The present invention provides a method for purifying an amino acid contained in an aqueous solution of alkali metal salt of amino acid comprising the steps of: (1) cation exchanging, which comprises subjecting an aqueous solution of alkali metal salt of amino acid to a desalting purification treatment using a moving bed type continuous ion exchange apparatus comprising a cation exchange resin to obtain an aqueous solution of crude amino acid; and (2) anion exchanging, which comprises adsorbing to a weakly basic anion exchange resin an iminodicarboxylic acid, which is a coexisting by-product, in the resulting aqueous solution of crude amino acid to remove the iminodicarboxylic acid, wherein the aqueous solution of crude amino acid is passed even after adsorbing the iminodicarboxylic acid to the break through point of the weakly basic anion exchange resin.

[1] Background art on desalting purification of an aqueous solution of an alkali metal salt of amino acid:
The method for producing an amino acid, such as glycine or alanine, which comprises reacting cyanohydrin with ammonia and hydrolyzing aminonitrile corresponding to the resulting amino acid (glycinonitrile in the case of glycine and aminopropionitrile in the case of alanine) is known as a Strecker reaction. The method is disclosed, for example, in JP-B-29-8677, JP-B-59-28543, JP-B-51-24481, JP-B-43-29929 and JP-B-51-40044. In the Strecker method, amino acid is obtained in the form of an alkali metal salt.
As a method for producing amino acid from the resulting aqueous solution of alkali metal salt of amino acid, there has been proposed a method which comprises neutralizing the aqueous solution of alkali metal salt of amino acid with sulfuric acid and thereafter recovering amino acid by crystallization method. According to the crystallization method, because inorganic salts, such as sodium sulfate and sodium chloride, which are produced, for example, in purification of an aqueous solution of sodium salt of glycine, are very similar to glycine in solubility, the amino acid, namely, glycine, cannot be sufficiently recovered by one-stage crystallization. Therefore, the following various methods have been proposed. That is, there are methods which carry out a series of troublesome operations such as crystallization of a part of the inorganic salt by troublesome adjustment of pH, crystallization of a part of iminodiacetic acid, and crystallization of glycine (see, for example, JP-B-58-8383, Japanese Patent No. 1179351 and JP-A-52-118421); and methods which repeat a plurality of times the operation of crystallizing a part of sodium sulfate at high temperatures and then crystallizing glycine at low temperatures (see, for example, JP-B-57-53775). However, all of these methods are very troublesome in operation and low in productivity, and can hardly be industrially employed.
On the other hand, there have been proposed methods of obtaining an aqueous amino acid solution by subjecting alkali metal ions in an aqueous solution of alkali metal salt of amino acid to cation exchanging (desalting) using a cation exchange resin. Methods using weakly acidic cation exchange resins are disclosed in JP-B-29-8677, JP-B-36-21315 and JP-A-2003-221370, and a method of using a strongly acidic cation exchange resin is disclosed in JP-B-7-68191.
In general, the ion exchange resins used are required to have a different adsorbability for alkali metals than adsorbability for amino groups of amino acid, namely, have selectivity in adsorption for them. Therefore, in order to avoid adsorption of amino groups of amino acid to the resin as much as possible, weakly acidic cation exchange resins will be suitable.
Furthermore, as for ion exchange apparatuses using ion exchange resins, there are proposals to reduce the absolute amount of the resin used and improve ion exchange efficiency and regeneration efficiency by continuously moving the resin as compared with a fixed bed type (a moving bed type continuous ion exchange apparatus). For example, a method of moving bed type is proposed according to which a column through which a solution is passed for ion exchange, a column for regeneration, and a column for water washing are organically connected; the resin is automatically discharged by passing the solution under internal pressure of the column, and transferred to the hopper of the next column; then, a resin, in an amount corresponding to the amount of the resin discharged due to reduction of internal pressure of the column caused by extraction of the solution, is introduced into the column from the upper hopper, and the resin, in an amount corresponding to the amount of resin introduced, is automatically and gradually transferred to the hopper from the other column under the internal pressure of the column so as to return to the initial state of solution passing; and this operation is repeated to continuously transfer the resin (see JP-B-38-5104 and Shozo Miyahara, Takaaki Omagari and Shigeo Sakai, "Practical Ion Exchange" pp 74-88 (1972) (Kagaku Kogyosha)).
However, the desalting purification using a moving bed type continuous ion exchange apparatus has been utilized solely for recovery from a dilute ion solution. That is, there have been no proposals to carry out ion exchange from high concentration ion solution, such as desalting purification of an aqueous solution of alkali metal salt of amino acid, by a moving type continuous ion exchange apparatus.
As mentioned above, when desalting purification of an aqueous solution of alkali metal salt of amino acid such as glycine or alanine is carried out using an ion exchange resin, it is advantageous to use a weakly acidic cation exchange resin of H-form, taking into consideration a decrease in product recovery efficiency due to adsorption of amino acid. However, it is known that the weakly acidic cation exchange resin expands (or swells). Generally, strongly acidic cation exchange resins having sulfonic groups as functional groups and comprising a styrene resin as a matrix do not utterly expand (rather contract) in the case of exchanging from H-form to Na-form. On the other hand, it has been reported that, for example, weakly acidic cation exchange resins having carboxylic groups as functional groups and comprising a methacrylic resin as a matrix are 90% in swelling ratio (increase to 1.9 times in volume) in exchanging from H-form to Na-form, and weakly acidic cation exchange resins comprising an acrylic resin as a matrix are 50% in swelling ratio (increase to 1.5 times in volume). When generally employed fixed bed type apparatus is industrially utilized as an ion exchange process, there are the following defects. That is, when the resin abruptly expands in volume, drifting of the solution occurs causing a decrease of ion exchanging reaction efficiency, and furthermore, an extravagant pressure is applied to the resin in the lower part of the column causing serious damage of the resin. Therefore, ion exchange efficiency decreases and frequent addition of the resin is necessary. Moreover, there is a possibility of deformation or breakage of the exchanging column by the pressure generated by expansion of the resin, and special structures are required in the design of exchange apparatuses that consider strength, supply of solution, and recovery of solution.
Thus, use of weakly acidic cation exchange resins causes various problems such as decrease in exchange efficiency and water washing efficiency due to the expansion of the resin, care on inserts and strength in designing of the exchanging column, and the necessity of adding resin owing to damages of the resin. These problems are disadvantageous in industrially carrying out the desalting purification of an aqueous solution of alkali metal salt of amino acid using fixed bed type ion exchange apparatuses. In addition, for purification of amino acid which is to be commercialized finally as a solid, it is necessary to subject to the exchange treatment the solution of raw material (solution to be treated) at a concentration as high as possible and to carry out efficient purification utilizing all of the ion exchange groups. Therefore, when desalting purification of an aqueous solution of alkali metal salt of amino acid is carried out with fixed bed type ion exchange apparatuses, the expansion of the resin occurs throughout the exchanging column and thus, problems caused by the expansion of the resin occur conspicuously.
Moreover, generally, in carrying out ion exchange with fixed type ion exchange apparatuses, passing of the solution is stopped when the concentration of the alkali metal reaches a given value in the aqueous amino acid solution obtained as a product (namely, at a break through point of the ion exchange resin). In this case, the solution to be treated (the raw material) remains in the ion exchanging column as a solution carried by the resin (1 m3 of ion exchange resin contains 0.5 m3 of void water), and for recovery of the solution, pure water is supplied to carry out replacement (forcing out) and water washing. This water used for the water washing contains active ingredients, which are recovered as raw materials, and as a result, the raw materials are diluted. Furthermore, after regeneration of the resin, the resin is similarly washed with water to remove the mineral acids and mineral acid alkali metal salts used as regenerating agents, and then the passing of solution is restarted. In this case, the aqueous solution of the product amino acid is unavoidably diluted than the concentration of the raw material with void water contained in the H-form resin (although the void water can be abandoned before the product amino acid begins to be discharged). The amino acid is usually commercialized as solid, and hence water must be recovered and much dilution is industrially disadvantageous.
Moreover, in carrying out the ion exchange treatment by fixed bed type ion exchange apparatuses, the above-mentioned operation is generally employed, and there occurs unavoidably some leakage of the alkali metal salt into the aqueous solution of the product amino acid. When it is attempted to inhibit the leakage, the exchange treatment is required to terminate before the effective utilization of the tip portion of the packed ion exchange resin. That is, amino groups of the amino acid are partially exchanged and adsorbed to the tip portion of the ion exchange resin column. If the replacement by water washing is carried out excessively, since there is a problem of dilution, the resin to which amino acid partially adsorbs is carried to the regeneration step, which leads to loss of useful amino acid. This further brings about an increase of environmental load due to wastes. For avoiding this problem, JP-A-2003-221370 proposes a method of further feeding the alkali metal salt of amino acid after reaching the break through point and reports that the concentration of amino acid (glycine) in the solution subjected to regeneration treatment is reduced to 110 ppm/SO4. However, this method suffers from the problem of an increase in the amount of the raw material recycled. Moreover, the problem of leakage of alkali metal in the product has not been solved, and the concentration of sodium ion in the product amino acid (glycine) corresponds to 240 wtppm/glycine.
Depending on the production method, the ion exchange resins include those in which one spherical particle is formed by agglomeration of microspheres as a base matrix and those which have a three-dimensional network structure, but have a base matrix which is dense and high in physical strength due to the content of crosslinking agent. The former has a space volume produced by agglomeration of microspheres and hence is high in diffusion rate and ion exchange rate, but low in resin strength and unavoidably has the defects caused by the resin expansion. The latter is somewhat superior in resin strength and hence, is expected to have less problems caused by the resin expansion; but since the base matrix is dense, the resin has a low ion exchange rate and a small selectivity for adsorption of alkali metal and amino group of amino acid, therefore it is difficult to perform efficient recovery of the product amino acid with fixed bed type ion exchange apparatuses.
[2] Background art on separation and recovery of amino acid and iminodicarboxylic acid:
In producing amino acid by Strecker method, there is a demand to separate and recover simultaneously and at high purity the iminodicarboxylic acid, which is a by-product in the reaction, and the amino acid, which is a product. As mentioned above, the attempt to purify amino acid by crystallization method has not succeeded in the conventional technologies.
A method of crystallization and recovery of amino acid as a copper salt has been proposed, but this method requires troublesome operation for removing copper (see, for example, JP-A-59-118747). According to a method of utilizing an electrodialysis with ion-exchange membranes, amino acid of high purity can be obtained. However, amino acid permeates through the membrane and is contained in the discharged solution, and membranes through which only multivalent ions of iminodicarboxylic acid selectively permeate have not been developed, and hence, the above method cannot be industrially utilized (see, for example, JP-A-51-34114).
Furthermore, a method of adsorbing amino acid to H-form strongly acidic cation exchange resins and thereafter separating the amino acid has been proposed (see, for example, JP-A-58-210027). This is conducted in a laboratory, but requires a large amount of ion exchange resins for adsorption of a large amount of amino acid, and can hardly be industrially employed. A method of carrying out chromatographic separation using strongly acidic cation exchange resins of salt form has been proposed (see, for example, JP-A-2-215746), but it is difficult to continuously treat a large amount of a solution in industrial scale, and a great number of ion exchange columns are required. Any of these conventional technologies have no disclosures of a process in which amino acid and iminodiacetic acid can be simultaneously separated and recovered at high purity and high yield.
Furthermore, there has been proposed a method according to which sodium ions of an aqueous solution of sodium salt of amino acid are subjected to cation exchanging (desalting) using a cation exchange resin to obtain an aqueous solution of crude glycine containing a colored substance, followed by treating with a weakly basic anion exchange resin or a medium basic ion exchange resin (see, for example, JP-B-54-1686).
This document has no disclosure on purity (residue of impurity) of the resulting amino acid (glycine), but discloses that the loss of glycine adsorbed to the ion exchange resin is about 0.2-1.5%. The purity of the resulting amino acid is kept by stopping the passing of solution when the concentration of organic acid (iminodiacetic acid, glycolic acid, formic acid) contained reaches a specified value, namely, a break through point at which the organic acid in a given amount leaks in anion exchanging. In this case, since the break through point in adsorption of organic acid is not a saturated adsorption point of the anion exchange resin, the organic acid does not adsorb with saturation to the tip of the anion exchange resin, and there is an ion exchange region which has not been subjected to exchanging. That is, in this ion exchange region, anions of amino acid are ion exchanged and adsorbed to the anion exchange resin in addition to OH-form anions.
When this ion exchange region is regenerated with an alkali metal salt, anions in amino acid are ion exchanged and carried together with the regeneration solution, resulting in recovery loss of amino acid. Moreover, the recovery solution contains iminodiacetic acid in a large amount, and iminodiacetic acid can be produced as a product. However, amino acid incorporates into the product as an impurity, and thus complicated operation is necessary.
Furthermore, in general, iminodiacetic acid adsorbed to the resin in the column is liberated by chromatographic separation and regeneration with a solution of a base which is sodium hydroxide, and hence, iminodiacetic acid is obtained in the form of a sodium salt. Therefore, in the case when a product iminodiacetic acid in the form of an acid is desired, a purification step is further needed, which greatly affects the cost.
[3] Background art on purification of glycine:
Amino acids, especially glycine, are widely used as raw materials for food additives of processed foods, medicines, and agricultural chemicals.
The background art relates to a method for production of glycine, in more detail, a method for optionally producing glycine in a desired crystal form. The crystal forms of glycine include the three forms of α, β, γ types (see, for example, "J. Amer. Chem. Soc." 61, 1087 (1939) and "Proc. Japan Acad." 30, 109 (1954)). There is a demand for a method of optionally purifying glycine to a desired form (α-type glycine or γ-type glycine).
As a method for industrial isolation of glycine, concentration crystallization, cooling crystallization, solvent crystallization, and the like are generally carried out, and the product is commercialized as α-type glycine. The α-type glycine is high in luminance and smaller in average particle diameter than γ-type glycine, and hence, is demanded to be commercialized from the viewpoint of the uses for food additives, etc.
However, it has become clear that this α-type glycine is apt to firmly consolidate in the form of rocks during storage, which causes serious problems in production, distribution and storage, and uses. This is due to the transition of α-type glycine to γ-type glycine in the presence of water.
Under the circumstances, in order to avoid the problem of consolidation of α-type glycine, there has been proposed a method of previously obtaining glycine as γ-type glycine. For example, JP-B-2-9018 discloses a method for producing γ-crystal glycine by inoculating γ-crystal in a saturated solution of glycine and gradually cooling the solution while stirring. This is a proposal that γ-type glycine can be produced by inoculating γ-type glycine in a saturated solution of glycine. However, according to the example given in the patent document, it is disclosed that the method is fundamentally batch-wise, and γ-type glycine is stably obtained when the cooling rate is 5° C./Hr while α-type glycine is produced when the cooling rate is 50° C./Hr. That is, it is presumed that a mixture of α-type glycine and γ-type glycine is obtained depending on the gradual heating rate. γ-type glycine is stably obtained under the conditions of a gentle cooling rate of 5° C./Hr, and when the method is industrially carried out, a large-sized crystallizing cell or many crystallizing cells are required, which is disadvantageous. In order to selectively produce only the desired crystal form of α-type glycine or γ-type glycine, the gradual heating rate must be accurately controlled. Moreover, the patent document is silent on the quality of water used for crystallization. (Hereinafter, "α-type glycine" and "γ-type glycine" are sometimes referred to as merely "α-type" and "γ-type", respectively.)
JP-A-9-67322 reports a method for producing γ-type glycine under quenching comprising keeping the degree of supersaturation in operation in the crystallizing cell at 0.1-2.0 g glycine/100 g water. However, this method also requires severe control of the degree of supersaturation. It is disclosed in the specification that if it deviates from the range of control, a mixed type glycine of α-type and γ-type is obtained, and this is not satisfactory as a method for industrial production of glycine having the desired crystal form. Moreover, this patent document makes no mention of the quality of water used for crystallization.
Moreover, there has been proposed a method of converting crystallized α-type glycine to γ-type glycine.
For example, JP-B-2-9019 proposes that α-type glycine in the state of crystal, which is kept coexistent with γ-type glycine and water, be converted to γ-type glycine. However, as mentioned in this patent document, the method has the defects that agglomeration and consolidation are apt to occur during conversion of α-type glycine to γ-type glycine, and troublesome operations such as grinding are required for obtaining γ-type glycine as commercialized products by industrially carrying out the method. Moreover, the patent document makes no mention of the quality of water used for crystallization.
JP-A-9-3015 proposes that α-type glycine is kept in an aqueous solution having a pH of 7-14 and converted to γ-type glycine in the state of crystal. However, as mentioned above, there are problems that agglomeration and consolidation are apt to occur during conversion of α-type glycine to γ-type glycine, and troublesome operations such as grinding are required for obtaining γ-type glycine as commercialized products by industrially carrying out the method. Furthermore, the patent document proposes to add hydroxides, carbonates, or oxides of alkali metals or alkaline earth metals to aqueous glycine solution. However, the object of the addition is merely to convert α-type glycine to γ-type glycine by adjusting the pH of the aqueous glycine solution to 7-14. In the examples given in the patent document, only sodium hydroxide was used.


