The present disclosure includes methods, devices and systems for determining the availability of an upgraded version of executable code for a medical device and installing the executable code on the medical device. In some embodiments, methods, devices and systems are also provided for detecting a failure of a critical component of the executable code and disabling a functionality of the medical device relating thereto.

In diabetes management, devices are available for diabetic patients to measure their blood glucose levels. One such type of device is a continuous glucose monitoring device that periodically receives and processes analyte related data from a transcutaneous sensor. The received and processed data may then be output on a display of the continuous blood glucose monitoring device or otherwise provided to the patient to enable the patient to continuously track measured glucose levels.
One challenge of currently available continuous glucose monitoring devices is upgrading software or firmware of the continuous glucose monitoring devices and the components of the continuous glucose monitoring devices. Further, if a patient experiences a problem with a continuous glucose monitoring device, such as, for example, the continuous glucose monitoring device ceases to function or data in the continuous glucose monitoring device becomes corrupt, the settings and/or the analyte related data stored on the continuous glucose monitoring device may be lost. Further, if a patient switches from using one continuous glucose monitoring device to another continuous glucose monitoring device, the user may need to manually change factory default settings of the new continuous glucose monitoring device to match the settings of the old continuous glucose monitoring device, which can be a time consuming process.

Method and system for updating a medical device


Disclosed herein is a movable platform (MP) for moving freight during cross-dock operations. The MP comprises a mechanical actuation assembly used to deploy a plurality of roller assemblies used for moving the MP. Also disclosed is an actuating attachment used to deploy the mechanical actuation assembly of the MP. The actuating attachment can be attached to a conveyance vehicle, such as a forklift, or built in to an automated guided vehicle.

The trucking industry, specifically the segment consisting of Full-Truckload (FTL) and Less-than-truckload (LTL), is a segment of the shipping industry that ships a wide array of freight. The shipment sizes can vary from an individual item consisting of one piece to a full truckload consisting of several pieces. FTL freight is typically handled only once as it is loaded into a semi-trailer at the shipper's location and unloaded at the consignee's location. In the LTL industry, freight is commonly handled multiple times, with the shipper loading the freight into a semi-trailer, then the freight is returned to a local freight terminal to be unloaded/loaded into a another trailer to be routed to the destination. This process, commonly known as a hub-and-spoke network, is used to increase the efficiency of the operation by increasing density.
The traditional method of loading freight into a semi-trailer is to back a semi-trailer to a raised dock and unload each piece/pallet using a forklift. A 53′ semi-trailer van can hold up to 30 pallets on the floor of the trailer. To unload a loaded semi-trailer conventionally, it requires a single forklift driver to drive into the trailer to pick-up and remove each pallet. During this unloading process, a driver could take up to 30 trips into the trailer to remove each pallet. This process is typically completed utilizing 1 forklift driver but it is possible to utilize 2 forklift drivers to unload a trailer simultaneously.
As should be apparent, this process is wasteful in that the forklift is often not conveying cargo (empty carries). Also, because the trailer is no connected to the dock, the forklift driver must be careful each time that they enter the trailer. This further reduces the speed of the process. Therefore, there is clearly a need for a movable platform which can be easily unloaded from a trailer in a single move without the forklift driver having to enter the trailer. As will be made apparent in the following disclosure, the present invention provides a solution for these aforementioned problems.

Movable platform and actuating attachment


A thermostat for an internal combustion engine. The thermostat includes a tube type bypass valve member; a spring to keep said valve member in a closed position and a temperature sensitive actuator to move said valve member to an open position. A flow control element is provided to control a flow of fluid past said valve member as said valve member opens to prevent a sudden cooling of the engine after the engine has already reached an initial warm condition. In one embodiment a safety catch is also provided to prevent the valve from closing even if an over-temperature event damages it.

A thermostat is a temperature activated valve used in internal combustion engines to regulate the flow of liquid coolant. When the thermostat valve is closed, the flow of liquid coolant is prevented from being circulated through a heat exchanger such as a radiator and so the engine is allowed to quickly heat up to its optimum or design operating temperature. The engine recirculation circuit is typically restricted to a small volume of fluid compared to the overall or total volume of the cooling system. When the thermostat valve is opened, coolant from the larger cold volume is permitted into the smaller volume engine recirculating system and passes through the cylinder head where it gets hot. It is then circulated from the engine into a radiator or other heat exchanger where it loses the heat to the air flowing through the radiator. The cooled fluid is then led back to the engine where it can be used to remove further heat from the engine, recirculated to the radiator and so on. A pump driven from the engine propels the coolant around the system.
This type of thermostat valve typically operates mechanically. Most commonly, a wax pellet is provided inside a sealed chamber. The wax is solid at low temperatures, but as the engine heats up the wax melts and expands. As the wax expands, it pushes an actuator rod outwardly from the chamber that in turn opens the valve. By altering the composition of the wax, the temperature at which the valve opens can be controlled. Typically, such a thermostat valves operate generally in the range of 60° C. to 100° C. and in certain cases may run cooler or even hotter.
To reduce emissions and pollution, modern engines are designed to run hotter than before, typically over 80° C. and even higher. This permits the engine to operate more efficiently as well. However, a higher operating temperature for the engine creates certain problems for the cooling system in general and the thermostat in particular. In particular, mechanical thermostats are mass-produced as economically as possible. They typically include a stabilizing spring to position the valve components away from the base. This is desirable, because the connection is flexible and will not fatigue and fail like a rigid or fixed joint. When such a device is closed, the parts are anchored somewhat by the contact between the valve and the valve seat. However, when the valve is lifted off the valve seat as the valve opens, then the components that are flexibly attached are freeer to move, leading to vibration and chatter of the valve due to engine vibration and the like. This results in an uncontrolled gap opening between the valve and the valve seat meaning an uncontrolled flow of coolant from the cold side to the warm side through the valve.
Once the valve opens, there is a rush of cold coolant that floods the engine cooling system and creates a dramatic temperature drop that is hard on the engine components, because of such a flexible or resilient joint. The cold fluid tends to rush in because the thermostat valves are operating in a boisterous environment. The pressures in the cooling system can be large forcing the flow somewhat. The engine itself is typically vibrating and shaking, leading to chatter of the valve as it opens. The valve can be knocked askew by the fluid movement, resulting in a larger opening than intended for that temperature. As a result the thermostat permits large and sudden flows of cold fluid into the engine block when the valve first opens.
Cold fluid in a hot engine is problematic. For example, this initial drastic change of temperature has been known to cause head gasket failure in certain vehicles. Essentially, the engine heats up quickly as compared to the rest of the system and then the thermostat opens. This permits a sudden, and given the relative volumes a rather sustained rush of cold fluid to enter the head causing a temperature shock to the engine components. This problem is most acute in colder climates on initial start-up, when the coolant outside of the engine recirculation circuit may be at a very low temperature as compared to the engine temperature, due to very cold ambient conditions.
In addition to being hard on the engine components, such a sudden rush of cold fluid can drastically reduce efficiency and performance of the engine during the duration of the cold flow. As a result, a sudden plume of pollution temporarily surges from the tailpipe or exhaust until the engine and coolant system attain an optimum balance. However, it can take some time for the heat of the engine to warm the larger volume of cold cooling liquid and until it does so the engine is being over cooled and is both inefficient and polluting.
The problem identified therefore is this sudden rush of coolant into the hot running engine of the vehicle as the valve first opens. One way to address this problem is to have an electronically controlled thermostat, where the degree of opening up thermostat, and thus volume of fluid flow can be precisely controlled. However, such thermostats are extremely expensive and not suitable for most mass production OEM type applications. Another alternative is to try to vary the composition of the wax pellet to cause differential displacement of the piston over the temperature activation range. However, this also is extremely difficult to attain in practice because the expansion of mixed composition wax is not easy to implement or control. It is very difficult, if not impossible to control the rate of opening between the open and closed positions through wax composition changes alone.
What is needed is a simple and efficient method for controlling the initial inflow of liquid coolant into a hot engine through a mechanically actuated thermostat valve as the valve opens. What is also desired is a simple and efficient structure and method, in such a flow controlled thermostat, of ensuring that the thermostat fails in an open or safe position, in the event of an overheating event.

