The invention relates to a gas chromatograph for the analysis of gas samples. It has a feed arrangement for feeding the sample, an open tubular capillary column for separating the components of the sample, temperature control means for controlling the temperature of the column, and a detector for detecting the separated components of the sample. The efficiency has been improved and a convenient hand-held version has been made possible by constructing the column of a bundle of open tubular capillaries having a gas permeable wall comprising a polymer membrane. The invention also relates to the use of such a column together with a detector for identifying gaseous samples.

The chemical state of a gas phase sample is formed by vaporized or gaseous chemical species mixed with an ambient medium, typically environmental air. Instead of air, the medium can be process gases or vacuum. The detector is used to detect and identify defined chemical species in the defined surrounding media.
Characteristic for a chemical detector is its capability to convert a chemical state to an electrical signal and transmit the signal for further processing. Typically it is aimed at performing both qualitative and quantitative determination of defined chemical species in a defined ambient medium. In that case, a technical concern is that the detector output is not completely specific, but possesses sensitivity to other chemical species than those aimed at. This behaviour is often referred as cross-sensitivity and typically leads to false positive identification.
Two fundamental ways to reduce the cross-sensitivity problem of the chemical detectors are (i) the development of more specific sensors (where the sensor is considered as the first part of a measuring chain converting the input variable into a signal suitable for measurement) or (ii) performing chemical separation before detection. Typical solutions for the latter case are using chromatography techniques or filtration or controlled adsorption-desorption techniques or applying sample preparation procedures including for example dissolution, phase separation, extraction, chemical derivatization and ion exchange. In the case of detecting the gas phase chemical state, and more preferably when detecting minor constituents in the environmental air by a portable detector, the sample preparation steps are less favoured as they are difficult to automatize, difficult to mobilize and also time consuming, and thus not suitable for fast real-time monitoring.
Of the remaining possibilities, chromatography is a well-known method in analytical chemistry for performing chemical separation. Gas chromatography (GC) is a method of choice for the separation of stable and volatile compounds as well as of gas phase samples. The method accomplishes chemical separation by partitioning the components of a mixture between a mobile gas phase and a stationary solid or liquid phase held on a solid support. In a fixed chromatographic system the retention time (which is the time passing when the sample travels from the inlet through the column to the detector) is constant for a particular analyte and, therefore, can be used to identify it. Thus, although chromatography is primarily a separation technique, it is possible to identify the separated compounds of a complex sample by their retention times. The process is carried out in a GC instrument consisting typically of a sample feed arrangement, a carrier gas and its flow controller unit(s), one or more columns inside a chamber (typically equipped with a thermostat), and one or more of said chemical detectors.
A crucial technical component of GC in respect to separation power and thus resolution of the analysis is the column. Two basic columns can be distinguished: (i) the packed column and (ii) the open tubular or so called capillary column. The packed columns are constructed from tubing of e.g. stainless steel, nickel or glass, inner diameters ranging typically from 1 mm to 10 mm. The columns are packed with an inert support powder, usually diatomaceous earth with an average internal pore diameter of 1-10 μm and a particle size of 100-200 μm. The second column type, the open tubular capillary column, has a narrow internal diameter of 10-1000 μm. It is typically constructed of fused silica (a very high purity glass) while the outer wall is protected by hard and tough polymer, like polyimide. Furthermore, they are characteristically of tubular shape with an unrestricted flow path in the middle of the column. The inner fused silica surface is chemically modified by various type of coatings or films which provide so called stationary phases with different polarity and thus selectivity for the separation process. The stationary phase can be a liquid layer or a thin film typically made of polymer such as polysiloxane, silicone or polyamide, optionally functionalised in different ways. Factors such as chemistry, microstructure, morphology and thickness of the stationary phase film influence the total separation power of the column.
Of the column types, the open tubular capillary column is favoured in analytical chemistry due to its better separation power per total analysis time, better long-term stability and higher quality due to a more reproducible manufacturing process.
The use of open tubular GC capillary tubes in combination with various portable chemical detectors is well-known in the art as can be concluded from the following citations: U.S. Pat. No. 5,114,439 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,856,616 disclose the use of compact sized and low power consuming GC columns for portable applications. Also WO9941601 discloses the use of a combined specific sampling system and a low power consuming GC column. Furthermore, U.S. Pat. No. 4,888,295 discloses the use of "a commercially available" GC column in combination with detector formed by an array of electrochemical sensors (CPS), and U.S. Pat. No. 6,354,160 discloses the use of a GC column in parallel with SAW-sensor based detectors, where the open tubular GC columns may also be those formed on silicon wafers.
Applying the GC method in portable devices, and preferably in hand-held size devices, requires devices which are low-power consuming, light and compact sized and have a fast detection while still maintaining a high resolution through high separation power. So far, the improvements of portable devices have mainly concerned the use of high column temperatures as well as improvements in temperature control and in the construction of the heating system. Furthermore, prior art improvements have concerned modifications of the carrier gas flow as well as design of special sampling and detecting systems.
Other ways for improving the GC method's suitability to portable applications have included shorter columns and columns with smaller inner diameter in order to enhance the efficiency and the speed of the analyses. However, these improvements will lead to reduced separation or alternatively, they will reduce the sample volume and increase significantly the power requirement and thus the cost and dimensions of the pump due to increased pressure drop in the column. The drawbacks of using a low sample volume is that it typically leads to weakened response by the detector and increased sensitivity to local variations in the sample leading thus poorer accuracy in retention time. Also controlling small volumes of fluid can be a technically demanding as well as an expensive solution.
These drawbacks have been overcome by using a column which comprises a bundle of open tubular capillaries. See e.g. Baumbach et al. (1997) and Baumbach et al. (2000).
Such columns are manufactured and/or sold by only a few companies, namely, Alltech Associates Inc. (Deerfield, Ill., USA), ChemSpace s.r.o (Pardubice, Czech Republic), Sibertech (Novosibirsk, Russia). The advantages of multicapillary columns are that they provide short retention times and thus fast detection times at sufficiently high resolution and separation capability. Furthermore, they retain high efficiency over a wide range of carrier gas flow rates and, thus, compared to conventional single capillary columns, they can be operated with larger sampling volumes that are easy to inject and detect.
Thus, the properties of the claimed multicapillary column makes it ideal for a hand-portable gas chromatograph.
However, since multicapillary columns are typically formed by hundreds of single capillary columns, it is difficult to obtain uniform thermal distribution with low power consumption for the sufficiently massive bundles, which reduces the accuracy of the GC analysis.
Even though multicapillary GC columns facilitate much higher sampling flow rate (or carrier gas flow rate) through the column than a single open tubular GC column, the compatible gas flow rate for conventional multicapillary columns still remains below 300 ml/min. In some detector types this flow rate can be still far too low. Such detector is, for example, a hyphenated multisensor-ion mobility spectrometer designed for detecting gaseous chemical species in the environmental air by direct flow-through principle as described in references WO9416320 and Utriainen et al. (2003).
The detector employs a special type of ion mobility spectrometer (IMS) referred to as aspiration condenser type or open loop type IMS combined with other sensors such as semiconductor gas sensors, temperature and humidity sensors. The detector is manufactured for hand-held and portable chemical detector devices under trademarks such as ChemPro100, M90-D1-C (Environics Oy, Mikkeli, Finland) and MultiIMS (Dräger Safety, Lubeck, Germany). Further characteristic for this detector is that it employs continuous, typically 800-3500 ml/min, preferably 1000-2000 ml/min flow-through providing thus good statistical sampling accuracy and fast response and recovery times which are all essential features especially when aiming at to provide reliable early warning of the presence of toxic substances in the air. Characteristic feature for this detector is also that the sensitivity depends on flow rate in such manner that the higher flow rate is favored. Other characteristic features of the detector are the sensitivity to rapid flow (and pressure) changes and rapid and large humidity and temperature changes.


A method and system for decoding a transport stream are disclosed. In one embodiment, the method includes receiving a system information table in the transport stream, reading an activation time from the system information table, storing the table in a memory without activating values contained in the system information table, determining when the activation time is reached, and activating the values contained in the system information table when the activation time is reached. An advantage of the present invention is that the program and system information tables can be transmitted less frequently and still allow the receiver to execute the acquired xe2x80x9cnextxe2x80x9d tables in a timely manner, once the tables have been received for the first time and their activation times have arrived. Another advantage of the present invention is its backward compatibility with the existing protocol formats, because the present invention requires no syntactic modification to the existing table formats.

