A light-assisted biochemical sensor based on a light addressable potentiometric sensor is disclosed. The light-assisted biochemical sensor comprises a semiconductor substrate and a sensing layer, which are used to detect the specific ion concentration or the biological substance concentration of a detected solution. Lighting elements fabricated directly on the back surface of the semiconductor substrate directly illuminate the light to the semiconductor substrate, so as to enhance the photoconduction property of the semiconductor substrate. And then, the hysteresis and the sensing sensitivity of the light-assisted biochemical sensor are respectively reduced and improved. In addition, due to its characteristics of integration, the light-assisted biochemical sensor not only reduces the fabrication cost but also has portable properties and real-time detectable properties. As a result, its detection range and the application range are wider.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a biochemical sensor, particularly to a light-assisted biochemical sensor based on a light addressable potentiometric sensor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Refer to FIG. 1. The light addressable potentiometric sensor (LAPS) is a biochemical sensor based on the photovoltaic effect of semiconductor.
FIG. 1 is a diagram schematically showing the pH measurement system of the traditional light addressable potentiometric sensor. The LAPS mainly comprises a semiconductor substrate 101, and an oxide layer 102 or a nitride layer formed on the semiconductor substrate 101. An external light source 104 is located behind the back surface of the semiconductor substrate 101. When a light with a wavelength is emitted to a semiconductor, the semiconductor absorbs the photons such that the jumping of atoms from valance band to the conduction band will produce pairs of electrons and holes. In general, the electron-hole pair will be rapidly recombined, and then the current can not be detected by an external circuit. If the LAPS is biased at a reversed bias (N-type silicon is biased at a negative voltage and P-type silicon is biased at a positive voltage), a depletion region is generated in the semiconductor, and the electron-hole pair close to the depletion region is separated to the two sides of the depletion region before they have a chance to recombine with each other. If the intensity-adjusting light source is used to illuminate the light, the alternate variations of the electron-hole pair will occur. Then, the photocurrent is detected in the external circuit. The photocurrent variations correspond to the responses of the sensing region of the LAPS. As a result, the specific ion concentration or the biological substance concentration of an electrolyte is detected by the photocurrent variation due to the potential variation of the sensing region.
Since the LAPS can continuously detect a plurality of parameters and have the advantages of high sensitivity, high stability, and high input resistance, the application range thereof is very wide. However, the traditional LAPS detects the electrolyte concentration in cooperation with the external light source, whereby the measurement system of the LAPS has larger volume and the measuring process is more complicated. These disadvantages limit the convenience and practicability of the LAPS.


Methods and compositions for reducing fibrosis and cirrhosis are provided in which an effective dose of an admixture of a polysaccharide compound and, for example, a compound selected from the group consisting of antibodies specific to intracellular or cell-surface: (i) beta-PDGF receptors; (ii) synaptophysin; (iii) zvegf3; (iv) CCR1 receptors; (v) connective tissue growth factor; (vi) alpha 1-smooth muscle actin; (vii) matrix metalloproteinases MMP 2 and MMP9; (viii) matrix metalloproteinase inhibitors TIMP1 and TMP2; (ix) integrins; (x) TFG-β1; (xi) endothelin receptor antagonists; and (xii) collagen synthesis and degradation modulating compounds; (xiii) actin synthesis and degradation modulating compounds; and (xiv) tyrosine kinases is administered to an animal in order to treat fibrosis.

Fibrosis is an intermediate result of and a pathological process itself leading from tissue injury through its encapsulation by extracellular matrix to a pathological formation of scar tissue.
Injury leading to fibrosis occurs in response to a variety of chronic insults including alcohol abuse, drugs, toxins, viral hepatitis B and C, some metabolic diseases, foreign objects, such as small mineral or organic particles (e.g., in the lungs), causing chronic and/or permanent tissue irritation, or other hepatic or pulmonary abnormalities. The advanced stage of fibrosis is cirrhosis, defined by the presence of encapsulated nodules, and eventually cancer.
Fibrosis is a systemic response to chronic injury, developing through a series of highly coordinated molecular events, collectively called fibrogenesis. In one example, fibrosis develops as a result of chronic mammalian liver injury. The steps immediately following chronic mammalian liver injury represent a process called "initiation", which in turns are early events of "activation" of hepatic stellate cells. The next step of stellate cells activation is "perpetuation", and this leads to proliferation, fibrogenesis and matrix degradation. Each of these events is accompanied by specific molecular markers, such as collagen I (a marker on fibrosis), alpha 1-smooth muscle actin (a marker on activation of stellate cells), beta PDGF-receptor (a marker on proliferation), matrix metalloproteinases and their inhibitors MMP2, MMP9, TIMP1 and TMP2 (markers on matrix degradation), cytokine TFG-β1 (a marker on fibrogenesis).
Development of fibrosis can be evaluated by the quantitative level of the respective markers. Reduction of fibrosis can be evaluated by the decrease of the level of the respective markers during various stages of fibrosis. Fibrosis can be reduced and reversed. Furthermore, even the advanced stage of fibrosis, cirrhosis, can also be reversed.

Galactose-pronged polysaccharides in a formulation for antifibrotic therapies


A scheme for rapidly connecting and rapidly disconnecting a large number of point contacts onto a pipe surface is taught. The scheme involves pressing sharply pointed pin contacts onto the pipe surface by gas pressure. Each pin is held in a conforming opening in an annular ring structure. The ring forms the inner wall of an annulus capable of holding gas pressure to urge the many needles inward against the pipe surface. Each pin is individually connected to a power supply and sensing apparatus.

The present invention relates generally to applying currents and making electrical measurements on cylindrical members such as pipes. More particularly it relates to facilitating the engagement or attachment of multiple electrodes or contacts to the external surface of a pipe and also to facilitating removal of such multiple electrical contacts from a pipe surface.
Studies have been made as part of an overall effort to improve the performance of pipes and other such structures relative to damage from flaws in the structures which can lead to cracking in the walls thereof. One of the types of cracking which has received and which deserves special attention is stress corrosion cracking. Such type of cracking occurs where the pipe element serves to contain high temperature, high pressure steam, water, or other fluids.
One way which has been very effective in studying the cracking which occurs within a pipe wall is by making electrical measurements of the pipe and observing changes in electrical potential and flow of current in the pipe both before and after the cracking has been initiated and as the crack grows.
To study the cracking phenomena within pipe walls and other elements, it is frequently desirable to make many measurements essentially around the entire circumference of the pipe and also to make similar measurements along the length of the pipe from one contact point to another spaced axially along the length of the pipe.
Where the application of a large number of current patterns and the measurement of a large numbers of voltages on pipe members can be accomplished, the data which is generated from such measurements can be used in the so called Electric Current Computed Tomography or ECCT. ECCT is a practice in which determination can be made of the condition of the pipe itself from the electrical measurements made with the aid of the many surface contacts which are attached to the pipe.
Accordingly, a central problem in the use of the ECCT technology is the making of a large number of electrical contacts precisely on a pipe surface to permit the application of currents and the measurement of voltages and the critical data to be collected. The present method is one for facilitating the rapid attachment of a large number of contacts to a pipe surface and the removal of the large number of contacts from a pipe surface.
What is needed in connection with making ECCT measurements of piping is reliable electrical contact of many elements at a pipe surface. The contact to be effective electrically, must be one which does not change with time. Further the contacts must be evenly spaced both along the pipe and about the pipe in order to provide the proper geometry to accumulate the data needed for ECCT type of analysis and study.
Alternatively, the method can be applied to the measurement of voltages as part of techniques where current attachments are made external to the fixture.

Method of engagement of electrical contacts to pipe members


A camera device includes an image capturing module, a face detection module, a light detection and ranging (LIDAR) system, a storage module, and a microprocessor. The image capturing module continuously captures images of a determined filed. The face detection module detects the images to obtain a face to be tested, and records coordinates of the face in the image. The LIDAR system scans the face to be tested in the determined field according to the coordinates thereby to obtain three-dimensional information of the face to be tested. The storage module stores three-dimensional information of a determined face. The microprocessor compares the three-dimensional information of the face to be tested with the three-dimensional information of the determined face, and then outputs a recognition signal.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a camera device and an identity recognition method utilizing the camera device.
2. Description of Related Art
A light detection and ranging (LIDAR) system is an optical sensing system usually used to collect topographic data. For example, the system is widely used by the national oceanic and atmospheric administration (NOAA) and national aeronautics and space administration (NASA) scientists to document topographic changes along shorelines. In general, a LIDAR system is capable of emitting laser light at a rate of 7,000 to 8,000 pulses per second, to have a scanning measurement with a high precision. The LIDAR system depends on the known light speed, proximately 0.3 meters per nanosecond. Using this constant, a returning light photon has traveled to and from an object can be calculated.
A common camera device is frequently utilized to conduct facial recognition for security purposes. However, the common camera device takes the face recognition via analyzing a two-dimensional image of a person's face, therefore, the accuracy of a recognition result relies upon the capturing environment. The common camera device also cannot tell whether the two-dimensional image for recognition is captured from an actual person or a picture of the person, thus raising a question of reliability for such recognition. The present disclosure tries to combine the LIDAR system with a camera device to solve the shortfalls of the current art.

