An emitter for emitting electromagnetic pulses includes a generator for generating an electromagnetic pulse, an optical fiber that transmits the eletromagnetic pulse, and an optical cavity. The optical cavity is placed in the path of the incident electromagnetic pulse transmitted by the optical fiber and has an input provided with a first partially reflecting mirror and an output provided with a second partially reflecting mirror. The first partially reflecting mirror is placed between first and second fiber lengths of the optical fiber and the second partially reflecting mirror is placed between the second and a third fiber length of the optical fiber. The length of the second fiber and a transmission/reflection ratio of the first and second mirrors are adjusted such that a train of electromagnetic pulses, having variable geometry characteristics, is emitted.

The present invention relates to an emitter for emitting electromagnetic pulses, to a system for testing fiber-optic components and to a method of testing them.
Said emitter, of the type comprising:
a generator for generating at least one electromagnetic pulse, especially a light pulse; and
at least one optical fiber capable of transmitting an electromagnetic pulse generated by said generator for the purpose of injecting it,
is able to be applied more particularly, although not exclusively, to a test system for determining characteristic parameters, especially the losses, of a fiber-optic component, in particular a fiber-based component, a fiber-based link or a fiber-optic network.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,251,002 discloses such a test system, which comprises:
such an optical emitter or source capable of emitting a light pulse;
a photoreceiver capable of measuring optical characteristics of a light pulse emitted by said optical source and transmitted by a fiber-optic component; and
data acquisition, storage and processing means which receive the measurements generated by said photoreceiver for said fiber-optic component to be tested and for a reference fiber-optic component and which determine, on the basis of these measurements, the losses of said fiber-optic component to be tested.
In a known manner, said optical source or said emitter has emission conditions, especially with regard to the emission solid angle and the illumination surface, which are fixed and uniform.
In addition, said known test system allows tests to be carried out only for a defined configuration of the light beam used, as emitted by said optical source. This known test system therefore uses a method which measures only the losses relative to a single defined pulse emitted by said optical source.
However, in practice, the configuration of the light beam generated by the optical source is not always that actually used in said optical component to be tested. Consequently, the reliability of this test system is unsatisfactory.
To increase the reliability, it is necessary to suitably sample the aforementioned illumination or emission conditions, which may vary from 0% to 100% of the area of the core in the case of the emission surface, and from 0% to 100% of the numerical aperture, in the case of the emission solid angle. In the situations usually encountered, the conditions may vary from 70% to 100%.
For this purpose, it is advised to provide a sampling increment of at most 2%. This therefore assumes that at least some fifteen different optical sources are used, each of which has appropriate illumination conditions, in order to obtain satisfactory sampling.
This solution is therefore hardly satisfactory, especially because of the high cost, the lengthy implementation time and the considerable amount of handling.
It is an object of the present invention to remedy these drawbacks, and especially those associated with the existence of fixed and uniform emission conditions of the optical source.
It relates to an emitter for emitting electromagnetic pulses, which is capable of emitting electromagnetic pulses having emission geometry characteristics (emission solid angle and emission area) which are variable.
For this purpose, according to the invention, said emitter for emitting electromagnetic pulses, comprising:
a generator for generating at least one electromagnetic pulse; and
at least one optical fiber capable of transmitting an electromagnetic pulse generated by said generator for the purpose of emitting it,
is noteworthy in that it includes in addition at least one optical cavity:
which is placed in the path of an incident electromagnetic pulse transmitted by said optical fiber; and
which has an input provided with a first partially reflecting mirror and an output provided with a second partially reflecting mirror, said first and second mirrors being arranged so as to create at the output of said optical cavity, from a single incident electromagnetic pulse, a train of emitted electromagnetic pulses which have variable geometry characteristics and are associated with said incident electromagnetic pulse.
Thus, by virtue of said optical cavity, the emitted pulse train comprises pulses subjected to variable numbers of reflections off said mirrors and therefore traveling variable distances in said cavity. However, since the aforementioned geometry characteristics vary, in a known manner, according to the distance traveled, the various pulses of said pulse train have variable geometry characteristics (emission solid angle and emission area).
Consequently, by choosing appropriate characteristics of said optical cavity, and especially the reflection/transmission ratio of the partially reflecting mirrors and the distance between them, a plurality of pulses having predetermined emission characteristics can be formed.
In particular, when said emitter is applied to a test system of the aforementioned type, it is possible to form a particular pulse train comprising the various possible configurations of the light beams likely to be transmitted by the component to be tested.
This enables the aforementioned drawbacks of the known test system, described in particular in U.S. Pat. No. 5,251,002, to be remedied since it is no longer necessary to provide a plurality of different optical sources in order to carry out an overall test.
Moreover, advantageously, at least one of said first and second mirrors is linked to two lengths of the optical fiber:
in a first embodiment, directly by opposed faces; and
in a second embodiment, via an associated optical coupling means.
In this second embodiment, said or each of said optical coupling means advantageously comprises:
in a first embodiment, two lenses optically linking said two lengths of the optical fiber, the mirror associated with said optical coupling means being placed between said lenses;
in a second embodiment, a single half-wave graded-index lens, said mirror being placed on that face of said optical coupling means which is internal to said optical cavity; and
in a third embodiment, two quarter-wave graded-index lenses optically linking said two lengths of the optical fiber, the mirror associated with said optical coupling means being placed between said lenses.
Moreover, the emitter according to the invention advantageously comprises means preventing a pulse generated by said generator from returning toward the latter. For this purpose, said means preferably include at least one light trap which cooperates with the optical coupling means associated with said first mirror.
Furthermore, said generator is advantageously capable of generating at least two pulses, of different wavelengths, thereby making it possible in particular, when applying it to a test system, to measure simultaneously the losses at several operating wavelengths of certain types of links such as, for example, video communication links operating at wavelengths of 0.85 xcexcm and 1.3 xcexcm.
The present invention also relates to a test system of the aforementioned type.
According to the invention, said test system is noteworthy in that the optical source of this system comprises a light-pulse emitter, as mentioned above.
In addition to the advantages indicated above, this test system according to the invention has an operating life (or lifetime) longer than that described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,251,002. This is because this known latter system, which includes electrooptic switches, only allows a relatively small number of uses and, in addition, it is sensitive to the environmental conditions, something which is not the case in the system according to the invention, which has no mechanical moving parts.
It should also be noted that the optical fiber of the pulse emitter generally has characteristics (core diameter and numerical aperture) identical to those of the fiber-optic component to be tested. This makes it possible to vary over time, in the same direction, the emission area and the emission solid angle, these latter two geometry characteristics decreasing for each successive pulse.
However, in one particular embodiment, the electromagnetic pulse emitter is formed in such a way that one of said geometry characteristics is constant and the other varies.
For this purpose, according to the invention:
in order to obtain a constant emission solid angle, an optical fiber is provided which has the same core diameter as the core diameter of the fiber-optic component to be tested, but with a larger numerical aperture; and
in order to obtain a constant emission area, an optical fiber is provided which has the same numerical aperture, but a larger core diameter than the component to be tested.
Moreover, the present invention also relates to a test method for determining the value of at least one characteristic parameter, such as the attenuation of the electromagnetic intensity, of a fiber-optic component, which method makes it possible in particular to remedy the aforementioned drawbacks of the known method implemented by the test system described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,251,002.
This known method, as indicated above, takes measurements for only a single type of pulse. Thus, when information is needed for a plurality of different pulses, it is necessary to use said known method for each of said pulses. In addition, to be able to adapt or compare the results then obtained, it is necessary to create the same operating conditions for each of these different tests. This is time-consuming, tedious and a source or errors.
In order to remedy these drawbacks, said method according to the invention for determining the value of at least one characteristic parameter of a fiber-optic component, in which method:
a) at least one electromagnetic pulse is generated, which is injected into said fiber-optic component;
b) measurements relating to said electromagnetic pulse transmitted by said fiber-optic component are carried out; and
c) said characteristic parameter is determined at least from said measurements,
is noteworthy in that, in step a), an electromagnetic pulse train is generated, at least some of the electromagnetic pulses of which have different values for at least one optical characteristic, especially an emission geometry characteristic such as the emission area or the emission solid angle, and in that, in step c), the value of said characteristic parameter is determined for each of said different electromagnetic pulses of said pulse train.
Thus, thanks to the invention, tests for a plurality of different pulses are carried out in a single implementation of the method. This has a number of advantages, and especially a reduction in the length and the cost of the tests when these have to be carried out for a plurality of different pulses, and an increase in the accuracy, since it is no longer necessary to try to recreate identical operating conditions for a plurality of different tests.
Advantageously, in order to generate said pulse train:
a plurality of pulses is formed from one incident electromagnetic pulse; and
said pulses are made to travel different distances in at least one optical fiber, said pulses forming said pulse train at the exit of said optical fiber.
This is preferably carried out using the aforementioned emitter and in accordance with the invention.
In addition, said characteristic parameter advantageously represents the losses of said fiber-optic component and, in step b), measurements are carried out on said fiber-optic component and on a reference fiber-optic component.