Flow control thermostat for internal combustion engines and method of use of same


A semiconductor memory device of FIFO type is disclosed. The memory device has a test function for easy analysis of irregularities. A read data register for holding read data from the memory cells and a write data register for holding write data to the cells are provided corresponding to the memory cell array of the memory device. Further, bypass switch means for directly transferring data from the write data register into the read data register is provided.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor memory device, in particular to a semiconductor memory device of FIFO (First In First Out) type to be used for picture recording or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
A field memory or a frame memory adapted for recording graphic data or image data is normally composed of a semiconductor memory device of FIFO type. Since it processes image data, the semiconductor memory device of the FIFO type is required to operate at high speed and to have a sufficiently large memory capacity. In order to meet these requirements, a semiconductor memory device provided with a memory cell array is usually employed. The memory cell array is constructed by using a dynamic memory cell which can be highly integrated. The memory device also has respective registers for reading and writing connected to each pair of bit lines of the memory cell array.
FIG. 1 shows the structure of a memory cell portion and a data register portion of the semiconductor memory device of the conventional FIFO type. In the memory device, memory cell array 1 of universally known structure is composed of memory cells C.sub.11 to C.sub.mn of a dynamic type arranged in the of a matrix of m rows and n columns.
In memory cell array 1, there are provided word lines WL.sub.1 to WL.sub.m for selection of rows and bit line pairs D.sub.1 /D.sub.1 to D.sub.n /D.sub.n for reading or writing data from or into the memory cells. The memory cell array 1 is arranged so that the data held in the memory cells selected by the word line is transmitted from the memory cells to bit lines D.sub.1 to D.sub.n and D.sub.1 to D.sub.n.
Each of bit line pairs D.sub.1 /D.sub.n to D.sub.n /D.sub.n is provided with a balancer 2 and a sense of amplifier 3. The balancer 2 receives balance signal BL and reference voltage Ref and precharges the corresponding bit line pair to reference voltage Ref according to balance signal BL. The sense amplifier 3 is a differential amplifier and is activated by two sense amplifier activation signals SEP, SEN to amplify the data transmitted to the bit line pair. Each of the bit line pairs D.sub.1 /D.sub.1 to D.sub.n /D.sub.n is provided with a read data register RR.sub.1 to RR.sub.n an a write data register WR.sub.1 to WR.sub.n.
Further, the semiconductor memory device comprises a read register switch 5, a read register pointer 6, a write register switch 10 and a write register pointer 11. The read register switch 5 is composed of 2n transfer gates RDT.sub.a to RDT.sub.z. These transfer gates connect each bit line pair D.sub.1 /D.sub.1 to D.sub.n /D.sub.n and each read data register RR.sub.1 to RR.sub.n corresponding to the read transfer signal RDTG inputted to all of the transfer gates. For example, transfer gate RDT.sub.a connects bit line D.sub.1 and one end of read data register RR.sub.1, and transfer gate RDT.sub.b connects bit line D.sub.1 and the other end of read data register RR.sub.1.
The read register pointer 6 consists of an n-stage shift register 7 for read and a number n of transfer gates PR.sub.1 to PR.sub.n. Transfer gates PR.sub.1 to PR.sub.n are each used to connect one of the read data registers RR.sub.1 through RR.sub.n to the read data bus RB corresponding to the output of the shift register 7. For example, transfer gate PR.sub.1 is controlled by the output of the first stage of shift register 7 to connect one end of read data register RR.sub.1 and read data bus RB, and transfer gate PR.sub.2 is controlled by the output of the second stage of shift register 7 to connect read data register RR.sub.2 and read data bus RB. The shift register 7 for read is arranged so as to operate in synchronization with the read clock RCK.
The write register switch 10 is composed of a number 2n of transfer gates WDT.sub.a to WDT.sub.z. These transfer gates each connect each of bit line pairs D.sub.1 /D.sub.1 to D.sub.n /D.sub.n and each write data register WR.sub.1 to WR.sub.n corresponding to the write transfer signal WDTG inputted to all of the transfer gates. For example, transfer gate WDT.sub.a connects bit line D.sub.1 and one end of write data register WR.sub.1, and transfer gate WDT.sub.b connects bit line D.sub.1 and the other end of write data register WR.sub.1.
The write register pointer 11 consists of an n-stage shift register 12 for write and n pairs of transfer gates PW.sub.1 to PW.sub.n. Transfer gates PW.sub.1 to PW.sub.n are each used to connect one of the write data registers WR.sub.1 through WR.sub.n to the write data bus WB/WB corresponding to the output of the write shift register 11. The write data bus WB/WB is composed of a pair of write data lines WB, WB. For example, transfer gate PW.sub.1 is controlled by the output of a first stage of shift register 11 to connect one end of write data register WR.sub.1 and write data line WB and to also connect the other end of write data register WR.sub.1 and write data line WB. The shift register 11 for write is made so as to operate in synchronization with the write clock WCK.
In the semiconductor memory device, data is inputted from outside the device to write data registers WR.sub.1 to WR.sub.n synchronized with the write clock WCK through write data bus WB/WB. In this case, the data is inputted into the write data register selected by the write register pointer 11. On the one hand, data is read from read data registers RR.sub.1 to RR.sub.n to outside the device in synchronization with the read clock RCK. The data of the read data register selected by the read register pointer 6 is transmitted to the read data bus RB.
Next will be described the data transfer operation for writing. FIG. 2A is a timing chart illustrating the data transfer operation from the write data register to the memory cell. The following description will focus on the operation of bit line pair D.sub.1 /D.sub.1 to be executed when word line WL.sub.1 is selected. It is assumed that high-level data is stored in memory cell C.sub.11, and data in reverse phase to this high-level data is stored in write data register WR.sub.1.
Balance signal BL is first changed to a low level, and precharging of bit lines D.sub.1 to D.sub.n and D.sub.1 to D.sub.n is then halted to put these bit lines in a floating state. Next, word line WL.sub.1 is turned to the high level. At this time, data stored in memory cell C.sub.11 is transmitted as a minute difference voltage between bit lines D.sub.1 and D.sub.1. However, by making write transfer signal WDTG shift to the high level for some fixed time, signals with the phase reverse to that of the data of memory cell C.sub.11 will be transmitted from write data register WR.sub.1 to bit line pair D.sub.1 /D.sub.1. Consequently, the data of write data register WR.sub.1 is inputted into the sense amplifier 3 as a difference voltage between bit lines D.sub.1 and D.sub.1. Thereafter, by making the sense amplifier activation signals SEP, SEN transit from reference voltage level Ref to the power source level and to the ground level, respectively, the electric potentials of bit lines D.sub.1 , D.sub.1 are amplified to the ground and power source potential levels, respectively and transmitted to memory cell C.sub.11.
By changing word line WL.sub.1 to the low level to finish the writing of data into memory cell C.sub.11, and by concurrently changing balance signal BL to the high level to restart the precharging of each bit line, a series of the writing operation is completed. Although this description has been made with reference to memory cell C.sub.11, memory cells C.sub.12 to C.sub.1n are also connected to word line WL.sub.1, and data are also stored in memory cells C.sub.12 to C.sub.1n together with the storage of the data in memory cell C.sub.11. The data to be stored in memory cells C.sub.12 to C.sub.1n is the same as the data stored in each of write data registers WR.sub.2 to WR.sub.n.
Next will be described the data transfer operation for reading. FIG. 2B is a timing chart illustrating the data transfer operation from a memory cell to a read data register.
Balance signal BL is first changed to the low level, and precharging of bit lines D.sub.1 to D.sub.n and D.sub.1 to D.sub.n is then stopped to put these bit lines into a floating state. Word line WL.sub.1 is then changed to the high level. As a result, the data held in memory cell C.sub.11 is transmitted as a minute difference voltage between bit lines D.sub.1 and D.sub.1 and inputted into the sense amplifier 3. By making sense amplifier activation signals SEP, SEN transit from the reference voltage level to the power source and ground levels, respectively, the electric potentials of bit lines D.sub.1, D.sub.1 are amplified to the power source and ground levels, respectively. At this time, by making the read transfer signal RDTG shift to the high level for some fixed time, the data amplified by sense amplifier 3 is read out to read data register RR.sub.1, and concurrently, this amplified data is transmitted again to memory cell C.sub.11. By changing word line WL.sub.1 to the low level, data reading from memory cell C.sub.11 is finished. Since word line WL.sub.1 is connected to memory cells C.sub.12 to C.sub.1n, the data is also refreshed in each of these memory cells C.sub.12 to C.sub.1n. Next, by changing balance signal BL to the high level to restart the precharging of each bit line D.sub.1 to D.sub.n and D.sub.1 to D.sub.n, a series of reading operations is completed.
In FIFO type semiconductor memory devices with a basic structure of this type, it is not possible to directly designate an estimated address from outside in order to select a particular memory cell, so that when defects are detected or troubles are generated while developing a memory device itself or after it is assembled into a user's device, it is difficult to analyze the cause of the defects or troubles. Therefore, in many cases, a test circuit is provided in the memory device for easy analysis of defects and shortening the analysis time. For analysis of defects, it is important to discover whether the cause of the defects is in the memory cell or in the data register, it is consequently indispensable to provide as a function of the test circuit a bypass transfer function for direct transfer of data from a write data register to a read data register without passing through the memory cell.
The operation of transferring data from a write data register to a read data register will be described with reference to the semiconductor memory device shown in FIG. 1. FIG. 3 is a timing chart illustrating the bypass transfer operation of this semiconductor memory device. This bypass transfer operation corresponds to the read and write operation to be performed in succession.
Balance signal BL is first changed to the low level, and balancing and precharging of bit lines D.sub.1 to D.sub.n and D.sub.1 to D.sub.n are then stopped. Word line WL.sub.1 is then turned to the high level, at which time, data stored in memory cell C.sub.11 is transmitted as a minute difference voltage between bit lines D.sub.1 and D.sub.1. Here, by shifting write transfer signal WDTG to the high level for some fixed time, the data stored in write data register WR.sub.1 is inputted into bit lines D.sub.1, D.sub.1. In an example shown in FIG. 3, the data stored in write data register WR.sub.1 is of a phase that is the reverse of that of the data stored in memory cell C.sub.11.
As a result, the data of write data register WR.sub.1 is inputted into the sense amplifier 3 connected to bit line pair D.sub.1 /D.sub.1 as a voltage difference between bit lines D.sub.1 and D.sub.1. Subsequently, by making sense amplifier activation signals SEP and SEN transit from the reference voltage level to the power source level and ground level, respectively, the electric potentials of bit lines D.sub.1, D.sub.1 are amplified to the ground and power source voltage levels, respectively. At this time, read transfer signal RDTG is maintained at the high level for a certain fixed time, and consequently, the amplified data is read on read data register RR.sub.1.
The data thus read out is identical to the data stored in write data register WR.sub.1. Next, by changing word line WL.sub.1 to the low level and balance signal BL to the high level and successively starting the balancing and precharging of bit lines D.sub.1 to D.sub.n and D.sub.1 to D.sub.n, a series of bypass transfer operations is completed.
By the above operations, once the data of write data registers WR.sub.1 to WR.sub.n has been transmitted to bit lines, it is amplified by the sense amplifier 3 and then transmitted as amplified data to read data registers RR.sub.1 to RR.sub.n, respectively. Therefore, when some irregularity in memory cell array 1 causes an abnormal voltage of the bit lines, the normal bypass transfer operation is disturbed, and as a result, it is difficult to clearly distinguish irregularities in the memory cell side from irregularities in the data register side. The conventional FIFO type semiconductor memory device described above is therefore problematic in that it does not allow an easy analysis of irregularities.