Camera device and identity recognition method utilizing the same


This apparatus for manufacturing semiconductor substrates has support disks and holding units holding semiconductor substrates on the support disks. The holding unit has a stopper which is formed of a conductive material and holds the brim of the semiconductor substrate, a stopper holder which supports the stopper at the outer circumferential portion thereof, a retaining member which retains the stopper to the support disk, and a heating unit which heats the stopper.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for manufacturing a semiconductor substrate used for manufacturing SIMOX (Separation by Implanted Oxygen) substrate by implanting oxygen ions into a semiconductor substrate of silicon and the like, and then applying a high-temperature treatment.
This application claims priority from Japanese Patent Application No. 2005-244656 filed on Aug. 25, 2005, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
2. Background Art
In a common batch-type ion implantation apparatus, for example, as shown in Patent Reference 1, multiple pieces of semiconductor substrate are mounted on multiple support disks equipped on one rotating plat-form and processed in a lump under vacuum.
An ion accelerated by necessary energy is implanted into a semiconductor substrate while being rotated like turning these support disks. As methods for uniformly implanting an ion in a semiconductor substrate, a method of scanning the support disks themselves in conformity to the turning of support disks or a method of scanning an ion beam only by turning support disks are given. In both methods, uniform ion implantation may be performed over the entire surface of all semiconductor substrates on the support disks.
Centrifugal force is utilized for the support of semiconductor substrates. Therefore, a structure of slightly inclining support disks for supporting the semiconductor substrates to the turning surface of the support disks to press the semiconductor substrates against the support disks is adopted.
If turning is inclined at only an angle α to the turning surface of the support disks, the semiconductor substrates are pressed against the support disks by a component of the centrifugal force in proportional to sine α. The inclination α may not be increased too large in restricting the ion implantation.
Therefore, the semiconductor substrates fly off to the outside only by a frictional force at the rear of semiconductor substrates. Accordingly, members called stoppers for suppressing the fly-off of the semiconductor substrates is necessary.
These stoppers have a width, but the support disks are commonly turned at several hundred rpm or so, and the acceleration at this time is also a value of over 150 G (G: gravity acceleration). The semiconductor substrates are 12 in. in diameter and about 150 g, thus the stoppers must support a load (22.5 kg) which is 150 times as much as its own weight.
However, the semiconductor substrates may not be supported on the support disks only at peripheral contact positions by the stoppers. Substrate inner supports must also be provided for the semiconductor substrates at the inner periphery of the support disks.
Moreover, an ion beam current implanted into the semiconductor substrates must flow to the outside of the support disks and the like. Therefore, at least the stoppers or the substrate inner supports must be ensured as a current passage. Stoppers capable of ensuring contact with the semiconductor substrates by the centrifugal force are suitable for the passage of ion beam current.
Furthermore, heat generated in the semiconductor substrates due to ion implantation is put out through the support disks by radiation heat transfer from the entire rear face of the semiconductor substrates, but part of heat is also put out through the stoppers or the substrate inner supports.
In the manufacture of SIMOX substrate, absolute values of the film thickness of the SI (Silicon ON Insulator) layer and BOX (Buried Oxide) layer are decided by the acceleration voltage and the implantation rate during oxygen ion implantation. At this time, the film thickness also depends upon the temperature during implantation.
The ion implantation rate may be made uniform to a level at which the uniformity of the film thickness is not affected by control of above-mentioned scanning conditions. It is also possible to ensure a uniformity level of temperature during implantation by heating the substrates with a radiation heater having an area larger than the semiconductor substrates, for which implantation is performed at the temperature during implantation, and further using material with high adiabaticity or high heat insulativity and no conductivity in the contact part of the substrate inner supports.
In an ion implantation apparatus used for manufacturing the SIMOX substrate, semiconductor substrates must be heated to a desirable temperature. Therefore, a radiation heater, such as halogen lamp and the like is disposed in a vacuum vessel provided with above-mentioned support disks.
When ion implantation is performed, the support disks loaded with the semiconductor substrates are turned and then the semiconductor substrates are heated to a desired temperature by the radiation heater. Subsequently, an ion beam is raised to perform ion implantation while controlling the disks or scanning of the beam.
If the implantation rate reaches a set value for the entire surface of semiconductor substrates, the scan control is stopped at a position where the ion beam does not hit the semiconductor substrates, the radiation heater is cut off and the rotation of the support disks is stopped.
Recently, however, the SOI layer has tended to be extremely thinned in the SOI substrates including SIMOX and only slight non-uniformity of film thickness has not been allowed. As a result, the problem that prescribed film thickness uniformity could not be realized was known to arise in the prior art.
In view of the above problem, an object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for manufacturing semiconductor substrates capable of forming a SOI layer and BOX layer in a uniform thickness as a whole.
(Patent Reference 1) Japanese Patent Application, Publication No. 2002-231176

Apparatus for manufacturing semiconductor substrates


A system for network virtualization in which physical network resources in different physical contexts are configured to implement one or more distributed logical network elements, at least some of the physical network resources implementing the distributed logical network elements configured according the physical context of those network resources. The local configuration of a physical locale is a version of the logical configuration that is modified specifically for the physical locale. Such modification is based on locale identifiers that are assigned to the physical locales. Some systems use locale-specific information to modify next-hop preference. Some system use locally modified configurations to determine the placement of VMs.

The benefits of network virtualization are well known. VMware® NSX® is a product suite that allows for virtualizing the network for VMs. NSX provides the network elements as fundamental building blocks of a distributed virtual network, elements such as Distributed Logical Switches (for providing L2 based packet forwarding) and Distributed Logical Routers (for providing L3 based packet forwarding).
The notion of a distributed logical network element (e.g., a distributed logical Switch or Router) is powerful since it allows the operator a construct a virtual network while hiding the underlying physical network connectivity and its limitations. The only thing required from the underlying physical infrastructure is that it is capable of forwarding Ethernet encapsulated IP frames.
The distributed logical network element is instantiated on a number of physical nodes (e.g. hypervisors) that participate in the logical network. These nodes also provide uniform packet forwarding capabilities in software. The control plane is responsible in configuring these uniform policies on the participating hypervisor nodes. These policies and configurations are necessarily at the logical level. In other words, they are not concerned with the underlying physical topology. This approach works well where the underlying physical network provides "uniform connectivity" to all participating hypervisors. By "uniform connectivity", all the hypervisors are connected to a network with similar properties like latency, throughput, etc.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Using physical location to modify behavior of a distributed virtual network element


A method for quality surveillance of powdered press material for a rotary press, in which the press material is fed from a reservoir via a preferably vertical feed channel to a filling device, which continuously fills dies of a rotor with press material wherein to the feed channel and/or the filling device is assigned a microwave resonator with an analysis unit, which measures the moisture and/or the density and/or the size of the granules of the press material, and at least one press variable of the microwave resonator is used for changing a control variable of the rotary press.

Rotary presses serve, as is generally known, for producing tablet shaped pellets, in particular, for the pharmaceutical industry. Rotary presses have largely the same construction. A rotationally driven rotor contains upper and lower punches and dies, into which powdered press material is filled continuously with the use of a filling device, and the powdered material is compressed using the press punches. The press punches are actuated using pressure rollers. Outside of the press stations, the press punches are controlled by control cams. After pressing, the pellets are ejected using the lower punches, and removed from a deflector.
In the pharmaceutical sector, in particular, the pellets must meet a series of quality criteria, for example, weight, strength, break resistance, height, active substance content, active substance release, dispersal, friability, porosity, surface, moisture content, etc. It is known to perform quality surveillance through sampling during production. If the tested pellets do not correspond to the desired conditions, appropriate setting parameters in the press are changed. Setting parameters are, for example, the rotational speed of the rotor, the rotational speed of the filling device, the powder dosing into the dies, the pressing force over the pressure rollers, etc.
Online process control is also known. A test device is positioned directly alongside the tablet press. Samples are automatically removed from the tablet flow and guided to the testing device. There, the pellets are isolated and measured. A change of at least one setting parameter of the lower press occurs via a computer interface from the testing device to the machine control. It is generally known to assign to such rotary presses a machine computer and a workstation which perform the control and regulation of the pressing operation.
It is also known to directly test, during the production, the pressing force to which a pellet is subjected. As is known, the pressing force is a measure for the tablet weight and tablet hardness. If the pressing force does not have the required value, for example, either the quantity of powder supplied per die and/or the setting of the pressure rollers is changed.
Finally, it is also known, for example, to measure the active substance in the pellets using a near infrared spectroscopy (NIR), or a laser fluorescence spectroscopy (LIF). Such a measurement can take place within the housing of the tablet press, either after the dies are filled, or during the ejection of the pellets from the dies.
It is the objective of the invention to specify a method for quality surveillance of pressed material in a rotary press, using which a rapid response to production changes is possible, and the loss ratio of pellets with insufficient quality features can be minimized.

