A charge control agent comprises a barbituric acid derivative represented by the following general formula (1):

The image-forming processing based the electrophotographic system forms images by using an inorganic photosensitive material such as selenium, selenium alloy, cadmium sulfide or amorphous silicon or by using an organic photosensitive material formed by using a charge-generating agent and a charge-transporting agent.
Namely, the photosensitive material is positively or negatively charged depending upon the charging characteristic of the photosensitive material and is, thereafter, exposed to image-bearing light. The electrostatic latent image formed by the exposure to image-bearing light is developed by using a toner to form a toner image which is then transferred onto a paper or a plastic film and is fixed to obtain a visible image.
When a charge image (portion irradiated with light) formed by the exposure to image-bearing light is to be developed into a visible image, use is made of a toner which is electrically charged to a polarity opposite to the charged polarity of the photosensitive material. This developing system is called normal development. When a portion (portion irradiated with light) from which the electric charge is removed by the exposure to image-bearing light is to be developed into a visible image, use is made of a toner which is electrically charged to the same polarity as the charged polarity of the photosensitive material. This developing system is called reversal development.
The toner is constituted by dispersing a coloring agent and other additives in a binder resin. As an additive for the toner, there has been known a charge control agent that is used for improving charging properties (rate of charge, charge level, charge stability, etc.).
As the charge control agent used for imparting frictional positively charging property to the toner, there have been known Nigrosine dye, azine dye, copper phthalocyanine pigment, quaternary ammonium salt and a polymer having a quaternary ammonium salt on the side change thereof. Further, as the charge control agent used for imparting frictional negatively charging property to the toner, there have been known a metal complex of monoazo dye, metal complexes of salicylic acid, naphthoic acid and dicarboxylic acid, copper phthalocyanine pigment, and resin containing acid components.
For the colored toners of which the market is expected to expand in the future, it is essential to use a light-colored or, desirably, colorless charge control agent that does not affect the hue. As the light-colored or colorless charge control agent, there can be exemplified metal complex compounds of hydroxybenzoic acid derivatives (e.g., see patent documents 1 to 3), aromatic metal dicarboxylate compounds (e.g., see patent document 4), metal complex compounds of anthranilic acid derivatives (e.g., see patent documents 5 and 6), organoboron compounds (e.g., see patent documents 7 and 8), biphenol compounds (e.g., see patent document 9), calix(n) arene compounds (e.g., see patent documents 10 to 15), and cyclic phenol sulfides (e.g., see patent documents 16 to 18), which are for use with the negatively charging toners. For use with the positively charging toners, there can be exemplified quaternary ammonium salt compounds (e.g., see patent documents 19 to 21).

Charge control agent and toner using the same

Abstract: wherein R1 to R8 are alkyl groups, cycloalkyl groups or aryl groups,        V, W, X, Y and Z are carbon atoms or nitrogen atoms, at least two of which being carbon atoms, and        p, q, r, s and t are the numbers of 0 or 1.


A wet flow-type ion selective electrode device requires not only a large amount of test solution but also cumbersome management works such as flow path cleaning and device conditioning. Provided is an ion selective electrode cartridge which includes at least one ion selective electrode forming an electrical path with a reference electrode when a test solution is infused, and in which the ion selective electrode and the reference electrode is arranged to surround a container.

Conventionally, ion selective electrodes have been used for measuring concentrations (or activities) of particular species of ions in a test solution, for example, for measuring concentrations (or activities) of particular species of ions such as Na ions, K ions, and Cl ions in a test solution such as serum used in a test room or the like in a hospital. Measurement using the ion selective electrodes includes a wet method and a dry method. For the wet method, a flow-type ion selective electrode device is generally used. In the flow-type ion selective electrode device, an ion selective electrode using an ion sensing film sensitive to particular ions and a reference electrode using a reference electrode film such as a silver/silver chloride (Ag/AgCl) electrode are provided in a flow path through which a test solution (sample) flows. The flow-type ion selective electrode device measures a potential difference (electromotive force difference) generated between the ion selective electrode and the reference electrode, and thereby measures the concentration of the particular ions in the test solution (for example, see Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2). For the dry method, a method using an ion selective electrode in a film form has been proposed (for example, see Patent Document 3).


Presenting URLs on a user interface to guide users on a specific URL browsing path over an internet. A plurality of URLs for a user to view on a user interface running in a computing environment may be received. A URL workflow may be created, which comprise a sequence of the plurality of URLs the user is directed to view. The URL workflow may be created dynamically based on monitoring the current activities of the user in the computing environment. Each URL may be presented one after another on the user interface to automatically direct the user to a next specified URL in the workflow.

There are many instances in which users are sent messages directing navigation of one or more Uniform Resource Locators (URLs). An example message may provide an instruction such as, "Click here . . . then go to this URL . . . after reading this . . . then go to another URL". Such instruction may be prone to user error, for example, both on the sender and recipient side, as the sending user and/or receiving user may get some instructions incorrectly. Additionally, the sender may want the user to not get distracted when navigating from one URL to another. For example, the recipient user may decide to check a news website half way through and so become less focused on the intent of the sender.
The following scenario illustrates an example. User A is a busy executive and regularly uses a web browser with many open windows and tabs. User A receives an e-mail asking User A to read three web pages in succession. Unfortunately, User A can easily get distracted with new activities and with the other web browser windows and tabs that are often not relevant to the new message User A received. User A only completes the three web pages after browsing to other URLs and attending to other interruptions. Thus, User A may not have the web page content browsed until the interruption clear in his mind.
There is no way for User A, using his current messaging and internet browser system, to provide a directed browsing experience based on URL flow, frequency used, activity, and based on rules and other criteria that are relevant to User A and User A's team. For instance, given a set of static links, it is at the users discretion on what way and order to view the URLs.

Automatically enforcing uniform resource locator workflow presentation

International Business Machines Corporation


A consistent caching service for managing data consistency between a cache system and backing store is provided. The consistent caching service compares an origin token and a parity token associated with the cached copy of the data item to determine consistency of the data item. The origin and parity tokens may be generated by an operation that caused population of the data item to the cache. The parity token may be invalidated by a write operation of the data item, thus causing a mismatch between the two tokens.

Generally described, computing devices and communication networks can be utilized to exchange information. In a common application, a device can request content from another device via the communication network. For example, a user at a personal computing device can utilize a software browser application to request a Web page or Web application from a server device via the Internet. For another example, a user of a content providing service can utilize a display device (e.g., television, computer, mobile device, smartphone, tablet) to request content (e.g., an audio presentation, video presentation, audiovisual presentation, movie, television show, video, podcast) to be downloaded or streamed from a server device via the Internet to the display device. In such embodiments, the user computing device or display device can be referred to as a client device and the server device can be referred to as a content provider.
Content providers are generally motivated to provide requested content to client devices often with consideration of cost, speed, or efficiency associated with the transmission of the content data. For larger scale implementations, a content provider may receive content requests from a high volume of client devices which can place a strain on the content provider's computing resources. Additionally, the content requested by the client devices may have a number of components, which can further place additional strain on the content provider's computing resources.
One attempt to improve the delivery of content to client device includes utilization of caching components and processes. Generally described, caching refers to the storage of information provided by a content provider in any storage (e.g., local memory) with greater locality than the backing store where the information is persistently maintained. Typically, the amount of resources required to access the information in the cache is less than the resources required to retrieve the information from the source. Accordingly, once information is retrieved from the content source, it can be stored in the cache for use in subsequent requests for the information. Generally, the greater the number of requests that can be served from the cache, the faster and smoother the overall system performance.
Consistency between the data stored in the cache and the data stored in the backing store (e.g., source of content data) may be critical to many computing systems or services. For example, a content provider may periodically update data maintained in the source. After such an update, any cached versions of the data may include incorrect or out of date information. The content provider may have policies that prevent the use of out of date cache information or a requirement for the cache to be updated or purged, thus consistency between data stored in the cache and data stored in the backing store must be properly maintained. The management of data consistency for a cache system may become complicated when multiple computing devices, applications, services, processes, or threads exercise overlapping or conflicting access to data via a same cache system.


The present invention is directed to the prevention, reversal and medical treatment of lower urinary tract dysfunction including bladder instability and other related diseases as described below including urinary flow problems, urgency and incontinence as a result of prostate hyperplasia (BPH) and to the prevention, reversal and medical treatment of irritable bowl syndrome (IBS) with special focus on the diarrhea-predominant and mixed diarrhea-constipation type IBS, both in human beings and animals.