The present invention relates to the decoding of digital transport streams such as MPEG-2 bitstreams, and in particular to a method and system for scheduled activation of system information tables in transport streams.
In digital television systems or services, such as those compliant with the ATSC Digital Television Standard and/or MPEG-2 protocols, tables containing various program and system information form part of the transport stream. One such table is a xe2x80x9cvirtual channel tablexe2x80x9d (in ATSC nomenclature), also known as a channel map. This channel map provides information regarding major and minor channel numbers, carrier frequencies, program numbers and other useful information for all of the virtual channels supported by the system. The virtual channel table syntax includes a xe2x80x9ccurrent_next_indicator,xe2x80x9d which indicates whether the channel map being provided is currently valid or will become valid xe2x80x9cnextxe2x80x9d (i.e. once the currently valid channel map is no longer valid). Other program and system information tables also include a xe2x80x9ccurrent_next_indicator.xe2x80x9d
When a channel map or other table is to be valid xe2x80x9cnext,xe2x80x9d the receiver cannot anticipate when the table will become xe2x80x9ccurrent.xe2x80x9d As a result, when the table becomes xe2x80x9ccurrent,xe2x80x9d it must be processed immediately in real time by the receiver. In order for channel map changes and other table changes to be reflected quickly at the receiver, the tables must be transmitted in the transport stream as frequently as possible, consuming valuable bandwidth in the transport stream. For channel maps in particular, this problem becomes more significant as increasing numbers of channels must be described in the channel maps. The channel maps must be transmitted along with a large amount of other program data such as program titles, descriptions, schedules, categories and ratings, as well as the packetized elementary streams containing audio and video data, all of which compete for the limited available bandwidth.
Therefore, a need has arisen for a method and system for handling system information tables that address the disadvantages and deficiencies of the prior art. In particular, a need has arisen for a method and system for scheduled activation of system information tables in transport streams.
Accordingly, a method for decoding a transport stream is disclosed. In one embodiment, the method includes receiving a system information table in the transport stream, reading an activation time from the system information table, storing the table in a memory without activating values contained in the system information table, determining when the activation time is reached, and activating the values contained in the system information table when the activation time is reached.
A transport stream reception system is also disclosed. In one embodiment, the system includes a receiver with a memory for storing data. The receiver also has a decoder that receives a system information table in a transport stream, reads an activation time from the system information table, stores the table in the memory without activating values contained in the system information table, determines when the activation time is reached, and activates the values contained in the system information table when the activation time is reached.
An advantage of the present invention is that the program and system information tables can be transmitted less frequently and still allow the receiver to execute the acquired xe2x80x9cnextxe2x80x9d tables in a timely manner, once the tables have been received for the first time and their activation times have arrived. Another advantage of the present invention is its backward compatibility with the existing protocol formats. This is because the present invention requires no syntactic modification to the existing table formats. Instead, a new descriptor, called activation_time_descriptor( ), is defined for inclusion in those tables that actually utilize the current_next_indicator_ to aid the processing in the receiver, such as channel tuning. As a result, the descriptor can be discarded by the receivers that do not recognize it.

Method and system for scheduled activation of system information tables in digital transport streams


The present disclosure generally relates to a method for electroplating (or electrodeposition) a transition metal oxide composition that may be used in gas sensors, biological cell sensors, supercapacitors, catalysts for fuel cells and metal air batteries, nano and optoelectronic devices, filtration devices, structural components, and energy storage devices. The method includes electrodepositing the electrochemically active transition metal oxide composition onto a working electrode in an electrodeposition bath containing a molten salt electrolyte and a transition metal ion source. The electrode structure can be used for various applications such as electrochemical energy storage devices including high power and high-energy primary or secondary batteries.

Lithium ion batteries (LIBs) have spurred great interest in the realm of energy crisis owing to their high energy densities. They are comprised of a cathode, which host Li ions, a Li+ containing electrolyte submerged into a separator and an anode in which Li ions can be inserted into and de-inserted from. LIBs are ubiquitous devices where they find useful applications ranging from watches, cell phones, laptops and electric vehicles. In a commercial LIB, graphite has been used as an anode where Li ions can be inserted at around 0.1-0.2V (versus Li+/Li). In a typical commercial LiCoO2 electrode if coupled with graphite anode delivers an average output potential of 3.7V. This electrode configuration is one of the most widely used battery architecture in the LIB market. Graphite anodes, however are limited with a specific capacity (350 mAh/g) where next generation LIBs will require high density anode active materials. For this particular reason, metal oxides are promising alternatives for anode applications in LIBs. They exhibit three times higher specific capacities (1200 mAh/g) than that of the commercially available anodes (see Shijiao Sun, Xiangyu Xhao, Meng Yang, Zhaoyin Wen, Xiaodong Shen, Hierarchically ordered mesoporous Co3O4 materials for high performance li-ion batteries, Scientific Reports 6, Article number 19564, 2016). Although a LIB consisting of Co based metal oxide anode delivers a low output potential (2V), this feature has attracted chip and optic industries where lower operating voltages are required in order to protect electronics. It is also plausible to increase the output potential with Mn based metal oxide as an anode active material.
Transition metal oxides are long sought alternative anode active materials for lithium ion batteries owing to their high capacities. Myriad of methods have been tried to manufacture transition metal oxides. Conventional techniques such as wet chemical processes, solid state synthesis, hydrothermal, vapor-based depositions, electrodeposition in aqueous media have all been used to obtain metal oxides. For example, Z.-S. Wu, W. Ren, L. Wen, L. Gao, J. Zhao, Z. Chen, G. Zhou, F. Li and H.-M. Cheng, ACS Nano, 4, 3187 (2010) reported Co3O4 anode material prepared by a wet chemical process. Their material showed drastic capacity fade even after 10 cycles due to volume expansion and low conductivity. In addition, the reported method is time consuming and economically not viable for large scale production. Their reported poor electrochemical performance is also another bottleneck. Furthermore, this synthesis technique has a multi-step protocol in which the final material has to be mixed with other additives such as carbon, binder which is usually followed by coating the active particles via slurry casting machines. These steps require rigorous care and minor mistakes can cost money and time.


A wound laminate obtained by laminating a plastic film composed of an aromatic polycarbonate comprising bisphenol A as an aromatic dihydroxy component, and a protective film composed of an aromatic polyester, using an intervening adhesive having a weak adhesive strength of 3-50 gf (0.0294-0.49 N), and winding the laminate. The wound laminate is used as a transparent protective layer (protective film) for an optical disk to fabricate a film surface side-incident optical disk.

Polycarbonate resins are widely used for optical applications because of their excellent transparency, impact resistance, heat resistance, dimensional stability and workability. For example, various types of laser light optical disks have been researched, developed and marketed as high-density, large-capacity recording media. In particular, with the recent advent of the multimedia age, various techniques have begun to be developed to allow recording of large volumes of video data on optical disks. One of the technologies that has been proposed is a film surface side-incident optical disk wherein data is read from one side utilizing a protective film surface side opposite to the side of the polycarbonate substrate, and this has been described in several publications. These include Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) HEI No. 8-235638, "One-Sided 12 Gbyte Large-Capacity Optical Disk" (O plus E, Vol.20, No.2, p.183 (February, 1998)) and "Optical Disks and Peripheral Materials 98-2" (Summary of Lectures by the Japan Polymer and Optical Electronics Research Society, (Jan. 22, 1999)).
Referring to FIG. 1, such film surface side-incident techniques are characterized in that a data recording layer 2 consisting of a reflective film or recording film is formed on at least one side of a disk substrate 1 having a pattern of irregularities such as pits or grooves, on which there is further formed a thin film surface of about 0.1 mm thereover, and in that the film surface is formed by laminating a plastic film 4 onto the disk substrate through an adhesive layer 3. Data recording and reading is accomplished from the film surface side, and laser light focused through a lens 5 is applied onto the irregularity pattern.
When a transparent protective layer is adhered onto the optical disk substrate, it is considered preferable in terms of productivity to successively attach the plastic film which is to serve as the transparent protective layer onto the optical disk substrate, by pulling it out from a wound laminate of the plastic film. However, films intended for optical purposes which require extremely flat surfaces have poor slidability due to their high flatness, and normally cannot be wound into rolls as wound laminates.
Most conventional polycarbonate wound laminates for optical purposes are obtained by laminating an adhesive protective film onto a polycarbonate film. That is, an extremely flat plastic film for optical use is laminated by attachment of a protective film with a weakly adhesive side, whereby not only is that surface protected, but the structure of the opposite side of the protective film is also suitably rough to facilitate sliding so that the laminated film can be easily wound into long rolls. Such a protective film has a structure formed, for example, by coextrusion of polymers such as polyethylene and polyvinyl acetate, with the polyvinyl acetate side exhibiting adhesion for the polycarbonate film side. The films are attached together just prior to winding and gently nipped and taken up with a winder to produce a wound laminate.
As the step of forming a thin transparent protective layer on an optical disk, particularly using a polycarbonate film as the plastic film in a wound laminate, a polyethylene/polyvinyl acetate coextruded protective film was pulled out from a wound laminate, the protective film was released from the laminate and disk of the polycarbonate film was punched out and attached onto a polycarbonate optical disk. However, optical disks provided with thin transparent protective layers formed in such a manner have numerous irregularities (optical distortions) on the surface which are readily visible (although such surface irregularities are often invisible under ordinary light), and it has been confirmed that such surface irregularities (optical distortions) are a cause of major output fluctuations during signal input and output to and from the optical disk.
The present invention has been achieved in light of the circumstances described above, and its object is to provide a would laminate for a thin plastic film for data recording media which exhibits none of the problems alluded to above, allows large-capacity media to be obtained in an inexpensive manner, and offers greater convenience and industrial productivity, as well as an optical disk production process employing the wound laminate.


