This disclosure describes unique video encoding and decoding processes compliant to one or more specific coding standards, such as the H.264/AVC standard, without sacrificing coding efficiency. A higher resolution input image is divided into a corresponding set of lower resolution sub-sampled images. The first image of each set is coded as an independent I picture, or coded with respect to the first image of one or more other sets as a P or B picture. Each subsequent image of a set, other than the first image in each set, is encoded with respect to the first image of the same set or an image of another set as a regular P or B picture. A decoding process may employ a decoder conforming to the specific coding standard to decode the encoded data, by rearranging the decoded lower resolution sub-sampled images of each set into corresponding higher resolution output images.

The demand to incorporate video data in numerous transmission and storage systems, and the desire to improve the quality of video in such systems, have prompted rapid advancement in digital video compression techniques. Compression of digital video without significant degradation in quality is possible because of the high degree of spatial, temporal, and spectral redundancy in video sequences. Video encoders exploit the spatial, temporal, and spectral correlations in un-compressed video data to generate compressed video streams through complex predictive coding techniques.
During the past decade, a number of ISO/ITU/SMPTE video coding standards targeting the vast range of video applications have evolved. These standards include H.261, MPEG1, MPEG2, H.263, MPEG4, VC-1, and AVC/H.264. Each new video coding standard improves the coding efficiency of its predecessor by introducing more complex and efficient prediction and estimation tools. The coding efficacy of video coding algorithms and the computational load have therefore risen sharply.
The issue of computational complexity becomes more significant with the arrival of the H.264/AVC (ISO/IEC 14496-10) video coding standard, as such standard offers more coding options comparing to the previous standards. The H.264/AVC standard delivers higher compression efficiency relative to the earlier standards but at the cost of higher computational load. The higher computational load is evident from the comprehensive set of video coding tools that the H.264/AVC standard provides. The tools include multiple prediction block sizes for Intra (I), Predicted (P), and Bi-directionally predicted (B) type pictures, multiple short-term and long-term reference frames for P and B type pictures, multiple hypothesis prediction modes, generalized B images that can act as predictors for other B images, Arithmetic coding and in-loop deblocking. In order to encode a video frame, an encoder has to select between numerous Inter and Intra macroblock prediction modes to obtain the optimum encoding mode. Such a selection process is time-consuming but vital to achieve the compression performance provided by the H.264/AVC standard.
The high computational complexity of the H.264/AVC standard presents a major hurdle in the implementation of H.264/AVC compliant encoders and decoders, particularly in real-time resource constrained environments. This can be appreciated from the fact that encoders generating H.264/AVC compliant streams are generally four to five times computationally more demanding than MPEG2. This fact is significant in consumer electronics where the success of a system depends largely on its cost competitiveness, and where digital signal processors (DSPs) and other devices having low or limited computing power are frequently used. The emergence of high definition television (HDTV) has raised the stakes further by increasing the computational demand several folds. H.264/AVC offers multiple spatial prediction modes of blocks from neighboring blocks. However, the prediction model is cumbersome and less effective for high textured images.
In order to help deploy low cost systems, there is a need for methods and systems that are capable of reducing the computational complexity of encoders and decoders compliant to a specific standard, such as H.264/AVC, without compromising coding efficiency. There is also a need for video coding and decoding techniques that can reduce the computational complexity without massive changes in the embedded prediction algorithms prescribed by video coding standards, such as H.264/AVC.
This disclosure describes unique techniques and embodiments of video coding and decoding that meet one or more above needs. According to one embodiment, a sub-sampled image prediction method is merged with a video coding/decoding standard, such as the H.264/AVC encoding process, in a unique way so that the generated compressed video bit streams remain compliant with H.264/AVC standard. In one aspect, the disclosure makes use of a multiple reference frames tool and the concept of generalized B images, as provided by the H.264/AVC standard, taking full advantage of H.264/AVC coding tools and also reaps the benefits of sub-sampled image prediction. A higher resolution input image is sub-sampled to form a set of lower resolution sub-sampled images. Utilizing the high degree of correlation among the sub-sampled images in a set, a motion compensated prediction of a sub-sampled image in a set is performed from another sub-sampled image in the set. Employing a multiple reference frame paradigm as provided by the H.264/AVC standard, the above prediction is compared with predictions from other sub-sampled images in the same set or in previously coded sets, and the best predictors are used to code a slice or macroblock of the current sub-sampled image.
In one aspect, an exemplary encoding process according to this disclosure divides a higher resolution input image into a corresponding set of lower resolution sub-sampled images, and feeds the sub-sampled images in appropriate order to a video encoder compliant with a specific video coding standard, such as the H.264/AVC standard. Each set of sub-sampled images corresponding to a higher resolution input image comprises a first sub-sampled image and subsequent sub-sampled images. In one embodiment, the video encoder is a H.264 encoder and encodes the first image of each set either as an independent I picture, or as a P or B picture, with respect to the first image(s) of other set(s); while any subsequent image of a set is coded with respect to the first image or a subsequent image of the same set, or an image of a previously coded set, as a regular P or B picture. All sub-sampled images of a set are coded either in Intra predictive coding format or in motion compensated Inter predictive coding format as prescribed by a video coding standard, such as the H.264/AVC standard. The compressed streams generated by the exemplary coding process can be decoded by a decoder conforming to the same video coding standard, such as the H.264/AVC standard. The amalgamation of sub-sampled image prediction with H.264 tools reduces the computational complexity of the encoding process.
In decoding the video streams generated by the exemplary encoding process of this disclosure, a decoder is utilized to rearrange the decoded lower resolution sub-sampled images of each set into corresponding higher resolution output images. The output images can be displayed or stored on appropriate devices.
According to another embodiment of this disclosure, an exemplary coding process utilizes a unique spatially scalable H.264 encoding paradigm that does not require up-scaling of the base layer for predictive encoding of the enhancement layer. In one embodiment, the first sub-sampled image of a set corresponding to each input image acts as the base layer, while the enhancement layer comprises all subsequent sub-sampled images of the set that are predicted from the base layer image and/or one or more enhancement layer images through motion compensated prediction. Without affecting the integrity of the video stream, the decoding process may choose to decode just the base layer, the base layer and some parts of the enhancement layer, or the base layer and the entire enhancement layer. According to yet another embodiment of this disclosure, an exemplary encoding and decoding process utilizes proprietary extensions to H.264 encoding and decoding processes for further improvement in coding efficacy. The encoding process may choose to enhance a reference sub-sampled image of a set prior to predicting other sub-sampled images through motion compensated prediction; thereby forming predictors with better quality. Enhancement may be carried out through any filtering or sharpening techniques. Moreover, in one aspect, the exemplary encoding process may utilize the high degree of correlation between the sub-sampled images of a set, and decide not to encode motion vector data of the motion vectors between two sub-sampled images of a set. The motion vector data can be easily created within the decoding process by considering the sub-sampling order. Furthermore, the exemplary encoding process may decide not to encode the motion vector data of the motion vectors between two sub-sampled images of two different sets, and instead reuse the motion vectors between two previously coded sub-sampled frames of the same sets.
Additional advantages and novel features will be set forth in part in the description which follows, and in part will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of the following and the accompanying drawings or may be learned by production or operation of the examples. The advantages of the present teachings may be realized and attained by practice or use of various aspects of the methodologies, instrumentalities and combinations set forth in the detailed examples discussed below. The drawing figures depicted herein are by way of example only, not by way of limitation. In the figures, like reference numerals refer to the same or similar elements.

Method and apparatus for low complexity video encoding and decoding


An aqueous suspension of cross-linked silicone particles comprising (A) cross-linked silicone particles having an average diameter of 0.1 to 500 μm, (B) polyoxyethylene sorbitan monolaurate, and (C) water. And, in a second embodiment, an aqueous emulsion of cross-linked silicone particles comprising (A) cross-linked silicone particles having an average diameter of 0.1 to 500 μm, (B) polyoxyethylene sorbitan monolaurate, (C) water, and (D) oil.

Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application (hereinafter referred to as Kokai) S63-309565 and Kokai H11-140191 disclose an aqueous suspension of cross-linked silicone particles that contains at least cross-linked silicone particles, a surface-active agent, and water. Furthermore, Kokai 2000-281903 describes an aqueous emulsion of oil that contains cross-linked silicone particles. It is suggested in Kokai H5-9409 to add the aforementioned suspension to an aqueous coating composition in order to impart matting properties to a coating film. In Kokai 10-139624 and 10-175816 it is proposed to add the aforementioned suspension to a cosmetic material for improving application properties of the cosmetic material.
The aforementioned suspensions and emulsions may be prepared with the use of non-ionic surface-active agents, anionic surface-active agents, cationic surface-active agents, amphoteric surface-active agents, or surface-active agents prepared from mixtures of the above. The use of non-ionic surface-active agents is advantageous since they ensure better dispersion of silicone particles and oil in cosmetic materials. However, in order to impart stability to the suspension or emulsion, to improve dispersibility thereof in a specific compound, and to reduce adverse affects on the environment, a surface-active agent should be properly selected. For example an alkyl polyether having 12 to 15 carbon atoms is an environmentally hazardous chemical substance, the presence of which in waste has to be limited in compliance with the requirements of PRTR (Pollutant Release and Transfer Register) to specific designated substances. Furthermore, the use of surface-active agents of animal-fat origin, e.g., of those prepared from such raw material as beef tallow, in particular the use of surfactants that contain oleyl groups and cetyl groups, or similar alkyl groups, in cosmetic products is limited by Notification of the Pharmaceutical and Chemical Safety Department of the Ministry of Health and Welfare issued on Dec. 12, 2000 and entitled "On Assurance and Quality of Pharmaceutical and Products Manufactured from Raw Material of Beef or other Animal Origin".
On the basis of studies aimed at the solution of the above problems the inventors have found that the above described problems can be solved when an aqueous suspension of cross-linked silicone particles or an aqueous emulsion of oil that contains cross-linked silicone particles is used with a surface-active agent in the form of a polyoxyethylene sorbitan monolaurate. More specifically, it is an object of the present invention to provide an aqueous suspension of cross-linked silicone particles or an aqueous emulsion of oil that contains cross-linked silicone particles which is characterized by excellent stability and by a reduced adverse affect on the environment and on human health.

Aqueous suspension of cross-linked silicone particles and aqueous emulsion of oil containing cross-linked silicone particles


Source code included in a number of independent source code repositories is scanned for a change made to the respective source code. A change made in the source code included in an originating repository from the number of independent source code repositories is identified by applying a statistical model. Upon identifying the change, it is automatically propagated to the source code of at least one target repository.

A version control system (or revision control system) is a system that tracks incremental versions (or revisions) of files and, in some cases, directories over time. Version control systems are useful not only because they track various versions of a file or a directory of a user or a group of users, but also because they allow users to explore the respective changes, which resulted in each of those versions. At the core of version control systems is the repository, which is a central store of that system's data. The repository usually stores information in the form of a filesystem tree, i.e., a hierarchy of files and directories. Any number of client systems can connect to the repository, and then read or write to these files. When a file undergoes a series of changes, the repository tracks each version of the file and the respective users who made the changes.
Version control systems are used in the modern software development process to manage source code. There are various online source code repositories available on the market today. For example, GitHub®, Git®, Bitbucket®, and others. A source code repository is a file archive and web hosting facility where a large amount of source code, for software or for web pages, is kept. Those source code repositories can be kept publicly or privately. Online source code repositories are often used by open-source software projects and other multi-developer projects to handle various versions of the source code and to allow a number of users to work on its development.
The headings provided herein are merely for convenience and do not necessarily affect the scope or meaning of the terms used.


An integrated circuit power distribution system and method is provided. The integrated circuit comprises a semiconductor die that includes at least one pair of bond pads having a single bond wire connected thereto such that each bond pad of the pair of bond pads has only one bond wire end connected thereto. A first bond pad of the pair of bond pads is located in an internal portion of the semiconductor die. A first wire having a first end and a second end is electrically connected between the pair of bond pads.

This invention relates to power and signal distribution in semiconductor dies.
Many conventional semiconductors are mounted in packages such as Quad Flat Packs (QFPs) and Pin Ball Gate Arrays (PBGAs) in which the input and output terminals are arranged along the edge of the die. Arranging the terminals along the die edge may result in relatively long wirings on silicon to supply power and ground to the center of the die. These long wirings generally have a relatively high resistance leading to unacceptable IR voltage drops.
An integrated circuit power distribution system and method is provided. The integrated circuit comprises a semiconductor die that includes at least one pair of bond pads having a single bond wire connected thereto such that each bond pad of the pair of bond pads has only one bond wire end connected thereto. A first bond pad of the pair of bond pads is located in an internal portion of the semiconductor die. A first wire having a first end and a second end is electrically connected between the pair of bond pads.

Semiconductor device power distribution system and method


A method is provided for establishing clusters in a distributed data processing environment having a plurality of nodes. The frequency of messages sent for the purpose of cluster formation is selected based on ranking of the nodes. Higher ranking nodes transmit such messages more frequently than lower ranking nodes. Lower ranked nodes thus are provided with an opportunity to join a cluster without first having to transmit their own messages to effectuate the joining.

In a distributed system, during an initialization phase a node may not have knowledge of what other nodes may exist and be in operation. Nodes may find each other by exchanging discovery messages and then eventually reach the state where all the nodes that are "up" know about each other. On a system with a large number of nodes, however, this message exchange may introduce significant message traffic into the network, which may result in a slow discovery process. While the problem posed is relatively easily solves when there are only a few nodes, when there are a large number of nodes (say 1,000 solely for the sake of example, the lack of information about the status of the other nodes in the distributed network leads to the exchange of numerous messages which can stall message traffic within the system. Moreover the problem grows exponentially with the number, N, of nodes. The presently proposed method of solving this problem focuses on reducing the amount of message traffic and also on providing a more orderly bring-up (discovery) process.
Others have approached similar problems but none include the elements of the present invention. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,026,073 discusses node ranking but only for the purpose of determining a "restoration route." There is no mention of the use of ranking to control message frequency.
Published U.S. Patent Application 2003/0005086 A1 also appears to employ the notion of node ranking but it has no method to deal with contention and no multiple "supervisors." The use of ranking is for entirely different purposes.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,606,362 also mentions the concept of ranking but only assigns ranks to signal sources so as to allow the signal recipient to select from among several sources.
Published U.S. Patent Application 2004/0146064 A1 uses random delays in the response to reduce the amount of message contention. This is contrary to the teaching of the use of ranking.
Published U.S. Patent Application 2004/0205148 A1 does not employ the concept of ranking and is not directed to the problem of bringing up nodes to go into a cluster. Furthermore, it assumes the pre-existence of a cluster and is rather directed to the problems associated with node failure.
Published U.S. Patent Application 2005/0054346 A1 is essentially unrelated and is connected only by the concept of prioritizing messages according to type-of-service and the routes are prioritized according to quality-of-service.
Published U.S. Patent Application 2005/0071473 A1 appears to describe a method for selecting a limited number of standby subnet messages based on a priority value and possibly a global identifier as a tie-breaker.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,941,350 appears to describe a method for selecting a master network manager during initialization but does not employ node ranking to control message congestion but rather assigns priorities to subnets.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,941,350 entitled "Method and Apparatus for Reliably Choosing a Master Network Manager During Initialization of a Network Computing System," Frazier, et al., issued Sep. 6, 2005, which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirely, appears to describe a scheme in which nodes are ranked based on priority and the exchange of messages to find out whether a given node should be the network manager. There is no mention of altering frequency according to any priority or ranking.

Method for improving cluster bring-up in a distributed topology liveness system

International Business Machines Corporation


In one embodiment, a system for generating a statistical analysis output is disclosed. The system receives and processes input from a user to perform statistical analysis and generate an output. The input includes at least one statistical variable from a plurality of statistical variables in a dataset, statistical modules adopted for analysis, and output formats. The system includes a processing unit configured to: automatically identify statistical variables in the dataset; automatically generate a program code for obtaining a variable distribution; select at least one statistical variable for statistical analysis; select one or more of the at least one statistical variable and automatically generate programs that implement the statistical functions for manipulating the variables; automatically perform statistical analysis based on the statistical modules by executing program codes associated with the modules; and automatically generate a program code for organizing outcomes of the statistical analysis into the user selected output formats.