Electromagnetic pulse train generation for testing optical fibers

ONERA (Office National d""Etudes et de Recherches Aerospatiales)


A retractable caster assembly includes a mounting unit and a foot unit. The mounting unit has a horizontal mounting plate and a hollow connector which projects downwardly from the mounting plate and which is formed with an outward stop projection and a slot immediately below the stop projection. The foot unit has a foot portion, a connecting shaft extending upwardly from the foot portion into an open lower end of the hollow connector, and a horizontal retaining plate extending from one side of the connecting shaft. The foot unit is mounted slidably to the hollow connector and is movable between a first position, wherein the retaining plate extends out of the slot of the hollow connector, and a second position, wherein the retaining plate is retracted into the hollow connector. A base plate is mounted pivotally to the mounting plate adjacent to the hollow connector and is movable between a released position, wherein the base plate is disposed away from the hollow connector, and a retained position, wherein the base plate has an edge portion retained between the stop projection and the retaining plate. A caster unit is mounted on the base plate and extends lower than the foot portion when the base plate is in the retained position. The caster unit is disposed at a level higher than the foot portion when the base plate is in the released position.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a caster assembly, more particularly to a retractable caster assembly for a suitcase.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional suitcase is usually provided with four caster units, two of which are capable of 360.degree. rotation. When the conventional suitcase is placed on a conveyor mechanism, such as in airports, toppling of the conventional suitcase occurs, especially when the latter contains a heavy load, because no means are employed to arrest undesired movement of the caster units, thereby resulting in breakage of fragile items inside the suitcase.
FIGS. 1 and 2 illustrate a conventional caster assembly for a suitcase 1. The caster assembly includes a mounting plate 2 secured to a bottom side of the suitcase 1. The mounting plate 2 has a bottom face which is provided with a resilient strip 3. The resilient strip 3 has a distal hook portion (3a). The bottom face of the mounting plate 2 is further provided with a pair of slide grooves (2a) disposed on opposite sides of the resilient strip 3. A caster unit 4 has a base plate 5 that is mounted removably on the mounting plate 2 by extending portions of the former into the slide grooves (2a) of the latter. The hook portion (3a) of the resilient strip 3 retains the base plate 5 on the mounting plate 2 releasably. In order to avoid toppling of the suitcase 1 when the latter is placed on a conveyor mechanism, the caster unit 4 is detached from the mounting plate 2, and a foot unit 6 (shown in phantom lines) is then mounted removably on the mounting plate 2 by extending portions of the former into the slide grooves (2a) of the latter.
Although the above described caster assembly can help avoid toppling of the suitcase when the latter is placed on a conveyor mechanism, frequent removal of the caster unit 4 and replacement of the same by the foot unit 6 can inconvenience the user.


A center section/motor sub-assembly for use in a hydrostatic transmission includes a center section having a pump running face for interfacing with a pump and a motor running face for interfacing with a motor, and a bore extending laterally through the center section from the motor running face. A spool valve is received in the bore and includes a fluid pathway for providing fluid communication between the pump running face and the motor running face. The sub-assembly further includes a motor having a rotor and a motor stator secured to the center section adjacent to the motor running face in a manner that permits rotation of the rotor. The center section is configured for the hydraulic separating forces of the motor to be reacted only into the center section. A hydrostatic transmission includes the sub-assembly enclosed by a housing, in combination with a pump and output shaft.

A prime mover, such as an internal combustion engine or the like, can be connected to a hydrostatic transmission to drive a wheel in a light vehicle. A hydrostatic transmission is particularly suitable to provide traction drive for light vehicles such as turf machines, lawn tractors, ride-on lawn mowers, and like devices. A simple usage of hydrostatic transmissions is on zero-turn radius vehicles, including zero-turn radius mowers and tractors.
Generally, a hydrostatic transmission includes a hydraulic pump and a hydraulic motor. The hydraulic pump usually is a piston-type pump including a plurality of reciprocating pistons, which are in fluid communication through hydraulic porting with the hydraulic motor. Rotation of the hydraulic pump against a moveable swash plate creates an axial motion of the pump pistons that forces hydraulic fluid through the hydraulic porting to the hydraulic motor to drive the motor, which allows the transmission output speed to be varied and controlled. The rotation of the hydraulic motor may be used to drive an output shaft, which in turn ultimately drives a wheel axle of a light vehicle of the types described above.
In certain vehicle configurations, the hydrostatic transmission may be configured for full wheel torque by connecting the hydrostatic transmission output directly to a wheel hub without any intervening gear reduction element. Specifically, a pump is driven by the prime mover (engine). The motor typically is of larger displacement (e.g., 20:1) as compared to the pump, which provides speed reduction and torque amplification of the prime mover to drive the wheel. Spool valve driven motors are known in the art for use in various applications, but conventional configurations have proven to be deficient for wheel drives, and hence have not been practical for transmission applications. In conventional spool valve/motor configurations, the spool valve and output shaft are integral components. Side loads on the wheel hub require outboard and inboard bearings. Because the spool valve bore normally serves as the inboard bearing, large side loads may be transferred to the spool valve resulting in significant wearing of the spool valve bore. To accommodate such loads and otherwise provide suitable performance, it remains difficult to provide a compact spool valve motor configuration that is suitable for hydrostatic transmissions applied to light vehicle wheel drives. Accordingly, because of the size constraints associated with light vehicles, it has been difficult to provide a hydrostatic transmission for a full wheel torque configuration that is compact, cost effective, and easy to assemble.

Hydrostatic transmission with spool valve driven motor


A server device and a method for the server device to build a model object are described. The server device includes interface circuitry and processing circuitry. The interface circuitry is configured to receive an instruction to build a model object at the server device. The instruction is sent by a client device (e.g., user equipment) that requests services from the server device in a three-dimensional (3D) application. The client device builds the model object in a first form according to first modeling data. The processing circuitry of the server device is configured to determine, second modeling data of the model object according to the instruction, and build the model object of a second form according to the second modeling data. Then model object of the second form is used in the 3D application at the server device.

With rapid development of interactive applications, the types of the interactive applications emerge. Among them, the interactive applications about building and construction are also favored by users, and application scenarios of building and construction are widely introduced into online multiplayer interactive applications.
In the related technology, the user equipment end has a high requirement on display precision, so that the user equipment end usually uses a model processing algorithm of high display precision. The server end needs to use the same model building and processing algorithm as that of the user equipment end to maintain a consistency with the user equipment end and, as a result, a calculation amount of the server is extremely large, which reduces model object building efficiency.

Model object building method, server, and system

TENCENT TECHNOLOGY (SHENZHEN) COMPANY LIMITED


A vehicle electric drive system and a hybrid engine-motor type vehicle drive system realizing simplification and miniaturization of electric parts and, moreover, reduction in cost while maintaining performances can be provided. A part 1 of wheels is driven by an engine. The wheels are driven by a motor as necessary. The motor, a generator, and an accessory battery are connected to each other via a voltage step-up/step-down device. The voltage step-up/step-down device has a function of stepping up power of the battery and supplying the stepping up power to the motor, and a function of stepped down power of the generator and supplying the stepped down power to the battery and the accessories.

A hybrid engine-electric motor type four-wheel drive system is known in conventional vehicle drive system field. In the drive system, either a frond wheel drive-axle or a rear wheel drive-axle (here, the front wheel drive-axle is cited as an example of that, and it will be also called as "front wheels" below) is driven by an internal combustion engine, and the other (here, the rear wheel drive-axle is cited as an example of that, and it will be also called as "rear wheels" below) is driven by a motor as necessary.
Four-wheel drive mode in which both of the engine and motor are used as a power source is performed under heavy-load conditions such as starting, climbing, or the like of the vehicle. Under normal drive mode in which a load condition is relatively light (low load drive zone), two-wheel drive mode is performed only by the engine.
In the conventional hybrid-type four-wheel drive system, a DC motor or AC motor is used as a wheel-drive motor. Conventionally, a power supplies for accessories, for example, an alternator and a battery of 12V or 14V used for general vehicle-mounted electric equipments, are not used for the wheel-drive system. Instead of them, a generator only for the wheel-drive motor (for example, an alternator having a power generation output of 50V or higher) and a high-voltage battery dedicated for the motor are used as power supplies of the motor (for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-253256).
This is because power supply necessary for driving the wheel drive motor cannot be secured only by the battery of 12V or 14V for accessories (for example, general electric equipments such as starter, light, and air conditioner) and an alternator corresponding to the battery.
In the case of executing electric drive of wheels at the time of starting of a vehicle, at the time of starting the engine when the engine speed is low and the generation power of the alternator for the wheel drive motor is low, the alternator enters a separate excitation mode. The field current is supplied from the high-voltage battery for the motor to an alternator field winding to increase the generation output of the alternator, and the motor is driven by the generation output. When the vehicle speed reaches predetermined speed (for example, 20 km/hour) after starting, the alternator for the wheel drive motor outputs power sufficient to drive the motor, so that the alternator uses the output power as the power supply of the field winding of itself (self excitation mode).
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-224709 discloses a technique of mounting a generator according to a high-voltage specification and a main battery of a motor for driving wheels and an auxiliary battery for accessories, driving the motor by the power from the generator according to the high-voltage specification or the main battery, in addition, stepping down the high-voltage power (for example, 250V to 350V) by the generator to a low voltage (12V or 24V) by a DC-DC converter, and supplying the low voltage to the auxiliary battery for accessories.
Further, in this kind of hybrid-type electric four-wheel drive system, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-63392, a motor with a regenerating function (motor/generator; MG) is used as driving means for one wheels (for example, rear wheels). During times of braking of the vehicle, the motor functions as the generator to perform regenerative control of charging regenerative power output from the MG into a capacitor dedicated to drive the motor. The power accumulated in the capacitor is supplied to the MG so as to perform auxiliary wheel drive control by using the MG at the time of starting and accelerating on a road having high coefficient of friction (high μ road) such as a normal road or a dry road.