A content management tool can assist publishers/authors in managing access rights and other parameters related to the display of documents online. The documents may include books and other documents that are traditionally published as printed works. The content management tool may display presentation parameters for the documents that relate to how the documents are to be shown to users when accessing the documents. The content management tool receives modifications to the presentation parameters and applies the modified versions of the presentation parameters to future accesses of the documents by users. The content management tool can, for example, be used to modify the portions of the document available for display, turn on/off certain portions of the document, manage links displayed concurrently with the document, and/or manage advertising related to the document.

A. Field of the Invention
Systems and methods described herein relate to document presentation and management and, more particularly, to the presentation of documents online.
B. Description of Related Art
Modern computer networks, and in particular, the Internet, have made large bodies of information widely and easily available. Free Internet search engines, for instance, index many millions of web documents that are linked to the Internet. A user connected to the Internet can enter a simple search query to quickly locate web documents relevant to the search query.
One category of content that is not widely available on the Internet, however, are the more traditional printed works of authorship, such as books and magazines. One impediment to making such works digitally available is that it can be difficult to convert printed versions of the works to digital form. Another impediment to making such works digitally available is that such works tend to be of relatively high individual value and tend to be more permanent creations than much of the content that is freely available on the Internet. A two-hundred page book, for instance, is likely to have taken significant time to research and write. The author may understandably not desire to make the book freely available, although the author may desire to allow some restricted access to the book, such as for marketing purposes.
One solution to the problem of not giving away the content of a document, such as a book, while still using the ubiquity and convenience of the Internet to publicize the document, involves giving readers limited access rights to the document. Numerous ways to limit access rights to a document are known. For example, only a limited portion of the document (e.g., no more than 5% of the entire document) may be shown to a reader.
In the situation where a content provider provides access to numerous documents from a number of authors/publishers, the different authors/publishers may desire to enforce a different limited set of access rights for their different documents.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


Embodiments of a method and apparatus to improve network performance by managing packet fragmentation are described.

