An apparatus for machining a counterbore in a pipe is provided which comprises an expander unit adapted for being secured against the inside surface of a pipe. A shaft extends from the expander unit coaxial with the pipe and a flywheel is rotatably and slidably mounted on the shaft. A pair of parallel guide structures are mounted on the face of the flywheel, and a frame is slidably mounted on the parallel guide structures such that the frame is linearly movable along the guide structures in a radial direction relative to the shaft. A cutting tool is mounted to the frame and has a distal end that is extendable radially beyond the radially outermost point of the frame. A pair of actuators are attached to the frame and to the flywheel such that the actuators can move the frame along the guide structures and force the cutting tool against the inside surface of the pipe during the counterboring procedure.

In connecting two pipes together, it is often advantageous to counterbore one pipe end so that it can be appropriately matched with the end of another pipe end to facilitate proper welding of the two pipe ends together. Precision and accuracy are desired when counterboring pipe ends. The machining device must be held firmly in relation to the pipe in order to achieve these results. Further, in many instances a pipe in the field is out of round due to rough handling or manufacturing defects. Also, weld seams along the length of the pipe may provide an irregular surface. It is desirable that the machining tool follow the inner surface of the pipe with high precision to ensure uniform machining of a counterbore.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,171,110 to Pettifer et al. (the Pettifer '110 patent) discloses one such machining tool that rotates a cutting tool against the inside circumferential surface of the pipe end and advances it axially into the pipe until a counterbore has been formed. In the Pettifer '110 patent, the cutting tool is pivotally connected to a rotating flywheel and the cutting tool is pressed radially outward against the inside surface of the pipe by being rotated about its pivot point. Thus the cutting tool of the Pettifer '110 patent follows the inside contour of the pipe by oscillating arcuately about its pivot point. The Pettifer '110 patent discloses a single actuator which pivots the cutting tool about its pivot point.
It has been found that a need exists for an improvement in the device of the Pettifer '110 patent which will provide an improved adjustment of the radial extent of the cutting tool during operation as well as provide improved forcing of the cutting against the inside surface of the pipe. The present invention provides a marked improvement over the cutting tool control of the invention of the Pettifer '110 patent.

Apparatus and method for counterboring a pipe


A method for the production of stiffened components made of fiber-reinforced composite material using two rigid form tools which are suitable for covering the longer end sides of T-shaped preformed reinforcing fibers, using a folded hose core and inflation of the hose core so as to exert pressure on the end side of the preformed reinforcing fibers.

Currently, and in particular in the aerospace industry, a great number of structural elements use composite materials with an organic matrix and endless fibers of CFRP (carbon fiber-reinforced polymer). It is also possible to use CFRP for the production of wings, control surfaces, fuselage shells, rudders, spoilers or control flaps. A known method for the production of these elements uses pre-preg technology. A first step involves flat assembly of composite pre-preg plies for each element. Then a conventional hot-forming process or a press-forming method is used to produce a laminated preform of the element with the required shape. The laminated preform is then cured.
The invention relates to a method for the adaptive filling of rigid tool cavities, in particular in the context of the production of T-shaped reinforcing elements made of fiber-reinforced composite material, referred to as stringers and frames. T-shaped reinforcing elements of this kind can be produced by applying the T-shaped preform to the structure that is to be reinforced, for example a skin panel. Then, essentially angular form tools are positioned along the longitudinal axis of the preform so that these tools fix and clamp and enclose at the top that part of the preform which is arranged at right angles to the structure to be reinforced. The preform and the curing tools are cured together in an autoclave. The cured stringer is obtained upon removal of the tools and represents a negative image of the form tools used.
In the context of production using hard-enclosing tools of this kind, reducing the cured dimensions of the stringer requires that these tools be modified since otherwise the resulting void in this tool will become filled with portions of the part, leading to quality problems (e.g., porosity and defects in fiber orientation owing to the pressure gradient and inadequate consolidation in the part). Undesired elevations of this kind on the surface of the component can harm the optical impression of the component, serve no technical function and lead to unnecessary and avoidable weight of the component. The excess material can be removed mechanically by grinding or milling. This is a laborious and unnecessary process step. There is therefore the desire to avoid this kind of finishing work on components made of carbon fiber-reinforced polymers or other fiber-reinforced composite material components.
Modifying the metallic tool void is normally carried out by means of metalworking techniques. Besides the re-processing of parts, generally, where possible, either subsequent milling is carried out or, in the case of relatively large changes, it is possible to use fitting inserts (either screwed or welded). In the case of minor modifications (10 mm), use is often also made of a (laser) surface coating.
Besides modifying the tool, use is often made of single-use or reusable filler pieces, predominantly made of a rubber-like material. This generally leads to problems with the production costs and handling costs of these parts and the short lifespan over which they can be used reliably and without loss of quality.
A modified process makes it possible to remove the tools from inside the vacuum bag to the outside and to produce the parts without it being necessary to completely enclose the part (the "direct packing" principle). However, the use of this method is not without problems: it requires renewed assessment of the quality of the parts, in particular if the inherent curvature of the part leads to longitudinal compression of the stringer track during production. Then, the specific production conditions of a completely enclosed hard tool permit a resulting part having a better fiber orientation.
Proceeding from the above, there was hitherto no method permitting the use of rigid curing tools, with the associated high component quality, while at the same time permitting adaptations to the component geometry, in particular the height.

Method for the adaptive filling of rigid tool cavities


There is provided a method of forming a film on a surface to be processed of a workpiece, the method including: accommodating the workpiece with a single-crystallized substance formed on the surface to be processed, into a processing chamber; supplying a crystallization suppressing process gas into the processing chamber such that a crystallization of the single-crystallized substance formed on the surface to be processed is suppressed; and supplying a source gas into the processing chamber to form an amorphous film on the surface to be processed of the workpiece.

As method of forming a new semiconductor layer on a semiconductor substrate, an epitaxial growth method has been widely used in a semiconductor manufacturing process. For example, the epitaxial growth method is sometimes used in forming a new silicon (Si) single crystalline layer (Si epitaxial layer) on a single-crystallized Si substrate.
For example, there is known a method which includes forming an amorphous Si layer on a single-crystallized Si substrate, by performing a thermal treatment on the formed amorphous Si layer and performing a solid-phase epitaxial growth using an exposed surface of the single-crystallized Si as a seed.
In addition to Si, a silicon-germanium (SiGe) or a germanium (Ge) is getting a lot of attention as a semiconductor material as SiGe or Ge can further improve performance of a semiconductor integrated circuit device. In other words, SiGe and Ge materials have higher carrier mobility than Si. As such, the use of the SiGe or Ge material further increases an operating speed of a transistor.
For example, there is known a method of growing a SiGe epitaxial layer on a single-crystallized Si substrate.
However, as a homo-epitaxial growth, for example, when a Si epitaxial layer is grown on the single-crystallized Si substrate, "pyramid-like sharp portions" (also referred to as "facets") are generated on a surface of the Si epitaxial layer.
In addition, as a hetero-epitaxial growth, for example, when a SiGe epitaxial layer is grown on a single-crystallized Si substrate, a "roughness" (also referred to as a "cross hatch pattern") is generated on a surface of the SiGe epitaxial layer due to a difference between lattice constants of Si and SiGe.
In addition, an amorphous film is hard to grow on an underlying single-crystallized substrate. This is because the amorphous film deposited on the underlying single crystallized substrate drags a lattice constant of the underlying single-crystallized substrate.

Film forming method and film forming apparatus


An apparatus and method for computer network security based on Free-Space Optical Interconnections (FSOI) for board-to-board information transmission. The addition of a controllable, interlocked shutter system creates air-gapped isolation of the boards, allowing for increased obfuscation, and enhanced security.

