A processor within a wireless terminal performs data compression, decompression and error correction according to a data compression protocol such as the V.42bis data compression protocol used within GSM wireless networks. This processor includes an interface that receives incoming information or data to be compressed or decompressed according to the data compression protocol. A processing module within the processor is operably coupled to the interface to receive and process the incoming information. Instructions executed within the processing module will divide the processing responsibilities between the processing module and a data compression/decompression accelerator operably coupled to the processing module. Compute intensive operations may be offloaded from the processing module onto the data compression/decompression accelerator to improve overall system efficiency.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to cellular wireless communication systems, and more particularly to a distinct hardware accelerator component to support error correction, compression and decompression within a wireless terminal of a cellular wireless communication system.
2. Related Art
Cellular wireless communication systems support wireless communication services in many populated areas of the world. While cellular wireless communication systems were initially constructed to service voice communications, they are now called upon to support data and video (multimedia) communications as well. The demand for video and data communication services has exploded with the acceptance and widespread use video capable wireless terminals and the Internet. Video and data communications have historically been serviced via wired connections; cellular wireless users now demand that their wireless units also support video and data communications. The demand for wireless communication system video and data communications will only increase with time. Thus, cellular wireless communication systems are currently being created/modified to service these burgeoning demands. Data compression is particularly useful in communications because it enables wireless providers to service additional wireless terminals by allowing the same information to be sent in fewer bits.
Cellular wireless networks include a "network infrastructure" that wirelessly communicates with wireless terminals within a respective service coverage area. The network infrastructure typically includes a plurality of base stations dispersed throughout the service coverage area, each of which supports wireless communications within a respective cell (or set of sectors). The base stations couple to base station controllers (BSCs), with each BSC serving a plurality of base stations. Each BSC couples to a mobile switching center (MSC). Each BSC also typically directly or indirectly couples to the Internet.
In operation, each base station communicates with a plurality of wireless terminals operating in its cell/sectors. A BSC coupled to the base station routes voice, video, data or multimedia communications between the MSC and a serving base station. The MSC then routes these communications to another MSC or to the PSTN. Typically, BSCs route data communications between a servicing base station and a packet data network that may include or couple to the Internet. Transmissions from base stations to wireless terminals are referred to as "forward link" transmissions while transmissions from wireless terminals to base stations are referred to as "reverse link" transmissions. The volume of data transmitted on the forward link typically exceeds the volume of data transmitted on the reverse link. Such is the case because data users typically issue commands to request data from data sources, e.g., web servers, and the web servers provide the data to the wireless terminals. The great number of wireless terminals communicating with a single base station forces the need to compress the communications and divide the forward and reverse link transmission times amongst the various wireless terminals.
Wireless links between base stations and their serviced wireless terminals typically operate according to one (or more) of a plurality of operating standards. These operating standards define the manner in which the wireless link may be allocated, setup, serviced and torn down. One popular cellular standard is the Global System for Mobile telecommunications (GSM) standard. The GSM standard, or simply GSM, is predominant in Europe and is in use around the globe. While GSM originally serviced only voice communications, it has been modified to also service data communications. GSM General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) operations and the Enhanced Data rates for GSM (or Global) Evolution (EDGE) operations coexist with GSM by sharing the channel bandwidth, slot structure, and slot timing of the GSM standard. GPRS operations and EDGE operations may also serve as migration paths for other standards as well, e.g., IS-136 and Pacific Digital Cellular (PDC).
The GSM standard specifies communications in a time divided format (in multiple channels). The GSM standard specifies a 4.615 ms frame that includes 8 slots of, each including eight slots of approximately 577 μs in duration. Each slot corresponds to a Radio Frequency (RF) burst. A normal RF burst, used to transmit information, typically includes a left side, a midamble, and a right side. The midamble typically contains a training sequence whose exact configuration depends on modulation format used. However, other types of RF bursts are known to those skilled in the art. Each set of four bursts on the forward link carry a partial link layer data block, a full link layer data block, or multiple link layer data blocks. Also included in these four bursts is control information intended for not only the wireless terminal for which the data block is intended but for other wireless terminals as well.
GPRS and EDGE include multiple coding/puncturing schemes and multiple modulation formats, e.g., Gaussian Minimum Shift Keying (GMSK) modulation or Eight Phase Shift Keying (8PSK) modulation. Particular coding/puncturing schemes and modulation formats used at any time depend upon the quality of a servicing forward link channel, e.g., Signal-to-Noise-Ratio (SNR) or Signal-to-Interference-Ratio (SIR) of the channel, Bit Error Rate of the channel, Block Error Rate of the channel, etc. As multiple modulation formats may be used for any RF burst, wireless communication systems require significant processing ability to encode and decode the information contained within the RF bursts. This decision may be further influenced by changing radio conditions and the desired quality level to be associated with the communications.
Data compression is the process of encoding data to reduce the required storage space or transmission time when compared to uncompressed data. This is possible because most real-world data is very redundant or not most concisely represented in its human-interpretable form. One means of compression, is run-length encoding, wherein large runs of consecutive identical data values are replaced by a simple code with the data value and length of the run. This is an example of lossless data compression, where data compresses in such a way that it can be recovered exactly. For symbolic data such as spreadsheets, text, executable programs, etc., loss-less-ness is essential because changing even a single bit cannot be tolerated (except in some limited cases). Other kinds of data such as sounds and pictures, a small loss of quality can be tolerated without losing the essential nature of the data. These methods frequently offer a range of compression efficiencies, where the user can choose whether he wants highly-compressed data with noticeable loss of quality or higher-quality data with less compression. In particular, compression of images and sounds can take advantage of limitations of the human sensory system to compress data in ways that are lossy, but nearly indistinguishable from the original.
However, as wireless terminals are being required to transmit both symbolic data as well as data that can tolerate a small loss of quality without losing the essential nature of the data, lossless compression algorithms such as Lempel-Ziv (LZ) and Lempel-Ziv-Welch (LZW) compression methods are becoming increasing popular in their application to wireless terminals. These methods utilize a table based compression model where table entries are substituted for redundant data. For most methods, this table is generated dynamically from earlier data in the input. Psychoacoustics may be employed to remove non-audible components of the signal to make compression more efficient.
As software is becoming increasingly more powerful with improved microelectronic technologies providing new programmable processors, additional functionalities may be added. These include the application of multimedia content or visual information in a mobile connection. Already today wireless terminals are not limited to only voice communications. Other types of data including real time multimedia may be provided. The need for more efficient communications is much stronger when using a mobile wireless device and reinforces the relevance of compressed communications in a mobile environment. This requires that the communications be of an acceptable quality at low enough rates to be effectively communicated in the cellular wireless environment. However, to achieve low data rates often requires computer intense coding schemes.
These improved coding and decoding abilities create ever-growing demands on the processor within the wireless environment. Unlike a desktop computer coupled to a network via a landline connection a mobile wireless terminal will have a limited data rate between itself and the servicing base station. Additionally, the processors within the wireless terminal are assigned multiple processing duties. The increased coding and decoding associated with these compressed communications require additional processing power in order to maintain real time audio/visual communications. The addition of these processing requirements within the wireless terminal requires new methods with which to balance the processing requirements of the system processor while maintaining these real time audio/visual communications.

Wireless device having a distinct hardware accelerator to support data compression protocols dedicated to GSM (V.42)


A method for treating industrial waste water prior to its discharge into the city or county sewer system is provided. The method includes introducing into the waste water an iron-containing compound, a hydroxide and a flocculating agent. This method results in the formation of a sludge cake layer on top of the waste water. The sludge cake is then removed, and the treated waste water is discharged into the sewer system.