Electric drive device for vehicle and hybrid engine/motor-type four wheel drive device


A method of effectively managing a database system for mobile number portability (MNP) including constructing a database associated with the MNP of a neutral organization including a first database connected to number portability management systems of a plurality of wired or wireless telecommunications service providers and a second database connected to subscriber managements systems of the wireless telecommunications service providers; transmitting data required for number portability call processing to the first database after the number portability processing for the wired telecommunications service providers has been completed by the second database; and allocating associated information to the wired or wireless telecommunications service providers requiring the number portability call processing by the first database based on the data. Accordingly, a conventional database management system can be modified, and a specific packet structure can be employed to detect errors that occur during transmission and reception of customer information for the number portability processing. Therefore, it is possible to construct effective subscriber management systems for mobile number portability.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of effectively managing a database system for mobile number portability (MNP), and more particularly, to a method of effectively managing a database system for MNP capable of constructing a MNP subscriber management database system including a number portability-customer database (NP-CDB) and a mobile number portability-customer database (M-NPDB), wherein the NP-CDB transmits and receives subscriber information associated with number portability to and from major mobile communication companies by using Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) packets having a predetermined structure and processes the information, and wherein the M-NPDB allocates four pieces of information required for number portability call processing to infrastructure companies requiring number portability call processing after processing the subscriber information of the NPCDB, thereby processing the subscriber information that was processed for the MNP in real-time and transmitting routing information to wired or wireless service providers through a secure common object request broker architecture (CORBA).
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 is a view illustrating a structure of a conventional database system for mobile number portability (MNP). A central number portability database (NPDB) system 110 is connected with NPDB systems 120 and 130 of existing wired networks, portability processing systems 140 and 150 of mobile telecommunications networks, and agencies 160 and 170 of mobile telecommunications companies. When a subscriber requests number portability from the agency 160 or 170, the central NPDB system 110 requests number portability from a mobile telecommunications company with which the subscriber is currently registered, receives the result, and transmits the result to the agency that the subscriber contacted. Thereafter, the agency 160 or 170 receives the result and registers the subscriber with the mobile telecommunications subscriber management system of a company that the agency belongs to. As described above, in the conventional method, the local-NPDB (L-NPDB) update and subscriber information transmission for call processing between a mobile telecommunications number portability center and the mobile telecommunications company cannot be easily carried out in real-time. In addition, information for call processing and information for subscriber registration are separately managed, so that it is difficult to guarantee data integrity. As described above, the conventional method involves a complicated procedure, and all processes are not carried out in real-time. Therefore, there is a problem in that it takes a long time in terms of hours or days to complete the number portability for the subscriber.

Method of effectively managing database system for mobile number portability

Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute


The autonomous waterproof electronic signaling device disclosed comprises an activator; an audible signal emitter and a visual signal emitter, the audible signal emitter to emit a primary signal upon activation of the activator, the audible signal emitter comprising one or more of the following: a hydrophone, a siren, a speaker, or a transducer; and a head assembly, the head assembly positioned so as to alter at least a portion of the primary signal producing a notification signal. The visual signal emitter comprises at least one of incandescent bulbs, compact fluorescent bulbs, strobe bulbs, high intensity discharge (HID) bulbs, and light emitting diodes (LED) bulbs. The audible signal emitter and a visual signal emitter are operative singly or in combination, continuously or intermittently.

In general, communications underwater are restricted because of visual limitations and auditory limitations. Typical visual and auditory ranges are limited to a few yards. Current state of the art has not been able to exceed these limitations.
Underwater signaling devices have been used in scuba diving for years. Some underwater signaling devices use air from the scuba tank which produces an audible low-frequency horn-like sound. Others are designed to bang against the outside of the scuba tank which produces an audible low-frequency clanking-type sound. Still others have been designed to produce a low rattle-type or clicking sound with very limited range. Many of these devices are omni-directional, rather than being directionally oriented.
There is a key need for directive electronic signaling devices tailored for audible underwater communication. To understand this, it must first be understood that sensory limitations, specifically visual and auditory limitations, make the scuba diving experience a somewhat isolating one. For example, because of the visual limitations inherent in scuba diving, divers typically cannot gain the attention of their diving buddy, despite the fact that they are in close proximity to each other.
In addition, auditory limitations, specifically the inability of other divers to hear the human voice, even when a diver is screaming or yelling underwater just a few feet away, force divers to rely almost entirely upon their limited sense of sight, specifically line-of-sight, to attract the attention of their dive buddy, and this is a serious limitation even in good visibility situations. Current devices have limited auditory signal production capability, poor directional focus both in a latitudinal and a longitudinal scope and nominal range.
Furthermore, the limitations of existing devices due to the fact that their function is dependent upon diving equipment (i.e., scuba tank, buoyancy compensation device (BCD) and regulator) makes them useless to all water-sports enthusiasts except scuba divers. This integration requirement introduces the potential for equipment failure and damage, as well as (in the case of pneumatic devices) the accelerated depletion of a diver's air supply, his/her most essential survival necessity.
It is to these underwater communication needs, and other circumstances in which the attention of others is desired, that the instant invention is directed.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Autonomous waterproof electronic signaling device


Link data transmission to a plurality of nodes includes: receiving data to be transmitted at a current node; obtaining, using one or more computer processors, first registration information by a plurality of child nodes of the current node; selecting, based on the first registration information, a first child node that is one of the plurality of child nodes to register with the current node; sending the data to be transmitted to the first child node; obtaining second registration information by a plurality of sibling nodes of the current node; selecting, based on the second registration information, a first sibling node that is one of the plurality of sibling nodes to register with the parent node; and sending the data to be transmitted to the first sibling node.

With the development of the Internet technologies, two devices in a network can share resources through data transmission. In certain applications, data may need to be copied from a source device to multiple destination devices. In a commonly used method, a source device where the source data is located copies the source data to a plurality of destination devices one by one. Such a method is inconvenient to implement, and may also occupy the bandwidth between a source device and a destination device during a copy operation between the two. Particularly in situations where the destination devices and the source device are located in different network sections and the destination devices are located in the same network section, such a copy method apparently wastes valuable inter-network bandwidth resources between different network sections.
Presently, the peer-to-peer (P2P) or node-to-node technology is a popular data transmission technique. In P2P, at the same time of receiving data a device may also transmit the received data to other devices. The bandwidth available between the destination devices that are otherwise idle can thus be used. When P2P is employed in the above scenario, the intra-network bandwidth available between the destination devices can be used effectively, potentially reducing the amount of data transmission on the inter-network bandwidth between different network sections and saving the inter-network bandwidth resources.
A number of issues remain in existing P2P technology. In the currently P2P applications, each device typically can only control sending from and receiving data to itself (e.g., controlling the sending rate and the receiving rate, and the number of destination devices, etc.), and a unitary control for data transmission of an entire network typically cannot be achieved at a single device using the transmission mechanism of P2P. When the amount of data transmission is too large, it may overwhelm and paralyze the network.
In the above-described application scenario where a source device needs to copy data to multiple destination devices and the data transmission is initiated by the source device, when a change occurs in the amount of the data transmission and/or the number of the destination devices, the current P2P technology typically cannot implement a unitary control on a single source device (or on a certain destination device) for the data transmission of the whole network, since the destination devices may only receive data passively.

Link data transmission method, node and system


A fluid ejector includes a substrate having an exterior surface and an interior surface. A non-wetting coating can cover at least a portion of the exterior surface and can be substantially absent from the flow path. A non-wetting coating can be formed of a molecular aggregation. A precursor of a non-wetting coating may flow into a chamber at a higher temperature higher than the substrate. A non-wetting coating can be over a seed layer. An outer portion of the seed layer can have a higher concentration of water molecules or a greater density than an inner portion. The outer portion can be deposited at a ratio of partial pressure water to partial pressure matrix precursor that is higher than the ratio for the inner portion. An oxygen plasma can be applied to a seed layer on the exterior surface, and the non-wetting coating can be applied on the seed layer.

A fluid ejector (e.g., an ink jet printhead) typically has an interior surface, an orifice through which fluid is ejected, and an exterior surface. When fluid is ejected from the orifice, the fluid can accumulate on the exterior surface of the fluid ejector. When fluid accumulates on the exterior surface adjacent to the orifice, further fluid ejected from the orifice can be diverted from an intended path of travel or blocked entirely by interaction with the accumulated fluid (e.g., due to surface tension).
Non-wetting coatings such as Teflon® and fluorocarbon polymers can be used to coat surfaces. However, Teflon® and fluorocarbon polymers typically are soft and are not durable coatings. These coatings also can be expensive and difficult to pattern.