Mission Assurance (MA), as defined by DoD Directive 3020.40 is "a process to ensure that assigned tasks or duties can be performed in accordance with the intended purpose or plan. It is a summation of the activities and measures taken to ensure that required capabilities and all supporting infrastructures are available to the DoD to carry out the National Military Strategy."
Information Assurance (IA) is the application of this directive in the cyber domain. IA activities include measures that protect and defend information and information systems by ensuring their availability, integrity, authentication, confidentiality, and non-repudiation. IA is the practice of managing risks related to the use, processing, storage, and transmission of information or data and the systems and processes used for those purposes. It can use physical, technical and administrative controls to accomplish these tasks.
In accordance with this directive, a principal responsibility of a commander is to assure mission execution in a timely manner. The reliance of a Mission Essential Function (MEF) on cyberspace makes cyberspace a center of gravity an adversary may exploit and, in doing so, enable that adversary to directly engage the MEF without the employment of conventional forces or weapons.
Joint Publication 1-02, DoD Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms, defines cyberspace as "a global domain within the information environment consisting of the interdependent network of information technology infrastructures, including the Internet, telecommunications networks, computer systems, and embedded processors and controllers," and cyberspace operations as "the employment of cyber capabilities where the primary purpose is to achieve military objectives or effects in or through cyberspace. Such operations include computer network operations and activities to operate and defend the Global Information Grid."
The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) depends increasingly on cyberspace to execute critical missions that are vital to maintaining American military superiority in the traditional domains of land, sea, air, and space. The U.S. is arguably more at risk to an asymmetric attack vector launched by an adversary that cannot, or chooses not to, confront the U.S. in a conventional conflict. In the end, the military advantages that net-centricity provides the U.S. military concomitantly offer an adversary affordable attack vectors through cyberspace against critical missions and advanced weapon systems.
An air gap is often employed for computers and networks that must be extraordinarily secure. Frequently the air gap is not completely literal, such as via the use of dedicated cryptographic devices that can tunnel packets over entrusted networks while avoiding packet rate or size variation. This is the current state-of-the-art. What is really needed, however, is a method and or apparatus that exploits a literal air gap between boards for increased obfuscation and enhanced security.
Free Space Optics were originally developed by the military and NASA and have been used for more than three decades in various forms to provide fast communication links in remote locations. Free-Space Optical Communications (FSOC) have already been explored for next-generation military networks. FSOCs were recognized as having the potential to provide fundamental improvement to the ability to support high-capacity links for network-centric operational concepts like widespread sensor data dissemination. Additionally, it has been shown that data can be encoded using the orbital angular momentum of the light. Optical encoding is now being applied to free-space communication links and can potentially lead to improved security implemented at the classical and single photon level.
Due to the shrinking nature of silicon transistor technology, higher speed and more powerful electronic devices have been realized owing to the dense integration of millions of transistors. The need for high-speed interconnects between chips, cards, and racks have driven research beyond conventional copper based cables for data transmission due to the fundamental limitations, including the electric power consumption, heat dissipation, transmission latency and electromagnetic interference.
Indeed, the rapid advances in optical integration have allowed optical interconnect technology to now enter "inside the box", at the computer architecture subsystem level. Within the prior a several reconfigurable free-space-based high-speed card-to-card optical interconnect structures have been proposed and investigated, with demonstrated speeds up to 2.5 Gbps. Of these and of direct interest to this endeavor is the experimentally demonstrated free-space reconfigurable card-to-card optical interconnect architecture of K. Wang. et. al. that demonstrated a 30 Gb/s data rate, and the experimentally demonstrated integration of free-space optics with standard CMOS technologies by I. Savidis et al from April 2016.

Free space optical data transmission for secure computing

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Air Force


The present disclosure relates to mobile edge computing (MEC) information obtaining methods and apparatus. One example method performed by a first network element includes receiving target reference information from a second network element, and sending, to the second network element, information about a MEC platform corresponding to the target reference information. The target reference information comprises target capability information.

A MEC effectively integrates a wireless network with an Internet technology, adds functions such as computing, storage, and processing to a wireless network side, constructs an open platform to implant an application, implements information exchange between the wireless network and a service server through a radio application programming interface (API), and integrates the wireless network with a service. Oriented to services (the Internet of Things, videos, healthcare, retail, and the like), the MEC may provide customized and differentiated services to the industry, to improve network utilization efficiency and a value-added value.
Usually, the MEC is deployed on a radio access network (RAN), or is deployed at a location relatively close to a RAN, to reduce a data transmission delay. Therefore, a service scope that can be provided by a MEC and a user that can be served by the MEC are limited by a service scope of an access network and a user that can be served by the access network. Consequently, a requirement of a third-party application cannot be satisfied.

MEC information obtaining method and apparatus


Coupling-initiator compounds are described that include a silicon-containing coupling moiety and at least one polymerization initiator moiety. The coupling moiety may be linked to the at least one polymerization initiator moiety by at least one linking moiety. The coupling moiety is capable of coupling the compound to a substrate, while the one or more polymerization initiator moieties are capable of initiating a polymerization of a monomer under polymerization conditions. The coupling-initiator compounds may be included in fiber reinforced polymer composites, where the compounds are coupled to the fibers in the composites and participate in the polymerization of the surrounding polymer.

Inorganic materials may be used in composite articles to strengthen and reinforce the articles. In addition to increased dimensional stability, addition of the inorganic material provides polymer composites with significantly improved physical and mechanical properties. As one example, glass fibers may be placed into a polymer matrix where the high tensile strength of glass causes the matrix to become more rigid. The glass fibers incorporated in the polymer matrix may take various forms, such as continuous or chopped strands, rovings, woven or non-woven fabrics, and continuous or chopped strand mats.
Conventionally, glass fibers are formed by attenuating streams of a molten glass material from a bushing or orifice. The glass fibers may be attenuated by pulling by a winder, which collects filaments into a package or by other equipment or method capable of pulling the fibers. A sizing composition, or chemical treatment, is typically applied to the fibers after they are drawn from the bushing. After the fibers are treated with the sizing, which is typically in aqueous form, they may be dried in a package, chopped, or kept in the wet state before downstream processing.
Fiberglass may be mixed with a polymeric resin in an extruder and supplied to a compression- or injection-moulding machine to be formed into glass fiber-reinforced plastic composites. Typically, polymer pellets and fiberglass are fed together or separately into an extruder. During the extrusion process using single or twin-screw machines, the resin is melted and the fibers are dispersed throughout the molten resin to form a fiber/resin mixture. Next, the fiber/resin mixture may be degassed, cooled, and formed into pellets. The dry fiber strand/resin dispersion pellets are then fed to a moulding machine and formed into moulded composite articles that have a substantially homogeneous dispersion of glass fiber strands throughout the composite article.
Alternatively, in the process using continuous filaments, fiberglass filaments are mixed with the molten resin in an extruder with the screw geometry designed to mix the matrix with fibers without causing significant damage to the fibers. Obtained extruded materials are then subjected to compression moulding to form long-fiber reinforced thermoplastic materials with significantly improved mechanical properties due to the mostly unidirectional distribution of fiber.
Various chemical treatments exist for inorganic surfaces such as glass fibers to aid in their processability and applications. After fiber formation and before bundling, the filaments or fibers may be treated with a coating composition (sometimes referred to as a "sizing composition") that is applied to at least a portion of the surface of the individual filaments to protect them from abrasion, improve the chemical or physical bonding, and to assist in processing.
As used herein, the term "sizing composition", refers to any such coating composition applied to the filaments after forming. Sizing compositions may provide protection for subsequent processing steps, such as those where the fibers pass by contact points as in the winding of the fibers and strands onto a forming package, drying the sized fibers to remove the water and/or other solvent or melting of the film former on the fiber surface, twisting from one package to a bobbin, beaming to place the yarn onto very large packages ordinarily used as the warp in a fabric, chopping in a wet or dry condition, roving into larger bundles or groups of strands, unwinding, and other downstream processes. In addition, sizing compositions can play a dual role when placed on fibers that reinforce polymeric matrices in the production of fiber-reinforced plastics. In such applications, the sizing composition can provide protection as well as compatibility and/or chemical bonding between the fiber and the matrix polymer. Conventional sizing compositions typically contain one or more film forming polymeric or resinous components, glass-resin coupling agents, and one or more lubricants dissolved or dispersed in a liquid medium. The film forming component of the sizing composition is desirably selected to be compatible with the matrix resin or resins in which the glass fibers are to be embedded.
Many types of polymers may be reinforced by inorganic materials. Of particular note are those polymers formed by ring-opening polymerization reactions. Polyamides, such as poly(caprolactam), commonly know as "Nylon-6" or "polyamide-6", are examples of resins formed by ring-opening polymerization that are frequently reinforced by glass fibers. There is a need to provide glass-reinforced polyamide composites with high glass loading; however, one of the barriers is the high polymer viscosity of the polyamide in the molten state. This high viscosity hinders the dispersion of the glass fibers throughout the molten resin when the fiber/resin mixture is formed.
Anionic-catalysed ring-opening polymerization of lactams has become a commercially significant method for preparation of PA resins since these polymerizations can be conducted at relatively low temperatures and under atmospheric pressures. Caprolactam is by far the most studied lactam for such reactions and Nylon-6 prepared by this route compares favorably in properties with that prepared by conventional hydrolytic polymerization. Fast reaction kinetics, absence of by-products, and the crystalline nature of the Nylon so produced also makes anionic polymerization of lactams a compelling choice for several industrial applications, including reactive extrusion, reactive thermoplastic pultrusion, and reaction injection molding.
There is a need for new compounds and methods that allow increased loading and dispersion of a reinforcing material in a polymer composite. For example, there is a need for compounds and methods to increase the loading and dispersion of fiberglass in polymer matrices of thermoplastic and thermoset polymers These and other needs are addressed in the present application.

Polymerization initiators for fiber-reinforced polymer composites and materials made from the composites


A wavelength tunable optical filter having a characteristic single transmission peak for enhanced tunability comprises a phase control section positioned between a Distributed Bragg Reflector section and a high reflectivity mirror. The Distributed Bragg Reflector section comprises a periodic region grating positioned over an end portion of a passive waveguide whereas the phase control section comprises the portion of the passive waveguide region located between the grating and the mirror. Continuous tunability in the range of several THz may be achieved by controlling the refractive index in either the phase control or distributed Bragg reflector section. The optical filter is expected to have a frequency switching time of a few nanoseconds and, thus, is applicable to both transmission and switching applications.