A dataset is similar to a spreadsheet in concept and comprises rows and columns. Each row is called an observation and represents a subject. Each column is called a variable and represents a feature, trait, or measurement related to the subject. Subject ID is a special variable that is used to identify each subject, such as a patient in a clinical research.
A distribution of a variable is a basic statistical description of the variable. For a continuous variable, such as a subject's height in inches, the common statistics of interest include means, standard deviation, minimum, maximum, median, and various percentile ranks, such as 10 percentile, 25 percentile, etc. For a discrete, or categorical, variable, such as gender and race, the common statistics of interest include the counts for each of the discrete categories.
A regression model is a statistical formula that uses independent variables, referred to as Exposures and Covariates, to predict a dependent variable of interest, referred to as Outcome. The following formula is an example of a regression model:f(SBP),where SBP=β0+β1*AGE+β2*BMI+e SBP is the Outcome of the regression model and represents systolic blood pressure of subject patients. AGE is an independent variable and represents the age of the patients. BMI is also an independent variable and represents the body mass index of the patients.
An Exposure is an independent variable in a regression model whose variation is observed to determine how it influences the variation of the Outcome. A Covariate, or adjusting variable, is also an independent variable in a regression model that is not an Exposure. In the exemplary regression model, for example, the BMI is a Covariate of the AGE and vice versa. Either of the two or both independent variables can be selected as an Exposure.
A regression coefficient is a constant that represents the rate of change of an Exposure as a function of changes in the Outcome. In the exemplary regression model, for example, β1 and β2 are the regression coefficients associated with the AGE and BMI variables, respectively. If β2 is equal to zero, for instance, it means that there is no correlation between the changes in BMI and the changes in SBP. A regression coefficient shows an extent to which a variable associated with the coefficient is correlated with the Outcome of a regression model.
A variable is said to be associated with another variable if the changes of the two variables are found to be correlated. An association test involves fitting and testing a regression model to determine regression coefficients to see if any of them carries significant correlation with respect to the Outcome. Epidemiological data analysis, for example, focus on the association of Exposures with an Outcome wherein the association is tested with and without adjusting other Covariates.
Stratification is defined as the process of partitioning data into distinct or non-overlapping groups. Stratification is used when a study population's sub-domains are of particular interest. A stratified variable is a variable that represents a measurement obtained from a partitioned group of a study population.
Statistical tools presently available in the prior art are rigidly designed around statistical methods rather than the ease of obtaining data analysis outputs. Users (e.g., epidemiologists), for instance, have to do a lot of programming in order to apply the statistical methods to analyze available data, extract the relevant information from the outputs of such tools, and put the information into a report.

Systems, methods, and logic for generating statistical research information


The invention is an improved structure of the stapler which consists of a pressing cover with a pressing plate and a protection plate underneath its front end and a base with a staple board in the front. The staple casket accommodates a pushing block which pushes the staples in the staple casket by the stretch of the spring behind it. The binding is completed by the pressing of the pressing plate and the guidance of the protection plate. A clasping part can be installed on the pushing block to hold an indicator for indicating the amount of the staples. A hook at the bottom of the casket deck hooks to the opening on the staple casket, so that when the staples run out the staple casket will slide out for reloading by the pressing of the pushing block. The staple board has a concave groove of a proper height and a spring plate is placed above it for guiding the staples when binding a thick pile of papers.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improved structure of the stapler and, in particular, to an improved structure of the stapler with the functions of protecting staples, automatically dismissing staples, indicating the amount of staples and guiding staples.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Since the successful invention of the stapler, it has become an indispensable tool for paper binding or packaging. Nonetheless, most of the conventional staplers have the following drawbacks:
1. The staples are easy to be tilted when piercing into paper. This prevents the staples from properly clasping the paper, which results in weaker binding and worse appearance. PA1 2. The user could not know that the staples are running out without opening the stapler. And the pressing cover has to be opened when reloading staples. PA1 3. When binding a thick pile of paper, the legs of the staple are often not long enough to clasping the paper.
In observation of the many drawbacks of the staplers of prior art, which is not a perfect design and needs modification, the inventor conquered the above mentioned disadvantages and finally presented this improved structure of the stapler after many years of research and hardworking.


In examples, a method of manufacturing a transformer device comprises providing a first magnetic member and providing a laminate member containing primary and secondary transformer windings wound around an orifice extending through the laminate member. The method further comprises positioning a build up film abutting the laminate member. The method also comprises positioning at least a portion of a second magnetic member in the orifice. The method further comprises heat pressing at least one of the first and second magnetic members such that a distance between the first and second magnetic members decreases and such that the build-up film melts, thereby producing a transformer device.

Semiconductor dies are typically housed inside packages that protect the dies from deleterious environmental influences, such as heat, moisture, and debris. A packaged die communicates with electronic devices outside the package via conductive terminals, such as leads, that are exposed to outer surfaces of the package. A package may include components other than circuits formed on semiconductor dies. For example, a transformer assembly may be housed in a package, with the terminals of the transformer coil coupled to appropriate electrical connections (e.g., bond wires, lead frame leads) within the package so that the transformer assembly may be used as needed (e.g., by a circuit formed on a semiconductor die housed in the package).


An anti theft device for a trailer comprising a bracket attached to a side of the trailer, a pipe flattened at one end thereof such that the flattened end is adapted to be received in the bracket, the pipe when received in the bracket and disposed in a vertical relationship being adapted to lift the trailer slightly above the ground so that the bottom of the pipe is in contact with the ground and a lock for locking the pipe to the bracket while maintaining the vertical position of the pipe.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device to prevent or discourage the theft of trailers which are towed by trucks or automobiles. More particularly, the present invention relates to a leg or jack that is placed on the periphery of the trailer to retard the withdrawal of the trailer from where it has been parked.
2. Prior Art
There are numerous devices which purport to prevent or mitigate the theft of trailers. A preliminary search was conducted on the present invention and the following references were uncovered in the search;
U.S. Pat. No. 3,695,631 to Schwaiger, while generally relevant, does not disclose a pipe going through a bracket on the side of the trailer. Schwaiger does disclose a vertical leg 8 which fits into a specially designed trapezoidal member which in the end view of FIG. 2 appears as a U-Shaped member 12 attached to the underside of the trailer. As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 and described on Page 2, the upper end of the leg is locked by means of a padlock 20 using a somewhat complicated box structure. The purpose of this device is to prevent the theft of the trailer using a different and more costly arrangement.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,497,969 to Broughton shows a releaseable locking device which does not extend through a bracket on the side of the trailer but, rather, attaches to a draw bar 16 which is, in turn, attached to the trailer by means of a coupling 17 as shown in FIG. 2. The post 10 is provided with a plurality of holes 13 through which a pin 21 is adapted to project and through holes 35 on opposite sides of a saddle 28. The end of the pin 21 is provided with a flattened portion 24 and a hole or bore 25 through the flattened position. As described in relation to FIGS. 5 and 6, a locking mechanism operated by means of a key (not shown) is adapted to go through the hole 25 in the pin and thereby lock the leg in a the vertical position.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,836,173 to Schwaiger shows a pair of legs which are used to hold the trailer in an elevated position. The trailer is a closed device and therefore the only way anyone can get access to the tops of the legs is by getting inside the trailer. Therefore, if the trailer is locked, the thief will have to break into the trailer before attempting to move the legs.
The remaining references, referred to on Page 1, which are not specifically discussed are not considered to warrant any comment.
The present invention relates to an anti theft device which involves a pipe and a bracket on the side of a trailer. The pipe is of sufficient length, when vertical, to hold the trailer slightly above the ground and slightly higher than the trailer would be if the pipe had not been attached. The pipe which constitutes a leg is flattened at the upper end so that it will fit into the bracket.
In one form of the present invention, the bracket is a rectangular bracket with a rectangular opening and the upper flattened end of the leg or pipe projects upwardly through the rectangular opening in the rectangular bracket and the projecting portion is provided with a pair of holes in which a padlock can be received. With the padlock in place the leg cannot be removed from the bracket and thus, this constitutes an anti theft device in that anyone wishing to quickly steal the trailer would be prevented from doing so. First of all, the bottom of the leg is going to drag on the ground. Secondly, the thief is going to make some noise and disturbance so that it would be inconvenient for him to make a quick get away with the trailer.
Another form of the invention involves a bracket which is opened at one side end. This can be accomplished by taking one of the normal brackets that exists on the side of a trailer and removing the rear end portion. The leg or pipe, as before, will have a flattened end which is adapted to be received in this bracket which is essentially a C-bracket with the opening of the xe2x80x9cCxe2x80x9d facing towards the rear. The upper end of the pipe, in this case, however, is pivotally mounted in the bracket by means of a pivot pin or bolt. Also the upper flattened end of the pipe will be cut off at a slant so that it can freely pivot from its vertical position to a horizontal storage position along the side of the trailer. The closed side of the bracket; i.e. the side of the bracket which is opposite from the open side, is provided with a pair of vertically extending parallel ears which project horizontally out from the bracket. These ears are provided with aligned holes. Similarly, the pipe is provided with a tab which projects horizontally between the two ears when the pipe is in the vertical position. The tab has a hole in it in alignment with the two holes in the two ears such that a padlock can be placed through these three aligned holes to secure the second modification of the pipe in the vertical position. For storage purposes, with respect to the second embodiment, a pin is provided to simply pass through the hole in the tab and another hole in the side of the trailer to hold the leg in a horizontal position.


