The present invention discloses a new design of the nozzle and the lance tube of a sootblower to clean the interior of a heat exchanger by impingement of a jet of cleaning medium. In accordance with the teachings of the present invention the sootblower design developed, incorporates a nozzle at the tip of the distal end of the lance tube (downstream nozzle). The lance tube also includes an upstream nozzle positioned opposite and longitudinally apart the distal end nozzle. This design allows for the flow of the cleaning medium to enter into the inlet end of the nozzle without coming to a halt at the end of the lance tube. Further, the present invention also provides for a converging channel to be disposed in the interior of the lance tube to direct the flow of cleaning medium passing the upstream nozzle into the inlet end of the downstream nozzle with minimal hydraulic losses and flow maldistribution. The present invention also discloses an airfoil body to be placed around the upstream nozzle to minimize the flow disturbances caused by the bluff body of the converging channel.

This invention generally relates to a sootblower device for cleaning interior surfaces of large-scale combustion devices. More specifically, this invention relates to new designs of nozzles for a sootblower lance tube providing enhanced cleaning performance.
Sootblowers are used to project a stream of a blowing medium, such as steam, air, or water against heat exchanger surfaces of large-scale combustion devices, such as utility boilers and process recovery boilers. In operation, combustion products cause slag and ash encrustation to build on heat transfer surfaces, degrading thermal performance of the system. Sootblowers are periodically operated to clean the surfaces to restore desired operational characteristics. Generally, sootblowers include a lance tube that is connected to a pressurized source of blowing medium. The sootblowers also include at least one nozzle from which the blowing medium is discharged in a stream or jet. In a retracting sootblower, the lance tube is periodically advanced into and retracted from the interior of the boiler as the blowing medium is discharged from the nozzles. In a stationary sootblower, the lance tube is fixed in position within the boiler but may be periodically rotated while the blowing medium is discharged from the nozzles. In either type, the impact of the discharged blowing medium with the deposits accumulated on the heat exchange surfaces dislodges the deposits. U.S. Patents which generally disclose sootblowers include the following, which are hereby incorporated by reference U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,439,376; 3,585,673; 3,782,336; and 4,422,882.
A typical sootblower lance tube comprises at least two nozzles that are typically diametrically oriented to discharge streams in directions 180xc2x0 from one another. These nozzles may be directly opposing, i.e. at the same longitudinal position along the lance tube or are longitudinally separated from each other. In the latter case, the nozzle closer to the distal end of the lance tube is typically referred to as the downstream nozzle. The nozzle longitudinally furthest from the distal end is commonly referred to as the upstream nozzle. The nozzles are generally but not always oriented with their central passage perpendicular to and intersecting the longitudinal axis of the lance tube and are positioned near the distal end of the lance tube.
Various cleaning mediums are used in sootblowers. Steam and air are used in many applications. Cleaning of slag and ash encrustations within the internal surfaces of a combustion device occurs through a combination of mechanical and thermal shock caused by the impact of the cleaning medium. In order to maximize this effect, lance tubes and nozzles are designed to produce a coherent stream of cleaning medium having a high peak impact pressure on the surface being cleaned. Nozzle performance is generally quantified by measuring dynamic pressure impacting a surface located at the intersection of the centerline of the nozzle at a given distance from the nozzle. In order to maximize the cleaning effect, it is desired to have the stream of compressible blowing medium fully expanded as it exits the nozzle. Full expansion refers to a condition in which the static pressure of the stream exiting the nozzle approaches that of the ambient pressure within the boiler. The degree of expansion that a jet undergoes as it passes through the nozzle is dependent, in part, on the throat diameter (D) and the length of the expansion zone within the nozzle (L), commonly expressed as an L/D ratio. Within limits, a higher L/D ratio generally provides better performance of the nozzle.
Classical supersonic nozzle design theory for compressible fluids such as air or steam require that the nozzle have a minimum flow cross-sectional area often referred to as the throat, followed by an expanding cross-sectional area (expansion zone) which allows the pressure of the fluid to be reduced as it passes through the nozzle and accelerates the flow to velocities higher than the speed of sound. Various nozzle designs have been developed that optimize the L/D ratio to substantially expand the stream or jet, as it exits the nozzle. Constraining the practical lengths that sootblower nozzles can have is a requirement that the lance assembly must pass through a small opening in the exterior wall of the boiler, called a wall box. For long retracting sootblowers, the lance tubes typically have a diameter on the order of three to five inches. Nozzles for such lance tubes cannot extend a significant distance beyond the exterior cylindrical surface of the lance tube. In applications in which two nozzles are diametrically opposed, severe limitations in extending the length of the nozzles are imposed to avoid direct physical interference between the nozzles or an unacceptable restriction of fluid flow into the nozzle inlets occurs. In an effort to permit longer sootblower nozzles, nozzles of sootblower lance tubes are frequently longitudinally displaced. Although this configuration generally enhances performance by facilitating the use of nozzles having a more ideal L/D ratio, it has been found that the upstream nozzle exhibits significantly better performance than the downstream nozzle. Thus, an undesirable difference in cleaning effect results between the nozzles.
Initially, low performance of the downstream nozzle was attributed to the loss of static pressure associated with the fluid flow passing around the bluff body presented by the upstream nozzle in the form of the cylindrical projection of the nozzle into the lance tube interior. However, experiments conducted revealed that even when the upstream nozzle is moved radially outward to present no obstruction to the flow through the lance tube, the performance of the downstream nozzle did not significantly improve. The low performance of the downstream nozzle is believed to be due, in a significant manner, to the stagnation area created in the distal end of the conventional lance tube. A typical lance tube end or xe2x80x9cnozzle blockxe2x80x9d has a rounded, hemispherical distal end surface. Since the downstream nozzle penetrates the nozzle block before the distal end hemispherical end surface, an internal volume exists beyond the downstream nozzle. Accordingly, a significant portion of the cleaning fluid approaching the downstream nozzle is forced to flow past the nozzle inlet and come to a stagnation condition at the distal end of the lance tube, and then re-accelerate to enter the nozzle. Furthermore, the back streams returning from the distal end are colliding with the forward streams at the downstream nozzle inlet leading to greater hydraulic losses and most importantly distorting the flow distribution into the nozzle. The hydraulic losses associated with the stagnation conditions at the distal end and at the nozzle inlet coupled with the flow mal-distribution which, based on concepts developed in connection with this invention, were believed, in large part, responsible for the low performance of the downstream nozzle. Therefore, there is a need in the art to provide a new lance tube design that will substantially increase the performance of the downstream nozzle.
In accordance with this invention, improvements in nozzle design are provided which provide enhanced performance of the downstream nozzle. In each case according to this invention, the nozzle block is formed to substantially eliminate the stagnation within the lance tube area beyond the downstream nozzle found in the prior art designs. Another beneficial feature of this invention involves streamlining at the upstream nozzle which minimizes the disruption to flow of cleaning medium to the downstream nozzle.
Briefly, a first embodiment of the present invention includes a downstream nozzle at the distal end of the lance tube with a converging channel formed in the interior of the lance tube to direct the flow of the cleaning medium passing the upstream nozzle and directing the flow to the downstream nozzle. The converging channel substantially eliminates the stagnation volume of the distal end of the conventional lance tube. This has the benefit of reducing hydraulic losses and improving the degree of uniformity of flow velocity at the throat, which in turn enhances the flow expansion and the conversion of static energy into kinetic energy.
The second embodiment of the present invention has an interior surface substantially identical to the first embodiment. However, the second embodiment nozzle block has a thin wall configuration which reduces the mass of the nozzle block.
A third embodiment of the present invention includes an airfoil body around the outside surface of the upstream nozzle. By providing streamline design of the outer surface of the upstream nozzle, the flow disturbances associated with the upstream nozzle is minimized.
A fourth embodiment of the invention features an upstream nozzle with its inlet end tipped toward the flow of the cleaning medium flowing through the lance tube.
In a fifth embodiment, the upstream nozzle features a longitudinal axis perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the lance tube with the nozzle inlet tipped toward the flow of the blowing medium.
In a sixth embodiment in accordance with the teaching of the present invention provides for the design of the upstream nozzle having its outlet end flush with the body of the lance tube.

Sootblower nozzle assembly with an improved downstream nozzle


An air inflatable mattress for medical and hospital use is formed from upper and lower layers of flexible, air impervious material joined at a peripheral air impervious seam; laterally extending, elongate, spaced apart pillows extend between side edges of the mattress and are defined by lateral folds formed in the material of the upper layer; the pillows communicate at their opposed ends with longitudinally extending side plenums; the inflated pillows billow against each other in stress relieving contact effective to relieve air pressure bursting forces generated in the mattress.