Rotary press for quality surveillance of powdered pressed material


When multiple types of imaging are performed while moving a table on which a subject to be examined is placed, an imaging efficiency is improved and a high-quality image is obtained within a short time. Therefore, within a predetermined time interval such as an identical period of a periodic living body motion, a predetermined number of echo signals from each of the multiple types of imaging sequences are acquired and the table on which the subject to be examined is placed is moved. Along with the movement of the table, data items within the same range in the Ky-direction as to each of the imaging sequences are acquired, the moving speed of the table is controlled in such a manner that the acquired data items become continuous in the x-direction, and images are reconstructed based on the data items obtained respectively from the imaging sequences.

In the MRI apparatus, an imaging sequence is repeatedly executed at predetermined time intervals, thereby acquiring a group of echo signals, which is necessary for reconstructing an image. If the subject to be examined moves while the imaging sequence is executed, discontinuity may occur between the echo signals, causing a false image, which is referred to as an artifact, when the image is reconstructed. Considering the situation above, the imaging sequence is executed, gated with a periodic motion such as respiration and heart beating among the motion of the subject to be examined, so as to eliminate the body motion apparently, thereby executing a gated imaging that reduces the artifact.
In order to respond to a request for imaging a wide range, there is a moving table imaging method which performs measurement while a table placing the subject to be examined thereon moves, so that a wide-range image of the subject to be examined is obtained (see non-patent document 1, for example). In the moving table imaging, while the imaging sequence is repeatedly executed, the table is continuously moved to update the subject to be examined position, and then the echo signals obtained at respective positions are combined to reconstruct an image.
[Non-Patent Document 1]    D. G. Kruger et.al., Continuously Moving Table Method for Extended FOV 3D MRI, Proc. Intl. Soc. Mag. Reson. Med. 10 (2002): 294.

Magnetic resonance imaging apparatus and magnetic resonance imaging method


A wheel suspension for motor vehicles has a wheel guiding member and a spring strut, the spring element of which has at least two spring parts which are spaced away from one another in a direction of a spring axis. These spring parts form a clearance between one another and are connected with one another by an intermediate element. The spring parts are respectively arranged above and below a ring section of the tire. By means of an intermediate element which is directly adjacent to the section and extends approximately in vertical direction, they are, arranged in series, connected with one another.

The present invention relates to a wheel suspension and more particularly a wheel suspension having a shock absorber strut and a spring element which, while the piston jamming force is reduced, only requires a relatively small installation space between the wheels of an axle and permits a low construction profile.
From the technical book "Fahrwerktechnik: Radaufhangungen" ("Chassis Technology: Wheel Suspensions") (Reimpell, J., Wurzburg, 1st Edition 1986, Page 254, FIG. 6.2/3), a wheel suspension is disclosed which has a spring strut and a one piece coil spring which is arranged diagonally with respect to the axis of the shock absorber strut, whereby an at least partial compensation of a normal wheel force is achieved, and a reduction or elimination of piston jamming forces can be achieved.
In the case of an arrangement above the wheel, the one piece coil springs result in a large overall height of the spring strut, or in the case of an arrangement next to the wheel, they result in a relatively large steering force lever arm, which has a negative effect on the directional stability characteristics of the vehicle.
A division of the spring element into two pieces and the supporting of these series connected spring elements by means of an intermediate element is disclosed by German Published, Unexamined Patent Application (DE-OS) 34 05 174. In this construction an upper spring element is arranged at the level of the section of the tire, and the intermediate element connecting the two spring elements is used for the unimpaired guiding through of a drive shaft to the wheel. In this construction, the spring elements are arranged next to the shock absorber strut so that the installation space between the wheels is reduced significantly.
Thus, it is an object of the present invention to provide a wheel suspension having a shock absorber strut and a spring element which, while the piston jamming force is reduced, requires only a relatively small installation space between the wheels of an axle and permits a low construction.
Principal advantages achieved by preferred embodiments of the invention are that, by means of a two part spring and its arrangement close to a wheel or partially in the rim nave of a wheel, an enlarged installation space is created between the wheels of an axle, and a low overall height is provided. For this purpose, the springs, operating in series, are connected with one another by an intermediate element which is arranged in the area of a ring section of the tire. In order to guide the intermediate element close to the wheel, the wheel may have a corresponding recess.
The displacing of a spring axis of the lower spring element with respect to a spring axis of the upper spring element toward the wheel causes a force which counteracts the transverse force which is always present at the body side fastening point during straight ahead driving. This force, as a function of the loading condition, may result in a neutralizing of the transverse force. This compensating effect is reinforced by the displacement of the lower suspension joint toward the outside into the wheel, because the lever arm of the vertical force affecting the wheel is shortened and thus, on the whole, smaller bearing forces are created.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.


Implementations of the subject matter described herein provide a switching apparatus including an energy storage changement mechanism that can realize the main shaft energy storage and direction changement by using only one solenoid. Furthermore, the switching apparatus can be adopted in both two position ATS and three position ATS to satisfy different application scenarios or different market requirements. In addition, all transfers can be achieved by independent manual and electric operation, and each transfer action only requires powering a single solenoid.

Electrical automatic transfer switch (ATS) is widely used in power distribution system. ATS can detect and monitor the power quality, and transfer supply between normal and standby power sources. Such supply transfer requires a mechanism to enable a forward and reverse motion.
Traditional ATS is composed of two electrical switches connected with a set of mechanical and electrical interlocking devices. Due to the large number of components, complicated structure, unreliable interlocking and vulnerability to faults, such traditional ATS becomes less and less used in engineering fields.
One-piece PC level ATS only includes a set mechanism, double-throw contact, and an integrated controller. Its high integrity, simple structure, small volume, fast action, safe and reliable performance make it becomes the development trend of the future. However, the implementation of the forward and reverse motion in one mechanism is still challenging.
Motor can easily move in forward and reverse direction, and thus it was used to directly drive the main shaft in early transfer switches. However, motor action is relatively slow, thereby the motor-based mechanism may not be suitable for rapid switching. On the contrary, solenoid enables fast action, but it can only move in one direction. In an conventional solution, two solenoids are used to drive the main shaft, one for forward motion and the other for reversed motion. However, due to the high price of solenoid, such two solenoids based solution is usually not cost effective. Therefore, there are always expectations of achieving a fast, reliable and cost-effective changement mechanism with compactness and simple structure.
Moreover, ATS can be designed and constructed to be two working position switch or three working position switch, depending on different application scenarios or different market requirements (For example, in UL market, only the two position switch is allowed, while for other markets such as IEC and GB, there is more demand for the three position switch). For three working position switch, the contact can stop at an off position that is not connected with any power source, while for two working position switch, the contact just moves between two sources without any stop in the middle. However, majority of the currently available ATSs in the market cannot be adapted to be used in both two position scenarios and three position scenarios.
Furthermore, independent operation becomes more and more meaningful, especially for the manual operation. Normally, switch can only break or load under the electrical operation, since electrical operation can provide high speed which is helpful and sometimes required for contact breaking and making. Therefore, it is also expected to achieve an independent manual operation switch that can enable a contact speed as high as the electric operation, regardless of the user's hand operation speed.
Some conventional two position ATS having one solenoid has simple construction and enables transfer contact under 30 ms in electric operation. However, in the manual mode, the contact transfer time is completely dependent on the hand operation speed. WO2008/124773A illustrates a three-position actuator where two sets the two position actuators are connected with each other via a link. An additional handle operation mechanical can connect the two sets contact, and drive each set contact separately, thus it can provide independent manual operation under three positions. WO2011/125120 illustrates a dual-solenoid actuator (where the actuator is a two position actuator) which supports an independent manual operation. Other dual-solenoid actuators can be found from CN 200720112341, CN200710073339, CN 200520104092, CN 201020289333, and CN 201110353479.


The present invention relates to novel peptides and to topical and food compositions comprising them. The novel peptides have applications in skin lightening and immunomodulation when applied topically and to immunomodulation and modulation of body mass when consumed in food compositions.