Packet fragmentation relates to a communications technology that may reduce the latency for transmitting information across a network, such as when it might be desirable to provide a higher level of service. Conventional packet fragmentation technology, however, may not employ packet fragmentation as effectively as desired. This may be particularly true in view of the dynamic nature of a network environment, where changes in operating conditions may frequently be occurring. Consequently, there is a need to improve the implementation of packet fragmentation in a network to adapt to potential changes in operating conditions, for example.

Method and apparatus to manage packet fragmentation


A device for reinforcing a rear surface of a wall includes a receiving bag (4) attached to one end of an axial extending filling stub (1). Webs (3) are attached to the receiving bag (4) and the filling stub (1) so that the webs and receiving bag can be folded from a radially outwardly extending position toward the axis of the filling stub whereby the receiving bag and the webs can be folded into a position so that the combination of the webs (3), the receiving bag (4) and the one end of the stub (1) can be inserted through an opening (6a) in the wall (6). In the inserted position, the webs (3) return to the radially outwardly extending position along with the receiving bag (4) and the bag is filled with a hardenable mass (7) through the filling stub (1). A fixing element (5) is inserted between radially and circumferentially extending ribs (2) on the filling stub (1) located on the opposite side of the wall from the receiving bag (4). The fixing element (5) limits the depth that the filling stub (1) is inserted through the wall. After the mass (7) has hardened, a part of the wall (6) is reinforced at its rear surface by the mass, and fastening elements, such as screws, nails and the like, can be inserted through the wall into the hardened mass.

The present invention is directed to a device for reinforcing parts of a wall using a hardenable or curable mass, where the mass is introduced through a tubular-shaped filling or insertion stub extending through an aperture in the wall from a front surface to a rear surface. At the rear surface, the mass is fed into a receiving bag. An adjustable depth stop is engageable on the filling stub on the front surface of the wall. The receiving bag is shaped to provide a large area extending generally perpendicularly to the axis of the filling stub and bearing against the rear surface of the wall.
Anchors at parts of thin walls, such as gypsum wall board panels, are established with attachment means based either on area-wise contact pressure or on reinforcement of the wall with the use of hardenable or curable masses. Where a hardenable mass is used, better conditions for the anchors are created, particularly at the rear surface of the wall. Since local area-wise contact pressure frequently causes breakouts or destruction of a part of the wall, the use of such an attachment means is limited. On the other hand, the effective metered application of the hardenable mass to the rear surface of the wall in a limited area generally requires a considerable technical effort.
In DE-OS 39 12 526 an attachment element is disclosed constructed of parts displaceable in a telescope-like manner for applying a specific volume of a hardenable mass to the rear surface of a specific part of a wall. Accordingly, a single effectively operating attachment point for anchoring means is created, where the force application occurs at the anchoring means itself.

Arrangement for reinforcing parts of a wall with a hardenable mass


The present invention provides a method of plasma-polymerization at low temperature (from normal temperature to about 100.degree. C.) and that at low frequency.

This invention relates to a method of production of an amorphous hydrogenated carbon layer, which enables a layer formation around normal temperatures and its fast formation.
It is known that organic plasma-polymerization layers can be formed with various kinds of gases of organic compounds such as ethylene gas, benzene, aromatic silane compounds and so on (referring to for example, A. T. Bell, M. Shen et al., Journal of Applied Polymer Science, 17, 885 -892 (1973).
A plasma-polymerization layer, although, shows rather different properties such as layer-formative properties and layer-properties dependent on the kind of gases as raw materials, production conditions and so on.
In general, in order to form a plasma-polymerization layer excellent in hardness, damage resistance and environmental resistance by plasma-polymerization of organic compounds of hydrocarbon series, it is necessary to heat a substrate to high temperature and polymerize raw materials with high frequency around 13.56 MHz.
For the above mentioned reasons, the materials of a substrate suitable for coating of a plasma-polymerization layer are forced to be restricted and it is difficult to apply a plasma-polymerization method of organic compounds to articles constituted with materials which soften or deform at high temperature or various kinds of devices which have the possibility that the performances ma be impaired.

Method of production of amorphous hydrogenated carbon layer


The engine includes a stator including an inlet to admit a compressed gaseous oxidant flow, and an exhaust to discharge burnt gases; and a rotor mounted in the stator in a fluid-tight manner and rotatable with respect to the stator around a rotation axis. The rotor has an inlet orifice oriented in the axial direction and faces the inlet opening in a manner to receive the compressed air flow, a combustion chamber communicating with the inlet orifice, and an exhaust duct which leads in a transverse direction from the combustion chamber to the periphery of the rotor for discharging burnt gases through the exhaust. The inlet, the combustion chamber and the exhaust duct are arranged in fluid communication with each other during the rotor rotation, without the interposition of valve members. Seal members seal the inlet orifice and the exhaust duct when they face the internal surface of the stator.

It is known in the field to use internal combustion engines which operate by means of a fluid and drive a rotary shaft.
The aforesaid engine types can generally be distinguished as engines in which the force originates in cyclical form, as an action of pressure in a volume defined between a fixed part and a movable part, such as those with pistons with alternating motion or with rotary motion, and engines in which the force comes from the reaction of the fluid when it is moved on the rotating parts, arranged either along the motion axis of the fluid (the jets) or transverse thereto (the turbines), due to the speed variation of the fluid subjected to a pressure drop.
The present invention refers to engines of the second type, i.e. rotary type internal combustion engines. These engines have jets arranged inside the circular periphery of the movable part, called the rotor.
Among these engines, some solutions employed up to now consist of installing autonomous jet engines around a wheel and to make the normal thermodynamic cycle occur in each engine; typically such cycle consists of air suction, compression, combustion, expansion and discharge, with the start of tangential thrust applied on the rotor. In other cases, the thrust originates by directly ejecting, from suitable nozzles situated around the circumference of the rotor, compressed fluid sent by a motion-compressor, or generated by a pressure drop. In such applications, the thrusts of the various nozzles occur independent of the angular position thereof. Embodiment examples can be some helicopter rotors, in which the nozzles are placed at the ends of the blades such that the jets create the thrusts, which come to substitute the mechanical drive of the rotor shaft carried out by an internal combustion engine; another typical example is the rotating wheel that is thrust by compressed jets of water, air or vapor.
In other cases, it has been thought to insert the cylinders with the pistons in the rotor; they are arranged radially and connected to the single jet chambers, which are placed inside the rotor, in a manner so as to obtain thermal combustion cycles, with formation of the thrust on the rotor during the gas discharge step; in such case, the cyclical steps are dependent on the angular position of the single chamber.
Generally, the rotary part, or rotor, has complex zones where the compressions of the operating fluid occur, or ducts which bring compressed fluid generated outside the rotor, together with valve systems for regulating the sending of the fluid into the combustion or ejection chamber.
One example of a combustion engine of the type reported above is described in the document WO 2009/019718 A1, which is incorporated by reference. In the aforesaid document, an engine is described that is constituted by a rotor axially mounted on a main shaft; at the periphery of the rotor, there are combustion chambers which are capable of being sealingly closed and are equipped with a respective suction valve, a trigger device and an exhaust valve for a convergent-divergent nozzle. The combustion chambers are filled with pre-compressed air from an external source by means of a rotary joint fixed to the main shaft. The fuel is injected into the compressed air flow through a second channel in the rotary joint, and the fuel-air mixture travels in a sealed environment through passages obtained in the rotor and through the combustion chamber. Subsequently, the suction valve is closed and combustion is triggered in the air/fuel mixture, the exhaust valve is opened and the hot combustion gases are quickly discharged, obliging the rotor to be moved in the opposite direction with an equal and opposite reaction. The process is repeated with the consequent output of continuous power.


A process for shaping a fish-paste product and an apparatus therefor. The process comprises moving a fish-paste sheet having grooves on one or both surfaces thereof in its length direction, curling the sheet obliquely to the sheet-moving direction with one lateral edge of the sheet as a core to form a rolled-up article, pulling the resulting rolled-up body in a direction parallel to the sheet-moving direction around a rolling post installed outside of the opposite lateral edge line of the sheet, and subjecting the rolled-up article to further processing.