A programmable crossbar array with inline fuses includes a layer of row lines and a layer of column lines with the row lines crossing over the column lines to form junctions and resistive memory elements sandwiched between row lines and a column lines at the junctions. Inline fuses are located in either the row lines, column lines or both. The inline fuses are interposed between the support circuitry and the resistive memory elements. A method for mitigating shorts in a crossbar array is also provided.

Resistive memory elements are devices that can be programmed to different resistive states by applying programming energy. After programming, the state of the memristors can be read and remains stable over a specified time period. Large crossbar arrays of memristors can be used in a variety of applications, including non-volatile solid state memory, programmable logic, signal processing, control systems, pattern recognition, and other applications.
Throughout the drawings, identical reference numbers designate similar, but not necessarily identical, elements.

Inline fuses in programmable crossbar arrays

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


This invention describes a miniaturized hybrid diesel-electric engine formed by a closed-loop system powered by plasma-aided combustion of JP-8 fuel (or other hydrocarbon fuels) working in tandem with a vapor cycle utilizing miniaturized expanders and condensers. The output of this engine is electric power and mechanical work. Water, or organic fluids, heated by the combustion product developed inside a special burner, undergoes an explosive, quasi-supersonic conversion to steam. This steam drives a high-speed turbine connected together with a gas turbine outputting shaft work. This work output is utilized to power internal subsystems, cool down the miniaturized condensers, and to produce torque and electric power. The dimensions of this miniaturized hybrid-engine are so compact that it can fit inside the battery compartment of most applications requiring high-density miniaturized power sources.

The conversion of compact gasoline spark ignition engines to diesel or heavy-fuels operated engines for various applications requiring miniaturized power sources, including robotics and exoskeleton, and small scale propulsion system, forces a series of adaptation of the current off-the-shelf engines. These adaptations allow a conventional miniaturized gasoline engine to be fueled by heavy-fuels at the expense of significant inefficiencies. Most of these diesel operated gasoline engines have serious ignition difficulties, especially at sub-zero temperatures, and generally show poor performance with respect to the actual power available for energy extraction from the fuel. Furthermore, increased fuel consumption with production of heavy smoke and pollutant emissions, and several other negative factors, severely penalizes the adoption of these modified engines. The need for air-breathing small-scale propulsion systems, with high power densities for civilian and military applications is ever increasing. The objective of the present invention is to provide a small-scale hybrid-engine (SSHE) formed by the integration of several technologies allowing its miniaturization without impairing the overall engine efficiency.
A secondary objective of the proposed invention is that of providing a wearable power source equipped with its own fuel tank, pumps, starter mechanisms, mufflers, injectors, etc. This wearable, or mobile, SSHE system can deliver a minimum of 20 W average for prolonged amounts of time with minimum fuel consumption, and load following characteristics. SSHE can also produce a scalable power output able to achieve and exceed this minimum power requirement so that it can serve multiple applications. Such applications may require a power source for power hungry systems such as microclimate cooling with power requirements in excess of 1200 W-hr, or able to provide shaft power for actuators used for robotic applications, or as a propulsion system for remotely controlled vehicles. Load following characteristics imply a rigorous control of the various combustion parameters forcing a fast response on the rotating components of the burner. All components are designed for minimum weight and bulk. Components like miniaturized compressor and exhaust gases wheels impose high degrees of manufactory accuracy and complexity. All of the components of this invention can function in a wide range of temperatures and environments, including submerged in water, while resisting to shocks derived from mechanical impacts or explosions. The complete system is reliable and damage-tolerant, posing no hazards to the operator.
To meet these requirements, technology has been pushed beyond its current limits and the integration of several innovative concepts produced the SSHE. Every ounce of mass of the SSHE system contributes to performance, and every watt generated, thermal, electrical, or mechanical is applied with the highest conversion efficiency. These are the main objectives of the SSHE proposed as a miniaturized power source utilizing fossil fuels.


A process for preparing a heat shrinkable film which is made from a copolymer of ethylene and 0.5 to 10% by mole of an .alpha.-olefin having 4 to 12 carbon atoms, the copolymer having a g* value (i.e., intrinsic viscosity of the copolymer/intrinsic viscosity of a linear polyethylene having the same molecular weight) of 0.3 to 0.7, a melt index of 0.3 to 2.0 g/10 min., and a density at 25.degree. C. of 0.86 to 0.92 g/cm.sup.3, wherein a tubular film of the copolymer is stretched under the following conditions:. (A) the film surface temperature at the starting point of expansion being within the range of 20.degree. to 30.degree. C. below the melting temperature; PA0 (B) the film in a stretching zone extending from the starting point to the finishing point of expansion having a temperature gradient such that the film surface temperature at a position of 1/4 to 1/3 the vertical length (L) of the stretching zone from the starting point is maximum, and the difference between the maximum film temperature and the film temperature at the starting point of expansion being not more than 5.degree. C.; PA0 (C) the temperature drop of the film from the maximum temperature position to the finishing point of expansion being within the range of 15.degree. to 20.degree. C.; and PA0 (D) the film being cooled rapidly so that its temperature drops to a value of not more than 60.degree. C. while traveling from the finishing point to a distnace of 0.8 time the vertical distance of the stretching zone.

The present invention relates to a process for preparing a shrink packaging material. More particularly, the present invention relates to a process for preparing a heat shrinkable film, which has a little variation in thickness and is excellent in transparency and heat shrinkability at low temperature, and which is prepared from a resin composition containing as a main component a copolymer of ethylene and an .alpha.-olefin having a g* value as a parameter indicating straightness of molecular chain of 0.3 to 0.7.
Heretofore known are such heat shrinkable films as polyvinyl chloride films, biaxially stretched polypropylene films, polyethylene films or polyamide films and so on.
Among them, the biaxially stretched polyethylene film has been practically used because of its heat sealability and low cost. Especially, in recent years, a heat shrinkable polyethylene film prepared from a linear low density copolymer of ethylene and an .alpha.-olefin (such copolymer hereinafter referred to as "a linear low density ethylene-.alpha.-olefin copolymer") has become the object of public attention because of its excellent impact resistance and heat sealability.
Among the linear low density ethylene-.alpha.-olefin copolymers, those having a g* value, that is, [.eta.]/[.eta.].sub.L of 0.3 to 0.7 have a good transparency. When preparing the heat shrinkable films therefrom according to a known tubular biaxial stretching method such as the process described in Japanese Examined Patent Publication (Tokkyo Kokoku) No. 36142/1982, in which a tubular film is extruded and biaxially stretched under gas pressure, however, because of an insufficient stretching stability and a large variation in thickness of the obtained film, a practically satisfactory film cannot be obtained.
The present inventors have been studied a process for preparing a heat shrinkable polyethylene film having little variation in thickness and a good heat shrinkability at low temperature, from the above-mentioned linear low density ethylene-.alpha.-olefin copolymer with an excellent transparency. As a result, the present invention has been accomplished.

Process for preparing heat shrinkable polyethylene film


The invention relates to a method for designing a composite material part with a curved surface (65) to which a plurality of stiffening elements will be joined, in which the design of a 3D fabric model comprises the following steps: generating a planar surface (63) developed in 2D of the surface (65) of the curved part in 3D as well as the same geometric references (71) in 2D as the references (51) of the surface in 3D; associating the surface (63) developed in 2D and the surface (65) in 3D as well as their geometric references (71, 51), such that any action in one of them is reflected in the other; initially computing the fabric model in the surface (63) developed in 2D; carrying out any subsequent modification of the fabric model either in the surface (63) developed in 2D or in the surface (65) in 3D.

In several engineering fields there is a strong tendency to increase the amount of parts made of composite materials. For example, in the aeronautic field, wing skins, coating panels and fuselage sections are parts which can be manufactured using composite materials.
These parts are generally made with laminates of composite material fabrics with carbon fibers arranged in different orientations.
These parts are designed by means of a complex process comprising calculation steps, steps for designing the fabric model and for analyzing their producibility, with feedback loops when modifications are introduced in any of these steps.
Engineers who are specialists in calculations use calculation programs to calculate the performance of the part under given loads, and design engineers use CAD systems to generate the fabric model, i.e. define the location and contour of the fabrics forming the laminate, from the laminate specifications provided by the results of the calculation.
Even with CAD systems functionalities, the process for generating the mentioned fabric models in CAD systems is a tedious process involving a large amount of repetitive manual work, with the subsequent risk of failures, especially in the case of curved parts in which the definition of the contour of the fabrics, ensuring that certain requirements are complied with, is very complex and laborious.
Although the process can be more or less simplified depending on the CAD system used, when the designers are faced with complex support surface where the geometric computation is slow, the times for generating the fabric models of the parts can be excessively long. The designer may lose his or her concentration, making more mistakes due to the downtimes that the CAD system generates in the geometric operation computation. This is added to the fact that in some cases such as in tubular surfaces, the fabric model can be so complex that after hours of work, there is no clear vision of the work done due to the confusion caused by the geometry intersection in three-dimensional space.
The present invention intends to solve this problem.