Disclosed are a method and an apparatus for defining an overlay region for an application in a user interface control region on a screen of a display in a mobile device. The application queries a platform about an overlay region desired to be generated based on a basic resolution set in the application. The platform calculates an approximate region satisfying an overlay region condition for the queried overlay region and informs the application of the approximate region. Thereafter, the application generates an overlay region corresponding to the approximate region, and the platform displays the generated overlay region on the screen.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a mobile device, and more particularly, to a method and an apparatus for generating an overlay region for an application in a User Interface (UI) control.
2. Description of the Related Art
A user of a mobile device generally uses applications installed in the mobile device by a manufacturer or a seller. If desired applications are not installed in the mobile device, the user can download and install them from an external source. Applications refer to various types of application programs installed in and executed by the mobile device, such as a notebook computer, a tablet computer, a mobile phone, a smart phone, a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), an MP3 (MPEG-1 Audio Layer-3) player, a PMP (Portable Multimedia Player), and a digital camera.
The application executed in the mobile device generates an overlay region for a UI relevant to the corresponding application in a UI region on a display screen and uses the generated overlay region, which is used to display various images according to the corresponding application on the screen. When a display of the mobile device is a touch screen panel display, the overlay region is used to receive an input generated by user contact of a touch screen on the overlay region.
Each application generally has one resolution, which is set by a developer of the application, as a basic resolution among various resolutions such as a WVGA (Wide Video Graphic Array), an HVGA (Half Video Graphic Array), and a WQVGA (Wide Quarter Video Graphic Array). The WVGA corresponds to 480*800 pixels, the HVGA corresponds to 320*480 pixels, and the WQVGA corresponds to 240*400 pixels. Accordingly, the applications can have different basic resolutions.
The mobile device usually has a fixed physical resolution, and should thus process an image of the overlay region in a manner suitable for displaying the image based on the fixed physical resolution. The processing of the image of the overlay region includes, but is not limited to color converting, scaling, and rotating.
In the application, a position, width, and height of the overlay region can be freely defined based on the basic resolution, i.e., within the basic resolution. For example, when the basic resolution is the WVGA, the overlay region can be defined within 480*800 pixels.
However, the image processing of the overlay region in the mobile device may have several restrictive conditions. For example, the width, height, or position of the overlay region may be limited after scaling the overlay region according to the physical resolution of the mobile device.
Such an overlay region condition may not be satisfied when an aspect ratio of the basic resolution of the application is different from an aspect ratio of the physical resolution of the mobile device or the basic resolution of the application is different from the physical resolution of the mobile device. Particularly, when the mobile device scales the overlay region generated by the application in accordance with the physical resolution of the mobile device, if the overlay region condition is not satisfied, the image processing may not be performed properly. Even if the basic resolution of the application is equal to the physical resolution of the mobile device, the image processing is not normally performed when the generated overlay region does not satisfy the overlay region condition.
Accordingly, it is difficult to develop an application, which can be mutually shared between various mobile devices having different physical resolutions among various physical resolutions. In other words, the mobile device may be unable to use an application, which cannot satisfy the overlay region condition related to the image processing of the corresponding mobile device.

Method and apparatus for defining overlay region of user interface control


A method for producing ethylene oxide comprising: providing one or more feed components, wherein the one or more feed components contains at least ethylene obtained by dehydrating ethanol; contacting the one or more feed components with a desulfurization catalyst comprising a high surface area support and an amount of silver, wherein at least 20% of the silver is present as oxidized silver; and contacting the one or more feed components with a silver-containing epoxidation catalyst disposed inside an ethylene oxide reactor to form a reaction gas comprising ethylene oxide.

Though present in natural settings at minute quantities, ethylene oxide was first synthesized in a laboratory setting in 1859 by Alsatian chemist Charles-Adolphe Wurtz using the so-called "chlorohydrin" process. However, the usefulness of ethylene oxide as an industrial chemical was not fully understood in Wurtz's time; and so industrial production of ethylene oxide using the chlorohydrin process did not begin until the eve of the First World War due at least in part to the rapid increase in demand for ethylene glycol (of which ethylene oxide is an intermediate) as an antifreeze for use in the rapidly growing automobile market. Even then, the chlorohydrin process produced ethylene oxide in relatively small quantities and was highly uneconomical.
The chlorohydrin process was eventually supplanted by another process, the direct catalytic oxidation of ethylene with oxygen, the result of a second breakthrough in ethylene oxide synthesis, discovered in 1931 by French chemist Thèodore Lefort. Lefort used a solid silver catalyst with a gas phase feed that included ethylene and utilized air as a source of oxygen.
In the eighty years since the development of the direct oxidation method, the production of ethylene oxide has increased so significantly that today it is one of the largest volume products of the chemicals industry, accounting, by some estimates, for as much as half of the total value of organic chemicals produced by heterogeneous oxidation. Worldwide production in the year 2000 was about 15 billion tons. (About two thirds of the ethylene oxide produced is further processed into ethylene glycol, while about ten percent of manufactured ethylene oxide is used directly in applications such as vapor sterilization.)
The growth in the production of ethylene oxide has been accompanied by continued innovation in catalysis and processing. Recently, and of particular interest to practitioners in the ethylene oxide field has been alternative sources of ethylene feedstock. Conventionally, ethylene is derived from petroleum sources, especially naptha, by thermal cracking with steam. This interest in alternative feedstocks is a result not only of the sustained increase in the price of crude oil but also because of greater environmental consciousness of the importance of using renewable and abundant hydrocarbon sources.
One such renewable hydrocarbon source that has attracted considerable recent interest is bioethanol-derived ethylene. Bioethanol itself is obtained by fermentation of vegetable biomass and agricultural byproducts and wastes—and thus is abundant and renewable. The fermentation of biomass to ethanol results in mixtures containing about 95% water and 5% ethanol. The water is then separated out using a combination of azeotropic distillation or solvent extraction. To produce ethylene the ethanol is then sent to a dehydration process where it is reacted over a dehydration catalyst to from ethylene, which then forms a primary feedstock or feed component for ethylene oxide or one or more ethylene oxide-derivatives. This return to bioethanol for producing ethylene is ironic because when ethylene was first synthesized in the middle of the 19th century, it was obtained by dehydrating ethanol in the presence of a homogeneous phosphorus catalyst. (Roscoe, H. A. and Schorlemmer, C., A Treatise on Chemistry, 1878, 612).
While bioethanol-derived ethylene offers the advantage of being an alternative feedstock, abundant and renewable and semi-independent from the world's petroleum market, it also presents certain challenges. Most notably there is the problem that despite attempts to remove impurities and separate byproducts from the bioethanol-derived ethylene, certain contaminants remain that must be treated and removed. For example sulfur-containing compounds, not only the commonly found and relatively-easy-to-remove hydrogen sulfide, but more recalcitrant sulfur-containing compounds such as the refractory organic sulfurs which include, mercaptans, thiophenes, and carbonyl sulfide, are frequently found in bioethanol-derived ethylene. In fact, the presence of sulfur as a byproduct of ethanol dehydration was identified in Roscoe and Schlorlemmer's analytical protocol of the dehydration process—which even specified the use of a caustic scrubbing wash to eliminate it.
As a contaminant sulfur has long been identified as a particularly serious catalyst poison. This is particularly the case for the adsorption of sulfur onto silver, in fact the affinity of silver for sulfur can be seen as the tarnish that visibly forms on silver objects which absorb hydrogen sulfide and other sulfur compounds from the ambient air to form a layer of sulfides. Sulfur is particularly pernicious in an ethylene oxide system as it has long been known as severely and irreversibly poisonous to Ag-based ethylene oxide catalysts (Rebsdat, S. and Mayer D., 2005, Ethylene Oxide, Ullmans Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry).
A variety of techniques are available to treat hydrocarbon streams containing sulfur-compounds. In adsorptive desulfurization, which is perhaps the easiest and mostly widely used desulfurization technique, the hydrocarbon stream is passed through an adsorbent guard bed to adsorb the sulfur-containing compounds by physical and/or chemical adsorption processes. Most typically, the adsorbent comprises a granular inorganic material such an inorganic oxide; typical examples include zinc oxide, copper oxide, and aluminum oxide but may also be selected from other transition metal oxides and rare earth metal oxides. Preferably guard bed materials are chosen based on their selectivity to adsorbing certain sulfur species, for example copper oxide or zinc oxide are effective at removing simple sulfur compounds, like hydrogen sulfide; while alumina-based adsorbents have some capability for adsorbing organic sulfurs, against which other adsorbing metal oxides are completely ineffectual.
However, while aluminum oxide may be better than zinc oxide for removing organic sulfurs, for many applications it is simply not efficient. Accordingly, other desulfurization techniques, such as hydrodesulfurization may be used instead. In hydrodesulfurization (HDS), a hydrocarbon stream is reacted with hydrogen gas at high temperatures and high pressures over a hydrogenation catalyst. HDS is more effective at removing organic sulfurs than metal oxide adsorbent beds, but it still fails to remove some organic sulfurs. While HDS is more effective than other desulfurization techniques, readily converting mercaptans and thioethers, it fails to convert other organic sulfurs such as substituted and unsubstituted thiophenes. Moreover, HDS is costly and requires high temperatures and pressures.
One alternative to hydrodesulfurization is Oxidative Desulfurization ("ODS"). In ODS a refractory organic sulfur-containing hydrocarbon is contacted with a strong oxidant (such as hydrogen peroxide, an organic peroxide, or organic peracid) in the presence of a metal catalyst, typically one such as titanium, zirconium, chromium, tungsten and molybdenum, to form an organosulfone, which can then be removed by distillation or by further chemical reaction. Compared to hydrodesulfurization, ODS has the advantage of not requiring high temperatures or pressures for operation and ODS removes a fuller spectrum of organic sulfurs than hydrodesulfurization. Thus, ODS has a wider spectrum of refractory organic sulfurs to which it will apply and has less demanding temperature and pressure requirements for reducing the sulfur content in the feedstock sources. However, like HDS, ODS has the disadvantage of being considerably more costly and complicated to implement than a guard bed. The additional complexity not only increases costs but also reduces process flexibility and operability. Additionally ODS requires the provisioning of strong oxidizing agents which are expensive and burdensome to handle.
Given the foregoing there is a continuing need in the art for a desulfurization process that effectively removes a wider spectrum of refractory organic sulfurs than conventional inorganic materials, and yet at the same time can be operated more conveniently with more flexibility and less expensive than conventional hydrodesulfurization and oxidative desulfurization techniques.