A method of contrast enhancement for improved visualization of diagnostically important tissue structures, such as blood vessels. A texture analysis algorithm is applied to identify regions with a high likelihood of disease. Mathematical morphology operations are applied to identify areas of high and low brightness (intensity). The low intensity areas are then subtracted, and controllably variable amounts of the high intensity areas are added, controlled by a selectable tuning parameter, to produce an image with controllably variable visualization enhancement.

Although this invention is being disclosed in connection with cervical cancer, it is applicable to many other areas of medicine. Visual inspection is common practice in the field of medicine to detect and/or diagnose a disease. For example, a colposcopic examination involves a systematic visual evaluation of the lower genital tract (cervix, vulva, and vagina) with the purpose of identifying and ranking the severity of lesions, so that biopsies representing the highest-grade abnormality can be taken, if necessary.
At times, visualization enhancement techniques are employed in medical imaging to improve the identification of diagnostically significant tissue structures. In colposcopy, different colored filters are used to accentuate blood vessel patterns that cannot be easily seen by using regular white light. A green filter is commonly used and blocks all light except green light and allows for the increased visualization of cervical blood vessel patterns. Three different abnormal blood vessel patterns can be distinguished during a colposcopic exam: mosaic, punctation and atypical; all of which are major diagnostic features in the identification of pre-cancerous regions of the cervix (Reid, R., Herschman, B. R., Crum, C. P., Fu, Y. S., Braun, L., Shah, K. V. et al., Genital warts and cervical cancer. V. The tissue basis of colposcopic change, Am. J. Obstet. Gynecol. 149(3): 293-303. 1984, incorporated herein by reference; Reid, R. and Scalzi, P., Genital warts and cervical cancer. VII. An improved colposcopic index for differentiating benign papillomaviral infections from high-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia, Am. J. Obstet. Gynecol. 153(6): 611-618. 1985, incorporated herein by reference; D. G. Ferris, J. T. Cox, D. M. O'Connor, V. C. Wright, and J. Foerster, Modern Colposcopy. Textbook and Atlas, pp. 1-699, American Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology, 2004, incorporated herein by reference).
The implementation of the green filter visual enhancement is commonly accomplished by filtering the standard white light by placing a green-colored optical filter at the output end of the light source, i.e. illuminating the cervix with green light, or by placing a green-colored filter between the cervix and the colposcope detection optics, i.e. filtering the reflected white light before being detected, either visually by the operator or electronically with an imaging sensor. These approaches have a number of drawbacks: First, the use of colored filters reduces the amount of light available and could result in a decrease in image quality. Second, colored filters add cost and mechanical complexity in that a filter assembly must be incorporated which allows for both standard white light and green filtered light during the colposcopic exam. Third, colored filters are limited to the colors of the filters.
In digital colposcopy, in which images or videos of the cervix are electronically captured using a light sensitive imaging sensor and displayed on an external monitor, other visualization enhancement techniques can be employed. The current invention applies image algorithms in the form of mathematical morphology operations in order to enhance the contrast between the cervical blood vessel patterns and the surrounding tissue, and as such provides a non-physical implementation for the increased visualization of blood vessel structures, similar to the effect of using an optical green filter.
Mathematical morphology is a technique for the analysis and processing of geometrical structures and has been used, as related to the current invention, in the automated analysis of vessels from angiograms (K. Sun and N. Sang, Enhancement of vascular angiogram by multiscale morphology, in Bioinformatics and Biomedical Engineering, 1311-1313 (2007), incorporated herein by reference), micro-calcification analysis from mammograms (Wirth, M., Fraschini, M., and Lyon, J., Contrast enhancement of microcalcifications in mammograms using morphological enhancement and non-flat structuring elements, Proc. 17th IEEE Symposium on Computer-Based Medical Systems, (2008), incorporated herein by reference) and brain magnetic resonance imaging (J. D. Mendiola-Santibanez, I. R. Terol-Villalobos, G. Herrera-Ruiz, and A. Fernandez-Bouzas, Morphological contrast measure and contrast enhancement: One application to the segmentation of brain MRI, Signal Processing 87, (2008), incorporated herein by reference).
By implementing the visualization enhancement as an algorithm applied to an image of the cervix offers several advantages compared to the optical green filter approach. First, the algorithm approach will not reduce the amount of light and will maintain the image quality of the captured images or videos. Second, no incremental cost or mechanical complexity is added. Third, the algorithm implementation can provide the capabilities of variable visualization enhancements similar to different filter characteristics (such as color) by changing one or several algorithm parameters. Fourth, the algorithm approach can be applied to the standard white light image, providing an image display that is more pleasingly to the human eye. Fifth, image pre-processing steps can be performed to further improve the visualization enhancement. One such step would be to segment the images into different regions and apply the visualization enhancement to some of these regions only; for example, only those regions with a high likelihood of finding pre-cancerous or cancerous lesions.
Applying a visual enhancement algorithm as described in the current invention to uterine cervical images can provide the physician with increased visualization of blood vessel patterns that are sometimes difficult to detect by the naked eye. Such an algorithm could assist the physician in the identification of diagnostically important structures and provide important information in the diagnostic process.
Although many of the algorithms described in the present invention are well-known in the art, the inventors are unaware of another contrast enhancement method combining a pre-processing step to identify regions with high likelihood of disease, a mathematical morphology step to identify high and low intensity regions, and applying a tuning parameter for variable visualization enhancements, all as described later, which achieves unexpectedly better results.
The following patents and patent applications may be considered relevant to the field of the invention:
U.S. Pat. No. 6,147,705 to Krauter et al, incorporated herein by reference, discloses a video colposcope which includes a system microcomputer having algorithms for color balance levels stored into memory. A video camera obtains a subject electronic image of a subject object, and using algorithm-driven digital signal processing circuitry (DSP), color saturation, hue, and intensity levels of the subject electronic image are modified according to previously stored DSP reference filter algorithms and reference color balance levels, thus producing a modified electronic image corresponding to the subject electronic image. The modified electronic image is outputted to a display in continuous real time as the corresponding subject image is obtained by the video camera. This modified electronic image emulates that obtained through an optical green filter and incorporates a simulated white balance.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,277,067 to Blair, incorporated herein by reference, discloses a method and portable apparatus for the visual examination and grading of cervical epithelium by means of a hand-held colposcope assembly capable of producing a digital image of the cervix. This invention enables real-time imaging and archiving of the entire cervix for the purpose of detecting cancerous and pre-cancerous tissue and by virtue of computerized image processing to suggest an objective diagnosis of the cervical epithelium by means of a low cost, portable, hand-held digital colposcope.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,032,070 to Flock et al., incorporated herein by reference, discloses a system and method to view an anatomical structure such as blood vessels in high contrast with its surrounding tissue. The system and method is used to produce an image of an anatomical structure using reflected electromagnetic radiation singularly scattered from target tissue. The system and method also provide same-side illumination and detection of reflected electromagnetic radiation in a convenient integral imaging device. The system and method also provides helmet mounted imaging technology in a single integral helmet which allows the wearer to view an anatomical structure located within a patient such that the image is continuously orientated according to the orientation to the helmet wearer's head. The system and method is also used in the performance of venipuncture. The system and method provide improved contrast between any anatomical structure and its surrounding tissue for use in any imaging system.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,305,111 to Arimura et al., incorporated herein by reference, discloses a method, system, and computer program product for detecting at least one nodule in a medical image of a subject, including identifying, in the medical image, an anatomical region corresponding to at least a portion of an organ of interest; filtering the medical image to obtain a difference image; detecting, in the differenced image, a first plurality of nodule candidates within the anatomical region, calculating respective nodule feature values of the first plurality of nodule candidates from the first plurality based on pixel values of at least one of the medical images and the differenced image; removing false positive nodule candidates from the first plurality of nodule candidates based on the respective nodule feature values to obtain a second plurality of nodule candidates; and determining the at least one nodule by classifying each of the second plurality of nodule candidates as a nodule or a non-nodule based on at least one of the pixel values and the respective nodule feature value. True-positive nodules are identified using linear discriminant analysis and/or a MultiMTANN.
US Patent Application Ser. No. 2005/0100208 to Susuki et al., incorporated herein by reference, discloses a method, system, and computer program product for modifying an appearance of an anatomical structure in a medical image, e.g., rib suppression in a chest radiograph. The method includes: acquiring, using a first imaging modality, a first medical image that includes the anatomical structure; applying the first medical image to a trained image processing device to obtain a second medical image, corresponding to the first medical image in which the appearance of the anatomical structure is modified; and outputting the second medical image. Further, the image processing device is trained using plural teacher images obtained from a second imaging modality that is different from the first imaging modality. In one embodiment, the method also includes processing the first medical image to obtain plural processed images, wherein each of the plural processed images has a corresponding image resolution; applying the plural processed images to respective multi-training artificial neural networks (MTANNs) to obtain plural output images, wherein each MTANN is trained to detect the anatomical structure at one of the corresponding image resolutions; and combining the plural output images to obtain a second medical image in which the appearance of the anatomical structure is enhanced.
US Patent Application Ser. No. 2006/0018548 to Chen et al., incorporated herein by reference, discloses a method, system, and computer software product for analyzing medical images, including obtaining image data representative of a plurality of medical images of the abnormality, each medical image corresponding to an image of the abnormality acquired at a different time relative to a time of administration of a contrast medium, each medical image including a predetermined number of voxels; partitioning each medical image into at least two groups based on the obtained image data, wherein each group corresponds to a subset of the predetermined number of voxels, and each group is associated with a temporal image pattern in the plurality of medical images; selecting, from among the temporal patterns, an enhancement temporal pattern as representative of the abnormality; and determining, based on the selected temporal pattern, a medical state of the abnormality.
US Patent Application Ser. No. 2006/0147101 to Zhang et al., incorporated herein by reference, discloses a method for computer-aided detection of microcalcification clusters that obtains digital mammography data for a single view image and normalizes and filters the image data to reduce noise. A first mask is generated and applied to the image data for defining the breast structure, forming a first cropped image. A second mask is generated and applied to the image data for defining muscle structure, forming a second cropped image. An artifact mask corresponding to vascular calcifications and known imaging artifacts is generated and applied to the first and second cropped images, defining first and second artifact-masked cropped images. In a repeated sequence, portions of each artifact-masked cropped image are processed using an enhancement algorithm and reducing edge effects to obtain a set of microcalcification cluster candidates and suspected microcalcification clusters. Image processing algorithms remove false positives from the listing of microcalcification clusters and classify candidate microcalcification clusters to identify true positives.
US Patent Application Ser. No. 2006/0184002 to Yarnykh et al., incorporated herein by reference, discloses a reduced field-of-view (FOV) imaging technique that combines suppression of signals from outer volume and inflowing blood. Both outer volume and blood suppression are achieved using an SFQIR (Small-FOV Quadruple-inversion-Recovery) preparative pulse sequence including two double-inversion pulse pairs separated by appropriate delays. Within each pair, inversion pulses are successively applied to the imaged slice and the slab orthogonal to the imaging plane, with the thickness equal to the FOV size in the phase-encoding direction. Each double-inversion results in a reinversion of the magnetization in a central part of the FOV, while outer areas of the FOV and inflowing blood remain inverted. The SFQIR module was implemented for single-slice and multislice acquisition with a fast spin-echo readout sequence. Timing parameters of the sequence corresponding to the maximal suppression efficiency can be found by minimizing variation of the normalized signal over the entire range of T.sub.1 occurring in tissues.
US Patent Application Ser. No. 2007/0165921 to Agam et al., incorporated herein by reference, discloses a method for improving a thoracic diagnostic image for the detection of nodules. Non-lung regions are removed from the diagnostic image to provide a lung image. Vessels and vessel junctions of the lung(s) in the lung image are enhanced according to a first-order partial derivative of each of a plurality of voxels of the lung image. A vessel tree representation is constructed from the enhanced vessels and vessel junctions. The vessel tree representation can be subtracted from the lung image to enhance the visibility of nodules in the lung(s).
US Patent Application Ser. No. 2008/0051660 to Kakadaris et al., incorporated herein by reference, discloses a set of intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) related systems, apparatuses and methods. New catheter designs including contrast agent introduction subsystems and/or Doppler subsystems are disclosed. Methods for acquiring and analyzing Doppler data from intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) catheters are disclosed. RF-based detection of blood and/or contrast agents such as micro-bubbles are disclosed. Methods for frame-grating image data analysis permitting frame registration before, during and after a contrasting effect is imposed on a system being imaged are disclosed. Methods for difference imaging for contrast detection are disclosed. Methods for quantification and visualization of IVUS data are disclosed. And methods for IVUS imaging are disclosed.
US Patent Application Number to Shen et al., incorporated herein by reference, discloses a method and system for automatically detecting rib metastasis in a thoracic CT volume. The ribs are segmented in said CT volume by recursive tracing. A series of cross-sectional images are then generated along a centerline of each rib. Cortical and trabecular bone structures are segmented in each of the cross-sectional images for each rib. Features are calculated for each cross-sectional image based on characteristics of the cortical and trabecular bone structures, and alterations are detected in the cross-sectional images based on the features. Rib metastasis is detected in a rib when an alteration is detected in a number of consecutive cross-sectional images along the centerline of the rib.

