This invention is an apparatus and a method that selects the optimum location of a service on the Internet according to the user's geo-location and the configuration of the invention by transparently altering the DNS messages. In the preferred embodiment, the invention operates at OSI model's data link layer and it is located in front of the DNS server so that it does not require any modification in the existing DNS or IP network setup or on the application servers. It provides a fast and transparent method of locating an Internet service without the overhead of server scripts, HTTP redirects, or extra steps by the user to find the desired location or content.

The Internet, which is a set of loosely connected computer networks, is growing rapidly in terms of geographical coverage, number of users and number of services. It is a new media that is slowly removing the boundaries between all its users around the world.
Applications and services on the Internet are referred by uniform resource locators (URL) such as "ftp://ftp.site/filename", which is an example of a file location in the Internet, or "http://web.site/webpage", which is an example of a web page. However the personal computers (PC) and the servers that host Internet applications communicate by referring to Internet Protocol (IP) addresses of each other, such as 184.108.40.206. PCs hide this complexity by consulting Domain Name Service (DNS), which maps the URLs to IP addresses.
Typically when a user wants to access a service or an URL, it first consults its DNS server to resolve the name of the service to an IP address. If the DNS server does not have that information it consults a root DNS server, a gTLD (generic top level domain) server, then finally the DNS server where the service is located. After user's DNS server obtains the IP address of the service it sends this information to the user and then the user accesses the service.
Since today's users are located around the world and accessing wide Internet services such as web pages with news or weather forecast, service providers need to distribute the content at several geographical locations. Today these locations, also known as mirror sites, are updated with the same information.
In some implementations, while accessing these distributed services, users are asked to choose a mirror site of their choice. In some cases the users may be asked to answer a series of questions such as their country, preferred language, or even the city they live. These steps not only slow the information retrieval process but also frustrate the users. In some other cases, this manual process is automated by the use of "cookies", which are small set of information about the users stored on their PCs and are sent to the servers every time users access the server. This technique obviously has some security and privacy drawbacks.
Every Internet connected PC and server has a unique IP address assigned by their administrator, or by their Internet Service Provider (ISP). By some methods it is possible to create a database of all of these addresses with their geographical location information. By capturing and examining the user data packets, more specifically the source IP address of DNS queries from these users, and by using the mentioned IP address/location database, it would be possible to find out where the users are located in the world. Therefore by using this technique an Internet service provider could determine the user location and customize its content based on that information.
This technology can enable ISPs to supply faster services since they can direct the users to the closest servers. Web portal companies can provide the local news, weather forecast or even local advertisements that belong to user's neighborhood. Online shops can restrict certain goods to be sold to certain countries. Similarly, gambling sites would limit their service to some regions where gambling is allowed. Web sites that provide information in different languages would let the user access the information automatically in the language spoken in user's geographical area.
There are a few implementations of providing content based on users" geo-location. First, it is possible to integrate some software, which has the database of all IP addresses and their locations, to the server. Through this software's application program interface (API) the server determines user's geo-location and modifies or picks the right content based on the user's location. This method obviously has some limitations as it is highly customized for that service only. It requires customized program development and modification of server configuration. In addition, it supports only the service it is integrated and it needs to be installed on every server. Furthermore, not every type of service can be supported by this method due to limitations in some server programs.
Another possible method is using specialized network equipment, which is configured to be the authoritative DNS server of the site. All the DNS queries are directed to it. After it determines the location of the user it directs the user to the closest service site relative to user's location. This method not only requires dramatic modification of the DNS and network setup but also limits the capabilities of the DNS since these equipment are not designed to replace DNS servers. For example they do not support Name Server (NS) records, which are used for delegating the sub domains; zone transfers, incremental updates, and other special resource records.
Therefore a new apparatus and a method are proposed herein to eliminate the shortcomings and limitations of the methods mentioned above while maintaining the DNS functionality with possibly richer feature set.

Apparatus and method for transparent selection of an Internet server based on geographic location of a user


A system for manufacturing a drive shaft assembly comprises a welding apparatus configured to weld a tube to an end fitting to form the drive shaft assembly having an annular weld. A transport apparatus is configured to transport the drive shaft assembly away from the welding apparatus. A knurling apparatus receives the drive shaft assembly from the transport apparatus. The knurling apparatus is configured to knurl the weld of the drive shaft assembly. The knurling apparatus includes a pair of knurling plates having textured surfaces in facing relationship. One of the knurling plates is configured to move relative to the other of the knurling plates to roll the drive shaft assembly between the textured surfaces, thereby knurling the weld to improve an appearance and texture of the outer surface of the drive shaft assembly.

In many applications, welding methods are employed to join shaft tubes, such as propeller shaft tubes or drive shaft tubes for drive shaft assemblies of vehicles, to various end fittings. The welding methods include, but are not limited to, rotary friction welding and magnetically impelled arc butt welding. The joining of the tubes to the end fittings causes a weld upset or weld curl to form at a welded joint interface. The weld curl protrudes radially outwardly from the welded joint interface. Typically, the weld curl may include objectionable features. For example, the features can be jagged and may include partially attached contaminants such as metal shavings and/or stringers formed during the welding process, as shown in FIG. 10, which illustrates a weld joint interface having a weld curl with examples of the objectionable features. The jagged weld curl and resulting contaminants can be sharp and can further affect the perceived quality of the drive shaft assembly. These features can be especially problematic for assemblers of the drive shaft assembly and manufacturers of the vehicles utilizing the drive shaft assembly.
Various methods have been attempted to remove the sharp weld curls, shavings, and stringers. These methods include wire brushing the weld curl and shearing of the weld curl after completion of the welding operation. However, these methods have proven to be impractical, ineffective, and/or costly.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a driveshaft assembly with knurled or reformed weld curls and to provide a device and method that efficiently and effectively minimizes and/or removes undesirable features formed by a weld curl during a welding operation.

Integrated post-weld knurling process and device for performing the same

NEAPCO INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY HOLDINGS, LLC


A NAND flash memory device detects the occurrence of Cell Voltage Distribution Disruption Events (CVDDEs), such as a Partial Block Program (PBP) and Program-Read-Immediate (PRI), and provides a way to dynamically adjust read voltage to account for CVDDEs. A read command includes extended addressing bits that are used when a CVDDE has occurred to access registers that indicate an adjustment to read voltage that is needed to accommodate the CVDDE. The read voltage is then dynamically adjusted to accommodate the CVDDE. When the CVDDE is no longer an issue, the read voltage is adjusted to its previous value before the CVDDE.

1. Technical Field
This disclosure generally relates to flash memory, and more specifically relates to dynamically adjusting read voltage in a NAND flash memory.
2. Background Art
Flash memory is a particular type of non-volatile storage, meaning flash memory does not required power to retain data. NAND flash memory is a particular type of flash memory that defines blocks of data that can be written without writing the entire memory. While NOR flash memory typically provides the capability of writing much smaller blocks, even down to the byte level, NAND flash memory provides much greater density and therefore less cost per bit when compared to NOR flash memory. NAND flash memory has become very popular in applications such as MP3 audio players, digital cameras, and universal serial bus (USB) drives.
There are different types of NAND flash memory according to the storage capability of each flash memory cell. Single-Level per Cell (SLC) can store two distinct states per cell. Multi-Level per Cell (MLC) can store four distinct states per cell. Three-Level per Cell (TLC) can store eight distinct states per cell. The states of the cell are a function of voltage stored on the floating gates of the cell. Thus, a MLC NAND flash memory can store four distinct voltage levels on a cell that are each interpreted as values of two bits in the memory.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Dynamically adjusting read voltage in a NAND flash memory

International Business Machines Corporation


A set of inbound data is received in a computer. At least one attribute of the inbound data is determined. The inbound data is parsed. A set of staging records is generated in the computer that include at least some of the inbound data in one or more fields included in each of the staging records. It is determined that at least some of the staging records are ready for migration to a target environment. The staging records are migrated to the target environment in the computer.

Applications such as reporting applications, payment processing applications, finance applications, order fulfillment applications, etc, may receive data from one or more external sources. Receiving data from an external source is sometimes referred to as receiving a data feed. Once a data feed has been received, data may be loaded into a target environment, e.g., into a relational database, for use by an application. Sometimes the target environment is what is referred to as a production environment, i.e., a version of the application and data accessed by users. Present mechanisms for analyzing, validating, and loading data into a target environment may be limited.