The present invention provides a compound of formula I;

The mineralocorticoid hormone aldosterone is produced by the adrenal gland and acts on the distal tubules and collecting ducts of the kidney to increase reabsorption of ions and water in the kidney. Aldosterone causes conservation of sodium, secretion of potassium, increased water retention, and increased blood pressure.
Aldosterone has been implicated in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension and heart failure. In clinical trials, treatment with the nonselective mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist (MRA) spironolactone or the selective MRA eplerenone significantly reduced morbidity and mortality among patients with heart failure or myocardial infarction already taking an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor or a β-blocker. However, significant side effects such as gynecomastia and impotence were observed in male patients receiving spironolactone while hyperkalemia was seen in patients taking either drug.

Aryl pyridine as aldosterone synthase inhibitors

Abstract: a method for manufacturing the compounds of the invention, and its therapeutic uses. The present invention further provides a combination of pharmacologically active agents and a pharmaceutical composition.


An ice detector has a pair of probes, each of which is used for determining the accretion of ice thereon. One of the probes in the assembly is configured so the smaller droplets of supercoooled water are inertially separated and flow away from the one probe. The ice accretion on the one probe is primarily from large (50 microns or greater) supercooled droplets. The ice accreting on the one probe is therefore biased to supercooled large droplets. The probes are connected to detection circuitry that will determine the ratio of the rates of icing between the probes so the presence of supercooled large droplets can be determined. In one form, a flow guide is arranged to create an airflow that carries smaller droplets past one of the probes without impinging on the probe, but the higher inertia, supercooled large droplets will impinge on that one probe.

The present invention relates to ice detectors, which detect the presence of supercooled large droplets, as opposed to normally encountered icing conditions with smaller droplets. In many cases aircraft ice protection systems are not designed to deal with supercooled large droplets.
Various ice detectors have been advanced in the prior art, and generally include a probe that is vibrated at a resonant frequency, and which has circuitry that senses changes in frequency due to accretion of ice on the probe.
These ice detectors work well, but cannot distinguish supercooled large droplet icing encounters from smaller droplet icing encounters. For smaller aircraft in particular, which may have deicing boots or other ice protection devices on leading edges of airfoils, supercooled large droplets will tend to accrete on surfaces that are aft of the boots, to a point where control surfaces may be affected. Since the accretion of the ice cannot be removed by the deicing boots, control surfaces that are affected may potentially become inoperable or ineffective, resulting in loss of control of the aircraft. The present invention operates to detect both normal, small droplet icing conditions, as well as the supercooled large droplet conditions such that the two conditions can be distinguished. Aircraft crews can thus be made aware of supercooled large droplet icing conditions so they can take the special actions that these conditions may require.
The present invention comprises an ice detector that will sense the presence of supercooled large droplets (SLD), in order to provide a warning that supercooled large droplet icing conditions are present. Supercooled large droplet icing may uniquely affect the operability of the aircraft. The ice detector is formed with two probes, one of which is constructed and mounted so that it will be affected primarily by supercooled large droplets, which may cause unique icing when encountered, that is, a build-up of ice where it cannot be removed by the aircraft""s ice protection system, while the other one of the probes will collect all sizes of droplets. By determining the ratio of icing rates of the two different probes, the presence of supercooled large droplets, that are primarily causing ice build-up on the one probe, can be determined.
Three forms of the ice detector of the present invention are included. One form utilizes an air dam downstream from one of the probes, and the other of the probes is a stand-alone probe with a relatively small frontal area. The air dam preferably has a wall with a radiused leading edge that is generally perpendicular to the airflow direction and the associated probe is just upstream from the leading edge wall. The frontal area of the air dam is several times that of the probe. The smaller droplets of supercooled water will tend to follow the air stream around the air dam, while the larger supercooled droplets, due to their inertia, will tend to impact the air dam surface or the ice detector probe upstream of it.
The stand alone probe, with a relatively small frontal area, will serve as an efficient collector of all water droplet sizes in the air stream, but the probe in front of the air dam will be biased to collect the larger droplets. By determining the ratio of icing rates of the two probes, which are substantially identical, the presence of supercooled large droplets can be determined.
The air dam will be heated to prevent icing on the air dam surface. The influence of the heat on the air dam will be minimal on the large droplet detector probe in front of the air dam because the airflow is moving away from the upstream detector probe and the heated air does not strike the probe.
A variation is to use two probes of different transverse dimension, that is, one is smaller than the other. In this variation, the functions of the air dam and its associated probe are essentially combined.
In a second form of the invention, a flow channel is made that has converging side walls forming a contracting section leading to a narrow section flow channel, with a first probe located upstream of a second probe. The first probe is mounted at the beginning of the narrow section or slightly upstream in the contracting section. The second probe is mounted in the narrow section, somewhat downstream of the beginning of the narrow section. It is known that the supercooled water droplets entrained in the air entering the narrow section will have different trajectories as a function of their size. The smaller droplets will essentially follow the air stream, but the larger droplets are delayed in responding to changes in airflow direction induced by the channel geometry because of relatively greater inertia. This results in a focusing or heavier concentration of large droplets a short distance downstream of the start of the narrow section of the channel, and the second probe is placed at the region where large droplets are concentrated. This location has an amplified sensitivity to supercooled large droplets. By determining the relative icing rate between the second probe and the first probe, which is located upstream of the supercooled large droplet focus area, the determination of the concentration of supercooled large droplets can be made.
The specific geometry of the flow channel and specific placement of the probes, which are substantially identical, can be optimized using computational fluid dynamics software for parameters such as the airspeed range of the aircraft and the supercooled large droplet diameter threshold desired for detection. It will be recognized by those skilled in the art that the upstream probe may also be located outside of the channel.
The walls can have heaters to prevent icing on the walls, and the converging walls leading to the narrow section of the flow channel have bleed holes similar to those in known total air temperature sensors, to bleed off heated boundary layer air and prevent heaters from influencing the ice detector probes.
In a third form of the invention, two probes of different transverse size are used. The probes are both preferably circular cylinders, but one of the probes is substantially larger in diameter or cross section than the other probe. Probes of different cross section shapes can be used and the dimensions of the probes transverse to the airflow direction and transverse to the longitudinal axis of the probes will be different.
The probes of the third form of the invention are usually mounted on struts, and are subjected to the same air stream conditions. The smaller probe, as shown, is mounted so that the majority of its surface is outside of or away from the influence of any flow disruption caused by the larger probe, which in this form, is mounted upstream from the smaller probe. The ice (droplet) collection efficiency, that is, the percentage of droplets directly upstream which impact and freeze rather than follow the airstream around the probe, for the smaller diameter probe is much higher for small supercooled droplet sizes than is the collection efficiency for the larger diameter probe. As the supercooled water droplet size increases, the collection efficiency of both probes will increase, but the collection efficiency of the larger diameter probe rises much faster. Thus, the difference in the respective ice accretion rate of the two probes will decrease as droplet size increases. Comparing the rate of ice accretion between the probes permits detecting potential supercooled large droplet conditions.
In the third form of the invention, both of the probes have similar thermodynamic properties to reduce or prevent variations in probe surface temperatures under transient environmental conditions and during warm up and cool down cycles associated with operation of probe deicing heaters. The design of the probes is such that it is desirable for each probe to have a mass and thermal capacity similar to the other probe, even though one is smaller size. For example, by making the large diameter probe thinner walled than the small diameter probe, similar mass can be achieved even with substantial differences in transverse dimensions of the probes.
In a fourth form of the invention, a pair of ice detector probes are used for indicating supercooled large droplet icing. One probe is mounted ahead of the leading end of the airfoil shaped airflow deflector, and the second probe is mounted downstream of the trailing end of the flow deflector. The ice detector probes can be of conventional design, as before, and substantially the same size. The probe ahead of the leading end presents a frontal area that serves as an efficient collector of all droplet sizes of supercooled water droplets in the airflow. Larger droplets which have higher inertia will tend to separate from the airfoil on the trailing end, and will strike the second probe or down stream probe. The airfoil shaped deflector is oriented at an angle to the airflow direction to provide the inertial separation of the larger particles which strike the second probe.
For any form of the invention, a comparison of the rate of change of frequency between the probes can be made to distinguish supercooled large droplet conditions, and the rate of change of frequency itself will indicate the severity of the icing conditions, or in other words how rapidly ice is accreting on each probe and thus, the ice accretion rate on the aircraft. Further, the overall change of frequency can be correlated to the amount of ice that has been accumulated on the probes. The ice accumulation on the probes can be correlated with ice accumulation on critical aircraft surfaces such as the wing, engine cowl, and horizontal stabilizers, through analysis, or by wind tunnel tests.
The probes of the present invention can be magnetostrictive ice detector probes using signal conditioning equipment, deicing provisions and software similar to that used with present probes, but the controller or processor used is programmed to provide the ratios of rates of icing between the probes, to determine the presence of supercooled large droplets.
The term large droplet is typically defined as a droplet that is 50 microns in diameter or greater. Droplets that are smaller than 50 microns are small droplets or generally referred to as xe2x80x9cdropletsxe2x80x9d, without using the designation xe2x80x9csmallxe2x80x9d.
Droplet populations as seen in nature, as well as those artificially generated with spray nozzles are made up of a continuum of sizes. The aggregate size of the population is typically characterized by the median droplet diameter, or MVD, which is the diameter at which half the droplets in the population are larger and half are smaller. In practice, a droplet population with an MVD greater than 50 microns is generally considered to be a supercooled large droplet condition. The invention in effect can be tuned to distinguish MVDs of 50 microns in diameter or greater, when sufficient quantities of these large droplets are present.