Methods of contrast enhancement for images having blood vessel structures


A voice-controlled system is described that can be accessed by a mobile computing device. A user can communicate requests using natural language utterances. A microphone can collect the utterances and provide them to the mobile computing device. The mobile computing device can transmit the human utterance to a voice interface system. The voice interface system can utilize user preferences when executing the request to provide a personalized user experience. Computer-implemented methods are also described herein.

As mobile computing devices, such as smart phones, tablets, and the like, become increasingly ubiquitous and their functionality increases, users often operate such personal devices while in a vehicle. These mobile computing devices often remain connected to a data network over wireless air interfaces. Some vehicles with a graphical user interface provide a data connection between a passenger's mobile computing device and the graphical user interface, thereby allowing information received over the cellular network wireless air interface to be provided to the vehicle's graphical user interface.


A cutting apparatus for forming a noncircular cross-section on a workpiece that includes a tool advancing and retreating device. The tool advancing and retreating device includes a central shaft on which is to be mounted a tool, a journal for supporting the central shaft, a movable plate fixed to the central shaft, and electromagnets positioned opposite to one another such that the movable plate is interposed between the electromagnets with a clearance between the plate and the electromagnets. A device is provided for detecting the rotational angle of the main shaft and a displacement sensor is included for detecting the longitudinal displacement of the central shaft. A speed sensor detects the speed of the longitudinal displacement of the central shaft and an arrangement is provided for controlling the electric current passing through the electromagnets based on the output signals from the rotational angle detecting device, from the displacement sensor and from the speed sensor. The journal that supports the central shaft includes a mount and a plurality of leaf springs which are secured to the central shaft and to a holder. The holder is also secured to the mount.

(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cutting apparatus for a noncircular cross section for machining a workpiece having a noncircular cross section such as a piston for an internal combustion engine, an outer circumferential surface of which has a noncircular cross section.
(b) Description of the Prior Art
Heretofore, in order to work a workpiece having a noncircular cross section, a profiling machining process using a master cam has often been utilized. Such profiling machining process has several disadvantages, for example, it is necessary to use the master cam, the manufacture of which requires much time and cost. Further, the configuration of the master cam which can be formed is restricted to a certain allowable extent because of its peculiar problem of making the master cam, and therefore it is impossible to form the workpiece to an optional configuration.
Furthermore, since a follow-up characteristic of a profiling machining device is restricted, the workpiece is limited in the increase of its relating speed, and thus it is impossible to drive the device at high speed, and therefore it is difficult to shorten a cycle-time.
In some instances, an outer diameter cutting process by NC-control without using the master cam is utilized. This process is possible at low speed, however, it is impossible at high speed. That is because, in a hydraulic servo-system, a response characteristic of a servo-valve is low and thus a response speed of a hydraulic cylinder can not be increased. Further, the control of the oil temperature is difficult and thus the response characteristic of the cylinder is changed owing to the variation of the oil temperature. On the other hand, in a system utilizing the servo-motor, the servo-motor is frequently changed or reversed in its rotational direction, and thus the response characteristic of the servo-motor can not be improved because of various factors such as inertia of the motor, elastic deformations of a ball screw and of a feed table.
It is an object of the present invention, therefore, to provide a cutting apparatus for a noncircular cross section in which the above-described various disadvantages of the prior art are eliminated, that is: the problem of the follow-up characteristic as in the conventional profiling machining device can be eliminated. the workpiece can be rotated at a high speed to be subject to a high speed cutting operation; the cycle-time of the machine can be substantially decreased; any configuration of the workpiece can be machined the change of the configuration of the workpiece can easily be accommodated by said apparatus; and high accuracy of working can be maintained for a long time.