Most cities and counties have enacted requirements for industries which discharge water into the municipal sewer systems. These municipalities generally require the waste water to meet certain standards before being discharged into the sewer systems, and these standards usually relate to the level of pollutants which interfere with the efficient operation of the municipal waste water treatment facility.
Waste water which contains materials having a high biochemical oxygen demand, total suspended solids and ammonia increase the treatment cost to the city or county. For purposes of this invention, the term "biochemical oxygen demand" ("BOD") refers to the quantity of oxygen utilized in the biochemical oxidation of organic matter; and the term "total suspended solids" ("TSS") refers to the total suspended solids which float on the surface of, or are suspended in, waste water and which are removable by filtering.
In some instances, a surcharge may be levied on an industrial plant that produces waste water which does not meet the standards as established by the municipality. For example, these standards may prohibit waste water containing greater than 300 mg/l of BOD, 300 mg/l of TSS, and/or 18 mg/l of ammonia. Cities and counties may also prohibit industrial plants from discharging waste water having an oil and grease concentration greater than 150 mg/l.
A city or county also has the authority to revoke an industrial plant's waste water discharge permit if that plant continues to discharge waste water which does not meet the standards set by that city or county. Therefore, an industrial plant must effectively treat its waste water to reduce the level of pollutants and thereby meet such standards.
Furthermore, an effective waste water treatment process should cause the solid organic and inorganic matter to flocculate and form a sludge cake. This sludge cake accumulates to a certain thickness and is then separated from the liquid component of the waste water and sent to a rendering plant for further processing. If the resulting sludge cake is under 18% solids, the rendering plant may impose a surcharge because sludge with a high percentage of water is more expensive for the rendering plant to process.
One of the most common methods of treating waste water is the dissolved air flotation method ("DAF") which injects dissolved air into the waste water, causing the solids to rise to the top. However, the DAF method tends to produce a sludge cake with a low percentage of solids (typically, less than 10%).
Another method of treating waste water is to use a clarifying or settling tank with a filter at the bottom. The waste water is chemically treated within the tank, and the solids sink to the bottom of the tank. The liquid component of the waste water is directed out of the tank, and a wet cake is left on the filter. This method produces a sludge cake with typically, less than 10% solids.
With the DAF method or the settling tank method, a belt press can be used to produce a sludge cake with a 20%-30% solids content. However, this step requires additional equipment and expense.
Therefore, there is a long felt need for an economically feasible method that effectively treats (a) industrial waste water to meet the standards as set by a city or county so that such waste water can be directed into a municipal sewer system and (b) produces a sludge cake with a high percentage of solids.


A method for identifying multi-media assets from a multi-media collection, and the method implemented at least in part by a data processing system and comprising the steps of: receiving a search query, the search query, or a derivative thereof, including a possessive phrase, wherein the possessive phrase includes a possessor and a possession category; identifying a denoted object referred to by the possessive phrase using a predefined relationship database that establishes social relationships between objects; identifying one or more additional possessors of the denoted object using the predefined relationship database; generating one or more additional possessive phrases for the denoted objects relating the identified additional possessors to the denoted object; and identifying one or more multi-media assets from the multi-media collection containing the denoted object responsive to the one or more additional possessive phrases.

People's collections of electronically stored multimedia objects (also called assets) are constantly growing, and so is the need to quickly organize and search through them. Examples of multimedia objects would include digital photographs, digital video files and digital audio files. One of the most natural ways to do so is by queries in natural language. The queries can be used to search through the textual descriptions that the user has provided for the objects. Alternatively, it is possible to search through automatically generated textual description based e.g. on image and face recognition. Thus, one may retrieve photographs related to Christmas by specifying the search string "Christmas."
This type of approach has been investigated extensively. For example, it is described for in U.S. Pat. No. 5,493,677 by Balogh et al., entitled "Generation, Archiving and Retrieval of Digital Images with Evoked Suggestion-Set Captions and Natural Language Interface" and U.S. Pat. No. 6,233,547 by M. Debner, entitled "Computer Program Product for Retrieving Multi-Media Objects Using a Natural Language Having a Pronoun". It is also used in most state-of-the-art internet search engines, such as google (www.google.com) and bing (www.bing.com).
The simplest of such approaches (e.g. google's search engine) look for matches between words from the query and the words in each description, and augment the technique by taking into account a list of synonyms (e.g. currently, in google, the query "U.S.A." also matches "University of St. Augustine"). The most advanced approaches apply natural language techniques in order to understand the meaning of both query and description, and then use some form of inference to see if their meanings match. So, for example they can tell that there is a match between the query "Frank on a plane" and the description "Frank in the cockpit", while there is no match between "Frank on a plane" and "Frank stepping on his paper plane".
To complicate matters, the interpretation of the descriptions provided for multimedia assets often requires external knowledge. This is particularly important when knowledge about social networks is involved. For example, consider a social network in which John is Sara's boss, and is also Cindy's father. The query "Sara's supervisor" obviously matches the asset description "Cindy with her dad", but only if the knowledge from the social network is taken into account. This situation is particularly common in multimedia collections about families, where, for example, "Frank's father" may also be "Jim's grandfather".
None of the search techniques mentioned above takes into account social network information in the matching process.
Consequently, a need exists for a retrieval system that takes into account social network information in the matching process.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Multimedia object retrieval from natural language queries


A method and apparatus for color matching during compositing. In one embodiment of the invention, a set of one or more un-color matched pixels are stored and associated with a first color profile. A fragment program is generated based on the first color profile and a second color profile associated with a display. During compositing of the set of un-color matched pixels, the fragment program is applied to the set of un-color matched pixels to match colors of those pixels with the display. The color matched pixels are written to the display. Other methods and apparatuses are also described.

1. Field
Embodiments of the invention relate to the field of computer graphics; and more specifically, to color management.
2. Background
Color management is used to provide consistent color across disparate sources. For example, a display can only display colors within its gamut (e.g., within its particular subset of the visible color space). Other devices (e.g., printer, scanner, camera (still and/or video), etc.) may have different gamuts. The color space associated with the source (e.g., an image) is approximately matched to the colors on the destination (e.g., a display).
Each device and/or image may be associated with one or more color profiles. A profile includes data that describes a particular color gamut. Commonly, color profiles conform to the International Color Consortium (ICC) standard (e.g., as exemplary described in International Color Consortium (ICC) Specification ICC.1:2004-10, 2004). The profile associated with the image (and which describes the color gamut associated with the image) is typically called the source profile. The profile associated with the destination of the image (e.g., an output device) is called the destination profile. For example, if the image is to be drawn on a display, color matching is performed using the display's profile (the destination profile) and the image's profile (the source profile) to match the colors of the image to the display gamut. An intermediate color space, known as a profile connection space (PCS) may be used during color management. For example, during color matching, the source color space is matched to the destination color space through the PCS.
It may be necessary to approximate a color in case the destination device does not support a particular color from the source image (e.g., that color is out of gamut of the destination device). Each profile may be tagged with a default rendering intent, which influences how the colors are approximated. The following rendering intents are commonly used: perceptual, saturation, relative colorimetric, and absolute colorimetric.
In the case of performing color matching of an image to a display, typically the color matching is performed on the image prior to the image being sent to the graphics card. After color matching, the color corrected image is stored and sent to the graphics card. For example, color matching is performed by the CPU and the color corrected image is stored in system memory (e.g., a backing store). The graphics card performs compositing and the image is drawn on the display.

Method and apparatus for improved color management


A candle topper with a solid base in the shape of a polygonal lampshade with a top, a bottom and a center. A crown is on the top of the solid base for grasping the candle topper; a fitted bottom piece is attached to the bottom of the solid base, that is tapered and fitted to place on top of a corresponding candle and container. The solid base has a hole bored out at its top and center to form a hidden compartment that is covered with the crown, while the hidden compartment can be used for the storage of small items. The sides of the solid base can also be routed out to accommodate fitted photographs and dried flowers, which are covered and protected by thin transparent thermoplastic for ornamental purposes.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a candle topper with desirable accessory features.
2. Description of the Related Art
Candle toppers have always been a popular craft item. These items are decorative in nature and are designed to be used with unlit candles. Candle toppers are used to prevent the scent from dissipating from the candle while the candles are in storage or display waiting to be sold. Candle toppers have been in existence for about as long as people have used candles. As would be expected, these ornamental items are also well documented and reflected in the related art.
U.S. Pat. No. Des. 71,848 issued to Nist, shows an ornamental design for a candle cap. U.S. Pat. No. Des. 304,226 issued to Kim et al, shows an ornamental design for a cover for jars of fragrance, jewelry or similar article. U.S. Pat. No. Des. 377,103 issued to Hibner et al., shows an ornamental design for a candle topper in the shape of a human face.
U.S. Pat. No. Des. 425,636 issued to Freeman, shows an ornamental design for a candle top cover. U.S. Pat. No. Des. 436,866 issued to Freeman, shows an ornamental design for a candle container top. U.S. Pat. No. Des. 449,529 issued to Poppick, shows an ornamental design for a jar lid. U.S. Pat. No. Des. 462,132 issued to Papai, shows an ornamental design of a containerized candle cover.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,490,341 issued to Olney, describes the use of an ornamental cover for designating the contents of a sealed container. For example, an ornamental cover with the shape of a strawberry on top of it would be used to seal a jar full of strawberry jam. There are also ornamental covers in the shape of a bunch of grapes and an apricot for grape jelly and apricot jelly.
Although a wide variety of candle topper shapes are shown and described in the previously discussed patents, what is really needed in the marketplace is a candle topper that has a plurality of useful supplemental features, such as providing a hidden compartment for the hidden storage of small valuable items such as paper money and jewelry. Such a candle topper would be of interest to many arts and crafts buyers who purchase and collect these items.
None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singly or in combination, are seen to describe the instant invention as claimed. Thus a candle topper solving the aforementioned problems is desired.
The invention is a candle topper with a solid base in the shape of a polygonal lampshade with a top, a bottom and a center. A crown is on the top of the solid base for grasping the candle topper; a fitted bottom piece is attached to the bottom of the solid base, that is tapered and fitted to place on top of a corresponding candle and container; the solid base has a hole bored out at its top and center to form a hidden compartment that is covered with the crown, while the hidden compartment can be used for the storage of small items. The sides of the solid base can also be routed out to accommodate fitted photographs and dried flowers, which are covered and protected by thin transparent thermoplastic for ornamental purposes.
Accordingly, it is a principal object of the invention to provide a candle topper that has a hidden compartment for storing valuable items.
It is another object of the invention to provide a candle topper that can display photographs and dried flowers on its exterior.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a more durable candle topper that does not easily break and shatter.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a candle topper that prevents the scent from a scented candle from dissipating.
It is an object of the invention to provide improved elements and arrangements thereof for the purposes described which is inexpensive, dependable and fully effective in accomplishing its intended purposes.