Inflight ice detector to distinguish supercooled large droplet (SLD) icing


A ring laser gyroscope, which has a triangular quartz block with a triangular quartz tube assembly forming an outer cavity for one rotating beam and an inner cavity for an oppositely rotating beam, is provided. The problem of lock-in of the beams is avoided. A pair of anodes and cathode means are provided for energizing the beams. A mirror is mounted at each corner of the block for reflecting the beams with one mirror being a partly reflective mirror for passing through portions of the inner beam and the outer beam. Outside the partly reflective mirror are mounted a first mirror for reflecting the inner beam, a second mirror for reflecting the outer beam, and a beam combiner mirror for combining the beams. A frusto-conical mirror receives the combined beams and reduces the mean diameter of the outer beam. A fringe detector receives the inner beam and outer beam on an area or point on a face of the fringe detector, which provides a gyroscope output.

A prior art ring laser gyroscope is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,344,706, issued Aug. 17, 1982 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,473,297, issued Sept. 25, 1984. The prior art gyroscope comprises a triangular block which has a triangular cavity for both a clockwise beam and a counterclockwise beam, a pair of anodes and a cathode for energizing the beams, three mirrors respectively located at the three corners of the block, a beam combiner assembly for measuring the gyroscope output, and means to minimize beam lock-in.
A problem with the prior art gyroscope is that the means to minimize lock-in is not sufficiently effective for some installations. The lock-in is a region of angular rate input around zero input rate in which the two oppositely directed traveling waves or beams are synchronously locked due to mutual coupling therebetween.

Ring laser gyroscope with a tube assembly


A method is provided for identifying a calling party to a called party utilizing biometric information. Biometric information of first calling party is received. If stored, a calling party profile is retrieved based on first calling party biometric information. A call is placed to a called party. The first calling party profile is provided to called party. A biometric information change from first calling party biometric information to a second calling party biometric information is automatically detected, and it is determined whether the second party biometric information is stored. If stored, a second calling party profile of second calling party is retrieved and is provided to called party. Responsive to determining that the biometric information for second calling party is not stored, the called party is notified that the second calling party is communicating and the second calling party profile is automatically created based on second calling party biometric information.

Exemplary embodiments relate generally to communications, and more particularly, to communications utilizing caller identification along with biometric identification.
Caller identification (also known as caller ID, CID, or calling number identification) is a service, available, e.g., on POTS (plain old telephone service) line, that transmits a caller's number to the called party's telephone equipment during the ringing signal, or when the call is being set up. Where available, caller ID can also provide a name associated with the calling telephone number. The information made available to the called party may be made visible on a telephone's own display or on a separate attached device.
Caller ID is often helpful for tracing prank calls and other unwanted intrusions. Many times the called party views the caller ID before answering the telephone, and when the number or name is not recognized, the called party does not answer the phone. However, in some cases, the person calling may actually be someone that the called party would recognize but the person calling is at a different telephone from his/her home telephone.

Biometric identification in communication


An electrophotographic printer includes a transfer roller cleaning device 12 and a carrier liquid supply unit 11 disposed at a portion of the circumference of a transfer roller 2 between a position of image transfer onto a recording medium 7 and the transfer roller cleaning device and including a carrier liquid supply roll 13 in rotational contact with a surface of the transfer roller. The transfer roller cleaning device comprises a cleaning roll 17 rotating in rubbing contact with the surface of the transfer roller and having a bias voltage applied thereto which is of a polarity opposite to that of a residual toner; a peripheral surface scraping blade 18 positioned downstream of the cleaning roll in the rotation direction of the transfer roller; a side surface scraping blade 19 likewise positioned downward; and a surface scraping blade 26 disposed at a portion of the circumference of the cleaning roll.

The surface of the transfer roller immediately after the secondary image transfer onto the recording medium becomes close to a dried solid upon absorption by the liquid medium of a carrier liquid of the liquid toner contained in the primary transfer image. Consequently, residual toner on the surface of the transfer roller is adhered thereto in a dried state.
While the residual toner on the surface of the transfer roller is generally removed by scraping with a cleaning blade, the problem arises that with the residual toner being in the dried state, the cleaning blade is poor in removal rate and must also be high in durability. The problem also arises that toner entering micropores in the surface of the transfer roller is hard to remove.
Accordingly, a conventional cleaning device of this type for a transfer roller includes: downstream of a region on the surface of the transfer roller for image transfer onto a recording medium, a wiping roller adapted to rotate reversely to the transfer roller for rubbing the transfer roller; and a pair of cleaning blades, the wiping roller and the cleaning blades being disposed in order from the upstream side in the rotation direction of the transfer roller. The wiping roller is rotated while being supplied with a cleaning liquid to rub off the residual toner on the transfer roller surface together with the cleaning liquid whereafter the two cleaning blades act to clean the transfer roller surface (see JP 2007-11142 A).
In the conventional transfer roller cleaning device mentioned above, the wiping roll while being supplied with the cleaning liquid, is designed to rub the transfer roller surface. That is, residual toner on the transfer roller surface has a cleaning liquid applied at a position of the wiping roller. Consequently, as the speed of rotation of the transfer roller is increased, cleaning of the residual toner with the cleaning liquid tends to fail. It has thus been difficult to meet with high-speed printing with continuous paper.
In view of what is mentioned above, it is an object of the present invention to provide an electrophotographic printer provided with a transfer roller cleaning device which has a capability of meeting with high-speed printing requirement with continuous paper used as its recording medium and of minimizing residual toner on a transfer roller surface in high-speed production as well.


There is provided an optical disc having preformed thereon a spiral wobbled track as a grove and/or land along with data is to be recorded. The track is wobbled for a series of predetermined signal units each composed of an FSK information bit part based on a waveform resulted from FSK modulation of information bit and a singe-frequency part based on a waveform of a single frequency. The FSK modulation uses two different frequencies of which the one is the same as the single frequency and the other is different from the single frequency. These different frequencies are in such a relation that each of them has an even number of wobbles and an odd number of wobbles alternately in a predetermined cycle.

