A process for producing plasticized polyamide blends containing additives such as tougheners, reinforcing agents, and/or filler. High average molecular weight plasticized blends containing additives may be made using the process of the invention. Pipes and tubing may be made from the blends prepared using the process of the invention.

It is well known that tougheners such as grafted rubbers or ionic polymers can be employed to improve the toughness of polyamides; see for example U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,174,358 and 3,845,163. It is also well known that plasticizers can be incorporated into polyamide blends to decrease their stiffness. N-butylbenzenesulfonamide (hereinafter BBSA) is an example of a well-known, effective plasticizer for polyamides; see, for example, Kohan, M. I. Ed. Nylon Plastics Handbook, Hanser: Munich, 1995; p. 365. Plasticized, toughened polyamide compositions such as ZYTEL® 350PHS2 NC010, manufactured by E.I. du Pont de Nemours, have been available for a number of years. Such resins are useful, for example, as jacketing for cables. However, while pipes and tubing can be made from such materials, it would be desirable to have available resins for making polyamide-containing pipes and tubing that possessed a lower flexural modulus, as such pipes and tubing would have great flexibility.
One method for lowering the flexural modulus would be to introduce higher levels of plasticizer to the polyamide composition. Thermoplastic polyamides are solids that are most efficiently blended on a molecular level with other materials by melting the polyamide in a suitable melt-processing apparatus such as an extruder and adding the additional materials to the molten polyamide and thoroughly mixing the resulting blend. When the blend is allowed to cool, the additional materials will be uniformly dispersed throughout the polyamide. As a result of high temperatures required for the melt-processing of polyamides, this method is not effective when large amounts of a volatile material must be added to the polyamide, as a significant portion of the volatile materials will be lost through the atmospheric pressure or vacuum vent port of the extruder. This requires that large excesses of the volatile material be added to the extruder to compensate for these losses, increasing the expense and complexity of the process.
Plasticized polyamide compositions are typically prepared by compounding the polyamide and other desired ingredients with the plasticizer in an extruder. However, because polyamide plasticizers are typically volatile relative to polyamides at the temperatures required to compound polyamides, it is difficult to incorporate large amounts of plasticizer using this method. For example, polyamide 6,12, a relatively low-melting polyamide, has a melting point of about 214° C. and BBSA has a boiling point of 340° C. Since it is necessary to compound polymers at temperatures well above their melting point, polyamide 6,12 is compounded at temperatures at which BBSA has a significant vapor pressure, and a significant portion of the BBSA introduced to the extruder would be lost through the vent port during compounding, making it impossible or very inefficient to achieve high loadings of BBSA. Other polyamides having higher melting points are compounded at even higher temperatures and will experience correspondingly higher losses of plasticizer. Plasticizers may be incorporated into polyamides during the polymerization process, but it is not practical or in some cases possible to incorporate additives such as tougheners or fibers or fillers during polymerization.
Higher molecular weight, less volatile plasticizers are available but they are not as efficient as BBSA, requiring even higher additive amounts. This negatively impacts other properties, such as tensile strength. Additionally, it is often desirable that plasticized polyamide resin compositions have a polyamide component with a high average molecular weight, and hence high melt and solution viscosity. Such compositions are often used for extrusion processes that form pipes, tubing, sheeting, etc where a high melt viscosity is desirable. When high molecular weight polyamides are passed through an extruder or otherwise melt-processed to incorporate other desired ingredients, however, these polyamides often are reduced in molecular weight, particularly when moisture is present in the polyamide, other ingredients, or extruder or other melt-processing equipment. Thus it is desirable to have a process that allows for the preparation of highly plasticized polyamides with a high average molecular that also contain additives. Such a process has been heretofore unknown and though they have long been desired, highly plasticized, high average molecular weight polyamides containing additives such as tougheners, reinforcing agents, and fillers are commercially unavailable, due to the difficulties that have been encountered when attempting to add both such additives and plasticizers to polyamides while efficiently using conventional melt-processing methods. These difficulties have been particularly acute when it is also necessary to maintain the molecular weight of high average molecular weight polyamides during the incorporation of plasticizer and additives.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an efficient process for producing a highly plasticized polyamide composition containing additives. It is a feature of the present invention to produce highly plasticized polyamide compositions containing additives such as tougheners and fillers. It is an advantage of the present invention to produce highly plasticized polyamide compositions containing additives wherein the polyamide has a high average molecular weight.

Process for efficiently producing highly plasticized polyamide blends


The present invention proposes a laser hair removal device handheld head (1) provided with a camera objective (13), one or more first light source (10), and a transparent member (12) for being placed onto a skin region to be subjected to laser hair removal, wherein the first light source (10) and transparent member (12) being configured to provide frustrated total internal reflection (FTIR) based images of the skin region. The present invention further proposes a laser hair removal method.

Optical hair removal devices provide high-energy laser beams with wavelengths absorbable at hair roots, at pulses having durations usually within a range between 1 ms and 500 ms (ms: milliseconds). Upon being subjected to laser beams, hair roots get heated and thus damaged. Permanent depilation can be achieved by several repetitions of such application.
WO 2005/102 201 A1 describes a hair removal device aiming for a certain distance between skin and a contact plate for obtainment a reliable hair removing of locally curved regions of skin.
US 2006/0 095 099 A1 describes a stand-alone laser device comprising a support structure enabling a patient to be scanned without moving the laser energy source.
EP 1 031 324 A1 describes a laser depilation apparatus for alleviating damage to surrounding tissues of treated hair follicles.
TR 2012/13577 describes a laser hair removal device aiming for precise hair removal notwithstanding the optical contrast around target hair.
Some of the main problems encountered in known laser hair removal technology can be summarized as follows:                In order to obtain an efficient hair removal by selective damaging of hair roots, target hair root shall absorb more light in comparison with surrounding skin regions. But the light absorbing pigment melanin is present in hair roots and also in skin. Therefore in low-contrast color combination cases of pale skin with light hair, or dark skin with dark hair, sufficient optical contrast for selective damaging of hair cannot be easily achieved. As a result, even maximum values of light energy provided onto hairy skin cannot damage target hair without damaging the surrounding skin as well; and either permanent hair removal cannot be achieved, or a large number of sessions is required for permanent hair removal.        Hair removal necessitates heating of target hair root to a threshold temperature for permanent damage thereof. Below such temperature, heating provokes repair mechanisms thus the target hair root builds up instead of getting damaged. In cases of above-mentioned low-contrast color combinations, or similarly, in skin regions where relatively thick and thin hair roots are present in a mixed manner such as at the face of a patient, thin hair builds up due to said mechanism; and this phenomenon is referred to as 'paradoxial hypertrichosis'.        Especially patients having darker colored skin experience widespread sharp aches on their skin around laser-treated areas thereof. This presumably occurs due to high absorbance of light energy by high concentration of melanin in dark skin.        In cases where the amount of light energy per unit area (i.e. fluence) is arranged and calculated imprecisely and improperly, the risk of ambustion arises at wide skin portions.

MAVILAB YAZILIM MEDIKAL LAZER MAKINA IMALATI SANAYI VE TICARET ANONIM SIRKETI


A weight determining mechanism and a method for determining the weight of a piece of loaded luggage, particularly a backpack. The mechanism is generally incorporated into a carry handle of the piece of luggage allowing for it to be integral with the luggage and allowing for it to not take up additional space while allowing for quick and easy weight determinations without need for an external scale.

1. Field of the Invention
This disclosure relates to the field of weight determining mechanisms for use with luggage; in particular to weight determining mechanisms carried on-board a piece of luggage to determine the loaded weight of the piece of luggage.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, the study of injury done to the human body through everyday activities has become a field of increasing importance. The sudden rise of repetitive stress injuries in the last few years and a greater understanding of the damage that can be done to the human body by common tasks has led many people to try to determine safer ways to carry out their everyday lives. Potential dangers from everyday activities are particularly troubling when they occur during childhood, where a growing body may be less likely to recover from an injury and where an injury can potentially alter a person's whole life.
One area of everyday injury that has recently caught attention is back injury from carrying or lifting overly heavy loads. This is particularly a problem for school children where scientists have determined that many kids carry far too much weight in their backpacks to and from classes in order to transport school books and school supplies. Many experts recommend that a child carry no more than 15% of their body weight in a backpack to avoid an increased risk of musculoskeletal injury and particularly damage to the spine.
The above concerns are proving disturbing to many parents and school officials. In some areas, the concern has reached such a fevered pitch that school districts are being asked to find cost effective means for reducing the load of school children's backpacks. While such procedures may be necessary for preventing school children from taking home more weight than they should be carrying in order to complete assignments, the best way to prevent danger from overloaded backpacks is to directly determine if a particular load, in a particular pack, is too heavy for a particular child to be carrying. The load can then be adjusted or carried in multiple different bags or the child can be helped by an adult to carry the supplies needed.
While placing the backpack on a traditional scale, or similar weight determining device, would be suitable for determining the weight of a backpack, these systems are generally clunky and it can be difficult to have a scale available to weigh the backpack for every child every day as would generally be required to insure that the backpack is not overloaded.
Weight in backpacks is not the only place where knowledge of the weight of luggage is valuable. When traveling, particularly via aircraft to international destinations, many airlines impose weight restrictions on luggage in order to protect their workers from injury and to insure that the aircraft is not overloaded. While the airlines can efficiently weigh the bags upon check-in, the traveler often does not have any idea if their bag will be too heavy before it is too late. By the time the airline weighs the bag and determines it is overly heavy, the traveler is often not able to transfer the contents to another piece of luggage to decrease the weight, or to leave various items at home because they are already at the airport and may not have any other luggage with them into which to transfer the overweight luggage contents. Therefore, the traveler is forced to pay overweight baggage fines and baggage handlers are required to lift the heavy bags. Even if they are able to repack, the traveler must go through the inconvenience of trying to repack at the airport where they are under time constraints, their luggage is not as easily accessible as it is at home, and they risk theft of luggage contents.