A citrus cultivar designated CALLOR1 is disclosed. The invention relates to the seeds of citrus cultivar CALLOR1, to the plants of citrus cultivar CALLOR1, to the plant parts of citrus cultivar CALLOR1, and to methods for producing progeny of citrus cultivar CALLOR1. The invention also relates to methods for producing a citrus plant CALLOR1 containing in its genetic material one or more transgenes and to the transgenic citrus plants and plant parts produced by those methods. The invention also relates to citrus cultivars or breeding cultivars, and plant parts derived from citrus cultivar CALLOR1. The invention also relates to methods for producing other citrus cultivars, lines, or plant parts derived from citrus cultivar CALLOR1, and to citrus plants, varieties, and their parts derived from use of those methods. The invention further relates to hybrid citrus seeds, plants, and plant parts produced by crossing cultivar CALLOR1 with another citrus cultivar.

The present invention relates to a new and distinctive citrus cultivar, designated CALLOR1, and, more particularly, to a new miniature variety of citrus fruit and tree. All publications cited in this application are herein incorporated by reference.
There are numerous steps in the development of any novel, desirable plant germplasm. Plant breeding begins with the analysis and definition of problems and weaknesses of the current germplasm, the establishment of program goals, and the definition of specific breeding objectives. The next step is selection of germplasm that possesses the traits to meet the program goals. The goal is to combine in a single variety an improved combination of desirable traits from the parental germplasm. These important traits may include but are not limited to higher fruit yield, seed yield, resistance to diseases and insects, better stems and roots, tolerance to drought and heat, altered fatty acid profile, abiotic stress tolerance, improvements in compositional traits, and better agronomic quality.
These processes, which lead to the final step of marketing and distribution, can take from six to twelve years over a sufficient number of generations and with careful attention to uniformity and selection of plant type and traits. Therefore, development of new cultivars is a time-consuming process that requires precise forward planning, efficient use of resources, a minimum of changes in direction, and time for the self-selection of uniformity and traits over numerous generations.
Citrus (Citrus sp. L.), is an important and valuable crop, being very high in Vitamin C and possessing other nutrients and antioxidants. Thus, a continuing goal of plant breeding is to develop stable, high yielding citrus cultivars that are agronomically sound. The reasons for this goal are to maximize the amount of citrus produced on the land used and to supply food. To accomplish this goal, the citrus breeder must select and develop citrus plants that have the traits that result in superior varieties.
Citrus is the most commonly grown tree fruit in the world. Citrus is typically peeled and used for human food and juice extraction; however the rind may also be used in recipes and garnishes, and can be processed into animal feed. The white flesh of the rind, the pericarp or albedo, is a source of pectin. Over the past few decades, consumption of citrus fruit worldwide has grown considerably. From 1987 to 1999, production increased at a compound rate of approximately 3.5% (www.fao.org). In 2010, the U.S. produced 8.9 million tons of citrus; 63% (6.4 million tons) of that came from Florida (www.agmrc.org). Other U.S. states producing citrus include California, Arizona, and Texas.
Citrus has a storage life of approximately three months when kept at 11° C., and up to 5 months when kept at 2° C., however, coating the citrus fruit with a polyethylene/wax emulsion can double the storage life. Deterioration is primarily due to loss of moisture in the peel and pulp.
Citrus grows best in warm climates, but can be grown indoors in cooler climates. In Florida the best citrus growing soil is Lakeland fine sand, also known as high hammock or high pineland soil. Citrus trees are sensitive to frost, and perform best between 15.5° C. and 29° C. Citrus trees are difficult to propagate from seeds, and are primarily grown from hybridization techniques, such as grafting. This technique provides for hardy fruit production earlier as well as preventing root diseases, since many quality lines are highly susceptible to root diseases. However, the choice of rootstock used can influence many aspects of the crop, including the rate of growth and the morphological and physiological characteristics of the citrus cultivar. Citrus grown from seed can take 4 to 5 years to produce fruit, whereas the grafting technique allows for fruit production in 18 to 24 months. Many commercial citrus varieties are the result of years of hybridization and selection; therefore, many of the commercial varieties cannot be produced from seed. It would be highly desirable to develop a citrus cultivar that will remain true to type when grown from seed.
Citrus is susceptible to a range of pests and diseases. Common pests affecting citrus cultivars include mites, scale insects, mealybugs, aphids, nematodes, and fruit flies. Common diseases affecting citrus cultivars include viruses, crinkleleaf, excortis, psorosis, xyloporosis and tristeza.
The present invention provides for a new variety of citrus tree having smaller fruit than any known variety in the world, and having fruit that has a unique desirable flavour and taste when fruit and peel are eaten together as a whole or in parts. The novel thin rind, small size and desirable taste of citrus cultivar CALLOR1 fruit not only allows for the fruit to be eaten whole but also makes it ideal for cooking or an addition to a variety of food dishes and alcoholic beverages. In addition to the fruit, other parts of the CALLOR1 tree can be used in cooking and as food condiments including but limited to the tips of shoots, leaves, and flowers. Citrus cultivar CALLOR1 overcomes the need for grafting, since seeds from citrus cultivar CALLOR1 produce fruit much faster, with an average time from seed to fruit of 6 to 8 months compared to 4 to 5 years of comparable varieties. Additionally, trees of citrus cultivar CALLOR1 live longer and produce fruit longer than most citrus varieties with an average life span of a fruit producing tree of more than 30 years. The longevity of citrus cultivar CALLOR1 allows for the creation of a bonsai plant which is not as likely for other known varieties of citrus with shorter life spans. The Citrus cultivar CALLOR1 is smaller than any other citrus variety in the world. Because of CALLOR1's drought and low light tolerance and ability to grow quite well in full and partial sunlight, it is ideal for inside the house. Citrus cultivar CALLOR1 produces fruit within the first year of planting its seed and can be grown quickly without grafting or budding. New varieties of citrus can be budded or grafted onto citrus cultivar CALLOR1 thereby significantly shortening the time required for the development of new cultivars and creating a hardier rootstock. Additionally, citrus cultivar CALLOR1 is resistant to canker, scab and root-knot nematode with the only known common pests limited to thrips and leaf miner. Finally, the seed from citrus cultivar CALLOR1 will remain true to type and traits.
The foregoing examples of the related art and limitations related therewith are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive. Other limitations of the related art will become apparent to those of skill in the art upon a reading of the specification.


A self-grounded bowtie antenna arrangement includes an antenna structure having a number of antenna petals. An antenna petal has an arm section tapering toward an end tip portion and is made of an electrically conductive material. End tip portions are arranged to approach a first side of a base portion and to connect to feeding ports. The base portion includes a conductive ground plane or a printed circuit board. Each antenna petal is made in one piece from a conductive sheet, such as metal, and is surface-mounted on either the front side or back side of the base portion. Antenna petals can be mounted by automatic placement and soldering (“pick-and-place”) machines.