A system and methods for x-ray backscatter reverse engineering of structures. One embodiment includes a plurality of articulated arms attached to a movable base. Another embodiment includes a single counterweighted arm attached to a movable base. The arms include x-ray detectors. At least one x-ray source, which may be mounted on the arm(s), emits x-rays, which are backscattered off the surfaces and objects of interest and captured by the detectors to generate images of hidden objects. The present system provides improved speed and resolution over prior art systems. The system has a field-of-view and effective scanning range versatile enough to work in various orientations and in environments of various sizes. In certain embodiments the system is compact and lightweight so that it can be easily transported and used within confined spaces or in environments where weight is a consideration, such as inside or underneath aircraft. The system is also pointable and adaptable.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to imaging of objects using x-ray backscattering techniques.
2. Description of Related Art
A large market exists for modification of structures and systems within military and commercial aircraft. The modification process involves reverse engineering of the aircraft to identify structures and systems that are to be modified. One challenge faced by modification engineers is uncertainty about the locations and configurations of structures and systems that are hidden from view. For example, flight-ready, fielded aircraft have many structures and systems that are obscured by exterior skins and interior furnishings and closure panels. Often, legacy data such as drawings, planning and tooling are insufficient to determine present configurations of structures and systems. Legacy data also does not typically include information about hidden foreign objects or debris.
Some conventional techniques for determining the locations and configurations of hidden aircraft structures and systems during modification procedures include digital photography, panoramic cameras, and line-of-sight reverse engineering. These methods have significant drawbacks, such as requiring partial disassembly of the subject aircraft in order to expose the hidden structures/systems. This process is labor intensive and therefore quite expensive. Furthermore, only after the disassembly has been completed can the process of planning the modifications begin. The need for disassembly thus lengthens the timeframe for aircraft modification, which in turn increases the cost of the process. Furthermore, conventional systems and methods lack verified definition data for each aircraft going through modifications.
One method for analyzing structures involves x-ray backscattering. Conventional x-ray backscatter systems comprise an x-ray tube that generates photons, and at least one solid-state detector or photo-multiplier tube. Photons emerge from the source in a collimated "flying spot" beam that scans vertically while the system is moved horizontally. Backscattered photons are collected in the detector(s) and used to generate two-dimensional and/or three-dimensional images of objects hidden behind coverings.
X-ray backscattering systems are currently used to scan trucks and railroad cars for contraband. For example, at a border crossing an x-ray backscatter image may help border officials to spot people or drugs hidden in secret compartments. The systems in use in such applications are mounted in large vans. The collimated beam scans vertically while the van drives alongside the truck or railcar. The detector(s) remain at a constant distance from the scanned object as the van drives.
The large size of these van-mounted systems makes them unsuitable for use in interior spaces, such as inside an aircraft (except, perhaps, inside large cargo aircraft having ramp doors). Furthermore, in order for an x-ray backscatter to produce a distortion-free image, the photon detector must be equidistant from all portions of the object being scanned. Thus, while van-mounted systems are well-adapted for producing images of trucks or railcars, which generally have vertical side walls, aircraft fuselages are generally cylindrical and have oval or elliptical cross-sections. As a collimated beam scans such a surface, some portions of the surface are located closer to the photon detector(s) than other portions. The variations in distance from the detector(s) produce distortions in the backscattered image. Such distortions present a minor inconvenience when searching for contraband, where the goal is merely to identify the presence of foreign objects to determine whether a closer investigation is warranted. In a reverse engineering application, however, distortions present a major problem. Before modification engineers can begin to develop a modification plan, they must have an image that meets a certain threshold in accurately identifying the locations, sizes and configurations of hidden structures and systems. Current systems do not meet this threshold.
Conventional x-ray backscatter systems are also not able to account for objects within an aircraft, such as galleys, cabinets and seats. Further, these systems do not have adequate scanning speed, robustness, ability to work in various orientations, scanning range, or field of view for aircraft reverse engineering applications. They are also not tailored to detect and accurately depict the materials present on aircraft.

System and methods for x-ray backscatter reverse engineering of structures


This invention provides a vehicle window glass antenna arranged in a space left below defogging heater strips for transmission and reception of ultrashort waves used for mobile phones and/or personal radios. The antenna section has a primary antenna which is a combination of a plurality of elongate elements connected to each other so as to form a closed plane figure having one to four vertexes each of which is acutely angled and pointed upward and becomes an upper end of the primary antenna. The plurality of elongate elements includes a single horizontally elongate element which becomes the bottom side of the plane figure. The antenna includes a secondary antenna section which is essentially a horizontally elongate element positioned below the primary antenna section. The antenna feeder is a coaxial cable, and the primary and secondary antenna sections are connected with the inner and outer conductors of the coaxial cable, respectively.

This invention relates to an antenna, provided to a vehicle rear window glass, for transmitting and receiving ultrashort waves. The window glass is provided with defogging heater strips. The antenna is arranged in a space below the heater strips and constructed of a plurality of conductive strips attached to the window glass in a special pattern. The antenna is particularly suitable to mobile phones and/or personal radio transmitter-receivers installed on automobiles.
In current automobiles it is customary to use a pole antenna for the transmission and reception of ultrashort waves assigned to mobile phones and/or personal radios. However, the protrusion of a pole antenna from a car body is unfavorable for safety and also for good appearance of the car. Besides, pole antennas are obstructive to car washing and liable to break.
There are some proposals of providing an antenna for transmission and reception of ultrashort waves on an automobile window glass: for example, JP 62-69704 A and JP 62-26912 A (Utility Model). However, window glass antennas proposed until now are considerably low in transmission and reception gains compared with conventional pole antennas and hence cannot be put into practical use for car telephones or personal radios.
In the case of providing a window glass antenna for a mobile phone and/or a personal radio to an automobile rear window glass which is preferentially provided with defogging heater strips, it is usual to arrange the antenna within a space left below the heater strips, and according to general knowledge the window glass antenna needs to have a horizontally elongate element as an upper end part of the antenna. If that horizontal element of the antenna is close to the heater strip in the lowermost position, the influence of that heater strip on the horizontal antenna element causes lowering of the reception gain of the antenna, and hence it is desirable to keep a vertical distance of at least 40 mm between the horizontal antenna element and the lowermost heater strip. Actually, however, it is difficult to realize such spacing because, in order to secure the rear view of the driver, it is impermissible to reduce the defogging capability by enlarging the distance between the lowermost heater strip and the lower edge of the window glass.

Vehicle rear window glass antenna for transmission and reception of ultrashort waves


The invention relates to a process for optimizing the production of ethanol by microbial fermentation, particularly microbial fermentation of substrates comprising CO. The process involves monitoring the hydrogen production by the microorganism, determining an optimum hydrogen production and adjusting the substrate supply rate in response to a change in the hydrogen production thereby keeping the hydrogen production within a desired range.