Cutting apparatus for a noncircular cross section


A developer supply nozzle moves from a first end toward a second end of a substrate for supplying a developer to the overall main surface of the substrate. After a lapse of a required developing time, a rinse discharge nozzle moves from the first end toward the second end of the substrate for supplying a rinse to the overall main surface of the substrate. A partition plate is provided for preventing the rinse discharged from a slit discharge port of the rinse discharge nozzle onto the substrate from flowing frontward in the direction of movement of the rinse discharge nozzle or washing away the developer supplied onto the substrate frontward.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for developing an exposed photoresist film formed on the surface of a substrate such as a semiconductor wafer, a glass substrate for a liquid crystal display, a glass substrate for a photomask or a substrate for an optical disk by supplying a developer thereto.
2. Description of the Background Art
In a manufacturing process for a semiconductor device, for example, a slit scan development system has recently been widely employed as a method of developing a photoresist film formed on the surface of a substrate such as a semiconductor wafer. This development system is employed for horizontally linearly moving a developer discharge nozzle having a slit discharge port equivalent to or longer by about several mm than the diameter of the substrate from a first end to a second end of the substrate stationarily horizontally held by a substrate holding part and discharging a developer onto the substrate from the slit discharge port of the developer discharge nozzle for heaping the developer on the substrate, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laying-Open Gazette No. 11-221511 (1998), for example. When the developer is heaped on the stationary substrate, line width uniformity of a resist film pattern can be remarkably improved.
When the developer discharge nozzle is moved at a speed of 50 mm/sec., for example, in this slit scan development, a substrate of 300 mm in diameter cause developing time difference of 6 seconds at the maximum. In a developing time of about 60 seconds applied in a conventional manufacturing process, development reaction of photoresist substantially converges and hence no work dimension difference exceeding allowance results from the developing time difference caused in the substrate plane. In manufacturing of a recent semiconductor device, however, a hyperfine working technique has been fully put to use and the work dimension allowance has been strictly managed. Therefore, work dimension difference resulting from developing time difference, causing substantially no problem in general, may come into question as the case may be. When the developing time is reduced for improving the throughput, the work dimension difference resulting from the developing time difference disadvantageously remarkably appears.
In order to eliminate developing time difference in a substrate plane, there has recently been proposed a scan rinsing system of providing a rinse discharge nozzle also with a slit discharge port for supplying a rinse (deionized water) onto a substrate for stopping development reaction and moving the rinse discharge nozzle at the same speed and in the same direction as a developer discharge nozzle after holding a prescribed developing time after the developer discharge nozzle heaps a developer on the substrate for discharging the rinse onto the substrate from the slit discharge port of the rinse discharge nozzle.
When a developer discharge nozzle (not shown) heaps a developer 1 on the overall upper surface of a substrate W horizontally held by a substrate holding part 10 so that a rinse discharge nozzle 12 thereafter horizontally moves from a first end to a second end of the substrate W for discharging a rinse 2 onto the substrate W from a slit discharge port thereof as shown in FIG. 8A, however, the rinse 2 discharged from the rinse discharge nozzle 12 flows also frontward along the direction of movement of the rinse discharge nozzle 12, as shown in FIG. 8B. Further, the part of the rinse 2 flowing frontward beyond the rinse discharge nozzle 12 washes away part of the developer 1 located in front of the rinse discharge nozzle 12. Therefore, it follows that development reaction is stopped in front of the rinse discharge nozzle 12 before movement thereof. Consequently, developing time difference in the plane of the substrate W cannot be effectively eliminated, and work dimension difference resulting from the developing time difference cannot be eliminated either.
The present invention is directed to a substrate processing apparatus supplying a developer to a substrate for performing development and thereafter supplying a rinse for stopping the development.
A developing apparatus according to the present invention comprises a substrate holding element substantially horizontally holding a substrate, a developer supply element having a slitlike first discharge port discharging a developer for relatively moving in a first horizontal direction with respect to the substrate and discharging the developer onto the substrate from the first discharge port thereby obtaining a puddle of developer covering the overall upper surface of the substrate, a rinse supply element having a slitlike second discharge port discharging a rinse for relatively moving in the first horizontal direction with respect to the substrate and discharging the rinse onto the substrate from the second discharge port thereby stopping development with the puddle of developer and an anti-flow element preventing a first stream of the rinse, discharged onto the substrate from the second discharge port, flowing frontward in the first horizontal direction and a second stream formed by the puddle of developer washed away by the rinse frontward in the first horizontal direction.
When the developer supply element heaps the developer on the overall upper surface of the substrate held by the substrate holding element and the rinse supply element thereafter discharges the rinse onto the substrate from the slit discharge port while relatively moving in the same direction as the developer supply element with respect to the substrate, the rinse discharged from the slit discharge port neither flows frontward in the direction of relative movement of the rinse supply element nor washes away the developer heaped on the substrate frontward. Therefore, development reaction is not stopped in front of the rinse supply element before movement thereof, whereby developing time difference in the substrate plane can be eliminated.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to eliminate development time difference in a substrate plane for eliminating working dimension difference resulting from the development time difference when performing slit scan development/slit scan rinsing.
The foregoing and other objects, features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the present invention when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.


A system clarifies the damaged state of a plant, and estimates the life expectancy of the plant so as to administer the integrity of the plant. The system includes an apparatus for estimating the life expectancy of each of various pieces of component constituting the plant, a data base controlling apparatus, an apparatus for estimating the life expectancy of the entire plant, and a plant life extension and evaluation apparatus. The system is capable of making a specific proposal of a life extension plan which is necessary to and effective for the extension of the entire plant, and which is proposed including economical evaluation, thereby facilitating the conservation of the integrity of the plant, and also facilitating the maintenance and control thereof.

The present invention relates to a system for administering the life of plants, i.e., the life of the plants yet to be consumed, and, more particularly, to a system for administering the life of a plant consisting of a multiplicity of pieces of component, such as a power generating plant.
A typical arrangement of systems of the above-described type which have hitherto been generally used is known from, e.g., Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 62-276470. In this known arrangement, while the life and the state of deterioration of various pieces of component and parts constituting a plant change due to the passage of time and various stresses applied to these constituents, an estimate of the life of the plant is obtained on the basis of the latest information on the life and the state of deterioration of the constituents of the plant so as to administer the life of the plant.
The above-described prior art is certainly capable of obtaining an estimate as to the life expectancy of the plant concerned. However, the prior art fails to give consideration to the conservation of the integrity of the plant and to the plant life extension. Therefore, with the prior art, it is impossible to positively improve the integrity of the constituent component over its existing state, this being very disadvantageous from the viewpoint of both plant safety and economy.


The invention concerns a box for storing the working accessories of an electrical food processor, comprising a base (3) including a lower resting surface and a lid including an upper surface designed to receive an electrical food processor. The invention is characterised in that an inner surface (38) of the base (3), respectively an inner surface of the lid, comprises at least a configuration (43, 44, 53, 61) whereon are arranged non-peripheral support means (45, 46, 54, 62) designed to co-operate with an inner surface of the lid or with non-peripheral support means complementarily arranged on a configuration of the lid inner surface, respectively with an inner surface of the base, when the lid closes the base.