There is an increasing demand for wideband antennas for use within wireless communication, in order to allow communication in several frequency bands, the use of high or very high data rates and for different systems. Ultra Wide Band (UWB) signals are generally defined as signals having a large relative bandwidth (bandwidth divided by carrier frequency) or a large absolute bandwidth. The expression UWB is particularly used for the frequency band 3.2-10.6 GHz, but also for other and wider frequency bands.
The use of wideband signals is for example described in "History and applications of UWB", y M. Z. Win et. al, Proceedings of the IEEE, vol. 97, No. 2, p. 198-204, February 2009.
UWB-technology is a low cost technology. Development of CMOS processors transmitting and receiving UWB-signals has opened up for a large field of different applications and they can be fabricated at a very low cost for UWB-signals without requiring any hardware for mixers, RF (Radio Frequency)-oscillators or PLLs (Phase Locked Loops).
UWB technology can be implemented in a wide range of areas, for different applications, such as for example short range communication (less than 10 m) with very high data rates (up to or above 500 Mbps), e.g. for wireless USB similar communication between components in entertainment systems such as DVD players, TV and similar; in sensor networks where low data rate communication is combined with precise ranging and geolocation, and radar systems with extremely high spatial resolution and obstacle penetration capabilities, and generally for wireless communication devices.
To generate, transmit, receive and process UWB signals, the development of new techniques and arrangements within the fields of generation of signals, signal transmission, signal propagation, signal processing and system architectures is required.
Generally UWB antennas have been divided into four different categories of which the first category, the scaled category, comprises bowtie dipoles, see for example "A modified Bow-Tie antenna for improved pulse radiation", by Lestari et.al, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., Vol. 58, No. 7, pp. 2184-2192, July 2010, biconical dipoles as for example discussed in "Miniaturization of the biconical Antenna for ultra-wideband applications" by A. K. Amert et. al, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., Vol. 57, No. 12, pp. 3728-3735, December 2009. The second category comprises self-complementary structures as e.g. described in "Self-complementary antennas" by Y. Mushiake, IEEE Antennas Propag. Mag., vol. 34, No. 6, pp. 23-29, December 1992. The third category comprises travelling wave structure antennas, e.g. the Vivaldi antenna as e.g. discussed in "The Vivaldi aerial" by P. J. Gibson, Proc. 9th European Microwave conference, pp. 101-105, 1979, and the fourth category comprises multiple resonance antennas like log-periodic dipole antenna arrays.
Antennas from the scaled category, the self-complementary category and the multiple reflection category comprise compact, low profile antennas with low gain, i.e. having wide and often more or less omni-directional far field patterns, whereas antennas of the travelling wave category, like the Vivaldi antennas, are directional.
The above-mentioned UWB antennas were mainly designed for use in normal Line-of-Sight (LOS) antenna systems with one port per polarization and a known direction of the single wave between the transmitting and receiving side of the communication system. In most environments, however, there are several objects (such as houses, trees, vehicles, humans) between the transmitting and receiving sides of the communication systems that cause reflections and scattering of the waves, resulting in a multiple of incoming waves on the receiving side, which has as a consequence that there was a need for antennas better accounting for these factors. Interference between these waves causes large level variations known as fading of the received voltage (known as the channel) at the port of the receiving antenna. This fading can be counteracted in modern digital communication systems making use of multiport antennas and support MIMO technology (multiple-input multiple-output).
Wireless communication systems may comprise a large number of micro base stations with multiband multiport antennas enabling MIMO with high requirements as to compactness, angular coverage, radiation efficiency and polarization schemes, which all are critical issues for the performance of such systems. The radiation efficiency of a multiport antenna is reduced by ohmic losses and impedance mismatch like in single-port antennas, but also by mutual coupling between the antenna ports.
Earlier known wideband antenna arrangements did not satisfactorily meet these requirements.
In WO2014/062112, though, a wideband compact multiport antenna suitable for MIMO communication systems as described above is disclosed, which has low ohmic losses, i.e. high radiation efficiency, good matching as well as low coupling between antenna ports. The geometry shown in FIG. 11 of WO2014/062112 is known as a dual-polarized self-grounded bowtie antenna, and is described in H. Raza, A. Hussain, J. Yang and P.-S. Kildal, "Wideband Compact 4-port Dual Polarized Self-grounded Bowtie Antenna", IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, Vol. 62, No., pp. 1-7, September 2014. The geometry of the self-grounded bowtie antenna is expensive to manufacture in large volumes, and in particular to mass produce.
For future wireless communication systems, such as e.g. the fifth wireless generation (5G), the frequencies used may be up to 30 GHz, or even up to 60 GHz, and Massive MIMO is a challenging option for providing a sufficient gain and steer-ability at millimeter wave frequencies, see "Preparing for GBit/s Coverage in 5G: Massive MIMO, PMC Packaging by Gap Waveguides, OTA Testing in Random LOS" by Per-Simon Kildal, 2015 Loughborough Antennas & Propagation Conference, 2 & 3 Nov. 2015.
Massive MIMO array antennas, or Large-scale Antenna Systems or Very Large MIMO arrays etc. are, contrarily to hitherto known antenna systems, based on the use of a large number of antenna elements, from a few tenths to hundreds or even thousands thereof, for being operated independently to adapt coherently to the incoming wave or waves in the environments in such a way that the signal-to-noise ratio is maximized. Massive MIMO is particularly advantageous in that data throughput and energy efficiency can be considerably increased e.g. when a large number of user stations are scheduled simultaneously, i.e. a multi-user scenario.
MIMO arrays and Massive MIMO Array antennas consist of several equal antenna elements side by side. This makes manufacture as well as and mounting extremely difficult, expensive and time consuming.
A massive MIMO array is the digital equivalent to a traditional phased array antenna. The phased array contains analogue controllable phase shifters on all elements in order to phase-steer the antenna beam to the direction needed. In MIMO technology there is an Analogue to Digital Converter (ADC) or a Digital to Analogue Converters (DAC) on each element, so that all beam-steering is done digitally, and no analogue phase shifters are needed. This makes the MIMO antenna system much more flexible and adaptive than phased-arrays, so that any beam shape and even multiple beams can be formed. This is referred to as digital beam-forming.
All known antenna arrangements, even if meeting many of the functional requirements referred to above, suffer from the drawbacks of not being sufficiently easy and cheap to fabricate and not being as easy to mount as would be desired. This is a problem both for older and present generations of communication systems, and also for other implementations, but become even more pronounced for future communication systems, such as e.g. 5G, and also other future applications at higher frequencies than those used today. They also suffer from the drawback of not providing a sufficient bandwidth.

Self-grounded surface mountable bowtie antenna arrangement, an antenna petal and a fabrication method


A laminated structure may be tested for weak joints by passing a magnet over the surface. If the outer surface is of a magnetic material, weak bonding forces will be overcome by the magnet which causes deflection of the magnetic layer, relative to a non-magnetic substrate. The deflection is sensed and signifies the detection of a weak bond area. The testing procedure is accomplished without destructively testing a structure.

There is no end item nondestructive test which will verify actual localized attachment joint strength. Current nondestructive inspection such as ultrasonic flaw detection, ultrasonic resonance, and eddy sonic methods are capable of detecting voids (areas of zero adhesion) and some strength conditions relatable to the cohesive properties of the joining material but not to adhesion properties at the joint interface. This results in undetectable weak adhesion conditions commonly known as kissing bonds and grazing bonds. Present manufacturing technology practice is to accept the bond adhesion strength based on process control methods such as: raw material control, cleaning and pretreatment of substrates, interface dimensional fit, cure cycle time-temperature and pressure controls, destructive evaluation of representative coupons, and destructive test of actual structure. The present method of detecting weak adhesion bondlines is for in-service failure to occur or to perform a destructive analysis of structure suspected of weak joints. This results in extensive repairs or scrap structure. Improved nondestructive testing apparatus and methods must be developed to allow inspection to verify the existence of attachment strength.

Magnetic instrument for detecting a poor band between a magnetic layer and a non-magnetic substrate


Methods, computing devices and computer-readable media for access management are disclosed. A method of passcode authentication includes: maintaining a count for failed authentication attempts, displaying a visual representation of a current count for failed authentication attempts on an authentication interface. An additional method of passcode authentication is also disclosed which includes: maintaining a count for failed authentication attempts; determining a current authentication request invalid; determining a delay time based on the count for failed authentication attempts; and delaying submission of a second authentication attempt until after the delay time has expired, wherein the delaying submission manifests in a delayed visual feedback of user input, in a delayed processing of user input, or in an inability to enter user input for during the delay time.