(i) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an air inflatable mattress, a method for its manufacture and apparatus for use in the manufacture; more especially the invention is concerned with air inflatable mattresses for medical or hospital use.
(ii) Description of the Prior Art
Air mattresses have been proposed for medical and hospital use, for example to minimize development of bed sores and to support patients who have suffered from extensive burns.
In such mattresses it would be advantageous to have the supporting force of the internal pressurized air distributed uniformly beneath the support surface, and to so construct the mattress that deflating external force applied to one part of the support surface does not unduly affect the internal air pressure exerted on the support surface of other parts of the air mattress.
Previous proposals for air mattresses have been relatively complex. One prior proposal employs a plurality of discrete, inflatable members assembled together, each with a pressurized air supply as in Canadian Patent 1,077,173, L. A. Hopkins, issued May 6, 1980. Another prior proposal requires a complex mandrel which is coated with a film forming material to form a plurality of air inflatable cells, as in Canadian Patent 1,044,823, R. H. Graebe, issued Dec. 19, 1978.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,149,285, A. N. Stanton, issued Apr. 17, 1979, proposes an air mattress with elastic upper and lower support walls interconnected at a multiplicity of points by internal flexible ties that restrain separation of the support walls. U.S. Pat. No. 4,528,704, J. Wegener, issued July 16, 1985, employs top, intermediate and bottom flexible sheets as well as a semi-rigid backing; the top and intermediate sheets form high pressure tubes.

Method for the production of an air mattress


The present disclosure provides a camera lens assembly. The camera lens assembly includes a first lens, a second lens, a third lens, a fourth lens, a fifth lens and a sixth lens arranged in sequence from an object side to an image side along an optical axis. The first lens, the second lens and the fifth lens have positive refractive powers, and the third lens and the sixth lens have negative refractive powers. A total effective focal length f of the camera lens assembly and an entrance pupil diameter EPD of the camera lens assembly satisfy: f/EPD≤1.7.

As the science and technology develop, there is an increasing demand for high-pixel mobile phone lens assemblies on the mobile phone market. Since the thickness of the mobile phone is reduced, the total length of the lens assembly is limited, thereby increasing the difficulty in designing the mobile phone lens assembly. Currently, often used photosensitive elements in optical systems include a charge-coupled device (CCD) and a complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS). As the CCD and CMOS imaging sensors are having higher performances and smaller sizes, corresponding camera lens assemblies also need to satisfy requirements on the high image quality and the miniaturization.
To satisfy the miniaturization requirement, a typical configuration of an existing lens assembly has a F-number of 2.0 or above. As shown in Patent Application No. CN201310360753.9, the F-number as configured is 2.2, which reduces the size of the lens assembly while achieving a good optical performance. However, with the constant development of smart phones and other portable electronic products, higher requirements on imaging lens assemblies are brought forward, especially in situations such as lack of light (e.g., cloudy and rainy days, dusk, etc.) and hand trembling. Thus, the F-number of 2.2 or above has been unable to meet higher order imaging requirements.

Camera lens assembly including six lenses each having refractive power


According to one embodiment, an electronic device of the embodiment includes a pair of racks, a box-shaped main body having a front face, a first side face which intersects with the front face, and a second side face which is opposed to the first side face, a first fixing portion which is fixed to the first side face and also to one of the racks, a second fixing portion which is fixed to the second side face and also to the other one of the racks, and a module which is mounted in the first fixing portion.

A container box (rack) in which an electronic device can be mounted is known. A plurality of servers and fire walls are provided for the container box (rack).
On the other hand, electronic devices have a tendency to be downsized, for example, and there has been a need to secure compatibility and versatility with the existing rack.


An audio signal decoder configured to provide a decoded audio signal representation on the basis of an encoded audio signal representation including a sampling frequency information, an encoded time warp information and an encoded spectrum representation includes a time warp calculator and a warp decoder. The time warp calculator is configured to adapt a mapping rule for mapping codewords of the encoded time warp information onto decoded time warp values describing the decoded time warp information in dependence on the sampling frequency information. The warp decoder is configured to provide the decoded audio signal representation on the basis of the encoded spectrum representation and in dependence on the decoded time warp information.

Embodiments according to the invention are related to an audio signal decoder. Further embodiments according to the invention are related to an audio signal encoder. Further embodiments according to the invention are related to a method for decoding an audio signal, to a method for encoding an audio signal and to a computer program.
Some embodiments according to the invention are related to a sampling frequency dependent pitch variation quantization.
In the following, a brief introduction will be given into the field of time-warped audio encoding, concepts of which can be applied in conjunction with some of the embodiments of the invention.
In the recent years, techniques have been developed to transform an audio signal to a frequency-domain representation, and to efficiently encode the frequency-domain representation, for example, by taking into account perceptual masking thresholds. This concept of audio signal encoding is particularly efficient if the block length, for which a set of encoded spectral coefficients are transmitted, is long, and if only a comparatively small number of spectral coefficients are well above the global masking threshold while a large number of spectral coefficients are nearby or below the global masking threshold and can thus be neglected (or coded with minimum code length). A spectrum in which said condition holds is sometimes called a sparse spectrum.
For example, cosine-based or sine-based modulated lapped transforms are often used in applications for source coding due to their energy compaction properties. That is, for harmonic tones with constant fundamental frequencies (pitch), they concentrate the signal energy to a low number of spectral components (sub-bands), which leads to an efficient signal representation.
Generally, the (fundamental) pitch of a signal shall be understood to be the lowest dominant frequency distinguishable from the spectrum of the signal. In the common speech model, the pitch is the frequency of the excitation signal modulated by the human throat. If only one single fundamental frequency would be present, the spectrum would be extremely simple, comprising the fundamental frequency and the overtones only. Such a spectrum could be encoded highly efficiently. For signals with varying pitch, however, the energy corresponding to each harmonic component is spread over several transform coefficients, thus leading to a reduction of coding efficiency.
In order to overcome the reduction of coding efficiency, the audio signal to be encoded is effectively resampled on a non-uniform temporal grid. In the subsequent processing, the sample positions obtained by the non-uniform resampling are processed as if they would represent values on a uniform temporal grid. This operation is commonly denoted by the phrase "time warping". The sample times may be advantageously chosen in dependence on the temporal variation of the pitch, such that a pitch variation in the time warped version of the audio signal is smaller than a pitch variation in the original version of the audio signal (before time warping). After time warping of the audio signal, the time-warped version of the audio signal is converted into the frequency-domain. The pitch-dependent time warping has the effect that the frequency-domain representation of the time-warped audio signal typically exhibits an energy compaction into a much smaller number of spectral components than a frequency-domain representation of the original (non-time-warped audio signal).
At the decoder side the frequency-domain representation of the time-warped audio signal is converted to the time-domain, such that a time-domain representation of the time-warped audio signal is available at the decoder side. However, in the time-domain representation of the decoder-sided reconstructed time-warped audio signal, the original pitch variations of the encoder-sided input audio signal are not included. Accordingly, yet another time warping by resampling of the decoder-sided reconstructed time-domain representation of the time-warped audio signal is applied.
In order to obtain a good reconstruction of the encoder-sided input audio signal at the decoder, it is desirable that the decoder-skied time warping is at least approximately the inverse operation with respect to the encoder-sided time warping. In order to obtain an appropriate time warping, it is desirable to have an information available at the decoder, which allows for an adjustment of the decoder-sided time warping.
As it is typically necessitated to transfer such an information from the audio signal encoder to the audio signal decoder, it is desirable to keep the bitrate necessitated for this transmission small while still allowing for a reliable reconstruction of the necessitated time warp information at the decoder side.
In view of this situation, there is a desire to have a concept which allows for a reliable reconstruction of a time-warp information on the basis of an efficiently encoded representation of the time-warp information.

Audio signal decoder, audio signal encoder, methods and computer program using a sampling rate dependent time-warp contour encoding

Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der angewandten Forschung e. V.


In a parallel manual transmission, an upshifting under power is executed based upon preset operating conditions, for example with a fully depressed accelerator pedal, without an electronically controlled, load-reducing ignition retard. When shifting to a higher gear, the engine output is used for increasing the speed of the engine and for the propulsion of the vehicle, based upon the operating condition of the drive train.