This invention relates to a process for producing shaped marine-paste products (hereinafter referred to as "fish-paste products") and the like and to an apparatus thereof. More particulary, this invention relates to a process for rolling up a sheet-like fish-paste material into a rod-like shaped product or a roll and to an apparatus therefor.
Rod-like shaped products which are composed of assembled noodle-like fish-paste materials and colored suitably have been popular as so-called crab meat (leg)-like products or scallop muscle-like products.
As a method for producing such rod-like molded products, a process for assembling noodle-like fish paste materials into the rod-like products has been known. It is not easy, however, to form a fish-paste material into such a noodle-like materials and also to assemble or bundle the noodle-like material into the rod-like product.
In this respect, a process for producing a rod-like product without using such a noodle-like material has been proposed, which comprises forming a fish paste product into a sheet, cutting parallel incision lines or grooves in the sheet to such a depth that the sheet is not cut off, and enrolling or rolling up the grooved sheet into a rod-like product with its axis parallel with the grooves. This process may be said to solve the above mentioned problems in that individual noodle-like shaped strands are not used, but an incised or grooved sheet easy to handle corresponding to a sheet of parallelly bonded noodle-like strands is utilized in the process.
Such conventional processes of rolling up the fish-paste sheet products, however, require a multiplicity of rollers for the rolling-up operation, whereby these processes are not always satisfactory with respect to the cost of manufacture, operation and cleaning of the apparatus.

Process for shaping fish-paste products from fish paste materials


A method and system for assessing a situation using an unmanned vehicle is disclosed. An unmanned vehicle receives a transmission indicating a situation at a designated location, and then navigates to the designated location. The unmanned vehicle may reach the designated location via air or ground travel, or a combination thereof. The unmanned vehicle receives signals from a first subset of sensors indicating information concerning an environment at the designated location and from a second subset of sensors indicating information concerning one or more objects associated with the situation. The unmanned vehicle then sends one or more transmissions based on the received signals, facilitating rapid determination of the situation.

Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described in this section are not prior art to the claims and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
At the scene of an emergency situation, timely assessment and evaluation of the scene is critical. The safety and efficiency of operations during cleanup is heavily dependent upon condition assessment, the extent of any damage, and safety to life and property. In such situations there is typically an urgency to determine the conditions of the situation so that aid can be provided to those in need and the scene can be properly managed and contained.
Generally, support personnel are deployed to assess conditions after the occurrence of an event causing the emergency situation, exposing the personnel to risk due to unknown conditions, and thus unknown hazards.

Methods and systems for assessing an emergency situation


Contact via structures using a hybrid barrier layer, are disclosed. One contact via structure includes: an opening through a dielectric to a silicide region; a first layer in the opening in direct contact with the silicide region, wherein the first layer is selected from the group consisting of: titanium (Ti) and tungsten nitride (WN); at least one second layer over the first layer, the at least one second layer selected from the group consisting of: tantalum nitride (TaN), titanium nitride (TiN), tantalum (Ta), ruthenium (Ru), rhodium (Rh), platinum (Pt) and cobalt (Co); a seed layer for copper (Cu); and copper (Cu) filling a remaining portion of the opening.

1. Technical Field
The invention relates generally to integrated circuit (IC) chip fabrication, and more particularly, to a copper contact via structure using a hybrid barrier layer.
2. Background Art
In current complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology, the middle-of-the-line (MOL) contact between a silicide source/drain region of a field effect transistor (FET) and the first back-end-of-line (BEOL) metal layer is made with a tungsten (W) plug using a titanium-titanium nitride (Ti/TiN) barrier layer. MOL indicates a layer of interconnects from a transistor level to other layers that scale the wiring upwardly, which is the BEOL layers. As the size of the MOL contact scales to smaller sizes, such as 65 nm and beyond, the resistance of the tungsten (W) plug becomes a significant limitation of device and circuit performance. To reduce this contact resistance, the tungsten (W) plug must be replaced by a lower resistance material such as copper (Cu). One problem preventing copper (Cu) from being integrated into the MOL contact plug is copper (Cu) proximity to the device and diffusion into the silicon. While physical vapor deposition (PVD) of the TaN/Ta barrier layer processes have been proven as effective diffusion barriers for copper (Cu) in BEOL metal and via levels, they cannot be directly copied into the MOL contact process flow because PVD TaN/Ta films have poor conformality. In addition, the BEOL barrier layer process typically uses a sputter etch to redistribute the material to obtain good sidewall coverage in the vias and little to no coverage at the bottom of the via to facilitate a good copper-to-copper electrical contact. As a result, in the case of a MOL copper contact process, the BEOL process would be insufficient as a diffusion barrier at the bottom of the via because there is no barrier layer created.

Copper contact via structure using hybrid barrier layer

International Business Machines Corporation


A technique for efficient encryption for use with devices such as smartcards restricted in memory resource, including a calculation unit for reconstructing a large number of small primes, a sieving unit for checking the divisibility of an integer by small primes, a recoding unit for changing the representation of an integer, and a primality testing unit. The sieving unit eliminates “bad” candidates by checking their divisibility by small primes reconstructed by the calculation unit. The primality of the remaining candidates is tested using the primality testing unit. The primality testing unit uses the recoding unit to change the representation of prime candidates. The primality testing unit performs a primality test using the representation after change.

The present invention relates to a data processing system and data processing method for primality checking, and particularly to a technique useful in the efficient generation of cryptographic keys to be used in e.g. the framework of a public key cryptosystem.
Public key cryptosystems have gained a wide recognition, and are now commonly used in many applications, such as banking or electronic commerce, where they can be used to digitally sign documents, encrypt data, exchange keys between users communicating over insecure network and others. RSA is a de-facto standard for public key cryptography, and has gained widespread popularity in applications where a digital signature or public key encryption are required. For instance, the use of RSA is recommended by the EMV (Europay-Mastercard-Visa) consortium for credit cards. More precisely, EMV recommends RSA with a key length of 1024 bits until 2010, and 2048-bit keys after that.
In RSA, messages are encoded as n-bit integers. An RSA public key consists of a public exponent E, which is typically small, and an n-bit public modulus N, and the RSA private key is an n-bit integer D such that E*D=1 mod (P−1)*(Q−1), where P and Q are secret prime numbers satisfying P*Q=N, and the sign "*" denotes multiplication. Now, for any message such that 0<=M<N, (MeE)D mod N=M holds. For example, if Alice is a holder of the RSA key (E,N), D, and Bob whishes to send an encrypted message M to Alice, Bob computes C=ME mod N, and sends the ciphertext to Alice. Then, Alice computes CD=(ME)D=M mod N and recovers the plaintext. It can be seen that the core operation in RSA is the exponentiation XY mod N. When N is large, for instance 2048 bits, such exponentiation takes time. In order to accelerate RSA operations, one can take advantage of the Chinese Remainder Theorem, which states that the exponentiation CD mod N can be replaced with two exponentiations modulo P and modulo Q. Since N=P*Q and P and Q have about half the size of the modulus N, the Chinese Remainder Theorem approach (RSA-CRT) is much faster in practice. In RSA-CRT, the encryption procedure is the same as in standard RSA: C=ME mod N. The difference is in the decryption procedure. The following definitions are given, for example:DP=D mod P−1=E−1 mod P−1,DQ=D mod Q−1=E−1 mod Q−1, andQinv=Q−1 mod P,
where Z=X−1 mod Y is an integer 1<=Z<Y satisfying Z*X=1 mod Y. Then, RSA-CRT decryption is executed by computer as follows:MP=CDP mod P, MQ=CDQ mod Q, andM=MQ+Q*[Qinv*(MP−MQ)mod P].
Therefore, the keypair of RSA consists of:
the public key (E,N),
the private key D for standard RSA, and (P, Q, DP, DQ, Qinv) for RSA-CRT.
The length of an RSA key depends on the number of bits of the public modulus N. For example, in 2048-bit RSA, the public modulus N has 2048 bits, and generally, the two primes P and Q each have 1024 bits, so that N=P*Q. In order to issue RSA keys, two random primes P and Q are selected, and other key elements are derived from the two primes. A step for generating a random prime proceeds as follows. First, a random integer is selected, and then this random number is tested for primality, for example with the Fermat test. If the random number does not pass the primality test, it is updated with a new prime candidate. How to update differs from one method to the other; for example, the first random integer may be replaced with a new random integer, or alternatively it can be incremented. The step of generating random primes is the most computationally expensive task in generation of RSA keys.
In the past, RSA key generation in smartcards was out of question because their computing power was too low to handle such costly operations. As a consequence, RSA keys were calculated on a powerful workstation, and copied on the smartcard. However, recent smartcards benefit from hardware accelerators dedicated to public key cryptography; with these cryptographic coprocessors, it becomes practical to generate keys in smartcards. This approach has two advantages. The first one is that there is no single point of failure, unlike the case where keys were generated on a workstation: if the workstation is compromised, all generated keys are consequently put in danger. The second advantage is that the card issuer need not know the secret key. In case of dispute, the card issuer cannot be regarded to be responsible for leaking secret keys or misusing them.

Data processing system and data processing method


A chewing gum product having a core portion including chewable gum base, sweetener and flavoring. The core portion has deposited on its surface a rolling compound including a powdered ingredient selected from the group consisting of sucrose, mannitol, starch, calcium carbonate, talc, lactitol, palatinit, lactose, and combinstions thereof. The rolling compound further includes between about 0.1 and about 2.5 weight percent of a liquid flavor. The rolling compound is substantially free of anti-caking agents and flow agents.