Many people suffer from urinary incontinence. Often, it is believed that incontinence is mainly due to a reduced function of the bladder sphincter (i.e. the muscle keeping the bladder closed) and adjunct parts of the urogenital tract. However, this view is obviously not correct. While under certain circumstances a reduced sphincter function can be found which often is related with a location of the bladder too deep inside the pelvic cavity, this is only one aspect and one possible cause of incontinence. The bladder function can be seen as a delicate balance between the activity of the sphincter and the detrusor, i.e. the muscle which is responsible for getting the urine out of the bladder during voiding and which is represented by the muscular wall of the bladder. Not the malfunction or reduced tension of the sphincter is often the main cause, but rather the imbalance between the tonus of the sphincter and the function of the detrusor.
The bladder detrusor and sphincter combination is one of the two smooth muscle groups which human beings (and also some animals) learn to control directly via central functions while all other smooth muscles are not voluntarily controlled (the other smooth muscle represents the sphincter of the anus). As can be easily understood, this control of the balance involves peripheral and central neuronal functions, to enable the voluntary micturation response. But it also contains in-voluntary components as filling of the bladder finally triggers the urgent need for micturation.
This complex circuit and delicate balance, involving filling of the bladder due to renal function, sphincter activity to keep the bladder close and detrusor activity induced by filling but triggered also by CNS driven nerve function, can easily be disturbed. For example, stress often can result in a need for micturation without an adequate filling of the bladder. Also, the absence of ability to reach a toilet in many persons triggers such an urgency and excessive exaltation such as during laughter can result in in-voluntary voiding.
While these examples indicate how delicate the balance is, this is not a disease. But such disturbances can results in disease stages if the disturbance persists over a long period. The cause for such a disturbance can be manifold. A chronic stress syndrome can result in urgency and incontinence, but also other diseases can cause urgency and ultimately incontinence. Such diseases can be but are not limited to prostate hyperplasia, infections of the urinary tract, different CNS diseases such as Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, dystonia, anxiety disorders, post traumatic stress syndrome and others. Urge incontinence or inadequate urgency is also a frequent side effect of neuroleptic treatment.
It is to be noted that the disease is not the incontinence which only is a possible symptom but rather the un-physiological urgency, i.e. the need to go to the toilet despite the fact that that would not be necessary on the basis of filling of the bladder. Such diseases may be related to morphological changes in the urinary tract such as hyperplasia or hypertrophy of the bladder wall, inflammation or hypertrophy of the mucosa, miss-placement of the bladder or morphological changes in other parts of the urogenital tract such as prostate or urethra, but in many cases no morphological changes can be found as functional changes including functional changes in the central control of micturation may be the underlying cause. This is especially the case in children suffering from overactive bladder and ultimateively from incontinence (mostly nocturnal incontinence) which can be a big problem for both, children and families.
According to a comprehensive review of terminology of lower urinary tract function/dysfunction, the International Continence Society (ICS) has recommended the use of the terms overactive bladder syndrome (OAB) and detrusor overactivity for this group of diseases. Detrusor overactivity is defined as a urodynamic observation characterized by involuntary detrusor contractions during the filling phase that may be spontaneous or provoked. Detrusor overactivity is subdivided into idiopathic detrusor overactivity and neurogenic detrusor overactivity. Because detrusor overactivity is a urodynamic diagnosis, it is possible to record symptoms and signs during urodynamic studies to correlate them with any involuntary contractions. The ICS 2002 report describes 2 types of detrusor overactivity: (1) phasic, which may or may not lead to urinary incontinence; and (2) terminal, which is a single involuntary detrusor contraction that often results in complete bladder emptying. OAB, as defined by ICS 2002, is a new term and is a symptomatic diagnosis. OAB is defined as urgency, with or without urge incontinence, and usually with frequency and nocturia.
A more general term used is lower urinary tract dysfunction. This all inclusive term applies to a cluster of distinguishable disorders however with common or largely overlapping symptomatology whose definitions continue to evolve as they become better understood. The symptoms are:                Urge or urgency (intense sensing that the bladder has reached its threshold)        Frequency of urination (8 ore more times per day)        Nocturia (sleep disturbance accompanying the need to urinate)        In some cases, obstruction of urine flow        In other cases, urinary incontinence        Urogenital or pelvic pain
Disorders which are grouped under the term lower urinary tract dysfunction include:                Stress urinary incontinence (inability to prevent leakage of urine during activities that increase abdominal pressure)        Urge urinary incontinence: Incontinence episodes driven by detrusor overactivity        Mixed urinary incontinence (a mixture of both)        Overactive bladder syndrome: An inclusive term which not only included the above mentioned ones but also the "dry" overactive bladder without incontinence but with urgency, urinating frequency and nocturia. Overactive bladder is also seen frequently in children resulting in urgency, nocturia, and incontinence. Even in children, often pharmacological treatment is indicated to prevent incontinence, especially during the night (C. Persspm de Geeter 2004, Der Urologe Volume 7, page 807ff).        Benign prostatic hyperplasia/lower urinary tract symptoms: urinary storage difficulties typical of OAB plus obstruction of urinary flow, coincident with enlargement of prostatic mass        Neurogenic bladder: Catastrophic loss of bladder control on patients with spinal cord injury, stroke, multiple sclerosis, Parkinsons disease and other CNS diseases.
All these diseases have one keys symptom in common: an imbalance of detrusor activity and sphincter activity of the bladder. In addition, all diseases are not primarily smooth muscle diseases, but rather are nervous system diseases as this delicate balance is established and maintained by central and peripheral nervous system activity.
While all the mentioned diseases relate to bladder function, a very similar situation can be found in a different disease, the irritable bowl syndrome (IBS). In IBS patients, a dys-regulation of gut function is central to the disease. While in most patients, this results in hypermotility and diarrhea, in others it results in hypomotility and constipation while in again other both, diarrhea and constipation can be observed. IBS is due to these colonic symptoms classified as either diarrhea predominant, constipation predominant or mixed type. While pain including abdominal pain is part of IBS symptomatology, it is to be noted that this invention is not directed to the pain as a secondary symptom of this disease but to the dys-regulation of gut function. However, in all these cases the disturbance can be expected to be found in the nerval control of the gut activity, i.e. in the intestinal nervous system and the control thereof. Current treatment of IBS often includes a combination of antidiarrheals, antispasmodics, and sometimes antidepressants.
The aim of the treatment in both cases, lower urinary tract dysfunction and IBS, is to restore the balance and to normal function focussing either on the nervous system control or directly on the smooth muscle function.
Lower urinary tract dysfunction is a very common disease with high prevalence, but often neglected. The prevalence of overactive bladder increases with age, ranging from 4.8% in females below age of 25 to 30.9% in those >65 years of age (P. Abrahams 2003, Urology Volume 62, Supplement 5B, page 28ff). Similar prevalence's can be found in male patients over the age of 65, however due to BPH. The prevalence of the other diseases are somewhat lower.
IBS, likewise, is also a very common disease and is also often neglected. The prevalence of IBS was found to be 12% among adults in the USA. The prevalence world wide can be expected to be similar (H. R. Mertz. Irritable bowel syndrome (Review article); New England Journal of Medicine 349:2136-46, 2003). New treatment is urgently needed since currently available, mostly symptomatic treatment is often insufficient and not free of side effects.
Current Treatment
Current treatment is mainly based on anticholinergic drugs, i.e. drugs which block the muscarine receptors. Such a pharmacological intervention is not entirely satisfactory. While the pharmacological effect, being statistically significant, may not be strong giving a 30% reduction in number of daily micturations only (getting the patients down from 15 times to approximately 11 times per day) even this small effect is associated with unpleasant side effects including mouth dryness, dry eyes and dry skin, constipation, and negative effects on cognition and memory. Other side effects include blurred vision and problems to accommodate. Further, central aspects of the disease, i.e. the urgency, is even less treated with such compounds. Currently, newer drugs with selectivity to the M3 subtype of the muscarine receptor, are about to be marketed. While the claim is, that they have a better separation between side effects and effects, this may not be fully correct. Constipation seems to be even a larger problem and efficacy is not improved. As the M3 receptor is also present in the eye, blurred vision and accommodation problems may remain.
Other drugs used include antidepressants, alpha1 adrenoceptor antagonists, and, for BPH only, 5alpha reductase inhibitors. Newer targets tested include 5HT receptor antagonists, potassium channel openers, and other targets. A list of targets currently evaluated in clinical trials can be found in an article from A. P. Ford, Drug Discovery World, Issue Fall 2003, page 9-17, which is herein incorporated by reference.
While current treatment for IBS often focuses on anti-diarrheals and antispasmodics, sometimes even antidepressants, anticholinergic drugs used for the treatment of incontinence are also active as they are good antidiarrheal agents. Newer drug targets include among others modulators of calcium activated potassium channels.
Based on this data review, we can conclude, that there is a well defined medical need for the development of new drugs for the treatment of OAB, and also more general for the treatment of lower urinary tract dysfunction. There also is an urgent need to for the development of newer drugs for the treatment of IBS. Such drugs should better address the over-activity which is a key symptom of both, IBS and OAB, without reducing the ability of the bladder detrusor to contract fully (in the case of OAB). This differentiation is essential. Drugs which are just relaxing smooth muscles often can also relax the detrusor muscle (and the sphincter muscle). Such relaxation, for example induced by calcium antagonists, may be active, but does result in two different risks. On one hand, the reduced contraction force can lead to residual volume remaining in the bladder. Such residual volume can be the cause not only for chronic infections but also for formation of cystic calculi. On the other hand, a plain smooth muscle relaxation also will relax the sphincter. In this case, the balance between sphincter activity and detrusor activity may not be positively influenced. Therefore, calcium antagonists are not in use for treatment of incontinence. Instead, calcium antagonists such as Diltiazem are used for the treatment of hypertension and angina pectoris due to their general effects to relax smooth muscles including vascular smooth muscles. Other drug targets are being evaluated, such as potassium channel openers with a focus on openers of the ATP sensitive potassium channel. However, while potent effects in models of hyperreactive bladder can be achieved, such drugs can not be used since they also relax smooth muscles of the vascular bed resulting in strong effects on blood pressure. Therefore none of these drug candidates has yet made it into a successful drug.
New drugs for the treatment of OAB should be active on the bladder detrusor activity without reducing the contraction force, should not or only slightly be active on vascular smooth muscles to avoid unwanted effects on blood pressure and should be safe with regard to other side effects including all cardiovascular side effects. New drugs for the treatment of IBS should normalize the activity of the overactive intestine without paralyzing the smooth muscle, i.e. they should not interfere with the ability of the gut to contract but rather interfere with the control of the gut motility.