The virtually unlimited optical bandwidth in fibers has motivated researchers and developers to shift certain network operations to the optical frequency domain for improving a system's performance and transmission capacity. Generally, this has been effected by utilizing wide band communications networks which allocate channels in the optical frequency domain. Moreover, these networks usually employ both wavelength division multiplexing and wavelength division switching for achieving multi-channel operation.
Wavelength filters, which connect and tune between channels, are one of the key devices required for the above stated networks. For example, in subcriber loop networks, all channels may be broadcast to every subscriber in the network, with the subscriber selecting the desired channel(s) via a tunable optical filter. As might be expected, several types of tunable wavelength filters have been proposed in the literature. For a review of wavelength tunable optical filters, see Kobrinski et al., IEEE Communications Magazine, pp. 53-63 (1989). In each of the proposed optical filters, the filtering mechanism may be viewed as a coupling mechanism between wave eigenmodes caused by some perturbative mechanism, e.g. resonant cavity, to effectuate the filtering action. Among the various filters proposed, such as electro-optic devices, acoustic-optic devices, Distributed Bragg Reflector devices, and Distributed Feedback devices, each may be described in the above manner.
It is well known that resonant cavities have a transmission characteristic with peaks and nulls in the frequency domain and that such a characteristic can be used advantageously for optical filtering. However, resonant cavities generally exhibit multiple transmission peaks that correspond to the longitudinal modes of the cavity which limit the tuning range since the mode spacing corresponds to the maximum range over which incoming signals can be spaced without overlapping. Resonant cavities, moreover, have usually been realized by using Fabry-Perot etalons which are difficult to integrate on a photonic integrated circuit. Because of these limitations, various new resonant structures have been designed for extending the tuning range and for achieving integratability. They include resonant laser structures that are biased below their lasing thresholds in their operation as resonant amplifiers. With respect to wavelength tunable optical filters, selected documents as discussed below are of interest.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,057,321 discloses a spectroscopically selective filter comprising two Bragg reflectors with Distributed Feedback disposed on a film waveguide in a tandem arrangement. In addition, applying a voltage via a pair of electrodes, arranged on opposite surfaces of the waveguide, and between the two reflectors, adjusts the optical path length between reflectors for achieving tunability in a manner analogous to a Fabry-Perot arrangement. While tunability is achieved, the filters exhibit a transmission peak of.about.6-10 .ANG. located between two reflective regions, known as the stopband. More importantly, outside the stopband the transmission is high and, as such, it limits the usable tuning range to the width of the stopband region, typically less than 800 GHz.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,750,801 discloses a grating resonator filter for achieving a filter bandwidth less than 1 Angstrom. The filter comprises first and second grating sections which are geometrically in phase with each other. That is, the distance between a grating peak in one section and any one grating peak in the second grating section is an integer number of grating periods. Furthermore, a phase section between the two grating sections, having a reduced refractive index, yields a .pi./2 (90.degree.) phase shift between the two grating sections. Similar approaches, but utilizing carrier injection have been used to achieve tunability with ranges of approximately 40-50 Angstroms. See, for example, T. Numai et al., Appl. Phys. Lett., Vol. 53, No. 2, pp. 83-85 (1988).
Numai et al., in Appl. Phys. Lett., Vol. 54., No. 19, pp. 1859-60 (1989), have shown that, in addition to tunability, constant transmissivity and constant bandwidth may be achieved by utilizing a multielectrode Distributed Feedback laser diode configuration. The filter consists of three sections; a phase control section between two active sections with Distributed Feedback. While the gain is controlled by current injection in the active section, the tuning is separately controlled by current injected through the phase control section. Tuning ranges of 120 GHz (9.5 .ANG.) with 24.5 dB constant gain were achieved in this particular case. Furthermore, narrow-band tunable optical filters having a net optical gain have been demonstrated which employ a Distributed Bragg Reflector structure. See Kazovsky et al., ECOC 1989 Proceedings, pp. 25-7. Specifically, Kazovsky et al. utilize a three section structure comprising a phase control section between a Distributed Bragg Reflector and an active section. A resonator is established between the reflector and the interface between the active section and air. In operation, current in the grating section is used to tune the resonant frequency while current in the active section adjusts the optical gain of the filter. As with all the various optical filters described above, the filter exhibits multiple transmission peaks which effectively decreases the tuning range. While Kazovsky et al. suggest that a single transmission peak may be achieved if the length of the phase control section is zero, this is undesirable since tuning would be discontinuous because phase matching between the reflector and the interface could only be achieved at non-continuous wavelengths.
Tunable wavelength optical filters having a wide tuning range which would increase the number of available tunable channels, especially in subscriber loop networks, would be of considerable interest. However, while it is desirable to also minimize the attenuation in the filter, such as by employing an active section, it has been established that the spontaneous emission in the active region generates noise which may have a deleterious effect on its operation. Furthermore, employing an active section causes the filtered output signal to vary nonlinearly with the input signal unless the bias current is adjusted to compensate for such nonlinearity. A related issue is that a low ratio of the filter bandwidth to tuning range limits the number of available channels for a given crosstalk level.


A device for supporting a print head includes a tabular print head capable of contacting a platen, the print head being mounted on a head-supporting plate retained by a supporting shaft. A central part of the supporting shaft is supported on a fixed receiver plate. The head-supporting plate is subjected to spring forces from two springs on both sides of the receiver plate. Side plates are provided with elongated grooves extending normal to a tangential direction at a contact point of the platen with the print head, and both ends of the supporting shaft extend through the grooves. Displacement takes place at both ends of the supporting shaft, corresponding to distortion and deflection of the platen in cooperation with the grooves. The laterally elongate print head uniformly contacts over its entire length against the platen with automatic equilibrium requiring no adjustment.

The present invention relates to a device for supporting a tabular print head having a length sufficient to effect one-line printing on a chart passing between the print head and a platen upon which the head elastically impinges.
This type of print head assumes a configuration which is considerably elongate sideways, and it is therefore quite difficult to uniformly impinge the platen with the print head over its entire length, resulting in an often occurring phenomenon in which unevenness in density can be seen in the one-line printing. Under such circumstances, the applicants of the present invention proposed the invention disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 64-11472. The arrangement is as follows. Fixed at a spacing to a rear surface of a tabular head substrate are a pair of mounting plates formed with crooks. A supporting shaft is provided with a pair of supporting levers each independently rotatable, which are in turn provided with erectly bent members spaced from the crooks of the mounting plates. Springs are interposed between the crooks and the erectly bent members to which screws for adjusting the height of the head substrate are spirally attached, penetrating the crooks. The adjusting screws serve to independently bilaterally adjust the level of the head substrate. The supporting levers are biased by spring forces to thereby thrust the head substrate against the platen disposed in front.
The construction of the prior art device described above involves the use of a good number of components such as the mounting plates, the height-adjusting screws, the springs wound on the screws and also the springs for thrusting the head substrate against the platen. This results in laborious assembly. In addition, the adjusting screws have to be rotated, resulting in a complicated adjustment.


A wind-tunnel type power generator includes an outer cover, a turbine rotor, an air escape valve, and at least a rear fin. The outer cover is a convergent-divergent shape and the turbine rotor is installed into an inner flowing path thereof, the air escape valve is installed on the outer cover and the rear fin is installed on the surface of the outer cover. The acceleration of the outer cover, the higher efficiency of the turbine rotor, and the reducing pressure of the air escape valve is to gain the wider operation area, smaller space, lower weight, lower noise, and higher efficiency of the wind-tunnel type power generator.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wind-tunnel type power generator, and more particularly to a small-size and high-efficiency wind-tunnel type power generator.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Due to the decrement of the quantity output of the global oil and the greenhouse effect being more serious, many countries throughout the world are developing the pollution-free energy resources, such as wind power generation and solar power generation.
Reference is made to FIG. 1, which is a schematic view of a wind power generator of the prior art. A wind power generator 1 comprises a generator housing 11, a windmill 12, a rear fin 13, and a fixed stand 14. The fixed stand 14 is connected to the generator housing 11 by means of a bearing (not shown), and the generator housing 11 is connected to the windmill 12 by means of another bearing. The windmill 12 has a plurality of blades 121, and there is an acute angle between each face of the blades 121 and the axis of the windmill 12. The rear fin 13 is installed at one end of a casing 111 of the generator housing 11 far away the windmill 12. When the blades 121 are blowing by the wind, the windmill 12 rotates for driving the generator housing 11 to generate electricity. If the windmill 12 isn't facing the wind, the rear fin 13 will be blew to make the windmill 12 facing the wind so as to obtain the best electricity generation efficiency.
However, it usually enlarges the area of the blades 121 in order to increase the electricity generation energy so that a relative small wind velocity to obtain a relative large energy. For this reason, it will increase the space and weight of the wind power generator 1. While avoid damaging the wind power generator 1 due to a overload rotation velocity, it usually set a stopping wind-velocity for automatically stop running that cause it can not generate electricity at a high wind-velocity. In addition, the rear fin 13 is passively controlled by depending on the wind direction, so that an included angle between the wind direction and the face of the windmill 12 of the wind power generator 1 is zero degree, 90 degrees, or 270 degrees so as to cause worse electricity generation efficiency. Evan the rear fin 13 sometimes can not face the wind accurately without any error.
The inventor of the present invention recognizes the above shortage should be corrected and special effort has been paid to research this field. The present invention is presented with reasonable design and good effect to resolve the above problems.