The present invention is to provide a piezoelectric element, a method of manufacturing the same, a liquid-jet head, a method of manufacturing the same, and a liquid-jet apparatus, all of which prevent an inter-layer detachment in a lower electrode. A method of manufacturing a piezoelectric element, comprising the steps of: forming, on a substrate, a lower electrode configured of a plurality of layers which includes a metal layer with a limit thickness of 20 nm at least in its uppermost layer, the metal layer essentially containing iridium; forming a multi-layered piezoelectric layers by means of performing a piezoelectric film forming step a plurality times, the piezoelectric film forming step including an applying step of applying a piezoelectric precursor film onto the lower electrode, a drying step of drying the piezoelectric precursor film which has been applied thereon through the applying step, a degreasing step of degreasing the piezoelectric precursor film which has been dried through the drying step, and a baking step of making the piezoelectric precursor film, which has been degreased through the degreasing step, into a piezoelectric film by baking and crystallizing the piezoelectric precursor film; and forming an upper electrode on the piezoelectric layer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a piezoelectric element configured of a lower electrode, piezoelectric layers and upper electrodes as well as a method of manufacturing the piezoelectric element. Specifically, the present invention relates to a liquid-jet head which ejects droplets from nozzle orifices, and a method of manufacturing the liquid-jet head as well as a piezoelectric element used for a liquid-jet apparatus.
2. Description of the Prior Art
An inkjet recording head with the following configuration has been put into practical use. In accordance with the configuration, a part of pressure generating chambers communicating with nozzle orifices from which ink droplets are ejected is constructed with a vibration plate. The vibration plate is deformed by piezoelectric elements, and thus ink in each of the pressure generating chambers is pressurized. Accordingly, ink droplets are ejected from each of the nozzle orifices.
An inkjet recording head which is constructed, for example, in the following manner is among such inkjet recording heads. An even layer made of a piezoelectric material is formed on the entire surface of the vibration plate by use of a film-forming technique. Then, this layer made of the piezoelectric material is cut into shapes corresponding to the pressure generating chambers by the lithography method. Thereby, the piezoelectric elements are formed in order that the piezoelectric elements respectively in the pressure generating chambers can be independent from one anther.
A piezoelectric element having a piezoelectric layer which is formed in the following manner has been proposed as such a piezoelectric element used for the inkjet recording heads. First, an iridium layer made of iridium (Ir), a platinum layer made of platinum (Pr) and an iridium layer made of iridium (Ir) are sequentially laminated over one another by use of an adhesion layer including titanium (Ti) provided on top of the zirconia (ZrO2), and thus the lower electrode film is formed. Then, the piezoelectric layer is formed on top of this lower electrode film by the sol-gel method. (See pp. 9-10 and FIG. 3 of Japanese Patent Official Gazette No. 3517876, for example)
Such a piezoelectric layer is formed with a predetermined thickness by means of repeatedly laminating a plurality of piezoelectric films over one another, each of piezoelectric films being made of a thin film. However, the lower electrode film is also heated at the same time as the piezoelectric films are heated while the piezoelectric films are being formed. As a result, iridium is thermally oxidized, and thus an iridium oxide film made of the iridium oxide (IrO2) is formed, in a part of the lower electrode, the part being closest to the piezoelectric films. When such an iridium oxide layer is formed, it is likely that a stress may be concentrated between the iridium oxide layer and a mixed film made of an alloy of the iridium, the platinum and the titanium, and that an inter-layer detachment may occur in the lower electrode film. Such an inter-layer detachment in the lower electrode film obviously appears in a case where a plurality of laminated piezoelectric films are formed.
It should be noted that, such problems are not limited to liquid-jet heads represented by inkjet recording heads and methods of manufacturing the liquid-jet heads. The problems are similarly present in piezoelectric elements and methods of manufacturing the piezoelectric elements.

Piezoelectric element, method of manufacturing the same, liquid-jet head, method of manufacturing the same, and liquid-jet apparatus


Methods for optimizing a plasma process are provided. The method may include obtaining a measurement spectrum from a plasma reaction in a chamber, calculating a normalized measurement standard and a normalized measurement spectrum of the measurement spectrum, comparing the normalized measurement spectrum with a normalized reference spectrum, and comparing the normalized measurement standard with a normalized reference standard to determine whether to change a process parameter of the plasma process or clean the chamber when the normalized measurement spectrum and the normalized reference spectrum are mismatched.

The inventive concept relates to methods of manufacturing a semiconductor device and, more particularly, to methods for performing plasma processes that may be used in the manufacture of semiconductor devices.
Semiconductor devices are typically manufactured by a plurality of processes such as deposition processes and etching processes. The etching processes may be performed in a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus that induces a plasma reaction. The plasma reaction may generate by-products on an inner wall of a processing chamber and may also wear or degrade parts within the chamber. The by-products that are generated on the inner wall of the chamber may be cleaned by periodically performing preventive maintenance on the chamber. However, the plasma reaction may cause problems before the preventive maintenance is performed.


A method for preparing a membrane for use in a fuel cell membrane electrode assembly includes the steps of providing an electrolyte membrane, and sputter-depositing a catalyst onto the electrolyte membrane. The sputter-deposited catalyst may be applied to multiple sides of the electrolyte membrane. A method for forming an electrode for use in a fuel cell membrane electrode assembly includes the steps of obtaining a catalyst, obtaining a backing, and sputter-depositing the catalyst onto the backing. The membranes and electrodes are useful for assembling fuel cells that include an anode electrode, a cathode electrode, a fuel supply, and an electrolyte membrane, wherein the electrolyte membrane includes a sputter-deposited catalyst, and the sputter-deposited catalyst is effective for sustaining a voltage across a membrane electrode assembly in the fuel cell.

Chemical fuel cells utilize renewable resources and provide an alternative to burning fossil fuels to generate power. Fuel cells utilize the oxidation/reduction potentials of chemical reactions to produce electrical current.
For example, methanol is a known example of a renewable fuel source used in chemical fuel cells. In a methanol driven fuel cell, methanol and water is circulated past an anode that is separated from a cathode by a membrane that is selectively permeable to protons. The following chemical reaction takes place at the anode. EQU Anode: CH.sub.3 OH+H.sub.2 O.fwdarw.CO.sub.2 +6H.sup.+ +6e.sup.-
The protons generated at the anode pass through the membrane to the cathode side of the fuel cell. The electrons generated at the anode travel to the cathode side of the fuel cell by passing through an external load that connects the anode and cathode. Air or an alternative oxygen source is present at the cathode where the electro-reduction of oxygen occurs resulting in the following chemical reaction. EQU Cathode: 1.5O.sub.2 +6H.sup.+ +6e.sup.-.fwdarw.3H.sub.2 O
One of the important aspects of a chemical fuel cell is the membrane-electrode assembly (MEA). The MEA typically includes a selectively permeable polymer electrolyte membrane bonded between two electrodes, e.g., an anode electrode and a cathode electrode. Usually, both the anode and the cathode each contain a catalyst, often a noble metal. Known processes for fabricating high performance MEAs involve painting, spraying, screen-printing and/or hot-bonding catalyst layers onto the electrolyte membrane and/or the electrodes. These known methods can result in catalyst loading on the membrane and electrodes in the range from about 4 mg/cm.sup.2 to about 12 mg/cm.sup.2. Since noble metals such as platinum and ruthenium are extremely expensive, the catalyst cost can represent a large proportion of a fuel cell's total cost. Therefore, there exists a need for reducing the amount of deposited catalyst, and hence the cost.