The present invention relates to chewing gum products. More particularly, the invention relates to chewing gum products which have a rolling compound which includes a liquid flavor.
For many years it has been known to dust products such as chewing gum with materials such as powdered sucrose to improve appearance and initial taste. The dusting also is intended to prevent the chewing gum from sticking to the fingers when handled, or to the wrapper.
The material which is used to dust chewing gum can be referred to as a "dusting compound". The same compound can also be referred to as a "rolling compound" because the compound is used to make the gum more manageable during processing, including rolling and sheeting. Because the two terms are interchangeable, the term "rolling compound" will be used herein for convenience.
At least two patents have issued which teach methods of enhancing rolling compounds with high potency sweeteners so as to enhance the overall sweetness perception of the chewing gum. U.S. Pat. No. 4,374,858 to Glass et al. discloses aspartame added to the rolling compound of chewing gum. U.S. Pat. No. 4,562,076 to Arnold et al. discloses the use of thaumatin and/or monellin in rolling compounds.
Some work has been done in the past to enhance the flavor perception of chewing gum products by adding flavors to the rolling compound. However, for the most part, these attempts have employed flavors in powdered form, e.g. spray dried or encapsulated flavors, which powdered forms can be more expensive and/or less desirable in terms of flavor quality.
It is thought that one reason for using flavors in powdered form is the necessity to keep the rolling compound in a consistently free flowing state. In particular, because rolling compounds are used with rolling and sheeting equipment, it is important that a rolling compound have consistent flow characteristics, e.g. resistance to caking, so as to avoid equipment malfunction. Consistent flow characteristics are also important to insure uniformity of product appearance. That is, caking or lump forming can produce unevenness in the dusting of the chewing gum product.
In the PCT Publication No. WO 89-07895 by Patel et al., a chewing gum with a rolling compound made from xylitol to enhance sweetness is disclosed. The addition of high potency sweeteners, colors, and flavors to the xylitol rolling compound is also mentioned. It is stated that when the rolling compound is a "carrier" for a liquid flavor, the liquid flavor should be added after the addition of an anti-caking agent. Unfortunately, anti-caking agents can impart an undesirable texture and/or taste to the chewing gum product.

Chewing gum with liquid flavor added to the rolling compound and method


In a radial compressor the device for extending the performance at small throughputs by stabilizing the impeller flow in the inlet region comprises a recess (5) in the form of a groove which is oriented in the circumferential direction of the inlet duct (6) of the compressor, whereas in the flow direction it extends with a given axial width to the impeller (2). A stabilization ring (3) is integrated into said recess (5), being arranged in front of the impeller (2) and outside the principal flow (7) of the transported medium. A plurality of blades (4,4a), which are placed on the outer circumference of the stabilization ring (3), are in turn anchored to the inner contour of the recess (5).

1. Field of the Invention
In the use of turbocompressors, whether they be radial or axial, it is attempted for the sake of high reliability during partial load operation to achieve stable characteristics falling monotonously with increasing throughput without hysteresis. However, stable characteristics are the more difficult to achieve under partial load, the higher the pressure ratio at the design point becomes. Attempts are made to remedy this in practice; to achieve the desired characteristics by additional stabilization devices. Due to differences in the design of the blades and in the structures of the regions of change from laminar to turbulent flow during partial load operation, no clear technical solution has hitherto crystallized out, according to which a general handy stabilization device could be derived.
It is therefore impossible to say at present with scientific precision whether a stable characteristic can be achieved at all, and with what stabilization device, in a given compressor. This unsatisfactory situation is experienced particularly in the case of radial compressors.
2. Discussion of Background
A stabilization device in a radial compressor, which has become known from EP-A No. 1-0,229,519, possesses the feature that the inner housing, as the jacket of the impeller, exhibits radial or quasi radial bores. Said bores establish a connection between approach flow duct and blading, being masked more or less on the blade side by the blades. Although such bores shift the pumping limit and stability limit in the characteristic, they do so at the cost of high losses of efficiency which may amount to 4-5 per cent. It is substantially impossible by this proposed solution to achieve the desired extension of performance at small throughputs which would be necessary due to the instabilities which occur for a specific mode of operation. Another significant factor here is that this minimal stabilization effect has to be obtained at the cost of a disproportionately high loss of efficiency.

Device for extending the performances of a radial compressor


A USB connector cleaner for cleaning conductive pins received in a recess of a USB connector is provided. The USB connector cleaner includes a base, a cleaning head, and a driving member. The cleaning head is configured for inserting into the recess to clean the conductive pins. The cleaning head includes a supporting member fixed on the base and a cleaning brush rotatably connected to the supporting member. The driving member is slidably connected to the base for driving the cleaning brush to cleaning the conductive pins.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to cleaning devices and, particularly, to a cleaner for cleaning a universal serial bus (USB) connector.
2. Description of Related Art
USB connectors have a recess for engagement with another USB connector. Contaminants may accumulate in the recess and degrade the performance of the USB connector. Because the recess is usually too small, manual cleaning can be inefficient.
What is needed therefore is a cleaner for cleaning USB connector addressing the limitations described.


A software update method for a display device includes: storing a first software program by a first memory of a computer device; electrically coupling the computer device to the display device; controlling a display card of the computer device by a public application programming interface (API) function of a driver program of the display card or by a physical address of the display card searched by a search program coded by an operating system of the computer device; transferring the first software program stored in the first memory to the display device through a display data channel (DDC) of the controlled display card; and, receiving the first software program by the display device and updating a second software program stored in a second memory of the display device into the first software program by a microcontroller of the display device.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a software update method and, more particularly, to a software update method for a display device.
2. Description of the Related Art
As technology advances, various small, thin, lightweight, power saving and portable smart information appliances such as mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs) or notebook computers have been widely used in our daily life, and display devices disposed therein play a very important role as human-machine interfaces. The display device requires a software program installed therein to control the operation of the display device. In the design of the display device, the designer must code and test the software program for the display device repeatedly to obtain a release version of the software program which can control the operation of the display device. Even after the display device is sold in the market, the designer may further provide one or more update versions of the software program to add new functions or to solve compatibility problems to improve the usability or performance of the display device.
Traditionally, the update of the software program installed in the display device needs to use a burning device electrically coupled between a computer device and the display device to transfer the update version of the software program stored in the computer device to replace or patch the old release version of the software program installed in the display device. When a user finds that the display device cannot work well or wants to add new functions to the display device, owing to no burning device, the user cannot perform the update of the software program of the display device by himself or herself. Accordingly, the user has to send the display device to the manufacturer or service station so that it not only increases the service cost of the manufacturer but also makes the user inconvenient. Moreover, the burning device is more complex in operations and requires constant maintenance.
Furthermore, when the computer device updates the software program of the display device, the computer device should be electrically coupled to another display device such as a computer monitor to assist in displaying the update process of the software program of the computer device to increase the complexity and inconvenience in updating the software program. Therefore, there is a need for a display device whereby the user can perform the update of the software program of the display device by himself or herself, and the complexity in updating the software program of the display device can be reduced.

Software update method for display device


A cellulosic fiber includes a fiber body including a cellulosic material and non-encapsulated phase change material dispersed within the cellulosic material. The non-encapsulated phase change material forms a plurality of distinct domains dispersed within the cellulosic material. The non-encapsulated phase change material has a latent heat of at least 40 Joules per gram and the cellulosic fiber has a latent heat between 9.8 Joules per gram and 132 Joules per gram and a transition temperature in the range of 0° C. to 100° C., and cellulosic fiber provides thermal regulation based on at least one of absorption and release of the latent heat at the transition temperature.

Many fibers are formed from naturally occurring polymers. Various processing operations can be required to convert these polymers into fibers. In some instances, the resulting fibers can be referred to as regenerated fibers.
An important class of regenerated fibers includes fibers formed from cellulose. Cellulose is a significant component of plant matter, such as, for example, leaves, wood, bark, and cotton. Conventionally, a solution spinning process is used to form fibers from cellulose. A wet solution spinning process is conventionally used to form rayon fibers and lyocell fibers, while a dry solution spinning process is conventionally used to form acetate fibers. Rayon fibers and lyocell fibers often include cellulose having the same or similar chemical structure as naturally occurring cellulose. However, cellulose included in these fibers often has a shorter molecular chain length relative to naturally occurring cellulose. For example, rayon fibers often include cellulose in which substituents have replaced not more than about 15 percent of hydrogens of hydroxyl groups in the cellulose. Examples of rayon fibers include viscose rayon fibers and cuprammonium rayon fibers. Acetate fibers often include a chemically modified form of cellulose in which various hydroxyl groups are replaced by acetyl groups.
Fibers formed from cellulose find numerous applications. For example, these fibers can be used to form knitted or woven fabrics, which can be incorporated in products such as apparel or footwear. Fabrics formed from these fibers are generally perceived as comfort fabrics due to their ability to take up moisture and their low retention of body heat. These properties make the fabrics desirable in warm weather by allowing a wearer to feel cooler. However, these same properties can make the fabrics undesirable in cold weather. In cold and damp weather, the fabrics can be particularly undesirable due to rapid removal of body heat when the fabrics are wet. As another example, fibers formed from cellulose can be used to form non-woven fabrics, which can be incorporated in products such as personal hygiene products or medical products. Non-woven fabrics formed from these fibers are generally perceived as desirable due to their ability to take up moisture. However, for similar reasons as discussed above, the non-woven fabrics generally fail to provide a desirable level of comfort, particularly under changing environmental conditions.
It is against this background that a need arose to develop the cellulosic fibers described herein.

