This invention provides a method of forming a circuit wiring pattern which cannot be formed by a prior art method such as etching or plating. This method comprises a step of forming trenches for forming a circuit wiring pattern at predetermined positions on at least one of the surface of an insulating base material and then filling a conductive material into the trenches, a step of removing conductor layers in such a manner that the conductor layers formed by the step described above exist only in the trenches formed in the insulating base material and gap portions of the circuit wiring pattern comprising the conductor layers formed in the trenches of the insulating base material are exposed, and a step of forming an insulating surface protection layer.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a circuit wiring board having a required circuit wiring pattern on an insulating base material that has widely been employed in a variety of electronic devices and apparatii. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method of forming a circuit wiring pattern. Further particularly, it relates to a method of forming a circuit wiring pattern which cannot be formed by formation steps according to the prior art such as etching or plating.
2. Description of the Related Art
Methods of forming a circuit wiring pattern on a circuit wiring board according to the prior art include a method shown in FIGS. 5A and 5B of the accompanying drawings. First of all, a resist layer 24 having a required circuit wiring pattern shape is formed on a surface of a copper foil 22 of a copper-coated laminate plate 23 comprising an insulating base material 21 and the copper foil 22 as the principal constituent members, by ordinary photo-fabrication, as shown in FIG. 5A. Next, the exposed portions are removed by etching as shown in FIG. 5B, and a circuit wiring pattern 25 is formed by peeling and removing the resist layer 24. This method is generally referred to as the subtractive process.
Another method according to the prior art is shown in FIGS. 6A and 6B. A plating resist pattern 27 is first formed at portions other than a circuit wiring pattern formation portion on an insulating base material 26 not equipped with a copper foil but having an adhesive, as shown in FIG. 6A. A conductor 28 having a required thickness is then deposited on only the circuit wiring pattern portion by means such as electroless plating or electrolytic plating as shown in FIG. 6B. Thereafter, the plating resist 27 is removed. This is a so-called additive process.
When a surface treatment layer of gold, nickel, etc, is required on the surface of the circuit wiring pattern in the prior art methods described above, a film is formed by plating.
The prior art methods described above cannot form a circuit wiring pattern having a film of titanium, ceramics, amorphous metal layers, etc, that cannot be formed by plating, on the surface of the circuit wiring pattern. These methods cannot form, either, a circuit wiring pattern comprising a material which cannot be plated or etched.

Method of forming circuit wiring pattern


A device, system and method for real-time personalization of streaming video is provided. The device has access to a memory storing: nonpersonalized video segments; and data for rendering personalized video segments, the nonpersonalized video segments and the personalized video segments associated with a given order. When a request for a personalized video is received, the device causes rendering of at least a subset of the personalized video segments to be rendered using the data, incorporating personal data associated with the request into the personalized video segments. As the personalized video segments are rendered, the device updates and transmits a manifest, to the communication device, identifying available video segments according to the given order. The video segments identified in the manifest are provided to the communication device in response to receiving requests for the video segments.

Personalization of video is a growing field. For example, an entity, such as a company, may use a client database, and the like, to personalize a video on a client-by-client basis, for example by incorporating text of a name of a particular client from the database into at least some portions of a video, as the entire video is being rendered. The entire video, personalized for the particular client may then be stored in a memory and/or a database, and a link to the entire video may be transmitted to a device of the client (e.g. via an email, and the like) so that the entire video, which is personalized for the specific client, may be requested via the link. However, when the video is to be personalized for a plurality of names of clients, and the like, for example as part of a marketing campaign, videos are generally produced personalized for each of the plurality of names, and at least on a one-to-one basis for the plurality of names; links to each of the respective personalized videos are transmitted to each of respective devices of the clients. When the number of names of clients is in the thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, and the like, the number of videos produced becomes commensurately very large, which uses a large amount of processing resources. Furthermore, a large amount of memory is allocated to store the videos, which may need to be stored for a lengthy period in the event, for example, a client doesn't request the video for days, months and/or years and/or in the event a client requests the video more than once; hence, memory for storing thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, and the like, of personalized videos may need to be allocated for a lengthy period, whether the personalized videos are requested or not. Indeed, in some instances, more than one video in different formats may be produced for each of the plurality of names, for example with different resolutions, different frame rates, different video types (e.g. MPEG2TS vs MP4 file types, and/or other file types) and the like, which again increases use of processing and memory resources.

Device, system and method for real-time personalization of streaming video


A system and method are provided for inspecting an aircraft window for anomalies by directing light that is polarized at a first angle at the window and analyzing light emerging from the window. The light emerging from the window may be polarized at a second angle. One or both of the angles may be adjustable and, in a nominal position, the second angle may be rotated about 90-degrees relative to the first angle. A camera may record the light as polarized at the first and second angles. For a window installed on an aircraft, a vacuum hood may produce a pressure on the window. An analysis subsystem may be coupled to the camera to receive and analyze the image from the camera of light as polarized at the first and second angles. The analysis subsystem may use a database of information relating to light patterns for anomalous and non-anomalous windows.

Windows installed on aircraft are subject to repeated temperature and pressure cycling as the aircraft climbs to cruising altitude and is pressurized and then descends for landing and is depressurized. A window may have one or more anomalies, such as inclusions present from manufacturing and/or nicks or scratches incurred during operation. Such anomalies can impact appearance or performance of aircraft window. Early detection of anomalies may ensure that their impact is minimized. One example of inclusions are zirconium crystals, which are typically tiny (e.g., about 0.005 inches in length) and clear, so they are difficult to detect with traditional optical methods. An anomaly may grow larger over time and operational cycles, and detecting and dealing with small anomalies is the preferable approach.

System and method for inspecting aircraft windows


Embodiments of the present invention provide a method, system and computer program product for cross-cutting event correlation in an enterprise computing monitoring and management system. An enterprise computing monitoring and management system can include a hierarchy of nodes, where several of the nodes are each coupled to a corresponding embedded correlation engine and an event bus. The system further can include a root node among the nodes. The root node can be coupled to the event bus and to centralized correlation logic programmed to identify a high correspondence between events from a particular event source among the nodes and a particular set of correlation rules in that correlation engine. The identification of such correspondence can be used to move to the set of correlation rules to an embedded correlation engine closer to the particular event source.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to enterprise computing monitoring and management, and more particularly to event processing in an enterprise computing monitoring and management system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Enterprise computing monitoring relates to the monitoring of the state of the different, granular components of an enterprise computing environment, as well as the state of the enterprise computing environment in the aggregate. Generally intended for use by network and application administrators, enterprise computing monitoring systems monitor selected elements in the network of components forming the enterprise computing environment. Enterprise computing monitoring systems are traditionally organized in a hierarchical fashion, with sensors distributed throughout the network of components forming the enterprise computing environment. These sensors relay monitored events to aggregation nodes, which in turn can relay the monitored events to a smaller set of aggregation nodes. Monitored events can be interpreted, translated and provided to interacting administrators in order to facilitate the management of the enterprise computing environment.
A skeletal enterprise monitoring system can collect events propagated from different levels of the hierarchy of nodes defining the enterprise computing monitoring system. The collected events, in turn, can be reported plainly through a user interface in a monitoring application and it remains incumbent upon the user to interpret and act upon the reported events. Given the complexity of the modern enterprise computing environment, however, commercially viable enterprise monitoring systems provide an enhanced degree of event interpretation and remedial, automated action taking.
Clearly, nodes in the hierarchy of an enterprise monitoring system can be interrelated such that events occurring in a child node of the hierarchy can form the root cause of other events originating at higher levels of the hierarchy in parent nodes. Consequently, plainly reporting every event arising in the hierarchy can result in an event flood and can quickly overwhelm the enterprise computing monitoring system. Of course, capturing every event stemming from a root cause event is not as helpful as correcting the root cause event. In particular, resolving the cause of root cause event in the event source invariably leads to the resolving of all other resulting events.
To achieve efficiencies in monitoring, event correlation engines can be embedded within nodes in the network of elements of the enterprise computing environment. Consequently, the event correlation engines can most quickly identify and handle events arising from within the node without depending upon event correlation engines higher in the in hierarchy of enterprise computing monitoring systems to process these events. In this regard, correlation rules applied by event correlation engines generally trigger responsive events for detected events. Yet, in many cases, important event patterns can be detected only at a higher level in the hierarchy. In the latter circumstance, it is desirable to place an event correlation engine at a higher level in the hierarchy so as to capture and process events stemming from many different nodes below.
Correlation rules often are composed by domain experts and processed by a correlation engine at a selected level in the hierarchy of the enterprise computing monitoring system so as to achieve optimal efficiency in processing events below. Coordinating the deployment of correlation rules can be challenging in an expansive enterprise computing environment. Consequently, in many enterprise systems, the correlation engine is centralized at a highest level in the hierarchy such that all events generated in environment can be captured and processed in the correlation engine. Notwithstanding, scalability will be sacrificed in this circumstance.