To record data to an optical disc which is a disc-shaped recording medium, a guiding means is required for forming a recording track. To this end, pregrooves are preformed on the optical disc and the groove itself or a land, of which the cross section is trapezoidal, between the preformed grooves is used as the recording track.
Address information has to be recorded on an optical disc of this type to permit recording of data in a given position on a recording track on the optical disc. In some cases, such address information is recorded on the optical disc by wobbling a groove. Namely, a data recording track is preformed as a pregroove for example on the optical disc while the lateral wall of the pregroove is being wobbled correspondingly to the address information. Thus, for recording or reproducing data to or from the optical disc, an address to which the data is to be written or from which the data is to be read can be read from wobbling information provided as return light information, and the data can be written to a desired position or read from a desired position without having to preform pit data or the like indicating an address, for example, on the recording track.
By additionally recording address information as a wobbled groove, it will be unnecessary to discretely define an address area on a track and record an address as pit data in such address area, for example. Therefore, the actual capacity of the optical disc for recording data can be increased for the address area which is thus made unnecessary.
Absolute time (address) information represented by such a wobbled groove is called ATIP (absolute time in pregroove) or ADIP (address in pregroove).
Optical discs having such a wobbled groove formed thereon include CD-R (CD-Recordable), CD-RW (CD-Rewritable), DVD-R, CD-RW, DVD+RW, etc. In these types of optical discs, however, address information is additionally recorded as a wobbled groove in a manner different from one type to another of these optical discs.
In CD-R and CD-RW, the groove is wobbled according to a signal generated by making FM modulation of address information.
ATIP information embedded in a wobbled groove formed on CD-R/CD-RW is subjected to biphase modulation before the FM modulation as shown in FIG. 1. More specifically, the biphase modulation is such that ATIP data such as an address or the like is changed in state between "1" and "0" in each predetermined cycle by the biphase modulation and its ratio between average numbers of "1" and "0" is 1:1, and a wobbling signal of 22.05 kHz in average frequency are generated by the FM modulation of the ATIP data.
A groove defining a recording track is wobbled according to such an FM modulation signal.
In DVD-RW which is a phase-change recording-based rewritable version of DVD (digital versatile disc) and DVD-R which is an organic dye change-based recordable version of DVD, wobbled grooves G are formed as preformatted on the disc and a land prepit LPP is formed in a land between the grooves G, as shown in FIG. 2.
In this case, the wobbled groove is used to control the rotation of the disc and generate a recording master clock or for similar purposes, and the land prepit is used to determine an accurate recording position in bits and acquire a variety of information about the disc such as a pre-address etc. In this case, the pieces of address information themselves are recorded as land prepits LPP, not as wobbles of the groove.
In DVD-RAM which is the phase change recordable version of DVD, information such as an address is recorded as a groove wobbled based on the phase modulation (PSK modulation) on the disc.
FIGS. 3A to 3C show information represented by phase modulation-based wobbles of the groove. As shown in FIGS. 3A to 3C, eight wobbles are taken as one ADIP unit. Each of the wobbles is phase-modulated for a positive wobble PW and negative wobble NW to take place alternately in a predetermined order, so that the ADIP unit represents a sync pattern or data "0" or "1".
Note that the positive wobble PW is a wobble whose leading end is directed toward the inner circumference of the disc, and the negative wobble NW is a wobble whose leading end is directed toward the outer-circumference of the disc.
FIG. 3A shows a sync pattern (ADIP sync unit). In this sync pattern, the former four wobbles (W0 to W3) are negative ones NW and the latter four wobbles (W4 to W7) are positive ones PW.
FIG. 3B shows an ADIP data unit being the data "0". In this ADIP data unit, the leading wobble W0 is a negative one NW as a bit sync, it is followed by three wobbles W1 to W3 as positive ones PW, and the latter four wobbles include two wobbles W4 and W5 as positive wobbles PW and two wobbles W6 and W7 as negative ones NW. Thus, the ADIP data unit represents data "0".
FIG. 3C shows an ADIP data unit being the data "1". In this ADIP data unit, the leading wobble W0 is a negative one NW as a bit sync, it is followed by three wobble W1 to W3 as positive ones PW, and the latter four wobbles include two wobbles W6 and W7 as negative ones NW and two wobbles W6 and W7 as positive ones PW. Thus, the ADIP data unit represents data "1".
These ADIP units represent together one channel bit, and a predetermined number of such ADIP units represents an address or the like.
However, the above wobbling techniques are not advantageous as follows:
First, in case a groove is wobbled according to FM modulation data as in CD-R and CD-RW, the stroke of a wobble of an adjacent track will cause a phase change of the FM waveform. Thus, in case the track pitch is reduced, an address as ATIP data cannot be reproduced well. In other words, the FM modulation data-based wobbling cannot suitably be used in case the track pitch is narrowed for an improved recording density.
Next, in case land prepits are formed as in DVD-R and DVD-RW, the land prepits may possibly have a cross talk into a read RF signal, causing a data error and mastering (cutting) has to be done for the groove and land prepits (2-beam mastering). This is relatively difficult to implement.
Further, in case a groove is wobbled according to PSK data as in DVD-RW, the RF component at the phase-change point of a PSK modulation wave may possibly have a crosstalk into a read RF signal, causing a critical error.
Also, since the PSK phase shift point has an extremely high frequency component, the essential frequency band of a wobbling signal processing circuit system will be higher.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Disc-shaped recording medium, cutting apparatus for same, and disc drive


Example implementations relate to adjusting radiofrequency transmission power of antenna devices consistent with the disclosure. For example, a non-transitory machine-readable medium storing instructions executable by a processing resource to transmit a signal using a first transmission power to query an environment surrounding an antenna device to determine whether an object is causing path loss along a communication link, and adjust a transmission power of the antenna device to a second transmission power based on a determination that an object is causing path loss along the communication link.

Many devices include an antenna to receive and/or send data to other devices. For instance, an antenna can be used to connect to the Internet, to wirelessly communicate with other devices, to send messages, etc.
Devices with antennas can be susceptible to antenna performance degradation. For example, devices that are mobile, such as handheld devices, can be susceptible to antenna performance degradation due to the proximity of the hand, head, and/or other objects which may be surrounding the radiating antenna. Antenna degradation can limit the effective communication range, and in cases of devices with automatic level control, can limit battery life due to excessive power draw of the power amplifier.
Some devices with antennas use auto-tuning to address this issue. Auto-tuning can allow the device to adjust its transmitter's tuning parameters in order to operate at the most efficient manner it can due to its immediate surroundings (e.g., several inches from the device). However, auto-tuning only finds the most efficient operating point and continues to operate at that point, even if operating at this point is insufficient for closing the communication link. Thus, devices with antennas that operate in this manner may adjust the tuning parameters to ensure that the device is operating efficiently or, in a case where the device cannot, it will decide not to transmit. The decision not to transmit may result in critical messages not being delivered by the device.

Adjusting transmission power of an antenna based on an object causing path loss in a communication link