Mobile devices have become an integral part of everyday life for adults and children alike. Mobile devices such as portable computers, Personal Data Assistants (PDAs), mobile phones, media players, and even handheld gaming consoles can provide functionality, content, and data access and management. The functionality provided by mobile devices can aid in communications, such as email, telephone, and instant messaging; professional activities, such as stock trading, scheduling, and contact management; everyday personal activities, such as personal calendar, photos, camera, maps, restaurant guide, to-do list, and online shopping activities; and entertainment activities, such as web browsing, music, videos, games, and the online versions of each.
The existence of large amounts of personal data on a mobile device heightens the importance of privacy protection against unauthorized access. The multimedia capabilities of mobile devices and the availability of multimedia content on the Internet present new challenges for parents to protect their children from inappropriate exposures. Certain functionalities on a mobile device can require additional chargeable services from third parties.
Conventional software access management can be implemented in a number of forms, including the use of passcode authentication. Typically, when a user attempts to access a restricted program, data or functionality, an access control authentication interface is displayed and the user is required to enter a passcode (e.g., a series or a combination of symbols from a hardware or virtual keypad). The user is provided access to the restricted programs, data, or functionality only if he provides a correct passcode. An example of access management is parental control in a multifunction mobile device.


A plate including a body with an aft face at an aft portion of the body, which is attachable to a leading edge of an ice accretion surface such that the body protrudes substantially in a forward direction from the leading edge, and a forward face opposite the aft face, which extends between opposing surfaces of the body and which is oriented substantially perpendicularly with respect to the forward direction and a predominant flow direction of air flowing past the leading edge.

The subject matter disclosed herein relates to passive control of ice shedding from a helicopter.
For certain types of helicopters, ice can form on a leading edge of an engine air inlet and can shed during flight. If the pieces of shed ice are large enough, there is a possibility of damage to other helicopter components such as antennas and the tail rotor. Ice may also form on the inner walls of the air inlet duct, whereby shedding may cause flow blockages if, again, the pieces of shed ice are large enough.
Active ice protection involves the use of heat or a similar energy source to cause melting or fracturing of accreted ice so that the shed ice does not become large enough to damage antennas or the tail rotor or block the inlet duct. Unfortunately, active ice protection also complicates a helicopter design. That is, active controls add to the power requirements, add significant weight and impact reliability and maintainability metrics.


A semiconductor apparatus includes a delay circuit to apply delay to an input signal, a phase detector to detect a phase of an output signal which is outputted from the delay circuit, a filter to set a range of the phase of the output signal for stable operation based on phase information outputted from the phase detector, a counter to count a number of detections of the output signal when the phase deviates from the range for stable operation, a discount controller to generate a discount signal indicating a discount number for the number counted by the counter, in accordance with an operating condition or an external factor outside the delay circuit and an error detector to determine whether or not an error of the phase of the output signal has occurred based on the number counted by the counter and a discount number indicated by the discount signal.

Conventionally, there has been provided a semiconductor circuit apparatus which compensates the output phase of a variable delay circuit for more than a delay time variable range of the variable delay circuit in such a manner that when the output phase of the variable delay circuit selected as a route of a clock signal differs from the output phase of another variable delay circuit by only one cycle, the semiconductor circuit apparatus switches the operation from the variable delay circuit to another variable delay circuit.
In addition, there has been provided a semiconductor circuit apparatus which avoids excessive tracking of the jitter included in input data by making a majority decision using a majority circuit on the results of phase comparison made by phase comparators.
In addition, there has been provided a synchronization detection circuit which counts the number of continuous errors when synchronization errors occur continuously, and determines that the initially detected synchronizing signal has been erroneously detected when the number of the continuous errors reaches a predetermined number.
The following are reference documents:
[Document 1] Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2001-075671,
[Document 2] Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2005-033392, and
[Document 3] Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2-206070 are examples of related art.

Semiconductor apparatus and information processing apparatus


A control circuit for a system including an electronically commutated motor. A tachometer pulse signal generator generates a signal representative of the rotational speed of the rotatable assembly of the motor and having a duty cycle. The control circuit includes first and second motor voltage inhibiting circuits. The first inhibiting circuit inhibits application of the motor voltage to the winding stages of the motor in response to the tachometer pulse signal when the motor speed is below the preset minimum speed. The second inhibiting circuit inhibits application of the motor voltage to the winding stages in response to the tachometer pulse signal when the duty cycle of the tachometer pulse signal is outside a preselected acceptable range. Application of the motor voltage to the winding stages is inhibited when the motor is stalling as indicated by the motor speed being below the preset minimum speed or as indicated by the duty cycle of the tachometer pulse signal being outside the preselected acceptable range.

The invention generally relates to stall protection circuits for motors and, in particular, a stall protection circuit for an electronically commutated motor wherein the circuit is part of the drive control for the electronically commutated motor.
Some electronically commutated applications experience excessive temperature rise at even normal operating current levels after operation under stall conditions. This is due to the inability of the motor to dissipate heat built up during the stall condition. In a stall condition, the lack of air circulation inhibits heat dissipation. Hermetically sealed motors are particularly sensitive to temperature rises at or after stall conditions. Some hermetically sealed motors under normal operation take full advantage of the cooling capability of refrigerants being pumped through a system with which the motor is associated. These motors are particularly sensitive to temperature rise at stall when refrigerants are not being pumped and the cooling capability has been lost.
The requirement for stall protection has typically been met by monitoring the temperature and current of the motor. In particular, temperature sensors are physically attached to the stator windings and/or current sensitive sensors are placed electrically in series with the windings. In certain electronically commutated motor applications, the use of such sensors is complicated by two factors. First of all, as the electronically commutated motor drive provides a three-phase current source to the motor, the current sensors have to be three-phase protectors. Second of all, as the electronically commutated motor drive regulates the current, the temperature sensors must operate solely on winding temperature rise, which slows their operation. In addition, this slower operation causes a longer protection cycle requiring a significantly longer test period to demonstrate the multicycle capability of the device in a particular application.
In many electronically commutated motor systems the motor drives a compressor drive and provides a speed reference signal to a system controller. In these systems, the combination of the electronically commutated motor and the system controller can be configured as a protection circuit for stall conditions. However, the extra requirements placed on the system controller can be very burdensome. It would be desirable to provide a stall protection circuit which minimizes the above disadvantages and provides responsive protection to stalling.

Stall protection circuit for an electronically commutated motor


A method is provided for forming an entity cluster. In this method, a plurality of entities found in one or more data sources are identified. An entity may represent a word or a phrase found in the one or more data sources. The plurality of entities may then be organized into groups, where each group has a master entity and a set of subordinate entities. The groups are formed using a first comparison criteria. Then, using a second comparison criteria, a first group is associated with a second group. The second comparison criteria may compare the master entities associated with the first and second groups. Based on the association between the first group and the second group, the method can then determine that the first entity is related to the second entity.

Enterprises typically process unstructured information stored in a number of data sources, such as documents, file systems, databases, corpus, and the like. As used herein, "unstructured information" may refer to data that lacks structure that provides a logical, conceptual, or semantic meaning for the data, as may be used for a particular service. For example, a textual document that includes the phrase "cup holder" and the phrase "car cup holder" may lack data that indicates that these two terms actually refer to the same concept of a car cup holder.
In a typical text analytic system, a dictionary that maps terms to concepts may be used to generate analytics that provides structure to the unstructured information. For example, a dictionary may allow an end-user to specify things like "cup holder" and "car cup holder" as the same entity. To broaden the dictionary to cover many terms used in an industry or domain, the end-user may specify mappings for a significant number of terms. Further, the end-user may also spend significant time in maintaining the dictionary or porting the dictionary to other domains.


A pharmaceutical product and a method for treating an outbreak of virus is disclosed. The pharmaceutical product comprises acetylsalicylic acid and water. The pharmaceutical product is applied to the epidermis or mucous membrane region involved in the outbreak of the virus. A kit facilitating prompt and convenient preparation of the inventive pharmaceutical product and facilitating treatment is also disclosed.