International Business Machines Corporation


A method for reducing false alarms in a monitoring system comprising the steps of: providing an initial fault set (or a preliminary fault set) and using a decision process to successively reduce this initial fault set to a fault ensemble, said decision process using increasing probability or confidence in the initial fault set to generate the fault ensemble, which is considered to reflect a true abnormal condition; the decision process comprising at least two steps: the first step is generating a preliminary fault set by using a standard anomaly detection method with the additional variable (or adaptive) thresholds or temporal filters; the second step is using the preliminary fault set to generate at least one fault ensemble, each of which comprises a reduced number of refined faults that represent a more confident explanation of the cause(s) of an abnormal condition.

Health management is a modern phrase for condition monitoring and maintenance management. Health management in the industrial equipment world typically involves a set of processes, hardware, and software tools that perform data analysis, diagnosis, assessment, prognosis, and decision-making. A health management system is sometimes called a condition monitoring system (CMS).
With the recent emphasis on prognostics, a health management system is also called a prognostics and health management (PHM) system; and in the context of equipment maintenance, it is called a condition based maintenance (CBM) system. The concept of a CBM system is to manage the consequence of a fault and perform maintenance, only if there is an evidence of need for repair or replacement. This concept is illustrated in FIG. 1.
The benefits of equipment health management are improved availability, increased efficiency, and reduced cost of ownership. To realize these benefits, the various health management functions, as illustrated in FIG. 1, must be efficiently integrated and timely updated with new information. Many monitoring techniques have been developed to facilitate CBM or PHM capability; however, most of these techniques suffer from the problem of frequent false alarms (or false positive diagnosis), because the equipment's operational data are noisy and the system being monitored is often complex. False alarms are undesirable because they waste human and facility resources in trying to analyze and troubleshoot the alarms, and these extra efforts often result in no-fault-found (NFF) or can-not-duplicate (CND).
Thus, there is a need to reduce false alarms in a condition monitoring or health management system. This need for more accurate monitoring of equipment condition is present not just for the aerospace industry, but is prevalent for other industries as well, including, but not limited to, sea and land transportation, process industry, manufacturing, and human health care.


An apparatus for treating oil and gas wells having a tubing string extending into the earth's surface for the removal of fluids; from a hydrocarbon productive reservoir and a casing string surrounding the tubing string for protective purposes with a measured volume of treating fluid. The instant apparatus includes: a chemical treatment fluid storage tank in fluid communication with a mixing vessel, a chemical pump for transporting chemical treatment fluid from the storage tank to the mixing vessel, a remote actuating and timing mechanism and associated valves, a mixing vessel, and flow lines connecting the assembled apparatus to a well. When in use, produced well fluids may be diverted to the mixing vessel containing treatment fluid supplied by the pump thereby causing the contents of the vessel to be flushed into the casing/tubing annulus of the well for treatment purposes. Discharge of fluids from the mixing vessel is halted by returning the valve linking the tubing string and the vessel to a closed position. Upon closure of the valve, the mixing vessel will be returned to a fluid packed condition whereby the vessel is essentially filled with produced well fluids. The chemical injection pump is then activated to deliver a predetermined volume of treatment fluid from the storage tank to the mixing vessel for discharge at a later time.

Many corrosive agents are present in the fluids produced from oil and gas wells. Although varying in concentration from place to place, these corrosive agents are known to cause damage to the metallic components of such wells if unchecked. Production tubing, because of its continuous exposure to produced reservoir fluids, has been found to be particularly vulnerable to damage. To inhibit corrosion, well-known treatment chemicals are commonly introduced into the annulus formed between the well's production tubing and casing, the chemicals then flowed toward the bottom of the well and returned to the surface with the produced fluids. In this manner, the life of vulnerable pumping equipment may be extended and well downtime reduced considerably.
In other producing oil and gas wells, paraffin or scale build-up is a problem. Paraffin, a waxy solid deposited upon the walls of well fluid containment surfaces, commonly obstructs the flow of fluid within the tubing, flow lines, and other related components of the well. Similarly, scale deposits having a variety of compositions are known in certain areas to form on production equipment surfaces, sometimes substantially reducing the performance of downhole pumps and the like. As with undesirable corrosion, paraffin or scale build-up may also be checked by introducing appropriate chemical treatment fluids into the wellbore.
Typically, the volume of well treatment fluids used to treat a hydrocarbon productive well is small. Amounts ranging from several milliliters to several liters are usually employed during each treatment. Because small fluid volumes are somewhat difficult to transport, it is frequently necessary to utilize auxiliary fluids for flushing the chemicals into the wellbore and to insure adequate distribution over the surfaces to be protected.
In treating a well, a predetermined volume of treatment fluid is introduced into the wellbore at regulated intervals of time. Depending on the severity of the conditions to be alleviated, the treatment fluid may be introduced into the wellbore on an hourly, daily, or even weekly schedule. The actual treating period during which the treatment fluid is maintained in the well may range from several minutes to several hours.

Apparatus for treating oil and gas wells


An apparatus for destroying a calculus includes an ultrasonic wave generating unit capable of setting a plurality of piezo-electric devices in a drive/reception mode by phase control, a peak value detecting unit for detecting a peak value, in a predetermined time width, of an echo signal in a reception signal received by the piezo-electric devices, a first comparing unit for comparing the peak value detected by the peak value detecting unit with a first predetermined threshold value, a frequency analyzing unit for analyzing a frequency component, in the predetermined time width, of the echo signal in the reception signal, a calculating unit for calculating a predetermined characteristic value on the basis of frequency component data obtained by the frequency analyzing unit, a second comparing unit for comparing the characteristic value obtained by the calculating unit with a second predetermined threshold value, and a display unit for displaying a comparison result of the first comparing unit with a comparison result of the second comparing unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a shock wave calculus destroying apparatus and, more particularly, to an apparatus for destroying a calculus which uses an ultrasonic imaging unit to position a calculus and confirm the destruction state of the calculus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, in treatment of a renal calculus or a gallstone, a method of non-invasive treatment using a shock wave is popularly used. Typical examples of a shock wave generating source include underwater discharge, electromagnetic induction, and a piezo-electric device, which have individual features. Various methods are used for positioning a calculus at a focal point of a shock wave and for confirming the destruction state of the calculus. Especially, a method of generating a shock wave by using a piezo-electric device has an excellent feature. More specifically, no consumable is used, the intensity of the shock wave can be arbitrarily controlled, and the focal point can be controlled by controlling the phase of the drive pulse applied to a plurality of piezo-electric devices (e.g., Published Unexamined Japanese Patent Application No. 60-145131 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,526,168).
In the initial stage of development of an apparatus for destroying a calculus, positioning and confirmation of the destruction state were performed by using X-ray TVs in two directions (e.g., Published Unexamined Japanese Patent Application No. 62-94144). With this method, however, the patient and the operator can be exposed to X-ray radiation, and continuous monitoring cannot be performed in order to minimize the X-ray dose as much as possible.
In contrast to this, in order to perform positioning and destruction state confirmation, recently, a method using an ultrasonic imaging unit is often employed (e.g., Published Unexamined Japanese Patent Application No. 60-145131). According to this method, a location to install an ultrasonic probe is limited to the inside or outside of a shock wave generating source. Nevertheless, this system receives a great deal of attention as it does not cause X-ray exposure and it can perform continuous monitoring.
In particular, since the ultrasonic imaging unit is a semi-real-time image diagnosing unit, it can continuously monitor the state of a calculus. Since continuous monitoring is possible, even if the position of the calculus is deviated from the focal point of a shock wave due to a respiratory movement or body movement of the patient, positional deviation can be immediately confirmed, and radiation of the shock wave is stopped in such a case.
When the ultrasonic imaging unit is used in the medical application described above, it is especially significant to detect a small calculus of about 5 mm. For this purpose, in order to improve the resolution, a so-called multi-stage focus is used, or the number of scanning lines per frame is increased. In this case, a high-resolution image can be obtained over a wide range by decreasing the frame rate (repetition frequency of the ultrasonic image=frame count per second) of the ultrasonic imaging unit. The real-time characteristics of the ultrasonic imaging unit are sacrificed more or less.
Use of an apparatus for destroying a calculus having such an ultrasonic imaging unit in an actual clinical case will be described. A high-resolution image is required before detection of a calculus is started in order to obtain the position of the calculus on a screen displaying an ultrasonic image. Once treatment is started, the frame rate can be increased. This policy is applicable without any problem when a slow movement of a calculus such as a respiratory movement is to be monitored. However, if the high resolution of an image is achieved simply by decreasing the frame rate, the following problems arise. These problems will be described below.
The present inventors conducted the following experiment. In this experiment, a shock wave was radiated on a calculus placed in water to destroy the calculus. According to this experiment, when destruction of the calculus proceeded by shock wave radiation and small calculus fragments were started to be formed, the fragments were observed to jump in synchronism with shock wave radiation. This phenomenon is called a stone dance. A similar phenomenon was observed in destruction of a calculus in a human body. Accordingly, this stone dance can serve as effective information indicating the calculus destruction state. Since the stone dance, however, is a quick phenomenon, it was difficult to observe it on an ultrasonic image at a low frame rate.
In the apparatus for destroying a calculus of this type, a single radiation shock wave operation is insufficient in most cases and repetitive radiation over a multiple of times is usually performed. A radiation count until calculus destruction is completed varies depending on the type of the calculus, the figure of the patient, the depth of the location of the calculus from the body surface, the energy of the shock wave, and the like. Hence, to record and reserve a numerous treatment data is effective in appropriately setting the shock wave radiation count. It is indispensable in terms of improvement of the treatment efficiency and safety to grasp the treatment state as a treatment trend during treatment.
Regarding the treatment method, an erroneous radiation preventive treatment mode for radiating a shock wave once or continuously without damaging tissues around the calculus has started to be employed. An erroneous radiation preventive treatment mode is described in Published Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Nos. 60-191250, 61-149562, and so on.
The erroneous radiation preventive treatment mode is as follows. That is, when a piezo-electric device is used as a shock wave source, a fact that a wave reflected by the focal region of the shock wave can be received by the piezo-electric device is utilized. A weak ultra-sonic wave is transmitted and received by the piezo-electric device immediately before an intense shock wave is emitted. When an intense echo is received, it is determined that the focal region of the shock wave coincides with the calculus. When this determination is made, a shock wave is irradiated on the calculus.
This erroneous radiation preventive treatment mode cannot be applied to all patients, as an intense wave is not always reflected by the patient. If an intense wave is not reflected by the patient, first, shock waves are continuously radiated in accordance with the treatment mode. Along with the procedure of destruction, when an intense wave is started to be reflected by the patient, the erroneous radiation preventive treatment mode may be set in place of the treatment mode.
In an apparatus for destroying a calculus having a shock wave source using underwater discharge or a small explosion, a mode having a similar function to the erroneous radiation preventive treatment mode is provided in addition to the treatment mode for radiating the shock wave once or continuously. According to this mode, a shock wave is radiated only during the inspiration end period of the respiration so as not to damage the tissues around the calculus, or a shock wave is radiated in synchronism with the electrocardiogram. When this mode is set, a destruction treatment mode is sometimes changed to another destruction treatment mode during a single destruction treatment.
Regarding the destruction rate, the higher the destruction rate, the faster the treatment is completed naturally. When the destruction rate is increased, however, the patient feels pain, or the destruction pressure is decreased due to cavitation. Therefore, the rate must be changed to an optimum value on the basis of the judgement of the doctor.
In this manner, not only the destruction energy quantity (more particularly, the drive voltage of the shock wave source, e.g., the piezo-electric device, and the pressure of the shock wave) but also the destruction treatment mode and the destruction rate serve as significant factors in terms of the treatment efficiency and safety. However, the treatment trend of the conventional apparatus for destroying a calculus includes only the transition graph (the radiation count is plotted along the axis of abscissa) of the destruction energy and the patient data (e.g., name, age, patient's ID No., and name of the disease) which are insufficient to evaluate the treatment efficiency and grasp the safety.
According to the erroneous radiation preventive treatment mode described above, only an ultrasonic image or an X-ray image can be used to determine the destruction degree of a calculus, and such a determination is not so reliable. Thus, even if the apparatus has a function of radiating the shock wave only to the calculus, the shock wave can be radiated continuously even after destruction is completed. In this case, damage to the normal tissues around the calculus cannot be neglected, and the treatment time becomes longer than necessary. Inversely, if the dose of the shock wave is excessively small, another treatment section will be needed, and impaction of a large calculus fragment in an ureter may occur.