Automatic drive trains including automatic transmissions that are shifted under power and that are operated by means of actuators based on preset programs are increasingly being used in automobiles. Transmissions of this type not only increase driving comfort but they also enable substantial fuel consumption savings as the amount of driving done at lower engine speeds is increased.
FIG. 1 shows a section of a drive train of a vehicle that is equipped with such a transmission. A twin-clutch transmission, indicated as a unit by the number 10 and also called a parallel manual transmission, has two input shafts 12 and 14, each of which can be connected via a clutch 16 and 18, respectively, to the crankshaft 20 of an internal combustion engine. Gear wheels are arranged on the input shafts 12 and 14 and can be meshed with gear wheels that are arranged on an output shaft 22 such that the gear wheels can shift but not rotate, in order to allow shifting to different gears. The output shaft 22 is connected, for example, to a rear differential of the vehicle.
One actuator 24 or 26 is allocated to each clutch 16 or 18, respectively, to implement its actuation.
The actuator 26 is illustrated here in detail by way of example and includes an electric motor 30. The output pinion gear 32 of the electric motor 30 is equipped with internal threading that meshes with a threaded tree rod 34, which is at the same time the rod for a piston 36, which operates in a hydraulic cylinder 38. The hydraulic cylinder 38 is connected via a hydraulic transmission link 40 to an actuating mechanism, for example a release lever, of the clutch 18. To ascertain the position of the piston 36 or the release lever of the clutch 18, a sensor 42, such as an increment counter, is used to determine the angle of rotation of the output pinion gear 32. Because of the threaded engagement between the pinion gear 32 and the threaded tree rod 34, the linear shifting of the threaded tree rod 34 can be ascertained from changes in the angle of rotation. In order to have a point of reference that is referred to in the shifting of the piston 36, a detector bore provided in the hydraulic cylinder 38 can be passed over in a known manner, while pressure builds up in the hydraulic transmission link 40, by an increase in torque or in the energy input of the electric motor 30. As additional reference points, centers of pressure or mechanical stops for the clutch can be approached.
The gear wheels arranged on the output shaft 22 of the twin clutch transmission 10 are moved by means of selector forks 46, which operate in conjunction with selector fingers 48, which are arranged on a shifting shaft 50. For example, a shifting shaft 50 having a number of selector fingers 48 may be provided, which actuates all the gear wheels arranged on the output shaft 22, or, for example, two shifting shafts 50 may be provided, which actuate the selector forks of those gear wheels that are allocated to one of the input shafts 12 or 14. For each shifting shaft 50, two actuators are provided, one that rotates the shifting shaft 50 back and forth around its axle to engage gears, and another that shifts the shifting shaft 50 in accordance with the drawing, perpendicular to the plane of the paper, to choose between various shifting tracks.
The actuators that are allocated to a shifting shaft 50 (also indicated by "i") are indicated in the figure by the numbers 52 and 54. The position sensing can be executed as described above in reference to the electric motor 30. In order to determine the absolute position of the shifting shaft 50 or the selector finger 48, reference points are approached, for example mechanical stops in a selector track or shifting track, or mechanical stops approached by the selector forks 46 themselves.
To control the above-mentioned actuators (24, 26, 52, 54), a control unit or control device 60 is provided, which includes a microprocessor 62 with a program memory 64 and a data memory 66.
Inputs 68 to the control unit 60 are connected to various task-based sensors or position indicators, such as a wheel speed sensor 70 for determining the speed of a wheel, a sensor 72 for determining the position of an accelerator pedal 73, a position indicator 74 for determining the position of the selector lever of a transmission actuating device 76, an output 77 of the transmission actuating device 76, through which the actuation of various control programs, for example a comfort driving or performance driving program, is transmitted, a speed sensor 78 for determining the speed of the internal combustion engine, etc. It is understood that the control unit 60 may also be designed such that it can itself recognize driving conditions and/or driver profiles and can activate corresponding programs, such as a mountain driving program or a performance driving program.
Outputs 79 from the control unit 60 are connected to the actuators, which can be actuated by another actuator, and to a powershift element 80 of the internal combustion engine.
The design and the function of the above-described arrangement, which can be altered in a multitude of ways, are known in the art and thus will not be described in greater detail.
One problem with this type of automatically actuated parallel manual transmission, or with automated manual transmissions in general, lies in the fact that under certain conditions with an acceleration reference, it is not possible to achieve the rates that can be achieved with a manually operated manual transmission.
This is due generally to the fact that with a manually shifted transmission, during acceleration measurement the vehicle operates outside of a permissible range for individual components, for example with extremely high shifting forces, a "smoking" clutch, etc. With automated manual transmissions, this is not possible since otherwise the danger would exist that frequent repetitions of such acceleration attempts could destroy components of the drive train.
With automated manual transmissions that are shifted with an interruption in propulsive power, during the shifting process the engine speed is limited by means of ignition retard, or directly in the powershift element, as otherwise the engine would race uncontrollably during the shifting process.
In a vehicle having a parallel manual transmission or twin clutch transmission there is no need for slow gear shifts or a load-reducing ignition retard in order to avoid a racing of the engine during the shifting process, because the next gear in the shifting process can be selected ahead of time by engaging a gear wheel of the input shaft that is being operated with an open clutch, with a gear wheel of the output shaft, and by effectively engaging the gear wheel by simply switching the clutches 16, 18. Nevertheless, with upshifts following the end of the overlapping phase of the two clutches 16, and 18, a load-reducing ignition retard is executed in order to lower the engine speed without superelevating the output torque to the target speed. As a result of this load-reducing ignition retard, the available propulsive power is not fully utilized, causing acceleration time to be wasted.
One property of automatic transmissions consists in the fact that these transmissions, if necessary, automatically downshift to a lower gear or transition to a higher gear if the propulsive power is no longer sufficient to fulfill the wishes of the driver. One characteristic feature of powershift transmissions, especially parallel manual transmissions, but also of conventional automatic transmissions that operate with planetary gear sets, or CVT [continuously variable transmission] transmissions (transmissions with continuously variable gears), is that during the transition to a higher gear the engine power is used both to increase the engine speed and to propel the vehicle, which can have a negative effect on driving comfort.

Method and device for controlling gear ratio change in a transmission contained in the drive train of a motor vehicle with gears that can be shifted under power

Luk Lamellen und Kupplungabau Beteiligungs KG


A cell culture vessel including an accommodating part which is an inner space accommodating a cell culture support therein, a fixing member configured to fix the cell culture support to a lower surface of the accommodating part, wherein the fixing member includes a first adhesive layer attached to the lower surface of the accommodating part, a second adhesive layer attached to a lower surface of the cell culture support, and a support film interposed between the first adhesive layer and the second adhesive layer and configured to perform a support function, and an adhesive force between the second adhesive layer and the cell culture support is higher than an adhesive force between the first adhesive layer and the lower surface of the accommodating part.

In recent years, with expansion of the use of cultured cells for the treatment of diseases, interest and research on cell culture have been increased. Cell culture is a technology for harvesting cells from living organisms and culturing the cells in vitro. Cultured cells may be differentiated into various tissues of the human body such as skin, organs, nerves, and the like and then transplanted into the human body or may be transplanted into the human body in a state before differentiation so as to be utilized in treating a variety of diseases by allowing engraftment and differentiation to occur simultaneously.
Tissue engineering is a field related to cell culture and is a multidisciplinary study that applies existing scientific fields such as cytology, life sciences, engineering, and medical science. Research on a new fusion technology has been carried out to understand the correlation between structure and function of biological tissues and to replace and regenerate damaged tissues or organs with normal tissues.
Meanwhile, in the field of regenerative medicine, research has been carried out to improve medical effects by manufacturing a cell culture support and a cell culture vessel so that cells harvested from a patient can be cultured in vitro and transplanting the cells cultured in the cell culture support back into the living body.
However, regarding cell culture supports and cell culture vessels which have been developed so far, because the cell culture support is firmly attached to the cell culture vessel, it is not easy to detach the cell culture support from the cell culture vessel without causing damage to the cell-cell binding of the cell culture support. Also, when, in order to solve this, the cell culture support is loosely fixed to the cell culture vessel, there is a problem of uniformity reduction due to a difference in physical and chemical stimulations on each cell because it is not possible to provide a uniform environment to each cultured cell.
In addition, because, in general, cells are very sensitive to biochemical and other external influences, applying a chemical mechanism to detach the cell culture support from the cell culture vessel is not appropriate as a method for obtaining uniformly cultured cells.
Further, in the case of colony cells constituting a colony, even when cell colonies proliferated, not only the shape of the cell culture support in which the cells proliferated, but also the shapes of the cell colonies may be different according to physical and chemical methods of detaching from the cell culture support. When the shapes of the cell colonies are not uniform, each cultured cell colony may show a different reaction, and in this case, there is a problem in that, because it is not possible to derive reproducible results, the proliferated cell colonies are very unsuitable for use in testing and experimenting.
Accordingly, there is an urgent need to develop a technology capable of providing the same microenvironment to each cell in the process of culturing cells while allowing a cell culture support to be easily separated from a cell culture vessel without causing damage to cells cultured in the cell culture support.