Ethanol is rapidly becoming a major hydrogen-rich liquid transport fuel around the world. Worldwide consumption of ethanol in 2005 was an estimated 12.2 billion gallons. The global market for the fuel ethanol industry has also been predicted to continue to grow sharply in future, due to an increased interest in ethanol in Europe, Japan, the USA and several developing nations.
For example, in the USA, ethanol is used to produce E10, a 10% mixture of ethanol in gasoline. In E10 blends, the ethanol component acts as an oxygenating agent, improving the efficiency of combustion and reducing the production of air pollutants. In Brazil, ethanol satisfies approximately 30% of the transport fuel demand, as both an oxygenating agent blended in gasoline, and as a pure fuel in its own right. Also, in Europe, environmental concerns surrounding the consequences of Green House Gas (GHG) emissions have been the stimulus for the European Union (EU) to set member nations a mandated target for the consumption of sustainable transport fuels such as biomass derived ethanol.
The vast majority of fuel ethanol is produced via traditional yeast-based fermentation processes that use crop derived carbohydrates, such as sucrose extracted from sugarcane or starch extracted from grain crops, as the main carbon source. However, the cost of these carbohydrate feed stocks is influenced by their value as human food or animal feed, and the cultivation of starch or sucrose-producing crops for ethanol production is not economically sustainable in all geographies. Therefore, it is of interest to develop technologies to convert lower cost and/or more abundant carbon resources into fuel ethanol.
CO is a major, energy-rich by-product of the incomplete combustion of organic materials such as coal or oil and oil derived products. Other industrial processes also result in the production of carbon monoxide. The steel industry in Australia is reported to produce and release into the atmosphere over 500,000 tonnes of CO annually.
Catalytic processes may be used to convert gases consisting primarily of CO and/or CO and hydrogen (H2) into a variety of fuels and chemicals. Micro-organisms may also be used to convert these gases into fuels and chemicals. These biological processes, although generally slower than chemical reactions, have several advantages over catalytic processes, including higher specificity, higher yields, lower energy costs and greater resistance to poisoning.
The ability of micro-organisms to grow on CO as a sole carbon source was first discovered in 1903. This was later determined to be a property of organisms that use the acetyl coenzyme A (acetyl CoA) biochemical pathway of autotrophic growth (also known as the Woods-Ljungdahl pathway and the carbon monoxide dehydrogenase/acetyl CoA synthase (CODH/ACS) pathway). A large number of anaerobic organisms including carboxydotrophic, photosynthetic, methanogenic and acetogenic organisms have been shown to metabolize CO to various end products, namely CO2, H2, methane, n-butanol, acetate and ethanol. While using CO as the sole carbon source, all such organisms produce at least two of these end products.
Anaerobic bacteria, such as those from the genus Clostridium, have been demonstrated to produce ethanol from CO, CO2 and H2 via the acetyl CoA biochemical pathway. For example, various strains of Clostridium ljungdahlii that produce ethanol from gases are described in WO 00/68407, EP 117309, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,173,429, 5,593,886, and 6,368,819, WO 98/00558 and WO 02/08438. The bacterium Clostridium autoethanogenum sp is also known to produce ethanol from gases (Abrini et al., Archives of Microbiology 161, pp 345-351 (1994)).
However, ethanol production by micro-organisms by fermentation of gases is typically associated with co-production of acetate and/or acetic acid. As some of the available carbon is converted into acetate/acetic acid rather than ethanol, the efficiency of production of ethanol using such fermentation processes may be less than desirable. Also, unless the acetate/acetic acid by-product can be used for some other purpose, it may pose a waste disposal problem. Acetate/acetic acid is converted to methane by micro-organisms and therefore has the potential to contribute to GHG emissions.
WO2007/117157, WO2008/115080 and WO2009/022925, the disclosure of which are incorporated herein by reference, describe processes that produce alcohols, particularly ethanol, by anaerobic fermentation of gases containing carbon monoxide. WO2007/117157, describes a process that produces alcohols, particularly ethanol, by anaerobic fermentation of gases containing carbon monoxide. Acetate produced as a by-product of the fermentation process is converted into hydrogen gas and carbon dioxide gas, either or both of which may be used in the anaerobic fermentation process. WO2008/115080, describes a process for the production of alcohol(s) in multiple fermentation stages. By-products produced as a result of anaerobic fermentation of gas(es) in a first bioreactor can be used to produce products in a second bioreactor. Furthermore, by-products of the second fermentation stage can be recycled to the first bioreactor to produce products. WO2009/022925 discloses the effect of pH and ORP in the conversion of substrates comprising CO to products such as acids and alcohols by fermentation.
Microbes capable of growing on CO-containing gases are known to do so at a slower rate than is traditionally associated with microbes grown on sugars. From a commercial perspective, in a fermentation process the time required for a microbial population to grow to a sufficiently high cell density to allow an economically viable level of product to be synthesised, is a key operating cost affecting the profitability of the process. Technologies that act to enhance culture growth rates and/or productivities and therefore reduce the time required to reach desired cell densities and/or desired product levels and may serve to improve the commercial viability of the overall process.
In fermentation processes dedicated to the production of alcohols from gas feedstocks, ensuring that the appropriate conditions for microbial growth and/or alcohol production, can be critical to maintaining optimal microbial growth and/or alcohol productivities. For example, it is recognised that providing a substrate to a microbial culture at or toward an optimum level or range can result in optimal microbial growth and/or desired metabolite production as described in PCT/NZ2010/000009 which is fully incorporate herein by reference. For example, if too little substrate is provided, microbial growth slows and the fermentation product(s) are predominantly acid(s) such as acetate, whereas too much substrate can lead to poor microbial growth and/or cell death.
Due to the low solubility of CO and the lack of accurate means for measuring dissolved, it is difficult to determine how much CO is available to a microbial culture at a given time point under particular conditions. Thus, it can be difficult to determine an optimum level of CO to provide to a microbial culture for conversion into products at any particular time.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a process that goes at least some way towards overcoming the above disadvantages, or at least to provide the public with a useful choice.


[Problem] To provide a side airbag apparatus capable of quickly and properly restraining a passenger in the initial stage of deploying an airbag, along with a vehicle seat including this side airbag apparatus.

In order to protect passengers in the event of a vehicle accident, it is well known that vehicles are equipped with one or more airbags. These airbags include, for example, various forms such as: a so-called driver airbag which is expanded from the vicinity of the steering wheel of an automobile so as protect the driver; a curtain airbag which is deployed downward on the inner side of the window of an automobile so as to protect passengers during collisions in the transverse direction of a vehicle, as well as when overturning and during rollover accidents; and further a side airbag which is deployed between a passenger and a side panel so as to protect the passenger upon impact in the transverse direction of a vehicle. The present invention relates to a side airbag apparatus, along with a vehicle seat including the same.
The side airbag apparatus described in the below mentioned Patent Document 1 includes a main airbag along with an auxiliary airbag. In addition, prior to the main airbag, the auxiliary airbag is expanded and deployed to restrain passengers at an early stage. In addition to the invention described in Patent Document 1, a side airbag apparatus including the auxiliary airbag as well as the main airbag is proposed. With such a side airbag apparatus, there is great restraint in the installation region, with a strong demand for size reduction of the apparatus.
Moreover, there is a demand for appropriate passenger protection performance due to improved deployment speed and stabilization of the deployed shape and deploying behavior.

Side airbag apparatus and vehicle seat including the same

Abstract: [Resolution means] The airbag includes: a first chamber which is deployed towards the front of the side support part of the seat; a second chamber which starts being deployed inside the first chamber in the vehicle width direction prior to this first chamber; and a gas guide which is arranged in the first chamber so as to introduce the expansion gas (emitted from the inflator) into the second chamber. An internal vent hole, through which the expansion gas introduced by the gas guide flows into the second chamber, is formed at the boundary part between the first chamber and the second chamber. The second chamber includes: an upper region and a lower region; and an intermediate region disposed between the upper region and the lower region. In addition, at least one of the upper region or the lower region is configured to be deployed so as to protrude more to the front of the vehicle than the intermediate region.


The present application relates to methods and systems for mitigating condensate banking. In some embodiments, the methods and systems involve altering the wettability of a rock formation in the vicinity of a wellbore for a gas condensate reservoir.

Gas condensate reservoirs contain an appreciable amount of gas and condensate reserves that are vital for the increasing global demand for energy resources. In gas condensate reservoirs, the initial reservoir pressure is usually greater than the dew point pressure where there is only one phase in the reservoir, namely a gas phase. During production, the bottom hole pressure in the production well eventually falls less than the dew point pressure. As a result, heavy hydrocarbons (for example, hydrocarbons having the molecular weight of greater than 30 g/mol) are condensed to a liquid phase. This liquid phase commonly accumulates in pore spaces in the area close to the wellbore, resulting in what is commonly known as "condensate banking." The condensate is trapped by capillary forces or is retained in the rock as a result of poor liquid mobility. This condensate blockage around the wellbore can cause a reduction in the productivity of the well by a factor of two or more.
In gas wells, water that accumulates near the wellbore can also decrease the productivity of gas. The sources for water accumulation could be filtrate water from drilling mud, cross flow of water from water-bearing zones, water from completion or workover operations, water from matrix/fracture treatments, water from emulsions, etc. The problem of productivity decline because of an increase in near wellbore water saturation is known as water block. Water blocks and condensate banks can occur together or independently, leading to a decrease in well productivity and in some cases to complete shut down in production. Several techniques have been developed in an attempt to alleviate condensate and water banking. One technique involves keeping the reservoir pressure greater than the dew point by recycling gas. However, recyclable gas volume is limited and this method cannot always keep the reservoir pressure high enough. Other approaches include drilling horizontal wells and hydraulic fracturing. These temporary solutions are costly as they require drilling rigs. Wettability alteration methods have also been developed to reduce condensate banking, which typically involves fluorinated polymers and surfactants in alcohol-based solvents. However, the wettability alteration is based on the Van der Waals attraction force; as such it wears off as time goes by. In some cases, it can be an ionic interaction between a surfactant or polymer groups, for example, a fluoropolymer is acrylate based with fluoro groups. The acrylate group has a carboxylate group that can interact. In some cases, the solubility can be modified to keep the treatment and wettability for a longer time, but eventually the treatment will wear off or be washed away with time. Accordingly, a more permanent treatment, or at least one that will last longer than the current treatment, is needed. There is, therefore, a need for improved methods and systems for mitigating condensate banking. In some cases it can both be ionic and Van der Waals interactions.

Mitigation of condensate and water banking using functionalized nanoparticles


A molded container includes body and cover portions and a hinge with a central thickened rib and relatively thin segments on either side of the rib. A means for initiating tear can be used to tear open the container along the hinge to provide quick access to the interior of the container.

This invention relates generally to thermoplastic containers, and more particularly to a new and improved tear out hinge means for blow molded cases.
Blow molded containers are commonly used in packaging articles which require some measure of protection against shock and abuse during storage and shipping.
Often, these blow molded containers are of double wall construction to enhance the cushioning effect of the container while also providing shaped areas for the article to be carried in the container. Typically, the containers are blow molded into a cover portion, a body portion, and an integral hinge arrangement. Alternatively, the body portion and cover portion are separately molded, and a hinge may either be formed integrally on each portion, or may be separately attached to each portion to provide a hinge means for opening and closing the container after joining the body portion and cover portion.
More recently, blow molded containers which have a means for locking the container, such as those for the storage of fire arms, have become popular. Because these containers can be locked, access to the locked container requires using a key to unlock the container, or utilizing a combination in the case of the combination lock. While these features provide a secure means for keeping the fire arm or other device safely in the container, they also require time to reopen the container.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a means for quickly opening a locked blow molded container.
While this invention is especially suited to quickly opening a locked blow molded case containing a fire arm, the invention can also be used to provide quick access to other blow molded articles, such as covers for fire extinguishers or other products which are preferably securely locked inside a container, and yet can require quick access in case of an emergency.