Method for designing a composite material part with a curved surface


A removal tool for removing a component bonded to a printed wiring board. A housing and securing mechanism are provided for securing the printed wiring board to the housing. An adapter holds the component that is to be removed. A variable jaw assembly applies a closing force to the adapter to hold the component. A spanner assembly comprises a variable position slider block for holding the jaw assembly in a vertical orientation, and locking devices for securing it to the housing. A second securing mechanism is provided for locking the slider block to secure the variable jaw assembly. A torque handle assembly is coupled to the jaw assembly that is rotatable to apply torque to the component to break the bond between the component and the printed wiring board. The securing mechanism comprises a support block, an end stop, a swivel block disposed opposite the end stop, and a locking device for supporting and holding the printed wiring board in the housing. The slider block is captivated by a slot in the spanner assembly that is used to lock the jaw assembly in a vertical direction. The slot provides a limit to rotation when force is applied to the handles during removal of the component. The torque handle assembly comprises two L-shaped blocks for grasping a shaft of the variable jaw assembly and anchoring two dowel pins. The variable jaw assembly comprises a housing, two pivotable jaws secured to the housing that are each rotatable around a pivot shaft, a partially threaded shaft having a left-hand threaded portion and a right-hand threaded portion disposed through the respective jaws, and a disk attached to a center portion of the partially threaded shaft having that permits turning thereof in response to rotation of the disk. The removal tool permits safe removal of components from printed wiring boards without damage to the surface thereof or to the component. The removal tool provides the capability of grasping and removing components of various sizes and shapes that are confined in the midst of other adjacent components on the surface of the printed wiring board.

The present invention relates to gate arrays and hybrids, and more particularly, to a removal tool for use with such gate arrays and hybrids disposed on printed wiring boards.
Many electronic components, such as gate arrays and hybrids, are attached to a surface of a printed wiring board with polysulfide adhesive. This is commonly referred to as bonding. The bonding material (polysulfide adhesive), when cured, requires a considerable force to break in order to remove the component.
The prior an techniques for which the present tool relates and for which it is an improvement are as follows. One technique uses a thin wire routed under the leads and alternately pulled at the ends to attempt severing the bond material (analogous to cheese slicing). This is not a viable method due to wire breakage and component lead damage without success in cutting thru the bond. In a second technique, heat from a hot air gun is first applyed to the gate array or hybrid, then various wedges are used to break the bond and lift the component. This results in component damage with only marginal success on components smaller than 0.5 inches square. In a third technique, the component is held with a grasping stationary head and the board is rocked while heat is applyed. This method was unsuccessful. Furthermore, none of the above methods proved to be practical.
Therefore, it is an objective of the present invention to provide a removal tool for use with such gate arrays and hybrids disposed on printed wiring boards that does not require the use of heat.


Known air intake type rocket engines of the type in which air is condensed and liquefied by employing a propelling agent, loaded on the rocket, as a coolant, and in which the liquefied air is utilized as an oxidizing agent or working fluid, are improved according to the present invention in that air remaining uncondensed is compressed and then condensed and liquefield by employing the liquefied air as a coolant.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an engine that is favorable for use in an airplane, a flying body, a space shuttle or a space rocket, wherein liquid hydrogen is used as fuel and oxygen in air is used as an oxidizing agent while it is being liquefied.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A space rocket must carry an oxidizing agent for burning fuel in addition to the fuel, because normally it flies through a cosmic space where no air is present. Rockets of recent years which make use of liquid hydrogen as fuel and liquid oxygen as an oxidizing agent are practically useful.
However, in practicality, the amount of fuel and oxidizing agent required (fuel and oxidizing agent will hereinafter be referred to collectively as "propelling agent") is such that they occupy the largest part of the weight and volume of the main body of the rocket. As a result, the weight of a payload, such as human bodies and artificial satellites, is limited. If the weight of such payload is increased, it will be necessary to correspondingly increase the amount of propelling agent carried. This will, in turn, necessitate reinforcement of the rocket structure in proportion to the increase of the weight of the payload and the propelling agent. In addition, it is necessary to provide more propelling agent for launching the added weight of the payload, the propelling agent and the reinforcement structure members. Thus, increasing the weight of the payload results in an enormous expense.
In light of these problems, the inventors of the present invention have previously invented a lightweight engine having an excellent oxygen liquefying efficiency and which can efficiently utilize oxygen in the atmosphere as an oxidizing agent at least during flight in the atmosphere, in order to cut or reduce the weight of the oxidizing agent. This invention is set forth in Japanese Patent Application No. Sho 59 (1984)-180759, and will now be explained with reference to FIGS. 5 and 6.
At first, as shown in FIG. 5, liquid hydrogen at a temperature in the proximity of its triple point (about 14.degree. K.) stored in a liquid hydrogen tank 1 is pressurized by means of a pump 3 and is fed into an air condensor 5. The air condensor 5 is a heat-exchanger composed of flat plates or finned tubes and condenses and liquefies air by making use of a coolant consisting of low-temperature hydrogen.
In the air condensor 5, the liquid hydrogen has its temperature raised by being exposed to the condensation heat of air, and is then fed into an air precooler 7. The air precooler 7 is provided to preliminarily cool the air introduced through an air duct 14 to about 90.degree. K. for the purpose of enhancing the air liquefying efficiency of the air condensor.
It is to be noted that since the liquefying temperature and the efficiency for liquefying air will change depending upon the pressure thereof, in the case where the rocket operates high up in the air at a high speed, the pressures in the air precooler 7 and the air condenser 5 should be raised appropriately by means of a ram pressure device or the like.
Liquid hydrogen having come out of the air precooler 7 is led through a pipe 8 to a combustor 19 of the rocket engine.
On the other hand, liquid oxygen at a temperature in the proximity of its triple point (about 55.degree. K.) stored in a liquid oxygen tank 9 is pressurized by means of a pump 11 and is led into a head portion of the air condenser 5. The liquid oxygen in the air condensor 5 is then sprayed in a shower-like manner into an air flow within an air duct 15 by means of a sprayer 13 so as to liquefy the air.
The condensed and liquefied air in the condensor 5 (the air having been liquefied by the coolants consisting of hydrogen and liquid oxygen) is mixed with the sprayed liquid oxygen, and after being pressurized by a pump 17, is fed to the combustor 19 of the rocket engine.
In the combustor 19, combustion is effected by the mixed fluid consisting of the fed liquid hydrogen, the liquefied air and the liquid oxygen. In this manner, high-temperature combustion gas is ejected through a nozzle and a propelling force is generated.
As described above, in the rocket engine shown in FIG. 5, the amount of liquefaction of the air is increased by spraying the low temperature liquid oxygen coolant from the sprayer 13, thereby raising the liquefying temperature due to the increase in the oxygen concentration of the air. Accordingly, the propelling force of the rocket engine is improved.
In an example of the prior art shown in FIG. 6, the construction is similar to that shown in FIG. 5, except that an axial flow type or centrifugal type air compressor 21 is added downstream of the air flow in the air condensor 5, and an auxiliary air condensor 23 is added downstream of the air compressor 21. This auxiliary air condensor 23 is cooled by hydrogen having a temperature of about 80.degree. K. fed from the air condensor 5.
In this example of the prior art, any remaining gaseous air (i.e. that which has not been liquefied in the air condensor 5) is compressed by the air compressor 21 to raise its pressure. Such compressed air is then led into the auxiliary air condensor 23.
The liquefying temperature (boiling point) of air will, of course, rise in accordance with a rise in pressure. In the engine shown in FIG. 6, since there are provided the air compressor 21 and the auxiliary condensor 23, the pressure of the air will rise. As a result, the liquefying temperature will increase and the amount of latent heat of liquefaction will decrease, thereby causing the amount of liquefaction to increase.
In addition, in FIGS. 5 and 6, reference numerals 2, 4, 6 and 6' designate liquid hydrogen pipes, numerals 10 and 12 designate liquid oxygen pipes, numerals 16 and 18 designate liquid air pipes, and numerals 20 and 22 designate air pipes.
In an air liquefaction cycle engine which employs the oxygen in air as an oxidizing agent while it is liquefying the air, the performance is determined by the magnitude of the amount of liquefied air produced by an air liquefier. Accordingly, an air liquefaction cycle engine can be improved by increasing the amount of liquefied air produced. In the prior art rocket engines shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, only liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen are relied upon as coolants for air liquefaction. Since the amount of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen is finite, the amount of liquefied air is correspondingly limited.


Disclosed is a method of gathering data from a hybrid RFID chip to determine usage of an item or article of clothing using a mobile device like a phone, laptop, or tablet. The hybrid RFID chip consists of a processor, a memory, a radio transceiver, a power harvesting antenna, and an impedance circuit that converts ambient radio frequency (RF) energy to electrical energy. The RFID chip receives a first power level from ambient RF energy and periodically broadcasts an identity. The mobile device can receive the broadcast identity, store the identity, transmit the identity and location to a remote server, and receive a notification message from the remote server. The remote serve can determine usage of the item or article of clothing by comparing current records to previous records of RFID chip identity, location, and mobile device application identity.