A data state manager may include a production intent module to define a production intent, a capability module to identify a number of capabilities of a plurality of media printing devices to which the data state manager is coupled, and a data stream module to, through a plurality of communication links to the media printing devices, stream a plurality of data streams to the plurality of media printing devices in a synchronized manner based on a number of characteristics of the streamed data and the identified capabilities of the media printing devices, with the data streams defining the production intent.

A print service provider (PSP) may use digital presses to print a variety of products. The digital presses used to produce the printed products may be loaded with a variety of substrates on which text and images are printed. Digital front ends (DFEs) may be used to convert customer print jobs to the submission format of the digital presses and queue the jobs to the digital presses.
Throughout the drawings, identical reference numbers designate similar, but not necessarily identical, elements. The figures are not necessarily to scale, and the size of some parts may be exaggerated to more clearly illustrate the example shown. Moreover, the drawings provide examples and/or implementations consistent with the description; however, the description is not limited to the examples and/or implementations provided in the drawings.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


An air-in-line detection system for use in detecting air bubbles in the fluid line of a disposable cassette mounted on a main pump unit is disclosed which can accurately detect air bubbles in any type of fluid, whether clear or opaque. The system uses an optical module mounted on the main pump unit to supply light and to detect light returned from the cassette, and an optical viewing area in the fluid flow path near the outlet end of the cassette. An inverted prism in the optical viewing path reflects light back to the optical module when air is contained in the fluid flow path adjacent the optical viewing area, with the light not being returned if there are no air bubbles contained in the fluid flow path.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a system for detecting the presence of air in a fluid line, and more particularly to a system for detecting an air bubble in the fluid line on a disposable cassette containing a fluid pump therein, which disposable cassette is for installation onto and use with a main pump unit, with an optical sensor mounted in the main pump unit monitoring an optical viewing area in the fluid line in the cassette to detect air, whether contained in a clear fluid or in an opaque fluid.
In the past there have been two primary techniques which have been used to deliver drugs which may not be orally ingested to a patient. The first such technique is through an injection, or shot, using a syringe and needle which delivers a large dosage at relatively infrequent intervals to the patient. This technique is not always satisfactory, particularly when the drug being administered is potentially lethal, has negative side effects when delivered in a large dosage, or must be delivered more or less continuously to achieve the desired therapeutic effect. This problem results in smaller injections being given at more frequent intervals, a compromise approach not yielding satisfactory results.
Alternatively, the second technique involves administering a continuous flow of medication to the patient, typically through an IV bottle. Medication may also be delivered through an IV system with an injection being made into a complex maze of IV tubes, hoses, and other paraphernalia. With drop counters being used to meter the amount of bulk fluid delivered, many medications still end up being administered in a large dosage through an injection into the IV lines, although the medications may be diluted somewhat by the bulk fluid.
As an alternative to these two techniques of administering medication to a patient, the relatively recent addition of medication infusion pumps has come as a welcome improvement. Medication infusion pumps are utilized to administer drugs to a patient in small, metered doses at frequent intervals or, alternatively, in the case of some devices, at a low but essentially continuous rate. Infusion pump therapy may be electronically controlled to deliver precise, metered doses at exactly determined intervals, thereby providing a beneficial gradual infusion of medication to the patient. In this manner, the infusion pump is able to mimic the natural process whereby chemical balances are maintained more precisely by operating on a continuous time basis.
One of the requirements of a medication infusion system is dictated by the important design consideration of disposability. Since the portion of the device through which medication is pumped must be sterile, in most applications of modern medication infusion equipment some portions of the equipment are used only once and then disposed of, typically at regular intervals such as once daily. It is therefore desirable that the fluid pump portion of the infusion pump device be disposable, with the fluid pump being designed as an attachable cassette which is of inexpensive design, and which is easily installable onto the main pump unit.
It will be perceived that it is desirable to have a simple disposable cassette design to minimize the cost of construction of the cassette, using the minimum number of parts necessary in the design of the cassette. The design of the cassette must be mass producible, and yet result in a uniform cassette which is capable of delivering liquid medication or other therapeutic fluids with a high degree of accuracy. The cassette should include therein more than just a fluid pump; other features which have formerly been included in peripheral devices may be included in the cassette.
An essential function of a medication infusion system is to avoid the infusion of fluid containing air bubbles therein. Although steps may be taken to minimize the possibility of air bubbles being contained in a fluid which is to be infused to a patient, it is essential to monitor the fluid line before it reaches the patient to ensure that substantially no air bubbles remain in the fluid which is to be infused. The detection of air bubbles in all fluids which are to be infused is therefore a critical design requirement.
It is therefore the primary objective of the present invention to provide an air-in-line detection system for use with a disposable cassette which is mounted onto a main pump unit. The system of the present invention must be of a design retaining all of the advantages of infusion devices known in the past, and must also provide a number of additional advantages and improvements. Specifically, the air-in-line detection system of the present invention must be capable of detecting air bubbles in the fluid line of a disposable cassette near the output end of the cassette, after the pumping operation has been performed. The system must be capable of accurately and effectively detecting air bubbles in any type of fluid which may be infused, whether the fluid is clear or opaque, as in the case of lipid solutions.
Several other additional features are desirable in the design of a cassette and a main pump unit making up an air-in-line detection system. Examples of such features are the ability to detect air bubbles whether the flow rate of the fluid in the cassette is fast or slow, and the ability to detect air in the fluid line even when the interior of the fluid line remains coated with fluid. In addition to being able to detect air in the fluid line, the system must also be accurate, presenting a high degree of resistance to false alarms. No cassette in the art includes an air-in-line detection system which comes close to combining these features.
Despite the inclusion of all of the aforesaid features, the system of the present invention shall utilize a minimum number of parts, all of which parts are of inexpensive construction, yet which afford the assembled cassette the high degree of accuracy which must be retained. The system of the present invention must also be of a design which enables it to compete economically with known competing systems, and it must provide an ease of use rivaling the best of competing systems. The system must accomplish all these objects in a manner which will retain and enhance all of the advantages of reliability, durability, and safety of operation. The system of the present invention must provide all of these advantages and overcome the limitations of the background art without incurring any relative disadvantage. All the advantages of the present invention will result in a superior medication infusion system having a number of advantages making the system a highly desirable alternative to systems presently available.


An apparatus including a processor comprising hardware, wherein the processor is configured to: perform a selection operation of selecting one or more pickup images among a time-sequential series of pickup images; perform a correction operation to correct a brightness of the one or more pickup images selected by the selection operation; and generate a composite image based on: one or more pickup images among the series of pickup images not selected; and a result of the correction operation.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus, a method, and a computer-readable storage device which are suitable for a bulb photographing and a composite photographing.
Description of the Related Art
In recent years, portable apparatuses (image pickup apparatuses) with photographing function such as a digital camera have been come into wide use. In such a type of image pickup apparatus, there is an apparatus which includes a display unit and functions to display a photographed image. Furthermore, there is also an apparatus which displays a menu screen in the display unit to help the operation of the image pickup apparatus.
In the image pickup apparatus, there is an apparatus having a bulb photographing function in which the exposure is performed during a period when a shutter button is pushed or between an operation and an operation. With the use of the bulb photographing function, the starry sky or the night sky can be effectively photographed. Furthermore, there is also a commercialized image pickup apparatus having a live bulb function in which not only the finally obtained image but also an image changing during the exposure can be displayed at the time of the bulb photographing.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Publication No. 2014-239299 A discloses an apparatus which achieves the live bulb function using an image pickup element performing a destructive reading. In the apparatus of Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Publication No. 2014-239299 A, the exposure and the reading are repeatedly performed plural times, and image signals obtained in each reading are integrated to obtain an image at every predetermined exposure time in the bulb photographing. In such a live bulb function, the user can confirm timing to stop the bulb photographing while viewing the displayed image.
In addition, there is developed an image pickup apparatus having a composite photographing function in which an object is repeatedly photographed to obtain a series of images and a comparison light composition is performed to determine a combining portion according to the feature of a series of images thus obtained so as to obtain the same effect as that of the bulb photographing.