The present invention concerns the general technical field of electrical food processors and relates more particularly to storage of the accessories of these appliances.
It is known to produce boxes for storing the accessories of an electrical food processor, having a housing closed by a lid. However, when the surface of the lid is sufficient to serve as a support for the corresponding appliance, the rigidity of the lid is then insufficient to usefully permit such a utilization.
The object of the present invention is to provide a storage for the rotateable working accessories of an electrical food processor, being able to serve as the base of said appliance, and the fabrication of which is economical.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a storage for the rotateable working accessories of an electrical food processor, of which the sensitivity to vibrations is reduced.
These objects are achieved with a box for storing the working accessories of an electrical food processor, composed of a base including a lower resting surface and a lid, comprising an upper surface designed to receive an electrical food processor, by the fact that an inner surface of the base, respectively an inner surface of the lid, comprises at least one configuration whereon are arranged non-peripheral support means designed to cooperate with an inner surface of the lid or with non-peripheral support means complementarily arranged on a configuration of the inner surface of the lid, respectively with an inner surface of the base, when the lid closes the base. The contact between the non-peripheral support means and the inner surface disposed in a facing relation can be obtained upon closing of the storage box, or in the presence of the appliance disposed on the upper surface of the lid. Due to the non-peripheral support means, disposed beyond the periphery of the lid and the base, flexure of the lid can be limited when an electrical food processor is disposed on said box. By this fact, the thicknesses of the lid and of the base can be reduced. This arrangement permits reduction of the cycle time for molding of the lid and the base, as well as the quantities of material necessary. Moreover, the presence of non-peripheral support means permits easier use of plastic materials other than the plastic materials considered to be rigid, such as ABS or SAN. The utilization of polypropylene or of polyethylene can for example be envisioned. Less rigid materials present the advantage of a better damping of vibrations, which permits noise to be limited when an electrical food processor is utilized on the storage box.
According to one embodiment, the non-peripheral support means of the configuration or of at least one of the configurations are arranged in a zone comprised between the center of the inner surface and a third of the distance to the lateral edge of the base or of the lid. A support in the central zone effectively permits flexure of the lid to be limited. According to another embodiment, three configurations are arranged in a triangle around the center of the inner surface of the base or of the lid, the non-peripheral support means of two configurations and the center having an angle comprised between 60 and 150 degrees. According to another embodiment the center of the inner surface is disposed between two configurations furnished with non-peripheral support means. Such supports equally permit flexure of the lid to be effectively limited.
Advantageously the configuration or at least one of the configurations of the base presents a lateral support zone with a lateral support zone of the configuration or at least one of the configurations of the lid. This arrangement improves the connection between the base and the lid.
Advantageously then the configuration or at least one of said configurations is transversally flexible. This arrangement permits achieving lateral immobilization of the lid with respect to the base, and thus to reduce the phenomena of vibration in the storage box generated by the household electrical appliance disposed on said box. Said configuration can particularly be tubular.
Advantageously in order to facilitate the storage of accessories, the configuration or at least one of the configurations of the base and/or the configuration or at least one of the configurations of the lid is provided to serve as a support for a rotateable working tool of the electrical food processor.
According to an advantageous configuration the base and the lid form two half-shells, this arrangement permitting an improvement in the rigidity of the storage box.
Advantageously also, the lid has on the upper surface an opening permitting the introduction of a finger to actuate a moveable and/or elastic piece of the lid, respectively of the base, having attachment means provided to cooperate with holding means of the base, respectively of the lid. This arrangement permits the box and the lid to be fastened together while facilitating unlocking.
Advantageously then the upper surface of the lid has two openings disposed to one side and the other of the center of the lid and two parallel pieces in the form of tongues, extending from the inner surface of the lid, are disposed between the openings, the attachment means being arranged on the surfaces of the pieces disposed to the side of the openings. The user can then introduce the thumb and index finger in order to unlock the lid from the base.

Base for storing an electrical food processor accessories


A two-terminal electronic fuse device involves two switches, four diodes, switch control circuitry, and a storage capacitor, connected in a particular topology. When AC current flows through the fuse, a charging current charges the storage capacitor. Energy stored in the storage capacitor is then used to power the switch control circuitry. If the voltage on the storage capacitor drops, then the switches are opened briefly and at the correct time. Opening the switches allows the charging current to flow. By opening the switches and charging the storage capacitor only at times of low current flow through the fuse, the disturbance of load current flowing through the fuse is minimized. If an overload current condition is detected, then the fuse has tripped and first and second switches are opened. If the capacitor does not need charging and there is no overload condition, then the switches remain closed.

A fuse is a protective device that is typically placed in a current path to electric circuitry to be protected. Before a condition dangerous to the equipment can occur (for example, a high current draw by the electric circuitry), the fuse blows or trips or otherwise opens. Typically the fuse melts in some fashion as a result of high current flow through the fuse. As a result the electrical connection between two terminals of the fuse is broken. Due to the opening of the fuse, current flow through the fuse to the electric circuitry is stopped. If the fuse does not blow or trip, then it serves as an in-tact low resistance part of the current path to the electric circuitry. There are various types of fuses. Fuses are designed to blow or trip under different conditions. If the fuse is of the type that is destroyed when it blows or trips, then the blown fuse must typically be removed from the circuit and replaced with a new fuse in order for the circuit to be operational again. Replacing fuses can be expensive. A fuse commonly referred to as an electronic fuse (or an "eFuse) is a type of fuse that is not destroyed when it opens (due to experiencing a predetermined potentially dangerous condition). Rather, when an electronic fuse opens it can be reset to be conductive again. An improved eFuse is desired.

Self-powered electronic fuse with storage capacitor that charges with minimal disturbance of load current through the fuse


A resin deck board has a top surface with a plurality of water drainage channels spaced from one another extending axially in the top surface of the board. The top surface of the board also includes a plurality of feed channels which are angled relative to and which intersect with the drainage channels. The drainage channels penetrate to a depth at least as great as that of the feed channels into the top surface of the board to promote water from the feed channels to drain in to the drainage channels which then carry the water off of the top surface of the deck.

Resin materials and in particular polyvinyl chloride materials are finding more and more use as building construction materials. PVC is often used in making building windows and doors. More recently, PVC has been used in building outdoor deck structures. When PVC is used to make a deck board the PVC material has many benefits over conventional wood materials. The PVC is very durable, is low maintenance, and can be made accurately at great lengths in an extrusion process. As a further benefit it is known to manufacture PVC deck boards with their own interlocks which substantially enhance the ease with which an entire deck surface can be built. The same cannot be said of a conventional wooden plank used in building a wooden deck structure.
One problem that is however encountered when building a deck using PVC boards is that the deck can become very slippery under wet conditions. It has been known to provide an embossment of that surface to provide traction but this still does not totally eliminate the slippage problem.

Resin deck board with water drainage top surface


An air filter apparatus for an HVAC system having a frame with a channel area formed therein and having legs extending into the channel area, and a filter material having a portion received within the channel area. The filter material extends across the frame. The legs of the frame extend so as to exert a compressive force on the edges of the filter material received therebetween. The filter material has a first flexible mesh layer, a fibrous layer, and a second flexible mesh layer formed in a sandwiched configuration. The frame has a T-shaped slot extending longitudinally along an outer surface of the frame. The frame also has a notch formed along a corner of the frame and extends around the frame. A bead of an elastomeric material is received within this notch so as to extend outwardly of the frame.

Throw-away type air filters have been on the market for many years. These throw-away air filters have been made for both consumer and commercial use in HVAC systems. These inexpensive filters provide protection mainly for the HVAC system itself. These filters are provided so that large objects are captured before they cause damage to the fan motor and other components. In general, these low-efficiency filters were not intended to capture smaller particles of dust, pollen and mold that pass through to the indoor environment.
A very large number of permanent-type air filters have recently entered the market. These permanent type filters are generally made of a rigid aluminum frame. The filter material is received between two walls of expanded metal material. The filter material is made of a very pliable material having little or no interior strength. The expanded metal material can be used to form a honeycomb shape around the filter material. The expanded metal is used to support the filter material within the frame.
As an example, an "electrostatic" air filter is the subject of U.S. Pat. No. 4,902,306, issued on Feb. 20, 1990, to Burnett et al. This patent describes a filter which uses alternating layers of charged materials. Typically, these layers are in the form of woven polypropylene screens. This filter has some type of expanded metal or galvanized wire mesh on both sides. This expanded metal serves to support the interior filtering materials and to keep them contained within the rigid aluminum or plastic frames. The subject matter of this patent is typical of the various permanent-type filters which are presently on the market. Unfortunately, these permanent-type filters have several disadvantages.
Initially, these types of permanent-type filters have a high unit cost. This is due to the use of the relatively expensive items such as the woven polypropylene mesh and the expanded metals. Unfortunately, it is necessary that such materials be used in these air filters since the frames, themselves, are of a relatively weak nature. The frames do not have any means for holding the material in the frame directly. Without the expanded metal containment surfaces, the filtering materials would quickly and easily fall out of position from within the frame.
Another disadvantage is that the outer layers, particularly those of expanded metals, are abrasive to the hands. If it is necessary to remove the filter, these surfaces can scrape or cut. In general, the filter must be handled in a delicate fashion so as to accomplish the necessary periodic cleaning of the filter.
These permanent-type filters have no means with which to lock the layers of the filtering material within the frame. All of these frames rely on the strength of the various layers so that all of the materials stay within the frame. However, the filtering materials, in all of these systems, are normally some type of polyester fiber or foam. These materials can easily sag down over a period of time from the weight of the water which is used to clean the filter. If the polyester material (or other layers of material) does sag within the frame, then there will be a significant gap between the filter media and the frame, through which unfiltered dust and contaminants will flow past the filter.
The frames which are used for the conventional types of permanent-type filters are usually made of an aluminum material. When this aluminum frame is inserted within the housing of the HVAC system, then a significant amount of vibration can occur. Any annoying noises which a permanent-type filter would cause, when installed, would quickly dissuade persons from using such systems. In addition, such vibration can cause the dirt contained in the filter to be discharged into the plenum.
The frames which are used on permanent-type air filters do not usually have any means for an air-tight seal in that area where the frame meets the filter housing of the HVAC system. Without an air-tight seal, the air can pass around the frame and into the air plenum. Wherever the air can pass freely, it will allow a significant amount of dust or other contaminants to flow around the frame and filtering materials (which were intended to capture these particles).
As such, it is an object of the present invention to provide an air filter that is of relatively low cost.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an air filter which avoids the use of expanded metal support surfaces.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an air filter which effectively retains the filter material in its proper position within the frame.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide a vibration-resistant frame.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a frame which effectively creates an air-tight seal between the frame and the filter housing.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from a reading of the attached specification and appended claims.

