automation, building automation or electrical distribution instrumentation/control application, in real time. Security, availability, confidentiality and reliability are therefore essential criteria for smooth operation of the application. Therefore, it is important to be able to have safe protection of automation equipment connected to a communication network to prevent illicit or unauthorized accesses from an external network.
Several serious risks could occur, such as the introduction of different forms of viruses, deliberate or accidental saturation of the local network hindering communication between equipment, illegal reading/or modification of programs, data and parameters on which operation of the application depends, etc.
"Firewall" computer systems already exist to prevent these risks, and protect equipment connected to a first network by filtering the frames sent from a second external network. These systems mainly use computer security criteria based particularly on IP addresses of the sender and the receiver, on port numbers used on the server side and the client side, on login procedures and passwords and on information encryption, etc. Typically, these firewall type or proxy type systems make computer applications connected to Internet secure by doing a Pass/Nopass type filtering, in other words they simply prevent or allow a TCP/IP network service such as the Web HTTP protocol to pass.

Access control system for automation equipment


The present invention relates to formulations comprising combinations of analgesic/anti-inflammatory, immunomodulating and cartilage-reconstructing agents in particular comprising saligenig, boswellic acid, procyanidins, N-acety-glucosamine and either glucoronic acid or glucoronolactone, for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and, more generally, of arthritis conditions.

Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic degenerative disease which affects a large portion of the elderly, causing serious problems to patients. The pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis and arthritis conditions is due at first to the immune system, and subsequently to inflammatory conditions which erode the intra-articular surfaces causing deforming damages which are irreversible and painful.

Formulations for the treatment of arthritis conditions


A method includes: extracting a data value of receiver address field from a short message; wherein the short message sent by the short message center includes receiver address field, and the data value of the receiver address field includes the receiver's MSISDN; if the short message does not include the receiver address field or the data value is not local MSISDN such as the MSISDN of the receiver terminal, determining the short message as a fake base station short message. The MSISDN used in the present disclosure is an existing feature of the sender terminal and the receiver terminal without requiring the user to perform additional operations. Moreover, neither the short message center nor the receiver terminal needs to acquire the preset cryptogram in the gateway. Therefore, the present disclosure accurately detects a fake base station short message without requiring the user to perform additional operations.

A fake base station concerns a base station that is not a valid base station. The fake base station usually includes a host and laptop, and is movable. The fake base station usually uses high transmit power to collect terminal information within its certain radius. Then, the fake base station sends short messages to terminals in order to carry out fraud, promotion, and false propaganda.
At present, a method for identifying fake base station short message is as follows: a mobile terminal presets a cryptogram in the gateway and stores the cryptogram by itself. When receiving short message sent by the mobile terminal, the third-party platform needs to search the cryptogram in the gateway and add the cryptogram to the short message. When receiving short message sent by the third-party platform, the mobile terminal detects whether the short message includes the preset cryptogram, and the short message is determined as fake base station short message if the short message does not include the preset cryptogram.
The control process of the conventional solution is complicated, and the user needs to perform additional operations (such as presetting the cryptogram), so that the user experience is unfriendly. Therefore, there is a need for a solution that accurately detects fake base station short message without requiring the user of the receiver terminal to perform additional operations.

Fake base station short message identification


A surface-coated cutting tool includes: a substrate including a rake face and a flank face; a first coating film that coats the rake face; and a second coating film that coats the flank face, wherein the first coating film includes a first composite nitride layer at a region d1 on the rake face, the second coating film includes a second composite nitride layer at a region d2 on the flank face, the first composite nitride layer includes Ti1-x1-y1Alx1Tay1Cα1Nβ1, the second composite nitride layer includes Ti1-x2-y2Alx2Tay2Cα2Nβ2.

Conventionally, various studies have been conducted in order to achieve a long life of a cutting tool. For example, each of Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2007-030131 (Patent Literature 1), WO 2012/043459 (Patent Literature 2), and Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2009-066673 (Patent Literature 3) discloses a cutting tool including a substrate and a coating film formed on a surface of the substrate.


A post cure inflator for expansion-cooling a vulcanized tire is provided with a vulcanized-tire holding mechanism for holding the vulcanized tire and a rotating mechanism for rotating the vulcanized tire at a high speed via the vulcanized-tire holding mechanism such that a forced convection becomes more dominant than a natural convection in an air flow around the vulcanized tire.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a post cure inflator for expansion-cooling a vulcanized tire and a vulcanized tire cooling method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, organic fibers of polyester, nylon or like material are used as carcass members as reinforcing fibers inside a tire. In the process of cooling a tire after completing the vulcanization, these reinforcing fibers are contracted. However, the degree of contraction is not uniform due to disparities, arrangement, molded state and the like of the members. In the natural cooling by merely leaving the tire, the tire is deformed due to differences in the degree of contraction, which makes the tire a defective product or deteriorates the uniformity performance of the tire.
Accordingly, air is normally filled into the inside of the tire by a post cure inflator after the vulcanization is completed, and the tire is cooled up to a certain temperature or lower (normally 100° C. or lower, desirably 80° C. or lower) at which the contraction of the reinforcing fibers stops while holding the tire in a proper shape (see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. H06-143298, hereinafter, referred to as "Prior Art 1").
A post cure inflator of the so-called two-point type having two upper and lower positions for cooling a tire and moving the tire between two handling positions by holding the tire and reversing it has been proposed and put to practical use as a post cure inflator of this type (see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. H11-320564, hereinafter, referred to as "Prior Art 2").
In recent years, it has been required to shorten the tire cooling time in order to cope with a shortened vulcanization time, and post cure inflators having various constructions for shortening the tire cooling time have been proposed and put to practical use. For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2002-307444 (hereinafter, referred to as "Prior Art 3") proposes a post cure inflator in which a hollow passage is formed in a rim mechanism for holding a bead portion of a tire, cooling air is supplied into and caused to flow along this hollow passage, and air or atomized water is sprayed on the outer surface of the tire, thereby forcibly cooling the tire to complete the cooling within a short period of time.
However, in the case of the post cure inflator of Prior Art 1, there is a problem of requiring a loner time to cool the vulcanized tire. Further, temperature at an upper part of the vulcanized tire tends to be higher by being influenced, for example, by a natural convection, one surface of the vulcanized tire facing a vulcanizer tends to be higher due to an asymmetric temperature environment around the facility, and the peripheral temperatures of the tires vary due to the asymmetric specification such as the pattern, construction and the material of the tires. Thus, the vulcanized tire cannot be cooled in a well-balanced manner along vertical directional and circumferential direction. The temperature difference caused by the cooling variation causes a problem of varying qualities such as conicity.
In the case of the post cure inflator of Prior Art 2, it is difficult to uniformly cool the entire outer surface of the tire, causing temperature irregularity and cooling irregularity along circumferential direction outside the tire. There are other problems of a complicated mechanism, a high equipment cost, and high maintenance frequency and cost.
In the post cure inflator for forcibly cooling the tire using the cooling medium such as cooling air or atomized water as disclosed in Prior Art 3, stains such as water marks are likely to attach at positions where the cooling medium such as water is sprayed, thereby causing a problem in the appearance of the outer surface of the tire. Further, since a mechanism including a driving source and a pipe for supplying the cooling medium needs to be installed around the apparatus, the apparatus is enlarged and the mechanism becomes complicated by these peripheral equipments and the parts cost is increased by installing the peripheral equipments. There is an additional problem of a considerable increase in the running cost by the operation of the driving source.

Post cure inflator and vulcanized tire cooling method


Downhole tools for isolating and analyzing one or more gases include a gas separation assembly in fluid communication with a gas specific analyzer. The gas separation assembly includes a piston disposed within a housing and a separation volume defined between the piston and the housing. The piston is movable to separate a gas component and a liquid component from a downhole formation fluid within the separation volume. The gas specific analyzer is operable to measure one or more properties of the gas component. In some configurations, the gas specific analyzer is an optical assembly containing a light source, an optical detector, and a gas cell that contains an observation volume. The optical assembly is operable to measure one or more properties of the gas component within the observation volume via the light source and the optical detector.

This section is intended to provide relevant background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the described embodiments. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light and not as admissions of prior art.
Devices have been used in downhole environments to measure various properties of liquid phase components of drilling fluids, formation fluids, and other downhole fluids found in wellbores formed in subterranean formations. The determination of any gas phase components for these types of downhole fluids can provide valuable and useful information. However, the gas phase components found in such downhole fluids are typically difficult to measure in the presence of the liquid phase components. Devices for measuring gases are susceptible to interferences and scattering, reactive components, and equilibrium difficulties with multiphase behavior of the downhole fluids.