Weight determining mechanism for a backpack or other luggage


The invention relates to a VAC-BAC shuttle vector system for creation of recombinant poxviruses from DNA cloned in a bacterial artificial chromosome.

Poxviruses, which comprise a large family of double-stranded DNA viruses that infect vertebrate and invertebrate hosts, are distinguished by their large size, complex morphology, cytoplasmic site of replication, and encoding of proteins for viral transcription, replication, and immune defense (Moss, B. 2001 in: Fields Virology, eds. Knipe, D. M. & Howley, P. M. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Philadelphia, Vol. 2, pp. 2849-2883). Vaccinia virus (VAC), the best-studied member of the poxvirus family, was used for immunization against smallpox (Fenner, F. et al. 1988 Smallpox and its Eradication World Health Organization, Geneva) and subsequently as an expression vector for laboratory investigations and recombinant vaccines (Moss, B. 1996 PNAS USA 93:11341-11348). The introduction of new genes into the VAC genome is usually carried out by homologous recombination in infected cells. Typically, a foreign gene is cloned into a plasmid transfer vector downstream of a VAC promoter and flanked by VAC DNA from a non-essential site (Mackett, M. et al 1984 J Virol 49:857-864). The plasmid is then transfected into cells that are infected by VAC. Because recombination is inefficient, a variety of selection and screening methods have been devised (Earl, P. L. et al. 1998 in: Current Protocols in Molecular Biology, eds. Ausubel, F. M. et al. Greene Publishing Associates & Wiley Interscience, New York, Vol. 2, pp. 16.17.1-16.17.19). The process usually requires three to five plaque purifications over a period of several weeks. Alternative methods, involving the purification and cleavage of the VAC genome and either ligation in vitro or three-way recombination in vivo, have been described (Merchlinsky, M. & Moss, B. 1992 Virology 190:522-526; Scheiflinger, F. et al. 1992 PNAS USA 89:9977-9981; Merchlinsky, M. et al. 1997 Virology 238:444-451; Smith, E. S. et al. 2001 Nat Med 7:967-972; Timiryasova, T. M. et al. 2001 Biotechniques 31:534-540) but are cumbersome, depend on the presence of a unique restriction endonuclease site within the nearly 200,000 base pair genome, and still require plaque purification. The mutagenesis of VAC genes is even more difficult, and is usually carried out by a laborious transient dominant selection recombination scheme (Falkner, F. G. & Moss, B. 1990 J Virol 64:3108-3111).
Recently, the large DNA genomes of a baculovirus (Luckow, V. A. et al. 1993 J Virol 67:4566-4579) and several herpesviruses (Messerle, M. et al. 1997 PNAS USA 94:14759-14763; Borst, E. M. et al. 1999 J Virol 73:8320-8329; Delecluse, H. J. et al. 1998 PNAS USA 95:8245-8250; Horsburgh, B. C. et al. 1999 Gene Ther 6:922-930; Saeki, Y. et al. 1998 Hum Gene Ther 9:2787-2794; Smith, G. A. & Enquist, L. W. 1999 J Virol 73:6405-6414) have been cloned as bacterial artificial chromosomes (BACs). These circular mini-F BAC plasmids allow viral genomes to be stably maintained at low copy number and manipulated in Escherichia coli and then reconstituted as infectious virus by transfection of eukaryotic cells. The construction of baculovirus and herpesvirus BACs was relatively straightforward: plasmid sequences were inserted by recombination into the circular mature or replicating viral genomes and the latter were propagated in E. coli. Poxvirus genomes, however, are composed of linear double-stranded DNA molecules with covalently closed hairpin ends (Baroudy, B. M. et al. 1982 Cell 28:315-324) that are resolved from transient head-to-head or tail-to-tail concatemers during replication (Moyer, R. W. & Graves, R. L. 1981 Cell 27:391-401; Baroudy, B. M. et al. 1982 Cold Spring Harbor Symp Quant Biol 47:723-729; Merchlinsky, M. et al. 1988 J Mol Biol 199:399-413). Therefore, the method used for cloning baculovirus and herpesvirus genomes seemed inapplicable.

The United States of America as represented by the Department of Health and Human Services


A memory cell array includes a matrix array of a plurality of memory cells. These memory cells are non-volatile transistors. The memory cells which are arrayed in each row of the memory array, are coupled with a plurality of word lines. The word lines are selected by a row decoder made up of a plurality of partial decoders. In this case, a constant voltage output circuit, which is provided at the outputs of the partial decoders of the row decoder, outputs a constant voltage lower than a power source voltage to a corresponding word line of those word lines when the corresponding word line is selected by the outputs of the partial decoders.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a nonvolatile semiconductor memory using nonvolatile transistors for memory cells, such as an EPROM and an EEPROM.
2. Description of the Related Art
EPROMs and EEPROMs may be enumerated as nonvolatile semiconductor memories using nonvolatile transistors each with the floating gate structure as memory cells. In this type of the nonvolatile semiconductor memory, when a "1" level signal is applied to a word line coupled with the gate of nonvolatile transistor as memory cell, the data programmed in the memory cell is read out onto a bit line coupled with the drain of the transistor, and is applied to a sense amplifier. If the floating gate of the memory cell is in an electron injection state and its threshold voltage V.sub.TH is high, this memory cell is apparently in an off state when the "1" level signal is applied to the word line. At this time, a potential on the bit line remains unchanged and the sense amplifier maintains its initial output state. In another condition that the floating gate of the memory cell is in nonelectron injection state and the threshold voltage V.sub.TH is in low, the memory cell is apparently in an on state when the "1" level signal is applied to the word line. At this time, the bit line is pulled down by the earth potential and the output of the sense amplifier that has been in the initial state is inverted.
Thus, the sense amplifier is operated depending on whether or not electrons have been injected into the floating gate of the memory cell, that is, whether the threshold voltage of the memory cell is high or low, the sense amplifier is operated and check is made as if the programmed data is "1" or "0". Accordingly, as a difference .DELTA.V.sub.TH of the threshold voltages between the memory cell injected with electrons and the memory cell injected with no electron, becomes larger, an operation margin of the sense amplifier increases.
In an initial state of a general EPROM immediately after data is programmed, the threshold voltage of the nonelectron injected cell is approximately 2 V, and that of the electron injected cell is approximately 6 V. Accordingly, the difference .DELTA.V.sub.TH of the threshold voltages between the electron injected cell and the nonelectron injected cell is approximately 4 V, not large. The difference .DELTA.V.sub.TH decreases as the data retaining time increases.
Normally, the EPROM uses a power source voltage of 5 V for the read voltage, i.e., "1" level signal, to be applied to the gate of the memory cell. This voltage of 5 V is closer to the threshold voltage of the electron injected cell rather than a mid potential between the threshold voltage of the electron injected cell and that of the nonelectron injected cell. Therefore, as the data retaining time is longer, the threshold voltage of the electron injected cell drops up to the read voltage of 5 V, and the electron injected cell which should be in an off state, is turned on mistakenly. This makes it difficult to discriminate an on-state memory cell from an off-state memory cell and vice versa. This greatly reduces an operation margin of the EPROM when it is in a read mode.
As described above, in the conventional nonvolatile semiconductor memory, the read voltage applied to the gate of the memory cell is fixed at the power source voltage irrespective of the threshold voltage of the electron injected cell and the nonelectron injected cell. For this reason, the operation margin of the memory cannot be improved in a read mode.


An electrostatographic and/or xerographic machine includes a media path adapted to move a media sheet. Sensors are positioned adjacent the media path. The media sheet has a leading edge and a trailing edge and the sensors are adapted to identify locations of the leading edge and the trailing edge of the media sheet. A marking device is positioned adjacent the media path. The marking device is adapted to print first items on a first side of the media sheet and print second items on a second side of the media sheet. A registration controller is operatively connected to the media path and to the sensors. The registration controller determines a length between the leading edge and the trailing edge of the media sheet using output from the sensors, and determines the parallelism between the leading edge and the trailing edge of the media sheet using output from the sensors. The registration controller calculates a registration correction factor based upon the length and the parallelism and corrects the alignment of the first items printed on the first side of the media sheet with the second items printed on the second side of the media sheet using the registration correction factor.