Computer implemented method, system and computer usable program code for routing messages in a message stream. A computer implemented method for routing messages in a message stream includes receiving a specification of desired messages, the specification containing a payload and receiving at least one message, the message containing a payload. The message payload is evaluated with respect to the specification payload and the specification, and the message is routed in accordance with the evaluation.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the data processing field, and more particularly, to a computer implemented method, system and computer usable program code for routing and delivering messages based on unstructured information payloads.
2. Description of the Related Art
A publish-subscribe messaging system has two types of clients: publisher clients and subscriber clients. Publisher clients generate messages, also referred to as events. Subscriber clients request a criterion, also called a subscription, specifying the kind of information to be delivered in the future based on published messages. Publishers and subscribers are anonymous to each other, meaning that publishers do not necessarily know how many subscribers there are or where they are located; and subscribers do not necessarily know where publishers are located.
A message typically has three parts: a header, properties, and a body. A message header includes a number of predefined fields that contain values that can be used to identify and route the message. Properties for a message can be created and values set, if there is a need to add values in addition to those provided by the header fields of the message. Message properties can be used, for example, to select messages by specifying a criterion based on the messages. A message body can be used to send and receive data in many different forms. Both message properties and the message body are optional and are often left empty.
A topic-based publish-subscribe messaging system is a messaging system in which subscriptions specify topics, which are header fields of messages that subscriber clients wish to receive. A content-based publish-subscribe messaging system is a messaging system in which the messages delivered to a subscriber are based on the content of published messages that are specified as values of some message properties. The subscription criterion is a message property that can be tested on each message independent of any other message. For example, a filter may determine whether "topic=stock-ticker/GE" or "Stock/IBM/trade:volume>1000".
Content-based or topic-based publish-subscribe messaging systems are stateless systems, that is, systems in which the handling of one message does not affect the handling of any other message. These publish-subscribe (pubsub) systems are often used for applications providing dynamic information, such as real time stock quotes for Web pages. For example, a Web page using a publish-subscribe messaging system could reflect IBM stock prices as they change. Rather than the page being refreshed every time the IBM stock price changes, a pubsub filter may be specified such that changes are pushed to the Web page only when the price of the stock exceeds $100.
Content-based publish-subscribe messaging systems support only a limited filtering capability. To address this deficiency, mediations to process or transform messages may be introduced into the flow of traditional messaging middleware. However, mediations are complex to program and require external database services in order to store and access state. Further, groups of mediators are not easily combined.
Generally, mediations examine individual messages and perform their task in relation to those individual messages. However, there are some mediations or message transformations which examine multiple messages or even multiple message streams in order to perform their task. An example is a mediation that provides an "average" computation or a "join and filter" computation. SMILE technology (see "Relational Subscription Middleware for Internet-Scale Publish-Subscribe", Yuhui Jin and Rob Strom, 2nd International Workshop on Distributed Event-Based Systems (DEBS '03), 2003) can aggregate information from multiple streams and deliver a message based on the aggregation. SMILE technology is, for example, capable of taking streams representing sales of seats on multiple airline flights and delivering a current number of available seats on the k cheapest flights to London to a subscriber.
Such mediations, however, only operate on simple text or numeric message attributes to provide a derived state to the subscriber. Further, message consumers typically receive only messages whose headers and properties match the selection criteria in the subscription that either specifies a single message or a history of messages. Currently, subscriptions do not select messages on the basis of the content of the message body.
With the advent of highly capable, wirelessly connected, widely distributed sensor networks, scenarios are emerging which require intelligent delivery of collected data in a timely fashion. These distributed sensor networks include sensors that capture audio and video and that can provide a wealth of data which may overlap in scope (for example, fields of view of the sensors) and coverage (for example, spatial and temporal resolution of sensors). These data provide new types of messages where the message body contains meaningful content and which can be varying in the quality of their content. While the evolution of the Web has increased information available via user pull, these new scenarios describe increased information available via push and via rich media streams. These new message types, in addition to having numeric or text data as metadata or message properties, contain unstructured information as its payload or message body.
Regardless of the content of messages, subscribers wish to receive only those messages that contain relevant data. Unlike structured payloads, a subscription to messages containing unstructured information is less accurately described if it were to rely only on specifying constraints to structured information available in the messages.
Consider the problem of a battlefield commander. The commander must keep aware of events transpiring on the battlefield. Low resolution satellite image feeds, higher resolution tank image feeds, and other multimedia information are being captured, but the commander bears the burden of sorting through all the images after they are received to obtain the most informative images. What is needed is a mechanism that will enable the commander to set up desired criteria for these multimedia messages in advance in such a way that he or she can choose to preferentially receive the most desired images. Current publish-subscribe messaging systems do not provide such a capability.
Continuing the battlefield scenario, there may be other subscribers in addition to the battlefield commander with different criteria for receiving images contained in message bodies. For example, a tank commander may want to receive images of a long view ahead of his/her tank in order to avoid ambush. This subscription must be satisfied from the same sensor data as that available to the battlefield commander; however, for this user, the criteria will be different (for example, the field of view in front of the tank as opposed to an overall view of the entire battlefield).
These various users of available sensor data would be served by specifying constraints on unstructured information in order to describe the subscription they desire. What is further needed, accordingly, is a mechanism that will provide message routing and subscription matching to users based on specified constraints of unstructured payloads. Specifically, what is needed is a mechanism for similarity matching of message payloads to subscriptions.
Consider the further example of a sensor on an oil pipeline. The sensor provides image data which is associated with metadata, such as time of image capture, location of sensor, etc. However, the payload of messages from this sensor contains far more information about the visual aspects of the field of view of the sensor. Currently, subscribers to such messages must examine all the messages or examine all the messages where the metadata fulfills a subscription specification (e.g. images taken between 11 PM and 12 PM). This becomes a problem since subscribers may receive too many messages (e.g. all messages) or too few messages (e.g. only messages that match a restrictive specification).
Furthermore, messages which fulfill a subscription specification of a subscriber may not result in data of interest to the subscriber. For example, images captured between 11 pm and 12 pm may all be identical and have no discriminating information. What is needed, accordingly, is a mechanism for specifying a subscription to images from the pipeline sensor that fulfills image criteria, such as brightness intensity or explosion in the images.
It should be noted that such unstructured payloads may be very large, and a messaging infrastructure should avoid unnecessary transmission of unneeded messages. What is also needed, accordingly, is a mechanism for restricting not only reception but also transmission of only those messages which are needed. This will allow improved scalability.

Method and system for content similarity-based message routing and subscription matching


A synchronous digital signal capture system includes a first flip-flop and a synchronization module. The first flip-flop receives a logic control signal and a first clock signal having a first frequency. The first flip-flop is configured to output a synchronized data signal based on the logic control, and generate a synchronous reset signal that is a logic inverse of the synchronized data signal generated at the data output. The synchronization module receives a primary data signal and is configured to generate the logic control signal based on the primary input signal, a second clock signal, and the synchronous reset signal such that the first flip-flop generates the synchronized signal.

The present inventive concept relates generally to digital circuit systems, and more specifically, to a synchronous digital system that prevents hold time violations.
Conventional digital circuit systems, as illustrated in FIG. 1, typically include one or more flip-flops that can be used to store state information. Primary data signals are produced according to a clock signal transition (Clock A of FIG. 2) of a system clock signal. The clock signal transition (Clock A) must be such that the receiving component can read, i.e., sample, the primary data signal by the next transition (Clock B) of the system clock signal. As illustrated in signal diagram resulting from a conventional digital circuit system shown in FIG. 2, a normal 'low' going data pulse is provided in response to a first clock transition (Clock A) and remains active during a full clock period, until the occurrence of the next clock transition (Clock B of FIG. 2) plus Hold Time. Digital components, however, may provide narrow output pulses that terminate before the completion of a full clock period in width. The premature termination of the pulsed data signal may result in a Hold Time Violation (refer to Data with Hold Time Violation shown in FIG. 2). The Hold Time Violation causes receiving components to miss these narrower pulses, which would normally be sampled during the next clock transition, thereby preventing the narrow pulses from being sampled.


In a converter of a motor drive control device, one of a first switching element and a second switching element is selected in accordance with a current command value of a current flowing through a reactor. The converter is then controlled so that a drive command for the selected switching element is generated. In this way, the efficiency of the converter is improved while a voltage step-up or step-down operation is performed by the converter.