Downhole tools and methods for isolating and analyzing gases from downhole fluids


A method for making an electrode active material of a lithium ion battery is disclosed. In the method, elemental sulfur is mixed with a polyacrylonitrile to form a mixture. The mixture is heated in vacuum or a protective gas at a heating temperature of about 250° C. to about 500° C., to form a sulfur containing composite. The sulfur containing composite is reacted with a reducing agent for elemental sulfur in a liquid phase medium to remove part of the elemental sulfur from the sulfur containing composite.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to methods for making electrode active materials of lithium ion batteries.
2. Description of Related Art
Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) is a high polymer composed of saturated carbon skeleton containing cyano groups on alternate carbon atoms. PAN itself is not conductive but can be sulfurized to form sulfurized polyacrylonitrile which is conductive and chemically active. Specifically, the PAN powder and sulfur powder are mixed to form a mixture. The mixture is then heated, thereby forming sulfurized polyacrylonitrile. The sulfurized polyacrylonitrile can be used as a cathode active material of a lithium ion battery and has a high discharge capacity at a first cycle.
However, as the cycling of the lithium ion battery goes on, the discharge capacity of the lithium ion battery decreases dramatically, which induces a relatively low capacity retention of the lithium ion battery. As reported, the discharge capacity of the lithium ion battery decreases from 906.4 mAh at the first cycle to 740.0 mAh at the 20th cycle. The capacity retention of the lithium ion battery after 20 cycles is only about 81.7%.
What is needed, therefore, is to provide a method for making an electrode active material of a lithium ion battery, which has a relatively high specific capacity and capacity retention.

Method for making electrode active material of lithium ion battery


An error correction encoding method for a high-density storage medium is provided. This method arranges sequential input data so as to form a plurality of data blocks of a predefined matrix form, the plurality of data blocks being made sequentially, appends outer parity to each column of each data block in the column direction, appends inner parity to each row of each of the outer-parity-encoded data block in the row direction, reorders rows including outer parity so as to insert them separately into the other rows including no outer parity for each of the outer- and inner-parity-encoded data blocks, and writes rows in the same order in the reordered data blocks to a storage medium sequentially on row-by-row basis.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an error correction encoding method for a high-density storage media.
2. Description of the Related Art
Data on a digital versatile disk (DVD) are generally encoded in a predefined error correction code (ECC). The ECC code is the two-dimensional Reed-Solomon code (hereinafter, referred to RS code) using an outer parity (PO) encoder and an inner parity (PI) encoder. Data bytes to be written in a disk are arrayed in rows and columns to be PO- and PI-encoded.
FIG. 1 shows the format of an ECC block in accordance with the DVD standard format. Data unit input to the RS encoder is (172×192)-symbols (a symbol size may be one byte) in size and has a block structure of a 172 columns by 192 rows matrix form. For every column of the input data block, the PO encoder appends outer parity of sixteen bytes to a 192-byte column in the column direction. The outer-error-correction encoded columns, each being 208-byte long, are then stored in a buffer of the RS encoder.
After outer-error-correction encoding of 172 columns is completed, 172 columns become arranged sequentially in the buffer. Then, for every row of the data block in the buffer, inner-error-correction encoding is performed sequentially by the PI encoder by appending inner parity of ten symbols to a 172-symbol row in the row direction.
In this way, the RS encoder produces the ECC block shown in FIG. 1. As a result, the ECC block is 37,586 bytes in size (182×208=37,586). Each symbol of the ECC block is then modulated by ESM (Eight to Sixteen Modulation) method, which converts 8 bits (one byte) to 16 channel bits so as to be written onto a storage medium like DVD.
The error correction encoding method using ECC block structure shown in FIG. 1 has been devised based on data density of current optical disks like DVD. It is, however, expected that for next-generation storage media of higher data density than DVD the error correction encoding method of the conventional art is vulnerable to burst errors.
It will be likely that next-generation high-density storage medium, the density of which is twice as high as DVD, has two times more channel bit errors than DVD for a scratch of the same size. Therefore, the development of an effective error correction encoding method is required to enhance the capability of correction of burst errors on next-generation high-density storage media.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Error correction coding method for a high-density storage media


A method of converting non-densified alpha-phase silicon nitride to beta-phase silicon nitride which includes heating a walled container enclosing a non-densified alpha-phase silicon nitride mass to an elevated temperature for a sufficient length of time so that the non-densified alpha-phase silicon nitride mass converts to a beta-phase silicon nitride mass. The walled container is formed of a silicon nitride-containing material which is stable at temperatures of at least 1700.degree. C. and is compatible with silicon nitride. Additionally, the walled container has an opening therein to allow placement of the non-densified alpha-phase silicon nitride mass therein.

Generally, sintered silicon nitride has been manufactured in batch operations by first placing a silicon nitride article in a refractory material container, formed typically of graphite. A setter powder of silicon nitride or boron nitride or a mixture thereof is then poured into the container to cover the silicon nitride articles being sintered to protect them from thermal decomposition and reaction with the furnace materials. The setter powder-covered silicon nitride article is then placed in a batch-type furnace to sinter the silicon nitride. Without this protection, experience has shown that a silicon nitride article will decompose at temperatures above 1700.degree. C. in part to silicon and nitrogen. Furthermore, the silicon nitride article will react with the carbon in the graphite to form silicon carbide, which is thermodynamically stable at temperatures above 1700.degree. C., causing warping of the silicon nitride article. In contrast, when setter powder is used, the powder itself decomposes due to the high temperature in the furnace and the powder reacts preferentially with the furnace material instead of the silicon nitride article.
For economical reasons and optimum product quality, it is highly desirable to prepare sintered silicon nitride in a continuous process. Although silicon nitride could be sintered in continuous furnaces using setter powder in the above-described method, this method has been found to be undesirable. Firstly, the setter powder must be cleaned off the article after sintering, adding a step in the procedure. At times, the powder on a silicon nitride article sinters together or sinters to the article, thus, requiring excessive force to remove the sintered material. In some of these instances, the sintered setter powder cannot be removed even with force, and the article must be scrapped.
In addition, use of the setter powder is costly, as recycling of the setter powder is not without its problems. During use, there is inherent loss of setter powder (due to spillage, etc.). It has been known to lose as much powder in weight as the silicon nitride article itself. Furthermore, during recycling, often the setter powder needs to be crushed and screened to breakup the sintered pieces before reusing, adding yet another step in the manufacturing procedure.
Yttria or other densification agents are sometimes added to the setter powder, because, if the silicon nitride article contains these densification agents, the densification agents are "robbed" from the article by the setter powder during sintering unless the setter powder also contains the agents. In instances when densification agents are added to the setter powder, the setter powder typically is chemically analyzed to ensure that the required amounts of densification agents are present in the proper amounts. The analysis adds yet another step and additional complications to the manufacturing operation.
During sintering, the silicon nitride converts from a non-densified predominantly alpha-phase silicon nitride to a densified beta-phase silicon nitride. The present inventor has discovered that predominantly alpha-phase silicon nitride compositions free of densification aids can advantageously be converted to non-densified predominantly beta-phase silicon nitride by subjecting alpha-phase silicon nitride to sintering conditions.
It is also desirable to have available an improved silicon nitride material, one which is more consistent in physical and chemical properties throughout the bulk of the material and one which is high in strength.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide an economical method of converting alpha-phase silicon nitride to beta-phase silicon nitride which inhibits the silicon nitride from thermally decomposing or being adversely effected by furnace materials during conversion without using setter powder.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method of converting alpha-phase silicon nitride to beta-phase silicon nitride which gives protective coverage to the silicon nitride during the conversion operation and which is easy to use, readily reusable, and which does not require any additional steps of operation.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a commercially-viable method for the continuous conversion of alpha-phase silicon nitride to beta-phase silicon nitride without experiencing the problems of using setter powder.
It is also another object of the present invention to provide a method for the continuous conversion of alpha-phase silicon nitride to beta-phase silicon nitride using conventional continuous furnaces.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a furnace for converting alpha-phase silicon nitride to beta-phase silicon nitride without the above-discussed problems.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an improved silicon nitride material which has more consistent properties throughout the bulk of the material and which has a high strength.

Method of converting a silicon nitride from alpha-phase to beta-phase, apparatus used therefor, and silicon nitride material made therefrom


The disclosure provides a gasification process for the production of a methane-rich syngas at temperatures exceeding 700° C. through the use of an alkali hydroxide MOH, using a gasification mixture comprised of at least 0.25 moles and less than 2 moles of water for each mole of carbon, and at least 0.15 moles and less than 2 moles of alkali hydroxide MOH for each mole of carbon. These relative amounts allow the production of a methane-rich syngas at temperatures exceeding 700° C. by enabling a series of reactions which generate H2 and CH4, and mitigate the reforming of methane. The process provides a methane-rich syngas comprised of roughly 20% (dry molar percentage) CH4 at temperatures above 700° C., and may effectively operate within an IGFC cycle at reactor temperatures between 700-900° C. and pressures in excess of 10 atmospheres.