The embodiments herein generally relate to media registration in duplex printers. As explained in U.S. Patent Publication 2004/0036847, the complete disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, duplex printing can be conducted with a system that forms images on both sides of a sheet at a single transfer station. In some duplex printing systems, after a sheet has received a first image on a first side by passing the sheet through an image transfer station, the sheet is inverted. A second image is then formed on a second side of the sheet by passing the inverted sheet through the same transfer station.
Positioning an image on one side of a sheet in a manner that coincides with the position of the image on the other side of the sheet can be difficult. Registration of a first image on a first side of a sheet with a second image on a second side of a sheet is not always accurate because of one or more registration errors that offset the first image relative to the second image. For example, a page number printed on the bottom-center position of the first side of a two-sided, printed document should align exactly with the page number printed on the reverse side. The offset of the page number on the second side of a sheet with respect to the page number on the first side of the sheet is a registration error that is extremely undesirable, and considered unacceptable in various printing industries.
Registering two images on the front and back sides of a single sheet of media sheet can be difficult but is essential in industries such as the offset printing industry. In this industry, duplex sheets are sometimes produced having a number of pages, of what will ultimately be a single, multi-page document, aligned on the front and back of a single sheet of media sheet. To create such a multi-page document, a sheet of media sheet is printed with multiple images on the front and back side of a single composite sheet. The single composite sheet is subsequently folded and segmented into individual pages. Each of the images on a first side a sheet must therefore be registered with a corresponding image on a second side of the sheet before the sheet may be segmented into individual pages.
Specifically, the first image that appears on the first side of the sheet and the second image that appears on the second side of the sheet are positioned so that identical images printed on both sides of the sheet are coincident with each other. In other words, two identical images printed on both sides of a sheet of media sheet form mirror images of each other since each image is printed with no apparent offset from the other. Thus, an image on the front side of a sheet would appear to be in perfect or transparent registration with the corresponding image on the back side of the sheet.
The "show through" error that occurs when transparent registration is not achieved can be quantified by measuring of the displacement between two points, one on a first side of the sheet and one on a second side of the sheet, that are intended to be equidistant from a common sheet edge. This error is caused, at least in part, by the factors identified above. The portion of the error associated with media sheet shrinkage is often caused by fusing a printed image on the first side prior to printing of an image on the second side.
Additional background patents that are incorporated herein by reference include U.S. Patent Publication No. 20030146567 published Aug. 7, 2003; U.S. Pat. No. 4,971,304 by Lofthus, issued Nov. 20, 1990; U.S. Pat. No. 5,169,140 by Wenthe, Jr., issued Dec. 8, 1992; U.S. Pat. No. 5,219,159 by Malachowski et al, issued Jun. 15, 1993; U.S. Pat. No. 5,278,624 by Kamprath et al, issued Jan. 11, 1994; U.S. Pat. No. 5,794,176 by Milillo, issued Aug. 11, 1998; U.S. Pat. No. 6,137,989 by Quesnel, issued Oct. 24, 2000; U.S. Pat. No. 6,168,153 B1 by Richards et al, issued Jan. 2, 2001; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,533,268 B2 by Williams et al, issued Mar. 18, 2003.


Provided are a device and a method of generating printing information. The method includes acquiring at least one image part by splitting a basic image acquired based on a user input; determining a target article corresponding to the basic image from a three-dimensional (3D) article list stored in a database (DB) by using the at least one image part; providing a graphical user interface (GUI) capable of editing a shape of the target article according to a user input; and editing the shape of the target article, based on a user input via the GUI, and generating printing information used to 3D print the edited target article.

With developments in multimedia technology and data processing technology, device are able to process various types of information. In particular, devices that generate and process three-dimensional (3D) printing information is being used with developments of 3D printers. However, it is difficult to clarify a 3D shape desired by a user.
Thus, a method for clarifying a 3D shape desired by a user and generating printing information for 3D printing is in demand.

Device for generating printing information and method for generating printing information


In a method for producing workpieces having inner and/or outer contours deviating from a circular shape, at least one workpiece is clamped on a machine and the workpiece is driven in rotation about a rotational axis of the workpiece at a first constant velocity. At least one tool is arranged on a carriage that is moveable radially to the rotational axis of the workpiece as well as axially in the longitudinal direction of the rotational axis of the workpiece. The tool is rotatably driven about a rotational axis of the tool that deviates from the rotational axis of the workpiece such that an active cutting surface of the tool moves on a circular path at a second constant velocity. The second constant velocity is selected such that its revolutions per minute deviate from the revolutions per minute of the first constant velocity with respect to size and/or rotational direction.

The invention relates to a method for producing inner and/or outer contours deviating from a circular shape on a machine with clamping of at least one workpiece that is rotatably driven at a constant speed and of at least one tool, especially for machining by cutting, wherein the tool is moveable by a carriage radially to the rotational axis of the workpiece as well as axially in the longitudinal direction of this rotational axis. Furthermore, the invention relates to a device for performing this method.
A method for producing workpieces with polygonal outer and/or inner contours by a cutting machining process is known from European patent 0 097 346. In this known method, the workpiece guided on a circular path engages during the entire revolution at a workpiece whereby the path velocity of the tool is respectively changed during each revolution according to a periodic movement law. This permanent change of the path velocity of the tool during each revolution requires, in addition to programmable functional transmitters for the tool drive, a transmission that is controlled according to Pascal curves. Accordingly, this known method allows the manufacture of a plurality of polygonal outer and inner contours. However, because of the permanent control of the path velocity of the tool it requires a great control-technological and machine-related expenditure so that this method can be performed only on devices that are specially designed for this method and have controllable transmissions for the tool drive.
It is an object of the invention to provide a method for producing inner and/or outer contours deviating from a circular shape with which inner and/or outer contours deviating from a circular shape can be produced as desired with minimal control-technological expenditure and with commercially available devices. Furthermore, the invention has the object to provide a device for preforming this method.
The solution of this object in regard to the method is inventively characterized by the tool with its effective surface being rotatably driven about a tool axis on a circular path with constant velocity that deviates from the revolutions per minute of the workpiece with respect to size and/or direction of rotation, whereby the tool axis is different from the rotational axis of the workpiece.
Due to the different velocities and optionally different rotational directions of the constantly rotating workpiece, on the one hand, as well as due to the different rotational centers and the selectable radius of the circular movement path of the effective tool surface, a plurality of contours of movement paths of the effective tool surface resulting from the afore-mentioned parameters are produced. The special advantage of this method is that, despite the constant rotational velocities of the workpiece and of the tool, different contours deviating from the circular shape can be produced and that, on the other hand, this method can be performed on conventional devices because for driving the tool mounted on a carriage only a separate drive but no complicated controllable transmission for coupling the rotary velocities between tool and workpiece is necessary. The contour of the contour that deviates from the circular geometry is thus only dependent on the respective constant ratio of the revolutions per minute of the axes of rotation, the radius of the outer circle described by the tool as well as the axial offset of the axes of rotation.
According to a preferred embodiment of the inventive method the difference of the revolutions per minute between the workpiece, on the one hand, and the tool, on the other hand, is an integer. The revolutions per minute differences in integers will result, for example, for a ratio of 2:1 in triangular and for a ratio of 3:1 in quadrangular contours.
In an alternative embodiment of the inventive method the plurality of contours to be produced can be further increased such that the tool axis itself is driven on a circular path with constant velocity that deviates with regard to size and/or rotational direction from the revolutions per minute of the tool about an eccentric axis which deviates from the tool axis.
The three possible axes of rotation, i.e., the tool axis, the workpiece axis, as well as the eccentric axis, extend parallel to one another according to one embodiment of the invention. The parallel extending axes of rotation result in a straight inner and/or outer contour of the workpiece, i.e., a contour parallel to the axis of the workpiece.
According to a further embodiment of the invention, the position of the rotational axes relative to one another can be individually adjusted. By adjusting the position of the axes of rotation, the so-called phase angle, screw-shaped outer and/or inner counters can be produced.
For changing the diameter of the contour deviating from the circular geometry as well as for producing conical and spherical contours it is suggested, in a further development of the invention, that the radius of the outer circle described by the tool can be continuously adjusted by a cross-slide rest rotating with the axis of rotation of the tool and arranged on the tool spindle.
The solution to the object with regard to the device is characterized in that the tool, on the one hand, is clamped on a tool spindle and is rotatably driven on a circular path with constant velocity that deviates from the revolutions per minute of the workpiece with regard to size and/or rotational direction about a tool axis which is different from the rotational axis of the workpiece.
Finally, it is suggested with the invention that the tool axis is arranged eccentric to the tool spindle and is driven on a circular path with constant velocity, that deviates from the revolutions per minute of the tool with regard to size and/or direction of rotation, about an eccentric axis which is different from the tool axis. This additional axis of rotation allows the manufacture of a plurality of new inner and/or outer counters deviating from the circular shape. Especially, the manufacture of individual depressions within the workpiece wall or even penetrations of the workpiece wall can be provided with this inventive design of the device.

Method and device for producing workpieces with a non-circular internal and/or external shape

Iproptech Maschinen- und Edelstahlprodukte GmbH


The present invention relates to DNA polymerases. In particular the invention relates to a method for the generation of DNA polymerases exhibiting a relaxed substrate specificity. Uses of mutant polymerases produced using the methods of the invention are also described.