Recently, electrically-powered vehicles have been of interest as environmentally-friendly vehicles. The electrically-powered vehicles are each equipped with a power storage device (such as secondary battery or capacitor for example) and travel using a drive force generated from electric power stored in the power storage device. The electrically-powered vehicles include for example electric vehicles, hybrid vehicles, fuel cell vehicles, and the like.
Some of these electrically powered vehicles have a motor generator receiving electric power from the power storage device to generate a drive force for the vehicle to travel when started or accelerated, and generating electric power by means of regenerative braking when the vehicle is braked to store the generated electrical energy in the power storage device. Thus, in order to control the motor generator as appropriate for the traveling condition, the electrically powered vehicles are each equipped with an inverter.
Some of such vehicles have a voltage converter (converter) between the power storage device and the inverter for stably supplying electric power which is required by the inverter and varies depending on the vehicle condition. This converter can be used to provide an input voltage of the inverter higher than an output voltage of the power storage device so that a high motor output is achieved, and reduce the motor current for the same output so that smaller sizes of the inverter and the motor as well as a lower cost are achieved.
In order to further improve the fuel economy of the electrically powered vehicles, it is important to reduce a loss of this converter and thereby improve the efficiency.
WO2003/015254 (PTL 1) discloses a motor drive control device converting an output voltage from a DC power supply by means of a converter to supply the converted voltage to an inverter which drives a motor. When a target input voltage value of the inverter is lower than a power supply voltage of the DC power supply, the motor drive control device renders an upper switching element of the converter ON and renders a lower switching element thereof OFF.
When the motor operates at a low rotational speed where a target input voltage value of the inverter is lower than a power supply voltage of the DC power supply, this motor drive control device can reduce a switching loss by stopping the operation of the switching element and thereby improve the efficiency of the converter.

Control device for voltage converter, vehicle equipped with the same, and control method for voltage converter


A dynamic random access memory includes a dummy word line which has an electrical characteristic identical to that of an actual word line. The dummy word line is charged up and is then discharged as in case of the actual word line. A latched row address in a row address latch circuit is reset when the potential of the dummy word line becomes equal to a predetermined low potential due to the discharge operation for the dummy word line.

The present invention generally relates to a dynamic random access memory, and in particular to a dynamic random access memory of an address multiplex type. More particularly, the present invention relates to a dynamic random access memory in which a row address signal is released from a latched state in response to an actual change in potential of a word line.
Generally, a dynamic random access memory (hereafter simply referred to as a DRAM) is suitable for obtaining an increased integration density, because it may be constructed of a smaller number of elements than a static random access memory (hereafter simply referred to as a SRAM). Therefore, the cost for manufacturing a DRAM is less than that for manufacturing a SRAM. For the above reasons, DRAMs are widely used as a main memory and various memory devices.
An address multiplex type DRAM has an addressing operation as described below. At the commencement of the addressing operation, a row address strobe signal is switched to a low level (a ground level, for example). Then, an external address signal is latched in response to a rise in level of a latch enable signal. Next the latched external address signal is decoded by a row address decoder to generate a row address, and then one of the word lines of a memory cell array is selected. On the other hand, the external address signal is latched in response to a rise of another latch enable signal, after the row address is latched. At this time, a column address strobe signal is kept at the low level. Then the latched external address signal is decoded to generate a column address, and one of the bit lines is selected. In this manner, a memory cell positioned at an intersection of the designated word line and bit line can be selected. Thereby, a datum can be written into or read out from the designated memory cell. After that, the row address strobe signal is switched to a high level (a positive power source voltage V.sub.DD, for example), and then the selected word line is discharged. During the discharge of the selected word line, the row address is kept latched. Thereafter, the row address is released from the latched state. Finally, the word lines are charged up to the V.sub.DD level for the next read or write operation.
It is noted that the row address must be kept latched during the time when the selected word line is discharged. This is because the selected word line is discharged through the address decoder. If the row address is released from the latched state before the selected word line is completely discharged, an erroneous operation may occur.
Since the row address is supplied to the memory cell array and thereafter the column address is supplied thereto as described above, it is unnecessary to simultaneously enter the row address and the column address into the memory cell array. For this reason, it is possible to use an address line and an address pin commonly for the row and column addresses. This makes it possible to attain a reduced package size and a reduced number of signal lines formed around the DRAM device, so that the density in arrangement of devices on a printed circuit board, can be enhanced.
However, the above conventional DRAM has the following disadvantages. The row address is released from the latched state when a constant time elapses after the rise of the row address strobe signal. This releasing operation is carried out irrespective of the actual change in potential of the selected word line. Therefore, the above constant time must be selected by taking into consideration an operational margin and dispersion of characteristics over DRAM devices due to the production process. That is, the constant time must be selected so as to be equal to or more than a time amounting to the sum of a time when the selected word line is anticipated to become equal to zero potential, and a time margin. For this reason, one cycle of the write or read operation is lengthened by the time margin. This causes a decreased quantity of information to be handled per a unit time.
On the other hand, if the constant time for the release from the row address latch is shortened so as to obtain a reduced time margin, the external address may be released from the latched state before the selected word line completely becomes equal to zero potential. This causes an erroneous operation.

Dynamic random access memory having dummy word line for facilitating reset of row address latch


An electronic device with one or more processors and memory includes a procedure for training a digital assistant. In some embodiments, the device detects an impasse in a dialog between the digital assistant and a user including a speech input. During a learning session, the device utilizes a subsequent clarification input from the user to adjust intent inference or task execution associated with the speech input to produce a satisfactory response. In some embodiments, the device identifies a pattern of success or failure associated with an aspect previously used to complete a task and generates a hypothesis regarding a parameter used in speech recognition, intent inference or task execution as a cause for the pattern. Then, the device tests the hypothesis by altering the parameter for a subsequent completion of the task and adopts or rejects the hypothesis based on feedback information collected from the subsequent completion.

Just like human personal assistants, digital assistant systems can perform requested tasks and provide requested advice, information, or services. A digital assistant system's ability to fulfill a user's request is dependent on the digital assistant system's correct comprehension of the request or instructions. Recent advances in natural language processing have enabled users to interact with digital assistant systems using natural language, in spoken or textual forms. Such digital assistant systems can interpret the user's input to infer the user's intent, translate the inferred intent into actionable tasks and parameters, execute operations or deploy services to perform the tasks, and produce output that is intelligible to the user. Ideally, the output produced by a digital assistant system should fulfill the user's intent expressed during the natural language interaction between the user and the digital assistant system.
The ability of a digital assistant system to produce satisfactory responses to user requests depends on the natural language processing, knowledge base, and artificial intelligence available to the digital assistant system. A well-designed training procedure for the digital assistant system can improve a user's experience in interacting with the system and promote the user's confidence in the system's services and capabilities.

Training an at least partial voice command system

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To generate a warning that a stereoscopic image sequence has been synthesised from a 2D image sequence, a video processor correlates left-eye image data and right-eye image data to identify any sustained temporal offset between the left-eye and right-eye image data. A measure of sustained correlation between a measured spatial distribution of horizontal disparity and a spatial model can also be used to generate the warning.

The intense commercial interest in 'three-dimensional' or stereoscopic motion imaging—particularly television—has led to the desire to convert existing '2D' image streams to '3D'. This is because the creation of stereoscopic material is complicated and expensive and so it is difficult to obtain sufficient content to sustain a 3D broadcast service or 'channel'. There are a number of known methods for deriving left-eye and right-eye images for stereoscopic display from a common, 2D input image in such a way that a 'synthetic' 3D image is obtained. In these methods horizontal disparity (positional shift) between the left-eye and right-eye images is introduced over all or part of the image, so that binocular vision provides the illusion that the image, or image region, is either in front of or behind the plane of a stereoscopic image display.
Some conversion methods identify objects or regions of interest by suitable image segmentation techniques, and then introduce horizontal disparity between the left-eye and right-eye representations of those objects or regions. However, image segmentation is difficult, and it is also hard to determine the required disparity that gives a convincing 3D effect.
There is a simpler, and widely-used, method of creating synthetic 3D that is applicable to horizontally-moving images; this is to introduce a temporal offset between the left-eye and right-eye images. The temporal offset results in a spatial offset (i.e. a disparity) equal to the product of the motion speed, in pixels per frame period, and the temporal offset, in frame periods. For example, if the camera pans to follow a horizontally moving object, the background will move, and the followed object will not move, so that disparity will be added only to the background. Provided that the direction of the temporal offset is controlled by the direction of pan, the background will appear further away from the viewer than the followed object. If this technique is combined with the addition of a 'global' (i.e. constant over the whole image area), and/or spatially-determined (i.e. dependent on position within the image frame) disparity, then a quite realistic illusion of depth can be obtained.
Commercial broadcasters are concerned to ensure that 3D is recognised as a 'premium' service, justifying high subscription payments by viewers and high charges for associated advertising. And, public-service broadcasters want to maintain their reputations as providers of high-quality programme material. For these reasons, technical specifications for the commissioning of video material often include restrictions on the use of synthetic 3D, because of doubts about its subjective quality. There is thus a need for the detection of synthetic 3D as part of 'quality assurance' systems used by organisations that commission video content from other organisations.