Sputter-deposited fuel cell membranes and electrodes


A computer-implemented system and method for a lock-less, zero data copy messaging mechanism in a multi-core processor for use on a modem in a telecommunications network are described herein. The method includes, for each of a plurality of processing cores, acquiring a kernel to user-space (K-U) mapped buffer and corresponding buffer descriptor, inserting a data packet into the buffer; and inserting the buffer descriptor into a circular buffer. The method further includes creating a frame descriptor containing the K-U mapped buffer pointer, inserting the frame descriptor onto a frame queue specified by a dynamic PCD rule mapping IP addresses to frame queues, and creating a buffer descriptor from the frame descriptor.

The exemplary embodiments of the invention relate to a zero-copy, lock-less, and non-blocking messaging scheme for multi-cell support on a single modem board using a multi-core processor. While the invention is particularly directed to the art of wireless telecommunications, and will be thus described with specific reference thereto, it will be appreciated that the invention may have usefulness in other fields and applications.
By way of background, LTE (Long Term Evolution) is a rapidly evolving 3GPP project that aims to improve the UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) mobile phone standard to cope with future communication network demands. LTE improves wireless network efficiency and bandwidth, lowers costs and enhances service experience. Specifically, LTE makes use of new spectrum opportunities and offers better integration with other open standards. LTE generally includes an LTE RAN (Radio Access Network) (also known as E-UTRAN) along with an EPS (Evolved Packet System, also called Evolved Packet Core).
Communication systems are generally split into two primary functions: data plane functions and control plane functions. In previous LTE products, at least two processors were used on the modem board: one to support the control plane functions (non-real time, e.g., Operations, Administration, and Management (or OA&M), and call processing management-related functionalities), and another to terminate and support the data plane functions (real time, e.g., LTE Layer 2 processing). Both the control and data planes use different operating system (OS) instances, such as Linux for the control plane and a real-time OS such as vXWorks (made and sold by Wind River Systems of Alameda, Calif.) for the data plane core. Typically, one modem board supports one sector or cell. So to support multi-cell (e.g., 3-cells or 6-cells) configurations, it would be necessary to provide as many modem boards as the number of cells.
A multi-core processor may be used in an LTE wireless base station on a modem board. An operating system such as SMP Linux with a PREEMPT RT patch may run on one SMP partition containing all eight cores. In this configuration the control plane (non-real time threads/processes) and the data plane (real time threads/processes) share the same operating system instances even though they are bound to run on different cores. The use of the Linux protocol stack to send/receive TCP/UDP packets from the real time processes/threads, such as the LTE L2 scheduler running on the data plane core, may result in unbounded latency spikes that may break down the processing of the LTE L2 scheduler. This is due to the fact that the Linux protocol stack is not designed to be lock-less, and since it is also used by the non real time processes/threads such as OAM, and CALLP running on the control plane core.
In an SMP environment, a lock taken by a non-real-time process or thread on one core (such as found on the control plane) may cause a latency spike for a real time thread or process waiting for that lock to be released on a different core (such as found on the data plane). Thus, there is a need for a lock-less, zero copy, non-blocking messaging scheme that does not use the Linux Protocol stack for the fast data path on the data plane core to meet the performance needs of a multi-core processor-based modem board that uses one partition. Without such a scheme the system may be subject to unbounded latency spikes that could break down the entire system, especially with respect to the processing of the LTE L2 scheduler.

Lock-less and zero copy messaging scheme for telecommunication network applications


Chromium oxide green in the form of donut-shaped, ring-shaped or tire-shaped particles having an internal diameter of from 0.01 to 0.5 mm and an external diameter of from 0.05 to 1.0 mm is prepared by spraying an aqueous chromium oxide green suspension through a liquid pressure nozzle into a spray dryer such that the suspension entering the drying space of the spray dryer is rotating.

Chromium oxide green is an important inorganic product. By virtue of its color fastness and its thermal stability, it is used in particular both as a colored pigment and as a starting material for the production of refractory bricks. Chromium oxide is also used as a raw material in the production of chromium metal and chromium carbide. By virtue of the extreme hardness of the chromium oxide crystallizing in the corundum lattice, it is also used in different formulations as a polish or abrasive.
On an industrial scale, chromium oxide is produced by reduction of alkali chromates with sulfur, sulfur-containing compounds, carbon or carbon-containing compounds or with hydrogen at temperatures around 1000.degree. C. The chromium oxide green, which is dried after the salts have been washed out, is normally marketed in the form of a ground powder.
Handling of the powder during subsequent processing is complicated by dust emission and poor flow behavior which is a disadvantage, above all, in metering and mixing processes.
Accordingly, the industry concerned with subsequent processing requires a chromium oxide green which does not have any of these disadvantages.
Accordingly, the object of the present invention is to provide an improved chromium oxide green which is not attended by and of the described disadvantages.

Chromium oxide green, a process for its production and its use


A viewing distance warning/sound recording apparatus for a television receiver and the method thereof, which can provide viewing distance warning by outputting a visible message for warning when a televiewer watches television at too near a distance as well as reproduce a specific message of the televiewer to others during his absence. The apparatus according to the present invention comprises a microcomputer, a sensing circuit for detecting if an object exists within a predetermined distance from a television screen under the control of the microcomputer and a sound processing circuit for recording and reproducing a sound according to control signals of the microcomputer. The apparatus also includes a key matrix having function keys for setting sound recording, message output and viewing distance warning modes, respectively. According to the present invention, the viewing distance warning message and the message notifying the sound recording mode are effected by on-screen display and the specific message to be taken to the others may be audibly produced.

The present invention relates to eyesight protection/sound recording for a television receiver, and more particularly, to a viewing distance warning/sound recording apparatus and the method thereof by which a visible message previously recorded for eyesight protection can be outputted if an object is detected within a predetermined distance from a television screen and a specific message of a televiewer's can be recorded and reproduced to others during his absence.

Apparatus for and method of a television receiver incorporating audio/visual warning of viewing distance and audio message record/playback features


This invention is directed to a new composition of matter in the form of chemically derivatized silica coated fullerenes, including silica coated C60 molecules and silica coated carbon nanotubes, processes for making the same and to uses for the derivatized silica coated fullerenes. Included among many uses in chemical, physical or biological fields of use, but not limited thereto, are high speed, low loss electrical interconnects for nanoscale electronic devices, components and circuits. In one embodiment, this invention also provides a method for preparing silica coated fullerenes having substituents attached to the surface of silica coated fullerenes by reacting silica coated fullerenes with a wide range of organic or inorganic chemical species in a gaseous or liquid state. Preferred substituents include but are not limited to organic groups and organic groups containing heteroatoms such as oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, and halogens. The identity of the surface functional group is chosen to provide desirable properties to the silica coated fullerenes including but not limited to solubility, miscibility, stickiness, and melting point. The present invention also describes the application of surface functionalized silica coated fullerenes as components of polymer blends and composites.