A lighting apparatus includes a light-emission unit having plate shape; and a base unit configured to be detachably attached thereto the light-emission unit. The base unit has substantially rectangular shape. The base unit includes a power supply rail for supplying electricity to the light-emission unit and a support section supporting the light-emission unit. The power supply rail has rail-shape and extending in a longitudinal direction of the base unit. The light-emission unit includes a luminescent panel, a control circuit configured to control lighting of the luminescent panel and an electrically conductive connection terminal electrically connecting the control circuit to the power supply rail. The base unit is formed so as to be capable of being attached thereto a plurality of the light-emission units along the longitudinal direction of the base unit. The connection terminal is connected to an arbitrary point of the rail-shaped power supply rail.

It has been known that an organic electroluminescence device has advantages that: it can emit high-brightness light with a low supply voltage; it can achieve various emission colors by changing the kinds of organic compound; and it is easy to be manufactured in a form of a luminescent panel having plate shape. It therefore deserves considering to employ the organic electroluminescence device as a light source of a lighting apparatus.
As such kinds of lighting apparatus, JP2012-104504A discloses a lighting apparatus including: light-emission units each including an organic electroluminescence device as a light source; a base unit supporting the light-emission unit; and electrodes that are fixed to the base unit so as to supply electricity therethrough to the light-emission unit.
However, this lighting apparatus has a disadvantage that it has few degrees of freedom for an arrangement of the light-emission units, because fixed positions of the electrodes on the base unit restrict arrangements of the light-emission units.

Lighting apparatus and lighting apparatus assembly using the same

Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.


A mail collection apparatus comprising a housing defining an access opening. An access door is supported by the housing. The access door is moveable between a door open position, providing access to the housing interior space through the access opening, and a door closed position blocking the access opening. A chute is supported by the housing. The chute comprises an inlet end defining a chute inlet opening adapted for receiving mail and a chute outlet end defining a chute outlet opening opposite the inlet end. A bag comprises an inlet portion defining a bag inlet opening. The bag and chute are moveable relative each other between: 1) a mail deposit mode, in which the chute and the bag cooperate to form an enclosed mail deposit pathway from the chute inlet opening to the bag inlet opening and adapted so that mail deposited through the chute inlet opening falls along the mail deposit pathway through the chute outlet opening and the bag inlet opening into the bag interior space, and 2) a mail collection mode, in which the chute and the bag are spaced apart from each other. The apparatus may be useful in helping to reduce exposure to contaminated mail that may be deposited in the apparatus.

The present invention relates to mail collection boxes.
Mail such as letters, postcards, and parcels may be anonymously deposited into any one of the over 300,000 free-standing mail collection boxes located in the U.S. on streets and parking lots. U.S. Postal Service employees collect the deposited mail from these mail collection boxes on a regular basis. The collected mail is sent by truck to centralized facilities for processing and distribution.
Recently one or more terrorists have used the U.S. mail system to send anthrax, harming several Postal Service employees and customers. The anthrax mailing caused at least five deaths. It is believed that the letters carrying anthrax were initially deposited in mail collection boxes. In such a situation, a mail collector may be exposed to anthrax while collecting mail from the mail collection box that holds a contaminated letter. Mail that resides with the contaminated letter in the mail collection boxxe2x80x94or that is later commingled with the contaminated letter during mail processing and distributionxe2x80x94may be cross-contaminated with anthrax, further spreading the risk of exposure.
The present invention addresses one or more of the aforementioned problems. A mail collection apparatus comprises a housing defining an access opening. An access door is supported by the housing. The access door is moveable between a door open position, providing access to the housing interior space through the access opening, and a door closed position blocking the access opening. A chute is supported by the housing. The chute comprises an inlet end defining a chute inlet opening adapted for receiving mail and a chute outlet end defining a chute outlet opening opposite the inlet end. A bag comprises an inlet portion defining a bag inlet opening. The bag and chute are moveable relative each other between: 1) a mail deposit mode, in which the chute and the bag cooperate to form an enclosed mail deposit pathway from the chute inlet opening to the bag inlet opening and adapted so that mail deposited through the chute inlet opening falls along the mail deposit pathway through the chute outlet opening and the bag inlet opening into the bag interior space, and 2) a mail collection mode, in which the chute and the bag are spaced apart from each other. The apparatus may be useful in helping to reduce exposure to contaminated mail that may be deposited in the apparatus.
These and other objects, advantages, and features of the invention will be more readily understood and appreciated by reference to the detailed description of the invention and the drawings.


A semiconductor package and a method for manufacturing such a package in which a desired thickness of the package is accomplished. The package includes a semiconductor chip provided with a plurality of solders which are formed on pads of the chip, respectively, and a plurality of inner leads of a lead frame which are electrically connected to the solders by soldering. The method comprises the steps of coating polyimide layers on a surface of semiconductor chip, forming solders on pads of the chip, soldering inner leads of a lead frame to the solders in order to electrically connect the chip to the inner leads, molding an encapsulation epoxy resin coating in order to cover a predetermined area including the semiconductor chip and the inner leads, and trimming and forming the package having been processed in above steps. The package of this invention provides advantage in that the inner leads are connected to the solders of the chip, thereby accomplishing a desired thickness of the package, reducing manufacturing cost and simplifying the manufacturing process of the package due to removing wires.