Video processing method and apparatus for use with a sequence of stereoscopic images


A machine for automatically fitting seals, in particular external seals to a groove in the opening frame of a window or French window, comprises a frame feed, referencing and measuring system. It further comprises a supporting gantry, a system for paying out the seal, a system for clamping the frame and a seal fitting and cutting device. This device comprises a framework, a gantry mobile in translation on this framework and a carriage mobile in translation on the gantry. The mobile carriage carries a manipulator head which rotates relative to the carriage and comprises a seal guide and drive system. A fixed part supports the cutting system. An arm articulated to the fixed part carries at its free end the seal fitting system. The machine further comprises a mechanism for feeding and removing the frames, preferably comprising two drive fingers mounted together to perform a synchronized to-and-fro movement. It finally comprises a frame clamping system mounted on the carriage and the manipulator head.

1. Field of the invention
The invention concerns an automatic machine for fitting flexible seals, in particular for fitting an external seal into a groove in an opening frame of a window or French window. The machine comprises a loading table, a seal storage device and a device for fitting and cutting the seal.
2. Description of the Prior Art
An opening frame of a window or French window made from wood, plastics material, aluminum or the like usually comprises two horizontal crossmembers and vertical uprights forming a frame which receives on its external periphery fittings for articulating it to or supporting it on a fixed frame. This opening frame may comprise elements which overlap the fixed frame. The uprights and crossmembers incorporate internal shoulders adapted to receive the glazing unit or the like and external openings to receive various fittings. These fittings (espagnolette bolt components and the like) are fixed into openings in the external peripheral edge of the opening frame.
It is necessary to provide seals in openings between the fixed frame and the opening frame and between the glazing unit and the shoulders. If the glazing unit is in multiple parts it is also necessary to fit seals to the members which cover the edges of the glazed parts. These are beads and the like which fasten the glazing unit(s) to the opening frame.
In the conventional way the seal between the opening and fixed frames is fixed to the interior peripheral edge of the fixed frame. However, it is advisable to fit the seal as far as possible from the exterior plane of the fixed frame, which is the plane exposed to inclement weather, in order to obtain a so-called decompression chamber between the opening and closing frames. To avoid excessively imposing fixed frames and the need to groove them to fit the seal it became necessary to fit the seal onto the exterior peripheral edge of the opening frame. Window manufacturers are adopting this solution to an ever increasing extent as it produces windows offering better performance in bad weather while economizing in the raw materials from which the opening and fixed frames are made. This also makes it possible to use the same profile extrusions and like members.
The seal fitted to the exterior edge of the opening frame may be flexible or rigid, although it is never extruded in situ as is possible for the glazing unit seal can be. A rigid seal can be fitted manually without any particular difficulty, but requires preparation by cutting it to lengths corresponding to those of the frame. Although flexible seals have advantages in terms of their presentation, applying them manually raises significant problems: they tend to be applied slowly and in an irregular way because of the difficulty of inserting the seal into the groove. As a result, the labour portion of the overall unit cost is high.
In the present state of the art the opening frame to be fitted with seals is placed on a horizontal jig. This jig is provided with manual or automatic frame clamping means. If the jig is immobile and fixed to the ground it is necessary to leave sufficient room for an operator to fit the seal into the groove while moving around the frame, whether by hand or using appropriate tools; if it is not possible to move around the frame because of the adjoining workstations then two operators are needed to fit the seal, one on each side of the jig. If the jig is mobile on a support fixed to the ground then the amount of room required is reduced and one person can carry out the fitting in all cases; on the other hand, this type of installation requires a more complicated infrastructure and is more difficult to use. Seal fitters generally use a tool in the form of a manual roller or a kind of pneumatic chisel.
Also, the seal is not always paid out from a roll stored near the jig and it is sometimes precut, either by the supplier or at the point of use. This has the disadvantages of being extremely costly and of increasing the likelihood of errors occurring.
The precutting of seals has led to the development of automatic cutting machines. In addition to cutting seals to length, these machines can cut the corners. Previously the seal was cut to the length of the frame sides and was interrupted at the corners. Today the seal for an opening frame can be precut in one piece.
It is also noteworthy that standard practice in the industry called for the opening frames to be fitted out when complete. Nowadays it is very common for the crossmembers and the uprights to be fitted with their seals before they are assembled together. This makes it possible to achieve a higher degree of automation of the assembly line, it being possible to fit the seals linearly and semi-automatically. In this case the seal is discontinuous around the periphery of the assembled frame, however.
An object of the present invention is to remedy these disadvantages by proposing a machine comprising means for simultaneously cutting and fitting a flexible seal to an assembled frame, all of these operations being entirely automated irrespective of the parameters characterizing the frame (shape, length, cross-section of crossmembers and uprights, etc). It is particularly remarkable in that it combines at a single installation the fitting and the cutting of the seal, the type of frame at the workstation having been determined beforehand, after measuring its exact dimensions and transmitting these to the seal fitting carriage. The result is a significant increase in productivity and flexibility. It also makes the fitting of the seal into the groove in the frame more reliable and regular.
It is particularly intended to be integrated into a general frame finishing installation. It comprises a frame feed, referencing and measuring system, a gantry resting on the ground with a two-axis carriage, a seal fitting and cutting device and a system for paying out the seal from a spool. It enables the seal to be fitted automatically to three or four sides of the frame; feeding to the station, referencing, measuring and identification of the frames are automated.

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A programmable integrated circuit device can be configured as a cascaded integrator-comb (CIC) filter. In order to take advantage of Hogenauer pruning to configure the CIC filter efficiently, a software tool for configuring the device can be provided in which the Fj terms for Hogenauer pruning have been calculated in advance for all possible user parameters supported by the tool. To configure a CIC filter, the user enters the parameters in the tool, which then looks up the Fj terms corresponding to those parameters and completes the calculation of the Bj terms for Hogenauer pruning. Because the calculation of the Fj terms is the most time-consuming step in calculating of the Bj terms, pre-calculation of the Fj terms, which can be done just once by the provider of the tool, allows end users to calculate the Bj terms in reasonable periods of time, making Hogenauer pruning available to end users.

This invention relates to programmable integrated circuit devices, such as programmable logic devices (PLDs), and, more particularly, to configuring such a device as a CIC filter.
As applications for which programmable integrated circuit devices, such as PLDs, are used increase in complexity, it has become more common to design such devices to include specialized processing blocks in addition to blocks of generic programmable logic resources. Such specialized processing blocks may include a concentration of circuitry on a programmable device that has been partly or fully hardwired to perform one or more specific tasks, such as a logical or a mathematical operation. A specialized processing block may also contain one or more specialized structures, such as an array of configurable memory elements. Examples of structures that are commonly implemented in such specialized processing blocks include: multipliers, arithmetic logic units (ALUs), barrel-shifters, various memory elements (such as FIFO/LIFO/SIPO/RAM/ROM/CAM blocks and register files), AND/NAND/OR/NOR arrays, etc., or combinations thereof.
Taking PLDs as one example, one particularly useful type of specialized processing block that has been provided on PLDs is a digital signal processing (DSP) block, which may be used to process, e.g., audio signals. Such blocks are frequently also referred to as multiply-accumulate ("MAC") blocks, because they include structures to perform multiplication operations, and sums and/or accumulations of multiplication operations.
For example, PLDs sold by Altera Corporation, of San Jose, Calif., as part of the STRATIX® family include DSP blocks, each of which includes four 18-by-18 multipliers. Each of those DSP blocks also includes adders and registers, as well as programmable connectors (e.g., multiplexers) that allow the various components to be configured in different ways. In each such block, the multipliers can be configured not only as four individual 18-by-18 multipliers, but also as four smaller multipliers, or as one larger (36-by-36) multiplier. In addition, one 18-by-18 complex multiplication (which decomposes into two 18-by-18 multiplication operations for each of the real and imaginary parts) can be performed.
Such a DSP block may be configured as a finite impulse response (FIR) filter, with 18-bit data and coefficients. Each block may be used to perform the summation of four 18-by-18 multiplications to form a 4-tap sub-block of a longer FIR filter.
Many types of FIR filters may be encountered. Two of those types are an interpolation FIR filter—in which the number of samples is increased by a factor of n by inserting ("interpolating") n−1 samples between adjacent samples—and a decimation FIR filter—in which the number of samples is decreased by a factor of n by removing n−1 out of every n samples. A DSP block that may be configured as different types of filters, including an interpolation FIR filter and a decimation FIR filter, is shown in copending, commonly-assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/447,370, filed Jun. 5, 2006, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
One particular type of interpolation or decimation filter is the cascaded integrator-comb ("CIC") filter. A CIC filter can be used as an alternative to a FIR filter, and has the advantage that it can be implemented without multipliers. For high decimation or interpolation factors, the required bit width for full precision may be too large for most practical cases. To reduce the output bit width, quantization is typically applied at the output stage. Based on the nature of decimation filters, Hogenauer developed a pruning strategy to reduce the required bit widths at each stage through truncation or rounding in such a way that the total error introduced will not exceed the quantization error introduced through simple output quantization.
If one were constructing a dedicated CIC filter, there would be a known finite number of stages for which the Hogenauer bit width reductions would have to be calculated. However, in the case of a user-programmable device, the tools provided to the user to program the device must be capable of calculating any number of Hogenauer bit width reductions for any number of CIC filter stages that a user may decide to configure the device as. The calculation of all possible factors could take weeks on the types of computers—i.e., desktop computers—that most programmable device users are likely to use for device configuration.