As used herein, fullerene is any carbonaceous material wherein the structure is a regular, three dimensional network of fused carbon rings arranged in any one of a number of possible structures including, but not limited to, cylindrical, spherical, ovoid, oblate or oblong. Common fullerenes include the cylindrical carbon nanotube and the icosahedral C60 carbon molecules. In particular, the fullerene is preferably selected from the group consisting of C60, C72, C84, C96, C108, C120, single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT) and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNT).
Derivatization of planar and other macroscopic silica surfaces is well known and in the public domain. Silica coated fullerenes, including silica coated single walled or multiwalled carbon nanotubes (s-SWNT or s-MWNT) and silica coated C60 molecules, have been made by the process described in US/PCT Application 20,050,089,684 entitled "Coated Fullerenes, Composites and Dielectrics made Therefrom." Since the discovery of silica coated fullerenes in 2002 researchers have been searching for ways to manipulate them chemically. While there have been many reports and review articles on the production and physical properties of chemically functionalized fullerenes and in particular carbon nanotubes, reports on chemical manipulation of silica coated fullerenes, including silica coated C60 molecules and silica coated carbon nanotubes, have been non-existent.
Single walled carbon nanotubes and multiwalled carbon nanotubes are elongated members of the fullerene family. Since their discovery they have come under intense multidisciplinary study because of their unique physical and chemical properties and their possible applications. Single walled carbon nanotubes can be either metallic or semiconducting, depending on their helicity and diameter. More importantly it has been shown that these properties are sensitive to the surrounding environments. For example, the presence of O2, NH3 and many other molecules can either donate or accept electrons and alter the overall conductivity of the single walled carbon nanotubes. Such properties make single walled carbon nanotubes ideal for nanoscale sensing materials. Nanotube field effect transistors have already been demonstrated as gas sensors. However, to introduce selectivity to nanotube sensors, certain functional groups that can selectively bind to specific target molecules need to be anchored on the nanotube surface. Unfortunately, functionalization changes the electronic properties from semiconductor or conductor to insulating, and at present chemical functionalization is not regiospecific. A further major obstacle to such efforts has been diversity of tube diameters, chiral angles, and aggregation states of the tubes. Aggregation is particularly problematic because the highly polarizable, smooth sided single walled carbon nanotubes readily form bundles or ropes with van der Waals binding energy of ca. 500 eV per micrometer of tube contact. This bundling perturbs the electronic structure of the tubes and precludes the separation of single walled carbon nanotubes by size or type; it also precludes the use of single walled carbon nanotubes as individual tubes in any matrix or solvent.
Individual single walled carbon nanotubes may be obtained encased in a cylindrical micelle, by ultrasonically agitating an aqueous dispersion of raw single walled carbon nanotubes in a suitable surfactant. However, upon drying or attempting to incorporate into other solvents or matrices bundles re-form. Single walled carbon nanotubes have been encased in a wide range of organic materials. It would be desirable to fabricate individually coated single walled carbon nanotubes where the coating is retained in solution and the solid state. Of particular interest are dielectric materials such as silica, which may also be compatible with composite matrix materials. Thick coatings of SiO2 on multi walled carbon nanotubes has been reported, while thin layers have been reported on single walled carbon nanotubes. Experimental measurements and theoretical calculations have shown that the silica-coated nanotubes retain the electronic and optical properties of the uncoated nanotubes. The silica coating does not interfere with the properties of the nanotube. However, while these routes allow for isolation of individual nanotubes the surfaces are defined by the surface chemistry of the silica coating. Oxide and hydroxide generally terminate the surface of silica groups. This is a severe limitation on the application of such materials.

Chemical derivatization of silica coated fullerenes and use of derivatized silica coated fullerenes


A field winding type rotating electric machine includes: a stator armature winding wound on a stator core; a rotor field winding wound on a rotor core; a rectifying element connected to both ends of the rotor field winding; a capacitor having one end connected to one end of the rectifying element and the other end connected between the two ends of the rotor field winding; and a control circuit configured to supply electric current, which includes a fundamental component for generating rotational torque and a harmonic component having a shorter period than the fundamental component and superimposed on the fundamental component, to the stator armature winding and thereby induce excitation current in the rotor field winding. Moreover, an inductance of the rotor field winding and a capacitance of the capacitor are in a resonant relationship with a frequency of the harmonic component.

1 Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to field winding type rotating electric machines.
2 Description of Related Art
Conventionally, field winding type rotating electric machines have been known which create magnetic fields through energization of a stator armature winding (see, for example, Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2). These field winding type rotating electric machines include a stator and a rotor. The stator includes a stator core and the stator armature winding wound on the stator core. The rotor includes a rotor core and a rotor field winding wound on the rotor core. The rotor field winding is short-circuited via a diode which is a rectifying element. That is, the diode is connected to both ends of the rotor field winding.
Moreover, the above-described field winding type rotating electric machines further include an inverter circuit connected with the stator armature winding and a control circuit that controls the inverter circuit to supply electric currents, which depend on the rotational position of the rotor, to the stator armature winding. Each of the electric currents flowing in the stator armature winding is the sum of fundamental current (i.e., synchronous current), which is a current component for generating rotational torque, and excitation current that is a current component for the rotor excitation. The excitation current for the rotor excitation is harmonic current having a shorter period (or higher frequency) than the fundamental current; the excitation current has a pulsed waveform. Upon the excitation current for the rotor excitation being supplied to the stator armature winding, excitation magnetic flux crosses main magnetic poles of the rotor core, causing a voltage to be generated in the rotor field winding and thereby inducing excitation current.
As described above, to both the ends of the rotor field winding, there is connected the diode. Therefore, electric current flows only in one direction in the rotor field winding even when the excitation magnetic flux fluctuates to cause an AC voltage to be generated in the rotor field winding. The rotor core is excited in a predetermined direction to form field poles (specifically, N poles and S poles). The field flux for forming the field poles is generated by supply of the excitation current for the rotor excitation to the stator armature winding and rectification of the electric current flowing in the rotor field winding.
As above, in the rotating electric machines where the field poles are formed by having the excitation magnetic flux from the stator received by the rotor field winding and rectifying through the diode the electric current flowing in the rotor field winding, to generate rotational torque, the rotor core is excited by causing the excitation magnetic flux to cross the main magnetic poles of the rotor core. The excitation of the rotor core is realized by superimposing the pulsed excitation current on the fundamental current and thereby inducing excitation current in the rotor field winding.

Field winding type rotating electric machine


A system for managing a virtualized computing system is disclosed. The system enables a user of a mobile device to efficiently track and manage computing resources via a management application that includes a graphical user interface that is designed to be operated using a conventional terminal (e.g., via a mouse and keyboard). The system may receive commands from the user of the mobile device in a first format and translate the commands into a second format that can be executed by a management application. Embodiments of the present disclosure further enable a management application to verify and securely communicate with users via existing communications services (e.g., social networking services) without expending additional resources to develop custom, secure interfaces for multiple mobile software and hardware platforms.

Online computing resources are used in a wide range of industries to provide software and infrastructure to users via networks, such as the Internet. Accessing such computing resources via the Internet is commonly referred to as "cloud" computing. In cloud computing, large numbers of computers are connected through various communications networks in order to provide information services, such as virtualized data centers, to users around the world.
Information technology (IT) professionals commonly manage cloud computing resources using advanced management software, such as vCloud® Automation Center™ from VMware, Inc. Such management software typically provides a secure portal where authorized administrators, developers, and business users can request new IT services and perform management operations, such as provisioning and configuration tasks. For example, an authorized user may log into a cloud computing manager to browse a catalog of IT services, such as infrastructure, applications, desktops, etc., and submit a request for such services. In response, the management software may provision the requested IT services, allowing the user to easily deploy and scale cloud resources for various online applications.
Although cloud computing management software generally provides powerful tools for provisioning and managing IT services, the management software is typically configured as an internal application running within a secure server. As such, authorized users typically must access the management software via a secure connection, such as a local area connection (LAN) or virtual private network (VPN). In addition, management software is typically designed to be accessed via a conventional terminal, such a desktop computer or laptop computer that includes a mouse and keyboard. Consequently, although mobile devices, such as tablets and smartphones, provide secure connections, cloud computing management interfaces typically are not designed for use on such devices. Thus, enabling management software to be controlled using a mobile device typically requires custom software to be developed for multiple smartphone and tablet platforms (e.g., Android™, iOS™, Windows Phone™, etc.).
Accordingly, there are challenges faced by system administrators when attempting to manage cloud computing resources using a mobile device.

Cloud computing abstraction layer for integrating mobile platforms


Recycling devices for producing additive manufacturing filament from received materials including objects to be recycled, discarded objects, obsolete objects, and the like. A recycling device may include a material processing system an extrusion mechanism and a spooling assembly. The material processing system receives material, reduces the size of the received material via a material size reducer and actively pushes the material through at least a portion of the device. The extrusion mechanism produces filament from the material and the spooling assembly loads the filament onto a spool for later use. The spooling assembly may include detachable elements configured to interface with and supply filament to an additive manufacturing device. Depending on configuration, recycling devices may create filament from plastic, metal, in-situ material, or a combination thereof.