Industrial Technology Research Institute


A method for controlling an image processing apparatus configured to output image data includes accepting, from a user, selection about whether to permit inputting biometric information, and performing control such that outputting the image data is permitted in a case where the selection for permitting inputting the biometric information is made, and the outputting the image data is prohibited in a case where the selection for permitting inputting the biometric information is not made.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, a method for controlling the same, and a storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
A user can conveniently print out or transmit image data using an image processing apparatus having a copy function or a data transmission function. However, if image data having confidential information is carelessly printed out or transmitted, the confidential information may be unintentionally leaked. To prevent the leakage of confidential information, an operation of outputting (e.g., printing out or transmitting) image data can be limitedly executed.
Meanwhile, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-252501 discusses a technique of authenticating a user by previously registering a user's face image and then comparing a captured user's face image with the user's face image that has been previously registered. In such an authentication technique, the face of a user who wishes to output (e.g., print out or transmit) image data is captured. If the captured face image matches any one of previously registered face images, the operation of outputting the image data may be permitted. Otherwise, the operation of outputting the image data may be prohibited. This enables limiting a user who can execute the operation of outputting image data and restricting the operation of outputting image data.
However, when only users whose biometric information, such as a face image, has previously been registered are permitted to output image data as described above, a user whose biometric information has not been registered cannot output the image data. In this case, since a user who wishes to output image data is required to previously register her/his biometric information, user convenience may be decreased.

Image processing apparatus, method for controlling the same, and storage medium


A system and method of delivering an information output to a viewer of a live performance. The information output can be displayed text or an audio description at predefined times in the live performance relative to stage events. A follower script with entries organised along a timeline, and metadata at time points between at least some of the entries is generated. The metadata is associated with stage events in the live performance. The system uses speech recognition to track spoken dialogue against the entries in the follower script, and the stage events, to aid in following the live performance.

There has been a continuing requirement for captioning and subtitling services to display a text version of something which is spoken. Such captioning improves accessibility, allowing those suffering from hearing disabilities to follow a broadcast or performance by being able to read a transcript of a speech being delivered. Captioning is provided in a number of different contexts. In one context, films may be provided with captions which are synchronised to the verbal delivery of lines during the film. Such synchronisation is relatively easy to perform, because the script and timing are known in advance and synchronised captions can be prepared for delivery at the same time as the moving image of the file or its audio track. Captions have long been available as a service which can be accessed by people with a hearing disability. So-called 'closed captions' are viewed only when the service is selected by a viewer. More recently so-called smart glasses have become available by means of which captions can be delivered directly to smart glasses worn by members of a cinema audience. Subtitles are also known, for example for conveying a foreign language text of speech in the film.
In theatre, live performances represent particular challenges for captioning. At present, captioning services are triggered manually for certain accessible theatre performances. Predefined captions are created based on the script which is to be spoken. The captions capture dialogue for display to allow a deaf or hard of hearing person to follow the performance. The captions are manually triggered for display by a caption cuer whose task it is to follow the performance and to press a button to trigger the display of each caption synchronised with the oral delivery of the lines of the performance. In live theatre, the timing of captions needs to accommodate for variations in speech, timing, breaks and noises other than speech, which may be intentional in the performance or not. A person (caption cuer) can accommodate such variations by watching the performance and then providing the caption at the correct time.
Subtitles are also available in the case of live television broadcasts, again to assist the deaf or hard of hearing so that they may follow a broadcast even if they cannot fully hear the speaker delivering the broadcast. Text for the subtitles may be created by a human intermediary who follows the broadcast and dictates suitable summary language (including text and punctuation) to a speech recognition system provide a real-time transcript which can be displayed. Alternatively, machine shorthand can be used to generate the text. In such contexts, there are inevitably delays between the broadcast being delivered and the captions being displayed on a screen. Attempts have been made to play the broadcast soundtrack into a speech recognition system, the speech recognition system configured to provide a transcript of the speech.
The term speech recognition system is used herein to denote a system capable of picking up human speech and converting it into text to be displayed, the text corresponding to the speech which has been delivered. A speech recognition system might be used as part of a speech follower. Speech followers are used to synchronise an audio signal carrying speech to a corresponding script. This process may be performed by computer processing of a media file in order to time the script to the corresponding audio signal. The process may also be performed in real time to control the rate at which a script is displayed to a speaker, for example as a teleprompt. That is, a speaker is reading from a script in a live context, and a speech follower assists in making sure that the rate at which the script is displayed to the speaker matches the speaking rate of the speaker. These systems thus display part of a script corresponding to the location that they have detected the speaker has reached in the script.
Attempts have been made to provide a speech follower (using speech recognition) in the context of live theatre, to display a script in time with its delivery. The idea is to use a speech follower to follow the speech which is being spoken during the live performance, and to display the script at the correct time corresponding to the speech. However, it is very difficult to implement such speech followers in the context of live theatre, due to the many variables that can occur in live theatre. Previously, live speech follower systems have been used in studio contexts with good quality audio. They are not suited generally to live theatre, which poses a number of different challenges. Because of the theatre surroundings, rather than a studio context, there may be poor audio quality. The system has to cope with a number of different styles and speeds of speech and therefore cannot be trained to a standard style and speed of delivery. It is known that speech following systems behave more accurately when they can be trained to a standard style and speed of delivery. Theatres are subject to general background noise, which may be part of the performance itself, or may be unexpected. There may be long pauses between utterances on stage, while the action proceeds without dialogue. Utterances in theatres may consist not only of words but also other utterances such as exclamations or cries or whimpers, and may be unusually loud or quiet. Speech follower systems have previously generally been designed for a context where the speech (more or less) consists of words and is spoken at an even pace and at a reasonably even volume. Actors may have different accents, or deliberately be speaking in an affected way. The performance may consist of non-verbal information which nevertheless is part of the performance and which a person who is hard of hearing would like to know something about.
For all of these reasons, it has not been possible to date to successfully implement a speech following system to automatically cue captions for display in the generality of performances. So far, captioning services which have been provided, and which are increasingly in demand, have been manual.


An illuminator is provided including: a light source unit composed of a point light source; a light guide plate including an incidence surface into which light emitted from the light source unit is introduced, and an exit surface out which the light that has been introduced from the incidence surface exits; and a prism body where a plurality of prisms are arranged so as to refract the light that has exited out from the exit surface of the light guide plate, wherein the prism body is arranged at a specific area on the entire exit surface of the light guide plate so as to refract part of the light that has exited out from the exit surface of the light guide plate.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an illuminator that allows a wide luminous intensity distribution.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, when considering light sources for a general lighting purpose used, for example, in indoor situations, an incandescent lamp or a fluorescent lamp has been used; however, through today's technical advancement of blue light-emitting diodes (the LEDs), the LEDs have come into use as the light sources applied to, for example, a ceiling light or a downlight. As one of the examples, FIG. 7 illustrates an edge-light type illuminator 7. This edge-light type illuminator 7 is composed of a light guide plate 1; LEDs 2A, 2A that are arranged at both opposed lateral end surfaces 2C, 2C of the light guide plate 1; a reflection sheet 3 that is arranged on the side of a reflective surface 1B opposed to an exit surface (a main surface 1A) of the light guide plate 1 where lights, which are emitted from the LEDs 2A, 2A and introduced into the opposed lateral end surfaces 2C, 2C of the light guide plate 1, exit out; and an approximately square-shaped diffusion sheet 6 that is arranged on the side of the main surface 1A of the light guide plate 1. A referential numeral 8 illustrates dot-shaped or strip-shaped optical elements that are arranged on the reflective surface 1B of the light guide plate 1, each of the optical elements being approximately formed into a circular, a dot, a square, and the like. In FIG. 7, a referential numeral 2B illustrates an LED array, a referential numeral 4 illustrates a reflector, and a referential numeral 5 illustrates a frame body 5. See, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2010-225286.
FIG. 8A is now referred. Here, the light guide plate 1 and the diffusion sheet 6 exemplified in FIG. 7 are focused. To satisfy luminous intensity distribution properties of the illuminator provided with the light guide plate 1, a certain wide luminous intensity distribution is required. Here, however, only the provision of the diffusion sheet 6 may not be sufficient in many cases. In this case, as shown in FIG. 8B, the optical element 8 with a complicated contour may be arranged on the main surface 1A of the light guide plate 1. Accordingly, further wide luminous intensity distributions may be achieved. However, when needed to deal with large-sized illuminators, it becomes difficult to manage in case, for example, the contour of the illuminator is changed.