Use of the non-opiate analgesic drug flupirtine for the treatment of overactive bladder and associated diseases including urge incontinence, urinary flow problems as a result of prostate hyperplasia and irritable bowel syndrome


ITU Recommendation G.729 Annex E teaches in the implementation of a fixed codebook search to determine the selected sample combination providing the minimal difference between the original input speech and the reconstructed speech after implementation of the codec. A large number of sample sets are processed and the difference between the original input signal and the reconstructed signal for each set is determined and stored in a register. Under certain conditions, the register can overflow resulting in invalid difference values. When such a condition occurs, the fixed codebook search cannot determine the sample combination providing the minimal mean square error between the weighted input speech and the weighted reconstructed speech. An initialization vector for the codvec vector is used to provide valid data which conforms to the G.729 Annex E specifications and minimizes changes to the G.729 source code while providing robust quality signal processing in the event of register overflow condition.

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Recommendation G.729 Annex E describes coding of analogue signals by methods other than PCM. This higher bit-rate extension of G.729 is designed to accommodate a wide range of input signals such as speech with background noise and music. The G.729 Annex E introduces a backward LP analysis and introduces two new algebraic expectation codebooks to extend the bit rate. One codebook is used in forward mode, the other codebook is used in backward mode. Two LP analyses are performed at the same frame rate, one backward on the synthesis signal and one forward on the input signal. An adaptive decision procedure chooses the best filter and performs a switch between filters if needed. The backward/forward decision criterion enables the operation of a real discrimination between speech (mainly coded in forward mode) and music (mainly coded in backward mode.)
The overall general operation of the G.729 codec is illustrated in FIG. 1 which is a simplified functional block diagram of the encoding of an audio signal and FIG. 2 which is a simplified functional block diagram of the decoding of an audio signal and FIG. 3 which is a simplified block diagram of the fixed codebook search. First, as illustrated by block of 12, in FIG. 1, an audio signal is received in analogue form by a device such as a telephone. The analogue signal is converted to a digital signal and pre-processed 14. The digital signal S will have a sample rate, for example 80 samples per 10 ms. The signal S is then encoded as defined by the codec. The signal is passed through an L/P filter 16 which processes the signal both backwards and forwards as detailed below. The L/P filter 16 generates that portion of the codec corresponding to the short-term characteristics of the original audio signal. The signal is processed to generate portions of the codec corresponding to the characteristics of the original audio signal.
In accordance with the specifications of the G.729 Annex E. codec, the residual portion of the signal is used to generate a series of pulses from which the residual signal is re-created by the decoder. The residual filter relies upon a codebook, FIG. 5, to select the samples to be used for encoding and decoding. In the example above, the signal can be divided into 5 ms sample size. Each five millisecond portion of the signal consists of forty samples. Based on the residual signal, the fixed codebook search 20 selects a subset of these samples and generates a series of pulses of having either a positive or negative value corresponding to the selected samples. The decoder relies on these samples to recreate the residual signal. The fixed codebook search algorithm evaluates a number of different groups of selected samples to determine the sample selection which will best recreate the original signal when regenerated by the decoder. The fixed codebook algorithm implements a search procedure to find the minimized mean squared error between the weighted input speech and the reconstructed speech.
The samples can be designated as samples one through forty, as illustrated in FIG. 2. The fixed codebook search algorithm selects the samples to be used based upon the codebook of the G.729 annex E. The fixed codebook search algorithm selects a set of samples, for example samples 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35 from track one of the codebook, FIG. 5. The search algorithm process the input speech based upon these selected samples and creates the code vectors which would be transmitted to the decoder as part of the packetized transmission, FIG. 1.
As illustrated in FIG. 3, the code vectors are also processed within the encoder to reconstruct the signal and the reconstructed signal is compared to the input speech. The difference between the reconstructed speech and the input speech is measured and quantified and stored in a register 22. This process is repeated for other sample sets from tracks 1 through 5. Once all of the samples sets have been processed and the deviation from the original speech quantified, the register is checked to determine which set of samples produced the minimum difference from the original input speech 23. The set of samples with the minimum difference are encoded into the bit stream.
The structure of the codec and code vectors is illustrated in FIG. 4. Since the LP coefficients are not transmitted in backward mode, the spare bit rate is used to increase the size of the algebraic excitation codebooks. One information bit is needed to indicate the LP mode and is protected by a parity bit. In the extension, all the additional bit rate from 8 kbit/s to 11.8 kbit/s, except two bits (LP indication mode+parity bit), is used to increase the size of the algebraic codebooks. The bit allocation of the coder parameters is shown in the table of FIG. 4.
The backward/forward procedure of G.729 Annex E has been also designed to reduce the number of switches and to perform, when necessary, smooth switching between filters with no artefacts. The LP mode and the related information is used to better adapt postfiltering and perceptual weighting to either music or speech. This is also used for error concealment.
In order to obtain this high quality with music while maintaining robust resistence to transmission errors and avoiding degradation of less stationary signals and especially speech, Annex E of G.729 introduced a new technique called mixed backward/forward LP structure. A criterion enabled to choose the most suitable LP analysis given the stationarity of the input signal and the backward and forward filters prediction gains.
For music signals, generally very stationary, the LP backward mode is mainly used: the LP analysis is performed on the synthesis signal with no transmission of the coefficients with two benefits: The LP order is increased up to 30 coefficients which is far more suited for the complex spectrum of music signals (the 10 coefficients LP filter of LP forward codecs like G.729 is not sufficient for music) and the bit rate is better allocated: no bit rate is wasted on successive very similar LP filters. All the spare bit rates are used to extend the size of the excitation codebook. An algebraic codebook with 44 bits is used for the fixed codebook excitation. The weak points of pure backward LP analysis mainly concern the non-stationary signals with sharp spectrum transitions and the sensitivity to transmission errors. With the mixed LP backward/forward structure, if a spectrum transition occurs, the forward mode is selected and the 10 LP coefficients are coded and transmitted. Even if backward mode is dominant, the transmission of forward LP filters clearly improves the robustness when compared with a pure backward structure.
In forward mode, the encoder is almost identical to G.729 with more bits allocated to the excitation codebooks. An algebraic codebook with thirty five bits is used for the fixed codebook excitation.
When decoding, FIG. 1, the fixed codebook 32 and adaptive codebook 34 decode is implemented and the signal is processed by the short term filter 36. Decoding obtains the coder parameters corresponding to a 10 ms speech frame. The first parameter decoded is the LP mode information and its parity bit. According to this information, the frame is classified either as forward, backward or erased. In forward mode, the parameters are the LSP coefficients, the two fractional pitch delays, the two forward fixed-codebook vectors, and the two sets of adaptive-and fixed-codebook gains. In backward mode, the parameters are the two fractional pitch delays, the two backward fixed-codebook vectors, and the two sets of adaptive-and fixed-codebook gains. First the LP backward analysis is performed. Then, if the frame is in forward mode, the LSP coefficients are interpolated and converted to LP filter coefficients for each sub-frame. Except for the construction of fixed-codebook excitation, the decoding procedure is very similar to the G.729 decoding procedure.
Then, for each 5 ms sub-frame the following steps are done: first, the excitation is constructed by adding the adaptive-and fixed-codebook vectors scaled by their respective gains. Next, the speech is reconstructed by filtering the excitation through the LP synthesis filter (either forward or backward). Then, the reconstructed speech signal is passed through a post-processing stage 37, which can include an adaptive postfilter based on the long-term and short-term synthesis filters, followed by a high-pass filter and scaling operation. Compared with G.729, the weighting factors of the postfilter have been made adaptive. The speech coding algorithms are bit-exact, fixed-point mathematical operations.
The encoder has several different functions, including:                Pre-processing.        Linear prediction analysis and quantization.        Windowing and autocorrelation computation.        Levinson Durbin algorithm implementation.        LP to LSP conversion.        Quantization of LSP coefficients.        Interpolation of LP coefficients.        LSP to LP conversion.        Backward/forward decision and switching.        Determination of the global stationarity indicator and high stationarity indicator.        Perceptual weighting.        Open-loop pitch analysis.        Computation of the impulse response.        Computation of the target signals.
The encoder also implements the adaptive-codebook search wherein the generation of the adaptive-codebook vector, the codeword computation for the delay index P1 and P2 and the computation of the adaptive-codebook gain are identical to the procedure in G.729. The parity bit P0 computed on the seven (instead of six in G.279) most significant bits of the delay index P1 of the first sub-frame.
Annex E introduces a fixed codebook structure and search. In the forward LP mode, an algebraic codebook with 35 bits is used as the fixed codebook. In this codebook, each excitation vector contains 10 non-zero pulses. The pulse amplitudes are either −1 or +1. The 40 positions in each sub-frame are divided into 5 tracks where each track contains two pulses. In the design, the two pulses for each track may overlap resulting in a single pulse with amplitude +2 or −2. The allowed positions for pulses are illustrated in FIG. 5.
Similar to G.729, the selected codebook vector is filtered through the pre-filter to enhanced the harmonic components. The codebook is searched to determine the optimal pulse positions within the sample.
The fixed codebook is searched by minimizing the mean-squared error between the weighted input speech and the weighted reconstructed speech. If ck(n) is the algebraic codevector at index k, h(n) is the impulse response of the weighted synthesis filter, and d(n) is the correlation between the target vector and h(n), then the algebraic codebook is searched by maximizing the criterion:
      T    k    =                    (                  C          k                )            2              E      k      where C is the correlation between ck(n) and d(n) and E is the energy of the filtered codevector (ck(n)*h(n)). Since the algebraic codevector contains few non-zero pulses, the correlation can be written as:
  C  =            ∑              i        =        0                              N          p                -        1                                s        i                          d                          (                      m            i                    )                    where ml is the position of the ith pulse, sl is its amplitude, and Np is the number of pulses (Np=10), and the energy in the denominator is given by:
  E  =                    ∑                  i          =          0                                      N            p                    -          1                                  ϕ                          (                                    m              i                        ,                          m              i                                )                      +          2                              ∑                      i            =            0                                              N              p                        -            2                                                        ∑                          j              =                              i                +                1                                                                    N                p                            -              1                                                                    s              i                                                  s              j                                                  ϕ                                            (                                                      m                    i                                    ,                                      m                    i                                                  )                                                        where φ(i,j) contains the correlations between h(n−i) and h(n−j). The signal d(n) and the correlations φ(i,j) are computed before the codebook search.