Apparatus, method, and computer-readable storage device for generating composite image


A semiconductor device includes a porous interlayer insulation film including therein a stacking of SiO.sub.2 particles having a diameter in the range between about 5 nm and about 50 nm and stacked so as to form a void between adjacent particles, wherein the interlayer insulation film has a porosity in the range between about 13% and about 42%.

The present invention generally relates to semiconductor devices and more particularly to a high-speed semiconductor device with an interlayer insulation film having a low permittivity.
In a semiconductor integrated circuit in which a large number of semiconductor devices are integrated on a common substrate, a multilayer interconnection structure is generally used for interconnecting the semiconductor devices. In such a multilayer interconnection structure, a first-layer interconnection pattern is covered by a first-layer interlayer insulation film, and a second-layer interconnection pattern is provided on such a first-layer interlayer insulation film. The second-layer interconnection pattern is then covered by a second-layer interlayer insulation film and a third-layer interconnection pattern is provided on the second-layer interlayer insulation film.
When using such an interlayer insulation structure in high-speed semiconductor devices such as a logic device or a high-speed memory device, it is desired that the insulation film forming the interlayer insulation film has a permittivity as low as possible. In an extremely miniaturized semiconductor device called sub-halfmicron devices in which the design rule is 0.3 .mu.m or less, in particular, there is a tendency that an electrostatic induction between adjacent conductor patterns invites an increase in the impedance, which in turn causes a delay in response or increase of the electric power consumption.
On the other hand, the insulation film used for such an interlayer insulation film is required to form a flat, planarized structure in view of the fact that a further conductor pattern may be formed thereon, so that the conductor pattern formed on the interlayer insulation film is not disconnected by a stepped structure formed on the interlayer insulation film. Such a planarization of the interlayer insulation film is also essential in view of the process of formation of the minute interconnection pattern, which is conducted by using a high-resolution optical exposure system. As the interlayer insulation film is provided so as to bury the underlying conductor patterns, it is necessary that the interlayer insulation film is applied in a low-viscosty fluid state such that the shape of the conductor pattern is not transferred to the surface of the interlayer insulation film.
In view of the foregoing, it has been practiced to form an interlayer insulation film having a planarized top surface by depositing an SiO.sub.2 film by a high-density plasma CVD process, followed by a chemical mechanical polishing process (CMP). However, the insulation film formed according to such a process has a permittivity of about 3.5 or higher even in the case in which a F-doping is conducted to the SiO.sub.2 film. Further reduction of the permittivity is extremely difficult.
It is also known that a low-permittivity interlayer insulation film may be obtained by using F-doped polyimide or a fluorocarbon resin in place of the conventional CVD-SiO.sub.2 films. Such organic insulation films are formed typically by a coating process such as a spin-coating process. By using the organic insulation film, the permittivity of the interlayer insulation film can be reduced to about 2.
On the other hand, such organic insulation film suffers from a problem of poor adhesion and there is a tendency that the insulation film peels off. Further, the organic insulation film has a problem in that the adhesion to a resist film, which is used for patterning the conductor patterns, is also unsatisfactory. In addition, the organic insulation film has a problem of poor resistance to various chemicals used in the fabrication process of semiconductor devices or to a plasma process conducted in an oxygen plasma.
Further, it is proposed to use a film-forming organic silica known as SOG for the interlayer insulation film. An SOG is a liquid formed of a partial hydrolysis of alkoxysilane. In this case, too, a silica film having a permittivity of about 2.5 is obtained. However, such an SOG film also suffers from the problem of poor adhesion to the underlying layer. In a typical case of the conventional SOG film that is formed of a hydrolysate of alkoxysilane or halonagated silane, the density of the Si--O--Si bonds in the film is reduced due to the existence of a hydrogen atom, fluorine atom or organic group bonded to the Si atoms, and there appears various problems, although the film may have a low permittivity as noted before, such as poor thermal stability caused as a result of poor thermal stability of the functional groups forming the film, in addition to the problem of the poor adherence to the underlying layer.

Semiconductor device having a porous insulation film


Systems and methods for storing large data sets, such as genetic sequence information. Within a “targeted subset” of positions with information, the system stores, both variant states and missing states at each position. Reference states are not stored, but are inferred within the targeted subset when neither a variant nor a missing state is stored at a given position. The absence of a variant state at a given position is assumed to be a reference state. The criteria for missing data are defined in pre-processing and are customizable based on the use case. For example, each data point may represent the genetic information of a sample at a position in the genome. The targeted subset may represent those positions that were included in a sequencing test.

Genomic information is an important molecular marker for human diseases, including acquired diseases such as cancer and both rare and common inherited diseases such as Cystic Fibrosis and hypertension. Current data storage strategies associated with genomic information focus on storing all known information. These strategies may result in a need to store up to 3-6 billion pieces of information per individual. FIG. 1 illustrates a small-scale example in which there are 77 elements stored, however, this would be much larger in a real-world example. In particular, for each position, either a reference value, a variant value, or a missing value is stored. As shown, no information is "not stored." With regard to genomic information and other large data sets, the vastness of the storage need creates a burden for physical storage as well as computational resources to access the data.
A "reference value" in the above example is a nucleotide at a given position in the Human Genome Reference Sequence. As is understood, sequence data is often compared to a reference genome, e.g., like puzzle pieces to the picture on the box. Reference values can be stored in the same database, in linking databases, or in another location. A unique key may be used to link the reference values to the experimental positions. For example, in genetic sequence data, a unique key can be constructed from the chromosome, position, and reference version. To uniquely identify a variant, the model can use chromosome, positions, reference base, and variant base. A "variant" is any value that is different from the reference at a given position.
An alternative to storing all known information is shown in FIG. 2, which illustrates a strategy to store only variants or differences from a known reference value. In FIG. 2, there are only 10 elements to store; however, as shown, the strategy fails to account for positions that are missing. In particular, the "not stored" positions are wrongly assumed to be reference values. This results in a severe loss of precision, especially when different, non-overlapping genomic tests have been performed. This also results in increasing the risk of false negatives when different subsets are tested.

Large data set negative information storage model

H. LEE MOFFITT CANCER CENTER AND RESEARCH INSTITUTE, INC


Provided is an image inspection device, an image inspection method and an image inspection program which are capable of easily and accurately inspecting a shape of an inspection target. In a setting mode, positioning image data of a setting target placed on a stage is registered. In an inspection mode, a positioning image is displayed on a display part based on the positioning image data. An image for positioning of the inspection target placed on the stage is displayed in the display part. Thereafter, image data for alignment of the inspection target is acquired, and then aligned to image data for alignment of the setting target. A size in a height direction of a measurement target place of the inspection target is measured based on the aligned height image data, to determine Pass/Fail of the inspection target. The determined determination result is displayed on the display unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image inspection device, an image inspection method and an image inspection program which perform inspection of an inspection target based on image data.
2. Description of Related Art
There has been an image measurement device capable of measuring a shape of a target based on image data obtained by capturing an image of the target (e.g., see JP H11-132740A, JP 2010-169584 A). In the image measurement device, for example, an image of a target placed on a stage is captured by an imaging device disposed above the stage. The shape of the target is measured based on image data obtained by imaging.
The shape of the target is measured using the image measurement device to determine whether or not the measurement result is within a permissible range (tolerance), thereby enabling inspection of the target.
In each of the image measurement devices described in JP 1111-132740 A and JP 2010-169584 A, the shape of the target is measured based on image data corresponding to a two-dimensional image.
Meanwhile, in recent years, an image measurement device of a triangular ranging system has been proposed. In the image measurement device of the triangular ranging system, the surface of a target placed on a stage is irradiated with light, and the reflected light is received by a light receiving element having one-dimensionally or two-dimensionally arranged pixels. The height of the surface of the target can be measured based on a peak position of a light reception amount distribution obtained by the light receiving element. This enables inspection of the height of the target as well.
Here, an area on the surface of the target, where the height is measurable by the image measurement device of the triangular ranging system, changes in accordance with a direction of the light with which the target is irradiated. For this reason, when a plurality of targets are placed on the stage in different positions and postures, there may occur variations in height-measurable area among the plurality of targets. Accordingly, if variations in actually measured portion occur among the plurality of targets, accurate inspection cannot be performed.