Illuminator allowing a wide luminous intensity distribution


The present invention provides an air-fuel ratio feedback control apparatus for an internal-combustion engine. The apparatus includes an air-fuel ratio detector that is disposed in an exhaust system of the engine so as to detect an air-fuel ratio of exhaust gas, NOx purifier for purifying NOx contained in the exhaust gas during a lean operation and feedback controller for making a feedback control upon an air-fuel ratio of air-fuel mixture to be supplied to the engine based on an output of the air-fuel ratio detector. A diagnostic system diagnoses the NOx purifier based on an output of an O2 sensor disposed downstream of the NOx purifier when the air-fuel ratio of the air-fuel mixture to be supplied to the engine has been changed from lean to rich and gain changer for making a feedback control gain of the feedback controller smaller when the air-fuel ratio is changed from lean to rich.

This invention relates to feedback control of air-fuel ratio of an internal-combustion engine and, more specifically, to air-fuel ratio feedback control to be performed when deterioration of a lean NOx catalyst is detected.
Japanese Patent Application Unexamined Publication (Kokai) No. H10-299460 discloses a device for determining deterioration of a NOx trapping agent based on outputs of oxygen density sensors disposed upstream and downstream respectively of the NOx trapping agent. More specifically, after air-fuel ratio enrichment is started for releasing NOx from the NOx trapping agent in an exhaust gas purifying device, the prior art device measures a time period required for an output value of an oxygen density sensor disposed downstream of the exhaust gas purifying device to change to a rich air-fuel ratio after an output value of a LAF (linear air-fuel ratio) sensor disposed upstream of the exhaust gas purifying device has changed to a rich air-fuel ratio. The device determines that the NOx trapping agent has deteriorated when the measured time period is less than a predetermined value.
Japanese Patent Application Unexamined Publication (Kokai) No. 2001-107719 discloses a system for determining deterioration of a lean NOx catalyst in an internal-combustion engine which is provided with a three-way catalyst and a lean NOx catalyst in its exhaust system. The system first measures a time period required for an output TVO2 of an O2 sensor disposed downstream of the lean NOx catalyst to change to a value representing a rich air-fuel ratio after an output SVO2 of an O2 sensor disposed upstream of the lean NOx catalyst changed to a value representing a rich air-fuel ratio. The system determines deterioration of the NOx catalyst based on the measured time period.
Besides, Japanese Patent Application Unexamined Publication (Kokai) No. H10-9019 discloses a technique for using an adaptive controller for calculating adaptive parameters representing dynamic characteristics of an internal-combustion engine so as to control air-fuel ratio based on the calculated parameters.
However, in such conventional techniques, if control responsiveness is high when they are used to make a feedback control upon an air-fuel ratio, wrong detection of the NOx catalyst deterioration may take place because actual air-fuel ratio may overshoot when the air-fuel ratio is enriched for determining deterioration of the NOx catalyst.
In order to resolve the above-described problem, the present invention provides an air-fuel ratio feedback control apparatus for an internal-combustion engine. The air-fuel ratio feedback control apparatus according to an aspect of the invention comprises an air-fuel ratio detector that is disposed in an exhaust system of the internal-combustion engine for detecting air-fuel ratio of exhaust gas. The apparatus further comprises a NOx purifier for purifying NOx contained in the exhaust gas during a lean operation and a feedback controller for performing feedback control of an air-fuel ratio of air-fuel mixture to be supplied to the internal-combustion engine based on the output of the air-fuel ratio detector. The air-fuel ratio feedback control apparatus further comprises diagnostic system for diagnosing the NOx purifier by changing the air-fuel ratio of the air-fuel mixture to be supplied to the internal-combustion engine from lean to rich and detecting outputs of an O2 sensor disposed downstream of the NOx purifier. The feedback control apparatus further comprises a gain changer for changing feedback control gain of the feedback controller to a smaller value when the air-fuel ratio is changed from lean to rich by the diagnostic system.
According to an aspect of the present invention, the feedback control gain of the feedback controller is made smaller when the diagnostic device for diagnosing the NOx purifier changes the air-fuel ratio from lean to rich, so that the overshoot of the actual air-fuel ratio can be avoided and detection accuracy in the diagnosis for the NOx purifier can be improved.

Air-fuel ratio feedback control apparatus


A connection apparatus and method for controlling an ultrasound probe are provided. The ultrasound probe includes a first chamber, a second chamber and a sealing member between the first and second chambers. The ultrasound probe further includes a connection member within the second chamber having a rigid portion and a flexible portion, with the rigid portion forming at least part of the sealing member.

This invention relates generally to ultrasound systems and, more particularly, to probes for ultrasound medical imaging systems.
Ultrasound systems typically include ultrasound scanning devices, such as, ultrasound probes having different transducers that allow for performing various different ultrasound scans (e.g., different imaging of a volume or body). The ultrasound probes are typically connected to an ultrasound system for controlling the operation of the probes. The probes include a scan head having a plurality of transducer elements (e.g., piezoelectric crystals), which may be arranged in an array. The ultrasound system drives the transducer elements within the array during operation, such as, during a scan of a volume or body, which may be controlled based upon the type of scan to be performed. The ultrasound system includes a plurality of channels for communicating with the probe. For example, the channels may transmit pulses for driving the transducer elements and for receiving signals therefrom.
In volume probes, wherein the scan head mechanically moves during scan operation, a separate wet and dry chamber are typically provided. In particular, the scan head moves (e.g. rotates) in a sealed wet chamber having an acoustic membrane surrounding a scan head housing that contacts a patient during a scan. The wet chamber is typically filled with an acoustic liquid to allow acoustic coupling during scanning (e.g., during transmissions). The wet chamber is sealed from the dry chamber and may include control components for controlling the operation of the scan head in the wet chamber. The control components communicate with and control the scan head, for example, control the operation of transducer elements within the scan head. The communication between the control components and scan head may be provided by different communication lines (e.g., coaxial or other flexible cable). These communication lines traverse the seal between the wet and dry chambers, requiring the use of sealing members to maintain the liquid tight seal between the chambers. Each sealing member that is required increases the likelihood of a failure, for example, an increased likelihood of liquid leaking into the dry chamber through one of the sealing members. Further, the sealing members add complexity in design and cost to the probe. For example, additional components (e.g., brackets) between the wet and dry chambers may be needed to maintain the position and sealing engagement of the sealing members.

Connection apparatus and method for controlling an ultrasound probe

GE Medical Systems Global Technology Company, LLC


[Problem] To provide a side airbag apparatus capable of quickly and properly restraining a passenger in the initial stage of deploying an airbag, along with a passenger protection apparatus including this.

In order to protect passengers when a vehicle accident occurs, it is well known that vehicles are equipped with one or more airbags. These airbags, for example, include various forms such as: a so-called driver airbag which is expanded from the vicinity of the steering wheel of an automobile so as protect the driver; a curtain airbag which is deployed downward inside the window of an automobile so as to protect passengers during collisions in the transverse direction of a vehicle, overturning, and rollover accidents; and a side airbag apparatus which is deployed on the side (seat side) of passengers so as to protect the passenger upon impact in the transverse direction of a vehicle. The present invention relates to a side airbag apparatus provided in a vehicle seat.
The side airbag apparatus described in the below mentioned Patent Document 1 includes a main airbag along with an auxiliary airbag. In addition, prior to the main airbag, the auxiliary airbag is expanded and deployed to restrain passengers at an early stage. In addition to the invention described in Patent Document 1, a side airbag apparatus including the auxiliary airbag as well as the main airbag is proposed. With such a side airbag apparatus, there is great restraint in the installation region, resulting in a strong demand for size reduction of the apparatus.
Moreover, there is a demand for appropriate passenger protection performance due to improved deployment speed and stabilization of the deployed shape.

Abstract: [Resolution means] A side airbag apparatus according to the present invention includes: an airbag for restraining a passenger when expanded and deployed; and an inflator for supplying expansion gas to the airbag. The airbag includes: a first chamber which houses the inflator and is deployed outside in the vehicle width direction of the frame side wall part; and a second chamber which is deployed inside in the vehicle width direction of the frame side wall part. In addition, the first chamber is deployed such that at least a portion thereof, as seen from the vehicle side, overlaps the frame side wall part. At this time, the rear end part of an expanding region of the second chamber, as seen from the vehicle side, is formed in front of the rear end part of the first chamber.


An example operation may include one or more of receiving primary data from one or more vehicles, extracting first information from the primary data, creating one or more documents based on the extracted information, generating one or more blockchain transactions based on the one or more documents, and committing the one or more documents to a blockchain.