Delivery of materials to space is an expensive and time-consuming undertaking and materials are rarely reused. Currently, launch costs per kilogram to low Earth orbit (LEO) are well over $1,000 per kilogram. As of 2013, estimated cost per kilogram of the Atlas V® vehicle (available from United Launch Alliance, LLC of Centennial, Colo.) is $13,000. The Falcon 9 v. 1.1 vehicle (available from Space Exploration Technologies, Inc. of Hawthorne, Calif.) delivers payloads to LEO for $4,000 per kilogram. At such prices, even the simplest items, such as a wrench, screw driver, or a clip, have total costs measured in the hundreds or thousands of dollars.
Additional barriers currently exist for rapid delivery of goods and materials to manned and unmanned spacecraft because launches are also infrequent, booked many years in advance and often significantly delayed. Even frequent destinations such as the International Space Station receive supplies infrequently. For example, six unmanned spacecraft delivered materials and fuel (also known as "up mass") to the ISS in 2011. In 2012, resupply missions were carried out nine times. Space is limited on such resupply missions, delaying delivery of replacement parts. When replacement parts are sent to the ISS, they require up mass that could be used to send additional supplies, equipment and scientific experiments to the ISS.
Exemplary resupply missions to the ISS utilize unmanned spacecraft, such as the Dragon capsule (available from Space Exploration Technologies, Inc. of Hawthorne, Calif.), the Russian Progress freighter spacecraft, or the Cygnus vehicle (available from Orbital Sciences Corporation of Dulles, Va.). The resupply spacecraft is launched into orbit carrying supplies including new equipment, replacement parts, fuel, oxidizer, food, water and scientific experiments. The spacecraft docks with the ISS and is unloaded. The spacecraft is then reloaded. If the spacecraft is capable of being returning to Earth and being recovered (e.g., the Dragon capsule), it is loaded with science experiments, old station hardware, equipment, and trash. The spacecraft is then launched, returning to Earth for recovery. If the spacecraft is not capable of being recovered, the spacecraft is typically loaded with trash and launched, where it burns up on reentry.
Trash management is problematic in isolated locations such as aboard a spacecraft, on naval vessels, and at remote outposts. In the ISS, all trash is stored on board in the habitable volume until it is disposed of as described above. Astronauts compress the trash by hand into stowage bags, but this can only reduce the volume by an estimated 50%. The present "store and return" method has limitations. For example, it will not meet the requirements for future human space exploration missions. Missions to deep space destinations such as the Moon, asteroids, Lagrange Points, and Mars will require different disposal methods. Ejecting trash into space, as practiced with liquid waste during the Apollo missions, is not practical or efficient for solid trash such as packing materials, broken equipment, and the like. With the possibility of resupply years between or nonexistent, astronauts must bring everything with them, meaning every piece of cargo is a precious resource. Furthermore, missions will need to safely manage waste and avoid polluting and contaminating other solar system bodies by, for example, abiding by NASA's Planetary Protection Policy (NASA NPD 8020.7. "Biological Contamination Control for Outbound and Inbound Planetary Spacecraft").
Currently, recycling or repurposing materials in space presents several problems. Among traditional recycling processes do not function in the microgravity environment of space. Similarly, current recycling processes are not adapted for use in high acceleration and vibration environments such as those found aboard a naval vessel or submarine.
On Earth, naval vessels that are required to be at sea for extended amounts of time face similar logistical problems such as dealing with long periods of time between resupply events, a lack of recycling opportunities and inefficient waste management during voyages. Research stations located in remote locations such as Antarctica require similar logistical challenges.
Given the foregoing, apparatus, systems and methods are needed which facilitate recycling of trash aboard spacecraft, space habitats, and the like. Additionally, apparatus, systems and methods are needed which facilitate reducing mass and volume devoted to trash storage and transportation.
Additionally, what is needed are apparatus, systems and methods which reduce trash volume and mass and facilitate recycling of trash during long duration explorations, at remote outposts, and aboard naval vessels.
Additionally, what is needed are apparatus, systems and methods which facilitate processing in-situ resources into a usable form.

Recycling materials in various environments including reduced gravity environments


A wall stud for positioning between an opposing pair of formwork boards. The wall stud including a body and two side walls located on opposing sides of the body. Each side wall having an inner face and an outer face, wherein: the body has at least one opening adapted to receive at least one reinforcing rod. The outer face of the side walls are securable to a formwork board, and the body is affixed to approximately the center of the inner face of each side wall so that a horizontal cross-section of the stud is substantially an H shape.

To erect a vertical concrete wall, pre-cast tilt-up concrete panels are commonly used. Another commonly used technique is to use formwork in-situ to support the concrete and reinforcing bars until the concrete has set and cured, after which the formwork is removed.
An alternative way of constructing walls is to manufacture hollow panels which can be manufactured off site, delivered to the building site, erected and filled with concrete on site. These hollow panels consist of two formwork wall board sheets separated by spacers which hold both the vertical and horizontal bars in correct alignment and facilitate the flow of concrete. These panels are then sacrificed as they remain in place and their surface acts as the interior and exterior surfaces of the wall. When erecting these hollow panels, vertical aluminium or galvanised steel studs can be used to support the formwork wall board sheets and position and hold the horizontal and vertical steel reinforcing bars within the formwork prior to the concrete being poured. Aluminium and steel stud frames have the disadvantage of being heavy making the panels difficult to handle. Panels are also prone to distortion due to the flexibility of the studs. In addition, the steel frames can be prone to rusting as the outer edge of the steel studs are not covered by concrete, only by the formwork wall board sheet. Further, the aluminium frames can corrode when in contact with concrete.
Another way of constructing walls is to position box or cube shaped spacers between opposing formwork boards in a spaced relationship. Vertical and horizontal reinforcing rods are then placed through each of the wall spacers to keep the wall construction aligned while the concrete is poured. Operators using this system often misalign or incorrectly place the box shaped spacers making it difficult to place the reinforcing bars in the formwork. Further, due to this wall construction system requiring a disposable template for the accurate positioning of box spacers, the system is difficult to automate.
Discussion or mention of any piece of prior art in this specification is not to be taken as an admission that the prior art is part of the common general knowledge of the skilled addressee of the specification in Australia or any other country.
It would be advantageous to provide an improved, inexpensive, easily constructed and lightweight means of constructing a concrete wall.

Wall construction system, wall stud, and method of installation


The present invention provides a transfer substrate for transferring a metal wiring material to a transfer-receiving object, the transfer substrate comprising a substrate, at least one metal wiring material formed on the substrate and an underlying metal film formed between the substrate and the metal wiring material, wherein the metal wiring material is a molded article prepared by sintering, e.g., gold powder having a purity of 99.9% by weight or more and an average particle size of 0.01 μm to 1.0 μm and the underlying metal film is composed of a metal such as gold or an alloy. The transfer substrate is capable of transferring a metal wiring material to the transfer-receiving object even at a temperature for heating the transfer-receiving object of 80 to 300° C.

With the increase in packaging density of electronic parts such as semiconductor chips, the mainstream of the packaging method has shifted from conventional wire bonding methods to wireless mounting methods such as flip-chip bonding methods in which a semiconductor chip is directly mounted to a circuit substrate. In the process of producing an electronic part using this mounting method, a bump is formed on a terminal electrode on a semiconductor chip on a device wafer or an external electrode for connecting to a semiconductor chip, thereby forming a metal wiring, and face down bonding the same to a substrate. Also it is common that before forming a bump, the terminal electrode is metallized to form a barrier metal layer and a bump is formed thereon.
In conventional methods of forming a bump, plating methods have been generally used. Bumps formed by a plating method are considered to be useful as an electrode because they are compact and have good electric conductivity. However, there is a concern that the formation of bumps by a plating method is insufficient for responding to miniaturization of metal wiring that is considered to develop further in the future. Thus, a method of forming a bump based on a transfer method using a transfer substrate has been proposed as in Patent Literature 1.
In the method of forming a bump with a transfer substrate, a transfer substrate in which a wiring material that will serve as a bump is previously formed on a substrate such as glass is prepared. Then the transfer substrate is put on a wafer previously metallized and the resultant is pressed and heated, thereby transferring the wiring material to the wafer to form a bump. The method can transfer any wiring material on a transfer substrate to any position of a wafer by controlling pressing and heating, and therefore enables miniaturization of metal wiring, and in addition can avoid forming wiring on a defective sector of the wafer, and can even avoid wasting resources.

Transfer substrate for forming metal wiring and method for forming metal wiring using said transfer substrate


A method and system for computing lane curvature and a host vehicle's position and orientation relative to lane boundaries, using image data from forward-view and rear-view cameras and vehicle dynamics sensors as input. A host vehicle includes cameras at the front and rear, which can be used to detect lane boundaries such as curbs and lane stripes, among other purposes. The host vehicle also includes vehicle dynamics sensors including vehicle speed and yaw rate. A method is developed which computes lane curvature and the host vehicle's position relative to a lane reference path, where the lane reference path is derived from the lane boundaries extracted from a fusion of the front and rear camera images. Mathematical models provided in the disclosure include a Kalman filter tracking routine and a particle filter tracking routine.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a lane position method and system for a vehicle and, more particularly, to a lane position method and system for a host vehicle which uses a fusion of image data from forward-view and rear-view cameras and data from vehicle dynamics sensors to compute lane parameters, including lane curvature and the host vehicle's position and orientation relative to a lane reference path.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Many modern vehicles include onboard cameras, which are used for a variety of purposes. One common application is a forward-viewing camera which can provide images to be used in a collision avoidance system, a lane departure warning system, a lateral control system, or a combination of these or other systems. However, conditions may arise which prevent a good image from being obtained from the forward-viewing camera. Such conditions include a leading vehicle at close range which blocks much of the camera's field of view, and low-visibility weather conditions, such as rain and fog, which obscure the camera's image. In such conditions, when a usable image from the forward-view camera is not available, systems which rely on the camera's image for input cannot be operated.
Meanwhile, many newer vehicles are also equipped with a rear-view camera, which is normally used only for backup assistance, such as providing a video image for the driver to see what is behind the vehicle. Although these rear-view cameras typically have a resolution and field of view which are more than sufficient for other image data collection purposes, until now they have not been used to supplement the images from forward-view cameras for lane position and lateral control applications.
There is an opportunity to use the image data available from a rear-view camera, and combine it with image data from a forward-view camera and other sensors, to provide a more robust lane sensing system. The resultant two-camera system not only makes use of more input data under normal conditions, but also provides a usable source of image data to allow operation of the system when conditions are unfavorable for forward-view imaging.