An auto focusing device includes an image pickup device for photographing a subject and for outputting a video signal of the photographed subject, a digitizing device for digitizing the video signal from the image pickup device, an orthogonal transformation device for orthogonally transforming the digitized video signal to each frequency component so as to adjust a focusing point of the image pickup device on the basis of each of the frequency components, and a grouping device for arranging together the frequency components having a similar characteristic as one group to make a plurality of groups of focusing information data so that the focusing point of the image pickup device is adjusted on the basis of the focusing information data of the plurality of groups.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an auto focusing device used in a publicly used compact photographing device.
2. Description of the Related Art
A triangular method for measuring distance or an infrared distance measurement method has been adopted for auto focusing in a compact photographing device such as a camera. Recently, various products have been developed in which a video signal output from image sensor means is directly used for focusing. This is called a mount climbing-like method for measuring distance. The principle of this method is that the high frequency component of the video signal output from the image sensor is maximized when the camera becomes in focus.
An example of the distance measurement method is described below.
A subject is photographed by an image pickup system which outputs a video signal. The signal is amplified by a preamplifier.
The video signal from the preamplifier is changed to three signals, i.e., a red signal R, a green signal G, and a blue signal B by a signal processing circuit. A display device displays the image of the subject in accordance with the R, G and B signals. A band pass filter (BPF) filters the video signal from the preamplifier to pick up the high frequency component from the signal. A calculation unit calculates an in focus information data which represents the focusing state of the image pickup system on the basis of the high frequency component signal output through the filter. After that, a motor control unit drives a motor in response to the in focus information data transmitted from the calculation unit to move the lenses of the image pickup system so that the system becomes in focus.
In accordance with the above-mentioned auto focusing device, depending on the subject, a false peak arises wherein the high frequency component of the video signal from the image pickup system is temporarily maximized at one timing though the system is not in the in focus state. When the false peak arises, the calculation unit outputs an in focus information signal so that the image pickup system is focused on the false peak.
To avoid this problem, for example, an in focus discrimination method is proposed wherein the calculation unit discriminates the in focus state in such a way that a plurality of band pass filter are used to simultaneously filters a plurality of frequency components of the video signal output from the image pickup system and the system is regarded as being in focus when all of the components are at their peak.
As mentioned above, in accordance with the auto focusing device mentioned above, the calculation unit outputs the in focus signal in response to the false peak, which results in that the image pickup system is wrongly focussed to the false peak.
Also, in accordance with the in focus discrimination method mentioned above, the problem is not sufficiently solved and other problems arise. That is, the number of the parts is increased since a plurality of BPFs are used. Also, each frequency component of the video signal from the image pickup system is detected by a fixed band pass filter which results in that the characteristic of the subject image is limited. That is, the desirable way of obtaining the in focus information signal can not be conducted, which way is to detect as many frequency components as possible and select a component according to the image of the subject since the characteristics of the video signal from the image pickup system, such as height of the peak and the sharpness thereof, are different according to the subject. If the desirable way is to be achieved, the number of the parts must be further increased as well as the cost of the device.


An opening and closing mechanism for a gate which utilizes an electric motor operating through a electromagnetic clutch. The clutch is to be operated at a significantly increased voltage during the initial period of starting movement of the gate. When the gate is rolling, the voltage through the clutch is significantly decreased to a substantially lower level. During this lower level of movement even a minor amount of resistance applied to the gate will cause the gate to stop thereby avoiding injury to animals (including people) and damage to devices such as automobiles. The gate opening and closing mechanism also includes a separate direct drive mechanism which by-passes the clutch when the gate is in the completely open or the completely closed position. This separate direct drive mechanism functions as a positive lock maintaining the gate in its established completely open or completely closed position when the gate is in either of these positions. A circuit is utilized that provides for improved safety by incorporating improved obstacle sensing devices that prevents the gate from causing injury and/or damage.

The field of this invention relates to a gate operating mechanism and more particularly to a mechanism for operating a horizontally sliding gate which is designed to traverse a substantial distance such as between ten and twenty feet. The gate generally is to be located in an outdoors environment and normally has a substantial weight of between three hundred and one thousand pounds.
It is common for electrical motor driven gates to employ a control mechanism that is to either stop the gate or stop and reverse the gate if the gate incurs an unexpected amount of resistance during opening or closing. Outside gates are commonly constructed of a weather resistance material such as wrought iron. It is common for such gates to traverse a roadway of twenty feet or more in width. A gate constructed of wrought iron that is designed to traverse that width inherently has substantial weight. It is common for such gates to weigh as much as one thousand pounds. Operation of the gate can be by any of various input devices such as a hand-held transmitter, sensor loops buried in the roadway, photoelectric eyes, or push buttons mounted some distance from the gate. Convenient gate operation is accomplished by any of the above where it is desired to do so automatically.
Designed within the electronic circuitry of such gates it is common to include safety devices. It is the intent and purpose of these safety devices that if the gate incurs some kind of an obstacle that the gate will either stop or stop and reverse. A typical obstacle would be contacting a motor vehicle or contacting a human being. However, these gates are of a substantial weight and if, for example, you have a thousand pound gate contacting a child, the safety device is commonly just not sensitive enough to cause the gate to stop or stop and reverse without causing injury to the child. If the gate contacts an automobile, there can be some damage to the automobile before the gate will reverse. In actual practice, there are recent incidents, though few, where children have been killed with automatic gates. Also, there are recent instances where even adults have incurred arm and leg damage from such gates. Fortunately, these instances are isolated but they do occur. There are also many occurrences of damage such as motor vehicle damage caused by such automatic gates.


A pipelined circuit for performing a divide operation on small operand sizes. The circuit includes a plurality of stages connected together in a series to perform a subtractive divide algorithm based on iterative subtractions and shifts. Each stage computes two quotient bits and outputs a partial remainder value to the next stage in the series. The first and last stages utilize a radix-4 serial architecture with edge modifications to increase efficiency. The intermediate stages utilize a radix-4 parallel architecture. The divide architecture is pipelined such that input operands can be applied to the divider on each clock cycle.

1. Field of the Invention
This disclosure relates generally to computer processors, and in particular to a circuit for performing a pipelined divide operation for small operand sizes.
2. Description of the Related Art
Computer processors typically have special units for handling arithmetic operations. The most difficult of the four traditional arithmetic operations tends to be division. Typically, divide operations are long latency, low throughput operations. Often a divide unit is built to handle large operands, such as 53-bit mantissa operands from a double-precision floating point number as defined by the IEEE 754 standard. The result of the divide operation will usually be available after a large number of cycles determined by the length of the input operands.
Typically, there is a minimum overhead involved in performing a divide operation, so that if a divide unit handles large operand sizes, the small operand sizes will still have a long latency, even though the latency potentially could be reduced. Additionally, if there is only one divide unit for a particular processor, multiple threads may be sharing the same divide unit, leading to long delays if one thread is waiting for divide operations from another thread to finish.
There are a variety of different ways to implement a divider, and one such way is though the use of a subtractive algorithm. In such an approach, a divider may be configured to iteratively produce a quotient from a dividend (i.e., a numerator) and a divisor (i.e., a denominator) by performing a sequence of shift, subtract, and compare operations, similar to standard long division. Subtractive division algorithms may generally be characterized by the following equation:Pj+1=rPj−qj+1D where Pj denotes the partial remainder, r denotes the radix of the algorithm, D denotes the divisor, and qj+1 denotes the quotient digit corresponding to the partial remainder generated by a given iteration of the algorithm. Successive partial remainders may be generated by multiplying a previous partial remainder by the radix and then subtracting the product of the selected quotient digit and the divisor. For example, the divider may be configured to implement a restoring division algorithm in which the quotient digits 'q' are selected from the set {0, 1}. As indicated by the above equation, the quotient digit is an input that determines the next partial remainder.
If a divider were limited to small operand sizes, and the divide operation were completed in only a few cycles, it would allow for a considerable improvement in the latency and efficiency of the divider as compared to a divider that has to handle large operand sizes. Furthermore, if the architecture were pipelined, new dividend and divisor input operands could be applied to the divider on each instruction cycle instead of waiting for each instruction to finish. Therefore, what is needed is a way to perform a divide operation on small operand sizes using a pipelined architecture, to reduce the latency and increase throughput of the divide unit.
In view of the above, improved circuits for performing a divide operation on small operand sizes are desired.

Pipelined divide circuit for small operand sizes


The present invention relates to methods for determining the methyltransferase activity of a polypeptide and screening for modulators of methyltransferase activity, more particularly for modulators of the methylation of VEGFR1 by SMYD3. The invention further provides methods and pharmaceutical compositions for treating and preventing colorectal cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma, bladder cancer and/or breast cancer using a modulator so identified.