A ledger is commonly defined as an account book of entry, in which transactions are recorded. A distributed ledger is ledger that is replicated in whole or in part to multiple computers. A Cryptographic Distributed Ledger (CDL) can have at least some of these properties: irreversibility (once a transaction is recorded, it cannot be reversed), accessibility (any party can access the CDL in whole or in part), chronological and time-stamped (all parties know when a transaction was added to the ledger), consensus based (a transaction is added only if it is approved, typically unanimously, by parties on the network), verifiability (all transactions can be cryptographically verified). A blockchain is an example of a CDL. While the description and figures herein are described in terms of a blockchain, the instant application applies equally to any CDL.
A distributed ledger is a continuously growing list of records that typically apply cryptographic techniques such as storing cryptographic hashes relating to other blocks. A blockchain is one common instance of a distributed ledger and may be used as a public ledger to store information. Although, primarily used for financial transactions, a blockchain can store various information related to goods and services (i.e., products, packages, status, etc.). A decentralized scheme provides authority and trust to a decentralized network and enables its nodes to continuously and sequentially record their transactions on a public "block", creating a unique "chain" referred to as a blockchain. Cryptography, via hash codes, is used to secure an authentication of a transaction source and removes a central intermediary. A blockchain is a distributed database that maintains a continuously-growing list of records in the blockchain blocks, which are secured from tampering and revision due to their immutable properties. Each block contains a timestamp and a link to a previous block. A blockchain can be used to hold, track, transfer and verify information. Since a blockchain is a distributed system, before adding a transaction to a blockchain ledger, all peers need to reach a consensus status.
Conventionally, incident transactions involving vehicles require fact-based investigation and analysis in order to determine incident cause and fault of driver(s). As such, what is needed is a blockchain-based process and system to overcome these limitations.

Vehicle incident documentation for blockchain

International Business Machines Corporation


A method for balancing a rotating assembly of a gas turbine engine includes removing a stator vane from a section of the gas turbine engine. Removing the stator vane provides access to a rotating assembly of the gas turbine engine. The method further includes at least one of adding, removing, and repositioning a weight with respect to the rotating assembly via access to the rotating assembly provided by removing the stator vane.

GTEs convert the potential energy associated with air and fuel into energy primarily in the form of mechanical rotation and heat. A conventional GTE may include a compressor assembly, a combustor assembly, and a turbine assembly. During operation, air is drawn into the compressor assembly, where it is compressed and supplied to the combustor assembly. The combustor assembly supplies fuel to the compressed air and ignites the compressed air and fuel, resulting in combustion, which increases the energy associated with the compressed air. The combustion products are supplied to the turbine assembly, where expansion of the combustion products through the turbine assembly causes a turbine rotor to rotate. A compressor rotor of the compressor assembly and the turbine rotor may be coupled to one another via a shaft, such that rotation of the turbine rotor causes rotation of the compressor rotor. The turbine rotor may also be coupled to one or more systems that use the rotational energy and/or thermal energy from the turbine assembly. For example, a GTE may be used to supply power to machines, such as airplanes, locomotives, boats, ships, trucks, automobiles, electric generators, pumps, or other machines configured to perform work.
During operation, an assembly including the compressor and turbine rotors may rotate at 10,000 or more revolutions per minute, and thus, it may be desirable to balance the rotating assembly in order to prevent excessive vibration during operation of the GTE. One solution for facilitating balancing of the rotating assembly includes coupling a band to the rotating assembly. The band may include a system for attaching one or more weights to the band at different radial locations about the band in order to improve the balance of the rotating assembly. However, by virtue of being coupled to the rotating assembly of the GTE, it may be difficult to gain access to the band because the rotating assembly may be located inside an outer case of the GTE.
A method and apparatus for trim balancing a GTE is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,545,010 issued to Cederwall et al. ("the '010 patent"). In particular, the '010 patent discloses a method and apparatus that allows a GTE to be balanced with the outer case in situ. Access to a rotor of the GTE from the exterior of the outer case is obtained via the intake opening of the compressor air flow path and a pair of holes that may be sealed using a pair of removable plugs. The '010 patent discloses removing the plugs to obtain access to a band coupled to the rotor, such that balancing can be performed by adding or removing weights or plugs to the band.
Although the method and apparatus disclosed in the '010 patent may permit balancing of the rotor, they may suffer from a number of possible drawbacks. For example, the removable plugs may only be accessed via the intake opening of the compressor air flow path. For some GTEs, it may be desirable to provide a band at a location remote from the intake opening. In addition, providing the band at a location of the rotor remote from the rotor vanes and stator vanes of the compressor assembly may add to the length of the GTE. This may be undesirable for a number of reasons. For example, it may be desirable to reduce the footprint of the GTE, thereby rendering it potentially undesirable to add to the length of the compressor section by virtue of providing space for the band.
The methods and systems described in an exemplary manner in the present disclosure may be directed to mitigating or overcoming one or more of the potential drawbacks set forth above.

Method for balancing rotating assembly of gas turbine engine


The invention relates to a process for the preparation of a particulate polyethylene product in a loop reactor, wherein the polymerization catalyst applied in the polymerization process comprises a particulate metallocene-alumoxane catalyst immobilized on a porous silica support; and whereby said metallocene-alumoxane catalyst is heterogeneously distributed on said porous silica support.

Polyethylene (PE) is synthesized by polymerizing ethylene (CH2═CH2) monomers. Because it is cheap, safe, stable to most environments and easy to be processed polyethylene polymers are useful in many applications. According to the properties polyethylene can be classified into several types, such as but not limited to LDPE (Low Density Polyethylene), LLDPE (Linear Low Density Polyethylene), and HDPE (High Density Polyethylene). Each type of polyethylene has different properties and characteristics.
Ethylene polymerizations are frequently carried out in a loop reactor using ethylene monomer, liquid diluent and catalyst, optionally one or more co-monomer(s), and hydrogen. The polymerization in a loop reactor is usually performed under slurry conditions, with the produced polymer usually in a form of solid particles which are suspended in the diluent. The slurry in the reactor is circulated continuously with a pump to maintain efficient suspension of the polymer solid particles in the liquid diluent. Polymer slurry is discharged from the loop reactor by means of settling legs, which operate on a batch principle to recover the slurry. Settling in the legs is used to increase the solids concentration of the slurry finally recovered as product slurry. The product slurry is further discharged through heated flash lines to a flash tank, where most of the diluent and unreacted monomers are flashed off and recycled.
Polymerization of ethylene involves the polymerization of ethylene monomer in the reactor in the presence of a polymerization catalyst. Suitable catalysts for the preparation of polyethylene comprise chromium-type catalysts, Ziegler-Natta catalysts and metallocene catalysts.
The use of metallocene catalysts for polymerization and copolymerization of ethylene is a relatively recent development. Processes for producing polyolefins in general and polyethylene in particular in the presence of metallocene catalysts have been described. Metallocenes are often combined with activating agents such as alumoxanes, to improve the catalytic activity of the metallocene.
A supported metallocene-alumoxane polymerization catalyst essentially comprises an inert support or carrier such as silica, on which alumoxane and metallocene are coated. In many applications for the production of polyolefins such as polyethylene, a porous support is used. The properties of such porous supports such as pore density or surface area greatly influence the physicochemical characteristics of the final polyolefin product. An increased surface area of a porous support compared to a non-porous support in theory leads to an increase in bound catalytically active sites.
Major objectives of a plant for producing polyethylene and its copolymers include the preparation of polymers having physical properties within certain specifications and the optimization of economical goals such as a specific catalyst consumption and the production rate of the plant. That is, it is desired to minimize the consumption of catalyst per ton of produced polymer, this leading to increased catalyst productivity and to a reduction in the amount of catalyst residue in the product, as well as to the maximization of the amount of polymer produced per hour.
However, although polymerization reactions in the presence of metallocene-alumoxane polymerization catalysts supported on porous supports yield polymerization products with improved physico-mechanical properties, such as uniformity, miscibility, density or molecular weight distribution, compared to polymerization reactions in the presence of non-supported catalysts, the catalyst activity of such supported catalysts is believed to be generally lower than the catalyst activity of non-supported catalysts. Hence, lower amounts of polymer per given amount of catalyst can be produced in the presence of catalysts supported on porous supports than when carrying out polymerization reactions in the presence of non-supported catalysts.
Moreover, when carrying out polymerization reactions in the presence of catalyst having low catalyst activity, higher amounts of catalyst have to be used for preparing a given amount of polymer product. In view thereof, higher amounts of catalyst may remain in the prepared polymer products, and hence such polymers may contain higher ash content. Especially, when using metallocene catalyst problems related to insufficient catalyst activity, and consequences thereof in the resulting polymer products such as to elevated ash content, may occur. For applications in food packaging or dielectric materials, high ash content is unwarranted. In these kinds of applications removal of the ash content in the polymer product needs to be carried out post-production, for instance by applying various washing and extraction techniques, which are costly and time-consuming.
In view of the above, many applications which make use of catalyst systems provided on porous supports still require improved catalyst activity to increase productivity of the polymerization reaction and hence to increase the amount of polymer product produced. Hence there remains a need in the art to provide a polymerization process for making polyolefin resin, and in particular polyethylene resin using supported catalyst having improved productivity.
It is also a need in the art to improve polymerization reactions as to reduce ash content of produced polymers which can then be used in various impurity-sensitive applications at minimal investment of additional cost and time.
In view of the above, it is an object of the present invention to provide a polymerization process for making polyolefin resin using a supported catalyst having improved activity. It is in particular an object to provide a polymerization process for making polyethylene using a supported metallocene-alumoxane catalyst having improved activity.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


The content of each specific image file on an endpoint is analyzed. Each analyzed image file is categorized based on the results of analyzing its content. The analysis can be in the form identifying one or more objects graphically represented in given image files, and the categorization of image files can be based on these identified graphically represented object(s). A backup policy is configured to automatically backup specific image files on the endpoint, based on their content as per the categorization. Information concerning the content-based categorization of the image files on the endpoint can be output to a user. In response, directives for backing-up image files according to their content-based categorization can be received from the user. Specific images files are backed-up automatically, regardless of their location on the endpoint, according to the configured backup policy.