Cellulosic fibers having enhanced reversible thermal properties and methods of forming thereof


A method of default uplink beam determination after a beam failure recovery (BFR) procedure in a beamforming system is proposed. For uplink (UL) transmission, the BS provides physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) resource configuration to UE. The configuration includes spatial relation information that indicates the spatial filter to be used by UE for the corresponding PUCCCH transmission. After BFR procedure is completed and before the first spatial relation information indication for a PUCCH resource is received by UE, a default UE TX beam for the PUCCH resource can be determined based on the UE TX beam used during the BFR procedure, e.g., the UE TX beam used to transmit a beam failure recovery request (BFRQ) during the BFR procedure.

The bandwidth shortage increasingly experienced by mobile carriers has motivated the exploration of the underutilized Millimeter Wave (mmWave) frequency spectrum between around 30G and 300G Hz for the next generation broadband cellular communication networks. The available spectrum of mmWave band is hundreds of times greater than the conventional cellular system. The mmWave wireless network uses directional communications with narrow beams and can support multi-gigabit data rate. The underutilized bandwidth of the mmWave spectrum has very small wavelengths, which enables large number of miniaturized antennas to be placed in a small area. Such miniaturized antenna system can produce high beamforming gains through electrically steerable arrays generating directional transmissions. With recent advances in mmWave semiconductor circuitry, mmWave wireless system has become a promising solution for real implementation. However, the heavy reliance on directional transmissions and the vulnerability of the propagation environment present particular challenges for the mmWave network with beamforming.
In principle, beam management and beam training mechanism, which includes both initial beam alignment and subsequent beam tracking, ensures that base station (BS) beam and user equipment (UE) beam are aligned for data communication. To ensure beam alignment, beam-tracking operation should be adapted in response to channel changes. Beam failure recovery mechanism is designed to handle the rare case beam tracking issue, e.g., when feedback rate for beam management and beam training may not be frequent enough. When beam failure is detected, UE triggers a beam failure recovery procedure and identifies a candidate beam for beam failure recovery (BFR). UE then starts beam failure recovery request (BFRQ) transmission on physical random-access channel (PRACH) resource corresponding to the identified candidate beam.
After beam failure recovery procedure and before the first uplink control beam indication is completed signaled from the network, UE does not know which TX beam can be used to transmit both physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) and physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) when UE is required to do uplink transmission. A solution is sought to define a default UE TX beam during such transition phase.

Default beam for uplink transmission after beam failure recovery


A rapid and sensitive analyte detection assay is based on whispering gallery modes of fluorescently labelled microspheroidal particles. Ligands for the analyte, such as nucleic acids, are anchored to the particles. The fluorescent labels may comprise fluorophores or quantum dots. In the latter case, the particles may comprise melamine formaldehyde. The assay may be used to detect analytes in aqueous samples.

Bibliographic details of the publications referred to by author in this specification are collected alphabetically at the end of the description.
Reference to any prior art in this specification is not, and should not be taken as, an acknowledgment or any form of suggestion that this prior art forms part of the common general knowledge in any country.
The circular optical modes in monolithic resonators are referred to as "whispering gallery modes" (WGM) or "morphology dependent resonances" (MDR). such modes or resonances are closed trajectories of light (standing light waves) supported by total internal reflections from the boundaries of a resonator. A WGM occurs when standing light waves of a particular emission profile are confined by a near-total internal reflection inside the surface of a spherical dielectric cavity (Moller et al, Applied Physics Letters 83(13):2686-2688, 2003).
The WGM technology is described in detail in International Patent Publication No. WO 2005/116615, which is incorporated herein by reference. WGM technology is predicated, in part, on the phenomenon that fluorophores enable a distinctive WGM profile to be generated. The fluorophores are incorporated onto quantum dots which are into the microparticles by diffusion or may be incorporated during their manufacture. The type of fluorophore is unlimited and may for example be an organic dye, a rare earth based lumophore, a semiconductor nanocrystal of various morphologies and compositions. a phosphor or other material which emits light when illuminated. This fluorophore or mixture thereof is then attached to microspheroidal particles. When a target analyte interacts with a binding partner immobilized to the microspheroidal particle, the WGM profile changes, enabling detection of the binding event.
WGM allow only certain wavelengths of light to be emitted from the particle. The result of this phenomenon is that the usual broad emission (10-100 nm wide) bands from, for example, a fluorophore, become constrained and appear as a series of sharp peaks corresponding effectively to standing mode patterns of light within the particle. The WGM profile is extremely sensitive to changes at the surface of the microspheroidal particle and the WGM profile changes when the microspheroidal particle interacts with analytes or molecules within its environment.
The detection of rare analytes in samples of diverse origin requires a sensitive, versatile and practical detection means. There is a necessity to devise methods to increase sensitivity, versatility and practicality of WGM for the detection of analytes.


A vibration sensor mounting structure improves the stability and repeatability of a measured signal generated by a machine vibration sensor. The structure has an outer annular surface that contacts the machine under test and a shallow recess inside the outer annular surface. The recess causes resonant vibrations of the mounting structure to occur at frequencies that are above the intended measurement range of the sensor. The recess also allows the mounting force to be positioned away from the center mounting screw and onto the more stable outer annular surface. With the mounting force away from the center, lateral forces have less effect on the measured signal.

Generally, a high quality vibration sensor should have a high frequency response. It is also important that any resonance vibration of the sensor structure should occur at a frequency that is outside the desired frequency range in which the sensor is to collect data, and the frequency response of the sensor should be repeatable from unit to unit.
What is needed, therefore, is a sensor mounting structure that is secure and stable, which has a known and repeatable area of contact with the surface of the machine.


An image processing system, which corrects an aberration generated in an optical system by executing coordinate conversion of pixels of an image, has a table which holds correspondence between the positions of pixels before and after the coordinate conversion, acquires coordinates after conversion corresponding to the coordinates of representative points to be converted from the table, and calculates coordinates after conversion of a pixel between the acquired representative points by an interpolation calculation using a Lagrange interpolation formula.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing system, image processing apparatus, aberration correction method, and computer-readable storage medium, which correct aberrations of an optical system.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, as a technique for seamlessly blending physical and virtual worlds in real time, a so-called MR (Mixed Reality) technique is known. As one MR technique, a technique using a video see-through HMD (Head Mounted Display; to be hereinafter abbreviated as an HMD) is known. With this technique, an object which nearly matches an object observed from the pupil position of an HMD user is captured using, for example, a video camera, and CG (Computer Graphics) is superimposed on that captured image. Then, the HMD user can observe an MR image.
The video see-through HMD acquires digital image data of an object by capturing an image of that object using a charge coupled device such as a CCD, and displays an MR image (mixed reality image) superimposed with a CG image for the user via a display device such as a liquid crystal display.
Size and weight reductions of the HMD to be mounted on the head are in demand. As for image capture and display optical systems, a method of applying digital correction to various aberrations by signal processing is selected rather than a method of correcting them by optical approaches that generally lead to increases in size and weight, and approaches that adopt inexpensive lenses or reduce the number of lenses are adopted.
When an optical system is configured using inexpensive lenses or by suppressing the number of lenses, high image quality of an image to be displayed cannot often be maintained due to lens aberration. That is, barrel- or pin-cushion-shaped images are often obtained due to distortion aberrations of lenses. Also, red, blue, and green color bleeding appears at the boundaries of object images due to chromatic aberrations of magnification of lenses. For this reason, a technique is required to correct image quality drop of an object image due to such aberrations of lenses.
Techniques which correct distortion aberrations and chromatic aberrations of magnification of various aberrations of the optical systems by signal processing are disclosed. Such techniques are roughly classified into the following three techniques based on their principal methods, and an overview of each will be provided.
The first technique is correction processing of distortion aberrations and chromatic aberrations of magnification by means of address conversion. Address conversion is a method of moving a distorted image to an ideal image position based on the correspondence between an image forming position obtained by an ideal optical system and an actual image forming position which suffers the influence of aberrations in the optical system of an image capture system. Various techniques from that which stores the correspondence associated with converted positions as a table, and simply converts the correspondence (addresses) between the read and write addresses of a memory to that which holds high-precision coordinate data after conversion are available. In a display system as well, a display position is converted based on the correspondence between a pixel to be displayed and an actual display position. When such pixel conversion is done, distortion aberrations as distortions of an image can be corrected. When conversion is done for respective colors which define each pixel, chromatic aberrations of magnification as color misregistration can be corrected.
The second technique is correction processing of chromatic aberrations of magnification by means of resolution conversion. Using different variable magnifications depending on colors, enlargement or reduction processing is applied to a reference color, thus obtaining an image which suffers less color bleeding.
The third technique is correction processing of distortion aberrations using a polynomial and of chromatic aberrations of magnification by means of distortion aberration correction of respective colors. An approximation is made using a polynomial of higher degree including correction parameters as coefficients so as to calculate coordinates after conversion.
The aforementioned address conversion is known as a technique which has relatively high versatility, and can improve the coordinate conversion precision. However, the size of a reference table which stores the correspondence with the coordinates after conversion depends on the size of an original image and the conversion precision, and the table size also becomes extreme in recent high-resolution and high-image quality trends. For this reason, the following arrangement is generally adopted. That is, in general, the reference table stores representative points after decimation in place of information of all corresponding conversion points, and coordinate values between representative points are calculated by interpolation processing between representative points.
In case of chromatic aberration correction that corrects color misregistration, an arrangement which selects one of a plurality of colors as a reference color, and stores differences from the reference color for other colors, and an arrangement which reduces the table size using the symmetry of an optical system are known (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 8-205181).
If right and left parts or upper and lower parts are symmetric with respect to an image, reference values of the symmetric part can be generated from one direction side, and the table size can be halved. Furthermore, when both upper and lower and right and left parts are symmetric (in case of a rotation symmetry system), the table size can be reduced to ¼ of its original size.
Linear interpolation is popularly used as interpolation processing between representative points. If the interval between neighboring representative points is set not to be so broad, errors generated at the time of interpolation can be reduced. In general, interpolation errors can be reduced by adopting an interpolation formula of a higher degree when the interval between representative points remains the same. In display image sizes from SVGA to SXGA classes which are normally adopted in a conventional HMD, if an interval ranges from about 8 pixels to 16 pixels, an interpolation calculation which is satisfactory in terms of appearance can be made independently of interpolation algorithms to be adopted. If decimation is made to have an interval more than 16 pixels, errors at the time of interpolation increase. An arrangement which implements aberration correction with higher precision using Bicubic as bicubic interpolation as interpolation processing at the time of coordinate conversion is also known (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-153323).
However, the aforementioned related techniques suffer the following problems.
As described above, in order to realize a required precision by the address conversion, representative points have to be set at a given interval. As described above, at the SXGA resolution (image size), the conversion precision often drops when linear interpolation is used as an interpolation algorithm and the interval is set to be more than 16 pixels. In order to assure higher precision, the aforementioned polynomial of a higher degree may be used. In this case, a degree 10 or more may often be required, and an HMD that is to operate in real time requires many multipliers in calculations, thus exponentially increasing the circuit scale.
Not only an HMD but also an increased resolution is required in an image capture system device and display system device. In the future, the reference table size will tend to increase, as well as the access frequency to a memory used to configure the table. For this reason, it is expected to become increasingly difficult to reduce the table size while maintaining or improving the conversion precision.
In consideration of a balance between the two requirements, that is, the circuit scale and conversion precision, a method that adopts Bicubic as a cubic formula may be used, as described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-153323. However, in this case, if optical lenses or prisms have uniform media and refractive indices, image forming position deviations due to aberrations tend to change very smoothly irrespective of their shapes, the number of times of image formation, and the number of lenses. As is known, Bicubic can implement high-image quality processing in an image interpolation calculation. This is because Bicubic requires a larger number of reference points than linear interpolation (bilinear) and has an effect of enhancing the sharpness of an image.
In interpolation processing at the time of coordinate conversion, it is confirmed that coordinate conversion errors increase compared to linear interpolation since an interpolation curve which produces that arbitrary sharpening effect is adopted. This means that the bicubic interpolation is not suited to interpolating image forming position deviations, which change smoothly.
As can be seen from the above description, an interpolation processing method is required that can broaden a representative point interval, that is, that requires only a practical circuit arrangement and table size (memory size) while ideally reducing conversion errors to be as small as those of a polynomial of higher degree.