Herpes viruses are a group of DNA-containing animal viruses that produce disease, the best known of which is herpes. The viral disease, herpes, is characterized by eruptions of the skin or mucous membrane. Such eruptions are painful, unsightly, and associated with spread of the virus. Examples of various types of herpes viruses are herpes simplex or herpes zoster (responsible for the disease shingles).
The virus typically has two major phases, a dormant phase in which the disease state is not observable, and an active phase in which the virus "flare-up" or "breaks out" of the dormant phase to cause the characteristic herpes eruptions on the skin or mucous membranes of an individual.
During the active phase, an outbreak progresses through a number of sub-steps. First, the epidermis or mucous membrane in the area becoming involved in the outbreak becomes itchy or burns. Other symptoms, often associated with the early sub-steps of an outbreak, include tingling or numbness of the affected area. Second, the area becoming involved turns red and/or appears inflamed. Additionally, late in the second sub-step, subsurface lumps begin to form in the affected area. Next, in the third sub-step, blisters or vesicles begin to erupt or appear on the surface of the skin. Late in the third sub-step, the blisters or vesicles rupture, releasing a clear liquid and leaving an open sore at the site of the ruptured blister. This period of time, late in the third sub-step is sometimes referred to a "full bloom." Subsequently, in the forth sub-step, the outbreak progresses to a scab formation step. Later, in a fifth sub-step, the scab drops off, leaving tender new skin or mucous membrane. After the scab has fallen off, in the fifth step, the skin or mucous membrane of the involved area reverts to normal tissue.
A significant portion of the population is infected with Herpes virus and outbreaks in infected individuals occur intermittently throughout the remainder of their lives.
Acetylsalicylic acid is a well known drug, available as an over-the-counter pharmaceutical product in the United States. Acetylsalicylic acid is most commonly employed in an ingestible form for analgesic purposes. Acetylsalicylic acid has also been used as a surface supplied analgesic. The Nitardy patent, U.S. Pat. No. 1,915,945, suggests the use of acetylsalicylic acid in an ethyl ether and oil base for application to mucous membranes. The patent further suggests a synergistic action between acetylsalicylic acid and ethyl ether.
The Putt patent, U.S. Pat. No. 2,056,208, discloses that acetylsalicylic acid is known for application to mucous membranes of the mouth. The Putt patent also discloses the application of a liniment, including acetylsalicylic acid, to unbroken skin as a liniment for the treatment of inflammation or pain and to provide an analgesic effect. This patent further teaches that acetylsalicylic acid rapidly breaks down in water to salicylic acid and acetic acid. The rapid breakdown of acetylsalicylic acid is considered undesirable by Putt who suggests the need to use acetylsalicylic acid in a liquid form which does not allow a degradation or breakdown during the time required for absorption through the skin. The particular liniment disclosed is 30 grains in 1 ounce of glycerol oleate or other "unctuous base". The patent further discloses testing for absorption of acetylsalicylic acid by a ferric chloride reaction with any acetylsalicylic present in the urine and by fluorescence of skin which has absorbed acetylsalicylic acid.
The Campbell patent, U.S. Pat. No. 3,119,739 discloses the use of a composition, including acetylmethyl-salicylate, for pain relief and as an anodyne agent. The patent includes the statement that "it should be understood in no sense be regarded as a curative agent for the basic cause of the pain." The acetylmethyl-salicylate is used as 1-20% mixture in an inert pharmaceutical carrier. Solvents for the acetylmethyl-salicylate are preferred as the pharmaceutical carrier but suspensions or emulsions may also be used. Examples of suitable inert pharmaceutical carriers are ethanol, isopropanol and polyethylene glycol. The mixture is useful for treating insect bites and allergic reactions.
A popular over-the-counter lip ointment sold under the trademark BLISTEX by Blistex Incorporated of Oakbrook, Ill. 60521 contains allantoin (1%), camphor (0.5%) and phenol (0.5%) in an emollient base with petrolatum, lanolin, menthol, methyl salicylate, and other ingredients.
In spite of such prior art disclosing the use of acetyl-salicylic acid and related compounds such as methyl salicylate and acetyl methyl salicylic acid as analgesic and anti-inflammatory agents for both internal and external application, the prior art has not taught nor suggested use of externally applied acetylsalicylic acid as a treatment for herpes-type virus diseases. Further, the prior art has taught away from pharmaceutical preparations including both acetylsalicylic acid and water because of the fear of rapid degradation of the acetylsalicylic acid component into acetic acid and salicylic acid.


Systems and methods are disclosed for parallelizing service function chains. A method comprises receiving a sequential service function chain comprising a plurality of network functions, receiving a plurality of operations, determining at least two network functions are capable of being parallelized, aggregating operations of the plurality of operations associated with the at least two network functions into a network function segment, determining whether another network function is capable of being parallelized with the network function segment, based on the determining: aggregating an operation associated with the another network function into the network function segment when the another network function is capable of being parallelized with the network function segment, or pushing the network function segment as a completed segment of a hybrid service function chain when the another network function is not capable of being parallelized with the network function segment, and implementing the hybrid service function chain.

Upgrading a telecommunication network to a software defined network (SDN) architecture implies replacing or augmenting existing network elements that may be integrated to perform a single function with new network elements. The replacement technology may comprise a substrate of networking capability, often called network function virtualization infrastructure (NFVI) that is capable of being directed with software and SDN protocols to perform a broad variety of network functions and services. Network operators can create, update, remove, or scale on/in network functions (NFs) on-demand, construct sequences of NFs to form service function chains (SFCs), and steer traffic through SFCs to meet service requirements.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Controlling parallel data processing for service function chains


The invention relates to a stator of an electrical machine, with at least one stator tooth and a coil wound outside of the stator, which coil has been pushed onto the stator tooth substantially radially. It is provided that the coil (4) is held radially on the stator tooth (2) by means of at least one form-fitting connection (13). Furthermore, the invention relates to an electrical machine with such a stator (1).

Stators of electric machines in principle may be wound in two ways. The windings are applied one after the other onto insulated individual stator teeth, or, alternatively, coils wound outside of the stator are fit onto teeth of the stator. If the coils are wound directly onto the stator teeth, their windings have to be prevented from slipping off the stator teeth. This is achieved, for example, by relying on the situation that the stator teeth have a greater cross section in their head region than in their root region in order thus to fix the coil windings on the tooth. This method considerably limits the achievable copper filling factor. That is, it is not possible to insert as many windings as are possibly required in order to reach a certain magnetic flux or a certain magnetic field density. In another development of this manufacturing method, the coil windings are wound onto an individual tooth that is already insulated. The stator is then assembled from the wound individual teeth, for example, welded together on the external diameter. This manufacturing method is very painstaking and susceptible to production errors. Reference EP 0 891 030 A2 describes providing coils of different geometries for stator teeth without enlargement of the cross section on the head side (having essentially parallel tooth walls), coils of the one geometry being mounted on the one tooth, and coils of the other geometry being mounted on the subsequent tooth, after these coils are wound outside of the stator, are pressed into shape and kept in shape by a thermoplastic synthetic resin prior to being put into the stator. This described situation involves a very complicated and error-prone coil winding process, because the required coil geometry must be met very precisely, otherwise mounting onto the stator teeth is not possible or is possible only by impairing the coil geometry, which in the original case ends in the destruction of the coil. This described situation appears to require that coils of different geometries must be used.


Described is a technology for understanding entities of a webpage, e.g., to label the entities on the webpage. An iterative and bidirectional framework processes a webpage, including a text understanding component (e.g., extended Semi-CRF model) that provides text segmentation features to a structure understanding component (e.g., extended HCRF model). The structure understanding component uses the text segmentation features and visual layout features of the webpage to identify a structure (e.g., labeled block). The text understanding component in turn uses the labeled block to further understand the text. The process continues iteratively until a similarity criterion is met, at which time the entities may be labeled. Also described is the use of multiple mentions of a set of text in the webpage to help in labeling an entity.

The World Wide Web contains huge amounts of knowledge that can provide substantial benefits to those who are able to find desired information. Information extraction is a technology directed towards the discovery and management of such web-based knowledge.
One information extraction task is directed towards extracting structured Web information of Web objects, typically comprising real-world entities including people, organizations, locations, publications, and products. Such Web object extraction can be used to understand the visual layout structure of a webpage, including for labeling the HTML elements of a page with attribute names of an entity, e.g., a business name for one entity on the page, a business address for another.
One labeling mechanism that leverages the result of understanding the page structure for use in free text segmentation and labeling is in the form of a joint model employing a Hierarchical Conditional Random Fields (HCRF) model and an extended Semi-Markov Conditional Random Fields (Semi-CRF) model. This joint model is a top-down model, in which the HCRF model determines the structure in one decision, and the Semi-CRF model makes use of this structure decision along with a suitable source of information (e.g., a gazetteer for location labeling) to make a final labeling decision.
However, there are drawbacks to this top-down technique. For example, business names are often difficult to identify on a webpage with such a model. Any improvement to the understanding of webpage content is desirable.

Webpage entity extraction through joint understanding of page structures and sentences


The invention relates to an enhanced method of detecting and/or quantifying at least one analyte in a sample.

The need to detect and/or quantify analytes in a sample has become increasingly important. In medicine, for example, there is a need for assays that detect or quantify nucleic acids or polypeptides, as well as a need for assays that detect and quantify proteins interacting with other proteins or proteins interacting with other molecules. There is an especially acute need for such assays in biological samples of interest, such as blood, urine or other biological materials such as tumor samples that have been preserved, or fixed, so that their composition can be readily determined at a time far removed from surgery, for example. Cancer patient would benefit from an assay that could detect and quantify proteins or oligomers or dimers from fixed samples that are harvested at the time of resection and analyzed at much later time.
The current invention provides an enhanced method for detecting and/or quantifying at least one analyte in a sample.

Enhanced method for detecting and/or quantifying an analyte in a sample


A production method for a headline sonar cable characterized by steps of:                a. providing a first strength member (14);        b. coupling to strength member (14) a conductor (122);        c. forming a layer of polymeric material about the combination of strength member (14) and conductor (122) while ensuring that the conductor remains slack;        d. forming a flow shield around the layer of polymeric material, thus forming an elongatable internally located conductive structure; and        e. braiding a strength-member jacket layer (52) of polymeric material around the elongatable internally located conductive structure while ensuring that the conductor is slack when surrounded by the jacket layer (52).