Backup solutions automatically backup files from the computers of users and organizations to the cloud, according to a backup configuration. An endpoint component of a backup system runs on a user's computer, and performs the client side backup functionality. The backed-up files are maintained in the cloud by a backend component of the backup system, and are available to be restored in case of data loss.
For each covered endpoint, a backup configuration specifies the specific set of folders/directories, files, file types, etc. to backup, as well as other criteria such as backup time and frequency. Contemporary backup systems typically provide a default backup configuration, which many users do not change. Users may also manually configure a set of folders/directories, files, etc. to back up.
Whether the default backup set is utilized or one configured by the user, all files within the specified folders/directories will be backed up, regardless of whether the given files are important to the user or not. In addition, application and user level changes occur over time that can result in the backup set omitting files that are especially important to the user. For example, the user could accidently copy photos and videos to folders outside of the backup set, or a new disk or other storage medium could be added to the user's computer, such as an external storage device. None of the photos or videos stored on the user's computer in any location outside of what is specified by the backup set will be backed-up. As users frequently neglect or forgot to update their backup sets, this can result in the user losing important files if the disk is corrupted or crypto-locked.
It would be desirable to address these issues.

Content-based automatic backup of images


A method and system for the analysis of biological, medical and/or biochemical data having values for each of a plurality of attributes, having a receiving portion for receiving the data and entering it into a storage arrangement like a relational database in accordance with the values and attributes of the data; a calculating portion for determining discrete bins for at least one of the attributes for the data in accordance with the values of the data entered in the storage arrangement; a re-organizing portion for re-organizing the data in the storage arrangement in accordance with the discrete bins; a data mining portion for mining the organized data in the storage arrangement to determine sets of applicable logical rules; and a processing and presenting portion for logical rules or groups of logical rules. The processing portion further involves the application of at least one operator to create a subset of rules in an iterative manner. The operators are filtering operators, clustering operators, data mapping operators, and/or data characterization operators.

The present invention relates to the field of sorting and analysis of vast amounts of scientific data, and more particularly to methods and systems for the discretizing of biological, medical or biochemical data and generation of logical rules from that data, followed by processing of the generated rules.
Scientists create vast amounts of raw data. The sheer volume of such data renders difficult, if not impossible, the ability to draw complete conclusions from that data. Accordingly, mathematicians are requested to develop processes to analyze such data and, in particular, to study, organize, and determine rules (also called logical statements) for the presentation and analysis of such raw data in ways that can become scientifically important by exposing rules (and their bases) in a manner that permits conclusions to be drawn.
Traditional approaches to the creation of scientific data (and, more importantly, biological, medical and biochemical data) followed by human analysis fall short because literally thousands if not millions of data points are created. The intuitive ability of the human mind to analyze such data and draw logical, rational and appropriate conclusions has been emulated by computer-assisted analytical techniques including, e.g., the creation and analysis of logical rules for such data.
With respect to biological data in particular, vast amounts are created virtually daily. Within the class of biological data, lies a subclass of genetic data. With respect to genetic data, which is a particular segment of the biological community, the Human Genome Project and its progeny have created a simply unmanageable quantity of potentially relevant information relating to gene sequencing and expression. One of the major goals of molecular biology is to study such data and determine how different genes regulate one another. Thus, a major research effort has been targeted towards understanding and discovering gene regulation patterns. Likewise, huge amounts of medical data is created by laboratory and other analyses of medically significant biochemical moieties and their variations. The coding of protein interactions (and their DNA/RNA interfaces for synthesis) in the field of proteomics also results in significant data creation. Not all the data is relevant, yet some of the data that might appear at first human blush to be marginal, when combined with other data points, can reveal logical rules with appropriate statistical reliability, thereby enhancing the ability to modulate the experimental protocols employed or the conclusions determined.
One of the main techniques used by biologists for the creation of data concerning genetic expression is the oligonucleotide microarray method, which has reached popularity in the last few years. This technique permits biologists to produce large quantities of gene microarray data points that profile gene expressions under different conditions, at different times during development or in the presence of different factors that include, without limitation, drugs, environmental conditions, biochemical compounds, and the like. Typically, biologists generate a set of tests applying this method to a biological sample, where a single test would contain information on the expression levels of genes in the sample, and the number of tests would result in a range of measurements from a few dozen to a few hundred.
Gene regulation may be understood by measuring the amounts of different gene products produced by a cell. This production process, called gene expression, creates as a product a form of RNA. The oligonucleotide microarray method is a standard method employed to measure amounts of this form of RNA, in which this form of RNA is hybridized to an oligonucleotide microarray that allows the measurement of expression levels of up to tens of thousands of genes in a single experiment. From the computational point of view, the expression level is represented as an arbitrary real number. Therefore, the result of a single experiment is an array of xe2x80x9cNxe2x80x9d real numbers, where xe2x80x9cNxe2x80x9d remains the same across different experiments and depends upon the genes sought to be measured by the experimenter.
In order to discover how different genes regulate one another, biologists typically conduct multiple experiments to determine the manner in which different gene expressions change depending upon the type of tissue, age of the organism, therapeutic agents, and environmental conditions. Moreover, biologists are more interested in the method by which gene expressions vary in these experiments relative to normal expression levels in an organism, rather than absolute values of gene expression.
Accordingly, the manner in which patterns of genetic output change across different samples reflect underlying biological processes in the organism whose genes are being studied. It is of crucial importance for biologists to understand these biological processes, and a major research effort has been launched towards the discovery and biological interpretation of gene regulation patterns. As a result, millions of data points have been generated.
Typical data analysis techniques for handling vast amounts of oligonucleotide microarray data are based mainly on manual selection, querying and clustering techniques. Manual selection of patterns is usually performed by a direct xe2x80x9ceyeballingxe2x80x9d of the data by a person with some amount of experience or specialized expertise. This traditional approach is virtually impossible when the size of the database gets too large.
Database-querying techniques include SQL querying methods, and permit the data analyst to apply pertinent queries to the data and receive responsive information. While such techniques are effective in instances when the analyst is cognizant of the attributes of the data and thus can determine the queries, when the data is vast in size and the queries are less obvious, these techniques prove to be ineffective.
Clustering methods are shown in, for example, Eisen, et al. xe2x80x9cCluster Analysis and Display of Genome-wide Expression Patterns,xe2x80x9d Proc. Nat""l. Acad. Sci. USA, 95(25):14863-8, 1998, and also include self-organizing maps as shown in Tamayo, et al., xe2x80x9cInterpreting Patterns of Gene Expression with Self-Organizing Maps: Methods and Application to Hematopoetic Differentiation,xe2x80x9d Proc. Nat""l. Acad. Sci. USA, Vol 96, pp. 2907-2912, March 1999. Such methods group genes into clusters that exhibit xe2x80x9csimilarxe2x80x9d types of behavior in the experiments. These clustering methods allow biologists to design experiments helping them to understand further the relationships among the underlying data points, and hence the genetic expressions shown by those data points. However, such traditional clustering methods fail to provide deep insights into specific relationships among genes and biological processes in the cell because the clusters are, by definition, broad categories.
Support vector machines (xe2x80x9cSVM""sxe2x80x9d) have been employed to overcome the problems associated with the querying, clustering and self-organizing map approaches, as shown in Brown, et al., xe2x80x9cKnowledge-Based Analysis of Microarray Gene Expression Data by Using Support Vector Machines,xe2x80x9d in PNAS, vol. 97, Issue I, pages 262-267, Jan. 4, 2000. In particular, the SVM method described in Brown, et al. builds a gene classifier based on some training data by using SVM methods that draw hyperplanes that separate different classes of data (e.g., positives from negatives). Then these classifiers are used to identify unknown functions of genes. SVM methods seek to solve an important but very specific problem of identifying functions of genes based upon predetermined classifications of functions using supervised machine learning methods. There is, however, much more to the analysis of biological and genomic data than just the identification of gene functions.
It is thus an object of the present invention to overcome the shortcomings of the prior art and provide a mathematical system and method that employs a computer for processing large amounts of biological, medial and/or biochemical data through the process of discretizing this data, generating logical rules from such discretized data, and processing of those rules by the system in a manner that presents rules of greatest relevance.
The various features of novelty which characterize the invention are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of the disclosure. For a better understanding of the invention, its operating advantages, and specific objects attained by its use, reference should be had to the drawings and descriptive matter in which there are illustrated and described preferred embodiments of the invention.
The present invention relates to a method and system for the analysis of biological, medical and/or biochemical xe2x80x9crawxe2x80x9d data, and more particularly to the creation of discrete values for each of such data points based upon a plurality of attributes, followed by creation of rules and subsequent processing of these rules. The steps involved in the instant invention include receiving the raw data and entering such data into a storage arrangement including, e.g., a relational database, in accordance with the values and attributes of the data; determining discrete bins for at least one of the attributes for the data in accordance with the values of the data entered in the relational database for each of the attributes; discretizing the data in the database by replacing each of the data points in the database with a number reflecting the appropriate bin in which each such point is found; mining the discretized data in the relational database to determine sets of applicable logical rules including, e.g., association rules; processing the logical rules at least once; and presenting the processed logical rules, with or without the discretized and raw data. The number of bins is a small number xe2x80x9cn,xe2x80x9d in which 1 less than nxe2x89xa6100, preferably nxe2x89xa610, and more preferably n =3.
The discretization process converts numeric values, e.g., gene expression data from a particular experiment, into a discrete value corresponding to a specific bin. The number of such bins and the boundaries between them can be determined using methods known to someone of ordinary skill in the art, or determined mathematically by establishing the full range of data values and parsing boundaries between them using known methods. Once the appropriate bin is determined, the instant method and system will place a tag upon each data point indicative of the bin in which that data point is to be placed.
As a result of the discretization step, boundaries between data points are determined and each of the raw values of data are then converted into discrete values. For the particular preferred embodiment of expression levels of individual genes in a single experiment, these values are preferably represented with three different states: unchanged (denoted as #), upregulated (denoted as ↑), and downregulated (denoted as ↓). Therefore, each experiment is re-represented with a vector of N genes taking one of these three values (#, ↑, ↓). Each entry in a relational database has, for each attribute, preferably one of these three values. Assuming that there are M experiments (or attributes) and N genes, the relational database can be represented by an Mxc3x97N matrix of n values. After creating this Mxc3x97N matrix, the inventive process next generates logical rules for gene expression.
Although the invention preferably possesses three discrete bins for discretization of the genetic attributes (upregulated, downregulated, and unchanged), it is not limited to this specific case. In fact, the system and method can accommodate any other number of gene expression states or scientific attributes. For example, genes can have binary states (yes/no), or arbitrary n-valued states (e.g. n=4, 5, etc.).
Once the data is discretized, the inventive system and method then xe2x80x9cminesxe2x80x9d the data to determine logical rules for that data, including degrees of reliability of the logical rules based upon the underlying data. Data mining techniques are known in the art, including those stated in Agrawal, et al., xe2x80x9cFast Discovery of Association Rules,xe2x80x9d in Fayyad, U. M., et al., Advances in Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (AAAI Press, 1996, Chapter 12) (hereinafter xe2x80x9cAgrawal, et al.xe2x80x9d) which are especially usefull to the instant invention.
The data mining step creates a plethora of logical rules especially for genomic data where N is very large. Where the underlying biological, medical or biochemical data is voluminous, the expectation is the creation of a smaller, but still quite large, subset of logical rules. Hence, it is important to sift through this large mass of logical rules to enable the presentation of those that are truly of interest. Accordingly, the instant invention provides for iterative processing of the created rules by way of a plurality of different operators, described in greater detail below.
The inventive operators include filtering operators (MATCH(S,T), MISMATCH(S,T), and CONTRADICT(S,T)) in which S is a set of logical rules, and T is a template. Also presented are clustering operators. Also included, are a set of data mapping operators (TRANS_MATCH(D,T,C) and TRANS_MISMATCH(D,T,C), in which D is a data set, T is a template, and C is a matching condition xe2x80x9cfor allxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cfor any.xe2x80x9d Lastly, included is a data characterization operator (DATA-CHAR(D,S,R)), wherein D is a set of transactions, S is a structure, and R is a set of rules.
It should be appreciated that the system and method described are not limited to the gene expression problem. In fact, the invention is applicable to biological, medical or biochemical data for which the discovery of large numbers of logical rules are a necessary consequence of the analysis of volumes of underlying data. As a result of the invention and its employment of the operators to the logical rules produced from the discretized data, a smaller population of rules is produced that are of greater importance and reliability, and the basis for creating this population can be iteratively adapted if other indicia of significance are considered. The invention is particularly useful in applications having relatively few data points/records (e.g., measured in hundreds) and a huge number of attributes/fields/variables (e.g., measured in 10""s or even 100""s of thousands of attributes). Obviously, the gene expression problem constitutes one such application. Other applications include analysis of biochemical compounds, proteomics (protein interaction) and efficacy of drugs and their analogs.
Other features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. It is to be understood, however, that the drawings are designed solely for purposes of illustration and not as a definition of the limits of the invention, for which reference should be made to the appended claims.