Accurate DNA replication is of fundamental importance to all life ensuring the maintenance and transmission of the genome and limiting tumorigenesis in higher organisms. High-fidelity DNA polymerases perform an astonishing feat of molecular recognition, incorporating the correct nucleotide triphosphate (dNTP) substrate molecules as specified by the template base with minimal error rates. For example, even without exonucleolytic proofreading, the replicative DNA polymerase III from E. coli on average only makes one error in ˜105 base pairs (Schaaper JBC 1993).
As energetic differences between correctly and mispaired nucleotides per se are much too small to give rise to a 105 fold discrimination, the structure of the polymerase active site in high-fidelity polymerases has evolved to enhance those differences. Recent structural studies of the A-family (Pol I-like) DNA polymerases from Thermus aquaticus (Taq) (Li 98), phage T7 (Ellenberger) and B. stearothermophilus (Bst) (Beese) in particular have revealed how conformational changes during the catalytic cycle may exclude non-cognate base-pairing geometries because of steric clashes within the closed active site. As a result of these tight steric constraints, not only are mismatched nucleotides excluded but catalysis becomes exquisitely sensitive to even slight distortions in the primer-template duplex. This precludes or greatly diminishes the replication of modified or damaged DNA templates, the incorporation of modified or unnatural deoxinucleotide triphosphates (dNTP) and the extension of mismatched or unnatural 3′ termini.
While desirable in nature, such stringent substrate discrimination is limiting for many applications in biotechnology. Specifically, it restricts the use of unnatural or modified nucleotide bases and the applications they enable. It also precludes the efficient PCR amplification of damaged DNA templates.
Some other naturally occurring polymerases are less stringent with regard to their substrate specificity. For example, viral reverse transcriptases like HIV-1 reverse transcriptase or AMV reverse transcriptase and polymerases capable of translesion synthesis such as polY-family polymerases, pol X (Vaisman et al, 2001, JBC) or pol X (Washington (2002), PNAS; or the unusual polB-family polymerase pol X (Johnson, Nature), all extend 3′ mismatches with elevated efficiency compared to high fidelity polymerases. The disadvantage of the use of translesion synthesis polymerases for biotechnological uses is that they depend on cellular processivity factors for their activity, such as PCNA. Moreover such polymerases are not stable at the temperatures at which certain biotechnological techniques are performed, such as PCR. Furthermore most Translesion synthesis polymerases have a much reduced fidelity, which would severely compromise their utility for cloning.
Using another approach, the availability of high-resolution structures has guided efforts to rationally alter the substrate specificity of high fidelity DNA polymerases by site-directed mutagenesis e.g. to increase acceptance of dideoxi- (ddNTPs) (Li 99) or ribonucleotides (rNTPs) (Astatke 98). In vivo complementation followed by screening has also yielded polymerase variants with increased rNTP incorporation and limited bypass of template lesions (Patel 01). Recently, two different in vitro strategies for selection of polymerase activity have been described (Jestin 00, Ghadessy 01, Xia 02). One is based on the proximal attachent of polymerase and template-primer duplex on the same phage particle and has allowed the isolation mutants of Taq polymerase, which incorporate rNTPs and dNTPs with comparable efficiency (Xia 02). However, such methods are complex, prone to error and are laborious.
Recently, the technique of compartmentalized self-replication (CSR) (Ghadessy 01), which is based on the self-replication of polymerase genes by the encoded polymerases within discrete, non-communicating compartments has allowed the selection of mutants of Taq polymerase with increased thermostability and/or resistance to the potent inhibitor heparin (Ghadessy et al 01).
However, there still remains a need in the art for an efficient and simple method for relaxing the substrate specificity of high fidelity DNA polymerases whilst maintaining high catalytic turnover and processivity of DNA fragments up to several tens of kb. Such polymerases will be of particular use in applications such as PCR amplification and sequencing of damaged DNA templates, for the incorporation of unnatural base analogues into DNA (such as is required for sequencing or array labelling) and as a starting point for the creation of novel polymerase activities using compartmentalised self replication or other methods.


A multi-pole mounting base for interfacing a circuit breaker and/or circuit interrupter with an electrical panel is disclosed. The electrical panel has an interior configured to receive remote operated circuit breakers (ROCBs) in signal communication with a communication board internal to the electrical panel, non-ROCBs, and ground fault circuit interrupters (GFCls). The mounting base includes a unitary support platform assemblable to the interior of the electrical panel and having first mounting regions with common structure configured to receive any one of the ROCBs, the non-ROCBs, and the GFCls. The support platform also has second mounting regions configured to receive the communication board. The support platform is configured to assemble adjacent to another support platform in the electrical panel.

The present disclosure relates generally to electrical panels, and particularly to the installation of remote operated and non-remote operated circuit breakers in electrical panels.
Electrical panels typically house a plurality of circuit breakers that distribute power from a source to a plurality of loads while providing protection to the load circuits. The electrical panels may be single-phase, or three-phase with switching neutral for example, may have a variety of voltage ratings, such as 120 Vac to 600 Vac for example, and may have a variety of current ratings, such as 125 Amps to 400 Amps for example, thereby enabling the electrical panels to serve a variety of applications. One such application is a lighting panel, which may be used to service lighting loads in a commercial building having a plurality of lighting circuits. To facilitate the efficient utilization of power in such commercial buildings, remote operated circuit breakers (ROCBs) may be employed that enable the lighting loads to be turned on and off from a location remote to the electrical panel or from within the electrical panel. However, not all lighting loads may require a ROCB, and some of the load circuits may require a ground fault circuit interrupter (GFCl). Accordingly, there is a need in the art for an electrical panel that may be readily adapted to accept a variety of circuit breakers, and particularly that may be readily adapted to accept ROCBs, non-ROCBs, and GFCls.

Apparatus for interfacing remote operated and non-remote operated circuit breakers with an electrical panel


A urethral catheter having an adjustable dilating balloon length for dilating a prostatic urethra and a method for using same. The device includes a catheter to which a Foley balloon is affixed at the distal end, and to which a dilating balloon is annularly affixed, and includes means to independently expand and contract the balloons. Concentrically encompassing the catheter is a sheath or ring, which in one embodiment slides along the outside of the catheter. With the method of the present invention, the affected prostatic urethra is measured using a cystoscope and a calibrated catheter or other known measurement means. The sheath of an adjustable catheter of one embodiment of the present invention is set to the measured length by covering a portion of the dilating balloon with the sheath. The dilating catheter is inserted through the urethra until the balloon at the distal end is located within the bladder, at which point it is inflated and the dilating catheter is anchored in position. Then the dilating balloon is inflated to force the prostate away from the urethra. The dilating balloon may be left in place for periods of up to an hour or more to optimize the dilation effect, at which point the balloons are deflated and the dilating catheter is removed. With a further embodiment, the length of the dilating balloon is adjusted by severing portions of an adjustable length sheath to expose the length of balloon desired.

The present invention relates to treatment of obstructive prostatism, and more particularly to an adjustable urethral catheter for treating prostatism and a method for using same.
The present invention is specifically directed to an improvement in the method and the balloon catheters disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,660,560 entitled, Method for Treating Obstructive Prostatism, to Klein, which is assigned to the assignee of the present application. The teachings of U.S. Pat. No. 4,660,560 are specifically incorporated herein by reference.
Obstruction of the urinary tract due to compression of the urethra by an enlarging prostate gland results in a number of symptoms in the patient, including nocturia, frequent urination, stranguria and post-void dribbling, as well as the emotional problems of pain, discomfort and embarrassment. Generally, patients suffering from such symptomatic prostatism may pursue one of three options: Continue living with the pain and discomfort, undertake prostatectomy surgery, or receive treatment by means of a urethral catheter. Choosing the surgical procedure subjects the patient to a number of hazards, including post-operative bleeding, stricture formation at the urethra or bladder neck, incontinence, post-manipulation pain or bladder spasm, urinary infection, reactive urethral swelling causing urinary obstruction and epididymitis. Further risks include wound infection, retention of prostatic chips, retrograde ejaculation, bladder perforation, hyponatremia, intravascular hemolysis, and impotency. Additionally, simple prostatectomy requires at least 1 to 3 hours in the operating room, followed by an average of one week in the hospital, and in complicated cases, two or more weeks. About 10 to 15% of prostatectomy patients require a repeat prostatectomy and probably 10% develop strictures with long-term cost considerations.
Conversely, choosing to abstain from surgery neither alleviates the patient's pain or discomfort nor reduces the probability that more serious prostate problems will develop in the future.
The third option available, that of receiving treatment by means of a urethral catheter, has a number of advantages over the above-mentioned options. Treatment by means of a urethral catheter is disclosed in the following patents: Kealing U.S. Pat. No. 3,997,408; Gants U.S. Pat. No. 2,936,760; and Layton U.S. Pat. No 4,219,026. The present invention is directed to an improvement in the procedure and balloon catheter disclosed in Klein U.S. Pat. No. 4,660,560. In the procedure set forth in that patent, a balloon on a catheter is utilized to apply pressure against the prostate gland, forcing the gland into a position from which it can no longer restrict the urethra.
In using the method described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,660,560 it is necessary that the balloon that is utilized to dilate the prostatic urethra have an annular length and be positioned so that it exerts pressure along the entire surface of the prostate gland, and not beyond the prostate gland. If the balloon is longer than the urethra, damage to the area outside of the prostatic urethra will result when the balloon is expanded. Conversely, if the balloon is shorter than the urethra, the entire obstructed area will not be expanded and obstruction will remain. For this reason, the length of the patient's urethra which is encircled by the prostate gland must be measured, preferably with a calibrated catheter. A dilating catheter which has a dilating balloon of an annular length equal to the measured length of the patient's prostate gland must then be selected. Since the size of the prostate gland to be treated varies from patient to patient, it is necessary that an extensive stock of catheters having varying balloon lengths be kept on hand. Thus, an expanded inventory of catheters is necessary and results in the expenses associated with carrying such a large inventory.
Accordingly, a primary object of the present invention is to provide a balloon catheter which has the capability of being adjusted so that it can be aligned in the urethra to coincide with the length of the urethra surrounded by the prostate gland.
Another object of the present invention is to eliminate the need for keeping an inventory of various sized balloon catheters in order to perform the dilating procedure set forth in U.S. Pat. 4,660,560.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a method for adjusting the balloon length in a urethral catheter.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a single catheter which can be utilized to dilate a prostate gland regardless of the size or location of the prostate gland.