People all over the world want to be healthy and look healthy. Having a good and balanced lifestyle comprising eating wholesome food, exercise, and minimizing external stresses like pollution, heat, dust, and ultra-violet (uv) radiation have been believed to give one a healthy body. In addition to the above lifestyle changes which also make a person look healthy, people use cosmetics to improve their external appearance. Two of the most important attributes to being healthy and looking healthy is a controlled body weight (not too overweight or too underweight) and external appearance of the exposed skin. While nutrition plays an important part in having a controlled body weight, external appearance is to an extent controlled by use of topically applied cosmetic products.
In tropical countries where people generally have dark skin, there is a desire to have lighter skin appearance. People who live far from the tropical areas e.g. the Caucasian people who generally have lighter skin, prefer to have an even tanned tone of their skin. Any exposure of their skin to sunlight, often leads to blotchy skin, referred to as freckles and in some cases they experience hyperpigmentation in localized areas of the skin.
To have lighter coloured or even toned skin colour, many cosmetic approaches are taken. One common approach is to include sunscreens or sunblocks in the cosmetic compositions. Sunscreens are generally organic compounds that work by absorbing ultra-violet radiation from the sun at a specified wavelength range thus not permitting the uv radiation from reaching the skin surface. UV radiation is believed to be the cause of skin coloration or tanning and if such tanning is uneven, it is disliked by the consumer. Sunblocks are generally inorganic compounds that act as physical barrier against a wide range of radiation from the sun (both uv and visible light).
Another approach is to include a skin lightening active in the cosmetic composition. Skin lightening actives are usually molecules or compositions which alter the formation of melanin in the skin through biochemical transformation in the skin thereby changing the colour and appearance of the skin. In human skin, formation of melanin pigment is initiated by the polymerization of the amino acid L-tyrosine, through a set of enzyme catalyzed as well as spontaneous chemical reactions. Amongst other things, this involves the action of the enzyme tyrosinase, present within the melanosomal compartment of melanocytes. Melanosomal contents are transferred from the melanocyte to multiple surrounding keratinocytes. The overall process is influenced by many hormones of which the melanocyte stimulating hormone (MSH), is a well studied one.
The present inventors have been working on developing novel skin lightening actives or new compositions for providing a skin lightening benefit. In the present invention, they have taken the approach to provide for novel peptides which preferentially bind to α-MSH (α-melanocyte stimulating hormone) so as to inhibit the binding of α-MSH on to the melanocortin 1 receptor (MC1 R). This inhibition provides benefits in the area of skin lightening. Use of peptides different from those disclosed herein for skin lightening which involve targeting the melanocyte have been disclosed earlier.
JP 2001 002527 (Lion) discloses a skin preparation for external use which includes 0.000001-30 weight percent based on total composition of a cell adhesion rearranging agent for melanocyte, e.g. peptides including Arginine-Glycine-Aspartic acid (RGD) sequence, peptides including an amino acid sequence of tyrosine-isoleucine-glycine-serine-arginine, pentoxyfeline, 3-deazaadenosine, derivatives of carboxamido, inositol polyamines, derivatives of salicylic acid and triterpenic acid, lactose, etc.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,126,327 (Lion) discloses a melanocyte-stimulating hormone inhibitor which has an amino acid sequence represented by formula [I], [II] or [III] as defined in the reference. It claims a melanocyte-stimulating hormone inhibitor and an external preparation to be applied to the skin which contains the inhibitor which prevent or cure the symptoms of chloasmata and freckles caused by an excess production of melanin by enhanced melanocyte function.
The present inventors have identified novel peptides which may be easily synthesized and may additionally provide synergistic benefits when used together. They found through extensive research involving a phage display technique that two specific peptides of seven amino acid sequence, specifically: Peptide (i) which has a specific low molecular weight (700 to 20 000) which has an amino acid residue of SEQ ID NO:1 -Leu-Ser-Arg-His-Val-Leu-Gln- (LSRHVLQ); or peptide (ii) having the amino acid residue of SEQ ID NO:2 -His-Gly-His-Pro-Phe-Ala-Pro- (HGHPFAP) preferentially bind to a-MSH (a- melanocyte stimulating hormone) so as to inhibit the binding of aMSH 0 n to M C 1 R. Further these peptides also have benefits in immunomodulation and modulation of body mass when they are used in topical or food compositions.
A search using basic local alignment search tool (BLAST) protein database search programs in the National Centre for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) database indicates that the exact same sequence of seven amino acids in peptide (i) has been reported as a part of a large protein or polynucleotide in natural occurring materials e.g in U.S. Pat. No. 7,344,860 (Bristol Myers Squibb Co.) and WO 2008 034648 (Metanomics). However the sequences reported therein have a molecular weight in excess of 27 000 Daltons and sometimes as high as 65 000 Daltons and do not provide the skin lightening and other benefits envisaged in the present invention. The inventors are not aware of the peptide (ii) being disclosed before.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide for novel peptides which provide for skin lightening when incorporated in skin lightening products.
It is another object of the invention to provide for novel peptides which interact synergistically to provide for enhanced skin lightening as compared to the individual peptides when incorporated in skin lightening products.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide for novel peptides which may be incorporated in topical or food products that provides for benefits like immunomodulation and/or modulation of body mass.


According to one aspect, embodiments herein provide an electrical connection sensor comprising at least one transducer configured to be coupled to a power distribution block, to generate ultrasonic pulses in the power distribution block, and to receive ultrasonic signals based on the ultrasonic pulses, and a controller coupled to the at least one transducer and configured to determine a status of at least one electrical connection in the power distribution block based on at least one characteristic of the ultrasonic signals received by the at least one transducer.

Field of the Invention
At least one example in accordance with the present invention relates generally to the monitoring of electrical connections.
Discussion of Related Art
Electronic systems, such as uninterruptible power supplies, generally include power distribution blocks to facilitate connection between two groups of wires. Such power distribution blocks typically use set screws to capture wires inserted in the power distribution block. For example, in a common power distribution block, a first wire is inserted into an opening of the power distribution block and is located adjacent a contact surface. The contact surface is electrically coupled to a terminal. As a user tightens a set screw of the power distribution block, the set screw (or a corresponding stud) moves downward, compressing the first wire against the contact surface and electrically coupling the first wire to the terminal. One or more additional wires can be inserted into additional receptacles of the power distribution block to electrically couple the additional wire(s) to the first wire.

Ultrasonic monitoring of electrical connections


An update device for providing configuration updates, such as recipes, advertising content, software update(s), pricing updates and/or other changes to brewer parameters, to a brewer device. When turned on, the update device wirelessly connects to a cloud account associated with the brewer device. Any pending content updates associated with the cloud account are wirelessly delivered to the update device and stored. When the update device is connected to the brewer device, the update device emulates a disk drive to transfer the updates to the brewer device.

Many existing brewer devices include communication ports, such as USB ports, through which a software update and/or configuration changes can be made to the brewer. For example, the brewer can be updated by plugging a USB thumb drive loaded with update content into the brewer's USB port and initiate an update. While such configuration changes and/or software updates can extend the brewer's functionality and lifespan, the update process can be time consuming and error prone in some cases.
Technicians, sales associates, field engineers and customers have to deliver and manage physical thumb drives to access files or contents that may be needed for provisioning software updates and configuration changes to brewer devices. Currently, these updates are sent via email or through a file exchange system for which accounts and account setup can be a hurdle. The download of the update content can be dependent on the user's browser, and introduce difficulty in the update process if the browser is incompatible. Likewise, transferring the update to a USB thumb drive can be error prone because the files may not be structured properly or could be stored in an improper format. If the transfer is done incorrectly, many times due to lack of proper instructions, this introduces potential failures in the update process. These issues can make the whole update process extremely frustrating for users and eventually lead to a bad customer experience. Therefore, there is a need for a device that provides a secure and failure proof mechanism for delivering update content to brewer devices.


The Barbell having parallel forearm engaging bar is an accessory for use with a barbell. The accessory can be installed upon an existing barbell and includes a second bar that is parallel with the barbell by a distance defined by a cross brace. The second bar features a paid of foam pads that engage the forearm of an end user so as to minimize wrist strain during a curling exercise with the barbell. The accessory includes a clamp assembly that enables the accessory to be installed and/or removed from the barbell.

A. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of weightlifting equipments, more specifically, a barbell that has an accessory integrated or attached thereon and of which includes a parallel bar that engages upon the forearm of an end user.
Curling weights on a barbell can cause pain and strain to the wrists of an end user. The strain to a wrist is similar to carpal tunnel syndrome, and can impact the ability to perform other functions associated with the respective hands. There is a need for a device that enables an end user to continue to perform curling exercises with weighted barbells without the risk of strain to the wrist.
B. Discussion of the Prior Art
As will be discussed immediately below, no prior art discloses an accessory that attaches onto a barbell and of which barbell and separated by a predefined distance; wherein the second bar is for engagement of a small portion of a forearm of an end user; wherein the accessory works with the forearms of an end user to minimize wrist strain during curling exercises with the use of a barbell.
The Favot Patent (U.S. Pat. No. 4,872,667) discloses a weightlifting apparatus for increasing the effective weight by offsetting it from a shaft enclosed in a sleeve gripped by the user. However, the apparatus is not an accessory for use with a barbell, which attaches onto a barbell and works with a forearm of an end user to reduce strain to the wrist when curling weights on the barbell.
The Brennan Patent (U.S. Pat. No. 4,312,506) discloses a bicep exercising curling bar, that to avoid pronation of the wrists, permits curling exercises in the palms up, supine, hand position, without undue and prolonged wrist strain. However, the curling bar is not an accessory that is installed upon an existing barbell and of which extends away from the barbell to provide a second cushion that engages a small portion of the forearm in order to reduce strain on the wrist during a curling exercise with the barbell.
The De La Garza Patent (U.S. Pat. No. 6,572,515) discloses a dumbbell and barbell stabilizer-isolator device. However, the stabilizer-isolator device does not attach onto an a predefined distance upon which a small portion of an end user's forearm engages and aids in curling weights on a barbell during curling exercises.
The Carpenter Patent (U.S. Pat. No. 5,573,484) discloses a weighted auxiliary handle for a dumbbell. However, the auxiliary handle is for use with a dumbbell and not a barbell, and does not reduce wrist strain when curling weights on a barbell.
The Hayes Patent (U.S. Pat. No. 4,768,780) discloses a device that facilitates the user's grasp and ability to lift a weight when the hand is oriented in a palm down position. Again, the device is for use with a dumbbell and not a barbell, and does not reduce wrist strain when curling weights on a barbell.
While the above-described devices fulfill their respective and particular objects and requirements, they do not describe an accessory that attaches onto a barbell and of which provides a second bar that is generally parallel with the barbell and separated by a predefined distance; wherein the second bar is for engagement of a small portion of a forearm of an end user; wherein the accessory works with the forearms of an end user to minimize wrist strain during curling exercises with the use of a barbell. In this regard, the Barbell having parallel forearm engaging bar departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art.