Lane fusion system using forward-view and rear-view cameras


A system and method for finding the direction of a wave source using an array of sensors. The system includes a sensor array for measuring waves from the wave source, an approximate-direction finder for finding the approximate direction of the wave source in terms of a sensor pair from the sensors, a precise-direction finder for finding the precise direction of the wave source based on the approximate direction found, and a measurement qualification unit for evaluating the validity of the precise direction under a measurement criterion and discarding the measurements if the criterion is not met.

A system for finding or tracking the direction of a particular wave source has many applications. One example is a directional microphone system, where a microphone is to be pointed to the direction of a particular sound source. Another is a video conferencing system, where a camera needs to be moved to the direction of the participating speaker.
One well-known technique of wave-source direction finding is beamforming. Beamforming, itself well-known in the art, uses an array of sensors located at different points in space. Connected to the array of sensors is a spatial filter that combines the signals received from the sensors in a particular way so as to either enhance or suppress signals coming from certain directions relative to signals from other directions.
Where the sensors are microphones, unless two microphones are located at equidistant from a sound source (i.e., arranged so that the line connecting the two microphones is perpendicular to the direction of the sound source), sound originating from the sound source arrives at any two microphones at different times, thereby producing a phase difference in the received signals.
If the received signals are appropriately delayed and combined by changing the spatial filter coefficients, the behavior of the microphone array can be adjusted such that it exhibits maximum receiving sensitivity toward a particular direction. In other words, the direction of maximum receiving sensitivity (so called "looking direction" of the microphone array) can be steered without physically changing the direction of the microphone array. It is then possible to determine the direction of a particular sound source by logically (computationally) steering the looking direction of the microphone array over all directional angles and looking for the angle that produces the maximum signal strength.
However, the use of beamforming for sound-source direction finding has several drawbacks. First, a typical beamforming profile of receiving sensitivity over the angles of looking direction is so flat that it is, as a practical matter, difficult to find the peak point of maximum signal strength unless an inconvenience of a large microphone array is used. For example, the 3-dB attenuation points (reference points for signal discrimination) of a typical 15-cm microphone array may be separated by as much as 100 degrees. At small angles such as 5 degrees, the corresponding attenuation is insignificant. As a result, even a slight numerical error or noise may perturb the result, giving an erroneous direction.
Second, beamforming involves scanning the space for the direction producing the maximum received signal strength. Finding the source direction in terms of a horizonal direction (azimuth) and a vertical direction (elevation) involves searching two-dimensional space, which is computationally expensive.
Third, in order to determine the source direction with a high spatial accuracy, it is necessary to perform the beamforming calculation at a very high resolution (for example, every 1 degree). This requires delaying and summing the received signals at a very small delay step, which, in turn, requires that the signal be sampled at a very high sampling rate, imposing a severe computational burden.
Another method of finding the direction of a sound source is to measure time delays between a pair of sensors. For example, Hong Wang & Peter Chu, Voice Source Localization for Automatic Camera Pointing System in Videoconferencing, Proc. IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing, April 1997, pp. 187-90, disclose an array of microphones mounted on a vertical plane, three of them arranged in a horizonal line, and the fourth located above the center one of the three. The horizontal direction of a sound source (azimuth) is calculated by measuring the time delays of incoming signals between the two remote microphones in the horizontal line. The vertical direction (elevation) is calculated by measuring the time delays of incoming signals between the center microphone in the horizontal line and the upper microphone.
The Wang & Chu system has several drawbacks. First, since all the microphones are on the same vertical plane, they produce the same delay whether sound is coming from the front or from the back. Since the system cannot distinguish between a front and a back, ambiguities are inevitable.
Second, the performance of the system is not symmetric with respect to looking sideways and looking forward. The capability of such a system to resolve and estimate the direction of a source depends on the change of time delay in response to an incremental change in the angular direction. The time delay between two incoming signals at two adjacent microphones is: EQU time delay=sin (.phi.)*aperture/sound-velocity,
where .phi. is the angle of arrival of the sound waves, measured with respect to the normal of the microphone array, and the aperture is the spacing between two nearest microphones. Note that the change in time delay is obtained as the derivative of sin(.phi.), which is a function of cos(.phi.). For the same incremental angular change, the resulting time delay when the looking direction is sideways (when .phi. approaches 90 degrees) is smaller than when the looking direction is forward (when .phi. approaches 0 degree). As a result, the performance of the system looking sideways is poorer than that looking forward.
Third, the Wang & Chu system does not provide any indication of how reliable the measurements used for the direction determination were. The time delay measurement between a pair of microphones may not be reliable if it was measured in the presence of noise or based on non-relevant signals. The quality of measurement would be poor if the measurement were made in a noisy environment. Also, even if the measurement were of high quality, it may not be relevant to the direction determination. For example, if the time delay measurement were a measurement of reflected sound from a wall or furniture, or sound from a repeater source such as a loud speaker connected to an audio/video conferencing system, the measurement may not even be relevant to the direction determination. The Wang & Chu system does not provide any mechanism for verifying the quality or relevancy of measurement.
Therefore, there exists a need for a system and method that can determine the direction of a wave source accurately and efficiently, and that can also indicate the quality and relevancy of the measurements on which the direction determination is based.

System and method for finding the direction of a wave source using an array of sensors


A wheel tread adjusting device has a flat plate provided with a plurality of holes. Two of the holes align with the jack screw bores normally present in a tapered sleeve-type hub to mount the plate to the tapered sleeve. A cut-out bore allows the plate to rest flush against the tapered sleeve without interfering with the normally present lug bolts. Two additional bores are positioned radially outside of the tapered sleeve and hold jack screws to unwedge the tapered sleeve from the hub. An adjustment rod is selectively engageable with either of two adjustment bores in the plate. Another portion of the rod can be threaded through a bracket mounted to the end of the axle, or through a lug bolt bore in the hub of an outer wheel, if dual wheels are present. The structure is extremely simple, uses the normally present bores to the maximum extent, and is made predominantly of standard available parts.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to mechanisms for adjusting the axial position of a wheel on an axle, and in particular for adjusting the tread spacing of wheels on a vehicle such as an agricultural tractor.
2. Description of the Related Art
It has been desirable for many years to provide work vehicles, particularly agricultural tractors, with a mechanism for axially displacing their wheels. Such axial displacement, to either narrow or widen the wheel spacing, allows the operator to adapt the tractor to specific conditions, depending on the nature of the task to be performed. For example, the tread width can be changed to allow planting of crops at different row spacings.
Due to the large size and weight of tractor wheels, it can be appreciated that some mechanism normally is used to facilitate this operation. Many mechanisms involve the power of the tractor rotating the axles to literally "screw" the wheels in or out, such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,099,194 (Brown); U.S. Pat. No. 2,417,139 (Strehlow); U.S. Pat. No. 2,829,725 (Wurdelman) and U.S. Pat. No. 3,847,441 (Morkoski et al.). Another mechanism uses a plurality of circumferentially spaced fasteners attached to the wheel hub which engage one of a plurality of interior radial grooves provided on the rim, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,771,832 (Sipovik et al.). U.S. Pat. No. 4,317,596 (Lemmon) teaches yet another mechanism, using a pinion gear housed within one of several arc-shaped wedges positioned between an axle and a wheel hub. Although these designs may fulfill the criteria of axially displacing wheels, their cost often limits their actual use.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,676,849 (Houck et al.) introduced various embodiments of a tread-varying device which has been put to actual use for many years. The disclosure teaches using intermeshing toothed mechanisms to axially displace the tractor wheels, e.g., a rotatable pinion gear carried by the wheel hub or outer part that intermeshes with a toothed rack on the axle or inner part. With such a device, a farmer can use a tool to rotate the pinion, adjusting the wheel to a predetermined measurement with a minimum amount of physical effort.
Even though Houck et al.'s invention performs quite well and is widely used, problems of high stress from torsional forces may arise in the wheel hub about the area of the pinion gear. In addition, a rack must be milled into each end of the axle and the design requires a number of other specially made or modified parts.