Radio-frequency identification (RFID) uses electromagnetic fields to energize tags attached to objects to identify the object and the object location. An RFID tag consists of a radio receiver, a radio transmitter, and a unique identification. When triggered by an electromagnetic interrogation pulse from a nearby RFID reader device, the tag broadcasts digital data, usually an identifying inventory number, back to the reader. This number can be used to inventory goods. There are two types. Passive tags are powered by energy harvested from radio waves emitted by the RFID reader. Active tags are powered by a battery and thus can be read at a greater range from the RFID reader, up to hundreds of meters. Unlike a barcode, the tag doesn't need to be within the line of sight of the reader, so it may be embedded in the tracked object.

RFID device with two-stage power harvesting


Documents represented as bitmap images are transformed into coded textual data and coded graphics data by graphics and textual recognizers, which use a standard notation for recording the results of the document recognition processes, including any ambiguities, in a document description language. Recognized portions of the document, represented as editable coded data, such as for example ASCII, are placed in elements, defined in the document description language, with all contents of an element sharing some common characteristic. Elements can include, for example: character-string-elements, questionable-character-elements, questionable-word-elements, verified-word-elements, alternate-word-elements, segment-elements, and arc-elements.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to document recognition, and in particular to methods and apparatus for recognizing textual and graphics structures in documents originally represented as bitmap images, and for recording the results of the recognition process.
2. Description of Related Art
Document recognition is the automatic transformation of paper documents into editable electronic documents. It entails the gradual transformation of bitmaps into structured components, through successive and recursive interventions of various processes. These processes include: page segmentation, character recognition, graphics recognition, logical structure reconstruction, spelling correction, semantic analysis, etc. All these processes are prone to misinterpretation. Not all processes keep a record of the misinterpretations they are aware of, and the ones that do keep a record have no standard way of doing so. As a consequence, downstream processes are generally not prepared to handle the record of ambiguities handed to them by upstream processes, and simply discard them. Valuable information is lost instead of being exploited for automatic improvement of the document recognition function. If, on the other hand, the ambiguity record is passed in its raw state to the user, the chore of making manual corrections can quickly outweigh the advantages of automatic recognition over a manual reconstruction of the entire document.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,914,709 and 4,974,260 to Rudak disclose an apparatus and method for identifying and correcting characters which cannot be machine read. A bitmap video image of the unrecognized character(s) is inserted in an ASCII data line of neighboring characters, thereby allowing an operator to view the character(s) in question in context to aid in proper identification of the character(s). Subsequently, with the aid of the video image, the operator enters the correct character(s) via a keyboard or other means. This apparatus and method require operator interaction to clarify any ambiguities resulting from an automatic document recognition process. The results of these ambiguities are not recorded in a notation that can be used by other downstream automatic devices.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,907,285 to Nakano et al discloses an image recognition system which uses a grammar for describing a document image, and parses statements expressed by the grammar to recognize the structure of an unknown input image. The grammar describes the image as substructures and the relative relation between them. In the parsing process, after the substructures and their relative relation are identified, a search is made as to whether the substructures and their relative relation exist in the unknown input image, and if they do, the inside of the substructures are further resolved to continue the analysis. If the substructures do not exist, other possibilities are searched and the structure of the unknown input image is thus represented from the result of the search. For example, the location of a rectangular region of the document which contains a statement defined by the document grammar (for example "TITLE" and "AUTHOR") is initially represented by variables. See FIG. 10 of U.S. Pat. No. 4,907,285. After locating this region in the document, the appropriate numeric values are substituted for the variables.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,949,188 to Sato discloses an image processing apparatus for synthesizing a character or graphic pattern represented by a page description language and an original image. The image processing apparatus generates a page description language including code data which represents characters, graphics patterns, and the like, and command data which causes a printer to print the original image. Ambiguities from previous document recognition processes are not recorded in the page description language. See, for example, the table in column 4, lines 5-10. Accordingly, any downstream device receiving the page description language cannot determine whether any ambiguities occurred in the previously performed document recognition processes.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,654,875 to Srihari et al discloses a method of automatic language recognition for optical character readers. Language in the form of input strings or structures is analyzed on the basis of: channel characteristics in the form of probabilities that a letter in the input is a corruption of another letter; the probabilities of the letter occurring serially with other recognized letters that precede the letter being analyzed or particular strings of letters occurring serially; and lexical information in the form of acceptable words represented as a graph structure. Ambiguities from upstream recognition processes are not recorded.
"Word Association Norms, Mutual Information, and Lexicography", by Kenneth W. Church and Patrick Hanks, Computational Linguistics, Vol. 16, No. 1 (March 1990) discloses a measure, referred to as an "association ratio" based on the information theoretic notion of mutual information, for estimating word association norms from computer readable corpora. This association ratio can be used by a semantics analyzer to determine a most likely word from a choice of two or more words that have been identified as possible words.
"On the Recognition of Printed Characters of Any Font and Size", by Simon Kahan, Theo Pavlidis and Henry S. Baird, IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, Vol. PAM1-9, No. 2 (March 1987), discloses a system that recognizes printed text of various fonts and sizes for the Roman alphabet. Thinning and shape extraction are performed directly on a graph of the run-length encoding of the binary image. The resulting strokes and other shapes are mapped, using a shape-clustering approach, into binary features which are then fed into a statistical Bayesian classifier. This system identifies multiple possible characters or words, and scores them. However, the uncertainty in the recognition processes is not recorded using the standard notation of the present invention.
In summary, a number of systems exist which can recognize graphics structures, text (characters, words, semantics, fonts) and logical structures (pages, paragraphs, footnotes), and which can determine the uncertainty with which the recognized feature was recognized. Accordingly, the above-identified patents and papers are incorporated herein by reference. However, none of these systems record the results of the recognition process (including uncertainties)in a manner which can be used by other devices. This results in much information (particularly regarding uncertainty) being lost, especially when different recognition systems (e.g., character recognizers, word recognizers, semantics analyzers) are used at different times (as opposed to being integrated into one system).

Method and apparatus for converting bitmap image documents to editable coded data using a standard notation to record document recognition ambiguities


Improved systems and methods for ocular topography and using a plenoptic detector are provided. For example, a multifunction ocular topography and aberrometry system can comprise a first set of light sources, a second light source, a plenoptic detector and a processing system coupled to the plenoptic detector. The first set of light sources and the second light source are configured to selectively illuminate an eye. The plenoptic detector is configured to selectively receive images of the first set of light sources reflected from a corneal surface of the eye and generate first plenoptic image data representing the images of the first set of light sources. The plenoptic detector is further configured receive images of the second light source reflected from a retina of the eye and generate second plenoptic image data representing the images of the second light source.

Many modern ophthalmic surgical procedures require accurate measurements of the eye. For example, measurements of aberrations of the eye are important for the diagnosis and treatment of visual defects and acuity. Furthermore, there are a growing number of ways that aberrations can be corrected using both surgical and non-surgical means. Many of these methods rely on accurate, precise measurements of the whole ocular system so that patients may be screened, the corrective means applied and tested, and follow-up care provided as appropriate.
One type of ocular measurement is generally referred to as ocular topography. In general, ocular topography is the measurement of the surfaces in an ocular system. For example, ocular topography can include the determination of the surface shapes of the cornea and lens. Each of these measurements can be useful in various surgical and non-surgical treatments, and improved accuracy and precision of these measurements may lead to improved methods for correcting visual defects, and for identifying patients in need of care.
Another type of ocular measurement is generally referred to as aberrometry. In general, aberrometry is the measurement of the effects of aberrations or refractive errors in the eye. Thus, aberrometry can provide a measurement of the optical quality of the eye, including the overall quality and local variations in quality. Typically, aberrometers can measure spherical and cylindrical aberrations. Some aberrometers can additionally measure higher order aberrations. Again, each of these measurements can be useful in various surgical and non-surgical treatments, and improved accuracy and precision of these measurements may lead to improved methods for correcting visual defects, and for identifying patients in need of care.
A variety of newer multifunction devices have become available that can measure both ocular topography and aberrometry. However, these multifunction devices can suffer from a variety of issues. For example, the accuracy of multifunction devices can be impaired without precise alignment between the different imaging devices used for ocular topography and aberrometry. Such precise alignment can usually be accomplished through calibration and the use of measured offsets, but in some cases misalignment may still occur and result in impaired accuracy. Furthermore, the use of two imaging devices can result in imaging at slightly different angles, with the possible result of impaired accuracy.
For these and other reasons there is a continuing need for improved ocular topography and aberrometry devices and techniques.

System and method for ocular aberrometry and topography using plenoptic imaging


An electromagnetic interference (EMI) shield may include a first shield section configured to be positioned on a first portion of an optical subassembly and a second shield section configured to be positioned on a second portion of the optical subassembly. The first shield section may be configured to contact the second shield section such that the first shield section and the second shield section are held in place when the first shield section and the second shield section are positioned, respectively, on the first portion and the second portion of the optical subassembly.