Similar to G.729, in order to speed up the search procedure, the pulse amplitudes are pre-set outside the closed-loop search using the so-called signal-selected pulse amplitude approach. In this approach, the most likely amplitude of a pulse occurring at a certain position is estimated using a certain side information signal. In G.729, the signal d(n) is used for pre-selecting the pulse amplitudes. In this bit rate extension, a signal b(n), which is a weighted sum of the normalized d(n) vector and the normalized long-term prediction residual, is used.
The signal b(n) is given by:b(n)=d(n)/σd+e(n)/σewhere e(n) is the long-term prediction residual and σd and σe are the r.m.s. values of d(n) and e(n), respectively. The sign of a pulse at a certain position is set a priori equal to the sign of b(n) at that position. The sign information is incorporated into the signals d(n) and φ(i,j) before starting the search for the best pulse positions, similar to G.729.
The optimal pulse positions are determined using a non-exhaustive analysis-by-synthesis search procedure. The used procedure is a special case of a general depth-first tree search method which is efficient for searching huge codebooks with a reasonable complexity. In this approach, the Np excitation pulses are partitioned into M subsets of Nm pulses. The search begins with subset 1 and proceeds with subsequent subsets according to a tree structure whereby subset m is searched at the mth level of the tree. The search is repeated by changing the order in which the pulses are assigned to the position tracks. In this particular codebook structure, the pulses are partitioned into 5 subsets of 2 pulses (the tree has 5 levels).
The pulse positions are determined as follows:
For each of the five tracks, the pulse positions with maximum absolute values of d(n) are found. From these, the two successive tracks, Tk0 and T(k0+1) mod 5 with the largest combined maxima are determined. This index k0 is used for the initial assignment of pulses to tracks. Then the two successive tracks, Tk1 and T(k1+1) mod 5 with the second largest combined maxima and the two successive tracks, Tk2 and T(k2+1) mod 5 with the third largest combined maxima are also determined.
In the first iteration, the pulses are assigned to the tracks as follows: the pulses in, n=0, . . . , 9, are assigned to tracks T(k0+n) mod 5, n=0, . . . , 9, respectively.
The pulses are searched in subsets of two pulses. The process begins by setting pulse i0 to the maximum of track Tk0 and pulse i1 to the maximum of track T(k0+1) mod 5. We then proceed by searching the pulse pair (i2, i3) by testing all the 8×8 possible position combinations in tracks T(k0+2) mod 5 and T(k0+3) mod 5 (given pulses i0 and i1 are known). The same procedure is repeated for the rest of the pulse pairs(i4, i5), (i6, i7), and (i8, i9), by testing the 8×8 possible position combinations in their respective tracks. At each level of the tree, the test criterion is computed based only on the available pulses at that level. This results in a total of 4×8×8 positions tested (since the first pulse pairs are set to their track maxima).
Other two iterations are carried out by changing pulse assignment to tracks (replacing k0 by k1 for the second iteration and k0 by k2 for the third iteration). All 10 initial pulse positions are assigned to tracks T(k1+n) mod 5 in the second iteration and to tracks T(k2+n) mod 5 in the third iteration. The same search procedure described above is repeated for these other two iterations. For the three iterations, the total number of tested position combinations is 3×4×8×8=768.
In order to compute the codeword of the 35-bit fixed codebook, The two pulse positions in each track are encoded with 6 bits and the sign of the first pulse in each track is encoded with one bit. The second pulse sign is implicitly determined based on the order of pulse positions.
The two pulses in each track (2 positions and 2 signs) are encoded in 7 bits. Each pulse position needs 3 bits (8 possible positions) and each sign needs 1 bit. That is a total of 8 bits for each pair of pulses. However, 1 bit can be reduced considering the fact that about half the position combinations are redundant. For example, placing pulse 1 at position a and pulse 2 at position b is equivalent to placing pulse 1 at position b and pulse 2 at position a (when the signs are not considered). A simple approach of implementing the pulse encoding is to use only 1 bit for the sign information and 6 bits for the two positions, while ordering the positions in a way such that the other sign information can be easily deduced.
To better explain this, assume that the two pulses in a track are located at positions p1 and p2 with sign indices s1 and s2, respectively (s=0 if the sign is positive and s=1 if the sign is negative). The index of the two pulses is given by:I=(p1/5)+s1×8+(p2/5)×16
If p1≦p2 then s2=s1; otherwise, s2 is different from s1. Thus, when constructing the codeword, if the two signs are equal, then the smaller position is assigned to p1 and the larger position to p2; otherwise, the larger position is assigned to p1 and the smaller position to p2. This procedure is repeated for each track to obtain five 7-bit indices.
The fixed codebook in backward LP mode differs from the forward mode. In the backward LP mode, the 18 bits needed for LP model are not transmitted. Thus, 9 bits are saved every sub-frame, which are used to increase the size of the fixed codebook from 35 to 44 bits. In this 44-bit codebook, each codebook vector contains 12 pulses. The positions in a sub-frame are divided into the same track structure described in Table E.2. However, two more pulses are placed, such that two consecutive tracks can contain three pulses instead of two. The two consecutive tracks containing three pulses will be called triple-pulse tracks and the other three tracks containing two pulses will be called double-pulse tracks.
The pulses in each double-pulse track are encoded with 7 bits (as in the 35-bit codebook) and those in each triple-pulse track are encoded with 10 bits. The index of the first triple-pulse track can have 5 different values (5 tracks). This index needs extra 3 bits. This results in a total of 44 bits (3×7+2×10+3).
The search procedure of the 44-bit codebook, is similar to that of the 35-bit codebook, with the exception that the tree has now 6 levels of pulse pairs. The same search procedure described above is followed.                The same procedure is used for pre-setting the pulse signs.        The initial tracks Tk an d Tk+1 are determined in the same manner.        The 12 pulses in, n=0, . . . , 11 are assigned to tracks T(k+n) mod 5, n=0, . . . , 11 respectively.
The pulses are searched in subsets of two pulses, by initially setting pulse i0 to the maximum of track Tk and pulse i1 to the maximum of track T(k+1) mod 5. Then it is proceeded by searching the pulse pair (i2, i3) by testing all the 8×8 possible position combinations in tracks T(k+2) mod 5 and T(k+3) mod 5 and repeating the procedure for the rest of the pulse pairs (i4, i5), (i6, i7), (i8, i9), and (i10, i11). This results now in a total of 5×8×8 positions tested.
Two more iterations are carried out similar to the 35-bit codebook resulting in a total of 3×5×8×8=960 tested positions.
Similar to G.729 and to the 35-bit forward codebook, the selected codebook vector is filtered through the pre-filter P(z)=1/(1−βz−1) to enhance the harmonic components.
In computation of the codeword of the 44-bit fixed codebook, the two pulses in each of the three double-pulse tracks are encoded using the same approach described above.
The three pulses in a triple-pulse track are encoded using the same philosophy by adding three bits for the position of the third pulse. The three positions are encoded with 3 bits each and the sign of the first pulse is encoded with 1 bit. The signs of the other two pulses are deduced from the pulse orders, similar to the double-pulse tracks. Again, we will explain this with an example. Assume that the three pulses in a triple-pulse track are located at positions p1, p2, and p3 with sign indices s1, s2, and s3, respectively. The index of the three pulses is given by:I=(p1/5)+s1×8+(p2/5)×16+(p3/5)×128
If p1≦p2 then s2=s1; otherwise, s2 is different from s1. Similarly, if p2≦p3 then s3=s2; otherwise, s3 is different from s2. When constructing the codeword, the pulse positions in a track are assigned to p1, p2, and p3 taking this sign relationship into consideration.
In total, 5 indices are returned, one for each track. The first index is that of the first triple-pulse track. This index is encoded with 13 bits; 10 for the positions and signs, as explained above, and 3 for the track index (0 to 4). The second index is that of the second triple-pulse track and is encoded with 10 bits. The last three indices are those of the three double-pulse tracks and are encoded with 7 bits each.
The encoder, FIG. 1, then performs the quantization of the gains in accordance with G.729 and performs a memory update.
The decoder, FIG. 1, functions to decode the signal. First the parameters are decoded. The transmitted parameters are listed in FIGS. 6 and 7. FIG. 6 illustrates the transmitted parameters indices in forward mode and FIG. 7 illustrates the transmitted parameters indices in backward mode. The first parameter decoded is the LP mode information and its parity bit. According to this information, the frame is classified either as forward, backward or erased. In forward mode, the decoder parameters are the LSP coefficients, the two fractional pitch delays, the two forward fixed-codebook vectors, and the two sets of adaptive- and fixed-codebook gains. In backward mode, the decoded parameters are the two fractional pitch delays, the two backward fixed-codebook vectors, and the two sets of adaptive- and fixed-codebook gains. Then, the LP backward analysis is performed on the past synthesized signal and the decoded parameters are used to compute the reconstructed speech signal as will be described below. This reconstructed signal is enhanced by a post-processing operation consisting of a postfilter, a high-pass filter and an upscaling (see E.4.2). Subclause E.4.4 describes the error concealment procedure used when either a parity error has occurred, or when the frame erasure flag has been set.
The parameter decoding procedure is similar to G.729. The number of parameters is greater (more excitation codebooks parameters and one LP mode indication parameter). The decoding process is done in the following order.
First, backward/forward decoding procedure is performed. One bit is used to indicate to the decoder the LP mode: backward or forward. Then, the parity bit mode is compared with this LP mode bit. If these bits are not identical, the frame is considered as erased and the procedure described below is applied. Otherwise, according to this LP mode indication, the same switching procedure as described above is performed at the decoder to obtain the LP filter that will be used for the synthesis.
Next the high stationarity indicator High_Stat(n) is computed once per frame as described above.
Then another high stationarity indicator High_Stat2 that will be used by the gain attenuation procedure in case of erased frame is computed each sub-frame (see E.4.4.3). If the current sub-frame is at least the 30th of consecutive backward subframes, High_Stat2 is set to 1, else it is set to zero.
Next the LP parameters are decoded. In any LP mode (backward or forward) and even if the frame is erased , one backward LP analysis per frame is performed, using the same procedures as those performed in the encoder above to obtain the encoder LP backward filter (windowing and autocorrelation computation, Levinson Durbin algorithm).
In forward mode, the same decoding procedure of the LP parameters is applied as in G.729. The interpolation procedure of the LP coefficients is the same as described above.
In case that one of the previous frames has been erased, the current backward filter computed Abwd(current) is not directly used but linearly interpolated with the last "correct" backward filter prior to the interpolation procedure of the LP coefficients.
Before the excitation is reconstructed, the parity bit is recomputed from the adaptive-codebook delay index P1. If this bit is not identical to the transmitted parity bit P0, it is likely that bit errors occurred during transmission. If a parity error occurs on P1, the delay value T1 is replaced by the delay value calculated in the previous sub-frame.
The adaptive-codebook vector is decoded the same as G.729. However, the fixed-codebook vector is decoded using the codebook indices. The received codebook indices are used to extract the positions and signs of the pulses. This is done by reversing the process described above for the 35-bit and/or 44-bit codebooks, respectively. Once the pulse positions and signs are decoded, the fixed codebook vector c(n) is constructed by:
      c              (      n      )        =            ∑              i        =        0                              N          p                -        1                                s        i                          δ                          (                      n            -                          p              i                                )                    where s1 are pulse signs, p1 are the pulse positions, and Np is the number of pulses (10 or 12). If the integer part of the pitch delay is less than the sub-frame size 40, c(n) is modified similar to equation (48) in G.729.
The adaptive- and fixed-codebook gains are decoded as described above, the same as G.729. The reconstructed speech is also computed in the same manner. However, the order of the LP filter could be 30 instead of 10.
As in G.729. The post-processing consists of three functions: adaptive postfiltering, high-pass filtering and signal upscaling. The adaptive postfiltering is similar to G.729 postfiltering except for the parameters γp, γn and γd that have been made adaptive according to the high stationarity indicator High_Stat and the current frame LP mode. After twenty consecutive high stationarity backward frames, there is no more postfiltering. The tilt compensation filtering is the same as G.729, except for the computation of the first parcor where the length of the impulse response is thirty two instead of twenty. Adaptive gain control and high-pass filtering and up-scaling are also the same as G.729.