Adjustable urethral catheter and method for treating obstructive prostatism


The invention relates to an electronic circuit including a sub-module assembly (2) connected to the rest of the circuit, the sub-module assembly including a secret sub-module (4) for performing a function, scan chains; a built-in self test circuit including a pattern generator (5) to apply input signals to the scan chains, and a signature register (6) to check output signals from the scan chains. In order to keep the sub-module secret, the scan chains are not connected to the rest of the circuit.

Dealing with classical structural scan test, it is to be avoided as it allows for the downloading of all the circuit internal registers. Therefore, using such a technique would allow hackers to access the contents of the secret sub-module. Concerning functional application-like tests, the circuit is being sent stimuli as it would be receiving in its end application. In this case, the test patterns contain information about "how to use the secret module", and about "what are the expected results". Therefore at least part of its secret functionality (the secret keys) is revealed. The test operation is thus not confidential.
US patent application US 2002/0069387 describes a sub-module for example of a low confidentiality level, tested by a deterministic logic built-in self test (DLBIST) circuit. Such self-testing solutions are useful because self-testing the sub-module allows a reduction of the technical requirements necessary for performing external tests on a complex integrated circuit. Yet, when such a circuit is scanned by a conventional structural scan test, information would still be revealed on the nature of the sub-module.

Electronic circuit comprising a secret sub-module


A system and method for improved image comparison is provided. An adjustable tolerance level may be set for comparing the images, and filtering may be applied to the images, for example, to suppress high frequencies in the images or to enhance low frequencies in the images. Furthermore, a geometrical transform, such as a 2D affine transform, may be applied to one of the images. The pixels of one of the images may be compared with corresponding pixels of another image to detect differences between the pixels compared. Then the outcome of comparing the pixels of the images may be determined by comparing the differences detected with the tolerance level set. The tolerance may be set by selecting one of a set of predefined tolerance levels, each of which may represent a different degree of tolerance to be used in comparison of the images.

Software development usually requires testers to evaluate the quality of a software product in many ways, including any content such as images incorporated in a software build or generated by execution of a software build. Traditional testing of such images may involve verifying that every pixel of a test candidate image is identical to the corresponding pixel of a master image. A typical validation algorithm may directly compare each pixel of a test candidate image to a corresponding pixel in the master image and then decide to pass or fail the test candidate image based upon the number of direct pixel comparison failures. The problem with this approach is that the comparison may fail from numerous slight differences that may not be visible by human perception.
Another problem with this approach is that it does not account for noise that may be introduced into an image such as by disk drive controllers in accessing the image from persistent storage or by rendering drivers in rendering an image retrieved from storage. Based on the specifics of the system, some other common sources of noise may include rounding errors due to the high precision of the computations, differences in bit representation of the image format, visually detectable artifacts such as salt and pepper noise from spurious pixels, information missing from the image or extraneous information added to the image, and so forth. In any of these cases, a direct pixel comparison approach may often fail where noise has been introduced in the image.
Additionally, differences in the implementations of graphics hardware and software drivers, including renderers, may create differences in two rendered images. For example, rounded corners in an image may be rendered as square corners. As another example, firmware in an implementation may render red as a shade of red or reddish. Again, a direct pixel comparison approach may often fail from the accumulation of defects arising from differences that may be generated by various implementations of graphics hardware and software.
What is needed is a more flexible and adjustable system for comparing images. Such a system should be able to compensate for noise introduced into an image as well as allow for adjustable control of the resolution of an image.


A method, system, and computer program product for non-interrupting performance tuning using runtime reset are provided in the illustrative embodiments. Component performance data from a component of a data processing system is analyzed. The component participates in processing a workload of a workload type. The analyzing determines a characteristic of the workload. A performance requirement of the workload is determined according to a performance requirement of the workload type. A set of preferred performance tuning parameter values is identified to apply to the component to meet the performance requirement of the workload. The set of preferred performance tuning parameter values is sent to the component such that the component is tuned using a value in the set of preferred performance tuning parameter values to meet the performance requirement of the workload.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to a method, system, and computer program product for improving performance of a data processing system component. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method, system, and computer program product for non-interrupting performance tuning using runtime component or chip reset.
2. Description of the Related Art
Data processing systems can be configured in a variety of ways. For example, the components in a data processing system may be configured to operate in a manner such that the data processing system behaves as a single data processing unit. The memory in such a configuration operates to support data manipulation for the single data processing unit.
As another example, data processing systems can be divided into logical partitions (LPARs). Such data processing systems are also known as logical partitioned data processing systems. A logical partition is also known simply as a "partition." Each partition operates as a separate data processing system independent of the other partitions. Generally, a partition management firmware component manages partitions through their creation and subsequent assignment of hardware resources. A Hypervisor is an example of such partition management firmware.
Typically, a partition is created to execute a specific type of workload. For example, one partition may be created for serving as a database server, a web server, a scientific computation node, a transaction engine, or for serving another type of workload.
A workload includes instructions for a processor to execute. Executing an instruction of a workload in a data processing system, such as on a partition, results in operations with respect to one or more components of the data processing environment. Performance of one or more operations results in altering a state or a condition of a component in the data processing environment.

Non-interrupting performance tuning using runtime reset

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION


The automobile window shade system is adapted to be removably mounted at an interior of an automobile window. The automobile window shade system of the present invention includes a plurality of shades and each shade includes a web of shade material and a continuous loop spring mounted therewith. Preferably, the spring material is sewn within the web of shade material. A plurality of pivots rotatably link adjacent shades together such that the plurality of shades has a fully extended longitudinal position or mode and a compact stacked position or mode wherein respective continuous loop springs are substantially vertically aligned in the stacked position. In the stacked position, the plurality of shades may be twisted and folded to form a sub-compact, twisted and folded position or mode. In the sub-compact mode, the entire shade can be placed in a bag or can be wrapped with an elastic strap to maintain the sub-compact positional mode. Additional features include longitudinally extending web material at the end shades, systems for attaching laterally facing edges of adjacent shades when those shades are in the fully extended longitudinal position or mode, and a pivot support plate in each shade in order to provide a substantially planar web of shade material. To enhance the utility of the automobile shade, the front side of the shade may carry either advertising indicia or emergency indicia (e.g., "Help", "Call Police," "Need Gas").

Automobile window shades are utilized to reflect, and sometimes to absorb (in the winter months), sunlight that filters through an automobile window.
One automobile window shade utilizes a web of material having a continuous loop spring mounted along its periphery. The size of this prior art automobile shade is generally equivalent to the size of a front window of an automobile.
Another prior art automobile window shade utilizes two, completely independent, window shades. Each of these prior art window shades (used in combination), include a web of shade material and a continuous loop spring mounted along the periphery of each independent shade. To use these shades, the user unfolds the shade from a twisted, folded configuration and independently places the first and the second shade in his or her automobile window.


Systems and methods disclosed herein provide for some embodiments infrared camera systems for maritime applications. For example in one embodiment, a watercraft includes a plurality of image capture components coupled to the watercraft to capture infrared images around at least a substantial portion of a perimeter of the watercraft; a memory component adapted to store the captured infrared images; a processing component adapted to process the captured infrared images according to a man overboard mode of operation to provide processed infrared images and determine if a person falls from the watercraft; and a display component adapted to display the processed infrared images.

Infrared cameras are utilized in a variety of imaging applications to capture infrared images. For example, infrared cameras may be utilized for maritime applications to enhance visibility under various conditions for a naval crew. However, there generally are a number of drawbacks for conventional maritime implementation approaches for infrared cameras.
One drawback of conventional infrared cameras is that a user is generally not allowed to switch between different processing techniques during viewing of the infrared image or the optimal settings may be difficult to determine by the user. Another drawback is that user-controlled processing may occur post capture, after initial processing has been performed, which generally lessens the user's input and control and may result in a less than desirable image being displayed.
As a result, there is a need for improved techniques for providing selectable viewing controls for infrared cameras. There is also a need for improved infrared camera processing techniques for maritime applications (e.g., for various types of watercraft, including large vessels, such as cargo ships and cruise ships).