Disclosed is a computer architecture with single-syllable IP-relative branch instructions and long IP-relative branch instructions (IP=instruction pointer). The architecture fetches instructions in multi-syllable, bundle form. Single-syllable IP-relative branch instructions occupy a single syllable in an instruction bundle, and long IP-relative branch instructions occupy two syllables in an instruction bundle. The additional syllable of the long branch carries with it additional IP-relative offset bits, which when merged with offset bits carried in a core branch syllable provide a much greater offset than is carried by a single-syllable branch alone. Thus, the long branch provides for greater reach within an address space. Use of the long branch to patch IA-64 architecture instruction bundles is also disclosed. Such a patch provides the reach of an indirect branch with the overhead of a single-syllable IP-relative branch.

The invention pertains to branch instructions which are executed by a processor, and more specifically, to increasing the reach of IP-relative branch instructions which are executed by a processor (IP=instruction pointer, also known as a program counter, or PC).
Insufficient branch reach (also known as xe2x80x9cspanxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9crangexe2x80x9d) is a common weakness of RISC (reduced instruction set computer) architectures. For example, see FIG. 7, which provides a list of the branch instructions used in various RISC architectures, and the range of each of these branch instructions.
As server/workstation applications move to 64-bit architectures, it is believed that problems associated with insufficient branch reach will need to be addressed more and more frequently.
One 64-bit architecture is the Intel(copyright)/Hewlett-Packard(copyright) IA-64 architecture. A discussion of this architecture can be found in Intel""s xe2x80x9cIA-64 Application Developer""s Architecture Guidexe2x80x9d (Rev 1.0, Order Number 245188-001, May 1999), which is hereby incorporated by reference for all that it discloses.
IA-64 architecture provides two general types of branch instructions: the IP-relative branch and the indirect branch. An IP-relative branch instruction carries with it a signed, 20-bit offset. The target of an IP-relative branch instruction is determined by adding the instruction""s offset to the value of an instruction pointer. Since IA-64""s instruction pointer is 64-bits long, an IP-relative branch instruction cannot redirect the instruction pointer to any address within a 64-bit address space. Rather, an IP-relative branch instruction can only redirect the instruction pointer to addresses within xc2x116 MB. While from a static code generation point of view, a xc2x116 MB reach seems sufficient to reach anywhere in a compiled and linked module, in the context of dynamic code generation, dynamic linking, or dynamic optimization, a branch instruction with greater reach is called for in order to reach all the different pieces of code.
An indirect branch instruction is advantageous over an IP-relative branch instruction in that an indirect branch instruction can redirect an instruction pointer to any address within a 64-bit address space. However, there are drawbacks to frequent and/or dynamic use of indirect branching.
One drawback is that the execution of an indirect branch instruction must be preceded by a somewhat lengthy setup routine in which a 64-bit target is fetched into a general register and then moved into one of eight branch registers (or calculated, looked up, etc., and then moved to a branch register). Only then may the indirect branch instruction be executed. The execution of an indirect branch therefore requires the execution of an instruction sequence such as: MOVL, MOV_to_br, and BR.
Due to the speculative nature in which high performance processors fetch instructions, it is desirable to move an indirect branch target into one of the eight branch registers early, so as to insure the availability of the target when branch prediction hardware needs to rely on the accuracy of the target for branch prediction. By insuring the availability of the target for branch prediction purposes, the fetch of instructions from an incorrect code section can be avoided, and as a result, the flush of incorrectly fetched instructions from an instruction pipeline, as well as the injection of bubbles (or gaps) into the pipeline, can be avoided. Unfortunately, it is sometimes difficult to move an indirect branch target into a branch register at an early date. This is because the IA-64 architecture provides only eight branch registers. If a target is moved into one of these branch registers too early, it is possible that it will be overwritten prior to when it is needed. At the same time, there is a risk that any move of a target into a branch register will result in the overwrite of some other needed target.
An indirect branch""s lengthy setup routine also creates problems for tools such as dynamic instrumentation and optimization tools. As will be explained below, each of these tools needs to xe2x80x9cpatchxe2x80x9d compiled and linked program code with branches to new and/or optimized xe2x80x9cpatch codexe2x80x9d. Patch code is simply an address space which is used for the storage of, for example, dynamic instrumentation and/or optimization routines. Patching involves either the static or dynamic insertion of branches to patch code in already compiled and linked program code. Each time a patch is made, an instruction which is replaced by a branch to patch code needs to be written into the patch code so that it eventually gets executed.
The patching of IA-64 program code with indirect branch code sequences is especially difficult since 1) IA-64 program code comprises instructions which are encoded in bundles of three instructions each, and 2) an indirect branch code sequence does not fit within a single instruction bundle. Since the instructions of an indirect branch sequence do not fit within a single instruction bundle, the patch of an indirect branch sequence (e.g., MOVL, MOV-to-br, and BR) into already compiled and linked binary program code requires two or more instruction bundles to be overwritten. However, once program code has been compiled and linked, information on which instruction bundles in the program code are the possible targets of branch instructions is not always known. If a branch instruction branches to an instruction bundle which has been replaced with part of a patch sequence, or if a branch instruction branches to an instruction bundle which falls between the bundles of a patch sequence, an exception could result for two reasons. First, it is likely that the patch sequence would not execute correctly, and second, if the patch sequence does not execute correctly, instructions which were copied out of the original program code to make way for the patch sequence bundles will never be executed. Patching with indirect branch sequences is also problematic in that such a sequence requires the use of available general and branch registers. A patching tool is unlikely to know the locations of such registers (if any even exist). Patching with indirect branch sequences is therefore an unsafe practice.
Caveats relating to the patching of multiple instruction bundles are further discussed in the article xe2x80x9cFine-Grained Dynamic Instrumentation of Commodity Operating System Kernelsxe2x80x9d by A. Tamches and B. Miller (CS Dept. of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, July 1998).
Two alternatives to patching with indirect branches exist. Each alternative involves the patching of only a single instruction bundle with a replacement instruction bundle incorporating an IP-relative branch to a xe2x80x9cholexe2x80x9d in binary program code. A hole in binary program code is nothing more than a number of consecutively addressed memory locations which reside within the bounds of memory locations which store the binary program code.
The difference between the two alternatives is that the first alternative uses larger holes to store xe2x80x9cpatch codexe2x80x9d (or portions thereof, whereas the second alternative uses smaller holes (known as springboards) for the insertion of xe2x80x9ctrampoline codexe2x80x9d. Trampoline code is merely code that helps enable one to branch outside of the confines of more or less contiguous binary program code when the range of an IP-relative branch is not great enough to perform such a branch.
Since compiled and linked program code typically comprises few and randomly placed holes, single instruction bundle patching typically requires that holes be inserted into an executable at predetermined locations by a compiler/linker. Since the compiler/linker will not know which portions of an executable will be patched by dynamic instrumentation and/or optimization tools, the compiler/linker needs to insure that inserted holes can be reached from any instruction bundle in program code. Since an IA-64 IP-relative branch has a xc2x116 MB reach, holes must appear after approximately every 32 MB of IA-64 program code. Thus, a branch residing in a patched instruction bundle in the middle of a 32 MB chunk of program code (e.g., a dynamic instrumentation or optimization starting point) would be just able to reach a hole.
The first alternative to patching with indirect branch sequences is illustrated in FIG. 8. In this alternative, holes 802, 804, 806 are used to directly store patch code 808, 810. One advantage of this approach is that a branch from program code 812, 814 to patch code 808, 810 requires the execution of just a single IP-relative branch instruction. However, since the execution of patch code 808, 810 might result in a patch code exit being too distant from a patched bundle to return to the bundle (or the bundle which is sequentially after it), an indirect branch sequence may still be needed to enable a return to program code 800 from patch code 808, 810. Once again, the execution of an indirect branch sequence is problematic in that it requires the use of available general and branch registers which may not exist. Furthermore, hole allocation is not very efficient since patch points may not be uniformly distributed within program code 800. For example, when patch points are clustered, some holes 802, 804 may become too small to accommodate all of the patch code sections 808, 810 which they need to handle, while other holes 806 may be under utilized (or never used at all).
A second and more efficient alternative is to allocate smaller holes 902, 904, 906 for the sole purpose of holding trampoline code 908, 910 which jumps to a contiguous code cache 912, as illustrated in FIG. 9. Since trampoline code requires only a few instructions (i.e., an indirect branch routine 908, 910), reserved holes 902-906 can be quite small. In addition, patch code 912 can be stored in a more or less contiguous code section, rather than here and there in reserved holes 902-906. This provides for patch code 912 being branched to from multiple patch points. However, the problems associated with having to execute an indirect branch sequence 908, 910 still remain. Also, while trampoline code may consist of nothing more than an indirect branch code sequence 908, 910 which jumps to patch code 912, the limited reach of IP-relative branches in IA-64 architecture (xc2x116 MB) still requires the insertion of holes 902-906 in program code 900 at about the same frequency (i.e., about every 32 MB).
Reserving holes in binary program code for either of the above patch methods is not trivial. For example, the reservation of holes in load modules is difficult to enforce. Independent Software Vendors may not agree to leave holes in their binaries. It would also be difficult to enforce hole reservation as a default linking strategy. In addition, it would be difficult to control all of the system tools which are available for a platform such as IA-64. Hence, some tools may not enforce hole reservation.