Modification of fixed codebook search in G.729 Annex E audio coding


A power supply device includes: a rotary member that holds a wire harness inserted therethrough; and a support member that swingably supports the rotary member and is fixed to a fixed structure body or a sliding structure body, wherein the rotary member has an annular outer peripheral wall and a harness lead-out portion, the support member has one sidewall disposed along the outer peripheral wall, and the harness lead-out portion moves in a direction away from the sidewall when the sliding structure body is fully opened, the outer peripheral wall is widely exposed between the harness lead-out portion and the sidewall, and the outer peripheral wall and the sidewall are overlapped with each other in a plate thickness direction in a state where the outer peripheral wall is widely exposed and come in contact with each other so as to avoid an entry of foreign matters therebetween.

Conventionally, various power supply devices have been proposed to constantly supply power to a sliding door for an automobile, and, in particular, a power supply device for the purpose of compactness or the like is known which allows a wire harness for power supply to rotate in a horizontal direction using a swinging member according to opening and closing of a sliding door.
For example, Patent Literature 1 (not illustrated) discloses a power supply device which, on a sliding door side, includes a fixing member which is formed in a substantially U-shaped cross-section with an upper wall, a rear wall, and a lower wall and is fixed to the sliding door and a swing member which is pivotally supported on the upper wall and the lower wall of the fixing member in a horizontal direction and is configured to bend and insert a wire harness to the fixing member and the swing member and thus to arrange the wire harness on a vehicle body side.
In addition, Patent Literature 2 (not illustrated) discloses a power supply device in which substantially bracket-shaped support members are provided on a vehicle body and a sliding door side, respectively; substantially rectangular cylindrical rotary members are rotatably (swingably) connected to the support members in a horizontal direction, respectively; substantially rectangular cylindrical protectors are rotatably (swingably) connected to the rotary member in a horizontal direction, respectively; arc-shaped protrusions are provided on the protectors at side ends of connection portions between the rotary member and the protectors; and a cover overlapped with an outer side of the protrusion provided on the protector is provided on the rotary member, thereby preventing a wire harness from being exposed from the connection portions.