Image inspection device, image inspection method and image inspection program


Techniques described herein are directed to determining an effective tag for data assets. For instance, each tag associated with a data asset may be associated with certain attributes. Non-limiting examples for such attributes may include a confidence level associated with a source that applied the tag, an applied date at which the tag was applied to the data asset, and/or a hierarchical depth of the data asset to which the tag was applied, as well as additional and/or alternative types of attributes. When a request to determine a tag for a data asset is received, the attributes for all the tags applied to the data asset may be retrieved and/or analyzed to determine which of such tags effectively classifies the data asset. The determined effective tag may be returned to the requesting entity.

Due to the increase of governmental data regulation, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), organizations are becoming more diligent about managing and tracking the data they collect. For example, organizations want to know where data is stored, how it is being used, and to whom it is being sent. Classification schemes may be utilized to classify the data being collected. However, effectively classifying such data can be very complex given the amount of data collected and the number of processes that may be classifying such data. This may result in a situation where data is classified with conflicting or inaccurate classifications, thereby rendering such classifications ineffective.

Compute-efficient effective tag determination for data assets


A CMOS wave shaping buffer circuit comprises two CMOS inverter stages connected as a non-inverting buffer. In addition, the two stages are further coupled by way of their supply connections to produce a positive feedback from the second stage to the first whenever both stages are driven to a linear state, that is both transistors of each stage are "ON". The positive feedback prevents the output stage from remaining in a logically ambiguous state, but forces crisp transitions from one state to another even for slowly changing input signals.

The proper operation of CMOS logic, such as buffer amplifiers, requires that the inputs settle to levels near the power supply rails (such as VDD and ground) and that transition between these levels occurs crisply. The realities of system design, however, frequently prevent this from occurring, because the signal levels are not always crisply rail-to-rail, because of high speed analog effects, noise, or other causes.
In the past, CMOS input level-shifters addressed this problem by cascading multiple stages to achieve high net voltage gain around the switch points. This reduced the probability that an internal logic device would be exposed to indeterminate logic states. This approach, however, presents a design trade off. With fewer stages of gain, indeterminate levels result in increased power dissipation and risk of operation faults, while more gain stages have a greater net delay in the signal propagation.
It is desirable to provide an improved CMOS logic level-shifter which produces precise switching, even for slowly changing input signals, and which does not require multiple gain stages to achieve the crisp switching transitions.


A device for heating chemical tanks includes at least one heat exchanger coil immersed inside a chemical tank. An inert gas, such as nitrogen, is heated and made to flow through the coil to heat a solution in the chemical tank to the desired temperature, which is sensed by a sensor. If microfractures form in the heat exchanger coil, the inert gas simply bubbles out of the solution and does not adversely impact the purity of the solution. In addition, the bubbling of the gas indicates the presence of a microfracture. A second heating coil is provided, and also provides heated inert fluid for heating the solution in the tank. The fluid flow through the first coil is controlled linearly to maintain the temperature at the desired temperature. The fluid flow through the second coil is controlled impulsively to quickly return the solution to the desired temperature after a temperature transient occurs, such as after a relatively cool object is immersed into the solution.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device for heating chemical tanks.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In microelectronics manufacturing, one technique for etching silicon slices involves immersing them in a solution. The solution can be, for example, a heated mixture of dilute hydrofluoric acid and ammonium fluoride in the proportion of one to seven by volume. In a typical etch process, twenty-four liters of solution must be maintained within a temperature range of 28.degree. C. to 38.degree. C., with a tolerance of plus or minus 1.degree. C., according to the type of process to which the silicon is subjected.
According to the prior art, heating of the mixture takes place through the use of Teflon coated electrical resistance heaters, or of corrugated coils made of Teflon, both immersed in the solution. The coils use hot water, generated by automatic external heaters, as the heating element. A temperature sensor immersed in the solution controls the external heater so as to maintain the desired temperature of the solution.
The application of the systems described above has some drawbacks.
Insofar as the heating systems based on Teflon coated resistances are concerned, it is known that the protective coating deteriorates with use and handling due to cleaning. Microfractures are created in the Teflon coating, which allow the etching solution to directly contact the metal of the resistance. As a consequence, the solution become contaminated with metal ions.
Insofar as the heating systems based on hot water coils are concerned, microfractures are created in the corrugated Teflon coil as a result of use and handling due to cleaning. Heating water infiltrates into the etching solution through the microfractures, contaminating it with ions of various kinds present in the heating water itself.
The contaminating ions introduced into the solution by the heating systems described above deposit themselves on the silicon slices contained in the etching tank. This damages the integrity of the slices, and increases the number of rejects. The increase in rejects can become a quite significant factor.

Device for heating a chemical tank with an inert heat exchange fluid using linear and impulsive control


A process for stripping chemically bonded spinning solvent from a solution-spun nonwoven web comprising the steps of providing a nonwoven web comprising solvent-laden polymeric fibers having average fiber diameters of less than about 1 micrometer, and transporting the nonwoven web through at least one infrared solvent stripping station wherein infrared radiation irradiates the nonwoven web in the absence of a solvent stripping fluid impinging on the nonwoven web in order to reduce the solvent concentration of the fibers to less than about 10,000 ppmw.

The process of solution spinning involves dissolving a desired polymer into a suitable solvent, and spinning fibers from the polymer/solvent solution. Often, the solvent is an organic solvent which has undesirable properties in use of the so-formed fabric, such as adverse health effects, undesired odor and the like.
Solution spinning processes are frequently used to manufacture fibers and nonwoven fabrics, and in some cases have the advantage of high throughputs, such that the fibers or fabrics can be made in large, commercially viable quantities.
In paper making processes, such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,503,134 and 6,986,830, dewatering of the wet laid cellulose fibers which form the paper is performed by passing the wet laid cellulose web over a vacuum-assisted porous drum, and the excess water from the forming process is drawn through and away from the paper web. U.S. Pat. No. 3,503,134 discloses the use of hot air, superheated steam or a steam-air mix to enhance the drying effect of the vacuum assist. U.S. Pat. No. 6,986,830 discloses positioning the wet laid paper web between two soft, porous cloth webs, wherein the porous cloths on either side of the paper web pull additional water from the paper by capillary action.
U.S. Published Patent Application No. 2002/0092423 discloses a solution spinning process for forming a nonwoven polymer web, in particular an electrospinning process, wherein polymeric microfibers or nanofibers are produced from a polymer solution exiting an electrically-charged rotating emitter and directed toward a grounded collector grid. The solvent is evaporated from the fibers "in flight" between the emitter and the collector grid.


A spectacle mounted display is used in conjunction with a digitally enhanced imager for capturing, enhancing and projecting images to improve readability by individuals with impaired vision. The individual wears mirrored spectacles connected to a digitally enhanced imager to selectively enhanced contract, spatial frequency and wave length with or without enlargement.

Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method and apparatus for generating high contrast, high resolution images, with or without enlargements. More specifically, this invention relates to a method and apparatus for generating video or digitized images in two or three dimensions and a spectacle mounted display. When used in conjunction with a digitally enhanced imager for people with a vision impairment, visual information of various spatial frequencies, contrast, and wave length can be selectively enhanced and projected into a person's eye to compensate for the visual impairment.
The device can produce stereoscopic three dimensional images because each eye gets a separate image. Images can be in black and white or color.
An image can be described by contrast, spatial frequency, resolution and wave length. Contrast is defined as the difference in intensity or brightness between the light and dark areas of the image. The spatial frequency is defined as the inverse of the angular separation between component lines which make up an image. The resolution is the angular subtense of the smallest point visible to the observer. The wave length of visible light extends from 380 nm for violet-blue to about 750 nm deep red.
Individuals with impaired vision have vision that is contrast dependent. The ability of a person with a visual impairment to properly perceive an image is dependent on the contrast of the image. Many times people attempt to read a magnified image and they report it looks bigger but not clearer. Increasing brightness of the text and increasing the darkness of the background makes the print more legible even if the print size remains the same.
In addition to contrast, the resolution of an optical or electro-optical system will determine its visibility. Resolution is defined as the minimum angular separation of the details of a character. For example, the letter E can be made more legible by increasing the contrast between the spaces and the lines of the letter. In general, the sharper the delineation between the text and the background, that is, the narrower the width of the transition area between the text and the background, the higher the resolution and the sharper the image. In addition, studies of individuals with impaired vision have shown that increased spacing between characters also enhances readability.
In a conventional analog video display system, which includes a camera, monitor, transmitter and receiver, the image is limited by the contrast, spatial frequency and resolution of the objects whose images are being captured and transmitted by the camera. The image is further limited by the resolution of the video display device such as a monitor. The contrast in the image cannot be modified between discrete portions of the image such as brightening a light background and darkening dark letters; nor, can the visibility be enhanced by substantially reducing the transition between light and dark areas in the image on the monitor. This problem of visibility is aggravated when the images are enlarged substantially, a frequent requirement for improving readability of text for individuals with impaired vision.
There are also numerous devices which use digitized video images but these are primarily directed toward compressing the information into a narrow band width such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,394,774 Widergren, which describes a digital video compression system directed at NTSC color broadcast compression and expansion systems or in U.S. Pat. No. 4,772,956 Roche, which also is directed at a video transceiver including a compressor to reduce the time required to transmit and digitize a video frame over a narrow band width channel.
Neither of the inventions described in Widergren or Roche or other inventions such as that described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,689,741 Redwine, which is directed at memory devices designed to reduce or prevent the transfer of spurious or non-valid signals from the video storage circuit to the video display device or processor are designed to enhance contrast or resolution.
There are numerous devices which have been used to enhance and enlarge images in the prior art.
Closed circuit video has been used as an adaptive device for individuals with impaired vision for the past twenty years with only minor modification. Appollo Laser, Sun Chemical, Visual Tech, and more recently Telesensory and Enabling Technology all have used this technology to enlarge print. As indicated previously, simply enlarging print does not mean enhanced visual performance for many individuals with impaired vision.
A standard video image such as that displayed on a television screen is composed of 525 lines disposed from top to bottom which are scanned horizontally at 15.75 KHz. The electron beam which creates the image scans every other line and then returns to fill in the skipped lines. The first half of the lines (262.5) is scanned in 1/60th of a second, followed by the second half in the next 1/60th of a second. The interlaced scanning reduces flicker. Thus, each frame which is made up of the 525 lines is scanned in 1/30th of a second at a rate of 15.75 KHz. The three widely used standards, including the Monochrome RS-170, NTSC and European PAL, are all essentially equivalent for the purposes of the present invention.
Modern video signals have not changed much since the Iconoscope, which was first described in 1923 by Vladimir Kosma Zworykin. Mr. Zworykin received a patent for this device in December, 1938. Subsequently RCA patented a picture tube called a kinescope.
For a video image to be formed on a picture tube two conditions must be met. First, the beam striking the screen must be able to release more light as the voltage of the video signal increases. Second, the electron beam of the camera and the picture must scan at the same rate. These scan rates are locked together by a sync pulse that is embedded in the video signal that occurs at the end of every line. By digitizing the image and increasing the scan rate as embodied in this invention the resolution of the image can be enhanced. By digitizing the image and using comparators and digital filters the contrast and spatial frequencies can be enhanced. This significantly improves the image quality beyond the prior art. High resolution, high speed displays, including flat panel displays (Fuanda et al., Ishii et al., Masit et al., Orceyre (Fr)), that do not use an electron gun to create the image, are capable of displaying high scan rate video images. A further advantage of flat panel displays are their light weight and thin compact shape which makes them readily portable.
There is nothing in the patents previously cited, nor, in other areas of the art, directed toward contrast and resolution enhancement to improve the recognition of images, by individuals with impaired vision in real time processes.


A method and an apparatus for uplink power control using a ranging signal in a wireless communication system are provided. The method includes transmitting ranging channel information to a pico Base Station (BS), receiving power control information on a macro terminal from the pico BS, controlling a transmit power strength for the macro terminal based on the power control information, and instructing the macro terminal to control a transmit power to the controlled strength.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to interference reduction in a wireless communication system. More particularly, the present invention relates to a power control method and an apparatus for reducing interference in an uplink signal transmission.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, due to an increase in demand for data communication and an increase of various communication services in a wireless communication system, increasing a transmission capacity is needed.
Accordingly, heterogeneous network research is underway. The heterogeneous network is a communication system in which cells having several phases, cell coverage, and characteristics are mingled and managed.
In a case where a macro terminal is at a great distance in a macro cell of a heterogeneous network, the macro terminal suffers an increase of a path loss value for which the macro terminal will have to compensate.
Accordingly, in a case where a pico Base Station (BS) is relatively close to the macro terminal, when the macro terminal transmits an uplink signal at a power level higher than the power level at which a pico terminal of the pico BS transmits an uplink signal, the pico BS has interference from the uplink signal of the macro terminal.
Therefore, there is a need for a method and an apparatus for reducing inter-cell interference dependent on a transmit power of an uplink signal in a heterogeneous network.

Method and apparatus for uplink power control using ranging signal in wireless communication system


When a controller receives a new command from a main controller during overwrite-deletion processing for a specific storage apparatus, the received command is stored at least until completion of the overwrite-deletion processing when the received command is a command to the specific storage apparatus. Alternatively, progression of overwrite-deletion process is stored and priority processing of the received command is executed. On the other hand, when the received command is not a command to the specific storage apparatus, processing for the command is executed.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a control apparatus and a control method for the control apparatus.
Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, when discarding a storage apparatus such as a hard disk apparatus (hereinafter a hard disk apparatus is used as an example of a storage apparatus) mounted, for example, in a personal computer (PC) or a printer, data in the hard disk apparatus is deleted to prevent leakage of confidential data. However, it is increasingly common to completely delete data using a process of overwriting the files on a predetermined number of times with specific pattern data in addition to deletion of file management data in the hard disk apparatus.
Recently, enhanced security awareness has caused, other than when hard disks are discarded, a need for overwrite-deletion by a printing job unit of the operation region in the hard disk apparatus including intermediate data generated in processing steps and print data from the print processing steps.
A conventional overwrite-deletion method is configured so that a central processing unit (CPU) that manages the system generates pattern data on a memory to thereby enable use of the pattern data to overwrite a file in the hard disk apparatus on a predetermined number of times.
However, when the size of the file to be deleted by overwriting is extremely large or when a consecutive region on the memory cannot be ensured, a large load is placed on the CPU by use of an inefficient method in which the above process is repeated many times.
In addition to the conventional method above, a method executing an overwrite-deletion process has been discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-346306, by adding overwrite-deletion conditions to file management information managed by a file system of an operating system (OS).
In the method discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-346306, a hard disk controller is provided between a CPU for managing the system and the hard disk apparatus. When file management information stored in the hard disk apparatus is updated, overwrite-deletion conditions stored in the file management information are read out by the hard disk controller. The hard disk controller itself uses the overwrite-deletion conditions to execute overwrite-deletion processing.
Thus, the load on the CPU managing the system is reduced and overall processing efficiency of the system is improved by a configuration in which only updated management information is written into the hard disk apparatus.
However, the method discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-346306 uses extension of the file management information of the file system.
In recent built-in apparatuses such as printers, complexity of the configuration is increased, and often they are configured by a plurality of OS. Since a range of OS types from built-in OS to general purpose OS are used, technical and other situations arise due to the dedicated extension of the file management information.
Furthermore, since the hard disk controller is to rewrite the file management information, when a mirroring system is configured using a plurality of hard disks, control operations are complicated because the same management information for a plurality of objects is to be updated. Consequently, there are difficulties for application of the method, which is discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-346306, to a wide range of system configurations.