Image processing system, image processing apparatus, aberration correction method, and computer-readable storage medium


A system and method for converting machines from one form to another. For example a virtual machine may be moved to a physical machine or vice versa. Conversions may also be performed with images. An image is a static datastore of the state of a machine at a given time. All conversions are achieved by pushing a job containing information on the actions to be performed to a controller. A controller resides on the machine where the actions must take place and executes and reports on the status of the job.

Computing systems are growing rapidly in size and complexity. Many businesses have data centers consisting of a multitude of servers. In such an environment servers will have different configurations of hardware and software, including operating systems.
One of the problems in managing a data center is moving an Operating System, related applications and data between servers to provide optimal use of the servers. Moving an Operating System, related applications and data from a source server to a target server traditionally requires that all software on the source server be reinstalled on the target server. This is often not trivial. The source server may have legacy applications that cannot be reinstalled. The source server and target server may also differ in device drivers and connections to peripherals. Typically the individual performing the transfer must have direct contact with the source and target machines to insert media and enter commands.

System for conversion between physical machines, virtual machines and machine images


Provided are a communication method of a terminal in a wireless communication system and the terminal using the method. The method comprises: receiving a cell state signal from a small cell; and communicating with the small cell on the basis of the cell state signal, wherein the cell state signal includes information indicating the switching of the small cell to an off-state.

Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns wireless communications, and more specifically, to methods for performing communication by user equipments (UEs) in a wireless communication system where a plurality of small cells are arranged and UEs using the methods.
Related Art
3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) TS (Technical Specification) Release 8-based LTE (long term evolution) is a mobile communication standard.
Currently, 3GPP LTE-A (advanced), an evolution version of 3GPP LTE, is being standardized. A technique adopted by 3GPP LTE-A is carrier aggregation.
Carrier aggregation uses multiple component carriers. Each component carrier is defined with a center frequency and a bandwidth. One downlink component carrier or a pair of uplink component carrier and downlink component carrier corresponds to one cell. A user equipment (UE) receiving services using a plurality of downlink component carriers may be said to receive services from a plurality of serving cells. Conventionally, carrier aggregation presumes that a single base station located in the same site assign a plurality of cells, i.e., a plurality of frequency bands, to the UE and support the UE.
Meanwhile, in the next-generation wireless communication system, a plurality of base stations present in different sites may be assigned to a single UE to support the UE. Each base station may use different cells, i.e., different frequency bands, and a particular base station may be in the relationship of controlling the other base stations.
In such system, each base station may operate in an ON or OFF state. A need exists for a method for effectively signaling the UE with the ON/OFF state of each base station. Further, it needs to be specified how the UE receiving the signal is to operate.

Communication method and device of terminal in wireless communication system


A coupled analysis simulation apparatus includes a coupled analysis processing unit configured to perform coupled analysis by performing electromagnetic field analysis and circuit analysis in coordination with each other, the electromagnetic field analysis being performed on a space including conductive layers to which an electronic circuit module is connected, the circuit analysis being performed on the electronic circuit module; a first generating unit configured to generate a virtual conductive part in a section or a region including connection parts connecting the electronic circuit module with the conductive layers; and a second generating unit configured to generate virtual connection parts that virtually connect the virtual conductive part with the conductive layers at positions where the connection parts are connected to the conductive layers.

Electromagnetic field analysis simulators are for performing EMC (Electro-Magnetic Compatibility) analysis on a PCB (Printed Circuit Board) on which electronic circuit modules are mounted. The EMC analysis is performed by various methods such as an FDTD (Finite-Difference Time-Domain) method, a moment method, and a TLM (Transmission-Line Matrix) method.
The FDTD method is for performing time-domain simulation on variations in the electromagnetic field of the analysis object. Specifically, the analysis object is divided into microscopic cells, and the electromagnetic fields of the cells are calculated at each analysis time step. The analysis time step in the FDTD method is dependent on the size of the cells. The maximum value of the analysis time step is limited by the size of the minimum cell, according to a stability condition for solutions of the simulation referred to as the Courant-Friedrichs-Lewy condition. The actual analysis time step in the FDTD method is typically set to be a microscopic value such as several tens of femtoseconds. Accordingly, an enormous number of calculations need to be performed to simulate temporal variations in the electromagnetic field between several nanoseconds and several tens of nanoseconds. For this reason, electromagnetic field analysis implemented with the FDTD method is typically performed by a parallel computation process with the use of plural processors, in order to reduce the calculation time.
Furthermore, the moment method is for obtaining variations in the electromagnetic field by deriving an integral equation of the analysis object with the use of a Maxwell equation and performing calculations in the frequency domain. Furthermore, the TLM method is for obtaining variations in the electromagnetic field of the analysis object in the time domain, similar to the FDTD method. Both in the moment method and the TLM method, an enormous number of calculations need to be performed in both the frequency domain and the time domain.
In recent years and continuing, various electronic circuit modules such as LSI (Large Scale Integration) are mounted on a printed circuit board. In order to improve the precision in EMC analysis of printed circuit boards, one approach is to perform electromagnetic field analysis by the FDTD method on the inside of the electronic circuit module such as LSI, in addition to performing the electromagnetic field analysis by the FDTD method on the substrate part including the wiring, the ground layer, and the power source layer. However, even more calculations need to be performed for the electromagnetic field analysis on the inside of electronic circuit module. Therefore, this approach is unrealistic for practical applications at present.
Accordingly, a coupled analysis simulation apparatus has been used for printed circuit boards on which electronic circuit modules such as LSI are mounted. Specifically, the coupled analysis simulation apparatus performs electromagnetic field analysis and circuit analysis in coordination with each other. The electromagnetic field analysis is performed by the FDTD method, etc., on elements other than electronic circuit modules such as wiring, the power source layer, and the ground layer. The circuit analysis is performed on electronic circuit modules such as LSI.
Signals are transmitted to the inside of the electronic circuit modules such as LSI, and to wiring on the substrate via terminals of the electronic circuit modules. The electromagnetic field in the wiring on the substrate is propagated to the inside of the electronic circuit modules via terminals of the electronic circuit modules.
In the conventional coupled analysis simulation apparatus, terminals of the electronic circuit modules are considered as virtual coupling devices for the coupled analysis, and the electronic circuit modules and the coupling devices are modeled. Accordingly, the coupled analysis is performed with the use of coupling devices that are virtual two-terminal devices that connect the analysis objects of the FDTD method to the analysis objects of the circuit analysis.
In a conventional coupling device, one terminal is connected to the wiring to which the electronic circuit module is connected, and the other terminal is connected to the nearest power source layer or ground layer to establish a current pathway.
In a conventional coupled analysis simulation apparatus, at each analysis time, a circuit analysis unit obtains the voltage value of the coupling device with the use of the current value of the coupling device, converts the obtained voltage value into an electric field value of the cell in which the coupling device is present, and passes the electric field value to an electromagnetic field analysis unit. Furthermore, the electromagnetic field analysis unit obtains the magnetic field from the electric field value of the cell in which the coupling device is present, converts the obtained magnetic field into a current value that flows into the coupling device, and passes the current value to the circuit analysis unit.
As described above, in the conventional technology, coupled analysis has been performed by repeating electromagnetic field analysis and circuit analysis while passing electric field values and current values of the coupling devices between the electromagnetic field analysis unit and the circuit analysis unit.
Patent document 1: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. H11-153634
Patent document 2: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2004-54642
Patent document 3: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2008-217327
Patent document 4: International Publication 04/109560
Conventional coupled analysis simulation apparatuses have the following problems.
In a conventional coupling device, one terminal is connected to the wiring to which an electronic circuit module is connected, and the other terminal is connected to the nearest power source layer or ground layer. One of the terminals is connected to the nearest power source layer or ground layer for the purpose of establishing a current pathway at the part where the electronic circuit module is connected.
However, when coupling devices are connected between the wiring and the power source layer or ground layer, the current pathway may change from that of a case where the electronic circuit module is connected. Accordingly, a return path may not be accurately reproduced in the power source layer or ground layer.
Furthermore, when there are many connection parts (typically terminals) connecting the electronic circuit module to a conductive layer, it is difficult to recognize the current pathway inside the electronic circuit module. Thus, it is difficult to correctly determine where the coupling devices are to be connected, and therefore it may be difficult to model the coupling devices.
Even if the positions for connecting the coupling devices are correctly determined, the following problem may arise. That is, there may be cases where there are so many connection parts, such that the connection parts are blocked by other connection parts and the coupling devices may not be properly connected. When the coupling devices are not connected to the correct connection positions, it may not be possible to accurately reproduce the return path, even if the electromagnetic field analysis and the circuit analysis are performed in coordination with each other.