Gasification is a process that converts organic or fossil based carbonaceous materials into carbon monoxide, hydrogen, carbon dioxide and methane. This is achieved by reacting the material at high temperatures without combustion, with a controlled amount of oxygen and/or steam, to generate a resulting gas mixture of H2 and CO called syngas. Syngas is combustible and often used as a fuel or as an intermediate for the production of other chemicals such as methane, methanol, synthetic diesel and dimethyl ether in catalytic processes.
A significant use of syngas is as a fuel for fuel cells, which utilize hydrogen and oxygen to produce direct current electricity. In addition to electricity, fuel cells produce water, carbon dioxide, heat and, depending on the fuel source, very small amounts of nitrogen dioxide and other emissions. The energy efficiency of a fuel cell is generally between 40-60%, or up to 85% efficient if waste heat is captured for use. Additionally, because fuel cells generate electricity while keeping the fuel and air separated, the CO2 generated in the anode of the fuel cell is not diluted with nitrogen, making ˜100% capture of CO2 within the system both technically and economically viable. Fuel cells therefore hold great promise in efforts toward reducing CO2 emissions, even when the fuel source is coal.
A Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) is a specific type of fuel cell which offers particular advantage. SOFCs use a solid material, typically yttria-stabilized zirconia, as the electrolyte, and the solid material construction allows geometries outside of the flat plane configurations of other types of fuel cells. The SOFC operates at very high temperatures, typically between 500 and 1000 degrees Celsius (° C.), and are capable of internally reforming light hydrocarbons such as methane, propane and butane. As a result, SOFCs can be run on a variety of fuels other than pure hydrogen gas, provided the fuel selected contains hydrogen atoms. The high SOFC temperatures also incur other advantages, such as: a) the ability to incorporate bottoming cycles to generate further power from high temperature exhaust stream, b) the capability to water-gas-shift CO into H2 fuel, c) the capability to steam reform hydrocarbons into H2 and CO, and d) the capability to catalyze the electrochemical reactions using non-noble metals, thus eliminating the need for expensive electro-catalysts, such as platinum. A primary disadvantage in SOFC operation is the necessary cooling load of the fuel cell due to the exothermic electro-chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen ions. In terms of overall system efficiency, the parasitic cooling load typically manifests as compressive and pumping power cost expended for supply of cooling air flow. A reduction in cooling requirements therefore has direct improvement on the operating efficiency of the SOFC.
One method of reducing SOFC cooling requirements is to use the internal reforming capabilities of the electrocatalysts engendered by the high operating temperatures. Endothermic reforming of hydrocarbons such as CH4 can serve as an effective heat sink to the exothermic H2 oxidation within the fuel cell, and significantly reduce stack thermal management load. As a result, use of a methane-rich syngas as an SOFC fuel carries distinct advantages. However, generation of a methane-rich syngas through gasification has been problematic at the typical SOFC operating temperatures, temperatures above 700° C., because of rapid methane reforming and oxidation in typical coal gasifiers. Correspondingly, the realizable efficiency of combined cycle concepts such as the Integrated Gasification Fuel Cell (IGFC) have suffered. In order to achieve high IGFC efficiencies, it is desirable that the gasification process and the SOFC operation occur at commiserate temperatures, and additionally desirable that the gasification process delivers a methane-rich syngas product, in order to exploit the endothermic reforming reactions discussed above that minimize the amount of coolant or cooling air. See Siefert et al., "Integrating Catalytic Coal Gasifiers With Solid Oxide Fuel Cells," ASME 2010 8th International Fuel Cell Science, Engineering and Technology Conference: Volume 2 (2010); see also Romano et al., "Integrating IT-SOFC and gasification combined cycle with methanation reactor and hydrogen firing for near zero-emission power generation from coal," Energy Procedia 4 (2011), among others. A gasification system capable of generating a methane-rich syngas at the high operating temperatures of an SOFC would provide distinct advantage. The advantage of a methane-rich syngas would additionally accrue to the gasification operation itself, since methanation is a highly exothermic reaction and can be utilized to supply all or a large portion of the energy required for the endothermic steam-coal reactions, and greatly mitigate the need for oxygen, and hence greatly mitigates the need for supporting air separation units in gasification operations. In addition, since higher temperatures means faster steam-gasification kinetics, then higher reactor temperatures imply smaller reactor sizes per unit of syngas exiting the reactor. The trade-off is between higher kinetics for steam-gasification and eventual steam-reforming of the methane. The optimal temperature of the reactor is between 700° C. and 900° C.
It is also understood that the reactivity of carbonaceous materials such as graphite and coal char towards CO2 and steam is strongly enhanced by the presence of alkali metal salts such as Li2CO3, Na2CO3, and K2CO3. See e.g., Sheth et al., "Catalytic gasification of coal using eutectic salts: reaction kinetics with binary and ternary eutectic catalysts," Fuel 82 (2003), among others. The exact role that the salts play in these processes is not completely understood, however whatever the detailed mechanism of the catalytic process is, the overall rate of gasification is enhanced through contact between the alkali metal catalyst and the carbon. Generally, molten catalyst salts are better able to penetrate the coal structure and, hence, improve accessibility of the unavailable carbon sites in the interior of the coal/char. Similarly, the alkali hydroxide catalysts KOH and NaOH have been utilized in catalytic gasifications. See e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 3,786,138 to Shalit et al.; see also Kamo et al., "Production of hydrogen by steam gasification of dehydrochlorinated poly(vinyl chloride) or activated carbon in the presence of various alkali compounds," J Mater Cycles Waste Manag 8 (2006). The hydroxide catalysts are generally used in stoichiometric excess to CO2 generated during the gasification process, in order to absorb CO2 and drive the water-gas shift reaction in the gasifier toward exclusive H2 production, and additionally utilize relatively large amounts of H2O for the additional production of H2. These molar relations fail to realize production of a methane-rich syngas at the typical SOFC temperatures of 700-900° C. It would be advantageous to provide a gasification process whereby catalytic gasification using an alkali metal catalyst could generate a methane-rich syngas within the SOFC operating temperature range. It would provide further advantage if the catalyst were an alkali hydroxide, so that a substantial amount of CO2 generated as a result of the gasifier process could be captured within the reactor. The exothermic capture reactions, along with the exothermic methanation reactions, mean that the gasifier can be operated without any input of oxygen or external heating. Additionally, by eliminating the requirement for oxygen to maintain the temperature of the reactor, a larger amount of methane can be generated in the gasifier.
These and other objects, aspects, and advantages of the present disclosure will become better understood with reference to the accompanying description and claims.

Production of methane-rich syngas from hydrocarbon fuels using multi-functional catalyst/capture agent


A method, apparatus and computer program product for using advertisements as keys for streaming protected content is presented. Protected content is received at a user computer system, wherein the protected content is not viewable by the user. Appended content, such as an advertisement, is also received at the user computer system. The user views the appended content, wherein the viewing of the appended content results in the protected content being viewable by the user. The user then views the protected content.

In current systems, when a user (also referred to herein as a client) desires to download and view content, the user may be required to view an advertisement before the user can view the requested content. For example, on a website for viewing television programs, a client requests a particular television program for viewing on their computer. In order to enforce that clients view advertisements (referred to herein as "appended content") before the desired content (referred to herein as protected content), the appended content is streamed/downloaded to the client before the content streaming starts. For example, there may be a first server that serves the advertisements and a second server that serves the protected content (where the first server and the second server may be distinct servers or the same server). When the client requests to download/stream the protected content, the first server will initiate a transfer of the advertisement to the client. Once the advertisement has been downloaded/streamed (and the user has viewed it), the second server initiates a transfer of the protected content. In essence, in the current systems, the right to the content is tied to the act of downloading/streaming the content. Therefore, the download of the content only starts after the client has met the prerequisite, which is viewing the advertisement in this example.

Advertisements as keys for streaming protected content


A system and method for triggering animated paralingual behavior from dialogue. The method including: receiving a corpus of dialogue including a plurality of samples, each sample including dialogue with aligned sequences of phonemes or sub-phonemes; extracting properties of measured quantities for each sample; generating a statistical profile by statistically classifying the extracted properties as a function of each sequence of phonemes or sub-phonemes; receiving a stream of phonemes or sub-phonemes and triggering paralingual behavior when the properties of any of the phonemes or sub-phonemes deviate from the statistical profile beyond a predetermined threshold; outputting the triggered paralingual behavior for animation.

Humans extract considerable meaning from facial expressions and body language. Some of these behaviors are independent of dialogue. For example, an animated character can appear tense, angry, or bored even when no surrounding dialogue is present. In some cases, vocal dialogue can trigger non-verbal expression. Non-verbal activity that arises in response to linguistic activity can be referred to as paralingual behavior. These are often involuntary, and can include, for example, gestures, facial expressions, head motions (such as nodding or shaking), blinking, twitching, and the like. Some paralingual behaviors happen as a response to another character's dialogue; for example, raising a single eyebrow when something mystifying is said by the other character. Other paralingual behavior can be triggered based on a character's own speech cues, such as cues supplied by input vocal dialogue; for example:                eyes blink rapidly and nostrils widen when the character says, "You're a liar".        eyebrows raise, eyes widen, and forehead furrows when the character angrily says, "I don't believe you!".        nose wrinkles when the character says, "That compost stinks."        gaze changes when the character says, "I'm looking to my right."        head nods vigorously when the character says, "I completely agree!".        arms raise when the character says, "I won!".