1. Filed of The invention
The present invention relates in general to a semiconductor package and a method for manufacturing such a package. Particularly, the present invention relates to a semiconductor package and a method for manufacturing such a package in which a semiconductor chip is connected to a plurality of inner leads of a lead frame having no paddle by means of soldering, thereby reducing the thickness of semiconductor package.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Recently, in correspondence with tendency of increasing the capacity of memory chip as the semiconductor techniques are substantially advanced, it is required to enclose a bare chip having a relatively huge size within a semiconductor package. Thus, the ratio of the area of the bare chip to the total area of the package is obliged to be increased.
Consequently, the increase of the relative area ratio mentioned above results in an increase in the volume of the semiconductor package, thereby inducing a problem in that a required size of the package can not be obtained.
Hence, there have been several efforts for solving the above problem, for example, an LOC (lead on chip) technique wherein leads are placed on the top of active semiconductor chip and, directly and electrically connected to the semiconductor chip. Here, a typical example of an SOJ (small outline J-lead) type of package according to the LOC technique will be described in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
FIGS. 1 and 2 show a plane view of a wire bonding of a process for manufacturing the LOC-SOJ type of semiconductor package which is a representative example of 16MDRAM packages, and a sectional view showing a construction of a manufactured LOC-SOJ type of semiconductor package, respectively. As shown in the drawings, the LOC-SOJ type of package has a semiconductor chip 1 which is provided with insulating polyimide layers 2 coated on the opposite upper side surfaces thereof at a predetermined thickness throughout the whole length and width thereof. The chip 1 additionally includes a plurality of pads 3 each of which is electrically connected to an end of each inner lead 5 of a lead frame 4 through a wire 6 of which opposite ends are connected to the pad 3 and the inner lead 5, respectively. In addition, there is provided an epoxy resin layer 7 coated on a predetermined area including the chip 1 and the inner leads 5 of the frame 4 by a molding process.
In the drawings, the reference numerals, 5, 8 and 9, denote an outer lead of the lead frame, a damper and a support bar, respectively.
As described above, the LOC-SOJ type of package has an advantage in that it allows the inner leads 5 of the lead frame 4 to be pulled to an active cell of the semiconductor chip 1, thereby reducing the area wherein the inner leads 5 of the lead frame 4 occupy in the package.
However, the above LOC-SOJ type of package is obliged to be completely manufactured by an electric connection between the semiconductor chip 1 and the inner leads 5 of the lead frame 4 through the wires 5, thereby having a disadvantage in that it can only accomplish a limited thickness of the semiconductor package due to the electrical connection between the leads 5 and the chip 1.
In other words, a wire bonding is obliged to be performed for connecting the chip to leads in manufacturing the known semiconductor package, thus it is required to reduce a wire loop height as small as possible In order to accomplish the desired thickness. However, if the wire loop height is reduced as required, there may be a process and reliability problem such that the wire bonding is hard to achieve. In order to compensate such a problem, it is required both to select a wire material having a relatively higher strength sufficient for resisting the break of the wire and to develope a high quality wire bonding process to accomplish the reliable bonding of the wire.
Accordingly, it is inevitable that the known semiconductor package, for manufacturing a device where the wire bonding should be performed, is obliged to have a wire loop higher than the height of the inner lead 5 of the lead frame 4 irrespective of selected wire materials, thereby having a disadvantage in that it has an undesired substantial thickness.

Semiconductor packages with centrally located electrode pads


Disclosed is a method for producing a silver (Ag) coating pigment. The method for producing a silver coating pigment according to the present invention comprises: a step of forming a tin compound pretreatment layer on the matrix surface; and a step of forming a silver coating layer on the lower portion of the tin compound pretreatment layer through a reflux and electroless plating process using a diluted solution of silver nitrate, ammonia water, a citric acid solution, and a diluted solution of potassium hydroxide.

Pearlescent pigments are formed using powders, which have a coating layer formed on a transparent matrix of the powder. Here, typically, high refractive index metal oxides such as TiO2, Fe2O3 and the like and low refractive index materials such as SiO2, MgO.SiO2 are used to coat the transparent matrix. Such materials are coated onto the transparent matrix as a single layer or multiple layers, thereby preparing pearlescent pigments of various colors.
However, the pearlescent pigments have problems in that it is not easy to perform a process for preparing an initial reaction solution using a metal salt, which is a starting material in a process for preparing metal oxides, and in that the pigments do not have high gloss unlike metals due to optical properties of the metal oxides.

Silver coating pigment, and method for producing same


A hashing tool can be used to generate Object UIDs from a software application. The software application can be tested. A change and release management system can receive Object UIDs involved in a defect uncovered during the testing. The change and release management system can receive names of functions involved in the defect uncovered during the testing and defect fixing. A graphical representation of function names versus Object UIDs for which the defect occurred can be created.

The present disclosure relates to the field of software and, more particularly, to leveraging the relationship between object IDs and functions in diagnosing software defects during the post-deployment phase.
After software is bought and used by the end user, there is typically a support process in place to help support the end user. Usually, a support team in the organization accepts the support call and helps the customer depending on the type of support required. There may be different levels of support staff in the support team.
For example, an initial call can be accepted by a support person at the Level 0. This person logs the call and tries to solve the problem at a basic level. If this person cannot help, he or she escalates the issue to the next level, typically to the Level 1 support engineer. The Level 1 support engineer tries to understand the problem, and tries basic configuration help. The problem escalates, for example, to Level 2. At Level 2 the typical problems addressed are related to some advanced configuration or other known issue of the software being unable to co-exist with other software products. The problem escalates to Level 3 if there is a defect or bug, which has to be fixed in the source code of the software application. Different organizations may have different numbers of levels. One of these levels will typically have someone responsible for fixing defects or bugs in software products.
The person at Level 3 who has to fix defects or bugs can have the source code of the software and a change management system to help with addressing the defects. In an organization that uses multiple levels, this top level person leverages all the symptoms articulated by the lower level support people on this case before it gets to him or her. The person who has to fix defects in the source code finds the cause within the source code and fixes the source code to solve the particular problem.
A function verification test (FVT) cycle is a period in time when most of the functionality of a software application is tested during development. This testing is typically done in iterations or cycles so that each FVT cycle catches newer defects. A project plan for software application development may specify that there be one or more function verification testing cycles during the development of the software product. There is an inherent gap in the software development lifecycle and process in that the data collected from the FVT phase is not reused in any other phase, especially in post-sales support.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Leveraging the relationship between object IDs and functions in diagnosing software defects during the post-deployment phase


An optical splitter having a self-contained optical source with the optical core of the splitter being substantially numerical aperture matched to the optical source and to optical fibers connected to the splitter. By matching numerical apertures, efficient transfer of optical energy is achieved between the optical source and the connected optical fibers in spite of refractive index mismatch between the optical core and the connected optical fibers. The splitter is fabricated by inserting the optical source and optical fibers into a rigid cladding structure and filling the rigid cladding structure with a polymer which after curing becomes an optical core for communicating light from the optical source to the optical fibers.

In many optical local area networks (LAN) and optical backplanes that have a bus-type architecture, an optical repeater receives and combines optical signals from optical transmitters in system nodes, as well as amplifies and individually retransmits signals to optical receivers in the system nodes. FIG. 1 illustrates such a prior art optical transmission system. Nodes 106 through 110 transmit and receive optical signals to and from optical repeater 100 and optical fibers 130 through 139. Specifically, optical repeater 100 receives and combines optical signals via optical fibers 135 through 139 and redistributes these optical signals via optical fibers 130 through 134. Optical combiner 115 receives and combines the optical signals; whereupon components 116, 117, and 118 electrically process the combined signal. Optical unit 123 then converts the combined electrical signals to an optical signal and transfers it to optical splitter 124 via optical link 140. Two problems exist due to the fact that optical unit 123 is separate from optical splitter 124. The first problem is the loss of optical energy due to the interconnections of optical splitter 124 and optical unit 123 to optical link 140 by light reflections in the air dielectric interfaces at the interconnections. The second problem is the cost of providing these optical connections.

Optical splitter having a self-contained optical source


A hose for refrigerant transport use comprising an inner layer with superior deterioration resistance performance. The innermost layer comprised in the hose for refrigerant transport use of the present invention is formed using a polyamide resin composition comprising a polyamide and, per 100 parts by mass thereof, from 0.5 to 20 parts by mass of an acid acceptor.

Currently, since HFC134a, which is used as a refrigerant in car air conditioning systems, has a large global warming potential (GWP), HFO1234yf, which has a small GWP, has emerged as a promising new refrigerant candidate to replace HFC134a. For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2009-074017A proposes a composition comprising a refrigerant such as HFO1234yf and a lubricating oil.
Additionally, conventionally, laminated structures of a rubber and a resin comprising an innermost layer formed from a polyamide resin material in order to suppress the permeation of a refrigerant have been commonly used for rubber hoses for use in car air conditioning systems.