Modifications of histone tails play a crucial role for the regulation of transcription, telomere maintenance, DNA replication, and chromosome segregation (Kouzarides T, Cell 2007, 128(4): 693-705). Examples of such modifications include acetylation, phosphorylation, methylation, and/or ubiquitination. Covalent modifications in particular regulate not only the chromatin structure but also the interaction with chromatin binding proteins (Kouzarides T, Cell 2007, 128(4): 693-705; Strahl B D and Allis C D, Nature 2000, 403(6765): 41-5; Jenuwein T and Allis C D, Science 2001, 293(5532): 1074-80). In addition, methylation of H3K4, H3K36, and H3K79 is associated with euchromatin structure, whereas that of H3K9, H3K27, and H4K20 is associated with heterochromatin structure (Strahl B D and Allis C D, Nature 2000, 403(6765): 41-5; Jenuwein T and Allis C D, Science 2001, 293(5532): 1074-80).
Conformation of chromatin is one of the key regulators of transcription; untranscribed genes are compacted in heterochromatin, while transcribed genes are in euchromatin, where transcriptional complexes are accessible to the target DNA (Li B et al., Cell 2007, 128(4): 707-19). In addition, modification of histone residue facilitates the interaction with its binding protein(s), and affects subsequent modifications on other histone tails (Strahl B D and Allis C D, Nature 2000, 403(6765): 41-5; Jenuwein T and Allis C D, Science 2001, 293(5532): 1074-80; Li B et al., Cell 2007, 128(4): 707-19; Zhang Y and Reinberg D, Genes & development 2001, 15(18): 2343-60). For example, phosphorylation of H3 serine 10 (H3S10) suppresses methylation of H3K9. Conversely, methylation of H3K9 antagonizes phosphorylation of H3S10. Phosphorylation of H3S10 promotes acetylation of H3K14 by GCN5 (Zhang Y and Reinberg D, Genes & development 2001, 15(18): 2343-60).
The methylation of H3K9 is involved in the transport of HP1 to distinct chromosomal areas, which, in turn, is crucial for establishing and maintaining domains of heterochromatin (Nakayama J et al., Science 2001, 292(5514): 110-3; Lachner M et al., Nature 2001, 410(6824): 116-20; Bannister A J et al., Nature 2001, 410(6824): 120-4). Recruitment of HP1 proteins to certain sites of the genome involves interactions with multiple components of chromatin (Nielsen S J et al., Nature 2001, 412(6846): 561-5). This recruitment is believed to suppress methylation of H3K4, a protein that is crucial for transcriptional activation. These data indicate the complex nature of histone modification that is regulated by the interplay between different modifications. Indeed, a growing number of these proteins have been shown to promote or inhibit tumourigenesis through their histone methyltransferase activity (Varambally S et al., Nature 2002, 419(6907): 624-9; Hamamoto R et al., S Nature cell biology 2004, 6(8): 731-40; Gibbons R J, Human molecular genetics 2005, 14 Spec No 1: R85-92).
Although methylation of histone tails has been intensively studied, that of non-histone protein remains unclear. Recent studies reported that SET7/9, a histone H3K4 MTase, catalyzes TAF10 and p53 as substrates (Kouskouti A et al., Mol Cell 2004, 14(2): 175-82; Chuikov S et al., Nature 2004, 432(7015): 353-60.) Vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-1 (VEGFR1) (Accession No.: NM—002019) is a receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) that plays a role in physiological and pathological angiogenesis in the context of receptor dimerization and an interaction with its ligands (Shibuya M et al., Oncogene 1990, 5(4): 519-24; Rahimi N, Experimental eye research 2006, 83(5): 1005-16).
VEGFR1 shares structural similarity with the FMS/KIT/PDGFR family, containing an extracellular domain, seven immunoglobulin (Ig)-like sequences, and a cytoplasmic tyrosine kinase domain with a long kinase insert. VEGFR1 is expressed in two forms, as a full-length tyrosine kinase receptor and in a soluble form that carries only the extracellular domain. Through homodimerization or heterodimerization with other RTKs such as VEGFR2 and VEGFR3, the full-length form of VEGFR1 positively mediates signaling on binding with its ligands. However, the soluble form of VEGFR1 acts as an inhibitor through ligand trapping, and suppresses angiogenesis (Shibuya M, Journal of biochemistry and molecular biology 2006, 39(5): 469-78). The regulatory mechanism of these opposite functions remains unclear.
Although one VEGFR ligand, vascular endothelial growth factor-A (VEGFA), associates with both VEGFR1 and VEGFR2, the affinity of VEGFA to VEGFR1 is at least one order of magnitude higher than that to VEGFR2 (Sawano A et al., Cell Growth Differ 1996, 7(2): 213-21). On the other hand, the endogenous tyrosine kinase activity of VEGFR1 is extremely low as compared with that of VEGFR2. Upon binding with VEGFA, these receptors dramatically increase their autophosphorylation levels, and induce growth of endothelial cells (ECs), recruitment of EC progenitors, adhesion of natural killer cells to ECs and monocyte migration (Shibuya M et al., Oncogene 1990, 5(4): 519-24; Rahimi N, Experimental eye research 2006, 83(5): 1005-16; Shibuya M, Journal of biochemistry and molecular biology 2006, 39(5): 469-78). Although several VEGFR1 tyrosine-phosphorylation sites and their potential interacting partners have been described in different expression models (Shibuya M, Journal of biochemistry and molecular biology 2006, 39(5): 469-78), the downstream signaling events remain to be delineated, primarily due to the low biological activity of this receptor.
The present inventors previously reported that SMYD3 (Accession No.: AB057595) has di- and tri-methyltransferase activity on lysine 4 of histone H3 (H3-K4) (See WO 2005/071102, the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference herein). In addition, previous reports demonstrate that elevated SMYD3 expression plays a crucial role in the proliferation of colorectal carcinoma (CRC) and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells (See WO 2003/027143, the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference herein; see also Hamamoto, R. et al., Nat Cell Biol 6, 731-40 (2004)) and Hamamoto R et al., Cancer Sci 2006, 97(2): 113-8). In particular, over-expression of SMYD3 was shown to result in growth promotion of NIH3T3 cells while the knockdown of endogenous SMYD3 expression in several cancer cells was shown to induce growth inhibition and apoptosis of those cells. The present inventors also have shown that retinoblastoma protein (R1) is methylated through interaction with the SET domain of SMYD3, and that such methylation facilitates phosphorylations of RB1 at threonines 821/826 and serines 807/811 by CDK2/cyclinE or CDK6/cyclinD3 complex in vitro and in vivo (See WO2007/004526, the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference herein).    Patent Citation 1: WO2003/027143 (JP 2005-511023)    Patent Citation 2: WO2004/076623 (JP 2006-519009)    Patent Citation 3: WO2005/071102 (JP 2007-519391)    Patent Citation 4: WO 2006/092958, A1    Patent Citation 5: WO 2007/004526, A2    Non Patent Citation 1: Kunizaki, et al. Cancer Res. 2007 Nov. 15; 67(22):10759-65

Methods of identifying agents that modulate methylation of VEGFR1 by SMYD3


A real-time trigger for event-based electronic communication system messaging. In one embodiment, for example, an event caused by a user's activity or inactivity with respect to an online service is queued. When the event is dequeued, it is transformed to a trigger and the trigger is mapped to an action. The action is dispatched to a messaging track actor to carry out the action. Carrying out the action may include putting a user on a messaging track or transitioning the state of a user already on a messaging track.

The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by their inclusion in this section.
Computers and data networks are very powerful tools for performing a wide-variety of tasks. One task that computers and data networks are very useful for is electronic messaging. Typically, electronic messaging involves an electronic communication automatically generated by a computer program and displayed to an intended human recipient on a display screen. The electronic communication may also be interactive. The electronic communication can take a variety of different forms but typically is in the form of a web page, an electronic mail message (i.e., an Email message), a forum post or comment, a text message, an instant message, a push notification, a social network post or comment, or other electronic information that a human can view and potentially interact with using a computer. "Email" is the well-known method of exchanging electronic communications (i.e., Email messages) using a store-and-forward model. More information about Email is available on the Internet at /wiki/Email in the wikipedia.org domain, the entire contents of which is hereby incorporated by reference. A "push notification" is an electronic communication that is "pushed" from a backend server or an application to a user interface such as, for example, the user interface of a portable computing device (e.g., a mobile phone). More information about push notifications is available on the Internet at/wiki/Push_Notification in the wikipedia.org domain, the entire contents of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
The sequence and timing of electronic messaging actions with respect to electronic communications can affect how well the communications are received. For example, assume a user of an online service has already received an Email message prompting the user to try out a new feature of the online service. If the user does not open the Email message within a certain period of time (e.g., within 7 days), then a push notification about the new feature is sent to the user. On the other hand, if the user opens the Email within the time period, then another Email providing more details about the new feature is immediately sent to the user. The sequencing and timing of the additional Email with respect to the original Email can be critically important. For example, if the additional Email is sent to the user without the context of the user having just opened the original Email, then the user might be confused by or uninterested in the details about the new feature in the additional Email. In this case, the additional Email may be "lost" on the user.
Techniques described herein address these issues by providing the real-time trigger for event-based electronic communication system messaging.

Real-time trigger for event-based electronic communication system messaging