System and method for triggering animated paralingual behavior from dialogue


The present invention includes a new type of bait for wood-targeting pest baiting systems and methods of obtaining the bait. Certain embodiments of the present invention include a blue-stained wood either treated with a solution that includes blue-stain fungi or wood naturally infected with blue-stain fungi. Additional embodiments of the present invention include a blue-stained solution that may be applied to a wood substrate or to a non-wood bait matrix.

Homeowners, industrial property owners, commercial property owners, and other property managers often have to deal with property pests. Generally, a pest is any organism detrimental to humans or human concerns. For purposes of this application, a "property pest" is an organism that is or can be detrimental to property including personal property (e.g., products) or real estate property (e.g., land or structures). Property pests include pests that cause damage to wooden products or wooden structures, pests that invade property, parasite pests, and pest vectors of disease.
Certain embodiments of the present invention are configured to reduce pests that cause damage to wooden products or wooden structures. Examples of such pests include termites such as subterranean termites, drywood termites, and dampwood termites, silverfish, woodworms, carpenter ants, red imported ants, carpenter bees, wood-eating cockroaches, and powderpost beetles. For purposes of this application, pests that cause harm to wood products or wooden structures are termed "wood-targeting pests". For purposes of this application, the naturally occurring wood plants, wood products, or wood structures that a wood-targeting pest may harm are collectively termed a "wood target".
Also, for purposes of this application, the present invention is discussed in reference to termites, but the discussion is merely exemplary. The present invention is applicable to any wood-targeting pests.
Many wood-targeting pests live in colonies. Colony members may be divided into castes, and each caste is responsible for a certain division of labor for the colony. For example, termites may include a reproductive caste, worker caste, and soldier caste. The reproductive caste may include a queen termite, king termite, or other supplementary reproductive members. The worker termites build and maintain the nest of the colony, care for the young termites, leave the nest to find food, store food, and may do some nest defense tasks. The soldier termites defend the nest against attack, possibly by ants.
Termites and other wood-targeting pests can cause massive damage to property products and property structures. People spend billions of dollars every year to control wood-targeting pests and to mitigate damage done by such pests. Accordingly, many apparatuses and approaches for decreasing the damage of the wood-targeting pests have been developed. However, such currently available apparatuses are associated with certain disadvantages.
One approach designed to address wood-targeting pests includes what is called "barrier approach", in which a liquid termiticide is applied, sometimes, by drilling into the soil, drywall, concrete slabs, or other potential points of entry for wood-targeting pests. Examples of termiticide include sulfuramid, diflubenzuron, noviflumuron, and hydramethylnon. While this approach may be effective in certain situations, if the termiticide does not sufficiently penetrate into the surfaces around the point of entry, the termites may circumvent the termiticide. In addition, a property owner may not wish to use the termiticide approach if the property includes a well, cistern, nearby pond or stream, plenums, sub-slab heating ducts, drainage systems, crawl spaces, or other underground features because the termiticide may contaminate such areas. In addition, a property owner may not wish to have holes drilled into the property structure.
Another approach for decreasing damage by wood-targeting pests, which does not require, though may be used in conjunction with the barrier approach, is a baiting approach. Such a baiting approach includes using a baiting apparatus which includes bait to attract, for example, termites to the apparatus. Examples of bait may include natural wood products, processed cellulosic products, or other synthetic products that a termite may eat. Instead of damaging a wood target, the termites damage the wooden bait in the baiting apparatus instead. However, even though such apparatuses redirect the termites away from the wood target for a period of time, the apparatus also provides food for the termites and possibly bolsters the colony of termites.
To overcome this limitation, certain baits have been impregnated with a pesticide, for example, a termiticide. Certain chemical pesticides or termiticides kill the termite before it can return to the colony. Clearly, such chemical pesticides or termiticides are limited in value since some wood-targeting pests never leave the colony, and accordingly, will never be susceptible to such pesticides.
Other chemical pesticides used in a baiting apparatus are configured to kill the termites slowly such that the worker termites can ingest the pesticide, carry it back to the colony, and feed it to the other termites in the colony.
Additional embodiments of bait apparatuses include a feeding stimulant or attractant to improve the attractiveness of the bait apparatus to a worker termite. Adding a stimulant or attractant is valuable because the success of a baiting apparatus is dependent upon a termite finding and consuming the bait food source. Typically, worker termites have very few visual capabilities and, in order to locate food sources, rely on a sense of touch and chemical signals to help them locate food. Examples of feeding stimulants or attractants include sugar, wheat-germ, bran, and other natural products. However, such attractants often appeal to a broad range of insects and organisms and are not limited to attracting termites or other wood-targeting pests.
One attractant directed to enticing termites specifically is a wood-decaying fungus, such as brown-rot known as Lenzites trabea or Gloeophyllum trabeum. Such fungus causes decay of the bait wood, and, in the early stages of decay, termites are drawn to the bait wood. A metabolite extracted from the brown-rot decaying wood also may be used as an attractant. However, such attractants may be limited in range of effectiveness, especially if the bait apparatus is positioned in the soil. In addition, certain types of termites, specifically, the highly destructive Coptotermes termites, are only attracted to the brown-rot decaying wood in the early stages of decay, but not overly decayed wood.
While certain other bait apparatuses have attempted to use other types of fungi—e.g., white-rot and soft-rot fungi—as an attractant, research shows that some of these fungi actually repel the termites, thereby undermining the desired effect.
Another disadvantage of using wood decay-causing fungi in a bait apparatus is that the wood decay-causing fungi may be released from the bait apparatus. Upon release, the wood decay-causing fungi could possibly infect non-bait wood, such as man-made wood products or wood structures, trees, bushes, or other natural wood organisms. Such spread of the decay not only threatens the non-bait wood, but also may attract termites to those objects as well, and accordingly, only worsen the threats to the wood targets and natural wood objects.
Clearly, there is a demand for an improved bait and attractant configured specifically to attract wood-targeting pests that have a long-lasting effect without threatening nearby wood-based objects. The present invention satisfies this demand.


A system and method of monitoring and controlling powered gas or electric appliances or devices using proximity awareness and providing optional watchdog safety shutoff capabilities including an inline or remote monitor and control system, radio awareness of compatible components such as Bluetooth smartphones and dongles, and optional Internet connectivity for remote monitoring, control, and usage data accumulation.

WiFi, Zigbee, Z-Wave, NFC, RFID or low power and Bluetooth technologies are commonly used to communicate between two or more components. Advantageously, such communication means may be used to identify if a radio-enabled, compatible component, e.g., a cellular telephone, personal digital assistant, smartphone, tablet computer, and so forth, is within a pre-determined range of an appliance or powered device. Moreover, such devices can be used to control the supply of power, e.g., natural gas, propane, electricity, and the like, to the appliance or powered device, to shut-off, control or otherwise disable the appliance or powered device. Advantageously, it would be desirable to use external sensors, e.g., third-party home automation systems, to trigger events such as shutting down or off the system in an emergency.
It would also be desirable for, as users interact with the system, collecting, storing, and transferring data such as frequency of use, length of time of use or emergency remote shutoff initiated by the user or the system, to commercial customers, e.g., via API or other web- or cloud-based services for proprietary calculations, e.g., user's fire risk, usage modifications and associated insurance premiums.

System and method of monitoring and controlling appliances and powered devices using radio-enabled proximity sensing


The invention relates to a tubular bagging machine comprising at least two cross-welding jaws arranged on opposing sides of a foil tube to be welded and rotating along a self-contained cam track. In order to be able to precisely infuence the amount of air to be enclosed in a tubular bag the invention provides squeezing members such that each one squeezing member is provided in direction of movement in front of the cross-welding jaws, which squeezing memer contacts the tubular bag only over a portion of its width in order to squeeze in this manner the air in the tubular bag out of said bag. The tubular bagging machine of the invention can particularly be used for large tubular bags, in which a defined air cushion must be constructed to protect sensitive goods.

A tubular bagging machine of the above-mentioned type is known for example from German OS 22 24 407. This tubular bagging machine provides in combination both a filling and also a welding of the tubular bag, the cross-welding jaws producing thereby simultaneously the upper cross-welding seam of an already filled tubular bag and the lower cross-welding seam of a still empty tubular bag. The upper tubular bag, the lower cross-welding seam of which is produced at this time, is subsequently filled through a fill pipe with material to be packaged. The cam track has the purpose in this tubular bagging machine to adjust the cross-welding jaws cyclically to the movement and filling of the tubular bag, to separate them from the tubular bag and to subsequently press them against the tubular bag. The closed design of the cam track permits a rotating movement of the cross-welding jaws, so that it is possible in particular to move the foil tube on during the welding operation together with the cross-welding jaws.
With conventional tubular bagging machines, it is difficult to enclose purposefully a specific amount of air in the bag together with the material to be packaged. Since the cross-welding jaws, when resting against the foil tube, prevent air or gases from exiting the foil tube due to the bearing pressure needed for welding, the amount of gas enclosed happens rather accidentally depending on the respective design of the tubular bag. Since under certain manufacturing conditions the weight of an already finished tubular bag burdens a foil tube to be welded and pulls same downwardly, same is, depending on the weight of the material to be filled, pulled and stretched downwardly with differing strength, thus also reducing the amount of the enclosed gas compared with a foil tube, which, the moment in which the cross-welding jaws approach the tube, can expand farther due to a smaller pull.
The basic purpose of the invention is to provide a tubular bagging machine of the above-mentioned type, which with a simple design and reliable operation enables a purposeful influence on the amount of gas to be enclosed in a bag.