Infrared camera systems and methods for maritime applications


There are difficulties with regard to observing a rotating component in an obscuring environment such as typical of a gas turbine engine where there may be soot, flames, light signals and moisture. It will be understood that simply increasing the light intensity will increase scatter and therefore may “blind” a camera in terms of viewing distinctive features and targets within a rotating component. The present arrangement provides a mirror with an aperture such that an illuminating light source is directed towards a rotating component such that reflection is similarly incident upon the reflective mirror and light deflected to the camera. In such circumstances the camera is less susceptible to light scatter obscuration.

The present invention relates to monitoring arrangements and more particularly to such monitoring arrangements utilised with regard to rotating components such as turbine blade assemblies in a gas turbine engine.
It is important to be able to monitor components such as rotating blade assemblies in order to determine distortion and deflection in that component during operational use.
It will be understood that rotating components will be subject to varying stresses and strains during use and therefore generally each of these components will distort and become displaced. A particular problem with respect to turbine blade assemblies in gas turbine engines is a so called blade-off situation where a blade becomes fully or partially detached or at least displaced causing rubbing with other components within the assembly. In such circumstances it is important to determine the varying distortions and displacements which precede such blade off situations in order that they can be avoided.
Previously the main means of monitoring a rotating component has been by simple observation. Thus, a camera will be mounted in an appropriate position relative to the rotating component in order to record its motion and then through subsequent replaying and observation distortions and displacements noted in the rotating component. It will be understood in order to highlight distortions and displacements typically a high intensity laser or other illumination source has been used in order to give high brightness and a narrow bandwidth light response. In such circumstances utilising a specially modified high-speed digital camera that generally only accepts or is biased towards the laser light bandwidth and rejects the background light emitted background it is possible to improve the accuracy of observations.
However, there are still particular problems from background or environmental light obscuring observations. This background light may be as a result of plasmas, arcs, flames and explosions typical in a gas turbine engine. It will also be understood that there may be dust or other particles which act as reflectors and so may further blind the camera in terms of its observational capacity.
In view of the above, previous methods are generally poor, and at least far from ideal, as it requires a high illumination level of light in order to indiscriminately penetrate the environmental pollution, that is to say, fog, dust, smoke, metallic and paint particles, soot, flames, water vapour, mist in the region in front of a rotating component such as a blade assembly in a gas turbine engine. However, a high illumination level can itself "blind" the camera by reflective light scatter from these particles. It would also be understood that there is lack of consistency in that the level of pollution which could cause camera blinding scatter may vary dependant upon operational state. In such circumstances it is not easy to provide any precision with regard to measuring displacement and distortion in the rotating component. Proposed attachment of high brightness devices to the rotating component will generally be unsatisfactory in that the device, that is to say a powered illumination source may be subject to breakage, provision of the device itself including its power supply will add to weight and therefore be intrusive with respect to a true response and may have limited effect upon the camera overall illumination.

Monitoring arrangement for rotating components


A photovoltaic (PV) energy system includes a pulsed bus defined by a non-zero average value voltage that is proportional to a rectified utility grid AC supply voltage. The PV energy system also includes a plurality of PV modules, each PV module including a bucking circuit configured to convert a corresponding PV voltage into a pulsing current, wherein the pulsating bus is configured to sum the pulsing currents produced via the plurality of PV modules such that a resultant pulsing current is injected into the pulsating bus in phase with the non-zero average value voltage. A current unfolding circuit is configured to control the amount of AC current injected into the utility grid in response to the resultant pulsing current.

The invention relates generally to electronic power conversion and more particularly to a quasi-AC, photovoltaic (PV) module for an unfolder PV inverter.
Photovoltaic (PV) cells generate direct current (DC) power with the level of DC current being dependent on solar irradiation and the level of DC voltage inversely dependent on temperature. When alternating current (AC) power is desired, an inverter is used to convert the DC energy into AC energy. Typical PV inverters employ two stages for power processing with the first stage configured for providing a constant DC voltage and the second stage configured for converting the constant DC voltage to AC current. Often, the first stage includes a boost converter, and the second stage includes a single-phase or three-phase inverter system. The efficiency of the two-stage inverter is an important parameter affecting PV system performance and is a product of the individual stage efficiencies.
Single phase photovoltaic inverters generally require a two-stage conversion power circuit to convert the varying DC voltage of a PV array to the fixed frequency AC-voltage of the grid. Traditional PV inverters use a DC link as the intermediate energy storage step, which means that the converter first converts the PV array voltage to a stable DC voltage then to a current that can be injected into the grid.
Traditional single phase PV inverters also undesirably control the power circuits with a fixed switching frequency using a plurality of switching devices that contribute to the overall switching losses. Switching losses are typically kept as low as possible when using traditional PV inverters by keeping the switching frequency low.
A photovoltaic generator can include many PV modules that are connected in series and parallel to form a solar generator. PV modules can lose their ability to produce power due to shading effects caused by tall objects, leaves, dust, snow, and so on. A photovoltaic generator delivers its maximum power by selecting a proper operational voltage maximum power point. Maximum power point tracking however, works well only under optimum, non-shaded conditions. As soon as parts of a PV module (one cell is enough) are covered by snow, dust, leaves, and the like, the PV generator can lose a significant portion its power.
It would be both advantageous and beneficial to provide a residential photovoltaic (PV) energy system that is easier to install, is less expensive, and has a higher efficiency than that associated with traditional PV inverters. It would be further advantageous if the PV energy system could operate in the absence of a DC disconnect mechanism. It would be further advantageous if the PV energy system could be configured to allow each PV module to operate at a corresponding operational point that is dependent upon its shading conditions.
It would be further advantageous if modules of various powers could effortlessly be combined in a system and if each quasi AC module were backward compatible when presented with a DC load voltage, further making it suitable for three-phase systems that draw constant power.
It would be further advantageous if each quasi AC module were controllable by using simple off the shelf unity power factor regulator ICs, ensuring simplicity.
Additional advantages of such a PV energy system would include, without limitation, the ability to mix different power modules in a system and also thereby maximize available roof area for energy generation, an efficiency gain over the AC module concept, no voltage on the output during installation making is safer than convention systems to install, provision of an array that can be mounted multi-directional e.g. on an igloo, and mini PV cell converters in a module, each producing pulsing current in which various configurations are possible e.g. one converter per 4 cells etc.

Quasi-AC, photovoltaic module for unfolder photovoltaic inverter


A new concept and invention for converting the conventional flying wing decoy into a different species/gender/genome. The system would use a decoy currently on the market and convert the product from the species that it represents to a different species/gender/or genome that the hunter is in pursuit of on that particular hunt. For example, a flying dove decoy can be converted to a duck of several different types, and a flying duck decoy can be converted to a squirrel or other ground dwelling animal. This allows the sportsman to use one single motorized system to create different decoy animals and species.

The invention provides enhanced versatility and cost-effectiveness over current flying duck decoys, dove decoys, and varmint decoys. The present invention allows the imitation of various species of game as well as gender of game. Each one of these decoys facilitates similar drive motors that drive a set of wings or appendages meant to match the species of decoy that is being displayed, mounted or used.
Current decoys that are available today are extremely bulky and the price points of these decoys range by as much as 120% more for a larger species with a similar motor than the smaller species that the same manufacturers offer. The current manufacturers of decoys also only offer a couple of different species of water fowl and varmint and those species of waterfowl and varmint are not always what the hunter is trying to attract.
Research of the prior art returned some results for ways to improve the way a sitting or standing decoy look in the field by either dressing up the decoy or putting the decoy in a different position using the molding or print. For example, one reference shows a duck that can be made to float, stand, or be put in the feeding position by the way the decoy is folded and set up. None of the current applications, however, address changing a decoy body or motorized mechanism into a completely different animal, species or gender nor do any of the current applications address or attempt to modify the moving wing decoy to create several different species or gender of decoys using the same internal motorized components.


Method for improving the visibly of objects and recognizing objects in a set of images recorded by one or more cameras, the images of said set of images being made from mutual different geometric positions, the method comprising the steps or recording a set or subset of images by means of one camera which is moved rather freely and which makes said images during its movement, thus providing an array of subsequent images, estimating the camera movement between subsequent image recordings, also called ego-motion hereinafter, based on features of those recorded images, registering the camera images using a synthetic aperture method, recognizing said objects.