A system for the identification of patterns in stateful transactions may include a message interceptor, a message pattern processor, a message handler, and a memory. The message interceptor may be operative to intercept messages transmitted by a first device over a network to a recipient. The message interceptor may be operative to intercept the messages before the messages are received by the recipient. The message pattern processor may be operative to add the message to a message pattern and store the message pattern in a memory. The message pattern processor may compare the message pattern to a plurality of exemplary message patterns and identify when the message pattern matches at least one of the exemplary message patterns. The message handler may be operative to determine an action to take with respect to the message based on the at least one matching exemplary message pattern identified by the message pattern processor.

Network based services or transactions, such as those provisioned over the Internet, typically involve multiple interactions between entities, such as a sender and recipient or a user and a service provider, to request or otherwise establish a connection therebetween and implement the service or complete the transaction. Even the mere access of a web site involves a complex suite of interactions between a web browser program and a web server. Such transactions may be for legitimate purposes or they may be for fraudulent or illicit purposes. While the overall transaction being attempted may be one that is fraudulent or otherwise illicit, these interactions, including requests and responses thereto, taken alone may seem innocuous. In particular, one may not even be able to detect that a given transaction is illegitimate until multiple interactions have taken place, the intent then being discernable from the aggregate interactions.
For example, VoIP requires a complex set of interactions between callers, service providers and recipients to set up and implement voice communications therebetween. The use of SIP based VoIP for internet protocol ("IP") telephony services may be increasing in popularity. The increased popularity of SIP based services may be exposing potential vulnerabilities in SIP based VoIP. SIP based VoIP may be particularly susceptible to signal based fraud and denial of service attacks. SIP based VoIP may have inherited the potential for fraud associated with both standard telephony and IP data services. In addition VoIP may be associated with new characteristics which may require protections beyond those available for standard telephony and IP data services. Unfortunately, distinguishing legitimate from fraudulent use of VoIP is difficult as, for example, the initial interactions necessary to establish connections may look identical for both legitimate and fraudulent use with the nature of the use being discernable only after the use has substantially begun or ended.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Identification of patterns in stateful transactions


The invention relates to a backflush device (6) for a filter system (1) for removing impurities from a fluid, the backflush device (6) serving to backflush a filter body (3) in the filter system separating the clean side (5) from the inlet side (4), and comprising at least one backflush nozzle (7) for applying a rinse medium to the filter body (3), said nozzle comprising at least one opening (8) through which the rinse medium flows in a flow direction (9) during backflushing and exits the backflush nozzle (7). In order to improve the effectiveness of the backflushing, the at least one opening is designed as a slit opening (8) extending transverse to the flow direction (9) in a straight line having a constant cross-sectional profile (16) comprising a nozzle segment (17) expanding the flow direction (9).

Filter systems in industrial or stationary applications are used in a multiplicity of processes, for example for filtering out liquid or solid particles from a gas flow or solid particles from a liquid flow. To this end, the respective filter system uses at least one filter body which separates an inlet space from a clean space inside the system. To this end the filter body has a filter material through which the respective fluid can flow and which is impermeable for the particles which are to be filtered out. In the course of the cleaning operation or filtering operation the filtered out particles can accumulate or deposit on the filter material, that is, on the inlet side of the filter body. This increases the flow resistance of the filter body. In order that the filtering operation does not have to be interrupted, or only has to be interrupted for a short time, modern filter systems can be equipped with a backflush device, with the aid of which the filter body can be backflushed with a suitable rinse medium. The backflushing then takes place counter to the filtering direction, that is, from the clean side to the inlet side. This means that the impurities which have deposited on the inlet side of the filter body can be removed. Such a backflush device can operate with at least one backflush nozzle, with the aid of which the respective rinse medium is applied to the clean side of the filter body. To this end, such a backflush nozzle can have a multiplicity of openings through which the rinse medium flows in a flow direction, which is defined by the longitudinal axis of the opening, and exits from the backflush nozzle during backflushing. The rinse medium passes through such point-like openings at a corresponding backflush pressure with a straight jet or with a jet which fans out in a cone-shaped manner out of the respective opening and impinges on the filter body over a corresponding circular impact area.


A device for providing a medicament from capsules, where the device is integrated into an inhaler and comprises a capsule receiver comprising a capsule chamber, which extends along a first direction (X) in the manner of a tube and in which a capsule can be arranged, and a puncture device for opening the capsules, where the puncture device is arranged in a second direction (Y) radial to the capsule chamber, the puncture device having at least one needle which is moveable in sections into the capsule chamber in the second direction (Y) by means of an actuating button. A respective rear portion of the at least one needle of the puncture device is received in part in a needle receiver. The capsule receiver comprises at least one guide channel extending along the second direction (Y), wherein the needle receiver is arranged in the guide channel in such a moveable manner.

The invention relates to a device for opening capsules, which device is integrated into an inhaler and comprises a capsule receiver comprising a capsule chamber, which extends in a first direction (X) in the manner of a tube and in which a capsule (2) can be arranged, and a puncture device for opening the capsule, which puncture device is arranged in a second radial direction (Y) with respect to the capsule chamber, the puncture device having at least one needle which is moveable in part into the capsule chamber along the second direction (Y) by means of an actuating button.
Several principles by which inhalers operate are known in the prior art. The present invention relates to inhalers for the inhalation of medicaments in powder form from capsules. Such inhalers according to the invention are also called Bernoulli inhalers and are available on the market under the name HandiHaler, for example. The active ingredient in powder form is thereby stored in a capsule. These capsules are conventionally made of hard gelatine and consist of two cylindrical parts which are hemispherical at their ends. Such a capsule is disclosed in document DE 198 35 346 A1, for example.
Such a capsule is introduced into a generally cylindrical capsule chamber of the inhaler. This capsule chamber has an air inlet channel at one of its axial ends and an air outlet channel, which extends to the mouthpiece, at a further axial end. Furthermore, the dimensions of the capsule chamber are such that its length and width are greater than the dimensions of the capsule. However, the axial longitudinal axis of the capsule is nevertheless arranged substantially in parallel with an axial longitudinal axis of the capsule chamber.
Before inhalation, the capsule must first be opened. The inhaler has a puncture or cutting device for this purpose. This puncture device comprises two needles which are spaced apart along an axis in parallel with the axial longitudinal axis of the capsule chamber. The needles are pressed against the capsule by an actuating button, so that two openings are formed in the longitudinal lateral surface of the capsule. Some types of capsule have corresponding tapered portions of material at the puncture sites.
If air is then drawn in through the mouthpiece, an air stream is created in the capsule chamber from the air inlet to the air outlet channel. The air stream flowing past the openings generates a low pressure in front of the capsule openings compared with the interior of the capsule, so that the powder in the capsule is entrained in the air stream and thereby nebulised. In addition, the air stream causes the capsule to vibrate predominantly along the axial longitudinal axis. Owing to the dimensions of the capsule chamber already mentioned, the capsule is able to vibrate both vertically and horizontally.
Such inhalers are disclosed, for example, in documents DE 39 27 170 A1, DE 33 45 722 A1 and DE 43 18 455 A1.
Such inhalers of the generic type are disadvantageous in that the needles for opening the capsule are fixed directly to the actuating button. When the actuating button is moved, the needles scrape off plastics material at the openings in the capsule chamber owing to the tolerances. This creates plastics particles which lie in the region of the inhalation path. Furthermore, false air is drawn in through the needle openings in the capsule chamber. Some of the capsule inhalers available on the market additionally exhibit appreciable canting as well as in some cases an audible sound due to the unclear tolerance chains upon actuation of the actuating button.
Accordingly, the object of the present invention is to provide a device for opening capsules which is integrated into an inhaler, and respectively an inhaler having such a device, which avoid the disadvantages mentioned at the beginning.