Method and system for the creation, application and processing of logical rules in connection with biological, medical or biochemical data


A muffler system for a refrigeration motor-compressor comprising an upper and lower case, a compressor formed by a motor and by a body in which a muffler is fixed, a tube fixed to the lower case conveying the refrigerant gas into the cases, an asymmetric side groove provided along the muffler and positioned with regard to the tube, through which the gas arrives in the case, in such a way that the refrigerant gas passes near a farther side of the groove with an angle of incidence causing the alien particles suspended in the gas to rebound far from the muffler and the gas to be kept by the groove side nearer to the tube and an inlet in the groove for conveying the gas to the compressor cylinder.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a muffler system for refrigeration motor-compressors and more precisely to suction muffler.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As it is well known, when the compressor is assembled, it is installed in the refrigerator and hermetically connected to the refrigeration circuit. Such a hermetic connection does not allow any maintenance within the refrigeration circuit components, thus it is important that no working or soldering residues remain within the system, risking damage to the most important components, such as for example the valve plate-piston unit where the refrigerant gas is sucked and then pumped at determined pressure into the refrigeration circuit. The compressor components, before being assembled, are accurately washed in order to remove any alien particles therefrom. This operation may not be effected in the portion of the circuit placed in the refrigerator, which is composed of a condenser and an evaporator, because it is too difficult and expensive. Compressors are known where a filter is inserted in the suction muffler in order to avoid the alien particles from reaching the valve plate-piston unit.
In such a way, the particles are stopped by the filter which may partially or completely clog and since it is impossible to replace the filter, a smaller quantity of gas is sucked into the compression chamber. This is due to the fact that the gas warms before entering the compressor chamber and thus its volume increases. As a consequence, there is a smaller discharge of compressed gas in the circuit and thus a lower efficiency of the refrigerator.
In other compressors, on the muffler, near the entry hole, a little plate is positioned perpendicularly to the refrigerant gas entry direction. Any particles suspended in the gas, strike against the little plate and, precipitate in the compressor bottom while the gas passes into the muffler through the hole near said little plate. By this solution the particles which strike the little plate, rebound, and enter the muffler hole and thus reach the valve plate-piston unit, to damage it. Another drawback of this solution is due to the fact that the little plate, as it is continuously struck by the gas which enters the compressor at a pressure of about 5 atmospheres,may break and so is no longer directed toward the muffler hole.
A further drawback of this solution is the considerable vibration to which the little plate is subjected and thus an increase of noise.

Deflection system for alien particles in a refrigeration motor compressor


A method, system and product for detecting firmware vulnerabilities, including, during a testing phase of a firmware of a device, continuously polling states and activities of the device, wherein said polling is at a testing agent that is functionality separate from the firmware; correlating between at least one event that is associated with the states or the activities of the device and test results of the testing phase; based on said correlating, determining for the firmware one or more normal events and one or more abnormal events; and after the testing phase, providing indications of the one or more normal events and one or more abnormal events from the testing agent to a runtime agent, whereby said providing enables the runtime agent to protect the firmware from vulnerabilities associated with the one or more abnormal events.

Computerized devices control almost every aspect of our life—from writing documents to controlling traffic lights. However, computerized devices are bug-prone, and thus require a testing phase in which the bugs should be discovered. The testing phase is considered one of the most difficult tasks in designing a computerized device. The cost of not discovering a bug may be enormous, as the consequences of the bug may be disastrous. For example, a bug may cause the injury of a person relying on the designated behavior of the computerized device. Additionally, a bug in hardware or firmware may be expensive to fix, as patching it requires call-back of the computerized device. Hence, many developers of computerized devices invest a substantial portion, such as 70%, of the development cycle to discover erroneous behaviors of the computerized device.
Black box testing tests a functionality of a system without observing the internal workings of the system. In comparison, white box testing is done by someone who has a clear understanding of the internals of the system.
In some exemplary embodiments, black box testing may be utilized when testing firmware. Firmware may be low-level software component which can directly access hardware. Firmware may be shipped with the hardware platform such as a computing device, or alternatively, firmware may be independently distributed.