Air filter for an HVAC system and method of manufacturing same


Systems, computer implemented methods, and program products to determine approximate static well pressures for one or more arbitrary shaped wells by estimating the drainage volume of the one or more wells, are provided. The drainage volume of the one or more wells, for example, can be estimated from the one or more computed fluid flow flux vectors, and the approximate static well pressures for the one or more wells can be subsequently calculated by taking the pore volume average of the dynamic grid block pressures within the drainage volume of the one or more wells. The one or more fluid flow flux vectors can be calculated at each iteration in a numerical reservoir simulator as a part of standard simulator computations, negating a need for additional, extraneous computations to calculate effective drainage volume of the one or more wells.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of petroleum reservoir simulation history matching. More specifically, the present invention relates to the field of computing approximate static well pressures for one or more arbitrary shaped wells in both homogeneous and heterogeneous reservoirs.
2. Description of Related Art
Major oil companies, independent oil companies, small oil companies, and oil reservoir management consultants use reservoir simulators routinely in reservoir management. More specifically, oil field reservoir simulators are often used by oil industry professionals and oil companies to design new oil fields, determine efficient and productive drilling schedules, select optimum well locations, estimate surface facility timings, and design recovery methods. History matching is a key phase in a reservoir simulator as it serves to justify the model generated by a particular reservoir simulator as a predictive tool by matching key reservoir simulation variables to corresponding measured oil field data. In history matching, several key variables can be matched to measured quantities from field data to verify a particular simulator model as a predictive tool such as water cuts, gas oil ratios, and static well pressure.
Static well pressure, for example, is a particularly useful variable to verify a reservoir simulator model as a predictive tool, and accordingly, static well pressure receives prime attention during a history match. Specifically, the pressure variable is not only an indicator of reservoir energy, it is also indicative of a variety of other factors affecting the reservoir performance. Accordingly, many reservoir simulators are matched for static well pressures first before matching the other variables.
During a history match, for example, simulator computed well pressures can be matched against the measured static well pressures from measured field data. The measured static well pressures are generally obtained from pressure build-up tests and stored in corporate databases as field data. These pressure build-up tests are conducted at certain intervals during the life of the well. Ideally, a reservoir simulator can be used, for example, to simulate a pressure build-up test to thereby compute static well pressures at each simulated time interval that can be history matched to measured well pressures at each corresponding time interval to verify the integrity of the reservoir simulator as a predictive tool. The timing and number of such build-up tests, however, generally does not match the number of simulated static well pressures because the reservoir simulator calculates a static well pressure at each simulated time step or iteration, to an extent that the reservoir time steps vastly outnumber the number of actual build-up tests. As such, a one-to-one ratio in the time domain is unlikely when measured well data is history matched with reservoir simulator data.
As noted above, pressure build-up tests can be used to compute the static well pressure for a particular well, and for each pressure build-up test, the static well pressure can be measured and recorded in a field data database. These pressure build-up tests, however, may only be conducted once each month, and as such, only one static well pressure reading for each month will be available in the recorded field data for history matching. Conversely, a reservoir simulator can generate, for example, a static well pressure at each iteration or step, and such steps can vastly outnumber the number of observed, measured static well pressures of a particular well. Therefore, the time steps or iterations of a particular reservoir simulator is generally adjusted and reduced significantly to better approximate the actual frequency of build-up tests conducted during the history of a particular reservoir.
In practice, reservoir simulators use pore volume averaged grid block pressures over the grid blocks in which the well is perforated (i.e., perforated cells) to approximate static pressure. While this approximation may be somewhat reasonable for very large grid blocks, the inventors have recognized, however, that it is not a good approximation for smaller grid blocks when locally refined grids around the well are used, as the error becomes significant and must be corrected. Various correction factors are known in the art to correct static pressure estimated using pore volume averaged grid block pressures for perforated cells to match measured pressure build-up test driven static well pressures. These correction factors, however, are developed principally for vertical wells, and accordingly, fail to function appropriately when applied to multi-lateral wells, maximum reservoir contact welts, and many newer types of wells with complex shapes. Nonetheless, particularly in scenarios where correction factors fail to function appropriately, such as with wells of complex shapes, interpolation techniques can be used to accommodate the difference in build-up test times and simulator time steps. The use of interpolation techniques, however, results in an inefficient use of computer processing resources and can result in or otherwise require wrongfully introducing permeability modifiers to match the pressures when no real need exists for any modification of the reservoir properties.

Systems, computer implemented methods, and computer readable program products to compute approximate well drainage pressure for a reservoir simulator


A key-based interleaver for enhancement the security of wireless communication includes a physical layer communication channel key to provide security even when the software encryption key is compromised. A method of creating a secure communication link using a physical layer interleaving system includes implementing a key policy implementation that utilizes temporal dependency and interleaving bits using a flexible inter and intra-block data interleaver.

A methodology to secure Direct-Sequence Code Division Multiple Access by applying Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) based interleaving has previously been explored by others. The secure block interleaving scheme may load the data into an M×N matrix and perform row and column permutations based on the AES algorithm to generate an interleaved sequence. The row and column permutations may be completed by utilizing a plaintext and a key and the AES key may be shared between the transmitter and receiver, generating a ciphertext used as the row or column index for the interleaved output. The permutations are repeated for each row and column in the M×N matrix until the interleaved sequence is fully generated.
Transmitting both the plaintext and key for each row and column index to the receiver provides an adversary with additional opportunities to intercept the shared information. Using an expensive AES operation to generate each row and column index for the interleaved output also limits the ability to update the interleaver mapping. Finally, using AES generated row and column indices does not increase the effort required for a brute-force attack to recreate the M×N matrix. The technique was extended for use in orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) systems, which may remap subcarriers based on an AES permutation.
Another method enhances security by implementing interleaving after the modulation phase in the communication pipeline. The technique involves the remapping of complex values representing in-phase and quadrature phase pairs. Performing interleaving on fixed point data increases the memory overhead as storage of 16-bit fixed point numbers is required, as compared to the single bit storage required for the technique described in this paper. The increased overhead limits the implementation of inter-symbol interleaving between frames.

Physical layer key based interleaving for secure wireless communication


A semiconductor device includes: a cell gate trench with a bottom face and first/second side faces; a field-shield gate trench narrower than the cell gate trench; a first upper diffusion layer between the cell gate trench and the field-shield gate trench; a second upper diffusion layer on the opposite side of the cell gate trench from the first upper diffusion layer; a third upper diffusion layer on the opposite side of the field-shield gate trench from the first upper diffusion layer; a lower diffusion layer on the bottom face of the cell gate trench; first and second storage elements electrically connected to the first and second upper diffusion layers, respectively; a bit line electrically connected to the lower diffusion layer; a word line covering first and second side faces via a gate insulating film; and a field-shield gate electrode in the field-shield gate trench via a gate insulating film.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device and a method of manufacturing the semiconductor device, and particularly to a semiconductor device that uses a transistor for field shield and a method of manufacturing the semiconductor device.
2. Description of Related Art
As for a semiconductor device such as DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory), there is a semiconductor device in which a large number of ward lines having the same structure are disposed in parallel and the first out of every three word lines is regarded as a dummy word line to isolate active fields (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2008-192681). The other word lines (word lines that are not dummy word lines) make up gate electrodes of cell transistors. According to the configuration, when seen in the direction of a bit line, there are two cell transistors included in one active field.