In an assist-air type fuel injection device for an internal combustion engine in which an assist-air for atomizing fuel is supplied toward an injected fuel on the lower stream of a nozzle hole of a fuel injection valve, a pressure detection part for detecting a pressure of the above assist-air is provided at the fuel injection valve, and the pressure of the assist-air detected at the above pressure detection part is supplied as a signal pressure to a pressure regulator for regulating a fuel supply pressure to the fuel injection valve. Without being affected by the assist-air pressure, a fuel flow rate can be stabilized, whereby control accuracy of the fuel injection amount can be maintained favorably.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an assist-air type fuel injection method and device in a fuel-injection type internal combustion engine for an automobile and so on in which an assist-air is supplied toward an injected fuel so as to promote atomization of fuel injected from a fuel injection valve.
(2) Related Art
In a fuel injection type internal combustion engine, there have been generalized, in order to improve idling stability and transition response through improvement in combustibility, those provided with an assist-air type fuel injection device in which an assist-air is supplied toward a fuel injected from a fuel injection valve to an intake system so as to promote atomization of the fuel for improved atomization and mixing performance of the fuel and sucked air (See Japanese Unexamined U.M. Publication No. 1-85462).
In this kind of fuel injection type internal combustion engine, a fuel injection amount is controlled by controlling an injection period (injection pulse width) and regulating fuel injection pressure from the fuel injection valve with a pressure regulator.
Therefore, an intake pressure is introduced as a signal pressure from a collector part of the intake system and so on to a signal pressure chamber of the pressure regulator to keep the fuel pressure supplied to the fuel injection valve at a pressure higher than the above intake pressure by a constant differential pressure, by which the fuel is injected and supplied (See Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 63-275863).
However, with such a conventional pressure regulating method, with regard to those in which the assist-air is supplied to the injected fuel as mentioned above, the pressure at a nozzle part of the fuel injection valve is higher than the intake pressure of the intake system, and an injection flow rate is restrained by an influence of the supply pressure of the above assist-air, whereby the fuel injection amount is diminished from a control amount.
That is, when the pulse width of an injection signal applied to the fuel injection valve is sequentially increased in the state where supply of the assist-air is stopped, the injection flow rate of the fuel is increased in proportion to the pulse width as shown by a characteristic line 24 shown by the two-dot and dashes line in FIG. 4. However, when the assist-air is supplied, the injection flow rate is lowered because it is affected by this air pressure as shown by a characteristic line 25 shown by the solid line.

Assist-air type fuel injection method and device for internal combustion engine

Japan Electronic Control Systems Co., Ltd.


Provided are a user-selectable laser and an optical transmitter including the same. The user-selectable laser is an external cavity laser including a semiconductor laser diode for outputting an optical signal, and a wavelength selection filter. The user-selectable laser may allow a user to select a wavelength selection filter which is optically coupled with the semiconductor laser diode and selectively causes oscillation at the wavelength of an optical signal output from the semiconductor laser diode.

1. Field
The following description relates to wired/wireless network technology, and more particularly, to wavelength division multiplexing.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, due to the introduction of portable multi-function devices, such as smart phones, smart TVs, etc., excessive traffic is generated in wired/wireless networks. In order to cope with such excessive traffic, studies into applying Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) to a wired subscriber network or an integrated wired/wireless subscriber network are actively conducted. The WDM is a method of multiplexing multiple optical wavelengths and transporting them over a single optical fiber at the same time, so that the WDM can greatly reduce the cost of lines by the number of the optical wavelengths, as well as having many advantages in view of security, Quality of Service (QoS), and protocol transparency since each data channel is carried on its own unique wavelength.
In order to use the WDM, each subscriber device has to be allocated its own wavelength for communication with other parties. This requires optical sources with a number of unique wavelengths corresponding to the number of subscribers belonging to a wired subscriber network that is spread across remote nodes, or the number of separated-type base stations that exist in an integrated wired/wireless network. The need for optical sources with various unique wavelengths indicates that different specific kinds of optical sources should be further prepared, in view of fabrication, installation, and equipment management, in case failure occurs. This further requirement may be a considerable burden to providers. For these reasons, studies into development and commercialization of a wavelength-independent optical source are more actively conducted.
Wavelength-independent optical sources can be broadly classified into two types: one is a reflective optical source, such as a Reflective Semiconductor Optical Amplifier (RSOA) or a Fabry-Perot laser diode; and the other is a wavelength-tunable optical source whose lasing wavelength can be tuned. The transmission performance of the reflective optical source strongly depends on the power level of injected seed light. Therefore, the link would have some constraints, such as scalability and transmission distance. The wavelength-tunable optical source is considered as an attractive solution due to its flexibility. However, the output wavelength of the wavelength tunable optical source is variable; therefore, the wavelength initialization process is indispensably necessary before starting communication. A straightforward and simple way to achieve wavelength initialization is using the lookup table, usually predetermined and loaded in the tunable transmitter module. A lookup table has to be generated for each of the lasers because of the manufacturing variations. Moreover, the value of the control parameters in the lookup table need to be adjusted due to either laser aging or temperature changes. Although the time for generating the lookup table depends on the tuning mechanisms of the laser diodes, and there are some proposals to generate lookup tables in a short time, the overall generating process is exhaustive and requires a time-consuming scanning process. This can increase the devices' packaging cost.
Korean Patent Registration No. 10-0945423 discloses a tunable external cavity laser which tunes an output wavelength using the Littmann-Metcaff scheme, Korean Patent Registration No. 10-0945422 discloses a tunable external cavity laser which applies heat near a waveguide configuring Bragg gratings, and Korean Laid-Open Patent Application No. 10-2011-00732232 discloses a tunable laser module which tunes a wavelength by integrating a narrow-band wavelength tunable laser.

User-selectable laser and optical transmitter having the same

Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute


A camshaft adjuster for a concentric camshaft of an internal combustion engine is provided. The adjuster includes a stator that is connected to the timing gear, and a rotor located within the stator and connected to the outer camshaft. The rotor includes a plurality of vanes that extend into spaces created between inwardly directed projections of the stator that slidingly engage the outer surface of the rotor to define first and second sets of chambers on each side of the vanes. Front and rear sidewalls are connected to the stator and form the front and rear walls of the chambers. An outer cover is connected to the stator via axially extending fasteners and is adapted to be connected to the inner camshaft. Radial loads acting on the timing gear are transmitted from the stator to the rotor and into the outer camshaft.

Camshafts are used in internal combustion engines in order to actuate the gas exchange valves. The camshaft in an internal combustion engine includes a plurality of cams that engage cam followers (i.e. bucket tappets, finger levers or rocker arms). When the camshaft rotates, the cams lift the cam followers which in turn actuate gas exchange valves (intake, exhaust). The position and the shape of the cams define the opening period and amplitude as well as the opening and closing time of the gas exchange valves.
Concentric camshaft assemblies are also known in which separate intake and exhaust camshafts are concentrically arranged by providing a hollow outer camshaft in which an inner camshaft is located, with the inner camshaft cam lobes being rotatable on the outer camshaft, and connected through slots in the hollow outer camshaft to the inner camshaft. This allows the use of separate camshafts for intake and exhaust valve actuation within generally the same space required for a single camshaft.
A camshaft adjuster generally comprises a timing gear, which can be a chain wheel, a belt wheel or a gear wheel, and it is connected in fixed rotation to the crankshaft by a chain, a belt or a gear drive, and acts as an input to the adjuster. The adjuster also includes an output connection to the camshaft. An adjusting input is also provided which can be a hydraulic, pneumatic or even electric drive to adjust the output rotation relative to the input. Commonly used arrangements include adjusters that operate on the vane-cell principle.
A single cam phaser (SCP) is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 7,284,517. This SCP allows the timing of an inner camshaft and/or an outer camshaft to be adjusted relative to an engine crankshaft. This phaser uses a separate nose support piece that is separately supported in the first camshaft bearing in order to carry the axial load from the timing chain into the outer camshaft. This requires the nose support piece to have tight tolerances, so that the radial load imparted by the timing chain or belt into the timing gear or pulley on the phaser is transmitted from the phaser into the more structurally rigid outer shaft. If such a load is supported mainly by the inner camshaft, such as shown in the arrangements of DE 10 2005 014 680 A1 or DE 10 2006 024 794 A1, bending of the inner shaft may occur, thereby causing the inner and outer camshafts to bind, preventing intake versus exhaust valve timing adjustment. Additionally, the rear plate of U.S. Pat. No. 7,284,517 has to be assembled separately to the outer camshaft prior to the front plate then being assembled and connected to the inner camshaft. This further complicates engine assembly.
In one known hydraulically activated camshaft phaser which operates on the vane-cell principle, the front and rear covers of the phaser are separately attached to the inner and outer camshafts. The drawback of this arrangement is that durability is somewhat limited, and attaching the vanes to the covers is cumbersome. Due to having the vanes of the phaser connected to front and rear covers of the phaser, seals are required to retain the pressurized hydraulic fluid required to move the vanes of the phaser. Such seals are subject to wear and eventual failure. Further, such a multipart arrangement greatly increases labor and time in assembling this known SCP phaser as the engine is assembled. In assembling such a phaser to a concentric camshaft, the risk of internal phaser contamination is high. Furthermore the installation time and complexity are increased since multiple portions must be separately attached to multiple parts of the camshaft. This also requires more complex disassembly and assembly in the field for service.