Absent a strict and uniform hole reservation policy, the above approaches to increasing branch range are very difficult to implement.
As briefly discussed already, a problem with all of the above patch methods is that an IA-64 indirect branch sequence needs access to at least one free general register and one free branch register. At run-time, identifying these two available registers is a challenge. However, there are several possible fixes. First, a compiler could annotate which registers are available during the execution of each procedure in program code. The problem with this is that registers may not be available. Second, a compiler could reserve a couple of general, branch, and predicate registers for the sole use of run-time instrumentation/optimization tools. This however, like hole reservation, is inefficient since registers may be reserved but not used. Third, a run-time tool could analyze a patch point to determine which registers are available. The problem with this fix is that such an analysis is costly, especially when the typical purpose of instrumentation and optimization tools is to streamline execution. Furthermore, it is quite possible that no registers will be found, either because there are no free registers, or because the analysis tool does not have enough information to determine which registers are free. Fourth, a run-time tool could spill a couple of registers. However, register spilling is rather expensive on IA-64 since the UNAT register must be spilled first. Also, a spill cannot be performed unless the location of at least one free register is already known. Each potential xe2x80x9cfixxe2x80x9d for making registers available to a patching tool therefore has a downside. In addition, it is unlikely that any of the above fixes would actually be used.
A need for a branch with long reach and low overhead therefore exists.
In accordance with the above need, the invention comprises a new branch instruction, and methods and apparatus for using same. The new branch instruction provides for greater branch reach than was heretofore possible. The new branch instruction, as well as the methods and apparatus which use it, operate under the assumption that a processor fetches instructions which are encoded in bundle form.
In one embodiment of the invention, a processor is provided with increased branch reach as follows. First, it is determined which of a number of instruction bundle templates corresponds to a fetched instruction bundle. If the fetched instruction bundle corresponds to an instruction bundle template which indicates that multiple syllables of the fetched instruction bundle hold a long IP-relative branch instruction, a target of the long IP-relative branch instruction is calculated. A long IP-relative branch instruction is one in which a first syllable of the long IP-relative branch instruction carries N offset bits, and a second syllable of the long IP-relative branch instruction carries P offset bits. The target of a long IP-relative branch is calculated by adding an instruction pointer value to an addend which is formed at least in part from the N and P offset bits which are carried by the syllables of the long IP-relative branch instruction. After calculation of the target, program flow control may be diverted to an instruction bundle addressed by the target.
A processor which is capable of carrying out the above method may generally comprise a register file having a plurality of registers, an instruction set, and a plurality of execution units. The instruction set includes instructions which address the registers, wherein each instruction is one of a plurality of instruction types. Each of the plurality of execution units is one of a plurality of types, and each instruction type is, by definition, allowed to be executed on one or more of the execution unit types. As previously stated, it is assumed that all processors discussed herein fetch instructions which are encoded in bundle form. For example, each instruction bundle may include a plurality of instructions which are grouped together in an X bit field. Instructions are located in instruction syllables of the X bit field. The instruction types include integer, memory, floating-point and branch instructions. The branch instructions comprise a single-syllable IP-relative branch instruction (i.e., an IP-relative branch instruction which is contained within a single syllable of an instruction bundle) and a long IP-relative branch instruction. The single-syllable IP-relative branch instruction carries with it M offset bits (i.e., bits which, when added to the value of an instruction pointer, yield a target of the branch instruction). The long IP-relative branch instruction occupies multiple syllables of an instruction bundle, in which a first syllable carries N offset bits, and a second syllable carries P offset bits.
Another embodiment of the invention further assumes 1) that compiled and linked program code comprises instructions which are grouped into bundles, and 2) that the instructions of each bundle are sequentially ordered. In accordance with these assumptions, a method of patching the aforesaid compiled and linked program code may generally comprise forming a patch bundle and one or more patch code bundles. The patch bundle is then used to overwrite a bundle which already exists in the compiled and linked program code (i.e., the bundle to be patched). At or about the same time, the one or more patch code bundles are written into patch code. The patch bundle and one or more patch code bundles are formed by 1) writing a long IP-relative branch instruction into multiple syllables of the patch bundle, 2) copying into syllables of the patch bundle, which syllables precede the long IP-relative branch instruction, instructions which are similarly located in the bundle to be patched, and 3) copying other instructions of the bundle to be patched into ones of the one or more patch code bundles. The long IP-relative branch instruction provides a means of branching to patch code.
The use of a long IP-relative branch instruction in the above embodiments of the invention poses several advantages. One advantage is that a long IP-relative branch instruction (hereinafter referred to as just a xe2x80x9clong branchxe2x80x9d) has a farther reach than most other types of branches. By assigning appropriate numbers to N and P, the N and P offset bits carried in a long branch""s instruction syllables can be merged to supply a very large offset, and even one which is capable of redirecting the value of an instruction pointer to the address of any instruction in an address space. For example, a 64-bit processor can typically access a 64-bit address space. If instructions and data are retrieved from this address space in 16 byte chunks which are 16-byte aligned (i.e., 128 bits at a time), then the least significant four bits of the IP are always zero, and the addition of a 60-bit offset to the current value of an instruction pointer would redirect the instruction pointer to any other 16-byte chunk within the 64-bit address space. Thus, if the value of the instruction pointer coincided with the address of a first sequentially addressed byte in the 64-bit address space, the execution of a single long branch instruction with N=39 and P=21 can redirect the value of the instruction pointer to coincide with the address of any byte in the 64-bit address space, including the address of a last sequentially addressed byte in the 64-bit address space.
Another advantage of a long branch is that it achieves the reach of an indirect branch without requiring the availability of a general or branch register, and does so with the execution of only a single instruction.
Yet another advantage of a long branch is that it is very easy to implement in a processor which is already designed to handle single-syllable IP-relative branches. Part of the reason for this is that these processors already need to add single-syllable IP-relative branch offsets to the value of an instruction pointer. For example, if a 64-bit processor already needs to add a 20-bit signed offset to a 64-bit instruction pointer value, it will already include, at a minimum, a 20-bit adder with sign extension capability out to 64-bits. To convert such a structure to a full 64-bit adder is relatively simple and requires little extra chip area. The only significant cost is the need to route extra addend bits to the adder. However, if the processor comprises a plurality of branch execution units that are more or less adjacent to one another, it is likely that bits which are routed to one or more of the branch execution units will be routed over one or more of the other branch execution units. If this is the case, little extra wiring is required to drop these bits into one of the branch execution units over which they already pass, and then multiplex them with sign extension data which is needed for the unit""s processing of a single-syllable IP-relative branch instruction.
Yet another advantage of a long branch is that it can be inserted into an instruction bundle template which, at least in IA-64 architecture, can be used to patch any other instruction bundle template. This is significant since tools such as dynamic instrumentation and optimization tools often need to patch compiled and linked program code. Heretofore, these tools have not been able to patch program code using a single instruction bundle, and still branch to anywhere within an address space. For example, in IA-64 architecture, program code could be patched with a bundle comprising a single-syllable IP-relative branch to patch code, which single-syllable IP-relative branch only provided a xc2x116 MB reach, or program code could be patched using the multiple instruction bundles which are required to set up and execute an indirect branch. As will be discussed in the following Description, each of these existing branch types poses problems for dynamic instrumentation and optimization tools.

Method and apparatus for implementing a single-syllable IP-relative branch instruction and a long IP-relative branch instruction in a processor which fetches instructions in bundle form

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A digital aperture synthesized radiometer for synthesizing the imaging an image scene. A plurality of antenna arrays receive radiation emitted or reflected from an scene, and an analog to digital coverter converts received radiation into digitized signals. A digital beamformer synthesizes the digitized signals to provide an image corresponding to the scene. The digital beamformer comprises individual digital beamformers which generate a set of fanbeam signals for each array. The beamformers provide for cross track imaging of the scene. A digital interferometer correlates corresponding pairs of fanbeam signals from the two sets of fanbeam signals to produce a chirp signal for each pair. A matched filter processes the chirp signals to transform each chirp signal into a corresponding image point of the scene. This provides for along track imaging of the scene. The beamformers include an amplitude weighting and data turning circuit to reduce fanbeam signal sidelobe levels and eliminate alternate mainlobes from the digitized radiation signals to reduce mainlobe widening. A fast Fourier transform circuit in the beamformers generally comprises a decimation-in-time algorithm implemented by means of a plurality of parallel and cascaded butterfly computation circuits. Image processing methods for achieving digital radiometry are also disclosed.