It is challenging to obtain visual situational awareness of objects and people that are partially occluded. These occlusions may be the result of branches, dense foliage or other objects. In most of these cases different parts of the occluded object or person can be observed by moving the camera from one position to the other. However, by moving the camera around parts that were visible in earlier positions of the camera will be lost. The lack of a complete and easily interpretable image makes it more difficult or even impossible to automatically detect objects like vehicles or recognize human faces.
To deal with these kind of challenges state-of-the-art computer vision research focuses on camera arrays (typically>60 cameras). The results are very promising; however, the camera arrays developed thus far have large physical dimensions.
Synthetic Aperture (Sa) Imaging in General
Large aperture cameras typically have a small depth of field, meaning that there is a reasonably small depth range at which objects are imaged sharply. Scene objects that are out of focus are blurred across the image. This effect increases with increasing aperture sizes. In order to use this effect to the extent of "removing" out-of-focus objects, a very large aperture is needed. Fortunately, this is possible by creating a synthetic aperture (SA) which may be constituted by a (e.g. matrix) array of cooperating cameras, as illustrated in FIG. 1. A synthetic aperture method creates a synthesized output image from the images of the cameras by means of a process of registration, the synthesized output image corresponding to an image of a virtual camera with a larger aperture size than those of the cooperating cameras. A synthesized output image of a synthetic aperture method typically has a more limited depth of focus than the images of the cooperating cameras, at a selectable focus distance from the virtual camera.
The array of cameras forms an imaging system having a large aperture. A single point on the chosen virtual focal plane is projected to different image plane positions in the cameras. The camera images have to be co-registered in order to map these positions to the same point. The average of all the camera images then forms the output image.
A partial occluding object before the focal plane will not be projected sharply on the image plane; different occluding parts are projected to the same point. As some cameras can see the scene point through the occlusion, the resulting image point is made from one or more scene points plus varying occluding object points. As a result, the scene point will dominate in the output image. FIG. 1 illustrates the creation of an SA by the use of multiple cameras (image taken from [1]). The camera images are combined in such a way that scene points from the focal plane are projected to the same positions in the output image. A partial occluding object that is positioned before the focal plane appears blurred in the output image.
Synthetic Aperture Imaging Using a Camera Array
In order to determine which image pixels belong to certain focal plane positions, a registration procedure is required. In general, one of the cameras is chosen as reference view to which all other views are registered. A proven method for registration is to place a calibration target at the desired focal plane position, and determine where the plate positions appear in the camera images. The cameras will then be calibrated for a fixed focal plane position. For each camera a projective transformation (homograph) is calculated, that maps the camera view to the chosen reference view. The camera images can then be transformed and averaged to form the output image.
It is possible to set the focal plane to a different position by shifting the images with an amount proportional to their mutual distances. In FIG. 2 can be seen that the focal plane position depends on the camera spacings when the mappings of the views remains fixed. Changing these spacings amounts to changing the depth of the focal plane. However, instead of changing the camera spacings, the view mappings can also be shifted [3]. This is the easiest way for varying the focal plane distance. FIG. 2 illustrates that changing the focal plane position for a camera array is equivalent to changing mutual camera spacings under fixed image shifts. In practice, the camera array can remain fixed while the camera images are shifted instead.
When the focal plane position is varied in this way, it is possible to "step" through a recorded image set and visualize all scene elements at specific distances. An example is given in FIG. 4 for the input images from FIG. 3. Here, a camera is looking at a bush behind which a person is hiding. Due to the occlusion of the bush, the person is not visible in any of the example input images of FIG. 3. However, SA images can be constructed from the input imagery, using different focal plane distances. For example, the focal plane position selected for image at top right in FIG. 4, leads to an image that is only sharp for the distance at which the checkerboard object was placed. Furthermore, the focal plane position selected for image at bottom left in FIG. 4 reveals that a person is hiding behind the bush. Synthetic aperture techniques can therefore be used to improve the visibility of objects that are hidden behind partial occlusions.
Prior-art SA techniques require large camera array's. State-of-the-art camera array's systems typically use>60 cameras. For example, the Stanford camera array consists out of 88 cameras [1]. Although the results are very promising, the large physical dimensions are disadvantageous for several applications, e.g. in airplanes etc.

Method for recognizing objects in a set of images recorded by one or more cameras

NEDERLANDSE ORGANISATIE VOOR TOEGEPAST-NATUURWETENSCHAPPELIJK ONDERZOEK TNO


The present invention provides a device for collecting photos of a field surface feature and an information measurement and calculation method. The photo collection device includes a motion camera, a pan-tilt, and a movable carrier. The motion camera is fixed to the movable carrier by using the pan-tilt, and when the movable carrier is in a driving process, the motion camera regularly takes a clear and measurable surface feature photo, to obtain a set of continuous surface feature photos with geographical coordinates. The device for collecting photos in the present invention is portable, is easily assembled, and can stably and continuously take clear and measurable photos, to resolve a problem that a photo taken in a high-speed motion state is fuzzy. The device can be applied to remote sensing of large-scale field research.

Land use/land cover change is one of fundamental problems of the global change and sustainable development research. The remote sensing monitoring technology has become a unique effective technical method to obtain information of land use/cover at continental/regional scale. One of the most desirable aspects of land use/land cover community is the accuracy assessment, and one of main source of reference data is field investigation. The photo taken in the field represents desirable information for interpretation and land use/land cover validation.
Currently, hardware or smart phone application software (apps) that meets the requirement of land use/land cover validation at field investigation emerged in endlessly, which can be used to track, record and take photos. The typical apps include OSMTracker, 2bulu, ODK Collect, Open Foils Collect Mobile, Global Croplands, GVG agricultural situation sampling system etc. When taking photo, the corresponding time and coordinate information can be recorded via these smartphone apps. However, most taken photos are in a static state or a slowly driving state, which lead to fewer land surface feature photos. When specific speed is exceeded, the taken photo may be fuzzy due to a limited capacity of camera chip performance of smartphone. For example, when the vehicle speed exceeds 40 km/h, the photo taken by the GVG agricultural situation sampling system will be fuzzy. In addition, companies such as Google and Baidu provide street views, and photos of surface features on two sides of a road in the survey region can be obtained without field work, however, using Google Street View or the Baidu Total View, on one hand, large-scale street view information is updated slowly, and is time delayed, on the other hand, some remote regions do not have street views, affecting reliability of remote sensing interpretation in real time. Meanwhile, neither a tool such as the OSMTracker used to verify field land use/land cover nor the Google Street View can measure height and width information land surface feature within photo, and the height and width information is one of most desirable information for land use/land cover classification and validation.

Device for collecting photos of field surface feature and information measurement and calculation method

Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences


A method for operation of an ion beam therapy system that comprises a grid scanner device, arranged in a beam guidance system (6, 8), having vertical deflection means (13) and horizontal deflection means (14) for the vertical and horizontal deflection of a treatment beam (11) perpendicular to its beam direction, with the result that the treatment beam (11) is deflected by the grid scanner device to an isocentre (10) of the irradiation site and scans a specific area surrounding the isocentre (10) using a specific radiation dose. Both the depth dose distribution and the transverse dose distribution of the grid scanner device (13, 14) at various positions in the region of the isocentre (10) are measured and evaluated, it being concluded that the radiation dose distribution is adequately homogeneous if the degree of variation in the radiation dose values measured at the individual positions does not exceed a specific tolerance limit value.