In an electronic device and its display method, which dissolves a feeling of wrongness given to users in the case where information displayed in the foreground image and its related information is displayed in the background image, thereby making it possible to reduce a burden imposed on users; when a wallpaper display processing is carried out and a background image displayed by a background image display unit (183) is included in information and its related information displayed by an information display unit (182), such as a clock, a date, a radio condition, a remaining battery charge, and the like; an information display suppression unit (184) suppresses display of either the information display by the information display unit (182) or the information display by the background image display unit (183).

Mobile phones, one example of electronic devices, are becoming increasingly advanced in functions. Recently, it has become possible to set any image downloaded through the Web (World Wide Web) on a standby screen of a mobile phone.
Further, the image formats which can be handled by mobile phones have been increasing. Recently, there have been mobile phones capable of registering flash content as wallpaper.
Many methods for superimposing a clock and an illustration on a standby screen have been proposed.
For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a mobile phone reducing a difficulty of reading time and a lowering of beauty of a character image due to superimposition of the character image and the clock image.
Further, Patent Document 2 discloses a mobile phone selecting a foreground image and a background image from among a plurality of screens, superimposing these, and displaying the result as a composite screen image.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Publication (A) No. 2003-8694
Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Publication (A) No. 2001-245352

Electronic apparatus and display method in electronic apparatus


The invention is directed to a process for the production of hydrocarbon products from a methane comprising feedstock comprising of the steps of: preparing a feed syngas comprising hydrogen and carbon monoxide having a hydrogen/carbon monoxide molar feed ratio in a syngas manufacturing process and using the feed syngas in a Fischer-Tropsch process using one or more fixed bed catalyst beds as present in one or more syngas conversion reactors thereby obtaining the hydrocarbon product and an residual tail gas. The manufacturing process comprises of two parallel operated syngas manufacturing processes starting from the same gaseous methane comprising feedstock. One syngas manufacturing process is a partial oxidation (POX) process which prepares a syngas having a hydrogen/carbon monoxide [H2/CO] molar ratio below the molar feed ratio and The second syngas manufacturing process is a heat exchange reforming (HER) process, which prepares a syngas having a hydrogen/carbon monoxide [H2/CO] molar ratio above the molar feed ratio.

The present invention relates to a process for the production of hydrocarbon products from a methane comprising feed by means of a Fischer-Tropsch process.
US-A-2007/0004809 discloses a process for producing synthesis gas blends which may be used as feed for a Fischer-Tropsch conversion process. In the process according to US-A-2007/0004809 the synthesis gas blend is prepared by mixing a syngas effluent stream from a steam reforming step with a syngas effluent from an oxygen-blown reforming step. The syngas effluent from the steam reforming step is compressed to a pressure substantially equal to that of the syngas effluent from the oxygen-blown reforming step before both syngas effluents are mixed into the synthesis gas blend that could be used as a feed to a Fischer-Tropsch conversion process. The H2/CO molar ratio of the synthesis gas blend formed is higher than 1.9.
WO-A-2004/041716 describes a process wherein a synthesis gas having a hydrogen to carbon monoxide molar ratio of about 2.04 is prepared in the illustrating examples starting from a natural gas feed by means of a so-called heat exchange steam reforming process. The heat exchange reforming process (HER Process) as disclosed includes an autothermal reformer (ATR) unit and a heat exchange reformer (HER) unit operated in combination. To both reformers a natural gas feed is supplied, although the bulk of the feed is directed to the HER tubeside, where the steam reforming reaction takes place. The partially reformed syngas effluent of the HER unit and the small portion of fresh feed are combined and fed to the ATR unit. The hot effluent of the ATR unit is in turn used to provide the heat of reaction in the HER unit by means of indirect heat exchange. The synthesis gas is used as feed to a Fischer-Tropsch synthesis step to obtain a hydrocarbon product and a residual tail gas. The residual tail gas is recycled to the ATR unit in this process after compressing to the ATR operating pressure.
The heat exchange reforming process is attractive because it has a high efficiency resulting in better conversion, lower oxygen usage and lower CO2 emmissions in comparison with conventional steam reforming processes such as auto-thermal reforming. A disadvantage of the process of WO-A-2004/041716 is that the level of inerts in the synthesis gas is relatively high. Applicants found that in a Fischer-Tropsch synthesis step using one or more fixed catalysts beds, higher levels of inerts is detrimental for the selectivity to useful products of the Fischer-Tropsch conversion. The net result is that a HER process in conjunction with fixed bed Fischer Tropsch synthesis is less attractive since poorer conversion to useful products is achieved in the synthesis stage.

Production of a synthesis gas blend and use in a fischer-tropsch process


A clock synchronization circuit using a phase mixer is disclosed. The clock synchronization circuit generates an internal clock signal having a phase between phases of two clock signals generated in two variable delay lines with a predetermined phase difference by using the phase mixer, thereby precisely synchronizing the clock signal. When a shift register for controlling the variable delay line performs a shift operation, the output clock signal from the variable delay line where the shift operation is performed is not inputted to the phase mixer, but the output clock signal from the other variable delay line is inputted to the phase mixer. As a result, jitter elements generated due to the shift operation do not influence the internal clock signal.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a clock synchronization circuit that is able to compensate for a skew between an external clock signal and an internal clock signal and, in particular, to a clock synchronization circuit that can precisely synchronize clock signals regardless of noise generated due to shift in delay lines by using two delay lines and a phase mixer.
2. Description of the Background Art
In general, a clock synchronization circuit such as a delay locked loop (DLL), or a phase locked loop (PLL) is used as a clock generating device for compensating for a skew between an external clock signal and an internal clock signal.
Referring to FIG. 1, a conventional clock synchronization circuit includes: a variable delay line 1 for delaying an external clock signal EXCLK for a predetermined time and for generating an internal clock signal INCLK; a delay monitor 2 for monitoring a delay time of the internal clock signal INCLK from the variable delay line 1; a phase detector 3 for comparing a phase difference between the external clock signal EXCLK and the internal clock signal INCLK, and outputting shift signals SHL and SHR for adjusting the phase difference; and a shift register 4 for controlling the delay time of the variable delay line 1 according to the shift signals SHL and SHR from the phase detector 3.
The variable delay line 1 delays the external clock signal EXCLK for a predetermined time, and outputs the internal clock signal INCLK. Here, the internal clock signal INCLK is inputted to the phase detector 3 through the delay monitor 2, so that the phase detector 3 judges whether the internal clock signal INCLK has a faster or slower phase than the external clock signal EXCLK.
The phase detector 3 controls the shift register 4 according to the shift signals SHL and SHR, so that the external clock signal EXCLK and the internal clock signal INCLK have the same phase.
The shift register 4 outputs control signals SL1-SLN according to the shift signals SHL and SHR. The variable delay line 1 controls a delay time of the external clock signal EXCLK so that a phase of the external clock signal EXCLK can be synchronized with a phase of the internal clock signal INCLK.
As shown in FIG. 2, the variable delay line 1 includes: NAND gates ND1-NDN for selectively outputting the external clock signal EXCLK according to the output signals SL1-SLN from the shift register 4; unit delay cells DEL1-DELN connected in series for delaying the external clock signal EXCLK selectively outputted by the NAND gates ND1-NDN; and a NAND gate NDA for NANDing a power voltage VCC and the output signal from the last unit delay cell DELN and for outputting the internal clock signal INCLK.
Here, the unit delay cell DELi includes: a NAND gate ND1i for NANDing the output signal from the previous unit delay cell DEL(ixe2x88x921) and the output signal from the NAND gate NDi; a NAND gate ND2i for NANDing the power voltage VCC and the output signal from the NAND gate ND1i.
The operation of the conventional clock synchronization circuit will now be explained.
When it is presumed that the second signal of the output signals SL1-SLN from the shift register 4 has a high level and the other signals SL1-SL(Nxe2x88x922) and SLN have a low level in an early stage, the external clock signal EXCLK is delayed through a delay path from the second delay cell DEL(Nxe2x88x921) to the last delay cell DELN, and outputted as the internal clock signal INCLK.
Here, the phase detector 3 compares the phase of the external clock signal EXCLK with the phase of the internal clock signal INCLK. When the phase of the external clock signal EXCLK is faster than that of the internal clock signal INCLK, the phase detector 3 outputs the control signal SHL to shift left the shift register 4.
Because the second signal SL(Nxe2x88x921) of the output signals SL1-SLN from the shift register 4 has a high level and the other signals SL1-SL(Nxe2x88x922) and SLN have a low level in an early stage, the third signal SL(Nxe2x88x922) of the output signals SL1-SLN from the shift register 4 has a high level and the other signals SL1-SL(Nxe2x88x923), SL(Nxe2x88x921) and SLN have a low level according to the control signal SHL from the phase detector 3. Accordingly, the external clock signal EXCLK is delayed through a delay path from the third delay cell DEL(Nxe2x88x922) to the last delay cell DELN, and outputted as the internal clock signal INCLK.
Conversely, when the phase detector 3 compares the phase of the external clock signal EXCLK with the phase of the internal clock signal INCLK, if the phase of the external clock signal EXCLK is slower than that of the internal clock signal INCLK, the phase detector 3 outputs the control signal SHR to shift right the shift register 4. Because the second signal SL(Nxe2x88x921) of the output signals SL1-SLN from the shift register 4 has a high level and the other signals SL1-SL(Nxe2x88x922) and SLN have a low level in an early stage, the first signal SLN of the output signals SL1-SLN from the shift register 4 has a high level and the other signals SL1-SL(Nxe2x88x921) have a low level according to the control signal SHR from the phase detector 3. Therefore, the external clock signal EXCLK is delayed through a delay path of the last delay cell DELN, and outputted as the internal clock signal INCLK.
In the conventional clock synchronization circuit for the semiconductor memory device, the variable delay line 1 includes the unit delay cells DEL1-DELN connected in series and each respectively having two serially-connected NAND gates.
Accordingly, a number of the unit delay cells DELi increases or decreases to adjust a delay time. Here, the shift right or left is performed in unit delay cell units according to the output signals SL1-SLN from the shift register 4 to increase or decrease the number of the unit delay cells DELi.
However, the phase is suddenly changed for a time period as long as the delay time of the unit delay cell DELi. As shown in FIG. 3, when the shift is generated in time point xe2x80x98A,xe2x80x99 the internal clock signal INCLK has a jitter. In addition, a pulse width of the clock varies, and thus a clock period is changed.
A clock synchronization circuit may include at least two variable delay lines for respectively delaying an external clock signal for a different delay time and at least two shift registers for respectively controlling the delay time of the variable delay lines. The circuit may also include a phase mixer for mixing phases of the clock signals delayed by the variable delay lines, and outputting an internal clock signal having a phase between the phases of the delayed clock signals; a phase detecting unit for comparing the phase of the external clock signal with the phase of the internal clock signal, and outputting the result; and a control unit for outputting a first control signal for determining the phase of the internal clock signal from the phase mixer, and a second control signal for controlling a shift operation of at least one shift register among the shift registers according to the comparison result of the phase detecting unit.
A second clock synchronization circuit may include a normal internal clock signal generator for generating a normal internal clock signal to be synchronized with an external clock signal and an inverted internal clock signal generator for outputting an inverted internal clock signal to be synchronized with a phase-shifted clock signal of the external clock signal. In such an arrangement, the normal internal clock signal is transmitted to circuits operated on a rising edge of the internal clock signal and the inverted internal clock signal is transmitted to circuits operated on a falling edge of the clock signal.