The present invention relates generally to digital aperture synthesized radiometers, and more particularly to an aperture synthesized radiometer employing digital beamforming including interferometry and which is capable of imaging microwave energy emitted or reflected by earth surface features.
Microwave radiometers are passive remote sensors which can be designed to detect, measure and display the microwave energy emitted by earth surface features and the atmosphere. Such systems, operating at L-band, can be used for soil moisture measurements from a space platform orbiting the earth.
In order to remotely measure soil moisture, three primary steps are involved. These include identifying moisture within the field of view of the measuring system's sensors, measuring the detected moisture level, and displaying the measured levels. Substantially all objects in the natural environment emit electromagnetic energy in the microwave region. The amount of energy emitted by an object is related to its physical temperature and surface emissivity, and it normally varies with frequency.
Moist soil naturally radiates over a large bandwidth in the microwave region, including L-band. Therefore, to measure the moisture content of soil, it is advantageous to tune the remote sensor to the L-band frequency region. Once the soil moisture is identified and measured, it must be imaged. This is done by constructing a ground map of the soil moisture levels. In order to do this, two dimensional ground resolution is required.
One way to achieve soil moisture imaging is to employ a system described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,724,439, entitled "Microwave Radiometer Using Fanbeam Inversion," issued to Carl Wiley and Charles Edlesohn, and assigned to the assignee of the present invention. In this patent, a microwave radiometer is disclosed which reconstructs images using fanbeam inversion. A scanning radiometer utilizes a fanbeam antenna which is mechanically scanned across the scene so that the antenna output is a projection of the scene taken along the direction of the scan. The scanning motion is provided for by a motor coupled to the antenna and controlled by a computer. An inverse Radon transform is employed in the computer to reconstruct the scene.
However, although the above scanning radiometer system performs admirably, the development of digital computers and signal processors provides a means to accomplish the microwave imaging without the use of moving parts or motors, or the like.

Aperture synthesized radiometer using digital beamforming techniques


There is provided a method for operating a speaker device able to be activated by receiving and recognizing a predetermined wake up word. The method is executable at a server. The method comprises: capturing, by the speaker device, an audio signal having been generated in a vicinity of the speaker device; retrieving, by the speaker device, a processing filter, the processing filter being indicative of a pre-determined signal augmentation pattern representative of an excluded portion that has been excluded from an originating utterance having the wake up word, the originating utterance to be reproduced by an other electronic device; applying, by the speaker device, the processing filter to determine presence of the pre-determined signal augmentation pattern in the audio signal; based on determining the presence of the pre-determined signal augmentation pattern in the audio signal, determining that the audio signal has been produced by the other electronic device.

Electronic devices, such as smartphones and tablets, are able to access an increasing and diverse number of applications and services for processing and/or accessing different types of information. However, novice users and/or impaired users and/or users may not be able to effectively interface with such devices mainly due to the variety of functions provided by these devices or the inability to use the machine-user interfaces provided by such devices (such as a key board). For example, a user who is driving or a user who is visually-impaired may not be able to use the touch screen key board associated with some of these devices.
Virtual assistant applications have been developed to perform functions in response to such user requests. Such virtual assistant applications may be used, for example, for information retrieval, navigation, but also a wide variety of commands. A conventional virtual assistant application (such as a Siri™ virtual assistant application, an Alexa™ virtual assistant application, and the like) can receive a spoken user utterance in a form of a digital audio signal from an electronic device and perform a large variety of tasks for the user. For example, the user can communicate with the virtual assistant application by providing spoken utterances for asking, for example, what the current weather is like, where the nearest shopping mall is, and the like. The user can also ask for the execution of various applications installed on the electronic device.
Naturally, to activate the virtual assistant application, the user may need to provide (that is, utter) a wake up word or phrase (such as "Hey Siri", "Alexa", "OK Google", and the like). Once the virtual assistant application has received the wake up word, it may be further configured to receive a voice command from the user for implementation.
However, in order to be effectively operated by the user, the virtual assistant application should be preconfigured to filter out false activations, that is the activations produced not by the user him-/herself, but by background noise produced by another electronic device. For example, the virtual assistant application may be activated by TV background sounds when a TV commercial of the virtual assistant application, including the wake up word and a sample command, is on TV and reproduced in a vicinity of the electronic device that runs the virtual assistant application. As a result, the virtual assistant application, having received the wake up word from the TV commercial, may react to the received false activation and implement the sample command, thereby causing unnecessary disturbance to the user.
In other examples, when the virtual assistant application is used while the user is driving a car, such false activations (for example, from a radio commercial received from an onboard radio of the car) may distract user's attention which may result in a car accident.
In order to address the above-identified technical problem, certain prior art approaches have been proposed to make the virtual assistant application ignore the false activations including generating "customized" audio content. In other words, the audio content including the wake up word for the virtual assistant application (commercials of the virtual assistant application and any other broadcast audio message thereof) is superimposed with an additional audio signal (a so-called "watermark") that is not audible to a human ear, however can be recognized by the virtual assistant application, when reproduced by the other electronic device, and as such, cause the virtual assistant application to ignore the audio signal.
U.S. Pat. No. 10,276,175-B1 issued on Apr. 30, 2019, assigned to Google LLC, and entitled "Key Phrase Detection with Audio Watermarking" discloses methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for using audio watermarks with key phrases. One of the methods includes receiving, by a playback device, an audio data stream; determining, before the audio data stream is output by the playback device, whether a portion of the audio data stream encodes a particular key phrase by analyzing the portion using an automated speech recognizer; in response to determining that the portion of the audio data stream encodes the particular key phrase, modifying the audio data stream to include an audio watermark; and providing the modified audio data stream for output.
United States Patent Application Publication No.: 2018/0350376-A1 published on Dec. 6, 2018, assigned to Dell products LP, and entitled "High Frequency Injection for Improved False Acceptance Reduction" discloses methods and systems for high frequency injection and detection for improved false acceptance reduction. An information handling system may be configured to receive audio data and to add an identification signal to the audio data, wherein the identification signal is determined based on the audio data. The combined audio data and the identification signal may be output to a receiving device. An information handling system may also be configured to receive data that includes audio data and an identification signal that is associated with one or more frequencies in the audio data, identify the one or more frequencies in the audio data that are associated with the identification signal, and attenuate the one or more frequencies in the audio data to obtain modified audio data. The modified audio data may be output for audio processing.
U.S. Pat. No. 9,928,840-B2 issued on Mar. 27, 2018, assigned to Google LLC, and entitled "Hotword Recognition" discloses methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for receiving audio data corresponding to an utterance, determining that the audio data corresponds to a hotword, generating a hotword audio fingerprint of the audio data that is determined to correspond to the hotword, comparing the hotword audio fingerprint to one or more stored audio fingerprints of audio data that was previously determined to correspond to the hotword, detecting whether the hotword audio fingerprint matches a stored audio fingerprint of audio data that was previously determined to correspond to the hotword based on whether the comparison indicates a similarity between the hotword audio fingerprint and one of the one or more stored audio fingerprints that satisfies a predetermined threshold, and in response to detecting that the hotword audio fingerprint matches a stored audio fingerprint, disabling access to a computing device into which the utterance was spoken.

Method and system for recognizing a reproduced utterance


An apparatus including a slider part and a base assembly slidingly movable in relation to each other with the aid of a first guide rail and a second guide rail in the base assembly. The distance between the first guide rail and the second guide rail is adjustable while the apparatus is being assembled. A method is also disclosed.

Presently, many mobile devices are equipped with sliding parts, such as sliding covers, that make it possible to expand the user interface surface of the device while still keeping the device compact in a closed configuration. The sliding part typically moves along rails installed in a base part of the device. Manufacturing such devices requires a high level of control over clearances between the rail parts. Ideally, the sliding part should be able to move freely without unnecessary friction between the rail parts, but at the same time any extra wobbliness between the parts is undesirable.
The challenge of controlling clearances between rails has been handled by tight control of tolerances in individual parts and the whole assembling process. This is challenging with slide mechanisms, in which distance between rails is large. In some devices the number of rails has been raised above two to counter wobbliness, but this adds cost and complexity to the device.

Method and apparatus with a sliding mechanism


An endurance testing apparatus, which is for performing an endurance test of a contacting/separating portion in which a first member and a second member repeats contacting with and separating from each other, has a contact load generator and a testing medium fluid supply means. The contact load generator reciprocates the second member relative to the first member to generate a contact load acting between the first member and the second member repeatedly. The testing medium fluid supply means supplies a testing medium fluid to the contacting/separating portion to expose the first member and the second member to the testing medium fluid.