A step attenuator using a PIN diode for use with microwave circuits. The step attenuator circuit provides for stepwise controlling the current applied to the microwave monolithic integrated circuit. The step attenuator circuit comprises a driver circuit and a attenuator circuit coupled thereto. The driver circuit that comprises a temperature sensor, a comparator circuit coupled to the temperature sensor for comparing the temperature value sensed by the temperature sensor to predetermined reference voltages and for providing a plurality of output signals that are indicative of a respective plurality of temperature values sensed by the temperature sensor, and a resistor network coupled to the comparator circuit that is adapted to set the respective values or current provided by the driver circuit. The attenuator circuit comprises a PIN diode coupled to the microwave circuit (MIC or MMIC) that has the temperature sensor coupled thereto, a plurality of resistors respectively coupled to receive the plurality of output signals from the comparator circuit, and a resistor coupled between the plurality or resistors and the PIN diode. Alternatively, a .lambda./4 microstrip circuit may be used in place of the single resistor. Attenuator bits (4 bits, for example) are controlled by the PIN diode driver that determines the current on each bit. The step attenuator provides temperature compensation for a chain of microwave amplifiers. For example, an amplifier chain containing two MMIC amplifiers may vary 4 dB in overall gain over the range of -55 degrees C. to +71 degrees C. When the gain drops by 1 dB, an attenuator bit turns off, increasing the gain up to a nominal value. When the gain increases by 1 dB (as temperature decreases), an attenuator bit turns on, decreasing the gain down to the nominal value. The present step attenuator may use two PIN diodes in a balanced design.

The present invention relates generally to step attenuators, and more particularly, to a step attenuator circuit that uses a PIN diode and which is adapted for use in temperature compensation devices employed with monolithic microwave integrated circuits) MMIC) and microwave integrated circuits (MIC).
Previously, one of the ways to provide for temperature compensation microwave amplifiers, such a discrete and MMIC amplifiers, and the like, was achieved by controlling the current through a shunt diode in conjunction with a single thermistor circuit. The attenuation produced by this arrangement was dependent upon the amount of current passing through the diode. Consequently, the amount of attenuation produced by this arrangement was variable, as a function of current, and was not fixed as is achievable by a step attenuator. Tuning the thermistor circuit was necessary to provide a correct attenuation range that was required for a given temperature range. This typically involves time-consuming temperature tests in order to produce a circuit that satisfied requirements.
Consequently, it is an objective of the present invention to provide for an attenuator that provides for fixed attenuation steps. It is a further objective of the present invention to provide for an attenuator for use in temperature compensation devices that reduces testing time and provides for control in achieving compensation over desired temperature ranges.


A database integration viewer that allows additional properties to be associated with a record as viewed in a single record or table, even though those additional properties are not owned by the record in the underlying source record or table in the database. Using this integration view, a viewed version of record or table may be different than the actual structure of the source record or table. In the viewed version of the record or table, the viewed record or table or may include some or all of the properties for the records of the subject record or table, while incorporating one or more additional properties for the record into the viewed table. The properties may be scalars, or may be computed to populate the viewed version of the record or table.

Databases allow data to be conveniently accessed and searched by a computing system, and are thus an efficient way for a computing system to store and organize information. A database is a logically related collection of records. Each record may include one or more properties having associated values. Often, such records are organized into tables with each row in the table corresponding to a record, and each column corresponding to a particular property. Often there are multiple tables in a database. A record viewer allows a user to view a record in the database, whereas a table viewer allows the user to view a table in the database.
Typically, such viewers allow the user to view the records and tables as they exist in the database. For instance, if a table in the database includes 35 records (or 35 rows), with each record having potentially 6 properties (or 6 columns), that is the table that the user would see using the table viewer of the database. If the user were then to view another table having 71 records each having 5 properties, that is also what the user would see in the table viewer. To compare properties of multiple tables, the user typically navigates from one table to the next, to gather the relevant data.


A one-piece wet suit comprises a continuous body portion having a neck opening, arm openings and leg openings, the suit being formed from panels of a first, insulative material and panels of a second material having higher elasticity than the first material. The second material extends around at least part of the neck opening to allow the suit to be pulled on or taken off over the body of a wearer via the neck opening.

The present invention relates generally to articles of clothing, and is particularly concerned with wet suits of the type used in water sports such as surfing, sail boarding (wind surfing), diving and swimming.
Most wet suits are made of relatively thick, insulative material such as neoprene and have zippers or other fasteners extending down the back or front to enable a person to don or remove the wet suit. However, these fasteners are uncomfortable and relatively inflexible, which can cause problems when the water sport involves repeated crouching or bending movements, as is typically the case with surfing, for example. Also, they can easily weaken, jam or break after repeated use, requiring repair or replacement.


A harmonic detector including a pattern detector circuit responsive to a clock signal and a data signal configured to detect a target bit pattern from said data signal, and a time-out circuit responsive to said pattern detector circuit configured to detect the absence of said target bit pattern during a predetermined time-out parameter for indicating when said clock signal exceeds said data signal by a factor of two or more.

A fiber optic communications link typically includes a transmitter which transmits and directs light emitted from a laser diode through a fiber optic cable. At the receiving end of the fiber optic cable the light is detected by a photo detector and converted into an electrical current. The current is converted to voltage by a transimpedance amplifier and then amplified by a limiting amplifier. The amplified voltage signal is applied to a clock and data recovery (CDR) circuit which extracts a clock signal from the received data and acquires the frequency of the incoming data by comparing the frequency of the clock signal to the frequency of the incoming data. The clock and data recovery circuit also acquires and tracks the phase of the incoming data, which is known as phase acquisition.
The frequency acquisition is typically acquired with a frequency lock loop (FLL) circuit and the phase acquisition is acquired with a phase lock loop (PLL) circuit. The FLL circuit typically includes a frequency detector, a charge pump, a loop filter, a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) and a digital divider. The PLL circuit typically includes the same components as the FLL, but utilizes a phase detector instead of a frequency detector.
Frequency acquisition is achieved by the FLL when the frequency of the recovered clock signal is equal to the frequency of the incoming data (e.g., fCLK=fDATA). One distinct drawback of a typical CDR circuit is that the FLL may falsely lock the clock signal to a higher harmonic (integer multiple) of the incoming data signal. In this case, the frequency of the clock signal is greater than the frequency of the data signal by an integer multiple of at least two (e.g., fCLK=K×fDATA, where K=2, 3, 4 . . . ). Hence, conventional CDR circuits may falsely lock the clock signal to a higher harmonic of the data signal.


The present invention relates generally to apparatus and methods used in chemically reducing pollutants in effluent gas flow. More particularly, the present invention relates to ionization of effluent gas from an effluent gas source by passage of the effluent gas through a resonance field, and potentialization and purification of the effluent gas by passage of the effluent gas through a continuous electrical arc. Preferably, the resonance field and the continuous electrical arc are both generated by an alternating current. The result of using the apparatus and method of the present invention is a release of stabilized air particles without a high consumption of energy, and without producing waste products requiring subsequent collection.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to apparatus and methods for reducing pollutants in effluent gas flow, particularly exhaust emissions resulting from combustion processes.
2. Background Art
In today's industrial world, the amount of pollution present has reached enormous proportions. Not only do factories, buses, cars, trucks, stationary combustion engines, and commercial and industrial processes provide air pollution but, additionally, migration of releases from dump sites, land fills, sewage treatment lagoons, waste heaps, etc. are sources of air contamination.
In order to understand the structure and theory of the apparatus and system of the present invention, a brief statement on the area of pollution is necessary.
As emission and environmental regulations become increasingly more stringent, waste treatment, hazardous chemicals and combustion products, in general, must be handled with innovative methods to reduce their impact upon the environment and upon society. To ultimately be successful, the method employed to resolve the problems must be economical, highly efficient in the reduction of emissions with respect to the equipment it serves, and available for widespread use.
Air pollution chemistry is a complex issue. Many different sources have created emission reaction in quantum proportions. The carbon/oxygen/nitrogen cycles interplay in all aspects of organic and inorganic life and in all chemical reactions. These cycles have photochemical reactions (vibrational reaction due to light absorption), as well as physical vibrational reactions due to the interplay of excited electrons from electrochemical interactions. It is in these three cycles, as illustrated by natural processes, that air pollution chemistry finds its effectiveness and explanations.
In the 1960's, it was recognized that the hydroxyl radical is, with several important exceptions, the key reactive intermediate in the photo-oxidation of most inorganic and many organic compounds found in polluted atmospheres. The NO3 and the HOHO radicals also play important roles in the atmosphere. The primary air pollutants are NO, NO2, SO2, CO2, and hydrocarbons. Devices which reduce the entrance of these compounds into the atmosphere and which are efficient and inexpensive are desired.
A variety of devices and the methods for removing pollutants from effluent gas flows are available today. Such devices and methods focus on the use of mechanical, electrical, electro-mechanical, and chemical processes. Typical examples of such prior art methods include filters, aqueous scrubbers, electrostatic precipitators, catalytic converters.
One type of prior art pollution control device which utilizes electrical means generally teaches the reduction of pollutants to a particulate or mist form through precipitation. In these devices, effluent gas may be passed through an electric current whereby particles become charged. These charged particles drop out of the gas and are collected. One problem with these precipitation devices is the dilemma of subsequent handling of the collected pollutant particles. Once they are collected, the pollutant particles must still be somehow discarded or stored.
A number of prior art variations on this technology deal primarily with methods of electrostatic precipitation to maximize precipitation efficiency or to minimize the number of cleansing cycles required of the electrostatic precipitator. These variations are aimed towards minimizing the down time of the electrostatic precipitator. However, the problem remains of storage or elimination of the collected pollutant particles once they are separated from the gases.
Such prior art processes and apparatus are typified by the following patents: U.S. Pat. No. 2,382,253, issued to Penney, et al. on Aug. 14, 1945; U.S. Pat. No. 3,706,182, issued to Sargent on Dec. 19, 1972; U.S. Pat. No. 3,739,554, issued to Whetten, et al. on Jun. 19, 1973; U.S. Pat. No. 3,869,362 issued to Machi, et al. on Mar. 4, 1975 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,907,520 issued to Huang, et al. on Sep. 23, 1975.