An oil ring Ro for an internal combustion engine according to the present invention includes at least one selected from the group consisting of hard carbon, CrN and TiN that covers an outer periphery 1 of the oil ring. A radius of curvature R at an outermost portion T of the oil ring in a sliding direction is 0.3 mm or more.

Reducing mechanical loss in an internal combustion engine such as a vehicular engine is effective to improve fuel consumption. Thus, attempts to reduce frictional losses are being developed with respect to various components.
For example, friction loss in the movement range between a piston and a cylinder bore in an internal combustion engine is considered to account for 20 to 30% of mechanical loss in the entire internal combustion engine. In order to reduce friction especially between a piston ring and a cylinder bore, various suggestions to reduce piston ring tension have been proposed.
Piston ring tension has a close relationship with a sealing property in a combustion chamber, and has an influence on engine oil consumption. In view of this, in addition to simply reducing piston ring tension, a means of providing a surface treatment on a piston ring having a small fluctuation of piston ring tension having a rigid thin coating such as CrN and excellent abrasion resistance, and a means of reducing surface roughness of a piston ring (refer to Patent Document 1) have been proposed.

Oil ring and piston for an internal combustion engine


Embodiments are directed to a secure MapReduce model for distributed processing and decoding of big data streams. An encoding engine may be employed to divide a data stream into equally sized segments. The segments may be encoded using a document key provided in a set of bundles. The bundles may contain encoded segment metadata, including the document key used to encode the stream. The document key and segment metadata may be encrypted using public key cryptography, and optionally included in the bundles. The encrypted bundles may be embedded into the encoded segments which may be provided to other network computers that include a decoding engine and an application engine. The encrypted bundles may be decrypted to obtain the document key for each encoded segment. The encoded segments may then be decrypted using the document key. And, each decoded segment may be provided to an application engine for further processing.

The advent of the digital age has brought along a myriad of interconnected devices and a plethora of interactive multimedia applications. The space and bandwidth required to drive the data footprint consumed by these applications has also skyrocketed to unprecedented levels. Data is growing so rapidly that the term "big data" was coined to deal with the large data sets that stem from these apps. These large datasets may make it a technological or logistical challenge to perform what once were standard data operations. Accordingly, in some cases, distributed systems that enable multiple hosts or computers to concurrently process large datasets may be employed. However, if encryption or compression and large datasets are used in distributed processing environments, some previously standard data operations may become intractable. Thus, it is with respect to these considerations and others that the subject innovations have been made.

Distributed secure decoding and processing of big data streams


Systems and methods are provided in which devices that are employed during a medical procedure are adaptively configured during the medical procedure, based on input or feedback that is associated with the current state, phase or context of the medical procedure. In some example embodiments, the input is obtained via the identification of one or more medical instruments present within a region of interest, and this input may be employed to determine configuration parameters for configuring the device. In other example embodiments, the input may be based on the image-based detection of a measure associated with the phase or context of the medical procedure, and this input may be employed to adaptively control the device based on the inferred context or phase of the medical procedure. In other embodiments, images from one imaging modality may be employed to adaptively switch to another imaging modality.

In the field of surgery, imaging and imaging guidance is becoming a more significant component of clinical care, from diagnosis of disease, monitoring of the disease, planning of the surgical approach, guidance during the procedure and follow-up after the procedure is complete, or as part of a multi-faceted treatment approach.
Integration of imaging data in the surgical suite has become common-place for neurosurgery, where typically brain tumors are excised through an open craniotomy approach guided by imaging. The data that is typically used consists of CT scans with associated contrast (iodinated contrast) and MRI scans with associated contrast (gadolinium contrast). Systems provide way to register the imaging data sets together; and registration methods provide a way of translating the three dimensional imaging space to the three dimensional space of the patient, tracking instruments relative to the patient, and associating imaging data by way of an external hardware system, such as a mechanical arm, a radio-frequency, or optical tracking device.

Context aware surgical systems and methods via hyperspectral image analysis to configure a device during medical procedure


A multicore fiber optic cable comprising of a central fiber having a central fiber outer diameter, a central fiber coating surrounding the central fiber outer diameter of the central fiber, the central fiber coating having a continuous spiraled groove around the central fiber outer diameter, a dual core optical fiber having a dual core optical fiber geometry, the dual core optical fiber spiraled around the central fiber coating and disposed within the spiraled groove such that the dual core optical fiber is wound around the central fiber coating in a spiral pattern and the central fiber core geometry and the dual core optical fiber geometry are oriented longitudinally to negate link path length difference; and an outer sheath surrounding the central fiber coating and the dual core optical fiber.