Some embodiments described herein relate to optoelectronic transceiver modules and other communication devices. More particularly, some embodiments may relate to shields configured to be positioned on optical subassemblies located within optoelectronic transceiver modules to reduce electromagnetic interference (EMI) emitted by and/or experienced by the optical subassemblies.
Communication modules, such as optoelectronic transceiver modules, may include various components that engage in the transmission and reception of optical signals. Some of the components may be housed within a shell of the optical transceiver module. Examples of such components may include a transmitter optical subassembly (TOSA) and/or a receiver optical subassembly (ROSA). The optical transceiver module itself is operably received within a host device that serves as one component of a communications network.
To engage in optical communication with other communications modules, the optoelectronic transceiver module may operably connect with a connectorized optical fiber. The optoelectronic transceiver module may include a transmit port and/or a receive port configured to receive the connector of the optical fiber. Optical signals may be received and/or transmitted by the optoelectronic transceiver module via the optical fiber.
Optical signals received by the optoelectronic transceiver module may be converted to electrical signals. Conversely, the optoelectronic transceiver module may convert electrical signals to optical signals for transmission. During operation, components of the optoelectronic transceiver module may produce and emit electromagnetic fields, or EMI, that may interfere with the operation of other components within and/or external to the optoelectronic transceiver module, particularly while the components operate at high frequencies.


A bias circuit that supplies bias voltage or bias current to one end of a transmission line includes an inductor that prohibits a high frequency component of a baseband signal transmitted on the transmission line and passes a frequency component near direct current of the baseband signal, and an impedance-decrease prevention element that prevents impedance from decreasing, when viewed from the transmission line, that is produced due to a resonance between a parasitic capacitance generated due to the inductor and an inductance of the inductor.

A bias circuit that can be used in a communication device that deals with signals whose spectrums are concentrated near a clock frequency, such as in the microwave communication, has been disclosure in the patent document 1. In the patent document 1, a technique is implemented that a short stub having a length of a quarter wave of a clock frequency is used to realize a high impedance near a signal spectral frequency to thereby decreasing impedance in a positive manner with respect to other frequencies including DC.
The patent document 2 discloses a technique for applying bias to a portion of high impedance, such as gate bias in a transistor. In the patent document 2, a resistor having sufficiently larger impedance than that in a transmission line is used to apply the bias.
In the approach of using the short stub of a quarter-wave length as disclosed in the patent document 1, however, a problem arises in that the stub can be used in an amplifying circuit that amplifies a signal whose spectrum is concentrated near a clock frequency, but can not be used in an amplifying circuit that amplifies a baseband signal that has a wide range of spectrum component.
The approach of using a resistor that has a substantially larger impedance than that in a transmission line as disclosed in the patent document 2 has a problem in that, for example, when applying bias voltage to a terminal necessary for current to be supplied such as a drain terminal, though the approach is rather easy to accommodate a tendency to growing broadband based on an original property of a resistor that fundamentally has a broadband property, it is necessary to apply bias voltage to which an amount of voltage drop in the resistor is added, thereby causing larger power source voltage.
To address these problems, there exists a bias circuit that has a property of high impedance with respect to a broadband signal and low impedance near DC (for example, the non-patent document 1 or the like). In such a bias circuit, an inductor is provided that blocks a broadband signal between bias power source and an object bias-applied.
Patent Document 1
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2000-196379
Patent Document 2
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H3-216003
Non-Patent Document 1
Anritsu Electronic Meter General Catalog (CD-ROM version) 2003, pp. 520
In the approach of blocking an alternating current (AC) signal by use of the inductor, it is necessary to use an inductor that has high inductance component, keeps an inductive property at a high frequency region, and has a good frequency property.
In the approach disclosed in the non-patent document 1, however, there exists a problem that, when mounting an inductor, even a slight amount of parasitic capacitance between a mounting pattern and a ground potential causes serial resonance, and the impedance of the bias circuit at the resonance frequency of the serial resonance becomes very low, so that the desired characteristic can not be achieved.
The problem is caused by a partial omission of a signal or a reduction in a signal level produced due to the fact that, when the serial resonance occurs, a frequency component of the broadband signal passing an input terminal near the resonance frequency flows, instead of flowing toward an output terminal, toward the bias circuit with low impedance.
Note that because information of a baseband signal is added to a value of current or voltage at a specific timing of a time axis, even a little amount of deleted specific frequency component or reduced signal level with respect to electric power of a signal in total translates to an increased error rate resulting from a degraded time wave.
In view of these circumstances, it is an object of the present invention to provide a bias circuit in which a baseband signal is prevented from being partially omitted, which results from resonance, and signal characteristic degradation is controlled.


A shirring blade assembly is added to a quilting machine to enable the fabrication of a shirred topmost quilting layer on an upper sleeping surface of a mattress fabricated by the machine. The various layers to be laminated into the quilted upper sleeping surface include filler and foam layers for resilience. As the various layers are fed through the quilting machine, the shirring blade assemblies reciprocate in and out to gather the material in the desired shirred configuration, and the configuration is fixed by stitching along selectively spaced stitch lines. The resulting product is cut, trimmed and beaded about its periphery, after which it is incorporated in a mattress.

1. Field of the Invention.
This invention relates to an improved mattress and body support surface construction and, more particularly, to one which results in a more comfortable, durable and esthetically pleasing product including a shirred outer surface.
2. Description of the Related Art.
Many ways of constructing mattresses and body support surfaces are known in the prior art. Among the more modern types of bedding are mattresses which comprise springs mounted in suitable supporting members, foam rubber or plastic inserts which provide the desired resiliency. Another common approach is to provide a plurality of water filled cylinders arranged within a central box or chamber and covered with an intermediate or buffer body support surface. Prior to the development of such a combination, bags in the shape of mattresses, filled with water (so-called "waterbeds"), were in common use in certain circles. These, however, developed an unfavorable connotation because of their extreme weight, propensity for leaking, the continuing wave action following any movement of the sleeper, and for other reasons. Air mattresses are in common use as available spare beds for overnight guests. In addition, mattresses incorporating individually adjustable pneumatic cylinders in place of the water filled elements mentioned above are coming into vogue. Foam mattresses are also known.
In many of these configurations, it is desirable to provide an upper sleeping surface with an intermediate or buffer layer of selected resilience to establish a buffer between the sleeper and the primary support mechanism. This is commonly achieved by the use of a separate mattress pad. One such pad which incorporates a fitted border with a tensioning means for holding the pad in place, relative to the mattress on which it is installed, is disclosed in Echevarria et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,042,986. The disclosed construction incorporates a buffer surface for placement along the upper side of a mattress with at least one layer of repeatedly impacted foam, quilted together with a ticking and a porous backing, together with fitted borders having tensioning means in order to compensate for particular mattress defects and enhance the comfort and esthetic appeal to the user of such a structure. This patent also discloses the methods of fabrication of such a mattress pad. The entire disclosure of U.S. Pat. No. 4,042,986 is incorporated herein by reference.
Echevarria U.S. Pat. No. 4,221,013 shows the construction of the sleeping surface of a fluid flotation sleep system incorporating a plurality of fluid-filled cylinders as the primary support medium. This patent discloses a centrally disposed urethane foam layer overlying the fluid-filled elements and covered with a quilted top surface of polyurethane foam and polyester ticking. The combination foam layer and ticking provides a rich finished appearance together with soft but firm surface feel which also provides substantial thermal insulation and may be attached to the urethane foam layer which overlies the fluid-filled elements.

Quilting and multiple layer shirring for bedding


Methods and systems for partitioning and dynamically merging a database index are described. A database index includes a single first-level index partition stored in a data cache. As the first-level index partition in the data cache reaches a predetermined size, it is copied to secondary storage and a new index partition is generated in the data cache. When the number of index partitions in secondary storage reaches some predetermined number, the index partitions are merged to create a single index partition of a higher level in a hierarchy of index partitions having an exponentially increasing size with each increase in level within the hierarchy.