High frequency reciprocating rig (HFRR), which is schematically shown in FIG. 15, is known as a general endurance testing apparatus. The high frequency reciprocating rig reciprocates a test specimen ball J1 at high frequency in pushing the test specimen ball J1 onto a test specimen plate J2 at constant load, in a condition that the test specimen ball J1 and the test specimen plate J2 are exposed to testing medium fluid such as oil, fuel, etc. The endurance of the test specimen is evaluated by using the abrasion amount on the test specimen plate J2.
The high frequency reciprocating rig can perform the endurance test in a simple fashion. However, high frequency reciprocating rig has a construction to slide the two members J1, J2 on each other in pushing them onto each other. Thus, the high frequency reciprocating rig is not suitable for the endurance test of the test specimen such as a fuel injection valve, in which a first member and a second member such as a nozzle body and a needle of a fuel injection valve repeats contacting with and separating from each other.
The high frequency reciprocating rig further has the following issues. Firstly, the testing medium fluid J3 is received in the opened vessel J4, so that the abrasion power tends to be accumulated at the sliding portion of the two members J1, J2. The abrasion powder can vary the abrasion amount. Next, the testing medium fluid J3 is received in the opened vessel J4, so that it is not possible to perform the endurance test in a case that the testing medium fluid J3 is volatile ones such as low critical fuel, gaseous fuel, etc. Further, the testing medium fluid J3 is received in the opened vessel J4, so that it is difficult to control the temperature of the testing medium fluid J3 with accuracy. The temperature of the testing medium fluid J3 affects the abrasion amount, so that the accuracy of the endurance test is spoiled. Furthermore, the surface pressure on the contact portion gradually decreases in accordance with the progress of the abrasion of the two members J1, J2, so that the result of the endurance test tends to vary. Still further, the lubrication performance at the sliding portion of the two members J1, J2 is evaluated by the abrasion amount, however, the abrasion amount is too varied to evaluate the lubrication performance, except the condition that the abrasion amount is quite small or quite large.
As described above, the high frequency reciprocating rig is not suitable for the endurance test of the test specimen such as a fuel injection valve, in which the first member and the second member repeats contacting with and separating from each other. In view of the issues of the high frequency reciprocating rig, JP-H11-281531-A and JP-H07-063748-A, for example disclose endurance testing apparatuses for evaluating the abrasion amount of respective portions of an internal combustion engine that performs the endurance test by driving the internal combustion engine by using an electric motor. However, the endurance testing apparatuses disclosed in JP-H11-281531-A and JP-H07-063748-A have the following issues.
Firstly, the endurance testing apparatus incorporates an actual internal combustion engine. This increases the size and cost of the endurance testing apparatus, and it is difficult to perform a large number of endurance tests by this endurance testing apparatus. Next, the rotational speed, i.e., the number of revolutions per unit time of the internal combustion engine, is limited. This extends the time necessary for the endurance test, and it is not possible to perform the endurance test in a short time. Further, the internal combustion engine is driven by the electric motor, and no fuel is supplied to the fuel injection system. Accordingly, it is not possible to evaluate the reliability of the fuel injection system by this endurance testing apparatus. The evaluation of the abrasion amount of the fuel injection system is generally performed by injecting the fuel out of the fuel injection system, however, the driving device is large and the rotational speed is limited as mentioned above.
As described above, (1) high frequency reciprocating rig can perform the endurance test in a simple fashion, but is not suitable for the test specimen such as a fuel injection valve, in which the first member and the second member repeats contacting with and separating from each other. (2) The endurance testing apparatus disclosed in JP-H11-281531-A or JP-H07-063748-A incorporates an actual internal combustion engine. This increases the cost for performing the endurance test. The rotational speed of the internal combustion engine is limited, so that it is not possible to perform the endurance test in a short time.


Comparator input noise or offset suppression can include an error detector circuit that can operate in a feedback loop, such as during an autozero phase. The error detector circuit can include a time-varying filter response to improve accuracy and convergence time. The comparator can be used in a successive approximation routine (SAR) or other analog-to-digital converter (ADC) circuit, such as to control a digital-to-analog converter (DAC), such as can be used to adjust a tuning circuit within the comparator to compensate for noise or offset. The DAC can be combined with a DAC used for carrying out SAR bit-trials or bit decisions.

Low power integrated circuits are desirable for various applications, such as for the "Internet of Things," (or "IoT"), which can involve distributed sensors and circuits, some of which may be battery-powered. Analog-to-digital conversion (ADC) can face challenges in being adapted to low power applications. Comparators used in such circuits can be limited by input noise or offset, such as can be present due to the input transistors of the comparator or due to variations in a power supply used to provide a power supply voltage to the comparator.


A magnetic pole includes a core, winding frames, and sheet-like insulators. The winding frames are provided to both ends, in a direction along the central axis, of the core, and have thin portions and projections. The thin portions and the projections extend in a direction along the central axis. The insulators are provided on both sides in the circumferential direction of a tooth portion. A part of each insulator is held by being sandwiched between the projection and the thin portion provided to each winding frame.

In a conventional stator core for a rotary electric machine, a configuration is disclosed in which a pair of step portions extending inward from both end sides in the thickness direction and having predetermined length and level difference are formed at a part of any of surfaces on the inner side of a protruding portion of a magnetic pole tooth portion, the magnetic pole tooth portion, and the inner side of a yoke portion, an insulating winding frame is fitted to each step portion with the thickness-direction length thereof matched with the length of the step portion, and on both side areas between the pair of insulating winding frames, a pair of insulating films are provided of which both ends are applied to the surfaces of the pair of insulating winding frames and which are stretched between the pair of insulating winding frames (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

Magnetic pole, magnetic pole manufacturing method, and stator


To provide an information display device for displaying at least one item of display target information in respective screen element, receiving, while catalog display takes place, an instruction operation which is made utilizing display target information shown in the screen elements displayed as a catalog, and executing a process based on the instruction operation.

In recent years, an information display device, such as a personal computer (PC) or the like, displays respective kinds of information in independent screen elements each referred to as a window in order to display various kinds of information on a single display screen.
For example, many web browsers or the like which produce information to be displayed (display target information) based on web page data obtained via a network from a web server or the like and display the display target information produced based on the respective web pages, each in each window.
Such an information display device for displaying information in a plurality of windows may need to show notice information asking for user confirmation of their operation or input of a password or the like in connection with display target information shown in any window.
As a specific example, in the case of a web page, HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) data describing a web page may contain a description about a program to be processed (a script) for controlling such that display of display target information is not carried out until a password is input.


Provided is a mobile terminal that communicates with a server that performs call control between an intercom disposed in a lobby of an apartment building and an indoor monitor. The server stores event information transmitted from the intercom, the indoor monitor, or a terminal apparatus connected to the server. The mobile terminal includes: a receiver that receives the event information from the server; and a display section that displays the event information in chronological order from an upper side to a lower side of a display apparatus and that scroll displays the event information.

There has been a widely used intercom system capable of confirming a visitor to an entrance from an indoor parent device in a room via an entrance child device located in the vicinity of an entrance door. In recent years, there is a technique attracting much attention, in which a communication function is provided in an indoor parent device and confirmation of visitors is performed from a mobile terminal such as a smartphone that can be carried by a person.
For example, PTL 1 discloses an intercom system for connecting an entrance child device with a mobile terminal via a parent device in response to calling operation by a visitor via the entrance child device and thereafter responding to the visitor from the mobile terminal.

Mobile terminal, event information display method, non-transitory computer-readable recording medium storing event information display program, and intercom system

Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.


The invention provides methods of producing functional split inteins having small N-intein and/or small C-intein. Using these split inteins with their protein trans-splicing and cleavage activities, we provide new and more effective methods of manipulating proteins. They include site-specific addition of synthetic peptides at protein's terminal and internal locations, ligation of synthetic and/or expressed polypeptides, controllable cyclization of synthetic and/or expressed polypeptides, and controllable cleavages of recombinant proteins. These methods have numerous utilities including but not limited to protein fluorescence labeling, fixation on microchips, site-specific PEGylation, and linkage with pharmaceutical molecules.

Inteins are internal protein sequences that catalyze a protein-splicing reaction, which precisely excise the intein sequence and join the flanking sequences with a peptide bond. Inteins are embedded within a variety of host proteins termed exteins. Over 350 inteins have been identified in various proteins from bacteria, archaea, and eukaryotes. In a 2006 review (Saleh et al 2006 The Chemical Record 6:183-193), the authors state at page 189: "Most naturally or artificially split inteins are fragmented between motifs B and F (the position where the EN domain is found) yielding C-terminal intein fragments (IC) that are ˜25-40 aa, well within the scope of solid phase protein synthesis (SPPS), and N-terminal intein fragments (IN)>100 aa. Not all fragmentation positions in this region yield functional pairs. The Ssp DnaB mini-intein can also be reassembled from three pieces, including an In of only 11 aa. Fragmentation positions within the two long Ssp DnaB intein β-strands (β5 and β10) that form the backbone of the horseshoe structure yielded inactive intein fragments." [internal citations omitted]
Inteins split into an N-terminal portion (N-inteins) and a C-terminal portion (C-inteins), which can reassociate non-covalently to form a functional intein, occur in nature and have also been engineered from contiguous inteins. Sun et al 2004 J Biol Chem 279(34):35281-35286 [42] reported an unsuccessful attempt to produce a small (6-amino acid) C-terminal intein from Ssp DnaB.

Protein splicing using short terminal split inteins