The present invention relates to a method for the operation an ion beam therapy system especially operated with heavy ions.
Ion beam therapy systems are preferably used in the treatment of tumours. An advantage of such systems is that, on irradiation of a target object (target), the major portion of the energy of the ion beam is transferred to the target, while only a small amount of energy is transferred to healthy tissue. A relatively high dose of radiation can therefore be used to treat a patient. X-rays, on the other hand, transfer their energy equally to the target and to healthy tissue, so that for health reasons, for the protection of the patient, it is not possible to use a high dose of radiation.
There is known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,870,287, for example, an ion beam therapy system in which there are generated from a proton source proton beams of which the protons can be delivered to various treatment or irradiation sites by an accelerator device. Provided at each treatment site is a rotating cradle having a patient couch so that the patient can be irradiated with the proton beam at different angles of irradiation. While the patient is spatially located in a fixed position inside the rotating cradle, the rotating cradle revolves round the body of the patient in order to focus the treatment beams at various angles of irradiation onto the target located in the isocentre of the rotating cradle. The accelerator device comprises a combination of a linear accelerator (LINAC) and a so-called synchrotron ring.
In H.F. Weehuizen et al. CLOSED LOOP CONTROL OF A CYCLOTRON BEAM FOR PROTON THERAPY, KEK Proceedings 97-17, January 1998, a method of stabilising the proton beam in proton beam therapy systems is proposed in which the treatment beam is actively so controlled that it is located on the centre line of the corresponding beam delivery system at two measurement points spaced from each other in the longitudinal direction. The first measurement point is located between a pair of deflection magnets and is formed by a multi-wire ionisation chamber. Depending on the actual value of the beam position delivered from that multi-wire ionisation chamber relative to the centre point of the beam path, a PI control is generated by further deflection magnets arranged upstream from the first-mentioned pair of deflection magnets. The second measurement point is located just upstream of the isocentre and is formed by an ionisation chamber which is divided into four quadrants. Depending on the actual position value of that ionisation chamber, again PI control signals are generated, but those control signals are intended for the first-mentioned deflection magnets. Such a control arrangement is said to render possible both angle stability in terms of the centre line of the beam delivery system and lateral position stability of the proton beam.
When, however, heavy ion irradiation is carried out, that is to say irradiation with ions that are heavier than protons, large and heavy devices are necessary, with the result that there is a tendency to avoid the use of rotating cradles and instead move the patient or the patient couch. Corresponding therapy systems are described, for example, in E. Pedroni: Beam Delivery, Proc. 1st Int. Symposium on Hadrontherapy, Como, Italy, Oct. 18-21, 1993, page 434. Such systems are accordingly eccentric systems.
Since, however, mainly isocentric systems are preferred by oncologists, a heavy ion beam therapy system was proposed in which, although rotating cradles are used at the treatment sites, the radii of the rotating cradles can be reduced by virtue of the treatment beam delivered to each rotating cradle horizontally along its axis of rotation being so guided by means of suitable magnet and optics arrangements that, for the irradiation of a target, the beam is first of all directed away from the axis of rotation and later crosses the axis of rotation again in the isocentre. There is provided for the irradiation of the target a grid scanner, which comprises vertical deflection means and horizontal deflection means, each of which deflects the treatment beams perpendicular to the beam axis, with the result that an area surrounding the target is scanned by the treatment beams. Such a system thus essentially provides beam guidance in only one plane of the rotating cradle.
Since a high level of operational safety and operational stability in terms of the treatment beam is always necessary in ion beam therapy systems, a monitoring device for monitoring the treatment beam delivered by the grid scanner is provided in the afore-described heavy ion beam therapy system. This monitoring device is arranged between the last deflection magnet of the above-mentioned magnet arrangement and the isocentre, and can comprise ionisation chambers for monitoring the particle flow and multi-wire chambers for monitoring the beam position and the beam width.
For safety reasons, various DIN standards have to be observed in the operation of medical electron accelerators. Those standards are concerned on the one hand with the inspection test, that is, the inspection of the readiness for operation, and on the other hand with the consistency test, that is, examination of operational stability, of the system. For ion beam therapy systems, especially for heavy ion beam therapy systems, safety standards of that kind developed specifically for such systems are not yet known, but there is still a need, in ion beam therapy systems too, for as high as possible a level of operational safety and operational stability.
The problem underlying the present invention is therefore to propose a method for the operation of an ion beam therapy system, wherein adequate operational safety and operational stability with respect to the performance of irradiation is ensured. The method shall at the same time be suitable especially for use with heavy ions.
The problem is solved in accordance with the present invention by a method having the features of claim 1. The dependent claims each define preferred and advantageous embodiments of the present invention.
The present invention relates to a method for the operation of an ion beam therapy system which comprises a grid scanner device, arranged in a beam guidance system, having vertical deflecting means and horizontal deflecting means for vertical and horizontal deflection of a treatment beam perpendicular to its beam direction so that the treatment beam is deflected by the grid scanner device to an isocentre of the irradiation site and scans a specific area surrounding the isocentre with a specific radiation dose. Preferably, both the depth distribution of the dose and the transverse distribution of the dose of the grid scanner device at various positions in the region of the isocentre are measured and evaluated, it being concluded that the radiation dose distribution is adequately homogeneous if the degree of variation in the radiation dose values measured at the individual positions does not exceed a specific tolerance limit value.
It is furthermore proposed to monitor, inter alia, the variation over time in calibration factors of monitoring means that are used for monitoring specific beam parameters of the treatment beam, the influence of the particle fluence or particle flow of the treatment beam on those calibration factors, the dependence of the calibration factors on the beam position of the treatment beam and the consistency of the treatment dose, in each case appropriate tolerance limits being defined as intervention thresholds.
The present invention defines a comprehensive checking plan for ion beam therapy systems. The present invention accordingly renders possible a clear improvement in the operational stability and operational safety of the ion beam therapy system, it being possible to perform the particular checking aspects of the checking plan in the sense of an inspection test and/or a consistency test of the ion beam therapy system. This is especially concerned with the checking of features of the ion beam therapy system that are concerned with the grid scanning procedure and the dosimetry region.

Method for operating an ion beam therapy system by monitoring the distribution of the radiation dose

Gesellschaft fuer Schwerionenforschung mbH


A method, and associated system, for allocating memory to a first pipeline that includes a sequence of filters. Each filter is configured to execute a process specific to each filter, receive input data, and generate output data. The output data from each filter, except the last filter in the sequence, serves as the input data to the next filter in the sequence. An optimum memory capacity is allocated to the first pipeline if possible. Otherwise, a guaranteed memory bandwidth is allocated to the first pipeline if possible. Otherwise, extra memory currently allocated to a second pipeline is currently released if the second pipeline not currently performing processing or subsequently released when the second pipeline subsequently completes performing processing that is currently being performed, followed by allocating the extra memory to the first pipeline.

In the data processing of architectural patterns, there is a pattern called the pipes and filters pattern. According to the pipes and filters pattern, software components called filters having the function of inputting, processing and outputting data are connected by pipes so that the connected filters will carry out pipeline processing for processing data sequentially (note that a group of filters for performing one pipeline processing and a set of pipes connecting the filters (pipes and filters) are called a "pipeline" below). Desired filters are connected in desired order to enable various processing, and this makes it easy to configure complicated processing.
Here, the filter is a main component for performing data processing in pipeline processing, and each individual filter process is executed by a processing function such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit) under the control of a computer program. Each of the filter processes configuring one pipeline is not necessarily executed by a single CPU or core, and the filter processes may be executed by different cores, filter by filter. The pipe is a function implemented by a memory such as a RAM (Random Access Memory) to connect the output (standard output) of one filter with the input (standard input) of another filter that follows the one filter.
In an actual system, multiple pipelines may be prepared to perform various processing in parallel. In the meantime, the amount of memory available for pipeline processing may be limited because of the limitations of hardware resources. Thus, in a system for performing pipeline processing, the system performance is significantly affected by how memory is allocated to each pipeline and each of the filters forming the pipeline.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2010-68486 discloses a technique for dynamically allocating memory to pipeline processing as a conventional technique related to memory allocation in a pipes-and-filters architecture. In the conventional technique disclosed in the document, when a memory work area is not enough to perform one pipeline processing, work areas allocated to the other pipelines or some of them are released and allocated to the one pipeline to which memory is not allocated sufficiently.

Method and system for allocating memory to a pipeline

International Business Machines Corporation


A 2-wavelength image sensor has a plurality of uniformly dispersedly arranged visible radiation detectors and a plurality of uniformly dispersedly arranged, uncooled infrared radiation detectors, and a single visible radiation detector configures a visible radiation detecting pixel and four series connected infrared radiation detectors configure a thermal infrared radiation detecting pixel. Consequently a visible image can be four times a thermal image in resolution. Furthermore for an infrared image an area increased four times per pixel to receive light can be achieved. As a result the infrared image can be enhanced in temperature resolution.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to 2-wavelength image sensors and particularly to 2-wavelength image sensors picking up both visible and infrared images.
2. Description of the Background Art
An optical sensor system utilized in the field of security for detecting human bodies can be improved in performance for detection by combining picking up a visible image and picking up an infrared image. One such sensor system conventionally used is a sensor system that simply combines the two pickup systems of a camera for visible radiation and an infrared camera. However, such a system is large in size and requires a complicated image process between two types of optical images to analyze data. Accordingly there has been a demand for a sensor system capable of picking up both types of images with a single camera.
In connection therewith there has been proposed a 2-wavelength image sensor capable of picking up a visible image and a thermal image with a single chip. For example, Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 11-289492 discloses an infrared image sensor employing a PtSi Schottky diode as a detector with a PtSi layer provided in a thin film to also have a function to detect visible radiation. An optical sensor system employing this image sensor has a spectroscopic filter exchanged to employ picking up a visible image and picking up an infrared image, as required.
Furthermore a typical color image sensor employing a Si photodiode in a photodetector is capable of picking up a near infrared image, which is not a thermal infrared image, and a visible image. On the photodiode a spectroscopic filter is provided to allow an image for light different in wavelength, such as blue, green, red, near infrared, to be picked up with a single chip. For example, Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2005-051791 discloses a color image sensor picking up visible to near infrared images that defines how a color (i.e., a spectroscopic filter provided on a detector) is arranged to allow a near infrared image to be higher in resolution than a visible image.
Generally for an optical sensor system utilizing both visible and thermal infrared images the resolution required by one image is different from that required by the other. More specifically, for the visible image, it is desirable to provide an increased resolution to pick up the image in detail, whereas for the thermal image, while resolution may somewhat be low, high sensitivity (or temperature resolution) is desired.
The image sensor disclosed in Japanese Patent Laying-open No. 11-289492, however, detects visible radiation and infrared radiation with a single detector and it is inevitable that the visible image and the thermal image are disadvantageously the same in resolution. Furthermore the single detector prevents picking up the visible image and the thermal infrared image simultaneously. Furthermore the detector must be cooled to approximately −200° C. or lower. As a result the system is increased in size and cost for production.
The image sensor disclosed in Japanese Patent Laying-open No. 2005-051791 allows two types of images to be different in resolution, i.e., can increase the resolution of the near infrared image to be higher than that the visible image. However, the image sensor has near infrared pixels higher in resolution distributed thinned out in arrangement. Accordingly it requires pixel interpolation to obtain a complete image.

Two-wavelength image sensor picking up both visible and infrared images