Fiber optic based photonic links are often used in high bandwidth analog and digital communication applications. Photonics and fiber optics offers numerous advantages over traditional radio frequency hardware and electrical interconnects for various analog link applications. Such advantages include reduced weight, immunity to electromagnetic interference, increased flexibility, larger bandwidth in fiber, and reduced loss in fiber. Many analog photonic link applications have critical sensitivity and linearity requirements. Noise figure, link gain, compression dynamic range and spurious free dynamic range are key performance parameters for analog links. Intensity modulation with direct detection (IMDD) is an analog link modulation scheme where the intensity of an optical source is modulated by the analog signal. Demodulation is achieved through direct detection of the optical carrier and conversion using a photodetector. FIG. 1 (not admitted to be prior art) derived from Naval Research Laboratory report NRL/MR/5652-07-9065 (incorporated by reference and not admitted to be prior art) allows one to understand the schematic and operation of a traditional IMDD analog photonic link 20. Polarization-maintaining optical fiber 21 connects the laser to the Mach-Zehnder Modulator (MZM) 24. A single core single-mode optical fiber 23 connects the MZM 24 to a single photodetector 25. RF i/p=RF input to the MZM 26. RF o/p=RF output 28 from the photodetector. A bias voltage circuit 27 sets the MZM operating point at quadrature.
Balanced IMDD links offer a performance advantage over traditional unbalanced IMDD links in terms of noise suppression and link gain (see references 1-3 in J. Diehl, et al, "Measurement and discussion of a balanced photonic link utilizing dual-core optical fiber," Proc. IEEE Avionics and Vehicle Fiber Optics and Photonics Conference, 2019, this reference is not admitted to be prior art). FIG. 2 (not admitted to be prior art) 30 illustrates a balanced IMDD link schematic based on two individual single-core fibers 31 interfaced to the output of a dual-output MZM 32 and to the input of a balanced photodetector 33. RF Out 34=RF output from the balanced photodetector 33. Using both output arms of an external intensity modulator results in twice the photocurrent collected. This corresponds to four times (6 dB) more gain. More importantly, common mode noise (such as laser noise, or spontaneous emission noise from an erbium-doped fiber amplifier before the modulator) is differenced at the balanced photodetector, resulting in significant noise suppression in a typical link. Efficient use of optical power and noise cancellation can be achieved at the same time resulting in higher link gain, lower noise figure, and higher spurious free dynamic range.
Building a balanced link becomes progressively more difficult as the modulation frequency increases. This is due to the ever-tightening phase-tolerance as the modulation signal's frequency increases and wavelength decreases. At frequencies above 10 GHz, maintaining steady balanced phase over any appreciable transmission distance (several meters) is limited by temperature and physical effects on the two individual single-core optical fibers. Again referring to FIG. 2, any effective change in fiber optic length on the order of micrometers can begin to unbalance a high frequency analog photonic link.
A balanced IMDD analog photonic link based on one dual-core optical fiber can mitigate the temperature and physical effects that cause a high frequency analog photonic link to become unbalanced over any appreciable link distance (see FIG. 3, not admitted to be prior art) 40. With both outputs of the modulator traveling down independent single-mode cores in a single fiber 45, the effects of temperature and mechanical stress is minimized wherein any effect impacting one core would be expected to impact the other core as well.
Fiber optic cable bending can cause the link to become unbalanced, due to the differential radius of the independent cores inside the dual-core optical fiber. The dual-core fiber optic cable design described in this disclosure is meant to negate/minimize differences in path delay due to fiber optic cable bending, thereby mitigating the net effect of bending the cable in any direction when the fiber optic cable is installed on an aerospace platform or other physical structure. It achieves this by effectively orienting the two cores parallel to the longitudinal axis of the cable 10 and spiraling the dual-core optical fiber around the central axis of the cable 10, ensuring a statistical averaging of their effective relative path lengths. It prevents one core from being on the outside (longer path-length) of the bend's radius for the entire length of the bend. Doing so prevents the accumulation of phase error due to the bend, instead limiting the total phase error to the modulus of the spiral length and the total length of the bent fiber. FIG. 8 illustrates a balanced IMDD analog photonic link 50 utilizing a dual core optical fiber cable 10. The dual core optical fiber is snap fit within a spiraled groove in the polymer coating, which is protected by a polymer outer sheath. Dual core fiber optic connectors 53 with optical fan-in 54/fan-out 55 fibers or waveguides couple light into and out of the dual core optical fiber cable 10.

The United States of America, as represented by the Secretary of the Navy


A servomotor is actuated by a pressure medium and has a piston reciprocated in the cylinder, the piston being mounted by a piston rod that extends through a cylinder end wall. The piston has a piston member bearing against the cylinder and is mounted for radial movement relative to the piston rod by a pair of piston guide plates that extend on opposite sides of the piston member. The guide plates are mounted by the piston rod for axial movement therewith.

The invention relates to a servomotor actuated by a pressure medium, comprising a piston reciprocatable in a cylinder and a piston rod brought out at one side, the piston being movable relatively to the piston rod and its central portion being for this purpose arranged between annular faces on the piston rod.
A known servomotor of this kind (U.S. Pat. No. 31 58 072) has a long stroke. The piston has a small diameter and a long axial length. By reason of these dimensions, it is well guided in the cylinder. Since the piston is secured to the piston rod with the interpositioning of elastic rings, it can move at will relative to the piston rod. There is therefore no danger of the piston jamming if the free end of the piston rod that carries the piston moves out of centre because the piston rod is guided in only one end wall of the cylinder.
Under otherwise identical conditions, however, the small piston diameter requires a comparatively high actuating pressure and the length of the piston contributes considerably to the cylinder length, which is particularly significant in the case of servomotors with a short stroke.
The invention is based on the problem of providing a servomotor of the aforementioned kind which, under otherwise identical prerequisites, can be driven at a lower pressure and made of a shorter length.


Polyamide elastomer comprising a hard segment derived from polyamide having no divalent aromatic group and a soft segment derived from polycarbonate diol having no divalent aromatic group has high flexibility and high heat resistance in addition to good physical characteristics of the known polyamide elastomers.

This invention relates to polyamide elastomer having high flexibility and high heat resistance in addition to good physical characteristics of the known polyamide elastomers.
It is well known that polyamide elastomers comprising hard segments derived from polyamide and soft segments derived from polyethers has good physical characteristics such as high impact-recovery resilience, and low temperature flexibility. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 4,331,786 describes polyether-ester-amide block copolymer.
However, the known polyamide elastomers having hard segments of polyamide and soft segment of polyether has disadvantageous characteristics such as low heat resistance and noticeable yellowing.
Japanese Patent Provisional Publication 8-134210 describes polyamide elastomer comprising hard segments derived from aromatic amides and soft segments derived from aliphatic polyesters, aliphatic polycarbonates, aliphatic polyether carbonate, or polyorganosiloxane and having a weight average molecular weight of 30,000 to 1,000,000.
It is an object of the invention to provide a polyamide elastomer having high flexibility and high heat resistance in addition to good physical characteristics of the known polyamide elastomers.
The present invention resides in polyamide elastomer comprising units derived from polyamide-forming monomers having no divalent aromatic group, units derived from polycarbonate diols, and units derived from dicarboxylic acids.
The invention further resides in polyamide elastomer comprising units derived from aliphatic polyamides having a carboxylic acid group at each end thereof, and units derived from polycarbonate diols.
The invention furthermore resides in polyamide elastomer comprising aliphatic polyamide units in an amount of 15 to 95 weight %, polycarbonate diol units, and dicarboxylic acid units.


A method for finding door location in an automated way based on observations of people that are equipped with a device whose position is determined acoustically. By observing positioning transitions across internal structures such as walls, the location of doors can be automatically identified.

Indoor spaces are designed to meet various requirements such as adequate light, proper air circulation, and adequate space for the various purposes to which the indoor space is put. These requirements result in specific constraints on the shape, size, location, and orientation of navigational sections such as doors, walls, and corridors. Such navigational sections are typically represented by a floor plan. Floor plans may be used for proper utilization, for energy optimization, for safety planning, and for generation of a building information model (BIM).
In indoor positioning systems, there is a strong requirement to obtain accurate maps of the interior of building. Doors are important landmarks in a building because they provide the entrance and exit points of rooms, and because they provide meaningful structures for navigation applications. However, the location of doors requires considerable effort to represent in building information models. Thus, in practice, such maps of interior spaces often lack detail, are out-of-date, or are inaccurate, particularly with respect to the location of doors. The accurate knowledge of the existence and location of doors and passageways is particularly important in generating routing information for navigation solutions. What is desired is a solution that can obtain accurate existence and location of doors and passageways.

Automatic egress/ingress detection in an acoustic positioning system


The invention relates to an automatic detection method in a source image, of at least one area called a layout area comprising at least one layout, such as a logo and/or a score. According to the invention, the layout areas of a source image are detected using the salience of source image pixels. The detection is carried out in specific areas of the source image saliency map, usually in the areas corresponding to the corners of the image or to the bands in the upper part and lower part of the image. In these areas, two points are sought having maximum salience values and distant by at least p points from each other. These two points corresponding to the beginning and end of a layout area. The window bounding these two points then corresponds to a layout area.

Several detection techniques of layout areas in video images are known. A first technique is described in the document "Automatic logo removal using statistical based logo detection and frequency selective inpainting" by K. Meisinger, T. Troeger, M. Zeller and A. Kaup, Proc. European Signal Processing Conference, September 2005. This technique involves detecting the image areas that do not change in the image sequence, the starting hypothesis being that the content of images generally changes over time with the exception of image areas that contain layouts. The algorithm used to detect layouts is based on an image to image difference and the pixels for which the difference from one image to another is zero or close to zero are considered to form part of the layout. A first problem with this technique is that it is not adapted for scenes which contain little or no motion. A second problem is that it requires the analysis of several consecutive images for implementation.
A second known technique is described in the document "Real-time opaque and semi-transparent TV logos detection" by A. Reis dos Santos and H. Yong Kim, Proc. 5th International Information and Telecommunication Technologies Symposium, 2006. In this document, layout detection is based on the detection of contours which requires pre-processing on several consecutive images.
Finally a third known technique consists in comparing visual content in the image to be processed with a predefined layout base. The visual content of image areas is compared with the visual content of each of the layouts contained in the base. A layout is detected when the visual content is identical to the visual content of the area tested. This technique only detects layouts contained in the base and thus involves prior knowledge of logos to be detected.