Apparatus and method for reducing pollutants in effluent gas flow utilizing an ionizing and resonance means

Environmental Plasma Arc Technology, Inc.


A screw has a head with a cross-shaped groove having first to fourth wing grooves, each having bilaterally-formed inner side faces defined by opposing base-end inner side faces, opposing intermediate inner side faces and opposing distal-end inner side faces angled at angles relative to each other so that the first angle of the base-end inner side face<the second angle of the intermediate inner side face<the third angle of the distal-end inner side face. The base-end inner side faces define a trapezoidal base, the distal-end inner side faces define an inverse-trapezoidal distal-end groove, and the intermediate inner side faces define an approximately parallel intermediate groove between each base-end groove and each distal-end groove. Each of the inner side faces is provided with an elevation angle spreading toward an opening face of the cross-shaped groove.

Japanese Patent-laid-open 2000-230526 discloses a structure of a cross-shaped groove in which each pair of inner side faces of the first to fourth wing grooves forming the cross-shaped groove are parallel except at distal end portions thereof, the distal end portions are inclined outwardly sideward, and all inner side faces of the first to fourth wing grooves are vertical.
As all inner side faces of the first to fourth wing grooves are vertical faces, it may be said that coming-off caused by upward sliding of a driver bit (i.e., upward slipping of a driver bit) during rotation hardly occurs. However, interlocking effect when the cross-shaped hole is fit with a driver bit is insufficient to cause a problem that the screw drops off from the driver bit.
Further, there is a fear of occurrence of misalignment of centering of the screw against a pilot hole and non-smooth operation of screw alignment against a pilot hole entry with the driver bit to eventually cause an oblique screwing problem due to excessive clearance between the first to fourth wing teeth of the driver bit and every vertical inner side face of the first to fourth wing grooves.

Structure of cross-shaped groove of screw for fit with driver bit


A voltage monitoring circuit includes a plurality of voltage input terminals which input a voltage across each of a plurality of series-coupled battery cells, a selection circuit which, by selecting two of the voltage input terminals, selects a voltage across one of the battery cells, an A/D converter which converts the voltage across the battery cell into a digital value, a control unit which sends the digital value to an external controller, a ground wiring which is coupled to a ground terminal for inputting a ground level voltage for the voltage monitoring circuit, the ground terminal being among the voltage input terminals, and through which the voltage monitoring circuit is supplied with the ground level voltage, a terminal which is supplied with a lowest fixed potential, and a switch circuit which is coupled between the first terminal and the ground wiring.

The present invention relates to a voltage monitoring circuit, a test method therefor, and a voltage monitoring system.
In an existing secondary battery system for vehicle, plural battery groups each including series-coupled battery cells are coupled to configure a battery module, and a control device for monitoring the state of the battery cells of each of the battery groups is provided. An example technique of such a battery system is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2010-193589.
FIG. 12 shows the battery system 1 disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2010-193589. The battery system 1 has battery cells BC1 to BC6 and a cell controller 2. The cell controller 2 has a battery cell controller IC1 and a Schottky diode Db associated with the battery cells BC1 to BC6.
The battery cell controller IC1 includes a multiplexer (MUX) 11, a voltage regulator circuit 12, a differential amplifier 13, an analog-to-digital converter circuit (hereinafter referred to as an "ADC") 14, an IC control circuit 15, diodes D1 and D2 for ESD protection, and terminals CV1 to CV6, VCC and GND. The terminals CV1 to CV6 and GND are coupled, via sensing lines SL, to the positive electrodes and negative electrodes of the battery cells BC1 to BC6. The sensing lines SL are provided between the positive and negative electrodes of the battery cells BC1 to BC6 and input terminals IN1 to IN7 provided on the circuit substrate side.
The multiplexer 11 has terminal voltages of the battery cells BC1 to BC6 inputted thereto via the terminals CV1 to CV6 and GND. The multiplexer 11 selects one of the terminals CV1 to CV6 and outputs the corresponding terminal voltage to the differential amplifier 13. The terminal GND serves as a ground terminal (hereinafter referred to as the "ground terminal GND") for the battery cell controller IC1. The terminal VCC serves as a supply voltage terminal (hereinafter referred to as the "power supply terminal VCC") for the battery cell controller IC1. The multiplexer 11 uses the voltage supplied from the power supply terminal VCC as a supply voltage.
The differential amplifier 13 amplifies the terminal voltage received from the multiplexer 11 and outputs the amplified voltage to the ADC 14. The ADC 14 outputs the inputted voltage after analog-to-digital conversion. The digital signal outputted from the ADC 14 is stored in the IC control circuit 15 and is used, for example, for diagnosing the battery system 1. When a fault is detected, it is eventually reported to a higher-level controller.
The voltage regulator circuit 12 provides the differential amplifier 13, ADC 14 and IC control circuit 15 with a supply voltage. The voltage regulator circuit 12 is coupled, via a line, to the terminal CV6. The voltage supplied from the terminal CV6 is used as a bias voltage for the voltage regulator circuit 12.
For all of the terminals CV1 to CV6, diodes D1 and D2 for ESD protection are coupled between the power supply terminal VCC and the ground terminal GND.
If the Schottky diode Db is not provided, disconnection of the lowest-order sensing line SL causes the current used by the battery cell controller IC1 to flow from the ground terminal GND to the positive electrode side of the battery cell BC6 via the diode D2 for ESD protection and the terminal CV6. As a result, the terminal CV6 is negatively biased corresponding to a voltage drop (0.6 to 0.7 V) through the diode D2 for ESD protection causing the voltage regulator circuit 12 to stop operation. When the voltage regulator circuit 12 stops operation, the differential amplifier 13, ADC 14 and IC control circuit 15 also stop operation, so that detection of a fault cannot be reported to a higher-lever controller.
To prevent the above problem, the battery system disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2010-193589 is provided with a Schottky diode Db smaller than the diode D2 for ESD protection. With the voltage drop through the Schottky diode Db being as small as 0.3V, the negative voltage applied to the terminal CV6 in the event of disconnection of the lowest-order sensing line SL described above can be reduced to allow the voltage regulator circuit 12 to continue operation. Hence, when a fault is detected, it can be normally reported to a higher-order controller.

Voltage monitoring circuit, test method therefor, and voltage monitoring system


First, second, and third semiconductor switches are connected in series between input and output terminals and first and second voltage application circuits are connected in parallel to first and third semiconductor switches, whereby providing a semiconductor switch circuit. Each voltage application circuit comprises a first or second voltage application semiconductor switch connected at the output side thereof with a first or second direct current amplifier having a gain state of approximately +1 and whose input side is connected to the input or output terminal. One end of the first or second voltage application semiconductor switch is connected to a first junction of the first and second semiconductor switches, or to a junction of the second and third semiconductor switches, respectively. When first through third semiconductor switches are turned OFF, first and second voltage application semiconductor switches are turned ON to apply the potentials of input and output terminals to the first and second junctions, respectively.