Relational database management systems store data in relational databases referred to generally as tables. A table is a collection of records (e.g., rows) with defined structure (e.g., columns). Reading from a table the particular records that match some selection criteria typically requires that all records in the table be read and compared against the selection criteria to identify and select the rows satisfying the selection criteria. In order to speed up the selection of data, relational database management systems typically provide a mechanism for indexing the data with one or more database indices. Database indices map a value to a single record or set of records. Typically, an index payload contains a reference or set of references (e.g., a record number or page number and offset). The indices are typically much smaller than the table itself and therefore allow for faster identification and selection of records that satisfy given selection criteria. Searching a database table with an appropriate index is nearly equivalent, in terms of processing time, to reading a subset of records from the table.
Database indices are often implemented with a data structure referred to as a B-tree. A B-tree is a tree data structure that keeps data sorted and allows simple operations such as searches, insertions, and deletions to be realized in logarithmic amortized time. When using a B-tree to represent a database index, each node of the B-tree is a uniformly-sized index page that stores a group of index items. To limit the number of secondary storage (e.g., disk or flash memory drive) access operations required for each single page access, relational database management systems employ a data cache of a fixed-size, usually managed with a least recently used (LRU) algorithm. The data cache is then used to cache index pages in memory, as opposed to secondary storage, resulting in faster more efficient operations.
However, problems arise when the size of the index exceeds the size of the data cache. For instance, when the index fits into the fixed-size data cache in memory, operations on the index execute quickly (on the order of magnitude 10-100 microseconds on current hardware). However, when more and more data are added to the index and the index itself exceeds the fixed-size of the data cache, in all but a few very special cases, the performance of an insertion operation starts degrading very quickly since access to the secondary storage is orders of magnitude slower than memory access. In extreme cases such as when random or pseudo-random keys are utilized, most accesses to the index pages will require loading pages from, and writing pages to, the underlying secondary storage (on the order of magnitude 1-10 milliseconds per page on current hardware). When using a B-tree, accessing an index page (e.g., B-tree node) requires following a path in the tree from the index root page to an index leaf page, which is typically somewhere in the range of three to six pages. For example, as illustrated in the example B-tree 10 of FIG. 1, accessing the index leaf page 12 storing the value "28" requires following a path from the index root page 14 to an internal (non-leaf) page 16, and ultimately to the index leaf page 12. Thus, the performance degradation reaches at least two orders of magnitude.
In certain applications that utilize databases, high volumes of data may be generated and stored in a database without the need for modifying the data once it is stored. For example, some radio frequency identification (RFID) readers or scanners generate near constant streams of data, which represent events that need to be stored and indexed in real time. This RFID-based event data will typically not need to be modified, and in many cases will not be read. However, for the sake of accountability, the data must be available and in certain unusual circumstances the data will be read. In some large RFID-based systems, there may be several thousands of events being processed and stored per second. In a simplified approach, each event can be stored as a record in a database. Consequently, with large RFID-based systems, a database can grow in size rapidly.
With an extremely large database table, for performance reasons, processing a search query without an index by reading each record in the table is not a viable option. However, with extremely large database tables, a traditional database index gives rise to certain performance issues as well. For instance, utilizing a simple database index results in a very high input/output (I/O) load for processing potentially tens of thousands of pages per second. Furthermore, the amount of time required to perform an insert operation on the B-tree index becomes excessively long. This is due to the requirement that the index tree sub-paths be locked when modifying and rebalancing the nodes of the B-tree. Each lock on a tree sub-path must be held for a comparatively long time due to waiting on the completion of I/O processing, which in turn slows down parallel or concurrent writing transactions, and also the RFID readers or scanners. Consequently, even with an I/O system that is theoretically capable of sustaining the heavy I/O load, due to locking issues, performance may still suffer.
One common approach to address the problems that arise with extremely large database tables and corresponding database indices is to perform temporal partitioning of the index data. For example, referring to FIG. 2, there is illustrated a relational database management system 20 with a data cache 22 in memory storing an index partition 24. When the index partition 24 in the data cache 22 reaches a predetermined size, the index partition 24 is copied to secondary storage 26 and a new index partition is generated in the data cache 22. Consequently, when data are added to the database and the corresponding database index, insert operations are processed with the index partition 24 in the data cache 22 in memory, while older index partitions 28 in secondary storage 26 do not require locks for reading. This approach has one significant drawback. Although the performance of insert operations can be guaranteed because of the limited size of the index partition 24 in the data cache 22, there is no upper bound on read times. Specifically, as the database and corresponding database index grow over time, the number of index partitions 28 in secondary storage 26 increases linearly with time. When processing a read operation with the index, all of the index partitions in secondary storage 26 must be searched in order to find particular data satisfying particular data selection criteria. This means, the time needed for index read operations also increases linearly. Assuming random access to the data in the index partitions 28, virtually all page accesses will result in secondary storage access.

Method and system for dynamically partitioning very large database indices on write-once tables


Non-disruptive data migration from a source array to a destination array entails generating a virtual array spanning at least one destination array for receiving a copy of all data at the source array. The virtual array has at least as many virtual ports as physical source ports of the source array and at least as many logical units (LUNs) as the source array. Each source array LUN corresponds to a virtual array LUN and equals the storage capacity of that corresponding LUN. Each virtual port has a virtual port address. All data resident in the LUNs of the source array are copied to corresponding LUNs in the virtual array. A name server database is reconfigured to associate port names of the physical source ports with the virtual port addresses of the virtual ports such that the virtual array appears to a host as the source array.

Today's enterprise data centers store ever-larger amounts of business critical data that must be immediately and continuously available, and highly reliable. Information technologists, storage managers, and administrators of storage systems take many precautions to protect against the effects of failures in order to avoid downtime. Occasionally, however, a particular storage system, such as a storage array, requires upgrading or replacement.
To replace a current storage array with a new storage array, all data and connections on the current storage array must be migrated to the new array. The storage system then requires re-initialization. In addition, the host systems previously communicating with the replaced storage array require reconfiguration. This re-initialization and reconfiguration requires some downtime to complete; consequently, host applications can lose access to the storage array during this period, and potentially to some critical information. For many business systems running critical applications, this interruption is unacceptable.
In addition, many organizations employ a multi-vendor strategy that leads to a heterogeneous information technology (IT) environment. For example, some organizations maintain heterogeneous environments for reasons such as a tiered-storage practice, a legacy of decentralized purchasing decisions, or the result of a merger or acquisition. Many organizations also support a variety of operating systems in their data centers. Further, organizations may have aging but important applications running on older storage arrays. A consequence is that migration options are limited between heterogeneous storage arrays and multiple operating systems because of the complexity and the relative lack of adequate tools. The latest array-based copy tools are usually not compatible with the older arrays. Moreover, volume managers and multi-path software often have significant limitations with server-based migration tools. There is a need, therefore, for systems and methods of upgrading or replacing storage arrays transparently with respect to host systems communicating with the storage arrays, particularly in IT environments having heterogeneous storage arrays.

System and method of non-disruptive data migration between a full storage array and one or more virtual arrays


An improved method for the aerobic thermophilic treatment of organic material of the type in which air is passed through organic matter contained in a reactor, in which at least a portion of the air that has passed through the organic matter in the reactor being captured and again passed through the organic matter.

This invention relates to methods and systems for treating livestock wastes and other organic materials, and in particular to an improved aerobic thermophilic methods and systems for treating such materials.
There are numerous ways of treating livestock waste and other organic materials to break these materials down into less objectionable, useful products. One relatively inexpensive way is to flush the waste into lagoons where the waste can be broken down by bacteria and stored until final use (typically application to the soil to increase crop production). There are two basic types of lagoons, anaerobic and aerobic. In anaerobic lagoons, anaerobic bacteria (i.e., bacteria that do not need oxygen) break down the wastes. Anaerobic lagoons are the most common, because they are simple to construct and operate. However, while modem design techniques and proper management control minimize most problems, anaerobic lagoons can be the source of objectionable odors. In aerobic lagoons, aerobic bacteria (i.e., bacteria that need oxygen) break down the wastes. These lagoons need either a very large surface area or mechanical aeration to provide adequate oxygen for the bacteria. For this reason, aerobic lagoons are less common, even though they are less likely to be the source of objectionable odors.
More recently, aerobic thermophilic treatment (also referred to as A-T treatment) has been applied to livestock wastes. A-T treatment uses aerobic biological oxidation at thermophilic (high) temperatures (approximately 55xc2x0 C.) to achieve high pollutant reductions in a relatively short time. A-T treatment requires relatively little capital investment and achieves faster processing times and reduced odor production.
The methods and apparatus of the present invention relate to improvements in A-T treatment of livestock wastes and other organic materials. A-T treatment typically involves passing air through a reactor containing the waste or other organic material. Oxygen from the air is absorbed by the material in the reactor, promoting the microbial breakdown of the material in the reactor. According to the improvements of the present invention, at least a portion of the air that has passed through the organic matter in the reactor is captured and recycled through the organic material in the reactor. The inventor has discovered that a major loss of heat in A-T treatment systems is due to the evaporation of water into the air passing through the material in the reactor. However, once the air has passed through the material, it has been heated and humidified and retains as much as 85% of the available oxygen. Thus by recycling at least some of the air, and reducing fresh air, heat loss due to evaporation can be reduced, yet sufficient oxygen remains in the air for oxygenating the material in the reactor. The resulting process and system produce excess heat that can be productively used for heating buildings, etc.
In accordance with a first alternative embodiment of this invention, the reactor is substantially enclosed, and ammonia is removed from the air that has passed through the organic matter before that air is released to the atmosphere. Escaping ammonia in prior treatment systems is responsible for some of the odor associated with waste treatment, and results in significant loss of nitrogen.
In accordance with a second alternative embodiment of this invention, ammonia is removed from the air before it is again passed through the organic matter. The removal of ammonia not only reduces odors resulting from operation and reduces loss of nitrogen, but also helps promote the aerobic bacteria in the reactor so that the reduction of the waste is faster, more efficient, and more complete.

Advanced aerobic thermophilic methods and systems for treating organic materials

Board of Trustees of Southern Illinois University