Coupled analysis simulation apparatus and coupled analysis simulation method


A light wave distance measuring method, using a light wave distance measuring system with a focusing function, comprising a step of comparing a reference distance to an object to be measured obtained based on a position of a focusing lens with a measuring distance obtained by light wave distance measurement, and a step of defining the measuring distance approximately equal to the reference distance as a result of measurement.

The present invention relates to a non-prism type light wave distance measuring method and a non-prism type light wave distance measuring system.
A distance measuring system using a light wave is a system for projecting a distance measuring light to an object to be measured and for measuring a distance to the object to be measured from a measuring position by receiving a reflection light reflected by the object to be measured. In general, the light wave distance measuring systems divide into two types. One of the two types is a light wave distance measuring system which requires a reflection prism (corner cube) as the object to be measured. The other is a non-prism type light wave distance measuring system without using the reflection prism. The non-prism type light wave distance measuring system projects a distance measuring light directly to an object such as a building, etc. and measures the distance by a reflection light from the object to be measured. In both types of the system, the schematical arrangement and the principle of distance measurement are approximately the same.
Referring to FIG. 4, description will be given on an essential portion of the distance measuring system.
The distance measuring system comprises an optical unit 1 for projecting and receiving a distance measuring light, a driving circuit 3 for driving a light emitting source 2, a photodetection circuit 4 for converting the received distance measuring light to an electric signal, and a distance calculating circuit 5 for calculating a distance based on a signal from the photodetection circuit 4. The optical unit 1 for projecting and receiving the distance measuring light comprises the light emitting source 2 for emitting a distance measuring light 6, a projecting optical system 8 for projecting the distance measuring light 6 from the light emitting source 2 to an object to be measured 7 such as a building, etc., a photodetection optical system 9 for guiding a reflected distance measuring light 6′ from the object to be measured 7, a photodetection unit 10 for receiving the reflected distance measuring light 6′ guided by the photodetection optical system 9, and a timing circuit 11 for sending a clock signal to the distance calculating circuit 5.
An optical path changeover chopper (not shown) is provided at the middle of an optical path of the distance measuring light 6 and an optical path of a reference light 18 (to be described later) so that the optical pathes are selectively intercepted.
Under the condition that the optical path of the reference light 18 is intercepted by the optical path changeover chopper, the distance measuring light (pulsed laser light or modulated laser light) 6 emitted from the light emitting source (e.g. a semiconductor laser) 2 is deflected by a reflection mirror 14 via a projection side half-mirror 12 and an optical fiber 13 and the distance measuring light 6 is directed toward an objective lens 15 of the projecting optical system 8. After being turned to approximately a parallel luminous flux by the objective lens 15, the distance measuring light 6 is projected toward the object to be measured 7 via the objective lens 15. The reflected distance measuring light 6′ reflected by the object to be measured 7 is directed again toward the objective lens 15. Being directed toward the objective lens 15, the reflected distance measuring light 6′ is converged by the objective lens 15. The reflected distance measuring light 6′ is then deflected by the reflection mirror 14, and passes through an optical fiber 16 and a photodetection side half-mirror 17. An image is formed on the photodetection unit 10, and the reflected distance measuring light 6′ is received by the photodetection unit 10.
Furthermore, under the condition that the optical path of the distance measuring light 6 is intercepted by the optical path changeover chopper, the distance measuring light 6 emitted from the light emitting source 2 is split and reflected by the projection side half-mirror 12. The distance measuring light 6 as a reference light 18 is then reflected and deflected by the photodetection side half-mirror 17, and the reference light 18 enters the photodetection unit 10.
At the photodetection unit 10, the reflected distance measuring light 6′ or the reference light 18 is received. At an electrical unit (not shown), the reflected distance measuring light 6′ and the reference light 18 thus received are converted to electric signals. Based on the electric signals, the distance calculating circuit 5 calculates a distance to the object to be measured 7.
Referring to FIG. 5, description will be given now on operation in case the distance is calculated according to a photodetection signal of the reflected distance measuring light 6′ and the photodetection signal of the reference light 18.
Under the condition that the optical path of the reference light 18 is intercepted by the optical path changeover chopper, the light emitting source 2 is driven by the driving circuit 3, and the distance measuring light is emitted as a pulsed light. A pulse signal synchronized with the light emission is inputted to the distance calculating circuit 5 as a light emission pulse P1. Being projected via the objective lens 15, the distance measuring light 6 is reflected by the object to be measured 7 and the distance measuring light 6 is turned to the reflected distance measuring light 6′. The reflected distance measuring light 6′ enters the photodetection unit 10 via the photodetection optical system 9. A photodetection signal from the photodetection unit 10 is processed as necessary (e.g. amplification, etc.) at the photodetection circuit 4, and the photodetection circuit 4 produces a photodetection pulse R1 and the photodetection pulse R1 is inputted to the distance calculating circuit 5.
The distance calculating circuit 5 counts clock number between the light emission pulse P1 and the photodetection pulse R1. That is, the distance calculating circuit 5 calculates the time. The clock number is multiplied by light velocity, and approximate distance is calculated. Further, based on phase difference between the light emission pulse P1 and the photodetection pulse R1, a precise measured distance is calculated. By combining the precise measurement with the rough measurement using clock number, a distance to the object to be measured 7 is calculated.
Under the condition that the optical path of the distance measuring light 6 is intercepted by the optical path changeover chopper, the light emitting source 2 is driven by the driving circuit 3, and a pulsed light is emitted. The pulsed light is inputted to the photodetection unit 10 as the reference light 18 via the projection side half-mirror 12 and the photodetection side half-mirror 17.
The distance calculating circuit 5 measures the optical path of the internal reference light based on the light emission pulse P1 and the photodetection pulse R1. The measurement circuit includes an error. The error can be cancelled by subtracting the measurement value in the optical path of the internal reference light from the measurement value of the object to be measured 7 determined by the distance measuring light 6.
From the measurement value of the object to be measured 7, the measurement value of the optical path of the internal reference light determined by the reference light 18 is subtracted. By adding a correction value, a precise measured distance is obtained.
Next, as the situations to perform the distance measurement, there are the following cases, for example,: a case where the distance to the object to be measured is measured via a glass, or a case where there is a metal net between the distance measuring system and the object to be measured, etc. In this case, there is a reflection light from an object not to be measured such as the glass, the metal net, etc. Thus, the photodetection unit 10 outputs the photodetection pulse R1 based on the reflected distance measuring light 6′ and also outputs the photodetection pulse R2 based on the reflection light from the object not to be measured as shown in FIG. 6. In this respect, when the distance calculating circuit 5 counts the clock number, it is not possible to judge which of the clock number of the photodetection pulse R1 or the clock number of the photodetection pulse R2 should be counted. If the clock number of the photodetection pulse R2 is counted, it is erroneous measurement. Or two measurement values are generated, and this causes erroneous operation.
The light wave distance measuring instrument is disclosed, in JP-A-5-232230 and JP-A-2001-153655.

Light wave distance measuring method and light wave distance measuring system