When a user inputs an action request, such as a requested command, to be performed on a target machine, a management system receives the request and verifies it with a separate authentication and permission system. The verified command request is sent to the target machine. An authentication worker on the target machine accesses a set of policies, local to the target machine, to identify a least privileged execution environment in which the requested command can be performed. The authentication worker on the target machine launches the requested command within the identified least privileged execution environment on the target machine.

Computer systems are currently in wide use. Some such computer systems are deployed in multi-tenant environments where a multi-tenant service provides services to multiple different tenants. Each tenant can correspond to a separate organization.
The level of services provided by the multi-tenant system can vary widely. For instance, they can range from infrastructure as a service (IaaS) in which items of infrastructure are managed by the service provider and everything else is managed by the individual tenants, to software as a service (SaaS) in which even the applications being used by the tenants are run and managed by the service provider.
Such systems can present difficulties with respect to security. Each organization served by the service provider wishes the service provider to have sufficient access to the organization's data so that the service provider can provide adequate service. However, the organizations also wish that security be provided so that the data of the organization is not compromised by any surreptitious attack on the service provider's management system.
Some current approaches to addressing this problem include performing background checks on administrative personnel who have standing, persistent administrative permissions within the system. Another approach has been to segregate access so that only certain administrative personnel have access to certain portions of the system.
The security problem can be exacerbated where the service provider is providing multi-tenant services on a multi-national basis. Some organizations may insist that only administrative personnel who reside in their country may have access to their information. Further, they may insist that all enforcement of security policies and permissions be executed by a system that resides within their country or jurisdiction.
The discussion above is merely provided for general background information and is not intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.


The invention relates to a measurement cell for granular or powdered products, including a fill opening in its upper portion. A cell according to the invention is remarkable in particular in that the plane of its fill opening, in the operational position, forms an acute dihedral angle with a horizontal plane in order by gravitation to limit the size of the dome formed by the product after filling. A cell according to the invention has numerous applications and may in particular be intended for measuring the moisture content of cereals, deaginous, or proteaneceous.

For repetitive, constant filling of a container-like cell, with a granular or powdered product, the product must be made level, or substantially level. However, in the vicinity of the opening of the cell, the product generally forms a dome. One disadvantage of the formation of a dome is that its size and volume may vary, particularly as a function of the characteristics of the product. Thus, a measurement such as the test weight or moisture will be inaccurate.
For this reason, systems with sweeping arms to eliminate the dome have been conceived of and an example of which is described in French Patent 2389179 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 4,193,116). Such systems require mechanical movement means and have the disadvantages of being costly and having an inherent risk of breaking down.

Measurement cell for granular or powdered products


A split bridge circuit for rectifying the alternating current house supply into direct current (D.C.), using bi-polar transistor as rectifying devices. Using specified terminals of the bi-polar transistors results in a high forward voltage drop across the transistors (particularly as compared to the voltage drop across diode rectifiers in the prior art circuits), which reduces ripple significantly and lessens, or even eliminates, the need for a series limiting resistor in the circuit.

Present day Christmas lighting and decorating is now done mostly by using light emitting diodes (LED's). LED light strings, with multiple LED's, are usually wired in electrical series and powered by rectified alternating current (A.C.). Some light strings are powered by half-wave rectification using a single rectifier diode while others are powered by full-wave rectified 120 volt A.C. yielding better brightness and less flicker. Since light emitting diodes are DC devices and emit light according to the voltage applied, any variation in voltage will cause a variation in brightness—thus flickering. This flicker is annoying to some people, even though at full-wave rectification it occurs 120 times per second.
To achieve low flicker in an LED light string, it is necessary to rectify the 120 volt A.C. supply voltage into D.C. (direct current) as ripple free as possible. This is usually done by using a full wave bridge rectifier circuit. However, for light strings with end-to-end connectors, this usually means four wires need to go "down the line". In U.S. Pat. No. 6,972,528, Shao teaches a circuit in which the full wave rectifier is split into two groups—one group of two rectifiers connected at the front end of the string and the other group of two rectifiers connected at the end of the light string, i.e., a split bridge circuit. In U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,649,322 and 8,072,152, Neuman et al., teaches a similar split bridge approach, but uses an LED in series with each rectifier diode in the split bridge structure.


A cyber-threat detection system that maintains consistency in local configurations of one or more computing nodes forming a cluster for cyber-threat detection is described. The system features a distributed data store for storage of at least a reference configuration and a management engine deployed within each computing node, including the first computing node and configured to obtain data associated with the reference configuration from the distributed data store, From such data, the management engine is configured to detect when the shared local configuration is non-compliant with the reference configuration, and upload information associated with the non-compliant shared local configuration into the distributed data store. Upon notification, the security administrator may initiate administrative controls to allow the non-compliant shared local configuration or modify the shared local configuration to be compliant with the reference configuration.

Network devices provide useful and necessary services that assist individuals in business and in their everyday lives. Given the growing dependence on these services, increased security measures have been undertaken to protect these network devices against cybersecurity attacks (hereinafter, "cyberattacks"). These cyberattacks may involve an attempt to gain access to content stored on one or more network devices for illicit (i.e., unauthorized) purposes or an attempt to adversely influence the operability of a network device. For instance, the cyberattack may be designed to alter functionality of a network device (e.g., ransomware), steal sensitive information or intellectual property, or harm information technology or other infrastructure.
One type of security measure that is growing in popularity involves the deployment of compute clusters. A "compute cluster" (hereinafter, referred to as "cluster") is a scalable cyber-threat detection architecture that includes multiple computing nodes that collectively perform analytics on received objects (e.g., data extracted from network traffic, files, etc.) to determine if these objects are malicious or non-malicious. Stated differently, the computing nodes are configured to analyze the received objects and determine whether such objects are part of a cyberattack (e.g., a likelihood of the object being associated with a cyberattack greater than a prescribed threshold). An example of a cluster is described in detail in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/283,128 entitled "Cluster Configuration Within A Scalable Malware Detection System," filed Sep. 30, 2016, the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference herein.
Clusters are central to large scale computing and cloud computing. However, for a cluster deployment, each computing node within a cluster is subject to operational errors caused by (i) third party disruptive activities (e.g., cyberattack), (ii) hardware or software failures, or (iii) misconfiguration that may be caused by a failed installation or an errand reconfiguration of a computing node, a failed or accidental software update, or the like. These operational errors may lead to inconsistent behavior of the cluster, and thus, depending on which computing node is handling an analysis of an object, the cluster may provide unreliable or inconsistent analytic results.
In some conventional implementations, cyber-threat detection systems are configured with a centralized cluster management system that periodically communicates directly with each computing node to detect operational errors and prevent unreliable cluster operability caused by configuration mishaps. However, the use of a centralized management system limits scalability, as throughput issues arise as the number of computing nodes within the cluster increase. Additionally, conventional cyber-threat detection systems typically require the configuration and/or reconfiguration of computer nodes in a cluster to be performed through direct communications with the central cluster management system, limiting cluster management to a single point of failure.

System and method for distributed cluster configuration monitoring and management


An image display total current prediction method, a display device and a storage medium. The image display total current prediction method includes: obtaining grayscale signals of respective pixels of an image to be displayed, each of the respective pixels including multiple color channels, and the grayscale signal of each of the respective pixels including multiple color grayscale signals corresponding to the multiple color channels, respectively; calculating average grayscale values of respective color channels of the image to be displayed, respectively, according to the grayscale signals of the respective pixels of the image; based thereon, determining current values of the respective color channels, current bias values of the respective color channels and a total current bias value applied for the image to be displayed, respectively; and based thereon, calculating a display total current prediction value of the image to be displayed.

When a display panel is displaying, a voltage is divided due to the presence of resistance of a power signal line, so that the voltage from a power terminal to a voltage receiving terminal of a sub-pixel unit drops or rises. This phenomenon is called an IR Drop (voltage drop due to resistance) phenomenon. The sub-pixel units located at different positions in a pixel array of the display panel have different line lengths to the power terminal, so the effects of IR drop on these sub-pixel units can be different. In order to eliminate the influence of the phenomenon that the effects of IR drop on the sub-pixel units located at different positions are different, it is necessary to compensate for the IR drop in the display panel.

Image display total current prediction method, display device and storage medium