A towed trawl usually includes a headline sonar sensor for monitoring the trawl's headline height, the trawl's opening and fish schools in front of the trawl. A data transmission cable, i.e. a headline sonar cable that is sometimes called a third wire includes a conductor for transferring data signals from the headline sonar sensor to the towing vessel. Presently, strength members of conventional headline sonar cables are made from steel, and enclose a central copper conductor that is surrounded by layered, multi-layered and torsion balanced, or braided copper wires. The braided copper wires surrounding the central conductor shield the data signal carried on the central copper conductor from electromagnetic interference that degrades the quality of transmitted data signals. Headline sonar cables can be up to 4000 meters long and, besides their main function of transferring data signals, the cable is also sometimes used to increase trawl's opening by raising the headline. This is why a headline sonar cable is sometimes called a third wire.
When used with a trawl, a headline sonar cable must absorb the stress that results from the trawler's surging on sea swells. Surging causes the stern of the trawler where the third wire winch is located to impart surging shocks to the headline sonar cable being deployed therefrom. Surging significantly increases compressive force applied to the headline sonar cable at the winch thereby correspondingly increasing the likelihood that the headline sonar cable's data signal conductor may become damaged.
One disadvantage of a conventional steel headline sonar cable is its weight. The weight of a steel headline sonar cable adversely affects trawl operation and fishing gear's performance. A long steel headline sonar cable extending between a trawler and a trawl will, between the trawler the headline sonar, descend below the trawl's headline. Furthermore, a trawler's headline sonar cable winch frequently lacks sufficient power to tense the steel headline sonar cable since the winch is supporting the cable's weight.
A steel headline sonar cable that descends below the trawl's headline necessarily passes through schools of fish that are in front of the trawl's opening. Passage of the steel headline sonar cable through a school scares the fish and the school will turn sideways. A schools' sideways turn may reduce the catch because some of the fish avoid the trawl's opening.
Another disadvantage of a steel headline sonar cable occurs if the cable breaks. A broken steel headline sonar cable, due to its weight, initially falls downward and then starts cutting through and damaging the trawl. Similarly, when the trawler turns while towing a trawl it often becomes difficult to control a steel headline sonar cable to avoid contact between the cable and the trawl's warp lines and/or the bridles. Contact between the headline sonar cable and the trawl's warp lines and/or bridles can damage either or both the headline sonar cable and the trawl's warp lines and/or bridles. Similarly, sometimes a headline sonar cable contacts a trawl door. Contact between a headline sonar cable and a trawl's door can result either in the cable being cut, or the cable becoming entangled with the door so the trawl door become uncontrollable. Curing any of the preceding problems associated with the use of a steel headline sonar cable requires retrieving, repairing and/or readjusting the fishing gear.
Over time rust also degrades a steel headline sonar cable. Furthermore, steel headline sonar cables are difficult to splice because they typically consists of two twisted layers of steel wires, one layer twisted clockwise and the layer other counterclockwise.
Cables made from synthetic polymeric materials exhibit rather different physical properties compared to conductors, e.g. optical fibers and wires made from copper, aluminum or other metals. In general, the elasticity of conductors is very low while synthetic polymeric materials generally exhibit greater inherent elasticity. Twisting stranding and/or braiding fibers and/or filaments of synthetic polymeric materials into a cable further increases elasticity of the finished cable due to voids that occur between fibers and/or filaments. A straight conductor oriented parallel to or inside a cable made from synthetic polymeric materials tends to break upon an initial application of tension which stretches the cable. The constructional elasticity of cables made from synthetic polymeric materials can be reduced by stretching the cable either while it is hot or cold. Stretching a cable made from synthetic polymeric materials reduces elasticity by compressing the fibers and/or filaments while also removing voids.
Fibers and/or filaments made from ultra high strength synthetic polymeric materials like Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene ("UHMWPE"), HMPE, Kevlar®, and Twaron® carbon fibers; aromatic polyester, e.g. Vectran®; thermoset polyurethane. e.g. Zylon® and aromatic copolyamid, e.g. Technora®; typically have elongation to break from 2-10%. A cable made from such materials generally exhibit 2-5% constructional elongation. If a conductor is placed inside or with a cable made from such a synthetic polymeric material it must be able to accept this elongation without either breaking or becoming brittle which ultimately results in premature conductor failure.
Tension bearing energy and data signal cables using synthetic fibers for a strength member are known. For example Cortland Cable Company offers such cables for seismic/magneto-meter tow cables, side-scan sonar and video tow cables and seismic ocean bottom cables. Such cables when used for tethering a remotely operated vehicle ("ROV") operate at low tension and insignificant surge. Strong surge shocks are unusual for current applications of ROV tether lines and moored ocean cables or the other uses for known non-steel tension bearing energy and data signal cables. In fact, it is well known in the field that ROV's are not to be deployed with such tether cables in surge conditions in which trawler's usually routinely and actually operate.
In fact, it is accurate to state that when high tension is required in combination with repeated windings under tension onto a winch's drum and storage under tension on that drum such as occurs with a trawl's headline sonar cable, it is not the predominant choice of the industry to form a tension bearing data signal cable having a conductor enclosed by a strength member formed of synthetic fibers. One of the reasons for the industries continuing reliance on heavy, steel strength membered data signal cables is that many past experiments at sheathing conductors (including fiber optic lines, copper wires, etc.) within strength members such as braided jacket layers formed of synthetic polymeric fibers have either failed in high tension applications, such as those high tension applications described above, or have failed to provide a level of resolution, that is a quality of the signal received, that is same or better as traditional constructions signal resolution.
WO 2004/020732 discloses a cable having a thermoplastic core enclosed within a braided, coextruded or pultruded jacket. During fabrication the cable is heated to a temperature at which the thermoplastic core becomes liquid or semiliquid. While heated to this temperature, the cable is stretched so it becomes permanently elongated. During stretching, material of the heated thermoplastic core fill voids within the surrounding jacket. For added strength and/or stiffness, the thermoplastic core may include a central, inner strength member fiber or filament that differs from that of the thermoplastic core and is made from a metal or polymeric material. Using the metal central inner strength member to carry data signals doesn't work because during cable fabrication either the metallic wire either breaks or becomes so brittle as to fail prematurely.
In attempt to remedy the long felts needs in the industry applicant's prior application WO 2009/142766 proposes a non-steel tension bearing data signal and energy cable capable of tolerating very high loads such as those applied to a trawl's headline sonar cable while also capable of being wound on a drum or winch under high tensions and that can be wound and deployed from a winch subject to a fishing trawler's surging shocks while not impairing the cable in a short time, especially in less than twenty-four calendar months from a date of first use. While these teachings have met with some acceptance in the industry, the need continues to improve the signal resolution, that is the quality of the data signal received in the return loop for the headline sonar cable we previously proposed.

Abstract: For another embodiment, an optical fibre is wrapped around the exterior of the layer of polymeric material within which is enclosed a braided conductor formed about the first strength member (14). Other embodiments employ further thermo-plastic layers and further sheaths and further conductors.


The invention relates to compositions and methods for isolating nucleic acids from biological samples, including whole tissue. The invention also provides kits for isolating nucleic acids from biological samples.

The invention relates to compositions and methods for releasing and isolating nucleic acids from biological samples, including whole tissue. The invention also provides kits for isolating and/or releasing nucleic acids from biological samples.
Current methods for isolating nucleic acids from biological samples may include macerating tissues, lysing cells, and inactivating nucleases using chaotropic salts, such as guanidine hydrochloride or guanidinium thiocyanate, and a nonionic detergent. The released nucleic acids then may be selectively precipitated from solution.
Various chemical disruption methods, using detergents, chaotropes, proteases, bile salts, organic solvents, and harsh acidic or basic conditions have been employed to macerate tissue and release nucleic acid. The nucleic acid obtained using such methods may be degraded due to long incubation times or exposure to harsh conditions.
In certain embodiments, compositions are provided for releasing nucleic acids from a biological sample. In certain embodiments, the compositions include at least one cationic surfactant, at least one protease, and a buffer.
In certain embodiments, methods for releasing nucleic acids from a biological sample are provided. In certain embodiments, methods for isolating nucleic acids from a biological sample are provided. In certain embodiments, these methods include combining the sample with at least one cationic surfactant, at least one protease, and a buffer to form a reaction composition. In certain embodiments, the reaction composition further comprises a second surfactant. In certain embodiments, the reaction composition further comprises a salt. In certain embodiments, the composition is incubated under appropriate conditions to release the nucleic acid from the biological sample. In certain embodiments, the released nucleic acid is then isolated.
In certain embodiments, kits for isolating and/or releasing nucleic acid from biological samples are also provided. In certain embodiments, the invention provides kits comprising at least one cationic surfactant and at least one protease. In certain embodiments, kits further comprise a second surfactant, a salt, organic extraction agent(s), organic precipitating agent(s), solubilizing agents(s), nucleic acid-binding solid phase(s), or combinations of these components.
According to certain embodiments, a method of obtaining nucleic acid from a biological sample and binding the nucleic acid to a solid phase is provided. In certain embodiments, this method comprises contacting the biological sample with a disrupting buffer, wherein the disrupting buffer comprises a protease and a cationic surfactant; and binding the nucleic acid to a solid phase. In certain embodiments, the method comprises contacting the biological sample with a disrupting buffer, wherein the disrupting buffer comprises a protease and a cationic surfactant; substantially neutralizing the cationic surfactant; and binding the nucleic acid to a solid phase.
According to certain embodiments, a kit is provided, comprising a protease, a cationic surfactant, and a second surfactant, wherein the second surfactant permits the binding of nucleic acid to a solid phase in the presence of the protease and cationic surfactant.
According to certain embodiments, a kit for obtaining nucleic acid from a biological sample is provided, comprising a protease; a cationic surfactant; a non-ionic surfactant, wherein the non-ionic surfactant permits the binding of nucleic acid to a solid phase in the presence of the protease and cationic surfactant; and a high salt buffer.

Compositions, methods, and kits for isolating nucleic acids using surfactants and proteases