Camshaft phaser for a concentric camshaft


Antenna module for frequencies in the GHz-range mountable on vehicles features a wide range of functions. Module includes a lower patch-antenna with a lower dielectric substrate. A lower λ/2-antenna structure is on the upper surface of the lower substrate for reception of satellite-transmitted frequencies in the GHz range, and a metallization is on the lower surface of the lower substrate. An upper patch-antenna of smaller dimensions and with an upper dielectric substrate is on the lower patch-antenna. An upper λ/2-antenna structure for reception of satellite-transmitted frequencies in the GHz-range is on the upper surface of the upper substrate. A metallization is below the upper substrate. A lower antenna connector runs from the lower λ/2-antenna structure through the lower substrate. An upper antenna connector separate from the lower antenna connector runs from the upper antenna structure through the upper substrate and the lower patch antenna.

An antenna module of this type integrates various functions of vehicle roof antennae. There are known microstrip-patch-antennae, that include a substrate, which in turn features metallization of the entire area of its lower surface and a suitable metallic structure or antenna structure on its upper surface. Antennae of this type commonly have a very narrow frequency bandwidth, for example, 1% to 2% relative bandwidth, unless additional measures are taken. By employing parasitic elements, bandwidth can be increased or multiple frequency bands can be blocked. These parasitic elements are conduction or surface structures, which are present on the same or higher plane than that of the antenna structure. If the parasitic elements are on a higher antenna structure, then they are coupled to the lower antenna structure, wherein a common HF-connection cable on the lower antenna structure runs to an amplification unit. In the parasitic elements, high frequency currents are induced, which adapt to the shape and dimensions of the parasitic elements and thereby produce fields. As a result, the entire structure has the capacity to send and receive both neighboring as well as somewhat distantly spaced frequencies.
Antenna structures of this type are only suitable, if the entirely expanded frequency band is allocated for the same service.
As a rule, if multiple, independent services are intended, then antenna modules with separately built antenna elements arranged next to one another are then used. In this configuration, however, more space is required. Furthermore, for the proper function of the individual antennae elements, sufficient isolation is required.
EP 0 521 384 A1 describes an antenna module with an upper and lower substrate, whereby an upper λ/2-antenna structure is present on the upper substrate and a lower λ/2-antenna structure is present on the lower substrate. In both antenna structures a metal layer present beneath the lower substrate serves as reference plane, facilitating a parallel connection of the oscillating circuits of both antennae.


A compression scheme is disclosed for program executables that run on Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC) processors, such as the PowerPC architecture. The RISC instruction set is expanded by adding opcodes to produce code that facilitates the removal of redundant fields. To compress a program, a compressor engine rewrites the executable using the new expanded instruction set. Next, a filter is applied to remove the redundant fields from the expanded instructions. A conventional compression technique such as Huffman encoding is then applied on the resulting code.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a method and system for compressing data in general and in particular to a method and system for compressing executable code. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to a method and system for compressing executable code in the context of Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC) architectures.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC) architectures simplify processor and compiler design by making all instructions have the same size and follow a few simple formats. A price to pay for these advantages is the large size of executable program code written using these instruction sets. The large code size reduces instruction cache effectiveness and utilization of memory resources. It also increases program-loading time when code is shipped over in a network environment or retrieved from a slow mechanical device like a disk.
Currently, network computers, embedded controllers, set-top boxes, hand-held devices and the like receive executables over a network or possibly through slow phone links or communication channels. Additionally, these devices may have very limited memory capacity that make large programs not fit in the available memory to run on the device. Therefore, for devices using RISC processors to be competitive in the market place, they may require highly efficient code compression that mitigates the disadvantage of large executable sizes.
Executable code written for RISC processors has traditionally been difficult to compress. Therefore there is a need for compressing instructions in a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) architecture such as the PowerPC family owned by International Business Machines. Traditional compressors in the prior art treat the instructions in a program as a stream of bits, and try to find patterns within this stream to help construct a more compact presentation of the program (e.g. Ziv-Lempel compression, Huffman encoding, etc.). However, RISC instructions often contain redundant fields. Redundant fields pose two problems. They pollute the compression model that a traditional compressor builds as it compresses the data, and therefore it will produce lower quality compression. Another problem with redundant fields is that they do not carry any information, yet a traditional compressor needs to generate code for them. The compressed code, however small it may be, does not convey any information. It one instead exploits the semantics of the instructions, a better solution is to eliminate the redundant fields so that the compressor does not have to generate code for them. These redundant fields then can be reconstructed during decompression in a straightforward manner. Therefore a need exists for a technique of identifying redundancy in RISC instructions and utilizing this information with commercial compression methods to yield better compression results. The present invention solves this problem by presenting a technique in a novel and unique manner, which is not previously known in the art.

Method and system for compressing reduced instruction set computer (RISC) executable code through instruction set expansion

International Business Machines Corporation


The present invention is related to a method for forming a hydrogen barrier layer capable of protecting a bottom structure from damages occurring due to hydrogen produced during a semiconductor device fabrication. The method includes the steps of: forming a hafnium vanadium oxide (HfVOx) layer on a substrate structure providing a predetermined semiconductor device structure, the HfVOx layer being used as a hydrogen diffusion barrier layer; and forming an insulation layer on the HfVOx layer.

The present invention relates to a method for fabricating a semiconductor device; and, more particularly, to a method for forming a hydrogen diffusion barrier layer in a semiconductor device.
In a semiconductor device, an insulation layer for insulating a bottom structure and a top structure can be classified into an inter-layer insulation layer, an inter-metal insulation layer and a passivation layer.
In an insulation layer formation process, plasma and source gas including hydrogen are typically used. Thus, hydrogen atoms, ions and molecules are diffused into a previously formed bottom structure, particularly into a dielectric thin layer of a capacitor, and this diffusion results in degradation of dielectric material properties. Accordingly, a diffusion barrier layer against hydrogen produced when forming an insulation layer is formed prior to forming the insulation layer.
FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view showing a conventional method for fabricating a semiconductor device.
As shown, a first inter-layer insulation layer 4 is formed on a substrate 22 providing a first and a second active regions 2A and 2B, a device isolation layer 1 and a gate pattern 3. Then, the first inter-layer insulation layer 4 is selectively removed to form a bit line 5 connected to the second active region 2B formed on one side of the gate pattern 3.
A second inter-layer insulation layer 6 is formed on the first inter-layer insulation layer 4, and an insulation layer 7 for passivation is formed thereon.
Subsequent to the second inter-layer insulation layer 6 formation, an adhesion layer 8 for adhering a lower electrode 9 to the second inter-layer insulation layer 6 is formed on a region where a capacitor will be formed. On top of the adhesion layer 8, the capacitor including the lower electrode 9, a dielectric thin layer 10 and an upper electrode 11 is formed. After forming the capacitor, a first diffusion barrier layer 12 for preventing diffusions of hydrogen produced during a subsequent insulation layer formation process is formed in such a manner that it encompasses the capacitor.
Next, a third inter-layer insulation layer 13 is formed, and a contact hole exposing the upper electrode 11 and another contact hole exposing the first active region 2A formed on the other side of the gate pattern 3 are formed thereafter.
Afterwards, a ferroelectric passivation layer 14 for protecting the upper electrode 11 of the capacitor and a barrier metal layer 15 are formed. A first metal line 16 connecting the upper electrode 11 to the first active region 2A is formed thereon. A second diffusion barrier layer 17 for preventing diffusions of hydrogen is formed on an entire surface of the substrate 22 so as to encompass the previously formed structure.
A third diffusion barrier layer 18 is formed on the second diffusion barrier layer 17, and a second metal line 19 is formed thereon. On top of the second metal line 19, a forth diffusion barrier layer 20 and a passivation layer 21 are sequentially formed.
The above first to third diffusion barrier layers 12, 17 and 20 are the diffusion barrier layer against hydrogen and usually use Al2O3 or TiO2 insulation layer. However, this type of insulation layer cannot completely prevent the hydrogen diffusion.
Also, hydrogen in an atom, molecule or plasma state used during the insulation formation process shocks the bottom structure, and this shock effect becomes a critical factor affecting a functional decrease of a semiconductor device.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a hydrogen diffusion barrier layer capable of preventing a bottom structure from damage occurring due to hydrogen produced during a semiconductor device fabrication process.
In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for fabricating a semiconductor device including the steps of: forming a hafnium vanadium oxide (HfVOx) layer on a substrate providing a predetermined structure, the HfVOx layer being used as a hydrogen diffusion barrier layer; and forming an insulation layer on the HfVOx layer.

Method for fabricating semiconductor device