Semiconductor device that uses a transistor for field shield


Mirrors having different optical properties are selected to change the cross-section of a beam electro-optical reader for reading bar code symbols.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to electro-optical systems, such as bar code symbol readers, and more particularly to a compact scan module for use in applications requiring at least two different laser beam characteristics.
2. Description of the Related Art
One-dimensional bar code symbols arc formed from bars typically rectangular in shape with a variety of possible widths and spaced apart by spaces of various widths. The specific arrangement of the bars and spaces defines the characters represented by the symbol according to a set of rules and definitions specified by the code or xe2x80x9csymbologyxe2x80x9d used. The relative size of the bars and spaces is determined by the type of coding used as is the actual size of the bars and spaces. The number of characters (represented by the bar code symbol) per unit length is referred to as the density of the symbol. To encode the desired sequence of the characters, a collection of bar and space arrangements are concatenated together to form the complete bar code symbol, with each character of the message being represented by its own corresponding group of bars and spaces. In some symbologies, a unique xe2x80x9cstartxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cstopxe2x80x9d character is used to indicate when the bar code begins and ends. A number of different bar code symbologies is in widespread use including UPC/EAN, Code 39, Code 128, Codabar, and Interleaved 2 of 5.
In order to increase the amount of data that can be represented or stored on a given amount of surface area, several more compact bar code symbologies have been developed. One of these code standards, Code 49, exemplifies a xe2x80x9ctwo-dimensionalxe2x80x9d symbol by reducing the vertical height of a one-dimensional symbol, and then stacking distinct rows of such one-dimensional symbols, so that information is encoded both vertically as well as horizontally. That is, in Code 49, there are several rows of bar and space patterns, instead of only one row as in a xe2x80x9cone-dimensionalxe2x80x9d symbol. The structure of Code 49 is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,794,239. Another two-dimensional symbology, known as xe2x80x9cPDF417xe2x80x9d, is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,304,786.
Still other symbologies have been developed in which the symbol is comprised not of stacked rows, but of a matrix array made up of hexagonal, square, polygonal and/or other geometric shapes, lines, or dots. Such symbols are described in, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,276,315 and 4,794,239. Such matrix code symbologies may include Vericode, Datacode, and MAXICODE.
Various optical scanning systems and readers have been developed heretofore for reading indicia such as bar code symbols appearing on a label or on the surface ol an article. The readers function by electro-optically transforming the spatial pattern represented by the graphic indicia into a time-varying electrical signal, which is in turn decoded into data which represent the information or characters encoded in the indicia that are intended to be descriptive of the article or some characteristic thereof. Such data is typically represented in digital form and utilized as an input to a data processing system for applications in point-of-sale processing, inventory control distribution, transportation and logistics, and the like.
One particularly advantageous type of reader is an optical scanner which scans a beam of light, such as a laser beam, across the symbols. Laser scanner systems and components have generally been designed to read indicia having parts of different light reflectivity, i.e., bar code symbols, particularly of the Universal Product Code (UPC) type, at a certain working range or reading distance from a hand-held or stationary scanner to the symbol or target.
In the laser beam scanning systems known in the art, a laser light beam from a light source is directed by a lens or other optical components along a light path toward a target that includes a bar code symbol on a target surface. The moving-beam scanner operates by repetitively scanning the light beam in a scan line or a series of scan lines across the symbol by means of motion of a scanning component, such as the light source itself or a mirror disposed in the path of the light beam. The scanning component may either sweep a beam spot across the symbol and trace the scan line or scan lines across the symbol, or scan the field of view of a sensor of the scanner, or do both. The laser beam may be moved by optical or opto-mechanical means to produce a scanning light beam. Such action may be performed by either deflecting the beam (such as by a moving optical element, such as a mirror) or moving the light source itself. U.S. Pat. No. 5,486,944 describes a scan module in which a mirror is mounted on a flex element for reciprocal oscillation by electromagnetic actuation. U.S. Pat. No. 5,144,120 to Krichever, et al. describes laser, optical and sensor components mounted on a drive for repetitive reciprocating motion either about an axis or in a plane to effect scanning of the laser beam.
Another type of bar code scanner employs electronic means for causing the light beam to be deflected and thereby scan the bar code symbol, rather than using a mechanical motion to move or deflect the beam. For example, a linear array of closely spaced light sources activated one at a time in a regular sequence may be transmitted to the bar code symbol to simulate a scanned beam from a single source. Instead of a single linear array of light sources, a multiple-line array of individual lasers may also be employed, thereby producing multiple scan lines. Such a bar code reader is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,258,605 to Metlitsky, ct al. The use of multiple discrete lasers is also described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,717,221.
Bar code reading systems also include a sensor or photodetector which detects light reflected or scattered from the symbol. The photodetector or sensor is positioned in the scanner in an optical path so that it has a field of view which ensures the capture of a portion of the light which is reflected or scattered off the symbol, detected, and converted into an electrical signal.
In retroreflective light collection, a single optical component, e.g., a reciprocally oscillatory mirror, such as described by Krichever, et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 4,816,661 or by Shepard, et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 4,409,470, both herein incorporated by reference, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,114,712, scans the beam across a target surface and directs the collected light to a detector. The mirror surface usually is relatively large to receive as much incoming light as is possible. Only a small detector is required since the mirror can focus the light onto a small detector surface, which increases signal-to-noise ratio.
A variety of mirror and motor configurations can be used to move the beam in a desired scanning pattern. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,251,798 discloses a rotating polygon having a planar mirror at each side, each mirror tracing a scan line across the symbol. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,387,297 and 4,409,470 both employ a planar mirror which is repetitively and reciprocally driven in alternate circumferential directions about a drive shaft on which the mirror is mounted. U.S. Pat. No. 4,816,660 discloses a multi-mirror construction composed of a generally concave mirror portion and a generally planar mirror portion. The multi-mirror construction is repetitively reciprocally driven in alternate circumferential directions about a drive shaft on which the multimirror construction is mounted. U.S. Pat. No. 6,247,647 describes an arrangement for providing either a multiple line, or a single line, scan pattern by means of a controller. All of the above-mentioned U.S. patents are incorporated herein by reference.
In electro-optical scanners of the type discussed above, the implementation of the laser source, the optics, the mirror structure, the drive to oscillate the mirror structure, the photodetector, and the associated signal processing and decoding circuitry as individual components all add size and weight to the scanner. In applications involving protracted use, a large, heavy scanner can produce user fatigue. When use of the scanner produces fatigue or is in some other way inconvenient, the user is reluctant to operate the scanner. Any reluctance to consistently use the scanner defeats the data gathering purposes for which such bar code systems are intended. Thus, a need exists for a compact module to fit into small compact devices, such as electronic notebooks, portable digital assistants, pagers, cell phones, and other pocket appliances, which can serve multiple scanning applications.
Thus, an ongoing objective of bar code reader development is to miniaturize the reader as much as possible, and a need still exists to further reduce the size and weight of the scan module or engine and to provide a particularly convenient to use scanner. The mass of the moving components should be as low as possible to minimize the power required to produce the scanning movement, thereby saving battery power.
It is further desirable to modularize the scan engine so that a single module can be used in a variety of different scanning applications, such as a near field or far field reader, or reading one-dimensional or two-dimensional symbols with a single or multiple scan line pattern. A need exists to develop a particularly compact, lightweight scan module for different applications.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a scan module with selectable scan mirrors having different optical properties for use in a bar code reader.
A related object is to develop an electro-optical, compact scan module which enables the laser beam to be optically modified and customized for a particular application.
In keeping with these objects and others which will become apparent hereinafter, one feature of this invention resides, briefly stated, in an arrangement for scanning indicia in a system for electro-optically reading the indicia. The arrangement includes a support, a hub mounted on the support for turning movement about an axis, a plurality of optical elements mounted on the hub for joint movement therewith, and a drive for moving the elements. The hub, the elements, the drive and the support together constitute a compact scan module or engine for ready replacement in the system.
The elements are preferably scan mirrors having different optical characteristics. For example, one mirror may have a flat surface, and another mirror may have a convex surface. A laser beam having a generally circular cross-section will reflect off a flat mirror with the same circular cross-section, but will reflect off a convex mirror with an elliptical cross-section. The circular cross-section is better for reading two-dimensional symbols, whereas the elliptical cross-section is better for reading one-dimensional symbols. The mirrors direct the beam incident thereon as an optically modified beam along an optical path toward the indicia to be read.
The drive selectively positions one of the mirrors at a reference position in the optical path and, once so positioned, the drive oscillates the positioned mirror about the axis. Preferably, the reference position is a central position, and the oscillation is back-and-forth in opposite directions relative to the central position of a respective scan line on and across the indicia.
In the preferred embodiment, the drive includes a permanent magnet on the hub, a first electromagnetic coil which, when energized, generates a first magnetic field that interacts with the permanent field of the magnet to turn the magnet and the hub, and a second electromagnetic coil which, when energized, generates a second magnetic field that interacts with the permanent field to turn the magnet and the hub. The coils are angularly spaced apart about the axis and are selectively energized. Each coil is energized by a periodic, alternating drive signal so that the hub oscillates.
The drive also includes a first pole piece for the first coil, and a second pole piece for the second coil. Each pole piece is constituted of a ferromagnetic material and, by interaction with the magnet, defines a respective reference position or starting point relative to which the hub oscillates.
By selecting one mirror, the light incident thereon is swept across the indicia with a certain optical characteristic, for example, a beam spot of a certain cross-section as described above. By selecting another mirror, a beam spot of a different cross-section is swept across the indicia. Selection of the beam spot can be performed manually or automatically. The different properties of the beam spot can be employed to read one-dimensional or two-dimensional symbols, or to preferentially read close-in or far-out symbols, or to read symbols of different densities.
The scan module can be used by itself in a reader to obtain scanning in one direction across a symbol, either across the length or width of the symbol. The scan module can be used with another scan module to obtain scanning in mutually orthogonal directions across the symbol. It is currently preferred when the scan module of this invention is used to sweep a laser beam over relatively small arc lengths on the order of xc2x13xc2x0 degrees mechanical.

Electro-optical scan module using selectable mirrors