Configuring a CIC filter in a programmable integrated circuit device


An input device for inputting commands to a host computer includes a base. An upper housing defines a plurality of control buttons for inputting commands to the computer. The base and upper housing are movably coupled to each other to enable the mouse to be placed in a collapsed position and a raised position. A release button is configured to actuate and facilitate raising of the mouse from the collapsed position to the raised position, the raised position placing the mouse a suitable state for inputting commands to the computer using the control buttons.

The present application relates to a wireless input device for a host, e.g., a computer or gaming device (such as a Play Station™).
Computers have become ubiquitous in our society with the people's acceptance of the Internet. The computers are no longer primarily business machines. They have become an integral part of many people's personal lives. Many people now get their news and stock prices, make travel reservations, buy cars, manage bank accounts, and the like primarily using the computers.
To many, the computers have become an essential consumer product, due largely to the tremendous increase in their processing power over the past few decades. In addition to being more powerful, the computers are being made smaller and smaller. Portable Notebook computers now make up a significant percentage of all computers sold, some weighing no more than a few pounds. Notebooks have gained great popularity recently due to its portability.
Another recent trend involving the computers is the rising popularity of wireless input devices, e.g., keyboards and mice. These wireless devices have been very popular for those who want to minimize the clutter associated with wires attached to the conventional input devices. The wireless mouse has been particularly popular with the Notebook users since it is easier to carry around than a conventional mouse with wires.
Recently, Kensington has introduced a wireless mouse, i.e., PocketMouse™ Pro Wireless. The mouse has a storage compartment for storing a universal serial bus (USB) receiver within the mouse for user convenience. When the mouse is to be used, the USB receiver is removed from the compartment and inserted into a USB port of the computer. The mouse communicates with the computer via the USB receiver. Similarly, LabTec recently introduced a wireless mouse with a compartment for carrying a USB receiver. These mice provide improved portability since the receivers can be stored within the mice and carried around when the mice are not in use.
Although these mice provide improved portability, they still can be somewhat troublesome when carrying them around. As with other mice, they have a "hump" on the upper side of the mice to ergonomically support the user's hand. Such a hump adds bulk to the mice. People, generally however, find that it is easier to carry around thinner devices. The thickness of the mouse makes it difficult to carry it around in a trip, particularly in a Notebook case, which fits flat objects better.


A method of well rehabilitation using CO2 comprises a more effective distribution of effective CO2 energy throughout an entire well structure including all parts of a producing interval of a well and surrounding formation. The CO2 phase changes are controlled during CO2 injection to cause surging agitation within a well bore and surrounding formation and allow CO2 energy to reach all areas of the well, and the CO2 energy utilized includes at least one of chemical energy, thermal energy and mechanical energy.

Aqua Freed® is an innovative well cleaning process that utilizes natural carbon dioxide allowing easier compliance with regulatory discharge as well as better distribution of cleaning energy throughout the well, filter pack and the surrounding aquifer. Deposited material that causes a variety of operational problems, consists of a variety of mineral, biological and fines from the surrounding formation. The deposited material is soft at the early stages but during extended operation, complete mineralization takes place resulting in hardened deposits. This deposited material can grow to be difficult to remove requiring application of aggressive effective energy into the well and surrounding filter pack and near aquifer. (See U.S. Pat. No. 7,270,179)
Cleaning a well requires effective energy. Most of the energy utilized in the Aqua Freed® process is provided by the various phases of carbon dioxide (CO2) as they go through phase changes. The phase in which CO2 occurs is a function of temperature and pressure, and in well environments all three major phases of CO2 (solid, liquid, and vapor) can occur. Aqua Freed® involves the controlled injection of liquid and vapor phases of carbon dioxide. As liquid CO2 is injected into the well, the pressure and temperature encountered at the injection point do not initially provide a stable environment for liquid CO2 to exist. The CO2 therefore undergoes a phase change to vapor and solid. The phase change of CO2 from a liquid to a vapor can cause a volume expansion of up to 570 times under atmospheric conditions. This volume expansion is one of the sources of energy that provide the cleaning action and agitation inside the well and the near well environment.
Another source of energy is the thermodynamic cooling of the water in the well due to the controlled injection of liquid CO2 (liquid and solid CO2 can be very cold). When the water gets cool enough, it can freeze. Solid water (ice) has a larger volume than liquid water and the formation of ice can break up and loosen materials that are clogging pore volume in a well.
There are many different aspects to the energy delivered into a well with the Aqua Freed® process that can be utilized.
Deliver energy into the well in the form of CO2 liquid and vapor resulting in phase changes of Liquid to vapor, liquid to solid, and solid to vapor (sublimation). This has been demonstrated to be the most effective way to deliver energy that loosens clogging materials. The Aqua Freed® process is economical and restores the pumping capacity of a well and eliminates the need to neutralize and dispose of chemicals that can be dangerous.


The present disclosure provides a power source voltage application circuit, including a power source voltage output end, an energy storage sub-circuitry, a resetting sub-circuitry and an output control sub-circuitry. A first end of the energy storage sub-circuitry is connected to a first node, and a second end of the energy storage sub-circuitry is connected to a second node. The resetting sub-circuitry is connected to a resetting control end, a reference voltage input tend, the first node, the second node and an initial voltage input end respectively. The output control sub-circuitry is connected to an output control end, a first voltage input end, the first node, the second node and the power source voltage output end respectively.

As compared with an organic light-emitting diode (OLED), a miniature LED has such advantages as a simple manufacture process and a long service life, so it is expected to replace the OLED and become a next-generation display technology. However, the luminous efficiency of the miniature LED does not exceed that of the OLED, and a larger current needs to be provided so as to acquire a same brightness value. When the miniature LED is applied to a display panel, the power consumption for the wiring of the miniature LED is far greater than the power consumption for the light emission, and a majority part of a voltage across each of a cathode and an anode of the miniature LED may be wasted along wires. Hence, it is very difficult for the miniature LED to be adapted to a medium-or-large-size display product or a display product where low power consumption is required.

Power source voltage application circuit, power source voltage application method, display substrate and display device


There is provided a porous, carbon-containing preform, including a body (CL) of unidirectional carbon fiber fabrics (C1), and a friction layer (FL) of randomly-arranged-carbon-fiber fabrics (F1), combined with the body (CL) by a needle-punching operation. According to the present invention, it is by the needle-punching operation that the friction layer (FL) of the randomly-arranged-carbon fiber fabric (F1) is formed on the body (CL) of the unidirectional carbon fiber fabric (C1) and the friction layer (FL) of the randomly-arranged-carbon-fiber (F1) is cross-linked to the body (CL) of the unidirectional carbon fiber fabric (C1) in producing the porous, carbon-containing preform.

A brake for an automotive falls into two categories: a drum brake and a disc brake.
The disc brake includes a disc and pads. The disc brake decelerates or stops a moving automotive by forcing the pads against the rotating disc. Braking action converts kinetic energy into heat. This requires the disc and pad to be made of a material which is lightweight, heat-resistant, erosion-resistant, wear-resistant, and high in strength and to have high coefficients of friction. In this respect, silicon-infiltrated, carbon fiber-reinforced carbon is a material suitable for producing the disc and pad.
The disc, made of silicon-infiltrated, carbon fiber-reinforced carbon, is hereinafter referred to as the "carbon-ceramic brake disc"
A process for producing a carbon-ceramic brake disc largely includes a first step of producing a porous, carbon-containing preform, a second step of densifying the porous, carbon-containing preform with a carbon matrix, a third step of forming the porous, carbon-containing preform into a green compact, a fourth step of infiltrating the green compact with silicon, and a fifth step of grinding the silicon-infiltrated green compact.
In the first step, two of the porous, carbon-containing performs are produced. The porous, carbon-containing preform is composed of a body and a friction layer.
In the second step, densification of the porous, carbon-containing preform with the carbon matrix is performed by chemical vapor infiltration or by using a liquid process.
In the third step, the two of the porous, carbon-containing preforms are combined into the green compact, with their respective bodies being opposite to each other.
In the fourth step, silicon is infiltrated into the green compact by the action of the capillary forces.
In the fifth step, the green compact is ground to a specified shape.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a conventional method for producing a porous, carbon-containing preform.
In a first step P1 as shown in FIG. 1, a body is formed by superposing sheets of unidirectional fiber fabric on top of one another and bonding the sheets by a needle-punching operation. That is, at penetration of a needle, barbs of the needle carry with them some fibers from each sheet which the needle penetrates. As a result, the fibers carried by the barbs create vertical cross-linked bonds between the sheets of the unidirectional carbon fiber fabric, thereby forming the body.
In a second step P2, a friction layer is formed by stacking short carbon fibers and pressing stacked short carbon fibers at a specific pressure.
In a third step P3, the friction layer is bonded to the body with a binder such as a phenolic resin.
The conventional method for producing a porous, carbon-containing preform includes as many as three steps P1, P2, and P3 and provides a poor connection between the body and friction layer.