Control apparatus and control method therefor


A screen printing unit equipped with a rotary screen apparatus comprises a cylindrical screen rotatably supported so as to be brought into contact with a rotatable impression cylinder. Multiple small holes are formed in the circumferential surface of the screen, and are filled up with a coating material. Some of the holes corresponding to a pattern not being filled with the coating material, and a special ink stored inside the screen can be supplied to a sheet held on the outer circumferential surface of the impression cylinder so as to form a shape corresponding to the pattern. The small holes are formed only in an area of the screen in the circumferential direction thereof extending from a position corresponding to the downstream-side end of the sheet in the sheet-conveying direction to a position corresponding to the upstream-side end of the sheet in the sheet-conveying direction.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid supply apparatus that performs printing, coating, or the like by supplying liquid, such as ink or varnish, with a liquid supply member, through holes formed in a plate, such as a screen, to a sheet, such as a paper sheet, held by an impression cylinder and a method of manufacturing a plate therefor. Particularly, the liquid supply apparatus of the present invention is effective when applied to a screen printing unit of a printing press that performs screen printing on a paper sheet.
2. Description of the Related Art
For example, in a conventional procedure of screen printing on a paper sheet, a rotary screen apparatus is employed. The rotary screen apparatus has a cylindrical thin screen in which small holes corresponding to a pattern are formed, and is provided with a squeegee which is a liquid supply member placed inside the screen. Liquid such as ink or varnish, which is stored inside the screen, is squeezed out through the small holes of the screen by the squeegee. In this way, a screen printing corresponding to the pattern is performed on a paper sheet held on an outer circumference of an impression cylinder by using the liquid such as ink or varnish. Since the rotary screen apparatus can perform thickly embossed printing on a paper sheet with a special ink or the like, the rotary screen apparatus is used for the purpose of giving a high-quality looking and touch.
The screen of the rotary screen apparatus is commonly manufactured in the following way. Firstly, multiple small holes are formed in the entire body of a thin cylindrical base material both in the circumferential and the axial directions so that the base material has a mesh structure. Then, a photosensitive material is provided to all of the small holes so that all of the small holes can be filled up with the photosensitive material. The photosensitive material is removed from some of the small holes that are located at positions corresponding to a pattern. The screen thus manufactured is then used in a screen printing process for the pattern, and the photosensitive material is removed from the entire body of the base material after printing. Subsequently, the base material is provided with another photosensitive material with which all the small holes of the base material are filled up. Then, the photosensitive material is removed from some of the small holes that are located at positions corresponding to a different pattern. The screen thus manufactured is then used in a screen printing process for the new pattern.
As described above, the base material for the above-described screen can be used repeatedly. A screen of another type is provided with a base material that is cylindrical in shape and made of a thin plate with no holes formed therein. The screen is manufactured by forming small holes in the base material so that the small holes can be formed at positions corresponding to a pattern. Once the screen printing process is finished for the pattern using the screen, another screen has to be prepared from the beginning (e.g., the preparation for another base material). The screen with the repeatedly usable base material is much less wasteful than the one with the base material that is not repeatedly used. Accordingly, since the screen with the repeatedly usable base material can be used at lower costs, the screen of this type is widely used.
Incidentally, the screen is thin, and thus biased outwards by the squeegee in the radial direction. Suppose a case where the screen faces grippers of the impression cylinder that are provided for holding the paper sheet or a case where the screen faces a gap portion which is formed in the impression cylinder and in which the grippers are installed. In these cases, the contact of the screen with the grippers (projections) or the falling down of the screen into the gap portion may cause damages to the screen. As a result, the screen tends to have a shorter lifetime.
For example, a measure to address this problem is proposed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 2000-504643A and U.S. Pat. No. 5,960,716. In the disclosure, the grippers and gripper pads are provided in a gap portion formed in the impression cylinder to prevent the grippers and the gripper pads from projecting out from the outer peripheral surface of the impression cylinder. Moreover, a cover that can be opened and closed is provided to entirely cover the gap portion. When a paper sheet is held and released, the opening and closing operations of the cover are synchronized with those of the grippers. In this way, while holding and releasing a paper sheet is made possible, the screen is prevented from falling into the gap portion of the impression cylinder and from coming into contact with the grippers (projections). As a result, the screen is protected from damages on the screen, which might otherwise occur.
Another example of such measures is disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 2005-254640A. In the disclosure, the grippers and gripper pads are provided in a gap portion formed in the impression cylinder to prevent the grippers and the gripper pads from projecting out from the outer peripheral surface of the impression cylinder. A partial cover member that covers only a part of the gap portion is provided. Accordingly, when a paper sheet is held and released, the grippers are projected from the outer circumferential surface of the impression cylinder. In this way, while holding and releasing a paper sheet is made possible, the screen is prevented from falling into the gap portion of the impression cylinder and from coming into contact with the grippers (projections). As a result, the screen is protected from damages on the screen, which might otherwise occur.
Such apparatus structures as those described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 2000-504643A, Japanese Patent Publication No. 2005-254640A, and the like, however, have a problem. When the screen transfers from a surface of the paper sheet to a surface of the impression cylinder, the screen is abruptly pulled outwards in a radial direction by a length equivalent to the thickness of the paper sheet by the squeegee. The same place on the screen always receives an impact, and the strength of the screen is more likely to deteriorate. Thus, the service life of the screen may possibly be shortened.
Particularly, the rotary screen apparatus described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 2000-504643A or the like has the following problem. A certain position of the screen is always rubbed against the gap between the cover and the gap portion in the rotational direction of the impression cylinder. The strength of the screen is more likely to be deteriorated further, and eventually, lifetime of the screen is shortened.
Such problem as mentioned above may occur not only in a case where thickly embossed printing is performed on a paper sheet with a special ink, but also, in a similar manner such as a case where liquid is supplied to a sheet held by an impression cylinder, with a liquid supplying member, through holes formed in the plate for the rotary screen apparatus. For example, such a problem may occur in a case of applying varnish to an entire surface of a paper sheet.

Liquid supply apparatus and method of manufacturing plate therefor


A headphone can include plurality of exterior microphones, that generates corresponding exterior microphone signals, an accelerometer that generates an accelerometer signal; and an interior microphone, not directly exposed to the environment, that generates an interior microphone signal. A processor of the headphone can be configured to generate an audio signal containing voice of a user, based on a) the accelerometer signal, b) the interior microphone signal, and c) the plurality of exterior microphone signals.

Audio systems, for example, headphones, can have speakers that are worn over-ear, on-ear, or in-ear. Headphones can be communicatively connected to other devices. Headphones can receive audio signals from other devices and use the audio signals to drive speakers of the headphones. Headphones conveniently enable users to listen to audio content privately, without broadcasting the audio content to others who may be nearby.

Spectral blending with interior microphone


Embodiments of the present invention provide for multi-data receiving and processing by a network communication protocol. The present invention aggregates multiple data packets destined for the same application. The present invention also provides for header/payload splitting. The present invention also provides for the separate processing of aggregated headers and aggregated payloads. As a result, per-packet processing costs are reduced and data locality is increased.

In the conventional art, network devices (computers, workstations, servers, or the like) generally comprise hardware, an operating system, and one or more user programs (hereinafter referred to as applications). The hardware (e.g., processor, memory, input/output devices, etc.) provides the basic computing resources. The applications (e.g., database systems, text editors, games, and the like) provide users with various functions. The operating system controls and coordinates the use of the hardware among the various applications.
The Unix operating system (Unix) is one example of an operating system that is currently used by many enterprise computer systems. Unix consists of two separable parts, which include the kernel space and user space. The user space typically provides an operating environment for executing system libraries, compilers, interpreters, shells and other such modules, which provide useful functions to the user. The kernel space provides an operating environment for executing central control processes such as file-system access, communication protocols, and other system facilities.
The kernel space typically includes one or more network communication protocols, such as the TCP/IP protocol suite. The TCP/IP protocol suite is typically divided into three software layers: transport layer, internet layer, and network access layer. The transport layer (TCP) provides a flow control protocol. The flow control protocol keeps track of data packets to assure reliable delivery to an appropriate application. It includes explicit and acknowledged connection initiation and termination, reliable in-order unduplicated delivery of data, and out of band indication of urgent data. The internet layer (IP) provides an addressing and routing protocol. The addressing and routing protocol provides host-to-host addressing and routing of data packets, data packet fragmentation and reassembly. The network access layer provides a driver protocol. The driver protocol provides access to and transmission of data across a communication channel (physical layer).
Referring to FIG. 1, a diagram of a network communication receive stream in accordance with the convention art is shown. As depicted in FIG. 1, one or more data packets 110 are individually communicated across a communication channel. Each data packet is comprised of a header 115 and a payload 120. A driver module 125 receives the data packets and stores them in a buffer. The driver module 125 sends an interrupt to the processor indicating that a data packet has been received. The interrupt causes the protocol module 130 to process the header, providing for addressing and flow control. In so doing the protocol module 130 fetches the header portion of the data packet 135. The interrupt then causes the application 140 to process the payload. In so doing, the application 140 also fetches the payload portion of the data packet 145.
In the conventional art, the above process is repeated in sequence for each data packet received. The packets thereby being individually loaded. Thus, such a protocol is inefficient for data locality, because each data packet resides in different memory locations. Such a protocol also incurs high input/output memory management units costs. For example, if three data packets are received, six fetch cycles are required. The protocol performs an input/output memory management unit for fetching the header of each data packet. The application also performs an input/output memory management unit for fetching the payload of each data packet. The protocol also introduces unnecessary additional interaction between the transport layer and the application. Hence, the overall processing costs are very high according to the conventional art.
Furthermore, the transfer layer has a finite buffer for holding data packets. In the current art, if the data packets are received faster than the protocol module can process them, the driver module may drop data packets.

Multi-data receive processing according to a data communication protocol