A method for performing direct current testing is employed in a semiconductor device testing apparatus wherein a large number of voltage/current generators having different voltage values are prepared for testing the direct current characteristics of the terminals (hereinafter referred to as pins) of a semiconductor device, the outputs of these numerous voltage/current generators are selectively applied to the pins of the device under test via a matrix circuit, and an arbitrary voltage is applied to each pin.
FIG. 7 shows the structure of a semiconductor device testing apparatus that uses a widely known matrix circuit. The voltage/current generator group 10 outputs various voltages V1, V2, V3, and V4; and applies these voltages V1 through V4 to the input terminals IN1 through IN4 of the matrix circuit 20. Switches S are arranged in a matrix in the matrix circuit 20, and any one of the switches S is selectively controlled to an ON state and selectively outputs one of the voltages V1 through V4 to one of the output terminals OUT1 through OUT4.
The pins P1 through P4 of the semiconductor device under test 30 are connected to the output terminals OUT1 through OUT4 of the matrix circuit 20, an arbitrary voltage among the voltages V1 through V4 is applied to each pin P1 through P4, and the direct current characteristics of the pins are measured.
In other words, a configuration is adopted whereby the presence of the matrix circuit 20 enables any voltage among the voltages V1 through V4 to be applied to any of the pins P1 through P4. A voltage source current measurement test is performed by measuring the current when each of voltages V1 through V4 is applied as to whether or not the current is within a pre-set range of values. A current source voltage measurement test is also performed, when a prescribed current is applied to the pins P1 through P4, as to whether or not a prescribed voltage is generated in the pins P1 through P4.
In the matrix circuit 20 shown in FIG. 7, when the switches S are ON state, lines connected by the switch are maintained at the same electrical potential, but when the switches are OFF state, a potential difference corresponding to the voltages V1 through V4 is presented across the switches S. Consequently, when a semiconductor switch formed from, for example, a FET (field-effect transistor), a photo-MOS relay composed of a light-emitting element and a light-receiving element, or the like is used for the switches S constituting the matrix circuit 20, a leak current occurs in the semiconductor switch at the intersecting portion in which the potential difference is presented, with the drawback of measurement error being caused by the leak current.
FIG. 8 shows the structure of a conventional semiconductor switch circuit. FIG. 8A shows a conducting state between the input terminal IN and the output terminal OUT; and FIG. 8B shows a non-conducting state between the input terminal IN and the output terminal OUT. Each of the semiconductor switches S1, S2, and S3 uses a FET, a photo-MOS relay composed of a light-emitting element and a light-receiving element, or other semiconductor switch. In the state shown in FIG. 8A in which the switches S1 and S2 are ON, and the switch S3 is OFF, the voltage VM applied to the input terminal IN is applied across the OFF semiconductor switch S3, and the leak current IR is caused to flow through the semiconductor switch S3 by application of this voltage VM.
In the state shown in FIG. 8B, in which the switches S1 and S2 are OFF, and the switch S3 is ON, a non-conducting state exists between the input terminal IN and the output terminal OUT, and the voltage applied to the input terminal IN is not fed to the output terminal. Since in this case the voltage VM applied to the input terminal IN is divided into two parts as to the semiconductor switches S1 and S2, so that leak currents IR1 and IR2 are caused to flow through the semiconductor switches S1 and S2 by these divided voltages.
The leak current IR shown in FIG. 8A and the leak currents IR1 and IR2 shown in FIG. 8B all flow through the semiconductor switch S3 or S1 and S2 by flowing out to the outside or flowing in from the outside through the input terminal IN or the output terminal OUT. Therefore, when the conventional semiconductor switch circuit shown in FIG. 8 is applied to the matrix circuit 20 shown in FIG. 7, the drawback of measurement error is caused by the leak currents flowing through the semiconductor switch circuit.
In particular, FIG. 7 shows a matrix circuit structure having four input terminals and four pins of output terminals, but a matrix circuit equipped with four or more input terminals connected to the voltage/current generator group, and a number of output terminals equal to the number of pins of the semiconductor device under test 30, is required in an actual semiconductor device testing apparatus; and the matrix circuit is large in scale. In other words, numerous switches S are used in an actual matrix circuit, and when a leak current occurs in each of such a large number of switches in an OFF state, the total quantity of leak current becomes large, and major errors result.
In the past, mechanical contact relays had to be used in order to avoid the effects of leak currents. A mercury relay has also been used due to the service life of the relay contacts in actual practice. However, since the use of mercury relays will be limited due to environmental issues, and since there is limitation on the attachment orientation of a mercury relay, the mercury relay is difficult to implement in a test head in which the matrix circuit 20 is placed near the semiconductor device under test 30, and must be mounted on the side of the testing apparatus body. Therefore, a long cable must be used to form a connection between the matrix circuit 20 and the test head.


Polyurethane elastomers formed from prepolymers derived from copolyester polyols. The copolyester polyols have segments derived from one or more polyesters and caprolactone or polycaprolactone. The polyurethane elastomers have good hardness stability at temperatures ranging from 0° C. to 30° C. and preferably have good hydrolytic stability.

Industrial polyurethane elastomers are based on polyurethane prepolymers made by reacting polyols with excess molar amounts of diisocyanate monomers. Polyester polyols are widely used due to ease of production and relatively low production costs. Polyurethane elastomers made from polyols, such as polyester polyols and polycarbonate polyols, have high crystallinity or melting points and tend to build up crystallinity or become harder over extended periods of time. This is especially true at temperatures less than 20° C. In other words, elastomers derived from polyester polyols become harder over extended time periods, and especially become harder at low temperatures. For applications requiring uniform performance properties and reduced environmental sensitivity, changes in properties such as hardness, crystallinity, hydrolytic stability, or environmental stability, are not desired. For example, environmental stability is especially important for polyurethane printing rolls since they require consistent and good printing performance over a wide range of temperatures and humidities.
Thus, the need exists for polyurethane elastomers that possess good environmental stability, especially at low temperatures, and for processes for making such polyurethane elastomers.

Copolyester polyols, prepolymers, and polyurethane elastomers formed therefrom and processes for making same


A magnetic shield is designed to be retrofitted over a flyback transformer of a cathode ray tube display terminal. The magnetic shield consists of a layer of metal conductor, for example mu metal, and a layer of insulation, for example polyester film. The layer of insulation is placed upon the layer of metal conductor and the layers are rolled to form a spiral having greater than two windings. Tape may be used to secure the shape of the spiral. Additionally foam rubber pads may be attached to the inside of the spiral to provide a secure mechanical mounting to the flyback transformer and to provide air spacing as additional insulation against corona discharge. Also shrink tubing may be placed over the spiral to provide additional support to the spiral shape and to provide heat and electrical insulation.

The present invention concerns the shielding of magnetic pulses generated by a flyback transformer in a visual display terminal.
Within a typical cathode ray tube terminal there are three main sources of magnetic fields. The flyback transformer is the largest source of magnetic fields, followed by the deflection yoke and the width and linearity coils.
In the prior art various methods have been used to shield the magnetic fields. For example, deflection yoke stray magnetic fields have been cancelled by attaching additional windings to the yoke. Current through these windings create an equal but opposite magnetic field to the undesired stray magnetic fields. Also metal shields have been placed around the flyback transformer. These metal shields have made of a single layer of metal or two concentric layers of metal separated by an insulating layer.

Magnetic shield for visual display terminals


The present invention describes a process to preserve a water-containing product such as a foodstuff, which comprises adding natamycin and nisin to the product, whereby at least 90% (w/v) of natamycin is dissolved and/or less than 10% (w/v) of natamycin is present in crystal form.

The need for improved food preservation methods is great. It has been estimated that about one quarter of the word's food supply is lost as a result of microbial spoilage and food-borne microbial infections represent a constant and serious threat to human health.
Several bacterial species that may contaminate and grow in foodstuffs and crops are pathogenic or produce toxins and cause a range of food-poisoning diseases. Despite substantial improvement in the technology and hygiene, food products may be exposed to spoilage and pathogenic bacteria in the food-handling environment and the number of food poisoning is still increasing in most of the countries.
Fungal spoilage can lead to serious economic losses. Several food products e.g. agricultural products, dairy and meat products, fruits and vegetables and derived products, bakery products and cosmetics are very susceptible to fungal growth. Examples of dairy products are cheese, cottage cheese, ricotta and yogurt. Dried cured sausages are an example of meat products. Examples of agricultural products are crops such as cereals, nuts, fruits, vegetables and flower bulbs. Spoilage by fungi does not only affect the quality of the product, but also represents a health risk. It is well known that some fungal species, which grow on e.g. dairy products and sausages, can produce mycotoxins. Some mycotoxins are extremely dangerous as they can cause lethal diseases. Therefore the outgrowth of unwanted fungi in and on food products should always be prevented.
Food preservation techniques, e.g. heat processing, freezing, ultrasound, irradiation, and modified atmosphere packaging, significantly reduce microbial load but of particular concern is the evidence that processed foods are being contaminated with microorganisms following processing and prior to packaging. Of rinsing concern in the food industry is microbial spoilage of various foods such as dairy and meat products, dressings, spreads, margarines and seafood. Especially food products in the 2.0 to 7.0 pH range are known to be susceptible to microbial spoilage by yeast, mould, acid tolerant bacteria and/or mesophilic or thermophilic spore forming and non-spore forming bacteria.
Mostly, processed foods are not eaten directly after processing thereby permitting bacteria, yeast or mould introduced by post-contamination to grow. Since food consumption may occur without reheating the processed foods to sufficient temperatures for sufficient time, there is a risk of food poisoning or food spoilage. Furthermore, the recent trend for minimally processed foods with the intrinsic nutritional and sensory qualities of raw and fresh foods has raised a new safety risk. Milder preservation treatments, such as high hydrostatic pressure and pulsed electric fields have been proved to be successful but rely on effective hurdles i.e. cold chain and addition of natural anti-microbials.
There has been extensive research conducted in the field of food safety to develop effective anti-microbial compositions, which function as anti-fungal and anti-bacterial compositions.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,895,680 by Cirigliano et al., the preservative system including natamycin and nisin is stated. The instability of aqueous natamycin solution is compensated by increased natamycin concentrations. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,895,680 it is taught that natamycin has to be present in amount of at least 1.5 times the maximum solubility based on the water content present in the foodstuff. The reason behind this is that it is believed that soluble natamycin is not stable in aqueous surroundings and that therefore always solid (for example crystal or amorphous) natamycin has to be present for the anti fungal activity.