Porous, carbon-containing preform and process for producing the same


A mechanism is provided for group communications using a MULTI-PIPE synthetic file system. A master application creates a multi-pipe synthetic file in the MULTI-PIPE synthetic file system, the master application indicating a multi-pipe operation to be performed. The master application then writes a header-control block of the multi-pipe synthetic file specifying at least one of a multi-pipe synthetic file system name, a message type, a message size, a specific destination, or a specification of the multi-pipe operation. Any other application participating in the group communications then opens the same multi-pipe synthetic file. A MULTI-PIPE file system module then implements the multi-pipe operation as identified by the master application. The master application and the other applications then either read or write operation messages to the multi-pipe synthetic file and the MULTI-PIPE synthetic file system module performs appropriate actions.

The present application relates generally to an improved data processing apparatus and method and more specifically to mechanisms for a file system interface for point-to-point and collective operations.
As computation moves to multi-core and distributed computing systems, the traditional way of performing computations, i.e. isolated in a single process on a single core, is increasingly anachronistic. Operating environments for modern "cloud" systems must handle two different, but increasingly similar, execution environments: multi-core central processing units (CPUs) and distributed computing systems based on commodity hardware. The challenge in these loosely couple, massively parallel computing systems is to coordinate workloads and provide communication to maximize the utilization of the hardware.
The inability to maximize the workload has lead to dataflow computing systems, both in the applications and in middleware. These computing systems, built on top of commodity systems, create distributed models for fault tolerance and the distribution of computation. However, since this middleware is not tightly integrated with their underlying systems, current development has moved to an entirely new world: new languages, new runtimes, and another level of abstraction on top of traditional computing systems. Taking a middleware approach, while powerful, both constrains and abandons many computing system design principles that make programs portable, usable and responsive.
Furthermore, existing tools cannot be easily transferred or used in conjunction with each other. These new computing systems require that you implement new modules in whatever specific language the middleware uses (typically C++ or Java), wrap sequential code, interact through runtime specific languages, or make use of language bindings. This has led to the constant reirnplementation of well understood tools to work within these frameworks, which is not always practical for many large application bases. Constantly re-solving the same problems for each new run-time.

Collective operations in a file system based execution model


A thin plate-like earth terminal mounted tool is with: earth wires connected to electric components, earth terminals respectively connected to end portions of the earth wires, and the earth terminals individually connected to the earth terminal mounted tool. The earth terminal mounted tool includes: a body connecting portion connected to a body of a vehicle; and an earth connecting portion connected to the body connecting portion and to which the earth terminals are individually connected. The earth connecting portion includes at least a first earth connecting section to which the earth terminals along a first direction are connected, and a second earth connecting section to which the earth terminals along a second direction intersecting with the first direction are connected.

Conventionally, of electric components installed on a vehicle such as an automobile, a joint connector and a wire bonding are known which earth, to a body of the vehicle, a wire which is a combination of a plurality of earth wires connected respectively to a plurality of electric components in need of an earth connection (refer to JP 10-208790 A and JP 11-054166 A (Patent Family: U.S. Pat. No. 6,036,554 A, EP 0895306 A1)).
In the above conventional joint connector and wire bonding, when a current flows simultaneously through some of wires in the earth wires, as the case may be, the electric components become unstable or unfunctionable due to a potential change attributable to a voltage drop.
For preventing the electric components from becoming unstable or unfunctionable due to the potential change, it is desirable to individually earth each of the earth wires to the body of the vehicle. Thus, there is known an earth terminal mounted tool made of a linear plate having such a structure that earth terminals each mounted to an end portion of one of earth wires can be tightened with individual bolts (refer to JP 2-020280 U). In this conventional earth terminal mounted tool, a plurality of earth terminals can be earthed to the body of the vehicle by minimizing number of openings for connecting the earth terminals in the body of the vehicle.


An optical writing device stores pieces of dithering information indicating dithering patterns whose densities are different, each piece of dithering information including pieces of identification information associated with pixels of the corresponding dithering pattern, and stores pieces of pixel setting information in which pieces of colored/colorless information indicating each of the pixels is colored or colorless are associated with the pieces of identification information, the pieces of colored/colorless information being set based on a resolution of a light source for forming an electrostatic latent image. The optical writing device also includes a control unit configured to arrange the same dithering patterns in a way that the dithering patterns form a pattern with a given size, and cause the light source to emit light based on information generated by setting the pixels of each of the same dithering patterns to be colored or colorless in accordance with the pixel setting information.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical writing device, an image forming apparatus, an optical writing method, and a computer-readable recording medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, electronization of information has been encouraged, and image processing apparatuses such as printers or facsimiles used for outputting electronic information and scanners used for electronizing documents play essential roles accordingly. Such image processing apparatuses are often configured as multifunction peripherals (MFP) that can be used as a printer, a facsimile, a scanner, and a copying machine, by being provided with an image capturing function, an image forming function, and a communication function, for example.
Among such image processing apparatuses, electrophotographic image forming apparatuses are widely used as image forming apparatuses for outputting electronic documents. An electrophotographic image forming apparatus outputs an electronic document to a paper sheet by exposing the photosensitive element to form an electrostatic latent image, developing the electrostatic latent image into a toner image with a developer such as toner, and transferring the toner image onto the sheet.
As the apparatus ages, a density variation occurs in the toner image formed by development because of various causes. Possible causes include a variation in the conditions in which the photosensitive element is exposed because of wearing of the photosensitive element or deterioration in the light source, and in the conditions in which the photosensitive element is charged because of deterioration in the photosensitive element.
As methods for correcting the density variation caused by aging of the apparatus, besides adjustments of the exposure conditions or the charging conditions, image processing is also possible. This method for correcting density through image processing is called dithering. Dithering is a method that enables image density to be changed without causing any negative impact on the image, by "thinning out" some pixels dispersed across an image to be output, and replacing these pixels with pixels without any color.
Known as a method for realizing a density variation correction through density adjustment with dithering is outputting a plurality of dithering patterns each having a different density at a given interval, reading the patterns to obtain density, and selecting a dithering pattern to be applied to perform density adjustment on the basis of the obtained density. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2004-336161 describes a method including preparing two different tone scales to be used for dithering and associated with each other, generating a pattern using a dither with a smaller number of tone levels, and reflecting correction information received from a sensor to a dither with a larger number of tone levels in accordance with the association.
Generally, in an image forming apparatus, an image processing unit that generates raster image processor (RIP) data, that is, pixel data of the image to be output, and an engine unit that actually makes an image formation output based on the pixel data are structured as separate units. Therefore, the image processing unit and the engine unit are designed separately. Therefore, interoperability needs to be considered upon designing the image processing unit and the engine unit.
In a method in which the exposure conditions or the charging conditions are adjusted, because the method can be performed within the engine unit, the interoperability with an image processing unit does not need to be considered. By contrast, in the above-described method involving dithering, it is the image processing unit that typically applies dithering to an image, and thus the interoperability between the engine unit and the image processing unit needs to be considered.
To adjust density using dithering, a plurality of dither patterns each having a different density are output as mentioned earlier. Therefore, the resolution of the dithering patterns needs to be matched to the resolution of the engine unit. Hence, to design an image processing unit that is interoperable with different types of engine units, dithering patterns in different resolutions are required. This results in an increase in a required memory capacity in the image processing unit. Furthermore, even if dithering patterns in different resolutions are prepared, only used is the dithering pattern supporting the resolution of the engine unit connected to the image processing unit, and most of the memory capacity is wasted.
Furthermore, when the method disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2004-336161 is used, the memory capacity can be reduced by establishing an association between the dither with a smaller number of tone levels and the dither with a larger number of tone levels. However, because the pattern is formed using the dither with a smaller number of tone levels, the resolution of the correction is limited. Accordingly, highly precise correction cannot be provided.
Therefore, there is a need for an optical writing device capable of enabling highly precise density correction through dithering without increasing the complexity of structures of an image processing unit and an engine unit included in an image forming apparatus.

Optical writing device, image forming apparatus, optical writing method, and computer-readable recording medium