Method for detecting layout areas in a video image and method for generating an image of reduced size using the detection method


A time-segmented signal timing method is related to the field of intelligent transportation. The specific implementation is: obtaining traffic volume data of a target intersection in each period of time of N consecutive days, N being an integer greater than 1; performing curve fitting on the traffic volume data to determine a traffic volume curve corresponding to the target intersection of each day; determining calculating respective target points in the traffic volume curve with second derivatives satisfying a preset condition; and performing time-segmented signal timing on a traffic light at the target intersection based on time points corresponding to the respective target points.

At present, in the field of intelligent transportation, in order to improve the accuracy of controlling a traffic light, traffic volume at each intersection is usually first calculated, and then time is divided manually according to the traffic volume obtained. Time-segmented control is performed on the traffic light based on the divided periods of time.

Time-segmented signal timing method and apparatus for traffic light, electronic device and storage medium

APOLLO INTELLIGENT CONNECTIVITY (BEIJING) TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.


A method for incorporating, in the production of a continuous stream of images, by an image transfer device upon a moving web, post-production operations upon the web at various locations. Locations of a web, having a plurality of images placed thereon, output from an image transfer device are tracked. Specific operations at various locations upon the web are performed by a post-production device as the web passes through it. The web is directed from the image transfer device to the post-production device. In response to the tracking of locations upon the web, the point when a location has entered the post-production device is determined. In response to this determination, the post-production device is commanded to perform its specific operation at a connect location.

It is often desirable in a printing process involving a continuous stream of images laid down upon a moving paper web to incorporate other post-production processes to the web downstream of the printing process. These post-production processes may include, for example, page or job separation, hole punching, color logo application or folding operations. The problem with performing such post-production processes or operations is that the web transferred between the image and the post-production machines may not contain standard length pages or may otherwise have pages in locations upon the web that are difficult to gauge. Thus, the post-processing device must have some means for accurately locating each page presented to it, and furthermore, once each page location is found, must have a means of distinguishing between each individual page sent to it to determine which page must include a given post-production operation.
An additional problem with keeping track of processed pages as they are transferred to a post-production device is that the two devices may run at unsynchronized speeds, especially where they are discrete and separate units. As such, slack may develop in the transfer loop of web between the two devices, resulting in more images en route than expected and potential misapplication of the post-production operation.

Method for incorporation of post-production operations to a web output from an image transfer device


A finger position sensitive HMI for handling a user input of a user. The HMI includes an EDPU and includes a finger-position sensitive display. The display is arranged to display a generated button at the generated display location, to detect touch coordinates of a touched location on the display to provide the detected touch coordinates to the HMI OS, and to detect a force signal caused by pressure being applied to the display. The display is further arranged to provide the detected force signal to a supervising element. A check unit connected to the supervising element is arranged to observe a displayed button, and to generate an observed button bitmap content indicator of a pixel area related to the observed displayed button. The supervising element is arranged to release the provided service request related to the displayed button.

An electronic device comprising a pressure sensitive display is known from US 2017/0285858 A1. The electronic device according to US 2017/0285858 A1 comprises a processor and a memory including an OS for managing operations of the electronic device. The OS is embodied as an UNIX OS or as a another COTS OS. The display according to US 2017/0285858 A1 comprises a first cover member coupled to a second cover member to define a first chamber, a fluid disposed in the first chamber, and a pressure sensor coupled to the chamber to detect a change in pressure in the fluid disposed in the first chamber. The pressure sensor is communicatively coupled to a printed circuit board, providing communication connections to a controller of the electronic device. The controller comprises a display manager and a local memory. The display manager is coupled to the pressure sensor and a fluid pump coupled to the display. The display manager is coupled to a graphics processor and a touch controller for the display. The graphics processor manages graphics operations on the display and the touch controller manages touch based operations on the display. A location sensor from a touch screen system provides information about the location of a touch on the display to the display manager and the touch controller. The touch screen system comprises a capacitive touchscreen and a grid of location sensors to determine the location of the touch on the touchscreen. The local memory comprises one or more bitmap tables which comprise bitmaps for images presented on display. The graphics processor generates bitmaps corresponding to images presented on display. The bitmaps may include coordinates of input/output devices, e.g., buttons, text boxes, or the like on the display.
At operation, the display manager receives inputs from the pressure sensor and the touch controller, and combines the inputs to facilitate distinguishing a deliberate input touch from a user from an accidental touch by a user or by an object. The display manager tracks the pressure of the fluid in the chamber over time. If multiple fingers press the display at exactly the same time, they cause a single pressure increase peak in the fluid in the chamber and the pressure peak may be greater than a press from a single finger. If multiple fingers touch the display at slightly different time, they will generate multiple pressure changes. Timing of those pressure changes are combined with touch location sensor information to define the location and force of finger touches. A pressure spike which remains above a threshold value for a predetermined period of time indicates that a deliberate touch was applied to the display and should be processed as an input to the display. A pressure spike that remains above the threshold for less than the predetermined time period may indicated an accidental touch on the touch screen. Information from the pressure sensor is combined with information from the touch controller to distinguish between deliberate touches and accidental touches.
However, the controller of electronic devices is susceptible for software bugs and/or for electromagnetic fields, both possibly causing malfunction. Therefore the controller is not sufficiently reliable for safety-related commands. A safety-related command is a command where a human being can be injured in case the safety-related command is erroneously released by malfunction. Also US 2016/18818 A1 and WO 2017/175035 disclose pressure sensitive displays.

Finger-position sensitive human machine interface for handling a user input of a user and a method for handling a user input of a user of a finger-position sensitive human machine interface


A burner for a hot-blast furnace has a guidance portion, a channel portion and a mixing portion. The guidance portion serves as an air and gas intake, and is divided into a plurality of separate compartments by thin walled plates. Some of the compartments of the guidance portion have side openings for receiving gas therein, and the other compartments have lower openings for receiving air therein. All of these compartments have exit openings at their top for delivering the air and gas to the channel portion. Conduits are provided in the guidance portion to equalize the pressures within the respective air and gas compartments. The channel portion has a plurality of channels having an overall reduced cross-sectional area of flow as compared with the guidance portion. A mixing portion is disposed above the channels, mixing the air and gas and defining a plurality of burner jets. The reduction in cross-section from the guidance portion increases the velocity of the air and gas going to the burner jets.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a burner for a hot-blast furnace, and more particularly relates to a burner having a plurality of parallel, extended compartments alternatingly connected to a gas intake and an air intake, and a mixing area wherein gas and air are mixed and distributed in a plurality of burner jets.
(2) State of the Prior Art
A burner of the above type is described in DE-PS 1 262 491. In the burner of this patent, the flow directions of the two media, gas and air, are each lateral to the extended length of the compartments. This arrangement leads to an unequal flow distribution in the compartments. In order to improve this flow distribution, cross-bars are provided in each compartment. But the cross-bars can only improve the distribution in the respective compartment. They cannot improve the unfavorable flow distribution to the compartments overall. The flow distribution is also unfavorable because the flows of media in the compartments are only first divided into subflows in the burner jets.
A further burner is known in the prior art wherein air in the upper part of the burner is forced through jets. The jets are aimed into a gas flow, the gas flow having a limited momentum. This method of mixing the gas and the air requires a higher mixing energy. During combustion, pulsation can occur. Pulsation is undesirable because pulsation mechanically burdens the burner, causes acoustic disturbances, and unfavorably influences the combustion process. Fluctuations in the heating value of the gas promotes such pulsation.


A method for machining a material, in particular steel, is provided. The material is milled at such a high cutting speed that residual tensile stresses close the surface that exceed a specified value can occur and the residual tensile stresses can be lowered below the specified value by subsequent brushing. A device for performing the method is also provided.

In the context of the background of the invention it is to be noted that in the case of steam turbines the connections between the turbine shaft and the rotor blades belong to the group of most heavily stressed components. Therefore, it is also important for the internal stress state close to the surface after machining to be kept in as non-critical a range as possible. If excessive internal tensile stresses in the region close to the surface are created during machining, said internal tensile stresses by way of heterodyning with the operational stresses may lead to crack initiation. In order to obtain no internal tensile stresses or internal tensile stresses which are as low as possible, fixedly defined machining parameters or milling parameters, respectively, such as, for example, cutting and feed rates, depth of cut, etc. are predetermined. These specifications most often lead to reduced cutting and feed rates and thus to an often significant increase in the machining time.

Method for machining materials by milling and subsequent brushing


An information processing device including a light source control unit that controls a light source that irradiates an eye with light; and an exposure control unit that controls exposure for imaging the eye. The light source control unit sets a state of the light source to an on state or an off state at a time when the exposure is not performed.

In recent years, along with the development of line of sight estimation techniques, research and development for improving the accuracy of the line of sight estimation have been performed. In the case of the line of sight estimation technique in which an eyeball is irradiated with light and a reflection point (a bright spot) generated by the light is used, it is required to control a light source according to the exposure time. Here, Prior Literature 1 discloses a technique of setting a control time of the light source according to the exposure time.

Information processing apparatus and information processing method to control exposure for imaging the eye