A system for teaching compositionality to convolutional neural networks includes an unmasked convolutional neural network comprising a first set of convolutional neural network layers; a first masked convolutional neural network comprising a second set of convolutional neural network layers; the unmasked convolutional neural network and the first masked convolutional network sharing convolutional neural network weights; the system training the unmasked and first masked convolutional neural networks simultaneously based on an objective function that seeks to reduce both discriminative loss and compositional loss.

Despite advances in computer vision, image processing, and machine learning, recognizing visual objects remains a task where computers fail in comparison with the capabilities of humans. Recognizing an object from an image not only requires recognizing the object in a scene but also recognizing objects in various positions, in different settings, and with slight variations. For example, to recognize a chair, the innate properties that make a chair a chair must be understood. This is a simple task for a human. Computers struggle to deal with the vast variety of types of chairs and the situations in which a chair may be present. Models capable of performing visual object recognition must be trained to provide explanations for visual datasets in order to recognize objects present in those visual datasets. Unfortunately, most methods for training such models either fall short in performance and/or require large training sets.
This issue is not confined solely to visual object recognition, but more generally applies to pattern recognition, which may be used in speech recognition, natural language processing, and other fields. Thus, there is a need in the artificial intelligence field to create new and useful systems and methods for teaching compositionality to convolutional neural networks.

System and method for teaching compositionality to convolutional neural networks


A processing apparatus comprises a first determination unit configured to determine, based on peripheral information of a self-vehicle, whether another vehicle that is stopped exists on one side of a road in a width direction; a second determination unit configured to determine, based on the peripheral information, whether a walker exists on the other side of the road in the width direction; and a setting unit configured to, if the other vehicle exists on the one side of the road in the width direction, and the walker exists on the other side of the road in the width direction, set, for the other vehicle, a second warning region wider than a first warning region in a case in which the other vehicle exists, and the walker does not exist.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a processing apparatus, a vehicle, a processing method, and a storage medium.
Description of the Related Art
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2007-257338 describes controlling to receive data detected by each sensor, detect blind spots and barriers, estimate a collision probability to a run-out walker, and set and present an appropriate vehicle speed that keeps the collision probability to a reference value or less.
However, in a case in which, for example, a walker exists on one side of a road, and a stopped vehicle exists on the other side of the road, another person can run out from the vicinity of the stopped vehicle onto the road toward the walker. Such a case is not taken into consideration at all in patent literature 1.
The present invention provides a technique for implementing safer automated driving assuming run-out of a person onto a road.

Processing apparatus, vehicle, processing method, and storage medium


A method of controlling an operation of booting an image reproducing apparatus is provided. The method includes: receiving an input signal for powering off the image reproducing apparatus; receiving from a main processor a memory address where an operation status of the image reproducing apparatus is stored, according to the received input signal; storing the received memory address; and converting a system of the image reproducing apparatus into a sleep by the sub-processor.

1. Field
Apparatuses and methods consistent with exemplary embodiments relate to controlling an operation of booting an image reproducing apparatus, and more particularly, to for controlling an operation of re-starting a system quickly when the system is powered on, by exchanging between a main processor and a sub-processor a memory address that exists before the system is powered-off.
2. Description of the Related Art
With increased demand for high-capacity and high-quality image data the image reproducing apparatuses, such as digital televisions (DTVs), have replaced analog TVs.
DTVs receive high-capacity data and provide high-quality digital broadcasting. However, since the digital broadcasting requires extensive data processing and complicated processes, a booting time of DTVs may be longer than that of analog TVs.

Method and apparatus for controlling operation of booting video image reproducing apparatus


A display changes the color of reflected light in response to the value of electrical potential applied to individual pixels of the display. Each pixel includes an array of light reflectors mounted on a corresponding array of electrostrictive elements. In the absence of energization, all the light reflector lie on a common plane and reflect light of all colors. The electrostrictive elements of each pixel in one embodiment are connected to be driven in common by a single potential. Each electrostrictive element of the array of each pixel has an effective length which differs from that of the adjoining elements so that the common voltage results in a differential expansion or contraction. The differential movement results in a separation between adjacent reflectors. When the separation is .lambda./4 at the wavelength of a color of light, destructive interference cancels that color, whereby physiological effects change the apparent color of the reflected light. In a second embodiment, the voltages applied to adjacent electrostructive elements differ.

This invention relates to elements which reflect different colors in response to applied voltage, and to displays formed from arrays of such elements.
Information displays have taken on a great deal of importance for conveying information. For example, television receivers include a kinescope, which is adapted for producing an internally illuminated color display of images. The television monitor for displaying text and graphics for interaction with computers has become ubiquitous. Such internally lit displays tend to consume substantial power. Consequently, for some applications reflective displays have become common. For example, battery-operated portable instruments, including digital watches, use liquid crystal displays which operate by reflecting light. For some purposes, liquid crystal displays may not provide sufficient reflection. Also, the production of color displays by use of liquid crystals does not, at the current state of the art, produce intense colors.

Electrocrystallochromic display and element


An apparatus (1) for separating a liquid component from the exhalation gas of a patient to be delivered to one or more analyzing units (3, 4). The apparatus comprises a first chamber (10) for receiving therein an exhalation gas coming from a patient and in which the inflowing gas divides into two components in a manner that some of the gas flows to an analyzing unit and some of the gas, as well as a liquid component possibly entrapped in the exhalation gas, is conducted out past the analyzing unit, a second chamber (12), through which a patient's exhalation gas flows from the first chamber to an analyzing unit, and a gas-permeable wall (11), which separates these chambers and through which the gas flows from the first chamber into the second chamber. Upstream of the wall (11) there is a filter (20), the exhalation gas of a patient flowing through this filter prior penetrating through the wall (11) and the filter (20) allowing therethrough the flow of a liquid component possibly entrapped in the gas.

In anesthesia or in intensive care, the condition of a patient is often monitored e.g. by analyzing the air exhaled by a patient. Special attention is paid to the carbon dioxide content exhaled by a patient. The content of anesthetic gases is also often monitored. Therefore, a small portion of the exhalation air is delivered to a analyzing unit. This sample often carries along to the analyzing unit some water vapour, which condenses into droplets, and also some dust, mucus and blood. Such components carried along with the sample have a detrimental effect on the analyzing unit and measuring result. This is why the liquid components are often removed and collected from a gas sample upstream of the actual analyzing unit. A water separator and a method developed for this purpose are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,304,578 and 4,382,806. In order to separate liquid components, a gas sample is delivered into a rather small chamber, wherein the flow divides into two components.
The main flow keeps running from the top section of this chamber to an analyzing unit while the minor side flow is carried from the bottom section of the chamber out of reach of the analyzing unit, usually by way of a water receiver. The purpose is to condense the liquid, definitely vapourized by this time, condensate on the chamber walls and to carry on its passage down to a water receiver together with the rest of the liquid secretion. However these solutions are not totally sufficient, since some of the liquid components may still find access to an analyzing unit along with the main flow.
According to later solution described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,886,528 a chamber, wherein a liquid component is separated from a gas flow, is divided into two sections by means of a gas permeable and liquid-impermeable material. Thus, a sample picked up from the exhalation air of a patient is delivered into the first chamber of a water separator, from which the liquid component along with a minor amount of gas is sucked away, usually by way of a water receiver. Most of the gas flow received in the first chamber is sucked through the liquid-impermeable material into the second chamber and further to an analyzing unit. This material prevents effectively the passage of liquid to the analyzing unit.
The last described solution works well as long as just a moderate amount of liquid secretions are entrapped in the exhalation air of a patient. If, for some reason, however, a patient secretes e.g. mucus more than in a normal case, the liquid-impermeable material installed in the chamber will be choked up rather quickly, thus preventing the passage of gas samples to the analyzing unit.

Apparatus for separating a liquid component from exhalation air to be delivered to an analyzing unit